The White Rose of Memphis

“Ingomar.”

“What further did you hear?”

“The other man replied that there was no doubt about it.”

“Are you sure they were speaking about Ingomar?”

“They pointed at him, and I therefore concluded that the conversation referred to him. I fear that our amusements will be broken up ere long.”

“I hope they will not interfere with Ingomar until he finishes his story.”

“Yes, it would be vexatious to have it cut short by his arrest. It may be a false alarm, but something strange is going on. The movements of the queen have excited my curiosity more than anything else. Look here; those are the men I was telling you about. See how they are eying Ingomar. Don’t let them see you looking at them. I mean to try to unravel the mystery.”

“I can’t think that Ingomar is a criminal; he speaks so kindly to every one, and then he is so eloquent when telling his story.”

After supper the party re-assembled on deck, and after a few moments spent in conversation, the queen ascended her throne (the large arm-chair being used for that purpose), and commanded Ingomar to proceed with his story. In obedience to the queen’s command, he proceeded as follows:

“It was near night when we reached the point where the farmer informed us that we must get out of the wagon, as he was not going any farther on our road. There was an old, dilapidated, vacant house near the point where we parted with the farmer, which would protect us from a thunder-storm, that was then threatening to burst on us. Lottie’s feet were so much swollen and so badly lacerated that she was unable to walk at all, and I lifted her from the wagon and carried her into the old house. I was grieved beyond measure to witness her sufferings; for, in addition to the pain she was suffering on account of her wounded feet, I noticed that she had some fever. Our condition was by no means pleasant; in fact, it was becoming serious. Our provisions were exhausted, Lottie about to fall ill, the weather prospects gloomy, only forty miles of our journey completed, and only three dollars in our purse; the prospects were of a nature to make my heart sink within me. While I was making a fire, Harry went to a farmhouse hard by to purchase provisions. He bought a chicken and a few pounds of bread from a widow lady for twenty-five cents. He also bought a little tea for Lottie. It devolved on Harry to prepare supper, which he commenced as soon as he had returned with the provisions. I was busily engaged in making a bed for Lottie, working very fast, so as to get it finished, before the rain should begin to fall. The lady who resided at the farm-house permitted me to take some dry straw from a pen near by, which I spread out on the floor near the fire, placing my coat on the straw, and requested Lottie to lie down and rest until we could make her some tea. I took the bandages from her feet, bathed them in cold water, then replaced the bandages, and was greatly pleased to hear her say that she was much better, and felt as if she could sleep very comfortably.

“‘You must not go to sleep,’ said Harry, ‘before your tea is ready. We shall soon have some nice broiled chicken and good tea ready for you.’

“‘I shall try to keep awake, but my eyelids begin to feel very heavy, I assure you.’

“It did not take Harry many minutes to cook supper, and it made me very happy to notice that Lottie partook of it with a good relish.

“‘Well,’ said she, ‘brother Harry, you must permit me to thank you for making such good tea. I am going to sleep now, and I bid you and Eddie good-night;’ and it was but a short time till she was sound asleep.

“Dark, angry-looking clouds began to collect overhead; the ominous sounds of distant thunder gave warning of the approaching storm; heavy drops of rain began to rattle on the dry boards on the house-top, increasing rapidly until it fell in torrents. The wind dashed with great force against the tottering walls, and whistled mournfully among the trees, while Harry and I sat gazing vacantly into the fire, our minds busy, as usual, castle building. Old Bob had managed to make a pretty fair supper off the bones of the chicken and such other scraps as he could find, and was licking his nose with apparent satisfaction, as he coiled himself down by Lottie’s feet. It was after midnight; the rain continued to fall steadily, the wind blew more violently, the fire had ceased to blaze, and darkness pervaded the room. Harry had been asleep several hours, and I was dozing near the hearth, when I was startled by a loud, shrill scream, uttered by Lottie. In an instant Harry and I were by her side. Scream followed scream, while old Bob was leaping and jumping about the room in every direction. Such confusion as appeared was beyond my comprehension. A most singular noise rang through the darkness – slap, slap, crack, crack, and old Bob seemed to be in a deadly struggle with something. What it was we knew not. Lottie kept on screaming, and I knew that something awful had happened, because she was no coward. On the contrary, she was a real heroine.

