It was a hard ride, but every stab of pain
carried me nearer to Uplands--and there are poor fellows who endure worse
things and yet die in a strange land among strangers." He was silent a
moment and then spoke slowly, smiling a little sadly.
"My memory has failed me," he said, "and when I lay here last night and
tried to recall the look of the lawn at home, I couldn't remember--I
couldn't remember. Are there elms or maples at the front, Dan?"
"Maples, sir," replied Dan, with the deference of a boy. "The long walk
bordered by lilacs goes up from the road to the portico with the Doric
columns--you remember that?"
"Yes, yes, go on."
"The maples have grown thick upon the lawn and close beside the house there
is the mimosa tree that your father set out on his twenty-first birthday."
"The branches touch the library window. I had them trimmed last year that
the shutters might swing back. What time is it, Dan?"
Dan turned to the door.
"What time is it, Big Abel?" he called to the negro outside.
"Hit's goin' on eight o'clock, suh," replied Big Abel, staring at the west.
"De little star he shoots up moughty near eight, en dar he is a-comin'."
"Hosea is there by now," said the Governor, turning his head on a pillow of
pine needles. "He started this morning, and I told him to change horses
upon the road and eat in the saddle. Yes, he is there by now and Julia is
on the way. Am I growing weaker, do you think? There is a little brandy on
the chair, give me a few drops--we must make it last all night.
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