Hugh Worthington

That night after her return from Mosside, Alice had playfully remarked to Hugh, “The Doctor says you stay too closely in the house. You need more exercise, and to-morrow I am going to coax you to ride with me, I am getting quite proud of my horsemanship, and want your opinion, I shall not take an excuse. You are mine for a part of to-morrow,” she added, as she saw him about to speak, and casting upon him her most bewildering smile, he hastily quitted the room, but not until she heard his muttered sigh and guessed that he was thinking of Rocket. He had not asked a question concerning Mosside, and only knew that a stranger had bought it with all its appurtenances. Rocket he had not mentioned, though his pet was really uppermost in his mind, and when he woke next morning from his feverish sleep and remembered Alice’s proposal to ride, he said to himself, “I cannot go, much as I might enjoy it. No other horse would carry me as gently as Rocket. Oh, Rocket!”

This was always the despairing cry with which Hugh ended his cogitation of Rocket, and he said it now bitterly, without the shadow of a hope.

It was a bright, balmy morning, unlike the chilly one of the previous day, and Hugh, as he walked slowly to the window and inhaled the fragrant air, felt that it would do him good. “But I shan’t go,” he said, and when, after breakfast was over, Alice came, reminding him of the ride, telling him she was going then to get herself in readiness, and should expect to find him waiting when she came back, he began an excuse, but his resolution quickly gave way before her sprightly arguments, and he finally assented, saying, however, by way of apology, “You must not expect a gay cavalier, for I am still too weak, and I have no horse fit to ride.”

“Yes, I know,” and Alice ran gaily to her room and donned her riding dress, while not less eager than herself, Mrs. Worthington, Aunt Eunice, and Adah stood by, wondering what Hugh would say and how Rocket would act.

He was out in the back yard now, pawing and curvetting, and rubbing his nose against all who came near him, while Claib, never so happy in his life, was holding him by his bridle and talking to him of Mars’r Hugh, which name the animal was supposed to recognize.

“There, I’m ready,” Alice said, running down to Hugh, who was so pale, that but for the surprise in store for him, Alice’s kind heart would at once have prompted he do give up the project.

With a sigh Hugh rose and followed her to the door where Dido, held by Lulu, stood waiting for them.

“Where’s Jim?” Hugh asked, glancing round in quest of the huge animal he expected to mount.

“Claib has your horse. He’s coming,” and with great apparent unconcern Alice worked industriously at one of her gauntlets, which obstinately refused to be buttoned, while the entire household including Mr. Liston, who had come to Spring Bank with Alice, congregated upon the piazza, waiting anxiously for Rocket.

Suddenly Adah flew to Hugh’s side, and said, eagerly, “Hugh, please whistle as you used to do for Rocket—just once, and let Miss Johnson hear you.”

Hugh felt as if she were mocking him, and answered no, but when Alice added her entreaties to Adah’s, and even laid her hand coaxingly on his arm, he yielded, while like a gleam of lightning the shadow of a suspicion flitted across his mind. It was a loud, shrill whistle, penetrating even to the woods, and as it had never yet failed of its object, so it did not now, for the instant the old familiar sound fell on Rocket’s ear he started as if a shell had exploded beneath his feet, and breaking away from Claib went tearing round the house, answering that call with the neigh he had been wont to give when summoned by his master. Utterly speechless Hugh stood gazing at him as he came up, his neck arched proudly, and his silken mane flowing as gracefully as on the day when he was led away to Col. Tiffton’s stall.

“Mother, what does it mean—oh, mother!” and leaning himself against the pillar of the piazza for support, Hugh turned to his mother for an explanation, but she did not heed him, so intent was she in watching Rocket, who had reached his master, and seemed to be regarding him in some perplexity, as if puzzled at his changed appearance.

Possibly pity is an emotion unknown to the brute creation, but surely if pity can be felt by them, it was expressed by Rocket, as he stood eyeing his pale, wasted young master; then, with a low cry of joy, he lifted his head to Hugh’s face, and rubbed against it, trying in various ways to evince his delight at seeing him again.

“Won’t anybody tell me what it means?” Hugh gasped, stretching out his hands towards Rocket, who even attempted to lick them.

At this point Alice stepped forward, and taking Rocket’s bridle, laid it across Hugh’s lap, saying, softly—

“It means that Rocket is yours, purchased by a friend, saved from Harney, for you. Mount him, and see if he rides as easily as ever. I am impatient to be off.”

But had Hugh’s life depended upon it, he could not have mounted Rocket then. He knew the friend was Alice, and the magnitude of the act overpowered him.

