"HELL PER SARTAIN" AND OTHER STORIES BY JOHN FOX, JR. AUTHOR OF A CUMBERLAND VENDETTA" ETC. NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1897 BY JOHN FOX, JR. A CUMBERLAND VENDETTA, and Other Sto ries. Illustrated. Post 8vo,Cloth,Ornamental,$l 25. Genuinely picturesque and bristling with pointed in cidents, these stories may be relied upon for something worth reading on every page. They are good, strong, romantic sketches of American life in nooks and corners. Independent, N. Y. PUBHSijEUBY HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. Copyright, 1897, by HARPER & BROTHERS. All rights rtstrved. TO MY BROTHER JAMES M105434 AUTHOR S NOTE These stories were originally published in Harper s Weekly, The Century, Southern Magazine, and The Graphic, London. "Hell fer Sartain," included in "A Cumberland Vendetta, and Other Stories," is reprinted here, because it is one of the series of similar monologues contained in this volume. CONTENTS PAGE ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK .... I THROUGH THE GAP 9 A TRICK O 5 TRADE 19 GRAYSON S BABY 27 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN 41 THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND .... 53 THE SENATOR S LAST TRADE . , . . 61 PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME .... 71 THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS . . 8l A PURPLE RHODODENDRON 89 ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK THAR was a dancin -party Christmas night on "Hell fer Sartain." Jes tu n up the fust crick beyond the bend thar, an climb onto a stump, an holler about once, an you ll see how the name come. Stranger, hit s hell fer sartain ! Well, Rich Harp was thar from the head waters, an Harve Hall toted Nance Osborn clean across the Cumberlan . Fust one ud swing Nance, an then t other. Then they d take a pull out n the same bottle o moonshine, an fust one an then t other they d swing her 3 ,ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK agin. , ,An, Abe Shivers a-settin thar by-tlie fiv.e a-bi tin* his thumbs! Well, things was sorter whoopin , when somebody ups an tells Harve that Rich had said somep n agin Nance an him, an somebody ups an tells Rich that Harve had said somep n agin Nance an him. In a minute, stran ger, hit was like two wild-cats in thar. Folks got em parted, though, but thar was no more a-swingin of Nance that night. Harve toted her back over the Cumberlan , an Rich s kinsfolks tuk him up " Hell fer Sartain "; but Rich got loose, an lit out lickety-split fer Nance Osborn s. He knowed Harve lived too fer over Black Mountain to go home that night, an he rid right across the river an up to Nance s house, an hol lered fer Harve. Harve poked his head ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK out n the loft lie knowed whut was wanted an Harve says, " Uh, come in hyeh an go to bed. Hit s too late !" An Rich seed him a-gapin like a chick en, an in he walked, stumblin might nigh agin the bed whar Nance was a-layin , listenin an not sayin a word. Stranger, them two fellers slept to gether plum frien ly, an they et together plum frien ly next mornin ,an they sa n- tered down to the grocery plum frien ly. An Rich says, " Harve," says he, " let s have a drink." " All right, Rich," says Harve. An Rich says, " Harve," says he, " you go out n that door an I ll go out n this door." "All right, Rich," says Harve, an* out they walked, steady, an thar was two shoots shot, an Rich an Harve both drapped, an in ten minutes they was stretched 5 ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK out on Nance s bed an Nance was a-lopin away fer the yarb doctor. The gal nussed em both plum faith ful. Rich didn t hev much to say, an Harve didn t hev much to say. Nance was sorter quiet, an Nance s mammy, ole Nance, jes grinned. Folks come in to ax atter em right peart. Abe Shivers come cl ar cross the river powerful frien ly an ever time Nance ud walk out to the fence with him. One time she didn t come back, an ole Nance fetched the boys thar dinner, an ole Nance fotched thar supper, an then Rich he axed whut was the matter with young Nance. An ole .Nance jes snorted. Atter a while Rich says: " Harve," says he, " who tol you that I said that word agin you an Nance ?" " Abe Shivers," says Harve. " An who 6 ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK tol you," says Harve, " that I said that word agin Nance an* you ?" " Abe Shiv ers," says Rich. An both says, " Well, damn me !" An Rich tu ned right over an begun pullin straws out n the bed. He got two out, an he bit one off, an he says : " Harve," says he, " I reckon we better draw fer him. The shortes gits him." An they drawed. Well, nobody ever knowed which got the shortes straw, stranger, but Thar ll be a dancin - party comin Christmas night on " Hell fer Sartain." Rich Harp 11 be thar from the head waters. Harve Hall s a-goin to tote the Widder Shivers clean across the Cumberlan . Fust one 11 swing Nance, an then t other. Then they ll take a pull out n the same bottle o moon shine, an fust one an* then t other 7 ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK they ll swing her agin, jes the same. Abe won t be thar. He s a-settin by a bigger fire, I reckon (ef he ain t in it), a-bitin his thumbs ! 8 THROUGH THE GAP THROUGH THE GAP WHEN thistles go adrift, the sun sets down the valley between the hills ; when snow comes, it goes down behind the Cumberland and streams through a great fissure that people call the Gap. Then the last light drenches the par son s cottage under Imboden Hill, and leaves an after-glow of glory on a ma jestic heap that lies against the east. Sometimes it spans the Gap with a rainbow. Strange people and strange tales come through this Gap from the Ken- ii THROUGH THE GAP tucky hills. Through it came these two, late one day a man and a wom an afoot. I met them at the foot bridge over Roaring Fork. " Is thar a preacher anywhar aroun hyeh?" he asked. I pointed to .the cottage under Imboden Hill. The girl flushed slightly and turned her head away with a rather unhappy smile. Without a word, the mountaineer led the way towards town. A moment more and a half-breed Malungian pass ed me on the bridge and followed them. At dusk the next day I saw the mountaineer chopping wood at a shan ty under a clump of rhododendron on the river-bank. The girl was cooking supper inside. The day following he was at work on the railroad, and on 12 THROUGH THE GAP Sunday, after church, I saw the parson. The two had not been to him. Only that afternoon the mountaineer was on the bridge with another woman, hid eously rouged and with scarlet ribbons fluttering from her bonnet. Passing on by the shanty, I saw the Malungian talking to the girl. She apparently paid no heed to him until, just as he was moving away, he said something mockingly, and with a nod of his head back towards the bridge. She did not look up even then, but her face got hard and white, and, looking back from the road, I saw her slipping through the bushes into the dry bed of the creek, to make sure that what the half-breed told her was true. The two men were working side by side on the railroad when I saw them 13 THROUGH THE GAP again, but on the first pay-day the doc tor was called to attend the Malun- gian, whose head was split open with a shovel. I was one of two who went out to arrest his assailant, and I had no need to ask who he was. The mountaineer was a devil, the foreman said, and I had to club him with a pistol -butt before he would give in. He said he would get even with me ; but they all say that, and I paid no attention to the threat. For a week he was kept in the calaboose, and when I passed the shanty just after he was sent to the county -seat for trial, I found it empty. The Malungian, too, was gone. Within a fortnight the mountaineer was in the door of the shanty again. Having no accuser, he had been discharged. He went back 14 THROUGH THE GAP to his work, and if he opened his lips I never knew. Every day I saw him at work, and he never failed to give me a surly look. Every dusk I saw him in his door -way, waiting, and I could guess for what. It was easy to believe that the stern purpose in his face would make its way through space and draw her to him again. And she did come back one day. I had just limped down the mountain with a sprained ankle. A crowd of women was gathered at the edge of the woods, looking with all their eyes to the shanty on the river-bank. The girl stood in the door-way. The moun taineer was coming back from work with his face down. " He hain t seed her yit," said one. " He s goin to kill her shore. I tol 15 THROUGH THE GAP her he would. She said she reckoned he would, but she didn t keer." For a moment I was paralyzed by the tragedy at hand. She was in the door looking at him when he raised his head. For one moment he stood still, staring, and then he started tow ards her with a quickened step. I started too, then, every step a torture, and as I limped ahead she made a gesture of terror and backed into the room before him. The door closed, and I listened for a pistol-shot and a scream. It must have been done with a knife, I thought, and quietly, for when I was within ten paces of the cabin he opened the door again. His face was very white ; he held one hand behind him, and he was nervously fumbling at his chin with the other. 