THE LITTLE COLONEL'S KNIGHT COMES RIDING
CHAPTER I
THE HANGING OF THE MIRROR
IT was a June morning in Kentucky. The doctor's nephew coming at agallop down the pike into Lloydsboro Valley, reined his horse to a walkas he reached the railroad crossing, and leaning forward in his saddle,hesitated a moment between the two roads.
The one along the railroad embankment was sweet with a tangle of wildhoneysuckle, and led straight to the little post-office where hismorning mail awaited him. The other would take him a mile out of hisway, but it was through a thick beech woods, and the cool leafage of itsgreen aisles tempted him. A red-bird darting on ahead suddenly decidedhis course, for following some quick impulse, as if the cardinal wingshad beckoned him, he turned off the highway into the woods.
"I might as well go around and have a look at that Lindsey Cabin," hesaid to himself, as an excuse for turning aside. "If it's in as goodshape as I think it is, maybe I can persuade the Van Allens to rent itfor the summer. It's a pity to have a picturesque place like thatstanding empty when it has such possibilities for hospitality, and theVan Allen girls a positive genius for giving jolly house-parties. To getthat family out to Lloydsboro for the summer would be paving the way tono end of good times."
The farther he rode into the cool woods the better the idea pleased him,and where the bridle-path crossed a narrow creek he paused a momentbefore plunging down the bank. Somewhere up the ravine a spring wastrickling out in a ceaseless flow. He could not see it, but he couldhear the gurgle of the water, as cold and crystal clear it splashed downinto its rocky basin.
"They could picnic here to their hearts' content," he said aloud,glancing up and down the ravine at the rank growth of fern andmaidenhair which festooned the rocks.
Alex Shelby had spent only part of two summers in Lloydsboro Valley, butthe woodsy smell of mint and pennyroyal, mingling with the fern, broughtback the recollection of at least a dozen picnics he had enjoyed nearthis spot, most of them moonlight affairs, and all of them so pleasantthat he was determined to bring about their repetition if possible. Ofcourse this summer he would not have as much time for outings as he hadhad then. Now that he had finished his medical course he intended toshoulder as much as possible of his uncle's work. The old doctor'spractice had grown far too heavy for him. But at the same time thereneed be no limit to the pleasant things that the summer could bringforth, especially if the Van Allen family could be installed in theLindsey Cabin.
A quarter of a mile more brought him almost to the edge of the woods andto the beginning of the Lindsey place. The spacious, two-story log cabinstanding back among the great forest trees, might have been a relic ofDaniel Boone's day, so carefully had his pioneer pattern been copied byskilful architects. But the resemblance was only outward. Inside it wasluxuriously equipped with every modern convenience. For a year it hadstood tenant-less, and Alex Shelby never passed it without regrettingthat such a charming old place should be abandoned to dust and spiders.The last time he had gone by it, he had noticed that it was beginning toshow the effect of its long neglect. Some of the windows were completelyovergrown by ragged rose-vines and Virginia Creeper, and a tinwaterspout that had blown loose from its fastenings, dangled from theeaves.
Now as he came near he saw in surprise that the place seemed to have analert, live air, as if just awakened from sleep. The windows were allthrown open, the vines were trimmed, and were a mass of bloom, the deadleaves were raked neatly in piles and the cobwebs no longer hung fromthe cornices in dusty festoons.
A long ladder leaning against the front of the house, rested on the sillof an upper window, and Alex wondered if the agents had painters atwork. He hoped so. The more thorough the renovation, the more attractiveit would be to the Van Allens.
Suddenly his pleased expression changed to one of surprise and dismay,as he saw that the place was already inhabited. Empty packing-boxes,excelsior and wrapping paper littered the front porch. A new hammockhung between the posts. Somebody's garden-hat lay on the steps.Moreover, a slender girl in a white dress stood at the foot of theladder, evidently about to ascend, for she shook it to test its balance,and then cautiously stepped up on the first round.
Her back was toward Alex, and he fervently hoped that she would turnaround so that he might see her face, then more fervently hoped that shewouldn't, since it would be somewhat embarrassing to be caught staringas inquisitively as he was doing. Unconsciously at sight of her he hadbrought his horse to a standstill, and now sat wondering who she couldbe and what she was about to do. It was as if a curtain had gone up onthe first scene of an intensely interesting play, and for the moment heforgot everything else in admiration of the stage setting, and thegraceful little figure poised on the ladder.
