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I wash my hands of you, you willful, passionate hussy!" "Stop! stop! this instant, Hiram Gilcrest," shrieked his wife, rising from her chair and stamping her foot. Then she rushed to him, caught his arm and actually shook him, crying: "You shall not heap such abuse on my child! I have been silent long enough."
"I thought you did not settle here until after Indian depredations had ceased." "Ha! ha!" laughed Gilcrest. "You thought I came like Abram from Ur of the Chaldees, bringing family, servants, goods and chattels, did you? No, I made that sort of migration several years later. I first came alone, to spy out the land, and to find a suitable location wherein to plant a home and rear a family.
While these preparations were in progress, Dudley started off with Henry to look after the horses. Before reaching the grove where they were tethered, he was hailed by Major and Mrs. Gilcrest with a cordial invitation to "break bread" at their table an invitation which he, thinking of the beautiful niece, gladly accepted.
Several months before this, in looking through some documents pertaining to the Gilcrest property, he had made two startling discoveries: First, that Mrs. Gilcrest's maiden name was Sarah Jane Pepper, instead of Jane Temple, as even her own children supposed it to be.
We had to do our own fightin' then, you'll agree, Hiram." "Why, Major Gilcrest," Dudley exclaimed, "were you an Indian-fighter? I thought you were a Revolutionary soldier." "So I was," Gilcrest answered, "from the battle of Lexington until badly wounded in Virginia by Arnold's raiders in the spring of '81. Then, early in the next year I came to Kentucky." "You surprise me," Abner replied.
No objection was raised to his answer when given before the presbytery the next day, and, after making satisfactory replies to all other questions propounded, he was ordained. When Stone had finished his discourse, he called upon Gilcrest to lead in prayer. With an angry shake of his head, and a frown upon his stern features, the old man declined. Old Brother Landrum was then asked to pray.
You'll be showing them to some one, or, rather, somebody may get at them while you are out of town, and " "But, Major Gilcrest," remonstrated Drane, secretly much frightened at this unexpected move on the part of his confidant, "I I found them, and they belong to me. I assure you they will be perfectly secure with me, and and I " "But they'll be safer with me," persisted Gilcrest.
"There are no 'buts' nor 'ifs' about it, sir," Gilcrest answered haughtily. "Betsy will do as I wish. She's at times rather self-willed, and no doubt has been led away for the moment by some romantic nonsense; but she's a sensible girl in the main, and knows what's best for her. If she doesn't, I do, and I'm master of my own household, I assure you." "Has she other suitors?" Abner ventured.
Gilcrest was dissolved in tears, and leaned back tremblingly in her chair, saying never a word. "Is everything going against me?" groaned the old man, pacing the room excitedly. "I'm thwarted and set at naught on every hand church, neighbors, friends. I'll sell out and go back to Massachusetts. To think that my only daughter! Truly a man's worst foes are often those of his own household."
Mason Rogers was the fiddler of the neighborhood, and as much esteemed in that capacity as in that of song-leader at church; and even Deacon Gilcrest, notwithstanding the Puritanical stiffness of his mental joints upon questions of creed, relaxed considerably upon matters of social pastimes; nor did he assume superiority over his neighbors on account of his greater wealth and education.
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