"It must be admitted, Nick, you are a very literal logician--"dog won"t eat dog," is our English saying. Still the _Yankee_ will fight the Yengeese, it would seem. In a word, the Great Father, in England, has raised the hatchet against his American children."
"How you like him, cap"in--um? Which go on straight path, which go on crooked? How you like him?"
"I like it little, Nick, and wish with all my heart the quarrel had not taken place."
"Mean to put on regimentals--hah! Mean to be cap"in, ag"in? Follow drum and fife, like ole time?"
"I rather think not, old comrade. After sixty, one likes peace better than war; and I intend to stay at home."
"What for, den, build fort? Why you put fence round a house, like pound for sheep?"
"Because I intend to _stay_ there. The stockade will be good to keep off any, or every enemy who may take it into their heads to come against us. You have known me defend a worse position than this."
"He got no gate," muttered Nick--"What he good for, widout gate?
Yengeese, Yankees, red man, French man, walk in just as he please. No good to leave such squaw wid a door wide open."
"Thank you, Nick," cried Mrs. Willoughby. "I knew you were _my_ friend, and have not forgotten the gold-thread."
"He _very_ good," answered the Indian, with an important look.
"Pappoose get well like not"ing. He a"most die, to-day; to-morrow he run about and play. Nick do him, too; cure him wid gold-thread."
"Oh! you are, or were quite a physician at one time, Nick. I remember when you had the smallpox, yourself."
The Indian turned, with the quickness of lightning, to Mrs. Willoughby, whom he startled with his energy, as he demanded--
"You remember dat, Mrs. cap"in! Who gib him--who cure him--um?"
"Upon my word, Nick, you almost frighten me. I fear I gave you the disease, but it was for your own good it was done. You were inoculated by myself, when the soldiers were dying around us, because they had never had that care taken of them. All I inoculated lived; yourself among the number."
The startling expression pa.s.sed away from the fierce countenance of the savage, leaving in its place another so kind and amicable as to prove he not only was aware of the benefit he had received, but that he was deeply grateful for it. He drew near to Mrs. Willoughby, took her still white and soft hand in his own sinewy and dark fingers, then dropped the blanket that he had thrown carelessly across his body, from a shoulder, and laid it on a mark left by the disease, by way of pointing to her good work. He smiled, as this was done.
"Ole mark," he said, nodding his head--"sign we good friend--he nebber go away while Nick live."
This touched the captain"s heart, and he tossed a dollar towards the Indian, who suffered it, however, to lie at his feet unnoticed. Turning to the stockade, he pointed significantly at the open gateways.
"Great danger go t"rough little "ole," he said, sententiously, walking away as he concluded. "Why you leave big "ole open?"
"We _must_ get those gates hung next week," said the captain, positively; "and yet it is almost absurd to apprehend anything serious in this remote settlement, and that at so early a period in the war."
Nothing further pa.s.sed on the lawn worthy to be recorded. The sun set, and the family withdrew into the house, as usual, to trust to the overseeing care of Divine Providence, throughout a night pa.s.sed in a wilderness. By common consent, the discourse turned upon things noway connected with the civil war, or its expected results, until the party was about to separate for the night, when the major found himself alone with his sisters, in his own little parlour, dressing-room, or study, whatever the room adjoining his chamber could properly be called.
"You will not leave us soon, Robert," said Beulah, taking her brother"s hand, with confiding affection, "I hardly think my father young and active enough, or rather _alarmed_ enough, to live in times like these!"
"He is a soldier, Beulah, and a good one; so good that his son can teach him nothing. I wish I could say that he is as good a _subject_: I fear he leans to the side of the colonies."
"Heaven be praised!" exclaimed Beulah--"Oh! that his son would incline in the same direction."
"Nay, Beulah," rejoined Maud, reproachfully; "you speak without reflection. Mamma bitterly regrets that papa sees things in the light he does. _She_ thinks the parliament right, and the colonies wrong."
"What a thing is a civil war!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the major--"Here is husband divided against wife--son against father--brother against sister. I could almost wish I were dead, ere I had lived to see this!"
