Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1888-08-30
THE LAST TOURNAMENT.

. the big dining room at Woodstock. L
was long, narrow room, with narrow
Sits of windows, SO shaded on on,
! side by the black green cedar trees thai
grew up against it that the room wa:
always half in shadow, but on the othel
side you had view of the gray tops
of the race stables, and just beyond
0 q rolling sweep of blue grass fields
5 with a 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 mantel shelf set high
! above az possible depredations of childish
(, curiosity. Into this FreH1 IRE logs Of hlcK-
) Dry and maple would be piled and 1t 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 Gf whose polished
wood the flames reflected themselves with
strange and grotesque variations, now
dying down to a tremulous glow in the
black panel of door, now catching a
silvery radiance from the long lines of
racing cups on the upper shelf or giving
out prismatic CLEANS from the heavy glass
1ecanters.
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 un-
steady light, there would be 2 shnffiing
Of feet in the doorway, and an old negro
man, with kindly, whimsical face, would
come IN, smiling above the heayy turn"
OF wood he was bringing to repleniSh the
tire. 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,
Jetf's place in the family had long been
sinecure. He had ridden the famous
horses raised on the place, when he was
light weight jockey, and in after wears,
when he grew too heavy for that, he was
head groom and undisputable authority
on turf matters; but above all, ne had
been Marse Pills friend and companion
in childhood and youth He had helped
Marse Phil trap rabbits and train colts;
ne went off with Marse Phil to the war,
and when lie fell in that awful rush of
cavalry at Fort Donelson it was jeff who
walked home all the way, leading Black
Bess By the bridle-the horse on which
Marse Phil was killed was sacred to him,
and he would not ride it,
Well, ole Miss never thought of that
without dropping an extra lump Of sugar
into his ''toddy," or 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 little for de stomach's sake en- |
.ay 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 one winter
evening, | remember, when Jeff came in
with his armful of wood, which he de- |
posted in the wood box, Snd then stood |
leaning against the mantel, negro fashion, |
with his foot on the burning logs. Some |
how his ragged clothes with their incon- |
gruous patches fell about him pictur-
esquely, his Bnotty 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
ories 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 goblets
the trophies he had helped to win.
They were his fetiches, the visible idols
hat represented all the happy past, and
ne did not need the inscriptions, at best
scrawls to him, to tell him
IN what race course or at what fair Frax-
nella or Miss wilkins, or Autocrat or
surprise had won one or another of them,
md he knew well enough that the time
lad been when each of these silver cups
represented fortunes staked on the speed
nd endurance of horse. 1t was some
hing worth remembering, those races
vhen they ran four mile heats, and it
ook all the nerve and endurance of rider
nd horse to win. There was the cup
hat was given when FraxiAella won the
ace at Nachez, when she ran twenty
liles at one Yace-the best two out Of
hree-with two dead heats.
And then there were the Crevasse and
Wagner cups-Jeff chuckled softly to
imself as he touched them:
eve won dem at Nashville, honey" he
aid aloud; "we'd done entered Crevasse
nd Wagner for de three mile race, en- des
z me and Marse Phil wuz startin ole
larster call out: Boys. win a race or kill
boss Well, Marthy Dunn en- Invincible
'uz de fus favrites, and we run our
osses agin EN-, me a-ridin, en- we won bof
ices, but Wagner drapped under me jess
, l got under de string. You know dat l
oss know whuts spected of him en- he
MT gwine to spint nobody. Des den '
arse Phil come up en- l say; Fore Cord, !
arse Phil, what you reckon old marsters t
vine to say?' En- he spon: Hes bleedged t
say we beyed him. We'se won a race +
killed hoss.'" t
After a bit jeff turned, so that the light t
light fall little fuller on it-a slender, .
yerlike pitcher, that with its attendant e
,blets, always stood in the center Of the D
ieboard. and that no one ever moved. s
: miss busted them herself, with hands |,
at never ceased to tremble at their task, S
d no one else, not even jeff, dared to t.
ncb them. Oh, knew very well what O
e Aorid inscription said, that was half a
5den under the mass of scrolls and u
abesoues carved ON them. 1t wss the a.
enir1ia that Marse Phil won at the last Is
and tournament they held in that rich,
e. happy country before the war swept o.
or il, and made a new heaven and D.
W earth for them. u u
knew IS we'll as if JEFF had spoken Z
at he was thinking Of those far off days m
It are as rauch separated from US now d n
if centuries instead of years rolled be- m
-een. knew he was remembering the ro
10 he and Marse Phil laid of in the tt
. l.no Morca Phil -: