In Old Kentucky Part 37

"T'ankee, Ma.r.s.e Cunnel, t'ankee," Neb replied, pocketing the tip. "Oh, warn't it gran'? An' yo' climbed de tree, arter all!"

"Sh! Clear out, you rascal!"

Neb did not go at once, but, with the boldness of an old and privileged retainer, stood there, chuckling. "Climbed de tree!" he gurgled. "An'

so did Miss 'Lethe!"

With this he slapped his knee, and, laughing boisterously, left the room as the embarra.s.sed lady of the house stepped out of her concealment.

"Ah, Miss 'Lethe," said the Colonel, "good morning."

"I expected you back from Lexington last night, Colonel." She looked at him reproachfully.

"Stayed over to celebrate, my dear," the Colonel answered. "Stayed to celebrate the victory." With a beaming face he advanced upon the lady, plainly planning an embrace.

But she eluded him. "Wait a moment, Colonel. On what did you celebrate?"

The Colonel laughed. "Oh, I didn't forget. I celebrated on ginger-ale and soda-pop."

Miss Alathea smiled with happy satisfaction. She eluded him no longer, but, herself, went to him and bestowed the kiss.

"I doubt if my stomach ever recovers from the insult," said the Colonel, delighted by the kiss but remembering the mildness of the beverages which had marked his jubilation. "Miss 'Lethe, a julep--a mint-julep--before I perish."

With a smile she crossed the room to where, upon the side-board (a side-board is an adjunct of all well-regulated libraries in old Kentucky), a snowy damask cloth concealed glorious somethings. With a graceful sweep she took it from them and revealed three juleps in their glory of green-crowns. "Look, Colonel!"

"Three! Great heavens!" the Colonel cried, delighted. He took one and disposed of it in haste.

"I mixed them myself," Miss 'Lethe said.

The Colonel drank another, but less rapidly.

"Remember," she said, warningly, "three and no more!"

"Yes, yes," he granted. "I must save the other one." It was difficult to sip it, for Miss Alathea's juleps were like nectar to his thirsty palate, but he restrained himself and drank of this last ambrosial gla.s.s with great deliberation, trying to make it last as long as possible.

"What are all those bundles, Colonel?" asked Miss Alathea, pointing to the packages which old Neb had brought in.

"They're for Madge. She bought them yesterday." He sighed. "Ah, will you ever forget yesterday?"

"Oh, don't speak of it!"

"Can't help it." The Colonel waxed enthusiastic at the mere memory of the great occasion. "Whoopee!" he cried. "What a race it was!"

"To think," said Miss Alathea, "that I--_I_--should enter a race-track!"

"To think that _I_--should stay out of one!"

"It was all your fault, Colonel," said Miss Alathea. "In your excitement after the race you grasped my hand and I was compelled to follow."

"How strange!" exclaimed the Colonel, slowly, with a slight smile tickling at the corners of his mouth. "At times I fancied you were in the lead, I following."

"Colonel," said the lady slowly, "perhaps I might as well confess. I've made a discovery. The sin isn't so much in looking at the horses run--it's in betting on them. That's where souls are lost."

"And likewise money," said the Colonel, nodding, gravely.

"So, Colonel, if you'll promise not to bet, I've no objection to your attending the races in moderation."

In delighted amazement the Colonel forgot that that last julep could be brought to a quick end by hurried management and took a hasty and a mammoth swallow. "What!" he cried. "Can I believe it? Miss 'Lethe, you're an angel! It's the last drop in my cup of happiness!"

Miss Alathea shyly smiled--smiled, indeed, a bit shame-facedly. "There's one condition, Colonel--that you take me along--yes, to watch over you."

"Take you with me?" said the Colonel. He paused in puzzled contemplation of her for an instant. "Oh, I catch on. You'll go with the children to see the animals!" He laughed. "You rather like it." He became enthusiastic. "No more knot-holes or trees for us! At last--two souls with but a single thought, two hearts that beat when Queen Bess won!

Here's to our future happiness!"

He raised the gla.s.s and would have drunk from it, but, now, alas! the gla.s.s was empty. It surprised and grieved him, but, when Miss Alathea held her hand out, quietly, for the vessel which had held the final julep but which now held it no longer, he yielded it up gracefully nor asked her to refill it.

As Miss Alathea placed the empty gla.s.s upon the side-board Madge entered from the hallway. She ran up to the Colonel. "I heard you'd come," she said, "an' couldn't wait. Say, air it all fixed about Queen Bess?"

"Fixed?" cried the gallant horseman. "Well I should remark! Queen Bess is sold and paid for and a draft for the a.s.sessment forwarded to the Company. Inside of a year Frank will have the income of a prince."

"All," said Miss Alathea, "owing to that mysterious jockey who disappeared immediately after the race. Oh, I'd like to kiss that boy!"

"If you did, I should not be jealous," said the Colonel with an air of generosity.

"Miss 'Lethe, kiss me. Won't I do as well?" Madge asked, going to her.

Miss Alathea kissed her, but was still thinking of the unknown jockey, who, in the nick of time, had come from nowhere, materialized from nothing, to save the day for Frank by riding Queen Bess to victory. "I feel as if I must know his name," she said. "Madge, help me persuade the Colonel to tell us." She went to him and petted him. "Colonel, you will not refuse me!"

Madge looked at him apprehensively, warningly. "An' I reckon you won't refuse me, Colonel." Then, going close to him, she whispered: "Remember, mum's the word!"

"Away, you tempters, away!" the Colonel cried, and waved them from him.

"It's a professional secret, and I've promised to keep it on the honor of a Kentucky gentleman--just as I promised you, Miss 'Lethe."

"As you promised me? That's enough, Colonel--not another word!"

Madge nodded, smilingly. "That's right, Colonel. Mustn't break your word." Just then she caught sight of the bundles which the Colonel had had Neb bring in. "Oh, are them my bundles, Colonel?"

"Every one of them."

The girl hurried to the mysteriously fascinating packages and began investigation of their contents. "Thank ye, thank ye!" she exclaimed, while she was busy with the wrappings. "Awful good of you to bring 'em."

Then, to Miss Alathea in explanation: "Things I bought yesterday, Miss 'Lethe, all by myself. Jus' went wild. Reckon I'll let you an' th'

Colonel see 'em." She took a large, dressed doll out of its wrappings.

"Look at that!"

"What a beauty!" cried the Colonel.

"Can talk, too." Madge pressed the wondrous puppet's shirred silk chest.

"Ma-ma," it cried. "Ma-ma."

"Never had nothin' but a rag-doll, myself," the girl went on, delighted by their approval of this automatic wonder. "'Tain't for me. It's for a little girl as lives up in th' mountings."