 14 But June did not go home. Hale anticipated that resolution of hers, and firstalded by him being on hand for breakfast, and taking June over to the porch of his little office. There he tried to explain to her that they were trying to build a town, and it must have law and order. That they must have no personal feeling for or against anybody, and must treat everybody exactly alike. No other course was fair. And though June could not quite understand, she trusted him, and she said she would keep on at school until her father came for her. Do you think he will come, June? Little girl hesitated. Fairly well, she said, and Hale smiled. Well, I'll try to persuade him to let you stay if he does come. June was quite right. She had seen the matter the night before, just as it was. For just that, that our young Dave, sobered but still on the verge of tears from anger and humiliation, was telling the story of the day in her father's cabin. The old man's brows drew together and his eyes grew fierce and sullen, both at the insult to a tolerable and at the thought of a certain moonshine still up a ravine, not far away and the indirect danger to it, in any fingeringly growth of law and order. Still he had a keen sense of justice, and he knew that Dave had not told all the story. And from him, Dave to his wonder, got scant comfort. For another reason as well. With a deal pending for the sale of his lands, the shrewd old man would not risk giving a fence to Hale, not until that matter was settled, anyway. And so June was safer from interference just then, and she knew. But Dave carried the story far and wide, and it spread as the story can, only in the hills. So that the two people most talked about among the Tollivers and through Loretta among the Fallons as well, where June and Hale, and at the gap, similar talk would come. Already Hale's name was on every tongue in the town, and there because of his recent purchase of townside land, he was already aside from his personal influence a man of mysterious power. Meanwhile the persistent shadow of the coming boom had stolen over the hills and the work of the guard had grown rapidly. Every Saturday there had been local lawlessness to deal with. The spirit of personal liberty that characterized the spot was traditional. Here for a half a century the people of Wise County and of Lee, whose border was but a few miles down the river, came to get their wool carted, their grist ground, and farming utensils mended. Here, too, elections were held, be of a voice. Under the beaches at the foot of the Wooded Spur, now known as Imboden Hill, here were the muster days of wartime. Here on Saturdays the people had come together during half a century for sport and horse trading, and to talk politics. Here they drank applejack and hard cider, chafed and quarreled and fought fist and skull. Here the bullies of the two counties would come together to decide who was the best man. Here was naturally engendered the hostility between the hill dwellers of Wise and the valley people of Lee, and here was fought a famous battle between a famous bully of Wise and a famous bully of Lee. On election days the country people would bring in ginger cakes made of corn molasses, bread home made of burr flour and moonshine and applejack, which the candidates would buy and distribute through the crowd. And always during the afternoon there were men who would try to prove themselves the best Democrats in the state of Virginia by resort to tooth, fist, and eye-gouging thumb. Then to these elections sometimes would come the Kentuckians from over the border to stir up the hostility between state and state, which makes that border bristle with indemnity to this day. For half a century then all wild oats from elsewhere usually sprouted at the gap, and thus the gap had been the shrine of personal freedom, the place where any one individual had the right to do his pleasure with bottle and guards and politics, and any other the right to prove him wrong, if he were strong enough. Very soon as the Honorable Sam Budd predicted they had the hostility of Blee concentrated on them as siding with the county of Wise, and they would gain in addition now the general hostility of the Kentuckians, because as a crowd of metals and ferners they would be siding with the Virginians in the general enmity already alive. Moreover, now that the feud threatened activity over in Kentucky more trouble must come too from that source as the talk that came through the gap after young Dave Toloper's arrest plainly indicated. Town ordinances had been passed. The wild Chentors were no longer allowed to ride up and down the plank walks of Saturdays with their reins in their teeth and firing a pistol into the ground with either hand. They could punctuate the hotel sign no more. They could not ride at a fast gallop through the streets of the town and lost spirit of American liberty. They could not even yell. But the lawlessness of the town itself and its close environment was naturally the first objective point, and the first problem involved was Moonshine and its faithful ally, the blind tiger. The tiger is a little shanty with an ever open mouth, a hole in the door like a post office window. You place your money on the sill and at the ring of a coin, a mysterious arm emerges from the hole, sweeps the money away, and leaves a bottle of white whiskey. Thus you see nobody's face, the owner of the beast is safe. And so are you, which you might not be if you saw and told. In every little hollow about the gap a tiger had his lair. And these were all bearded at once by a petition to the county judge for high licensed saloons, which was granted. This measure drove the tigers out of business and concentrated Moonshine in the heart of the town, where its devotees were under easy guard. One tiger only indeed was left. Run by a round-shouldered, crouching creature whom Bob Berkeley, now at Hale's solicitation, a policeman, and known as the infant of the guard, dubbed Caliban. His shanty stood midway in the gap high from the road, set against a dark clump of pines and roared at by the river beneath. Everybody knew he sold whiskey, but he was too shrewd to be caught until late one afternoon, two days after young Dave's arrest. Hale, coming through the gap into town, glimpsed a sulking figure with a hand-barrel as it slipped from the dark pines into Caliban's cabin, pulled in his horse dismounted and deliberated if he went on down the road now they would see him and suspect. Moreover, the patrons of the tiger would not appear until after dark and he wanted a prisoner too. So Hale led his horse up into the bushes and came back to a covert by the roadside to watch and wait. As he sat there, a merry whistle sounded down the road and Hale smiled. Soon the infant of the guard came along his hands in his pockets, his cap on the back of his head, spistle bumping his hip in manly fashion and making the ravines echo with his pursed lips. He stopped in front of Hale, looked toward the river, drew his revolver and aimed it at a floating piece of wood. The revolver cracked, the piece of wood skidded on the surface of the water and there was no splash. That was a pretty good shot, said Hale in a low voice. The boy whirled and sighed. Well, what are you? Easy, easy caution, Hale. Listen. I've just seen a moonshiner go into Caliban's cabin. The boy's eager eyes sparkled. Let's go after him. No, you go on back. If you don't, they'll be suspicious. Get another man, Hale almost laughed at the disappointment in the lad's face at his first words, and the joy that came after it, and climb high above the shanty, come back here to me. Then after dark, we'll dash in and cinch Caliban and his customers. Yes, sir, said the lad. Shall I whistle, going back? Hale nodded approval. Just the same and off Bob went, whistling like a callopy and not even turning his head to look at the cabin. In half an hour, Hale thought he heard something crashing through the bushes, high on the mountain side, and a little while afterward the boy crawled through the bushes to him alone. His cap was gone, there was a bloody scratch across his face, and he was streaming with perspiration. You'll have to excuse me, sir, he panted. I didn't see anybody, but one of my brothers, and if I had told him he wouldn't have let me come, and I hurried back for fear, for fear something would happen. Well, suppose I don't let you go. Excuse me, sir, but I don't see how you can very well help. You aren't my brother and you can't go alone. I was, said Hale. Yes, sir, but not now. Hale was worried, but there was nothing else to be done. All right, I'll let you go if you stop saying, sir, to me. Makes me feel so old. Certainly, sir, said the lad quite unconsciously, and when Hale smothered a laugh, he looked around to see what had amused him. Darkness fell quickly, and into the gathering gloom they saw two more figures sulk into the cabin. We'll go now, for we want the fellow who's selling the moonshine. Again Hale was beset with doubts about the boy, and his own responsibility to the boy's brothers. The lad's eyes were shining, but his face was more eager than excited, and his hand was as steady as Hale's own. You slip around and station yourself behind that pine-tree, just behind the cabin. The boy looked crestfallen, and if anybody tries to get out of the back door, you halt him. Is there a back door? I don't know. Hale said, brother, shortly, you obey orders. I am not your brother, but I am your captain. Beg your pardon, sir. Shall I go now? Yes, you'll hear me at the front door. They won't make any resistance. The lad stepped away with nimble caution high above the cabin, and he even took his shoes off before he slid lightly down to his place behind the pine. There was no back door, only a window, and his disappointment was bitter. Still, when he heard Hale at the front door, he meant to make a break for that window, and he waited in a still gloom. You could hear the rough talk and laughter within, and now, then a quink of a tin cup. By and by there was a faint noise in front of the cabin, and he steadied his nerves and his beating heart. Then he heard the door poised violently in, and Hale's cry, Surrender! Hale stood on the threshold with his pistol outstretched in his right hand. The door had struck something soft, and he said sharply again, Come out from behind that door, hands up. At the same moment, the back window flew open with a bang, and Bob's pistol covered the edge of the open door. Taliban had rolled from his box like a stupid animal. Two of his patrons sat dazed and staring from Hale to the boy's face at the window. A mountaineer stood in one corner with twitching fingers and shifting eyes like a caged wild thing, and forth issued from behind the door, quivering with anger young Dave Toliver. Hale stared at him amazed, and when Dave saw Hale such a wave of fury surged over his face that Bob thought it best to attract his attention again, which he did by gently motioning at him with the barrel of his pistol. Hold on there, he said quietly, and young Dave stood still. Climb through that window, Bob and collect the batteries, said Hale. Sure, sir, said the lad, and with his pistol still prominently in the foreground he threw his left leg over the sill, and as he climbed in he quoted with a grunt. You always go in forced to make an arrest, grim and serious as he was, with June's cousin glowering at him. Hale could not help smiling. You didn't go home after all, said Hale to young Dave, who clenched his hands and lips, but answered nothing, or if you did you got back pretty quick. And still Dave was silent. Get him all, Bob! In answer the boy went the rounds, feeling the pocket of each man's right hip, and his left breast. Yes, sir! Unload him. The lad broke. Each of the four pistols picked up a piece of twine and strung them together through each trigger-guard. Close that window and stand here at the door. With the boy at the door, Hale rolled the hand-barrow to the threshold, and the white liquor gurgled joyously on the steps. All right, come along, he said to the captives, and at last young Dave spoke. What are you taking me for? Hale pointed to the empty hand-barrow, and Dave's answer was a look of scorn. I never brought that, Hale. You were drinking illegal liquor in a blind tiger, and if you didn't bring it, you can prove that later. Anyhow, we'll want you as a witness. And Hale looked at the other mountaineer who had turned his eyes quickly to Dave. Caliban led the way