The Heart's Kingdom

but arrived in time to witness Mammy's arraignment of my father,

what makes me say what I does, that it sure am dangersome fer 'em to go on a rampage in womenfolks' trunks. I ain't never g

rlotte will absolve me when she hears of the exigencies of the case," father pleaded over the top of his

, which he could er wropped up, and hunted out all the old sheets for you instid of that petticoat with them real lac

nks where they belong and lock them up," I said, as I went toward

nd they was all lost on menfolks. They hasn't even one lady rode by while I had 'e

e that father was recounting the scrape in which his and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's anemone adventure had got them. I assured myself that I was annoyed by this repeated ea

odloe pleaded, as he rose and took my hand in his, and held it in such a way

and I was powerless to prevent,"

don't know exactly whether I am called to officiate at a birth or a death or that intermediate festivity, a wedding. This is the s

with Bill as brings this. Bring a bible and linime

to elucidate?" I asked, as I

h, and Jed has shot partridges with me all winter. Please, you and the Judge, come with me. I can get the car over Paradise Ridge if I turn it into a wildcat. The morning is

ace and accepted. I had never been on a picnic with my father in my life and I could not understand the pleading in his eyes for my acceptance of this in

deep bow over my hand, which he kissed in a very delightful foreign fashion which made Mammy, who had come to the door to hear my d

nket," she announced. "And I'll put a little wine jelly and flannels in

s a wedding?"

of that Dabney and his wuthless son, Jefferson, what ain't like me in no way." With whi

ther demanded of Dabney, who was handing him his hat

raisin' and got a ruckus fer it," was his mild answer. Dabney lived hi

a laurel sprout or two to try out in the garden," father commanded, as I took my coat and hat from the chair where I h

possess, but I do not to this day know how it happened that I was crushed against the arm steering the gray racer as we sped through Goodloets toward Old Harpeth, while the judge sat be

first of the wildcat springs that its master had prophesied for it and then stood with its engine palpitating with what seemed like mechanical fear, while I buried my head on the strong arm next to

imbed up on the running board, over the door next to father, and settled herself in between him and the silent Bill. "Now you can go on," she calmly announced, in a very muc

d calm voice, though I saw that his fingers still trembled on the steering wheel as he held back

on account of my stomach from the raw potato Jimmy dared me to eat. This is that time," she calmly

r as he could and began to argue the question. "But we shall be gone almost

ighty glad for you to keep me safe with you all day?" Charlotte

shown if one of his deacons had caught him evading a question of grave moment. "And as it is the fulfillment of a promise which you claim, I am going

s when I met you. I ran into the car just minding my mother," Charlotte answere

seldom the victim," I said in an undertone to our host, who acquiesced with a laugh. "Harriet

street in which the Morgans reside. "And, besides, I don't like her any more, because, when she said Sue had to have part of the doll house she bought

" father remarked, as we all laughed at this candid revel

gray wheels we paused a

onse to our demand for her small daughter's compan

the parson had sent the gray car flying out toward Old Harpeth, though I saw him glance back with a trace of dis

t she won't," observed the tender big sister, as she rose to her feet an

asked of the young Charlotte'

ered me with a glint in his eye

t honesty," I answered, withou

the answer I got as we whirled by a farmer's wood lot

es, the slender white dog-tooth violets, the rose-pink arbutus, the blue star myrtle and the crimson oak buds, were matted into a vast robe that was gorgeously oriental, while a perfume that was surely more delicious than any ever wafted from the gardens of Arabia floated past us in gusts through which the gray car sped without the slightest shortness of breath. I seemed a million miles away from the great fetid city

ither of us spoke for at least ten miles, though, of course, it was his duty to make hay while the sun of my nature shone upon him and delicately to inquire into my spiritual condition. He didn't. He just let

n as we began to speed past rough board and log cabins, each surrounded by a picket fence which in no way seemed to fend the doorsteps from razor-back pi

gallantly through a few hundred feet of thick, black mud and turned from

lowly down the village street. "They must be trying a murder or a horse-stealing case," and I saw his eyes

, which stood in the midst of a mud-covered public square, completely surrounded by hitching-posts to which were hitched all the vehicl

r vigor, if not vocal, he drew the gray car up beside, an old-fashioned carryall, whose wheel

ed out Charlotte and then turned to swing me, in his strong arms, free of a mud p

at which, in many cases, was partaking from the maternal fount, as the women stood in groups and whispered as they looked at us shyly. Somehow their decorous cali

up to the front seat. At least the rest of us were seated, but the judge, jury and prisoner and prosecuting atto

re," whispered father, with the same pride shining in his eyes that shone upon the parson from the eyes of the gaunt prisoner,

bench, which was a splint-bottom chair behind a rude table, dignity being lent to the chair by its being the only one in t