“‘For Heaven’s sake make a light,’ said I to Harry, as I took Lottie in my arms. He obeyed me at once, and it was but a few minutes till the fire began to blaze so as to light up the room, though it seemed to me it was a very long time.

“‘What in Heaven’s name has happened?’ cried Harry, while he was throwing fuel on the fire, and trying to make it blaze.

“I made no answer, of course, for I was busy with Lottie, and knew as little of the cause of the confusion as he did. I was endeavoring to compose Lottie, who was trembling like one with an ague fit. Every now and then I felt some strange substance slap against my legs, while Bob threw himself first one way, then another, struggling as if he was fighting for life.

“‘What is it, darling?’ said I. ‘Tell me what has happened?’

“No answer, but I felt her head drop heavily on my shoulder as the weight of her body came against my breast, and I knew she had either fainted or was dead.

“‘Be quick, Harry, she is dead! do pray make a light!’

“It is a well-known fact that when one gets in a very great hurry to accomplish anything the anxiety to do it quickly very often prevents him from doing it at all, or operates greatly to delay its accomplishment. I was conjecturing a thousand kinds of awful things that had happened, and, as usual in such cases, never hit near the real one. The first thing that suggested itself to my mind was that some savage wild animal had come into the room, and had frightened Lottie. There were at that time many bears, and some few panthers, and large numbers of wolves, existing in that part of the State, and I thought one of those animals had ventured in the house. I heard the continuous snapping of teeth, and the strangest sounds – not like anything I had ever heard before. I spoke sharply to Harry, and accused him of a want of feeling for his sister, for which I was very sorry as soon as the words had passed my lips; he was so frightened that he hardly knew what he was doing. At last the fire blazed up, casting a bright light over the floor, when I was almost paralyzed with horror at the spectacle before me. One large rattlesnake lay dead at my feet, while old Bob was shaking the life out of another of equal size. It was the noise made by the rattles on the tails of the snakes that had sounded so strangely. I had never seen a rattlesnake until that moment, and therefore did not know what was making such a singular noise. Lottie lay in my arms as pale as death, and I saw that she had been bitten on the wrist by one of the snakes. There were two small holes made through the skin, and two little drops of blood had come out through the wounds. The flesh had already begun to turn a yellowish color. The poisonous fangs had been driven deep into the flesh and the deadly venom was beginning to take effect. I suppose the snakes had come up through the crack in the floor, and had perhaps coiled themselves in the straw near Lottie; and that, in her restless slumbers, she had struck the serpent with her arm, and thus provoked it to strike, because the rattlesnake never bites unless provoked in some way. I have heard it said, too, that they always go in pairs, and I had also heard experienced persons say that the safest remedy for snake bites was to cut out the flesh in which the fangs had struck, and then for some one to suck the wound with the lips so as to extract the poison as soon as possible. Fortunately I happened to have in my pocket a knife with a very sharp blade. Without a moment’s reflection or hesitation I seized the flesh of the wrist between my finger and thumb and cut out a piece large enough to include the entire wounds made by the poisonous fangs of the serpent, then placed my lips over the wound and began to suck with all my strength. The wound bled freely, and I continued to suck it for over an hour. Lottie had immediately regained consciousness after the cutting of her wrist, and held her wound to my mouth, while the grateful glance which she cast on me was ample compensation for the risk I was taking. We could not then tell whether she was suffering much or not, for one of her peculiar traits was never to complain of anything; but she declared in most positive terms that the only pain she experienced was the slight suffering caused by the wound I had made with my knife on her wrist. After sucking the wound for an hour, I began to feel deathly sick – a strange dizziness seized upon me – the house appeared to be turning round with great rapidity, and a blindness fixed itself on my eyes; I gasped for breath, and felt as if I was being smothered. My blood seemed to be boiling hot in my veins; I sank insensible on the floor; and when I regained consciousness I was on a clean nice bed, in a cozy little room, with Lottie’s golden curls dangling about my face, for she was kissing me when I came to my senses, and my face was moist with the tears that had fallen from her dear eyes.

“‘Where am I? What has happened?’ were the questions I put to her.

“‘Hush, Eddie dear, you must not talk; you have been dangerously ill; and oh! how I hate myself for being the cause of your illness. Why did you not let me suffer from the poison, instead of trying to kill yourself?’

“Then a dim recollection of what had happened began to come to me. ‘How long have I been ill?’

“‘Five days, and oh! such long, miserable days were they, too! We thought you were going to die, and that made us so very unhappy; but when the doctor left here this morning he said that all danger was over; and then I knew that God had answered my prayers; because I have prayed constantly and fervently to Him, asking Him not to let you die. If you had died, I should have looked upon myself as your murderer. I never should have seen another happy day. There now, don’t talk.’ And she placed her hand on my mouth just as I was going to ask more questions.

“I noticed that she had her hand in a sling, and was about to question her about it when she covered my mouth with her hand. I afterward ascertained that she had not been entirely relieved from pain, that her wrist and arm had been very much swollen, and had caused intense suffering, but that she had watched by my bedside day and night, never sleeping any, except such short naps as she could take by leaning her head on the edge of my bed. If I had loved her before this, and I assert that I did, what do you imagine my feelings toward her were then? It would require a more expressive term to describe them than I am able to command.

“‘Tell me, Lottie, all that has happened; it appears like a dream.’

“‘I will, if you promise to lie still, and keep quiet.’

“I made the promise reluctantly.

“‘When you fell insensible on the floor, from the effects of the poison which you had sucked from my wrist, I began to scream so loud that Mrs. Holly heard it, and she and her son came to see what the matter was. I thought that you were dead, and I, of course, couldn’t help screaming. We had you brought to this house, and Harry went after Dr. Dodson, who lives five miles away. When he came he made you drunk with strong brandy, then gave you an emetic, then made you drunk again, then gave you another emetic. He kept on repeating this treatment until he thought all the poison had been thrown off. Then he bled you until you fainted; then he gave you more brandy, mixed with opiates, and you slept a long time; but you kept talking all the time in your sleep about me and the snakes. The good doctor remained with you all that day, and all the next night; then he went away, telling us that all danger was past, and that you would be sure to get well, which of course made us very happy, because we had all been so frightened when we thought you were going to die. Doctor Dodson said that there was a slight cut or wound on your lip, and that when sucking my wrist the poison managed to make its way through that little wound and got into your blood, thereby causing all the trouble. There would have been no danger, he said, but for the wound on your lip. He said you were the greatest little hero he had ever heard of; those were his very words, because he said that I would have died in ten minutes from the poison if you had not sucked it out of my veins. Harry, poor fellow, has been working all the time in the field to pay Mrs. Holly for our board, and when we get done paying her, and you get well, we are going to go over to Doctor Dodson’s and work for him, to pay him for saving your dear life; and when we have finished paying the doctor, we will then start on our journey to Memphis. There, now, I have told you everything; take this beautiful bouquet in your hand, and lie perfectly quiet, while I go and make your soup.’

“My eyes followed the lovely form till she disappeared through the door. Then I began to count the minutes by the stroke of the old clock on the mantel, and the wheels of time seemed to stop while she was away from me. She returned at last.

“‘Here is a nice bowl of soup, and you must drink it, for you have eaten scarcely anything since you have been ill.’

“I had no appetite at all, but I drank the soup to please her; and I dare say it did me much good, for I was very weak.

