xt78sf2m6g3j https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt78sf2m6g3j/data/mets.xml Daviess, Maria Thompson, 1872-1924. 1911  books b92-194-30611180 English A.L. Burt, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Rose of Old Harpeth  / by Maria Thompson Daviess ; with illustrations by W.B. King. text Rose of Old Harpeth  / by Maria Thompson Daviess ; with illustrations by W.B. King. 1911 2002 true xt78sf2m6g3j section xt78sf2m6g3j 
ROSE OF OLD HARPETH
 












































Rose Mary

 


     ROSE OF

OLD HARPETH



BY MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS



Author of "Miss Selina Lue," "The Road to Provi-
    dence," "The Melting of Molly," etc.



WWe ILLUsMAMNs
BY W. B. KING



    A. L BURT COMPANY
PUBLISHERS           NEW YORK

 




























    COPYRLGHT 1911
THE BOBDS-MERiULL COMPANY

 
























         I DEDICATE

      ROSE MARY
        TO MY MOTHER

LEONORA HAMILTON DAVIESS
     AND THE WHOLE BOOK
     TO MY GRANDMOTHER

 MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS

 This page in the original text is blank.


 
ROSE OF OLD HARPETH


              CHAPTER I

        ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR

"WI    THY, don't you know nothing in the
  V V Vworld compliments a loaf of bread like
the asking for a fourth slice," laughed Rose
Mary as she reached up on the stone shelf
above her head and took down a large crusty
loaf and a long knife. "Thick or thin" she
asked as she raised her lashes from her blue
eyes for a second of hospitable inquiry.
  "Thin," answered Everett promptly, "but
two with the butter sticking 'em together.
Please be careful with that weapon! It's as
good as a juggler's show to watch you, but it
makes me slightly-solicitous."  As he spoke
he seated himself on the corner of the wide
stone table as near to Rose Mary and the long
knife as seemed advisable. A ray of sunlight
                    I

 ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



fell through the door of the milk-house and cut
across his red head to lose itself in Rose Mary's
close black braids.
  "Make it four," he further demanded over
the table.
  "Indeed and I will," answered Rose Mary
delightedly. And as she spoke she held the
loaf against her breast and drew the knife
through the slices in a fascinatingly dangerous
manner. At the intentness of his regard the
color rose up under the lashes that veiled her
eyes, and she hugged the loaf closer with her
left hand. "Would you like six" she asked
innocently, as the fourth stroke severed the last
piece.
  "Just go on and slice it all up," he answered
with a laugh. "I'd rather watch you than eat."
  "Wait till I butter these for you and then
you can eat-and watch me-me finish work-
ing the butter. Won't that do as well Think
what an encouragement your interest will be to
me! Really, nothing in the world paces
                     2

 ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



a woman's work like a man looking on,
and if he doesn't stop her she'll drop under the
line. Now, you have your bread and butter
and you can sit over there by the door and help
me turn off this ten pounds in no time."
  As she had been speaking, Rose Mary had
spread two of the slices with the yellow butter
from a huge bowl in front of her, clapped on
the tops of the sandwiches and then, with a
smile, handed them in a blue plate to the man
who lounged across the corner of her table. She
made a very gracious and lovely picture, did
Rose Mary, in her light-blue homespun gown
against the cool gray depths of the milk-house,
which was fern-lined along the cracks of the
old stones and mysterious with the trickling
gurgle of the spring that flowed into the long
stone troughs, around the milk crocks and out
under the stone door-sill. From his post by
the door Everett watched her as she drove her
paddle deep into the hard golden mound in the
blue bowl in front of her, and, with a quick
                    3

 ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



turn of her strong, slender wrist slapped and
patted chunk after chunk of the butter into a
more compressed form. The sleeves of her
dress were rolled almost to her shoulders and
under the white, moist flesh of her arms the
fine muscles showed plainly.  The strong
curves of her back and shoulders bent and
sprung under the graceful sweep of her arms
and her round breasts rose and fell with quick-
ened breath from her energetic movements.
  "Now, you're making me work too hard,"
she laughed; and she panted as she rested her
hand for a second against the edge of the bowl
and looked up at Everett from under a black
tendril curl that had fallen down across her
forehead.
  "Miss Rose Mary Alloway, you are one
large, husky-witch," calmly remarked the
hungry man as he finished disposing of the last
half of one of the thin bread and butters.
"Here I sit enchanted by-by a butter-paddle,
when you and I both know that not two miles
                    4

 ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



across the meadows there runs a train that
ought to put me into New York in a little over
forty-eight hours. Won't you, won't you let
me go-back to my frantic and imploring em-
ployers"
  "Why no, I can't," answered Rose Mary as
she pressed a yellow cake of butter on to a blue
plate and deftly curled it up with her pad-
dle into a huge yellow sunflower. "Uncle
Tucker captured you roaming loose out in his
fields and he trusts you to me while he is at
work and I must keep you safe. He's fond of
you and so are the Aunties and Stonewall
Jackson and Shoofly and Sniffer and-"
  "And anybody else " demanded Everett,
preparing to dispose of the last bite.
  "Oh, everybody most along Providence
Road," answered Rose Mary enthusiastically,
though not raising her eyes from the manipu-
lation of the third butter flower. "Can't you
go out and dig up some more rocks and things
I feel sure you haven't got a sample of all of
                    5

 
ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



thenm And there may be gold and silver and
precious jewels just one inch deeper than you
have dug. Are you certain you can't squeeze
up some oil somewhere in the meadow You
told a whole lot of reasons to Uncle Tucker
why you knew you would find some, and now
you'll have to stay to prove yourself."
  "No," answered Mark Everett quietly, and,
as he spoke, he raised his eyes and looked at
Rose Mary keenly; "no, there is no oil that I
can discover, though the formation, as I ex-
plained to your uncle, is just as I expected to
find it. I've spent three weeks going over
every inch of the Valley and I can't find a trace
of grease. I'm sorry."
  "Well, I don't know that I care, except for
your sake," answered Rose Mary unconcern-
edly, with her eyes still on her task. "We don't
any of us like the smell of coal-oil, and it gives
Aunt Viney asthma. It would be awfully dis-
agreeable to have wells of it right here on the
place. They'd be so ugly and smelly."
                    6

 
ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



  "But oil-wells mean-mean a great deal of
wealth," ventured Everett.
  "I know, but just think of the money Uncle
Tucker gets for this butter I make from the
cows that graze on the meadows. Wouldn't it
be awful if they should happen to drink some
of the coal-oil and make the butter we send
down to the city taste wrong and spoil the
Sweetbriar reputation I like money though,
most awfully, and I want some right now. I
want to-"
  "Mary of the Rose, stop right there!" said
Everett as he came over from his post by the
door and again seated himself on the corner
of the table. "I will not listen to you give vent
to the national craving. I will hold on to the
illusion of having found one unmercenary hu-
man being, even if she had to be buried in the
depths of Harpeth Valley to keep her so."
There was banter in Everett's voice and a
smile on his lips, but a bitterness lay in the
depths of his keen dark eyes and an ugly trace
                    7

 
ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



of cynicism filtered through the tones of his
voice.
  "And wasn't it funny for me to count the
little well-chickens before they were even
hatched " laughed Rose Mary. "That's the
way of it, get together even a little flock of
dollars in prospect and they go right to work
hatching out a brood of wants and needs; but
it's not wrong of me to want those false teeth
so bad, because it's such a trial to have your
mouth all sink in and not be able to talk plain
and-"
  "Help, woman!    What are you talking
about I never saw such teeth as you have in
all my life. One flash of them would put a
beauty show out of business and-"
  "Oh, no, not for myself !" Rose Mary has-
tened to exclaim, and she turned the whole
artillery of the pearl treasures upon him in
mirth at his mistake. "It's Aunt Viney I
want them for. She only has five left. She
says she didn't mind so long as she had any
                    8

