PS 1829 Southern Branch of the University of California Los Angeles Form L-l This book is DUE on the last date stamped below OCT 2 1924 1.& Form L-9-5m-7,'22 4 SHE RAISED HER RIDING-WHIP. THANKFUL BLOSSOM A Romance of the Jerseys 1779 BY BRET HARTE BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1876, BY THE SUN PRINTING AND PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION. COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY HOUGHTON, MlFFLIN AND COMPANY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company T CONTENTS. PART I. PART II. . PART III. PART IV. . PART V. PACK. . II 35 . 69 121 155 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. DRAWN BY C. S. REINHART. PAG* "BUT WHY DID YOU TAKE THAT LlGHT FROM THE WINDOW?" ...... K) THANKFUL DROPPED THE COURTESY OF THE PERIOD ........ 43 SHE RAISED HER RlDING-WHIP . . . .63 A FIGURE WAS SLOWLY APPROACHING no PART L THANKFUL BLOSSOM. / & s I. THE time was the year of grace 1779; the locality, Morristown, New Jersey. It was bitterly cold. A north-easterly wind had been stiffening the mud of the morning's thaw into a rigid record of that day's wayfar ing on the Baskingridge road. The hoof- ^ prints of cavalry, the deep ruts idit by bag- % 1 gage-wagons, and the deeper channels worn 1 by artillery, lay stark and cold in the waning light of an April day. There were icicles on the fences, a rime of silver on the windward bark of maples, and occasional bare spots on the rocky protuberances of the road, as if 12 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. Nature had worn herself out at the knees and elbows through long waiting for the tardy spring. A few leaves disinterred by the thaw became crisp again, and rustled in the wind, making the summer a thing so remote that all human hope and conjecture fled before them. Here and there the wayside fences and walls were broken down or dismantled ; and beyond them fields of snow down-trodden and discolored, and strewn with fragments of leather, camp equipage, harness, and cast- off clothing, showed traces of the recent encampment and congregation of men. On some there were still standing the ruins of rudely constructed cabins, or the semblance of fortification equally rude and incomplete. A fox stealing along a half-filled ditch, a wolf slinking behind an earthwork, typified the human abandonment and desolation. THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 13 One by one the faint sunset tints faded from the sky ; the far-off crests of the Orange hills grew darker; the nearer files of pines on the Whatnong Mountain became a mere black background ; and, with the coming-on of night, came too an icy silence that seemed to stiffen and arrest the very wind itself. The crisp leaves no longer rustled; the waving whips of alder and willow snapped no longer; the icicles no longer dropped a cold fruitage from barren branch and spray ; and the roadside trees relapsed into stony quiet, so that the sound of horses' hoofs breaking through the thin, dull, lustreless films of ice that patched the furrowed road, might have been heard by the nearest Conti nental picket a mile away. Either a knowledge of this, or the difficul ties of the road, evidently irritated the view less horseman. Long before he became 14 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. visible, his voice was heard in half-suppressed objurgation of the road, of his beast, of the country folk, and the country generally. "Steady, you jade!' "Jump, you devil, jump!' "Curse the road, and the beggarly fanners that durst not mend it ! " And then the moving bulk of horse and rider suddenly arose above the hill, floundered and splashed, and then as suddenly disappeared, and the rattling hoof-beats ceased. The stranger had turned into a deserted lane still cushioned with untrodden snow. A stone wall on one hand in better keeping and condition than the boundary monuments of the outlying fields bespoke protection and exclusiveness. Half-way up the lane the lider checked his speed, and, dismounting, tied 'bis horse to a wayside sapling. This done, he went cautiously forward toward the end of the lane, and a farm-house from whose gable THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 15 window a light twinkled through the deep ening night. Suddenly he stopped, hesitated, and uttered an impatient ejaculation. The light had disappeared. He turned sharply on his heel, and retraced his steps until opposite a farm-shed that stood a few paces from the wall. Hard by, a large elm cast the gaunt shadow of its leafless limbs on the wall and surrounding snow. The stranger stepped into this shadow, and at once seemed to become a part of its trembling intricacies. At the present moment it was certainly a bleak place for a tryst. There was snow yet clinging to the trunk of the tree, and a film of ice on its bark ; the adjacent wall was slippery with frost, and fringed with icicles. Yet in all there was a ludicrous suggestion of some sentiment past and unseasonable : several dislodged stones of the wall were so disposed as to form a bench and seats, and 1 6 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. under the elm-tree's film of ice could still be seen carved on its bark the effigy of a heart, divers initials, and the legend, " Thine For ever." The stranger, however, kept his eyes fixed only on the farm-shed and the open field beside it. Five minutes passed in fruitless expectancy. Ten minutes ! And then the rising moon slowly lifted herself over the black range of the Orange hills, and looked at him, blushing a little, as if the appointment were her own. The face and figure thus illuminated were those of a strongly built, handsome man of thirty, so soldierly in bearing that it needed not the buff epaulets and facings to show nis captain's rank in the Continental army. Yet there was. something in his facial expression tiiat contradicted the manliness of his pres ence, an irritation and querulousness tha THANKFUL BLOSSOM. \J were inconsistent with his size and strength. This fretf ulness increased as the moments went by without sign or motion in the faintly lit field beyond, until, in peevish exasperation, he began to kick the nearer stones against the wall. " Moo-oo-w ! " The soldier started. Not that he was frightened, nor that he had failed to recognize in these prolonged syllables the deep-chested, half-drowsy low of a cow, but that it was so near him evidently just beside the wall. If an object so bulky could have approached him so near without his knowledge, might not she " Moo-oo ! " He drew nearer the wall cautiously. " So, Cushy ! Mooly ! Come up, Bossy ! ' he said persuasively. " Moo " but here the low unexpectedly broke down, and ended in 1 8 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. a very human and rather musical little laugh. " Thankful ! " exclaimed the soldier, echo ing the laugh a trifle uneasily and affectedly as a hooded little head arose above the wall. "Well," replied the figure, supporting a prettily rounded chin on her hands, as she laid her elbows complacently on the wall, " well, what did you expect ? Did you want me to stand here all night, while you skulked moonstruck under a tree ? Or did you look for me to call you by name ? did you expect me to shout out, ' Capt. Allan Brew- ster ' " " Thankful, hush ! " " Capt. Allan Brewster of the Connecticut Contingent," continued the girl, with an affected raising of a low, pathetic voice that was, however, inaudible beyond the tree BUT WHY DID YOU TAKE THAT LIGHT FROM THE WINDOW i THANKFUL BLOSSOM. IQ " Capt. Brewster, behold me, your obleeged and humble servant and sweetheart to com mand." Capt. Brewster succeeded, after a slight skirmish at the wall, in possessing himself of the girl's hand ; at which, although still struggling, she relented slightly. "It isn't every lad that I'd low for," she said, with an affected pout, " and there may be others that would not take it amiss; though there be fine ladies enough at the assembly balls at Morristown as might think it hoydenish ? " " Nonsense, love," said the captain, who had by this time mounted the wall, and encircled the girl's waist with his arm. " Nonsense ! you startled me only. But," he added, suddenly taking her round chin in his hand, and turning her face toward the moon with an uneasy half-suspicion, " why did you 2O THANKFUL BLOSSOM. take that light from the window ? What has happened ? ' "We had unexpected guests, sweetheart," said Thankful : " the count just arrived." 'That infernal Hessian!' He stopped, and gazed questioningly into her face. The moon looked upon her at the same time : the face was as sweet, as placid, as truthful, as her own. Possibly these two inconstants understood each other. " Nay, Allan, he is not a Hessian, but an exiled gentleman from abroad, a noble man' " There are no noblemen now," sniffed the trooper contemptuously. "Congress has so decreed it. All men are born tree and equal." " But they are not, Allan," said Thankful, with a pretty trouble in her brows : " even cows are not born equal. Is yon calf that THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 21 was dropped last night by Brindle the equal of my red heifer whose mother came by her self in a ship from Surrey? Do they look equal ? " "Titles are but breath," said Capt. Brew- ster doggedly. There was an ominous pause. " Nay, there is one nobleman left," said Thankful ; " and he is my own, my nature's nobleman ! ' Capt. Brewster did not reply. From cer tain arch gestures and wreathed smiles with which this forward young woman accom panied her statement, it would seem to be implied that the gentleman who stood before her was the nobleman alluded to. At least, he so accepted it, and embraced her closely, her arms and part of her mantle clinging around his neck. In this attitude they re mained quiet for some moments, slightly 22 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. rocking from side to side like a metronome ; a movement, I fancy, peculiarly bucolic, pas toral, and idyllic, and as such, I wot, observed by Theocritus and Virgil. At these supreme moments weak woman usually keeps her wits about her much better than your superior reasoning masculine ani mal ; and, while the gallant captain was losing himself upon her perfect lips, Miss Thankful distinctly heard the farm-gate click, and otherwise noticed that the moon was getting high and obtrusive. She half released her self from the captain's arms, thoughtfully and tenderly but firmly. "Tell me all about yourself, Allan dear," she said quietly, mak ing room for him on the wall, " all, every thing." She turned upon him her beautiful eyes, eyes habitually earnest and even grave in expression, yet holding in their brave brown THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 2$ depths a sweet, childlike reliance and depen dency; eyes with a certain tender, deprecat ing droop in the brown-fringed lids, and yet eyes that seemed to say to every man who looked upon them, " I am truthful : be frank with me." Indeed, I am convinced there is not one of my impressible sex, who, looking in those pleading eyes, would not have per jured himself on the spot rather than have disappointed their fair owner. Capt. Brewster's mouth resumed its old expression of discontent. " Every thing is growing worse, Thankful, and the cause is lost Congress does nothing, and Washington is not the man for the crisis. Instead of marching to Philadelphia, and for cing that wretched rabble of Hancock and Adams at the point of the bayonet, he writes letters." *' A dignified, formal old fool," interrupted 24 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. Mistress Thankful indignantly ; " and look at his wife ! Didn't Mistress Ford and Mistress Baily, ay, and the best blood of Morris County, go down to his Excellency's in their finest bibs and tuckers, and didn't they find my lady in a pinafore doing chores ? Vastly polite treatment, indeed! As if the whole world didn't know that the general was taken by surprise when my lady came riding up from Virginia with all those fine cavaliers, just to see what his Excellency was doing at these assembly balls. And fine doings, I dare say." "This is but idle gossip, Thankful," said Capt. Brewster with the faintest appearance of self-consciousness ; " the assembly balls are conceived by the general to strengthen the confidence of the townsfolk, and mitigate the rigors of the winter encampment. I go there myself rarely: I have but little taste for THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 2$ junketing and gavotting, with my country in such need. No, Thankful ! What we want is a leader; and the men of Connecti cut feel it keenly. If I have been spoken of in that regard," added the captain with a slight inflation of his manly breast, " it is because they know of my sacrifices, because as New England yeomen they know my de votion to the cause. They know of my suf fering " The bright face that looked into his was suddenly afire with womanly sympathy, the pretty brow was knit, the sweet eyes over flowed with tenderness. " Forgive me, Allan. I forgot perhaps, love perhaps, dearest, you are hungry now." "No, not now," replied Capt. Brewster, with gloomy stoicism ; "yet," he added, "it is nearly a week since I have tasted meat." "I I brought a few things with me," 26 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. continued the girl, with a certain hesitating timidity. She reached down, and produced a basket from the shadow of the wall. " These chickens " she held up a pair of pullets " the commander-in-chief himself could not buy : I kept them for my commander ! And this pot of marmalade, which I know my Allan loves, is the same I put up last sum mer. I thought [very tenderly] you might like a piece of that bacon you liked so once, dear. Ah, sweetheart, shall we ever sit down to our little board ? Shall we ever see the end of this awful war? Don't you think, dear [very pleadingly], it would be best to give it up ? King George is not such a very bad man, is he ? I've thought, sweetheart [very confidently], that mayhap you and he might make it all up without the aid of those \Vashingtons, who do nothing but starve one to death. And if the king only knew you THANKFUL BLOSSOM. Allan, should see you as I