Part 14 (1/2)

The third time the dream came it was a December morning of the year when Philip was fifteen, and falling snow made wavering light and shadow on the wall where hung the picture. This time, with eyes wide open, yet with the possession of the dream strongly on him, he lay sub-consciously alert and gazed, as in the odd, unmistakable dress that Philip knew now in detail, the bright-faced child swung toward him, always from the garden of that old place, always trying with loving, merry efforts to reach Philip from out of it--always holding to him the red-ribboned key.

Like a wary hunter the big boy lay--knowing it unreal, yet living it keenly--and watched his chance. As the little figure glided close to him he put out his hand suddenly, swiftly for the key--he was awake. As always, the dream was gone; the little ghost was baffled again; the two worlds might not meet.

That day Mrs. Beckwith, putting in order an old mahogany secretary, showed him a drawer full of photographs, daguerrotypes. The boy and his gay young mother were the best of friends, for, only nineteen when he was born, she had never let the distance widen between them; had held the freshness of her youth sacred against the time when he should share it. Year by year, living in his enthusiasms, drawing him to hers, she had grown young in his childhood, which year by year came closer to her maturity. Until now there was between the tall, athletic lad and the still young and attractive woman, an equal friends.h.i.+p, a common youth, which gave charm and elasticity to the natural tie between them. Yet even to this comrade-mother the boy had not told his dream, for the difficulty of putting into words the atmosphere, the compelling power of it. So that when she opened one of the old-fas.h.i.+oned black cases which held the early sun-pictures, and showed him the portrait within, he startled her by a sudden exclamation. From the frame of red velvet and tarnished gilt there laughed up at him the little boy of his dream.

There was no mistaking him, and if there were doubt about the face, there was the peculiar dress--the black and white plaid with large squares of black velvet sewed here and there as decoration. Philip stared in astonishment at the st.u.r.dy figure, the childish face with its wide forehead and level, strong brows; its dark eyes straight-gazing and smiling.

”Mother--who is he? Who is he?” he demanded.

”Why, my lamb, don't you know? It's your little uncle Philip--my brother, for whom you were named--Philip Fairfield the sixth. There was always a Philip Fairfield at Fairfield since 1790. This one was the last, poor baby! and he died when he was five. Unless you go back there some day--that's my hope, but it's not likely to come true. You are a Yankee, except for the big half of you that's me. That's Southern, every inch.” She laughed and kissed his fresh cheek impulsively. ”But what made you so excited over this picture, Phil?”

Philip gazed down, serious, a little embarra.s.sed, at the open case in his hand. ”Mother,” he said after a moment, ”you'll laugh at me, but I've seen this chap in a dream three times now.”

”Oh!” She did laugh at him. ”Oh, Philip! What have you been eating for dinner, I'd like to know? I can't have you seeing visions of your ancestors at fifteen--it's unhealthy.”

The boy, reddening, insisted. ”But, mother, really, don't you think it was queer? I saw him as plainly as I do now--and I've never seen this picture before.”

”Oh, yes, you have--you must have seen it,” his mother threw back lightly. ”You've forgotten, but the image of it was tucked away in some dark corner of your mind, and when you were asleep it stole out and played tricks on you. That's the way forgotten ideas do: they get even with you in dreams for having forgotten them.”

”Mother, only listen--” But Mrs. Beckwith, her eyes lighting with a swift turn of thought, interrupted him--laid her finger on his lips.

”No--you listen, boy dear--quick, before I forget it! I've never told you about this, and it's very interesting.”

And the youngster, used to these wilful ways of his sister-mother, laughed and put his fair head against her shoulder and listened.

