 Chapter 10 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 Brian Keith Barnes. The Trail of the Lonesome Pine by John Fox. Chapter 10 Hale opens his eyes next morning on the little old woman in black, moving ghost-like through the dim interior to the kitchen. A woodthrush was singing when he stepped out on the porch and its cool notes had the liquid freshness of the morning. Breakfast over, he concluded to leave the yellow mule with the red fox to be taken back to the county town and to walk down the mountain. But before he got away, the landlord's son turned up with his own horse, still lame, but well enough to limp along without doing himself harm. So, leading the black horse, Hale started down. The sun was rising over still seas of white mist and wave after wave of blue Virginia hills. In the shadows below, it smote the mists into tatters. Leaf and bush glittered as though after a heavy rain. And down Hale went under a trembling dude-drenched world and along a tumbling series of waterfalls that flashed through tall ferns, blossoming laurel and shining leaves of rhododendron. Once, he heard something move below him and then the crackling of brush sounded far to one side of the road. He knew it was a man who would be watching him from a covert and straightway to prove his innocence of any hostile or secret purpose. He began to whistle. Further below, two men with Winchester's rose from the bushes and asked his name in his business. He told both readily. Everybody, it seemed, was prepared for hostilities and though the news of the patched-up peace had spread, it was plain that the factions were still suspicious and on guard. Then the loneliness almost of Lonesome Cove itself set in. For miles he saw nothing alive but an occasional bird and heard no sound but of running water or rustling leaf. At the mouth of the creek his horse's lameness had grown so much better that he mounted him and rode slowly up the river. Within an hour he could see the still crest of the Lonesome Pine. At the mouth of a creek a mile further on was an old gristmill with its waterwheel asleep. And whittling at the door outside was the old miller, Uncle Billy Beams, when he heard the coming of the black horse's feet, looked up and showed no surprise at all when he saw Hale. I heard you was coming. He shouted, hailing him cheerily by name. I ain't fishing this time. No, said Hale. Not this time. Well, get down and rest a spill. June will be here in a minute and you can ride back with her. I reckon you're going that away. June? Sure. My, but she'll be glad to see you. She's always talking about you. You told her you was coming back and everybody told her you wasn't. But that little gal always said she knowed you was because you said you was. She's grown some. And if she ain't pretty, well, I'd tell a man, you just tie your horse up there behind the mill so she can't see it and get inside the mill when she comes around that bend. My, but it'll be a surprise for her. The old man chuckled so cheerily that Hale to humor him, hitched his horse to a sapling, came back and sat in the door of the mill. The old man knew all about the trouble in town the day before. I want to give you a little advice. Keep your mouth plum shut about this year war. I'm just to say the piece, but that's the only way I've kept out in it for 30 years. And it's the only way you can keep out in it. Thank you. I mean to keep my mouth shut, but would you mind? Get in. Interrupted the old man eagerly. Yeah, she comes. His kind old face creased into a welcoming smile and between the logs of the mill Hale inside could see an old sorrel horse slowly coming through the lights and shadows down the road. On his back was a sack of corn and perched on the sack was a little girl with her bare feet in the hollows behind the old nags withers. She was looking sideways quite hidden by scarlet poke bonnet. And at the old man's shout, she turned the smiling face of little June. With an answering cry, she struck the old nag with a switch and before the old man could rise to help her down slipped lightly to the ground. Why honey, he said. I don't know what I'm going to do your corn. She asked broken I can't do no grind until tomorrow. Well, Uncle Billy, we ain't got a pie to meal in the house, she said. You just got to lend me some. All right, honey, said the old man and he cleared his throat a signal for Hale. The little girl was pushing her bonnet back when Hale stepped into sight and unstartled, unsmiling, unspeaking. She looked steadily at him. One hand motionless for a moment on her bronze heap of hair and then slipping down past her cheek to clench the other tightly. Uncle Billy was bewildered. Why, June, it's Mr. Hale. Howdy, June, said Hale, who was no less puzzled. And still she gave no sign that she had ever seen him before except reluctantly to give him her hand. Then she turned sullenly away and sat down in the door of the mill with her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands. Dumbfounded, the old miller pulled the sack of corn from the horse and leaned it against the mill. Then he took out his pipe, filled and lighted it slowly and turned his perplexed eyes to the sun. Well, honey, he said as though he were doing the best he could with a difficult situation. I'll have to get you that meal at the house. About dinner time now, you and Mr. Hale are there. Come on and get something to eat before you go back. I got to get on back home, said June, rising. No, you ain't. I bet you got dinner for your step-mami before you left. And I just know you was aiming to take a snack with me and old Hunt. The little girl hesitated. She had no denial and the old fellow smiled kindly. Come on now. Little June walked on the other side of the miller from Hale, back to the old man's cabin, 200 yards up the road, answering his questions but not Hale's and never meeting the latter's eyes with her own. Old Hunt, the portly old woman whom Hale remembered with brass rimmed spectacles and a clay pipe in her mouth, came out on the porch and welcomed them hardly under the honeysuckle vines. Her mouth and face were live with humor when she saw Hale and her eyes took in both him and the little girl keenly. The miller and Hale leaned chairs against the wall while the girl sat at the entrance of the porch. Suddenly, Hale went out to his horse and took out a package from his saddle pockets. I've got some candy in here for you, he said, smiling. I don't want no candy. She said, still not looking at him and with a little movement of her knees away from him. My honey, said Uncle Billy again, what is the matter with you? I thought you was great friends. The little girl rose hastily. No, we ain't another, she said and she whisked herself indoors. Hale put the package back with some embarrassment and the old miller laughed. Well, well, she's our quarrel little critter. Maybe she's mad because you stayed away so long. At the table, June wanted to help Old Hunt to eat with her, but Uncle Billy made her sit down with him and Hale and so shy was she that she hardly ate anything. Only once did she look up from her plate and that was when Uncle Billy, with a shake of his head, said, he's a bad man. He was speaking of Roof Tolliber and at the mention of his name there was a frightened look in the little girl's eyes when she quickly raised them that made Hale wonder. An hour later they were riding side by side, Hale and June on through the lights and shadows toward Lonesome Cove. Uncle Billy turned back from the gate to the porch. He ain't come back yet just for coal, said Old Hunt. Shucks, said Uncle Billy. You women folks can't think about nothing except one thing. He's too old for her. She'll get old enough for him and you men folks don't think less. You just talk less. And she went back into the kitchen and on the porch the old miller puffed on a new idea in his pipe. For a few moments the two rode in silence and not yet had June lifted her eyes to him. You've forgotten me, June. No, I ain't another. You said you'd be waiting for me. June's lashes went lower still. I was. Well, what's the matter? I'm mighty sorry I couldn't get back sooner. Said June scornfully and he knew Uncle Billy and his gas as to the trouble was far afield. So he tried another tack. I've been over the county seat and I saw lots of your camp folks over there. She showed no curiosity, no surprise and still she did not look up at him. I met your cousin Loretta over there and I carried her home behind me on an old mule. Hale paused, smiling at the remembrance and still she betrayed no interest. He's a mighty pretty girl and whenever I'd hit that old shank the words were so shrieked out that Hale was bewildered and then he guessed that the falling out between the fathers was more serious than he had supposed. But she isn't as nice as you are. He added quickly and the girl's quivering mouth steadied. The tears stopped in her vexed dark eyes and she lifted them to him at last. She ain't. No indeed, she ain't. For a while they rode along again in silence. June no longer avoided his eyes now and the unspoken question in her own presently came out. You won't let Uncle Roof bother me no more will you? No indeed I won't. Said Hale heartily. What does he do to you? Nothing. Said he's always a tease of me and I'm a fear to him. Well, I'll take care of Uncle Roof. I know you'd say that. She said Pap and Dave always laugh at me and she shook her head as though she were already threatening her bad uncle with what Hale would do to him and she was so serious and trustful that Hale was curiously touched. By and by he lifted one flap of his saddle pockets again. I've got some candy