"DEAR LITTLE SISTER:
"I have a strange task before me, to tell you of the fineness and
greatness and goodness of a man I once told you was not good enough
to save your life. I feel as if I must ask your forgiveness and his.
You were keener sighted than we all and we are ashamed!
"Jean, what will you say when I tell you that Jasper Holt lies in our
guest chamber, your old room--dying, I am afraid? And that we have
him to thank that our precious baby did not die a horrible death?
"Let me go back and tell you the whole story.
"After you went away James had the most extraordinary change of mind
about Jasper Holt I ever saw in him. He just turned right around and
began to talk in his favor, even wanted me to invite him to dinner
once. It was some business, of course, that he thought he could help
him in; but he really got to liking him a little I could see. I
suppose it was that tournament and his riding so well; though I never
could understand why men make so much of sports. But after it
happened you didn't hear nearly so many people talking against Jasper
Holt. I think, too, your being so good as to ride around the track
with him had something to do with it. People saw you were not
ashamed and they had a good look at him and saw the possibilities.
They say he was asked, yes, just actually begged, to come in the next
tournament and ride, but he wouldn't do it. He hasn't appeared that
way since you left. He just went about his business gravely, and
everybody began to have a lot of respect for him. They say he has
done a lot of good to those men he has living on his place, and they
simply worship him. Somebody told James there wasn't one of them but
would give his life for him any day. Well, that's something, of
course. Strange we never heard about it before. Why, people used to
be actually afraid of him and his men. But he has been doing some
splendid things here lately. When Mr. Whateley died, just before the
harvest, and Mrs. Whateley was left to look after her five little
children he took his full force of men over to her place and
harvested everything, and fixed up things a great deal better than
they were ever fixed up before, for Mr. Whateley wasn't much of a
manager. And when Lucy Whitcorn was lost for three days he organized
his men and went out and searched till he found her. They took hold
of hands and marched across country, through the wheat fields, over
every spot so they couldn't miss her; and her grandmother just put
her arms around Jasper Holt's neck and cried and kissed him when he
brought Lucy back asleep in his arms.
"But the greatest thing was when he made the raid on the saloons.
You remember Slosson's and The Three Geese? They used to have
terrible carouses there. Slosson built a concert room over his
saloon, and advertised--had balls and dinners there, and The Three
Geese got a moving picture show over their place; and between them
they made a pretty fair imitation of the bottomless pit in Hawk
Valley for a while. People got together and talked about it, and
said something ought to be done to stop it, and Sallie White even
started a petition about it and got some people to sign, but it was
near election and no one dared do much. Then one night when things
were at their height, and there had been a shooting affair or two, we
heard the silver whistle of Jasper Holt's men, and the whole
cavalcade of them cantered by on horseback. They went like a streak
on their dark horses, and they rode straight up to The Three Geese
and dismounted. Before anybody knew what was happening they had
marched into the bar-room and the concert hall and taken possession.
They handcuffed everybody in the place and bound them, men and women,
and then they set to work and emptied out all the liquor and turned
the big fire hose into every room till there wasn't a smell of
whiskey left, and it was cleaner than it ever was since it was built.
They went to Slosson's and did the same thing. Slosson, and Craven
of The Three Geese, they put into jail, and some of the others who
had been most criminal, and they cleaned the whole place out. Jasper
Holt took some of the prisoners to his own house and kept them there
till he reformed them, and he has been keeping an eye on them right
along ever since. Of course after that people rallied around him and
were only too glad to be counted in with him. They all admired his
nerve, and they saw he could make things go, so they turned to work
and last month they made him mayor of the town, and he has reformed
everything in the place, till you wouldn't know it for the same town.
Now, that's the preface and I ought to have told you long ago, little
sister, but I suppose I was ashamed to, after all I had said.
"But now I'm coming to the real story, the one that brings the tears
to my eyes and makes me feel like sobbing; and I have to stop writing
and go and kiss my baby before I can go on.
"This morning (it seems a week ago) I sat at my desk writing my paper
for the next Club meeting. Baby was out in the yard in his white
rompers and his little white hat, with his new red cart that James
brought him from Chicago on his last trip. The window was open and I
could see him gathering leaves and carrying them in his cart to the
sidewalk, where he dumped them in a pile at the edge of the road. I
had been having a terrible search for a word in the dictionary, and
when I looked up again I saw baby standing out in the middle of the
road working away with all his might to back up his cart, the way he
saw the big carts do, and dump his leaves on the outside of the pile.
I didn't think much about it, because there are no teams around in
the early morning usually, and the autos, the few we have in town,
don't come on this street much; but just as I was beginning to write
again I heard a horrible roaring sound, and horse's feet flying down
the street. Something gripped my throat with fear and I could
scarcely get out of my chair. I could see the baby standing
perfectly still, looking at something coming towards him. His little
red wagon was standing on end, the red paint gleaming in the sun.
