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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+
+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: The Christmas Peace
+       1908
+
+Author: Thomas Nelson Page
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23511]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS PEACE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CHRISTMAS PEACE
+
+By Thomas Nelson Page
+
+Charles Scribner's Sons New York, 1908
+
+Copyright, 1891, 1904, 1906
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+They had lived within a mile of each other for fifty-odd years, old
+Judge Hampden and old Colonel Drayton; that is, all their lives, for
+they had been born on adjoining plantations within a month of each
+other. But though they had thus lived and were accounted generally good
+men and good neighbors, to each other they had never been neighbors any
+more than the Lévite was neighbor to him who went down to Jericho.
+
+Kindly to everyone else and ready to do their part by all other men, the
+Draytons and the Hampdens, whenever they met each other, always passed
+by on the other side.
+
+It was an old story--the feud between the families--and, perhaps, no
+one now knew just how the trouble started. They had certainly been on
+opposite sides ever since they established themselves in early Colonial
+days on opposite hills in the old county from which the two mansions
+looked at each other across the stream like hostile forts. The earliest
+records of the county were those of a dispute between one Colonel
+Drayton and one Captain Hampden, growing out of some claim to land; but
+in which the chief bitterness appeared to have been injected by Captain
+Hampden's having claimed precedence over Colonel Drayton on the ground
+that his title of “Captain” was superior to Colonel Drayton's title,
+because he had held a real commission and had fought for it, whereas
+the Colonel's title was simply honorary and “Ye sayd Collonel had never
+smelled enough powder to kill a tom-cat.”
+
+However this might be and there was nothing in the records to show how
+this contention was adjudicated--in the time of Major Wil-mer Drayton
+and Judge Oliver Hampden, the breach between the two families had been
+transmitted from father to son for several generations and showed no
+signs of abatement. Other neighborhood families intermarried, but not
+the Drayton-Hall and the Hampden-Hill families, and in time it came to
+be an accepted tradition that a Drayton and a Hampden would not mingle
+any more than would fire and water.
+
+The Hampdens were dark and stout, hot-blooded, fierce, and impetuous.
+They were apparently vigorous; but many of them died young. The
+Draytons, on the other hand, were slender and fair, and usually lived
+to a round old age; a fact of which they were wont to boast in contrast
+with the briefer span of the Hampdens.
+
+“Their tempers burn them out,” the Major used to say of the Hampdens.
+
+Moreover, the Draytons were generally cool-headed, deliberate, and
+self-contained. Thus, the Draytons had mainly prospered throughout the
+years.
+
+Even the winding creek which ran down through the strip of meadow was a
+fruitful cause of dissension and litigation between the families. “It is
+as ungovernable as a Hampden's temper, sir,” once said Major Drayton,
+On the mere pretext of a thunder-storm, it would burst forth from its
+banks, tear the fences to pieces and even change its course, cutting a
+new channel, now to one side and now to the other through the soft and
+loamy soil. A lawsuit arose over the matter, in which the costs alone
+amounted to far more than the value of the whole land involved; but no
+one doubted that old Major Drayton spoke the truth when he declared that
+his father would rather have lost his entire estate with all its rolling
+hills and extensive forests than the acre or two which was finally
+awarded to Judge Hampden.
+
+As neither owner would join the other even in keeping up a partition
+fence, there were two fences run within three feet of each other along
+the entire boundary line between the two places. With these double
+fences, there could hardly be peace between the two families; for
+neither owner ever saw the two lines running side by side without at
+once being reminded of his neighbor's obstinacy and--of his own.
+
+Thus, in my time the quarrel between the Drayton-Hall people and
+the Hampden-Hill folks was a factor in every neighborhood problem or
+proposition from a “church dressing” or a “sewing society meeting” to a
+political campaign. It had to be considered in every invitation and in
+every discussion.
+
+It is not meant that there was no intercourse between the two families.
+Major Drayton and Judge Hampden regularly paid each other a visit every
+year--and oftener when there was serious illness in one house or the
+other--but even on such occasions their differences were liable to crop
+out. One of them held an opinion that when one gentleman was spending
+the night in another gentleman's house, it was the part of the host
+to indicate when bedtime had arrived; whilst the other maintained with
+equal firmness the doctrine that no gentleman could inform his guest
+that he was fatigued: that this duty devolved upon the guest himself.
+This difference of opinion worked comfortably enough on both sides until
+an occasion when Judge Hampden, who held the former view, was spending
+the night at Colonel Drayton's. When bedtime arrived, the rest of the
+household retired quietly, leaving the two gentlemen conversing, and
+when the servants appeared in the morning to open the blinds and light
+the fires, the two gentlemen were still found seated opposite each other
+conversing together quite as if it were the ordinary thing to sit up and
+talk all night long.
+
+On another occasion, it is said that Major Drayton, hearing of his
+neighbor's serious illness, rode over to make inquiry about him, and
+owing to a slip of the tongue, asked in a voice of deepest sympathy,
+“Any hopes of the old gentleman dying!”
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Yet, they had once been friends.
+
+Before Wilmer Drayton and Oliver Hampden were old enough to understand
+that by all the laws of heredity and custom they should be enemies, they
+had learned to like each other. When they were only a few years old, the
+little creek winding between the two plantations afforded in its strip
+of meadow a delightful neutral territory where the two boys could enjoy
+themselves together, safe from the interference of their grave seniors;
+wading, sailing mimic fleets upon its uncertain currents, fishing
+together, or bathing in the deepest pools it offered in its winding
+course.
+
+It looked, indeed, for a time as if in the fellowship of these two lads
+the long-standing feud of the Hampdens and Draytons might be ended,
+at last. They went to school together at the academy, where their only
+contests were a generous rivalry. At college they were known as Damon
+and Pythias, and though a natural rivalry, which might in any event
+have existed between them, developed over the highest prize of the
+institution--the debater's medal--the generosity of youth saved them. It
+was even said that young Drayton, who for some time had apparently been
+certain of winning, had generously retired in order to defeat a third
+candidate and throw the prize to Oliver Hampden.
+
+They came home and both went to the Bar, but with different results.
+Young Drayton was learned and unpractical. Oliver Hampden was clever,
+able, and successful, and soon had a thriving practice; while his
+neighbor's learning was hardly known outside the circle of the Bar.
+
+Disappointed in his ambition, Drayton shortly retired from the Bar and
+lived the life of a country gentleman, while his former friend rapidly
+rose to be the head of the Bar.
+
+The old friendship might have disappeared in any event, but a new cause
+arose which was certain to end it.
+
+Lucy Fielding was, perhaps, the prettiest girl in all that region.
+Oliver Hampden had always been in love with her. However, Fortune, ever
+capricious, favored Wilmer Drayton, who entered the lists when it looked
+as if Miss Lucy were almost certain to marry her old lover. It appeared
+that Mr. Drayton's indifference had counted for more than the other's
+devotion. He carried off the prize with a dash.
+
+If Oliver Hampden, however, was severely stricken by his disappointment,
+he masked it well; for he married not long afterward, and though some
+said it was from pique, there was no more happily married pair in all
+the county.
+
+A year later a new Oliver came to keep up the name and tenets of the
+Hampdens. Oliver Hampden, now the head of the Bar, would not have envied
+any man on earth had not his wife died a few years later and left him
+alone with his boy in his big house.
+
+Lucy Drayton was born two years after young Oliver Hampden.
+
+The mammies of the two children, as the mammies of their parents had
+done before them, used to talk them over on the edge of the shaded
+meadow which divided the places, and thus young Oliver Hampden, a lusty
+boy of five, came to know little Lucy Drayton fully three years before
+his father ever laid eyes on her.
+
+Mr. Hampden was riding around his fences one summer afternoon, and was
+making his way along the double division line with a cloud on his brow
+as the double rows recalled the wide breach with his neighbor and former
+friend, and many memories came trooping at the recollection. Passing
+through a small grove which had been allowed to grow up to shut off a
+part of his view of the Drayton place, as he came out into the meadow
+his eye fell on a scene which made him forget the present with all its
+wrongs. On the green turf before him where butter-cups speckled the
+ground with golden blossoms, was a little group of four persons busily
+engaged and wholly oblivious of the differences which divided the
+masters of the two estates. The two mammies were seated side by side on
+a bank, sewing and talking busily--their large aprons and caps making a
+splotch of white against the green willows beyond--and in front of them
+at a little distance a brown-haired boy of five and a yellow-ringleted
+girl of three were at play on the turf, rolling over and over, shouting
+and laughing in their glee.
+
+As the father rested his eyes on the group, the frown which had for a
+second lowered on his brow passed away and he pulled in his horse so as
+not to disturb them. He was about to turn back and leave them in their
+happiness when his black-eyed boy caught sight of him and ran toward
+him, shouting for a ride and calling over his shoulder for “Luthy” to
+“come on too.” As there was no escape, Mr. Hampden went forward and,
+ignoring the confusion of the mammies at being caught together, took
+the boy up before him and gave him a ride up and down the meadow. Then
+nothing else would do for Master Oliver but he “must take Luthy up,
+too.”
+
+“Perhaps 'Luthy' may be afraid of the horse!” suggested Mr. Hampden with
+a smile.
+
+But far from it. Led by the little boy who had run to fetch her, she
+came to Mr. Hampden as readily as his own son had done, and, though she
+gave him one of those quick searching glances with which childhood reads
+character, having made sure that he was friendly, she was no more afraid
+of his horse than the boy was.
+
+Oliver tried to lift her, and as he tugged at her, the father sat and
+watched with a smile, then leant down and picked her up while the two
+mammies gasped with mingled astonishment and fear.
+
+“I tell you, she's pretty heavy,” said the little boy.
+
+“Indeed, she is,” said the father, gaily.
+
+Mr. Hampden would have taken his son home with him, but the latter
+declined the invitation. He wished to “stay with Luthy.” So, Mr.
+Hampden, having first set the nurses' minds at ease by complimenting the
+little girl in warm terms to her mammy, rode home alone with his face
+set in deep reflection.
+
+The breach between the Hampdens and the Draytons was nearer being
+closed that evening than it had been in three generations, for as Oliver
+Hampden rode up the bridle path across his fields, he heard behind him
+the merry laughter of the two children in the quiet meadow below, and
+old memories of his childhood and college life softened his heart. He
+forgot the double-line fences and determined to go on the morrow to
+Drayton Hall and make up the quarrel. He would offer the first overture
+and a full declaration of regret, and this, he was quite sure, would
+make it up. Once he actually turned his horse around to go straight
+across the fields as he used to do in his boyhood, but there below him
+were the double-line fences stretching brown and clear. No horse could
+get over them, and around the road it was a good five miles, so he
+turned back again and rode home and the chance was lost.
+
+On his arrival he found a summons in a suit which had been instituted
+that day by Wilmer Drayton for damages to his land by reason of his
+turning the water of the creek upon him.
+
+Mr. Hampden did not forbid old Lydia to take his boy down there again,
+but he went to the meadow no more himself, and when he and Wilmer
+Drayton met next, which was not for some time, they barely spoke.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+Young Oliver Hampden grew up clear eyed, strong, and good to look at,
+and became shy where girls were concerned, and most of all appeared to
+be shy with Lucy Drayton. He went to college and as he got his broad
+shoulders and manly stride he got over his shyness with most girls, but
+not with Lucy Drayton. With her, he appeared to have become yet more
+reserved. She had inherited her mother's eyes and beauty, with the
+fairness of a lily; a slim, willowy figure; a straight back and a small
+head set on her shoulders in a way that showed both blood and pride.
+Moreover, she had character enough, as her friends knew: those gray eyes
+that smiled could grow haughty with disdain or flash with indignation,
+and she had taught many an uppish young man to feel her keen irony.
+
+“She gets only her intellect from the Dray-tons; her beauty and her
+sweetness come from her mother,” said a lady of the neighborhood to
+Judge Hampden, thinking to please him.
+
+“She gets both her brains and beauty from her mother and only her name
+from her father,” snapped the Judge, who had often seen her at church,
+and never without recalling Lucy Fielding as he knew her.
+
+That she and young Oliver Hampden fought goes without saying. But no
+one knew why she was cruelly bitter to a young man who once spoke
+slightingly of Oliver, or why Oliver, who rarely saw her except at
+church, took up a quarrel of hers so furiously.
+
+*****
+
+The outbreak of the war, or rather the conditions preceding that
+outbreak, finally fixed forever the gulf between the two families. Judge
+Hampden was an ardent follower of Calhoun and “stumped” the State in
+behalf of Secession, whereas Major Drayton, as the cloud that had been
+gathering so long rolled nearer, emerged from his seclusion and became
+one of the sternest opponents of a step which he declared was not merely
+revolution, but actual rebellion. So earnest was he, that believing that
+slavery was the ultimate bone of contention, he emancipated his slaves
+on a system which he thought would secure their welfare. Nothing could
+have more deeply stirred Judge Hampden's wrath. He declared that such a
+measure at such a crisis was a blow at every Southern man. He denounced
+Major Drayton as “worse than Garrison, Phillips, and Greeley all put
+together.”
+
+They at last met in debate at the Court House. Major Drayton exasperated
+the Judge by his coolness, until the latter lost his temper and the
+crowd laughed.
+
+“I do not get as hot as you do,” said the Major, blandly. He looked as
+cool as a cucumber, but his voice betrayed him.
+
+“Oh, yes, you do,” snorted the Judge. “A mule gets as hot as a horse,
+but he does not sweat.”
+
+This saved him.
+
+There came near being a duel. Everyone expected it. Only the
+interposition of friends prevented their meeting on the field. Only this
+and one other thing.
+
+Though no one in the neighborhood knew it until long afterward--and then
+only in a conjectural way by piecing together fragments of rumors that
+floated about--young Oliver Hampden really prevented the duel. He told
+his father that he loved Lucy Drayton. There was a fierce outbreak on
+the Judge's part.
+
+“Marry that girl!--the daughter of Wilmer Drayton! I will disinherit you
+if you but so much as----”
+
+“Stop!” The younger man faced him and held up his hand with an imperious
+gesture. “Stop! Do not say a word against her or I may never forget it.”
+
+The father paused with his sentence unfinished, for his son stood before
+him suddenly revealed in a strength for which the Judge had never given
+him credit, and he recognized in his level eyes, tense features, and the
+sudden set of the square jaw, the Hampden firmness at its best or worst.
+
+“I have nothing to say against her,” said the Judge, with a sudden rush
+of recollection of Lucy Fielding. “I have no doubt she is in one way all
+you think her; but she is Wilmer Drayton 's daughter. You will never win
+her.”
+
+“I will win her,” said the young man.
+
+That night Judge Hampden thought deeply over the matter, and before
+daylight he had despatched a note to Major Drayton making an apology for
+the words he had used.
+
+Both Judge Hampden and his son went into the army immediately on
+the outbreak of hostilities. Major Drayton, who to the last opposed
+Secession bitterly, did not volunteer until after the State had seceded;
+but then he, also, went in, and later was desperately wounded.
+
+A few nights before they went off to the war, Judge Hampden and his son
+rode over together to Major Drayton's to offer the olive-branch of peace
+in shape of young Oliver and all that he possessed.
+
+Judge Hampden did not go all the way, for he had sworn never to put foot
+again in Major Drayton's house so long as he lived, and, moreover, he
+felt that his son would be the better ambassador alone. Accordingly, he
+waited in the darkness at the front gate while his son presented himself
+and laid at Lucy Drayton's feet what the Judge truly believed was more
+than had ever been offered to any other woman. He, however, sent the
+most conciliatory messages to Major Drayton.
+
+“Tell him,” he said, “that I will take down my fence and he shall run
+the line to suit himself.” He could not have gone further.
+
+The time that passed appeared unending to the Judge waiting in the
+darkness; but in truth it was not long, for the interview was brief. It
+was with Major Drayton and not with his daughter.
+
+Major Drayton declined, both on his daughter's part and on his own, the
+honor which had been proposed.
+
+At this moment the door opened and Lucy herself appeared. She was a
+vision of loveliness. Her face was white, but her eyes were steady. If
+she knew what had occurred, she gave no sign of it in words. She walked
+straight to her father's side and took his hand.
+
+“Lucy,” he said, “Mr. Hampden has done us the honor to ask your hand and
+I have declined it.”
+
+“Yes, papa.” Her eyelids fluttered and her bosom heaved, but she did not
+move, and Lucy was too much a Drayton to unsay what her father had said,
+or to undo what he had done.
+
+Oliver Hampden's eyes did not leave her face. For him the Major had
+disappeared, and he saw only the girl who stood before him with a face
+as white as the dress she wore.
+
+“Lucy, I love you. Will you ever care for me? I am going--going away
+to-morrow, and I shall not see you any more; but I would like to know if
+there is any hope.” The young man's voice was strangely calm.
+
+The girl held out her hand to him.
+
+“I will never marry anyone else.”
+
+“I will wait for you all my life,” said the young man.
+
+Bending low, he kissed her hand in the palm, and with a bow to her
+father, strode from the room.
+
+The Judge, waiting at the gate in the darkness, heard the far-off,
+monotonous galloping of Oliver's horse on the hard plantation road. He
+rode forward to meet him.
+
+“Well!”
+
+It was only a word.
+
+“They declined.”
+
+The father scarcely knew his son's voice, it was so wretched.
+
+“What! Who declined? Did you see--”
+
+“Both!”
+
+Out in the darkness Judge Hampden broke forth into such a torrent of
+rage that his son was afraid for his life and had to devote all his
+attention to soothing him. He threatened to ride straight to Drayton's
+house and horsewhip him on the spot. This, however, the young man
+prevented, and the two rode home together in a silence which was
+unbroken until they had dismounted at their own gate and given their
+horses to the waiting servants. As they entered the house, Judge Hampden
+spoke.
+
+“I hope you are satisfied,” he said, sternly. “I make but one request
+of you--that from this time forth, you will never mention the name of
+Drayton to me again as long as you live.”
+
+“I suppose I should hate her,” said the son, bitterly, “but I do not. I
+love her and I believe she cares for me.”
+
+His father turned in the door-way and faced him.
+
+“Cares for you! Not so much as she cares for the smallest negro on that
+place. If you ever marry her, I will disinherit you.”
+
+“Disinherit me!” burst from the young man. “Do you think I care for this
+place? What has it ever brought to us but unhappiness? I have seen your
+life embittered by a feud with your nearest neighbor, and now it wrecks
+my happiness and robs me of what I would give all the rest of the world
+for.”
+
+Judge Hampden looked at him curiously. He started to say, “Before I
+would let her enter this house, I would burn it with my own hands”; but
+as he met his son's steadfast gaze there was that in it which made him
+pause. The Hampden look was in his eyes. The father knew that another
+word might sever them forever.
+
+*****
+
+If ever a man tried to court death, young Oliver Hampden did. But Death,
+that struck many a happier man, passed him by, and he secured instead
+only a reputation for reckless courage and was promoted on the field.
+
+His father rose to the command of a brigade, and Oliver himself became a
+captain.
+
+At last the bullet Oliver had sought found him; but it spared his life
+and only incapacitated him for service.
+
+There were no trained nurses during the war, and Lucy Drayton, like so
+many girls, when the war grew fiercer, went into the hospitals, and by
+devotion supplied their place.
+
+Believing that life was ended for her, she had devoted herself wholly to
+the cause, and self-repression had given to her face the gentleness and
+consecration of a nun.
+
+It was said that once as she bent over a wounded common soldier, he
+returned to consciousness, and after gazing up at her a moment, asked
+vaguely, “Who are you, Miss?”
+
+“I am one of the sisters whom our Father has sent to nurse you and help
+you to get well. But you must not talk.”
+
+The wounded man closed his eyes and then opened them with a faint smile.
+
+“All right; just one word. Will you please ask your pa if I may be his
+son-in-law?”
+
+Into the hospital was brought one day a soldier so broken and bandaged
+that no one but Lucy Drayton might have recognized Oliver Hampden.
+
+For a long time his life was despaired of; but he survived.
+
+When consciousness returned to him, the first sound he heard was a
+voice which had often haunted him in his dreams, but which he had never
+expected to hear again.
+
+“Who is that!” he asked, feebly.
+
+“It is I, Oliver--it is Lucy.”
+
+The wounded man moved slightly and the girl bending over him caught the
+words, whispered brokenly to himself:
+
+“I am dreaming.”
+
+But he was not dreaming.
+
+Lucy Drayton's devotion probably brought him back from death and saved
+his life.
+
+In the hell of that hospital one man at least found the balm for his
+wounds. When he knew how broken he was he offered Lucy her release. Her
+reply was in the words of the English girl to the wounded Napier, “If
+there is enough of you left to hold your soul, I will marry you.”
+
+As soon as he was sufficiently convalescent, they were married.
+
+Lucy insisted that General Hampden should be informed, but the young
+man knew his father's bitterness, and refused. He relied on securing
+his consent later, and Lucy, fearing for her patient's life, and having
+secured her own father's consent, yielded.
+
+It was a mistake.
+
+Oliver Hampden misjudged the depth of his father's feeling, and General
+Hampden was mortally offended by his having married without informing
+him.
+
+Oliver adored his father and he sent him a present in token of his
+desire for forgiveness; but the General had been struck deeply. The
+present was returned. He wrote: “I want obedience; not sacrifice.”
+
+Confident of his wife's ability to overcome any obstacle, the young
+man bided his time. His wounds, however, and his breach with his father
+affected his health so much that he went with his wife to the far South,
+where Major Drayton, now a colonel, had a remnant of what had once been
+a fine property. Here, for a time, amid the live-oaks and magnolias he
+appeared to improve. But his father's obdurate refusal to forgive his
+disobedience preyed on his health, and just after the war closed, he
+died a few months before his son was born.
+
+In his last days he dwelt much on his father. He made excuses for him,
+over which his wife simply tightened her lips, while her gray eyes
+burned with deep resentment.
+
+“He was brought up that way. He cannot help it. He never had anyone to
+gainsay him. Do not be hard on him. And if he ever sues for pardon, be
+merciful to him for my sake.”
+
+His end came too suddenly for his wife to notify his father in advance,
+even if she would have done so; for he had been fading gradually and at
+the last the flame had flared up a little.
+
+Lucy Hampden was too upright a woman not to do what she believed her
+duty, however contrary to her feelings it might be. So, although it was
+a bitter thing to her, she wrote to inform General Hampden of his son's
+death.
+
+It happened by one of the malign chances of fortune that this letter
+never reached its destination, General Hampden did not learn of Oliver's
+death until some weeks later, when he heard of it by accident. It was a
+terrible blow to him, for time was softening the asperity of his temper,
+and he had just made up his mind to make friends with his son. He
+attributed the failure to inform him of Oliver's illness and death to
+the malignity of his wife.
+
+Thus it happened that when her son was born, Lucy Hampden made no
+announcement of his birth to the General, and he remained in ignorance
+of it.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+The war closed, and about the only thing that appeared to remain
+unchanged was the relation between General Hampden and Colonel Drayton.
+Everything else underwent a change, for war eats up a land.
+
+General Hampden, soured and embittered by his domestic troubles, but
+stern in his resolve and vigorous in his intellect, was driven by
+his loneliness to adapt himself to the new conditions. He applied his
+unabated energies to building up a new fortune. His decision, his force,
+and his ability soon placed him at the head of one of the earliest new
+enterprises in the State--a broken-down railway--which he re-organized
+and brought to a full measure of success.
+
+Colonel Drayton, on the other hand, broken in body and in fortunes,
+found it impossible to adapt himself to the new conditions. He possessed
+none of the practical qualities of General Hampden. With a mind richly
+stored with the wisdom of others, he had the temperament of a dreamer
+and poet and was unable to apply it to any practical end. As shy and
+reserved as his neighbor was bold and aggressive, he lived in his books
+and had never been what is known as a successful man. Even before the
+war he had not been able to hold his own. The exactions of hospitality
+and of what he deemed his obligations to others had consumed a
+considerable part of the handsome estate he had inherited, and his
+plantation was mortgaged. What had been thus begun, the war had
+completed.
+
+When his plantation was sold, his old neighbor and enemy bought it, and
+the Colonel had the mortification of knowing that Drayton Hall was at
+last in the hands of a Hampden. What he did not know was that General
+Hampden, true to his vow, never put his foot on the plantation except
+to ride down the road and see that all his orders for its proper
+cultivation were carried out.
+
+Colonel Drayton tried teaching school, but it appeared that everyone
+else was teaching at that time, and after attempting it for a year
+or two, he gave it up and confined himself to writing philosophical
+treatises for the press, which were as much out of date as the Latin and
+Greek names which he signed to them. As these contributions were usually
+returned, he finally devoted himself to writing agricultural essays for
+an agricultural paper, in which he met with more success than he had
+done when he was applying his principles himself.
+
+“If farms were made of paper he 'd beat Cincinnatus,” said the General.
+
+Lucy Hampden, thrown on her own resources, in the town in the South in
+which her husband had died, had for some time been supporting herself
+and her child by teaching. She had long urged her father to come to
+them, but he had always declined, maintaining that a man was himself
+only in the country, and in town was merely a unit. When, however, the
+plantation was sold and his daughter wrote for him, he went to her, and
+the first time that the little boy was put in his arms, both he and
+she knew that he would never go away again. That evening as they sat
+together in the fading light on the veranda of the little house which
+Lucy had taken, amid the clambering roses and jasmine, the old fellow
+said, “I used to think that I ought to have been killed in battle at the
+head of my men when I was shot, but perhaps, I may have been saved to
+bring up this young man.”
+
+His daughter's smile, as she leant over and kissed him, showed very
+clearly what she thought of it, and before a week was out, the Colonel
+felt that he was not only still of use, but was, perhaps, the most
+necessary, and, with one exception, the most important member of the
+family.
+
+Nevertheless, there were hard times before them. The Colonel was too
+old-fashioned; too slow for the new movement of life, and just enough
+behind the times to be always expecting to succeed and always failing.
+
+But where the father failed the daughter succeeded. She soon came to be
+known as one of the efficient women of the community, as her father, who
+was now spoken of as “the old Colonel,” came to be recognized as one
+of the picturesque figures of that period. He was always thought of in
+connection with the boy. The two were hardly ever apart, and they were
+soon known throughout the town--the tall, thin old gentleman who looked
+out on the world with his mild blue eyes and kindly face, and the
+chubby, red-cheeked, black-eyed boy, whose tongue was always prattling,
+and who looked out with his bright eyes on all the curious things which,
+common-place to the world, are so wonderful to a boy.
+
+The friendship between an old man and a little child is always touching;
+they grow nearer together day by day, and the old Colonel and little
+Oliver soon appeared to understand each other, and to be as dependent on
+each other as if they had both been of the same age. The child, somewhat
+reserved with others, was bold enough with his grandfather. They held
+long discussions together over things that interested the boy; went
+sight-seeing in company to where the water ran over an old mill-wheel,
+or where a hen and her chickens lived in a neighbor's yard, or a litter
+of puppies gamboled under an outhouse, or a bird had her nest and little
+ones in a jasmine in an old garden, and Colonel Drayton told the boy
+wonderful stories of the world which was as unknown to him as the
+present world was to the Colonel.
+
+So matters went, until the Christmas when the boy was seven years old.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Meantime, General Hampden was facing a new foe. His health had suddenly
+given way, and he was in danger of becoming blind. His doctor had given
+him his orders--orders which possibly he might not have taken had not
+the spectre of a lonely old man in total darkness begun to haunt him. He
+had been “working too hard,” the doctor told him.
