The Last of the Foresters Part 51

Everybody remained silent for a moment, and then the silence was broken by Ralph, who cried, laughing:

"I'll back you, friend Verty! every word of it!"

"You, sir!" cried f.a.n.n.y.

"Yes! I wonder if your divine creature--Sallianna by name--did not tell me, ten minutes since, that you--yes, you, Miss f.a.n.n.y!--were desperately enamored of Mr. Verty!"

The whole party were so overcome by this ludicrous expose of Miss Sallianna's schemes, that a laugh much louder than the first rang through the garden; and when Miss Sallianna was descried sailing in dignified meditation up and down the portico, her fan gently waving, her head inclined to one side, her eyes fixed upon the sky, Mr. Ralph Ashley entered into a neighboring ma.s.s of shrubbery, from which came numerous choking sounds, and explosive evidences of overwhelming laughter.

Thus was it that our honest Verty at once cleared up all misunderstanding--and made the horizon cloudless once again. If everybody would only speak as plainly, when misconceptions and mistakes arise, the world would have far more of sunshine in it!

"Just to think!" cried f.a.n.n.y, "how that odious old tatterdemalion has been going on! Did anybody ever?"

"Anan?" said Verty.

"Sir?" said f.a.n.n.y.

"What's a tatterdemalion?" asked the young man, smilingly.

"I don't exactly know, sir," said f.a.n.n.y; "but I suppose it's a conceited old maid; who talks about the beauties of nature, and tries to make people, who are friends, hate each other."

With which definition Miss f.a.n.n.y clenched her handsome little hand, and made a gesture therewith, in the direction of Miss Sallianna, indicative of hostility, and a desire to engage in instant combat.

Ralph laughed, and said:

"You meant to say, my dear child, that the lady in question tried to make a quarrel between people who _loved_ each other--not simply 'were friends'. For you know she tried to make us dislike one another."

f.a.n.n.y received this insinuating speech with one of heir expressive "hums!"

"Don't you?" said Ralph.

"What; sir?"

"Love me!"

"Oh, devotedly!"

"Very well; it was not necessary to tell me, and, of course, that pretty curl of the lip is only to keep up appearances. But come now, darling of my heart, and light of my existence! as we _hav'nt_ quarreled, in spite of Miss Sallianna, and still have for each other the most enthusiastic affection, be good enough to forget these things, and turn your attention to material affairs. You promised me a lunch!"

"Lunch!"

"Yes--and I am getting hungry."

"When did I promise?"

"Yesterday."

"Oh--now--"

"You remember; very well. It was to be eaten, you will recollect, on the hill, yonder, to the west, to which our steps were to tend."

"Our picnic! Oh, yes! My goodness gracious! how could I forget it!

Come on, Reddie--come and help me to persuade Mrs. Scowley to undo the preserve-jar."

Redbud laughed.

"May I go!" said Verty.

"Certainly, sir; you are not at liberty to refuse. Who would talk with Reddie!"

"I don't think--" murmured Redbud, hesitating.

"Now!" cried f.a.n.n.y, "did anybody ever!"

"Ever what!" said Verty.

"Ever see anybody like this Miss Redbud!"

"I don't think they ever did," replied Verty, smiling.

Which reply caused Miss f.a.n.n.y and Mr. Ralph to laugh, and Redbud to color slightly; but this soon pa.s.sed, and the simple, sincere look came back to her tender face.

Redbud could not resist the glowing picture which f.a.n.n.y drew of the picnic to be; and, with some misgiving, yielded. In a quarter of an hour the young men and the young girls were on their way to the beautiful eminence, swinging the baskets which contained the commissariat stores, and laughing gleefully.

CHAPTER x.x.xVIII.

HOW LONGEARS SHOWED HIS GALLANTRY IN f.a.n.n.y'S SERVICE.

It was one of those magnificent days of Fall, which dower the world with such a wealth of golden splendor everywhere--but princ.i.p.ally in the mountains.

The trees rose like mighty monarchs, clad in royal robes of blue and yellow, emerald and gold, and crimson; the forest kings and little princely alders, ashes and red dogwoods, all were in their glory.

Chiefly the emperor tulip-tree, however, shook to the air its n.o.ble vestments, and lit up all the hill-side with its beauty. The streams ran merrily in the rich light--the oriole swayed upon the gorgeous boughs and sang away his soul--over all drooped the diaphanous haze of October, like an enchanting dream.

To see the mountains of Virginia in October, and not grow extravagant, is one of those things which rank with the discovery of perpetual motion--an impossibility.

Would you have strength and rude might? The oak is, yonder, battered by a thousand storms, and covered with the rings of forgotten centuries. Splendor? The mountain banners of the crimson dogwood, red maple, yellow hickory and chestnut flout the sky--as though all the nations of the world had met in one great federation underneath the azure dome not built with hands, and clashed together there the variegated banners which once led them to war--now beckoning in with waving silken folds the thousand years of peace! Would you have beauty, and a tender delicacy of outline and fine coloring? Here is that too; for over all,--over the splendid emperors and humble princes, and the red, and blue, and gold, of oak, and hickory, and maple, droops that magical veil whereof we spoke--that delicate witchery, which lies upon the gorgeous picture like a spell, melting the headlands into distant figures, beckoning and smiling, making the colors of the leaves more delicate and tender--turning the autumn mountains into a fairy land of unimagined splendor and delight!

Extravagance is moderation looking upon such a picture.

Such a picture was unrolled before the four individuals who now took their way toward the fine hill to the west of the Bower of Nature, and they enjoyed its beauty, and felt fresher and purer for the sight.

"Isn't it splendid!" cried f.a.n.n.y.

"Oh, yes!" Redbud said, gazing delightedly at the trees and the sky.