Captain Wilbur Lawton - "The Boy Aviators in Africa"

John S. Adams - "Town and Country, or, Life at Home and Abroad"

Mary Cole - "Trials and Triumphs of Faith"

John Greenleaf Whittier - "Reform and Politics, Part 2, From Vol. VII,"

To Have and To Hold:

M >> Mary Johnston >> To Have and To Hold:




"You laugh in your sleeve," he said good-humoredly, "and yet I am
but what I profess to be. In spirit I am a very Job, though nature
hath fit to dress me as a Samson. I assure you, I am worse misfitted
than is Master Yardstick yonder in those Falstaffian hose. But,
good sir, will you not go to church?"

"If the church were Paul's, I might," I answered. "As it is, we could
not get within fifty feet of the door."

"Of the great door, ay, but the ministers may pass through the side
door. If you please, I will take you in with me. The pretty fools
yonder march slowly; if we turn down this lane, we will outstrip
them quite."

"Agreed," I said, and we turned into a lane thick planted with
tobacco, made a detour of the Governor's house, and outflanked
the procession, arriving at the small door before it had entered the
churchyard. Here we found the sexton mounting guard.

"I am Master Sparrow, the minister that came in the
Southampton," my new acquaintance explained. "I am to sit in the
choir. Let us pass, good fellow."

The sexton squared himself before the narrow opening, and
swelled with importance.

"You, reverend sir, I will admit, such being my duty. But this
gentleman is no preacher; I may not allow him to pass."

"You mistake, friend," said my companion gravely. "This
gentleman, my worthy colleague, has but just come from the island
of St. Brandon, where he preaches on the witches' Sabbath: hence
the disorder of his apparel. His admittance be on my head:
wherefore let us by."

"None to enter at the west door save Councilors, commander, and
ministers. Any attempting to force an entrance to be arrested and
laid by the heels if they be of the generality, or, if they be of
quality, to be duly fined and debarred from the purchase of any
maid whatsoever," chanted the sexton.

"Then, in God's name, let's on!" I exclaimed "Here, try this!" and I
drew from my purse, which was something of the leanest, a
shilling.

"Try this," quoth Master Jeremy Sparrow, and knocked the sexton
down.

We left the fellow sprawling in the doorway, sputtering threats to
the air without, but with one covetous hand clutching at the
shilling which I threw behind me, and entered the church, which
we found yet empty, though through the open great door we heard
the drum beat loudly and a deepening sound of footsteps.

"I have choice of position," I said. "Yonder window seems a good
station. You remain here in the choir?"

"Ay," he answered, with a sigh; "the dignity of my calling must be
upheld: wherefore I sit in high places, rubbing elbows with gold
lace, when of the very truth the humility of my spirit is such that I
would feel more at home in the servants' seats or among the negars
that we bought last year."

Had we not been in church I would have laughed, though indeed I
saw that he devoutly believed his own words. He took his seat in
the largest and finest of the chairs behind the great velvet one
reserved for the Governor, while I went and leaned against my
window, and we stared at each other across the flower-decked
building in profound silence, until, with one great final crash, the
bells ceased, the drum stopped beating, and the procession entered.



CHAPTER III IN WHICH I MARRY IN HASTE


THE long service of praise and thanksgiving was well-nigh over
when I first saw her.

She sat some ten feet from me, in the corner, and so in the shadow
of a tall pew. Beyond her was a row of milkmaid beauties, red of
cheek, free of eye, deep-bosomed, and beribboned like Maypoles. I
looked again, and saw - and see - a rose amongst blowzed poppies
and peonies, a pearl amidst glass beads, a Perdita in a ring of
rustics, a nonparella of all grace and beauty! As I gazed with all
my eyes, I found more than grace and beauty in that wonderful
face, - found pride, wit, fire, determination, finally shame and
anger. For, feeling my eyes upon her, she looked up and met what
she must have thought the impudent stare of an appraiser. Her
face, which had been without color, pale and clear like the sky
about the evening star, went crimson in a moment. She bit her lip
and shot at me one withering glance, then dropped her eyelids and
hid the lightning. When I looked at her again, covertly, and from
under my hand raised as though to push back my hair, she was pale
once more, and her dark eyes were fixed upon the water and the
green trees without the window.

The congregation rose, and she stood up with the other maids. Her
dress of dark woolen, severe and unadorned, her close ruff and
prim white coif, would have cried "Puritan," had ever Puritan
looked like this woman, upon whom the poor apparel had the
seeming of purple and ermine.

Anon came the benediction. Governor, Councilors, commanders,
and ministers left the choir and paced solemnly down the aisle; the
maids closed in behind; and we who had lined the walls, shifting
from one heel to the other for a long two hours, brought up the
rear, and so passed from the church to a fair green meadow
adjacent thereto. Here the company disbanded; the wearers of gold
lace betaking themselves to seats erected in the shadow of a
mighty oak, and the ministers, of whom there were four, bestowing
themselves within pulpits of turf. For one altar and one clergyman
could not hope to dispatch that day's business.

As for the maids, for a minute or more they made one cluster;
then, shyly or with laughter, they drifted apart like the petals of a
wind-blown rose, and silk doublet and hose gave chase. Five
minutes saw the goodly company of damsels errant and would-be
bridegrooms scattered far and near over the smiling meadow. For
the most part they went man and maid, but the fairer of the
feminine cohort had rings of clamorous suitors from whom to
choose. As for me, I walked alone; for if by chance I neared a
maid, she looked (womanlike) at my apparel first, and never
reached my face, but squarely turned her back. So disengaged, I
felt like a guest at a mask, and in some measure enjoyed the show,
though with an uneasy consciousness that I was pledged to
become, sooner or later, a part of the spectacle. I saw a
shepherdess fresh from Arcadia wave back a dozen importunate
gallants, then throw a knot of blue ribbon into their midst, laugh
with glee at the scramble that ensued, and finally march off with
the wearer of the favor. I saw a neighbor of mine, tall Jack Pride,
who lived twelve miles above me, blush and stammer, and bow
again and again to a milliner's apprentice of a girl, not five feet
high and all eyes, who dropped a curtsy at each bow. When I had
passed them fifty yards or more, and looked back, they were still
bobbing and bowing. And I heard a dialogue between Phyllis and
Corydon. Says Phyllis, "Any poultry?"

Corydon. "A matter of twalve hens and twa cocks."

Phyllis. "A cow?"

Corydon. "Twa."

Phyllis. "How much tobacco?"

Corydon. "Three acres, hinny, though I dinna drink the weed
mysel'. I'm a Stewart, woman, an' the King's puir cousin."

Phyllis. "What household plenishing?"

Corydon. "Ane large bed, ane flock bed, ane trundle bed, ane
chest, ane trunk, ane leather cairpet, sax cawfskin chairs an'
twa-three rush, five pair o' sheets an' auchteen dowlas napkins, sax
alchemy spunes" -

Phyllis. "I'll take you."

At the far end of the meadow, near to the fort, I met young Hamor,
alone, flushed, and hurrying back to the more populous part of the
field.

"Not yet mated?" I asked. "Where are the maids' eyes?"

"By - !" he answered, with an angry laugh. "If they're all like the
sample I've just left, I'll buy me a squaw from the Paspaheghs!"

I smiled. "So your wooing has not prospered?"

His vanity took fire. "I have not wooed in earnest," he said
carelessly, and hitched forward his cloak of sky-blue tuftaffeta
with an air. "I sheered off quickly enough, I warrant you, when I
found the nature of the commodity I had to deal with."

"Ah!" I said. "When I left the crowd they were going very fast. You
had best hurry, if you wish to secure a bargain."

"I'm off," he answered; then, jerking his thumb over his shoulder,
"If you keep on to the river and that clump of cedars, you will find
Termagaunt in ruff and farthingale."

When he was gone, I stood still for a while and watched the slow
sweep of a buzzard high in the blue, after which I unsheathed my
dagger, and with it tried to scrape the dried mud from my boots.
Succeeding but indifferently, I put the blade up, stared again at the
sky, drew a long breath, and marched upon the covert of cedars
indicated by Hamor.

As I neared it, I heard at first only the wash of the river; but
presently there came to my ears the sound of a man's voice, and
then a woman's angry "Begone, sir!"

"Kiss and be friends," said the man.

The sound that followed being something of the loudest for even
the most hearty salutation, I was not surprised, on parting the
bushes, to find the man nursing his cheek, and the maid her hand.

"You shall pay well for that, you sweet vixen!" he cried, and
caught her by both wrists.

She struggled fiercely, bending her head this way and that, but his
hot lips had touched her face before I could come between.

When I had knocked him down he lay where he fell, dazed by the
blow, and blinking up at me with his small ferret eyes. I knew him
to be one Edward Sharpless, and I knew no good of him. He had
been a lawyer in England. He lay on the very brink of the stream,
with one arm touching the water. Flesh and blood could not resist
it, so, assisted by the toe of my boot, he took a cold bath to cool his
hot blood.

