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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Freckles, by Gene Stratton-Porter
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Freckles
-
-Author: Gene Stratton-Porter
-
-Release Date: February, 1994 [eBook #111]
-[Most recently updated: March 17, 2023]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRECKLES ***
-
-
-
-
-FRECKLES
-
-By Gene Stratton-Porter
-
-
-
-
-  To all good Irishmen in general
-  and one CHARLES DARWIN PORTER
-  in particular
-
-
-
-Characters:
-
-
-  FRECKLES, a plucky waif who guards the Limberlost timber leases and
-  dreams of Angels.
-
-  THE SWAMP ANGEL, in whom Freckles' sweetest dream materializes.
-
-  MCLEAN, a member of a Grand Rapids lumber company, who befriends
-  Freckles.
-
-  MRS. DUNCAN, who gives mother-love and a home to Freckles.
-
-  DUNCAN, head teamster of McLean's timber gang.
-
-  THE BIRD WOMAN, who is collecting camera studies of birds for a book.
-
-  LORD AND LADY O'MORE, who come from Ireland in quest of a lost relative.
-
-  THE MAN OF AFFAIRS, brusque of manner, but big of heart.
-
-  WESSNER, a Dutch timber-thief who wants rascality made easy.
-
-  BLACK JACK, a villain to whom thought of repentance comes too late.
-
-  SEARS, camp cook.
-
-
-
-
-Contents:
-
-
-  I Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-
-  II Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-
-  III Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-
-  IV Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for New
-  Experiences
-
-  V Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-
-  VI Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-
-  VII Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-
-  VIII Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the
-  Encounter
-
-  IX Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to
-  the Rescue
-
-  X Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-
-  XI Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird
-  Woman
-
-  XII Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-
-  XIII Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack
-  Falls upon Her
-
-  XIV Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-
-  XV Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little
-  Chicken Furnishes the Subject
-
-  XVI Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-
-  XVII Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken
-  Body
-
-  XVIII Wherein Freckles Refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable
-  Birth, and the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-
-  XIX Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-
-  XX Wherein Freckles Returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails for
-  Ireland Without Him
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-
-Freckles came down the corduroy that crosses the lower end of the
-Limberlost. At a glance he might have been mistaken for a tramp, but he
-was truly seeking work. He was intensely eager to belong somewhere and
-to be attached to almost any enterprise that would furnish him food and
-clothing.
-
-Long before he came in sight of the camp of the Grand Rapids Lumber
-Company, he could hear the cheery voices of the men, the neighing of the
-horses, and could scent the tempting odors of cooking food. A feeling
-of homeless friendlessness swept over him in a sickening wave. Without
-stopping to think, he turned into the newly made road and followed it to
-the camp, where the gang was making ready for supper and bed.
-
-The scene was intensely attractive. The thickness of the swamp made a
-dark, massive background below, while above towered gigantic trees.
-The men were calling jovially back and forth as they unharnessed tired
-horses that fell into attitudes of rest and crunched, in deep content,
-the grain given them. Duncan, the brawny Scotch head-teamster, lovingly
-wiped the flanks of his big bays with handfuls of pawpaw leaves, as he
-softly whistled, “O wha will be my dearie, O!” and a cricket beneath
-the leaves at his feet accompanied him. The green wood fire hissed and
-crackled merrily. Wreathing tongues of flame wrapped around the big
-black kettles, and when the cook lifted the lids to plunge in his
-testing-fork, gusts of savory odors escaped.
-
-Freckles approached him.
-
-“I want to speak with the Boss,” he said.
-
-The cook glanced at him and answered carelessly: “He can't use you.”
-
-The color flooded Freckles' face, but he said simply: “If you will be
-having the goodness to point him out, we will give him a chance to do
-his own talking.”
-
-With a shrug of astonishment, the cook led the way to a rough board
-table where a broad, square-shouldered man was bending over some
-account-books.
-
-“Mr. McLean, here's another man wanting to be taken on the gang, I
-suppose,” he said.
-
-“All right,” came the cheery answer. “I never needed a good man more
-than I do just now.”
-
-The manager turned a page and carefully began a new line.
-
-“No use of your bothering with this fellow,” volunteered the cook. “He
-hasn't but one hand.”
-
-The flush on Freckles' face burned deeper. His lips thinned to a mere
-line. He lifted his shoulders, took a step forward, and thrust out his
-right arm, from which the sleeve dangled empty at the wrist.
-
-“That will do, Sears,” came the voice of the Boss sharply. “I will
-interview my man when I finish this report.”
-
-He turned to his work, while the cook hurried to the fires. Freckles
-stood one instant as he had braced himself to meet the eyes of the
-manager; then his arm dropped and a wave of whiteness swept him. The
-Boss had not even turned his head. He had used the possessive. When he
-said “my man,” the hungry heart of Freckles went reaching toward him.
-
-The boy drew a quivering breath. Then he whipped off his old hat and
-beat the dust from it carefully. With his left hand he caught the right
-sleeve, wiped his sweaty face, and tried to straighten his hair with
-his fingers. He broke a spray of ironwort beside him and used the purple
-bloom to beat the dust from his shoulders and limbs. The Boss, busy over
-his report, was, nevertheless, vaguely alive to the toilet being made
-behind him, and scored one for the man.
-
-McLean was a Scotchman. It was his habit to work slowly and
-methodically. The men of his camps never had known him to be in a hurry
-or to lose his temper. Discipline was inflexible, but the Boss was
-always kind. His habits were simple. He shared camp life with his gangs.
-The only visible signs of wealth consisted of a big, shimmering diamond
-stone of ice and fire that glittered and burned on one of his fingers,
-and the dainty, beautiful thoroughbred mare he rode between camps and
-across the country on business.
