But at that moment Janet rushed in breathless through the kitchen.
"O Pa! I"ve been over to the jail to see Tom."
"You"ve been to the jail!" said Grayson, recoiling in his heart from such an experience for Janet.
"Yes, an" they"ve put Barbara and Aunt Martha in there too, along with Tom." She was bursting with indignation.
"Thomas," said Mrs. Grayson, as she gathered up the hitherto neglected breakfast plates, "Martha and Barbara have come from home this morning."
"I suppose so," said Grayson, looking out of the window.
"Now it"s not going to do for us to let them go without coming here to breakfast," said the wife. "People will say we"re hardhearted; and when they once get to talking there"s no knowing what they _won"t_ say. They might blame us about Tom, though the Lord knows we did _our_ best for him."
"Will you go and ask Martha and Barbara to come over?" said Grayson, with a sneaking desire to escape the disagreeable duty.
"I can"t bear to," said his wife. "I hate to go to the jail and see Tom there. Besides, if they"re coming I must make some coffee."
Grayson stood still and looked out of the window.
"Will they let them come if you ask "em?" inquired Janet.
"Let who come?" said her father abstractedly.
"Aunt Martha and Barbara and Tom."
"Of course they"ll not keep your Aunt Martha nor Barbara. They haven"t killed anybody."
"Neither has Tom. He told me to tell you he hadn"t."
"I suppose they all talk that way. "T ain"t like Tom to lie about anything though. He generally faces it out, rain, hail, or shine. I wish to goodness he could prove that he didn"t kill George. Where are you going, Janet?"
"To fetch Aunt Martha and Barbara. I wish they"d let Tom come too."
Grayson spent as much time as possible in getting his hat and looking it over before putting it on. Then, when he could think of no other pretext for delay, he started as slowly as possible, in order to give Janet time to fetch his relatives away from the jail before he should encounter them. Janet found her aunt coming out of the prison in order to allow the sheriff to go to breakfast.
"Aunt Martha," cried Janet, "Ma wants you an" Barbara to come to breakfast. She sent me to tell you."
"I don"t like to go there," said Barbara to her mother in an undertone.
But Mason, who was behind, perceiving Barbara"s hesitation, came up and whispered: "You"d better go, Barbara. Tom will need all the help he can get from your uncle"s position. And I"ll take the horse and put him into your uncle"s stable."
XV
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
The village of Moscow was founded by adventurous pioneers while yet Napoleon"s Russian expedition was fresh in all men"s minds, and took from that memory its Russian name, which, like most other transplanted names of the sort, was universally misp.r.o.nounced. The village had been planted in what is called an "island," that is, a grove surrounded by prairie on every side. The early settlers in Illinois were afraid to seat themselves far from wood. As it stands to-day the pretty town is arranged about a large public square, neatly fenced, and with long hitching-rails on all four sides of it. The inside of the square is trimly kept, and is amply shaded by old forest-trees--the last survivors of the grove that formed the "island." Moscow contains a court-house, which is pretentious and costly, if not quite elegant, besides other public buildings. On the streets facing this park-like square nearly all the trade of the thriving country-town is carried on. But in the time of Tom Grayson"s imprisonment the public square was yet a rough piece of woods, with roots and stumps still obtruding where underbrush and trees had been cut out. There was no fence, and there were no hitching-rails.
The court-house of that day was a newish frame building, which had the public-grounds all to itself except for the jail, on one corner of the square. Facing the square, on the side farthest from the jail, stood the village tavern. One half of it was of hewn logs, which marked it as dating back to the broad-ax period of the town"s growth; the other half had been added after the saw-mill age began, and was yet innocent of paint, as were the court-house and several other of the princ.i.p.al buildings in the town. In front of the tavern was a native beech-tree, left behind in the general destruction. Under it were some rude benches which afforded a cool and favorite resort to the leisurely villagers.