"Probably going up for an armful of roses," he thought.
"Hold tight, Ca'line Allison! Don't let it slip!" she called in a highsweet voice, almost as if she were singing the words, and Alex noticedfor the first time, a small coloured girl behind the ladder, bracingherself against it to hold it steady.
The ascent was a slow one. Twice she tripped on her skirts, and with alittle shriek almost slipped through between the rounds. Only one handwas free for climbing. The other grasped some dark object that seemed tobe a picture frame, though why one should be carrying a picture frame upthe outside of a house was more than the young man could imagine, and heconcluded he must be mistaken.
"THE OTHER GRASPED SOME DARK OBJECT THAT SEEMED TO BE APICTURE FRAME."]
The last step brought her head on a level with the second story window,and up where the sun struck through the trees in a broad shaft of light.Her hair had been beautiful in the shadow; a rare tint of auburn withbronze gold glints, but now in the sunshine it was an aureole. What wasit it reminded him of? A fragment of a half-forgotten poem came to hismind, although he was not given to remembering such things:
"Sandalphon the angel of glory, Sandalphon the angel of prayer."
Then he almost laughed aloud at the comparison, for a dazzling flash oflight, blinding him for an instant, was reflected into his eyes from theobject she carried, and he saw that it was a looking-glass that she wastaking up the ladder with such care.
"What a very human and very feminine angel of glory it is," hethought. But the next instant, still with the amused smile on his face,he was spurring his horse down the road as fast as it could gallop. Thegirl on the ladder had caught sight of his reflection in the mirror asshe reached up to lay it on the window sill, and had turned a startledface towards him. Not for worlds would he have had her know that he hadbeen so discourteous as to sit staring at her. He had forgotten himselfin the interest of the moment.
Eager to find out who the new tenants were at the Lindsey Cabin, he roderapidly on, turning from the woodland road into a maple-lined avenueleading back to the post-office. Just as he made the turn anothersurprise confronted him. He almost collided with two girls who werehurrying along arm in arm, under a red parasol.
Both Lloyd Sherman and Kitty Walton were old friends of his, but he hadto look twice to assure himself that he saw aright. They had been awayat school all year, and he had not heard of their return.
"I thought you were still at Warwick Hall!" he exclaimed, dismountingand stepping forward with bared head, to shake hands in his most cordialway. "When did you get home?"
"Only this mawning," answered Lloyd. "All the Commencement exerciseswere ovah last Thursday, and we're school girls no longah. '_Beyond, theAlps lies Italy!_' Kitty can tell you all about it, for she had theValedictory."
Kitty met Alex's amused smile with a flash of her black eyes, but beforeshe could deny having used the trite subject that had been so popular inthe old Lloydsboro seminary as to have become a standing joke, Alexanswered, "Well, you've certainly lost no time in starting out toexplore the wide world that lies before you. I've always heard thatthere's nothing to equal the zeal of a sweet girl graduate about toscale her Alps. You've barely reached home, haven't been off the carsth
ree hours, I'll bet, and yet here you are on the war-path again. WhatItaly are you climbing after now?"
Ordinarily his banter would have been promptly resented by both girls,but now it served only to recall the amazing news that had sent themhurrying away from the post-office on an excited quest. With a dramaticgesture, Kitty drew a letter from her belt and held it out to him.
"Think of it!" she exclaimed, her cheeks pink with excitement. "GayMelville's here in the Valley! Right here in Lloydsboro! Settled in theLindsey Cabin for the summer, and we didn't know anything about it tillten minutes ago."
"Gay Melville," repeated Alex, instantly alert at mention of the cabin.
"Oh he doesn't know her, Kitty," interposed Lloyd. "He wasn't out in theValley the wintah she spent her Christmas vacation with you."
"Then you've something to live for!" declared Kitty with emphasis."She's one of the old Warwick Hall girls. Was in last year's class withAllison and Betty, and she's just the sweetest, dearest--"
"Don't tell him any moah," interrupted Lloyd. "Let him find out forhimself."
"What's she doing at the Lindsey Cabin?" he asked. He kept a straightface, although inwardly chuckling over the fact that he knew well enoughwhat she was doing, at least what she had been doing three minutes ago.
