Part 40 (2/2)

What was said we must imagine. He was all the old lady had left in the world. But no one ever doubted that she had kissed him and told him to go, and to hold his head high as suited an American and a Buchan.

Georgie would perhaps have had no very famous career in Wall Street, but no one doubted that he would make a good soldier. There had always been a Buchan in the armies of the Republic, his grandmother must have reminded him. And very likely Georgie, kissing her, had reminded her that there had always been a Buchan woman at home to wish the men G.o.d speed as they marched away, and told her too to hold her old head high.

There must have been some talk about the money that there wouldn't be now; without his little weekly check she was indeed almost penniless. It is quite likely that they spoke of selling the house and decided against it. Part of the boy's pay was of course to come to his grandmother, but, as she explained, there were so many war charities needing that, and then the wool for her knitting- She must manage mostly with the farm.

There was always the vegetable-garden, and a few chickens, and the green meadow, which might be expected to yield a record crop of hay.

We may imagine that the two-old lady and boy-stepped out for a moment into the moonlit night to look at the poor little domain of Buchan that was left. Under the little breeze that drifted up from the Delaware the gra.s.s bent in long waves like those of the summer seas that Georgie was to cross to France. As the Buchans looked at it they might have felt some wonder at the century-old fertility of the soil. Back in the days of the Revolution Was.h.i.+ngton's horse had pastured there one night. Then, and in 1812, and during the great battle of the States, the gra.s.s had grown green and the hay been fragrant, and the fat Jersey earth had out of its depths brought forth something to help the nation at war. Such a field as that by the old white house can scarcely be thought of as a wild, primeval thing; it has lived too long under the hand of man. This was a Buchan field, George's meadow, and by moonlight it seemed to wave good-by to him.

”You aren't dependent on me now, dear,” he may have said, with his arm around his grandmother. ”I just leave you to our little garden patch and our chickens and the green meadow.”

”You mustn't worry, dear. They'll take care of me,” she must have answered.

So George went away; and the night after, the night before he sailed, the horseman and his company came.

It was at dusk, and a gossamer silvery mist had drifted up from the Delaware. He had hitched his horse by the gate. He was in riding-breeches and gaiters and a rather old-fas.h.i.+oned riding-coat. And in the band of his hat he had stuck a small American flag which looked oddly enough almost like a c.o.c.kade. He knocked at the door, quite ignoring the new electric bell which George had installed one idle Sunday morning when his grandmother had felt he should have been at church. As it happened, old Mrs. Buchan had been standing by the window, watching the mist creep up and the twilight come, thinking of Georgie so soon to be upon the water. As the horseman knocked she, quite suddenly and quite contrary to her usual custom, went herself to the door.

His hat was immediately off, swept through a n.o.bler circle than the modern bow demands, and he spoke with the elaboration of courtesy which suited his age; for, though his stride was vigorous, he was no longer young. It was a severe, careworn face of a stern, almost hard, n.o.bility of expression. Yet the smile when it came was engaging, and old Mrs.

Buchan, as she smiled in return, found herself saying to herself that no Southerner, however stern, could fail to have this graceful lighter side. For his question had been put in the softer accents of Virginia and of the states farther south.

”I've lost my way,” he began, with the very slightest, small, gay laugh.

But he was instantly serious. ”It is so many, many years since I was here.”

Mrs. Buchan pointed up the road.

”That is the way to Princeton.”

”Princeton, of course. That's where we fought the British and beat them.

It seems strange, does it not, that we now fight with them?”

”We must forget the Revolution now, must we not?” This from Mrs. Buchan.

”Forget the Revolution!” he flashed back at her, almost angrily. Then more gently: ”Perhaps. If we remember liberty!” He glanced an instant up the road to Princeton hill and then went on. ”They fought well then, madam. As a soldier I am glad to have such good allies. But I was forgetting. Yonder lies Princeton, and from there there is the post-road to New York, is there not? I must be in New York by morning.”

Mrs. Buchan was old-fas.h.i.+oned, but she found herself murmuring amazedly something about railroads and motor-cars. But he did not seem to hear her.

”Yes,” he continued, ”I must be in New York by morning. The first transport with our troops sails for France.”

”I know,” she said, proudly. ”My grandson, George Buchan, sails for France.”

”George Buchan? There was a George Buchan fought at Princeton, I remember.”

”There was. And another George Buchan in the War of Eighteen-twelve. And a John in the Mexican War. And a William in eighteen sixty-three. There was no one in the Spanish War-my son was dead and my grandson was too young. But now he is ready.”

”Every American is ready,” her visitor answered. ”I am ready.”

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