here for a nice little girl, he said, as though the subject had not been mentioned before. It's for you. Won't you have some? I reckon I will, she said with a happy smile. Hale watched her while she munched a striped stick of peppermint. Her crimson bonnet had fallen from her sunlit hair and straight down from it to her bare little foot with its stubbed toe just darkening with dried blood. A sculptor would have loved the rounded slenderness in the curving long lines that shaped her brown throat, her arms and her hands which were prettily shaped but so very dirty as to the nails and her dangling bare leg. Her teeth were even and white and most of them flashed when her red lips smiled. Her lashes were long and gave a touching softness to her eyes even when she was looking quiet at him. But there were times as he had noticed already when a brooding look stole over them and then they were the lair for the mysterious loneliness that was the very spirit of Lonesome Cove. Some day that little nose would be long enough and some day he thought she would be very beautiful. Your cousin Loretta, she was coming over to see you. June's teeth snapped viciously through the stick of candy and then she turned on him but behind the long lashes and deep down in the depth of those wonderful eyes he saw an ageless something that bewildered him more than her words. I hate her, she said fiercely. Why, little girl, he said gently. I don't know, she said. And then the tears came and earnest and she turned her head sobbing. Hale helplessly reached over and patted her on the shoulder but she shrank away from him. Go away, she said, digging her fist into her eyes until her face was calm again. They had reached the spot on the river where he had seen her first and beyond the smoke of the cabin was rising above the undergrowth. Loretta, she said, but I do get Lonesome over here. Wouldn't you like to go over to the gap with me sometimes? Straight away her face was a ray of sunlight. Would I like to go over? She stopped suddenly and pulled in her horse but Hale had heard nothing. Hello! shouted a voice from the bushes and devil Judd Tolliver issued from them with an ax on his shoulder. I hear you'd come back and I'm glad to see you. He came down to the road and shook Hale's hand heartily. What you been crying about? He added, turning his hawk-like eyes on the little girl. Nothing, she said, Selene. Did she get mad with you about something? Said the old man to Hale. She never cries that when she's mad. Hale laughed. You just hush up, both of you. Said the girl with a sharp kick of her right foot. I reckon you can't stamp the ground that fur away from it. Said the old man dryly. If you don't get the better of that all-fired temporary yarn, it's going to get the better of you. And then I'll have to spank you again. I reckon you ain't going to whip me no more, Pap. I'm getting too big. The old man opened eyes and mouth with an indulgent roar of laughter. Come on up to the house, he said to Hale, turning to lead the way, the little girl following him. The old stepmother was again a bed, a small bub the brother still unafraid. Sat down beside Hale and the old man brought out a bottle of moonshine. I reckon I can trust you, he said. I reckon you can, laughed Hale. The liquor was as fiery as ever, but it was grateful. And again the old man took nearly a tumbler full, plying Hale, meanwhile, about the happenings in town the day before. But Hale could tell him nothing that he seemed to not already to know. It was quarer, the old mountaineer said. I sleep two men with the drap on each other and both are feared to shoot, but I never hear of such a ring around the rosy as eight fellers with beat on one another and not a shoot shot. I'm glad I wasn't there. He frowned when Hale spoke of the Red Fox. You can't never tell whether that old devil is friggy or guinea, but I've been plumb sick of these doings a long time now and sometimes I think I'll just pull up stakes and go west and get out of it all together. How did you learn so much about yesterday so soon? We hear things pretty quick in these mountains. Little Dave Toliver come over here last night. Yes, broken bub, and he told us how you carried Loretty from town on a mule behind you and she just assassin you and it's how she said she was a going to get you for her sweetheart. Hale glanced by chance at the little girl. Her face was scarlet and a light dawned. And sis there said he was a telling lies and when she grow up she was a going to marry something snapped like a toy pistol and bub howl. A little brown hand had whacked him across the mouth and the girl flashed indoors without a word. Bub got to his feet howling with pain and rage and started after her but the old man caught him. Sit down boy, served you right for blabbing things that ain't your business. He shook with laughter. Jealousy, great heavens Hale thought and that child and for him. I know she was crying about something like that. She said to great store by you and she studied them books you sent her plumbed to pieces while you was away. She ain't nothing but a baby but in certain way she's as old as her mother was when she died. The amazing secret was out and the little girl appeared no more until supper time when she had waited on the table but at no time would she look at Hale or speak to him again. For a while the two men sat on the porch talking of the feud and the gap and the coal on the old man's place and Hale had no trouble getting an option for a year on the old man's land just as dusk was setting he got his horse. You better stay all night. No, I'll have to get along. The little girl did not appear to tell him goodbye and when he went to his horse at the gate he called till June to come down here I've got something for her. Come on baby, the old man said and the little girl came shyly down to the gate. Hale took a brown paper parcel from his saddlebags unwrapped it and betrayed the usual blue-eyed flaxen-haired rosy cheeks doll. Only June did not know the like of it was in all the world. As she caught it to her breast there were tears once more in her uplifted eyes. How about going over the gap with me little girl? Someday he never guessed it but there were a child and a woman before him now and both answered how go with ye anywhere? Hale stopped a while to rest his horse at the base of the big pine. He was practically alone in the world. A little girl back there was born for something else than slow death in that God-forsaken cove and whatever it was why not help her to it if he could? With this thought in his brain he rode down from the luminous upper world of the moon and stars toward the nether world of drifting mists and black ravines. She belonged to just such a night that little girl. She was a part of its mists, its lights and shadows, its fresh wild beauty and its mystery. Only once did his mind shift from her to his great purpose and that was when the roar of the water through the rocky chasm of the gap made him think of the roar of iron wheels that rushing through some day would drown it into silence. At the mouth of the gap he saw the white valley lying at peace in the moonlight and straight away from it sprang again as always his castle in the air. But before he fell asleep in his cottage on the edge of the mill pond that night he heard quite plainly again I'll go with you anywhere. CHAPTER XI For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Spring was coming and meanwhile that late autumn and short winter things went merrily on at the gap in some ways and in some ways not. Within eight miles of the place, for instance, the man fell ill the man who was to take up Hale's options and he had to be taken home. Still, Hale was undaunted. Here he was and here he would stay and he would try again. Two other young men, Bluegrass Kentuckians, Logan and McFarlane had settled at the gap both liars and both of pioneer Indian fighting blood. The report of the state geologist had been spread broadcast. A famous magazine writer had come through on horseback and had gone home and given a fervid account of the riches and the beauty of the region. Helmeted Englishmen began to prowl prospectively around the gap sixty miles to the southwest. New surveying parties were directing lines for the rocky gateway between the iron ore and the coal. Engineers and coal experts passed in and out. There were rumors of a furnace and a steel plant when the railroad should reach the place. Capital had flowed in from the east and already a Pennsylvanian was starting a main entry into a ten-foot vein of coal and was coking it. His report was that his own was better than the Connellsville coke, which was the standard. It was higher in carbon and lower in ash. The Ludlow brothers from eastern Virginia had started a general store. Two of the Berkeley brothers had come over from Bluegrass, Kentucky and their family was coming in the spring. The bearded senator up the valley, who was also a preacher, had got his Methodist brethren interested and the community was further enriched by the coming of the honorable Samuel Bud lawyer and budding statesman. As a recreation the honorable Sam was an anthropologist. He knew the mountaineers from Virginia to Alabama and they were his pet illustrations of his pet theories of the effect of a mountain environment on human life and character. Hale took a great fancy to him from the first moment he saw his smooth, ageless kindly face, surmounted by a huge pair of spectacles that were hooked behind two large ears, above which his pale yellow hair parted in the middle was drawn back with plaster-like precision. A mayor in Constable had been appointed