"And he was the tenderest, Jack," she went on calmly. "Old Parton tells
a pretty story about him. One bitter, sleeting March day, an early lamb
had all but died in the field here, and his little adopted grandchild, a
tot of four, found the lamb and cried for it; and so Jackson brought
them both to the house, and by the fire; and to comfort the child he
took them both into his arms and so sat here, before this great hearth,
holding them both in his arms.
"He, who had killed bad men as he had dogs, who had cut to death the
pick of the army that later won Waterloo, he sat coddling a lamb and a
child and thinking of his dead wife, and she,--oh, Jack, I all but shed
tears when I think of it! The night she died, and he would not have it
so, but lay all night beside her, holding her in his arms, and trying to
get her warm again, with the great love of his own great heart."
There were tears in Aunt Lucretia's eyes. Oh, the depths of her stern
heart! It is like the mountain capped with snow. But when the snow
melts and the flowers come up among the crannied rocks there are no
flowers in the valleys below that equal them.
The other recollection was of Eloise. It was the night before she left
for Washington. Colonel Goff, who had spent the evening with her, had
ridden off. I, pretending to work, was really listening for her
footstep, as she came back to her room up the great steps.
"Jack," she said, standing just outside the window, "come." And she
beckoned to me.
We sat down under the wisteria vine, which grew over the porch.
"Jack," she said, "I want you to do me one favor. No one loves Satan
here but you and me. Won't you take care of him while I am gone? Ride
him whenever you can, the harder the better, for he is made of iron and
needs it."
"He and I are good friends," I said. "I have ridden him daily. We
understand each other," I added softly; "we both love you."
"And Jack," her hand was instantly in mine in the old way, "in after
years you won't think evil of me for selling myself this way, will you?"
"Why, no," I said seriously. "I have been thinking of it, and all life
is just a barter and trade."