+
+“Working hard! Of course, I have been working hard!” snapped the
+General, fiercely, with his black eyes glowering. “What else have I to
+do but work? I shall always work hard.”
+
+The doctor knew something of the General 's trouble. He had been a
+surgeon in the hospital where young Oliver Hampden had been when Lucy
+Drayton found him.
+
+“You must stop,” he said, quietly. “You will not last long unless you
+do.”
+
+“How long!” demanded the General, quite calmly.
+
+“Oh! I cannot say that. Perhaps, a year--perhaps, less. You have burned
+your candle too fast.” He glanced at the other's unmoved face. “You need
+change. You ought to go South this winter.”
+
+“I should only change my skies and not my thoughts,” said the General,
+his memory swinging back to the past.
+
+The doctor gazed at him curiously. “What is the use of putting out your
+eyes and working yourself to death when you have everything that money
+can give?”
+
+“I have nothing! I work to forget that,” snarled the General, fiercely.
+
+The doctor remained silent.
+
+The General thought over the doctor's advice and finally followed it,
+though not for the reason the physician supposed.
+
+Something led him to select the place where his son had gone and where
+his body lay amid the magnolias. If he was going to die, he would carry
+out a plan which he had formed in the lonely hours when he lay awake
+between the strokes of the clock. He would go and see that his son's
+grave was cared for, and if he could, would bring him back home at last.
+Doubtless, “that woman's” consent could be bought. She had possibly
+married again. He hoped she had.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+Christmas is always the saddest of seasons to a lonely man, and General
+Hampden, when he landed in that old Southern town on the afternoon of
+Christmas Eve, would not have been lonelier in a desert. The signs of
+Christmas preparation and the sounds of Christmas cheer but made him
+lonelier. For years, flying from the Furies, he had immersed himself
+in work and so, in part, had forgotten his troubles; but the removal of
+this prop let him fall flat to the earth.
+
+As soon as the old fellow had gotten settled in his room at the hotel he
+paid a visit to his son's grave, piloted to the cemetery by a friendly
+and garrulous old negro hackman, who talked much about Christmas and
+“the holidays.”
+
+“Yes, suh, dat he had known Cap'n Ham'n. He used to drive him out long
+as he could drive out. He had been at his funeral. He knew Mrs. Ham'n,
+too. She sutney is a fine lady,” he wound up in sincere eulogy.
+
+The General gave a grunt.
+
+He was nearer to his son than he had ever been since the day he last saw
+him in all the pride and beauty of a gallant young soldier.
+
+The grave, at least, was not neglected. It was marked by a modest cross,
+on which was the Hampden coat-of-arms and the motto, “_Loyal_,” and it
+was banked in fresh evergreens, and some flowers had been placed on it
+only that afternoon. It set the General to thinking.
+
+When he returned to his hotel, he found the loneliness unbearable. His
+visit to his son's grave had opened the old wound and awakened all
+his memories. He knew now that he had ruined his life. The sooner the
+doctor's forecast came true, the better. He had no care to live longer.
+He would return to work and die in harness.
+
+He sent his servant to the office and arranged for his car to be put on
+the first train next morning.
+
+Then, to escape from his thoughts, he strolled out in the street where
+the shopping crowds streamed along, old and young, poor and well-to-do,
+their arms full of bundles, their faces eager, and their eyes alight.
+
+General Hampden seemed to himself to be walking among ghosts.
+
+As he stalked on, bitter and lonely, he was suddenly run into by a
+very little boy, in whose small arms was so big a bundle that he could
+scarcely see over it. The shock of the collision knocked the little
+fellow down, sitting flat on the pavement, still clutching his bundle.
+But his face after the first shadow of surprise lit up again.
+
+“I beg your pardon, sir--that was my fault,” he said, with so quaint an
+imitation of an old person that the General could not help smiling. With
+a cheery laugh, he tried to rise to his feet, but the bundle was too
+heavy, and he would not let it go.
+
+The General bent over him and, with an apology, set him on his feet.
+
+“I beg _your_ pardon, sir. That was _my_ fault. That is a pretty big
+bundle you have.”
+
+“Yes, sir; and I tell you, it is pretty heavy, too,” the manikin said,
+proudly. “It 's a Christmas gift.” He started on, and the General turned
+with him.
+
+“A Christmas gift! It must be a fine one. Who gave it to you?” demanded
+the General, with a smile at the little fellow's confidence.
+
+“It is a fine one! Did n't anybody give it to me. We 're giving it to
+somebody.”
+
+“Oh! You are? To whom?”
+
+“I 'll tell you; but you must promise not to tell.”
+
+“I promise I will not tell a soul. I cross my heart.”
+
+He made a sign as he remembered he used to do in his boyhood.
+
+The boy looked up at him doubtfully with a shade of disapproval.
+
+“My grandfather says that you must not cross your heart--'t a
+gentleman's word is enough,” he said, quaintly.
+
+“Oh, he does? Well, I give my word.”
+
+“Well--” He glanced around to see that no one was listening, and
+sidling a little nearer, lowered his voice: “It 's a great-coat for
+grandfather!”
+
+“A great-coat! That's famous!” exclaimed the General.
+
+“Yes, is n't it? You see--he 's mighty old and he 's got a bad cough--he
+caught it in the army, and I have to take care of him. Don't you think
+that's right?”
+
+“Of course, I do,” said the General, envying one grandfather.
+
+“That's what I tell him. So mamma and I have bought this for him.”
+
+“He must be a proud grandfather,” said the General, with envy biting
+deeper at his heart.
+
+“I have another grandfather; but I don't like _him_,” continued the
+little fellow.
+
+“I am sorry for that,” said the General, sincerely. “Why is that?”
+
+“He was mean to my father, and he is mean to my mother.” His voice
+conveyed a sudden bitterness.
+
+“Oh!”
+
+“Mamma says I must like him; but I do not. I just can't. You would not
+like a man who was mean to your mother, would you!”
+
+“I would not,” declared the General, truthfully.
+
+“And I am not going to like him,” asserted the boy, with firmness.
+
+The General suddenly pitied one grandfather.
+
+They had come to a well-lighted corner, and as the boy lifted his face,
+the light fell on it. Something about the bright, sturdy countenance
+with its frank, dark eyes and brown hair suddenly sent the General back
+thirty years to a strip of meadow on which two children were playing:
+one a dark-eyed boy as sturdy as this one. It was like an arrow in his
+heart. “With a gasp he came back to the present. His thoughts pursued
+him even here.
+
+“What is your name?” he asked as he was feeling in his pocket for a
+coin.
+
+“Oliver Drayton Hampden, sir.”
+
+The words were perfectly clear.
+
+The General's heart stopped beating and then gave a bound. The skies
+suddenly opened for him and then shut up again.
+
+His exclamation brought the child to a stop and he glanced up at him in
+vague wonder. The General stooped and gazed at him searchingly, almost
+fiercely. The next second he had pounced upon him and lifted him in his
+arms while the bundle fell to the pavement.
+
+“My boy! I am your grandfather,” he cried, kissing him violently. “I am
+your grandfather Hampden.”
+
+The child was lost in amazement for a moment, and then, putting his
+hands against the General's face, he pushed him slowly away.
+
+“Put me down, please,” he said, with that gravity which in a child means
+so much.
+
+General Hampden set him down on the pavement. The boy looked at him
+searchingly for a second, and then turned in silence and lifted his
+bundle. The General's face wore a puzzled look--he had solved many
+problems, but he had never had one more difficult than this. His heart
+yearned toward the child, and he knew that on his own wisdom at that
+moment might depend his future happiness. On his next words might hang
+for him life or death. The expression on the boy's face, and the very
+set of his little back as he sturdily tugged at his burden, recalled his
+father, and with it the General recognized the obstinacy which he knew
+lurked in the Hampden blood, which had once been his pride.
+
+“Oliver,” he said, gravely, leaning down over the boy and putting his
+hand on him gently, “there has been a great mistake. I am going home
+with you to your mother and tell her so. I want to see her and your
+grandfather, and I think I can explain everything.”
+
+The child turned and gazed at him seriously, and then his face relaxed.
+He recognized his deep sincerity.
+
+“All right.” He turned and walked down the street, bending under his
+burden. The General offered to carry it for him, but he declined.
+
+“I can carry it,” was the only answer he made except once when, as the
+General rather insisted, he said firmly, “I want to carry it myself,”
+ and tottered on.
+
+A silence fell on them for a moment. A young man passing them spoke to
+the child cheerily.
+
+“Hullo, Oliver! A Christmas present?--That 's a great boy,” he said, in
+sheer friendliness to the General, and passed on. The boy was evidently
+well known.
+
+Oliver nodded; then feeling that some civility was due on his part to
+his companion, he said briefly, “That 's a friend of mine.”
+
+“Evidently.”
+
+The General, even in his perplexity, smiled at the quaint way the child
+imitated the manners of older men.
+
+Just then they came to a little gate and the boy's manner changed.
+
+“If you will wait, I will run around and put my bundle down. I am afraid
+my grandfather might see it.” He lowered his voice for the first time
+since the General had introduced himself. Then he disappeared around the
+house.
+
+Oliver, having slipped in at the back door and carefully reconnoitred
+the premises, tripped up stairs with his bundle to his mother's room. He
+was so excited over his present that he failed to observe her confusion
+at his sudden entrance, or her hasty hiding away of something on
+which she was working. Colonel Drayton was not the only member of that
+household that Christmas who was to receive a great-coat.
+
+When Oliver had untied his bundle, nothing would serve but he must put
+on the coat to show his mother how his grandfather would look in it. As
+even with the sleeves rolled up and with his arms held out to keep it
+from falling off him, the tails dragged for some distance on the
+floor and only the top of his head was visible above the collar, the
+resemblance was possibly not wholly exact. But it appeared to satisfy
+the boy. He was showing how his grandfather walked, when he suddenly
+recalled his new acquaintance.
+
+“I met my other grandfather, on the street, mamma, and he came home with
+me.” He spoke quite naturally.
+
+“Met your other grandfather!” Mrs. Hampden looked mystified.
+
+“He says he is my grandfather, and he looks like papa. I reckon he 's my
+other grandfather. He ran against me in the street and knocked me down,
+and then came home with me.”
+
+“Came home with you!” repeated Mrs. Hampden, still in a maze, and with a
+vague trouble dawning in her face.
+
+“Yes 'm.”
+
+Oliver went over the meeting again.
+
+His mother's face meantime showed the tumult of emotion that was
+sweeping over her. Why had General Hampden come? What had he come for?
+To try and take her boy from her?
+
+At the thought her face and form took on something of the lioness that
+guards her whelp. Then as the little boy repeated what his grandfather
+had said of his reason for coming home with him, her face softened
+again. She heard a voice saying, “If he ever sues for pardon, be
+merciful to him for my sake.” She remembered what day it was: the Eve
+of the day of Peace and Good-will toward all men. He must have come for
+Peace, and Peace it should be. She would not bring up her boy under the
+shadow of that feud which had blighted both sides of his race so long.
+
+“Oliver,” she said, “you must go down and let him in. Say I will come
+down.”
+
+“I will not like him,” said the child, his eyes on her face.
+
+“Oh, yes, you must; he is your grandfather.”
+
+“You do not love him, and I will not.” The sturdy little figure and
+the serious face with the chin already firm for such a child, the dark,
+grave eyes and the determined speech, were so like his father that the
+widow gave half a cry.
+
+“You must, my son, and I will try. Your father would wish it.”
+
+The little boy pondered for a second.
+
+“Very well, mamma; but he must be good to you.”
+
+As the little fellow left the room, the widow threw herself on her
+knees.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+As General Hampden stood and waited in the dusk, he felt that his
+whole life and future depended on the issue of the next few moments.
+He determined to take matters in his own hand. Every moment might tell
+against him and might decide his fate. So, without waiting longer, he
+rang the bell. A minute later he heard steps within, and the door was
+opened by one who he knew must be Colonel Drayton, though had he met
+him elsewhere he should not have recognized the white hair and the
+thin, bent form as that of his old friend and enemy. Colonel Drayton had
+evidently not seen his grandson yet, for he spoke as to a stranger.
+
+“Will you not walk in, sir!” he said cordially. “I was expecting my
+little grandson who went out a short while ago.” He peered up the
+street. “Did you wish to see my daughter? You will find us in a little
+confusion--Christinas time is always a busy season with us on account of
+our young man: my grandson.” He lingered with pride over the words.
+
+The General stepped into the light.
+
+“Wilmer Drayton! Don't you know me? I am Oliver Hampden, and I have come
+to apologize to you for all I have done which has offended you, and to
+ask you to be friends with me.” He held out his hand.
+
+The old Colonel stepped back, and under the shock of surprise paused for
+a moment.
+
+“Oliver Hampden!” The next moment he stepped forward and took his hand.
+
+“Come in, Oliver,” he said, gently, and putting his other arm around the
+General's shoulder, he handed him into the little cosey, fire-lighted
+room as though nothing had happened since he had done the same the last
+time fifty years before.
+
+At this moment the door opened and the little boy entered with mingled
+mysteriousness and importance. Seeing the two gentlemen standing
+together, he paused with a mystified look in his wide-open eyes, trying
+to comprehend the situation.
+
+“Oliver, come here,” said the Colonel, quietly. “This is your other
+grandfather.”
+
+The boy came forward, and, wheeling, stood close beside the Colonel,
+facing General Hampden, like a soldier dressing by his file-closer.
+
+“_You_ are my grandfather,” he said, glancing up at the Colonel.
+
+The Colonel's eyes glowed with a soft light.
+
+“Yes, my boy; and so is he. We are friends again, and you must love
+him--just as you do me.”
+
+“I will not love him as much,” was the sturdy answer.
+
+It was the General who spoke next.
+
+“That is right, my boy. All I ask is that you will love me some.” He was
+pleading with this young commissioner.
+
+“I will, if you are good to my mother.” His eyes were fastened on him
+without a tremor, and the General's deep-set eyes began to glow with
+hope.
+
+“That 's a bargain,” he said holding out his hand. The boy took it
+gravely.
+
+Just then the door opened and Lucy Hampden entered. Her face was calm
+and her form was straight. Her eyes, deep and burning, showed that she
+was prepared either for peace or war. It was well for the General that
+he had chosen peace. Better otherwise had he charged once more the
+deadliest battle line he had ever faced. For a moment the General saw
+only Lucy Fielding.
+
+With a woman's instinct the young widow comprehended at the first glance
+what had taken place, and although her face was white, her eyes softened
+as she advanced. The General had turned and faced her. He could not
+utter a word, but the boy sprang towards her and, wheeling, stood by her
+side.
+
+Taking his hand, she led him forward.
+
+“Oliver,” she said, gently, “this is your father's father.” Then to the
+General, in a dead silence--“Father, this is your son's son.”
+
+The General clasped them both in his arms.
+
+“Forgive me. Forgive me. I have prayed for _his_ forgiveness, for I can
+never forgive myself.”
+
+“He forgave you,” said the widow, simply.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+No young king was ever put to bed with more ceremony or more devotion
+than was that little boy that night. Two old gentlemen were his grooms
+of the bedchamber and saw him to bed together.
+
+The talk was all of Christmas, and the General envied the ease with
+which the other grandfather carried on the conversation. But when the
+boy, having kissed his grandfather, said of his own accord, “Now, I must
+kiss my _other_ grandfather,” he envied no man on earth.
+
+The next morning when Oliver Hampden, before the first peep of light,
+waked in his little bed, which stood at the foot of his grandfather's
+bed in the tiny room which they occupied together, and standing up,
+peeped over the footboard to catch his grandfather's “Christmas gift,”
+ he was surprised to find that the bed was empty and undisturbed. Then
+having tiptoed in and caught his mother, he stole down the stairs and
+softly opened the sitting-room door where he heard the murmur of voices.
+The fire was burning dim, and on either side sat the two old gentlemen
+in their easy chairs, talking amicably and earnestly as they had been
+talking when he kissed them “good-night.” Neither one had made the
+suggestion that it was bedtime; but when at the first break of day
+the rosy boy in his night-clothes burst in upon them with his shout of
+“Christmas gift,” and his ringing laughter, they both knew that the long
+feud was at last ended, and peace was established forever.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
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diff --git a/23511-0.zip b/23511-0.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+
+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: The Christmas Peace
+       1908
+
+Author: Thomas Nelson Page
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS PEACE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CHRISTMAS PEACE
+
+By Thomas Nelson Page
+
+Charles Scribner's Sons New York, 1908
+
+Copyright, 1891, 1904, 1906
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+They had lived within a mile of each other for fifty-odd years, old
+Judge Hampden and old Colonel Drayton; that is, all their lives, for
+they had been born on adjoining plantations within a month of each
+other. But though they had thus lived and were accounted generally good
+men and good neighbors, to each other they had never been neighbors any
+more than the L�vite was neighbor to him who went down to Jericho.
+
+Kindly to everyone else and ready to do their part by all other men, the
+Draytons and the Hampdens, whenever they met each other, always passed
+by on the other side.
+
+It was an old story--the feud between the families--and, perhaps, no
+one now knew just how the trouble started. They had certainly been on
+opposite sides ever since they established themselves in early Colonial
+days on opposite hills in the old county from which the two mansions
+looked at each other across the stream like hostile forts. The earliest
+records of the county were those of a dispute between one Colonel
+Drayton and one Captain Hampden, growing out of some claim to land; but
+in which the chief bitterness appeared to have been injected by Captain
+Hampden's having claimed precedence over Colonel Drayton on the ground
+that his title of "Captain" was superior to Colonel Drayton's title,
+because he had held a real commission and had fought for it, whereas
+the Colonel's title was simply honorary and "Ye sayd Collonel had never
+smelled enough powder to kill a tom-cat."
+
+However this might be and there was nothing in the records to show how
+this contention was adjudicated--in the time of Major Wil-mer Drayton
+and Judge Oliver Hampden, the breach between the two families had been
+transmitted from father to son for several generations and showed no
+signs of abatement. Other neighborhood families intermarried, but not
+the Drayton-Hall and the Hampden-Hill families, and in time it came to
+be an accepted tradition that a Drayton and a Hampden would not mingle
+any more than would fire and water.
+
+The Hampdens were dark and stout, hot-blooded, fierce, and impetuous.
+They were apparently vigorous; but many of them died young. The
+Draytons, on the other hand, were slender and fair, and usually lived
+to a round old age; a fact of which they were wont to boast in contrast
+with the briefer span of the Hampdens.
+
+"Their tempers burn them out," the Major used to say of the Hampdens.
+
+Moreover, the Draytons were generally cool-headed, deliberate, and
+self-contained. Thus, the Draytons had mainly prospered throughout the
+years.
+
+Even the winding creek which ran down through the strip of meadow was a
+fruitful cause of dissension and litigation between the families. "It is
+as ungovernable as a Hampden's temper, sir," once said Major Drayton,
+On the mere pretext of a thunder-storm, it would burst forth from its
+banks, tear the fences to pieces and even change its course, cutting a
+new channel, now to one side and now to the other through the soft and
+loamy soil. A lawsuit arose over the matter, in which the costs alone
+amounted to far more than the value of the whole land involved; but no
+one doubted that old Major Drayton spoke the truth when he declared that
+his father would rather have lost his entire estate with all its rolling
+hills and extensive forests than the acre or two which was finally
+awarded to Judge Hampden.
+
+As neither owner would join the other even in keeping up a partition
+fence, there were two fences run within three feet of each other along
+the entire boundary line between the two places. With these double
+fences, there could hardly be peace between the two families; for
+neither owner ever saw the two lines running side by side without at
+once being reminded of his neighbor's obstinacy and--of his own.
+
+Thus, in my time the quarrel between the Drayton-Hall people and
+the Hampden-Hill folks was a factor in every neighborhood problem or
+proposition from a "church dressing" or a "sewing society meeting" to a
+political campaign. It had to be considered in every invitation and in
+every discussion.
+
+It is not meant that there was no intercourse between the two families.
+Major Drayton and Judge Hampden regularly paid each other a visit every
+year--and oftener when there was serious illness in one house or the
+other--but even on such occasions their differences were liable to crop
+out. One of them held an opinion that when one gentleman was spending
+the night in another gentleman's house, it was the part of the host
+to indicate when bedtime had arrived; whilst the other maintained with
+equal firmness the doctrine that no gentleman could inform his guest
+that he was fatigued: that this duty devolved upon the guest himself.
+This difference of opinion worked comfortably enough on both sides until
+an occasion when Judge Hampden, who held the former view, was spending
+the night at Colonel Drayton's. When bedtime arrived, the rest of the
+household retired quietly, leaving the two gentlemen conversing, and
+when the servants appeared in the morning to open the blinds and light
+the fires, the two gentlemen were still found seated opposite each other
+conversing together quite as if it were the ordinary thing to sit up and
+talk all night long.
+
+On another occasion, it is said that Major Drayton, hearing of his
+neighbor's serious illness, rode over to make inquiry about him, and
+owing to a slip of the tongue, asked in a voice of deepest sympathy,
+"Any hopes of the old gentleman dying!"
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Yet, they had once been friends.
+
+Before Wilmer Drayton and Oliver Hampden were old enough to understand
+that by all the laws of heredity and custom they should be enemies, they
+had learned to like each other. When they were only a few years old, the
+little creek winding between the two plantations afforded in its strip
+of meadow a delightful neutral territory where the two boys could enjoy
+themselves together, safe from the interference of their grave seniors;
+wading, sailing mimic fleets upon its uncertain currents, fishing
+together, or bathing in the deepest pools it offered in its winding
+course.
+
+It looked, indeed, for a time as if in the fellowship of these two lads
+the long-standing feud of the Hampdens and Draytons might be ended,
+at last. They went to school together at the academy, where their only
+contests were a generous rivalry. At college they were known as Damon
+and Pythias, and though a natural rivalry, which might in any event
+have existed between them, developed over the highest prize of the
+institution--the debater's medal--the generosity of youth saved them. It
+was even said that young Drayton, who for some time had apparently been
+certain of winning, had generously retired in order to defeat a third
+candidate and throw the prize to Oliver Hampden.
+
+They came home and both went to the Bar, but with different results.
+Young Drayton was learned and unpractical. Oliver Hampden was clever,
+able, and successful, and soon had a thriving practice; while his
+neighbor's learning was hardly known outside the circle of the Bar.
+
+Disappointed in his ambition, Drayton shortly retired from the Bar and
+lived the life of a country gentleman, while his former friend rapidly
+rose to be the head of the Bar.
+
+The old friendship might have disappeared in any event, but a new cause
+arose which was certain to end it.
+
+Lucy Fielding was, perhaps, the prettiest girl in all that region.
+Oliver Hampden had always been in love with her. However, Fortune, ever
+capricious, favored Wilmer Drayton, who entered the lists when it looked
+as if Miss Lucy were almost certain to marry her old lover. It appeared
+that Mr. Drayton's indifference had counted for more than the other's
+devotion. He carried off the prize with a dash.
+
+If Oliver Hampden, however, was severely stricken by his disappointment,
+he masked it well; for he married not long afterward, and though some
+said it was from pique, there was no more happily married pair in all
+the county.
+
+A year later a new Oliver came to keep up the name and tenets of the
+Hampdens. Oliver Hampden, now the head of the Bar, would not have envied
+any man on earth had not his wife died a few years later and left him
+alone with his boy in his big house.
+
+Lucy Drayton was born two years after young Oliver Hampden.
+
+The mammies of the two children, as the mammies of their parents had
+done before them, used to talk them over on the edge of the shaded
+meadow which divided the places, and thus young Oliver Hampden, a lusty
+boy of five, came to know little Lucy Drayton fully three years before
+his father ever laid eyes on her.
+
+Mr. Hampden was riding around his fences one summer afternoon, and was
+making his way along the double division line with a cloud on his brow
+as the double rows recalled the wide breach with his neighbor and former
+friend, and many memories came trooping at the recollection. Passing
+through a small grove which had been allowed to grow up to shut off a
+part of his view of the Drayton place, as he came out into the meadow
+his eye fell on a scene which made him forget the present with all its
+wrongs. On the green turf before him where butter-cups speckled the
+ground with golden blossoms, was a little group of four persons busily
+engaged and wholly oblivious of the differences which divided the
+masters of the two estates. The two mammies were seated side by side on
+a bank, sewing and talking busily--their large aprons and caps making a
+splotch of white against the green willows beyond--and in front of them
+at a little distance a brown-haired boy of five and a yellow-ringleted
+girl of three were at play on the turf, rolling over and over, shouting
+and laughing in their glee.
+
+As the father rested his eyes on the group, the frown which had for a
+second lowered on his brow passed away and he pulled in his horse so as
+not to disturb them. He was about to turn back and leave them in their
+happiness when his black-eyed boy caught sight of him and ran toward
+him, shouting for a ride and calling over his shoulder for "Luthy" to
+"come on too." As there was no escape, Mr. Hampden went forward and,
+ignoring the confusion of the mammies at being caught together, took
+the boy up before him and gave him a ride up and down the meadow. Then
+nothing else would do for Master Oliver but he "must take Luthy up,
+too."
+
+"Perhaps 'Luthy' may be afraid of the horse!" suggested Mr. Hampden with
+a smile.
+
+But far from it. Led by the little boy who had run to fetch her, she
+came to Mr. Hampden as readily as his own son had done, and, though she
+gave him one of those quick searching glances with which childhood reads
+character, having made sure that he was friendly, she was no more afraid
+of his horse than the boy was.
+
+Oliver tried to lift her, and as he tugged at her, the father sat and
+watched with a smile, then leant down and picked her up while the two
+mammies gasped with mingled astonishment and fear.
+
+"I tell you, she's pretty heavy," said the little boy.
+
+"Indeed, she is," said the father, gaily.
+
+Mr. Hampden would have taken his son home with him, but the latter
+declined the invitation. He wished to "stay with Luthy." So, Mr.
+Hampden, having first set the nurses' minds at ease by complimenting the
+little girl in warm terms to her mammy, rode home alone with his face
+set in deep reflection.
+
+The breach between the Hampdens and the Draytons was nearer being
+closed that evening than it had been in three generations, for as Oliver
+Hampden rode up the bridle path across his fields, he heard behind him
+the merry laughter of the two children in the quiet meadow below, and
+old memories of his childhood and college life softened his heart. He
+forgot the double-line fences and determined to go on the morrow to
+Drayton Hall and make up the quarrel. He would offer the first overture
+and a full declaration of regret, and this, he was quite sure, would
+make it up. Once he actually turned his horse around to go straight
+across the fields as he used to do in his boyhood, but there below him
+were the double-line fences stretching brown and clear. No horse could
+get over them, and around the road it was a good five miles, so he
+turned back again and rode home and the chance was lost.
+
+On his arrival he found a summons in a suit which had been instituted
+that day by Wilmer Drayton for damages to his land by reason of his
+turning the water of the creek upon him.
+
+Mr. Hampden did not forbid old Lydia to take his boy down there again,
+but he went to the meadow no more himself, and when he and Wilmer
+Drayton met next, which was not for some time, they barely spoke.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+Young Oliver Hampden grew up clear eyed, strong, and good to look at,
+and became shy where girls were concerned, and most of all appeared to
+be shy with Lucy Drayton. He went to college and as he got his broad
+shoulders and manly stride he got over his shyness with most girls, but
+not with Lucy Drayton. With her, he appeared to have become yet more
+reserved. She had inherited her mother's eyes and beauty, with the
+fairness of a lily; a slim, willowy figure; a straight back and a small
+head set on her shoulders in a way that showed both blood and pride.
