The Battle Ground Part 63

"I don't like the long shadows--bring the lamps."

Choking back a sob, Dan crossed the floor and knelt down by the chair.

"We have come back, grandpa," he said. "We beg your pardon, and we have come back--Big Abel and I."

For a moment the Major stared at him in silence; then he reached out and felt him with shaking hands as if he mistrusted the vision of his eyes.

"So you're back, Champe, my boy," he muttered. "My eyes are bad--I thought at first that it was Dan--that it was Dan."

"It is I, grandpa," said Dan, slowly. "It is I--and Big Abel, too. We are sorry for it all--for everything, and we have come back poorer than we went away."

A light broke over the old man's face, and he stretched out his arms with a great cry that filled the room as his head fell forward on his grandson's breast. Then, when Mrs. Lightfoot appeared in the doorway, he controlled himself with a gasp and struggled to his feet.

"Welcome home, my son," he said ceremoniously, as he put out his quivering hands, "and welcome home, Big Abel."

The old lady went into Dan's arms as he turned, and looking over her head, he saw Betty coming toward him with a lamp s.h.i.+ning in her hand.

"My child, here is one of our soldiers," cried the Major, in joyful tones, and as the girl placed the lamp upon the table, she turned and met Dan's eyes.

"It is the second time I've come home like this, Betty," he said, "only I'm a worse beggar now than I was at first."

Betty shook his hand warmly and smiled into his serious face.

"I dare say you're hungrier," she responded cheerfully, "but we'll soon mend that, Mrs. Lightfoot and I. We are of one mind with Uncle Bill, who, when Mr. Blake asked him the other day what we ought to do for our returned soldiers, replied as quick as that, 'Feed 'em, sir.'"

The Major laughed with misty eyes.

"You can't get Betty to look on the dark side, my boy," he declared, though Dan, watching the girl, saw that her face in repose had grown very sad.

Only the old beaming smile brought the brightness now.

"Well, I hope she will turn up the cheerful part of this outlook," he said, surrendering himself to the noisy welcome of Cupid and Aunt Rhody.

"We may trust her--we may trust her," replied the old man as he settled himself back into his chair. "If there isn't any suns.h.i.+ne, Betty will make it for us herself."

Dan met the girl's glance for an instant, and then looked at the old negroes hanging upon his hands.

"Yes, the prodigal is back," he admitted, laughing, "and I hope the fatted calf is on the crane."

"Dar's a roas' pig fur ter-morrow, sho's you bo'n," returned Aunt Rhody.

"En I'se gwine to stuff 'im full." Then she hurried away to her fire, and Dan threw himself down upon the rug at the Major's feet.

"Yes, we may trust Betty for the suns.h.i.+ne," repeated the Major, as if striving to recall his wandering thoughts. "She's my overseer now, you know, and she actually looks after both places in less time than poor Harris took to worry along with one. Why, there's not a better farmer in the county."

"Oh, Major, don't," begged the girl, laughing and blus.h.i.+ng beneath Dan's eyes. "You mustn't believe him, Dan, he wears rose-coloured gla.s.ses when he looks at me."

"Well, my sight is dim enough for everything else, my dear," confessed the old man sadly. "That's why I have the lamps lighted before the sun goes down--eh, Molly?"

Mrs. Lightfoot unwrapped her knitting and the ivory kneedles clicked in the firelight.

"I like to keep the shadows away myself," she responded. "The twilight used to be my favourite hour, but I dread it now, and so does Mr. Lightfoot."

"Well, the war's given us that in common," chuckled the Major, stretching out his feet. "If I remember rightly you once complained that our tastes were never alike, Molly." Then he glanced round with hospitable eyes. "Draw up, my boy, draw up to the fire and tell your story," he added invitingly.

"By the time Champe comes home we'll have rich treats in store for the summer evenings."

Betty was looking at him as he bent over the thin flames, and Dan saw her warm gaze cloud suddenly with tears. He put out his hand and touched hers as it lay on the Major's chair, and when she turned to him she was smiling brightly.

"Here's Cupid with our supper," she said, going to the table, "and dear Aunt Rhody has actually gotten out her brandied peaches that she kept behind her 'jists.' If you ever doubted your welcome, Dan, this must banish it forever." Then as they gathered about the fruits of Aunt Rhody's labours, she talked on rapidly in her cheerful voice. "The silver has just been drawn up from the bottom of the well," she laughed, "so you mustn't wonder if it looks a little tarnished. There wasn't a piece missing, which is something to be thankful for already, and the port--how many bottles of port did you dig up from the asparagus bed, Uncle Cupid?"

"I'se done hoed up 'mos' a dozen," answered Cupid, as he plied Dan with waffles, "en dey ain' all un um up yit."

"Well, well, we'll have a bottle after supper," remarked the Major, heartily.

"If there's anything that's been improved by this war it should be that port, I reckon," said Mrs. Lightfoot, her muslin cap nodding over the high old urns.

"And Dan's appet.i.te," finished Betty, merrily.

When they rose from the table, the girl tied on her bonnet of plaited straw and kissed Mrs. Lightfoot and the Major.

"It is almost mamma's supper time," she said, "and I must hurry back. Why, I've been away from her at least two hours." Then she looked at Dan and shook her head. "Don't come," she added, "it is too far for you, and Congo will see me safely home."

"Well, I'm sorry for Congo, but his day is over," Dan returned, as he took up his hat and followed her out into the orchard. With a last wave to the Major, who watched them from the window, they pa.s.sed under the blossoming fruit trees and went slowly down the little path, while Betty talked pleasantly of trivial things, cheerful, friendly, and composed. When she had exhausted the spring ploughing, the crops still to be planted and the bright May weather, Dan stopped beside the ashes of Cheric.o.ke, and looked at her with sombre eyes.

"Betty, we must have it out," he said abruptly. "I have thought over it until I'm almost mad, and I see but one sensible thing for you to do--you must give me up--my dearest."

A smile flickered about Betty's mouth. "It has taken you a long time to come to that conclusion," she responded.

"I hoped until the end--even after I knew that hope was folly and that I was a fool to cling to it. I always meant to come back to you when I got the chance, but not like this--not like this."

At the pain in his eyes the girl caught her breath with a sob that shook her from head to foot. Pity moved her with a pa.s.sion stronger than mere love, and she put out her protecting arms with a gesture that would have saved him from the world--or from himself.

"No, like this, Dan," she answered, with her lips upon his coat.

He kissed her once and drew back.

"I never meant to come home this way, Betty," he said, in a voice that trembled from its new humility.

"My dear, my dear, I have grown to think that any way is a good way," she murmured, her eyes on the blackened pile that had once been Cheric.o.ke.

"It is not right," he went on; "it is not fair. You cannot marry me--you must not."

Again the humour quivered on the girl's lips.

"I don't like to seem too urgent," she returned, "but will you tell me why?"

"Why?" he repeated bitterly. "There are a hundred why's if you want them, and each one sufficient in itself. I am a beggar, a failure, a wreck, a broken-down soldier from the ranks. Do you think if it were anything less than pure madness on your part that I should stand here a moment and talk like this?--but because I am in love with you, Betty, it doesn't follow that I'm an utter a.s.s."

"That's flattering," responded Betty, "but it doesn't explain just what I want to know. Look me straight in the eyes--no evading now--and answer what I ask. Do you mean that we are to be neighbours and nothing more? Do you mean that we are to shake hands when we meet and drop them afterward? Do you mean that we are to stand alone together as we are standing now--that you are never to take me in your arms again? Do you mean this, my dear?"

"I mean--just that," he answered between his teeth.