OPIE READ'S l~> SELECT WORKS THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES MY YOUNG MASTER OPIE PEAD'S SELECT WORKS Old Ebenezer The Jucklins My Young Master A Kentucky Colonel On the Suwanee River A Tennessee Judge Works of Strange Power and Fascinatioa ; ; Uniformly bound in extra cloth, gold tops, ornamental covers, un cut edges, six volumes in a box, S6.00 Sold separately, $1.00 each. : - OPIE READ'S SELECT WORKS My Young Master A NOVEL BY OPIE READ Author of "The Carpetbagger," "Old Ebenezer," "The Jucklins," " On the Suwanee River, " " The Colossus, " "A Kentucky Colonel," "A Tennessee Judge," ' Len Gansett, " " Erarnett Bonlore, ' ' ' '{The Tear in the Cup and Other Stones," "The Wives of the Prophet." ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHED Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and ninety-six, by WILLIAM H. LEE, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 1 MY YOUNG MASTER, CHAPTER I. This is the story of a master, told by his slave. As I sit now, after the flight of so many years, and gaze at the pictures in the fire the hills and the valleys of my boyhood, so bright, so glowing I am oppressed with Ev * the fear that my rude hand can but ill execute the work ^ that I have undertaken. And yet, I feel the force that '. ! truth alone can lend, for although my transcript may be crude, I know that in the years now far away but :* which are coming toward us, my history will be read in 51 by the thoughtful man who seeks to portray the o strange social conditions that once existed in our country. I was born in the State of Kentucky, on the blue- grass farm owned by Guilford Gradley. Many iu changes may have taken place, but in my day the Z3 northern boundary line of the farm and the southern corporate limit of the town of Litchford here came together; and I think that one of my earliest recollec- 4i; 6 MY YOUNG MASTER tions is of a Sunday morning, when my young master and I got on the ground and parted the long grass to search for the line. I know it must have been on a Sunday, for the church bells were ringing, and Old Master and Old Miss (as we always called his wife) passed us on their way to town. Old Master was one of the most prominent men in the State (had been a general in the militia), and this influence was felt even by the humblest negro on the place, for to belong to a great man was of itself a social prominence not enjoyed by the bondman of the ordinary individual. Why, I remember seeing a little negro boy weep bit terly because a playmate had taunted him with the humiliating fact that his master lived in a log house. Ah, those old days, by turns a sad and a happy freak in the history of man ! Old Master had three children, Miss Lou, who had married a doctor; Miss May, about twelve years old, when my story begins; and Mars. Bob, about my age. The doctor that married Miss Lou was a neat man, all the time picking at himself and cleaning his finger nails, it seemed to me, and I had thought that he must be a great man, being a doctor and wearing so white a shirt, until one day I heard Old Master tell Old Miss that he wasn't worth the powder and lead to kill him. MY YOUNG MASTER 7 i.jld after hat I noticed that he didn't amount to much, and I firmly believed that Toney, the yellow blacksmith on our farm, could throw him down. Miss Lou was a handsome young woman, with beautiful eyes; and even now her voice sometimes comes to me at twilight, singing, 'I have no mother now/ The song always made me cry, for I had no mother. Old Balch, the shoemaker, used to tell me about my mother. He said that he had often seen her standing in the door of the cabin, with me in her arms, singing that song; and he said that she was a beautiful crea ture, with hair almost straight. And I recall that the first time he told me this, I slipped away, into old Mammy Liza's cabin, where I climbed upon a chair to look at myself in an old broken glass, to see how white I was. And it occurs to me that this must have been the day when a preacher, evidently from the North, made Old Miss boiling mad by patting me on the head and saying, "What a handsome little fellow." Mars. Bob was with me on the veranda at the time and it was a great scandal that the preacher should not have given him his first and most flattering attention. But he did not, and his stay in our house was short. One morning, Old Master called Mars. Bob and me into his library. He sat there, smoking his long-stem 8 M YOUNG MASTER pipe, with his elbow resting on a t^ble. I had often run through the room, but this was the first time that I had ever taken a good look at it, with its innumerable books and dark busts of long-haired men. And I was staring about when Old Master said : "Dan, look at me." I turned my eyes upon him, not in fear, but more in Twe, for I felt his greatness, not so much in his owner ship of me, as in the searching light in his eye and the rumbling depths of his voice. "Dan," he said, "your Mars. Bob is six years old to-day you and he are nearly of an age and I have given you to him for a birthday present." I looked at Mars. Bob and he looked at me. Old Master contin ued: "You are to be his, to go with him, to fight with him, and to play with him. If the time ever comes when it is necessary for you to die in order to save him, do it. Bob." "Yes, sir," said Mars. Bob. "Whose boy is this?" (looking at me). "Mine, sir," Mars. Bob answered proudly. "What are you going to do with him?" "Take him with me wherever I go." "And if anyone tries to whip him, what are you going to do?" M YOUNG MASTER ., "Kill the feller that tries it;" Mars. Bob answered fiercely; and Old Master leaned back and laughed. "You musn't kill anybody if you can help it," he said. "Now run on." We ran out into the yard and tumbled upon the grass under a tree. "You belong to me, don't you?" said Bob. "Yes." "Are you glad?" "I don't know yet." "But you'd rather belong to me than to your Mars. George, wouldn't you?" he asked, meaning the doctor. "I wouldn't belong to him," I replied. "He ain't worth the powder and lead to kill him. I'd fight before I'd belong to him." "You musn't say that, Dan but, so would I." And, after a silence, he said: "If anybody starts to whip you, don't make any difference who it is, come and tell me, won't you?" "Yes, and we will both fight him, won't we?" "Yes, but I can whip you when I want to, can't I?" t "Yes, but nobody else shall." "I know that, but I can, can't I?" "Sometimes, but not all the time." "Yes, I can." 10 MY YOUNG MASTER "No, you can't." "I'll whip you now if you say much." "Much!" He struck me and I struck him; we clinched and I threw him, and the next moment I was snatched into the air by the doctor. "You little scoundrel!" he shouted, "I'll wear you out." And he was proceeding to do it, with a riding whip, when Bob jumped upon him like a mad cat; and there we had it, both of us biting him, when Old Master ran out and frightened us all nearly to death. Old Miss came out, too, and declared that I ought to be given a hundred lashes, but then came Miss Lou. She took me by the hand and said, "No, you must not whip the poor little fel low." And at this Old Master turned upon her. "Who the devil's going to whip him, I'd like to know? George Bates, don't you touch this boy again." And now Old Miss bristled up. "Guilford, you are always showing partiality for that little imp. You let him take the place. I won't stand it for one." "Madam," said Old Master, putting me behind him, "he may be what you call him, but justice should be shown even to an imp. Boys that have any spirit at all will fight and you can't help it, and by " here he swore a terrible oath that made us all stare. "I say, MY YOUNG MASTER U if Bob can't defend himself, he must take the conse quences. Boys, run off down yonder and play, now. Madam, do as you choose. George Bates, attend to your own affairs. My daughter, come with me." Miss Lou was hurt at the way Master had spoken to her husband, and as he took her hand to lead her into the house, she put her face upon his bosom and I heard her say, "Please don't talk to him that way, father." He kissed her. And then he turned to the doctor, who hung about abashed. "George, I beg your par don, sir. I was a little hasty and I admit it. There, it's all right. I'll make you a present of that clay-bank horse you admire so much. Get him and take a ride, sir." "Oh, father,' Miss Lou cried, "you are the best man in the world." "No, I'm an old pepper-box. Look out, yon're tramping all over my feet. You boys go on down the creek and catch some fish or I'll whip both of you. Madam," he added, turning to Old Miss and handing her a roll of bank notes, "go to town and do your shopping." CHAPTER II. It seemed that on this very day my eyes were opened with a new intelligence, and not only my spirit ual but my physical surroundings became clearer. I saw our great stone house as I had never seen it before, the wooded hill-sides, deep with grass, stretch ing far away ; the white-washed cabins, quarter-circling the spacious yard, the broad garden and the weeping- willow trees whereunder Old Master's father and mother were buried; the village street which came abruptly to our big gate and there stopped in a fringe of clover. Through our place a bright creek ran, as many toned as a pack of hounds; and far to the right the turn-pike lay, white and glistening in the sun. Yes, my eyes were wider opened on this day, and a half-frightening glimmer of reason shot across my mind. I wondered why I should have been created a piece of property, while one, nearly of my own color and whom I could fling upon the ground, should pos sess me. This thought stung me, but there came a balm in the reflection that if I wore fetters at all, they (12) MY YOUNG MASTER ig were bright and lined with velvet. Of course, at this age I did not thus reason with myself, but I had the feeling, the substance of the thought, and the dressing of it must have come long afterward. Bob and I slept in the same room up-stairs, he in a canopied bed, I on a low lounge. Old Master and Old Miss slept in a large room just across the hall; and now it seems to me that many a time at midnight, d stray fancy, wandering throughout the world of space, looking for entertainment in a human mind, would come to me as I lay in that little bed come to me and rob me of sleep compel me to lie there and listen to Old Master's slippered feet, slowly pacing up and down the long hall. One night, and it must have followed the day when I had been given over as Bob's exclusive property, I awoke to hear the old man's dis tressful shambling up and down the hall. The night was so dark, all the household was so still save those restless feet, that a strange pity came upon me. I heard Old Miss call him, and I heard him reply, "Go to sleep and pay no attention to me." But he seemed so lonely out there walking alone, that I found the courage to open the door and peep out at him. A dim light hung from the ceiling, not far from my peeping place, and as he turned about he saw me. 14 MY YOUNG MASTER "What are you doing, Dan?" he asked, halting and turning to me. "Will you please let me come out and walk with you?" was my bold reply. "Walk with me? What could have put that into your head?" " 'Cause I thought you must be tired of walking by yourself." "Well, run along back to bed." "General," Old Miss called, "who's out there with you?" "Do you see anybody?" he asked, looking hard toward her door. "No, but I hear you talking." "But isn't it possible for a man to talk to himself? Please go to sleep." Then he came back to me and said: "Go on to bed, Dan. And, see here," he added as I turned about, "don't get up any more when you hear me walking/' I hesitated a moment, looking at him, and then I asked: "Master, did you kill a man?" He leaped toward me. "Who told you that? Come back here!" I had started to run away. "Come here to me, I'm not going to hurt you." He laid a tight MY YOUNS MASTER 15 hand upon my arm. "Why? Who said anything about my killing a man?" "I don't know, sir," I answered honestly. "I don't know who said it, but I thought you did. I believe I dreamed it. Did you kill a man?" I can see him now as he stood in the dim light, tall, frail, majestic, his old eyes bright, his white hair glis tening. He cast a swift glance toward his bed-room door, and then leading me with him, stepped into my room. I heard the window curtain rustle he was feeling about in the dark for a seat and then he sat down upon the window ledge. I stood beside him, pressed close against his knee. "Don't ever speak of such a thing again," he said, "but I did kill a man in this room. Are you scared?" "No, sir," I answered. "Tell me about it." It was some time before he spoke again. I heard Bob's gentle breathing. "Have you ever noticed deep marks on the stairs out there?" he asked. "Yes, sir." "The prints of a horse's shoes?" he said. And then after a silence, asked: "Do you think that I have been drinking to-night?" "No, sir." 16 MY YOUN MASTER *Little liar you, you know I have." "But tell me about the man and the marks on th stairs?" "Hush! was that your mistress calling me? Wait a moment." I waited for him to continue, scarcely able to keep from trembling against his knee. "Would you think that a man could ride up those stairs?" he asked. "No, sir." "But a man did. I had said that I was going to horse-whip him, and one day when I lay sick in bed, he came, drunk, and rode up the stairs to my room this room to make me eat my words. I heard a terrible racket, and the next thing I knew a horse's head was poked through the door. I thought the devil had come. But the next moment I saw my enemy, standing in his stirrups, looking down on me. He held a pistol in his hand and he snapped it at me. I rolled out of bed, just as he fired, and grabbed a gun and killed him. He fell forward, and his horse to'ok fright and wheeled about for the door. The man his name was Solomon Putnam fell to one side as the horse plunged, but his foot caught in the stirrup, and he was dragged away dragged to his own gate. The law cleared me, and I know that I was right, but some times I see that man, hanging to the stirrup, with the MY YOUNG MASTER 17 blood streaming out of his mouth. I'm not afraid I'd do it over again. But I can't sleep when I see him." The door creaked. "General!" It was the voice of Old Miss. "Madam, what do you want?" "What are you doing in there?" "Talking to myself. Go on and I will come in a moment." "I told you not to drink that brandy I knew how it would be." "Yes, you knew how it would be and I know how if is, so we are about even. Go on, and I will be there in a moment." The door creaked again, and I heard her footsteps as she went away. Old Master got up. "Dan," he whispered, "if you ever say a word, I'll whip you. Do you hear?" "Yes, sir." "I have told Bob. But you musn't talk about it even to him. There, now, go on to bed." "And will you go to bed too?" I asked. "What's that to you, nighthawk? Go to bed, and if I catch you up again to-night, I'll whip you." CHAPTER HI. Early at morning, Bob and I were summoned by Old Master to go squirrel hunting, to walk round the trees, and turn the squirrel into range of his long rifle and the deadly squint of his sharp old eye. It was spring-time and the squirrels were nipping the hick ory buds; it was sunrise and the bold cock-partridge, his feathers ruffled, strutted up and down the top rail of the fence. We had not proceeded far before we came upon a neighbor, 'Squire Boyle, sitting upon a log, picking at the lock of his gun. He hailed Old Master and bade him wait a moment. And both men, seated upon the log, fell into an argument that lasted till the sun was high. We heard the blowing of the breakfast horn, we saw the smoke rise in the fields, where the women were burning the old corn-stalks; we saw the men breaking up the tobacco land, but Old Master and the squire sat there and talked, and some times I was afraid that they were going to fight, so fierce were their gestures and so loud did they lift their voices. Bob and I were impatient, and occasionally (18) MY YOUNG MASTER 19 Bob would say, "Come on, pa." But the old man heeded him not, until finally he turned about with anger in his eyes, and cried out as if in pain: "If you don't quit nagging at me, I will box your jaws. Go on to the house, both of you. 'Zounds, I can't budge but these boys are dogging my foot-steps. Go on to the house and if I catch you following me again, I'll whip you both." We fell back a short distance and hid behind a clump of briars and sat there watching, fearful that the two men were going to fight. But their guns were thrown aside and they were walking up and down the length of the log. "I tell you," Old Master cried, "that this step will kill him. The people of this State will not put up with it. It is well enough to talk about justice and human sympathy, but if Henry Clay openly advo cates the freeing of the slaves it will kill him. I don't understand how he can be so untrue to the principles of his community, but, 'Squire " Here he halted in his walk and shook his fist fiercely "but, 'Squire, I can understand you, sir. You are not a Southern man and you have never owned a slave. Ah, but you are an American. Yes, I grant you that, but the real defender of this country is the Southern man, sir. What's that you say? Would I break up the Union 20 MY YOUNG MASTER rather than lose the slaves? No, sir, I would not ; and there will never be such an issue." Here he looked about and caught sight of us lurking behind the briars, "Boys!" he cried, taking up his gun and pulling out the hickory ram-rod, "if you don't march off home, this minute, I'll wear you both out." And as we had tasted that hickory and knew its flavor, we scampered away. "Do you know what they were talking about?" Bob asked, when we had reached a safe distance. "Something about making the black people free," I answered. "They are free enough already," he replied, looking sharply at me as we walked along the path. "I'm not free," I rejoined. "I belong to you." Then he looked at me proudly. "Yes," he said, "and we will have lots of fun. When we get big, we'll get some great long guns and go out and kill Indians, and if anybody tries to shoot you, I'll shoot him. Won't I?" "Yes, and I'll shoot anybody that tries to shoot you." We had crossed the bars where the cows stood at evening waiting to nourish their calves, and were MY YOUNG MASTER , gf going toward the stone spring-house, when we met Old Miss. "Robert," she said, "run and find your father, quick! Your sister Lou is sick." Bob turned to go back, and so did I, but she called me. "Dan, you are not going. Go over to Aunt Mag's cabin and stay there until you are sent for." I sat in the cabin door and watched the old woman spin. She gave me a bowl of bread and milk, and she told me that whenever I was mistreated to slip into her house and hide under her bed. "I'm treated all right," I remember to have replied. And I recollect also to have declared that I fought when they did not treat me well. "You'se er monstus brave little man," she said, pausing at the door to pat me on the head. "Fo' gra cious, whut's de matter up at de house? Look at de folks all runnin' er roun'? Go up dar an' see." I was afraid to go in, believing, and not without cause, that Old .Miss would tap me on the head with her big store-room key, and I hung about the door that opened out upon the long veranda. Everything was quiet save the mocking-bird in his cage hung in the hall. But a moment later I heard the well-known feet of Old Master, pacing up and down. I peeped m and saw Dr. Bates walking toward the door, and I ran 22 MY YOUNG MASTER away and went back to Aunt Mag's cabin. Old Silvy, the cook, took down the long horn, with a snake and a deer's head carved upon it, and blew a blast for din ner, and then the men and the plow horses came through the big gate, with trace-chains jangling. I wondered what could have become of Bob. It was rare, indeed, that we were so long separated. Aunt Mag gave me another bowl of bread and milk, and I sat there on the doorstep, watching the sun-mark slowly moving round the house. The men went back to work. I dozed off to sleep and was aroused with a shake. I looked up and saw a girl hastening up the path toward the house. Old Aunt Mag was standing over me. "Dan'l," she said, looking down upon me, "po' Miss Lou is gone she died jest now." The goodness and the sweetness of that fair young woman rushed upon me, and I could not see for the tears that gushed to my eyes. In a moment I recounted her kindness and her winsome smile she had never spoken a cross word to me. I had lost a protecting friend. Under a tree I lay with my face buried in the grass, sobbing. An arm stole about my neck. I looked up. Bob lay beside me. This was my first grief. And oh, the awful sadness of the funeral. Everywhere the negro's mellow song MY YOUNG MASTER 23 was hushed, and the trace-chains no longer jangled. The sun was bright, the rose was fresh, the stiff-neck tulip was proud, but the creek which yesterday went laughing through the pasture was mourning now. The horses stood looking over the fence, the frisky colts were surprised, and turning from their play, stretched themselves out upon the clover. Old Aunt Mag dressed me, with the tears shining on her black face. "Her speret is praisin' de Lawd dis mornin'," she said. "You kin go ter de house now. All de black folks is gwine ter look at her." I stood at the parlor door, with my knees trembling. Old Master came out to walk up and down the ver anda. He saw me looking wistfully at him, and he halted to speak to me, but his chin shook and he walked on. Miss May came to me and told me to come with her. I stepped into the room and my heart leaped into my throat at the sight Miss Lou lying on a bed of roses. Slowly our people came in, as silent as the pillow of white roses holding that beautiful head, and stood there, awe-struck. From a distant room came the broken lamentations of Old Miss. An old black man, a giant who preached for the negroes, stood at the head of the rose-shroud. He gazed with the tears in his eyes, and turning away he 24 MY YOUNG MASTER said: "De Lawd neber called home er mo' beautiful speret." Old Master came in, and the two men put their hands upon each other and wept. There was no hearse, no carriages. Through the garden gate they bore their beautiful burden, and slowly the throng of neighbors followed, the negroes chanting mournfully. A white man spoke of the resurrection and the light, and the old negro giant prayed, with his knees in the clay. Old Master led Old Miss home to the dead hush of the great house; and at midnight I heard the old man's feet pacing up and down the hall. It seemed a crime to let him walk out there alone. Once I thought I heard him stop at my door, and I got up and went to him. "Marster," I said, "won't you please let me walk with you?" He said nothing, but he sobbed, and then I knew that he would not drive me away. And so I walked with him until daylight was come. "Run along now," he said. "Be a good boy and you will go go where she has gone." CHAPTER IV. The days grew hotter, the green corn waved on the hill-side, the wheat was ripening, but the deep mystery of death was over it all. The boy goes about his play, he shouts and has his daily contentions, his quarrels and fights, but darkness comes, and as he goes to his bed, his mind reverts to a soul that has recently taken its flight. Older people have the consoling prop of religion or the forceful brace of philosophy, but in the boy's nostrils lives the scent of the roses that lay upon the breast of mystic death; a fear possesses him as he peeps in at the parlor door. Ah, many days must fall upon a sad memory before it is sweetened. They told me that my young mistress was in Heaven. I asked Aunt Mag if she would be my mistress there, and she said no, that there was no mistresses in Heaven, no slaves, but all white and the angels of God. And with the flash of iconoclastic reason that comes to youth, I asked her why God made black people belong to white people on the earth and afterward made them all equal in Heaven. The old woman turned from her spinning (25) 26 MY YOUNG MASTER wheel and held up her hands in fright. "Chile," she said, "you musn't talk like dat. Whut de Lawd do it ain't fur us ter question, an' ef you wan't so young you mout git struck wid lightenin' fur sayin' dem words. Run off ober yander in de yard an' play. I'se er leered de lightenin' mought strike at you anyhow." That night as Bob and I lay in our room, he in his high canopied bed, and I on my low lounge, I asked him if he knew that all the black people would be white in Heaven. "Yes, of course," he answered. "It would be a funny Heaven with a lot of niggers stand ing about, grinning." "But they wouldn't have to grin." "No, but they would." "And you won't own me there, will you?" I said, after a moment's silence. "No, you'll belong to God." "But don't I belong to God now?" I heard him turn over. "Yes, but you belong to me, too. And when I get through with you God may have you. Get over in my bed and I'll bet I can throw you out." "No, Old Miss might hear us. But do you think," I asked after musing for a time, "that we'll know each MY YOUNG MASTER 27 Other up there and talk about the time when we were down here?" "Yes; why not?" "But you'd tell me that I used to belong to you and God wouldn't like that" "Well, then, we won't say anything about it, but we'll think about it all the same." "Yes, we'd keep it to ourselves. But if a nigger angel beats a white angel flying, there'll be trouble, won't there?" "There won't be anything of that. God won't let the nigger angels out-fly the white ones." There came a tap at the door a house-maid come to tell us that if we did not stop talking Old Miss would come in and whip us. We whispered and gig gled a long time, and then Bob fell asleep, and I lay there thinking of the white roses that had scented the parlor. It must have been very late for the lights were out everywhere, when I heard voices on the walk just below my window. I looked out cautiously and in the moonlight I saw Old Master and Dr. George Bates. Master was walking up and down, but the doctor stood still. "I want you to understand this," said the old man. "You are at perfect liberty to stay here as long as you 28 MY YOUNG MASTER choose and I will feed you and clothe you, but you must have nothing whatever to say about the running of my affairs. You are constantly meddling with things that don't concern you." "General, it is not my intention to interfere, I assure you." "But you do," said Old Master, making an emphatic motion. "You seem to think that I ought to divide my property with you. Get that out of your head as soon as you can." "It has never been in my head, General. I merely suggested that if you would give me Dan I would take him and go South." "Give you Dan! Confound it, haven't I told you that he belongs to Bob?" "Yes, but I didn't know but you gave him away just as a man sometimes gives a colt to a boy merely to claim." "I don't give things that way, sir." "I know, but your wife " "There, that will do." "She said that she thought that you might be induced " "Didn't I say that would do?" "Yes, sir, but let me finish, if you please. Of course MY YOUNG MASTER you know that my wife's share, whatever it amount to, will fall to me?" "Yes, if I so desire it, sir." "But I know you well enough to feel that you won't refuse me." "Now you are presuming upon my kindness, sir.** "No, sir; I am paying a tribute to your sense of jus tice. And now this is what I have agreed to do : to take Dan and wait until you are ready " "You have agreed with whom, sir?" Old Master broke in. "Oh, I don't know that it was exactly an agreement. I had a talk with your wife, and " "Infamous puppy!" Old Master cried, shaking his fist in the doctor's face. "Didn't I tell you that you'd gone far enough in that direction?" "General," said the doctor, stepping back, "you have insulted me." Old Master snorted. "Oh, I have insulted you, have I? Then I have done something that I thought must be impossible. Listen to me. You came here a beggar, with a doctor's sheep-skin under your arm; you are of a good family that I will not deny. But I say you came a beggar, and you won my child how, God only knows. You told me that you would prac- 80 MY YOUNG MASTER tice medicine on the plantation after you were married, but did >oxx?" "Why, yes, sir; I have attended many a case. You know one very well." "Oh, you have? Did you get out of bed when they sent for you one night to see old Aunt Mag? Didn't you complain that you were too sick to get up? And that very night, sir, didn't you slip away and play poker over the creek?" "Somebody has lied about me," the doctor declared. "I admit, sir, that lying has been done, but you did it." "General, I insist that you must not talk to me this way. I'm no dog." "If you were, sir, I would be more considerate of you." "Keep on and you'll say something that you may regret." Just at that moment Old Master had turned to walk down the path, but he wheeled about. "What's that? Say something that I may regret? I don't know about that, sir, but I may say something that you'll regret. I may tell you to get off this place, and I won't regret it, but you will." "That would be a scandal, General." MY YOUNG MASTER 31 "Yes, a disgrace to you." The old man walked down the path, tall and gaunt in the moon-light. He turned, and coming back, stepping slowly, he said: "But it is our duty to avoid anything in the nature of a rupture. So now, I'll tell you what I'll agree to do. I will give you Sam and money enough to go South, and when the time comes to divide the estate, you shall have your share. Now, I ask you if that is not fair?" "Yes, General, it is perfectly fair, but " "But what, sir?" Master snapped impatiently. "But I don't want Sam. I want Dan want to make a race rider of him." "What good will a race rider do you? You've got no horses." "I can get the horses." "But you can't get Dan, sir, so let the matter rest. Bates, I don't want to get mad, and I should think, sir, that in the light of our recent affliction " "I understand, General, and we'll let the subject drop, but if Bob should agree " "Stop, there, sir. Bob is not old enough to enter tain a business proposition." For a time the old man walked up and down, with his hands behind him and then turned upon the doctor. "I believe, sir, that you are an evil-minded man. For a long time I thought 32 MY YOUNG MASTER that your laziness was an indication of good nature the lazy dog is rarely vicious but now I am of the opinion that you have an active quality, that of rascal ity, sir." "General," said the doctor, "I can't stand every thing. You forget, sir, that I am a gentleman." "Oh, do I forget it?" the old man spoke up. "There is a difference between forgetting a thing and never having known it. Bates, I have endeavored to like you, I have striven to crush what I hoped was merely a prejudice, but I can't. I don't think that we have ever held an agreeable conversation. There is some thing about you that antagonizes me. When you are away I am determined to like you, but when you come back, I find that my resolve is weak. I don't want to drive you off I would stand most anything rather than face a neighborhood scandal, but don't you think that it would be a good idea for you to go away and ttay away for a long time? I say, don't you?" "You can drive me off, sir." "Ah, the very thing you want me to do you want to put my name into the mouths of the gossipers." "General, you have called me a scoundrel and now you are trying to prove it. I can stand a great deal, but I can't put up with everything even from you. I MY YOUNG MASTER 33 have told you that I am a gentleman, and while a gen tleman respects age, he cannot permit age to humiliate him. I know that you've got nerve enough to shoot a man who rides into your room " "Another word of that, Bates, and I will knock you down." "You have gone too far," Bates replied in a tone that made me shiver. The moon shone upon his half upturned face and I fancied that I saw the glitter of his evil eyes. Master, who was now standing some dis tance from him said something which I did not catch and Bates, with his hand upraised, made a stride toward him. At my elbow, on a stand near the win dow, was a heavy glass tumbler. Indeed, I had long held it in my hand, and when Bates strode forward, I threw the tumbler with all my might. I heard it strike, and leaning out, I saw the doctor lying on the ground. I heard Old Master shout for a light, and now thoroughly frightened, I ran to my lounge and lay there with the cover drawn over my head. CHAPTER V. Early at morning Old Master came into our rooia I was awake but Bob was still asleep. "Dan/' he said, "I want to ask you something and I want you to tell me the truth, and if you don't, I'll whip you within an inch of your life, sir." He always said sir when he strove to be emphatic. "Were you at the window last night when the doctor and I were standing down in the yard? It was you or Bob, I don't know which, and as you are a night-hawk, sir, I believe it was you." '' "Yes, sir," I answered promptly. And then I trem blingly asked: "Is he dead?" The old man turned from me and strode up and down the room. He went to the window, looked out. and with his hands behind him, came walking slowly toward me. "Dan," he said, "I told you to be a good boy and that you would one day you remember what I said. But now I must ask you to tell a lie. You must say that you were trying to put down the window and knocked the tumbler off. Do you hear me?" "Yes, sir." (tt) MY YOUNG MASTER 35 "All right. After breakfast I will send for you and Bob to come into the library." He went out and I thought that he tip-toed as he went down the stairs. At breakfast I stood behind my young master's chair, until the meal was over, and then I went to the kitchen to eat with the house-maids. Presently I was told by a spinning woman that Old Master wanted to see me in the library. "An' he's ez mad ez a ho'net," she said. "Mars. George wuz badly hurt las' night an' da gwine fin' out who done it, too, I tell you." Old Aunt Mag stood in the door. "But whut da want ter sen' fur dis po', muderless chile fur?" she spoke up. "Da's questioned all de rest o' de niggers, an' now da gwine put him on de hot griddle. Dat ain't no way ter act, snatchin' up er little boy an' cuzin' him o' knockin' er big man down. But run er long, Dan, an stan' square up. Ricolleck dat you ain't no common nigger ricolleck dat you doan b'long ter de Smifs ur de Bucks nur de Brizzentines. You'ze er Gradley an' b'longs ter folks, I tell you." In the library were assembled Old Master, Old Miss, young Miss May, Bob and 'Squire Boyle, who hap pened in about breakfast time. I looked about as I entered the room, and I saw the doctor, lying on a 36 MY YOUNG MASTER sofa, with his head tied up. Old Master's head begpr % to shake with anger as soon as he saw me coming ii^, "Dan," he said, "last night your Mars. George and I were standing in the yard under the window of your Mars. Bob's room, and this tumbler, sir " here he reached back and took a tumbler from a desk "this tumbler, sir, struck him on the head and cut him badly. Your Mars. Bob doesn't know anything about it. Do you? Come, no lying, or I'll whip you within an inch of your life." "He ought to be skinned alive," Old Miss declared, giving her head an emphatic nod. "Just wait and I'll take care of him," said Old Mas ter. "What do you know about it?" he repeated, looking at me savagely. "I went to put down the window, sir, and knocked it off," I stammered. "Do you hear that?" Old Miss exclaimed. "Yes, I hear it," said Old Master, quivering with rage. "You went to put down the window? And why did you want to put down the window, sir?" "I thought it was going to rain." "Hump!" Old Miss grunted, "the yellow imp has turned out to be a weather prophet." "Madam," said Old Master, "let me manag% him, if MY YOUNG MASTER fl please. You thought it was going to rain?" he on, turning to me. "And what made you think to?" "I thought I heard it thunder." "Oh, you did? Well, you shall hear it thundet. Madam, give me your cow-hide." I don't know that I ever saw my old mistress spring up with such agility. She snatched the cow-hide out of some mysterious hiding place, handed it to him and said: "And, for pity's sake, see that you give him enough of it." "You shan't whip him!" Bob cried. "If you whip him you've got to whip me, too." "Robert!" Old Miss shouted, "I'll give it to you in good earnest if you don't keep quiet. Your father knows what he's about. Sit down there." Bob was forced back into his seat and Miss May, beautiful and tender creature, began to beg for me. "Hush, everybody!" Old Master thundered. "Has it come to a pass when I am not permitted to manage my own affairs? Come with me, Dan." He took me by the collar and led me into the store room. "Take off that coat!" he shouted, and as I was obeying him he said in a low and kindly tone. "Now you must yell as if I were cutting you in two," and 4:49677 38 with that he fell afoul of a sack of coffee and with the cow-hide laid the lash on furiously. I yelled at the top of my lusty voice, and during the intervals when my ears were not submerged by the torrent of my own outcry, I heard the revengeful step of Old Miss, up and down the passage-way. "Now goj" Old Master roared, "and the next time you hear it thunder, let tumblers alone." I came out buttoning up my jacket and Old Miss gave me a smile of welcome. But Bob and Miss May stood in the library door, crying; and to this day it is a dear memory that Miss May ran to the dining-room and brought me a sugared biscuit. Old Master and 'Squire Boyle strode out into the yard, and I saw Old Master lean upon the gate and laugh. During all that day I was the object of a pitying regard. 