The Little Red Foot Part 28

"By obliging you to take me to Caughnawaga. It inconveniences you."

"I promised to see you safely there, and that is all about it," said I drily.

"Yes, sir. But I ask your pardon for exacting your promise.... And--I ask pardon for--for stealing your horse."

There seemed to ensue a longer silence than I intended, and I realized that I had been looking at her without other thought than of her dark, young eyes under her yellow hair.

"What did you say?" I asked absently.

She hesitated, then: "You do not like me, Mr. Drogue."

"Did I say so?" said I, startled.

"No.... I feel that you do not like me. Is it because I used you without decency when I stole your horse?"

"Perhaps some trifling chagrin remains. But it is now over--because you say you are sorry."

"I am so."

"Then--I am friendly--if you so desire, Penelope Grant."

"Yes, sir, I do desire your countenance."

I smiled at her gravity, and saw, dawning in return, that lovely, child's smile I already knew and waited for.

"I wish to whisper to you," said she, bending the flowering bough lower.

So I inclined my ear across it, and felt her delicate breath against my cheek.

"I wish to make known to you that I am of your party, Mr. Drogue," she whispered.

I nodded approval.

"I wished you to know that I am a friend to liberty," she continued. "My sentiment is very ardent, Mr. Drogue: I burn with desire to serve this land, to which my father's wish has committed me. I am young, strong, not afraid. I can load and shoot a pistol----"

"Good Lord!" I exclaimed, laughing, "do you wish to enlist and go for a soldier?"

"Yes, sir."

I drew back in amazement and looked at her, and she blushed but made me a firm countenance. And so sweetly solemn a face did this maid pull at me that I could not forbear to laugh again.

"But how about Mr. Fonda?" I demanded, "if you don jack-boots and hanger and go for a dragoon?"

"I shall ask his permission to serve my country."

"A-horse, Penelope? Or do you march with fire-lock and knapsack and a well-floured queue?" I had meant to turn it lightly but not to ridicule; but her lip quivered, though she still found courage to sustain my laughing gaze.

"Come," said I, "we Tryon County men have as yet no need to call upon our loyal women to shoulder rifle and fill out our ranks."

"No need of me, sir?"

"Surely, surely, but not yet to such a pa.s.s that we strap a bayonet on your thigh. Sew for us. Knit for us----"

"Sir, for three years I have done so, foreseeing this hour. I have knitted many, many score o' stockings; sewed many a s.h.i.+rt against this day that is now arrived. I have them in Mr. Fonda's house, against my country's needs. All, or a part, are at your requisition, Mr. Drogue."

But I remained mute, astonished that this girl had seen so clearly what so few saw at all--that war must one day come between us and our King.

This foreseeing of hers amazed me even more than her practical provision for the day of wrath--now breaking red on our horizon--that she had seen so clearly what must happen--a poor refugee--a child.

"Sir," says she, "have you any use for the stockings and s.h.i.+rts among your men?"

She stood resting both arms on the bent bough, her face among the flowers. And I don't know how I thought of it, or remembered that in Scotland there are some who have the gift of clear vision and who see events before they arrive--nay, even foretell and forewarn.

And, looking at her, I asked her if that were true of her. And saw the tint of pink apple bloom stain her face; and her dark eyes grow shy and troubled.

"Is it that way with you?" I repeated. "Do you see more clearly than ordinary folk?"

"Yes, sir--sometimes."

"Not always?"

"No, sir."

"But if you desire to penetrate the future and strive to do so----"

"No, sir, I can not if I try. Visions come unsought--even undesired."

"Is effort useless?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then this strange knowledge of the future comes of itself unbidden?"

"Unbidden--when it comes at all. It is like a flash--then darkness. But the glimpse has convinced me, and I am forewarned."

I pondered this for a s.p.a.ce, then:

"Could you tell me anything concerning how this war is to end?"

"I do not know, Mr. Drogue."

I considered. Then, again: "Have you any knowledge of what Fate intends concerning yourself?"

"No, sir."

"Nothing regarding your own future? That is strange."

She shook her head, watching me. And then I laughed lightly: