VIII.
_THE ROVER._
Meanwhile the nocturnal acquaintance from whom Salina had parted took alast look at the house, and shook his envious head darkly at the roomwhere the light and the music were; then, thrusting his hands into hispockets, with a swaggering air, went plodding on his lonely way acrossthe fields, in the starlight.
The direction he took was that from which Penn had arrived; and in thecourse of twenty minutes he approached the door of the solitary housewith the dark windows and the dogs within. He walked all around, andseeing no light, nor any indication of life, drew near, and rappedsoftly on a pane.
The dogs were roused in an instant, and barked furiously. Nothingdaunted, he waited for a lull in the storm he had raised, and rappedagain.
"Who's there?" creaked the stridulous voice of good Mrs. Sprowl.
"_You know!_" said the rover, in a suppressed, confidential tone. "Onewho has a right."
Now, the excellent relict of the late lamented Sprowl reflected,naturally, that, if anybody had a right there, it was he who paid herfor his board in advance.
"You, agin, after all, is it!" she exclaimed, angrily. "Couldn't youfind nowhere else to go to? But if you imagine I've thought better on't,and will let you in, you're grandly mistaken! Go away this instant, orI'll let the dogs out!"
"Let 'em out, and be----!"
No matter about the last word of the rover's defiant answer. It was avery irritating word to the temper of the good Mrs. Sprowl. This was thefirst time (she thought) she had ever heard the mild and benignantschoolmaster swear; but she was not much surprised, believing that itwas scarcely in the power of man to endure what he had that nightendured, and not swear.
"Look out for yourself then, you sir! for I shall take you at yourword!" And there was a sound of slipping bolts, followed by the carefulopening of the door.
Out bounced the dogs, and leaped upon the intruder; but, instead oftearing him to pieces, they fell to caressing him in the most vivaciousand triumphant manner.
"Down, Brag! Off, Grip! Curse you!" And he kicked them till they yelped,for their too fond welcome.
"How dare you, sir, use my dogs so!" screamed the lady within, enragedto think they had permitted that miserable schoolmaster to get thebetter of them.
"I'll kick them, and you too, for this trick!" muttered the man. "I'lllearn ye to shut me out, and make a row, when I'm coming to see you atthe risk of my----"
She cut him short, with a cry of amazement.
"Lysander! is it you!"
"Hold your noise!" said Lysander, pressing into the house. "Call my nameagain, and I'll choke you! Where's your schoolmaster? Won't he hear?"
"Dear me! if it don't beat everything!" said Mrs. Sprowl in palpitatingaccents. "Don't you know I took you for the master!"
"No, I didn't know it. This looks more like a welcome, though!" Lysanderbegan to be mollified. "There, there! don't smother a fellow! One kissis as good as fifty. The master is out, then? Anybody in the house?"
"No, I'm so thankful! It seems quite providential! O, dearie, dearie,sonny dearie! I'm so glad to see you agin!"
"Come! none of your sonny dearies! it makes me sick! Strike a light, andget me some supper, can't you?"
"Yes, my boy, with all my heart! This is the happiest day I've seen----"
"Ah, what's happened to-day?" said Lysander, treating with levity hismother's blissful confession.
"I mean, this night! to have you back again! How could I mistake you forthat dreadful schoolmaster!" Here her trembling fingers struck a match.
"Draw the curtains," said Lysander, hastily executing his own order, asthe blue sputter kindled up into a flame that lighted the room. "Itain't quite time for me to be seen here yet."
"Where did you come from? What are you here for? O, my dear, dearLysie!" (she gazed at him affectionately), "you ain't in no greatdanger, be you?"
"That depends. Soon as Tennessee secedes, I shall be safe enough. I'mgoing to have a commission in the Confederate army, and that'll beprotection from anything that might happen on account of old scores. I'mgoing to raise a company in this very place, and let the law touch me ifit can!"
He tossed his cap into a corner, and sprawled upon a chair before thestove, at which his devoted mother was already blowing her breath awayin the endeavor to kindle a blaze. She stopped blowing to gape at hisgood news, turning up at him her low, skinny forehead, narrow nose, andclose-set, winking eyes.
"There! I declare!" said she. "I knowed my boy would come back to mesome day a gentleman!"
"A gentleman? I'm bound to be that!" said the man, with a braggart laughand swagger. "I tell ye, mar, we're going to have the greatestconfederacy ever was!"
"Do tell if we be!" said the edified "mar."
"Six months from now, you'll see the Yankees grovelling at our feet,begging for admission along with us. We'll have Washington, and all ofthe north we want, and defy the world!"
"I want to know now!" said Mrs. Sprowl, overcome with admiration.
"The slave-trade will be reopened, Yankee ships will bring us cargoes ofsplendid niggers, not a man in the south but'll be able to own three orfour, they'll be so cheap, and we'll be so rich, you see," saidLysander.
"You don't say, re'lly!"
"That's the programme, mar! You'll see it all with your own eyes in sixmonths."
"Why, then, why _shouldn't_ the south secede!" replied "mar," hasteningto put on the tea-kettle, and then to mix up a corn dodger for her son'ssupper. "I'm sure, we ought all on us to have our servants, and livewithout work; and I knowed all the time there was another side to whatPenn Hapgood preaches (for he's dead set agin' secession), though Icouldn't answer him as _you_ could, Lysie dear!"
"Wal, never mind all that, but hurry up the grub!" said "Lysie dear,"putting sticks in the stove. "I hain't had a mouthful since breakfast."
"You hain't seen _her_, of course," observed Mrs. Sprowl, mysteriously.
"Her? who?"
"Salina!" in a whisper, as if to be overheard by a mouse in the wallwould have been fatal.
"Wal, I have seen _her_, I reckon! Not an hour ago. By appointment. Iwrote her I was coming, got a woman to direct the letter, and had a longtalk with her to-night. What I want just now is, a little money, andshe's got to raise it for me, and what she can't raise I shall look toyou for."
"O dear me! don't say money to me!" exclaimed the widow, alarmed."Partic'larly now I've lost my best feather-bed and my boarder!"
"What is it about your boarder? Out with it, and stop this hintingaround!"
Thus prompted, Mrs. Sprowl, who had indeed been waiting for theopportunity, related all she knew of what had happened to Penn. Lysanderkindled up with interest as she proceeded, and finally broke forth witha startling oath.
"And I can tell you where he has gone!" he said. "He's gone to the houseI can't get into for love nor money! She refused me admissionto-night--refused me money! but he is taken in, and their money will belavished on him!"
"But how do you know, my son,----"
"How do I know he's there? Because, when I was with her in the orchard,we saw an object--she said it was some old nigger to see Toby--go intothe kitchen. Then in a little while a man--it must have been Stackridge,if you say he was looking for him--went in with Carl, and didn't comeout again, as I could see. I staid till the light from the kitchen wentup into the bedroom, in the corner of the house this way. There's yerboarder, mar, I'll bet my life! But he won't be there long, I can tellye!" laughed Lysander, maliciously.