'To' little feller," was heard about the cabin door-ways and upon the sward, and there was many a sullen muttering and the shaking of nappy heads. Bob was furious, having come out of his tears into the territory of bold and resentful anger, and he blamed his mother with my unjust punishment, persisting until the old lady caught him ungently, slipped a soft shoe from her foot, and paddled him until the maudlin calves in a distant enelosure heeded his cries with bleatings of sympathy. And when he found himself . free of his mother's avenging- clutch, he ran to me and blubbering, said: "Come on, Dan. We'll go down to the creek and drown ourselves." This suggestion was in harmony with my sorrowful view, for now I felt worse than if Master had cut the blood out of me, and together we set out for the swimming-hole at the edge of the walnut grove. At times we halted to bid fare well to objects that were dear to us, the great oak from which the big gate swung, the smooth rock where we had so often sat at twilight. The horses nodded a farewell and the cows lowed at us. "It ain't our fault," said Bob, "and when they take us out of the creek dead, I want them to know it. But I don't think they'll cry very much. How can they, when they have tried to kill us?" "It won't make any difference to us whether they cry or not," I replied. "We won't know anything about it." We came to the swimming-hole and the water was blue and deep. Upon the grass under a tree we sat and gazed in silence into the pool. "We'll take off our clothes," said Bob, "and then when they find us they'll think that we were drowned accidentally and that will make 'em cry." 40 MY YOUNG MASTER The song of a plow-man came floating through the soft air; a blue-jay above us shrieked in a fit of merri ment; a cat-bird laughed at us and we looked at each other. "Mars. Bob," said I, "he didn't hurt me much." "But I thought he was killing you by the way you hollered." "Yes, but he told me to. I'll tell you something if you'll cross your heart that you'll never tell anybody." He crossed his heart and I told him, and he lay back and laughed. "But you were whipped in earnest," I said. "Yes, but it didn't hurt. Ho, think that old shoe could hurt me! Let's go in swimming?" We snatched off our clothes and into the water we plunged, but a damper was put upon my enjoyment, for looking up I saw the doctor standing near the bank. A bandage was over one eye, and with the other one he gave me a hard and evil look. "You boys get out of there," he commanded. Bob rebelled against his order, but I obeyed, and as I was putting on my clothes he came up, cut at my bare legs with a switch, doing so, I suppose, to leave no doubt as to his presence. "Hurry up," he said. "Go and catch my horse; I want to go to town." MY YOUNG MASTER 4} Bob came out. "He don't have to catch your horse, Brother George. Make Sam catch your horse. Dan belongs to me." "I have heard enough of that and I don't want to hear any more," the doctor replied. "Go catch my horse," he added, turning to me. "I will if Mars. Bob says so," I replied "You'll do it if I say so." "No, I won't." He rushed at me with his switch, but I dodged, leaped into the water and swam to the opposite shore. Bob clapped his hands in glee, and the doctor shook his switch at me. "I've had my eye on you for some time, you impudent scoundrel," he shouted, "and the first thing you know, I'll skin you alive. You can keep out of my way for a while, but not always. See this?" he cried, tapping his bandaged head. "I know and I'll make you pay for it." CHAPTER VI. I hid about the place during the day, sometimes peeping- at the doctor from the hay-loft, sometimes dodging behind a cabin to keep out of his way, con stantly wishing that Old Master might come ; and late in the afternoon I saw him walking in the garden with his hands behind him. The doctor was not far away, and I knew that he would discover me if I should dart out from my hiding place, but I did finally and he yelled at me, but I ran to Old Master, looking back in fright as I approached him. "Tut, tut, there!" he cried. "What are you run ning about this way for, tramping down everything? First thing you know I'll give you another whipping within an inch of your life!" "Marster!" I cried, clinging to him, "the doctor is after me!" "Well, he won't get you. Turn me loose. Hang about near me, but don't let your mistress see you. The doctor's going away to-morrow to be gone some time. Here he comes now. Go on to the house." (42) MY YOUNG MASTER 43 I passed the doctor, skirting far into a flower bed to give him plenty of room; he glowered at me and said nothing. But I knew that he would let slip no opportunity to harm me, and that night Bob and I barricaded our door. He had an old horse pistol that wouldn't shoot, and I had a broken saber, and we took turn about standing guard behind our breast-works. "You've been there long enough. Come on and lie down and let me stay there awhile?" he would say; and he never failed to add: "And you must pretend like you're asleep." At morning I awoke in bed and found Bob asleep behind the barricade. I aroused him, and he jumped up and declared that he had stood guard all night, and hadn't slept a wink. I pretended to believe him, and he rewarded me with a crock marble and a biscuit covered with sugar. Early that morning I had the satisfaction of seeing my enemy, the doctor, leave the plantation, and then followed a day of happiness, playing up and down the creek. At the house one other enemy was left, Old Miss, but I did not hate her, for her dislike of me could be none other than a divine right, something which I would not permit myself to question. She was cold and proud, and rarely did she give way to 44 the affection which she must have felt for her own children. It was said that she could trace her origin back to great warriors, and this gave a reason for her pride and her coldness; but Old Master's forefathers also were great fighters and statesmen, and yet he was warm-hearted and sympathetic. Aunt Mag told me that Old Miss had refused to marry Henry Clay because he was poor, and had always regretted it, but I could not see why, for surely my master was as great as Clay. The evening after the doctor left us, I was lying on the ground near the stone steps leading to the broad hall, when I heard Master and Old Miss talking. They were sitting on the portico and did not see me. "I told him," said Master, "that he might draw on me for what money he actually needs, but that I would put up with no extravagance. Of course, he has a sort of a claim, but I don't intend that he shall embarrass me in any way." She cleared her throat with a rasp that always made me shudder. "He surely has a claim," she replied. "Well, that's what I said, didn't I?" "Yes, but you seem to think that it is not much of a claim." "I don't seem to think anything of the sort He MY YOUNG MASTER 45 shall have everything that is due him. But, madam, the truth of it is, he is of no account." "He is a gentleman." "In what way?" I peeped up and saw him look hard at her. "In what way has he shown himself a gentleman?" "He was born a gentleman," Old Miss replied. "Born one, yes. His father and mother may have been good stock, but I tell you that he's a scrub. Still I will give him what's due him." "Oh, I know that." "Then there needn't be any further discussion about it." "No," she said, "not so far as I am concerned." And after a pause she asked: "What's your object in sending Bob over to school at Lay field?" "To learn something, of course." "But why can't he go to school at home? Can't he learn something here?" "We have had a teacher for him here and he has done no good." "Yes, but can't you send him to school at the Acad emy in town?" "I could do it, of course, but I would rather have him go away. It will make him more important in* 46 MY YOUNG MASTER his own estimation wHl give him more confidence in himself." "Is Dan going with him?" "Oh, I knew what you were driving at. Yes," he almost shouted, "Dan is going with him." "I don't see why. Why not send Sam with him?"" "Madam, is it necessary to explain to you that Dan is the property property " "I know all about that. But they are too much like companions, and will study together." He looked hard at her. "Study together? And what of that?" "I don't want a child of mine studying with a negro. He has no business to study. He knows enough already! Educate him and he will be of no account on the face of the earth. I never knew it to fail. Mason had an educated negro, and what became of him? He ran away and went north and told a pack of lies about the people in this State, about the cruel ties he had suffered, and the abolition papers are still harping on it." "Yes, that's all true enough," said Old Master, "but in Dan's case it will be different. He is not likely to pick up much learning, and besides he's grateful. He'll never run away." MY YOUNG MASTER 4J ; I have ben thinking," she said, "that we might " "Might do what?" Master snapped before she had finished. "Well, you know how much the doctor desires that boy. Why not let him " "Madam!" Master thundered, "don't you know that the boy belongs to Bob? How long will it take you to learn that? Must I keep forever dinging it into your ears?" "Well, you needn't get mad about it." "That's true, and I beg your pardon. But just let me manage it, if you please. I believe you said yes terday that our carriage is getting too old for you to ride about in?" "Yesterday? I have talked about it for the past year!" "Yes, so you have. Well, you may go to Louis ville yourself and select one to suit you." That night I told Bob that we were going off to school together, and we grabbed each other in our CHAPTER VII. The next day we were bundled off to school, dis tant more than thirty miles, driven by the family coachman. Old Master and Old Miss walked with us as far as the big gate that opened into a street of the town. I say, walked with us, but they walked with Bob, I keeping close pace behind, constantly afraid that my mistress would turn upon me with her stout parasol, yet too discreet to fall farther back, lest I might by this show of caution call her wrath upon me. At the gate, when the driver got off his seat and stood by the open door of the carriage, Old Miss put her arms about Bob, with more of affection than I had ever seen her show, and bade him be a good boy and keep his mind on his book. She kissed him time and again and then she turned to me, Old Master standing there waiting for the end of her part of the ceremony: "Dan," she said, "I want you to black his shoes every morning." This, with the tears in her eyes, and with sorrow in her voice, touched a foolish sense within me and I giggled, dodging wisely as I did so; and it was (48) MY YOUNG MASTER 49 well that I did, for in a fury she struck at me with her parasol. "The infamous imp!" she cried, "standing there laughing at me. General," she demanded, stamping the ground, "wear your cane out on him. I won't be treated in such a manner I won't put up with everything from that ape." My impulse was to run, but I killed it with a gentler resolve; I dropped upon my knees in the dust of the road and humbly begged her pardon. This act of grace was most effective. This humility, done, I fancy, with some show of gallantry, won her for the moment, and bowing to me she said: "I know you didn't mean it, Dan. There, go on and be a good boy." We bade them good-bye and were rolled away, and hour after hour, amid the changing scenes of that charming country, a vision of that woman stood before me, bowing, and my heart was warmer toward her than it had ever been. Strange, and now almost incomprehensible life absolute despotism in free America. The Layfield school was set among romantic hills. As a seat of learning, it was unpretentious. The main bouse, was of brick, with dormer windows and green blinds; the other buildings were cottages, mostly of 50 MY YOUNG MASTER logs, scattered along a shaded avenue, leading down to the banks of a green river; and I remember that the first sight of this great stream (it must have been fifty feet wide, but it was an Amazon to me, fresh from the little creek running through the pasture) thrilled me with a mysterious delight. Upon a near approach though, I was disappointed, not at its size, but at its quietude; for if our creek could sing, why did not this river shout? And it gave no sound save a low murmur almost as still as silence. The master of Layfield Academy was an old man with long, white hair. He received us most kindly and himself went with us to the cottage we were to occupy, together with a number of boys, sons of wealthy men, many of them attended by the unmis takable mark of Blue Grass gentility the favored slave. And it was not without a feeling of pride that I heard a young fellow say, "Gradley's got the best- looking nigger in the crowd." My master and I occu pied a small, but comfortable room, that is, comfort able for him, but with regard to me, the line was closer drawn than it had been at home, for inste.ad of sleeping upon a lounge, I was assigned to a rug upon the floor. Bob did not like this, and he grumbled to the Master and was told very emphatically that he MY YOTTNG MASTER 51 must not seek to interfere with the time-honored regu lations of that great educational household. I soon found that my life here was not to be altogether peace ful, for the spirit of rivalry existing among the young masters extended to the slaves. And of a Saturday those blood-loving spirits would match their "niggers" against one another like cocks in a pit and bet on the result. My master was too young to be a leader, but he was forced to take a part in the sport, and it redounded to my credit when I bloodied the flat nose of a black fellow who strove to knock me out of a ring. This made Bob an important factor, gave him a new bearing, and I remember that I lay down upon my rug with a feeling of pride. "Oh, we'll show 'em what's what," Bob declared. "And after I whip Saunders, we'll be way up." "But do you think you can whip him?" I asked. The moon was shining into our room and I saw him rise up in bed. "Why, of course I can. And the fight is set for to-morrow." "He's bigger'n you," I remarked. "Yes, but he hasn't got the blood. His people don't amount to anything. You just wait." I had to wait, but it was not with any great confi dence, for Saunders was a lusty youth. I expressed 52 no further fear, however, and early in the morning I rubbed my master down with a coarse towel and with him set out for the battle ground. Saunders was already there, with a party of boys about him, feeling the muscles in his arms. The affair was conducted with great secrecy, and each warrior had to promise that in case his teeth were knocked out he would swear that he had fallen down. I was nervous. The negro boys looking at me, shook their heads. The line was drawn and the combatants stationed. The word was given and I looked away. Then followed the sound of quick blows then came a shout, all before I looked toward the ring. And when I did look, I saw Saund ers on the ground. I threw up my hat and shouted, whereupon a yellow fellow who belonged to Saunders struck me. Well, when we went back to our quarters my master and I both were heroes. And now, having established his standing, Young Master was permitted to enter upon his studies. This had all happened within a week. It was here that a desire to learn first took strong hold of me. Of course I did not presume to own a book, or to study one except at night, when Bob and I were alone. In a negro any show of intellectual ambition was looked upon as a rebellion against the MY YOUNG MASTER 53 unwritten law of society, and thus to steal the mind- mysteries that made the white man great was doubly sweetened. I kept so good a pace with Bob that in me he sometimes found a helper over rough places, and- 1 even now recall with pride that one night he looked at me admiringly and said : "Dan, it's a shame that you ain't a white boy." At the end of the fourth week, Old Master and Old Miss drove over in the carriage. The president of the school met them with great ceremony and would not let them rest until he had shown them through his establishment. Bob went with them and I was per mitted to hang behind, upon the implied condition that I was not to hear anything that was said. But I did hear and I remembered. In one corner of the main recitation room was a globe and shelves holding numerous books, to me the most learned spot in the world; and here the company halted. "These books," said the president, "are kept here in constant view of the student to stimulate his ambi tion, to force upon his mind the power and the import ance of thought. He has heard of the earth's great minds, and here he finds the fruit of those minds. I do not believe in shutting books in a stuffy room, sir; they ought to be where the sun-light, the companion of 54 MY YOUNG MASTER learning, can constantly fall upon them. Ah, and I am sure that as time passes your son will draw many a draft from this well. Won't you, Robert?" Bob looked at him, while his parents waited for his answer, and said: "I like books with pictures in 'em." "Ah, quite a shrewd remark," declared the presi dent, putting his hand upon Bob's head. "His thought turns upon art, no mean branch of learning, I assure you. Of course, he is as yet too young to be consulted, General, but have you thought upon any profession for him?" "The law," Old Master answered. "The ministry," said Old Miss. "Maw, what's that?" Bob asked. "I want you to be a preacher," his mother replied, drawing him toward her, buttoning his jacket and then unbuttoning it. "I don't want to be a preacher. They don't have any fun!" "Hush, sir," she said. "Your grandfather was a preacher." "But he didn't have any fun.'* "Hush, I tell you." "I will, but did he have any fun?" Old Master chuckled and Mistress ave him a sour MY YOUNG MASTER 55 look. The president coughed. "Both the law and the ministry are learned professions," he said, "and I have no doubt that our little man would grace either calling." 'Bob," said Mistress, "show me your sleeping room. You needn't come with us," she added, speaking to the president. "We will not presume to take up any more of your time you've been so very, very kind, I assure you." I think that the president would have urged his attendance, but that he was afraid to show how much ;ime he could spare, so he bowed and said : "I thank you for the confidence you have reposed in me, placing your son in my charge, and I assure you that I shall do my utmost by him. Now, make yourselves per fectly at home." Old Miss turned up her nose when she entered our room. "Whew, it smells like a bear's den," she said, and Old Master's spare frame shook with laughter. "And for pity sake, what have you got in this cup?" she asked, looking at a tin can on a table. "Fish-worm oil," Bob spoke up rather proudly. "We dug the worms and roasted their oil out. Rub it on my legs so I can run fast." Master snorted and Mistress turned to me. "Dan," 56 MY TOtTNG MASTER she asked, clearing her throat with a dry rasp, "isn't this one of your negro superstitions? Didn't you put him up to it?" "Madam," said Old Master before I could reply, "the knowledge of the efficacy of angle-worm oil comes down from the ancients and I am astonished that you should impute it to negro superstition. Leander, before trusting himself to the torrent of the Hellespont, rubbed himself with it, and if you read closely, you will find that Byron went through the same performance before tempting the same feat. Haven't you read of the angle-worm oil bearer at the Olympian games?" He slyly turned his face away to laugh, and Old Miss, like all pretentious persons, afraid of the weapon of wisdom, was willing enough to change the subject. "I am glad to see that you are learning," she said to Bob, "but I don't want you to learn things that will be of no particular use to you. By the way, General, I don't want you to school him into the notion of becom ing a lawyer or a doctor." "Surely not a doctor," Master replied. "We have one doctor in the family and he is quite sufficient unto himself. What's that in the Bible, 'sufficient unto MY YOUNG MASTER 57 the day is the evil thereof ? That's it. Well it suits him any way. ' ' Old Miss sat down, gathering her skirts that they might touch nothing. "General, that's no way to talk," she said. She looked about and cried suddenly: "Why, is that a poultice there on the mantle-piece?" "Boxing glove," said Bob, and Old Master roared again. "General!" she spoke up in sharp reproof, "I do wish you wouldn't stimulate disrespect by your con stant tittering and teheeing. One would think that you had sent the boy here as a monster joke. To send a child away from home is no jest, I assure you." "Madam," said Master, winking at us, lifting the tails of his long coat and seating himself on a corner of the table, "it makes me young again to come into a place like this, and being young I must be foolish. Well," he added after a pause, "do you want to stay here to-night, or shall we stop on the road?" "We might as well go," she answered, getting up. "There's nothing to be done here. Bob, you must write to me every other day. And Dan, I want you to see that his shoes are blacked every morning." And here, remembering the disrespect that I had shown her in the road, she seized her parasol as if to strike me. But with hypocritical gallantry (shrewd rascal that I was) I dropped upon one knee, caught her hand impulsively and assured her that my young master's comfort and good appearance should be the study of my life. And in her eyes there was a light of real kindliness. "There, get up," she said. "I am glad to see that you are improving. General, we may make a respectable servant of him yet." When the carriage had rolled away, Bob and I ran back to the room, locked the door, rubbed our joints with the fish-worm oil and wrestled with each other in ecstasy, CHAPTER VIII. How hallowed and sun-glinted that school life now seems to me. Many a grave has been opened and closed, the roots of many a greenbriar is embedded in the ashes of a heart that was once alive with fire, the fierce passion of life. The sun is still shining, and the arch of God's many-hued lithograph is still seen in the sky, and hearts have fire shut within them, but I won der if the sun is as bright as it was in the long ago, if the rain-bow is as purple, if the fire in the heart is as glowing. Ah, and I know that my grand-children, in the far-away years to come, will lean feebly upon the gate and wonder if the world is as full of light as it was. Every emotion you have felt you may know has been felt by other men. It is this that makes nearly all poetry seem old ; it is this that sends true poetry to the human heart. I will not linger over those days at school , I have sought thus far to picture my early life, not that it held incident, but that it revealed a condition. Time has been so sweeping, the hot blast that blew from the North (59) 60 MY YOUNG MASTER was so scorching, and left such dried and brittle where green memories grew, that the youth of to-day can scarcely bring himself to comprehend that strange democratic absolutism which once existed in the South. And I wonder now that it could have lasted so long, though for years the wonder was that it could so soon have been broken up. How odd now it would seem to point out a man and say, "He once owned, in this land of freedom, a hundred human beings owned them in body, but Christian-like yielded to God the direction of their souls." During the regular sessions, until he had reached his eighteenth year, my young master attended the Layfield Academy, and then he was entered at Center College. I had kept well up with him, a dead secret between us, for Old Mistress had more than once made him promise that I should be kept down upon the ser vants' proper level. But the secret was discovered and once it was held threateningly over me. Bob and I were home to spend the Christmas holi days. On the plantation was an Ethiopian Lothario, named Steve, and one evening in his cabin he asked me if I would write for him a letter to a mulatto girl who lived on a distant farm. "I want you," said he, "ter fling in jest ez much sweet pizen ez you kin, caze MY YOUNG MASTER (ft I lubs dat lady an' her head is monstus high. I yered de white preacher say sumfin dat he 'lowed wuz frum de dead language. An' kain't you ^ash in er little o' dat dead talk? I know it'll fetch her "aze dat preach er's dead talk fotch me." "How do you know I can write?" I asked, for I had curbed the pedantic instinct of the negro blood within me and except to a few trusted friends had dropped no hint that I could even read. "Oh, I 'lowed dat ez smart er boy ez you gwine oft ter school an' college wid his young marster oughter larn how ter do dat. Will you write de letter fur me?" I wrote him a screed that made his eyes snap when I read it to him. It was a mixture of cold Latin gram mar and warm persuasion. "Ah, Lawd," he said as he sat, tallowing his Sunday shoes, "ef dat doan fetch her she ain't ter be fotch." He folded the letter, and when he had put it into his pocket he turned upon me. "Oh, yas, you goes off ter school an' Tarns dead talk an* de rest o' us hatter sweat in de fiel'. An' de fust thing we knows you'll be crossin' de Ohio riber ter make speeches 'mong dem 'litionists. I'm gwine tell Ole Miss." "What!" I cried, "after I have written a letter for you?" 62 MY YOTJNG MASTER "Oh, I kain't hep de letter. Dat wuz er wuz er matter o' fack. But it ain't er matter o' fack dat you'se been trying ter put yo-se'f up 'mong de white fo'ks, er turnin' up yo' nose at us caze you'se whiter an' got mo' dead talk den we has." "Steve," I pleaded, "please don't tell her. I couldn't help learning something, and I pledge you my word that I don't know much. Why, there are hundreds of negroes all about here that can read as well as I can and their masters think nothing of it." "Doan you fool yo'se'f 'bout dat, honey. Dar's er heap said erbout it. Da reads dem little flat books ter de uder niggers an' da gits whupped fur it, too. And de fust thing we knows you'll be readin' trouble on dis plan'ation. I'm gwine ter de house in de mornin' an' tell Ole Miss." "Yes, and if you do, I'll have you whipped. Young Master won't put up with such an interference with his affairs. I belong to him and not to Old Miss." "Ah, hah, but whut Ole Miss say comes mighty nigh bein' law sometimes. I'se had my eye on you fur er laung time, an' I'd like might'ly ter see you out yander in de fiel' er brilin* er laung side o' me." I argued with him, threatened him, but it was of no use. He shook his head and declared that he would MY YOUNG MASTER 63 tell Old Miss. And the next day he proved his mean nature. I kept a close watch on him and saw him start toward the house just as Old Miss stepped out upon the veranda. I can see him now, wool hat under arm, bowing to her. I knew that he expected a reward and I wondered what it would be. She listened^ and greatly to my surprise replied : "Well, I hope he'll learn enough to behave himself." "But goodness me, Ole Miss, ain't you gwine gib me suthin' fur all dis?" the rascally tell-tale pleaded. She took out a small piece of money, tossed it to him and said : "There. And now I want you to remember one thing don't come to me with any more stories." She saw me as I dodged behind a corner of the dairy, and called me to her. "Dan," she said as I came up the steps, "I thought you had more sense than to create jealousies by exhibiting the crumbs of knowl edge your master has permitted you to pick from under his table?" I looked at her in surprise; surely the idea was not her own, but in her expression of it there was almost a majestic rebuke. I can see her now as she stood, her gray eyes fixed upon me, her silver-streaked hair parted flat, a bunch of authoritative keys hanging from her girdle. I gave her the all effective knee-bend of 64 MY YOUNG MASTER submission, and recounted briefly the manner In which the black rascal had snared me. This amused her and she laughed with a cold cackle, but she did not strike me with her keys, as I had feared she would, though the memory of that feelingless laugh lived with me longer than the ache of a blow would have lasted on my head. Old Master came walking slowly out of the hall, with his spectacles on and with a letter in his hand. "Madam," he said, "Doctor Bates is coming back. Dan, saddle the sorrel horse and bring him round to the front gate." I hastened to the stable, musing upon the return of that trouble-brewing man. He had been home a num ber of times while Bob and I were off at school, but I had not seen him. More than once I had half sus pected that he sought to marry Miss May, to fasten another grip upon the estate, but it did not seem possi ble that so gentle a woman could marry so hard a man. Yet, I was wise enough to know that we can never tell. A woman's heart is like a bird, beating upon the win dow at night, dazzled by the promise of a warmth within a glowing room, and seeing not an icy cruelty sitting beside the fire, lying in wait for a tender victim. While I was holding the horse, waiting for Master to mount, he paused, with his hand on the horn of the aiY YOUNG MASTER saddle and said: "Dan, when your Mars. George gets here, I want you to treat him with the greatest respect. Do you hear?" "Master," I replied grandiloquently, "I might fail to hear it thunder, but I cannot fail to hear what you say." He looked at me and remarked: "Look here, you are getting to be a good deal of a d d fool." But I saw him chuckling as he turned his head away, and I knew that he was pleased. Masters liked the flattery of their slaves, and this is the reason that there is so much cozenage, even in the negro of to-day. "Do you know why he is coming back?" I ventured to ask. "Coming back because this is his home, sir. And I don't want you to presume to ask such questions, sir. Well," he said, noticing that I was still holding the bridle, "are you going to let me go, or must I stand here until you are ready to release me?" "I beg your pardon," I replied, stepping back. "All right," he said as he rode away, and looking back he added : "Remember that I want you to treat him with the greatest of respect." CHAPTER IX. Doctor Bates came two days later and I saw him at breakfast a? I stood behind my Young Master's chair, I was surprised to see that the years had touched him so lightly. Indeed, he appeared but little older than at the time I had hrown the glass tumbler at his head. And this set me to a study of all the faces about me. How slowly they had aged while Young Master and I had grown so fast! The doctor was dressed beyond any former mood of neatness, blue broad-cloth coat and ruffled shirt; and Miss May was beautiful in a long, beflowered gown. There had been a heavy frost, and a low, cheer-giving roar came from the logs in the great fire-place. Outside the negroes were singing and dancing in the crisp air. The looms and the spin ning wheels were hushed; it was a time for music, for feasting, for jollification a whole week of "colored freedom." The talk at the table was full of jest, for in the midst of the company was a great bowl of egg- nog. And even the steely eyes of my old mistress snapped with pleasant mischief. (66) MY YOUNG MASTER egan to lag, and Mars. Bob must have divined my thoughts for he strove to enliven it. "Father," said he, "I am ready now to take up law at any time you may suggest. I think that I have had enough of miscellaneous training I have read nearly every book in your library." "Take your degree, sir; take your degree," Old Master replied. "That, sir, is a mere matter of form." "And a form to be observed, sir to be observed/* "Yes," said Mars. Bob, "but my reading teaches me drat an orator can be trained down to a point too fine it may weaken his passion, dim his fire with too much judgment, hem him in with too much criticism and compel him to dodge. I think that it was Greek art, sir, that kept Ben Johnson from creating great . characters. The perfection of Greek form rendered it impossible for him to give us anything save talking moralities." 90 MY YOUNG MASTBtt "Sophistry!" Old Master shouted, and upon the young man he turned with such a storm that I found my opportunity to escape. In the parlor the light was dim, the flame in the fire place not yet having enveloped logs recently put on, and in my eagerness to get into my hiding-place, I overturned a chair. It struck the floor with a deafen ing noise, I thought, and as I put it back into place I listened for approaching footsteps, but heard nothing save Old Master's loud-toned talk upon the necessity of observing all beneficial forms. I could not under stand what he said, nor did I halt long enough to try, but leaping behind the old sofa, stretched myself out upon the floor. Of course every sound about the house was now increased to new volume, and of course my heart beat so hard upon the floor that I was afraid that someone might hear it. A cat came in and purred against the legs of the sofa, a yellow, hateful creature that all previous coaxing had failed to induce to come near me; and I scolded at her under my breath, but she rubbed against me, and mewed as if to invite dis covery of my shame. I knew that I must get rid of her, and I think that once I felt in my pocket to find my knife to cut her throat, but by a slight noise was frightened out of this cruel intention. I did not parley YOUNG MASTER 81 with her, though I picked her up, clambered over the sofa, raised the window and as she clawed at me, threw her out. And I had just time enough to hasten back to my hiding-place when I heard foot-steps in the hall. There was no opening through which I could see what was passing, for my peeping-place commanded but a view of the hearth and the rug spread in front of it. Presently upon the parlor carpet came the doctor's footsteps I knew them well and the soft rustle of skirts. For a few moments the doctor stood on the rug, and the skirts, which I could just see, showed me that Miss May had sat down in a rocking chair. I fancied that the doctor was lighting a cigar, and about the time I thought he must have it going, he sat down not far from Miss May. For a long time they talked of neighborhood happenings, parties, marriages, deaths she as artless as a child, frank and cheerful; but he, sly and insinuating. He told her of his adven tures, with race horses in the East and with gamblers on the Mississippi River, and her exclamations from time to time told me of the effect the recital had upon her; and I could well understand it, for indeed the rascal interested me. Sometimes I thought that he had wandered so far from the subject which had on his part induced this communion that I did not see how he 82 MY YOUNG MASTER was to approach it, but somehow he found his way back, though not with perfect ease, for I saw my young mistress move her chair in her embarrassment. "And May," he said, "during all these years, while you were growing and blooming, my mind dwelt upon you and but for you, I don't think that I should have cared to live" "Why, Brother George/' she broke in, "what are you saying?" "May, listen to me a moment. Don't call me brother call me George. Wait a moment, please." There was a flouncing of her skirts and I thought that she must have been getting out of the rocking chair. "You look frightened when, indeed, this should be as quiet as the time when you say your prayers. May, I am no longer as poor a man as I was " "But, brother, has anyone reproached you with your poverty?" she asked. "There you go, calling me brother again. Not lately, but in the past, yes. I have eaten the bitter bread of the dependent "Don't say that," she protested. "Did you invite me here to tell me this? Tell me more of your adven tures?" "May, you are not a child." MY YOUNG MASTER 88 "Well, no," she laughed. "I am really getting along in years. I am much older than Bob, and you know he is nearly a man now." "We are all getting along in years," he replied. "Time is cutting the pigeon wing. But now let me talk seriously to you. Your memory of my devotion to your sister Lou must still be fresh, and God knows I loved her, but May, my love for you is greater, passes all understanding, and I ask you to be my wife." He was leaning toward her, for his hands came down within the sweep of my vision. It was some time before she replied, and I lay there waiting, my heart beating loud. He had so impressed her that she Was seeking to frame a graceful answer. Could it be that she was thinking of accepting him? She got out of the chair and her skirts whisked about as if she had turned toward the door. I lost sight of the doctor's hand and I saw his feet move. "May, please don't go!" he pleaded. "Doctor Bates," she said, "you insult me and the memory of my sister. I am going to marry a man that I love and that you hate, although you have seen him but oce." 84 MY YOUNG MASTER "You don't mean John Marston, of New Orleans?'' he almost cried. "Yes, I do. I am going- to marry him." "May, if you do I will shoot him." She laughed. "Oh, you might kill him if called to attend him, doctor, but you will not shoot him." "I will pass your insults, Miss. One more moment, please? Does your mother know about it?" "I have honored you first, Doctor. See what confi dence I have in you? I have made my own choice and have consulted no one. Perhaps it might have been better if my poor sister had done the same." "You shall not insult me this way. I'll call your father." "Do, puppy." She whisked out of the room, and I felt myself rising from the floor, so strong was my impulse to spring upon the scoundrel and choke him, but when I straightened up, he was no longer in the room. I hastened to my young master, whom I knew was wait ing for me up stairs, and I almost flung myself into the room. There he sat near a table with two pistols lying upon it. He strove to control himself, but he was bit ing fcis lip as he looked up at me. "WW1," he said. MY OT>XG MASTER gft "It is well," I replied. "Out with it tell me. What did she do?" "She called him a puppy," I replied. And then IP told him all that had passed, and he listened, motion less, wtih his hand lying across the two pistols. CHAPTER Xf. Early in the morning I arose and kindled a fire and sat beside it, waiting for my master to awake. The day was still and cold, and what was unusual with us, a dark fog lay low on the land, like the skeleton of night left hanging in the air of dawn. Master turnedoverand I looked round at him. He did not notice me ; he lay upon his back with one arm under his head, his great brown eyes wide open, a graceful curl of hair upon his classic brow. A piece of poplar kindling snapped and he looked at me. "Dan," he said, rising up, and propping his shoulders against the head-board, "what was it you said last night about John Marston?" "I repeated what Miss May said; that she was going to marry him." "Why, he hasn't been here very often." "But that doesn't seem to have made much differ ence," I replied. He smiled at me. "Love comes once and is ever present afterward," he said, half musingly. And then (86) MY YOUNG MASTER 87 rousing himself he added : "I am so much pleased to know that she is beyond the artifices of that nimble wolf that the prospect of her marriage with anyone else seems almost a blessing. But I wonder what father will say. I don't know but that he may look at it very much as I do, though I don't suppose he had an inkling that Bates was striving to win her." "And how about your mother?" I asked. I was looking straight at him, and I thought that his face darkened. "I could never understand her liking for him," he said. "Neither can we understand a woman's liking for any man/' I ventured to suggest, and he laughed as he got out of bed. He pulled off the snow-white coun terpane and wrapped it about his shoulders, and stood before me a Greek poet, ennobled with the pride of a conquered prize. When we went down to the breakfast table, Dr. Bates was not in his accustomed place, but Miss May was there and her face was as bright as if nothing had happened. "I wonder why the doctor doesn't come on?" said Old Miss, And then she turned to me: "Dan, step up to his room and tell him that breakfast s ready." "I object," Young Master cried, setting himself back gg MY YOUNG MASTER from the table, and Old Master gave him a sharp look. "Robert, what do you mean, sir? Object to what?" "Pardon me, sir," said Young Master, bowing. "I was thinking of something else and didn't really know what I was saying. Yes, Dan, go tell the doctor to come to breakfast. But here he comes now." The doctor came in smiling. "Glad to see everyone looking so well," he said, sitting down opposite Miss May and beside Young Master. "General, you appear to have enjoyed a good night's rest, and madam, (speaking to Old Miss) to look at you always takes me back ten years. I met old Tom Marshal not long ago, and he told me that at one time you were the most bewitching woman in Kentucky ; and with captivating graciousness he added that in one hand you might carry the cares of the present, but that with the other you held up the glowing lamp of the romantic past. And I must be permitted to fancy that Miss May stands as a reproduction of your earlier days. Bob, how are you this morning?" "A great man has said that one can be below as well as above flattery, and I am one or the other; I shall not say which," Young Master answered. Miss May smiled, Old Master pretended not to hear, but Old Miss heard, and I thought that the wrinkles on her brow grew deeper. MY YOUNG MASTER 89 The doctor laughed. "Let us say above, Bob." "All right, sir; if you desire to be very near the truth." "But," the doctor added, "let us not agree that you are above truth itself. General, don't you think that his shrewd sophistry more than ever fits him for the law?" And before Old Master could reply, Young Master spoke up. "The law has kept abreast with all human advancement, but I know of a profession that lags in disputatious ignorance, wagging its head at a Harvey and denouncing a Jenner bleeding the already bloodless patient " "Robert!" Old Master cried, dropping his fork with a clang upon his plate, "if you find it impossible to be agreeable, leave the table, sir." But Young Master was not to be thus driven away. "If I arn disagreeable I beg your pardon." The doctor was laughing. "His words may be dis agreeable to some ears, but not to mine," he said, "There is truth in what he says, and that is one of the reasons why I have practically abandoned my. pro fession." And then Old Mistress spoke. "And I am vary sorry you have," she said. "To heal the sick is the 30 MY YOUNG MASTER most noble of all arts one that our Saviour prac ticed." "Greatly to the. insult of the recognized medicine of His time," Young Master declared. Old Miss cleared her throat and was going to s'ay something but the doctor cut in ahead of her. "Yes," said he, "but it was the lawyers who condemned Him to death." I stepped back, expecting to see Young Master spring up in wrath, but he didn't; and he was quiet in his answer : "And it was oratory that spread the great news of redemption the native force of Peter and the cultivated grace of Paul. Yes, the men of the text book condemned Him to death, but borne upon the eloquence that flew from the heart of impulsive man, His name was carried to the ends of the earth." I thought that the doctor gave him a look of admira tion, but it might have been a trick of his hypocritical nature. But Old Miss looked at him proudly, and I saw a warm light glow in Old Master's eye ; and this show of respect for the young man influenced the doctor to change the subject. "I am going to town this morning," said he. "Has anyone a commission to give me? Miss May, can I bring you anything?" "No, I thank you. I am going myself after a while." MY YOUNG MASTER 91 "When did you stop calling her May?" Old Mistress inquired. "I don't know when and I don't know why," the doctor made answer, looking at the young woman. "I suppose it was when I discovered that she had lost her sisterly regard for me, though I don't know exactly when that was." "Wasn't it last night?" Miss May asked, giving him a straight look. But not in the least was he daunted by it. "Last night? Let me see," he went on, pre tending to muse. "Oh, I don't know but it was. We had a little dispute then," he added, turning to Old Miss. "But it was not serious." "What is it?" Old Miss asked,looking up at a house maid who had just entered. "Mr. Marston is in the parlor," the maid answered. Miss May jumped up and ran to. her room to adorn herself for his reception, and the doctor, following her with his eyes as she ran up the stairway in the hall, could not conceal the dark bitterness in his heart. Old Master looked on and was silent until Miss May had quite disappeared upon the upper landing and then coming out of his muse with a sudden jerking of his hand which lay upon the table, he said: "It appears to me that his visits are becoming frequent, Madam." 92 MY YOUNG MASTER Old Miss smiled, as I had seen her smile some time before when it was incidentally mentioned by someone that the man Marston owned a large sugar plantation in Louisiana. "Yes," she replied, "and for one, I must say that I am pleased." And thereupon the doctor turned his head slowly and gave her a searching look. "I mean it," she said, smiling at him. But he did not smile in return ; he rattled his fork upon his plate and sat in silence. My young master was turned about so that I could see his face. The sullen discomfiture of the doctor was pleasing to him, and with a sudden motion of his hand, a forensic gesture which was now unconscious with him (so surely was oratory taking possession of him) said straight at Old Master: "I don't see why so much import should attach to a few visits. One might suppose that my sister had been living apart from social influences when the fact is that young men have for years ridden from the valleys and the knobs to call upon her. I hope you do not wish to get her off your hands?" Old Master was rolling a bit of bread between his thumb and finger, a habit with him. And he looked up, still rolling it, and with a mischievous light in his eye, asked if anyone had seen his daughter posted for sale. MY YOUNG MASTER 98 "I won't put up with such talk as this,.'* Old Miss declared. "Robert, you and your father would make me out a heathen. Offered for sale, indeed. General, I am ashamed of you." The old man rolled his bolus of bread and chuckled softly. "I don't know," he said k his eyes blinking, "that anyone has tried to make you out a heathen. In fact, I think you give strong evidences of an advanced state of civilization. The heathen mother would be caught by feathers and paint but it takes a sugar plan tation to sweeten your smile,*' Young master roared and was still laughing when Miss May passed the door on her way to the parlor. Old Miss was so furious that she would not trust her self to say anything ; her face changed from one hue to another, and her eyes looked young with fire, but she held her peace, with her teeth set upon her thin lip. It was now time for the doctor to say something, and with the sympathetic smile of the scoundrel he turned to her. "Nothing is too sacred to escape a man's joke," said he. "Of course, the General meant nothing, but it gives me the opportunity to say that of all mothers I have known, I think you are the noblest. 4 ' Young Master looked at him. "My mother needs 94 MY YOUNG MASTER no one to defend her against a pleasantry uttered at her own board," said he. "Tut, tut," Old Master cried, slapping- his hand upon the table. "It was all nonsense and should have been taken as such. Dan, tell Sam to get my leggings and bring my horse round. I'm going to ride." During the forenoon, though the air was sharp, I saw Mr. Marston and Miss May walking about the place, along the banks of the smoking creek, in the woods, where the cold birds fluttered; I heard them laugh, and I saw him leading her by the hand as they strolled down the lane. Only twice during the day did I catch sight of the doctor, once as he stood lean ing moodily against a tree in the yard, and later as he walked to and fro near the stable, lashing his leg with a riding whip. Old Master rode abroad and remained long away, and when he returned just before the din ner hour, I heard negro Sam tell him that the doctor wished to speak to him in the library. I know not what passed at the interview, but I remember that as I went through the hall I heard Old Master say, "It is a matter, sir, that should concern you very little. You may regard yourself as a member of the family, but I am at the head of the household, sir." I imag ined that the doctor was advising against Marston and that Old Master had tln^s shut him up. MY YOUNG MASTER 95 That night Bob and I were in our room, studying an immortal oration, when there came a tap at the door. The young man frowned at the interruption and put ting aside his book, went himself to the door. "Come in," he said, stepping back stiffly. And the doctor entered. It was the first time for years that I had seen him in that room and all three of us felt the embarrassment of the visit. "Sit down," my master invited, placing a chair for him. He took the seat, leaned for a moment toward the cheerful blaze, then straight ening up, remarked upon the coldness of the night. Master said something in reply and I knew that they were skirmishing; that something must soon follow through their politeness I saw a deadly hatred. "How long does that man expect to stay?" the doc tor asked. "What man?" master spoke up, with an air of sur prise. "Marston, of course." "Why of course?" The doctor turned nervously, looked at me and said: "Will you please move a little?" motioning with his hand, "You are too close to me." "Dan," said master, "sit over there." I went over to the window, the place where I had Q3 MY YOUNG MASTER stood one night and looked down upon a quarrel between Old Master and the doctor. "Why of course?" master repeated. "Thought you knew the man I meant." "He and almost all other men had passed out of my mind, sir," said the young man, leaning with his elbow upon the table. "There are times when I don't think of man, but of what man has said." The doctor coughed. "Don't you thing there's just a little pretense in all that this learned abstraction?" "If there's any pretense at all it is just a little. I know men who have more than a little pretense." For a time they were silent, listening to the crackling of the fire. "But I didn't come to bicker," said the doctor. "Didn't you? Have the revivalists brought about a change of heart?" "I have come to tell you good-bye," said the doc tor, graciously overlooking my master's remark. "Oh, to tell me good-bye? When do you expect to go?" "Possibly to-night surely in the morning.** "Expect to be gone long?" "I may never return." "You expect to be gone then some time?" MY YOUNG MASTER 97 They looked at each other. "It would seem so," said the doctor. And then he added: "I am going South." "That's all right," said master. "It really makes no difference which way you go." "You are getting old enough to pass from annoy ance to insult," the doctor replied. "Yes," said master, "one is supposed to progress." "True," replied the doctor, "but premature progress argues premature decay. Kentucky is full of the dusty shells of young hopefuls. Sometimes at nineteen a bov gives promise of becoming a great orator; at twenty-five he is a haggler at forty, forgotten. I have known it to be the case." "Yes," said master, leaning heavier upon the table, "some men change while others are always the same with low instincts and only the sharpness that appear? to be the inheritance of the scoundrel." I stepped forward. Master noticed me and motioned me back to my place: The doctor did not even wince. He sat gazing into the fire. "I came to make you proposition," said he. "All right. Let it be a short one." "It will not take long to state it." "Longer to get to it, I presume?" 98 MY YOUNG MASTER "It's this," said the doctor. "You are going into the law and I have no doubt that you will make your mark. I don't believe that you are ambitious to acquire wealth, but I feel that you would like to hold intact your father's estate. A part of the estate, you must know, will fall to me. I don't suppose there will be money enough to satisfy my claim, without a divi sion of the land, so to avoid this, I will agree to take a small amount in ready money as part payment, and Dan as the remainder." A cold shiver ran over me, not that I was afraid of the issue, but because that man's determination to possess me was freezing my blood. Master did not change his position, neither did he look up. He made this simple answer: "When the time comes, you may take what belongs to you, even to the estate itself. I will keep Dan." "But I have consulted with your mother and I act upon her advice." "You may take the estate when the time comes, but I will keep Dan." The doctor got up. "Bob Gradley," said he, "when you were a child, you toddled into my way, and now that you are nearly a man, you persistently obstruct my path." MY YOUNG MASTER 99 Master sprawled flat upon the table and laughed. "Well, if this isn't gall!" he cried. "I was born on my father's plantation to stand in your way." He got off the table and laughed as he walked up and down the room. "Toddled into your way? And didn't my mother apologize, and didn't my father try to make excuses for me, doctor?" he said, facing about. "Doctor, the first light of reason that fell upon my mind brought the knowledge that I hated you. Once I cut my finger and looking at the blood, wondered if your blood were not black instead of red. And I'd like to satisfy myself upon that point now. Here, (tossing a pen-knife upon the table) prick yourself and let me see if the ooze is not black. I'll bet it is, and what a proclamation the devil could write with such ink, and with a pen made of a lizzard's claw!" This idea brought back his mirth, and laughing he walked up and down the room, the doctor's eyes following him with a sullen gaze. After a time master came back to the table and sat down. "I am much obliged to you for this entertainment," he said. "Make the most of it," the doctor replied. "Oh, I will ; I have been known to make much out of poor material." 100 MY YOUNG MASTER "And you have been known to make too much out of a negro that ought to be in the corn field." "Yes, more out of him than could have been made out of some white men." "Look here, sir; do you mean to draw a comparison between me and that negro?" "Oh, no; not at all, and I big your pardon for inad vertantly producing that impression. I wouldn't go so far as that." "I should hope not," said the doctor. "Oh, surely not," master replied. "I am sometimes wild but I am never frantic. I wouldn't compare you with Dan. I have too high an opinion of him," "I will not stand this!" the doctor cried springing to his feet. "No gentleman in the State of Kentucky would put up with it and you'll have to take it back or " He took out his watch a* d glanced at it. "That was the worst insult I have ever known, Bob Gradley, and I will give you just five minu les to take it back." "What time have you?" master risked, taking out his watdi. "Fourteen minutes of ten, sir." "You are just a little slow. I'm fifteen. Fortunate that my derringers are k>aded don't believe I could load them in five minutes." He pul >4 open a drawer MY YOUNG MASTER 101 and took out two pistols. "And now/' said he, "in the event that I should drop off to sleep, wake me up when the time is out." "Braggart," muttered the doctor. I heard Old Master walking in the hall. Once he halted at our door I heard his hand upon the knob. I hastened to the door and opened it and the old man stepped into the room. Young Master gathered up the pistols and put them into the drawer, and the doc tor snapped his watch which he had continued to hold open in his hand. The antipathy that lay between Bob and the doctor was felt by every member of the family, and I saw the old General stiffen with surprise upon discovering the doctor in the room, but he gave no mouth to his astonishment; he sat down upon the chair which his son sprang up to give him, looked from one to another of us, and rubbing his thin hands said that he had a piece of news for us. The doctor, as if he already divined the news and did not care to hear it uttered in words, hastily quitted the room ; and then Old Master, paying no attention to the abrupt departure of his son-in-law, told us that he had given his daughter to the man from Louisiana. CHAPTER Xff. I was up and abroad upon the plantation early the next morning, Old Master having sent me to look for a colt that had been missing for several days. In a wild bit of thicket-land I found the colt in a sink hole and was rejoiced to discover that it was not hurt. But it was weak and when I had helped it out, it trotted off with its knees knocking together. I followed along to drive it to the stable and was putting up the bars after seeing the hungry creature stumble into the lot, when someone accosted me. I looked up, pausing with a bar in my hand, and there stood the doctor muffled to the eais. "I want you to drive me to town," he said. I finished my work of putting up the bars before I answered him, and this apparent sullenness smote upon his sense of resentment, for when I turned toward him he was gazing hard at me. "Did my Mas ter say that I was to drive you?" I asked. I was look ing down and I saw the frozen ground grinding under his heel ; I glanced at his face and his countenance was aflame with wrath. With both hands he tore the muf- MY YOUNG MASTER fler from about his neck; he looked about and appeared to stand harder on the ground all this before he spoke again, and when he did speak his voice had a hissing sound. "You yellow dog, I ought to cut your liver out." "But I am sure that my master did not tell you to do that," I was bold enough to reply. He leaped toward me. I was strong enough and skillful enough to have given him an unmerciful beating, and my blood burned to knock his teeth down his throat, but judgment had not deserted me, and putting one hand upon the top bar, I leaped lightly over, leaving him swearing on the other side. Had he made a motion to pursue me I would have run away, but I saw Old Master coming, so I stood my ground. The doctor saw him, too, and turned away, muffling his throat as he went. Break fast was over and I hastened straightway to my Mas ter's room. He was writing as I entered, but he looked up pleasantly and asked if I had eaten, and when I told him no, bade me go at once to the ser vants' hall. "I had better not go now," I replied. "I met the doctor out in the lot and he ordered me to drive him to town, and " "That's enough," he broke in, and putting down his 104 MY YOUNG MASTER pen, went to the front window and looked out. "I wonder if he is gone yet," he said, speaking more to himself than to me. "I repented of my action of last night, but now I wish I had kicked him down stairs. I wonder how long God wants me to put up with that fellow." "If I am allowed an opinion, sir," I replied, "I don't think that God takes him into account." He looked at me with a smile. "You are allowed that opinion and I will help you entertain it," he said, and a moment later he added : "Come down with me and get something to eat." The front hall door stood open and as we turned the bend in the stairs we saw the doctor driving off from the gate. Old Master came up the steps from the hall. "I see he's gone," said the young man. "Yes, thank God," Old Master replied. "There's only one way that Bates has given me pleasure and that is to see him driving away. But I don't think he's as bad as he used to be. He used to worry the life out of me with trying to buy Dan when he might have known that it was against my principles to sell a slave." "It's not against my principles to sell anything that annoys me," said Old Miss, coming out with her keys MY YOUNG MASTER 105 jangling. "As for you, General, you are always willing enough to get rid of white men but you stick close enough to your negroes. Dan," she added, "I want you to take up the sitting-room carpet and beat it." "Mother," Young Master interposed, "he has had no breakfast. And besides, that is not his work." "Any work that I tell him to do is his," Old Miss replied, drawing her thin lips together. I gave her a bow of most humble obedience, not that I felt any rev erence for her, but that I would protect Young Master against all spiteful upbraiding. "Dan," she said, "tell Tilly to give you something to eat, and then I want you to beat that carpet." I looked at Bob and he nodded assent, gracefully enough, but I could see that he was not at all pleased. I was turning away when his voice arrested me, though his words were addressed to his mother. "At times I have an odd fancy," said he. "When I am making a speech in my mind and a coldness chills my words, I imagine that the chill is an inheritance from you, mother." Old Master laughed, and pressed his bony fingers till his knuckles cracked. But Old Miss did not make a laughing matter of it ; perhaps she felt the sting of its truth. "It's a singular thing," she replied, "that so 105 MY YOUNG MASTER cold a mother should bring up so warm a son. eral, I wish you wouldn't grin at me that way!" "Which way shall I grin?" he asked. "If you know of any better way, just show me, and I'll adopt it. But come, madam, don't be put out. You must remember that an old man's humor dries with his advancing years." "Humor!" she said. "You haven't a vestige of it, and even if you had, you " Her lips trembled and the corners of her mouth went down. "I have seen trouble enough " "There, now," said the old man, his voice soft with tenderness. "Robert, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for speaking that way. Your mother is not cold, sir," he almost stormed, "and if ever I hear you intimate it again, I'll thrash you, I don't care how old you are. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, sir." "I am," said Bob, and swiftly crossing the floor he kissed his mother. She put her arm about his neck and said that she knew he did not mean it; and then Old Master turned upon me. "Go on, sir," he cried, "and don't stand there gaping like a fool. Confound it, you think you ought to hear every word that's spoken on the place." I hastened away, wondering what she meant by say- MY YOUNG MASTER 107 ing that she had seen trouble enough. Surely she would permit no conversation to be wholly agreeable, certain it was that her manner invited no affection. The news of Miss May's engagement had spread among the negroes, and many a nappy head was thrust forth seeking a look at the man as he walked about the grounds. I learned from Bob that the wedding was soon to take place. The journey was long, and the man had said that he would not return home with out his bride. I had passed him many times in the hall, in the woods, in the road leading to town, but not until one evening when I was summoned to mend the parlor fire did I get an estimating look at him. I had put on a log and had turned about to go when he asked my name. I told him, and he asked laughingly if I were a descendant of the Daniel who was cast into the lion's den? I told him that I was a Daniel who had come to many a judgment and been found wanting. "Dan belongs to brother," said Miss May, "and they read the same books. Brother thinks a great deal of him." "Evidently," Mr. Marston replied. He was a trim looking man of medium size and with black whiskers. His teeth were very white and his brow was broad and smooth. He was easy in manner and was quick to 108 MY YOUNG MASTER perceive, for noticing my almost instantaneous meas urement of him, he looked at me sharply and said: "Well, I suppose you have no objection to my marry ing your young mistress?" "No one could object to her choice," I replied, pleased with myself, and Miss May, smiling sweetly, said: "Thank you, Dan. Shut the door as you go out." I took this as a dismissal, whether she meant it or not, and it cut me. But my mind was soon made to feel at rest for as I was going up the stairs she came out and called me softly: "Dan," she said, "I didn't want you to talk very much to Mr. Marston. He is from the far South and thinks that a negro that can read is a great danger to the community, and after I had indiscreetly told him that you and brother read the same books, I thought that it was time for you to go I didn't want him to say anything to hurt your feel ings. I want you to like him." This simple act of kindness brought the tears to my eyes. Ah, through the misty years I can see her now, standing in the hall with upturned face, sweet and beautiful. Preparations for the wedding were hastened for ward, and one day the negroes peeped through the MY YOUNG MASTER parlor door, as we had peeped, long ago, at an array of flowers, Miss Lou lying among them. But now there was no black man to lift his faltering voice in grief he was gone long years ago and lay sleeping under a dead apple tree ; there were soft words of love ; and at night there was feasting, the sounds of quick feet, and the spirit of the fiddle was borne upon the air. CHAPTER XIII. One morning at breakfast there came an unexpected interruption, the arrival of Old Master's half brother. I knew that he existed, for on occasions at least a year apart, I had posted letters addressed to him and directed to some town away off in Illinois; but a sense of his unreality was so strong with me that I often smiled to think that Old Master would send a letter to find a shadow. But in came the man that morning at breakfast, strikingly real, brown-bearded, tall, loud of voice, and I thought rather roughly dressed for a gentleman. He was much younger than Old Master. Some one, I don't know who, had told me that years ago he had wandered away in consequence of a dis appointment in love, though to look at him now I could not believe that he had ever given entertainment to so tender a sentiment. No part of the landed estate fell to him, so, with a small settlement of ready money, he set forth, swearing that never again would he put foot upon that accursed blue-grass spot. He had never been a drag upon Old Master; indeed, he had (no) MY YOUNG MASTER 1H been a man of exceeding thrift, had made fortunes but had lost them. I well recall his first words upon step ping into the room. Amid the surprise and the bustle caused by his sudden appearance, his loud voice arose : "Don't want anybody to get scared. Sit down, Guilford, and you, too, Hanna, (nodding at Old Miss). Ah, and this is the one you call Bob? All right, got no objections to that, either. Dropped my baggage out there on the porch. Have someone take it up. Not now, plenty of time. Don't want anybody to get scared; I'm not a pauper. Shall insist upon paying my way. Here, girl, bring another plate; I'm as hun gry as a prairie wolf. Look here ! (and now he turned to me). Don't want you to call me master. Won't have it; call me Mr. Clem. Long time since I went away, but nothing has changed. Hurry up, there, with that plate. Confound it, don't be put out so, every body. How are you getting along, Guilford?" All this was rattled off before anyone else had a chance to say a word. Old Master was glad to see him and the tears ran down his wrinkled cheeks. He tried to tell him much but could tell him nothing except that he was welcome to make his home there. "What's board worth?" Mr. Gem asked, and Old MY YOUNG MASTER Master cried out, "Good Lord ! Did I ever hear any thing like that? Clem, is it possible that you " "Mean to pay my board as long as I stay here. You'll have to take the money, Hanna. If you don't, agree I'll grab my saddle-bags and put out. I'm from a place where every man is expected to pay his way. Wish you'd all quit your everlasting sniffling. What are you doing, Bob?" Old Master was now helping his plate. "Another slab of that meat, Guilford. What are you doing, young feller?" "Preparing myself for the law," Young Master answered proudly. "All right, no particular harm in it. Good job for a lazy man. Hanna, you hold your own pretty well. Not as old as I expected to find you ; and Guilford is a marvel of youthfulness. Don't know how I happened to come back Just took the notion one night and I was on the road before daylight the next morning. That's the way we do things in Illinois. Pass me some more of that egg-bread. Hanged, if that ain't Ken tucky up and down. Old aristocracy still on its moul dering throne, eh? Good thing for some people while it lasts, but it will tumble over pretty soon." "Clem, you musn't talk that way," Old Miss inter posed. MY YOUNG MASTER "All right, I'll shut it off; thousands of things to talk about. What's board worth in this neighborhood?" "Clem," said Old Master, leaning upon the table and looking at him, "I don't know that I ever heard of a gentleman paying board in this neighborhood." "Hah! By the hoofs, I never heard of a gentleman refusing to pay board in any neighborhood," Mr. Clem replied. "Come, how much am I expected to pay? Can't get board here, board somewhere else." "Oh, that would be a scandal," Old Miss cried. "Then let us avoid scandal. Find out what is cus> ternary and let me know. Guilford, devilish glad to see you. Wish I had come before. Bob, got a horse you want to trade for a better one? I've got a nag out there that's a beauty. Let's go and look at him?" he added, throwing down his knife and fork and shoving his chair back. "Not now, uncle Clem," the young man replied, laughing. "Uncle! That's good like to hear it; gives me a sort of anchor. I think you and I will get along all right. Guilford told me, I don't know how long ago got the letter somewhere that it was your ambition to become an orator. And I can give you a few points, for I have lived for years in a hot bed of free speech, 114 MY YOUIsG MASTER and without free speech, there is no real oratory. Round here they think that Marshall and Clay were great orators, and they were in a way, but you ought to hear Abe Lincoln." "I never heard of him," Old Master spoke up. "Oh, no; but you will. He can squeeze mirth and tears out of the heart all at once. When he arises to speak, and even before he has uttered a word, every man in the audience says to himself, 'there is my brother.' Guilford, your polished Kentuckians speak out of the book, by note, and they may work them selves into a fine heat, but this man Lincoln cries from the fullness of a soul that the Lord has given him." "Clem," said Old Master, bending a hard look upon his brother and rolling his pill of bread, "you tempt me to say that you are a blasphemer against the majestic voice of my State, sir. Never was the voice of man truer than among these graceful hills, and never did the heart of man beat warmer for freedom and justice.** "Ah," Mr. Clem cried, "for freedom, did you say? For slavery, you mean." "Sir," said Old Master, "Henry Clay has spoken for the bondman." MY YOUNG MASTER 115 "But was he honored for it?" Mr. Clem asked. "Do you honor him for it?" "Clem, if you have come to sow the seeds of abol ition, to disgrace my household with the mud brought from your free soil your sink hole of iniquity I must request you to go away." "It is easier to drop a subject than to ride a long dis tance," Mr. Clem replied with a broad smile. "Got any good horses?" "Horses native to this land and therefore the best," said Old Master. "Got one you can't manage? If you have, I'll make him get down on his knees and beg for mercy." Old Master looked at Bob and laughed. "We've got a great black horse we call Zeb, and our sick quarter is sometimes filled with his victims. Dan here, can break almost any piece of horse-flesh, but he's afraid of Zeb. The negroes don't call him Zeb they call him the Devil, sir." "And I would advise you not to have anything to do with him, Uncle Clem," said Young Master. "He cut a great gash on Andrew's head, broke Tony's arm not long ago, and laid Dan up for a week. We keep him merely for show, for he is the most graceful thing you ever saw." li MY YOUNG MASTBfl "And I will drive him to town this morning," Mr. Clem declared. And getting up, he added: "Come, show him to me?" We could but laugh at the self-confidence shown by this rugged man from the West; we felt that he had brought with him the breezy brag so characteristic of his boundless territory. But I felt a pinch of regret, for I had conceived a liking for the man and did not wish to see him humbled. "Come on," said Old Master, leading the way, but Old Miss interposed. "You must not go near that vicious creature," she said to Mr. Clem. "Nothing would delight him more than to plant a hoof between your eyes, and I declare, General, it's a shame that you encourage such a thing." "Come out and take a drive with me," Mr. Clem cried, gently putting Old Miss out of the way. But she shuddered at the thought and closed the door upon us as we passed out. "In one respect I am not a true Kentuckian," said my Young Master to Mr. Clem as we walked along toward the stable. "I could never find it in my heart to worship a horse." Mr. Clem stepped in front of the young man, halted and looked at him and then at Old Master. "Guil- ford," said he, "can it be possible that this is your son?" "Wait until you see the Devil, and you will deny that you are my brother," Old Master laughed, rubbing his thin hands in a sort of mischievous glee. Bob took Mr. Clem by the arm and as they walked along I heard him say : "If I had known you, I should have wished for your coming. There is something so unexpected about you that I must call you the new man you are the very opposite of the books I have been reading." ^Yes, Bub, I am the opposite of all your teaching." "I don't know that I like the word Bub." "But you'll have to stand it; I'm going to pay my way, and the world, the flesh and the devil are willing to put up with much from that sort of a man." We had now come to the stable. Through a small window we saw the fiery horse's black eyes shining. "Bring him out," Mr. Clem commanded. "That is easy enough," Old Master replied. "It is only when you attempt to put leather on him that he shows his mettle," "Bring him out," said Mr. Clem. "Mere, boy, bring me a Bridle and a set of buggy harness." There was a great commotion in the barn-yard, and the negroes went running to and fro, amid whisperings MY YOUNG MASTER and the suppressed excitement of expected sport. The horse was led out by the halter, a picture of devilish majesty, head high in contempt, nostrils broad, eyes afire. The harness lay in a heap upon the ground. Mr. Clem took up the bridle. In an instant the horse had jerked the halter from the negro's grasp, was standing almost erect on his hind feet, and he came toward Mr. Clem, cutting the air with his fore hoofs. The rest of us fell back, one over the other, but Mr. Clem did not move. Old Master shouted at him, but paying no heed he stood, with his eyes fixed upon the advancing beast. I was off to one side and could see his face, hard-set and with steady eyes. "Ho!" he said, low in his breast, and the horse's feet fell to the ground. I don't think I ever saw so complete a picture of aston ishment. The horse, cowed by that one low word, stood there trembling, with the coming sweat glisten ing upon his flanks. Mr. Clem stepped forward and touched his neck and he squatted and trembled. A loud murmur arose among the negroes. The Devil had been conquered with .a word. He took the bit and suffered the harness to be put upon him; he was put between the shafts and with but one protest he was driven about the grounds. That one protest was a convulsive kick. Mr. Clem got out of the buggy, MY YOUNG MASTER 119 walked round, caught him in the nostrils, and with a violent torsion cried, "Ho!" That was a great day on the plantation, and before nightfall the news had spread about the neighborhood, and at evening a number of people came to welcome Mr. Clem's return to the home of his youth. The degree of fawning shown on that occasion was of great amusement to my Young Master, for he knew that had his uncle come back a great scholar, an authority upon some scientific dis covery, he would have been suffered to poke about almost unobserved; but appearing as the conqueror of a vicious horse, he laid a strong hold upon the admira tion of his fellows. CHAPTER XIV. The coming of Mr. Clem had a great effect upon our household. It was like a new breeze, blowing in from afar off where the woods are fresh. With his foot he was ever ready to press upon a tradition, and to leave off if the annoyance was too great; he experimented constantly with the sentiments and prejudices of any one who happened to be near him. He joked with Old Miss, something ever dangerous to undertake, and at times he wrought sorely upon Old Master by arguing abolition with him. But no matter how hoi might be the discussion, it was always pleasantly tem pered, in the end, by some joke borrowed from the sturdy men who were busy with the building of a new political empire in the West. Lincoln was his hero. He had lived in Springfield, and had seen the greal stump-speaker striding across a pasture land with a naked youngster on his back, and with the Galilean's smile upon his face. From his saddle-bags he brought forth newspapers with abstracts of the backwoods* man's speeches, words that rang like an axe on a frosty (lao) MY YOUNG MASTER 121 morning, and he never was weary of declaring that the man was inspired. "He is Peter come back to the earth," I remember hearing him say, "and upon a rock he is going to build a great church not for caste, but for man." "If you are going to worship a man, let him be a hero," Old Master cried. We were in the library and the elder brother was walking up and down in the fire light. I was hunting a book for Young Master and purposely made a lag of my errand. "I don't know what you mean by a hero," said Mr. Clem, looking up from his pipe in the corner. "A man who does something for his country," Old Master retorted, still walking with his hands behind him. Mr. Clem smiled. "Yes, that is a hero," said he. "But what would you have a man do? Overcome a band of Mexicans and win a new territory, r save his entire country?" Old Master halted, posing to make an impressive reply, but at that moment Mr. Clem sprang to his feet, threw open the window and thrusting forth his head shouted: "Hi, there, don't you want to swap that horse for a better one?" He had heard the sounds of hoofs and had seen a 122 MY YOUNG MASTER man riding past the gate. The man reined up and looked round. "I don't know but I might," he answered. "Well, just wait a minute," Mr. Clem shouted and turned about to leave the room. Old Master frowned. "You are not going to swap horses here on a Sunday morning," he said. "It will bring a scandal upon us." "Now, Guilford, that's nonsense," Mr. Clem pro tested. And then he shouted again from the window: "Ride on down to the end of the lane and I'll meet you there." He hastened away, and just before dinner he came back leading a trim horse, so much better than his old nag that his brother racked himself with a loud laugh. His shrewdness was indeed remarkable. He came to us on a woolly-looking plow horse, and before he was in the neighborhood two months, he was the owner of three as fine mares as I have ever seen. The negroes looked upon him in the light of a vastly super ior being, and about the fire at night they told tales of his marvelous power. He would permit none of them to call him master, and at first this told against him, bespeaking as they thought a very humble station; but their prejudice was overturned when they per ceived that among the high-born he could hold his MY YOUNG MASTER 123 head with a lofty pride. Sometimes he talked in a way almost to chill my blood. I have often mused upon his meeting me one evening as I strolled along the shores of the little creek, listening to the music bursting with more boldness as the twilight settled down. Spring was come and I smelt the smoke of the dead grass burning in the fields. I had halted and was standing on a rock when he came up to me. "Fishing?" he asked. "No, sir; listening to the water." "And yet they tell us that the negro has no soul,** he said. "No gentleman has ever told me that," I ventured to reply. "No," he rejoined, stepping upon the rock. "The gentlemen acknowledge your soul so that the pulpit may continue to hold you in slavery. I know that you and Bob are great friends, know all that, but if I were in your place I would leave." "Mr. Clem!" I cried. "Yes, I would. Here, you are a young fellow of parts waiting for what? Nothing. Why, you could go North and make a man of yourself." "I am going to make a man of myself as it is," 1 replied, actually trembling. 124 MY YOUNG MASTER "Make a man of yourself for someone else. Young man, the world is becoming too enlightened to permit of slavery much longer. They tell you that God made slaves. That's an insult to the Almighty. I don't really advise you to leave your master, for I can see that Bob makes your bed as easy as it could well be made; but it is an infamous shame that a young man as intelligent as you can have nothing but a life of bondage to look forward to. It is true that as com pared with the others, you walk on rose-buds and sleep on feathered palm, but you are a slave for all that." He moved up closer to me, put his hand on my shoulder and turned me about as if in the growing darkness he would study the expression of my face, the effect his words had wrought. I trembled under the light weight of his hand, for it was as if freedom from afar off had touched me; but I could give no ear to this bold man's suggestion. I had read many a book conceived by great minds that abhored servility, poets that ha and he looked up at me, "do you remember the time you threw the tumbler on his head?" "As well as if it were but an hour ago," I answered. "If you had seen him this morning you would have felt like striking him a harder blow," he said. "We MASTER 169 had a quarrel and my old blood was so stirred that I was almost tempted to cut his throat. He made a demand on me for more money than I could really afford to give the scoundrel, I have given him already far more than his share -and was insulting when I refused him. Your Mistress has been brought to see him in his true light 'and I have her consent to drive him away and I'll do it. He calmed down and apologized, but I told him that he must leave within a day or two, and he'll have to. I can't stand him any longer." "Master, I don't see how -you could have stood him so long." "It was to keep the neighbors from talking," he replied. "Differently situated, I would have kicked him into the road long ago. He is the strangest man I ever met. He's bright, and at times he appears the perfect gentleman and is exceedingly interesting, but in a moment his nature seems changed. We were at the barn this morning when his insulting mood came on, and I looked up at a scythe hanging there and was sorely tempted to mow off his head. But that would never do." We were walking along a fence bordering the turn- ^^ pike. Someone in a buggy called the old man and I 170 MY YOUNG MASTER went onward to the house, with a regret that I had been so long away from my law book. We had given to our room the name of office, for Young Master had already begun to recite his lessons to a retired judge who almost daily dismounted from his horse to give us the benefit of his learning. In the office I found Bob and Mr. Clem. "Why don't you go in with some lawyer in town and be done with it?" Mr. Clern was saying as I entered the room. "You are not quite old enough yet to reach the bar, but you've got about all the law you could get at school, and about all that remains now is to pick up the details of practice." "Yes, I know," said Bob, "but when a young man goes into an old lawyer's office he is expected to do all the work, take none of the glory and receive but little of the pay. We'll hang on here a while longer, won't we, Dan?" He looked up at me with a smile. "Yes, sir; and when we go, we'll go strong." "Dan is to be my silent partner," he said, nodding at his uncle. The old fellow jerked his shoulders as he replied: "Yes, sir, and he'd better be pretty devilish silent at that, I tell you. The leaves from so many abolition pamphlets are fluttering in the air that anything with MY YOUNG MASTER 171 the appearance of granting the negro more of equality with the white man will be resented in no uncertain way. But I'm glad to hear that Dan is to be your partner and I advise you to keep it strictly to your selves. Heigh ho." He leaned back with a stretch. "This country is slower than tar in January. Haven't seen but two horses horses that I'd have, you under stand go over the pike to-day. And that's rather discouraging for a man who insists on paying his way. Only two horses, and I didn't get but one of them." I thought to ask him concerning the outcome of his contest with the preacher, but he continued to talk, and I never thought of it again. Billows came to swallow the little waves. "Yes, sir, only two horses that I would have, and yet this is the State of Kentucky, where Clay lived and died. Two horses, mind you, and I didn't get but one of them. Fellow didn't want to swap ; said he was in a hurry. Might as well have said that he dMn't want to live because he was in a hurry. But I got him to stop, and then I brought out the bay mare that I got the other day. She had her Sunday clothes on and I could see that she caught his eye. He got down and looked at her feet and then gathered up the skin on her shoulders ; said he thought 172 MY YOUNG MASTER it was a little too tight. I told him that there wasn't anything loose about her; that the contract only called for enough skin to cover her. Well, we swapped, and I got twenty-eight dollars to boot, all he had. Would have got more, but he didn't have it. He was a sad sort of fellow and I didn't want to take advantage of him, without giving him some sort of a show, so I told him that he'd better not take my word for anything. But he did." "Wasn't your mare all right?" Bob inquired. "Oh, yes, in a measure bad measure, I might say. She had been galloped down-hill on the pike until her shoulders were sorter stove up, and that's what made the skin too tight, and her wind ain't of the best, but she's good enough for him. I took his horse to town just got back and got a first rate price for him on the public square." After a time Mr. Clem lay down and fell asleep, and I took up a book to keep the silent company of Young Master, and I read page after page without being able to grasp a single idea. How hopeless everything was determined to appear. Abetted by the kindest of men I had stolen into the field of thought, was preparing to become an out-lawed advocate of the law, a sneak- thief behind the bar. A silent partner, indeed, a mys- MY YOUNG MASTER 173 terious counsellor, a dumb orator. As supper-time drew near, I shuddered at the prospect of meeting the doctor's eye. Would he keep his contract with me? An easy matter if what Old Master said was true. But I feared that the old gentleman would weaken when the time came for him to be strong. And should that man be permitted to remain, I believed that he would murder me. Ought I to keep my word with a wolf? I asked myself time and again; and more than once I was on the point of breaking it, but a sense of honor held me back. Why should I feel the fetters of honor chaffing me? I looked up to meet Young Mas ter's eyes. Ah, they, so full of soul and fire, were an inspiration to my struggling" manliness. And his affec tion, though given under cover of dark secrecy, was the most blessed reward I could receive on earth. In the dining room I waited, standing behind Young Master's chair, looking across at Mr. Clem waited for the doctor but he did not come. Every sound without gave me a sickening stir, a chicken on the rear ver anda, a dog trotting through the hall, the wind-stirred fox-horn tapping against a post just beyond the door. But the man did not come. CHAPTER XVIII. My nerves were so wrought upon by the continuous dread of the doctor's coming that by the time the meal was over I was almost in a state of collapse. Young Master's eye noticed my indisposition, and as we turned about in the hall to mount the stairs, he said to me: "Slip out, Dan, and take a walk in the fresh air, alone. You don't look well." I thanked him and halted, and he passed on without inquiring into the cause of what he must have seen was a pitiable dejec tion. A thousand well-sifted words could not have shown the delicacy of his nature more fittingly, and my gratitude followed him step by step as he went up the stairs ; and when he had reached the landing I stole out of the house. The brown veil of dusk lay upon the land, but in a hill-side thicket far away a light was shimmering to illumine the early evening festival of the gray fox the moon was coming up. The air was still and soft, but heavy with the sappy scent from the (i74) MY YOUNG MASTER 175 damp grass land down the creek. On the comb of a cabin, grotesquely outlined in this dun-colored close of day, sat a negro blowing a melancholy reed, and high above him the bull-bats were screaming. In the shrubbery a hord of negro children were playing a counting-out game. I passed the cow-pens; the women were there and I heard the stream of milk spurting hard in the "piggin." My spirits rose out of their nervous lassitude; I felt a strong and almost unna tural sense of exhilaration, and this alarmed me, for we are sometimes afraid to feel an unaccountable buoyancy lest it may foretell a coming fall. I have known Christians who had prayed for sanctity in the sight of the Lord, to tremble at happiness, afraid that it might be a trap set by the devil. I skirted the shore of the creek, crossed the meadow, passed through the woods, entered the grassy lane and stood there with my arms on the fence, looking at the full moon, now high above the trees. And I thought that the foxes must have given over their dancing to scatter about for a night of mischievous prowling. I was on a knoll, and turning about I could see the lights in the cabins and th great house, a hen and her chickens squatted upon the ground, I fancied. The strongest light came from my Young Master's room, and in my mind I 176 MY YOUNG MASTER could see him sitting at the table with his eyes fastened upon his sheep-bound book. And the self-reproach of an ambitious thought that I was not keeping up with him started me homeward at a bound. But I had not gone far before I was stopped by a voice. A man stepped from the corner of the zig-zag fence. "Hold on!" he said, and the doctor stood before me. The moon was on his face and in the coarse lines that traced his countenance the devil's mockery was legible. "Where are you going?" he asked, standing with his hands behind him. "Home," I answered. "Home!" he repeated, and vitriol was in his voice. "Is there a home for everyone but me?" He threw his head back as if motioning toward the house. "Can you go back there and sleep on a bed when I am told never to cross that threshold again? Can you?" "I don't know what you mean, doctor?" "I have been driven away this night. The old man kas turned me out." "But am I to blame? I am the humblest member of that household." He did not change his attitude, but I thought that I saw his bosom swelling. "The humblest because you MY YOUNG MASTER 177 are the lowest down, but a snake is low down," he said, thrusting his chin toward me. "Look here, spawn. The first step you took put you in my way. Do you hear me?" "Yes, sir, and I am much surprised to hear you say it. I didn't think you would acknowledge that I had so much force. We have not been friends, it is true, but I thought that my position kept us from being enemies. To be enemies must argue a certain degree of equality, and I have never presumed upon that. You may have stooped. And now let me beg you to straighten up and forget that I ever existed." "I will forget that you have existed, and I will straighten up, but not until I have stooped lower. Look here. I hate the fool boy that owns you, and if I could kill him this moment, I would. I am getting old and there is nothing left for me. But I want revenge and I am going to have it, for I am going to be sensible. I never was a fool." "Doctor, I don't understand your meaning." "You are duller than usual. If I were to kill your master or that old imbecile, this whole county would follow me, but if I kill a yellow dog, they " He leered at me, the moon full on his face. A chill seized 178 MY YOUNG MASTER my legs and ran to the top of my head and the roots of my hair felt cold. "You mean that you will kill me?" "That's what I mean. They drove me to brandy and brandy has pointed you out." I was perfectly calm; the chill had left me. "Will you please let me pass?" I asked; and he stepped back, still with his hands behind him. "No," he said. "Have you forgotten our contract?" "You are a fool if you put faith in it. You are not negro enough to be put by with a kick. You are white man enough to be killed. And when they find you in the morning they will think that your little learning drove you mad." This startled me. I believed that they would think so, if they should find me dead, but no obedience to a social law and surely no regard for the statutes could force me to submit quietly to the bloody purpose of this raving man. "Doctor, I have run from you for the last time. Get out of my way!" I stepped aside, but he moved toward me. Now his hands were in front of him and I saw a knife. I had nothing. I could have turned and run away ; I could have leaped over the fence, but hot bloed was coursing where the chill had crept. MY YOUNG MASTER 179 "I am going home," said I, "and I am going down this lane." He made no reply, but with a leap and a strike he was upon me. I caught the wrist of his right arm; I threw my left arm about him. I thought that I heard his bones cracking and it gave me a thrill of mad delight. I did not strive to get his knife. I bent his head down till his cry was but a mutter; his right hand was crushed against his bosom and I threw him upon the ground. He struggled, with one faint cry, for his face was in the grass, and I put my foot on his back to hold him down, to complete my victory over him. And I am free to confess that my soul was full of a joy that almost burnt me, it was so hot. Many a time had he stood with his foot upon my trembling heart, and the memory of those long years of humiliation swept over me and I lifted my hands and cried aloud to the God of vengeance. I looked down at my foe under my foot. And now he was so mean and shrunken that my heart flinched with a pity that pricked it. I lifted my foot with a quick jerk lest another memory might press it down the harder, and stood waiting for him to get up. He did not move. "Get up," I said, taking him by the shoulder. But he made no effort. Then I turned him upon his back and the mon!ight fell upon 180 MY YOUNG MASTER his blood, and horrified, I looked at him, hits eyes open, his teeth hard set with grass between them. His right hand was still upon his left breast, clutching the knife, and its blade was buried in his heart. I dropped upon my knees, and gazed at him, now so old and wrinkled. I leaped t my feet and the air whistled in my ears as I bounded down the lane. I was struggling to run away from the knowledge that I had killed him, but it kept up with me showed me a jail and a gal lows. I halted when near the house, put my arm about a tree and stood there. The negro cabins were dark, but a light burned in Young Master's room. The hour was late. The creek was louder than I had ever heard it, a mockery, not a music. A wind had sprung up and in the tree-tops there was a cold and rasping whisper. I was striving to reach a decision as to what course I should pursue. Undoubtedly I had killed the man or had thrown him so that he might kill himself, but of this I had entertained no thought at the time, my aim being to protect myself and to humiliate him, to show him that I could turn and be his master. But I could not explain this to the authorities, therefore I held no notion of giving myself up. To run away were an acknowledgement of guilt, a brkf inquiry and the MY Y&ttNG MASTER 181 rope. I could make a flat denial, if accused, but was afraid that I could not summon the nerve to maintain it. Still something must be done. I might go to Mr. Clem, tell him the truth, get letters from him to per sons in the real land of the free and with his financial aid make my escape out of the country. But this was blocked by the love I bore my Young Master. I went to the well and washed my hands, although I could find no blood on them, and the windlass was so loud with its groaning that I fancied the whole world must hear it. A dog came up, sniffed at me and trotted off. Life had been stirred until I had found the sugar at the bottom. I must save myself, but I could not run away without telling my Master, without asking his advice. I would go to him. Up the stairway I stole without a noise. I was afraid that I might find Old Master pac ing the hall, and I listened to hear his slippered feet, but all was still. I turned the knob so gently that Young Master did not hear me when I entered the room. He sat gazing at his book. I spoke and he started. "Why do you come slipping in this- way, Dan? You startled me. What were you doing so long? What the devil is the matter with you, boy?" I caught at the edge of the table, dropped upon my knees and told him my story. I do not know what his 182 MY YOUNG MASTER. face might have shown, for my eyes were cast down, I don't know what he felt, but I do know that not a sound escaped him. I got up at the end and looked at him, and his face was pale and hard. "Lie down," he said, pointing to my lounge. '.'To be pulled up by the sheriff ?" I cried. "Lie down and ask no questions, and stay there until I call for you. If anyone comes in, you are too ill to get up. Do you hear me? This is hot a request; it is a command. D you, will you do it ?" he cried, stamping the floor. "You belong to me. Do as I tell you. Take off your clothes. If father asks for me, tell him I went away early in the evening. Don't say a word," I took off my clothes, with the tears falling on my trembling hands. He watched me until I was in bed and then he put the light out. I heard the door close heard him going down the stair*. CHAPTER XIX. Would day-light never come was a speculation that lay upon my mind until it seemed to gather mold, like a rag in a damp cellar. But why should I long for the sun to rise to pour light upon the blood in the lane? And to myself I said that it would be better for me if darkness should remain forever upon the earth. But the hours were so tiresome and the world was so reproachfully still. I had thought that my reading had led me away from the superstitions of my negro ancestors ; long ago I had thrown away the lucky bone taken from the head of a cat-fish ; I had ceased to make a cross mark in the road and spit in it whenever I found that I had forgotten something and was forced to turn back; I did not believe that the hanging of a dead snake across the fence, belly up, would make it rain; I had laughed at old Steve when he told me that a horse's tooth, ground to powder and carried sewed up in a sack, would prevail against the tricks of the conjurer. But now I believed in it all and trembled at the awful consequences that a renegade scorn might (183) 184 MY TOTING MASTER call upon me. With a cold sweat I remembered the words of a black hag who lived in a hovel at the edge of the town. On an occasion, not more than a month gone-by, she had taken offense at what she termed my Uppishness; she crossed her crutches in front of me, cut a mysterious diagram in the air and swore that before the moon changed twice I should fall a victim to a blighting calamity. The moon had not changed twice and the calamity had fallen. I got up to look at the moon, to search for a confirming mark upon it, but through the windless night, dark clouds had floated and the sky was black. At the window I sat and gazed into the darkness toward the lane. A wind sprang up and was hoarse in the tree-tops. Rain would come and wash the blood away, but the body and the crying wound would be there at the coming of day. I wondered whither my Young Master could have gone and why he should have left me. Was it that he had gone thus early to the authorities to beg for my life? That were useless. Law and society must have my blood. On my side a ton of justice would be but a thistledown, blown by a baby's breath. And I gazed from the window toward the lane. Day-light could not be far away; it had already fallen upon the hill tops, I thought. Yes, the far-off sky was turning gray; MY YOUNG MASTER 186 but nearer it was black with clouds. Strange that a storm should be gathering just at this time. The lighter it grew the nearer the clouds came. They split, one in the form of a great bird, sailing away ; the other was a horse galloping madly, with a ribbon, a bridle-rein of lightning, flashing at its throat. The household was stirring. I heard Old Master go down the stairs; I heard old Steve calling the hogs. There was not to be a storm. The clouds were gone and the air was sultry. The horn was blown to call the negroes to breakfast. I heard horses galloping over the turn-pike. But the body in the lane had not been found. God, I could see it, lying near the fence! I heard someone coming and I crept back to bed and Covered myself. Mr. Clem entered the room. "You boys going to sleep all day?" he asked. "But Bob's gone; where is he? Why, he hasn't been to bed. Didn't he stay here last night?" "No, sir; he went away early on business." "But what's the matter with you this morning? You look sick." "I am, sir. I don't believe I am able to get up." "I'd better send for a doctor. Why, you've jot a chill." 186 MY YOUNG MASTER "Don't send for a doctor," I pleaded. "Don't send for anyone; let me lie here alone." "Well, I'm sorry you're sick," he said, turning about. "Want anything to eat?" "No, sir. I just want to lie here until Young Master comes." For a time he stood looking hard at me, with his hand on the door. "Hear of the row last night?" he asked. I feigned surprise and said that I had not, whereupon he continued: "The Old General finally summoned the requis ite nerve and drove the doctor off. I wasn't very close, but I heard all that passed. The doctor pleaded and started to threaten and then the old man roared. 'If you are anywhere in this neighborhood by morning,' said he, 'I will take a shot gun to you, I don't care what the public says or how close its investigation may be.' The doctor moved on off and I followed along, to see what he intended to do when the old man's back was turned, and once I got close enough to hear his mutterings and to understand him to say, 'I'll let the old fool go, but somebody will die before morning.' Just then the General called me and I went back. I don't know who the doctor intended to kill, didn't know but it might be Bob, and MY YOUNG MASTER 187 ! would have come in last night to tell him saw him going up the stairs but Bill Mason came over and said that he wanted to beat me out of a horse or two, and so I went over to his place and haggled with him nearly all night. Man of considerable worth, Mason is. Has kept his eyes pretty well open while other people have been dreaming, but he napped a trifle and I came off some time before day with two better horses than I took with me and a pretty fair roll of money. I told Bob, you remember, that I never would say any thing more to you about running away, and I won't. But somehow I think that justice ought to be stronger than friendship or even blood relationship. Still, I'll keep my word with him and not advise you to run away. I tell you what I'm going to do, though. I'm going to throw this roll of money over there en the bed, and if it's not there when I come back, and if you are gone by to-night but I promised Bob." He threw a roll of bank notes on the bed and almost trotted in his haste to get down the stairs. I got up and walked about the room, not daring to look at the money, but my mind was not so obedient as my eyes. The means of possible escape lay there within my reach. Could any human being blame me for strug gling to save my life? I went to the window and 188 MY YOUNG MASTER looked out and drew back with a shudder. The body had been found. Several persons were standing about it, and along the lane there walked a number of men, my young master in the midst of them and among them I recognized the coroner of the county. They were going to hold the inquest. I saw Old Master and Mr. Clem walking hard to overtake them. Now was my time. I jumped into my clothes, wondering that no one had called me to see the dead man; I clapped my hat upon my head and seized the money. I ran to the door, but to save my life I could not cross the threshold. I stood there gasping, with that old woman's crutches crossed before me. I threw the money upon the bed and my love for my master arose strong and overpowering in my heart, and with the tears streaming from my eyes I bounded down the stairs, out into the yard, over the fence, and tore down the lane toward the spot where the body lay under the stern eye of the law. I caught up with Old Master and Mr. Clem just as they reached the place I ran to Young Master, and he turned upon me with a frown. "Don't interrupt me," he cried, waving his hand. "I know your devotion to me, but I demand silence. Gentlemen," he said, addressing the coroner and the jury, "I don't intend to make myself out altogether MT YOUNG MASTER 189 blameless, but I was forced to kill him. I was unarmed and it was his own knife that shed his blood." And then, while I stood there gaping, he gave in min utest detail an account of the strike, the struggle and the fall. I looked at Old Master as he stood there bent forward, staring; at Mr. Clem as he gazed upon the young man who had stepped in between me and the hangman, but my jaws were locked wide open and I could not speak. "Gentlemen," said Mr. Clem, "I demand to be sworn." He held up his hand, muttered the oath and then proceeded with his testimony. "Last night I heard the doctor say he would kill him. He said that he would let the old man go, mean ing my brother, but that someone would die before day, and I know that he meant Bob. It has been well known among us that bad blood existed between them. I" Suddenly I leaped forward, struck upon the head, I fancied, by the crutches of the old woman, and with a cry I fell upon my knees. "My master did not kill him;" I groaned in agony. "I killed him. Listen to me and then you may hang me. I " Bob sprang at me and clapped his hand over my mouth. "Gentlemen," he said, "this poor, devoted boy 190 MY YOUNG MASTER would save my life it's his way of repaying a life-long kindness. Pay no attention to him, but let us attend to the demands of justice. I killed this man, I have told you why and how. And I am ready to take the consequences. Come here, Dan." He jerked me to my feet and led me off. "Dispute me another time," he said, "and before God I will cut your throat. Now go to the house or I'll take a stick and beat you every step of the way." I was almost bereft of my senses as I walked toward the house. I met Old Miss with a troop of negroes behind her. She was wringing her hands and the negroes were crooning a low chant. Some one bade me stop, but I hastened on, through the yard, up to the room; and the sight of the money lying there on the bed, the thought that I had clutched it to run away from the noblest man that ever breathed, drove me mad; and I fell upon the lounge and the world was black. When I opened my eyes to the light, I was undressed between the sheets and a cloth was bound about my head. Someone was talking. I looked up and saw a physician just taking his leave. Bob stood at the window. I raised myself up and he hastened to me. "Don't get up, Dan," he said. "Yes, I am all right now." But I was not all right. I was so weak that I could scarcely sit up in bed. "What time is it?" I asked. "Oh, about ten," he answered, smiling. "And I'm devilish glad to see that you've come out all right. We thought at one time that you were gone. You raved all day yesterday." "Yesterday! No, we were deep in our books yes terday." "Dan, you have been in bed a week." "Is it possible?" I cried, and then I looked at him. He read the inquiry that was in my mind. "The cor oner's jury discharged me," he said. "And not a vestige of blame clings to me. The neighbors all have come to give me their hands. Now if you are going to cry like a fool, I won't tell you about it. There, I didn't mean to be harsh. It's all right. They said that I couldn't have done otherwise, and no regret is expressed. Why, it has made quite a hero out of you. Fame whirls her cloak in the air and we never know how soon it is going to fall. Don't look at me that way. Oh, yes, you may take my hand if you want to. There, now, don't blubber. Why, don't you know they would have hanged you long before this time? But we won't talk about that. We didn't bury 192 MY YOUNG MASTER him in the garden," he went on after a slight "but in the grave-yard on the other side of town. We agreed, mother with the rest of us, that he must not lie beside my sister. It may seem strange to you, but the household appears happier. Father's mind has thrown off a load. And Uncle Clem has been so stimulated that he has filled the stable with horses. He's preparing to drive them to market. Don't be in a hurry about getting up. Just take your time. And I'll go down and have them send you something to eat.'* CHAPTER XX. News came that a minister had preached a sermon upon my devotion to my master and exhorted his hearers to be thus faithful unto their Master, the Lord. This was brought to me by none other than Old Miss herself. I was able to sit with a book upon my lap, and out of respect for her prejudice, I put the volume down as she entered the room, but she bade me keep it. And when she had told me what the preacher said, she added: "You may read all the books you like, for we know now that you cannot be poisoned by them. It was noble of you, Dan." "Please don't talk that way," I pleaded, my heart smiting me. "Yes, I will. You tried to throw yourself into my son's place to save him, and I can't say too much in your favor. And you will reap your reward when the time comes. 'Well done, thou good and faithful ser vant,' can be said of you." Old Master came in while she was sitting there. He appeared to be pleased with the attention she showed (193) 194 MY YOUNG MASTER me, or his pleasure might have proceeded from his discovery that her temper was improved. "You'll be all right now pretty soon," he said. "I don't believe that I'd read too much. It isn't well to strain your mind. Has your young master told you that he is preparing himself for examination? He is nearly ready, and will be by the time court meets next week. He's afraid that he won't get through without a bob ble, but I think he'll go through like a flash. He has decided to enter old Judge Bruce's office. The old fellow doesn't know much but he is a good palaverer and has a pretty fair practice. He never was a real judge, you know was a candidate once and came otf with the title but missed the office." As Old Master became warmer toward me, Old Miss grew cooler; her countenance while she talked had been kindly, but now it was veiled with a frown. The prospect of seeing Young Master established as a lawyer lifted my spirits, but the sight of his mother's displeasure toward me threw them down. Old Mas ter observed the change in the atmosphere. "Madam," said he, "I have been thinking that we need a new carpet for the parlor." "Indeed," she replied, bowing with a mocking grace, "I am delighted to credit your eye-sight with a MY YOUNG MASTER 195 sudden improvement. I have spoken of the condition of that carpet until I am tired of it. It's the talk of the neighborhood, I'm sure. Mrs. Ramsey turned up her nose at it the other day, and I couldn't help thinking that it was a pretty pass indeed to be humili ated in my own house by such a thing as she is. And it was no longer ago than last fall that her husband had to sell an old negro woman that had been in the family all her life." "Huh," grunted the old man, winking slyly at me. "Did she turn up her nose very high?" He grabbed out a red handkerchief, snorted into it and sat looking at her with the water of an old mischief standing in his eyes. "General, don't laugh at me. I am the last person in this world that you should laugh at. Don't you do it!" "But, madam, you are the first person I should laugh with." "I don't see how you can laugh at anybody after what we have gone through with lately, blood spat tered on our door-sill ; but I actually believe that you have been gayer since that awful event." With that remark she flounced out of the room, and the old man sat there, looking out into the Hue space of the speck- 196 MY YOUNG MASTttK less day, silent and absorbed. After a time he turned his old eyes slowly upon me. "The youth whose promise in life embraces the prospect of a broad scope should be taught that at the end of it all this alluring rain-bow lies disappoint ment. Sometimes when I have seen my men in the field, with no thought of the morrow and with never a worry except some trifling physical ill, I have wished that I was one of them. I started out wrong," he went on, shaking his head slowly up and down. "Horses can be called back from a false spurt in the race, and another start taken, but men must go on. Dan, I have stood by and seen you trying to educate yourself, and I have said nothing, although I know that education is often the sensitizing of a nerve that leads to misery. To be a gentleman means to possess a large ability to feel, and to feel is to worry, to brood and to suffer. Men of the North and gentlemen of the South, the phrase has gone forth. Our old Virginia blood is gentle, in society; but alone, it is hot with the lingering fire of the cavalier. Do you know what I am saying?" he asked, deepening the wrinkles in his brow. "No, sir; I don't know that I do." "I suppose not. I have been beating the devil around an oratorical sfeuaap, sir," he said, his scrawny, MY YOUNG MASTER red neck stiffening. "I don't know that I understand myself. Is that Bob or Clem coming up the stairs? It's Bob. Glad to see you doing so well," he added, getting up. And standing for a moment, he put his hand on my head. "You are a noble fellow, even if you are a slave and a negro." Going out he met Young Master coming in. The young man saluted ; the old man gave him a smile and a kindly nod and passed on. Bob spoke to me; said he was glad to see me improving so fast ; he sat down and took up his book. He opened it at random, knowing it so well that any place offered an understandable beginning, but he did not read. He turned his eyes toward me and said : "You remember that about two months ago a gentleman named Potter bought the old Jamison place, over on the pike? Mother and I called on the family. And since then I have been over there a number of times, though I have said nothing about it to even you. All my life I have been gazing about. to discover a sweet secret, and I think I've found one. Yes and her name is Jane." At this he laughed, threw down his book, shoved his chair back and put his feet on the table. "The name is well enough, no doubt, but in this part of the country we usually associate it with a black wench, you know; and I was impudent 198 MY YOUNG MASTER enough to ask Mrs. Potter why she didn't call her Jenny, but she shut me up with, 'she was named for my mother and it is an honorable name, I'm sure.' And it is, too it takes on bright colors as I associate it with her. But I never thought that I could be smitten with a girl named Jane. It struck me that they had nick-named a rose said scat to a lily. Do you know what she did? Came over here to see you. Said she wanted to see a hero. I brought her up and she looked upon you as you lay here unconscious. As a usual thing, a boy is born in love falls in love with his nurse if no one else is handy but I have escaped pretty well. Oh, I did rather love the Webster girl, and I confess to breathing hard whenever Miss Flem- ming, the old maid school-teacher, came about; but I'm sure I never was knocked senseless with a per fumed slung-shot until I met Jane. Well, the name's all right; is like the finest music takes you some time to discover its beauties. I told her that I was going to be a lawyer and she said that was charming; declared that she was coming to hear my first speech. I wish she would; I could shame Demosthenes." Not since he was a small boy had I heard him rattle on so, and it was a delight to me. Of late his over- manishness and his abstraction had told of too deep an MY YOUNG MASTER 199 absorption in his books, of an impatient ambition gnawing him, and this chaffy talk and the idle light of his countenance relieved a fear that had crept into my mind. "There is something more than beauty about her," he went on, taking pleasure in the interest I was show ing. "She reminds Uncle Clem of a blooded horse, he says. I was inclined to take exceptions at this, but remembered that it was but an expression of real enthusiasm. She steps like a fawn, springs off the turf before she appears to have touched it. My first feeling toward her was one of gladness. I was selfish enough to believe, or to fancy that I believed, she had been created to delight me. And when I removed my eyes from her, I felt sad. Her eyes laughed at me and her lips seemed to say, I have found a fool. At the gate she had jumped off a horse and was in a riding habit when she came running into the room. She was in no wise embarrassed by me. After a while she said that she was hungry and I was startled. I could not conceive of that creature sitting down to vulgar bread, and I was stupid enough to say that I didn't see how she existed in the winter, with the roses all gone. I knew she must eat roses. And she smote me hard by replying that cabbages came on about the 200 MT YOUNG MASTER time roses gave out. This tickeled her mother immensely and she shook her fat sides and fanned her self with the wing o a guinea hen. I am getting all my visits mixed, perhaps, but I am giving you a col lection of impressions. The mother is ignorant and the father is coarse. He made money driving mules to New Orleans and bought the Jamison farm. Yes, her mother and father are plebeian, but the girl is a patrician of the rarest type. She told me that she had just come from school. I asked her if she were sure she had not just come from a gallery of famous por traits. This tickeled her and my blood danced in rhythm with her laugh. Every line of my prose, law, oratory, turned up crackling like drying leaves and was blown away, but all the poetry I had read remained, blooming anew. Now you know how bad off I am, and you may congratulate yourself that you can't follow me into this new domain. Oh, what is so delicious as a fool's love affair! But I won der if she's going to have fun with me and then tell me to go. No, sir, I'm going to win her love if actions, words and devotion count for anything. Dan, she has given me new blood. Good thing that some thing has happened, for this quiet, expectant life is almost unbearable." MY YOUNG MASTER "What's that?" cried Mr. CLem, stepping into the room. "Quiet life, do I hear? Well, it won't always be this quiet, my son. Lincoln will be nominated for the presidency as sure as you live, and the chances are that he'll get in, and then what? War, my boy; red-whiskered war. The South is as sore as a stone- bruise and won't accept an abolitionist. Our high aristocrats have been hankering a long time for a fight and they are going to get it." "Let it come," replied Young Master, shoving his hands into his pockets. "It will be a tournament, music, smiles and flowers. Then we'll all eat out of the same bowl." "Don't you fool yourself!" the old man exclaimed, and I saw that he was deeply in earnest. "It won't be a tournament. It will look more like a butcher's pen." "But the blood-letting will be good for our swollen pride. It will give us all a chance to strut like a turkey gobbler, and, Uncle Clem, it will bring up the price of horses." "By the hoofs, I hadn't thought of that. I never saw a young fellow improve as fast as you do, Bob. In the last week or so you have said several pretty good things. You are getting the proper grasp on truth; and if a man has truth in one hand it needn't make any 202 MY YOUNG MASTER difference wkat the other fellow has in both handt*. Yes, sir, if a war should break out, the horse market would hold up its head and snort. But say, Bob, wasn't there a little love mixed up in what you were saying as I came in?" "Not a little, uncle. All." "The girl you've been prancing around with lately?" "Yes, if you wish to put it that way." "High stepper, Bobbie ; trot a mile in I mean she's all right. Good nostrils shapely nose, you under stand. Laughs well, teeth all sound, and if I were a young fellow, I'd agree to pay her way into every show that might come along, and make a fire for her every morning. Why, Dan, you appear to be tickled nearly to death. I want to tell you that I found that money on the bed where I dropped it. Talk about your heroes of old, why " I interrupted him with a sign of real distress. "I must beg of you and of everyone else, Mr. Clem, not to try to make a hero out of me. But there is a hero under this roof " "Dan," Young Master broke in, "I have just sharp ened my knife and I am almost tempted to cut off your ears. Of what use is an ear when you turn it from heart-felt praise to catch the unsympathetic tones of MY YOUNG MASTER 203 average life? And now when anyone starts to compli ment you upon your heroism, I command you to keep your ears open and your mouth shut. You did act the part of a hero. Shut up, not a word out of you." Mr. Clem swore with a horsey oath that I was a hero, and I was compelled to sit there and listen to his extravagant praise. CHAPTER XXI. I saw Young Master admitted to the bar. The court house was crowded, for an exciting trial was on, but a kind-hearted bailiff let me take a seat wherein I could hear every question asked by the committee of examiners. I knew that he could answer them, and I felt not the slightest fear, but my heart stood still as he tripped over a point almost absurdly simple. I noticed that he had just cast his eyes toward the gal lery, and looking that way at the instant of his petty stumble, I beheld a tall and graceful girl, standing with her head leaning against a post, looking at him, and I knew that his divinity had confused him. But he recovered himself, and I saw Old Master swell with pride and Old Miss wipe her eyes. I was in hopes that they would give him an opportunity to make a speech after the examination, but there was no occa sion for his oratory, so I walked out to wait for him at the door. Old Master and Old Miss came out to wait also, not caring to push themselves behind the bar among the lawyers, and indeed too proud to let (304) MY YOUNG MASTER 205 the neighbors presume that there had been any anxiety concerning the result. Presently Young Master came out with the girl whom I had seen standing in the gallery. The old people shook hands with her when they had shaken hands with him, and upon me the young woman turned her beautiful eyes. "Oh, this is your faithful boy," she said, speaking to Bob, but look ing at me. "I am glad to see him out and looking so well." She had ridden a horse, but Young Master requested the favor of taking her home in his buggy. She said that such an arrangement would please her greatly, and her eyes danced with the delight of the thought. I brought the buggy and was told to sit on the shelf seat behind to lead her horse. She bade the old people an affectionate good-bye, and out the turn pike we drove, along the stretches of red clover and underneath majestic trees. In the distance to her home, three miles or more, there lay a charm, and they did not suffer the spirited horse to trot. The day was warm, the leather curtain raised, and I could hear distinctly the words that passed between them. I could see that he had not more than hinted at his love for her. Her beauty dazzled him and made him afraid. He would have talked of books, but she leaped lightly 206 MY YOUNG MASTER from that subject, and from this I inferred that her mind was not well stored with the knowledge gathered by the busy men of the past. But she was bright and her talk like herself was spirited and pretty, and her observation was minute. She had seen everything about the court-room, an old lawyer with a spot of ink * on the sleeve of his linen coat, a tattered book on the floor, a handful of trash swept into a -corner. "The stars shine on all that Ites beneath them," said Master, a fine tribute to her eyes, I thought ; and she must have thought so, tog* for -she gave him a laugh that rippled like our creek of a morning, when the wind is low. But she protested against his gallantry with a sternness that could not have belonged to her light nature, a plea to him to repeat it, which he did. To his ardent nature, frivolity was a foreign commodity upon which a heavy import tax was laid. He could be argu mentative, oratorical, gay, serious and bright for hours at a time, but the silly though pretty chatter which our social life is supposed to dash as spray between the masculine and the feminine mind was far beyond him. In nearly all affairs he was too intense for the perfectly balanced mind. And on this day he strove repeatedly to fasten the young woman down to seriousness, that he might estimate her mental strength, I perceived; MY YOUNG MASTER 507 but slie flitted about like a humming bird, no sooner attracted by one flower than allured away by another. Still the perfect femininity of her wit, v or that which might pass for it, was captivating. A strained and tiresome novelette, now almost forgotten, was then an imported rage, and she had not escaped the infection. She spoke of characters that Bob knew nothing of and was surprised at his frank acknowledgment of ignor ance. "A young man of your standing can't afford not to know that character," she said. "Society demands it of you, and I believe I would pretend to know," she added, laughing. "We always meet society's demands when we pre tend," he replied. "People don't ask us to know a thing but to assume that we know it and not get caught. I haven't had time to sip negus," he went on after a pause; "I have been too busy with drinking a stronger draught. I sit in the glow of the great books, 6ut pass by the little twinkling lights, for I know that soon they must go out." "Or, in other words," she spoke up, "you tread upon a snow-drop while gazing at a sun-flower." This remark, and I acknowledge its aptness, was so pleasing to her that she laughed the music of self- MY YOUNG MASTER compliment; and the lambs in the grass-land lifted their noses out of the sweet tangle of clover to look at her. I was -so close that when she leaned back once a wayward wisp of her hair swept across my face, more like a breath than a tangible touch, it was so silken and soft. I studied the almost imperceptible grain of her pink, plush skin, I was so near her, and yet to me she was so strangely unreal. To look upon her surely was a delight, but turning away and shut ting my eyes to recall her features, she seemed a memory far off and shadowy. I could have given her a sort of worship, the romantic adoration compelled by a naiad reposing on a moss-bank at the source of a tinkling stream, but I could not have felt for her the surging passion of a human love. There was nothing supernatural in her grace; in her movement there was the soft and unconscious suppression of a cat's agility ; and her bosom bespoke a strong instinct of mother hood, and yet to me she was vaguely unnatural. She was wanting in heart. A powerful love looks upon itself as hopeless; upon it mutt be thrown that sort of a light, to complete its dliciosness ; and I saw that my master's love was powerful, but I could not see that it was hopeless. She might never give him a woman's complete devo- MY YOUNG MASTER 209 tion, I argued, for I did not believe that her nature could comprehend his finer forces, but I felt that she would give him her hand and what she supposed to be her heart. "Do you mean to surrender your life wholly to law books?" she asked, giving him a glance in which I could see a charming fear. "Oh, no. To my mind a law book without poetry behind it is a heap of helpless dust. At first I must agree to take almost any case that may chance to come along, but after a while I will scorn all but the causes that admit of an orator's effort." ''Oh, that will be lovely!" she, cried. "And to think that you entertain yourself and then get pay for it. However, if I were a man, I think I would be a preacher. Preachers are nearly always so nice and clean and they say such pretty things to women." "It was my mother's ambition that I should be a preacher, and I'm sorry now that I did not gratify it," he said. "Oh, charming of you to say so, Mr. Gradley. You see I don't let such a compliment get away from me. I might have pretended not to see it, and and I believe I would if I had thought a moment. Then I could have matte you repeat 3t. Bot really it is 210 MY YOUNG MASTER better for you to be a lawyer than a preacher. You have so much fire. Everybody says you are going to make your mark, and when you got into that trouble lately some one said it would ruin you, but father said it wouldn't. He killed a man once. Why, people have to kill men who try to kill them, don't they? But we won't talk about that. Are you going to the pic-nic over at Fletcher's Grove?" "I hadn't thought about it. Are you going?" "I don't know, but I'd like to, ever so much." "Then go with me." "Oh, that would be delightful, and I will be ready when you call for me. Do you dance?" "I think," said he, "that , I might have courage enough to rob a stage-coach or to fight a duel in a dark room, but I'm afraid that I couldn't summon the nerve to get out before a number of people and try to dance." "Oh, you wouldn't mind it at all. Just as soon as the music strikes up you forget all about yourself. But isn't it dull about here? Nothing to do but to sit about and wait. Last year I visited an aunt who lives in Connecticut, and I had such a nice time. Everyone there is so active. But, after all, I was kept angry a good deal over the negro question. I never MY YOUNG MASTER 211 did get so tired of hearing a subject dinged upon. They hate us and can't help showing it; and they actu ally believe that one of these days they'll come down here, and, as they express it, turn the negroes loose. They believe we keep them chained together all the time; and that hateful book, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin/ is their bible. Have you ever seen it?" "My uncle brought a copy with him and I read it," Bob answered. "I don't care for its principles, whether they are true or false literature being its own principle but to me it bears the mark of a polit ical pamphlet that has happened to make a hit, strong with prejudice but hasty and slip-shod in expression. To me there is no art in it, no imagination but all sermon. The characters are unreal, standing in the light of a red fire ; they are talking-machines, grinding out music-box melodies, set homilies; but the subject is powerful and the book needs no art to give it force. And many a year will pass before we hear the last of it." "Why, Mr. Gradley, you can take an interest in light books after all. I was afraid that you were deter mined to keep yourself chained to the venerable mas ters of of what shall I say? venerable masters of profound thought. That will do, won't it?" 212 MY YOUNG MASTER "Very appropriate, I assure you, but 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' can scarcely be classed as a light book. It comes in a light garb but its nature is most serious." The horse shied at a piece of paper fluttering in the road, and with a little scream she seized the lines. He asked her if she would give them back when she should find that no longer was there any danger, and laughing rythmically and with blushes she returned the lines to him. "No, apology and no embarrassment," said he. "It came of woman's instinctive sense of protection, of her responsibility at a time of peril." "Now you are making fun of me, Mr. Gradley. Oh, boy (turning to look at me). What's his name? Dan? Oh, yes. How's my horse coming on, Dan? Well, for pity's sake, if he hasn't turned him loose." The horse was grazing some distance down the road, and without waiting to beg pardon for my stupid neglect of the charge intrusted to me, I jumped down to run after him. Master and the young woman did not wait for me, but drove to Miss Potter's home, now bat a short distance away. As I came up leading the horse toward the gate, where master and Miss Potter were standing, old man Potter canae walking out. He was efve in his welcome, swearing upon his life MY YOttNG MASTER 213 that never was he gladder to see a man. "Ah," he said, looking at me, "and this here is the boy that we all have heard such a good report about. A likely young feller, Mr. Gradley, and I don't reckon you'd care to sell him." "No, sir," said Bob, assuming to be gentle but look ing his contempt for the coarse old fellow. But Mr. Potter could interpret no looks of contempt; he was too busy surveying me from head to foot. "Yes, reckon you do think a good deal of him, and I wouldn't wonder but it would take a right putty piece of money to buy him." "I could not be induced to part with him, sir," mas ter replied. "Yes, sir, got a right to think a good deal of him. Coin' to learn him any sort of trade? Strong enough to make a good blacksmith. Owned one about like him once. Swapped him for a woman and a child." "Why, father," the daughter spoke up, "Dan is Mr. Gradley's body servant." "Yes, I know," said the old fellow, his cold and speculative eye still bent upon me, "but it wouldn't be out of the way to learn him how to do something. Comes in mighty handy sometimes and we never can tell what mout happen." 214 MY YOUNG MASTER The girl winced at the word "mout," unmistakable symbol of the white trash, and smiling to cut a blush in two, she said: "You observe, Mr. Gradley, that father doesn't care how he talks. He fell into the habit of imitating a queer old fellow who lived near us and now he does it unintentionally. Let us go into the house?" "Yes, come on," old Potter joined in. "Jest as cheap inside as out, and it ain't as tiresome settin' as standin'. Boy, (giving his eye to me again) go round to the kitchen and tell them to give you something to eat." "We haven't time to stop," Bob interposed. "We expect several friends at dinner, and " "Jest as well eat a snack with us," the old fellow broke in. "Jest as cheap and it won't take nigh so long. I reckon I've got as fine a piece of mutton as you ever set your teeth on sheep that I didn't want to part with but an infernal dog came along this morning and grabbed him and cut his throat as slick as a whis tle and we know how te cook mutton at our house. Come on." He continued to urge his hospitality, and to praise the sheep that had been killed by a dog, and the girl pleaded with her eyes; and I thought that Bob would MY YOUNG MASTER 21k waver, he smiled so and bowed so many times, but in the end he was firm, and bade me turn the buggy around. Even then, with his foot on the step, he lingered to speak another word, though never seeming to utter what came into his mind. At last we drove away, and the moment my back was turned, the girl was only a shadow lying across my memory; and it worried me. I could look at as delicate a thing as a flower and in my mind could reproduce its form and its hue, but that woman was a blur to her own image. CHAPTER XXII. "What do you think of her, Dan?" Bob asked as we drove toward home. "Tell me exactly what you think." "She is beautiful, sir," I replied, "but somehow her features refuse to remain with me." "They remain with me black eyes, black hair, rose- leaf ears. She is an oration of the ancients set forth in nineteenth century flesh and blood." "Yes, sir," I assented, with my mind on the old man, "but I don't think much of her stock, as Mr. Clem might say." He snatched the lines from me, lashed the horse to a fierce trot, and looked at me as I sat with my hands fallen in idle submission. "Dan, what's the matter with you? You are getting to be a d cynic. Don't like her stock! I suppose you mean her father? He has had to work his way, no doubt, and may not have read as many fine books as certain fellows who have been pampered, but he is a gentleman. Do you hear (216) MY YOUNG MASTER 217 me?" He lashed the horse. "Do you hear what I say?" "If you say he is a gentleman, he is, Mars. Bob." "But why the devil don't you make discoveries of your own?" "I do, but I have not found the North Pole." "What do you mean by that? Mean that as a gen tleman Mr. Potter is a North Pole to you and is there fore beyond your discovery? Is that what you mean?" At this instant my wretchedness must have smitten him. He pulled the horse back to a walk; he laid his hand upon mine, limp in my lap, and said: "Dan, I was a brute to talk that way when you've been so sick. You are right. The old fellow is as ignorant as a boar but love poured a basket of flowers over him. Please don't try to apologize I'd rather you'd hit me than to do that. Yes, the old man is ignorant and coarse but the girl is intelligent and refined. Look there," he added, pointing with his buggy whip, "you see a flower with a weed as its parent. The weed has done some good, for it has brought forth the flower, and after all it must have held an unconscious refine ment. Here, you take the lines and drive, just as you were doing back there, and don't think of what I said. 218 MY YOUNG MASTER Now, you see, we are going along just as if nothing had happened." The fire and the tenderness of that boy! A passion almost mad, and a gentleness nearly as soft as a young mother's religion, seeking to possess him! I felt even then that he was not fitted to grapple with stern suc cess. Was intuition preparing me for a trial to come, a struggle waiting down the mystic road? Nature may seem to mock her own endeavors, but I believe she creates with a purpose, though the purpose may remain hidden until the end. Nature is pressed upon our many moods, and one mood may strive to pull down the work wrought by another mood. One bent of nature must have had a glorious career marked out for Young Master, though another bent but of this I will not speak. It is bad enough that it should be told in even the proper place. That day for dinner there were several guests, among them old 'Squire Boyle, now grown quite feeble. I had been permitted to leave off the service of standing behind Young Master's chair, but on occa sions my help was really needed, so I took my old place in the dining-room. It was not expected that even this little gathering could be wholly at peace with itself. There was a rumble, North and South MY YOUNG MASTER 219 and disputatious vapors floated in the air. And rea son, among the party leaders, had given way to fierce gesticulation, and a strife to say something, not to convince but to cut an adversary. I remember that old man Boyle paused with his mouth full of a turkey's white meat to listen to a remark made by Old Master. "Sir," said the 'squire, after swallowing as if his absorption had dried his throat, "the institutions of this country are tottering, and cool reason alone can prop them." "And that's exactly what the South won't listen to," Mr. Clem spoke up. "The South wants to block the humane progress of the world. She is not satisfied with her present unhealthful domain, but wants to shove her slave territory into new lands. Reason's voice is but the squeak of a mouse, sir. They can hear nothing but the roar of a lion, and by G , sir, they want to be the lion." "Clem," said Old Miss, "you forget where you are. You are not trading horses on the turn-pike, you are seated at my table." "Hanna, that's a fact, I am at your table; and I reckon that I'm the first one that ever paid his way here." MY YOUNG MASTER "Oh, speaking of horses," interrupted the 'squire with a squeak, "reminds me, Clem, that the one I got of you ain't worth his weight in last year's bird-nests." "What?" Mr. Clem cried, "I am astonished at you." "Yes, sir, and I was astonished at him; wouldn't pull a settin' turkey off her nest; lies down in the traces like he wants to go to sleep." "Why, of course," Mr. Clem shouted. "You have profaned a fine saddle horse. He's not intended to pull; he's intended for a gentleman to ride, sir." "But didn't you tell me that he was a wheel hcrse and would pull till both eyes popped out?" "Oh, no; I said I would rather have him than any wheel horse that would pull that blindly. Saddle horses, you know, are of a higher grade." "I was in hopes so, sir, and I thought I would try to ride this one, but blast me if he didn't try to shake me off him right into the creek!" "Oh," said Mr. Clem, "I forgot to tell you that he used to travel with a circus. Yes, sir, and an actor used to stand on him to jump headlong into a tank of water, and he was taught to shake himself to announce his readiness for the leap " "But he laid down with me, sir." "Yes, and I was going to say, that a part of his duty MY YOUNG MASTER 221 was to go into the tank after the actor. A fact, Bob," he added, nodding at Young Master, who had begun to laugh at him. "Horses, you know, are taught to do most anything. Yes, sir, but getting back to the question of unrest now so strongly marked through out the country, I want to say that something is going to happen and happen blunt, too. No human govern ment can long stand the internal pullings and haulings that this one is subjected to." "But what is going to be done?" Old Master cried. Mr. Clem shrugged his shoulders. "Something is going to pop pretty soon and pop like a whip," said he. "A glass house is going to be broken and hoar frost will gather on leaves never intended for the chill air. The whole trouble comes from slavery and I, for one, am bold enough to say that the end is surely not far off." "I don't want you to say it at my table, sir," Old Master almost fiercely shouted. "I don't want you to talk treason at my board." Not in the least was Mr. Clem offended, nor was he at all put out by Old Master's violence. "Guilford," said he, "the trouble is that the South has got the negro mixed up with its religion and with its notion of good government. To own a slave no longer stops 222 MY YOUNG MASTER at the possession of a piece of property, but becomes so much of a sentiment that the man who does not care to own one is looked upon as an outlaw. And if he declares that he would not own one, that his con science is against it, he is put down as a traitor to the South, seeking to overturn the American govern ment." Old Miss threw up her head and sniffed the unsav ory air. "Clem," she said, "I don't want you to talk that way in the presence of my son. Why, it wouldn't astonish me to hear you say that a negro is as good (is a white man!" 'Squire Boyle listened with his fork raised and his mouth half open. He had long been suspected of holding the views of the abolitionists; it was known that he had favored Henry Clay's scheme for gradual emancipation. He had been studiedly discreet, but being by birth a Northern man, suspicion naturally turned an eye upon him. Sometimes when he must have felt that his silence was eating him like an internal cancer, he had come to Old Master to be bold with health ful utterances, but of late, as the country became more deeply stirred, Old 'Master warned him to swallow rapidly whenever he felt a strong disposition to talk upon the subject of abolition. And now he swallowed^ MY YOTTNG MASTER 223 with such vigor and rapidity that a stranger to the precaution placed upon his speech must surely have thought that he was choking to death. " 'Squire, did you swallow something the wrong way?" Mr. Clem asked, leaning over toward him. "No, something wants to come up the right way," the 'squire piped, the red Adam's apple at his thin throat dodging like a wood-pecker. "I want to say something, but I won't. But the time will come when I will stand on a hill I've got it picked out and bawl what I think. Guilford, you are fixing to scold me, sir, and I must ask you not to say a word." Old Master laughed at this, the old 'squire's desper ate threat of rebellion, and had taken up a bit of bread to roll his customary bolus, when yellow Sam, who had been sent to town, came in with a letter. Old Miss began at once to speculate as to whom it could be from, and Old Master, winking at Bob and looking at her as he wiped his glasses, said that he supposed he could put the letter under his plate and wonder a long time as to the identity of the writer. "But hap pily," said he, again winking his mischievous eye, "we are provided with raeans whereby we can cut through all speculation and get at once into the heart and th? 224 MY YOUNG MASTER truth of the subject. To be brief," he added, "we can open the letter." "Well, for goodness sake, why don't you?" his wife broke in, as she always did when she saw him indulg' ing a droll humor. "Give it to me." "Oh, no," he laughed, putting back her hand. "There may be secrets in this epistle that belong alone to the great free-masonry of men." "And your organization is shameful enough," she said, not without a show of ill-temper (for any allusion to an understanding in which she was not included always appeared to cut her). "But I must acknowl edge its rare perfection as an organization," she went on. "Its devotees do not have to be sworn, unless nature swears them at birth." By this time the single leaf of the letter was shaking under Old Master's gaze. "Read it," he said huskily, handing it to Bob. And he bowed his head over the table. The note was from Miss May. It told us that her husband was dead, and that she, with her little child, was about to start for home. CHAPTER XXIII. Everything was put in order, the house cleaned and the cabins newly whitewashed, to brighten the place for the daughter's return. But the day looked dull when she came with the little child crying in the nurse's arms. There were tears and embraces and tremulous words of love. On the steps my Young Mistress turned to the nurse and said, "Give her to me, Titine." And at this moment I felt that an arrow from a bow in the sky had shot through me. Titine! I did not know that the world had presumed to hold a beauty and a charm so exquisite. Her complexion was as the richest cream, her hair showed the merest suggestion of a waver rather than a negro kink, her eyes were black-blue, and her lips Was it Solomon who said "her lips are as a thread of scarlet"? I was a man now, grown to full strength and passion from the moment I saw that French, Spanish, negro, Anglo-Saxon girl. Never before had I seen anyone to thrill me; surely not a ncgress, and certainly I had not presumed to acknowl- 226 MY YOUNG MASTER edge the charms of a white woman. I did not fall at once in love with Titine ; I was too excited, too breath less as I gazed upon her. I reminded myself of an animal, beholding for the first time a female of his own species and I verily believe that I felt a desire to throw my head up and scream like a panther. "Dan," Old Miss cried, "why don't you bring in the things? What do you want to stand there for like a chicken with the gapes?" In this comparison there was something so appro priate that I could not suppress a laugh, though I took care to hide it from Old Miss. Miss May turned to the girl and told her to help me bring in the bags, but Old Miss objected. "Let her rest, May," she said. "Dan hasn't been doing a thing. He's pretty much as you left him scarcely worth his salt." This was a fine recommendation to Titine, and I felt the blood mount to my face, as I turned toward the carriage at the gate. But I glanced back and saw the girl following me with her eyes; and I wondered, self ishly enough, why she had not insisted upon helping me, though I needed no assistance, for I was strong- enough at that moment to seize all the bags at once and hurl them over ti*e house. I saw but little f Titine that afternoon (or evening MY YOUNG MASTER 227 aswetermed it), for the child was fretful and put a claim upon nearly all her time, but I heard her singing in a room down the hall from our "office," and I stepped about, keeping quick time with the tingling leap of my blood. At the supper hour she came down to stand behind Miss May, and I marched boldly into the dining-room, delighted now to resume a menial service. I stood beside her, but alas! with what scorn did she look at me. The child began to cry and she was sent above, and it was then that I began to hear-something of her history. She had belonged to Marston's maiden sister, a peculiar creature who had cared for nothing but Titine and a white woolly dog. The dog died and the mistress, doubling her affection for the girl, sent her to a convent to be educated, greatly to the scandal of her associates. At the old woman's death, of recent date, the girl had fallen to Marston. She complained at this transfer, declaring that her mistress had drawn up a paper to set her free, but the paper could not be found, so she was com pelled to submit, stubbornly at first, but after a while becoming so much attached to Miss May that she rejoiced in her good fortune. "She knows as much and is a far better talker than I am," said Miss May. 228 MY YOUNG MASTER "Daughter, you must not say that," Old Miss objected. "It cannot be true and it surely is not right." "Very well, mother, I won't say it again, but you will soon find out for yourself." Then they all fell into a family talk, the sudden death of Marston and the entanglement in which his affairs were likely to be found. He was not a good manager, never knew what his income was, and was always in debt. But he was so kind-hearted and here Miss May wept and the subject was changed. Immediately after supper young master dressed himself to call on Miss Potter, and when he was gone I threw aside my senseless book and went down into the yard, to dodge behind the trees at the corner of the house, hoping to catch sight of Titine on the ver anda. At last she came out, with a .red cap on her head, and stood with her hands resting on the balus trade, looking far away at the dying pink in the sky, I stepped out boldly and touched my hat. She glanced down at me and tossed her head- Bui I knew that she was not displeased. "Beautiful evening," I said. "Indeed!" MY YOUNG MASTER 229 "This is but one of many of our charming sun-sets." "Ah, then the sun goes down every evening?" "Y-e-s," I stammered, for she was beginning to make me feel foolish. "In the same place?" she asked, cutting her eye at me. "Well, not exactly. But in the West, generally." "Startling." "Oh, not when we have accustomed ourselves to it." "Indeed. But tell me, is salt very high here, or do you use a great deal of it?" "I don't quite understand you." "I heard your old mistress say that you were not worth your salt." "Yes, she would say anything to humiliate me. I inflicted a mortal wound when I began to study with my Young Master." "Oh, you have studied, have you? That was foolish. I committed the same indiscretion." "If you have studied, then it was glorious to study." "It is bad enough not to be worth your salt, but please don't be a fool." "I can't help it. You would rob a philosopher of his wisdom." She lattghed, and I believe that had a lancet pricked 230 MY YOUNG MASTER an artery my blood would have spurted a mile high. I heard a sharp cry from the child, and it smote my heart, not that the little thing might be suffering, but that I was to be robbed. "I must go," she said. "And shall I stay?" "Yes, if you sleep standing up, like a horse." She was gone, and I stood under the trees, gazing at the cabin lights; and I waited there until the lights began to go out, but the girl did not return. I heard Young Master ride up to the gate, and I went out to take his horse. He walked with me to the stable. He said not a word until we were returning, and then, clutching my arm, he told me that Miss Potter had consented to be his wife. "I am the happiest human being on the face of this broad earth," he said, waving his arm so as to take in the entire universe. "And she says that she will wait till I have made myself famous, for I told her I thought that this would be wise, believing with some of the great thinkers, that while marriage might improve a man's judgment, it might also put out a part of his fire. You know I was born with the idea that I was to become an orator, and I have not run against anything to change my opinion. I feel something surging within me, and all I need is a subject. I can be proud of her, Dan; I am proud MY YOUNG MASTER 231 of her, and I must make myself worthy of her pride. What are you so glum about to-night?" "You have seen the girl that came with Miss May?" "Yes, she is a beauty. And she has caught you? I'm glad of it. Oh, it seems that old mother Nature is not disposed to let us drift far apart. In common we felt many an emotion, and love came along to teach one of us what the other did not know. But you don't mean that you have fallen in love with her so soon?" "I don't know anything when I think of her, Mars. Bob. More than half my life seems to be compressed into the few hours she has been under our roof." It was getting late, and Bob went to bed soon after we reached the room, to dream of a love that had leaped to meet his own ; and I lay there listening to the faint cries of a child, and the almost silent sounds of foot-falls on the floor, down the hall. In the morning I was up before the sun, dodging about among the trees at the east end of the veranda. At last she came down to freshen her eyes with a glimpse of the dawn- couch, purple with the sun's resurrection. "I am almost persuaded that you are determined to earn your salt, you are up so early," she said with a smile brighter than the new day. 232 MY YOUNG MASTER "Is it because you are from the sugar lands of Lou isiana that salt is such a novelty to you?" I asked. She did not reply, but stood looking at the hills, far away. "I never get tired of them," she said; "they are so strange and 'new. We have no hills in our country, you know; nothing but a level stretch as far as the eye can see, and we know that beyond this another level stretch lies, and beyond that, still another. But here, I don't know what's beyond. Blue mystery everywhere." "Some time I will take the buggy and drive you over to the hills," I said, and the light of a new interest flew to her eyes. "Will you? That will be kind. But will they let you take the buggy?" "My young master will give me permission, and we can slip off from Old Miss. Let us go Sunday, after dinner?" This was on a, Saturday, and the length of time lying dead between then and Sunday afternoon was to me a sunless, moonless and starless age. . But the hour, the minute came, and amidst the half contemptuous titterings and envious glances of the negroes, we drove off from the gate, down a lane, far across two white turn-pikes that streaked a hill and striped a valley, up MY YOUNG MASTER 233 through a fern cove to a dark, mysterious spring; and here we left the buggy to climb a crag. She had seen red lumps of sand-stone, but never had she touched a living rock, and at the foot of a cliff, moss-grown and vine-strung, she stood with her head bowed and with her red cap in her hand a goddess in meditation, a nymph at prayer. I stood apart and in deep rever ence looked at her, fearful that my nearness might pro fane her devotions. I had begun to ascribe to her a super-human quality, a beauty belonging not to this world, and a virtue breathed by the ancient maidens who preferred death to a tarnishment of their chastity. Indeed, had there been such an institution as the supreme bench of sentimental idiots, I should surely have been selected to a seat upon it. "Is it not divine here, in this air, blown fresh from paradise?" I said, lifting my eyes like an ox. "Yes, and I wish we had brought something to eat," she replied. "This rough climbing has made me hungry." "You hungry!" I cried. "Impossible." "Why impossible?" And she put on her red cap and looked at me from head to foot. "Because your soul " "Bosh!" she said and laughed. "All you Kentucky 234 MY YOUNG MASTER men are alike, from what I have read and from what I now see. You try to make love and you declaim like school -boys. They laugh at such love in New Orleans. Don't you know that the first step toward making love to a woman is to interest her by some thing you do or say?" "And haven't I interested you?" I asked. "Why, I can't say that you have. You have been very kind, and attentive, but I haven't seen anything surprising about you. Ever since I came I have heard how smart you were, and I suppose you must have lorded it over those poor ignorant negroes." "Miss," said I, "I might be ready to drop at your feet and cover your shoes with kisses, but you musn't talk to me that way. What little learning I have, has been a source of reproach and trouble to me, and never have I attempted to show it off. I don't sup pose I could say as much if I had been fed upon the hot mush of French romances." She turned about and sat down, put forth her dainty foot, looked at it and said that hot mush was at all times to be preferred to cold slop. "Won't you sit down?" she asked, turning her foot over so that I might see the exquisite arch of the instep. I sat down, though not beside her; and for a time I mused MY YOUNG MASTER 250 in silence upon the temper, the imhealthful fancy of the old maid who had presided over the mind of this fair creature. I knew that in her selection of a part ner she would look high, but I knew also that her actions must ever be subservient to the will of an owner, invested with far more authority than that granted to a husband by our almost mock ceremony of marriage. But how high could she look? Surely no higher than the plane upon which I stood. These reflections threw a dash of old earth into the counten ance of my romance, and in bitterness I laughed at myself and at her. "What has tickled you so?" she asked. "Two fools," I replied. "Two fools, or one fool big enough for two?" "Two fools," I repeated. "We are owned body and soul, and even sentiment, the gift of God, comes to mock us." In an instant she had planted her feet firmly upon the ground and was standing in front of me. "I can begin to detect a glimmering of sense in you," she said. "In a negro's courtship there can be nothing absurd," she went on, flooding me with the light from her eyes. "An hour's acquaintance is as good as a year's close relationship. He is an animal looking for a mate and 236 MY YOUNG MASTER he makes his proposal of marriage. He may already have a dozen wives, it makes no difference, for neither law nor society takes any account of his relations with women. My mistress was a sensible woman, and she taught me to hate a negro marriage and I do hate it. I have the instincts of a lady and I refuse to be an animal. I saw at once that you were determined to ask me to be your wife and I am glad you have given me a chance to head you off." Strange talk for a maiden, there on a hill, under a cliff overlooking broad Kentucky. I might have expected it from a wrinkled hag, a sibyl, but from this ripe and creamy maid it came as a blunt blow upon the head. "There is truth in what you say," I was forced to admit, "but ours would not be a common negro mar riage." "No, but you are making the courtship character istically negro. Do you reflect upon how short a time we have known each other?" "Titine, this suddenness is not negro it is impulse and romance. How long did Romeo know Juliet?" "And what came of their love but death? Dan, we can be good friends, brother and sister, but you must not ask rne to go through with a mock ceremony, the MY YOUNG MASTER 31 sentimental joke of a plantation, and pretend that I am your wife. When we reflect upon our condition we must be miserable. Education has made us unhappy, except when we lose our minds in a book; and to unite two miseries, two conditions of helpless ness a crime!" she cried. "Yes, I have read French romances. Year after year I sat beside my mistress and read to her and listened to her remarks upon 'the phases of life that came under our view. She called me precocious a reflex of her own mind. My mind was apt and it stored many images and caught many a color from my surroundings, and but what is the use of talking about myself?" "Titine, listen to me. Something tells me that the world will not always be thus, holding the worshippers of nature in a grip of bondage " "Hush!" she cried, putting her hands to her ears. "When you have changed the subject I will listen to you." "You will listen now!" I cried, springing to my feet, grasping her hands, holding them tight, bending her backward, gazing into her eyes. "You will listen to me now." Her eyes darted forked tongues at mine, and I liberated her. She smiled and sat down. MY YOUNG MASTER "Yes," she said sweetly, her anger vanishing, "I will listen to you now." "First, let me beg your pardon." "Oh, another mockery. Let us skip that. Let me near your speech; you are a lawyer." "I will not make the speech of a lawyer, but of a tover." "You can't love. You are a negro." She said this with bitterness and her laugh was cold. "Titine, even an animal can love." "Oh, for a season, yes; but nature does not make a mockery of an animal's love. The animal can seize its young and run away, but if the negro runs away to protect his young, he is brought back with the hounds. Dan, I am going to live as my mistress did, and no man shall have a claim on me." "But Titine, you are a human being, you have pas sion, the sense of " "Sense of justice to myself and to those who might come after me." "Titine, you are not a girl, you are a beautiful witch. You know too much for one of your age your shriv elled old mistress left you her mind; and she is now watching you " "Ugh!" she cried, putting out her hands, "don't say MY YOUNG MASTER 239 that. But if she does watch me she will see that I follow her commands." "But her commands were against your interests. She would shut you out from all enjoyment, from sen timent and from love. Thank her for her kindness but rebel against her exactions. Be my wife." "Poor fool," she said, clasping her hands, over her knee and gazing at me. "You are not a man to have a wife ; you are a piece of property, and no matter how tightly I might cling to you, you could be torn from me and sold, and the howl of the auctioneer, yelling for another animal to be brought forward, would drown my. cries of distress. Oh, I have stood in the slave market, and I have seen a child snatched from the arms of its heart-broken mother. Old Mistress used to take me there to show me the bitterness of life. And you would be the father of a stock to be sold! Poor fool, put your foot on such a thought." She rocked herself and laughed, and upon my soul, for a moment I fancied that she was a witch, endowed with a frightful wisdom; but a bough moved, the strong light fell upon her, and she sat there, warm, rich and human. "Have you given your strange views to Miss May?" MY YOUNG MASTER "There are two children in our family and one of them is Miss May," she said. "But don't you read to her?" "Yes, the 'Children of the Abbey' and let her cry herself to sleep. She is a child." "Titine, there is strange blood in you; you are Cleo patra come to earth again; and the serpent of slavery is at your breast." She shuddered. "And it may suck out my life, but mine alone," she said. "Titine, a week ago I could not have believed it pos sible to be placed in such a position ; I could not have believed that a creature like you existed in the world. The knowledge of slavery has always been a burden; you make it a snake and it bites me. But tell me, what are you going to do? Are you going to spend your life in servitude?" "Who is there to take me away?" she asked, and the look she gave me stilled my blood, but it flowed again with a spurt, and leaping to my feet I ran to the edge of the cliff and looked far below, at the lengthening shadows, the crows sailing round and round, the cattle feeding in a distant meadow. I turned back to her. She did not look at me. I sat down beside her, MT YOUNG MASTER 241 sought to take her hand, but she moved and motioned me away. "Titine, once I thought I saw a hangman's rope the maids have told you a part of the story and money was thrown at me, but I would not run away so deeply was I devoted to Bob Gradley, I thought that the devil was trying to tempt mfc, but now I believe that the temptation comes from God." "You have misunderstood me," she said, and her words were freezing. "I would not suggest a temp* tation; I would not run away with you. I will be frank I don't love you, and if I did, I would not run away to be brought back in shame. L^t us be fellow servants, Dan?" "But is there no hope left in the world?" "Do you read the Bible, and do yon find hope there?" "Come, let us go home," I said. Now came a political contest to shame the short sightedness of the wise men who framed our consti tution. I do not say this in disparagement of a broad and liberty-loving principle, the Jeffersonian principle that made demagogic men too strong and government too weak, but I do say, as all men now must know, that advantage was taken of the theory of states rights, beast-headed fallacy ; and I do aver that Hamilton was the wisest man that saw the birth of our nation. But this is simply seeking to make noon-day clear. Never was there a campaign of such heat and bitter ness. Households were divided and brothers frowned upon one another, and in the distance hovered the vulture-shaped cloud of war. My Young Master sup ported Kentucky's favorite son, as did Old Master, and for -months our house bore the appearance of a committee room. The time came for Bob to display his power as an orator, and never was there a nobler effort. It was in the court-house yard. Great men had spoken before the boy arose to address the crowd. (942) MY YOUNG MASTER 243 I was standing near, and I thought that I saw his blood leap; I know that his eye shot fire at me. His first sentence caught the assembly, the lawyers, the doctors and the sturdy yeomen. I cannot recall it; I will not try, but I know that it tingled through me. Since then I have listened to many a speech; I have heard Wendell Phillips and the great men in Congress, but never have I been bound by the spell of such impassioned eloquence. To me his words lost their literal meaning it was an outpour of passion and emotion. The crowd went wild, and when the orator stepped from the platform, he was borne away on the shoulders of men. Old George