and the honorable Sam had just finished his first case. Squire Morton and the widow Crane who ran a boarding-house each having laid claim to three pigs that had obstructed traffic in the town. The honorable Sam was sitting by the stove, deep in thought. When Hale came into the hotel and he lifted his great glaring lenses and waited for no introduction. Brother, he said, Do you know twelve reliable witnesses come on the stand and swore them pigs belonged to the squire or sow and twelve equally reliable witnesses swore them pigs belonged to the widow Crane's sow? I surely was a heap perplexed. That was curious. The honorable Sam laughed. Wilster, them intelligent pigs used both themselves as mothers and maybe they had another mother somewhere else. They would breakfast with the widow Crane's sow and take supper with the squire's sow. And so them witnesses, too, was naturally perplexed. Hale waited while the honorable Sam puffed his pipe into a glow. Believing as I do that the most important principle in law is mutually forgiven and a square division of spoils, I suggested a compromise. The widow said the squire was an old rascal and thief and he'd never sink a tooth into one of them shouts, but that her lawyer was a gentleman meaning me, and the squire said the widow had been blackguarding him all over town and he'd see her in heaven before she got one, but that his lawyer was a prince of the realm. So the other lawyer took one and I got the other. What became of the third? The honorable Sam was an ardent disciple of Sir Walter Scott. Well, just now the mayor is a planned girth to that little run for costs. Outside the wheels of the stage rattled and as half a dozen strangers trooped in, the honorable Sam waved his hand. Things is coming. Things were coming. The following week the booming editor brought in a printing press and started a paper. An enterprising Hoosier soon established a brick plant. A geologist, Hale's predecessor in Lonesome Cove, made the gap his headquarters and one by one the vanguard of engineers, surveyors, speculators, and coalmen drifted in. The wings of progress began to sprout. But the Newtown constable soon tendered his resignation with informality and violence. He had arrested a felon whose companion straight away took him from custody and set him free. Straight away the constable threw his pistol and badge of office to the ground. I fit and I've hollered for help. He shouted, almost crying with rage. And I fit again. Now this town can go to Hale. And he picked up his pistol, but left his symbol of law and order in the dust. Next morning there was a new constable. And only that afternoon when Hale stepped into the Ludlow Brothers store he found the constable already busy. A line of men with revolver or knife in sight was drawn up inside with their backs to Hale. And beyond them he could see the new constable with a man under arrest. Hale had not forgotten his promise to himself, and he began now. Come on he called quietly and when the men turned at the sound of his voice the constable who was of sterner's stuff than his predecessor pushed through them dragging the man after him. Look here boys, said Hale calmly. Let's not have any row. Let him go to the mayor's office. If he isn't guilty the mayor will let him go. If he is the mayor will give him bond. I'll go on it myself. But let's not have a row. Now to the mountain eye Hale appeared no more than the ordinary man. However would have seen no more than that his face was clean-cut and thoughtful that his eye was blue and singularly clear and fearless and that he was calm with the calmness that might come from anything else than stolidity of temperament. And that, by the way is the self-control which counts most against the unruly passions of other men. But anybody near Hale at a time when excitement was high and a crisis was imminent would have felt the result of forces emanating from him that were beyond analysis. And so it was now the curious power he instinctively had over rough men had its way. Go on he continued quietly and the constable went on with his prisoner, his friends following still swearing with their weapons in their hands. When constable and prisoner passed into the mayor's office Hale stepped quickly after them and turned on the threshold with his arm across the door. Hold on boys he said, still good-naturedly. The mayor can attend to this and if you boys want to fight anybody, fight me. I'm unarmed and you can whip me easily enough. He added with a laugh. But you mustn't come in here, he concluded, as though the matter was settled beyond further discussion. For one instant the crucial one, of course, the men hesitated for the reason that so often makes superior numbers of no avail among the lawless the lack of a leader of nerve and without another word Hale held the door but the frightened mayor inside let the prisoner out at once on bond and Hale, combining law and diplomacy, went on the bond. Only a day or two later the mountaineers who worked at the brick-plant with pistols buckled around them went on strike and that night shot out the lights and punctured the cromos in their boarding-house. Then armed with sticks, knives, clubs and pistols they took a triumphant march that night two knives and two pistols were whipped out by two of them in the same store. One of the Ludlow's promptly blew out the light and astutely got under the counter. When the combatants scrambled outside he locked the door and crawled out the back window. Next morning the brickyard malcontents marched triumphantly again and Hale called for volunteers to arrest them. Hale had his disgust only Logan, McFarlane, the honorable Sam Budd and two or three others seemed willing to go. But when the few who would go started, Hale leading them, looked back and the whole town seemed to be strung out after him. Below the hill he saw the mountaineers drawn up in two bodies for battle and as he led his followers towards them the Hoosier owner rode out at a gallop waving his hands and apparently beside himself with anxiety and terror. Don't! he shouted. Somebody'll get killed! Wait! They'll give up! So Hale halted and the Hoosier rode back. After a short parlay he came back to Hale to say that the strikers would give up. But when Logan started again they broke and ran and only three or four were captured. The Hoosier was delirious over his troubles and straight away closed his plant. See said Hale and disgust, we got to do something now. We have, said the lawyers and that night on Hale's porch the three with the honorable Sam Budd pondered the problem. They could not build a town without law and order. They could not have law and order without taking part themselves. And even then they plainly would have had their hands full. And so that night on the tiny porch of the little cottage that was Hale's sleeping room and office with the creaking of the one wheel of their one industry the old gristmill making patient music through the roto-dendron darkness that hid the steep back of the stream as the workers forged their plan. There had been gentlemen regulators aplenty, vigilance committees of gentlemen and the Ku Klux Klan had been originally composed of gentlemen as they all knew but they meant to hew to the strict line of town ordinance and common law and do the rough everyday work of the common policemen. So volunteer policemen they would be to extend their authority as much as possible as county policemen they would be enrolled. Each man would purchase his own Winchester pistol, billy, badge and a whistle to call for help and they would begin drilling and target shooting at once. The honorable Sam shook his head dubiously. The natives won't understand. Help that, said Hale. I know, I'm with you. Hale was made captain. Logan, first lieutenant. McFarland, second. And the honorable Sam, third. Two rules, Logan, who, too, knew the mountaineer well suggested as inflexible. One was never to draw a pistol at all unless necessary never to pretend to draw as a threat or to intimidate and never to draw unless one meant to shoot if need be. And the other, added Logan, always going forced to make an arrest, never alone unless necessary. The honorable Sam moved his head up and down in hearty approval. Why is that? asked Hale. To save bloodshed, he said. These fellows we will have to deal with have a pride that is morbid. A mountaineer doesn't like to go home and have to say that one man put him in the calaboose. But he doesn't mind telling that it took several to arrest him. Moreover, he will give in to two or three men when he would look on the coming of one man as a personal issue and to be met as such. Hale nodded. Oh, there'll be plenty of chances Logan added with a smile for everyone to go it alone. Again, the honorable Sam nodded grimly. It was plain to him that they would have all they could do. But no one of them dreamed of the far-reaching effect that night's work would bring. They were the vanguard of civilization. Crusaders of nineteenth century against the benighted of the middle ages said the honorable Sam. And when Logan and McFarlane left, he lingered and lit his pipe. The trouble will be, he said slowly, that they won't understand our purpose or our methods. They will look on us as a lot of meddlesome foreigners who have come in to run their country as we please, when they have been running it as they please for more than a hundred years. You see, you mustn't judge them by the standards of today. You must go back to the standards of the revolution. Practically they are the pioneers of that day and hardly a bit have they advanced. They are our contemporary ancestors. And then the