-
-No man of McLean's gangs could honestly say that he ever had been
-overdriven or underpaid. The Boss never had exacted any deference from
-his men, yet so intense was his personality that no man of them ever had
-attempted a familiarity. They all knew him to be a thorough gentleman,
-and that in the great timber city several millions stood to his credit.
-
-He was the only son of that McLean who had sent out the finest ships
-ever built in Scotland. That his son should carry on this business after
-the father's death had been his ambition. He had sent the boy through
-the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and allowed him several years'
-travel before he should attempt his first commission for the firm.
-
-Then he was ordered to southern Canada and Michigan to purchase a
-consignment of tall, straight timber for masts, and south to Indiana for
-oak beams. The young man entered these mighty forests, parts of which
-lay untouched since the dawn of the morning of time. The clear, cool,
-pungent atmosphere was intoxicating. The intense silence, like that of a
-great empty cathedral, fascinated him. He gradually learned that, to
-the shy wood creatures that darted across his path or peeped inquiringly
-from leafy ambush, he was brother. He found himself approaching, with a
-feeling of reverence, those majestic trees that had stood through ages
-of sun, wind, and snow. Soon it became difficult to fell them. When he
-had filled his order and returned home, he was amazed to learn that in
-the swamps and forests he had lost his heart and it was calling--forever
-calling him.
-
-When he inherited his father's property, he promptly disposed of it,
-and, with his mother, founded a home in a splendid residence in the
-outskirts of Grand Rapids. With three partners, he organized a lumber
-company. His work was to purchase, fell, and ship the timber to the
-mills. Marshall managed the milling process and passed the lumber to the
-factory. From the lumber, Barthol made beautiful and useful furniture,
-which Uptegrove scattered all over the world from a big wholesale house.
-Of the thousands who saw their faces reflected on the polished surfaces
-of that furniture and found comfort in its use, few there were to whom
-it suggested mighty forests and trackless swamps, and the man, big
-of soul and body, who cut his way through them, and with the eye of
-experience doomed the proud trees that were now entering the homes of
-civilization for service.
-
-When McLean turned from his finished report, he faced a young man,
-yet under twenty, tall, spare, heavily framed, closely freckled, and
-red-haired, with a homely Irish face, but in the steady gray eyes,
-straightly meeting his searching ones of blue, there was unswerving
-candor and the appearance of longing not to be ignored. He was dressed
-in the roughest of farm clothing, and seemed tired to the point of
-falling.
-
-“You are looking for work?” questioned McLean.
-
-“Yis,” answered Freckles.
-
-“I am very sorry,” said the Boss with genuine sympathy in his every
-tone, “but there is only one man I want at present--a hardy, big fellow
-with a stout heart and a strong body. I hoped that you would do, but I
-am afraid you are too young and scarcely strong enough.”
-
-Freckles stood, hat in hand, watching McLean.
-
-“And what was it you thought I might be doing?” he asked.
-
-The Boss could scarcely repress a start. Somewhere before accident and
-poverty there had been an ancestor who used cultivated English, even
-with an accent. The boy spoke in a mellow Irish voice, sweet and pure.
-It was scarcely definite enough to be called brogue, yet there was a
-trick in the turning of the sentence, the wrong sound of a letter here
-and there, that was almost irresistible to McLean, and presaged a misuse
-of infinitives and possessives with which he was very familiar and
-which touched him nearly. He was of foreign birth, and despite years of
-alienation, in times of strong feeling he committed inherited sins of
-accent and construction.
-
-“It's no child's job,” answered McLean. “I am the field manager of a
-big lumber company. We have just leased two thousand acres of the
-Limberlost. Many of these trees are of great value. We can't leave our
-camp, six miles south, for almost a year yet; so we have blazed a trail
-and strung barbed wires securely around this lease. Before we return to
-our work, I must put this property in the hands of a reliable, brave,
-strong man who will guard it every hour of the day, and sleep with one
-eye open at night. I shall require the entire length of the trail to be
-walked at least twice each day, to make sure that our lines are up and
-that no one has been trespassing.”
-
-Freckles was leaning forward, absorbing every word with such intense
-eagerness that he was beguiling the Boss into explanations he had never
-intended making.
-
-“But why wouldn't that be the finest job in the world for me?” he
-pleaded. “I am never sick. I could walk the trail twice, three times
-every day, and I'd be watching sharp all the while.”
-
-“It's because you are scarcely more than a boy, and this will be a
-trying job for a work-hardened man,” answered McLean. “You see, in the
-first place, you would be afraid. In stretching our lines, we killed six
-rattlesnakes almost as long as your body and as thick as your arm. It's
-the price of your life to start through the marshgrass surrounding the
-swamp unless you are covered with heavy leather above your knees.
-
-“You should be able to swim in case high water undermines the temporary
-bridge we have built where Sleepy Snake Creek enters the swamp. The fall
-and winter changes of weather are abrupt and severe, while I would want
-strict watch kept every day. You would always be alone, and I don't
-guarantee what is in the Limberlost. It is lying here as it has lain
-since the beginning of time, and it is alive with forms and voices. I
-don't pretend to say what all of them come from; but from a few slinking
-shapes I've seen, and hair-raising yells I've heard, I'd rather not
-confront their owners myself; and I am neither weak nor fearful.
-
-“Worst of all, any man who will enter the swamp to mark and steal
-timber is desperate. One of my employees at the south camp, John Carter,
-compelled me to discharge him for a number of serious reasons. He came
-here, entered the swamp alone, and succeeded in locating and marking
-a number of valuable trees that he was endeavoring to sell to a rival
-company when we secured the lease. He has sworn to have these trees if
-he has to die or to kill others to get them; and he is a man that the
-strongest would not care to meet.”
-
-“But if he came to steal trees, wouldn't he bring teams and men enough:
-that all anyone could do would be to watch and be after you?” queried
-the boy.
