Rose of Old Harpeth | Page 3

they are of the wrong persuasion. I always love them better
than I do the little heifers, because I have to give them up. I don't like to
have things I love go away. You see you mustn't think of going to New
York until the spring is all over and summer comes for good," she
continued, with the most delightful ingenuousness, as she shaped the
last of the ten flowers and glanced from her task at him with the most
solicitous concern. "Of course, you feel as if the smash your lung got in
that awful rock slide has healed all up, and I know it has, but you'll
have to do as the doctor tells you about not running any risks with New
York spring gales, won't you?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose I will," answered Everett, with a trace of
restlessness in his voice. "I'm just as sound as a dollar now and I'm wild
to go with that gang the firm is sending up into British Columbia to
thrash out that copper question. I know they counted on me for the final
tests. Some other fellow will find it and get the fortune and the credit,
while I--I--"
He stared moodily out the door of the milk-house and down Providence
Road that wound its calm, even way from across the ridge down
through the green valley. Rose Mary's milk-house was nestled between
the breasts of a low hill, upon which was perched the wide-winged, old
country house which had brooded the fortunes of the Alloways since
the wilderness days. The spring which gushed from the back wall of the
milk-house poured itself into a stone trough on the side of the Road,
which had been placed there generations agone for the refreshment of
beast, while man had been entertained within the hospitable stone walls.
And at the foot of the Briars, as the Alloway home, hill, spring and
meadows had been called from time immemorial, clustered the little
village of Sweetbriar.
The store, which also sheltered the post-office, was almost opposite the
spring-house door across the wide Road, the blacksmith shop farther
down and the farm-houses stretched fraternally along either side in both
directions. Far up the Road, as it wound its way around Providence
Nob, could be seen the chimneys and the roofs of Providence, while
Springfield and Boliver also lay like smoke-wreathed visions in the
distance. Something of the peace and plenty of it all had begun to
smooth the irritated wrinkle from between Mark Everett's brows, when
Rose Mary's hand rested for a second over his on the table and her rich
voice, with its softest brooding note, came from across her bowl.
"Ah, I know it's hard for you, Mr. Mark," she said, "and I wish--I
wish--The lilacs will be in bloom next week, won't that help some?"
And the wooing tone in her voice was exactly what she used in coaxing
young Stonewall Jackson to bed or Uncle Tucker to tie up his throat in
a flannel muffler.
"It's not lilacs I'm needing with a rose in bloom right--" But Everett's

gallant response to the coaxing was cut short by a sally from an
unexpected quarter.
Down Providence Road at full tilt came Stonewall Jackson, with the
Swarm in a cloud of dust at his heels. He jumped across the spring
branch and darted in under the milk-house eaves, while the Swarm
drew up on the other bank in evident impatience. Swung bundle-wise
under his arm he held a small, tow-headed bunch, and as he landed on
the stone door-sill he hastily deposited it on the floor at Rose Mary's
feet.
"Say, Rose Mamie," he panted, "you just keep Shoofly for us a little
while, won't you? Mis' Poteet have done left her with Tobe to take care
of and he put her on a stump while he chased a polecat that he fell on
while it was going under a fence, and now Uncle Tuck is a-burying of
him up in the woods lot. Jest joggle her with your foot this way if she
goes to cry." And in demonstration of his directions the General put
one bare foot in the middle of the mite's back and administered a short
series of rotary motions, which immediately brought a response of
ecstatic gurgles. "We'll come back for her as soon as we dig him up,"
he added, as he prepared for another flying leap across the spring
stream.
"But, Stonie, wait and tell me what you mean!" exclaimed Rose Mary,
while Everett regarded Stonewall Jackson and his cohorts with
delighted amusement.
"I told you once, Rose Mamie, that Tobe fell on a polecat under a fence
he was a-chasing, and he smells so awful Uncle Tuck have burned his
britches and shirt on the