”It's quite a romance,” she began, ”only there isn't any end to it; it's all unfinished and disappointing. It's about this little Philip here, whose name you have--my brother. He died when he was five, as I said, but even then he had a bit of dramatic history in his life. He was born just before war-time in 1859, and he was a beautiful and wonderful baby; I can remember all about it, for I was six years older. He was incarnate suns.h.i.+ne, the happiest child that ever lived, but far too quick and clever for his years. The servants used to ask him, 'Who is you, Ma.r.s.e Philip, sah?' to hear him answer, before he could speak it plainly, 'I'm Philip Fairfield of Fairfield'; he seemed to realize that, and his responsibility to them and to the place, as soon as he could breathe. He wouldn't have a darky scolded in his presence, and every morning my father put him in front of him in the saddle, and they rode together about the plantation. My father adored him, and little Philip's suns.h.i.+ny way of taking possession of the slaves and the property pleased him more deeply, I think, than anything in his life. But the war came before this time, when the child was about a year old, and my father went off, of course, as every Southern man went who could walk, and for a year we did not see him. Then he was badly wounded at the battle of Malvern Hill; and came home to get well. However, it was more serious than he knew, and he did not get well. Twice he went off again to join our army, and each time he was sent back within a month, too ill to be of any use. He chafed constantly, of course, because he must stay at home and farm, when his whole soul ached to be fighting for his flag; but finally in December, 1863, he thought he was well enough at last for service. He was to join General John Morgan, who had just made his wonderful escape from prison at Columbus, and it was planned that my mother should take little Philip and me to England to live there till the war was over and we could all be together at Fairfield again. With that in view my father drew all of his ready money--it was ten thousand dollars in gold--from the banks in Lexington, for my mother's use in the years they might be separated. When suddenly, the day before he was to have gone, the old wound broke out again, and he was helplessly ill in bed at the hour when he should have been on his horse riding toward Tennessee. We were fifteen miles out from Lexington, yet it might be rumored that father had drawn a large sum of money, and, of course, he was well known as a Southern officer. Because of the Northern soldiers, who held the city, he feared very much to have the money in the house, yet he hoped still to join Morgan a little later, and then it would be needed as he had planned. Christmas morning my father was so much better that my mother went to church, taking me, and leaving little Philip, then four years old, to amuse him. What happened that morning was the point of all this rambling; so now listen hard, my precious thing.”

The boy, sitting erect now, caught his mother's hand silently, and his eyes stared into hers as he drunk in every word:

”Mammy, who was, of course, little Philip's nurse, told my mother afterward that she was sent away before my father and the boy went into the garden, but she saw them go and saw that my father had a tin box--a box about twelve inches long, which seemed very heavy--in his arms, and on his finger swung a long red ribbon with a little key strung on it.

Mother knew it as the key of the box, and she had tied the ribbon on it herself.

”It was a bright, crisp Christmas day, pleasant in the garden--the box hedges were green and fragrant, aromatic in the suns.h.i.+ne. You don't even know the smell of box in suns.h.i.+ne, you poor child! But I remember that day, for I was ten years old, a right big girl, and it was a beautiful morning for an invalid to take the air. Mammy said she was proud to see how her 'handsome boy' kept step with his father, and she watched the two until they got away down by the rose-garden, and then she couldn't see little Philip behind the three-foot hedge, so she turned away. But somewhere in that big garden, or under the trees beside it, my father buried the box that held the money--ten thousand dollars. It shows how he trusted that baby, that he took him with him, and you'll see how his trust was only too well justified. For that evening, Christmas night, very suddenly my father died--before he had time to tell my mother where he had hidden the box. He tried; when consciousness came a few minutes before the end he gasped out, 'I buried the money'--and then he choked.

Once again he whispered just two words: 'Philip knows.' And my mother said, 'Yes, dearest--Philip and I will find it--don't worry, dearest,'

and that quieted him. She told me about it so many times.

”After the funeral she took little Philip and explained to him as well as she could that he must tell mother where he and father had put the box, and--this is the point of it all, Philip--he wouldn't tell. She went over and over it all, again and again, but it was no use. He had given his word to my father never to tell, and he was too much of a baby to understand how death had dissolved that promise. My mother tried every way, of course, explanations and reasoning first, then pleading, and finally severity; she even punished the poor little martyr, for it was awfully important to us all. But the four-year-old baby was absolutely incorruptible, he cried bitterly and sobbed out:

”'Farver said I mustn't never tell anybody--never! Farver said Philip Fairfield of Fairfield mustn't _never_ bweak his words,' and that was all.

”Nothing could induce him to give the least hint. Of course there was great search for it, but it was well hidden and it was never found.

Finally, mother took her obdurate son and me and came to New York with us, and we lived on the little income which she had of her own. Her hope was that as soon as Philip was old enough she could make him understand, and go back with him and get that large sum lying underground--lying there yet, perhaps. But in less than a year the little boy was dead and the secret was gone with him.”

Philip Beckwith's eyes were intense and wide. The Fairfield eyes, brown and brilliant, their young fire was concentrated on his mother's face.

”Do you mean that money is buried down there, yet, mother?” he asked solemnly.

Mrs. Beckwith caught at the big fellow's sleeve with slim fingers.

”Don't go to-day, Phil--wait till after lunch, anyway!”

”Please don't make fun, mother--I want to know about it. Think of it lying there in the ground!”

”Greedy boy! We don't need money now, Phil. And the old place will be yours when I am dead--” The lad's arm went about his mother's shoulders.