with young Dave and Hale walked side by side, with them while Bob was escort for the other two. The road ran along a high bank, and as Bob was adjusting the jangling weapons on his left arm, the strange mountaineer darted behind him and leapt headlong into the tops of thick rhododendrum. Before Hale knew what had happened, the lad's pistol flashed. Stop, boy! cried horrified. Don't shoot! And he had to catch the lad to keep him from bleeping after the runaway. The shot had missed. They heard the runaway splash into the river and go stumbling across it, and then there was silence. Young Dave laughed. Oh, Uncle Judd will be over here tomorrow to see about this. Hale said nothing, and they went on. At the door of the Caliban's Dave bonked, and had to be pushed in by a main force. They left him weeping and cursing with rage. Go to bed, Bob, said Hale. Yes, sir, said Bob, just as soon as I get my lessons. Hale did not go to the boarding house that night. He feared to face June. Instead he went to the hotel to scraps of a late supper and then to bed. He had hardly touched the pillow it seemed when somebody shook him by the shoulder. It was McFarland, and daylight was streaming through the window. Gang of those felons are here, McFarland said, and there after young Dave Tolliver, about a dozen of them. Young Buck is with them in the sheriff. They say he shot a man over in the mountains yesterday. Hale sprang for his clothes. Here was a quandary. If we turn him over to them, they'll kill him. McFarland nodded. Of course, and if we leave him in that weak old Calibus, they'll get more help and take him out tonight. Then we'll take him to the county jail. They'll take him away from us. No, they won't. You can go out and get as many shotguns as you can find and load them with buckshot. McFarland nodded approvingly and disappeared. Hale plunged his face in a basin of cold water, soaked his hair, and as he was mopping his face with a towel there was a ponderous tread on the porch, the door opened without the formality of a knock, and devil Judd Tolliver, with his hat on and belted with two huge pistols, stepped, stooping within. His eyes red with anger and loss of sleep were glaring, and his heavy mustache and beard showed the twitching of his mouth. "'Morris Dave,' he said shortly, in the Calibus. "'Did you put him in?' "'Yes,' said Hale calmly. "'But by God,' the old man said with repressed fury, "'you can't get him out too soon if you want to save trouble.' "'Look here, Judd,' said Hale seriously. "'You are one of the last men in the world I want to have trouble with for many reasons, but I'm an officer over here and I'm no more afraid of you.' Hale paused to let the facts sink in, and it did. Then you are of me.' "'Dave's been selling liquor.' "'He ain't,' interrupted the old mountaineer. "'He didn't bring that liquor over here.' "'I know who done it.' "'All right,' said Hale, I'll take your word for it, and I'll let him out if you say so. But—' "'Right now,' thundered old Judd. "'Do you know that young Buck Fallon and a dozen of his men are over here after him?' "'The old man looks done.' "'What? No?' "'They're over there in the woods across the river now, and they want me to go give him up to them. "'They say they have the sheriff with them, and they want him for shooting a man on Leatherwood Creek day before yesterday.' "'It's all a lie,' burst out old Judd. "'They want to kill him.' "'Of course, and I was going to take him up to the county jail right away for safekeeping. "'Do you mean to say you'd throw that boy into jail and then fight them Fallons to protect him?' "'The old man asked slowly and credulously. "'Hale pointed to a two-store building through his window. "'If you get in the back part of that store at a window, you can see whether I will or not. I can summon you to help, and if a fight comes up, you can do your share from the window. "'The old man's eyes lighted up like a leaping flame. "'Where you let Dave out and give him Winchester and help us find him?' he said eagerly. "'We three can whip them all.' "'No,' said Hale shortly. "'I'll try to keep both sides from fighting. "'And I'd arrest Dave or you as quickly as I would have found him.' The average mountaineer has little conception of duty and the abstract, but old Judd belonged to the better class, and there are many of them that does. He looked into Hale's eyes long and steadily. "'All right.' McFarland came in hurriedly and stopped short, seeing the hatted bearded giant. "'This is Mr. Toliver and Uncle of Dave's, Judd Toliver,' said Hale. "'Go ahead.' "'I've got everything fixed, but I couldn't get but five of the fellows. Two of the Berkeley boys, they wouldn't let me go tell Bob. "'All right. Can I summon Mr. Toliver here?' "'Yes,' said McFarland doubtfully. "'But you know.' "'He won't be seen,' interrupted Hale, understanding Hale. "'He'll be at a window in the back of that store. "'And he won't take part unless a fight begins, and if it does, we'll need him.' An hour later, Devil Judd Toliver was in the store. Hale pointed out and peering cautiously around the edge of an open window at the wooden gate of the Ramshackle Calaboose. Several Fallons were there led by young Buck, whom Hale recognized as the red-headed youth at the head of the tearing horseman, who had swept by him that late afternoon when he was coming back from his first trip to Lonesome Cove. The old man gritted his teeth as he looked and he put one of his huge pistols on a table within easy reach and kept the other clinched in his right fist. From down the street came five horsemen led by John Hale. Every man carried a double-barreled shotgun, and the old man smiled in his respect for Hale rose higher, high as it already was for nobody, mountaineer or not, as loved for a hostile shotgun. The Fallons armed only with pistols drew near. "'Keep back,' he heard Hale say calmly, and they stopped, young Buck alone going on. "'I want that feller,' said young Buck. "'Well, you don't get him,' said Hale quietly. "'He's our prisoner, keep back,' he repeated, motioning with the barrel of his shotgun and young Buck moved backward to his own man. The old man saw Hale and another man, the sergeant go inside the heavy gate of the stockade. He saw a boy in a cap with a pistol in one hand and a strap set of books in the other, come running up to the men with the shotguns. And he heard one of them say angrily, "'I told you not to come.' "'I know you did,' said the boy, imperdibly. "'You go on to school,' said another of the men, but the boy with the cap shook his head and dropped his books to the ground. The big gate opened just then, and out came Hale and the sergeant, and between them young Dave, eyes blinking in the sunlight. "'Damn me,' he heard Dave say to Hale, "'I'll get even with you for this some day.' And then the prisoner's eyes caught the horses and shotguns and turned to the group of Fallons. And he shrank back, utterly dazed. There was a movement among the Fallons and Devil Judd caught up his other pistol and with a grim smile got ready. Young Buck had turned to his crowd. "'Man,' he said, "'you know I'll never back down.' Devil Judd knew that too, and he was amazed by the words that followed. "'And if you say so, we'll have him or die, but we ain't in our own state now. They got the law and the shotguns on us, and I reckon we'd better go slow. The rest seemed quite willing to go slow, and as they put their pistols up, Devil Judd laughed in his beard. Hale put young Dave on a horse and the little shotgun cavalcade quietly moved away toward the county seat. The crestfallen Fallons dispersed the other way. After they had taken a parting shot at the Honorable Samuel Budd, who too had a pistol in his hand, young Buck looked long at him, and then he laughed. "'You too, Sam Budd,' he said. "'We folks will recollect this on election day.'" The Honorable Sam designed no answer. And up at the store, Devil Judd lighted his pipe and sat down to think out the strange code of ethics that governed that police guard. Hale had told him to wait there, and it was almost noon before the boy with the cap came to tell him that the Fallons had all left town. The old man looked at him kindly. "'Are you that little fella that would fit for June?' "'Not yet,' said Bob, "'I'll do my best.'" "'Where is she?' "'She's waiting for you over at the boarding house.' "'Does she know about this trouble?' "'Not a thing. She thinks you've come to take her home.' The old man made no answer. Bob will let him back toward Hale's office. June was waiting at the gate and the boy lifting his cap passed on. June's eyes were dark with anxiety. "'You come to take me home, dad?' "'I've been thinking about it,' he said with a doubtful shake of his head. June took him upstairs to her room and pointed out the old water-wheel through the window. In her new clothes she had put on her old home-spun again when she heard he was in town. And the old man shook his head. "'I'm feared about all these fixings. You won't never be satisfied again and lonesome, Cove.'" "'My dad,' she said, reprovingly. "'Jack says I can go over whenever I please as soon as the weather gets warmer and the roads gets good.'" "'I don't know,' said the old man, still shaking his head. All through dinner she was worried. Devil Judd hardly ate anything so embarrassed was he by the presence of so many ferners and by the white cloth and tableware and so fearful was he that he would be guilty of some breach of manners. Resolutely he refused butter and at the third urging by Mrs. Crane he said firmly a shrewd twinkle in his eye. "'No, thank you. I never eat butter in town. I've kept store myself.' And he was no little pleased with the laugh that went around the table. The fact was he was generally pleased with June's environment and after dinner he stopped teasing June. "'Nah, honey. I ain't gonna take you away. I want you to stay right where you are. Be a good girl. Now and do whatever Jack Hale tells you all that hair. Come over and see me.' June grew almost cheerful with gratitude. For never had he called her honey. Before that she could remember and never had he talked so much to her nor with such kindness. "'There you come and over soon?' "'Mine soon, Dad.' "'Well, take care of yourself.' "'I will, Dad,' she said. And tenderly she watched his great figure slouch out of sight. An hour after dark his old judge sat on the porch of the cabin in lonesome cove. Young Dave Tolber rode up to the gate on a strange horse. He was in a surly mood. "'Hey, let me go with the head of the valley and give me this horse to get here,' the boy grudgingly explained. "'I'm going over to get mine tomorrow.' "'Seem like you'd better keep away from that gap,' said the old man dryly and Dave reddened angrily. "'Oh, you'll be over here after you,' the old man turned on him sternly. Jack Hale knows that liquor with mine. He knows I've got it still over here as well as you do, and he's never asked a question or peeped an eye. I reckon he could come if he thought he ought to, but I'm on this side of the state line. If I was on his side, maybe I'd stop.' Young Dave stared for things were surely coming to a pretty pass in lonesome cove. "'And I reckon,' the old man went on, it'd be better grace in you to stop saying things against him, for if it hadn't been for him you'd be laid out by them Fallons by this time.' It was true, and Dave Silas was forced into another channel. "'I wonder,' he said presently, how them Fallons always know when I go over there. "'I've been studying about that myself,' said Devil Judd. His mother had heard Dave query. "'I cede the Red Fox this afternoon,' she quavered at the door. "'What was he doing over here?' asked Dave. "'Nothin,' he said, just sneakin' round, the way he always is doing. He'd like he was money, a particular, to find out when you was coming back.' Both men started slightly. "'We're all taller as now, all right,' said the honourable Samuel Budd that night on the porch overlooking the mill-pond, and then he groaned a little. Them Fallons have got kin-folks to burn on the Virginia side, and they'd fight me tooth and toenail for this a hundred years hence. He puffed his pipe, but Hale said nothing. "'Yes, sir,' he added cheerily, "'were in for a hell of a merry time now. The mountaineer hates as long as he remembers and he never forgets.' End of Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Hand in hand, Hale and June followed the footsteps of Spring from the time June met him at the schoolhouse gate, for