.* 
 
 R.Y 
 
 IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 
 ARCHDEACON CLAEBORNE
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 CLAIBORNE, William Stirling, clergyman; 
 ft. Amherst Co., Va., Nov. 11, li.71; s. William 
 R. and Alice (Clay) C.; Roanoke Coll., 1891-7; 
 U. of South, 1897-1900; m. Minnie M. Marlow, of 
 Frederick Co.. July 17, 1902. Deacon, 1899, 
 priest, 1901, P.E. Ch.; rector, Sewauee, .Tenn., 
 1900-3; now archdeacon of Sewanee and E.Tenn. 
 Asso. editor Parish Visitor. Trustee U. of 
 South, 1908 . Pounder St. Andrew's Sch. for 
 Mountain Boys, Sewanee; reestablished St. 
 Mary's on the Mountain (industrial sch. for 
 Kir Is); establtehed Emerald-Hodsjson IIosp. 
 Mem,. Am. Hist. Assn.. Sons Colonial Govs., 
 Phi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. Author: Ray in 
 the Mountains. 1916. Home: Sewanee, Tenn. 
 Address: 59 Chamberlain St., Chattanooga, 
 Tennessee.
 
 W 

 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 BY 
 WILLIAM S. CLAIBORNE 
 
 ARCHDEACON OF TENNESSEE 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 EDWIN S. GORHAM 
 1916
 
 OOPYKIQHTD 
 
 1916 
 
 8. GORHAM
 
 PZT 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter I. Roy's Boyhood 5 
 
 Chapter II. Roy's Adventures 26 
 
 Chapter III. Roy's Education 52 
 
 *J Chapter IV. Roy's Romance 82 
 
 Chapter V. Roy and Aunt Jane 106 
 
 i 
 
 Chapter VI. Roy's Girls' School 133 
 
 3 Chapter VII. Roy's Boys' School 148 
 
 o Chapter VIII. Roy's Hospital 167 
 
 u, Chapter IX. Roy's Adult School 185 
 
 Zv 
 
 q Chapter X. Roy's Honors 205
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Roy spent his boyhood among the red 
 hills and gulleys of a Virginia plantation. 
 The country had not yet begun to rally 
 from the effects of the Civil War; houses 
 were abandoned, farms were neglected 
 and grown up in blackberry bushes and 
 sassafras, and provisions were scarce. 
 Naturally, his father and mother talked 
 often of the good old times before the 
 war, but their conversation had little in- 
 terest for the hungry growing boy. 
 
 Bad as their condition was, however, 
 it was made even worse by an unex- 
 pected calamity that fell upon them. A 
 man highly regarded by all the people of 
 
 6
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 the community and trusted by Roy's 
 parents, defrauded the county out of 
 thousands of dollars and escaped to 
 Mexico. Roy's father and grandfather 
 had to pay the bills. It took everything 
 they had. Even the kitchen utensils and 
 household furniture were put up at pub- 
 lic auction and sold. But the bills were 
 paid, though there was little left to the 
 family, save honor. 
 
 Just across the road from Roy's home 
 stood a deserted house, which with its 
 plantation was owned by a Northern 
 man, but had been abandoned during 
 those years of strife and bloodshed. 
 Again and again this dilapidated house 
 and those neglected fields had been the 
 topic of conversation in Roy's home. 
 The excitement and curiosity in the fam-
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 
 
 ily were intense when they learned that 
 the owner, a Mr. White, from Western 
 New York, was to return and take pos- 
 session, having been ordered South for 
 his health by his family physician. 
 
 One cold, bleak, rainy December day, 
 Roy's father, having learned of Mr. 
 White's arrival, hitched up his only re- 
 maining horse, which had been gener- 
 ously left to him by his creditors, and 
 went across to see his new neighbor. 
 Finding the house bare, cold and damp 
 and discovering Mr. White and his wife 
 absolutely at a loss both for furniture 
 and food, "Marse William," as Roy's 
 father was called, insisted that the 
 strangers should come at once to his 
 home and stay with him. 
 
 "You've got to come over with me," he
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 declared emphatically in reply to Mr. 
 White's remonstrances," and stay until 
 your furniture arrives and your house is 
 made comfortable. You can't stay here." 
 
 If Mr. White doubted the sincerity of 
 the offer he was never given a chance to 
 object. Before he could voice a suspicion 
 all were on the way to "Marse" William's 
 home. 
 
 During that ride Mr. White realized 
 that "Marse" William was acting uncon- 
 sciously from his heart; and friendship 
 was a matter of minutes only. The pas- 
 sage of time served to strengthen rather 
 than weaken its bonds. 
 
 War scenes were then vivid memories, 
 instead of vague reminiscences. The con- 
 flict over, these two soldiers who had 
 lately been fighting each other like
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 
 
 demons, would spend the winter months 
 before the fire place recounting their 
 battlefield stories, as if they had been 
 lifelong acquaintances. 
 
 They were surprised to learn in the 
 course of their conversation that they 
 had frequently been within shooting 
 range of each other. Once Roy remem- 
 bered hearing his father ask Mr. White: 
 
 "What position did you hold at the 
 Battle of the Wilderness? There was a 
 mark, a pile of rails, I believe, in the bat- 
 tle was there not?" 
 
 "Yes, there was a mark," replied Mr. 
 White. "I was at one end of that pile." 
 
 "How strange! I was at the other 
 end," Roy's father remarked. 
 
 And the two men looked at each other 
 with tears in their eyes.
 
 10 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 The war over, they felt free, each to 
 tell his own story without fear of giving 
 offense and without personal bitterness, 
 with the spirit of a true soldier. This, 
 however, did not interest the rest of the 
 family as much as it did Roy. 
 
 The two men became inseparable on 
 the Virginia plantation, and so remained 
 throughout their lives. Mr. White and 
 Marse William both failed as practical 
 farmers, for neither knew anything 
 about it 
 
 Marse William had lived on the plan- 
 tation until he went to college. After 
 graduating he went into business. The 
 farm did not appeal to him. He was a 
 better business man than farmer, but 
 the war had forced him to return to the 
 old plantation.
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 11 
 
 Mr. White was not a college man, but 
 he had known something of farming in 
 Western New York. His knowledge, 
 however, did him but little good in this 
 locality. He was an expert on corn and 
 wheat, but hardly on tobacco. 
 
 The final result of the situation was 
 that they gave up their farms, and Roy's 
 father with his family, moved to a city 
 of twenty thousand inhabitants. 
 
 For a while the city was very attrac- 
 tive to Roy. His brother secured em- 
 ployment, but Roy was unfortunate. He 
 could get nothing to do, and loafed about 
 the city until worn out. His new world 
 soon became old. Finally, one day while 
 standing near the railroad station he en- 
 tered into conversation with a gentleman 
 who told him that if he would go to
 
 II ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Clinch Valley, where Roy's new-found 
 friend was building a railroad, to con- 
 nect the Norfolk & Western with the 
 Louisville & Nashville Railroad, he 
 would give him a position as commissary 
 clerk and timekeeper for his company. 
 They started one evening and after 
 traveling all night, and the following day 
 and night, finally arrived at the camp of 
 Meloise. The position Roy had been 
 promised, was, to his amazement and 
 keen disappointment, already filled. 
 There was no other work than to shovel 
 stone in a tunnel with negroes under an 
 Irish boss named Mulligan. Roy found 
 himself tricked by the stranger of the 
 station, but it was shovel or starve. He 
 shoveling rock in such a tunnel twelve 
 he went.
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 13 
 
 Working in the head of a tunnel too 
 low to stand in, is no easy task, but 
 shoveling rock in such a tunnel twelve 
 hours a day was almost intolerable. 
 Nevertheless he did the daily tasks as- 
 signed him, with a spirit that struck 
 even Mulligan. It was inevitable that 
 he should be promoted, and he was. His 
 new job was to drive a mule and a cart 
 which sometimes ran on a track. It 
 generally ran off, and thereby hangs a 
 tale. He always had to wait for help 
 from the head of the tunnel. While 
 waiting, his mind would run back to the 
 country home, where his mother toiled 
 day by day, helping her devoted husband 
 to make both ends meet. Before he left 
 home, his mother had often expressed 
 a wish that she could provide a college
 
 14 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 education for her sons. To such thoughts 
 his mind went back as he waited for first 
 aid to the helpless cart off the track. 
 But it was idle to think of what might 
 have happened in the splendor of the old 
 days before the war. He had to make 
 the best of things as they were, and that 
 is what he was trying to do under Mulli- 
 gan. 
 
 As has already been said, he was 
 gradually advancing. The last promo- 
 tion put him in command of twenty men, 
 five mules and as many cart boys. 
 Things were a bit easier now, but he was 
 not destined to stay. He was suddenly at- 
 tacked with measles. Everyone thought 
 it was smallpox. Terror reigned in the 
 camp. Mulligan declared: "Bejabers! 
 Oill fix *im." Going out into the moun-
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 16 
 
 tains he managed to get some peach 
 brandy, made a steaming stew, brought 
 it to the patient, and snapped out: 
 "Begor-r-ry, dhrink it down." 
 Mulligan's prescription did its work, 
 and the measles came out all the more 
 angrily. Roy was put to bed in a log 
 hut, where the roof was sorely in need 
 of repairs. When it rained he had to 
 turn around to keep the drops of rain 
 from falling in his face. Morning and 
 night, Mulligan and his sub-foreman 
 would troop noisily into the sick room, 
 swearing like sailors, calling out to Roy 
 to know if he were dead yet. Finding 
 he was still in the land of the living, they 
 would then try to persuade him to will 
 them his boots and trousers if he did die. 
 With all this crudeness there was a big
 
 16 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 red heart in every one of them. They 
 watched by Roy's bed day and night, and 
 every wish of his was gratified, if in 
 their power to bring it about. Though 
 naturally rough, they tried to be gentle. 
 They realized that the sick lad was away 
 from home and his loved ones. 
 
 One day Mike Mulligan sent forty 
 miles for a doctor, but though he found 
 him, the doctor failed to come. The 
 worthy M. D. had heard rumors of small- 
 pox, and sent the messenger back with 
 the words: 
 
 "Am engaged on another case." 
 A second time Mulligan sent, and 
 again the messenger returned empty- 
 handed. Mulligan received the message 
 silently; but he was in deadly earnest 
 now.
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 17 
 
 "There be just two powers to move a 
 doctor, the power of fear and the power 
 of money. Oi haven't the power of 
 money in me; but Oi have the power of 
 fear; and that doctor is going to find it 
 out." 
 
 And when Mulligan returned to camp 
 ten hours later it was to bring the ob- 
 ject of so much strife medical instru- 
 ments blackened eyes and all along 
 with him. "He is sint fur, he'll come and 
 not loi aboot it." Turning to the men 
 around him, Mike said with a grin: "Ye 
 would ha-rdly rekinoize him now. He's 
 out of sh-ape." 
 
 Mike was always faithful to Roy. 
 There was nothing he would not do. 
 And he almost wept one night when he 
 
 thought Roy was about to breathe his 
 a
 
 18 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 last Mike prayed as never before that 
 Roy might be spared. The prayer was 
 answered. Roy began to improve, and 
 after six weeks it was thought best for 
 him to start homeward. Finding that he 
 had earned enough wages to pay his rail- 
 road fare, the start was about to be 
 made. But the railroad was seventy 
 miles away from the camp. There was 
 no conveyance. The only way to get to 
 the railroad station was to walk the en- 
 tire distance. In Roy's weakened condi- 
 tion that was a colossal undertaking. But 
 the same spirit that inspired him at all 
 times strengthened him now. With two 
 negroes he started out on his perilous 
 journey over the mountain roads. 
 
 Every cabin on the way was closed to 
 him, as he was suspected of having
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 19 
 
 smallpox. The negroes, however, clung 
 to him like two faithful brothers, carry- 
 ing his luggage, helping him along when 
 too faint to walk. Late in the afternoon 
 of the first day he started for a log hut 
 to see if he could get accommodations 
 for the night An old woman stood in 
 the door with her hand leaning to the 
 top. As he neared the door, the moun- 
 tain woman pulled down her rifle and 
 said: "If you come in, sir, I will shoot 
 you." She too thought that Roy had 
 the smallpox. He did not stop to argue 
 with her, for a rifle in the hands of a 
 mountaineer, whether man or woman, is 
 worse than smallpox or any other dis- 
 ease. The travellers soon saw that it 
 was out of the question to gain admit- 
 tance into any mountain home. Con-
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 tinuing to journey up the mountain side 
 to a clear space, the negroes made ready 
 for the night, gathering up dry wood 
 and building a roaring fire against the 
 black background of the night. They 
 were tenderly careful of their compan- 
 ion, and looked after his comforts as 
 though he were a sick child. The fire 
 burned beautifully, and when the night 
 was far spent, the moon began to shine 
 in all her queenly splendor. A glorious 
 night it was. The owls were attracted 
 by the fire, and Roy could hear the big 
 hooting owls talking and laughing, chat- 
 tering away as nonsensically as the fash- 
 ionable leaders in a reception line held 
 in honor of the newest debutante. Oc- 
 casionally a screech owl could be heard 
 chiming in, much like the elder sister
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 81 
 
 buzzing around the debutante. The ne- 
 groes were frightened out of their wits, 
 for they thought that panthers were 
 roaming the mountain forests, and they 
 took turns watching to keep the beasts 
 away. They did not seem to know that 
 wild animals keep away from fire or 
 light. Besides they might as well have 
 slept in peace, for Roy was watching. He 
 could not sleep. He was tired, sore and 
 sick. The ground was cold and hard as 
 a rock. Turn as he might, no sleep could 
 be had. 
 
 Rising early the next morning, they 
 continued their journey to the railroad 
 station. Late in the afternoon, as they 
 approached the outskirts of a village, 
 the clouds gathered thick and the snow 
 began to fall in large flakes on dry,
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 frozen ground, ready for a lasting snow. 
 Roy in his weakness would slip and fall, 
 get up, only to lose his footing again, 
 until at last his black-skinned compan- 
 ions landed him with might and main in 
 a deserted cabin just a few rods from a 
 similar cabin occupied by negroes. They 
 proved good Samaritans, indeed, as they 
 offered the first hospitality of the jour- 
 ney. The night passed, and an early 
 start was made the next morning, this 
 time with a rickety horse loaned by the 
 black Samaritans. Spending the entire 
 day, the party reached their long-desired 
 station. About one o'clock in the morn- 
 ing the train arrived. The only way Roy 
 could board a car, was by his compan- 
 ions picking him up and putting him in 
 it, They travelled all night and part of
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 
 
 the next day before they arrived in the 
 hill city, where Roy's parents lived. 
 Here he bade his black friends, who 
 went on, a last, grateful farewell. 
 
 Roy got off the train and tried to walk 
 home, but found it impossible. Still very 
 weak, he was obliged to sit down on the 
 curbing of the sidewalk. He was so 
 changed through sickness and exposure 
 and the various hardships of the journey 
 that no one in the little city recognized 
 him. A policeman came along and ar- 
 rested him for vagrancy, and the 'cop* 
 would not believe his words of explana- 
 tion. Calling a carriage, he took Roy 
 to the Mayor's Office. When Roy was 
 finally identified by his Honor, the 
 Mayor, the police officer was ordered to 
 assist him home. There his astonished
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 parents scarcely knew him, but they re- 
 joiced over his return. It is certain that 
 Roy was happy, too. The next day the 
 doctor was summoned and it was dis- 
 covered that Roy had pneumonia. A 
 few more weeks of illness was his lot, 
 and but for his mother's unfailing de- 
 votion, Roy could not have lived. His 
 mother kept her vigilant watch night 
 and day, never leaving the room until 
 he had passed the crisis. The doctors 
 had decided after consultation that it 
 was no use fighting the battle any 
 longer; the disease would certainly take 
 him off, it was thought. But one doctor 
 demurred, saying: "As long as he 
 breathes, I'll stay." This encouraged 
 the mother, and both watched him anx- 
 iously until the change for the better
 
 ROY'S BOYHOOD 25 
 
 came. Their joy was unspeakable. They 
 had conquered an almost unconquerable 
 malady. Little by little he improved, un- 
 til the doctor discharged him. He was 
 told he must remain away from the 
 mountains. Had he obeyed, there might 
 have been a different story. 
 
 Roy secured work for a short while, 
 but laborers were plentiful and work 
 quite scarce. Trying the city again he 
 found the smoke, bustle and filth im- 
 possible. He longed for the country, the 
 birds and the wild animals. Even the 
 snakes had a fascination for him, if he 
 could only see them crawl. Something 
 alive, even wildly alive, out in the open 
 was sure to attract him.
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Becoming restless in the city, Roy met 
 by chance another railroad man in pos- 
 session of a valuable contract on the Big 
 Sandy. He persuaded Roy to go with 
 him as a bookkeeper. Roy decided he 
 would try it again, and out they started, 
 travelling all day and night. Reaching 
 Ocohontas the next day, they went down 
 the Elk Horn to the camp, arriving on 
 the 20th day of December. 
 
 The contractors, bosses and clerks, in 
 fact all the white men, were winding up 
 their business for the year, and getting 
 off for the Christmas holidays. They left 
 the greenest youngster in the country in 
 
 96 

 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 87 
 
 charge of about five hundred negroes 
 and fifty mules. The only white people 
 left behind were the doctor, attached to 
 a coal company plant, and two foremen 
 of the same company. 
 
 A lonesome mortal was Roy as he 
 realized that all this business must be 
 managed by him. He scarcely knew 
 which way to turn, but gritting his 
 teeth and closing his eyes, he went at it 
 and did his best. 
 
 On Christmas Eve it seemed to him 
 that everybody on the mountain was 
 drunk. 
 
 The time had well passed two in the 
 morning when the first signs of life came 
 in close proximity to the cabin. A 
 steady tramping of feet approached, and 
 then there followed a knocking at the 
 door.
 
 28 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Fully alive to thoughts of self-preser- 
 vation, Roy grabbed a revolver from its 
 holster and called out: 
 
 "Who are you, and what do you 
 want?" 
 
 It was the customary mountaineer 
 greeting. 
 
 "Fm old Lewis, and in trouble." 
 
 "Come in," he shouted, throwing his 
 gun aside on the cot. 
 
 The aged mountaineer entered quietly. 
 His trouble was simple enough. Not 
 realizing the difference between the rail- 
 road bridge and any ordinary bridge, 
 he had attempted to ride horseback 
 across the railway bridge, with the re- 
 sult that his mount had fallen through 
 and was straddled on the ties. It was 
 only a few minutes' work to revolve the
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 
 
 derrick and extract the struggling ani- 
 mal; but to old Lewis it was the miracle 
 of ages. 
 
