Edna Henry Lee Turpin

“ How often she, like her own child, had roamed about this dear, quiet country—playing in the mill, roaming about Larkland, fishing in Tinkling Water. Miranda and Giles Spotswood, Anne Mayo, Polly Spencer, Beverley Wilson, and Red and Black Mayo Osborne had been her comrades; Black Mayo, the leader in all their sports, was the chum of Beverley Wilson whom she married the very June that Black Mayo married Polly Spencer. The friendship of early days had lasted and deepened with the years. It was stronger [219] than the tactful habit of never asking personal questions. ”

“ Anne jumped up and down, uttering little squeals of excitement. “Steve! David! Dick! Why don’t you have a school war garden?”
“A school garden?” questioned Steve.
“Yes; like we have in Washington, that all the pupils work in,” said Anne.
“Thank you! I get enough gardening at home,” said Dick, sourly. “I don’t want to spend all my life hung to one end of a stick with a hoe at the other end.”
“Oh! but this is fun, and good war work too. [64] It takes just a few hours a week from each of us. The more there are to help, the less there is for each one to do.” ”

“ The mill loomed before them, a huge, dark shadow on the shadows.
Dick and Anne ran along the road to Larkland. Presently they heard horse’s hoofs clattering down the road. There was a pause at the big gate, and a familiar voice said, “Steady, Rosinante, steady!” as the rider bent to open the gate.
“Cousin Mayo! Cousin Mayo!” cried Dick and Anne, running toward him.
“Hey! Who’s there?” he called sharply.
“It’s just us,” said Anne; and Dick said, “Anne and me.”
“Anne!—here at this time of night! Why, everybody in The Village is distracted about you. Get on Rosinante behind me. ”

“ His father, Solomon Gabe, was there oftener than formerly; perhaps he was lonely now that his other son, Cæsar, had been drafted for service. The old man sat far at the back of the shed, mumbling to himself or throwing a sharp sentence into his son’s conversations with other negroes. They talked in lower tones and laughed less than usual; and when they went away, they sometimes let fall curious misstatements and misunderstandings about the war and the draft, like that of Emma’s, which the white people who heard them laughed at, tried to explain, and then forgot. ”

“ There were the pestle and some bottles.”
“What!” exclaimed Black Mayo, the fun leaving his face and voice.
“Some one had put a ladder in the hole. I found the mortar and pestle and bottles at the foot, covered with leaves. They weren’t there last week. Then I went down on my ladder.”
“You may have got on the track of something of far more importance than the silver in or out of that old mine,” Mr. Osborne said, frowning thoughtfully. “Have you seen or heard anything else that might mean mischief, at any time? Think! and think!”
“No, sir,” said Dick; then he exclaimed: “Oh, Cousin Mayo! ”

“ Glass in flour at the mill, Larkland mill! The people resented it with a vehemence that would have puzzled outsiders. Larkland mill was not merely a mill. It was one of the oldest, most honored, most loyal members of the community. As the quaint inscription on its wall said, “This mill was finished building by Hugh Giles Osborne his men, 8 June, in year of our Lord 1764, ye third year of his gracious majesty King George III.” On its oaken beams were marks of the fire set to it by Tarleton’s men because that Hugh Giles Osborne’s sons were fighting side by side with Washington. ”

“ Sure enough, Miss Fanny Morrison turned in at the gate. She was the Village seamstress, a blunt-featured, blunt-mannered, kind-hearted woman who lived with an invalid sister in a cottage across the street from the Osborne home.
“I saw you-all out here and I just had to come in,” she said. “Oh! you’re talking about this war. Is it really true that the United States is in it? Isn’t it awful? War is a terrible thing. I certainly am glad I don’t live in a country that is in it, I mean, really in it. ”

“ Anne said eagerly. “You’ve done such splendid work, raising such fine corn and winning prizes. You know so much more than the rest of us about working crops that—why, we need you dreadfully.”
David tried not to look pleased. “I’ll do what I can,” he agreed. “But I just tell you, I’m not going to neglect my corn acre for anything; that I’m not.”
“Of course not,” said Mrs. Wilson. “And you, Dick—you’ll help, of course?”
“No; no, Cousin Agnes,” Dick answered positively. “I’m getting enough garden work to last my lifetime. ”

