Part 9

"We also wanted her to see yours," said Miss Nina daringly. "She doesn't believe cadets have any under those caps."

Magnus doffed his own particular cap, as in duty bound, but the view Miss Beguile got of his eyes was very short and unsatisfactory.

"Now find us a nice seat," said Miss Dangleum. "We've got lots of boodle."

"Certainly--at any other time," began Magnus, "but now----"

"You don't mean to say you've got a previous?" cried the girls.

"Very previous, indeed. I am just going to meet my mother."

"Your mother?" said Miss Beguile with the sweetest air of interest. "How charming!"

"Dear me, where does _she_ come from?" drawled Miss Fashion.

But now Mr. Kindred's eyes came to the front and declared themselves.

"She comes from _home_," he said. "Excuse me, I am late"; and with another touch of his cap Magnus sprang away up the path about as fast as a man could go and not run.

"He has magnificent eyes," said Miss Beguile.

"Yes, but no use," said Miss Dangleum. "I cannot bring that man to terms, do what I will."

"Flinty, is he?" said Miss Beguile. "Well, I mean to get hold of him, girls, I give you notice. He's the sort of man I like."

"Is there any sort you don't like, Bessie?" said Miss Fashion.

"Oh, it's always great fun to have men round, no matter what sort they are," confessed her friend. "But the unapproachable is my dearest choice, every time."

XVIII

HIGH SUMMER

Far through the memory shines a happy day.

--LOWELL.

Magnus meanwhile went speeding on; leaping over space, and chafing at the lost minutes in terms not very flattering to his fair disturbers. But he was in good time, after all. The stage had waited for a West Shore train, and when Magnus reached the furthest and nearest point to which he might go, the horses with their light load were but just nearing the riding hall.

Slowly, slowly--how that stage did creep along. Magnus crossed the road, went back again, darted from one point to another; if only he could get a good glimpse inside! Now the lumbering thing turned a little; ah, it was just empty. No; surely that was a bonnet on the further seat; and now at this window looking out for him! And surely if ever a forage cap went high in air, one went then. But the moment it was within reach again Magnus pulled it far down over his own eyes. He had been at West Point more than a year, looking at tactical officers, professors, dignitaries of all sorts; with wild cadets and all kinds of girls; and now this was his mother's face, and like nothing else in all the world. The boy's heart gave a bound fit to burst something less elastic than a young heart always is.

As for poor Mrs. Kindred, when she saw that cap go up in the air, of course you know what happened to her. But she would not look away, even to cry, and sat gazing at that tall figure in grey and drawing the long sobbing breaths that bear such a very mixed freight. She even forgot to pull the check string, and would have been driven straight on if Magnus, in a voice stern enough for the first captain, had not bidden the driver stop. And it seemed so natural and fitting that her boy should pay her fare that when he pulled out a hidden quarter and passed it up to the driver no qualms of fear that he might be "skinned" for so doing disturbed her mind. Of course cadets have no more business with pocket money than they have with pockets, but she did not know that.

Magnus got one hand on his arm, gripping it with the other hand as if he thought she might run away; and drew her rapidly along through the nearest byways to a nook among rocks and trees that he deemed his own private discovery. Once there, hidden away in the sweet, cool shadow, with the river plashing softly far below, and a wood thrush ringing his chimes near by, Cadet Corporal Kindred threw his cap down on the grass, put his arms round his mother, and hid his face in her neck as if he had been six years old.

It was just what the mother needed. For at first sight, this tall, splendid fellow with braid and buttons and chevrons, straight as a line, and with all the saucy curls cut away, laid her under a spell. Except the first meeting kiss she had had hardly a sign from him unless that grip of her hand. But now, with her boy in her arms, he was her boy still, and she quite too happy for this lower world.

"Child," she said at last, "what have they done with your hair? Have you been sick?"

Then Magnus looked up and laughed; the old shine in his eyes making her heart leap.

"Regulations," he said. "I am nothing any more but a bundle of regulations, mother. Might about as well be a convict labeled 379."

"Regulations!" Mrs. Kindred repeated. "I wish I had the making of them."

