The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come

by John Fox

  CHAPTER 11.

  A TOURNAMENT

  On Sunday, the Major and Miss Lucy took Chad to church--a countrychurch built of red brick and overgrown with ivy--and the sermon wasvery short, Chad thought, for, down in the mountains, the circuit-riderwould preach for hours--and the deacons passed around velvet pouchesfor the people to drop money in, and they passed around bread, of whichnearly everybody took a pinch, and a silver goblet with wine, fromwhich the same people took a sip--all of which Chad did not understand.Usually the Deans went to Lexington to church, for they wereEpiscopalians, but they were all at the country church that day, andwith them was Richard Hunt, who smiled at Chad and waved hisriding-whip. After church Dan came to him and shook hands. Harry noddedto him gravely, the mother smiled kindly, and the General put his handon the boy's head. Margaret looked at him furtively, but passed him by.Perhaps she was still "mad" at him, Chad thought, and he was muchworried. Margaret was not shy like Melissa, but her face was kind. TheGeneral asked them all over to take dinner, but Miss Lucy declined--shehad asked people to take dinner with her. And Chad, with keendisappointment, saw them drive away.

  It was a lonely day for him that Sunday. He got tired staying so longat the table, and he did not understand what the guests were talkingabout. The afternoon was long, and he wandered restlessly about theyard and the quarters. Jerome Conners, the overseer, tried to befriendly with him for the first time, but the boy did not like theoverseer and turned away from him. He walked down to the pike gate andsat on it, looking over toward the Deans'. He wished that Dan wouldcome over to see him or, better still, that he could go over to see Danand Harry and--Margaret. But Dan did not come and Chad could not askthe Major to let him go--he was too shy about it--and Chad was gladwhen bedtime came.

  Two days more and spring was come in earnest. It was in the softness ofthe air, the tenderness of cloud and sky, and the warmth of thesunlight. The grass was greener and the trees quivered happily. Hensscratched and cocks crowed more lustily. Insect life was busier. Astallion nickered in the barn, and from the fields came the mooing ofcattle. Field-hands going to work chaffed the maids about the house andquarters. It stirred dreamy memories of his youth in the Major, and itbrought a sad light into Miss Lucy's faded eyes. Would she ever seeanother spring? It brought tender memories to General Dean, and over atWoodlawn, after he and Mrs. Dean had watched the children go off withhappy cries and laughter to school, it led them back into the househand in hand. And it set Chad's heart aglow as he walked through thedewy grass and amid the singing of many birds toward the pike gate. He,too, was on his way to school--in a brave new suit of clothes--andnobody smiled at him now, except admiringly, for the Major had takenhim to town the preceding day and had got the boy clothes such as Danand Harry wore. Chad was worried at first--he did not like to accept somuch from the Major.

  "I'll pay you back," said Chad. "I'll leave you my hoss when I go 'way,if I don't," and the Major laughingly said that was all right and hemade Chad, too, think that it was all right. And so spring took theshape of hope in Chad's breast, that morning, and a little later ittook the shape of Margaret, for he soon saw the Dean children ahead ofhim in the road and he ran to catch up with them.

  All looked at him with surprise--seeing his broad white collar withruffles, his turned-back, ruffled cuffs, and his boots with red tops;but they were too polite to say anything. Still Chad felt Margarettaking them all in and he was proud and confident. And, when her eyeswere lifted to the handsome face that rose from the collar and thethick yellow hair, he caught them with his own in an unconscious lookof fealty, that made the little girl blush and hurry on and not look athim again until they were in school, when she turned her eyes, as didall the other boys and girls, to scan the new "scholar." Chad's work inthe mountains came in well now. The teacher, a gray, sad-eyed,thin-faced man, was surprised at the boy's capacity, for he could readas well as Dan, and in mental arithmetic even Harry was no match forhim; and when in the spelling class he went from the bottom to the headin a single lesson, the teacher looked as though he were going to givethe boy a word of praise openly and Margaret was regarding him with anew light in her proud eyes. That was a happy day for Chad, but itpassed after school when, as they went home together, Margaret lookedat him no more; else Chad would have gone by the Deans' house when Danand Harry asked him to go and look at their ponies and the new sheepthat their father had just bought; for Chad was puzzled and awed andshy of the little girl. It was strange--he had never felt that wayabout Melissa. But his shyness kept him away from her day after dayuntil, one morning, he saw her ahead of him going to school alone, andhis heart thumped as he quietly and swiftly overtook her withoutcalling to her; but he stopped running that she might not know that hehad been running, and for the first time she was shy with him. Harryand Dan were threatened with the measles, she said, and would say nomore. When they went through the fields toward the school-house, Chadstalked ahead as he had done in the mountains with Melissa, and,looking back, he saw that Margaret had stopped. He waited for her tocome up, and she looked at him for a moment as though displeased.Puzzled, Chad gave back her look for a moment and turned without aword--still stalking ahead. He looked back presently and Margaret hadstopped and was pouting.