-
-“Yes,” replied McLean.
-
-“Then why couldn't I be watching just as closely, and coming as fast, as
-an older, stronger man?” asked Freckles.
-
-“Why, by George, you could!” exclaimed McLean. “I don't know as the size
-of a man would be half so important as his grit and faithfulness, come
-to think of it. Sit on that log there and we will talk it over. What is
-your name?”
-
-Freckles shook his head at the proffer of a seat, and folding his arms,
-stood straight as the trees around him. He grew a shade whiter, but his
-eyes never faltered.
-
-“Freckles!” he said.
-
-“Good enough for everyday,” laughed McLean, “but I scarcely can put
-'Freckles' on the company's books. Tell me your name.”
-
-“I haven't any name,” replied the boy.
-
-“I don't understand,” said McLean.
-
-“I was thinking from the voice and the face of you that you wouldn't,”
- said Freckles slowly. “I've spent more time on it than I ever did on
-anything else in all me life, and I don't understand. Does it seem to
-you that anyone would take a newborn baby and row over it, until it was
-bruised black, cut off its hand, and leave it out in a bitter night
-on the steps of a charity home, to the care of strangers? That's what
-somebody did to me.”
-
-McLean stared aghast. He had no reply ready, and presently in a low
-voice he suggested: “And after?”
-
-“The Home people took me in, and I was there the full legal age and
-several years over. For the most part we were a lot of little Irishmen
-together. They could always find homes for the other children, but
-nobody would ever be wanting me on account of me arm.”
-
-“Were they kind to you?” McLean regretted the question the minute it was
-asked.
-
-“I don't know,” answered Freckles. The reply sounded so hopeless, even
-to his own ears, that he hastened to qualify it by adding: “You see,
-it's like this, sir. Kindnesses that people are paid to lay off in job
-lots and that belong equally to several hundred others, ain't going to
-be soaking into any one fellow so much.”
-
-“Go on,” said McLean, nodding comprehendingly.
-
-“There's nothing worth the taking of your time to tell,” replied
-Freckles. “The Home was in Chicago, and I was there all me life until
-three months ago. When I was too old for the training they gave to the
-little children, they sent me to the closest ward school as long as the
-law would let them; but I was never like any of the other children, and
-they all knew it. I'd to go and come like a prisoner, and be working
-around the Home early and late for me board and clothes. I always wanted
-to learn mighty bad, but I was glad when that was over.
-
-“Every few days, all me life, I'd to be called up, looked over, and
-refused a home and love, on account of me hand and ugly face; but it was
-all the home I'd ever known, and I didn't seem to belong to any place
-else.
-
-“Then a new superintendent was put in. He wasn't for being like any of
-the others, and he swore he'd weed me out the first thing he did. He
-made a plan to send me down the State to a man he said he knew who
-needed a boy. He wasn't for remembering to tell that man that I was a
-hand short, and he knocked me down the minute he found I was the boy who
-had been sent him. Between noon and that evening, he and his son close
-my age had me in pretty much the same shape in which I was found in
-the beginning, so I lay awake that night and ran away. I'd like to have
-squared me account with that boy before I left, but I didn't dare for
-fear of waking the old man, and I knew I couldn't handle the two of
-them; but I'm hoping to meet him alone some day before I die.”
-
-McLean tugged at his mustache to hide the smile on his lips, but he
-liked the boy all the better for this confession.
-
-“I didn't even have to steal clothes to get rid of starting in me Home
-ones,” Freckles continued, “for they had already taken all me clean,
-neat things for the boy and put me into his rags, and that went almost
-as sore as the beatings, for where I was we were always kept tidy and
-sweet-smelling, anyway. I hustled clear into this State before I learned
-that man couldn't have kept me if he'd wanted to. When I thought I
-was good and away from him, I commenced hunting work, but it is with
-everybody else just as it is with you, sir. Big, strong, whole men are
-the only ones for being wanted.”
-
-“I have been studying over this matter,” answered McLean. “I am not so
-sure but that a man no older than you and similar in every way could do
-this work very well, if he were not a coward, and had it in him to be
-trustworthy and industrious.”
-
-Freckles came forward a step.
-
-“If you will give me a job where I can earn me food, clothes, and a
-place to sleep,” he said, “if I can have a Boss to work for like other
-men, and a place I feel I've a right to, I will do precisely what you
-tell me or die trying.”
-
-He spoke so convincingly that McLean believed, although in his heart he
-knew that to employ a stranger would be wretched business for a man with
-the interests he had involved.
-
-“Very well,” the Boss found himself answering, “I will enter you on my
-pay rolls. We'll have supper, and then I will provide you with clean
-clothing, wading-boots, the wire-mending apparatus, and a revolver.
-The first thing in the morning, I will take you the length of the trail
-myself and explain fully what I want done. All I ask of you is to come
-to me at once at the south camp and tell me as a man if you find this
-job too hard for you. It will not surprise me. It is work that few men
-would perform faithfully. What name shall I put down?”
-
-Freckles' gaze never left McLean's face, and the Boss saw the swift
-spasm of pain that swept his lonely, sensitive features.
-
-“I haven't any name,” he said stubbornly, “no more than one somebody
-clapped on to me when they put me on the Home books, with not the
-thought or care they'd name a house cat. I've seen how they enter those
-poor little abandoned devils often enough to know. What they called me
-is no more my name than it is yours. I don't know what mine is, and I
-never will; but I am going to be your man and do your work, and I'll be
-glad to answer to any name you choose to call me. Won't you please be
-giving me a name, Mr. McLean?”
-
-The Boss wheeled abruptly and began stacking his books. What he was
-thinking was probably what any other gentleman would have thought in the
-circumstances. With his eyes still downcast, and in a voice harsh with
-huskiness, he spoke.
