24. CHAPTER XXIV.
THE RIDE.
That night after her return from Mosside, Alice had
playfully remarked to Hugh, “The Doctor says you stay
too closely in the house. You need more exercise, and
to-morrow I am going to coax you to ride with me, I am
getting quite proud of my horsemanship, and want your
opinion, I shall not take an excuse. You are mine for a
part of to-morrow,” she added, as she saw him about to
speak, and casting upon him her most bewildering smile,
she hastily quitted the room, but not until she heard his
smothered sigh and guessed that he was thinking of Rocket.
He had not asked a question concerning Mosside, and
only knew that a stranger had bought it with all its appurtenances.
Rocket he had not mentioned, though his
pet was really uppermost in his mind, and when he woke
next morning from his feverish sleep and remembered
Alice's proposal to ride, he said to himself, “I cannot go,
much as I might enjoy it. No other horse would carry
me as gently as Rocket. Oh, Rocket!”
This was always the despairing cry with which Hugh
ended his cogitation of Rocket, and he said it now bitterly,
without the shadow of a hope.
It was a bright, balmy morning, unlike the chilly one
of the previous day, and Hugh, as he walked slowly to
the window and inhaled the fragrant air, felt that it would
do him good. “But I shan't go,” he said, and when, after
breakfast was over, Alice came, reminding him of the
ride, telling him she was going then to get herself in
readiness, and should expect to find him waiting when
she came back, he began an excuse, but his resolution
quickly gave way before her sprightly arguments, and he
finally assented, saying, however, by way of apology, “You
must not expect a gay cavalier, for I am still too weak, and
I have no horse fit to ride.
“Yes, I know,” and Alice ran gaily to her room and
donned her riding dress, while not less eager than herself,
Mrs. Worthington, Aunt Eunice, and Adah stood by, wondering
what Hugh would say and how Rocket would act.
He was out in the back yard now, pawing and curvetting,
and rubbing his nose against all who came near him,
while Claib, never so happy in his life, was holding him
by his bridle and talking to him of Mars'r Hugh, which
name the animal was supposed to recognize.
“There, I'm ready,” Alice said, running down to Hugh,
who was so pale, that but for the surprise in store for
him, Alice's kind heart would at once have prompted her
to give up the project.
With a sigh Hugh rose and followed her to the door,
where Dido, held by Lulu, stood waiting for them.
“Where's Jim?” Hugh asked, glancing round in
quest of the huge animal he expected to mount,
“Claib has your horse. He's coming,” and with great
apparent unconcern Alice worked industriously at one
of her gauntlets, which obstinately refused to be buttoned,
while the entire household including Mr. Liston, who had
come to Spring Bank with Alice, congregated upon the
piazza, waiting anxiously for Rocket.
Suddenly Adah flew to Hugh's side, and said, eagerly,
“Hugh, please whistle as you used to do for Rocket —
just once, and let Miss Johnson hear you.”
Hugh felt as if she were mocking him, and answered
no, but when Alice added her entreaties to Adah's, and
even laid her hand coaxingly on his arm, he yielded,
while like a gleam of lightning the shadow of a suspicion
flitted across his mind. It was a loud, shrill whistle, penetrating
even to the woods, and as it had never yet failed
of its object, so it did not now, for the instant the old familiar
sound fell on Rocket's ear he started as if a shell
had exploded beneath his feet, and breaking away from
Claib went tearing round the house, answering that call
with the neigh he had been wont to give when summoned
by his master. Utterly speechless Hugh stood
gazing at him as he came up, his neck arched proudly,
and his silken mane flowing as gracefully as on the day
when he was led away to Col. Tiffton's stall.
“Mother, what does it mean — oh, mother!” and leaning
himself against the pillar of the piazza for support,
Hugh turned to his mother for an explanation, but she
did not heed him, so intent was she in watching Rocket,
who had reached his master, and seemed to be regarding
him in some perplexity, as if puzzled at his changed
appearance.
Possibly pity is an emotion unknown to the brute creation,
but surely if pity can be felt by them, it was expressed
by Rocket, as he stood eyeing his pale, wasted
young master; then, with a low cry of joy, he lifted his
head to Hugh's face, and rubbed against it, trying in various
ways to evince his delight at seeing him again.
“Won't anybody tell me what it means?” Hugh gasped,
stretching out his hands towards Rocket, who even
attempted to lick them.
At this point Alice stepped forward, and taking Rocket's
bridle, laid it across Hugh's lap, saying, softly —
“It means that Rocket is yours, purchased by a friend,
saved from Harney, for you. Mount him, and see if he
rides as easily as ever. I am impatient to be off.”
But had Hugh's life depended upon it, he could not
have mounted Rocket then. He knew the friend was Alice,
and the magnitude of the act overpowered him.
