



Produced by David Reed





TO HAVE AND TO HOLD

By Mary Johnston


     TO
     THE MEMORY OF
     MY MOTHER



CONTENTS

     CHAPTER I. IN WHICH I THROW AMBS-ACE
     CHAPTER II. IN WHICH I MEET MASTER JEREMY SPARROW
     CHAPTER III. IN WHICH I MARRY IN HASTE
     CHAPTER IV. IN WHICH I AM LIKE TO REPENT AT LEISURE
     CHAPTER V. IN WHICH A WOMAN HAS HER WAY
     CHAPTER VI. IN WHICH WE GO TO JAMESTOWN
     CHAPTER VII. IN WHICH WE PREPARE TO FIGHT THE SPANIARD
     CHAPTER VIII. IN WHICH ENTERS MY LORD CARNAL
     CHAPTER IX. IN WHICH TWO DRINK OF ONE CUP
     CHAPTER X. IN WHICH MASTER PORY GAINS TIME TO SOME PURPOSE
     CHAPTER XI. IN WHICH I MEET AN ITALIAN DOCTOR
     CHAPTER XII. IN WHICH I RECEIVE A WARNING AND REPOSE A TRUST
     CHAPTER XIII. IN WHICH THE SANTA TERESA DROPS DOWN-STREAM
     CHAPTER XIV. IN WHICH WE SEEK A LOST LADY
     CHAPTER XV. IN WHICH WE FIND THE HAUNTED WOOD
     CHAPTER XVI. IN WHICH I AM RID OF AN UNPROFITABLE SERVANT
     CHAPTER XVII. IN WHICH MY LORD AND I PLAY AT BOWLS
     CHAPTER XVIII. IN WHICH WE GO OUT INTO THE NIGHT
     CHAPTER XIX. IN WHICH WE HAVE UNEXPECTED COMPANY
     CHAPTER XX. IN WHICH WE ARE IN DESPERATE CASE
     CHAPTER XXI. IN WHICH A GRAVE IS DIGGED
     CHAPTER XXII. IN WHICH I CHANGE MY NAME AND OCCUPATION
     CHAPTER XXIII. IN WHICH WE WRITE UPON THE SAND
     CHAPTER XXIV. IN WHICH WE CHOOSE THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS
     CHAPTER XXV. IN WHICH MY LORD HATH HIS DAY
     CHAPTER XXVI. IN WHICH I AM BROUGHT TO TRIAL
     CHAPTER XXVII. IN WHICH I FIND AN ADVOCATE
     CHAPTER XXVIII. IN WHICH THE SPRINGTIME IS AT HAND
     CHAPTER XXIX. IN WHICH I KEEP TRYST
     CHAPTER XXX. IN WHICH WE START UPON A JOURNEY
     CHAPTER XXXI. IN WHICH NANTAUQUAS COMES TO OUR RESCUE
     CHAPTER XXXII. IN WHICH WE ARE THE GUESTS OF AN EMPEROR
     CHAPTER XXXIII. IN WHICH MY FRIEND BECOMES MY FOE
     CHAPTER XXXIV. IN WHICH THE RACE IS NOT TO THE SWIFT
     CHAPTER XXXV. IN WHICH I COME TO THE GOVERNOR'S HOUSE
     CHAPTER XXXVI. IN WHICH I HEAR ILL NEWS
     CHAPTER XXXVII. IN WHICH MY LORD AND I PART COMPANY
     CHAPTER XXXVIII. IN WHICH I GO UPON A QUEST
     CHAPTER XXXIX. IN WHICH WE LISTEN TO A SONG




TO HAVE AND TO HOLD



CHAPTER I IN WHICH I THROW AMBS-ACE


THE work of the day being over, I sat down upon my doorstep, pipe in
hand, to rest awhile in the cool of the evening. Death is not more still
than is this Virginian land in the hour when the sun has sunk away, and
it is black beneath the trees, and the stars brighten slowly and softly,
one by one. The birds that sing all day have hushed, and the horned
owls, the monster frogs, and that strange and ominous fowl (if fowl it
be, and not, as some assert, a spirit damned) which we English call the
whippoorwill, are yet silent. Later the wolf will howl and the panther
scream, but now there is no sound. The winds are laid, and the restless
leaves droop and are quiet. The low lap of the water among the reeds is
like the breathing of one who sleeps in his watch beside the dead.

I marked the light die from the broad bosom of the river, leaving it
a dead man's hue. Awhile ago, and for many evenings, it had been
crimson,--a river of blood. A week before, a great meteor had shot
through the night, blood-red and bearded, drawing a slow-fading fiery
trail across the heavens; and the moon had risen that same night
blood-red, and upon its disk there was drawn in shadow a thing most
marvelously like a scalping knife. Wherefore, the following day being
Sunday, good Mr. Stockham, our minister at Weyanoke, exhorted us to be
on our guard, and in his prayer besought that no sedition or rebellion
might raise its head amongst the Indian subjects of the Lord's anointed.
Afterward, in the churchyard, between the services, the more timorous
began to tell of divers portents which they had observed, and to recount
old tales of how the savages distressed us in the Starving Time. The
bolder spirits laughed them to scorn, but the women began to weep and
cower, and I, though I laughed too, thought of Smith, and how he ever
held the savages, and more especially that Opechancanough who was now
their emperor, in a most deep distrust; telling us that the red men
watched while we slept, that they might teach wiliness to a Jesuit, and
how to bide its time to a cat crouched before a mousehole. I thought
of the terms we now kept with these heathen; of how they came and went
familiarly amongst us, spying out our weakness, and losing the salutary
awe which that noblest captain had struck into their souls; of how many
were employed as hunters to bring down deer for lazy masters; of how,
breaking the law, and that not secretly, we gave them knives and arms, a
soldier's bread, in exchange for pelts and pearls; of how their emperor
was forever sending us smooth messages; of how their lips smiled
and their eyes frowned. That afternoon, as I rode home through the
lengthening shadows, a hunter, red-brown and naked, rose from behind a
fallen tree that sprawled across my path, and made offer to bring me my
meat from the moon of corn to the moon of stags in exchange for a gun.
There was scant love between the savages and myself,--it was answer
enough when I told him my name. I left the dark figure standing, still
as a carved stone, in the heavy shadow of the trees, and, spurring my
horse (sent me from home, the year before, by my cousin Percy), was soon
at my house,--a