+Moreover, she had character enough, as her friends knew: those gray eyes
+that smiled could grow haughty with disdain or flash with indignation,
+and she had taught many an uppish young man to feel her keen irony.
+
+"She gets only her intellect from the Dray-tons; her beauty and her
+sweetness come from her mother," said a lady of the neighborhood to
+Judge Hampden, thinking to please him.
+
+"She gets both her brains and beauty from her mother and only her name
+from her father," snapped the Judge, who had often seen her at church,
+and never without recalling Lucy Fielding as he knew her.
+
+That she and young Oliver Hampden fought goes without saying. But no
+one knew why she was cruelly bitter to a young man who once spoke
+slightingly of Oliver, or why Oliver, who rarely saw her except at
+church, took up a quarrel of hers so furiously.
+
+*****
+
+The outbreak of the war, or rather the conditions preceding that
+outbreak, finally fixed forever the gulf between the two families. Judge
+Hampden was an ardent follower of Calhoun and "stumped" the State in
+behalf of Secession, whereas Major Drayton, as the cloud that had been
+gathering so long rolled nearer, emerged from his seclusion and became
+one of the sternest opponents of a step which he declared was not merely
+revolution, but actual rebellion. So earnest was he, that believing that
+slavery was the ultimate bone of contention, he emancipated his slaves
+on a system which he thought would secure their welfare. Nothing could
+have more deeply stirred Judge Hampden's wrath. He declared that such a
+measure at such a crisis was a blow at every Southern man. He denounced
+Major Drayton as "worse than Garrison, Phillips, and Greeley all put
+together."
+
+They at last met in debate at the Court House. Major Drayton exasperated
+the Judge by his coolness, until the latter lost his temper and the
+crowd laughed.
+
+"I do not get as hot as you do," said the Major, blandly. He looked as
+cool as a cucumber, but his voice betrayed him.
+
+"Oh, yes, you do," snorted the Judge. "A mule gets as hot as a horse,
+but he does not sweat."
+
+This saved him.
+
+There came near being a duel. Everyone expected it. Only the
+interposition of friends prevented their meeting on the field. Only this
+and one other thing.
+
+Though no one in the neighborhood knew it until long afterward--and then
+only in a conjectural way by piecing together fragments of rumors that
+floated about--young Oliver Hampden really prevented the duel. He told
+his father that he loved Lucy Drayton. There was a fierce outbreak on
+the Judge's part.
+
+"Marry that girl!--the daughter of Wilmer Drayton! I will disinherit you
+if you but so much as----"
+
+"Stop!" The younger man faced him and held up his hand with an imperious
+gesture. "Stop! Do not say a word against her or I may never forget it."
+
+The father paused with his sentence unfinished, for his son stood before
+him suddenly revealed in a strength for which the Judge had never given
+him credit, and he recognized in his level eyes, tense features, and the
+sudden set of the square jaw, the Hampden firmness at its best or worst.
+
+"I have nothing to say against her," said the Judge, with a sudden rush
+of recollection of Lucy Fielding. "I have no doubt she is in one way all
+you think her; but she is Wilmer Drayton 's daughter. You will never win
+her."
+
+"I will win her," said the young man.
+
+That night Judge Hampden thought deeply over the matter, and before
+daylight he had despatched a note to Major Drayton making an apology for
+the words he had used.
+
+Both Judge Hampden and his son went into the army immediately on
+the outbreak of hostilities. Major Drayton, who to the last opposed
+Secession bitterly, did not volunteer until after the State had seceded;
+but then he, also, went in, and later was desperately wounded.
+
+A few nights before they went off to the war, Judge Hampden and his son
+rode over together to Major Drayton's to offer the olive-branch of peace
+in shape of young Oliver and all that he possessed.
+
+Judge Hampden did not go all the way, for he had sworn never to put foot
+again in Major Drayton's house so long as he lived, and, moreover, he
+felt that his son would be the better ambassador alone. Accordingly, he
+waited in the darkness at the front gate while his son presented himself
+and laid at Lucy Drayton's feet what the Judge truly believed was more
+than had ever been offered to any other woman. He, however, sent the
+most conciliatory messages to Major Drayton.
+
+"Tell him," he said, "that I will take down my fence and he shall run
+the line to suit himself." He could not have gone further.
+
+The time that passed appeared unending to the Judge waiting in the
+darkness; but in truth it was not long, for the interview was brief. It
+was with Major Drayton and not with his daughter.
+
+Major Drayton declined, both on his daughter's part and on his own, the
+honor which had been proposed.
+
+At this moment the door opened and Lucy herself appeared. She was a
+vision of loveliness. Her face was white, but her eyes were steady. If
+she knew what had occurred, she gave no sign of it in words. She walked
+straight to her father's side and took his hand.
+
+"Lucy," he said, "Mr. Hampden has done us the honor to ask your hand and
+I have declined it."
+
+"Yes, papa." Her eyelids fluttered and her bosom heaved, but she did not
+move, and Lucy was too much a Drayton to unsay what her father had said,
+or to undo what he had done.
+
+Oliver Hampden's eyes did not leave her face. For him the Major had
+disappeared, and he saw only the girl who stood before him with a face
+as white as the dress she wore.
+
+"Lucy, I love you. Will you ever care for me? I am going--going away
+to-morrow, and I shall not see you any more; but I would like to know if
+there is any hope." The young man's voice was strangely calm.
+
+The girl held out her hand to him.
+
+"I will never marry anyone else."
+
+"I will wait for you all my life," said the young man.
+
+Bending low, he kissed her hand in the palm, and with a bow to her
+father, strode from the room.
+
+The Judge, waiting at the gate in the darkness, heard the far-off,
+monotonous galloping of Oliver's horse on the hard plantation road. He
+rode forward to meet him.
+
+"Well!"
+
+It was only a word.
+
+"They declined."
+
+The father scarcely knew his son's voice, it was so wretched.
+
+"What! Who declined? Did you see--"
+
+"Both!"
+
+Out in the darkness Judge Hampden broke forth into such a torrent of
+rage that his son was afraid for his life and had to devote all his
+attention to soothing him. He threatened to ride straight to Drayton's
+house and horsewhip him on the spot. This, however, the young man
+prevented, and the two rode home together in a silence which was
+unbroken until they had dismounted at their own gate and given their
+horses to the waiting servants. As they entered the house, Judge Hampden
+spoke.
+
+"I hope you are satisfied," he said, sternly. "I make but one request
+of you--that from this time forth, you will never mention the name of
+Drayton to me again as long as you live."
+
+"I suppose I should hate her," said the son, bitterly, "but I do not. I
+love her and I believe she cares for me."
+
+His father turned in the door-way and faced him.
+
+"Cares for you! Not so much as she cares for the smallest negro on that
+place. If you ever marry her, I will disinherit you."
+
+"Disinherit me!" burst from the young man. "Do you think I care for this
+place? What has it ever brought to us but unhappiness? I have seen your
+life embittered by a feud with your nearest neighbor, and now it wrecks
+my happiness and robs me of what I would give all the rest of the world
+for."
+
+Judge Hampden looked at him curiously. He started to say, "Before I
+would let her enter this house, I would burn it with my own hands"; but
+as he met his son's steadfast gaze there was that in it which made him
+pause. The Hampden look was in his eyes. The father knew that another
+word might sever them forever.
+
+*****
+
+If ever a man tried to court death, young Oliver Hampden did. But Death,
+that struck many a happier man, passed him by, and he secured instead
+only a reputation for reckless courage and was promoted on the field.
+
+His father rose to the command of a brigade, and Oliver himself became a
+captain.
+
+At last the bullet Oliver had sought found him; but it spared his life
+and only incapacitated him for service.
+
+There were no trained nurses during the war, and Lucy Drayton, like so
+many girls, when the war grew fiercer, went into the hospitals, and by
+devotion supplied their place.
+
+Believing that life was ended for her, she had devoted herself wholly to
+the cause, and self-repression had given to her face the gentleness and
+consecration of a nun.
+
+It was said that once as she bent over a wounded common soldier, he
+returned to consciousness, and after gazing up at her a moment, asked
+vaguely, "Who are you, Miss?"
+
+"I am one of the sisters whom our Father has sent to nurse you and help
+you to get well. But you must not talk."
+
+The wounded man closed his eyes and then opened them with a faint smile.
+
+"All right; just one word. Will you please ask your pa if I may be his
+son-in-law?"
+
+Into the hospital was brought one day a soldier so broken and bandaged
+that no one but Lucy Drayton might have recognized Oliver Hampden.
+
+For a long time his life was despaired of; but he survived.
+
+When consciousness returned to him, the first sound he heard was a
+voice which had often haunted him in his dreams, but which he had never
+expected to hear again.
+
+"Who is that!" he asked, feebly.
+
+"It is I, Oliver--it is Lucy."
+
+The wounded man moved slightly and the girl bending over him caught the
+words, whispered brokenly to himself:
+
+"I am dreaming."
+
+But he was not dreaming.
+
+Lucy Drayton's devotion probably brought him back from death and saved
+his life.
+
+In the hell of that hospital one man at least found the balm for his
+wounds. When he knew how broken he was he offered Lucy her release. Her
+reply was in the words of the English girl to the wounded Napier, "If
+there is enough of you left to hold your soul, I will marry you."
+
+As soon as he was sufficiently convalescent, they were married.
+
+Lucy insisted that General Hampden should be informed, but the young
+man knew his father's bitterness, and refused. He relied on securing
+his consent later, and Lucy, fearing for her patient's life, and having
+secured her own father's consent, yielded.
+
+It was a mistake.
+
+Oliver Hampden misjudged the depth of his father's feeling, and General
+Hampden was mortally offended by his having married without informing
+him.
+
+Oliver adored his father and he sent him a present in token of his
+desire for forgiveness; but the General had been struck deeply. The
+present was returned. He wrote: "I want obedience; not sacrifice."
+
+Confident of his wife's ability to overcome any obstacle, the young
+man bided his time. His wounds, however, and his breach with his father
+affected his health so much that he went with his wife to the far South,
+where Major Drayton, now a colonel, had a remnant of what had once been
+a fine property. Here, for a time, amid the live-oaks and magnolias he
+appeared to improve. But his father's obdurate refusal to forgive his
+disobedience preyed on his health, and just after the war closed, he
+died a few months before his son was born.
+
+In his last days he dwelt much on his father. He made excuses for him,
+over which his wife simply tightened her lips, while her gray eyes
+burned with deep resentment.
+
+"He was brought up that way. He cannot help it. He never had anyone to
+gainsay him. Do not be hard on him. And if he ever sues for pardon, be
+merciful to him for my sake."
+
+His end came too suddenly for his wife to notify his father in advance,
+even if she would have done so; for he had been fading gradually and at
+the last the flame had flared up a little.
+
+Lucy Hampden was too upright a woman not to do what she believed her
+duty, however contrary to her feelings it might be. So, although it was
+a bitter thing to her, she wrote to inform General Hampden of his son's
+death.
+
+It happened by one of the malign chances of fortune that this letter
+never reached its destination, General Hampden did not learn of Oliver's
+death until some weeks later, when he heard of it by accident. It was a
+terrible blow to him, for time was softening the asperity of his temper,
+and he had just made up his mind to make friends with his son. He
+attributed the failure to inform him of Oliver's illness and death to
+the malignity of his wife.
+
+Thus it happened that when her son was born, Lucy Hampden made no
+announcement of his birth to the General, and he remained in ignorance
+of it.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+The war closed, and about the only thing that appeared to remain
+unchanged was the relation between General Hampden and Colonel Drayton.
+Everything else underwent a change, for war eats up a land.
+
+General Hampden, soured and embittered by his domestic troubles, but
+stern in his resolve and vigorous in his intellect, was driven by
+his loneliness to adapt himself to the new conditions. He applied his
+unabated energies to building up a new fortune. His decision, his force,
+and his ability soon placed him at the head of one of the earliest new
+enterprises in the State--a broken-down railway--which he re-organized
+and brought to a full measure of success.
+
+Colonel Drayton, on the other hand, broken in body and in fortunes,
+found it impossible to adapt himself to the new conditions. He possessed
+none of the practical qualities of General Hampden. With a mind richly
+stored with the wisdom of others, he had the temperament of a dreamer
+and poet and was unable to apply it to any practical end. As shy and
+reserved as his neighbor was bold and aggressive, he lived in his books
+and had never been what is known as a successful man. Even before the
+war he had not been able to hold his own. The exactions of hospitality
+and of what he deemed his obligations to others had consumed a
+considerable part of the handsome estate he had inherited, and his
+plantation was mortgaged. What had been thus begun, the war had
+completed.
+
+When his plantation was sold, his old neighbor and enemy bought it, and
+the Colonel had the mortification of knowing that Drayton Hall was at
+last in the hands of a Hampden. What he did not know was that General
+Hampden, true to his vow, never put his foot on the plantation except
+to ride down the road and see that all his orders for its proper
+cultivation were carried out.
+
+Colonel Drayton tried teaching school, but it appeared that everyone
+else was teaching at that time, and after attempting it for a year
+or two, he gave it up and confined himself to writing philosophical
+treatises for the press, which were as much out of date as the Latin and
+Greek names which he signed to them. As these contributions were usually
+returned, he finally devoted himself to writing agricultural essays for
+an agricultural paper, in which he met with more success than he had
+done when he was applying his principles himself.
+
+"If farms were made of paper he 'd beat Cincinnatus," said the General.
+
+Lucy Hampden, thrown on her own resources, in the town in the South in
+which her husband had died, had for some time been supporting herself
+and her child by teaching. She had long urged her father to come to
+them, but he had always declined, maintaining that a man was himself
+only in the country, and in town was merely a unit. When, however, the
+plantation was sold and his daughter wrote for him, he went to her, and
+the first time that the little boy was put in his arms, both he and
+she knew that he would never go away again. That evening as they sat
+together in the fading light on the veranda of the little house which
+Lucy had taken, amid the clambering roses and jasmine, the old fellow
+said, "I used to think that I ought to have been killed in battle at the
+head of my men when I was shot, but perhaps, I may have been saved to
+bring up this young man."
+
+His daughter's smile, as she leant over and kissed him, showed very
+clearly what she thought of it, and before a week was out, the Colonel
+felt that he was not only still of use, but was, perhaps, the most
+necessary, and, with one exception, the most important member of the
+family.
+
+Nevertheless, there were hard times before them. The Colonel was too
+old-fashioned; too slow for the new movement of life, and just enough
+behind the times to be always expecting to succeed and always failing.
+
+But where the father failed the daughter succeeded. She soon came to be
+known as one of the efficient women of the community, as her father, who
+was now spoken of as "the old Colonel," came to be recognized as one
+of the picturesque figures of that period. He was always thought of in
+connection with the boy. The two were hardly ever apart, and they were
+soon known throughout the town--the tall, thin old gentleman who looked
+out on the world with his mild blue eyes and kindly face, and the
+chubby, red-cheeked, black-eyed boy, whose tongue was always prattling,
+and who looked out with his bright eyes on all the curious things which,
+common-place to the world, are so wonderful to a boy.
+
+The friendship between an old man and a little child is always touching;
+they grow nearer together day by day, and the old Colonel and little
+Oliver soon appeared to understand each other, and to be as dependent on
+each other as if they had both been of the same age. The child, somewhat
+reserved with others, was bold enough with his grandfather. They held
+long discussions together over things that interested the boy; went
+sight-seeing in company to where the water ran over an old mill-wheel,
+or where a hen and her chickens lived in a neighbor's yard, or a litter
+of puppies gamboled under an outhouse, or a bird had her nest and little
+ones in a jasmine in an old garden, and Colonel Drayton told the boy
+wonderful stories of the world which was as unknown to him as the
+present world was to the Colonel.
+
+So matters went, until the Christmas when the boy was seven years old.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Meantime, General Hampden was facing a new foe. His health had suddenly
+given way, and he was in danger of becoming blind. His doctor had given
+him his orders--orders which possibly he might not have taken had not
+the spectre of a lonely old man in total darkness begun to haunt him. He
+had been "working too hard," the doctor told him.
+
+"Working hard! Of course, I have been working hard!" snapped the
+General, fiercely, with his black eyes glowering. "What else have I to
+do but work? I shall always work hard."
+
+The doctor knew something of the General 's trouble. He had been a
+surgeon in the hospital where young Oliver Hampden had been when Lucy
+Drayton found him.
+
+"You must stop," he said, quietly. "You will not last long unless you
+do."
+
+"How long!" demanded the General, quite calmly.
+
+"Oh! I cannot say that. Perhaps, a year--perhaps, less. You have burned
+your candle too fast." He glanced at the other's unmoved face. "You need
+change. You ought to go South this winter."
+
+"I should only change my skies and not my thoughts," said the General,
+his memory swinging back to the past.
+
+The doctor gazed at him curiously. "What is the use of putting out your
+eyes and working yourself to death when you have everything that money
+can give?"
+
+"I have nothing! I work to forget that," snarled the General, fiercely.
+
+The doctor remained silent.
+
+The General thought over the doctor's advice and finally followed it,
+though not for the reason the physician supposed.
+
+Something led him to select the place where his son had gone and where
+his body lay amid the magnolias. If he was going to die, he would carry
+out a plan which he had formed in the lonely hours when he lay awake
+between the strokes of the clock. He would go and see that his son's
+grave was cared for, and if he could, would bring him back home at last.
+Doubtless, "that woman's" consent could be bought. She had possibly
+married again. He hoped she had.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+Christmas is always the saddest of seasons to a lonely man, and General
+Hampden, when he landed in that old Southern town on the afternoon of
+Christmas Eve, would not have been lonelier in a desert. The signs of
+Christmas preparation and the sounds of Christmas cheer but made him
+lonelier. For years, flying from the Furies, he had immersed himself
+in work and so, in part, had forgotten his troubles; but the removal of
+this prop let him fall flat to the earth.
+
+As soon as the old fellow had gotten settled in his room at the hotel he
+paid a visit to his son's grave, piloted to the cemetery by a friendly
+and garrulous old negro hackman, who talked much about Christmas and
+"the holidays."
+
+"Yes, suh, dat he had known Cap'n Ham'n. He used to drive him out long
+as he could drive out. He had been at his funeral. He knew Mrs. Ham'n,
+too. She sutney is a fine lady," he wound up in sincere eulogy.
+
+The General gave a grunt.
+
+He was nearer to his son than he had ever been since the day he last saw
+him in all the pride and beauty of a gallant young soldier.
+
+The grave, at least, was not neglected. It was marked by a modest cross,
+on which was the Hampden coat-of-arms and the motto, "_Loyal_," and it
+was banked in fresh evergreens, and some flowers had been placed on it
+only that afternoon. It set the General to thinking.
+
+When he returned to his hotel, he found the loneliness unbearable. His
+visit to his son's grave had opened the old wound and awakened all
+his memories. He knew now that he had ruined his life. The sooner the
+doctor's forecast came true, the better. He had no care to live longer.
+He would return to work and die in harness.
+
+He sent his servant to the office and arranged for his car to be put on
+the first train next morning.
+
+Then, to escape from his thoughts, he strolled out in the street where
+the shopping crowds streamed along, old and young, poor and well-to-do,
+their arms full of bundles, their faces eager, and their eyes alight.
+
+General Hampden seemed to himself to be walking among ghosts.
+
+As he stalked on, bitter and lonely, he was suddenly run into by a
+very little boy, in whose small arms was so big a bundle that he could
+scarcely see over it. The shock of the collision knocked the little
+fellow down, sitting flat on the pavement, still clutching his bundle.
+But his face after the first shadow of surprise lit up again.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir--that was my fault," he said, with so quaint an
+imitation of an old person that the General could not help smiling. With
+a cheery laugh, he tried to rise to his feet, but the bundle was too
+heavy, and he would not let it go.
+
+The General bent over him and, with an apology, set him on his feet.
+
+"I beg _your_ pardon, sir. That was _my_ fault. That is a pretty big
+bundle you have."
+
+"Yes, sir; and I tell you, it is pretty heavy, too," the manikin said,
+proudly. "It 's a Christmas gift." He started on, and the General turned
+with him.
+
+"A Christmas gift! It must be a fine one. Who gave it to you?" demanded
+the General, with a smile at the little fellow's confidence.
+
+"It is a fine one! Did n't anybody give it to me. We 're giving it to
+somebody."
+
+"Oh! You are? To whom?"
+
+"I 'll tell you; but you must promise not to tell."
+
+"I promise I will not tell a soul. I cross my heart."
+
+He made a sign as he remembered he used to do in his boyhood.
+
+The boy looked up at him doubtfully with a shade of disapproval.
+
+"My grandfather says that you must not cross your heart--'t a
+gentleman's word is enough," he said, quaintly.
+
+"Oh, he does? Well, I give my word."
+
+"Well--" He glanced around to see that no one was listening, and
+sidling a little nearer, lowered his voice: "It 's a great-coat for
+grandfather!"
+
+"A great-coat! That's famous!" exclaimed the General.
+
+"Yes, is n't it? You see--he 's mighty old and he 's got a bad cough--he
+caught it in the army, and I have to take care of him. Don't you think
+that's right?"
+
+"Of course, I do," said the General, envying one grandfather.
+
+"That's what I tell him. So mamma and I have bought this for him."
+
+"He must be a proud grandfather," said the General, with envy biting
+deeper at his heart.
+
+"I have another grandfather; but I don't like _him_," continued the
+little fellow.
+
+"I am sorry for that," said the General, sincerely. "Why is that?"
+
+"He was mean to my father, and he is mean to my mother." His voice
+conveyed a sudden bitterness.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Mamma says I must like him; but I do not. I just can't. You would not
+like a man who was mean to your mother, would you!"
+
+"I would not," declared the General, truthfully.
+
+"And I am not going to like him," asserted the boy, with firmness.
+
+The General suddenly pitied one grandfather.
+
+They had come to a well-lighted corner, and as the boy lifted his face,
+the light fell on it. Something about the bright, sturdy countenance
+with its frank, dark eyes and brown hair suddenly sent the General back
+thirty years to a strip of meadow on which two children were playing:
+one a dark-eyed boy as sturdy as this one. It was like an arrow in his
+heart. "With a gasp he came back to the present. His thoughts pursued
+him even here.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked as he was feeling in his pocket for a
+coin.
+
+"Oliver Drayton Hampden, sir."
+
+The words were perfectly clear.
+
+The General's heart stopped beating and then gave a bound. The skies
+suddenly opened for him and then shut up again.
+
+His exclamation brought the child to a stop and he glanced up at him in
+vague wonder. The General stooped and gazed at him searchingly, almost
+fiercely. The next second he had pounced upon him and lifted him in his
+arms while the bundle fell to the pavement.
+
+"My boy! I am your grandfather," he cried, kissing him violently. "I am
+your grandfather Hampden."
+
+The child was lost in amazement for a moment, and then, putting his
+hands against the General's face, he pushed him slowly away.
+
+"Put me down, please," he said, with that gravity which in a child means
+so much.
+
+General Hampden set him down on the pavement. The boy looked at him
+searchingly for a second, and then turned in silence and lifted his
+bundle. The General's face wore a puzzled look--he had solved many
+problems, but he had never had one more difficult than this. His heart
+yearned toward the child, and he knew that on his own wisdom at that
+moment might depend his future happiness. On his next words might hang
+for him life or death. The expression on the boy's face, and the very
+set of his little back as he sturdily tugged at his burden, recalled his
+father, and with it the General recognized the obstinacy which he knew
+lurked in the Hampden blood, which had once been his pride.
+
+"Oliver," he said, gravely, leaning down over the boy and putting his
+hand on him gently, "there has been a great mistake. I am going home
+with you to your mother and tell her so. I want to see her and your
+grandfather, and I think I can explain everything."
+
+The child turned and gazed at him seriously, and then his face relaxed.
+He recognized his deep sincerity.
+
+"All right." He turned and walked down the street, bending under his
+burden. The General offered to carry it for him, but he declined.
+
+"I can carry it," was the only answer he made except once when, as the
+General rather insisted, he said firmly, "I want to carry it myself,"
+and tottered on.
+
+A silence fell on them for a moment. A young man passing them spoke to
+the child cheerily.
+
+"Hullo, Oliver! A Christmas present?--That 's a great boy," he said, in
+sheer friendliness to the General, and passed on. The boy was evidently
+well known.
+
+Oliver nodded; then feeling that some civility was due on his part to
+his companion, he said briefly, "That 's a friend of mine."
+
+"Evidently."
+
+The General, even in his perplexity, smiled at the quaint way the child
+imitated the manners of older men.
+
+Just then they came to a little gate and the boy's manner changed.
+
+"If you will wait, I will run around and put my bundle down. I am afraid
+my grandfather might see it." He lowered his voice for the first time
+since the General had introduced himself. Then he disappeared around the
+house.
+
+Oliver, having slipped in at the back door and carefully reconnoitred
+the premises, tripped up stairs with his bundle to his mother's room. He
+was so excited over his present that he failed to observe her confusion
+at his sudden entrance, or her hasty hiding away of something on
+which she was working. Colonel Drayton was not the only member of that
+household that Christmas who was to receive a great-coat.
+
+When Oliver had untied his bundle, nothing would serve but he must put
+on the coat to show his mother how his grandfather would look in it. As
+even with the sleeves rolled up and with his arms held out to keep it
+from falling off him, the tails dragged for some distance on the
+floor and only the top of his head was visible above the collar, the
+resemblance was possibly not wholly exact. But it appeared to satisfy
+the boy. He was showing how his grandfather walked, when he suddenly
+recalled his new acquaintance.
+
+"I met my other grandfather, on the street, mamma, and he came home with
+me." He spoke quite naturally.
+
+"Met your other grandfather!" Mrs. Hampden looked mystified.
+
+"He says he is my grandfather, and he looks like papa. I reckon he 's my
+other grandfather. He ran against me in the street and knocked me down,
+and then came home with me."
+
+"Came home with you!" repeated Mrs. Hampden, still in a maze, and with a
+vague trouble dawning in her face.
+
+"Yes 'm."
+
+Oliver went over the meeting again.
+
+His mother's face meantime showed the tumult of emotion that was
+sweeping over her. Why had General Hampden come? What had he come for?
+To try and take her boy from her?
+
+At the thought her face and form took on something of the lioness that
+guards her whelp. Then as the little boy repeated what his grandfather
+had said of his reason for coming home with him, her face softened
+again. She heard a voice saying, "If he ever sues for pardon, be
+merciful to him for my sake." She remembered what day it was: the Eve
+of the day of Peace and Good-will toward all men. He must have come for
+Peace, and Peace it should be. She would not bring up her boy under the
+shadow of that feud which had blighted both sides of his race so long.
+
+"Oliver," she said, "you must go down and let him in. Say I will come
+down."
+
+"I will not like him," said the child, his eyes on her face.
+
+"Oh, yes, you must; he is your grandfather."
+
+"You do not love him, and I will not." The sturdy little figure and
+the serious face with the chin already firm for such a child, the dark,
+grave eyes and the determined speech, were so like his father that the
+widow gave half a cry.
+
+"You must, my son, and I will try. Your father would wish it."
+
+The little boy pondered for a second.
+
+"Very well, mamma; but he must be good to you."