honorable Sam, having dropped his vernacular, lounged ponderously into what he was pleased to call his anthropological drool. You see, mountains isolate people and the effect of isolation on human life is to crystallize it. Those people over the line have had no navigable rivers, no lakes, no wagon roads, except often the beds of streams. They have been cut off from all communication with the outside world. They are a perfect example of an arrested civilization and they are the closest link we have with the old world. They were unionists because of the revolution as they were Americans in the beginning because of the spirit of the Covent Atyr. They live like the pioneers. The axe and the rifle are still their weapons and they still have the same fight with nature. This feud business is a matter of clan loyalty that goes back to Scotland. They argue this way You are my friend or my kinsman. Your quarrel is my quarrel and whoever hits you hits me. If you are in trouble I must not testify against you. If you are an officer you must not arrest me. You must send me a kindly request to come into court. If I am innocent and it is perfectly convenient, why maybe I will come. We are the vanguard of civilization all right, all right but, I opine we are going to have a hell of a merry time. Hale laughed, but he was to remember those words of the honorable Samuel Budd. Other members of that vanguard began to drift in now by twos and threes from the bluegrass region of Kentucky and from the tide-water country of Virginia and from New England. Strong, bold young men with the spirit of the pioneer and the birth, breeding and education of gentlemen and the war between civilization and lawlessness that was the result of isolation and consequent ignorance and idleness started in earnest. A remarkable array murmured the honorable Samuel. When he took an inventory one night with Hale I am proud to be among them. Many times Hale went over to Lonesome Cove and with every visit his interest grew steadily and the little girl and then the curious people over there until he actually began to believe in the honorable Samuel Budd's anthropological theories. In the cabin on Lonesome Cove was a crane swinging in the big stone fireplace and he saw the old stepmother and Joan putting the spinning wheel and the loom to actual use. Sometimes he found a cabin of unhewn logs with a punch in floor clapboards for shingles and wooden pen and auger holes for nails. A baton wooden shutter, the logs filled with mud and stones and holes in the roof for the wind and the rain. Over a pair of buck antlers sometimes lay the long, heavy homemade rifle of the back woodsman. Sometimes even with a flintlock and called by some pet feminine name. Once he saw the harmony block that the mountaineers had borrowed from the Indians and once a handmill like the one from which the one woman was taken and the other left in biblical days. He struck communities where the medium of exchange was still barter and he found mountaineers drinking meth-glen and still as moonshine. Moreover there were still log-rollings, house-warmings, corn-chuckins and quilting-parties and sports were the same as in pioneer days, wrestling, racing, jumping and lifting barrels. Once he saw a cradle of beegum an old Judd had in his house a foxhorn made of hickory bark which even June could blow. He ran across old world superstitions too and met one seventh son of a seventh son who cured children of rash by blowing into their mouths. And he got June to sing transatlantic songs. After old Judd said one day that she knowed the miserableest song he'd ever heard meaning the most sorrowful. And thereupon with quaint simplicity June put her heels on the rung of her chair and with her elbows on her knees and her chin on both bent thumbs sang him the oldest version of Barbara Allen in a voice that startled hail by its power and sweetness. She knew lots more song ballets she said shrally and the old man had her sing some songs that were rather rude but were as innocent as hymns from her lips. Everywhere he found unlimited hospitality. Take out stranger said the one old fellow when there was nothing on the table but some bread and a few potatoes have a tater take two of them take damn not all of them moreover their pride was morbid and they were very religious indeed they is religion to cloak their devil tree as honestly as it was ever used in history he had heard old Judd say once when he was speaking of the feud well I've all laid out my enemies the Lord's been on my side and I get a better Christian every year always hail took some children's book for June when he went to Lonesome Cove and she rarely failed to know it almost by heart when he went again intelligent that he began to wonder if in her case at least another of the honorable Sam's theories might not be true that the mountaineers were of the same class as the other westward sweeping immigrants of more than a century before that they had simply lain dormant in the hills and a century counting for nothing in the matter of inheritance that their possibilities were little changed and that the children of that day would if given the chance wipe out the handicap of a century in one generation and take their place abreast with children of the outside world the Tollivers were of good blood they had come from eastern Virginia and the original Tolliver had been a slave owner the very name was undoubtedly a corruption of Tagliaferro and so when the widow Crane began to build a brick house for her borders that winter and the foundations of a school house were laid at the gap Hale began to plead with the old Jud to allow June to go over to the gap and go to school but the old man was firm and refusal he couldn't get along without her he said he was a feared loser and he reckoned June was tough without going to school she was a stud and little books of hers so hard but as his confidence in Hale grew and as Hale stated his intention to take an option on the old man's coal lands he could see that double Jud though his answer never varied was considering the question seriously through the winter then Hale made occasional trips to Lonesome Cove this time often he met young Dave Tolliver there but the boy usually left when Hale came and if Hale was already there he kept outside the house until the engineer was gone knowing nothing of the ethics of courtship in the mountains how when two men meet at the same girls house they make the gal say which one she lacks best and to other one gets Hale little dreamed that the first time Dave stalked out of the room he threw his hat in the grass behind the big chimney and executed a war dance on it cursing the blanket a blank burner within from Dan to Beer Sheba indeed he never suspected the fear steps of the boy's jealousy at all and he would have laughed incredulously if he had been told time after time as he climbed the mountain homeward the boy's black eyes burned from the bushes on him while his hand twitched at his pistol butt and his lips worked with noiseless threats for Dave had to keep his heart burnings to himself or he would have been laughed at through all the mountains and not only by his own family but by June's so he too bided his time in late February old Buck Phelan and old Dave Tolliver shot each other down in the road and the red fox who hated both and whom each thought was his friend dressed the wounds of both with equal care the temporary lull of peace that bad roost's absence in the west had brought about gave way to a threatening storm then and then it was that old Judd gave his consent when the roads got better June could go to the Gap to school a month later the old man sent word that he did not want June in the mountains while the trouble was going on and that Hale could come over for her when he pleased and Hale sent word back that within three days he would meet the father and the little girl at the big pine that last day at home June passed in a dream she went through her daily tasks in a dream and she hardly noticed Dave when he came in at midday and Dave when he heard the news left in silent silence in the afternoon she went down to the mill to tell Uncle Billy and old Han goodbye and the three sat in the porch a long time and with few words old Han had been to the Gap once but there was so much buzzle over there made her head ache Uncle Billy shook his head doubtfully over what was going on and the two old people stood at the gate looking long after the little girl when she went homeward up the road before supper June slipped up to her little hiding place at the pool and sat on the old vlog saying goodbye to the comforting spirit that always brooded for her there and when she stood on the porch at sunset a new spirit was coming on the wings of the south wind as he stepped into the soft night air he heard it in the piping of frogs marsh birds as he always called them he could almost see it in the flying clouds and the moonlight and even the bare trees seemed tremulously expecting an indefinable happiness seemed to pervade the whole earth and Hale stretched his arms lazily over and along some cove little June felt it more keenly than ever in her life before she did not want to go to bed that night and when the others were asleep she slipped out to the porch and sat on the steps her eyes luminous and her face wistful looking towards the big pine which pointed the way towards the far silence into which she was going at last End of Chapter 11 The Trail of Blonson Pine Read by Bologna Times of The Trail of the Blonson Pine This Leverbox Recording is in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit Leverbox.org The Trail of