-
-“I will tell you what we will do, my lad,” he said. “My father was my
-ideal man, and I loved him better than any other I have ever known. He
-went out five years ago, but that he would have been proud to leave you
-his name I firmly believe. If I give to you the name of my nearest kin
-and the man I loved best--will that do?”
-
-Freckles' rigid attitude relaxed suddenly. His head dropped, and big
-tears splashed on the soiled calico shirt. McLean was not surprised at
-the silence, for he found that talking came none too easily just then.
-
-“All right,” he said. “I will write it on the roll--James Ross McLean.”
-
-“Thank you mightily,” said Freckles. “That makes me feel almost as if I
-belonged, already.”
-
-“You do,” said McLean. “Until someone armed with every right comes to
-claim you, you are mine. Now, come and take a bath, have some supper,
-and go to bed.”
-
-As Freckles followed into the lights and sounds of the camp, his heart
-and soul were singing for joy.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-
-Next morning found Freckles in clean, whole clothing, fed, and rested.
-Then McLean outfitted him and gave him careful instruction in the use of
-his weapon. The Boss showed him around the timber-line, and engaged him
-a place to board with the family of his head teamster, Duncan, whom he
-had brought from Scotland with him, and who lived in a small clearing
-he was working out between the swamp and the corduroy. When the gang was
-started for the south camp, Freckles was left to guard a fortune in the
-Limberlost. That he was under guard himself those first weeks he never
-knew.
-
-Each hour was torture to the boy. The restricted life of a great
-city orphanage was the other extreme of the world compared with the
-Limberlost. He was afraid for his life every minute. The heat was
-intense. The heavy wading-boots rubbed his feet until they bled. He was
-sore and stiff from his long tramp and outdoor exposure. The seven
-miles of trail was agony at every step. He practiced at night, under the
-direction of Duncan, until he grew sure in the use of his revolver. He
-cut a stout hickory cudgel, with a knot on the end as big as his fist;
-this never left his hand. What he thought in those first days he himself
-could not recall clearly afterward.
-
-His heart stood still every time he saw the beautiful marsh-grass begin
-a sinuous waving AGAINST the play of the wind, as McLean had told him it
-would. He bolted half a mile with the first boom of the bittern, and his
-hat lifted with every yelp of the sheitpoke. Once he saw a lean, shadowy
-form following him, and fired his revolver. Then he was frightened worse
-than ever for fear it might have been Duncan's collie.
-
-The first afternoon that he found his wires down, and he was compelled
-to plunge knee deep into the black swamp-muck to restring them, he
-became so ill from fear and nervousness that he scarcely could control
-his shaking hand to do the work. With every step, he felt that he would
-miss secure footing and be swallowed in that clinging sea of blackness.
-In dumb agony he plunged forward, clinging to the posts and trees until
-he had finished restringing and testing the wire. He had consumed
-much time. Night closed in. The Limberlost stirred gently, then shook
-herself, growled, and awoke around him.
-
-There seemed to be a great owl hooting from every hollow tree, and
-a little one screeching from every knothole. The bellowing of big
-bullfrogs was not sufficiently deafening to shut out the wailing of
-whip-poor-wills that seemed to come from every bush. Nighthawks swept
-past him with their shivering cry, and bats struck his face. A prowling
-wildcat missed its catch and screamed with rage. A straying fox bayed
-incessantly for its mate.
-
-The hair on the back of Freckles' neck arose as bristles, and his knees
-wavered beneath him. He could not see whether the dreaded snakes were on
-the trail, or, in the pandemonium, hear the rattle for which McLean had
-cautioned him to listen. He stood motionless in an agony of fear. His
-breath whistled between his teeth. The perspiration ran down his face
-and body in little streams.
-
-Something big, black, and heavy came crashing through the swamp close
-to him, and with a yell of utter panic Freckles ran--how far he did not
-know; but at last he gained control over himself and retraced his steps.
-His jaws set stiffly and the sweat dried on his body. When he reached
-the place from which he had started to run, he turned and with measured
-steps made his way down the line. After a time he realized that he was
-only walking, so he faced that sea of horrors again. When he came toward
-the corduroy, the cudgel fell to test the wire at each step.
-
-Sounds that curdled his blood seemed to encompass him, and shapes of
-terror to draw closer and closer. Fear had so gained the mastery that he
-did not dare look behind him; and just when he felt that he would fall
-dead before he ever reached the clearing, came Duncan's rolling call:
-“Freckles! Freckles!” A shuddering sob burst in the boy's dry throat;
-but he only told Duncan that finding the wire down had caused the delay.
-
-The next morning he started on time. Day after day, with his heart
-pounding, he ducked, dodged, ran when he could, and fought when he was
-brought to bay. If he ever had an idea of giving up, no one knew it; for
-he clung to his job without the shadow of wavering. All these things, in
-so far as he guessed them, Duncan, who had been set to watch the first
-weeks of Freckles' work, carried to the Boss at the south camp; but
-the innermost, exquisite torture of the thing the big Scotchman never
-guessed, and McLean, with his finer perceptions, came only a little
-closer.
-
-After a few weeks, when Freckles learned that he was still living, that
-he had a home, and the very first money he ever had possessed was safe
-in his pockets, he began to grow proud. He yet side-stepped, dodged, and
-hurried to avoid being late again, but he was gradually developing the
-fearlessness that men ever acquire of dangers to which they are hourly
-accustomed.
-
-His heart seemed to be leaping when his first rattler disputed the trail
-with him, but he mustered courage to attack it with his club. After its
-head had been crushed, he mastered an Irishman's inborn repugnance for
-snakes sufficiently to cut off its rattles to show Duncan. With this
-victory, his greatest fear of them was gone.