"I wish you had, mother. And there are some three hundred and odd more boys here, who would confidingly hand the job over to you. Then we'd have pie every day for dinner and cake for supper, Saturday in the middle of the week, and no Monday morning recitations."

"But Magnus," said Mrs. Kindred, bewildered over this very mixed lot of grievances, "don't you have cake for supper?"

"Now and then a mysterious compound which goes by that name," said Magnus. "We are having it scientifically analysed to see whether it is all new-process granite, or whether one part mud comes in."

But here the innocent, perplexed face was too much for him. He almost shouted with fun, tossing his cap up higher than it had ever been.

"You blessed mother!" he said. "You haven't changed one bit--not a pin's point. There was one on your shoulder just now to scratch me, exactly as there always used to be."

"Oh, my dear!" cried poor Mrs. Kindred. "I did not mean to leave that pin there. I just stuck it in last night in the sleeping car."

"But you always did 'just stick it in,' you know," said Magnus disrespectfully; "and I never remember the time when it didn't just stick out. It wouldn't be you without a pin on your shoulder."

"It wouldn't be you if you were not a saucy boy," said the mother, and then they looked in each other's eyes and laughed; how happy they were!

"All right, mammy," said Magnus. "That pin gave me a welcome nothing else could. How are the girls?"

"The girls are lovely," said Mrs. Kindred. "Cherry has tried to fill your place, Magnus, ever since you came away."

"H'm, I don't know about that," said Magnus. "Tell her she can't have but half of it, fair and square."

"Oh, well, you know how I talk," said Mrs. Kindred. "She could not really, dear, nor anybody else. But she is the dearest girl, Magnus, and so wise. We have to get her to explain all the queer things in your letters."

"Do I write queer things?"

"Very; or they sound so to us. And I get quite worried sometimes. And then Cherry will say in that pretty way of hers, 'You know it is Magnus, Mrs. Kindred, so he could not mean _that_.'"

If two sparks flew from Cadet Kindred's eyes at these words, only the green moss at his feet was witness thereto. But, then, a very grave look came over his face. His mother watched him anxiously.

"You do not think I really _meant_ that, dear?" she said. "No one on earth could fill my boy's place with me, Magnus."

"No, no; I understand," he said, without looking up. "But she deserves it so. Cherry is a great deal better than I am, mother."

The mother smiled contentedly. Very small improvement did her boy need for her. But she would not say that; just as well for him not to know how high he stood on the general merit roll. And it was a fine new West Point development, if Magnus was inclined to underrate his own perfections. Which, by the way, was not at all what that young man was doing. But Cherry's simple, unquestioning faith in him suddenly touched up his memory of certain things which (in spite of being "Magnus") he had done, and the recollection was not pleasant. Not very bad things, Oh, no! but by no means up to Cherry's standard.

"It's not worth while for her to come on before furlough," he said, thinking aloud.

"Her?" Mrs. Kindred repeated questioningly.

"Yes, any one of the girls," said Magnus. "You see, the winter journey is one thing; and then in the winter there's such a beastly lot of studying to do. And in the spring I shall be boning every minute. But wait till first-class camp. Or you might all come back with me from furlough--just for a first sight of the place."

"But my dear!" said Mrs. Kindred. "Why Magnus, you talk as if we had the Bank of England at our back."

"No, only me in front," said Magnus with a gleam of his bright eyes. "You don't suppose I am going to worry through the last two years here without a sight of you all? Wouldn't pay to bone rank if nobody came to see my chevrons. Just as well go on and get rattled like some of the rest of them."

"But my dear!" said poor Mrs. Kindred. "'Rattled' and 'bone' you've said twice. And you called your studies 'beastly.' I thought they taught English at West Point."

How Magnus laughed!

"There are Tacs over yonder," he said, "with a party of summer girls; and one of the girls offered me a lot of boodle. And the Com.'s out riding, and the Supe's gone to town, and the Arch-fiend is at the seaside."

"Now Charlemagne, stop!" said Mrs. Kindred. Magnus gave her another delighted hug.

"Oh mammy!" he said; "this is you, and no mistake. I didn't quite believe it was at first." And kissing first one hand and then the other, Magnus put them both back in her lap, and laid his cheek down upon them. The mother got one hand away and softly stroked the fine head.

"I do not understand about your hair, yet," she said.