do, sweetheart, he'd do just as you say." During this speech she handed him the several articles alluded to; and he received them, storing them away in such receptacles of his clothing as were convenient with this notable difference, that with her the act was graceful and picturesque : with him there was a ludicrousness of suggestion that his broad shoulders and uniform only height ened. " I think not of myself, lass," he said, put ting the eggs in his pocket, and buttoning the chickens within his martial breast. " I think not of myself, and perhaps I often spare that counsel which is but little heeded. But I have a duty to my men to Connecticut [He here tied the marmalade up in his hand kerchief.] I confess I have sometimes thought I might, under provocation, be driven to ex- 28 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. treme measures for the good of the cause. I make no pretence to leadership, but" " With you at the head of the army," broke in Thankful enthusiastically, "peace would be declared within a fortnight." There is no flattery, however outrageous, that a man will not accept from the woman whom he believes loves him. He will per haps doubt its influence in the colder judg ment of mankind ; but he will consider that this poor creature, at least, understands him, and in some vague way represents the eternal but unrecognized verities. And when this is voiced by lips that are young and warm and red, it is somehow quite as convincing as the bloodless, remoter utterance of posterity. Wherefore the trooper complacently but toned the compliment over his chest with the Dullets. ?'I think you must go now, Allan," she THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 29 said, looking at him with that pseudo-mater nal air which the youngest of women some times assume to their lovers, as if the doll had suddenly changed sex, and grown to man's estate. " You must go now, dear ; for it may so chance that father is considering my absence overmuch. You will come again a' Wednesday, sweetheart ; and you will not go to the assemblies, nor visit Mistress Judith, nor take any girl pick-a-back again on your black horse ; and you will let me know when you are hungry ? " She turned her brown eyes lovingly, yet with a certain pretty trouble in the brow, and such a searching, pleading inquiry in her glance, that the captain kissed her at once. Then came the final embrace, performed b} the captain in a half-perfunctory, quiet man ner, with a due regard for the friable nature of part of his provisions. Satisfying himself 3O THANKFUL BLOSSOM. of the integrity of the eggs by feeling for them in his pocket, he waved a military salute with the other hand to Miss Thankful, and was gone. A few minutes later the sound of his horse's hoofs rang sharply from the icy hillside. But, as he reached the summit, two horse men wheeled suddenly from the shadow of the roadside, and bade him halt. "Capt. Brewster, if this moon does not deceive me ? " queried the foremost stranger with grave civility. "The same. Major Van Zandt, I calcu late ? ' returned Brewster querulously. " Vour calculation is quite right. I regret, Capt. Brewster, that it is my duty to inform jrou that you are under arrest." " By whose orders ? " " The commander-in-chief s." " For what ? " * " Mutinous conduct, and disrespect of youi superior officers." THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 3! The sword that Capt. Brewster had drawn at the sudden appearance of the strangers quivered for a moment in his strong hand. Then, sharply striking it across the pommel of his saddle, he snapped it in twain, and cast the pieces at the feet of the speaker. " Go on," he said doggedly. " Capt. Brewster," said Major Van Zandt, with infinite gravity, "it is not for me to point out the danger to you of this outspoken emotion, except practically in its effect upon the rations you have in your pocket. If I mistake not, they have suffered equally with your steel. Forward, march ! ' Capt. Brewster looked down, and then dropped to the rear, as the diseased yolks of Mistress Thankful's most precious gift slid slowly and pensively over his horse's flanks t the ground. PART II. II. MISTRESS THANKFUL remained at the wall until her lover had disap peared. Then she turned, a mere lissom shadow in that uncertain light, and glided under the eaves of the shed, and thence from tree to tree of the orchard, lingering a mo ment under each as a trout lingers in the shadow of the bank in passing a shallow, and so reached the farm-house and the kitchen door, where she entered. Thence by a back staircase she slipped to her own bower, from whose window half an hour before she had taken the signalling light. This she lit again, and placed upon a chest of drawers ; and, taking off her hood and a shapeless sleeve .15 36 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. less mantle she had worn, went to the mirror, and proceeded to re-adjust a high horn comb that had been somewhat displaced by the captain's arm, and otherwise after the fashion of her sex to remove all traces of a previous lover. It may be here observed that a man is very apt to come from the smallest encoun ter with his dulcinea distrait, bored, or shame faced ; to forget that his cravat is awry, or that a long blonde hair is adhering to his button. But as to Mademoiselle well, looking at Miss Pussy's sleek paws and spotless face, would you ever know that she had been at the cream-jug ? Thankful was, I think, satisfied with her appearance. Small doubt but she had reason for it. And yet her gown was a mere slip of flowered chintz, gathered at the neck, and falling at an angle of fifteen degrees to within an inch of a short petticoat of gray flannel, THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 37 But so surely is the complete mould of sym metry indicated in the poise or line of any single member, that looking at the erect carriage of her graceful brown head, or below to the curves that were lost in her shapely ankles, or* the little feet that hid themselves in the broad-buckled shoes, you knew that the rest was as genuine and beautiful. Mistress Thankful, after a pause, opened the door, and listened. Then she softly slipped down the back staircase to the front hall. It was dark ; but the door of the " com pany-room," or parlor, was faintly indicated by the light that streamed beneath it. She stood still for a moment hesitatingly, when suddenly a hand grasped her own, and half led, half dragged her, into the sitting-room opposite. It was dark. There was a mo mentary fumbling for the tinder-box and flint, a muttered oath over one or two impeding $8 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. articles of furniture, and Thankful laughed. And then the light was lit ; and her father, a gray wrinkled man of sixty, still holding her hind, stood before her. " You have been out, mistress ! " " I have," said Thankful. "And not alone," growled the old man angrily. " No," said Mistress Thankful, with a smile that began in the corners of her brown eyes, ran down into the dimpled curves of her mouth, and finally ended in the sudden revelation of her white