their first walk in the woods. Hale pointed to some boys playing marbles. That's the first sign. He said, with quick understanding, June smiled. The bird-like piping of Islas came from a marshy strip of woodland that ran through the centre of the town, and a toad was croaking at the foot of Emboden Hill. And they came next. They crossed a swinging footbridge which was a miracle to June, and took the footpath along the river stream of South Fork, under the laurel which June called Ivy and the rhododendron which was Laurel in her speech. And Hale pointed out catkins, greening on alders, in one swampy place, and willows just blushing into life along the banks of a little creek. A few yards aside from the path he found under a patch of snow and dead leaves, the pink and white blossoms, and the waxy green leaves of the trailing harbourous, old mother's awakening. And June breathed in from the very breath of spring. Nearby were turkey peas which she had hunted and eaten many times. You can't put that arbitus in a garden, said Hale. It's as wild as a hawk. Presently he had the little girl listen to a pee-wee twittering in a thorn bush and lust to call the robin from an apple-tree. A bluebird flew overhead up Mary chirp its swissful note of bottom, long since forgotten. These were the first birds and flowers, said, and June knowing them only by sight must know the name of each and the reason for that name. So that Hale found himself walking the woods with an interrogation point. And that he might not be confounded he had later to dip up much forgotten lore. For every walk became a lesson in botany for June such a passion at once for flowers, and he rarely had to tell her the same thing twice since her memory was like a vice for everything as he learned in time. Her eyes were quicker than his, too, and now she pointed to a snowy blossom with a deeply lobed leaf. What's that? Bloodroot, said Hale, and he scratched the stem and forth-issued scarlet drops. The Indians used to put it on their faces in tomahawks. They knew that word and knotted, and I used to make red ink of it when I was a little boy. Oh, said June, with the next look she found a tiny bunch of fuzzy hypocists. Leverly. Was Lever? Hale, looking at her glowing face and eyes in her perfect little body, imagined that she would never know unless told that she had one and so he waved one hand vaguely at his chest. It's an organ, and that herb ran for it. Oregon, what thought? What was something inside you? June made the same gesture that Hale had. Me? Yes, and then hopelessly, but not there exactly. June's eyes had caught something else now when she ran for it. Oh, oh! It was a bunch of delicate amenities of intermediate shades between white and red, yellow, and purple blue. Those are anemones. Anemones, repeated June, windflowers, because the wind is supposed to open them, and almost unconsciously, Hale lapsed into a quotation. And where a tear has dropped a windflower blows. What's that? said June quickly. That's poetry. What's poetry? Hale threw up both hands. I don't know. But I'll read you some someday. By that time, she was gurgling with delight over a bunch of spring beauties that came up, roots, stock, and all, when she breezed for them. Well, ain't that pretty? While they lay in her hand, and she looked the rose vein petals, began to close the leaves to droop and the stem go limp. Oh! June won't pull up no more on them? These little dreamflowers found in the spring more poetry, June. A little later, he heard her repeating that line to herself. It was an easy step from poetry to flowers, and apparently June was groping for her. A few days later the service-berry swung out. White stars on the low hillsides, but Hale could tell her nothing that she did not know about the service-berry. Soon the dog would swept in snowy gusts along the mountains and from a bank of it one morning a red bird flamed and sang, What cheer, what cheer, what cheer! And like at Scarlet Coat the red bud had just burst into bloom. June knew the red bud, but she had never heard it called the Judas Tree. You see, the red bud was supposed to be poisonous. It shakes in the wind and says to the bees, Come on, little fellas, here's your nice, fresh honey! It betrays and poisons them. What do you think of that? said June indignantly, and Hale had to hedge a bit. Well, I don't know whether it really does, but that's what they say. A little farther on the white stars of the Trillium gleamed at them from the border of the woods and nearby June stooped over some lovely sky-blue blossoms with yellow eyes. Forget-me-nots, said Hale. June stooped to gather them in a radiant face. Oh, she said, is that what you call them? They aren't the real ones, they're false, forget-me-nots. They're not the one, said June, but they were beautiful and fragrant and she added gently. Tenth they're false, I'm going to call them just forget-me-nots and I'm giving them to you, she said. So that you won't. Thank you, said Hale gravely. They found Larkspur, too. Blue as the heaven it gazes at, quoted Hale. What gazes? Looks. June looked up at the sky and down at the flower. Taint, she said, it's blurt. When he discovered something Hale did not know he would say it was one of those one-flowers without a name. I, said June at last, seemed like them one-flowers is a mighty big family. They are, laughed Hale, for a bachelor like me. Huh? said June. Later they ran upon a yellow Adler's tongues in the hollow of each blossom guarded by a pair of ear-like leaves. Dutchman's breeches in wild bleeding hearts, a name that appealed greatly to the fancy of the romantic little lady and thus together they followed the footsteps of that spring and while she studied the flowers Hale was studying the loveliest flower of them all, little June. About ferns, plants, and trees as well he told her all he knew and there seemed nothing in the skies the green world of the leaves or the underworld at her feet to which she was not magically responsive. Indeed, Hale had never seen a man, woman, or child so eager to learn. And one day when she had apparently reached a limit of inquiry she grew very well and he watched her in silence a long while. What's matter, June? he asked finally. I just wondered why I'm always asking why, said little June. She was learning in school too and she was happier there now for there had been no more open teasing of the new pupil. Bob's championship saved her from that and thereafter school changed straight away for June. Before that day she had kept apart former school fellows at recess times as well as in the school room. Two or three of the girls had made friendly advances to her but she had shyly repelled them, why she hardly knew and it was her lonely custom at recess time to build a playhouse at the foot of a great beach with moss, broken bits of bottles, stones. Once she found it torn to pieces and from the look on the face of the tall mountain boy, Cal Heaton who had grinned at her when she ended up for her first lesson and who was now Bob's arch enemy she knew that he was the guilty one. Again a day or two later it was destroyed and when she came down from the woods almost in tears Bob happened to meet her in the road and he made her tell the trouble she was in, straight away he charged the trespasser with the deed and was lied to for his pains. So after school that day he slipped up on the hill with the little girl and helped her rebuild again. Now lay for him, said Bob and catch him at it. All right, said June and she looked both her worry and her gratitude so that Bob understood both and he answered both with a nice lot wave of one hand. Never you mind and don't you tell Mr. Hale and June in dumb acquiescence crossed her heart and body but the mountain boy was wary and for two or three days the playhouse was undisturbed and so Bob himself laid a trap. He mounted his horse immediately after school rode past the mountain lad who was on his way home across the river made a wide detour at a gallop and hitching his horse in the woods came to the playhouse from the other side of the hill and half an hour later when the pale little teacher came out of the school house he heard grunts and blows and scuffling up in the woods and when he ran toward the sound the bodies of two of his pupils rolled into sight clenched fiercely with torn clothes and bleeding faces Bob on top with the mountain boy thumb in his mouth and his own fingers gripped about his antagonist throat neither paid any attention to the school master who pulled at Bob's coat unwaveringly and with horror at his ferocity. Bob turned his head shook it as well as the thumb in his mouth would let him and went on gripping the throat under him and pushing the head that belonged to it on the ground the mountain boy's tongue showed in his eyes bulged Nuff! he yelled Bob rose and told his story to the school master from New England gave them a short lecture on gentleness and Christian charity and fixed on each the awful penalty of staying in after school for an hour every day for a week. Bob grinned All right professor, it was worth it he said the mountain lad shuffled silently away an hour later Hale saw the boy with a swollen lip one eye black and the other as merry as ever but after that there was no more trouble for June Bob had made his promise good and gradually she came into the games with her fellows thereafter while Bob stood or sat aside encouraging but taking no part or was he not a member of the police force indeed he was already known far and is the infant of the guard and always he carried a whistle and usually outside the school house a pistol bumped his hip while a Winchester stood in one corner of his room and a billy dangled by his metal piece the games were new to June and often Hale would stroll up to the school house to watch them prisoner space skipping the rope anti over cracking the whip and lifting the gate and it pleased him to see how lithe and active his little protege was in a match in strength even for the boys who were near her size June had to take the penalty of her greenness too when she was introduced to the king and queen and bumped the ground between the make-believe sovereigns or got a cup of water in her face when she was trying to see stars through a pipe and the boys pinned her dress to the bench through a crack and once she walked into school with a placard on her back which read June bugged and featured that she fast became a favorite indeed it was noticeable to Hale as well as Bob that Carl Heaton the mountain boy seemed always to get next to June in the tugs of war and one morning June found an apple on her desk she swept the room with a glance and met Carl's guilty flesh and though she ate the apple she gave him no thanks in word, look or manner it was curious to Hale moreover June's instinct deftly led her to avoid the mistakes and dress that characterized the groupings of other girls who, like her were in a stage of transition they wore gaudy combs and green skirts with red waist their clothes bunched at the hips and to their shoes and hands they paid no attention at all none of these things for June and Hale did not know that the little girl had leaped her fellows with one bound had taken Miss Anne Saunders as her model and was climbing up on the pedestal for that lady justly stood the two had not become friends that Hale hoped June was always silent and reserved when the older girl was around but there was never a move of the latter's hand or foot or lip or eye that the new pupil failed to see Miss Anne rallied Hale no little about her but he laughed good naturally and asked why she could not make friends with June she's jealous said Miss Saunders and Hale ridiculed the idea for not one sign since she came to the gap had she shown him it was the jealousy of a child she had once betrayed and that she had outgrown he thought but he never knew how June stood behind the curtains of her window with a hungry suffering in her face and eyes to watch Hale and Miss Anne ride by and he never guessed that concealment was but a sign of the dawn of womanhood that was breaking within her and she gave no hint of that breaking dawn until one day early in May when she heard a wood thrush for the first time with Hale for it was the bird she loved best and always the silver-flooding would stop her in her tracks and send her into dreamland Hale had just broken a crimson flower from its stem and held it out to her here's another of the wan ones June do you know what that is it's she paused for correction with her lips drawn severely in the precision it's a mountain poppy pap says it kills gosslings fries danced where she was in a merry mood and she put both hands behind her if you're any kin to goose you better grab it that's a good one lapped Hale but it's so lovely I'll take the risk drop it caught June with a quick upward look and then to fix the word in her memory she repeated drop it drop it got it now June uh-huh it was then that a wood thrush voiced the crowning joy of spring and was slowly filling eyes she asked its name lapped Bird she said slowly with the breaking voice as long as she's died away the morning she turned to him with a wondering smile somehow it don't make me so miserable like I used her her smile passed while she looked she caught both hands to her heaving breast and a wild intensity burned suddenly in her eyes what June there ain't nothing she choked out and she turned hurriedly ahead of him down the path startled Hale had dropped the crimson flower to his feet and he let it lie meanwhile rumors were brought in that the Falons were coming over from Kentucky to wipe out the guard and so straight were they sometimes that the guard was kept perpetually on watch once while the members were at a target practice the shout arose the Kentuckians are coming the Kentuckians are coming and a double quick the guard rushed back to find a false alarm and to see men laughing at them on the street the truth was that while the Falons had a general hostility against the guard their particular enmity was concentrated on John Hale as he discovered when June was to take her first trip home one Friday afternoon Hale meant to carry it over but the morning they were to leave old Judd Tolver came to the Gap himself he did not want June to come home at that time and he didn't think it was safe over there for Hale just in some of the Falons had been seen hanging around Lonesome Cove for the purpose Judd believed of getting a shot at the man who had kept young Dave from falling into their hands and Hale saw that by that act he had as Bud said arrayed himself with the Tolvers in the feud in other words he was a Tolver himself now and as such the Falons meant to treat him Hale rebelled against the restriction where he had started some work in Lonesome Cove preparing a surprise over there for June but old Judd said he had waited a while and he said it so seriously that Hale for a while took his advice so June stated the Gap with little disappointment apparently that she could not visit home and as spring passed and the summer came on the little girl butted and opened like a rose to the pretty school teacher she was a source of endless interest and wonder the little girl was resistant and aloof Miss Saunders felt herself watched and studied in and out of school and Hale often had to smile at June's unconscious imitation of her teacher in speech, manners and dress and all the time her hero-wisher Paph Hale went on fed by the talk of the boarding-house her fellow pupils and the town at large and it fairly thrilled her to know that to the Falons he was now a Tolver himself a saddle and then June would usurp Miss Ann's place in a horse-back ride up through the Gap to see the first blooms of the purple Rotodendrum on B. Rock or up to Morris' farm on Powell's Mountain from which with a glass you could see the lonesome pine and all the time she worked at her studies tirelessly and when she was done with her lessons she read the fairy books that Hale got for her read them until Paul in Virginia fell into her hands and then there was no more fairy stories for little June often late at night Hale from the porch of his cottage could see the light of her lamp sending its beam across the dark water of the mill-pond and finally he got worried by the paleness of her face and sent her to the doctor she went unwillingly and when she came back she reported placidly that organically she was all right, the doctor said but Hale was glad that vacation would soon come at the beginning of the last week of school he brought a little present for her from New York a slender necklace of gold with a little ruddy stone pendant that was the shape of a cross Hale pulled a trinket from his pocket as they were walking down the river bank at sunset and a little girl quivered like an aspen leaf in a sudden puff of wind it's a fairy stone she cried excitedly what where on earth did you what sister Sally told me about she said folks found them everywhere over here in Virginia and all her life she was a wish for one and she could never get it her eyes filled seemed like everything she wanted is a coming to me do you know the story of it too June shook her head sister Sally said it was a luck piece nothing could happen to you but I was awful bad luck if you lost it Hale put it around her neck and fastened the clasp and June kept hold of the little cross with one hand well you mustn't lose it he said oh no no she repeated breathlessly and Hale told her the pretty story of the stone as they strolled back to supper the little crosses were to be found only in a certain valley in Virginia so perfect in shape they seem to have been chiseled by hand and they were a great mystery to the men who knew all about rocks the geologist the geologist repeated June these men said there was no crystallization nothing like them from Mended Hale elsewhere in the world and that just as crosses were as different of shapes Roman Maltese and St Andrews so too were found in all these different shapes and the myth the story was that this little valley was once inhabited by fairies June's eyes lighted for it was a fairy story after all and that when a strange messenger brought them the news of Christ's crucifixion they wept and their tears as they fell to the ground returned into tiny crosses of stone even the Indians had some queer feeling about them and for a long long time some of them had used them as charms to bring good luck and ward off harm and that's for you because you've been such a good little girl and have studied so hard school's most over now and I reckon you'll be right glad to get home again June made no answer but at the gate she looked suddenly up at him have you got one too she asked and she seemed much disturbed when Hale shook his head I'll get you one some day all right, left Hale there was again something strange in her manner and she turned suddenly from him and what it meant he was soon to learn it was the last week of school and Hale had just come down from the woods behind the school house at the little recess time in the afternoon the children were playing games outside the gate and Bob and Miss Anne and the little professor were leaning on the fence watching them the little man raised his hand to halt Hale on the plank sidewalk I'm waiting to see you he said in his dreamy abstracted way you prophesied you know that I should be proud of your little protege some day and I am indeed she is the most remarkable pupil I've yet seen here and I have about come to the conclusion that there is no quicker native intelligence in our country than you shall find in the children of these mountaineers and Miss Anne was gazing at the children the impression that turned Hale's eyes that way and the professor checked his harangue something had happened they had been playing ring around the rosy and June had been caught she stood scarlet and tense and the cry was who's your beau, who's your beau and still she stood with tight lips flushing you gotta tell, you gotta tell the mountain boy, Cal Heaton was grinning with fitecious consciousness and even Bob put his hands in his pockets and took on an uneasy smile who's your beau, came the chorus again lips opened almost in a whisper but all could hear Jack Jack who? but June looked around and saw the fort the gate almost staggering she broke from the crowd and with one forearm across her scarlet face rushed past them into the school house Miss Anne looked at Hale's amazed face and she did not smile Bob turned respectfully away ignoring it all and the little professor whose life purpose was psychology murmured in his ignorance remarkable, very remarkable through that afternoon June kept her hot face close to her books Bob never so much as glanced away little gentleman that he was but the one time she lifted her eyes she met the mountain lads bent in a stupor gaze upon her in spite of her parents' studiousness however she missed her lesson and automatically the little professor told her to stay in after school and recite to Miss Saunders and so June and Miss Anne sat in the school room alone the teacher reading a book and the people her tears unshed with her sullen face bent over her lesson in a few moments the door opened and the little professor thrust in his head the girl had looked so hurt and tired when he spoke to her that some strange sympathy moved him mystified though he was to say gently now and with a warm smile that was rare with him he might excuse June I think Miss Saunders and let her recite some time tomorrow and gently he closed the door Miss Anne rose very well June, she said quietly June rose too, gathering up her books and as she passed the teacher's platform she stopped and looked her full in the face she said not a word and the tragedy between the woman and the girl was played in silence for the woman knew from the searching gaze of the girl and the black defiance in her eyes as she stocked out of the room that her own flesh had betrayed her secret as plainly as the girl's words had told her through his office window a few minutes later Hale saw June pass swiftly into the house in a few minutes she came swiftly out again and went back swiftly towards the school house he was so worried by the tense look in her face that he could work no more and in a few minutes he threw his papers down and followed her when he turned the corner Bob was coming down the street with his cap on the back of his head and swinging his books by a strap and the boy looked a little conscious when he saw Hale coming he was seeing June, Hale asked no sir said Bob immensely relieved did she come up this way I don't know but Bob turned and pointed to the green dome of a big breach thank you finder at the foot of that tree he said that's where her playhouse is and that's where she goes when she's that's where she usually goes oh yes said Hale her playhouse, thank you not all sir Hale went on turned from the path and climbed noiselessly when he caught sight of the beach he stopped still June stood against it like a wood nymph just emerged from its sun-deppled trunk stood stretched to her full height her hands behind her, her hair tossed her throat tense under the dangling little cross her face uplifted had her feet to playhouse was scattered to pieces she seemed listening to the love calls of a wood thrush that came faintly through the still woods and then he saw that she heard nothing saw nothing that she was in a dream as deep asleep Hale's heart throbbed as he looked June called softly she did not hear him and when he called again she turned her face unstartled and moving her posture not at all Hale pointed to the scattered playhouse I've done it, she said fiercely I've done it myself her eyes burned steadily into his even while she lifted her hands to her hair as though she were only vaguely conscious that it was all undone you heard me, she cried she did answer she heard me and again not waiting for a word from him she cried still more fiercely I don't care, I don't care who knows her hands were trembling she was biting her quivering lip to keep back the starting tears and Hale rushed toward her and took her in his arms June, June, he said brokenly you must little girl proud, proud, little sweetheart she was clinging to him and bent his head slowly their lips met and the man was startled he knew now it was no child that answered him Hale walked long that night in the moonlit woods up and around Imboden Hill along a shallow haunted path between silvery beach trunks past the big hole in the earth from which dead trees tossed out their crooked arms as if in torment and to the top of the ridge under which the valleys leapt and above which the dark bulk of Powell's Mountain rose it was absurd but he found himself strangely stirred she was a child, kept repeating to himself in spite of the fact that he knew she was no child among her own people and that mountain girls were even wives who were younger still still she did not know what she felt how could she and she would get over