Rose of Old Harpeth | Page 7

along Providence Road. I am
not unhappy over it, because I know that their Master isn't going to let
anything happen to take them away. Every night before I go to sleep I
just leave them to Him until I can wake up in the morning to begin to
keep care of them for Him again. It was all about--"
"Wait a minute, let me ask you some questions before you tell me any
more," said Everett, quickly covering the sympathy that showed in his
eyes with his business tone of voice. "Is it Gideon Newsome who holds
this mortgage?"

"Why, yes, how did you know?" asked Rose Mary with a mild surprise
in her eyes as she raised them to his, bent intently on her. "Uncle
Tucker had to get the money from him six years ago. It--it was a debt
of honor--he--we had to pay." A rich crimson spread itself over Rose
Mary's brow and cheeks and flooded down her white neck under the
folds of her blue dress across her breast. Tears rose to her eyes, but she
lifted her head proudly and looked him straight in the face. "There is a
reason why I would give my life--why I do and must give my life to
protecting them from the consequences of the disaster. No sacrifice is
too great for me to make to save their home for them."
"Do you mind telling me how much the mortgage is for?" asked Everett,
still in his cool, thoughtful voice.
"For ten thousand dollars," answered Rose Mary. "The land is worth
really less than fifteen. Nobody but such a--such a friend as Mr.
Newsome would have loaned Uncle Tucker so much. He--he has been
very kind to us. I--I am very grateful to him and I--" Rose Mary
faltered and dropped her eyes. A tear trembled on the edge of her black
lashes and then splashed on to the chubby cheek of Peter the reposer.
"I see," said Everett coolly, and a flint tone made his usually rich voice
harsh and tight. For a few minutes he sat quietly looking Rose Mary
over with an inscrutable look in his eyes that finally faded again into
the utter world weariness. "I see--and so the bargain and sale goes on
even on Providence Road under Old Harpeth. But the old people will
never have to give up the Briars while you are here to pay the price of
their protection, Rose Mary. Never!"
"I don't believe they will--my faith in Him makes me sure," answered
Rose Mary with lovely unconsciousness as she raised large, comforted
eyes to Everett's. "I don't know how I'm going to manage, but somehow
my cup of faith seems to get filled each day with the wine of courage
and the result is mighty apt to be a--song." And Rose Mary's face
blushed out again into a flowering of smiles.
"A sort of cup of heavenly nectar," answered Everett with an answering
smile, but the keen look still in his eyes. "See here, I want you to

promise me something--don't ever, under any circumstances, tell
anybody that I know about this mortgage. Will you?"
"Of course, I won't if you tell me not to," answered Rose Mary
immediately. "I don't like to think or talk about it. I only told you
because you wanted to help us. Help offers are the silver linings to
trouble clouds, and you brought this one down on yourself, didn't you?
Of course, it's selfish and wrong to tell people about your anxieties, but
there is just no other way to get so close to a friend. Don't you think
perhaps sometimes the Lord doesn't bother to 'temper the winds,' but
just leads you up on the sheltered side of somebody who is stronger
than you are and leaves you there until your storm is over?"
CHAPTER II
THE FOLKS-GARDEN
"Well," said Uncle Tucker meditatively, "I reckon a festibul on a
birthday can be taken as a kind of compliment to the Lord and no
special glorification to yourself. He instuted your first one Himself, and
I see no harm in jest a-marking of the years He sends you. What are
Sister Viney's special reasons against the junket?"
"Oh, I don't know what makes Aunt Viney feel this way!" exclaimed
Rose Mary with distress in her blue eyes that she raised to Uncle
Tucker's, that were bent benignly upon her as she stood in the barn door
beside him. "She says that as the Lord has granted her her fourscore
years by reason of great strength, she oughtn't to remind Him that He
has forgotten her by having an eighty-second birthday. Everybody in
Sweetbriar has been looking forward to it for a week, and it was going
to be such a lovely party.