+
+As the little fellow left the room, the widow threw herself on her
+knees.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+As General Hampden stood and waited in the dusk, he felt that his
+whole life and future depended on the issue of the next few moments.
+He determined to take matters in his own hand. Every moment might tell
+against him and might decide his fate. So, without waiting longer, he
+rang the bell. A minute later he heard steps within, and the door was
+opened by one who he knew must be Colonel Drayton, though had he met
+him elsewhere he should not have recognized the white hair and the
+thin, bent form as that of his old friend and enemy. Colonel Drayton had
+evidently not seen his grandson yet, for he spoke as to a stranger.
+
+"Will you not walk in, sir!" he said cordially. "I was expecting my
+little grandson who went out a short while ago." He peered up the
+street. "Did you wish to see my daughter? You will find us in a little
+confusion--Christinas time is always a busy season with us on account of
+our young man: my grandson." He lingered with pride over the words.
+
+The General stepped into the light.
+
+"Wilmer Drayton! Don't you know me? I am Oliver Hampden, and I have come
+to apologize to you for all I have done which has offended you, and to
+ask you to be friends with me." He held out his hand.
+
+The old Colonel stepped back, and under the shock of surprise paused for
+a moment.
+
+"Oliver Hampden!" The next moment he stepped forward and took his hand.
+
+"Come in, Oliver," he said, gently, and putting his other arm around the
+General's shoulder, he handed him into the little cosey, fire-lighted
+room as though nothing had happened since he had done the same the last
+time fifty years before.
+
+At this moment the door opened and the little boy entered with mingled
+mysteriousness and importance. Seeing the two gentlemen standing
+together, he paused with a mystified look in his wide-open eyes, trying
+to comprehend the situation.
+
+"Oliver, come here," said the Colonel, quietly. "This is your other
+grandfather."
+
+The boy came forward, and, wheeling, stood close beside the Colonel,
+facing General Hampden, like a soldier dressing by his file-closer.
+
+"_You_ are my grandfather," he said, glancing up at the Colonel.
+
+The Colonel's eyes glowed with a soft light.
+
+"Yes, my boy; and so is he. We are friends again, and you must love
+him--just as you do me."
+
+"I will not love him as much," was the sturdy answer.
+
+It was the General who spoke next.
+
+"That is right, my boy. All I ask is that you will love me some." He was
+pleading with this young commissioner.
+
+"I will, if you are good to my mother." His eyes were fastened on him
+without a tremor, and the General's deep-set eyes began to glow with
+hope.
+
+"That 's a bargain," he said holding out his hand. The boy took it
+gravely.
+
+Just then the door opened and Lucy Hampden entered. Her face was calm
+and her form was straight. Her eyes, deep and burning, showed that she
+was prepared either for peace or war. It was well for the General that
+he had chosen peace. Better otherwise had he charged once more the
+deadliest battle line he had ever faced. For a moment the General saw
+only Lucy Fielding.
+
+With a woman's instinct the young widow comprehended at the first glance
+what had taken place, and although her face was white, her eyes softened
+as she advanced. The General had turned and faced her. He could not
+utter a word, but the boy sprang towards her and, wheeling, stood by her
+side.
+
+Taking his hand, she led him forward.
+
+"Oliver," she said, gently, "this is your father's father." Then to the
+General, in a dead silence--"Father, this is your son's son."
+
+The General clasped them both in his arms.
+
+"Forgive me. Forgive me. I have prayed for _his_ forgiveness, for I can
+never forgive myself."
+
+"He forgave you," said the widow, simply.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+No young king was ever put to bed with more ceremony or more devotion
+than was that little boy that night. Two old gentlemen were his grooms
+of the bedchamber and saw him to bed together.
+
+The talk was all of Christmas, and the General envied the ease with
+which the other grandfather carried on the conversation. But when the
+boy, having kissed his grandfather, said of his own accord, "Now, I must
+kiss my _other_ grandfather," he envied no man on earth.
+
+The next morning when Oliver Hampden, before the first peep of light,
+waked in his little bed, which stood at the foot of his grandfather's
+bed in the tiny room which they occupied together, and standing up,
+peeped over the footboard to catch his grandfather's "Christmas gift,"
+he was surprised to find that the bed was empty and undisturbed. Then
+having tiptoed in and caught his mother, he stole down the stairs and
+softly opened the sitting-room door where he heard the murmur of voices.
+The fire was burning dim, and on either side sat the two old gentlemen
+in their easy chairs, talking amicably and earnestly as they had been
+talking when he kissed them "good-night." Neither one had made the
+suggestion that it was bedtime; but when at the first break of day
+the rosy boy in his night-clothes burst in upon them with his shout of
+"Christmas gift," and his ringing laughter, they both knew that the long
+feud was at last ended, and peace was established forever.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+
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+    <title>
+      The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+    </title>
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+
+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: The Christmas Peace
+       1908
+
+Author: Thomas Nelson Page
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23511]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS PEACE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE CHRISTMAS PEACE
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Thomas Nelson Page <br /> <br /> Charles Scribner's Sons New York, 1908
+      <br /><br /> Copyright, 1891, 1904, 1906
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> IV </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> V </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> VI </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VII </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VIII </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      They had lived within a mile of each other for fifty-odd years, old Judge
+      Hampden and old Colonel Drayton; that is, all their lives, for they had
+      been born on adjoining plantations within a month of each other. But
+      though they had thus lived and were accounted generally good men and good
+      neighbors, to each other they had never been neighbors any more than the
+      Lévite was neighbor to him who went down to Jericho.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kindly to everyone else and ready to do their part by all other men, the
+      Draytons and the Hampdens, whenever they met each other, always passed by
+      on the other side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an old story&mdash;the feud between the families&mdash;and,
+      perhaps, no one now knew just how the trouble started. They had certainly
+      been on opposite sides ever since they established themselves in early
+      Colonial days on opposite hills in the old county from which the two
+      mansions looked at each other across the stream like hostile forts. The
+      earliest records of the county were those of a dispute between one Colonel
+      Drayton and one Captain Hampden, growing out of some claim to land; but in
+      which the chief bitterness appeared to have been injected by Captain
+      Hampden's having claimed precedence over Colonel Drayton on the ground
+      that his title of &ldquo;Captain&rdquo; was superior to Colonel Drayton's title,
+      because he had held a real commission and had fought for it, whereas the
+      Colonel's title was simply honorary and &ldquo;Ye sayd Collonel had never
+      smelled enough powder to kill a tom-cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However this might be and there was nothing in the records to show how
+      this contention was adjudicated&mdash;in the time of Major Wil-mer Drayton
+      and Judge Oliver Hampden, the breach between the two families had been
+      transmitted from father to son for several generations and showed no signs
+      of abatement. Other neighborhood families intermarried, but not the
+      Drayton-Hall and the Hampden-Hill families, and in time it came to be an
+      accepted tradition that a Drayton and a Hampden would not mingle any more
+      than would fire and water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hampdens were dark and stout, hot-blooded, fierce, and impetuous. They
+      were apparently vigorous; but many of them died young. The Draytons, on
+      the other hand, were slender and fair, and usually lived to a round old
+      age; a fact of which they were wont to boast in contrast with the briefer
+      span of the Hampdens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Their tempers burn them out,&rdquo; the Major used to say of the Hampdens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, the Draytons were generally cool-headed, deliberate, and
+      self-contained. Thus, the Draytons had mainly prospered throughout the
+      years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even the winding creek which ran down through the strip of meadow was a
+      fruitful cause of dissension and litigation between the families. &ldquo;It is
+      as ungovernable as a Hampden's temper, sir,&rdquo; once said Major Drayton, On
+      the mere pretext of a thunder-storm, it would burst forth from its banks,
+      tear the fences to pieces and even change its course, cutting a new
+      channel, now to one side and now to the other through the soft and loamy
+      soil. A lawsuit arose over the matter, in which the costs alone amounted
+      to far more than the value of the whole land involved; but no one doubted
+      that old Major Drayton spoke the truth when he declared that his father
+      would rather have lost his entire estate with all its rolling hills and
+      extensive forests than the acre or two which was finally awarded to Judge
+      Hampden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As neither owner would join the other even in keeping up a partition
+      fence, there were two fences run within three feet of each other along the
+      entire boundary line between the two places. With these double fences,
+      there could hardly be peace between the two families; for neither owner
+      ever saw the two lines running side by side without at once being reminded
+      of his neighbor's obstinacy and&mdash;of his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, in my time the quarrel between the Drayton-Hall people and the
+      Hampden-Hill folks was a factor in every neighborhood problem or
+      proposition from a &ldquo;church dressing&rdquo; or a &ldquo;sewing society meeting&rdquo; to a
+      political campaign. It had to be considered in every invitation and in
+      every discussion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not meant that there was no intercourse between the two families.
+      Major Drayton and Judge Hampden regularly paid each other a visit every
+      year&mdash;and oftener when there was serious illness in one house or the
+      other&mdash;but even on such occasions their differences were liable to
+      crop out. One of them held an opinion that when one gentleman was spending
+      the night in another gentleman's house, it was the part of the host to
+      indicate when bedtime had arrived; whilst the other maintained with equal
+      firmness the doctrine that no gentleman could inform his guest that he was
+      fatigued: that this duty devolved upon the guest himself. This difference
+      of opinion worked comfortably enough on both sides until an occasion when
+      Judge Hampden, who held the former view, was spending the night at Colonel
+      Drayton's. When bedtime arrived, the rest of the household retired
+      quietly, leaving the two gentlemen conversing, and when the servants
+      appeared in the morning to open the blinds and light the fires, the two
+      gentlemen were still found seated opposite each other conversing together
+      quite as if it were the ordinary thing to sit up and talk all night long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On another occasion, it is said that Major Drayton, hearing of his
+      neighbor's serious illness, rode over to make inquiry about him, and owing
+      to a slip of the tongue, asked in a voice of deepest sympathy, &ldquo;Any hopes
+      of the old gentleman dying!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Yet, they had once been friends.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Before Wilmer Drayton and Oliver Hampden were old enough to understand
+      that by all the laws of heredity and custom they should be enemies, they
+      had learned to like each other. When they were only a few years old, the
+      little creek winding between the two plantations afforded in its strip of
+      meadow a delightful neutral territory where the two boys could enjoy
+      themselves together, safe from the interference of their grave seniors;
+      wading, sailing mimic fleets upon its uncertain currents, fishing
+      together, or bathing in the deepest pools it offered in its winding
+      course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It looked, indeed, for a time as if in the fellowship of these two lads
+      the long-standing feud of the Hampdens and Draytons might be ended, at
+      last. They went to school together at the academy, where their only
+      contests were a generous rivalry. At college they were known as Damon and
+      Pythias, and though a natural rivalry, which might in any event have
+      existed between them, developed over the highest prize of the institution&mdash;the
+      debater's medal&mdash;the generosity of youth saved them. It was even said
+      that young Drayton, who for some time had apparently been certain of
+      winning, had generously retired in order to defeat a third candidate and
+      throw the prize to Oliver Hampden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came home and both went to the Bar, but with different results. Young
+      Drayton was learned and unpractical. Oliver Hampden was clever, able, and
+      successful, and soon had a thriving practice; while his neighbor's
+      learning was hardly known outside the circle of the Bar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disappointed in his ambition, Drayton shortly retired from the Bar and
+      lived the life of a country gentleman, while his former friend rapidly
+      rose to be the head of the Bar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old friendship might have disappeared in any event, but a new cause
+      arose which was certain to end it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Fielding was, perhaps, the prettiest girl in all that region. Oliver
+      Hampden had always been in love with her. However, Fortune, ever
+      capricious, favored Wilmer Drayton, who entered the lists when it looked
+      as if Miss Lucy were almost certain to marry her old lover. It appeared
+      that Mr. Drayton's indifference had counted for more than the other's
+      devotion. He carried off the prize with a dash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Oliver Hampden, however, was severely stricken by his disappointment,
+      he masked it well; for he married not long afterward, and though some said
+      it was from pique, there was no more happily married pair in all the
+      county.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A year later a new Oliver came to keep up the name and tenets of the
+      Hampdens. Oliver Hampden, now the head of the Bar, would not have envied
+      any man on earth had not his wife died a few years later and left him
+      alone with his boy in his big house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Drayton was born two years after young Oliver Hampden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mammies of the two children, as the mammies of their parents had done
+      before them, used to talk them over on the edge of the shaded meadow which
+      divided the places, and thus young Oliver Hampden, a lusty boy of five,
+      came to know little Lucy Drayton fully three years before his father ever
+      laid eyes on her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Hampden was riding around his fences one summer afternoon, and was
+      making his way along the double division line with a cloud on his brow as
+      the double rows recalled the wide breach with his neighbor and former
+      friend, and many memories came trooping at the recollection. Passing
+      through a small grove which had been allowed to grow up to shut off a part
+      of his view of the Drayton place, as he came out into the meadow his eye
+      fell on a scene which made him forget the present with all its wrongs. On
+      the green turf before him where butter-cups speckled the ground with
+      golden blossoms, was a little group of four persons busily engaged and
+      wholly oblivious of the differences which divided the masters of the two
+      estates. The two mammies were seated side by side on a bank, sewing and
+      talking busily&mdash;their large aprons and caps making a splotch of white
+      against the green willows beyond&mdash;and in front of them at a little
+      distance a brown-haired boy of five and a yellow-ringleted girl of three
+      were at play on the turf, rolling over and over, shouting and laughing in
+      their glee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the father rested his eyes on the group, the frown which had for a
+      second lowered on his brow passed away and he pulled in his horse so as
+      not to disturb them. He was about to turn back and leave them in their
+      happiness when his black-eyed boy caught sight of him and ran toward him,
+      shouting for a ride and calling over his shoulder for &ldquo;Luthy&rdquo; to &ldquo;come on
+      too.&rdquo; As there was no escape, Mr. Hampden went forward and, ignoring the
+      confusion of the mammies at being caught together, took the boy up before
+      him and gave him a ride up and down the meadow. Then nothing else would do
+      for Master Oliver but he &ldquo;must take Luthy up, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps 'Luthy' may be afraid of the horse!&rdquo; suggested Mr. Hampden with a
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But far from it. Led by the little boy who had run to fetch her, she came
+      to Mr. Hampden as readily as his own son had done, and, though she gave
+      him one of those quick searching glances with which childhood reads
+      character, having made sure that he was friendly, she was no more afraid
+      of his horse than the boy was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver tried to lift her, and as he tugged at her, the father sat and
+      watched with a smile, then leant down and picked her up while the two
+      mammies gasped with mingled astonishment and fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you, she's pretty heavy,&rdquo; said the little boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, she is,&rdquo; said the father, gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Hampden would have taken his son home with him, but the latter
+      declined the invitation. He wished to &ldquo;stay with Luthy.&rdquo; So, Mr. Hampden,
+      having first set the nurses' minds at ease by complimenting the little
+      girl in warm terms to her mammy, rode home alone with his face set in deep
+      reflection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The breach between the Hampdens and the Draytons was nearer being closed
+      that evening than it had been in three generations, for as Oliver Hampden
+      rode up the bridle path across his fields, he heard behind him the merry
+      laughter of the two children in the quiet meadow below, and old memories
+      of his childhood and college life softened his heart. He forgot the
+      double-line fences and determined to go on the morrow to Drayton Hall and
+      make up the quarrel. He would offer the first overture and a full
+      declaration of regret, and this, he was quite sure, would make it up. Once
+      he actually turned his horse around to go straight across the fields as he
+      used to do in his boyhood, but there below him were the double-line fences
+      stretching brown and clear. No horse could get over them, and around the
+      road it was a good five miles, so he turned back again and rode home and
+      the chance was lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his arrival he found a summons in a suit which had been instituted that
+      day by Wilmer Drayton for damages to his land by reason of his turning the
+      water of the creek upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Hampden did not forbid old Lydia to take his boy down there again, but
+      he went to the meadow no more himself, and when he and Wilmer Drayton met
+      next, which was not for some time, they barely spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Young Oliver Hampden grew up clear eyed, strong, and good to look at, and
+      became shy where girls were concerned, and most of all appeared to be shy
+      with Lucy Drayton. He went to college and as he got his broad shoulders
+      and manly stride he got over his shyness with most girls, but not with
+      Lucy Drayton. With her, he appeared to have become yet more reserved. She
+      had inherited her mother's eyes and beauty, with the fairness of a lily; a
+      slim, willowy figure; a straight back and a small head set on her
+      shoulders in a way that showed both blood and pride. Moreover, she had
+      character enough, as her friends knew: those gray eyes that smiled could
+      grow haughty with disdain or flash with indignation, and she had taught
+      many an uppish young man to feel her keen irony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She gets only her intellect from the Dray-tons; her beauty and her
+      sweetness come from her mother,&rdquo; said a lady of the neighborhood to Judge
+      Hampden, thinking to please him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She gets both her brains and beauty from her mother and only her name
+      from her father,&rdquo; snapped the Judge, who had often seen her at church, and
+      never without recalling Lucy Fielding as he knew her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That she and young Oliver Hampden fought goes without saying. But no one
+      knew why she was cruelly bitter to a young man who once spoke slightingly
+      of Oliver, or why Oliver, who rarely saw her except at church, took up a
+      quarrel of hers so furiously.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      The outbreak of the war, or rather the conditions preceding that outbreak,
+      finally fixed forever the gulf between the two families. Judge Hampden was
+      an ardent follower of Calhoun and &ldquo;stumped&rdquo; the State in behalf of
+      Secession, whereas Major Drayton, as the cloud that had been gathering so
+      long rolled nearer, emerged from his seclusion and became one of the
+      sternest opponents of a step which he declared was not merely revolution,
+      but actual rebellion. So earnest was he, that believing that slavery was
+      the ultimate bone of contention, he emancipated his slaves on a system
+      which he thought would secure their welfare. Nothing could have more
+      deeply stirred Judge Hampden's wrath. He declared that such a measure at
+      such a crisis was a blow at every Southern man. He denounced Major Drayton
+      as &ldquo;worse than Garrison, Phillips, and Greeley all put together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They at last met in debate at the Court House. Major Drayton exasperated
+      the Judge by his coolness, until the latter lost his temper and the crowd
+      laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not get as hot as you do,&rdquo; said the Major, blandly. He looked as
+      cool as a cucumber, but his voice betrayed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, you do,&rdquo; snorted the Judge. &ldquo;A mule gets as hot as a horse, but
+      he does not sweat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This saved him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There came near being a duel. Everyone expected it. Only the interposition
+      of friends prevented their meeting on the field. Only this and one other
+      thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though no one in the neighborhood knew it until long afterward&mdash;and
+      then only in a conjectural way by piecing together fragments of rumors
+      that floated about&mdash;young Oliver Hampden really prevented the duel.
+      He told his father that he loved Lucy Drayton. There was a fierce outbreak
+      on the Judge's part.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marry that girl!&mdash;the daughter of Wilmer Drayton! I will disinherit
+      you if you but so much as&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; The younger man faced him and held up his hand with an imperious
+      gesture. &ldquo;Stop! Do not say a word against her or I may never forget it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The father paused with his sentence unfinished, for his son stood before
+      him suddenly revealed in a strength for which the Judge had never given
+      him credit, and he recognized in his level eyes, tense features, and the
+      sudden set of the square jaw, the Hampden firmness at its best or worst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing to say against her,&rdquo; said the Judge, with a sudden rush of
+      recollection of Lucy Fielding. &ldquo;I have no doubt she is in one way all you
+      think her; but she is Wilmer Drayton 's daughter. You will never win her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will win her,&rdquo; said the young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Judge Hampden thought deeply over the matter, and before
+      daylight he had despatched a note to Major Drayton making an apology for
+      the words he had used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both Judge Hampden and his son went into the army immediately on the
+      outbreak of hostilities. Major Drayton, who to the last opposed Secession
+      bitterly, did not volunteer until after the State had seceded; but then
+      he, also, went in, and later was desperately wounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few nights before they went off to the war, Judge Hampden and his son
+      rode over together to Major Drayton's to offer the olive-branch of peace
+      in shape of young Oliver and all that he possessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Judge Hampden did not go all the way, for he had sworn never to put foot
+      again in Major Drayton's house so long as he lived, and, moreover, he felt
+      that his son would be the better ambassador alone. Accordingly, he waited
+      in the darkness at the front gate while his son presented himself and laid
+      at Lucy Drayton's feet what the Judge truly believed was more than had
+      ever been offered to any other woman. He, however, sent the most
+      conciliatory messages to Major Drayton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that I will take down my fence and he shall run the
+      line to suit himself.&rdquo; He could not have gone further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time that passed appeared unending to the Judge waiting in the
+      darkness; but in truth it was not long, for the interview was brief. It
+      was with Major Drayton and not with his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Drayton declined, both on his daughter's part and on his own, the
+      honor which had been proposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the door opened and Lucy herself appeared. She was a vision
+      of loveliness. Her face was white, but her eyes were steady. If she knew
+      what had occurred, she gave no sign of it in words. She walked straight to
+      her father's side and took his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;Mr. Hampden has done us the honor to ask your hand and I
+      have declined it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, papa.&rdquo; Her eyelids fluttered and her bosom heaved, but she did not
+      move, and Lucy was too much a Drayton to unsay what her father had said,
+      or to undo what he had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver Hampden's eyes did not leave her face. For him the Major had
+      disappeared, and he saw only the girl who stood before him with a face as
+      white as the dress she wore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy, I love you. Will you ever care for me? I am going&mdash;going away
+      to-morrow, and I shall not see you any more; but I would like to know if
+      there is any hope.&rdquo; The young man's voice was strangely calm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl held out her hand to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will never marry anyone else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will wait for you all my life,&rdquo; said the young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bending low, he kissed her hand in the palm, and with a bow to her father,
+      strode from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge, waiting at the gate in the darkness, heard the far-off,
+      monotonous galloping of Oliver's horse on the hard plantation road. He
+      rode forward to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They declined.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The father scarcely knew his son's voice, it was so wretched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! Who declined? Did you see&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Out in the darkness Judge Hampden broke forth into such a torrent of rage
+      that his son was afraid for his life and had to devote all his attention
+      to soothing him. He threatened to ride straight to Drayton's house and
+      horsewhip him on the spot. This, however, the young man prevented, and the
+      two rode home together in a silence which was unbroken until they had
+      dismounted at their own gate and given their horses to the waiting
+      servants. As they entered the house, Judge Hampden spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you are satisfied,&rdquo; he said, sternly. &ldquo;I make but one request of
+      you&mdash;that from this time forth, you will never mention the name of
+      Drayton to me again as long as you live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I should hate her,&rdquo; said the son, bitterly, &ldquo;but I do not. I
+      love her and I believe she cares for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His father turned in the door-way and faced him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cares for you! Not so much as she cares for the smallest negro on that
+      place. If you ever marry her, I will disinherit you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Disinherit me!&rdquo; burst from the young man. &ldquo;Do you think I care for this
+      place? What has it ever brought to us but unhappiness? I have seen your
+      life embittered by a feud with your nearest neighbor, and now it wrecks my
+      happiness and robs me of what I would give all the rest of the world for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Judge Hampden looked at him curiously. He started to say, &ldquo;Before I would
+      let her enter this house, I would burn it with my own hands&rdquo;; but as he
+      met his son's steadfast gaze there was that in it which made him pause.
