The Colonels Dream

The Colonel's Dream, by Charles
W. Chesnutt

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Title: The Colonel's Dream
Author: Charles W. Chesnutt

Release Date: November 9, 2006 [eBook #19746]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE COLONEL'S DREAM
A Novel
by
CHARLES W. CHESNUTT

Harlem Moon Broadway Books New York
Published in 1905 by Doubleday, New York.

THE COLONEL'S DREAM

DEDICATION
To the great number of those who are seeking, in whatever manner or
degree, from near at hand or far away, to bring the forces of
enlightenment to bear upon the vexed problems which harass the South,
this volume is inscribed, with the hope that it may contribute to the
same good end.
If there be nothing new between its covers, neither is love new, nor
faith, nor hope, nor disappointment, nor sorrow. Yet life is not the less
worth living because of any of these, nor has any man truly lived until
he has tasted of them all.

LIST OF CHARACTERS
Colonel Henry French, A RETIRED MERCHANT
Mr. Kirby, } Mrs. Jerviss, } HIS FORMER PARTNERS
Philip French, THE COLONEL'S SON
Peter French, HIS OLD SERVANT
Mrs. Treadwell, AN OLD LADY
Miss Laura Treadwell, HER DAUGHTER
Graciella Treadwell, HER GRANDDAUGHTER
Malcolm Dudley, A TREASURE-SEEKER
Ben Dudley, HIS NEPHEW
Viney, HIS HOUSEKEEPER
William Fetters, A CONVICT LABOUR CONTRACTOR
Barclay Fetters, HIS SON
Bud Johnson, A CONVICT LABOURER
Caroline, HIS WIFE
Henry Taylor, A NEGRO SCHOOLMASTER
William Nichols, A MULATTO BARBER
Haynes, A CONSTABLE

One

Two gentlemen were seated, one March morning in 189--, in the
private office of French and Company, Limited, on lower Broadway.
Mr. Kirby, the junior partner--a man of thirty-five, with brown hair and
mustache, clean-cut, handsome features, and an alert manner, was
smoking cigarettes almost as fast as he could roll them, and at the same
time watching the electric clock upon the wall and getting up now and
then to stride restlessly back and forth across the room.
Mr. French, the senior partner, who sat opposite Kirby, was an older
man--a safe guess would have placed him somewhere in the debatable
ground between forty and fifty; of a good height, as could be seen even
from the seated figure, the upper part of which was held erect with the
unconscious ease which one associates with military training. His
closely cropped brown hair had the slightest touch of gray. The
spacious forehead, deep-set gray eyes, and firm chin, scarcely
concealed by a light beard, marked the thoughtful man of affairs. His
face indeed might have seemed austere, but for a sensitive mouth,
which suggested a reserve of humour and a capacity for deep feeling. A
man of well-balanced character, one would have said, not apt to
undertake anything lightly, but sure to go far in whatever he took in
hand; quickly responsive to a generous impulse, and capable of a
righteous indignation; a good friend, a dangerous enemy; more likely to
be misled by the heart than by the head; of the salt of the earth, which
gives it savour.
Mr. French sat on one side, Mr. Kirby on the other, of a handsome,
broad-topped mahogany desk, equipped with telephones and push
buttons, and piled with papers, account books and letter files in orderly
array. In marked contrast to his partner's nervousness, Mr. French
scarcely moved a muscle, except now and then to take the cigar from
his lips and knock the ashes from the end.
"Nine fifty!" ejaculated Mr. Kirby, comparing the clock with his watch.
"Only ten minutes more."
Mr. French nodded mechanically. Outside, in the main office, the same
air of tense expectancy prevailed. For two weeks the office force had
been busily at work, preparing inventories and balance sheets. The firm

of French and Company, Limited, manufacturers of crashes and burlaps
and kindred stuffs, with extensive mills in Connecticut, and central
offices in New York, having for a long time resisted the siren voice of
the promoter, had finally faced the alternative of selling out, at a
sacrifice, to the recently organised bagging