Audrey
Page 6The Governor laughed, and kissed the small dark face. "I'll give thee a
gold moidore, instead, my maid. Odso! thou'rt as dark and wild, almost, as
was my little Queen of the Saponies that died last year. Hast never been
away from the mountains, child?"
Audrey shook her head, and thought the question but a foolish one. The
mountains were everywhere. Had she not been to the top of the hills, and
seen for herself that they went from one edge of the world to the other?
She was glad to slip from the Governor's encircling arm, and from the gay
ring beneath the sugar-tree; to take refuge with herself down by the water
side, and watch the fairy tale from afar off.
The rangers, with the pioneer and his son for their guests, dined beside
the kitchen fire, which they had kindled at a respectful distance from the
group upon the knoll. Active, bronzed and daring men, wild riders, bold
earth beneath the walnut-trees, laughed and joked, and told old tales of
hunting or of Indian warfare. The four Meherrins ate apart and in stately
silence, but the grinning negroes must needs endure their hunger until
their masters should be served. One black detachment spread before the
gentlemen of the expedition a damask cloth; another placed upon the snowy
field platters of smoking venison and turkey, flanked by rockahominy and
sea-biscuit, corn roasted Indian fashion, golden melons, and a quantity of
wild grapes gathered from the vines that rioted over the hillside; while a
third set down, with due solemnity, a formidable array of bottles. There
being no chaplain in the party, the grace was short. The two captains
carved, but every man was his own Ganymede. The wines were good and
abundant: there was champagne for the King's health; claret in which to
who were so gracious as to sit beside them, smile upon them, taste of
their mortal fare.
Sooth to say, the oreads were somewhat dazed by the company they were
keeping, and found the wine a more potent brew than the liquid crystal of
their mountain streams. Red roses bloomed in Molly's cheeks; her eyes grew
starry, and no longer sought the ground; when one of the gentlemen wove a
chaplet of oak leaves, and with it crowned her loosened hair, she laughed,
and the sound was so silvery and delightful that the company laughed with
her. When the viands were gone, the negroes drew the cloth, but left the
wine. When the wine was well-nigh spent, they brought to their masters
long pipes and japanned boxes filled with sweet-scented. The fragrant
smoke, arising, wrapped the knoll in a bluish haze. A wind had arisen,
hillsides. The maples blossomed into silver, the restless poplar leaves
danced more and more madly, the hemlocks and great white pines waved their
broad, dark banners. Above the hilltops the sky was very blue, and the
distant heights seemed dream mountains and easy of climbing. A soft and
pleasing indolence, born of the afternoon, the sunlight, and the red wine,
came to dwell in the valley. One of the company beneath the spreading
sugar-tree laid his pipe upon the grass, clasped his hands behind his
head, and, with his eyes on the azure heaven showing between branch and
leaf, sang the song of Amiens of such another tree in such another forest.
The voice was manly, strong, and sweet; the rangers quit their talk of war
and hunting to listen, and the negroes, down by the fire which they had
built for themselves, laughed for very pleasure.