16 THROUGH THE GAP As he stepped towards me I caught the handle of a pistol in my side pocket and waited. He looked at me sharply. " Did you say the preacher lived up thar?" he asked. Yes," I said, breathlessly. In the door-way just then stood the girl with a bonnet in her hand, and at a nod from him they started up the hill towards the cottage. They came down again after a while, he stalking ahead, and she, after the mountain fashion, behind. And after this fashion I saw them at sunset next day pass over the bridge and into the mouth of the Gap whence they came. Through this Gap come strange people and strange tales from the Kentucky hills. Over it, sometimes, is the span of a rainbow. B 17 A TRICK O TRADE A TRICK O TRADE STRANGER, I m a separate man, an I don t inguisite into no man s business ; but you ax me straight, an I tell ye straight : You watch ole Tom ! Now, I ll take ole Tom Perkins word agin anybody s ceptin when hit comes to a hoss trade ur a piece 6 land. Fer in the tricks o sech, ole Tom lows well, hit s diff ent; an I reckon, stranger, as how hit sorter is. He was a-stayin at Tom s house, the furriner was, a-dick- erin fer a piece o Ian the same piece, mebbe, that you re atter now 21 A TRICK O TRADE an Tom keeps him thar fer a week to beat him out n a dollar, an then won t let him pay nary a cent fer his boa d. Now, stranger, that s Tom. Well, Abe Shivers was a-workin fer Tom you ve heerd tell o Abe an* the furriner wasn t more n half gone afore Tom seed that Abe was up to some of his dcvilmint. Abe kin hatch up more devibmnt in a minit than Satan hisself kin in a week ; so Tom jes got Abe out n the stable under a hoe-handle, an tol him to tell the whole thing straight ur he d have to go to glory right thar. An Abe tol ! Pears like Abe had foun a streak o* iron ore on the Ian , an had racked his jinny right down to Hazlan an tol the furriner, who was thar a -buy in wild lands right an left. Co se, Abe was 22 A TRICK O TRADE goin to make the furriner whack up fer gittin the Ian so cheap. Well, brother, the furriner come up to Tom s an got Tom into one o them new fangled trades whut the furriners calls a option t other feller kin git out n hit, but you can t. The furriner lowed he d send his podner up thar next day to put the thing in writin an close up the trade. Hit looked like ole Tom was ketched fer shore, an* ef Tom didn t ra r, I d tell a man. He jes let that hoe- handle drap on Abe fer bout haffen hour, jes to give him time to study, an next day thar was ole Tom a-settin on his orchard fence a-lookin mighty unknowing when the furriner s podner come a-prancin up an axed ef old Tom Perkins lived thar. Ole Tom jes whispers. 23 A TRICK O TRADE Now, I clean fergot to tell ye, stranger, that Abe Shivers nuver could talk out loud. He toF so many lies that the Lawd jes to make things even sorter fixed Abe, I reckon, so he couldn t lie on more n one side o the river at a time. Ole Tom jes knovved t other furriner had tol this un bout Abe, an, shore nough, the feller says, sorter soft, says he : " Aw, you air the feller whut foun the ore?" Ole Tom makin like he was Abe, mind ye jes whispers : " Thar hain t none thar." Stranger, the feller mos fell off n his hoss. " Whut ?" says he. Ole Tom kep a-whisperin : " Thar hain t no coal no nothing ; ole Tom Perkins made me tell t other furriner them lies." 24 A TRICK O TRADE Well, sir, the feller was mad. " Jes whut I tol that fool podner of mine," he says, an he pull out a dollar an gives hit to Tom. Tom jes sticks out his han with his thum turned in jes so, an the furriner says, " Well, ef you can t talk, you kin make purty damn good signs"; but he forks over four mo dollars (he lowed ole Tom had saved him a pile o money), an turns his hoss an pulls up agin. He was a-gittin the land so durned cheap that I reckon he jes hated to let hit go, an he says, says he : "Well, hain t the groun rich? Won t hit raise no tabaccy nur corn nur nothin ?" Ole Tom jes whispers : " To tell you the p int-blank truth, stranger, that land s so durned pore that I hain t nuver been able to raise my voice." 25 A TRICK O TRADE Now, brother, I m a separate man, an I don t in/>ite into no man s busi ness but you ax me straight an I tell ye straight. Ole Tom Perkins kin trade with furriners, fer he have 1 arned their ways. You watch ole Tom ! 26 GRAYSON S BABY GRAYSON S BABY THE first snow sifted in through the Gap that night, and in a " shack " of one room and a low loft a man was dead, a woman was sick to death, and four children were barely alive; and nobody even knew. For they were hill people, who sicken, suffer, and some times die, like animals, and make no noise. Grayson, the Virginian, coming down from the woods that morning, saw the big-hearted little doctor outside the door of the shack, walking up and down, 29 GRAYSON S BABY with his hands in his pockets. He was whistling softly when Grayson got near, and, without stopping, pointed with his thumb within. The oldest boy sat stolidly on the one chair in the room, his little brother was on the floor hard by, and both were hugging a greasy stove. The little girl was with her mother in the bed, both almost out of sight under a heap of quilts. The baby was in a cradle, with its face uncovered, whether dead or asleep Grayson could not tell. A pine coffin was behind the door. It would not have been possible to add to the disorder of the room, and the atmosphere made Grayson gasp. He came out looking white. The first man to arrive thereafter took away the eldest boy, a woman picked the baby girl from the bed, and a childless young couple 30 GRAYSON S BABY took up the pallid little fellow on the floor. These were step-children. The baby boy that was left was the woman s own. Nobody came for that, and Gray- son went in again and looked at it a long while. So little, so old a human face he had never seen. The brow was wrinkled as with centuries of pain, and the little drawn mouth looked as though the spirit within had fought its inheritance without a murmur, and would fight on that way to the end. It was the pluck of the face that drew Grayson. "Til take it," he said. The doc tor was not without his sense of humor even then, but he nodded. " Cradle and all," he said, gravely. And Grayson put both on one shoulder and walked away. He had lost the power of giving further surprise in that town, and had he met 31 GRAYSON S BABY every man he knew, not one of them would have felt at liberty to ask him what he was doing. An hour later the doctor found the child in Grayson s room, and Grayson still looking at it. " Is it going to live, doctor ?" The doctor shook his head. " Doubt ful. Look at the color. It s starved. There s nothing to do but to watch it and feed it. You can do that." So Grayson watched it, with a fas cination of which he was hardly con scious. Never for one instant did its look change the quiet, unyielding en durance that no faith and no philosophy could ever bring to him. It was ideal courage, that look, to accept the inevit able but to fight it just that way. Half the little mountain town was talking next day that such a tragedy was pos- 32 GRAYSON S BABY sible by the public road-side, with relief within sound of the baby s cry. The oldest boy was least starved. Might made right in an extremity like his, and the boy had taken care of himself. The young couple who had the second lad in charge said they had been wakened at daylight the next morning by some noise in the room. Looking up, they saw the little fellow at the fireplace breaking an egg. He had built a fire, had got eggs from the kitchen, and was cooking his breakfast. The little girl was mischievous and cheery in spite of her bad plight, and nobody knew of the baby except Grayson and the doctor. Grayson would let nobody else in. As soon as it was well enough to be peevish and to cry, he took it back to its mother, who was still abed. A long, dark moun- c 33 GRAYSON S BABY taineer was there, of whom the woman seemed half afraid. He