diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:46:13 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:46:13 -0700 |
| commit | cf660772c9e72ce63083713a4b5b2266f193f6b1 (patch) | |
| tree | a4ed760971d372c6ed36097bd5caf5c76afbf3b8 | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-8.txt | 5676 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 121460 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 356596 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-h/15195-h.htm | 5843 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-h/images/illustr01.jpg | bin | 0 -> 58680 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-h/images/illustr02.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2984 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-h/images/illustr03.jpg | bin | 0 -> 62794 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-h/images/illustr04.jpg | bin | 0 -> 52052 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195-h/images/illustr05.jpg | bin | 0 -> 54660 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195.txt | 5676 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15195.zip | bin | 0 -> 121431 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
14 files changed, 17211 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15195-8.txt b/15195-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef0dbaf --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5676 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rose of Old Harpeth, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rose of Old Harpeth + +Author: Maria Thompson Daviess + +Release Date: February 28, 2005 [EBook #15195] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSE OF OLD HARPETH *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Riikka +Talonpoika and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +ROSE OF OLD HARPETH + +[Illustration: Rose Mary] + + + + +ROSE OF + +OLD HARPETH + + +BY MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS + + +Author of "Miss Selina Lue," "The Road to Providence," +"The Melting of Molly," etc. + + +[Illustration] + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS + +By W.B. KING + + +A.L. BURT COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + +1911 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + + + +I DEDICATE + +ROSE MARY + +TO MY MOTHER + +LEONORA HAMILTON DAVIESS + +AND THE WHOLE BOOK + +TO MY GRANDMOTHER + +MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS + + + + +ROSE OF OLD HARPETH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR + + +"Why, don't you know nothing in the world compliments a loaf of bread +like the asking for a fourth slice," laughed Rose Mary as she reached +up on the stone shelf above her head and took down a large crusty loaf +and a long knife. "Thick or thin?" she asked as she raised her lashes +from her blue eyes for a second of hospitable inquiry. + +"Thin," answered Everett promptly, "but two with the butter sticking +'em together. Please be careful with that weapon! It's as good as a +juggler's show to watch you, but it makes me slightly--solicitous." As +he spoke he seated himself on the corner of the wide stone table as +near to Rose Mary and the long knife as seemed advisable. A ray of +sunlight fell through the door of the milk-house and cut across his +red head to lose itself in Rose Mary's close black braids. + +"Make it four," he further demanded over the table. + +"Indeed and I will," answered Rose Mary delightedly. And as she spoke +she held the loaf against her breast and drew the knife through the +slices in a fascinatingly dangerous manner. At the intentness of his +regard the color rose up under the lashes that veiled her eyes, and +she hugged the loaf closer with her left hand. "Would you like six?" +she asked innocently, as the fourth stroke severed the last piece. + +"Just go on and slice it all up," he answered with a laugh. "I'd +rather watch you than eat." + +"Wait till I butter these for you and then you can eat--and watch +me--me finish working the butter. Won't that do as well? Think what an +encouragement your interest will be to me! Really, nothing in the +world paces a woman's work like a man looking on, and if he doesn't +stop her she'll drop under the line. Now, you have your bread and +butter and you can sit over there by the door and help me turn off +this ten pounds in no time." + +As she had been speaking, Rose Mary had spread two of the slices with +the yellow butter from a huge bowl in front of her, clapped on the +tops of the sandwiches and then, with a smile, handed them in a blue +plate to the man who lounged across the corner of her table. She made +a very gracious and lovely picture, did Rose Mary, in her light-blue +homespun gown against the cool gray depths of the milk-house, which +was fern-lined along the cracks of the old stones and mysterious with +the trickling gurgle of the spring that flowed into the long stone +troughs, around the milk crocks and out under the stone door-sill. +From his post by the door Everett watched her as she drove her paddle +deep into the hard golden mound in the blue bowl in front of her, and, +with a quick turn of her strong, slender wrist slapped and patted +chunk after chunk of the butter into a more compressed form. The +sleeves of her dress were rolled almost to her shoulders and under the +white, moist flesh of her arms the fine muscles showed plainly. The +strong curves of her back and shoulders bent and sprung under the +graceful sweep of her arms and her round breasts rose and fell with +quickened breath from her energetic movements. + +"Now, you're making me work _too_ hard," she laughed; and she panted +as she rested her hand for a second against the edge of the bowl and +looked up at Everett from under a black tendril curl that had fallen +down across her forehead. + +"Miss Rose Mary Alloway, you are one large, husky--witch," calmly +remarked the hungry man as he finished disposing of the last half of +one of the thin bread and butters. "Here I sit enchanted by--by a +butter-paddle, when you and I both know that not two miles across the +meadows there runs a train that ought to put me into New York in a +little over forty-eight hours. Won't you, won't you let me go--back to +my frantic and imploring employers?" + +"Why no, I can't," answered Rose Mary as she pressed a yellow cake of +butter on to a blue plate and deftly curled it up with her paddle into +a huge yellow sunflower. "Uncle Tucker captured you roaming loose out +in his fields and he trusts you to me while he is at work and I must +keep you safe. He's fond of you and so are the Aunties and Stonewall +Jackson and Shoofly and Sniffer and--" + +"And anybody else?" demanded Everett, preparing to dispose of the last +bite. + +"Oh, everybody most along Providence Road," answered Rose Mary +enthusiastically, though not raising her eyes from the manipulation of +the third butter flower. "Can't you go out and dig up some more rocks +and things? I feel sure you haven't got a sample of all of them. And +there may be gold and silver and precious jewels just one inch deeper +than you have dug. Are you certain you can't squeeze up some oil +somewhere in the meadow? You told a whole lot of reasons to Uncle +Tucker why you knew you would find some, and now you'll have to stay +to prove yourself." + +"No," answered Mark Everett quietly, and, as he spoke, he raised his +eyes and looked at Rose Mary keenly; "no, there is no oil that I can +discover, though the formation, as I explained to your uncle, is just +as I expected to find it. I've spent three weeks going over every inch +of the Valley and I can't find a trace of grease. I'm sorry." + +"Well, I don't know that I care, except for your sake," answered Rose +Mary unconcernedly, with her eyes still on her task. "We don't any of +us like the smell of coal-oil, and it gives Aunt Viney asthma. It +would be awfully disagreeable to have wells of it right here on the +place. They'd be so ugly and smelly." + +"But oil-wells mean--mean a great deal of wealth," ventured Everett. + +"I know, but just think of the money Uncle Tucker gets for this butter +I make from the cows that graze on the meadows. Wouldn't it be awful +if they should happen to drink some of the coal-oil and make the +butter we send down to the city taste wrong and spoil the Sweetbriar +reputation? I like money though, most awfully, and I want some right +now. I want to--" + +"Mary of the Rose, stop right there!" said Everett as he came over +from his post by the door and again seated himself on the corner of +the table. "I _will_ not listen to you give vent to the national +craving. I _will_ hold on to the illusion of having found one +unmercenary human being, even if she had to be buried in the depths of +Harpeth Valley to keep her so." There was banter in Everett's voice +and a smile on his lips, but a bitterness lay in the depths of his +keen dark eyes and an ugly trace of cynicism filtered through the +tones of his voice. + +"And wasn't it funny for me to count the little well-chickens before +they were even hatched?" laughed Rose Mary. "That's the way of it, get +together even a little flock of dollars in prospect and they go right +to work hatching out a brood of wants and needs; but it's not wrong of +me to want those false teeth so bad, because it's such a trial to have +your mouth all sink in and not be able to talk plain and--" + +"Help, woman! What are you talking about? I never saw such teeth as +you have in all my life. One flash of them would put a beauty show out +of business and--" + +"Oh, no, not for myself!" Rose Mary hastened to exclaim, and she +turned the whole artillery of the pearl treasures upon him in mirth at +his mistake. "It's Aunt Viney I want them for. She only has five left. +She says she didn't mind so long as she had any two that hit, but the +hitters to all five are gone now and she is so distressed. I'm saving +up to take her down to the city to get a brand new set. I have eleven +dollars now and two little bull calves to sell, though it breaks my +heart to let them go, even if they are of the wrong persuasion. I +always love them better than I do the little heifers, because I have +to give them up. I don't like to have things I love go away. You see +you mustn't think of going to New York until the spring is all over +and summer comes for good," she continued, with the most delightful +ingenuousness, as she shaped the last of the ten flowers and glanced +from her task at him with the most solicitous concern. "Of course, you +feel as if the smash your lung got in that awful rock slide has healed +all up, and I know it has, but you'll have to do as the doctor tells +you about not running any risks with New York spring gales, won't +you?" + +"Oh, yes, I suppose I will," answered Everett, with a trace of +restlessness in his voice. "I'm just as sound as a dollar now and I'm +wild to go with that gang the firm is sending up into British Columbia +to thrash out that copper question. I know they counted on me for the +final tests. Some other fellow will find it and get the fortune and +the credit, while I--I--" + +He stared moodily out the door of the milk-house and down Providence +Road that wound its calm, even way from across the ridge down through +the green valley. Rose Mary's milk-house was nestled between the +breasts of a low hill, upon which was perched the wide-winged, old +country house which had brooded the fortunes of the Alloways since the +wilderness days. The spring which gushed from the back wall of the +milk-house poured itself into a stone trough on the side of the Road, +which had been placed there generations agone for the refreshment of +beast, while man had been entertained within the hospitable stone +walls. And at the foot of the Briars, as the Alloway home, hill, +spring and meadows had been called from time immemorial, clustered the +little village of Sweetbriar. + +The store, which also sheltered the post-office, was almost opposite +the spring-house door across the wide Road, the blacksmith shop +farther down and the farm-houses stretched fraternally along either +side in both directions. Far up the Road, as it wound its way around +Providence Nob, could be seen the chimneys and the roofs of +Providence, while Springfield and Boliver also lay like smoke-wreathed +visions in the distance. Something of the peace and plenty of it all +had begun to smooth the irritated wrinkle from between Mark Everett's +brows, when Rose Mary's hand rested for a second over his on the table +and her rich voice, with its softest brooding note, came from across +her bowl. + +"Ah, I know it's hard for you, Mr. Mark," she said, "and I wish--I +wish--The lilacs will be in bloom next week, won't that help some?" +And the wooing tone in her voice was exactly what she used in coaxing +young Stonewall Jackson to bed or Uncle Tucker to tie up his throat in +a flannel muffler. + +"It's not lilacs I'm needing with a rose in bloom right--" But +Everett's gallant response to the coaxing was cut short by a sally +from an unexpected quarter. + +Down Providence Road at full tilt came Stonewall Jackson, with the +Swarm in a cloud of dust at his heels. He jumped across the spring +branch and darted in under the milk-house eaves, while the Swarm drew +up on the other bank in evident impatience. Swung bundle-wise under +his arm he held a small, tow-headed bunch, and as he landed on the +stone door-sill he hastily deposited it on the floor at Rose Mary's +feet. + +"Say, Rose Mamie," he panted, "you just keep Shoofly for us a little +while, won't you? Mis' Poteet have done left her with Tobe to take +care of and he put her on a stump while he chased a polecat that he +fell on while it was going under a fence, and now Uncle Tuck is +a-burying of him up in the woods lot. Jest joggle her with your foot +this way if she goes to cry." And in demonstration of his directions +the General put one bare foot in the middle of the mite's back and +administered a short series of rotary motions, which immediately +brought a response of ecstatic gurgles. "We'll come back for her as +soon as we dig him up," he added, as he prepared for another flying +leap across the spring stream. + +"But, Stonie, wait and tell me what you mean!" exclaimed Rose Mary, +while Everett regarded Stonewall Jackson and his cohorts with +delighted amusement. + +"I told you once, Rose Mamie, that Tobe fell on a polecat under a +fence he was a-chasing, and he smells so awful Uncle Tuck have burned +his britches and shirt on the end of a stick and have got him buried +in dirt up to jest his nose. Burying in dirt is the onliest thing +that'll take off the smell. We comed to ask you to watch Shoofly while +he's buried, cause Mis' Poteet will be mad at him when she comes home +if Shoofly smells. We're all a-going to stay right by him until he's +dug up, 'cause we all sicked him on that polecat and we ought in +honor!" + +Stonie looked at the Swarm for confirmation of this worthy sentiment, +and it arose in a murmur. The Swarm was a choice congregation of small +fry that trailed perpetually at the heels of Stonewall Jackson, and at +the moment was in a state of seething excitement. Jennie Rucker's +little freckled face was pale under its usual sunburn, as a result of +being too near the disastrous encounter, and her little nose, turned +up by nature in the outset, looked as if it were in danger of never +again assuming its normal tilt. She held small Pete by one chubby +hand, and with a wry face he was licking out an absurd little red +tongue at least twice each moment, as if uncertain as to whether his +olfactory or gustatory nerves had been offended. Billy was standing +with the nonchalant unconcern of one strong of stomach, and the four +other little Poteets, ranging in size from Shoofly, on the floor, to +Tobe, the buried, were shuffling their bare feet in the dust with +evident impatience to be off to gloat over the prostrated but +important member of the family. They rolled their wide eyes at almost +impossible angles, and small Peggy sniffed audibly into a corner of +her patched gingham apron. + +"Yes, Stonie," answered Rose Mary judicially, while Everett's +shoulders shook with mirth that he felt it best not to give way to in +the face of the sympathetic Swarm, "you all must stay with Tobe, if he +has to be buried, and go right back as fast as you can. Troubles must +make us stay close by our friends." + +"If I get much closer to him I'll throw up," sniffed Jennie, and her +protest was echoed by a groan from Peggy into the apron, while the +area which showed above its folds turned white at the prospect of +being obliged to draw near to this brother in affliction. + +"Yes, but you sicked Tobe, with the rest of us, and in this _girls_ +don't count. You've got to go back, smell or no smell, sick or no +sick," announced the General firmly, in the decisive tones of one +accustomed to be obeyed. + +"Yes, Stonie," came in a meek and muffled tone from the apron, "we'll +go back with you." + +"Can't we just set on the fence of the lot--it ain't so far?" pleaded +Jennie in almost a wail. "I'm afraid Pete will cry from the smell if +we go any closter. He's most doing it now." + +"Yes, General, let the girls sit on the fence," pleaded Everett, with +his eyes dancing, but a bit of mockery in his voice, "after all they +are--girls, you know." + +"Oh, well, yes, they can," answered Stonewall Jackson in a +magnanimously disgusted tone of voice. "They always get girls when +they don't want to do anything. Come on, Tobe'll be crying if we don't +hurry. Billy, you help Jennie drag Pete, so he can go fast!" + +But during the conference the disgusted toddler had been pondering the +situation, and at this mention of his being dragged back to the scene +of offense he had made a quick sally across the plank that spanned the +spring branch and with masculine intuition as to the safe place in +time of danger, he had plunged head foremost into Rose Mary's skirts, +so that only his small fat back showed to the enemy. + +"Please go on, Stonie, and leave him with me--he's just a baby," +pleaded Rose Mary. + +"All right," answered the General, "Tobe don't care about him; he'd +just make us go slow," and thus dropping young Peter into the category +of impedimenta, the General departed at top speed, surrounded, as he +came, by the loyal Swarm. On the day of his birth Aunt Viney's choice +for a name for the General had balanced for some hours between that +of the redoubtable Abner the Valiant, of old Testament fame, and her +favorite modern hero, Jackson of the stonewall nature. And in her +final choice she had seemed so to impress the infant that he had +developed more than a little of the nature of his patron commander. At +all times Stonie commanded the Swarm, and also at all times was +strictly obeyed. + +Then seeing herself thus deserted by her companions, Shoofly began a +low, musical hum of a wail and walled large eyes up at Everett, at +whose feet she was seated. In instant sympathetic response he applied +the toe of his shoe to the small of the whimpering tot's back and +proceeded awkwardly, though with the best intentions in the world, to +follow the General's directions as to pacification. Rose Mary laughed +as she took a tin-cup from a nail in the wall, and filling it with +milk from one of the crocks, she knelt at the side of the deserted one +and held the brim to the red lips of Shoofly's generous mouth. With a +series of gurgles and laps the consoling draft was quickly consumed +and the whimperer left by this double ministration in a state of +placid contentment. + +Peter the wise had stood viewing these attentions to the other baby +with stolid imperturbability, but as Rose Mary turned away to her +table he licked out his pink tongue and bobbed his head toward the +milk crocks, while his solemn eyes conveyed his desire without words. +Peter's vocabulary was both new and limited, and he was at all times +extremely careful against any wastefulness of it. His lips quivered as +if in uncertainty as to whether he was to be left out of this lactic +deal, and his eyes grew reproachful. + +"Why, man alive, did you think I had forgotten you!" exclaimed Rose +Mary as she turned with the cup to one of the crocks standing in the +water, at the sight of which motion relief dawned in the serious eyes +of the young petitioner. Filling the cup swiftly, she lifted the +youngster in her arms and came over to sit in the door beside Shoofly +at Everett's feet. With dignified deliberation Peter began to consume +his draft in slow gulps, and after each one he lifted his eyes to Rose +Mary's face as if rendering courteous appreciation for the consumed +portion. His chubby fingers were clasped around her wrist as she held +the cup for him, and her other hand cuddled one of his bare, +briar-scratched knees. The picture had its instituted effect on +Everett, and he bent toward the little group in the doorway and rested +his elbows on his knees as his world-restless eyes softened and the +lines around his mouth melted into a smile. + +"Rose Mary," he said with an almost abashed note in his deep voice, +"we'll dispense with the lilacs--they're not needed as retainers, and +I don't deserve them." + +"But being good will bring you the lilacs of life; whether you think +you deserve them or not, I'm afraid it's inevitable," answered Rose +Mary, as she smiled up at him with instant appreciation of his change +of mood. + +"Well, I'll try it this once and see what happens," answered Everett +with a laugh. "Indeed, I'm ashamed of having shown you any impatience +at all--to think of impatience in this heaven country of hospitality +amounts to positive sacrilege. Shrive me--and then bring on your +lilacs!" + +"Then you'll stay with us until it's safe for you to go North and I +won't have to worry about you any more?" exclaimed Rose Mary, +delighted, as she beamed up over Pete's tow-head that had dropped with +repletion on her breast. Shoofly, who, true to her appellation, had +been making funny little dabs of delight at a fly or two which had +buzzed in her direction, had crawled nearer and burrowed her head +under Rose Mary's knee, rolled over on her little stomach and gone +instantaneously and exhaustedly to sleep. Rose Mary adjusted a +smothering fold of her dress and continued in her rejoicing over +Everett's surrender to circumstance inevitable. + +"And do you think you can dig some more in the fields? Don't happiness +and hoe mean the same thing to most men?" she questioned with a laugh. + +"Yes, hoe to the death and the devil take the last man at the end of +the row, fortune to the first!" answered Everett with a return of his +cynical look and tone. + +"Oh, but in the world some men just go along and chop down ugly weeds, +stir up the good, smelly earth for things to grow in, reach over to +help the man in the next furrow if he needs it, and all come home at +sundown together--and the women have the supper ready. That's the kind +of hoeing I want you to do--please dig me up those teeth for Aunt +Viney and I'll have johnny-cake and fried chicken waiting for you +every night. Please, sir, promise!" And Rose Mary's voice sounded its +coaxing, comforting note, while her deep eyes brooded over him. + +"I promise," answered Everett with a laugh. "I tell you what I think I +will do. As I understand it, the Briars has about three hundred acres, +all told. I have been all over it for the oil and there is none in any +paying quantities. But in this kind of formation any number of other +things may crop up or out. I am going to go over every acre of it +carefully and find exactly what can be expected of it. There may be +nothing of any value in a mineral way, but as I go I am going to make +soil tests, and then put it all down on a complete map and figure out +just what your Uncle Tucker ought to plant in each place for years to +come. It will kill a lot of time, and then it might be doing something +for you dear people, who have taken a miserable, cross invalid of a +stranger man in out of the wet and made a well chap of him again. + +"Do you know what you have done for me? That day when I had tramped +over from Boliver just to get away from the Citizens' Hotel and myself +and perched upon Mr. Alloway's north lot fence like a miserable +funeral crow, I had reached my limit, and my spirit had turned its +face to the wall. I had been down South six weeks and couldn't see +that I felt one bit stronger. I had just heard of this copper +expedition from one of the chaps, who had written me a heedlessly +exultant letter about it, and I was down and out and no strength left +to fight. I was too weak to take it like a man, and couldn't make up +my mind to cry like a woman, though I wanted to. Just as it was at its +worst your Uncle Tucker appeared on the other side of the fence, and +when he looked at me with those great, heaven-big eyes of his I fell +over into his arms with a funny, help-has-come dying gasp. As you +know, when I woke I was anchored in the middle of that puffy old +four-poster in my room under the blessed roof of the Briars and you +were pouring something glorious and hot down my throat, while the +wonderful old angel-man in the big gray hat, who had got me out in the +field, was flapping his wings around on the other side of the pillows. +I went to sleep under your very hands--and I haven't waked up +yet--except in ugly, impatient ways. I never want to." + +"I wonder what you would be like--awake?" said Rose Mary softly, as +she gently lowered the head of young Peter down into the hollow of her +arm, where, in close proximity to Shoofly's, he nodded off into the +depths. "I think I'm afraid to try waking you. I'm always so happy +when Aunt Viney has snuffed away her asthma with jimson weed and got +down on her pillow, and I have rubbed all her joints; when the General +has said his prayers without stopping to argue in the middle, and +Uncle Tucker has finished his chapter and pipe in bed without setting +us all on fire, that I regard people asleep as in a most blessed +condition. Won't you please try and stay happy, tucked away fast here +at the Briars, without wanting to wake up and go all over New York, +when I won't know whether you are getting cold or hungry or wet or a +pain in your lungs?" + +"Again I promise! Just wake me enough to go out and hoe for you is all +I ask--your row and your kind of hoeing." + +"Maybe hoeing in my row will make you finish your own in fine style," +laughed Rose Mary. "And I think it's wonderful of you to study up our +land so Uncle Tucker can do better with it. We never seem to be able +to make any more than just the mortgage interest, and what we'll wear +when the trunks in the garret are empty I don't see. We'll have to +grow feathers. Things like false teeth just seem to be impossible." + +"Do you mean to tell me that the Briars is seriously encumbered?" +demanded Everett, with a quick frown showing between his brows and a +business-keen look coming into his eyes. + +"The mortgage on the Briars covers it as completely as the vines on +the wall," answered Rose Mary quickly, with a humorous quirk at her +mouth that relieved the note of pain in her voice. "I know we can +never pay it, but if something could be done to keep it for the old +folks _always_, I think Stonie and I could stand it. They were born +here and their roots strike deep and twine with the roots of every +tree and bush at the Briars. Their graves are over there behind the +stone wall, and all their joys and sorrows have come to them along +Providence Road. I am not unhappy over it, because I know that their +Master isn't going to let anything happen to take them away. Every +night before I go to sleep I just leave them to Him until I can wake +up in the morning to begin to keep care of them for Him again. It was +all about--" + +"Wait a minute, let me ask you some questions before you tell me any +more," said Everett, quickly covering the sympathy that showed in his +eyes with his business tone of voice. "Is it Gideon Newsome who holds +this mortgage?" + +"Why, yes, how did you know?" asked Rose Mary with a mild surprise in +her eyes as she raised them to his, bent intently on her. "Uncle +Tucker had to get the money from him six years ago. It--it was a debt +of honor--he--we had to pay." A rich crimson spread itself over Rose +Mary's brow and cheeks and flooded down her white neck under the folds +of her blue dress across her breast. Tears rose to her eyes, but she +lifted her head proudly and looked him straight in the face. "There is +a reason why I would give my life--why I do and must give my life to +protecting them from the consequences of the disaster. No sacrifice is +too great for me to make to save their home for them." + +"Do you mind telling me how much the mortgage is for?" asked Everett, +still in his cool, thoughtful voice. + +"For ten thousand dollars," answered Rose Mary. "The land is worth +really less than fifteen. Nobody but such a--such a friend as Mr. +Newsome would have loaned Uncle Tucker so much. He--he has been very +kind to us. I--I am very grateful to him and I--" Rose Mary faltered +and dropped her eyes. A tear trembled on the edge of her black lashes +and then splashed on to the chubby cheek of Peter the reposer. + +"I see," said Everett coolly, and a flint tone made his usually rich +voice harsh and tight. For a few minutes he sat quietly looking Rose +Mary over with an inscrutable look in his eyes that finally faded +again into the utter world weariness. "I see--and so the bargain and +sale goes on even on Providence Road under Old Harpeth. But the old +people will never have to give up the Briars while you are here to pay +the price of their protection, Rose Mary. Never!" + +"I don't believe they will--my faith in Him makes me sure," answered +Rose Mary with lovely unconsciousness as she raised large, comforted +eyes to Everett's. "I don't know how I'm going to manage, but somehow +my cup of faith seems to get filled each day with the wine of courage +and the result is mighty apt to be a--song." And Rose Mary's face +blushed out again into a flowering of smiles. + +"A sort of cup of heavenly nectar," answered Everett with an answering +smile, but the keen look still in his eyes. "See here, I want you to +promise me something--don't ever, under any circumstances, tell +anybody that I know about this mortgage. Will you?" + +"Of course, I won't if you tell me not to," answered Rose Mary +immediately. "I don't like to think or talk about it. I only told you +because you wanted to help us. Help offers are the silver linings to +trouble clouds, and you brought this one down on yourself, didn't you? +Of course, it's selfish and wrong to tell people about your anxieties, +but there is just no other way to get so close to a friend. Don't you +think perhaps sometimes the Lord doesn't bother to 'temper the winds,' +but just leads you up on the sheltered side of somebody who is +stronger than you are and leaves you there until your storm is over?" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FOLKS-GARDEN + + +"Well," said Uncle Tucker meditatively, "I reckon a festibul on a +birthday can be taken as a kind of compliment to the Lord and no +special glorification to yourself. He instuted your first one Himself, +and I see no harm in jest a-marking of the years He sends you. What +are Sister Viney's special reasons against the junket?" + +"Oh, I don't know what makes Aunt Viney feel this way!" exclaimed Rose +Mary with distress in her blue eyes that she raised to Uncle Tucker's, +that were bent benignly upon her as she stood in the barn door beside +him. "She says that as the Lord has granted her her fourscore years by +reason of great strength, she oughtn't to remind Him that He has +forgotten her by having an eighty-second birthday. Everybody in +Sweetbriar has been looking forward to it for a week, and it was going +to be such a lovely party. What shall we do? She says she just won't +have it, and Aunt Amandy is crying when Aunt Viney don't see it. She's +made up her mind, and I don't know what more to say to her." + +"Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker, with a quizzical smile quirking at the +corners of his mouth, "mighty often the ingredient of permanency is +left out in the making up of a woman's mind, one way or another. Can't +you kinder pervail with your Aunt Viney some? I've got a real hanker +after this little birthday to-do. Jest back her around to another view +of the question with a slack plow-line. Looks like it's too bad to--" + +"Rose Mary, oh, Rose Mary, where are ye, child?" came a call in a +high, sweet old quaver of a voice from down the garden path, and Miss +Amanda hove in sight, hurrying along on eager but tottering little +feet. Her short, skimpy, gray skirts fluttered in the spring breezes +and her bright, old eyes peered out from the gray shawl she held over +her head with tremulous excitement. She was both laughing and panting +as Rose Mary threw her arm around her and drew her into the door of +the barn. "Sister Viney has consented in her mind about the party, all +along of a verse I was just now a-reading to her in our morning +lesson. Saint Luke says: '_It is meet that we should make merry and be +glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again_,' and at the +same minute the recollection of how sick Mr. Mark has been hit us +both. 'There now,' she says, 'you folks can jest go on with that party +to-day for the benefit of our young brother Everett's coming to so +good after all his sufferings. This time I will consider it as +instituted of the Lord, but don't nobody say birthday next April, if +I'm here, on no account whatever.' I take it as a special leading to +me to have read that verse this morning to Sister Viney, and won't +you please go over and tell Sally Rucker to go on with the cake, Rose +Mary? Sister Viney called Jennie over by sun-up, when she took this +notion, and told her to tell her mother not to make it, even if she +had already broke all the sixteen eggs." + +"Yes, Aunt Amandy, I'll run over and tell Mrs. Rucker, and then we +will begin right away to get things ready. I am so glad Aunt Viney +is--" + +"Rose Mamie, Rose Mamie," came another loud hail from up the path +toward the house and down came the General at top speed, with a plumy +setter frisking in his wake. "Aunt Viney says for you to come there to +her this minute. They is a-going to be the party and it's right by the +Bible to have it, some for Mr. Mark, too. Tobe Poteet said 'shoo' when +I told him he couldn't come, 'cause they wasn't a-going to be no party +on account of worrying the Lord about forgetting Aunt Viney, and I +was jest a-going to knock him into stuffings, 'cause they can't +nobody say 'shoo' at the Bible or Aunt Viney neither, to me, when +there Aunt Viney called for us to go tell everybody that the party was +a-going off and be sure and come. I believe God let her call me before +I hit Tobe, 'cause I ain't never hit him yet, and maybe now I never +will have to." The General paused, and an expression of devout +thankfulness came into his small face at thus being saved the +necessity of administering chastisement to his henchman, Tobe the +adventurous. + +"I believe he did, Stonie, and how thankful I am," exclaimed little +Miss Amanda, with real relief at this deliverance of young Tobe, who +was her especial, both self-elected and chosen, knight from the +General's cohorts. + +"Yes'm," answered Stonie. "Come on now, Rose Mamie! Put your hand on +me, Aunt Amandy, and I'll go slow with you," and presenting his sturdy +little shoulder to Miss Amanda on one side and drawing Rose Mary +along with him on the other, Stonewall Jackson hurried them both away +to the house. + +"Well," remarked Uncle Tucker to himself as he took up a measure of +grain from a bin in the corner of the feed-room and scattered some in +front of a row of half-barrel nests upon which brooded a dozen +complacent setting hens, "well, if the Lord has to pester with the +affairs of Sweetbriar to the extent Stonie and the sisters, Rose Mary, +too, are a-giving Him the credit of doing looks like we might be +a-getting more'n our share of His attentions. I reckon by the time He +gets all the women and children doings settled up for the day He finds +some of the men have slipped the bridle and gone. That would account +for some of these here wild covortings around in the world we hear +about by the newspapers. But He'll git 'em some day sure as--" + +"Am I interrupting any confidence between you and the Mrs. Biddies, +Mr. Alloway?" asked Everett, as he stood in the barn door with a pan +in one hand and a bucket in the other. + +"No, oh, no," answered Uncle Tucker with a laugh. "I was jest +remarking how the Almighty had the lasso of His love around the neck +of all the wild young asses a-galloping over the world and would throw +'em in His own time. Well, I hear you're a-going to get a sochul +baptism into Sweetbriar along about a hour before sundown. Better part +your hair in the middle and get some taller for your shoes." + +"I will, most assuredly, if that's what's expected of me for the +ceremony," answered Everett with a delightful laugh. "Here's a pan of +delicacies for the hens, and this bucket is for you to bring some +shelled corn for Miss Rose Mary to parch for them, when you come to +the house." + +"I'm not a-counting on going any time soon," answered Uncle Tucker +with a shrewd glance up at Everett as he came and stood in the +doorway beside the tall young man, who lounged against one of the door +posts. Uncle Tucker was himself tall, but slightly bent, lean and +brown, with great, gray, mystic eyes that peered out from under bushy +white brows. Long gray locks curled around his ears and a rampant +forelock stood up defiantly upon his wide, high brow. At all times his +firm old mouth was on the eve of breaking into a quizzical smile, and +he bestowed one upon Everett as he remarked further: + +"The barn is man's instituted refuge in the time of mop and broom +cyclones in the house. I reckon you can't get on to your rock-picking +in the fields now, but you really hadn't oughter dig up an oil-well +to-day anyway; it might kinder overshadow the excitement of the +party." + +"Mr. Alloway, has any other survey of this river bend been made +before?" asked Everett as he looked keenly at Uncle Tucker, while he +lit his cigar from the cob pipe the old gentleman accommodatingly +handed him. + +"Well, yes, there was a young fellow came poking around here not so +long ago with a little hammer pecking at the rocks. I didn't pay much +attention to him, though. He never stayed but one day, and I was +a-cutting clover hay, and too busy to notice him much 'cept to ask him +in to dinner. He couldn't seem to manage his chicken dumplings for +feeding his eyes with Rose Mary, and he didn't have time to give up +much information about sech little things as oil-wells and phosphate +beds. You know, they has to be a good touch of frost over a man's ears +before he can tend to business, with good-looking dimity passing +around him." And Uncle Tucker laughed as he resumed the puffing of his +pipe. + +"And after the frost they are not at all immune--to such dimity," +answered Everett with an echo of Uncle Tucker's laugh, as a slight +color rose up under the tan of his thin face. As he spoke he ruffled +his own dark red mop of hair, which was slightly sprinkled with gray, +over his temples. Everett was tall, broad and muscular, but thin +almost to gauntness, and his face habitually wore the expression of +deep weariness. His eyes were red-brown and disillusioned, except when +they joined with his well-cut mouth in a smile that brought an almost +boyish beauty back over his whole expression. There was decided youth +in the glance he bestowed upon Uncle Tucker, whose attention was +riveted on the manoeuvers of the General and Tobe, who were busy with +a pair of old kitchen knives in an attack upon the grass growing +between the cracks of the front walk. + +"So you have had no report as to what that survey was?" Everett asked +Uncle Tucker, again bringing him back to the subject in hand. "Do you +know who sent the man you speak of to prospect on your land?" + +"Never thought to ask him," answered Uncle Tucker, still with the +utmost unconcern. "Maybe Rose Mary knows. Women generally carry a +reticule around with 'em jest to poke facts into that they gather +together from nothing put pure wantin'-to-know. Ask her." + +And as he spoke Uncle Tucker began to busy himself getting out the +grease cans, with the evident intention of putting in a morning +lubricating the farm implements in general. + +"Your friend, Mr. Gideon Newsome, said something about a rumor of +paying phosphate here in the Harpeth bend when I met him over in +Boliver before I came to Sweetbriar. In fact, I had tried to come to +look over the fields just to kill time when I nearly killed myself and +fell down upon you. Do you suppose he could have sent the prospector?" +Again Everett brought Uncle Tucker back to the uninteresting topic of +what might lay under the fields, the top of which he was so interested +in cultivating. + +"Oh, I reckon not," answered Uncle Tucker, puffing away as he laid +out his monkey-wrenches. "The Honorable Gid is up to his neck in this +here no-dram wave what is a-sweeping around over the state and pretty +nigh rising up as high as the necks of even private liquor bottles. +Gid's not to say a teetotaler, but he had to climb into the bandwagon +skiff or sink outen sight. He's got to tie down his seat in the state +house with a white ribbon, and he's got no mind for fooling with +phosphate dirt. He's a mighty fine man, and all of Sweetbriar thinks a +heap of him. Do you want to help me lift this wagon wheel on to this +jack, so I can sorter grease her up against the next time I use her?" + +"Say, Uncle Tuck, Aunt Viney says for you to come right there now and +bring Mr. Mark and a spade and a long string with you," came just at +the critical moment of balancing the notched plank under the revolving +wagon wheel, in Stonewall Jackson's young voice, which held in it +quite a trace of Miss Lavinia's decisive tone of command. Stonie +stood in the barn door, poised for instant return along the path of +duty to the front walk, only waiting to be sure his summons would be +obeyed. Stonie was sturdy, freckled, and in possession of Uncle +Tucker's big gray eyes, Rose Mary's curled mouth and more than a tinge +of Aunt Viney's austerity of manner. + +"Better come on," he further admonished. "Rose Mary can't hold that +vine up much longer, and if she lets go they'll all fall down." And as +he raced up the path Everett followed almost as rapidly, urged on by +the vision of Rose Mary drooping under some sort of unsupportable +burden. Uncle Tucker brought up the rear with the spade and a long +piece of twine. + +"Oh, I thought you would never come," laughed Rose Mary from half way +up the step-ladder as she lowered herself and a great bunch of budding +honeysuckle down into Everett's upstretched arms. "I held it up as +long as I could, but I almost let it tear the whole vine down." + +[Illustration: "That's what comes from letting that shoot run +catawumpas"] + +"That's what comes from letting that shoot run catawumpas three years +ago. I told you about it at the time, Tucker," said Miss Lavinia with +a stern glance at Uncle Tucker, who stood with spade and twine at the +corner of the porch. + +Miss Lavinia sat in a large, calico-cushioned rocking-chair at the end +of the porch, and had been issuing orders to Rose Mary and little Miss +Amanda about the readjustment of the fragrant vine that trailed across +the end of the porch over her window and on out to a trellis in the +side yard. Her high mob cap sat on her head in an angle of aggression +always, and her keen black eyes enforced all commands issuing from her +stern old mouth. + +"Now, Amandy, train that shoot straight while you're about it," she +continued. "It comes plumb from the roots, and I don't want to have to +look at a wild-growing vine right here under my window for all my +eighty-second and maybe last year." + +"I've gone and misplaced my glasses and I can't hardly see," answered +Miss Amanda in her sweet little quaver that sounded like a silver bell +with a crack in it. "Lend me your'n, Tucker!" + +"You are a-going to misplace your eyes some day, Sister Amandy. Then +you'll be a-wanting mine, and I'll have to cut 'em out and give 'em to +you, I suppose," said Uncle Tucker as he handed over his huge, +steel-rimmed glasses. + +"The Bible says 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' Tucker, +but not in a borrowing sense of the word, as I remember," remarked +Miss Lavinia in a meditative tone of voice. "And that would be the +thing about my getting the new teeth. Don't either of you need 'em, +and it would be selfish of me to spend on something they couldn't +anybody borrow from me. Amandy, dig a little deeper around that +shoot, I don't want no puny vine under my window!" + +"I'm a-trying, Sister Viney," answered Miss Amanda propitiatingly. +"I've been a-bending over so long my knees are in a kinder tremble." + +"Let me finish digging and put in the new dirt for you, Aunt Amandy," +begged Rose Mary, who had given the armful of vine to Everett to hold +while Uncle Tucker tied the strings in the exact angle indicated by +Miss Lavinia. "I can do it in no time." + +"No, child, I reckon I'd better do it myself," answered Miss Amanda as +she sat back on the grass for a moment's rest. "I have dug around and +trained this vine the last week in April for almost sixty years now. +Mr. Lovell brought it by to Ma one spring as he hauled his summer +groceries over the Ridge to Warren County. By such care it's never +died down yet, and I have made it my custom to give sprouts away to +all that would take 'em. I'm not a-doubting that there is some of +this vine a-budding out all over Harpeth Valley from Providence Nob to +the River bend." + +"No, Amandy," interrupted Aunt Viney, "it wasn't sixty years ago, it +was jest fifty-seven. Mr. Lovell brought the switch of it with him the +first year Mr. Roberts rode this circuit, and he was a-holding that +big revival over to Providence Chapel. Mr. Lovell came into the fold +with that very first night's preaching, and we all were rejoiced. +Don't you remember he brought you that Maiden Blush rose-bush over +there at the same time he brought this vine to Ma? And one bloom came +out on the rose the next year jest in time to put it in his coffin +before we buried him when he was taken down with the fever on the Road +and died here with us. Fifty-six years ago come June, and him so young +to die while so full of the spirit of the Lord!" + +Feebly Miss Amanda rose to her knees and went on with the digging +around the roots of the vine, but Rose Mary knelt beside her and laid +her strong, young arm around the bent and shaking little shoulders. +Uncle Tucker rested on his spade and looked away across the garden +wall, where the little yard of graves was hid in the shadow of tall +pine trees, and his big eyes grew very tender. Miss Lavinia fingered a +shoot of the vine that had fallen across her thin old knees with a +softened expression in her prophet-woman face, while something new and +sweet stirred in Everett's breast and woke in his tired eyes, as +across half a century was wafted the perfume of a shattered romance. + +And then by the time the vine had been trained Miss Lavinia had +thought of a number of other spring jobs that must be attended to +along the front walk and around all the clumps of budding shrubs, so +with one desperate glance toward the barn, his deserted haven, Uncle +Tucker fell to with his spade, while Everett obtained a fork from the +tool house and put himself under command. Rose Mary was sharply +recalled and sent into the house to complete the arrangements for the +festivities, when she had followed the forker down by the lilac hedge, +rake in hand, with evident intention of being of great assistance in +the gardening of the amateur. + +"Pull the dirt up closter around those bleeding-hearts, Tucker," +commanded Miss Lavinia from her rocker. "They are Rose Mary's I +planted the identical day she was born, and I don't want anything to +happen to 'em in the way of cutworms or such this summer." + +"Well, I don't know," answered Uncle Tucker with a little chuckle in +Everett's direction, who was turning over the dirt near a rose-bush in +his close vicinity, "it don't do to pay too much attention to women's +bleeding-hearts; let alone, they'll tie 'em up in their own courage +and go on dusting around the place, while if you notice 'em too much +they take to squeezing out more bleed drops for your sympathy. Now, I +think it's best--" + +"Mister Tucker, say, Mister Tucker," came in a giggle from over the +front gate as Jennie Rucker's little freckled nose appeared just above +the top plank, only slightly in advance of that of small Peggy's. +"Mis' Poteet's got a new baby, just earned, and she says she is sorry +she can't come to Mis' Viney's party; but she can't." + +"Now, fly-away, ain't that too bad!" exclaimed Uncle Tucker. "That +baby oughter be sent back until it has got manners to wait until it's +wanted. Didn't neither one of you all get here on anybody's birthday +but your own." Uncle Tucker's sally was greeted by a duet of giggles, +and the announcement committee hurried on across the street with its +news. + +"Tucker, you Tucker, don't you touch that snowball bush with the +spade!" came in a fresh and alarmed command from the rocker post of +observation. "You know Ma didn't ever let that bush be touched after +it had budded. You spaded around it onct when you was young and upty +and you remember it didn't bloom." + +"Muster been a hundred years ago if I was ever upty about this here +flower job," he answered in an undertone to Everett as he turned his +attention to the rose-bushes at which his apprentice had been pegging +away. "At weddings and bornings and flower tending man is just a worm +under woman's feet and he might as well not even hope to turn. All he +can do is to--" + +But it was just at this juncture when Uncle Tucker's patience was +about to be exhausted, that a summons from Rose Mary came for a +general getting ready for the birthday celebration. + +And in a very few hours the festivities were in full swing. Miss +Lavinia sat in state in her rocker and received the offerings and +congratulations of Sweetbriar as they were presented in various +original and characteristic forms. Young Peter Rucker, still a bit +unsteady on his pink and chubby underpinning, was steered forward to +present his glossy buckeye, hung on a plaited horse-hair string that +had been constructed by small Jennie with long and infinite patience. +Miss Lavinia's commendations threw both donor and constructor into an +agony of bashfulness from which Pete took refuge in Rose Mary's skirts +and Jennie behind her mother's chair. But at this juncture the arrival +on the scene of action of young Bob Nickols with a whole two-horse +wagon-load of pine cones, which the old lady doted on for the freshing +up of the tiny fires always kept smoldering in her andironed fireplace +the summer through, distracted the attention of the company and was +greeted with great applause. Bob had been from early morning over on +Providence Nob collecting the treasures, and, seated beside him on the +front of the wagon, was Louisa Helen Plunkett, blushing furiously and +most obviously avoiding her mother's stern eye of inquiry as to where +she had spent the valuable morning hours. + +The sensation of young Bob's offering was only offset at the unpacking +of the complacent Mr. Crabtree's gift, which he bore over from the +store in his own arms. With dramatic effect he placed it on the floor +at Miss Lavinia's feet and called for a hatchet for its opening. And +as from their wrappings of paper and excelsior he drew two large gilt +and glass bottles, one containing bay rum and the other camphor, that +precious lotion for fast stiffening joints, little Miss Amanda heaved +a sigh of positive rapture. Mr. Crabtree was small and wiry, with a +hickory-nut countenance and a luscious peach of a heart, and, though +of bachelor condition, he at all times displayed sympathetic and +intuitive domestic inclinations. He kept the Sweetbriar store and was +thus in position to know of the small economies practised by the two +old ladies in the matter of personal necessities. For the months past +they had not bought the quantity of lubricating remedies that he +considered sufficient and this had been his tactful way of supplying +enough to last for some time to come. And from over the pile of gifts +heaped around her, Miss Lavinia beamed upon him to such an extent that +he felt like following young Pete's example, committing the awful +impropriety of hiding his embarrassment in any petticoat handy, but +just at this juncture up the front walk came the birthday cake +navigating itself by the long legs of Mr. Caleb Rucker and attended by +a riot of Sweetbriar youth, mad with excitement over its safe landing +and the treat in prospect. In its wake followed Mrs. Rucker, +complacent and beaming over the sensation caused by this her high +triumph in the culinary line. + +"Fly-away, if that's not Providence Nob gone and turned to a cake for +Sister Viney's birthday," exclaimed Uncle Tucker, as amid generous +applause the offering was landed on a table set near the rocker. + +And again at this auspicious moment a huge waiter covered with little +mountains of white ice-cream made its appearance through the front +door, impelled by the motive power of Mr. Mark Everett's elegantly +white-flannel-trousered legs, and guided to a landing beside the cake +by Rose Mary, who was a pink flower of smiles and blushes. + +Then it followed that in less time than one would think possible the +company at large was busy with a spoon attached to the refreshments +which to Sweetbriar represented the height of elegance. Out in the +world beyond Old Harpeth ice-cream and cake may have lost caste as a +fashionable afternoon refreshment, having been succeeded by the +imported custom of tea and scones or an elaborate menu of reception +indigestibles, but in the Valley nothing had ever threatened the +supremacy of the frozen cream and white-frosted confection. The men +all sat on the end of the long porch and accepted second saucers and +slices and even when urged by Rose Mary, beaming with hospitality, +third relays, while the Swarm in camp on the front steps, under the +General's management, seconded by Everett, succeeded in obtaining +supplies in a practically unlimited quantity. + +"Looks like Miss Rose Mary's freezer ain't got no bottom at all," said +Mr. Rucker in his long drawl as he began on a fourth white mound. "It +reminds me of 'the snow, the snow what falls from Heaven to earth +below,' and keeps a-falling." Mr. Rucker was a poet at heart and a +husband to Mrs. Rucker by profession, and his flights were regarded by +Sweetbriar at large with a mixture of pride and derision. + +"Cal," said Mrs. Rucker sternly, "don't you eat more'n half that +saucer. I've got no mind to top off this here good time with mustard +plasters all around. Even rejoicings can get overfed and peter out +into ginger tea. Jennie, you and Sammie and Pete stop eating right +now. Lands alive, the sun has set and we all know Miss Viney oughter +be in the house. Shoo, everybody go home to save your manners!" And +with hearty laughs and further good-by congratulations the happy +little company of farmer folk scattered to their own roof trees across +and along Providence Road. The twilight had come, but a very young +moon was casting soft shadows from the trees rustling in the night +breezes and the stars were lighting up in competition to the rays that +shot out from window after window in the little village. + +Uncle Tucker had hurried away to his belated barn duties and little +Miss Amanda into the house to stir up Miss Lavinia's fire in +preparation for their retirement, which was a ceremony of long +duration and begun with the mounting of the chickens to their roosts. +Miss Lavinia sat with her hands folded in her lap over a collection of +the smaller gifts of the afternoon and her eyes looked far away cross +the Ridge, dim in the failing light, while her stern old face took on +softened and very lovely lines. Rose Mary stood near to help her into +the house and Everett leaned against a post close on the other side of +the rocker. + +"Children," she said with a little break in her usual austere voice, +"I'm kinder ashamed of accusing the Lord of forgetting me this morning +when I look at all these remembers of me here that my neighbors have +given me. I found friends when I came here eighty-two years ago to-day +and as they have died off He has raised up a new crop outen their seed +for me. This rheumatism buckeye here is the present of the great +grandson of my first beau, and this afternoon I have looked into the +kind eyes of some of my friends dead and gone many a day, and have +seen smiles come to life that have been buried fifty years. I'm +a-feeling thankful to be here another summer to see my friends and +flowers a-blooming onct more, and come next April I am a-going to +want just such another infair as this one. Now help me into bed! Young +man, you can lift me up some, I'm stiff with so long setting, and I'm +a-going to want a power of rubbing this night, Rose Mary." + +So, thus held by her duties of ministration, it was quite an hour +later that Rose Mary came out of the house, which was dark and +sleep-quiet, and found Everett still sitting on the front steps +smoking and--waiting. + +"Tired?" he asked as she sank down on to the step beside him and +leaned her dark head back against one of the posts that supported the +mass of honeysuckle vine. + +"Not much--and a heap happy," she answered, looking up at him with +reflected stars in her long-lashed blue eyes. "Wasn't it a lovely +party?" + +"Yes," answered Everett slowly as he watched the smoke curl up from +his cigar and blow in the soft little night wind across toward Rose +Mary; "yes, it was a nice party. I seriously doubt if anywhere on any +of the known continents there could have been one just like it pulled +off by any people of any nation. It was unique--in sentiment and +execution; I'm duly grateful for having been a guest--even part +honoree." + +"I always think of old people as being the soft shadows that sturdy +little children cast on the wall. They are a part of the day and +sunshine, but just protected by the young folks that come between them +and the direct rays. They are strangely like flowers, too, with their +quaint fragrance. Aunt Viney is my tall purple flag, but Aunt Amandy +is my bed of white cinnamon pinks. I--I want to keep them in bloom for +always. I can't let myself think--that I can't." Rose Mary's voice +trembled into a laugh as she caught a trailing wisp of honeysuckle and +pressed a bunch of its buds to her lips. + +"You'll keep them, Rose Mary. You could keep anything you--you really +wanted," said Everett in a guardedly comforting voice. "And what are +Mr. Alloway and Stonie in your flower garden?" he asked in a bantering +tone. + +"Oh, Uncle Tucker is the briar rose hedge all around the place, and +Stonie is all the young shoots that I'm trying to prune and train up +just like him," answered Rose Mary with a quick laugh. "You're my +new-fashioned crimson-rambler from out over the Ridge that I'm trying +to make grow in my garden," she added, with a little hint of both +audacity and tenderness in her voice. + +"I'm rooted all right," answered Everett quickly, as he blew a puff of +smoke at her. "And you, Rose Mary, are the bloom of every rose-bush +that I ever saw anywhere. You are, I verily believe, the only and +original Rose of the World." + +"Oh, no," answered Rose Mary lifting her long lashes for a second's +glance at him; "I'm just the Rose of these Briars. Don't you know all +over the world women are blooming on lovely tall stems, where they +have planted themselves deep in home places and are drinking the +Master's love and courage from both sun and rain. But if we don't go +to rest some you'll wilt, Rambler, and I'll shatter. Be sure and take +the glass of cream I put by your bed. Good night and good dreams!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AT THE COURT OF DAME NATURE + + +"Well, Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker as he appeared in the doorway of +the milk-house and framed himself against an entrancing, +mist-wreathed, sun-up aspect of Sweetbriar with a stretch of +Providence Road winding away to the Nob and bending caressingly around +red-roofed Providence as it passed over the Ridge, "there are +forty-seven new babies out in the barn for you this morning. Better +come on over and see 'em!" Uncle Tucker's big eyes were bright with +excitement, his gray lavender muffler, which always formed a part of +his early morning costume, flew at loose ends, and a rampant, grizzly +lock stuck out through the slit in the old gray hat. + +"Gracious me, Uncle Tuck, who now?" demanded Rose Mary over a crock +of milk she was expertly skimming with a thin, old, silver ladle. + +"Old White has hatched out a brood of sixteen, assorted black and +white, that foolish bronze turkey hen just come out from under the +woodpile with thirteen little pesters, Sniffer has got five +pups--three spots and two solids--and Mrs. Butter has twin calves, +assorted sex this time. They are spry and hungry and you'd better come +on over!" + +"Lovely," laughed Rose Mary with the delight in her blue eyes matching +that in Uncle Tucker's pair of mystic gray. "I'll come just as soon as +I get the skimming done. We'll want some corn meal and millet seed for +the chirp-babies, but the others we can leave to the maternal +ministrations. I'm so full of welcome I don't see how I'm going to +keep it from bubbling over." + +"That's jest like you, Rose Mary, a-welcoming a whole passel of +pesters that have deluged down on you at one time," said Uncle Tucker +with a dubiously appreciative smile at Rose Mary's hospitable +enthusiasm. "Looks to me like a girl tending three old folks, one +rampage of a boy, a mollycuddle of a strange man, and a whole petting +spoiled village has got enough on her shoulders without this +four-foot, two-foot landslide." + +"But it's in my heart I carry you all, old Sweetie," answered Rose +Mary with a flirt of her long lashes up at Uncle Tucker. "A woman can +carry things as a blessing in her heart that might be an awful burden +on her shoulders. Don't you know I don't allow you out before the sun +is up good without your muffler tied up tight? There; please go on +back to the barn and take this crock of skimmed milk to Mrs. +Sniffie--wait, I'll pour back some of the cream! And in just a few +minutes I'll be ready to--" + +"Rose Mary, Rose Mary," came a wild, enthusiastic shout from up the +path toward the Briars and in a moment the General appeared around the +row of lilac bushes through which the milk-house trail led down under +the hill to Rose Mary's sanctum of the golden treasure. Stonie had +taken time before leaving the seclusion of his apartment to plunge +into his short blue jeans trousers, but he was holding them up with +one hand and struggling with his gingham shirt, the tail of which +bellowed out like a sail in the morning breeze as he sped along. And +in his wake came Tobe with a pan in one hand and a cup in the other. +"It's two calves, Tobe says, with just Mrs. Butter for the mother and +Sniffie beat her with three more puppies than two calves. It's sixteen +chickens and a passel of turkeys and we waked up Mr. Mark to tell him +and he said--" Stonie paused in the rapid fire of his announcement of +the morning news and then added in judicial tone of voice, as if +giving the aroused sleeper his modicum of fair play: "Well, he didn't +quite say it before he swallowed, but he throwed a pillow at Tobe and +pulled the sheet over his head and groaned awful. Aunt Viney was +saying her prayers when I went to tell her, and Aunt Mandy was taking +down her frizzles, but she stopped and gave Tobe some corn-bread for +the chickens and some pot-licker with meat in it for Sniffie. Can't +you come with me to see 'em now, Rose Mary? It won't be any fun until +you see em!" The General had by this time lined up in the doorway with +Uncle Tucker, and Tobe's black head and keen face peered over his +shoulder. The expression in all three pairs of eyes fixed on hers was +the same--the wild desire to make her presentation at the interesting +court Dame Nature was holding in the barn. A most natural masculine +instinct for feminine interpretive companionship when face to face +with the miracle of maternity. + +"Just one more crock of milk to skim and I can go," answered Rose Mary +as she poised the skimmer over the last yellow surface down the line +of huge, brown, earthen bowls that in Harpeth Valley were known as +crocks. The milk-house was cool and clean and smelled of the fresh +cream lifted from the milk into the stone jars to be clabbered for the +to-morrow churning. And Rose Mary herself was a fresh, fragrant +incarnation of the spirit of a spring sun-dawn that had come over the +Ridge from Old Harpeth. Her merry voice floated out over the hillside +as she followed in the wake of Uncle Tucker, Stonie and Tobe, with the +provender for the new arrivals, and it made its way as a faint echo of +a dream through one of the vine-covered, gable windows of the Briars +and the effect thereof was well-nigh instantaneous. + +Everett, after a hasty and almost as incomplete toilet as the one made +by the General in his excitement, arrived on the scene of action just +in time to witness the congratulatory interview between Mrs. Sniffie +and the mistress of her undying affections. The long-eared, plumy, +young setter-mother stood licking the back of Rose Mary's neck as she +sat on the barn floor with all five of the young tumblers in her lap, +with Tobe and Stonie hanging rapturously over her and them, while +Uncle Tucker was expatiating on some points that had made themselves +evident even at this very early stage of the existence of the little +dog babies. + +"They ain't not a single stub nose in the bunch, Uncle Tuck, not a one +and everybody's of thems toes stick way apart," exclaimed the General, +his cheeks red with joyous pride. + +"Watch 'em, Miss Ro' Mary; watch 'em smell Sniffie when I call her +over here," exclaimed Tobe as he held out the pan to Mrs. Sniffer and +thus coaxed her from the side of Rose Mary and the small family. And, +sure enough, around squirmed every little white and yellow bunch and +up went every little new-born nose as it sniffed at the recession of +the maternal fount. One little precocious even went so far as to +attempt to set his wee fore paddies against Rose Mary's knee and to +stiffen a tiny plume of a tail, with a plain instinct to point the +direction of the shifting base of supplies. Rose Mary gave a cry of +delight and hugged the whole talented family to her breast, while +Stonie and Tobe yelled and danced as Uncle Tucker turned with evident +emotion to Everett to claim his congratulations. + +"Never saw anything like it in my life," Everett assured him with the +greatest enthusiasm, and, as he spoke, he laughed down into Rose +Mary's lifted blue eyes that were positively tender with pride over +the puppies in her arms. "It's a sight worth losing the tale of a +dream for--taken all together." + +"And all the others--I'll show you," and, gathering her skirts +basketwise, Rose Mary rose to her feet and led the way across the +barn, with Sniffer snuffing along at the squirming bundle in her +skirts, that swung against the white petticoat ruffling around her +slim ankles. With the utmost care she deposited the puppies in an +overturned barrel, nicely lined with hay, that Stonie and Tobe had +been preparing. "They are lovely, Sniffie," she said softly to the +young mother, who jumped in and huddled down beside the babies as her +mistress turned to leave them with the greatest reluctance. + +And it was well that the strata of Everett's enthusiasm lay near the +surface and was easily workable, for in the next half-hour there was a +great demand of continuous output. Mrs. Butter stood switching her +tail and chewing at a wisp of hay with an air of triumphant pride +tinged with mild surprise as she turned occasionally to glance at the +offspring huddled against her side and found eight wobbly legs instead +of the four her former experiences had led her to expect, and felt two +little nuzzling noses instead of one. + +"Which one do you guess was the surprise calf to her, Rose Mamie?" +demanded the General. + +"Shoo!" said Tobe in answer to the General's question. "Old Butter +have had them two calfs to purpose, boy and girl, one to keep and one +to kill. She got mixed about whether Mr. Tuck keeps heifers or bulls +and jest had both kinds so as to keep one sure." + +"Well, Aunt Viney read in her book of a place they kills girls and +keeps boys. At this place they jest gits it mixed up with the cows and +it's no use to tell 'em," answered the General in a disgusted tone of +voice, and with a stem glance at Uncle Tucker, as he and Tobe passed +on over to the feed-room door, to lead the way to the display of the +little turks and cheeps for Everett's further edification. + +And just as the introductions were all completed two deep notes of the +mellow old farm bell sounded over the hill in a hospitable and +reverent summons to prayers and breakfast ensuing. On the instant two +pairs of pink heels were shown to the company as Stonie and Tobe +raced up the walk, which were quickly followed by Uncle Tucker, intent +on being on hand promptly for the assembling of his household. More +slowly Rose Mary and Everett followed, walking side by side along the +narrow path. + +"Rose Mary, have you let me sleep through such exciting scenes as this +every morning for a month?" demanded Everett quizzically. "What time +do you get up--or is it that the sun waits for your summons or--" + +"No, not my summons--old lame Shanghi's. I believe he is of French +extraction from his elaborate manner with the hens," answered Rose +Mary, quickly applying his plagiarized compliment. "Let's hurry or +I'll be late for prayers. Would you like--will you come in to-day, as +you are already up?" The color rose in Rose Mary's cheeks up under her +long lashes and she gave him just one shy glance that had a tinge of +roguishness in it. + +"Thank you, I--I would like to. That is, if I may--if I won't be in +the way or--or--or--will you hold my hand so I won't go wrong?" he +finished in laughing confusion as the color came under the tan of his +cheeks to match that in hers and the young look lay for a moment in +his eyes. "It'll be my début at family worship," he added quickly to +cover his confusion. + +"Don't worry, Uncle Tucker leads it," answered Rose Mary as they +ascended the front steps and came across the front porch to the +doorway of the wide hall, which was the living-room, as well as the +artery of the Briars. + +And a decorous and seemly scene they stepped in upon. Uncle Tucker sat +back of a small table, which was placed at one side of the wide open +fireplace, in which crackled a bit of fragrant, spring fire. His Bible +and a couple of hymn-books rested in front of him, his gray forelock +had been meekly plastered down and the jocund lavender scarf had been +laid aside to display a straight white collar and clerical black bow +tie. His eyes were bent on the book before him as he sought for the +text for the morning lesson. Aunt Viney sat close beside him as if +anxious to be as near to the source of worship as possible, though the +strain of refraining from directing Uncle Tucker in the conducting +thereof was very great. The tradition which forced silence upon women +in places of public worship had held with Miss Lavinia only by the +exercising of the sternest and most rigorous self-suppression, which +at any time might have been broken except for the curbing of her iron +will. + +But even though silent she was still dominant, and over her glasses +her eyes shot glances of stern rebuke at two offenders in a distant +corner, while Uncle Tucker fluttered the leaves of his hymn-book, +oblivious to the unseemly contention. The General and Tobe, who came +as near to living and having his being at the Briars as was possible +in consideration of the fact that he was supposed to have his bed and +board under his own paternal roof, were kneeling demurely beside a +small rocking-chair, but a battle royal was going on as to who would +possess the low seat on which to bow the head of reverence. + +Little Miss Amanda from across the room, in terror of what might +befall her favorites at the hands of Miss Lavinia in a later hour of +reckoning, was making beseeching gestures of alarm, warning and +reproof that were entirely inadequate to the situation, which was fast +becoming acute, when the two tardy members arrived on the scene of +action. It took Rose Mary one second to grasp the situation, and, +motioning Everett to a chair beside the rocker, she seated herself +quickly in the very midst of the scuffle. In a half-second Tobe's head +was bowed in triumph on the arm of her chair, while the General's was +ducked with equal triumph upon her knee as Uncle Tucker's sweet old +voice rose in the first words of his prayer. + +But after a few minutes of most becoming reverence Stonie's eyes +opened and revealed his surprise at Everett's presence as he knelt by +the chair across from Tobe and almost as close to Rose Mary's +protective presence as either of the two combatants. With a welcoming +smile the General slipped the little brown hand of fellowship into the +stranger's, thereby offering a material support to the latter's agony +of embarrassment, which only very slowly receded from face and +demeanor as the services proceeded. + +Then as across the crackle of the fire came the confident word of +David the Singer: "_The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; +the world and they that dwell therein_," intoned in the old man's +reverent voice, something led Everett's glance out through the open +door to see the bit of divine dominion that spread before him with new +eyes and a newer understanding. Harpeth Valley lay like the tender +palm of a huge master hand with the knuckles of rough blue hills +knotted around it, and dotted over the fostering meadows were +comfortable homes, each with its morning altar fire sending up opal +wreaths of mist smoke from the red brick or stone chimneys. Long creek +lines marked their way across the fields which were growing tender +green with the upbringing of the spring grain. + +"_Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand_," droned +Uncle Tucker. "_The hollow of His hand_," assented Everett's +conscience in artistic appreciation of the simile. + +"_And stretched out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out +as a tent to dwell in_," came as another line of interpretation of the +picture spread before the strangely unshackled eyes of the bowed man +with the little boy kneeling beside him. Quickly he turned toward Rose +Mary with almost a startled glance and found in her eyes the fact that +she had been faring forth over Harpeth Valley on the wings of Uncle +Tucker's supplication as had he. The wonder of it rose in his eyes, +which were about to lay bare to her depths never before stirred, when +a fervent "Amen! I beat you that time, Tobe!" fairly exploded at his +ear as the General took the final word out of Uncle Tucker's very +mouth in rival to his worshipping opponent. + +"I said it first, but it got blowed into Miss Ro' Mary's sleeve," +avowed Tobe with a flaunt at his competitor. + +"If nobody he'r'n it, it don't count," decided the General with +emphasis. And in friendly dispute he escorted his rival down the front +walk, while Uncle Tucker, as was his custom, busied himself +straightening hymn-book and Bible, so leaving the family altar in +readiness for the beginning of a new day. And thus the primitive +ceremonial, the dread of which had kept Everett late in bed every +morning for a month, had resolved itself into what seemed to him but +the embrace of a tender, whimsical brotherhood in which the old mystic +both assumed and accounted for a stewardship in behalf of the others +assembled under his roof-tree. + +But in the eyes of Miss Lavinia all forms of service were the +marshalling of the hosts in battle array and at all times she was +enlisted in the ranks of the church militant, and upon this occasion +she bore down upon Everett with banners unfurled. + +"We are mighty gratified to welcome you at last in the circle of +family worship, young man," she declaimed, as reproach and cordiality +vied in her voice. "I have been a-laying off to ask you what church +you belonged to in New York, and have a little talk with you over some +of our sacred duties that young people of this generation are apt--" + +"Rose Mary," came Miss Amanda's cheery little voice from the doorway +just in time to save Everett from the wish, if not even a vain +attempt, to sink through the floor, "bring Mr. Mark right on in to +breakfast before the waffles set. Sister Viney, your coffee is +a-getting cold." Little Miss Amanda had seen and guessed at his +plight and the coffee threat to Miss Lavinia had been one of the +nimble manoeuvers that she daily, almost hourly, employed in the +management of her sister's ponderosity. Thus she had saved this day, +but Everett knew that there were others to come, and in the dim +distance he discerned his Waterloo. + +And as he worked carefully with his examining pick over beyond the +north pasture through the soft spring-warm afternoon, he occasionally +smiled to himself as the morning scene of worship, etched deep on his +consciousness by its strangeness to his tenets of life, rose again and +again to his mind's eye. They were a wonderful people, these Valley +folk, descendants of the Huguenots and Cavaliers who had taken the +wilderness trail across the mountains and settled here "in the hollow" +of old Harpeth's hand. They were as interesting scientifically from a +philosophical standpoint as were the geological formations which lay +beneath their blue-grass and clover fields. They built altars to what +seemed to him a primitive God, and yet their codes were in many cases +not only ethically but economically and democratically sound. The men +he had found shrewd and as a whole more interested and versed in +statescraft than would seem possible, considering their shut-in +location in regard to the places where the world wheels seem to +revolve. But were there larger wheels revolving, silently, slowly, but +just as relentlessly, out here where the heavens were stretched "_as a +curtain_," and "_as a tent to dwell in_?" + +"_'The earth and the fullness thereof,'_" he mused as he raised his +eyes to the sky; "it's theirs, certainly, and they dedicate it to +their God. I wonder--" Suddenly the picture of the woman in the barn +rose to his mind, strong and gracious and wonderful, with the young +"fullness" pressing around her, teeming with--force. What force--and +what source? Suddenly he dropped his pick behind a convenient bush, +shouldered his kit of rocks and sand, climbed the fence and tramped +away down Providence Road to Sweetbriar, Rose Mary and her cold milk +crocks, thither impelled by deep--thirsts. + +And under the hospitable eaves of the milk-house he found Rose Mary +and her cooling draft--also Mrs. Caleb Rucker, with small Pete in tow. + +"Howdy, Mr. Mark," the visiting neighbor answered in response to his +forcedly cordial greeting. If a man has walked a mile and a half with +a picture of a woman handing him a glass of cool milk with a certain +lift of black lashes from over deep, black blue eyes it +is--disconcerting to have her do it in the presence of another. + +"I just come over to get a bucket of buttermilk for Granny +Satterwhite," he found Mrs. Rucker saying as he forced his attention. +"She won't touch mine if there's any of Rose Mary's handy. Looks like +she thinks she's drinking some of Rose Mary's petting with every +gulp." + +Everett had just raised the glass Rose Mary had handed him, to his +lips, as Mrs. Rucker spoke, and over its edge he regarded the roses +that suddenly blushed out in her cheeks, but she refused to raise her +lashes the fraction of an inch and went calmly on pressing the milk +from the butter she had just taken from the churn. + +"Granny knows that love can be sent just as well in a glass of +buttermilk as in a valentine," she finally said, and as she spoke a +roguish smile coaxed at the comer of her mouth. "Don't you suppose a +piece of hemp twine would turn into a gold cord if you tied it around +a bundle of true love?" she ventured further in a spirit of daring, +still with her eyes on the butter. + +"Now that's something in meaning like my first husband, Mr. +Satterwhite, said when we was married," assented Mrs. Rucker with +hearty appreciation of the practicality in Rose Mary's sentiment. "He +gave me two sows, each with a litter of pigs, for a wedding present +and said they'd be a heap more to me than any kind of jimcracks he +could er bought for half the money they'd bring. And they was, for, in +due course of time, I sold all them hogs and bought the plush +furniture in the front room, melojeon and all. Now Mr. Rucker, he give +me a ring with a blue set and 'darling' printed inside it that cost +fifty cents extra, and Jennie Rucker swallowed that ring before she +was a year old. I guess she has got it growed up inside her, for all I +know of it, and her Paw is a-setting on Mr. Satterwhite's furniture at +present, speaking still. Sometimes it makes me feel sad to think of +Mr. Satterwhite when Cal Rucker spells out, _Shall we meet beyond the +river_ with two fingers on that melojeon. But then I even up my +feelings by remembering how Cal let me name Pete for Mr. Satterwhite, +which is a second-husband compliment they don't many men pass; and it +pleased Granny so." + +"Mr. Rucker is always nice to Granny Satterwhite," said Rose Mary with +the evident intention of extolling the present incumbent of the +husband office to her friend. But at the mention of his name a moment +earlier, young Peter, the bond between the past and present, had +sidled out the door and proceeded to sit calmly down on the rippling +surface of the spring branch. His rescue and retirement necessitated +his mother's departure and Everett was left in command of the +two-alone situation he desired. + +"Hasn't this been a lovely, long day?" asked Rose Mary as she turned +the butter into a large jar and pressed a white cloth close over it +with a stone top. "To-night is the full April moon and I've got a +surprise for you, if you don't find it out too soon. Will you walk +over to Tilting Rock, beyond the barn-lot, with me after supper and +let me show you?" + +"Will I cross the fields of Elysium to gaze over the pearly ramparts?" +demanded Everett with boyish enthusiasm, if not a wholly accurate use +of mythological metaphor. "Let's cut supper and go on now! What do you +say? Why wait?" + +"I'm afraid," laughed Rose Mary as she prepared to close up the wide +window and leave everything in shipshape for the night. "A woman +oughtn't to risk feeding a hungry man cold moonbeams instead of hot +hoecake. Besides, I have to see everybody safely tucked in before I +can leave. Aren't they all a precious houseful of early-to-bed +chickens? The old Sweeties have forgotten there is such a thing as the +moon and Stonie hasn't--found it out--yet." And with a mischievous +backward glance, Rose Mary led the way up the lilac path to the Briars +on top of the hill just as the old bell sounded two wobbly notes, +their uncertainty caused by the rivalry of the General and Tobe over +the pulling of the ropes. + +And it was quite two hours later that she and Everett made their way +across the barn-lot over to the broad, moss-covered Tilting Rock that +jutted out from a little hackberry-covered knoll at the far end of the +pasture. + +"Now look--and smell in deep!" exclaimed Rose Mary excitedly as she +pointed back to the Briars. + +"Why--why!" exclaimed Everett under his breath, "it's enchantment! +It's a dream--am I awake?" + +And indeed a very vision spread itself out before the wondering man. +The low roof and wide wings of the Briars, with the delicate traceries +of vines over the walls and gables, shone a soft, old-brick pink in +the glow of moonlight, and over and around it all gushed a very shower +of shimmering white blossoms, surrounding the house like a mist around +an early blooming rose. And as he looked, wave on wave of fragrance +beat against Everett's face and poured over his head. + +"What is it?" he demanded breathlessly, as if dizzy from a too deep +drinking of the perfume. + +"Don't you know? It's the locust trees that have bloomed out since +sunset!" exclaimed Rose Mary in as breathless a tone as his own. "For +a week I have been watching and hoping they would be out in the full +moon. They are so delicate that the least little cold wind sets them +back days or destroys them altogether. I wanted them so very much this +year for you, and I was so afraid you would notice them before we got +over here where you could get the full effect. I promised you lilacs +for being good, but this is just because--because--" + +"Because what?" asked Everett quietly. + +"Because I felt you would appreciate it," answered Rose Mary, as she +sank down on the stone that still held a trace of the warmth from the +sun, and made room for Everett beside her with one of her ever-ready, +gracious little gestures. "And it's lovely to have you here to look at +it with me," she added. "So many times I have sat here alone with the +miracle, and my heart has ached for the whole world to get the vision +of it at least. I've tried sending my love of it out in little locust +prayers to folks over the Ridge. Did you ever happen to get one any +spring?" + +"Last April I turned down a commission for a false test for the +biggest squeeze-out copper people in the world, fifty thousand in it +to me. I thought it was moral courage, but I know now it was just on +account of the locusts blooming in Harpeth Valley at Sweetbriar. Do +you get any connection?" he demanded lightly, if a bit unevenly. + +"To think that would be worth all the loneliness," answered Rose Mary +gently. "Things were very hard for me the first year I had to come +back from college. I used to sit here by the hour and watch Providence +Road wind away over the Ridge and nothing ever seemed to come or go +for me. But that was only for a little while, and now I never get the +time to breathe between the things that happen along Providence Road +for me to attend to. I came back to Sweetbriar like an empty crock, +with just dregs of disappointment at the bottom, and now I'm all ready +every morning to have five gallons of lovely folks-happenings poured +into a two-and-a-half-gallon capacity. I wish I were twins or twice as +much me." + +"Why, you have never told me before, Rose Mary, that you belong to the +new-woman persuasion, with a college hall-mark and suffragist +leanings. I have made the mistake of putting you in the home-guard +brigade and classing you fifty years behind your times. Don't tell me +you have an M.A. I can't stand it to-night." + +"No, I haven't got one," answered Rose Mary with both a smile and a +longing in her voice. "I came home in the winter of my junior year. +My father was one of the Harpeth Valley boys who went out into the +world, and he came back to die under the roof where his fathers had +fought off the Indians, and he brought poor little motherless me to +leave with the aunts and Uncle Tucker. They loved me and cared for me +just as they did Uncle Tucker's son, who was motherless, too, and a +few years after he went out into the world to seek the fortune he felt +so sure of, I was given my chance at college. In my senior year his +tragedy came and I hurried back to find Uncle Tucker broken and old +with the horror of it, and with the place practically sold to avoid +open disgrace. His son died that year and left--left--some day I will +tell you the rest of it. I might have gone back into the world and +made a success of things and helped them in that way, from a +distance--but what they needed was--was me. And so I sat here many +sunset hours of loneliness and looked along Providence Road +until--until I think the Master must have passed this way and left me +His peace, though my mortal eyes didn't see Him. And now there lies my +home nest swung in a bower of blossoms full of the old sweetie birds, +the boy, the calf, puppy babies, pester chickens and--and I'm going to +take a large, gray, prowling night-bird back and tuck him away for +fear his cheeks will look hollow in the morning. I'm the mother bird, +and while I know He watches with me all through the night, sometimes I +sing in the dark because I and my nesties are close to Him and I'm not +the least bit afraid." + +[Illustration: "I hope you feel easy in your mind now"] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MOONLIGHT AND APPLE-BLOW + + +"I hope you feel easy in your mind, child, now you've put this whole +garden to bed and tucked 'em under cover, heads and all," said Uncle +Tucker, as he spread the last bit of old sacking down over the end of +the row of little sprouting bean vines. "When I look at the garden I'm +half skeered to go in the house to bed for fear I haven't got a quilt +to my joints." + +"Now, honey sweet, you know better than that," answered Rose Mary as +she rose from weighting down the end of a frilled white petticoat with +a huge clod of earth and stretched it so as to cover quite two yards +of the green shoots. "I haven't taken a thing of yours but two shirts +and one of your last summer seersucker coats. I'm going to mend the +split up the back in it for the wash Monday. Aunt Amandy lent me two +aprons and a sack and a petticoat for the peony bushes, and Aunt Viney +gave me this shawl and three chemises that cover all the pinks. I've +taken all the tablecloths for the early peas, and Stonie's shirts, +each one of them, have covered a whole lot of the poet's narcissus. +All the rest of the things are my own clothes, and I've still got a +clean dress for to-morrow. If I can just cover everything to-night, I +won't be afraid of the frost any more. You don't want all the lovely +little green things to die, do you, and not have any snaps or peas or +peonies at all?" + +"Oh, fly-away!" answered Uncle Tucker as he tucked in the last end of +a nondescript frill over a group of tiny cabbage plants, "there's not +even a smack of frost in the air! It's all in your mind." + +"Well, a mind ought to be sensitive about covering up its friends from +frost hurts," answered Rose Mary propitiatingly as she took a +satisfied survey of the bedded garden, which looked like the scene of +a disorganized washday. "Thank you, Uncle Tucker, for helping me--keep +off the frost from my dreams, anyway. Don't you think--" + +"Well, howdy, folks!" came a cheerfully interruptive hail from across +the brick wall that separated the garden from the cinder walk that lay +along Providence Road, which ran as the only street through +Sweetbriar, and Caleb Rucker's long face presented itself framed in a +wreath of budding rose briars that topped the wall in their spring +growth. "Tenting up the garden sass ag'in, Miss Rose Mary?" + +"No, we're jest giving all the household duds a mooning instead of a +sunning, Cal," answered Uncle Tucker with a chuckle as he came over to +the wall beside the visitor. "What's the word along the Road?" + +"Gid Newsome have sent the news as he'll be here Sad'ay night to lay +off and plow up this here dram or no-dram question for Sweetbriar +voters, so as to tote our will up to the state house for us next +election. As a state senator, we can depend on Gid to expend some and +have notice taken of this district, if for nothing but his corn-silk +voice and white weskit. It must take no less'n a pound of taller a +week to keep them shoes and top hat of his'n so slick. I should jedge +his courting to be kinder like soft soap and molasses, Miss Rose +Mary." And Mr. Rucker's smile was of the saddest as he handed this bit +of gentle banter over the wall to Rose Mary, who had come over to +stand beside Uncle Tucker in the end of the long path. + +"It's wonderful how devoted Mr. Newsome is to all his friends," +answered Rose Mary with a blush. "He sent me three copies of the +Bolivar _Herald_ with the poem of yours he had them print last week, +and I was just going over to take you and Mrs. Rucker one as soon as I +got the time to--" + +"Johnnie-jump-ups, Miss Rose Mary, don't you never do nothing like +that to me!" exclaimed Mr. Rucker with a very fire of desperation +lighting his thin face. "If Mis' Rucker was to see one verse of that +there poetry I would have to plow the whole creek-bottom corn-field +jest to pacify her. I've done almost persuaded her to hire Bob Nickols +to do it with his two teams and young Bob, on account of a sciattica +in my left side that plowing don't do no kind of good to. I have took +at least two bottles of her sasparilla and sorgum water and have let +Granny put a plaster as big and loud-smelling as a mill swamp on my +back jest to git that matter of the corn-field fixed up, and here you +most go and stir up the ruckus again with that poor little _Trees in +the Breeze_ poem that Gid took and had printed unbeknownst to me. +Please, mam, burn them papers!" + +"Oh, I wouldn't tell her for the world if you don't want me to, Mr. +Rucker!" exclaimed Rose Mary in distress. "But I am sure she would be +proud of--" + +"No, it looks like women don't take to poetry for a husband; they +prefers the hefting of a hoe and plow handles. It's hard on Mis' +Rucker that I ain't got no constitution to work with, and I feel it +right to keep all my soul-squirmings and sech outen her sight. The +other night as I was a-putting Petie to bed, while she and Bob was at +the front gate a-trying to trade on that there plowing, a mighty sweet +little verse come to me about + + "'The little shoes in mother's hand + Nothing like 'em in the land,' + +and the tears was in my eyes so thick 'cause I didn't have nobody to +say 'em to that one dropped down on Pete and made him think I was +a-going to wash his face, and sech another ruckus as she had to come +in to, as mad as hops! If I feel like it, I'm a-going to clean every +weed outen the garden for her next week to try and make up to her +for--" + +"Aw, Mr. Rucker, M-i-s-t-e-r Rucker, come home to get ready for +supper," came in a loud, jovial voice that carried across the street +like the tocsin of a bass drum. The Rucker home sat in a clump of +sugar maples just opposite the Briars, and was square, solid and +unadorned of vine or flower. A row of bright tin buckets hung along +the picket fence that separated the yard from the store enclosure, and +rain-barrels sat under the two front gutters with stolid +practicability, in contrast to the usual relegation of such +store-houses of the rainfall to the back of the house and the planting +of ferns and water plants under the front sprouts, as was the custom +from the beginning of time in Sweetbriar. Mrs. Rucker in a clean print +dress and with glossy and uncompromisingly smoothed hair stood at the +newly whitewashed front gate. "Send him on home, Rose Mary, or +grass'll grow in his tracks and yours, too, if he can hold you long +enough," she added by way of badinage. + +"I'm a-coming, Sally, right on the minute," answered the +poet-by-stealth, and he hurried across the street with hungry +alacrity. The poem-maker was tall and loose-jointed, and the breadth +of his shoulders and long muscular limbs decidedly suggested success +at the anvil or field furrow. He made a jocular pass at placing his +arm around the uncompromising waist-line of his portly wife, and when +warded off by an only half-impatient shove he contented himself by +winding one of her white apron strings around one of his long fingers +as they leaned together over the gate for further parley with the +Alloways across the road. + +"When did you get back, Mrs. Rucker?" asked Rose Mary interestedly, as +she rested her arms on the wall and Uncle Tucker planted himself +beside her, having brushed away one of the long briar shoots to make +room for them both. + +"About two hours ago," answered Mrs. Rucker. "I found everybody in +fine shape up at Providence, and Mis' Mayberry sent Mr. Tucker a new +quinzy medicine that Tom wrote back to her from New York just day +before yesterday. I made a good trade in hogs with Mr. Hoover for +myself and Bob Nickols, too. Mr. Petway had a half-barrel of flour in +his store he were willing to let go cheap, and I bought it for us and +you-all and the Poteets. Me and you can even up on that timothy seed +with the flour, Mr. Tucker, and I'm just a-going to give a measure to +the Poteets as a compliment to that new Poteet baby, which is the +seventh mouth to feed on them eighty-five acres. I've set yeast for +ourn and your rolls for to-morrow, tell your Aunt Mandy, Rose Mary, +and I brought that copy of the _Christian Advocate_ for your Aunt +Viney that she lost last month. Mis' Mayberry don't keep hern, but +spreads 'em around, so was glad to let me have this one. I asked about +it before I had got my bonnet-strings untied. Yes, Cal, I'm a-going +on in to give you your supper, for I expect I'll find the children's +and Granny's stomicks and backbones growing together if I don't hurry. +That's one thing Mr. Satterwhite said in his last illness, he never +had had to wait--yes, I'm coming, Granny," and with the encomium of +the late Mr. Satterwhite still unfinished Mrs. Rucker hurried up the +front path at the behest of a high, querulous old voice issuing from +the front windows. + +"Well, there's no doubt about it, no finer woman lives along +Providence Road than Sallie Rucker, Marthy Mayberry and Selina Lue +Lovell down at the Bluff not excepted, to say nothing of Rose Mary +Alloway standing right here in the midst of my own sweet potato +vines," said Uncle Tucker reflectively as he glanced at the retreating +figure of his sturdy neighbor, which was followed by that of the lean +and hungry poet. + +"Yes, she's wonderful," answered Rose Mary enthusiastically, +"but--but I wish she had just a little sympathy for--for poetry. If a +husband sprouts little spirit wings under his shoulders it's a kind +thing for his wife not to pick them right out alive, isn't it? When I +get a husband--" + +"When you get a husband, Rose Mary, I hope he'll hump his shoulders +over a plow-line the number of hours allotted for a man's work and +then fly poetry kites off times and only when the wind is right," +answered Uncle Tucker with a quizzical smile in his big eyes and a +quirk at the corner of his mouth. + +"But I'm going always to admire the kites anyway, even if they don't +fly," answered Rose Mary with the teasing lift of her long lashes up +at him. "Maybe just a woman's puff might start a man's kite sky high +that couldn't get off right without it. You can't tell." + +"Yes, child," answered Uncle Tucker as he looked into the dark eyes +level with his own with a sudden tenderness, "and you never fail to +start off all kites in your neighborhood. When I took you as a bundle +of nothing outen Brother John's arms nearly thirty years ago this +spring jest a perky encouraging little smile in your blue eyes started +my kite that was a-trailing weary like, and it's sailed mostly by your +wind ever since--especially these last few years. Don't let the breeze +give out on me yet, child." + +"It never will, old sweetie," answered Rose Mary as she took Uncle +Tucker's lean old hand in hers and rubbed her cheek against the sleeve +of his rough farm coat. "Is the interest of the mortgage ready for +this quarter?" she asked quietly in almost a whisper, as if afraid to +disturb some listening ear with a private matter. + +"It lacks more than a hundred," answered Uncle Tucker in just as quiet +a voice, in which a note of pain sounded plainly. "And this is not the +first time I have fallen behind with Newsome, either. The repairs on +the plows and the food chopper for the barn have cost a good deal, +and the coal bill was large this winter. Sometimes, Rose Mary, I--I am +afraid to look forward to the end. Maybe if I was younger it would be +different and I could pay the debt, but I am afraid--if it wasn't for +your aunts, looks like you and I could let it go and make our way +somewhere out in the world beyond the Ridge, but they are older than +us and we must keep their home as long as we can for 'em. Maybe in a +few years--Newsome won't press me, I'm mighty sure. Do you think you +can help me hold on for 'em? I don't matter." + +"We'll never let it go, Uncle Tuck, never!" answered Rose Mary +passionately as she pressed her cheek closer to his arm. "I don't know +why I know, but we are going to have it as long as they--and you, +_you_ need it--and I'm going to die here myself," she added with a +laughing sob as she shook two tears out of her lashes and looked up at +him with adorning stars in her eyes. + +"It's as He wills, daughter," answered Uncle Tucker quietly as he +laid a tender hand on the dark braids resting against his shoulder. +"It isn't wrong for us to go on keeping it if we can jest pay the +interest to our friend--pay it to the day. That is the only thing that +troubles me. We must not fall behind and--" + +"Oh, but honey-sweet, let me tell you, let me tell you!" exclaimed +Rose Mary with shining eyes, "I've got just lots of money, more than +twenty dollars, nearly twice more. I've saved it just in case we did +need it for this or--or--or any other thing," she added hastily, not +willing to disclose her tooth project even to Uncle Tucker's +sympathetic ear. + +Uncle Tucker's large eyes brightened with relief for a second and then +clouded with a mist of tears. + +"What were you saving it for, child?" he asked with a quaver in his +sweet old voice, and his hand clasped hers more closely. "You don't +ever have what pretty women like you want and need, and that's what +grinds down on me most hardest of all. You are young and--and mighty +beautiful, and looks like it's wrong for you to lay down yourself for +us who are a good long way on the other side of life's ridge. I ought +to send you back across the hills to--to find your own--no matter what +happens!" + +"Try it!" answered Rose Mary, again lifting her star eyes to his. "I +was saving that money to buy Aunt Viney a set of teeth that she thinks +she wants, but I know she couldn't use them when she gets them. If I'm +as beautiful as you say, isn't this blue homespun of great Grandmother +Alloways, made over twentieth century style, adornment enough? Some +people--that is, some one--Mr. Mark said this morning it was--was +_chic_, which means most awfully stylish. I've got one for my back and +one for the tub all out of the same old blue bed-spread, and a white +linen marvel contrived from a pair of sheets for Sunday. Please don't +send me out into the big world--other people might not think me as +lovely as you do," and her raillery was most beautifully dauntless. + +"The Lord bless you and keep you and make the sun to shine upon you, +flower of His own Kingdom," answered Uncle Tucker with a comforted +smile breaking over his wistful old face. "I had mighty high dreams +about you when that young man talked his oil-wells to me a month ago, +and I wanted my rose to do some of her flowering for the world to see, +but maybe--maybe--" + +"She'll flower best here, where her roots go down into Sweetbriar +hearts--and Sweetbriar prayers, Uncle Tucker; she knows that's true, +and so do you," answered Rose Mary quickly. "And anyway, Mr. Mark is +making the soil survey for you, and if we follow his directions there +is no telling what we will make next year, maybe the interest and some +of the money, too, and the teeth and--and a sky-blue silk robe for +me--if that's what you'd like to see me wear, though it would be +inconvenient with the milking and the butter and--" + +"Tucker, oh Brother Tucker!" came a call across the garden fence from +the house, in a weak but commanding voice, and Rose Mary caught a +glimpse of Miss Lavinia's white mob cap bobbing at the end of the +porch, "that is in Proverbs tenth and nineteenth, and not nineteenth +and tenth, like you said. You come right in here and get it straight +in your head before the next sun sets on your ignorance." + +"Fly-away!" exclaimed Uncle Tucker, "now Sister Viney's never going to +forgive me that Bible slip-up if I don't persuade her from now on till +supper. But there is nothing more for you to do out here, Rose Mary, +the sun'll put out the light for you," and he hurried away down the +path and through the garden gate. + +Rose Mary remained leaning over the garden wall, looking up and down +the road with interest shining in her eyes and a laugh and nod for the +neighbors who were hurrying supperward or stopping to talk with one +another over fences and gates. A group of men and boys stood and sat +on the porch in front of the store, and their big voices rang out now +and again with hearty merriment at some exchange of wit or clever bit +of horse-play. Two women stood in deep conclave over by the Poteet +gate, and the subject of the council was a small bundle of flannel and +lawn displayed with evident pride by a comely young woman in a pink +calico dress. Seeing Rose Mary at the wall, they both smiled and +started in her direction, the bearer of the bundle stepping carefully +across the ditch at the side of the walk. + +"Lands alive, Rose Mary, you never did see nothing as pretty as this +last Poteet baby," exclaimed Mrs. Plunkett enthusiastically. "The year +before last one, let me see, weren't that Evelina Virginia, Mis' +Poteet? Yes, Evelina Virginia was mighty pretty, but this one beats +her. I declare, if you was to fail us with these spring babies, Mis' +Poteet, it would be a disappointment to the whole of Sweetbriar. Come +next April it will be seven without a year's break, astonishing as it +do sound." + +"It would be as bad as the sweetbriar roses not blooming, Mrs. +Poteet," laughed Rose Mary as she held out her arms for the bundle +which cuddled against her breast in a woman-maddening fashion that +made her clasp the mite as close as she dared. + +"Yes, I tell you, seven hand-running is enough for any woman to be +proud of, Mis' Poteet, and it ought to be taken notice of. Have you +heard the news of the ten acres of bottom land to be given to him, +Rose Mary? That's what all the men are a-joking of Mr. Poteet about +over there at the store now. They are a-going to make out the deed +to-night. They bought the land from Bob Nickols right next to Mr. +Poteet's, crops and all, ten acres of the best land in Sweetbriar. I +call it a nice compliment. 