  "You aren't polite, little boy. My mamma says a NICE little boy alwayslets a little GIRL go first." But Chad still walked ahead. He lookedback presently and she had stopped again--whether angry or ready tocry, he could not make out--so he waited for her, and as she cameslowly near he stepped gravely from the path, and Margaret went on likea queen.

  In town, a few days later, he saw a little fellow take off his hat whena lady passed him, and it set Chad to thinking. He recalled asking theschool-master once what was meant when the latter read about a knightdoffing his plume, and the school-master had told him that men, inthose days, took off their hats in the presence of ladies just as theydid in the Bluegrass now; but Chad had forgotten. He understood it allthen and he surprised Margaret, next morning, by taking off his capgravely when he spoke to her; and the little lady was greatly pleased,for her own brothers did not do that, at least, not to her, though shehad heard her mother tell them that they must. All this must bechivalry, Chad thought, and when Harry and Dan got well, he revived hisold ideas, but Harry laughed at him and Dan did, too, until Chad,remembering Beelzebub, suggested that they should have a tournamentwith two rams that the General had tied up in the stable. They wouldmake spears and each would get on a ram. Harry would let them out intothe lot and they would have "a real charge--sure enough." But Margaretreceived the plan with disdain, until Dan, at Chad's suggestion, askedthe General to read them the tournament scene in "Ivanhoe," whichexcited the little lady a great deal; and when Chad said that she mustbe the "Queen of Love and Beauty" she blushed prettily and thought,after all, that it would be great fun. They would make lances ofash-wood and helmets of tin buckets, and perhaps Margaret would makered sashes for them. Indeed, she would, and the tournament would takeplace on the next Saturday. But, on Saturday, one of the sheep wastaken over to Major Buford's and the other was turned loose in theMajor's back pasture and the great day had to be postponed.

  It was on the night of the reading from "Ivanhoe" that Harry and Danfound out how Chad could play the banjo. Passing old Mammy's cabin thatnight before supper, the three boys had stopped to listen to old Tomplay, and after a few tunes, Chad could stand it no longer.

  "I foller pickin' the banjer a leetle," he said shyly, and thereupon hehad taken the rude instrument and made the old negro's eyes stretchwith amazement, while Dan rolled in the grass with delight, and everynegro who heard ran toward the boy. After supper, Dan brought the banjointo the house and made Chad play on the porch, to the delight of themall. And there, too, the servants gathered, and even old Mammy wasobserved slyly shaking her foot--so that Margaret clapped her hands andlaughed the old woman into great confusion. After that no Saturday camethat Chad did not spend the night at the Deans', or Harry and Dan didnot stay at Major Buford's. And no
t a Saturday passed that the threeboys did not go coon-hunting with the darkies, or fox-hunting with theMajor and the General. Chad never forgot that first starlit night whenhe was awakened by the near winding of a horn and heard the Major jumpfrom bed. He jumped too, and when the Major reached the barn, a darklittle figure was close at his heels.

  "Can I go, too?" Chad asked, eagerly.

  "Think you can stick on?"

  "Yes, sir."

  "All right. Get my bay horse. That old mare of yours is too slow."

  The Major's big bay horse! Chad was dizzy with pride.