-
-Then he began to realize that with the abundance of food in the swamp,
-flesh-hunters would not come on the trail and attack him, and he had his
-revolver for defence if they did. He soon learned to laugh at the big,
-floppy birds that made horrible noises. One day, watching behind a tree,
-he saw a crane solemnly performing a few measures of a belated nuptial
-song-and-dance with his mate. Realizing that it was intended in
-tenderness, no matter how it appeared, the lonely, starved heart of the
-boy sympathized with them.
-
-Before the first month passed, he was fairly easy about his job; by the
-next he rather liked it. Nature can be trusted to work her own miracle
-in the heart of any man whose daily task keeps him alone among her
-sights, sounds, and silences.
-
-When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter loneliness was
-the companionship of the birds and beasts of the swamp, it was the
-most natural thing in the world that Freckles should turn to them for
-friendship. He began by instinctively protecting the weak and helpless.
-He was astonished at the quickness with which they became accustomed to
-him and the disregard they showed for his movements, when they learned
-that he was not a hunter, while the club he carried was used more
-frequently for their benefit than his own. He scarcely could believe
-what he saw.
-
-From the effort to protect the birds and animals, it was only a short
-step to the possessive feeling, and with that sprang the impulse to
-caress and provide. Through fall, when brooding was finished and the
-upland birds sought the swamp in swarms to feast on its seeds and
-berries, Freckles was content with watching them and speculating about
-them. Outside of half a dozen of the very commonest they were strangers
-to him. The likeness of their actions to humanity was an hourly
-surprise.
-
-When black frost began stripping the Limberlost, cutting the ferns,
-shearing the vines from the trees, mowing the succulent green things
-of the swale, and setting the leaves swirling down, he watched the
-departing troops of his friends with dismay. He began to realize that he
-would be left alone. He made especial efforts toward friendliness with
-the hope that he could induce some of them to stay. It was then that he
-conceived the idea of carrying food to the birds; for he saw that they
-were leaving for lack of it; but he could not stop them. Day after day,
-flocks gathered and departed: by the time the first snow whitened
-his trail around the Limberlost, there were left only the little
-black-and-white juncos, the sapsuckers, yellow-hammers, a few patriarchs
-among the flaming cardinals, the blue jays, the crows, and the quail.
-
-Then Freckles began his wizard work. He cleared a space of swale, and
-twice a day he spread a birds' banquet. By the middle of December the
-strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed from the grass and
-bushes. The snow fell, covering the swamp, and food was very scarce and
-difficult to find. The birds scarcely waited until Freckles' back was
-turned to attack his provisions. In a few weeks they flew toward the
-clearing to meet him. During the bitter weather of January they came
-halfway to the cabin every morning, and fluttered around him as
-doves all the way to the feeding-ground. Before February they were so
-accustomed to him, and so hunger-driven, that they would perch on
-his head and shoulders, and the saucy jays would try to pry into his
-pockets.
-
-Then Freckles added to wheat and crumbs, every scrap of refuse food he
-could find at the cabin. He carried to his pets the parings of apples,
-turnips, potatoes, stray cabbage-leaves, and carrots, and tied to the
-bushes meat-bones having scraps of fat and gristle. One morning, coming
-to his feeding-ground unusually early, he found a gorgeous cardinal
-and a rabbit side by side sociably nibbling a cabbage-leaf, and that
-instantly gave to him the idea of cracking nuts, from the store he had
-gathered for Duncan's children, for the squirrels, in the effort to add
-them to his family. Soon he had them coming--red, gray, and black; then
-he became filled with a vast impatience that he did not know their names
-or habits.
-
-So the winter passed. Every week McLean rode to the Limberlost; never on
-the same day or at the same hour. Always he found Freckles at his work,
-faithful and brave, no matter how severe the weather.
-
-The boy's earnings constituted his first money; and when the Boss
-explained to him that he could leave them safe at a bank and carry away
-a scrap of paper that represented the amount, he went straight on every
-payday and made his deposit, keeping out barely what was necessary for
-his board and clothing. What he wanted to do with his money he did not
-know, but it gave to him a sense of freedom and power to feel that it
-was there--it was his and he could have it when he chose. In imitation
-of McLean, he bought a small pocket account-book, in which he carefully
-set down every dollar he earned and every penny he spent. As his
-expenses were small and the Boss paid him generously, it was astonishing
-how his little hoard grew.
-
-That winter held the first hours of real happiness in Freckles' life. He
-was free. He was doing a man's work faithfully, through every rigor of
-rain, snow, and blizzard. He was gathering a wonderful strength of body,
-paying his way, and saving money. Every man of the gang and of that
-locality knew that he was under the protection of McLean, who was
-a power, this had the effect of smoothing Freckles' path in many
-directions.
-
-Mrs. Duncan showed him that individual kindness for which his hungry
-heart was longing. She had a hot drink ready for him when he came from
-a freezing day on the trail. She knit him a heavy mitten for his left
-hand, and devised a way to sew and pad the right sleeve that protected
-the maimed arm in bitter weather. She patched his clothing--frequently
-torn by the wire--and saved kitchen scraps for his birds, not because
-she either knew or cared anything about them, but because she herself
-was close enough to the swamp to be touched by its utter loneliness.
-When Duncan laughed at her for this, she retorted: “My God, mannie, if
-Freckles hadna the birds and the beasts he would be always alone. It was
-never meant for a human being to be so solitary. He'd get touched in the
-head if he hadna them to think for and to talk to.”
-
-“How much answer do ye think he gets to his talkin', lass?” laughed
-Duncan.
-
-“He gets the answer that keeps the eye bright, the heart happy, and the
-feet walking faithful the rough path he's set them in,” answered Mrs.
-Duncan earnestly.