'To Tucker Poteet, from Sweetbriar, is to +go right in the deed." + +"'Tucker Poteet,' oh, Mrs. Poteet, have you named him for Uncle +Tucker?" exclaimed Rose Mary with beaming eyes, and the rapture of her +embrace was only modified by a slight squirm from the young heir of +all Sweetbriar. + +"Well, I had had that name in my mind from the first if he come a boy, +but when Mr. Poteet got down to the store for some tansy, when he +weren't a hour old, he found all the men-folks had done named him that +for us, and it looked like we didn't have the chance to pass the +compliment. We ain't told you-all nothing about it, for they all +wanted Mr. Tucker to read it in the deed first." + +"And ain't them men a-going to have a good time when they give Mr. +Tucker that deed to read? Looks like, even if it is some trouble, you +couldn't hardly begrudge Sweetbriar these April babies, Mis' Poteet," +said Mrs. Plunkett in a consoling voice. + +"Law, Mis' Plunkett, I don't mind it one bit. It ain't a mite of +trouble to me to have 'em," answered the mother of the seven hardily. +"You all are so kind to help me out all the time with everything. +Course we are poor, but Jim makes enough to feed us, and every single +child I've got is by fortune, just a hand-down size for somebody +else's children. Five of 'em just stair-steps into clothes of Mis' +Rucker's four, and Mis' Nickols saves me all of Bob's things to cut +down, so I never have a mite of worry over any of 'em." + +"Yes, I reckon maybe the worry spread over seven don't have a chanct +to come to a head on any one of 'em," said Mrs. Plunkett thoughtfully, +and her shoulders began to stoop dejectedly as a perturbed expression +dawned into her gray eyes. "Better take him on home now, Mis' Poteet, +for sundown is house-time for babies in my opinion. Hand him over, +Rose Mary!" + +Thus admonished, with a last, clinging embrace, Rose Mary delivered +young Tucker to his mother, who departed with him in the direction of +the Poteet cottage over beyond the milk-house. + +"Is anything worrying you, Mrs. Plunkett? Can I help?" asked Rose Mary +as her neighbor lingered for a moment and glanced at her with wistful +eyes. Mrs. Plunkett was small, though round, with mournful big eyes +and clad at all times in the most decorous of widow's weeds, even if +they were of necessity of black calico on week days. Soft little curls +fell dejectedly down over her eyes and her red mouth defied a dimple +that had been wont to shine at the left corner, and kept to confines +of straight-lipped propriety. + +"It's about Louisa Helen again and her light-mindedness. I don't see +how a daughter of mine can act as she does with such a little feeling. +Last night Mr. Crabtree shut up the store before eight o'clock and put +on his Sunday coat to come over and set on the front steps a-visiting +of her, and in less'n a half hour that Bob Nickols had whistled for +her from the corner, and she stood at the front gate talking to him +until every light in Sweetbriar was put out, and I know it muster been +past nine o'clock. And there I had to set a-trying to distract Mr. +Crabtree from her giggling. We talked about Mr. Plunkett and all our +young days and I felt real comforted. If I can jest get Louisa Helen +to see what a proper husband Thomas Crabtree will make for her we can +all settle down comfortable like. He wants her bad, from all the signs +I can see." + +"But--but isn't Louisa Helen a little young for--" began Rose Mary, +taking what seemed a reasonable line of consolation. + +"No, she's not too young to marry," answered her mother with spirit. +"Louisa Helen is eighteen years old in May, and I was married to Mr. +Plunkett before my eighteenth birthday. He was twenty-one, and I +treated him with proper respect, too. I never said no such foolish +things as Louisa Helen says to that Nickols boy, even to Mr. +Crabtree, hisself." + +"Oh, please don't worry about Louisa Helen, Mrs. Plunkett. She is just +so lovely and young--and happy. You and I both know what it is to be +like that. Sometimes I feel as if she were just my own youngness that +I had kept pressed in a book and I had found it when I wasn't looking +for it." And Rose Mary's smile was so very lovely that even Mrs. +Plunkett was dazzled to behold. + +"Lands alive, Rose Mary, you carry your thirty years mighty easy, and +that's no mistake. You put me in mind of that blush peony bush of +yourn by the front gate. When it blooms it makes all the other flowers +look like they was too puny to shake out a petal. And for sheep's +eyes, them glances Mr. Gid Newsome casts at you makes all of Bob +Nickols' look like foolish lamb squints. And for what Mr. Mark does in +the line of sheeps--Now there they come, and I can see from Louisa +Helen's looks she have invited that rampage in to supper. I'll have to +hurry on over and knock up a extra sally-lunn for him, I reckon. +Good-by 'til morning!" And Mrs. Plunkett hurried away to the +preparation of supper for the suitor of her disapproval. + +For a few moments longer Rose Mary let her eyes go roaming out over +the valley that was lying in a quiet hush of twilight. + +Lights had flashed up in the windows over the village and a night +breeze was showering down a fall of apple-blow from the gnarled old +tree that stood like a great bouquet beside the front steps of the +Briars. All the orchards along the Road were in bloom and a fragrance +lay heavy over the pastures and mingled with the earth scent of the +fields, newly upturned by the plowing for spring wheat. + +"Is that a regiment you've got camping in the garden, Rose Mary?" +asked Everett as he came up the front walk in the moonlight some two +hours later and found Rose Mary seated on the top of the front steps, +all alone, with a perfectly dark and sleep-quiet house behind her. + +Rose Mary laughed and tossed a handful of the pink blow she had +gathered over his shoulder. "Did you have your supper at Bolivar?" she +asked solicitously. "I saved you some; want it?" + +"Yes, I had a repast at the Citizens', but I think I can manage yours +an hour or two later," answered Everett as he seated himself beside +her and lighted a cigar, from which he began to puff rings out into +the moonlight that sifted down on to them through the young leaves of +the bloom-covered old tree. "You weren't afraid of frost such a night +as this, were you?" he further inquired, as he took a deep breath of +the soft, perfume-laden air. + +"I'm not now, but a cool breeze blew up about sundown and made me +afraid for my garden babies. Now I'm sure they will all wilt under +their covers, and you'll have to help me take them all off before you +go to bed. Isn't it strange how loving things make you afraid they +will freeze or wilt or get wet or cold or hungry?" asked Rose Mary +with such delightful ingenuousness that a warm little flush rose up +over Everett's collar. "Loving just frightens itself, like children in +the dark," she added musingly. + +"And you saved my supper for me?" asked Everett softly. + +"Of course I did; didn't you know I would?" asked Rose Mary quickly, +in her simplicity of heart not at all catching the subtle drift of his +question. "They all missed you, and Uncle Tucker went to bed almost +grumpy, while Stonie--" + +"Rose Mamie," came in a sleepy but determined voice as the General in +a long-tailed nightshirt appeared in the dark doorway, "I went to +sleep and you never came back to hear me pray. Something woke me; +maybe the puppy in my bed or maybe God. I'll come out there and say +'em so you won't wake the puppy, because he's goned back to sleep," he +added in a voice that was hushed to a tone of extreme consideration +for the slumber of his young bedfellow. + +"Yes, honey-heart, come say them here. Mr. Mark won't mind. I came +back, Stonie, to hear them, truly I did, but you were so fast to sleep +and so tired I hated to wake you." And Rose Mary held out tender arms +to the little chap who came and knelt on the floor at her side, +between her and Everett. + +"But, Rose Mamie, you know Aunt Viney says tired ain't no 'scuse to +the Lord, and I don't think it are neither. I reckon He's tired, too, +sometimes, but He don't go back on the listening, and I ain't a-going +to go back on the praying. It wouldn't be fair. Now start me!" and +having in a completely argumentative way stated his feelings on the +subject of neglected prayer, the General buried his head on Rose +Mary's shoulder, folded one bare, pink foot across the other, clasped +his hands at proper angle and waited. + +"_Now I lay me_," began Rose Mary in a low and tender tone. + +"No," remonstrated Stonie in a smothered voice from her shoulder, +"this is 'Our Father' week! Don't tire out the Lord with the '_Now I +lay me_,' Rose Mamie!" + +With an exclamation of regret Rose Mary clasped him closer and led the +petition on through to its last word, though it was with difficulty +that the sleepy General reached his Amen, his will being strong but +his flesh weak. The little black head burrowed under Rose Mary's chin +and the clasped pink feet relaxed before the final words were said. +For a few minutes Rose Mary held him tenderly and buried her face +against the back of the sunburned little neck, while as helpless as +young Tucker Stonie wilted upon her breast and floated off into the +depths. And for still a few seconds longer Everett sat very still and +watched them with a curious gleam in his eyes and his teeth set hard +in his cigar; then he rose, bent over and very tenderly lifted the +relaxed General in his arms and without a word strode into the house +with him. Very carefully he laid him in the little cot that stood +beside Rose Mary's bed in her room down the hall, and with equal care +he settled the little dog against the bare, briar-scratched feet, +returned to the moonlight porch and resumed his seat at Rose Mary's +side. + +"There is something about the General," he remarked with a half smile, +"that--that gets next. He has a moral fiber that I hope he will be +able to keep resistent to its present extent, but I doubt it." + +"Oh," said Rose Mary, quickly looking up with pierced, startled eyes, +"he must keep it--he must; it is the only hope for him. Tell me if you +can how to help him keep it. Help me help him!" + +"Forgive me," answered Everett in quick distress. "I was only +scoffing, as usual. He'll keep what you give him, never fear, Rose +Mary; he's honor bound." + +"Yes, that's what I want him to be--'honor bound.' You don't know +about him, but to-night I want to tell you, because I somehow feel you +love him--and us--and maybe if you know, some day you will help him. +Just after I came back into the Valley and found them all so troubled +and--and disgraced, something came to me I thought I couldn't stand. +Always it seemed to me I had loved him, my cousin, Uncle Tucker's son, +and I thought--I thought he had loved me. But when he went out into +the world one of the village girls, Granny Satterwhite's daughter, had +followed him and--yes, she had been his wife for all the time we +thought she was working in the city. They had been afraid--afraid of +Uncle Tucker and me--to acknowledge it. She was foolish and he +criminally weak. After his--his tragedy she came back--and nobody +would believe--that she was his wife. I found her lying on the floor +in the milk-house and though I was hurt, and hard, I took her into my +room--and in a few hours Stonie was born. When they gave him to me, so +little and helpless, the hurt and hardness all melted for ever, and I +believed her and forgave her and him. I never rested until I made him +come back, though it was just to die. She stayed with us a year--and +then she married Todd Crabtree and moved West. They didn't want +Stonie, so she gave him to me. When my heart ached so I couldn't stand +it, there was always Stonie to heal it. Do you think that heartaches +are sometimes just growing pains the Lord sends when He thinks we have +not courage enough?" And in the moonlight Rose Mary's tear-starred +eyes gleamed softly and her lovely mouth began to flower out into a +little smile. The sunshine of Rose Mary's nature always threw a bow +through her tears against any cloud that appeared on her horizon. + +"I don't believe your heart ever needed any growing pains, Rose Mary, +and I resent each and every one," answered Everett in a low voice, and +he lifted one of Rose Mary's strong slim hands and held it close for a +moment in both his warm ones. + +"Oh, but it did," she answered, curling her fingers around his like a +child grateful for a caress. "I was romantic--and--and intense, and I +thought of it as a castle for--for just one. Now it's grown into a +wide, wing-spreading, old country house in Harpeth Valley, with vines +over the gables and doves up under the eaves. And in it I keep +sunshiny rooms to shelter all the folks in need that my Master sends. +Yours--is on the south side--corner--don't you want your supper now?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE HONORABLE GID + + +"Now, Amandy, stick them jack-beans in the ground round side upwards. +Do you want 'em to have to turn over to sprout?" demanded Miss +Lavinia, as she stood leaning on her crotched stick over by the south +side of the garden fence, directing the planting of her favorite vine +that was to be trained along the pickets and over the gate. Little +Miss Amanda, as usual, was doing her best to carry out exactly the +behests of her older and a little more infirm sister. Miss Amanda was +possessed of a certain amount of tottering nimbleness which she put at +the disposal of Miss Lavinia at all times with the most cheery +good-will. Miss Amanda was of the order of little sisters who serve +and Miss Lavinia belonged to the sisterhood dominant by nature and by +the consent of Miss Amanda and the rest of her family. + +"It's such a long row I don't know as I'll hold out to finish it, +Sister Viney, if I have to stop to finger the beans in such a way as +that. But I'll try," answered the little worker, going on sticking the +beans in with trembling haste. + +"Let me help you, please, Miss Amanda," entreated Everett, who had +come out to watch the bean planting with the intention of offering +aid, with also the certainty of having it refused. + +"No, young man," answered Miss Lavinia promptly and decidedly. "These +jack beans must be set in by a hand that knows 'em. We can't run no +risks of having 'em to fail to come up. I got the seed of 'em over to +Springfield when me and Mr. Robards was stationed there just before +the war. Mr. Robards was always fond of flowers, and these jack beans +in special. He was such a proper meek man and showed so few likings +that I feel like I oughter honor this one by growing these vines in +plenty as a remembrance, even if he has been dead forty-odd years." + +"Was your husband a minister?" asked Everett in a voice of becoming +respect to the meek Mr. Robards, though he be demised for nearly half +a century. + +"He was that, and a proper, saddlebags-riding, torment-preaching +circuit rider before he was made presiding elder at an astonishing +early age," answered Miss Lavinia, a fading fire blazing up in her +dark eyes. "He saved many a sinner in Harpeth Valley by preaching both +heaven and hell in their fitten places, what's a thing this younger +generation don't know how to do any more, it seems like. A sermon that +sets up heaven like a circus tent, with a come-sinner-come-all sign, +and digs hell no deeper than Mill Creek swimming pool, as is skeercely +over a boy's middle, ain't no sermon at all to my mind. Most preaching +in Sweetbriar are like that nowadays." + +"But Brother Robards had a mighty sweet voice and he gave the call of +God's love so as to draw answers from all hearts," said Miss Amanda in +her own sweet little voice, as she jabbed in the beans with her right +hand and drew the dirt over them with her left. + +"Yes, husband was a little inclined to preach from Psalms more'n good +rousing Proverbs, but I always belt him to the main meat of the Gospel +and only let him feed the flock on the sweets of faith in proper +proportion," answered Miss Lavinia, with an echo in her voice of the +energy expended in keeping the presiding elder to a Jeremiah rather +than a David rôle in his ministry. + +"It was a mighty blow to the Methodist Church when he was taken away +so young," said Miss Amanda gently. "I know I said then that they +never would be--" + +"Lands alive, if here ain't Miss Viney and Miss Amandy out planting +the jack beans and I ain't got down not a square foot of summer +turnip greens!" exclaimed a hearty voice as Mrs. Rucker hurried up +across the yard to the garden gate. "Now I know I'm a behind-hander, +for my ground's always ready, and in go the greens when you all turn +spade for the bean vines. Are you a-looking for a little job of +plowing, Mr. Mark? I'd put Mr. Rucker at it, but he give his left +ankle a twist yestidy and have had to be kinder quiet, a-setting on +the back porch or maybe a-hobbling over to the store." + +"Yes, I'll plow, if you don't care whether your mule or plow or hame +strings come out alive," answered Everett with a laugh. Miss Amanda +had risen, hurried eagerly over to her favorite neighbor and held out +her hand for the pan tendered her. + +"Them's your sally luns, Miss Amandy, and they are a good chanct if I +do say it myself. I jest know you and Rose Mary have got on the big +pot and little kettle for Mr. Newsome, and I'm mighty proud to have +the luns handed around with your all's fixings. I reckon Rose Mary is +so comfusticated you can't hardly trust her with no supper rolls or +such like. Have you seen him yet, Rose Mary?" she asked of Rose Mary, +who had appeared at the garden gate. + +"No; I've just come up from the milk-house," answered Rose Mary with a +laughing blush. "When did Mr. Newsome come?" + +"Just now," answered Mrs. Rucker, with further banter in her eyes. +"And none of Solomon's lilies in all they glory was ever arrayed like +one of him. You better go frill yourself out, Rose Mary, for the men +ain't a-going to be able to hold him chavering over there at the store +very long." + +"It will only take me a few minutes to dress," answered Rose Mary, +with a continuation of the blush. "The Aunties are all ready for +supper, and Stonie and Uncle Tucker. Mag has got everything just ready +to dish up, and I'll take in the sally luns to be run in the stove at +the last moment. Isn't it lovely to have company? Friends right at +home you can show your liking for all the time, but you must be +careful to save their share for the others to give to them when they +come. Mr. Mark, don't you want to--" + +But before Rose Mary had begun her sentence Mr. Mark Everett, of New +York City, New York, was striding away across the yard with a long +swing, and as he went through the front gate it somehow slipped out of +his hand and closed itself with a bang. The expression of his back as +he crossed the road might have led one versed in romantics to conclude +that a half-unsheathed sword hung at his side and that he had two +flintlocks thrust into his belt. + +And over at the store he found himself in the midst of a jubilation. +Mr. Gideon Newsome, of Bolivar, Tennessee, stood in the doorway, and +surrounding him in the store, in the doorway and on the porch was the +entire masculine population of Sweetbriar. + +Mr. Newsome was tall and broad and well on the way to portliness. His +limbs were massive and slow of movement and his head large, with a +mane of slightly graying hair flung back from a wide, unfurrowed brow. +Small and very black eyes pierced out from crinkled heavy lids and a +bulldog jaw shot out from under a fat beak of a nose. And over the +broad expanse of countenance was spread a smile so sweet, so deep, so +high that it gave the impression of obscuring the form of features +entirely. In point of fact it was a thick and impenetrable veil that +the Senator had for long hung before his face from behind which to +view the world at large. And through his mouth, as through a rent in +the smile, he was wont to pour out a volume of voice as musical in its +drawl and intensified southern burr as the bass note on a +well-seasoned 'cello. + +He was performing the obligato of a prohibition hymn for the group of +farmers around him when he caught sight of Everett as he came across +the street. Instantly his voice was lowered to a honeyed +conversational pitch as he came to the edge of the porch and held out +a large, fat, white hand, into which Everett laid his own by courtesy +perforced. + +"I'm delighted to see you, Mr. Everett, suh, delighted!" he boomed. +"And in such evident improved health. I inquired for you at Bolivar as +soon as I returned and I was informed that you had come over here to +find perfect restoration to health in the salubrious climate of this +wonderful town of Sweetbriar. I'm glad to see your looks confirm the +answer to my anxious inquiries. And is all well with you?" + +"Thank you, Senator, I'm in pretty good shape again," answered Everett +with a counter smile. "Ten pounds on and I'm in fighting trim." The +words were said pleasantly, but for the life of him Everett could not +control the hostility of a quick glance that apparently struck +harmlessly against the veil of smiles. + +"That there ten pounds had oughter be twenty, Senator, at the rate of +the Alloway feeding of him, from milk-house to cellar preserve shelf," +said Mr. Crabtree from behind the counter where he was doing up a +pound of tea for the poet, who found it impossible to take his eyes +off the politician. "Miss Rose Mary ain't give me a glass of +buttermilk for more'n a week, and they do say she has to keep a loaf +handy in the milk-house to feed him 'fore he gets as far as Miss +Amandy and the kitchen. We're going to run him in a fattening race +with Mis' Rucker's fancy red hog she's gitting ready for the State +Fair and the new Poteet baby, young Master Tucker Poteet of +Sweetbriar." + +"So there's a new Poteet young man, and named for my dear friend, Mr. +Alloway! My congratulations, Mr. Poteet!" exclaimed the senator as he +pumped the awkward, horny hand of the embarrassed but proud Mr. Poteet +up and down as if it were the handle of the town pump. "I must be +sure to have an introduction to the young man. Want to meet all the +voters," he added, shaking out the smile veil with energy. + +And at this very opportune moment he looked down the Road and espied a +procession of presentation approaching. The General in the midst of +the Swarm was coming at a breakneck speed and clasped firmly in his +arms he held a small blue bundle. On his right galloped Tobe with +Shoofly swung at her usual dangerous angle on his hip, and Jennie +Rucker supported his left wing, with stumbling Petie pulled along +between her hand and that of small Peggy. Around and behind swarmed +the rest of the Poteet seven, the Ruckers and the Nickols, with Mrs. +Sniffer and the five little dogs bringing up the rear. + +"Well, well, and what have we here?" exclaimed the great man as he +descended and stood in front of the lined-up cohorts. + +"It's the Poteet baby," answered the General with precision. "We +bringed him to show you. He's going to be a boy; they can't nothing +change him now. Shoofly is a girl, but Mis' Poteet didn't fool us this +time. Besides if he'd been a girl we wouldn't a-had him for nothing." + +"Why, young man, you don't mean to discredit the girls, do you?" +demanded the Senator with a gallantly propitiating glance in the +direction of Jennie, Peggy and the rest of the bunch of assorted pink +and blue little calico petticoats. "Why could anything be finer than a +sweet little girl?" And as he spoke he rested his hand on Jennie's +tow-pigtailed head. + +"Well, what's sweet got to do with it if we've got too many of 'em?" +answered the General in his usual argumentative tone. "Till little +Tucker comed they was three more girls than they was boys, and it +wasn't fair. Now they is just two more, and four of Sniffie's puppies +is boys, so that makes it most even until another one comes, what'll +just _have_ to be a boy." And the General cast a threatening glance +in the direction of the calico bunch as he issued this ultimatum to +feminine Sweetbriar. + +"I'll ask Maw," murmured Jennie bashfully, but Miss Peggy turned up +her small nose and switched her short skirts scornfully as the men on +the porch laughed and the Senator emitted a very roar in his booming +bass. + +"Well, well, we'll have to settle that later," he said in his most +propitiating urge-voter voice as he cast a smile over the entire +Swarm. "Hadn't you better carry the young man back to his mother? He +seems to be restless," he further remarked, taking advantage of a +slight squirm in which young Tucker indulged himself, though he was +not at all uncomfortable in Stonie's arms, accustomed as he was to +being transported in any direction at any time by any one of his +confrères. And with this skilful hint of dismissal the Senator bent +down and bestowed the imperative political kiss on the little pink +Poteet head, smattered one or two over Shoofly and Pete, landed one on +the tip of Jennie Rucker's little freckled nose and started them all +up the Road in good order as he turned once more to the men in the +store. + +But the advent of the Swarm had served to remind the group of his +friends that the time for the roof-tree gathering was fast +approaching, and Mr. Crabtree was busy filling half-forgotten supper +orders for impatient waiters, while most of the men had gone up or +down the Road in the wake of the scattering Swarm. For a few minutes +the Senator and Everett were left on the porch steps alone. + +"I hear from some of the men that you have been able to do some +prospecting in the last weeks, Mr. Everett," remarked the Senator +casually from behind the veil, as he accepted and lighted a cigar. + +"Just knocked around a bit," answered Everett carelessly. "The whole +Mississippi Valley is interesting geologically. There is quite a +promise of oil here, but practically no outcrop." + +"Your examination been pretty thorough--professional?" queried the +Senator, still in an equally careless voice, though his little eyes +gleamed out of their slits. + +"Oh, yes, I thrashed it all out, especially Mr. Alloway's place. I'd +like to have found oil for him--and the rest of Sweetbriar, too, but +it isn't here." Everett spoke decidedly, and there was a note in his +voice as if to end the discussion. His own eyes he kept down on his +cigar and, as he lounged against a post he had an air of being +slightly bored by an uninteresting shop topic. The Senator looked at +him a few seconds keenly, started to make a trivial change in the +conversation, then made a flank movement, bent toward Everett and +began to speak in a suave and most confidential manner. + +"I'm sorry, too, you didn't find the oil on the old gentleman's +place," he said in his most open and dulcet tones. "I am very fond of +Mr. Alloway; I may say of the whole family. Farming is too hard work +for him at his years and I would have liked for him to have had the +ease of an increased income. Some time ago a phosphate expert examined +these regions, but reported nothing worth working. I had more hope of +the oil. As I say, I am interested in Mr. Alloway and the family--I +may say it to you in confidence, particularly interested in one of the +members." And the smile that the Senator bestowed upon Everett aroused +a keen desire for murder in the first degree. There was a challenge +and a warning in it and a cunning, too, that was deeper than both. +Controlling his impulse to smash the Senatorial bulldog jaw, Everett's +mind went instantly after the cunning. + +"So you only got the phosphate in your examination report of the +Alloway place?" he asked in a friendly, interested tone, as if the +hint had failed to make a landing. The cunning in his own glance and +tone he was shrewd enough to hide. + +"That was about all--nothing that was worth taking up then," answered +the Senator again carelessly, and at that moment Mr. Crabtree came out +to join them. + +In a few minutes Everett threw away his cigar, glanced across at the +Briars, where he could see Rose Mary and Uncle Tucker establishing +Miss Lavinia, in her high company cap, in the big chair on the front +porch, and without a word he strode out the back door of the store and +across the fields toward Boliver. He stopped at the Rucker side fence +and entrusted a message to the willing Jenny, and then went on into +the twilight in the direction of the lights of the distant town. + +And as he walked along his mood was, to say the least, savage, and he +cut, with a long switch he had picked up, at some nodding little wind +bells that had begun to show their colors along the side of the road. +He was hungry and he was having his supper in detached visions. Now +Rose Mary was handing the Senator a plate of high-piled supper rolls, +each with a golden stream of butter cascading down the side, and as +her lovely bare arm held them across to the guest probably she was +helping Stonie's plate with her other hand to a spoonful of cream +gravy over his nicely browned chicken leg. On her side of the table +Miss Lavinia was pouring the rich cream over her bowl of steaming mush +and the materialized aroma from Uncle Tucker's cup of coffee that Rose +Mary had just poured him brought tears to Everett's eyes. Then came a +flash of Aunt Amandy helping herself under Rose Mary's urging to a +second crisp waffle, and the Senator was preparing to accept his +sixth, impelled by the same solicitous smile that had landed the +second on the little old lady's plate. Again Rose Mary was pouring the +Senator's second cup and stirring in the cream. If she had lifted the +spoon to her lips, as she always did with Uncle Tucker's and +sometimes forgot and did with his, Everett would have--And at this +point he turned the bend and ran smash into the dramatic scene of a +romance. + +Seated by the side of the road was Louisa Helen Plunkett, and before +her stood young Bob Nickols, an agony of helplessness showing in every +line of his face and big loose-jointed figure, for Louisa Helen was +weeping into a handkerchief and one of her blue muslin sleeves. And it +was not a series of sentimental sobs and sighs or controlled and +effective sniffs in which Louisa Helen was indulging, but she was +boo-hooing in good earnest with real chokings and gurgles of sobs. Bob +was screwing the toe of his boot into the dust and saying and doing +absolutely and desperately nothing. + +"Why, Louisa Helen, what is the matter?" demanded Everett as he seated +himself beside the wailer and endeavored to bring down the pitch of +the sobs by a kindly pat on the heaving shoulder. + +"What's happened, Bob?" he demanded of the silent and dejected lover, +who only shook his head as he answered from the depths of confusion. + +"I don't know; she just of a sudden flung down and began to hollow and +I ain't never got her to say." + +"Oh, I want a supper and a veil and a bokay!" came in a perfect howl +from the folds of the sleeve. + +"I want some supper, too, Louisa Helen," said Everett quickly, and a +smile lifted the corners of his mouth as the situation began to +unravel itself to his sympathetic concern. "I guess I could take the +bouquet and veil, too," he added to himself in an undertone. + +"I ain't a-going to let Maw insult Bob no more, but I don't want no +Boliver wedding in the office of no hotel. I want to be married where +folks can look at me, and have something good to eat, and throw old +shoes and rice at me," came in a more constrained and connected flow, +as the poor little fugitive raised her head from her arm and reached +down to settle her skirts about her ankles, from which she had flirted +them in the kicks of one of her most violent paroxysms. Louisa Helen +was very young and just as pretty as she was young. She was rosy and +dimpled and had absurd little baby curls trailing down over her eyes, +and her tears had no more effect on her face than a summer shower. + +"Why, what did your mother say to Bob?" asked Everett, thus drawn into +the position of arbitrator between two family factions. + +"She told him that Jennie Rucker would be about his frying size when +he got old enough to pick a wife, and it hurt his feelings so he +didn't come to see me for a week, and he says he ain't never coming no +more. If I want him I will have to go over to Boliver and marry him +to-morrow." A sob began to rise again in the poor little bride +prospective's throat at the thought of the horrible Boliver wedding. + +The autocrat shifted uneasily, and in the dusk Everett could see that +he was completely melted and ready to surrender his position if he +could only find the line of retreat. + +"Well," said Everett judicially, as he looked up at Bob with a wink, +which was answered by the slightest beginning of laugh from the +insulted one, "I don't believe Bob wants to do without that bouquet +and veil and supper either. They are just the greatest things that +ever happen to a man"--another wink at Bob--"and Bob don't want to +give them up. Now suppose you go on back home to-night and don't say +anything to your mother about the matter, and to-morrow I'll ask Mr. +Crabtree to step over and make it up with Bob for her. I feel sure +she'll invite them both in to supper, and then sometime soon we can +all discuss the veil-bouquet question. You aren't in a hurry, are +you?" + +"Naw," answered Bob promptly. "Me and Paw ain't got all the winter +wheat in yet, and we've got to cut clover next week. We're mighty +busy now. I ain't in no hurry." + +"And I don't want to get married no way except when the briar roses is +in bloom so I can have the church tucked out in 'em. And I've got to +get some pretty clothes made, too," answered Louisa Helen, thus +putting in direct contrast the feminine and masculine attitude towards +nuptials in general and also in particular. + +"Then go on back home, you two," said Everett with a laugh, as he rose +to his feet and drew to hers the now smiling Louisa Helen. "And I +predict that by the time the briar roses are out something will happen +to make it all right. Put your faith in Mr. Crabtree, I should advise, +I suspect that he has--er influence with your mother." A giggle from +Louisa Helen and a guffaw from Bob, as the two young people started on +back along the Road, showed that they had both appreciated his veiled +sally. + +And as he stood watching them out of sight down the Road the twilight +faded from off the Valley and darkness came down in a starlit veil +from over old Harpeth. Everett climbed up and seated himself on the +top rail of the fence and again gave himself over to his moods. This +time one of bitterness, almost anger, rose to the surface. The same +old wheel grinding out here in the wilderness that he had left in the +market places of the world. The vision he had caught of the great +cycle being turned by some still greater source above the hills was--a +vision. The wheels ground on with the victims strapped and the cogs +dripping. Loot and the woman--loot and the woman! And he had thought +that out here "_in the hollow of His hand_" he had lost the sound of +that grind. And such a woman--the lovely gracious thing with the +unfaithful, dishonored lover's child in her arms, other women's +tumbling children clinging to her skirts and with hands outstretched +to protect and comfort the old gray heads in her care! A woman with a +sorrow in her heart but with eyes that were deep blue pools in which +there mirrored loves for all her little world! For a long time he sat +and looked out into the darkness, then suddenly he squared his +shoulders, gripped the rail tight in his hands for a half second and +then slipped to the ground. Picking up his switch he turned and strode +off toward Sweetbriar, which by this time was a little handful of +fireflys glowing down in the sweet meadows. + +When he got as far as the blacksmith's shop Everett climbed the wall +and approached the house through the garden, for in front of the store +had been piled high a bonfire of empty boxes and dry wood boughs, and +most of the inhabitants of Sweetbriar, small fry and large, were +assembled in jocular groups around its blaze of light. He could see +Mr. Crabtree and Bob rolling out an empty barrel to serve as a +speaking stand for the Honorable Gid, who stood in the foreground in +front of the store steps talking to Uncle Tucker, with an admiring +circle around him. Horses and wagons and buggies were hitched at +various posts along the road, which indicated the gathering of a small +crowd from neighboring towns to hear the coming oration, and the front +porch of the store presented a scene of unwonted excitement. + +Everett clicked the garden gate and steered around to the back door of +the kitchen in hopes of finding black Mag still at her post and +begging of her a glass of milk and a biscuit. But as he stood in the +doorway, instead of Mag he discovered Rose Mary with her white skirts +tucked up under one of her long kitchen aprons, putting the final +polishing touch to a shining pile of dishes. She looked up at him for +a second, and then went on with her work, and Everett could see that +her curled lips were trembling like a hurt child's. + +"I--I thought I might get a bite of something from--from Mag if she +hadn't left--the kitchen--I--I--" Everett hesitated on the threshold +and in speech. "I--I am sorry to trouble you," he finished lamely. + +"I don't believe you care--care if you do," answered Rose Mary, and +her blue eyes showed a decided temper spark under their black lashes. +"I see I made a mistake in expecting anything of you. A friend's +fingers ought not to slip through yours when you need them to hold +tight. But come, get your supper--" + +"Please, Rose Mary, I'm most awfully ashamed," he said as he came and +stood close beside her, and there was a note in his voice that fairly +startled him with its tenderness. "I'm just a cross old bear, and I +don't deserve anything, no supper and no--no Rose Mary to care whether +I'm hungry or not and no--" + +"But I put the supper up," said Rose Mary, with a little laugh and +catch in her voice. "I couldn't let you be hungry, even if you did +treat me that way." + +"Didn't Jennie Rucker come to tell you I couldn't get here to +supper?" asked Everett with what he felt to be a contemptible feint of +defense. + +"Yes, she came; but you knew we were going to have company and that I +wanted you to be here. You know Mr. Newsome is the best friend we have +in the world and your staying away meant that you didn't care if he +had been good to us. It hurt me! And the first bowl of lilacs was on +the table; I had been saving them for a surprise for you for two days, +and everything was so good and just as you like it and--" Rose Mary's +voice faltered again and a little tear splashed on the saucer she held +poised in her hand. + +"Well," answered Everett, like a sulky boy, "I didn't want any of the +Honorable Gid Newsome's lilacs or waffles or fried chicken, and I +didn't want to see you fix any coffee for him," he ended by blurting +out. + +"I didn't--I--that is--you are _horrid_," answered Rose Mary, but she +raised her eyes to his in which smiles waltzed around with tears and +the glint of her white teeth showed through red lips curling with +laugh that was forcing itself over them by way of the dimple in the +corner of her chin. "Anyway, what I have here on the top of the stove +is your waffles and your fried chicken, and these are your lilacs," +and she drew out a purple spray from her belt and dropped it on the +table beside him. "Sit down and I'll give it all to you right here +while I finish wiping the dishes. Mag was taken with a spell before +supper was over and had to go lie down and I stayed to finish things +while the others went over to the speaking," she added as she began to +bustle about with her usual hospitable concern. + +"You are an angel, Rose Mary Alloway," said Everett as he placed +himself on a split-bottom kitchen chair, bestowed his long legs under +the table and drew up as near to Rose Mary and her dish-towel as was +possible to be sure of keeping out of the flirt. "And I--I'm a +brute," he added contritely, though he dared a quick kiss on the bare +arm next and close to him. + +"No, you're not--just a boy," answered Rose Mary, as she set his +supper on the table before him. She had poured his coffee, stirred in +the cream and sugar and then laid the spoon decorous and straight in +the saucer beside the cup. For an instant Everett sat very still and +looked at her, then she picked up the cup and tipped it against her +lips, sipped judiciously and set it down with a satisfied air. For +just a second her eyes had gleamed down at him over the edge of the +cup and a tiny laugh gurgled in her throat as she swallowed her sip of +his beverage. + +"That was mine, anyway--he can have his chicken wings," said Everett +with a laugh as he began operations on the food before him. + +"It wasn't a very nice party," answered Rose Mary as she went on with +her work on the pile of china. "Stonie acted awfully. He piled up his +plate with pieces of chicken, and when Aunt Viney reproved him he +said he was saving it for you. And Aunt Viney said she was sure you +were sick, and then Uncle Tucker wanted to go look for you and I had +to tell him before them all that you had sent me word. Then Aunt +Amandy said she was afraid you were not a Prohibitionist, and Aunt +Viney said she would have to talk to you in the morning. Then they all +told Mr. Newsome all about you, and I don't think he liked it much +because he likes to tell us things about himself. We are so fond of +him, and we always want to hear him talk about where he has been and +what he has done. I tried to stop them and make him talk, but I +couldn't. It's strange how liking a person gets them on your mind so +that even if you don't talk about them you think about them all the +time, isn't it? But I oughtn't to blame them, for I was so afraid they +wouldn't leave enough of things for you that I forgot to talk myself. +I was glad Stonie acted that way about the chicken, for the piece he +saved made three pieces of white meat for you. Oh, please let's +hurry, because we will miss the speaking if we don't. Mr. Newsome +makes such beautiful speeches that I want you to hear him. Is there +any kind of pride in the world like that you have over your friends?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ENEMY, THE ROD AND THE STAFF + + +And the days that followed the Senator's prohibition rally at +Sweetbriar were those of carnival for jocund spring all up and down +Providence Road and out over the Valley. Rugged old Harpeth began to +be crowned with wreaths of tender green and pink which trailed down +its sides in garlands that spread themselves out over meadow and farm +away beyond the river bend. Overnight, rows of jonquils in Mrs. +Poteet's straggling little garden lifted up golden candlestick heads +to be decapitated at an early hour and transported in tight little +bunches in dirty little fists to those of the neighbors whose spring +flowers had failed to open at such an early date. In spite of what +seemed an open neglect, the Poteet flowers were always more prolific +and advanced than any others along the Road, much to the pride of the +equally prolific and spring-blooming Mrs. Poteet. And in a spirit of +nature's accord the white poet's narcissus showed starry flowers to +the early sun in the greatest abundance along the Poteet fence that +bordered on the Rucker yard. They peeped through the pickets, and who +knows what challenge they flung to the poetic soul of Mr. Caleb Rucker +as he sat on the side porch with his stockinged feet up on a chair and +his nose tilted to an angle of ecstatic inhalation? + +Down at the Plunketts the early wistaria vine that garlanded the front +porch hung thick with long purple clusters which dropped continually +little bouquets of single blossoms with perfect impartiality on the +head of widow and maid, as the compromise of entertaining both young +Bob and Mr. Crabtree at the same time was carried out by Louisa Helen. +And often with the most absolute unconsciousness the demure little +widow allowed herself to be drawn by the wily Mr. Crabtree into the +mystic circle of three, which was instantly on her appearance +dissolved into clumps of two. And if the prodigal vine showered +blessings down upon a pair of clasped hands hid beside Louisa Helen's +fluffy pink muslin skirts nobody was the wiser, except perhaps Mr. +Crabtree. + +And perched on the side of the hill the Briars found itself in a +perfect avalanche of blossoms. The snowballs hung white and heavy from +long branches, and gorgeous lilac boughs bent and swayed in the wind. +A clump of bridal wreath by the front gate was a great white drift +against the new green of a crimson-starred burning bush, while over it +all trailed the perfume-laden honeysuckle which bowered the front +porch, decorated trellis and trees and finally flung its blossoms down +the hill to well-nigh cloister Rose Mary's milk-house. + +One balmy afternoon Everett brushed aside a spray of the pink and +white blossoms and stood in the stone doorway with his prospecting +kit in his hands. Rose Mary lifted quick welcoming eyes to his and +went on with her work with bowl and paddle. Everett had some time +since got to the point where it was well-nigh impossible for him to +look directly into Rose Mary's deep eyes, quaff a draft of the +tenderness that he always found offered him and keep equanimity enough +to go on with the affairs in hand. What business had a woman's eyes to +be so filled with a young child's innocence, a violet's shyness, a +passion of fostering gentleness, mirth that ripples like the surface +of the crystal pools, and--could it be dawning--love? Everett had been +in a state of uncertainty and misery so abject that it hid itself +under an unusually casual manner that had for weeks kept Rose Mary +from suspecting to the least degree the condition of his mind. There +is a place along the way in the pilgrimage to the altar of Love, when +the god takes on an awe-inspiring phase which makes a man hide his +eyes in his hands with fear of the most abject. At such times with her +lamp of faith a woman goes on ahead and lights the way for both, but +while Rose Mary's flame burned strongly, her unconsciousness was +profound. + +"I'm so glad you came," she said with the usual rose signal to him in +her cheeks. "I've been wondering where you were and just a little bit +uneasy about you. Mr. Newsome has been here and wants to see you. He +stayed to dinner and waited for you for two hours. Stonie and Tobe and +all the others looked for you. I know you are hungry. Will you have a +drink of milk before I go with you to get your dinner I saved?" + +"What did the Honorable Gid want?" asked Everett, and there was a +strange excitement in his eyes as he laid his hand quickly on a small, +irregular bundle of stones that bulged out of his kit. His voice had a +sharp ring in it as he asked his question. + +"Oh, I think he just wanted to see you because he likes you," +answered Rose Mary with one of her lifted glances and quick smiles. "A +body can take their own liking for two other people and use it as a +good strong rope just to pull them together sometimes. I'm awfully +fond of Mr. Newsome--and you," she added as she came over from one of +the crocks with Peter Rucker's blue cup brimming with ice cold cream +in her hand and offered it to Everett. + +Instead of taking the cup from her Everett clasped his fingers around +her slender wrist in the fashion of young Petie and thus with her hand +raised the cup to his lips. And as his eyes looked down over its blue +rim into hers the excitement in them died down, first into a very deep +tenderness that changed slowly into a quiet determination which seemed +to be pouring a promise and a vow into her very soul. Something in the +strange look made Rose Mary's hand tremble as he finished the last +drop in the cup, and again her lovely, always-ready rose flushed up +under her long lowered lashes. "Is it good and cold?" she asked with +a little smile as she turned away with the cup. + +"Yes," answered Everett quietly, "it's all to the good and the milk +to the cold." + +"Is that a compliment to me and the milk, too?" laughed Rose Mary from +over by the table as she again took up her butter-paddle. "It's nice +to find things as is expected of them, women good and milk cold, isn't +it?" she queried teasingly. + +"Yes," answered Everett from across the table. + +"And any way a woman must be a comfort to folks, just as a rose must +smell sweet, because they're both born for that," continued Rose Mary +as she lifted a huge pat of the butter on to a blue saucer. "Men are +sometimes a comfort, too--and sweet," she added with a roguish glance +at him over the butter flower she was making. + +"No, Rose Mary, men are just thorns, cruel and slashing--but sometimes +they protect the rose," answered Everett in his most cynical tone of +voice, though the excitement again flamed up in his dark eyes and +again his hand closed over the kit at his side. "Do you know what I +think I'll do?" he added. "I think I'll take old Gray and jog over to +Boliver for a while. I'll see the Senator, and I want to get a wire +through to the firm in New York if I can. I'll eat both the dinner and +supper you have saved when I come back, though it may be late before I +get my telegram. Will you be still awake, do you think?" + +"I may not be awake, for Stonie got me up so awfully early to help him +and Uncle Tucker grease those foolish little turkeys' heads to keep +off the dew gaps, but I'll go to sleep on the settee in the hall, and +you can just shake me up to give you your supper." + +"I'll do nothing of the kind, you foolish child," answered Everett. +"Go to bed and--but a woman can't manage her dreams, can she?" + +"Oh, dreams are only little day thoughts that get out of the coop and +run around lost in the dark," answered Rose Mary, with a laugh. "I've +got a little bronze-top turkey dream that is yours," she added. + +"Is it one of the foolish flock?" Everett called back from the middle +of the plank across the spring stream, and without waiting for his +answer he strode down the Road. + +And the smile that answered his sally had scarcely faded off Rose +Mary's face when again a shadow fell across the plank and in a moment +Mr. Crabtree stood in the doorway. Across the way the store was +deserted and from the chair he drew just outside the door he could see +if any shoppers should approach from either direction. + +"Well, Miss Rose Mary, I thought as how I'd drop over and see if you +had any buttermilk left in that trough you are fattening Mr. Mark at, +for the fair in the fall," he said with a twinkle in his merry little +blue eyes. And Rose Mary laughed with appreciation at his often +repeated little joke as she handed him a tall glassful of the desired +beverage. + +"I'm afraid Stonie will get the blue ribbon from over his head if he +keeps on drinking so much milk. Did you ever see anybody grow like my +boy does?" asked Rose Mary with the most manifest pride in her voice +and eyes. + +"I never did," answered Mr. Crabtree heartily. "And that jest reminds +me to tell you that a letter come from Todd last night a-telling me +and Granny Satterwhite about the third girl baby borned out to his +house in Colorado City. Looked like they was much disappointed. I +kinder give Todd a punch in the ribs about how fine a boy General +Stonewall Jackson have grown to be. I never did hold with a woman +a-giving away her child, though she couldn't have done the part you do +by Stonie by a long sight." + +"Oh, what would I have done without Stonie, Mr. Crabtree!" exclaimed +Rose Mary with a deep sadness coming into her lovely eyes. "You know +how it was!" she added softly, claiming his sympathy with a little +gesture of her hand. + +"Yes, I do know," answered the store-keeper, his big heart giving +instant response to the little cry. "And on him you've done given a +lesson in child raising to the whole of Sweetbriar. They ain't a child +on the Road, girl or boy, that ain't being sorter patterned after the +General by they mothers. And the way the women are set on him is plumb +funny. Now Mis' Plunkett there, she's got a little tin bucket jest to +hold cakes for nobody but Stonie Jackson, which he distributes to the +rest, fair and impartial. I kinder wisht Mis' Plunkett would be a +little more free with--with--" And the infatuated old bachelor laughed +sheepishly at Rose Mary across her butter-bowl. + +"When a woman bakes little crisp cakes of affection in her heart, and +the man she wants to have ask her for them don't, what must she do?" +asked Rose Mary with a little laugh that nevertheless held a slight +note of genuine inquiry in it. + +"Just raise the cover of the bucket and let him get a whiff," answered +Mr. Crabtree, shaking with amusement. "'Tain't no use to offer a man +no kind of young lollypop when he have got his mouth fixed on a nice +old-fashioned pound-cake woman," he added in a ruthful tone of voice +as he and Rose Mary both laughed over the trying plight in which he +found his misguided love affairs. "There comes that curly apple puff +now. Howdy, Louisa Helen; come across the plank and I'll give you this +chair if I have to." + +"I don't wanter make you creak your joints," answered Louisa Helen +with a pert little toss of her curly head as she passed him and stood +by Rose Mary's table. "Miss Rose Mary, I wanter to show you this +Sunday waist I've done made Maw and get you to persuade her some about +it for me. I put this little white ruffle in the neck and sleeves and +a bunch of it down here under her chin, and now she says I've got to +take it right off. Paw's been dead five years, and I've most forgot +how he looked. Oughtn't she let it stay?" + +"I think it looks lovely," answered Rose Mary, eying the waist with +enthusiasm. "I'll come down to see your mother and beg her to let it +stay as soon as I get the butter worked. Didn't she look sweet with +that piece of purple lilac I put in her hair the other night? Did she +let that stay?" + +"Yes, she did until Mr. Crabtree noticed it, and then she threw it +away. Wasn't he silly?" asked Louisa Helen with a teasing giggle at +the blushing bachelor. + +"It shure was foolish of me to say one word," he admitted with a +laugh. "But I tell you girls what I'll do if you back Mis' Plunkett +into that plum pretty garment with its white tags. I'll go over to +Boliver and bring you both two pounds of mixed peppermint and +chocolate candy with a ribbon tied around both boxes, and maybe some +pretty strings of beads, too. Is it a bargain?" And Rose Mary smiled +appreciatively as Louisa Helen gave an eager assent. + +At this juncture a team driven down the Road had stopped in front of +the store, and from under the wide straw hat young Bob Nickols' eager +eyes lighted on Louisa Helen's white sunbonnet which was being flirted +partly in and partly out of the milk-house door. As he threw down the +reins he gave a low, sweet quail whistle, and Louisa Helen's response +was given in one liquid note of accord. + +"Lands alive, it woulder been drinking harm tea to try to whistle a +woman down in my day, but now they come a-running," remarked Mr. +Crabtree to Rose Mary, as he prepared to take his departure in the +wake of the pink petticoats that had hurried across the street. + +Then for another hour Rose Mary worked alone in the milk-house, +humming a happy little tune to herself as she pounded and patted and +moulded away. Every now and then she would glance down Providence Road +toward Boliver, far away around the bend, and when at last she saw old +Gray and her rider turn behind the hill she began to straighten things +preparatory to a return to the Briars. In the world-old drama of +creation which is being ever enacted anew in the heart of a woman, it +is well that the order of evolution is reversed and only after the +bringing together and marshaling of forces unsuspected even by herself +comes the command for light on the darkness of the situation. Rose +Mary was as yet in the dusk of the night which waited for the voice of +God on the waters, and there was yet to come the dawn of her first +day. + +And in the semi-mist of the dream she finally ascended the hill toward +the Briars with a bucket in one hand and a sunbonnet swinging in the +other. But coming down the trail she met one of the little tragedies +of life in the person of Stonewall Jackson, who was dragging +dejectedly across the yard from the direction of the back door with +Mrs. Sniffer and all five little dogs trailing in his wake. And as if +in sympathy with his mood, the frisky little puppies were waddling +along decorously while Sniffer poked her nose affectionately into the +little brown hand which was hanging without its usual jaunty swing. +Rose Mary took in the situation at a glance and sank down under one of +the tall lilac bushes and looked up with adoring eyes as Stonie came +and took a spread-legged stand before her. + +"What's the matter, honey-sweet?" she asked quickly. + +"Rose Mamie, it's a lie that I don't know whether I told or not. It's +so curious that I don't hardly think God knows what I did," and the +General's face was set and white with his distress. + +"Tell me, Stonie, maybe I can help you decide," said Rose Mary with +quick sympathy. + +"It was one of them foolish turkey hens and Tobe sat down on her and +a whole nest of most hatched little turkeys. Didn't nobody know she +was a-setting in the old wagon but Aunt Amandy, and we was a-climbing +into it for a boat on the stormy sea, we was playing like. It was +mighty bad on Tobe's pants, too, for he busted all the eggs. Looks +like he just always finds some kind of smell and falls in it. I know +Mis' Poteet'll be mad at him. And then in a little while here come +Aunt Amandy to feed the old turkey, and she 'most cried when she found +things so bad all around everywhere. We had runned behind the +corn-crib, but when I saw her begin to kinder cry I comed out. Then +she asked me did I break up her nest she was a-saving to surprise +Uncle Tucker with, and I told her no ma'am I didn't--but I didn't tell +her I was with Tobe climbing into the wagon, and it only happened he +slid down first on the top of the old turkey. It don't _think_ like to +me it was a lie, but it _feels_ like one right here," and Stonie laid +his hand on the pit of his little stomach, which was not far away from +the seat of his pain if the modern usage assigned the solar-plexus be +correct. + +"And did Tobe stay still behind the corn-crib and not come out to tell +Aunt Amandy he was sorry he had ruined her turkey nest?" asked Rose +Mary, bent on getting all the facts before offering judgment. + +"Yes'm, he did, and now he's mighty sorry, cause Tobe loves Aunt +Amandy as well as being skeered of the devil. He says if it was Aunt +Viney he'd rather the devil would get him right now than tell her, but +if you'll come lend him some of my britches he will come in and tell +Aunt Amandy about it. He's tooken his off and he has to stay in the +corn-crib until I get something for him to put on." + +"Of course I'll come get some trousers for Tobe and a clean shirt, +too, and I know Aunt Amanda will be glad to forgive him. Tobe is +always so nice to her and she'll be sorry he's sorry, and then it +will be all right, won't it?" And thus with a woman's usual shrinking +from meeting the question ethical, Rose Mary sought to settle the +matter in hand out of court as it were. + +"No, Rose Mamie, I ain't sure about that lie yet," asserted the +General in a somewhat relieved tone of voice, but still a little +uneasy about the moral question involved in the case. "Did I tell it +or not? Do you know, Rose Mamie, or will I have to wait till I go to +God to find out?" + +"Stonie, I really don't know," admitted Rose Mary as she drew the +little arguer to her and rested her cheek against the sturdy little +shoulder under the patched gingham shirt. "It was not your business to +tell on Tobe but--but--please, honey-sweet, let's leave it to God, +now. He understands, I'm sure, and some day when you have grown a big +and wise man you'll think it all out. When you do, will you tell Rose +Mamie?" + +"Yes, I reckon I'll have to wait till then, and I'll tell you sure, +Rose Mamie, when I do find out. I won't never forget it, but I hope +maybe Tobe won't get into no more mess from now till then. Please come +find the britches for me!" And consoled thus against his will the +General followed Rose Mary to the house and into their room, eager for +the relief and rehabiting of the prisoner. + +And in a few minutes the scene of the _amende honorable_ between +little Miss Amanda and the small boys was enacted out on the back +steps, well out of sight and hearing of Miss Lavinia. A new bond was +instituted between the little old lady, who was tremulous with +eagerness to keep the culprit from any form of self-reproach, and +Tobe, the unfortunate, who was one of her most ardent admirers at all +times. And it was sealed by a double handful of tea-cakes to both +offenders. + +After she had watched the boys disappear in the direction of the barn, +intent on making a great clean-up job of the disaster under Miss +Amanda's direction, Rose Mary wended her way to the garden for a +precious hour of communion with her flowers and vegetable nursery +babies. She had just tucked up her skirts and started in with a light +hoe when she espied Uncle Tucker coming slowly up Providence Road from +the direction of the north woods. Something a bit dejected in his step +and a slightly greater stoop in his shoulders made her throw down her +weapon of war on the weeds and come to lean over the wall to wait for +him. + +"What's the matter, old Sweetie--tired?" she demanded as he came +alongside and leaned against the wall near her. His big gray eyes were +troubled and there was not the sign of the usual quizzical smile. The +forelock hung down in a curl from under the brim of the old gray hat +and the lavender muffler swung at loose ends. As he lighted the old +cob his lean brown hands trembled slightly and he utterly refused to +look into Rose Mary's eyes. "What is it, honey-heart?" she demanded +again. + +"What's what, Rose Mary?" asked Uncle Tucker with a slight rift in the +gloom. "They are some women in the world, if a man was to seal up his +trouble in a termater-can and swoller it, would get a button-hook and +a can-opener to go after him to get it out. You belong to that +persuasion." + +"I want to be the tomato-can--and not be 'swollered'," answered Rose +Mary as she reached over and gently removed the tattered gray roof +from off the white shock and began to smooth and caress its brim into +something of its former shape. "I know something is the matter, and if +it's your trouble it's mine. I'm your heir at law, am I not?" + +"Yes, and you're a-drawing on the estate for more'n your share of +pesters, looks like," answered Uncle Tucker as he raised his eyes to +hers wistfully. + +"Is it something about--about the mortgage?" asked Rose Mary in the +gently hushed tone that she always used in speaking of this ever +couchant enemy of their peace. + +"Yes," answered Uncle Tucker slowly, "it's about the mortgage, and I'm +mighty sorry to have to tell you, but I reckon I'll have to come to +accepting you from the Lord as a rod and staff to hobble on. I--I had +that settlement with the Senator this evening 'fore he left and it +came pretty nigh winding me to see how things stood. Instead of a +little more'n one hundred dollars behind in the interest we are mighty +near on to six, and by right figures, too. It just hasn't measured out +any year, and I never stopped to count it at so much. Gid was mighty +kind about it and said never mind, let it run, but--but I'm not +settled in my mind it's right to hold on like this; he maybe didn't +mean it, but before dinner he dropped a word about being mighty hard +pressed for money to keep up this here white ribbon contest he's +a-running against his own former record. No, I'm not settled in my +mind about the rights of it," and with this uneasy reiteration Uncle +Tucker raised his big eyes to Rose Mary in which lay the exact quest +for the path of honor that she had met in the young eyes of the +General not two hours before. In fact, Uncle Tucker's eyes were so +like Stonie's in their mournful demand for a decision from her that +Rose Mary's tender heart throbbed with sympathy but sank with dismay +at again having the decision of a question of masculine ethics +presented to her. + +"I just don't know what to say, Uncle Tucker," she faltered, thus +failing him in his crisis more completely than she had the boy. + +"The time for saying has passed, and I'm afraid to look forwards to +what we may have to do," answered Uncle Tucker quietly. "After Gid was +gone on up the road I walked over to Tilting Rock and sat down with my +pipe to think it all over. My eyes are a-getting kinder dim now, but +as far as I could see in most all directions was land that I had +always called mine since I come into a man's estate. And there is none +of it that has ever had a deed writ aginst it since that first Alloway +got it in a grant from Virginy. There is meadow land and corn +hillside, creeks for stock and woodlands for shelter, and the Alloways +before me have fenced it solid and tended it honest, with return +enrichment for every crop. And now it has come to me in my old age to +let it go into the hands of strangers--sold by my own flesh and blood +for a mess of pottage, he not knowing what he did I will believe, God +help me. I'm resting him and the judgment of him in the arms of Mercy, +but my living folks have got to have an earthly shelter. Can you see a +way, child? As I say, my eyes are a-getting dim." + +"I can't see any other shelter than the Briars, Uncle Tucker, and +there isn't going to be any other," answered Rose Mary as she stroked +the old hat in her hand. "You know sometimes men run right against a +stone wall when a woman can see a door plainly in front of them both. +She just looks for the door and don't ask to know who is going to open +it from the other side. Our door is there I know--I have been looking +for it for a long time. Right now it looks like a cow gate to me," and +a little reluctant smile came over Rose Mary's grave face as if she +were being forced to give up a cherished secret before she were ready +for the revelation. + +"And if the gate sticks, Rose Mary, I believe you'll climb the fence +and pull us all over, whether or no," answered Uncle Tucker with a +slightly comforted expression coming into his eyes. "You're one of the +women who knot a bridle out of a horse's own tail to drive him with. +Have you got this scheme already geared up tight, ready to start?" + +"It's only that Mr. Crabtree brought word from town that the big +grocery he sells my butter to would agree to take any amount I could +send them at a still larger price. If we could hold on to the place, +buy more cows and all the milk other people in Sweetbriar have to sell +I believe I could make the interest and more than the interest every +year. But if Mr. Newsome needs the money, I am afraid--he might not +like to wait. It would be a year before I could see exactly how things +succeed--and that's a long time." + +"Yes, and it would mean for you to just be a-turning yourself into +meat and drink for the family, nothing more or less, Rose Mary. You +work like you was a single filly hitched to a two-horse wagon now, and +that would be just piling fence rails on top of the load of hay you +are already a-drawing for all of us old live stock. You couldn't work +all that butter." + +"Don't you know that love mixed in the bread of life makes it easy for +the woman to work a large batch for her family, Uncle Tucker?--and why +not butter? Will you talk to Mr. Newsome the next time he comes and +see what he thinks of the plan? I would tell him about it +myself--only I--I don't know why, but I don't--want to." Rose Mary +blushed and looked away across the Road, but her confusion was all +unnoticed by Uncle Tucker, who was busily lighting a second pipeful of +tobacco. + +"Yes, I'll talk to him and Crabtree both about it," he answered +slowly. "I can't hardly bear the idea of your doing it, child, and if +it was just me I wouldn't hear tell of it, but Sister Viney and Sister +Amandy--moved they'd be like a couple of sprouts of their own +honeysuckle vine that you had pulled up and left in the sun to wilt. +Home was a place to grow in for women of their day, not just a-kinder +waiting shack between stations like it has come to be in these times +of women's uprising--in the newspapers." + +"We don't get much new woman excitement out here in Harpeth Valley, +Uncle Tucker," laughed Rose Mary, glad to see him rise once more from +the depth of his depression to his usual philosophic level. "You +wouldn't call--er--er Mrs. Poteet a modern woman, would you?" + +"Fly-away, Peggy Poteet is the genuine, original mossback and had +oughter be expelled from the sex by the confederation president +herself," answered Uncle Tucker as they both glanced down past the +milk-house where they saw the comely mother of the seven at her gate +administering refreshment in the form of bread and jam to all of her +own and quite a number of the other members of the Swarm, including +the General and the reclothed and shriven Tobe. "If there is another +Poteet output next April we'll have to report her," he added with a +laugh. + +"But there never was a baby since Stonie like little Tucker," answered +Rose Mary in quick defense of the small namesake of whom Uncle Tucker +was secretly but inordinately proud. + +"Yes, and I'm a-going to report you to the society of suppression of +men folks as a regular spiler, Rose Mary Alloway, if you don't keep +more stern than you are at present with me and Stonie, to say nothing +of all the men members of Sweetbriar from Everett clean on through +Crabtree down to that very young Tucker Poteet. You are one of the +women that feed and clothe and blush on men like you were borned a +hundred years ago and nobody had told you they wasn't worth shucks. +Are you a-going to reform?" + +"I'll try when I get time," answered Rose Mary with a smile as she +bestowed both a fleeting kiss and the old hat on Uncle Tucker's +forelock over the wall. "Now I want to run in and make a few cup +custards, so I can save one for Mr. Mark when he gets home to-night. +He loves them cold. Little cooking attentions never spoil men, they +just nourish them. Anyway, what is a woman going to have left to do in +life if she sheds the hovering feathers she keeps to tuck her nesties +underneath?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SATSUMA VASE + + +"Well, howdy to-day, Mis' Poteet!" exclaimed Mrs. Rucker as she came +across her side yard and leaned over the Poteet fence right opposite +the Poteet back porch. "I brought you this pan of rolls to set away +for Mr. Poteet's supper. When I worked out the sponge looked like my +pride over 'em riz with the dough and I just felt bound to show 'em +off to somebody; I know I can always count on a few open mouths in +this here nest." + +"That you can and thanky squaks, too, Mis' Rucker. I don't know +however I would feed 'em all if it wasn't for the drippings from your +kitchen," answered the placid and always improvident Mrs. Poteet as +she picked up Shoofly and came over to the fence, delighted at a +chance for a few minutes parley with the ever busy and practical Mrs. +Rucker. She balanced the gingham-clad bunch on its own wobbly legs +beside her, while through the pickets of the fence in greeting were +thrust the pink hands of Petie, the bond, who had followed in the wake +of his own maternal skirts. Shoofly responded to this attention with a +very young feminine gurgle of delight and licked at the chubby fist +thrust toward her like an overjoyed young kitten. + +"Well, Monday is always a scrap day, so I try to kinder perk up my +Monday supper. Singing in the quire twict on Sunday and too much +confab with the other men on the store steps always kinder tires Mr. +Rucker out so he can't hardly get about with his sciatica on Monday, +and I have to humor him some along through the day. That were a mighty +good sermon circuit rider preached last night." + +"Yes, I reckon it were, but my mind was so took up with the way Louisa +Helen flirted herself down the aisle with Bob on one side of her and +Mr. Crabtree on the other, I couldn't hardly get my mind down to +listening. And when she contrived Mr. Crabtree into the pew next to +Mis' Plunkett, as she moved down for 'em, I most gave a snort out +loud. Didn't Mis' Plunkett look nice in that second mourning tucker it +took Louisa Helen and all of Sweetbriar to persuade her into?" + +"Lou Plunkett is as pretty as a chiny aster that blooms in September +and what she's having these number-two conniptions over Mr. Crabtree +for is more than I can see. I look on a second husband as a good +dessert after a fine dinner and a woman oughter swallow one when +offered without no mincing. I wouldn't make two bites of taking Mr. +Crabtree after poor puny Mr. Plunkett if it was me. Of course there +never was such a man as Mr. Satterwhite, but he was always mighty +busy, while Cal Rucker is a real pleasure to me a-setting around the +house on account of his soft constitution. Mr. Satterwhite, I'm +thankful to say, left me so well provided for that I can afford Mr. +Rucker as a kind of play ornament." + +"Yes, they ain't nothing been thought up yet to beat marrying," +answered Mrs. Poteet. "Now didn't Emma Satterwhite find a good chanct +when Todd Crabtree married her and took her away after all that young +Tucker Alloway doings? It were a kind of premium for flightiness, but +I for one was glad to get her gone off'en Rose Mary's hands. I +couldn't a-bear to see her tending hand and foot a woman she were +jilted for." + +"Well, a jilt from some men saves a woman from being married with a +brass ring outen a popcorn box, in my mind, and Tucker Alloway were +one of them kind of men. But talking about marrying, I'm kinder +troubled in my mind about something, and I know I can depend on you +not to say nothing to nobody. Mr. Gid Newsome stopped at my gate last +week and got me into a kinder hinting chavering that have been +a-troubling me ever since. Now that's where Mr. Rucker is such a +comfort to me, he'll stay awake and worry as long as I have need of, +while I wouldn't a-dared to speak to Mr. Satterwhite after he put out +the light. But this is about what I've pieced outen that talk with the +Senator, with Cal's help. That mortgage he has got on the Briars about +covers it, like a double blanket on a single bed, and with the +interest beginning to pile up it's hard to keep the ends tucked in. +The time have come when Mr. Tucker can't make it no more and something +has got to be done. But they ain't no use to talk about moving them +old folks. I gather from a combination of what Mr. Gid looked and +_didn't_ say that he were entirely willing to take over the place and +make some sorter arrangement about them all a-staying on just the +same. That'd be mighty kind of him." + +"You don't reckon he'd do no such take-me-or-get-out co'ting to Rose +Mary, do you?" asked the soft-natured little Mrs. Poteet with alarmed +sympathy in her blue eyes. + +"Oh, no, he ain't that big a fool. Every man knows in marrying an +unwilling woman he's putting himself down to eat nothing but scraps +around the kitchen door. But I wisht Rose Mary could make up her mind +to marry Mr. Newsome. She might as well, for in the end a woman can't +tell nothing about taking a man; she just has to choose a can of a +good brand and then be satisfied, for they all season and heat up +about alike. I never gave him no satisfaction about talking his +praises to her, but I reckon I'm for the tie-up if Rose Mary can see +it that way." And Mrs. Rucker glanced along the Road toward Rose +Mary's milk-house with a kindly, though calculating matchmaking in her +practical eyes. + +"I'm kinder for Mr. Mark," ventured the more sentimental Mrs. Poteet +with a smile. "He's as handsome as Rose Mary are, and wouldn't they +have pretty--" + +"Oh, shoo, I don't hold with no marrying outen the Valley for Rose +Mary! She's needed here and ain't got no call to gallivant off to New +York and beyont with a strange man, beauty or no beauty. Besides she's +pretty enough herself to hand it down even to the third and fourth +generation. But I must go and see to helping Granny out on the side +porch in the sun. I never want to neglect her, for she's the only +child poor Mr. Satterwhite left me. Now Mr. Rucker--Why there comes +Mis' Amandy down the front walk! Let's you and me go to meet her and +see what she wants. We can help her across the Road if she is a-going +to see anybody but us!" And with eager affection the two strong young +women with their babies in their arms hurried across the street in +order to serve if need be the delicate little old lady who, with her +gray skirts fluttering and the little shawl streaming out behind, was +coming at her tottering full speed in that direction. In her hand she +held carefully a bit of sheer, yellow, old muslin, and her bright +eyes were beaming with delight as she met the two neighbors at the +gate. + +"It's the dress," she exclaimed, all out of breath and her sweet +little voice all a-tremble. "Sister and me and Tucker were all +baptized in it when we were babies. Sister Viney has had me a-going +through boxes and bundles for it ever since little Tucker was named +for us, and here it is! It's hand-made and fine linen, brought all the +way from New York down to the city in a wagon before the railroad run. +It's all the present we have got for little Tucker, but we thought +maybe--" And Miss Amanda paused with a shy diffidence in offering her +gift. + +"Gracious me, Miss Amandy, they didn't nothing ever happen to me like +this little dress being gave to one of my children. I am going to let +him be named in it and then keep it in the box with my Bible, where it +won't be disturbed for nothing," exclaimed Mrs. Poteet in a tone of +voice that was tear-choking with reverence as she took the dainty +yellow little garment into her hand. "And to think how you all have +wored yourself out a-looking for it!" she further exclaimed. + +"Oh, me and Sister Viney have had a good time a-going through things; +we haven't seen some of them for thirty or forty years. We found the +flannel petticoat Ma was a-making for me when she died over forty-five +years ago. The needle is a-sticking in it, and I'm a-going to finish +it to wear next winter. I'll feel like it is a comfort for my old age +she just laid by for me. I've got a little lace collar Ma's mother +wore when she come over from Virginy, and it's in the very style now, +so we're going to bleach it out to give to Rose Mary. Come on up to +the house with me and see it and set with Sister Viney a spell, can't +you? She's got mighty sore joints this morning, though Rose Mary +rubbed her most a hour last night" And in response to the eager +invitation they all three went back up the front walk together. The +thrifty Mrs. Rucker cast a satisfied glance back towards her own side +yard, where upturned tub and drying wash were in plain view. Mrs. +Poteet had put off the task of the wash until a later day of the week +and thus could make her visit with a mind unharrassed by the vision of +suds boiling over on the stove and soap melting in the tub. + +And there ensued several hours of complete absorption for the four +women closeted in Miss Lavinia's room in reviewing the events of the +last half century by means of the reminiscences which were inspired by +one unearthed heirloom after another. Pete and Shoofly were happy on +the floor enveloping themselves and each other in long wisps of +moth-eaten yarn that Miss Amandy had unearthed in a bureau drawer and +donated to their amusement. Mrs. Poteet had with her usual happy +forgetfulness of anything but the very immediate occupation, lost +sight of the fact that she had left young Tucker asleep on the bed in +her room, which location, counting the distance across the two yards +and down the Road, was at least slightly remote from aid in case of a +sudden restoration to consciousness for the young sleeper. + +And in the natural course of events the young Alloway namesake did +awaken and gave lusty vent to a demand for human companionship, which +was answered promptly by the General, who happened to be passing the +front gate in pursuits of his own. Finding the house deserted, with +his usual decision of action Stonie picked up the baby and kept on his +way, which led past the garden up the hill to the barn. Young Tucker +accepted this little journey in the world with his usual +imperturbability, and his sturdy little neck made unusual efforts to +support his bald head over the General's shoulders as if in pride at +being in the company of one of his peers and not in the usual feminine +thraldom. + +Finding the barn also deserted, Stonie laid young Tucker on the straw +in the barrel with two of Sniffer's sleeping puppies and began to +attend to his errand, which involved the extraction of several long, +stout pieces of string from a storehouse of his own under one of the +feed bins and the plaiting of them into the cracker of a whip which he +had brought along with him. + +Down below the store the rest of the Swarm were busy marking out a +large circus ring and discussing with considerable heat their +individual rights to the various star parts to be performed in the +coming exhibition. The ardors of their several ambitions were not at +all dampened by the knowledge of the fact that the audience that would +be in attendance to witness their triumphs would in all probability +consist of only Granny Satterwhite, whom little Miss Amanda always +coaxed to attend in her company, with perhaps a few moments of +encouragement from Mr. Crabtree if he found the time. To which would +always be added the interested and jocular company of Mr. Rucker, who +always came, brought a chair to sit in and stayed through the entire +performance. And in the talented aggregation of performers there was +of course just one rôle that could have been assumed by General +Jackson, that of ringmaster; so to that end he sat on the floor of the +barn beside the sleeping puppies and young Tucker and plaited the lash +by means of which he intended to govern the courses of his stars. + +And it was here that Everett found him a few minutes later as he +walked rapidly up the milk-house path and stood in the barn door in +evident hurried search for somebody or some thing. + +"Hello, General," he said with a smile at the barrel full of sleepers +at Stonie's side, "do you know where Rose Mary is?" + +"Yes," answered the General, "she are in her room putting buttermilk +on the five freckles that comed on her nose when she hoed out in the +garden without no sunbonnet. I found 'em all for her this morning, and +she don't like 'em. You can go on in and see if they are any better +for her, I ain't got the time to fool with 'em now." + +"Not for worlds!" exclaimed Everett as he sat down on an upturned peck +measure in close proximity to the barrel. "Have you decided to have +Mrs. Poteet and Mrs. Sniffer swap--er--puppies, Stonie?" he further +remarked. + +"No, I didn't," answered Stonie with one of his rare smiles which made +him so like Rose Mary that Everett's heart glowed within him. Stonie +was, as a general thing, as grave as a judge, with something +hauntingly, almost tragically serious in his austere young face, but +his smiles when they came were flashes of the very divinity of youth +and were a strange incarnation of the essence of Rose Mary's cousinly +loveliness. "He was crying because he was by hisself and I bringed him +along to wait till his mother came home. He belongs some to us, +'cause he's named for Uncle Tuck, and I oughter pester with him same +as Tobe have to. It's fair to do my part." + +"Yes, General, you always do your part--and always will, I think," +said Everett, as he looked down at the sturdy little chap so busy with +his long strings, weaving them over and over slowly but carefully. "A +man's part," he added as two serious eyes were raised to his. + +"In just a little while I'll be a man and have Uncle Tucker and Aunt +Viney and Aunt Amandy to be mine to keep care of always, Rose Mamie +says," answered Stonie in his most practical tone of voice as he began +to see the end of the long strings draw into his weaving of the +cracker. + +"What about Rose Mamie herself?" asked Everett softly, his voice +thrilling over the child's name for the girl with reverent tenderness. + +"When I get big enough to keep care of everything here I'm going to +let Rose Mamie get a husband and a heap of children, like Mis' +Poteet--but I'm a-going to make 'em behave theyselves better'n Tobe +and Peggie and the rest of 'em do. Aunt Viney says Mis' Poteet spares +the rod too much, but I'll fix Rose Mamie's children if they don't +mind her and me." The General's mouth assumed its most commanding +expression as he glanced down at the little Poteet sleeping beside +him, unconscious of the fact that he was, in the future, to be the +victim of a spared rod. + +"Stonie," asked Everett meekly, "have you chosen a husband for Rose +Mary yet?" + +"No," answered Stonie as he wove in the last inch of string. Then he +paused and raised his eyes to Everett thoughtfully. "It's jest got to +be the best man in the world, and I'm a-going to find him for her. If +I can't I'll keep care of her as good as I can myself." + +"General," said Everett as he held the child's eyes with a straight +level compelling glance, "you are right--she must have only the best. +And you 'keep care' until he comes. I am going away to-night and I +don't know when I can come back, but you must always--always 'keep +care' of her--until the good man comes. Will you?" + +"I will," answered the General positively. "And if anybody of any kind +bothers her or any of them I'll knock the stuffins outen 'em, and +Tobe'll help. But say," he added, as if suddenly inspired by a +brilliant idea, "couldn't you look for him for me? You'd know the good +kind of a man and you could bring him here. I would give you one of +the spotted puppies to pay for the trouble," and a hot wave engulfed +Everett as the trustful friendly young eyes looked straight into his +as Stonie made this extremely practical business proposition. + +"Yes, General, I will come and bring him to you, and when he comes he +will be the best ever--or he will have died in the attempt." + +"All right," answered Stonie, completely satisfied with the terms of +the bargain, "and you can take your pick of the puppies. Are you going +on the steam cars from Boliver?" + +"Yes," answered Everett, "and I want to find your Uncle Tucker to ask +him--" + +"Well, here he is to answer all inquiries at all times," came in Uncle +Tucker's quizzical voice as he stood in the doorway of the barn with a +bucket in one hand and a spade in the other. "Old age is just like a +hobble that tithers up stiff-jinted old cattle to the home post and +keeps 'em from a-roving. I haven't chawed the rope and broke over to +Boliver in more'n a month now. Did you leave Main Street a-running +east to west this morning?" + +"Yes," answered Everett, "still the same old Boliver. But I wanted to +see you right away to tell you that I have had a wire from the firm +that makes it necessary for me to get back to New York immediately. I +must catch that train that passes Boliver at midnight." + +"Oh, fly away, you can't pick up and go like that!" exclaimed Uncle +Tucker with alarmed remonstrance. "Such a hurry as that are unseemly. +Good-byes oughter to be handled slowly and careful, like chiny, to +save smashed feelings. Have you told Rose Mary and the sisters?" + +"No; I've just come back from Boliver, and I couldn't find Rose Mary, +and Miss Lavinia and Miss Amanda had company. I must go on over to the +north field while there is still light to--to collect some--some +instruments I--that is I may have left some things over there that I +will need. I will hurry back. Will--you tell them all for me?" As +Everett spoke he did not look directly at Uncle Tucker, but his eyes +followed the retreating form of the General, who, with the completed +whip, the nodding baby and the two awakened puppies was making his way +down Providence Road in the direction of the circus band. There was a +strange controlled note of excitement in his voice and his hands +gripped themselves around the handles of his kit until the nails went +white with the strain. + +"Yes, I'll tell 'em," answered Uncle Tucker with a distressed quaver +coming into his voice as he took in the fact that Everett's hurried +departure was inevitable. "I'm sorry you have got to go, boy, but I'll +help you get off if it's important for you. I'll have them get your +supper early and put up a snack for the train." + +"I don't want anything--that is, it doesn't matter about supper. I--I +will be back to see Miss Lavinia and Miss Amanda before they retire." +And Everett's voice was quiet with a calmness that belied the lump in +his throat at the very mention of the farewell to be said to the two +little old flower ladies. + +"I'll go on and tell 'em now," said Uncle Tucker with an even +increased gloom in his face and voice. "Breaking bad news to women +folks is as nervous a work as dropping a basket of eggs; you never can +tell in which direction the lamentations are a-going to spatter and +spoil things. I'll go get the worst of the muss over before you get +back." + +"Thank you," answered Everett with both a laugh and a catch in his +voice as they separated, he going out through the field and over the +hill and Uncle Tucker along the path to the house. + +And a little later Uncle Tucker found Rose Mary moving alone knee deep +in the flowers and fruit of her beloved garden. For long moments she +bent over the gray-green, white-starred bed of cinnamon pinks which +sent up an Arabian fragrance into her face as she carefully threaded +out each little weed that had dared rear its head among the white +blossoms. As she walked between the rows the tall lilies laid their +heads against her breast and kissed traces of their gold hearts on her +hands and bare arms, while on the other side a very riot of blush +peonies crowded against her skirts. Long trails of pod-laden snap +beans tangled around her feet and a couple of round young squashes +rolled from their stems at the touch of her fingers. She was the very +incarnation of young Plenty in the garden of the gods, and she reveled +as she worked. + +"Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker as he came and stood beside her as she +began to train the clambering butter-bean vines around their tall +poles, "young Everett has got to go on to New York to-night on the +train from Boliver, and I told him you would be mighty glad to help +him off in time. I'd put him up a middling good size snack if I was +you, for the eating on a train must be mighty scrambled like at best. +We'll have to turn around to keep him from being late." And it was +thus broadside that the blow was delivered which shook the very +foundations of Rose Mary's heart and left her white to the lips and +with hands that clutched at the bean vines desperately. + +"When did he tell you?" she asked in a voice that managed to pass +muster in the failing light. + +"Just a little while ago, and the news hit Sister Viney so sudden +like it give her a bad spell of asthma, and Sister Amandy was sorter +crying and let the jimson-weed smoke get in her mouth and choke her. +They are a-having a kind of ruckus, with nobody but Stonie helping 'em +put Sis' Viney to bed, so I reckon you'd better go in and see 'em. +He's gone over to the north field to get a hammer or something he left +and will be back soon. Hurry that black pester up with the supper, I'm +so bothered I feel empty," with which injunction Uncle Tucker left +Rose Mary at the kitchen steps. + +And it was a strenuous hour that followed, in which things were so +crowded into Rose Mary's hands that the fullness of her heart had to +be ignored if she was to go on with them. After a time Miss Lavinia +was eased back on her pile of pillows and might have dropped off to +sleep, but she insisted on having her best company cap arranged on her +hair and a lavender shawl put around her shoulders and thus in state +take a formal leave of the departing guest--alone. And it was fully a +half hour before Everett came out of her room, and Rose Mary saw him +slip a tiny pocket testament which had always lain on Miss Lavinia's +table into his inside breast pocket, and his face was serious almost +to the point of exhaustion. The time he had spent in Miss Lavinia's +room little Miss Amanda had busily occupied in packing the generous +"snack," which Uncle Tucker hovered over and saw bestowed to his +entire satisfaction with the traps Everett had strapped up in his +room. Stonie's large eyes grew more and more wistful, and after he and +Uncle Tucker retired with their good-byes all said he whispered to +Rose Mary that he wanted to say just one more thing to Mr. Mark. + +Tenderly Everett bent over the cot until the blush rosebud that Miss +Amanda had shyly pinned in his buttonhole as her good-by before she +had retired, brushed the little fellow's cheek as he ran his arm under +the sturdy little nightgowned shoulders and drew him as close as he +dared. + +"Say," whispered Stonie in his ear, "if you see a man that would buy +Sniffer's other two spotted pups I would sell 'em to him. I want to +get them teeth for Aunt Viney. I could get 'em to him in a box." + +"How much do you want for them?" asked Everett with a little gulp in +his voice as his heart beat against the arm of the young provider +assuming his obligations so very early in life. + +"A dollar a-piece, I guess, or maybe ten," answered Stonie vaguely. + +"I'll sell them right away at your price," answered Everett. "I'll see +that Mr. Crabtree has them packed and shipped." He paused for a +moment. He would have given worlds to have taken the two little dogs +with him and have left the money with Stonie--but he didn't dare. + +"And," murmured Stonie drowsily, "don't forget that good man for Rose +Mamie if you see him--and--and--" but suddenly he had drifted off into +the depths, thus abandoning himself to the crush of a hug Everett had +been hungry to give him. + +And out in the starlit dusk he found Rose Mary sitting on the steps, +freed at last, with her responsibilities all asleep--and before him +there lay just this one--good-by. + +Silently he seated himself beside her and as silently lit his cigar +and began to puff the rings out into the air. In the perfect flood of +perfume that poured around and over them and came in great gusts from +the garden he detected a new tone, wild and woodsy, sweet with a +curious tang and haunting in its alien and insistent note in the +rhapsody of odors. + +"There's something new in bloom in your garden, Lady of the Rose?" he +asked questioningly. + +"Yes, it's the roses on the hedges coming out; don't they smell briary +and--good? Just this last night you will be able to carry away with +you a whiff of real sweetbriar. To-morrow the whole town will be in +bloom. It is now I think if we could only see it." Rose Mary had +gained her composure and the poignant wistfulness in her voice was but +a part of the motif of the briar roses in the valley dusk. + +"I'll see it all right to-morrow and often. Sweetbriar--it's going to +blind me so that I won't be able to make my way along Broadway. +Everything hereafter will be located up and down Providence Road for +me." Everett's voice held to a tone of quiet lightness and he bravely +puffed his rings of smoke out on the breezes. + +"Perhaps some day you'll pass us again along the road to your +Providence," said Rose Mary gently, and the wistful question was all +that her woman's tradition allowed her to ask--though her heart break +with its pride. + +"Some day," answered Everett, and underneath the quiet voice sounded a +savage note and his teeth bit through his cigar, which he threw out +into the dew-carpeted grass. Just then there came from up under the +eaves a soft disturbed flutter of wings and a gentle dove note was +answered reassuringly and tenderly in kind. + +"Rose Mary," he said as he turned to her and laid his hand on the step +near her, "once you materialized your heart for me, and now I'm going +to do the same for mine to you. Yours, you say, is an old gabled, +vine-clad, dove-nested country house, a shelter for the people you +love--and always kept for your Master's use. It is something just to +have had a man's road to Providence lead past the garden gate. I make +acknowledgement. And mine? I think it is like one of those squat, +heathen, Satsuma vases, inlaid with distorted figures and symbols and +toned in all luridness of color, into which has been tossed a poor +sort of flower plucked from any bush the owner happened to pass, which +has been salted down in frivolity--or perhaps something stronger. +I'll keep the lid on to-night, for _you_ wouldn't like the--perfume." + +"If you'd let me have it an hour I would take it down to the +milk-house and empty and scrub it and then I could use it to pour +sweet cream into. Couldn't you--you leave it here--in Uncle Tucker's +care? I--I--really--I need it badly." The raillery in her voice was as +delicious and daring as that of any accomplished world woman out over +the Ridge. It fairly staggered Everett with its audacity. + +"No," he answered, coolly disapproving, "no, I'll not leave it; you +might break it." + +"I never break the crocks--I can't afford to. And women never break +men's hearts; they do it themselves by keeping a hand on the treasure +so as to take it back when they want it, and so between them both it +sometimes gets--shattered." + +"Very well, then--the lid's off to you--and remember you asked +for--the rummage, Rose Mary," answered Everett in a tone as light as +hers. Then suddenly he rose and stood tall and straight in front of +her, looking down into her upraised eyes in the dusk. "You don't know, +do you, you rose woman you, what a man's life can hold--of +nothingness? Yes, I've worked hard at my profession and thrown away +the proceeds--in a kind of--riotous living. Other men's vast fortunes +have been built on my brains, and my next year I'm going to enter as a +penniless thirty-niner. When I came South three months ago I drew the +last thousand dollars I had in bank, I have a couple of hundreds left, +and that's all, out of over twenty thousand made in straight fees from +mineral tests in the last year. Yes--a bit of riotous living. It's +true about those poor flowers plucked off frail stems off frailer +bushes--but--if it hadn't been--a sort of fair play all around I +wouldn't stand here telling you about it, you in your hedge of briar +roses. And now suddenly something has come into my life that makes me +regret every dollar tossed to the winds and every cent burned in the +fires--and in spite of it all I must make good. I'm going away from +you and I don't know what is going to happen--but as I tell you from +now on my feet do not stray from Providence Road, my eyes will turn +from across any distance to catch a sight of the crown of old Harpeth, +and my heart is in your milk-house to be of any kind of humble use. +Ah, comfort me, rose girl, that I can not say more and that go I must +if I catch my train." And he stretched out his hands to Rose Mary as +she arose and stood close at his side, her eyes never leaving his and +her lips parted with the quick breathing of her lifted breast. + +"And you'll remember, won't you, when things go wrong, or you are +tired, that the sunny corner in the old farm-house is yours? Always I +shall be here in Harpeth Valley with my nest in the Briars, and +because you are gone I'll be lonely. But I won't be in the least +anxious, for whatever it is that calls you, I know you will give the +right answer, because--because--well, aren't you one of my own +nesties, and don't I know how strong and straight your wings can fly?" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UNCLE TUCKER'S TORCH + + +"And how do you do, Mr. Crabtree? Glad to see you, suh, glad to see +you again! How is all Sweetbriar? Any new voters since young Tucker, +or a poem or so in the Rucker family? And are you succeeding in +keeping the peace with Mrs. Plunkett for young Bob?" And firing this +volley of questions through the gently agitated smile-veil the +Honorable Gideon Newsome stood in the door of the store, large-looming +and jocular. + +"Well, howdy, howdy, Senator, come right in and have a chair in the +door-breeze!" exclaimed Mr. Crabtree as he turned to beam a welcome on +the Senator from behind the counter where he was filling kerosene +cans. "We ain't seen you in most a month of Sundays, and I'm sure glad +you lit in passing again." + +"I never just light in passing Sweetbriar, friend Crabtree," answered +the senator impressively. "I start every journey with a stop at +Sweetbriar in view, and it seems a long time until I make the haven I +assure you, suh. And now for the news. You say my friend, Mrs. +Plunkett, is enjoying her usual good health and spirits?" + +"Well, not to say enjoying of things in general, but it do seem she +has got just a little mite of spirit back along of this here +bully-ragging of Bob and Louisa Helen. She come over here yesterday +and stood by the counter upwards of an hour before I could persuade +her to be easy in her mind about letting Bob take that frizzling over +to Providence to a ice-cream festibul Mis' Mayberry was a-having for +the church carpet benefit last night. After I told her I would put up +early, and me and her could jog over in my buggy along behind them +flippets to see no foolishness were being carried on, she took it more +easy, and it looked like onct and a while on the road she most come +to the point of enjoying her own self. But I reckon I'm just fooling +myself by thinking that though," and Mr. Crabtree eyed the Senator +with pathetic eagerness to be assured that he was not self-deceived at +this slight advance up the steep ascent of his road of true love. + +"Not a bit of doubt in my mind she enjoyed it greatly, suh, greatly, +and I consider the cause of diverting her grief has advanced a hundred +per cent by her consenting to go at all. Did any of the other +Sweetbriar friends avail themselves of the Providence invitation--Miss +Rose Mary and er--any of the other young people?" + +"No, Miss Rose Mary didn't want to go, though Mr. Rucker woulder liked +to hitch up the wagon and take her and Mis' Rucker and the children. +She have been mighty quiet like sinct Mr. Everett left us, though +she'd never let anybody lack the heartening of that smile of hern no +matter how tetched with lonesome she was herself. When the letters +come I just can't wait to finish sorting the rest, but I run with +hers to her, like Sniffie brings sticks back to Stonie Jackson when he +throws them in the bushes." + +"Ahm--er--do they come often?" asked the Senator in a casual voice, +but his eyes narrowed in their slits and the veil became impenetrable. + +"Oh, about every day or two," answered the unconsciously gossipy +little bachelor. "Looks like the whole family have missed him, too. +Miss Viney has been in bed off and on ever since he left, and Miss +Amandy has tooken a bad cold in her right ear and has had to keep her +head wrapped up all the time. Mr. Tucker's mighty busy a-trying to +figure out how to crap the farm like Mr. Mark laid off on a map for +him to do--but he ain't got the strength now to even get a part of it +done. If Miss Rose Mary weren't strong and bendy as a hickory saplin +she couldn't prop up all them old folks." + +"Yes," answered the Senator in one of his most judicial and dulcet +tones as he eyed the little bachelor in a calculating way as if +deciding whether to take him into his confidence, "what you say of Mr. +Alloway's being too old to farm his land with a profit is true. I have +come this time to talk things over with him and--er--Miss Rose Mary. +Did I understand you to say our friend Everett is still in New York? +Have you heard of his having any intention of returning to Sweetbriar +any time soon?" + +"No, I haven't heard tell of his coming back at all, and I'm mighty +sorry and disappointed some, too," answered Mr. Crabtree with an +anxious look coming into his kind eyes. "I somehow felt sure he would +scratch up oil or some kind of pay truck out there in the fields of +the Briars. I shipped a whole box of sand and gravel for him according +to a telegram he sent me just last week and I had sorter got my hopes +up for a find, specially as that young city fellow came out here and +dug another bag full outen the same place not any time after that. He +had a map with him, and I thought he might be a friend of Mr. Mark's +and asked him, but he didn't answer; never rested to light a pipe, +even, so I never found out about him. I reckon he was just fooling +around and I hadn't oughter hoped on such a light ration." + +"When was it that the man came and prospected?" asked the Senator with +a quick gleam coming into his ugly little eyes and the smile veil took +on another layer of density, while his hand trembled slightly as he +lighted his cigar. + +"Oh, about a week ago," answered Mr. Crabtree. "But I ain't got no +hopes now for Mr. Tucker and the folks from him. We'll all just have +to find some way to help them out when the bad time comes." + +"The way will be provided, friend Crabtree," answered the Senator in +an oily tone of voice, but which held nevertheless a decided note of +excitement. "Do you know where I can find Mr. Alloway? I think I will +go have a business talk with him now." And in a few minutes the +Senator was striding as rapidly as his ponderosity would allow up +Providence Road, leaving the garrulous little storekeeper totally +unconscious of the fuse he had lighted for the firing of the mine so +long dreaded by his friends. + +"Well now, Crabbie, don't bust out and cry into them dried apples jest +to swell the price, fer Mis' Rucker will ketch you sure when she comes +to buy 'em for to-morrow's turnovers," came in the long drawl of the +poet as he dawdled into the door and flung the rusty mail-sack down on +to the counter in front of Mr. Crabtree. "They ain't a thing in that +sack 'cept Miss Rose Mary's letter, and he must make a light kind of +love from the heft of it. I most let it drop offen the saddle as I +jogged along, only I'm a sensitive kind of cupid and the buckle of +the bag hit that place on my knee I got sleep-walking last week while +I was thinking up that verse that '_despair_' wouldn't rhyme with +'_hair_' in for me. Want me to waft this here missive over to the +milk-house to her and kinder pledge his good digestion and such in a +glass of her buttermilk?" + +"No, I wisht you would stay here in the store for me while I take it +over to her myself. I've got some kind of business with her for a few +minutes," answered Mr. Crabtree as he searched out the solitary letter +and started to the door with it. "Sample that new keg of maple drip +behind the door there. The cracker box is open," he added by way of +compensation to the poet for the loss of the buttermilk. + +The imagination of all true lovers is easily exercised about matters +pertaining to the tender passion, and though Mr. Crabtree had never in +his life received such a letter he divined instantly that it should be +delivered promptly by a messenger whose mercury wings should scarcely +pause in agitating the air of arrival and departure. And suiting his +actions to his instinct he whirled the envelope across the spring +stream to the table by Rose Mary's side with the aim of one of the +little god's own arrows and retreated before her greeting and +invitation to enter should tempt him. + +"Honey drip and women folks is sweet jest about the same and they both +stick some when you're got your full of 'em at the time," +philosophized the poet as he wiped his mouth with the back of his +hand. + +"Say, Crabbie, don't tell Mis' Rucker I have come home yet, please. I +want to go out and lay down in the barn on the hay and see if I can +get that '_hair-despair_' tangle straightened out. She hasn't seen me +to tell me things for two hours or more and I know I won't get no +thinking done this day if I don't make the barn 'fore she spies me." +And with furtive steps and eyes he left the store and veered in a +round-about way toward the barn. + +And over in the milk-house Rose Mary stood in the long shaft of +golden light that came across the valley and fell through the door, it +would seem, just to throw a glow over the wide sheets of closely +written paper. Rose Mary had been pale as she worked, and her deep +eyes had been filled with a very gentle sadness which lighted with a +flash as she opened the envelope and began to read. + +"Just a line, Rose girl, before I put out the light and go on a dream +hunt for you," Everett wrote in his square black letters. "The day has +been long and I feel as if I had been drawn out still longer. I'm +tired, I'm hungry, and there's no balm of Gilead in New York. I can't +eat because there are no cornmeal muffins in this howling wilderness +of houses, streets, people and noise. I can't drink because something +awful rises in my throat when I see cream or buttermilk, and sassarcak +doesn't interest me any more. I would be glad to lap out of one of +your crocks with Sniffie and the wee dogs. + +"And most of all I'm tired to see you. I want to tell you how hard I +am working, and that I don't seem to be able to make some of these +stupid old gold backs see things my way, even if I do show it to them +covered with a haze of yellow pay dust. But they shall--and that's my +vow to-- + +"I wish I could kneel down by your rocking-chair with Stonie and hear +Uncle Tucker chant that stunt about '_the hollow of His hand_.' Is any +of that true, Rose Mamie, and are you true and is Aunt Viney as well +as could be expected, considering the length of my absence? I've got +the little Bible book with Miss Amanda's blush rose pressed in it, and +I put my hand to my breast-pocket so often to be sure it is there and +some other things--letter things--that the heat and friction of them +and the hand combined have brought out a great patch of prickly heat +right over my heart in this sizzling weather. I know it needs fresh +cold cream to make it heal up, and I haven't even any talcum powder. +How's Louisa Helen and doth the widow consent still not at all? Tell +Crabtree I say just walk over and try force of arms and not to--That +force of arms is a good expression to use--literally in some cases. +Something is the matter with my arms. They don't feel strong like they +did when I helped Uncle Tucker mow the south pasture and turn the corn +chopper--they're weak and--and sorter useless--and empty. Tell Stonie +he could beat me bear-hugging any day now. Has Tobe discovered any new +adventure in aromatics lately, and can little Poteet sit up and take +notice? Help, help, I'm getting so homesick that I'm about to cry and +fall into the ink! + +"Good night--with all that the expression can imply of moonlight +coming over the head of old Harpeth, pouring down its sides, rippling +out over the corn-fields and flooding over a tall rose girl thing who +stands in the doorway with her 'nesties' all asleep in the dark house +behind her--and if any man were lounging against the honeysuckle vine +getting a last puff out of his cigar I should know it, and a thousand +miles couldn't save him. I'm all waked up thinking about it, and I +could smash--Good night! + +M.E. + +P.S. I don't think it at all square of you not to let Stonie sell me +the little dogs. Women ought to keep out of business affairs between +men." + +And as she turned the last page, slipped it back into place and +promptly began at the beginning of the very first one, Rose Mary's +face was an exquisite study in what might have been entitled pure joy. +Her roses rioted up under her lashes, her rich lips curled like the +half-blown bud between the flower of her cheeks, and her eyes shone +like the two first stars mirrored in a woman's pool of life. Also it +is one of the mysteries of the drama why a woman will scan over and +over pages whose every letter is chiseled inches deep into her heart; +and exactly one-half hour later Rose Mary was still standing +motionless by her table, with the letter outspread in her hand. + +And this was a very wonderful woman Old Harpeth had cradled in the +hollow of His hand, nurtured on the richness of the valley and +breathed into her with ever-perfumed breath the peace of faith--in God +and man, for to any but an elemental, natural, faith-inspired woman of +the fields would have come crushing, cruel, tearing doubts of the man +beyond the hills who said so little and yet so much. However, Rose +Mary was one of the order of fostering women whose arms are forever +outheld cradle-wise, and to whose breast is ever drawn in mother love +the child in the man of her choice, so her days since Everett's +hurried departure had been filled with love and longing, with faith +and prayers, but there had been not one shadow of doubt of him or his +love for her all half-spoken as he had left it. + +And added to her full heart had been burdens that had made her hands +still fuller. She had gone on her way day by day pouring out the +richness of her life and strength where it was so sorely needed by her +feeble folk, with a song in her heart for him and them and to answer +every call from along Providence Road. Thus it is that the motive +power for the great cycles that turn and turn out in the wide spaces +between time and eternity, regardless of the wheels of men that whirl +and buzz on broken cog with shattered rim, is poured through the +natures of women of such a mold for the saving of His nations. + +At last Rose Mary folded her letter, hesitated, and with a glint of +the blue in her eyes as her lashes fell over a still rosier hint in +her cheeks, she tucked it into the front of her dress and smoothed and +patted the folds of her apron close down over it, then turned with +praiseworthy energy to the huge bowl of unworked butter. + +And it was nearly an hour later, still, that the Honorable Gid loomed +in the doorway under the honeysuckle vines, a complacent smile +arranged on his huge face and gallantry oozing from every gesture and +pose. + +"Why, Mr. Newsome, when did you come? How are you, and I'm glad to see +you!" exclaimed Rose Mary all in one hospitable breath as she beamed +at the Senator across her table with the most affable friendship. Rose +Mary felt in a beaming mood, and the Honorable Gid came under the +shower of her affability. + +"Do have that chair by the door, and let me give you a glass of milk," +she hastened to add as she took up a cup and started for the crocks +with a still greater accession of hospitality. "Sweet or buttermilk?" +she paused to inquire over her shoulder. + +"Either handed by you would be sweet" answered the Senator with +praiseworthy ponderosity, and he shook out the smile veil until the +very roots of his hair became agitated. + +"Yes, Mr. Rucker says my buttermilk tastes like sweet milk with honey +added," laughed Rose Mary, dimpling from over the tall jar. "He says +that because I always pour cream into it for him, and Mrs. Rucker +won't because she says it is extravagant. But I think a poet ought to +have a dash of cream in his life, if just to make the poetry run +smoother--and orators, too," she added as she poured half a ladleful +of the golden top milk into the foaming glass in her hand and gave it +to the Senator, who received it with a trembling hand and gulped it +down desperately; for this once in his life the Honorable Gideon +Newsome was completely and entirely embarrassed. For many a year he +had had at his command florid and extravagant figures of speech which, +cast in any one of a dozen of his dulcet modulations of voice, were +warranted to tell on even the most stubborn masculine intelligence, +and ought to have melted the feminine heart at the moment of +utterance, but at this particular moment they all failed him, and he +was left high and dry on the coast of courtship with only the bare +question available for use. + +"Miss Rose Mary," he blurted out without any preamble at all, and +drops of the sweat of an agony of anxiety stood out all over the wide +brow, "I have been talking with Mr. Alloway, and I have come to you to +see if we can't all get together and settle this mortgage question to +the profit of all concerned. I lent him that money six years ago with +the intention of trying to get you to be my wife just as soon as you +recovered from your--your natural grief over the way things had gone +with you and young Alloway. I have waited longer than I had any +intention of doing, because I was absorbed in this political career I +had begun on, but now I see it is time to settle matters, as the farm +is running us all into debt, and I'm very much in need of you as a +wife. I hope you see it in that light, and the marriage can't take +place too soon to suit me. You are the handsomest woman in my +district, and my constituents can not help but approve of my choice." +Something of the Senator's grandiloquence was returning to him, and he +regarded Rose Mary with the pride of one who has appraised +satisfactorily and is about to complete a proposed purchase. + +And as for Rose Mary, she stood framed against the fern-lined dusk at +the back of the milk-house like a naiad startled as she emerged from +her tree bower. Quickly she raised her hand to her breast and just as +quickly the pressure of the letter laying there against her heart sent +a flood over her face that had grown pale and still, but she raised +her head proudly and looked the Senator straight in the face with a +questioning, hurt surprise. + +"You didn't make the terms clear when you lent the money to us," she +said quietly. + +"Well," he answered, beginning to take heart at her very tranquil +acceptance of the first bombardment, "I thought it best to let a time +elapse to soothe your deceived affections and cure your humiliation. +For the time being I was content to enjoy culling the flowers of your +friendship from time to time, but I now feel no longer satisfied with +them, but must be paid in a richer harvest. We will take charge of +this place, assure a comfortable future for the aged relatives in your +care, and as my wife you will be both happy and honored." The Senator +was decidedly coming into his own, and smile, glance and voice as he +regarded Rose Mary were unctuous. In fact, through their slits his +eyes shot a gleam of something that was so hateful to Rose Mary that +she caught her breath with horror, and only the sharp corner of her +letter pressed into her naked breast kept her from reeling. But in a +second she had herself in hand and her quick mother-wit was aroused to +find out the worst and begin a fight for the safeguarding of her +nesties--and the nest. + +"And if I shouldn't want to--to do what you want me to?" she asked, +and she was even able to summon a smile with a tinge of coquetry that +served to draw the wily Senator further than he realized. + +"Oh, I feel sure you can have no objections to me that are strong +enough to weigh against thus providing suitably for your old +relatives," was the bait he dangled before her humiliated eyes. "It is +the only way to do it, for Mr. Alloway is too old to care any longer +for the place, which has been run at a loss for too long already. We +may say that in accepting me you are accepting their comfortable +future. Of course you could not expect things to go on any longer in +this impossible way, as I have need of the home and family I am really +entitled to, now could you?" The Senator bent forward and finished his +sentence in his most beguiling tone as he poured the hateful glance +all over her again so that her blood stopped in her veins from very +fear and repulsion. + +"No," she said slowly, with her eyes down on the bowl of butter on +the table before her; "no, things couldn't go on as they have any +longer. I have felt that for some time." She paused a second, then +lifted her deep eyes and looked straight into his, and the wounded +light in their blue depth was shadowed in the pride of the glance. +"You are right--you must not be kept out of your own any longer. But +you will--will you give me just a little time to--to get used to--to +thinking about it? Will you go now and leave me--and come back in a +few days? It is the last favor I shall ever ask of you. I promise when +you come back to--to pay the debt." And the color flooded over her +face, then receded, to leave her white and controlled. + +"I felt sure you would see it that way; immediately, immediately, my +dear," answered the Senator, as he rose to take his departure. A +triumphant note boomed in his big gloating voice, but some influence +that it is given a woman to exhale in a desperate self-defense kept +him from bestowing anything more than an ordinary pressure on the cold +hand laid in his. Then with a heavy jauntiness he crossed the Road, +mounted his horse and, tipping his wide hat in a conquering-hero wave, +rode on down Providence Road toward Boliver. + +And for a long, quiet moment Rose Mary stood leaning against the old +stone table perfectly still, with her hand pressing the sharp-edge +paper against her heart; then she sank into a chair and, stretching +her arms across the cold table, she let her head sink until the chill +of the stone came cool to her burning cheeks. So this was the door +that was to be opened in the stone wall--she had been blind and hadn't +seen! + +And across the hills away by the sea he was tired and cold and +hungry--with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket. He was +discouraged and overworked, and a time was coming when she would not +have the right to shelter his heart in hers. Once when he had been so +ill, before he ever became conscious of her at all, his head had +fallen over on her breast as she had tended him in his weakness--the +throb of it hurt her now. And perhaps he would never understand. She +couldn't tell him because--because of his poverty and the hurt it +would give him--not to be able to help--to save her. No, he must not +know until too late--and _never_ understand! Desperately thus wave +after wave swept over her, crushing, grinding, mocking her womanhood, +until, helpless and breathless, she was tossed, well nigh unconscious, +upon the shore of exhaustion. The fight of the instinctive woman for +its own was over and the sacrifice was prepared. She was bound to the +wheel and ready for the first turn, though out under the skies, +"_stretched as a tent to dwell in_," the cycle was moving on its +course turned by the same force from the same source that numbers the +sparrows. + +"Rose Mary, child," came in a gentle voice, and Uncle Tucker's +trembling old hand was laid with a caress on the bowed head before she +had even heard him come into the milk-house, "now you've got to look +up and get the kite to going again. I've been under the waters, too, +but I've pulled myself ashore with a-thinking that nothing's a-going +to take _you_ away from me and them. What does it matter if we were to +have to take the bed covers and make a tent for ourselves to camp +along Providence Road just so we all can crawl under the flap +together? I need nothing in the world but to be sure your smile is not +a-going to die out." + +"Oh, honey-sweet, it isn't--it isn't," answered Rose Mary, looking up +at him quickly with the tenderness breaking through the agony in a +perfect radiance. "It's all right, Uncle Tucker, I know it will be!" + +"Course it's all right because it _is_ right," answered Uncle Tucker +bravely, with a real smile breaking through the exhaustion on his +face that showed so plainly the fight he had been having out in his +fields, now no longer his as he realized. "Gid has got the right of +it, and it wasn't honest of us to hold on at this losing rate as long +as we did. There is just a little more value to the land than the +mortgage, I take it, and we can pay the behind interest with that, and +when we do move offen the place we won't leave debt to nobody on it, +even if we do leave--the graves." + +"Did he say--when--when he expected you to--give up the Briars?" asked +Rose Mary in a guarded tone of voice, as if she wanted to be sure of +all the facts before she told of the climax she saw had not been even +suggested to Uncle Tucker. + +"Oh, no; Gid handled the talk mighty kind-like. I think it's better to +let folks always chaw their own hard tack instead of trying to grind +it up friendly for them, cause the swalloring of the trouble has to +come in the end; but Gid minced facts faithful for me, according to +his lights. I didn't rightly make out just what he did expect, only we +couldn't go on as we were--and that I've been knowing for some time." + +"Yes, we've both known that," said Rose Mary, still suspending her +announcement, she scarcely knew why. + +"He talked like he was a-going to turn the Briars into a kinder orphan +asylum for us old folks and spread-eagled around about something he +didn't seem to be able to spit out with good sense. But I reckon I was +kinder confused by the shock and wasn't right peart myself to take in +his language." And Uncle Tucker sank into a chair, and Rose Mary could +see that he was trembling from the strain. His big eyes were sunk far +back into his head and his shoulders stooped more than she had ever +seen them. + +"Sweetie, sweetie, I can tell you what Mr. Newsome was trying to say +to you--it was about me. I--I am going to be his wife, and you and +the aunties are never, never going to leave the Briars. He has just +left here and--and, oh, I am so grateful to keep it--for you--and +them. I never thought of that--I never suspected such--a--door in our +stone wall." And Rose Mary's voice was firm and gentle, but her deep +eyes looked out over Harpeth Valley with the agony of all the ages in +their depths. + +But in hoping to conceal her tragedy Rose Mary had not counted on the +light love throws across the dark places that confront the steps of +those of our blood-bond, and in an instant Uncle Tucker's torch of +comprehension flamed high with the passion of indignation. Slowly he +rose to his feet, and the stoop in his feeble old shoulders +straightened itself out so that he stood with the height of his young +manhood. His gentle eyes lost the mysticism that had come with his +years of sorrow and baffling toil, and a stern, dignified power shone +straight out over the young woman at his side. He raised his arm and +pointed with a hand that had ceased to tremble over the valley to +where Providence Road wound itself over Old Harpeth. + +"Rose Mary," he said sternly in a quiet, decisive voice that rang with +the virility of his youth, "when the first of us Alloways came along +that wilderness trail a slip of an English girl walked by him when he +walked and rode the pillion behind him when he rode. She finished that +journey with bleeding feet in moccasins he had bought from an Indian +squaw. When they came on down into this Valley and found this spring +he halted wagons and teams and there on that hill she dropped down to +sleep, worn out with the journey. And while she was asleep he stuck a +stake at the black-curled head of her and one by the little, tired, +ragged feet. That was the measure of the front door-sill to the Briars +up there on the hill. Come generations we have fought off the Indians, +we have cleared and tilled the land, and we have gone up to the state +house to name laws and order. In our home we have welcomed traveler, +man and beast, and come sun-up each day we have worshipped at the +altar of the living God--but we've never sold one of our women yet! +The child of that English girl never leaves my arms except to go into +those of a man she loves and wants. Yes, I'm old and I've got still +older to look out for, but I can strike the trail again to-morrow, +jest so I carry the honor of my women folks along with me. We may fall +on the march, but, Rose Mary, you are a Harpeth Valley woman, and not +for sale!