“Dear Col. Majors:—Please tell the judge I can’t come. Poor Sally is very, very ill and I mustn’t leave her for a moment. The others need me too, and I’ve got a lot of work to do putting up prescriptions—for I’m the druggist, you know. So tell the judge he must wait till he comes to this county next time. Give my love to Mrs. Majors and dear Patty.
“Sincerely yours,
“Dorothy South.”
On receipt of this rather astonishing missive, Colonel Majors smiled and in his deliberate way ordered his horse to be brought to him after dinner. Riding over to Wyanoke he “interviewed” Dorothy at the fever camp.
He explained to the wilful young lady the mandatory character of a court order, particularly in the case of a ward in chancery.
“But why can’t you do the business for me?” she asked. “I tell you Sally is too ill for me to leave her.”
“But you must, my dear. In any ordinary matter I, as your counsel, could act for you, but in this case the court must have you present in person, because you are to make choice of a guardian and the court must be satisfied that you have made the choice for yourself and that nobody else has made it for you. So you simply must go. If you don’t the court will send the sheriff for you, and then it will punish Miss Polly dreadfully for not bringing you.”
This last appeal conquered Dorothy’s resistance. If only herself had been concerned she would still have insisted upon having her own way. But the suggestion that such a course might bring dire and dreadful “law things,” as she phrased it, upon Aunt Polly appalled her, and she consented.
“How long shall I have to leave poor Sally?” she asked.
“Only an hour or two. You and Miss Polly can leave here in your carriage about ten o’clock and as soon as you get to the Court House I’ll ask the judge to suspend other business and bring your matter on. He will ask you whom you choose for your guardian, and you will answer ‘Madison Peyton.’ Then the judge will ask you if you have made your choice without compulsion or influence on the part of anybody else, and you will answer ‘yes.’ Then he will politely bid you good morning, and you can drive back to Wyanoke at once.”
“Is that exactly how the thing is done?” she asked, with a peculiar look upon her face.