 He turned to Roy in open eyed wonder, 
 and would listen to no modest explana- 
 tions. "Yuh have got some sense, suh, 
 to think of that. Have a drink with old 
 Lewis." 
 
 Roy explained that he never drank. 
 
 For the second time in five minutes 
 genuine amazement shone from old 
 Lewis' eyes. Then he clapped his side 
 and extended a horny palm that Roy 
 silently shook. 
 
 "I'm glad to hear it, suh. That's right, 
 don't you drink. If you drink with one 
 and don't drink with another you get 
 into trouble. If you drink with all these 
 folks here you will get drunk. And if
 
 30 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 you get drunk, you will get into a row. 
 An' if you get into a row somebody is 
 going to get killed, sir. These folks can 
 shoot better than you'uns, for there 
 haint a mountaineer in the country that 
 can't shoot better than these furriners. 
 So take old Lewis' advice and never 
 touch a drop." 
 
 Old Lewis was known throughout the 
 country as an irritable rascal, who fol- 
 lowing a path directly contrary to his 
 wholesome advice, had got into quite a 
 few rows with these same "furriners." 
 His continued existence was a living 
 testimonial to his own utterance that 
 "any mountaineer can shoot better than 
 these furriners." Also that some moun- 
 taineers can shoot better than others. 
 
 Save for a mere handful of men, the
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES II 
 
 camp was entirely ignorant of these 
 early morning proceedings, and it must 
 have been a shock for their mental self- 
 control when they rambled in for break- 
 fast, to find the hardened mountaineer, 
 who was never known to have uttered 
 two civil words to a stranger in his life, 
 quietly sitting at his meal with the 
 young foreman. Comments among the 
 men were numerous. "Hard" Alverson 
 noticed the couple just in time to choke 
 on a cup of hot coffee. 
 
 "The ," and he hastily arose and 
 
 stumped around the fire. "To think o' 
 or Lewis actin like this. Yas, if I had'nt 
 been here for ten minutes and a-seen 
 nothin' happen, Fd have given that 
 youngster just fifty seconds to breathe." 
 
 The general verdict was harsh enough :
 
 82 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 that old Lewis had never been known to 
 carry on like this before. But the great- 
 est surprise of all still awaited them. 
 
 As old Lewis rose to leave, he turned 
 to Roy, and, in a tone audible all over 
 the camp, spoke his little oration: 
 
 "I ain't no man of letters, but there's 
 
 one thing I can spell, and that's friend- 
 
 t 
 
 ship. If anybody round here no matter 
 
 who he be bothers ye, it's my fight." 
 
 To Roy there were bands playing, and 
 bugles sounding, and fireworks going off 
 as he heard this speech. An expression 
 of support like this from a man of old 
 Lewis' influence among the mountain 
 community was just what he needed. 
 
 There were land concessions to be ad- 
 justed amicably, right-of-ways to be se- 
 cured, and hostile forces to be won over.
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 38 
 
 The support of old Lewis meant much 
 to him. 
 
 The job being finished, Roy moved 
 down the river forty miles further to 
 close up other work that had been in 
 progress for several years. In getting 
 moved, winding up the affairs of the 
 company, and settling down to business 
 again, he became a Jack-of-all-Trades. 
 He was paymaster, civil engineer, stable 
 boy, commissary clerk and a handy-andy 
 at everything. He had to attend to all 
 the money, pay off all the men and settle 
 up accounts. One day he became lone- 
 some. He got on a mule and rode up to 
 the camp of a neighbor. The river be- 
 ing high he was unable to ford it. He 
 tied the mule fast and walked across the 
 little trestle, then a mile to the camp, 
 
 3
 
 84 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 where he found some people ripe for 
 conversation. There was nothing to read 
 in this country, not even patent medicine 
 signs, and one gets frightfully lonesome 
 without anything to do. The work was 
 all caught up. They talked until late, 
 and Roy realized that darkness had over- 
 taken him. People there never stay out 
 after dark, but Roy had to get back to 
 his camp. He started down the road, 
 keeping in the middle all the way. When 
 he got nearly across the trestle, a man 
 swore at him and ordered him to stop. 
 Roy replied: "Alright," but continued 
 to move. A second time the order came. 
 By this time Roy had reached the ground 
 on the other side. It was so dark he 
 could not see an inch beyond his nose. 
 Roy knew his only hope was in running,
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 85 
 
 and run he did, with the man shooting at 
 him. He knew it would be a mere acci- 
 dent if he were shot in the darkness, and 
 that if he stayed there he certainly 
 would be killed. The man followed, 
 shooting as he ran. Roy seemed bullet- 
 proof as he sped along faster than the 
 cartridges. 
 
 Mounting his mule, they never stopped 
 until they reached camp. Roy called to 
 the stable boy to put the mule away. An 
 hour later, the old rascal who had been 
 chasing Roy came into the office and sat 
 and talked with him as quietly as if noth- 
 ing had happened. The old man knew 
 that Roy was the one he was after, but 
 he didn't know that Roy knew him, and 
 one can bet that Roy didn't tell him.
 
 86 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 They had a very pleasant chat and the 
 old man went on his journey. 
 
 A few days later, old Lewis rode up to 
 Roy's office and inquired of Roy whether 
 or not someone had tried to hold him up. 
 Roy replied that some man had tried to 
 have some fun with him, and he had it. 
 Lewis reared back on his horse and stick- 
 ing his spurs well in him, remarked: 
 4 There haint room enough in this 
 
 county fur me and that there 
 
 scoundrel Well, I promised to do your 
 fighting, and my word is as good as my 
 bond, sir." Roy replied: "Let him alone, 
 let him alone." Lewis persisted, but 
 fortunately for the fellow, a man stand- 
 ing a little way off whom Lewis did not 
 see, heard the conversation and told 
 Roy's night friend that Lewis was after
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 87 
 
 him and that he had better look out. He 
 took the advice and never returned to 
 the county again. He knew perfectly 
 well that if he did he would be received 
 by a bullet. Lewis was always on the 
 watch, his eyes and ears were open, and 
 had the fellow ever returned, a first-class 
 funeral would have been conducted at 
 Long Pole. 
 
 To expect the average outsider to 
 sympathize with the ethics of the Ten- 
 nessee mountaineer, would be as un- 
 natural as for a dog to twist his own 
 tail. To the stoic he is a bundle of ec- 
 centricities ; to the prohibitionist, he rep- 
 resents a large bottle of the "still" 
 enemy; and to the superficial Christian 
 he stands embodied as everything that 
 ought not to be. To the ordinary short 
 
 443320
 
 88 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 story writer he is human, because he 
 possesses eyes, ears, hands and a nose, 
 and speaks a language resembling Eng- 
 lish, and is good at any time for three 
 thousand words at magazine rates. 
 
 The few people who have introspec- 
 tively put themselves in the place of a 
 native of the Cumberland range, have 
 realized that he is a normal being: the 
 perfect product of first, half a century 
 of neglect, and later, half a century of 
 spoliation. What these children of the 
 mountains have learned during that time 
 is merely that "God helps those who help 
 themselves." Add to this the perverted 
 maxim "Do your neighbor as he would 
 do you," and you have the mountaineers' 
 code of iron-handed feudalism down to a 
 science. The one justification for such a
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 39 
 
 standard is its universal spread in the 
 mountains. It holds for everyone and 
 favors no one. 
 
 In the mountain hollows which lend 
 themselves naturally to fortifications, 
 the mountaineer had found it convenient 
 to protect himself from the Indians on 
 the one side, and a purely imaginary 
 movement of the plainsmen on the other 
 side. The people of the plain never had 
 any idea of trying to rout them from 
 their former homes until recently, since 
 the discovery of coal and oil. The felling 
 of the forest has also added its mite, at- 
 tracting the foreigner in an attempt to 
 get possession of this whole country. On 
 the other hand, the Indians in the old 
 days were continually pressing in and 
 massacring the mountaineer.
 
 40 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 This accounts for the way their houses 
 are built, with no windows, two doors, a 
 small porthole by the fireplace with a 
 sliding board to cover it. When one goes 
 to a man's house and shouts, the inmate 
 sits quietly by the fire and answers: 
 "What do you want and who are you?" 
 When they recognize the voice of the 
 visitor as that of a friend, they invite 
 him in, perhaps never moving from their 
 fireplace. They offer a chair, even though 
 it may be the only one they have, while 
 they squat on the floor by the fireplace 
 and make you at home. The moun- 
 taineer, or highlander, never apologizes 
 for what he has or has not, but does the 
 best he can for you, dividing his last 
 morsel of bread. Riding through the 
 mountains when night comes you stop
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 41 
 
 at a friend's house and spend the night. 
 This is often kept up for several days 
 and nights before one gets back to one's 
 own house, especially if he is fishing or 
 hunting. This is the best way to really 
 know the mountaineer, when he enjoys 
 having you. 
 
 One day Lewis came by Roy's office 
 and spoke to him about a gun. Roy re- 
 marked: "The gun is gone." Lewis re- 
 plied: "Mine never fails to shoot," and 
 rode off perfectly cool, sober and de- 
 liberate. Roy realized that trouble was 
 at hand, but how to prevent it was more 
 than he could discover. After Lewis had 
 ridden off, Roy decided to go down the 
 road to see what the trouble was and if 
 by chance he might be able to do some- 
 thing to prevent it. He saw Lewis ride
 
 4 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 down to Benton River, get off his horse, 
 tie him some distance away, walk quietly 
 to the squire's house, and enter. Roy 
 knew there would be no trouble in the 
 house, as there was no unpleasantness 
 between the man who occupied the house 
 and Lewis. He waited and wondered 
 what was up. It was not very long be- 
 fore a man came down the ravine, whom 
 Roy recognized as old Lewis's nephew. 
 Roy also knew there was no trouble be- 
 tween these two. But the clan was 
 gathering, and if the opponents came, 
 there would be trouble. Roy remem- 
 bered that young Lewis had had some 
 trouble with his wife, and that the wife 
 had been taken, which was unusual 
 among the highlanders, by a man named 
 Hiram, who did not live far from the
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 
 
 house where the two Lewises were to 
 meet. Roy watched young Lewis as he 
 walked slowly down past the house, and 
 as he cleared the house, Roy saw the 
 heads of five men beyond the bank of the 
 river. A shot was fired from the river 
 and young Lewis fell dead. The men who 
 had murdered the young man, feeling 
 quite confident that they were now safe, 
 came walking slowly up to the squire's 
 house, as if they had done no more than 
 shoot a bird, and were proceeding to get 
 the. game, not realizing that inside the 
 house was the uncle of the man just 
 killed. The report of the gun attracted 
 old Lewis and the squire. Old Lewis, with 
 an awful oath, walked out with gun in 
 hand, firing as he approached the five 
 men. Four times he shot and four men
 
 44 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 fell dead. The fifth had but little nerve 
 and ran away. The bank of the river 
 was close by, and he was soon protected. 
 He never stopped for a moment to see 
 what had happened to his brothers, for 
 when a man begins to run, there is little 
 hope of his stopping to see what has hap- 
 pened behind him. 
 
 Lewis did not pursue him, but stood 
 facing the coward who had run away, 
 for he was the individual who had caused 
 the trouble. If Lewis had had the op- 
 portunity he would have killed him also. 
 But for a moment he turned and came 
 to Roy and said: "I wish you would 
 bury Lewis." Roy asked what had hap- 
 pened. Lewis responded : "Nothing much. 
 My only regret is that I did not kill the 
 damned coward first" He did'nt seem
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 46' 
 
 to be excited, but was sober, cool and de- 
 liberate. These people rarely take a 
 drink when a battle as this is to be 
 fought out. Roy got some negroes, made 
 a box, and blackened it with some shoe 
 polish. What on earth they had shoe 
 polish for is hard to tell, for it is an un- 
 necessary article for engineers and rail- 
 road men in the mountains. However, 
 he had it and used it on the coffin. This 
 attracted the attention of all the neigh- 
 bors. They thought it was the nicest 
 thing they had ever seen. The next day 
 Roy buried young Lewis. Shortly after 
 the funeral, a message was sent to Roy, 
 asking him if he would bury the four 
 men who had been lying in the squire's 
 house untouched, except for being car- 
 ried from the place where they had been
 
 46 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 killed to the floor of the squire's house. 
 He replied that he would, and gathering 
 around him the same crew of negroes 
 that had buried Lewis, he went to work 
 making four boxes. The boxes made, 
 the question arose about blackening 
 them, for all the blacking in camp had 
 been used for Lewis' coffin, and to show 
 any distinction would have been an in- 
 sult in that region. One of the negroes 
 fell upon a scheme of boiling some roots 
 and bark and making paint, which they 
 did successfully. The funeral from the 
 painters' standpoint at any rate was a 
 success. 
 
 The people of the community took 
 sides with Lewis on the ground that it 
 was an unfair battle of five to one. 
 Young Lewis was killed with five men
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 47 
 
 against him, and when old Lewis ap- 
 peared there were still five men against 
 him. This shows their idea of justice, 
 crudely measured out. Lewis was al- 
 lowed to go, for no one would interfere 
 with a man who had fought five and de- 
 feated them. 
 
 In this battle, Roy was made a friend 
 of by both sides. He had to be very 
 careful of what he said or did for fear 
 of making enemies on one side or the 
 other. Had he taken or felt like tak- 
 ing sides with either, it would not have 
 been healthy for him. In order to make 
 friends, to be successful among the people 
 of the mountains, and have influence 
 two things are necessary; one is, never 
 to drink or take sides, and the other is to 
 give good, strong, wholesome, straight-
 
 48 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 forward advice and never waver. The 
 mountaineer sees honesty, fearlessness 
 and straightforwardness in one's eyes. 
 He looks you straight in the eye and 
 through you, understanding more per- 
 haps from the expression of the eye and 
 of the countenance, than the language 
 used. 
 
 The work was being finished, and the 
 end of Roy's life at Big Sandy was draw- 
 ing to a close. The track was laid and 
 the trains running over the newly made 
 road. Everything was packed and ready 
 to move out, when an officer of the law 
 served notice that the materials were all 
 attached. A man had brought suit 
 against the contractor for having thrown 
 some big stone * into a small level spot. 
 What to do the contractor was at a loss
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 49 
 
 to know. In despair he went to his old 
 friend Lewis, who had promised to take 
 care of him. Lewis said: "Never mind, 
 I'll take care of that. Tomorrow at ten 
 o'clock we'll settle this business. Meet 
 me at the big walnut in the bend of the 
 river." At ten o'clock the next day they 
 were all gathered under the big walnut, 
 the sun pleasant and the day delightful. 
 The magistrate was there, and shortly 
 came a lawyer, his saddle pockets filled 
 with what looked like a great law library. 
 What the lawyer intended doing with 
 these books was hard to understand. 
 Neither the judge nor the men present 
 could read. A bluff it might be, but 
 these people were not easily bluffed. One 
 could only wait and watch the move- 
 ments and learn what was to happen. 
 
 4
 
 50 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 The lawyer dismounted and took off the 
 saddle pockets very carefully, showing 
 that they did not contain books, went 
 down under the bank of the river, called 
 a few of the men, the men answering 
 promptly. After imbibing freely of the 
 law of the mountain, the case was heard. 
 
 By the time the witnesses were all 
 through, the crowd was in a jolly mood. 
 The magistrate stated that he could not 
 see where the prosecution had a case, 
 and he dismissed it. The case had not 
 been dismissed more than ten minutes 
 when the engine was pulling the train 
 loaded with the contractor's goods, into 
 another state, thus ending the law suit 
 over a piece of land about a tenth of an 
 acre in extent. 
 
 Roy was returning to his parents'
 
 ROY'S ADVENTURES 61 
 
 home in the city, filled with enthusiasm 
 and interest in the mountain folk. Two 
 years he had spent in their homes, study- 
 ing their character as best he could. 
 While working at his daily task he was 
 saving his small earnings to pay his way 
 through college.
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 His mind saturated with the primeval 
 forms of "mountain justice" as he had 
 seen it executed, and his soul awakened 
 by the crude customs of mountain life, 
 Roy went to his old pastor in the city, 
 like a man having made a new discovery. 
 
 "It would take just one churchman to 
 make a civilized community out of that 
 region, sir," he told the rector, "just one 
 churchman to preach and practice the 
 theory of brotherly love. These people 
 follow the ancient custom of an eye for 
 an eye, as if anything else would be a 
 sacrilege. And, if the church would spare 
 one man from its centres, to give his 
 
 52
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 53 
 
 time to these people, to make the Cum- 
 berland region his life-work, he'd be 
 creating a new following for God. Yes, 
 sir, if they could only know " 
 
 The old rector arose slowly. With a 
 grim smile overspreading his face, he 
 drew a packet of letters from his desk; 
 then took down a paper of names that 
 had been pinned to the screen in his 
 study. 
 
 "You see these letters? All these peo- 
 ple have written and in their ignorance, 
 blamed the church for conditions exists 
 ing in the mountains. You notice sev- 
 eral prominent people on this list of 
 names. They have likewise censured 
 the church for its seeming neglect. Roy, 
 m y boy, we have tried every art, offered 
 inducements, small ones, it is true, but
 
 54 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 still inducements, to persuade one of 
 these letter-writers, or one of the per- 
 sons whose name appears on this paper, 
 to undertake this as a work. There are 
 two views to be considered always; what 
 the clergy have found expedient, and 
 what the laymen believe expedient. And 
 then there is the consideration of what 
 the clergy are willing to do, and what 
 the laymen are willing to do. They 
 recognize the need of missionaries in the 
 mountains, they reprimand the church 
 for its backwardness in not supplying 
 this need; but they offer no assistance, 
 either in devoting their time and efforts, 
 or in a material way we hope, before 
 long to create an endowment sufficiently 
 large to support a parish; but the man 
 to take charge of it among all these,"
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 55 
 
 he held up the letters again, "we have 
 not found one whose idea of service ex- 
 tends so far. Did you speak?" 
 
 Roy remained silent. 
 
 "As you say," the rector continued, 
 "one true churchman could bring mental, 
 physical and religious betterment to that 
 community. Why don't you go and do 
 the work?" 
 