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EXODUS + + +"Well, it just amounts to the whole of Sweetbriar a-rising up and +declaring of a war on Gid Newsome, and I for one want to march in the +front ranks and tote a blunderbuss what I couldn't hit nothing smaller +than a barn door with if I waster try," exclaimed Mrs. Rucker as she +waited at the store for a package Mr. Crabtree was wrapping for her. + +"I reckon when the Senator hits Sweetbriar again he'll think he's +stepped into a nest of yellar jackets and it'll be a case of run or +swell up and bust," answered Mr. Crabtree as he put up the two boxes +of baking-powder for the spouse of the poet, who stood beside his wife +in the door of the store. + +"Well," said Mr. Rucker in his long drawl as he dropped himself over +the corner of the counter, "looks like the Honorable Gid kinder fooled +along and let Cupid shed a feather on him and then along come somebody +trying to pick his posey for him and in course it het him up. You all +'pear to forget that old saying that it's all's a fair fight in love +and war." + +"Yes, fight; that's the word! Take off his coat, strap his galluses +tight, spit on his hands and fight for his girl, not trade for her +like hogs," was the bomb of sentiment that young Bob exploded, much to +the amazement of the gathering of the Sweetbriar clan in the store. +Young Bob's devotion to Rose Mary, admiration for Everett and own +tender state of heart had made him become articulate with a vengeance +for this once and he spat his words out with a vehemence that made a +decided impression on his audience. + +"That are the right way to talk, Bob Nickols," said Mrs. Rucker, +bestowing a glance of approval upon the fierce young Corydon, followed +by one of scorn cast in the direction of the extenuating-circumstances +pleading Mr. Rucker. "A man's heart ain't much use to a woman if the +muscles of his arms git string-halt when he oughter fight for her. +Come a dispute the man that knocks down would keep me, not the buyer," +and this time the glance was delivered with a still greater accent. + +"Shoo, honey, you'd settle any ruckus about you 'fore it got going by +a kinder cold-word dash and pass-along," answered the poet +propitiatingly and admiringly. "But I was jest a-wondering why Mr. +Alloway and Miss Rose Mary was so--" + +"Tain't for nobody to be a-wondering over what they feels and does," +exclaimed Mrs. Rucker defensively before the query was half uttered. +"They've been hurt deep with some kind of insult and all we have got +to do is to take notice of the trouble and git to work to helping 'em +all we can. Mr. Tucker ain't said a word to nobody about it, nor have +Rose Mary, but they are a-getting ready to move the last of the week, +and I don't know where to. I jest begged Rose Mary to let me have Miss +Viney and Miss Amandy. I could move out the melojion into the kitchen +and give 'em the parlor, and welcome, too. Mis' Poteet she put in and +asked for Stonie to bed down on the pallet in the front hall with Tobe +and Billy and Sammie, and I was a-going on to plan as how Mr. Tucker +and Mr. Crabtree would stay together here, and I knew Mis' Plunkett +would admire to have Rose Mary herself, but just then she sudden put +her head down on my knee, her pretty arms around me, and held on tight +without a tear, while I couldn't do nothing but rock back and forth. +Then Mis' Poteet she cried the top of Shoofly's head so soaking wet it +give her a sneeze, and we all had to laugh. But she never answered me +what they was a-going to do, and you know, Cal Rucker, I ain't slept +nights thinking about 'em, and where they'll move, have I?" + +"Naw, you shore ain't--nor let me neither," answered the poet in a +depressed tone of voice. + +"I mighter known that Miss Viney woulder taken it up-headed and +a-lined it out in the scriptures to suit herself until she wasn't deep +in the grieving no more, but little Mis' Amandy's a-going to break my +heart, as tough as it is, if she don't git comfort soon," continued +Mrs. Rucker with a half sob. "Last night in the new moonlight I got up +to go see if I hadn't left my blue waist out in the dew, which mighter +faded it, and I saw something white over in the Briar's yard. I went +across to see if they had left any wash out that hadn't oughter be in +the dew, and there I found her in her little, short old nightgown and +big slippers with the little wored-out gray shawl 'round her shoulders +a-digging around the Maiden Blush rose-bush, putting in new dirt and +just a-crying soft to herself, all trembling and hurt. I went in and +set down by her on the damp grass, me and my rheumatism and all, took +her in my arms like she were Petie, and me and her had it out. It's +the graves she's a-grieving over, we all a-knowing that she's leaving +buried what she have never had in life, and I tried to tell her that +no matter who had the place they would let her come and--" + +"Oh, durn him, durn him! I'm a-going clear to the city to git old Gid +and beat the liver outen him!" exclaimed young Bob, while his +sunburned face worked with emotion and his gruff young voice broke as +he rose and walked to the door. + +"I wisht you would, and I'll make Cal help you," sobbed Mrs. Rucker +into a corner of her apron. Her grief was all the more impressive, as +she was, as a general thing, the balance-wheel of the whole Sweetbriar +machinery. "And I don't know what they are a-going to do," she +continued to sob. + +"Well, I know, and I've done decided," came in Mrs. Plunkett's soft +voice from the side door of the store, and it held an unwonted note of +decision in its hushed cadences. A deep pink spot burned on either +cheek, her eyes were very bright, and she kept her face turned +resolutely away from little Mr. Crabtree, over whose face there had +flashed a ray of most beautiful and abashed delight. + +"Me and Mr. Crabtree were a-talking it all over last night while Bob +and Louisa Helen were down at the gate counting lightning-bugs, they +said. They just ain't no use thinking of separating Rose Mary and Mr. +Tucker and the rest of 'em, and they must have Sweetbriar shelter, +good and tight and genteel, offered outen the love Sweetbriar has got +for 'em all. Now if I was to marry Mr. Crabtree I could all good and +proper move him over to my house and that would leave his little +three-room cottage hitched on to the store to move 'em into +comfortable. They have got a heap of things, but most of 'em could be +packed away in the barn here, what they won't let us keep for 'em. If +Mr. Crabtree has got to take holt of my farm it will keep him away +from the store, and he could give Mr. Tucker a half-interest cheap to +run it for him and that will leave Rose Mary free to help him and tend +the old folks. What do you all neighbors think of it?" + +"Now wait just a minute, Lou Plunkett," said Mr. Crabtree in a radiant +voice as he came out from around the counter and stood before her with +his eyes fairly glowing with his emotion. "Have you done decided +_yourself_? This is twixt me and you, and I don't want no Sweetbriar +present for a wife if I can help it. Have _you_ done decided?" + +"Yes, Mr. Crabtree I have, and I had oughter stopped and told you, but +I wanted to go quick as I could to see Mr. Tucker and Rose Mary. He +gave consent immediately, and looked like Rose Mary couldn't do +nothing but talk about you and how good you was. I declare I began to +get kinder proud about you right then and there, 'fore I'd even told +you as I'd have you." And the demure little widow cast a smile out +from under a curl that had fallen down into her bright eyes that was +so young and engaging that Mr. Crabtree had to lean against the +counter to support himself. His storm-tossed single soul was fairly +blinded at even this far sight of the haven of his double desires, but +it was just as well that he was dumb for joy, for Mrs. Rucker was more +than equal to the occasion. + +"Well, glory be, Lou Plunkett, if that ain't a fine piece of news!" +she exclaimed as she bestowed a hearty embrace upon the widow and one +almost as hearty upon the overcome Mr. Crabtree. "And you can't know +till you've tried what a pleasure and a comfort a second husband can +be if you manage 'em right. Single folks a-marrying are likely to gum +up the marriage certificate with some kind of a mistake until it +sticks like fly-paper, but a experienced choice generally runs smooth +like melted butter." And with a not at all unprecedented feminine +change of front Mrs. Rucker substituted a glance of unbridled pride +for the one of scorn she had lately bestowed upon the poet, under +which his wilted aspect disappeared and he also began to bloom out +with the joy of approval and congratulation. + +"And I say marrying a widow are like getting a rose some other fellow +have clipped and thorned to wear in your buttonhole, Crabtree; they +ain't nothing like 'em." Thus poet and realist made acknowledgment +each after his and her own order of mind, but actuated by the +identical feeling of contented self-congratulation. + +"I'm a-holding in for fear if I breathe on this promise of Mis' +Plunkett's it'll take and blow away. But you all have heard it spoke," +said the merry old bachelor in a voice that positively trembled with +emotion as he turned and mechanically began to sort over a box of +clothespins, mixed as to size and variety. + +"Shoo, Crabbie, don't begin by bein' afraid of your wife, jest handle +'em positive but kind and they'll turn your flapjacks peaceable and +butter 'em all with smiles," and Mr. Rucker beamed on his friend +Crabtree as he wound one of his wife's apron strings all around one of +his long fingers, a habit he had that amused him and he knew in his +secret heart teased her. + +"Now just look at Bob tracking down Providence Road a-whistling like a +partridge in the wheat for Louisa Helen. They've got love's young +dream so bad they had oughter have sassaprilla gave for it," and the +poet cast a further glance at the widow, who only laughed and looked +indulgently down the road at the retreating form of the gawky young +Adonis. + +"Hush up, Cal Rucker, and go begin chopping up fodder to feed with +come supper time," answered his wife, her usual attitude of brisk +generalship coming into her capable voice and eyes after their +softening under the strain of the varied emotions of the last half +hour in the store. "Let's me and you get mops and broom and begin on +a-cleaning up for Mr. Crabtree before his moving, Lou. I reckon you +want to go over his things before you marry him anyway, and I'll help +you. I found everything Cal Rucker had a disgrace, with Mr. +Satterwhite so neat, too." And not at all heeding the flame of +embarrassment that communicated itself from the face of the widow to +that of the sensitive Mr. Crabtree, Mrs. Rucker descended the steps of +the store, taking Mrs. Plunkett with her, for to Mrs. Rucker the state +of matrimony, though holy, was still an institution in the realm of +realism and to be treated with according frankness. + +Meanwhile over in the barn at the Briars Uncle Tucker was at work +rooting up the foundations upon which had been built his lifetime of +lordship over his fields. In the middle of the floor was a great pile +of odds and ends of old harness, empty grease cans, broken +tools, and scraps of iron. Along one side of the floor stood the +pathetically-patched old implements that told the tale of patient +saving of every cent even at the cost of much greater labor to the +fast weakening old back and shoulders. A new plow-shaft had meant a +dollar and a half, so Uncle Tucker had put forth the extra strength to +drive the dull old one along the furrows, while even the grindstone +had worn away to such unevenness that each revolution had made only +half the impression on a blade pressed to its rim and thus caused the +sharpening to take twice as long and twice the force as would have +been required on a new one. But grindstones, too, cost cents and +dollars, and Uncle Tucker had ground on patiently, even hopefully, +until this the very end. But now he stood with a thin old scythe in +his hands looking for all the world like the incarnation of Father +Time called to face the first day of the new régime of an arrived +eternity, and the bewilderment in his eyes cut into Rose Mary's heart +with an edge of which the old blade had long since become incapable. + +"Can't I help you go over things, Uncle Tucker?" she asked softly with +a smile shining for him even through the mist his eyes were too dim to +discover in hers. + +"No, child, I reckon not," he answered gently. "Looks like it helps me +to handle all these things I have used to put licks in on more'n one +good farm deal. I was just a-wondering how many big clover crops I had +mowed down with this old blade 'fore I laid it by to go riding away +from it on that new-fangled buggy reaper out there that broke down in +less'n five years, while this old friend had served its twenty-odd and +now is good for as many more with careful honing. That's it, men of my +time were like good blades what swing along steady and even, high over +rocks and low over good ground; but they don't count in these days of +the four-horse-power high-drive, cut-bind-and-deliver machines men +work right on through God's gauges of sun-up and down. But maybe in +glory come He'll walk with us in the cool of the evening while they'll +be put to measuring the jasper walls with a golden reed just to keep +themselves busy and contented. How's the resurrection in the wardrobes +and chests of drawers coming on?" And a real smile made its way into +Uncle Tucker's eyes as he inquired into the progress of the packing up +of the sisters, from which he had fled a couple hours ago. + +"They are still taking things out, talking them over and putting them +right back in the same place," answered Rose Mary with a faint echo of +his smile that tried to come to the surface bravely but had a +struggle. "We will have to try and move the furniture with it all +packed away as it is. It is just across the Road and I know everybody +will want to help me disturb their things as little as possible. Oh, +Uncle Tucker, it's almost worth the--the pain to see everybody +planning and working for us as they are doing. Friends are like those +tall pink hollyhocks that go along and bloom single on a stalk until +something happens to make them all flower out double like peonies. And +that reminds me, Aunt Viney says be sure and save some of the dry +jack-bean seed from last year you had out here in the seed press +for--" + +"Say, Rose Mamie, say, what you think we found up on top of Mr. +Crabtree's bedpost what Mis' Rucker were a-sweeping down with a +broom?" and the General's face fairly beamed with excitement as he +stood dancing in the barn door. Tobe stood close behind him and small +Peggy and Jennie pressed close to Rose Mary's side, eager but not +daring to hasten Stonie's dramatic way of making Rose Mary guess the +news they were all so impatient to impart to her. + +"Oh, what? Tell me quick, Stonie," pleaded Rose Mary with the +eagerness she knew would be expected of her. Even in her darkest +hours Rose Mary's sun had shone on the General with its usual +radiance of adoration and he had not been permitted to feel the +tragedy of the upheaval, but encouraged to enjoy to the utmost all its +small excitements. In fact the move over to the store had appealed to +a fast budding business instinct in the General and he had seen +himself soon promoted to the weighing out of sugar, wrapping up +bundles and delivering them over the counter to any one of the +admiring Swarm sent to the store for the purchase of the daily +provender. + +"It were a tree squirrel and three little just-hatched ones in a +bunch," Stonie answered with due dramatic weight at Rose Mary's plea. +"Mis' Rucker thought it were a rat and jumped on the bed and hollowed +for Tobe to ketch it, and Peg and Jennie acted just like her, too, +after Tobe and me had ketched that mouse in the barn just last week +and tied it to a string and let it run at 'em all day to get 'em used +to rats and things just like boys." And the General cast a look of +disappointed scorn at the two pigtailed heads, downcast at this +failure of theirs to respond to the General's effort to inoculate +their feminine natures with masculine courage. + +"I hollered 'fore I knewed what at," answered the abashed Jennie in a +very small voice, unconsciously making further display of the force of +her hopeless feminine heredity. But Peggy switched her small skirts in +an entirely different phase of femininity. + +"You never heard me holler," she said in a tone that was skilful +admixture of defiance and tentative propitiation. + +"'Cause you had your head hid in Jennie's back," answered the General +coolly unbeguiled. "Here is the letter we comed to bring you, Rose +Mamie, and me and Tobe must go back to help Mis' Rucker some more +clean Mr. Crabtree up. I don't reckon she needs Peg and Jennie, but +they can come if they want to," with which Stonie and Tobe, the +henchman, departed, and not at all abashed the humble small women +trailing respectfully behind them. + +"That women folks are the touch-off to the whole explosion of life is +a hard lesson to learn for some men, and Stonie Jackson is one of that +kind," observed Uncle Tucker as he looked with a quizzical expression +after the small procession. "Want me to read that letter and tell you +what's in it?" he further remarked, shifting both expression and +attention on to Rose Mary, who stood at his side. + +"No, I'll read it myself and tell you what's in it," answered Rose +Mary with a blush and a smile. "I haven't written him about our +troubles, because--because he hasn't got a position yet and I don't +want to trouble him while he is lonely and discouraged." + +"Well, I reckon that's right," answered Uncle Tucker still in a +bantering frame of mind that it delighted Rose Mary to see him +maintain under the situation. "Come trouble, some women like to blind +a man with cotton wool while they wade through the high water and +only holler for help when their petticoats are down around their +ankles on the far bank. We'll wait and send Everett a photagraf of me +and you dishing out molasses and lard as grocer clerks. And glad to do +it, too!" he added with a sudden fervor of thankfulness rising in his +voice and great gray eyes. + +"Yes, Uncle Tucker, glad and proud to do it," answered Rose Mary +quickly. "Oh, don't you know that if you hadn't seen and understood +because you loved me so, I would have felt it was right to do--to do +what was so horrible to me? I will--I will make up to you and them for +keeping me from--it. What do you suppose Mr. Newsome will do when he +finds out that you have moved and are ready to turn the place over to +him, even without any foreclosure?" + +"Well, speculating on what men are a-going to do in this life is about +like trying to read turkey tracks in the mud by the spring-house, and +I'm not wasting any time on Gid Newsome's splay-footed impressions. +Come to-morrow night I'm a-going to pull the front door to for the +last time on all of us and early next morning Tom Crabtree's a-going +to take the letter and deed down to Gid in his office in the city for +me. Don't nobody have to foreclose on me; I hand back my debt dollar +for dollar outen my own pocket without no duns. To give up the land +immediate are just simple justice to him, and I'm a-leaving the Lord +to deal with him for trying to _buy_ a woman in her time of trouble. +We haven't told it on him and we are never a-going to. I wisht I could +make the neighbors all see the jestice in his taking over the land and +not feel so spited at him. I'm afraid it will lose him every vote +along Providence Road. 'Tain't right!" + +"I know it isn't," answered Rose Mary. "But when Mrs. Rucker speaks +her mind about him and Bob chokes and swells up my heart gets warm. Do +you suppose it's wrong to let a friend's trouble heat sympathy to the +boiling point? But if you don't need me I'm going down to the +milk-house to work out my last batch of butter before they come to +drive away my cows." And Rose Mary hurried down the lilac path before +Uncle Tucker could catch a glimpse of the tears that rose at the idea +of having to give up the beloved Mrs. Butter and her tribe of +gentle-eyed daughters. + +And as she stood in the cool gray depths of the old milk-house Rose +Mary's gentle heart throbbed with pain as she pressed the great cakes +of the golden treasure back and forth in the blue bowl, for it was a +quiet time and Rose Mary was tearing up some of her own roots. Her sad +eyes looked out over Harpeth Valley, which lay in a swoon with the +midsummer heat. The lush blue-grass rose almost knee deep around the +grazing cattle in the meadows, and in the fields the green grain was +fast turning to a harvest hue. Almost as far as her eyes could reach +along Providence Road and across the pastures to Providence Nob, +beyond Tilting Rock, the land was Alloway land and had been theirs for +what seemed always. She could remember what each good-by to it all had +been when she had gone out over the Ridge in her merry girlhood and +how overflowing with joy each return. Then had come the time when it +had become still dearer as a refuge into which she could bring her +torn heart for its healing. + +And such a healing the Valley had given her! It had poured the +fragrance of its blooming springs and summers over her head, she had +drunk the wine of forgetfulness in the cup of long Octobers and the +sting of its wind and rain and snow on her cheeks had brought back the +grief-faded roses. The arms of the hearty Harpeth women had been +outheld to her, and in turn she had had their babies and troubles laid +on her own breast for her and their comforting. She had been mothered +and sistered and brothered by these farmer folk with a very +prodigality of friendship, and to-day she realized more than ever +with positive exultation that she was brawn of their brawn and built +of their building. + +And then to her, a woman of the fields, had come down Providence Road +over the Ridge from the great world outside--the _miracle_. She +slipped her hand into her pocket for just one rapturous crush of the +treasure-letter when suddenly it was borne in upon her that it might +be that even that must come to an end for her. Stay she must by her +nest of helpless folk, and was it with futile wings he was breasting +the great outer currents of which she was so ignorant? His letters +told her nothing of what he was doing, just were filled to the word +with half-spoken love and longing and, above all, with a great +impatience about what, or for what, it was impossible for her to +understand. She could only grieve over it and long to comfort him with +all the strength of her love for him. And so with thinking, puzzling +and sad planning the afternoon wore away for her and sunset found her +at the house putting the household in order and to bed with her usual +cheery fostering of creaking joints and cumbersome retiring +ceremonies. + +At last she was at liberty to fling her exhausted body down on the +cool, patched, old linen sheets of the great four-poster which had +harbored many of her foremothers and let herself drift out on her own +troubled waters. Wrapped in the compassionate darkness she was giving +way to the luxury of letting the controlled tears rise to her eyes and +the sobs that her white throat ached from suppressing all day were +echoing on the stillness when a voice came from the little cot by her +bed and the General in disheveled nightshirt and rumpled head rose by +her pillow and stood with uncertain feet on his own springy place of +repose. + +"Rose Mamie," he demanded in an awestruck tone of voice that fairly +trembled through the darkness, "are you a-crying?" + +"Yes, Stonie," she answered in a shame-forced gurgle that would have +done credit to Jennie Rucker in her worst moments of abasement before +the force of the General. + +"Does your stomach hurt you?" he demanded in a practical though +sympathetic tone of voice, for so far in his journey along life's road +his sleep had only been disturbed by retributive digestive causes. + +"No," sniffed Rose Mary with a sob that was tinged with a small laugh. +"It's my heart, darling," she added, the sob getting the best of the +situation. "Oh, Stonie, Stonie!" + +"Now, wait a minute, Rose Mamie," exclaimed the General as he climbed +up and perched himself on the edge of the big bed. "Have you done +anything you are afraid to tell God about?" + +"No," came from the depths of Rose Mary's pillow. + +"Then don't cry because you think Mr. Mark ain't coming back, like +Mis' Rucker said she was afraid you was grieving about when she +thought I wasn't a-listening. He's a-coming back. Me and him have got +a bargain." + +"What about, Stonie?" came in a much clearer voice from the pillow, +and Rose Mary curled herself over nearer to the little bird perched on +the edge of her bed. + +"About a husband for you," answered Stonie in the reluctant voice that +a man usually uses when circumstances force him into taking a woman +into his business confidence. "Looked to me like everybody here was +a-going to marry everybody else and leave you out, so I asked him to +get you one up in New York and I'd pay him for doing it. He's a-going +to bring him here on the cars his own self lest he get away before I +get him." And the picture that rose in Rose Mary's mind, of the +reluctant husband being dragged to her at the end of a tether by +Everett, cut off the sob instantly. + +"What--what did you--he say when you asked him about--getting the +husband--for you--for me?" asked Rose Mary in a perfect agony of mirth +and embarrassment. + +"Let me see," said Stonie, and he paused as he tried to repeat +Everett's exact words, which had been spoken in a manner that had +impressed them on the General at the time. "He said that you wasn't +a-going to have no husband but the best kind if he had to kill +him--no, he said that if he was to have to go dead hisself he would +come and bring him to me, when he got him good enough for you by doing +right and such." + +"Was that all?" asked Rose Mary with a gurgle that was well nigh +ecstatic, for through her had shot a quiver of hope that set every +pulse in her body beating hot and strong, while her cheeks burned in +the cool linen of her pillow and her eyes fairly glowed into the +night. + +"About all," answered the General, beginning to yawn with the +interrupted slumber. "I told him your children would have to mind me +and Tobe when we spoke to 'em. He kinder choked then and said all +right. Then we bear-hugged for keeps until he comes again. I'm sleepy +now!" + +"Oh, Stonie, darling, thank you for waking up and coming to comfort +Rose Mamie," she said, and from its very fullness a happy little sob +escaped from her heart. + +"I tell you, Rose Mamie," said the General, instantly, again +sympathetically alarmed, "I'd better come over in your bed and go to +sleep. You can put your head on my shoulder and if you cry, getting me +wet will wake me up to keep care of you agin, 'cause I am so sleepy +now if you was to holler louder than Tucker Poteet I wouldn't wake up +no more." And suiting his actions to his proposition the General +stretched himself out beside Rose Mary, buried his touseled head on +her pillow and presented a diminutive though sturdy little shoulder, +against which she instantly laid her soft cheek. + +"You scrouge just like the puppy," was his appreciative comment of +her gentle nestling against his little body. "Now I'm going to sleep, +but if praying to God don't keep you from crying, then wake me up," +and with this generous and really heroic offer the General drifted off +again into the depths, into which he soon drew Rose Mary with him, +comforted by his faith and lulled in his strong little arms. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND + + +And the next morning a threatening, scowling, tossed-cloud dawn +brought the day over the head of Old Harpeth down upon little +Sweetbriar, which awakened with one accord to a sense of melancholy +oppression. A cool, dust-laden wind blew down Providence Road, twisted +the branches of the tall maples along the way, tore roughly at the +festoons of blooming vines over the gables of the Briars, startled the +nestled doves into a sad crooning, whipped mercilessly at the row of +tall hollyhocks along the garden fence, flaunted the long spikes of +jack-beans and carried their quaint fragrance to pour it over the bed +of sober-colored mignonette, mixing it with the pungent zinnia odor +and flinging it all over into the clover field across the briar +hedge. The jovial old sun did his very best to light up the situation, +but just as he would succeed in getting a ray down into the Valley a +great puffy cloud would cast a gray shadow of suppression over his +effort and retire him sternly for another half hour. + +And on the wings of the intruding, out-of-season wind came a train of +ills. Young Tucker Poteet waked at daylight and howled dismally with a +pain that seemed to be all over and then in spots. When he went to +take down the store shutters Mr. Crabtree smashed one of his large, +generous-spreading thumbs and Mrs. Rucker's breakfast eggs burned to a +cinder state while she tied it up in camphor for him. In the night a +mosquito had taken a bite out of the end of Jennie's small nose and it +was swelled to twice its natural size, and Peter, the wise, barked a +plump shin before he was well out of the trundle bed. One of young +Bob's mules broke away and necessitated a trip half way up to +Providence for his capture, and Mrs. Plunkett had Louisa Helen so +busy at some domestic manoeuvers that she found it impossible to go +with him. + +And before noon the whole village was in a fervid state of commotion. +Mrs. Rucker had insisted on moving Mr. Crabtree and all his effects +over into the domicile of his prospective bride, regardless of both +her and his abashed remonstrance. + +"Them squeems are all foolishness, Lou Plunkett," she had answered a +faint plea from the widow for a delay until after the ceremony for +this material mingling of the to-be-united lives. "It's all right and +proper for you and Mr. Crabtree to be married at night meeting Sunday, +and his things won't be unmarried in your house only through Saturday +and Sunday. I'm a-going to pack up his Sunday clothes, a pair of clean +socks, a shirt and other things in this basket. Then I'll fix him up a +shake-down in my parlor to spend Saturday night in, and I'll dress him +up nice and fine for the wedding you may be sure. We ain't got but +this day to move him out and clean up the house good to move Rose Mary +and the old folks into early Saturday morning, so just come on and get +to work. You can shut your eyes to his things setting around your +house for just them one day or two, can't you?" + +"They ain't nothing in this world I couldn't do to make it just the +littlest mite easier for Rose Mary and them sweet old folks, even to +gettin' my house into a unseemly married condition before hand," +answered Mrs. Plunkett as she brushed a tear away from her blue eyes. + +"That's the way we all feel," said Mrs. Rucker. "Now if I was you I'd +give Mr. Crabtree that middle bureau drawer. Men are apt to poke +things away careless if they has the top, and the bottom one is best +to use for your own things. Mr. Satterwhite always kept his clothes so +it were a pleasure to look at 'em, but Cal Rucker prefers a pair of +socks separated across the house if he can get them there. I found +one of his undershirts full of mud and stuck away in the kitchen safe +with the cup towels last week. There comes Mis' Poteet to help at +last! I never heard anything yell like Tucker has been doing all +morning. Is he quiet at last, Mis' Poteet?" + +"Yes, I reckon he's gave out all the holler that's in him, but I'm +afraid to put him down," and Mrs. Poteet continued the joggling, +swaying motion to a blue bundle on her breast that she had been +administering as a continuous performance to young Tucker since +daylight. "I'm sorry I couldn't come help you all with the moving, but +you can count on my mop and broom over to the store all afternoon, +soon as I can turn him over to the children." + +"We ain't needed you before, but now we have got Mr. Crabtree all +settled down here with Mrs. Plunkett we can get to work on his house +right after dinner. Have you been over to the Briars to see 'em in the +last hour?" + +"Yes, I come by there, but they didn't seem to need me. Miss Viney +has got Miss Amandy and Tobe and the General at work, and Rose Mary +has gone down to the dairy to pack up the last batch of butter for Mr. +Crabtree to take to the city in the morning. Mr. Tucker's still going +over things in the barn, and my feelings riz so I had to come away for +fear of me and little Tucker both busting out crying." + +And over at the Briars the scenes of exodus being enacted were well +calculated to touch a heart sterner than that of the gentle, +sympathetic and maternal Mrs. Poteet. Chilled by the out-of-season +wind Miss Lavinia had awakened with as bad a spell of rheumatism as +she had had for a year and it was with the greatest difficulty that +Rose Mary had succeeded in rubbing down the pain to a state where she +could be propped up in bed to direct little Miss Amanda and the +children in the last sad rites of getting things into shape to be +carried across the road at the beginning of the morrow, which was the +day Uncle Tucker had sternly set as that of his abdication. + +Feebly, Miss Amanda tottered about trying to carry out her sister's +orders and patiently the General and Tobe labored to help her, though +their hearts were really over at the store, where the rest of the +Swarm were, in the midst of the excitement of Mr. Crabtree's change of +residence. In all their young lives of varied length they had never +before had an opportunity to witness the upheaval of a moving and this +occasion was frought with a well-nigh insupportable fascination. The +General's remaining at the post of family duty and his command of his +henchman to the same sacrifice was indeed remarkable, though in a way +pathetic. + +"You, Stonewall Jackson, don't handle those chiny vases careless!" +commanded Aunt Viney in a stern voice. "Put 'em in the basket right +side up, for they were your great grandmother's wedding-present from +Mister Bradford from Arkansas." + +"Yes'm," answered Stonie, duly impressed. "But I've done packed 'em in +four different baskets for you, and if this one don't do all right, +can't me and Tobe together carry 'em over the Road to-morrow careful +for you, Aunt Viney?" + +"Well, yes, then you can take 'em out and set 'em back in their +places," answered Miss Lavinia, which order was carried out faithfully +by the General, with a generous disregard of the fact that he had been +laboring over them under a fire of directions for more than a +half-hour. + +"Now, Amandy, come away from those flower cans and get out the grave +clothes from the bureau drawers and let the boys wrap them in that old +sheet first and then in the newspapers and then put 'em in that box +trunk with brass tacks over there!" directed Miss Lavinia as Miss +Amandy wandered over by the window, along which stood a row of tomato +cans into which were stuck slips of all the vines and plants on the +land of the Briars, ready for transportation across Providence Road +when the time came. There was something so intensely pathetic in this +effort of the fast-fading little old woman to begin to bud from the +old life flower-plants to blossom in a new one, into which she could +hardly expect to make more than the shortest journey, that even the +General's young and inexperienced heart was moved to a quick +compassion. + +"I'm a-going to carry the flowers over and plant 'em careful for you, +Aunt Amandy," he said as he sidled up close to her and put his arm +around her with a protective gesture. "We'll water 'em twice a day and +just _make_ 'em grow, won't we, Tobe?" + +"Bucketfuls 'til we drap," answered Tobe with a sympathy equal to and +a courage as great as that of his superior officer. + +"Is the blue myrtle sprig often the graves holding up its leaves, +Amandy?" asked Miss Lavinia in a softened tone of voice. + +"Yes, it's doing fine," answered Miss Amandy, bending over to the last +of the row of cans. + +"Then come on and get out the burying things and let's get that job +over," Miss Lavinia continued to insist. "Don't get our things mixed! +Remember that my grave shift has got nothing but a seemly stitched +band on it while you would have linen lace on yours. And don't let +anything get wrinkled. I don't want to rise on Judgment Day looking +like I needed the pressing of a hot iron. Now pull out the trunk, +boys, lift out the tray so as I can--" + +But at this juncture Rose Mary appeared at the door with a tray on +which stood a bowl of soup, and Miss Lavinia lay back on her pillows +weakly, with the fire all gone out of her eyes and exhaustion written +on every line of her determined old face. + +"Go get dinner, everybody, so we can get back to work," she directed +weakly as she raised the spoon to her lips and then rested a moment +before she could take another sip. And with the last spoonful she +looked up and whispered to Rose Mary, "You'll have to do the rest +child, I can't drive any farther with a broke heart. I've got to lay +myself in the arms of prayer and go to sleep." And so rested, Rose +Mary left her. + +Then finding the motive powers which had been driving her removed, +little Miss Amandy stole away to the cedar grove behind the garden +fence, the boys scampered with the greatest glee across the Road to +the scene of mop and broom action behind the store, and Uncle Tucker +stiffly mounted old Gray to drive the cows away to their separate +homes. The thrifty neighbors had been glad to buy and pay him cash for +the sleek animals, and their price had been the small capital which +had been available for Uncle Tucker to embark on the commercial seas +in partnership with Mr. Crabtree. + +Thus left to herself in the old house, Rose Mary wandered from room to +room trying to put things in shape for the morrow's moving and +breasting her deep waters with what strength she could summon. Up to +this last day some strange hope had buoyed her up, and it was only at +this moment when the inevitable was so plainly closing down upon her +and her helpless old people that the bitterness of despair rose in her +heart. Against the uprooting of their feebleness her whole nature +cried out, and the sacrifice that had been offered her in the +milk-house days before, seemed but a small price to pay to avert the +tragedy. Doubt of herself and her motives assailed her, and she +quivered in every nerve when she thought that thus she had failed +them. What! Was she to save herself and let the sorrow fall on their +bent shoulders? Was it too late? Her heart answered her that it was, +for her confession of horror of her purchaser to Uncle Tucker had cut +off any hope of deceiving him and she knew he would be burned at the +stake before he would let her make the sacrifice. She was helpless, +helpless to safeguard them from this sorrow, as helpless as they +themselves! + +For a long hour she stood at the end of the porch, looking across at +Providence Nob, behind whose benevolent head the storm clouds of the +day were at last sinking, lit by the glow of the fast-setting sun. The +wind had died down and a deep peace was settling over the Valley, like +a benediction from the coming night. Just for strength to go on, Rose +Mary prayed out to the dim, blue old ridge and then turned to her +ministrations to her assembling household. + +Uncle Tucker was so tired that he hardly ate the supper set before +him, and before the last soft rays of the sun had entirely left the +Valley he had smoked his pipe and gone to bed. + +And soon in his wake retired the General, with two of the small dogs +to bear him company in his white cot. But the settling of Miss Lavinia +for the night had been long, and had brought Rose Mary almost to the +point of exhaustion. Tired out by her afternoon over in the little +graveyard, Miss Amanda had not the strength to read the usual chapters +of retiring service that Miss Lavinia always required of her, and so +Rose Mary drew the candle close beside the bed and attempted to go on +with her rubbing and read at the same time. And though, if read she +must, the very soul of Rose Mary panted for the comfort of some of the +lines of the Sweet Singer, Aunt Viney held her strictly to the words +of her favorite thunderer, Jeremiah, and little Aunt Amandy bunched up +under the cover across the bed fairly shook with terror as she buried +her head in her pillow to keep out the rolling words of invective that +began with an awful "_Harken_" and ended with "_Woe is me now, for my +soul is wearied_!" + +"Now," concluded Miss Lavinia, "you can put out the light. Rose Mary, +and if me and Amandy was to open our eyes on the other side of the +river it would be but a good thing for us. Lay the Bible in that +newspaper on top of that pile of _Christian Advocates_, with a string +to tie 'em all up after morning lesson, to be carried away. The Lord +bless and keep you, child, and don't forget to latch the front door on +us all for the last time!" + +Softly Rose Mary drew the door partly closed and left them in the +quiet of the fast-deepening purple dusk. She peeped into Uncle +Tucker's room and assured herself by his sonorous breathing that rest +at last was comforting him, and for a moment in her own room she bent +over the little cot where the General and his two spotted servitors +lay curled up in a tangle and fast in the depths of sleep. Then she +opened wide the old hall door that had for more than a century swung +over the sill marked off by the length of the intrepid English +foremother who had tramped the wilderness trail to possess what she, +herself, was giving up. + +And as she stood desperate, at bay, with her nest storm tossed and +threatened, suddenly the impossibility of it all came down upon her, +and stern with a very rigidity of resolve she went into the house, +lighted a candle by the old desk in the hall, and wrote swiftly a few +words of desperate summons to the Senator. She knew that Friday night +always found him over the fields at Boliver, and she told him briefly +the situation and asked him to come over in the early morning to the +rescue--and sacrifice. + +When she had first come out on the porch she had seen young Bob ride +up to the store on one of his colts, and she ran fleetly down to the +front gate and called to him. He consented instantly to ride over and +deliver the note for her, but he shot an uneasy glance at her from +beneath his wide hat as he put the letter in his pocket. + +"Is anything wrong, Miss Rose Mary?" he asked anxiously but +respectfully. + +"No, Bob, dear, nothing that--that I can't make--right," she answered +in a soft, tearless voice, and as he got on his horse and rode away +she came slowly up the long front walk that was moonflecked from the +leaves of the tall trees. Then once more she stood on the old door +sill--at bay. + +And as she looked at the old Ridge across the sweet, blooming +clover-fields, with the darkened house behind her, again the waters of +despair rose breast-high and heart-high, beat against her aching +throat and were just about to dash over her head as she stretched out +one arm to the hills and with a broken cry bent her white forehead in +the curve of the other, but suddenly bent head, tear-blinded eyes, +quivering breast and supplicating arms were folded tight in a strong +embrace and warm, thirsty lips pressed against the tears on her +cheeks as Everett's voice with a choke and a gulp made its way into +her consciousness. + +"I feel like shaking the very life out of you, Rose Mary Alloway," was +his tender form of greeting. + +"You're squeezing it out," came in all the voice that Rose Mary could +command for an answer. And the broad-shouldered, burden-bearing, +independent woman that was the Rose of Old Harpeth melted into just a +tender girl who crushed her heart against her lover's and clung as +meekly as any slip of vine to her young lord oak. "But I don't care," +she finished up under his chin. And Everett's laugh that greeted and +accepted her unexpected meekness rang through the hall and brought a +commotion in answer. + +The wee dogs, keen both of ear and scent, shot like small electric +volts from Stonie's couch, hurled themselves through the hall and +sprang almost waist-high against Everett's side in a perfect ecstasy +of welcome. They yelped and barked and whined and nosed in a tumbling +heap of palpitating joy until he was obliged to hold Rose Mary in one +arm while he made an attempt to respond to and abate their enthusiasm +with the other. + +"Now, now, that's all right! Nice dogs, nice dogs!" he was answering +and persuading, when a stern call from the depths of Miss Lavinia's +room, the door of which Rose Mary had left ajar, abstracted her from +Everett's arm on the instant and sent her hurrying to answer the +summons. + +"Is that young man come back? and light the candle," Miss Lavinia +demanded and commanded in the same breath. And just as Rose Mary +flared up the dim light on the table by the bed Everett himself stood +in the doorway. With one glance his keen eyes took in the situation in +the dim room in which the two old wayfarers lay prepared for the +morning journey, and what Miss Lavinia's stately and proper greeting +would have been to him none of them ever knew, for with a couple of +strides he was over by the bed at Rose Mary's side and had taken the +stern old lady into his strong arms and landed a kiss on the ruffle of +white nightcap just over her left ear. + +"No leaving the Briars this season, Miss Lavinia," he said in a +laughing, choking voice as he bent across and extracted one of little +Miss Amandy's hands from the tight bunch she had curled herself into +under the edge of her pillow and bestowed a squeeze thereon. "It's all +fixed up over at Boliver this afternoon. There's worse than oil on the +place--and it's all yours now for keeps." With Rose Mary in his arms +Everett had entirely forgotten to announce to her such a minor fact as +the saving of her lands and estate, but to the two little old ladies +his sympathy had made him give the words of reprieve with his first +free breath. The bundles on the floor and the old trunk had smote his +heart with a fierce pain that the impulsive warmth of his greeting +and the telling of his rescue could only partly ease. + +"The news only reached me day before--" he was going on to explain +when, candle in hand, Uncle Tucker appeared in the doorway. His +long-tailed night-shirt flapped around his bare, thin old legs, and +every separate gray lock stood by itself and rampant, while his eyes +seemed deeper and more mystic than ever. + +"Well, what's all this ruckus?" he demanded as he peered at them +across the light of his candle. "Have any kind of cyclone blowed you +from New York clean across here to Harpeth Valley, boy?" + +"He has come back with the mercy of our Lord in his hands to save our +home; and you go put on your pants before your pipes get chilled, +Tucker Alloway," answered Aunt Viney in her most militant tone of +voice. "And, Rose Mary, you can take that young man on out of here now +so Amandy can take that shame-faced head of hers out of that feather +pillow. It's all on account of that tored place in her night-cap I +told her to mend. You needn't neither of you come back no more, +because we must get to sleep, so as to be ready to unpack before +sun-up and get settled back for the day. And don't you go to bed, +neither one of you, without reading Jeremiah twelfth, first to last +verse, and me and Amandy will do the same." With which Everett found +himself dismissed with a seeming curtness which he could plainly see +was an heroic control of emotion in the feeble old stoic who was +trembling with exhaustion. + +Uncle Tucker, called to account for the lack of warmth and also +propriety in his attire, had hastened back to his own apartment and +Everett found him sitting up in his bed, lighting the old cob with +trembling fingers but with his excitement well under control. He +listened intently to Everett's hurried but succinct account of the +situation and crisis in his own and the Alloway business affairs, as +he puffed away, and his old eyes lighted with excitement at the rush +of the tale of high finance. + +And when at last Everett paused for lack of breath, after his dramatic +climax, the old philosopher lay back on his high-piled feather pillows +and blinked out into the candle-light, puffed in silence for a few +minutes, then made answer in his own quizzical way with a radiant +smile from out under his beetling white brows: + +"Well," he said between puffs, "looks like fortune is, after all, a +curious bird without even tail feathers to steer by nor for a man to +ketch by putting salt on. Gid failed both with a knife in the back and +a salt shaker to ketch it, but you were depending on nothing but a +ringdove coo, as far as I can see, when it hopped in your hand. I +reckon you'll get your answer." + +"Are you willing--to have me ask for it, Mr. Alloway?" asked Everett +with a radiant though slightly embarrassed smile. + +"Yes," answered Uncle Tucker as he knocked the ashes out of his pipe +against the table and looked straight into Everett's eyes. "After a +man has plowed a honest, straight-furrowed field in life it's no +more'n fair for Providence to send a-loving, trusting woman to meet +him at the bars. Good night, and don't forget to latch the front door +when you have finally torn yourself away from that moonlight!" + +And the call of the young moon that came with the warm garden-scented +gusts of winds that were sweeping across Harpeth Valley was a riot in +Everett's veins as he made his way through the silent hall toward the +moonlit porch on the top step of which he could see Rose Mary sitting +in the soft light, but a lusty young snore from a dark room on the +left made him remember that there was one greeting he had missed. He +bent over the General's little cot, across which lay a long shaft of +the white light from the hilltops, and was about to press his lips on +the warm, breath-stirred ones of the small boy, but he restrained +himself in time from offering to the General in his defenseless sleep +what would have been an insult to him awake, and contented himself +with a most cautious and manly clasp of the chubby little hand. + +"Ketch it, Tobe, ketch it--don't let Aunt Viney's vase be broked," +murmured Stonie as he turned on his side and buried his head still +deeper in the pillow. + +"No, General, Aunt Viney's vase--is--not going to be broken, thank +God," answered Everett under his breath as he turned away and left the +General, who, even in sleep, carried his responsibilities sturdily. + +"Rose Mary," he said a little later as he stood on the bottom step +below her, so that his eyes were just on a level with hers as she sat +and smiled down upon him, "for a woman, you have very little +curiosity. Don't you want to ask me where I've been, why I went and +what I've been doing every minute since I left you? Can it be +indifference that makes you thus ignore your feminine prerogative of +the inquisition?" + +"I'm beginning at being glad you are here. Joy's just the white foam +at the top of the cup, and it ought not to be blown away, no +matter--how thirsty one is, ought it? Now tell me what brought you +back--to save me," and Rose Mary held out her hand, with one of her +lovely, entreating gestures, while her eyes were full of tender tears. +And it was with difficulty that Everett held himself to a condition to +tell her what he wanted her to know without any further delay. + +"Well," he answered as he raised his lips from a joy draft at the cup +of her pink palms, "the immediate cause was a telegram that came +Tuesday night. It said '_Gid sells out Mr. Tucker and wants your +girl_,' and it was signed '_Bob_.' All these weeks a bunch of hard old +goldbugs had been sitting in conclave, weighing my evidence and +reports and making one inadequate syndicating offer after another. +They were teetering here and balancing there, but at eleven o'clock +Wednesday morning the cyclone that blew me down here across Old +Harpeth originated in the directors' rooms of the firm, and I guess +the old genties are gasping yet. + +"I had that telegram in my pocket, tickets for the three-o'clock +Southern express folded beside 'em, and I put enough daylight into my +proposition to dazzle the whole conclave into setting signatures to +papers they'd been moling over for weeks. I don't know what did it, +but they signed up and certified checks in one large hurry. + +"Then I beat it and never drew breath until I made the Farmers' and +Traders' Bank in Boliver this afternoon, covered those notes of Mr. +Alloways, killed that mortgage and hit Providence Road for Sweetbriar. +I met Bob out about a mile from town, and he put me next to the whole +situation and gave _me_ your note. I don't know which I came nearest +to, swearing or crying, but the Plunkett-Crabtree news made me raise +a shout instead of either. But if I did what I truly ought, Rose Mary +Alloway, I _would_ shake the life out of you for not writing me about +it all. I may do it yet." + +"Please don't!" answered Rose Mary with a little smile that still held +its hint of the suffering she had gone through. "I thought you were +out of work yourself and couldn't help us, and I didn't want to +trouble you. It would have hurt you so to know if you couldn't help +me, and I didn't--" + +"God, that's it! Fool that I was to go away and risk leaving you +without an understanding!" exclaimed Everett in a bitterly reproachful +tone of voice. "But I was afraid to let you know what I had discovered +until I could get the money to settle that mortgage. I was afraid that +you or Mr. Alloway would unconsciously let him get a hint of the find, +and I knew he could and would foreclose any minute. He was suspicious +of me and my prospecting, anyway, and as he was an old, and as you +both thought, tested friend, what way did I have of proving him the +slob I knew him to be? I thought it best to go and get the company +formed, the option money paid to cover the mortgage and all of it out +of his hands before he could have any chance to get into the game at +all. And that was really the best way to manage it--only I hadn't +counted on his swooping down on--you. Again, God, what I risked!" + +"Yes," answered Rose Mary in a voice that barely controlled the cold +horror of the thought that rose between them, "it almost happened. I +thought I ought to--to save them, even if Uncle Tucker wouldn't +let me, and I gave Bob that note--to--to him. It almost +happened--to-morrow. Quick, hold me close--don't let me think about +it--ever!" and Rose Mary shuddered in the crush of Everett's arms. + +[Illustration: "You won't ever leave me any more?"] + +"Out in the world, Rose Mary," said Everett as he lifted his lips +from hers, "it would have happened--the tragedy, and you would have +been the loot; but down here in Harpeth Valley they grow men like your +Uncle Tucker, and they turn, by a strange motive power, wheels that do +not crush, but--lift. I left you in danger because I had schemed it +out in my world's way, fool, fool that I--" + +"Please, please don't say things about yourself like that to me," +pleaded Rose Mary, quickly raising her head and smiling through her +tears at him. "Go on and tell me what you did find out there in the +pasture; don't blow off any more of my foam!" + +"Cobalt, if you care to know," answered Everett with an excited laugh, +"the richest deposit in the States I found out--beats a gold mine all +hollow. I came on it almost accidentally while testing for the allied +metals up the creek. Your money will grow in bunches now, for the +biggest and the best mining syndicate in New York has taken it up. +You can just shake down the dollars and do what you please from now +on." + +"You'll have to do that sort of orchard work, I'll be busy in the +house," answered Rose Mary, with a rapturous, breathless shyness, and +she held out her hand to him with the most lovely of all her little +gestures of entreaty. "You promised once to farm for me and--you won't +ever leave--_ever_ leave me any more, will you?" + +"No, never," answered Everett as he took both her hands and at arms' +length pressed them against his breast, "I'm not going to enact over +again the rôle of poor chap obliged to be persuaded into matrimony by +heiress, but I'm going to take my own and buckle down and see that you +people get every cent of that dig-up that's coming to you. With the +reputation this find gives me I'll be able to jolly well grubstake +with commissions from now on, but I'll hit no trail after this with a +mule-pack that can't carry double, Mary of the Rose." + +"And that doesn't always lead back in just a little time to--to the +nesties?" she asked with the dove stars deep in the pools of her eyes, +while ever so slightly her hands drew him toward her. + +"Always a blazed, short cut when they need--us," he answered, +yielding, then paused a moment and held himself from her and said, +looking deep into the eyes raised to his, "Truly, rose woman, am I +that beggar-man who came over the Ridge, cold, and in the tatters of +his disillusion? Do you suppose Old Harpeth has given me this warm +garment of ideals that wraps me now for keeps?" + +"Of course, he has, for it's made for you of your--Father's love. And +isn't it--rose-colored?" + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rose of Old Harpeth, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSE OF OLD HARPETH *** + +***** This file should be named 15195-8.txt or 15195-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/9/15195/ + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Riikka +Talonpoika and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/15195-8.zip b/15195-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1971ee --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-8.zip diff --git a/15195-h.zip b/15195-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0ff2305 --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-h.zip diff --git a/15195-h/15195-h.htm b/15195-h/15195-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96c43c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-h/15195-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5843 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Rose Of Old Harpeth, by Maria Thompson Daviess. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {border: none; margin-left: 25%; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .trans {border: dashed 1px; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + } + + .transtxt {margin-left: 3%; + margin-right: 3%; + font-size: 0.8em;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rose of Old Harpeth, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rose of Old Harpeth + +Author: Maria Thompson Daviess + +Release Date: February 28, 2005 [EBook #15195] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSE OF OLD HARPETH *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Riikka +Talonpoika and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>ROSE OF OLD HARPETH</h1><br /> + +<p class="figcenter"><a href="images/illustr01.jpg"><img width="50%" border="0" src="./images/illustr01.jpg" alt="Rose Mary" +title="Rose Mary" /></a></p> +<p class="figcenter"><span class="smcap"><br />Rose Mary</span></p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h1>ROSE OF OLD HARPETH</h1><br /> + + +<h2>BY MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS</h2><br /><br /> + + +<h3>Author of "Miss Selina Lue," "The Road to Providence,"<br /> +"The Melting of Molly," etc.</h3><br /> + + +<p class="figcenter"><img border="0" src="./images/illustr02.jpg" alt="" +title="" /></p> +<br /> + + +<h3>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</h3> + +<h3>By W.B. KING</h3><br /> + + +<p class="center">A.L. BURT COMPANY</p> + +<p class="center">PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</p> + +<p class="center">1911</p> + +<p class="center">THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY +</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>I DEDICATE</h4> + +<h3>ROSE MARY</h3> + +<h5>TO MY MOTHER</h5> + +<h4>LEONORA HAMILTON DAVIESS</h4> + +<h5>AND THE WHOLE BOOK</h5> + +<h5>TO MY GRANDMOTHER</h5> + +<h4>MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<br /> +<div class="trans"><p class="transtxt"><i>Transcriber's Note:</i> There was no 'Contents' in the original +book, but it is added here for the ease of use of this html version.</p></div><br /> +<br /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS" />CONTENTS.</h2><br /><br /> +<br /> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" width="60%" summary="Table of Contents"> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter I.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><span class="smcap">Rose Mary Of Sweetbriar</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter II.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><span class="smcap">The Folks-Garden</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter III.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><span class="smcap">At The Court Of Dame Nature</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter IV.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><span class="smcap">Moonlight And Apple-Blow</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter V.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><span class="smcap">The Honorable Gid</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter VI.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><span class="smcap">The Enemy, The Rod And The Staff</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter VII.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><span class="smcap">The Satsuma Vase</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter VIII.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><span class="smcap">Uncle Tucker's Torch</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter IX.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><span class="smcap">The Exodus</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Chapter X.</span></td><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><span class="smcap">In The Hollow Of His Hand</span></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td><td align='left'> </td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<!-- Page 1 --> +<h2><a name="ROSE_OF_OLD_HARPETH" id="ROSE_OF_OLD_HARPETH" />ROSE OF OLD HARPETH</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" />CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h2>ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR</h2><br /> + + +<p>"Why, don't you know nothing in the world compliments a loaf of bread +like the asking for a fourth slice," laughed Rose Mary as she reached +up on the stone shelf above her head and took down a large crusty loaf +and a long knife. "Thick or thin?" she asked as she raised her lashes +from her blue eyes for a second of hospitable inquiry.</p> + +<p>"Thin," answered Everett promptly, "but two with the butter sticking +'em together. Please be careful with that weapon! It's as good as a +juggler's show to watch you, but it makes me slightly—solicitous." As +he spoke he seated himself on the corner of the wide stone table as +near to Rose Mary and the long knife as seemed advisable. A ray of +sunlight <!-- Page 2 -->fell through the door of the milk-house and cut across his +red head to lose itself in Rose Mary's close black braids.</p> + +<p>"Make it four," he further demanded over the table.</p> + +<p>"Indeed and I will," answered Rose Mary delightedly. And as she spoke +she held the loaf against her breast and drew the knife through the +slices in a fascinatingly dangerous manner. At the intentness of his +regard the color rose up under the lashes that veiled her eyes, and +she hugged the loaf closer with her left hand. "Would you like six?" +she asked innocently, as the fourth stroke severed the last piece.</p> + +<p>"Just go on and slice it all up," he answered with a laugh. "I'd +rather watch you than eat."</p> + +<p>"Wait till I butter these for you and then you can eat—and watch +me—me finish working the butter. Won't that do as well? Think what an +encouragement your interest will be to me! Really, nothing in the +world paces <!-- Page 3 -->a woman's work like a man looking on, and if he doesn't +stop her she'll drop under the line. Now, you have your bread and +butter and you can sit over there by the door and help me turn off +this ten pounds in no time."</p> + +<p>As she had been speaking, Rose Mary had spread two of the slices with +the yellow butter from a huge bowl in front of her, clapped on the +tops of the sandwiches and then, with a smile, handed them in a blue +plate to the man who lounged across the corner of her table. She made +a very gracious and lovely picture, did Rose Mary, in her light-blue +homespun gown against the cool gray depths of the milk-house, which +was fern-lined along the cracks of the old stones and mysterious with +the trickling gurgle of the spring that flowed into the long stone +troughs, around the milk crocks and out under the stone door-sill. +From his post by the door Everett watched her as she drove her paddle +deep into the hard golden mound in the blue bowl in front of her, and, +with a quick <!-- Page 4 -->turn of her strong, slender wrist slapped and patted +chunk after chunk of the butter into a more compressed form. The +sleeves of her dress were rolled almost to her shoulders and under the +white, moist flesh of her arms the fine muscles showed plainly. The +strong curves of her back and shoulders bent and sprung under the +graceful sweep of her arms and her round breasts rose and fell with +quickened breath from her energetic movements.</p> + +<p>"Now, you're making me work <i>too</i> hard," she laughed; and she panted +as she rested her hand for a second against the edge of the bowl and +looked up at Everett from under a black tendril curl that had fallen +down across her forehead.</p> + +<p>"Miss Rose Mary Alloway, you are one large, husky—witch," calmly +remarked the hungry man as he finished disposing of the last half of +one of the thin bread and butters. "Here I sit enchanted by—by a +butter-paddle, when you and I both know that not two miles <!-- Page 5 -->across the +meadows there runs a train that ought to put me into New York in a +little over forty-eight hours. Won't you, won't you let me go—back to +my frantic and imploring employers?"</p> + +<p>"Why no, I can't," answered Rose Mary as she pressed a yellow cake of +butter on to a blue plate and deftly curled it up with her paddle into +a huge yellow sunflower. "Uncle Tucker captured you roaming loose out +in his fields and he trusts you to me while he is at work and I must +keep you safe. He's fond of you and so are the Aunties and Stonewall +Jackson and Shoofly and Sniffer and—"</p> + +<p>"And anybody else?" demanded Everett, preparing to dispose of the last +bite.</p> + +<p>"Oh, everybody most along Providence Road," answered Rose Mary +enthusiastically, though not raising her eyes from the manipulation of +the third butter flower. "Can't you go out and dig up some more rocks +and things? I feel sure you haven't got a sample of all of <!-- Page 6 -->them. And +there may be gold and silver and precious jewels just one inch deeper +than you have dug. Are you certain you can't squeeze up some oil +somewhere in the meadow? You told a whole lot of reasons to Uncle +Tucker why you knew you would find some, and now you'll have to stay +to prove yourself."</p> + +<p>"No," answered Mark Everett quietly, and, as he spoke, he raised his +eyes and looked at Rose Mary keenly; "no, there is no oil that I can +discover, though the formation, as I explained to your uncle, is just +as I expected to find it. I've spent three weeks going over every inch +of the Valley and I can't find a trace of grease. I'm sorry."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know that I care, except for your sake," answered Rose +Mary unconcernedly, with her eyes still on her task. "We don't any of +us like the smell of coal-oil, and it gives Aunt Viney asthma. It +would be awfully disagreeable to have wells of it right here on the +place. They'd be so ugly and smelly."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 7 -->But oil-wells mean—mean a great deal of wealth," ventured Everett.</p> + +<p>"I know, but just think of the money Uncle Tucker gets for this butter +I make from the cows that graze on the meadows. Wouldn't it be awful +if they should happen to drink some of the coal-oil and make the +butter we send down to the city taste wrong and spoil the Sweetbriar +reputation? I like money though, most awfully, and I want some right +now. I want to—"</p> + +<p>"Mary of the Rose, stop right there!" said Everett as he came over +from his post by the door and again seated himself on the corner of +the table. "I <i>will</i> not listen to you give vent to the national +craving. I <i>will</i> hold on to the illusion of having found one +unmercenary human being, even if she had to be buried in the depths of +Harpeth Valley to keep her so." There was banter in Everett's voice +and a smile on his lips, but a bitterness lay in the depths of his +keen dark eyes and an ugly trace <!-- Page 8 -->of cynicism filtered through the +tones of his voice.</p> + +<p>"And wasn't it funny for me to count the little well-chickens before +they were even hatched?" laughed Rose Mary. "That's the way of it, get +together even a little flock of dollars in prospect and they go right +to work hatching out a brood of wants and needs; but it's not wrong of +me to want those false teeth so bad, because it's such a trial to have +your mouth all sink in and not be able to talk plain and—"</p> + +<p>"Help, woman! What are you talking about? I never saw such teeth as +you have in all my life. One flash of them would put a beauty show out +of business and—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, not for myself!" Rose Mary hastened to exclaim, and she +turned the whole artillery of the pearl treasures upon him in mirth at +his mistake. "It's Aunt Viney I want them for. She only has five left. +She says she didn't mind so long as she had any <!-- Page 9 -->two that hit, but the +hitters to all five are gone now and she is so distressed. I'm saving +up to take her down to the city to get a brand new set. I have eleven +dollars now and two little bull calves to sell, though it breaks my +heart to let them go, even if they are of the wrong persuasion. I +always love them better than I do the little heifers, because I have +to give them up. I don't like to have things I love go away. You see +you mustn't think of going to New York until the spring is all over +and summer comes for good," she continued, with the most delightful +ingenuousness, as she shaped the last of the ten flowers and glanced +from her task at him with the most solicitous concern. "Of course, you +feel as if the smash your lung got in that awful rock slide has healed +all up, and I know it has, but you'll have to do as the doctor tells +you about not running any risks with New York spring gales, won't +you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I suppose I will," answered Ev<!-- Page 10 -->erett, with a trace of +restlessness in his voice. "I'm just as sound as a dollar now and I'm +wild to go with that gang the firm is sending up into British Columbia +to thrash out that copper question. I know they counted on me for the +final tests. Some other fellow will find it and get the fortune and +the credit, while I—I—"</p> + +<p>He stared moodily out the door of the milk-house and down Providence +Road that wound its calm, even way from across the ridge down through +the green valley. Rose Mary's milk-house was nestled between the +breasts of a low hill, upon which was perched the wide-winged, old +country house which had brooded the fortunes of the Alloways since the +wilderness days. The spring which gushed from the back wall of the +milk-house poured itself into a stone trough on the side of the Road, +which had been placed there generations agone for the refreshment of +beast, while man had been entertained within the hospitable stone +walls.<!-- Page 11 --> And at the foot of the Briars, as the Alloway home, hill, +spring and meadows had been called from time immemorial, clustered the +little village of Sweetbriar.</p> + +<p>The store, which also sheltered the post-office, was almost opposite +the spring-house door across the wide Road, the blacksmith shop +farther down and the farm-houses stretched fraternally along either +side in both directions. Far up the Road, as it wound its way around +Providence Nob, could be seen the chimneys and the roofs of +Providence, while Springfield and Boliver also lay like smoke-wreathed +visions in the distance. Something of the peace and plenty of it all +had begun to smooth the irritated wrinkle from between Mark Everett's +brows, when Rose Mary's hand rested for a second over his on the table +and her rich voice, with its softest brooding note, came from across +her bowl.</p> + +<p>"Ah, I know it's hard for you, Mr. Mark," she said, "and I wish—I +wish—The lilacs will <!-- Page 12 -->be in bloom next week, won't that help some?" +And the wooing tone in her voice was exactly what she used in coaxing +young Stonewall Jackson to bed or Uncle Tucker to tie up his throat in +a flannel muffler.</p> + +<p>"It's not lilacs I'm needing with a rose in bloom right—" But +Everett's gallant response to the coaxing was cut short by a sally +from an unexpected quarter.</p> + +<p>Down Providence Road at full tilt came Stonewall Jackson, with the +Swarm in a cloud of dust at his heels. He jumped across the spring +branch and darted in under the milk-house eaves, while the Swarm drew +up on the other bank in evident impatience. Swung bundle-wise under +his arm he held a small, tow-headed bunch, and as he landed on the +stone door-sill he hastily deposited it on the floor at Rose Mary's +feet.</p> + +<p>"Say, Rose Mamie," he panted, "you just keep Shoofly for us a little +while, won't you? Mis' Poteet have done left her with<!-- Page 13 --> Tobe to take +care of and he put her on a stump while he chased a polecat that he +fell on while it was going under a fence, and now Uncle Tuck is +a-burying of him up in the woods lot. Jest joggle her with your foot +this way if she goes to cry." And in demonstration of his directions +the General put one bare foot in the middle of the mite's back and +administered a short series of rotary motions, which immediately +brought a response of ecstatic gurgles. "We'll come back for her as +soon as we dig him up," he added, as he prepared for another flying +leap across the spring stream.</p> + +<p>"But, Stonie, wait and tell me what you mean!" exclaimed Rose Mary, +while Everett regarded Stonewall Jackson and his cohorts with +delighted amusement.</p> + +<p>"I told you once, Rose Mamie, that Tobe fell on a polecat under a +fence he was a-chasing, and he smells so awful Uncle Tuck have burned +his britches and shirt on the end of a stick and have got him buried +in dirt up to jest <!-- Page 14 -->his nose. Burying in dirt is the onliest thing +that'll take off the smell. We comed to ask you to watch Shoofly while +he's buried, cause Mis' Poteet will be mad at him when she comes home +if Shoofly smells. We're all a-going to stay right by him until he's +dug up, 'cause we all sicked him on that polecat and we ought in +honor!"</p> + +<p>Stonie looked at the Swarm for confirmation of this worthy sentiment, +and it arose in a murmur. The Swarm was a choice congregation of small +fry that trailed perpetually at the heels of Stonewall Jackson, and at +the moment was in a state of seething excitement. Jennie Rucker's +little freckled face was pale under its usual sunburn, as a result of +being too near the disastrous encounter, and her little nose, turned +up by nature in the outset, looked as if it were in danger of never +again assuming its normal tilt. She held small Pete by one chubby +hand, and with a wry face he was licking out an absurd little red +tongue at <!-- Page 15 -->least twice each moment, as if uncertain as to whether his +olfactory or gustatory nerves had been offended. Billy was standing +with the nonchalant unconcern of one strong of stomach, and the four +other little Poteets, ranging in size from Shoofly, on the floor, to +Tobe, the buried, were shuffling their bare feet in the dust with +evident impatience to be off to gloat over the prostrated but +important member of the family. They rolled their wide eyes at almost +impossible angles, and small Peggy sniffed audibly into a corner of +her patched gingham apron.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Stonie," answered Rose Mary judicially, while Everett's +shoulders shook with mirth that he felt it best not to give way to in +the face of the sympathetic Swarm, "you all must stay with Tobe, if he +has to be buried, and go right back as fast as you can. Troubles must +make us stay close by our friends."</p> + +<p>"If I get much closer to him I'll throw up," sniffed Jennie, and her +protest was echoed by <!-- Page 16 -->a groan from Peggy into the apron, while the +area which showed above its folds turned white at the prospect of +being obliged to draw near to this brother in affliction.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but you sicked Tobe, with the rest of us, and in this <i>girls</i> +don't count. You've got to go back, smell or no smell, sick or no +sick," announced the General firmly, in the decisive tones of one +accustomed to be obeyed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Stonie," came in a meek and muffled tone from the apron, "we'll +go back with you."</p> + +<p>"Can't we just set on the fence of the lot—it ain't so far?" pleaded +Jennie in almost a wail. "I'm afraid Pete will cry from the smell if +we go any closter. He's most doing it now."</p> + +<p>"Yes, General, let the girls sit on the fence," pleaded Everett, with +his eyes dancing, but a bit of mockery in his voice, "after all they +are—girls, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, yes, they can," answered Stonewall Jackson in a +magnanimously disgusted <!-- Page 17 -->tone of voice. "They always get girls when +they don't want to do anything. Come on, Tobe'll be crying if we don't +hurry. Billy, you help Jennie drag Pete, so he can go fast!"</p> + +<p>But during the conference the disgusted toddler had been pondering the +situation, and at this mention of his being dragged back to the scene +of offense he had made a quick sally across the plank that spanned the +spring branch and with masculine intuition as to the safe place in +time of danger, he had plunged head foremost into Rose Mary's skirts, +so that only his small fat back showed to the enemy.</p> + +<p>"Please go on, Stonie, and leave him with me—he's just a baby," +pleaded Rose Mary.</p> + +<p>"All right," answered the General, "Tobe don't care about him; he'd +just make us go slow," and thus dropping young Peter into the category +of impedimenta, the General departed at top speed, surrounded, as he +came, by the loyal Swarm. On the day of his birth Aunt Viney's choice +for a name for the General had <!-- Page 18 -->balanced for some hours between that +of the redoubtable Abner the Valiant, of old Testament fame, and her +favorite modern hero, Jackson of the stonewall nature. And in her +final choice she had seemed so to impress the infant that he had +developed more than a little of the nature of his patron commander. At +all times Stonie commanded the Swarm, and also at all times was +strictly obeyed.</p> + +<p>Then seeing herself thus deserted by her companions, Shoofly began a +low, musical hum of a wail and walled large eyes up at Everett, at +whose feet she was seated. In instant sympathetic response he applied +the toe of his shoe to the small of the whimpering tot's back and +proceeded awkwardly, though with the best intentions in the world, to +follow the General's directions as to pacification. Rose Mary laughed +as she took a tin-cup from a nail in the wall, and filling it with +milk from one of the crocks, she knelt at the side of the deserted one +and held the brim to the red lips <!-- Page 19 -->of Shoofly's generous mouth. With a +series of gurgles and laps the consoling draft was quickly consumed +and the whimperer left by this double ministration in a state of +placid contentment.</p> + +<p>Peter the wise had stood viewing these attentions to the other baby +with stolid imperturbability, but as Rose Mary turned away to her +table he licked out his pink tongue and bobbed his head toward the +milk crocks, while his solemn eyes conveyed his desire without words. +Peter's vocabulary was both new and limited, and he was at all times +extremely careful against any wastefulness of it. His lips quivered as +if in uncertainty as to whether he was to be left out of this lactic +deal, and his eyes grew reproachful.</p> + +<p>"Why, man alive, did you think I had forgotten you!" exclaimed Rose +Mary as she turned with the cup to one of the crocks standing in the +water, at the sight of which motion relief dawned in the serious eyes +of the young <!-- Page 20 -->petitioner. Filling the cup swiftly, she lifted the +youngster in her arms and came over to sit in the door beside Shoofly +at Everett's feet. With dignified deliberation Peter began to consume +his draft in slow gulps, and after each one he lifted his eyes to Rose +Mary's face as if rendering courteous appreciation for the consumed +portion. His chubby fingers were clasped around her wrist as she held +the cup for him, and her other hand cuddled one of his bare, +briar-scratched knees. The picture had its instituted effect on +Everett, and he bent toward the little group in the doorway and rested +his elbows on his knees as his world-restless eyes softened and the +lines around his mouth melted into a smile.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary," he said with an almost abashed note in his deep voice, +"we'll dispense with the lilacs—they're not needed as retainers, and +I don't deserve them."</p> + +<p>"But being good will bring you the lilacs of life; whether you think +you deserve them or <!-- Page 21 -->not, I'm afraid it's inevitable," answered Rose +Mary, as she smiled up at him with instant appreciation of his change +of mood.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll try it this once and see what happens," answered Everett +with a laugh. "Indeed, I'm ashamed of having shown you any impatience +at all—to think of impatience in this heaven country of hospitality +amounts to positive sacrilege. Shrive me—and then bring on your +lilacs!"</p> + +<p>"Then you'll stay with us until it's safe for you to go North and I +won't have to worry about you any more?" exclaimed Rose Mary, +delighted, as she beamed up over Pete's tow-head that had dropped with +repletion on her breast. Shoofly, who, true to her appellation, had +been making funny little dabs of delight at a fly or two which had +buzzed in her direction, had crawled nearer and burrowed her head +under Rose Mary's knee, rolled over on her little stomach and gone +instantaneously and exhaustedly to sleep. Rose Mary adjusted <!-- Page 22 -->a +smothering fold of her dress and continued in her rejoicing over +Everett's surrender to circumstance inevitable.</p> + +<p>"And do you think you can dig some more in the fields? Don't happiness +and hoe mean the same thing to most men?" she questioned with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Yes, hoe to the death and the devil take the last man at the end of +the row, fortune to the first!" answered Everett with a return of his +cynical look and tone.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but in the world some men just go along and chop down ugly weeds, +stir up the good, smelly earth for things to grow in, reach over to +help the man in the next furrow if he needs it, and all come home at +sundown together—and the women have the supper ready. That's the kind +of hoeing I want you to do—please dig me up those teeth for Aunt +Viney and I'll have johnny-cake and fried chicken waiting for you +every night. Please, sir, promise!" And Rose Mary's voice sounded <!-- Page 23 -->its +coaxing, comforting note, while her deep eyes brooded over him.</p> + +<p>"I promise," answered Everett with a laugh. "I tell you what I think I +will do. As I understand it, the Briars has about three hundred acres, +all told. I have been all over it for the oil and there is none in any +paying quantities. But in this kind of formation any number of other +things may crop up or out. I am going to go over every acre of it +carefully and find exactly what can be expected of it. There may be +nothing of any value in a mineral way, but as I go I am going to make +soil tests, and then put it all down on a complete map and figure out +just what your Uncle Tucker ought to plant in each place for years to +come. It will kill a lot of time, and then it might be doing something +for you dear people, who have taken a miserable, cross invalid of a +stranger man in out of the wet and made a well chap of him again.</p> + +<p>"Do you know what you have done for <!-- Page 24 -->me? That day when I had tramped +over from Boliver just to get away from the Citizens' Hotel and myself +and perched upon Mr. Alloway's north lot fence like a miserable +funeral crow, I had reached my limit, and my spirit had turned its +face to the wall. I had been down South six weeks and couldn't see +that I felt one bit stronger. I had just heard of this copper +expedition from one of the chaps, who had written me a heedlessly +exultant letter about it, and I was down and out and no strength left +to fight. I was too weak to take it like a man, and couldn't make up +my mind to cry like a woman, though I wanted to. Just as it was at its +worst your Uncle Tucker appeared on the other side of the fence, and +when he looked at me with those great, heaven-big eyes of his I fell +over into his arms with a funny, help-has-come dying gasp. As you +know, when I woke I was anchored in the middle of that puffy old +four-poster in my room under the blessed roof of the Briars and <!-- Page 25 -->you +were pouring something glorious and hot down my throat, while the +wonderful old angel-man in the big gray hat, who had got me out in the +field, was flapping his wings around on the other side of the pillows. +I went to sleep under your very hands—and I haven't waked up +yet—except in ugly, impatient ways. I never want to."</p> + +<p>"I wonder what you would be like—awake?" said Rose Mary softly, as +she gently lowered the head of young Peter down into the hollow of her +arm, where, in close proximity to Shoofly's, he nodded off into the +depths. "I think I'm afraid to try waking you. I'm always so happy +when Aunt Viney has snuffed away her asthma with jimson weed and got +down on her pillow, and I have rubbed all her joints; when the General +has said his prayers without stopping to argue in the middle, and +Uncle Tucker has finished his chapter and pipe in bed without setting +us all on fire, that I regard people asleep as in a most blessed +condition. Won't <!-- Page 26 -->you please try and stay happy, tucked away fast here +at the Briars, without wanting to wake up and go all over New York, +when I won't know whether you are getting cold or hungry or wet or a +pain in your lungs?"</p> + +<p>"Again I promise! Just wake me enough to go out and hoe for you is all +I ask—your row and your kind of hoeing."</p> + +<p>"Maybe hoeing in my row will make you finish your own in fine style," +laughed Rose Mary. "And I think it's wonderful of you to study up our +land so Uncle Tucker can do better with it. We never seem to be able +to make any more than just the mortgage interest, and what we'll wear +when the trunks in the garret are empty I don't see. We'll have to +grow feathers. Things like false teeth just seem to be impossible."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to tell me that the Briars is seriously encumbered?" +demanded Everett, with a quick frown showing between his brows and a +business-keen look coming into his eyes.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 27 -->The mortgage on the Briars covers it as completely as the vines on +the wall," answered Rose Mary quickly, with a humorous quirk at her +mouth that relieved the note of pain in her voice. "I know we can +never pay it, but if something could be done to keep it for the old +folks <i>always</i>, I think Stonie and I could stand it. They were born +here and their roots strike deep and twine with the roots of every +tree and bush at the Briars. Their graves are over there behind the +stone wall, and all their joys and sorrows have come to them along +Providence Road. I am not unhappy over it, because I know that their +Master isn't going to let anything happen to take them away. Every +night before I go to sleep I just leave them to Him until I can wake +up in the morning to begin to keep care of them for Him again. It was +all about—"</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute, let me ask you some questions before you tell me any +more," said Everett, quickly covering the sympathy that <!-- Page 28 -->showed in his +eyes with his business tone of voice. "Is it Gideon Newsome who holds +this mortgage?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, how did you know?" asked Rose Mary with a mild surprise in +her eyes as she raised them to his, bent intently on her. "Uncle +Tucker had to get the money from him six years ago. It—it was a debt +of honor—he—we had to pay." A rich crimson spread itself over Rose +Mary's brow and cheeks and flooded down her white neck under the folds +of her blue dress across her breast. Tears rose to her eyes, but she +lifted her head proudly and looked him straight in the face. "There is +a reason why I would give my life—why I do and must give my life to +protecting them from the consequences of the disaster. No sacrifice is +too great for me to make to save their home for them."</p> + +<p>"Do you mind telling me how much the mortgage is for?" asked Everett, +still in his cool, thoughtful voice.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 29 -->For ten thousand dollars," answered Rose Mary. "The land is worth +really less than fifteen. Nobody but such a—such a friend as Mr. +Newsome would have loaned Uncle Tucker so much. He—he has been very +kind to us. I—I am very grateful to him and I—" Rose Mary faltered +and dropped her eyes. A tear trembled on the edge of her black lashes +and then splashed on to the chubby cheek of Peter the reposer.</p> + +<p>"I see," said Everett coolly, and a flint tone made his usually rich +voice harsh and tight. For a few minutes he sat quietly looking Rose +Mary over with an inscrutable look in his eyes that finally faded +again into the utter world weariness. "I see—and so the bargain and +sale goes on even on Providence Road under Old Harpeth. But the old +people will never have to give up the Briars while you are here to pay +the price of their protection, Rose Mary. Never!"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe they will—my faith in Him makes me sure," answered +Rose Mary with <!-- Page 30 -->lovely unconsciousness as she raised large, comforted +eyes to Everett's. "I don't know how I'm going to manage, but somehow +my cup of faith seems to get filled each day with the wine of courage +and the result is mighty apt to be a—song." And Rose Mary's face +blushed out again into a flowering of smiles.</p> + +<p>"A sort of cup of heavenly nectar," answered Everett with an answering +smile, but the keen look still in his eyes. "See here, I want you to +promise me something—don't ever, under any circumstances, tell +anybody that I know about this mortgage. Will you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, I won't if you tell me not to," answered Rose Mary +immediately. "I don't like to think or talk about it. I only told you +because you wanted to help us. Help offers are the silver linings to +trouble clouds, and you brought this one down on yourself, didn't you? +Of course, it's selfish and wrong to tell people about your anxieties, +but there is just no other way to get so close to a friend. Don't <!-- Page 31 -->you +think perhaps sometimes the Lord doesn't bother to 'temper the winds,' +but just leads you up on the sheltered side of somebody who is +stronger than you are and leaves you there until your storm is over?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" /><!-- Page 32 -->CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h2>THE FOLKS-GARDEN</h2><br /> + + +<p>"Well," said Uncle Tucker meditatively, "I reckon a festibul on a +birthday can be taken as a kind of compliment to the Lord and no +special glorification to yourself. He instuted your first one Himself, +and I see no harm in jest a-marking of the years He sends you. What +are Sister Viney's special reasons against the junket?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know what makes Aunt Viney feel this way!" exclaimed Rose +Mary with distress in her blue eyes that she raised to Uncle Tucker's, +that were bent benignly upon her as she stood in the barn door beside +him. "She says that as the Lord has granted her her fourscore years by +reason of great strength, she oughtn't to remind Him that He has +for<!-- Page 33 -->gotten her by having an eighty-second birthday. Everybody in +Sweetbriar has been looking forward to it for a week, and it was going +to be such a lovely party. What shall we do? She says she just won't +have it, and Aunt Amandy is crying when Aunt Viney don't see it. She's +made up her mind, and I don't know what more to say to her."</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker, with a quizzical smile quirking at the +corners of his mouth, "mighty often the ingredient of permanency is +left out in the making up of a woman's mind, one way or another. Can't +you kinder pervail with your Aunt Viney some? I've got a real hanker +after this little birthday to-do. Jest back her around to another view +of the question with a slack plow-line. Looks like it's too bad to—"</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary, oh, Rose Mary, where are ye, child?" came a call in a +high, sweet old quaver of a voice from down the garden path, and Miss +Amanda hove in sight, hurrying along on <!-- Page 34 -->eager but tottering little +feet. Her short, skimpy, gray skirts fluttered in the spring breezes +and her bright, old eyes peered out from the gray shawl she held over +her head with tremulous excitement. She was both laughing and panting +as Rose Mary threw her arm around her and drew her into the door of +the barn. "Sister Viney has consented in her mind about the party, all +along of a verse I was just now a-reading to her in our morning +lesson. Saint Luke says: '<i>It is meet that we should make merry and be +glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again</i>,' and at the +same minute the recollection of how sick Mr. Mark has been hit us +both. 'There now,' she says, 'you folks can jest go on with that party +to-day for the benefit of our young brother Everett's coming to so +good after all his sufferings. This time I will consider it as +instituted of the Lord, but don't nobody say birthday next April, if +I'm here, on no account whatever.' I take it as a special leading to +me <!-- Page 35 -->to have read that verse this morning to Sister Viney, and won't +you please go over and tell Sally Rucker to go on with the cake, Rose +Mary? Sister Viney called Jennie over by sun-up, when she took this +notion, and told her to tell her mother not to make it, even if she +had already broke all the sixteen eggs."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Aunt Amandy, I'll run over and tell Mrs. Rucker, and then we +will begin right away to get things ready. I am so glad Aunt Viney +is—"</p> + +<p>"Rose Mamie, Rose Mamie," came another loud hail from up the path +toward the house and down came the General at top speed, with a plumy +setter frisking in his wake. "Aunt Viney says for you to come there to +her this minute. They is a-going to be the party and it's right by the +Bible to have it, some for Mr. Mark, too. Tobe Poteet said 'shoo' when +I told him he couldn't come, 'cause they wasn't a-going to be no party +on account of worrying the Lord about forgetting Aunt Viney, and I +<!-- Page 36 -->was jest a-going to knock him into stuffings, 'cause they can't +nobody say 'shoo' at the Bible or Aunt Viney neither, to me, when +there Aunt Viney called for us to go tell everybody that the party was +a-going off and be sure and come. I believe God let her call me before +I hit Tobe, 'cause I ain't never hit him yet, and maybe now I never +will have to." The General paused, and an expression of devout +thankfulness came into his small face at thus being saved the +necessity of administering chastisement to his henchman, Tobe the +adventurous.</p> + +<p>"I believe he did, Stonie, and how thankful I am," exclaimed little +Miss Amanda, with real relief at this deliverance of young Tobe, who +was her especial, both self-elected and chosen, knight from the +General's cohorts.</p> + +<p>"Yes'm," answered Stonie. "Come on now, Rose Mamie! Put your hand on +me, Aunt Amandy, and I'll go slow with you," and presenting his sturdy +little shoulder to Miss<!-- Page 37 --> Amanda on one side and drawing Rose Mary +along with him on the other, Stonewall Jackson hurried them both away +to the house.</p> + +<p>"Well," remarked Uncle Tucker to himself as he took up a measure of +grain from a bin in the corner of the feed-room and scattered some in +front of a row of half-barrel nests upon which brooded a dozen +complacent setting hens, "well, if the Lord has to pester with the +affairs of Sweetbriar to the extent Stonie and the sisters, Rose Mary, +too, are a-giving Him the credit of doing looks like we might be +a-getting more'n our share of His attentions. I reckon by the time He +gets all the women and children doings settled up for the day He finds +some of the men have slipped the bridle and gone. That would account +for some of these here wild covortings around in the world we hear +about by the newspapers. But He'll git 'em some day sure as—"</p> + +<p>"Am I interrupting any confidence between you and the Mrs. Biddies, +Mr. Alloway?"<!-- Page 38 --> asked Everett, as he stood in the barn door with a pan +in one hand and a bucket in the other.</p> + +<p>"No, oh, no," answered Uncle Tucker with a laugh. "I was jest +remarking how the Almighty had the lasso of His love around the neck +of all the wild young asses a-galloping over the world and would throw +'em in His own time. Well, I hear you're a-going to get a sochul +baptism into Sweetbriar along about a hour before sundown. Better part +your hair in the middle and get some taller for your shoes."</p> + +<p>"I will, most assuredly, if that's what's expected of me for the +ceremony," answered Everett with a delightful laugh. "Here's a pan of +delicacies for the hens, and this bucket is for you to bring some +shelled corn for Miss Rose Mary to parch for them, when you come to +the house."</p> + +<p>"I'm not a-counting on going any time soon," answered Uncle Tucker +with a shrewd <!-- Page 39 -->glance up at Everett as he came and stood in the +doorway beside the tall young man, who lounged against one of the door +posts. Uncle Tucker was himself tall, but slightly bent, lean and +brown, with great, gray, mystic eyes that peered out from under bushy +white brows. Long gray locks curled around his ears and a rampant +forelock stood up defiantly upon his wide, high brow. At all times his +firm old mouth was on the eve of breaking into a quizzical smile, and +he bestowed one upon Everett as he remarked further:</p> + +<p>"The barn is man's instituted refuge in the time of mop and broom +cyclones in the house. I reckon you can't get on to your rock-picking +in the fields now, but you really hadn't oughter dig up an oil-well +to-day anyway; it might kinder overshadow the excitement of the +party."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Alloway, has any other survey of this river bend been made +before?" asked Everett as he looked keenly at Uncle Tucker, while he +<!-- Page 40 -->lit his cigar from the cob pipe the old gentleman accommodatingly +handed him.</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, there was a young fellow came poking around here not so +long ago with a little hammer pecking at the rocks. I didn't pay much +attention to him, though. He never stayed but one day, and I was +a-cutting clover hay, and too busy to notice him much 'cept to ask him +in to dinner. He couldn't seem to manage his chicken dumplings for +feeding his eyes with Rose Mary, and he didn't have time to give up +much information about sech little things as oil-wells and phosphate +beds. You know, they has to be a good touch of frost over a man's ears +before he can tend to business, with good-looking dimity passing +around him." And Uncle Tucker laughed as he resumed the puffing of his +pipe.</p> + +<p>"And after the frost they are not at all immune—to such dimity," +answered Everett with an echo of Uncle Tucker's laugh, as a slight +color rose up under the tan of his thin face.