Daisy
must wait upon his little mistress. I mean of course the Newfoundland
dog; not Dr. Sandford.
"Will you go for a walk, Daisy?" he said, the morning of the third or
fourth day. "There is nothing doing on the plain, I find."
"A walk? Oh, yes!" I said. "Where shall we go?"
"To look for wonderful things," he said.
"Only don't take the child among the rattlesnakes," said Mrs.
Sandford. "_They_ are wonderful, I suppose, but not pleasant. You will
get her all tanned, Grant!"
But I took these hints of danger as coolly as the doctor himself did;
and another of my West Point delights began.
We went beyond the limits of the post, passed out at one of the gates
which shut it in from the common world, and forgot for the moment
drums and fifes. Up the mountain side, under the shadow of the trees
most of the time, though along a good road; with the wild hill at one
hand rising sharp above us. Turning round that, we finally plunged
down into a grand dell of the hills, leaving all roads behind and all
civilization, and having a whole mountain between us and the West
Point plain. I suppose it might have been a region for rattlesnakes,
but I never thought of them. I had never seen such a place in my life.
From the bottom of the gorge where we were, the opposite mountain side
sloped up to a great height; wild, lonely, green with a wealth of
wood, stupendous, as it seemed to me, in its towering expanse. At our
backs, a rocky and green precipice rose up more steeply yet, though to
a lesser elevation, topped with the grey walls of the old fort, the
other face of which I had seen from our hotel. A wilderness of nature
it was; wild and stern. I feasted on it. Dr. Sandford was moving
about, looking for something; he helped me over rocks, and jumped me
across morasses, and kept watchful guard of me; but else he let me
alone; he did not talk, and I had quite enough without. The strong
delight of the novelty, the freedom, the delicious wild things around,
the bracing air, the wonderful lofty beauty, made me as happy as I
thought I could be. I feasted on the rocks and wild verdure, the
mosses and ferns and lichen, the scrub forest and tangled undergrowth,
among which we plunged and scrambled: above all, on those vast leafy
walls which shut in the glen, and almost took away my breath with
their towering lonely grandeur. All this time Dr. Sandford was as busy
as a bee, in quest of something. He was a great geologist and
mineralogist; a lover of all natural science, but particularly of
chemistry and geology. When I stopped to look at him, I thought he
must have put his own tastes in his pocket for several days past that
he might gratify mine. I was standing on a rock, high and dry and grey
with lichen; he was poking about in some swampy ground.
"Are you tired, Daisy?" he said, looking up.
"My feet are tired," I said.
"That is all of you that can be tired. Sit down where you are--I will
come to you directly."
So I sat down and watched him, and looked off between whiles to the
wonderful green walls of the glen. The summer blue was very clear
overhead; the stillness of the place very deep; insects, birds, a
flutter of leaves, and the grating of Dr. Sandford's boot upon a
stone, all the sounds that could be heard.
"Why you are warm, as well as tired, Daisy," he said, coming up to my
rock at last.
"It _is_ warm," I answered.
"Warm?" said he. "Look here, Daisy!"
"Well, what in the world is that?" I said, laughing. "A little mud or
earth is all that I can see."
"Ah, your eyes are not good for much, Daisy--except to look at."
"Not good for much for _that_," I said, amused; for his eyes were bent
upon the earth in his hand.
"I don't know," said he, getting up on the rock beside me and sitting
down. "I used to find strange things in them once. But this is
something you will like, Daisy."
"Is it?"
"If you like wonderful things as well as ever."
"Oh, I do!" I said. "What is it, Dr. Sandford?"
He carefully wrapped up his treasure in a bit of paper and put it in
his pocket; then he cut down a small hickory branch and began to fan
me with it; and while he sat there fanning me he entered upon a
lecture such as I had never listened to in my life. I had studied a
little geology of course, as well as a little of everything else; but
no lesson like this had come in the course of my experience. Taking
his text from the very wild glen where we were sitting and the
mountain sides upon which I had been gazing, Dr. Sandford spread a
clear page of nature before me and interpreted it. He answered
unspoken questions; he filled great vacancies of my ignorance; into
what had been abysms of thought he poured a whole treasury of
intelligence and brought floods of light. All so quietly, so
luminously, with such a wealth of knowledge and facility of giving it,
that it is a simple thing to say no story of Eastern magic was ever
given into more charmed ears around an Arabian desert fire. I listened
and he talked and fanned me. He talked like one occupied with his
subject and not with me: but he met every half-uttered doubt or
question, and before he had done he satisfied it fully. I had always
liked Dr. Sandford; I had never liked him so much; I had never, since
the old childish times, had such a free talk with him. And now, he did
not talk to me as a child or a very young girl, except in bending
himself to my ignorance; but as one who loves knowledge likes to give
it to others, so he gave it to me. Only I do not remember seeing him
like to give it in such manner to anybody else. I think the novelty
added to the zest when I thought about it; at the moment I had no time
for side thoughts. At the moment my ears could but receive the pearls
and diamonds of knowledge which came from the speaker's lips, set in
silver of the simplest clear English. I notice that the people who
have the most thorough grasp of a subject make ever least difficulty
of words about it.
