第38章 Little Darby(4)

The older man was elected, and shortly the question became imminent, and all the talk about the Cross-roads was of war.As time had worn on, Little Darby, always silent, had become more and more so, and seemed to be growing morose.He spent more and more of his time in the woods or about the Cross-roads, the only store and post-office near the district where the little tides of the quiet life around used to meet.At length Mrs.Stanley considered it so serious that she took it upon herself to go over and talk to her neighbor, Mrs.Douwill, as she generally did on matters too intricate and grave for the experience of the district.She found Mrs.Douwill, as always, sympathetic and kind, and though she took back with her not much enlightenment as to the cause of her son's trouble or its cure, she went home in a measure comforted with the assurance of the sympathy of one stronger than she.She had found out that her neighbor, powerful and rich as she seemed to her to be, had her own troubles and sorrows;she heard from her of the danger of war breaking out at any time, and her husband would enlist among the first.

Little Darby did not say much when his mother told of her visit;but his usually downcast eyes had a new light in them, and he began to visit the Cross-roads oftener.

At last one day the news that came to the Cross-roads was that there was to be war.It had been in the air for some time, but now it was undoubted.It came in the presence of Mr.Douwill himself, who had come the night before and was commissioned by the Governor to raise a company.There were a number of people there -- quite a crowd for the little Cross-roads -- for the stir had been growing day by day, and excitement and anxiety were on the increase.The papers had been full of secession, firing on flags, raising troops, and everything;but that was far off.When Mr.Douwill appeared in person it came nearer, though still few, if any, quite took it in that it could be actual and immediate.Among those at the Cross-roads that day were the Millses, father and sons, who looked a little critically at the speaker as one who had always been on the other side.Little Darby was also there, silent as usual, but with a light burning in his blue eyes.

That evening, when Little Darby reached home, which he did somewhat earlier than usual, he announced to his mother that he had enlisted as a soldier.

The old woman was standing before her big fireplace when he told her, and she leaned against it quite still for a moment; then she sat down, stumbling a little on the rough hearth as she made her way to her little broken chair.Darby got up and found her a better one, which she took without a word.

Whatever entered into her soul in the little cabin that night, when Mrs.Stanley went among her neighbors she was a soldier's mother.

She even went over to Cove Mills's on some pretext connected with Darby's going.Vashti was not at home, but Mrs.Mills was, and she felt a sudden loss, as if somehow the Millses had fallen below the Stanleys.

She talked of it for several days; she could not make out entirely what it was.Vashti's black eyes flashed.

The next day Darby went to the Cross-roads to drill; there was, besides the recruits, who were of every class, quite a little crowd there to look at the drill.Among them were two women of the poorest class, one old and faded, rather than gray, the other hardly better dressed, though a slim figure, straight and trim, gave her a certain distinction, even had not a few ribbons and a little ornament or two on her pink calico, with a certain air, showed that she was accustomed to being admired.

The two women found themselves together once during the day, and their eyes met.It was just as the line of soldiers passed.

Those of the elder lighted with a sudden spark of mingled triumph and hate, those of the younger flashed back for a moment and then fell beneath the elder's gaze.There was much enthusiasm about the war, and among others, both of the Mills boys enlisted before the day was ended, their sister going in with them to the room where their names were entered on the roll, and coming out with flashing eyes and mantling cheeks.

She left the place earlier than most of the crowd, but not until after the drill was over and some of the young soldiers had gone home.

The Mills boys' enlistment was set down in the district to Vashti, and some said it was because she was jealous of Little Darby being at the end of the company, with a new gun and such a fine uniform;for her hatred of Little Darby was well known; anyhow, their example was followed, and in a short time nearly all the young men in the district had enlisted.

At last one night a summons came for the company to assemble at the Cross-roads next day with arms and equipment.Orders had come for them to report at once at the capital of the State for drill, before being sent into the field to repel a force which, report said, was already on the way to invade the State.There was the greatest excitement and enthusiasm.This was war! And everyone was ready to meet it.

The day was given to taking an inventory of arms and equipment, and then there was a drill, and then the company was dismissed for the night, as many of them had families of whom they had not taken leave, and as they had not come that day prepared to leave, and were ordered to join the commander next day, prepared to march.

Little Darby escorted his mother home, taciturn as ever.At first there was quite a company; but as they went their several ways to their home, at last Little Darby and his mother were left alone in the piney path, and made the last part of their way alone.Now and then the old woman's eyes were on him, and often his eyes were on her, but they did not speak;they just walked on in silence till they reached home.

It was but a poor, little house even when the wistaria vine covered it, wall and roof, and the bees hummed among its clusters of violet blossoms;but now the wistaria bush was only a tangle of twisted wires hung upon it, and the little weather-stained cabin looked bare and poor enough.