Part 6 (1/2)
I now corrected myself, saying coolly enough:
”Yes, Colonel Thomas, on second thought I think I might know her if I see her.”
”Perhaps,” suggested Captain Fancher, ”the wench has gone a-gypsying after the convoy.”
”These drabs change lovers over night,” observed Colonel Thomas grimly.
”Doubtless Sheldon's troopers are already consoling her.”
Colonel Sheldon, who had been fiddling uneasily with his sword-knot, exclaimed peevishly:
”Good G.o.d, sir! Am I also to play chaplain to my command?”
There was a curious look in Colonel Thomas's eyes which seemed to say: ”You might play it as well as you play the Colonel;” but Sheldon was too stupid and too vain, I think, to perceive any affront.
And, ”Where do you lodge, gentlemen?” inquired our Major, addressing us both; and when he learned that we were roofless he insisted that we remain under his roof, nor would he hear of any excuses touching the present unsuitability of our condition and attire.
”Gentlemen, gentlemen! I will not accept a refusal,” he said. ”We are plain folk and live plainly, and both bed and board are at your disposal. Lord, sir! And what would Clinton think were I to send two officers of his corps d'elite to a village ordinary!”
We had all risen and were moving toward the door. A black servant came when the Major pulled the bell card, and showed Boyd and myself to two pretty chambers, small, but very neat, where the linen on the beds smelled fresh and sweet, and the westering sun struck golden through chintz curtains drawn aside.
”Gad!” said Boyd, eying the bed. ”It's long since my person has been intimately acquainted with sheet and pillow. What a pretty nest, Loskiel. Lord! And here's a vase of posies, too! The touch feminine--who could mistake it in the sweet, fresh whiteness of this little roam!”
Presently came our rifleman, Jack Mount, bearing our saddle-bags; and we stripped and washed us clean, and put on fresh linen and our best uniforms of soft doeskin, which differed from the others only in that they were clean and new, and that the thrums were gayer and the Iroquois beadwork more flamboyant.
”If I but had my hair in a snug club, and well powdered,” sighed Boyd, lacing his s.h.i.+rt. ”And I tell you, Loskiel, though I would not boast, this accursed rifle-s.h.i.+rt and these gaudy leggings conceal a supple body and a leg as neatly turned as any figure more fortunately clothed in silken coat and stockings!”
I began to laugh, and he laughed, too, vowing he envied me my hair, which was yellow and which curled of itself so that it needed no powder.
I can see him yet, standing there in the suns.h.i.+ne, both hands gripping his dark hair in pretense of grief, and vowing that he had a mind to scalp himself for very vexation. Alas! That I remember now such idle words, spoken in the pride and strength and gayety of youth! And always when I think of him I remember his dread of fire--the only fear he ever knew. These things--his brown eyes and quick, gay smile--his lithe and supple person--and his love of women--these I remember always, even while already much that concerned this man and me begins to fade with the stealthy years.
While the sun still hung high in the west, and ere any hint of evening was heard either in the robin's note or from the high-soaring martins, we had dressed. Boyd went away first, saying carelessly that he meant to look to the horses before paying his respects to the ladies. A little later I descended, a black servant conducting me to the family sitting room.
Here our gallant Major made me known to his lady and to his numerous family--six young children, and still a seventh, the pretty maid whom we had seen on approaching the house, who proved to be a married daughter. Betsy, they called her--and she was only seventeen, but had been two years the wife of Alsop Hunt.
As for the Major's lady, who seemed scarce thirty and was six years older, she so charmed me with her grace, and with the bright courage she so sweetly maintained in a home which every hour of the day and night menaced, that even Mrs. Hunt, with her gay spirits, imperious beauty, and more youthful attractions, no more than shared my admiration for her mother.
In half an hour Lieutenant Boyd came in, was presented, and paid his homage gayly, as he always did. Yet, I thought a slight cloud rested on his brow, but this soon pa.s.sed, and I forgot it.
So we talked of this and that as lightly as though no danger threatened this house; and Boyd was quickly at his best with the ladies. As for me, I courted the children. And I remember there were two little maids of fourteen and eleven, Ruhannah and Hannah, sweet and fresh as wild June roses, who showed me the tow cloth for our army which they were spinning, and blushed at my praise of their industry. And there was Mary, ten, and Clarissa, eight, and two little boys, one a baby--all save the last two children carding or spinning flax and tow.
It was not easy to understand that this blooming matron could be mother of all of these, so youthful she seemed in her Quaker-cut gown of dove-colour--though it was her handsome, high-spirited daughter who should have worn the sober garb.
”Not I,” said she, laughing at Boyd. ”I'd sooner don jack-boots and be a dragoon--and we would completely represent a holy cause, my husband with his broad-brim and I with my sword. What do you say, Mr. Boyd?”
”I beg of you first to consider the rifle-frock if you must enlist!”
urged Boyd, with such fervour that we all laughed at his gallant effort to recruit such beauty for our corps; for even a mental picture of Betsy Hunt in rifle-frock seemed too adorable. Mr. Hunt, entering, smiled in his quiet, embarra.s.sed way; and I thought that this wise and gentle-mannered man must have more than a handful in his spirited young wife, whose dress was anything but plain.
I had taken the tiny maid, Clarissa, upon my knees and was telling her of the beauty of our Northland, and of that great, dusky green ocean of giant pines, vast as the sea and as silent and uncharted, when Major Lockwood bent over me saying in a quiet voice that it might be well for me to look about in the town for the wench who knew the whereabouts of Mayaro.