the Blonson Pine by John Fox Jr. Chapter 12 June did not have to be awakened that morning at the first clarion call of the old rooster behind the cabin her eyes opened wide and a happy thrill tingled her from head to foot Why? She didn't at first quite realize and then stretched her slender round arms to full length above her head and with a little squeal of joy found it out of the bed dressed as she was when she went into it and with no changes to make except to push back her tangled hair Her father was out feeding the stock and she could hear her stepmother in the kitchen Bub still slept soundly and she shook him by the shoulder Get up, Bub! No way! said Bub fretfully Again she started to shake him but stopped and wasn't going to the gap so she let him sleep For a little while she looked down at him at his round rosy face and his frowsy hair from under which protruded one dirty fist She was going to leave him and a fresh tenderness for him made her breast seep But she did not kiss him for his sisterly kisses are hardly known in the hills Then she went out into the kitchen to help her stepmother Getting money busy all of a sudden Said the sour old woman Now that you're going away! Tank Costin knew nothing answered June quietly and she picked up a pail and went out into the frosty shivering daybreak to the old well The chain froze her fingers the cold water splashed her feet and when she had tugged her heavy burden back to the kitchen she held her red chapped hands to the fire I can even mind a glad to get shed to me The old woman sniffled and June looked around with a start It appears like I'm going to miss you being right smart, she quavered and June's face colored with a new feeling toward her stepmother I'm going to have a hard time doing all the work and me so poorly The ready is coming over to help you If you get sick, said June hardening again Or I'll come back myself She got out the dishes and set them on the table You and me didn't get along very well together She went on placidly and they're here to know stepmother and children as did and I reckon you'll be my glad to get shed to me I'm going to miss you right smart repeated the old woman meekly June went out to the stable with the milking pail Her father had spread fodder for the cow and she could hear the rasping of the ears of corn against each other as he tumbled them into the trough for the old sorrel She put her head against the cow's soft flank and under her sinewy fingers two streams of milk's struck the bottom of the tin pail with such thundering loudness that she did not hear her father step but when she rose to make the beast put back her right leg she saw him looking at her I'm going to milk her, Pap That's the first time you thought of that June put her flesh cheek back to the flank of the cow It was not the first time she had thought of that her stepmother would milk her father or Loretta She had not meant to ask that question She was wondering when they would start That was what she meant to ask and she was glad that she had swerved Breakfast was eaten in the usual silence by the boy and the man June and the stepmother serving it and waiting on the Lord That was and the Lord that was to be and then the two females sat down Her up, June the dual man wiping his mouth and beard with the back of his hand Where will the dishes get ready He said he'd meet us at the pine an hour by sun for I told him I had to get back to work Hurry up now June hurried up She was too excited to eat anything so she began to wash the dishes while her stepmother ate Then she went into the living room to pack her things and didn't take long She wrapped the doll Hale had given her Wound one pair of yarn stockings around a pair of coarse shoes Tied them up into one bundle and she was ready Her father appeared with a sorrel horse caught up his saddle from the porch, threw it on and stretched the blanket behind it as a pallion for June to ride on Let's go, said There is little or no demonstradiveness in the domestic relations of mountaineers The kiss of corp ship is the only one known There were no goodbyes only that short Let's go June sprang behind her father from the porch, the stepmother handed her the bundle which she clutched in her lap and they simply rode away The stepmother and Bub silently gazing after them But June saw as the boy's mouth working and when she turned the thicket at the creek, she looked back at the two quiet figures and a keen pain cut her heart She shut her mouth closely gripped her bundle more tightly and the tears streamed down her face The demand did not know They climbed in silence Sometimes her father dismounted where the path was steep but June sat on the horse to hold the bundle and thus they mounted through the mist then chill of the morning A shout greeted them from the top of the little spur once the big pine was visible and up there they found Hale waiting He had reached the pine earlier than they and was coming down to meet them Hello, little girl, called Hale cheerly You didn't fail me, did you? June shook her head and smiled Her face was blue and her little legs dangling under the bundle were shrinking from the cold Her bonnet had fallen to the back of her neck and he saw that her hair was parted and gathered in a psych knot at the back of her head giving her a quaint old look when she stood on the ground in her crimson gown Hale had not forgotten a pillion and there the transfer was made Hale lifted her behind his saddle and handed up her bundle I'll take good care of her, he said All right, said the old man and I'm coming over soon to fix up that coal matter and I'll let you know how she's getting on All right, goodbye, said Hale I wish you well, said the mountaineer Be a good girl, June and do what Mr. Hale there tells you All right, Pap and thus they parted June felt the power of Hale's big black horse with exultation the moment he started Now we're off, said Hale Gailey and he patted the little hand that was about his waist Give me that bundle I can carry it No, you can't, not with me and when he reached round for it and put it on the cantal of his saddle June thrust her left hand into his overcoat pocket and Hale laughed Loretta wouldn't ride with me this way Ready ain't got much sense trawled June complacently Ain't no harm But don't you tell me I don't want to hear nothing about no ready anyway Again Hale laughed and June laughed too imp that she was She was just pretending to be jealous now She could see the big pine over his shoulder I've known that tree since I was a little girl since I was a baby She said and the tone of her voice was new to Hale Sister Sally used to tell me lots about that old tree Hale waited but she stopped again What did she tell you She'd say it was curious that it could be way up here all alone that she recollected it ever since she was a baby and she used to come up here and talk to it and she said sometimes she could hear a just a whisper into her when she was down home in the cold What did she say it said She'd said it was always a whispering come, come, come June crooned the words and after she died I'd hear folks saying is how she ris up in bed with her eyes right wide and saying I hears it it's a whisper and I hears it come, come, come and still Hale kept quiet when she stopped again Red Fox said it was a spirit but I knowed when they told me that she was a thinking of the old tree there but I never let on I reckon that's one reason made me come here that day they were close to the big tree now and Hale dismounted to fix his girth for the descent Well I'm mighty glad you came little girl I might never seen you That's all said June I saw the print of your foot in the mud right there and if I hadn't I might never have gone down into Lonesome Cove June lamp You ran for me Hale went on Yes I did and that's why you followed me Hale looked up quickly her face was demure but her eyes damp she was an aged little thing Why did you run I thought your fishing pole was a rifle gun and that you was a raider Hale laughed I see remember when you let your horse drink Hale nodded Well I was on the rock above the creek looking down at you and I see you catching minors and I thought you was going up the creek looking for a still Weren't you afraid of me then She said contemptuously I wasn't afraid of you at all except for what you might find out Couldn't do no harm to nobody without a gun and I know there wasn't no still of that creek I know I knowed where it was Hale noticed the quick change of tense Won't you take me up to see it some time No She said sharply and Hale knew he had made a mistake It was too steep for both to ride now so he tied the bundle to the cantile with the leather strings and started leading the horse June pointed to the edge of the cliff I would land flat right there and I see you coming down there My but you look funny to me You don't know She said hastily You look mine nice to me now You're a little rascal, said Hale That's what you are Little girl bubbled with laughter and then she grew mock serious No, I ain't Yes you are He repeated shaking his head and both were silent for a while June was going to begin her education now and it was just as well for him to begin with it now so he started vaguely when he was moderate again June, you thought my clothes were funny when you first saw them, didn't you Uh-huh, said June But you like them now Uh-huh, she crooned again Well, some people who weren't used to clothes that people wear over in the mountains might think them funny for the same reason, mightn't they June was silent for a moment Well, maybe I like your clothes better because I like you better she said