“ Do you reckon the Germans’ll sink that, too?”
“Relief ships!” said David. “Why, they sink hospital ships, with wounded soldiers and doctors and nurses; and ships with women and babies. Remember the Lusitania!”
“I think we ought to hate them,” said Anne.
“No, dear, no,” said Black Mayo. “We ought to fight fair and hard and without hate, for our own rights and the rights of all people, the Germans, too. Why, the German people had no voice in making this war. It was declared by the kaiser without consulting the Reichstag in which the people are represented. ”

“ Twenty years before, this had been a highway going through The Village, on its long way to Richmond. Then the railroad was built. It wanted to come through The Village, between court-house and church, but the people rose up in arms. They did not want shrieking, grinding trains, to scare horses and bring in outsiders, nor an iron track parting their homes from their graves in the churchyard. So the railroad went by Redville that was six miles from The Village in summer and three or four times as far in the winter season of ruts and red mud. ”

“ Osborne put one caressing hand on the bird and the other on Anne’s head.
“These God’s dear creatures bear messages [83] of help and rescue through the battle cloud; they soar above and beyond it, and their wings catch the eternal sunshine. Ah! our doves of war are still—are more than ever—the birds of peace. For this war isn’t just a fight for territory and undisturbed sea ways; it is a war for freedom and human rights, and so for true and lasting peace. Agnes,” he turned to Mrs. Wilson, “have you given our young folks the President’s message?” ”

“ Dick accepted the fact that The War ended everything, even the worth of the silver mine. “It does seem, if it was real silver, we could see it there now,” he said thoughtfully.
“Shucks!” Mr. Mallett got up and knocked the ashes out of his pipe. “Course they took out all in sight. Folks would have to dig for any more they got.”
“And the tools; will you—” Dick checked himself. If he asked for the tools now, Mr. Mallett would guess what he was planning to do and somehow all The Village would know before sunset. He must wait and manage to get them, without betraying his purpose. ”

“ Osborne, “and these things are national calamities, too; cotton is one of the sinews of war.”
“Sinews of war? What do you mean, Uncle Mayo?” asked David.
“Cotton is one of the great essentials of war,” explained Mr. Osborne. “Its fiber is used for tents and soldiers’ uniforms and airplane wings and automobile tires; its seed supplies food products; and fiber and seed are used in making the high explosives of modern warfare—guncotton, nitroglycerin, cordite. Cotton is one of the great essentials of war.”
“What a lot of things it’s good for!” exclaimed Dick. ”

“ The children clapped their hands and shouted: “We are in it! We are in it! We are in The War!”
[185] Sweet William clapped and cheered with the best. Then he turned to his mother. “What does it mean, mother, our men ‘in the trenches’?” he asked. “Does it mean we’ve beat the war?”
“It means our soldiers are over there, fighting side by side with our Allies against the Germans,” explained his mother. “I don’t know whether it’s defeat or victory to-day; but we Americans will stay there till we win The War—if you and I have to go to help, little son—to conquer the world for peace and freedom.” ”

“ The others went into the garden, admired the flourishing vegetables, and pulled up a few stray weeds.
“Isn’t it beautorious?” exclaimed Patsy. “Things have just been leaping and bounding along these two days.”
“Scrumptious!” agreed Alice.
“We-all boys have got the biggest potatoes,” said Sweet William, wagging his head proudly.
“You-all boys! Will you look at those beans? What about them, Mr. William Taliaferro Osborne?” demanded Patsy. “Anne Lewis had a lot to say about their Washington gardens. They aren’t a bit better than this; they can’t be. Just think! Anne is coming next week.” ”

“ Camp Feed Friend, isn’t that a good name for yours, Patsy? And the boys’ plot can be Camp Fight Foe.”
“All right,” said David; then he laughed. “Maybe the girls will raise enough to feed Friend Humming Bird!”
“Here, my boy!” said Mr. Osborne. “It isn’t a sign of wisdom or experience to be scornful of girls and women. You may do better work than the girls; and then again you may not. Time will prove. Suppose you keep a record of your work and have a competitive exhibition of garden products this autumn. I’ll give a prize, the silver cup I cut my teeth on, to the best gardeners.” ”

“ When they finished the tasks they had set themselves, Mrs. Wilson suggested that they take eggs and radishes and lettuce, and meal to make ash-cakes, and have a picnic supper at Happy Acres; they might find some berries to add to the feast, and the boys were always hoping to catch fish in Tinkling Water, though they seldom did.
The plan was welcomed with enthusiasm, and they had a merry time and came home in the twilight. Anne, who was to spend the night at Broad Acres, sat on the porch with Mrs. Wilson and Ruth, knitting and talking. ”

“ Just then the front gate clicked, and Black Mayo came up the walk.
“War has been declared,” he said without a word of greeting. “War! The United States has declared war with Germany.”
Red Mayo dropped Dick’s arm. “How’d you hear?”
“I met Fayett Mallett coming from Redville. He’d heard the news, if we can call it news. We knew it was coming.”
“Of course; it was inevitable. We knew that the minute we read the President’s War Message. He held off as long as he could.”
“Yes. Now the War Resolution has passed Congress and the President has signed it.” ”

“ Anne said desperately. “Don’t let them kill us in this awful hole.”
“A hole!” Dick exclaimed. “Oh! there’s one. Come here!”
He caught Anne by the arm and pulled her along the tunnel, into the main room, to the pit into which he had fallen on his first visit to the mine.
“Here’s a hole,” he explained in a rapid whisper; “behind this pile of dirt. Wait a sec till I move these poles. Now! Grab that pole and slip in. Feel for the log with your feet. There!”
Instead of following Anne, he poised on the crosswise timber.
“Hold the candle a minute,” he said. “Quick! And steady!” ”

“ He spent a great deal of his time wandering about the countryside, with baskets of pigeons, seemingly unconscious of the sneers at his expense—that came most frequently and openly from men who were leaving no stone of political influence unturned, to keep themselves and their sons and brothers out of the army.
One of Black Mayo’s favorite walks was toward the high bridge, eight miles from The Village, where frequent trains bearing soldiers and supplies crawled across the long, high trestle far above the river and the lowlands. ”

“ He dragged back the poles he had pulled aside.
“Put out the light,” he said. “I’ll stay here and watch. If they don’t step on the poles, they’ll never find us.”
“Oh, Dick! If——”
“Hush! They’re coming!”
They crouched down in silence, listening fearfully to the footsteps and voices that came nearer and nearer. Three men, the foremost one carrying a lantern, stopped in the main room of the mine. Dick saw them clearly; they were Solomon Gabe, Cæsar, and Isham.
[254] Solomon Gabe was moaning over and over: “Uh, my boy! Dey’ll git you, dey’ll git you! My boy! my boy!” ”

“ She hesitated a minute. “The other young folks are working splendidly in their war garden.”
“Yes; that was a good suggestion of Anne’s. The food question is serious,” said Black Mayo. “Did you ever know anything like the way the price of wheat has climbed—and soared? Flour is fifteen dollars a barrel, and it will go to twenty, if the government doesn’t get those Food Bills through Congress and take control. I hope it will be a good crop year. The young folks are doing a splendid work in their war gardens.”
“And Dick not in it,” said Dick’s mother, frowning. ”

“ America had accepted the war; it had not yet come home to The Village. Later on, it was to—but we shall see what we see.
“Oh, you girls!” grumbled Stephen Tavis. “You are doing that Red Cross stuff all the time.”
“And you boys are playing while we work,” said Patsy, tossing her head.
“We are saving flour and sugar for the Belgians. Do you want us to knit and sew?” laughed Dick.
“Some of the boys in Washington are knitting,” [63] Anne said gravely; “and lots of men, real men, like firemen and soldiers. ”

“ Your potatoes are taller than theirs. And your peas are better; I’ve counted the pods on the biggest vines in both gardens. It’s just splendid what you’ve done—all but Dick.”
“Oh!—Dick.” Whatever Patsy herself might say about Dick, she could never bear to have others find fault with her twin brother. “He helps Cousin Agnes in her garden. He would work here sometimes—real often—but the boys call him ‘slacker’ because he won’t join them. He’s working hard over his secret, whatever it is. He comes home so dirty! And—well, Anne, I know it’s something big, from the way he acts.” ”

“ Well, if I can’t get hands to chop my cotton this week, I’ll have to plow it up and sow peas or something that I can raise [111] without hoe work. Cotton is like tobacco, a ‘gentleman crop’ that requires waiting on; it won’t stand grass. My crop must be worked this week, or it’s lost.”
Patsy went home, frowning to herself as she thought how sick and worried Mr. Spencer looked. At the dinner table that day, she told about seeing him and what he had said about his cotton.
“Poor fellow!” said Mrs. Osborne. “I hope he can get hands. It would be a serious thing for him to lose his crop.” ”