"Regulations."

"And why do you wear such a thick coat this warm day, Magnus?"

"Regulations."

"Why my dear! Well, you might unbutton it at least," said Mrs. Kindred.

"Regulations."

Mrs. Kindred was silent a minute.

"I took my dinner in Poughkeepsie," she said, "because I was not sure of getting here in time for yours; and I know it is not good for you to wait."

"No ma'am, it isn't--here," said Magnus.

"But we can have supper at any time you like."

Magnus, without raising his head, gave a groan and wished they could.

"Well, we can," said Mrs. Kindred. "I can wait till late, or have it early, Magnus, just as suits you. What do you mean by sighing like that? What is in the way?"

"Regulations."

"Oh well!" said the mother, trying to smother her disappointment; "you have some other thing on hand? Never mind, dear, then we'll be together at breakfast."

"No, we sha'n't."

"Why not?"

"Regulations. We cannot have one single meal together while you are here, mammy."

And now, indeed, Mrs. Kindred had no more to say; the bands of red tape seemed to be winding all about her heart, and drawing very tight indeed. She had so pictured to herself the joy of once more handing her boy his cup of coffee. But it must be best for him, she said bravely to herself; or else they would not make such rules. And, whatever was best for him--

"What _can_ you do, dear?" she said aloud, but with a plaintiveness that went to the boy's heart. He sat up and took her in his arms.

"I can do lots, mammy!" he said. "Never you worry one bit. I can't do it for breakfast, and I can't do it to-night, but some other day I'll cut supper, and we'll have it down here together. And we'll have picnics instead of dinner. And I'll walk with you every minute of release from quarters."

"Release!" The word jarred on the mother's ear; to what had she sent her boy? But then, whatever it was, it agreed with him splendidly; never had she seen Magnus in more jocund health and strength; life at its best was in every look and motion. And the eyes that flashed and sparkled at her were not the least in the world careworn or overworked. So Mrs. Kindred locked up all her dismayed pangs and questionings, and once more stroking her boy's cropped head, remarked that it was said to make the hair grow to cut it.

"I'll have a mop when I come out, then," said Magnus. "How does Cherry wear her hair now? same old way?"

"Oh yes!" said Mrs. Kindred; "only it's never twice just the same. You know her curls arrange themselves--as yours used to, Magnus."

"Disarrange was the word for me. If anybody cuts hers off, I'll shoot him."

"I think somebody did cut one off once, without being shot," said Mrs. Kindred. Magnus coloured.

"That was only one," he said. "Why didn't you bring them all along? The girls, I mean."

"Why, you unreasonable boy," said his mother; "you expressly bade me not."

"I had been here so long, I forgot that you always minded," said Magnus, with a saucy look.

"Well, I did _not_ always," said Mrs. Kindred; "but the girls could not have come off in such a moment, Magnus; they were not ready."

"Girls never are. They'd learn, if they had a week or two in camp. Bang goes the reveille gun--and in just two minutes you have to be dressed and out in line, swearing that 'Kindred, C.' is present and accounted for."

"Swearing, Magnus?"

"Well, some of the men make the statement pretty loud. I am one of the mild kind, and 'roar gently.'"

"Yes, I know what your gentle roars amount to," said his mother derisively. "But Magnus, do they really make you dress in two minutes?"

"By my watch."

"But you haven't got a watch," said the perplexed mother.

"And therefore am subject now and then to miscalculations."

"Well, West Point has not changed you yet, to hurt," said the mother, smiling at him. Magnus took her tender hands and put one on each side of his face.

"Mammy," he said, "it is the jolliest thing to see you sitting there, puzzling your dear head over my grinds. I could cry, if I wanted to. But I say, when you do bring the girls, don't give 'em time to get ready. They shan't come here looking as if they'd never had anything before, but had got it now, sure."

"But our girls have always had enough, you know, Magnus, and they are not likely to have any more," said Mrs. Kindred, cutting both knots.

"They are worth all the girls I have seen here, multiplied by twelve dozen," said Magnus. "Oh, mother, why didn't they come! But I tell you, you'll have your hands full when they do. Violet will make a sensation. And Rose--I think True will be fathom deep at first sight of Rose; he likes quiet, sweet, strong girls."

