Gordon Keith

ure that had once risen so fair and imposing still stood for a time, even after the foundations were undermined: a bastion here, a

again. General Keith, like many others, though broken and wasted in body, undertook to reb

eith, like most of his neighbors and friends, found himself facing the fact that he was hopelessly i

greater ruin. I am like a horse in a quicksa

krupt-law which was passed to give relief. Genera

is to acknowledge that I owe them. I am unwilling to appear,

he owned, reserving nothing

saved during the war, went for its weight in silver. The library had been pillaged until little of it remained. The old Keith pictures, some of them by the best artists, which had been boxed and stored

ne, perhaps, ever knew; certainly his son did not k

e town on the sunny slope that stretches eastwardly from the Alleghanies to the Delaware. Captain Huntington, having entered the army on the outbreak of the war, like Colonel Keith rose to the rank of general, and, like General Keith, received a wound that incapacitated him for

the Berkeleys. Mr. Berkeley had been killed in the war, and the plantation went, like Elp

ough many of the neighbors looked askance at the Federal officer and grumbled at his possessing the old family-seat of the Berkeleys, the urbanity and real kindness of the dignified, soldierly young officer soon made his way easier and w

y as the tot who had given her doll to the little dancer two years before. Her eyes could not be mistaken. She used to drive about in the tiniest of village carts, drawn by the most Liliputian of ponies,

o have a rebel for a swee

g to make him Union,"

hat is about the best system of Reco

over very soon afterwards to see the child, a

and she announced to him that she

are," said h

a circle on his cheek which, he said, was her especial reservation, she kept her word, even

pidly as to cause much uneasiness to his friends. General Keith urged him to go up to a lit

lus Balsam is one of the best doctors in the State. He was my regimental surgeon during the war

aid the younger man, gravely. "That bullet went

ington had strong association for the old physician; for it was a Huntington that Lois Brooke, the younger sister of Abigail Brooke, his old sweetheart, had married, and Abigail Brooke's refusal to marry hi

her great, serious eyes became the old physician's idol and tyrant, and how he worked over her father! Even in those last hours when the end had unexpectedly appeared, and Gener

the dying man, when he rallied somewhat

very

l Keith. I wish him to take my chil

nd to it" sa

her. But she is now an old woman, and when s

her as long as I li

back to his early life. To this Dr. Balsam made no reply. "She has had a s

e Doctor, quietly. "I wi

r knew his name.

sently said: "My little girl? I w

hurt you," said t

eyes lit up as they rested on her pink face

t rememb

toe and, leaning

to Aunt Abby wh

on Keith with me,

's eyes. Then came a fit of coughing, and when it

or, an attendant took t

d, and that night he sat up alone with the body. There were many o

t thoughts attended him through

well he was to know the watering-place in after years. The child fell to his care and clung to him, finally going to sleep in his arms. While the arrangements were being made, they moved for a day o

urying-ground at Ridgely, which lay on a sunny knoll overlooking the long slope to the northeastward. The chi

ooke he took the child to her; but to the last L

eral Huntington's property had nearl

childish hand, asking about the calves and pigeons and chickens that

fty, with a head like a billiard-bail, and a face that was both shrewd and kindly. He had, during the war, made a fortune out of contracts, and was now preparing to increase it in the South, where the mountain region

said, she had aided him materially in advancing his fortunes. She was a handsome woman, and her social ambitions had grown. Ferdy was her only child, and was the joy and pride of her heart. Her ambition centred in him. He should be the leader of the town, as she felt his beauty and his smartness entitled him to be. It was with this aim that she induced her husband to build the fine new house on the avenue. She knew the value of a large and handsome mansion in a fashionable quarter. Aaron Wickersham knew little of fashion; but he knew the power of mone

lf balked by the fact that the people in the mountain region which he wished to reach with his road were so bitterly opposed to any such innovation that it jeopardized his entire scheme. From the richest man in that section, an old catt

al man down there" was General Keit

leam in his eye. "I will have a rope around his

intentions to his counsel, a shrewd old lawyer of the State, who thou

to deal with these o

ersham, "and I know that wh

id Mr. Bagge. The glint in his eye

ness. Mr. Bagge wrote General Keith a diplomatic letter eulogistic of the South and of Mr. Wickersh

The history of two hundred years bound the Keiths to Elphinstone. They had carved it from the forest and had held it against the Indian. From there the

's fac

will be nothing

ed long afterwards, with shame for hi

t. I shall be, at least, a faithful one.

é on the estate which had been renowned for generations as the home of the Keiths. And as agent for the new owner he farmed the place with far greater energy and success than he had ever shown on his own account.

te he admitted that Mr. Bagge knew bette

and a churchwarden, he was inclined to be shy; but when the gentleman grasped his hand, and with a voice of

eneral Keith, and introduced him personally to every man he met as, "the gentleman who has bought my

nger during his former visits South. He liked it. He felt quite like a Southern gen

n view. (General Keith's nose always took a slight elevation when the legislature was mentioned.) General Keith entertained the visitors precisely as he had done when he was the master, and Mr. Wickersham and his

e had he would go in with us and make money for himself instead of telling us how to make it." He did not know that General Keith would not have "gone in" with him in the plan he had carried through that legislature to save his life. But he

gested. "It is not what it used to be, but we can make her comfo

hat Mrs. Wickersham's health wo

ce from us. I have been there, and it is in charge of an old friend of mine, Dr. Balsam, one of the best doctors in

tell General Keith that Mrs. Wickersham, remembering the fight between her son and Gordon, had consented to his buying the place from a not very noble mo

he westward. And General Keith gave him some valuable hints as to

. "The two most influential men up there are Dr. Balsam and Squire R

ned. He thanked him, and sai

number of members of the legislature--"gentlemen interested in the development of the resources of the State"--to meet him, the

r your--f--for your guests; but I must

urned to him in

Gene

a word he should lose his agent, and he had use for him. He had plans t

were welcomed at the house by the owner. Everything for their entertainment was prepared. Even the fres

y, General Keith walked into the room where Mr. Wickers

y are looked after. These are the keys. Richard knows them all, and is

f such narrowness. Something, however, in the General's air again deterred him: a thinning of the nostril; an unwonted firmness of the mouth. A sudden

old-fashioned ideas entertained him. So what he said was said kindly. He regrett

eacher," he said jocularly as he walked to the door, "and a very br

from the 'Wicked Bible'; he omits the 'not.' Goo

remained. When he looked about the table that evening, after the juleps were handed around and the champagne had followed, he was still more glad. The set of ol

; then had become a preacher--to quote him again, "not exactly of the gospel as it was understood by mossbacked theologians, of 'a creed outworn,'" but rather the "gospel of the new dispensation, of the new brotherhood--the gospel of liberty, equality, fraternity." Now he had found his true vocation, that of statesmanship, where he could practise what he had preache

e house an hour Mr. Wickersham was delighted with him, and mentally decided to secure him for his agent. When he had

each guest secretly warned

n Mr. Wickersham had expected.

gentlemen?" asked Mr. Wickersham of the

gent

used the possessive

ns?'" demanded the old serv

on't think I d

tempt. "I been livin' heah 'bout sixty years, I reckon, an' I never seen

turned, old Richard gave Mr. Wickersham an exhibition