-
-Duncan walked away appearing very thoughtful. The next morning he gave
-an ear from the corn he was shelling for his chickens to Freckles, and
-told him to carry it to his wild chickens in the Limberlost. Freckles
-laughed delightedly.
-
-“Me chickens!” he said. “Why didn't I ever think of that before? Of
-course they are! They are just little, brightly colored cocks and hens!
-But 'wild' is no good. What would you say to me 'wild chickens' being a
-good deal tamer than yours here in your yard?”
-
-“Hoot, lad!” cried Duncan.
-
-“Make yours light on your head and eat out of your hands and pockets,”
- challenged Freckles.
-
-“Go and tell your fairy tales to the wee people! They're juist brash on
-believin' things,” said Duncan. “Ye canna invent any story too big to
-stop them from callin' for a bigger.”
-
-“I dare you to come see!” retorted Freckles.
-
-“Take ye!” said Duncan. “If ye make juist ane bird licht on your heid
-or eat frae your hand, ye are free to help yoursel' to my corn-crib and
-wheat bin the rest of the winter.”
-
-Freckles sprang in air and howled in glee.
-
-“Oh, Duncan! You're too, aisy” he cried. “When will you come?”
-
-“I'll come next Sabbath,” said Duncan. “And I'll believe the birds of
-the Limberlost are tame as barnyard fowl when I see it, and no sooner!”
-
-After that Freckles always spoke of the birds as his chickens, and the
-Duncans followed his example. The very next Sabbath, Duncan, with his
-wife and children, followed Freckles to the swamp. They saw a sight so
-wonderful it will keep them talking all the remainder of their lives,
-and make them unfailing friends of all the birds.
-
-Freckles' chickens were awaiting him at the edge of the clearing. They
-cut the frosty air around his head into curves and circles of crimson,
-blue, and black. They chased each other from Freckles, and swept so
-closely themselves that they brushed him with their outspread wings.
-
-At their feeding-ground Freckles set down his old pail of scraps and
-swept the snow from a small level space with a broom improvised of
-twigs. As soon as his back was turned, the birds clustered over the
-food, snatching scraps to carry to the nearest bushes. Several of the
-boldest, a big crow and a couple of jays, settled on the rim and feasted
-at leisure, while a cardinal, that hesitated to venture, fumed and
-scolded from a twig overhead.
-
-Then Freckles scattered his store. At once the ground resembled the
-spread mantle of Montezuma, except that this mass of gaily colored
-feathers was on the backs of living birds. While they feasted, Duncan
-gripped his wife's arm and stared in astonishment; for from the bushes
-and dry grass, with gentle cheeping and queer, throaty chatter, as if to
-encourage each other, came flocks of quail. Before anyone saw it arrive,
-a big gray rabbit sat in the midst of the feast, contentedly gnawing a
-cabbage-leaf.
-
-“Weel, I be drawed on!” came Mrs. Duncan's tense whisper.
-
-“Shu-shu,” cautioned Duncan.
-
-Lastly Freckles removed his cap. He began filling it with handfuls of
-wheat from his pockets. In a swarm the grain-eaters arose around him as
-a flock of tame pigeons. They perched on his arms and the cap, and in
-the stress of hunger, forgetting all caution, a brilliant cock cardinal
-and an equally gaudy jay fought for a perching-place on his head.
-
-“Weel, I'm beat,” muttered Duncan, forgetting the silence imposed on his
-wife. “I'll hae to give in. 'Seein' is believin'. A man wad hae to see
-that to believe it. We mauna let the Boss miss that sight, for it's a
-chance will no likely come twice in a life. Everything is snowed under
-and thae craturs near starved, but trustin' Freckles that complete they
-are tamer than our chickens. Look hard, bairns!” he whispered. “Ye winna
-see the like o' yon again, while God lets ye live. Notice their color
-against the ice and snow, and the pretty skippin' ways of them! And
-spunky! Weel, I'm heat fair!”
-
-Freckles emptied his cap, turned his pockets and scattered his last
-grain. Then he waved his watching friends good-bye and started down the
-timber-line.
-
-A week later, Duncan and Freckles arose from breakfast to face the
-bitterest morning of the winter. When Freckles, warmly capped and
-gloved, stepped to the corner of the kitchen for his scrap-pail, he
-found a big pan of steaming boiled wheat on the top of it. He wheeled to
-Mrs. Duncan with a shining face.
-
-“Were you fixing this warm food for me chickens or yours?” he asked.
-
-“It's for yours, Freckles,” she said. “I was afeared this cold weather
-they wadna lay good without a warm bite now and then.”
-
-Duncan laughed as he stepped to the other room for his pipe; but
-Freckles faced Mrs. Duncan with a trace of every pang of starved
-mother-hunger he ever had suffered written large on his homely,
-splotched, narrow features.
-
-“Oh, how I wish you were my mother!” he cried.
-
-Mrs. Duncan attempted an echo of her husband's laugh.
-
-“Lord love the lad!” she exclaimed. “Why, Freckles, are ye no bright
-enough to learn without being taught by a woman that I am your mither?
-If a great man like yoursel' dinna ken that, learn it now and ne'er
-forget it. Ance a woman is the wife of any man, she becomes wife to all
-men for having had the wifely experience she kens! Ance a man-child has
-beaten his way to life under the heart of a woman, she is mither to
-all men, for the hearts of mithers are everywhere the same. Bless ye,
-laddie, I am your mither!”
-
-She tucked the coarse scarf she had knit for him closer over his chest
-and pulled his cap lower over his ears, but Freckles, whipping it
-off and holding it under his arm, caught her rough, reddened hand and
-pressed it to his lips in a long kiss. Then he hurried away to hide the
-happy, embarrassing tears that were coming straight from his swelling
-heart.
