FURLOUGH

Den away, away, for I can't wait any longer.

Hooray! Hooray! I's goin' home!

--_Old Shady._

It is strange how some event towards which you have been working, and

which seemed to fill earth and sky till you reached it, at once then

sinks down and becomes hardly distinguishable from the plain. So passed

by the examination to Magnus Kindred.

In fact everybody is so fagged out by the 12th of June, tired with

work, with gaiety and excitement, that feeling seems swallowed up of

high pressure. This may be one reason why the bad success of other men

affects so little those who have won through. Exceptionally strong as

class feeling is at West Point, the dropped names seem to make very

slight impression. And in some cases, of course, there is no surprise.

When a man bones nothing but mischief, and tries to crowd into the

three weeks before examination the study which should have filled six

months, June is not always kind to him. Unless, indeed, he be one of

those men who are pure mathematics--and even then the discipline column

may cut him down. So it was with small surprise that Magnus heard

Chapman's name among the "found deficient." Chapman did not whimper,

but he took it hard.

"It's that beastly calculus!" he confided to Magnus, in the hurried

moments of parting. "Oh, yes! I know what you mean by raising your

eyebrows, but a man couldn't live here if he didn't run it now and

then."

"But you see a man can't always live here if he does," said Magnus.

"Bosh! Yes, he can. Only they don't all run against old Towser every

time, as I did. No, it wasn't that at all, it was the calculus."

And doubtless, in great measure, it was. Another boy, from far away,

fairly came to tears.

"I don't see how I am to go home!" he said. "I don't know what my

mother will say!"

While another, who had got a turn-back, liked so little what his mother

_did_ say that he gave her a sharp little lecture on the Graduation

ground.

"I can't tell what makes you go on so!" he burst forth. "I'm only

turned back. Lots of men are sent away altogether. Why do you talk like

that? What's the matter?"

Poor mothers! It is often pathetic to hear them explain the case to

other people.

"He's a good boy, Miss Smith; but you know he has always been delicate.

Hard study never agreed with him." (True, this last.)

"You see, Mrs. Brown, he has had such trouble with his eyes that I

wonder he has kept up at all. I really must speak to the Superintendent

about the study lights. Then these early recitations. Why, at home we

never thought of waking him up till eight o'clock, and then gently, you

know, and by degrees. And now he says that gun just goes through his

head without a word of preparation. I suppose, really, that is what

ails his eyes."

"Everything here is so wretchedly mismanaged!" commented a wise and

sympathetic damsel. "The cadets are abused at every turn. I don't see

how they stand it. It is the meanest place!"

"Well, I've done what I could to straighten things," said a beaming

matron. "Look at this bag,--absolutely worn out in the service. It has

brought Tom _everything_--from cigars up. And when he wants money, he

has only to say so."

Strange, that with such care Tom should ever grumble at

anything--especially regulations.

But graduation has come and gone, the graduates have scattered; some

for home, some for Europe, some to be married "on graduation leave."

For three months they have "the world before them, where to choose."

The furlough men, too, are scattered, yet more widely and individually,

speeding away on the spider's web of railways that covers the country.

Class supper was over, changed from a gay revel to a less brilliant

memory, and Magnus Kindred went whirling along towards home. And the

great question of taking them all by surprise was still unsettled.

The home folks, however, had their own ideas on the subject, and for at

least two days before Magnus could possibly come, they had met every

train from the East; Mrs. Kindred, Rose, and Violet. Cherry went the

first time, but after that absented herself on one plea or another. And

so on that sweet June afternoon, when the train slowed up to let off

the one passenger and the one trunk, the three were in hiding behind

the station.

No one could ever describe what that first home-coming was to Magnus.

For miles and hours the excitement in the boy's heart had been working

itself up to white heat, as point after point rose up to give him

welcome. Here a cliff and there a hill; the schoolhouse near by, the

church further off; if he had only had a dozen straw hats, I think

eleven of them would have gone out of the window, for pure joy.

But the little platform was empty, save of officials; not a creature

got out of the train but Magnus, and not one was waiting to get in.

Not a figure broke the broad June sunlight that filled the old road

towards home. But when he had hurriedly tramped down the steps, he

found himself in his mother's arms, with the two girls sobbing for joy

on either side.