teeth, "no, not alone." " With whom ? " asked the old man, gradu ally weakening under her strong, saucy pres ence. " Well, father/' said Thankful, taking a seat on a table, and swinging her little feet some what ostentatiously toward him, " I was with THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 39 Capt. Allan Brewster of the Connecticut Con tingent" "That man?" "That man!" " I forbid you seeing him again." Thankful gripped the table with a J/md on each side of her, to emphasize the statement, and swinging her feet replied, " I shall see him as often as I like, father." " Thankful Blossom ! " " Abner Blossom ! " "I see you know not," said Mr. Blossom, abandoning the severely paternal mandatory air for one of confidential disclosure, " I see you know not his reputation. He is accused of inciting his regiment to revolt, of being a traitor to the cause." "And since when, Abner Blossom, have you felt such concern for the cause ? Since you refused to sell supplies to the Continental 40 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. commissary, except at double profits ? since you told me you were glad I had not politics like Mistress Ford " " Hush ! " said her father, motioning to the parlor. " Hush," echoed Thankful indignantly. " I won't be hushed ! Everybody says ' Hush ' to me. The count says ' Hush ! ' Allan says ' Hush ! ' You say ' Hush ! ' I'm a-weary of this hushing. Ah, if there was a man who didn't say it to me ! " and Mistress Thankful lifted her fine eyes to the ceiling. " You are unwise, Thankful, foolish, indis creet. That is why you require much moni tion." , ,':.-.. Thankful swung her feet in silence for a few moments, then suddenly leaped from the table, and, seizing the old man by the lapels of his coat, fixed her eyes upon him, and said suspiciously, "Why did you keep me from THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 4! going in the company-room ? Why did you * bring me in here ? " Blossom senior was staggered for a mo ment. " Because, you know, the count " "And you were afraid the count should know I had a sweetheart ? Well, I'll go in and tell him now," she said, marching toward the door. " Then, why did you not tell him when you slipped out an hour ago ? eh, lass ? " quer ied the old man, grasping her hand. " But 'tis all one, Thankful: 'twas not for him I stopped you. There is a young spark with him, ay, came even as you left, lass, a likely young gallant ; and he and the count are jabbering away in their own lingo, a kind of Italian, belike ; eh, Thankful ? " " I know not," she said thoughtfully. " Which way came the other ? ' In fact, a fear that tnis young stranger might have 42 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. witnessed the captain's embrace began to creep over her. " From town, my lass." Thankful turned to her father as if she had been waiting a reply to a long-asked question : " Well ? " " Were it not well to put on a few furbe lows and a tucker ? " queried the old man. " "Tis a gallant young spark ; none of your country folk." " No," said Thankful, with the promptness of a woman who was looking her best, and knew it. And the old man, looking at her, accepted her judgment, and without another word led her to the parlor door, and, opening it, said briefly, "My daughter, Mistress Thankful Blossom." With the opening of the door came the Bound of earnest voices that instantly ceased upon the appearance of Mistress Thankful. THANKFUL DROPPED THE COURTESY OF THE PERIOD. THANKFUL BLOSSOM 43 Two gentlemen lolling before the fire arose instantly, and one came forward with an air of familiar yet respectful recognition. "Nay, this is far too great happiness, Mistress Thankful," he said, with a strongly marked foreign accent, and a still more strongly marked foreign manner. " I have been in despair, and my friend here, the Baron Pomposo, likewise." The slightest trace of a smile, and the swiftest of reproachful glances, lit up the dark face of the baron as he bowed low in the introduction. Thankful dropped the courtesy of the period, i.e., a duck, with semicircular sweep of the right foot for ward. But the right foot was so pretty, and the grace of the little figure so perfect, that the baron raised his eyes from the foot to the face in serious admiration. In the one rapid feminine glance she had given 44 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. him, she had seen that he was handsome ; in the second, which she could not help from his protracted silence, she saw that his beauty centred in his girlish, half fawn-like, dark eyes. " The baron," explained Mr. Blossom, rub bing his hands together as if through mere friction he was trying to impart a warmth to the reception which his hard face discounte nanced, "the baron visits us under dis couragement. He comes from far countries. It is the custom of gentlefolk of of foreign extraction to wander through strange lands, commenting upon the habits and doings of 'he peoples. He will find in Jersey," con- % tivued Mr. Blossom, apparently appealing to Thankful, yet really evading her contemptu ous glance, " a hard-working yeomanry, ever ready to welcome the stranger, and account to him, penny for penny, for all his necessary THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 45 expenditure; for which purpose, in these troublous times, he will provide for him self gold or other moneys not affected by these local disturbances." " He will find, good friend Blossom," said the baron in a rapid, voluble way, utterly at variance with the soft, quiet gravity of his eyes, " Beauty, Grace, Accom-plishment, and eh Santa Maria, what shall I say ? ' He turned appealingly to the count. "Virtue," nodded the count. " Truly, Birtoo ! all in the fair lady of thees countries. Ah, believe me, honest friend Blossom, there is mooch more in thees than in thoss ! " So much of this speech was addressed to Mistress Thankful, that she had to show at least one dimple in reply, albeit her brows were slightly knit, and she had turned upor the speaker her honest, questioning eyes. * 46 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. "And then the General Washington has been kind enough to offer his protection," added the count. " Any fool any one," supplemented Thankful hastily, with a slight blush "may have the general's pass, ay, and his good word. But what of Mistress Prudence Bookstaver ? she that has a sweetheart in Knyphausen's brigade, ay, I warrant a Hessian, but of gentle blood, as Mistress Prudence has often told me, and, look you, all her letters stopped by the general, ay, I warrant, read by my Lady Washington too, as if 'twere her fault that her lad was in arms against Congress. Riddle me that, now ! " "Tis but prudence, lass," said Blossom, frowning on the girl. " 'Tis that she might disclose some movement of the army, tending to defeat the enemy." " And why should she not try to save hei THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 4? lad from capture or ambuscade such as befell the Hessian commissary with the provisions that you " Mr. Blossom, in an ostensible fatherly embrace, managed to pinch Mistress Than! ful sharply. " Hush, lass," he