D. Prentice, author of an immortal poem, was present with genius shining in his eyes, and the next day his newspaper declared that another great orator had arisen in Kentucky, one to take the place of Henry Clay. It was a glad night at our house. The trees were hung with lanterns, so great was the pressure of people come to congratulate the blue-grass Demosthenes. Upon all these proceedings, Mr. Clem looked with a quiet smile. "You made a great speech," he said to Bob, when we had gone to the room, late at night. "Yes, you caught me, but what does it all amount to? I told you 244 MY YOUNG MASTER that Lincoln would be nominated, and now I tell you he will be elected." "Nonsense," Old Master cried. He was walking up and down the room, his head high with pride. "This country is not yet ready for a revolution." "That may be, Guilford," said Mr. Clem, "but it is ready for the election of that man." "Are you going to support him, sir?" Old Master demanded. "Did you ever know me to turn my back upon a friend? And he is not only my friend, but the saviour of this country, the greatest statesman that this repub lic has seen." "Clem," said Old Master, pausing and resting his hand upon a pile of books that lay on Bob's table, "it is well enough to praise your friend, for he is no doubt droll and amusing, but when you come to call him a great statesman, you do injustice to the memory of Clay and Webster, of Jefferson and Benton." Mr. Clem laughed. "Guilford," said he, "you are misled just as the majority of men suffer themselves to be misled. A man brays with the solemnity of an ass and you think he is great. Over a vital question he utters a senseless stupidity and you think he has said a wise thing. You don't know that humor is the cream that rises to the surface of life's wisdom. Lincoln tells a story and throws a bright light on a truth; he does not invest a subject with a gloom so thick that no eye can penetrate it. He makes all things plain, and the province of greatness is not to enshroud but to sim plify. But that's neither here nor there; he's going to be elected." "But can't you understand that the country will not accept him, sir?" "Not accept him? The people will accept whom the people elect." "But the South will not accept an abolitionist." "Then the South will have to make the most of it. Of what good will be her protest? You don't mean that she will secede from the Union?" "Oh, I hope not," said Old Master. "Surely not," he added. "We cannot afford to throw away the trad itions of our fathers." It was a sore subject to me, and I was glad when they dropped it. I hardly knew why, but my flesh always began to creep when abolition was ventured upon; there was a shudder in it, a threat of trouble, trial and blood. Bob had shown no interest in the talk; he had sat in a deep muse, his hands listless in his lap, his eyes 246 MY YOUNG MASTER turned upward; but how handsome was his face, his expression sweetened with success. That day he had been lifted high and given a glimpse, yes a full sight of the heaven his heart so fondly craved; he was to be great and he knew it as he sat there dreaming. Old Master turned to go, and his son came down from the purple clouds. They looked at each other for a moment. "Bob." "Yes, sir." "You have made me the proudest man in the State ; you have done what Patrick Henry fired me with an ambition to do. It was denied me, and now I am rejoiced to see it fulfilled in you. The blood of old Kentucky shook your hand to-night. Now give it to me, sir." Young master arose and they shook hands with solemn ceremony, Bob turning his eyes away. "Your eye, sir," said the old man, and the young man looked into his father's eyes ; and they read each other sternly, and with never a sign of flinching, so completely had each mastered himself. "Father, if I have ability it is indeed the fulfillment of your own ambition, for I felt it as a child, so strongly apart from my own forces that I knew the MY YOUNG MASTER 24T current must come from you. I have been told by old men that I am a second edition of yourself and " "A revised and corrected edition, sir," the old man broke in, still gripping firmly the young fellow's hand. "But a cheaper edition, I fear," the orator said. "Enough, captivating flatterer. Good-night." Old Master strode out, walking -hard upon the floor, and Mr. Clem, who with keen amusement had observed this exchange of fine-tempered civility, turned to Bob and said: "By the flint hoofs, you and that old brother of mine will be snatched out of the sixteenth century before very long. Paw me if I didn't expect one of you to say, 'I come not here to talk, you know too well the story of our thralldom.' Bob", the trouble with the South is the fact that it is not really republican in prin ciple. It is a shapeless aristocracy writhing about to find a head. Tell me, do you believe in a democratic form of government?" Bob sat down, leaned back and put his feet on the table, leaving Mr. Clem standing behind him; and he glanced back over his shoulder as he replied: "Do I believe in a democracy? I don't believe in the rule of ignorance; I don't believe in a goldocracy, the most insolent and oppressive of all tyrants. I don't believe 248 MY YOUNG MASTER it just to give to a plebeian mob the right to snatch a brilliant man from public life simply because he refuses to grovel to a vulgar taste ; I don't believe " "But do you believe in a negro-cracy? Do you believe that the ownership of a hundred slaves should open all doors to a coarse and ignorant man?" "No, I don't. I would not let ignorance own a slave." "Ah, but slaves are bought with money, not with intelligence. Bob, you are an orator, but after all you are but a fledgling. Now, I want to ask you a ques tion. What has made this country great, the gentility of Virginia or the dogged industry of New England? To whom do we owe most, the silver buckled gentle man or the steeple-hatted puritan?" "If you measure greatness by material wealth, Uncle Clem but there's no use of such an argument. You are too practical for me. You are a Baconian and I would sit at the feet of Socrates. And progress will say that you are right." "And won't you say so, too?" "I am not progressive. I worship the utterances of the past ; you glory in the achievements of the pres ent. You honor the North because it is rich, and I MY YOUNG MASTER 249 love the South because it is poetic. So there we are, and it is of no use to argue." "No, I reckon not. Say, did you notice an old fellow with a white hat, riding a chestnut horse? Didn't get down until you were about half through with your speech, and then he rolled off, turned his horse loose and whooped like an Indian. I kept a weather eye on him, and when the bottom dropped out of the proceedings, I looked him up. Yes, sir, and his horse is out yonder in the stable now, and a glandered nag of mine is missing. The old fellow was so wrought up that he was in no condition to defend him self. So much for oratory. Good-night, lad." Bob laughed at him as he went out, and remarked to me that the speech had brought good to one man even if it had worked an injury upon another member of the human family. "And," he added, "we can't expect to help more than half of mankind at once. Dan," he said, after a thoughtful moment, "this has been a great day for me. And she was there, sitting in a buggy. And when she took my arm to-night I knew she was ptoud of me." I said that her soul must have been filled with an intoxicating joy, and I lied, for I did not believe that she could entertain an exalted pride. I knew that her 250 MY YOUNG MASTER vanity was flattered, a hard luster in her eye told me that, but I saw that her victory was cold and selfish. I acknowledged to myself that I had surrounded the young woman with a prejudice (and in a prejudice there is always more or less of intuition) and I tried hard to pull it apart that I might see her clearer; but the prejudice was strong and could not be torn asunder. Bob was undressing when I left him to go out into the yard, to walk among the trees. I loved my mas ter, and his success I felt was my advancement, but with all that I was wretched. To hold aloft a light that I had found was but to illumine a hopelessness. As I passed out into the hall, I saw Titine step from the door of Miss May's room. She carried a pitcher in her hand and I knew that she was going to the well. I walked slowly behind her until she reached the hall below and then I called her. She stopped and looked back at me. "What is it?" she asked. "Going for water at this time of night?" "When water is wanted, the time of night makes no difference," she said as I joined her to pass out upon the rear veranda. We walked along together toward the well. MY YOUNG MASTER 251 "Titine, I don't know you any better now than I did when you first came." "And I don't know myself any better, and are you presumed to know me better than I know myself?" "No, I suppose not. But since that day we went to the hills you have never consented to go out alone with me." "Don't you know why?" "I can't say that I do." "Then you are duller than I took you to be." The moon was shining and the light fell full upon her face, upward turned; she was smiling and her smile was cold. We had now reached the well, and I unwound the chain to let the bucket down. She placed her arms on the curbing and hummed a cool tune of idleness, of a total lack of interest in what I might be doing. "Yes, I do know," I said. "Then you are no duller than I thought you were," she ceased humming long enough to say. I drew up the dripping bucket and poured the pitcher full. She reached forth her hand to take it. "Wait a moment," I pleaded, catching at her hand, but it flew away like a bird. MY YOTTN& MASTER "Well," she said, straightening up and looking at me. "Titine, ii you and I were free " "If I were free I would be a nun," she broke in. "Give me the pitcher." "Wait just a moment. Let me kiss you." She shrieked with laughter. "Oh, how blunt you are. Look out, you'll break that pitcher." "Then I could be classed with Gideon's men. They broke their pitchers before they fought." "But you are not going to break the pitcher and fight." "Yes, I'm going to break it and fight for a kiss." "Oh, what a fool you are. What good would breaking the pitcher do? Give it to me." She spoke in a tone of such command that I gave her the vessel, but I pleaded with her to stay, longer; and now I caught her hand. She struggled to free herself but my grasp was vice-like. "Wait until I have told you something. Nature intended you for me and I am going to have you " She spat at me like an angry cat, snatched her hand away, so strong was she, and ran up the path toward the house, the water leaping from the mouth of the pitcher. I caught up with her. "Are you offended, Titine?" MY YOUNG MASTER 253 "Oh, no, it was too good a joke. Nature intended me for you, indeed. Nature doesn't know you, simple ton. If she should meet you in the road she would say, 'who's your master, boy? Oh, young Mr. Grad- ley, eh? Tell him with my compliments that he pos sesses a very fine piece of yellow property.' Then what would you do? Tell nature that you wanted to marry another piece of yellow property? She would laugh at you and tell you to black your master's boots.' " She bounded up the stairway, splashing the water, and at the top she turned to laugh at me. CHAPTER XXV. Over events of national importance I am compelled to pass swiftly, for in no way am I seeking to write the history of a struggle, and by giving only a glimpse here and there shall I try to set forth the disaffection that led to it. Lincoln was elected and for a time the South stood in dumb surprise, and then she shook herself and the nation began to go to pieces, crumbling apart with secession. Further south it was but natural to expect that all would go one way, but in Kentucky there were contending factions in almost every household; and the friendships and affections of a life-time were torn to shreds. Tennessee, our respected neighbor on the south, went out of the Union and beat old drums under a new flag; and it was expected that Kentucky would follow, but her grim old leaders set their teeth and swore that the commonwealth should not budge from her time- honored allegiance to the government of Washington and Monroe. Old Master was firm for the Union. Once he heard a drum beating at midnight and he got (254) MY YOUNG MASTER 266 out of his bed and went to town. And when he eame back his countenance was sad but hard-set. "They are beating up men for the rebel army," he said. "I raised my hand and in the name of our fathers com manded them to disperse, but they laughed at me. Let them go. The devil is waiting for them." Within a few days it seemed that every accent of the human voice was a martial tone. There was no talk * but of war. Brothers denounced one another in the street, and fathers drove their sons from home. Soci ety was mad. Over line-fences irate neighbors gazed at one another, gun in hand. Day and night the turn pikes resounded with the clatter of galloping hoofs. Brass cannon were dragged by our house; men camped under our trees, without asking permission. Fifes were screaming everywhere, and negro drum mers strutted about wearing the cast-off and faded finery of a former war. From the South came the startling report that the conflict was begun. And the drums in Kentucky beat louder. One evening, just as the family had sat down to supper, Sam came in and said that a man outside wanted to see Old Master. "Tell him to come in here," the old man spoke up. Presently a man entered, dressed and accoutered as a cavalryman. Old 256 MY YOUNG MASTER Master glanced at him as he crossed the threshold, and seeing that his uniform was gray, demanded the cause of his visit. "The government has sent me to buy your crib of corn, sir." "The government! I don't understand you, sir," Old Master declared, frowning at the man's clothes. "The Confederate government," the man said. "Indeed! I didn't know that such a government existed. You may return, sir, and tell the Confederate government to go back to h , where it belongs." The man smiled, touched his cap With a military salute and withdrew. He had been a neighbor, but now he was a stranger. "Guilford," said Mr. Clem, "nearly everybody was surprised when the news went out that you were for the Union. You are so strongly a Southerner and have always tried so hard to justify slavery that " "Sir, with me my country is my first consideration," Old Master broke in. "But I can't, for the life of me, understand why you should deliberately turn your back on your own inter ests," said Old Miss. "The South is more your coun try than the North is, and yet you turn against the South." MY YOUNG MASTER 257 "Madam, the whole country, the traditions of the American people are mine. And I don't believe that the government will interfere with slavery, but if it should, I say, let it go ahead. The first consideration is to save the country." Bob had said not a word. Many a time when the drums struck up had he gone out to walk in the woods alone, and I knew that a struggle was raging within his breast, but I asked him no question and he offered not a word. Of late he had gone forth at night, 'some times remaining away until nearly dawn, and in his sleep he had cried sharp words, "right about face," "forward march," "halt!" "Bob," said Old Master, "I have waited to hear you express your views; I have given you plenty of time, but you have said nothing. I know without asking, still I would like to hear your say. Which side do you favor? But wait, you needn't answer so foolish a question." "Father, the question is not foolish. I am raising a company of men for the Confederate army." It seemed that every dish and cup leaped from the table. Old Master was on his feet, then on his chair, then leaning against the wall, his face hidden. He uttered a cry such as I had never heard, a groan set to 258 MY YOUNG MASTER the tune of despair. He turned from the wall and looked at his son, now standing with his hands resting on the back of a chair. The young man bowed his head, and I saw the tears trickling down his face. Old Master dragged his feet forward, feeling out with his hands as if to keep from falling. Old Mistress stood with her arms folded and with cold pride on her face. Miss May was pale with an air of fright; and Titine, looking across at me, slowly closed her eyes and smiled. Old Master reached the table and leaned forward with both hands pressed flat upon it, in the helpless condition of a man hoping and trying not to fall, a man who has received a knock-down blow and who is expecting another. His chin shook and his old lips worked and I thought I heard them rasp like dry corn- blades as he strove to talk. He looked at Mr. Clem as if imploring his help, at his daughter as if to sum mon strength from her gentle and affectionate nature. His body began to sway like the snag of an old tree about to fall, then stiffened; and now he stood unsup ported, straight, head high, in a strength that seemed to turn upon his years and defy them. He spoke and his voice was as clear as the yelp of the hound that leads the pack. "Robert Gradley, your eye, sir." MY YOUNG MASTER 259 The young man raised his eyes and they looked at each other, Bob with an expression akin to pleading, Old Master hard and cold. "Do you mean, sir, to tell me that you are raising a company of men to fight against your country?" "No, sir, not against my country, but for a principle that some of my countrymen are trying to trample under foot. Instinctively I hate the cold exactions of the Puritan. His aim is not so much to preserve the Union as to humiliate the men who own slaves. For the slave he has no real feeling; to serve his ends he would see the negro drawn and quartered. His hatred of the men of the South is older than the creed of abol ition ; it began when old Peter Wentworth stood in the English parliament and raised his voice against refine ment and gentility. I honor the memory of the men who made our flag the symbol of a mighty nation ; but I love poetry more than I do commerce, and a senti ment is stronger with me than a woollen mill. A cold and feelingless duty might call me to the other side, but emotion, stronger than any sense of duty, impells me toward the South. It grieves me to oppose you; it is like boring tender flesh with a red hot iron, and I have wandered up and down the woods at night and in the dawn, praying " "Theatrical fool!" the old man shouted. 260 MY YOUNG MASTER "No!" Old Mistress cried. I have seen resolute turkey hens turn out their feathers in warning against a trespasser upon the sward where their young ones were squatted. And at. this moment Old Mistress reminded me of a turkey hen. "No! he is not a theatrical fool. He has as much right to his con victions as you have to yours. You have taught him to be independent you sent him from home to school when he was a child to teach him self-reliance; and he found it." Here Mr. Clem walked round the table and laid his hand upon Old Master's shoulder. "Guilford," said he, "the young fellow is honest, he has evidently suf fered over the question, and it is of no use to take bitter issue with him." "By G ! I'll turn him out of the house!" Old Mas ter shouted, shaking himself free of his brother's touch. "He shan't " "Then you turn me out, too!" Old Miss cried. Miss May ran to her father and put her arms about his neck. "Please don't say anything that you'll be sorry for," she pleaded. He took her arms from about his neck, but stood holding her hands; and his eyes werv not so cold nor did his skin look so dry and harsh. Not in the least was Young Master excited, nor did he appear to be astonished at the denunciations heaped upon him. Indeed, it was clear to me that for months he had been expecting it and was relieved now to think that the blow 'had fallen. The young man spoke and his voice was soft and musical. "If I were to leave the house before the. time, comes for me to go, I would but add to an injury which you threaten to. inflict upon yourself. You would regret your expulsion of me, and could never forgive yourself if I should be killed. It seems to me now that all my training was to fit me for this step, rather than to equip me for an orator to stimulate my impulse rather than to train my judg ment. I will not say that your cause is unjust, but I must say that I cannot fight with the Puritan. My troop leaves on the day after to-morrow, and until then I will be your obedient son." Old Master lifted his hand as if his words were to fall as a blow, but Mr. Clern took his arm and eased it down. "Guilford," said he, "the young man has sim ply gone you one better in his worship of the tinsel of the past. You have taught him that the Southerner is the only real gentleman in this country and you can't blame him for the course he is determined to take." And now Old Master was surprisingly calm. "But, sir, I never thought to teach him to join in rebellion against his country." "You didn't measure the extent of your teaching. It went a mile further than your intention. And as it has gone beyond your control, let us make the most of it, or rather the best of it. Let him follow his own bent, let him fight for an aristocracy, and let him go with a blessing rather than wjth a curse. That's the sensible view to take. I am going to fight for the Union, and I now give him my hand, hoping that one day he may see his error and repent of it." He stretched forth his hand and Young Master clasped it. "I thank you, Uncle Clem. You have told me how sharp you can be and now you prove how broad and liberal you are." Old Master reached forth his hand. "It is that you may feel how sore my heart is," said he, as the young man gripped his palm. "You have wounded me and the wound will never heal, but you are my son and I have been proud of you. Not another word," he said, quickly withdrawing his hand and lifting it to enjoin silence. "On this subject no more words shall pass between us; and when the time comas, you may go MY YOtfNG MASTER 263 your way in silence. Daniel," he said, turning to me, "let me see you in the library." I followed him into the library, and when he had closed the door he said to me. "You know what his intentions were." "No, sir, he said not a word to me." "Don't lie to me, Dan." "As God is my judge, sir, I knew nothing of his plans until he gave them to you." "And has he said nothing as to what you shall do? Hasn't he told you that you must go with him?" "I tell you that he has said nothing to me." "But he will ask you to go with him." "And I will go, sir." "What?" I sprang back or I believe he would have leaped upon me. "Come back to me, sir. Don't run away from me. I'll shoot you down like a dog. Come here." "I am not going to run away from you, Master." He put his hands behind him, leaned forward and bored me with his eyes. "Some men don't believe it, but I see the end of slavery," said he. "And are you going to assist a cause that is fighting against your own freedom, Dan?" His manner changed and he put his hand on my shoulder. "Don't go away and 264 MY YOCISG MASTER leave me. 1 need you I am a miserable old man, looking about for a prop. Don't leave me." I dropped upon my knees and bowed my head to the floor, and I heard him sob over me. "I must follow him," I supplicated. "I can't stay behind. He saved my life. Listen to me a moment. I killed Dr. Bates killed him in the manner my young master described killed him to save my own life. They would have hanged me, but he took the blood upon himself to .save me. And though for months nothing has been ;said, no one has uttered the doctor's name in his presence, I know that some people look upon him as a slaughterer of his brother, and I know that he has suffered, and for me. Money was offered me and I could have run away, but love, ignorance and superstition held me back, though the rope was ready for my neck. Never but once have I been tempted to leave him, never but once has my heart found a rebellion against him, and that was a woman " He put his hands under my arms and bade me arise. I got up and dared not look into his eyes, for I knew they were filled with tears. "Speak not a word of this to a living soul," he said, "Seal your mouth, for they would hang you even now. Go with him." Old Mistress opened the door, unable longer to bear MY YOUNG i/JSTER 265 the thought that he might be taking me into a confi dence, and as she entered, the old man turned wrath- fully upon me. "Yau can go to the d !" he said, his voice high and sharp. "You may go with the rebels and be hanged with them. Madam, this negro boy is going with his master." "Why, of course," she said with a brightening coun tenance, and speaking as if I were but to discharge a trivial duty. "He will need someone to wait on him and that's Dan's place, I am sure. And besides, it won't be for long. Everybody knows that it won't be much of a war. The North will soon be compelled to grant every demand made by the South; so for gracious sake, let us not take it so to heart. Come on into the parlor. May will sing an old song for us." "Madam, I want no song. The rest of you may sing and make merry over the disgrace of my country, but I will not. Good-night." He strode out, Old Mistress following him, begging him to come back, but he went to his room up stairs and. shut .the door. Surely no one. felt disposed to hear a song, no one except myself, as I listened to the old-time lullaby with which Titine was wont to soothe the little one to sleep. When I went to my Young Master's room I found 266 MY YOUNG MASTER him sitting there alone. His books were put out of sight and a sword lay upon his table. As I entered, he looked up at me and pointed to a chair. "I want to talk to you," he said, and when I had sat down, he continued: "I will not compel you to go with me " "I am going Mars. Bob," I broke in. He looked at me with a sad smile. "Dan, you are a faithful friend." "I am a grateful slave, sir. And never but once was I ungrateful, and then my heart was on fire and my soul smothered with the smoke that arose. Titine laughed at me when I asked her to be my wife. She said that our marriage would be but a mockery, the multiplication of miseries ; and I would have run away with her, but she told me that she did not love me. Don't credit me with more than my due. I am a weak man and under certain conditions might forget a great favor and prove treacherous. Don't trust me too far." "I would trust you to the end of the earth," he said. "You are a negro, but you are a gentleman. You say Titine doesn't love you?" he continued after paus ing to reflect. "What sort of a creature is she? What does she expect?" "I don't know what sh expects, but T believe that MY YOUNG MASTER 267 she hopes one day to be a nun. Her old mistress poisoned her." He reached over, took hold of the sword and drew it part way out of the scabbard. "For a long time I have kept it hidden in my closet," he said, pulling the blade further out and then shoving it back to the hilt. "I was afraid of a sharper and perhaps a juster weapon my old father's tongue." He got up with a shud der, turned his back upon me and stood at the window. "The time may come when I shall acknowledge that I was bewitched," he said, looking out into the dark ness. "But her love and her encouragement urge me on. Dan," and now he faced about "Dan, the woman I love is a champion of the Southern cause. She said that she could not love me if but it is cruel of me to tell you of love and of smiles. Your heart is sore; I have long known it. But " "Master, please don't think of me. Do you need me now?" I asked. "If not, I will go out." "Go and stay as long as you choose," he said. Titine was singing to the little child. The door was partly open and I looked into the room. She was bending over the cradle, her long hair hanging loose. I heard Miss May talking in Old Master's room. "Titine," MT YOUNG MASTER "What do you want?" she asked, looking at me. "Is the child asleep?" "What is that to you?" "Please don't snap at me that way. I want to talk to you in the yard alone;" "I know what you would say, and you needn't say it." "No, you don't. I have something to tell you that I never told before. I am going away and I want to talk to you." "Oh, going with your master? Poor fool, to fight against your own interest, but you can't help it You are a piece of yellow property." "So is gold," I declared. "Yes, so is gold, a piece of yellow property." "But will you come down?" "What is the use? You have already told me." "And have you said all that you could say?" "Yes, you are a poor fool." "Your frankness will become insulting, the first thing you know." "Indeed! Shut the door, please." "Are you a human being?" "No." "I believe you are but a beautiful witch." MY YOUNG MASTER 269 "Thank you. Even witches like a compliment. Shut the door, please." I shut the door with a slam and I heard the child crying as I strode down the stairs. CHAPTER XXVI. My Master's troop was composed for the most part of young men who had struggled with principle and with family opposition and who regarded it wise to meet in secret to prepare themselves for battle. In many families the dividing line ran as in our house, across the dinner table. Sometimes a "Confederate" and a "Federal" company would go through with their maneuvers in the same wood pasture; and on such occasions the strictest dignity and decorum were maintained, with never a jeer or idle word passing from one side to the other. The quarreling was indulged by older men and irresolute persons who had great bitterness, but not enough nerve to impel them into the ranks. From the moment when Young Mas ter was forced openly to take his stand, his spirits seemed to rise, though my accustomed eye could sometimes see a sadness striving to pull his gayety down, as when he heard Old Master's voice or met him unexpectedly. Sometimes they saluted each other coldly as they passed, but often they appeared (270) MY YOUNG MASTER 271 almost to forget the difference lying like a shrouded corpse between them. One cool morning they met in the yard. By a silent agreement they no longer sat together at the table. "A crisp and beautiful day," said the old man, bow ing. "By such a day I am always reminded of a shaggy dog we used to own we called him Wolf. Do you remember him?" "Yes," Young Master answered, his countenance illumined with a sudden light. "One of his eyes was brown and the other blue. He must have died long ago, for he seems now to trot around the outer rim of my recollection." At this figure the old man was so much pleased that he laughed. "You were very young," he said, "but little taller than old Wolf's back;" and here he fell into a meditation, leaning against a locust tree. The dog was still in his mind when he spoke again. "On a frosty day he was always frisky. He believed that the chill in the air foretold a rabbit hunt; and frequently it did. He used to come to my door early at morning and scratch to awake me. And I think he treed the first 'possum you ever saw. Old Simon brought the 'possum to the house, and you asked him why there was no hair on his tail. This gave him an opportun- 272 MY YOUNG MASTER ity to tell a story that I heard when I was a boy and which has been told in every negro cabin. The Lord made a raccoon and the devil was so taken with the work that he was resolved to imitate it. Well, he made a thing as near like a coon as he could, but was so disgusted at the appearance of the result that he seized the animal by the tail and swung him round to dash his brains out against the jamb, but the hair slipped off, the animal escaped with his life but with a hairless tail. Yes, sir, and I believed the story until I was nearly grown." "I remember the story," said Bob, "though I don't recall the one particular 'possum used by Simon as an illustration. But I remember that Simon took me on his back one night, out into the woods where the dogs had treed one. It must have been long after Simon told the 'possum story, for I don't think that old Wolf went with us. He must have been dead." "Yes, he was," the old man agreed. "I recollect the night. A coon was treed in an enormous oak, and the boys were a long time in cutting it down. Do you remember, Dan?" "Yes, sir," I spoke up. "It was the night that Mr. Bill Putney was killed in town by Mr. Tom Ellis Gray" MY YOUNG MASTER 273 "That's a fact," said the old man. "But how do you happen to associate the two events?" "Why, when we came back to the house, a boy was waiting for you. They wanted you to come to town and go on a bond." "But that couldn't have fastened it on your mind. What else was there? Out with it, sir." "Why, Old Miss got mad at me for coming through the hall and slapped me off the front steps." "Ah, that was it," he said, musing. "And it seems long ago, even to me, much longer than happenings thirty years before." "Dan," said Young Master, "get my horse. But wait a moment. You may hitch up the buggy if you want to go over to Potter's with me." "I don't care to go unless you would much rather have me," I replied. "All right, then; saddle the horse." "He has a love affair of his own, I am inclined to think," the old gentleman said, talking to Bob, but winking at me. "How about it, Dan?" I had turned to go, but had halted and faced about. *'A very empty love affair I am afraid, Master." "Tut, sir, tut. There is no such thing as an empty 274 MY YOUNG MASTER love affair if it's managed rightly. You are too faint hearted. Do you remember what the poet said?" This was the first time that he had addressed him self to what I conceived to be my learning, and I was flattered. "You mean Pope's master, sir." "Hang the scoundrel, to talk about Pope's master. He had no master, or if he had, he bought his freedom with his genius." I was still flattered and I made bold to venture upon a criticism. "Not with his genius, but with his pains and his polish." "Confound you, sir, go on and get that horse, you yellow scoundrel." When I had led the horse round to the gate, Bob and the old man came out talking in easy good-humor. "Your mother is mightily tickled," said Old Master. "She thinks you have drawn a prize. And so do I. She's a charming young woman, sir. But you have said nothing as to when the wedding is to take place." Bob had put his foot in the stirrup to mount, but he took it out and stood there irresolute, as if he knew not what to do or say. "You haven't said a word as to the time set for the marriage," Old Master repeated. MY YOUNG MASTER 27S "No, sir. She is to wait wait until I come home." A dark shadow fell upon the old man's face, and without another word, he wheeled about and strode into the yard. Old Miss came to the door and commanded me to bring a stick of wood to mend the parlor fire. When I went in with a log on my shoulder, I found Titine sitting by the fire, trying to amuse the little girl. "Get out of the way, Jessie," she cried. "Dan, let me help you ease it down." I was strong enough to have tossed the log in the air but I told her yes, and I caught at her hand as she stood close to lend her aid. She laughed and step ping back declared that I might help myself. I put the log into the fire-place and stood on the hearth to brush my coat. "You ought to be proud of your strength," she said. "That may be, and I ought to deplore my weak ness." "Yes, you ought. Jessie, don't go near the fire." "And I do." "Then you are climbing toward firmer ground. Put down the tongs, Jessie." "The ground may be firm and yet slippery." "If salt were given in exchange for words, you 276 MY YOUNQ MASTER might have enough to sell. Jessie, put down the cat; you'll get all covered with fleas." "Titine, I believe that hateful and unju*t remark made by Old Miss has set you against me. You cleave to it as if it were a piece of wisdom inspired of the Lord." "But wasn't it the truth? And isn't there wisdom in all truth?" "No, it was not the truth. It was spite. She hates me and you ought to have sense enough to see it. But if truth were a diamond and sparkled in my favor, you would shut your eyes to it. I came to_ you with the devotion of a strong man. I showed you my heart. I threw it at your feet and let it flutter there, and so far from taking it up out of the dirt, you did not even look down upon it. You have no heart. An old woman killed it and left a senseless whim to vibrate in your breast. You could have made of me " "Nothing," she broke in. "How could I make any thing of a thing that could never belong to me? Jessie, you'll fall out of that rocking chair if you don't mind. I once told you that I have the instincts of a lady, and I have, and I will not turn tipon those instincts and mock them." "But if you would only acknowledge that you care MY YOUNG MASTER 277 for me," I pleaded; "if you would only light a candle, call it hope and hold it aloft, no matter how far down the road, I could keep my eyes fastened upon it and live on faith." She looked at me, whether in pity or in scorn I could not tell. But I could gather no comfort from her words. "Flies scorch their wings in the candle lighted down the road," she said. At this moment Old Miss came into the room. "Why, gracious alive, why do you let that fire smoke so?" she cried. "Shove that log further back. I never saw as worthless a negro as you are. To bring a log in and throw it down right in front of the fire where it can do nothing but smoke! Go out. It makes me weary to look at you." She had not the opportunity much longer to look at me, for on the morrow, Young Master's troop, now but a play-thing, was to become a part of ihe great machinery of war. It was known that we were going, but at the supper table not a word bearing upon that subject was uttered by Old Miss, Mr. Clem or Miss May. We heard Old Master walking up and down the hall. At night Mr. Clem came to the room. "Well, you march to-morrow, I suppose," said he. "Yes," Young Master replied, "we go, rain or shine." 