Time passed on; a year, two years rolled away. Settlers had continued
to move into the town and adjacent country, and Kenneth's practice
had grown with the growth of the population.
This was, perhaps, one reason why there had been a great falling off
in the frequency of his visits, other than professional, at Major
Lamar's.
It was, at all events, the excuse he gave, for that and for absenting
himself from nearly all the pleasure parties and merry-makings of the
young people. Genial and pleasant in his intercourse with old and
young, he yet was no ladies' man; seldom paid attention to any of
the fair sex, except in the way of his calling; he had no time, he
said, but always found abundance of it to bestow upon the sick and
suffering. His whole heart and soul were in his work.
Some silly people began to call him an old bachelor, though he was
still under thirty, and far from old looking.
Dale also was still single, and the two were as intimate and warm
friends as ever.
Godfrey was attentive to business, but, unlike Kenneth, indulged a
great fondness for ladies' society, and generally made one in every
little social gathering and pleasure excursion, whether it were a
moonlight row on river or creek, a picnic, or expedition in search
of nuts or wild fruits, a visit to a sugar camp in the spring, or a
gallop on horseback at almost any time of year.
He was very intimate at Major Lamar's, and never happier than when he
could secure Miss Nell as his special partner in whatever festivity
was going on.
She liked Dale, for he was gallant, courteous, well-informed, and a
good talker of either sense or nonsense, but she took care not to
receive too much attention from him, or to encourage hopes she never
meant should be realized.
She was developing into a noble, lovable woman, fair and comely in
more than ordinary degree.
She had a fine form, a queenly carriage, and Kenneth's eyes often
followed her with a wistful, longing look as she passed, either
riding or walking. Yet he stood quietly aside and left it to his
fellows to strive for the prize he coveted above all other earthly
good.
That strange, mysterious burden still rested on him, but was borne
with a brave, cheerful resignation that was heroic.
There were times of deep depression, of bitter anguish of soul, of
fierce conflict with himself, when the trial seemed more than mortal
strength could bear; but these came at rare intervals, and faith and
grace ever triumphed in the end.
Letters from home, where he had not visited since emigrating to
Chillicothe, and his lonely journeys into the wilderness, of which he
had made several in the interval we have passed over, seemed alike
ever to bring him increased sadness of heart. Yet few but Dale knew
this, Kenneth's mastery over himself enabling him to put aside his
private griefs and cares when in the company of others.
Thus his heart was ever at leisure from itself and ready to
sympathize in the interests, the joys and sorrows or physical
sufferings of those about him.
As a natural consequence, there were many who cherished for him a
very warm friendship.
The Nashes had removed to a farm a mile or more from town. Mrs. Nash
was still the same cheery, genial soul she had shown herself on the
journey to Ohio, and Nell Lamar, who had ever been a favorite with
the good dame, loved to visit at the farm-house, and would sometimes
tarry there for a week or a fortnight, when conscious of not being
needed at home.
She and Mrs. Barbour were both there one sultry summer day, Nell
expecting to make a prolonged stay, the other lady intending to
return home in the cool of the evening. She had now two children
younger than Flora, and had brought all three with her.
"It was a great deal of trouble," she complained in the old whining,
querulous tones; "children were such a care! always in the way and
making no end of trouble if you took them along, and if you left them
at home you were worried to death lest something should happen to
them."
This was repeated again and again, with slight variations, till her
unwilling listeners would fain have stopped their ears to the doleful
ditty, and Mrs. Nash, quite out of patience, at length exclaimed:
"Nancy, I should think you'd be afraid to fret so about your worry
with the children, lest Providence should take them away! I don't
deny that it is a good deal of work and care to nurse and provide for
them; but they're worth it; at least, mine are to me, and there's
nothing worth having in this world that we don't have to pay for
in one way or another. And for my part, I'm willing to pay for my
pleasures and treasures," she added, clasping her babe fondly to her
breast.
The Nash family also had increased in numbers. Tom and Billy, now
grown great hearty boys, were with their father in the field, and two
little girls sat on the doorstep, each with a rag doll in her arms,
which the busy mother had found time to make and Miss Nell's skilful
fingers had just finished dressing. The baby boy on the mother's knee
was the last arrival, six months old and the pet, darling and the
treasure of the entire household, from father down to two-year-old
Sallie.
"You never did have any sympathy for me, Sarah," whimpered Mrs.
Barbour, lifting the corner of her apron to her eyes. "I wasn't born
with such spirits as you have, and it ain't my fault that I wasn't,
and I don't believe I'm half as stout and strong as you are; and it's
just the same with the children, yours are a great deal healthier
than mine, and that makes it easier for you in more ways than one.
You and Nash don't have the big doctor bills to pay that we have, and
you don't get all worn out with nursing."