“Oh, Miss Johnson,” he cried, “what made you do it?
It must not be. I cannot suffer it.”
“Not to please me?” and Alice's face wore its most
winning look. “It's been my fixed determination ever
since I heard of Rocket, and knew how much you loved
him. I was never so happy doing an act in my life, and
you must not spoil it all by refusing. Mr. Liston knew
and approved of my doing it,” and she turned to her
guardian, who advanced towards Hugh, and in a few low-spoken
words told him how Alice's heart had been set
upon redeeming Rocket, and how hurt she would be if
Hugh did not accept him.
“As a loan then, not as a gift,” Hugh whispered. “It
shall not be a gift.”
“It need not,” Alice rejoined, “You shall pay for Rocket
if you like, and I'll tell you how on our ride. Shall
we go?”
There was no longer an excuse for lingering, and with
Claib's help Hugh was once more seated in his saddle,
while Rocket's whole frame quivered with apparent joy
at bearing his young master again. They made a splendid
looking couple on horseback, and the family watched
them admiringly until Hugh, feeling stronger with every
breath he drew, struck into a gentle canter, and the hill
hid them from view.
Once out upon the highway where there were no mud
holes to shun, no gates to open and shut, Hugh broached
the subject of Rocket again, when Alice told him unhesitatingly
how he could, if he would, pay for him and leave
her greatly his debtor. The scrap of paper, which Muggins
had saved from the letter thrown by Hugh upon the
carpet, had been placed by the queer little child in an old
envelope, which she called her letter to Miss Alice.
Handing it to her with the utmost gravity she had asked
her to read “Mug's letter,” and Alice had read the brief
lines written by 'Lina, “Hugh must send the money, as I
told him before. He can sell Mug, Harney likes pretty
darkies.” There was a cold, sick feeling at Alice's heart,
a shrinking with horror from 'Lina Worthington, and then
she came to a decision. Mug should be hers, and so, as
skillfully as she could she brought it round, that having
taken a great fancy both to Lulu and Muggins, she wished
to buy them both, giving whatever Hugh honestly thought
they were worth. Rocket, if he pleased, should be taken
as part or whole payment for Mug, and so cease to be a
gift.
Hugh was confounded. Could Alice know what 'Lina
had written? It did not seem possible, and yet she had
laid her hand upon the very dilemma which was troubling
him so much. If Ad should marry that doctor, she would
want money as she had said, and money Hugh could not
get unless he sold his negroes. He had said he never
would part with them; but selling them to Alice was virtually
setting them at liberty, and Hugh felt his own
heart throb as he thought of Mug's delight when told
that she was free. A slave master can love his bond servant,
and Hugh loved the little Mug so much that the
idea of parting with her as he surely must at some future
time if he assented to Alice's plan, made him hesitate, and
Alice's best arguments were called into requisition ere he
came to a decision. But he decided at last, influenced
not so much by need of money as by knowing how much
real good the exchange of ownership would do to the two
young girls. In return for Rocket Alice should have
Muggins, while for Lulu she might give what she liked.
Seven hundred, he had been offered, but he would take
less.
“Heaven knows,” he added, as he saw by the expression
of Alice's face how distasteful to her was the whole
idea of bargaining for human flesh and blood, “Heaven
knows it is not my nature to hold any one in bondage, and
I shall gladly hail the day which sees the negro free. But
I cannot now help myself more than others around me.
Our slaves are our property. Take them from us and we
are ruined wholly. Miss Johnson, do you honestly believe
that one in forty of those northern abolitionists would deliberately
give up ten — twenty — fifty thousand dollars
as the case might be, just because the thing valued at that
was man and not beast? No, indeed. It's very easy for
them to tell what must be done, but hard finding one to
do it. Southern people, born and brought up in the midst
of slavery can't see it as the North do, and there's where
the mischief lies. Neither understands the other, and I
greatly fear the day is not far distant when our fair Union
shall be torn in tatters by enraged and furious brothers.”
He had wandered from Lulu and Muggins to the subject
which then, far more than the North believed, was
agitating the Southern mind, but Alice, more interested
in her purchases than in Secession, of which she had no
fears, brought him back to the point, by suggesting that
the necessary papers be made out at once, so there could
be no mistake.
They had ridden far enough by this time, for Hugh was
beginning to look tired, and so they turned their horses
homeward, talking pleasantly of whatever presented itself
to Alice's mind. Once as Hugh gave her a look which
had often puzzled and mystified her, she said, “Do you
know it seems to me I must have seen you before I came
to Kentucky, for at times there is something very familiar
in your face.”
For a moment Hugh was tempted to tell her where
they had met before, but feeling that he was not quite
ready yet to do so, he refrained, and making her some
evasive reply, relapsed into a thoughtful mood which continued
until Spring Bank was reached.
