He accepted no compromise. Folding his straw hat into a battered cone, he watched anxiously for the delivery of the card. He was not sure what Aunt Missouri"s att.i.tude might be if it were laid on her. He bent down to his companion. "Go ahead," he whispered. "Lay the card."

Abner raised appealing eyes. "In a minute. Give me time," he pleaded.

"Mars" Ross--Mars" Ross! Head "em off!" sounded a yell, and Babe, the house-boy, came around the porch in pursuit of two half-grown chickens.

"Help him, Rossie," prompted Aunt Missouri, sharply. "You boys can stay to supper and have some of the chicken if you help catch them."

Had Ross taken time to think, he might have reflected that gentlemen making formal calls seldom join in a chase after the main dish of the family supper. But the needs of Babe were instant. The lad flung himself sidewise, caught one chicken in his hat, while Babe fell upon the other in the manner of a football player. Ross handed the pullet to the house-boy, fearing that he had done something very much out of character, then pulled the reluctant negro toward to the steps.

"Babe"s a servant," he whispered to Abner, who had sat rigid through the entire performance. "I helped him with the chickens, and he"s got to stand gentle while you lay the card on."

Confronted by the act itself, Abner was suddenly aware that he knew not how to begin. He took refuge in dissimulation.

"Hush!" he whispered back. "Don"t you see Mr. Claiborne"s come out?--He"s going to read something to us."

Ross plumped down beside him. "Never mind the card; tell "em," he urged.

"Tell "em yourself."

"No--let"s cut and run."

"I--I think the worst of it is over. When Champe sees us she"ll--"

Mention of Champe stiffened Ross"s spine. If it had been glorious to call upon her, how very terrible she would make it should they attempt calling, fail, and the failure come to her knowledge! Some things were easier to endure than others; he resolved to stay till the call was made.

For half an hour the boys sat with drooping heads, and the old gentleman read aloud, presumably to Aunt Missouri and themselves.

Finally their restless eyes discerned the two Claiborne girls walking serene in Sunday trim under the trees at the edge of the lawn. Arms entwined, they were whispering together and giggling a little. A caller, Ross dared not use his voice to shout nor his legs to run toward them.

"Why don"t you go and talk to the girls, Rossie?" Aunt Missouri asked, in the kindness of her heart. "Don"t be noisy--it"s Sunday, you know--and don"t get to playing anything that"ll dirty up your good clothes."

Ross pressed his lips hard together; his heart swelled with the rage of the misunderstood. Had the card been in his possession, he would, at that instant, have laid it on Aunt Missouri without a qualm.

"What is it?" demanded the old gentleman, a bit testily.

"The girls want to hear you read, father," said Aunt Missouri, shrewdly; and she got up and trotted on short, fat ankles to the girls in the arbor. The three returned together, Alicia casting curious glances at the uncomfortable youths, Champe threatening to burst into giggles with every breath.

Abner sat hard on his cap and blushed silently. Ross twisted his hat into a three-cornered wreck.

The two girls settled themselves noisily on the upper step. The old man read on and on. The sun sank lower. The hills were red in the west as though a brush fire flamed behind their crests. Abner stole a furtive glance at his companion in misery, and the dolor of Ross"s countenance somewhat a.s.suaged his anguish. The freckle-faced boy was thinking of the village over the hill, a certain pleasant white house set back in a green yard, past whose gate, the two-plank sidewalk ran.

He knew lamps were beginning to wink in the windows of the neighbors about, as though the houses said, "Our boys are all at home--but Ross Pryor"s out trying to call on the girls, and can"t get anybody to understand it." Oh, that he were walking down those two planks, drawing a stick across the pickets, lifting high happy feet which could turn in at that gate! He wouldn"t care what the lamps said then.

He wouldn"t even mind if the whole Claiborne family died laughing at him--if only some power would raise him up from this paralyzing spot and put him behind the safe barriers of his own home!

The old man"s voice lapsed into silence; the light was becoming too dim for his reading. Aunt Missouri turned and called over her shoulder into the shadows of the big hall: "You Babe! Go put two extra plates on the supper-table."

The boys grew red from the tips of their ears, and as far as any one could see under their wilting collars. Abner felt the lump of gum come loose and slip down a cold spine. Had their intentions but been known, this inferential invitation would have been most welcome. It was but to rise up and thunder out, "We came to call on the young ladies."

They did not rise. They did not thunder out anything. Babe brought a lamp and set it inside the window, and Mr. Claiborne resumed his reading. Champe giggled and said that Alicia made her. Alcia drew her skirts about her, sniffed, and looked virtuous, and said she didn"t see anything funny to laugh at. The supper-bell rang. The family, evidently taking it for granted that the boys would follow, went in.