Then I heard that roar again and I called to Jamie to come in
quickly, but he didn't seem to know just what to do. He took hold of
the handle of his cart and seemed to be worried for fear it would be
run over. He tried to hurry with it on to the side walk, but being
on end it wouldn't work quickly. On came that terrible roar! I
don't know how I got out on the porch, but there I saw a great, angry
bull bearing down straight upon the baby. I screamed and tried to
run down the steps, but I was so frightened my knees just sank under
me, and there I was in a heap on the steps struggling to get up, and
my baby standing still, not ten feet from that snorting, fiery
creature, with its horns lowered at him. I shut my eyes, it was so
terrible, like a nightmare, you know, when you can't do a thing. I
thought I was going to faint, and I tried to call James, though I
knew he wasn't at home. Then a wonderful thing happened. A horse
was flying down the street from the opposite direction, straight at
the bull, but baby was between. I hadn't time to think before the
man on the horse swung over from his saddle, gathered up the baby and
dashed sideways out of the bull's way. It was Jasper Holt, and he
picked up Jamie just as he did your handkerchief that day at the
tournament. The poor little mite held on to his dear red cart handle
till he was up in the saddle, hindering the horse's movements, of
course, and it dangled for a minute right in front of the infuriated
bull's eyes, who charged at it viciously. Then the weight of the
cart wrenched it from Jamie's hand, and it fell clattering under the
horse's feet, but the bull turned and made for the horse, who dashed
back and forth from side to side, dodging those awful horns as if he
were a human being and knew how to reason. Jasper Holt tried to get
near the fence to drop the baby over, but every time he came near the
bull was in the way. It was only a second of time that it all took,
of course, but it seemed hours; and I could only scream, but the bull
roared so loud that I couldn't be heard. Then the dear black horse
plunged right over the bull and started down the street; but the bull
turned and caught him in the thigh with his horn and tore a great
gash--oh, Jean, I can't describe it all! It makes me faint even to
think of it again. The horse stumbled on bravely for a few paces,
but you could see he hadn't a chance with the bull any more for he
was crippled, and Jasper Holt saw it, too.
"By that time some men had come with guns, and that splendid fellow,
with the horse staggering under him and the bull charging straight at
him, held the baby up in the air and told the men to shoot. It meant
a terrible risk to himself, of course, because he was in the line of
fire. But there was nothing else to do. They shot as carefully as
they could, and in a minute or two the bull gave one awful roar and
lurched back. The horse sank, too, and some one took the baby. It
is all confusion in my mind. I don't really know what happened, only
that after I got Jamie in my arms and had hugged him and kissed him
till he cried, I looked up and saw them bringing Jasper Holt in at
the gate. His eyes were shut and one arm hung at the side. They
said he had been shot, but had held up the baby till the bull was out
of the fight.
"I made them take him to your room, and someone brought the doctor
almost at once, but it was a serious thing, I could see from the
first. They wouldn't let me in the room. I telephoned for James,
and put the baby to sleep, for he was all worn out with the
excitement, and kept starting awake and crying out, 'Naughty cow!
Naughty cow!' but just as I laid him down in his crib the doctor came
and said Jasper Holt wanted to see me.
"Jean, I didn't think a few minutes could make a difference like that
in a great, big, strong man. He lay there so still I thought he was
dead at first; and white under all his fine tan he was white as a
ghost, with his head all done up in bandages and his beautiful hair
clotted with blood--one of the shots plowed deep into the scalp, it
seems. He opened his eyes--what wonderful eyes he has!--and looked
at me as if he were pinning his last hope upon me, and he smiled just
faintly. I never knew what perfect lips and teeth he had before--and
his smile just like a little child's!
"One could see it was a great effort for him to speak.
"'Will you tell your sister that I've kept my promise?' he said,
slowly and distinctly.
"When I told him I would, his eyes lighted up, as if the sun were
shining behind them, and then they fell shut and I think he must have
fainted again. I came quite close and tried to tell him how grateful
I was to him for saving the baby's life, but his eyelids never even
quivered. Then the doctor drew me away and said it wasn't any use to
talk, that he couldn't hear me, so I came away, but I couldn't do a
thing but just hover around the door till James came. Then he went
in and found out how things were. It seems the bull gored him--that
is they call it a 'scratch,' but by their faces I know its a pretty
serious scratch.
"Three shots entered his body, one a deep scalp wound, one in his
shoulder, and one in his arm. They have been probing the wound and
having some kind of an operation. They don't know whether he will
pull through or not. They say the only thing that is in his favor is
his splendid health. The men are talking now about his fine clean
life, and way he has been doing lately, especially. It seems he
never drank nor did a lot of things that people took for granted he
did. Oh, Jean, I can't stand it if he doesn't get well so I can
thank him for saving my baby to me. To think that if it weren't for
him lying there dying now I should have nothing left of my beautiful
baby but a little mangled corpse!
"Jean, I know now why you looked that way when you said I did not
know Jasper Holt--the fine, true, strong, brave, tender----"
But the tears blinded Jean's eyes and she could read no more. For a
moment she bent her head and sobbed behind the vines. But only for a
moment. A frenzy of fear seized her. He was dying perhaps, and he
needed her!
She lifted her head with sudden resolve and hastily read the closing
sentences of the letter. Then gathering up the scattered sheets she
hurried in to her father.