One of the boughs of this tree served its day and generation doubly, for besides contributing to the shadiness of the street-corner, it supported a pendant square sign, which creaked most dolefully whenever there was wind enough to set it swinging in its rusty iron sockets. The name of the hotel was one common to villages of small attainments and great hopes; the sign bore for legend in red letters: "City Hotel, R. Biggs."
To the City Hotel there came, on this first day after Tom"s arrest, one of those solitary hors.e.m.e.n who gave life to nearly every landscape and mystery to nearly every novel of that generation. This horseman, after the fashion of the age, carried his luggage in a pair of saddle-bags, which kept time to his horse"s trot by rapping against the flaps of his saddle.
"Howdy, Cap"n Biggs," said the traveler to the landlord, who was leaning solidly against the door-jamb and showing no sign of animation, except by slowly and intermittently working his jaws in the manner of a ruminating cow.
"Howdy, Abe," was the answer. "Where yeh boun" fer?"
"Perrysburg," said the new arrival, alighting and stretching the kinks out of his long, lank limbs, the horse meanwhile putting his head half-way to the ground and moving farther into the cool shade. Then the horseman proceeded to disengage his saddle-bags from the stirrup-straps, now on one side of the horse and then on the other.
"Have yer hoss fed some corn?" In asking this question Captain Biggs with some difficulty succeeded in detaching himself from the door-post, bringing his weight perpendicularly upon his legs; this accomplished he sluggishly descended the three door-steps to the ground and took hold of the bridle.
"What"s this I hear about Tom Grayson, Cap"n?" said the new-comer, as he tried to pull and wriggle his trousers-legs down to their normal place.
"Oh, he"s gone "n" shot Lockwood, like the blasted fool he is. He wuz blowin" about it afore he lef" town las" month, but n.o.body reckoned it wuz anything _but_ blow. Some trouble about k-yards an" a purty gal--John Albaugh"s gal. I s"pose Tom"s got to swing fer it, "nless you kin kinder bewilder the jury like, an" git him off. Ole Mis" Grayson"s in the settin"-room now, a-waitin" to see you about it."
Captain Biggs lifted his face, on which was a week"s growth of stubby beard, to see how his guest would take this information. The tall, awkward young lawyer only drew his brow to a frown and said nothing; but turned and went into the tavern with his saddle-bags on his arm, and walking stiffly from being so long cramped in riding. Pa.s.sing through the cool bar-room with its moist odors of mixed drinks, he crossed the hall into the rag-carpeted sitting-room beyond.
"Oh Abra"m, I"m that glad to see you!" But here the old lady"s feelings overcame her and she could not go on.
"Howdy, Mrs. Grayson. It"s too bad about Tom. How did he come to do it?"
"Lawsy, honey, he _didn"t_ do it."
"You think he didn"t?"
"I know he didn"t. He says so himself. I"ve been a-waitin" here all the mornin" to see you, an" git you to defend him."
The lawyer sat down on the wooden settee by Mrs. Grayson, and after a little time of silence said:
"You"d better get some older man, like Blackman."
"Tom won"t have Blackman; he won"t have n.o.body but Abe Lincoln, he says."
"But--they say the evidence is all against him; and if that"s the case, an inexperienced man like me couldn"t do any good."
Mrs. Grayson looked at him piteously as she detected his reluctance.
"Abra"m, he"s all the boy I"ve got left. Ef you"ll defend him I"ll give you my farm an" make out the deed before you begin. An" that"s all I"ve got."
"Farm be hanged!" said Lincoln. "Do you think I don"t remember your goodness to me when I was a little wretch with my toes sticking out of my ragged shoes! I wouldn"t take a copper from you. But you"re Tom"s mother, and of course you think he didn"t do it. Now what if the evidence proves that he did?"
Barbara had been sitting in one corner of the room, and Lincoln had not observed her in the obscurity produced by the shade of the green slat curtains. She got up and came forward. "Abra"m, do you remember me?"
"Is this little Barby?" he said, scanning her face. "You"re a young woman now, I declare."
There was a simple tenderness in his voice that showed how deeply he felt the trouble that had befallen the Graysons.