followed Gray- son outside. " Say, podner," he said, with an un pleasant smile, "ye don t go up to Cracker s Neck fer nothing do ye ?" The woman had lived at Cracker s Neck before she appeared at the Gap, and it did not come to Grayson what the man meant until he was half-way to his room. Then he flushed hot and wheeled back to the cabin, but the mountaineer was gone. " Tell that fellow he had better keep out of my way," he said to the wom an, who understood, and wanted to say something, but not knowing how, nodded simply. In a few days the other chil dren went back to the cabin, and day and night Grayson went to see the child, 34 GRAYSON S BABY until it was out of danger, and after wards. It was not long before the women in town complained that the mother was ungrateful. When they sent things to eat to her the servant brought back word that she had called out, " * Set them over thar, without so much as a thanky." One message was that " she didn want no second-hand victuals from nobody s table." Somebody suggested sending the family to the poor-house. The mother said " she d go out on her crutches and hoe corn fust, and that the people who talked bout sendin her to the po -house had better save their breath to make prayers with." One day she was hired to do some washing. The mistress of the house happened not to rise until ten o clock. Next morning the mountain woman did not appear 35 GRAYSON S BABY until that hour. " She wasn t goin to work a lick while that woman was a-layin in bed," she said, frankly. And when the lady went down town, she too disappeared. Nor would she, she ex plained to Grayson, " while that woman was a-struttin the streets." After that, one by one, they let her alone, and the woman made not a word of complaint. Within a week she was working in the fields, when she should have been back in bed. The result was that the child sickened again. The old look came back to its face, and Grayson was there night and day. He was having trouble out in Ken tucky about this time, and he went to the Blue Grass pretty often. Al ways, however, he left money with me to see that the child was properly 36 GRAYSON S BABY buried if it should die while he was gone; and once he telegraphed to ask how it was. He said he was some times afraid to open my letters for fear that he should read that the baby was dead. The child knew Grayson s voice, his step. It would go to him from its own mother. When it was sickest and lying torpid it would move the instant he stepped into the room, and, when he spoke, would hold out its thin arms, without opening its eyes, and for hours Grayson would walk the floor with the troubled little baby over his shoulder. I thought several times it would die when, on one trip, Gray- son was away for two weeks. One midnight, indeed, I found the mother moaning, and three female harpies about the cradle. The baby was dy- 37 GRAYSON S BABY ing this time, and I ran back for a flask of whiskey. Ten minutes late with the whiskey that night would have been too late. The baby got to know me and my voice during that fortnight, but it was still in danger when Grayson got back, and we went to see it together. It was very weak, and we both leaned over the cradle, from either side, and I saw the pity and affection yes, hungry, half-shamed affection in Grayson s face. The child opened its eyes, looked from one to the other, and held out its arms to me. Grayson should have known that the child forgot that it would forget its own mother. He turned sharply, and his face was a little pale. He gave something to the woman, and not till then did I notice 33 GRAYSON S BABY that her soft black eyes never left him while he was in the cabin. The child got well ; but Grayson never went to the shack again, and he said nothing when I came in one night and told him that some mountaineer a long, dark fellow had taken the woman, the children, and the house hold gods of the shack back into the mountains. "They don t grieve long," I said, " these people." But long afterwards I saw the wom an again along the dusty road that leads into the Gap. She had heard over in the mountains that Grayson was dead, and had walked for two days to learn if it was true. I pointed back towards Bee Rock, and told her that he had fallen from a cliff back 39 GRAYSON S BABY there. She did not move, nor did her look change. Moreover, she said noth ing, and, being in a hurry, I had to ride on. At the foot-bridge over Roaring Fork I looked back. The woman was still there, under the hot mid-day sun and in the dust of the road, motionless. COURTIN ON CUTSHIN COURTIN ON CUTSHIN HIT was this way, stranger. When hit comes to handlin a right peert gal, Jeb Somers air about the porest man on Fryin Pan, I reckon ; an Polly Ann Sturgill have got the vineg rest tongue on Cutshin or any other crick. So the boys over on Fryin Pan made it up to git em together. Abe Shivers you ve heerd tell o* Abe tol Jeb that Polly Ann had seed him in Hazlan (which she hadn t, of co se), an* had said p int-blank that he was the likeliest feller she d seed in them 43 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN mountains. An* he tol Polly Ann that Jeb was ravin crazy bout her. The pure misery of it jes made him plumb delirious, Abe said ; an f Polly Ann wanted to find her match fer lan- guige an talkin out peert well, she jes ought to strike Jeb Somers. Fact is, stranger, Jeb Somers air might* nigh a idgit ; but Jeb lowed he d rack right over on Cutshin an set up with Polly Ann Sturgill ; an Abe tells Polly Ann the king bee air comin . An Polly Ann s cousin, Nance Osborn, comes over from Hell fer Sartain (whut runs into Kingdom-Come) to stay all night an see the fun. Now, I hain t been a-raftin* logs down to the settlemints o Kaintuck fer nigh on to twenty year fer noth- in . An I know gallivantin is diffent 44 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN with us mountain fellers an* you fur- riners, in the premises, anyways, as them lawyers up to court says ; though I reckon hit s purty much the same atter the premises is over. Whar you says " courtin ," now, we says " talkin to." Sallie Spurlock over on Fryin Pan is a-talkin to Jim Howard now. Sallie s sister hain t nuver talked to no man. An whar you says " makin a call on a young lady," we says " settin* up with a gal"! An , stranger, we does it. We hain t got more n one room hardly ever in these mountains, an we re jes obleeged to set up to do any courtin at all. Well, you go over to Sallie s to stay all night some time, an purty soon atter supper Jim Howard comes in. The ole man an the ole woman goes 45 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN to bed, an* the chil un an you go to bed, an* ef you keeps one eye open you ll see Jim s cheer an Sallie s cheer a-movin purty soon, till they gets plumb together. Then, stranger, hit begins. Now I want ye to understand that settin up means business. We don t low no foolishness in these mountains; an f two fellers happens to meet at the same house, they jes makes the gal say which one she likes best, an t other one gits ! Well, you ll see Jim put his arm round Sallie s neck an whisper a long while jes so. Meb- be you ve noticed whut fellers us moun tain folks air fer whisperin . You ve seed fellers a-whisperin all over Haz- lan on court day, hain t ye? Ole Tom Perkins 11 put his arm aroun yo neck an whisper in yo year ef he s 46 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN ten mile out n the woods. I reckon thar s jes so much devilmint a-goin on in these mountains, folks is naturely afeerd to talk out loud. Well, Jim let s go an* Sallie puts her arm aroun* Jim s neck an* whispers a long while jes so; an f you happen to wake up anywhar to two o clock in the mornin you ll see jes that a-goin on. Brother, that s settin up. Well, Jeb Somers, as I was a-sayin* in the premises, lowed he d rack right over on Cutshin an set up with Polly Ann comin Christmas night. An Abe tells Polly Ann Jeb says he aims to have her fer a Christmas gift afore mornin . Polly Ann jes sniffed sorter, but you know women folks air always mighty ambitious jes to see a feller anyways, f he s a-pinin fer em. So 47 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN Jeb come, an Jeb was fixed up now fittin to kill. Jeb had his hair oiled down nice an slick, and his mustache was jes black as powder could make hit. Naturely hit was red ; but a feller can t do nothin in these mountains with a red mustache ; an Jeb had a big black ribbon tied in the butt o the bigges pistol Abe Shivers could borrer fer him hit was a badge o death an deestruction to his enemies, Abe said, an I tell ye Jeb did look like a man. He never opened his mouth atter he says "howdy" Jeb never does say nothin ; Jeb s one o them fellers whut hides thar lack o brains by a-lookin solemn an a-keepin still, but thar don t nobody say much tell the ole folks air gone to bed, an* Polly Ann jes lowed Jeb was a-waitin . 