978 "And I go very soon. I am waiting for my com mission. Having once been a soldier gives me some little importance." "Uncle Clem, do you think we can get through within ninety days?" "Get through what?" "Do you think that the war will be over within thai time?" i "Yes, if the South lays down her arms." "She won't do that." "Then the war will last until she does. You peopl have a peculiar idea of this government. Do yov- think we are going to suffer it to go to pieces, tha* vv>. will submit to disruption as long as there is an arm tr strike? Why, the women in this community, you/ mother included, look upon it as a pic-nic excursion Dan?" "Yes, sir." "Are you going to shoot at the men who would free you?" "I am going with Young Master, sir, to do as he bids me." "He is not going as a soldier, but as a servant, Uncle Clem," "Same thing, Bob. The teamster is as much of a MY YOUNG MASTER 279 soldier, when results are estimated, as the man who carries a gun. But it is all right, Dan. No one can hold you responsible. Bob, old Potter is a hot rebel, isn't her "Rampageous; and his daughter is making a Con federate flag for me. We'll stop there and get it as we pass to-morrow." Early the next morning our troop was marshalled On the turn-pike about a mile from the house. From the rear veranda Old Master could see the flashing of their steel. He stood there gazing until Bob came out from breakfast. "One moment," said the old man, stepping into the hall. "You do not go with my curse, but with my wounded love. There, sir, not a word from you." They shook hands, but did not look into each other's eyes. Old Miss, Miss May and Mr. Clem walked with him to the gate. The parting was not sad, for no one of us, except Mr. Clem, attached much importance to the war cry, the bugle and the drum. Young Master mounted first, and then, turning to me, said: "Dan, I have forgotten something. Run up stairs and get my Horace. You can overtake me." When I came down, Titine was standing alone at 260 MY YOUNG MASTER the gate. "They are about to leave you," she laughing. "It would delight me to be left if I thought you-'-'* "Too late for nonsense, now, Dan." "You have made it too late for sense, Titine." "Of course you blame me with everything." "No, but I blame you with one thing, which, after all, is nearly everything the death of my heart. But why talk of heart to a heartless creature Titine, let me kiss you." "Go away!" she cried, waving me off. But I seized her in my arms, kissed her and sprang upon my horse. And she threw a stone at me as I galloped away. CHAPTER XXVII. How sadly were dashed the hopes of the husband and the lover who had expected not a war, but a mili tary demonstration to last but a few days. The cheer ful party of decorated pleasure seekers soon became a sober army, stripped of feathers, bent upon the shed ding of blood. I may be pardoned this egotism, but it seemed that the South, more Anglo-Saxon, more American, fought with brighter fire and bravery than the miscellaneous nationalities gathered in the North. I know one thing, that the Southern soldier held the foreigner in contempt. He had, however, to face too much of his own blood. But I am going to follow the fortunes of no campaign ; I am going to be as brief as possible. My Master was promoted for gallantry, and soon was placed at the head of a regiment of cavalry. I rode by his side, and I knew that beyond that blue line, away over yonder, my freedom and the freedom of my down-trodden race was lying, but I was true to him, and was proud of him. Letters from home were very irregular. Old Mas- 28S MY YOUNG MASTER ter did not write. Old Miss wrote; but never came there a word for me. I wrote to Titine, but no answer reached me. Sometimes, at night, alone in the tent, master would read aloud Miss Potter's letter, and though the words were affectionate, they appeared to me to be mechanical and meaningless. But to him each sentence was a string of pearls. For a time the Confederate arms were so successful that it looked as if the war might soon close, with vic tory for the South. But a change came. The old Pur itan stock, the old blood that humbled a king and cut off his head, gathered in solemn and God-serving force. We had chaplains and held services; we prayed to God to bless our cause, but the Puritan mixed prayer with his powder and brightened his sword with a scriptural text. We went with Bragg's invasion into Kentucky. How joyous it was again to turn our faces toward home. We did not think of the blood that was to flow at Perryville. One day we halted within fifteen miles of Old Master's house. And Young Master received permission to visit his home. We set out at night. First we were to go to Potter's. We were cautioned to be back by day-light, to overtake the army at a place called Elwood. The night was moon-flooded. MY YOUNG MASTER 283 The turn-pike looked an endless strip of light. How delightful to see the first familiar object, an old mill where Bob and I had caught many a sun-fish. Now we were but a short distance from Potter's. We passed the toll-gate. The bar was up and no one came out. We met an old negro and he told us that the people had nearly all flocked to town, that they had been ordered in as a battle was expected. "Here we are!" Bob cried, and he jumped from his horse in front of Potter's house. A dog barked, but there was no light. He went to the front door and the sharp fall of the brass knocker resounded afar off, throughout the stillness of the night. He called me and I went to him. "I believe they are gone, too," he said, his voice choking with disappointment. "Let us go around and see if we can find anyone." We went to the cabins in the rear of the house. AU was dark. We mounted and rode on toward home, silent, desolate with the realization of war's uncom promising demands. I heard the creek and my heart leaped. We turned into the lane. The gate was down and heavy artillery had cut the road into deep ruts, here where Dr. Bates had lain under the eye of the law. 284 MY YOT7NG MASTER "They are all gone, too," said master, "negroes and all." "No," I cried, "there's a light in your room." We put spurs and dashed up to the gate. The front door stood ajar. There was no light in the hall. "Easy," said Bob, and we tip-toed up the stairs. A light streamed under the door of our "office." We did not knock, but Bob shoved the door open. Then he sprang back with pistol in hand. "Why, helloa!" a voice cried. It was Mr. Clem. "Come in, boys." He stood there in the uniform of a Federal colonel, his sword on the table. We shook hands and the greeting was one of unaffected warmth. We sat down, though not yet over our surprise. "How on earth did you get here?" Colonel Clem asked. "The country is full of our troops. You took a big risk. Sorry the folks are not here. Had hard work in driving Brother Guilford in. Swore he'd stay here and let them knock the house about his ears. But, how well you're look ing, my boy. Make a nice prisoner for me to take in, eh?" Bob touched the butt of his revolver and smiled. Colonel Clem nodded goodhumoredly. "Bobbie, so far as we are now concerned," said he, "there is no MY YOUNG MASTER 285 war. But haven't we had a time? Told you it wouldn't be a picnic. Come, don't be sad." "When did 'she' go to town?" "To-day," the colonel answered. "I saw her about noon-time. She is more beautiful than ever; said she had a charming letter from you not long ago. I have been over in Missouri a good deal of the time lately," he added with a strange smile. "Had a piece of the past thrust into my face while I was there. A fellow had been court-martialed and sentenced to be hanged. I met the guards as they were taking him out. My old-time negro-trader, the man that robbed me years ago. It was hardly the same sort of court that he had escaped from in Illinois. What did I do? I ordered them to halt I ran to the commander and begged him to let me have that fellow. I wanted to kill him with my sword. But they wouldn't let me, so I had to content myself with seeing him hanged. What sort of stock are you boys riding? Now, I've got a good mare here that I think would just suit you, Bob. But I don't want any Confederate money. Come down and let's see what can be done." Bob shook his head and laughed. "I am to get back to my command by daylight, Uncle Clem," said 286 MY YOUNG MASTER he, "and I know that if I should trade horses with you, I'd have to walk." "What nonsense. I want to see you on a good horse. Come on." "No, I thank you." "Let me show you the mare." "Don't want to see her." "She's a beauty got her from General Buell." "Take her back to him. I don't want her." "All right," he said, with a loud laugh. "Got your eye teeth, haven't you. Well what was that? A bugle." "Come," said Bob, starting toward the door. But he halted. "Uncle Clem, give my love to them all. Tell the old man that I lore him." CHAPTER XXV TH. The days fell dark for the Confederacy. It seemed that the whole world had sprung up in arms against the South. Stronghold after stronghold was taken, and Richmond itself was threatened. No hope was left to illumine the soldier's heart ; he had followed a bright phantom, year after year, expecting it to lead him out of the wilderness, but he was becoming deeper and more darkly involved in the thicket, and now the phantom was fading. In his haversack, he carried roasted acorns and pieces of sugar-cane, and his enemies, in blood his brothers, shook their heads and marveled at his courage, for he was just as ready to fight as he had been on the morning after Bull Run. To face death at morning, to shed his blood at noon, to lie down supperless upon the wet ground at night, was a duty that he was not there to question, but to discharge. One night my master and I ceupied a reom in a deserted farm-house near Richmond. About us lay a 288 MY Y0FNG MASTER broken army and the scattered fragments of a civil ization. "A few more days will settle it, I think, Dan," he said. Sitting on a box, with one leg drawn up and with his hands clasped over his knee, he was gazing at the lightwood sputtering in the fire-place, and upop his thoughtful countenance a black shadow and a yellow light alternately arose and fell. "Only a few more days and most of us may be shot or permitted to go home. Who would have believed that we could have gone through such a time since Jane stood on the stile-block waving the silk flag she had made for me. And I can't carry even a scrap of it back to her. Do you know one thing that I'm going to do if I'm permitted to go home?" he asked, his face brighten ing. "I am going to acknowledge to father that I was wrong, not in fighting so hard after I got in, but in per mitting a glamour to blind me in the first place. The most gigantic mistake of the age. I was like you, Dan. I followed my heart rather than my judgment. But you are free. I am your master no longer. Don't turn away. I don't reproach you ; I congratulate you. If any man deserves freedom, you do. Better spread the blankets and let's try to get a little sleep. We MT YOUNG MASTER need no alarm clock to wake us up. Brother Ulysses with his cannon will see to that." And with his cannon he did see to it. We were aroused before the break of day, and by the time the sun came up we were in the thick of a fight. There came a charge a wild rush, sword, pistol, bayonet and when it had swept past, I was on the ground beside the man whose fortunes I had followed. He was desperately wounded. The farm-house was turned into a hospital and I took him to the room which we had occupied the night before. The weak remnant of our army was crushed. We were prison ers. The hour was late. Precaution no longer was necessary and camp-fires were burning everywhere. A surgeon told me that Master could not live until morning. And this was to be his end, in an old house, a prisoner, the hungry dogs howling on the hill. "Dan," he called. I was bending over him, my face close to his. "Are you here, Dan?" "Yes, Mars. Bob." "It's all over, Dan. And I don't see how it could have been otherwise. I seem to have been born for this hour. Dan, I want to be buried where I fell. And tell them not to disturb me, but to let me sleep 290 MY YOUNG MASTER there. Bury her letters with me. Tell the old man that I love him." Early in the morning, with the tears falling upon him, I folded his arms on his breast; and I heard a glad shout and the cry that the war was done. From an officer in command, once a neighbor, I obtained permission to bury my poor Master under an apple- tree shading the spot where he had fallen ; and assisted by an old negro, I laid him to rest. My heart was so heavy that I cared not what might become of me. Judgment day had come and I was branded a sinner. I built a fire near the grave and watched beside it a whole night, wretched, struggling with myself, feeling that I could not leave him lying there alone. In the morning I was ordered to mount a mule and drive a wagon into Richmond. As I drove along I scribbled a note to Old Master, not knowing how long I might be held, and gave it to a neighbor to give to him. Now I was in the service of the North, driv ing a team of mules into the city that I had striven to defend. But I liked it not. I was heart-sore to hear the babble of our creek and to look upon the colts in the pasture. And after two days of enforced labor I was permitted to turn my face homeward. I was now even worse off than the regular rebel soldier. I was MY YOUNG MASTER 29v looked upon with suspicion. I had no means of trans portation and therefore was compelled to walk. I slept in the woods or on the road-side. Once when I went up to a house to buy food, an old man set his dog after me. My money gave out (I had started with but a few dollars, the amount earned by driving the government wagon) and now I was reduced almost to starvation. The country was destitute. Everyone looked to the army for food, and supplies were delayed. At last, after days of tramping and nights of sleepless hunger, I crossed the Kentucky line. Two more days and I should be at home. But how cold and distant had begun to sound the word home. How time must have transformed the old place. And all the negroes were free. I scarcely could realize it. I wondered what they would do with their freedom, if they knew how to act. They could not support themselves by standing about and proclaiming themselves free. They must work and after all their liberty was to be tinged with slavery. Thus I mused as I moved with sore tread along the hard turn-pike, slowly entering the domain of my boyhood, growing heavier and sadder with the sight ol each familiar object. I came to the old mill, gray and green, with roof fallen in, with cap-stones pulled down MY YOUNG MASTER by the wanton hands that reach out to destroy when a war-storm has swept over the land. The creek sang to me, not as of yore, a sweet and poetic tune, but a sorrowful and hollow-sounding dirge. Onward I strode, limping now, for my shoes were worn through and my feet were bleeding. The day was closing. The shadow of the trumpet vine, clust ered high on the top rail of the fence, fell dark athwart the white and ghastly pike. Another rise of ground and Potter's house was thrown into view, red in the setting sun. I had to halt to calm the tumultuous beating of my heart. I wondered if the news had reached her. Surely word must have been sent from Old Master's house. But it was my duty to stop and repeat his last words, to tell her that I had buried her letters with him. I dreaded the look she would give me, the tone of her voice. Now I could see that she had been passionately fond of him. I thought of the sentence I had passed upon her nature, the complaint that I could not hold her clear in my mental gaze, and I repented of this dark injustice. Onward again I limped, my eyes low upon the white pebbles; and I did not look up until abreast of the gate. Then I found myself among a number of carriages and bug gies. A score f horses were tied to the fence. An MT YOUNG MASTER 293 old man stood by the road-side and I addressed a question to him. "What means all this?" He nodded his head toward the house and thus he Answered me: "Miss Jane Potter has just married a Yankee general." I tried to run, when it seemed that I had grabbed myself up from falling, and I stumbled away down the pike. In a corner of the fence I dropped upon my knees and cried aloud. Merciful God, was the whole world false! Long I knelt there in agony, reviewing my pitiable life, with my master's image and his blood vivid before me. Merry laughter startled me to my feet. A carriage, followed by other vehicles and horses, passed briskly along; and fiercely I shook my fist at the carriage in front, and bitterly I wished for a gun, a cannon, that I might be avenged upon a black and traitorous heart. Homeward now I turned, chilled to the core, pre pared for anything. Over a fence I climbed and took a shorter way across the pastureland. Darkness had fallen and I heard old Stephen calling the sheep, to be housed for the night, safe from the ravages of prowl ing doge. I came upon the little creek, weaker than far below at the old mill, but chanting the same hollow 294 MY YOUNG MASTER dirge. I stood upon the rock where Mr. Clem had found me with his shrewd temptation; and a little further on I came to the deep hole wherein Bob and I had sworn to drown ourselves. Here I stopped and bathed my face and hands, lingering, dreading to meet Old Master's grief-chilled eye. Fire-light came from some of the cabins, feeling its way and trembling through the darkness; but for the most part the negro quarter appeared deserted. The door of the "big house" stood open and the hall lamp was burning. With dragging feet I climbed the steps and raised the brass knocker, the familiar old dragon's head, but did not let it fall; so much was I in dread of its startling alarm. I stepped back to go round to the rear veranda, when Old Miss came out of the library. She saw me and her cry pierced my heart. Oh, how wretched she looked and how feeble ! And how weak was that cry, a mere whisper; but it rang in my ears night and day for many a month. I believe she would have fallen, I thought she was fall ing and I put out my hands and caught her, eased her upon the hall settee and fanned her with my hat. "Go," she said, motioning me away, "go to your Old Master. He is dying in his room up stairs. Wait, let me send him word. He was afraid you wouldn't get MY YOUNG MASTER here. May, May!" she called, "go and tell him Dan has come." Miss May, pale and tear-stricken, had stepped out of the parlor. She grasped my hand and then hast ened up the stairs. "Elliot brought the news," said Old Miss, leaning back against the wall. "And May went over over to tell 'her/ Infamous creature, she was making prep arations for her wedding. Oh, this world, this world! Oh, my son, if I could only call him back!" She looked at me with her head turned to listen for Miss May's footsteps. "I have been the most miserable woman in the world, and a thousand times I have prayed for death." Her eyes grew brighter. She straightened up with pride. "But he died like a hero. Tell me about him." I told her how he had fallen ; and when I mentioned the letters that were put into the grave with him, she cleared her throat with the old dry rasp. "How long has Master been sick?" I asked, wishing to change the subject. "A long time, but the doctors did not give him up until the day before yesterday. They might have known at first that there was no hope for him. Why should there be any hope for him or for anyone? MY YOUNG MASTER Why can't we all get out of this miserable world and be done with it?" "Have many of the negroes gone away?" I asked. "No, not many. We have hired most of them to work the land. I don't see much difference in them. They are as near no account as they can be." "It will take them some time to adjust themselves to their freedom," I remarked. "Freedom!" she repeated with a sneer. "They can never adjust themselves to it. They think it means a privilege to take whatever they can lay hands on." Titine was in my mind, but I was afraid to ask about her. She had treated me with scorn when I was well dressed, and now I must be far below her contempt. "Do you want me to remain and take ebarge of things about the place?" "No," she said, with sharp emphasis, "you must go away and let me die in peace, or as near in peace as possible, for I shall never know a moment's ease. Looking back, it seems that I was born wretched ; and yet I know that I was happy until treachery but I will say nothing. Oh, this miserable world!" She swayed herself to and fro, her lips tightly drawn, her eyes hard-set. "But an end of it all will come sooner MY YOUNG MASTER 39? or later, and then we can say that it all amounted to nothing that it was all a nightmare. Here comes your Miss May." "Walk as softly as you can," Miss May said to me, and then looking down, she added : "Poor fellow, you couldn't make a noise with those tattered feet." I followed her up the stairs, through the hall where so often I had found the old man walking in the dead silence of the night followed her into the room opposite our "office." At a glance I saw my young master's canopied bed; and upon it lay the old man, propped high with pillows. "Come here, Dan," he commanded. His voice was weak, but I was surprised at its clearness. "May, leave us alone, please." I knelt beside the bed. I took one of his hands and he gave me the other, looking at me with an ashen smile. "Dan, I was determined not to die until I had seen you and I have compelled them to leave me alone most of the time. I was afraid of company afraid that it might lead my mind off and let death sneak up and master me. I was so determined to live, that nothing but my own mind could have killed me." How changed he was, even aside from the ravages of disease. His hair was perfectly white and his teeth 298 MY YOUNG MASTER were gone. His eyes were sunken, but they were still sharp. "I did not believe he would ever come home, Dan. Something kept on telling me that he would not, morning, noon and night. When we knew that the war could certainly last but a few days more, I took hope; but that something was louder than ever, ding ing my boy's death in my ears. So I was not greatly surprised when Elliot came with the news. He gave me your note and told me how he died like a Gradley and a man. In your note you said I have it under my pillow that he told you to say that he loved me. God bless him.'* "Master, he told me more than the note contained. He said that if he lived to get home, he would acknowledge to you that he was wrong." He broke down at this and I wiped the tears out of his eyes. "He didn't owe me any apology; he had as much right to his opinion as I had to mine. Some of the noblest minds and kindest hearts in the country went wrong. Don't tell me anything he said that bordered en an apology. He should not have apologized. In my heart I forgave him a thousand times; and, night after night, I sat in his room, reading his brx>ks. 299 When I was taken down I had them bring his bed in here that I might die on it. Yes, we were all wrong," he said, pressing my hands. "Dan, lean over." My face was almost touching his, and I trembled violently. "You know the hoof-marks on the stairs you know that I killed Solomon Putnam. But you never knew why." "No, sir; no one ever told me." "No one knew. Dan, your mother was a beautiful woman. Titine reminds me of her. Did anyone ever tell you that your mother was handsome?" "Yes, sir, an old negro man, a long time ago." "Dan, that scoundrel offered to buy your mother. I scorned his money and he poisoned her. And I sent him word that I would kill him on sight; and he rode up the stairs, drunk, to kill me in my bed. I raised myself up and shot him Dan, lean over further. My life has been miserable and I am I am the author of all your misery. There, don't pull away from me. Put your head on this old breast for a moment. My poor boy- I have been a disgrace unto myself and the cause of your humiliation. But I have loved you and have shown it whenever I could without bringing a cruelty down upon your head. My poor wife God forgive me always strongly suspected, but she did 300 MY YOUNG MASTER not know. She hated you and who could blame her? That scoundrel Bates kept her mind on fire with insin uations He was afraid to tell her outright. A thou sand times I have been tempted to tell her and beg her forgiveness, but the quality of forgiveness was always a stranger to her heart. She has had enough to harden he,r against the world and I am going to beg her for mercy as I would beg at the Judgment seat. Dan, I have no money to leave you. The farm is mort gaged. All I can leave is the love and the blessing of a wretched old man, a sinner. Is that someone at the door?" I opened the door. Old Miss and Miss May came in. They drew near to the bedside and stood there, seeing that the hour of parting was not far off. "I was afraid of some sudden shock," said the old woman, and she looked hard at me. "Shall we go out again?" she asked, smoothing back Old Master's white hair. "No," he said, his voice feebler than when he had spoken last. He motioned to her and she sat down beside him. Miss May was at the foot of the bed with her face buried in the covers. A few moments passed and he strove to talk, but the power of speech was gone. Several of the neighbors had come to see MY YOUNG MASTER 301 him, and they were admitted to the death-room, though the old man had passed beyond the border line of consciousness. His breathing grew heavier and, toward dawn, he fell asleep. I stood and gazed upon him with a new reverence, a strange and half fright ened affection. The revelation did not come to me as a great surprise ; it was as plain to me as to the reader who has followed me through these memoirs; but I had not permitted myself to muse upon it; there was always something so startling in the thought. I turned to go and Old Miss followed me down the stairs, and in the hall she bade me wait a moment. I stood near the door, in the gray light, she halting near me ; and her eyes were dry. "What did he tell you?" she asked. "Madam, for mercy sake don't ask me to repeat it." "Madam!" she said bitterly. "You are drinking your freedom fast. But have you lost your sense of obedience, and at such a time as this?" "I would rather not tell you." "But I command you." "Then you shall know. He told me that he was my father." It seemed a long time before she spoke again. She stood looking at me. "You have been the humiliation 302 MY YOUNG MASTER and the bitterness of my life," she said. "The first sight of you gave me a shudder, and never since then have I known a moment of peace. I brooded in a doubt worse than a Certainty I could not find out the truth. And but for my children I would have drowned myself. Yes, you have been the humiliation and the bitterness of my life. Now go." "Yes, I will go But did you ever stop to reflect that while I might have been a humiliation and a bit terness, it was not my fault?" "I thought of nothing but my own shame and my own bitterness. Go, and I hope never to see you again." "Just one moment. There is something that I ought to tell you. I told Old Master before I went into the army. Young master did not kill Dr. Bates. I killed him to save my own life, and Master, knowing that they would hang me, took the blood upon him self." "Then you shall be tried for murder!" the old woman said. "I will go and have you arrested," She turned her back upon me. "Sam," she called. "Sam, where are you?" "Wait a moment before you send for an officer," said I. She faced me again, frowning. "You must MY YOUNG MASTER know," said I, speaking as kindly as I could, "that you have no law to take hold of me now. The strong arm of the North has freed me, though I opposed it, and now it declares me the equal of any man before the law. It says that if I am innocent I shall be pro tected, and I am innocent. You could not have me arrested in the first place, and, even if you could, it would not be in good taste at this time. You have told me of the bitterness of your life, but I have not told you of the misery of mine. You but I will charge my misery to nature. Good-bye, and in all truth I hope that God may bless you." I stepped out upon the portico; and and there in the growing light stood Titine. My breath came with a gasp as I beheld her. She looked at me, looked at my tattered feet and covered her face with her hands. "Titine, I must now say good-bye forever." She looked up. There was heaven in her eyes. "No," she said. "No, you are not to say good-bye. I am going with you." "What!" I cried, almost choking with emotion. "I am going with you. I would rather go to perdi tion with you than to be separated from you again." She caught my hand and held it and I stood there trembling. "You told me of your love and now I am 304 MY YOUNG MASTER going to tell you of mine," she said. "My soul has wept over you, and in the night my heart has cried aloud. I am going with you." I put my arms about her, thanking God that I was alive, but almost unable to believe my senses. And then my condition smote me. "But I am a pauper, Titine. I am a penniless tramp and the dogs bark at me." "You are not a pauper," she said. "Wait a .moment." She ran up the stairs and soon returned with a pocket-book. "Take it," she said, handing it to me. "I have saved it for you. And now, let us go away from this deso late place away off somewhere into the world of free dom and love." And with my arm about her, we stepped forth into the light of a new day, our faces turned toward the rising sun. ***** I sit here to-night in my Ohio home, and I look at a portrait on the wall, enlarged from a pfowder- blackened photograph that I brought with me, when foot-sore and heart-heavy, I walked from Richmond to my desolate birth-place in Kentucky. And here MY YOUNG MASTER 305 beside the portrait is the picture of a monument and an apple-tree. I hear my daughter at the piano, and I hear Titine singing a mellow song of the long ago. It has been a night of company at my house, and some of the younger guests have lingered into this late hour, for the occasion is one of exceeding cheer. Early in the evening a committee called to inform me of what I knew full well, my re-election to Congress. THE END, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. Form L9 15m-10,'48(B1039)444 UNIVERSITY oi CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRAR PS Read - 2679 ISy young mastort R22my 000120528 PS 2679