“On the morning of the eighth day of my illness I was able to leave my bed, and, with Lottie’s assistance, could walk across the room. Then the next morning she took me into the flower garden, while I leaned on her shoulder for support. I was very much gratified to see that all the wounds on Lottie’s feet had disappeared, and that she could wear her shoes again without pain; and I determined to invent some plan to protect her feet when we should again begin our journey. I procured some strong cloth and made a pair of shoes, sewing leather soles on the bottom, so as to prevent the stones from cutting her feet. The cloth uppers would keep her feet from blistering, while the thick leather soles would protect them from the gravel. She watched me intently while the work progressed, and when it was finished she expressed great wonder at my skill. The truth is, it was a very clumsy job, and the shoes were ugly, but they answered the purpose for which they were intended, for she never was troubled any more with blisters or sore feet. We had been at Mrs. Holly’s two weeks, when I entirely recovered; then we went to work for Doctor Dodson, to pay his bill. He was very kind to us; his bill was moderate; in fact, he was willing to let us go without paying anything, but Harry would not hear to it. He vowed he never would leave until the last cent was paid. I always thought he had very strange views on such subjects. He was too sensitive, I imagined, because he abhorred the idea of accepting anything like charity. I do believe he would have starved rather than to eat bread for which he was unable to pay. We remained with the doctor ten days, during which time Harry and I plowed a large field of corn, and cleaned out all the grass. Lottie insisted on being permitted to help us, but Harry would not allow it; therefore she went to work in the garden, and I mean what I say, when I assert that it is my candid opinion that garden never before had been in such a splendid fix. She destroyed every weed and blade of grass – cultivated the vegetables, trimmed the shrubbery, transplanted the flowers; in fact, she made an Eden out of a wilderness. When the work was finished the kind-hearted old doctor was profuse in his praise.

“‘I declare,’ said he, as he gently stroked Lottie’s hair, ‘I have been amply rewarded for my attendance on your brother, by your services, to say nothing of the valuable work done on my farm by Harry and Edward. I wish all my patients would pay me as well as I have been paid in this instance; if they did, I should soon grow very rich. I will not allow you to work another lick, and when you wish to start on your journey, you shall have as much provisions as your two brothers can carry.’

“The morning after this conversation we parted from our kind host, and set out on our journey toward Memphis, loaded down with nicely cooked provisions.

CHAPTER VI

“It was on a Friday morning that we parted from Doctor Dodson; the weather was getting to be uncomfortably warm, and we were compelled to travel very slowly, lest Lottie should be prostrated by the heat. Ten miles a day was the average distance which we marched. We usually started at sunrise, walked five miles, then rested in the shade until four o’clock, and marched the other five miles by dark. As we had determined not to travel on the Sabbath, we began early in the day on Saturday to look for a cool, shady spot where we might rest comfortably until Monday morning. Shade and pure water were two articles that must be found adjacent to each other, before we could expect to pass the time pleasantly. We, however, had the good luck to come to a spring where many large trees stood, all overgrown with grape-vines, making a covering not only sufficient to keep off the hot rays of the sun, but a shelter that would have protected us from a heavy shower of rain. It proved to be an unfortunate spot for us, as an occurrence happened there that gave us a great deal of trouble. The place where we halted was only one mile from the county-site, and it was from this village that the source of our troubles came. It was Sunday evening; we had finished our humble supper, and were all engaged in singing an old favorite song. I suppose that it was our singing that attracted the attention of some rude boys from the village. There were three boys in the gang that came up to where we were seated; the leader, a lad whom I supposed to be about fifteen years of age, whose features exhibited unmistakable signs of dissipation and brutality; the other two were much younger and appeared more genteel. The leader, whose name I afterward learned was Benjamin Bowles, in a domineering tone said:

“‘Is this a singing-school, or a Gipsy camp?’

“‘Neither, sir,’ Harry replied.

“‘Is it a Sunday-school, or a camp-meeting then?’

“‘No, sir, it is neither a Sunday-school nor a camp-meeting.’

“‘Then what in the deuce is it?’

“‘It is no business of yours, sir, and we would be much obliged if you would let us alone.’

“‘Oh, would you, now? See here, little sweetheart, I’ll give you a dollar for one of those pretty curls.’ And he reached out his hand to take hold of Lottie’s hair. She blushed and moved to Harry’s side. I felt the blood in my veins begin to boil, and the demon to rise within my heart.

“‘You had better go away and leave us alone,’ said Harry, as he made a movement toward the boy.

“‘Now, do you really think so?’ said he sneeringly. ‘What a polite nice boy you are!’

“I thought Harry was going to strike him, but Lottie laid her hand on his shoulder.

“‘Don’t have any difficulty with him, brother, he will go away directly,’ she said softly.