Mr. Goodloe, as he sat down beside the prison

f bright red cedar. Twelve good men and true, attired in butternut trousers stuffed into muddy boots, settled themselves in the jury box, which was a log bench set at right angles to the other benches

lanky young mountain lawyer, who had put on a coat over his flannel shirt and brushed a litt

he tried the point of his splinter against

own Paradise Ridge to git the team, Jed claimed one had got away from him and run off in the big woods. They was a horse and mule trader come along the same

uting attorney sat down and fanned his

eisurely fashion, after the accused had been duly sworn in by the

scene, in the person of a mountain girl who had been cowering on a b

in a soft whisper that only father a

purr in his husky voice. Then he answered the judge with a kind of quiet d

wn to the pen. I let that mule git away from me and I didn't steal or sell him; that is all I

the money, Jed?"

terminedly. "Jest send me down to the pen

in an argumentative tone of voice, when fa

t brought all the outsiders crowding into the door. I had never heard or seen my father in a cou

e, and he can't prosecute and defend too. I always kinde

is defense?" father demanded, and he looked over at J

got to say. Them men speaks truth when they speaks." At which statement every good man and true nodded his head with firm conviction.

quietly, as he stood tall and straight before the jury. "I want to put Mr. Bangs' w

f to combat, but Mr. Goodloe laid a restraining

her bench, laid aside her cavernous black bonnet and advanced,

im the reputation of never having lost a case in which a woman was involved, "I want you to tell us

oming into her face that was like a little pink wide-open arbutus, "I

ed and implored in the one plea. "I'd rat

fence 'fore our cabin, when it was almost dark 'fore we got thar. Then while I was unpacking the wagon he got on one horse and rid down the side of the gulch to see whar water was at. I was jest takin' the things in when a

ulated Mr. Turner, proud

He took a notion to them and ast me how old they was and I told him about as old as any twenty-inch cedar on Old Harpeth. He asked me to trade 'em, but I couldn't abear to until he had riz to fifty dollars, what was the price of a young mule, all on account of his sister wanting quilts like them up in a big city. I was kinder crying quiet at letti

d his own face down upon his arm. The old judge's face took on a grim sternness, the jury stopped whitt

they won't believe you,"

round the neck of the mule and lef

without gentleness or any show of confiden

name, but I don't hold it ag'in him," answered the

ue, in the muddy boots and flannel shirt, and every mountain woman

manded the judge, as father looked around the room and the

Mrs. Bangs?" father c

f the pen," she answered with a sob. "It took me a week to make him believe about them quilts and then pappy come a

ame deference and tenderness he had used when he began to ques

fty dollars fer five old quilts," was the answer made by the young pr

woven ones of three colors, and then call

and got an affirmative answer, after which he

f the purchase or sale of these quilts, Mi

ece in New York to-day. I paid that for one not five months ago," I said, staring haughti

witness?" my father asked of

s telling the truth," was the laconic refusal

m and I reckon he can character witness for her," interposed the j

s a woman who can be depended upon to sp

me, and if it hadn't all been so serious I should have laughed with glee at his thus having to declare himself about my character in public. But the

witness?" father asked of t

ady, Parson?" he asked, with a

t room for almost a minute. Then the Rev

ee d

the young attorney answered, and there was a quizzical kindness in

his shoulders. I was looking at and listening to the man he had been before I was born. And when I could tear my eyes from his radiant face I watched these stolid mountaineers with whom he was working his will with a power they had never experienced before and did not understand. The men in the jury box and

two years of his young life when he could mean much to you and his state and his nation, than to give them a li

er made, a mule stepped into the case and took away the honor of its winning. He poked his inquisitive nose into a back wi

exclaimed Hiram Turner, as he rose and went to examine his property. "He wasn't sold to no mule man,

believe the word of Mrs. Bangs and Miss Powers about the valuable quilt

s here case and not that mule," a stern old sister in a gingham

o be the meek husband of the commanding old woman in the black bonnet. "I hav

he gives me his fergiveness and hern," old Hiram rose and turned with his hand on the forelock of the mule hero to say to the as

s the judge's sentence, delivered from the bench as everybody rose and began to stream out to watch

ning to hover about me, and in another ten minutes I had laid the foundations

clean handkerchief from her small pink pocket and apply it to the tears that were coursing down Melissa's cheeks over the dimples which her smiling mouth was put

aved, less than an hour ago," I apolo

d in his, through whose fingers the pride I had in him must have

own into the valley. The car was running smoothly, slowly and noiselessly around

ge. I think the wine of life is of that vintage," he said, with one of h

I asked myself as I went to say good night to Old H