"Well, Nancy," returned her sister-in-law, "maybe I'm not as
sympathizing as I should be; but there is such a thing as cultivating
good spirits and a habit of looking at the bright side, trusting in
the Lord and being content with what He sends, and that has a good
deal to do with health. Perhaps if your children had a cheerier
mother, they'd have better spirits and better health."
"There it is! I'm always blamed for my misfortunes; that's just the
way Dr. Clendenin talks to me, and Barbour too, and I think it's
a burning shame," sobbed the abused woman. "I'm sure I wish I was
dead and done with it! and so I shall be one o' these days; and then
perhaps you and Tom will wish you'd treated me a little better."
"My brother Tom's a very good husband to you," remarked Mrs. Nash
coolly, "and I don't feel conscience smitten for any abuse I've given
you either. It's Bible doctrine I've been urging on you. It bids us
over and over again to be content, to be free from care, casting
it all on the Lord, to rejoice in the Lord, to be glad in Him, to
rejoice always, to shout for joy.
"And well we may, knowing that life here is short, and no matter how
many troubles we may have they'll soon be done with and we shall be
forever with the Lord; that is, if we're His children."
Here Nell broke in upon the conversation with a sudden exclamation.
"That cat is acting very strangely!" and as she spoke the animal
came rushing in from an adjoining wood-shed and dashed wildly about,
gnashing its teeth furiously, its tongue hanging out and dripping
with froth.
Both women sprang up with a scream. "It's mad! it's mad! it's
frothing at the mouth!" Mrs. Nash clutching her babe in a death like
grasp and springing toward the other children to save them, Mrs.
Barbour snatching her youngest from the floor, while Nell caught up
the next in age and sat it on top of a high old fashioned bureau, at
the same time calling to Flora, who was outside, to "Run, run! climb
a tree or the fence!"
Then seizing a broom she rushed at the cat and drove it under the bed.
"Oh what'll we do? what'll we do?" shrieked Mrs. Barbour, the
children screaming in chorus. "Why didn't you drive it out of doors?"
"You run out yourself and take the children with you. I did the best
I could," returned Nell, her voice trembling with agitation. "You,
too, Mrs. Nash, save the children and I'll fight the cat. Where's
your clothes line? quick, quick! Oh, I see it!" and snatching it from
the nail where it hung, in a trice she had it opened out and a noose
made in one end.
Then tearing off beds and bed clothes, tumbling them unceremoniously
upon the floor, she mounted the bedstead, lifted a slat or two from
the head, underneath which the cat crouched, snarling, spitting,
foaming, biting in a frightful manner.
Nell shuddered and shrank back with a cry of terror as the infuriated
animal made a spring at her, but gathering up all her courage, let
down the noose and swung it slowly to and fro.
A moment of terrified, almost despairing effort, followed by success,
the noose was drawn tight, the rabid creature lay strangled and dead,
and the brave young girl dropped in a dead faint upon the pile of
bedding on the floor.
The others had obeyed her behest and fled from the house, leaving her
to battle single-handed with the enraged animal, while they filled
the air with cries for help.
A horseman came at a swift gallop up the road, putting spurs to his
steed as the sounds of distress greeted his ear.
"What is it?" he asked, drawing rein in front of the house and
springing from the saddle.
"Oh, Dr. Clendenin, there's a mad cat in the house, and Miss Nell's
trying to kill it!" cried the two women and Flora in chorus; but the
words were scarcely uttered before he had dashed in at the open door.
His heart leaped into his throat at sight of the prostrate form on
the confused heap of bedding, the body of the strangled cat so near
that the toe of her slipper touched it.
"Oh, my darling!" he exclaimed in low, moved tones as he sprang to
her side.
Then in almost frantic haste he searched for the marks of the
creature's teeth on her hands and arms. There were none.
He tore off her shoes and stockings, his hands trembling, his face
pale with a terrible fear.
"Thank God!" he said at last, drawing a long breath of relief.
He knelt down, loosened her dress, laid her more comfortably, her
head lower, doing all with exceeding tenderness, and turning to Mrs.
Nash, who had ventured in after him, leaving her little ones in Mrs.
Barbour's care, said huskily: "Some cold water! quick! quick! She has
fainted."
"Oh, doctor, is she hurt?" asked the woman in tremulous tones, as she
hastily handed him a gourd filled with water from the well bucket.
He did not answer for a moment. He was sprinkling the water upon
the still, white face, his own nearly as colorless. Would she never
revive? those sweet eyes never open again?
Ah, the lids began to quiver, a faint tinge of rose stole into the
fair, softly rounded cheek.
"I hope not," he said with an effort. "It was the fright probably. A
fan, please."
Mrs. Nash brought one and gave it in silence.
Nell's eyes opened wide, gazing full into his. The faint tinge on her
cheek deepened instantly to crimson, and starting up in confusion,
she hastily stammered out some incoherent words, and burst into
tears.
"Lie still for a little, Nell," Kenneth said, gently forcing her back.