“Oh, Miss Johnson,” he cried, “what made you do it? It must not be. I cannot suffer it.”

“Not to please me?” and Alice’s face wore its most winning look. “It’s been my fixed determination ever since I heard of Rocket, and knew how much you loved him. I was never so happy doing an act in my life, and you must not spoil it all by refusing. Mr. Liston knew and approved of my doing it,” and she turned to her guardian, who advanced towards Hugh, and in a few low-spoken words told him how Alice’s heart had been set upon redeeming Rocket, and how hurt she would be if Hugh did not accept him.

“As a loan then, not as a gift,” Hugh whispered. “It shall not be a gift.”

“It need not,” Alice rejoined, “You shall pay for Rocket if you like, and I’ll tell you how on our ride. Shall we go?”

There was no longer an excuse for lingering, and with Claib’s help Hugh was once more seated in his saddle while Rocket’s whole frame quivered with apparent joy at bearing his young master again. They made a splendid looking couple on horseback, and the family watched them admiringly until Hugh, feeling stronger with every breath he drew, struck into a gentle canter, and the hill hid them from view.

Once out upon the highway where there were no mud holes to shun, no gates to open and shut, Hugh broached the subject of Rocket again, when Alice told him unhesitatingly how he could, if he would, pay for him and leave her greatly his debtor. The scrap of paper, which Muggins had saved from the letter thrown by Hugh upon the carpet, had been placed by the queer little child in an old envelope, which she called her letter to Miss Alice. Handing it to her with the utmost gravity she had asked her to read “Mug’s letter,” and Alice had read the brief lines written by ’Lina, “Hugh must send the money, as I told him before. He can sell Mug, Harney likes pretty darkies.” There was a cold, sick feeling at Alice’s heart, a shrinking with horror from ’Lina Worthington, and then she came to a decision. Mug should be hers, and so, as skillfully as she could she brought it round, that having taken a great fancy both to Lulu and Muggins, she wished to buy them both, giving whatever Hugh honestly thought they were worth. Rocket, if he pleased, should be taken as part or whole payment for Mug, and so cease to be a gift.

Hugh was confounded. Could Alice know what ’Lina had written? It did not seem possible, and yet she had laid her hand upon the very dilemma which was troubling him so much. If Ad should marry that doctor, she would want money as she had said, and money Hugh could not get unless he sold his negroes. He had said he never would part with them; but selling them to Alice was virtually setting them at liberty, and Hugh felt his own heart throb as he thought of Mug’s delight when told that she was free. A slave master can love his bond servant, and Hugh loved the little Mug so much that the idea of parting with her as he surely must at some future time if he assented to Alice’s plan, made him hesitate, and Alice’s best arguments were called into requisition ere he came to a decision. But he decided at last, influenced not so much by need of money as by knowing how much real good the exchange of ownership would do to the two young girls. In return for Rocket Alice should have Muggins, while for Lulu she might give what she liked. Seven hundred, he had been offered, but he would take less.

“Heaven knows,” he added, as he saw by the expression of Alice’s face how distasteful to her was the whole idea of bargaining for human flesh and blood, “Heaven knows it is not my nature to hold any one in bondage, and I shall gladly hail the day which sees the negro free. But I cannot now help myself more than others around me. Our slaves are our property. Take them from us and we are ruined wholly. Miss Johnson, do you honestly believe that one in forty of those northern abolitionists would deliberately give up ten—twenty—fifty thousand dollars as the case might be, just because the thing valued at that was man and not beast? No, indeed. It’s very easy for them to tell what must be done, but hard finding one to do it. Southern people, born and brought up in the midst of slavery can’t see it as the North do, and there’s where the mischief lies. Neither understands the other, and I greatly fear the day is not far distant when our fair Union shall be torn in tatters by enraged and furious brothers.”

He had wandered from Lulu and Muggins to the subject which then, far more than the North believed, was agitating the Southern mind, but Alice, more interested in her purchases than in Secession, of which she had no fears, brought him back to the point, by suggesting that the necessary papers be made out at once, so there could be no mistake.

They had ridden far enough by this time, for Hugh was beginning to look tired, and so they turned their horses homeward, talking pleasantly of whatever presented itself to Alice’s mind. Once as Hugh gave her a look which had often puzzled and mystified her, she said, “Do you know it seems to me I must have seen you before I came to Kentucky, for at times there is something very familiar in your face.”

For a moment Hugh was tempted to tell her where they had met before, but feeling that he was not quite ready yet to do so, he refrained, and making her some evasive reply, relapsed into a thoughtful mood which continued until Spring Bank was reached.