4 3 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN Fact is, stranger, Abe Shivers had got Jeb a leetle disguised by liquer, an he did look fat an sassy, ef he couldn t talk, a-settin over in the corner a- plunkin the banjer an a-knocldn off " Sour-wood Mountain " an " Jinny git aroun " an "Soapsuds over the Fence." " Chickens a-crowin on Sour- wood Mountain, Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee! Git yo dawgs an we ll go huntin , Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!" An when Jeb comes to " I ve got a gal at the head o the holler, Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!" he jes turns one eye round on Polly Ann, an then swings his chin aroun as though he didn t give a cuss fer nothin . " She won t come, an I won t foller, Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee !" D 49 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN Well, sir, Nance seed that Polly Ann was a-eyin Jeb sort o* flustered like, an she come might* nigh splittin right thar an* a-sp ilin the fun, fer she knowed what a skeery fool Jeb was. An* when the ole folks goes to bed, Nance lays thar under a quilt a-watch- in an* a-listenin . Well, Jeb knowed the premises, ef he couldn t talk, an purty soon Nance heerd Jeb s cheer creak a leetle, an she says, Jeb s a- comin , and Jeb was; an Polly Ann lowed Jeb was jes a leetle too resolute an quick-like, an she got her hand ready to give him one lick anyways fer bein so brigaty. I don t know as she d a hit him more n once. Jeb had a farm, an Polly Ann well, Polly Ann was a-gittin along. But Polly Ann sot thar jes as though she didn t know 50 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN Jeb was a-comin , an Jeb stopped once an* says, " You hain t got nothin agin me, has ye?" An Polly Ann says, sorter quick, "Naw; ef I had, I d push it." Well, Jeb mos fell off his cheer, when, ef he hadn t been sech a skeery idgit, he d a knowed that Polly Ann was plain open an shet a-biddin fer him. But he sot thar like a knot on a log fer haffen hour, an then he rickollected, I reckon, that Abe had tol him Polly Ann was peppery an he mustn t mind, fer Jeb begun a-movin ag in till he was slam-bang agin Polly Ann s cheer. An thar he sot like a punkin, not sayin* a word nurdoin nothin . An while Polly Ann was a-wonderin ef he was gone plumb crazy, blame me ef that durned 51 COURTIN ON CUTSHIN fool didn t turn roun to that peppery gal an say, "Booh, Polly Ann!" Well, Nance had to stuff the bedquilt in her mouth right thar to keep from hollerin out loud, fer Polly Ann s hand was a-hangin down by the cheer, jes a-waitin fer a job, and Nance seed the fingers a-twitchin*. An* Jeb waits an other haffen hour an Jeb says, "Ortern t I be killed?" "Whut fer?" says Polly Ann, sorter sharp. An Jeb says, " Fer bein so devilish." Well, brother, Nance snorted right out thar, an* Polly Ann Sturgill s hand riz up jes once ; an I ve heerd Jeb Somers say the next time he jumps out o the Fryin Pan he s a-goin to take hell- fire stid o Cutshin fer a place to light. 52 THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND STRANGER, you furriners don t nuver seem to consider that a woman has always got the devil to fight in two people at once! Hit s two agin one, I tell ye, an hit hain t fa r. That s what I said more n two year ago, when Rosie Branham was a-layin* up thar at Dave Hall s, white an mos dead. An , God, boys, I says, that leetle thing in thar by her shorely can t be to blame. Thar hain t been a word agin Rosie sence ; an , stranger, I reckon thar nuver 55 THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND will be. Fer, while the gal hain t got hide o kith or kin, thar air two fellers up hyeh sorter lookin atter Rosie ; an* one of em is the shootin es man on this crick, I reckon, cept one ; an , stranger, that s t other. Rosie kep her mouth shet fer a long while; an I reckon as how the feller lowed she wasn t goin to tell. Co se the woman folks got hit out n her they al ays gits whut they want, as you know an thar the sorry cuss was a-livin* up thar in the Bend, jes aroun that bluff o lorrel yander, a-lookin pious, an a-singin , an a-sayin Amen louder n anybody when thar was meetin . Well, my boy Jim an a lot o fellers jes went up fer him right away. I don t know as the boys would a killed him exactly ef they had kotched him, though 56 THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND they mought ; but they got Abe Shivers, as tol the feller they was a-comin you ve heard tell o Abe an they mos beat Abraham Shivers to death. Stran ger, the sorry cuss was Dave. Rosie hadn t no daddy an no mammy ; an she was jes a-workin at Dave s fer her victuals an clo es. Pears like the pore gal was jes tricked into evil. Looked like she was sorter witched an any ways, stranger, she was a-fightin Satan in herself, as well as in Dave. Hit was two agin one, I tell ye, an* hit wasn t fa r. Co se they turned Rosie right out in the road. I hain t got a word to say agin Dave s wife fer that ; an atter a while the boys lets Dave come back, to take keer o his ole mammy, of co se, but I tell ye Dave s a-playin* a purty 57 THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND lonesome tune. He keeps purty shy yit. He don t nuver sa nter down this way. Pears like he don t seem to think hit s healthy fer him down hyeh, an I reckon Dave s right. Rosie? Oh, well, I sorter tuk Rosie in myself. Yes, she s been livin* thar in the shack with me an my boy Jim, an the Why, thar he is now, stranger. That s him a-wallerin out thar in the road. Do you reckon thar d be a single thing agin that leetle cuss ef he had to stan* up on Jedgment Day jes as he is now? Look hyeh, stranger, whut you reckon the Lawd kep* a-writin thar on the groun that day when them fellers was a-pesterin him bout that pore woman ? Don t you jes know he was a writin bout sech as him an Rosie? I tell 58 THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND ye, brother, he writ thar jes what I m al ays a-sayin . Hit hain t the woman s fault. I said it more n two year ago, when Rosie was up thar at ole Dave s, an I said it yestiddy, when my boy Jim come to me an* lowed as how he aimed to take Rosie down to town to-day an* git married. "You ricollect, dad," says Jim, "her mammy?" "Yes, Jim," I says; "all the better reason not to be too hard on Rosie." I m a-lookin fer em both back right now, stranger; an ef you will, I ll be mighty glad to have ye stay right hyeh to the infair this very night. Thar nuver was a word agin Rosie afore, thar hain t been sence,an you kin ride up an down this river till the crack o doom an you ll 59 THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND nuver hear a word agin her ag in. Fer, as I tol you, my boy, Jim is the shoot- in es feller on this crick, I reckon, cept one, an , stranger, that s me ! THE, SENATOR S LAST TRADE THE SENATOR S LAST TRADE A DROVE of lean cattle were swing ing easily over Black Mountain, and behind them came a big man with wild black hair and a bushy beard. Now and then he would gnaw at his mustache with his long, yellow teeth, or would sit down to let his lean horse rest, and would flip meaninglessly at the bushes with a switch. Sometimes his bushy head would droop over on his breast, and he would snap it up sharply and start painfully on. Rob ber, cattle-thief, outlaw he might have 63 THE SENATOR S LAST TRADE been in another century ; for he filled the figure of any robber hero in life or romance, and yet he was only the Senator from Bell, as he was known in the little Kentucky capital ; or, as he was known in his mountain home, just the Senator, who had toiled and schemed and grown rich and grown poor; who had suffered long and was kind. Only that Christmas he had gutted every store in town. " Give me every thing you have, brother," he said, across each counter ; and next day every man, woman, and child in the mountain town had a present from the Senator s hands. He looked like a brigand that day, as he looked now, but he called every man his brother, and his eye, while black and lustreless as night, was as brooding and just as kind. 64 THE SENATOR S LAST TRADE When the boom went down, with it and with everybody else went the Sen ator. Slowly he got dusty, ragged, long of hair. He looked tortured and ever-restless. You never saw him still ; always he swept by you, flapping his legs on his lean horse or his arms in