THE RIDE.
That night after her return from Mosside, Alice had playfully remarked
to Hugh, “The Doctor says you stay too closely in the house. You need
more exercise, and to-morrow I am going to coax you to ride with me, I
am getting quite proud of my horsemanship, and want your opinion, I
shall not take an excuse. You are mine for a part of to-morrow,” she
added, as she saw him about to speak, and casting upon him her most
bewildering smile, he hastily quitted the room, but not until she heard
his muttered sigh and guessed that he was thinking of Rocket. He had not
asked a question concerning Mosside, and only knew that a stranger had
bought it with all its appurtenances. Rocket he had not mentioned,
though his pet was really uppermost in his mind, and when he woke next
morning from his feverish sleep and remembered Alice’s proposal to ride,
he said to himself, “I cannot go, much as I might enjoy it. No other
horse would carry me as gently as Rocket. Oh, Rocket!”
This was always the despairing cry with which Hugh ended his cogitation
of Rocket, and he said it now bitterly, without the shadow of a hope.
It was a bright, balmy morning, unlike the chilly one of the previous
day, and Hugh, as he walked slowly to the window and inhaled the
fragrant air, felt that it would do him good. “But I shan’t go,” he
said, and when, after breakfast was over, Alice came, reminding him of
the ride, telling him she was going then to get herself in readiness,
and should expect to find him waiting when she came back, he began an
excuse, but his resolution quickly gave way before her sprightly
arguments, and he finally assented, saying, however, by way of apology,
“You must not expect a gay cavalier, for I am still too weak, and I have
no horse fit to ride.”
“Yes, I know,” and Alice ran gaily to her room and donned her riding
dress, while not less eager than herself, Mrs. Worthington, Aunt Eunice,
and Adah stood by, wondering what Hugh would say and how Rocket would
act.
He was out in the back yard now, pawing and curvetting, and rubbing his
nose against all who came near him, while Claib, never so happy in his
life, was holding him by his bridle and talking to him of Mars’r Hugh,
which name the animal was supposed to recognize.
“There, I’m ready,” Alice said, running down to Hugh, who was so pale,
that but for the surprise in store for him, Alice’s kind heart would at
once have prompted he do give up the project.
With a sigh Hugh rose and followed her to the door where Dido, held by
Lulu, stood waiting for them.
“Where’s Jim?” Hugh asked, glancing round in quest of the huge animal he
expected to mount.
“Claib has your horse. He’s coming,” and with great apparent unconcern
Alice worked industriously at one of her gauntlets, which obstinately
refused to be buttoned, while the entire household including Mr. Liston,
who had come to Spring Bank with Alice, congregated upon the piazza,
waiting anxiously for Rocket.
Suddenly Adah flew to Hugh’s side, and said, eagerly, “Hugh, please
whistle as you used to do for Rocket—just once, and let Miss Johnson
hear you.”
Hugh felt as if she were mocking him, and answered no, but when Alice
added her entreaties to Adah’s, and even laid her hand coaxingly on his
arm, he yielded, while like a gleam of lightning the shadow of a
suspicion flitted across his mind. It was a loud, shrill whistle,
penetrating even to the woods, and as it had never yet failed of its
object, so it did not now, for the instant the old familiar sound fell
on Rocket’s ear he started as if a shell had exploded beneath his feet,
and breaking away from Claib went tearing round the house, answering
that call with the neigh he had been wont to give when summoned by his
master. Utterly speechless Hugh stood gazing at him as he came up, his
neck arched proudly, and his silken mane flowing as gracefully as on the
day when he was led away to Col. Tiffton’s stall.
“Mother, what does it mean—oh, mother!” and leaning himself against the
pillar of the piazza for support, Hugh turned to his mother for an
explanation, but she did not heed him, so intent was she in watching
Rocket, who had reached his master, and seemed to be regarding him in
some perplexity, as if puzzled at his changed appearance.
Possibly pity is an emotion unknown to the brute creation, but surely if
pity can be felt by them, it was expressed by Rocket, as he stood eyeing
his pale, wasted young master; then, with a low cry of joy, he lifted
his head to Hugh’s face, and rubbed against it, trying in various ways
to evince his delight at seeing him again.
“Won’t anybody tell me what it means?” Hugh gasped, stretching out his
hands towards Rocket, who even attempted to lick them.
At this point Alice stepped forward, and taking Rocket’s bridle, laid it
across Hugh’s lap, saying, softly—
“It means that Rocket is yours, purchased by a friend, saved from
Harney, for you. Mount him, and see if he rides as easily as ever. I am
impatient to be off.”
But had Hugh’s life depended upon it, he could not have mounted Rocket
then. He knew the friend was Alice, and the magnitude of the act
overpowered him.