  When they galloped out into the dark woods, there were the General andHarry and Dan and half a dozen neighbors, sitting silently on theirhorses and listening to the music of the hounds.

  The General laughed.

  "I thought you'd come," he said, and the Major laughed too, and cockedhis ear. "Old Rock's ahead," he said, for he knew, as did everyonethere, the old hound's tongue.

  "He's been ahead for an hour," said the General with quietsatisfaction, "and I think he'll stay there."

  Just then a dark object swept past them, and the Major with a low cryhied on his favorite hound.

  "Not now, I reckon," he said, and the General laughed again.

  Dan and Harry pressed their horses close to Chad, and all talked in lowvoices.

  "Ain't it fun?" whispered Dan. Chad answered with a shiver of pure joy.

  "He's making for the creek," said the Major, sharply, and he touchedspurs to his horse. How they raced through the woods, cracking brushand whisking around trees, and how they thundered over the turf andclattered across the road and on! For a few moments the Major keptclose to Chad, watching him anxiously, but the boy stuck to the big baylike a jockey, and he left Dan and Harry on their ponies far behind.All night they rode under the starlit sky, and ten miles away theycaught poor Reynard. Chad was in at the kill, with the Major and theGeneral, and the General gave Chad the brush with his own hand.

  "Where did you learn to ride, boy?"

  "I never learned," said Chad, simply, whereat the Major winked at hisfriends and patted Chad on the shoulder.

  "I've got to let my boys ride better horses, I suppose," said theGeneral; "I can't have a boy who does not know how to ride beating themthis way."

  Day was breaking when the Major and Chad rode into the stable-yard. Theboy's face was pale, his arms and legs ached, and he was so sleepy thathe could hardly keep his eyes open.

  "How'd you like it, Chad?"

  "I never knowed nothing like it in my life," said Chad.

  "I'm going to teach you to shoot."

  "Yes, sir," said Chad.

  As they approached the house, a squirrel barked from the woods.

  "Hear that, Chad?" said the Major. "We'll get him."

  The following morning, Chad rose early and took his old rifle out intothe woods, and when the Major came out on the porch before breakfastthe boy was coming up the walk with six squirrels in his hand. TheMajor's eyes opened and he looked at the squirrels when Chad droppedthem on the porch. Every one of them was shot through the head.

  "Well, I'm damned! How many times did you shoot, Chad?"

  "Seven."

  "What--missed only once?"

  "I took a knot fer a squirrel once," said Chad.

  The Major roared aloud.

  "Did I say I was going to teach you to shoot, Chad?"

  "Yes, sir."

  The Major chuckled and that day he told about those squirrels and thatknot to everybody he saw. With every day the Major grew fonder andprouder of the boy and more convinced than ever that the lad was of hisown blood.

  "There's nothing that I like that that boy don't take to like a duck towater." And when he saw the boy take off his hat to Margaret andobserved his manner with the little girl, he said to himself that ifChad wasn't a gentleman born, he ought to have been, and the Majorbelieved that he must be.

  Everywhere, at school, at the Deans', with the darkies--with everybodybut Conners, the overseer, had became a favorite, but, as to Napoleon,so to Chad, came Waterloo--with the long deferred tournament cameWaterloo to Chad.

  And it came after a certain miracle on May-day. The Major had takenChad to the festival where the dance was on sawdust in the woodland--inthe bottom of a little hollow, around which the seats ran as in anamphitheatre. Ready to fiddle for them stood none other than JohnMorgan himself, his gray eyes dancing and an arch smile on his handsomeface; and, taking a place among the dancers, were Richard Huntand--Margaret. The poised bow fell, a merry tune rang out, and RichardHunt bowed low to his little partner, who, smiling and blushing,dropped him the daintiest of graceful courtesies. Then the miracle cameto pass. Rage straightway shook Chad's soul--shook it as a terriershakes a rat--and the look on his face and in his eyes went back athousand years. And Richard Hunt, looking up, saw the strangespectacle, understood, and did not even smile. On the contrary, he wentat once after the dance to speak to the boy and got for his answerfierce, white, staring silence and a clinched fist, that was almostready to strike. Something else that was strange happened then to Chad.He felt a very firm and a very gentle hand on his shoulder, his owneyes dropped before the piercing dark eyes and kindly smile above him,and, a moment later, he was shyly making his way with Richard Hunttoward Margaret.