<!-- Page 41 --> As he spoke he ruffled +his own dark red mop of hair, which was slightly sprinkled with gray, +over his temples. Everett was tall, broad and muscular, but thin +almost to gauntness, and his face habitually wore the expression of +deep weariness. His eyes were red-brown and disillusioned, except when +they joined with his well-cut mouth in a smile that brought an almost +boyish beauty back over his whole expression. There was decided youth +in the glance he bestowed upon Uncle Tucker, whose attention was +riveted on the manoeuvers of the General and Tobe, who were busy with +a pair of old kitchen knives in an attack upon the grass growing +between the cracks of the front walk.</p> + +<p>"So you have had no report as to what that survey was?" Everett asked +Uncle Tucker, again bringing him back to the subject in hand. "Do you +know who sent the man you speak of to prospect on your land?"</p> + +<p>"Never thought to ask him," answered<!-- Page 42 --> Uncle Tucker, still with the +utmost unconcern. "Maybe Rose Mary knows. Women generally carry a +reticule around with 'em jest to poke facts into that they gather +together from nothing put pure wantin'-to-know. Ask her."</p> + +<p>And as he spoke Uncle Tucker began to busy himself getting out the +grease cans, with the evident intention of putting in a morning +lubricating the farm implements in general.</p> + +<p>"Your friend, Mr. Gideon Newsome, said something about a rumor of +paying phosphate here in the Harpeth bend when I met him over in +Boliver before I came to Sweetbriar. In fact, I had tried to come to +look over the fields just to kill time when I nearly killed myself and +fell down upon you. Do you suppose he could have sent the prospector?" +Again Everett brought Uncle Tucker back to the uninteresting topic of +what might lay under the fields, the top of which he was so interested +in cultivating.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I reckon not," answered Uncle<!-- Page 43 --> Tucker, puffing away as he laid +out his monkey-wrenches. "The Honorable Gid is up to his neck in this +here no-dram wave what is a-sweeping around over the state and pretty +nigh rising up as high as the necks of even private liquor bottles. +Gid's not to say a teetotaler, but he had to climb into the bandwagon +skiff or sink outen sight. He's got to tie down his seat in the state +house with a white ribbon, and he's got no mind for fooling with +phosphate dirt. He's a mighty fine man, and all of Sweetbriar thinks a +heap of him. Do you want to help me lift this wagon wheel on to this +jack, so I can sorter grease her up against the next time I use her?"</p> + +<p>"Say, Uncle Tuck, Aunt Viney says for you to come right there now and +bring Mr. Mark and a spade and a long string with you," came just at +the critical moment of balancing the notched plank under the revolving +wagon wheel, in Stonewall Jackson's young voice, which held in it +quite a trace of Miss<!-- Page 44 --> Lavinia's decisive tone of command. Stonie +stood in the barn door, poised for instant return along the path of +duty to the front walk, only waiting to be sure his summons would be +obeyed. Stonie was sturdy, freckled, and in possession of Uncle +Tucker's big gray eyes, Rose Mary's curled mouth and more than a tinge +of Aunt Viney's austerity of manner.</p> + +<p>"Better come on," he further admonished. "Rose Mary can't hold that +vine up much longer, and if she lets go they'll all fall down." And as +he raced up the path Everett followed almost as rapidly, urged on by +the vision of Rose Mary drooping under some sort of unsupportable +burden. Uncle Tucker brought up the rear with the spade and a long +piece of twine.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I thought you would never come," laughed Rose Mary from half way +up the step-ladder as she lowered herself and a great bunch of budding +honeysuckle down into Everett's upstretched arms. "I held it up as +long <!-- Page 45 -->as I could, but I almost let it tear the whole vine down."</p> + +<br /> +<p class="figcenter"><a href="images/illustr03.jpg"><img width="50%" border="0" src="./images/illustr03.jpg" +alt="That's what comes from letting that shoot run +catawumpas" +title="That's what comes from letting that shoot run +catawumpas" /></a></p> +<p class="figcenter"><span class="smcap"><br />"That's what comes from letting that shoot run +catawumpas"</span></p> +<br /> + +<p>"That's what comes from letting that shoot run catawumpas three years +ago. I told you about it at the time, Tucker," said Miss Lavinia with +a stern glance at Uncle Tucker, who stood with spade and twine at the +corner of the porch.</p> + +<p>Miss Lavinia sat in a large, calico-cushioned rocking-chair at the end +of the porch, and had been issuing orders to Rose Mary and little Miss +Amanda about the readjustment of the fragrant vine that trailed across +the end of the porch over her window and on out to a trellis in the +side yard. Her high mob cap sat on her head in an angle of aggression +always, and her keen black eyes enforced all commands issuing from her +stern old mouth.</p> + +<p>"Now, Amandy, train that shoot straight while you're about it," she +continued. "It comes plumb from the roots, and I don't want to have to +look at a wild-growing vine right <!-- Page 46 -->here under my window for all my +eighty-second and maybe last year."</p> + +<p>"I've gone and misplaced my glasses and I can't hardly see," answered +Miss Amanda in her sweet little quaver that sounded like a silver bell +with a crack in it. "Lend me your'n, Tucker!"</p> + +<p>"You are a-going to misplace your eyes some day, Sister Amandy. Then +you'll be a-wanting mine, and I'll have to cut 'em out and give 'em to +you, I suppose," said Uncle Tucker as he handed over his huge, +steel-rimmed glasses.</p> + +<p>"The Bible says 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' Tucker, +but not in a borrowing sense of the word, as I remember," remarked +Miss Lavinia in a meditative tone of voice. "And that would be the +thing about my getting the new teeth. Don't either of you need 'em, +and it would be selfish of me to spend on something they couldn't +anybody borrow from me. Amandy, dig a little deeper around <!-- Page 47 -->that +shoot, I don't want no puny vine under my window!"</p> + +<p>"I'm a-trying, Sister Viney," answered Miss Amanda propitiatingly. +"I've been a-bending over so long my knees are in a kinder tremble."</p> + +<p>"Let me finish digging and put in the new dirt for you, Aunt Amandy," +begged Rose Mary, who had given the armful of vine to Everett to hold +while Uncle Tucker tied the strings in the exact angle indicated by +Miss Lavinia. "I can do it in no time."</p> + +<p>"No, child, I reckon I'd better do it myself," answered Miss Amanda as +she sat back on the grass for a moment's rest. "I have dug around and +trained this vine the last week in April for almost sixty years now. +Mr. Lovell brought it by to Ma one spring as he hauled his summer +groceries over the Ridge to Warren County. By such care it's never +died down yet, and I have made it my custom to give sprouts away to +all that would take 'em. I'm <!-- Page 48 -->not a-doubting that there is some of +this vine a-budding out all over Harpeth Valley from Providence Nob to +the River bend."</p> + +<p>"No, Amandy," interrupted Aunt Viney, "it wasn't sixty years ago, it +was jest fifty-seven. Mr. Lovell brought the switch of it with him the +first year Mr. Roberts rode this circuit, and he was a-holding that +big revival over to Providence Chapel. Mr. Lovell came into the fold +with that very first night's preaching, and we all were rejoiced. +Don't you remember he brought you that Maiden Blush rose-bush over +there at the same time he brought this vine to Ma? And one bloom came +out on the rose the next year jest in time to put it in his coffin +before we buried him when he was taken down with the fever on the Road +and died here with us. Fifty-six years ago come June, and him so young +to die while so full of the spirit of the Lord!"</p> + +<p>Feebly Miss Amanda rose to her knees and went on with the digging +around the roots of <!-- Page 49 -->the vine, but Rose Mary knelt beside her and laid +her strong, young arm around the bent and shaking little shoulders. +Uncle Tucker rested on his spade and looked away across the garden +wall, where the little yard of graves was hid in the shadow of tall +pine trees, and his big eyes grew very tender. Miss Lavinia fingered a +shoot of the vine that had fallen across her thin old knees with a +softened expression in her prophet-woman face, while something new and +sweet stirred in Everett's breast and woke in his tired eyes, as +across half a century was wafted the perfume of a shattered romance.</p> + +<p>And then by the time the vine had been trained Miss Lavinia had +thought of a number of other spring jobs that must be attended to +along the front walk and around all the clumps of budding shrubs, so +with one desperate glance toward the barn, his deserted haven, Uncle +Tucker fell to with his spade, while Everett obtained a fork from the +tool house and <!-- Page 50 -->put himself under command. Rose Mary was sharply +recalled and sent into the house to complete the arrangements for the +festivities, when she had followed the forker down by the lilac hedge, +rake in hand, with evident intention of being of great assistance in +the gardening of the amateur.</p> + +<p>"Pull the dirt up closter around those bleeding-hearts, Tucker," +commanded Miss Lavinia from her rocker. "They are Rose Mary's I +planted the identical day she was born, and I don't want anything to +happen to 'em in the way of cutworms or such this summer."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know," answered Uncle Tucker with a little chuckle in +Everett's direction, who was turning over the dirt near a rose-bush in +his close vicinity, "it don't do to pay too much attention to women's +bleeding-hearts; let alone, they'll tie 'em up in their own courage +and go on dusting around the place, while if you notice 'em too much +they <!-- Page 51 -->take to squeezing out more bleed drops for your sympathy. Now, I +think it's best—"</p> + +<p>"Mister Tucker, say, Mister Tucker," came in a giggle from over the +front gate as Jennie Rucker's little freckled nose appeared just above +the top plank, only slightly in advance of that of small Peggy's. +"Mis' Poteet's got a new baby, just earned, and she says she is sorry +she can't come to Mis' Viney's party; but she can't."</p> + +<p>"Now, fly-away, ain't that too bad!" exclaimed Uncle Tucker. "That +baby oughter be sent back until it has got manners to wait until it's +wanted. Didn't neither one of you all get here on anybody's birthday +but your own." Uncle Tucker's sally was greeted by a duet of giggles, +and the announcement committee hurried on across the street with its +news.</p> + +<p>"Tucker, you Tucker, don't you touch that snowball bush with the +spade!" came in a fresh and alarmed command from the rocker <!-- Page 52 -->post of +observation. "You know Ma didn't ever let that bush be touched after +it had budded. You spaded around it onct when you was young and upty +and you remember it didn't bloom."</p> + +<p>"Muster been a hundred years ago if I was ever upty about this here +flower job," he answered in an undertone to Everett as he turned his +attention to the rose-bushes at which his apprentice had been pegging +away. "At weddings and bornings and flower tending man is just a worm +under woman's feet and he might as well not even hope to turn. All he +can do is to—"</p> + +<p>But it was just at this juncture when Uncle Tucker's patience was +about to be exhausted, that a summons from Rose Mary came for a +general getting ready for the birthday celebration.</p> + +<p>And in a very few hours the festivities were in full swing. Miss +Lavinia sat in state in her rocker and received the offerings and +congrat<!-- Page 53 -->ulations of Sweetbriar as they were presented in various +original and characteristic forms. Young Peter Rucker, still a bit +unsteady on his pink and chubby underpinning, was steered forward to +present his glossy buckeye, hung on a plaited horse-hair string that +had been constructed by small Jennie with long and infinite patience. +Miss Lavinia's commendations threw both donor and constructor into an +agony of bashfulness from which Pete took refuge in Rose Mary's skirts +and Jennie behind her mother's chair. But at this juncture the arrival +on the scene of action of young Bob Nickols with a whole two-horse +wagon-load of pine cones, which the old lady doted on for the freshing +up of the tiny fires always kept smoldering in her andironed fireplace +the summer through, distracted the attention of the company and was +greeted with great applause. Bob had been from early morning over on +Providence Nob collecting the treasures, and, seated beside him on the +front of the <!-- Page 54 -->wagon, was Louisa Helen Plunkett, blushing furiously and +most obviously avoiding her mother's stern eye of inquiry as to where +she had spent the valuable morning hours.</p> + +<p>The sensation of young Bob's offering was only offset at the unpacking +of the complacent Mr. Crabtree's gift, which he bore over from the +store in his own arms. With dramatic effect he placed it on the floor +at Miss Lavinia's feet and called for a hatchet for its opening. And +as from their wrappings of paper and excelsior he drew two large gilt +and glass bottles, one containing bay rum and the other camphor, that +precious lotion for fast stiffening joints, little Miss Amanda heaved +a sigh of positive rapture. Mr. Crabtree was small and wiry, with a +hickory-nut countenance and a luscious peach of a heart, and, though +of bachelor condition, he at all times displayed sympathetic and +intuitive domestic inclinations. He kept the Sweetbriar store and was +thus in position to know of the small economies <!-- Page 55 -->practised by the two +old ladies in the matter of personal necessities. For the months past +they had not bought the quantity of lubricating remedies that he +considered sufficient and this had been his tactful way of supplying +enough to last for some time to come. And from over the pile of gifts +heaped around her, Miss Lavinia beamed upon him to such an extent that +he felt like following young Pete's example, committing the awful +impropriety of hiding his embarrassment in any petticoat handy, but +just at this juncture up the front walk came the birthday cake +navigating itself by the long legs of Mr. Caleb Rucker and attended by +a riot of Sweetbriar youth, mad with excitement over its safe landing +and the treat in prospect. In its wake followed Mrs. Rucker, +complacent and beaming over the sensation caused by this her high +triumph in the culinary line.</p> + +<p>"Fly-away, if that's not Providence Nob gone and turned to a cake for +Sister Viney's birthday," exclaimed Uncle Tucker, as amid <!-- Page 56 -->generous +applause the offering was landed on a table set near the rocker.</p> + +<p>And again at this auspicious moment a huge waiter covered with little +mountains of white ice-cream made its appearance through the front +door, impelled by the motive power of Mr. Mark Everett's elegantly +white-flannel-trousered legs, and guided to a landing beside the cake +by Rose Mary, who was a pink flower of smiles and blushes.</p> + +<p>Then it followed that in less time than one would think possible the +company at large was busy with a spoon attached to the refreshments +which to Sweetbriar represented the height of elegance. Out in the +world beyond Old Harpeth ice-cream and cake may have lost caste as a +fashionable afternoon refreshment, having been succeeded by the +imported custom of tea and scones or an elaborate menu of reception +indigestibles, but in the Valley nothing had ever threatened the +supremacy of the frozen cream and white-frosted confection. The <!-- Page 57 -->men +all sat on the end of the long porch and accepted second saucers and +slices and even when urged by Rose Mary, beaming with hospitality, +third relays, while the Swarm in camp on the front steps, under the +General's management, seconded by Everett, succeeded in obtaining +supplies in a practically unlimited quantity.</p> + +<p>"Looks like Miss Rose Mary's freezer ain't got no bottom at all," said +Mr. Rucker in his long drawl as he began on a fourth white mound. "It +reminds me of 'the snow, the snow what falls from Heaven to earth +below,' and keeps a-falling." Mr. Rucker was a poet at heart and a +husband to Mrs. Rucker by profession, and his flights were regarded by +Sweetbriar at large with a mixture of pride and derision.</p> + +<p>"Cal," said Mrs. Rucker sternly, "don't you eat more'n half that +saucer. I've got no mind to top off this here good time with mustard +plasters all around. Even rejoicings can get overfed and peter out +into ginger tea. Jennie, <!-- Page 58 -->you and Sammie and Pete stop eating right +now. Lands alive, the sun has set and we all know Miss Viney oughter +be in the house. Shoo, everybody go home to save your manners!" And +with hearty laughs and further good-by congratulations the happy +little company of farmer folk scattered to their own roof trees across +and along Providence Road. The twilight had come, but a very young +moon was casting soft shadows from the trees rustling in the night +breezes and the stars were lighting up in competition to the rays that +shot out from window after window in the little village.</p> + +<p>Uncle Tucker had hurried away to his belated barn duties and little +Miss Amanda into the house to stir up Miss Lavinia's fire in +preparation for their retirement, which was a ceremony of long +duration and begun with the mounting of the chickens to their roosts. +Miss Lavinia sat with her hands folded in her lap over a collection of +the smaller gifts of the <!-- Page 59 -->afternoon and her eyes looked far away cross +the Ridge, dim in the failing light, while her stern old face took on +softened and very lovely lines. Rose Mary stood near to help her into +the house and Everett leaned against a post close on the other side of +the rocker.</p> + +<p>"Children," she said with a little break in her usual austere voice, +"I'm kinder ashamed of accusing the Lord of forgetting me this morning +when I look at all these remembers of me here that my neighbors have +given me. I found friends when I came here eighty-two years ago to-day +and as they have died off He has raised up a new crop outen their seed +for me. This rheumatism buckeye here is the present of the great +grandson of my first beau, and this afternoon I have looked into the +kind eyes of some of my friends dead and gone many a day, and have +seen smiles come to life that have been buried fifty years. I'm +a-feeling thankful to be here another summer to see my friends and +flowers a-blooming onct more, <!-- Page 60 -->and come next April I am a-going to +want just such another infair as this one. Now help me into bed! Young +man, you can lift me up some, I'm stiff with so long setting, and I'm +a-going to want a power of rubbing this night, Rose Mary."</p> + +<p>So, thus held by her duties of ministration, it was quite an hour +later that Rose Mary came out of the house, which was dark and +sleep-quiet, and found Everett still sitting on the front steps +smoking and—waiting.</p> + +<p>"Tired?" he asked as she sank down on to the step beside him and +leaned her dark head back against one of the posts that supported the +mass of honeysuckle vine.</p> + +<p>"Not much—and a heap happy," she answered, looking up at him with +reflected stars in her long-lashed blue eyes. "Wasn't it a lovely +party?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Everett slowly as he watched the smoke curl up from +his cigar and blow in the soft little night wind across toward<!-- Page 61 --> Rose +Mary; "yes, it was a nice party. I seriously doubt if anywhere on any +of the known continents there could have been one just like it pulled +off by any people of any nation. It was unique—in sentiment and +execution; I'm duly grateful for having been a guest—even part +honoree."</p> + +<p>"I always think of old people as being the soft shadows that sturdy +little children cast on the wall. They are a part of the day and +sunshine, but just protected by the young folks that come between them +and the direct rays. They are strangely like flowers, too, with their +quaint fragrance. Aunt Viney is my tall purple flag, but Aunt Amandy +is my bed of white cinnamon pinks. I—I want to keep them in bloom for +always. I can't let myself think—that I can't." Rose Mary's voice +trembled into a laugh as she caught a trailing wisp of honeysuckle and +pressed a bunch of its buds to her lips.</p> + +<p>"You'll keep them, Rose Mary. You could <!-- Page 62 -->keep anything you—you really +wanted," said Everett in a guardedly comforting voice. "And what are +Mr. Alloway and Stonie in your flower garden?" he asked in a bantering +tone.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Uncle Tucker is the briar rose hedge all around the place, and +Stonie is all the young shoots that I'm trying to prune and train up +just like him," answered Rose Mary with a quick laugh. "You're my +new-fashioned crimson-rambler from out over the Ridge that I'm trying +to make grow in my garden," she added, with a little hint of both +audacity and tenderness in her voice.</p> + +<p>"I'm rooted all right," answered Everett quickly, as he blew a puff of +smoke at her. "And you, Rose Mary, are the bloom of every rose-bush +that I ever saw anywhere. You are, I verily believe, the only and +original Rose of the World."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," answered Rose Mary lifting her long lashes for a second's +glance at him; "I'm <!-- Page 63 -->just the Rose of these Briars. Don't you know all +over the world women are blooming on lovely tall stems, where they +have planted themselves deep in home places and are drinking the +Master's love and courage from both sun and rain. But if we don't go +to rest some you'll wilt, Rambler, and I'll shatter. Be sure and take +the glass of cream I put by your bed. Good night and good dreams!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" /><!-- Page 64 -->CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h2>AT THE COURT OF DAME NATURE</h2><br /> + + +<p>"Well, Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker as he appeared in the doorway of +the milk-house and framed himself against an entrancing, +mist-wreathed, sun-up aspect of Sweetbriar with a stretch of +Providence Road winding away to the Nob and bending caressingly around +red-roofed Providence as it passed over the Ridge, "there are +forty-seven new babies out in the barn for you this morning. Better +come on over and see 'em!" Uncle Tucker's big eyes were bright with +excitement, his gray lavender muffler, which always formed a part of +his early morning costume, flew at loose ends, and a rampant, grizzly +lock stuck out through the slit in the old gray hat.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 65 -->Gracious me, Uncle Tuck, who now?" demanded Rose Mary over a crock +of milk she was expertly skimming with a thin, old, silver ladle.</p> + +<p>"Old White has hatched out a brood of sixteen, assorted black and +white, that foolish bronze turkey hen just come out from under the +woodpile with thirteen little pesters, Sniffer has got five +pups—three spots and two solids—and Mrs. Butter has twin calves, +assorted sex this time. They are spry and hungry and you'd better come +on over!"</p> + +<p>"Lovely," laughed Rose Mary with the delight in her blue eyes matching +that in Uncle Tucker's pair of mystic gray. "I'll come just as soon as +I get the skimming done. We'll want some corn meal and millet seed for +the chirp-babies, but the others we can leave to the maternal +ministrations. I'm so full of welcome I don't see how I'm going to +keep it from bubbling over."</p> + +<p>"That's jest like you, Rose Mary, a-welcom<!-- Page 66 -->ing a whole passel of +pesters that have deluged down on you at one time," said Uncle Tucker +with a dubiously appreciative smile at Rose Mary's hospitable +enthusiasm. "Looks to me like a girl tending three old folks, one +rampage of a boy, a mollycuddle of a strange man, and a whole petting +spoiled village has got enough on her shoulders without this +four-foot, two-foot landslide."</p> + +<p>"But it's in my heart I carry you all, old Sweetie," answered Rose +Mary with a flirt of her long lashes up at Uncle Tucker. "A woman can +carry things as a blessing in her heart that might be an awful burden +on her shoulders. Don't you know I don't allow you out before the sun +is up good without your muffler tied up tight? There; please go on +back to the barn and take this crock of skimmed milk to Mrs. +Sniffie—wait, I'll pour back some of the cream! And in just a few +minutes I'll be ready to—"</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary, Rose Mary," came a wild, <!-- Page 67 -->enthusiastic shout from up the +path toward the Briars and in a moment the General appeared around the +row of lilac bushes through which the milk-house trail led down under +the hill to Rose Mary's sanctum of the golden treasure. Stonie had +taken time before leaving the seclusion of his apartment to plunge +into his short blue jeans trousers, but he was holding them up with +one hand and struggling with his gingham shirt, the tail of which +bellowed out like a sail in the morning breeze as he sped along. And +in his wake came Tobe with a pan in one hand and a cup in the other. +"It's two calves, Tobe says, with just Mrs. Butter for the mother and +Sniffie beat her with three more puppies than two calves. It's sixteen +chickens and a passel of turkeys and we waked up Mr. Mark to tell him +and he said—" Stonie paused in the rapid fire of his announcement of +the morning news and then added in judicial tone of voice, as if +giving the aroused sleeper his modicum of fair play:<!-- Page 68 --> "Well, he didn't +quite say it before he swallowed, but he throwed a pillow at Tobe and +pulled the sheet over his head and groaned awful. Aunt Viney was +saying her prayers when I went to tell her, and Aunt Mandy was taking +down her frizzles, but she stopped and gave Tobe some corn-bread for +the chickens and some pot-licker with meat in it for Sniffie. Can't +you come with me to see 'em now, Rose Mary? It won't be any fun until +you see em!" The General had by this time lined up in the doorway with +Uncle Tucker, and Tobe's black head and keen face peered over his +shoulder. The expression in all three pairs of eyes fixed on hers was +the same—the wild desire to make her presentation at the interesting +court Dame Nature was holding in the barn. A most natural masculine +instinct for feminine interpretive companionship when face to face +with the miracle of maternity.</p> + +<p>"Just one more crock of milk to skim and I can go," answered Rose Mary +as she poised <!-- Page 69 -->the skimmer over the last yellow surface down the line +of huge, brown, earthen bowls that in Harpeth Valley were known as +crocks. The milk-house was cool and clean and smelled of the fresh +cream lifted from the milk into the stone jars to be clabbered for the +to-morrow churning. And Rose Mary herself was a fresh, fragrant +incarnation of the spirit of a spring sun-dawn that had come over the +Ridge from Old Harpeth. Her merry voice floated out over the hillside +as she followed in the wake of Uncle Tucker, Stonie and Tobe, with the +provender for the new arrivals, and it made its way as a faint echo of +a dream through one of the vine-covered, gable windows of the Briars +and the effect thereof was well-nigh instantaneous.</p> + +<p>Everett, after a hasty and almost as incomplete toilet as the one made +by the General in his excitement, arrived on the scene of action just +in time to witness the congratulatory interview between Mrs. Sniffie +and the mistress <!-- Page 70 -->of her undying affections. The long-eared, plumy, +young setter-mother stood licking the back of Rose Mary's neck as she +sat on the barn floor with all five of the young tumblers in her lap, +with Tobe and Stonie hanging rapturously over her and them, while +Uncle Tucker was expatiating on some points that had made themselves +evident even at this very early stage of the existence of the little +dog babies.</p> + +<p>"They ain't not a single stub nose in the bunch, Uncle Tuck, not a one +and everybody's of thems toes stick way apart," exclaimed the General, +his cheeks red with joyous pride.</p> + +<p>"Watch 'em, Miss Ro' Mary; watch 'em smell Sniffie when I call her +over here," exclaimed Tobe as he held out the pan to Mrs. Sniffer and +thus coaxed her from the side of Rose Mary and the small family. And, +sure enough, around squirmed every little white and yellow bunch and +up went every little new-born nose as it sniffed at the recession <!-- Page 71 -->of +the maternal fount. One little precocious even went so far as to +attempt to set his wee fore paddies against Rose Mary's knee and to +stiffen a tiny plume of a tail, with a plain instinct to point the +direction of the shifting base of supplies. Rose Mary gave a cry of +delight and hugged the whole talented family to her breast, while +Stonie and Tobe yelled and danced as Uncle Tucker turned with evident +emotion to Everett to claim his congratulations.</p> + +<p>"Never saw anything like it in my life," Everett assured him with the +greatest enthusiasm, and, as he spoke, he laughed down into Rose +Mary's lifted blue eyes that were positively tender with pride over +the puppies in her arms. "It's a sight worth losing the tale of a +dream for—taken all together."</p> + +<p>"And all the others—I'll show you," and, gathering her skirts +basketwise, Rose Mary rose to her feet and led the way across the +barn, with Sniffer snuffing along at the squirming bundle in her +skirts, that swung against the <!-- Page 72 -->white petticoat ruffling around her +slim ankles. With the utmost care she deposited the puppies in an +overturned barrel, nicely lined with hay, that Stonie and Tobe had +been preparing. "They are lovely, Sniffie," she said softly to the +young mother, who jumped in and huddled down beside the babies as her +mistress turned to leave them with the greatest reluctance.</p> + +<p>And it was well that the strata of Everett's enthusiasm lay near the +surface and was easily workable, for in the next half-hour there was a +great demand of continuous output. Mrs. Butter stood switching her +tail and chewing at a wisp of hay with an air of triumphant pride +tinged with mild surprise as she turned occasionally to glance at the +offspring huddled against her side and found eight wobbly legs instead +of the four her former experiences had led her to expect, and felt two +little nuzzling noses instead of one.</p> + +<p>"Which one do you guess was the surprise <!-- Page 73 -->calf to her, Rose Mamie?" +demanded the General.</p> + +<p>"Shoo!" said Tobe in answer to the General's question. "Old Butter +have had them two calfs to purpose, boy and girl, one to keep and one +to kill. She got mixed about whether Mr. Tuck keeps heifers or bulls +and jest had both kinds so as to keep one sure."</p> + +<p>"Well, Aunt Viney read in her book of a place they kills girls and +keeps boys. At this place they jest gits it mixed up with the cows and +it's no use to tell 'em," answered the General in a disgusted tone of +voice, and with a stem glance at Uncle Tucker, as he and Tobe passed +on over to the feed-room door, to lead the way to the display of the +little turks and cheeps for Everett's further edification.</p> + +<p>And just as the introductions were all completed two deep notes of the +mellow old farm bell sounded over the hill in a hospitable and +reverent summons to prayers and breakfast ensuing. On the instant two +pairs of pink <!-- Page 74 -->heels were shown to the company as Stonie and Tobe +raced up the walk, which were quickly followed by Uncle Tucker, intent +on being on hand promptly for the assembling of his household. More +slowly Rose Mary and Everett followed, walking side by side along the +narrow path.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary, have you let me sleep through such exciting scenes as this +every morning for a month?" demanded Everett quizzically. "What time +do you get up—or is it that the sun waits for your summons or—"</p> + +<p>"No, not my summons—old lame Shanghi's. I believe he is of French +extraction from his elaborate manner with the hens," answered Rose +Mary, quickly applying his plagiarized compliment. "Let's hurry or +I'll be late for prayers. Would you like—will you come in to-day, as +you are already up?" The color rose in Rose Mary's cheeks up under her +long lashes and she gave him just one shy glance that had a tinge of +roguishness in it.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 75 -->Thank you, I—I would like to. That is, if I may—if I won't be in +the way or—or—or—will you hold my hand so I won't go wrong?" he +finished in laughing confusion as the color came under the tan of his +cheeks to match that in hers and the young look lay for a moment in +his eyes. "It'll be my début at family worship," he added quickly to +cover his confusion.</p> + +<p>"Don't worry, Uncle Tucker leads it," answered Rose Mary as they +ascended the front steps and came across the front porch to the +doorway of the wide hall, which was the living-room, as well as the +artery of the Briars.</p> + +<p>And a decorous and seemly scene they stepped in upon. Uncle Tucker sat +back of a small table, which was placed at one side of the wide open +fireplace, in which crackled a bit of fragrant, spring fire. His Bible +and a couple of hymn-books rested in front of him, his gray forelock +had been meekly plastered down and the jocund lavender scarf had been +laid aside to display a straight white collar and clerical <!-- Page 76 -->black bow +tie. His eyes were bent on the book before him as he sought for the +text for the morning lesson. Aunt Viney sat close beside him as if +anxious to be as near to the source of worship as possible, though the +strain of refraining from directing Uncle Tucker in the conducting +thereof was very great. The tradition which forced silence upon women +in places of public worship had held with Miss Lavinia only by the +exercising of the sternest and most rigorous self-suppression, which +at any time might have been broken except for the curbing of her iron +will.</p> + +<p>But even though silent she was still dominant, and over her glasses +her eyes shot glances of stern rebuke at two offenders in a distant +corner, while Uncle Tucker fluttered the leaves of his hymn-book, +oblivious to the unseemly contention. The General and Tobe, who came +as near to living and having his being at the Briars as was possible +in consideration of the fact that he was supposed to have his bed and +<!-- Page 77 -->board under his own paternal roof, were kneeling demurely beside a +small rocking-chair, but a battle royal was going on as to who would +possess the low seat on which to bow the head of reverence.</p> + +<p>Little Miss Amanda from across the room, in terror of what might +befall her favorites at the hands of Miss Lavinia in a later hour of +reckoning, was making beseeching gestures of alarm, warning and +reproof that were entirely inadequate to the situation, which was fast +becoming acute, when the two tardy members arrived on the scene of +action. It took Rose Mary one second to grasp the situation, and, +motioning Everett to a chair beside the rocker, she seated herself +quickly in the very midst of the scuffle. In a half-second Tobe's head +was bowed in triumph on the arm of her chair, while the General's was +ducked with equal triumph upon her knee as Uncle Tucker's sweet old +voice rose in the first words of his prayer.</p> + +<p>But after a few minutes of most becoming <!-- Page 78 -->reverence Stonie's eyes +opened and revealed his surprise at Everett's presence as he knelt by +the chair across from Tobe and almost as close to Rose Mary's +protective presence as either of the two combatants. With a welcoming +smile the General slipped the little brown hand of fellowship into the +stranger's, thereby offering a material support to the latter's agony +of embarrassment, which only very slowly receded from face and +demeanor as the services proceeded.</p> + +<p>Then as across the crackle of the fire came the confident word of +David the Singer: "<i>The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; +the world and they that dwell therein</i>," intoned in the old man's +reverent voice, something led Everett's glance out through the open +door to see the bit of divine dominion that spread before him with new +eyes and a newer understanding. Harpeth Valley lay like the tender +palm of a huge master hand with the knuckles of rough blue hills +knotted <!-- Page 79 -->around it, and dotted over the fostering meadows were +comfortable homes, each with its morning altar fire sending up opal +wreaths of mist smoke from the red brick or stone chimneys. Long creek +lines marked their way across the fields which were growing tender +green with the upbringing of the spring grain.</p> + +<p>"<i>Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand</i>," droned +Uncle Tucker. "<i>The hollow of His hand</i>," assented Everett's +conscience in artistic appreciation of the simile.</p> + +<p>"<i>And stretched out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out +as a tent to dwell in</i>," came as another line of interpretation of the +picture spread before the strangely unshackled eyes of the bowed man +with the little boy kneeling beside him. Quickly he turned toward Rose +Mary with almost a startled glance and found in her eyes the fact that +she had been faring forth over Harpeth Valley on the wings of Uncle +Tucker's supplication as had he. The wonder of it rose in his eyes, +<!-- Page 80 -->which were about to lay bare to her depths never before stirred, when +a fervent "Amen! I beat you that time, Tobe!" fairly exploded at his +ear as the General took the final word out of Uncle Tucker's very +mouth in rival to his worshipping opponent.</p> + +<p>"I said it first, but it got blowed into Miss Ro' Mary's sleeve," +avowed Tobe with a flaunt at his competitor.</p> + +<p>"If nobody he'r'n it, it don't count," decided the General with +emphasis. And in friendly dispute he escorted his rival down the front +walk, while Uncle Tucker, as was his custom, busied himself +straightening hymn-book and Bible, so leaving the family altar in +readiness for the beginning of a new day. And thus the primitive +ceremonial, the dread of which had kept Everett late in bed every +morning for a month, had resolved itself into what seemed to him but +the embrace of a tender, whimsical brotherhood in which the old mystic +both assumed and accounted for a stewardship in be<!-- Page 81 -->half of the others +assembled under his roof-tree.</p> + +<p>But in the eyes of Miss Lavinia all forms of service were the +marshalling of the hosts in battle array and at all times she was +enlisted in the ranks of the church militant, and upon this occasion +she bore down upon Everett with banners unfurled.</p> + +<p>"We are mighty gratified to welcome you at last in the circle of +family worship, young man," she declaimed, as reproach and cordiality +vied in her voice. "I have been a-laying off to ask you what church +you belonged to in New York, and have a little talk with you over some +of our sacred duties that young people of this generation are apt—"</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary," came Miss Amanda's cheery little voice from the doorway +just in time to save Everett from the wish, if not even a vain +attempt, to sink through the floor, "bring Mr. Mark right on in to +breakfast before the waffles set. Sister Viney, your coffee is +a-getting <!-- Page 82 -->cold." Little Miss Amanda had seen and guessed at his +plight and the coffee threat to Miss Lavinia had been one of the +nimble manoeuvers that she daily, almost hourly, employed in the +management of her sister's ponderosity. Thus she had saved this day, +but Everett knew that there were others to come, and in the dim +distance he discerned his Waterloo.</p> + +<p>And as he worked carefully with his examining pick over beyond the +north pasture through the soft spring-warm afternoon, he occasionally +smiled to himself as the morning scene of worship, etched deep on his +consciousness by its strangeness to his tenets of life, rose again and +again to his mind's eye. They were a wonderful people, these Valley +folk, descendants of the Huguenots and Cavaliers who had taken the +wilderness trail across the mountains and settled here "in the hollow" +of old Harpeth's hand. They were as interesting scientifically from a +philosophical standpoint <!-- Page 83 -->as were the geological formations which lay +beneath their blue-grass and clover fields. They built altars to what +seemed to him a primitive God, and yet their codes were in many cases +not only ethically but economically and democratically sound. The men +he had found shrewd and as a whole more interested and versed in +statescraft than would seem possible, considering their shut-in +location in regard to the places where the world wheels seem to +revolve. But were there larger wheels revolving, silently, slowly, but +just as relentlessly, out here where the heavens were stretched "<i>as a +curtain</i>," and "<i>as a tent to dwell in</i>?"</p> + +<p>"<i>'The earth and the fullness thereof,'</i>" he mused as he raised his +eyes to the sky; "it's theirs, certainly, and they dedicate it to +their God. I wonder—" Suddenly the picture of the woman in the barn +rose to his mind, strong and gracious and wonderful, with the young +"fullness" pressing around her, teeming with—force.<!-- Page 84 --> What force—and +what source? Suddenly he dropped his pick behind a convenient bush, +shouldered his kit of rocks and sand, climbed the fence and tramped +away down Providence Road to Sweetbriar, Rose Mary and her cold milk +crocks, thither impelled by deep—thirsts.</p> + +<p>And under the hospitable eaves of the milk-house he found Rose Mary +and her cooling draft—also Mrs. Caleb Rucker, with small Pete in tow.</p> + +<p>"Howdy, Mr. Mark," the visiting neighbor answered in response to his +forcedly cordial greeting. If a man has walked a mile and a half with +a picture of a woman handing him a glass of cool milk with a certain +lift of black lashes from over deep, black blue eyes it +is—disconcerting to have her do it in the presence of another.</p> + +<p>"I just come over to get a bucket of buttermilk for Granny +Satterwhite," he found Mrs. Rucker saying as he forced his attention.<!-- Page 85 --> +"She won't touch mine if there's any of Rose Mary's handy. Looks like +she thinks she's drinking some of Rose Mary's petting with every +gulp."</p> + +<p>Everett had just raised the glass Rose Mary had handed him, to his +lips, as Mrs. Rucker spoke, and over its edge he regarded the roses +that suddenly blushed out in her cheeks, but she refused to raise her +lashes the fraction of an inch and went calmly on pressing the milk +from the butter she had just taken from the churn.</p> + +<p>"Granny knows that love can be sent just as well in a glass of +buttermilk as in a valentine," she finally said, and as she spoke a +roguish smile coaxed at the comer of her mouth. "Don't you suppose a +piece of hemp twine would turn into a gold cord if you tied it around +a bundle of true love?" she ventured further in a spirit of daring, +still with her eyes on the butter.</p> + +<p>"Now that's something in meaning like my <!-- Page 86 -->first husband, Mr. +Satterwhite, said when we was married," assented Mrs. Rucker with +hearty appreciation of the practicality in Rose Mary's sentiment. "He +gave me two sows, each with a litter of pigs, for a wedding present +and said they'd be a heap more to me than any kind of jimcracks he +could er bought for half the money they'd bring. And they was, for, in +due course of time, I sold all them hogs and bought the plush +furniture in the front room, melojeon and all. Now Mr. Rucker, he give +me a ring with a blue set and 'darling' printed inside it that cost +fifty cents extra, and Jennie Rucker swallowed that ring before she +was a year old. I guess she has got it growed up inside her, for all I +know of it, and her Paw is a-setting on Mr. Satterwhite's furniture at +present, speaking still. Sometimes it makes me feel sad to think of +Mr. Satterwhite when Cal Rucker spells out, <i>Shall we meet beyond the +river</i> with two fingers on that melojeon. But then I even up my +feelings by remember<!-- Page 87 -->ing how Cal let me name Pete for Mr. Satterwhite, +which is a second-husband compliment they don't many men pass; and it +pleased Granny so."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Rucker is always nice to Granny Satterwhite," said Rose Mary with +the evident intention of extolling the present incumbent of the +husband office to her friend. But at the mention of his name a moment +earlier, young Peter, the bond between the past and present, had +sidled out the door and proceeded to sit calmly down on the rippling +surface of the spring branch. His rescue and retirement necessitated +his mother's departure and Everett was left in command of the +two-alone situation he desired.</p> + +<p>"Hasn't this been a lovely, long day?" asked Rose Mary as she turned +the butter into a large jar and pressed a white cloth close over it +with a stone top. "To-night is the full April moon and I've got a +surprise for you, if you don't find it out too soon. Will you walk +over <!-- Page 88 -->to Tilting Rock, beyond the barn-lot, with me after supper and +let me show you?"</p> + +<p>"Will I cross the fields of Elysium to gaze over the pearly ramparts?" +demanded Everett with boyish enthusiasm, if not a wholly accurate use +of mythological metaphor. "Let's cut supper and go on now! What do you +say? Why wait?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid," laughed Rose Mary as she prepared to close up the wide +window and leave everything in shipshape for the night. "A woman +oughtn't to risk feeding a hungry man cold moonbeams instead of hot +hoecake. Besides, I have to see everybody safely tucked in before I +can leave. Aren't they all a precious houseful of early-to-bed +chickens? The old Sweeties have forgotten there is such a thing as the +moon and Stonie hasn't—found it out—yet." And with a mischievous +backward glance, Rose Mary led the way up the lilac path to the Briars +on top of the hill just as the old bell sounded two wobbly notes, +their uncer<!-- Page 89 -->tainty caused by the rivalry of the General and Tobe over +the pulling of the ropes.</p> + +<p>And it was quite two hours later that she and Everett made their way +across the barn-lot over to the broad, moss-covered Tilting Rock that +jutted out from a little hackberry-covered knoll at the far end of the +pasture.</p> + +<p>"Now look—and smell in deep!" exclaimed Rose Mary excitedly as she +pointed back to the Briars.</p> + +<p>"Why—why!" exclaimed Everett under his breath, "it's enchantment! +It's a dream—am I awake?"</p> + +<p>And indeed a very vision spread itself out before the wondering man. +The low roof and wide wings of the Briars, with the delicate traceries +of vines over the walls and gables, shone a soft, old-brick pink in +the glow of moonlight, and over and around it all gushed a very shower +of shimmering white blossoms, surrounding the house like a mist around +an early blooming rose. And as he looked, wave <!-- Page 90 -->on wave of fragrance +beat against Everett's face and poured over his head.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" he demanded breathlessly, as if dizzy from a too deep +drinking of the perfume.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know? It's the locust trees that have bloomed out since +sunset!" exclaimed Rose Mary in as breathless a tone as his own. "For +a week I have been watching and hoping they would be out in the full +moon. They are so delicate that the least little cold wind sets them +back days or destroys them altogether. I wanted them so very much this +year for you, and I was so afraid you would notice them before we got +over here where you could get the full effect. I promised you lilacs +for being good, but this is just because—because—"</p> + +<p>"Because what?" asked Everett quietly.</p> + +<p>"Because I felt you would appreciate it," answered Rose Mary, as she +sank down on the stone that still held a trace of the warmth from the +sun, and made room for Everett beside <!-- Page 91 -->her with one of her ever-ready, +gracious little gestures. "And it's lovely to have you here to look at +it with me," she added. "So many times I have sat here alone with the +miracle, and my heart has ached for the whole world to get the vision +of it at least. I've tried sending my love of it out in little locust +prayers to folks over the Ridge. Did you ever happen to get one any +spring?"</p> + +<p>"Last April I turned down a commission for a false test for the +biggest squeeze-out copper people in the world, fifty thousand in it +to me. I thought it was moral courage, but I know now it was just on +account of the locusts blooming in Harpeth Valley at Sweetbriar. Do +you get any connection?" he demanded lightly, if a bit unevenly.</p> + +<p>"To think that would be worth all the loneliness," answered Rose Mary +gently. "Things were very hard for me the first year I had to come +back from college. I used to sit here by the hour and watch Providence +Road wind <!-- Page 92 -->away over the Ridge and nothing ever seemed to come or go +for me. But that was only for a little while, and now I never get the +time to breathe between the things that happen along Providence Road +for me to attend to. I came back to Sweetbriar like an empty crock, +with just dregs of disappointment at the bottom, and now I'm all ready +every morning to have five gallons of lovely folks-happenings poured +into a two-and-a-half-gallon capacity. I wish I were twins or twice as +much me."</p> + +<p>"Why, you have never told me before, Rose Mary, that you belong to the +new-woman persuasion, with a college hall-mark and suffragist +leanings. I have made the mistake of putting you in the home-guard +brigade and classing you fifty years behind your times. Don't tell me +you have an M.A. I can't stand it to-night."</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't got one," answered Rose Mary with both a smile and a +longing in her voice. "I came home in the winter of my junior <!-- Page 93 -->year. +My father was one of the Harpeth Valley boys who went out into the +world, and he came back to die under the roof where his fathers had +fought off the Indians, and he brought poor little motherless me to +leave with the aunts and Uncle Tucker. They loved me and cared for me +just as they did Uncle Tucker's son, who was motherless, too, and a +few years after he went out into the world to seek the fortune he felt +so sure of, I was given my chance at college. In my senior year his +tragedy came and I hurried back to find Uncle Tucker broken and old +with the horror of it, and with the place practically sold to avoid +open disgrace. His son died that year and left—left—some day I will +tell you the rest of it. I might have gone back into the world and +made a success of things and helped them in that way, from a +distance—but what they needed was—was me. And so I sat here many +sunset hours of loneliness and looked along Providence Road +until—until I think the Mas<!-- Page 94 -->ter must have passed this way and left me +His peace, though my mortal eyes didn't see Him. And now there lies my +home nest swung in a bower of blossoms full of the old sweetie birds, +the boy, the calf, puppy babies, pester chickens and—and I'm going to +take a large, gray, prowling night-bird back and tuck him away for +fear his cheeks will look hollow in the morning. I'm the mother bird, +and while I know He watches with me all through the night, sometimes I +sing in the dark because I and my nesties are close to Him and I'm not +the least bit afraid."</p> + +<br /> +<p class="figcenter"><a href="images/illustr04.jpg"><img width="50%" border="0" src="./images/illustr04.jpg" +alt="I hope you feel easy in your mind now" +title="I hope you feel easy in your mind now" /></a></p> +<p class="figcenter"><span class="smcap"><br />"I hope you feel easy in your mind now"</span></p> +<br /> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" /><!-- Page 95 -->CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h2>MOONLIGHT AND APPLE-BLOW</h2><br /> + + +<p>"I hope you feel easy in your mind, child, now you've put this whole +garden to bed and tucked 'em under cover, heads and all," said Uncle +Tucker, as he spread the last bit of old sacking down over the end of +the row of little sprouting bean vines. "When I look at the garden I'm +half skeered to go in the house to bed for fear I haven't got a quilt +to my joints."</p> + +<p>"Now, honey sweet, you know better than that," answered Rose Mary as +she rose from weighting down the end of a frilled white petticoat with +a huge clod of earth and stretched it so as to cover quite two yards +of the green shoots. "I haven't taken a thing of yours but two shirts +and one of your last summer seersucker <!-- Page 96 -->coats. I'm going to mend the +split up the back in it for the wash Monday. Aunt Amandy lent me two +aprons and a sack and a petticoat for the peony bushes, and Aunt Viney +gave me this shawl and three chemises that cover all the pinks. I've +taken all the tablecloths for the early peas, and Stonie's shirts, +each one of them, have covered a whole lot of the poet's narcissus. +All the rest of the things are my own clothes, and I've still got a +clean dress for to-morrow. If I can just cover everything to-night, I +won't be afraid of the frost any more. You don't want all the lovely +little green things to die, do you, and not have any snaps or peas or +peonies at all?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, fly-away!" answered Uncle Tucker as he tucked in the last end of +a nondescript frill over a group of tiny cabbage plants, "there's not +even a smack of frost in the air! It's all in your mind."</p> + +<p>"Well, a mind ought to be sensitive about covering up its friends from +frost hurts," an<!-- Page 97 -->swered Rose Mary propitiatingly as she took a +satisfied survey of the bedded garden, which looked like the scene of +a disorganized washday. "Thank you, Uncle Tucker, for helping me—keep +off the frost from my dreams, anyway. Don't you think—"</p> + +<p>"Well, howdy, folks!" came a cheerfully interruptive hail from across +the brick wall that separated the garden from the cinder walk that lay +along Providence Road, which ran as the only street through +Sweetbriar, and Caleb Rucker's long face presented itself framed in a +wreath of budding rose briars that topped the wall in their spring +growth. "Tenting up the garden sass ag'in, Miss Rose Mary?"</p> + +<p>"No, we're jest giving all the household duds a mooning instead of a +sunning, Cal," answered Uncle Tucker with a chuckle as he came over to +the wall beside the visitor. "What's the word along the Road?"</p> + +<p>"Gid Newsome have sent the news as he'll be here Sad'ay night to lay +off and plow up <!-- Page 98 -->this here dram or no-dram question for Sweetbriar +voters, so as to tote our will up to the state house for us next +election. As a state senator, we can depend on Gid to expend some and +have notice taken of this district, if for nothing but his corn-silk +voice and white weskit. It must take no less'n a pound of taller a +week to keep them shoes and top hat of his'n so slick. I should jedge +his courting to be kinder like soft soap and molasses, Miss Rose +Mary." And Mr. Rucker's smile was of the saddest as he handed this bit +of gentle banter over the wall to Rose Mary, who had come over to +stand beside Uncle Tucker in the end of the long path.</p> + +<p>"It's wonderful how devoted Mr. Newsome is to all his friends," +answered Rose Mary with a blush. "He sent me three copies of the +Bolivar <i>Herald</i> with the poem of yours he had them print last week, +and I was just going over to take you and Mrs. Rucker one as soon as I +got the time to—"</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 99 -->Johnnie-jump-ups, Miss Rose Mary, don't you never do nothing like +that to me!" exclaimed Mr. Rucker with a very fire of desperation +lighting his thin face. "If Mis' Rucker was to see one verse of that +there poetry I would have to plow the whole creek-bottom corn-field +jest to pacify her. I've done almost persuaded her to hire Bob Nickols +to do it with his two teams and young Bob, on account of a sciattica +in my left side that plowing don't do no kind of good to. I have took +at least two bottles of her sasparilla and sorgum water and have let +Granny put a plaster as big and loud-smelling as a mill swamp on my +back jest to git that matter of the corn-field fixed up, and here you +most go and stir up the ruckus again with that poor little <i>Trees in +the Breeze</i> poem that Gid took and had printed unbeknownst to me. +Please, mam, burn them papers!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wouldn't tell her for the world if you don't want me to, Mr. +Rucker!" exclaimed<!-- Page 100 --> Rose Mary in distress. "But I am sure she would be +proud of—"</p> + +<p>"No, it looks like women don't take to poetry for a husband; they +prefers the hefting of a hoe and plow handles. It's hard on Mis' +Rucker that I ain't got no constitution to work with, and I feel it +right to keep all my soul-squirmings and sech outen her sight. The +other night as I was a-putting Petie to bed, while she and Bob was at +the front gate a-trying to trade on that there plowing, a mighty sweet +little verse come to me about</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"'The little shoes in mother's hand<br /></span> +<span>Nothing like 'em in the land,'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and the tears was in my eyes so thick 'cause I didn't have nobody to +say 'em to that one dropped down on Pete and made him think I was +a-going to wash his face, and sech another ruckus as she had to come +in to, as mad as hops! If I feel like it, I'm a-going to clean <!-- Page 101 -->every +weed outen the garden for her next week to try and make up to her +for—"</p> + +<p>"Aw, Mr. Rucker, M-i-s-t-e-r Rucker, come home to get ready for +supper," came in a loud, jovial voice that carried across the street +like the tocsin of a bass drum. The Rucker home sat in a clump of +sugar maples just opposite the Briars, and was square, solid and +unadorned of vine or flower. A row of bright tin buckets hung along +the picket fence that separated the yard from the store enclosure, and +rain-barrels sat under the two front gutters with stolid +practicability, in contrast to the usual relegation of such +store-houses of the rainfall to the back of the house and the planting +of ferns and water plants under the front sprouts, as was the custom +from the beginning of time in Sweetbriar. Mrs. Rucker in a clean print +dress and with glossy and uncompromisingly smoothed hair stood at the +newly whitewashed front gate. "Send him on home, Rose Mary, or +grass'll grow in his tracks and <!-- Page 102 -->yours, too, if he can hold you long +enough," she added by way of badinage.</p> + +<p>"I'm a-coming, Sally, right on the minute," answered the +poet-by-stealth, and he hurried across the street with hungry +alacrity. The poem-maker was tall and loose-jointed, and the breadth +of his shoulders and long muscular limbs decidedly suggested success +at the anvil or field furrow. He made a jocular pass at placing his +arm around the uncompromising waist-line of his portly wife, and when +warded off by an only half-impatient shove he contented himself by +winding one of her white apron strings around one of his long fingers +as they leaned together over the gate for further parley with the +Alloways across the road.</p> + +<p>"When did you get back, Mrs. Rucker?" asked Rose Mary interestedly, as +she rested her arms on the wall and Uncle Tucker planted himself +beside her, having brushed away one of the long briar shoots to make +room for them both.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 103 -->About two hours ago," answered Mrs. Rucker. "I found everybody in +fine shape up at Providence, and Mis' Mayberry sent Mr. Tucker a new +quinzy medicine that Tom wrote back to her from New York just day +before yesterday. I made a good trade in hogs with Mr. Hoover for +myself and Bob Nickols, too. Mr. Petway had a half-barrel of flour in +his store he were willing to let go cheap, and I bought it for us and +you-all and the Poteets. Me and you can even up on that timothy seed +with the flour, Mr. Tucker, and I'm just a-going to give a measure to +the Poteets as a compliment to that new Poteet baby, which is the +seventh mouth to feed on them eighty-five acres. I've set yeast for +ourn and your rolls for to-morrow, tell your Aunt Mandy, Rose Mary, +and I brought that copy of the <i>Christian Advocate</i> for your Aunt +Viney that she lost last month. Mis' Mayberry don't keep hern, but +spreads 'em around, so was glad to let me have this one. I asked about +it before I had <!-- Page 104 -->got my bonnet-strings untied. Yes, Cal, I'm a-going +on in to give you your supper, for I expect I'll find the children's +and Granny's stomicks and backbones growing together if I don't hurry. +That's one thing Mr. Satterwhite said in his last illness, he never +had had to wait—yes, I'm coming, Granny," and with the encomium of +the late Mr. Satterwhite still unfinished Mrs. Rucker hurried up the +front path at the behest of a high, querulous old voice issuing from +the front windows.</p> + +<p>"Well, there's no doubt about it, no finer woman lives along +Providence Road than Sallie Rucker, Marthy Mayberry and Selina Lue +Lovell down at the Bluff not excepted, to say nothing of Rose Mary +Alloway standing right here in the midst of my own sweet potato +vines," said Uncle Tucker reflectively as he glanced at the retreating +figure of his sturdy neighbor, which was followed by that of the lean +and hungry poet.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she's wonderful," answered Rose<!-- Page 105 --> Mary enthusiastically, +"but—but I wish she had just a little sympathy for—for poetry. If a +husband sprouts little spirit wings under his shoulders it's a kind +thing for his wife not to pick them right out alive, isn't it? When I +get a husband—"</p> + +<p>"When you get a husband, Rose Mary, I hope he'll hump his shoulders +over a plow-line the number of hours allotted for a man's work and +then fly poetry kites off times and only when the wind is right," +answered Uncle Tucker with a quizzical smile in his big eyes and a +quirk at the corner of his mouth.</p> + +<p>"But I'm going always to admire the kites anyway, even if they don't +fly," answered Rose Mary with the teasing lift of her long lashes up +at him. "Maybe just a woman's puff might start a man's kite sky high +that couldn't get off right without it. You can't tell."</p> + +<p>"Yes, child," answered Uncle Tucker as he looked into the dark eyes +level with his own with a sudden tenderness, "and you never fail <!-- Page 106 -->to +start off all kites in your neighborhood. When I took you as a bundle +of nothing outen Brother John's arms nearly thirty years ago this +spring jest a perky encouraging little smile in your blue eyes started +my kite that was a-trailing weary like, and it's sailed mostly by your +wind ever since—especially these last few years. Don't let the breeze +give out on me yet, child."</p> + +<p>"It never will, old sweetie," answered Rose Mary as she took Uncle +Tucker's lean old hand in hers and rubbed her cheek against the sleeve +of his rough farm coat. "Is the interest of the mortgage ready for +this quarter?" she asked quietly in almost a whisper, as if afraid to +disturb some listening ear with a private matter.</p> + +<p>"It lacks more than a hundred," answered Uncle Tucker in just as quiet +a voice, in which a note of pain sounded plainly. "And this is not the +first time I have fallen behind with Newsome, either. The repairs on +the plows and the food chopper for the barn have cost a <!-- Page 107 -->good deal, +and the coal bill was large this winter. Sometimes, Rose Mary, I—I am +afraid to look forward to the end. Maybe if I was younger it would be +different and I could pay the debt, but I am afraid—if it wasn't for +your aunts, looks like you and I could let it go and make our way +somewhere out in the world beyond the Ridge, but they are older than +us and we must keep their home as long as we can for 'em. Maybe in a +few years—Newsome won't press me, I'm mighty sure. Do you think you +can help me hold on for 'em? I don't matter."</p> + +<p>"We'll never let it go, Uncle Tuck, never!" answered Rose Mary +passionately as she pressed her cheek closer to his arm. "I don't know +why I know, but we are going to have it as long as they—and you, +<i>you</i> need it—and I'm going to die here myself," she added with a +laughing sob as she shook two tears out of her lashes and looked up at +him with adorning stars in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"It's as He wills, daughter," answered Uncle<!-- Page 108 --> Tucker quietly as he +laid a tender hand on the dark braids resting against his shoulder. +"It isn't wrong for us to go on keeping it if we can jest pay the +interest to our friend—pay it to the day. That is the only thing that +troubles me. We must not fall behind and—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but honey-sweet, let me tell you, let me tell you!" exclaimed +Rose Mary with shining eyes, "I've got just lots of money, more than +twenty dollars, nearly twice more. I've saved it just in case we did +need it for this or—or—or any other thing," she added hastily, not +willing to disclose her tooth project even to Uncle Tucker's +sympathetic ear.</p> + +<p>Uncle Tucker's large eyes brightened with relief for a second and then +clouded with a mist of tears.</p> + +<p>"What were you saving it for, child?" he asked with a quaver in his +sweet old voice, and his hand clasped hers more closely. "You don't +ever have what pretty women like you want and need, and that's what +grinds down <!-- Page 109 -->on me most hardest of all. You are young and—and mighty +beautiful, and looks like it's wrong for you to lay down yourself for +us who are a good long way on the other side of life's ridge. I ought +to send you back across the hills to—to find your own—no matter what +happens!"</p> + +<p>"Try it!" answered Rose Mary, again lifting her star eyes to his. "I +was saving that money to buy Aunt Viney a set of teeth that she thinks +she wants, but I know she couldn't use them when she gets them. If I'm +as beautiful as you say, isn't this blue homespun of great Grandmother +Alloways, made over twentieth century style, adornment enough? Some +people—that is, some one—Mr. Mark said this morning it was—was +<i>chic</i>, which means most awfully stylish. I've got one for my back and +one for the tub all out of the same old blue bed-spread, and a white +linen marvel contrived from a pair of sheets for Sunday. Please don't +send me out into the big world—other <!-- Page 110 -->people might not think me as +lovely as you do," and her raillery was most beautifully dauntless.</p> + +<p>"The Lord bless you and keep you and make the sun to shine upon you, +flower of His own Kingdom," answered Uncle Tucker with a comforted +smile breaking over his wistful old face. "I had mighty high dreams +about you when that young man talked his oil-wells to me a month ago, +and I wanted my rose to do some of her flowering for the world to see, +but maybe—maybe—"</p> + +<p>"She'll flower best here, where her roots go down into Sweetbriar +hearts—and Sweetbriar prayers, Uncle Tucker; she knows that's true, +and so do you," answered Rose Mary quickly. "And anyway, Mr. Mark is +making the soil survey for you, and if we follow his directions there +is no telling what we will make next year, maybe the interest and some +of the money, too, and the teeth and—and a sky-blue silk robe for +me—if that's what you'd like to see me wear, <!-- Page 111 -->though it would be +inconvenient with the milking and the butter and—"</p> + +<p>"Tucker, oh Brother Tucker!" came a call across the garden fence from +the house, in a weak but commanding voice, and Rose Mary caught a +glimpse of Miss Lavinia's white mob cap bobbing at the end of the +porch, "that is in Proverbs tenth and nineteenth, and not nineteenth +and tenth, like you said. You come right in here and get it straight +in your head before the next sun sets on your ignorance."</p> + +<p>"Fly-away!" exclaimed Uncle Tucker, "now Sister Viney's never going to +forgive me that Bible slip-up if I don't persuade her from now on till +supper. But there is nothing more for you to do out here, Rose Mary, +the sun'll put out the light for you," and he hurried away down the +path and through the garden gate.</p> + +<p>Rose Mary remained leaning over the garden wall, looking up and down +the road with interest shining in her eyes and a laugh and nod for the +neighbors who were hurrying supperward <!-- Page 112 -->or stopping to talk with one +another over fences and gates. A group of men and boys stood and sat +on the porch in front of the store, and their big voices rang out now +and again with hearty merriment at some exchange of wit or clever bit +of horse-play. Two women stood in deep conclave over by the Poteet +gate, and the subject of the council was a small bundle of flannel and +lawn displayed with evident pride by a comely young woman in a pink +calico dress. Seeing Rose Mary at the wall, they both smiled and +started in her direction, the bearer of the bundle stepping carefully +across the ditch at the side of the walk.</p> + +<p>"Lands alive, Rose Mary, you never did see nothing as pretty as this +last Poteet baby," exclaimed Mrs. Plunkett enthusiastically. "The year +before last one, let me see, weren't that Evelina Virginia, Mis' +Poteet? Yes, Evelina Virginia was mighty pretty, but this one beats +her. I declare, if you was to fail us with these spring babies, Mis' +Poteet, it would be a dis<!-- Page 113 -->appointment to the whole of Sweetbriar. Come +next April it will be seven without a year's break, astonishing as it +do sound."</p> + +<p>"It would be as bad as the sweetbriar roses not blooming, Mrs. +Poteet," laughed Rose Mary as she held out her arms for the bundle +which cuddled against her breast in a woman-maddening fashion that +made her clasp the mite as close as she dared.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I tell you, seven hand-running is enough for any woman to be +proud of, Mis' Poteet, and it ought to be taken notice of. Have you +heard the news of the ten acres of bottom land to be given to him, +Rose Mary? That's what all the men are a-joking of Mr. Poteet about +over there at the store now. They are a-going to make out the deed +to-night. They bought the land from Bob Nickols right next to Mr. +Poteet's, crops and all, ten acres of the best land in Sweetbriar. I +call it a nice compliment. 'To Tucker Poteet, from Sweetbriar, is to +go right in the deed."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 114 -->'Tucker Poteet,' oh, Mrs. Poteet, have you named him for Uncle +Tucker?" exclaimed Rose Mary with beaming eyes, and the rapture of her +embrace was only modified by a slight squirm from the young heir of +all Sweetbriar.</p> + +<p>"Well, I had had that name in my mind from the first if he come a boy, +but when Mr. Poteet got down to the store for some tansy, when he +weren't a hour old, he found all the men-folks had done named him that +for us, and it looked like we didn't have the chance to pass the +compliment. We ain't told you-all nothing about it, for they all +wanted Mr. Tucker to read it in the deed first."</p> + +<p>"And ain't them men a-going to have a good time when they give Mr. +Tucker that deed to read? Looks like, even if it is some trouble, you +couldn't hardly begrudge Sweetbriar these April babies, Mis' Poteet," +said Mrs. Plunkett in a consoling voice.</p> + +<p>"Law, Mis' Plunkett, I don't mind it one bit.<!-- Page 115 --> It ain't a mite of +trouble to me to have 'em," answered the mother of the seven hardily. +"You all are so kind to help me out all the time with everything. +Course we are poor, but Jim makes enough to feed us, and every single +child I've got is by fortune, just a hand-down size for somebody +else's children. Five of 'em just stair-steps into clothes of Mis' +Rucker's four, and Mis' Nickols saves me all of Bob's things to cut +down, so I never have a mite of worry over any of 'em."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I reckon maybe the worry spread over seven don't have a chanct +to come to a head on any one of 'em," said Mrs. Plunkett thoughtfully, +and her shoulders began to stoop dejectedly as a perturbed expression +dawned into her gray eyes. "Better take him on home now, Mis' Poteet, +for sundown is house-time for babies in my opinion. Hand him over, +Rose Mary!"</p> + +<p>Thus admonished, with a last, clinging embrace, Rose Mary delivered +young Tucker to <!-- Page 116 -->his mother, who departed with him in the direction of +the Poteet cottage over beyond the milk-house.</p> + +<p>"Is anything worrying you, Mrs. Plunkett? Can I help?" asked Rose Mary +as her neighbor lingered for a moment and glanced at her with wistful +eyes. Mrs. Plunkett was small, though round, with mournful big eyes +and clad at all times in the most decorous of widow's weeds, even if +they were of necessity of black calico on week days. Soft little curls +fell dejectedly down over her eyes and her red mouth defied a dimple +that had been wont to shine at the left corner, and kept to confines +of straight-lipped propriety.</p> + +<p>"It's about Louisa Helen again and her light-mindedness. I don't see +how a daughter of mine can act as she does with such a little feeling. +Last night Mr. Crabtree shut up the store before eight o'clock and put +on his Sunday coat to come over and set on the front steps a-visiting +of her, and in less'n a half <!-- Page 117 -->hour that Bob Nickols had whistled for +her from the corner, and she stood at the front gate talking to him +until every light in Sweetbriar was put out, and I know it muster been +past nine o'clock. And there I had to set a-trying to distract Mr. +Crabtree from her giggling. We talked about Mr. Plunkett and all our +young days and I felt real comforted. If I can jest get Louisa Helen +to see what a proper husband Thomas Crabtree will make for her we can +all settle down comfortable like. He wants her bad, from all the signs +I can see."</p> + +<p>"But—but isn't Louisa Helen a little young for—" began Rose Mary, +taking what seemed a reasonable line of consolation.</p> + +<p>"No, she's not too young to marry," answered her mother with spirit. +"Louisa Helen is eighteen years old in May, and I was married to Mr. +Plunkett before my eighteenth birthday. He was twenty-one, and I +treated him with proper respect, too. I never said no such foolish +things as Louisa Helen says to <!-- Page 118 -->that Nickols boy, even to Mr. +Crabtree, hisself."</p> + +<p>"Oh, please don't worry about Louisa Helen, Mrs. Plunkett. She is just +so lovely and young—and happy. You and I both know what it is to be +like that. Sometimes I feel as if she were just my own youngness that +I had kept pressed in a book and I had found it when I wasn't looking +for it." And Rose Mary's smile was so very lovely that even Mrs. +Plunkett was dazzled to behold.</p> + +<p>"Lands alive, Rose Mary, you carry your thirty years mighty easy, and +that's no mistake. You put me in mind of that blush peony bush of +yourn by the front gate. When it blooms it makes all the other flowers +look like they was too puny to shake out a petal. And for sheep's +eyes, them glances Mr. Gid Newsome casts at you makes all of Bob +Nickols' look like foolish lamb squints. And for what Mr. Mark does in +the line of sheeps—Now there they come, and I can see from Louisa<!-- Page 119 --> +Helen's looks she have invited that rampage in to supper. I'll have to +hurry on over and knock up a extra sally-lunn for him, I reckon. +Good-by 'til morning!" And Mrs. Plunkett hurried away to the +preparation of supper for the suitor of her disapproval.</p> + +<p>For a few moments longer Rose Mary let her eyes go roaming out over +the valley that was lying in a quiet hush of twilight.</p> + +<p>Lights had flashed up in the windows over the village and a night +breeze was showering down a fall of apple-blow from the gnarled old +tree that stood like a great bouquet beside the front steps of the +Briars. All the orchards along the Road were in bloom and a fragrance +lay heavy over the pastures and mingled with the earth scent of the +fields, newly upturned by the plowing for spring wheat.</p> + +<p>"Is that a regiment you've got camping in the garden, Rose Mary?" +asked Everett as he came up the front walk in the moonlight some two +hours later and found Rose Mary seated <!-- Page 120 -->on the top of the front steps, +all alone, with a perfectly dark and sleep-quiet house behind her.</p> + +<p>Rose Mary laughed and tossed a handful of the pink blow she had +gathered over his shoulder. "Did you have your supper at Bolivar?" she +asked solicitously. "I saved you some; want it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I had a repast at the Citizens', but I think I can manage yours +an hour or two later," answered Everett as he seated himself beside +her and lighted a cigar, from which he began to puff rings out into +the moonlight that sifted down on to them through the young leaves of +the bloom-covered old tree. "You weren't afraid of frost such a night +as this, were you?" he further inquired, as he took a deep breath of +the soft, perfume-laden air.</p> + +<p>"I'm not now, but a cool breeze blew up about sundown and made me +afraid for my garden babies. Now I'm sure they will all wilt under +their covers, and you'll have to help me <!-- Page 121 -->take them all off before you +go to bed. Isn't it strange how loving things make you afraid they +will freeze or wilt or get wet or cold or hungry?" asked Rose Mary +with such delightful ingenuousness that a warm little flush rose up +over Everett's collar. "Loving just frightens itself, like children in +the dark," she added musingly.</p> + +<p>"And you saved my supper for me?" asked Everett softly.</p> + +<p>"Of course I did; didn't you know I would?" asked Rose Mary quickly, +in her simplicity of heart not at all catching the subtle drift of his +question. "They all missed you, and Uncle Tucker went to bed almost +grumpy, while Stonie—"</p> + +<p>"Rose Mamie," came in a sleepy but determined voice as the General in +a long-tailed nightshirt appeared in the dark doorway, "I went to +sleep and you never came back to hear me pray. Something woke me; +maybe the puppy in my bed or maybe God. I'll come out <!-- Page 122 -->there and say +'em so you won't wake the puppy, because he's goned back to sleep," he +added in a voice that was hushed to a tone of extreme consideration +for the slumber of his young bedfellow.</p> + +<p>"Yes, honey-heart, come say them here. Mr. Mark won't mind. I came +back, Stonie, to hear them, truly I did, but you were so fast to sleep +and so tired I hated to wake you." And Rose Mary held out tender arms +to the little chap who came and knelt on the floor at her side, +between her and Everett.</p> + +<p>"But, Rose Mamie, you know Aunt Viney says tired ain't no 'scuse to +the Lord, and I don't think it are neither. I reckon He's tired, too, +sometimes, but He don't go back on the listening, and I ain't a-going +to go back on the praying. It wouldn't be fair. Now start me!" and +having in a completely argumentative way stated his feelings on the +subject of neglected prayer, the General buried his head on Rose +Mary's shoulder, folded one bare, pink foot <!-- Page 123 -->across the other, clasped +his hands at proper angle and waited.</p> + +<p>"<i>Now I lay me</i>," began Rose Mary in a low and tender tone.</p> + +<p>"No," remonstrated Stonie in a smothered voice from her shoulder, +"this is 'Our Father' week! Don't tire out the Lord with the '<i>Now I +lay me</i>,' Rose Mamie!"</p> + +<p>With an exclamation of regret Rose Mary clasped him closer and led the +petition on through to its last word, though it was with difficulty +that the sleepy General reached his Amen, his will being strong but +his flesh weak. The little black head burrowed under Rose Mary's chin +and the clasped pink feet relaxed before the final words were said. +For a few minutes Rose Mary held him tenderly and buried her face +against the back of the sunburned little neck, while as helpless as +young Tucker Stonie wilted upon her breast and floated off into the +depths. And for still a few seconds longer Everett sat very <!-- Page 124 -->still and +watched them with a curious gleam in his eyes and his teeth set hard +in his cigar; then he rose, bent over and very tenderly lifted the +relaxed General in his arms and without a word strode into the house +with him. Very carefully he laid him in the little cot that stood +beside Rose Mary's bed in her room down the hall, and with equal care +he settled the little dog against the bare, briar-scratched feet, +returned to the moonlight porch and resumed his seat at Rose Mary's +side.</p> + +<p>"There is something about the General," he remarked with a half smile, +"that—that gets next. He has a moral fiber that I hope he will be +able to keep resistent to its present extent, but I doubt it."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Rose Mary, quickly looking up with pierced, startled eyes, +"he must keep it—he must; it is the only hope for him. Tell me if you +can how to help him keep it. Help me help him!"</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," answered Everett in quick <!-- Page 125 -->distress. "I was only +scoffing, as usual. He'll keep what you give him, never fear, Rose +Mary; he's honor bound."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what I want him to be—'honor bound.' You don't know +about him, but to-night I want to tell you, because I somehow feel you +love him—and us—and maybe if you know, some day you will help him. +Just after I came back into the Valley and found them all so troubled +and—and disgraced, something came to me I thought I couldn't stand. +Always it seemed to me I had loved him, my cousin, Uncle Tucker's son, +and I thought—I thought he had loved me. But when he went out into +the world one of the village girls, Granny Satterwhite's daughter, had +followed him and—yes, she had been his wife for all the time we +thought she was working in the city. They had been afraid—afraid of +Uncle Tucker and me—to acknowledge it. She was foolish and he +criminally weak. After his—his tragedy she came back—and nobody +would believe—that she <!-- Page 126 -->was his wife. I found her lying on the floor +in the milk-house and though I was hurt, and hard, I took her into my +room—and in a few hours Stonie was born. When they gave him to me, so +little and helpless, the hurt and hardness all melted for ever, and I +believed her and forgave her and him. I never rested until I made him +come back, though it was just to die. She stayed with us a year—and +then she married Todd Crabtree and moved West. They didn't want +Stonie, so she gave him to me. When my heart ached so I couldn't stand +it, there was always Stonie to heal it. Do you think that heartaches +are sometimes just growing pains the Lord sends when He thinks we have +not courage enough?" And in the moonlight Rose Mary's tear-starred +eyes gleamed softly and her lovely mouth began to flower out into a +little smile. The sunshine of Rose Mary's nature always threw a bow +through her tears against any cloud that appeared on her horizon.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 127 -->I don't believe your heart ever needed any growing pains, Rose Mary, +and I resent each and every one," answered Everett in a low voice, and +he lifted one of Rose Mary's strong slim hands and held it close for a +moment in both his warm ones.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but it did," she answered, curling her fingers around his like a +child grateful for a caress. "I was romantic—and—and intense, and I +thought of it as a castle for—for just one. Now it's grown into a +wide, wing-spreading, old country house in Harpeth Valley, with vines +over the gables and doves up under the eaves. And in it I keep +sunshiny rooms to shelter all the folks in need that my Master sends. +Yours—is on the south side—corner—don't you want your supper now?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" /><!-- Page 128 -->CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h2>THE HONORABLE GID</h2><br /> + + +<p>"Now, Amandy, stick them jack-beans in the ground round side upwards. +Do you want 'em to have to turn over to sprout?" demanded Miss +Lavinia, as she stood leaning on her crotched stick over by the south +side of the garden fence, directing the planting of her favorite vine +that was to be trained along the pickets and over the gate. Little +Miss Amanda, as usual, was doing her best to carry out exactly the +behests of her older and a little more infirm sister. Miss Amanda was +possessed of a certain amount of tottering nimbleness which she put at +the disposal of Miss Lavinia at all times with the most cheery +good-will. Miss Amanda was of the order of little sisters who serve +and Miss Lavinia belonged to the sisterhood <!-- Page 129 -->dominant by nature and by +the consent of Miss Amanda and the rest of her family.</p> + +<p>"It's such a long row I don't know as I'll hold out to finish it, +Sister Viney, if I have to stop to finger the beans in such a way as +that. But I'll try," answered the little worker, going on sticking the +beans in with trembling haste.</p> + +<p>"Let me help you, please, Miss Amanda," entreated Everett, who had +come out to watch the bean planting with the intention of offering +aid, with also the certainty of having it refused.</p> + +<p>"No, young man," answered Miss Lavinia promptly and decidedly. "These +jack beans must be set in by a hand that knows 'em. We can't run no +risks of having 'em to fail to come up. I got the seed of 'em over to +Springfield when me and Mr. Robards was stationed there just before +the war. Mr. Robards was always fond of flowers, and these jack beans +in special. He was such a proper meek man and showed so few likings +that I feel like I oughter <!-- Page 130 -->honor this one by growing these vines in +plenty as a remembrance, even if he has been dead forty-odd years."</p> + +<p>"Was your husband a minister?" asked Everett in a voice of becoming +respect to the meek Mr. Robards, though he be demised for nearly half +a century.</p> + +<p>"He was that, and a proper, saddlebags-riding, torment-preaching +circuit rider before he was made presiding elder at an astonishing +early age," answered Miss Lavinia, a fading fire blazing up in her +dark eyes. "He saved many a sinner in Harpeth Valley by preaching both +heaven and hell in their fitten places, what's a thing this younger +generation don't know how to do any more, it seems like. A sermon that +sets up heaven like a circus tent, with a come-sinner-come-all sign, +and digs hell no deeper than Mill Creek swimming pool, as is skeercely +over a boy's middle, ain't no sermon at all to my mind. Most preaching +in Sweetbriar are like that nowadays."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 131 -->But Brother Robards had a mighty sweet voice and he gave the call of +God's love so as to draw answers from all hearts," said Miss Amanda in +her own sweet little voice, as she jabbed in the beans with her right +hand and drew the dirt over them with her left.</p> + +<p>"Yes, husband was a little inclined to preach from Psalms more'n good +rousing Proverbs, but I always belt him to the main meat of the Gospel +and only let him feed the flock on the sweets of faith in proper +proportion," answered Miss Lavinia, with an echo in her voice of the +energy expended in keeping the presiding elder to a Jeremiah rather +than a David rôle in his ministry.</p> + +<p>"It was a mighty blow to the Methodist Church when he was taken away +so young," said Miss Amanda gently. "I know I said then that they +never would be—"</p> + +<p>"Lands alive, if here ain't Miss Viney and Miss Amandy out planting +the jack beans and I ain't got down not a square foot of summer +<!-- Page 132 -->turnip greens!" exclaimed a hearty voice as Mrs. Rucker hurried up +across the yard to the garden gate. "Now I know I'm a behind-hander, +for my ground's always ready, and in go the greens when you all turn +spade for the bean vines. Are you a-looking for a little job of +plowing, Mr. Mark? I'd put Mr. Rucker at it, but he give his left +ankle a twist yestidy and have had to be kinder quiet, a-setting on +the back porch or maybe a-hobbling over to the store."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll plow, if you don't care whether your mule or plow or hame +strings come out alive," answered Everett with a laugh. Miss Amanda +had risen, hurried eagerly over to her favorite neighbor and held out +her hand for the pan tendered her.</p> + +<p>"Them's your sally luns, Miss Amandy, and they are a good chanct if I +do say it myself. I jest know you and Rose Mary have got on the big +pot and little kettle for Mr. Newsome, and I'm mighty proud to have +the luns handed <!-- Page 133 -->around with your all's fixings. I reckon Rose Mary is +so comfusticated you can't hardly trust her with no supper rolls or +such like. Have you seen him yet, Rose Mary?" she asked of Rose Mary, +who had appeared at the garden gate.</p> + +<p>"No; I've just come up from the milk-house," answered Rose Mary with a +laughing blush. "When did Mr. Newsome come?"</p> + +<p>"Just now," answered Mrs. Rucker, with further banter in her eyes. +"And none of Solomon's lilies in all they glory was ever arrayed like +one of him. You better go frill yourself out, Rose Mary, for the men +ain't a-going to be able to hold him chavering over there at the store +very long."</p> + +<p>"It will only take me a few minutes to dress," answered Rose Mary, +with a continuation of the blush. "The Aunties are all ready for +supper, and Stonie and Uncle Tucker. Mag has got everything just ready +to dish up, and I'll take in the sally luns to be run in the stove at +<!-- Page 134 -->the last moment. Isn't it lovely to have company? Friends right at +home you can show your liking for all the time, but you must be +careful to save their share for the others to give to them when they +come. Mr. Mark, don't you want to—"</p> + +<p>But before Rose Mary had begun her sentence Mr. Mark Everett, of New +York City, New York, was striding away across the yard with a long +swing, and as he went through the front gate it somehow slipped out of +his hand and closed itself with a bang. The expression of his back as +he crossed the road might have led one versed in romantics to conclude +that a half-unsheathed sword hung at his side and that he had two +flintlocks thrust into his belt.</p> + +<p>And over at the store he found himself in the midst of a jubilation. +Mr. Gideon Newsome, of Bolivar, Tennessee, stood in the doorway, and +surrounding him in the store, in the doorway and on the porch was the +entire masculine population of Sweetbriar.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 135 -->Mr. Newsome was tall and broad and well on the way to portliness. His +limbs were massive and slow of movement and his head large, with a +mane of slightly graying hair flung back from a wide, unfurrowed brow. +Small and very black eyes pierced out from crinkled heavy lids and a +bulldog jaw shot out from under a fat beak of a nose. And over the +broad expanse of countenance was spread a smile so sweet, so deep, so +high that it gave the impression of obscuring the form of features +entirely. In point of fact it was a thick and impenetrable veil that +the Senator had for long hung before his face from behind which to +view the world at large. And through his mouth, as through a rent in +the smile, he was wont to pour out a volume of voice as musical in its +drawl and intensified southern burr as the bass note on a +well-seasoned 'cello.</p> + +<p>He was performing the obligato of a prohibition hymn for the group of +farmers around him when he caught sight of<!-- Page 136 --> Everett as he came across +the street. Instantly his voice was lowered to a honeyed +conversational pitch as he came to the edge of the porch and held out +a large, fat, white hand, into which Everett laid his own by courtesy +perforced.</p> + +<p>"I'm delighted to see you, Mr. Everett, suh, delighted!" he boomed. +"And in such evident improved health. I inquired for you at Bolivar as +soon as I returned and I was informed that you had come over here to +find perfect restoration to health in the salubrious climate of this +wonderful town of Sweetbriar. I'm glad to see your looks confirm the +answer to my anxious inquiries. And is all well with you?"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Senator, I'm in pretty good shape again," answered Everett +with a counter smile. "Ten pounds on and I'm in fighting trim." The +words were said pleasantly, but for the life of him Everett could not +control the hostility of a quick glance that apparently struck +harmlessly against the veil of smiles.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 137 -->That there ten pounds had oughter be twenty, Senator, at the rate of +the Alloway feeding of him, from milk-house to cellar preserve shelf," +said Mr. Crabtree from behind the counter where he was doing up a +pound of tea for the poet, who found it impossible to take his eyes +off the politician. "Miss Rose Mary ain't give me a glass of +buttermilk for more'n a week, and they do say she has to keep a loaf +handy in the milk-house to feed him 'fore he gets as far as Miss +Amandy and the kitchen. We're going to run him in a fattening race +with Mis' Rucker's fancy red hog she's gitting ready for the State +Fair and the new Poteet baby, young Master Tucker Poteet of +Sweetbriar."</p> + +<p>"So there's a new Poteet young man, and named for my dear friend, Mr. +Alloway! My congratulations, Mr. Poteet!" exclaimed the senator as he +pumped the awkward, horny hand of the embarrassed but proud Mr. Poteet +up and down as if it were the handle of the town <!-- Page 138 -->pump. "I must be +sure to have an introduction to the young man. Want to meet all the +voters," he added, shaking out the smile veil with energy.</p> + +<p>And at this very opportune moment he looked down the Road and espied a +procession of presentation approaching. The General in the midst of +the Swarm was coming at a breakneck speed and clasped firmly in his +arms he held a small blue bundle. On his right galloped Tobe with +Shoofly swung at her usual dangerous angle on his hip, and Jennie +Rucker supported his left wing, with stumbling Petie pulled along +between her hand and that of small Peggy. Around and behind swarmed +the rest of the Poteet seven, the Ruckers and the Nickols, with Mrs. +Sniffer and the five little dogs bringing up the rear.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, and what have we here?" exclaimed the great man as he +descended and stood in front of the lined-up cohorts.</p> + +<p>"It's the Poteet baby," answered the Gen<!-- Page 139 -->eral with precision. "We +bringed him to show you. He's going to be a boy; they can't nothing +change him now. Shoofly is a girl, but Mis' Poteet didn't fool us this +time. Besides if he'd been a girl we wouldn't a-had him for nothing."</p> + +<p>"Why, young man, you don't mean to discredit the girls, do you?" +demanded the Senator with a gallantly propitiating glance in the +direction of Jennie, Peggy and the rest of the bunch of assorted pink +and blue little calico petticoats. "Why could anything be finer than a +sweet little girl?" And as he spoke he rested his hand on Jennie's +tow-pigtailed head.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's sweet got to do with it if we've got too many of 'em?" +answered the General in his usual argumentative tone. "Till little +Tucker comed they was three more girls than they was boys, and it +wasn't fair. Now they is just two more, and four of Sniffie's puppies +is boys, so that makes it most even until another one comes, what'll +just <i>have</i> to be a <!-- Page 140 -->boy." And the General cast a threatening glance +in the direction of the calico bunch as he issued this ultimatum to +feminine Sweetbriar.</p> + +<p>"I'll ask Maw," murmured Jennie bashfully, but Miss Peggy turned up +her small nose and switched her short skirts scornfully as the men on +the porch laughed and the Senator emitted a very roar in his booming +bass.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, we'll have to settle that later," he said in his most +propitiating urge-voter voice as he cast a smile over the entire +Swarm. "Hadn't you better carry the young man back to his mother? He +seems to be restless," he further remarked, taking advantage of a +slight squirm in which young Tucker indulged himself, though he was +not at all uncomfortable in Stonie's arms, accustomed as he was to +being transported in any direction at any time by any one of his +confrères. And with this skilful hint of dismissal the Senator bent +down and bestowed the imperative political kiss on the little <!-- Page 141 -->pink +Poteet head, smattered one or two over Shoofly and Pete, landed one on +the tip of Jennie Rucker's little freckled nose and started them all +up the Road in good order as he turned once more to the men in the +store.</p> + +<p>But the advent of the Swarm had served to remind the group of his +friends that the time for the roof-tree gathering was fast +approaching, and Mr. Crabtree was busy filling half-forgotten supper +orders for impatient waiters, while most of the men had gone up or +down the Road in the wake of the scattering Swarm. For a few minutes +the Senator and Everett were left on the porch steps alone.</p> + +<p>"I hear from some of the men that you have been able to do some +prospecting in the last weeks, Mr. Everett," remarked the Senator +casually from behind the veil, as he accepted and lighted a cigar.</p> + +<p>"Just knocked around a bit," answered Everett carelessly. "The whole +Mississippi Valley is interesting geologically. There is quite <!-- Page 142 -->a +promise of oil here, but practically no outcrop."</p> + +<p>"Your examination been pretty thorough—professional?" queried the +Senator, still in an equally careless voice, though his little eyes +gleamed out of their slits.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I thrashed it all out, especially Mr. Alloway's place. I'd +like to have found oil for him—and the rest of Sweetbriar, too, but +it isn't here." Everett spoke decidedly, and there was a note in his +voice as if to end the discussion. His own eyes he kept down on his +cigar and, as he lounged against a post he had an air of being +slightly bored by an uninteresting shop topic. The Senator looked at +him a few seconds keenly, started to make a trivial change in the +conversation, then made a flank movement, bent toward Everett and +began to speak in a suave and most confidential manner.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, too, you didn't find the oil on the old gentleman's +place," he said in his most <!-- Page 143 -->open and dulcet tones. "I am very fond of +Mr. Alloway; I may say of the whole family. Farming is too hard work +for him at his years and I would have liked for him to have had the +ease of an increased income. Some time ago a phosphate expert examined +these regions, but reported nothing worth working. I had more hope of +the oil. As I say, I am interested in Mr. Alloway and the family—I +may say it to you in confidence, particularly interested in one of the +members." And the smile that the Senator bestowed upon Everett aroused +a keen desire for murder in the first degree. There was a challenge +and a warning in it and a cunning, too, that was deeper than both. +Controlling his impulse to smash the Senatorial bulldog jaw, Everett's +mind went instantly after the cunning.</p> + +<p>"So you only got the phosphate in your examination report of the +Alloway place?" he asked in a friendly, interested tone, as if the +hint had failed to make a landing. The cun<!-- Page 144 -->ning in his own glance and +tone he was shrewd enough to hide.</p> + +<p>"That was about all—nothing that was worth taking up then," answered +the Senator again carelessly, and at that moment Mr. Crabtree came out +to join them.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes Everett threw away his cigar, glanced across at the +Briars, where he could see Rose Mary and Uncle Tucker establishing +Miss Lavinia, in her high company cap, in the big chair on the front +porch, and without a word he strode out the back door of the store and +across the fields toward Boliver. He stopped at the Rucker side fence +and entrusted a message to the willing Jenny, and then went on into +the twilight in the direction of the lights of the distant town.</p> + +<p>And as he walked along his mood was, to say the least, savage, and he +cut, with a long switch he had picked up, at some nodding little wind +bells that had begun to show their colors along the side of the road. +He was hungry <!-- Page 145 -->and he was having his supper in detached visions. Now +Rose Mary was handing the Senator a plate of high-piled supper rolls, +each with a golden stream of butter cascading down the side, and as +her lovely bare arm held them across to the guest probably she was +helping Stonie's plate with her other hand to a spoonful of cream +gravy over his nicely browned chicken leg. On her side of the table +Miss Lavinia was pouring the rich cream over her bowl of steaming mush +and the materialized aroma from Uncle Tucker's cup of coffee that Rose +Mary had just poured him brought tears to Everett's eyes. Then came a +flash of Aunt Amandy helping herself under Rose Mary's urging to a +second crisp waffle, and the Senator was preparing to accept his +sixth, impelled by the same solicitous smile that had landed the +second on the little old lady's plate. Again Rose Mary was pouring the +Senator's second cup and stirring in the cream. If she had lifted the +spoon to her lips, as she always did with Uncle<!-- Page 146 --> Tucker's and +sometimes forgot and did with his, Everett would have—And at this +point he turned the bend and ran smash into the dramatic scene of a +romance.</p> + +<p>Seated by the side of the road was Louisa Helen Plunkett, and before +her stood young Bob Nickols, an agony of helplessness showing in every +line of his face and big loose-jointed figure, for Louisa Helen was +weeping into a handkerchief and one of her blue muslin sleeves. And it +was not a series of sentimental sobs and sighs or controlled and +effective sniffs in which Louisa Helen was indulging, but she was +boo-hooing in good earnest with real chokings and gurgles of sobs. Bob +was screwing the toe of his boot into the dust and saying and doing +absolutely and desperately nothing.</p> + +<p>"Why, Louisa Helen, what is the matter?" demanded Everett as he seated +himself beside the wailer and endeavored to bring down the pitch of +the sobs by a kindly pat on the heaving shoulder.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 147 -->What's happened, Bob?" he demanded of the silent and dejected lover, +who only shook his head as he answered from the depths of confusion.</p> + +<p>"I don't know; she just of a sudden flung down and began to hollow and +I ain't never got her to say."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I want a supper and a veil and a bokay!" came in a perfect howl +from the folds of the sleeve.</p> + +<p>"I want some supper, too, Louisa Helen," said Everett quickly, and a +smile lifted the corners of his mouth as the situation began to +unravel itself to his sympathetic concern. "I guess I could take the +bouquet and veil, too," he added to himself in an undertone.</p> + +<p>"I ain't a-going to let Maw insult Bob no more, but I don't want no +Boliver wedding in the office of no hotel. I want to be married where +folks can look at me, and have something good to eat, and throw old +shoes and rice at me," came in a more constrained and con<!-- Page 148 -->nected flow, +as the poor little fugitive raised her head from her arm and reached +down to settle her skirts about her ankles, from which she had flirted +them in the kicks of one of her most violent paroxysms. Louisa Helen +was very young and just as pretty as she was young. She was rosy and +dimpled and had absurd little baby curls trailing down over her eyes, +and her tears had no more effect on her face than a summer shower.</p> + +<p>"Why, what did your mother say to Bob?" asked Everett, thus drawn into +the position of arbitrator between two family factions.</p> + +<p>"She told him that Jennie Rucker would be about his frying size when +he got old enough to pick a wife, and it hurt his feelings so he +didn't come to see me for a week, and he says he ain't never coming no +more. If I want him I will have to go over to Boliver and marry him +to-morrow." A sob began to rise again in the poor little bride +prospective's throat at the thought of the horrible Boliver wedding.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 149 -->The autocrat shifted uneasily, and in the dusk Everett could see that +he was completely melted and ready to surrender his position if he +could only find the line of retreat.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Everett judicially, as he looked up at Bob with a wink, +which was answered by the slightest beginning of laugh from the +insulted one, "I don't believe Bob wants to do without that bouquet +and veil and supper either. They are just the greatest things that +ever happen to a man"—another wink at Bob—"and Bob don't want to +give them up. Now suppose you go on back home to-night and don't say +anything to your mother about the matter, and to-morrow I'll ask Mr. +Crabtree to step over and make it up with Bob for her. I feel sure +she'll invite them both in to supper, and then sometime soon we can +all discuss the veil-bouquet question. You aren't in a hurry, are +you?"</p> + +<p>"Naw," answered Bob promptly. "Me and Paw ain't got all the winter +wheat in yet, and <!-- Page 150 -->we've got to cut clover next week. We're mighty +busy now. I ain't in no hurry."</p> + +<p>"And I don't want to get married no way except when the briar roses is +in bloom so I can have the church tucked out in 'em. And I've got to +get some pretty clothes made, too," answered Louisa Helen, thus +putting in direct contrast the feminine and masculine attitude towards +nuptials in general and also in particular.</p> + +<p>"Then go on back home, you two," said Everett with a laugh, as he rose +to his feet and drew to hers the now smiling Louisa Helen. "And I +predict that by the time the briar roses are out something will happen +to make it all right. Put your faith in Mr. Crabtree, I should advise, +I suspect that he has—er influence with your mother." A giggle from +Louisa Helen and a guffaw from Bob, as the two young people started on +back along the Road, showed that they had both appreciated his veiled +sally.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 151 -->And as he stood watching them out of sight down the Road the twilight +faded from off the Valley and darkness came down in a starlit veil +from over old Harpeth. Everett climbed up and seated himself on the +top rail of the fence and again gave himself over to his moods. This +time one of bitterness, almost anger, rose to the surface. The same +old wheel grinding out here in the wilderness that he had left in the +market places of the world. The vision he had caught of the great +cycle being turned by some still greater source above the hills was—a +vision. The wheels ground on with the victims strapped and the cogs +dripping. Loot and the woman—loot and the woman! And he had thought +that out here "<i>in the hollow of His hand</i>" he had lost the sound of +that grind. And such a woman—the lovely gracious thing with the +unfaithful, dishonored lover's child in her arms, other women's +tumbling children clinging to her skirts and with hands outstretched +to protect and comfort the old gray heads in <!-- Page 152 -->her care! A woman with a +sorrow in her heart but with eyes that were deep blue pools in which +there mirrored loves for all her little world! For a long time he sat +and looked out into the darkness, then suddenly he squared his +shoulders, gripped the rail tight in his hands for a half second and +then slipped to the ground. Picking up his switch he turned and strode +off toward Sweetbriar, which by this time was a little handful of +fireflys glowing down in the sweet meadows.</p> + +<p>When he got as far as the blacksmith's shop Everett climbed the wall +and approached the house through the garden, for in front of the store +had been piled high a bonfire of empty boxes and dry wood boughs, and +most of the inhabitants of Sweetbriar, small fry and large, were +assembled in jocular groups around its blaze of light. He could see +Mr. Crabtree and Bob rolling out an empty barrel to serve as a +speaking stand for the Honorable Gid, who stood in the foreground in +front of the store <!-- Page 153 -->steps talking to Uncle Tucker, with an admiring +circle around him. Horses and wagons and buggies were hitched at +various posts along the road, which indicated the gathering of a small +crowd from neighboring towns to hear the coming oration, and the front +porch of the store presented a scene of unwonted excitement.</p> + +<p>Everett clicked the garden gate and steered around to the back door of +the kitchen in hopes of finding black Mag still at her post and +begging of her a glass of milk and a biscuit. But as he stood in the +doorway, instead of Mag he discovered Rose Mary with her white skirts +tucked up under one of her long kitchen aprons, putting the final +polishing touch to a shining pile of dishes. She looked up at him for +a second, and then went on with her work, and Everett could see that +her curled lips were trembling like a hurt child's.</p> + +<p>"I—I thought I might get a bite of something from—from Mag if she +hadn't left—the <!-- Page 154 -->kitchen—I—I—" Everett hesitated on the threshold +and in speech. "I—I am sorry to trouble you," he finished lamely.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe you care—care if you do," answered Rose Mary, and +her blue eyes showed a decided temper spark under their black lashes. +"I see I made a mistake in expecting anything of you. A friend's +fingers ought not to slip through yours when you need them to hold +tight. But come, get your supper—"</p> + +<p>"Please, Rose Mary, I'm most awfully ashamed," he said as he came and +stood close beside her, and there was a note in his voice that fairly +startled him with its tenderness. "I'm just a cross old bear, and I +don't deserve anything, no supper and no—no Rose Mary to care whether +I'm hungry or not and no—"</p> + +<p>"But I put the supper up," said Rose Mary, with a little laugh and +catch in her voice. "I couldn't let you be hungry, even if you did +treat me that way."</p> + +<p>"Didn't Jennie Rucker come to tell you I <!-- Page 155 -->couldn't get here to +supper?" asked Everett with what he felt to be a contemptible feint of +defense.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she came; but you knew we were going to have company and that I +wanted you to be here. You know Mr. Newsome is the best friend we have +in the world and your staying away meant that you didn't care if he +had been good to us. It hurt me! And the first bowl of lilacs was on +the table; I had been saving them for a surprise for you for two days, +and everything was so good and just as you like it and—" Rose Mary's +voice faltered again and a little tear splashed on the saucer she held +poised in her hand.