"Nay, Robert, it is not so bad as that, either," added Maud. "My mother will never oppose my father"s will or judgment. Good wives, you know, never do _that_. She will only pray that he may decide right, and in a way that his children will never have cause to regret. As for me, I count for nothing, of course."
"And Beulah, Maud; is she nothing, too? Here will Beulah be praying for her brother"s defeat, throughout this war. It has been some presentiment of this difference of opinion that has probably induced you to forget me, while Beulah and my mother were pa.s.sing so many hours to fill that basket."
"Perhaps you do Maud injustice, Robert," said Beulah, smiling. "I think I can say none loves you better than our dear sister--or no one has thought of you more, in your absence."
"Why, then, does the basket contain no proof of this remembrance--not even a chain of hair--a purse, or a ring--nothing, in short, to show that I have not been forgotten, when away."
"Even if this be so," said Maud, with spirit, "in what am I worse than yourself. What proof is there that you have remembered _us?_"
"This," answered the major, laying before his sisters two small packages, each marked with the name of its proper owner. "My mother has her"s, too, and my father has not been forgotten."
Beulah"s exclamations proved how much she was gratified with her presents; princ.i.p.ally trinkets and jewelry, suited to her years and station. First kissing the major, she declared her mother must see what she had received, before she retired for the night, and hurried from the room. That Maud was not less pleased, was apparent by her glowing cheeks and tearful eyes; though, for a wonder, she was far more restrained in the expression of her feelings. After examining the different articles, with pleasure, for a minute or two, she went, with a quick impetuous movement, to the basket, tumbled all its contents on the table, until she reached the scarf, which she tossed towards the major, saying, with a faint laugh--
"There, unbeliever--heathen--is _that_ nothing? Was that made in a minute, think you?"
"_This!_" cried the major, opening the beautiful, glossy fabric in surprise. "Is not this one of my father"s old sashes, to which I have fallen heir, in the order of nature?"
Maud dropped her trinkets, and seizing two corners of the sash, she opened it, in a way to exhibit its freshness and beauty.
"Is this _old_, or _worn?_" she asked, reproachfully. "Your father never even saw it, Bob. It has not yet been around the waist of man."
"It is not possible!--This would be the work of months--is _so_ beautiful--you cannot have purchased it."
Maud appeared distressed at his doubts. Opening the folds still wider, she raised the centre of the silk to the light, pointed to certain letters that had been wrought into the fabric, so ingeniously as to escape ordinary observation, and yet so plainly as to be distinctly legible when the attention was once drawn to them. The major took the sash into his own hands altogether, held it opened before the candles, and read the words "Maud Meredith" aloud. Dropping the sash, he turned to seek the face of the donor, but she had fled the room. He followed her footsteps and entered the library, just as she was about to escape from it, by a different door.
"I am offended at your incredulity," said Maud, making an effort to laugh away the scene, "and will not remain to hear lame excuses. Your new regiment can have no nature in it, or brothers would not treat sisters thus."
"Maud _Meredith_ is not my sister," he said, earnestly, "though Maud _Willoughby_ may be. Why is the name Meredith?"
"As a retort to one of your own allusions--did you not call me Miss Meredith, one day, when I last saw you in Albany?"
"Ay, but that was in jest, my dearest Maud. It was not a deliberate thing, like the name on that sash."
"Oh! jokes may be premeditated as well as murder; and many a one _is_ murdered, you know. Mine is a prolonged jest."
"Tell me, does my mother--does Beulah know who made this sash?"
"How else could it have been made, Bob? Do you think I went into the woods, and worked by myself, like some romantic damsel who had an unmeaning secret to keep against the curious eyes of persecuting friends!"
"I know not what I thought--scarce know what I think now. But, my mother; does she know of this _name_?"
Maud blushed to the eyes; but the habit and the love of truth were so strong in her, that she shook her head in the negative.
"Nor Beulah?--_She_, I am certain, would not have permitted "Meredith" to appear where "Willoughby" should have been."
"Nor Beulah, either, major Willoughby," p.r.o.nouncing the name with an affectation of reverence. "The honour of the Willoughbys is thus preserved from every taint, and all the blame must fall on poor Maud Meredith."