 This had not occurred to Roy. He 
 had not thought of it in that light, for 
 like a majority of men, he only saw the 
 mote in his brother's eye. Then came 
 the question, why should not Roy be the 
 one to do it, after all? But he had prob- 
 lems of his own. He did not have either 
 the education or the opportunity to ac- 
 quire it. His salary was not large, and 
 the poverty of his early life had not been
 
 56 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 overcome. The family, though perhaps 
 better off, were not able to assist him. 
 Neither were his friends. And there 
 was no school for him to work his way 
 through. His mother always had visions 
 of her boys in college, and thought there 
 must be something for him to do which 
 would help him to take the position in 
 the world she had dreamed he would. 
 How she used to puzzle her brain, write 
 letters of inquiry, trying to find out some 
 place he might go and work his way 
 through college. But up to this time no 
 place had been found. 
 
 Finally he secured a position in a store 
 and determined to try to get an educa- 
 tion by some means, working day and 
 night. This did not give him many 
 hours of study, but he read all he could.
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 57 
 
 His mother taught him when the oppor- 
 tunity presented itself. The hours at the 
 store being long, there was little time for 
 study. 
 
 His mother had been trained by her 
 father, a wealthy man, to be a school 
 teacher, for her father frequently re- 
 marked to his children: "You may lose 
 your money, but no one can rob you of 
 your brains. You may have to depend 
 some day on your brains for a living." 
 His advice and counsel proved prophetic, 
 for that is exactly what she had to do 
 after the war was over. 
 
 After working a year and a half in 
 the store, Roy was taken with typhoid 
 fever. The doctors were very uneasy. 
 He fought hard to overcome the fever, 
 but it all seemed in vain. He called in
 
 58 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 two other physicians. They gave up and 
 declared there was no hope, but the good 
 old faithful family doctor said: "When 
 he stops breathing, I'll go home." The 
 mother as before, gentle, kind and un- 
 tiring, nursed him, and by the help of 
 God brought him through another severe 
 illness. It was a miracle. After six 
 weeks of battle, to see him walking 
 around the streets amazed his friends 
 and associates. God had spared his life 
 again and it must have been for some 
 good purpose. 
 
 The old adage came to him that where 
 there was a will there must be a way. 
 But education still seemed impossible. 
 His mother was the only one who had 
 faith. The rest of the family said there 
 was no use. But encouraged by a godly
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION B9 
 
 mother, who ever prayed for her boys 
 and believed in them, he was inspired to 
 go on. Leaving the city to recuperate, 
 he found another position which was 
 more remunerative than anything he 
 had had before. The outdoor life hast- 
 ened his recovery, and after completing 
 the work he had undertaken, he had 
 money laid aside to send himself to 
 school. A happy morning it was when 
 his little trunk was packed and he went 
 off to college. Four years he spent in 
 college, and how he got through he can 
 scarcely tell. It was hard work to make 
 ends meet; wearing old clothes, eating 
 scant rations but this was necessary if 
 he expected to get an education. And 
 after all, his life in college, though 
 cramped, was most delightful. None of
 
 60 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 the other students had money, which was 
 fortunate. They had to economize just 
 as he did, and most of them worked at 
 their books very hard, for they were 
 backward, not having had an oppor- 
 tunity to attend a preparatory school. 
 Thus the time passed rapidly enough. 
 
 Ah! those college days! The ups and 
 downs of a student's life grow more in- 
 teresting as one gets older. Imagine a 
 small village, surrounded by magnificent 
 mountain peaks inspiring men to a 
 higher and broader vision of life. 
 
 It was a beautiful Fall day, the foliage 
 just beginning to turn, warning the 
 world of approaching Winter, when he 
 registered for the first time in the col- 
 lege which was to be his Alma Mater. 
 He felt the Freshman's thrill of timidity
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 61 
 
 and self-distrust. As he watched the 
 proud and knowing walk of a Sopho- 
 more, he wondered how he would ever 
 get over his fearful sense of distance 
 between himself and that perambulating 
 Sophomore swinging a cane. Much had 
 been told him about college life by 
 "Marse" William, his father; about 
 its attractions on the one hand, and its 
 discipline on the other. 
 
 When Roy entered college, he had been 
 out of school for some years in the world 
 of hard knocks. While the discipline had 
 been severe, he had not lost any of his 
 mischievous boyhood. In fact, the mis- 
 chief-side of his youth only awaited an 
 opportunity. The opportunity came, for 
 the college village had a most interesting 
 character in blue coat and brass buttons,
 
 C2 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 who stood on the corner with an impos- 
 ing air, as though he were commanding 
 the Fifth avenue squad. It was the busi- 
 ness of the Sophomores to divide Fresh- 
 men into groups, locate them variously 
 in the village, cause one of the groups 
 thus located to attract the "Chiefs" at- 
 tention, decoy him off with outlandish 
 cries, while the other groups painted the 
 town red, removed the gates, and did 
 their mischief undisturbed. 
 
 This, of course, aroused the ire of the 
 faculty, who were all determined to 
 stamp out the rowdyism, and preserve 
 order in the dignified institution of 
 learning. The president of the college 
 ordered an immediate and thorough in- 
 vestigation of every student's room. The 
 student, however, was prepared for the
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 63 
 
 investigation. Traps were laid for visit- 
 ing professors. Water was plentiful, 
 ropes easily accessible, and many a poor 
 wise man had to change his clothing, or 
 be stitched up by the surgeon after a trip 
 over the ropes stretched across their 
 paths. However, the investigation was 
 made, notwithstanding, and every stu- 
 dent was found bending over Cicero, or 
 Sophocles, Horace or Homer, when the 
 ancient professors made their rounds, 
 armed with executive authority. 
 
 The Freshman class was ending its 
 year. Roy in the meantime had de- 
 veloped into a first-class college athlete. 
 Already he was becoming a hero on the 
 gridiron and diamond. The long runs, 
 quick openings, ferocious tackles, flying 
 wedges, in all of which he figured, be-
 
 64 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 came the absorbing talk of the com- 
 mons, as well as the long, over-the-fence 
 hits, followed up by brilliant dashing 
 around the bases, and some superb field- 
 ing that never failed to bring the bleach- 
 ers down. But he excelled not in ath- 
 letics alone. After much halting, he be- 
 came a debater in one of the literary so- 
 cieties, finally winning the Debaters 
 Medal before an admiring and repre- 
 sentative audience on Commencement 
 Day. Questions like: "Which is more at- 
 tractive, the brunette or the blonde?" or 
 "Resolved, that the present system of 
 college government is a nuisance, and 
 should be abated or abolished," were de- 
 bated to the best of Roy's ability, and 
 he was usually declared a winner by 
 critical judges, who never failed to show
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION C5 
 
 off their own astuteness by bringing out 
 the weak and strong points of the sev- 
 eral debaters in frightfully long-winded 
 critiques from the handful of notes. 
 
 Commencement over, Roy boarded a 
 train to grapple once more with the 
 harder problems of his struggling life. 
 
 Earning sufficient money during vaca- 
 tion, he returned to college, mounting 
 the second rung of the ladder of his col- 
 lege course as a Sophomore. It was now 
 Roy's turn to lord it over a bunch of 
 Freshmen. Corraling the fresh incom- 
 ing class, Roy set each one his task to do. 
 The paint of the year before had been 
 burnt off by a hot Summer. The gates 
 and fences had been repaired, but that 
 meant out of repair as far as the Sopho- 
 mores were concerned. The "Chief" had
 
 W ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 nothing to do but keep his brass buttons 
 polished and his blue suit blue through 
 the weary vacation. 
 
 The boys were drilled and plans per- 
 fected to correct conditions that had 
 been allowed to stagnate. It was not 
 long before Roy had his machinery of 
 mischief well oiled and ready for opera- 
 tion. The honorable Mayor of the town, 
 quite willing to assist the college au- 
 thorities to subdue the students, had 
 doubled his police force by giving the 
 "Chief" a highly accomplished assistant. 
 This made Roy's task doubly hard, but 
 he doubled his wits, placing herds of 
 Freshmen at either end of the town, 
 which consisted of one long boulevard. 
 The two blue-coats were thus decoyed 
 from the real field of boyish action. The
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 61 
 
 town next morning being thoroughly 
 painted by the artists, the gates and 
 fences being properly arranged, the stu- 
 dents were ready for class work. The 
 locks of the class rooms could not be 
 used, for the students had become ex- 
 pert locksmiths over night. 
 
 The wise white-haired, sedate and un- 
 suspecting professors of the liberal arts, 
 had toiled in vain to gain admittance 
 into their own class rooms, but there was 
 one professor, the idol of the student 
 body, whose room was untouched. He 
 sat upon his professorial throne and 
 gazed wistfully upon the empty seats be- 
 fore him. The janitor thought he had 
 rung the bell, and upon being questioned 
 declared "I rang it at the usual hour." 
 Trying it again and finding no sound re-
 
 8 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 spending to his labor or the sweat of his 
 brow, he climbed into the belfry. No 
 wonder there was no response the clap- 
 per had mysteriously disappeared! The 
 sages were summoned in a faculty meet- 
 ing, which lasted into the early hours of 
 the morning. At chapel, following the 
 meeting, some wholesome advice pealed 
 from the pulpit, and the day's work be- 
 gan. 
 
 The regular routine of college life re- 
 stored, the year went by with Roy barely 
 passing his Sophomore "exams." An- 
 other Summer flew by, and now for the 
 Junior Class, the real critical year of 
 college life. The frivolities of the Sopho- 
 more must be abandoned in some meas- 
 ure. The seriousness of the Seniors just 
 above him was almost oppressive to Roy.
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 
 
 He must now solemnly think of his life 
 vocation. The Dean constantly reminded 
 the student body of life's various call- 
 ings, and the necessity of making a 
 definite choice of one of them. But Roy 
 proved restive under solemnity. One 
 beautiful cold moonlight night, with his 
 tried friend and classmate, he strolled 
 out on the hill side, sat down under a 
 tall locust, and began to discuss how 
 serious life must be. While thus in con- 
 versation, they began with a small stick 
 to dig a hole in the ground. Becoming 
 more interested in what they were doing 
 than in what they were talking about, 
 Roy's companion remarked, "If I had a 
 pick and a shovel, I would dig a hole 
 down here sure enough." Roy imme- 
 diately slipped off to a nearby house, get-
 
 70 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 ting the pick and shovel, and returned. 
 The two toiled away for hours, digging 
 the hole, apparently without any pur- 
 pose. Getting tired of their labor, they 
 returned the pick and shovel, and the 
 owner being asleep, doubtless dreamed 
 of their gratitude. Finally, going back 
 to their rooms, they were soon absorbed 
 in Christian Evidences, Political Econ- 
 omy and kindred studies. Arising the 
 next morning they were surprised to 
 find the town startled at this mysterious 
 hole. A guard had been put on watch. 
 The Associated Press got busy and sent 
 the news throughout the land that a 
 mysterious hole had been discovered, 
 evidently designed to recover hidden 
 treasures or hide a scandal. While the 
 town was agog over the matter, Roy and
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 71 
 
 his companion hugely enjoyed the joke 
 they had unwittingly perpetrated on the 
 public, ever ready for a scandal. The 
 secret was never divulged. No doubt 
 there are many traditions gathered 
 around that hole in the ground, inno- 
 cently dug twenty years ago by two seri- 
 ous-minded Juniors. 
 
 Junior examinations over, another 
 Commencement passed into college his- 
 tory. Roy took up the toil of earning 
 more means to complete his senior year 
 in college. This having been accom- 
 plished, the serious-minded Senior re- 
 turned to his class for the final lap. He 
 must now determine his life calling. Law 
 was presented with all its emoluments. 
 Politics was put before him with its 
 allurement of power. Medicine was sug-
 
 73 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 gested as a way to combine the necessi- 
 ties of a livelihood with opportunities of 
 philanthropy. The ministry was the last 
 presented and with the least emphasis. 
 The idea being constantly conveyed that 
 the South needed material rejuvenation 
 in order to make way for the more cul- 
 tured callings. Roy could not throw off 
 the lingering memories of his mother's 
 oft expressed wish that her son might 
 become a clergyman. Again there was 
 the appeal of his old rector haunting him, 
 "Why don't you do it?" when Roy had 
 abused the church and the state, in fact 
 everything but himself, for the crying 
 neglect of the mountaineer. Besides all 
 this, there were many providential cir- 
 cumstances, the logic of which Roy could 
 not in his own mind evade such as f re-
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 73 
 
 quent proximity to death in the sick 
 room and marvelous recoveries despite 
 exposures. Here was the "still small 
 voice," he always heard even in the 
 clanging of friendly counsel on every 
 side in those college days of yore. Slowly, 
 deliberately and irrevocably, he decided 
 to become an ordained minister of the 
 Gospel, perhaps a missionary to the 
 mountaineer. 
 
 The decision made, he reported to the 
 Dean, who with enthusiasm planned out 
 his senior work with a theological course 
 in view. The work was most delightful, 
 and the year passed before Roy realized 
 it. Examinations easy, the class day is a 
 joy to the men who soon will hear the 
 familiar words: "Auctoritate mihi com- 
 missa, admitto te ad Gradum," etc., and
 
 74 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 ending "In Nomine Patris et filii et 
 Spiritus Sancti, Amen," while Academic 
 hoods were being suspended down their 
 backs. 
 
 Then came the sad farewells. Four 
 happy years were ended. With a heavy 
 heart Roy boarded the train for home. 
 There a joyous meeting took place be- 
 tween son and proud parents. But time 
 was precious, and remunerative work 
 must be had. He must be provided with 
 more means to pursue the theological 
 work of three more long years that now 
 faced him. While working during the 
 Summer, and after taking counsel with 
 a friend, he decided what Seminary he 
 would attend. At last the time came, 
 and Roy started for the Divinity School. 
 
 On a hot dusty July day he arrived,
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 75 
 
 having had a long tiresome trip. Reach- 
 ing the Dean's office, where he was as- 
 signed a room after registering, he 
 made straight for his room and arrang- 
 ed his baggage, and made his first ac- 
 quaintance with the Seminary class- 
 room. He realized that new conditions 
 in a new environment surrounded him. 
 He must adjust himself to conditions. 
 The serious-minded "theolog" roaming 
 through the woods, attracted his atten- 
 tion. Some of them roamed with an 
 evident air of doubt and skepticism; 
 others cock-sure they were right, and 
 knew it all. The incoming class watched 
 with awe and amazement. Roy soon 
 realized that immature minds have to 
 go through critical periods, causing 
 much anxiety and questioning among
 
 78 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 those of the weaker type, while among 
 those of the stronger type there is sus- 
 pension of judgment, awaiting develop- 
 ments in and out of the class-room. 
 
 Only a few days passed until he buck- 
 led down to Westcott and Hort's New 
 Testament in Greek, Pearson on the 
 Creed, Browne on the Thirty-nine Arti- 
 cles, and Robertson's History of the 
 Christian Church; also fell to digging 
 Hebrew and Greek roots. The Profes- 
 sor of the English Old Testament acted 
 as a Moses, leading his class through 
 the Arabian Wilderness across the Red 
 Sea, into the Promised Land, after he 
 had committed to memory the Judges, 
 Kings and Prophets of the Kingdom of 
 Israel, united and divided. The Profes- 
 sor of the New Testament exegeted the
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 77 
 
 Synoptists, the Fourth Gospel, the Pro- 
 legomena, the Pauline Epistles, the 
 Petrine, the Johannine writings, until the 
 class was led to gaze upon the mystic ar- 
 chitecture of the Apocalypse. The Pro- 
 fessor would exclaim: "Gentlemen, I have 
 two Bibles: the great Bible and the 
 Aristotle." Roy's professor of Church 
 History was a man of dates and erudite 
 detail, and Roy was not surprised when 
 the Professor solemnly turned upon him 
 and asked: "Sir, what was the color of 
 St. Augustine's eyes"? Roy was rather 
 shocked one day when one of his class 
 mates called out: "Say ain't you going 
 to Dog"? "What's that," Roy stupidly 
 asked. "Why Dogmatic Theology, you 
 chump." 
 The Professor in the Dogmatic School
 
 78 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 informed his class that it was the busi- 
 ness of his chair to crystallize thought, 
 to have all the shocks, all the doubts and 
 the questionings out at once, for there 
 was but little time to lose if the ground 
 was to be covered before the end of the 
 semester. Hall's "Kenotic Theory," Lid- 
 dont Bampton Lectures on "The Divin- 
 ity of our Lord" were his stand-bys. 
 The professor of Homiletics made the 
 students preach to an imaginary congre- 
 gation, thus preparing them for empty 
 churches. 
 
 While all this was necessary, Roy was 
 impatient to put into daily practice the 
 things he had learned and was learning. 
 Feeling he could better understand the 
 intellectual by mixing in the practical, 
 he found a mission post as if by Provi-
 
 - I

 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 79 
 
 dence, actually in an outlying mountain 
 district. Finding the conditions alarm- 
 ing, from educational and moral stand- 
 \ 
 
 points, again came the voice of the rec- 
 tor back home: "Why don't you do it?" 
 Roy made up his mind that it was his 
 business, and he proceeded to "do it." 
 There was no church or school in that 
 mountainous district, people gathered 
 about him under a spreading oak, and 
 soon his work began in dead earnest. The 
 tree was sufficient for the Summer, but 
 what was to be done when the cold 
 weather came? Religion should not 
 take a vacation because it is hot or cold. 
 When a man or woman allows the tem- 
 perature to affect church attendance, 
 a perilous condition is faced. Roy made 
 up his mind to provide against the day 
 of cold weather.
 
 80 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 With two carpenters the church was 
 built after the lumber was secured. 
 Later on with the same crew, he built 
 a school. Thus he spent three years 
 studying and listening to learned lec- 
 tures and more learned discussions in 
 the class room, but on Saturday and Sun- 
 day he would attempt to put into prac- 
 tice the simple faith he had learned at 
 his mother's knee on the old Virginia 
 plantation. 
 
 He did not, however, spend quite all 
 his time in the classroom and mountain 
 missions, he had not yet forgotten the 
 art of foot ball. His college reputation 
 had preceded him. He was pressed into 
 the team, and toured the country with 
 the University squad. 
 
 Eleven men composed the team, six
 
 ROY'S EDUCATION 81 
 
 of whom were "theologs." That team 
 was destined to become the champion of 
 the South with Roy as an All-Southern 
 star. Three other "Theologs" took 
 places in the All-Southern line-up. 
 
