The Christmas Peace | Page 3

his fences one summer afternoon, and
was making his way along the double division line with a cloud on his
brow as the double rows recalled the wide breach with his neighbor and
former friend, and many memories came trooping at the recollection.
Passing through a small grove which had been allowed to grow up to
shut off a part of his view of the Drayton place, as he came out into the
meadow his eye fell on a scene which made him forget the present with
all its wrongs. On the green turf before him where butter-cups speckled
the ground with golden blossoms, was a little group of four persons
busily engaged and wholly oblivious of the differences which divided
the masters of the two estates. The two mammies were seated side by
side on a bank, sewing and talking busily--their large aprons and caps
making a splotch of white against the green willows beyond--and in
front of them at a little distance a brown-haired boy of five and a
yellow-ringleted girl of three were at play on the turf, rolling over and
over, shouting and laughing in their glee.
As the father rested his eyes on the group, the frown which had for a
second lowered on his brow passed away and he pulled in his horse so
as not to disturb them. He was about to turn back and leave them in
their happiness when his black-eyed boy caught sight of him and ran
toward him, shouting for a ride and calling over his shoulder for
"Luthy" to "come on too." As there was no escape, Mr. Hampden went
forward and, ignoring the confusion of the mammies at being caught
together, took the boy up before him and gave him a ride up and down

the meadow. Then nothing else would do for Master Oliver but he
"must take Luthy up, too."
"Perhaps 'Luthy' may be afraid of the horse!" suggested Mr. Hampden
with a smile.
But far from it. Led by the little boy who had run to fetch her, she came
to Mr. Hampden as readily as his own son had done, and, though she
gave him one of those quick searching glances with which childhood
reads character, having made sure that he was friendly, she was no
more afraid of his horse than the boy was.
Oliver tried to lift her, and as he tugged at her, the father sat and
watched with a smile, then leant down and picked her up while the two
mammies gasped with mingled astonishment and fear.
"I tell you, she's pretty heavy," said the little boy.
"Indeed, she is," said the father, gaily.
Mr. Hampden would have taken his son home with him, but the latter
declined the invitation. He wished to "stay with Luthy." So, Mr.
Hampden, having first set the nurses' minds at ease by complimenting
the little girl in warm terms to her mammy, rode home alone with his
face set in deep reflection.
The breach between the Hampdens and the Draytons was nearer being
closed that evening than it had been in three generations, for as Oliver
Hampden rode up the bridle path across his fields, he heard behind him
the merry laughter of the two children in the quiet meadow below, and
old memories of his childhood and college life softened his heart. He
forgot the double-line fences and determined to go on the morrow to
Drayton Hall and make up the quarrel. He would offer the first overture
and a full declaration of regret, and this, he was quite sure, would make
it up. Once he actually turned his horse around to go straight across the
fields as he used to do in his boyhood, but there below him were the
double-line fences stretching brown and clear. No horse could get over
them, and around the road it was a good five miles, so he turned back

again and rode home and the chance was lost.
On his arrival he found a summons in a suit which had been instituted
that day by Wilmer Drayton for damages to his land by reason of his
turning the water of the creek upon him.
Mr. Hampden did not forbid old Lydia to take his boy down there again,
but he went to the meadow no more himself, and when he and Wilmer
Drayton met next, which was not for some time, they barely spoke.

III
Young Oliver Hampden grew up clear eyed, strong, and good to look at,
and became shy where girls were concerned, and most of all appeared
to be shy with Lucy Drayton. He went to college and as he got his
broad shoulders and manly stride he got over his shyness with most
girls, but not with Lucy Drayton. With her,