-
-Mrs. Duncan, sobbing unrestrainedly, swept into the adjoining room and
-threw herself into Duncan's arms.
-
-“Oh, the puir lad!” she wailed. “Oh, the puir mither-hungry lad! He
-breaks my heart!”
-
-Duncan's arms closed convulsively around his wife. With a big, brown
-hand he lovingly stroked her rough, sorrel hair.
-
-“Sarah, you're a guid woman!” he said. “You're a michty guid woman! Ye
-hae a way o' speakin' out at times that's like the inspired prophets of
-the Lord. If that had been put to me, now, I'd 'a' felt all I kent how
-to and been keen enough to say the richt thing; but dang it, I'd 'a'
-stuttered and stammered and got naething out that would ha' done onybody
-a mite o' good. But ye, Sarah! Did ye see his face, woman? Ye sent him
-off lookin' leke a white light of holiness had passed ower and settled
-on him. Ye sent the lad away too happy for mortal words, Sarah. And
-ye made me that proud o' ye! I wouldna trade ye an' my share o' the
-Limberlost with ony king ye could mention.”
-
-He relaxed his clasp, and setting a heavy hand on each shoulder, he
-looked straight into her eyes.
-
-“Ye're prime, Sarah! Juist prime!” he said.
-
-Sarah Duncan stood alone in the middle of her two-roomed log cabin and
-lifted a bony, clawlike pair of hands, reddened by frequent immersion
-in hot water, cracked and chafed by exposure to cold, black-lined by
-constant battle with swamp-loam, calloused with burns, and stared at
-them wonderingly.
-
-“Pretty-lookin' things ye are!” she whispered. “But ye hae juist been
-kissed. And by such a man! Fine as God ever made at His verra best.
-Duncan wouldna trade wi' a king! Na! Nor I wadna trade with a queen wi'
-a palace, an' velvet gowns, an' diamonds big as hazelnuts, an' a hundred
-visitors a day into the bargain. Ye've been that honored I'm blest if
-I can bear to souse ye in dish-water. Still, that kiss winna come off!
-Naething can take it from me, for it's mine till I dee. Lord, if I amna
-proud! Kisses on these old claws! Weel, I be drawed on!”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-
-So Freckles fared through the bitter winter. He was very happy. He
-had hungered for freedom, love, and appreciation so long! He had been
-unspeakably lonely at the Home; and the utter loneliness of a great
-desert or forest is not so difficult to endure as the loneliness of
-being constantly surrounded by crowds of people who do not care in the
-least whether one is living or dead.
-
-All through the winter Freckles' entire energy was given to keeping up
-his lines and his “chickens” from freezing or starving. When the first
-breath of spring touched the Limberlost, and the snow receded before it;
-when the catkins began to bloom; when there came a hint of green to the
-trees, bushes, and swale; when the rushes lifted their heads, and the
-pulse of the newly resurrected season beat strongly in the heart of
-nature, something new stirred in the breast of the boy.
-
-Nature always levies her tribute. Now she laid a powerful hand on the
-soul of Freckles, to which the boy's whole being responded, though
-he had not the least idea what was troubling him. Duncan accepted his
-wife's theory that it was a touch of spring fever, but Freckles knew
-better. He never had been so well. Clean, hot, and steady the blood
-pulsed in his veins. He was always hungry, and his most difficult work
-tired him not at all. For long months, without a single intermission,
-he had tramped those seven miles of trail twice each day, through every
-conceivable state of weather. With the heavy club he gave his wires a
-sure test, and between sections, first in play, afterward to keep his
-circulation going, he had acquired the skill of an expert drum major.
-In his work there was exercise for every muscle of his body each hour of
-the day, at night a bath, wholesome food, and sound sleep in a room that
-never knew fire. He had gained flesh and color, and developed a greater
-strength and endurance than anyone ever could have guessed.
-
-Nor did the Limberlost contain last year's terrors. He had been with
-her in her hour of desolation, when stripped bare and deserted, she had
-stood shivering, as if herself afraid. He had made excursions into the
-interior until he was familiar with every path and road that ever
-had been cut. He had sounded the depths of her deepest pools, and had
-learned why the trees grew so magnificently. He had found that places
-of swamp and swale were few compared with miles of solid timber-land,
-concealed by summer's luxuriant undergrowth.
-
-The sounds that at first had struck cold fear into his soul he now knew
-had left on wing and silent foot at the approach of winter. As flock
-after flock of the birds returned and he recognized the old echoes
-reawakening, he found to his surprise that he had been lonely for
-them and was hailing their return with great joy. All his fears were
-forgotten. Instead, he was possessed of an overpowering desire to know
-what they were, to learn where they had been, and whether they would
-make friends with him as the winter birds had done; and if they did,
-would they be as fickle? For, with the running sap, creeping worm, and
-winging bug, most of Freckles' “chickens” had deserted him, entered the
-swamp, and feasted to such a state of plethora on its store that they
-cared little for his supply, so that in the strenuous days of mating and
-nest-building the boy was deserted.
-
-He chafed at the birds' ingratitude, but he found speedy consolation in
-watching and befriending the newcomers. He surely would have been proud
-and highly pleased if he had known that many of the former inhabitants
-of the interior swamp now grouped their nests beside the timber-line
-solely for the sake of his protection and company.
-
-The yearly resurrection of the Limberlost is a mighty revival. Freckles
-stood back and watched with awe and envy the gradual reclothing and
-repopulation of the swamp. Keen-eyed and alert through danger and
-loneliness, he noted every stage of development, from the first piping
-frog and unsheathing bud, to full leafage and the return of the last
-migrant.
-
-The knowledge of his complete loneliness and utter insignificance was
-hourly thrust upon him. He brooded and fretted until he was in a fever;
-yet he never guessed the cause. He was filled with a vast impatience, a
-longing that he scarcely could endure.