  It was on Thursday of the following week that Dan told him the two ramswere once more tied in his father's stable. On Saturday, then, theywould have the tournament. To get Mammy's help, Margaret had to tellthe plan to her, and Mammy stormed against the little girl taking partin any such undignified proceedings, but imperious Margaret forced herto keep silent and help make sashes and a tent for each of the twoknights. Chad would be the "Knight of the Cumberland" and Dan the"Knight of the Bluegrass." Snowball was to be Dan's squire and blackRufus, Harry's body-servant, would be squire to Chad. Harry was KingJohn, the other pickaninnies would be varlets and vassals, and outragedUncle Tom, so Dan told him, would, "by the beard of Abraham," have tobe a "Dog of an Unbeliever." Margaret was undecided whether she wouldplay Rebecca, or the "Queen of Love and Beauty," until Chad told hershe ought to be both, so both she decided to be. So all was done--thespears fashioned of ash, the helmets battered from tin buckets, colorsknotted for the spears, and shields made of sheepskins. On the stilessat Harry and Margaret in royal state under a canopy of calico, withindignant Mammy behind them. At each end of the stable-lot was a tentof cotton, and before one stood Snowball and before the other blackRufus, each with his master's spear and shield. Near Harry stood Sam,the trumpeter, with a fox-horn to sound the charge, and four blackvassals stood at the stable-door to lead the chargers forth.

  Near the stiles were the neighbors' children, and around the barn wasgathered every darky on the place, while behind the hedge and peepingthrough it were the Major and the General, the one chuckling, the othersmiling indulgently.

  The stable-doors opened, the four vassals disappeared and came forth,each pair leading a ram, one covered with red calico, the other withblue cotton, and each with a bandanna handkerchief around his neck.Each knight stepped forth from his tent, as his charger wasdragged--ba-a-ing and butting--toward it, and, grasping his spear andshield and setting his helmet on more firmly, got astride gravely--eachsquire and vassal solemn, for the King had given command that no varletmust show unseemly mirth. Behind the hedge, the Major was holding hishands to his side, and the General was getting grave. It had justoccurred to him that those rams would make for each other liketornadoes, and he said so.

  "Of course they will," chuckled the Major. "Don't you suppose they knowthat? That's what they're doing it for. Bless my soul!"

  The King waved his hand just then and his black trumpeter tooted thecharge.

  "Leggo!" said Chad.

  "Leggo!" said Dan.

  And Snowball and Rufus let go, and each ram ran a few paces and stoppedwith his head close to the ground, while each knight brandished hisspear and dug with his spurred heels. One charger gave a ba-a! Theother heard, raised his head,
saw his enemy, and ba-a-ed an answeringchallenge. Then they started for each other with a rush that brought asudden fearsome silence, quickly followed by a babel of excited cries,in which Mammy's was loudest and most indignant. Dan, nearly unseated,had dropped his lance to catch hold of his charger's wool, and Chad hadgallantly lowered the point of his, because his antagonist was unarmed.But the temper of rams and not of knights was in that fight now andthey came together with a shock that banged the two knights into eachother and hurled both violently to the ground. General Dean and theMajor ran anxiously from the hedge. Several negro men rushed for therams, who were charging and butting like demons. Harry tumbled from thecanopy in a most unkingly fashion. Margaret cried and Mammy wrung herhands. Chad rose dizzily, but Dan lay still. Chad's elbow had struckhim in the temple and knocked him unconscious.

  The servants were thrown into an uproar when Dan was carried back intothe house. Harry was white and almost in tears.

  "I did it, father, I did it," he said, at the foot of the steps.

  "No," said Chad, sturdily, "I done it myself."

  Margaret heard and ran from the hallway and down the steps, brushingaway her tears with both hands.

  "Yes, you did--you DID," she cried. "I hate you."

  "Why, Margaret," said General Dan.

  Chad startled and stung, turned without a word and, unnoticed by therest, made his way slowly across the fields.