"I should think most people would," said Mrs. Kindred. "And how about Cherry?"

"I said nothing about Cherry."

"Am I not to bring her?"

"Oh yes! she had better come too," said Magnus. "Mammy, it is as good as a month of Saturdays just to look at you. You are the handsomest woman on the Post."

And now pink tinges came upon the sweet pale face; and Mrs. Kindred was certainly the happiest woman anywhere about.

XIX

THE VISITORS' SEATS

With whom doth Time gallop withal?

--SHAKESPEARE.

Alas. Time did not slacken his pace for those two people. After that very first day, when Mrs. Kindred really took in the astounding fact that she was _there_, she began to count almost the seconds as they ticked away, and grudged even those spent in sleep.

She would sit far on into the night, looking over from her window to where her boy's tent rose up sharp and white in the moonshine; and with the first drum-beat in the morning was at her post, sending off her heart and her blessing to that grey line where Magnus stood. If he was on guard she watched for glimpses of his tall figure as he went up and down, posting reliefs, and in a sort loved the whole white battalion that marched away to dinner because one particular white helmet rested on his head. And never was there a more devoted frequenter of the camp, as she waited there on the visitors' seats for his moments of leisure, happy between whiles that he was at least nearby.

Then she steadied her nerves to bear the sharp reports in the Light Battery drill, and watched manœuvres and evolutions as eagerly as if she understood them all. How stately Magnus looked in his various trappings; how nimbly he tumbled in and out of the caissons. And when the sergeant shouted out at parade:

"Company A, one corporal absent!"--how thankful that particular mother was that it could not possibly be _her_ son.

It was astonishing to see such honours and cares resting upon his young head; drilling plebs, posting sentinels; no wonder he had changed. Was the change in him all for the better? The mother could not quite tell. When Magnus was with her that joy swept everything else away; but sometimes, as she sat alone, her thoughts worked hard, and many things came in to tangle and perplex them.

Loitering about the camp in this way, and never missing a formation, Mrs. Kindred also could not miss a good deal else. The Point was not crowded; but the summer girl--and the summer girl's supposed chaperon--were in sufficient force; and as young people nowadays think their words worth hearing, Mrs. Kindred did not need to strain her ears nor give undue attention to know much that was said and done.

It was a glimpse into a life unguessed before. Her own had been simple, earnest, and useful, from her youth up. The three girls at home were as merry as crickets, and overflowing with fun and frolic; but the cricket fun--if fun it be--was not more guileless and true-hearted than theirs.

But now, sitting under the trees and watching her boy from a distance, Mrs. Kindred would sometimes hear, close at hand, some word or sentiment that made her start and look round, with a great wish that the girl's mother were there; and behold, quite often she _was_. Then this mother would get up and change her seat.

Small use. Near the new place sat a tall young lady in tennis rig set free, while her waist was drawn in until playing must have been hard work. A game had been on, for Miss Viny's cheeks were flushed, and she still brandished her racket. She was talking over her shoulder to a semi-young officer.

"I think you have a great deal too much to do with Captain Chose, Miss Viny," said this gentleman. "You know he is in a very peculiar position with regard to his wife."

And the handsome girl, flashing round at him her daring eyes, made answer:

"That only makes him the more interesting!"

Mrs. Kindred shivered slightly, and once more changed her seat.

And _now_ she got among a bevy of girls who were talking of Magnus; they fluttered in and settled down all around her, too eager over their subject to know or care who heard their talk.

"I'll get hold of him somehow. I'm bound to do it," said a dark girl in very extreme costume. "I told you I would, and I will."

"Not worth the bother," said a plump little damsel in pink. "There are plenty more."

"Not plenty with eyes like his; there's not such another pair in the Corps. They're just heavenly."

"Yes, aren't they?" said the plump girl. "When he looks at you it makes you feel queer all over."

"I was afraid you were going to say, all through," said Miss Beguile; "and you know there isn't any 'all through' to you, Kitten."

"Now I call that _too_ bad," said the Kitten. "When I am universally known to be all heart."

"Good you are," said Miss Saucy, "for you give everyone a piece and the supply might fail. But there's a good deal of you, such as it is, Kitten. You'll turn the three F's, if you live long enough."