"They've taken it for the summer, that is, her sister Lucy and husbandhave, Mr. and Mrs. Jameson Harcourt. They're from San Antonio, and youknow the Lindseys spend their winters there. It seems they interestedMr. Harcourt in the Cabin, and of course Gay was wild to get back tothe Valley, and she persuaded them to come. She wrote to me just as soonas it was decided, but the letter never reached me till this morning.She thought I would get it before I started home; but it's just like Gayto mix up her address with mine. She was so excited when she wrote thatshe addressed it to Warwick Hall Station, Texas, instead of District ofColumbia. It has been travelling all over the country, and it's a wonderthat it ever reached me at all."
"And the worst of it is," added Lloyd, "of co'se she expected we'd allbe heah to meet her. But we stayed ovah in Washington two days, and whenthey came in last night there wasn't a soul at the station to welcomethem. The ticket agent told me about it just now as we came past. Sheseemed surprised, he said, and disappointed. She must have thought itqueah that none of us were there."
"Won't she be funny when she's found what a mistake she's made!"exclaimed Kitty. "She's always making mistakes, and is always perfectlyridiculous over them when she finds it out. We're going to take you tocall on her, Alex, just as soon as they're settled. She plays the violindivinely."
"I'll go right back with you now," he offered promptly.
"No you won't," they cried in the same breath, and Kitty explained, "Notelling what sort of a mess they'll be in with their unpacking. But ifthey're ready to see company by night, I'll telephone to you, and we'llall go over."
"I shall live only for that moment," he declared, laughing, then addedas he turned to mount his horse, "I'm mighty glad I met you, and I'mmore than glad that you've both come home to stay."
A flourish of the red parasol answered the courtly sweep of his hat asthey parted. He rode on rapidly towards the post-office, wondering ifthey would find the girlish, white-clad figure still perched on theladder, up among the roses, with the sun making an aureole of hershining hair. He had never seen such hair. "Sandalphon, the angel ofglory"--but the quotation broke off with a laugh. Her name was Gay, andit was a looking glass that she was carrying up the ladder. "Well, she'san original little thing," he mused, "and if she lives up to her namethe Lindsey Cabin will be just as lively a social centre as if the VanAllen girls had possession."
The encounter with Alex had delayed the girls but a moment or two, stillthey walked on faster than ever to make up the lost time.
"What do you suppose we'll find her doing?" queried Lloyd.
"Something unexpected, I'll be bound," was the answer. "Will you everforget that first time we saw her, when she came out to play the violinat the Freshman reception? Such a pretty white dress, and that rapt,uplifted look on her face that makes you think of St. Cecilias andseraphim, and with one foot in a white kid shoe, and the other in thatawful old red felt bedroom slipper, edged in black fur!"
"Or the time she lost her belt in Washington," suggested Lloyd."Probably we'll find her unpacking if the trunks came. But Gay's trunksnevah were known to arrive on time. We may have to be lending hershirtwaists and collahs for a month."
By this time they had reached the rustic footbridge leading over aravine to the Cabin, and were in full view of the front windows. Gay wasstill on the ladder. She had made several trips up and down it sinceAlex passed. It was hard to decide at what angle to hang the mirror onthe window casing, as she had seen them in old Dutch houses in Holland;and in marking the place with the point of the only nail that she hadprovided on which to hang the mirror, she dropped the nail. Severalminutes had been wasted in a fruitless search for it. Others were to behad for the pulling, if one could extract them from the emptypacking-boxes, but no hammer could be found on the premises, and it wasonly after much twisting and struggling that the little coloured girlfinally managed to pull one with her teeth.
Another five minutes had been wasted in searching for something withwhich to drive the nail. Then Gay gingerly ascended the ladder again,armed with a pair of heavy old tongs, taken from the porch fireplace.She had just reached the top of the ladder when the girls caught sightof her.
"Mercy!" exclaimed Kitty in a low tone. "It'll never do in the world toappear at _this_ juncture. She's pretty sure to drop through the ladderanyhow, or upset herself, or have some exhibition of the usual Melvilleluck, even if she's left to herself. And if she should suddenly discoverus there's no telling what dreadful thing might happen."