Well, it's just the same the way people in the mountains dress and talk is different from the way people outside dress and talk It doesn't make much difference about clothes though I guess you will want to be as much like people over there as you can I don't know Interrupted a little girl shortly I ain't seen him yet Well, Hale you will want to talk like them anyhow because everybody who is learning the same way June was silent and Hale plunged unconsciously on Up at the pine now you said I see'd you when I was laying on the edge of the cliff Now you ought to have said I saw you when I was lying I wasn't she said sharply I don't doubt wise her hand shot from his waist and she slid suddenly to the ground he pulled in his horse and turned her feet and was poised back above him like an enraged eaglet her thin nostrils clevering her mouth as tight as a bowstring and her eyes two points of fire Why June if you don't like my clothes and the way I talk I reckon I'd better go back home with a grown Hale tumbled from his horse fool that he was he had forgotten the sensitive pride of the mountaineer even while he was thinking of that pride he knew that one might be made of her speech and her garb by her schoolmates over at the gap and he was trying to prepare her to save her mortification to make her understand Why June little girl I didn't mean to hurt your feelings you don't understand you can't now but you will trust me won't you I like you just as you are I love the way you talk but other people forgive me won't you he pleaded sorry I wouldn't hurt you for the world she didn't understand she hardly heard what he said but she did know his distress was genuine and his sorrow and his voice melted her fierce little heart the tears began to come while she looked and when he put his arms about her she put her face on his breast and sob there now he said soothingly it's all right now I'm so sorry so very sorry and he patted her on the shoulder and laid his hand across her temple and hair and pressed her head tight to his breast almost as suddenly she stopped sobbing and losing herself turned away from him I'm a fool that's what I am she said hotly no you aren't come on little girl we're friends again aren't we June was digging at her eyes with both hands aren't we yes she said with an angry little catch of her breath submissibly to let him lift her to her seat then she looked down into his face Jack she said and he started again at the frank address I'm never going to do that no more yes you are little girl he said soberly but surely you're going to do it whenever I'm wrong or whenever you think I'm wrong she shook her head seriously no Jack in a few minutes they were at the foot of the mountain on a level road hold tight hail shouted I'm going to let him out now at the touch of his spur the big black horse sprang into a gallop faster and faster until he was pounding the hard road in a swift run like thunder at the Greek hail pulled in and looked around June's bonnet was down her hair was tossed her eyes were sparkling fearlessly and her face was flushed with joy like it June I never didn't know nothing like it you weren't scared, scared what she asked and hail wondered if there was anything of which she would be afraid they were entering the gap now and June's eyes got big with wonder over the mighty up shooting peaks and the rushing torrent see that big rock yonder June June grained her neck to follow with her eyes his outstretched finger uh huh well that's called B-rock because it's covered with flowers purple rhododendrons and laurel bears used to go there for wild honey they say that once on a time folk around here put whiskey in the honey and the bears got so drunk that people came and knocked him in the head with clubs well what do you think of that said June wonderingly before them a big mountain loomed and a few minutes later at the mouth of the gap hail stopped and turned his horse sideways there you are June he said June saw the love of the old valley rimmed with big mountains the course of the two rivers that encircled it by the trees that fringed their banks and she saw smoke rising here and there and that was all she was a little disappointed mighty purdy he said I'll never see she paused but went on without correcting herself so much level and in all my life the morning mail had just come in as they rode by the post office and several men hailed her escort it all started with some wonder at her Hale smiled to himself drew up for none but put on a face of utter unconsciousness that he was doing anything unusual June felt vaguely uncomfortable ahead of them when they turned the corner of the street her eyes fell on a strange tall red house with yellow trimmings that was not built of wood and had two sets of windows one above the other and before that Hale drew up here we are get down little girl voice Hale looked around and flushed and June looked around and stared transfixed as by a vision from another world at the dainty figure behind them in a walking suit a short skirt that showed two little feet in lace tan boots and a cap with a plume under which was a pair of wide blue eyes with long lashes and a mouth that suggested active mischief and gentle mockery morning said Hale and he added gently get down June little girl slipped to the ground and began pulling her bonnet on with both hands but the newcomer had caught sight of the psych knot that made June look like a little old woman strangely young and the mockery at her lips was gently accentuated by her smile Hale swung from his saddle this sister little girl I told you about Miss Ann he said she's come over to go to school instantly almost Miss Ann had been melted by the forlorn looking little creature who stood before her shy for the moment dumb and she came forward with her gloved hand outstretched but June had seen that smile she gave her hand and Miss Ann straight away was no little surprised there was no more shyness in the dark eyes that blazed from the recesses of the sun bonnet and Miss Ann was so startled when she looked into them that all she could say was dear me a pretty woman with a kind face appeared at the door of the red brick house here she is Miss Crane called Hale howdy June cried the widow Crane kindly come in in her June knew straight away she had a friend and she picked up her bundle and followed upstairs the first real stairs she'd ever seen and into a room to the floor of which was a rag carpet there was a bed in one corner and a white counterplane and a wash stand with a bowl and pitcher she'd never seen before make yourself at home right now said the widow Crane pulling open a drawer under a big looking glass and put your thanks here that's your bed and out she went how clean it was there were some flowers and a glass face on the mantel there were white curtains at the big window and a bed to herself her own bed she went over to the window there was a steep bank lined with rhododendrons below and down the stream she could hear the creaking of a water wheel and she could see it dripping and shining in the sun a crest mill she thought of Uncle Billy and Old Hun and in spite of a little pang of homesickness she felt no loneliness at all I knew she would be pretty said Miss Ann at the gate outside told you she was pretty said Hale but not so pretty as that said Miss Ann we will be great friends I hope so for her sake said Hale Hale waited till noon recess was nearly over and then he went to take June to the school house he was told that she was in her room and he went up and knocked on the door there was no answer for one does not knock on doors for entrance in the mountains and thinking he had made a mistake he was about to try another room when June opened the door to see what the matter was she gave him a glad smile come on he said he stepped into the room how do you like it? June nodded toward the window and Hale went to it there's Uncle Billy Mill out there why so it is said Hale smiling that's fine the school house to June's wonder had shingles on the outside around all the walls from roof to foundation and a big bell hung on top of it under a little shingled roof of its own a pale little man with spectacles and blue pale eyes met them at the door and he gave June a pale slender hand and cleared his throat before he spoke to her she's never been to school said Hale she can read and spell but she's not very strong on arithmetic very well I'll turn her over to the primary the school bell sounded Hale left with a parting prophecy you'll be proud of her someday at which June blushed and then with a beating heart she followed the little man into his office a few minutes later the assistant came in and she was none other than the wonderful young woman whom Hale had called Miss Ann there were a few instructions in halting voices and with much clearing of the throat from the pale little man and a moment later June walked the gauntlet of the eyes of her schoolmates every one of whom looked up from his book to hers to watch her as she went to her seat Miss Ann pointed out the arithmetic lesson and without lifting her eyes June bent with a flushed face to her task it was red and was shame when she was called to the class for she sat on the bench taller by a head and more than any of the boys and girls thereon except one awkward youth who caught her eye and grinned with unashamed companionship the teacher noticed her look and understood with a sudden keen sympathy and naturally she was struck by the fact that the new pupil was the only one who never missed an answer she won't be there long Miss Ann thought she gave June a smile for which the little girl was almost grateful June