+      The Hampden look was in his eyes. The father knew that another word might
+      sever them forever.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      If ever a man tried to court death, young Oliver Hampden did. But Death,
+      that struck many a happier man, passed him by, and he secured instead only
+      a reputation for reckless courage and was promoted on the field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His father rose to the command of a brigade, and Oliver himself became a
+      captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the bullet Oliver had sought found him; but it spared his life and
+      only incapacitated him for service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were no trained nurses during the war, and Lucy Drayton, like so
+      many girls, when the war grew fiercer, went into the hospitals, and by
+      devotion supplied their place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Believing that life was ended for her, she had devoted herself wholly to
+      the cause, and self-repression had given to her face the gentleness and
+      consecration of a nun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was said that once as she bent over a wounded common soldier, he
+      returned to consciousness, and after gazing up at her a moment, asked
+      vaguely, &ldquo;Who are you, Miss?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am one of the sisters whom our Father has sent to nurse you and help
+      you to get well. But you must not talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wounded man closed his eyes and then opened them with a faint smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right; just one word. Will you please ask your pa if I may be his
+      son-in-law?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Into the hospital was brought one day a soldier so broken and bandaged
+      that no one but Lucy Drayton might have recognized Oliver Hampden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time his life was despaired of; but he survived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When consciousness returned to him, the first sound he heard was a voice
+      which had often haunted him in his dreams, but which he had never expected
+      to hear again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that!&rdquo; he asked, feebly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is I, Oliver&mdash;it is Lucy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wounded man moved slightly and the girl bending over him caught the
+      words, whispered brokenly to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am dreaming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But he was not dreaming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Drayton's devotion probably brought him back from death and saved his
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the hell of that hospital one man at least found the balm for his
+      wounds. When he knew how broken he was he offered Lucy her release. Her
+      reply was in the words of the English girl to the wounded Napier, &ldquo;If
+      there is enough of you left to hold your soul, I will marry you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he was sufficiently convalescent, they were married.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy insisted that General Hampden should be informed, but the young man
+      knew his father's bitterness, and refused. He relied on securing his
+      consent later, and Lucy, fearing for her patient's life, and having
+      secured her own father's consent, yielded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a mistake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver Hampden misjudged the depth of his father's feeling, and General
+      Hampden was mortally offended by his having married without informing him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver adored his father and he sent him a present in token of his desire
+      for forgiveness; but the General had been struck deeply. The present was
+      returned. He wrote: &ldquo;I want obedience; not sacrifice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Confident of his wife's ability to overcome any obstacle, the young man
+      bided his time. His wounds, however, and his breach with his father
+      affected his health so much that he went with his wife to the far South,
+      where Major Drayton, now a colonel, had a remnant of what had once been a
+      fine property. Here, for a time, amid the live-oaks and magnolias he
+      appeared to improve. But his father's obdurate refusal to forgive his
+      disobedience preyed on his health, and just after the war closed, he died
+      a few months before his son was born.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his last days he dwelt much on his father. He made excuses for him,
+      over which his wife simply tightened her lips, while her gray eyes burned
+      with deep resentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was brought up that way. He cannot help it. He never had anyone to
+      gainsay him. Do not be hard on him. And if he ever sues for pardon, be
+      merciful to him for my sake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His end came too suddenly for his wife to notify his father in advance,
+      even if she would have done so; for he had been fading gradually and at
+      the last the flame had flared up a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Hampden was too upright a woman not to do what she believed her duty,
+      however contrary to her feelings it might be. So, although it was a bitter
+      thing to her, she wrote to inform General Hampden of his son's death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened by one of the malign chances of fortune that this letter never
+      reached its destination, General Hampden did not learn of Oliver's death
+      until some weeks later, when he heard of it by accident. It was a terrible
+      blow to him, for time was softening the asperity of his temper, and he had
+      just made up his mind to make friends with his son. He attributed the
+      failure to inform him of Oliver's illness and death to the malignity of
+      his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it happened that when her son was born, Lucy Hampden made no
+      announcement of his birth to the General, and he remained in ignorance of
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      IV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The war closed, and about the only thing that appeared to remain unchanged
+      was the relation between General Hampden and Colonel Drayton. Everything
+      else underwent a change, for war eats up a land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Hampden, soured and embittered by his domestic troubles, but stern
+      in his resolve and vigorous in his intellect, was driven by his loneliness
+      to adapt himself to the new conditions. He applied his unabated energies
+      to building up a new fortune. His decision, his force, and his ability
+      soon placed him at the head of one of the earliest new enterprises in the
+      State&mdash;a broken-down railway&mdash;which he re-organized and brought
+      to a full measure of success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Drayton, on the other hand, broken in body and in fortunes, found
+      it impossible to adapt himself to the new conditions. He possessed none of
+      the practical qualities of General Hampden. With a mind richly stored with
+      the wisdom of others, he had the temperament of a dreamer and poet and was
+      unable to apply it to any practical end. As shy and reserved as his
+      neighbor was bold and aggressive, he lived in his books and had never been
+      what is known as a successful man. Even before the war he had not been
+      able to hold his own. The exactions of hospitality and of what he deemed
+      his obligations to others had consumed a considerable part of the handsome
+      estate he had inherited, and his plantation was mortgaged. What had been
+      thus begun, the war had completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his plantation was sold, his old neighbor and enemy bought it, and
+      the Colonel had the mortification of knowing that Drayton Hall was at last
+      in the hands of a Hampden. What he did not know was that General Hampden,
+      true to his vow, never put his foot on the plantation except to ride down
+      the road and see that all his orders for its proper cultivation were
+      carried out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Drayton tried teaching school, but it appeared that everyone else
+      was teaching at that time, and after attempting it for a year or two, he
+      gave it up and confined himself to writing philosophical treatises for the
+      press, which were as much out of date as the Latin and Greek names which
+      he signed to them. As these contributions were usually returned, he
+      finally devoted himself to writing agricultural essays for an agricultural
+      paper, in which he met with more success than he had done when he was
+      applying his principles himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If farms were made of paper he 'd beat Cincinnatus,&rdquo; said the General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Hampden, thrown on her own resources, in the town in the South in
+      which her husband had died, had for some time been supporting herself and
+      her child by teaching. She had long urged her father to come to them, but
+      he had always declined, maintaining that a man was himself only in the
+      country, and in town was merely a unit. When, however, the plantation was
+      sold and his daughter wrote for him, he went to her, and the first time
+      that the little boy was put in his arms, both he and she knew that he
+      would never go away again. That evening as they sat together in the fading
+      light on the veranda of the little house which Lucy had taken, amid the
+      clambering roses and jasmine, the old fellow said, &ldquo;I used to think that I
+      ought to have been killed in battle at the head of my men when I was shot,
+      but perhaps, I may have been saved to bring up this young man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His daughter's smile, as she leant over and kissed him, showed very
+      clearly what she thought of it, and before a week was out, the Colonel
+      felt that he was not only still of use, but was, perhaps, the most
+      necessary, and, with one exception, the most important member of the
+      family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, there were hard times before them. The Colonel was too
+      old-fashioned; too slow for the new movement of life, and just enough
+      behind the times to be always expecting to succeed and always failing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But where the father failed the daughter succeeded. She soon came to be
+      known as one of the efficient women of the community, as her father, who
+      was now spoken of as &ldquo;the old Colonel,&rdquo; came to be recognized as one of
+      the picturesque figures of that period. He was always thought of in
+      connection with the boy. The two were hardly ever apart, and they were
+      soon known throughout the town&mdash;the tall, thin old gentleman who
+      looked out on the world with his mild blue eyes and kindly face, and the
+      chubby, red-cheeked, black-eyed boy, whose tongue was always prattling,
+      and who looked out with his bright eyes on all the curious things which,
+      common-place to the world, are so wonderful to a boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The friendship between an old man and a little child is always touching;
+      they grow nearer together day by day, and the old Colonel and little
+      Oliver soon appeared to understand each other, and to be as dependent on
+      each other as if they had both been of the same age. The child, somewhat
+      reserved with others, was bold enough with his grandfather. They held long
+      discussions together over things that interested the boy; went
+      sight-seeing in company to where the water ran over an old mill-wheel, or
+      where a hen and her chickens lived in a neighbor's yard, or a litter of
+      puppies gamboled under an outhouse, or a bird had her nest and little ones
+      in a jasmine in an old garden, and Colonel Drayton told the boy wonderful
+      stories of the world which was as unknown to him as the present world was
+      to the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So matters went, until the Christmas when the boy was seven years old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      V
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, General Hampden was facing a new foe. His health had suddenly
+      given way, and he was in danger of becoming blind. His doctor had given
+      him his orders&mdash;orders which possibly he might not have taken had not
+      the spectre of a lonely old man in total darkness begun to haunt him. He
+      had been &ldquo;working too hard,&rdquo; the doctor told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Working hard! Of course, I have been working hard!&rdquo; snapped the General,
+      fiercely, with his black eyes glowering. &ldquo;What else have I to do but work?
+      I shall always work hard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor knew something of the General 's trouble. He had been a surgeon
+      in the hospital where young Oliver Hampden had been when Lucy Drayton
+      found him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must stop,&rdquo; he said, quietly. &ldquo;You will not last long unless you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long!&rdquo; demanded the General, quite calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I cannot say that. Perhaps, a year&mdash;perhaps, less. You have
+      burned your candle too fast.&rdquo; He glanced at the other's unmoved face. &ldquo;You
+      need change. You ought to go South this winter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should only change my skies and not my thoughts,&rdquo; said the General, his
+      memory swinging back to the past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor gazed at him curiously. &ldquo;What is the use of putting out your
+      eyes and working yourself to death when you have everything that money can
+      give?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing! I work to forget that,&rdquo; snarled the General, fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor remained silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General thought over the doctor's advice and finally followed it,
+      though not for the reason the physician supposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something led him to select the place where his son had gone and where his
+      body lay amid the magnolias. If he was going to die, he would carry out a
+      plan which he had formed in the lonely hours when he lay awake between the
+      strokes of the clock. He would go and see that his son's grave was cared
+      for, and if he could, would bring him back home at last. Doubtless, &ldquo;that
+      woman's&rdquo; consent could be bought. She had possibly married again. He hoped
+      she had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Christmas is always the saddest of seasons to a lonely man, and General
+      Hampden, when he landed in that old Southern town on the afternoon of
+      Christmas Eve, would not have been lonelier in a desert. The signs of
+      Christmas preparation and the sounds of Christmas cheer but made him
+      lonelier. For years, flying from the Furies, he had immersed himself in
+      work and so, in part, had forgotten his troubles; but the removal of this
+      prop let him fall flat to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the old fellow had gotten settled in his room at the hotel he
+      paid a visit to his son's grave, piloted to the cemetery by a friendly and
+      garrulous old negro hackman, who talked much about Christmas and &ldquo;the
+      holidays.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, suh, dat he had known Cap'n Ham'n. He used to drive him out long as
+      he could drive out. He had been at his funeral. He knew Mrs. Ham'n, too.
+      She sutney is a fine lady,&rdquo; he wound up in sincere eulogy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General gave a grunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was nearer to his son than he had ever been since the day he last saw
+      him in all the pride and beauty of a gallant young soldier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grave, at least, was not neglected. It was marked by a modest cross,
+      on which was the Hampden coat-of-arms and the motto, &ldquo;<i>Loyal</i>,&rdquo; and
+      it was banked in fresh evergreens, and some flowers had been placed on it
+      only that afternoon. It set the General to thinking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he returned to his hotel, he found the loneliness unbearable. His
+      visit to his son's grave had opened the old wound and awakened all his
+      memories. He knew now that he had ruined his life. The sooner the doctor's
+      forecast came true, the better. He had no care to live longer. He would
+      return to work and die in harness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sent his servant to the office and arranged for his car to be put on
+      the first train next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, to escape from his thoughts, he strolled out in the street where the
+      shopping crowds streamed along, old and young, poor and well-to-do, their
+      arms full of bundles, their faces eager, and their eyes alight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Hampden seemed to himself to be walking among ghosts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he stalked on, bitter and lonely, he was suddenly run into by a very
+      little boy, in whose small arms was so big a bundle that he could scarcely
+      see over it. The shock of the collision knocked the little fellow down,
+      sitting flat on the pavement, still clutching his bundle. But his face
+      after the first shadow of surprise lit up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon, sir&mdash;that was my fault,&rdquo; he said, with so quaint
+      an imitation of an old person that the General could not help smiling.
+      With a cheery laugh, he tried to rise to his feet, but the bundle was too
+      heavy, and he would not let it go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General bent over him and, with an apology, set him on his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg <i>your</i> pardon, sir. That was <i>my</i> fault. That is a pretty
+      big bundle you have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir; and I tell you, it is pretty heavy, too,&rdquo; the manikin said,
+      proudly. &ldquo;It 's a Christmas gift.&rdquo; He started on, and the General turned
+      with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Christmas gift! It must be a fine one. Who gave it to you?&rdquo; demanded
+      the General, with a smile at the little fellow's confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a fine one! Did n't anybody give it to me. We 're giving it to
+      somebody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! You are? To whom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll tell you; but you must promise not to tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I promise I will not tell a soul. I cross my heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He made a sign as he remembered he used to do in his boyhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy looked up at him doubtfully with a shade of disapproval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My grandfather says that you must not cross your heart&mdash;'t a
+      gentleman's word is enough,&rdquo; he said, quaintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he does? Well, I give my word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&mdash;&rdquo; He glanced around to see that no one was listening, and
+      sidling a little nearer, lowered his voice: &ldquo;It 's a great-coat for
+      grandfather!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A great-coat! That's famous!&rdquo; exclaimed the General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, is n't it? You see&mdash;he 's mighty old and he 's got a bad cough&mdash;he
+      caught it in the army, and I have to take care of him. Don't you think
+      that's right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, I do,&rdquo; said the General, envying one grandfather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what I tell him. So mamma and I have bought this for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be a proud grandfather,&rdquo; said the General, with envy biting
+      deeper at his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have another grandfather; but I don't like <i>him</i>,&rdquo; continued the
+      little fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry for that,&rdquo; said the General, sincerely. &ldquo;Why is that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was mean to my father, and he is mean to my mother.&rdquo; His voice
+      conveyed a sudden bitterness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mamma says I must like him; but I do not. I just can't. You would not
+      like a man who was mean to your mother, would you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not,&rdquo; declared the General, truthfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am not going to like him,&rdquo; asserted the boy, with firmness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General suddenly pitied one grandfather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had come to a well-lighted corner, and as the boy lifted his face,
+      the light fell on it. Something about the bright, sturdy countenance with
+      its frank, dark eyes and brown hair suddenly sent the General back thirty
+      years to a strip of meadow on which two children were playing: one a
+      dark-eyed boy as sturdy as this one. It was like an arrow in his heart.
+      &ldquo;With a gasp he came back to the present. His thoughts pursued him even
+      here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; he asked as he was feeling in his pocket for a coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver Drayton Hampden, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were perfectly clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General's heart stopped beating and then gave a bound. The skies
+      suddenly opened for him and then shut up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His exclamation brought the child to a stop and he glanced up at him in
+      vague wonder. The General stooped and gazed at him searchingly, almost
+      fiercely. The next second he had pounced upon him and lifted him in his
+      arms while the bundle fell to the pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My boy! I am your grandfather,&rdquo; he cried, kissing him violently. &ldquo;I am
+      your grandfather Hampden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The child was lost in amazement for a moment, and then, putting his hands
+      against the General's face, he pushed him slowly away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put me down, please,&rdquo; he said, with that gravity which in a child means
+      so much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Hampden set him down on the pavement. The boy looked at him
+      searchingly for a second, and then turned in silence and lifted his
+      bundle. The General's face wore a puzzled look&mdash;he had solved many
+      problems, but he had never had one more difficult than this. His heart
+      yearned toward the child, and he knew that on his own wisdom at that
+      moment might depend his future happiness. On his next words might hang for
+      him life or death. The expression on the boy's face, and the very set of
+      his little back as he sturdily tugged at his burden, recalled his father,
+      and with it the General recognized the obstinacy which he knew lurked in
+      the Hampden blood, which had once been his pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver,&rdquo; he said, gravely, leaning down over the boy and putting his hand
+      on him gently, &ldquo;there has been a great mistake. I am going home with you
+      to your mother and tell her so. I want to see her and your grandfather,
+      and I think I can explain everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The child turned and gazed at him seriously, and then his face relaxed. He
+      recognized his deep sincerity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right.&rdquo; He turned and walked down the street, bending under his
+      burden. The General offered to carry it for him, but he declined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can carry it,&rdquo; was the only answer he made except once when, as the
+      General rather insisted, he said firmly, &ldquo;I want to carry it myself,&rdquo; and
+      tottered on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A silence fell on them for a moment. A young man passing them spoke to the
+      child cheerily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hullo, Oliver! A Christmas present?&mdash;That 's a great boy,&rdquo; he said,
+      in sheer friendliness to the General, and passed on. The boy was evidently
+      well known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver nodded; then feeling that some civility was due on his part to his
+      companion, he said briefly, &ldquo;That 's a friend of mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Evidently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The General, even in his perplexity, smiled at the quaint way the child
+      imitated the manners of older men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then they came to a little gate and the boy's manner changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will wait, I will run around and put my bundle down. I am afraid
+      my grandfather might see it.&rdquo; He lowered his voice for the first time
+      since the General had introduced himself. Then he disappeared around the
+      house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver, having slipped in at the back door and carefully reconnoitred the
+      premises, tripped up stairs with his bundle to his mother's room. He was
+      so excited over his present that he failed to observe her confusion at his
+      sudden entrance, or her hasty hiding away of something on which she was
+      working. Colonel Drayton was not the only member of that household that
+      Christmas who was to receive a great-coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Oliver had untied his bundle, nothing would serve but he must put on
+      the coat to show his mother how his grandfather would look in it. As even
+      with the sleeves rolled up and with his arms held out to keep it from
+      falling off him, the tails dragged for some distance on the floor and only
+      the top of his head was visible above the collar, the resemblance was
+      possibly not wholly exact. But it appeared to satisfy the boy. He was
+      showing how his grandfather walked, when he suddenly recalled his new
+      acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I met my other grandfather, on the street, mamma, and he came home with
+      me.&rdquo; He spoke quite naturally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Met your other grandfather!&rdquo; Mrs. Hampden looked mystified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He says he is my grandfather, and he looks like papa. I reckon he 's my
+      other grandfather. He ran against me in the street and knocked me down,
+      and then came home with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Came home with you!&rdquo; repeated Mrs. Hampden, still in a maze, and with a
+      vague trouble dawning in her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes 'm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver went over the meeting again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His mother's face meantime showed the tumult of emotion that was sweeping
+      over her. Why had General Hampden come? What had he come for? To try and
+      take her boy from her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the thought her face and form took on something of the lioness that
+      guards her whelp. Then as the little boy repeated what his grandfather had
+      said of his reason for coming home with him, her face softened again. She
+      heard a voice saying, &ldquo;If he ever sues for pardon, be merciful to him for
+      my sake.&rdquo; She remembered what day it was: the Eve of the day of Peace and
+      Good-will toward all men. He must have come for Peace, and Peace it should
+      be. She would not bring up her boy under the shadow of that feud which had
+      blighted both sides of his race so long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;you must go down and let him in. Say I will come
+      down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not like him,&rdquo; said the child, his eyes on her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, you must; he is your grandfather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not love him, and I will not.&rdquo; The sturdy little figure and the
+      serious face with the chin already firm for such a child, the dark, grave
+      eyes and the determined speech, were so like his father that the widow
+      gave half a cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must, my son, and I will try. Your father would wish it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little boy pondered for a second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, mamma; but he must be good to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the little fellow left the room, the widow threw herself on her knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As General Hampden stood and waited in the dusk, he felt that his whole
+      life and future depended on the issue of the next few moments. He
+      determined to take matters in his own hand. Every moment might tell
+      against him and might decide his fate. So, without waiting longer, he rang
+      the bell. A minute later he heard steps within, and the door was opened by
+      one who he knew must be Colonel Drayton, though had he met him elsewhere
+      he should not have recognized the white hair and the thin, bent form as
+      that of his old friend and enemy. Colonel Drayton had evidently not seen
+      his grandson yet, for he spoke as to a stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you not walk in, sir!&rdquo; he said cordially. &ldquo;I was expecting my little
+      grandson who went out a short while ago.&rdquo; He peered up the street. &ldquo;Did
+      you wish to see my daughter? You will find us in a little confusion&mdash;Christinas
+      time is always a busy season with us on account of our young man: my
+      grandson.&rdquo; He lingered with pride over the words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General stepped into the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wilmer Drayton! Don't you know me? I am Oliver Hampden, and I have come
+      to apologize to you for all I have done which has offended you, and to ask
+      you to be friends with me.&rdquo; He held out his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Colonel stepped back, and under the shock of surprise paused for a
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver Hampden!&rdquo; The next moment he stepped forward and took his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in, Oliver,&rdquo; he said, gently, and putting his other arm around the
+      General's shoulder, he handed him into the little cosey, fire-lighted room
+      as though nothing had happened since he had done the same the last time
+      fifty years before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the door opened and the little boy entered with mingled
+      mysteriousness and importance. Seeing the two gentlemen standing together,
+      he paused with a mystified look in his wide-open eyes, trying to
+      comprehend the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver, come here,&rdquo; said the Colonel, quietly. &ldquo;This is your other
+      grandfather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy came forward, and, wheeling, stood close beside the Colonel,
+      facing General Hampden, like a soldier dressing by his file-closer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>You</i> are my grandfather,&rdquo; he said, glancing up at the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel's eyes glowed with a soft light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my boy; and so is he. We are friends again, and you must love him&mdash;just
+      as you do me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not love him as much,&rdquo; was the sturdy answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the General who spoke next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is right, my boy. All I ask is that you will love me some.&rdquo; He was
+      pleading with this young commissioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will, if you are good to my mother.&rdquo; His eyes were fastened on him
+      without a tremor, and the General's deep-set eyes began to glow with hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That 's a bargain,&rdquo; he said holding out his hand. The boy took it
+      gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the door opened and Lucy Hampden entered. Her face was calm and
+      her form was straight. Her eyes, deep and burning, showed that she was
+      prepared either for peace or war. It was well for the General that he had
+      chosen peace. Better otherwise had he charged once more the deadliest
+      battle line he had ever faced. For a moment the General saw only Lucy
+      Fielding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a woman's instinct the young widow comprehended at the first glance
+      what had taken place, and although her face was white, her eyes softened
+      as she advanced. The General had turned and faced her. He could not utter
+      a word, but the boy sprang towards her and, wheeling, stood by her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking his hand, she led him forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver,&rdquo; she said, gently, &ldquo;this is your father's father.&rdquo; Then to the
+      General, in a dead silence&mdash;&ldquo;Father, this is your son's son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The General clasped them both in his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me. Forgive me. I have prayed for <i>his</i> forgiveness, for I
+      can never forgive myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He forgave you,&rdquo; said the widow, simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VIII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      No young king was ever put to bed with more ceremony or more devotion than
+      was that little boy that night. Two old gentlemen were his grooms of the
+      bedchamber and saw him to bed together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The talk was all of Christmas, and the General envied the ease with which
+      the other grandfather carried on the conversation. But when the boy,
+      having kissed his grandfather, said of his own accord, &ldquo;Now, I must kiss
+      my <i>other</i> grandfather,&rdquo; he envied no man on earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning when Oliver Hampden, before the first peep of light,
+      waked in his little bed, which stood at the foot of his grandfather's bed
+      in the tiny room which they occupied together, and standing up, peeped
+      over the footboard to catch his grandfather's &ldquo;Christmas gift,&rdquo; he was
+      surprised to find that the bed was empty and undisturbed. Then having
+      tiptoed in and caught his mother, he stole down the stairs and softly
+      opened the sitting-room door where he heard the murmur of voices. The fire
+      was burning dim, and on either side sat the two old gentlemen in their
+      easy chairs, talking amicably and earnestly as they had been talking when
+      he kissed them &ldquo;good-night.&rdquo; Neither one had made the suggestion that it
+      was bedtime; but when at the first break of day the rosy boy in his
+      night-clothes burst in upon them with his shout of &ldquo;Christmas gift,&rdquo; and
+      his ringing laughter, they both knew that the long feud was at last ended,
+      and peace was established forever.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+
+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: The Christmas Peace
+       1908
+
+Author: Thomas Nelson Page
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23511]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS PEACE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CHRISTMAS PEACE
+
+By Thomas Nelson Page
+
+Charles Scribner's Sons New York, 1908
+
+Copyright, 1891, 1904, 1906
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+They had lived within a mile of each other for fifty-odd years, old
+Judge Hampden and old Colonel Drayton; that is, all their lives, for
+they had been born on adjoining plantations within a month of each
+other. But though they had thus lived and were accounted generally good
+men and good neighbors, to each other they had never been neighbors any
+more than the Levite was neighbor to him who went down to Jericho.
+
+Kindly to everyone else and ready to do their part by all other men, the
+Draytons and the Hampdens, whenever they met each other, always passed
+by on the other side.
+
+It was an old story--the feud between the families--and, perhaps, no
+one now knew just how the trouble started. They had certainly been on
+opposite sides ever since they established themselves in early Colonial
+days on opposite hills in the old county from which the two mansions
+looked at each other across the stream like hostile forts. The earliest
+records of the county were those of a dispute between one Colonel
+Drayton and one Captain Hampden, growing out of some claim to land; but
+in which the chief bitterness appeared to have been injected by Captain
+Hampden's having claimed precedence over Colonel Drayton on the ground
+that his title of "Captain" was superior to Colonel Drayton's title,
+because he had held a real commission and had fought for it, whereas
+the Colonel's title was simply honorary and "Ye sayd Collonel had never
+smelled enough powder to kill a tom-cat."
+
+However this might be and there was nothing in the records to show how
+this contention was adjudicated--in the time of Major Wil-mer Drayton
+and Judge Oliver Hampden, the breach between the two families had been
+transmitted from father to son for several generations and showed no
+signs of abatement. Other neighborhood families intermarried, but not
+the Drayton-Hall and the Hampden-Hill families, and in time it came to
+be an accepted tradition that a Drayton and a Hampden would not mingle
+any more than would fire and water.
+
+The Hampdens were dark and stout, hot-blooded, fierce, and impetuous.
+They were apparently vigorous; but many of them died young. The
+Draytons, on the other hand, were slender and fair, and usually lived
+to a round old age; a fact of which they were wont to boast in contrast
+with the briefer span of the Hampdens.
+
+"Their tempers burn them out," the Major used to say of the Hampdens.
+
+Moreover, the Draytons were generally cool-headed, deliberate, and
+self-contained. Thus, the Draytons had mainly prospered throughout the
+years.
+
+Even the winding creek which ran down through the strip of meadow was a
+fruitful cause of dissension and litigation between the families. "It is
+as ungovernable as a Hampden's temper, sir," once said Major Drayton,
+On the mere pretext of a thunder-storm, it would burst forth from its
+banks, tear the fences to pieces and even change its course, cutting a
+new channel, now to one side and now to the other through the soft and
+loamy soil. A lawsuit arose over the matter, in which the costs alone
+amounted to far more than the value of the whole land involved; but no
+one doubted that old Major Drayton spoke the truth when he declared that
+his father would rather have lost his entire estate with all its rolling
+hills and extensive forests than the acre or two which was finally
+awarded to Judge Hampden.
+
+As neither owner would join the other even in keeping up a partition
+fence, there were two fences run within three feet of each other along
+the entire boundary line between the two places. With these double
+fences, there could hardly be peace between the two families; for
+neither owner ever saw the two lines running side by side without at
+once being reminded of his neighbor's obstinacy and--of his own.
+
+Thus, in my time the quarrel between the Drayton-Hall people and
+the Hampden-Hill folks was a factor in every neighborhood problem or
+proposition from a "church dressing" or a "sewing society meeting" to a
+political campaign. It had to be considered in every invitation and in
+every discussion.
+
+It is not meant that there was no intercourse between the two families.
+Major Drayton and Judge Hampden regularly paid each other a visit every
+year--and oftener when there was serious illness in one house or the
+other--but even on such occasions their differences were liable to crop
+out. One of them held an opinion that when one gentleman was spending
+the night in another gentleman's house, it was the part of the host
+to indicate when bedtime had arrived; whilst the other maintained with
+equal firmness the doctrine that no gentleman could inform his guest
+that he was fatigued: that this duty devolved upon the guest himself.
+This difference of opinion worked comfortably enough on both sides until
+an occasion when Judge Hampden, who held the former view, was spending
+the night at Colonel Drayton's. When bedtime arrived, the rest of the
+household retired quietly, leaving the two gentlemen conversing, and
+when the servants appeared in the morning to open the blinds and light
+the fires, the two gentlemen were still found seated opposite each other
+conversing together quite as if it were the ordinary thing to sit up and
+talk all night long.
+
+On another occasion, it is said that Major Drayton, hearing of his
+neighbor's serious illness, rode over to make inquiry about him, and
+owing to a slip of the tongue, asked in a voice of deepest sympathy,
+"Any hopes of the old gentleman dying!"
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+Yet, they had once been friends.
+
+Before Wilmer Drayton and Oliver Hampden were old enough to understand
+that by all the laws of heredity and custom they should be enemies, they
+had learned to like each other. When they were only a few years old, the
+little creek winding between the two plantations afforded in its strip
+of meadow a delightful neutral territory where the two boys could enjoy
+themselves together, safe from the interference of their grave seniors;
+wading, sailing mimic fleets upon its uncertain currents, fishing
+together, or bathing in the deepest pools it offered in its winding
+course.
+
+It looked, indeed, for a time as if in the fellowship of these two lads
+the long-standing feud of the Hampdens and Draytons might be ended,
+at last. They went to school together at the academy, where their only
+contests were a generous rivalry. At college they were known as Damon
+and Pythias, and though a natural rivalry, which might in any event
+have existed between them, developed over the highest prize of the
+institution--the debater's medal--the generosity of youth saved them. It
+was even said that young Drayton, who for some time had apparently been
+certain of winning, had generously retired in order to defeat a third
+candidate and throw the prize to Oliver Hampden.
+
+They came home and both went to the Bar, but with different results.
+Young Drayton was learned and unpractical. Oliver Hampden was clever,
+able, and successful, and soon had a thriving practice; while his
+neighbor's learning was hardly known outside the circle of the Bar.
+
+Disappointed in his ambition, Drayton shortly retired from the Bar and
+lived the life of a country gentleman, while his former friend rapidly
+rose to be the head of the Bar.
+
+The old friendship might have disappeared in any event, but a new cause
+arose which was certain to end it.
+
+Lucy Fielding was, perhaps, the prettiest girl in all that region.
+Oliver Hampden had always been in love with her. However, Fortune, ever
+capricious, favored Wilmer Drayton, who entered the lists when it looked
+as if Miss Lucy were almost certain to marry her old lover. It appeared
+that Mr. Drayton's indifference had counted for more than the other's
+devotion. He carried off the prize with a dash.
+
+If Oliver Hampden, however, was severely stricken by his disappointment,
+he masked it well; for he married not long afterward, and though some
+said it was from pique, there was no more happily married pair in all
+the county.
+
+A year later a new Oliver came to keep up the name and tenets of the
+Hampdens. Oliver Hampden, now the head of the Bar, would not have envied
+any man on earth had not his wife died a few years later and left him
+alone with his boy in his big house.
+
+Lucy Drayton was born two years after young Oliver Hampden.
+
+The mammies of the two children, as the mammies of their parents had
+done before them, used to talk them over on the edge of the shaded
+meadow which divided the places, and thus young Oliver Hampden, a lusty
+boy of five, came to know little Lucy Drayton fully three years before
+his father ever laid eyes on her.
+
+Mr. Hampden was riding around his fences one summer afternoon, and was
+making his way along the double division line with a cloud on his brow
+as the double rows recalled the wide breach with his neighbor and former
+friend, and many memories came trooping at the recollection. Passing
+through a small grove which had been allowed to grow up to shut off a
+part of his view of the Drayton place, as he came out into the meadow
+his eye fell on a scene which made him forget the present with all its
+wrongs. On the green turf before him where butter-cups speckled the
+ground with golden blossoms, was a little group of four persons busily
+engaged and wholly oblivious of the differences which divided the
+masters of the two estates. The two mammies were seated side by side on
+a bank, sewing and talking busily--their large aprons and caps making a
+splotch of white against the green willows beyond--and in front of them
+at a little distance a brown-haired boy of five and a yellow-ringleted
+girl of three were at play on the turf, rolling over and over, shouting
+and laughing in their glee.
+
+As the father rested his eyes on the group, the frown which had for a
+second lowered on his brow passed away and he pulled in his horse so as
+not to disturb them. He was about to turn back and leave them in their
+happiness when his black-eyed boy caught sight of him and ran toward
+him, shouting for a ride and calling over his shoulder for "Luthy" to
+"come on too." As there was no escape, Mr. Hampden went forward and,
+ignoring the confusion of the mammies at being caught together, took
+the boy up before him and gave him a ride up and down the meadow. Then
+nothing else would do for Master Oliver but he "must take Luthy up,
+too."
+
+"Perhaps 'Luthy' may be afraid of the horse!" suggested Mr. Hampden with
+a smile.
+
+But far from it. Led by the little boy who had run to fetch her, she
+came to Mr. Hampden as readily as his own son had done, and, though she
+gave him one of those quick searching glances with which childhood reads
+character, having made sure that he was friendly, she was no more afraid
+of his horse than the boy was.
+
+Oliver tried to lift her, and as he tugged at her, the father sat and
+watched with a smile, then leant down and picked her up while the two
+mammies gasped with mingled astonishment and fear.
+
+"I tell you, she's pretty heavy," said the little boy.
+
+"Indeed, she is," said the father, gaily.
+
+Mr. Hampden would have taken his son home with him, but the latter
+declined the invitation. He wished to "stay with Luthy." So, Mr.
+Hampden, having first set the nurses' minds at ease by complimenting the
+little girl in warm terms to her mammy, rode home alone with his face
+set in deep reflection.
+
+The breach between the Hampdens and the Draytons was nearer being
+closed that evening than it had been in three generations, for as Oliver
+Hampden rode up the bridle path across his fields, he heard behind him
+the merry laughter of the two children in the quiet meadow below, and
+old memories of his childhood and college life softened his heart. He
+forgot the double-line fences and determined to go on the morrow to
+Drayton Hall and make up the quarrel. He would offer the first overture
+and a full declaration of regret, and this, he was quite sure, would
+make it up. Once he actually turned his horse around to go straight
+across the fields as he used to do in his boyhood, but there below him
+were the double-line fences stretching brown and clear. No horse could
+get over them, and around the road it was a good five miles, so he
+turned back again and rode home and the chance was lost.
+
+On his arrival he found a summons in a suit which had been instituted
+that day by Wilmer Drayton for damages to his land by reason of his
+turning the water of the creek upon him.
+
+Mr. Hampden did not forbid old Lydia to take his boy down there again,
+but he went to the meadow no more himself, and when he and Wilmer
+Drayton met next, which was not for some time, they barely spoke.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+Young Oliver Hampden grew up clear eyed, strong, and good to look at,
+and became shy where girls were concerned, and most of all appeared to
+be shy with Lucy Drayton. He went to college and as he got his broad
+shoulders and manly stride he got over his shyness with most girls, but
+not with Lucy Drayton. With her, he appeared to have become yet more
+reserved. She had inherited her mother's eyes and beauty, with the
+fairness of a lily; a slim, willowy figure; a straight back and a small
+head set on her shoulders in a way that showed both blood and pride.
+Moreover, she had character enough, as her friends knew: those gray eyes
+that smiled could grow haughty with disdain or flash with indignation,
+and she had taught many an uppish young man to feel her keen irony.
+
+"She gets only her intellect from the Dray-tons; her beauty and her
+sweetness come from her mother," said a lady of the neighborhood to
+Judge Hampden, thinking to please him.
+
+"She gets both her brains and beauty from her mother and only her name
+from her father," snapped the Judge, who had often seen her at church,
+and never without recalling Lucy Fielding as he knew her.
+
+That she and young Oliver Hampden fought goes without saying. But no
+one knew why she was cruelly bitter to a young man who once spoke
+slightingly of Oliver, or why Oliver, who rarely saw her except at
+church, took up a quarrel of hers so furiously.
+
+*****
+
+The outbreak of the war, or rather the conditions preceding that
+outbreak, finally fixed forever the gulf between the two families. Judge
+Hampden was an ardent follower of Calhoun and "stumped" the State in
+behalf of Secession, whereas Major Drayton, as the cloud that had been
+gathering so long rolled nearer, emerged from his seclusion and became
+one of the sternest opponents of a step which he declared was not merely
+revolution, but actual rebellion. So earnest was he, that believing that
+slavery was the ultimate bone of contention, he emancipated his slaves
+on a system which he thought would secure their welfare. Nothing could
+have more deeply stirred Judge Hampden's wrath. He declared that such a
+measure at such a crisis was a blow at every Southern man. He denounced
+Major Drayton as "worse than Garrison, Phillips, and Greeley all put
+together."
+
+They at last met in debate at the Court House. Major Drayton exasperated
+the Judge by his coolness, until the latter lost his temper and the
+crowd laughed.
+
+"I do not get as hot as you do," said the Major, blandly. He looked as
+cool as a cucumber, but his voice betrayed him.
+
+"Oh, yes, you do," snorted the Judge. "A mule gets as hot as a horse,
+but he does not sweat."
+
+This saved him.
+
+There came near being a duel. Everyone expected it. Only the
+interposition of friends prevented their meeting on the field. Only this
+and one other thing.
+
+Though no one in the neighborhood knew it until long afterward--and then
+only in a conjectural way by piecing together fragments of rumors that
+floated about--young Oliver Hampden really prevented the duel. He told
+his father that he loved Lucy Drayton. There was a fierce outbreak on
+the Judge's part.
+
+"Marry that girl!--the daughter of Wilmer Drayton! I will disinherit you
+if you but so much as----"
+
+"Stop!" The younger man faced him and held up his hand with an imperious
+gesture. "Stop! Do not say a word against her or I may never forget it."
+
+The father paused with his sentence unfinished, for his son stood before
+him suddenly revealed in a strength for which the Judge had never given
+him credit, and he recognized in his level eyes, tense features, and the
+sudden set of the square jaw, the Hampden firmness at its best or worst.
+
+"I have nothing to say against her," said the Judge, with a sudden rush
+of recollection of Lucy Fielding. "I have no doubt she is in one way all
+you think her; but she is Wilmer Drayton 's daughter. You will never win
+her."
+
+"I will win her," said the young man.
+
+That night Judge Hampden thought deeply over the matter, and before
+daylight he had despatched a note to Major Drayton making an apology for
+the words he had used.
+
+Both Judge Hampden and his son went into the army immediately on
+the outbreak of hostilities. Major Drayton, who to the last opposed
+Secession bitterly, did not volunteer until after the State had seceded;
+but then he, also, went in, and later was desperately wounded.
+
+A few nights before they went off to the war, Judge Hampden and his son
+rode over together to Major Drayton's to offer the olive-branch of peace
+in shape of young Oliver and all that he possessed.
+
+Judge Hampden did not go all the way, for he had sworn never to put foot
+again in Major Drayton's house so long as he lived, and, moreover, he
+felt that his son would be the better ambassador alone. Accordingly, he
+waited in the darkness at the front gate while his son presented himself
+and laid at Lucy Drayton's feet what the Judge truly believed was more
+than had ever been offered to any other woman. He, however, sent the
+most conciliatory messages to Major Drayton.
+
+"Tell him," he said, "that I will take down my fence and he shall run
+the line to suit himself." He could not have gone further.
+
+The time that passed appeared unending to the Judge waiting in the
+darkness; but in truth it was not long, for the interview was brief. It
+was with Major Drayton and not with his daughter.
+
+Major Drayton declined, both on his daughter's part and on his own, the
+honor which had been proposed.
+
+At this moment the door opened and Lucy herself appeared. She was a
+vision of loveliness. Her face was white, but her eyes were steady. If
+she knew what had occurred, she gave no sign of it in words. She walked
+straight to her father's side and took his hand.
+
+"Lucy," he said, "Mr. Hampden has done us the honor to ask your hand and
+I have declined it."
+
+"Yes, papa." Her eyelids fluttered and her bosom heaved, but she did not
+move, and Lucy was too much a Drayton to unsay what her father had said,
+or to undo what he had done.
+
+Oliver Hampden's eyes did not leave her face. For him the Major had
+disappeared, and he saw only the girl who stood before him with a face
+as white as the dress she wore.
+
+"Lucy, I love you. Will you ever care for me? I am going--going away
+to-morrow, and I shall not see you any more; but I would like to know if
+there is any hope." The young man's voice was strangely calm.
+
+The girl held out her hand to him.
+
+"I will never marry anyone else."
+
+"I will wait for you all my life," said the young man.
+
+Bending low, he kissed her hand in the palm, and with a bow to her
+father, strode from the room.
+
+The Judge, waiting at the gate in the darkness, heard the far-off,
+monotonous galloping of Oliver's horse on the hard plantation road. He
+rode forward to meet him.
+
+"Well!"
+
+It was only a word.
+
+"They declined."
+
+The father scarcely knew his son's voice, it was so wretched.
+
+"What! Who declined? Did you see--"
+
+"Both!"
+
+Out in the darkness Judge Hampden broke forth into such a torrent of
+rage that his son was afraid for his life and had to devote all his
+attention to soothing him. He threatened to ride straight to Drayton's
+house and horsewhip him on the spot. This, however, the young man
+prevented, and the two rode home together in a silence which was
+unbroken until they had dismounted at their own gate and given their
+horses to the waiting servants. As they entered the house, Judge Hampden
+spoke.
+
+"I hope you are satisfied," he said, sternly. "I make but one request
+of you--that from this time forth, you will never mention the name of
+Drayton to me again as long as you live."
+
+"I suppose I should hate her," said the son, bitterly, "but I do not. I
+love her and I believe she cares for me."
+
+His father turned in the door-way and faced him.
+
+"Cares for you! Not so much as she cares for the smallest negro on that
+place. If you ever marry her, I will disinherit you."
+
+"Disinherit me!" burst from the young man. "Do you think I care for this
+place? What has it ever brought to us but unhappiness? I have seen your
+life embittered by a feud with your nearest neighbor, and now it wrecks
+my happiness and robs me of what I would give all the rest of the world
+for."
+
+Judge Hampden looked at him curiously. He started to say, "Before I
+would let her enter this house, I would burn it with my own hands"; but
+as he met his son's steadfast gaze there was that in it which made him
+pause. The Hampden look was in his eyes. The father knew that another
+word might sever them forever.
+
+*****
+
+If ever a man tried to court death, young Oliver Hampden did. But Death,
+that struck many a happier man, passed him by, and he secured instead
+only a reputation for reckless courage and was promoted on the field.
+
+His father rose to the command of a brigade, and Oliver himself became a
+captain.
+
+At last the bullet Oliver had sought found him; but it spared his life
+and only incapacitated him for service.
+
+There were no trained nurses during the war, and Lucy Drayton, like so
+many girls, when the war grew fiercer, went into the hospitals, and by
+devotion supplied their place.
+
+Believing that life was ended for her, she had devoted herself wholly to
+the cause, and self-repression had given to her face the gentleness and
+consecration of a nun.
+
+It was said that once as she bent over a wounded common soldier, he
+returned to consciousness, and after gazing up at her a moment, asked
+vaguely, "Who are you, Miss?"
+
+"I am one of the sisters whom our Father has sent to nurse you and help
+you to get well. But you must not talk."
+
+The wounded man closed his eyes and then opened them with a faint smile.
+
+"All right; just one word. Will you please ask your pa if I may be his
+son-in-law?"
+
+Into the hospital was brought one day a soldier so broken and bandaged
+that no one but Lucy Drayton might have recognized Oliver Hampden.
+
+For a long time his life was despaired of; but he survived.
+
+When consciousness returned to him, the first sound he heard was a
+voice which had often haunted him in his dreams, but which he had never
+expected to hear again.
+
+"Who is that!" he asked, feebly.
+
+"It is I, Oliver--it is Lucy."
+
+The wounded man moved slightly and the girl bending over him caught the
+words, whispered brokenly to himself:
+
+"I am dreaming."
+
+But he was not dreaming.
+
+Lucy Drayton's devotion probably brought him back from death and saved
+his life.
+
+In the hell of that hospital one man at least found the balm for his
+wounds. When he knew how broken he was he offered Lucy her release. Her
+reply was in the words of the English girl to the wounded Napier, "If
+there is enough of you left to hold your soul, I will marry you."
+
+As soon as he was sufficiently convalescent, they were married.
+
+Lucy insisted that General Hampden should be informed, but the young
+man knew his father's bitterness, and refused. He relied on securing
+his consent later, and Lucy, fearing for her patient's life, and having
+secured her own father's consent, yielded.
+
+It was a mistake.
+
+Oliver Hampden misjudged the depth of his father's feeling, and General
+Hampden was mortally offended by his having married without informing
+him.
+
+Oliver adored his father and he sent him a present in token of his
+desire for forgiveness; but the General had been struck deeply. The
+present was returned. He wrote: "I want obedience; not sacrifice."
+
+Confident of his wife's ability to overcome any obstacle, the young
+man bided his time. His wounds, however, and his breach with his father
+affected his health so much that he went with his wife to the far South,
+where Major Drayton, now a colonel, had a remnant of what had once been
+a fine property. Here, for a time, amid the live-oaks and magnolias he
+appeared to improve. But his father's obdurate refusal to forgive his
+disobedience preyed on his health, and just after the war closed, he
+died a few months before his son was born.
+
+In his last days he dwelt much on his father. He made excuses for him,
+over which his wife simply tightened her lips, while her gray eyes
+burned with deep resentment.
+
+"He was brought up that way. He cannot help it. He never had anyone to
+gainsay him. Do not be hard on him. And if he ever sues for pardon, be
+merciful to him for my sake."
+
+His end came too suddenly for his wife to notify his father in advance,
+even if she would have done so; for he had been fading gradually and at
+the last the flame had flared up a little.
+
+Lucy Hampden was too upright a woman not to do what she believed her
+duty, however contrary to her feelings it might be. So, although it was
+a bitter thing to her, she wrote to inform General Hampden of his son's
+death.
+
+It happened by one of the malign chances of fortune that this letter
+never reached its destination, General Hampden did not learn of Oliver's
+death until some weeks later, when he heard of it by accident. It was a
+terrible blow to him, for time was softening the asperity of his temper,
+and he had just made up his mind to make friends with his son. He
+attributed the failure to inform him of Oliver's illness and death to
+the malignity of his wife.
+
+Thus it happened that when her son was born, Lucy Hampden made no
+announcement of his birth to the General, and he remained in ignorance
+of it.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+The war closed, and about the only thing that appeared to remain
+unchanged was the relation between General Hampden and Colonel Drayton.
+Everything else underwent a change, for war eats up a land.
+
+General Hampden, soured and embittered by his domestic troubles, but
+stern in his resolve and vigorous in his intellect, was driven by
+his loneliness to adapt himself to the new conditions. He applied his
+unabated energies to building up a new fortune. His decision, his force,
+and his ability soon placed him at the head of one of the earliest new
+enterprises in the State--a broken-down railway--which he re-organized
+and brought to a full measure of success.
+
+Colonel Drayton, on the other hand, broken in body and in fortunes,
+found it impossible to adapt himself to the new conditions. He possessed
+none of the practical qualities of General Hampden. With a mind richly
+stored with the wisdom of others, he had the temperament of a dreamer
+and poet and was unable to apply it to any practical end. As shy and
+reserved as his neighbor was bold and aggressive, he lived in his books
+and had never been what is known as a successful man. Even before the
+war he had not been able to hold his own. The exactions of hospitality
+and of what he deemed his obligations to others had consumed a
+considerable part of the handsome estate he had inherited, and his
+plantation was mortgaged. What had been thus begun, the war had
+completed.
+
+When his plantation was sold, his old neighbor and enemy bought it, and
+the Colonel had the mortification of knowing that Drayton Hall was at
+last in the hands of a Hampden. What he did not know was that General
+Hampden, true to his vow, never put his foot on the plantation except
+to ride down the road and see that all his orders for its proper
+cultivation were carried out.
+
+Colonel Drayton tried teaching school, but it appeared that everyone
+else was teaching at that time, and after attempting it for a year
+or two, he gave it up and confined himself to writing philosophical
+treatises for the press, which were as much out of date as the Latin and
+Greek names which he signed to them. As these contributions were usually
+returned, he finally devoted himself to writing agricultural essays for
+an agricultural paper, in which he met with more success than he had
+done when he was applying his principles himself.
+
+"If farms were made of paper he 'd beat Cincinnatus," said the General.
+
+Lucy Hampden, thrown on her own resources, in the town in the South in
+which her husband had died, had for some time been supporting herself
+and her child by teaching. She had long urged her father to come to
+them, but he had always declined, maintaining that a man was himself
+only in the country, and in town was merely a unit. When, however, the
+plantation was sold and his daughter wrote for him, he went to her, and
+the first time that the little boy was put in his arms, both he and
+she knew that he would never go away again. That evening as they sat
+together in the fading light on the veranda of the little house which
+Lucy had taken, amid the clambering roses and jasmine, the old fellow
+said, "I used to think that I ought to have been killed in battle at the
+head of my men when I was shot, but perhaps, I may have been saved to
+bring up this young man."
+
+His daughter's smile, as she leant over and kissed him, showed very
+clearly what she thought of it, and before a week was out, the Colonel
+felt that he was not only still of use, but was, perhaps, the most
+necessary, and, with one exception, the most important member of the
+family.
+
+Nevertheless, there were hard times before them. The Colonel was too
+old-fashioned; too slow for the new movement of life, and just enough
+behind the times to be always expecting to succeed and always failing.
+
+But where the father failed the daughter succeeded. She soon came to be
+known as one of the efficient women of the community, as her father, who
+was now spoken of as "the old Colonel," came to be recognized as one
+of the picturesque figures of that period. He was always thought of in
+connection with the boy. The two were hardly ever apart, and they were
+soon known throughout the town--the tall, thin old gentleman who looked
+out on the world with his mild blue eyes and kindly face, and the
+chubby, red-cheeked, black-eyed boy, whose tongue was always prattling,
+and who looked out with his bright eyes on all the curious things which,
+common-place to the world, are so wonderful to a boy.
+
+The friendship between an old man and a little child is always touching;
+they grow nearer together day by day, and the old Colonel and little
+Oliver soon appeared to understand each other, and to be as dependent on
+each other as if they had both been of the same age. The child, somewhat
+reserved with others, was bold enough with his grandfather. They held
+long discussions together over things that interested the boy; went
+sight-seeing in company to where the water ran over an old mill-wheel,
+or where a hen and her chickens lived in a neighbor's yard, or a litter
+of puppies gamboled under an outhouse, or a bird had her nest and little
+ones in a jasmine in an old garden, and Colonel Drayton told the boy
+wonderful stories of the world which was as unknown to him as the
+present world was to the Colonel.
+
+So matters went, until the Christmas when the boy was seven years old.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+Meantime, General Hampden was facing a new foe. His health had suddenly
+given way, and he was in danger of becoming blind. His doctor had given
+him his orders--orders which possibly he might not have taken had not
+the spectre of a lonely old man in total darkness begun to haunt him. He
+had been "working too hard," the doctor told him.
+
+"Working hard! Of course, I have been working hard!" snapped the
+General, fiercely, with his black eyes glowering. "What else have I to
+do but work? I shall always work hard."
+
+The doctor knew something of the General 's trouble. He had been a
+surgeon in the hospital where young Oliver Hampden had been when Lucy
+Drayton found him.
+
+"You must stop," he said, quietly. "You will not last long unless you
+do."
+
+"How long!" demanded the General, quite calmly.
+
+"Oh! I cannot say that. Perhaps, a year--perhaps, less. You have burned
+your candle too fast." He glanced at the other's unmoved face. "You need
+change. You ought to go South this winter."
+
+"I should only change my skies and not my thoughts," said the General,
+his memory swinging back to the past.
+
+The doctor gazed at him curiously. "What is the use of putting out your
+eyes and working yourself to death when you have everything that money
+can give?"
+
+"I have nothing! I work to forget that," snarled the General, fiercely.
+
+The doctor remained silent.
+
+The General thought over the doctor's advice and finally followed it,
+though not for the reason the physician supposed.
+
+Something led him to select the place where his son had gone and where
+his body lay amid the magnolias. If he was going to die, he would carry
+out a plan which he had formed in the lonely hours when he lay awake
+between the strokes of the clock. He would go and see that his son's
+grave was cared for, and if he could, would bring him back home at last.
+Doubtless, "that woman's" consent could be bought. She had possibly
+married again. He hoped she had.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+Christmas is always the saddest of seasons to a lonely man, and General
+Hampden, when he landed in that old Southern town on the afternoon of
+Christmas Eve, would not have been lonelier in a desert. The signs of
+Christmas preparation and the sounds of Christmas cheer but made him
+lonelier. For years, flying from the Furies, he had immersed himself
+in work and so, in part, had forgotten his troubles; but the removal of
+this prop let him fall flat to the earth.
+
+As soon as the old fellow had gotten settled in his room at the hotel he
+paid a visit to his son's grave, piloted to the cemetery by a friendly
+and garrulous old negro hackman, who talked much about Christmas and
+"the holidays."
+
+"Yes, suh, dat he had known Cap'n Ham'n. He used to drive him out long
+as he could drive out. He had been at his funeral. He knew Mrs. Ham'n,
+too. She sutney is a fine lady," he wound up in sincere eulogy.
+
+The General gave a grunt.
+
+He was nearer to his son than he had ever been since the day he last saw
+him in all the pride and beauty of a gallant young soldier.
+
+The grave, at least, was not neglected. It was marked by a modest cross,
+on which was the Hampden coat-of-arms and the motto, "_Loyal_," and it
+was banked in fresh evergreens, and some flowers had been placed on it
+only that afternoon. It set the General to thinking.
+
+When he returned to his hotel, he found the loneliness unbearable. His
+visit to his son's grave had opened the old wound and awakened all
+his memories. He knew now that he had ruined his life. The sooner the
+doctor's forecast came true, the better. He had no care to live longer.
+He would return to work and die in harness.
+
+He sent his servant to the office and arranged for his car to be put on
+the first train next morning.
+
+Then, to escape from his thoughts, he strolled out in the street where
+the shopping crowds streamed along, old and young, poor and well-to-do,
+their arms full of bundles, their faces eager, and their eyes alight.
+
+General Hampden seemed to himself to be walking among ghosts.
+
+As he stalked on, bitter and lonely, he was suddenly run into by a
+very little boy, in whose small arms was so big a bundle that he could
+scarcely see over it. The shock of the collision knocked the little
+fellow down, sitting flat on the pavement, still clutching his bundle.
+But his face after the first shadow of surprise lit up again.
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir--that was my fault," he said, with so quaint an
+imitation of an old person that the General could not help smiling. With
+a cheery laugh, he tried to rise to his feet, but the bundle was too
+heavy, and he would not let it go.
+
+The General bent over him and, with an apology, set him on his feet.
+
+"I beg _your_ pardon, sir. That was _my_ fault. That is a pretty big
+bundle you have."
+
+"Yes, sir; and I tell you, it is pretty heavy, too," the manikin said,
+proudly. "It 's a Christmas gift." He started on, and the General turned
+with him.
+
+"A Christmas gift! It must be a fine one. Who gave it to you?" demanded
+the General, with a smile at the little fellow's confidence.
+
+"It is a fine one! Did n't anybody give it to me. We 're giving it to
+somebody."
+
+"Oh! You are? To whom?"
+
+"I 'll tell you; but you must promise not to tell."
+
+"I promise I will not tell a soul. I cross my heart."
+
+He made a sign as he remembered he used to do in his boyhood.
+
+The boy looked up at him doubtfully with a shade of disapproval.
+
+"My grandfather says that you must not cross your heart--'t a
+gentleman's word is enough," he said, quaintly.
+
+"Oh, he does? Well, I give my word."
+
+"Well--" He glanced around to see that no one was listening, and
+sidling a little nearer, lowered his voice: "It 's a great-coat for
+grandfather!"
+
+"A great-coat! That's famous!" exclaimed the General.
+
+"Yes, is n't it? You see--he 's mighty old and he 's got a bad cough--he
+caught it in the army, and I have to take care of him. Don't you think
+that's right?"
+
+"Of course, I do," said the General, envying one grandfather.
+
+"That's what I tell him. So mamma and I have bought this for him."
+
+"He must be a proud grandfather," said the General, with envy biting
+deeper at his heart.
+
+"I have another grandfather; but I don't like _him_," continued the
+little fellow.
+
+"I am sorry for that," said the General, sincerely. "Why is that?"
+
+"He was mean to my father, and he is mean to my mother." His voice
+conveyed a sudden bitterness.
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"Mamma says I must like him; but I do not. I just can't. You would not
+like a man who was mean to your mother, would you!"
+
+"I would not," declared the General, truthfully.
+
+"And I am not going to like him," asserted the boy, with firmness.
+
+The General suddenly pitied one grandfather.
+
+They had come to a well-lighted corner, and as the boy lifted his face,
+the light fell on it. Something about the bright, sturdy countenance
+with its frank, dark eyes and brown hair suddenly sent the General back
+thirty years to a strip of meadow on which two children were playing:
+one a dark-eyed boy as sturdy as this one. It was like an arrow in his
+heart. "With a gasp he came back to the present. His thoughts pursued
+him even here.
+
+"What is your name?" he asked as he was feeling in his pocket for a
+coin.
+
+"Oliver Drayton Hampden, sir."
+
+The words were perfectly clear.
+
+The General's heart stopped beating and then gave a bound. The skies
+suddenly opened for him and then shut up again.
+
+His exclamation brought the child to a stop and he glanced up at him in
+vague wonder. The General stooped and gazed at him searchingly, almost
+fiercely. The next second he had pounced upon him and lifted him in his
+arms while the bundle fell to the pavement.
+
+"My boy! I am your grandfather," he cried, kissing him violently. "I am
+your grandfather Hampden."
+
+The child was lost in amazement for a moment, and then, putting his
+hands against the General's face, he pushed him slowly away.
+
+"Put me down, please," he said, with that gravity which in a child means
+so much.
+
+General Hampden set him down on the pavement. The boy looked at him
+searchingly for a second, and then turned in silence and lifted his
+bundle. The General's face wore a puzzled look--he had solved many
+problems, but he had never had one more difficult than this. His heart
+yearned toward the child, and he knew that on his own wisdom at that
+moment might depend his future happiness. On his next words might hang
+for him life or death. The expression on the boy's face, and the very
+set of his little back as he sturdily tugged at his burden, recalled his
+father, and with it the General recognized the obstinacy which he knew
+lurked in the Hampden blood, which had once been his pride.
+
+"Oliver," he said, gravely, leaning down over the boy and putting his
+hand on him gently, "there has been a great mistake. I am going home
+with you to your mother and tell her so. I want to see her and your
+grandfather, and I think I can explain everything."
+
+The child turned and gazed at him seriously, and then his face relaxed.
+He recognized his deep sincerity.
+
+"All right." He turned and walked down the street, bending under his
+burden. The General offered to carry it for him, but he declined.
+
+"I can carry it," was the only answer he made except once when, as the
+General rather insisted, he said firmly, "I want to carry it myself,"
+and tottered on.
+
+A silence fell on them for a moment. A young man passing them spoke to
+the child cheerily.
+
+"Hullo, Oliver! A Christmas present?--That 's a great boy," he said, in
+sheer friendliness to the General, and passed on. The boy was evidently
+well known.
+
+Oliver nodded; then feeling that some civility was due on his part to
+his companion, he said briefly, "That 's a friend of mine."
+
+"Evidently."
+
+The General, even in his perplexity, smiled at the quaint way the child
+imitated the manners of older men.
+
+Just then they came to a little gate and the boy's manner changed.
+
+"If you will wait, I will run around and put my bundle down. I am afraid
+my grandfather might see it." He lowered his voice for the first time
+since the General had introduced himself. Then he disappeared around the
+house.
+
+Oliver, having slipped in at the back door and carefully reconnoitred
+the premises, tripped up stairs with his bundle to his mother's room. He
+was so excited over his present that he failed to observe her confusion
+at his sudden entrance, or her hasty hiding away of something on
+which she was working. Colonel Drayton was not the only member of that
+household that Christmas who was to receive a great-coat.
+
+When Oliver had untied his bundle, nothing would serve but he must put
+on the coat to show his mother how his grandfather would look in it. As
+even with the sleeves rolled up and with his arms held out to keep it
+from falling off him, the tails dragged for some distance on the
+floor and only the top of his head was visible above the collar, the
+resemblance was possibly not wholly exact. But it appeared to satisfy
+the boy. He was showing how his grandfather walked, when he suddenly
+recalled his new acquaintance.
+
+"I met my other grandfather, on the street, mamma, and he came home with
+me." He spoke quite naturally.
+
+"Met your other grandfather!" Mrs. Hampden looked mystified.
+
+"He says he is my grandfather, and he looks like papa. I reckon he 's my
+other grandfather. He ran against me in the street and knocked me down,
+and then came home with me."
+
+"Came home with you!" repeated Mrs. Hampden, still in a maze, and with a
+vague trouble dawning in her face.
+
+"Yes 'm."
+
+Oliver went over the meeting again.
+
+His mother's face meantime showed the tumult of emotion that was
+sweeping over her. Why had General Hampden come? What had he come for?
+To try and take her boy from her?
+
+At the thought her face and form took on something of the lioness that
+guards her whelp. Then as the little boy repeated what his grandfather
+had said of his reason for coming home with him, her face softened
+again. She heard a voice saying, "If he ever sues for pardon, be
+merciful to him for my sake." She remembered what day it was: the Eve
+of the day of Peace and Good-will toward all men. He must have come for
+Peace, and Peace it should be. She would not bring up her boy under the
+shadow of that feud which had blighted both sides of his race so long.
+
+"Oliver," she said, "you must go down and let him in. Say I will come
+down."
+
+"I will not like him," said the child, his eyes on her face.
+
+"Oh, yes, you must; he is your grandfather."
+
+"You do not love him, and I will not." The sturdy little figure and
+the serious face with the chin already firm for such a child, the dark,
+grave eyes and the determined speech, were so like his father that the
+widow gave half a cry.
+
+"You must, my son, and I will try. Your father would wish it."
+
+The little boy pondered for a second.
+
+"Very well, mamma; but he must be good to you."
+
+As the little fellow left the room, the widow threw herself on her
+knees.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+As General Hampden stood and waited in the dusk, he felt that his
+whole life and future depended on the issue of the next few moments.
+He determined to take matters in his own hand. Every moment might tell
+against him and might decide his fate. So, without waiting longer, he
+rang the bell. A minute later he heard steps within, and the door was
+opened by one who he knew must be Colonel Drayton, though had he met
+him elsewhere he should not have recognized the white hair and the
+thin, bent form as that of his old friend and enemy. Colonel Drayton had
+evidently not seen his grandson yet, for he spoke as to a stranger.
+
+"Will you not walk in, sir!" he said cordially. "I was expecting my
+little grandson who went out a short while ago." He peered up the
+street. "Did you wish to see my daughter? You will find us in a little
+confusion--Christinas time is always a busy season with us on account of
+our young man: my grandson." He lingered with pride over the words.
+
+The General stepped into the light.
+
+"Wilmer Drayton! Don't you know me? I am Oliver Hampden, and I have come
+to apologize to you for all I have done which has offended you, and to
+ask you to be friends with me." He held out his hand.
+
+The old Colonel stepped back, and under the shock of surprise paused for
+a moment.
+
+"Oliver Hampden!" The next moment he stepped forward and took his hand.
+
+"Come in, Oliver," he said, gently, and putting his other arm around the
+General's shoulder, he handed him into the little cosey, fire-lighted
+room as though nothing had happened since he had done the same the last
+time fifty years before.
+
+At this moment the door opened and the little boy entered with mingled
+mysteriousness and importance. Seeing the two gentlemen standing
+together, he paused with a mystified look in his wide-open eyes, trying
+to comprehend the situation.
+
+"Oliver, come here," said the Colonel, quietly. "This is your other
+grandfather."
+
+The boy came forward, and, wheeling, stood close beside the Colonel,
+facing General Hampden, like a soldier dressing by his file-closer.
+
+"_You_ are my grandfather," he said, glancing up at the Colonel.
+
+The Colonel's eyes glowed with a soft light.
+
+"Yes, my boy; and so is he. We are friends again, and you must love
+him--just as you do me."
+
+"I will not love him as much," was the sturdy answer.
+
+It was the General who spoke next.
+
+"That is right, my boy. All I ask is that you will love me some." He was
+pleading with this young commissioner.
+
+"I will, if you are good to my mother." His eyes were fastened on him
+without a tremor, and the General's deep-set eyes began to glow with
+hope.
+
+"That 's a bargain," he said holding out his hand. The boy took it
+gravely.
+
+Just then the door opened and Lucy Hampden entered. Her face was calm
+and her form was straight. Her eyes, deep and burning, showed that she
+was prepared either for peace or war. It was well for the General that
+he had chosen peace. Better otherwise had he charged once more the
+deadliest battle line he had ever faced. For a moment the General saw
+only Lucy Fielding.
+
+With a woman's instinct the young widow comprehended at the first glance
+what had taken place, and although her face was white, her eyes softened
+as she advanced. The General had turned and faced her. He could not
+utter a word, but the boy sprang towards her and, wheeling, stood by her
+side.
+
+Taking his hand, she led him forward.
+
+"Oliver," she said, gently, "this is your father's father." Then to the
+General, in a dead silence--"Father, this is your son's son."
+
+The General clasped them both in his arms.
+
+"Forgive me. Forgive me. I have prayed for _his_ forgiveness, for I can
+never forgive myself."
+
+"He forgave you," said the widow, simply.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+No young king was ever put to bed with more ceremony or more devotion
+than was that little boy that night. Two old gentlemen were his grooms
+of the bedchamber and saw him to bed together.
+
+The talk was all of Christmas, and the General envied the ease with
+which the other grandfather carried on the conversation. But when the
+boy, having kissed his grandfather, said of his own accord, "Now, I must
+kiss my _other_ grandfather," he envied no man on earth.
+
+The next morning when Oliver Hampden, before the first peep of light,
+waked in his little bed, which stood at the foot of his grandfather's
+bed in the tiny room which they occupied together, and standing up,
+peeped over the footboard to catch his grandfather's "Christmas gift,"
+he was surprised to find that the bed was empty and undisturbed. Then
+having tiptoed in and caught his mother, he stole down the stairs and
+softly opened the sitting-room door where he heard the murmur of voices.
+The fire was burning dim, and on either side sat the two old gentlemen
+in their easy chairs, talking amicably and earnestly as they had been
+talking when he kissed them "good-night." Neither one had made the
+suggestion that it was bedtime; but when at the first break of day
+the rosy boy in his night-clothes burst in upon them with his shout of
+"Christmas gift," and his ringing laughter, they both knew that the long
+feud was at last ended, and peace was established forever.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+
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+eBook #23511 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23511)
diff --git a/old/23511-h.htm.2021-01-25 b/old/23511-h.htm.2021-01-25
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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
+
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+   PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
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+
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <title>
+      The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve">
+
+    body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify}
+    P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; }
+    H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; }
+    hr  { width: 50%; text-align: center;}
+    .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; }
+    blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .mynote    {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;}
+    .toc       { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+    .toc2      { margin-left: 20%;}
+    div.fig    { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; }
+    div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; }
+    .figleft   {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;}
+    .figright  {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;}
+    .pagenum   {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal;
+               margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%;
+               text-align: right;}
+    pre        { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;}
+
+</style>
+  </head>
+  <body>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Peace, by Thomas Nelson Page
+
+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: The Christmas Peace
+       1908
+
+Author: Thomas Nelson Page
+
+Release Date: November 16, 2007 [EBook #23511]
+Last Updated: March 8, 2018
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS PEACE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+    <div style="height: 8em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h1>
+      THE CHRISTMAS PEACE
+    </h1>
+    <h2>
+      By Thomas Nelson Page <br /> <br /> Charles Scribner's Sons New York, 1908
+      <br /><br /> Copyright, 1891, 1904, 1906
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <h2>
+      Contents
+    </h2>
+    <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
+      <tr>
+        <td>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> I </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> II </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> III </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> IV </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> V </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0006"> VI </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0007"> VII </a>
+          </p>
+          <p class="toc">
+            <a href="#link2H_4_0008"> VIII </a>
+          </p>
+        </td>
+      </tr>
+    </table>
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br />
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      I
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      They had lived within a mile of each other for fifty-odd years, old Judge
+      Hampden and old Colonel Drayton; that is, all their lives, for they had
+      been born on adjoining plantations within a month of each other. But
+      though they had thus lived and were accounted generally good men and good
+      neighbors, to each other they had never been neighbors any more than the
+      Lévite was neighbor to him who went down to Jericho.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Kindly to everyone else and ready to do their part by all other men, the
+      Draytons and the Hampdens, whenever they met each other, always passed by
+      on the other side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was an old story&mdash;the feud between the families&mdash;and,
+      perhaps, no one now knew just how the trouble started. They had certainly
+      been on opposite sides ever since they established themselves in early
+      Colonial days on opposite hills in the old county from which the two
+      mansions looked at each other across the stream like hostile forts. The
+      earliest records of the county were those of a dispute between one Colonel
+      Drayton and one Captain Hampden, growing out of some claim to land; but in
+      which the chief bitterness appeared to have been injected by Captain
+      Hampden's having claimed precedence over Colonel Drayton on the ground
+      that his title of &ldquo;Captain&rdquo; was superior to Colonel Drayton's title,
+      because he had held a real commission and had fought for it, whereas the
+      Colonel's title was simply honorary and &ldquo;Ye sayd Collonel had never
+      smelled enough powder to kill a tom-cat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      However this might be and there was nothing in the records to show how
+      this contention was adjudicated&mdash;in the time of Major Wil-mer Drayton
+      and Judge Oliver Hampden, the breach between the two families had been
+      transmitted from father to son for several generations and showed no signs
+      of abatement. Other neighborhood families intermarried, but not the
+      Drayton-Hall and the Hampden-Hill families, and in time it came to be an
+      accepted tradition that a Drayton and a Hampden would not mingle any more
+      than would fire and water.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Hampdens were dark and stout, hot-blooded, fierce, and impetuous. They
+      were apparently vigorous; but many of them died young. The Draytons, on
+      the other hand, were slender and fair, and usually lived to a round old
+      age; a fact of which they were wont to boast in contrast with the briefer
+      span of the Hampdens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Their tempers burn them out,&rdquo; the Major used to say of the Hampdens.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Moreover, the Draytons were generally cool-headed, deliberate, and
+      self-contained. Thus, the Draytons had mainly prospered throughout the
+      years.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Even the winding creek which ran down through the strip of meadow was a
+      fruitful cause of dissension and litigation between the families. &ldquo;It is
+      as ungovernable as a Hampden's temper, sir,&rdquo; once said Major Drayton, On
+      the mere pretext of a thunder-storm, it would burst forth from its banks,
+      tear the fences to pieces and even change its course, cutting a new
+      channel, now to one side and now to the other through the soft and loamy
+      soil. A lawsuit arose over the matter, in which the costs alone amounted
+      to far more than the value of the whole land involved; but no one doubted
+      that old Major Drayton spoke the truth when he declared that his father
+      would rather have lost his entire estate with all its rolling hills and
+      extensive forests than the acre or two which was finally awarded to Judge
+      Hampden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As neither owner would join the other even in keeping up a partition
+      fence, there were two fences run within three feet of each other along the
+      entire boundary line between the two places. With these double fences,
+      there could hardly be peace between the two families; for neither owner
+      ever saw the two lines running side by side without at once being reminded
+      of his neighbor's obstinacy and&mdash;of his own.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus, in my time the quarrel between the Drayton-Hall people and the
+      Hampden-Hill folks was a factor in every neighborhood problem or
+      proposition from a &ldquo;church dressing&rdquo; or a &ldquo;sewing society meeting&rdquo; to a
+      political campaign. It had to be considered in every invitation and in
+      every discussion.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It is not meant that there was no intercourse between the two families.
+      Major Drayton and Judge Hampden regularly paid each other a visit every
+      year&mdash;and oftener when there was serious illness in one house or the
+      other&mdash;but even on such occasions their differences were liable to
+      crop out. One of them held an opinion that when one gentleman was spending
+      the night in another gentleman's house, it was the part of the host to
+      indicate when bedtime had arrived; whilst the other maintained with equal
+      firmness the doctrine that no gentleman could inform his guest that he was
+      fatigued: that this duty devolved upon the guest himself. This difference
+      of opinion worked comfortably enough on both sides until an occasion when
+      Judge Hampden, who held the former view, was spending the night at Colonel
+      Drayton's. When bedtime arrived, the rest of the household retired
+      quietly, leaving the two gentlemen conversing, and when the servants
+      appeared in the morning to open the blinds and light the fires, the two
+      gentlemen were still found seated opposite each other conversing together
+      quite as if it were the ordinary thing to sit up and talk all night long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On another occasion, it is said that Major Drayton, hearing of his
+      neighbor's serious illness, rode over to make inquiry about him, and owing
+      to a slip of the tongue, asked in a voice of deepest sympathy, &ldquo;Any hopes
+      of the old gentleman dying!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      II
+    </h2>
+    <h3>
+      Yet, they had once been friends.
+    </h3>
+    <p>
+      Before Wilmer Drayton and Oliver Hampden were old enough to understand
+      that by all the laws of heredity and custom they should be enemies, they
+      had learned to like each other. When they were only a few years old, the
+      little creek winding between the two plantations afforded in its strip of
+      meadow a delightful neutral territory where the two boys could enjoy
+      themselves together, safe from the interference of their grave seniors;
+      wading, sailing mimic fleets upon its uncertain currents, fishing
+      together, or bathing in the deepest pools it offered in its winding
+      course.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It looked, indeed, for a time as if in the fellowship of these two lads
+      the long-standing feud of the Hampdens and Draytons might be ended, at
+      last. They went to school together at the academy, where their only
+      contests were a generous rivalry. At college they were known as Damon and
+      Pythias, and though a natural rivalry, which might in any event have
+      existed between them, developed over the highest prize of the institution&mdash;the
+      debater's medal&mdash;the generosity of youth saved them. It was even said
+      that young Drayton, who for some time had apparently been certain of
+      winning, had generously retired in order to defeat a third candidate and
+      throw the prize to Oliver Hampden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They came home and both went to the Bar, but with different results. Young
+      Drayton was learned and unpractical. Oliver Hampden was clever, able, and
+      successful, and soon had a thriving practice; while his neighbor's
+      learning was hardly known outside the circle of the Bar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Disappointed in his ambition, Drayton shortly retired from the Bar and
+      lived the life of a country gentleman, while his former friend rapidly
+      rose to be the head of the Bar.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old friendship might have disappeared in any event, but a new cause
+      arose which was certain to end it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Fielding was, perhaps, the prettiest girl in all that region. Oliver
+      Hampden had always been in love with her. However, Fortune, ever
+      capricious, favored Wilmer Drayton, who entered the lists when it looked
+      as if Miss Lucy were almost certain to marry her old lover. It appeared
+      that Mr. Drayton's indifference had counted for more than the other's
+      devotion. He carried off the prize with a dash.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      If Oliver Hampden, however, was severely stricken by his disappointment,
+      he masked it well; for he married not long afterward, and though some said
+      it was from pique, there was no more happily married pair in all the
+      county.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A year later a new Oliver came to keep up the name and tenets of the
+      Hampdens. Oliver Hampden, now the head of the Bar, would not have envied
+      any man on earth had not his wife died a few years later and left him
+      alone with his boy in his big house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Drayton was born two years after young Oliver Hampden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The mammies of the two children, as the mammies of their parents had done
+      before them, used to talk them over on the edge of the shaded meadow which
+      divided the places, and thus young Oliver Hampden, a lusty boy of five,
+      came to know little Lucy Drayton fully three years before his father ever
+      laid eyes on her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Hampden was riding around his fences one summer afternoon, and was
+      making his way along the double division line with a cloud on his brow as
+      the double rows recalled the wide breach with his neighbor and former
+      friend, and many memories came trooping at the recollection. Passing
+      through a small grove which had been allowed to grow up to shut off a part
+      of his view of the Drayton place, as he came out into the meadow his eye
+      fell on a scene which made him forget the present with all its wrongs. On
+      the green turf before him where butter-cups speckled the ground with
+      golden blossoms, was a little group of four persons busily engaged and
+      wholly oblivious of the differences which divided the masters of the two
+      estates. The two mammies were seated side by side on a bank, sewing and
+      talking busily&mdash;their large aprons and caps making a splotch of white
+      against the green willows beyond&mdash;and in front of them at a little
+      distance a brown-haired boy of five and a yellow-ringleted girl of three
+      were at play on the turf, rolling over and over, shouting and laughing in
+      their glee.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As the father rested his eyes on the group, the frown which had for a
+      second lowered on his brow passed away and he pulled in his horse so as
+      not to disturb them. He was about to turn back and leave them in their
+      happiness when his black-eyed boy caught sight of him and ran toward him,
+      shouting for a ride and calling over his shoulder for &ldquo;Luthy&rdquo; to &ldquo;come on
+      too.&rdquo; As there was no escape, Mr. Hampden went forward and, ignoring the
+      confusion of the mammies at being caught together, took the boy up before
+      him and gave him a ride up and down the meadow. Then nothing else would do
+      for Master Oliver but he &ldquo;must take Luthy up, too.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Perhaps 'Luthy' may be afraid of the horse!&rdquo; suggested Mr. Hampden with a
+      smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But far from it. Led by the little boy who had run to fetch her, she came
+      to Mr. Hampden as readily as his own son had done, and, though she gave
+      him one of those quick searching glances with which childhood reads
+      character, having made sure that he was friendly, she was no more afraid
+      of his horse than the boy was.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver tried to lift her, and as he tugged at her, the father sat and
+      watched with a smile, then leant down and picked her up while the two
+      mammies gasped with mingled astonishment and fear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I tell you, she's pretty heavy,&rdquo; said the little boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Indeed, she is,&rdquo; said the father, gaily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Hampden would have taken his son home with him, but the latter
+      declined the invitation. He wished to &ldquo;stay with Luthy.&rdquo; So, Mr. Hampden,
+      having first set the nurses' minds at ease by complimenting the little
+      girl in warm terms to her mammy, rode home alone with his face set in deep
+      reflection.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The breach between the Hampdens and the Draytons was nearer being closed
+      that evening than it had been in three generations, for as Oliver Hampden
+      rode up the bridle path across his fields, he heard behind him the merry
+      laughter of the two children in the quiet meadow below, and old memories
+      of his childhood and college life softened his heart. He forgot the
+      double-line fences and determined to go on the morrow to Drayton Hall and
+      make up the quarrel. He would offer the first overture and a full
+      declaration of regret, and this, he was quite sure, would make it up. Once
+      he actually turned his horse around to go straight across the fields as he
+      used to do in his boyhood, but there below him were the double-line fences
+      stretching brown and clear. No horse could get over them, and around the
+      road it was a good five miles, so he turned back again and rode home and
+      the chance was lost.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      On his arrival he found a summons in a suit which had been instituted that
+      day by Wilmer Drayton for damages to his land by reason of his turning the
+      water of the creek upon him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Mr. Hampden did not forbid old Lydia to take his boy down there again, but
+      he went to the meadow no more himself, and when he and Wilmer Drayton met
+      next, which was not for some time, they barely spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      III
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Young Oliver Hampden grew up clear eyed, strong, and good to look at, and
+      became shy where girls were concerned, and most of all appeared to be shy
+      with Lucy Drayton. He went to college and as he got his broad shoulders
+      and manly stride he got over his shyness with most girls, but not with
+      Lucy Drayton. With her, he appeared to have become yet more reserved. She
+      had inherited her mother's eyes and beauty, with the fairness of a lily; a
+      slim, willowy figure; a straight back and a small head set on her
+      shoulders in a way that showed both blood and pride. Moreover, she had
+      character enough, as her friends knew: those gray eyes that smiled could
+      grow haughty with disdain or flash with indignation, and she had taught
+      many an uppish young man to feel her keen irony.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She gets only her intellect from the Dray-tons; her beauty and her
+      sweetness come from her mother,&rdquo; said a lady of the neighborhood to Judge
+      Hampden, thinking to please him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;She gets both her brains and beauty from her mother and only her name
+      from her father,&rdquo; snapped the Judge, who had often seen her at church, and
+      never without recalling Lucy Fielding as he knew her.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That she and young Oliver Hampden fought goes without saying. But no one
+      knew why she was cruelly bitter to a young man who once spoke slightingly
+      of Oliver, or why Oliver, who rarely saw her except at church, took up a
+      quarrel of hers so furiously.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      The outbreak of the war, or rather the conditions preceding that outbreak,
+      finally fixed forever the gulf between the two families. Judge Hampden was
+      an ardent follower of Calhoun and &ldquo;stumped&rdquo; the State in behalf of
+      Secession, whereas Major Drayton, as the cloud that had been gathering so
+      long rolled nearer, emerged from his seclusion and became one of the
+      sternest opponents of a step which he declared was not merely revolution,
+      but actual rebellion. So earnest was he, that believing that slavery was
+      the ultimate bone of contention, he emancipated his slaves on a system
+      which he thought would secure their welfare. Nothing could have more
+      deeply stirred Judge Hampden's wrath. He declared that such a measure at
+      such a crisis was a blow at every Southern man. He denounced Major Drayton
+      as &ldquo;worse than Garrison, Phillips, and Greeley all put together.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      They at last met in debate at the Court House. Major Drayton exasperated
+      the Judge by his coolness, until the latter lost his temper and the crowd
+      laughed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I do not get as hot as you do,&rdquo; said the Major, blandly. He looked as
+      cool as a cucumber, but his voice betrayed him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, you do,&rdquo; snorted the Judge. &ldquo;A mule gets as hot as a horse, but
+      he does not sweat.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      This saved him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There came near being a duel. Everyone expected it. Only the interposition
+      of friends prevented their meeting on the field. Only this and one other
+      thing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Though no one in the neighborhood knew it until long afterward&mdash;and
+      then only in a conjectural way by piecing together fragments of rumors
+      that floated about&mdash;young Oliver Hampden really prevented the duel.
+      He told his father that he loved Lucy Drayton. There was a fierce outbreak
+      on the Judge's part.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Marry that girl!&mdash;the daughter of Wilmer Drayton! I will disinherit
+      you if you but so much as&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Stop!&rdquo; The younger man faced him and held up his hand with an imperious
+      gesture. &ldquo;Stop! Do not say a word against her or I may never forget it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The father paused with his sentence unfinished, for his son stood before
+      him suddenly revealed in a strength for which the Judge had never given
+      him credit, and he recognized in his level eyes, tense features, and the
+      sudden set of the square jaw, the Hampden firmness at its best or worst.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing to say against her,&rdquo; said the Judge, with a sudden rush of
+      recollection of Lucy Fielding. &ldquo;I have no doubt she is in one way all you
+      think her; but she is Wilmer Drayton 's daughter. You will never win her.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will win her,&rdquo; said the young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      That night Judge Hampden thought deeply over the matter, and before
+      daylight he had despatched a note to Major Drayton making an apology for
+      the words he had used.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Both Judge Hampden and his son went into the army immediately on the
+      outbreak of hostilities. Major Drayton, who to the last opposed Secession
+      bitterly, did not volunteer until after the State had seceded; but then
+      he, also, went in, and later was desperately wounded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A few nights before they went off to the war, Judge Hampden and his son
+      rode over together to Major Drayton's to offer the olive-branch of peace
+      in shape of young Oliver and all that he possessed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Judge Hampden did not go all the way, for he had sworn never to put foot
+      again in Major Drayton's house so long as he lived, and, moreover, he felt
+      that his son would be the better ambassador alone. Accordingly, he waited
+      in the darkness at the front gate while his son presented himself and laid
+      at Lucy Drayton's feet what the Judge truly believed was more than had
+      ever been offered to any other woman. He, however, sent the most
+      conciliatory messages to Major Drayton.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Tell him,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that I will take down my fence and he shall run the
+      line to suit himself.&rdquo; He could not have gone further.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The time that passed appeared unending to the Judge waiting in the
+      darkness; but in truth it was not long, for the interview was brief. It
+      was with Major Drayton and not with his daughter.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Major Drayton declined, both on his daughter's part and on his own, the
+      honor which had been proposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the door opened and Lucy herself appeared. She was a vision
+      of loveliness. Her face was white, but her eyes were steady. If she knew
+      what had occurred, she gave no sign of it in words. She walked straight to
+      her father's side and took his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;Mr. Hampden has done us the honor to ask your hand and I
+      have declined it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, papa.&rdquo; Her eyelids fluttered and her bosom heaved, but she did not
+      move, and Lucy was too much a Drayton to unsay what her father had said,
+      or to undo what he had done.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver Hampden's eyes did not leave her face. For him the Major had
+      disappeared, and he saw only the girl who stood before him with a face as
+      white as the dress she wore.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Lucy, I love you. Will you ever care for me? I am going&mdash;going away
+      to-morrow, and I shall not see you any more; but I would like to know if
+      there is any hope.&rdquo; The young man's voice was strangely calm.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The girl held out her hand to him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will never marry anyone else.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will wait for you all my life,&rdquo; said the young man.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Bending low, he kissed her hand in the palm, and with a bow to her father,
+      strode from the room.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Judge, waiting at the gate in the darkness, heard the far-off,
+      monotonous galloping of Oliver's horse on the hard plantation road. He
+      rode forward to meet him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      It was only a word.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;They declined.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The father scarcely knew his son's voice, it was so wretched.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What! Who declined? Did you see&mdash;&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Both!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Out in the darkness Judge Hampden broke forth into such a torrent of rage
+      that his son was afraid for his life and had to devote all his attention
+      to soothing him. He threatened to ride straight to Drayton's house and
+      horsewhip him on the spot. This, however, the young man prevented, and the
+      two rode home together in a silence which was unbroken until they had
+      dismounted at their own gate and given their horses to the waiting
+      servants. As they entered the house, Judge Hampden spoke.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I hope you are satisfied,&rdquo; he said, sternly. &ldquo;I make but one request of
+      you&mdash;that from this time forth, you will never mention the name of
+      Drayton to me again as long as you live.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I suppose I should hate her,&rdquo; said the son, bitterly, &ldquo;but I do not. I
+      love her and I believe she cares for me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His father turned in the door-way and faced him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Cares for you! Not so much as she cares for the smallest negro on that
+      place. If you ever marry her, I will disinherit you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Disinherit me!&rdquo; burst from the young man. &ldquo;Do you think I care for this
+      place? What has it ever brought to us but unhappiness? I have seen your
+      life embittered by a feud with your nearest neighbor, and now it wrecks my
+      happiness and robs me of what I would give all the rest of the world for.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Judge Hampden looked at him curiously. He started to say, &ldquo;Before I would
+      let her enter this house, I would burn it with my own hands&rdquo;; but as he
+      met his son's steadfast gaze there was that in it which made him pause.
