CHAPTER XIV.
YANKEES.
For several days I saw nothing of Preston. He was hardly missed.
I found that such a parade as that which pleased me the first morningcame off twice daily; and other military displays, more extended andmore interesting, were to be looked for every day at irregular times.I failed not of one. So surely as the roll of the drum or a strain ofmusic announced that something of the sort was on hand, I caught up myhat and was ready. And so was Dr. Sandford. Mrs. Sandford would oftennot go; but the doctor's hat was as easily put on as mine, and asreadily; and he attended me, I used to think, as patiently as a greatNewfoundland dog. As patient, and as supreme. The evolutions ofsoldiers and clangour of martial music were nothing to _him_, but hemust wait upon his little mistress. I mean of course the Newfoundlanddog; not Dr. Sandford.
"Will you go for a walk, Daisy?" he said, the morning of the third orfourth day. "There is nothing doing on the plain, I find."
"A walk? Oh, yes!" I said. "Where shall we go?"
"To look for wonderful things," he said.
"Only don't take the child among the rattlesnakes," said Mrs.Sandford. "_They_ are wonderful, I suppose, but not pleasant. You willget her all tanned, Grant!"
But I took these hints of danger as coolly as the doctor himself did;and another of my West Point delights began.
We went beyond the limits of the post, passed out at one of the gateswhich shut it in from the common world, and forgot for the momentdrums and fifes. Up the mountain side, under the shadow of the treesmost of the time, though along a good road; with the wild hill at onehand rising sharp above us. Turning round that, we finally plungeddown into a grand dell of the hills, leaving all roads behind and allcivilization, and having a whole mountain between us and the WestPoint plain. I suppose it might have been a region for rattlesnakes,but I never thought of them. I had never seen such a place in my life.From the bottom of the gorge where we were, the opposite mountain sidesloped up to a great height; wild, lonely, green with a wealth ofwood, stupendous, as it seemed to me, in its towering expanse. At ourbacks, a rocky and green precipice rose up more steeply yet, though toa lesser elevation, topped with the grey walls of the old fort, theother face of which I had seen from our hotel. A wilderness of natureit was; wild and stern. I feasted on it. Dr. Sandford was movingabout, looking for something; he helped me over rocks, and jumped meacross morasses, and kept watchful guard of me; but else he let mealone; he did not talk, and I had quite enough without. The strongdelight of the novelty, the freedom, the delicious wild things around,the bracing air, the wonderful lofty beauty, made me as happy as Ithought I could be. I feasted on the rocks and wild verdure, themosses and ferns and lichen, the scrub forest and tangled undergrowth,among which we plunged and scrambled: above all, on those vast leafywalls which shut in the glen, and almost took away my breath withtheir towering lonely grandeur. All this time Dr. Sandford was as busyas a bee, in quest of something. He was a great geologist andmineralogist; a lover of all natural science, but particularly ofchemistry and geology. When I stopped to look at him, I thought hemust have put his own tastes in his pocket for several days past thathe might gratify mine. I was standing on a rock, high and dry and greywith lichen; he was poking about in some swampy ground.
"Are you tired, Daisy?" he said, looking up.
"My feet are tired," I said.
"That is all of you that can be tired. Sit down where you are--I willcome to you directly."
So I sat down and watched him, and looked off between whiles to thewonderful green walls of the glen. The summer blue was very clearoverhead; the stillness of the place very deep; insects, birds, aflutter of leaves, and the grating of Dr. Sandford's boot upon astone, all the sounds that could be heard.
"Why you are warm, as well as tired, Daisy," he said, coming up to myrock at last.
"It _is_ warm," I answered.
"Warm?" said he. "Look here, Daisy!"
"Well, what in the world is that?" I said, laughing. "A little mud orearth is all that I can see."
"Ah, your eyes are not good for much, Daisy--except to look at."
"Not good for much for _that_," I said, amused; for his eyes were bentupon the earth in his hand.
"I don't know," said he, getting up on the rock beside me and sittingdown. "I used to find strange things in them once. But this issomething you will like, Daisy."
"Is it?"
"If you like wonderful things as well as ever."
"Oh, I do!" I said. "What is it, Dr. Sandford?"
He carefully wrapped up his treasure in a bit of paper and put it inhis pocket; then he cut down a small hickory branch and began to fanme with it; and while he sat there fanning me he entered upon alecture such as I had never listened to in my life. I had studied alittle geology of course, as well as a little of everything else; butno lesson like this had come in the course of my experience. Takinghis text from the very wild glen where we were sitting and themountain sides upon which I had been gazing, Dr. Sandford spread aclear page of nature before me and interpreted it. He answeredunspoken questions; he filled great vacancies of my ignorance; intowhat had been abysms of thought he poured a whole treasury ofintelligence and brought floods of light. All so quietly, soluminously, with such a wealth of knowledge and facility of giving it,that it is a simple thing to say no story of Eastern magic was evergiven into more charmed ears around an Arabian desert fire. I listenedand he talked and fanned me. He talked like one occupied with hissubject and not with me: but he met every half-uttered doubt orquestion, and before he had done he satisfied it fully. I had alwaysliked Dr. Sandford; I had never liked him so much; I had never, sincethe old childish times, had such a free talk with him. And now, he didnot talk to me as a child or a very young girl, except in bendinghimself to my ignorance; but as one who loves knowledge likes to giveit to others, so he gave it to me. Only I do not remember seeing himlike to give it in such manner to anybody else. I think the noveltyadded to the zest when I thought about it; at the moment I had no timefor side thoughts. At the moment my ears could but receive the pearlsand diamonds of knowledge which came from the speaker's lips, set insilver of the simplest clear English. I notice that the people whohave the most thorough grasp of a subject make ever least difficultyof words about it.
The sun was high and hot when we returned, but I cared nothing forthat. I was more than ever sure that West Point was fairyland. The oldspring of childish glee seemed to have come back to my nerves.
"Dinner is just ready," said Mrs. Sandford, meeting us in the hall."Why, where _have_ you been? And look at the colour of Daisy's face!Oh, Grant, what have you done with her?"
"Very good colour--" said the doctor, peering under my hat.
"She's all flushed and sunburnt, and overheated."
"Daisy is never anything but cool," he said; "unless when she getshold of a principle, and somebody else gets hold of the other end.We'll look at these things after dinner, Daisy."
"Principles?" half exclaimed Mrs. Sandford, with so dismayed anexpression that the doctor and I both laughed.
"Not exactly," said the doctor, putting his hand in his pocket. "Lookhere."
"I see nothing but a little dirt."
"You shall see something else by and by--if you will."
"You have never brought your microscope here, Grant? Where in theworld will you set it up?"
"In your room--after dinner--if you permit."
Mrs. Sandford permitted; and though she did not care much about theinvestigations that followed, the doctor and I did. As delightful asthe morning had been, the long afternoon stretched its bright hoursalong; till Mrs. Sandford insisted I must be dressed, and pushed themicroscope into a corner and ordered the doctor away.
That was the beginning of the pleasantest course of lessons I ever had inmy life. From that time Dr. Sandford and I spent a large part of everyday in the hills; and often another large part over the microscope. Nopalace and gardens in the Arabian nights were ever more enchanting, th
anthe glories of nature through which he led me; nor half so wonderful. "Alittle dirt," as it seemed to ordinary eyes, was the hidden entrance wayofttimes to halls of knowledge more magnificent and more rich than myfancy had ever dreamed of.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Sandford found a great many officers to talk to.
It was not till the evening of the next day following my first walkinto the mountains, that I saw Preston. It was parade time; and I wassitting as usual on one of the iron settees which are placed for theconvenience of spectators. I was almost always there at parade andguardmounting. The picture had a continual fascination for me, whetherunder the morning sun, or the evening sunset; and the music wascharming. This time I was alone, Dr. and Mrs. Sandford being engagedin conversation with friends at a little distance. Following with myear the variations of the air the band were playing my mind was at thesame time dwelling on the riches it had just gained in the naturalhistory researches of the day, and also taking in half consciouslythe colours of the hills and the light that spread over the plain;musing, in short, in a kind of dream of delight; when a grey figurecame between me and my picture. Finding that it did not move, I raisedmy eyes.
"The same Daisy as ever!" said Preston, his eyes all alight with funand pleasure. "The same as ever! And how came you here? and when didyou come? and how did you come?"
"We have been here ever since Friday. Why haven't you been to see me?Dr. Sandford sent word to you."
"Dr. Sandford!" said Preston, taking the place by my side. "How didyou come here, Daisy?"
"I came by the boat, last Friday. How should I come?"
"Who are you with?"
"Dr. Sandford--and Mrs. Sandford."
"_Mrs._ Sandford, and Dr. Sandford," said Preston, pointedly. "You arenot with the doctor, I suppose."
"Why yes, I am," I answered. "He is my guardian--don't you know,Preston? He brought me. How tall you have grown!"
"A parcel of Yankees," said Preston. "Poor little Daisy."
"What do you mean by 'Yankees'?" I said. "You do not mean just peopleat the North, for you speak as if it was something bad."
"It is. So I do," said Preston. "They are a mean set--fit for nothingbut to eat codfish and scrape. I wish you had nothing to do withYankees."
I thought how all the South lived upon stolen earnings. It was adisagreeable turn to my meditations for a moment.
"Where have you hid yourself since you have come here?" Preston wenton. "I have been to the hotel time and again to find you."
"Have you!" I said. "Oh, I suppose I was out walking."
"With whom were you walking."
"I don't know anybody here, but those I came with. But, Preston, whyare you not over yonder with the others?"
I was looking at the long grey line formed in front of us on theplain.
"I got leave of absence, to come and see you, Daisy. And _you_ havegrown, and improved. You're wonderfully improved. Are you the verysame Daisy? and what are you going to do here?"
"Oh, I'm enjoying myself. Now, Preston why does that man stand so?"
"What man?"
"That officer--here in front, standing all alone, with the sash andsword. Why does he stand so?"
"Hush. That is Captain Percival. He is the officer in charge."
"What is that?"
"Oh, he looks after the parade, and things."
"But why does he stand so, Preston?"
"Stand how?" said Preston, unsympathizingly. "That is good standing."
"Why, with his shoulders up to his ears," I said; "and his arms liftedup as if he was trying to put his elbows upon a high shelf. It is_very_ awkward."
"They all stand so," said Preston. "That's right enough."
"It is ungraceful."
"It is military."
"Must one be ungraceful in order to be military?"
"_He_ isn't ungraceful. That is Percival--of South Carolina."
"The officer yesterday stood a great deal better," I went on.
"Yesterday? That was Blunt. He's a Yankee."
"Well, what then, Preston?" I said laughing.
"I despise them!"
"Aren't there Yankees among the cadets?"
"Of course; but they are no count--only here and there there's one ofgood family. Don't you have anything to do with them, Daisy!--mind;--notwith one of them, unless I tell you who he is."
"With one of whom? What are you speaking of?"
"The cadets."
"Why I have nothing to do with them," I said. "How should I?"
Preston looked at me curiously.
"Nor at the hotel, neither, Daisy--more than you can help. Havenothing to say to the Yankees."
I thought Preston had taken a strange fancy. I was silent.
"It is not fitting," he went on. "We are going to change all that. Iwant to have nothing to do with Yankees."
"What are you going to change?" I asked. "I don't see how you can helphaving to do with them. They are among the cadets, and they are amongthe officers."
"We have our own set," said Preston. "I have nothing to do with themin the corps."
"Now, Preston, look; what are they about? All the red sashes aregetting together."
"Parade is dismissed. They are coming up to salute the officer incharge."
"It is so pretty!" I said, as the music burst out again, and themeasured steps of the advancing line of "red sashes" marked it. "Andnow Captain Percival will unbend his stiff elbows. Why could not allthat be done easily, Preston?"
"Nonsense, Daisy!--it is military."
"Is it? But Mr. Blunt did it a great deal better. Now they are going.Must you go?"
"Yes. What are you going to do to-morrow?"
"I don't know--I suppose we shall go into the woods again."
"When the examination is over, I can attend to you. I haven't muchtime just now. But there is really nothing to be done here, since onecan't get on horseback out of the hours."
"I don't want anything better than I can get on my own feet," I saidjoyously. "I find plenty to do."
"Look here, Daisy," said Preston--"don't you turn into a masculine,muscular woman, that can walk her twenty miles and wear hobnailedshoes--like the Yankees you are among. Don't forget that you are thedaughter of a Southern gentleman--"
He touched his cap hastily and turned away--walking with thosemeasured steps towards the barracks; whither now all the companies ofgrey figures were in full retreat. I stood wondering, and then slowlyreturned with my friends to the hotel; much puzzled to account forPreston's discomposure and strange injunctions. The sunlight had leftthe tops of the hills; the river slept in the gathering grey shadows,soft, tranquil, reposeful. Before I got to the hotel, I had quite madeup my mind that my cousin's eccentricities were of no consequence.
They recurred to me, however, and were as puzzling as ever. I had nokey at the time.
The next afternoon was given to a very lively show: the lightartillery drill before the Board of Visitors. We sat out under thetrees to behold it; and I found out now the meaning of the broadstrip of plain between the hotel and the library, which was brown anddusty in the midst of the universal green. Over this strip, round andround, back, and forth, and across, the light artillery wagons rushed,as if to show what they could do in time of need. It was a beautifulsight, exciting and stirring; with the beat of horses' hoofs, theclatter of harness, the rumble of wheels tearing along over theground, the flash of a sabre now and then, the ringing words ofcommand, and the soft, shrill echoing bugle which repeated them. Ionly wanted to understand it all; and in the evening I plied Prestonwith questions. He explained things to me patiently.
"I understand," I said, at last, "I understand what it would do in wartime. But we are not at war, Preston."
"No."
"Nor in the least likely to be."
"We can't tell. It is good to be ready."
"But what do you mean?" I remember saying. "You speak as if we mightbe at war. Who is there for us to fight?"
"Anybody that wants putting in
order," said Preston. "The Indians."
"O Preston, Preston!" I exclaimed. "The Indians! when we have beendoing them wrong ever since the white men came here; and you want todo them more wrong!"
"I want to hinder them from doing us wrong. But I don't care about theIndians, little Daisy. I would just as lief fight the Yankees."
"Preston, I think you are very wrong."
"You think all the world is," he said.
We were silent, and I felt very dissatisfied. What _was_ all thismilitary schooling a preparation for, perhaps? How could we know.Maybe these heads and hands, so gay to-day in their mock fight, wouldbe grimly and sadly at work by and by, in real encounter with somereal enemy.
"Do you see that man, Daisy?" whispered Preston, suddenly in my ear."That one talking to a lady in blue."
We were on the parade ground, among a crowd of spectators, for thehotels were very full, and the Point very gay now. I said I saw him.
"That is a great man."
"Is he?" I said, looking and wondering if a great man could hidebehind such a physiognomy.
"Other people think so, I can tell you," said Preston. "Nobody knowswhat that man can do. That is Davis of Mississippi."
The name meant nothing to me then. I looked at him as I would havelooked at another man. And I did not like what I saw. Something ofsinister, nothing noble, about the countenance; power there mightbe--Preston said there was--but the power of the fox and the vultureit seemed to me; sly, crafty, selfish, cruel.
"If nobody knows what he can do, how is it so certain that he is agreat man?" I asked. Preston did not answer. "I hope there are notmany great men that look like him." I went on.
"Nonsense, Daisy!" said Preston, in an energetic whisper. "That isDavis of Mississippi."
"Well?" said I. "That is no more to me than if he were Jones of NewYork."
"Daisy!" said Preston. "If you are not a true Southerner, I will neverlove you any more."
"What do you mean by a true Southerner? I do not understand."
"Yes, you do. A true Southerner is always a Southerner, and takes thepart of a Southerner in every dispute--right or wrong."
"What makes you dislike Northerners so much?"
"Cowardly Yankees!" was Preston's reply.
"You must have an uncomfortable time among them, if you feel so," Isaid.
"There are plenty of the true sort here. I wish you were in Paris,Daisy; or somewhere else."
"Why?" I said, laughing.
"Safe with my mother, or _your_ mother. You want teaching. You are toolatitudinarian. And you are too thick with the Yankees, by half."
I let this opinion alone, as I could do nothing with it; and ourconversation broke off with Preston in a very bad humour.
The next day, when we were deep in the woods, I asked Dr. Sandford ifhe knew Mr. Davis of Mississippi. He answered Yes, rather drily. Iknew the doctor knew everybody.
I asked why Preston called him a great man.
"Does he call him a great man?" Dr. Sandford asked.
"Do you?"
"No, not I, Daisy. But that may not hinder the fact. And I may nothave Mr. Gary's means of judging."
"What means can he have?" I said.
"Daisy," said Dr. Sandford suddenly, when I had forgotten the questionin plunging through a thicket of brushwood, "if the North and theSouth should split on the subject of slavery, what side would youtake?"
"What do you mean by a 'split'?" I asked slowly, in my wonderment.
"The States are not precisely like a perfect crystal, Daisy, andthere is an incipient cleavage somewhere about Mason and Dixon'sline."
"I do not know what line that is."
"No. Well, for practical purposes, you may take it as the line betweenthe slave States and the free."
"But how could there be a split?" I asked.
"There is a wedge applied even now, Daisy--the question whether thenew States forming out of our Western territories, shall have slaveryin them or shall be free States."
I was silent upon this; and we walked and climbed for a littledistance, without my remembering our geological or mineralogical, orany other objects in view.
"The North say," Dr. Sandford then went on, "that these States shallbe free. The South--or some men at the South--threaten that if theybe, the South will split from the North, have nothing to do with us,and set up for themselves."
"Who is to decide it?" I asked.
"The people. This fall the election will be held for the nextPresident; and that will show. If a slavery man be chosen, we shallknow that a majority of the nation go with the Southern view."
"If not?"--
"Then there may be trouble, Daisy."
"What sort of trouble?" I asked hastily.
Dr. Sandford hesitated, and then said, "I do not know how far peoplewill go."
I mused, and forgot the sweet flutter of green leaves, and smell ofmoss and of hemlock, and golden bursts of sunshine, amongst which wewere pursuing our way. Preston's strange heat and Southernism, Mr.Davis's wile and greatness, a coming disputed election, quarrelsbetween the people where I was born and the people where I was broughtup, divisions and jealousies, floated before my mind in unlovely andconfused visions. Then, remembering my father and my mother and GaryMcFarlane, and others whom I had known, I spoke again.
"Whatever the Southern people say, they will do, Dr. Sandford."
"_Provided_--" said the doctor.
"What, if you please?"
"Provided the North will let them, Daisy."
I thought privately they could not hinder. Would there be a trial?Could it be possible there would be a trial?
"But you have not answered my question," said the doctor. "Aren't yougoing to answer it?"
"What question?"
"As to the side you would take."
"I do not want any more slave States, Dr. Sandford."
"I thought so. Then you would be with the North."
"But people will never be so foolish as to come to what you call a'split,' Dr. Sandford."
"Upon my word, Daisy, as the world is at present, the folly of a thingis no presumptive argument against its coming into existence.Look--here we shall get a nice piece of quartz for your collection."
I came back to the primary rocks, and for the present dismissed thesubject of the confusions existing on the surface of the earth; hopingsincerely that there would be no occasion for calling it up again.
For some time I saw very little of Preston. He was busy, he said. Mydays flowed on like the summer sunshine, and were as beneficent. I wasgaining strength every day. Dr. Sandford decreed that I must stay aslong as possible. Then Mr. Sandford came, the doctor's brother, andadded his social weight to our party. Hardly needed, for I perceivedthat we were very much sought after; at least my companions. Thedoctor in especial was a very great favourite, both with men andwomen; who I notice are most ready to bestow their favour where it isleast cared for. I don't know but Dr. Sandford cared for it; only hedid not show that he did. The claims of society however began tointerfere with my geological and other lessons.
A few days after his brother's arrival, the doctor had been carriedoff by a party of gentlemen who were going back in the mountains tofish in the White Lakes. I was left to the usual summer delights ofthe place; which indeed to me were numberless; began with the echo ofthe morning gun (or before) and ended not till the three taps of thedrum at night. The cadets had gone into camp by this time; and thetaps of the drum were quite near, as well as the shrill sweet notes ofthe fife at reveille and tattoo. The camp itself was a great pleasureto me; and at guardmounting or parade I never failed to be in myplace. Only to sit in the rear of the guard tents and watch themorning sunlight on the turf, and on the hills over the river, andshining down the camp alleys, was a rich satisfaction. Mrs. Sandfordlaughed at me; her husband said it was "natural," though I am sure hedid not understand it a bit; but the end of all was, that I was leftvery often to go alone down the little path to the guard tents amongthe crowd
that twice a day poured out there from our hotel and met thecrowd that came up from Cozzens's hotel below.
So it was, one morning that I remember. Guardmounting was always lateenough to let one feel the sun's power; and it was a sultry morning,this. We were in July now, and misty, vaporous clouds moved slowlyover the blue sky, seeming to intensify the heat of the uncloudedintervals. But wonderful sweet it was; and I under the shade of myflat hat, with a little help from the foliage of a young tree, did notmind it at all. Every bit of the scene was a pleasure to me; I missednone of the details. The files of cadets in the camp alleys gettingtheir arms inspected; the white tents themselves, with curtainstightly done up; here and there an officer crossing the camp groundand stopping to speak to an orderly; then the coming up of the band,the music, the marching out of the companies; the leisurely walk fromthe camp of the officer in charge, drawing on his white gloves; hisstand and his attitude; and then the pretty business of the parade.All under that July sky; all under that flicker of cloud and sun, andthe soft sweet breath of air that sometimes stole to us to relieve thehot stillness; and all with that setting and background of cedars andyoung foliage and bordering hills over which the cloud shadows swept.Then came the mounting-guard business. By and by Preston came to me.
"Awfully hot, Daisy!" he said.
"Yes, you are out in it," I said, compassionately.
"What are _you_ out in it for?"
"Why, I like it," I said. "How come you to be one of the red sashesthis morning?"
"I have been an officer of the guard this last twenty-four hours."
"Since yesterday morning?"
"Yes."
"Do you like it, Preston?"
"_Like_ it!" he said. "Like guard duty! Why, Daisy, when a fellow hasleft his shoe-string untied, or something or other like that, they puthim on extra guard duty to punish him."
"Did you ever do so, Preston?"
"Did I ever do so?" he repeated savagely. "Do you think I have beenraised like a Yankee, to take care of my shoes? That Blunt is just fitto stand behind a counter and measure inches!"
I was very near laughing, but Preston was not in a mood to bearlaughing at.
"I don't think it is beneath a gentleman to keep his shoe-stringstied," I said.
"A gentleman can't always think of everything!" he replied.
"Then you are glad you have only one year more at the Academy?"
"Of course I am glad! I'll never be under Yankee rule again; not if Iknow it."
"Suppose they elect a Yankee President?" I said; but Preston's lookwas so eager and so sharp at me that I was glad to cover my rashsuggestion under another subject as soon as possible.
"Are you going to be busy this afternoon?" I asked him.
"No, I reckon not."
"Suppose you come and go up to the fort with me?"
"What fort?"
"Fort Putnam. I have never been there yet."
"There is nothing on earth to go there for," said Preston, shrugginghis shoulders. "Just broil yourself in the sun, and get nothing forit. It's an awful pull uphill; rough, and all that; and nothing at thetop but an old stone wall."
"But there is the view!" I said.
"You have got it down here--just as good. Just climb up the hotelstairs fifty times without stopping, and then look out of the thing atthe top--and you have been to Fort Putnam."
"Why, I want you to go to the top of Crow's Nest," I said.
"Yes! I was ass enough to try that once," said Preston, "when I wasjust come, and thought I must do everything; but if anybody wants toinsult me, let him just ask me to do it again!"
Preston's mood was unmanageable. I had never seen him so in old times.I thought West Point did not agree with him. I listened to the band,just then playing a fine air, and lamented privately to myself thatbrass instruments should be so much more harmonious than humantempers. Then the music ceased and the military movements drew myattention again.
"They all walk like you," I observed carelessly, as I noticed ameasured step crossing the camp ground.
"Do they?" said Preston sneeringly. "I flatter myself I do not walklike _all_ of them. If you notice more closely, Daisy, you will see adifference. You can tell a Southerner, on foot or on horseback, fromthe sons of tailors and farmers--strange if you couldn't!"
"I think you are unjust, Preston," I said. "You should not talk so.Major Blunt walks as well and stands much better than any officer Ihave seen; and he is from Vermont; and Capt. Percival is from SouthCarolina, and Mr. Hunter is from Virginia, and Col. Forsyth is fromGeorgia. They are all of them less graceful than Major Blunt."
"What do you think of Dr. Sandford?" said Preston in the same tone; butbefore I could answer I heard a call of "Gary!--Gary!" I looked round.In the midst of the ranks of spectators to our left stood a cadet, myfriend of the omnibus. He was looking impatiently our way, and againexclaimed in a sort of suppressed shout--"Gary!" Preston heard him thattime; started from my side, and placed himself immediately beside hissummoner, in front of the guard tents and spectators. The two were inline, two or three yards separating them, and both facing towards a partydrawn up at some little distance on the camp ground, which I believe werethe relieving guard. I moved my own position to a place immediatelybehind them, where I spied an empty camp-stool, and watched the two withcurious eyes. Uniforms, and military conformities generally, are queerthings if you take the right point of view. Here were these two, a pair,and not a pair. The grey coat and the white pantaloons (they had all goneinto white now), the little soldier's cap, were a counterpart in each ofthe other; the two even stood on the ground as if they were bound to bepatterns each of the other; and when my acquaintance raised his arms andfolded them after the most approved fashion, to my great amusementPreston's arms copied the movement: and they stood like two brotherstatues still, from their heels to their cap rims. Except when once theright arm of my unknown friend was unbent to give a military sign, inanswer to some demand or address from somebody in front of him which Idid not hear. Yet as I watched, I began to discern how individual my twostatues really were. I could not see faces, of course. But the grey coaton the one looked as if its shoulders had been more carefully brushedthan had been the case with the other; the spotless pantaloons, whichseemed to be just out of the laundress's basket, as I suppose they were,sat with a trimmer perfection in one case than in the other. Preston'spocket gaped, and was, I noticed, a little bit ripped; and when my eyegot down to the shoes, his had not the black gloss of his companion's.With that one there was not, I think, a thread awry. And then, there wasa certain relaxation in the lines of Preston's figure impossible todescribe, stiff and motionless though he was; something which preparedone for a lax and careless movement when he moved. Perhaps this was fancyand only arose from my knowledge of the fact; but with the other no suchfancy was possible. Still, but alert; motionless, but full of vigour; Iexpected what came; firm, quick, and easy action, as soon as he shouldcease to be a statue.
So much to a back view of character; which engrossed me till my twostatues went away.
A little while after Preston came. "Are you here yet?" he said.
"Don't you like to have me here?"
"It's hot. And it is very stupid for you, I should think. Where isMrs. Sandford?"
"She thinks as you do, that it is stupid."
"You ought not to be here without some one."
"Why not? What cadet was that who called you, Preston?"
"Called me? Nobody called me."
"Yes he did. When you were sitting with me. Who was it?"
"I don't know!" said Preston. "Good-bye. I shall be busy for a day ortwo."
"Then you cannot go to Fort Putnam this afternoon?"
"Fort Putnam? I should think not. It will be broiling to-day."
And he left me. Things had gone wrong with Preston lately, I thought.Before I had made up my mind to move, two other cadets came before me.One of them Mrs. Sandford knew, and I slightly.
"Miss Randolph, my friend Mr. Thor
old has begged me to introduce himto you."
It was _my_ friend of the omnibus. I think we liked each other at thisvery first moment. I looked up at a manly, well-featured face, justthen lighted with a little smile of deference and recognition; butpermanently lighted with the brightest and quickest hazel eyes that Iever saw. Something about the face pleased me on the instant. Ibelieve it was the frankness.
"I have to apologize for my rudeness, in calling a gentleman away fromyou, Miss Randolph, in a very unceremonious manner, a little whileago."
"Oh, I know," I said. "I saw what you did with him."
"Did I do anything with him?"
"Only called him to his duty, I suppose."
"Precisely. He was very excusable for forgetting it; but it might havebeen inconvenient."
"Do you think it is ever excusable to forget duty?" I asked; and I wasrewarded with a swift flash of fun in the hazel eyes, that came andwent like forked lightning.
"It is not easily pardoned here," he answered.
"People don't make allowances?"
"Not officers," he said, with a smile. "Soldiers lose the character ofmen, when on duty; they are only reckoned machines."
"You do not mean that exactly, I suppose."
"Indeed I do!" he said, with another slighter coruscation."Intelligent machines, of course, and with no more latitude of action.You would not like that life?"
"I should think you would not."
"Ah, but we hope to rise to the management of the machines, some day."
I thought I saw in his face that he did. I remarked that I thought themanagement of machines could not be very pleasant.
"Why not?"
"It is degrading to the machines--and so, I should think, it would notbe very elevating to those that make them machines."
"That is exactly the use they propose them to serve, though," he said,looking amused; "the elevation of themselves."
"I know," I said, thinking that the end was ignoble too.
"You do not approve it?" he said.
I felt those brilliant eyes dancing all over me and, I fancied, overmy thoughts too. I felt a little shy of going on to explain myself toone whom I knew so little. He turned the conversation, by asking me ifI had seen all the lions yet.
I said I supposed not.
"Have you been up to the old fort?"
"I want to go there," I said; "but somebody told me to-day, there wasnothing worth going for."
"Has his report taken away your desire to make the trial?"
"No, for I do not believe he is right."
"Might I offer myself as a guide? I can be disengaged this afternoon;and I know all the ways to the fort. It would give me great pleasure."
I felt it would give me great pleasure too, and so I told him. Wearranged for the hour, and Mr. Thorold hastened away.