 
ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



two that hit, but the hitters to all five are gone
now and she is so distressed. I'm saving up
to take her down to the city to get a brand
new set. I have eleven dollars now and two
little bull calves to sell, though it breaks my
heart to let them go, even if they are of the
wrong persuasion. I always love them better
than I do the little heifers, because I have to
give them up. I don't like to have things I
love go away. You see you mustn't think of
going to New York until the spring is all over
and summer comes for good," she continued,
with the most delightful ingenuousness, as she
shaped the last of the ten flowers and glanced
from her task at him with the most solicitous
concern. "Of course, you feel as if the smash
your lung got in that awful rock slide has
healed all up, and I know it has, but you'll
have to do as the doctor tells you about not
running any risks with New York spring
gales, won't you "
  "Oh, yes, I suppose I will," answered Ev-
                     9

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



erett, with a trace of restlessness in his voice.
"I'm just as sound as a dollar now and I'm
wild to go with that gang the firm is sending
up into British Columbia to thrash out that
copper question. I know they counted on me
for the final tests. Some other fellow will
find it and get the fortune and the credit, while
1-X-1
  He stared moodily out the door of the milk-
house and down Providence Road that wound
its calm, even way from across the ridge down
through the green valley. Rose Mary's milk-
house was nestled between the breasts of a
low hill, upon which was perched the wide-
winged, old country house which had brooded
the fortunes of the Alloways since the wilder-
ness days. The spring which gushed from the
back wall of the milk-house poured itself into
a stone trough on the side of the Road, which
had been placed there generations agone for
the refreshment of beast, while man had been
entertained within the hospitable stone walls.
                    IO

 
ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



And at the foot of the Briars, as the Alloway
home, hill, spring and meadows had been called
from time immemorial, clustered the little vil-
lage of Sweetbriar.
  The store, which also sheltered the post-
office, was almost opposite the spring-house
door across the wide Road, the blacksmith
shop farther down and the farmhouses
stretched fraternally along either side in
both directions.  Far up the Road, as it
wound its way around Providence Nob, could
be seen the chimneys and the roofs of Provi-
dence, while Springfield and Boliver also lay
like smoke-wreathed visions in the distance.
Something of the peace and plenty of it all
had begun to smooth the irritated wrinkle from
between Mark Everett's brows, when Rose
Mary's hand rested for a second over his on
the table and her rich voice, with its softest
brooding note, came from across her bowl.
  "Ah, I know it's hard for you, Mr. Mark,"
she said, "and I wish-I wish- The lilacs will
                    II

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



be in bloom next week, won't that help some"
And the wooing tone in her voice was exactly
what she used in coaxing young Stonewall
Jackson to bed or Uncle Tucker to tie up his
throat in a flannel muffler.
  "It's not lilacs I'm needing with a rose in
bloom right-" But Everett's gallant response
to the coaxing was cut short by a sally from an
unexpected quarter.
  Down Providence Road at full tilt came
Stonewall Jackson, with the Swarm in a cloud
of dust at his heels. He jumped across the
spring branch and darted in under the milk-
house eaves, while the Swarm drew up on the
other bank in evident impatience. Swung
bundle-wise under his arm he held a small,
tow-headed bunch, and as he landed on the
stone door-sill he hastily deposited it on the
floor at Rose Mary's feet.
  "Say, Rose Mamie," he panted, "you just
keep Shoofly for us a little while, won't
you Mis' Poteet have done left her with
                    12

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



Tobe to take care of and he put her on a stump
while he chased a polecat that he fell on while
it was going under a fence, and now Uncle
Tuck is a-burying of him up in the woods lot.
Jest joggle her with your foot this way if she
goes to cry." And in demonstration of his di-
rections the General put one bare foot in the
middle of the mite's back and administered a
short series of rotary motions, which immedi-
ately brought a response of ecstatic gurgles.
"We'll come back for her as soon as we dig
him up," he added, as he prepared for another
flying leap across the spring stream.
  "But, Stonie, wait and tell me what you
mean!" exclaimed Rose Mary, while Everett
regarded Stonewall Jackson and his cohorts
with delighted amusement.
  "I told you once, Rose Mamie, that Tobe
fell on a polecat under a fence he was a-chas-
ing, and he smells so awful Uncle Tuck have
burned his britches and shirt on the end of a
stick and have got him buried in dirt up to jest
                    13