spoke to no one but walked through her schoolmate's homeward when school was over like a hotty young queen Miss Ann had gone ahead and was standing at the gate talking with Miss Crane and the young woman spoke to June most kindly Mr. Hale has been called away on business she said and June's heart sank and I'm going to take care of you until he comes back I'm much obliged she said in gracious her manner indicated her belief that she could take care of herself and Miss Ann felt uncomfortably that this extraordinary young person was steadily measuring her from head to foot June saw the smart, close-fitting gown the dainty little boots and the carefully brushed hair she noticed how white her teeth were and her hands and she saw the nails look polished and that the tips of them were like little white crescents and she could still see in every detail when she sat at her window looking down at the old mill she saw Mr. Hale when he left the young lady had said and she had a headache now and was going home to lie down she understood now what Hale meant on the mountainside when she was so angry with him she was learning fast and the most from the two persons who were not conscious what they were teaching her and she would learn in the school too for the slumbering ambition her suddenly became passionately definite now she went to the mirror and looked at her hair she would learn how to plate that in two braids down her back as the other school girls did she looked at her hands and straight away she felt her scrubbing them with soap as she had never scrubbed them before as she worked she heard her name called and she opened a door yes ma'am she answered for already she had picked that up in the school room come on June and go down the street with me yes ma'am she repeated and she wiped her hands and hurried down Mrs. Crane had looked through the girl's pathetic wardrobe while she was at school that afternoon and told Hale before he left and she had a surprise for little June together they went down the street and into the chief store in town and to June's amazement Mrs. Crane began ordering things for this little girl who's not gonna pay for all those things whispered June aghast don't you bother honey Mr. Hale said he would fix all that with your pappy it's some cold deal or something he don't you bother and June in a quiver of happiness didn't bother stockings, petticoats, some soft stuff for a new dress tan shoes that look like the ones that wonderful young woman wore and then some long white things what's that for she whispered let the clerk heard her and laughed where at Mrs. Crane gave him such a glance nightgowns honey you sleeping? said June in an odd voice that's just what you do said the good old woman hardly less pleased than June my but you got pretty feet I wish they were half as pretty as well they are interrupted Mrs. Crane a little snappishly apparently she did not like Miss Anne wrap them up and Mr. Hale will attend to the bill all right said the clerk you must miss the fight outside the door June looked up into the beaming goggles of the honourable Samuel Budd is this the little girl howdy June you said and June put her hand in the honourable Sam's with a sudden trust in his voice I'm going to help you take care of you too said Mr. Budd and June smiled at him with shy gratitude how kind everybody was I'm much bleached she said and she and Mrs. Crane went on back with her bundles June's hand so trembled when she found herself alone with her treasures that she could hardly unpack them when she had folded and laid them away she had to unfold them and look at them again she hurried to bed that night merely that she might put on one of those wonderful nightgowns and again she had to look all her treasures over she was glad she had brought the doll because she had given it to her but she said to herself how are we getting too big now for dolls and she put it away then she set the lamp on the mantelpiece so that she could see herself in her wonderful nightgown she let her shining hair fall like molten gold around her shoulders and she wondered whether she could ever look like the dainty creature that just now was the model she so passionately wanted to be like then she blew out the lamp and sat a while by the Mundo looking down to the rooted entrance at the shining water and the old waterwheel sleepily at rest in the moonlight she knelt down then at her bedside to say her prayers as her dead sister had taught her to do and she asked God to bless Jack wondering as she prayed that she had heard nobody else call him Jack and then she lay down with her breast heaving she had told him she would never do that again but she couldn't help it now the tears came and from happiness she cried herself softly to sleep End of Chapter 12 Chapter 13 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 Strom The Trail of the Lonesome Pine John Fox Jr. Chapter 13 Hill rode that night under a brilliant moon to the worm of a railroad that had been creeping for many years toward the gap The head of it was just protruding from the natural tunnel 20 miles away There he sent his horse back slept in a shanty till morning and then the train crawled through a towering bench of rock The mouth of it on the other side opened into a mighty amphitheater with solid rock walls shooting vertically hundreds of feet upward vertically he thought with the back of his head between his shoulders as he looked up they were more than vertical they were actually concave The almighty had not only stored riches immeasurable in the hills behind him he had driven this passage himself to help puny men to reach them and yet the wretched road was going toward them like a snail On the fifth night thereafter he was back there at the tunnel again from New York with a grim mouth and a happy eye He had brought success with him this time and there was no sleep for him that night He had been delayed by a wreck it was two o'clock in the morning and not a horse was available so he started those 20 miles a foot and day was breaking down on the little valley shrouded in mist and just wakening from sleep things had been moving while he was away as he quickly learned the English were buying lands right and left at the gap 60 miles south west two companies had purchased most of the townside where he was his townside and were going to pool their holdings and form an improvement company but a good deal was left a straight way Hale got a map from his office and with it in his hand walked down the curve of the river and over Poplar Hill and beyond early breakfast was ready when he got back to the hotel he swallowed a cup of coffee so hastily that it burned him and June when she passed his window on her way to school saw him busy over his desk she started to shout to him but he looked so haggard and grim that she was afraid and went on vaguely hurt by a preoccupation that seemed quite to have excluded her for two hours then Hale haggled and bargained and at ten o'clock he went to the telegraph office the operator who was speculating in a small way himself smiled when he read the telegram a thousand an acre he repeated with a whistle you could have got that at 25 per three months ago I know said Hale there's time enough yet then he went to his room pulled the blinds down and went to sleep while rumor played with his name through the town it was nearly the closing hour of school when dressed and freshly shaven he stepped out into the pale afternoon and walked up toward the school house the children were pouring out of the doors at the gate there was a sudden commotion he saw a crimson figure flash into the group that had stopped there and then June came swiftly toward him followed closely by a tall boy with a cap on his head that far away he could see that she was angry and he hurried toward her her face was white with rage her mouth was tight and her dark eyes were aflame then from the group another tall boy darted out and behind him ran a smaller one bellowing Hale hurt the boy with a cap called kindly hold on little girl i won't let them touch you June stopped with him and Hale ran to them here he called what's the matter June burst into crying when she saw him and leaned over the fence sobbing the tall lad with a cap had his back to Hale and he waited till the other two boys came up then he pointed to the smaller one and spoke to Hale without looking around while that little skate there was teasing this little girl and she slapped him said Hale grimly the lad with a cap turned his eyes were dancing and the shock of curly hair that stuck from his absurd little cap shook with his laughter she knocked him as flat as a pancake yes and you said you'd stand for her said the other tall boy who was plainly a mountain lad he was near bursting with rage you bet I will tear apart a leaf right now and he dropped his books to the ground hold on said Hale jumping between them you ought to be ashamed of yourself he said to the mountain boy I wasn't that to the girl he said indignantly I was coming for him the boy with the cap tried to get away from Hale's grasp no use sir he said you'd better let us settle it now I know the breed you'll fight all right and there's no use putting it off it's got to come you bet it's got to come said the mountain lad you can't call my brother names well he is a skate said the boy with the cap with no heed at all in spite of his indignation and Hale wondered at his aged calm every one of you little tats he went on coolly waving his hand at the gathered group is a skate who teases this little girl and you all the boys are skates for letting the little ones do it the whole pack of you and I'm