“Will you come in and see Phyllis?”
“Do you really mean such a kindness?”
“I do, indeed; if Phyllis is able to see you. Let us go and ask.”
Harriet was idling about the parlor, dusting the already dusted furniture as they entered. The face was as impassive as a bronze statue. “Go and ask Miss Phillis, Harriet, if she is able to see Mr. Millard.”
In a minute she was by Phyllis’s side. “Miss Phill, honey, Miss Phill, dar’s a miracle down stairs, nothin’ at all less. Mass’r Richard and Mass’r John sittin’ together like two lambs, and Mass’r Richard says, Can you see Mass’r John a few minutes?’”
The poetic Greek said, “Destiny loves surprises,” and our Christian forefathers called all unexpected pleasures and profits, “Godsends.” I think such “Godsends” come often to those who ask them. At any rate, Phyllis was asking this very favor, and even while the supplication was on her lips it was granted her. It was Richard, too, who brought John to her side; and he clasped their hands in his, and then went away and left them together. The solemn tenderness of such a meeting needed but few words. John thought life could hardly give him again moments so holy and so sweet. O, how precious are these sudden unfoldings of loving-kindness! These Godsends of infinite love! He had not dared to expect any thing for himself; he had only asked for the life of Phyllis, and it had been given him with that royal compassion that adds, “grace unto favor.”
The happy come back to life easily; and when the snow-drops were beginning to peep above the ground, Phyllis, leaning upon John and Richard, stood once more under the blue of heaven, and after that her recovery was rapid and certain. The months of January and February were peculiarly happy ones, full of delightful intercourse and hopeful dreams. Of course they talked of the future; they knew all its uncertainties, and faced, with happy hearts, the struggle they might have together.
At the termination of John’s last service he had possessed about two thousand dollars, but this sum had been already much encroached upon, and he was anxious to find a career which would enable him to make a home for Phyllis. There seemed, however, but two possible ways for John: he must have military service, or he must take up land upon the frontier, stock it, and then defend it until he had won it. He had lived so long the free life of the prairie and the woods, that the crowds of cities and their occupations almost frightened him. For theology he had no vocation and no “call.” Medicine he had a most decided repugnance to. Law seemed to him but a meddling in other people’s business and predicaments. He felt that he would rather face a band of savages than a constant invasion of shoppers; rather stand behind a breastwork than behind a desk and ledger. The planter’s life was too indolent, too full of small cares and anxieties; his whole crop might be ruined by an army of worms that he could not fight. But on the frontier, if there was loss or danger, he could defy it or punish it.
He talked to Phyllis of the healthy, happy life of the prairies; of the joy of encamping in forests, and seeing the sun rise between the leaves; of wandering without hinderance; of being satisfied with little. It was these sweet, unplanted places of earth, these grand wastes of green, unpartitioned off into squares of mine and thine, that attracted John and charmed Phyllis: for her heart was with his. She thought of the little home that was to have a look southward and eastward, and which she was to make beautiful; and no grand dame, with the prospect of royal favor and court splendor, was ever half so glad in her future as Phyllis in her dream of a simple and busy Arcadia. It cannot be said that Richard shared her enthusiasm. In his heart he thought Phyllis “too good” for such a life, and to the Bishop he once permitted himself a little lament on the subject.
“But, son Richard,” was the answer, “what kind of men build up new States and lead the van of the onward march? Are they not the heroes of the republic? brave men of large souls and large views, that go naturally to the front because they are too big for the ranks?”