A NORTHERN FAMILY IN KENTUCKY
Titus's eldest daughter, Mildred, had written to her Uncle Noah in New
Hampshire the particulars of the death of his brother after the fact had
been telegraphed to him by Colonel Cosgrove. The letter was hardly more
than an announcement of the decease of her Kentucky uncle, and the date
of the funeral. It was not possible for Noah to reach Barcreek in season
to be present at the last rites; but he wrote to Titus without delay.
A few days after the telegram a letter from Colonel Cosgrove, the
executor, came to Noah Lyon, containing a copy of the will of his
brother. The lawyer, who had been the intimate friend and confidant of
Colonel Lyon, wrote with entire freedom to the distant brother. He
stated that his deceased friend had little confidence in Titus, and in
Barcreek he was not considered as an entirely reliable man.
The most important item in the letter was that Colonel Lyon had passed a
whole day with him only a week before his death, talking most of the
time about his estate. He had lived at Riverlawn twenty-five years, had
developed the place from a wilderness, and was very much attached to it.
In his will he had left it to Noah, and he desired that he should move
to Kentucky and take possession of the estate.
It required a week of consideration in the comfortable home of the Derry
farmer, in which the children, their own and the adopted ones, took
part, before a conclusion could be reached; but it was a compliance with
the request of Colonel Lyon. Within a year before his death the planter
had spent a month with the New Hampshire farmer, during which he had
told him all about his estate and his surroundings at Barcreek. They had
not met before since the elder brother first went to Kentucky; and the
Kentuckian formed a very high opinion of his New England brother, which
was quite in contrast with his estimate of Titus, who had been his
neighbor for six years.
The colonel's will was dated within two months of this visit, and
doubtless he was thinking of his last testament when he went to New
Hampshire. As soon as it was settled that the family should make their
home in Kentucky, Noah wrote a long letter to his only surviving
brother, announcing his intention to leave Barcreek as soon as he could
settle up his business in Derry. He expressed himself with all brotherly
kindness, and was glad that they were again to live near each other.
Titus did not even reply to this letter, though his wife wrote to Mrs.
Noah, expressing the pleasure she felt that they were again to be
neighbors. It was about two months after the death of Colonel Lyon that
Noah and his family arrived at Bowling Green, the county town, which was
the nearest railroad station to Barcreek, fifteen miles distant. Noah
Lyon had kept up his correspondence with the executor of his brother,
and Colonel Cosgrove was at the station when the family arrived. Titus
was not there, and he did not manifest much interest in the coming of
his only remaining brother.
The distinguished lawyer extended a hearty welcome to the family, and
invited them all to dinner at his mansion. He wondered that Titus or
some member of his family was not there to greet the new-comers; but he
said little about him, though enough to show that he had not a very
exalted opinion of him.
"You will find the mansion of your late brother in perfect order, Mr.
Lyon," said Colonel Cosgrove, as they rose from the dinner-table. "I was
over there yesterday, and satisfied myself that every thing was in
condition for your reception. The furniture remains just as it was in
the time of Colonel Lyon."
"You have been very kind, Colonel Cosgrove, and I am very grateful to
you for all the attention you have given to my brother's affairs and to
me," replied Noah, taking the hand of the hospitable executor. "Does my
brother Titus live near Riverlawn?"
"About a mile from it, in the village of Barcreek," answered the lawyer.
"Your brother, the colonel, had several boats; and when he went to the
village in the open season he usually made the trip by the river, rowed
by half a dozen of his boys."
"I was not aware that he had any boys," added Noah.
"His hands, his negroes; and he always called them boys. He was the best
friend they ever had," the colonel explained. "That reminds me that I
have a letter which your late brother required me to deliver personally
into your hands;" and the lawyer went to his office for it.
He returned in a few minutes, and gave the letter, which was heavily
sealed with wax, to the new owner of Riverlawn. He had mentioned this
epistle in one of his letters to the new proprietor, and Noah wondered
as he looked upon its elaborate seals what could be the subject of the
communication. The colonel was speaking of the boys, which reminded him
of the letter; and he suspected that it had some connection with the
negroes. He put it in his pocket very carefully, and then looked at his
watch.
"How far is it from this town to Barcreek?" he asked, still holding the
watch in his hand.
"Fifteen miles; and as the roads are not in the best condition at this
season of the year, it will take about two hours and a half to make the
trip," replied the lawyer. "But it is only two o'clock, and you have
plenty of time."
"But I must look up a conveyance," suggested the new proprietor of
Riverlawn.
"A conveyance is all ready for you, Mr. Lyon," added the colonel. "I
directed Mr. Bedford to come over for you and your family, and he has
been here since nine o'clock this morning. He came with the road-wagon,
which will comfortably accommodate your whole family; and one of the
boys came over with another wagon to tote your baggage over."
"You have been very thoughtful and considerate, Colonel Cosgrove, and I
am under very great obligations to you," said Noah.
"Don't mention it, Mr. Lyon. I should be happy to have you spend the
night with me, for we have still a great deal to talk about," answered
the executor.
"My family, as well as myself, are naturally quite impatient to see our
new home," suggested the New Hampshire farmer. "Fifteen miles is not a
very long distance even in New England, and I hope we shall meet often."
"I shall visit Riverlawn often until you are well settled in your new
home. I have a plantation myself on the road to Barcreek, and about half
way there, which I visit two or three times a week; and I shall be glad
to give you all the information you need in regard to your surroundings,
or in relation to the management of your estate. You will see me
occasionally at Riverlawn, and I shall hope to meet you and your family
here, or at my estate, which is called Belgrade."
