They had been painted in hunting suits of deerskin,
with the fringed borders and beaded moccasins, and raccoon skin caps.
These were men, Dick's great grandfather and Harry's. An immense pride
that he was the great-grandson of one of them suddenly swelled up in his
bosom, and he was proud, too, that the descendants of the borderers,
and of the earlier borderers in the east, should show the same spirit and
stamina. No one could look upon the fields of Shiloh, and Manassas and
Antietam and say that any braver men ever lived.
He drew his chair into the middle of the room and sat and looked at them
a long time. His steady gazing and his own imaginative brain, keyed to
the point of excitement, brought back into the portraits that singular
quality of intense life. Had they moved he would not have been surprised,
and the eyes certainly looked down at him in full and ample recognition.
What did they say? He gazed straight into the eyes of one and then
straight into the eyes of the other, and over and over again. But the
expression there was Delphic. He must choose for himself, as they had
chosen for themselves, and remembering that he was lingering, when he
should not linger, he closed and fastened the window, slipped out at the
kitchen window and returned to his horse.
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