When he had clambered out and had gone away, cursing, I turned
to face her. She stood against the trunk of a great cedar, her head
thrown back, a spot of angry crimson in each cheek, one small
hand clenched at her throat. I had heard her laugh as Sharpless
touched the water, but now there was only defiance in her face. As
we gazed at each other, a burst of laughter came to us from the
meadow behind. I looked over my shoulder, and beheld young
Hamor, probably disappointed of a wife, - with Giles Allen and
Wynne, returning to his abandoned quarry. She saw, too, for the
crimson spread and deepened and her bosom heaved. Her dark
eyes, glancing here and there like those of a hunted creature, met
my own.

"Madam," I said, "will you marry me?"

She looked at me strangely. "Do you live here?" she asked at last,
with a disdainful wave of her hand toward the town.

"No, madam," I answered. "I live up river, in Weyanoke Hundred,
some miles from here."

"Then, in God's name, let us be gone!" she cried, with sudden
passion.

I bowed low, and advanced to kiss her hand.

The finger tips which she slowly and reluctantly resigned to me
were icy, and the look with which she favored me was not such an
one as poets feign for like occasions. I shrugged the shoulders of
my spirit, but said nothing. So, hand in hand, though at arms'
length, we passed from the shade of the cedars into the open
meadow, where we presently met Hamor and his party. They
would have barred the way, laughing and making unsavory jests,
but I drew her closer to me and laid my hand upon my sword. They
stood aside, for I was the best swordsman in Virginia.

The meadow was now less thronged. The river, up and down, was
white with sailboats, and across the neck of the peninsula went a
line of horsemen, each with his purchase upon a pillion behind
him. The Governor, the Councilors, and the commanders had
betaken themselves to the Governor's house, where a great dinner
was to be given. But Master Piersey, the Cape Merchant, remained
to see the Company reimbursed to the last leaf, and the four
ministers still found occupation, though one couple trod not upon
the heels of another, as they had done an hour agone.

"I must first satisfy the treasurer," I said, coming to a halt within
fifty feet of the now deserted high places.

She drew her hand from mine, and looked me up and down.

"How much is it?" she asked at last. "I will pay it."

I stared at her.

"Can't you speak?" she cried, with a stamp of her foot. "At what
am I valued? Ten pounds - fifty pounds" -

"At one hundred and twenty pounds of tobacco, madam," I said
dryly. "I will pay it myself. To what name upon the ship's list do
you answer?"

"Patience Worth," she replied.

I left her standing there, and went upon my errand with a whirling
brain. Her enrollment in that company proclaimed her meanly
born, and she bore herself as of blood royal; of her own free will
she had crossed an ocean to meet this day, and she held in
passionate hatred this day and all that it contained; she was come
to Virginia to better her condition, and the purse which she had
drawn from her bosom was filled with gold pieces. To another I
would have advised caution, delay, application to the Governor,
inquiry; for myself I cared not to make inquiries.

The treasurer gave me my receipt, and I procured, from the crowd
around him, Humfrey Kent, a good man and true, and old Belfield,
the perfumer, for witnesses. With them at my heels I went back to
her, and, giving her my hand, was making for the nearest minister,
when a voice at a little distance hailed me, crying out, "This way,
Captain Percy!"

I turned toward the voice, and beheld the great figure of Master
Jeremy Sparrow sitting, cross-legged like the Grand Turk, upon a
grassy hillock, and beckoning to me from that elevation.

"Our acquaintance hath been of the shortest," he said genially,
when the maid, the witnesses, and I had reached the foot of the
hillock, "but I have taken a liking to you and would fain do you a
service. Moreover, I lack employment. The maids take me for a
hedge parson, and sheer off to my brethren, who truly are of a
more clerical appearance. Whereas if they could only look upon
the inner man! You have been long in choosing, but have doubtless
chosen" - He glanced from me to the woman beside me, and broke
off with open mouth and staring eyes. There was excuse, for her
beauty was amazing. "A paragon," he ended, recovering himself.

"Marry us quickly, friend," I said. "Clouds are gathering, and we
have far to go."

He came down from his mound, and we went and stood before
him. I had around my neck the gold chain given me upon a certain
occasion by Prince Maurice, and in lieu of other ring I now twisted
off the smallest link and gave it to her.

"Your name?" asked Master Sparrow, opening his book.

"Ralph Percy, Gentleman."

"And yours?" he demanded, staring at her with a somewhat too
apparent delight in her beauty.

She flushed richly and bit her lip.

He repeated the question.

She stood a minute in silence, her eyes upon the darkening sky.
Then she said in a low voice, "Jocelyn Leigh."

It was not the name I had watched the Cape Merchant strike off his
list. I turned upon her and made her meet my eyes. "What is your
name?" I demanded. "Tell me the truth!"

"I have told it," she answered proudly. "It is Jocelyn Leigh."

I faced the minister again. "Go on," I said briefly.

"The Company commands that no constraint be put upon its poor
maids. Wherefore, do you marry this man of your own free will
and choice?"

"Ay," she said, "of my own free will."

Well, we were married, and Master Jeremy Sparrow wished us joy,
and Kent would have kissed the bride had I not frowned him off.
He and Belfield strode away, and I left her there, and went to get
her bundle from the house that had sheltered her overnight.
Returning, I found her seated on the turf, her chin in her hand and
her dark eyes watching the distant play of lightning. Master
Sparrow had left his post, and was nowhere to be seen.

I gave her my hand and led her to the shore; then loosed my boat
and helped her aboard. I was pushing off when a voice hailed us
from the bank, and the next instant a great bunch of red roses
whirled past me and fell into her lap. "Sweets to the sweet, you
know," said Master Jeremy Sparrow genially. "Goodwife Allen
will never miss them."

I was in two minds whether to laugh or to swear, - for I had never
given her flowers, - when she settled the question for me by raising
the crimson mass and bestowing it upon the flood.

A sudden puff of wind brought the sail around, hiding his fallen
countenance. The wind freshened, coming from the bay, and the
boat was off like a startled deer. When I next saw him he had
recovered his equanimity, and, with a smile upon his rugged
features, was waving us a farewell. I looked at the beauty opposite
me, and, with a sudden movement of pity for him, mateless, stood
up and waved to him vigorously in turn.



CHAPTER IV IN WHICH I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE


WHEN we had passed the mouth of the Chickahominy, I broke the
silence, now prolonged beyond reason, by pointing to the village
upon its bank, and telling her something of Smith's expedition up
that river, ending by asking her if she feared the savages.

When at length she succeeded in abstracting her attention from the
clouds, it was to answer in the negative, in a tone of the supremest
indifference, after which she relapsed into her contemplation of
the weather.

Further on I tried again. "That is Kent's, yonder. He brought his
wife from home last year. What a hedge of sunflowers she has
planted! If you love flowers, you will find those of paradise in
these woods."

No answer.

Below Martin-Brandon we met a canoe full of Paspaheghs, bound
upon a friendly visit to some one of the down-river tribes; for in
the bottom of the boat reposed a fat buck, and at the feet of the
young men lay trenchers of maize cakes and of late mulberries. I
hailed them, and when we were alongside held up the brooch from
my hat, then pointed to the purple fruit. The exchange was soon
made; they sped away, and I placed the mulberries upon the thwart
beside her.

"I am not hungry," she said coldly. "Take them away."

I bit my lip, and returned to my place at the tiller. This rose was set
with thorns, and already I felt their sting. Presently she leaned back
in the nest I had made for her. "I wish to sleep," she said haughtily,
and, turning her face from me, pillowed her head upon her arms.

I sat, bent forward, the tiller in my hand, and stared at my wife in
some consternation. This was not the tame pigeon, the rosy,
humble, domestic creature who was to make me a home and rear
me children. A sea bird with broad white wings swooped down
upon the water, now dark and ridged, rested there a moment, then
swept away into the heart of the gathering storm. She was liker
such an one. Such birds were caught at times, but never tamed and
never kept.

The lightning, which had played incessantly in pale flashes across
the low clouds in the south, now leaped to higher peaks and
became more vivid, and the muttering of the thunder changed to
long, booming peals. Thirteen years before, the Virginia storms
had struck us with terror. Compared with those of the Old World
we had left, they were as cannon to the whistling of arrows, as
breakers on an iron coast to the dull wash of level seas. Now they
were nothing to me, but as the peals changed to great crashes as of
falling cities, I marveled to see my wife sleeping so quietly. The
rain began to fall, slowly, in large sullen drops, and I rose to cover
her with my cloak. Then I saw that the sleep was feigned, for she
was gazing at the storm with wide eyes, though with no fear in
their dark depths. When I moved they closed, and when I reached
her the lashes still swept her cheeks, and she breathed evenly
through parted lips. But, against her will, she shrank from my
touch as I put the cloak about her; and when I had returned to my
seat, I bent to one side and saw, as I had expected to see, that her
eyes were wide open again. If she had been one whit less beautiful,
I would have wished her back at Jamestown, back on the Atlantic,
back at whatever outlandish place, where manners were unknown,
that had owned her and cast her out. Pride and temper! I set my
lips, and vowed that she should find her match.

The storm did not last. Ere we had reached Piersey's the rain had
ceased and the clouds were breaking; above Chaplain's Choice
hung a great rainbow; we passed Tants Weyanoke in the glory of
the sunset, all shattered gold and crimson. Not a word had been
spoken. I sat in a humor grim enough, and she lay there before me,
wide awake, staring at the shifting banks and running water, and
thinking that I thought she slept.

At last my own wharf rose before me through the gathering dusk,
and beyond it shone out a light; for I had told Diccon to set my
house in order, and to provide fire and torches, that my wife might
see I wished to do her honor. I looked at that wife, and of a sudden
the anger in my heart melted away. It was a wilderness vast and
dreadful to which she had come. The mighty stream, the towering
forests, the black skies and deafening thunder, the wild cries of
bird and beast the savages, uncouth and terrible, - for a moment I
saw my world as the woman at my feet must see it, strange, wild,
and menacing, an evil land, the other side of the moon. A thing
that I had forgotten came to my mind: how that, after our landing
at Jamestown, years before, a boy whom we had with us did each
night fill with cries and lamentations the hut where he lay with my
cousin Percy, Gosnold, and myself, nor would cease though we
tried both crying shame and a rope's end. It was not for
homesickness, for he had no mother or kin or home; and at length
Master Hunt brought him to confess that it was but pure panic
terror of the land itself, - not of the Indians or of our hardships,
both of which he faced bravely enough, but of the strange trees and
the high and long roofs of vine, of the black sliding earth and the
white mist, of the fireflies and the whippoorwills, - a sick fear of
primeval Nature and her tragic mask.

This was a woman, young, alone, and friendless, unless I, who had
sworn to cherish and protect her, should prove myself her friend.
Wherefore, when, a few minutes later, I bent over her, it was with
all gentleness that I touched and spoke to her.

"Our journey is over," I said. "This is home, my dear."

She let me help her to her feet, and up the wet and slippery steps to
the level of the wharf. It was now quite dark, there being no moon,
and thin clouds obscuring the stars. The touch of her hand, which I
perforce held since I must guide her over the long, narrow, and
unrailed trestle, chilled me, and her breathing was hurried, but she
moved by my side through the gross darkness unfalteringly
enough. Arrived at the gate of the palisade, I beat upon it with the
hilt of my sword, and shouted to my men to open to us. A moment,
and a dozen torches came flaring down the bank. Diccon shot back
the bolts, and we entered. The men drew up and saluted; for I held
my manor a camp, my servants soldiers, and myself their captain.

I have seen worse favored companies, but doubtless the woman
beside me had not. Perhaps, too, the red light of the torches, now
flaring brightly, now sunk before the wind, gave their
countenances a more villainous cast than usual. They were not all
bad. Diccon had the virtue of fidelity, if none other; there were a
brace of Puritans, and a handful of honest fools, who, if they
drilled badly, yet abhorred mutiny. But the half dozen I had taken
off Argall's hands; the Dutchmen who might have been own
brothers to those two Judases, Adam and Francis; the thief and the
highwayman I had bought from the precious crew sent us by the
King the year before; the negro and the Indians - small wonder that
she shrank and cowered. It was but for a moment. I was yet
seeking for words sufficiently reassuring when she was herself
again. She did not deign to notice the men's awkward salute, and
when Diccon, a handsome rogue enough, advancing to light us up
the bank, brushed by her something too closely, she drew away her
skirts as though he had been a lazar. At my own door I turned and
spoke to the men, who had followed us up the ascent.

"This lady," I said, taking her hand as she stood beside me, "is my
true and lawful wife, your mistress, to be honored and obeyed as
such. Who fails in reverence to her I hold as mutinous to myself,
and will deal with him accordingly. She gives you to-morrow for
holiday, with double rations, and to each a measure of rum. Now
thank her properly."

They cheered lustily, of course, and Diccon, stepping forward,
gave us thanks in the name of them all, and wished us joy. After
which, with another cheer, they backed from out our presence,
then turned and made for their quarters, while I led my wife within
the house and closed the door.

Diccon was an ingenious scoundrel. I had told him to banish the
dogs, to have the house cleaned and lit, and supper upon the table;
but I had not ordered the floor to be strewn with rushes, the walls
draped with flowering vines, a great jar filled with sunflowers, and
an illumination of a dozen torches. Nevertheless, it looked well,
and I highly approved the capon and maize cakes, the venison
pasty and ale, with which the table was set. Through the open
doors of the two other rooms were to be seen more rushes, more
flowers, and more lights.

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