"Thank you, Colonel; I am sure we shall be good friends in spite of my
antecedents as a Northern farmer, for I am not a bigot or a fanatic."
"I have no doubt we shall be good friends and good neighbors," said the
Kentuckian, as he took the hand of his new client, and struck the bell
on the table. "Now I will send for Mr. Bedford, who has been the
overseer or manager of your brother for the last ten years. As the
colonel was, he is a bachelor of fifty, and has been one of the family
at Riverlawn. He is a thoroughly reliable man, and one of the late
colonel's best friends."
A servant was sent for the overseer, and presently he appeared. He was a
rather stout man, and his round face seemed to be overflowing with
pleasantry and good-nature. He was duly presented to all the six members
of the family, and heartily shook the hand of each of them. He did not
at all answer to the description of plantation overseers which Noah Lyon
had obtained from the books he had read, depicting the horrors of
slavery. In spite of his occupation he took a fancy to him at first
sight; and all the family were pleased with him.
The manager, as Noah preferred to call him, was Levi Bedford. He had
never been very successful in the management of his own affairs; but he
was a man after Colonel Lyon's own heart, and in his will he had given
him five thousand dollars, which was one of the grievances Titus had
against the testament. One of the virtues of Levi, as his late employer
always called him, was his extreme fondness for horses, with his skill
in raising and managing them; for this had been an important branch of
the planter's business.
"I have started Pink over to the place with all your baggage, Major
Lyon, and I am ready to leave with the family when you say the word,"
said Mr. Bedford, after they had conversed a few minutes.
"I am not a major, Mr. Bedford," replied Noah; and all the family
laughed when they heard the military title applied to him.
"Your brother was not exactly a colonel; but that is a fashion we have
down here of expressing our respect for a man by giving him rank in the
military," laughed the manager. "But I want you to call me 'Levi,' as
your brother did, and as Colonel Cosgrove does when there is no company
present."
"Very well, Levi; I intend to conform to the customs of the country. We
are all ready to leave at once," added Noah.
"My team will be at the door in four minutes and three-quarters, Major
Lyon," answered the manager as he left the room.
"Call it five, Levi," added the colonel.
"Less than that, Colonel," replied Levi as he closed the door.
"I would give that man double the wages I pay my present overseer if I
could have him at Belgrade; and I should make money by the change," said
the host, as he went to the window of the drawing-room, to which the
party had retired from the dining-room. "The only fault he has is that
he is too gentle and indulgent to the negroes. The neighbors say he is
spoiling the niggers all over two counties. But I reckon the colonel was
more to blame for that, if anybody was to blame, for he had a soft
heart. I never saw two men less alike than your two Kentucky brothers,"
continued Colonel Cosgrove, as Noah joined him at the window. "There is
your team, and Levi hasn't been gone quite five minutes."
"Four horses!" exclaimed Noah.
"Levi likes a good team and enough of it," added the lawyer.
"And I never saw four handsomer horses in all my life," added the new
owner of Riverlawn, as he gazed with admiration on the magnificent
animals; and all the family hastened to the windows to see the turnout.
"You will find at least thirty more of them when you get to Riverlawn."
The road-wagon was a covered vehicle with four seats, large enough for a
dozen passengers. It was neatly painted and upholstered, and the
harnesses on the horses were elegant enough for a city turnout. The
whole family promptly realized that they were entering upon a style to
which they had never been accustomed. But Noah Lyon had suddenly become
a rich man.
The colonel gallantly assisted the ladies to their seats. The horses
danced and pranced; but they were so well trained that they did not
offer to start till Levi drew up his four reins and gave them the word
to go. Hasty adieux were spoken, and the horses went off, gently at
first, but soon put in a lively pace.
Noah and his wife took the back seat, Dorcas and Hope took the next one,
for all of them had been handed to these places by the colonel; Dexter
installed himself at the side of Levi, and Artemas had a seat all to
himself behind them. All was new and strange to them, and they observed
the buildings in the town till they passed out of the village. Then the
scenery was quite different from that of their former home.
Only two of the four children were those of Noah and his wife. Dexter
was his son, and was sixteen years old at this time, while his sister
Hope was thirteen. Both of them had received a high-school education in
part, and they were both very bright scholars. People in Derry called
Deck an "old head," which meant that his judgment and knowledge had
ripened beyond his years. Without being a "goody," he was a good boy,
with high aims and noble impulses.
Ten years before, Cyrus Lyon, one of the four brothers of whom Colonel
Duncan was the eldest, was a resident of Hillsburg in the State of
Vermont, where he had settled on a valley farm, which he had hired with
the intention of buying it when he was able to do so. He was married in
Derry, and had two children, with whom he moved to his new home. He
lived in an old house, between which and the public road flowed a small
river, nearly dry most of the year, but exceedingly turbulent in the
spring when the snow melted on the mountains.
A freshet came, and the house was surrounded by water. The bridge over
the stream was raised, and Cyrus went out to secure it. His wife
followed to assist him, and while both of them were on it, a rush of
waters came which tore the structure into fragments, and both of them
were swept away by the mad torrent. They were drowned in spite of the
efforts of the neighbors to rescue them. But they saved the two children
who remained in the house.
Noah had taken these two children and brought them up as his own, for
the father did not leave property enough to pay his debts. Artemas was
fifteen and Dorcas was seventeen. The colonel paid for their support for
ten years, and left each a handsome legacy, in trust with Noah.
In two hours from the county town, Levi Bedford reined in his four
horses at the front door of the Riverlawn mansion.