The sun was high and hot when we returned, but I cared nothing for
that. I was more than ever sure that West Point was fairyland. The old
spring of childish glee seemed to have come back to my nerves.
"Dinner is just ready," said Mrs. Sandford, meeting us in the hall.
"Why, where _have_ you been? And look at the colour of Daisy's face!
Oh, Grant, what have you done with her?"
"Very good colour--" said the doctor, peering under my hat.
"She's all flushed and sunburnt, and overheated."
"Daisy is never anything but cool," he said; "unless when she gets
hold of a principle, and somebody else gets hold of the other end.
We'll look at these things after dinner, Daisy."
"Principles?" half exclaimed Mrs. Sandford, with so dismayed an
expression that the doctor and I both laughed.
"Not exactly," said the doctor, putting his hand in his pocket. "Look
here."
"I see nothing but a little dirt."
"You shall see something else by and by--if you will."
"You have never brought your microscope here, Grant? Where in the
world will you set it up?"
"In your room--after dinner--if you permit."
Mrs. Sandford permitted; and though she did not care much about the
investigations that followed, the doctor and I did. As delightful as
the morning had been, the long afternoon stretched its bright hours
along; till Mrs. Sandford insisted I must be dressed, and pushed the
microscope into a corner and ordered the doctor away.
That was the beginning of the pleasantest course of lessons I ever had in
my life. From that time Dr. Sandford and I spent a large part of every
day in the hills; and often another large part over the microscope. No
palace and gardens in the Arabian nights were ever more enchanting, than
the glories of nature through which he led me; nor half so wonderful. "A
little dirt," as it seemed to ordinary eyes, was the hidden entrance way
ofttimes to halls of knowledge more magnificent and more rich than my
fancy had ever dreamed of.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Sandford found a great many officers to talk to.
It was not till the evening of the next day following my first walk
into the mountains, that I saw Preston. It was parade time; and I was
sitting as usual on one of the iron settees which are placed for the
convenience of spectators. I was almost always there at parade and
guardmounting. The picture had a continual fascination for me, whether
under the morning sun, or the evening sunset; and the music was
charming. This time I was alone, Dr. and Mrs. Sandford being engaged
in conversation with friends at a little distance. Following with my
ear the variations of the air the band were playing my mind was at the
same time dwelling on the riches it had just gained in the natural
history researches of the day, and also taking in half consciously
the colours of the hills and the light that spread over the plain;
musing, in short, in a kind of dream of delight; when a grey figure
came between me and my picture. Finding that it did not move, I raised
my eyes.
"The same Daisy as ever!" said Preston, his eyes all alight with fun
and pleasure. "The same as ever! And how came you here? and when did
you come? and how did you come?"
"We have been here ever since Friday. Why haven't you been to see me?
Dr. Sandford sent word to you."
"Dr. Sandford!" said Preston, taking the place by my side. "How did
you come here, Daisy?"
"I came by the boat, last Friday. How should I come?"
"Who are you with?"
"Dr. Sandford--and Mrs. Sandford."
"_Mrs._ Sandford, and Dr. Sandford," said Preston, pointedly. "You are
not with the doctor, I suppose."
"Why yes, I am," I answered. "He is my guardian--don't you know,
Preston? He brought me. How tall you have grown!"
"A parcel of Yankees," said Preston. "Poor little Daisy."
"What do you mean by 'Yankees'?" I said. "You do not mean just people
at the North, for you speak as if it was something bad."
"It is. So I do," said Preston. "They are a mean set--fit for nothing
but to eat codfish and scrape. I wish you had nothing to do with
Yankees."
I thought how all the South lived upon stolen earnings. It was a
disagreeable turn to my meditations for a moment.
"Where have you hid yourself since you have come here?" Preston went
on. "I have been to the hotel time and again to find you."
"Have you!" I said. "Oh, I suppose I was out walking."
"With whom were you walking."
"I don't know anybody here, but those I came with. But, Preston, why
are you not over yonder with the others?"
I was looking at the long grey line formed in front of us on the
plain.
"I got leave of absence, to come and see you, Daisy. And _you_ have
grown, and improved. You're wonderfully improved. Are you the very
same Daisy? and what are you going to do here?"
"Oh, I'm enjoying myself. Now, Preston why does that man stand so?"
"What man?"
"That officer--here in front, standing all alone, with the sash and
sword. Why does he stand so?"
"Hush. That is Captain Percival. He is the officer in charge."
"What is that?"
"Oh, he looks after the parade, and things."
"But why does he stand so, Preston?"
"Stand how?" said Preston, unsympathizingly. "That is good standing."
"Why, with his shoulders up to his ears," I said; "and his arms lifted
up as if he was trying to put his elbows upon a high shelf. It is
_very_ awkward."
"They all stand so," said Preston. "That's right enough."
"It is ungraceful."
"It is military."
"Must one be ungraceful in order to be military?"
"_He_ isn't ungraceful. That is Percival--of South Carolina."
"The officer yesterday stood a great deal better," I went on.
"Yesterday? That was Blunt. He's a Yankee."
"Well, what then, Preston?" I said laughing.
"I despise them!"
"Aren't there Yankees among the cadets?"
"Of course; but they are no count--only here and there there's one of