Never were tones more musical with tenderness, never had eyes spoken
a plainer language, and the girl's heart thrilled with a new,
ecstatic joy. For years her hard but determined task had been to
school it to indifference; but now, now she might let it have its
way. He, so noble, so good, would never deceive her, never wrong her.
"Oh, Nell, you are not hurt? not bitten?" exclaimed Mrs. Nash almost
imploringly.
"Hurt? bitten?" repeated Nell, in a half bewildered way. Then as her
eye fell upon the dead cat and the whole scene came back to her with
a rush, "No, no," she said, shuddering and hiding her face in her
hands; "it sprang at me, but missed and fell back on the floor, and
at last it ran its head into the noose, jerked away and strangled,
and"--laughing hysterically--"I don't know what happened after that."
Mrs. Nash knelt down by her side and began putting on her stockings
and shoes.
"The doctor pulled them off to see if you'd got a bite there," she
explained. "Oh I'll never cease to thank the Lord that you escaped! I
feel as if I'd been a mean coward to run off and leave you to fight
the mad thing all alone. But it wasn't myself I was thinking of, but
the children."
"I know it," murmured Nell, "and I told you to go."
Kenneth had moved away to the farther side of the room. His face,
which was turned from them, was full of remorseful anguish. Alas!
what had he done, won this dear heart that he dared not claim as his
own? Oh, he had thought the grief, the pain, the loss all his own!
but it was not so, she too must suffer and he could not save her
from it, though for that he would freely lay down his life.
"Is it dead, have you killed it?" queried Mrs. Barbour timorously
peering in at the open door.
"Yes," answered Mrs. Nash shortly, and stepping in, followed by the
frightened but curious children, Mrs. Barbour dropped into a chair.
"Oh!" she cried, "it's just awful! I'm nearly dead, was most scared
out o' my wits, and shan't get over it for a month!"
Then catching sight of the dead cat, "Ugh! the horrid thing! why
don't you take it away, some of you? I feel ready to faint at the
very sight of it. Doctor, you'll have to do something for me."
"There is nothing I can do for you, Mrs. Barbour," he said coldly.
"You must help yourself, by determined self-control. After leaving
Miss Lamar to face the living, furious animal alone, you may well
bear the sight of it lying, dead, with all the rest of us here to
share the danger, if there be any."
"There it is, just as usual," she sobbed, "I'm always blamed no
matter what happens. I had my children to think of."
"Never mind," said Nell, sitting up; "it's all over and nobody hurt."
"Nobody hurt!" was the indignant rejoinder. "Maybe you ain't, but
I am: I've got an awful headache with the fright, and feel as if I
should just die this minute."
A loud hallo from the road without stopped the torrent of words for a
space.
"Is Dr. Clendenin here?" shouted a man on horseback, reining in at
the gate.
Kenneth stepped quickly to the door.
"What is it?" he asked.
"You're wanted in the greatest kind of a hurry, doctor; over there in
the edge o' the woods, where they're felling trees, man crushed; not
killed, but bad hurt--very."
Kenneth was in the saddle before the sentence was finished, and the
two galloped rapidly away.
"People oughtn't to be so careless," commented Mrs. Barbour, as
they all gathered about the door watching the horsemen till they
disappeared in a cloud of dust. "Why don't they get out of the way
when the tree's going to fall? How quick the doctor went off. He's
ready enough to help a man, but wouldn't do anything for poor me!"
"He told you what to do for yourself," said her sister-in-law, a
mixture of weariness and contempt in her tones.
"As if I could! There never was anybody that got so little sympathy
as I do," she fretted, turning from the door and dropping into her
chair again. "But I'll have another doctor. I'll send for Dr. Buell."
"Dr. Walter Buell; 'Dr. Water Gruel' they call him," laughed Flora,
"because he won't let 'em have anything hardly to eat. He'll starve
you, mother."
"Be quiet, Flora," was the angry rejoinder. "I'm not going to have
you laughing at me. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, poor
unfortunate creature that I am, and your mother too!
"To think that I should have happened here to-day of all days, when I
don't stir from home once in a month! But that cat wouldn't have gone
mad if I hadn't been here."
But her complaining fell upon inattentive ears. Mrs. Nash was busy
ridding the house of the dead carcass and setting things in order,
and Nell's thoughts were full of the new joy that had come to her,
and of questionings as to when and where she should again meet him
who had possessed himself of her heart's best affection. Would he
return that evening? Verily she believed he would.
But no, he did not; and when she went home the following day, Clare
greeted her with the news that Dr. Clendenin had gone East; he had
been suddenly summoned to Glen Forest by a letter; some one was very
ill, and as a pirogue was just leaving for Cincinnati, he had taken
passage and gone down the river in it.
Nell's cheek paled a trifle and her eyes looked with mute questioning
into those of her sister.
"He left good-by for you," said Clare.
And that was all--all! The girl's heart seemed to stand still with
pain. What could it mean?