 Having won a "rep" (a college slang 
 for reputation) for himself, he found 
 himself "rushed" for a Greek-letter 
 "frat" or fraternity. Having already 
 travelled over the rough and rugged road 
 of a Greek alphabet in the college from 
 which he came, he was not eligible. But 
 looking about he found good material 
 that had been neglected, and he proceed- 
 ed to install his own chapter with his 
 characteristic vigor. This chapter after- 
 wards won the reputation of a frater- 
 nity of scholars, upon which reputation 
 there has never been a blot.
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 All through Roy's career he had been 
 deprived of social life. For one thing, 
 his work was largely with railroads and 
 engineering camps in the mountains. 
 He had watched with interest a few of 
 the mountain folk, as the mountaineer 
 terms it "sitting up" with them. The 
 highlander's courting is thoroughly uni- 
 que. Four or five young men will call 
 on a young lady. They sit around the 
 fireside. Suddenly she is asked to make 
 her choice. With becoming blushes she 
 makes it. The unfortunate ones retire. 
 A month or so later there is a wedding. 
 All of this, of course, was picturesque to 
 
 89
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 88 
 
 Roy who viewed it from a distance, for 
 he was not in any position financially or 
 otherwise to become a hero in a moun- 
 tain romance. It was all he could do to 
 make a living for himself, and it was his 
 constant hope that he might become edu- 
 cated and take his place in the world as 
 his mother had long wished. 
 
 Things had now changed for Roy. His 
 education completed, so far as colleges 
 and seminaries were concerned, he was 
 now soon to take his place in the world 
 and become a man of affairs. Should he 
 take that place alone? Did Adam take 
 his place in Eden alone? Or did St. 
 Peter journey through life alone? The 
 same question that puzzled Adam or St. 
 Peter, was now before Roy, but Roy was
 
 84 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 not given to long puzzling besides the 
 fairies were kind to him. 
 
 As has already been said, Roy went 
 every week-end to his mission to the 
 mountaineers. One Saturday Roy, as 
 usual rode his bay horse, "Marse" Robert, 
 which had been shipped to him from the 
 East by a friend of the mission, to meet 
 his appointment at the little gray church 
 in the cove, which he had built himself 
 with the aid of two carpenters. It was 
 Easter. The Easter flower of the moun- 
 tains is the trailing arbutus. It per- 
 fumes the air of the hills perfectly. Roy 
 took sniff after sniff with "Marse" 
 Robert. Overhead, the Red Bird, the 
 Robin and the Thrush were mingling 
 their golden voices in Easter Carols. On
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 85 
 
 every side were evidences of Nature's 
 resurrection, fitting in with the happiest 
 festival of the year. 
 
 Amid such scenes of natural beauty, 
 inspired by evidences of life from Win- 
 ter's death, Roy was meditating over his 
 Easter sermon. How must he tell the 
 Easter story understandingly to his sim- 
 ple mountain congregation? Deeper and 
 deeper into the sermon Roy's mind 
 plunged. But what's that? He imag- 
 ined he heard a plaintive human cry, 
 but resumed his meditation while 
 "Marse" Robert still acted queerly with 
 his ears pricked up. Roy had dismiss- 
 ed the thought that the cry might be 
 a human voice. He was now about 
 ten miles from the University village. 
 He had four miles to go. But there
 
 66 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 it is again! This time Roy stopped 
 "Marse" Robert dead in his tracks. 
 "Hel-1-l-p. Hel-1-l-p" came through the 
 air tremblingly . It was a human voice, 
 a woman's voice. It reached Roy. Some 
 one is in distress. Some one perhaps has 
 lost her way through these wild moun- 
 tain forests. Perhaps, it is a woman off 
 the road trying to get back to the beaten 
 path of travel. Thus Roy thought in 
 flashes, as he tried to locate the cry. 
 "Hel-1-l-p!" This time the cry was 
 louder. It was almost a shriek. Roy's 
 heart fairly jumped. Straightway he 
 wheeled "Marse" Robert around and 
 dashed through the timber to where he 
 thought the cry came from. "Marse" 
 Robert's hoofs patted the ground 
 rhythmically. The animal seemed to
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 87 
 
 sense danger somewhere. Strange, how 
 in a crisis a horse seems to have intelli- 
 gence bordering on the human. Roy's 
 task was made easy by "Marse" Robert, 
 to say the least. 
 
 All the time Roy was making for the 
 sound of the cry, there was something 
 in the voice that struck the young mis- 
 sionary, though it was unconscious at 
 the time. The cries kept up. Evident-y 
 the unknown was doing all she could to 
 attract the attention of the rider, whose 
 horse she probably heard drumming the 
 ground as he flew through the timber. 
 
 At last Roy came to a stop. It was at 
 the edge of a spur. He looked around, 
 but could see nothing. Again came the 
 cry "Help! My God, Help." The cry 
 was weakening but Roy heard it, and
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 looking down the side of the mou retain 
 spur, through tangle-wood fifty feet 
 down, he saw something white. He leap- 
 ed from "Marse" Robert, who at once 
 proceeded to graze. Peering through the 
 under-growth and trees on the mountain 
 side, with his eye ever upon the white 
 object. Roy made to the spot. The 
 white proved to be the white of a girl's 
 waist. Evidently she had fallen. She 
 might have rolled six or eight hundred 
 feet down the mountain side but some- 
 how her fall was arrested. 
 
 Roy looked at the girl and the girl 
 looked at Roy. Blood was streaming 
 down her face from an ugly gash on the 
 side of her head. Her clothes were torn. 
 Her hair dishevelled. She was moaning 
 as if stunned, and yet not altogether un-
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 89 
 
 conscious. Under Roy's look she shrank. 
 There was not much time to waste. Here 
 was Roy ten miles from the University, 
 where there was a hospital. There was 
 the girl in dire distress, really in need 
 of prompt surgical attention. Roy ap- 
 proached the girl. Happening to glance 
 down to the foot of the spur, beyond the 
 form of the prostrate girl, Roy was 
 struck for the moment with horror. 
 There lay a dead horse, all cut to pieces. 
 Like a flash Roy understood what had 
 happened. The girl was a stranger in 
 that part of the world. Indeed, as it 
 later proved, she was a visitor on the 
 mountain, having come up to be a belle 
 of the annual Easter dance. She was 
 taking a ride through the woods. The 
 woods, its sights and smells fascinated
 
 90 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 her. She was going too far, and did not 
 know it. In fact, she had lost the road. 
 In her fright she had wheeled the horse 
 around. As she turned the animal lost 
 its footing, and both horse and rider 
 plunged down the side of the mountain. 
 In the path of the plunge was a huge 
 rock, lying as if some earthquake had 
 bowled it there. This rock proved the 
 girl's salvation, for here she fell off and 
 was caught and held fast by her skirt. 
 But it did not hold the frightened animal 
 which failed to recover its footing on 
 the steep descent, rolled over and over, 
 broke its neck and finally stopped with 
 a crashing thud in the valley below. 
 
 All this passed through Roy's mind as 
 he saw the girl at the rock and the dead 
 horse below in the valley. But how did
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE tl 
 
 Roy know she was a visitor? The girl's 
 dress told the story. She wore a tailor- 
 made skirt, and anyone familiar with 
 the maintain knows that there are no 
 tailor-made skirts among the moun- 
 taineers, whose poverty naturally would 
 forbid such a luxury. But Roy was not 
 consciously putting these things together 
 in his mind in any logical order. They 
 came to him rather as intuitions and 
 instincts. Besides the face of the girl 
 was sufficient. It was a soft oval face, 
 showing that her life was not the hard 
 life of the mountaineer. It was a sweet 
 face, full of color. Perhaps the color 
 might have found its way there when 
 Roy looked at her. Perhaps it was the 
 color of innate modesty, but he did not 
 notice it at the time.
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 For mice in his life, Roy's athletic 
 training was necessary to save a human 
 soul. Without a word, he picked her up 
 in his strong arms. By hard work and 
 almost superhuman strength he strug- 
 gled to the top of the mountain. Placing 
 her on "Marse" Robert, who was still 
 grazing, they sped away at the topmost 
 speed. It was nothing for Roy to find 
 the road, for he knew every inch of the 
 ground, every rock and stump, almost 
 every tree. He had traveled these parts 
 by day, and often at night for nearly 
 three years. Roy found the road, and 
 placing his heels in the flanks of "Marse" 
 Robert and giving the animal rein, he 
 dashed for the life of the girl whom he 
 held securely on the saddle before him. 
 Over the mountain road they flew, stop-
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 93 
 
 ping for nothing. It was a matter of 
 life and death. The congregation must 
 wait. Within an hour, Roy had her 
 safely landed in the hospital with physi- 
 cians and nurses by her side. After 
 making all arrangements, securing 
 another horse, Roy proceeded to his mis- 
 sion, fourteen miles away, rather than 
 disappoint the congregation on Easter, 
 the day of all days in the year. 
 
 As he started out on his journey, Roy 
 tried in vain to recall his Easter sermon, 
 which he had planned before he heard 
 the girl's cry. But for the life of him he 
 could not remember even the text he had 
 decided upon. His mind wandered along 
 the road to the scene of the accident, 
 often thinking aloud to himself, "Is she 
 dangerously hurt? Who is she?" But,
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 as he approached the mission, a text 
 came to him : "If ye be risen with Christ, 
 seek those things which are above," for 
 what the Easter story after all, but the 
 Son of God giving His life for the world. 
 He arrived, finding the church packed 
 with a patient people waiting for their 
 pastor's Easter message. He began his 
 service without delay. There was one 
 special prayer he could not help adding 
 to the service that day, and that was the 
 Prayer for the Sick, which at once ex- 
 cited the curiosity of the congregation, 
 not that they had never heard the prayer 
 before, but no one in their community 
 was sick. It was a glorious service, and 
 Roy preached as he never preached be- 
 fore. While he preached, visions of the 
 girl in the hospital would come to his
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 
 
 mind. The sermon over, the congrega- 
 tion dismissed, his parishioners were ex- 
 cited to know for whom the prayer for 
 the sick had been offered. On hearing 
 the story they forgave him for being 
 iate. They saw something unaccount- 
 able in his eyes, for talk and act as he 
 would, it was impossible for him to keep 
 his mind from the hospital and the girl 
 he had saved. Roy had to excuse him- 
 self from a dinner party with one of his 
 mountain friends. He must return at 
 once to see further about the young lady 
 he had so Providentially rescued. 
 Mounting his horse he started back. 
 Should he go straight to the hospital or 
 to his rooms? The horse kept pace more 
 with his thoughts than with his com- 
 mands. In fact he was lost to the world.
 
 96 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 He certainly was lost in thought. He 
 was not thinking of the horse, nor was 
 the horse thinking of him. "Shall I go 
 to her?" Why I don't know even her 
 name. Why not? I believe I will. Get 
 up Bob." 
 
 At the word of command, the animal 
 started in a rack. Faster and faster 
 horse and rider annihilated the distance 
 between them and the girl in the hospi- 
 tal At last they arrived. Into the hos- 
 pital he rushed only to find that with the 
 exception of the gash on the side of her 
 head and some minor cuts, the young 
 lady was uninjured and was up and 
 about, telling others of her adventure. 
 In the midst of her story, Roy appeared 
 rather awkwardly with hat in hand.
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 7 
 
 "There's my rescuer," she exclaimed, 
 much to his discomfort. Roy blushed. 
 
 "You see I am alright now. How good 
 of you to hurry back from your work. 
 To think what might have happened had 
 you not passed by and heard my cry for 
 help. Oh! I was frightened. How could 
 I know but that some wild cat might 
 spring on me. I am certainly thankful 
 to you, far more than words can tell. 
 Oh! it was so sweet of you," she chat- 
 tered on. 
 
 He could not speak. Naturally back- 
 ward and awkward, he was facing for 
 the first time in his life something he 
 could neither explain nor understand. 
 However, he returned to his rooms with 
 the name Medora, ringing in his ears. 
 What a name! He had scarcely entered 
 
 7
 
 98 #07 IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 his room, before he was thinking aloud: 
 "I've heard that name. Where did I 
 hear it before? Ah! I wonder if she 
 can be the same Medora who has. been 
 the belle of the mountain so long. It 
 must be the same Medora. My! she's 
 a beauty. Just the kind to make one's 
 heart jump" With that he had a 
 peculiar feeling in his own heart. His 
 mind went back to the log cabin he had 
 seen in the mountains, when a civil 
 engineer. The more he thought about 
 the scene of the cabin, the harder it was 
 to get rid of the name, Medora. 
 
 "Bosh! What is all this foolishness. I 
 must go to work," he finally said with a 
 sudden feeling of disgust for himself, 
 While he was trying to find some dinner, 
 all the members of the Theological De-
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 99 
 
 partment came down, led by the Profes- 
 sors to find out the details of the won- 
 derful story that had gone abroad in 
 the land. Roy learned that the story 
 had been going the rounds, gathering in 
 size like a snowball, before he had even 
 reached his mission station. A hasty 
 and cold dinner, sandwiched in with 
 questions, "Where did it happen?" 
 "How did you possibly get her up that 
 steep place?" "Is she all right?" "How 
 long will she live, do you think?" was 
 Roy's portion, much to his discomfort. 
 
 "Do you think she will live?" "He 
 heard at chapel today that she was dy- 
 ing," one "Theolog" persisted. 
 
 "Ah! that's just like a little gossip- 
 ing town. Why the lady is all right. 
 She will be ready for the German Wed-
 
 100 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 nesday," said Roy, as he tackled a cold 
 and tough chicken that probably came 
 over in the Mayflower. Finishing his 
 dinner and the gossip, he strolled out 
 into the woods with a friend, whom he 
 told about the occasion, and the beautiful 
 brown-eyed girl he had rescued from the 
 mountain side. It seemed to Roy he 
 could talk about nothing else and really 
 he could not His friend encouraged 
 him and Roy went on chatting away the 
 entire afternoon, describing vividly her 
 beauty and heroism. 
 
 Sure enough, when the Senior German 
 came off the next Wednesday night 
 Medora was there as Roy had proph- 
 esied. So was Roy. He couldn't take 
 his eyes off of her. There she was with 
 her head bandaged up, but that height-
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 101 
 
 ened her beauty to him. Medora had 
 come up the mountain for the Senior 
 German and there she was. A little 
 thing like a cut or scar or even bandages 
 could not keep her away. Roy said to 
 himself: "She is a true Spartan. She 
 has spirit as well as beauty." Medora's 
 eyes seemed to be fixed on the corner 
 where he stood. Their eyes met fre- 
 quently. He exclaimed to himself: 
 "What in the dickens does all this mean 
 anyway?" "My! but she's a queen. 
 Just the kind of woman to do things and 
 inspire others. She is going to make 
 some man happy." 
 
 After that Medora and Roy were often 
 seen strolling in the moonlight in the 
 chapel yard. 
 
 After the German, came the examina-
 
 102 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 tions. Roy had passed them all with 
 credit. Commencement was on. This 
 was the end of what he had worked 
 forward to for seven long years. A bit 
 of parchment, another hood, and he be- 
 came a graduate of Theology, ready for 
 his life work. There were two people in 
 that Commencement audience to whom 
 Roy's graduation meant much, his 
 devoted mother and the little brown- 
 eyed girl who looked upon him as her 
 hero. His mother was overcome with 
 joy, when she saw with tears in her eyes, 
 the theological hood placed around his 
 neck, for Roy had become the idol of her 
 heart. Only a short while ago, she was 
 bereaved of her devoted husband, 
 "Marse" William had passed to the Great
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 103 
 
 Beyond with these words: "If I could 
 only hear Roy preach one sermon." 
 
 Two months later Roy was to be 
 ordained. The little church that he had 
 built was chosen as the place of the 
 ordination exercises. A crowd of his 
 friends and admirers had determined to 
 be present. His Bishop was to preach 
 the sermon, and his professor of "dogs" 
 (Dogmatics) to present him. All ar- 
 rangements made, the question arose: 
 'Shall Medora be there?" Roy, puzzling 
 his brains found a way to have her es- 
 corted. The day arrived and the pro- 
 gram was carried out in detail as had 
 been planned, the Bishop preaching a 
 magnificent sermon, for "Father Tom," 
 as his Bishop was affectionately called, 
 had a national reputation as a preacher.
 
 104 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 His standard was not lowered on this 
 occasion. After the services the Bishop 
 introduced Roy's proud Mother to 
 Medora, who was equally proud of the 
 young deacon just ordained. 
 
 At luncheon, after the service, the 
 Bishop discovered to his great delight 
 that all of Roy's time had not been taken 
 up in preparation for his ordination and 
 missions. In bidding farewell to Roy 
 and Medora, the good Bishop with a 
 twinkle in his eye said: "When you 
 youngsters need me, I will be delighted 
 to come." The young people looked at 
 each other and smiled. Medora came to 
 the rescue with a heavenly expression 
 and exclaimed: "Oh, how kind of you 
 Bishop." 
 
 Little did the Bishop know how soon
 
 ROY'S ROMANCE 105 
 
 he was to be called across the country 
 to make his word good. Roy had lost 
 no time between examinations and the 
 day when the Bishop set him apart as a 
 Deacon, to persuade the girl of his choice 
 to become his companion through life, 
 who could now be no other than Medora. 
 She was not easily persuaded to take 
 such a serious step, but Roy persisted, 
 overcoming, as in the past, every 
 obstacle in the way. Finally the answer 
 was given. So at six o'clock one morn- 
 ing in August, Roy's Bishop pronounced 
 them man and wife, and their journey 
 through life began.
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 What could be more natural than for 
 Roy to settle down at once after the 
 honeymoon in the little yellow rectory 
 of the mountains? In all sincerity he 
 answered his old Virginia Rector's chal- 
 lenge "Why don't you do it?" A happy 
 year passed as deacon, and he was ready 
 to be advanced to the priesthood. There 
 was one last examination now to be 
 passed, and when it was over he came 
 forth with flying colors, thanking God in 
 his heart that never again was he to be 
 examined by man. The day set, "Father 
 Tom" again preached the sermon with 
 power and feeling, and Roy became at 
 
 106
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 
 
 last a Priest. The Bishop was Roy's idol, 
 for by this time they had learned to 
 know each other intimately, and the 
 Bishop became a real Father in God to 
 him. After his ordination, Roy was ap- 
 pointed Rector of the mountain missions. 
 
 It now became his pleasant duty to do 
 for the mountaineer the things he had 
 discovered to be necessary as a layman 
 while working in the mountains as a 
 civil engineer. The Highlander, a most 
 interesting character, shrewd, keen, 
 thoughtful and unlettered, is after all by 
 no means as ignorant as one might sup- 
 pose. 
 
 The first thing Roy realized was the 
 necessity of a training school for girls, 
 feeling that the home must be improv- 
 ed, for it takes good, intelligent mothers
 
 108 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 to produce a healthy and strong society. 
 After all, it is the influence of the 
 mother that lasts. To improve her con- 
 dition was going to the very root of the 
 mountain difficulty. Roy had only begun 
 his work when a series of incidents oc- 
 curred which ultimately decided hi^ 
 course in that direction. 
 
