To Have and To Hold

To Have and To Hold
by Mary Johnston

TO THE MEMORY OF MY MOTHER
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. - IN WHICH I THROW AMBS-ACE
CHAPTER II. - IN WHICH I MEET MASTER JEREMY SPARROW
CHAPTER III. - IN WHICH I MARRY IN HASTE
CHAPTER IV. - IN WHICH I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE
CHAPTER V. - IN WHICH A WOMAN HAS HER WAY
CHAPTER VI. - IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN
CHAPTER VII. - IN WHICH WE PREPARE TO FIGHT THE SPANIARD
CHAPTER VIII. - IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL
CHAPTER IX. - IN WHICH TWO DRINK OF ONE CUP
CHAPTER X. - IN WHICH MASTER PORY GAINS TIME TO SOME PURPOSE
CHAPTER XI. - IN WHICH I MEET AN ITALIAN DOCTOR
CHAPTER XII. - IN WHICH I RECEIVE A WARNING AND REPOSE A TRUST
CHAPTER XIII. - IN WHICH THE SANTA TERESA DROPS DOWN-STREAM
CHAPTER XIV. - IN WHICH WE SEEK A LOST LADY
CHAPTER XV. - IN WHICH WE FIND THE HAUNTED WOOD
CHAPTER XVI. - IN WHICH I AM RID OF AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT
CHAPTER XVII. - IN WHICH MY LORD AND I PLAY AT BOWLS
CHAPTER XVIII. - IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT
CHAPTER XIX. - IN WHICH WE HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY
CHAPTER XX. - IN WHICH WE ARE IN DESPERATE CASE
CHAPTER XXI. - IN WHICH A GRAVE IS DIGGED
CHAPTER XXII. - IN WHICH I CHANGE MY NAME AND OCCUPATION
CHAPTER XXIII. - IN WHICH WE WRITE UPON THE SAND
CHAPTER XXIV. - IN WHICH WE CHOOSE THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS
CHAPTER XXV. - IN WHICH MY LORD HATH HIS DAY
CHAPTER XXVI. - IN WHICH I AM BROUGHT TO TRIAL
CHAPTER XXVII. - IN WHICH I FIND AN ADVOCATE
CHAPTER XXVIII. - IN WHICH THE SPRINGTIME IS AT HAND
CHAPTER XXIX. - IN WHICH I KEEP TRYST
CHAPTER XXX. - IN WHICH WE START UPON A JOURNEY
CHAPTER XXXI. - IN WHICH NANTAUQUAS COMES TO OUR RESCUE
CHAPTER XXXII. - IN WHICH WE ARE THE GUESTS OF AN EMPEROR
CHAPTER XXXIII. - IN WHICH MY FRIEND BECOMES MY FOE
CHAPTER XXXIV. - IN WHICH THE RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT
CHAPTER XXXV. - IN WHICH I COME TO THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE
CHAPTER XXXVI. - IN WHICH I HEAR ILL NEWS
CHAPTER XXXVII. - IN WHICH MY LORD AND I PART COMPANY
CHAPTER XXXVIII. - IN WHICH I GO UPON A QUEST
CHAPTER XXXIX. - IN WHICH WE LISTEN TO A SONG

TO HAVE AND TO HOLD
CHAPTER I
IN WHICH I THROW AMBS-ACE
THE work of the day being over, I sat down upon my doorstep, pipe in hand, to rest awhile in the cool of the evening. Death is not more still than is this Virginian land in the hour when the sun has sunk away, and it is black beneath the trees, and the stars brighten slowly and softly, one by one. The birds that sing all day have hushed, and the horned owls, the monster frogs, and that strange and ominous fowl (if fowl it be, and not, as some assert, a spirit damned) which we English call the whippoorwill, are yet silent. Later the wolf will howl and the panther scream, but now there is no sound. The winds are laid, and the restless leaves droop and are quiet. The low lap of the water among the reeds is like the breathing of one who sleeps in his watch beside the dead.
I marked the light die from the broad bosom of the river, leaving it a dead man's hue. Awhile ago, and for many evenings, it had been crimson, - a river of blood. A week before, a great meteor had shot through the night, blood-red and bearded, drawing a slow-fading fiery trail across the heavens; and the moon had risen that same night blood-red, and upon its disk there was drawn in shadow a thing most marvelously like a scalping knife. Wherefore, the following day being Sunday, good Mr. Stockham, our minister at Weyanoke, exhorted us to be on our guard, and in his prayer besought that no sedition or rebellion might raise its head amongst the Indian subjects of the Lord's anointed. Afterward, in the churchyard, between the services, the more timorous began to tell of divers portents which they had observed, and to recount old tales of how the savages distressed us in the Starving Time. The bolder spirits laughed them to scorn, but the women began to weep and cower, and I, though I laughed too, thought of Smith, and how he ever held the savages, and more especially that Opechancanough who was now their emperor, in a most deep distrust; telling us that the red men watched while we slept, that they might teach wiliness to a Jesuit, and how to bide its time to a cat crouched before a mousehole. I thought of the terms we now kept with these heathen; of how they came and went familiarly amongst us, spying out our weakness, and losing the salutary awe which that