Of the next few minutes, I think no one of them could afterwards give

much account. Then Magnus, with one arm round his mother, gave that

hand to Violet, and the other to Rose, and so they walked along. How

they talked!--with tongues once set free; but most of all, how they

looked at each other. Mother and son had met within the year, but the

two girls gazed at their handsome brother with a surprised delight that

could never have enough.

"But I had forgotten that you were so brown, Magnus," said Rose.

"Drills."

"You always were straight," said Violet, "but now----"

"Bracing up."

"And your hair is _so_ short," said Rose.

"Regulations."

Then how they all laughed and hugged each other over again, for there

were only the wild birds to see.

"Well, certainly, if brevity be the soul of wit, you have improved in

one line," said Rose.

"They teach it out there," said Magnus. "'Mr. Kindred, your head is on

one side, sir!'--'Yes, sir. Which side, sir?'"

"And what did you get for being so saucy?" asked the mother, as the

laugh died away.

"Nothing that time. Even Towser can't skin a man unless he gets hold of

him. But wherever is Cherry? When you all came out of the first bush, I

thought she would jump out of the second."

"She's at home," said Rose. "We wanted her to come, and she wouldn't."

"But she did the first time," said Violet eagerly; "the first day we

thought you might come."

"Oh, ho!--and as I didn't show up then she put on her high-heeled

shoes," said Magnus. "Girls are all just alike the world over."

"No, they are not!" cried both the charming specimens then present.

"And you shall not say that of Cherry. She is like nobody else--and

nobody else is like her."

And privately, Magnus thought his own two sisters very unlike most

other girls. With their fresh, unjaded faces, undoctored complexions,

untrammelled feet and waists, and unspoiled minds, they made a

wonderful sweet contrast to Miss Dashaway and Miss Flirt. Magnus had

not known how his estimate of women had run down among the crowd till

he found it mounting up again, ten degrees at a time.

Even Cherry's absenting herself--it provoked him heartily, and he felt

himself much injured, but it was after all a refreshing change after

Miss Dangleum's ways. Yes, demonstrations were the man's business, and

in his present mood Magnus felt quite equal to them, could he but get

hold of the right person.

No half-grown girl in half-long dresses appeared, however, as they

reached the house, but for a few minutes Magnus had all he could

manage. The old dog (prudently left at home) was nearly as wild over

the meeting as his young master; jumped upon him, clung to him, danced

round him, whimpered, whined, and barked for joy. It was not five

minutes before the two were rolling down the grass slope together,

then running a sharp race, and then flying all over the old house from

room to room. Magnus shouldered his trunk and rushed upstairs with it,

and Plato dashed after him, wakening all the echoes that were anywhere

about. The two girls, putting rolls in the oven and setting on cream

and butter, almost danced in their tiptoe joy; the mother in the small

sitting-room hid her face in her hands, and cried and gave thanks. Just

to hear that boy's step overhead, what was it like? And then to have

the pair come racing down the old stairs when supper was ready, Plato

barking in a perfect scream of delight;--do you wonder that the prayer

for a blessing was spoken low and falteringly? or that a hush filled

all the room for some moments thereafter?

Then the three busied themselves earnestly about their boy's supper,

and the boy also lent his assistance; Plato lying on the floor and

winking at him. The old dog was afraid to really go to sleep lest he

should lose sight of his young master.

"I suppose her High Mightiness expects me to put on my war paint

to-morrow, and to go and ca--ll," said Magnus, drawling out the last

word with ridiculous intonation.

"Who? Cherry? Now, Magnus, you shall not call her that," said Rose.

"Shall not, hey? I will call her anything I like," said Magnus.

"Well, go on, then, and do it," cried Violet, with a laugh, "for here

she is."

And in more confusion than he expected from himself, after this

bravado, Cadet Kindred started up from the table and found himself face

to face with his old playmate.

Cherry had the advantage of him; she had seen the photograph, and was

partly prepared for what she saw now--not quite. But to Magnus, with

eyes full of the gleesome, outspoken girl of sixteen, this vision of a

tall, slender maiden of eighteen summers, with something of a woman's

shy reserve floating round her like the daintiest filmy veil, was

altogether new. He had seen nothing like it. She was so lovely, so

dainty, so sweet--if any epithets presented themselves, they died on

his tongue.

And the girl, too, had caught her breath; the living presence is always

so far beyond the picture. All her nicely prepared words of welcome

took to their heels, and Cherry held out her hand and said simply:

"How do you do?"