 Among the mountain folk in whom he 
 now became so deeply interested, there 
 was one old woman who was a notorious 
 character in her community, Aunt Jane. 
 She lived in a tiny log cabin scarcely 
 high enough for one to stand up in with 
 no windows, two doors and a fire place, 
 in other words a typical mountain cabin. 
 Along one side of this building was a 
 ^ean-to," which is a shed room, where 
 she cooked and ate. She was more for-
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 109 
 
 tunate than most of her neighbors, for 
 her house was larger than was common. 
 In front of it was a roofed porch. But 
 it was with difficulty that she could keep 
 the water out. Down the hill and under 
 the house and porch would come the 
 rains, and she fought hard to keep hei 
 house dry as it was. In such squalid 
 surroundings, Aunt Jane struggled to 
 eke out her existence as an outcast 
 among the mountain folk. They could 
 not overlook her immoral manner of life. 
 The highlanders with their simple but 
 stern morality would have nothing to do 
 with her. 
 
 Aunt Jane was very energetic, always 
 busy trying to do something. She had 
 any amount of chickens, turkeys, geese, 
 guineas and pigs running unrestrained
 
 110 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 up and down the mountain side. She 
 was peculiarly devoted to wild birds. 
 They were her pets and no one could 
 injure them if she could prevent it She 
 often said: "I don't know what I'd ever 
 do without them, for when I'se lonesome 
 I can just set and listen to the birds a- 
 singin'. Haint they just the sweetest 
 things the Lord ever made!" 
 
 It was nothing unusual seeing her 
 bustle about over the mountain side with 
 a big stick, looking after her numerous 
 family, tame or wild. To see her thus 
 but once was to conclude that old Aunt 
 Jane was their devoted friend. Even the 
 birds knew this. She ever roamed to 
 dare any hawk or wild vermin injure her 
 fcets, talking to her self and to the fowls 
 and animals. These also seemed to take
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 111 
 
 to her. There was a common under- 
 standing between them all. She loved 
 beauty in spite of her squalid surround- 
 ings. Her idealism was on a high plane, 
 and her nature was quaintly poetical, 
 but sin had enticed and allured her soul, 
 winding around it the cords of destruc- 
 tion that bound her to the earth. With- 
 out doubt, Aunt Jane struggled often 
 with herself with even her limited moral 
 resources. Is it not part of the struggle 
 to hide it from the children of men? At 
 any rate, it was so in Aunt Jane's case. 
 
 One day Aunt Jane fell sick. The 
 doctor was sent for. He came with the 
 mountain mission teacher, whom Roy 
 had set to work. The doctor and the 
 teacher labored faithfully over the old 
 woman for days and weeks. The doctor
 
 112 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 was also a humorist of the Mark Twain 
 variety, but could swear if the occasion 
 demanded it. The mission teacher was a 
 practical nurse, though she had never 
 taken a course in that art. She nursed 
 Jane, and at odd moments proceeded to 
 scrub the cabin and clean it from roof to 
 floor. She found plenty to do. And 
 then the mission teacher looked after 
 Aunt Jane's soul, as well as her body and 
 house. She worked from the outside to 
 the inside. Changing the old woman's 
 environment, she instinctively felt was a 
 step towards changing her spirit. The 
 physician declared it was all useless. 
 "It's no use. The end is near. She will 
 die," said that worthy. But the mission 
 teacher worked right ahead, kneeling at 
 her bedside, pouring out her beautiful
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 118 
 
 soul in agonies of prayer, cleaning the 
 house, nursing the patient. At last a 
 change came for the better. Aunt Jane's 
 temperature improved and her pulse 
 grew stronger. She was restored to 
 health, much to the astonishment of the 
 doctor and much to the Mission teacher's 
 holy joy. The teacher's prayers won out 
 over the doctor's science. And why 
 should it not have done so? Was there 
 not a life to be saved for better living? 
 Aunt Jane made no promises, but she 
 seemed to have made up her mind, so 
 far as the little teacher could observe, to 
 try to live as became a child of God. 
 However, like so many others who go 
 down almost into the valley of the 
 shadow of death to be snatched up alive 
 by some merciful providence, Aunt Jane 
 
 8
 
 114 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 soon forgot, and fell into her old evil 
 ways, much to Roy's perplexity. It was 
 thought by all that it was a senseless 
 waste of time to try to help an old wom- 
 an like this who did not seem to be grate- 
 ful at all for her recovery. Too long had 
 she lived her life of disgrace. The doc- 
 tor was visibly disheartened, because he, 
 too, had hoped that in the battle there 
 would be a moral victory as well as a 
 physical one. Though he swore at her, 
 it was known that he also prayed for 
 her. He was the biggest-hearted man in 
 the country, but always afraid somebody 
 would find it out. 
 
 Aunt Jane's old sins were apparently 
 getting a tighter hold than ever. A re- 
 lapse was inevitable. For the second 
 time, the poor creature was struck down
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 115 
 
 by sickness. The same doctor was sent 
 for, and he said : "I won't have anything 
 to do with her, confound her!" 
 
 That is what he said, but what he did 
 was to pack up his medical grip and send 
 Roy for the same little mission teacher, 
 who had "strangely" nursed Aunt Jane 
 back to life only a short while before. 
 There were the same conditions to com- 
 bat, the same pessimism in the doctor 
 who gave her up to die, but one thing 
 was not the same, and that was the mis- 
 sion teacher's faith. It was stronger 
 than before. The doctor had consigned 
 her to the grave already, but the mission 
 teacher clung closer than ever, prayed 
 harder than ever, cleaned the house 
 cleaner than ever, and became more de- 
 termined to find the divine spark in Aunt
 
 116 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 r 
 
 Jane than before. It was her business to 
 find that spark in her soul, just as it 
 came from the Creator's hand. 
 
 It now appears that Aunt Jane became 
 more attached to the mission teacher 
 than ever. She could not bear her out 
 of her sight. She seemed to be afraid to 
 be alone. Was it conscience? Something 
 was happening now unknown to the old 
 woman. The mission teacher was gradu- 
 ally taking a place in her affections with 
 the wild and tame animals about the 
 place. Here was something, even a bit 
 of human love that was finding its way 
 into a human heart crushed under the 
 scorn of neighbors. The singing of the 
 birds still charmed her, but the voice 
 of the teacher somehow allured her, 
 whether that voice was raised in prayer
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 117 
 
 cr praise, engaged in counsel or en- 
 couragement. Life's battle now was 
 drawing to a crisis for Aunt Jane. "I 
 don't know. I've been fooled by her be- 
 fore. I'll stay and watch it out this 
 time," said the doctor. The teacher 
 prayed harder than ever, pouring out 
 her hot words into the ear of God as 
 she held Aunt Jane tight in her arms. 
 The old woman wept as the young wom- 
 an prayed. That midnight Aunt Jane 
 rallied sure enough. She was going to 
 live ! The doctor looked puzzled, but the 
 teacher knew. Had she not looked unto 
 the hills whence cometh aid doctors 
 know not of? 
 
 The doctor had tears in his eyes as he 
 watched the slow recovery that night 
 following the rally. "What does it all
 
 118 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 mean? Can she be pulling through?" 
 said he to the teacher. "Yes, doctor," 
 was the teacher's simple answer. Aunt 
 Jane recovered. The whole country side 
 watched her. Would she be better now 
 after two such marvelous recoveries? 
 This was the question asked by all the 
 neighbors, one of another. The mission 
 teacher hoped against hope. It was the 
 same old story. Back into sin Aunt Jane 
 fell ungratefully. The doctor said: "The 
 next time she gets sick, she may die. I 
 won't go to her again. She is not worth 
 the trouble." 
 
 "What's the use, the old hag has lived 
 in sin so long that she cannot appreciate 
 the good," declared the mountain gos- 
 sips. But all this was a mistake. The 
 mission teacher didn't give up. She
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 119 
 
 knew there must be a way of reaching 
 the poor old soul. But how? 
 
 One day Aunt Jane went to the poor 
 house. There she found a mountain 
 woman dying with tuberculosis. By her 
 side was a six-year-old girl. At a glance 
 Aunt Jane took in the situation. That 
 girl must soon be an orphan. A pitiful 
 situation faced Aunt Jane. She went to 
 the keeper of the poor house as if moved 
 by magic. To him she said: 
 
 "Her mother will soon be gone, and 
 nobody haint goin' to care for the little 
 'un when her mother is gone. I ain't got 
 very much, but I'll do the best I can. I 
 get lonesome, so lonesome, and I ain't got 
 nobody to love. Nowadays things be dif- 
 ferent. I am old and ugly. Let me have 
 that child."
 
 120 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 The keeper saw a chance to shift re- 
 sponsibility. He let Aunt Jane have the 
 child. When the mother died, in a few 
 days, little Bessie went to Aunt Jane's 
 house. A howl of protest went up in the 
 little mountain community. "It's your 
 business to go to court and complain," 
 said one to another, "that Aunt Jane 
 isn't the proper person to take care of 
 this child." You know her home is no 
 place for a child." But who would go? 
 No one wanted the responsibility. Each 
 attempted to designate some one else as 
 the proper person to make complaint. 
 Consequently no one went. But some- 
 thing seemed to say to Roy and his mis- 
 sion teacher (who, the reader may have 
 guessed by this time, was Medora, Roy's 
 own wife); "Let her alone, give her a
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 131 
 
 chance. Maybe this is God's way, how 
 do we know? Don't you remember Silas 
 Marner?" 
 
 Roy and Mrs. Roy watched Aunt Jane 
 with her new Bessie. They prayed for 
 them, prayed with them, influenced them 
 as best they could. They never gave up. 
 One bright morning they saw Aunt 
 Jane at the door with little Bessie. It 
 was plain that Aunt Jane was not at her 
 case. She was asked kindly what she 
 wanted, and Aunt Jane said: 
 
 "Won't you take Bess and teach her 
 and help her. I haint got nothing and 
 can't do nothing to help her, but I love 
 her just the same. I want to do all I can 
 for her. Won't you take her and educate 
 her?" 
 
 Evidently Aunt Jane wanted to give
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Bessie a good schooling, but where were 
 there any suitable schools in the moun- 
 tains for Bessie to attend? At once a 
 need presented itself to Roy. Later on it 
 will be seen how he went to work to 
 supply that need. Aunt Jane said: "I 
 want to see her write and read like 
 other children I read about, and to 
 learn something." There was noth- 
 ing else to do but for the mission 
 teacher, who was helping Roy so val- 
 iantly in his new work, to teach Bes- 
 sie herself. The Roys took her and 
 taught her her A. B. C.'s in the little 
 makeshift church mission school. They 
 took Bessie to Sunday School and to 
 church, too. She was eager to learn, and 
 soon became acquainted with and de- 
 voted to the Roys, and a popular child
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 128 
 
 with everyone. The effect on Aunt Jane 
 began to be apparent. 
 
 They could see the affection of the old 
 woman for the child, and the child for 
 the old woman. So much was this so, 
 that the child was becoming in some re- 
 spects like Aunt Jane, who would stand 
 and watch Bessie cross the road into' 
 Roy's house, where the mission teacher 
 would take her in charge. Every even- 
 ing no matter what the state of the 
 weather, Aunt Jane would come to the 
 top of the hill and watch her from the 
 rectory across the railroad safely. To- 
 gether woman and child would then do 
 the chores for the evening. They seemed 
 to be happy. 
 
 Soon neighbors, ever alert to criticise, 
 were exchanging better reports of
 
 134 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Aunt Jane. The old woman was slowly 
 changing since the child had come into 
 her starved life. Her heart was large, 
 gentle and kind, but to get mind, body 
 and soul united in one purpose was en- 
 tirely beyond her comprehension. Roy 
 was patient, never losing an opportunity 
 to go to her and do what he could. He 
 constantly found her mind wandering 
 back to the things that had darkened 
 her path, and also the hard, cold re- 
 ligion that had been taught her. This 
 teaching could never reveal to her 
 poor soul the loving Father of all. The 
 story of the prodigal so distorted by 
 religious teachers, she had not the ability 
 to understand. The church as a hospital 
 was unknown to her. To get hold of her 
 mind, Roy had to be continually on his
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 125 
 
 guard, using every means presented to 
 him. 
 
 Not long after she had been confirmed, 
 Bessie was taken sick. Tuberculosis 
 was soon to do its deadly work. That in- 
 deed is one of the terrors of the moun- 
 tains. Mrs. Roy nursed Bessie as she 
 had nursed Aunt Jane, and the affection 
 between nurse and child was inspiring. 
 Every particle of work that was done 
 was a labor of love. The doctor was 
 called. As usual he was faithful, con- 
 siderate and kind, for he practiced medi- 
 cine for the love of relieving suffering 
 humanity. He was a "beloved physi- 
 cian," just as St. Luke was long ago in 
 St. Paul's mind. Work and fight as 
 physician and nurse would, Bessie 
 seemed destined to go. The doctor dis-
 
 1M ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 covered that but little could be done. 
 Rapidly she was passing away. She lay 
 in a little bed by the door, where she 
 could hear the church bell ring out the 
 hours of service, and would say to her 
 adopted mother: "I wish I could go, 
 but never mind the teacher will be over 
 after awhile, and she will tell me all 
 about the children and the service. 
 Maybe some day I will be able to go 
 back again." Frequently when Mrs. Roy 
 visited her, Bessie would ask almost in- 
 audibly, "I wish I could have the Com- 
 munion." She had been taught by Roy 
 how God fed His children on spiritual 
 food from His Altar, which would 
 strengthen her for the battle of life. But 
 Roy was away and no priest could be 
 gotten until his return from a long busi-
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 127 
 
 ness trip. One cold, bleak December 
 day, late in the afternoon, Roy arrived. 
 His wife met him at the train, and told 
 him the doctor had given Bessie up, say- 
 ing: "She's going to die, I fear." Mrs. 
 Roy asked "When can you give her the 
 Holy Communion?" Roy responded: 
 "Now, let us go straight to the house." 
 And they set out for the little log hut. 
 It was cold, damp, dark and dreary, with 
 no light in the hut except a little glow 
 from the fireplace. In one corner of the 
 room was a pile of potatoes, turnips and 
 corn that had been stored away for the 
 Winter. In another corner was the pork 
 packed away. Near the center of the 
 room stood the little bed on which Bessie 
 was lying. By the bed was a table made 
 from a few split boards from a white
 
 128 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 oak. Roy knew the service and did not 
 have to use a book, so he celebrated the 
 Holy Communion, giving Bessie the food 
 for which she had been waiting so long. 
 After the service Bessie's voice seemed 
 a bit stronger, but she could only say 
 'Thank you." 
 
 Aunt Jane came while the service was 
 going on, but would not enter the house. 
 She stood on the porch outside, where 
 the fowls were roosting and the pigs 
 squealing. Her head was bowed low in 
 an attitude of prayer while the service 
 was being finished. On leaving the house, 
 Aunt Jane took Roy by the hand, but 
 uttered not a word. That clasp of hand 
 will never be forgotten by him. 
 
 The Roys returned to their home, but 
 Mrs. Roy could not linger, as she was
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 129 
 
 thinking of poor little Bessie. The end 
 seemed so near. Mrs. Roy waited and 
 watched by the bedside through the long 
 cold night. Early in the morning as 
 light was beginning to break through 
 the dark clouds of the East, Bessie's 
 spirit was taken upward. The news went 
 out that Bessie was gone. 
 
 The neighborhood was stirred with a 
 feeling of love for this poor little orphan 
 child, now gone from their midst. 
 
 Roy and his wife were called on to get 
 Bessie ready for the funeral. Aunt Jane 
 would allow nothing to be done unless 
 Mrs. Roy sanctioned it. The prepara- 
 tions made, Aunt Jane said to Roy: 
 'Can't we take her to the church and 
 bury her from there. Bessie longed day 
 after day to go, but she was too weak, 
 
 9
 
 180 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 and now she is dead, won't you carry her 
 to the church and bury her from there?" 
 Roy replied: "Yes, and you must go 
 too." Aunt Jane shook her head and 
 said "No." Roy insisted, and finally she 
 consented. Bessie was buried from the 
 little mountain chapel with Aunt Jane 
 present. 
 
 Everybody in the community came, 
 for Bessie was the idol of the place. 
 Bessie's schoolmates loved her and had 
 told their parents about her beautiful 
 character. Bessie had been so gentle 
 and kind, always unselfish which never 
 fails to attract the young. Bessie's life, 
 though short, had been well spent, and 
 she was laid to rest in the little grave- 
 yard by tender loving hands. The ser- 
 vice at the church concluded, all re-
 
 ROY AND AUNT JANE 181 
 
 turned to their homes, wondering how 
 this would affect Aunt Jane, and com- 
 menting upon the faithfulness of Roy 
 and Mrs. Roy, the doctor and the rest of 
 the workers who had spent long days 
 watching and nursing. 
 
 Roy would frequently hear the moun- 
 tain people say: "Was this all for 
 nought?" For these poor mountain folk 
 could not understand. Their life and 
 training had been different. While they 
 were kind and gentle, they were stern 
 and determined, almost cruel at times. 
 Once their minds are made up, it is al- 
 most hopeless to attempt to change 
 them. The talk of the community for 
 the next week was what would become 
 of old Aunt Jane now. 
 
 Sunday came and as Roy entered the
 
 132 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 little mission chapel for service, his eyes 
 fell first on Aunt Jane sitting in the 
 back seat with her head bowed low as if 
 meditating. She would not so much as 
 lift up her eyes and seemed to say "Lord, 
 be merciful unto me." From that time 
 on, the church bell has not rung for ser- 
 vice without Aunt Jane being present. 
 When anything is to be done, she is quick 
 to add her little mite in whatever way 
 she can, always wanting to do something 
 for the church, wishing to keep God's 
 house as beautiful as she can. Strug- 
 gling against herself, she won the vic- 
 tory. Baptized and confirmed, she went 
 forward with the spirit and strength of 
 a true Christian soldier, for a little child 
 had led her.
 
 ROY'S GIRLS' SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The experience with Aunt Jane had 
 impressed one fact vividly upon Roy's 
 mind the need for a girl's school. The 
 mothers were the ones in the mountains, 
 who trained girls and brought them up 
 into the same life of slovenliness, care- 
 lessness and indifference. Unless the 
 mothers of the future could be changed, 
 there was every reason to believe that 
 existing conditions would be handed 
 down from generation to generation. 
 