+      The Hampden look was in his eyes. The father knew that another word might
+      sever them forever.
+    </p>
+    <hr />
+    <p>
+      If ever a man tried to court death, young Oliver Hampden did. But Death,
+      that struck many a happier man, passed him by, and he secured instead only
+      a reputation for reckless courage and was promoted on the field.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His father rose to the command of a brigade, and Oliver himself became a
+      captain.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At last the bullet Oliver had sought found him; but it spared his life and
+      only incapacitated him for service.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      There were no trained nurses during the war, and Lucy Drayton, like so
+      many girls, when the war grew fiercer, went into the hospitals, and by
+      devotion supplied their place.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Believing that life was ended for her, she had devoted herself wholly to
+      the cause, and self-repression had given to her face the gentleness and
+      consecration of a nun.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was said that once as she bent over a wounded common soldier, he
+      returned to consciousness, and after gazing up at her a moment, asked
+      vaguely, &ldquo;Who are you, Miss?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am one of the sisters whom our Father has sent to nurse you and help
+      you to get well. But you must not talk.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wounded man closed his eyes and then opened them with a faint smile.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right; just one word. Will you please ask your pa if I may be his
+      son-in-law?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Into the hospital was brought one day a soldier so broken and bandaged
+      that no one but Lucy Drayton might have recognized Oliver Hampden.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      For a long time his life was despaired of; but he survived.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When consciousness returned to him, the first sound he heard was a voice
+      which had often haunted him in his dreams, but which he had never expected
+      to hear again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Who is that!&rdquo; he asked, feebly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is I, Oliver&mdash;it is Lucy.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The wounded man moved slightly and the girl bending over him caught the
+      words, whispered brokenly to himself:
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am dreaming.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      But he was not dreaming.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Drayton's devotion probably brought him back from death and saved his
+      life.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In the hell of that hospital one man at least found the balm for his
+      wounds. When he knew how broken he was he offered Lucy her release. Her
+      reply was in the words of the English girl to the wounded Napier, &ldquo;If
+      there is enough of you left to hold your soul, I will marry you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as he was sufficiently convalescent, they were married.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy insisted that General Hampden should be informed, but the young man
+      knew his father's bitterness, and refused. He relied on securing his
+      consent later, and Lucy, fearing for her patient's life, and having
+      secured her own father's consent, yielded.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was a mistake.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver Hampden misjudged the depth of his father's feeling, and General
+      Hampden was mortally offended by his having married without informing him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver adored his father and he sent him a present in token of his desire
+      for forgiveness; but the General had been struck deeply. The present was
+      returned. He wrote: &ldquo;I want obedience; not sacrifice.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Confident of his wife's ability to overcome any obstacle, the young man
+      bided his time. His wounds, however, and his breach with his father
+      affected his health so much that he went with his wife to the far South,
+      where Major Drayton, now a colonel, had a remnant of what had once been a
+      fine property. Here, for a time, amid the live-oaks and magnolias he
+      appeared to improve. But his father's obdurate refusal to forgive his
+      disobedience preyed on his health, and just after the war closed, he died
+      a few months before his son was born.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      In his last days he dwelt much on his father. He made excuses for him,
+      over which his wife simply tightened her lips, while her gray eyes burned
+      with deep resentment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was brought up that way. He cannot help it. He never had anyone to
+      gainsay him. Do not be hard on him. And if he ever sues for pardon, be
+      merciful to him for my sake.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His end came too suddenly for his wife to notify his father in advance,
+      even if she would have done so; for he had been fading gradually and at
+      the last the flame had flared up a little.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Hampden was too upright a woman not to do what she believed her duty,
+      however contrary to her feelings it might be. So, although it was a bitter
+      thing to her, she wrote to inform General Hampden of his son's death.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It happened by one of the malign chances of fortune that this letter never
+      reached its destination, General Hampden did not learn of Oliver's death
+      until some weeks later, when he heard of it by accident. It was a terrible
+      blow to him, for time was softening the asperity of his temper, and he had
+      just made up his mind to make friends with his son. He attributed the
+      failure to inform him of Oliver's illness and death to the malignity of
+      his wife.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Thus it happened that when her son was born, Lucy Hampden made no
+      announcement of his birth to the General, and he remained in ignorance of
+      it.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      IV
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      The war closed, and about the only thing that appeared to remain unchanged
+      was the relation between General Hampden and Colonel Drayton. Everything
+      else underwent a change, for war eats up a land.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Hampden, soured and embittered by his domestic troubles, but stern
+      in his resolve and vigorous in his intellect, was driven by his loneliness
+      to adapt himself to the new conditions. He applied his unabated energies
+      to building up a new fortune. His decision, his force, and his ability
+      soon placed him at the head of one of the earliest new enterprises in the
+      State&mdash;a broken-down railway&mdash;which he re-organized and brought
+      to a full measure of success.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Drayton, on the other hand, broken in body and in fortunes, found
+      it impossible to adapt himself to the new conditions. He possessed none of
+      the practical qualities of General Hampden. With a mind richly stored with
+      the wisdom of others, he had the temperament of a dreamer and poet and was
+      unable to apply it to any practical end. As shy and reserved as his
+      neighbor was bold and aggressive, he lived in his books and had never been
+      what is known as a successful man. Even before the war he had not been
+      able to hold his own. The exactions of hospitality and of what he deemed
+      his obligations to others had consumed a considerable part of the handsome
+      estate he had inherited, and his plantation was mortgaged. What had been
+      thus begun, the war had completed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When his plantation was sold, his old neighbor and enemy bought it, and
+      the Colonel had the mortification of knowing that Drayton Hall was at last
+      in the hands of a Hampden. What he did not know was that General Hampden,
+      true to his vow, never put his foot on the plantation except to ride down
+      the road and see that all his orders for its proper cultivation were
+      carried out.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Colonel Drayton tried teaching school, but it appeared that everyone else
+      was teaching at that time, and after attempting it for a year or two, he
+      gave it up and confined himself to writing philosophical treatises for the
+      press, which were as much out of date as the Latin and Greek names which
+      he signed to them. As these contributions were usually returned, he
+      finally devoted himself to writing agricultural essays for an agricultural
+      paper, in which he met with more success than he had done when he was
+      applying his principles himself.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If farms were made of paper he 'd beat Cincinnatus,&rdquo; said the General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Lucy Hampden, thrown on her own resources, in the town in the South in
+      which her husband had died, had for some time been supporting herself and
+      her child by teaching. She had long urged her father to come to them, but
+      he had always declined, maintaining that a man was himself only in the
+      country, and in town was merely a unit. When, however, the plantation was
+      sold and his daughter wrote for him, he went to her, and the first time
+      that the little boy was put in his arms, both he and she knew that he
+      would never go away again. That evening as they sat together in the fading
+      light on the veranda of the little house which Lucy had taken, amid the
+      clambering roses and jasmine, the old fellow said, &ldquo;I used to think that I
+      ought to have been killed in battle at the head of my men when I was shot,
+      but perhaps, I may have been saved to bring up this young man.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      His daughter's smile, as she leant over and kissed him, showed very
+      clearly what she thought of it, and before a week was out, the Colonel
+      felt that he was not only still of use, but was, perhaps, the most
+      necessary, and, with one exception, the most important member of the
+      family.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Nevertheless, there were hard times before them. The Colonel was too
+      old-fashioned; too slow for the new movement of life, and just enough
+      behind the times to be always expecting to succeed and always failing.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      But where the father failed the daughter succeeded. She soon came to be
+      known as one of the efficient women of the community, as her father, who
+      was now spoken of as &ldquo;the old Colonel,&rdquo; came to be recognized as one of
+      the picturesque figures of that period. He was always thought of in
+      connection with the boy. The two were hardly ever apart, and they were
+      soon known throughout the town&mdash;the tall, thin old gentleman who
+      looked out on the world with his mild blue eyes and kindly face, and the
+      chubby, red-cheeked, black-eyed boy, whose tongue was always prattling,
+      and who looked out with his bright eyes on all the curious things which,
+      common-place to the world, are so wonderful to a boy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The friendship between an old man and a little child is always touching;
+      they grow nearer together day by day, and the old Colonel and little
+      Oliver soon appeared to understand each other, and to be as dependent on
+      each other as if they had both been of the same age. The child, somewhat
+      reserved with others, was bold enough with his grandfather. They held long
+      discussions together over things that interested the boy; went
+      sight-seeing in company to where the water ran over an old mill-wheel, or
+      where a hen and her chickens lived in a neighbor's yard, or a litter of
+      puppies gamboled under an outhouse, or a bird had her nest and little ones
+      in a jasmine in an old garden, and Colonel Drayton told the boy wonderful
+      stories of the world which was as unknown to him as the present world was
+      to the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      So matters went, until the Christmas when the boy was seven years old.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      V
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Meantime, General Hampden was facing a new foe. His health had suddenly
+      given way, and he was in danger of becoming blind. His doctor had given
+      him his orders&mdash;orders which possibly he might not have taken had not
+      the spectre of a lonely old man in total darkness begun to haunt him. He
+      had been &ldquo;working too hard,&rdquo; the doctor told him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Working hard! Of course, I have been working hard!&rdquo; snapped the General,
+      fiercely, with his black eyes glowering. &ldquo;What else have I to do but work?
+      I shall always work hard.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor knew something of the General 's trouble. He had been a surgeon
+      in the hospital where young Oliver Hampden had been when Lucy Drayton
+      found him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must stop,&rdquo; he said, quietly. &ldquo;You will not last long unless you do.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;How long!&rdquo; demanded the General, quite calmly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! I cannot say that. Perhaps, a year&mdash;perhaps, less. You have
+      burned your candle too fast.&rdquo; He glanced at the other's unmoved face. &ldquo;You
+      need change. You ought to go South this winter.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I should only change my skies and not my thoughts,&rdquo; said the General, his
+      memory swinging back to the past.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor gazed at him curiously. &ldquo;What is the use of putting out your
+      eyes and working yourself to death when you have everything that money can
+      give?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have nothing! I work to forget that,&rdquo; snarled the General, fiercely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The doctor remained silent.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General thought over the doctor's advice and finally followed it,
+      though not for the reason the physician supposed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Something led him to select the place where his son had gone and where his
+      body lay amid the magnolias. If he was going to die, he would carry out a
+      plan which he had formed in the lonely hours when he lay awake between the
+      strokes of the clock. He would go and see that his son's grave was cared
+      for, and if he could, would bring him back home at last. Doubtless, &ldquo;that
+      woman's&rdquo; consent could be bought. She had possibly married again. He hoped
+      she had.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0006" id="link2H_4_0006">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VI
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      Christmas is always the saddest of seasons to a lonely man, and General
+      Hampden, when he landed in that old Southern town on the afternoon of
+      Christmas Eve, would not have been lonelier in a desert. The signs of
+      Christmas preparation and the sounds of Christmas cheer but made him
+      lonelier. For years, flying from the Furies, he had immersed himself in
+      work and so, in part, had forgotten his troubles; but the removal of this
+      prop let him fall flat to the earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As soon as the old fellow had gotten settled in his room at the hotel he
+      paid a visit to his son's grave, piloted to the cemetery by a friendly and
+      garrulous old negro hackman, who talked much about Christmas and &ldquo;the
+      holidays.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, suh, dat he had known Cap'n Ham'n. He used to drive him out long as
+      he could drive out. He had been at his funeral. He knew Mrs. Ham'n, too.
+      She sutney is a fine lady,&rdquo; he wound up in sincere eulogy.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General gave a grunt.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He was nearer to his son than he had ever been since the day he last saw
+      him in all the pride and beauty of a gallant young soldier.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The grave, at least, was not neglected. It was marked by a modest cross,
+      on which was the Hampden coat-of-arms and the motto, &ldquo;<i>Loyal</i>,&rdquo; and
+      it was banked in fresh evergreens, and some flowers had been placed on it
+      only that afternoon. It set the General to thinking.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When he returned to his hotel, he found the loneliness unbearable. His
+      visit to his son's grave had opened the old wound and awakened all his
+      memories. He knew now that he had ruined his life. The sooner the doctor's
+      forecast came true, the better. He had no care to live longer. He would
+      return to work and die in harness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      He sent his servant to the office and arranged for his car to be put on
+      the first train next morning.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Then, to escape from his thoughts, he strolled out in the street where the
+      shopping crowds streamed along, old and young, poor and well-to-do, their
+      arms full of bundles, their faces eager, and their eyes alight.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Hampden seemed to himself to be walking among ghosts.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      As he stalked on, bitter and lonely, he was suddenly run into by a very
+      little boy, in whose small arms was so big a bundle that he could scarcely
+      see over it. The shock of the collision knocked the little fellow down,
+      sitting flat on the pavement, still clutching his bundle. But his face
+      after the first shadow of surprise lit up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg your pardon, sir&mdash;that was my fault,&rdquo; he said, with so quaint
+      an imitation of an old person that the General could not help smiling.
+      With a cheery laugh, he tried to rise to his feet, but the bundle was too
+      heavy, and he would not let it go.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General bent over him and, with an apology, set him on his feet.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I beg <i>your</i> pardon, sir. That was <i>my</i> fault. That is a pretty
+      big bundle you have.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, sir; and I tell you, it is pretty heavy, too,&rdquo; the manikin said,
+      proudly. &ldquo;It 's a Christmas gift.&rdquo; He started on, and the General turned
+      with him.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A Christmas gift! It must be a fine one. Who gave it to you?&rdquo; demanded
+      the General, with a smile at the little fellow's confidence.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;It is a fine one! Did n't anybody give it to me. We 're giving it to
+      somebody.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh! You are? To whom?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I 'll tell you; but you must promise not to tell.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I promise I will not tell a soul. I cross my heart.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      He made a sign as he remembered he used to do in his boyhood.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy looked up at him doubtfully with a shade of disapproval.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My grandfather says that you must not cross your heart&mdash;'t a
+      gentleman's word is enough,&rdquo; he said, quaintly.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, he does? Well, I give my word.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Well&mdash;&rdquo; He glanced around to see that no one was listening, and
+      sidling a little nearer, lowered his voice: &ldquo;It 's a great-coat for
+      grandfather!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;A great-coat! That's famous!&rdquo; exclaimed the General.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, is n't it? You see&mdash;he 's mighty old and he 's got a bad cough&mdash;he
+      caught it in the army, and I have to take care of him. Don't you think
+      that's right?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Of course, I do,&rdquo; said the General, envying one grandfather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That's what I tell him. So mamma and I have bought this for him.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He must be a proud grandfather,&rdquo; said the General, with envy biting
+      deeper at his heart.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I have another grandfather; but I don't like <i>him</i>,&rdquo; continued the
+      little fellow.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I am sorry for that,&rdquo; said the General, sincerely. &ldquo;Why is that?&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He was mean to my father, and he is mean to my mother.&rdquo; His voice
+      conveyed a sudden bitterness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Mamma says I must like him; but I do not. I just can't. You would not
+      like a man who was mean to your mother, would you!&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I would not,&rdquo; declared the General, truthfully.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;And I am not going to like him,&rdquo; asserted the boy, with firmness.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General suddenly pitied one grandfather.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      They had come to a well-lighted corner, and as the boy lifted his face,
+      the light fell on it. Something about the bright, sturdy countenance with
+      its frank, dark eyes and brown hair suddenly sent the General back thirty
+      years to a strip of meadow on which two children were playing: one a
+      dark-eyed boy as sturdy as this one. It was like an arrow in his heart.
+      &ldquo;With a gasp he came back to the present. His thoughts pursued him even
+      here.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;What is your name?&rdquo; he asked as he was feeling in his pocket for a coin.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver Drayton Hampden, sir.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The words were perfectly clear.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General's heart stopped beating and then gave a bound. The skies
+      suddenly opened for him and then shut up again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His exclamation brought the child to a stop and he glanced up at him in
+      vague wonder. The General stooped and gazed at him searchingly, almost
+      fiercely. The next second he had pounced upon him and lifted him in his
+      arms while the bundle fell to the pavement.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;My boy! I am your grandfather,&rdquo; he cried, kissing him violently. &ldquo;I am
+      your grandfather Hampden.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The child was lost in amazement for a moment, and then, putting his hands
+      against the General's face, he pushed him slowly away.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Put me down, please,&rdquo; he said, with that gravity which in a child means
+      so much.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      General Hampden set him down on the pavement. The boy looked at him
+      searchingly for a second, and then turned in silence and lifted his
+      bundle. The General's face wore a puzzled look&mdash;he had solved many
+      problems, but he had never had one more difficult than this. His heart
+      yearned toward the child, and he knew that on his own wisdom at that
+      moment might depend his future happiness. On his next words might hang for
+      him life or death. The expression on the boy's face, and the very set of
+      his little back as he sturdily tugged at his burden, recalled his father,
+      and with it the General recognized the obstinacy which he knew lurked in
+      the Hampden blood, which had once been his pride.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver,&rdquo; he said, gravely, leaning down over the boy and putting his hand
+      on him gently, &ldquo;there has been a great mistake. I am going home with you
+      to your mother and tell her so. I want to see her and your grandfather,
+      and I think I can explain everything.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The child turned and gazed at him seriously, and then his face relaxed. He
+      recognized his deep sincerity.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;All right.&rdquo; He turned and walked down the street, bending under his
+      burden. The General offered to carry it for him, but he declined.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I can carry it,&rdquo; was the only answer he made except once when, as the
+      General rather insisted, he said firmly, &ldquo;I want to carry it myself,&rdquo; and
+      tottered on.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      A silence fell on them for a moment. A young man passing them spoke to the
+      child cheerily.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Hullo, Oliver! A Christmas present?&mdash;That 's a great boy,&rdquo; he said,
+      in sheer friendliness to the General, and passed on. The boy was evidently
+      well known.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver nodded; then feeling that some civility was due on his part to his
+      companion, he said briefly, &ldquo;That 's a friend of mine.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Evidently.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The General, even in his perplexity, smiled at the quaint way the child
+      imitated the manners of older men.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then they came to a little gate and the boy's manner changed.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;If you will wait, I will run around and put my bundle down. I am afraid
+      my grandfather might see it.&rdquo; He lowered his voice for the first time
+      since the General had introduced himself. Then he disappeared around the
+      house.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver, having slipped in at the back door and carefully reconnoitred the
+      premises, tripped up stairs with his bundle to his mother's room. He was
+      so excited over his present that he failed to observe her confusion at his
+      sudden entrance, or her hasty hiding away of something on which she was
+      working. Colonel Drayton was not the only member of that household that
+      Christmas who was to receive a great-coat.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      When Oliver had untied his bundle, nothing would serve but he must put on
+      the coat to show his mother how his grandfather would look in it. As even
+      with the sleeves rolled up and with his arms held out to keep it from
+      falling off him, the tails dragged for some distance on the floor and only
+      the top of his head was visible above the collar, the resemblance was
+      possibly not wholly exact. But it appeared to satisfy the boy. He was
+      showing how his grandfather walked, when he suddenly recalled his new
+      acquaintance.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I met my other grandfather, on the street, mamma, and he came home with
+      me.&rdquo; He spoke quite naturally.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Met your other grandfather!&rdquo; Mrs. Hampden looked mystified.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He says he is my grandfather, and he looks like papa. I reckon he 's my
+      other grandfather. He ran against me in the street and knocked me down,
+      and then came home with me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Came home with you!&rdquo; repeated Mrs. Hampden, still in a maze, and with a
+      vague trouble dawning in her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes 'm.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      Oliver went over the meeting again.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      His mother's face meantime showed the tumult of emotion that was sweeping
+      over her. Why had General Hampden come? What had he come for? To try and
+      take her boy from her?
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At the thought her face and form took on something of the lioness that
+      guards her whelp. Then as the little boy repeated what his grandfather had
+      said of his reason for coming home with him, her face softened again. She
+      heard a voice saying, &ldquo;If he ever sues for pardon, be merciful to him for
+      my sake.&rdquo; She remembered what day it was: the Eve of the day of Peace and
+      Good-will toward all men. He must have come for Peace, and Peace it should
+      be. She would not bring up her boy under the shadow of that feud which had
+      blighted both sides of his race so long.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;you must go down and let him in. Say I will come
+      down.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not like him,&rdquo; said the child, his eyes on her face.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oh, yes, you must; he is your grandfather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You do not love him, and I will not.&rdquo; The sturdy little figure and the
+      serious face with the chin already firm for such a child, the dark, grave
+      eyes and the determined speech, were so like his father that the widow
+      gave half a cry.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;You must, my son, and I will try. Your father would wish it.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The little boy pondered for a second.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Very well, mamma; but he must be good to you.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      As the little fellow left the room, the widow threw herself on her knees.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0007" id="link2H_4_0007">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      As General Hampden stood and waited in the dusk, he felt that his whole
+      life and future depended on the issue of the next few moments. He
+      determined to take matters in his own hand. Every moment might tell
+      against him and might decide his fate. So, without waiting longer, he rang
+      the bell. A minute later he heard steps within, and the door was opened by
+      one who he knew must be Colonel Drayton, though had he met him elsewhere
+      he should not have recognized the white hair and the thin, bent form as
+      that of his old friend and enemy. Colonel Drayton had evidently not seen
+      his grandson yet, for he spoke as to a stranger.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Will you not walk in, sir!&rdquo; he said cordially. &ldquo;I was expecting my little
+      grandson who went out a short while ago.&rdquo; He peered up the street. &ldquo;Did
+      you wish to see my daughter? You will find us in a little confusion&mdash;Christinas
+      time is always a busy season with us on account of our young man: my
+      grandson.&rdquo; He lingered with pride over the words.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The General stepped into the light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Wilmer Drayton! Don't you know me? I am Oliver Hampden, and I have come
+      to apologize to you for all I have done which has offended you, and to ask
+      you to be friends with me.&rdquo; He held out his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The old Colonel stepped back, and under the shock of surprise paused for a
+      moment.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver Hampden!&rdquo; The next moment he stepped forward and took his hand.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Come in, Oliver,&rdquo; he said, gently, and putting his other arm around the
+      General's shoulder, he handed him into the little cosey, fire-lighted room
+      as though nothing had happened since he had done the same the last time
+      fifty years before.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      At this moment the door opened and the little boy entered with mingled
+      mysteriousness and importance. Seeing the two gentlemen standing together,
+      he paused with a mystified look in his wide-open eyes, trying to
+      comprehend the situation.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver, come here,&rdquo; said the Colonel, quietly. &ldquo;This is your other
+      grandfather.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The boy came forward, and, wheeling, stood close beside the Colonel,
+      facing General Hampden, like a soldier dressing by his file-closer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;<i>You</i> are my grandfather,&rdquo; he said, glancing up at the Colonel.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The Colonel's eyes glowed with a soft light.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Yes, my boy; and so is he. We are friends again, and you must love him&mdash;just
+      as you do me.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will not love him as much,&rdquo; was the sturdy answer.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      It was the General who spoke next.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That is right, my boy. All I ask is that you will love me some.&rdquo; He was
+      pleading with this young commissioner.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;I will, if you are good to my mother.&rdquo; His eyes were fastened on him
+      without a tremor, and the General's deep-set eyes began to glow with hope.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;That 's a bargain,&rdquo; he said holding out his hand. The boy took it
+      gravely.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Just then the door opened and Lucy Hampden entered. Her face was calm and
+      her form was straight. Her eyes, deep and burning, showed that she was
+      prepared either for peace or war. It was well for the General that he had
+      chosen peace. Better otherwise had he charged once more the deadliest
+      battle line he had ever faced. For a moment the General saw only Lucy
+      Fielding.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      With a woman's instinct the young widow comprehended at the first glance
+      what had taken place, and although her face was white, her eyes softened
+      as she advanced. The General had turned and faced her. He could not utter
+      a word, but the boy sprang towards her and, wheeling, stood by her side.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      Taking his hand, she led him forward.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Oliver,&rdquo; she said, gently, &ldquo;this is your father's father.&rdquo; Then to the
+      General, in a dead silence&mdash;&ldquo;Father, this is your son's son.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      The General clasped them both in his arms.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;Forgive me. Forgive me. I have prayed for <i>his</i> forgiveness, for I
+      can never forgive myself.&rdquo;
+     </p>
+    <p>
+      &ldquo;He forgave you,&rdquo; said the widow, simply.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      <a name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008">
+      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 4em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+    <h2>
+      VIII
+    </h2>
+    <p>
+      No young king was ever put to bed with more ceremony or more devotion than
+      was that little boy that night. Two old gentlemen were his grooms of the
+      bedchamber and saw him to bed together.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The talk was all of Christmas, and the General envied the ease with which
+      the other grandfather carried on the conversation. But when the boy,
+      having kissed his grandfather, said of his own accord, &ldquo;Now, I must kiss
+      my <i>other</i> grandfather,&rdquo; he envied no man on earth.
+    </p>
+    <p>
+      The next morning when Oliver Hampden, before the first peep of light,
+      waked in his little bed, which stood at the foot of his grandfather's bed
+      in the tiny room which they occupied together, and standing up, peeped
+      over the footboard to catch his grandfather's &ldquo;Christmas gift,&rdquo; he was
+      surprised to find that the bed was empty and undisturbed. Then having
+      tiptoed in and caught his mother, he stole down the stairs and softly
+      opened the sitting-room door where he heard the murmur of voices. The fire
+      was burning dim, and on either side sat the two old gentlemen in their
+      easy chairs, talking amicably and earnestly as they had been talking when
+      he kissed them &ldquo;good-night.&rdquo; Neither one had made the suggestion that it
+      was bedtime; but when at the first break of day the rosy boy in his
+      night-clothes burst in upon them with his shout of &ldquo;Christmas gift,&rdquo; and
+      his ringing laughter, they both knew that the long feud was at last ended,
+      and peace was established forever.
+    </p>
+    <div style="height: 6em;">
+      <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
+    </div>
+<pre xml:space="preserve">
+
+
+
+
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+</pre>
+  </body>
+</html>