going to spank any little tadpole who does it hereafter and I'm going to punch the head off any big one who allows it it's got to stop now and as Hale dragged him off he added to the mountain boy and I'm going to begin with you whenever you say the word Hale was laughing now you don't seem to understand he said this is my affair I'm taking care of this little girl oh well you see I didn't know that I've only been here two days but his frank generous face broke into a winning smile you don't go to school you'll let me watch out for her there sure I'll be very grateful not at all sir, not at all it was a great pleasure and I think I'll have lots of fun he looked at Jun whose grateful eyes had hardly left his face so don't you soil your little fist any more with any of them but just tell me Jun, she said and a shy smile came through her tears Jun he finished with the boy's love goodbye sir you haven't told me your name I suppose you know my brother sir the Berkley's I should say so and Hale held out his hand you're Bob I knew you were coming and I'm mighty glad to see you I hope you and Jun will be good friends and I'll be very glad to have you watch over her when I am away I'd like nothing better sir he said cheerfully and quite impersonally as far as Jun was concerned then his eyes lighted up my brothers don't seem to want me to join the police guard won't you say a word for me I certainly will thank you sir and Hale at first he had thought it a mark of respect to his superior age and he was not particularly pleased but when he knew now that the lad was another son of the old gentleman who he saw riding up the valley every morning on a grey horse with several dogs trailing after him he knew the word was merely a family characteristic of old fashioned courtesy isn't he nice Jun yes she said do you need me Jun Jun slid her hand into his I'm so glad you come back they were approaching the gate now Jun you said you weren't going to cry anymore Jun's head dropped I know but I just can't help it when I get mad she said seriously I'd bust if I didn't alright sir Hale kindly of quite twice she said what were you mad about the other time I wasn't mad then why did you cry Jun her dark eyes looked full at him a moment and then her long lashes hit them cause you were so good to me Hale choked suddenly and patted her on the shoulder go in now little girl and study then you must take a walk I've got some work to do I'll see you at supper time sir Jun she turned at the gate to watch Hale enter the hotel and as she started indoors she heard a horse coming at the gallop and she turned again to see her cousin Dave Tollifer pull up in front of the house she ran back to the gate and then she saw that he was swaying in his saddle hello Jun he called thickly her face grew hard and she made no answer I've come over to take you back home she only stared at him rebukeingly and he straightened in his saddle with an effort at self-control but his eyes got darker and he looked ugly do you hear me I've come over to take you home you ought to be ashamed of yourself she said hotly and she turned to go back into the house oh you ain't ready now well get ready and we'll start in the morning I'll be around for you he whirled his horse with an oath Jun was gone she saw him ride swaying down the street and she ran across to the hotel and found Hale sitting in the office with another man Hale saw her entering the door swiftly he knew something was wrong and he rose to meet her Dave's here she whispered hurriedly and he says he's come to take me home well said Hale he won't do it will he Jun shook her head and then she said significantly Dave's drinking Hale's brow clouded straight away he foresaw trouble but he said cheerily alright you go back and keep in the house and I'll be over by and by and we'll talk it over and without another word she went she had meant to put on her new dress and her new shoes and stockings at night that Hale might see her but she was in doubt about doing it and then she got to her room she tried to study her lessons for the next day but she couldn't fix her mind on them she wondered if Dave might not get into a fight or perhaps he would get so drunk that he would go to sleep somewhere she knew that men did that after drinking very much and anyhow he would not bother her until the next morning and then he would be sober and would go quietly back home she was so comforted about the hair of the girl who sat in front of her at school it was plated and she had studied just how it was done and she began to wonder whether she could fix her own that way so she got in front of the mirror and loosened hers in a mass about her shoulders the mass that was to Hale like the golden bronze of a wild turkey's wing the other girls plates were the same size so that the hair had to be equally divided thus she argued to herself but how did that girl manage to plate it behind her back she did it in front of course so June divided the bronze heat behind her and pulled one half of it in front of her and then for a moment she was helpless then she laughed it must be done like the grass blades and strings she had plated for Bob of course so dividing that half into three parts she did the plating swiftly and easily when it was finished she looked at the braid much pleased for it hung below her waist and was much longer than any of the other girls at school the transition was easy now so interested had she become she got out her tan shoes and stockings and the pretty white dress and put them on the mill pond was dark with shadows now and she went down the stairs and out to the gate just as Dave again pulled up in front of it he stared at the vision wonderingly and long and then he began to laugh with the scorn of soberness and the silliness of drink you ain't June are you the girl never moved as if by a preconcerted signal three men moved toward the boy and one of them said sternly drop that pistol you are under arrest the boy glared like a wild thing trapped from one to another of the three the pistol gleamed in the hand of each and slowly thrust his own weapon into his pocket get off that horse added a stern voice just then Hill rushed across the street and the mountain youth saw him catch his pistol cried June in terror for Hill for she knew what was coming and one of the men caught with both hands the wrist of Dave's arm as it shot behind him take him to the gala booze at that June opened the gate that disgrace she could never stand but Hill spoke I know him boys he doesn't mean any harm he doesn't know the regulations yet suppose we let him go home alright said Logan the gala booze are home will you go home in the moment the mountain boy had apparently forgotten his captors he was staring at June with wonder amazement incredulity struggling through the fumes in his brain to his flushed face she, the tolover had warned a stranger against her own blood cousin will you go home repeated Logan sternly the boy looked around at the words as though he were half dazed and his baffled face turned sick and white let me loose he said suddenly I'll go home and he rode silently away after giving Hale a vindictive look that told him plain of them words that more was yet to come Hale had heard June's warning cry but now when he looked for her she was gone he went into supper and sat down at the table and still she did not come she's got a surprise for you said Mrs. Crane smiling mysteriously she's been fixing for you for an hour my but she's pretty in the new clothes June! June was coming in she wore her homespun her scarlet homespun and a psyche knot she did not seem to have heard Mrs. Crane's note of wonder and she sat quietly down in her seat her face was pale and she did not look at Hale nothing was said of Dave in fact June said nothing at all and Hale too vaguely understanding kept quiet Hale called her to the gate and put one hand on her head I'm sorry little girl the girl lifted her great troubled eyes to him but no word passed her lips and Hale helplessly left her June did not cry that night she sat by the window wretched and tearless she had taken sides with foreigners against her own people that was why instinctively put on her old homespun with a fake purpose of reparation to them she knew the story Dave would take back home the bitter anger that his people and hers would feel at the outrage done him anger against the town, the guard against Hale because he was a part of both and even against her Dave was merely drunk he had simply shot off his pistol that was no harm in the hills and yet everybody had dashed toward him as though he had stolen something even Hale yes even that boy with a cap who had stood up for her at school that afternoon he had rushed up his face a flame with excitement eager to take part should Dave resist she had cried out impulsively to save Hale but Dave would not understand no in his eyes she had been false to family and friends to the clan what would her father say perhaps she'd better go home next day perhaps for good for there was a deep unrest within her that she could not fathom a premonition that she was at the parting of the ways vague fear of the shadows that hung about the strange new path on which her feet were set the old mill creaked in the moonlight below her sometimes when the wind blew up lonesome cove she could hear Uncle Billy's wheel creaking just that way a sudden pang of homesickness choked her but she did not cry yes she would go home next day she blew out the light and undressed in the dark as she did at home and went to bed and that night the little nightgown lay apart from her in the drawer unfolded and untouched end of chapter 13