The Port Gibson reveille., 1914-07-09
CHAPTER XIV.


Katharine left the field of Runny-
mede with John Valiant in the dun
colored motor. She sat in the drivers
seat beside him, while the bulldog ca
pered, ecstatically barking, from side
to side of the rear cushions. Her
father had declined the honor, remark
ing that he considered a professional
chauffeur a sufficient risk Of his valua-
bic life and that the Chalmers grays
were good enough for him-a decision
which did not wholly displease Katha-
rine.
The car was not the smart Pan
hard in which she had SO often spun
down the avenue or along the she'll
roads of the north shore. 1t lacked
those fn-de-siecle appurtenances which
marked the ne plus ultra Of its kind,
as her observant eye recognized; but
it ran staunch and true. The powerful
hands that gripped the steering-wheel
were brown with sun and wind, and
the handsome face above it had look
Of keenness and energy she had never
surprised before. They passed many
vehicles and there were few whose oc-
cupants did not greet him. In fact,
as he presently remarked, it was
saving of energy to keep his hat OF;
and he tossed the Panama into the
rear seat On the rim Of the village
a group raised a cheer to which he
nodded laughingly, and further on
little old lady on timid vine-colored
porch beside church. waved black
mitted hand to him with sweet old
time gesture. Katharine noted that he
bowed to her with extra care.
That's Miss Matte Sue Mabry," he
said, ''the quaintest. dearest thing you
ever saw. She taught my father his
letters"
Where the Red Road stretched level
before them, he threw the throttle
open for a long rush through the
thymy-scented air. The light, late
afternoon breeze drew by them. sweep
i ing back Katharine's graceful sinuous
veil and spraying them with odors OF
clover and sunny fruit. They passed
orchard clumps bending with young
apples, boundless aisles Of green,
young-tasseled corn and shadowy
groves that smelled of fern and sassa-
fras, opening out into more sunlighted
vistas overarched by the intense pene-
trable of the June sky.
John Valiant had never seemed to
her SO wholly good to see, with his
waving hair ruffling in their flight and
the westering sun shining redly on his
face. Midway of this squirt he looked
at her to say: ibid you ever know q
more beautiful countryside? See how
the pink-and-yellow of those grain
fields fades into the purple of the hills.
Very few painters have ever captured
a tint ike that It's like raspberries
crushed in curdled milk"
I've quite lost my heart to it all. ;"
she said, her voice jolting with the
speed of their course TITS a perfect
pastoral so different from
our terrific city pace. OF
course 1t must be a trif1e dull at times
seeing the same people al
ways - and without the thea
ter and the opera and the whirl about
one-but the kind Of life
one reads about ** in the nov
els of the South, you know >
1 suppose one doesn't realize that it
actually exists until one comes to a
Southern place like this And the
negro servants! How odd it must be
to have a white-haired old darlzy In a
brass-buttoned swallow-tail for but
Ter! So picturesque! At Judge Chal-
mers' I have a feeling all the time that
I'm walking through a stage re-
hearsal' p
The car slackened speed as it slid
by a White-washed cabin at whose en-
trance sat a dusky gray-bearded fig
ure. Valiant pointed DO you see
him r. he asked
Il see a very ordinary old colored
man sitting on the doorstep" Katha-
rine replied.
That's Mad Anthony, our local
Mother Shipton. He's prophet and
soothsayer. Uncle Jefferson that's
.o~~~~~~-~~-~~-~-~-c-~