it became the sharp stab of a doubt would he want her to get over it frankly and with wonder he confessed to himself that he did not know he did not know but again, why bother he had meant to educate her anyhow that was the first step no matter what happened June must go out into the world to school he would have plenty of money her father would not object June need never know he could include for her an interest in her own father's coal lands that he meant to buy and she could think that it was her own money that she was using so with a sudden rush of gladness from his brain to his heart he recklessly yoked himself then and there under all responsibility for that young life and the eager sensitive soul that already lighted it so radiantly her nature had opened precisely as the bud and flower of that spring the mother of magicians had touched her as impartially as she had touched them with very want and as unconsciously the little girl had answered as a young dove to any cooing mate with this, Hale did not reckon and this June could not know for a while that night she lay in a delicious tremor listening to the bird-like chorus of the little frogs in the marsh the booming of the big ones in the mill pond the water pouring over the dam with the sound of a low wind and as had all the sleeping things of the earth about her she too sank to happy sleep End of Chapter 15 Chapter 16 of the Trail of the Lonesome Pine this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by storm the trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox Jr. Chapter 16 the in-sweep of the outside world was broadening its current now the improvement company had been formed to encourage the growth of the town a safe was put in the back part of a furniture store behind a wooden partition and a bank was started up through the gap and toward Kentucky more entries were driven into the coal and on the Virginia side were signs of stripping for iron ore a furnace was coming in just as soon as the railroad could bring it in and the railroad was pushing ahead with genuine vigor speculators were trooping in and the town had been divided off into lots a few of which had already changed hands one agent had brought in a big steel safe and a tent and was buying coal lands right and left more young men drifted in from all points of the compass the tent hotel was put at the foot of in Bowden Hill and of nights there were under it much poker and song the lilt of a definite optimism was in every man's step and the light of hope was in every man's eye and the guard went to its work in earnest every man now had his winchester his revolver his billy and his whistle drilling and target shooting became a daily practice Bob who had been a year in a military school was drill master for the recruits and very gravely he performed his duties and put them through the skirmishers drill advancing in rushes throwing themselves in the new grass and very gravely he commended one enthusiast none other than the honourable Samuel Budd who rather than lose his position in line threw himself into a pool of water all to the surprise, scorn and anger of the mountain on Lucas who dwelled about the town many were the commons the members of the guard heard from them even while they were at drill I'd like to see one of them fellas hit me with one of them locus posts ha I could take two good men and run the whole batch out of the county look at them dudes and furnace they come into our country and they're trying to learn us how to run it our boys are only trying to have their little fun they don't mean nothing but some day some full young guard will hurt somebody and then they'll be held to pay Hale could not help feeling considerable sympathy for their point of view particularly when he saw the mountainies watching the guard at target practice each volunteer policeman with his back to the target and at the word of command wheeling and firing six shots in rapid succession and he did not wonder at their snorts of scorn at such bad shooting and their open anger that the guard was practicing for them but sometimes he got an unexpected recruit one bully who had been conspicuous in the brickyard trouble when a drill went up to him with a grin Hale, he said cheerily I believed you fellas are going to have more fun than we are and dang did I don't join you if you'll let me sure said Hale and others who might have been bad men became members and thus getting a vent for their energies was enthusiastic for the law as they might have been against it of course the antagonistic element in the town lost no opportunity to plague and harass the guard and after the destruction of the blind tigers mischief was naturally concentrated in the high licensed saloons particularly in the one run by Jack Woods whose local power for evil and cackling laugh seemed to mean nothing else than close personal communion with old Nick himself asking the door of his saloon one day Bob saw one of Jack's customers trying to play pool with a winchester in one hand with a knife between his teeth and a boy stepped in and halted the man had no weapon concealed and was making no disturbance and Bob did not know whether or not he had the legal right to arrest him so he turned and while he was standing in the door Jack winked at his customer who with a grin put the back of his knife blade between Bob's shoulders and pushing closed it the boy looked over his shoulder without moving a muscle and said to him your bud who came in at that moment pinion the fellow's arms from behind and Bob took his weapon away pal said the mountaineer I didn't aim to hurt the little fella I just wanted to see if I could scare him well brother just scar some merry jest with the honorable Sam and he looked sharply at Jack through his big spectacles as the two let the man off to the calaboos for he suspected the young keeper was at the bottom of the trick Jack's time came only the next day he had regarded it as the limit of indignity when an inaudence was up that nobody should blow a whistle except a member of the guard and it was great fun for him to have some drunken customer blow a whistle and then stand in his door and laugh at the policeman running in from all directions that day Jack tried the whistle himself and he ran down he asked Jack felt bold that morning I blowed it he'll thought for a moment the ordnance against blowing a whistle had not yet been passed but he made up his mind that under the circumstances Jack's blowing was a breach of the peace since the guard had adopted that signal so he said you mustn't do that again Jack had doubtless been going through precisely the same mental process being involved he seemed to differ I'll blow it when I damn please he said blow it again and I'll arrest you said Hale Jack blew he had his right shoulder against the corner of his door at the time and when he raised the whistle to his lips Hale drew and covered him before he could make another move would back slowly into his saloon to get behind his counter Hale saw his purpose and he closed in at great risk as he always did to avoid bloodshed and there was a struggle Jack managed to get his pistol out but Hale caught him by the wrist and helped the weapon away so that it was harmless as far as he was concerned but a crowd was gathering at the door toward which the saloon keeper's pistol was pointed and he feared that somebody out there might be shot so he called out dropped that pistol the order was not obeyed Hale high above Jack's head and drops the butt of his weapon on Jack's skull hard Jack's head dropped back between his shoulders his eyes closed and his pistol clicked on the floor Hale knew how serious a thing a blow was in that part of the world and what excitement it would create and it was uneasy at Jack's trial for fear that the saloon keeper's friends would take the matter up but they didn't and to the surprise of everybody Jack quietly paid his fine and thereafter the guard had little active trouble from the town itself for it was quite plain there at least that the guard meant business across Black Mountain old Dave Tolliver and old Buck Fellon had got well of their wounds by this time and though each swore to avenge against the other as soon as he was able to handle Winchester both factions seemed waiting for their time to come moreover the felons because of a room that bad roof Tolliver might come back and because of Devil Jack's anger at their attempt to capture young Dave grew wary and rather pacificatory and so beyond a little quarrelling a little threatening and the exchange of a harmless shot or two sometimes in banter, sometimes in earnest nothing had been done sternly however though the felons did not know the fact Devil Jack continued to hold the loof in spite of the pleadings of young Dave and so confident was the old man in the balance of power that lay with him that he sent June word that he was coming to take her home and in truth with Hale going away again on a business trip and Bob too gone back home to the bluegrass and school closed the little girl was glad to go and she waited for her father's coming eagerly Miss Anne was still there to be sure and if she too had gone June would have been more content the quiet smile of that astute young woman had told Hale plainly and somewhat to his embarrassment that she knew something had happened between the two but that smile she never gave to June indeed she never encountered odd elves in the same silent searching gaze from the strangely mature little creature's eyes and when those eyes met the teachers always June's hand would wander unconsciously to the little cross at her throat as though to invoke its aid against anything that could come between her and its giver purple rudder dendrons on beer rock had come and gone and the pink-flegged laurels were in bloom when June fed forth one sunny morning of her own birth month behind old Judd Tolliver back up through the wild gap they rode in silence past beer rock out of the chasm and up the little valley toward the trail of the Lonesome Pine into which the father's old sorrel nag with a switch of her sunburned tail turned leftward June leaned forward a little and there was the crest of the big tree motionless in the blue high above and sheltered by one big white cloud it was the first time she had seen the pine since she had first left it and little trembling went through her from her bare feet to her bonneted head thus was she unclad for Hale had told her that to avoid criticism she must go home clothed just as she was when she left Lonesome Cove she did not quite understand that and she carried her new clothes in a bundle in her lap but she took Hale's word unquestioned and so she wore her crimson homespun and her bonnet with her bronze gold hair gathered under it in the same old psyche knot she must wear her shoes, she told Hale until she got out of town else someone might see her but Hale had said she would be leaving too early for that and so she had gone from the gap as she had come into it with unmittened hands and bare feet the soft wind was very good to those dangling feet and she itched to have them on the green grass or in the cool waters through which the old horse splashed yes, she was going home again the same June as far as the mountain eyes could see though she had grown perceptibly and her little face had blossomed from her heart almost into her womens but she knew that while her clothes were the same they covered quite another girl time winged slowly for the young and when the sensations are many and the experiences are new slowly even for all and thus there was a double reason why it seemed an age to June since her eyes at last rested on the big pine here was the place where Hale had put his big black horse into a dead run and as vivid a thrill of it came back to her now as had been the thrill of the race then they began to climb laboriously up the rocky creek the water seeing a joyous welcome to her along the path ferns and flowers nodding to her from dead leaves and rich mould and peeping at her from crevices between the rocks on the creek banks as high up as the level of her eyes up under bending branches full leafed with a warm sunshine darting down through them upon her as she passed and making a playfellow of her sunny hair here was the place where she had got angry with Hale had slid from his horse and stormed with tears what a little fool she had been when Hale had meant only to be kind he was never anything but kind, Jack was dear, dear Jack that wouldn't happen no more, she thought a straight way, she corrected that thought it won't happen any more, she said aloud what did you say June the old man lifted his bushy beard from his chest and turned his head nothing there, she said and all Judd himself in a deep study dropped back into it again how often she had said that to herself that it would happen no more she had stopped saying it to Hale because he laughed and forgave her and seemed to love her mood whether she cried from joy or anger and yet she kept on doing both just the same several times devil Judd stopped to let his horse rest and each time of course the wooded slopes of the mountains stretched downwards in longer sweeps of summer green and across the widening valley the tops of the mountains beyond dropped nearer to the straight level of her eyes while beyond them faster blue bulks became visible and ran on and on as they always seemed to the farthest limits of the world even out there Hale had told her she would go someday the last curving upsweep came finally and theirs to the big pine majestic, unchanged and murmuring in the wind like the undertone of a far off sea as they passed the base of it she reached out her hand and let the tips of her fingers brush caressingly across its trunk turned quickly for a last look at the sunlit valley and hills of the outer world and then the two passed into a green gloom of shadow and thick leaves that shot her heart in as suddenly as though some human hand had clutched it she was going home to see Bub and Retta and Uncle Billy and Old Hun and a stepmother and Dave and yet she felt vaguely troubled the valley on the other side was in dazzling sunshine she had seen that the sun must still be shining over there it must be shining above her over here for here and there shot a sunbeam message from that outer world down through the leaves and yet it seemed that black night had suddenly fallen about her and helplessly she wondered about it all with her hands gripped tight and her eyes wide but the mood was gone when they emerged at the deadening on the last spur and she saw a lonesome cove and the roof of her little home peacefully asleep in the same sun that shone on the valley over the mountain colour came to her face and her heart beat faster at the foot of the spur the road had been widened and showed signs of heavy hauling there was sore dust in the mouth of the creek and from cold dust the water was black the ring of axes and the shouts of ox drivers came from the mountainside up the creek above her father's cabin three or four houses were being built of fresh boards and there in front of her was a new storm two offends one side of it two horses were hitched and one horse was a side saddle before the door stood the red fox and Uncle Billy the miller who peered at her for a moment through his big spectacles and gave her a wandering shout of welcome that brought her cousin Loretta to the door where she stopped a moment anchored with surprise over her shoulder peered her cousin Dave and June saw his face darken while she looked why honey said the old miller have you really come home again while Loretta simply said my lord and came out and stood with her hands on her hips looking at June why he ain't a bit changed I know she wasn't going to put on her ass like Dave there said she turned on Dave who with a surly shrug wheeled and went back into the store Uncle Billy was going home come down to see us right away now he called back oh huns might not be crazy to get your eyes on you alright Uncle Billy said June early tomorrow the red fox did not open his lips but his pale eyes searched the girl from head to foot get down June settle Loretta and I'll walk up to the house wiki June slid down Devil Judd started the old horse and as the two girls with their arms about each other's wastes followed the wolfish side of the red fox's face lifted in an ironical snow Bub was standing at the gate and when he saw his father riding home alone his wistful eyes filled and his cry of disappointment brought the stepmother to the door was June he cried and June heard him and loosening herself from Loretta she ran round the horse and had Bub in her arms then she looked up into the eyes of her stepmother the old woman's face looked kind so kind that for the first time in her life June did what her father could never get her to do she called her Mammy and then she gave that old woman the surprise of her life she kissed her right away she must see everything and Bub in ecstasy wanted to pilot her around to see the new calf and the new pigs and the new chickens but Dumley June looked to a miracle that had come to pass to the left of the cabin a flower garden the like of which she had seen only in her dreams End of chapter 16 Chapter 17 of the Trail of the Lonesome Pine This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Mike Vendetti, MikeVendetti.com The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox Jr. Chapter 17 Twice her lips opened soundlessly and dazed She could only point Dumley the old stepmother laughed Hale done that He pestered your path to let him in do it for you and anything Jack Hale wants from your path he gets I thought it was plum foolishness but he got things to eat planet fire to and I declare his ride pretty That wonderful garden June started for it on a run There was a broad grass walk down through the middle of it and there were narrow grass walks running sideways just as they did in the gardens which Hale told her he had seen in the outer world The flowers were planted in raised beds and all the ones that she had learned to know and love at the gap were there and many more besides the Holly Hawks Bachelors Buttons and Marigolds she had known all her life the lilacs, touch-me-nots, tulips and narcissists she had learned to know and gardens at the gap two rose bushes were in bloom and there were strange grasses and plants and flowers that Jack would tell her about when he came one side was sent with sunflowers and another side by transplanted laurel and rhododendron shrubs and hidden in the plant and flower-bordered squares with the vegetables that won her stepmother's tolerance of Hale's plant Through and through June walked her dark eyes flashing joylessly here and there when they were not a little dimmed with tears with the redder following her unsympathetic and appreciation wondering that June should be making such a fuss about a lot of flowers but envious with all when she half guessed the reason an impatient bud eager to show her other births and changes and over and over all the while June was whispering to herself my garden, my garden when she came back to the porch after a tour through all that was new war had changed Dave had brought his horse and Loretta's to the gate no he wouldn't come in and rest a spell they must be getting long home he said shortly and old Judd Tolliver insisted that he should stay to dinner and Dave tied the horses to the fence and walked to the porch not lifting his eyes to June straight away the girl went into the house to help her stepmother with dinner but the old woman told her she rancun she didn't start yet adding in a quarrel of stones you know so well I've been mighty poorly and there'll be a mighty lot for you to do now so with this direful prophecy in her ears the girl hesitated the old woman looked at her closely he ain't a bit changed she said they were the words Loretta had used and in the voice of each was the same strange tone of disappointment June wondered were they sorry she had not come back putting on airs and fussed up with ribbons and feathers that they might hear her picked to pieces and perhaps do some of the picking themselves not Loretta surely but the old stepmother June left the kitchen and sat down just inside the door the red fox and two other men had sauntered up from the store and all were listening to his quavering chat I see division last night and there's trouble coming in these mountains the Lord told me so straight from the clouds these railroads and coal miners is it going out to raise taxes so that a poor man will have to sell his hogs and his corn to pay him and have nothing left but have to keep him from starving to death then police fellers over there the gap is a stern up strife and a running things over there as though the earth was made for them and the citizens ain't going to stand for it and this war's a coming and on there'll be shooting and killing over there and over here in a moment in a vision last night as sure as I'm sitting here old judge grunted shifted his huge shoulders parted his mustache and beard with two fingers and sped through him well I reckon you didn't see no devilment red that you won't take a hand in if it comes the other men laughed but the red fox looked meek and lowly I'm a servant of the Lord he says do this is it the best I know how I goes about preaching the word in a wilderness and a healin' the sick with soothin' arms and such makin' compact with a devil said old judge shortly when the eye of man is a lookin' the other way the left side of the red fox's face twitched in the faintest shadow of a snarl but shaking his head he kept still well said Sam Barth long and sandy I don't care what them fellas do on the other side of the mountain but what air they gonna come on over here for old judge spoke again give you a job if you wasn't too darn lazy to work and said the other man who was dark swarthy and whose black eyebrows met across the bridge of his nose and damned the hail who's tearing up hellfire here in the cove the old man lifted his eyes young Dave's face for a sudden malignant sympathy which made June clench her hands little more tightly what about him you must have been over to the gap lately like Dave there did you get bored in the cattle booths it was a random thrust but it was accurate and went home and there was silence for a while presently old Judd went on taxes ain't gonna be raised and if they are folks will be better able to pay him then police fellas at the gap don't bother nobody if he behaves himself this war will start when it does start and as for hail he's a square and a clever fellow as I've ever seen his word is just as good as his bond I'm a going to sell him this land it'll be his and he can do what he wants to do with it I'm his friend and I'm going to stay his friend as long as he goes on as he's going now and I'm not going to see him bothered as long as he tends to his own business the words fell slowly and the weight of them rested heavily on all except on June her fingers loosened and she smiled the red fox rose shaking his head all right Judd Toliver he said warningly come in and get something to eat Red I said I'll be getting along and he went still shaking his head the tables was covered with an oil cloth spotted with drippings from a candle plates and cups were thick and the spoons were of pewter the bread was soggy and the bacon was thick and floating in grease the men ate and the women served as in ancient days they gobbled their food like wolves and when they drank their coffee the noise they made was painful to June's ears there were no napkins and when her father pushed his chair back of his sleeve and Loretta and the stepmother they too ate with their knives and used their fingers for June quivered with a vague newborn disgust ah had she not changed in ways they could not see June helped clear-way the dishes the old woman did not object to that listening to the gossip of the mountains courtship's marriage's birth death the growing hostility and the feud the random killing of this manner that hails doings in lonesome cove he's coming over here again next Saturday said the old woman is he? said Loretta in a way that made June turn sharply from her dishes toward her she knew Hale was not coming but she said nothing the old woman was lighting her pipe yeah she better be over here in your best bib and tucker I said Loretta but June saw two bright spots come into her pretty cheeks and she turned inwardly the old woman was looking at her there's life here Monica why June that so said Loretta looking at her too June still silent turned back to her dishes they were beginning to take notice after all for the girl hardly knew that she had not opened her lips once only Dave spoke to her and that was when Loretta said she must go June was out in the porch looking at the already beloved garden and hearing his step she turned he looked her steadily in the eyes she saw his gaze drop to the fairy stone at her throat and a