</p> + +<p>"Well," answered Everett, like a sulky boy, "I didn't want any of the +Honorable Gid Newsome's lilacs or waffles or fried chicken, and I +didn't want to see you fix any coffee for him," he ended by blurting +out.</p> + +<p>"I didn't—I—that is—you are <i>horrid</i>," answered Rose Mary, but she +raised her eyes to <!-- Page 156 -->his in which smiles waltzed around with tears and +the glint of her white teeth showed through red lips curling with +laugh that was forcing itself over them by way of the dimple in the +corner of her chin. "Anyway, what I have here on the top of the stove +is your waffles and your fried chicken, and these are your lilacs," +and she drew out a purple spray from her belt and dropped it on the +table beside him. "Sit down and I'll give it all to you right here +while I finish wiping the dishes. Mag was taken with a spell before +supper was over and had to go lie down and I stayed to finish things +while the others went over to the speaking," she added as she began to +bustle about with her usual hospitable concern.</p> + +<p>"You are an angel, Rose Mary Alloway," said Everett as he placed +himself on a split-bottom kitchen chair, bestowed his long legs under +the table and drew up as near to Rose Mary and her dish-towel as was +possible to be sure of keeping out of the flirt. "And I—I'm <!-- Page 157 -->a +brute," he added contritely, though he dared a quick kiss on the bare +arm next and close to him.</p> + +<p>"No, you're not—just a boy," answered Rose Mary, as she set his +supper on the table before him. She had poured his coffee, stirred in +the cream and sugar and then laid the spoon decorous and straight in +the saucer beside the cup. For an instant Everett sat very still and +looked at her, then she picked up the cup and tipped it against her +lips, sipped judiciously and set it down with a satisfied air. For +just a second her eyes had gleamed down at him over the edge of the +cup and a tiny laugh gurgled in her throat as she swallowed her sip of +his beverage.</p> + +<p>"That was mine, anyway—he can have his chicken wings," said Everett +with a laugh as he began operations on the food before him.</p> + +<p>"It wasn't a very nice party," answered Rose Mary as she went on with +her work on the pile of china. "Stonie acted awfully. He piled up his +plate with pieces of chicken, and when<!-- Page 158 --> Aunt Viney reproved him he +said he was saving it for you. And Aunt Viney said she was sure you +were sick, and then Uncle Tucker wanted to go look for you and I had +to tell him before them all that you had sent me word. Then Aunt +Amandy said she was afraid you were not a Prohibitionist, and Aunt +Viney said she would have to talk to you in the morning. Then they all +told Mr. Newsome all about you, and I don't think he liked it much +because he likes to tell us things about himself. We are so fond of +him, and we always want to hear him talk about where he has been and +what he has done. I tried to stop them and make him talk, but I +couldn't. It's strange how liking a person gets them on your mind so +that even if you don't talk about them you think about them all the +time, isn't it? But I oughtn't to blame them, for I was so afraid they +wouldn't leave enough of things for you that I forgot to talk myself. +I was glad Stonie acted that way about the chicken, for the piece he +saved made three <!-- Page 159 -->pieces of white meat for you. Oh, please let's +hurry, because we will miss the speaking if we don't. Mr. Newsome +makes such beautiful speeches that I want you to hear him. Is there +any kind of pride in the world like that you have over your friends?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" /><!-- Page 160 -->CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h2>THE ENEMY, THE ROD AND THE STAFF</h2><br /> + + +<p>And the days that followed the Senator's prohibition rally at +Sweetbriar were those of carnival for jocund spring all up and down +Providence Road and out over the Valley. Rugged old Harpeth began to +be crowned with wreaths of tender green and pink which trailed down +its sides in garlands that spread themselves out over meadow and farm +away beyond the river bend. Overnight, rows of jonquils in Mrs. +Poteet's straggling little garden lifted up golden candlestick heads +to be decapitated at an early hour and transported in tight little +bunches in dirty little fists to those of the neighbors whose spring +flowers had failed to open at such an early date. In spite of what +seemed an open neglect, the Poteet <!-- Page 161 -->flowers were always more prolific +and advanced than any others along the Road, much to the pride of the +equally prolific and spring-blooming Mrs. Poteet. And in a spirit of +nature's accord the white poet's narcissus showed starry flowers to +the early sun in the greatest abundance along the Poteet fence that +bordered on the Rucker yard. They peeped through the pickets, and who +knows what challenge they flung to the poetic soul of Mr. Caleb Rucker +as he sat on the side porch with his stockinged feet up on a chair and +his nose tilted to an angle of ecstatic inhalation?</p> + +<p>Down at the Plunketts the early wistaria vine that garlanded the front +porch hung thick with long purple clusters which dropped continually +little bouquets of single blossoms with perfect impartiality on the +head of widow and maid, as the compromise of entertaining both young +Bob and Mr. Crabtree at the same time was carried out by Louisa Helen. +And often with the most absolute unconsciousness the <!-- Page 162 -->demure little +widow allowed herself to be drawn by the wily Mr. Crabtree into the +mystic circle of three, which was instantly on her appearance +dissolved into clumps of two. And if the prodigal vine showered +blessings down upon a pair of clasped hands hid beside Louisa Helen's +fluffy pink muslin skirts nobody was the wiser, except perhaps Mr. +Crabtree.</p> + +<p>And perched on the side of the hill the Briars found itself in a +perfect avalanche of blossoms. The snowballs hung white and heavy from +long branches, and gorgeous lilac boughs bent and swayed in the wind. +A clump of bridal wreath by the front gate was a great white drift +against the new green of a crimson-starred burning bush, while over it +all trailed the perfume-laden honeysuckle which bowered the front +porch, decorated trellis and trees and finally flung its blossoms down +the hill to well-nigh cloister Rose Mary's milk-house.</p> + +<p>One balmy afternoon Everett brushed aside a spray of the pink and +white blossoms and <!-- Page 163 -->stood in the stone doorway with his prospecting +kit in his hands. Rose Mary lifted quick welcoming eyes to his and +went on with her work with bowl and paddle. Everett had some time +since got to the point where it was well-nigh impossible for him to +look directly into Rose Mary's deep eyes, quaff a draft of the +tenderness that he always found offered him and keep equanimity enough +to go on with the affairs in hand. What business had a woman's eyes to +be so filled with a young child's innocence, a violet's shyness, a +passion of fostering gentleness, mirth that ripples like the surface +of the crystal pools, and—could it be dawning—love? Everett had been +in a state of uncertainty and misery so abject that it hid itself +under an unusually casual manner that had for weeks kept Rose Mary +from suspecting to the least degree the condition of his mind. There +is a place along the way in the pilgrimage to the altar of Love, when +the god takes on an awe-inspiring phase which makes a man hide <!-- Page 164 -->his +eyes in his hands with fear of the most abject. At such times with her +lamp of faith a woman goes on ahead and lights the way for both, but +while Rose Mary's flame burned strongly, her unconsciousness was +profound.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad you came," she said with the usual rose signal to him in +her cheeks. "I've been wondering where you were and just a little bit +uneasy about you. Mr. Newsome has been here and wants to see you. He +stayed to dinner and waited for you for two hours. Stonie and Tobe and +all the others looked for you. I know you are hungry. Will you have a +drink of milk before I go with you to get your dinner I saved?"</p> + +<p>"What did the Honorable Gid want?" asked Everett, and there was a +strange excitement in his eyes as he laid his hand quickly on a small, +irregular bundle of stones that bulged out of his kit. His voice had a +sharp ring in it as he asked his question.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think he just wanted to see you be<!-- Page 165 -->cause he likes you," +answered Rose Mary with one of her lifted glances and quick smiles. "A +body can take their own liking for two other people and use it as a +good strong rope just to pull them together sometimes. I'm awfully +fond of Mr. Newsome—and you," she added as she came over from one of +the crocks with Peter Rucker's blue cup brimming with ice cold cream +in her hand and offered it to Everett.</p> + +<p>Instead of taking the cup from her Everett clasped his fingers around +her slender wrist in the fashion of young Petie and thus with her hand +raised the cup to his lips. And as his eyes looked down over its blue +rim into hers the excitement in them died down, first into a very deep +tenderness that changed slowly into a quiet determination which seemed +to be pouring a promise and a vow into her very soul. Something in the +strange look made Rose Mary's hand tremble as he finished the last +drop in the cup, and again her lovely, always-ready rose flushed up +under her long lowered <!-- Page 166 -->lashes. "Is it good and cold?" she asked with +a little smile as she turned away with the cup.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Everett quietly, "it's all to the good and the milk +to the cold."</p> + +<p>"Is that a compliment to me and the milk, too?" laughed Rose Mary from +over by the table as she again took up her butter-paddle. "It's nice +to find things as is expected of them, women good and milk cold, isn't +it?" she queried teasingly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Everett from across the table.</p> + +<p>"And any way a woman must be a comfort to folks, just as a rose must +smell sweet, because they're both born for that," continued Rose Mary +as she lifted a huge pat of the butter on to a blue saucer. "Men are +sometimes a comfort, too—and sweet," she added with a roguish glance +at him over the butter flower she was making.</p> + +<p>"No, Rose Mary, men are just thorns, cruel and slashing—but sometimes +they protect the <!-- Page 167 -->rose," answered Everett in his most cynical tone of +voice, though the excitement again flamed up in his dark eyes and +again his hand closed over the kit at his side. "Do you know what I +think I'll do?" he added. "I think I'll take old Gray and jog over to +Boliver for a while. I'll see the Senator, and I want to get a wire +through to the firm in New York if I can. I'll eat both the dinner and +supper you have saved when I come back, though it may be late before I +get my telegram. Will you be still awake, do you think?"</p> + +<p>"I may not be awake, for Stonie got me up so awfully early to help him +and Uncle Tucker grease those foolish little turkeys' heads to keep +off the dew gaps, but I'll go to sleep on the settee in the hall, and +you can just shake me up to give you your supper."</p> + +<p>"I'll do nothing of the kind, you foolish child," answered Everett. +"Go to bed and—but a woman can't manage her dreams, can she?"</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 168 -->Oh, dreams are only little day thoughts that get out of the coop and +run around lost in the dark," answered Rose Mary, with a laugh. "I've +got a little bronze-top turkey dream that is yours," she added.</p> + +<p>"Is it one of the foolish flock?" Everett called back from the middle +of the plank across the spring stream, and without waiting for his +answer he strode down the Road.</p> + +<p>And the smile that answered his sally had scarcely faded off Rose +Mary's face when again a shadow fell across the plank and in a moment +Mr. Crabtree stood in the doorway. Across the way the store was +deserted and from the chair he drew just outside the door he could see +if any shoppers should approach from either direction.</p> + +<p>"Well, Miss Rose Mary, I thought as how I'd drop over and see if you +had any buttermilk left in that trough you are fattening Mr. Mark at, +for the fair in the fall," he said with a twinkle in his merry little +blue eyes. And<!-- Page 169 --> Rose Mary laughed with appreciation at his often +repeated little joke as she handed him a tall glassful of the desired +beverage.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid Stonie will get the blue ribbon from over his head if he +keeps on drinking so much milk. Did you ever see anybody grow like my +boy does?" asked Rose Mary with the most manifest pride in her voice +and eyes.</p> + +<p>"I never did," answered Mr. Crabtree heartily. "And that jest reminds +me to tell you that a letter come from Todd last night a-telling me +and Granny Satterwhite about the third girl baby borned out to his +house in Colorado City. Looked like they was much disappointed. I +kinder give Todd a punch in the ribs about how fine a boy General +Stonewall Jackson have grown to be. I never did hold with a woman +a-giving away her child, though she couldn't have done the part you do +by Stonie by a long sight."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what would I have done without Stonie, Mr. Crabtree!" exclaimed +Rose Mary <!-- Page 170 -->with a deep sadness coming into her lovely eyes. "You know +how it was!" she added softly, claiming his sympathy with a little +gesture of her hand.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do know," answered the store-keeper, his big heart giving +instant response to the little cry. "And on him you've done given a +lesson in child raising to the whole of Sweetbriar. They ain't a child +on the Road, girl or boy, that ain't being sorter patterned after the +General by they mothers. And the way the women are set on him is plumb +funny. Now Mis' Plunkett there, she's got a little tin bucket jest to +hold cakes for nobody but Stonie Jackson, which he distributes to the +rest, fair and impartial. I kinder wisht Mis' Plunkett would be a +little more free with—with—" And the infatuated old bachelor laughed +sheepishly at Rose Mary across her butter-bowl.</p> + +<p>"When a woman bakes little crisp cakes of affection in her heart, and +the man she wants to have ask her for them don't, what must she <!-- Page 171 -->do?" +asked Rose Mary with a little laugh that nevertheless held a slight +note of genuine inquiry in it.</p> + +<p>"Just raise the cover of the bucket and let him get a whiff," answered +Mr. Crabtree, shaking with amusement. "'Tain't no use to offer a man +no kind of young lollypop when he have got his mouth fixed on a nice +old-fashioned pound-cake woman," he added in a ruthful tone of voice +as he and Rose Mary both laughed over the trying plight in which he +found his misguided love affairs. "There comes that curly apple puff +now. Howdy, Louisa Helen; come across the plank and I'll give you this +chair if I have to."</p> + +<p>"I don't wanter make you creak your joints," answered Louisa Helen +with a pert little toss of her curly head as she passed him and stood +by Rose Mary's table. "Miss Rose Mary, I wanter to show you this +Sunday waist I've done made Maw and get you to persuade her some about +it for me. I put this little white <!-- Page 172 -->ruffle in the neck and sleeves and +a bunch of it down here under her chin, and now she says I've got to +take it right off. Paw's been dead five years, and I've most forgot +how he looked. Oughtn't she let it stay?"</p> + +<p>"I think it looks lovely," answered Rose Mary, eying the waist with +enthusiasm. "I'll come down to see your mother and beg her to let it +stay as soon as I get the butter worked. Didn't she look sweet with +that piece of purple lilac I put in her hair the other night? Did she +let that stay?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she did until Mr. Crabtree noticed it, and then she threw it +away. Wasn't he silly?" asked Louisa Helen with a teasing giggle at +the blushing bachelor.</p> + +<p>"It shure was foolish of me to say one word," he admitted with a +laugh. "But I tell you girls what I'll do if you back Mis' Plunkett +into that plum pretty garment with its white tags. I'll go over to +Boliver and bring you both two pounds of mixed peppermint and +choco<!-- Page 173 -->late candy with a ribbon tied around both boxes, and maybe some +pretty strings of beads, too. Is it a bargain?" And Rose Mary smiled +appreciatively as Louisa Helen gave an eager assent.</p> + +<p>At this juncture a team driven down the Road had stopped in front of +the store, and from under the wide straw hat young Bob Nickols' eager +eyes lighted on Louisa Helen's white sunbonnet which was being flirted +partly in and partly out of the milk-house door. As he threw down the +reins he gave a low, sweet quail whistle, and Louisa Helen's response +was given in one liquid note of accord.</p> + +<p>"Lands alive, it woulder been drinking harm tea to try to whistle a +woman down in my day, but now they come a-running," remarked Mr. +Crabtree to Rose Mary, as he prepared to take his departure in the +wake of the pink petticoats that had hurried across the street.</p> + +<p>Then for another hour Rose Mary worked alone in the milk-house, +humming a happy little <!-- Page 174 -->tune to herself as she pounded and patted and +moulded away. Every now and then she would glance down Providence Road +toward Boliver, far away around the bend, and when at last she saw old +Gray and her rider turn behind the hill she began to straighten things +preparatory to a return to the Briars. In the world-old drama of +creation which is being ever enacted anew in the heart of a woman, it +is well that the order of evolution is reversed and only after the +bringing together and marshaling of forces unsuspected even by herself +comes the command for light on the darkness of the situation. Rose +Mary was as yet in the dusk of the night which waited for the voice of +God on the waters, and there was yet to come the dawn of her first +day.</p> + +<p>And in the semi-mist of the dream she finally ascended the hill toward +the Briars with a bucket in one hand and a sunbonnet swinging in the +other. But coming down the trail she met one of the little tragedies +of life in the per<!-- Page 175 -->son of Stonewall Jackson, who was dragging +dejectedly across the yard from the direction of the back door with +Mrs. Sniffer and all five little dogs trailing in his wake. And as if +in sympathy with his mood, the frisky little puppies were waddling +along decorously while Sniffer poked her nose affectionately into the +little brown hand which was hanging without its usual jaunty swing. +Rose Mary took in the situation at a glance and sank down under one of +the tall lilac bushes and looked up with adoring eyes as Stonie came +and took a spread-legged stand before her.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, honey-sweet?" she asked quickly.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mamie, it's a lie that I don't know whether I told or not. It's +so curious that I don't hardly think God knows what I did," and the +General's face was set and white with his distress.</p> + +<p>"Tell me, Stonie, maybe I can help you decide," said Rose Mary with +quick sympathy.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 176 -->It was one of them foolish turkey hens and Tobe sat down on her and +a whole nest of most hatched little turkeys. Didn't nobody know she +was a-setting in the old wagon but Aunt Amandy, and we was a-climbing +into it for a boat on the stormy sea, we was playing like. It was +mighty bad on Tobe's pants, too, for he busted all the eggs. Looks +like he just always finds some kind of smell and falls in it. I know +Mis' Poteet'll be mad at him. And then in a little while here come +Aunt Amandy to feed the old turkey, and she 'most cried when she found +things so bad all around everywhere. We had runned behind the +corn-crib, but when I saw her begin to kinder cry I comed out. Then +she asked me did I break up her nest she was a-saving to surprise +Uncle Tucker with, and I told her no ma'am I didn't—but I didn't tell +her I was with Tobe climbing into the wagon, and it only happened he +slid down first on the top of the old turkey. It don't <i>think</i> like to +me it was a lie, but it <i>feels</i> like one right here," and<!-- Page 177 --> Stonie laid +his hand on the pit of his little stomach, which was not far away from +the seat of his pain if the modern usage assigned the solar-plexus be +correct.</p> + +<p>"And did Tobe stay still behind the corn-crib and not come out to tell +Aunt Amandy he was sorry he had ruined her turkey nest?" asked Rose +Mary, bent on getting all the facts before offering judgment.</p> + +<p>"Yes'm, he did, and now he's mighty sorry, cause Tobe loves Aunt +Amandy as well as being skeered of the devil. He says if it was Aunt +Viney he'd rather the devil would get him right now than tell her, but +if you'll come lend him some of my britches he will come in and tell +Aunt Amandy about it. He's tooken his off and he has to stay in the +corn-crib until I get something for him to put on."</p> + +<p>"Of course I'll come get some trousers for Tobe and a clean shirt, +too, and I know Aunt Amanda will be glad to forgive him. Tobe is +always so nice to her and she'll be sorry he's <!-- Page 178 -->sorry, and then it +will be all right, won't it?" And thus with a woman's usual shrinking +from meeting the question ethical, Rose Mary sought to settle the +matter in hand out of court as it were.</p> + +<p>"No, Rose Mamie, I ain't sure about that lie yet," asserted the +General in a somewhat relieved tone of voice, but still a little +uneasy about the moral question involved in the case. "Did I tell it +or not? Do you know, Rose Mamie, or will I have to wait till I go to +God to find out?"</p> + +<p>"Stonie, I really don't know," admitted Rose Mary as she drew the +little arguer to her and rested her cheek against the sturdy little +shoulder under the patched gingham shirt. "It was not your business to +tell on Tobe but—but—please, honey-sweet, let's leave it to God, +now. He understands, I'm sure, and some day when you have grown a big +and wise man you'll think it all out. When you do, will you tell Rose +Mamie?"</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 179 -->Yes, I reckon I'll have to wait till then, and I'll tell you sure, +Rose Mamie, when I do find out. I won't never forget it, but I hope +maybe Tobe won't get into no more mess from now till then. Please come +find the britches for me!" And consoled thus against his will the +General followed Rose Mary to the house and into their room, eager for +the relief and rehabiting of the prisoner.</p> + +<p>And in a few minutes the scene of the <i>amende honorable</i> between +little Miss Amanda and the small boys was enacted out on the back +steps, well out of sight and hearing of Miss Lavinia. A new bond was +instituted between the little old lady, who was tremulous with +eagerness to keep the culprit from any form of self-reproach, and +Tobe, the unfortunate, who was one of her most ardent admirers at all +times. And it was sealed by a double handful of tea-cakes to both +offenders.</p> + +<p>After she had watched the boys disappear in the direction of the barn, +intent on making a <!-- Page 180 -->great clean-up job of the disaster under Miss +Amanda's direction, Rose Mary wended her way to the garden for a +precious hour of communion with her flowers and vegetable nursery +babies. She had just tucked up her skirts and started in with a light +hoe when she espied Uncle Tucker coming slowly up Providence Road from +the direction of the north woods. Something a bit dejected in his step +and a slightly greater stoop in his shoulders made her throw down her +weapon of war on the weeds and come to lean over the wall to wait for +him.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, old Sweetie—tired?" she demanded as he came +alongside and leaned against the wall near her. His big gray eyes were +troubled and there was not the sign of the usual quizzical smile. The +forelock hung down in a curl from under the brim of the old gray hat +and the lavender muffler swung at loose ends. As he lighted the old +cob his lean brown hands trembled slightly and he utterly refused <!-- Page 181 -->to +look into Rose Mary's eyes. "What is it, honey-heart?" she demanded +again.</p> + +<p>"What's what, Rose Mary?" asked Uncle Tucker with a slight rift in the +gloom. "They are some women in the world, if a man was to seal up his +trouble in a termater-can and swoller it, would get a button-hook and +a can-opener to go after him to get it out. You belong to that +persuasion."</p> + +<p>"I want to be the tomato-can—and not be 'swollered'," answered Rose +Mary as she reached over and gently removed the tattered gray roof +from off the white shock and began to smooth and caress its brim into +something of its former shape. "I know something is the matter, and if +it's your trouble it's mine. I'm your heir at law, am I not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and you're a-drawing on the estate for more'n your share of +pesters, looks like," answered Uncle Tucker as he raised his eyes to +hers wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Is it something about—about the mort<!-- Page 182 -->gage?" asked Rose Mary in the +gently hushed tone that she always used in speaking of this ever +couchant enemy of their peace.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Uncle Tucker slowly, "it's about the mortgage, and I'm +mighty sorry to have to tell you, but I reckon I'll have to come to +accepting you from the Lord as a rod and staff to hobble on. I—I had +that settlement with the Senator this evening 'fore he left and it +came pretty nigh winding me to see how things stood. Instead of a +little more'n one hundred dollars behind in the interest we are mighty +near on to six, and by right figures, too. It just hasn't measured out +any year, and I never stopped to count it at so much. Gid was mighty +kind about it and said never mind, let it run, but—but I'm not +settled in my mind it's right to hold on like this; he maybe didn't +mean it, but before dinner he dropped a word about being mighty hard +pressed for money to keep up this here white ribbon contest he's +a-running against his own former record. No,<!-- Page 183 --> I'm not settled in my +mind about the rights of it," and with this uneasy reiteration Uncle +Tucker raised his big eyes to Rose Mary in which lay the exact quest +for the path of honor that she had met in the young eyes of the +General not two hours before. In fact, Uncle Tucker's eyes were so +like Stonie's in their mournful demand for a decision from her that +Rose Mary's tender heart throbbed with sympathy but sank with dismay +at again having the decision of a question of masculine ethics +presented to her.</p> + +<p>"I just don't know what to say, Uncle Tucker," she faltered, thus +failing him in his crisis more completely than she had the boy.</p> + +<p>"The time for saying has passed, and I'm afraid to look forwards to +what we may have to do," answered Uncle Tucker quietly. "After Gid was +gone on up the road I walked over to Tilting Rock and sat down with my +pipe to think it all over. My eyes are a-getting kinder dim now, but +as far as I could see in most all <!-- Page 184 -->directions was land that I had +always called mine since I come into a man's estate. And there is none +of it that has ever had a deed writ aginst it since that first Alloway +got it in a grant from Virginy. There is meadow land and corn +hillside, creeks for stock and woodlands for shelter, and the Alloways +before me have fenced it solid and tended it honest, with return +enrichment for every crop. And now it has come to me in my old age to +let it go into the hands of strangers—sold by my own flesh and blood +for a mess of pottage, he not knowing what he did I will believe, God +help me. I'm resting him and the judgment of him in the arms of Mercy, +but my living folks have got to have an earthly shelter. Can you see a +way, child? As I say, my eyes are a-getting dim."</p> + +<p>"I can't see any other shelter than the Briars, Uncle Tucker, and +there isn't going to be any other," answered Rose Mary as she stroked +the old hat in her hand. "You know some<!-- Page 185 -->times men run right against a +stone wall when a woman can see a door plainly in front of them both. +She just looks for the door and don't ask to know who is going to open +it from the other side. Our door is there I know—I have been looking +for it for a long time. Right now it looks like a cow gate to me," and +a little reluctant smile came over Rose Mary's grave face as if she +were being forced to give up a cherished secret before she were ready +for the revelation.</p> + +<p>"And if the gate sticks, Rose Mary, I believe you'll climb the fence +and pull us all over, whether or no," answered Uncle Tucker with a +slightly comforted expression coming into his eyes. "You're one of the +women who knot a bridle out of a horse's own tail to drive him with. +Have you got this scheme already geared up tight, ready to start?"</p> + +<p>"It's only that Mr. Crabtree brought word from town that the big +grocery he sells my butter to would agree to take any amount I could +<!-- Page 186 -->send them at a still larger price. If we could hold on to the place, +buy more cows and all the milk other people in Sweetbriar have to sell +I believe I could make the interest and more than the interest every +year. But if Mr. Newsome needs the money, I am afraid—he might not +like to wait. It would be a year before I could see exactly how things +succeed—and that's a long time."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and it would mean for you to just be a-turning yourself into +meat and drink for the family, nothing more or less, Rose Mary. You +work like you was a single filly hitched to a two-horse wagon now, and +that would be just piling fence rails on top of the load of hay you +are already a-drawing for all of us old live stock. You couldn't work +all that butter."</p> + +<p>"Don't you know that love mixed in the bread of life makes it easy for +the woman to work a large batch for her family, Uncle Tucker?—and why +not butter? Will you talk to Mr. Newsome the next time he comes and +<!-- Page 187 -->see what he thinks of the plan? I would tell him about it +myself—only I—I don't know why, but I don't—want to." Rose Mary +blushed and looked away across the Road, but her confusion was all +unnoticed by Uncle Tucker, who was busily lighting a second pipeful of +tobacco.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll talk to him and Crabtree both about it," he answered +slowly. "I can't hardly bear the idea of your doing it, child, and if +it was just me I wouldn't hear tell of it, but Sister Viney and Sister +Amandy—moved they'd be like a couple of sprouts of their own +honeysuckle vine that you had pulled up and left in the sun to wilt. +Home was a place to grow in for women of their day, not just a-kinder +waiting shack between stations like it has come to be in these times +of women's uprising—in the newspapers."</p> + +<p>"We don't get much new woman excitement out here in Harpeth Valley, +Uncle Tucker," laughed Rose Mary, glad to see him rise once <!-- Page 188 -->more from +the depth of his depression to his usual philosophic level. "You +wouldn't call—er—er Mrs. Poteet a modern woman, would you?"</p> + +<p>"Fly-away, Peggy Poteet is the genuine, original mossback and had +oughter be expelled from the sex by the confederation president +herself," answered Uncle Tucker as they both glanced down past the +milk-house where they saw the comely mother of the seven at her gate +administering refreshment in the form of bread and jam to all of her +own and quite a number of the other members of the Swarm, including +the General and the reclothed and shriven Tobe. "If there is another +Poteet output next April we'll have to report her," he added with a +laugh.</p> + +<p>"But there never was a baby since Stonie like little Tucker," answered +Rose Mary in quick defense of the small namesake of whom Uncle Tucker +was secretly but inordinately proud.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I'm a-going to report you to the <!-- Page 189 -->society of suppression of +men folks as a regular spiler, Rose Mary Alloway, if you don't keep +more stern than you are at present with me and Stonie, to say nothing +of all the men members of Sweetbriar from Everett clean on through +Crabtree down to that very young Tucker Poteet. You are one of the +women that feed and clothe and blush on men like you were borned a +hundred years ago and nobody had told you they wasn't worth shucks. +Are you a-going to reform?"</p> + +<p>"I'll try when I get time," answered Rose Mary with a smile as she +bestowed both a fleeting kiss and the old hat on Uncle Tucker's +forelock over the wall. "Now I want to run in and make a few cup +custards, so I can save one for Mr. Mark when he gets home to-night. +He loves them cold. Little cooking attentions never spoil men, they +just nourish them. Anyway, what is a woman going to have left to do in +life if she sheds the hovering feathers she keeps to tuck her nesties +underneath?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" /><!-- Page 190 -->CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h2>THE SATSUMA VASE</h2><br /> + + +<p>"Well, howdy to-day, Mis' Poteet!" exclaimed Mrs. Rucker as she came +across her side yard and leaned over the Poteet fence right opposite +the Poteet back porch. "I brought you this pan of rolls to set away +for Mr. Poteet's supper. When I worked out the sponge looked like my +pride over 'em riz with the dough and I just felt bound to show 'em +off to somebody; I know I can always count on a few open mouths in +this here nest."</p> + +<p>"That you can and thanky squaks, too, Mis' Rucker. I don't know +however I would feed 'em all if it wasn't for the drippings from your +kitchen," answered the placid and always improvident Mrs. Poteet as +she picked up Shoofly and came over to the fence, delighted at a +<!-- Page 191 -->chance for a few minutes parley with the ever busy and practical Mrs. +Rucker. She balanced the gingham-clad bunch on its own wobbly legs +beside her, while through the pickets of the fence in greeting were +thrust the pink hands of Petie, the bond, who had followed in the wake +of his own maternal skirts. Shoofly responded to this attention with a +very young feminine gurgle of delight and licked at the chubby fist +thrust toward her like an overjoyed young kitten.</p> + +<p>"Well, Monday is always a scrap day, so I try to kinder perk up my +Monday supper. Singing in the quire twict on Sunday and too much +confab with the other men on the store steps always kinder tires Mr. +Rucker out so he can't hardly get about with his sciatica on Monday, +and I have to humor him some along through the day. That were a mighty +good sermon circuit rider preached last night."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I reckon it were, but my mind was so took up with the way Louisa +Helen flirted her<!-- Page 192 -->self down the aisle with Bob on one side of her and +Mr. Crabtree on the other, I couldn't hardly get my mind down to +listening. And when she contrived Mr. Crabtree into the pew next to +Mis' Plunkett, as she moved down for 'em, I most gave a snort out +loud. Didn't Mis' Plunkett look nice in that second mourning tucker it +took Louisa Helen and all of Sweetbriar to persuade her into?"</p> + +<p>"Lou Plunkett is as pretty as a chiny aster that blooms in September +and what she's having these number-two conniptions over Mr. Crabtree +for is more than I can see. I look on a second husband as a good +dessert after a fine dinner and a woman oughter swallow one when +offered without no mincing. I wouldn't make two bites of taking Mr. +Crabtree after poor puny Mr. Plunkett if it was me. Of course there +never was such a man as Mr. Satterwhite, but he was always mighty +busy, while Cal Rucker is a real pleasure to me a-setting around the +house on account of his soft con<!-- Page 193 -->stitution. Mr. Satterwhite, I'm +thankful to say, left me so well provided for that I can afford Mr. +Rucker as a kind of play ornament."</p> + +<p>"Yes, they ain't nothing been thought up yet to beat marrying," +answered Mrs. Poteet. "Now didn't Emma Satterwhite find a good chanct +when Todd Crabtree married her and took her away after all that young +Tucker Alloway doings? It were a kind of premium for flightiness, but +I for one was glad to get her gone off'en Rose Mary's hands. I +couldn't a-bear to see her tending hand and foot a woman she were +jilted for."</p> + +<p>"Well, a jilt from some men saves a woman from being married with a +brass ring outen a popcorn box, in my mind, and Tucker Alloway were +one of them kind of men. But talking about marrying, I'm kinder +troubled in my mind about something, and I know I can depend on you +not to say nothing to nobody. Mr. Gid Newsome stopped at my gate last +week and got me into a kinder hinting chaver<!-- Page 194 -->ing that have been +a-troubling me ever since. Now that's where Mr. Rucker is such a +comfort to me, he'll stay awake and worry as long as I have need of, +while I wouldn't a-dared to speak to Mr. Satterwhite after he put out +the light. But this is about what I've pieced outen that talk with the +Senator, with Cal's help. That mortgage he has got on the Briars about +covers it, like a double blanket on a single bed, and with the +interest beginning to pile up it's hard to keep the ends tucked in. +The time have come when Mr. Tucker can't make it no more and something +has got to be done. But they ain't no use to talk about moving them +old folks. I gather from a combination of what Mr. Gid looked and +<i>didn't</i> say that he were entirely willing to take over the place and +make some sorter arrangement about them all a-staying on just the +same. That'd be mighty kind of him."</p> + +<p>"You don't reckon he'd do no such take-me-or-get-out co'ting to Rose +Mary, do you?"<!-- Page 195 --> asked the soft-natured little Mrs. Poteet with alarmed +sympathy in her blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, he ain't that big a fool. Every man knows in marrying an +unwilling woman he's putting himself down to eat nothing but scraps +around the kitchen door. But I wisht Rose Mary could make up her mind +to marry Mr. Newsome. She might as well, for in the end a woman can't +tell nothing about taking a man; she just has to choose a can of a +good brand and then be satisfied, for they all season and heat up +about alike. I never gave him no satisfaction about talking his +praises to her, but I reckon I'm for the tie-up if Rose Mary can see +it that way." And Mrs. Rucker glanced along the Road toward Rose +Mary's milk-house with a kindly, though calculating matchmaking in her +practical eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'm kinder for Mr. Mark," ventured the more sentimental Mrs. Poteet +with a smile. "He's as handsome as Rose Mary are, and wouldn't they +have pretty—"</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 196 -->Oh, shoo, I don't hold with no marrying outen the Valley for Rose +Mary! She's needed here and ain't got no call to gallivant off to New +York and beyont with a strange man, beauty or no beauty. Besides she's +pretty enough herself to hand it down even to the third and fourth +generation. But I must go and see to helping Granny out on the side +porch in the sun. I never want to neglect her, for she's the only +child poor Mr. Satterwhite left me. Now Mr. Rucker—Why there comes +Mis' Amandy down the front walk! Let's you and me go to meet her and +see what she wants. We can help her across the Road if she is a-going +to see anybody but us!" And with eager affection the two strong young +women with their babies in their arms hurried across the street in +order to serve if need be the delicate little old lady who, with her +gray skirts fluttering and the little shawl streaming out behind, was +coming at her tottering full speed in that direction. In her hand she +held carefully <!-- Page 197 -->a bit of sheer, yellow, old muslin, and her bright +eyes were beaming with delight as she met the two neighbors at the +gate.</p> + +<p>"It's the dress," she exclaimed, all out of breath and her sweet +little voice all a-tremble. "Sister and me and Tucker were all +baptized in it when we were babies. Sister Viney has had me a-going +through boxes and bundles for it ever since little Tucker was named +for us, and here it is! It's hand-made and fine linen, brought all the +way from New York down to the city in a wagon before the railroad run. +It's all the present we have got for little Tucker, but we thought +maybe—" And Miss Amanda paused with a shy diffidence in offering her +gift.</p> + +<p>"Gracious me, Miss Amandy, they didn't nothing ever happen to me like +this little dress being gave to one of my children. I am going to let +him be named in it and then keep it in the box with my Bible, where it +won't be disturbed for nothing," exclaimed Mrs. Poteet in <!-- Page 198 -->a tone of +voice that was tear-choking with reverence as she took the dainty +yellow little garment into her hand. "And to think how you all have +wored yourself out a-looking for it!" she further exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, me and Sister Viney have had a good time a-going through things; +we haven't seen some of them for thirty or forty years. We found the +flannel petticoat Ma was a-making for me when she died over forty-five +years ago. The needle is a-sticking in it, and I'm a-going to finish +it to wear next winter. I'll feel like it is a comfort for my old age +she just laid by for me. I've got a little lace collar Ma's mother +wore when she come over from Virginy, and it's in the very style now, +so we're going to bleach it out to give to Rose Mary. Come on up to +the house with me and see it and set with Sister Viney a spell, can't +you? She's got mighty sore joints this morning, though Rose Mary +rubbed her most a hour last night" And in response to the eager +invita<!-- Page 199 -->tion they all three went back up the front walk together. The +thrifty Mrs. Rucker cast a satisfied glance back towards her own side +yard, where upturned tub and drying wash were in plain view. Mrs. +Poteet had put off the task of the wash until a later day of the week +and thus could make her visit with a mind unharrassed by the vision of +suds boiling over on the stove and soap melting in the tub.</p> + +<p>And there ensued several hours of complete absorption for the four +women closeted in Miss Lavinia's room in reviewing the events of the +last half century by means of the reminiscences which were inspired by +one unearthed heirloom after another. Pete and Shoofly were happy on +the floor enveloping themselves and each other in long wisps of +moth-eaten yarn that Miss Amandy had unearthed in a bureau drawer and +donated to their amusement. Mrs. Poteet had with her usual happy +forgetfulness of anything but the very immediate occupation, lost +sight of the fact that she had left young Tucker <!-- Page 200 -->asleep on the bed in +her room, which location, counting the distance across the two yards +and down the Road, was at least slightly remote from aid in case of a +sudden restoration to consciousness for the young sleeper.</p> + +<p>And in the natural course of events the young Alloway namesake did +awaken and gave lusty vent to a demand for human companionship, which +was answered promptly by the General, who happened to be passing the +front gate in pursuits of his own. Finding the house deserted, with +his usual decision of action Stonie picked up the baby and kept on his +way, which led past the garden up the hill to the barn. Young Tucker +accepted this little journey in the world with his usual +imperturbability, and his sturdy little neck made unusual efforts to +support his bald head over the General's shoulders as if in pride at +being in the company of one of his peers and not in the usual feminine +thraldom.</p> + +<p>Finding the barn also deserted, Stonie laid <!-- Page 201 -->young Tucker on the straw +in the barrel with two of Sniffer's sleeping puppies and began to +attend to his errand, which involved the extraction of several long, +stout pieces of string from a storehouse of his own under one of the +feed bins and the plaiting of them into the cracker of a whip which he +had brought along with him.</p> + +<p>Down below the store the rest of the Swarm were busy marking out a +large circus ring and discussing with considerable heat their +individual rights to the various star parts to be performed in the +coming exhibition. The ardors of their several ambitions were not at +all dampened by the knowledge of the fact that the audience that would +be in attendance to witness their triumphs would in all probability +consist of only Granny Satterwhite, whom little Miss Amanda always +coaxed to attend in her company, with perhaps a few moments of +encouragement from Mr. Crabtree if he found the time. To which would +always be added <!-- Page 202 -->the interested and jocular company of Mr. Rucker, who +always came, brought a chair to sit in and stayed through the entire +performance. And in the talented aggregation of performers there was +of course just one rôle that could have been assumed by General +Jackson, that of ringmaster; so to that end he sat on the floor of the +barn beside the sleeping puppies and young Tucker and plaited the lash +by means of which he intended to govern the courses of his stars.</p> + +<p>And it was here that Everett found him a few minutes later as he +walked rapidly up the milk-house path and stood in the barn door in +evident hurried search for somebody or some thing.</p> + +<p>"Hello, General," he said with a smile at the barrel full of sleepers +at Stonie's side, "do you know where Rose Mary is?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the General, "she are in her room putting buttermilk +on the five freckles that comed on her nose when she hoed out <!-- Page 203 -->in the +garden without no sunbonnet. I found 'em all for her this morning, and +she don't like 'em. You can go on in and see if they are any better +for her, I ain't got the time to fool with 'em now."</p> + +<p>"Not for worlds!" exclaimed Everett as he sat down on an upturned peck +measure in close proximity to the barrel. "Have you decided to have +Mrs. Poteet and Mrs. Sniffer swap—er—puppies, Stonie?" he further +remarked.</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't," answered Stonie with one of his rare smiles which made +him so like Rose Mary that Everett's heart glowed within him. Stonie +was, as a general thing, as grave as a judge, with something +hauntingly, almost tragically serious in his austere young face, but +his smiles when they came were flashes of the very divinity of youth +and were a strange incarnation of the essence of Rose Mary's cousinly +loveliness. "He was crying because he was by hisself and I bringed him +along to wait till his mother came home. He belongs some to us,<!-- Page 204 --> +'cause he's named for Uncle Tuck, and I oughter pester with him same +as Tobe have to. It's fair to do my part."</p> + +<p>"Yes, General, you always do your part—and always will, I think," +said Everett, as he looked down at the sturdy little chap so busy with +his long strings, weaving them over and over slowly but carefully. "A +man's part," he added as two serious eyes were raised to his.</p> + +<p>"In just a little while I'll be a man and have Uncle Tucker and Aunt +Viney and Aunt Amandy to be mine to keep care of always, Rose Mamie +says," answered Stonie in his most practical tone of voice as he began +to see the end of the long strings draw into his weaving of the +cracker.</p> + +<p>"What about Rose Mamie herself?" asked Everett softly, his voice +thrilling over the child's name for the girl with reverent tenderness.</p> + +<p>"When I get big enough to keep care of <!-- Page 205 -->everything here I'm going to +let Rose Mamie get a husband and a heap of children, like Mis' +Poteet—but I'm a-going to make 'em behave theyselves better'n Tobe +and Peggie and the rest of 'em do. Aunt Viney says Mis' Poteet spares +the rod too much, but I'll fix Rose Mamie's children if they don't +mind her and me." The General's mouth assumed its most commanding +expression as he glanced down at the little Poteet sleeping beside +him, unconscious of the fact that he was, in the future, to be the +victim of a spared rod.</p> + +<p>"Stonie," asked Everett meekly, "have you chosen a husband for Rose +Mary yet?"</p> + +<p>"No," answered Stonie as he wove in the last inch of string. Then he +paused and raised his eyes to Everett thoughtfully. "It's jest got to +be the best man in the world, and I'm a-going to find him for her. If +I can't I'll keep care of her as good as I can myself."</p> + +<p>"General," said Everett as he held the child's eyes with a straight +level compelling glance,<!-- Page 206 --> "you are right—she must have only the best. +And you 'keep care' until he comes. I am going away to-night and I +don't know when I can come back, but you must always—always 'keep +care' of her—until the good man comes. Will you?"</p> + +<p>"I will," answered the General positively. "And if anybody of any kind +bothers her or any of them I'll knock the stuffins outen 'em, and +Tobe'll help. But say," he added, as if suddenly inspired by a +brilliant idea, "couldn't you look for him for me? You'd know the good +kind of a man and you could bring him here. I would give you one of +the spotted puppies to pay for the trouble," and a hot wave engulfed +Everett as the trustful friendly young eyes looked straight into his +as Stonie made this extremely practical business proposition.</p> + +<p>"Yes, General, I will come and bring him to you, and when he comes he +will be the best ever—or he will have died in the attempt."</p> + +<p>"All right," answered Stonie, completely sat<!-- Page 207 -->isfied with the terms of +the bargain, "and you can take your pick of the puppies. Are you going +on the steam cars from Boliver?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Everett, "and I want to find your Uncle Tucker to ask +him—"</p> + +<p>"Well, here he is to answer all inquiries at all times," came in Uncle +Tucker's quizzical voice as he stood in the doorway of the barn with a +bucket in one hand and a spade in the other. "Old age is just like a +hobble that tithers up stiff-jinted old cattle to the home post and +keeps 'em from a-roving. I haven't chawed the rope and broke over to +Boliver in more'n a month now. Did you leave Main Street a-running +east to west this morning?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Everett, "still the same old Boliver. But I wanted to +see you right away to tell you that I have had a wire from the firm +that makes it necessary for me to get back to New York immediately. I +must catch that train that passes Boliver at midnight."</p> + +<p>"Oh, fly away, you can't pick up and go like <!-- Page 208 -->that!" exclaimed Uncle +Tucker with alarmed remonstrance. "Such a hurry as that are unseemly. +Good-byes oughter to be handled slowly and careful, like chiny, to +save smashed feelings. Have you told Rose Mary and the sisters?"</p> + +<p>"No; I've just come back from Boliver, and I couldn't find Rose Mary, +and Miss Lavinia and Miss Amanda had company. I must go on over to the +north field while there is still light to—to collect some—some +instruments I—that is I may have left some things over there that I +will need. I will hurry back. Will—you tell them all for me?" As +Everett spoke he did not look directly at Uncle Tucker, but his eyes +followed the retreating form of the General, who, with the completed +whip, the nodding baby and the two awakened puppies was making his way +down Providence Road in the direction of the circus band. There was a +strange controlled note of excitement in his voice and his hands +gripped themselves around <!-- Page 209 -->the handles of his kit until the nails went +white with the strain.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll tell 'em," answered Uncle Tucker with a distressed quaver +coming into his voice as he took in the fact that Everett's hurried +departure was inevitable. "I'm sorry you have got to go, boy, but I'll +help you get off if it's important for you. I'll have them get your +supper early and put up a snack for the train."</p> + +<p>"I don't want anything—that is, it doesn't matter about supper. I—I +will be back to see Miss Lavinia and Miss Amanda before they retire." +And Everett's voice was quiet with a calmness that belied the lump in +his throat at the very mention of the farewell to be said to the two +little old flower ladies.</p> + +<p>"I'll go on and tell 'em now," said Uncle Tucker with an even +increased gloom in his face and voice. "Breaking bad news to women +folks is as nervous a work as dropping a basket of eggs; you never can +tell in which direction the lamentations are a-going to spatter and +<!-- Page 210 -->spoil things. I'll go get the worst of the muss over before you get +back."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," answered Everett with both a laugh and a catch in his +voice as they separated, he going out through the field and over the +hill and Uncle Tucker along the path to the house.</p> + +<p>And a little later Uncle Tucker found Rose Mary moving alone knee deep +in the flowers and fruit of her beloved garden. For long moments she +bent over the gray-green, white-starred bed of cinnamon pinks which +sent up an Arabian fragrance into her face as she carefully threaded +out each little weed that had dared rear its head among the white +blossoms. As she walked between the rows the tall lilies laid their +heads against her breast and kissed traces of their gold hearts on her +hands and bare arms, while on the other side a very riot of blush +peonies crowded against her skirts. Long trails of pod-laden snap +beans tangled around her feet and a couple of round young <!-- Page 211 -->squashes +rolled from their stems at the touch of her fingers. She was the very +incarnation of young Plenty in the garden of the gods, and she reveled +as she worked.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker as he came and stood beside her as she +began to train the clambering butter-bean vines around their tall +poles, "young Everett has got to go on to New York to-night on the +train from Boliver, and I told him you would be mighty glad to help +him off in time. I'd put him up a middling good size snack if I was +you, for the eating on a train must be mighty scrambled like at best. +We'll have to turn around to keep him from being late." And it was +thus broadside that the blow was delivered which shook the very +foundations of Rose Mary's heart and left her white to the lips and +with hands that clutched at the bean vines desperately.</p> + +<p>"When did he tell you?" she asked in a voice that managed to pass +muster in the failing light.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 212 -->Just a little while ago, and the news hit Sister Viney so sudden +like it give her a bad spell of asthma, and Sister Amandy was sorter +crying and let the jimson-weed smoke get in her mouth and choke her. +They are a-having a kind of ruckus, with nobody but Stonie helping 'em +put Sis' Viney to bed, so I reckon you'd better go in and see 'em. +He's gone over to the north field to get a hammer or something he left +and will be back soon. Hurry that black pester up with the supper, I'm +so bothered I feel empty," with which injunction Uncle Tucker left +Rose Mary at the kitchen steps.</p> + +<p>And it was a strenuous hour that followed, in which things were so +crowded into Rose Mary's hands that the fullness of her heart had to +be ignored if she was to go on with them. After a time Miss Lavinia +was eased back on her pile of pillows and might have dropped off to +sleep, but she insisted on having her best company cap arranged on her +hair and a lavender shawl put around her shoulders and thus <!-- Page 213 -->in state +take a formal leave of the departing guest—alone. And it was fully a +half hour before Everett came out of her room, and Rose Mary saw him +slip a tiny pocket testament which had always lain on Miss Lavinia's +table into his inside breast pocket, and his face was serious almost +to the point of exhaustion. The time he had spent in Miss Lavinia's +room little Miss Amanda had busily occupied in packing the generous +"snack," which Uncle Tucker hovered over and saw bestowed to his +entire satisfaction with the traps Everett had strapped up in his +room. Stonie's large eyes grew more and more wistful, and after he and +Uncle Tucker retired with their good-byes all said he whispered to +Rose Mary that he wanted to say just one more thing to Mr. Mark.</p> + +<p>Tenderly Everett bent over the cot until the blush rosebud that Miss +Amanda had shyly pinned in his buttonhole as her good-by before she +had retired, brushed the little fellow's cheek as he ran his arm under +the sturdy little <!-- Page 214 -->nightgowned shoulders and drew him as close as he +dared.</p> + +<p>"Say," whispered Stonie in his ear, "if you see a man that would buy +Sniffer's other two spotted pups I would sell 'em to him. I want to +get them teeth for Aunt Viney. I could get 'em to him in a box."</p> + +<p>"How much do you want for them?" asked Everett with a little gulp in +his voice as his heart beat against the arm of the young provider +assuming his obligations so very early in life.</p> + +<p>"A dollar a-piece, I guess, or maybe ten," answered Stonie vaguely.</p> + +<p>"I'll sell them right away at your price," answered Everett. "I'll see +that Mr. Crabtree has them packed and shipped." He paused for a +moment. He would have given worlds to have taken the two little dogs +with him and have left the money with Stonie—but he didn't dare.</p> + +<p>"And," murmured Stonie drowsily, "don't <!-- Page 215 -->forget that good man for Rose +Mamie if you see him—and—and—" but suddenly he had drifted off into +the depths, thus abandoning himself to the crush of a hug Everett had +been hungry to give him.</p> + +<p>And out in the starlit dusk he found Rose Mary sitting on the steps, +freed at last, with her responsibilities all asleep—and before him +there lay just this one—good-by.</p> + +<p>Silently he seated himself beside her and as silently lit his cigar +and began to puff the rings out into the air. In the perfect flood of +perfume that poured around and over them and came in great gusts from +the garden he detected a new tone, wild and woodsy, sweet with a +curious tang and haunting in its alien and insistent note in the +rhapsody of odors.</p> + +<p>"There's something new in bloom in your garden, Lady of the Rose?" he +asked questioningly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's the roses on the hedges coming out; don't they smell briary +and—good? Just <!-- Page 216 -->this last night you will be able to carry away with +you a whiff of real sweetbriar. To-morrow the whole town will be in +bloom. It is now I think if we could only see it." Rose Mary had +gained her composure and the poignant wistfulness in her voice was but +a part of the motif of the briar roses in the valley dusk.</p> + +<p>"I'll see it all right to-morrow and often. Sweetbriar—it's going to +blind me so that I won't be able to make my way along Broadway. +Everything hereafter will be located up and down Providence Road for +me." Everett's voice held to a tone of quiet lightness and he bravely +puffed his rings of smoke out on the breezes.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps some day you'll pass us again along the road to your +Providence," said Rose Mary gently, and the wistful question was all +that her woman's tradition allowed her to ask—though her heart break +with its pride.</p> + +<p>"Some day," answered Everett, and underneath the quiet voice sounded a +savage note <!-- Page 217 -->and his teeth bit through his cigar, which he threw out +into the dew-carpeted grass. Just then there came from up under the +eaves a soft disturbed flutter of wings and a gentle dove note was +answered reassuringly and tenderly in kind.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary," he said as he turned to her and laid his hand on the step +near her, "once you materialized your heart for me, and now I'm going +to do the same for mine to you. Yours, you say, is an old gabled, +vine-clad, dove-nested country house, a shelter for the people you +love—and always kept for your Master's use. It is something just to +have had a man's road to Providence lead past the garden gate. I make +acknowledgement. And mine? I think it is like one of those squat, +heathen, Satsuma vases, inlaid with distorted figures and symbols and +toned in all luridness of color, into which has been tossed a poor +sort of flower plucked from any bush the owner happened to pass, which +has been salted down <!-- Page 218 -->in frivolity—or perhaps something stronger. +I'll keep the lid on to-night, for <i>you</i> wouldn't like the—perfume."</p> + +<p>"If you'd let me have it an hour I would take it down to the +milk-house and empty and scrub it and then I could use it to pour +sweet cream into. Couldn't you—you leave it here—in Uncle Tucker's +care? I—I—really—I need it badly." The raillery in her voice was as +delicious and daring as that of any accomplished world woman out over +the Ridge. It fairly staggered Everett with its audacity.</p> + +<p>"No," he answered, coolly disapproving, "no, I'll not leave it; you +might break it."</p> + +<p>"I never break the crocks—I can't afford to. And women never break +men's hearts; they do it themselves by keeping a hand on the treasure +so as to take it back when they want it, and so between them both it +sometimes gets—shattered."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then—the lid's off to you—and remember you asked +for—the rummage, Rose<!-- Page 219 --> Mary," answered Everett in a tone as light as +hers. Then suddenly he rose and stood tall and straight in front of +her, looking down into her upraised eyes in the dusk. "You don't know, +do you, you rose woman you, what a man's life can hold—of +nothingness? Yes, I've worked hard at my profession and thrown away +the proceeds—in a kind of—riotous living. Other men's vast fortunes +have been built on my brains, and my next year I'm going to enter as a +penniless thirty-niner. When I came South three months ago I drew the +last thousand dollars I had in bank, I have a couple of hundreds left, +and that's all, out of over twenty thousand made in straight fees from +mineral tests in the last year. Yes—a bit of riotous living. It's +true about those poor flowers plucked off frail stems off frailer +bushes—but—if it hadn't been—a sort of fair play all around I +wouldn't stand here telling you about it, you in your hedge of briar +roses. And now suddenly something has come into my life that <!-- Page 220 -->makes me +regret every dollar tossed to the winds and every cent burned in the +fires—and in spite of it all I must make good. I'm going away from +you and I don't know what is going to happen—but as I tell you from +now on my feet do not stray from Providence Road, my eyes will turn +from across any distance to catch a sight of the crown of old Harpeth, +and my heart is in your milk-house to be of any kind of humble use. +Ah, comfort me, rose girl, that I can not say more and that go I must +if I catch my train." And he stretched out his hands to Rose Mary as +she arose and stood close at his side, her eyes never leaving his and +her lips parted with the quick breathing of her lifted breast.</p> + +<p>"And you'll remember, won't you, when things go wrong, or you are +tired, that the sunny corner in the old farm-house is yours? Always I +shall be here in Harpeth Valley with my nest in the Briars, and +because you are gone I'll be lonely. But I won't be in the least +anx<!-- Page 221 -->ious, for whatever it is that calls you, I know you will give the +right answer, because—because—well, aren't you one of my own +nesties, and don't I know how strong and straight your wings can fly?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" /><!-- Page 222 -->CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h2>UNCLE TUCKER'S TORCH</h2><br /> + + +<p>"And how do you do, Mr. Crabtree? Glad to see you, suh, glad to see +you again! How is all Sweetbriar? Any new voters since young Tucker, +or a poem or so in the Rucker family? And are you succeeding in +keeping the peace with Mrs. Plunkett for young Bob?" And firing this +volley of questions through the gently agitated smile-veil the +Honorable Gideon Newsome stood in the door of the store, large-looming +and jocular.</p> + +<p>"Well, howdy, howdy, Senator, come right in and have a chair in the +door-breeze!" exclaimed Mr. Crabtree as he turned to beam a welcome on +the Senator from behind the counter where he was filling kerosene +cans. "We ain't seen you in most a month of Sundays, and I'm sure glad +you lit in passing again."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 223 -->I never just light in passing Sweetbriar, friend Crabtree," answered +the senator impressively. "I start every journey with a stop at +Sweetbriar in view, and it seems a long time until I make the haven I +assure you, suh. And now for the news. You say my friend, Mrs. +Plunkett, is enjoying her usual good health and spirits?"</p> + +<p>"Well, not to say enjoying of things in general, but it do seem she +has got just a little mite of spirit back along of this here +bully-ragging of Bob and Louisa Helen. She come over here yesterday +and stood by the counter upwards of an hour before I could persuade +her to be easy in her mind about letting Bob take that frizzling over +to Providence to a ice-cream festibul Mis' Mayberry was a-having for +the church carpet benefit last night. After I told her I would put up +early, and me and her could jog over in my buggy along behind them +flippets to see no foolishness were being carried on, she took it more +easy, and it looked like <!-- Page 224 -->onct and a while on the road she most come +to the point of enjoying her own self. But I reckon I'm just fooling +myself by thinking that though," and Mr. Crabtree eyed the Senator +with pathetic eagerness to be assured that he was not self-deceived at +this slight advance up the steep ascent of his road of true love.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of doubt in my mind she enjoyed it greatly, suh, greatly, +and I consider the cause of diverting her grief has advanced a hundred +per cent by her consenting to go at all. Did any of the other +Sweetbriar friends avail themselves of the Providence invitation—Miss +Rose Mary and er—any of the other young people?"</p> + +<p>"No, Miss Rose Mary didn't want to go, though Mr. Rucker woulder liked +to hitch up the wagon and take her and Mis' Rucker and the children. +She have been mighty quiet like sinct Mr. Everett left us, though +she'd never let anybody lack the heartening of that smile of hern no +matter how tetched with lonesome she was herself. When the letters +come I just <!-- Page 225 -->can't wait to finish sorting the rest, but I run with +hers to her, like Sniffie brings sticks back to Stonie Jackson when he +throws them in the bushes."</p> + +<p>"Ahm—er—do they come often?" asked the Senator in a casual voice, +but his eyes narrowed in their slits and the veil became impenetrable.</p> + +<p>"Oh, about every day or two," answered the unconsciously gossipy +little bachelor. "Looks like the whole family have missed him, too. +Miss Viney has been in bed off and on ever since he left, and Miss +Amandy has tooken a bad cold in her right ear and has had to keep her +head wrapped up all the time. Mr. Tucker's mighty busy a-trying to +figure out how to crap the farm like Mr. Mark laid off on a map for +him to do—but he ain't got the strength now to even get a part of it +done. If Miss Rose Mary weren't strong and bendy as a hickory saplin +she couldn't prop up all them old folks."</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 226 -->Yes," answered the Senator in one of his most judicial and dulcet +tones as he eyed the little bachelor in a calculating way as if +deciding whether to take him into his confidence, "what you say of Mr. +Alloway's being too old to farm his land with a profit is true. I have +come this time to talk things over with him and—er—Miss Rose Mary. +Did I understand you to say our friend Everett is still in New York? +Have you heard of his having any intention of returning to Sweetbriar +any time soon?"</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't heard tell of his coming back at all, and I'm mighty +sorry and disappointed some, too," answered Mr. Crabtree with an +anxious look coming into his kind eyes. "I somehow felt sure he would +scratch up oil or some kind of pay truck out there in the fields of +the Briars. I shipped a whole box of sand and gravel for him according +to a telegram he sent me just last week and I had sorter got my hopes +up for a find, specially as that <!-- Page 227 -->young city fellow came out here and +dug another bag full outen the same place not any time after that. He +had a map with him, and I thought he might be a friend of Mr. Mark's +and asked him, but he didn't answer; never rested to light a pipe, +even, so I never found out about him. I reckon he was just fooling +around and I hadn't oughter hoped on such a light ration."</p> + +<p>"When was it that the man came and prospected?" asked the Senator with +a quick gleam coming into his ugly little eyes and the smile veil took +on another layer of density, while his hand trembled slightly as he +lighted his cigar.</p> + +<p>"Oh, about a week ago," answered Mr. Crabtree. "But I ain't got no +hopes now for Mr. Tucker and the folks from him. We'll all just have +to find some way to help them out when the bad time comes."</p> + +<p>"The way will be provided, friend Crabtree," answered the Senator in +an oily tone <!-- Page 228 -->of voice, but which held nevertheless a decided note of +excitement. "Do you know where I can find Mr. Alloway? I think I will +go have a business talk with him now." And in a few minutes the +Senator was striding as rapidly as his ponderosity would allow up +Providence Road, leaving the garrulous little storekeeper totally +unconscious of the fuse he had lighted for the firing of the mine so +long dreaded by his friends.</p> + +<p>"Well now, Crabbie, don't bust out and cry into them dried apples jest +to swell the price, fer Mis' Rucker will ketch you sure when she comes +to buy 'em for to-morrow's turnovers," came in the long drawl of the +poet as he dawdled into the door and flung the rusty mail-sack down on +to the counter in front of Mr. Crabtree. "They ain't a thing in that +sack 'cept Miss Rose Mary's letter, and he must make a light kind of +love from the heft of it. I most let it drop offen the saddle as I +jogged along, only I'm a sensitive kind of cupid and the <!-- Page 229 -->buckle of +the bag hit that place on my knee I got sleep-walking last week while +I was thinking up that verse that '<i>despair</i>' wouldn't rhyme with +'<i>hair</i>' in for me. Want me to waft this here missive over to the +milk-house to her and kinder pledge his good digestion and such in a +glass of her buttermilk?"</p> + +<p>"No, I wisht you would stay here in the store for me while I take it +over to her myself. I've got some kind of business with her for a few +minutes," answered Mr. Crabtree as he searched out the solitary letter +and started to the door with it. "Sample that new keg of maple drip +behind the door there. The cracker box is open," he added by way of +compensation to the poet for the loss of the buttermilk.</p> + +<p>The imagination of all true lovers is easily exercised about matters +pertaining to the tender passion, and though Mr. Crabtree had never in +his life received such a letter he divined instantly that it should be +delivered promptly by a messenger whose mercury wings <!-- Page 230 -->should scarcely +pause in agitating the air of arrival and departure. And suiting his +actions to his instinct he whirled the envelope across the spring +stream to the table by Rose Mary's side with the aim of one of the +little god's own arrows and retreated before her greeting and +invitation to enter should tempt him.</p> + +<p>"Honey drip and women folks is sweet jest about the same and they both +stick some when you're got your full of 'em at the time," +philosophized the poet as he wiped his mouth with the back of his +hand.</p> + +<p>"Say, Crabbie, don't tell Mis' Rucker I have come home yet, please. I +want to go out and lay down in the barn on the hay and see if I can +get that '<i>hair-despair</i>' tangle straightened out. She hasn't seen me +to tell me things for two hours or more and I know I won't get no +thinking done this day if I don't make the barn 'fore she spies me." +And with furtive steps and eyes he left the store and veered in a +round-about way toward the barn.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 231 -->And over in the milk-house Rose Mary stood in the long shaft of +golden light that came across the valley and fell through the door, it +would seem, just to throw a glow over the wide sheets of closely +written paper. Rose Mary had been pale as she worked, and her deep +eyes had been filled with a very gentle sadness which lighted with a +flash as she opened the envelope and began to read.</p> + +<p>"Just a line, Rose girl, before I put out the light and go on a dream +hunt for you," Everett wrote in his square black letters. "The day has +been long and I feel as if I had been drawn out still longer. I'm +tired, I'm hungry, and there's no balm of Gilead in New York. I can't +eat because there are no cornmeal muffins in this howling wilderness +of houses, streets, people and noise. I can't drink because something +awful rises in my throat when I see cream or buttermilk, and sassarcak +doesn't interest me any more. I would be glad to lap out of one of +your crocks with Sniffie and the wee dogs.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 232 -->And most of all I'm tired to see you. I want to tell you how hard I +am working, and that I don't seem to be able to make some of these +stupid old gold backs see things my way, even if I do show it to them +covered with a haze of yellow pay dust. But they shall—and that's my +vow to—</p> + +<p>"I wish I could kneel down by your rocking-chair with Stonie and hear +Uncle Tucker chant that stunt about '<i>the hollow of His hand</i>.' Is any +of that true, Rose Mamie, and are you true and is Aunt Viney as well +as could be expected, considering the length of my absence? I've got +the little Bible book with Miss Amanda's blush rose pressed in it, and +I put my hand to my breast-pocket so often to be sure it is there and +some other things—letter things—that the heat and friction of them +and the hand combined have brought out a great patch of prickly heat +right over my heart in this sizzling weather. I know it needs fresh +cold cream to make it heal up, and I haven't <!-- Page 233 -->even any talcum powder. +How's Louisa Helen and doth the widow consent still not at all? Tell +Crabtree I say just walk over and try force of arms and not to—That +force of arms is a good expression to use—literally in some cases. +Something is the matter with my arms. They don't feel strong like they +did when I helped Uncle Tucker mow the south pasture and turn the corn +chopper—they're weak and—and sorter useless—and empty. Tell Stonie +he could beat me bear-hugging any day now. Has Tobe discovered any new +adventure in aromatics lately, and can little Poteet sit up and take +notice? Help, help, I'm getting so homesick that I'm about to cry and +fall into the ink!</p> + +<p>"Good night—with all that the expression can imply of moonlight +coming over the head of old Harpeth, pouring down its sides, rippling +out over the corn-fields and flooding over a tall rose girl thing who +stands in the doorway with her 'nesties' all asleep in the dark <!-- Page 234 -->house +behind her—and if any man were lounging against the honeysuckle vine +getting a last puff out of his cigar I should know it, and a thousand +miles couldn't save him. I'm all waked up thinking about it, and I +could smash—Good night!</p> + +<p>M.E.</p> + +<p>P.S. I don't think it at all square of you not to let Stonie sell me +the little dogs. Women ought to keep out of business affairs between +men."</p> + +<p>And as she turned the last page, slipped it back into place and +promptly began at the beginning of the very first one, Rose Mary's +face was an exquisite study in what might have been entitled pure joy. +Her roses rioted up under her lashes, her rich lips curled like the +half-blown bud between the flower of her cheeks, and her eyes shone +like the two first stars mirrored in a woman's pool of life. Also it +is one of the mysteries of the drama why a woman will scan over and +over pages whose <!-- Page 235 -->every letter is chiseled inches deep into her heart; +and exactly one-half hour later Rose Mary was still standing +motionless by her table, with the letter outspread in her hand.</p> + +<p>And this was a very wonderful woman Old Harpeth had cradled in the +hollow of His hand, nurtured on the richness of the valley and +breathed into her with ever-perfumed breath the peace of faith—in God +and man, for to any but an elemental, natural, faith-inspired woman of +the fields would have come crushing, cruel, tearing doubts of the man +beyond the hills who said so little and yet so much. However, Rose +Mary was one of the order of fostering women whose arms are forever +outheld cradle-wise, and to whose breast is ever drawn in mother love +the child in the man of her choice, so her days since Everett's +hurried departure had been filled with love and longing, with faith +and prayers, but there had been not one shadow of doubt of him or his +love for her all half-spoken as he had left it.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 236 -->And added to her full heart had been burdens that had made her hands +still fuller. She had gone on her way day by day pouring out the +richness of her life and strength where it was so sorely needed by her +feeble folk, with a song in her heart for him and them and to answer +every call from along Providence Road. Thus it is that the motive +power for the great cycles that turn and turn out in the wide spaces +between time and eternity, regardless of the wheels of men that whirl +and buzz on broken cog with shattered rim, is poured through the +natures of women of such a mold for the saving of His nations.</p> + +<p>At last Rose Mary folded her letter, hesitated, and with a glint of +the blue in her eyes as her lashes fell over a still rosier hint in +her cheeks, she tucked it into the front of her dress and smoothed and +patted the folds of her apron close down over it, then turned with +praiseworthy energy to the huge bowl of unworked butter.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 237 -->And it was nearly an hour later, still, that the Honorable Gid loomed +in the doorway under the honeysuckle vines, a complacent smile +arranged on his huge face and gallantry oozing from every gesture and +pose.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Newsome, when did you come? How are you, and I'm glad to see +you!" exclaimed Rose Mary all in one hospitable breath as she beamed +at the Senator across her table with the most affable friendship. Rose +Mary felt in a beaming mood, and the Honorable Gid came under the +shower of her affability.</p> + +<p>"Do have that chair by the door, and let me give you a glass of milk," +she hastened to add as she took up a cup and started for the crocks +with a still greater accession of hospitality. "Sweet or buttermilk?" +she paused to inquire over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Either handed by you would be sweet" answered the Senator with +praiseworthy ponderosity, and he shook out the smile veil until the +very roots of his hair became agitated.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 238 -->Yes, Mr. Rucker says my buttermilk tastes like sweet milk with honey +added," laughed Rose Mary, dimpling from over the tall jar. "He says +that because I always pour cream into it for him, and Mrs. Rucker +won't because she says it is extravagant. But I think a poet ought to +have a dash of cream in his life, if just to make the poetry run +smoother—and orators, too," she added as she poured half a ladleful +of the golden top milk into the foaming glass in her hand and gave it +to the Senator, who received it with a trembling hand and gulped it +down desperately; for this once in his life the Honorable Gideon +Newsome was completely and entirely embarrassed. For many a year he +had had at his command florid and extravagant figures of speech which, +cast in any one of a dozen of his dulcet modulations of voice, were +warranted to tell on even the most stubborn masculine intelligence, +and ought to have melted the feminine heart at the moment of +utterance, but at <!-- Page 239 -->this particular moment they all failed him, and he +was left high and dry on the coast of courtship with only the bare +question available for use.</p> + +<p>"Miss Rose Mary," he blurted out without any preamble at all, and +drops of the sweat of an agony of anxiety stood out all over the wide +brow, "I have been talking with Mr. Alloway, and I have come to you to +see if we can't all get together and settle this mortgage question to +the profit of all concerned. I lent him that money six years ago with +the intention of trying to get you to be my wife just as soon as you +recovered from your—your natural grief over the way things had gone +with you and young Alloway. I have waited longer than I had any +intention of doing, because I was absorbed in this political career I +had begun on, but now I see it is time to settle matters, as the farm +is running us all into debt, and I'm very much in need of you as a +wife. I hope you see it in that light, and the marriage <!-- Page 240 -->can't take +place too soon to suit me. You are the handsomest woman in my +district, and my constituents can not help but approve of my choice." +Something of the Senator's grandiloquence was returning to him, and he +regarded Rose Mary with the pride of one who has appraised +satisfactorily and is about to complete a proposed purchase.</p> + +<p>And as for Rose Mary, she stood framed against the fern-lined dusk at +the back of the milk-house like a naiad startled as she emerged from +her tree bower. Quickly she raised her hand to her breast and just as +quickly the pressure of the letter laying there against her heart sent +a flood over her face that had grown pale and still, but she raised +her head proudly and looked the Senator straight in the face with a +questioning, hurt surprise.</p> + +<p>"You didn't make the terms clear when you lent the money to us," she +said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Well," he answered, beginning to take heart at her very tranquil +acceptance of the <!-- Page 241 -->first bombardment, "I thought it best to let a time +elapse to soothe your deceived affections and cure your humiliation. +For the time being I was content to enjoy culling the flowers of your +friendship from time to time, but I now feel no longer satisfied with +them, but must be paid in a richer harvest. We will take charge of +this place, assure a comfortable future for the aged relatives in your +care, and as my wife you will be both happy and honored." The Senator +was decidedly coming into his own, and smile, glance and voice as he +regarded Rose Mary were unctuous. In fact, through their slits his +eyes shot a gleam of something that was so hateful to Rose Mary that +she caught her breath with horror, and only the sharp corner of her +letter pressed into her naked breast kept her from reeling. But in a +second she had herself in hand and her quick mother-wit was aroused to +find out the worst and begin a fight for the safeguarding of her +nesties—and the nest.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 242 -->And if I shouldn't want to—to do what you want me to?" she asked, +and she was even able to summon a smile with a tinge of coquetry that +served to draw the wily Senator further than he realized.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I feel sure you can have no objections to me that are strong +enough to weigh against thus providing suitably for your old +relatives," was the bait he dangled before her humiliated eyes. "It is +the only way to do it, for Mr. Alloway is too old to care any longer +for the place, which has been run at a loss for too long already. We +may say that in accepting me you are accepting their comfortable +future. Of course you could not expect things to go on any longer in +this impossible way, as I have need of the home and family I am really +entitled to, now could you?" The Senator bent forward and finished his +sentence in his most beguiling tone as he poured the hateful glance +all over her again so that her blood stopped in her veins from very +fear and repulsion.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 243 -->No," she said slowly, with her eyes down on the bowl of butter on +the table before her; "no, things couldn't go on as they have any +longer. I have felt that for some time." She paused a second, then +lifted her deep eyes and looked straight into his, and the wounded +light in their blue depth was shadowed in the pride of the glance. +"You are right—you must not be kept out of your own any longer. But +you will—will you give me just a little time to—to get used to—to +thinking about it? Will you go now and leave me—and come back in a +few days? It is the last favor I shall ever ask of you. I promise when +you come back to—to pay the debt." And the color flooded over her +face, then receded, to leave her white and controlled.</p> + +<p>"I felt sure you would see it that way; immediately, immediately, my +dear," answered the Senator, as he rose to take his departure. A +triumphant note boomed in his big gloating voice, but some influence +that it is given <!-- Page 244 -->a woman to exhale in a desperate self-defense kept +him from bestowing anything more than an ordinary pressure on the cold +hand laid in his. Then with a heavy jauntiness he crossed the Road, +mounted his horse and, tipping his wide hat in a conquering-hero wave, +rode on down Providence Road toward Boliver.</p> + +<p>And for a long, quiet moment Rose Mary stood leaning against the old +stone table perfectly still, with her hand pressing the sharp-edge +paper against her heart; then she sank into a chair and, stretching +her arms across the cold table, she let her head sink until the chill +of the stone came cool to her burning cheeks. So this was the door +that was to be opened in the stone wall—she had been blind and hadn't +seen!</p> + +<p>And across the hills away by the sea he was tired and cold and +hungry—with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket. He was +discouraged and overworked, and a time was coming when she would not +have the right to shelter <!-- Page 245 -->his heart in hers. Once when he had been so +ill, before he ever became conscious of her at all, his head had +fallen over on her breast as she had tended him in his weakness—the +throb of it hurt her now. And perhaps he would never understand. She +couldn't tell him because—because of his poverty and the hurt it +would give him—not to be able to help—to save her. No, he must not +know until too late—and <i>never</i> understand! Desperately thus wave +after wave swept over her, crushing, grinding, mocking her womanhood, +until, helpless and breathless, she was tossed, well nigh unconscious, +upon the shore of exhaustion. The fight of the instinctive woman for +its own was over and the sacrifice was prepared. She was bound to the +wheel and ready for the first turn, though out under the skies, +"<i>stretched as a tent to dwell in</i>," the cycle was moving on its +course turned by the same force from the same source that numbers the +sparrows.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary, child," came in a gentle voice, <!-- Page 246 -->and Uncle Tucker's +trembling old hand was laid with a caress on the bowed head before she +had even heard him come into the milk-house, "now you've got to look +up and get the kite to going again. I've been under the waters, too, +but I've pulled myself ashore with a-thinking that nothing's a-going +to take <i>you</i> away from me and them. What does it matter if we were to +have to take the bed covers and make a tent for ourselves to camp +along Providence Road just so we all can crawl under the flap +together? I need nothing in the world but to be sure your smile is not +a-going to die out."</p> + +<p>"Oh, honey-sweet, it isn't—it isn't," answered Rose Mary, looking up +at him quickly with the tenderness breaking through the agony in a +perfect radiance. "It's all right, Uncle Tucker, I know it will be!"</p> + +<p>"Course it's all right because it <i>is</i> right," answered Uncle Tucker +bravely, with a real smile breaking through the exhaustion on his +<!-- Page 247 -->face that showed so plainly the fight he had been having out in his +fields, now no longer his as he realized. "Gid has got the right of +it, and it wasn't honest of us to hold on at this losing rate as long +as we did. There is just a little more value to the land than the +mortgage, I take it, and we can pay the behind interest with that, and +when we do move offen the place we won't leave debt to nobody on it, +even if we do leave—the graves."</p> + +<p>"Did he say—when—when he expected you to—give up the Briars?" asked +Rose Mary in a guarded tone of voice, as if she wanted to be sure of +all the facts before she told of the climax she saw had not been even +suggested to Uncle Tucker.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no; Gid handled the talk mighty kind-like. I think it's better to +let folks always chaw their own hard tack instead of trying to grind +it up friendly for them, cause the swalloring of the trouble has to +come in the end; but Gid minced facts faithful for me, accord<!-- Page 248 -->ing to +his lights. I didn't rightly make out just what he did expect, only we +couldn't go on as we were—and that I've been knowing for some time."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we've both known that," said Rose Mary, still suspending her +announcement, she scarcely knew why.</p> + +<p>"He talked like he was a-going to turn the Briars into a kinder orphan +asylum for us old folks and spread-eagled around about something he +didn't seem to be able to spit out with good sense. But I reckon I was +kinder confused by the shock and wasn't right peart myself to take in +his language." And Uncle Tucker sank into a chair, and Rose Mary could +see that he was trembling from the strain. His big eyes were sunk far +back into his head and his shoulders stooped more than she had ever +seen them.</p> + +<p>"Sweetie, sweetie, I can tell you what Mr. Newsome was trying to say +to you—it was about me. I—I am going to be his wife, and <!-- Page 249 -->you and +the aunties are never, never going to leave the Briars. He has just +left here and—and, oh, I am so grateful to keep it—for you—and +them. I never thought of that—I never suspected such—a—door in our +stone wall." And Rose Mary's voice was firm and gentle, but her deep +eyes looked out over Harpeth Valley with the agony of all the ages in +their depths.</p> + +<p>But in hoping to conceal her tragedy Rose Mary had not counted on the +light love throws across the dark places that confront the steps of +those of our blood-bond, and in an instant Uncle Tucker's torch of +comprehension flamed high with the passion of indignation. Slowly he +rose to his feet, and the stoop in his feeble old shoulders +straightened itself out so that he stood with the height of his young +manhood. His gentle eyes lost the mysticism that had come with his +years of sorrow and baffling toil, and a stern, dignified power shone +straight out over the young woman at his side. He raised <!-- Page 250 -->his arm and +pointed with a hand that had ceased to tremble over the valley to +where Providence Road wound itself over Old Harpeth.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary," he said sternly in a quiet, decisive voice that rang with +the virility of his youth, "when the first of us Alloways came along +that wilderness trail a slip of an English girl walked by him when he +walked and rode the pillion behind him when he rode. She finished that +journey with bleeding feet in moccasins he had bought from an Indian +squaw. When they came on down into this Valley and found this spring +he halted wagons and teams and there on that hill she dropped down to +sleep, worn out with the journey. And while she was asleep he stuck a +stake at the black-curled head of her and one by the little, tired, +ragged feet. That was the measure of the front door-sill to the Briars +up there on the hill. Come generations we have fought off the Indians, +we have cleared and tilled the <!-- Page 251 -->land, and we have gone up to the state +house to name laws and order. In our home we have welcomed traveler, +man and beast, and come sun-up each day we have worshipped at the +altar of the living God—but we've never sold one of our women yet! +The child of that English girl never leaves my arms except to go into +those of a man she loves and wants. Yes, I'm old and I've got still +older to look out for, but I can strike the trail again to-morrow, +jest so I carry the honor of my women folks along with me. We may fall +on the march, but, Rose Mary, you are a Harpeth Valley woman, and not +for sale!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" /><!-- Page 252 -->CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h2>THE EXODUS</h2><br /> + + +<p>"Well, it just amounts to the whole of Sweetbriar a-rising up and +declaring of a war on Gid Newsome, and I for one want to march in the +front ranks and tote a blunderbuss what I couldn't hit nothing smaller +than a barn door with if I waster try," exclaimed Mrs. Rucker as she +waited at the store for a package Mr. Crabtree was wrapping for her.</p> + +<p>"I reckon when the Senator hits Sweetbriar again he'll think he's +stepped into a nest of yellar jackets and it'll be a case of run or +swell up and bust," answered Mr. Crabtree as he put up the two boxes +of baking-powder for the spouse of the poet, who stood beside his wife +in the door of the store.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 253 -->Well," said Mr. Rucker in his long drawl as he dropped himself over +the corner of the counter, "looks like the Honorable Gid kinder fooled +along and let Cupid shed a feather on him and then along come somebody +trying to pick his posey for him and in course it het him up. You all +'pear to forget that old saying that it's all's a fair fight in love +and war."</p> + +<p>"Yes, fight; that's the word! Take off his coat, strap his galluses +tight, spit on his hands and fight for his girl, not trade for her +like hogs," was the bomb of sentiment that young Bob exploded, much to +the amazement of the gathering of the Sweetbriar clan in the store. +Young Bob's devotion to Rose Mary, admiration for Everett and own +tender state of heart had made him become articulate with a vengeance +for this once and he spat his words out with a vehemence that made a +decided impression on his audience.</p> + +<p>"That are the right way to talk, Bob Nick<!-- Page 254 -->ols," said Mrs. Rucker, +bestowing a glance of approval upon the fierce young Corydon, followed +by one of scorn cast in the direction of the extenuating-circumstances +pleading Mr. Rucker. "A man's heart ain't much use to a woman if the +muscles of his arms git string-halt when he oughter fight for her. +Come a dispute the man that knocks down would keep me, not the buyer," +and this time the glance was delivered with a still greater accent.</p> + +<p>"Shoo, honey, you'd settle any ruckus about you 'fore it got going by +a kinder cold-word dash and pass-along," answered the poet +propitiatingly and admiringly. "But I was jest a-wondering why Mr. +Alloway and Miss Rose Mary was so—"</p> + +<p>"Tain't for nobody to be a-wondering over what they feels and does," +exclaimed Mrs. Rucker defensively before the query was half uttered. +"They've been hurt deep with some kind of insult and all we have got +to do is to take notice of the trouble and git to work to <!-- Page 255 -->helping 'em +all we can. Mr. Tucker ain't said a word to nobody about it, nor have +Rose Mary, but they are a-getting ready to move the last of the week, +and I don't know where to. I jest begged Rose Mary to let me have Miss +Viney and Miss Amandy. I could move out the melojion into the kitchen +and give 'em the parlor, and welcome, too. Mis' Poteet she put in and +asked for Stonie to bed down on the pallet in the front hall with Tobe +and Billy and Sammie, and I was a-going on to plan as how Mr. Tucker +and Mr. Crabtree would stay together here, and I knew Mis' Plunkett +would admire to have Rose Mary herself, but just then she sudden put +her head down on my knee, her pretty arms around me, and held on tight +without a tear, while I couldn't do nothing but rock back and forth. +Then Mis' Poteet she cried the top of Shoofly's head so soaking wet it +give her a sneeze, and we all had to laugh. But she never answered me +what they was a-going to do, and <!-- Page 256 -->you know, Cal Rucker, I ain't slept +nights thinking about 'em, and where they'll move, have I?"</p> + +<p>"Naw, you shore ain't—nor let me neither," answered the poet in a +depressed tone of voice.</p> + +<p>"I mighter known that Miss Viney woulder taken it up-headed and +a-lined it out in the scriptures to suit herself until she wasn't deep +in the grieving no more, but little Mis' Amandy's a-going to break my +heart, as tough as it is, if she don't git comfort soon," continued +Mrs. Rucker with a half sob. "Last night in the new moonlight I got up +to go see if I hadn't left my blue waist out in the dew, which mighter +faded it, and I saw something white over in the Briar's yard. I went +across to see if they had left any wash out that hadn't oughter be in +the dew, and there I found her in her little, short old nightgown and +big slippers with the little wored-out gray shawl 'round her shoulders +a-digging around the Maiden Blush rose-bush, putting in new dirt and +just <!-- Page 257 -->a-crying soft to herself, all trembling and hurt. I went in and +set down by her on the damp grass, me and my rheumatism and all, took +her in my arms like she were Petie, and me and her had it out. It's +the graves she's a-grieving over, we all a-knowing that she's leaving +buried what she have never had in life, and I tried to tell her that +no matter who had the place they would let her come and—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, durn him, durn him! I'm a-going clear to the city to git old Gid +and beat the liver outen him!" exclaimed young Bob, while his +sunburned face worked with emotion and his gruff young voice broke as +he rose and walked to the door.</p> + +<p>"I wisht you would, and I'll make Cal help you," sobbed Mrs. Rucker +into a corner of her apron. Her grief was all the more impressive, as +she was, as a general thing, the balance-wheel of the whole Sweetbriar +machinery. "And I don't know what they are a-going to do," she +continued to sob.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 258 -->Well, I know, and I've done decided," came in Mrs. Plunkett's soft +voice from the side door of the store, and it held an unwonted note of +decision in its hushed cadences. A deep pink spot burned on either +cheek, her eyes were very bright, and she kept her face turned +resolutely away from little Mr. Crabtree, over whose face there had +flashed a ray of most beautiful and abashed delight.</p> + +<p>"Me and Mr. Crabtree were a-talking it all over last night while Bob +and Louisa Helen were down at the gate counting lightning-bugs, they +said. They just ain't no use thinking of separating Rose Mary and Mr. +Tucker and the rest of 'em, and they must have Sweetbriar shelter, +good and tight and genteel, offered outen the love Sweetbriar has got +for 'em all. Now if I was to marry Mr. Crabtree I could all good and +proper move him over to my house and that would leave his little +three-room cottage hitched on to the store to move 'em into +comfortable. They have got a heap <!-- Page 259 -->of things, but most of 'em could be +packed away in the barn here, what they won't let us keep for 'em. If +Mr. Crabtree has got to take holt of my farm it will keep him away +from the store, and he could give Mr. Tucker a half-interest cheap to +run it for him and that will leave Rose Mary free to help him and tend +the old folks. What do you all neighbors think of it?"</p> + +<p>"Now wait just a minute, Lou Plunkett," said Mr. Crabtree in a radiant +voice as he came out from around the counter and stood before her with +his eyes fairly glowing with his emotion. "Have you done decided +<i>yourself</i>? This is twixt me and you, and I don't want no Sweetbriar +present for a wife if I can help it. Have <i>you</i> done decided?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Crabtree I have, and I had oughter stopped and told you, but +I wanted to go quick as I could to see Mr. Tucker and Rose Mary. He +gave consent immediately, and looked like Rose Mary couldn't do +noth<!-- Page 260 -->ing but talk about you and how good you was. I declare I began to +get kinder proud about you right then and there, 'fore I'd even told +you as I'd have you." And the demure little widow cast a smile out +from under a curl that had fallen down into her bright eyes that was +so young and engaging that Mr. Crabtree had to lean against the +counter to support himself. His storm-tossed single soul was fairly +blinded at even this far sight of the haven of his double desires, but +it was just as well that he was dumb for joy, for Mrs. Rucker was more +than equal to the occasion.</p> + +<p>"Well, glory be, Lou Plunkett, if that ain't a fine piece of news!" +she exclaimed as she bestowed a hearty embrace upon the widow and one +almost as hearty upon the overcome Mr. Crabtree. "And you can't know +till you've tried what a pleasure and a comfort a second husband can +be if you manage 'em right. Single folks a-marrying are likely to gum +up the marriage certificate with some kind <!-- Page 261 -->of a mistake until it +sticks like fly-paper, but a experienced choice generally runs smooth +like melted butter." And with a not at all unprecedented feminine +change of front Mrs. Rucker substituted a glance of unbridled pride +for the one of scorn she had lately bestowed upon the poet, under +which his wilted aspect disappeared and he also began to bloom out +with the joy of approval and congratulation.</p> + +<p>"And I say marrying a widow are like getting a rose some other fellow +have clipped and thorned to wear in your buttonhole, Crabtree; they +ain't nothing like 'em." Thus poet and realist made acknowledgment +each after his and her own order of mind, but actuated by the +identical feeling of contented self-congratulation.</p> + +<p>"I'm a-holding in for fear if I breathe on this promise of Mis' +Plunkett's it'll take and blow away. But you all have heard it spoke," +said the merry old bachelor in a voice that positively trembled with +emotion as he turned and <!-- Page 262 -->mechanically began to sort over a box of +clothespins, mixed as to size and variety.</p> + +<p>"Shoo, Crabbie, don't begin by bein' afraid of your wife, jest handle +'em positive but kind and they'll turn your flapjacks peaceable and +butter 'em all with smiles," and Mr. Rucker beamed on his friend +Crabtree as he wound one of his wife's apron strings all around one of +his long fingers, a habit he had that amused him and he knew in his +secret heart teased her.</p> + +<p>"Now just look at Bob tracking down Providence Road a-whistling like a +partridge in the wheat for Louisa Helen. They've got love's young +dream so bad they had oughter have sassaprilla gave for it," and the +poet cast a further glance at the widow, who only laughed and looked +indulgently down the road at the retreating form of the gawky young +Adonis.</p> + +<p>"Hush up, Cal Rucker, and go begin chopping up fodder to feed with +come supper time," answered his wife, her usual attitude of brisk +generalship coming into her capable voice and <!-- Page 263 -->eyes after their +softening under the strain of the varied emotions of the last half +hour in the store. "Let's me and you get mops and broom and begin on +a-cleaning up for Mr. Crabtree before his moving, Lou. I reckon you +want to go over his things before you marry him anyway, and I'll help +you. I found everything Cal Rucker had a disgrace, with Mr. +Satterwhite so neat, too." And not at all heeding the flame of +embarrassment that communicated itself from the face of the widow to +that of the sensitive Mr. Crabtree, Mrs. Rucker descended the steps of +the store, taking Mrs. Plunkett with her, for to Mrs. Rucker the state +of matrimony, though holy, was still an institution in the realm of +realism and to be treated with according frankness.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile over in the barn at the Briars Uncle Tucker was at work +rooting up the foundations upon which had been built his lifetime of +lordship over his fields. In the middle of the floor was a great pile +of odds and ends <!-- Page 264 -->of old harness, empty grease cans, broken +tools, and scraps of iron. Along one side of the floor stood the +pathetically-patched old implements that told the tale of patient +saving of every cent even at the cost of much greater labor to the +fast weakening old back and shoulders. A new plow-shaft had meant a +dollar and a half, so Uncle Tucker had put forth the extra strength to +drive the dull old one along the furrows, while even the grindstone +had worn away to such unevenness that each revolution had made only +half the impression on a blade pressed to its rim and thus caused the +sharpening to take twice as long and twice the force as would have +been required on a new one. But grindstones, too, cost cents and +dollars, and Uncle Tucker had ground on patiently, even hopefully, +until this the very end. But now he stood with a thin old scythe in +his hands looking for all the world like the incarnation of Father +Time called to face the first day of the new régime of an arrived +eternity, <!-- Page 265 -->and the bewilderment in his eyes cut into Rose Mary's heart +with an edge of which the old blade had long since become incapable.</p> + +<p>"Can't I help you go over things, Uncle Tucker?" she asked softly with +a smile shining for him even through the mist his eyes were too dim to +discover in hers.</p> + +<p>"No, child, I reckon not," he answered gently. "Looks like it helps me +to handle all these things I have used to put licks in on more'n one +good farm deal. I was just a-wondering how many big clover crops I had +mowed down with this old blade 'fore I laid it by to go riding away +from it on that new-fangled buggy reaper out there that broke down in +less'n five years, while this old friend had served its twenty-odd and +now is good for as many more with careful honing. That's it, men of my +time were like good blades what swing along steady and even, high over +rocks and low over good ground; but they don't count in these days of +the four-horse-power <!-- Page 266 -->high-drive, cut-bind-and-deliver machines men +work right on through God's gauges of sun-up and down. But maybe in +glory come He'll walk with us in the cool of the evening while they'll +be put to measuring the jasper walls with a golden reed just to keep +themselves busy and contented. How's the resurrection in the wardrobes +and chests of drawers coming on?" And a real smile made its way into +Uncle Tucker's eyes as he inquired into the progress of the packing up +of the sisters, from which he had fled a couple hours ago.</p> + +<p>"They are still taking things out, talking them over and putting them +right back in the same place," answered Rose Mary with a faint echo of +his smile that tried to come to the surface bravely but had a +struggle. "We will have to try and move the furniture with it all +packed away as it is. It is just across the Road and I know everybody +will want to help me disturb their things as little as possible. Oh, +Uncle Tucker, it's almost worth the—the pain <!-- Page 267 -->to see everybody +planning and working for us as they are doing. Friends are like those +tall pink hollyhocks that go along and bloom single on a stalk until +something happens to make them all flower out double like peonies. And +that reminds me, Aunt Viney says be sure and save some of the dry +jack-bean seed from last year you had out here in the seed press +for—"</p> + +<p>"Say, Rose Mamie, say, what you think we found up on top of Mr. +Crabtree's bedpost what Mis' Rucker were a-sweeping down with a +broom?" and the General's face fairly beamed with excitement as he +stood dancing in the barn door. Tobe stood close behind him and small +Peggy and Jennie pressed close to Rose Mary's side, eager but not +daring to hasten Stonie's dramatic way of making Rose Mary guess the +news they were all so impatient to impart to her.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what? Tell me quick, Stonie," pleaded Rose Mary with the +eagerness she knew would be expected of her. Even in her darkest +hours<!-- Page 268 --> Rose Mary's sun had shone on the General with its usual +radiance of adoration and he had not been permitted to feel the +tragedy of the upheaval, but encouraged to enjoy to the utmost all its +small excitements. In fact the move over to the store had appealed to +a fast budding business instinct in the General and he had seen +himself soon promoted to the weighing out of sugar, wrapping up +bundles and delivering them over the counter to any one of the +admiring Swarm sent to the store for the purchase of the daily +provender.</p> + +<p>"It were a tree squirrel and three little just-hatched ones in a +bunch," Stonie answered with due dramatic weight at Rose Mary's plea. +"Mis' Rucker thought it were a rat and jumped on the bed and hollowed +for Tobe to ketch it, and Peg and Jennie acted just like her, too, +after Tobe and me had ketched that mouse in the barn just last week +and tied it to a string and let it run at 'em all day to get 'em used +to rats and things just like boys." And the<!-- Page 269 --> General cast a look of +disappointed scorn at the two pigtailed heads, downcast at this +failure of theirs to respond to the General's effort to inoculate +their feminine natures with masculine courage.</p> + +<p>"I hollered 'fore I knewed what at," answered the abashed Jennie in a +very small voice, unconsciously making further display of the force of +her hopeless feminine heredity. But Peggy switched her small skirts in +an entirely different phase of femininity.</p> + +<p>"You never heard me holler," she said in a tone that was skilful +admixture of defiance and tentative propitiation.</p> + +<p>"'Cause you had your head hid in Jennie's back," answered the General +coolly unbeguiled. "Here is the letter we comed to bring you, Rose +Mamie, and me and Tobe must go back to help Mis' Rucker some more +clean Mr. Crabtree up. I don't reckon she needs Peg and Jennie, but +they can come if they want to," with which Stonie and Tobe, the +henchman, <!