"_Some_ people don't think there's too much of me," said the Kitten, pouting.

"About half the Corps, I should judge. Now I believe in one grand master passion, don't you know. I think it's dear."

"It's a passion for a master--if you're in love with Mr. Kindred," said a fourth girl. "He'll manage you, Bessie. Make you behave."

If anybody had had time to notice the quiet little mother sitting there, he would have seen a very perceptible start, and a pair of eyes as indignant as such tender eyes could be. _Those_ girls after her young magnate? Mrs. Kindred was fit to go that moment to headquarters and demand a cordon of red tape to surround her boy. But she could do nothing; could not speak to the girls, could not (alas) even shake them. Then she seemed to remember seeing him bow to these very ones; and with a certain dress-coat air, which now Mrs. Kindred marked as one of the new things about Magnus that disturbed her.

What if Cherry had seen and heard it all? And suddenly Mrs. Kindred knew why it was Cherry she thought of, and not Rose or Violet.

Here was a new and difficult complication. Yes, of course, it was all natural, the mother felt, and plain enough now she thought of it. Whether Cherry herself yet knew, or not, she _would_, just as soon as Magnus took a fancy to somebody else. Could he do that, after having once known her? Mrs. Kindred waited till the next relief went on, and Magnus within the guard tent was quite out of sight, and then went to her room to think and to pray.

Should she talk to Magnus?--no; skating is generally safer than navigation in broken ice. And the next day but one she was to go home.

No further sight of her boy could be hoped for that night, and Mrs. Kindred shut herself in and watched the silent camp long after the sweet "curfew" bugle had cried to every light:

"Put it out! Put it out! Put it out!"

XX

JUST THEE AND ME

Hushed with broad sunlight lies the hill, And minuting the long day's loss, The cedar's shadow, slow and still, Creeps o'er the dial of grey moss.

--LOWELL.

The next day rose fairer than ever. Magnus came off at eight o'clock with "old guard privileges," and having also kind permission from the authorities to dine with his mother in the woods.

Now the ordering and preparing of this dinner had been a great joy to Mrs. Kindred; what though the correct dainties could not be had. Green corn to boil was an impossibility, even if a kettle could be found; and home-made rolls were far out of reach, and not all the canned things that were ever turned out could replace her own home-fed chickens and home-cured ham. The supplies from the baker were fresh and clean and well looking--yet Mrs. Kindred sighed, thinking of Violet's loaves of cake, and Cherry's pies.

Magnus, however, was not so critical, he did not see even such as these every day, and so enjoyed everything to his mother's heart's content. And as she feasted on her boy there was really no lack anywhere. The fair August lights and shades chased each other among cedars and oaks, the locusts hummed; the birds that had nestlings sped swiftly to and fro, bringing food. Fall after fall of rocky woods and winding road lay at their feet; below all, the white camp in its green setting, then the river--never twice the same. Far up in the north the Catskills lifted their blue, changeless heads.

It was all so wondrous and so new to Mrs. Kindred that she was watching it, taking it in, even when she thought she had no eyes but for Magnus. The hills bewitched her; the distant blue, the nearer green; on all sides she seemed to hear the silent chanting of her favourite psalm:

"I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."

Surely this was a place wherein to grow "strong in the Lord"; a place where to remember:

"Thou wilt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures."

"Mammy, you don't eat," said Magnus, beginning on another small pie. "You might venture--just a little. I think there'd be enough left for me."

"My dear, I have too much," said the mother. "Magnus, don't eat any more of that pie; it is not Cherry's make, remember."

"Don't I know it! But her pies are across the continent, worse luck. It is good the know-nothing girls here don't try their hand. Shade of Scipio Africanus, what a poisoning of cadets there would be! Dr. Senna says that if it wasn't for Pretty Newcomb and her candy--with a sprained ankle now and then--he shouldn't have a man on the sick list."

"Well, that is good," said Mrs. Kindred heartily; "the place must agree with you all. Magnus, do you know many people here?"

"Three hundred cadets, more or less, and too many officers quite intimately," said Magnus, trying the cake. "Besides the bugler and the orderly."

"Any ladies?"

"Quite some."