faint sneer appeared at his set mouth the sneer for June's folly and what he thought was upishness in the burners like Hale oh and good enough for him just a year here he said slowly he's got to make he all over again so you'll be fitting for him he turned away without looking to see how deep his barbed shaft went and startled June flushed to her hair in a few minutes they were gone Dave without the exchange of another word with June and Loretta with a parting cry that she would come back on Saturday the old man went to the cornfield high above the cabin the old woman groaning with pains real and fancy laid down on a creaking bed and June with Dave's wound rankling went out with Bub to see the new doings in Lonesome Cove the keys cackled before her the hogfish darted like submarine arrows from rock to rock and the willows bent in the same wistful way toward their shadows in the little stream but its crystal depth were there no longer floating sawdust whirled in eddies on the surface and the water was black as soot here and there the white belly of a fish lay upturned to the sun for the cruel deadly work of civilization had already begun further up the creek was a buzzing monster that creaking and starting with a flashing disc rimmed with sharp teeth fighting a savage way through a log that screened with pain as the brutal thing tore through its vitals and gave up its life each time with a ghostlike cry of agony further on little houses were being built of fresh boards and further on the water of the creek got blacker still june suddenly clutched bud's arms two demons had appeared on a pile of fresh dirt above in sooty the grime with black faces black hands and in the cap of each was a smoking little lamp huh? then bub taint nothing hello bill called bravely hello bub answered one of the two demons and both stared at the lovely little apparition who was staring with such naive horror at them it was all very wonderful though and it was all happening in lonesome co but jack hail was doing it all and therefore it was all right thought june no matter what dave said moreover the ugly spot on the great beautiful breast of the mother was such a little one after all and june had no idea how it must spread above the opening for the mines the creek was crystal clear as ever the great hills were the same and the clouds and the cabin and the fields of corn nothing could happen to them but if even they were wiped out by hail's hand she would have made no complaint a wood thresh splitted from a ravine as she and bub went back down the creek and she stopped with uplifted face to listen all her life she had loved its song and this was the first time she had heard it in lonesome co since she had learned its name from hail she had never heard it thereafter without thinking of him and she thought of him now while it was breathing out the very spirit of the hills and she drew a long sigh for already she was lonely and hungering for him the song ceased and a long waving cry came from the cabin choo cow choo ki choo ki old mother was calling the cows it was near milking time and big uneasiness she hurried bub home she saw her father coming down from the cornfield she saw the two cows come from the woods into the path that led to the barn switching their tails and snatching mouth-bulls from the bushes as they swung down the hill and when she reached the gate her step-mother was standing on the porch with one hand on her hip and the other shading her eyes from the sliding sun waiting for her already kindness and consideration were gone worry been June, hurry up now you've been long restin spell while I've been a working myself to death it was the old tone and the old fierce rebellion rose within June but Hale had told her to be patient she could not check the flash from her eyes but she shut her lips tight on the answer that sprang to them and without a word she went to the kitchen for the milking pails the cows had forgotten her they eyed her with suspicion and were the first one kicked at her when she put her beautiful head against its soft flank her muscles had been in disuse and her hands were cramped and her forearms ached before she was through but she kept doggily at her task then she finished her father had fed the horses and was standing behind her there's mighty good to have you back again little gal it was not often that he smiled or showed tenderness much less spoke it thus openly and June was doubly glad that she had held her tongue then she helped her stepmother get supper the fire scorched her face that had grown unaccustomed to such heat and she burned one hand but she did not let her stepmother see even that again she noticed with a version the heavy thick dishes and the pewter spoons and the candle grease on the oil cloth she put the dishes down and while the old woman was out of the room attacked the house viciously again she saw her father and bub ravagingly gobbling their course food while she and her stepmother served and waited and she began to wonder the woman sat at the table with the man over in the gap why not here then her father went silently to his pipe and bub drew playing with the kitten at the kitchen door while she and her mother ate with never word something began to stifle her but she choked it down there were the dishes to be cleared away and washed in the pans and kettles to be cleaned her back ached her arms were tired to the shoulders and her burned hand quivered with pain when all was done the old woman had let her do to the last few things alone and had gone to her pipe both she and her father were sitting in silence on the porch when June went out there neither spoke to each other nor to her it seemed to be part of the awful stillness that engulfed the world bub fell asleep in the soft air and June sat and sat and sat that was all except for the stars that came out over the mountains and were slowly being sprayed over the sky and the pipings of frogs from the little creek once the wind came with a sudden sweep up the river and she thought she could hear the creek of Uncle Billy's water-wield not so much because it was a relief and because she loved the old miller but such is the power of association because she now loved the mill more, loved it because the mill over at the gap had made her think more of the mill at the mouth of Blonesome Cove a tapping vibrated through the railing on the porch on which her cheek lay her father was knocking the ashes from its pipe a similar tapping sounded inside at the fireplace the old woman had gone bub was in bed and she had heard neither move the old man rose with a yawn time to lay down June the girl rose they all slept in one room she did not dare to put on her nightgown her mother would see it in the morning so she slept off her dress as she had done all her life and crawled into bed with bub who laid in the middle of it and who grunted peevishly when she pushed him with some difficulty over to his side there were no sheets not even one and of course blankets which had a close accurate odor that she had never noticed before seemed almost a scratcher flesh she had hardly been to bed that early since she had left home and she's lay sleepless watching the firelight play hide and seek with the shadows among the aged smoky raptors and flicker over the strings of dried things that hung from the ceiling in the other corner her father hardly bub beside her was an ennourished slumber that would not come to her that night tired and aching as she was so quietly by and by she slipped out of bed and out the door to the porch the moon was rising the radiant sheen of it had dropped down over the mountainside like a golden veil and was lighting up the white rising mist that trailed the curves of the river it sank below the still crest of the pines beyond the garden and dropped on until it illuminated one by one the dewy head to the flowers she rose and walked down the grassy path in her bare feet through the silent fragrant embalms of the planter's thought of her touching this flower and that with the tips of her fingers and when she went back she bent to kiss one lovely rose and as she lifted her head with the start of fear the dew from her eyes made her red mouth as flower-like and no less beautiful a yell had shattered the quiet of the world not the high fox-hunting yell of the mountains but something new and strange up the creek where strange lights a loud laugh shattered to the succeeding stillness a laugh she had never heard before in lonesome cold swiftly she ran back to the porch surely strange things were happening there a strange spirit pervaded cold in the very air throbbed with premonitions what was the matter with everything what was the matter with her she knew that she was lonely and that she wanted hail but what else was it she shivered and not alone from the chill night air and puzzled and wondering and stricken at heart she crept back to bed End of Chapter 17 Chapter 18 of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Storm The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox Jr. Chapter 18 Pausing at the pine to let his big black horse blow a while hail mounted and rode slowly down the green and gold gloom of the ravine In his pocket was a quaint little letter from June to John Hale thanking him for the beautiful garden saying she was lonely and wanting him to come soon From the low flank of the mountain he stopped looking down on the cabin in Lonesome Cove It was a dreaming summer day trees, air, blue sky and white cloud were all in a dream and even the smoke lazing from the chimney seemed drifting away like the spirit of something human that cared little whether it might be born Something crimson emerged from the door and stopped an indecision on the steps of the porch It moved again, stopped at the corner of the house and then moving on with a purpose stopped once more and began to flicker slowly to and fro like a flame June was working in her garden Hale thought he would collume to her and then he decided to surprise her and he went on down hitched his horse and stole up to the garden fence On the way he pulled up a bunch of weeds by the roots and with them in his arms he noiselessly climbed the fence June neither heard nor saw him Her underlip was clenched tight between her teeth The little cross swung violently at her throat and she was so savagely wielding the light hoe he had given her that he thought she must be killing a snake but she was only fighting to death every weed that dared to show its head Her feet and her head were bare her face was moist and flushed and her hair was a tumbled heap of what was to him the rarest gold under the sun The wind was still the leaves were heavy with the richness of full growth bees were busy about June's head and not another soul was in sight Good morning little girl He called cheerily The hoe was arrested at the height of a vicious stroke and the little girl whirled without a cry but the blood from her pumping heart crimson her face and made her eyes shine with gladness her eyes went to her feet and her hands to her hair You oughtn't slip up and startle a lady that way she said with grave rebuke and hill looked humbled Now you just sit there and wait till I come back No, no, I want you to stay just as you are Honest? Hill gravely crossed heart and body and June gave out a happy little laugh for he had caught that gesture the favoured one from her Then suddenly How long? She was thinking of what Dave said but the subtle twist in her meaning passed hill by He raised his eyes to the sun and June shook her head and came over toward him What are you doing with them, those weeds? Going to plant them in our garden Hill had got a theory from a garden book that a humble burdock, pigweed and other lowly plants were good for ornamental effect and he wanted to experiment but June gave a shrill whoop and fell to scornful laughter Then she snatched the weeds from him and threw them over the fence Why, June? Not in my garden Those weeds, they kill cows and she went off again I reckon you better consult me about weeds next time I don't know much about flowers but I've known all my life about weeds She laid so much emphasis on the word that Hill wondered for the moment if her words had a deeper meaning but she went on Every spring I have to watch the cows for two weeks to keep them from eating those weeds Her self corrections were always made gravely now and Hill consciously ignored them except when he had something to tell her that she ought to know Everything