Magnus got hold of the hand, and kept it; held it fast while he pushed

and pulled chairs about to give her a place by himself. The hand was

something tangible--especially as it was not quite ready to be held.

"How do I do?" he repeated, as she took her seat: "you don't care. Why

didn't you come to meet me?"

"I think you had enough at the station."

"And you had enough at home, I suppose."

"Enough to do--yes."

"Well, how can you spare the time to be here now?" said Mr. Kindred,

pursuing his inquiries. A girl who did not wear even the semblance of a

heart upon her sleeve was something new of late, and exasperating. "It

is very frivolous work to sit by and see me eat supper."

"It will be less so, when I get something to eat myself," Cherry

answered demurely. "But I can wait still longer, if it is not certain

the supply will hold out."

"There! now you have got it," cried Rose, clapping her hands; "and

good for you, too. Hectoring her in that style! Give her some berries,

Magnus, before you eat another one. Cherry picked two thirds of them

with her own fingers."

"She did!" said Magnus, reddening in spite of himself under Cherry's

fire; second classman on furlough and presumptive first sergeant though

he was. "That explains why I've had to empty the sugar bowl. I'm sorry

I have made such a raid, Cherry, but you shall have what is left."

And swiftly he drew everything as near the girl's plate as the dishes

could find room. Bread plate and butter plate, cake basket, cheese,

cream pitcher, water pitcher, and the wreck of the broiled chicken.

Then seizing the berry bowl Magnus began to pile the sweet wild

strawberries upon her plate, adding slowly and skilfully till they ran

down to the very edge and rose up in the middle a red fragrant cone.

"How will that do to begin?" he said. "Will you have some sugar?--but I

suppose not, as you picked them yourself and put all the tartness into

mine."

The other three looked on, laughing and interested; but now Cherry

was out of her depth. She looked down at the strawberry hill, at the

dishes, then glanced round at Magnus. What did he mean? Was he really

vexed? Could he really think? It was the fairest kind of a look, so

earnest and questioning. What do you mean? it said.

I think Cadet Kindred knew very promptly what he meant, and saw some

things clearly which had been hanging about in a sort of uncertain

haze. And thus in answer to her shy questioning, Cherry met a look so

keen and merry and full of mischief, full of she hardly knew what, that

her eyes fell and the pink flushes came hurrying over her face.

Then Magnus laughed. He had the vantage now which belonged to him, and

he felt better.

"Cherry," he said, "you are a transparent humbug! Mother, will you give

me a cup of tea?"

"I think you are an extremely rude boy," said Mrs. Kindred, putting

in an extra lump of sugar the while. "If these are your West Point

manners, you will need a few terms at some other school."

"West Point manners are all packed away with my dress coat. This is the

original Magnus variety."

"It is good to know," said Rose. "Here we have all been rubbing _our_

manners up, to receive you properly."

"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Magnus, turning to gaze at Cherry. "Good

to know, as you say. I did suspicion it was something got up for my

express benefit."

"Let her alone, and finish your supper," said Mrs. Kindred. "That is,

if you ever intend to finish."

"Emphatically I do!" said Magnus. "If I didn't, I could never begin

again, and that would be a loss out here. Cherry, give me just a few

berries off your plate. I am bashful about taking any more out of the

dish. The sugar has given out, too," he added, dropping his voice; "and

these will not want any."

Poor Cherry!--she literally found not a word to say, but sat looking

down at her plate in helpless silence, as the hands she remembered

so well conveyed away part of its contents. Then Rose came with a

replenished sugar-bowl and set it down by him. But Magnus waved it away.

"Thank you, no," he said. "These are too sweet for sugar. How do you

suppose Cherry worked it, to get them all on her plate?"

"Crazy boy!" said Rose, "you put them there yourself. Magnus, is your

dress coat here?"

"Truly. Had to bring it along, lest a war should break out before I get

back. May need it yet----" with an indescribable inflection which only

Cherry caught.

"Then if you _have_ done, as mother says," said Violet, "go straight

upstairs and put it on, and come down and show yourself."

"Put on my dress coat, after such a supper," quoth Magnus. "I think I

will!"

"Don't be foolish," said Rose. "Go at once, if you want pancakes for

breakfast."

"Make it waffles----"

"Very well, then, waffles," cried both the girls, laughing at him. "Now

Magnus, go! While your hair is short."