said with sin ulated playfulness ; " your tongue clacks likr- the Whippany mill. My daughter has smal concern 'tis the manner of womenfolk in politics," he explained to his guests " These dangersome days have given her son affliction by way of parting comrades of hei childhood, and others whom she has much affected. It has in some sort soured her." Mr. Blossom would have recalled this speech as soon as it escaped him, lest il should lead to a revelation from the truthful Mistress Thankful of her relations with the Continental captain. But to his astonish ment, and, I may add, to my own, she showed 48 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. Dothing of that disposition she had exhibited a few moments before. On the contrary, she blushed slightly, and said nothing. And then the conversation changed, upon the weather, the hard winter, the pros pects of the Cause, a criticism upon the commander-in-chief s management of affairs, the attitude of Congress, etc., between Mr. Blossom and the count ; characterized, I hardly need say, by that positiveness of opinion that distinguishes the unprofessional. In another part of the room, it so chanced that Mistress Thankful and the baron were talking about themselves ; the assembly balls ; who was the prettiest woman in Mor- ristown ; and whether Gen. Washington's attentions to Mistress Pyne were only per functory gallantry, or what ; and if Lady Washington's hair was really gray ; and il that young aide-de-camp, Major Van Zandt THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 49 were really in love with Lady W., or whether his attentions were only the zeal of a sub altern, in the midst of which a sudden gust of wind shook the house ; and Mr. Blossom, going to the front door, came back with the announcement that it was snowing heavily. And indeed, within that past hour, to their astonished eyes the whole face of nature had changed. The moon was gone, the sky hid den in a blinding, whirling swarm of stinging flakes. The wind, bitter and strong, had already fashioned white feathery drifts upon the threshold, over the painted benches on the porch, and against the door-posts. Mistress Thankful and the baron had walked to the rear door the baron with a slight tropical shudder to view this mete orological change. As Mistress Thankful looked over the the snowy landscape, it seemed to her that all record of her past 5O THANKFUL BLOSSOM. experience had been effaced : her very foot prints of an hour before were lost ; the gray wall on which she leaned was white and spot less now ; even the familiar farm-shed looked dim and strange and ghostly. Had she been there ? had she seen the captain ? was it all a fancy ? She scarcely knew. A sudden gust of wind closed the door behind them with a crash, and sent Mistress Thankful, with a slight feminine scream, forward into the outer darkness. But the baron caught her by the waist, and saved her from Heaven knows what imaginable disaster ; and the scene ended in a half- hysterical laugh. But the wind then set upon them both with a malevolent fury ; and the baron was, I presume, obliged to draw, her closer to his side. % ', They were alone, save for the presence of those mischievous confederates. Nature and THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 5 1 Opportunity. In the half-obscurity of the storm she could not help turning her mis chievous eyes on his. But she was per haps surprised to find them luminous, soft, and, as it seemed to her at that moment, grave beyond the occasion. An embarrass ment utterly new and singular seized upon her ; and when, as she half feared yet half ex pected, he bent down and pressed his lips to hers, she was for a moment powerless. But in the next instant she boxed his ears sharp ly, and vanished in the darkness. When Mr. Blossom opened the door to the baron he was surprised to find that gentleman alone, and still more surprised to find, when they re- # entered the house, to see Mistress Thankful $nter at the same moment, demurely, from the front door. * When Mr. Blossom knocked at his daugh ter's door the next morning it opened upon 52 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. her completely dressed, but withal somewhat pale, and, if the truth must be told, a little surly. "And you were stirring so early, Thank ful," he said : ' 'twould have been but decent to have bidden God-speed to the guests, es pecially the baron, who seemed much con cerned at your absence." Miss Thankful blushed slightly, but an swered with savage celerity, " And since when is it necessary that I should dance attend ance upon every foreign jack-in-the-box that may lie at the house ? " " He has shown great courtesy to you, mis tress, and is a gentleman." " Courtesy, indeed ! " said Mistress Thank ful. " He has not presumed ? " said Mr. Blos som suddenly, bringing his cold gray eyes to bear upon his daughter's. THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 53 " No, no," said Thankful hurriedly, flaming a bright scarlet ; " but nothing. But what have you there ? a letter ? " " Ay, from the captain, I warrant," said Mr. Blossom, handing her a three-cor nered bit of paper: "'twas left here by a camp-follower. Thankful," he continued, with a meaning glance, "you will heed my counsel in season. The captain is not meet for such as you." Thankful suddenly grew pale and contempt uous again as she snatched the letter from his hand. When his retiring footsteps were lost on the stairs she regained her color, and opened the letter. It was slovenly written, grievously mis-spelled, and read as follows : "SWEETHEART: A tyranous Act, begotten in Envy and Jealousie, keeps me here a prisoner. Last night I was Basely arrested by Servile Hands for that Freedom oi* Thought and Expression for which I 54 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. have already Sacrifized so much aye all that Man hath but Love and Honour. But the End is Near. When for the Maintenance of Power, the Liberties of the Peoples are subdued by Martial Supremacy and the Dictates of Ambition the State is Lost I lie in Viie Bondage here in Morristown under charge of Disrespeck me that a twelvemonth past left a aome and Respectable Connexions to serve my Coun try. Believe me still your own Love, albeit in the Power of Tyrants and condemned it may be to the scaffold. "The Messenger is Trustworthy and will speed safely to me such as you may deliver unto him. The Provender sanktified by your Hands and made pre cious by yr. Love was wrested from me by Servil Hands and the Eggs, Sweetheart, were somewhat Addled. The Bacon is, methinks by this time on the Table of the Com'-in-Chief. Such is Tyranny and Ambition. Sweetheart, farewell, for the present " ALLAN.