it seemed she wanted to know Do they really kill cows? June snapped her fingers like that But you just come on here she added with pretty imperiousness I want to ask ask you some things What's that? Scarlet sage repeated June And that? Nosturtium And that's Oriental grass Nosturtium Oriental And what's that vine? That comes from North Africa They call it metramonial vine What for? Asked June quickly Because it clings so Hill smiled But June saw none of his humour She pointed to a bunch of tall tropical looking plants with great spreading leaves and big green white stalks They are called palmychristi What? That's Latin, it means hands of Christ said Hill with reverence You see how the leaves are spread out? Don't they look like hands? Not much said June frankly What's Latin? Oh that's a dead language It was a long time ago What the fucks use it nowadays for? Why don't they just say Hands of Christ I don't know He said helplessly But maybe you'll study Latin some of these days June shook her head Getting your language It's a big enough job for me She said with such quaint seriousness that Hill couldn't laugh She looked up suddenly You've been a long time Getting over here Yes, and now you want to send me home before sundown I'm afraid for you Have you got a gun? Hill tapped his breast pocket Always, what are you afraid of? The felons She clenched her hands I'd like to see one of them Felons touchy She added fiercely And then she gave a quick look at the sun I've got to go now, Jack I'm afraid for you Where's your horse? Hill waved his hand Down there All right little girl He said I ought to go anyway And to humour her He started for the gate There he bent to kiss her But she drew back I'm afraid of Dave She said Then her eyes swam suddenly It'll most kill me But I reckon you better not come over here much Hill made light of it all Nonsense, I'm coming just as often as I can June smiled then All right, I'll watch out for you He went down the path Her eyes following him And when he looked back from the spur He saw her sitting in the porch And watching that she might wave him farewell Hill could not go over to Lonesome Cove much that summer For he was away from the mountains a good part of the time And it was a very wrecking summer for June when he was not there The stepmother was a stern task mistress And the girl worked hard But no night passed that she did not spend an hour or more on her books And by degrees she bribed and stormed Bob into learning his ABCs And digging at the blueback spelling book But all through the day there were times when she could play with the boy in the garden And every afternoon when it was not raining She would slip away to a little ravine behind the cabin Where a lock had fallen across a little brook And there in the cool, sun-pierced shadows She would study, read and dream With the water bubbling underneath And wood thrushes singing overhead For Hill kept her well supplied with books He had given her children's books at first But she outgrew them when the first love story fell into her hands And then he gave her novels, good old ones And the best of the new ones And they were to her what water is to a thing at first But the happy days were when Hill was there She had a thousand questions for him to answer Whenever he came about birds, trees and flowers And the things she read in her books The words she could not understand in them she marked So that she could ask their meaning And it was amazing how her vocabulary increased Moreover, she was always trying to use the new words she learned And her speech was thus a quaint mixture of vernacular Self-corrections and unexpected words Happening once to have a volume of keys in his pocket He read some of it to her And while she could not understand The music of the lines fascinated her And she had him leave that with her too She never tired hearing him tell Of the places where he had been And the people he knew And the music and plays he had heard and seen And when he told her that she too Should see all those wonderful things some day Her deep eyes took fire And she dropped her head far back between her shoulders And looked long at the stars A little more wonderful her than the world of which she told But each time he was there She grew noticeably shy with him And never once was the love theme between them Taken up in open words Hale was reluctant if only because She was still such a child And if he took her hand Or put his own on her wonderful head Or his arm around her As they stood in the garden under the stars He did it as to a child Though the leap in her eyes and the quickening of his own heart Told him the lie that he was acting rightly to her And to himself And no more now were there any breaking downs within her There was only a calm faith that staggered him And gave him an ever mounting sense Of his responsibility for whatever might Through the part he had taken in molding her life Be in store for her When he was not there Life grew a little easier for her in time Because of her dreams The patience that was built from them And Hale's kindly words The comfort of her garden in her books And the blessed force of habit For as time went on She got consciously used to the rough life The coarse food and the rude ways Of her own people and her own home And though she relaxed not a bit In her own dainty cleanliness The shrinking that she felt when she first arrived home Came to her at longer and longer intervals Once a week she went down to Uncle Billy's Where she watched the water wheel Dripping sun jewels into the sluice The king fished darting like a blue bolt upon his prey And listening to the lullaby That the water played to the sleepy old mill And stopping both ways To gossip with old hun in her porch Under the honeysuckle vines Uncle Billy saw the change in her And he grew vaguely uneasy about her She dreamt so much She was at times so restless She asked so many questions he could not answer And she failed to ask so many that were on the tip of her tongue He saw that while her body was at home Her thoughts rarely were And it all haunted him with a vague sense That he was losing her That old hun laughed at him And told him he was an old fool And to get another pair of specs Maybe he could see that the little girl was in love This started Uncle Billy For he was so like a father to June That he was as slow as a father In recognizing that his child had grown to such absurd maturity But looking back to the beginning How the little girl had talked of the furner Who had come into Lonesome Cove All during the six months he was gone How gladly she had gone away to the gap to school How anxious he was to go still farther away again And remembering all the strange questions She asked him about things in the outside world Of which he knew nothing Uncle Billy shook his head in confirmation Of his own conclusion And with all his soul he wondered about Hale What kind of man he was And what his purpose was with June And of every man who passed his mill He never failed to ask if he knew that a man Hale And what he knew All he had heard had been in Hale's favor Except from young Dave Tolliver The Red Fox Or from any felon of the crowd Which Hale had prevented from capturing Dave Their statements bothered him Especially the Red Fox's evil hints and insinuations About Hale's purposes one day at the mill The miller thought of them all the afternoon And all the way home And when he sat down at his fire His eyes very naturally and simply rose To his old rifle over the door And then he laughed to himself so loudly That old hun heard him Are you going crazy Billy? She asked What you studying about? Nothing I was just a thinkin' Devil Judd wouldn't leave a grease pot of him Your air going crazy? Who's him? Er, nobody, said Uncle Billy An old hun turned with her shrug off her shoulders She was tired of all this talk about the feud All that summer Young Dave Tolliver hung around lonesome cove He would sit for hours in Devil Judd's cabin Rarely saying anything to June or to anybody Though the girl felt that she hardly made a move That he did not see And while he disappeared when Hale came After a surly grunt of acknowledgement To Hale's cheerful greeting His perpetual espionage began to anger June Never, however, did he put himself into words Until Hale's last visit When the summer had waned And it was nearly time for June to go away again to school As usual, Dave had left the house when Hale came And an hour after Hale was gone She went to the little ravine with the book in her hand And there the boy was sitting on her log His elbows dug into his legs midway between thigh and knee His chin in his hands His slouched head over his black eyes Every line of him picturing angry, sullen dejection She would have slipped away, but he heard her And lifted his head and stared at her without speaking Then he slowly got off the log And sat down on a moss-covered stone Excuse me, he said, with elaborate sarcasm This being your schoolhouse over here And me not being a scholar I reckon I'm in your way How do you happen to know it's my schoolhouse? Asked June quietly I've seen you here Just as I supposed You and him Just as I supposed, she repeated And a spot of red came into each cheek But we didn't see you Young Dave laughed Well, everybody don't always see me when I'm seeing them No, she said unsteadily So, you've been sneaking around through the woods Aspying on me Sneaking and spying She repeated so searingly That Dave looked at the ground suddenly Picked up a pebble confusedly And shot it in the water I had a mighty good reason, he said doggedly If he'd been up to some of his fern tricks June stamped the ground Don't you think I can take care of myself? No, I don't I never see a girl that could With one of them ferners Ha! she said scornfully You seem to set a mighty big store By the decency of your own kin Dave was silent He aimed up to no tricks And what do you reckon Dave'd be doing While you was protecting me? Are you going away to school? He asked, suddenly June hesitated Well, seeing as it's none of your business I am Are you going to marry him? He ain't asked me The boy's face turned red as a flame You're honest with me And now I'm going to be honest with you You ain't never going to marry him Maybe you think I'm going to marry you? A mist of rage swept before the lad's eyes So that he could hardly see But he repeated steadily You ain't going to marry him June looked at the boy long and steadily But his black eyes never wavered She knew what he meant And he kept the felons from killing you She said, quivering with indignation At the shame of him But Dave went on unheeding You pole little fool Do you reckon as how he's ever going To ask you to marry him? What's he sending you away for? Because you ain't good enough for him What's your pride? You ain't good enough for him He repeated scathingly June had grown calm now I know it She said quietly But I'm going to try to be Dave rose then in impotent fury And pointed one finger at her His black eyes cleaned like a demon's And his voice was hoarse with resolution and rage But it was Tolliver against Tolliver now And June answered him with contemptuous fearlessness You ain't never going to marry him And he kept the felons from killing you Yes, he retorted savagely at last Then I kept the felons from killing him And he stalked away Leaving June blanched and wondering It was true Only an hour before As Hale turned up the mountain that very afternoon At the mouth of Lonesome Cove Young Dave had called to him from the bushes And stepped into the road You are going to court Monday, he said Yes, said Hale Well, you better take another road this time He said quietly Three of the felons will be waiting Somewhere on the road to Lei Wei Yi Hale was dumbfounded But he knew the boy spoke the truth Look here, he said impulsively I've got nothing against you And I hope you've got nothing against me I'm much obliged, let's shake hands The boy turned sullenly away With the dogged shake of his head I was beholden to you, he said with dignity And I warned you about the felons to get even with you We quits now Hale started to speak to say that the lad was not beholden to him That he would as quickly have protected a felon But it would have only made matters worse Moreover, he knew precisely what Dave had against him And that, too, was no matter for discussion So he said simply and sincerely I'm sorry, we can't be friends No, Dave gridded out Not this side of heaven or hell End of Chapter 18