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



his nose. Burying in dirt is the onliest thing
that'll take off the smell. We corned to ask
you to watch Shoofly while he's buried, cause
Mis' Poteet will be mad at him when she comes
home if Shoofly smells. We're all a-going
to stay right by him until he's dug up, 'cause
we all sicked him on that polecat and we ought
in honor!"
  Stonie looked at the Swarm for confinna-
tion of this worthy sentiment, and it arose in
a murmur. The Swarm was a choice congre-
gation of small fry that trailed perpetually at
the heels of Stonewall Jackson, and at the
moment was in a state of seething excitement.
Jennie Rucker's little freckled face was pale
under its usual sunburn, as a result of be-
ing too near the disastrous encounter, and her
little nose, turned up by nature in the outset,
looked as if it were in danger of never again
assuming its normal tilt. She held small Pete
by one chubby hand, and with a wry face he
was licking out an absurd little red tongue at
                    I4

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



least twice each moment, as if uncertain as to
whether his olfactory or gustatory nerves had
been offended. Billy was standing with the non-
chalant unconcern of one strong of stomach,
and the four other little Poteets, ranging in
size from Shoofly, on the floor, to Tobe, the
buried, were shuffling their bare feet in the
dust with evident impatience to be off to gloat
over the prostrated but important member of
the family. They rolled their wide eyes at
almost impossible angles, and small Peggy
sniffed audibly into a corner of her patched
gingham apron.
  "Yes, Stonie," answered Rose Mary ju-
dicially, while Everett's shoulders shook with
mirth that he felt it best not to give way to in
the face of the sympathetic Swarm, "you all
must stay with Tobe, if he has to be buried,
and go right back as fast as you can. Troubles
must make us stay close by our friends."
  "If I get much closer to him I'll throw up,"
sniffed Jennie, and her protest was echoed by
                    '5

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



a groan from Peggy into the apron, while the
area which showed above its folds turned
white at the prospect of being obliged to draw
near to this brother in affliction.
  "Yes, but you sicked Tobe, with the rest of
us, and in this girls don't count. You've got
to go back, smell or no smell, sick or no sick,"
announced the General firmly, in the decisive
tones of one accustomed to be obeyed.
  "Yes, Stonie," came in a meek and muffled
tone from the apron, "we'll go back with you."
  "Can't we just set on the fence of the lot-
it ain't so far" pleaded Jennie in almost a
wail. "I'm afraid Pete will cry from the
smell if we go any closter. He's most doing
it now."
  "Yes, General, let the girls sit on the fence,"
pleaded Everett, with his eyes dancing, but a
bit of mockery in his voice, "after all they are
-girls, you know."
  "Oh, well, yes, they can," answered Stone-
wall Jackson in a magnanimously disgusted
                    x6

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



tone of voice. "They always get girls when
they don't want to do anything. Come on,
Tobe'll be crying if we don't hurry. Billy, you
help Jennie drag Pete, so he can go fast !"
  But during the conference the disgusted
toddler had been pondering the situation, and
at this mention of his being dragged back to
the scene of offense he had made a quick sally
across the plank that spanned the spring branch
and with masculine intuition as to the safe
place in time of danger, he had plunged head
foremost into Rose Mary's skirts, so that only
his small fat back showed to the enemy.
  "Please go on, Stonie, and leave him with
me-he's just a baby," pleaded Rose Mary.
  "All right," answered the General, "Tobe
don't care about him; he'd just make us go
slow," and thus dropping young Peter into the
category of impedimenta, the General departed
at top speed, surrounded, as he came, by the
loyal Swarmn On the day of his birth Aunt
Viney's choice for a name for the General had
                    I7

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



balanced for some hours between that of the
redoubtable Abner the Valiant, of old Testa-
ment fame, and her favorite modern hero,
Jackson of the stonewall nature. And in her
final choice she had seemed so to impress the
infant that he had developed more than a little
of the nature of his patron commander. At all
times Stonie commanded the Swarm, and also
at all times was strictly obeyed.
  Then seeing herself thus deserted by her
companions, Shoofly began a low, musical hum
of a wail and walled large eyes up at
Everett, at whose feet she was seated. In in-
stant sympathetic response he applied the toe
of his shoe to the small of the whimpering tot's
back and proceeded awkwardly, though with
the best intentions in the world, to follow the
General's directions as to pacification. Rose
Mary laughed as she took a tin-cup from a
nail in the wall, and filling it with milk from
one of the crocks, she knelt at the side of the
deserted one and held the brim to the red lips
                    I8

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



of Shoofly's generous mouth. With a series
of gurgles and laps the consoling draft was
quickly consumed and the whimperer left by
this double ministration in a state of placid
contentment.
  Peter the wise had stood viewing these at-
tentions to the other baby with stolid imper-
turbability, but as Rose Mary turned away to
her table he licked out his pink tongue and
bobbed his head toward the milk crocks, while
his solemn eyes conveyed his desire without
words. Peter's vocabulary was both new and
limited, and he was at all times extremely care-
ful against any wastefulness of it. His lips
quivered as if in uncertainty as to whether he
was to be left out of this lactic deal, and his
eyes grew reproachful.
  "Why, man alive, did you think I had for-
gotten you !" exclaimed Rose Mlary as she
turned with the cup to one of the crocks stand-
ing in the water, at the sight of which motion
relief dawned in the serious eyes of the young
                    '9

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



petitioner. Filling the cup swiftly, she lifted
the youngster in her arms and came over to sit
in the door beside Shoofly at Everett's feet.
With dignified deliberation Peter began to con-
sume his draft in slow gulps, and after each
one he lifted his eyes to Rose Mary's face as
if rendering courteous appreciation for the
consumed portion. His chubby fingers were
clasped around her wrist as she held the cup
for him, and her other hand cuddled one of
his bare, briar-scratched knees. The picture
had its instituted effect on Everett, and he bent
toward the little group in the doorway and
rested his elbows on his knees as his world-
restless eyes softened and the lines around his
mouth melted into a smile.
  "Rose Mary," he said with an almost
abashed note in his deep voice, "we'll dispense
with the lilacs-they're not needed as retain-
ers, and I don't deserve them."
  "But being good will bring you the lilacs of
life; whether you think you deserve them or
                     20

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



not, I'm afraid it's inevitable," answered Rose
Mary, as she smiled up at him with instant apw-
preciation of his change of mood.
  "Well, I'll try it this once and see what hap-
pens," answered Everett with a laugh. "In-
deed, I'm ashamed of having shown you any
impatience at all-to think of impatience in this
heaven country of hospitality amounts to posi-
tive sacrilege. Shrive me-and then bring on
your lilacs !"
  "Then you'll stay with us until it's safe for
you to go North and I won't have to worry
about you any more" exclaimed Rose Mary,
delighted, as she beamed up over Pete's tow-
head that had dropped with repletion on her
breast. Shoofly, who, true to her appellation,
had been making funny little dabs of delight
at a fly or two which had buzzed in her direc-
tion, had crawled nearer and burrowed her
head under Rose Mary's knee, rolled over on
her little stomach and gone instantaneously
and exhaustedly to sleep. Rose Mary adjusted
                    21

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



a smothering fold of her dress and continued
in her rejoicing over Everett's surrender to
circumstance inevitable.
  "And do you think you can dig some more
in the fields Don't happiness and hoe mean the
same thing to most men " she questioned with
a laugh.
  "Yes, hoe to the death and the devil take the
last man at the end of the row, fortune to the
first!" answered Everett with a return of his
cynical look and tone.
  "Oh, but in the world some men just go
along and chop down ugly weeds, stir up the
good, smelly earth for things to grow in, reach
over to help the man in the next furrow if he
needs it, and all come home at sundown to-
gether-and the women have the supper ready.
That's the kind of hoeing I want you to do-
please dig me up those teeth for Aunt Viney
and I'll have johnny-cake and fried chicken
waiting for you every night   Please, sir,
promise!" And Rose Mary's voice sounded
                    22

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



its coaxing, comforting note, while her deep
eyes brooded over him.
  "I promise," answered Everett with a laugh.
"I tell you what I think I will do. As I under-
stand it, the Briars has about three hundred
acres, all told. I have been all over it for the
oil and there is none in any paying quantities.
But in this kind of formation any number of
other things may crop up or out. I am going
to go over every acre of it carefully and find
exactly what can be expected of it. There may
be nothing of any value in a mineral way, but
as I go I am going to make soil tests, and then
put it all down on a complete map and figure
out just what your Uncle Tucker ought to
plant in each place for years to come. It will
kill a lot of time, and then it might be doing
something for you dear people, who have taken
a miserable, cross invalid of a stranger man in
out of the wet and made a well chap of him
again.
  "Do you know what you have done for
                    23

