Betty at Fort Blizzard | Page 2

unquenchable kindness of the colored race. His official name was
Solomon Ezekiel Pickup, but ever since Mrs. Fortescue, as Betty
Beverley, had taken him, a little waif, forlorn and homeless and
friendless, he had been simply Kettle, being as black as a kettle. He had
watched and adored the baby days of "Marse Beverley," the straight
young stripling now training to be a soldier at West Point, and Anita,
the violet-eyed daughter, the adored of her father's heart, but Kettle had
not come into his own until the two-year-old baby, John Hope
Fortescue II, had arrived in a world which did not expect him, but
welcomed him the more rapturously on that account. The new baby had
taken everybody by surprise, and immediately acquired the name of the
After-Clap. He coolly approved of his father and mother, and thought
Anita an entertaining person when she got down on the floor to play
with him. Naturally he was indifferent to his twenty-year-old brother,
whom he had never seen, but Kettle--his own Kettle--was the beloved
of the After-Clap's heart. Next to Kettle in his affections was Mrs.
McGillicuddy, the six-foot-two wife of Sergeant McGillicuddy, who
had eight children, of assorted sizes, and still found time to do a great
deal for the After-Clap.

Mrs. Fortescue, riding briskly across the plaza, and seeing Kettle, so
black, holding in his arms the laughing baby, so white, smiled and
waved her hand at them. Then, catching sight of the Commanding
Officer, standing at the window of his office, she smiled at him. But
Colonel Fortescue was not smiling; on the contrary, he was frowning as
his eyes fell upon Mrs. Fortescue's mount, Birdseye, a light built black
mare, with a shifty eye and a propensity to make free with her hind feet.
More than once Colonel Fortescue had reminded Mrs. Fortescue that it
was somewhat beneath the dignity of a Commanding Officer's wife to
ride a kicking horse. But Mrs. Fortescue had a sneaking affection for
Birdseye and much preferred her to Pretty Maid, the brown mare Anita
rode, and who was considered as demure as Anita, and Anita was very
demure, and very, very pretty. At least, so thought Lieutenant Victor
Broussard, watching her out of the tail of his eye, as he passed some
distance away. It was not so far away, however, that Anita could not
see the handsome turn of his close-cropped black head, and his eyes
full of laughter and courage and impudence. As some things go by
contraries, the glimpse of Broussard made Anita dismount quickly from
Pretty Maid and flit within doors to avoid the sight of him. Once
indoors, Anita ran where she could catch a last look of Broussard's
young figure, his cavalry cape thrown back, before he turned the corner
and was gone.
Colonel Fortescue, at the office window, returned a salute, without a
smile, to Mrs. Fortescue's greeting from afar. His teeth came together
with a snap.
"It's the last time," he said aloud--meaning that Mrs. Fortescue would
have to submit to his judgment in horses and let Birdseye alone.
What happened next turned the Colonel's resolution to adamant. A
trooper was leading Pretty Maid away and another trooper was about to
do the same for Birdseye when the black mare suddenly threw her head
down and her heels up. Mrs. Fortescue kept her seat, while the mare,
backing, and kicking as she backed, knocked over a couple of the
passing color guard, and only by adroitness the color sergeant saved the
flag from being dropped to the ground. Meanwhile, the two troopers,

falling backward, collided with the chaplain, a small, meek man, as
brave as a lion, who stopped to look and was ignominiously bowled
over. Sergeant McGillicuddy, just coming out of the office entrance,
made a dash forward and grabbed Birdseye by the bridle. The mare,
still unable to unseat Mrs. Fortescue or to break away from the wiry
little Sergeant, yet managed to scatter all the official mail in the
Sergeant's hand on the snow. Kettle, who could not have remained
away from "Miss Betty" under such circumstances to save his life,
dropped the baby on the drawing-room floor and rushed out. This the
After-Clap resented, shrieking wildly.
[Illustration: The black mare suddenly threw her head down and her
heels up.]
The combination of the kicking mare, the fallen troopers, the prostrate
chaplain, and the screaming baby at once determined Colonel Fortescue
to remain in his office; what he had to say to Mrs. Fortescue would not
sound well in public. Unlike Kettle, Colonel Fortescue had no fear
whatever for Mrs. Fortescue, and watched calmly from the window as
Sergeant McGillicuddy brought Birdseye to her four feet. Mrs.
Fortescue sprang to the ground and apologized gracefully to the
chaplain, assuring him that Birdseye