"Let's slip up behind the arbour and watch till she's safely down toearth," whispered Lloyd. "What _do_ you suppose she's trying to do, andwhere do you suppose she managed to pick up Ca'line Allison?"
"Sh!" was the answer. "That's the Dutch mirror she got in Amsterdamlast summer. She wrote that it was the triumph of her life when she gothome with it whole. She carried it all the way, instead of packing it inher trunk. Listen! What's that she's saying?"
The words floated down to them distinctly. "Ca'line Allison, you'll haveto get me something besides these tongs to drive this nail with. I mightas well try to do it with a pair of stilts. Besides it's making dents inthem, and it's wicked to spoil such beautiful old brasses. Mercy! Don'tget up _yet_!" she shrieked wildly, as the shifting of Ca'line Allison'ssmall body made the ladder slip a trifle.
"Wait till I poke these tongs through the window and take hold with bothhands. Now! Hunt around and find me a stone or a piece of brick."
The girls behind the arbour could not see her face, but the sight of thefamiliar little figure clinging to the ladder, and the sound of thebeloved voice made them long to rush out and squeeze her.
"Isn't her hair a glory, up there in the sunshine?" whispered Kitty."The idea of anybody calling it plain red--such a fluff of bronzy auburnwith all those little crinkles of gold! And listen to that whistle!You'd think it was a real mocking bird."
Wholly unconscious of her audience, Gay teetered on the ladder,whistling and trilling like a happy bobolink, until the little blackgirl climbed up after her with a brick which she had dug out from thewell curb. The girls waited until the nail was securely in place, themirror hung and Gay had begun to crawl down the ladder backward, beforethey rushed out from their hiding-place.
They pounced upon her just as she reached the bottom round, and thenensued what Kitty called a pow-wow--an enthusiastic welcome known onlyto old school chums who have been separated so long a time as a wholetwelvemonth. Questions, answers, explanations, a bubbling over ofdelight at once more being together, kept them talking all at once fornearly ten minutes. Then Gay, remembering her duty as hostess led theway into the house.
"Come in and see Lucy and her fond spouse," she exclaimed. "They'restill at breakfast although
it's ten o'clock. None of us could make afire in the range. It simply wouldn't burn. But we had brought a chafingdish in one of the boxes, and we found another in the pantry, andthey've been mussing around for the last two hours with them, having thetime of their lives. Lucy made fudge and omelette and tea for herbreakfast, being the things she knows best how to make, and brotherJameson is trying flap-jacks and coffee."
"What did you have?" asked Lloyd.
"I? Oh I emulated the example of 'The old person of Crewd' who said
"'We use sawdust for food. It's cheap by the ton And it nourishes one, And that's the main object of food.'
I munched a handful of some sort of new breakfast straw, but it wasn'tvery satisfying, and I was just going in to get a cup of brotherJameson's coffee. I told him to put my name in the pot. Come on in andhave some too."
Throwing open the dining-room door she began a series of breezyintroductions that set them all to laughing and swept away every vestigeof formality.
Both Lloyd and Kitty protested against taking a single mouthful at thathour, but the young host poured out a cup of very muddy coffee with sucha beaming smile, and the little bride offered a very bitter cup of teain competition, with a merry insistence so like Gay's, that they couldnot refuse.
"It's going to be lovely," Kitty managed to whisper under cover of thebustle of bringing in more hot water. "They're almost as harum-scarumand hap-hazard as Gay herself, and 'brother Jameson' looks as if hemight be the 'Gibson man's' youngest brother."
"These 'babes in the wood' would have perished but for me," began Gay,who was rattling along as if she were wound up. "_I_ was the robin whocame to the rescue. I went over to Stumptown bright and early--you see Iremembered the short cut through the woods--and as luck would have it,found some one willing to come, at the very first house where Iinquired. (But she can't come till nearly noon, hence this disorderlyfeasting and rioting.) Ca'line Allison was swinging on the gate, withher finger in her mouth. I didn't know her, but she remembered me, andcomplimented me by asking if I'd done brought my fiddle along. I thinkI'll engage her for the summer for my little maid-in-waiting. She's asquick as a monkey and would look so cunning diked up in a cap and apron.What's that rhyme Betty made about her when she was flower-girl at herown mother's wedding? Oh by the way, where _is_ Betty? Why didn't shecome with you?"
