Janice Meredith Part 14

he hesitated as if for words and then continued--"the respect a slave might owe his--his better. Surely on this day it should be accepted in the same spirit."

"What day mean ye?" asked Mr. Meredith.

The servant glanced at each face with surprise on his own.

When he read a question in all, he asked in turn, "Hast forgotten 't is Christmas?"

Mrs. Meredith, who was still holding the portrait, dropped it on the floor, as if it were in some manner dangerous.

"Christmas!" she cried. "Janice, don't thee dare touch the--"

"Oh, mommy, please," beseeched the girl.

"Take it away, Charles," ordered Mrs. Meredith. "And never let me hear of thy being the devil's deputy again.

We'll have no papish mummery at Greenwood."

The servant sullenly stooped, picked up the slip of ivory without a word, and turned to leave the room. But as he reached the door, Philemon found tongue.

"I'll trade that 'ere for the fowlin'-piece you set such store by," he offered.

The bondsman turned in the doorway and spoke bitterly.

"This is to be got for no mess of pottage, if it is scorned," he said.

"I don't scorn--" began Janice, but her father broke in there.

"Give it me, fellow!" ordered the squire. "No bond-servant shall have my daughter's portrait."

An angry look came into the man's eyes as he faced his master. "Come and take it, then," he challenged savagely, moving a step forward,--an action which for some reason impelled the squire to take a step backward.

"Oh, dadda, don't," cried Janice, anxiously. "Charles, you would n't!"

Fownes turned to her, with the threat gone from his face and att.i.tude. "There's my devil's temper again, Miss Janice," said he, in explanation and apology.

"Please go away," implored the girl, and the man went to the door. As he turned to close it, Janice said, "'T was very pretty, and--and--thank you, just the same."

The formalism of bygone generations was no doubt conducive to respectful manners, but not to confidential relations, and her parents knew so little of their daughter's nature as never to dream that they had occasioned the first suggestion of tenderness for the opposite s.e.x the young girl's heart had ever felt. And love's flame is superior to physical law in that, the less ventilation it has, the more fiercely it burns.

XI "'T IS AN ILL WIND THAT BLOWS n.o.bODY GOOD"

The next ripple in the Greenwood life was due to more material circ.u.mstances, being inaugurated by the receipt of the Governor's writ, convening the a.s.sembly of New Jersey. A trivial movement of a petty p.a.w.n on the chess-board of general politics, it nevertheless was of distinct importance in several respects to the Meredith family. Apparently the call meant only a few weeks'

attendance of the squire's at Burlington, in the performance of legislative duties, and Janice's going with him to make a return visit to the Drinkers at Trenton. These, however, were the simplest aspects of the summons, and action by the citizens of Middles.e.x County quickly injected a more serious element into the programme.

The earliest evidence of this was the summoning by the Committee of Observation and Correspondence of a gathering to "instruct" the county representatives how they should vote on the question as to indorsing or disapproving the measures of the recent Congress. The notice of the meeting was read aloud by the Rev. Mr. McClave before his morning sermon one Sunday, and then he preached long and warmly from 2 Timothy, ii. 25,--"Instructing those that oppose themselves,"

--the purport of his argument being the duty of the whole community to join hands in resisting the enemies of the land. The preacher knew he was directly antagonising the views of his wealthiest parishioner and the father of his would-be wife, but that fact only served to make him speak the more forcefully and fervently. However hard and stern the old Presbyterian faith was, its upholders had the merit of knowing what they believed, and of stating that belief without flinch or waver.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "It flatters thee."]

As he sat and listened, not a little of the squire's old Madeira found its way into his face, and no sooner were the family seated in the sleigh than the wine seemed to find expression in his tongue as well.

"'T is the last time I set foot in your church, Mrs. Meredith,"

he declared, loudly enough to make it evident that he desired those filing out of the doors to hear. "Never before have I--"

"Hold thy tongue, Lambert!" interrupted Mrs. Meredith, in a low voice. "Dost think to make a scene on the Sabbath?"

"Then let your parson hold his," retorted Mr. Meredith, but like a well-trained husband, in so low a voice as to be inaudible to all but the occupants of the sleigh. "Ge wug, Joggles! What is the land coming to, when such doctrines are preached in the pulpits; when those in authority are told 't is their duty to do what the riff-raff think best? As well let their brats and bunters tell us what to do. They'll not force me to attend their meeting, nor to yield a jot."

In fulfilment of his a.s.sertion, the squire sat quietly at home on the afternoon that the popular opinion of the county sought to voice itself, nodding his head over a volume of "Hale's Compleat Body of Husbandry." But as night drew near he was roused from his nap by the riding up of Squire Hennion and Philemon. Let it be confessed that, despite Mr.

Meredith's contempt for what he styled the "mobocracy,"

his first question concerned the meeting.

"A pooty mess yer've made of it, Meredith," growled Mr.

Hennion.

"I!" cried the squire, indignantly. "'T is naught I had to do with it."

"An' 't is thet 'ere keepin' away dun the harm," scolded the elder Hennion. "Swamp it, yer let the hotheads control!

Had all like yer but attended, they 'd never hev bin able to carry some of them 'ere resolushuns. On mor'n one resolve a single vote would hev bin a negative."

"Pooh!" sneered the squire. "Sit down and warm thy feet while thee cools thy head, man. Ye'll not get me to believe that one vote only was needed to prevent 'em indorsing the Congress a.s.sociation."

"Sartin they approved the Congress doins, nemine contradicente, as they wuz baound ter do since all aginst kep away, but--"

"Dost mean to say ye voted for it?" demanded Mr.

Meredith.

Squire Hennion's long, shrewd face slightly broadened as he smiled. "I wuz jest stepped over ter the ordinary ter git a nipperkin of ale when thet ere vote wuz took."

"Who let the hotheads control, then?" jerked out Mr.

Meredith.

"'T ain't no sort of use ter hev my neebours set agin me."

"And ye'll vote at Burlington as they tell ye?" fumed the squire.

"I'm rayther fearsome my rheumatiz will keep me ter hum this winter weather. I've had some mortal bad twinges naow an' agin."

"Now d.a.m.n me!" swore the squire, rising and pacing the room with angry strides. "And ye come here to blame me for neglecting a chance to check 'em."

"I duz," responded Hennion. "If I go ter a.s.sembly, 't won't prevent theer votin' fer what they wants. But if yer had attended thet 'ere meetin', we could hev stopped them from votin' ter git up a militia company an' ter buy twenty barrels--"

"Dost mean to say they voted rebellion?" roared Mr.

Meredith, halting in his angry stride.

"It duz hev a squint toward it, theer ain't no denyin'.

But I reckon it wuz baound ter come, vote ay or vote nay.

Fer nigh three months all the young fellers hev been drillin'

pooty reg'lar."

"Oh!" spoke up Janice. "Then that 's what Charles meant when he said 't was drill took him to the village."