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"I've noticed pretty darned well 't I don't belong to no town, only when it comes to votin' some on ye into offis' up there and payin' taxes," said one of the Basin group Captain Dan Kirtland, Vesty's father. "I ain't a-goin' to pay no rates, nor work 'em out on no roads neither.
He uttered a mature sea-oath, and was again marched violently from our presence by his mother; but I was happy to see that he returned soon afterward and renewed his portion of the song with a gusto which the added quality of defiance now rendered deafening, while through all our din sounded true the flute of Vesty's sweet voice.
And the Basin wind blew in through the cracked windows, and a bird flew upward: "Softly through the storm of life, Clear above the whirlwind's cry" It all resolved itself into that at last; the human voice crying upward, shivering, like the bird's flight; but with sure aim now! I saw how it was at the first look at Vesty's face, when I called the next morning.
Wonnell, I would like to have a bunch of magnoleys to put on Miss Vesty's toilet every day. 'I'll git 'em fur you, Roxy, says I, 'becaze I allus thought you was a little beauty. Says she: 'I'd give most anything to surprise Miss Vesty with flowers every day, rale wild ones! 'Then, says I, 'Roxy, I'll git' em fur you for a kiss! An' she most a-blushed blood-red an' ran away."
"As I was gwyn to say," dryly added Samson, "I never just knowed what I was a lettin' Marster Milburn keep my wages fur, till he married Miss Vesty, and then I sot my eyes on Miss Vesty's friend an' maid, and I says, 'Gracious goodness! dat's de loveliest gal in de world. I'll git my money and buy her and set her free, and maybe she'll hab me, ole as I am."
"Miss Vesty's sold me to her Uncle Allan. He's sent the kidnappers after me. They're yonder, in Princess Anne. Oh, drive me to the North, to the swamps, anywhere but there!" "I know your mistress made you over to her mother, Virgie, for a precaution, fearing you might not be safe in her own hands. She told me so, and asked if the death of her mother could possibly affect you."
"Vesty," he pleaded tremulously, "will you start 'Carried by the Angels'?" Vesty went to the little organ. Now we forgot all the rest, all that was rude and incongruous, forgot how mean the school-house was, how few protective boards left upon it. Captain Pharo and Captain Shamgar dropped their mallets at the first sound of Vesty's voice, and came in on tiptoe, with changed faces, reverent.
He took the infant and began to toss it, to compensate it for Vesty's withdrawal. His thick black hair fell over his forehead, his nose was fine and straight. Gurdon came forward obediently to assist him. He had the same great bulk, and even handsomer features, only that his hair was smooth and parted. Vesty and her lover passed on together.
Vesty's mouth quivered; her eyes looked fit to enfold the whole sinful world for his sake. "Good-night, major!" she said coldly; but she had spoken. And, beautiful and tall, she passed out of sight. As Captain Leezur turned to me, in spite of the dark duplicity of his conduct toward me, my heart gushed out to him unawares. I grasped his hand silently. I met her on the morrow in the lane.
The sight of Dan Kirtland's low, brown cottage, the squalid babies in the doorway, the fishing-nets, Vesty's last week's cotton gown swinging on the line, some humiliating, harsh memories of her own, spurred her on, with a sigh. "She is fire, thank God! It will be all right," she said. Vesty drew back into the woods. She pressed her forehead hard against the rough bark of a tree.
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