his rickety buggy here, there, every where turning, twisting, fighting his way back to freedom and not a mur mur. Still was every man his brother, and if some forgot his once open hand, he forgot it no more completely than did the Senator. He went very far to pay his debts. He felt honor bound, indeed, to ask his sister to give back the farm that he had given her, which, very properly people said, she declined to do. Nothing could kill hope in the Senator s breast ; he would hand back E 6 5 THE SENATOR S LAST TRADE the farm in another year, he said ; but the sister was firm, and without a word still, the Senator went other ways and schemed through the nights, and work ed and rode and walked and traded through the days, until now, when the light was beginning to glimmer, his end was come. This was the Senator s last trade, and in sight, down in a Kentucky valley, was home. Strangely enough, the Sen ator did not care at all, and he had just enough sanity left to wonder why, and to be worried. It was the " walk ing typhoid " that had caught up with him, and he was listless, and he made strange gestures and did foolish things as he stumbled down the mountain. He was going over a little knoll now, and he could see the creek that ran 66 THE SENATOR S LAST TRADE around his house, but he was not touched. He would just as soon have lain down right where he was, or have turned around and gone back, except that it was hot and he wanted to get to the water. He remembered that it was nigh Christmas ; he saw the snow about him and the cakes of ice in the creek. He knew that he ought not to be hot, and yet he was so hot that he refused to reason with himself even a minute, and hurried on. It was odd that it should be so, but just about that time, over in Virginia, a cattle- dealer, nearing home, stopped to tell a neighbor how he had tricked some black-whiskered fool up in the moun tains. It may have been just when he was laughing aloud over there, that the Senator, over here, tore his woollen 67 THE SENATOR S LAST TRADE shirt from his great hairy chest and rushed into the icy stream, clapping his arms to his burning sides and shouting in his frenzy. " If he had lived a little longer," said a constituent, " he would have lost the next election. He hadn t the money, you know." " If he had lived a little longer," said the mountain preacher high up on Yel low Creek, " I d have got that trade I had on hand with him through. Not that I wanted him to die, but if he had to why " "If he had lived a little longer," said the Senator s lawyer, "he would have cleaned off the score against him." " If he had lived a little longer," said the Senator s sister, not meaning to 68 THE SENATOR S LAST TRADE be unkind, " he would have got all I have." That was what life held for the Sen ator. Death was more kind. PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME I VE told ye, stranger, that Hell fer Sartain empties, as it oughter, of co se, into Kingdom-Come. You can ketch the devil most any day in the week on Hell fer Sartain, an* sometimes you can git Glory everlastin* on Kingdom-Come. Hit s the only meetin - house thar in twenty miles aroun . Well, the reg lar rider, ole Jim Skaggs, was dead, an the bretherin was a-lookin aroun fer somebody to step into ole Jim s shoes. Thar d been one young feller up thar from the settlemints, a-ca- 73 PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME vortin aroun , an they was studyin* bout gittin him. " Bretherin an sisteren," I says, atter the leetle chap was gone, " he s got the fortitood to speak an he shorely is well favored. He s got a mighty good hawk eye fer spyin out evil an the gals ; he can outholler ole Jim ; an if" I says, "any idees ever comes to him, he ll be a hell-rouser shore but they ain t corn- in !" An , so sayin , I takes my foot in my hand an steps fer home. Stranger, them fellers over thar hain t seed much o this world. Lots of em nuver seed the cyars ; some of em nuver seed a wagon. An atter jowerin an noratin fer bout two hours, what you reckon they said they aimed to do? They believed they d take that ar man Beecher, ef they could git him to come. 74 PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME They d heerd o Henry endurin the war, an they knowed he was agin the rebs, an they wanted Henry if they could jes git him to come. Well, I snorted, an* the feud broke out on Hell fer Sartain betwixt the Days an the Dillons. Mace Day shot Daws Dillon s brother, as I rickollect some- p n s al ays a-startin up that plaguey war an* a-makin things frolicsome over thar an ef it hadn t a-been fer a tall young feller with black hair an a scar across his forehead, who was a-goin through the mountains a-settlin* these wars, blame me ef I believe thar ever would a* been any mo* preachin on Kingdom-Come. This feller comes over from Hazlan an says he aims to hold a meetin on Kingdom-Come. " Brother," I says, " that s what no preacher have 75 PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME ever did whilst this war is a-goin on." An* he says, sort o quiet, " Well, then, I reckon I ll have to do what no preacher have ever did." An I ups an says: " Brother, an ole jedge come up here once from the settlemints to hold couht. * Jedge, I says, * that s what no jedge have ever did without soldiers since this war s been a-goin on. An , brother, the jedge s words was yours, p int- blank. All right, he says, then I ll have to do what no other jedge have ever did. An , brother," says I to the preacher, " the jedge done it shore. He jes laid under the couht-house fer two days whilst the boys fit over him. An* when I sees the jedge a-makin tracks fer the settle- mints, I says, Jedge, I says, * you spoke a parable shore. " Well, sir, the long preacher looked 76 PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME jes as though he was a-sayin to hisself, " Yes, I hear ye, but I don t heed ye," an when he says, " Jes the same, I m a-goin to hold a meetin on Kingdom- Come," why, I jes takes my foot in my hand an ag in I steps fer home. That night, stranger, I seed another feller from Hazlan, who was a-tellin how this here preacher had stopped the war over thar, an had got the Marcums an Braytons to shakin hands ; an next day ole Tom Perkins stops in an* says that wharas there mought a been preachin somewhar an sometime, thar nuver had beenfreac/im afore on Kingdom-Come. So I goes over to the meetin -house, an they was all thar Daws Dillon an Mace Day, the leaders in the war, an Abe Shivers (you ve heerd tell o Abe) who was a-carryin tales from one side to 77 PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME t other an a-stirrin up hell ginerally, as Abe most al ays is; an* thar was Daws on one side o the meetin -house an* Mace on t other, an both jes a-watchin fer t other to make a move, an thar d a been billy -hell to pay right thar! Stranger, that long preacher talked jes as easy as I m a-talkin now, an hit was p int-blank as the feller from Hazlan said. You jes ought a heerd him tellin about the Lawd a-bein as pore as any feller thar, an a-makin barns an fences an ox-yokes an sech like; an not a-bein able to write his own name havin to make his mark mebbe when he started out to save the world. An how they tuk him an nailed him onto a cross when he d come down fer nothin but to save em ; an stuck a spear big as a corn-knife into his side, an give him 73 PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME vinegar ; an his own mammy a-standin* down thar on the ground a-cryin an* a-watchin him ; an he a-fergivin* all of em then an thar ! Thar nuver had been nothin like that afore on Kingdom-Come, an* all along I heerd fellers a-layin thar guns down ; an when the preacher called out fer sinners, blame me ef the fust feller that riz wasn t Mace Day. An* Mace says, " Stranger, f what you say is true, I reckon the Lawd 11 fergive me too, but I don t believe Daws Dillon ever will," an Mace stood thar lookin around fer Daws. An all of a sudden the preacher got up straight an called out, " Is thar a human in this house mean an* sorry enough to stand betwixt a man an his Maker ? An right thar, stranger, Daws riz. " Naw, by God, thar hain t !" Daws 79 PREACHIN ON KINGDOM-COME says, an he walks up to Mace a-holdin out his hand, an* they all busts out cryin* an shakin hands Days an* Dil lons jes as the preacher had made em do over in Hazlan. An atter the thing was over, I steps up to the preacher an* I says : " Brother," I says, "you spoke a para ble, shore.* THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS " I TELL ye, boys, hit hain t often a feller haS the chance o doin so much good jes by dyin\ Fer f Abe Shivers air gone, shorely gone, the rest of us every durn one of us air a-goin to be saved. Fer Abe Shivers you hain t heerd tell o* Abe ? Well, you must be a stranger in these mountains o Kaintuck, shore. " I don t know, stranger, as Abe ever was borned ; nobody in these mountains knows it f he was. The fust time I ever 83 THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS heerd tell o Abe he was a-hollerin fer his rights one mawnin at daylight, endurin the war, jes outside o ole Tom Perkins door on Fryin Pan. Abe was left thar by some home-gyard, I reckon. Well, nobody air ever turned out n doors in these mountains, as you know, an* Abe got his rights that mawin , an he s been a-gittin em ever sence. Tom already had a houseful, but f any feller got the bigges hunk o corn-bread, that feller was Abe; an ef any feller got a-whalin , hit wasn t Abe. "Abe tuk to lyin right naturely looked like afore he could talk. Fact is, Abe nuver could do nothin* but jes whisper. Still, Abe could manage to send a lie furder with that rattlin* whisper than ole Tom could with that big horn o hisn what tells the 84 THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS boys the revenoos air comin up Fryin Pan. " Didn t take Abe long to git to brag- gin an drinkin an naggin an hectorin everything, mos , cept fightin . No body ever drawed Abe Shivers into a fight. I don t know as he was afeerd ; looked like Abe was a-havin sech a tar nation good time with his devilmint he jes didn t want to run no risk o havin* hit stopped. An sech devilmint! Hit ud take a coon s age, I reckon, to tell ye. "The boys was a-goin up the river one night to git ole Dave Hall fer trickin Rosie Branham into evil. Some feller goes ahead an tells ole Dave they s a-comin. Hit was Abe. Some feller finds a streak o ore on ole Tom Perkins land, an racks his jinny down to town, 85 THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS an* tells a furriner thar, an Tom comes might nigh sellin the land fer nothin . Now Tom raised Abe, but, jes the same, the feller was Abe. "One night somebody guides the revenoos in on Hell fer Sartain, an they cuts up four stills. Hit was Abe. The same night, mind ye, a feller slips in among the revenoos while they s asleep, and cuts off their hosses manes an tails muled every durned critter uv em. Stranger, hit was Abe. An as fer women -folks well, Abe was the ill - favoredest feller I ever see, an he couldn t talk ; still, Abe was sassy, an you know how sass counts with the gals ; an Abe s whisperin come in jes as handy as any feller s settin up ; so f ever you seed a man with a Winches ter a-lookin fer the feller who had cut 86 THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS him out, stranger, he was a-lookm fer Abe. " Somebody tells Harve Hall, up thar at a dance on Hell-fer-Sartain one Christ- . mas night, that Rich Harp had said somep n agin him an* Nance Osborn. An* somebody tells Rich that Harve had said sompe n agin Nance an him. Hit was one an the same feller, stranger, an the feller was Abe. Well, while Rich an Harve was a-gittin well, somebody runs off with Nance. Hit was Abe. Then Rich an Harve jes draws straws fer a feller. Stranger, they drawed fer Abe. Hit s purty hard to believe that Abe air gone, cept that Rich Harp an Harve Hall don t never draw no straws fer nothin ; but f by the grace o Goddle- mighty Abe air gone, why, as I was a-sayin , the rest of us every durned one 87 THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS of us air a-goin* to be saved, shore. Fer Abe s gone fust, an* ef thar s only one Jedgment Day, the Lawd 11 nuver git to us." A PURPLE RHODODENDRON A PURPLE RHODODENDRON THE purple rhododendron is rare. Up in the Gap here, Bee Rock, hung out over Roaring Rock, blossoms with it as a gray cloud purples with the sunrise. This rock was tossed lightly on edge when the earth was young, and stands vertical. To get the flowers you climb the mountain to one side, and, balancing on the rock s thin edge, slip down by roots and past rattlesnake dens till you hang out over the water and reach for them. To avoid snakes it is best to go when it is cool, at daybreak. -91 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON I know but one other place in this southwest corner of Virginia where there is another bush of purple rhodo dendron, and one bush only is there. This hangs at the throat of a peak not far away, whose ageless gray head is bent over a ravine that sinks like a spear thrust into the side of the moun tain. Swept only by high wind and eagle wings as this is, I yet knew one man foolhardy enough to climb to it for a flower. He brought one blossom down : and to this day I do not know that it was not the act of a coward ; yes, though Grayson did it, actually smiling all the way from peak to ra vine, and though he was my best friend best loved then and since. I believe he was the strangest man I have ever known, and I say this with thought; 92 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON for his eccentricities were sincere. In all he did I cannot remember having even suspected anything theatrical but once. We were all Virginians or Kentuck- ians at the Gap, and Grayson was a Virginian. You might have guessed that he was a Southerner from his voice and from the way he spoke of women but no more. Otherwise, he might have been a Moor, except for his color, which was about the only racial charac teristic he had. He had been educated abroad and, after the English habit, had travelled everywhere. And yet I can imagine no more lonely way between the eternities than the path Grayson trod alone. He came to the Gap in the early days, and just why he came I never 93 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON knew. He had studied the iron ques tion a long time, he told me, and what I thought reckless speculation was, it seems, deliberate judgment to him. His money " in the dirt," as the phrase was, Grayson got him a horse and rode the hills and waited. He was intimate with nobody. Occasionally he would play poker with us and sometimes he drank a good deal, but liquor never loosed his tongue. At poker his face told as little as the back of his cards, and he won more than admiration even from the Ken- tuckians, who are artists at the game ; but the money went from a free hand, and, after a diversion like this, he was apt to be moody and to keep more to himself than ever. Every fortnight or two he would disappear, always over Sunday. In three or four days he 94 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON would turn up again, black with brood ing, and then he was the last man to leave the card-table or he kept away from it altogether. Where he went no body knew ; and he was not the man anybody would question. One night two of us Kentuckians were sitting in the club, and from a home paper I read aloud the rumored engagement of a girl we both knew who was famous for beauty in the Blue- grass, as was her mother before her and the mother before her to an unnamed Virginian. Grayson sat near, smoking a pipe ; and when I read the girl s name I saw him take the meerschaum from his lips, and I felt his eyes on me. It was a mystery how, but I knew at once that Grayson was the man. He sought me out after that and seemed to want 95 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON to make friends. I was willing, or, rath er he made me more than willing ; for he was irresistible to me, as I imagine he would have been to anybody. We got to walking together and riding to gether at night, and we were soon rather intimate ; but for a long time he never so much as spoke the girl s name. In deed, he kept away from the Bluegrass for nearly two months; but when he did go he stayed a fortnight. This time he came for me as soon as he got back to the Gap. It was just before midnight, and we went as usual back of Imboden Hill, through moon- dappled beeches, and Grayson turned off into the woods where there was no path, both of us silent. We rode through tremulous, shining leaves Grayson s horse choosing a way for him- 96 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON self and, threshing through a patch of high, strong weeds, we circled past an amphitheatre of deadened trees whose crooked arms were tossed out into the moonlight, and halted on the spur. The moon was poised over Morris s farm ; South Fork was shining under us like a loop of gold, the mountains lay about in tranquil heaps, and the moon-mist rose luminous between them. There Gray- son turned to me with an eager light in his eyes that I had never seen before. " This has a new beauty to-night !" he said ; and then " I told her about you, and she said that she used to know you well." I was glad my face was in shadow I could hardly keep back a brutal laugh and Grayson, unseeing, went on to speak of her as I had never heard any man speak of any woman. In G 97 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON the end, he said that she had just prom ised to be his wife. I answered noth ing. Other men, I knew, had said that with the same right, perhaps, and had gone from her to go back no more. And I was one of them. Grayson had met her at White Sulphur five years before, and had loved her ever since. She had known it from the first, he said, and I guessed then what was going to happen to him. I marvelled, listen ing to the man, for it was the star of constancy in her white soul that was most lustrous to him and while I won dered the marvel became a common place. Did not every lover think his loved one exempt from the frailty that names other women ? There is no ideal of faith or of purity that does not live in countless women to-day. I believe 98 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON that; but could I not recall one friend who walked with Divinity through pine woods for one immortal spring, and who, being sick to death, was quite finished learning her at last? Did I not know lovers who believed sacred to them selves, in the name of love, lips that had been given to many another with out it ? And now did I not know but I knew too much, and to Grayson I said nothing. That spring the " boom " came. Gray- son s property quadrupled in value and quadrupled again. I was his lawyer,,and I plead with him to sell ; but Grayson laughed. He was not speculating; he had invested on judgment ; he would sell only at a certain figure. The figure was actually reached, and Grayson let half go. The boom fell, and Grayson 99 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON took the tumble with a jest. It would come again in the autumn, he said, and he went off to meet the girl at White Sulphur. I worked right hard that summer, but I missed him, and I surely was glad when he came back. Something was wrong ; I saw it at once. He did not mention her name, and for a while he avoided even me. I sought him then, and gradually I got him into our old habit of walking up into the Gap and of sitting out after supper on a big rock in the valley, listening to the run of the river and watching the afterglow over the Cumberland, the moon rise over Wallen s Ridge and the stars come out. Waiting for him to speak, I learned for the first time then another secret of his wretched melancholy. It was the hope- 100 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON lessness of that time, perhaps, that dis closed it. Grayson had lost the faith of his childhood. Most men do that at some time or other, but Grayson had no business, no profession, no art in which to find relief. Indeed, there was but one substitute possible, and that came like a gift straight from the God whom he denied. Love came, and Gray- son s ideals of love, as of everything else, were morbid and quixotic. He believed that he owed it to the woman he should marry never to have loved another. He had loved but one wom an, he said, and he should love but one. I believed him then literally when he said that his love for the Kentucky girl was his religion now the only anchor left him in his sea of troubles, the only star that gave him guid- 101 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON ing light. Without this love, what then? I had a strong impulse to ask him, but Grayson shivered, as though he divined my thought, and, in some re lentless way, our talk drifted to the question of suicide. I was not surprised that he rather defended it. Neither of us said anything new, only I did not like the way he talked. He was too deliberate, too serious, as though he were really facing a possible fact. He had no religious scruples, he said, no family ties ; he had nothing to do with bringing himself into life; why if it was not worth living, not bearable why should he not end it? He gave the usual authority, and I gave the usual answer. Religion aside, if we did not know that we were here for some 102 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON purpose, we did not know that we were not ; and here we were anyway, and our duty was plain. Desertion was the act of a coward, and that Grayson could not deny. That autumn the crash of 91 came across the water from England, and Grayson gave up. He went to Rich mond, and came back with money enough to pay off his notes, and I think it took nearly all he had. Still, he played poker steadily now for poker had been resumed when it was no long er possible to gamble in lots he drank a good deal, and he began just at this time to take a singular interest in our volunteer police guard. He had always been on hand when there was trouble, and I sha n t soon forget him the day Senator Mahone spoke, when we were 103 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON punching a crowd of mountaineers back with cocked Winchesters. He had lost his hat in a struggle with one giant ; he looked half crazy with anger, and yet he was white and perfectly cool, and I noticed that he never had to tell a man but once to stand back. Now he was the first man to answer a police whistle. When we were guarding Talt Hall, he always volunteered when there was any unusual risk to run. When we raided the Pound to capture a gang of despe radoes, he insisted on going ahead as spy; and when we got restless lying out in the woods waiting for daybreak, and the captain suggested a charge on the cabin, Grayson was by his side when it was made. Grayson sprang through the door first, and he was the man who thrust his reckless head up into the loft 104 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON and lighted a match to see if the mur derers were there. Most of us did fool ish things in those days under stress of excitement, but Grayson, I saw, was weak enough to be reckless. His trouble with the girl, whatever it was, was se rious enough to make him apparently care little whether he were alive or dead. And still I saw that not yet even had he lost hope. He was having a sore fight with his pride, and he got body- worn and heart-sick over it. Of course he was worsted, and in the end, from sheer weakness, he went back to her once more. I shall never see another face like his when Grayson came back that last time. I never noticed before that there were silver hairs about his temples. He stayed in his room, and had his meals sent to 105 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON him. He came out only to ride, and then at night. Waking the third morning at daybreak, I saw him through the window galloping past, and I knew he had spent the night on Black Mountain. I went to his room as soon as I got up, and Grayson was lying across his bed with his face down, his clothes on, and in his right hand was a revolver. I reeled into a chair before I had strength enough to bend over him, and when I did I found him asleep. I left him as he was, and I never let him know that I had been to his room ; but I got him out on the rock again that night, and I turned our talk again to suicide. I said it was small, mean, cowardly, criminal, con temptible! I was savagely in earnest, and Grayson shivered and said not a word. I thought he was in better mind 1 06 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON after that. We got to taking night rides again, and I stayed as closely to him as I could, for times got worse and trouble was upon everybody. Notes fell thicker than snowflakes, and, through the foolish policy of the company, fore closures had to be made. Grayson went to the wall like the rest of us. I asked him what he had done with the money he had made. He had given away a great deal to poorer kindred ; he had paid his dead father s debts; he had played away a good deal, and he had lost the rest. His faith was still imper turbable. He had a dozen rectangles of " dirt," and from these, he said, it would all come back some day. Still, he felt the sudden poverty keenly, but he faced it as he did any other physical fact in life dauntless. He used to be fond of 107 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON saying that no one thing could make him miserable. But he would talk with mocking earnestness about some much- dreaded combination ; and a favorite phrase of his which got to have peculiar significance was "the cohorts of hell," who closed in on him when he was sick and weak, and who fell back when he got well. He had one strange habit, too, from which I got comfort. He would deliberately walk into and defy any