"For the good reason that we didn't know we were coming heah ourselveswhen we left home," answered Lloyd. "Betty went on to Commencement withall the rest of the family, but it was hard for her to tear herself awayfrom her beloved writing. We hadn't been back at Locust half an houahthis mawning till she was at it again."
"Betty is Mrs. Sherman's god-daughter," explained Gay in an aside to herbrother-in-law. "The one who I told you is such a genius. She's writinga book." Then turning to Lloyd. "It isn't that same old one she was atwork on at school, is it?"
"No, it's something she began last fall. Mothah wanted her to make herdebut in Louisville when she was through school, just as I am going todo next wintah, but Betty begged to be allowed to stay in the country.She said she'd nevah be a brilliant success socially, but that she'd doher best to be a credit to the family in some other way."
"She will, too," prophesied Gay. "Some day we'll all be proud of thelittle song-bird you rescued from the Cuckoo's Nest. Dear old Betty! I'dlike to hug her this very minute."
The grandfather's clock in the hall was striking eleven when they rosefrom the table, but Gay would not listen when the girls attempted totake their leave. "You haven't seen my room," she insisted, "nor mymirror. Come on up stairs and look into my mirror. It's the joy of myheart, and maybe we'll all see our fate in it. I like to pretend thatit's a sort of magic glass--that some wizard of the wood has laid aspell on it, so that at certain times all the figures that have everbeen reflected in it must march across it again. Wouldn't it be lovelyif all the good times it is going to reflect this summer could be madeto pass over it again whenever I wanted to recall them?"
"We'd lead the procession," announced Kitty, "for we were the firstobjects that crossed the path after you got it hung. If we were not 'agroup of damsels glad' we were at least a couple of them."
"But you were not the first," confessed Gay. "Just as I held it up toadjust it, I had such a thrillingly romantic experience that I nearlyfell off the ladder. It showed me the reflection of an awfully goodlooking young man on horse-back. But when I turned to look over myshoulder at the original he was galloping down the road like a bluestreak."
"I wondah who it could have been," mused Lloyd. "We met Alex Shelby onhawseback just a few minutes befoah we got heah, but he nevah said aword about having seen anybody, and he seemed surprised when we told himthat the cabin had been rented."
They were up in Gay's room now, and running to the window, Kitty seatedherself in the low chair beside it. "Oh how fine!" she called. "It's atexactly the right angle, for I can see everything along the path withoutlooking out. It'll be a sort of Hildegarde's mirror, won't it! Like theLady of Shalott's."
Half under her breath she began to recite the lines they had learned solong ago, and from force of habit Lloyd joined the sing-song chant:
"And moving through the mirror clear That hangs before her all the year, Shadows of the world appear."
Smiling to see how well they remembered it, they went on in unison downto the couplet:
"And sometimes through the mirror blue The knights come riding two by two."
There Kitty broke off to say "I don't see how that can happen here_this_ summer. It will be sheer luck if they come even in singles. Therenever were so few boys left in the Valley, and it's too bad to have ithappen so the summer that you're here. Nearly everybody is going away.You can count on the fingers of one hand the few who will stay."
"What about the two knights of Kentucky?" asked Gay. "You're a luckygirl, Kitty, to have two such splendid cousins as Keith and MalcolmMacIntyre."
"They are already gone. They sailed for England with Uncle Sydney andAunt Elise last week. You know I wrote you they were going and thatAllison was to be in the party too. And oh Gay! Didn't you get thatletter? Then you haven't heard the most important thing of all! _Allisonis engaged!_ It didn't happen till a few days before they sailed, and itisn't announced yet, but of course she wanted you to know and I wrote toyou right away."
Gay bounced out of her chair as if a bomb exploded in the room.
"Oh you don't mean it!" she cried tragically, clasping her hands. "Whyshe's only been out of school a year! The first of our class to go! Ohtell me all about it! Begin at the beginning and don't skip a thing!"
Throwing herself down on the floor at Kitty's feet, she propped her chinon her hands, and her elbows in Kitty's lap, prepared to listen.
"There isn't much to tell. You know the fortune that Mammy Easterpredicted for her was nice, but it wasn't very exciting. She was to 'wedwid de quality and ride in her ca'iage.' Well, his family is certainlyquality, the Claibornes of Virginia, and she'll live in Washington andhave several kinds of carriages. Isn't it odd? We knew him when he wasjust a boy. He was on the same transport with us when we went to thePhilippines, and we never imagined then that we'd ever see him again."