 In launching his project for a girl's 
 school. Roy found himself pitted im- 
 mediately against numerous obstacles, 
 principal among which were finances and 
 
 133
 
 134 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 teachers. One adviser told him that the 
 money once secured, it would be a simple 
 matter to find teachers. Another sug- 
 gested that after the teachers had been 
 found, the money would come in of its 
 own accord. Not having either, Roy was 
 in no position to disprove either or both 
 btatements. 
 
 It was while puzzling over these prob- 
 lems that Roy received word of a re- 
 ligious order of Sisters that was shortly 
 to visit the mountains. The news was 
 an inspiration. Roy interviewed the 
 Mother Superior, and suggested that her 
 body assume the responsibility of edu- 
 cating and bringing up the mountain 
 girls. As might have been expected, the 
 Mother Superior's first reply was a pro- 
 test. There were no means to carry on
 
 ROY'S GIRLS' SCHOOL 186 
 
 the work, and the mountain did not offer 
 any accommodations to the order. Nor 
 was there any chaplain on hand to assist 
 them. 
 
 As a final concession the Mother Su- 
 perior offered to think the matter over; 
 and there Roy's tenacity won the battle. 
 He advised that instead of merely think- 
 ing the matter over she visit the moun- 
 tains, and remain long enough to under- 
 stand the nature of the work demanded. 
 It required only one week for her to de- 
 cide to take up this task. "Provided," 
 she added, "that sufficient funds are 
 secured to render our work here effec- 
 tive, as well as enthusiastic." 
 
 The statement brought Roy face to 
 face with a crisis. Friends in all sin- 
 cerity advised him to go and get money.
 
 136 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 For a young man, barely two years a 
 minister, who had never seen anything 
 of the world outside of the mountain re- 
 gions, it was like asking a mongoose to 
 lift up a crowbar. 
 
 Where to go and how to begin was a 
 puzzle to Roy, in view of the fact that 
 he didn't have money enough to pay his 
 railroad fare, but nothing could daunt 
 him. He borrowed some money from a 
 Swiss friend, and with a letter from his 
 Bishop in his pocket, he set forth on his 
 migrations, starting directly for Boston. 
 There, for the first time in his life Roy 
 saw the wonders of a real metropolitan 
 city. He was bewildered by the jostling 
 crowds; and the size of the buildings 
 amazed him. Never before had he seen 
 hotels or railway terminals of such size
 
 ROY'S GIRLS' SCHOOL 187 
 
 or magnificence. But on the other hand, 
 Boylston street, State street. Federal 
 street or Washington street were all 
 alike to him. There was only one ob- 
 jective point in his mind, and that was a 
 rectory on Commonwealth avenue, where 
 he knew that his letter from the Bishop 
 would secure him at least a hearing. 
 
 The rector justified all expectations. 
 He proved to be more than friendly and 
 Roy's greenness attracted rather than 
 repelled him. After taking the letter of 
 introduction and hearing something 
 about the mountains, he asked Roy: 
 
 'What are you going to do Sunday?" 
 
 "Nothing in particular, sir." 
 
 The rector answered promptly: "No 
 engagement! Then you must come
 
 138 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 around and tell my congregation of your 
 mountain work next Sunday." 
 
 Roy stammered. He had heard some- 
 thing of the size and intellectual equip- 
 ment of the congregations in that city 
 and the thought of addressing them 
 paralyzed him. 
 
 "But I have no training in addressing 
 any but mountain congregations." 
 
 "So much the better," replied the 
 rector kindly, "your words will have the 
 ring of sincerity." 
 
 The talk that Roy gave that Sunday 
 morning was the result of their com- 
 bined efforts, of inspiration on the one 
 side, and warm hearted suggestions on 
 the other. Roy spoke frankly of condi- 
 tions in the mountains, and of the needs 
 of the people. His sincerity overcame
 
 ROY'S GIRLS' SCHOOL 199 
 
 his stage fright, and the words sank 
 deep. After the service several of the 
 congregation approached Roy and stated 
 iheir willingness to aid in the work. 
 
 "Sir," one elderly gentleman addressed 
 Roy, "the deprivations in the South have 
 never been brought as vividly before us 
 as your words brought them this morn- 
 ing. We have never been fully cognizant 
 of the conditions there, and, if you will 
 call around during the week, I shall be 
 glad to give you a more material ex- 
 pression of sympathy." 
 
 He gave Roy a business card and re- 
 marked that any time between eight and 
 five would be the right time to call. 
 That was merely a start. The following 
 week was a six-day stretch of alternate 
 ups and downs. Roy set in to the task of
 
 140 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 personal solicitation, ringing doorbells, 
 listening to various social excuses and 
 generally wearing out shoe leather. 
 During the week, the rector advised and 
 encouraged, always lending his personal 
 aid and influence. 
 
 From Boston Roy continued on his 
 journey southward, taking in the small 
 and large cities alike, and a good Samari- 
 tan would appear at every turn. While 
 Roy had not fallen among thieves, the 
 good Samaritan was necessary, even if 
 only for consultation purposes. On the 
 whole he found people more than inter- 
 ested in the problem and willing to con- 
 tribute their share. Of the ever present 
 class ready to present hypocritical social 
 excuses, Roy never spoke later on, on
 
 ROY'S GIRLS' SCHOOL 141 
 
 the general principle that it was wrong 
 to refer disrespectfully to the absent. 
 
 Much to the surprise of Roy's Bishop 
 and everyone else, he , returned to his 
 mountain home with sufficient financial 
 strength to place the house in order and 
 comfort and to finance the school for a 
 year, the Sisters being on the ground 
 and the work well under way to be 
 finished before the Christmas holidays. 
 The Sisters and Roy found themselves 
 swamped with applications from the 
 girls of the mountains. The building was 
 soon completed and the house filled with 
 workers and children before the Christ- 
 mas carols were to be sung. That Christ- 
 mas Roy ever keeps green in his 
 memory. At midnight on Christmas 
 Eve, Roy with the teachers and children
 
 142 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 celebrated the Holy Communion. A 
 glorious night that was on the moun- 
 tain top, cold, crisp, the stars shining 
 bright. One could easily in imagination 
 picture the Star over Bethlehem an- 
 nouncing to the world the birth of the 
 Christ Child. 
 
 Soon, however, it was evident that Roy 
 must try his hand again, for the school 
 was very much cramped for space, and 
 scores of children who were knocking at 
 the doors for admission, had to be turned 
 away. Starting out again, he secured 
 sufficient means to enlarge the building 
 and money for bread and clothes. Going 
 somewhat over the same ground, meet- 
 ing the same people that he had met be- 
 fore, he and his new-made friends be- 
 came better acquainted. As he told the
 
 ROY'S GIRLS' SCHOOL 148 
 
 story of the needs of the highlanders, of 
 what the church was trying to do for 
 them, response came, and with a glad- 
 dened heart he returned, ready for the 
 completion of the addition to the school. 
 Getting the school in good running order 
 and in secure hands, his attention was 
 now turned to another side of life. Some- 
 thing must be done for the boys. 
 
 The mountain boy is shy and of few 
 words, especially to one he has not 
 known long. Roy wondered whether 
 these boys would apply themselves, if 
 they had the opportunity, and what sort 
 of opportunity they should have. This 
 was a perplexing question to him. He 
 had sent several to a preparatory school, 
 and practically all of them had failed. 
 He soon discovered it was neither the
 
 144 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 fault of the school or the boy, but of 
 conditions. In spite of hard work none 
 of the boys could ever pass an examina- 
 tion. Finding out that these boys, though 
 they had attempted to read and write, 
 could do neither, he resolved to start 
 them with the three R's. At once with 
 his characteristic vigor, he set himself 
 to the task. In the first place he bought 
 a tract of land, and then set out to ap- 
 peal for the boys in the mountains. 
 
 Much to his surprise he was invited 
 to make an address in a small town in 
 Pennsylvania. How they knew anything 
 about him, or why they asked him, was 
 a puzzle to him. On reaching the little 
 place he made the strongest appeal he 
 knew how, stating that the girls were 
 provided for and were being taught how
 
 ROY'S GIRLS' SCHOOL 145 
 
 to have a Christian home, and that these 
 girls would soon pass through the school 
 and would marry. Whom are they going 
 to marry? 
 
 Surely the boys must be trained equally 
 well to become successful life partners of 
 the girls. 
 
 After the address was over, a young 
 unmarried' lady of 19 came up and bash- 
 fully said that she would like to con- 
 tribute $5,000.00 for the boys' school, 
 which, of course, he could not refuse. 
 
 Tramping the country from place to 
 place, he met some delightful people who 
 were interested in the undertaking and 
 who responded generously. The prop- 
 erty and finances were assured for a 
 year or two, but the old problem came 
 
 up again who was to conduct the 
 10
 
 146 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 school? Thinking for awhile he won- 
 dered if there could not be a religious 
 order of men. He made inquiries as he 
 journeyed from place to place. Such an 
 order was discovered and he was advised 
 to interest its members in his project. 
 So he set to work, but in spite of his best 
 efforts, the order declined to consider 
 the proposal. 
 
 His heart was set upon it, however, 
 and he persisted. Finally he succeeded 
 in getting one of the order to spend a 
 Winter with him in the mountains. The 
 ups and downs that he and the Father 
 experienced in studying the mountain 
 character together and the extravagant 
 ideas the Father had as to missionary 
 work among the mountains, made it ex- 
 tremely interesting. They were con-
 
 ROY'S GIRLS' SCHOOL 147 
 
 stantly together, visiting the homes of 
 the highlanders day after day, and on 
 Sundays they would have services at one 
 of the mission chapels which were rapid- 
 ly multiplying with the growing interest 
 of the work.
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 On these excursions into the moun- 
 tains and down into the coves, they had 
 had many novel experiences, especially 
 through their acquaintance with George 
 Washington Atkins and his brothers 
 and sisters. 
 
 George Washington Atkins, a little 
 urchin of seven years, lived with his 
 mother and father in a log house with- 
 out windows, one door and a port-hole. 
 The house was ten by twelve. Like Aunt 
 Jane's house, it was very difficult to 
 stand in. This house was situated on the 
 bench of the mountain, near the top. Al- 
 most surrounded by mountains was a 
 
 148
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 148 
 
 bubbling spring. Only a few feet away 
 from the house, one could hear the song 
 of the birds or the bark of the squirrel. 
 No choir can equal the singing of the 
 birds in the springtime, especially in the 
 early morning when the sun is just be- 
 ginning to rise. They seem to know that 
 the Spring is here, and what joy bursts 
 from their little throats, as they tell the 
 world the music of the hills! 
 
 Living in these idyllic conditions, it 
 would seem that one would try to live 
 more in the spirit of their beauty and 
 harmony. But Mr. and Mrs. Atkins with 
 their seven children George Washing- 
 ton, the youngest, the others Cramp, 
 Tank, Hop, Pop among the boys, and 
 Maggie Lucretia Caledonia Minerva 
 and Cassie, the two girls surrounded as
 
 150 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 they were by everything that would in- 
 spire one to beauty and cleanliness, lived 
 in poverty and filth. George Washing- 
 ton's face had never been washed since 
 he came into the world. 
 
 One morning as the Father in com- 
 pany with Roy, started out to visit the 
 mountain homes, they came across the 
 Atkins house. As they approached they 
 saw little George playing with mud. He 
 was trying to make mud pies. Pausing 
 for a moment they sought to draw the 
 little fellow into a conversation, but 
 found him too shy. 
 
 "I sometimes wonder," the Father re- 
 marked, "whether it would do any good 
 to place the alphabet in the mind of a 
 child like that." 
 
 They had reached the cabin by that
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 
 
 time ; and while the Father was speaking 
 to the Atkins family, composed of Mrs. 
 Atkins, Cramp, Tank, Hop, Pop, Mag- 
 gie Lucretia and Cassie, Roy decided 
 upon an experiment of his own. He got 
 hold of George and began to talk to him. 
 George muttered some unintelligible 
 words. Roy saw that he was a friendly 
 child and began to play with him. They 
 were soon good friends. Roy took 
 George down to the spring, got his face 
 washed and combed his hair. 
 
 Comb, soap and towels are among the 
 ordinary components of a mountain mis- 
 sionary's emergency kit, and with these 
 in his pockets and a natural spring at 
 his disposal, it took Roy about five min- 
 utes to effect a transformation. Young 
 George returned to the house with his
 
 152 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 hair nicely combed and brushed, his 
 clothes cleaned and a ruddy pink color 
 on cheeks that had previously been 
 brown. 
 
 Mrs. Atkins gave her youngest one 
 amazed look, and then exclaimed: 
 
 "Wai, the Lord knows that man has 
 been doing some work to get your face 
 clean." 
 
 The Father, who had witnessed the 
 whole scene with some enjoyment, was 
 pleased at the pride Mrs. Atkins showed 
 in her son's appearance. If the Atkins 
 family could display such enthusiasm 
 over a mere physical cleaning, what 
 would they not give for the spiritual 
 "washing" in the words of Jesus Christ? 
 And his interest in the work grew ac- 
 cordingly.
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 158 
 
 When the usual parcels of gifts began 
 to reach the mountains at Christmas 
 time, there was among the number, a 
 bundle containing a lady's beautifully 
 hand-embroidered night gown. After 
 the article had been properly identified, 
 a difficult task for the people who 
 worked in the mountains, the problem of 
 distribution followed. 
 
 The Father now had his entire interest 
 centered on the Atkins family, and at 
 once suggested that the gift be sent to 
 Cassie. Roy readily acceded to this sug- 
 gestion and gave the nightgown to the 
 mission worker with some additional in- 
 structions to Cassie as to how and when 
 it should be worn. 
 
 That is where fate intervened. Some 
 one else was going over to the Atkins
 
 154 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 home anyway, so the mission worker 
 turned over the parcel to her successor. 
 The question of giving the instructions 
 never occurred to her mind. It was 
 ridiculous to have to tell anybody how to 
 use a nightgown she thought. The net 
 result was that the following Sunday 
 morning Cassie appeared in church 
 wearing the night gown hind part be- 
 fore, in place of her usual dress. 
 
 When the two clergymen went into 
 the service, whom should they see in 
 the front seat but Cassie with the night- 
 gown on as a dress, and on backwards! 
 Cassie enjoyed it. It was the prettiest 
 thing she had ever seen, so why not wear 
 it as she did? As a dress it gave her 
 more pleasure than it would have done 
 had she worn it as originally intended.
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 155 
 
 But imagine the clergy! And especially 
 the Father of a religious order, as he 
 was conducting the service! 
 
 Altogether, it was an unfortunate day 
 for the Atkins family. Young George 
 fell asleep during the service and snored 
 so loudly that Cassie was obliged to 
 awaken him; and the disturbance only 
 drew more attention to her dress. Also 
 as the congregation was departing from 
 the church, Mr. Atkins stumbled by in a 
 semi-circular course, bearing rather 
 heavily the full effects of a Saturday 
 night at the "blockade" still. 
 
 When the Father and Roy held their 
 Sunday noon conference, the Atkins 
 family came in for a good portion of the 
 discussion. To try and talk to Mr. At- 
 kins in his present state would merely
 
 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 have created enmity, while to attempt to 
 tell Cassie why she should not use a 
 night dress for a frock, would have only 
 served to drive her away from the 
 church. It was through George that the 
 Atkins family had to be reached. 
 
 Logically speaking, he was the latch- 
 key to that home; and Roy decided that 
 the best way to find that key would be to 
 bring George alone to Sunday School. 
 The plan worked even better than had 
 been expected. He never asked where he 
 was being driven that cold Sabbath 
 morning. And once in the Sunday School 
 he took a keen interest in the lesson of 
 John the Baptist baptizing Jesus. The 
 term fascinated him. He wished to know 
 all about it and asked to be baptized im- 
 mediately.
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 157 
 
 "Not yet," Roy replied, "a little while 
 longer and you shall be baptized." 
 
 The Father heard; and he knew that 
 the seed had taken root. 
 
 Back in the log cabin on a bench near 
 the summit of the mountain that after- 
 noon, a seven-year-old boy repeated to an 
 uncouth, hard-visaged mountaineer the 
 story of the missionary who prepared 
 the world for the coming of the Savior. 
 Told in the mountain lingo, as it was, it 
 brought to Mr. Atkins not only a clear 
 understanding of the words, but also the 
 simple meaning of the text. That after- 
 noon Mr. Atkins sat around at home. If 
 he spoke to no 1 one it was because the 
 moral battle in his soul was beginning. 
 The puzzle that has recurred to man 
 ever since the days of the Prodigal Son
 
 168 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 was occupying his mind. When he did 
 utter a few words of his own accord, it 
 was merely to call George to him for a 
 further explanation of something that 
 had been said. 
 
 Towards night time Mrs. Atkins came 
 up to tell her spouse that there was no 
 liquor left from Saturday night; and 
 while ordinarily such news would have 
 provoked war, this time it produced no 
 effect at all 
 
 "Yuh ain't sick?" Mrs. Atkins inquired 
 querulously, and then instantly regretted 
 the question. Long training had accus- 
 tomed her to her husband's various 
 moods and she realized that now he was 
 thinking soberly and seriously. One 
 word from young George sufficed to 
 show her where Mr. Atkins' thoughts
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 169 
 
 were tending; and you and I shall be the 
 last to accuse her of sentimentalism if 
 she uttered an earnest prayer for the fu- 
 ture welfare of her home. 
 
 The change from black to white, from 
 Publican to Pharisee would have been as 
 nought compared to the change that oc- 
 curred in the Atkins family that week. 
 During the following days, not a word 
 of profanity was heard. No inebriate's 
 liquor desecrated the doorway. On Sun- 
 day Mr. Atkins accosted his better half, 
 and in a manner that precluded any 
 argument, said: 
 
 "Well, oP woman, we're goin' to git 
 those chillen cleaned up an' take yo'uns 
 all to Sunday School. I like them thar 
 folks. They've been trying mighty hard 
 to teach us wot's good and right."
 
 160 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Rome wasn't built in a day; and Mr. 
 Atkins' turn of heart was not to be ef- 
 fected in a week. Although he gave the 
 entire mountainside food for century of 
 gossip by leading his whole family to 
 Sunday service, he refused to enter the 
 building himself. After service he took 
 his flock back home and instead of pass- 
 ing away the twenty-four hours of Sun- 
 day in drinking and quarreling with his 
 neighbors, as had been his custom, he re- 
 mained wrapped in sober thought. Once 
 or twice he actually helped Mrs. Atkins 
 with a bucket of water. It was strange. 
 It was uncanny. One or two of the 
 neighbors who dropped in asked if any- 
 one were sick. 
 
 As gossip is the only known kind of
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 11 
 
 perpetual motion, it came to Roy's ears 
 soon enough that Mr. Atkins' reforma- 
 tion, as far as it had progressed, was 
 sincere, and not merely an endeavor to 
 win sympathy. But the trouble was that 
 the progress had to be slow. The moun- 
 taineer's ready susceptibility had made 
 him an easy prey to any religious formu- 
 las. Mr. Atkins having accepted several 
 of these in the past only to find them one 
 by one illusions, had gradually come 
 down to having no religion at all. He 
 was now trying to discriminate in his 
 own mind just what part of all that had 
 been told him was true, and what part 
 was exaggeration. As his mind was a 
 slow working machine that it was im- 
 possible to hurry, several months passed 
 
 before the change really came. 
 11
 
 162 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Just by what process of reasoning he 
 reached the final stage that induced him 
 to seek spiritual comfort was unknown; 
 but about four months after Roy had 
 first met George Washington Atkins, Mr. 
 Atkins came up to the Father at the 
 rectory and asked: 
 
 "How can I long to your church?" 
 
 He was told that he must be baptized. 
 
 True to his literal training of the 
 mountains, Mr. Atkins then asked what 
 the Bible had to say on the subject. The 
 Father read aloud : 
 
 "Except ye be born of water and the 
 spirit ye cannot enter the Kingdom of 
 Heaven." 
 
 Mr. Atkins stood there hatless and 
 collarless, slowly nodding his head. 
 
 "That's just what I have been looking
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 13 
 
 for." Then in a sudden burst of confi- 
 dence he added: "Yuh know, I hain't got 
 no eddication. I can't read, an' them 
 folks roun' here, they don't know any 
 more'n I do; but I reckon that's right." 
 "What's it say further on?" 
 
 The Father read the whole story of the 
 Lord talking to the young man who 
 wanted to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. 
 
 "Well," Mr. Atkins said at the conclu- 
 sion of the reading, "I have been thinkin' 
 of jinin' this here church fer some time. 
 Do you think you kin take me?" 
 
 "Yes," answered the Father, "our 
 Lord came to save you. He loves you. 
 He gave himself for you." Then he un- 
 folded the story of the Cross and how 
 the Lord Jesus Christ deserted by his
 
 14 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 friends, was nailed to the tree, and how 
 He died there to save mankind. 
 
 There were real tears in Mr. Atkins' 
 eyes, as he said: "I never knowed it be- 
 fore. Yuh know, we'uns ain't never had 
 no chance in this country to read the 
 good Book like yo'uns." 
 
 So the Father read on and on, talk- 
 ing to his listener luminously and pre- 
 paring him for baptism. 
 
 It was only a matter of a week or 
 more until Mr. Atkins became a member 
 of Christ, a child of God and an inheri- 
 tor of the Kingdom of Heaven. Not only 
 did he come to be baptized, but he 
 brought his entire family with him. The 
 proof of service lies in intention and ex- 
 ecution, and the mountaineer had dem- 
 onstrated conclusively that there was a
 
 ROY'S BOYS' SCHOOL 165 
 
 demand for spiritual aid and for civili- 
 zation, if it would only be supplied in an 
 intelligible manner. 
 
 The Father had taken the work up 
 with many doubts. He had almost ques- 
 tioned the advisability of having the mis- 
 sion church there; but his experience 
 with the Atkins family was a revelation. 
 
 "Start working on that place for the 
 boys' school at once," he told Roy, "my 
 order will undertake its share." 
 
 So the property was bought and the 
 teachers secured, and Roy at once set 
 himself to the task of securing money to 
 build a dormitory and a house for the 
 Fathers to live in. Encouraged by his 
 former efforts, Roy again started on his 
 rounds. With very little difficulty he 
 secured the necessary funds and return-
 
 166 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 ed to the mountains. He gathered a 
 crew of men and started immediately to 
 the work of building. He was time- 
 keeper, boss and pay-master, and oc- 
 casionally actually took the place of a 
 laborer. The place had to be ready by 
 the first of October and to accomplish 
 this no time must be spared. He worked 
 at high speed. At night he labored over 
 his books and correspondence and by day 
 looked after the building, ordering the 
 material and seeing it placed, stealing 
 moments here and there to drop in on 
 his parishioners. 
 
 When October first came around 
 everything was ready. The Fathers 
 took charge at once, supervising twenty- 
 five boys who had been gathered by Roy 
 for the Winters schooling.
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Roy had at last realized his dream. 
 The girls' school flourished, and the boys' 
 school was at work, preparing the bpys 
 to become proper winners of bread for 
 the girls, who were being trained along 
 domestic lines. The schools were within 
 easy reach of each other and of his rec- 
 tory. He would constantly go from one 
 to the other, helping the authorities of 
 both whenever advisable. He made the 
 rounds of the missions which were also 
 growing up. But not all of his time was 
 taken up with the industrial school en- 
 terprises. He had secured several mis- 
 sion teachers who were teaching day 
 
 167
 
 168 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 schools, and doing general mission work. 
 For various reasons, chiefly on account 
 of the limited equipment, all the children 
 could not be taken into the industrial 
 schools. 
 
 While all were doing efficient work 
 and the popularity of the work rapidly 
 growing, Mrs. Roy realized the necessity 
 of having a trained nurse and a small 
 hospital. Mrs. Roy was constantly mov- 
 ing among the sick. She was interested 
 in the schools of course, as she was in- 
 terested in everything that Roy had to 
 do with, but she felt the necessity of a 
 hospital for the sick and afflicted. Her 
 mind and heart were set on the hospital, 
 and she never lost a moment, doing what 
 she could by writing letters and making 
 suggestions about the great need.
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 169 
 
 Realizing the necessity of the hospital 
 himself Roy set to work to make the long 
 dream of his loved one a reality. By 
 this time Roy had had sufficient experi- 
 ence with his doctor friend in visiting 
 the sick mountaineers. He often heard 
 the doctor exclaim: "If I only had some 
 place to take this poor little child, it 
 would have some chance of getting well." 
 
 One day Roy was talking with the doc- 
 tor, who declared that much trouble with 
 the children might be avoided if a proper 
 place were provided for the mothers, and 
 that a great many of the mothers might 
 be saved if given prompt and proper 
 treatment. All this forced Roy to the 
 conclusion that there must be a hospital 
 for the mountaineer. 
 
 So far as the mountaineers were con-
 
 170 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 cerned there were two hospitals one 90 
 miles away and the other 85. They 
 might as well have been in Persia. They 
 could neither of them possibly be of any 
 service to the mountaineer. 
 
 Roy first secured the plans and got 
 an estimate on the building. He and his 
 wife now became absorbed in writing 
 letters, appealing to the interest of their 
 friends in this new undertaking. It was 
 not long before the light broke and suffi- 
 cient response was made for the begin- 
 ning of the new hospital. The money 
 was well in hand. The contract was let. 
 Roy and Mrs. Roy watched with the 
 greatest eagerness the progress of the 
 building, At last it was complete and 
 ready for use. The doctor was full of 
 joy and pride, and the patients began to
 
 . ,- 
 
 &- 
 
 --, 
 
 ., ; - 
 
 V^> "
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 171 
 
 come. But it was a puzzle to meet all 
 the running expenses of the hospital, for 
 not a single one connected with it had 
 had any experience. Economize as they 
 would, the bills would pile up on the 
 superintendent's desk. 
 
 Roy very soon discovered that money 
 must be secured. He started on his an- 
 nual tramp, visited welcoming and un- 
 welcoming hosts, and his hide thickened 
 as he journeyed. It is necessary to the 
 success of a solicitor to have his feelings 
 and temper well under control. Patron- 
 izers were sometimes met, but it was 
 Roy's experience to encounter few of 
 this class. It was hard for him to real- 
 ize, however, that everyone could not be 
 as much interested in his work as he 
 himself happened to be. He came in con-
 
 17 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 tact with the people constantly, realizing 
 their conditions, and was naturally more 
 interested than the folk who lived a 
 thousand miles off. 
 
 While he was traveling, soliciting aid, 
 Mrs. Roy was keeping up the correspon- 
 dence. She visited and did what she 
 could for the missions set in motion by 
 her husband. 
 
 Roy returned from his trip with what 
 seemed to him sufficient money to con- 
 tinue his work for a year, and started 
 in on New Year's day with a doctor, to 
 visit some sick parishioners. They called 
 first on Mr. Brown, a veteran of the 
 Mexican and Civil Wars, and found the 
 old man in bed with pneumonia, and 
 Mrs. Brown should have been in bed. 
 The doctor looked them over for a while,
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 171 
 
 making out what was to be done, and 
 Roy chatted with Mrs. Brown who was 
 growing a bit blue. Finally Roy remark- 
 ed: "Well Mrs. Brown you married a 
 Northern soldier first, and a Southern 
 soldier second, which did you like the 
 best?" Not being able to overcome her 
 Scotch ancestry, Mrs. Brown replied: "I 
 haint never married a bushwhacker. If 
 I had, Fd a-quit him." Arranging for 
 the medicine and the nursing, Roy and 
 the doctor started on a twenty mile ride 
 to see Bob. 
 
 Bob had been indulging too freely in 
 "Mountain Dew." He had not been in 
 good favor with one of his neighbors, 
 with the result that Bob's head was bad- 
 ly cut up. It looked as if some one had 
 caught him and made as many flesh
 
 174 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 wounds as possible without killing him. 
 He remarked to the doctor and Roy 
 when they entered the cabin: "Me and 
 Lee had a little misunderstanding." Of 
 course, Bob put all the blame on Lee, 
 for Bob never did anything wrong in his 
 life. People who always do things right 
 are continually in trouble! Roy got 
 some water, boiled it in the fire place and 
 sterilized things as much as he could, 
 and assisted the doctor in patching up 
 Bob's head and shoulders, remarking as 
 he patched: "Do you think you will put 
 your head into a hornet's nest the next 
 time you drink any of that good spring 
 water?" 
 
 Bob replied: "They ought not to allow 
 anybody to make whiskey." "Its not the
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 175 
 
 whiskey, Bob," the doctor remarked, 
 "but the fool that mis-uses it." 
 
 The job was completed and the doctor 
 and Roy started on for another long 
 ride. They found two old people threat- 
 ened with what was thought might be 
 smallpox. Consequently none of the 
 neighbors would go near them. The 
 doctor made a thorough examination 
 and found it to be only measles. He 
 gave them something to bring the 
 measles out which was a hot drink of 
 Roy's mountain dew, which resulted in 
 this case most successfully. The doctor 
 said it depended altogether on who takes 
 the mountain dew, and for what purpose. 
 
 Finishing up their job about nine 
 o'clock at night, they found a messenger 
 at the door, calling the doctor ten miles
 
 178 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 away to attend a woman. But before 
 the doctor could get there a fine twelve- 
 pound boy had appeared. The man be- 
 gan to tease the doctor saying: "You are 
 too late Doc. we've been thinking of 
 sending the baby to tell you about it" 
 "I reckon its all right," replied the doc- 
 tor, "There's been enough children born 
 in this house for somebody to know 
 how." Roy chipped in "This is the eigh- 
 teenth. 
 
 Roy and the doctor crawled into the 
 cleanest place they could find, in the cor- 
 ner of the room, for a little snooze. They 
 breakfasted at five o'clock and returned 
 to the hospital 
 
 Roy had not been at the hospital very 
 long before a message came that Jack 
 was away off on the side of the mountain
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 177 
 
 with his leg broken. Starting off with a 
 couple of men, the party had a seven 
 hours tramp, and when they reached 
 Jack about ten o'clock at night, it was 
 found that he had a compound fracture, 
 and the bone of the leg had penetrated 
 his clothing. As a consequence, the 
 wound was frightfully filthy. His leg 
 was as black as a crow, for the accident 
 had occurred at nine o'clock in the morn- 
 ing, but the patient had a great deal of 
 strength left. Though Roy had had a 
 good deal of experience, the majority of 
 things he did for Jack's leg were wrong. 
 Securing a small rope Roy tied his leg up 
 so it would not drag, and he and his 
 friend acting as crutches, carried the 
 man a mile and a half up the mountain 
 to the top, reaching there about one 
 
 18
 
 178 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 o'clock the next morning. A wagon met 
 them and after a sixteen mile drive they 
 reached the hospital with Jack still alive. 
 The doctor made an examination and 
 finding that he had to contend with 
 blood poisoning said: "It is doubtful 
 whether I can save his life, but I am go- 
 ing to make a desperate effort to save it 
 and his leg too." Cleaning, scraping and 
 cutting, he finally dressed the leg with 
 the drainage to carry off impurities. 
 The doctor watched him through the day 
 and night himself. Late in the after- 
 noon of the third day Jack began to im- 
 prove. Though he had had a hard fight 
 the doctor and Jack by the help of God 
 had succeeded. 
 
 Mrs. Roy was very much worked up 
 over Jack's case. She knew Jack's wife
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 179 
 
 and five little children, all of whom 
 were absolutely dependent upon him for 
 a living. Jack continued to improve and 
 finally when he was discharged from the 
 hospital, Mrs. Roy exclaimed to her hus- 
 band: "Dear, I am so glad we had a 
 hospital to put Jack in. He could never 
 have gotten well out in the woods or in 
 his log hut." 
 
 Roy and the doctor were not the only 
 ones who had experiences. The nurses 
 came in for their share, especially those 
 in training, for out of the hospital Roy 
 and the Doctor developed a training 
 school for nurses. Roy was making his 
 rounds of the hospital one morning, and 
 the Head Nurse asked him to go in and 
 call on Bill, who had been talking to her 
 all night about dying.
 
 180 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Roy entered the room, and Bill started 
 to talk: ''Well my brother, I suppose they 
 brought me here to die, and I haint got 
 long to live, and I want to tell you how 
 good these women are. Everything I 
 want they just seem to know. That 
 woman over thar washed my face and 
 combed my hair this morning." Roy 
 thought it was an unusual occurrence, 
 as Bill didn't often comb his hair, except 
 on Sundays when he went to "meetings." 
 
 In order to get Bill's mind away from 
 his troubles, Roy laughed and talked 
 with him about the saw mill which Bill 
 owned in the cove. Then Bill told Roy 
 all about his business affairs, how he 
 bought and sold timber, and the men he 
 liked to deal with. Roy could easily see 
 his preference of the lumbermen in the
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 181 
 
 mountains. But it was hard for Bill 
 to talk about his wife and children with- 
 out thinking of his own sickness, so Roy 
 had to steer the conversation away from 
 the wife and children. 
 
 Religion was an interesting subject to 
 Bill, and would have good effect if it was 
 presented in the right way. Much to 
 Bill's surprise, Roy left the room without 
 praying or talking to him about dying. 
 After Roy left, Bill called the nurse to 
 him and said: "That's the best preacher 
 I ever seen. I want to see him again. I 
 don't like these preachers who always 
 talk about dying, and put on a long face 
 like they had stole a sheep, or had eaten 
 too much green fruit." 
 
 "That's our parson," replied the nurse, 
 "He belongs to us." "And he belongs to
 
 182 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 me too," declared Bill. The nurse then 
 gave him a good sponge bath with alco- 
 hol, and Bill said: "Don't let that bottle 
 come too nigh my mouth, because every 
 time I smell it, my mouth flies open, and 
 this ain't no time to tempt a fellow." 
 
 Only a few weeks passed and Bill was 
 well again. When he left the hospital 
 he said to the doctor: "I ain't got no 
 money to pay you uns, the only thing I 
 really got is this hoss, and I see you 
 ain't got no hoss, but I could not get 
 another life and you saved the one I 
 had." So Bill walked off and left the 
 horse tied, and the doctor was obliged 
 to take it. At supper that night the doc- 
 tor told Mr. and Mrs. Roy his experience 
 with Bill, and how Bill walked off with- 
 out the horse. The doctor could not keep
 
 ROY'S HOSPITAL 188 
 
 back the tears as he spoke of Bill's sim- 
 ple gratitude, and the doctor was by no 
 means a sentimentalist. 
 
 Some weeks later, Bill rode into the 
 hospital grounds with a big basket of 
 fruit and a lot of mountain flowers, 
 which he said his wife had sent to "Them 
 good ladies what looked after him." 
 
 While Bill was chatting with the doc- 
 tor, Roy having completed his round of 
 calls, entered the doctor's office without 
 recognizing Bill. 
 
 "Doc, you've got one of the greenest 
 men in the ward up there, ever seen in 
 this hospital. He's just about as green 
 as that fellow Bill you had here awhile 
 ago." Just then Bill turning around, re- 
 marked: "I'm that man," and both had a 
 good hearty laugh. "I knowed nothing
 
 184 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 about a hospital," declared Bill, "and 
 thought folks were only taken there to 
 die easy. You uns got the best lot of 
 women there I ever see'd. Why they 
 just do everything for you, and a fellow 
 hates to leave, and he never wants to die, 
 don't care how sick he is. Nothing 
 would please me better than to have my 
 gal go through that school you got out 
 thar in the mountains, then put her in 
 here and finish her up like one of these 
 ladies you got in here. We folks in the 
 mountains sure need it."
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 While Roy, Mrs. Roy and the doctor 
 went to and fro among the mountain 
 folk, studying their condition, carefully, 
 with a mind ever open to conviction as 
 to the next thing needed, their attention 
 was gradually directed to a school of 
 some kind for grown-ups. 
 
 In an electrical age like the present, 
 the American people cannot afford to 
 wait for a generation to die hoping to 
 educate the young. Roy came to the 
 conclusion that it was easier to develop 
 the whole of society together. As soon 
 as the parent realized what he was mis- 
 sing and is missing, he would be more 
 
 189
 
 186 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 eager to have his children taught. 
 While illiteracy in certain parts of the 
 country is a condition of mind, in the 
 mountains it is sheer lack of oppor- 
 tunity. 
 
 One day as Roy and Mrs. Roy were 
 visiting Uncle Ned, the old man who had 
 been taught to read and write after he 
 was thirty-five years old, the latter turn- 
 ed to Roy and asked: "Do you know 
 what made me jine your church?" "No," 
 replied Roy. "Well," said Uncle Ned, 
 "Mr. M. our mission teacher, taught me 
 how to read, and I was a-reading St. 
 John one day, and I read the sixth chap- 
 ter but it had no meaning for me. I 
 read it over and over for seven years, 
 and couldn't get a bit of sense out of it. 
 I then went to my preacher, who didn't
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 187 
 
 know no more'n I did, an' he mixed me 
 up worse'n I was at first. One day I 
 went up to uns chapel and heard Mr. G. 
 celebrate the Holy Communion. I don't 
 know what he said in that sermon, but 
 one thing I'll never forget, sir. When 
 the people went up to Communion, I 
 heard Mr. G. say: "The blood of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for 
 you, preserve your body and soul unto 
 everlasting life." "For the first time sir, 
 I saw what was meant in St. John's Gos- 
 pel, for there our Lord gives me an 
 order. He says: 'Except ye eat my flesh 
 and drink my blood, ye have no life in 
 ye.' And if our Lord gives such an order 
 as that, He must give us a place to go 
 and get it, for he wouldn't order me to 
 do a thing without providing a place
 
 188 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 somewhere for me to go and do it. I 
 went home, sir, and the old woman was 
 getting dinner. I took the book sir, and 
 read that chapter and told her what I 
 heard Mr. G. say, and I said to her: Tm 
 going to be confirmed, and I want you 
 to be confirmed too.' ' 
 
 Some time after this, Roy and Mrs. 
 Roy were calling on Uncle Dick. After 
 dinner, sitting out on the porch, Uncle 
 Dick began to talk about the church, 
 saying: "I don't see why these folks can't 
 all see it." "What's that?" asked Roy 
 of Uncle Dick. "Why Confirmation sir." 
 Then Uncle Dick started: "Why, I read 
 sir, in the Bible that the first thing the 
 Apostles did after they had received 
 power from on High, was to send St. 
 John and St. Peter down to Samaria to
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 189 
 
 lay hands on them what had been bap- 
 tized. Now, if Confirmation wasn't 
 necessary, why did St. John and St. 
 Peter take that long trip, and waste so 
 much time? They wouldn't do foolish 
 things, would they? That shows Con- 
 firmation was necessary for the Samari- 
 tans, and if it was necessary for the 
 Samaritans, it is just as necessary for 
 us. And those folks that ain't confirmed 
 are short that much of spiritual life?" 
 
 Leaving Uncle Dick, Roy and his wife 
 called by to see Uncle Watt. They found 
 Uncle Watt in a great deal of trouble. 
 His son-in-law and daughter had had a 
 row, and as Uncle Watt expressed it: 
 "The gal done come home." This in- 
 terested Mrs. Roy very much, and she 
 exclaimed "0 Uncle Watt, I hope you can
 
 190 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 get them together again. Its awful on 
 the children and the whole community 
 to have people separated this way. I do 
 hope they won't get a divorce." The old 
 man straightened up and said: "My 
 church don't believe in that kind of 
 business ma'am. When that gal went up 
 and was married to Ike, she said for bet- 
 ter or for worse, for richer of for poorer, 
 till death us do part,' and nary one of 
 them ain't dead yet. That was a promise 
 they made to God, and I ain't goin' to 
 have my chil'en breaking their promise 
 that way." 
 
 After they had talked with Uncle 
 Watt a little while the girl came in. Mrs. 
 Roy and Roy heard the whole story and 
 nothing would do but that Roy should 
 go and see Ike, which he was very glad
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 191 
 
 to do. By this time, Ike had cooled off 
 and was very penitent, ready to do any- 
 thing to get his wife to come back to 
 him. Before the day was over, the row 
 was adjusted, and the two people were at 
 home with their little children happy 
 once more. Uncle Watt seemed to enjoy 
 it the greater. Roy and his wife, re- 
 turning home, were forced to discuss the 
 mountain characters, wondering what 
 could be done for the adult. 
 
 Roy's wife after supper, turned to Roy 
 and said : "Surely these people are worth 
 while, and you can do something for 
 them, if only a night school or a reading 
 room." Then both realized that a read- 
 ing room would be useless, as very few 
 of them could read, and a night school 
 was a colossal undertaking. It would
 
 198 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 require so many teachers, and a great 
 amount of money. Where on earth 
 could they get it? Roy thought over the 
 problem. He read everything he could 
 get on the subject of education. He 
 came across the Scandinavian school for 
 adults. He got all the literature he 
 could find on the folk high school, which 
 appealed to him as the thing necessary 
 for the mountain folk. These schools 
 took people from eighteen to forty years 
 of age and brought out their latent 
 forces. Such a school seemed to supply 
 what was lacking in the American sys- 
 tem of education for the mountaineer. 
 The mountaineer at eighteen was too 
 far developed for preparatory schooling. 
 He was not prepared for the American 
 college or university, for Roy had tried
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 193 
 
 both and failed. So Roy discussed it 
 with his wife and said: "To complete 
 our system and do the most efficient 
 work it seems necessary to establish in 
 these mountains, a school for the grown- 
 ups." So, they set to work to find out all 
 they could about the grown-up school, 
 and to secure a teacher, but it was no 
 easy matter. The experiment had never 
 been tried in America among this class 
 of people, and naturally there were no 
 teachers. To import a teacher was a 
 tremendous undertaking, but Roy's mind 
 and heart were set on the project, 
 and he want to work. With the same 
 faith and courage that had given him 
 success with former undertakings, he 
 was helped over the difficulty. Roy soon 
 discovered there was a man in America 
 
 18
 
 194 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 who was acquainted with the adult 
 school, and at once he got into corres- 
 pondence with him and interested him in 
 the project. While Roy's new friend was 
 loath to give up the position he had for 
 one that was uncertain and experi- 
 mental, Roy persisted and his friend 
 finally yielded. The adult school was 
 certainly an experiment and something 
 new in the American idea of education, 
 and the colossal undertaking must now 
 be to educate the people of wealth to this 
 new idea. 
 
 Roy began to write letters, and as 
 usual received many kind suggestions in 
 return. One suggested that they attend 
 a Y. M. C. A. night school. In the first 
 place, the Y. M. C. A. is not adapted to 
 their needs. In the second place the
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 195 
 
 nearest Y. M. C. A. is about a hundred 
 miles away, a little hard to walk to after 
 a strenuous day's work. Another bril- 
 liant suggestion was that the state 
 should be forced to do it. Roy not being 
 a politician did not see exactly how he 
 could get another law on the statute 
 books, the statute already being very 
 very large and cumbersome with laws 
 that are worse than useless. Another 
 attacked the church for not doing it 
 The church was willing and ready to act 
 if some of her critics only had religion 
 and sense enough to help her. One 
 easily finds an excuse when he himself 
 is unwilling to act. Critics are plentiful, 
 and Roy felt as Byron did : 
 
 "A man must serve a time at every 
 trade, Save censure : critics, all are ready 
 made."
 
 1 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 While these things were amusing and 
 caused a good many laughs in Roy's 
 home, he still persisted, apparently beat- 
 ing his head against a stone wall. But 
 Roy's head was hard. He was content 
 to butt away at the wall, remembering 
 that walls had fallen before. Little by 
 little he got a hearing with a casual re- 
 mark: "What a splendid idea." Splendid 
 ideas and flattery never put brick and 
 mortar together. The labor unions must 
 have eight hours work and their scale of 
 wages, or they decline to work for God 
 or man. So Roy must do better than 
 get suggestions or praise. The latter 
 had but little effect on Roy's mind. 
 
 By a lucky chance Roy bought a piece 
 of property, an ideal place for a school. 
 After all the heirs of the property were
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 
 
 satisfied and the deed secured, Roy 
 started out as before with his bull-dog 
 determination to get the money. Speak- 
 ing, talking, writing and dreaming by 
 night about his school, finally he got the 
 ear of some sympathetic people. They 
 were not only burdened with millions but 
 burdened with a conscience on behalf of 
 their less fortunate fellows. They told 
 Roy to go ahead, see what he could do, 
 and report to them. Roy struggled and 
 struggled with little success. At last he 
 got the means for the first small build- 
 ing, and the salary of a teacher for one 
 year. He returned to his work in the 
 mountains, put up the building and 
 started the teacher to work on six men 
 as the first students of the school. Little 
 by little Roy and his teacher struggled
 
 198 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 and at times the clouds hung heavy un- 
 til they began to attract the attention 
 and the conscience of men was awak- 
 ened and relief came. 
 
 Roy and his wife could now move 
 about and watch the progress of the 
 community he had created in the moun- 
 tains. He could see the children in the 
 boys and girls' day school, the sick and 
 afflicted in the hospital with the doctors 
 and nurses battling with their diseases, 
 nurses being developed, homes changing 
 and brightening in the mountains. In- 
 stead of a patent medicine picture sign 
 on the wall, there was the picture of 
 some artist, always a picture of our 
 Lord, or some prophet or apostle. The 
 literature of the mountain was changing 
 from the county newspaper or patent 
 medicine advertisement to books and
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 199 
 
 worthy magazines. There was a good 
 farming paper always to be seen. An 
 old man remarked one day: "I wish I 
 had my life to go over again. There are 
 so many modern improvements and so 
 much better literature, that I feel like I 
 could do so much more." 
 
 One day the old man came into Roy's 
 library, picked up Drummond's "Natural 
 Law in the Spiritual World," and asked 
 if he might read it, Roy said: "Why 
 certainly." It took the old man some 
 time to read it. On returning it Mrs. 
 Roy asked what he thought of it. To 
 this the old man replied: "I hain't got no 
 education and can't criticize the book," 
 but, Mrs. Roy said: "What do you think 
 of it?" 
 
 "Well, ma'am, I don't think there is
 
 300 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 enough spirit in the book." And this 
 was identically the same criticism that 
 has been given by many of the best 
 critics. Drummond's "Natural Law in 
 the Spiritual World" is quite an improve- 
 ment over the patent-medicine almanac, 
 and Mr. and Mrs. Roy were happy to 
 know that the adult school was causing 
 this change in literature. 
 
 The vote was soon to be taken as to 
 whether the county should have good 
 roads or not. In Roy's mountain com- 
 munity, ten years previous only three 
 votes had been cast for good roads, and 
 they were cast by Roy, the doctor and 
 one of Roy's helpers. It was interesting 
 to await the results of the present elec- 
 tion. When the votes were counted, it 
 was found that a large majority had
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL Ml 
 
 voted for good roads. One old man who 
 opposed it said he did it on the ground 
 that his property would increase in 
 value, therefore, increase his taxes. Roy 
 repeated the story to one of the men who 
 had been in the adult school, the adult 
 school man replied: "He ain't got no 
 more sense than a donkey. Can't a man 
 haul four times as much on good roads 
 as on bad? And wont the saving of his 
 team more than pay for the extra tax?" 
 
 While Roy and his wife were return- 
 ing from one of the mission stations late 
 in the afternoon, there was a gorgeous 
 sunset. He was thinking of Mrs. Brown- 
 ing's poem on "Nature," and quoted 
 these few lines: 
 
 "While earth is crammed with heaven
 
 202 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 and every common bush afire with God, 
 only he who sees takes off his shoes." 
 
 Mrs. Roy said: "If only people would 
 see." "We must not be impatient," he 
 replied. While it is true that the high- 
 landers are of the purest Anglo-Saxon 
 blood there is in America, they have been 
 forced to carve out their fortune or mis- 
 fortune in seclusion. The highlander 
 has always responded to the call of the 
 country to defend the flag, furnishing 
 more troops in proportion than any 
 other section of the country. Roy con- 
 tinued and grew more eloquent, and 
 stated that at King's Mountain when 
 Ferguson and his redcoats were defeat- 
 ed, the highlanders bore the brunt of the 
 battle and checked the Briton's march. 
 Again, when under Cambridge elms,
 
 ROY'S ADULT SCHOOL 03 
 
 Washington took charge of the army of 
 America, he commanded the men who 
 marched in twenty-one days from the 
 Smokey Mountains in North Carolina. 
 And don't you remember what Mr. 
 Roosevelt said about the mountaineers 
 in his "Winning of the West." "So, my 
 dear, the nation owes the highlander a 
 debt of gratitude that can never be re- 
 paid." 
 
 Mrs. Roy replied: "And isn't it a 
 shame how their land is being taken 
 away from them for a mere song by 
 wealthy corporations, because they are 
 ignorant of its value and unable to 
 develop it?" 
 
 "Yes," said Roy, "I've seen thousands 
 of acres of land sold for thirty-five 
 cents an acre, and people of moderate
 
 204 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 means representing these corporations 
 suddenly become worth millions. Such 
 is life. But our duty is to educate the 
 people to develop their own resources 
 and withstand the trickery of these 
 mountain promoters."
 
 ROY'S HONORS 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Roy had now completed a system of 
 education, unequalled in America, among 
 a people that had been neglected for 
 years. Roy and Mrs. Roy became ex- 
 ceedingly popular. Recognition was 
 slow, but when it did come at last, it 
 came all at once and from everywhere. 
 They were sought after for addresses 
 and stories. Mrs. Roy was very apt in 
 writing while her now famous husband 
 did the platform work. Universities 
 and colleges for both men and women 
 continually sought Roy's services as lec- 
 turer on the mountaineer. 
 
 It seemed to the Roys that every 
 
 205
 
 808 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 Philanthropic and Missionary society in 
 the country had gotten their names, for 
 streams of requests began to pour in for 
 lectures or papers from Philanthropic 
 clubs, eager to interest their followers 
 in the work of the country, and from 
 Missionary societies, jealous of the work 
 being done, came representatives seeking 
 out Mr. and Mrs. Roy as the heroes of 
 the mountains, and pictured them as 
 Moses and Miriam sent to lead into the 
 promised land these children of the 
 mountains. 
 
 Roy's community of illiterates had 
 been reformed and a light, however 
 small, cannot be hid. Mr. and Mrs. Roy 
 unaware of the magnitude of the work 
 they had been engaged in, so far as the 
 public eye was concerned, were surprised
 
 ROY'S HONORS 207 
 
 and glad when an opportunity presented 
 itself for them to make known to out- 
 siders the highlander and his conditions. 
 While Roy for years had been working 
 quietly among the mountaineers, there 
 was beginning to be a continuous flow 
 of mountain fiction from the pens of 
 the country's best novelists. What 
 these writers had seen in their literary 
 imagination, he had seen with the eye 
 of trained experience. Surely no one 
 could have been better qualified to pass 
 judgment on the merits of these noted 
 books. In more than one instance, Roy 
 had been consulted by them on certain 
 points that had perplexed them. Fre- 
 quently the Roys received polite invita- 
 tion to spend week-ends at house parties 
 given by celebrated novelists. At these
 
 208 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 affairs, Roy was often urged to tell 
 tales of his experiences in the moun- 
 tains and later was surprised to find 
 many of these experiences artfully work- 
 ed out in the novels of his hosts. 
 
 An interesting story told by Roy was 
 of a wedding he once solemnized. About 
 a year after Roy had married Medora, 
 there came a tap at the door at about 
 two o'clock in the morning. Medora 
 waking first, called Roy and said : "Some 
 one is knocking." Roy about three- 
 fourths asleep remarked: "Let him knock 
 again." By that time the party seemed 
 to become very anxious for it looked as 
 if they were about to break the door 
 down with their vigorous thumping. At 
 last Roy put his head out of the window 
 and asked: "What do you want?"
 
 ROY'S HONORS 209 
 
 "Abe wants to get married." 
 
 "Well, what are you getting married 
 this time of night for?" 
 
 "Can't tell you sir, come down." 
 
 "Who's Abe to marry?" asked Roy. 
 
 "Fanny, sir, she's all right. She haint 
 never been married before, sir and you 
 know Abe." Roy knew both of them 
 very well. So he dressed hastily and 
 went into his study. Medora following, 
 expecting to be a witness in case no one 
 else would be there. To his surprise Roy 
 found his study filled with people who 
 had walked eight miles up the side of 
 the mountain. The house was not lock- 
 ed, and they could easily get in, for no 
 one thinks of locking a house in this part 
 of the country. Roy was ready to 
 "marry" them. Abe and Fanny came 
 
 14
 
 810 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 forward with the explanation that Abe 
 had gone to the clerk's office and fooled 
 away the whole day in getting his 
 license. Abe had promised to be at work 
 next morning, and Abe couldn't break 
 his promise, so Roy proceeded to marry 
 them. After they had been pronounced 
 man and wife, Abe asked "How much 
 do I owe you?" "Nothing; go on home," 
 answered Roy. 
 
 "But, I don't like to get a man up this 
 time of night and not pay him any- 
 thing," Abe persisted. 
 
 "Now, look here," said Roy, "don't get 
 me up this time of night and then keep 
 me up discussing this matter." 
 
 In the party was a young man of 
 twenty who broke into the conversation, 
 "Abe, I most generally pays twenty-five
 
 ROY'S HONORS 211 
 
 and fifty cents." Though the young man 
 himself had never been married, he had 
 taken the part of best man on several 
 occasions, paying all the bills. So Abe 
 handed Roy a dollar and went home hap- 
 pily. 
 
 This seemed to appeal to Roy's author- 
 host who evidently made a mental note 
 of the story, for a few months later it 
 came out in a very interesting short 
 story in one of the magazines. 
 
 On one occasion, one of the leading 
 colleges for women in the East invited 
 Roy to give a lecture on the moun- 
 taineer, and among the stories he told to 
 the girls, the one that appealed to them 
 the most was an account of a mountain 
 courtship. 
 
 It happened that one of Roy's young
 
 212 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 men missionaries, who had the habit of 
 saying nice things to girls if only to 
 please them, one day made a flatter- 
 ing remark about a young lady's eyes, 
 comparing them in beauty with the 
 stars. The young lady, of course, 
 thought the young worker was in earn- 
 est, and responded as best she could, 
 though much embarrassed. She went 
 straight home and told her parents. 
 Now the mountain folks are not given to 
 foolishness or frivolity, but are in dead 
 earnest, even in their courtship. The 
 parents of the girl at once came to Roy 
 and told him they thought 'Lize and the 
 young missionary would soon be mar- 
 ried, and as the young man seemed to be 
 a pretty nice fellow they had no objec- 
 tion. The missionary had thus brought
 
 ROY'S HONORS 818 
 
 himself into a very awkward dilemma by 
 easy speech. In consequence, the young 
 man had to leave and take up work else- 
 where. The frivolous mind is ever in 
 danger with the serious mountaineer. 
 
 Roy and Medora are still living in a 
 four-room log cabin in the mountains. 
 They refuse to be lured away, but are 
 content to remain among the moun- 
 taineers who love and respect them for 
 the new life the Roys have brought into 
 the old life of the plateau and cove. 
 There they have settled down and there 
 they are determined to live out their 
 useful days. Only a better perspective 
 in time is now needed to grasp in 
 full what Roy in the Mountains has 
 accomplished. The foundations have 
 been laid, and the superstructure is go-
 
 814 ROY IN THE MOUNTAINS 
 
 ing up rapidly. In the years to come the 
 character of Roy's work will be seen to 
 better advantage as it stands the test of 
 time. 
 
 END.
 
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