temptation that beset him. That was the way he strengthened himself, he said. I knew what his temptation was now, and I thought of this habit when I found him asleep with his re volver, and I got hope from it now, when the dreaded combination (whatever that was) seemed actually to have come. I could see now that he got worse 108 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON daily. He stopped his mockeries, his occasional fits of reckless gayety. He stopped poker resolutely he couldn t afford to lose now; and, what puzzled me, he stopped drinking. The man simply looked tired, always hopelessly tired; and I could believe him sincere in all his foolish talk about his blessed Nir vana: which was the peace he craved, which was end enough for him. Winter broke. May drew near ; and one afternoon, when Grayson and I took our walk up through the Gap, he carried along a huge spy-glass of mine, which had belonged to a famous old desperado, who watched his enemies with it from the mountain-tops. We both helped capture him, and I defended him. He was sen tenced to hang the glass was my fee. We sat down opposite Bee Rock, and 109 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON for the first time Grayson told me of that last scene with her. He spoke without bitterness, and he told me what she said, word for word, without a breath of blame for her. I do not believe that he judged her at all ; she did not know he always said; she did not know ; and then, when I opened my lips, Grayson reached silently for my wrist, and I can feel again the warning crush of his fin gers, and I say nothing against her now. I asked Grayson what his answer was. " I asked her," he said, solemnly, " if she had ever seen a purple rhododen dron." I almost laughed, picturing the scene the girl bewildered by his absurd ques tion Grayson calm, superbly courteous. It was a mental peculiarity of his this irrelevancy and it was like him to end no A PURPLE RHODODENDRON a matter of life and death in just that way. " I told her I should send her one. I am waiting for them to come out," he added ; and he lay back with his head against a stone and sighted the telescope on a dizzy point, about which buzzards were circling. " There is just one bush of rhododen dron up there," he went on. " I saw it looking down from the Point last spring. I imagine it must blossom earlier than that across there on Bee Rock, being always in the sun. No, it s not budding yet," he added, with his eye to the glass. " You see that ledge just to the left ? I dropped a big rock from the Point square on a rattler who was sunning himself there last spring. I can see a foothold all the way up the cliff. It can be done," A PURPLE RHODODENDRON he concluded, in a tone that made me turn sharply upon him. " Do you really mean to climb up there ?" I asked, harshly. " If it blossoms first up there I ll get it where it blooms first." In a moment I was angry and half sick with suspi cion, for I knew his obstinacy ; and then began what I am half ashamed to tell. Every day thereafter Grayson took that glass with him, and I went along to humor him. I watched Bee Rock, and he that one bush at the throat of the peak neither of us talking over the matter again. It was uncanny, that rivalry sun and wind in one spot, sun and wind in another Nature herself casting the fate of a half-crazed fool with a flower. It was utterly absurd, 112 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON but I got nervous over it apprehen sive, dismal. A week later it rained for two days, and the water was high. The next day the sun shone, and that afternoon Grayson smiled, looking through the glass, and handed it to me. I knew what I should see. One purple cluster, full blown, was shaking in the wind. Grayson was leaning back in a dream when I let the glass down. A cool breath from the woods behind us brought the odor of roots and of black earth; up in the leaves and sunlight somewhere a wood -thrush was sing ing, and I saw in Grayson s face what I had not seen for a long time, and that was peace the peace of stub born purpose. He did not come for me the next day, nor the next ; H 113 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON but the next he did, earlier than usual. " I am going to get that rhododen dron," he said. " I have been half-way up it can be reached." So had I been half-way up. With nerve and agility the flower could be got, and both these Grayson had. If he had wanted to climb up there and drop, he could have done it alone, and he would have known that I should have found him. Gray- son was testing himself again, and, angry with him for the absurdity of the thing and with myself for humoring it, but still not sure of him, I picked up my hat and went. I swore to myself silently that it was the last time I should pay any heed to his whims. I believed this would be the last. The affair with the girl was over. The flower sent, I knew 114 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON Grayson would never mention her name again. Nature was radiant that afternoon. The mountains had the leafy luxuri ance of June, and a rich, sunlit haze drowsed on them between the shadows starting out over the valley and the clouds so white that the blue of the sky looked dark. Two eagles shot across the mouth of the Gap as we neared it, and high beyond buzzards were sailing over Grayson s rhododendron. I went up the ravine with him and I climbed up behind him Grayson going very deliberately and whistling softly. He called down to me when he reached the shelf that looked half-way. " You mustn t come any farther than this," he said. " Get out on that rock and I ll drop them down to you." "5 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON Then he jumped from the ledge and caught the body of a small tree close to the roots, and my heart sank at such recklessness and all my fears rose again. I scrambled hastily to the ledge, but I could get no farther. I might possibly make the jump he had made but how should I ever get back? How would he? I called angrily after him now, and he wouldn t answer me. I called him a fool, a coward ; I stamped the ledge like a child but Grayson kept on, foot after hand, with stealthy cau tion, and the purple cluster nodding down at him made my head whirl. I had to lie down to keep from tumbling from the ledge ; and there on my side, gripping a pine bush, I lay looking up at him. He was close to the flowers now, and just before he took the last 116 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON upward step he turned and looked down that awful height with as calm a face as though he could have dropped and floated unhurt to the ravine be neath. Then with his left hand he caught the ledge to the left, strained up, and, holding thus, reached out with his right. The hand closed about the cluster, and the twig was broken. Grayson gave a great shout then. He turned his head as though to drop them, and, that far away, I heard the sibilant whir of rat tles. I saw a snake s crest within a yard of his face, and, my God ! I saw Grayson loose his left hand to guard it ! The snake struck at his arm, and Gray- son reeled and caught back once at the ledge with his left hand. He caught once, I say, to do him full justice ; then, "7 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON without a word, he dropped and I swear there was a smile on his face when he shot down past me into the trees. I found him down there in the ra vine with nearly every bone in his body crushed. His left arm was under him, and outstretched in his right hand was the shattered cluster, with every blos som gone but one. One white half of his face was unmarked, and on it was still the shadow of a smile. I think it meant more than that Grayson believed that he was near peace at last. It meant that Fate had done the deed for him and that he was glad. Whether he would have done it himself, I do not know; and that is why I say that though Grayson brought the flower 118 A PURPLE RHODODENDRON down smiling from peak to ravine I do not know that he was not, after all, a coward. That night I wrote to the woman in Kentucky. I told her that Grayson had fallen from a cliff while climbing for flowers ; and that he was dead. Along with these words, I sent a purple rhododendron. THE END THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL. BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 5O CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $I.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. mm w i H (TV 1 On i Rn IflUT I ^i^? *^W I IVI 8Jan 50liftZ~ LD 2X-100m-7, 40 (6936s) YB 32677 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY