Aftermath / Part second of A Kentucky Cardinal""

st-the night be

ve lately been felt in

cast their s

for a basketful of the roots at once, thus taking time-and the rhubarb-by the forelock. And the old epicurean harpy whose passion is asparagus, having accosted me gruffly on the street with an inquiry as to the truth of my engagement and been quietly assured, how true it was, informed me to my fac

f an orchard that has been plucked of its fruit. But my wonderment has grown on the other hand at the number of those to whom, as the significant unit of a family instead of a bachelor zero, I have now acquired

occasion classified her among the waders; and certainly, upon the day when my engagement to Georgiana transpired, she waded not only all around the town

d made this match; and for the sake of giving her so much happiness, I thin

the right word from the window above; and Jack, who is to drive us on our bridal-trip to the Blue Lick Springs, where he hopes to renew his scientific studies upon the maxillary bones. I have hesitated between Blue Lick and Mud Lick, though to a man in my condition there can be

es relating to Kentucky birds, especially to the Kentucky warbler. I admitted that these studies had been wretchedly put aside under the more pressing necessity of fixing the attention of all my powers, ornit

s of my undertaking with devouring and triumphant eagerness. But what was my amazement whe

"and my only thought had been to give you p

, as we sometimes instinctively try to brush away our cares. Then she

re mine with yon. It is the only fear that I have ever felt regarding our futur

t ag

you say the right thing, you find the right word, you get the right meaning. With nature alone you are perfectly natural. Towards society you show your sh

I listened, to this as to

-at home! A woman not able to go with you! Not able to wade the creeks and swim the rivers! Not able to sleep out in the brown leaves, to endure the rain, the cold, the travel! And, so I shall never be able to fill your life with mine as you fill mine with yours. As time passes, I shall fill it less and less. Every spring nature will be just as young to you; I shall be always older. The water you love ripples,

at my one desire was to up

these things into the fire as soon as I go home. Only say what you wish me to

he said, with a poor little effort to make

rrily as long as I shal

t to her at

improving. I'm

ou mean?"

from my wife. Will she have the privilege of accompanying me among these competing vegetables? And last month they made me director of a turnpike company-I suppose because it runs through my farm.

It is well to let a woman taste of the tree of

be careful!" s

haven't mar

raise cocoons. That would gratify my love of nature and your fancy for silk dresses. I could have my silk woven and spun

ted. "Do you expect to talk to me i

answered. "But I have always understood married li

the monstrous selfishness that lay coiled like a canker in my wor

secondary-you were everything. Now that I have won you,

olitary way and seek its woodland peace-I have hung about the town as one who is offered for hire to a master whom he has never seen and for a work that he hates to do. Many of the affairs that engage the passions of my fellow-beings are to me as the gray stubble through which I walk in the September fields-the rotting wastage of harvests long since gathered in. At other times I drive myself upon their sharp and piercing conflicts as a bird is blown uselessly aga

the time. She is not always pleased with what I style my researches into civilized society. One evenin

Miss Delia Webster has suddenly

bster?" she had inquired,

orgiving a woman anything-petitioned the governor to pardon Miss Delia on the ground that she belongs to the sex that can do no wrong-and be punished for it. Whereupon the governor, seasoned to the like large experience,

man, now," sugg

her principal, the Reverend Mr. Fairbanks, who has not re

greeable subject of c

rgi

tor of the Smithland Bee was walking along the street w

xclaimed Geor

e court-room in Mount Sterling a man was shot by

did he

r for drawing his handkerchief from his pocket. Self-defence!-the sense of the court being that whatever such an action might mean in other civilized, countries, in Kentucky and under the circumstances-

ndkerchief," said Georgiana. "So re

ing him open a vein in the arm of each. Just before they fainted from exhaustion they made signs that th

hey fight a du

uckians of our day are braver than the pioneers? Do you suppose that any people ever elevated its ideal of courage in the eyes of the world by all the homicides and all the duels that it could count? There is only one way in which any civilized people has ever done that, there is only one way in which any civilized people has ever been able to impress the world very deeply with a belief in the reality and the nobility of its ideal of courage: it is by the warlike spirit of its men in times of war, and by the peaceful spirit of its men in times of peace. Only, you must add this: that when those times of peace have come on, and it is no longer possible for such a people to realize

orefathers of the Revolution, in the soldiers of the wilderness and of Indian warfare, of the war of 1812, of the war with Mexico, at Cerro Gordo, at Buena Vista, at Palo Alto, at Resaca de la Palma. Wherever the Ken

roof that in times of peace we do not forget. It is not much, but it is of the right kind-it is the soldier's monument, it is the soldier's medal, it is the soldier's funeral oration, it is the recognition by the people of its ideal of courage in times of peace. And with every other brave people this proof passes as the sign universal. But our homicides and our duels, nearly all of them brought about in the name-even under the fear-of courage, what effect have they had in giving us abroad our reputation as a commun

t," I added, in apology, "but I have been thinking of

h you we need not both speak." But she looked pained,

o fight. The widow offered to marry the Irishman, if such a sacrifice would be accepted as satisfactory damages. The Irishman sent a challenge, and the Kentuckian chose cavalry broadswords of the largest size. He was a

him-in Union County before I came he

em walking together one day under the trees at Ashland-the two most

movements of his life, as two little boats in a quiet bay are tossed by the storms o

"It's all in self-defence. I believe yo

she said,

usage of my time, I am going to take your life-even at the peril of my own. If you desire, it is your privil

lways. "I am upset," she said, discourag

or dangerous or forbidden subjects. The trees have no evasions. The weeds are honest. Running water is not trying to escape. The sunsets are not colored with hypocrisy. The lightning is not revenge. Everything stands forth in the sincerity of its being, and nature invites me to exercise the absolute liberty of my mind upon all life. I am bi

ife and habits of another, there'd be a f

u may not even think, you may not even feel. You are not allowed to reveal what is concealed, and you are required to conceal what is revealed. Natural! Have you ever known any two men to be perfectly natura

re living in a very extraordinary time,

u must take your choice: liberty for your mind and a prison for your body; liberty for your body and a

th and the South. We agreed that it would come from each side as a blazing torch to Kentucky, which lies between the two and is divided

lt that my t

only fear I have ever felt regarding our future. But, if there should be a war-y

th the thought of a day to

you mu

ould do my whole duty as a Kentuckian-as an American citiz

of the only talk I ever had with Georgia

ch things often attain at the moment before they alter and end. The hour seemed to me th

the garden towards her. Darkest among these lay the shapes of the cedars and the pines in which the redbird had lived

at having to be captured at last; and I too experience an indefinable pain that it has become my lot to subdue her in this way. The thought possesses me that she submits to marriage becau

ht sight of me across the yard and silently beckoned.

length, as her eyes rested on m

is the last time-the last of the window, the last of the garden, the end of the past. Everyth

to fetch the mini

e with the sight of her standing in there, as if waiting in duty for love to claim its own. As I saw her then I

igh to reach it; but when it does, its rays pour down from near the zenith and are most powerful and warm; then

a! Do not fade away fro

ckers in the socket: it is