-- Page 270 -->departed, and not at all abashed the humble small women +trailing respectfully behind them.</p> + +<p>"That women folks are the touch-off to the whole explosion of life is +a hard lesson to learn for some men, and Stonie Jackson is one of that +kind," observed Uncle Tucker as he looked with a quizzical expression +after the small procession. "Want me to read that letter and tell you +what's in it?" he further remarked, shifting both expression and +attention on to Rose Mary, who stood at his side.</p> + +<p>"No, I'll read it myself and tell you what's in it," answered Rose +Mary with a blush and a smile. "I haven't written him about our +troubles, because—because he hasn't got a position yet and I don't +want to trouble him while he is lonely and discouraged."</p> + +<p>"Well, I reckon that's right," answered Uncle Tucker still in a +bantering frame of mind that it delighted Rose Mary to see him +maintain under the situation. "Come trouble, some women like to blind +a man with cotton <!-- Page 271 -->wool while they wade through the high water and +only holler for help when their petticoats are down around their +ankles on the far bank. We'll wait and send Everett a photagraf of me +and you dishing out molasses and lard as grocer clerks. And glad to do +it, too!" he added with a sudden fervor of thankfulness rising in his +voice and great gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Uncle Tucker, glad and proud to do it," answered Rose Mary +quickly. "Oh, don't you know that if you hadn't seen and understood +because you loved me so, I would have felt it was right to do—to do +what was so horrible to me? I will—I will make up to you and them for +keeping me from—it. What do you suppose Mr. Newsome will do when he +finds out that you have moved and are ready to turn the place over to +him, even without any foreclosure?"</p> + +<p>"Well, speculating on what men are a-going to do in this life is about +like trying to read turkey tracks in the mud by the spring-house, <!-- Page 272 -->and +I'm not wasting any time on Gid Newsome's splay-footed impressions. +Come to-morrow night I'm a-going to pull the front door to for the +last time on all of us and early next morning Tom Crabtree's a-going +to take the letter and deed down to Gid in his office in the city for +me. Don't nobody have to foreclose on me; I hand back my debt dollar +for dollar outen my own pocket without no duns. To give up the land +immediate are just simple justice to him, and I'm a-leaving the Lord +to deal with him for trying to <i>buy</i> a woman in her time of trouble. +We haven't told it on him and we are never a-going to. I wisht I could +make the neighbors all see the jestice in his taking over the land and +not feel so spited at him. I'm afraid it will lose him every vote +along Providence Road. 'Tain't right!"</p> + +<p>"I know it isn't," answered Rose Mary. "But when Mrs. Rucker speaks +her mind about him and Bob chokes and swells up my heart gets warm. Do +you suppose it's wrong to <!-- Page 273 -->let a friend's trouble heat sympathy to the +boiling point? But if you don't need me I'm going down to the +milk-house to work out my last batch of butter before they come to +drive away my cows." And Rose Mary hurried down the lilac path before +Uncle Tucker could catch a glimpse of the tears that rose at the idea +of having to give up the beloved Mrs. Butter and her tribe of +gentle-eyed daughters.</p> + +<p>And as she stood in the cool gray depths of the old milk-house Rose +Mary's gentle heart throbbed with pain as she pressed the great cakes +of the golden treasure back and forth in the blue bowl, for it was a +quiet time and Rose Mary was tearing up some of her own roots. Her sad +eyes looked out over Harpeth Valley, which lay in a swoon with the +midsummer heat. The lush blue-grass rose almost knee deep around the +grazing cattle in the meadows, and in the fields the green grain was +fast turning to a harvest hue. Almost as far as her eyes could reach +along Providence Road and <!-- Page 274 -->across the pastures to Providence Nob, +beyond Tilting Rock, the land was Alloway land and had been theirs for +what seemed always. She could remember what each good-by to it all had +been when she had gone out over the Ridge in her merry girlhood and +how overflowing with joy each return. Then had come the time when it +had become still dearer as a refuge into which she could bring her +torn heart for its healing.</p> + +<p>And such a healing the Valley had given her! It had poured the +fragrance of its blooming springs and summers over her head, she had +drunk the wine of forgetfulness in the cup of long Octobers and the +sting of its wind and rain and snow on her cheeks had brought back the +grief-faded roses. The arms of the hearty Harpeth women had been +outheld to her, and in turn she had had their babies and troubles laid +on her own breast for her and their comforting. She had been mothered +and sistered and brothered by these farmer folk with a very +<!-- Page 275 -->prodigality of friendship, and to-day she realized more than ever +with positive exultation that she was brawn of their brawn and built +of their building.</p> + +<p>And then to her, a woman of the fields, had come down Providence Road +over the Ridge from the great world outside—the <i>miracle</i>. She +slipped her hand into her pocket for just one rapturous crush of the +treasure-letter when suddenly it was borne in upon her that it might +be that even that must come to an end for her. Stay she must by her +nest of helpless folk, and was it with futile wings he was breasting +the great outer currents of which she was so ignorant? His letters +told her nothing of what he was doing, just were filled to the word +with half-spoken love and longing and, above all, with a great +impatience about what, or for what, it was impossible for her to +understand. She could only grieve over it and long to comfort him with +all the strength of her love for him. And so with thinking, puzzling +and sad <!-- Page 276 -->planning the afternoon wore away for her and sunset found her +at the house putting the household in order and to bed with her usual +cheery fostering of creaking joints and cumbersome retiring +ceremonies.</p> + +<p>At last she was at liberty to fling her exhausted body down on the +cool, patched, old linen sheets of the great four-poster which had +harbored many of her foremothers and let herself drift out on her own +troubled waters. Wrapped in the compassionate darkness she was giving +way to the luxury of letting the controlled tears rise to her eyes and +the sobs that her white throat ached from suppressing all day were +echoing on the stillness when a voice came from the little cot by her +bed and the General in disheveled nightshirt and rumpled head rose by +her pillow and stood with uncertain feet on his own springy place of +repose.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mamie," he demanded in an awestruck tone of voice that fairly +trembled <!-- Page 277 -->through the darkness, "are you a-crying?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Stonie," she answered in a shame-forced gurgle that would have +done credit to Jennie Rucker in her worst moments of abasement before +the force of the General.</p> + +<p>"Does your stomach hurt you?" he demanded in a practical though +sympathetic tone of voice, for so far in his journey along life's road +his sleep had only been disturbed by retributive digestive causes.</p> + +<p>"No," sniffed Rose Mary with a sob that was tinged with a small laugh. +"It's my heart, darling," she added, the sob getting the best of the +situation. "Oh, Stonie, Stonie!"</p> + +<p>"Now, wait a minute, Rose Mamie," exclaimed the General as he climbed +up and perched himself on the edge of the big bed. "Have you done +anything you are afraid to tell God about?"</p> + +<p>"No," came from the depths of Rose Mary's pillow.</p> + +<p>"Then don't cry because you think Mr. Mark <!-- Page 278 -->ain't coming back, like +Mis' Rucker said she was afraid you was grieving about when she +thought I wasn't a-listening. He's a-coming back. Me and him have got +a bargain."</p> + +<p>"What about, Stonie?" came in a much clearer voice from the pillow, +and Rose Mary curled herself over nearer to the little bird perched on +the edge of her bed.</p> + +<p>"About a husband for you," answered Stonie in the reluctant voice that +a man usually uses when circumstances force him into taking a woman +into his business confidence. "Looked to me like everybody here was +a-going to marry everybody else and leave you out, so I asked him to +get you one up in New York and I'd pay him for doing it. He's a-going +to bring him here on the cars his own self lest he get away before I +get him." And the picture that rose in Rose Mary's mind, of the +reluctant husband being dragged to her at the end of a tether by +Everett, cut off the sob instantly.</p> + +<p>"What—what did you—he say when you <!-- Page 279 -->asked him about—getting the +husband—for you—for me?" asked Rose Mary in a perfect agony of mirth +and embarrassment.</p> + +<p>"Let me see," said Stonie, and he paused as he tried to repeat +Everett's exact words, which had been spoken in a manner that had +impressed them on the General at the time. "He said that you wasn't +a-going to have no husband but the best kind if he had to kill +him—no, he said that if he was to have to go dead hisself he would +come and bring him to me, when he got him good enough for you by doing +right and such."</p> + +<p>"Was that all?" asked Rose Mary with a gurgle that was well nigh +ecstatic, for through her had shot a quiver of hope that set every +pulse in her body beating hot and strong, while her cheeks burned in +the cool linen of her pillow and her eyes fairly glowed into the +night.</p> + +<p>"About all," answered the General, beginning to yawn with the +interrupted slumber. "I told him your children would have to mind <!-- Page 280 -->me +and Tobe when we spoke to 'em. He kinder choked then and said all +right. Then we bear-hugged for keeps until he comes again. I'm sleepy +now!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Stonie, darling, thank you for waking up and coming to comfort +Rose Mamie," she said, and from its very fullness a happy little sob +escaped from her heart.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, Rose Mamie," said the General, instantly, again +sympathetically alarmed, "I'd better come over in your bed and go to +sleep. You can put your head on my shoulder and if you cry, getting me +wet will wake me up to keep care of you agin, 'cause I am so sleepy +now if you was to holler louder than Tucker Poteet I wouldn't wake up +no more." And suiting his actions to his proposition the General +stretched himself out beside Rose Mary, buried his touseled head on +her pillow and presented a diminutive though sturdy little shoulder, +against which she instantly laid her soft cheek.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 281 -->You scrouge just like the puppy," was his appreciative comment of +her gentle nestling against his little body. "Now I'm going to sleep, +but if praying to God don't keep you from crying, then wake me up," +and with this generous and really heroic offer the General drifted off +again into the depths, into which he soon drew Rose Mary with him, +comforted by his faith and lulled in his strong little arms.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" /><!-- Page 282 -->CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h2>IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND</h2><br /> + + +<p>And the next morning a threatening, scowling, tossed-cloud dawn +brought the day over the head of Old Harpeth down upon little +Sweetbriar, which awakened with one accord to a sense of melancholy +oppression. A cool, dust-laden wind blew down Providence Road, twisted +the branches of the tall maples along the way, tore roughly at the +festoons of blooming vines over the gables of the Briars, startled the +nestled doves into a sad crooning, whipped mercilessly at the row of +tall hollyhocks along the garden fence, flaunted the long spikes of +jack-beans and carried their quaint fragrance to pour it over the bed +of sober-colored mignonette, mixing it with the pungent zinnia odor +and flinging it all over into the clover field <!-- Page 283 -->across the briar +hedge. The jovial old sun did his very best to light up the situation, +but just as he would succeed in getting a ray down into the Valley a +great puffy cloud would cast a gray shadow of suppression over his +effort and retire him sternly for another half hour.</p> + +<p>And on the wings of the intruding, out-of-season wind came a train of +ills. Young Tucker Poteet waked at daylight and howled dismally with a +pain that seemed to be all over and then in spots. When he went to +take down the store shutters Mr. Crabtree smashed one of his large, +generous-spreading thumbs and Mrs. Rucker's breakfast eggs burned to a +cinder state while she tied it up in camphor for him. In the night a +mosquito had taken a bite out of the end of Jennie's small nose and it +was swelled to twice its natural size, and Peter, the wise, barked a +plump shin before he was well out of the trundle bed. One of young +Bob's mules broke away and necessitated a trip half way up to +Providence for his cap<!-- Page 284 -->ture, and Mrs. Plunkett had Louisa Helen so +busy at some domestic manoeuvers that she found it impossible to go +with him.</p> + +<p>And before noon the whole village was in a fervid state of commotion. +Mrs. Rucker had insisted on moving Mr. Crabtree and all his effects +over into the domicile of his prospective bride, regardless of both +her and his abashed remonstrance.</p> + +<p>"Them squeems are all foolishness, Lou Plunkett," she had answered a +faint plea from the widow for a delay until after the ceremony for +this material mingling of the to-be-united lives. "It's all right and +proper for you and Mr. Crabtree to be married at night meeting Sunday, +and his things won't be unmarried in your house only through Saturday +and Sunday. I'm a-going to pack up his Sunday clothes, a pair of clean +socks, a shirt and other things in this basket. Then I'll fix him up a +shake-down in my parlor to spend Saturday night in, and I'll dress him +up nice and fine <!-- Page 285 -->for the wedding you may be sure. We ain't got but +this day to move him out and clean up the house good to move Rose Mary +and the old folks into early Saturday morning, so just come on and get +to work. You can shut your eyes to his things setting around your +house for just them one day or two, can't you?"</p> + +<p>"They ain't nothing in this world I couldn't do to make it just the +littlest mite easier for Rose Mary and them sweet old folks, even to +gettin' my house into a unseemly married condition before hand," +answered Mrs. Plunkett as she brushed a tear away from her blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"That's the way we all feel," said Mrs. Rucker. "Now if I was you I'd +give Mr. Crabtree that middle bureau drawer. Men are apt to poke +things away careless if they has the top, and the bottom one is best +to use for your own things. Mr. Satterwhite always kept his clothes so +it were a pleasure to look at 'em, but Cal Rucker prefers a pair of +socks separated across the house if he can get them <!-- Page 286 -->there. I found +one of his undershirts full of mud and stuck away in the kitchen safe +with the cup towels last week. There comes Mis' Poteet to help at +last! I never heard anything yell like Tucker has been doing all +morning. Is he quiet at last, Mis' Poteet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I reckon he's gave out all the holler that's in him, but I'm +afraid to put him down," and Mrs. Poteet continued the joggling, +swaying motion to a blue bundle on her breast that she had been +administering as a continuous performance to young Tucker since +daylight. "I'm sorry I couldn't come help you all with the moving, but +you can count on my mop and broom over to the store all afternoon, +soon as I can turn him over to the children."</p> + +<p>"We ain't needed you before, but now we have got Mr. Crabtree all +settled down here with Mrs. Plunkett we can get to work on his house +right after dinner. Have you been over to the Briars to see 'em in the +last hour?"</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 287 -->Yes, I come by there, but they didn't seem to need me. Miss Viney +has got Miss Amandy and Tobe and the General at work, and Rose Mary +has gone down to the dairy to pack up the last batch of butter for Mr. +Crabtree to take to the city in the morning. Mr. Tucker's still going +over things in the barn, and my feelings riz so I had to come away for +fear of me and little Tucker both busting out crying."</p> + +<p>And over at the Briars the scenes of exodus being enacted were well +calculated to touch a heart sterner than that of the gentle, +sympathetic and maternal Mrs. Poteet. Chilled by the out-of-season +wind Miss Lavinia had awakened with as bad a spell of rheumatism as +she had had for a year and it was with the greatest difficulty that +Rose Mary had succeeded in rubbing down the pain to a state where she +could be propped up in bed to direct little Miss Amanda and the +children in the last sad rites of getting things into shape to be +car<!-- Page 288 -->ried across the road at the beginning of the morrow, which was the +day Uncle Tucker had sternly set as that of his abdication.</p> + +<p>Feebly, Miss Amanda tottered about trying to carry out her sister's +orders and patiently the General and Tobe labored to help her, though +their hearts were really over at the store, where the rest of the +Swarm were, in the midst of the excitement of Mr. Crabtree's change of +residence. In all their young lives of varied length they had never +before had an opportunity to witness the upheaval of a moving and this +occasion was frought with a well-nigh insupportable fascination. The +General's remaining at the post of family duty and his command of his +henchman to the same sacrifice was indeed remarkable, though in a way +pathetic.</p> + +<p>"You, Stonewall Jackson, don't handle those chiny vases careless!" +commanded Aunt Viney in a stern voice. "Put 'em in the basket right +side up, for they were your great grandmoth<!-- Page 289 -->er's wedding-present from +Mister Bradford from Arkansas."</p> + +<p>"Yes'm," answered Stonie, duly impressed. "But I've done packed 'em in +four different baskets for you, and if this one don't do all right, +can't me and Tobe together carry 'em over the Road to-morrow careful +for you, Aunt Viney?"</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, then you can take 'em out and set 'em back in their +places," answered Miss Lavinia, which order was carried out faithfully +by the General, with a generous disregard of the fact that he had been +laboring over them under a fire of directions for more than a +half-hour.</p> + +<p>"Now, Amandy, come away from those flower cans and get out the grave +clothes from the bureau drawers and let the boys wrap them in that old +sheet first and then in the newspapers and then put 'em in that box +trunk with brass tacks over there!" directed Miss Lavinia as Miss +Amandy wandered over by the <!-- Page 290 -->window, along which stood a row of tomato +cans into which were stuck slips of all the vines and plants on the +land of the Briars, ready for transportation across Providence Road +when the time came. There was something so intensely pathetic in this +effort of the fast-fading little old woman to begin to bud from the +old life flower-plants to blossom in a new one, into which she could +hardly expect to make more than the shortest journey, that even the +General's young and inexperienced heart was moved to a quick +compassion.</p> + +<p>"I'm a-going to carry the flowers over and plant 'em careful for you, +Aunt Amandy," he said as he sidled up close to her and put his arm +around her with a protective gesture. "We'll water 'em twice a day and +just <i>make</i> 'em grow, won't we, Tobe?"</p> + +<p>"Bucketfuls 'til we drap," answered Tobe with a sympathy equal to and +a courage as great as that of his superior officer.</p> + +<p>"Is the blue myrtle sprig often the graves <!-- Page 291 -->holding up its leaves, +Amandy?" asked Miss Lavinia in a softened tone of voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's doing fine," answered Miss Amandy, bending over to the last +of the row of cans.</p> + +<p>"Then come on and get out the burying things and let's get that job +over," Miss Lavinia continued to insist. "Don't get our things mixed! +Remember that my grave shift has got nothing but a seemly stitched +band on it while you would have linen lace on yours. And don't let +anything get wrinkled. I don't want to rise on Judgment Day looking +like I needed the pressing of a hot iron. Now pull out the trunk, +boys, lift out the tray so as I can—"</p> + +<p>But at this juncture Rose Mary appeared at the door with a tray on +which stood a bowl of soup, and Miss Lavinia lay back on her pillows +weakly, with the fire all gone out of her eyes and exhaustion written +on every line of her determined old face.</p> + +<p>"<!-- Page 292 -->Go get dinner, everybody, so we can get back to work," she directed +weakly as she raised the spoon to her lips and then rested a moment +before she could take another sip. And with the last spoonful she +looked up and whispered to Rose Mary, "You'll have to do the rest +child, I can't drive any farther with a broke heart. I've got to lay +myself in the arms of prayer and go to sleep." And so rested, Rose +Mary left her.</p> + +<p>Then finding the motive powers which had been driving her removed, +little Miss Amandy stole away to the cedar grove behind the garden +fence, the boys scampered with the greatest glee across the Road to +the scene of mop and broom action behind the store, and Uncle Tucker +stiffly mounted old Gray to drive the cows away to their separate +homes. The thrifty neighbors had been glad to buy and pay him cash for +the sleek animals, and their price had been the small capital which +had been available for Uncle Tucker to embark on the <!-- Page 293 -->commercial seas +in partnership with Mr. Crabtree.</p> + +<p>Thus left to herself in the old house, Rose Mary wandered from room to +room trying to put things in shape for the morrow's moving and +breasting her deep waters with what strength she could summon. Up to +this last day some strange hope had buoyed her up, and it was only at +this moment when the inevitable was so plainly closing down upon her +and her helpless old people that the bitterness of despair rose in her +heart. Against the uprooting of their feebleness her whole nature +cried out, and the sacrifice that had been offered her in the +milk-house days before, seemed but a small price to pay to avert the +tragedy. Doubt of herself and her motives assailed her, and she +quivered in every nerve when she thought that thus she had failed +them. What! Was she to save herself and let the sorrow fall on their +bent shoulders? Was it too late? Her heart answered her that it was, +for her confession <!-- Page 294 -->of horror of her purchaser to Uncle Tucker had cut +off any hope of deceiving him and she knew he would be burned at the +stake before he would let her make the sacrifice. She was helpless, +helpless to safeguard them from this sorrow, as helpless as they +themselves!</p> + +<p>For a long hour she stood at the end of the porch, looking across at +Providence Nob, behind whose benevolent head the storm clouds of the +day were at last sinking, lit by the glow of the fast-setting sun. The +wind had died down and a deep peace was settling over the Valley, like +a benediction from the coming night. Just for strength to go on, Rose +Mary prayed out to the dim, blue old ridge and then turned to her +ministrations to her assembling household.</p> + +<p>Uncle Tucker was so tired that he hardly ate the supper set before +him, and before the last soft rays of the sun had entirely left the +Valley he had smoked his pipe and gone to bed.</p> + +<p><!-- Page 295 -->And soon in his wake retired the General, with two of the small dogs +to bear him company in his white cot. But the settling of Miss Lavinia +for the night had been long, and had brought Rose Mary almost to the +point of exhaustion. Tired out by her afternoon over in the little +graveyard, Miss Amanda had not the strength to read the usual chapters +of retiring service that Miss Lavinia always required of her, and so +Rose Mary drew the candle close beside the bed and attempted to go on +with her rubbing and read at the same time. And though, if read she +must, the very soul of Rose Mary panted for the comfort of some of the +lines of the Sweet Singer, Aunt Viney held her strictly to the words +of her favorite thunderer, Jeremiah, and little Aunt Amandy bunched up +under the cover across the bed fairly shook with terror as she buried +her head in her pillow to keep out the rolling words of invective that +began with an awful "<i>Harken</i>"<!-- Page 296 --> and ended with "<i>Woe is me now, for my +soul is wearied</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Now," concluded Miss Lavinia, "you can put out the light. Rose Mary, +and if me and Amandy was to open our eyes on the other side of the +river it would be but a good thing for us. Lay the Bible in that +newspaper on top of that pile of <i>Christian Advocates</i>, with a string +to tie 'em all up after morning lesson, to be carried away. The Lord +bless and keep you, child, and don't forget to latch the front door on +us all for the last time!"</p> + +<p>Softly Rose Mary drew the door partly closed and left them in the +quiet of the fast-deepening purple dusk. She peeped into Uncle +Tucker's room and assured herself by his sonorous breathing that rest +at last was comforting him, and for a moment in her own room she bent +over the little cot where the General and his two spotted servitors +lay curled up in a tangle and fast in the depths of sleep. Then she +opened wide the old hall <!-- Page 297 -->door that had for more than a century swung +over the sill marked off by the length of the intrepid English +foremother who had tramped the wilderness trail to possess what she, +herself, was giving up.</p> + +<p>And as she stood desperate, at bay, with her nest storm tossed and +threatened, suddenly the impossibility of it all came down upon her, +and stern with a very rigidity of resolve she went into the house, +lighted a candle by the old desk in the hall, and wrote swiftly a few +words of desperate summons to the Senator. She knew that Friday night +always found him over the fields at Boliver, and she told him briefly +the situation and asked him to come over in the early morning to the +rescue—and sacrifice.</p> + +<p>When she had first come out on the porch she had seen young Bob ride +up to the store on one of his colts, and she ran fleetly down to the +front gate and called to him. He consented instantly to ride over and +deliver the note for her, but he shot an uneasy glance at <!-- Page 298 -->her from +beneath his wide hat as he put the letter in his pocket.</p> + +<p>"Is anything wrong, Miss Rose Mary?" he asked anxiously but +respectfully.</p> + +<p>"No, Bob, dear, nothing that—that I can't make—right," she answered +in a soft, tearless voice, and as he got on his horse and rode away +she came slowly up the long front walk that was moonflecked from the +leaves of the tall trees. Then once more she stood on the old door +sill—at bay.</p> + +<p>And as she looked at the old Ridge across the sweet, blooming +clover-fields, with the darkened house behind her, again the waters of +despair rose breast-high and heart-high, beat against her aching +throat and were just about to dash over her head as she stretched out +one arm to the hills and with a broken cry bent her white forehead in +the curve of the other, but suddenly bent head, tear-blinded eyes, +quivering breast and supplicating arms were folded tight in a strong +embrace and warm, <!-- Page 299 -->thirsty lips pressed against the tears on her +cheeks as Everett's voice with a choke and a gulp made its way into +her consciousness.</p> + +<p>"I feel like shaking the very life out of you, Rose Mary Alloway," was +his tender form of greeting.</p> + +<p>"You're squeezing it out," came in all the voice that Rose Mary could +command for an answer. And the broad-shouldered, burden-bearing, +independent woman that was the Rose of Old Harpeth melted into just a +tender girl who crushed her heart against her lover's and clung as +meekly as any slip of vine to her young lord oak. "But I don't care," +she finished up under his chin. And Everett's laugh that greeted and +accepted her unexpected meekness rang through the hall and brought a +commotion in answer.</p> + +<p>The wee dogs, keen both of ear and scent, shot like small electric +volts from Stonie's couch, hurled themselves through the hall and +sprang almost waist-high against Everett's <!-- Page 300 -->side in a perfect ecstasy +of welcome. They yelped and barked and whined and nosed in a tumbling +heap of palpitating joy until he was obliged to hold Rose Mary in one +arm while he made an attempt to respond to and abate their enthusiasm +with the other.</p> + +<p>"Now, now, that's all right! Nice dogs, nice dogs!" he was answering +and persuading, when a stern call from the depths of Miss Lavinia's +room, the door of which Rose Mary had left ajar, abstracted her from +Everett's arm on the instant and sent her hurrying to answer the +summons.</p> + +<p>"Is that young man come back? and light the candle," Miss Lavinia +demanded and commanded in the same breath. And just as Rose Mary +flared up the dim light on the table by the bed Everett himself stood +in the doorway. With one glance his keen eyes took in the situation in +the dim room in which the two old wayfarers lay prepared for the +morning journey, and what Miss Lavinia's stately and <!-- Page 301 -->proper greeting +would have been to him none of them ever knew, for with a couple of +strides he was over by the bed at Rose Mary's side and had taken the +stern old lady into his strong arms and landed a kiss on the ruffle of +white nightcap just over her left ear.</p> + +<p>"No leaving the Briars this season, Miss Lavinia," he said in a +laughing, choking voice as he bent across and extracted one of little +Miss Amandy's hands from the tight bunch she had curled herself into +under the edge of her pillow and bestowed a squeeze thereon. "It's all +fixed up over at Boliver this afternoon. There's worse than oil on the +place—and it's all yours now for keeps." With Rose Mary in his arms +Everett had entirely forgotten to announce to her such a minor fact as +the saving of her lands and estate, but to the two little old ladies +his sympathy had made him give the words of reprieve with his first +free breath. The bundles on the floor and the old trunk had smote his +heart with a fierce pain that the im<!-- Page 302 -->pulsive warmth of his greeting +and the telling of his rescue could only partly ease.</p> + +<p>"The news only reached me day before—" he was going on to explain +when, candle in hand, Uncle Tucker appeared in the doorway. His +long-tailed night-shirt flapped around his bare, thin old legs, and +every separate gray lock stood by itself and rampant, while his eyes +seemed deeper and more mystic than ever.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's all this ruckus?" he demanded as he peered at them +across the light of his candle. "Have any kind of cyclone blowed you +from New York clean across here to Harpeth Valley, boy?"</p> + +<p>"He has come back with the mercy of our Lord in his hands to save our +home; and you go put on your pants before your pipes get chilled, +Tucker Alloway," answered Aunt Viney in her most militant tone of +voice. "And, Rose Mary, you can take that young man on out of here now +so Amandy can take that shame-faced head of hers out of that feather +<!-- Page 303 -->pillow. It's all on account of that tored place in her night-cap I +told her to mend. You needn't neither of you come back no more, +because we must get to sleep, so as to be ready to unpack before +sun-up and get settled back for the day. And don't you go to bed, +neither one of you, without reading Jeremiah twelfth, first to last +verse, and me and Amandy will do the same." With which Everett found +himself dismissed with a seeming curtness which he could plainly see +was an heroic control of emotion in the feeble old stoic who was +trembling with exhaustion.</p> + +<p>Uncle Tucker, called to account for the lack of warmth and also +propriety in his attire, had hastened back to his own apartment and +Everett found him sitting up in his bed, lighting the old cob with +trembling fingers but with his excitement well under control. He +listened intently to Everett's hurried but succinct account of the +situation and crisis in his own and the Alloway business affairs, as +he puffed away, <!-- Page 304 -->and his old eyes lighted with excitement at the rush +of the tale of high finance.</p> + +<p>And when at last Everett paused for lack of breath, after his dramatic +climax, the old philosopher lay back on his high-piled feather pillows +and blinked out into the candle-light, puffed in silence for a few +minutes, then made answer in his own quizzical way with a radiant +smile from out under his beetling white brows:</p> + +<p>"Well," he said between puffs, "looks like fortune is, after all, a +curious bird without even tail feathers to steer by nor for a man to +ketch by putting salt on. Gid failed both with a knife in the back and +a salt shaker to ketch it, but you were depending on nothing but a +ringdove coo, as far as I can see, when it hopped in your hand. I +reckon you'll get your answer."</p> + +<p>"Are you willing—to have me ask for it, Mr. Alloway?" asked Everett +with a radiant though slightly embarrassed smile.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Uncle Tucker as he knocked the ashes out of his pipe +against the <!-- Page 305 -->table and looked straight into Everett's eyes. "After a +man has plowed a honest, straight-furrowed field in life it's no +more'n fair for Providence to send a-loving, trusting woman to meet +him at the bars. Good night, and don't forget to latch the front door +when you have finally torn yourself away from that moonlight!"</p> + +<p>And the call of the young moon that came with the warm garden-scented +gusts of winds that were sweeping across Harpeth Valley was a riot in +Everett's veins as he made his way through the silent hall toward the +moonlit porch on the top step of which he could see Rose Mary sitting +in the soft light, but a lusty young snore from a dark room on the +left made him remember that there was one greeting he had missed. He +bent over the General's little cot, across which lay a long shaft of +the white light from the hilltops, and was about to press his lips on +the warm, breath-stirred ones of the small boy, but he restrained +<!-- Page 306 -->himself in time from offering to the General in his defenseless sleep +what would have been an insult to him awake, and contented himself +with a most cautious and manly clasp of the chubby little hand.</p> + +<p>"Ketch it, Tobe, ketch it—don't let Aunt Viney's vase be broked," +murmured Stonie as he turned on his side and buried his head still +deeper in the pillow.</p> + +<p>"No, General, Aunt Viney's vase—is—not going to be broken, thank +God," answered Everett under his breath as he turned away and left the +General, who, even in sleep, carried his responsibilities sturdily.</p> + +<p>"Rose Mary," he said a little later as he stood on the bottom step +below her, so that his eyes were just on a level with hers as she sat +and smiled down upon him, "for a woman, you have very little +curiosity. Don't you want to ask me where I've been, why I went and +what I've been doing every minute since I left you? Can it be +indifference that makes you <!-- Page 307 -->thus ignore your feminine prerogative of +the inquisition?"</p> + +<p>"I'm beginning at being glad you are here. Joy's just the white foam +at the top of the cup, and it ought not to be blown away, no +matter—how thirsty one is, ought it? Now tell me what brought you +back—to save me," and Rose Mary held out her hand, with one of her +lovely, entreating gestures, while her eyes were full of tender tears. +And it was with difficulty that Everett held himself to a condition to +tell her what he wanted her to know without any further delay.</p> + +<p>"Well," he answered as he raised his lips from a joy draft at the cup +of her pink palms, "the immediate cause was a telegram that came +Tuesday night. It said '<i>Gid sells out Mr. Tucker and wants your +girl</i>,' and it was signed '<i>Bob</i>.' All these weeks a bunch of hard old +goldbugs had been sitting in conclave, weighing my evidence and +reports and making one inadequate syndicating offer after another.<!-- Page 308 --> +They were teetering here and balancing there, but at eleven o'clock +Wednesday morning the cyclone that blew me down here across Old +Harpeth originated in the directors' rooms of the firm, and I guess +the old genties are gasping yet.</p> + +<p>"I had that telegram in my pocket, tickets for the three-o'clock +Southern express folded beside 'em, and I put enough daylight into my +proposition to dazzle the whole conclave into setting signatures to +papers they'd been moling over for weeks. I don't know what did it, +but they signed up and certified checks in one large hurry.</p> + +<p>"Then I beat it and never drew breath until I made the Farmers' and +Traders' Bank in Boliver this afternoon, covered those notes of Mr. +Alloways, killed that mortgage and hit Providence Road for Sweetbriar. +I met Bob out about a mile from town, and he put me next to the whole +situation and gave <i>me</i> your note. I don't know which I came nearest +<!-- Page 309 -->to, swearing or crying, but the Plunkett-Crabtree news made me raise +a shout instead of either. But if I did what I truly ought, Rose Mary +Alloway, I <i>would</i> shake the life out of you for not writing me about +it all. I may do it yet."</p> + +<p>"Please don't!" answered Rose Mary with a little smile that still held +its hint of the suffering she had gone through. "I thought you were +out of work yourself and couldn't help us, and I didn't want to +trouble you. It would have hurt you so to know if you couldn't help +me, and I didn't—"</p> + +<p>"God, that's it! Fool that I was to go away and risk leaving you +without an understanding!" exclaimed Everett in a bitterly reproachful +tone of voice. "But I was afraid to let you know what I had discovered +until I could get the money to settle that mortgage. I was afraid that +you or Mr. Alloway would unconsciously let him get a hint of the find, +and I knew he could and would foreclose any minute.<!-- Page 310 --> He was suspicious +of me and my prospecting, anyway, and as he was an old, and as you +both thought, tested friend, what way did I have of proving him the +slob I knew him to be? I thought it best to go and get the company +formed, the option money paid to cover the mortgage and all of it out +of his hands before he could have any chance to get into the game at +all. And that was really the best way to manage it—only I hadn't +counted on his swooping down on—you. Again, God, what I risked!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Rose Mary in a voice that barely controlled the cold +horror of the thought that rose between them, "it almost happened. I +thought I ought to—to save them, even if Uncle Tucker wouldn't +let me, and I gave Bob that note—to—to him. It almost +happened—to-morrow. Quick, hold me close—don't let me think about +it—ever!" and Rose Mary shuddered in the crush of Everett's arms.</p> + +<br /> +<p class="figcenter"><a href="images/illustr05.jpg"><img width="50%" border="0" src="./images/illustr05.jpg" +alt="You won't ever leave me any more?" +title="You won't ever leave me any more?" /></a></p> +<p class="figcenter"><span class="smcap"><br />"You won't ever leave me any more?"</span></p> +<br /> + +<p>"<!-- Page 311 -->Out in the world, Rose Mary," said Everett as he lifted his lips +from hers, "it would have happened—the tragedy, and you would have +been the loot; but down here in Harpeth Valley they grow men like your +Uncle Tucker, and they turn, by a strange motive power, wheels that do +not crush, but—lift. I left you in danger because I had schemed it +out in my world's way, fool, fool that I—"</p> + +<p>"Please, please don't say things about yourself like that to me," +pleaded Rose Mary, quickly raising her head and smiling through her +tears at him. "Go on and tell me what you did find out there in the +pasture; don't blow off any more of my foam!"</p> + +<p>"Cobalt, if you care to know," answered Everett with an excited laugh, +"the richest deposit in the States I found out—beats a gold mine all +hollow. I came on it almost accidentally while testing for the allied +metals up the creek. Your money will grow in bunches now, for the +biggest and the best mining synd<!-- Page 312 -->icate in New York has taken it up. +You can just shake down the dollars and do what you please from now +on."</p> + +<p>"You'll have to do that sort of orchard work, I'll be busy in the +house," answered Rose Mary, with a rapturous, breathless shyness, and +she held out her hand to him with the most lovely of all her little +gestures of entreaty. "You promised once to farm for me and—you won't +ever leave—<i>ever</i> leave me any more, will you?"</p> + +<p>"No, never," answered Everett as he took both her hands and at arms' +length pressed them against his breast, "I'm not going to enact over +again the rôle of poor chap obliged to be persuaded into matrimony by +heiress, but I'm going to take my own and buckle down and see that you +people get every cent of that dig-up that's coming to you. With the +reputation this find gives me I'll be able to jolly well grubstake +with commissions from now on, but I'll hit no trail after this with a +<!-- Page 313 -->mule-pack that can't carry double, Mary of the Rose."</p> + +<p>"And that doesn't always lead back in just a little time to—to the +nesties?" she asked with the dove stars deep in the pools of her eyes, +while ever so slightly her hands drew him toward her.</p> + +<p>"Always a blazed, short cut when they need—us," he answered, +yielding, then paused a moment and held himself from her and said, +looking deep into the eyes raised to his, "Truly, rose woman, am I +that beggar-man who came over the Ridge, cold, and in the tatters of +his disillusion? Do you suppose Old Harpeth has given me this warm +garment of ideals that wraps me now for keeps?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, he has, for it's made for you of your—Father's love. And +isn't it—rose-colored?"</p> +<br /> + +<p class="center">THE END</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rose of Old Harpeth, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSE OF OLD HARPETH *** + +***** This file should be named 15195-h.htm or 15195-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/9/15195/ + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Riikka +Talonpoika and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/15195-h/images/illustr01.jpg b/15195-h/images/illustr01.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3d21fd1 --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-h/images/illustr01.jpg diff --git a/15195-h/images/illustr02.jpg b/15195-h/images/illustr02.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..901649d --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-h/images/illustr02.jpg diff --git a/15195-h/images/illustr03.jpg b/15195-h/images/illustr03.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..218eb44 --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-h/images/illustr03.jpg diff --git a/15195-h/images/illustr04.jpg b/15195-h/images/illustr04.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..194fd66 --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-h/images/illustr04.jpg diff --git a/15195-h/images/illustr05.jpg b/15195-h/images/illustr05.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1808a45 --- /dev/null +++ b/15195-h/images/illustr05.jpg diff --git a/15195.txt b/15195.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5d4cb9 --- /dev/null +++ b/15195.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5676 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rose of Old Harpeth, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Rose of Old Harpeth + +Author: Maria Thompson Daviess + +Release Date: February 28, 2005 [EBook #15195] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSE OF OLD HARPETH *** + + + + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Riikka +Talonpoika and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +ROSE OF OLD HARPETH + +[Illustration: Rose Mary] + + + + +ROSE OF + +OLD HARPETH + + +BY MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS + + +Author of "Miss Selina Lue," "The Road to Providence," +"The Melting of Molly," etc. + + +[Illustration] + + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS + +By W.B. KING + + +A.L. BURT COMPANY + +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK + +1911 + +THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY + + + + +I DEDICATE + +ROSE MARY + +TO MY MOTHER + +LEONORA HAMILTON DAVIESS + +AND THE WHOLE BOOK + +TO MY GRANDMOTHER + +MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS + + + + +ROSE OF OLD HARPETH + + + + +CHAPTER I + +ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR + + +"Why, don't you know nothing in the world compliments a loaf of bread +like the asking for a fourth slice," laughed Rose Mary as she reached +up on the stone shelf above her head and took down a large crusty loaf +and a long knife. "Thick or thin?" she asked as she raised her lashes +from her blue eyes for a second of hospitable inquiry. + +"Thin," answered Everett promptly, "but two with the butter sticking +'em together. Please be careful with that weapon! It's as good as a +juggler's show to watch you, but it makes me slightly--solicitous." As +he spoke he seated himself on the corner of the wide stone table as +near to Rose Mary and the long knife as seemed advisable. A ray of +sunlight fell through the door of the milk-house and cut across his +red head to lose itself in Rose Mary's close black braids. + +"Make it four," he further demanded over the table. + +"Indeed and I will," answered Rose Mary delightedly. And as she spoke +she held the loaf against her breast and drew the knife through the +slices in a fascinatingly dangerous manner. At the intentness of his +regard the color rose up under the lashes that veiled her eyes, and +she hugged the loaf closer with her left hand. "Would you like six?" +she asked innocently, as the fourth stroke severed the last piece. + +"Just go on and slice it all up," he answered with a laugh. "I'd +rather watch you than eat." + +"Wait till I butter these for you and then you can eat--and watch +me--me finish working the butter. Won't that do as well? Think what an +encouragement your interest will be to me! Really, nothing in the +world paces a woman's work like a man looking on, and if he doesn't +stop her she'll drop under the line. Now, you have your bread and +butter and you can sit over there by the door and help me turn off +this ten pounds in no time." + +As she had been speaking, Rose Mary had spread two of the slices with +the yellow butter from a huge bowl in front of her, clapped on the +tops of the sandwiches and then, with a smile, handed them in a blue +plate to the man who lounged across the corner of her table. She made +a very gracious and lovely picture, did Rose Mary, in her light-blue +homespun gown against the cool gray depths of the milk-house, which +was fern-lined along the cracks of the old stones and mysterious with +the trickling gurgle of the spring that flowed into the long stone +troughs, around the milk crocks and out under the stone door-sill. +From his post by the door Everett watched her as she drove her paddle +deep into the hard golden mound in the blue bowl in front of her, and, +with a quick turn of her strong, slender wrist slapped and patted +chunk after chunk of the butter into a more compressed form. The +sleeves of her dress were rolled almost to her shoulders and under the +white, moist flesh of her arms the fine muscles showed plainly. The +strong curves of her back and shoulders bent and sprung under the +graceful sweep of her arms and her round breasts rose and fell with +quickened breath from her energetic movements. + +"Now, you're making me work _too_ hard," she laughed; and she panted +as she rested her hand for a second against the edge of the bowl and +looked up at Everett from under a black tendril curl that had fallen +down across her forehead. + +"Miss Rose Mary Alloway, you are one large, husky--witch," calmly +remarked the hungry man as he finished disposing of the last half of +one of the thin bread and butters. "Here I sit enchanted by--by a +butter-paddle, when you and I both know that not two miles across the +meadows there runs a train that ought to put me into New York in a +little over forty-eight hours. Won't you, won't you let me go--back to +my frantic and imploring employers?" + +"Why no, I can't," answered Rose Mary as she pressed a yellow cake of +butter on to a blue plate and deftly curled it up with her paddle into +a huge yellow sunflower. "Uncle Tucker captured you roaming loose out +in his fields and he trusts you to me while he is at work and I must +keep you safe. He's fond of you and so are the Aunties and Stonewall +Jackson and Shoofly and Sniffer and--" + +"And anybody else?" demanded Everett, preparing to dispose of the last +bite. + +"Oh, everybody most along Providence Road," answered Rose Mary +enthusiastically, though not raising her eyes from the manipulation of +the third butter flower. "Can't you go out and dig up some more rocks +and things? I feel sure you haven't got a sample of all of them. And +there may be gold and silver and precious jewels just one inch deeper +than you have dug. Are you certain you can't squeeze up some oil +somewhere in the meadow? You told a whole lot of reasons to Uncle +Tucker why you knew you would find some, and now you'll have to stay +to prove yourself." + +"No," answered Mark Everett quietly, and, as he spoke, he raised his +eyes and looked at Rose Mary keenly; "no, there is no oil that I can +discover, though the formation, as I explained to your uncle, is just +as I expected to find it. I've spent three weeks going over every inch +of the Valley and I can't find a trace of grease. I'm sorry." + +"Well, I don't know that I care, except for your sake," answered Rose +Mary unconcernedly, with her eyes still on her task. "We don't any of +us like the smell of coal-oil, and it gives Aunt Viney asthma. It +would be awfully disagreeable to have wells of it right here on the +place. They'd be so ugly and smelly." + +"But oil-wells mean--mean a great deal of wealth," ventured Everett. + +"I know, but just think of the money Uncle Tucker gets for this butter +I make from the cows that graze on the meadows. Wouldn't it be awful +if they should happen to drink some of the coal-oil and make the +butter we send down to the city taste wrong and spoil the Sweetbriar +reputation? I like money though, most awfully, and I want some right +now. I want to--" + +"Mary of the Rose, stop right there!" said Everett as he came over +from his post by the door and again seated himself on the corner of +the table. "I _will_ not listen to you give vent to the national +craving. I _will_ hold on to the illusion of having found one +unmercenary human being, even if she had to be buried in the depths of +Harpeth Valley to keep her so." There was banter in Everett's voice +and a smile on his lips, but a bitterness lay in the depths of his +keen dark eyes and an ugly trace of cynicism filtered through the +tones of his voice. + +"And wasn't it funny for me to count the little well-chickens before +they were even hatched?" laughed Rose Mary. "That's the way of it, get +together even a little flock of dollars in prospect and they go right +to work hatching out a brood of wants and needs; but it's not wrong of +me to want those false teeth so bad, because it's such a trial to have +your mouth all sink in and not be able to talk plain and--" + +"Help, woman! What are you talking about? I never saw such teeth as +you have in all my life. One flash of them would put a beauty show out +of business and--" + +"Oh, no, not for myself!" Rose Mary hastened to exclaim, and she +turned the whole artillery of the pearl treasures upon him in mirth at +his mistake. "It's Aunt Viney I want them for. She only has five left. +She says she didn't mind so long as she had any two that hit, but the +hitters to all five are gone now and she is so distressed. I'm saving +up to take her down to the city to get a brand new set. I have eleven +dollars now and two little bull calves to sell, though it breaks my +heart to let them go, even if they are of the wrong persuasion. I +always love them better than I do the little heifers, because I have +to give them up. I don't like to have things I love go away. You see +you mustn't think of going to New York until the spring is all over +and summer comes for good," she continued, with the most delightful +ingenuousness, as she shaped the last of the ten flowers and glanced +from her task at him with the most solicitous concern. "Of course, you +feel as if the smash your lung got in that awful rock slide has healed +all up, and I know it has, but you'll have to do as the doctor tells +you about not running any risks with New York spring gales, won't +you?" + +"Oh, yes, I suppose I will," answered Everett, with a trace of +restlessness in his voice. "I'm just as sound as a dollar now and I'm +wild to go with that gang the firm is sending up into British Columbia +to thrash out that copper question. I know they counted on me for the +final tests. Some other fellow will find it and get the fortune and +the credit, while I--I--" + +He stared moodily out the door of the milk-house and down Providence +Road that wound its calm, even way from across the ridge down through +the green valley. Rose Mary's milk-house was nestled between the +breasts of a low hill, upon which was perched the wide-winged, old +country house which had brooded the fortunes of the Alloways since the +wilderness days. The spring which gushed from the back wall of the +milk-house poured itself into a stone trough on the side of the Road, +which had been placed there generations agone for the refreshment of +beast, while man had been entertained within the hospitable stone +walls. And at the foot of the Briars, as the Alloway home, hill, +spring and meadows had been called from time immemorial, clustered the +little village of Sweetbriar. + +The store, which also sheltered the post-office, was almost opposite +the spring-house door across the wide Road, the blacksmith shop +farther down and the farm-houses stretched fraternally along either +side in both directions. Far up the Road, as it wound its way around +Providence Nob, could be seen the chimneys and the roofs of +Providence, while Springfield and Boliver also lay like smoke-wreathed +visions in the distance. Something of the peace and plenty of it all +had begun to smooth the irritated wrinkle from between Mark Everett's +brows, when Rose Mary's hand rested for a second over his on the table +and her rich voice, with its softest brooding note, came from across +her bowl. + +"Ah, I know it's hard for you, Mr. Mark," she said, "and I wish--I +wish--The lilacs will be in bloom next week, won't that help some?" +And the wooing tone in her voice was exactly what she used in coaxing +young Stonewall Jackson to bed or Uncle Tucker to tie up his throat in +a flannel muffler. + +"It's not lilacs I'm needing with a rose in bloom right--" But +Everett's gallant response to the coaxing was cut short by a sally +from an unexpected quarter. + +Down Providence Road at full tilt came Stonewall Jackson, with the +Swarm in a cloud of dust at his heels. He jumped across the spring +branch and darted in under the milk-house eaves, while the Swarm drew +up on the other bank in evident impatience. Swung bundle-wise under +his arm he held a small, tow-headed bunch, and as he landed on the +stone door-sill he hastily deposited it on the floor at Rose Mary's +feet. + +"Say, Rose Mamie," he panted, "you just keep Shoofly for us a little +while, won't you? Mis' Poteet have done left her with Tobe to take +care of and he put her on a stump while he chased a polecat that he +fell on while it was going under a fence, and now Uncle Tuck is +a-burying of him up in the woods lot. Jest joggle her with your foot +this way if she goes to cry." And in demonstration of his directions +the General put one bare foot in the middle of the mite's back and +administered a short series of rotary motions, which immediately +brought a response of ecstatic gurgles. "We'll come back for her as +soon as we dig him up," he added, as he prepared for another flying +leap across the spring stream. + +"But, Stonie, wait and tell me what you mean!" exclaimed Rose Mary, +while Everett regarded Stonewall Jackson and his cohorts with +delighted amusement. + +"I told you once, Rose Mamie, that Tobe fell on a polecat under a +fence he was a-chasing, and he smells so awful Uncle Tuck have burned +his britches and shirt on the end of a stick and have got him buried +in dirt up to jest his nose. Burying in dirt is the onliest thing +that'll take off the smell. We comed to ask you to watch Shoofly while +he's buried, cause Mis' Poteet will be mad at him when she comes home +if Shoofly smells. We're all a-going to stay right by him until he's +dug up, 'cause we all sicked him on that polecat and we ought in +honor!" + +Stonie looked at the Swarm for confirmation of this worthy sentiment, +and it arose in a murmur. The Swarm was a choice congregation of small +fry that trailed perpetually at the heels of Stonewall Jackson, and at +the moment was in a state of seething excitement. Jennie Rucker's +little freckled face was pale under its usual sunburn, as a result of +being too near the disastrous encounter, and her little nose, turned +up by nature in the outset, looked as if it were in danger of never +again assuming its normal tilt. She held small Pete by one chubby +hand, and with a wry face he was licking out an absurd little red +tongue at least twice each moment, as if uncertain as to whether his +olfactory or gustatory nerves had been offended. Billy was standing +with the nonchalant unconcern of one strong of stomach, and the four +other little Poteets, ranging in size from Shoofly, on the floor, to +Tobe, the buried, were shuffling their bare feet in the dust with +evident impatience to be off to gloat over the prostrated but +important member of the family. They rolled their wide eyes at almost +impossible angles, and small Peggy sniffed audibly into a corner of +her patched gingham apron. + +"Yes, Stonie," answered Rose Mary judicially, while Everett's +shoulders shook with mirth that he felt it best not to give way to in +the face of the sympathetic Swarm, "you all must stay with Tobe, if he +has to be buried, and go right back as fast as you can. Troubles must +make us stay close by our friends." + +"If I get much closer to him I'll throw up," sniffed Jennie, and her +protest was echoed by a groan from Peggy into the apron, while the +area which showed above its folds turned white at the prospect of +being obliged to draw near to this brother in affliction. + +"Yes, but you sicked Tobe, with the rest of us, and in this _girls_ +don't count. You've got to go back, smell or no smell, sick or no +sick," announced the General firmly, in the decisive tones of one +accustomed to be obeyed. + +"Yes, Stonie," came in a meek and muffled tone from the apron, "we'll +go back with you." + +"Can't we just set on the fence of the lot--it ain't so far?" pleaded +Jennie in almost a wail. "I'm afraid Pete will cry from the smell if +we go any closter. He's most doing it now." + +"Yes, General, let the girls sit on the fence," pleaded Everett, with +his eyes dancing, but a bit of mockery in his voice, "after all they +are--girls, you know." + +"Oh, well, yes, they can," answered Stonewall Jackson in a +magnanimously disgusted tone of voice. "They always get girls when +they don't want to do anything. Come on, Tobe'll be crying if we don't +hurry. Billy, you help Jennie drag Pete, so he can go fast!" + +But during the conference the disgusted toddler had been pondering the +situation, and at this mention of his being dragged back to the scene +of offense he had made a quick sally across the plank that spanned the +spring branch and with masculine intuition as to the safe place in +time of danger, he had plunged head foremost into Rose Mary's skirts, +so that only his small fat back showed to the enemy. + +"Please go on, Stonie, and leave him with me--he's just a baby," +pleaded Rose Mary. + +"All right," answered the General, "Tobe don't care about him; he'd +just make us go slow," and thus dropping young Peter into the category +of impedimenta, the General departed at top speed, surrounded, as he +came, by the loyal Swarm. On the day of his birth Aunt Viney's choice +for a name for the General had balanced for some hours between that +of the redoubtable Abner the Valiant, of old Testament fame, and her +favorite modern hero, Jackson of the stonewall nature. And in her +final choice she had seemed so to impress the infant that he had +developed more than a little of the nature of his patron commander. At +all times Stonie commanded the Swarm, and also at all times was +strictly obeyed. + +Then seeing herself thus deserted by her companions, Shoofly began a +low, musical hum of a wail and walled large eyes up at Everett, at +whose feet she was seated. In instant sympathetic response he applied +the toe of his shoe to the small of the whimpering tot's back and +proceeded awkwardly, though with the best intentions in the world, to +follow the General's directions as to pacification. Rose Mary laughed +as she took a tin-cup from a nail in the wall, and filling it with +milk from one of the crocks, she knelt at the side of the deserted one +and held the brim to the red lips of Shoofly's generous mouth. With a +series of gurgles and laps the consoling draft was quickly consumed +and the whimperer left by this double ministration in a state of +placid contentment. + +Peter the wise had stood viewing these attentions to the other baby +with stolid imperturbability, but as Rose Mary turned away to her +table he licked out his pink tongue and bobbed his head toward the +milk crocks, while his solemn eyes conveyed his desire without words. +Peter's vocabulary was both new and limited, and he was at all times +extremely careful against any wastefulness of it. His lips quivered as +if in uncertainty as to whether he was to be left out of this lactic +deal, and his eyes grew reproachful. + +"Why, man alive, did you think I had forgotten you!" exclaimed Rose +Mary as she turned with the cup to one of the crocks standing in the +water, at the sight of which motion relief dawned in the serious eyes +of the young petitioner. Filling the cup swiftly, she lifted the +youngster in her arms and came over to sit in the door beside Shoofly +at Everett's feet. With dignified deliberation Peter began to consume +his draft in slow gulps, and after each one he lifted his eyes to Rose +Mary's face as if rendering courteous appreciation for the consumed +portion. His chubby fingers were clasped around her wrist as she held +the cup for him, and her other hand cuddled one of his bare, +briar-scratched knees. The picture had its instituted effect on +Everett, and he bent toward the little group in the doorway and rested +his elbows on his knees as his world-restless eyes softened and the +lines around his mouth melted into a smile. + +"Rose Mary," he said with an almost abashed note in his deep voice, +"we'll dispense with the lilacs--they're not needed as retainers, and +I don't deserve them." + +"But being good will bring you the lilacs of life; whether you think +you deserve them or not, I'm afraid it's inevitable," answered Rose +Mary, as she smiled up at him with instant appreciation of his change +of mood. + +"Well, I'll try it this once and see what happens," answered Everett +with a laugh. "Indeed, I'm ashamed of having shown you any impatience +at all--to think of impatience in this heaven country of hospitality +amounts to positive sacrilege. Shrive me--and then bring on your +lilacs!" + +"Then you'll stay with us until it's safe for you to go North and I +won't have to worry about you any more?" exclaimed Rose Mary, +delighted, as she beamed up over Pete's tow-head that had dropped with +repletion on her breast. Shoofly, who, true to her appellation, had +been making funny little dabs of delight at a fly or two which had +buzzed in her direction, had crawled nearer and burrowed her head +under Rose Mary's knee, rolled over on her little stomach and gone +instantaneously and exhaustedly to sleep. Rose Mary adjusted a +smothering fold of her dress and continued in her rejoicing over +Everett's surrender to circumstance inevitable. + +"And do you think you can dig some more in the fields? Don't happiness +and hoe mean the same thing to most men?" she questioned with a laugh. + +"Yes, hoe to the death and the devil take the last man at the end of +the row, fortune to the first!" answered Everett with a return of his +cynical look and tone. + +"Oh, but in the world some men just go along and chop down ugly weeds, +stir up the good, smelly earth for things to grow in, reach over to +help the man in the next furrow if he needs it, and all come home at +sundown together--and the women have the supper ready. That's the kind +of hoeing I want you to do--please dig me up those teeth for Aunt +Viney and I'll have johnny-cake and fried chicken waiting for you +every night. Please, sir, promise!" And Rose Mary's voice sounded its +coaxing, comforting note, while her deep eyes brooded over him. + +"I promise," answered Everett with a laugh. "I tell you what I think I +will do. As I understand it, the Briars has about three hundred acres, +all told. I have been all over it for the oil and there is none in any +paying quantities. But in this kind of formation any number of other +things may crop up or out. I am going to go over every acre of it +carefully and find exactly what can be expected of it. There may be +nothing of any value in a mineral way, but as I go I am going to make +soil tests, and then put it all down on a complete map and figure out +just what your Uncle Tucker ought to plant in each place for years to +come. It will kill a lot of time, and then it might be doing something +for you dear people, who have taken a miserable, cross invalid of a +stranger man in out of the wet and made a well chap of him again. + +"Do you know what you have done for me? That day when I had tramped +over from Boliver just to get away from the Citizens' Hotel and myself +and perched upon Mr. Alloway's north lot fence like a miserable +funeral crow, I had reached my limit, and my spirit had turned its +face to the wall. I had been down South six weeks and couldn't see +that I felt one bit stronger. I had just heard of this copper +expedition from one of the chaps, who had written me a heedlessly +exultant letter about it, and I was down and out and no strength left +to fight. I was too weak to take it like a man, and couldn't make up +my mind to cry like a woman, though I wanted to. Just as it was at its +worst your Uncle Tucker appeared on the other side of the fence, and +when he looked at me with those great, heaven-big eyes of his I fell +over into his arms with a funny, help-has-come dying gasp. As you +know, when I woke I was anchored in the middle of that puffy old +four-poster in my room under the blessed roof of the Briars and you +were pouring something glorious and hot down my throat, while the +wonderful old angel-man in the big gray hat, who had got me out in the +field, was flapping his wings around on the other side of the pillows. +I went to sleep under your very hands--and I haven't waked up +yet--except in ugly, impatient ways. I never want to." + +"I wonder what you would be like--awake?" said Rose Mary softly, as +she gently lowered the head of young Peter down into the hollow of her +arm, where, in close proximity to Shoofly's, he nodded off into the +depths. "I think I'm afraid to try waking you. I'm always so happy +when Aunt Viney has snuffed away her asthma with jimson weed and got +down on her pillow, and I have rubbed all her joints; when the General +has said his prayers without stopping to argue in the middle, and +Uncle Tucker has finished his chapter and pipe in bed without setting +us all on fire, that I regard people asleep as in a most blessed +condition. Won't you please try and stay happy, tucked away fast here +at the Briars, without wanting to wake up and go all over New York, +when I won't know whether you are getting cold or hungry or wet or a +pain in your lungs?" + +"Again I promise! Just wake me enough to go out and hoe for you is all +I ask--your row and your kind of hoeing." + +"Maybe hoeing in my row will make you finish your own in fine style," +laughed Rose Mary. "And I think it's wonderful of you to study up our +land so Uncle Tucker can do better with it. We never seem to be able +to make any more than just the mortgage interest, and what we'll wear +when the trunks in the garret are empty I don't see. We'll have to +grow feathers. Things like false teeth just seem to be impossible." + +"Do you mean to tell me that the Briars is seriously encumbered?" +demanded Everett, with a quick frown showing between his brows and a +business-keen look coming into his eyes. + +"The mortgage on the Briars covers it as completely as the vines on +the wall," answered Rose Mary quickly, with a humorous quirk at her +mouth that relieved the note of pain in her voice. "I know we can +never pay it, but if something could be done to keep it for the old +folks _always_, I think Stonie and I could stand it. They were born +here and their roots strike deep and twine with the roots of every +tree and bush at the Briars. Their graves are over there behind the +stone wall, and all their joys and sorrows have come to them along +Providence Road. I am not unhappy over it, because I know that their +Master isn't going to let anything happen to take them away. Every +night before I go to sleep I just leave them to Him until I can wake +up in the morning to begin to keep care of them for Him again. It was +all about--" + +"Wait a minute, let me ask you some questions before you tell me any +more," said Everett, quickly covering the sympathy that showed in his +eyes with his business tone of voice. "Is it Gideon Newsome who holds +this mortgage?" + +"Why, yes, how did you know?" asked Rose Mary with a mild surprise in +her eyes as she raised them to his, bent intently on her. "Uncle +Tucker had to get the money from him six years ago. It--it was a debt +of honor--he--we had to pay." A rich crimson spread itself over Rose +Mary's brow and cheeks and flooded down her white neck under the folds +of her blue dress across her breast. Tears rose to her eyes, but she +lifted her head proudly and looked him straight in the face. "There is +a reason why I would give my life--why I do and must give my life to +protecting them from the consequences of the disaster. No sacrifice is +too great for me to make to save their home for them." + +"Do you mind telling me how much the mortgage is for?" asked Everett, +still in his cool, thoughtful voice. + +"For ten thousand dollars," answered Rose Mary. "The land is worth +really less than fifteen. Nobody but such a--such a friend as Mr. +Newsome would have loaned Uncle Tucker so much. He--he has been very +kind to us. I--I am very grateful to him and I--" Rose Mary faltered +and dropped her eyes. A tear trembled on the edge of her black lashes +and then splashed on to the chubby cheek of Peter the reposer. + +"I see," said Everett coolly, and a flint tone made his usually rich +voice harsh and tight. For a few minutes he sat quietly looking Rose +Mary over with an inscrutable look in his eyes that finally faded +again into the utter world weariness. "I see--and so the bargain and +sale goes on even on Providence Road under Old Harpeth. But the old +people will never have to give up the Briars while you are here to pay +the price of their protection, Rose Mary. Never!" + +"I don't believe they will--my faith in Him makes me sure," answered +Rose Mary with lovely unconsciousness as she raised large, comforted +eyes to Everett's. "I don't know how I'm going to manage, but somehow +my cup of faith seems to get filled each day with the wine of courage +and the result is mighty apt to be a--song." And Rose Mary's face +blushed out again into a flowering of smiles. + +"A sort of cup of heavenly nectar," answered Everett with an answering +smile, but the keen look still in his eyes. "See here, I want you to +promise me something--don't ever, under any circumstances, tell +anybody that I know about this mortgage. Will you?" + +"Of course, I won't if you tell me not to," answered Rose Mary +immediately. "I don't like to think or talk about it. I only told you +because you wanted to help us. Help offers are the silver linings to +trouble clouds, and you brought this one down on yourself, didn't you? +Of course, it's selfish and wrong to tell people about your anxieties, +but there is just no other way to get so close to a friend. Don't you +think perhaps sometimes the Lord doesn't bother to 'temper the winds,' +but just leads you up on the sheltered side of somebody who is +stronger than you are and leaves you there until your storm is over?" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE FOLKS-GARDEN + + +"Well," said Uncle Tucker meditatively, "I reckon a festibul on a +birthday can be taken as a kind of compliment to the Lord and no +special glorification to yourself. He instuted your first one Himself, +and I see no harm in jest a-marking of the years He sends you. What +are Sister Viney's special reasons against the junket?" + +"Oh, I don't know what makes Aunt Viney feel this way!" exclaimed Rose +Mary with distress in her blue eyes that she raised to Uncle Tucker's, +that were bent benignly upon her as she stood in the barn door beside +him. "She says that as the Lord has granted her her fourscore years by +reason of great strength, she oughtn't to remind Him that He has +forgotten her by having an eighty-second birthday. Everybody in +Sweetbriar has been looking forward to it for a week, and it was going +to be such a lovely party. What shall we do? She says she just won't +have it, and Aunt Amandy is crying when Aunt Viney don't see it. She's +made up her mind, and I don't know what more to say to her." + +"Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker, with a quizzical smile quirking at the +corners of his mouth, "mighty often the ingredient of permanency is +left out in the making up of a woman's mind, one way or another. Can't +you kinder pervail with your Aunt Viney some? I've got a real hanker +after this little birthday to-do. Jest back her around to another view +of the question with a slack plow-line. Looks like it's too bad to--" + +"Rose Mary, oh, Rose Mary, where are ye, child?" came a call in a +high, sweet old quaver of a voice from down the garden path, and Miss +Amanda hove in sight, hurrying along on eager but tottering little +feet. Her short, skimpy, gray skirts fluttered in the spring breezes +and her bright, old eyes peered out from the gray shawl she held over +her head with tremulous excitement. She was both laughing and panting +as Rose Mary threw her arm around her and drew her into the door of +the barn. "Sister Viney has consented in her mind about the party, all +along of a verse I was just now a-reading to her in our morning +lesson. Saint Luke says: '_It is meet that we should make merry and be +glad, for this thy brother was dead and is alive again_,' and at the +same minute the recollection of how sick Mr. Mark has been hit us +both. 'There now,' she says, 'you folks can jest go on with that party +to-day for the benefit of our young brother Everett's coming to so +good after all his sufferings. This time I will consider it as +instituted of the Lord, but don't nobody say birthday next April, if +I'm here, on no account whatever.' I take it as a special leading to +me to have read that verse this morning to Sister Viney, and won't +you please go over and tell Sally Rucker to go on with the cake, Rose +Mary? Sister Viney called Jennie over by sun-up, when she took this +notion, and told her to tell her mother not to make it, even if she +had already broke all the sixteen eggs." + +"Yes, Aunt Amandy, I'll run over and tell Mrs. Rucker, and then we +will begin right away to get things ready. I am so glad Aunt Viney +is--" + +"Rose Mamie, Rose Mamie," came another loud hail from up the path +toward the house and down came the General at top speed, with a plumy +setter frisking in his wake. "Aunt Viney says for you to come there to +her this minute. They is a-going to be the party and it's right by the +Bible to have it, some for Mr. Mark, too. Tobe Poteet said 'shoo' when +I told him he couldn't come, 'cause they wasn't a-going to be no party +on account of worrying the Lord about forgetting Aunt Viney, and I +was jest a-going to knock him into stuffings, 'cause they can't +nobody say 'shoo' at the Bible or Aunt Viney neither, to me, when +there Aunt Viney called for us to go tell everybody that the party was +a-going off and be sure and come. I believe God let her call me before +I hit Tobe, 'cause I ain't never hit him yet, and maybe now I never +will have to." The General paused, and an expression of devout +thankfulness came into his small face at thus being saved the +necessity of administering chastisement to his henchman, Tobe the +adventurous. + +"I believe he did, Stonie, and how thankful I am," exclaimed little +Miss Amanda, with real relief at this deliverance of young Tobe, who +was her especial, both self-elected and chosen, knight from the +General's cohorts. + +"Yes'm," answered Stonie. "Come on now, Rose Mamie! Put your hand on +me, Aunt Amandy, and I'll go slow with you," and presenting his sturdy +little shoulder to Miss Amanda on one side and drawing Rose Mary +along with him on the other, Stonewall Jackson hurried them both away +to the house. + +"Well," remarked Uncle Tucker to himself as he took up a measure of +grain from a bin in the corner of the feed-room and scattered some in +front of a row of half-barrel nests upon which brooded a dozen +complacent setting hens, "well, if the Lord has to pester with the +affairs of Sweetbriar to the extent Stonie and the sisters, Rose Mary, +too, are a-giving Him the credit of doing looks like we might be +a-getting more'n our share of His attentions. I reckon by the time He +gets all the women and children doings settled up for the day He finds +some of the men have slipped the bridle and gone. That would account +for some of these here wild covortings around in the world we hear +about by the newspapers. But He'll git 'em some day sure as--" + +"Am I interrupting any confidence between you and the Mrs. Biddies, +Mr. Alloway?" asked Everett, as he stood in the barn door with a pan +in one hand and a bucket in the other. + +"No, oh, no," answered Uncle Tucker with a laugh. "I was jest +remarking how the Almighty had the lasso of His love around the neck +of all the wild young asses a-galloping over the world and would throw +'em in His own time. Well, I hear you're a-going to get a sochul +baptism into Sweetbriar along about a hour before sundown. Better part +your hair in the middle and get some taller for your shoes." + +"I will, most assuredly, if that's what's expected of me for the +ceremony," answered Everett with a delightful laugh. "Here's a pan of +delicacies for the hens, and this bucket is for you to bring some +shelled corn for Miss Rose Mary to parch for them, when you come to +the house." + +"I'm not a-counting on going any time soon," answered Uncle Tucker +with a shrewd glance up at Everett as he came and stood in the +doorway beside the tall young man, who lounged against one of the door +posts. Uncle Tucker was himself tall, but slightly bent, lean and +brown, with great, gray, mystic eyes that peered out from under bushy +white brows. Long gray locks curled around his ears and a rampant +forelock stood up defiantly upon his wide, high brow. At all times his +firm old mouth was on the eve of breaking into a quizzical smile, and +he bestowed one upon Everett as he remarked further: + +"The barn is man's instituted refuge in the time of mop and broom +cyclones in the house. I reckon you can't get on to your rock-picking +in the fields now, but you really hadn't oughter dig up an oil-well +to-day anyway; it might kinder overshadow the excitement of the +party." + +"Mr. Alloway, has any other survey of this river bend been made +before?" asked Everett as he looked keenly at Uncle Tucker, while he +lit his cigar from the cob pipe the old gentleman accommodatingly +handed him. + +"Well, yes, there was a young fellow came poking around here not so +long ago with a little hammer pecking at the rocks. I didn't pay much +attention to him, though. He never stayed but one day, and I was +a-cutting clover hay, and too busy to notice him much 'cept to ask him +in to dinner. He couldn't seem to manage his chicken dumplings for +feeding his eyes with Rose Mary, and he didn't have time to give up +much information about sech little things as oil-wells and phosphate +beds. You know, they has to be a good touch of frost over a man's ears +before he can tend to business, with good-looking dimity passing +around him." And Uncle Tucker laughed as he resumed the puffing of his +pipe. + +"And after the frost they are not at all immune--to such dimity," +answered Everett with an echo of Uncle Tucker's laugh, as a slight +color rose up under the tan of his thin face. As he spoke he ruffled +his own dark red mop of hair, which was slightly sprinkled with gray, +over his temples. Everett was tall, broad and muscular, but thin +almost to gauntness, and his face habitually wore the expression of +deep weariness. His eyes were red-brown and disillusioned, except when +they joined with his well-cut mouth in a smile that brought an almost +boyish beauty back over his whole expression. There was decided youth +in the glance he bestowed upon Uncle Tucker, whose attention was +riveted on the manoeuvers of the General and Tobe, who were busy with +a pair of old kitchen knives in an attack upon the grass growing +between the cracks of the front walk. + +"So you have had no report as to what that survey was?" Everett asked +Uncle Tucker, again bringing him back to the subject in hand. "Do you +know who sent the man you speak of to prospect on your land?" + +"Never thought to ask him," answered Uncle Tucker, still with the +utmost unconcern. "Maybe Rose Mary knows. Women generally carry a +reticule around with 'em jest to poke facts into that they gather +together from nothing put pure wantin'-to-know. Ask her." + +And as he spoke Uncle Tucker began to busy himself getting out the +grease cans, with the evident intention of putting in a morning +lubricating the farm implements in general. + +"Your friend, Mr. Gideon Newsome, said something about a rumor of +paying phosphate here in the Harpeth bend when I met him over in +Boliver before I came to Sweetbriar. In fact, I had tried to come to +look over the fields just to kill time when I nearly killed myself and +fell down upon you. Do you suppose he could have sent the prospector?" +Again Everett brought Uncle Tucker back to the uninteresting topic of +what might lay under the fields, the top of which he was so interested +in cultivating. + +"Oh, I reckon not," answered Uncle Tucker, puffing away as he laid +out his monkey-wrenches. "The Honorable Gid is up to his neck in this +here no-dram wave what is a-sweeping around over the state and pretty +nigh rising up as high as the necks of even private liquor bottles. +Gid's not to say a teetotaler, but he had to climb into the bandwagon +skiff or sink outen sight. He's got to tie down his seat in the state +house with a white ribbon, and he's got no mind for fooling with +phosphate dirt. He's a mighty fine man, and all of Sweetbriar thinks a +heap of him. Do you want to help me lift this wagon wheel on to this +jack, so I can sorter grease her up against the next time I use her?" + +"Say, Uncle Tuck, Aunt Viney says for you to come right there now and +bring Mr. Mark and a spade and a long string with you," came just at +the critical moment of balancing the notched plank under the revolving +wagon wheel, in Stonewall Jackson's young voice, which held in it +quite a trace of Miss Lavinia's decisive tone of command. Stonie +stood in the barn door, poised for instant return along the path of +duty to the front walk, only waiting to be sure his summons would be +obeyed. Stonie was sturdy, freckled, and in possession of Uncle +Tucker's big gray eyes, Rose Mary's curled mouth and more than a tinge +of Aunt Viney's austerity of manner. + +"Better come on," he further admonished. "Rose Mary can't hold that +vine up much longer, and if she lets go they'll all fall down." And as +he raced up the path Everett followed almost as rapidly, urged on by +the vision of Rose Mary drooping under some sort of unsupportable +burden. Uncle Tucker brought up the rear with the spade and a long +piece of twine. + +"Oh, I thought you would never come," laughed Rose Mary from half way +up the step-ladder as she lowered herself and a great bunch of budding +honeysuckle down into Everett's upstretched arms. "I held it up as +long as I could, but I almost let it tear the whole vine down." + +[Illustration: "That's what comes from letting that shoot run +catawumpas"] + +"That's what comes from letting that shoot run catawumpas three years +ago. I told you about it at the time, Tucker," said Miss Lavinia with +a stern glance at Uncle Tucker, who stood with spade and twine at the +corner of the porch. + +Miss Lavinia sat in a large, calico-cushioned rocking-chair at the end +of the porch, and had been issuing orders to Rose Mary and little Miss +Amanda about the readjustment of the fragrant vine that trailed across +the end of the porch over her window and on out to a trellis in the +side yard. Her high mob cap sat on her head in an angle of aggression +always, and her keen black eyes enforced all commands issuing from her +stern old mouth. + +"Now, Amandy, train that shoot straight while you're about it," she +continued. "It comes plumb from the roots, and I don't want to have to +look at a wild-growing vine right here under my window for all my +eighty-second and maybe last year." + +"I've gone and misplaced my glasses and I can't hardly see," answered +Miss Amanda in her sweet little quaver that sounded like a silver bell +with a crack in it. "Lend me your'n, Tucker!" + +"You are a-going to misplace your eyes some day, Sister Amandy. Then +you'll be a-wanting mine, and I'll have to cut 'em out and give 'em to +you, I suppose," said Uncle Tucker as he handed over his huge, +steel-rimmed glasses. + +"The Bible says 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,' Tucker, +but not in a borrowing sense of the word, as I remember," remarked +Miss Lavinia in a meditative tone of voice. "And that would be the +thing about my getting the new teeth. Don't either of you need 'em, +and it would be selfish of me to spend on something they couldn't +anybody borrow from me. Amandy, dig a little deeper around that +shoot, I don't want no puny vine under my window!" + +"I'm a-trying, Sister Viney," answered Miss Amanda propitiatingly. +"I've been a-bending over so long my knees are in a kinder tremble." + +"Let me finish digging and put in the new dirt for you, Aunt Amandy," +begged Rose Mary, who had given the armful of vine to Everett to hold +while Uncle Tucker tied the strings in the exact angle indicated by +Miss Lavinia. "I can do it in no time." + +"No, child, I reckon I'd better do it myself," answered Miss Amanda as +she sat back on the grass for a moment's rest. "I have dug around and +trained this vine the last week in April for almost sixty years now. +Mr. Lovell brought it by to Ma one spring as he hauled his summer +groceries over the Ridge to Warren County. By such care it's never +died down yet, and I have made it my custom to give sprouts away to +all that would take 'em. I'm not a-doubting that there is some of +this vine a-budding out all over Harpeth Valley from Providence Nob to +the River bend." + +"No, Amandy," interrupted Aunt Viney, "it wasn't sixty years ago, it +was jest fifty-seven. Mr. Lovell brought the switch of it with him the +first year Mr. Roberts rode this circuit, and he was a-holding that +big revival over to Providence Chapel. Mr. Lovell came into the fold +with that very first night's preaching, and we all were rejoiced. +Don't you remember he brought you that Maiden Blush rose-bush over +there at the same time he brought this vine to Ma? And one bloom came +out on the rose the next year jest in time to put it in his coffin +before we buried him when he was taken down with the fever on the Road +and died here with us. Fifty-six years ago come June, and him so young +to die while so full of the spirit of the Lord!" + +Feebly Miss Amanda rose to her knees and went on with the digging +around the roots of the vine, but Rose Mary knelt beside her and laid +her strong, young arm around the bent and shaking little shoulders. +Uncle Tucker rested on his spade and looked away across the garden +wall, where the little yard of graves was hid in the shadow of tall +pine trees, and his big eyes grew very tender. Miss Lavinia fingered a +shoot of the vine that had fallen across her thin old knees with a +softened expression in her prophet-woman face, while something new and +sweet stirred in Everett's breast and woke in his tired eyes, as +across half a century was wafted the perfume of a shattered romance. + +And then by the time the vine had been trained Miss Lavinia had +thought of a number of other spring jobs that must be attended to +along the front walk and around all the clumps of budding shrubs, so +with one desperate glance toward the barn, his deserted haven, Uncle +Tucker fell to with his spade, while Everett obtained a fork from the +tool house and put himself under command. Rose Mary was sharply +recalled and sent into the house to complete the arrangements for the +festivities, when she had followed the forker down by the lilac hedge, +rake in hand, with evident intention of being of great assistance in +the gardening of the amateur. + +"Pull the dirt up closter around those bleeding-hearts, Tucker," +commanded Miss Lavinia from her rocker. "They are Rose Mary's I +planted the identical day she was born, and I don't want anything to +happen to 'em in the way of cutworms or such this summer." + +"Well, I don't know," answered Uncle Tucker with a little chuckle in +Everett's direction, who was turning over the dirt near a rose-bush in +his close vicinity, "it don't do to pay too much attention to women's +bleeding-hearts; let alone, they'll tie 'em up in their own courage +and go on dusting around the place, while if you notice 'em too much +they take to squeezing out more bleed drops for your sympathy. Now, I +think it's best--" + +"Mister Tucker, say, Mister Tucker," came in a giggle from over the +front gate as Jennie Rucker's little freckled nose appeared just above +the top plank, only slightly in advance of that of small Peggy's. +"Mis' Poteet's got a new baby, just earned, and she says she is sorry +she can't come to Mis' Viney's party; but she can't." + +"Now, fly-away, ain't that too bad!" exclaimed Uncle Tucker. "That +baby oughter be sent back until it has got manners to wait until it's +wanted. Didn't neither one of you all get here on anybody's birthday +but your own." Uncle Tucker's sally was greeted by a duet of giggles, +and the announcement committee hurried on across the street with its +news. + +"Tucker, you Tucker, don't you touch that snowball bush with the +spade!" came in a fresh and alarmed command from the rocker post of +observation. "You know Ma didn't ever let that bush be touched after +it had budded. You spaded around it onct when you was young and upty +and you remember it didn't bloom." + +"Muster been a hundred years ago if I was ever upty about this here +flower job," he answered in an undertone to Everett as he turned his +attention to the rose-bushes at which his apprentice had been pegging +away. "At weddings and bornings and flower tending man is just a worm +under woman's feet and he might as well not even hope to turn. All he +can do is to--" + +But it was just at this juncture when Uncle Tucker's patience was +about to be exhausted, that a summons from Rose Mary came for a +general getting ready for the birthday celebration. + +And in a very few hours the festivities were in full swing. Miss +Lavinia sat in state in her rocker and received the offerings and +congratulations of Sweetbriar as they were presented in various +original and characteristic forms. Young Peter Rucker, still a bit +unsteady on his pink and chubby underpinning, was steered forward to +present his glossy buckeye, hung on a plaited horse-hair string that +had been constructed by small Jennie with long and infinite patience. +Miss Lavinia's commendations threw both donor and constructor into an +agony of bashfulness from which Pete took refuge in Rose Mary's skirts +and Jennie behind her mother's chair. But at this juncture the arrival +on the scene of action of young Bob Nickols with a whole two-horse +wagon-load of pine cones, which the old lady doted on for the freshing +up of the tiny fires always kept smoldering in her andironed fireplace +the summer through, distracted the attention of the company and was +greeted with great applause. Bob had been from early morning over on +Providence Nob collecting the treasures, and, seated beside him on the +front of the wagon, was Louisa Helen Plunkett, blushing furiously and +most obviously avoiding her mother's stern eye of inquiry as to where +she had spent the valuable morning hours. + +The sensation of young Bob's offering was only offset at the unpacking +of the complacent Mr. Crabtree's gift, which he bore over from the +store in his own arms. With dramatic effect he placed it on the floor +at Miss Lavinia's feet and called for a hatchet for its opening. And +as from their wrappings of paper and excelsior he drew two large gilt +and glass bottles, one containing bay rum and the other camphor, that +precious lotion for fast stiffening joints, little Miss Amanda heaved +a sigh of positive rapture. Mr. Crabtree was small and wiry, with a +hickory-nut countenance and a luscious peach of a heart, and, though +of bachelor condition, he at all times displayed sympathetic and +intuitive domestic inclinations. He kept the Sweetbriar store and was +thus in position to know of the small economies practised by the two +old ladies in the matter of personal necessities. For the months past +they had not bought the quantity of lubricating remedies that he +considered sufficient and this had been his tactful way of supplying +enough to last for some time to come. And from over the pile of gifts +heaped around her, Miss Lavinia beamed upon him to such an extent that +he felt like following young Pete's example, committing the awful +impropriety of hiding his embarrassment in any petticoat handy, but +just at this juncture up the front walk came the birthday cake +navigating itself by the long legs of Mr. Caleb Rucker and attended by +a riot of Sweetbriar youth, mad with excitement over its safe landing +and the treat in prospect. In its wake followed Mrs. Rucker, +complacent and beaming over the sensation caused by this her high +triumph in the culinary line. + +"Fly-away, if that's not Providence Nob gone and turned to a cake for +Sister Viney's birthday," exclaimed Uncle Tucker, as amid generous +applause the offering was landed on a table set near the rocker. + +And again at this auspicious moment a huge waiter covered with little +mountains of white ice-cream made its appearance through the front +door, impelled by the motive power of Mr. Mark Everett's elegantly +white-flannel-trousered legs, and guided to a landing beside the cake +by Rose Mary, who was a pink flower of smiles and blushes. + +Then it followed that in less time than one would think possible the +company at large was busy with a spoon attached to the refreshments +which to Sweetbriar represented the height of elegance. Out in the +world beyond Old Harpeth ice-cream and cake may have lost caste as a +fashionable afternoon refreshment, having been succeeded by the +imported custom of tea and scones or an elaborate menu of reception +indigestibles, but in the Valley nothing had ever threatened the +supremacy of the frozen cream and white-frosted confection. The men +all sat on the end of the long porch and accepted second saucers and +slices and even when urged by Rose Mary, beaming with hospitality, +third relays, while the Swarm in camp on the front steps, under the +General's management, seconded by Everett, succeeded in obtaining +supplies in a practically unlimited quantity. + +"Looks like Miss Rose Mary's freezer ain't got no bottom at all," said +Mr. Rucker in his long drawl as he began on a fourth white mound. "It +reminds me of 'the snow, the snow what falls from Heaven to earth +below,' and keeps a-falling." Mr. Rucker was a poet at heart and a +husband to Mrs. Rucker by profession, and his flights were regarded by +Sweetbriar at large with a mixture of pride and derision. + +"Cal," said Mrs. Rucker sternly, "don't you eat more'n half that +saucer. I've got no mind to top off this here good time with mustard +plasters all around. Even rejoicings can get overfed and peter out +into ginger tea. Jennie, you and Sammie and Pete stop eating right +now. Lands alive, the sun has set and we all know Miss Viney oughter +be in the house. Shoo, everybody go home to save your manners!" And +with hearty laughs and further good-by congratulations the happy +little company of farmer folk scattered to their own roof trees across +and along Providence Road. The twilight had come, but a very young +moon was casting soft shadows from the trees rustling in the night +breezes and the stars were lighting up in competition to the rays that +shot out from window after window in the little village. + +Uncle Tucker had hurried away to his belated barn duties and little +Miss Amanda into the house to stir up Miss Lavinia's fire in +preparation for their retirement, which was a ceremony of long +duration and begun with the mounting of the chickens to their roosts. +Miss Lavinia sat with her hands folded in her lap over a collection of +the smaller gifts of the afternoon and her eyes looked far away cross +the Ridge, dim in the failing light, while her stern old face took on +softened and very lovely lines. Rose Mary stood near to help her into +the house and Everett leaned against a post close on the other side of +the rocker. + +"Children," she said with a little break in her usual austere voice, +"I'm kinder ashamed of accusing the Lord of forgetting me this morning +when I look at all these remembers of me here that my neighbors have +given me. I found friends when I came here eighty-two years ago to-day +and as they have died off He has raised up a new crop outen their seed +for me. This rheumatism buckeye here is the present of the great +grandson of my first beau, and this afternoon I have looked into the +kind eyes of some of my friends dead and gone many a day, and have +seen smiles come to life that have been buried fifty years. I'm +a-feeling thankful to be here another summer to see my friends and +flowers a-blooming onct more, and come next April I am a-going to +want just such another infair as this one. Now help me into bed! Young +man, you can lift me up some, I'm stiff with so long setting, and I'm +a-going to want a power of rubbing this night, Rose Mary." + +So, thus held by her duties of ministration, it was quite an hour +later that Rose Mary came out of the house, which was dark and +sleep-quiet, and found Everett still sitting on the front steps +smoking and--waiting. + +"Tired?" he asked as she sank down on to the step beside him and +leaned her dark head back against one of the posts that supported the +mass of honeysuckle vine. + +"Not much--and a heap happy," she answered, looking up at him with +reflected stars in her long-lashed blue eyes. "Wasn't it a lovely +party?" + +"Yes," answered Everett slowly as he watched the smoke curl up from +his cigar and blow in the soft little night wind across toward Rose +Mary; "yes, it was a nice party. I seriously doubt if anywhere on any +of the known continents there could have been one just like it pulled +off by any people of any nation. It was unique--in sentiment and +execution; I'm duly grateful for having been a guest--even part +honoree." + +"I always think of old people as being the soft shadows that sturdy +little children cast on the wall. They are a part of the day and +sunshine, but just protected by the young folks that come between them +and the direct rays. They are strangely like flowers, too, with their +quaint fragrance. Aunt Viney is my tall purple flag, but Aunt Amandy +is my bed of white cinnamon pinks. I--I want to keep them in bloom for +always. I can't let myself think--that I can't." Rose Mary's voice +trembled into a laugh as she caught a trailing wisp of honeysuckle and +pressed a bunch of its buds to her lips. + +"You'll keep them, Rose Mary. You could keep anything you--you really +wanted," said Everett in a guardedly comforting voice. "And what are +Mr. Alloway and Stonie in your flower garden?" he asked in a bantering +tone. + +"Oh, Uncle Tucker is the briar rose hedge all around the place, and +Stonie is all the young shoots that I'm trying to prune and train up +just like him," answered Rose Mary with a quick laugh. "You're my +new-fashioned crimson-rambler from out over the Ridge that I'm trying +to make grow in my garden," she added, with a little hint of both +audacity and tenderness in her voice. + +"I'm rooted all right," answered Everett quickly, as he blew a puff of +smoke at her. "And you, Rose Mary, are the bloom of every rose-bush +that I ever saw anywhere. You are, I verily believe, the only and +original Rose of the World." + +"Oh, no," answered Rose Mary lifting her long lashes for a second's +glance at him; "I'm just the Rose of these Briars. Don't you know all +over the world women are blooming on lovely tall stems, where they +have planted themselves deep in home places and are drinking the +Master's love and courage from both sun and rain. But if we don't go +to rest some you'll wilt, Rambler, and I'll shatter. Be sure and take +the glass of cream I put by your bed. Good night and good dreams!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +AT THE COURT OF DAME NATURE + + +"Well, Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker as he appeared in the doorway of +the milk-house and framed himself against an entrancing, +mist-wreathed, sun-up aspect of Sweetbriar with a stretch of +Providence Road winding away to the Nob and bending caressingly around +red-roofed Providence as it passed over the Ridge, "there are +forty-seven new babies out in the barn for you this morning. Better +come on over and see 'em!" Uncle Tucker's big eyes were bright with +excitement, his gray lavender muffler, which always formed a part of +his early morning costume, flew at loose ends, and a rampant, grizzly +lock stuck out through the slit in the old gray hat. + +"Gracious me, Uncle Tuck, who now?" demanded Rose Mary over a crock +of milk she was expertly skimming with a thin, old, silver ladle. + +"Old White has hatched out a brood of sixteen, assorted black and +white, that foolish bronze turkey hen just come out from under the +woodpile with thirteen little pesters, Sniffer has got five +pups--three spots and two solids--and Mrs. Butter has twin calves, +assorted sex this time. They are spry and hungry and you'd better come +on over!" + +"Lovely," laughed Rose Mary with the delight in her blue eyes matching +that in Uncle Tucker's pair of mystic gray. "I'll come just as soon as +I get the skimming done. We'll want some corn meal and millet seed for +the chirp-babies, but the others we can leave to the maternal +ministrations. I'm so full of welcome I don't see how I'm going to +keep it from bubbling over." + +"That's jest like you, Rose Mary, a-welcoming a whole passel of +pesters that have deluged down on you at one time," said Uncle Tucker +with a dubiously appreciative smile at Rose Mary's hospitable +enthusiasm. "Looks to me like a girl tending three old folks, one +rampage of a boy, a mollycuddle of a strange man, and a whole petting +spoiled village has got enough on her shoulders without this +four-foot, two-foot landslide." + +"But it's in my heart I carry you all, old Sweetie," answered Rose +Mary with a flirt of her long lashes up at Uncle Tucker. "A woman can +carry things as a blessing in her heart that might be an awful burden +on her shoulders. Don't you know I don't allow you out before the sun +is up good without your muffler tied up tight? There; please go on +back to the barn and take this crock of skimmed milk to Mrs. +Sniffie--wait, I'll pour back some of the cream! And in just a few +minutes I'll be ready to--" + +"Rose Mary, Rose Mary," came a wild, enthusiastic shout from up the +path toward the Briars and in a moment the General appeared around the +row of lilac bushes through which the milk-house trail led down under +the hill to Rose Mary's sanctum of the golden treasure. Stonie had +taken time before leaving the seclusion of his apartment to plunge +into his short blue jeans trousers, but he was holding them up with +one hand and struggling with his gingham shirt, the tail of which +bellowed out like a sail in the morning breeze as he sped along. And +in his wake came Tobe with a pan in one hand and a cup in the other. +"It's two calves, Tobe says, with just Mrs. Butter for the mother and +Sniffie beat her with three more puppies than two calves. It's sixteen +chickens and a passel of turkeys and we waked up Mr. Mark to tell him +and he said--" Stonie paused in the rapid fire of his announcement of +the morning news and then added in judicial tone of voice, as if +giving the aroused sleeper his modicum of fair play: "Well, he didn't +quite say it before he swallowed, but he throwed a pillow at Tobe and +pulled the sheet over his head and groaned awful. Aunt Viney was +saying her prayers when I went to tell her, and Aunt Mandy was taking +down her frizzles, but she stopped and gave Tobe some corn-bread for +the chickens and some pot-licker with meat in it for Sniffie. Can't +you come with me to see 'em now, Rose Mary? It won't be any fun until +you see em!" The General had by this time lined up in the doorway with +Uncle Tucker, and Tobe's black head and keen face peered over his +shoulder. The expression in all three pairs of eyes fixed on hers was +the same--the wild desire to make her presentation at the interesting +court Dame Nature was holding in the barn. A most natural masculine +instinct for feminine interpretive companionship when face to face +with the miracle of maternity. + +"Just one more crock of milk to skim and I can go," answered Rose Mary +as she poised the skimmer over the last yellow surface down the line +of huge, brown, earthen bowls that in Harpeth Valley were known as +crocks. The milk-house was cool and clean and smelled of the fresh +cream lifted from the milk into the stone jars to be clabbered for the +to-morrow churning. And Rose Mary herself was a fresh, fragrant +incarnation of the spirit of a spring sun-dawn that had come over the +Ridge from Old Harpeth. Her merry voice floated out over the hillside +as she followed in the wake of Uncle Tucker, Stonie and Tobe, with the +provender for the new arrivals, and it made its way as a faint echo of +a dream through one of the vine-covered, gable windows of the Briars +and the effect thereof was well-nigh instantaneous. + +Everett, after a hasty and almost as incomplete toilet as the one made +by the General in his excitement, arrived on the scene of action just +in time to witness the congratulatory interview between Mrs. Sniffie +and the mistress of her undying affections. The long-eared, plumy, +young setter-mother stood licking the back of Rose Mary's neck as she +sat on the barn floor with all five of the young tumblers in her lap, +with Tobe and Stonie hanging rapturously over her and them, while +Uncle Tucker was expatiating on some points that had made themselves +evident even at this very early stage of the existence of the little +dog babies. + +"They ain't not a single stub nose in the bunch, Uncle Tuck, not a one +and everybody's of thems toes stick way apart," exclaimed the General, +his cheeks red with joyous pride. + +"Watch 'em, Miss Ro' Mary; watch 'em smell Sniffie when I call her +over here," exclaimed Tobe as he held out the pan to Mrs. Sniffer and +thus coaxed her from the side of Rose Mary and the small family. And, +sure enough, around squirmed every little white and yellow bunch and +up went every little new-born nose as it sniffed at the recession of +the maternal fount. One little precocious even went so far as to +attempt to set his wee fore paddies against Rose Mary's knee and to +stiffen a tiny plume of a tail, with a plain instinct to point the +direction of the shifting base of supplies. Rose Mary gave a cry of +delight and hugged the whole talented family to her breast, while +Stonie and Tobe yelled and danced as Uncle Tucker turned with evident +emotion to Everett to claim his congratulations. + +"Never saw anything like it in my life," Everett assured him with the +greatest enthusiasm, and, as he spoke, he laughed down into Rose +Mary's lifted blue eyes that were positively tender with pride over +the puppies in her arms. "It's a sight worth losing the tale of a +dream for--taken all together." + +"And all the others--I'll show you," and, gathering her skirts +basketwise, Rose Mary rose to her feet and led the way across the +barn, with Sniffer snuffing along at the squirming bundle in her +skirts, that swung against the white petticoat ruffling around her +slim ankles. With the utmost care she deposited the puppies in an +overturned barrel, nicely lined with hay, that Stonie and Tobe had +been preparing. "They are lovely, Sniffie," she said softly to the +young mother, who jumped in and huddled down beside the babies as her +mistress turned to leave them with the greatest reluctance. + +And it was well that the strata of Everett's enthusiasm lay near the +surface and was easily workable, for in the next half-hour there was a +great demand of continuous output. Mrs. Butter stood switching her +tail and chewing at a wisp of hay with an air of triumphant pride +tinged with mild surprise as she turned occasionally to glance at the +offspring huddled against her side and found eight wobbly legs instead +of the four her former experiences had led her to expect, and felt two +little nuzzling noses instead of one. + +"Which one do you guess was the surprise calf to her, Rose Mamie?" +demanded the General. + +"Shoo!" said Tobe in answer to the General's question. "Old Butter +have had them two calfs to purpose, boy and girl, one to keep and one +to kill. She got mixed about whether Mr. Tuck keeps heifers or bulls +and jest had both kinds so as to keep one sure." + +"Well, Aunt Viney read in her book of a place they kills girls and +keeps boys. At this place they jest gits it mixed up with the cows and +it's no use to tell 'em," answered the General in a disgusted tone of +voice, and with a stem glance at Uncle Tucker, as he and Tobe passed +on over to the feed-room door, to lead the way to the display of the +little turks and cheeps for Everett's further edification. + +And just as the introductions were all completed two deep notes of the +mellow old farm bell sounded over the hill in a hospitable and +reverent summons to prayers and breakfast ensuing. On the instant two +pairs of pink heels were shown to the company as Stonie and Tobe +raced up the walk, which were quickly followed by Uncle Tucker, intent +on being on hand promptly for the assembling of his household. More +slowly Rose Mary and Everett followed, walking side by side along the +narrow path. + +"Rose Mary, have you let me sleep through such exciting scenes as this +every morning for a month?" demanded Everett quizzically. "What time +do you get up--or is it that the sun waits for your summons or--" + +"No, not my summons--old lame Shanghi's. I believe he is of French +extraction from his elaborate manner with the hens," answered Rose +Mary, quickly applying his plagiarized compliment. "Let's hurry or +I'll be late for prayers. Would you like--will you come in to-day, as +you are already up?" The color rose in Rose Mary's cheeks up under her +long lashes and she gave him just one shy glance that had a tinge of +roguishness in it. + +"Thank you, I--I would like to. That is, if I may--if I won't be in +the way or--or--or--will you hold my hand so I won't go wrong?" he +finished in laughing confusion as the color came under the tan of his +cheeks to match that in hers and the young look lay for a moment in +his eyes. "It'll be my debut at family worship," he added quickly to +cover his confusion. + +"Don't worry, Uncle Tucker leads it," answered Rose Mary as they +ascended the front steps and came across the front porch to the +doorway of the wide hall, which was the living-room, as well as the +artery of the Briars. + +And a decorous and seemly scene they stepped in upon. Uncle Tucker sat +back of a small table, which was placed at one side of the wide open +fireplace, in which crackled a bit of fragrant, spring fire. His Bible +and a couple of hymn-books rested in front of him, his gray forelock +had been meekly plastered down and the jocund lavender scarf had been +laid aside to display a straight white collar and clerical black bow +tie. His eyes were bent on the book before him as he sought for the +text for the morning lesson. Aunt Viney sat close beside him as if +anxious to be as near to the source of worship as possible, though the +strain of refraining from directing Uncle Tucker in the conducting +thereof was very great. The tradition which forced silence upon women +in places of public worship had held with Miss Lavinia only by the +exercising of the sternest and most rigorous self-suppression, which +at any time might have been broken except for the curbing of her iron +will. + +But even though silent she was still dominant, and over her glasses +her eyes shot glances of stern rebuke at two offenders in a distant +corner, while Uncle Tucker fluttered the leaves of his hymn-book, +oblivious to the unseemly contention. The General and Tobe, who came +as near to living and having his being at the Briars as was possible +in consideration of the fact that he was supposed to have his bed and +board under his own paternal roof, were kneeling demurely beside a +small rocking-chair, but a battle royal was going on as to who would +possess the low seat on which to bow the head of reverence. + +Little Miss Amanda from across the room, in terror of what might +befall her favorites at the hands of Miss Lavinia in a later hour of +reckoning, was making beseeching gestures of alarm, warning and +reproof that were entirely inadequate to the situation, which was fast +becoming acute, when the two tardy members arrived on the scene of +action. It took Rose Mary one second to grasp the situation, and, +motioning Everett to a chair beside the rocker, she seated herself +quickly in the very midst of the scuffle. In a half-second Tobe's head +was bowed in triumph on the arm of her chair, while the General's was +ducked with equal triumph upon her knee as Uncle Tucker's sweet old +voice rose in the first words of his prayer. + +But after a few minutes of most becoming reverence Stonie's eyes +opened and revealed his surprise at Everett's presence as he knelt by +the chair across from Tobe and almost as close to Rose Mary's +protective presence as either of the two combatants. With a welcoming +smile the General slipped the little brown hand of fellowship into the +stranger's, thereby offering a material support to the latter's agony +of embarrassment, which only very slowly receded from face and +demeanor as the services proceeded. + +Then as across the crackle of the fire came the confident word of +David the Singer: "_The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof; +the world and they that dwell therein_," intoned in the old man's +reverent voice, something led Everett's glance out through the open +door to see the bit of divine dominion that spread before him with new +eyes and a newer understanding. Harpeth Valley lay like the tender +palm of a huge master hand with the knuckles of rough blue hills +knotted around it, and dotted over the fostering meadows were +comfortable homes, each with its morning altar fire sending up opal +wreaths of mist smoke from the red brick or stone chimneys. Long creek +lines marked their way across the fields which were growing tender +green with the upbringing of the spring grain. + +"_Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand_," droned +Uncle Tucker. "_The hollow of His hand_," assented Everett's +conscience in artistic appreciation of the simile. + +"_And stretched out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out +as a tent to dwell in_," came as another line of interpretation of the +picture spread before the strangely unshackled eyes of the bowed man +with the little boy kneeling beside him. Quickly he turned toward Rose +Mary with almost a startled glance and found in her eyes the fact that +she had been faring forth over Harpeth Valley on the wings of Uncle +Tucker's supplication as had he. The wonder of it rose in his eyes, +which were about to lay bare to her depths never before stirred, when +a fervent "Amen! I beat you that time, Tobe!" fairly exploded at his +ear as the General took the final word out of Uncle Tucker's very +mouth in rival to his worshipping opponent. + +"I said it first, but it got blowed into Miss Ro' Mary's sleeve," +avowed Tobe with a flaunt at his competitor. + +"If nobody he'r'n it, it don't count," decided the General with +emphasis. And in friendly dispute he escorted his rival down the front +walk, while Uncle Tucker, as was his custom, busied himself +straightening hymn-book and Bible, so leaving the family altar in +readiness for the beginning of a new day. And thus the primitive +ceremonial, the dread of which had kept Everett late in bed every +morning for a month, had resolved itself into what seemed to him but +the embrace of a tender, whimsical brotherhood in which the old mystic +both assumed and accounted for a stewardship in behalf of the others +assembled under his roof-tree. + +But in the eyes of Miss Lavinia all forms of service were the +marshalling of the hosts in battle array and at all times she was +enlisted in the ranks of the church militant, and upon this occasion +she bore down upon Everett with banners unfurled. + +"We are mighty gratified to welcome you at last in the circle of +family worship, young man," she declaimed, as reproach and cordiality +vied in her voice. "I have been a-laying off to ask you what church +you belonged to in New York, and have a little talk with you over some +of our sacred duties that young people of this generation are apt--" + +"Rose Mary," came Miss Amanda's cheery little voice from the doorway +just in time to save Everett from the wish, if not even a vain +attempt, to sink through the floor, "bring Mr. Mark right on in to +breakfast before the waffles set. Sister Viney, your coffee is +a-getting cold." Little Miss Amanda had seen and guessed at his +plight and the coffee threat to Miss Lavinia had been one of the +nimble manoeuvers that she daily, almost hourly, employed in the +management of her sister's ponderosity. Thus she had saved this day, +but Everett knew that there were others to come, and in the dim +distance he discerned his Waterloo. + +And as he worked carefully with his examining pick over beyond the +north pasture through the soft spring-warm afternoon, he occasionally +smiled to himself as the morning scene of worship, etched deep on his +consciousness by its strangeness to his tenets of life, rose again and +again to his mind's eye. They were a wonderful people, these Valley +folk, descendants of the Huguenots and Cavaliers who had taken the +wilderness trail across the mountains and settled here "in the hollow" +of old Harpeth's hand. They were as interesting scientifically from a +philosophical standpoint as were the geological formations which lay +beneath their blue-grass and clover fields. They built altars to what +seemed to him a primitive God, and yet their codes were in many cases +not only ethically but economically and democratically sound. The men +he had found shrewd and as a whole more interested and versed in +statescraft than would seem possible, considering their shut-in +location in regard to the places where the world wheels seem to +revolve. But were there larger wheels revolving, silently, slowly, but +just as relentlessly, out here where the heavens were stretched "_as a +curtain_," and "_as a tent to dwell in_?" + +"_'The earth and the fullness thereof,'_" he mused as he raised his +eyes to the sky; "it's theirs, certainly, and they dedicate it to +their God. I wonder--" Suddenly the picture of the woman in the barn +rose to his mind, strong and gracious and wonderful, with the young +"fullness" pressing around her, teeming with--force. What force--and +what source? Suddenly he dropped his pick behind a convenient bush, +shouldered his kit of rocks and sand, climbed the fence and tramped +away down Providence Road to Sweetbriar, Rose Mary and her cold milk +crocks, thither impelled by deep--thirsts. + +And under the hospitable eaves of the milk-house he found Rose Mary +and her cooling draft--also Mrs. Caleb Rucker, with small Pete in tow. + +"Howdy, Mr. Mark," the visiting neighbor answered in response to his +forcedly cordial greeting. If a man has walked a mile and a half with +a picture of a woman handing him a glass of cool milk with a certain +lift of black lashes from over deep, black blue eyes it +is--disconcerting to have her do it in the presence of another. + +"I just come over to get a bucket of buttermilk for Granny +Satterwhite," he found Mrs. Rucker saying as he forced his attention. +"She won't touch mine if there's any of Rose Mary's handy. Looks like +she thinks she's drinking some of Rose Mary's petting with every +gulp." + +Everett had just raised the glass Rose Mary had handed him, to his +lips, as Mrs. Rucker spoke, and over its edge he regarded the roses +that suddenly blushed out in her cheeks, but she refused to raise her +lashes the fraction of an inch and went calmly on pressing the milk +from the butter she had just taken from the churn. + +"Granny knows that love can be sent just as well in a glass of +buttermilk as in a valentine," she finally said, and as she spoke a +roguish smile coaxed at the comer of her mouth. "Don't you suppose a +piece of hemp twine would turn into a gold cord if you tied it around +a bundle of true love?" she ventured further in a spirit of daring, +still with her eyes on the butter. + +"Now that's something in meaning like my first husband, Mr. +Satterwhite, said when we was married," assented Mrs. Rucker with +hearty appreciation of the practicality in Rose Mary's sentiment. "He +gave me two sows, each with a litter of pigs, for a wedding present +and said they'd be a heap more to me than any kind of jimcracks he +could er bought for half the money they'd bring. And they was, for, in +due course of time, I sold all them hogs and bought the plush +furniture in the front room, melojeon and all. Now Mr. Rucker, he give +me a ring with a blue set and 'darling' printed inside it that cost +fifty cents extra, and Jennie Rucker swallowed that ring before she +was a year old. I guess she has got it growed up inside her, for all I +know of it, and her Paw is a-setting on Mr. Satterwhite's furniture at +present, speaking still. Sometimes it makes me feel sad to think of +Mr. Satterwhite when Cal Rucker spells out, _Shall we meet beyond the +river_ with two fingers on that melojeon. But then I even up my +feelings by remembering how Cal let me name Pete for Mr. Satterwhite, +which is a second-husband compliment they don't many men pass; and it +pleased Granny so." + +"Mr. Rucker is always nice to Granny Satterwhite," said Rose Mary with +the evident intention of extolling the present incumbent of the +husband office to her friend. But at the mention of his name a moment +earlier, young Peter, the bond between the past and present, had +sidled out the door and proceeded to sit calmly down on the rippling +surface of the spring branch. His rescue and retirement necessitated +his mother's departure and Everett was left in command of the +two-alone situation he desired. + +"Hasn't this been a lovely, long day?" asked Rose Mary as she turned +the butter into a large jar and pressed a white cloth close over it +with a stone top. "To-night is the full April moon and I've got a +surprise for you, if you don't find it out too soon. Will you walk +over to Tilting Rock, beyond the barn-lot, with me after supper and +let me show you?" + +"Will I cross the fields of Elysium to gaze over the pearly ramparts?" +demanded Everett with boyish enthusiasm, if not a wholly accurate use +of mythological metaphor. "Let's cut supper and go on now! What do you +say? Why wait?" + +"I'm afraid," laughed Rose Mary as she prepared to close up the wide +window and leave everything in shipshape for the night. "A woman +oughtn't to risk feeding a hungry man cold moonbeams instead of hot +hoecake. Besides, I have to see everybody safely tucked in before I +can leave. Aren't they all a precious houseful of early-to-bed +chickens? The old Sweeties have forgotten there is such a thing as the +moon and Stonie hasn't--found it out--yet." And with a mischievous +backward glance, Rose Mary led the way up the lilac path to the Briars +on top of the hill just as the old bell sounded two wobbly notes, +their uncertainty caused by the rivalry of the General and Tobe over +the pulling of the ropes. + +And it was quite two hours later that she and Everett made their way +across the barn-lot over to the broad, moss-covered Tilting Rock that +jutted out from a little hackberry-covered knoll at the far end of the +pasture. + +"Now look--and smell in deep!" exclaimed Rose Mary excitedly as she +pointed back to the Briars. + +"Why--why!" exclaimed Everett under his breath, "it's enchantment! +It's a dream--am I awake?" + +And indeed a very vision spread itself out before the wondering man. +The low roof and wide wings of the Briars, with the delicate traceries +of vines over the walls and gables, shone a soft, old-brick pink in +the glow of moonlight, and over and around it all gushed a very shower +of shimmering white blossoms, surrounding the house like a mist around +an early blooming rose. And as he looked, wave on wave of fragrance +beat against Everett's face and poured over his head. + +"What is it?" he demanded breathlessly, as if dizzy from a too deep +drinking of the perfume. + +"Don't you know? It's the locust trees that have bloomed out since +sunset!" exclaimed Rose Mary in as breathless a tone as his own. "For +a week I have been watching and hoping they would be out in the full +moon. They are so delicate that the least little cold wind sets them +back days or destroys them altogether. I wanted them so very much this +year for you, and I was so afraid you would notice them before we got +over here where you could get the full effect. I promised you lilacs +for being good, but this is just because--because--" + +"Because what?" asked Everett quietly. + +"Because I felt you would appreciate it," answered Rose Mary, as she +sank down on the stone that still held a trace of the warmth from the +sun, and made room for Everett beside her with one of her ever-ready, +gracious little gestures. "And it's lovely to have you here to look at +it with me," she added. "So many times I have sat here alone with the +miracle, and my heart has ached for the whole world to get the vision +of it at least. I've tried sending my love of it out in little locust +prayers to folks over the Ridge. Did you ever happen to get one any +spring?" + +"Last April I turned down a commission for a false test for the +biggest squeeze-out copper people in the world, fifty thousand in it +to me. I thought it was moral courage, but I know now it was just on +account of the locusts blooming in Harpeth Valley at Sweetbriar. Do +you get any connection?" he demanded lightly, if a bit unevenly. + +"To think that would be worth all the loneliness," answered Rose Mary +gently. "Things were very hard for me the first year I had to come +back from college. I used to sit here by the hour and watch Providence +Road wind away over the Ridge and nothing ever seemed to come or go +for me. But that was only for a little while, and now I never get the +time to breathe between the things that happen along Providence Road +for me to attend to. I came back to Sweetbriar like an empty crock, +with just dregs of disappointment at the bottom, and now I'm all ready +every morning to have five gallons of lovely folks-happenings poured +into a two-and-a-half-gallon capacity. I wish I were twins or twice as +much me." + +"Why, you have never told me before, Rose Mary, that you belong to the +new-woman persuasion, with a college hall-mark and suffragist +leanings. I have made the mistake of putting you in the home-guard +brigade and classing you fifty years behind your times. Don't tell me +you have an M.A. I can't stand it to-night." + +"No, I haven't got one," answered Rose Mary with both a smile and a +longing in her voice. "I came home in the winter of my junior year. +My father was one of the Harpeth Valley boys who went out into the +world, and he came back to die under the roof where his fathers had +fought off the Indians, and he brought poor little motherless me to +leave with the aunts and Uncle Tucker. They loved me and cared for me +just as they did Uncle Tucker's son, who was motherless, too, and a +few years after he went out into the world to seek the fortune he felt +so sure of, I was given my chance at college. In my senior year his +tragedy came and I hurried back to find Uncle Tucker broken and old +with the horror of it, and with the place practically sold to avoid +open disgrace. His son died that year and left--left--some day I will +tell you the rest of it. I might have gone back into the world and +made a success of things and helped them in that way, from a +distance--but what they needed was--was me. And so I sat here many +sunset hours of loneliness and looked along Providence Road +until--until I think the Master must have passed this way and left me +His peace, though my mortal eyes didn't see Him. And now there lies my +home nest swung in a bower of blossoms full of the old sweetie birds, +the boy, the calf, puppy babies, pester chickens and--and I'm going to +take a large, gray, prowling night-bird back and tuck him away for +fear his cheeks will look hollow in the morning. I'm the mother bird, +and while I know He watches with me all through the night, sometimes I +sing in the dark because I and my nesties are close to Him and I'm not +the least bit afraid." + +[Illustration: "I hope you feel easy in your mind now"] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +MOONLIGHT AND APPLE-BLOW + + +"I hope you feel easy in your mind, child, now you've put this whole +garden to bed and tucked 'em under cover, heads and all," said Uncle +Tucker, as he spread the last bit of old sacking down over the end of +the row of little sprouting bean vines. "When I look at the garden I'm +half skeered to go in the house to bed for fear I haven't got a quilt +to my joints." + +"Now, honey sweet, you know better than that," answered Rose Mary as +she rose from weighting down the end of a frilled white petticoat with +a huge clod of earth and stretched it so as to cover quite two yards +of the green shoots. "I haven't taken a thing of yours but two shirts +and one of your last summer seersucker coats. I'm going to mend the +split up the back in it for the wash Monday. Aunt Amandy lent me two +aprons and a sack and a petticoat for the peony bushes, and Aunt Viney +gave me this shawl and three chemises that cover all the pinks. I've +taken all the tablecloths for the early peas, and Stonie's shirts, +each one of them, have covered a whole lot of the poet's narcissus. +All the rest of the things are my own clothes, and I've still got a +clean dress for to-morrow. If I can just cover everything to-night, I +won't be afraid of the frost any more. You don't want all the lovely +little green things to die, do you, and not have any snaps or peas or +peonies at all?" + +"Oh, fly-away!" answered Uncle Tucker as he tucked in the last end of +a nondescript frill over a group of tiny cabbage plants, "there's not +even a smack of frost in the air! It's all in your mind." + +"Well, a mind ought to be sensitive about covering up its friends from +frost hurts," answered Rose Mary propitiatingly as she took a +satisfied survey of the bedded garden, which looked like the scene of +a disorganized washday. "Thank you, Uncle Tucker, for helping me--keep +off the frost from my dreams, anyway. Don't you think--" + +"Well, howdy, folks!" came a cheerfully interruptive hail from across +the brick wall that separated the garden from the cinder walk that lay +along Providence Road, which ran as the only street through +Sweetbriar, and Caleb Rucker's long face presented itself framed in a +wreath of budding rose briars that topped the wall in their spring +growth. "Tenting up the garden sass ag'in, Miss Rose Mary?" + +"No, we're jest giving all the household duds a mooning instead of a +sunning, Cal," answered Uncle Tucker with a chuckle as he came over to +the wall beside the visitor. "What's the word along the Road?" + +"Gid Newsome have sent the news as he'll be here Sad'ay night to lay +off and plow up this here dram or no-dram question for Sweetbriar +voters, so as to tote our will up to the state house for us next +election. As a state senator, we can depend on Gid to expend some and +have notice taken of this district, if for nothing but his corn-silk +voice and white weskit. It must take no less'n a pound of taller a +week to keep them shoes and top hat of his'n so slick. I should jedge +his courting to be kinder like soft soap and molasses, Miss Rose +Mary." And Mr. Rucker's smile was of the saddest as he handed this bit +of gentle banter over the wall to Rose Mary, who had come over to +stand beside Uncle Tucker in the end of the long path. + +"It's wonderful how devoted Mr. Newsome is to all his friends," +answered Rose Mary with a blush. "He sent me three copies of the +Bolivar _Herald_ with the poem of yours he had them print last week, +and I was just going over to take you and Mrs. Rucker one as soon as I +got the time to--" + +"Johnnie-jump-ups, Miss Rose Mary, don't you never do nothing like +that to me!" exclaimed Mr. Rucker with a very fire of desperation +lighting his thin face. "If Mis' Rucker was to see one verse of that +there poetry I would have to plow the whole creek-bottom corn-field +jest to pacify her. I've done almost persuaded her to hire Bob Nickols +to do it with his two teams and young Bob, on account of a sciattica +in my left side that plowing don't do no kind of good to. I have took +at least two bottles of her sasparilla and sorgum water and have let +Granny put a plaster as big and loud-smelling as a mill swamp on my +back jest to git that matter of the corn-field fixed up, and here you +most go and stir up the ruckus again with that poor little _Trees in +the Breeze_ poem that Gid took and had printed unbeknownst to me. +Please, mam, burn them papers!" + +"Oh, I wouldn't tell her for the world if you don't want me to, Mr. +Rucker!" exclaimed Rose Mary in distress. "But I am sure she would be +proud of--" + +"No, it looks like women don't take to poetry for a husband; they +prefers the hefting of a hoe and plow handles. It's hard on Mis' +Rucker that I ain't got no constitution to work with, and I feel it +right to keep all my soul-squirmings and sech outen her sight. The +other night as I was a-putting Petie to bed, while she and Bob was at +the front gate a-trying to trade on that there plowing, a mighty sweet +little verse come to me about + + "'The little shoes in mother's hand + Nothing like 'em in the land,' + +and the tears was in my eyes so thick 'cause I didn't have nobody to +say 'em to that one dropped down on Pete and made him think I was +a-going to wash his face, and sech another ruckus as she had to come +in to, as mad as hops! If I feel like it, I'm a-going to clean every +weed outen the garden for her next week to try and make up to her +for--" + +"Aw, Mr. Rucker, M-i-s-t-e-r Rucker, come home to get ready for +supper," came in a loud, jovial voice that carried across the street +like the tocsin of a bass drum. The Rucker home sat in a clump of +sugar maples just opposite the Briars, and was square, solid and +unadorned of vine or flower. A row of bright tin buckets hung along +the picket fence that separated the yard from the store enclosure, and +rain-barrels sat under the two front gutters with stolid +practicability, in contrast to the usual relegation of such +store-houses of the rainfall to the back of the house and the planting +of ferns and water plants under the front sprouts, as was the custom +from the beginning of time in Sweetbriar. Mrs. Rucker in a clean print +dress and with glossy and uncompromisingly smoothed hair stood at the +newly whitewashed front gate. "Send him on home, Rose Mary, or +grass'll grow in his tracks and yours, too, if he can hold you long +enough," she added by way of badinage. + +"I'm a-coming, Sally, right on the minute," answered the +poet-by-stealth, and he hurried across the street with hungry +alacrity. The poem-maker was tall and loose-jointed, and the breadth +of his shoulders and long muscular limbs decidedly suggested success +at the anvil or field furrow. He made a jocular pass at placing his +arm around the uncompromising waist-line of his portly wife, and when +warded off by an only half-impatient shove he contented himself by +winding one of her white apron strings around one of his long fingers +as they leaned together over the gate for further parley with the +Alloways across the road. + +"When did you get back, Mrs. Rucker?" asked Rose Mary interestedly, as +she rested her arms on the wall and Uncle Tucker planted himself +beside her, having brushed away one of the long briar shoots to make +room for them both. + +"About two hours ago," answered Mrs. Rucker. "I found everybody in +fine shape up at Providence, and Mis' Mayberry sent Mr. Tucker a new +quinzy medicine that Tom wrote back to her from New York just day +before yesterday. I made a good trade in hogs with Mr. Hoover for +myself and Bob Nickols, too. Mr. Petway had a half-barrel of flour in +his store he were willing to let go cheap, and I bought it for us and +you-all and the Poteets. Me and you can even up on that timothy seed +with the flour, Mr. Tucker, and I'm just a-going to give a measure to +the Poteets as a compliment to that new Poteet baby, which is the +seventh mouth to feed on them eighty-five acres. I've set yeast for +ourn and your rolls for to-morrow, tell your Aunt Mandy, Rose Mary, +and I brought that copy of the _Christian Advocate_ for your Aunt +Viney that she lost last month. Mis' Mayberry don't keep hern, but +spreads 'em around, so was glad to let me have this one. I asked about +it before I had got my bonnet-strings untied. Yes, Cal, I'm a-going +on in to give you your supper, for I expect I'll find the children's +and Granny's stomicks and backbones growing together if I don't hurry. +That's one thing Mr. Satterwhite said in his last illness, he never +had had to wait--yes, I'm coming, Granny," and with the encomium of +the late Mr. Satterwhite still unfinished Mrs. Rucker hurried up the +front path at the behest of a high, querulous old voice issuing from +the front windows. + +"Well, there's no doubt about it, no finer woman lives along +Providence Road than Sallie Rucker, Marthy Mayberry and Selina Lue +Lovell down at the Bluff not excepted, to say nothing of Rose Mary +Alloway standing right here in the midst of my own sweet potato +vines," said Uncle Tucker reflectively as he glanced at the retreating +figure of his sturdy neighbor, which was followed by that of the lean +and hungry poet. + +"Yes, she's wonderful," answered Rose Mary enthusiastically, +"but--but I wish she had just a little sympathy for--for poetry. If a +husband sprouts little spirit wings under his shoulders it's a kind +thing for his wife not to pick them right out alive, isn't it? When I +get a husband--" + +"When you get a husband, Rose Mary, I hope he'll hump his shoulders +over a plow-line the number of hours allotted for a man's work and +then fly poetry kites off times and only when the wind is right," +answered Uncle Tucker with a quizzical smile in his big eyes and a +quirk at the corner of his mouth. + +"But I'm going always to admire the kites anyway, even if they don't +fly," answered Rose Mary with the teasing lift of her long lashes up +at him. "Maybe just a woman's puff might start a man's kite sky high +that couldn't get off right without it. You can't tell." + +"Yes, child," answered Uncle Tucker as he looked into the dark eyes +level with his own with a sudden tenderness, "and you never fail to +start off all kites in your neighborhood. When I took you as a bundle +of nothing outen Brother John's arms nearly thirty years ago this +spring jest a perky encouraging little smile in your blue eyes started +my kite that was a-trailing weary like, and it's sailed mostly by your +wind ever since--especially these last few years. Don't let the breeze +give out on me yet, child." + +"It never will, old sweetie," answered Rose Mary as she took Uncle +Tucker's lean old hand in hers and rubbed her cheek against the sleeve +of his rough farm coat. "Is the interest of the mortgage ready for +this quarter?" she asked quietly in almost a whisper, as if afraid to +disturb some listening ear with a private matter. + +"It lacks more than a hundred," answered Uncle Tucker in just as quiet +a voice, in which a note of pain sounded plainly. "And this is not the +first time I have fallen behind with Newsome, either. The repairs on +the plows and the food chopper for the barn have cost a good deal, +and the coal bill was large this winter. Sometimes, Rose Mary, I--I am +afraid to look forward to the end. Maybe if I was younger it would be +different and I could pay the debt, but I am afraid--if it wasn't for +your aunts, looks like you and I could let it go and make our way +somewhere out in the world beyond the Ridge, but they are older than +us and we must keep their home as long as we can for 'em. Maybe in a +few years--Newsome won't press me, I'm mighty sure. Do you think you +can help me hold on for 'em? I don't matter." + +"We'll never let it go, Uncle Tuck, never!" answered Rose Mary +passionately as she pressed her cheek closer to his arm. "I don't know +why I know, but we are going to have it as long as they--and you, +_you_ need it--and I'm going to die here myself," she added with a +laughing sob as she shook two tears out of her lashes and looked up at +him with adorning stars in her eyes. + +"It's as He wills, daughter," answered Uncle Tucker quietly as he +laid a tender hand on the dark braids resting against his shoulder. +"It isn't wrong for us to go on keeping it if we can jest pay the +interest to our friend--pay it to the day. That is the only thing that +troubles me. We must not fall behind and--" + +"Oh, but honey-sweet, let me tell you, let me tell you!" exclaimed +Rose Mary with shining eyes, "I've got just lots of money, more than +twenty dollars, nearly twice more. I've saved it just in case we did +need it for this or--or--or any other thing," she added hastily, not +willing to disclose her tooth project even to Uncle Tucker's +sympathetic ear. + +Uncle Tucker's large eyes brightened with relief for a second and then +clouded with a mist of tears. + +"What were you saving it for, child?" he asked with a quaver in his +sweet old voice, and his hand clasped hers more closely. "You don't +ever have what pretty women like you want and need, and that's what +grinds down on me most hardest of all. You are young and--and mighty +beautiful, and looks like it's wrong for you to lay down yourself for +us who are a good long way on the other side of life's ridge. I ought +to send you back across the hills to--to find your own--no matter what +happens!" + +"Try it!" answered Rose Mary, again lifting her star eyes to his. "I +was saving that money to buy Aunt Viney a set of teeth that she thinks +she wants, but I know she couldn't use them when she gets them. If I'm +as beautiful as you say, isn't this blue homespun of great Grandmother +Alloways, made over twentieth century style, adornment enough? Some +people--that is, some one--Mr. Mark said this morning it was--was +_chic_, which means most awfully stylish. I've got one for my back and +one for the tub all out of the same old blue bed-spread, and a white +linen marvel contrived from a pair of sheets for Sunday. Please don't +send me out into the big world--other people might not think me as +lovely as you do," and her raillery was most beautifully dauntless. + +"The Lord bless you and keep you and make the sun to shine upon you, +flower of His own Kingdom," answered Uncle Tucker with a comforted +smile breaking over his wistful old face. "I had mighty high dreams +about you when that young man talked his oil-wells to me a month ago, +and I wanted my rose to do some of her flowering for the world to see, +but maybe--maybe--" + +"She'll flower best here, where her roots go down into Sweetbriar +hearts--and Sweetbriar prayers, Uncle Tucker; she knows that's true, +and so do you," answered Rose Mary quickly. "And anyway, Mr. Mark is +making the soil survey for you, and if we follow his directions there +is no telling what we will make next year, maybe the interest and some +of the money, too, and the teeth and--and a sky-blue silk robe for +me--if that's what you'd like to see me wear, though it would be +inconvenient with the milking and the butter and--" + +"Tucker, oh Brother Tucker!" came a call across the garden fence from +the house, in a weak but commanding voice, and Rose Mary caught a +glimpse of Miss Lavinia's white mob cap bobbing at the end of the +porch, "that is in Proverbs tenth and nineteenth, and not nineteenth +and tenth, like you said. You come right in here and get it straight +in your head before the next sun sets on your ignorance." + +"Fly-away!" exclaimed Uncle Tucker, "now Sister Viney's never going to +forgive me that Bible slip-up if I don't persuade her from now on till +supper. But there is nothing more for you to do out here, Rose Mary, +the sun'll put out the light for you," and he hurried away down the +path and through the garden gate. + +Rose Mary remained leaning over the garden wall, looking up and down +the road with interest shining in her eyes and a laugh and nod for the +neighbors who were hurrying supperward or stopping to talk with one +another over fences and gates. A group of men and boys stood and sat +on the porch in front of the store, and their big voices rang out now +and again with hearty merriment at some exchange of wit or clever bit +of horse-play. Two women stood in deep conclave over by the Poteet +gate, and the subject of the council was a small bundle of flannel and +lawn displayed with evident pride by a comely young woman in a pink +calico dress. Seeing Rose Mary at the wall, they both smiled and +started in her direction, the bearer of the bundle stepping carefully +across the ditch at the side of the walk. + +"Lands alive, Rose Mary, you never did see nothing as pretty as this +last Poteet baby," exclaimed Mrs. Plunkett enthusiastically. "The year +before last one, let me see, weren't that Evelina Virginia, Mis' +Poteet? Yes, Evelina Virginia was mighty pretty, but this one beats +her. I declare, if you was to fail us with these spring babies, Mis' +Poteet, it would be a disappointment to the whole of Sweetbriar. Come +next April it will be seven without a year's break, astonishing as it +do sound." + +"It would be as bad as the sweetbriar roses not blooming, Mrs. +Poteet," laughed Rose Mary as she held out her arms for the bundle +which cuddled against her breast in a woman-maddening fashion that +made her clasp the mite as close as she dared. + +"Yes, I tell you, seven hand-running is enough for any woman to be +proud of, Mis' Poteet, and it ought to be taken notice of. Have you +heard the news of the ten acres of bottom land to be given to him, +Rose Mary? That's what all the men are a-joking of Mr. Poteet about +over there at the store now. They are a-going to make out the deed +to-night. They bought the land from Bob Nickols right next to Mr. +Poteet's, crops and all, ten acres of the best land in Sweetbriar. I +call it a nice compliment. 'To Tucker Poteet, from Sweetbriar, is to +go right in the deed." + +"'Tucker Poteet,' oh, Mrs. Poteet, have you named him for Uncle +Tucker?" exclaimed Rose Mary with beaming eyes, and the rapture of her +embrace was only modified by a slight squirm from the young heir of +all Sweetbriar. + +"Well, I had had that name in my mind from the first if he come a boy, +but when Mr. Poteet got down to the store for some tansy, when he +weren't a hour old, he found all the men-folks had done named him that +for us, and it looked like we didn't have the chance to pass the +compliment. We ain't told you-all nothing about it, for they all +wanted Mr. Tucker to read it in the deed first." + +"And ain't them men a-going to have a good time when they give Mr. +Tucker that deed to read? Looks like, even if it is some trouble, you +couldn't hardly begrudge Sweetbriar these April babies, Mis' Poteet," +said Mrs. Plunkett in a consoling voice. + +"Law, Mis' Plunkett, I don't mind it one bit. It ain't a mite of +trouble to me to have 'em," answered the mother of the seven hardily. +"You all are so kind to help me out all the time with everything. +Course we are poor, but Jim makes enough to feed us, and every single +child I've got is by fortune, just a hand-down size for somebody +else's children. Five of 'em just stair-steps into clothes of Mis' +Rucker's four, and Mis' Nickols saves me all of Bob's things to cut +down, so I never have a mite of worry over any of 'em." + +"Yes, I reckon maybe the worry spread over seven don't have a chanct +to come to a head on any one of 'em," said Mrs. Plunkett thoughtfully, +and her shoulders began to stoop dejectedly as a perturbed expression +dawned into her gray eyes. "Better take him on home now, Mis' Poteet, +for sundown is house-time for babies in my opinion. Hand him over, +Rose Mary!" + +Thus admonished, with a last, clinging embrace, Rose Mary delivered +young Tucker to his mother, who departed with him in the direction of +the Poteet cottage over beyond the milk-house. + +"Is anything worrying you, Mrs. Plunkett? Can I help?" asked Rose Mary +as her neighbor lingered for a moment and glanced at her with wistful +eyes. Mrs. Plunkett was small, though round, with mournful big eyes +and clad at all times in the most decorous of widow's weeds, even if +they were of necessity of black calico on week days. Soft little curls +fell dejectedly down over her eyes and her red mouth defied a dimple +that had been wont to shine at the left corner, and kept to confines +of straight-lipped propriety. + +"It's about Louisa Helen again and her light-mindedness. I don't see +how a daughter of mine can act as she does with such a little feeling. +Last night Mr. Crabtree shut up the store before eight o'clock and put +on his Sunday coat to come over and set on the front steps a-visiting +of her, and in less'n a half hour that Bob Nickols had whistled for +her from the corner, and she stood at the front gate talking to him +until every light in Sweetbriar was put out, and I know it muster been +past nine o'clock. And there I had to set a-trying to distract Mr. +Crabtree from her giggling. We talked about Mr. Plunkett and all our +young days and I felt real comforted. If I can jest get Louisa Helen +to see what a proper husband Thomas Crabtree will make for her we can +all settle down comfortable like. He wants her bad, from all the signs +I can see." + +"But--but isn't Louisa Helen a little young for--" began Rose Mary, +taking what seemed a reasonable line of consolation. + +"No, she's not too young to marry," answered her mother with spirit. +"Louisa Helen is eighteen years old in May, and I was married to Mr. +Plunkett before my eighteenth birthday. He was twenty-one, and I +treated him with proper respect, too. I never said no such foolish +things as Louisa Helen says to that Nickols boy, even to Mr. +Crabtree, hisself." + +"Oh, please don't worry about Louisa Helen, Mrs. Plunkett. She is just +so lovely and young--and happy. You and I both know what it is to be +like that. Sometimes I feel as if she were just my own youngness that +I had kept pressed in a book and I had found it when I wasn't looking +for it." And Rose Mary's smile was so very lovely that even Mrs. +Plunkett was dazzled to behold. + +"Lands alive, Rose Mary, you carry your thirty years mighty easy, and +that's no mistake. You put me in mind of that blush peony bush of +yourn by the front gate. When it blooms it makes all the other flowers +look like they was too puny to shake out a petal. And for sheep's +eyes, them glances Mr. Gid Newsome casts at you makes all of Bob +Nickols' look like foolish lamb squints. And for what Mr. Mark does in +the line of sheeps--Now there they come, and I can see from Louisa +Helen's looks she have invited that rampage in to supper. I'll have to +hurry on over and knock up a extra sally-lunn for him, I reckon. +Good-by 'til morning!" And Mrs. Plunkett hurried away to the +preparation of supper for the suitor of her disapproval. + +For a few moments longer Rose Mary let her eyes go roaming out over +the valley that was lying in a quiet hush of twilight. + +Lights had flashed up in the windows over the village and a night +breeze was showering down a fall of apple-blow from the gnarled old +tree that stood like a great bouquet beside the front steps of the +Briars. All the orchards along the Road were in bloom and a fragrance +lay heavy over the pastures and mingled with the earth scent of the +fields, newly upturned by the plowing for spring wheat. + +"Is that a regiment you've got camping in the garden, Rose Mary?" +asked Everett as he came up the front walk in the moonlight some two +hours later and found Rose Mary seated on the top of the front steps, +all alone, with a perfectly dark and sleep-quiet house behind her. + +Rose Mary laughed and tossed a handful of the pink blow she had +gathered over his shoulder. "Did you have your supper at Bolivar?" she +asked solicitously. "I saved you some; want it?" + +"Yes, I had a repast at the Citizens', but I think I can manage yours +an hour or two later," answered Everett as he seated himself beside +her and lighted a cigar, from which he began to puff rings out into +the moonlight that sifted down on to them through the young leaves of +the bloom-covered old tree. "You weren't afraid of frost such a night +as this, were you?" he further inquired, as he took a deep breath of +the soft, perfume-laden air. + +"I'm not now, but a cool breeze blew up about sundown and made me +afraid for my garden babies. Now I'm sure they will all wilt under +their covers, and you'll have to help me take them all off before you +go to bed. Isn't it strange how loving things make you afraid they +will freeze or wilt or get wet or cold or hungry?" asked Rose Mary +with such delightful ingenuousness that a warm little flush rose up +over Everett's collar. "Loving just frightens itself, like children in +the dark," she added musingly. + +"And you saved my supper for me?" asked Everett softly. + +"Of course I did; didn't you know I would?" asked Rose Mary quickly, +in her simplicity of heart not at all catching the subtle drift of his +question. "They all missed you, and Uncle Tucker went to bed almost +grumpy, while Stonie--" + +"Rose Mamie," came in a sleepy but determined voice as the General in +a long-tailed nightshirt appeared in the dark doorway, "I went to +sleep and you never came back to hear me pray. Something woke me; +maybe the puppy in my bed or maybe God. I'll come out there and say +'em so you won't wake the puppy, because he's goned back to sleep," he +added in a voice that was hushed to a tone of extreme consideration +for the slumber of his young bedfellow. + +"Yes, honey-heart, come say them here. Mr. Mark won't mind. I came +back, Stonie, to hear them, truly I did, but you were so fast to sleep +and so tired I hated to wake you." And Rose Mary held out tender arms +to the little chap who came and knelt on the floor at her side, +between her and Everett. + +"But, Rose Mamie, you know Aunt Viney says tired ain't no 'scuse to +the Lord, and I don't think it are neither. I reckon He's tired, too, +sometimes, but He don't go back on the listening, and I ain't a-going +to go back on the praying. It wouldn't be fair. Now start me!" and +having in a completely argumentative way stated his feelings on the +subject of neglected prayer, the General buried his head on Rose +Mary's shoulder, folded one bare, pink foot across the other, clasped +his hands at proper angle and waited. + +"_Now I lay me_," began Rose Mary in a low and tender tone. + +"No," remonstrated Stonie in a smothered voice from her shoulder, +"this is 'Our Father' week! Don't tire out the Lord with the '_Now I +lay me_,' Rose Mamie!" + +With an exclamation of regret Rose Mary clasped him closer and led the +petition on through to its last word, though it was with difficulty +that the sleepy General reached his Amen, his will being strong but +his flesh weak. The little black head burrowed under Rose Mary's chin +and the clasped pink feet relaxed before the final words were said. +For a few minutes Rose Mary held him tenderly and buried her face +against the back of the sunburned little neck, while as helpless as +young Tucker Stonie wilted upon her breast and floated off into the +depths. And for still a few seconds longer Everett sat very still and +watched them with a curious gleam in his eyes and his teeth set hard +in his cigar; then he rose, bent over and very tenderly lifted the +relaxed General in his arms and without a word strode into the house +with him. Very carefully he laid him in the little cot that stood +beside Rose Mary's bed in her room down the hall, and with equal care +he settled the little dog against the bare, briar-scratched feet, +returned to the moonlight porch and resumed his seat at Rose Mary's +side. + +"There is something about the General," he remarked with a half smile, +"that--that gets next. He has a moral fiber that I hope he will be +able to keep resistent to its present extent, but I doubt it." + +"Oh," said Rose Mary, quickly looking up with pierced, startled eyes, +"he must keep it--he must; it is the only hope for him. Tell me if you +can how to help him keep it. Help me help him!" + +"Forgive me," answered Everett in quick distress. "I was only +scoffing, as usual. He'll keep what you give him, never fear, Rose +Mary; he's honor bound." + +"Yes, that's what I want him to be--'honor bound.' You don't know +about him, but to-night I want to tell you, because I somehow feel you +love him--and us--and maybe if you know, some day you will help him. +Just after I came back into the Valley and found them all so troubled +and--and disgraced, something came to me I thought I couldn't stand. +Always it seemed to me I had loved him, my cousin, Uncle Tucker's son, +and I thought--I thought he had loved me. But when he went out into +the world one of the village girls, Granny Satterwhite's daughter, had +followed him and--yes, she had been his wife for all the time we +thought she was working in the city. They had been afraid--afraid of +Uncle Tucker and me--to acknowledge it. She was foolish and he +criminally weak. After his--his tragedy she came back--and nobody +would believe--that she was his wife. I found her lying on the floor +in the milk-house and though I was hurt, and hard, I took her into my +room--and in a few hours Stonie was born. When they gave him to me, so +little and helpless, the hurt and hardness all melted for ever, and I +believed her and forgave her and him. I never rested until I made him +come back, though it was just to die. She stayed with us a year--and +then she married Todd Crabtree and moved West. They didn't want +Stonie, so she gave him to me. When my heart ached so I couldn't stand +it, there was always Stonie to heal it. Do you think that heartaches +are sometimes just growing pains the Lord sends when He thinks we have +not courage enough?" And in the moonlight Rose Mary's tear-starred +eyes gleamed softly and her lovely mouth began to flower out into a +little smile. The sunshine of Rose Mary's nature always threw a bow +through her tears against any cloud that appeared on her horizon. + +"I don't believe your heart ever needed any growing pains, Rose Mary, +and I resent each and every one," answered Everett in a low voice, and +he lifted one of Rose Mary's strong slim hands and held it close for a +moment in both his warm ones. + +"Oh, but it did," she answered, curling her fingers around his like a +child grateful for a caress. "I was romantic--and--and intense, and I +thought of it as a castle for--for just one. Now it's grown into a +wide, wing-spreading, old country house in Harpeth Valley, with vines +over the gables and doves up under the eaves. And in it I keep +sunshiny rooms to shelter all the folks in need that my Master sends. +Yours--is on the south side--corner--don't you want your supper now?" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE HONORABLE GID + + +"Now, Amandy, stick them jack-beans in the ground round side upwards. +Do you want 'em to have to turn over to sprout?" demanded Miss +Lavinia, as she stood leaning on her crotched stick over by the south +side of the garden fence, directing the planting of her favorite vine +that was to be trained along the pickets and over the gate. Little +Miss Amanda, as usual, was doing her best to carry out exactly the +behests of her older and a little more infirm sister. Miss Amanda was +possessed of a certain amount of tottering nimbleness which she put at +the disposal of Miss Lavinia at all times with the most cheery +good-will. Miss Amanda was of the order of little sisters who serve +and Miss Lavinia belonged to the sisterhood dominant by nature and by +the consent of Miss Amanda and the rest of her family. + +"It's such a long row I don't know as I'll hold out to finish it, +Sister Viney, if I have to stop to finger the beans in such a way as +that. But I'll try," answered the little worker, going on sticking the +beans in with trembling haste. + +"Let me help you, please, Miss Amanda," entreated Everett, who had +come out to watch the bean planting with the intention of offering +aid, with also the certainty of having it refused. + +"No, young man," answered Miss Lavinia promptly and decidedly. "These +jack beans must be set in by a hand that knows 'em. We can't run no +risks of having 'em to fail to come up. I got the seed of 'em over to +Springfield when me and Mr. Robards was stationed there just before +the war. Mr. Robards was always fond of flowers, and these jack beans +in special. He was such a proper meek man and showed so few likings +that I feel like I oughter honor this one by growing these vines in +plenty as a remembrance, even if he has been dead forty-odd years." + +"Was your husband a minister?" asked Everett in a voice of becoming +respect to the meek Mr. Robards, though he be demised for nearly half +a century. + +"He was that, and a proper, saddlebags-riding, torment-preaching +circuit rider before he was made presiding elder at an astonishing +early age," answered Miss Lavinia, a fading fire blazing up in her +dark eyes. "He saved many a sinner in Harpeth Valley by preaching both +heaven and hell in their fitten places, what's a thing this younger +generation don't know how to do any more, it seems like. A sermon that +sets up heaven like a circus tent, with a come-sinner-come-all sign, +and digs hell no deeper than Mill Creek swimming pool, as is skeercely +over a boy's middle, ain't no sermon at all to my mind. Most preaching +in Sweetbriar are like that nowadays." + +"But Brother Robards had a mighty sweet voice and he gave the call of +God's love so as to draw answers from all hearts," said Miss Amanda in +her own sweet little voice, as she jabbed in the beans with her right +hand and drew the dirt over them with her left. + +"Yes, husband was a little inclined to preach from Psalms more'n good +rousing Proverbs, but I always belt him to the main meat of the Gospel +and only let him feed the flock on the sweets of faith in proper +proportion," answered Miss Lavinia, with an echo in her voice of the +energy expended in keeping the presiding elder to a Jeremiah rather +than a David role in his ministry. + +"It was a mighty blow to the Methodist Church when he was taken away +so young," said Miss Amanda gently. "I know I said then that they +never would be--" + +"Lands alive, if here ain't Miss Viney and Miss Amandy out planting +the jack beans and I ain't got down not a square foot of summer +turnip greens!" exclaimed a hearty voice as Mrs. Rucker hurried up +across the yard to the garden gate. "Now I know I'm a behind-hander, +for my ground's always ready, and in go the greens when you all turn +spade for the bean vines. Are you a-looking for a little job of +plowing, Mr. Mark? I'd put Mr. Rucker at it, but he give his left +ankle a twist yestidy and have had to be kinder quiet, a-setting on +the back porch or maybe a-hobbling over to the store." + +"Yes, I'll plow, if you don't care whether your mule or plow or hame +strings come out alive," answered Everett with a laugh. Miss Amanda +had risen, hurried eagerly over to her favorite neighbor and held out +her hand for the pan tendered her. + +"Them's your sally luns, Miss Amandy, and they are a good chanct if I +do say it myself. I jest know you and Rose Mary have got on the big +pot and little kettle for Mr. Newsome, and I'm mighty proud to have +the luns handed around with your all's fixings. I reckon Rose Mary is +so comfusticated you can't hardly trust her with no supper rolls or +such like. Have you seen him yet, Rose Mary?" she asked of Rose Mary, +who had appeared at the garden gate. + +"No; I've just come up from the milk-house," answered Rose Mary with a +laughing blush. "When did Mr. Newsome come?" + +"Just now," answered Mrs. Rucker, with further banter in her eyes. +"And none of Solomon's lilies in all they glory was ever arrayed like +one of him. You better go frill yourself out, Rose Mary, for the men +ain't a-going to be able to hold him chavering over there at the store +very long." + +"It will only take me a few minutes to dress," answered Rose Mary, +with a continuation of the blush. "The Aunties are all ready for +supper, and Stonie and Uncle Tucker. Mag has got everything just ready +to dish up, and I'll take in the sally luns to be run in the stove at +the last moment. Isn't it lovely to have company? Friends right at +home you can show your liking for all the time, but you must be +careful to save their share for the others to give to them when they +come. Mr. Mark, don't you want to--" + +But before Rose Mary had begun her sentence Mr. Mark Everett, of New +York City, New York, was striding away across the yard with a long +swing, and as he went through the front gate it somehow slipped out of +his hand and closed itself with a bang. The expression of his back as +he crossed the road might have led one versed in romantics to conclude +that a half-unsheathed sword hung at his side and that he had two +flintlocks thrust into his belt. + +And over at the store he found himself in the midst of a jubilation. +Mr. Gideon Newsome, of Bolivar, Tennessee, stood in the doorway, and +surrounding him in the store, in the doorway and on the porch was the +entire masculine population of Sweetbriar. + +Mr. Newsome was tall and broad and well on the way to portliness. His +limbs were massive and slow of movement and his head large, with a +mane of slightly graying hair flung back from a wide, unfurrowed brow. +Small and very black eyes pierced out from crinkled heavy lids and a +bulldog jaw shot out from under a fat beak of a nose. And over the +broad expanse of countenance was spread a smile so sweet, so deep, so +high that it gave the impression of obscuring the form of features +entirely. In point of fact it was a thick and impenetrable veil that +the Senator had for long hung before his face from behind which to +view the world at large. And through his mouth, as through a rent in +the smile, he was wont to pour out a volume of voice as musical in its +drawl and intensified southern burr as the bass note on a +well-seasoned 'cello. + +He was performing the obligato of a prohibition hymn for the group of +farmers around him when he caught sight of Everett as he came across +the street. Instantly his voice was lowered to a honeyed +conversational pitch as he came to the edge of the porch and held out +a large, fat, white hand, into which Everett laid his own by courtesy +perforced. + +"I'm delighted to see you, Mr. Everett, suh, delighted!" he boomed. +"And in such evident improved health. I inquired for you at Bolivar as +soon as I returned and I was informed that you had come over here to +find perfect restoration to health in the salubrious climate of this +wonderful town of Sweetbriar. I'm glad to see your looks confirm the +answer to my anxious inquiries. And is all well with you?" + +"Thank you, Senator, I'm in pretty good shape again," answered Everett +with a counter smile. "Ten pounds on and I'm in fighting trim." The +words were said pleasantly, but for the life of him Everett could not +control the hostility of a quick glance that apparently struck +harmlessly against the veil of smiles. + +"That there ten pounds had oughter be twenty, Senator, at the rate of +the Alloway feeding of him, from milk-house to cellar preserve shelf," +said Mr. Crabtree from behind the counter where he was doing up a +pound of tea for the poet, who found it impossible to take his eyes +off the politician. "Miss Rose Mary ain't give me a glass of +buttermilk for more'n a week, and they do say she has to keep a loaf +handy in the milk-house to feed him 'fore he gets as far as Miss +Amandy and the kitchen. We're going to run him in a fattening race +with Mis' Rucker's fancy red hog she's gitting ready for the State +Fair and the new Poteet baby, young Master Tucker Poteet of +Sweetbriar." + +"So there's a new Poteet young man, and named for my dear friend, Mr. +Alloway! My congratulations, Mr. Poteet!" exclaimed the senator as he +pumped the awkward, horny hand of the embarrassed but proud Mr. Poteet +up and down as if it were the handle of the town pump. "I must be +sure to have an introduction to the young man. Want to meet all the +voters," he added, shaking out the smile veil with energy. + +And at this very opportune moment he looked down the Road and espied a +procession of presentation approaching. The General in the midst of +the Swarm was coming at a breakneck speed and clasped firmly in his +arms he held a small blue bundle. On his right galloped Tobe with +Shoofly swung at her usual dangerous angle on his hip, and Jennie +Rucker supported his left wing, with stumbling Petie pulled along +between her hand and that of small Peggy. Around and behind swarmed +the rest of the Poteet seven, the Ruckers and the Nickols, with Mrs. +Sniffer and the five little dogs bringing up the rear. + +"Well, well, and what have we here?" exclaimed the great man as he +descended and stood in front of the lined-up cohorts. + +"It's the Poteet baby," answered the General with precision. "We +bringed him to show you. He's going to be a boy; they can't nothing +change him now. Shoofly is a girl, but Mis' Poteet didn't fool us this +time. Besides if he'd been a girl we wouldn't a-had him for nothing." + +"Why, young man, you don't mean to discredit the girls, do you?" +demanded the Senator with a gallantly propitiating glance in the +direction of Jennie, Peggy and the rest of the bunch of assorted pink +and blue little calico petticoats. "Why could anything be finer than a +sweet little girl?" And as he spoke he rested his hand on Jennie's +tow-pigtailed head. + +"Well, what's sweet got to do with it if we've got too many of 'em?" +answered the General in his usual argumentative tone. "Till little +Tucker comed they was three more girls than they was boys, and it +wasn't fair. Now they is just two more, and four of Sniffie's puppies +is boys, so that makes it most even until another one comes, what'll +just _have_ to be a boy." And the General cast a threatening glance +in the direction of the calico bunch as he issued this ultimatum to +feminine Sweetbriar. + +"I'll ask Maw," murmured Jennie bashfully, but Miss Peggy turned up +her small nose and switched her short skirts scornfully as the men on +the porch laughed and the Senator emitted a very roar in his booming +bass. + +"Well, well, we'll have to settle that later," he said in his most +propitiating urge-voter voice as he cast a smile over the entire +Swarm. "Hadn't you better carry the young man back to his mother? He +seems to be restless," he further remarked, taking advantage of a +slight squirm in which young Tucker indulged himself, though he was +not at all uncomfortable in Stonie's arms, accustomed as he was to +being transported in any direction at any time by any one of his +confreres. And with this skilful hint of dismissal the Senator bent +down and bestowed the imperative political kiss on the little pink +Poteet head, smattered one or two over Shoofly and Pete, landed one on +the tip of Jennie Rucker's little freckled nose and started them all +up the Road in good order as he turned once more to the men in the +store. + +But the advent of the Swarm had served to remind the group of his +friends that the time for the roof-tree gathering was fast +approaching, and Mr. Crabtree was busy filling half-forgotten supper +orders for impatient waiters, while most of the men had gone up or +down the Road in the wake of the scattering Swarm. For a few minutes +the Senator and Everett were left on the porch steps alone. + +"I hear from some of the men that you have been able to do some +prospecting in the last weeks, Mr. Everett," remarked the Senator +casually from behind the veil, as he accepted and lighted a cigar. + +"Just knocked around a bit," answered Everett carelessly. "The whole +Mississippi Valley is interesting geologically. There is quite a +promise of oil here, but practically no outcrop." + +"Your examination been pretty thorough--professional?" queried the +Senator, still in an equally careless voice, though his little eyes +gleamed out of their slits. + +"Oh, yes, I thrashed it all out, especially Mr. Alloway's place. I'd +like to have found oil for him--and the rest of Sweetbriar, too, but +it isn't here." Everett spoke decidedly, and there was a note in his +voice as if to end the discussion. His own eyes he kept down on his +cigar and, as he lounged against a post he had an air of being +slightly bored by an uninteresting shop topic. The Senator looked at +him a few seconds keenly, started to make a trivial change in the +conversation, then made a flank movement, bent toward Everett and +began to speak in a suave and most confidential manner. + +"I'm sorry, too, you didn't find the oil on the old gentleman's +place," he said in his most open and dulcet tones. "I am very fond of +Mr. Alloway; I may say of the whole family. Farming is too hard work +for him at his years and I would have liked for him to have had the +ease of an increased income. Some time ago a phosphate expert examined +these regions, but reported nothing worth working. I had more hope of +the oil. As I say, I am interested in Mr. Alloway and the family--I +may say it to you in confidence, particularly interested in one of the +members." And the smile that the Senator bestowed upon Everett aroused +a keen desire for murder in the first degree. There was a challenge +and a warning in it and a cunning, too, that was deeper than both. +Controlling his impulse to smash the Senatorial bulldog jaw, Everett's +mind went instantly after the cunning. + +"So you only got the phosphate in your examination report of the +Alloway place?" he asked in a friendly, interested tone, as if the +hint had failed to make a landing. The cunning in his own glance and +tone he was shrewd enough to hide. + +"That was about all--nothing that was worth taking up then," answered +the Senator again carelessly, and at that moment Mr. Crabtree came out +to join them. + +In a few minutes Everett threw away his cigar, glanced across at the +Briars, where he could see Rose Mary and Uncle Tucker establishing +Miss Lavinia, in her high company cap, in the big chair on the front +porch, and without a word he strode out the back door of the store and +across the fields toward Boliver. He stopped at the Rucker side fence +and entrusted a message to the willing Jenny, and then went on into +the twilight in the direction of the lights of the distant town. + +And as he walked along his mood was, to say the least, savage, and he +cut, with a long switch he had picked up, at some nodding little wind +bells that had begun to show their colors along the side of the road. +He was hungry and he was having his supper in detached visions. Now +Rose Mary was handing the Senator a plate of high-piled supper rolls, +each with a golden stream of butter cascading down the side, and as +her lovely bare arm held them across to the guest probably she was +helping Stonie's plate with her other hand to a spoonful of cream +gravy over his nicely browned chicken leg. On her side of the table +Miss Lavinia was pouring the rich cream over her bowl of steaming mush +and the materialized aroma from Uncle Tucker's cup of coffee that Rose +Mary had just poured him brought tears to Everett's eyes. Then came a +flash of Aunt Amandy helping herself under Rose Mary's urging to a +second crisp waffle, and the Senator was preparing to accept his +sixth, impelled by the same solicitous smile that had landed the +second on the little old lady's plate. Again Rose Mary was pouring the +Senator's second cup and stirring in the cream. If she had lifted the +spoon to her lips, as she always did with Uncle Tucker's and +sometimes forgot and did with his, Everett would have--And at this +point he turned the bend and ran smash into the dramatic scene of a +romance. + +Seated by the side of the road was Louisa Helen Plunkett, and before +her stood young Bob Nickols, an agony of helplessness showing in every +line of his face and big loose-jointed figure, for Louisa Helen was +weeping into a handkerchief and one of her blue muslin sleeves. And it +was not a series of sentimental sobs and sighs or controlled and +effective sniffs in which Louisa Helen was indulging, but she was +boo-hooing in good earnest with real chokings and gurgles of sobs. Bob +was screwing the toe of his boot into the dust and saying and doing +absolutely and desperately nothing. + +"Why, Louisa Helen, what is the matter?" demanded Everett as he seated +himself beside the wailer and endeavored to bring down the pitch of +the sobs by a kindly pat on the heaving shoulder. + +"What's happened, Bob?" he demanded of the silent and dejected lover, +who only shook his head as he answered from the depths of confusion. + +"I don't know; she just of a sudden flung down and began to hollow and +I ain't never got her to say." + +"Oh, I want a supper and a veil and a bokay!" came in a perfect howl +from the folds of the sleeve. + +"I want some supper, too, Louisa Helen," said Everett quickly, and a +smile lifted the corners of his mouth as the situation began to +unravel itself to his sympathetic concern. "I guess I could take the +bouquet and veil, too," he added to himself in an undertone. + +"I ain't a-going to let Maw insult Bob no more, but I don't want no +Boliver wedding in the office of no hotel. I want to be married where +folks can look at me, and have something good to eat, and throw old +shoes and rice at me," came in a more constrained and connected flow, +as the poor little fugitive raised her head from her arm and reached +down to settle her skirts about her ankles, from which she had flirted +them in the kicks of one of her most violent paroxysms. Louisa Helen +was very young and just as pretty as she was young. She was rosy and +dimpled and had absurd little baby curls trailing down over her eyes, +and her tears had no more effect on her face than a summer shower. + +"Why, what did your mother say to Bob?" asked Everett, thus drawn into +the position of arbitrator between two family factions. + +"She told him that Jennie Rucker would be about his frying size when +he got old enough to pick a wife, and it hurt his feelings so he +didn't come to see me for a week, and he says he ain't never coming no +more. If I want him I will have to go over to Boliver and marry him +to-morrow." A sob began to rise again in the poor little bride +prospective's throat at the thought of the horrible Boliver wedding. + +The autocrat shifted uneasily, and in the dusk Everett could see that +he was completely melted and ready to surrender his position if he +could only find the line of retreat. + +"Well," said Everett judicially, as he looked up at Bob with a wink, +which was answered by the slightest beginning of laugh from the +insulted one, "I don't believe Bob wants to do without that bouquet +and veil and supper either. They are just the greatest things that +ever happen to a man"--another wink at Bob--"and Bob don't want to +give them up. Now suppose you go on back home to-night and don't say +anything to your mother about the matter, and to-morrow I'll ask Mr. +Crabtree to step over and make it up with Bob for her. I feel sure +she'll invite them both in to supper, and then sometime soon we can +all discuss the veil-bouquet question. You aren't in a hurry, are +you?" + +"Naw," answered Bob promptly. "Me and Paw ain't got all the winter +wheat in yet, and we've got to cut clover next week. We're mighty +busy now. I ain't in no hurry." + +"And I don't want to get married no way except when the briar roses is +in bloom so I can have the church tucked out in 'em. And I've got to +get some pretty clothes made, too," answered Louisa Helen, thus +putting in direct contrast the feminine and masculine attitude towards +nuptials in general and also in particular. + +"Then go on back home, you two," said Everett with a laugh, as he rose +to his feet and drew to hers the now smiling Louisa Helen. "And I +predict that by the time the briar roses are out something will happen +to make it all right. Put your faith in Mr. Crabtree, I should advise, +I suspect that he has--er influence with your mother." A giggle from +Louisa Helen and a guffaw from Bob, as the two young people started on +back along the Road, showed that they had both appreciated his veiled +sally. + +And as he stood watching them out of sight down the Road the twilight +faded from off the Valley and darkness came down in a starlit veil +from over old Harpeth. Everett climbed up and seated himself on the +top rail of the fence and again gave himself over to his moods. This +time one of bitterness, almost anger, rose to the surface. The same +old wheel grinding out here in the wilderness that he had left in the +market places of the world. The vision he had caught of the great +cycle being turned by some still greater source above the hills was--a +vision. The wheels ground on with the victims strapped and the cogs +dripping. Loot and the woman--loot and the woman! And he had thought +that out here "_in the hollow of His hand_" he had lost the sound of +that grind. And such a woman--the lovely gracious thing with the +unfaithful, dishonored lover's child in her arms, other women's +tumbling children clinging to her skirts and with hands outstretched +to protect and comfort the old gray heads in her care! A woman with a +sorrow in her heart but with eyes that were deep blue pools in which +there mirrored loves for all her little world! For a long time he sat +and looked out into the darkness, then suddenly he squared his +shoulders, gripped the rail tight in his hands for a half second and +then slipped to the ground. Picking up his switch he turned and strode +off toward Sweetbriar, which by this time was a little handful of +fireflys glowing down in the sweet meadows. + +When he got as far as the blacksmith's shop Everett climbed the wall +and approached the house through the garden, for in front of the store +had been piled high a bonfire of empty boxes and dry wood boughs, and +most of the inhabitants of Sweetbriar, small fry and large, were +assembled in jocular groups around its blaze of light. He could see +Mr. Crabtree and Bob rolling out an empty barrel to serve as a +speaking stand for the Honorable Gid, who stood in the foreground in +front of the store steps talking to Uncle Tucker, with an admiring +circle around him. Horses and wagons and buggies were hitched at +various posts along the road, which indicated the gathering of a small +crowd from neighboring towns to hear the coming oration, and the front +porch of the store presented a scene of unwonted excitement. + +Everett clicked the garden gate and steered around to the back door of +the kitchen in hopes of finding black Mag still at her post and +begging of her a glass of milk and a biscuit. But as he stood in the +doorway, instead of Mag he discovered Rose Mary with her white skirts +tucked up under one of her long kitchen aprons, putting the final +polishing touch to a shining pile of dishes. She looked up at him for +a second, and then went on with her work, and Everett could see that +her curled lips were trembling like a hurt child's. + +"I--I thought I might get a bite of something from--from Mag if she +hadn't left--the kitchen--I--I--" Everett hesitated on the threshold +and in speech. "I--I am sorry to trouble you," he finished lamely. + +"I don't believe you care--care if you do," answered Rose Mary, and +her blue eyes showed a decided temper spark under their black lashes. +"I see I made a mistake in expecting anything of you. A friend's +fingers ought not to slip through yours when you need them to hold +tight. But come, get your supper--" + +"Please, Rose Mary, I'm most awfully ashamed," he said as he came and +stood close beside her, and there was a note in his voice that fairly +startled him with its tenderness. "I'm just a cross old bear, and I +don't deserve anything, no supper and no--no Rose Mary to care whether +I'm hungry or not and no--" + +"But I put the supper up," said Rose Mary, with a little laugh and +catch in her voice. "I couldn't let you be hungry, even if you did +treat me that way." + +"Didn't Jennie Rucker come to tell you I couldn't get here to +supper?" asked Everett with what he felt to be a contemptible feint of +defense. + +"Yes, she came; but you knew we were going to have company and that I +wanted you to be here. You know Mr. Newsome is the best friend we have +in the world and your staying away meant that you didn't care if he +had been good to us. It hurt me! And the first bowl of lilacs was on +the table; I had been saving them for a surprise for you for two days, +and everything was so good and just as you like it and--" Rose Mary's +voice faltered again and a little tear splashed on the saucer she held +poised in her hand. + +"Well," answered Everett, like a sulky boy, "I didn't want any of the +Honorable Gid Newsome's lilacs or waffles or fried chicken, and I +didn't want to see you fix any coffee for him," he ended by blurting +out. + +"I didn't--I--that is--you are _horrid_," answered Rose Mary, but she +raised her eyes to his in which smiles waltzed around with tears and +the glint of her white teeth showed through red lips curling with +laugh that was forcing itself over them by way of the dimple in the +corner of her chin. "Anyway, what I have here on the top of the stove +is your waffles and your fried chicken, and these are your lilacs," +and she drew out a purple spray from her belt and dropped it on the +table beside him. "Sit down and I'll give it all to you right here +while I finish wiping the dishes. Mag was taken with a spell before +supper was over and had to go lie down and I stayed to finish things +while the others went over to the speaking," she added as she began to +bustle about with her usual hospitable concern. + +"You are an angel, Rose Mary Alloway," said Everett as he placed +himself on a split-bottom kitchen chair, bestowed his long legs under +the table and drew up as near to Rose Mary and her dish-towel as was +possible to be sure of keeping out of the flirt. "And I--I'm a +brute," he added contritely, though he dared a quick kiss on the bare +arm next and close to him. + +"No, you're not--just a boy," answered Rose Mary, as she set his +supper on the table before him. She had poured his coffee, stirred in +the cream and sugar and then laid the spoon decorous and straight in +the saucer beside the cup. For an instant Everett sat very still and +looked at her, then she picked up the cup and tipped it against her +lips, sipped judiciously and set it down with a satisfied air. For +just a second her eyes had gleamed down at him over the edge of the +cup and a tiny laugh gurgled in her throat as she swallowed her sip of +his beverage. + +"That was mine, anyway--he can have his chicken wings," said Everett +with a laugh as he began operations on the food before him. + +"It wasn't a very nice party," answered Rose Mary as she went on with +her work on the pile of china. "Stonie acted awfully. He piled up his +plate with pieces of chicken, and when Aunt Viney reproved him he +said he was saving it for you. And Aunt Viney said she was sure you +were sick, and then Uncle Tucker wanted to go look for you and I had +to tell him before them all that you had sent me word. Then Aunt +Amandy said she was afraid you were not a Prohibitionist, and Aunt +Viney said she would have to talk to you in the morning. Then they all +told Mr. Newsome all about you, and I don't think he liked it much +because he likes to tell us things about himself. We are so fond of +him, and we always want to hear him talk about where he has been and +what he has done. I tried to stop them and make him talk, but I +couldn't. It's strange how liking a person gets them on your mind so +that even if you don't talk about them you think about them all the +time, isn't it? But I oughtn't to blame them, for I was so afraid they +wouldn't leave enough of things for you that I forgot to talk myself. +I was glad Stonie acted that way about the chicken, for the piece he +saved made three pieces of white meat for you. Oh, please let's +hurry, because we will miss the speaking if we don't. Mr. Newsome +makes such beautiful speeches that I want you to hear him. Is there +any kind of pride in the world like that you have over your friends?" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE ENEMY, THE ROD AND THE STAFF + + +And the days that followed the Senator's prohibition rally at +Sweetbriar were those of carnival for jocund spring all up and down +Providence Road and out over the Valley. Rugged old Harpeth began to +be crowned with wreaths of tender green and pink which trailed down +its sides in garlands that spread themselves out over meadow and farm +away beyond the river bend. Overnight, rows of jonquils in Mrs. +Poteet's straggling little garden lifted up golden candlestick heads +to be decapitated at an early hour and transported in tight little +bunches in dirty little fists to those of the neighbors whose spring +flowers had failed to open at such an early date. In spite of what +seemed an open neglect, the Poteet flowers were always more prolific +and advanced than any others along the Road, much to the pride of the +equally prolific and spring-blooming Mrs. Poteet. And in a spirit of +nature's accord the white poet's narcissus showed starry flowers to +the early sun in the greatest abundance along the Poteet fence that +bordered on the Rucker yard. They peeped through the pickets, and who +knows what challenge they flung to the poetic soul of Mr. Caleb Rucker +as he sat on the side porch with his stockinged feet up on a chair and +his nose tilted to an angle of ecstatic inhalation? + +Down at the Plunketts the early wistaria vine that garlanded the front +porch hung thick with long purple clusters which dropped continually +little bouquets of single blossoms with perfect impartiality on the +head of widow and maid, as the compromise of entertaining both young +Bob and Mr. Crabtree at the same time was carried out by Louisa Helen. +And often with the most absolute unconsciousness the demure little +widow allowed herself to be drawn by the wily Mr. Crabtree into the +mystic circle of three, which was instantly on her appearance +dissolved into clumps of two. And if the prodigal vine showered +blessings down upon a pair of clasped hands hid beside Louisa Helen's +fluffy pink muslin skirts nobody was the wiser, except perhaps Mr. +Crabtree. + +And perched on the side of the hill the Briars found itself in a +perfect avalanche of blossoms. The snowballs hung white and heavy from +long branches, and gorgeous lilac boughs bent and swayed in the wind. +A clump of bridal wreath by the front gate was a great white drift +against the new green of a crimson-starred burning bush, while over it +all trailed the perfume-laden honeysuckle which bowered the front +porch, decorated trellis and trees and finally flung its blossoms down +the hill to well-nigh cloister Rose Mary's milk-house. + +One balmy afternoon Everett brushed aside a spray of the pink and +white blossoms and stood in the stone doorway with his prospecting +kit in his hands. Rose Mary lifted quick welcoming eyes to his and +went on with her work with bowl and paddle. Everett had some time +since got to the point where it was well-nigh impossible for him to +look directly into Rose Mary's deep eyes, quaff a draft of the +tenderness that he always found offered him and keep equanimity enough +to go on with the affairs in hand. What business had a woman's eyes to +be so filled with a young child's innocence, a violet's shyness, a +passion of fostering gentleness, mirth that ripples like the surface +of the crystal pools, and--could it be dawning--love? Everett had been +in a state of uncertainty and misery so abject that it hid itself +under an unusually casual manner that had for weeks kept Rose Mary +from suspecting to the least degree the condition of his mind. There +is a place along the way in the pilgrimage to the altar of Love, when +the god takes on an awe-inspiring phase which makes a man hide his +eyes in his hands with fear of the most abject. At such times with her +lamp of faith a woman goes on ahead and lights the way for both, but +while Rose Mary's flame burned strongly, her unconsciousness was +profound. + +"I'm so glad you came," she said with the usual rose signal to him in +her cheeks. "I've been wondering where you were and just a little bit +uneasy about you. Mr. Newsome has been here and wants to see you. He +stayed to dinner and waited for you for two hours. Stonie and Tobe and +all the others looked for you. I know you are hungry. Will you have a +drink of milk before I go with you to get your dinner I saved?" + +"What did the Honorable Gid want?" asked Everett, and there was a +strange excitement in his eyes as he laid his hand quickly on a small, +irregular bundle of stones that bulged out of his kit. His voice had a +sharp ring in it as he asked his question. + +"Oh, I think he just wanted to see you because he likes you," +answered Rose Mary with one of her lifted glances and quick smiles. "A +body can take their own liking for two other people and use it as a +good strong rope just to pull them together sometimes. I'm awfully +fond of Mr. Newsome--and you," she added as she came over from one of +the crocks with Peter Rucker's blue cup brimming with ice cold cream +in her hand and offered it to Everett. + +Instead of taking the cup from her Everett clasped his fingers around +her slender wrist in the fashion of young Petie and thus with her hand +raised the cup to his lips. And as his eyes looked down over its blue +rim into hers the excitement in them died down, first into a very deep +tenderness that changed slowly into a quiet determination which seemed +to be pouring a promise and a vow into her very soul. Something in the +strange look made Rose Mary's hand tremble as he finished the last +drop in the cup, and again her lovely, always-ready rose flushed up +under her long lowered lashes. "Is it good and cold?" she asked with +a little smile as she turned away with the cup. + +"Yes," answered Everett quietly, "it's all to the good and the milk +to the cold." + +"Is that a compliment to me and the milk, too?" laughed Rose Mary from +over by the table as she again took up her butter-paddle. "It's nice +to find things as is expected of them, women good and milk cold, isn't +it?" she queried teasingly. + +"Yes," answered Everett from across the table. + +"And any way a woman must be a comfort to folks, just as a rose must +smell sweet, because they're both born for that," continued Rose Mary +as she lifted a huge pat of the butter on to a blue saucer. "Men are +sometimes a comfort, too--and sweet," she added with a roguish glance +at him over the butter flower she was making. + +"No, Rose Mary, men are just thorns, cruel and slashing--but sometimes +they protect the rose," answered Everett in his most cynical tone of +voice, though the excitement again flamed up in his dark eyes and +again his hand closed over the kit at his side. "Do you know what I +think I'll do?" he added. "I think I'll take old Gray and jog over to +Boliver for a while. I'll see the Senator, and I want to get a wire +through to the firm in New York if I can. I'll eat both the dinner and +supper you have saved when I come back, though it may be late before I +get my telegram. Will you be still awake, do you think?" + +"I may not be awake, for Stonie got me up so awfully early to help him +and Uncle Tucker grease those foolish little turkeys' heads to keep +off the dew gaps, but I'll go to sleep on the settee in the hall, and +you can just shake me up to give you your supper." + +"I'll do nothing of the kind, you foolish child," answered Everett. +"Go to bed and--but a woman can't manage her dreams, can she?" + +"Oh, dreams are only little day thoughts that get out of the coop and +run around lost in the dark," answered Rose Mary, with a laugh. "I've +got a little bronze-top turkey dream that is yours," she added. + +"Is it one of the foolish flock?" Everett called back from the middle +of the plank across the spring stream, and without waiting for his +answer he strode down the Road. + +And the smile that answered his sally had scarcely faded off Rose +Mary's face when again a shadow fell across the plank and in a moment +Mr. Crabtree stood in the doorway. Across the way the store was +deserted and from the chair he drew just outside the door he could see +if any shoppers should approach from either direction. + +"Well, Miss Rose Mary, I thought as how I'd drop over and see if you +had any buttermilk left in that trough you are fattening Mr. Mark at, +for the fair in the fall," he said with a twinkle in his merry little +blue eyes. And Rose Mary laughed with appreciation at his often +repeated little joke as she handed him a tall glassful of the desired +beverage. + +"I'm afraid Stonie will get the blue ribbon from over his head if he +keeps on drinking so much milk. Did you ever see anybody grow like my +boy does?" asked Rose Mary with the most manifest pride in her voice +and eyes. + +"I never did," answered Mr. Crabtree heartily. "And that jest reminds +me to tell you that a letter come from Todd last night a-telling me +and Granny Satterwhite about the third girl baby borned out to his +house in Colorado City. Looked like they was much disappointed. I +kinder give Todd a punch in the ribs about how fine a boy General +Stonewall Jackson have grown to be. I never did hold with a woman +a-giving away her child, though she couldn't have done the part you do +by Stonie by a long sight." + +"Oh, what would I have done without Stonie, Mr. Crabtree!" exclaimed +Rose Mary with a deep sadness coming into her lovely eyes. "You know +how it was!" she added softly, claiming his sympathy with a little +gesture of her hand. + +"Yes, I do know," answered the store-keeper, his big heart giving +instant response to the little cry. "And on him you've done given a +lesson in child raising to the whole of Sweetbriar. They ain't a child +on the Road, girl or boy, that ain't being sorter patterned after the +General by they mothers. And the way the women are set on him is plumb +funny. Now Mis' Plunkett there, she's got a little tin bucket jest to +hold cakes for nobody but Stonie Jackson, which he distributes to the +rest, fair and impartial. I kinder wisht Mis' Plunkett would be a +little more free with--with--" And the infatuated old bachelor laughed +sheepishly at Rose Mary across her butter-bowl. + +"When a woman bakes little crisp cakes of affection in her heart, and +the man she wants to have ask her for them don't, what must she do?" +asked Rose Mary with a little laugh that nevertheless held a slight +note of genuine inquiry in it. + +"Just raise the cover of the bucket and let him get a whiff," answered +Mr. Crabtree, shaking with amusement. "'Tain't no use to offer a man +no kind of young lollypop when he have got his mouth fixed on a nice +old-fashioned pound-cake woman," he added in a ruthful tone of voice +as he and Rose Mary both laughed over the trying plight in which he +found his misguided love affairs. "There comes that curly apple puff +now. Howdy, Louisa Helen; come across the plank and I'll give you this +chair if I have to." + +"I don't wanter make you creak your joints," answered Louisa Helen +with a pert little toss of her curly head as she passed him and stood +by Rose Mary's table. "Miss Rose Mary, I wanter to show you this +Sunday waist I've done made Maw and get you to persuade her some about +it for me. I put this little white ruffle in the neck and sleeves and +a bunch of it down here under her chin, and now she says I've got to +take it right off. Paw's been dead five years, and I've most forgot +how he looked. Oughtn't she let it stay?" + +"I think it looks lovely," answered Rose Mary, eying the waist with +enthusiasm. "I'll come down to see your mother and beg her to let it +stay as soon as I get the butter worked. Didn't she look sweet with +that piece of purple lilac I put in her hair the other night? Did she +let that stay?" + +"Yes, she did until Mr. Crabtree noticed it, and then she threw it +away. Wasn't he silly?" asked Louisa Helen with a teasing giggle at +the blushing bachelor. + +"It shure was foolish of me to say one word," he admitted with a +laugh. "But I tell you girls what I'll do if you back Mis' Plunkett +into that plum pretty garment with its white tags. I'll go over to +Boliver and bring you both two pounds of mixed peppermint and +chocolate candy with a ribbon tied around both boxes, and maybe some +pretty strings of beads, too. Is it a bargain?" And Rose Mary smiled +appreciatively as Louisa Helen gave an eager assent. + +At this juncture a team driven down the Road had stopped in front of +the store, and from under the wide straw hat young Bob Nickols' eager +eyes lighted on Louisa Helen's white sunbonnet which was being flirted +partly in and partly out of the milk-house door. As he threw down the +reins he gave a low, sweet quail whistle, and Louisa Helen's response +was given in one liquid note of accord. + +"Lands alive, it woulder been drinking harm tea to try to whistle a +woman down in my day, but now they come a-running," remarked Mr. +Crabtree to Rose Mary, as he prepared to take his departure in the +wake of the pink petticoats that had hurried across the street. + +Then for another hour Rose Mary worked alone in the milk-house, +humming a happy little tune to herself as she pounded and patted and +moulded away. Every now and then she would glance down Providence Road +toward Boliver, far away around the bend, and when at last she saw old +Gray and her rider turn behind the hill she began to straighten things +preparatory to a return to the Briars. In the world-old drama of +creation which is being ever enacted anew in the heart of a woman, it +is well that the order of evolution is reversed and only after the +bringing together and marshaling of forces unsuspected even by herself +comes the command for light on the darkness of the situation. Rose +Mary was as yet in the dusk of the night which waited for the voice of +God on the waters, and there was yet to come the dawn of her first +day. + +And in the semi-mist of the dream she finally ascended the hill toward +the Briars with a bucket in one hand and a sunbonnet swinging in the +other. But coming down the trail she met one of the little tragedies +of life in the person of Stonewall Jackson, who was dragging +dejectedly across the yard from the direction of the back door with +Mrs. Sniffer and all five little dogs trailing in his wake. And as if +in sympathy with his mood, the frisky little puppies were waddling +along decorously while Sniffer poked her nose affectionately into the +little brown hand which was hanging without its usual jaunty swing. +Rose Mary took in the situation at a glance and sank down under one of +the tall lilac bushes and looked up with adoring eyes as Stonie came +and took a spread-legged stand before her. + +"What's the matter, honey-sweet?" she asked quickly. + +"Rose Mamie, it's a lie that I don't know whether I told or not. It's +so curious that I don't hardly think God knows what I did," and the +General's face was set and white with his distress. + +"Tell me, Stonie, maybe I can help you decide," said Rose Mary with +quick sympathy. + +"It was one of them foolish turkey hens and Tobe sat down on her and +a whole nest of most hatched little turkeys. Didn't nobody know she +was a-setting in the old wagon but Aunt Amandy, and we was a-climbing +into it for a boat on the stormy sea, we was playing like. It was +mighty bad on Tobe's pants, too, for he busted all the eggs. Looks +like he just always finds some kind of smell and falls in it. I know +Mis' Poteet'll be mad at him. And then in a little while here come +Aunt Amandy to feed the old turkey, and she 'most cried when she found +things so bad all around everywhere. We had runned behind the +corn-crib, but when I saw her begin to kinder cry I comed out. Then +she asked me did I break up her nest she was a-saving to surprise +Uncle Tucker with, and I told her no ma'am I didn't--but I didn't tell +her I was with Tobe climbing into the wagon, and it only happened he +slid down first on the top of the old turkey. It don't _think_ like to +me it was a lie, but it _feels_ like one right here," and Stonie laid +his hand on the pit of his little stomach, which was not far away from +the seat of his pain if the modern usage assigned the solar-plexus be +correct. + +"And did Tobe stay still behind the corn-crib and not come out to tell +Aunt Amandy he was sorry he had ruined her turkey nest?" asked Rose +Mary, bent on getting all the facts before offering judgment. + +"Yes'm, he did, and now he's mighty sorry, cause Tobe loves Aunt +Amandy as well as being skeered of the devil. He says if it was Aunt +Viney he'd rather the devil would get him right now than tell her, but +if you'll come lend him some of my britches he will come in and tell +Aunt Amandy about it. He's tooken his off and he has to stay in the +corn-crib until I get something for him to put on." + +"Of course I'll come get some trousers for Tobe and a clean shirt, +too, and I know Aunt Amanda will be glad to forgive him. Tobe is +always so nice to her and she'll be sorry he's sorry, and then it +will be all right, won't it?" And thus with a woman's usual shrinking +from meeting the question ethical, Rose Mary sought to settle the +matter in hand out of court as it were. + +"No, Rose Mamie, I ain't sure about that lie yet," asserted the +General in a somewhat relieved tone of voice, but still a little +uneasy about the moral question involved in the case. "Did I tell it +or not? Do you know, Rose Mamie, or will I have to wait till I go to +God to find out?" + +"Stonie, I really don't know," admitted Rose Mary as she drew the +little arguer to her and rested her cheek against the sturdy little +shoulder under the patched gingham shirt. "It was not your business to +tell on Tobe but--but--please, honey-sweet, let's leave it to God, +now. He understands, I'm sure, and some day when you have grown a big +and wise man you'll think it all out. When you do, will you tell Rose +Mamie?" + +"Yes, I reckon I'll have to wait till then, and I'll tell you sure, +Rose Mamie, when I do find out. I won't never forget it, but I hope +maybe Tobe won't get into no more mess from now till then. Please come +find the britches for me!" And consoled thus against his will the +General followed Rose Mary to the house and into their room, eager for +the relief and rehabiting of the prisoner. + +And in a few minutes the scene of the _amende honorable_ between +little Miss Amanda and the small boys was enacted out on the back +steps, well out of sight and hearing of Miss Lavinia. A new bond was +instituted between the little old lady, who was tremulous with +eagerness to keep the culprit from any form of self-reproach, and +Tobe, the unfortunate, who was one of her most ardent admirers at all +times. And it was sealed by a double handful of tea-cakes to both +offenders. + +After she had watched the boys disappear in the direction of the barn, +intent on making a great clean-up job of the disaster under Miss +Amanda's direction, Rose Mary wended her way to the garden for a +precious hour of communion with her flowers and vegetable nursery +babies. She had just tucked up her skirts and started in with a light +hoe when she espied Uncle Tucker coming slowly up Providence Road from +the direction of the north woods. Something a bit dejected in his step +and a slightly greater stoop in his shoulders made her throw down her +weapon of war on the weeds and come to lean over the wall to wait for +him. + +"What's the matter, old Sweetie--tired?" she demanded as he came +alongside and leaned against the wall near her. His big gray eyes were +troubled and there was not the sign of the usual quizzical smile. The +forelock hung down in a curl from under the brim of the old gray hat +and the lavender muffler swung at loose ends. As he lighted the old +cob his lean brown hands trembled slightly and he utterly refused to +look into Rose Mary's eyes. "What is it, honey-heart?" she demanded +again. + +"What's what, Rose Mary?" asked Uncle Tucker with a slight rift in the +gloom. "They are some women in the world, if a man was to seal up his +trouble in a termater-can and swoller it, would get a button-hook and +a can-opener to go after him to get it out. You belong to that +persuasion." + +"I want to be the tomato-can--and not be 'swollered'," answered Rose +Mary as she reached over and gently removed the tattered gray roof +from off the white shock and began to smooth and caress its brim into +something of its former shape. "I know something is the matter, and if +it's your trouble it's mine. I'm your heir at law, am I not?" + +"Yes, and you're a-drawing on the estate for more'n your share of +pesters, looks like," answered Uncle Tucker as he raised his eyes to +hers wistfully. + +"Is it something about--about the mortgage?" asked Rose Mary in the +gently hushed tone that she always used in speaking of this ever +couchant enemy of their peace. + +"Yes," answered Uncle Tucker slowly, "it's about the mortgage, and I'm +mighty sorry to have to tell you, but I reckon I'll have to come to +accepting you from the Lord as a rod and staff to hobble on. I--I had +that settlement with the Senator this evening 'fore he left and it +came pretty nigh winding me to see how things stood. Instead of a +little more'n one hundred dollars behind in the interest we are mighty +near on to six, and by right figures, too. It just hasn't measured out +any year, and I never stopped to count it at so much. Gid was mighty +kind about it and said never mind, let it run, but--but I'm not +settled in my mind it's right to hold on like this; he maybe didn't +mean it, but before dinner he dropped a word about being mighty hard +pressed for money to keep up this here white ribbon contest he's +a-running against his own former record. No, I'm not settled in my +mind about the rights of it," and with this uneasy reiteration Uncle +Tucker raised his big eyes to Rose Mary in which lay the exact quest +for the path of honor that she had met in the young eyes of the +General not two hours before. In fact, Uncle Tucker's eyes were so +like Stonie's in their mournful demand for a decision from her that +Rose Mary's tender heart throbbed with sympathy but sank with dismay +at again having the decision of a question of masculine ethics +presented to her. + +"I just don't know what to say, Uncle Tucker," she faltered, thus +failing him in his crisis more completely than she had the boy. + +"The time for saying has passed, and I'm afraid to look forwards to +what we may have to do," answered Uncle Tucker quietly. "After Gid was +gone on up the road I walked over to Tilting Rock and sat down with my +pipe to think it all over. My eyes are a-getting kinder dim now, but +as far as I could see in most all directions was land that I had +always called mine since I come into a man's estate. And there is none +of it that has ever had a deed writ aginst it since that first Alloway +got it in a grant from Virginy. There is meadow land and corn +hillside, creeks for stock and woodlands for shelter, and the Alloways +before me have fenced it solid and tended it honest, with return +enrichment for every crop. And now it has come to me in my old age to +let it go into the hands of strangers--sold by my own flesh and blood +for a mess of pottage, he not knowing what he did I will believe, God +help me. I'm resting him and the judgment of him in the arms of Mercy, +but my living folks have got to have an earthly shelter. Can you see a +way, child? As I say, my eyes are a-getting dim." + +"I can't see any other shelter than the Briars, Uncle Tucker, and +there isn't going to be any other," answered Rose Mary as she stroked +the old hat in her hand. "You know sometimes men run right against a +stone wall when a woman can see a door plainly in front of them both. +She just looks for the door and don't ask to know who is going to open +it from the other side. Our door is there I know--I have been looking +for it for a long time. Right now it looks like a cow gate to me," and +a little reluctant smile came over Rose Mary's grave face as if she +were being forced to give up a cherished secret before she were ready +for the revelation. + +"And if the gate sticks, Rose Mary, I believe you'll climb the fence +and pull us all over, whether or no," answered Uncle Tucker with a +slightly comforted expression coming into his eyes. "You're one of the +women who knot a bridle out of a horse's own tail to drive him with. +Have you got this scheme already geared up tight, ready to start?" + +"It's only that Mr. Crabtree brought word from town that the big +grocery he sells my butter to would agree to take any amount I could +send them at a still larger price. If we could hold on to the place, +buy more cows and all the milk other people in Sweetbriar have to sell +I believe I could make the interest and more than the interest every +year. But if Mr. Newsome needs the money, I am afraid--he might not +like to wait. It would be a year before I could see exactly how things +succeed--and that's a long time." + +"Yes, and it would mean for you to just be a-turning yourself into +meat and drink for the family, nothing more or less, Rose Mary. You +work like you was a single filly hitched to a two-horse wagon now, and +that would be just piling fence rails on top of the load of hay you +are already a-drawing for all of us old live stock. You couldn't work +all that butter." + +"Don't you know that love mixed in the bread of life makes it easy for +the woman to work a large batch for her family, Uncle Tucker?--and why +not butter? Will you talk to Mr. Newsome the next time he comes and +see what he thinks of the plan? I would tell him about it +myself--only I--I don't know why, but I don't--want to." Rose Mary +blushed and looked away across the Road, but her confusion was all +unnoticed by Uncle Tucker, who was busily lighting a second pipeful of +tobacco. + +"Yes, I'll talk to him and Crabtree both about it," he answered +slowly. "I can't hardly bear the idea of your doing it, child, and if +it was just me I wouldn't hear tell of it, but Sister Viney and Sister +Amandy--moved they'd be like a couple of sprouts of their own +honeysuckle vine that you had pulled up and left in the sun to wilt. +Home was a place to grow in for women of their day, not just a-kinder +waiting shack between stations like it has come to be in these times +of women's uprising--in the newspapers." + +"We don't get much new woman excitement out here in Harpeth Valley, +Uncle Tucker," laughed Rose Mary, glad to see him rise once more from +the depth of his depression to his usual philosophic level. "You +wouldn't call--er--er Mrs. Poteet a modern woman, would you?" + +"Fly-away, Peggy Poteet is the genuine, original mossback and had +oughter be expelled from the sex by the confederation president +herself," answered Uncle Tucker as they both glanced down past the +milk-house where they saw the comely mother of the seven at her gate +administering refreshment in the form of bread and jam to all of her +own and quite a number of the other members of the Swarm, including +the General and the reclothed and shriven Tobe. "If there is another +Poteet output next April we'll have to report her," he added with a +laugh. + +"But there never was a baby since Stonie like little Tucker," answered +Rose Mary in quick defense of the small namesake of whom Uncle Tucker +was secretly but inordinately proud. + +"Yes, and I'm a-going to report you to the society of suppression of +men folks as a regular spiler, Rose Mary Alloway, if you don't keep +more stern than you are at present with me and Stonie, to say nothing +of all the men members of Sweetbriar from Everett clean on through +Crabtree down to that very young Tucker Poteet. You are one of the +women that feed and clothe and blush on men like you were borned a +hundred years ago and nobody had told you they wasn't worth shucks. +Are you a-going to reform?" + +"I'll try when I get time," answered Rose Mary with a smile as she +bestowed both a fleeting kiss and the old hat on Uncle Tucker's +forelock over the wall. "Now I want to run in and make a few cup +custards, so I can save one for Mr. Mark when he gets home to-night. +He loves them cold. Little cooking attentions never spoil men, they +just nourish them. Anyway, what is a woman going to have left to do in +life if she sheds the hovering feathers she keeps to tuck her nesties +underneath?" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SATSUMA VASE + + +"Well, howdy to-day, Mis' Poteet!" exclaimed Mrs. Rucker as she came +across her side yard and leaned over the Poteet fence right opposite +the Poteet back porch. "I brought you this pan of rolls to set away +for Mr. Poteet's supper. When I worked out the sponge looked like my +pride over 'em riz with the dough and I just felt bound to show 'em +off to somebody; I know I can always count on a few open mouths in +this here nest." + +"That you can and thanky squaks, too, Mis' Rucker. I don't know +however I would feed 'em all if it wasn't for the drippings from your +kitchen," answered the placid and always improvident Mrs. Poteet as +she picked up Shoofly and came over to the fence, delighted at a +chance for a few minutes parley with the ever busy and practical Mrs. +Rucker. She balanced the gingham-clad bunch on its own wobbly legs +beside her, while through the pickets of the fence in greeting were +thrust the pink hands of Petie, the bond, who had followed in the wake +of his own maternal skirts. Shoofly responded to this attention with a +very young feminine gurgle of delight and licked at the chubby fist +thrust toward her like an overjoyed young kitten. + +"Well, Monday is always a scrap day, so I try to kinder perk up my +Monday supper. Singing in the quire twict on Sunday and too much +confab with the other men on the store steps always kinder tires Mr. +Rucker out so he can't hardly get about with his sciatica on Monday, +and I have to humor him some along through the day. That were a mighty +good sermon circuit rider preached last night." + +"Yes, I reckon it were, but my mind was so took up with the way Louisa +Helen flirted herself down the aisle with Bob on one side of her and +Mr. Crabtree on the other, I couldn't hardly get my mind down to +listening. And when she contrived Mr. Crabtree into the pew next to +Mis' Plunkett, as she moved down for 'em, I most gave a snort out +loud. Didn't Mis' Plunkett look nice in that second mourning tucker it +took Louisa Helen and all of Sweetbriar to persuade her into?" + +"Lou Plunkett is as pretty as a chiny aster that blooms in September +and what she's having these number-two conniptions over Mr. Crabtree +for is more than I can see. I look on a second husband as a good +dessert after a fine dinner and a woman oughter swallow one when +offered without no mincing. I wouldn't make two bites of taking Mr. +Crabtree after poor puny Mr. Plunkett if it was me. Of course there +never was such a man as Mr. Satterwhite, but he was always mighty +busy, while Cal Rucker is a real pleasure to me a-setting around the +house on account of his soft constitution. Mr. Satterwhite, I'm +thankful to say, left me so well provided for that I can afford Mr. +Rucker as a kind of play ornament." + +"Yes, they ain't nothing been thought up yet to beat marrying," +answered Mrs. Poteet. "Now didn't Emma Satterwhite find a good chanct +when Todd Crabtree married her and took her away after all that young +Tucker Alloway doings? It were a kind of premium for flightiness, but +I for one was glad to get her gone off'en Rose Mary's hands. I +couldn't a-bear to see her tending hand and foot a woman she were +jilted for." + +"Well, a jilt from some men saves a woman from being married with a +brass ring outen a popcorn box, in my mind, and Tucker Alloway were +one of them kind of men. But talking about marrying, I'm kinder +troubled in my mind about something, and I know I can depend on you +not to say nothing to nobody. Mr. Gid Newsome stopped at my gate last +week and got me into a kinder hinting chavering that have been +a-troubling me ever since. Now that's where Mr. Rucker is such a +comfort to me, he'll stay awake and worry as long as I have need of, +while I wouldn't a-dared to speak to Mr. Satterwhite after he put out +the light. But this is about what I've pieced outen that talk with the +Senator, with Cal's help. That mortgage he has got on the Briars about +covers it, like a double blanket on a single bed, and with the +interest beginning to pile up it's hard to keep the ends tucked in. +The time have come when Mr. Tucker can't make it no more and something +has got to be done. But they ain't no use to talk about moving them +old folks. I gather from a combination of what Mr. Gid looked and +_didn't_ say that he were entirely willing to take over the place and +make some sorter arrangement about them all a-staying on just the +same. That'd be mighty kind of him." + +"You don't reckon he'd do no such take-me-or-get-out co'ting to Rose +Mary, do you?" asked the soft-natured little Mrs. Poteet with alarmed +sympathy in her blue eyes. + +"Oh, no, he ain't that big a fool. Every man knows in marrying an +unwilling woman he's putting himself down to eat nothing but scraps +around the kitchen door. But I wisht Rose Mary could make up her mind +to marry Mr. Newsome. She might as well, for in the end a woman can't +tell nothing about taking a man; she just has to choose a can of a +good brand and then be satisfied, for they all season and heat up +about alike. I never gave him no satisfaction about talking his +praises to her, but I reckon I'm for the tie-up if Rose Mary can see +it that way." And Mrs. Rucker glanced along the Road toward Rose +Mary's milk-house with a kindly, though calculating matchmaking in her +practical eyes. + +"I'm kinder for Mr. Mark," ventured the more sentimental Mrs. Poteet +with a smile. "He's as handsome as Rose Mary are, and wouldn't they +have pretty--" + +"Oh, shoo, I don't hold with no marrying outen the Valley for Rose +Mary! She's needed here and ain't got no call to gallivant off to New +York and beyont with a strange man, beauty or no beauty. Besides she's +pretty enough herself to hand it down even to the third and fourth +generation. But I must go and see to helping Granny out on the side +porch in the sun. I never want to neglect her, for she's the only +child poor Mr. Satterwhite left me. Now Mr. Rucker--Why there comes +Mis' Amandy down the front walk! Let's you and me go to meet her and +see what she wants. We can help her across the Road if she is a-going +to see anybody but us!" And with eager affection the two strong young +women with their babies in their arms hurried across the street in +order to serve if need be the delicate little old lady who, with her +gray skirts fluttering and the little shawl streaming out behind, was +coming at her tottering full speed in that direction. In her hand she +held carefully a bit of sheer, yellow, old muslin, and her bright +eyes were beaming with delight as she met the two neighbors at the +gate. + +"It's the dress," she exclaimed, all out of breath and her sweet +little voice all a-tremble. "Sister and me and Tucker were all +baptized in it when we were babies. Sister Viney has had me a-going +through boxes and bundles for it ever since little Tucker was named +for us, and here it is! It's hand-made and fine linen, brought all the +way from New York down to the city in a wagon before the railroad run. +It's all the present we have got for little Tucker, but we thought +maybe--" And Miss Amanda paused with a shy diffidence in offering her +gift. + +"Gracious me, Miss Amandy, they didn't nothing ever happen to me like +this little dress being gave to one of my children. I am going to let +him be named in it and then keep it in the box with my Bible, where it +won't be disturbed for nothing," exclaimed Mrs. Poteet in a tone of +voice that was tear-choking with reverence as she took the dainty +yellow little garment into her hand. "And to think how you all have +wored yourself out a-looking for it!" she further exclaimed. + +"Oh, me and Sister Viney have had a good time a-going through things; +we haven't seen some of them for thirty or forty years. We found the +flannel petticoat Ma was a-making for me when she died over forty-five +years ago. The needle is a-sticking in it, and I'm a-going to finish +it to wear next winter. I'll feel like it is a comfort for my old age +she just laid by for me. I've got a little lace collar Ma's mother +wore when she come over from Virginy, and it's in the very style now, +so we're going to bleach it out to give to Rose Mary. Come on up to +the house with me and see it and set with Sister Viney a spell, can't +you? She's got mighty sore joints this morning, though Rose Mary +rubbed her most a hour last night" And in response to the eager +invitation they all three went back up the front walk together. The +thrifty Mrs. Rucker cast a satisfied glance back towards her own side +yard, where upturned tub and drying wash were in plain view. Mrs. +Poteet had put off the task of the wash until a later day of the week +and thus could make her visit with a mind unharrassed by the vision of +suds boiling over on the stove and soap melting in the tub. + +And there ensued several hours of complete absorption for the four +women closeted in Miss Lavinia's room in reviewing the events of the +last half century by means of the reminiscences which were inspired by +one unearthed heirloom after another. Pete and Shoofly were happy on +the floor enveloping themselves and each other in long wisps of +moth-eaten yarn that Miss Amandy had unearthed in a bureau drawer and +donated to their amusement. Mrs. Poteet had with her usual happy +forgetfulness of anything but the very immediate occupation, lost +sight of the fact that she had left young Tucker asleep on the bed in +her room, which location, counting the distance across the two yards +and down the Road, was at least slightly remote from aid in case of a +sudden restoration to consciousness for the young sleeper. + +And in the natural course of events the young Alloway namesake did +awaken and gave lusty vent to a demand for human companionship, which +was answered promptly by the General, who happened to be passing the +front gate in pursuits of his own. Finding the house deserted, with +his usual decision of action Stonie picked up the baby and kept on his +way, which led past the garden up the hill to the barn. Young Tucker +accepted this little journey in the world with his usual +imperturbability, and his sturdy little neck made unusual efforts to +support his bald head over the General's shoulders as if in pride at +being in the company of one of his peers and not in the usual feminine +thraldom. + +Finding the barn also deserted, Stonie laid young Tucker on the straw +in the barrel with two of Sniffer's sleeping puppies and began to +attend to his errand, which involved the extraction of several long, +stout pieces of string from a storehouse of his own under one of the +feed bins and the plaiting of them into the cracker of a whip which he +had brought along with him. + +Down below the store the rest of the Swarm were busy marking out a +large circus ring and discussing with considerable heat their +individual rights to the various star parts to be performed in the +coming exhibition. The ardors of their several ambitions were not at +all dampened by the knowledge of the fact that the audience that would +be in attendance to witness their triumphs would in all probability +consist of only Granny Satterwhite, whom little Miss Amanda always +coaxed to attend in her company, with perhaps a few moments of +encouragement from Mr. Crabtree if he found the time. To which would +always be added the interested and jocular company of Mr. Rucker, who +always came, brought a chair to sit in and stayed through the entire +performance. And in the talented aggregation of performers there was +of course just one role that could have been assumed by General +Jackson, that of ringmaster; so to that end he sat on the floor of the +barn beside the sleeping puppies and young Tucker and plaited the lash +by means of which he intended to govern the courses of his stars. + +And it was here that Everett found him a few minutes later as he +walked rapidly up the milk-house path and stood in the barn door in +evident hurried search for somebody or some thing. + +"Hello, General," he said with a smile at the barrel full of sleepers +at Stonie's side, "do you know where Rose Mary is?" + +"Yes," answered the General, "she are in her room putting buttermilk +on the five freckles that comed on her nose when she hoed out in the +garden without no sunbonnet. I found 'em all for her this morning, and +she don't like 'em. You can go on in and see if they are any better +for her, I ain't got the time to fool with 'em now." + +"Not for worlds!" exclaimed Everett as he sat down on an upturned peck +measure in close proximity to the barrel. "Have you decided to have +Mrs. Poteet and Mrs. Sniffer swap--er--puppies, Stonie?" he further +remarked. + +"No, I didn't," answered Stonie with one of his rare smiles which made +him so like Rose Mary that Everett's heart glowed within him. Stonie +was, as a general thing, as grave as a judge, with something +hauntingly, almost tragically serious in his austere young face, but +his smiles when they came were flashes of the very divinity of youth +and were a strange incarnation of the essence of Rose Mary's cousinly +loveliness. "He was crying because he was by hisself and I bringed him +along to wait till his mother came home. He belongs some to us, +'cause he's named for Uncle Tuck, and I oughter pester with him same +as Tobe have to. It's fair to do my part." + +"Yes, General, you always do your part--and always will, I think," +said Everett, as he looked down at the sturdy little chap so busy with +his long strings, weaving them over and over slowly but carefully. "A +man's part," he added as two serious eyes were raised to his. + +"In just a little while I'll be a man and have Uncle Tucker and Aunt +Viney and Aunt Amandy to be mine to keep care of always, Rose Mamie +says," answered Stonie in his most practical tone of voice as he began +to see the end of the long strings draw into his weaving of the +cracker. + +"What about Rose Mamie herself?" asked Everett softly, his voice +thrilling over the child's name for the girl with reverent tenderness. + +"When I get big enough to keep care of everything here I'm going to +let Rose Mamie get a husband and a heap of children, like Mis' +Poteet--but I'm a-going to make 'em behave theyselves better'n Tobe +and Peggie and the rest of 'em do. Aunt Viney says Mis' Poteet spares +the rod too much, but I'll fix Rose Mamie's children if they don't +mind her and me." The General's mouth assumed its most commanding +expression as he glanced down at the little Poteet sleeping beside +him, unconscious of the fact that he was, in the future, to be the +victim of a spared rod. + +"Stonie," asked Everett meekly, "have you chosen a husband for Rose +Mary yet?" + +"No," answered Stonie as he wove in the last inch of string. Then he +paused and raised his eyes to Everett thoughtfully. "It's jest got to +be the best man in the world, and I'm a-going to find him for her. If +I can't I'll keep care of her as good as I can myself." + +"General," said Everett as he held the child's eyes with a straight +level compelling glance, "you are right--she must have only the best. +And you 'keep care' until he comes. I am going away to-night and I +don't know when I can come back, but you must always--always 'keep +care' of her--until the good man comes. Will you?" + +"I will," answered the General positively. "And if anybody of any kind +bothers her or any of them I'll knock the stuffins outen 'em, and +Tobe'll help. But say," he added, as if suddenly inspired by a +brilliant idea, "couldn't you look for him for me? You'd know the good +kind of a man and you could bring him here. I would give you one of +the spotted puppies to pay for the trouble," and a hot wave engulfed +Everett as the trustful friendly young eyes looked straight into his +as Stonie made this extremely practical business proposition. + +"Yes, General, I will come and bring him to you, and when he comes he +will be the best ever--or he will have died in the attempt." + +"All right," answered Stonie, completely satisfied with the terms of +the bargain, "and you can take your pick of the puppies. Are you going +on the steam cars from Boliver?" + +"Yes," answered Everett, "and I want to find your Uncle Tucker to ask +him--" + +"Well, here he is to answer all inquiries at all times," came in Uncle +Tucker's quizzical voice as he stood in the doorway of the barn with a +bucket in one hand and a spade in the other. "Old age is just like a +hobble that tithers up stiff-jinted old cattle to the home post and +keeps 'em from a-roving. I haven't chawed the rope and broke over to +Boliver in more'n a month now. Did you leave Main Street a-running +east to west this morning?" + +"Yes," answered Everett, "still the same old Boliver. But I wanted to +see you right away to tell you that I have had a wire from the firm +that makes it necessary for me to get back to New York immediately. I +must catch that train that passes Boliver at midnight." + +"Oh, fly away, you can't pick up and go like that!" exclaimed Uncle +Tucker with alarmed remonstrance. "Such a hurry as that are unseemly. +Good-byes oughter to be handled slowly and careful, like chiny, to +save smashed feelings. Have you told Rose Mary and the sisters?" + +"No; I've just come back from Boliver, and I couldn't find Rose Mary, +and Miss Lavinia and Miss Amanda had company. I must go on over to the +north field while there is still light to--to collect some--some +instruments I--that is I may have left some things over there that I +will need. I will hurry back. Will--you tell them all for me?" As +Everett spoke he did not look directly at Uncle Tucker, but his eyes +followed the retreating form of the General, who, with the completed +whip, the nodding baby and the two awakened puppies was making his way +down Providence Road in the direction of the circus band. There was a +strange controlled note of excitement in his voice and his hands +gripped themselves around the handles of his kit until the nails went +white with the strain. + +"Yes, I'll tell 'em," answered Uncle Tucker with a distressed quaver +coming into his voice as he took in the fact that Everett's hurried +departure was inevitable. "I'm sorry you have got to go, boy, but I'll +help you get off if it's important for you. I'll have them get your +supper early and put up a snack for the train." + +"I don't want anything--that is, it doesn't matter about supper. I--I +will be back to see Miss Lavinia and Miss Amanda before they retire." +And Everett's voice was quiet with a calmness that belied the lump in +his throat at the very mention of the farewell to be said to the two +little old flower ladies. + +"I'll go on and tell 'em now," said Uncle Tucker with an even +increased gloom in his face and voice. "Breaking bad news to women +folks is as nervous a work as dropping a basket of eggs; you never can +tell in which direction the lamentations are a-going to spatter and +spoil things. I'll go get the worst of the muss over before you get +back." + +"Thank you," answered Everett with both a laugh and a catch in his +voice as they separated, he going out through the field and over the +hill and Uncle Tucker along the path to the house. + +And a little later Uncle Tucker found Rose Mary moving alone knee deep +in the flowers and fruit of her beloved garden. For long moments she +bent over the gray-green, white-starred bed of cinnamon pinks which +sent up an Arabian fragrance into her face as she carefully threaded +out each little weed that had dared rear its head among the white +blossoms. As she walked between the rows the tall lilies laid their +heads against her breast and kissed traces of their gold hearts on her +hands and bare arms, while on the other side a very riot of blush +peonies crowded against her skirts. Long trails of pod-laden snap +beans tangled around her feet and a couple of round young squashes +rolled from their stems at the touch of her fingers. She was the very +incarnation of young Plenty in the garden of the gods, and she reveled +as she worked. + +"Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker as he came and stood beside her as she +began to train the clambering butter-bean vines around their tall +poles, "young Everett has got to go on to New York to-night on the +train from Boliver, and I told him you would be mighty glad to help +him off in time. I'd put him up a middling good size snack if I was +you, for the eating on a train must be mighty scrambled like at best. +We'll have to turn around to keep him from being late." And it was +thus broadside that the blow was delivered which shook the very +foundations of Rose Mary's heart and left her white to the lips and +with hands that clutched at the bean vines desperately. + +"When did he tell you?" she asked in a voice that managed to pass +muster in the failing light. + +"Just a little while ago, and the news hit Sister Viney so sudden +like it give her a bad spell of asthma, and Sister Amandy was sorter +crying and let the jimson-weed smoke get in her mouth and choke her. +They are a-having a kind of ruckus, with nobody but Stonie helping 'em +put Sis' Viney to bed, so I reckon you'd better go in and see 'em. +He's gone over to the north field to get a hammer or something he left +and will be back soon. Hurry that black pester up with the supper, I'm +so bothered I feel empty," with which injunction Uncle Tucker left +Rose Mary at the kitchen steps. + +And it was a strenuous hour that followed, in which things were so +crowded into Rose Mary's hands that the fullness of her heart had to +be ignored if she was to go on with them. After a time Miss Lavinia +was eased back on her pile of pillows and might have dropped off to +sleep, but she insisted on having her best company cap arranged on her +hair and a lavender shawl put around her shoulders and thus in state +take a formal leave of the departing guest--alone. And it was fully a +half hour before Everett came out of her room, and Rose Mary saw him +slip a tiny pocket testament which had always lain on Miss Lavinia's +table into his inside breast pocket, and his face was serious almost +to the point of exhaustion. The time he had spent in Miss Lavinia's +room little Miss Amanda had busily occupied in packing the generous +"snack," which Uncle Tucker hovered over and saw bestowed to his +entire satisfaction with the traps Everett had strapped up in his +room. Stonie's large eyes grew more and more wistful, and after he and +Uncle Tucker retired with their good-byes all said he whispered to +Rose Mary that he wanted to say just one more thing to Mr. Mark. + +Tenderly Everett bent over the cot until the blush rosebud that Miss +Amanda had shyly pinned in his buttonhole as her good-by before she +had retired, brushed the little fellow's cheek as he ran his arm under +the sturdy little nightgowned shoulders and drew him as close as he +dared. + +"Say," whispered Stonie in his ear, "if you see a man that would buy +Sniffer's other two spotted pups I would sell 'em to him. I want to +get them teeth for Aunt Viney. I could get 'em to him in a box." + +"How much do you want for them?" asked Everett with a little gulp in +his voice as his heart beat against the arm of the young provider +assuming his obligations so very early in life. + +"A dollar a-piece, I guess, or maybe ten," answered Stonie vaguely. + +"I'll sell them right away at your price," answered Everett. "I'll see +that Mr. Crabtree has them packed and shipped." He paused for a +moment. He would have given worlds to have taken the two little dogs +with him and have left the money with Stonie--but he didn't dare. + +"And," murmured Stonie drowsily, "don't forget that good man for Rose +Mamie if you see him--and--and--" but suddenly he had drifted off into +the depths, thus abandoning himself to the crush of a hug Everett had +been hungry to give him. + +And out in the starlit dusk he found Rose Mary sitting on the steps, +freed at last, with her responsibilities all asleep--and before him +there lay just this one--good-by. + +Silently he seated himself beside her and as silently lit his cigar +and began to puff the rings out into the air. In the perfect flood of +perfume that poured around and over them and came in great gusts from +the garden he detected a new tone, wild and woodsy, sweet with a +curious tang and haunting in its alien and insistent note in the +rhapsody of odors. + +"There's something new in bloom in your garden, Lady of the Rose?" he +asked questioningly. + +"Yes, it's the roses on the hedges coming out; don't they smell briary +and--good? Just this last night you will be able to carry away with +you a whiff of real sweetbriar. To-morrow the whole town will be in +bloom. It is now I think if we could only see it." Rose Mary had +gained her composure and the poignant wistfulness in her voice was but +a part of the motif of the briar roses in the valley dusk. + +"I'll see it all right to-morrow and often. Sweetbriar--it's going to +blind me so that I won't be able to make my way along Broadway. +Everything hereafter will be located up and down Providence Road for +me." Everett's voice held to a tone of quiet lightness and he bravely +puffed his rings of smoke out on the breezes. + +"Perhaps some day you'll pass us again along the road to your +Providence," said Rose Mary gently, and the wistful question was all +that her woman's tradition allowed her to ask--though her heart break +with its pride. + +"Some day," answered Everett, and underneath the quiet voice sounded a +savage note and his teeth bit through his cigar, which he threw out +into the dew-carpeted grass. Just then there came from up under the +eaves a soft disturbed flutter of wings and a gentle dove note was +answered reassuringly and tenderly in kind. + +"Rose Mary," he said as he turned to her and laid his hand on the step +near her, "once you materialized your heart for me, and now I'm going +to do the same for mine to you. Yours, you say, is an old gabled, +vine-clad, dove-nested country house, a shelter for the people you +love--and always kept for your Master's use. It is something just to +have had a man's road to Providence lead past the garden gate. I make +acknowledgement. And mine? I think it is like one of those squat, +heathen, Satsuma vases, inlaid with distorted figures and symbols and +toned in all luridness of color, into which has been tossed a poor +sort of flower plucked from any bush the owner happened to pass, which +has been salted down in frivolity--or perhaps something stronger. +I'll keep the lid on to-night, for _you_ wouldn't like the--perfume." + +"If you'd let me have it an hour I would take it down to the +milk-house and empty and scrub it and then I could use it to pour +sweet cream into. Couldn't you--you leave it here--in Uncle Tucker's +care? I--I--really--I need it badly." The raillery in her voice was as +delicious and daring as that of any accomplished world woman out over +the Ridge. It fairly staggered Everett with its audacity. + +"No," he answered, coolly disapproving, "no, I'll not leave it; you +might break it." + +"I never break the crocks--I can't afford to. And women never break +men's hearts; they do it themselves by keeping a hand on the treasure +so as to take it back when they want it, and so between them both it +sometimes gets--shattered." + +"Very well, then--the lid's off to you--and remember you asked +for--the rummage, Rose Mary," answered Everett in a tone as light as +hers. Then suddenly he rose and stood tall and straight in front of +her, looking down into her upraised eyes in the dusk. "You don't know, +do you, you rose woman you, what a man's life can hold--of +nothingness? Yes, I've worked hard at my profession and thrown away +the proceeds--in a kind of--riotous living. Other men's vast fortunes +have been built on my brains, and my next year I'm going to enter as a +penniless thirty-niner. When I came South three months ago I drew the +last thousand dollars I had in bank, I have a couple of hundreds left, +and that's all, out of over twenty thousand made in straight fees from +mineral tests in the last year. Yes--a bit of riotous living. It's +true about those poor flowers plucked off frail stems off frailer +bushes--but--if it hadn't been--a sort of fair play all around I +wouldn't stand here telling you about it, you in your hedge of briar +roses. And now suddenly something has come into my life that makes me +regret every dollar tossed to the winds and every cent burned in the +fires--and in spite of it all I must make good. I'm going away from +you and I don't know what is going to happen--but as I tell you from +now on my feet do not stray from Providence Road, my eyes will turn +from across any distance to catch a sight of the crown of old Harpeth, +and my heart is in your milk-house to be of any kind of humble use. +Ah, comfort me, rose girl, that I can not say more and that go I must +if I catch my train." And he stretched out his hands to Rose Mary as +she arose and stood close at his side, her eyes never leaving his and +her lips parted with the quick breathing of her lifted breast. + +"And you'll remember, won't you, when things go wrong, or you are +tired, that the sunny corner in the old farm-house is yours? Always I +shall be here in Harpeth Valley with my nest in the Briars, and +because you are gone I'll be lonely. But I won't be in the least +anxious, for whatever it is that calls you, I know you will give the +right answer, because--because--well, aren't you one of my own +nesties, and don't I know how strong and straight your wings can fly?" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +UNCLE TUCKER'S TORCH + + +"And how do you do, Mr. Crabtree? Glad to see you, suh, glad to see +you again! How is all Sweetbriar? Any new voters since young Tucker, +or a poem or so in the Rucker family? And are you succeeding in +keeping the peace with Mrs. Plunkett for young Bob?" And firing this +volley of questions through the gently agitated smile-veil the +Honorable Gideon Newsome stood in the door of the store, large-looming +and jocular. + +"Well, howdy, howdy, Senator, come right in and have a chair in the +door-breeze!" exclaimed Mr. Crabtree as he turned to beam a welcome on +the Senator from behind the counter where he was filling kerosene +cans. "We ain't seen you in most a month of Sundays, and I'm sure glad +you lit in passing again." + +"I never just light in passing Sweetbriar, friend Crabtree," answered +the senator impressively. "I start every journey with a stop at +Sweetbriar in view, and it seems a long time until I make the haven I +assure you, suh. And now for the news. You say my friend, Mrs. +Plunkett, is enjoying her usual good health and spirits?" + +"Well, not to say enjoying of things in general, but it do seem she +has got just a little mite of spirit back along of this here +bully-ragging of Bob and Louisa Helen. She come over here yesterday +and stood by the counter upwards of an hour before I could persuade +her to be easy in her mind about letting Bob take that frizzling over +to Providence to a ice-cream festibul Mis' Mayberry was a-having for +the church carpet benefit last night. After I told her I would put up +early, and me and her could jog over in my buggy along behind them +flippets to see no foolishness were being carried on, she took it more +easy, and it looked like onct and a while on the road she most come +to the point of enjoying her own self. But I reckon I'm just fooling +myself by thinking that though," and Mr. Crabtree eyed the Senator +with pathetic eagerness to be assured that he was not self-deceived at +this slight advance up the steep ascent of his road of true love. + +"Not a bit of doubt in my mind she enjoyed it greatly, suh, greatly, +and I consider the cause of diverting her grief has advanced a hundred +per cent by her consenting to go at all. Did any of the other +Sweetbriar friends avail themselves of the Providence invitation--Miss +Rose Mary and er--any of the other young people?" + +"No, Miss Rose Mary didn't want to go, though Mr. Rucker woulder liked +to hitch up the wagon and take her and Mis' Rucker and the children. +She have been mighty quiet like sinct Mr. Everett left us, though +she'd never let anybody lack the heartening of that smile of hern no +matter how tetched with lonesome she was herself. When the letters +come I just can't wait to finish sorting the rest, but I run with +hers to her, like Sniffie brings sticks back to Stonie Jackson when he +throws them in the bushes." + +"Ahm--er--do they come often?" asked the Senator in a casual voice, +but his eyes narrowed in their slits and the veil became impenetrable. + +"Oh, about every day or two," answered the unconsciously gossipy +little bachelor. "Looks like the whole family have missed him, too. +Miss Viney has been in bed off and on ever since he left, and Miss +Amandy has tooken a bad cold in her right ear and has had to keep her +head wrapped up all the time. Mr. Tucker's mighty busy a-trying to +figure out how to crap the farm like Mr. Mark laid off on a map for +him to do--but he ain't got the strength now to even get a part of it +done. If Miss Rose Mary weren't strong and bendy as a hickory saplin +she couldn't prop up all them old folks." + +"Yes," answered the Senator in one of his most judicial and dulcet +tones as he eyed the little bachelor in a calculating way as if +deciding whether to take him into his confidence, "what you say of Mr. +Alloway's being too old to farm his land with a profit is true. I have +come this time to talk things over with him and--er--Miss Rose Mary. +Did I understand you to say our friend Everett is still in New York? +Have you heard of his having any intention of returning to Sweetbriar +any time soon?" + +"No, I haven't heard tell of his coming back at all, and I'm mighty +sorry and disappointed some, too," answered Mr. Crabtree with an +anxious look coming into his kind eyes. "I somehow felt sure he would +scratch up oil or some kind of pay truck out there in the fields of +the Briars. I shipped a whole box of sand and gravel for him according +to a telegram he sent me just last week and I had sorter got my hopes +up for a find, specially as that young city fellow came out here and +dug another bag full outen the same place not any time after that. He +had a map with him, and I thought he might be a friend of Mr. Mark's +and asked him, but he didn't answer; never rested to light a pipe, +even, so I never found out about him. I reckon he was just fooling +around and I hadn't oughter hoped on such a light ration." + +"When was it that the man came and prospected?" asked the Senator with +a quick gleam coming into his ugly little eyes and the smile veil took +on another layer of density, while his hand trembled slightly as he +lighted his cigar. + +"Oh, about a week ago," answered Mr. Crabtree. "But I ain't got no +hopes now for Mr. Tucker and the folks from him. We'll all just have +to find some way to help them out when the bad time comes." + +"The way will be provided, friend Crabtree," answered the Senator in +an oily tone of voice, but which held nevertheless a decided note of +excitement. "Do you know where I can find Mr. Alloway? I think I will +go have a business talk with him now." And in a few minutes the +Senator was striding as rapidly as his ponderosity would allow up +Providence Road, leaving the garrulous little storekeeper totally +unconscious of the fuse he had lighted for the firing of the mine so +long dreaded by his friends. + +"Well now, Crabbie, don't bust out and cry into them dried apples jest +to swell the price, fer Mis' Rucker will ketch you sure when she comes +to buy 'em for to-morrow's turnovers," came in the long drawl of the +poet as he dawdled into the door and flung the rusty mail-sack down on +to the counter in front of Mr. Crabtree. "They ain't a thing in that +sack 'cept Miss Rose Mary's letter, and he must make a light kind of +love from the heft of it. I most let it drop offen the saddle as I +jogged along, only I'm a sensitive kind of cupid and the buckle of +the bag hit that place on my knee I got sleep-walking last week while +I was thinking up that verse that '_despair_' wouldn't rhyme with +'_hair_' in for me. Want me to waft this here missive over to the +milk-house to her and kinder pledge his good digestion and such in a +glass of her buttermilk?" + +"No, I wisht you would stay here in the store for me while I take it +over to her myself. I've got some kind of business with her for a few +minutes," answered Mr. Crabtree as he searched out the solitary letter +and started to the door with it. "Sample that new keg of maple drip +behind the door there. The cracker box is open," he added by way of +compensation to the poet for the loss of the buttermilk. + +The imagination of all true lovers is easily exercised about matters +pertaining to the tender passion, and though Mr. Crabtree had never in +his life received such a letter he divined instantly that it should be +delivered promptly by a messenger whose mercury wings should scarcely +pause in agitating the air of arrival and departure. And suiting his +actions to his instinct he whirled the envelope across the spring +stream to the table by Rose Mary's side with the aim of one of the +little god's own arrows and retreated before her greeting and +invitation to enter should tempt him. + +"Honey drip and women folks is sweet jest about the same and they both +stick some when you're got your full of 'em at the time," +philosophized the poet as he wiped his mouth with the back of his +hand. + +"Say, Crabbie, don't tell Mis' Rucker I have come home yet, please. I +want to go out and lay down in the barn on the hay and see if I can +get that '_hair-despair_' tangle straightened out. She hasn't seen me +to tell me things for two hours or more and I know I won't get no +thinking done this day if I don't make the barn 'fore she spies me." +And with furtive steps and eyes he left the store and veered in a +round-about way toward the barn. + +And over in the milk-house Rose Mary stood in the long shaft of +golden light that came across the valley and fell through the door, it +would seem, just to throw a glow over the wide sheets of closely +written paper. Rose Mary had been pale as she worked, and her deep +eyes had been filled with a very gentle sadness which lighted with a +flash as she opened the envelope and began to read. + +"Just a line, Rose girl, before I put out the light and go on a dream +hunt for you," Everett wrote in his square black letters. "The day has +been long and I feel as if I had been drawn out still longer. I'm +tired, I'm hungry, and there's no balm of Gilead in New York. I can't +eat because there are no cornmeal muffins in this howling wilderness +of houses, streets, people and noise. I can't drink because something +awful rises in my throat when I see cream or buttermilk, and sassarcak +doesn't interest me any more. I would be glad to lap out of one of +your crocks with Sniffie and the wee dogs. + +"And most of all I'm tired to see you. I want to tell you how hard I +am working, and that I don't seem to be able to make some of these +stupid old gold backs see things my way, even if I do show it to them +covered with a haze of yellow pay dust. But they shall--and that's my +vow to-- + +"I wish I could kneel down by your rocking-chair with Stonie and hear +Uncle Tucker chant that stunt about '_the hollow of His hand_.' Is any +of that true, Rose Mamie, and are you true and is Aunt Viney as well +as could be expected, considering the length of my absence? I've got +the little Bible book with Miss Amanda's blush rose pressed in it, and +I put my hand to my breast-pocket so often to be sure it is there and +some other things--letter things--that the heat and friction of them +and the hand combined have brought out a great patch of prickly heat +right over my heart in this sizzling weather. I know it needs fresh +cold cream to make it heal up, and I haven't even any talcum powder. +How's Louisa Helen and doth the widow consent still not at all? Tell +Crabtree I say just walk over and try force of arms and not to--That +force of arms is a good expression to use--literally in some cases. +Something is the matter with my arms. They don't feel strong like they +did when I helped Uncle Tucker mow the south pasture and turn the corn +chopper--they're weak and--and sorter useless--and empty. Tell Stonie +he could beat me bear-hugging any day now. Has Tobe discovered any new +adventure in aromatics lately, and can little Poteet sit up and take +notice? Help, help, I'm getting so homesick that I'm about to cry and +fall into the ink! + +"Good night--with all that the expression can imply of moonlight +coming over the head of old Harpeth, pouring down its sides, rippling +out over the corn-fields and flooding over a tall rose girl thing who +stands in the doorway with her 'nesties' all asleep in the dark house +behind her--and if any man were lounging against the honeysuckle vine +getting a last puff out of his cigar I should know it, and a thousand +miles couldn't save him. I'm all waked up thinking about it, and I +could smash--Good night! + +M.E. + +P.S. I don't think it at all square of you not to let Stonie sell me +the little dogs. Women ought to keep out of business affairs between +men." + +And as she turned the last page, slipped it back into place and +promptly began at the beginning of the very first one, Rose Mary's +face was an exquisite study in what might have been entitled pure joy. +Her roses rioted up under her lashes, her rich lips curled like the +half-blown bud between the flower of her cheeks, and her eyes shone +like the two first stars mirrored in a woman's pool of life. Also it +is one of the mysteries of the drama why a woman will scan over and +over pages whose every letter is chiseled inches deep into her heart; +and exactly one-half hour later Rose Mary was still standing +motionless by her table, with the letter outspread in her hand. + +And this was a very wonderful woman Old Harpeth had cradled in the +hollow of His hand, nurtured on the richness of the valley and +breathed into her with ever-perfumed breath the peace of faith--in God +and man, for to any but an elemental, natural, faith-inspired woman of +the fields would have come crushing, cruel, tearing doubts of the man +beyond the hills who said so little and yet so much. However, Rose +Mary was one of the order of fostering women whose arms are forever +outheld cradle-wise, and to whose breast is ever drawn in mother love +the child in the man of her choice, so her days since Everett's +hurried departure had been filled with love and longing, with faith +and prayers, but there had been not one shadow of doubt of him or his +love for her all half-spoken as he had left it. + +And added to her full heart had been burdens that had made her hands +still fuller. She had gone on her way day by day pouring out the +richness of her life and strength where it was so sorely needed by her +feeble folk, with a song in her heart for him and them and to answer +every call from along Providence Road. Thus it is that the motive +power for the great cycles that turn and turn out in the wide spaces +between time and eternity, regardless of the wheels of men that whirl +and buzz on broken cog with shattered rim, is poured through the +natures of women of such a mold for the saving of His nations. + +At last Rose Mary folded her letter, hesitated, and with a glint of +the blue in her eyes as her lashes fell over a still rosier hint in +her cheeks, she tucked it into the front of her dress and smoothed and +patted the folds of her apron close down over it, then turned with +praiseworthy energy to the huge bowl of unworked butter. + +And it was nearly an hour later, still, that the Honorable Gid loomed +in the doorway under the honeysuckle vines, a complacent smile +arranged on his huge face and gallantry oozing from every gesture and +pose. + +"Why, Mr. Newsome, when did you come? How are you, and I'm glad to see +you!" exclaimed Rose Mary all in one hospitable breath as she beamed +at the Senator across her table with the most affable friendship. Rose +Mary felt in a beaming mood, and the Honorable Gid came under the +shower of her affability. + +"Do have that chair by the door, and let me give you a glass of milk," +she hastened to add as she took up a cup and started for the crocks +with a still greater accession of hospitality. "Sweet or buttermilk?" +she paused to inquire over her shoulder. + +"Either handed by you would be sweet" answered the Senator with +praiseworthy ponderosity, and he shook out the smile veil until the +very roots of his hair became agitated. + +"Yes, Mr. Rucker says my buttermilk tastes like sweet milk with honey +added," laughed Rose Mary, dimpling from over the tall jar. "He says +that because I always pour cream into it for him, and Mrs. Rucker +won't because she says it is extravagant. But I think a poet ought to +have a dash of cream in his life, if just to make the poetry run +smoother--and orators, too," she added as she poured half a ladleful +of the golden top milk into the foaming glass in her hand and gave it +to the Senator, who received it with a trembling hand and gulped it +down desperately; for this once in his life the Honorable Gideon +Newsome was completely and entirely embarrassed. For many a year he +had had at his command florid and extravagant figures of speech which, +cast in any one of a dozen of his dulcet modulations of voice, were +warranted to tell on even the most stubborn masculine intelligence, +and ought to have melted the feminine heart at the moment of +utterance, but at this particular moment they all failed him, and he +was left high and dry on the coast of courtship with only the bare +question available for use. + +"Miss Rose Mary," he blurted out without any preamble at all, and +drops of the sweat of an agony of anxiety stood out all over the wide +brow, "I have been talking with Mr. Alloway, and I have come to you to +see if we can't all get together and settle this mortgage question to +the profit of all concerned. I lent him that money six years ago with +the intention of trying to get you to be my wife just as soon as you +recovered from your--your natural grief over the way things had gone +with you and young Alloway. I have waited longer than I had any +intention of doing, because I was absorbed in this political career I +had begun on, but now I see it is time to settle matters, as the farm +is running us all into debt, and I'm very much in need of you as a +wife. I hope you see it in that light, and the marriage can't take +place too soon to suit me. You are the handsomest woman in my +district, and my constituents can not help but approve of my choice." +Something of the Senator's grandiloquence was returning to him, and he +regarded Rose Mary with the pride of one who has appraised +satisfactorily and is about to complete a proposed purchase. + +And as for Rose Mary, she stood framed against the fern-lined dusk at +the back of the milk-house like a naiad startled as she emerged from +her tree bower. Quickly she raised her hand to her breast and just as +quickly the pressure of the letter laying there against her heart sent +a flood over her face that had grown pale and still, but she raised +her head proudly and looked the Senator straight in the face with a +questioning, hurt surprise. + +"You didn't make the terms clear when you lent the money to us," she +said quietly. + +"Well," he answered, beginning to take heart at her very tranquil +acceptance of the first bombardment, "I thought it best to let a time +elapse to soothe your deceived affections and cure your humiliation. +For the time being I was content to enjoy culling the flowers of your +friendship from time to time, but I now feel no longer satisfied with +them, but must be paid in a richer harvest. We will take charge of +this place, assure a comfortable future for the aged relatives in your +care, and as my wife you will be both happy and honored." The Senator +was decidedly coming into his own, and smile, glance and voice as he +regarded Rose Mary were unctuous. In fact, through their slits his +eyes shot a gleam of something that was so hateful to Rose Mary that +she caught her breath with horror, and only the sharp corner of her +letter pressed into her naked breast kept her from reeling. But in a +second she had herself in hand and her quick mother-wit was aroused to +find out the worst and begin a fight for the safeguarding of her +nesties--and the nest. + +"And if I shouldn't want to--to do what you want me to?" she asked, +and she was even able to summon a smile with a tinge of coquetry that +served to draw the wily Senator further than he realized. + +"Oh, I feel sure you can have no objections to me that are strong +enough to weigh against thus providing suitably for your old +relatives," was the bait he dangled before her humiliated eyes. "It is +the only way to do it, for Mr. Alloway is too old to care any longer +for the place, which has been run at a loss for too long already. We +may say that in accepting me you are accepting their comfortable +future. Of course you could not expect things to go on any longer in +this impossible way, as I have need of the home and family I am really +entitled to, now could you?" The Senator bent forward and finished his +sentence in his most beguiling tone as he poured the hateful glance +all over her again so that her blood stopped in her veins from very +fear and repulsion. + +"No," she said slowly, with her eyes down on the bowl of butter on +the table before her; "no, things couldn't go on as they have any +longer. I have felt that for some time." She paused a second, then +lifted her deep eyes and looked straight into his, and the wounded +light in their blue depth was shadowed in the pride of the glance. +"You are right--you must not be kept out of your own any longer. But +you will--will you give me just a little time to--to get used to--to +thinking about it? Will you go now and leave me--and come back in a +few days? It is the last favor I shall ever ask of you. I promise when +you come back to--to pay the debt." And the color flooded over her +face, then receded, to leave her white and controlled. + +"I felt sure you would see it that way; immediately, immediately, my +dear," answered the Senator, as he rose to take his departure. A +triumphant note boomed in his big gloating voice, but some influence +that it is given a woman to exhale in a desperate self-defense kept +him from bestowing anything more than an ordinary pressure on the cold +hand laid in his. Then with a heavy jauntiness he crossed the Road, +mounted his horse and, tipping his wide hat in a conquering-hero wave, +rode on down Providence Road toward Boliver. + +And for a long, quiet moment Rose Mary stood leaning against the old +stone table perfectly still, with her hand pressing the sharp-edge +paper against her heart; then she sank into a chair and, stretching +her arms across the cold table, she let her head sink until the chill +of the stone came cool to her burning cheeks. So this was the door +that was to be opened in the stone wall--she had been blind and hadn't +seen! + +And across the hills away by the sea he was tired and cold and +hungry--with only a few hundred dollars in his pocket. He was +discouraged and overworked, and a time was coming when she would not +have the right to shelter his heart in hers. Once when he had been so +ill, before he ever became conscious of her at all, his head had +fallen over on her breast as she had tended him in his weakness--the +throb of it hurt her now. And perhaps he would never understand. She +couldn't tell him because--because of his poverty and the hurt it +would give him--not to be able to help--to save her. No, he must not +know until too late--and _never_ understand! Desperately thus wave +after wave swept over her, crushing, grinding, mocking her womanhood, +until, helpless and breathless, she was tossed, well nigh unconscious, +upon the shore of exhaustion. The fight of the instinctive woman for +its own was over and the sacrifice was prepared. She was bound to the +wheel and ready for the first turn, though out under the skies, +"_stretched as a tent to dwell in_," the cycle was moving on its +course turned by the same force from the same source that numbers the +sparrows. + +"Rose Mary, child," came in a gentle voice, and Uncle Tucker's +trembling old hand was laid with a caress on the bowed head before she +had even heard him come into the milk-house, "now you've got to look +up and get the kite to going again. I've been under the waters, too, +but I've pulled myself ashore with a-thinking that nothing's a-going +to take _you_ away from me and them. What does it matter if we were to +have to take the bed covers and make a tent for ourselves to camp +along Providence Road just so we all can crawl under the flap +together? I need nothing in the world but to be sure your smile is not +a-going to die out." + +"Oh, honey-sweet, it isn't--it isn't," answered Rose Mary, looking up +at him quickly with the tenderness breaking through the agony in a +perfect radiance. "It's all right, Uncle Tucker, I know it will be!" + +"Course it's all right because it _is_ right," answered Uncle Tucker +bravely, with a real smile breaking through the exhaustion on his +face that showed so plainly the fight he had been having out in his +fields, now no longer his as he realized. "Gid has got the right of +it, and it wasn't honest of us to hold on at this losing rate as long +as we did. There is just a little more value to the land than the +mortgage, I take it, and we can pay the behind interest with that, and +when we do move offen the place we won't leave debt to nobody on it, +even if we do leave--the graves." + +"Did he say--when--when he expected you to--give up the Briars?" asked +Rose Mary in a guarded tone of voice, as if she wanted to be sure of +all the facts before she told of the climax she saw had not been even +suggested to Uncle Tucker. + +"Oh, no; Gid handled the talk mighty kind-like. I think it's better to +let folks always chaw their own hard tack instead of trying to grind +it up friendly for them, cause the swalloring of the trouble has to +come in the end; but Gid minced facts faithful for me, according to +his lights. I didn't rightly make out just what he did expect, only we +couldn't go on as we were--and that I've been knowing for some time." + +"Yes, we've both known that," said Rose Mary, still suspending her +announcement, she scarcely knew why. + +"He talked like he was a-going to turn the Briars into a kinder orphan +asylum for us old folks and spread-eagled around about something he +didn't seem to be able to spit out with good sense. But I reckon I was +kinder confused by the shock and wasn't right peart myself to take in +his language." And Uncle Tucker sank into a chair, and Rose Mary could +see that he was trembling from the strain. His big eyes were sunk far +back into his head and his shoulders stooped more than she had ever +seen them. + +"Sweetie, sweetie, I can tell you what Mr. Newsome was trying to say +to you--it was about me. I--I am going to be his wife, and you and +the aunties are never, never going to leave the Briars. He has just +left here and--and, oh, I am so grateful to keep it--for you--and +them. I never thought of that--I never suspected such--a--door in our +stone wall." And Rose Mary's voice was firm and gentle, but her deep +eyes looked out over Harpeth Valley with the agony of all the ages in +their depths. + +But in hoping to conceal her tragedy Rose Mary had not counted on the +light love throws across the dark places that confront the steps of +those of our blood-bond, and in an instant Uncle Tucker's torch of +comprehension flamed high with the passion of indignation. Slowly he +rose to his feet, and the stoop in his feeble old shoulders +straightened itself out so that he stood with the height of his young +manhood. His gentle eyes lost the mysticism that had come with his +years of sorrow and baffling toil, and a stern, dignified power shone +straight out over the young woman at his side. He raised his arm and +pointed with a hand that had ceased to tremble over the valley to +where Providence Road wound itself over Old Harpeth. + +"Rose Mary," he said sternly in a quiet, decisive voice that rang with +the virility of his youth, "when the first of us Alloways came along +that wilderness trail a slip of an English girl walked by him when he +walked and rode the pillion behind him when he rode. She finished that +journey with bleeding feet in moccasins he had bought from an Indian +squaw. When they came on down into this Valley and found this spring +he halted wagons and teams and there on that hill she dropped down to +sleep, worn out with the journey. And while she was asleep he stuck a +stake at the black-curled head of her and one by the little, tired, +ragged feet. That was the measure of the front door-sill to the Briars +up there on the hill. Come generations we have fought off the Indians, +we have cleared and tilled the land, and we have gone up to the state +house to name laws and order. In our home we have welcomed traveler, +man and beast, and come sun-up each day we have worshipped at the +altar of the living God--but we've never sold one of our women yet! +The child of that English girl never leaves my arms except to go into +those of a man she loves and wants. Yes, I'm old and I've got still +older to look out for, but I can strike the trail again to-morrow, +jest so I carry the honor of my women folks along with me. We may fall +on the march, but, Rose Mary, you are a Harpeth Valley woman, and not +for sale!" + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE EXODUS + + +"Well, it just amounts to the whole of Sweetbriar a-rising up and +declaring of a war on Gid Newsome, and I for one want to march in the +front ranks and tote a blunderbuss what I couldn't hit nothing smaller +than a barn door with if I waster try," exclaimed Mrs. Rucker as she +waited at the store for a package Mr. Crabtree was wrapping for her. + +"I reckon when the Senator hits Sweetbriar again he'll think he's +stepped into a nest of yellar jackets and it'll be a case of run or +swell up and bust," answered Mr. Crabtree as he put up the two boxes +of baking-powder for the spouse of the poet, who stood beside his wife +in the door of the store. + +"Well," said Mr. Rucker in his long drawl as he dropped himself over +the corner of the counter, "looks like the Honorable Gid kinder fooled +along and let Cupid shed a feather on him and then along come somebody +trying to pick his posey for him and in course it het him up. You all +'pear to forget that old saying that it's all's a fair fight in love +and war." + +"Yes, fight; that's the word! Take off his coat, strap his galluses +tight, spit on his hands and fight for his girl, not trade for her +like hogs," was the bomb of sentiment that young Bob exploded, much to +the amazement of the gathering of the Sweetbriar clan in the store. +Young Bob's devotion to Rose Mary, admiration for Everett and own +tender state of heart had made him become articulate with a vengeance +for this once and he spat his words out with a vehemence that made a +decided impression on his audience. + +"That are the right way to talk, Bob Nickols," said Mrs. Rucker, +bestowing a glance of approval upon the fierce young Corydon, followed +by one of scorn cast in the direction of the extenuating-circumstances +pleading Mr. Rucker. "A man's heart ain't much use to a woman if the +muscles of his arms git string-halt when he oughter fight for her. +Come a dispute the man that knocks down would keep me, not the buyer," +and this time the glance was delivered with a still greater accent. + +"Shoo, honey, you'd settle any ruckus about you 'fore it got going by +a kinder cold-word dash and pass-along," answered the poet +propitiatingly and admiringly. "But I was jest a-wondering why Mr. +Alloway and Miss Rose Mary was so--" + +"Tain't for nobody to be a-wondering over what they feels and does," +exclaimed Mrs. Rucker defensively before the query was half uttered. +"They've been hurt deep with some kind of insult and all we have got +to do is to take notice of the trouble and git to work to helping 'em +all we can. Mr. Tucker ain't said a word to nobody about it, nor have +Rose Mary, but they are a-getting ready to move the last of the week, +and I don't know where to. I jest begged Rose Mary to let me have Miss +Viney and Miss Amandy. I could move out the melojion into the kitchen +and give 'em the parlor, and welcome, too. Mis' Poteet she put in and +asked for Stonie to bed down on the pallet in the front hall with Tobe +and Billy and Sammie, and I was a-going on to plan as how Mr. Tucker +and Mr. Crabtree would stay together here, and I knew Mis' Plunkett +would admire to have Rose Mary herself, but just then she sudden put +her head down on my knee, her pretty arms around me, and held on tight +without a tear, while I couldn't do nothing but rock back and forth. +Then Mis' Poteet she cried the top of Shoofly's head so soaking wet it +give her a sneeze, and we all had to laugh. But she never answered me +what they was a-going to do, and you know, Cal Rucker, I ain't slept +nights thinking about 'em, and where they'll move, have I?" + +"Naw, you shore ain't--nor let me neither," answered the poet in a +depressed tone of voice. + +"I mighter known that Miss Viney woulder taken it up-headed and +a-lined it out in the scriptures to suit herself until she wasn't deep +in the grieving no more, but little Mis' Amandy's a-going to break my +heart, as tough as it is, if she don't git comfort soon," continued +Mrs. Rucker with a half sob. "Last night in the new moonlight I got up +to go see if I hadn't left my blue waist out in the dew, which mighter +faded it, and I saw something white over in the Briar's yard. I went +across to see if they had left any wash out that hadn't oughter be in +the dew, and there I found her in her little, short old nightgown and +big slippers with the little wored-out gray shawl 'round her shoulders +a-digging around the Maiden Blush rose-bush, putting in new dirt and +just a-crying soft to herself, all trembling and hurt. I went in and +set down by her on the damp grass, me and my rheumatism and all, took +her in my arms like she were Petie, and me and her had it out. It's +the graves she's a-grieving over, we all a-knowing that she's leaving +buried what she have never had in life, and I tried to tell her that +no matter who had the place they would let her come and--" + +"Oh, durn him, durn him! I'm a-going clear to the city to git old Gid +and beat the liver outen him!" exclaimed young Bob, while his +sunburned face worked with emotion and his gruff young voice broke as +he rose and walked to the door. + +"I wisht you would, and I'll make Cal help you," sobbed Mrs. Rucker +into a corner of her apron. Her grief was all the more impressive, as +she was, as a general thing, the balance-wheel of the whole Sweetbriar +machinery. "And I don't know what they are a-going to do," she +continued to sob. + +"Well, I know, and I've done decided," came in Mrs. Plunkett's soft +voice from the side door of the store, and it held an unwonted note of +decision in its hushed cadences. A deep pink spot burned on either +cheek, her eyes were very bright, and she kept her face turned +resolutely away from little Mr. Crabtree, over whose face there had +flashed a ray of most beautiful and abashed delight. + +"Me and Mr. Crabtree were a-talking it all over last night while Bob +and Louisa Helen were down at the gate counting lightning-bugs, they +said. They just ain't no use thinking of separating Rose Mary and Mr. +Tucker and the rest of 'em, and they must have Sweetbriar shelter, +good and tight and genteel, offered outen the love Sweetbriar has got +for 'em all. Now if I was to marry Mr. Crabtree I could all good and +proper move him over to my house and that would leave his little +three-room cottage hitched on to the store to move 'em into +comfortable. They have got a heap of things, but most of 'em could be +packed away in the barn here, what they won't let us keep for 'em. If +Mr. Crabtree has got to take holt of my farm it will keep him away +from the store, and he could give Mr. Tucker a half-interest cheap to +run it for him and that will leave Rose Mary free to help him and tend +the old folks. What do you all neighbors think of it?" + +"Now wait just a minute, Lou Plunkett," said Mr. Crabtree in a radiant +voice as he came out from around the counter and stood before her with +his eyes fairly glowing with his emotion. "Have you done decided +_yourself_? This is twixt me and you, and I don't want no Sweetbriar +present for a wife if I can help it. Have _you_ done decided?" + +"Yes, Mr. Crabtree I have, and I had oughter stopped and told you, but +I wanted to go quick as I could to see Mr. Tucker and Rose Mary. He +gave consent immediately, and looked like Rose Mary couldn't do +nothing but talk about you and how good you was. I declare I began to +get kinder proud about you right then and there, 'fore I'd even told +you as I'd have you." And the demure little widow cast a smile out +from under a curl that had fallen down into her bright eyes that was +so young and engaging that Mr. Crabtree had to lean against the +counter to support himself. His storm-tossed single soul was fairly +blinded at even this far sight of the haven of his double desires, but +it was just as well that he was dumb for joy, for Mrs. Rucker was more +than equal to the occasion. + +"Well, glory be, Lou Plunkett, if that ain't a fine piece of news!" +she exclaimed as she bestowed a hearty embrace upon the widow and one +almost as hearty upon the overcome Mr. Crabtree. "And you can't know +till you've tried what a pleasure and a comfort a second husband can +be if you manage 'em right. Single folks a-marrying are likely to gum +up the marriage certificate with some kind of a mistake until it +sticks like fly-paper, but a experienced choice generally runs smooth +like melted butter." And with a not at all unprecedented feminine +change of front Mrs. Rucker substituted a glance of unbridled pride +for the one of scorn she had lately bestowed upon the poet, under +which his wilted aspect disappeared and he also began to bloom out +with the joy of approval and congratulation. + +"And I say marrying a widow are like getting a rose some other fellow +have clipped and thorned to wear in your buttonhole, Crabtree; they +ain't nothing like 'em." Thus poet and realist made acknowledgment +each after his and her own order of mind, but actuated by the +identical feeling of contented self-congratulation. + +"I'm a-holding in for fear if I breathe on this promise of Mis' +Plunkett's it'll take and blow away. But you all have heard it spoke," +said the merry old bachelor in a voice that positively trembled with +emotion as he turned and mechanically began to sort over a box of +clothespins, mixed as to size and variety. + +"Shoo, Crabbie, don't begin by bein' afraid of your wife, jest handle +'em positive but kind and they'll turn your flapjacks peaceable and +butter 'em all with smiles," and Mr. Rucker beamed on his friend +Crabtree as he wound one of his wife's apron strings all around one of +his long fingers, a habit he had that amused him and he knew in his +secret heart teased her. + +"Now just look at Bob tracking down Providence Road a-whistling like a +partridge in the wheat for Louisa Helen. They've got love's young +dream so bad they had oughter have sassaprilla gave for it," and the +poet cast a further glance at the widow, who only laughed and looked +indulgently down the road at the retreating form of the gawky young +Adonis. + +"Hush up, Cal Rucker, and go begin chopping up fodder to feed with +come supper time," answered his wife, her usual attitude of brisk +generalship coming into her capable voice and eyes after their +softening under the strain of the varied emotions of the last half +hour in the store. "Let's me and you get mops and broom and begin on +a-cleaning up for Mr. Crabtree before his moving, Lou. I reckon you +want to go over his things before you marry him anyway, and I'll help +you. I found everything Cal Rucker had a disgrace, with Mr. +Satterwhite so neat, too." And not at all heeding the flame of +embarrassment that communicated itself from the face of the widow to +that of the sensitive Mr. Crabtree, Mrs. Rucker descended the steps of +the store, taking Mrs. Plunkett with her, for to Mrs. Rucker the state +of matrimony, though holy, was still an institution in the realm of +realism and to be treated with according frankness. + +Meanwhile over in the barn at the Briars Uncle Tucker was at work +rooting up the foundations upon which had been built his lifetime of +lordship over his fields. In the middle of the floor was a great pile +of odds and ends of old harness, empty grease cans, broken +tools, and scraps of iron. Along one side of the floor stood the +pathetically-patched old implements that told the tale of patient +saving of every cent even at the cost of much greater labor to the +fast weakening old back and shoulders. A new plow-shaft had meant a +dollar and a half, so Uncle Tucker had put forth the extra strength to +drive the dull old one along the furrows, while even the grindstone +had worn away to such unevenness that each revolution had made only +half the impression on a blade pressed to its rim and thus caused the +sharpening to take twice as long and twice the force as would have +been required on a new one. But grindstones, too, cost cents and +dollars, and Uncle Tucker had ground on patiently, even hopefully, +until this the very end. But now he stood with a thin old scythe in +his hands looking for all the world like the incarnation of Father +Time called to face the first day of the new regime of an arrived +eternity, and the bewilderment in his eyes cut into Rose Mary's heart +with an edge of which the old blade had long since become incapable. + +"Can't I help you go over things, Uncle Tucker?" she asked softly with +a smile shining for him even through the mist his eyes were too dim to +discover in hers. + +"No, child, I reckon not," he answered gently. "Looks like it helps me +to handle all these things I have used to put licks in on more'n one +good farm deal. I was just a-wondering how many big clover crops I had +mowed down with this old blade 'fore I laid it by to go riding away +from it on that new-fangled buggy reaper out there that broke down in +less'n five years, while this old friend had served its twenty-odd and +now is good for as many more with careful honing. That's it, men of my +time were like good blades what swing along steady and even, high over +rocks and low over good ground; but they don't count in these days of +the four-horse-power high-drive, cut-bind-and-deliver machines men +work right on through God's gauges of sun-up and down. But maybe in +glory come He'll walk with us in the cool of the evening while they'll +be put to measuring the jasper walls with a golden reed just to keep +themselves busy and contented. How's the resurrection in the wardrobes +and chests of drawers coming on?" And a real smile made its way into +Uncle Tucker's eyes as he inquired into the progress of the packing up +of the sisters, from which he had fled a couple hours ago. + +"They are still taking things out, talking them over and putting them +right back in the same place," answered Rose Mary with a faint echo of +his smile that tried to come to the surface bravely but had a +struggle. "We will have to try and move the furniture with it all +packed away as it is. It is just across the Road and I know everybody +will want to help me disturb their things as little as possible. Oh, +Uncle Tucker, it's almost worth the--the pain to see everybody +planning and working for us as they are doing. Friends are like those +tall pink hollyhocks that go along and bloom single on a stalk until +something happens to make them all flower out double like peonies. And +that reminds me, Aunt Viney says be sure and save some of the dry +jack-bean seed from last year you had out here in the seed press +for--" + +"Say, Rose Mamie, say, what you think we found up on top of Mr. +Crabtree's bedpost what Mis' Rucker were a-sweeping down with a +broom?" and the General's face fairly beamed with excitement as he +stood dancing in the barn door. Tobe stood close behind him and small +Peggy and Jennie pressed close to Rose Mary's side, eager but not +daring to hasten Stonie's dramatic way of making Rose Mary guess the +news they were all so impatient to impart to her. + +"Oh, what? Tell me quick, Stonie," pleaded Rose Mary with the +eagerness she knew would be expected of her. Even in her darkest +hours Rose Mary's sun had shone on the General with its usual +radiance of adoration and he had not been permitted to feel the +tragedy of the upheaval, but encouraged to enjoy to the utmost all its +small excitements. In fact the move over to the store had appealed to +a fast budding business instinct in the General and he had seen +himself soon promoted to the weighing out of sugar, wrapping up +bundles and delivering them over the counter to any one of the +admiring Swarm sent to the store for the purchase of the daily +provender. + +"It were a tree squirrel and three little just-hatched ones in a +bunch," Stonie answered with due dramatic weight at Rose Mary's plea. +"Mis' Rucker thought it were a rat and jumped on the bed and hollowed +for Tobe to ketch it, and Peg and Jennie acted just like her, too, +after Tobe and me had ketched that mouse in the barn just last week +and tied it to a string and let it run at 'em all day to get 'em used +to rats and things just like boys." And the General cast a look of +disappointed scorn at the two pigtailed heads, downcast at this +failure of theirs to respond to the General's effort to inoculate +their feminine natures with masculine courage. + +"I hollered 'fore I knewed what at," answered the abashed Jennie in a +very small voice, unconsciously making further display of the force of +her hopeless feminine heredity. But Peggy switched her small skirts in +an entirely different phase of femininity. + +"You never heard me holler," she said in a tone that was skilful +admixture of defiance and tentative propitiation. + +"'Cause you had your head hid in Jennie's back," answered the General +coolly unbeguiled. "Here is the letter we comed to bring you, Rose +Mamie, and me and Tobe must go back to help Mis' Rucker some more +clean Mr. Crabtree up. I don't reckon she needs Peg and Jennie, but +they can come if they want to," with which Stonie and Tobe, the +henchman, departed, and not at all abashed the humble small women +trailing respectfully behind them. + +"That women folks are the touch-off to the whole explosion of life is +a hard lesson to learn for some men, and Stonie Jackson is one of that +kind," observed Uncle Tucker as he looked with a quizzical expression +after the small procession. "Want me to read that letter and tell you +what's in it?" he further remarked, shifting both expression and +attention on to Rose Mary, who stood at his side. + +"No, I'll read it myself and tell you what's in it," answered Rose +Mary with a blush and a smile. "I haven't written him about our +troubles, because--because he hasn't got a position yet and I don't +want to trouble him while he is lonely and discouraged." + +"Well, I reckon that's right," answered Uncle Tucker still in a +bantering frame of mind that it delighted Rose Mary to see him +maintain under the situation. "Come trouble, some women like to blind +a man with cotton wool while they wade through the high water and +only holler for help when their petticoats are down around their +ankles on the far bank. We'll wait and send Everett a photagraf of me +and you dishing out molasses and lard as grocer clerks. And glad to do +it, too!" he added with a sudden fervor of thankfulness rising in his +voice and great gray eyes. + +"Yes, Uncle Tucker, glad and proud to do it," answered Rose Mary +quickly. "Oh, don't you know that if you hadn't seen and understood +because you loved me so, I would have felt it was right to do--to do +what was so horrible to me? I will--I will make up to you and them for +keeping me from--it. What do you suppose Mr. Newsome will do when he +finds out that you have moved and are ready to turn the place over to +him, even without any foreclosure?" + +"Well, speculating on what men are a-going to do in this life is about +like trying to read turkey tracks in the mud by the spring-house, and +I'm not wasting any time on Gid Newsome's splay-footed impressions. +Come to-morrow night I'm a-going to pull the front door to for the +last time on all of us and early next morning Tom Crabtree's a-going +to take the letter and deed down to Gid in his office in the city for +me. Don't nobody have to foreclose on me; I hand back my debt dollar +for dollar outen my own pocket without no duns. To give up the land +immediate are just simple justice to him, and I'm a-leaving the Lord +to deal with him for trying to _buy_ a woman in her time of trouble. +We haven't told it on him and we are never a-going to. I wisht I could +make the neighbors all see the jestice in his taking over the land and +not feel so spited at him. I'm afraid it will lose him every vote +along Providence Road. 'Tain't right!" + +"I know it isn't," answered Rose Mary. "But when Mrs. Rucker speaks +her mind about him and Bob chokes and swells up my heart gets warm. Do +you suppose it's wrong to let a friend's trouble heat sympathy to the +boiling point? But if you don't need me I'm going down to the +milk-house to work out my last batch of butter before they come to +drive away my cows." And Rose Mary hurried down the lilac path before +Uncle Tucker could catch a glimpse of the tears that rose at the idea +of having to give up the beloved Mrs. Butter and her tribe of +gentle-eyed daughters. + +And as she stood in the cool gray depths of the old milk-house Rose +Mary's gentle heart throbbed with pain as she pressed the great cakes +of the golden treasure back and forth in the blue bowl, for it was a +quiet time and Rose Mary was tearing up some of her own roots. Her sad +eyes looked out over Harpeth Valley, which lay in a swoon with the +midsummer heat. The lush blue-grass rose almost knee deep around the +grazing cattle in the meadows, and in the fields the green grain was +fast turning to a harvest hue. Almost as far as her eyes could reach +along Providence Road and across the pastures to Providence Nob, +beyond Tilting Rock, the land was Alloway land and had been theirs for +what seemed always. She could remember what each good-by to it all had +been when she had gone out over the Ridge in her merry girlhood and +how overflowing with joy each return. Then had come the time when it +had become still dearer as a refuge into which she could bring her +torn heart for its healing. + +And such a healing the Valley had given her! It had poured the +fragrance of its blooming springs and summers over her head, she had +drunk the wine of forgetfulness in the cup of long Octobers and the +sting of its wind and rain and snow on her cheeks had brought back the +grief-faded roses. The arms of the hearty Harpeth women had been +outheld to her, and in turn she had had their babies and troubles laid +on her own breast for her and their comforting. She had been mothered +and sistered and brothered by these farmer folk with a very +prodigality of friendship, and to-day she realized more than ever +with positive exultation that she was brawn of their brawn and built +of their building. + +And then to her, a woman of the fields, had come down Providence Road +over the Ridge from the great world outside--the _miracle_. She +slipped her hand into her pocket for just one rapturous crush of the +treasure-letter when suddenly it was borne in upon her that it might +be that even that must come to an end for her. Stay she must by her +nest of helpless folk, and was it with futile wings he was breasting +the great outer currents of which she was so ignorant? His letters +told her nothing of what he was doing, just were filled to the word +with half-spoken love and longing and, above all, with a great +impatience about what, or for what, it was impossible for her to +understand. She could only grieve over it and long to comfort him with +all the strength of her love for him. And so with thinking, puzzling +and sad planning the afternoon wore away for her and sunset found her +at the house putting the household in order and to bed with her usual +cheery fostering of creaking joints and cumbersome retiring +ceremonies. + +At last she was at liberty to fling her exhausted body down on the +cool, patched, old linen sheets of the great four-poster which had +harbored many of her foremothers and let herself drift out on her own +troubled waters. Wrapped in the compassionate darkness she was giving +way to the luxury of letting the controlled tears rise to her eyes and +the sobs that her white throat ached from suppressing all day were +echoing on the stillness when a voice came from the little cot by her +bed and the General in disheveled nightshirt and rumpled head rose by +her pillow and stood with uncertain feet on his own springy place of +repose. + +"Rose Mamie," he demanded in an awestruck tone of voice that fairly +trembled through the darkness, "are you a-crying?" + +"Yes, Stonie," she answered in a shame-forced gurgle that would have +done credit to Jennie Rucker in her worst moments of abasement before +the force of the General. + +"Does your stomach hurt you?" he demanded in a practical though +sympathetic tone of voice, for so far in his journey along life's road +his sleep had only been disturbed by retributive digestive causes. + +"No," sniffed Rose Mary with a sob that was tinged with a small laugh. +"It's my heart, darling," she added, the sob getting the best of the +situation. "Oh, Stonie, Stonie!" + +"Now, wait a minute, Rose Mamie," exclaimed the General as he climbed +up and perched himself on the edge of the big bed. "Have you done +anything you are afraid to tell God about?" + +"No," came from the depths of Rose Mary's pillow. + +"Then don't cry because you think Mr. Mark ain't coming back, like +Mis' Rucker said she was afraid you was grieving about when she +thought I wasn't a-listening. He's a-coming back. Me and him have got +a bargain." + +"What about, Stonie?" came in a much clearer voice from the pillow, +and Rose Mary curled herself over nearer to the little bird perched on +the edge of her bed. + +"About a husband for you," answered Stonie in the reluctant voice that +a man usually uses when circumstances force him into taking a woman +into his business confidence. "Looked to me like everybody here was +a-going to marry everybody else and leave you out, so I asked him to +get you one up in New York and I'd pay him for doing it. He's a-going +to bring him here on the cars his own self lest he get away before I +get him." And the picture that rose in Rose Mary's mind, of the +reluctant husband being dragged to her at the end of a tether by +Everett, cut off the sob instantly. + +"What--what did you--he say when you asked him about--getting the +husband--for you--for me?" asked Rose Mary in a perfect agony of mirth +and embarrassment. + +"Let me see," said Stonie, and he paused as he tried to repeat +Everett's exact words, which had been spoken in a manner that had +impressed them on the General at the time. "He said that you wasn't +a-going to have no husband but the best kind if he had to kill +him--no, he said that if he was to have to go dead hisself he would +come and bring him to me, when he got him good enough for you by doing +right and such." + +"Was that all?" asked Rose Mary with a gurgle that was well nigh +ecstatic, for through her had shot a quiver of hope that set every +pulse in her body beating hot and strong, while her cheeks burned in +the cool linen of her pillow and her eyes fairly glowed into the +night. + +"About all," answered the General, beginning to yawn with the +interrupted slumber. "I told him your children would have to mind me +and Tobe when we spoke to 'em. He kinder choked then and said all +right. Then we bear-hugged for keeps until he comes again. I'm sleepy +now!" + +"Oh, Stonie, darling, thank you for waking up and coming to comfort +Rose Mamie," she said, and from its very fullness a happy little sob +escaped from her heart. + +"I tell you, Rose Mamie," said the General, instantly, again +sympathetically alarmed, "I'd better come over in your bed and go to +sleep. You can put your head on my shoulder and if you cry, getting me +wet will wake me up to keep care of you agin, 'cause I am so sleepy +now if you was to holler louder than Tucker Poteet I wouldn't wake up +no more." And suiting his actions to his proposition the General +stretched himself out beside Rose Mary, buried his touseled head on +her pillow and presented a diminutive though sturdy little shoulder, +against which she instantly laid her soft cheek. + +"You scrouge just like the puppy," was his appreciative comment of +her gentle nestling against his little body. "Now I'm going to sleep, +but if praying to God don't keep you from crying, then wake me up," +and with this generous and really heroic offer the General drifted off +again into the depths, into which he soon drew Rose Mary with him, +comforted by his faith and lulled in his strong little arms. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +IN THE HOLLOW OF HIS HAND + + +And the next morning a threatening, scowling, tossed-cloud dawn +brought the day over the head of Old Harpeth down upon little +Sweetbriar, which awakened with one accord to a sense of melancholy +oppression. A cool, dust-laden wind blew down Providence Road, twisted +the branches of the tall maples along the way, tore roughly at the +festoons of blooming vines over the gables of the Briars, startled the +nestled doves into a sad crooning, whipped mercilessly at the row of +tall hollyhocks along the garden fence, flaunted the long spikes of +jack-beans and carried their quaint fragrance to pour it over the bed +of sober-colored mignonette, mixing it with the pungent zinnia odor +and flinging it all over into the clover field across the briar +hedge. The jovial old sun did his very best to light up the situation, +but just as he would succeed in getting a ray down into the Valley a +great puffy cloud would cast a gray shadow of suppression over his +effort and retire him sternly for another half hour. + +And on the wings of the intruding, out-of-season wind came a train of +ills. Young Tucker Poteet waked at daylight and howled dismally with a +pain that seemed to be all over and then in spots. When he went to +take down the store shutters Mr. Crabtree smashed one of his large, +generous-spreading thumbs and Mrs. Rucker's breakfast eggs burned to a +cinder state while she tied it up in camphor for him. In the night a +mosquito had taken a bite out of the end of Jennie's small nose and it +was swelled to twice its natural size, and Peter, the wise, barked a +plump shin before he was well out of the trundle bed. One of young +Bob's mules broke away and necessitated a trip half way up to +Providence for his capture, and Mrs. Plunkett had Louisa Helen so +busy at some domestic manoeuvers that she found it impossible to go +with him. + +And before noon the whole village was in a fervid state of commotion. +Mrs. Rucker had insisted on moving Mr. Crabtree and all his effects +over into the domicile of his prospective bride, regardless of both +her and his abashed remonstrance. + +"Them squeems are all foolishness, Lou Plunkett," she had answered a +faint plea from the widow for a delay until after the ceremony for +this material mingling of the to-be-united lives. "It's all right and +proper for you and Mr. Crabtree to be married at night meeting Sunday, +and his things won't be unmarried in your house only through Saturday +and Sunday. I'm a-going to pack up his Sunday clothes, a pair of clean +socks, a shirt and other things in this basket. Then I'll fix him up a +shake-down in my parlor to spend Saturday night in, and I'll dress him +up nice and fine for the wedding you may be sure. We ain't got but +this day to move him out and clean up the house good to move Rose Mary +and the old folks into early Saturday morning, so just come on and get +to work. You can shut your eyes to his things setting around your +house for just them one day or two, can't you?" + +"They ain't nothing in this world I couldn't do to make it just the +littlest mite easier for Rose Mary and them sweet old folks, even to +gettin' my house into a unseemly married condition before hand," +answered Mrs. Plunkett as she brushed a tear away from her blue eyes. + +"That's the way we all feel," said Mrs. Rucker. "Now if I was you I'd +give Mr. Crabtree that middle bureau drawer. Men are apt to poke +things away careless if they has the top, and the bottom one is best +to use for your own things. Mr. Satterwhite always kept his clothes so +it were a pleasure to look at 'em, but Cal Rucker prefers a pair of +socks separated across the house if he can get them there. I found +one of his undershirts full of mud and stuck away in the kitchen safe +with the cup towels last week. There comes Mis' Poteet to help at +last! I never heard anything yell like Tucker has been doing all +morning. Is he quiet at last, Mis' Poteet?" + +"Yes, I reckon he's gave out all the holler that's in him, but I'm +afraid to put him down," and Mrs. Poteet continued the joggling, +swaying motion to a blue bundle on her breast that she had been +administering as a continuous performance to young Tucker since +daylight. "I'm sorry I couldn't come help you all with the moving, but +you can count on my mop and broom over to the store all afternoon, +soon as I can turn him over to the children." + +"We ain't needed you before, but now we have got Mr. Crabtree all +settled down here with Mrs. Plunkett we can get to work on his house +right after dinner. Have you been over to the Briars to see 'em in the +last hour?" + +"Yes, I come by there, but they didn't seem to need me. Miss Viney +has got Miss Amandy and Tobe and the General at work, and Rose Mary +has gone down to the dairy to pack up the last batch of butter for Mr. +Crabtree to take to the city in the morning. Mr. Tucker's still going +over things in the barn, and my feelings riz so I had to come away for +fear of me and little Tucker both busting out crying." + +And over at the Briars the scenes of exodus being enacted were well +calculated to touch a heart sterner than that of the gentle, +sympathetic and maternal Mrs. Poteet. Chilled by the out-of-season +wind Miss Lavinia had awakened with as bad a spell of rheumatism as +she had had for a year and it was with the greatest difficulty that +Rose Mary had succeeded in rubbing down the pain to a state where she +could be propped up in bed to direct little Miss Amanda and the +children in the last sad rites of getting things into shape to be +carried across the road at the beginning of the morrow, which was the +day Uncle Tucker had sternly set as that of his abdication. + +Feebly, Miss Amanda tottered about trying to carry out her sister's +orders and patiently the General and Tobe labored to help her, though +their hearts were really over at the store, where the rest of the +Swarm were, in the midst of the excitement of Mr. Crabtree's change of +residence. In all their young lives of varied length they had never +before had an opportunity to witness the upheaval of a moving and this +occasion was frought with a well-nigh insupportable fascination. The +General's remaining at the post of family duty and his command of his +henchman to the same sacrifice was indeed remarkable, though in a way +pathetic. + +"You, Stonewall Jackson, don't handle those chiny vases careless!" +commanded Aunt Viney in a stern voice. "Put 'em in the basket right +side up, for they were your great grandmother's wedding-present from +Mister Bradford from Arkansas." + +"Yes'm," answered Stonie, duly impressed. "But I've done packed 'em in +four different baskets for you, and if this one don't do all right, +can't me and Tobe together carry 'em over the Road to-morrow careful +for you, Aunt Viney?" + +"Well, yes, then you can take 'em out and set 'em back in their +places," answered Miss Lavinia, which order was carried out faithfully +by the General, with a generous disregard of the fact that he had been +laboring over them under a fire of directions for more than a +half-hour. + +"Now, Amandy, come away from those flower cans and get out the grave +clothes from the bureau drawers and let the boys wrap them in that old +sheet first and then in the newspapers and then put 'em in that box +trunk with brass tacks over there!" directed Miss Lavinia as Miss +Amandy wandered over by the window, along which stood a row of tomato +cans into which were stuck slips of all the vines and plants on the +land of the Briars, ready for transportation across Providence Road +when the time came. There was something so intensely pathetic in this +effort of the fast-fading little old woman to begin to bud from the +old life flower-plants to blossom in a new one, into which she could +hardly expect to make more than the shortest journey, that even the +General's young and inexperienced heart was moved to a quick +compassion. + +"I'm a-going to carry the flowers over and plant 'em careful for you, +Aunt Amandy," he said as he sidled up close to her and put his arm +around her with a protective gesture. "We'll water 'em twice a day and +just _make_ 'em grow, won't we, Tobe?" + +"Bucketfuls 'til we drap," answered Tobe with a sympathy equal to and +a courage as great as that of his superior officer. + +"Is the blue myrtle sprig often the graves holding up its leaves, +Amandy?" asked Miss Lavinia in a softened tone of voice. + +"Yes, it's doing fine," answered Miss Amandy, bending over to the last +of the row of cans. + +"Then come on and get out the burying things and let's get that job +over," Miss Lavinia continued to insist. "Don't get our things mixed! +Remember that my grave shift has got nothing but a seemly stitched +band on it while you would have linen lace on yours. And don't let +anything get wrinkled. I don't want to rise on Judgment Day looking +like I needed the pressing of a hot iron. Now pull out the trunk, +boys, lift out the tray so as I can--" + +But at this juncture Rose Mary appeared at the door with a tray on +which stood a bowl of soup, and Miss Lavinia lay back on her pillows +weakly, with the fire all gone out of her eyes and exhaustion written +on every line of her determined old face. + +"Go get dinner, everybody, so we can get back to work," she directed +weakly as she raised the spoon to her lips and then rested a moment +before she could take another sip. And with the last spoonful she +looked up and whispered to Rose Mary, "You'll have to do the rest +child, I can't drive any farther with a broke heart. I've got to lay +myself in the arms of prayer and go to sleep." And so rested, Rose +Mary left her. + +Then finding the motive powers which had been driving her removed, +little Miss Amandy stole away to the cedar grove behind the garden +fence, the boys scampered with the greatest glee across the Road to +the scene of mop and broom action behind the store, and Uncle Tucker +stiffly mounted old Gray to drive the cows away to their separate +homes. The thrifty neighbors had been glad to buy and pay him cash for +the sleek animals, and their price had been the small capital which +had been available for Uncle Tucker to embark on the commercial seas +in partnership with Mr. Crabtree. + +Thus left to herself in the old house, Rose Mary wandered from room to +room trying to put things in shape for the morrow's moving and +breasting her deep waters with what strength she could summon. Up to +this last day some strange hope had buoyed her up, and it was only at +this moment when the inevitable was so plainly closing down upon her +and her helpless old people that the bitterness of despair rose in her +heart. Against the uprooting of their feebleness her whole nature +cried out, and the sacrifice that had been offered her in the +milk-house days before, seemed but a small price to pay to avert the +tragedy. Doubt of herself and her motives assailed her, and she +quivered in every nerve when she thought that thus she had failed +them. What! Was she to save herself and let the sorrow fall on their +bent shoulders? Was it too late? Her heart answered her that it was, +for her confession of horror of her purchaser to Uncle Tucker had cut +off any hope of deceiving him and she knew he would be burned at the +stake before he would let her make the sacrifice. She was helpless, +helpless to safeguard them from this sorrow, as helpless as they +themselves! + +For a long hour she stood at the end of the porch, looking across at +Providence Nob, behind whose benevolent head the storm clouds of the +day were at last sinking, lit by the glow of the fast-setting sun. The +wind had died down and a deep peace was settling over the Valley, like +a benediction from the coming night. Just for strength to go on, Rose +Mary prayed out to the dim, blue old ridge and then turned to her +ministrations to her assembling household. + +Uncle Tucker was so tired that he hardly ate the supper set before +him, and before the last soft rays of the sun had entirely left the +Valley he had smoked his pipe and gone to bed. + +And soon in his wake retired the General, with two of the small dogs +to bear him company in his white cot. But the settling of Miss Lavinia +for the night had been long, and had brought Rose Mary almost to the +point of exhaustion. Tired out by her afternoon over in the little +graveyard, Miss Amanda had not the strength to read the usual chapters +of retiring service that Miss Lavinia always required of her, and so +Rose Mary drew the candle close beside the bed and attempted to go on +with her rubbing and read at the same time. And though, if read she +must, the very soul of Rose Mary panted for the comfort of some of the +lines of the Sweet Singer, Aunt Viney held her strictly to the words +of her favorite thunderer, Jeremiah, and little Aunt Amandy bunched up +under the cover across the bed fairly shook with terror as she buried +her head in her pillow to keep out the rolling words of invective that +began with an awful "_Harken_" and ended with "_Woe is me now, for my +soul is wearied_!" + +"Now," concluded Miss Lavinia, "you can put out the light. Rose Mary, +and if me and Amandy was to open our eyes on the other side of the +river it would be but a good thing for us. Lay the Bible in that +newspaper on top of that pile of _Christian Advocates_, with a string +to tie 'em all up after morning lesson, to be carried away. The Lord +bless and keep you, child, and don't forget to latch the front door on +us all for the last time!" + +Softly Rose Mary drew the door partly closed and left them in the +quiet of the fast-deepening purple dusk. She peeped into Uncle +Tucker's room and assured herself by his sonorous breathing that rest +at last was comforting him, and for a moment in her own room she bent +over the little cot where the General and his two spotted servitors +lay curled up in a tangle and fast in the depths of sleep. Then she +opened wide the old hall door that had for more than a century swung +over the sill marked off by the length of the intrepid English +foremother who had tramped the wilderness trail to possess what she, +herself, was giving up. + +And as she stood desperate, at bay, with her nest storm tossed and +threatened, suddenly the impossibility of it all came down upon her, +and stern with a very rigidity of resolve she went into the house, +lighted a candle by the old desk in the hall, and wrote swiftly a few +words of desperate summons to the Senator. She knew that Friday night +always found him over the fields at Boliver, and she told him briefly +the situation and asked him to come over in the early morning to the +rescue--and sacrifice. + +When she had first come out on the porch she had seen young Bob ride +up to the store on one of his colts, and she ran fleetly down to the +front gate and called to him. He consented instantly to ride over and +deliver the note for her, but he shot an uneasy glance at her from +beneath his wide hat as he put the letter in his pocket. + +"Is anything wrong, Miss Rose Mary?" he asked anxiously but +respectfully. + +"No, Bob, dear, nothing that--that I can't make--right," she answered +in a soft, tearless voice, and as he got on his horse and rode away +she came slowly up the long front walk that was moonflecked from the +leaves of the tall trees. Then once more she stood on the old door +sill--at bay. + +And as she looked at the old Ridge across the sweet, blooming +clover-fields, with the darkened house behind her, again the waters of +despair rose breast-high and heart-high, beat against her aching +throat and were just about to dash over her head as she stretched out +one arm to the hills and with a broken cry bent her white forehead in +the curve of the other, but suddenly bent head, tear-blinded eyes, +quivering breast and supplicating arms were folded tight in a strong +embrace and warm, thirsty lips pressed against the tears on her +cheeks as Everett's voice with a choke and a gulp made its way into +her consciousness. + +"I feel like shaking the very life out of you, Rose Mary Alloway," was +his tender form of greeting. + +"You're squeezing it out," came in all the voice that Rose Mary could +command for an answer. And the broad-shouldered, burden-bearing, +independent woman that was the Rose of Old Harpeth melted into just a +tender girl who crushed her heart against her lover's and clung as +meekly as any slip of vine to her young lord oak. "But I don't care," +she finished up under his chin. And Everett's laugh that greeted and +accepted her unexpected meekness rang through the hall and brought a +commotion in answer. + +The wee dogs, keen both of ear and scent, shot like small electric +volts from Stonie's couch, hurled themselves through the hall and +sprang almost waist-high against Everett's side in a perfect ecstasy +of welcome. They yelped and barked and whined and nosed in a tumbling +heap of palpitating joy until he was obliged to hold Rose Mary in one +arm while he made an attempt to respond to and abate their enthusiasm +with the other. + +"Now, now, that's all right! Nice dogs, nice dogs!" he was answering +and persuading, when a stern call from the depths of Miss Lavinia's +room, the door of which Rose Mary had left ajar, abstracted her from +Everett's arm on the instant and sent her hurrying to answer the +summons. + +"Is that young man come back? and light the candle," Miss Lavinia +demanded and commanded in the same breath. And just as Rose Mary +flared up the dim light on the table by the bed Everett himself stood +in the doorway. With one glance his keen eyes took in the situation in +the dim room in which the two old wayfarers lay prepared for the +morning journey, and what Miss Lavinia's stately and proper greeting +would have been to him none of them ever knew, for with a couple of +strides he was over by the bed at Rose Mary's side and had taken the +stern old lady into his strong arms and landed a kiss on the ruffle of +white nightcap just over her left ear. + +"No leaving the Briars this season, Miss Lavinia," he said in a +laughing, choking voice as he bent across and extracted one of little +Miss Amandy's hands from the tight bunch she had curled herself into +under the edge of her pillow and bestowed a squeeze thereon. "It's all +fixed up over at Boliver this afternoon. There's worse than oil on the +place--and it's all yours now for keeps." With Rose Mary in his arms +Everett had entirely forgotten to announce to her such a minor fact as +the saving of her lands and estate, but to the two little old ladies +his sympathy had made him give the words of reprieve with his first +free breath. The bundles on the floor and the old trunk had smote his +heart with a fierce pain that the impulsive warmth of his greeting +and the telling of his rescue could only partly ease. + +"The news only reached me day before--" he was going on to explain +when, candle in hand, Uncle Tucker appeared in the doorway. His +long-tailed night-shirt flapped around his bare, thin old legs, and +every separate gray lock stood by itself and rampant, while his eyes +seemed deeper and more mystic than ever. + +"Well, what's all this ruckus?" he demanded as he peered at them +across the light of his candle. "Have any kind of cyclone blowed you +from New York clean across here to Harpeth Valley, boy?" + +"He has come back with the mercy of our Lord in his hands to save our +home; and you go put on your pants before your pipes get chilled, +Tucker Alloway," answered Aunt Viney in her most militant tone of +voice. "And, Rose Mary, you can take that young man on out of here now +so Amandy can take that shame-faced head of hers out of that feather +pillow. It's all on account of that tored place in her night-cap I +told her to mend. You needn't neither of you come back no more, +because we must get to sleep, so as to be ready to unpack before +sun-up and get settled back for the day. And don't you go to bed, +neither one of you, without reading Jeremiah twelfth, first to last +verse, and me and Amandy will do the same." With which Everett found +himself dismissed with a seeming curtness which he could plainly see +was an heroic control of emotion in the feeble old stoic who was +trembling with exhaustion. + +Uncle Tucker, called to account for the lack of warmth and also +propriety in his attire, had hastened back to his own apartment and +Everett found him sitting up in his bed, lighting the old cob with +trembling fingers but with his excitement well under control. He +listened intently to Everett's hurried but succinct account of the +situation and crisis in his own and the Alloway business affairs, as +he puffed away, and his old eyes lighted with excitement at the rush +of the tale of high finance. + +And when at last Everett paused for lack of breath, after his dramatic +climax, the old philosopher lay back on his high-piled feather pillows +and blinked out into the candle-light, puffed in silence for a few +minutes, then made answer in his own quizzical way with a radiant +smile from out under his beetling white brows: + +"Well," he said between puffs, "looks like fortune is, after all, a +curious bird without even tail feathers to steer by nor for a man to +ketch by putting salt on. Gid failed both with a knife in the back and +a salt shaker to ketch it, but you were depending on nothing but a +ringdove coo, as far as I can see, when it hopped in your hand. I +reckon you'll get your answer." + +"Are you willing--to have me ask for it, Mr. Alloway?" asked Everett +with a radiant though slightly embarrassed smile. + +"Yes," answered Uncle Tucker as he knocked the ashes out of his pipe +against the table and looked straight into Everett's eyes. "After a +man has plowed a honest, straight-furrowed field in life it's no +more'n fair for Providence to send a-loving, trusting woman to meet +him at the bars. Good night, and don't forget to latch the front door +when you have finally torn yourself away from that moonlight!" + +And the call of the young moon that came with the warm garden-scented +gusts of winds that were sweeping across Harpeth Valley was a riot in +Everett's veins as he made his way through the silent hall toward the +moonlit porch on the top step of which he could see Rose Mary sitting +in the soft light, but a lusty young snore from a dark room on the +left made him remember that there was one greeting he had missed. He +bent over the General's little cot, across which lay a long shaft of +the white light from the hilltops, and was about to press his lips on +the warm, breath-stirred ones of the small boy, but he restrained +himself in time from offering to the General in his defenseless sleep +what would have been an insult to him awake, and contented himself +with a most cautious and manly clasp of the chubby little hand. + +"Ketch it, Tobe, ketch it--don't let Aunt Viney's vase be broked," +murmured Stonie as he turned on his side and buried his head still +deeper in the pillow. + +"No, General, Aunt Viney's vase--is--not going to be broken, thank +God," answered Everett under his breath as he turned away and left the +General, who, even in sleep, carried his responsibilities sturdily. + +"Rose Mary," he said a little later as he stood on the bottom step +below her, so that his eyes were just on a level with hers as she sat +and smiled down upon him, "for a woman, you have very little +curiosity. Don't you want to ask me where I've been, why I went and +what I've been doing every minute since I left you? Can it be +indifference that makes you thus ignore your feminine prerogative of +the inquisition?" + +"I'm beginning at being glad you are here. Joy's just the white foam +at the top of the cup, and it ought not to be blown away, no +matter--how thirsty one is, ought it? Now tell me what brought you +back--to save me," and Rose Mary held out her hand, with one of her +lovely, entreating gestures, while her eyes were full of tender tears. +And it was with difficulty that Everett held himself to a condition to +tell her what he wanted her to know without any further delay. + +"Well," he answered as he raised his lips from a joy draft at the cup +of her pink palms, "the immediate cause was a telegram that came +Tuesday night. It said '_Gid sells out Mr. Tucker and wants your +girl_,' and it was signed '_Bob_.' All these weeks a bunch of hard old +goldbugs had been sitting in conclave, weighing my evidence and +reports and making one inadequate syndicating offer after another. +They were teetering here and balancing there, but at eleven o'clock +Wednesday morning the cyclone that blew me down here across Old +Harpeth originated in the directors' rooms of the firm, and I guess +the old genties are gasping yet. + +"I had that telegram in my pocket, tickets for the three-o'clock +Southern express folded beside 'em, and I put enough daylight into my +proposition to dazzle the whole conclave into setting signatures to +papers they'd been moling over for weeks. I don't know what did it, +but they signed up and certified checks in one large hurry. + +"Then I beat it and never drew breath until I made the Farmers' and +Traders' Bank in Boliver this afternoon, covered those notes of Mr. +Alloways, killed that mortgage and hit Providence Road for Sweetbriar. +I met Bob out about a mile from town, and he put me next to the whole +situation and gave _me_ your note. I don't know which I came nearest +to, swearing or crying, but the Plunkett-Crabtree news made me raise +a shout instead of either. But if I did what I truly ought, Rose Mary +Alloway, I _would_ shake the life out of you for not writing me about +it all. I may do it yet." + +"Please don't!" answered Rose Mary with a little smile that still held +its hint of the suffering she had gone through. "I thought you were +out of work yourself and couldn't help us, and I didn't want to +trouble you. It would have hurt you so to know if you couldn't help +me, and I didn't--" + +"God, that's it! Fool that I was to go away and risk leaving you +without an understanding!" exclaimed Everett in a bitterly reproachful +tone of voice. "But I was afraid to let you know what I had discovered +until I could get the money to settle that mortgage. I was afraid that +you or Mr. Alloway would unconsciously let him get a hint of the find, +and I knew he could and would foreclose any minute. He was suspicious +of me and my prospecting, anyway, and as he was an old, and as you +both thought, tested friend, what way did I have of proving him the +slob I knew him to be? I thought it best to go and get the company +formed, the option money paid to cover the mortgage and all of it out +of his hands before he could have any chance to get into the game at +all. And that was really the best way to manage it--only I hadn't +counted on his swooping down on--you. Again, God, what I risked!" + +"Yes," answered Rose Mary in a voice that barely controlled the cold +horror of the thought that rose between them, "it almost happened. I +thought I ought to--to save them, even if Uncle Tucker wouldn't +let me, and I gave Bob that note--to--to him. It almost +happened--to-morrow. Quick, hold me close--don't let me think about +it--ever!" and Rose Mary shuddered in the crush of Everett's arms. + +[Illustration: "You won't ever leave me any more?"] + +"Out in the world, Rose Mary," said Everett as he lifted his lips +from hers, "it would have happened--the tragedy, and you would have +been the loot; but down here in Harpeth Valley they grow men like your +Uncle Tucker, and they turn, by a strange motive power, wheels that do +not crush, but--lift. I left you in danger because I had schemed it +out in my world's way, fool, fool that I--" + +"Please, please don't say things about yourself like that to me," +pleaded Rose Mary, quickly raising her head and smiling through her +tears at him. "Go on and tell me what you did find out there in the +pasture; don't blow off any more of my foam!" + +"Cobalt, if you care to know," answered Everett with an excited laugh, +"the richest deposit in the States I found out--beats a gold mine all +hollow. I came on it almost accidentally while testing for the allied +metals up the creek. Your money will grow in bunches now, for the +biggest and the best mining syndicate in New York has taken it up. +You can just shake down the dollars and do what you please from now +on." + +"You'll have to do that sort of orchard work, I'll be busy in the +house," answered Rose Mary, with a rapturous, breathless shyness, and +she held out her hand to him with the most lovely of all her little +gestures of entreaty. "You promised once to farm for me and--you won't +ever leave--_ever_ leave me any more, will you?" + +"No, never," answered Everett as he took both her hands and at arms' +length pressed them against his breast, "I'm not going to enact over +again the role of poor chap obliged to be persuaded into matrimony by +heiress, but I'm going to take my own and buckle down and see that you +people get every cent of that dig-up that's coming to you. With the +reputation this find gives me I'll be able to jolly well grubstake +with commissions from now on, but I'll hit no trail after this with a +mule-pack that can't carry double, Mary of the Rose." + +"And that doesn't always lead back in just a little time to--to the +nesties?" she asked with the dove stars deep in the pools of her eyes, +while ever so slightly her hands drew him toward her. + +"Always a blazed, short cut when they need--us," he answered, +yielding, then paused a moment and held himself from her and said, +looking deep into the eyes raised to his, "Truly, rose woman, am I +that beggar-man who came over the Ridge, cold, and in the tatters of +his disillusion? Do you suppose Old Harpeth has given me this warm +garment of ideals that wraps me now for keeps?" + +"Of course, he has, for it's made for you of your--Father's love. And +isn't it--rose-colored?" + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Rose of Old Harpeth, by Maria Thompson Daviess + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSE OF OLD HARPETH *** + +***** This file should be named 15195.txt or 15195.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/1/9/15195/ + +Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Riikka +Talonpoika and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/15195.zip b/15195.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3bc4c66 --- /dev/null +++ b/15195.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..51cf2eb --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #15195 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15195) |
