"That boy meddled and I hit him."
Chad turned and answered the General"s eyes steadily.
"I reckon I had no business meddlin"!"
"He tried to give sister a fish."
That was unwise in Dan-Margaret"s chin lifted.
"Oh," she said, "that was it, too, was it? Well-"
"I didn"t see no harm givin" the little gal a fish," said Chad. "Little gal," indeed! Chad lost the ground he might have gained. Margaret"s eyes looked all at once like her father"s.
"I"m a little GIRL, thank you."
Chad turned to her father now, looking him in the face straight and steadily.
"I reckon I had no business meddlin", but I didn"t think hit was fa"r fer him to hit the n.i.g.g.e.r; the n.i.g.g.e.r was littler, an" I didn"t think hit "as right."
"I didn"t mean to hit him-I was only playin"!"
"But I THOUGHT you was goin" to hit him," said Chad. He looked at the General again. "But I had no business meddlin"." And he picked up his old c.o.o.nskin cap from the gra.s.s to start away.
"Hold on, little man," said the General.
"Dan, haven"t I told you not to tease s...o...b..ll?" Dan dropped his eyes again.
"Yes, sir."
"You struck first, and this boy says he oughtn"t to have meddled, but I think he did just right. Have you anything to say to him?"
Dan worked the toe of his left boot into the turf for a moment "No, sir."
"Well, go up to your room and think about it awhile and see if you don"t owe somebody an apology. Hurry up now an" change your clothes.
"You"d better come up to the house and get some dry clothes for yourself, my boy," he added to Chad. "You"ll catch cold."
"Much obleeged," said Chad. "But I don"t ketch cold."
He put on his old c.o.o.nskin cap, and then the General recognized him.
"Why, aren"t you the little boy who bought a horse from me in town the other day?" And then Chad recognized him as the tall man who had cried "Let him have her."
"Yes, sir."
"Well, I know all about you," said the General, kindly. "You are staying with Major Buford. He"s a great friend and neighbor of mine. Now you must come up and get some clothes, Harry!"-But Chad, though he hesitated, for he knew now that the gentleman had practically given him the mare, interrupted, st.u.r.dily,
"No, sir, I can"t go-not while he"s a-feelin" hard at me."
"Very well," said the General, gravely. Chad started off on a trot and stopped suddenly, "I wish you"d please tell that little GURL"-Chad p.r.o.nounced the word with some difficulty-"that I didn"t mean nothin" callin" her a little gal. Ever"body calls gurls gals whar I come from."
"All right," laughed the General. Chad trotted all the way home and there Miss Lucy made him take off his wet clothes at once, though the boy had to go to bed while they were drying, for he had no other clothes, and while he lay in bed the Major came up and listened to Chad"s story of the afternoon, which Chad told him word for word just as it had all happened.
"You did just right, Chad," said the Major, and he went down the stairs, chuckling:
"Wouldn"t go in and get dry clothes because Dan wouldn"t apologize. Dear me! I reckon they"ll have it out when they see each other again. I"d like to be on hand, and I"d bet my bottom dollar on Chad." But they did not have it out. Half an hour after supper somebody shouted "h.e.l.lo!" at the gate, and the Major went out and came back smiling.
"Somebody wants to see you, Chad," he said. And Chad went out and found Dan there on the black pony with s...o...b..ll behind him.
"I"ve come over to say that I had no business. .h.i.ttin" you down at the creek, and-" Chad interrupted him:
"That"s all right," he said, and Dan stopped and thrust out his hand. The two boys shook hands gravely.
"An" my papa says you are a man an" he wants you to come over and see us and I want you-and Harry and Margaret. We all want you."
"All right," said Chad. Dan turned his black pony and galloped off.
"An" come soon!" he shouted back.
Out in the quarters Mammy Ailsie, old Tom"s wife, was having her own say that night.
"Ole Ma.r.s.e Cal Buford pickin" a piece of white trash out de gutter an" not sayin" whar he come from an" nuttin" "bout him. An" old Mars Henry takin" him jus" like he was quality. My Tom say dae boy don" know who is his mammy ner his daddy. I ain" gwine to let my little mistis play wid no sech trash, I tell you-"deed I ain"t!" And this talk would reach the drawing-room by and by, where the General was telling the family, at just about the same hour, the story of the horse sale and Chad"s purchase of the old brood mare.
"I knew where he was from right away," said Harry. "I"ve seen mountain-people wearing caps like his up at Uncle Brutus"s, when they come down to go to Richmond."
The General frowned.
"Well, you won"t see any more people like him up there again."
"Why, papa?"
"Because you aren"t going to Uncle Brutus"s any more."
"Why, papa?"
The mother put her hand on her husband"s knee.
"Never mind, son," she said.
CHAPTER 10.
THE BLUEGRa.s.s
G.o.d"s Country!
No humor in that phrase to the Bluegra.s.s Kentuckian! There never was-there is none now. To him, the land seems in all the New World, to have been the pet shrine of the Great Mother herself. She fashioned it with loving hands. She shut it in with a mighty barrier of mighty mountains to keep the mob out. She gave it the loving clasp of a mighty river, and spread broad, level prairies beyond that the mob might glide by, or be tempted to the other side, where the earth was level and there was no need to climb; that she might send priests from her shrine to reclaim Western wastes or let the weak or the unloving-if such could be-have easy access to another land.