* Mistress Thankful read this compositior tnce, twice, and then tore it up. Then, re- THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 55 fleeting that it was the first letter of her lover's that she had not kept, she tried to put together again the torn fragments, but vainly , and then in a pet, new to her, cast them from the window. During the rest of the day she was considerably distraite, and even manifested more temper than she was wont to do ; and later, when her father rode away on his daily visit to Morristown, she felt strangely relieved. By noon the snow ceased, or rather turned into a driving sleet that again in turn gave way to rain. By this time she became absorbed in her household duties, in which she was usually skilful, and in her own thoughts that to-day had a novelty in their meaning. In the midst of this, at about dark, her room being in the rear of the house, she was perhaps unmindful of the trampling of horse without, or the sound of voices in the hall below. Neither was uncommon at 56 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. that time. Although protected by the Con tinental army from forage or the rudeness of soldiery, the Blossom farm had always been a halting-place for passing troopers, commissary teamsters, and reconnoitring officers. Gen. Sullivan and Col. Hamilton had watered their horses at its broad, substantial wayside trough, and sat in the shade of its porch. Miss Thankful was only awakened from her day-dream by the entrance of the negro farm-hand, Caesar. " Fo' God, Missy Thankful, them sogers is p g'wine into camp in the road, I reckon, for they's jest makin' theysevs free afo' the house, and they's an officer in the company- room with his spurs cocked on the table, readin' a book." A quick flame leaped into Thankful' s cheek, and her oretty brows knit themselves over darkening eyes. She arose from her work THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 57 r> ' no longer the moody girl, but an indignant goddess, and, pushing the servant aside, swept down the stairs, and threw open the door. An officer sitting by the fire in an easy, lounghig attitude that justified the servant's criticism, arose instantly with an air of evi dent embarrassment and surprise that was, however, as quickly dominated and controlled by a gentleman's breeding. " I beg your pardon," he said, with a deep inclination of his handsome head, " but I had no idea that there was any member of this household at home at least, a lady." He hesitated a moment, catching in the raising of her brown-fringed lids a sudden revelation of her beauty, and partly losing his compo sure. " I am Major Van Zandt : I have the honor of addressing " "Thankful Blossom," said Thankful a little proudly, divining with a woman's swift instinct 58 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. the cause of the major's hesitation. But her trit.mph was checked by a new embarrass ment visible in the face of the officer at the mention of her name. 'Thankful Blossom," repeated the officer quickly. "You are, then, the daughter of Abner Blossom ? ' "Certainly," said Thankful, turning her inquiring eyes upon him. " He will be here betimes. He has gone only to Morristown." In a new fear that had taken possession of her, her questioning eyes asked, "Has he not?" ; The officer, answering her eyes rather than her lips, came toward her gravely. "He will not return to-day, Mistress Thankful, nor per haps even to-morrow. He is a prisoner." Thankful opened her brown eyes aggress ively on the maj or. "A prisoner for what ? ' "For a'.ding and giving comfort to the THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 59 ^^^ (^ .^-^_ _ iMM^BI^^nB^HHMM^a^^HM^HBBH^^M^^HHB^^^^M^^H -^^M^^M~__>_____W_M_ _ enemy, and for harboring spies," replied the major with military curtness. Mistress Thankful' s cheek flushed slightly at the last sentence: a recollection of the scene on the porch and the baron's stolen kiss flashed across her, and for a moment she looked as guilty as if the man before her had been a witness to the deed. He saw it, and misinterpreted her confusion. "Belike, then," said Mistress Thankful, slightly raising her voice, and standing squarely before the major, "belike, then, / should be a prisoner too; for the guests of this house, if they be spies, were my guests, and, as my father's daughter, I was their hostess ; ay, man, and right glad to be the nostess of such gallant gentlemen, gentle men, I warrant, too fine to insult a defence less girl ; gentlemen spies that did not cock their boots on the table, or turn an honest farmer's house into a tap-room." 6O THANKFUL BLOSSOM. An expression of half pain, half amusement, covered the face of the major, but he made no other reply than by a profound and graceful bow. Courteous and deprecatory as it was, it apparently exasperated Mistress Thankful only the more. " And pray who are these spies, and who is the informer?" said Mistress Thankful, facing the soldier, with one hand truculently placed on her flexible hip, and the other slipped behind her. " Methinks 'tis only honest we should know when and how we have entertained both." " Your father, Mistress Thankful," said Major Van Zandt gravely, "has long been suspected of favoring the enemy ; but it has been the policy of the commander-in-chief to overlook the political preferences of non combatants, and to strive to win their alle giance to the good cause by liberal privileges THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 6 1 But when it was lately discovered that two strangers, although bearing a pass from him, have been frequenters of this house under fictitious names " "You mean Count Ferdinand and the Baron Pomposo," said Thankful quickly, " two honest gentlefolk ; and if they choose to pay their devoirs to a lass although, perhaps, not a quality lady, yet an honest girl"- .,. T - " Dear Mistress Thankful," said the major with a profound bow and smile, that, spite of its courtesy, drove Thankful to the verge of wrathful hysterics, " if you establish that fact, and, from this slight acquaintance with your charms, I doubt not you will, your father is safe from further inquiry or deten tion. The 'commander-in-chief is a gentle man who has never underrated the influence of your sex, nor heid himself averse to its fascinations." 62 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. " What is the name of this informer ? ' broke in Mistress Thankful angrily. "Who is it that has dared " "It is but king's evidence, mayhap, Mis tress Thankful ; for the informer is himself under arrest. It is on the information of Capt. Allan Brewster of the Connecticut Con tingent." Mistress Thankful whitened, then flushed, and then whitened again. Then she stood up to the major. " It's a lie, a cowardly lie ! " Major Van Zandt bowed. Mistress Thank ful flew up stairs, and in another moment swept back again into the room in riding hat and habit " I suppose I can go and see my father," she said, without lifting her eyes to the officer. "You are free as air, Mistress Thankful THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 63 My orders and instructions, far from impli cating you in your father's offences, do not even suggest your existence. Let rne help you to your horse." The girl did not reply. During that brief interval, however, Caesar had saddled her white mare, and brought it to the door. Mis tress Thankful, disdaining the offered hand of the major, sprang to the saddle. The major still held the reins. "One moment, Mistress Thankful." " Let me go ! " she said, with suppressed passion. " One moment, I beg." His hand still held her bridle-rein. The mare reared, nearly upsetting her. Crimson with rage and mortification, she raised her riding-whip, and laid it smartly over the face Df the man before her. He dropped the rein instantly. Then he 64 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. raised to her a face calm and colorless, but for a red line extending from his eyebrow to his chin, and said quietly, " I had no desire to detain you. I only wished to say that when you see Gen. Wash ington I know you will be just enough to tell him that Major Van Zandt knew nothing of your wrongs, or even your presence here, until you presented them, and that since then he has treated you as became an officer and a gentleman." Yet even as he spoke she was gone. At the moment that her fluttering skirt swept in a furious gallop down the hillside, the major turned, and re-entered the house. The few lounging troopers who were witnesses of the scene prudently turned their eyes from the white face and blazing eyes of their officer as he strode by them. Nevertheless, when the door closed behind him, contemporary criti cism broke out : THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 65 "'Tis a Tory jade, vexed that she cannot befool the major as she has the captain," muttered Sergeant Tibbitts. " And going to try her tricks on the gen eral," added Private Hicks. Howbeit both these critics may have been wrong. For as Mistress Thankful thundered down the Morristown road she thought of many things. She thought of her sweet heart Allan, a prisoner, and pining for her help and her solicitude ; and yet how dared he if he had really betrayed or misjudged her! And then she thought bitterly of the count and the baron, and burned to face the latter, and in some vague way charge the stolen kiss upon him as the cause of all her shame and mortification. And lastly she thought of her father, and began to hate everybody. But above all and through all, in her vague fears for her father, in her pas- 66 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. i sionate indignation against the baron, in he* fretful impatience of Allan, one thing was ever dominant and obtrusive; one thing she tried to put away, but could not, the hand some, colorless face of Major Van Zandt, with the red welt of her riding-whip overlying its cold outlines. PART III. III. THE rising wind, which had ridden much faster than Mistress Thankful, had in creased to a gale by the time it reached Morristown. It swept through the leafless maples, and rattled the dry bones of the elms. It whistled through the quiet Presby terian churchyard, as if trying to arouse the sleepers it had known in days gone by. It shook the blank, lustreless windows of the Assembly Rooms over the Freemasons' Tav ern, and wrought in their gusty curtains mov ing shadows of those amply petticoated dames and tightly hosed cavaliers who had swung in " Sir Roger," or jigged in " Money Musk," the night before. 69 70 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. But I fancy it was around the isolated " Ford Mansion," better known as the " Head quarters," that the wind wreaked its gro tesque rage. It howled under its scant eaves, it sang under its bleak porch, it tweaked the peak of its front gable, it whistled through every chink and cranny of its square, solid, unpicturesque structure. Situated on a hill side that descended rapidly to the Whippany River, every summer zephyr that whispered through the porches of the Momstown farm houses charged as a stiff breeze upon the swinging half doors and windows of the " Ford Mansion ; " every wintry wind became a gale that threatened its security. The sen try who paced before its front porch knew from experience when to linger under its lee and adjust his threadbare outer coat to th bitter north wind. Within the house something of this cheer THANKFUL BLOSSOM. lessness prevailed. It had an ascetic gloom, which the scant firelight of the reception- room, and the dying embers on the dining- room hearth, failed to dissipate. The central hall was broad, and furnished plainly with a few rush-bottomed chairs, on one of which half dozed a black body-servant of the com- mander-in-chief. Two officers in the dining- room, drawn close by the chimney-corner, chatted in undertones, as if mindful that the door of the drawing-room was open, and their voices might break in upon its sacred privacy. The swinging light in the hall partly illumin ated it, or rather glanced gloomily from the black polished furniture, the lustreless chairs, the quaint cabinet, the silent spinet, the skeleton-legged centre-table, and finally upon the motionless figure of a man seated by the fire. It was a figure since so well known to the 72 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. civilized world, since so celebrated in print and painting, as to need no description here. Its rare combination of gentle dignity with profound force, of a set resoluteness of pur pose with a philosophical patience, have been so frequently delivered to a people not par ticularly remarkable for these qualities, that I fear it has too often provoked a spirit of play ful aggression, in which the deeper under lying meaning was forgotten. So let me add that in manner, physical equipoise, and even in the mere details of dress, this figure indi cated a certain aristocratic exclusiveness. It was the presentment of a king, a king who by the irony of circumstances was just then waging war against all kingship ; a ruler of men, who just then was fighting for the right of these men to govern themselves, but whom by his own inherent right he domi nated. From the crown of his powdered THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 73 head to the silver buckle of his shoe he was so royal that it was not sVrange that his brother Geqrge of England and Hanover ruling by accident, otherwise impiously known as the " grace of God " could find no better way of resisting his power than by calling him " Mr. Washington." The sound of horses' hoofs, the forma] challenge of sentry, the grave questioning of the officer of the guard, followed by footsteps upon the porch, did not apparently disturb his meditation. Nor did the opening of the outer door, and a charge of cold air into the hall that invaded even the privacy of the reception-room, and brightened the dying em bers on the hearth, stir his calm pre-occupa- tion. But an instant later there was the distinct rustle of a feminine skirt in the hall, a hurried whispering of men's voices, and then the sudden apparition of a smooth, fresh 74 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. faced young officer over the shoulder of the unconscious figure. " I beg your pardon, general," said the offi cer doubtingly, " but " "You are not intruding, CoL Hamilton," said the general quietly. " There is a young lady without who wishes an audience of your Excellency. 'Tis Mistress Thankful Blossom, the daughter of Abner Blossom, charged with treasonous practice and favoring the enemy, now in the guard-house at Morristown." " Thankful Blossom ? " repeated the general interrogatively. "Your Excellency doubtless remembers a little provincial beauty and a famous toast of the country-side, the Cressida of our Morris- town epic, who led our gallant Connecticut captain astray " "You have the advantages, besides the THANKFUL BLOSSOM. better memory of a younger man, colonel," said Washington, with a playful smile that slightly reddened the cheek of his aide-de camp. "Yet I think I have heard of this phenomenon. By all means, admit her and her escort." i " She is alone, general," responded the subordinate. " Then the more reason why we should be polite," returned Washington, for the first time altering his easy posture, rising to his feet, and lightly clasping his ruffled hands before him. " We must not keep her waiting. Give her access, my dear colonel, at once; and even as she came, alone? The aide-de-camp bowed and withdrew. In another moment the half-opened door swung wide to Mistress Thankful Blossom. She was so beautiful in her simple riding* dress, so quaint and original in that very 76 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. beauty, and, above all, so teeming with a cer tain vital earnestness of purpose just positive and audacious enough to set off that beavty, that the grave gentleman before her did not content himself with the usual formal inclina tion of courtesy, but actually advanced, and, taking her cold little hand in his, graciously led her to the chair he had just vacated. " Even if your name were not known to me, Mistress Thankful," said the commander- in-chief, looking down upon her with grave politeness, " nature has, methinks, spared you the necessity of any introduction to the cour tesy of a gentleman. But how can I espe cially serve you ? " Alack! the blaze of Mistress Thankful's brown eyes had become somewhat dimmed in the grave half-lights of the room, in the graver, deeper dignity of the erect, soldier like figure before her. The bright color born THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 77 of the tempest within and without had some how faded from her cheek ; the sauciness begotten from bullying her horse in the last half-hour's rapid ride was so subdued by the actual presence of the man she had come to bully, that I fear she had to use all her self- control to keep down her inclination to whim per, and to keep back the tears, that, oddly enough, rose to her sweet eyes as she lifted them to the quietly critical yet placid glance of her interlocutor. " I can readily conceive the motive of this visit, Miss Thankful," continued Washington, with a certain dignified kindliness that was more re-assuring than the formal gallantry of the period; "and it is, I protest, to your credit. A father's welfare, however erring and weak that father may be, is mos* seemly in a maiden" Thankf ul's eyes flashed again as she rose f8 THANKFUL BLOSSOM. to her feet. Her upper lip, that had a mo ment before trembled in a pretty infantine distress, now stiffened and curled as she con fronted the dignified figure before her. " It is not of my father I would speak," she said saucily : " I did not ride here alone to-night, in this weather, to talk of him ; I warrant he can speak for himself. I came here to speak of myself, of lies ay, lies told of me, a poor girl ; ay, of cowardly gossip about me and my sweetheart, Capt. Brewster, now con fined in prison because he hath loved me, a lass without politics or adherence to the cause as if 'twere necessary every lad should ask the confidence or permission of yourself or, belike, my Lady Washington, in his preferences." She paused a moment, out of breath. With a woman's quickness of intuition she 8aw the change in Washington's face, saw a THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 79 certain cold severity overshadowing it. With a woman's fateful persistency a persistency which I humbly suggest might, on occasion, be honorably copied by our more politic sex she went on to say what was in her, even if she were obliged, with a woman's honorable inconsistency, to unsay it an hour or two later ; an inconsistency which I also humbly protest might be as honorably imitated by us on occasion. " It has been said," said Thankful Blossom quickly, " that my father has given entertain ment knowingly to two spies, two spies that, begging your Excellency's pardon, and the pardon of Congress, I know only as two honorable gentlemen who have as honorably tendered me their affections. It is said, and basely and most falsely too, that my sweet heart, Capt. Allan Brewster, has lodged this information. I have ridden here to deny 8O rHANKPUL BLOSSOM. it. I have ridden here to demand of you that an honest woman's reputation shall not be sacrificed to the interests of politics ; that a prying mob of ragamuffins shall not be sent to an honest farmer's house to spy and spy and turn a poor girl out of doors that they might do it. 'Tis shameful, so it is : there ! 'tis most scandalous, so it is : there, now ! Spies, indeed ! what are they, pray ? ' In the indignation which the recollection of her wrongs had slowly gathered in her, from the beginning of this speech, she had ad vanced her face, rosy with courage, and beau tiful in its impertinence, within a few inches of the dignified features and quiet gray eyes of the great commander. To her utter stu pefaction, he bent his head and kissed her, with a grave benignity, full on the centre of her audacious forehead. " Be seated, I beg, Mistress Blossom," he THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 8 1 said, taking her cold hand in his, and quietly replacing her in the unoccupied chair. " Be seated, I beg, and give me, if you can, your attention for a moment. The officer intrusted with the ungracious task of occupying your father's house is a member of my military family, and a gentleman. If he has so far forgotten himself if he has so far disgraced himself and me as " " No ! no ! " uttered Thankful, with fever ish alacrity, " the gentleman was most con siderate. On the contrary mayhap I ' she hesitated, and then came to a full stop, with a heightened color, as a vivid recol lection of that gentleman's face, with the mark of her riding-whip lying across it, rose before her. " I was about to say that Major Van Zandt, as a gentleman, has known how to fully excuse the natural impulses of a daughter," 82 THANKFUL BLOSSOM., continued Washington, with a look of perfect understanding ; " but let me now satisfy you on another point, where it would seem we greatly differ." He walked to the door, and summoned his servant, to whom he gave an order. In an other moment the fresh-faced young officer who had at first admitted her re-appeared with a file of official papers. He glanced slyly at Thankful Blossom's face with an amused look, as if he had already heard the colloquy between her and his superior officer, and had appreciated that which neither of the earnest actors in the scene had themselves felt, a certain sense of humor in the situa tion. Howbeit, standing before them, Col. Ham ilton gravely turned over the file of papers. Thankful bit her lips in embarrassment. A slight feeling of awe, and a presentiment of THANKFUL BLOSSOM. 83