“Oh, Miss Johnson,” he cried, “what made you do it? It must not be. I
cannot suffer it.”
“Not to please me?” and Alice’s face wore its most winning look. “It’s
been my fixed determination ever since I heard of Rocket, and knew how
much you loved him. I was never so happy doing an act in my life, and
you must not spoil it all by refusing. Mr. Liston knew and approved of
my doing it,” and she turned to her guardian, who advanced towards Hugh,
and in a few low-spoken words told him how Alice’s heart had been set
upon redeeming Rocket, and how hurt she would be if Hugh did not accept
him.
“As a loan then, not as a gift,” Hugh whispered. “It shall not be a
gift.”
“It need not,” Alice rejoined, “You shall pay for Rocket if you like,
and I’ll tell you how on our ride. Shall we go?”
There was no longer an excuse for lingering, and with Claib’s help Hugh
was once more seated in his saddle while Rocket’s whole frame quivered
with apparent joy at bearing his young master again. They made a
splendid looking couple on horseback, and the family watched them
admiringly until Hugh, feeling stronger with every breath he drew,
struck into a gentle canter, and the hill hid them from view.
Once out upon the highway where there were no mud holes to shun, no
gates to open and shut, Hugh broached the subject of Rocket again, when
Alice told him unhesitatingly how he could, if he would, pay for him and
leave her greatly his debtor. The scrap of paper, which Muggins had
saved from the letter thrown by Hugh upon the carpet, had been placed by
the queer little child in an old envelope, which she called her letter
to Miss Alice. Handing it to her with the utmost gravity she had asked
her to read “Mug’s letter,” and Alice had read the brief lines written
by ’Lina, “Hugh must send the money, as I told him before. He can sell
Mug, Harney likes pretty darkies.” There was a cold, sick feeling at
Alice’s heart, a shrinking with horror from ’Lina Worthington, and then
she came to a decision. Mug should be hers, and so, as skillfully as she
could she brought it round, that having taken a great fancy both to Lulu
and Muggins, she wished to buy them both, giving whatever Hugh honestly
thought they were worth. Rocket, if he pleased, should be taken as part
or whole payment for Mug, and so cease to be a gift.
Hugh was confounded. Could Alice know what ’Lina had written? It did not
seem possible, and yet she had laid her hand upon the very dilemma which
was troubling him so much. If _Ad_ should marry that doctor, she would
want money as she had said, and money Hugh could not get unless he sold
his negroes. He had said he never would part with them; but selling them
to Alice was virtually setting them at liberty, and Hugh felt his own
heart throb as he thought of Mug’s delight when told that she was free.
A slave master can love his bond servant, and Hugh loved the little Mug
so much that the idea of parting with her as he surely must at some
future time if he assented to Alice’s plan, made him hesitate, and
Alice’s best arguments were called into requisition ere he came to a
decision. But he decided at last, influenced not so much by need of
money as by knowing how much real good the exchange of ownership would
do to the two young girls. In return for Rocket Alice should have
Muggins, while for Lulu she might give what she liked. Seven hundred, he
had been offered, but he would take less.
“Heaven knows,” he added, as he saw by the expression of Alice’s face
how distasteful to her was the whole idea of bargaining for human flesh
and blood, “Heaven knows it is not my nature to hold any one in bondage,
and I shall gladly hail the day which sees the negro free. But I cannot
now help myself more than others around me. Our slaves are our property.
Take them from us and we are ruined wholly. Miss Johnson, do you
honestly believe that one in forty of those northern abolitionists would
deliberately give up ten—twenty—fifty thousand dollars as the case might
be, just because the thing valued at that was man and not beast? No,
indeed. It’s very easy for them to tell what must be done, but hard
finding one to do it. Southern people, born and brought up in the midst
of slavery can’t see it as the North do, and there’s where the mischief
lies. Neither understands the other, and I greatly fear the day is not
far distant when our fair Union shall be torn in tatters by enraged and
furious brothers.”
He had wandered from Lulu and Muggins to the subject which then, far
more than the North believed, was agitating the Southern mind, but
Alice, more interested in her purchases than in Secession, of which she
had no fears, brought him back to the point, by suggesting that the
necessary papers be made out at once, so there could be no mistake.
They had ridden far enough by this time, for Hugh was beginning to look
tired, and so they turned their horses homeward, talking pleasantly of
whatever presented itself to Alice’s mind. Once as Hugh gave her a look
which had often puzzled and mystified her, she said, “Do you know it
seems to me I must have seen you before I came to Kentucky, for at times
there is something very familiar in your face.”
For a moment Hugh was tempted to tell her where they had met before, but
feeling that he was not quite ready yet to do so, he refrained, and
making her some evasive reply, relapsed into a thoughtful mood which
continued until Spring Bank was reached.