Colonel Carter of Cartersville

of a True

sah! Come yis

nce the night when he stood behind my chair and with bated breath whispered his anxieties les

wide open, showing a great cavity in which each tooth seemed to dance with delight. His jacket was as white and stiff as soap and starch could make it, while a cast-off cravat of the colonel's-double starched to suit Chad's own ideas of propriety-was tied in a single knot, the two ends reaching

dles, and roaring wood fires. But this time it was in the morning,-and a bright, sunny, lovely spring morning at that,-with one window open in the L and the curtains drawn back from the ot

ashboard of one wall, beginning with a pair of worsted slippers and ending with a wooden bootjack, was gone. Whisk-brooms and dusters that had never known a restful nail since they entered the colonel's service were now suspended peacefully on co

e mystery,-Aunt Na

bearing a heap of eggshell cups and saucers I had not seen be

was coming to breakfast, and that he was to tell Miss Nancy the moment we arrived. He then reduced the bulge in his outside pocket by thrusting his big

rning word outside: "Look out for dat lower step,

p of a courtesy and laid her dainty, wrinkled little hand in mine, and said in the sweetest possible voice how glad she was to see me after so many years, and how grateful she felt for all my kindness to the dea

herever she smiled; the same slight, graceful figure; and the same manner-its very simplicity a reflex of that refined and quiet life she had always led. For hers had been an isolated life, buried since her girlhood in a great house far away from the broadening i

h up-and-down stripes spotted with sprigs of flowers, the lace cap with its frill of narrow pink ribbons and two wide pink strings that fell over the shoulders, and the handkerchief of India

ere wild about her. When she moved she wafted towards you a perfume of sweet lavender-the very smell that you remember came from your own mother's old-fashioned burea

nel's voice outside

see the dearest w

-white waistcoat and cravat, the old coat thrown wide open as

you here? Came in early, did you, so as to have aunt Nancy all to yo'self? Sit down, Fitz, right alongside of her." A

olonel's raillery; she never could keep him in order. And she laughed softly as she gave her hand to Fit

! You are breakin' my heart, Miss Caarter, with yo' coldness and contempt. Another word and you shall not have a single bud."

mistress," said C

ach side; Chad, with reverential mien, screwed his eyes up tight; and the colonel said grace with a

t mood, brimming over with anecdotes and personal reminis

let for English capital, and who had expressed a desire to investigate the "Garden Spot of Virginia." Only an "inquiry," but to the colonel the papers were already signed. Then there was the arrival of his distinguished guest, whom he loved devotedly and with a certain old-school gallantry and tenderness as picturesque as it was intere

ission had dawned upon the colonel. He buttoned his coat tightly over his chest, straighten

ight except as a short tempo'ary loan, it would offend me keenly. Within a few days, however, I shall receive a vehy large amount of secu'ities from an English syndic

was to slip her hand into his

ast dollar of the money she had given him when he left home. When it had all been raked

money on the flo' when

Col

piece; perhaps I left som

none da

tea-cup from the top shelf, and poured out into his wrinkled palm a handful of small silver coin-his entire collection of tips, and all the

orge, I forgot to gib ye; bee

, and went out and spent every pen

colonel, bracing him up to renewed efforts, and reacting on his gue

hardly possible to give it in print, keeping the table in a roar; while Miss Nancy, encouraged by the ease and freedom of everybody a

lled Chad, who stood ready with shawl and cushion, and, saying she would retire to

ass holding the roses which he had given his aunt in the morning, and, while repeating her name softly to himself, buried his face in the

that woman forty years ago! Why,

pauses between, that story which I had heard hinted at before. A story never told the chi

n that wild dash across country when her horse took fright, and he, riding neck and neck, had lifted her clear of her saddle. After that there had been but one pair of eyes and arms for her in the wide world. All of that spring and summer, as the colonel

ly as the months went by did her spirits ga

threats, a shower of cards flung at a man's face, an uplifted arm caught by the host. Then a hall door thrust open and a half-fre

ert! Not

eats back in the forest; the reining in of Robert's panting horse covered with foam; his command to halt; a flash, and then that sweet face stretched out in the road in the moo

ng procession homewa

old of that other night there in Richmond, with Robert reeling and half crazed; of his promise of reform, and the postponement of the wedding, while she waited and

haunted the place, while an out-bo

intercession for him. But now, he begged, would she see his son fo

e while before the porch door, until that tottering figure, hol

and Nancy at the open w

his hat. She pushes a

ds, and has reined in his horse just below

he last time,

shakes

ncy, look! Thi

of smoke, and before Chad can reach him Nancy

hand across his forehead as if the air of the room stifled him. Then laying

*

I com

e colonel's old

u had stayed away five minutes longer I should have

eating herself. "H

colonel's arms that it was quite evi

ttend to some business connected with my railroad, and left his vehy kin

ed me, but it was what he ought to have done, and the colonel alway

rarer every day. I tell you, suh, the disease of

n was quite par

patrick think of the su

or

ed only by the skein, while his aunt wound her yarn silently, and listened with a face

I had not given her credit, began to dissect the scheme in detail. She had heard, she said, that there was lack

plea that I was only a poor devil of a painter with a minimum

ncouraged at first by his pride that she could talk so well, and maintained thereafter becaus

ttle balloons, he laid his hand on her sh

't mean that my railro

ppose it should not

and Warrentown Air Line Railroad plan, had ever before advanced any such ideas in his presence. He loosened his hands from the yarn, and took a seat by the window. His aunt's misgivings had evide

he road, with the ancestral estates dotted along its line! The dignity of the several stations! He could hear them now in his mind called out as they whistled down brakes: "Carter Hall! Barboursville! Talcott!" No; there was nothi

. Don't be angry, it is only the major; but yo' talk with him has so

wonderingly. She evidentl

advance me certain sums of money which

George

y. Of co'se you didn't mean anything, only I cannot let another hour pass with th

knitting on the floor, and l

e table drawer, and h

s sheet of paper and

inquiringly. She nodd

it please

ering the words "I promise to pa

en, Colonel

I get the

l do that an

but I want to settle

t the ceiling i

e colonel seized the pen.

six hundred dollars, value received, with inter

s soon as

FAIRFAX

influx of wealth would produce on the dear

repeated in a whisper to herself "Payable as soon as possible," folded it with as much care as if it