Wichita eagle., 1888-08-23
THE LAST TOURNAMENT.

the big dining room at Woodstock. 1t
was a long, narrow room, with narrow
sits of windows, SO shaded on one
side by the black green cedar trees that
grew up against it that the room was
always half in shadow, but on the other
side you had q view Of the gray tops
Of the race stables, and just beyond
a rolling sweep Of blue grass fields,
with cool. clear pond lying in the midst
like shield of FURNISHED silver. Within
the whole end of the room almost was
taken up by huge fireplace, with broad,
tagged hearth and mantei shelf set high
above ell possible depredations of childish
curiosity. Into this great fire logs Of hicll
ory and maple would be piled, and it was
the delight OF my childhood to sit in the
corner. a veritable Cinderella, and catch the
sweet, pungent, smoke favored juice that
the fire stewed out Of the wood. Over
against the opposite wall stood long,
low, mahogany sideboard, black with age,
in the dusky mirror Of whose polished
wood the flames reflected themselves with
strange and grotesque variations, now
dying down to a tremulous glow in the
black panel Of a door, now catching
silvery radiance from the long lines Of
racing cups on the upper shelf or giving
y -
decanters.
Oh, it was pleasant enough room to
sit in, especially in the twilight, when the
cleaning peopled the room with the fan
tastic shadows that dreams are made Of.
Likely as not, just as the fire died down
and the flames began to flicker into I'M
steady light, there would be a shuf1ling
of feet in the doorway, and an old negro
man, with q kindly, whimsical face, would
come in, smiling above the heavy turn"
OF wood he was bringing to replenish the
fire. 1t would be JEFF, who had been born
On the place. and to whom it belonged as
much as to any of its ostensible white
owners, not by right of title deeds, but
by right of pride and love in it.
Jeffs place in the family had long been
q sinecure. lie had ridden the famous
horses raised onthe place, when he was
light weight jockey, and in after years,
when he grew too heavy for that, he was
head groom and undisputable authority
on turf matters; but above all, lie had
been Marse Pills friend and companion
in childhood and youth. lie had helped
Marse Phil trap rabbits and train colts;
he went off with Marse Phil TO the war,
and when he fell il that awful rush Of
cavalry at Fort Donelson it was Jeff who
walked home all the way, leading Black
Bess by the bridie-the horse on which
Marse Phil was killed was sacred to him,
and be would not ride it.
Well, ole Miss never thought of that
without dropping an extra lump Of sugar
into his '-toddy," or a little more "sper-
rits," for jeff belongs to the old regime
and has no opinion of the new tangled
temperance notions.
'Dey amt no sense in hit" he always
argues, for what does the good book say?
Take a little for de stomach's sake, en- l
lay folks is built des de same way now
dey wuz den. Deys got de ve'y same kind
of stomachs, en- dey need comfortin'
powerfully sometimes"
1t was fast growing dark ore winter
evening, [ remember, when JEFF came IN
with his armful of wood, which he de-
posted in the wood box, and then stood
leaning against the mantel, negro fashion,
with his loot on the burning logs. Some
how his ragged clothes with their incon-
gruous patches fell about him pictur-
esquely, his klotty old black hands hung
idly by his side, and the flames leaping up
showed his face sharpely outlined against
the white wall. as still and immovable as
If it was carved in bronze. But the face
was full of the wistful longinGs and mem
cries of old age, the pathetic look that
comes to those who dwell in the past and
for whom the future has neither hope nor
promise.
Presently he went over to the side
board and began touching, one by one,
the long rows OF silver cups and gobleta
the trophies he had helped to win.
They were his feticheS, the visible idols
that represented all the happy past, and
he did not need the Inscriptions, at best
meaningless scrawis TO him, to tell him
ON what race course or at what-fair FraX-
inella or Miss Wilkins, or Autocrat or
Surprise had won one or another Of them,
and he knew well enough that the time
had been when each of these silver cups
represented fortunes staked on the speed
and endurance Of a horse. 1t was some
thing worth remembering, those races
when thew ran four mile heats, and it
took all the nerve and endurance of rider
and horse to win There was the cup
that was given when Fraxinella won the
race at Nachez, when she ran twenty
miles at one race-the best two out OF
three-with two dead heats.
And then there were the CrevaSse and
Wagner cups-Jeff chnckied softly to
himself as he touched them:
I'VE won dem at Nashville, honey" he
said aloud; wed done entered Crevasse
and Wagner for de three mile race, en- des
ez NE and Marse Phil wuz startin ole
marster call out: Boys. win a race or kill
boss Wen, Marthy Dunn en- Invincible
wuz de fus favritcs, and we run our
bosses agin EN-, me a-ridin, en- we won bof
races, but Wagner draPped under me jess
ez I got under de string. You know dat
boss know whuts spected of him en- he
amt gwine TO spint nobody. Des den
Marse Phil come up en- l say: Fore Cord.
Maree Phil. what YOU reckon old marster's
gwine 10 say?' En- he spon: He's bleedged
to say we beyed him We'se won race
en- killed a hess
After bit JEFF turned, so that the light
might fall little fuller on it--a slender,
ewerlike pitcher. that, with its attendant
goblets. always stood in the center OF the
sideboard, and that no one ever moved.
Ole miss busted them herself, with hands
that never ceased TO trembleat their task,
snd no one else, not even JET, dared TO
touch them. Oh, knew very well wha.
the ford inscription said. that was half
hidden under the mass of scrolls and
srabesques carved on them. Il was the
premium that Marse Phil won at the last
yrand tournament they held in that rich,
de, happy country before the war swept
,yer 1t, end made new heaven and
lew earth for them.
knew as well SIS if JEFF had spoken
that he was thinking of those far of days
that ere eS much separated from rs now
IS If centuries instead or years roued De-
tween. knew he was remembering ths
ring he and Marse Phil laid OF in the