"But I thought that that young Lieutenant Logan," began Gay.
Kitty interrupted her with a laugh. "Why my dear, he is a mere _child_compared to Raleigh Claiborne. That little affair was the mere A. B. C.of romance. He's paying attention to our youngest now. He sends musicand bon bons to _Elise_."
"Think of Elise being old enough to receive such attentions!" groanedGay. "It makes me feel like a patriarch. But never mind my hoarysensations, go on and tell me some more. She's going to get hertrousseau abroad I suppose."
"Only part of it, for the wedding isn't to take place for a year.Allison didn't care much about going--thought she'd rather wait and takethe trip with Raleigh. But he is so busy it may be several years beforehe can get off for a whole summer, and Aunt Elise persuaded her to gowith them. She s
aid it wouldn't be so easy for her to go when she onceassumed the responsibility of a big establishment."
Gay clasped her hands around her knees and rocked herself back and forthon the floor.
"I'm glad she's sensible enough to wait a year," she declared. "I don'tsee why girls are in such a hurry to tie themselves up in a knot. Isuppose it's perfectly fascinating to be engaged and to have thechoosing of a lovely trousseau, and the opening of all the weddingpresents. Everybody takes so much interest in a prospective bride. Butthe fun comes to an end so quickly. It's like Fourth of July fire works.There's a big blaze and excitement while it lasts. Then it's all overand they settle down to be just prosy common-place married people. Ishould think that the reaction would be deadly, and that if a girl couldsee past the time of the rocket's shooting up, and realize that it can'tstay among the stars, but must fall to earth again with a dull thud,she'd profit by other people's experiences, and not give up all the goodtimes of her girlhood before she'd half enjoyed them."
Gay spoke so feelingly that her two listeners exchanged glances ofsurprise. This was not the way Gay had been wont to talk a year ago, andeach wondered to herself if Lucy's marriage had caused this radicalchange in her opinion.
Suddenly she changed the subject, with the unexpectedness of agrasshopper's leap. "Which one of you girls is going to stay all nightwith me?"
Kitty answered first. "Neither of us ought to, for we've only justreturned to the bosom of our families. You could hardly call us entirelyarrived yet, for our trunks haven't come."
Lloyd started up, and looked at her watch in alarm. "It's a good thingyou reminded me that I have a home," she laughed. "I told mothah I'djust stroll down to the post-office and be right back, and when I metKitty with yoah lettah it drove everything else out of my head. She'llbe wondering what has happened to me. I'll come some night next week andbe glad to."
"No, one of you has to come back and stay with me _to-night_," Gayinsisted. "So settle it between yourselves. You may as well draw strawsto decide which is to be my victim." Then, glancing around the room--"Idon't happen to see any straws at hand, but you might pull hairs forthe honour. Here! My head is at your service, ladies."
Dropping to her knees she made a profound salaam, and waited for them todraw. "The one who pulls the shortest hair comes back."
Laughing over the absurd manner of deciding such a matter, each girlreached out and plucked a hair by its roots, so vigorously that the pullwas followed by a long drawn "ouch!"
"Mine's the shortest," giggled Lloyd, comparing it with the one thatKitty held up. "But I'm suah my family will object if I propose leavingthem the very first night of my arrival, aftah I've been away at schoolall yeah."
"Don't leave them then," said Gay. "Bring them all over here to spendthe evening. I'm wild for Lucy and brother Jameson to meet them as soonas possible. Then when bedtime comes let them leave you. Tell them thatKitty is going to bring all her family, and that everybody in the valleywho is anybody is coming to the Harcourt's Housewarming to-night at the'Cabin in the Wood.'"
Kitty began unfurling her red parasol. "That certainly sounds alluring.You can count on all my family, especially Ranald, and I'll go straighthome and telephone to Alex Shelby."
"Who may he be?" inquired Gay, scrambling up from the floor, to followher guests down stairs.
Kitty began an enthusiastic description of him, which Lloyd cut shortwith the laughing remark, "Go look in your little Dutch mirror. I'm notpositive, but I _think_ he's yoah first 'Knight of the Looking-glass.'"
The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding Page 4