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



me That day when I had tramped over
from Boliver just to get away from the Citi-
zens' Hotel and myself and perched upon Mr.
Alloway's north lot fence like a miserable fu-
neral crow, I had reached my limit, and my
spirit had turned its face to the wall. I had
been down South six weeks and couldn't see
that I felt one bit stronger. I had just heard
of this copper expedition from one of the
chaps, who had written me a heedlessly ex-
ultant letter about it, and I was down and out
and no strength left to fight. I was too weak
to take it like a man, and couldn't make up
my mind to cry like a woman, though I wanted
to. Just as it was at its worst your Uncle
Tucker appeared on the other side of the fence,
and when he looked at me with those great,
heaven-big eyes of his I fell over into his arms
with a funny, help-has-come dying gasp. As
you know, when I woke I was anchored in the
middle of that puffy old four-poster in my
room under the blessed roof of the Briars and
                   24

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



you were pouring something glorious and hot
down my throat, while the wonderful old
angel-man in the big gray hat, who had got
me out in the field, was flapping his wings
around on the other side of the pillows. I
went to sleep under your very hands and I
haven't waked up yet-except in ugly, impa-
tient ways. I never want to."
  "I wonder what you would be like-awake "
said Rose Mary softly, as she gently lowered
the head of young Peter down into the hollow
of her arm, where, in close proximity to Shoo-
fly's, he nodded off into the depths. "I think
I'm afraid to try waking you. I'm always so
happy when Aunt Viney has snuffed away her
asthma with jimson weed and got down on her
pillow, and I have rubbed all her joints; when
the General has said his prayers without stop-
ping to argue in the middle, and Uncle Tucker
has finished his chapter and pipe in bed with-
out setting us all on fire, that I regard people
asleep as in a most blessed condition. Won't
                   25

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



you please try and stay happy, tucked away fast
here at the Briars, without wanting to wake
up and go all over New York, when I won't
know whether you are getting cold or hungry
or wet or a pain in your lungs"
  "Again I promise! Just wake me enough
to go out and hoe for you is all I ask-your
row and your kind of hoeing."
  "Maybe hoeing in my row will make you
finish your own in fine style," laughed
Rose Mary. "And I think it's wonderful
of you to study up our land so Uncle
Tucker can do better with it. We never seem
to be able to make any more than just the mort-
gage interest, and what we'll wear when
the trunks in the garret are empty I don't see.
We'll have to grow feathers. Things like false
teeth just seem to be impossible."
  "Do you mean to tell me that the Briars is
seriously encumbered " demanded Everett,
with a quick frown showing between his brows
and a business-keen look coming into his eyes.
                   26

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



  "The mortgage on the Briars covers it as
completely as the vines on the wall," answered
Rose Mary quickly, with a humorous quirk
at her mouth that relieved the note of pain in
her voice. "I know we can never pay it, but
if something could be done to keep it for the
old folks always, I think Stonie and I could
stand it. They were born here and their roots
strike deep and twine with the roots of every
tree and bush at the Briars. Their graves are
over there behind the stone wall, and all their
joys and sorrows have come to them along
Providence Road. I am not unhappy over it,
because I know that their Master isn't going
to let anything happen to take them away.
Every night before I go to sleep I just leave
them to Him until I can wake up in the morn-
ing to begin to keep care of them for Him
again. It was all about-"
  "Wait a minute, let me ask you some ques-
tions before you tell me any more," said Ev-
erett, quickly covering the sympathy that
                    27

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



showed in his eyes with his business tone of
voice. "Is it Gideon Newsome who holds this
mortgage "
  "Why, yes, how did you know " asked Rose
Mary with a mild surprise in her eyes as she
raised them to his, bent intently on her. "Uncle
Tucker had to get the money from him six
years ago. It-it was a debt of honor-he-
we had to pay." A rich crimson spread itself
over Rose Mary's brow and cheeks and flooded
down her white neck under the folds of her
blue dress across her breast. Tears rose to
her eyes, but she lifted her head proudly and
looked him straight in the face. "There is a
reason why I would give my life-why I do
and must give my life to protecting them from
the consequences of the disaster. No sacrifice
is too great for me to make to save their home
for them."
  "Do you mind telling me how much the
mortgage is for" asked Everett, still in his
cool, thoughtful voice.
                    28

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



  "For ten thousand dollars," answered Rose
Mary. "The land is worth really less than
fifteen. Nobody but such a-such a friend as
Mr. Newsome would have loaned Uncle
Tucker so much. He-he has been very kind
to us. I-I am very gratefLI to him and I-"
Rose Mary faltered and dropped her eyes. A
tear trembled on the edge of her black lashes
and then splashed on to the chubby cheek of
Peter the reposer.
  "I see," said Everett coolly, and a flint tone
made his usually rich voice harsh and tight.
For a few minutes he sat quietly looking Rose
Mary over with an inscrutable look in his eyes
that finally faded again into the utter world
weariness. "I see-and so the bargain and sale
goes on even on Providence Road under Old
Harpeth. But the old people will never have to
give up the Briars while you are here to pay the
price of their protection, Rose Mary. Never!"
  "I don't believe they will-my faith in Him
makes me sure," answered Rose Mary with
                    29

 

ROSE OF OLD HARPETH



lovely unconsciousness as she raised large,
comforted eyes to Everett's. "I don't know
how I'm going to manage, but somehow my
cup of faith seems to get filled each day with
the wine of courage and the result is mighty
apt to be a-song." And Rose Mary's face
blushed out again into a flowering of smiles.
  "A sort of cup of heavenly nectar," an-
swered Everett with an answering smile, but
the keen look still in his eyes. "See here, I
want you to promise me something-don't
ever, under any circumstances, tell anybody
that I know about this mortgage. Will you"
  "Of course, I won't if you tell me not to,"
answered Rose Mary immediately. "I don't
like to think or talk about it. I only told you
because you wanted to help us. Help offers
are the silver linings to trouble clouds, and
you brought this one down on yourself, didn't
you Of course, it's selfish and wrong to tell
people about your anxieties, but there is just
no other way to get so close to a friend. Don't
                    30

 

ROSE MARY OF SWEETBRIAR



you think perhaps sometimes the Lord doesn't
bother to 'temper the winds,' but just leads you
up on the sheltered side of somebody who is
stronger than you are and leaves you there
until your storm is over"



3!r


 

CHAPTER II



            THE FOLKS-GARDEN

'"     TELL," said Uncle Tucker medita-
  VV   tively, "I reckon a festibul on a
birthday can be taken as a kind of compliment
to the Lord and no special glorification to
yourself. He instuted your first one Himself,
and I see no harm in jest a-marking of the
years He sends you. What are Sister Viney's
special reasons against the junket "
  "Oh, I don't know what makes Aunt Viney
feel this way !" exclaimed Rose Mary with
distress in her blue eyes that she raised to
Uncle Tucker's, that were bent benignly upon
her as she stood in the barn door beside him.
"She says that as the Lord has granted her her
fourscore years by reason of great strength,
she oughtn't to remind Him that He has for-
                   32

 

THE FOLKS-GARDEN



gotten her by having an eighty-second birthday.
Everybody in Sweetbriar has been looking for-
ward to it for a week, and it was going to be
such a lovely party. What shall we do She
says she just won't have it, and Aunt Amandy
is crying when Aunt Viney don't see it. She's
made up her mind, and I don't know what
more to say to her."
  "Rose Mary," said Uncle Tucker, with a
quizzical smile quirking at the corners of his
mouth, "mighty often the ingredient of per-
manency is left out in the making up of a wom-
an's mind, one way or another. Can't you
kinder pervail with your Aunt Viney some
I've got a real hanker after this little birthday
to-do. Jest back her around to another view
of the question with a slack plow-line. Looks
like it's too bad to-"
  "Rose Mary, oh, Rose Mary, where are ye,
child " came a call in a high, sweet old quaver
of a voice from down the garden path, and
Miss Amanda hove in sight