Alone for the first time, Abner gave up. "This ain"t any use," he complained. "We ain"t calling on anybody."

"Why didn"t you lay on the card?" demanded Ross, fiercely. "Why didn"t you say: "We"ve-just-dropped-into-call-on-Miss-Champe. It"s-a -pleasant-evening. We-feel-we-must-be-going," like you said you would?

Then we could have lifted our hats and got away decently."

Abner showed no resentment.

"Oh, if it"s so easy, why didn"t you do it yourself?" he groaned.

"Somebody"s coming," Ross muttered, hoa.r.s.ely. "Say it now. Say it quick."

The somebody proved to be Aunt Missouri, who advanced only as far as the end of the hall and shouted cheerfully: "The idea of a growing boy not coming to meals when the bell rings! I thought you two would be in there ahead of us. Come on." And clinging to their head-coverings as though these contained some charm whereby the owners might be rescued, the unhappy callers were herded into the dining-room. There were many things on the table that boys like. Both were becoming fairly cheerful, when Aunt Missouri checked the biscuit-plate with: "I treat my neighbors" children just like I"d want children of my own treated.

If your mothers let you eat all you want, say so, and I don"t care; but if either of them is a little bit particular, why, I"d stop at six!"

Still reeling from this blow, the boys finally rose from the table and pa.s.sed out with the family, their hats clutched to their bosoms, and clinging together for mutual aid and comfort. During the usual Sunday-evening singing Champe laughed till Aunt Missouri threatened to send her to bed. Abner"s card slipped from his hand and dropped face up on the floor. He fell upon it and tore it into infinitesimal pieces.

"That must have been a love-letter," said Aunt Missouri, in a pause of the music. "You boys are getting "most old enough to think about beginning to call on the girls." Her eyes twinkled.

Ross growled like a stoned cur. Abner took a sudden dive into _Hints and Helps_, and came up with, "You flatter us, Miss Claiborne,"

whereat Ross snickered out like a human boy. They all stared at him.

"It sounds so funny to call Aunt Missouri "Mis" Claiborne,"" the lad of the freckles explained.

"Funny?" Aunt Missouri reddened. "I don"t see any particular joke in my having my maiden name."

Abner, who instantly guessed at what was in Ross"s mind, turned white at the thought of what they had escaped. Suppose he had laid on the card and asked for Miss Claiborne!

"What"s the matter, Champe?" inquired Ross, in a fairly natural tone.

The air he had drawn into his lungs when he laughed at Abner seemed to relieve him from the numbing gentility which had bound his powers since he joined Abner"s ranks.

"Nothing. I laughed because you laughed," said the girl.

The singing went forward fitfully. Servants traipsed through the darkened yard, going home for Sunday night. Aunt Missouri went out and held some low-toned parley with them. Champe yawned with insulting enthusiasm. Presently both girls quietly disappeared. Aunt Missouri never returned to the parlor--evidently thinking that the girls would attend to the final amenities with their callers. They were left alone with old Mr. Claiborne. They sat as though bound in their chairs, while the old man read in silence for a while. Finally he closed his book, glanced about him, and observed absently:

"So you boys were to spend the night?" Then, as he looked at their startled faces: "I"m right, am I not? You are to spent the night?"

Oh, for courage to say: "Thank you, no. We"ll be going now. We just came over to call on Miss Champe." But thought of how this would sound in face of the facts, the painful realization that they dared not say it because they _had_ not said it, locked their lips. Their feet were lead; their tongues stiff and too large for their mouths. Like creatures in a nightmare, they moved stiffly, one might have said creakingly, up the stairs and received each--a bedroom candle!

"Good night, children," said the absent-minded old man. The two gurgled out some sounds which were intended for words and doged behind the bedroom door.

"They"ve put us to bed!" Abner"s black eyes flashed fire. His nervous hands clutched at the collar Ross had lent him. "That"s what I get for coming here with you, Ross Pryor!" And tears of humiliation stood in his eyes.

In his turn Ross showed no resentment. "What I"m worried about is my mother," he confessed. "She"s so sharp about finding out things. She wouldn"t tease me--she"d just be sorry for me. But she"ll think I went home with you."

"I"d like to see my mother make a fuss about my calling on the girls!"

growled Abner, glad to let his rage take a safe direction.

"Calling on the girls! Have we called on any girls?" demanded clear-headed, honest Ross.

"Not exactly--yet," admitted Abner, reluctantly. "Come on--let"s go to bed. Mr. Claiborne asked us, and he"s the head of this household. It isn"t anybody"s business what we came for."