-
-It was June by the zodiac, June by the Limberlost, and by every delight
-of a newly resurrected season it should have been June in the hearts of
-all men. Yet Freckles scowled darkly as he came down the trail, and the
-running TAP, TAP that tested the sagging wire and telegraphed word
-of his coming to his furred and feathered friends of the swamp, this
-morning carried the story of his discontent a mile ahead of him.
-
-Freckles' special pet, a dainty, yellow-coated, black-sleeved, cock
-goldfinch, had remained on the wire for several days past the bravest
-of all; and Freckles, absorbed with the cunning and beauty of the tiny
-fellow, never guessed that he was being duped. For the goldfinch was
-skipping, flirting, and swinging for the express purpose of so holding
-his attention that he would not look up and see a small cradle of
-thistledown and wool perilously near his head. In the beginning of
-brooding, the spunky little homesteader had clung heroically to the wire
-when he was almost paralyzed with fright. When day after day passed
-and brought only softly whistled repetitions of his call, a handful of
-crumbs on the top of a locust line-post, and gently worded coaxings, he
-grew in confidence. Of late he had sung and swung during the passing of
-Freckles, who, not dreaming of the nest and the solemn-eyed little hen
-so close above, thought himself unusually gifted in his power to attract
-the birds. This morning the goldfinch scarcely could believe his ears,
-and clung to the wire until an unusually vicious rap sent him spinning a
-foot in air, and his “PTSEET” came with a squall of utter panic.
-
-The wires were ringing with a story the birds could not translate, and
-Freckles was quite as ignorant of the trouble as they.
-
-A peculiar movement beneath a small walnut tree caught his attention.
-He stopped to investigate. There was an unusually large Luna cocoon, and
-the moth was bursting the upper end in its struggles to reach light and
-air. Freckles stood and stared.
-
-“There's something in there trying to get out,” he muttered. “Wonder if
-I could help it? Guess I best not be trying. If I hadn't happened along,
-there wouldn't have been anyone to do anything, and maybe I'd only be
-hurting it. It's--it's----Oh, skaggany! It's just being born!”
-
-Freckles gasped with surprise. The moth cleared the opening, and with
-many wabblings and contortions climbed up the tree. He stared speechless
-with amazement as the moth crept around a limb and clung to the under
-side. There was a big pursy body, almost as large as his thumb, and of
-the very snowiest white that Freckles ever had seen. There was a band
-of delicate lavender across its forehead, and its feet were of the same
-colour; there were antlers, like tiny, straw-colored ferns, on its head,
-and from its shoulders hung the crumpled wet wings. As Freckles gazed,
-tense with astonishment, he saw that these were expanding, drooping,
-taking on color, and small, oval markings were beginning to show.
-
-The minutes passed. Freckles' steady gaze never wavered. Without
-realizing it, he was trembling with eagerness and anxiety. As he saw
-what was taking place, “It's going to fly,” he breathed in hushed
-wonder. The morning sun fell on the moth and dried its velvet down,
-while the warm air made it fluffy. The rapidly growing wings began to
-show the most delicate green, with lavender fore-ribs, transparent,
-eye-shaped markings, edged with lines of red, tan, and black, and long,
-crisp trailers.
-
-Freckles was whispering to himself for fear of disturbing the moth. It
-began a systematic exercise of raising and lowering its exquisite wings
-to dry them and to establish circulation. The boy realized that soon it
-would be able to spread them and sail away. His long-coming soul sent up
-its first shivering cry.
-
-“I don't know what it is! Oh, I wish I knew! How I wish I knew! It must
-be something grand! It can't be a butterfly! It's away too big. Oh, I
-wish there was someone to tell me what it is!”
-
-He climbed on the locust post, and balancing himself with the wire,
-held a finger in the line of the moth's advance up the twig. It
-unhesitatingly climbed on, so he stepped to the path, holding it to the
-light and examining it closely. Then he held it in the shade and turned
-it, gloating over its markings and beautiful coloring. When he held the
-moth to the limb, it climbed on, still waving those magnificent wings.
-
-“My, but I'd like to be staying with you!” he said. “But if I was to
-stand here all day you couldn't grow any prettier than you are right
-now, and I wouldn't grow smart enough to tell what you are. I suppose
-there's someone who knows. Of course there is! Mr. McLean said there
-were people who knew every leaf, bird, and flower in the Limberlost. Oh
-Lord! How I wish You'd be telling me just this one thing!”
-
-The goldfinch had ventured back to the wire, for there was his mate,
-only a few inches above the man-creature's head; and indeed, he simply
-must not be allowed to look up, so the brave little fellow rocked on the
-wire and piped, as he had done every day for a week: “SEE ME? SEE ME?”
-
-“See you! Of course I see you,” growled Freckles. “I see you day after
-day, and what good is it doing me? I might see you every morning for a
-year, and then not be able to be telling anyone about it. 'Seen a bird
-with black silk wings--little, and yellow as any canary.' That's as far
-as I'd get. What you doing here, anyway? Have you a mate? What's your
-name? 'See you?' I reckon I see you; but I might as well be blind, for
-any good it's doing me!”
-
-Freckles impatiently struck the wire. With a screech of fear, the
-goldfinch fled precipitately. His mate arose from the nest with a
-whirr--Freckles looked up and saw it.
-
-“O--ho!” he cried. “So THAT'S what you are doing here! You have a
-wife. And so close my head I have been mighty near wearing a bird on my
-bonnet, and never knew it!”
-
-Freckles laughed at his own jest, while in better humor he climbed to
-examine the neat, tiny cradle and its contents. The hen darted at him in
-a frenzy. “Now, where do you come in?” he demanded, when he saw that she
-was not similar to the goldfinch.
-
-“You be clearing out of here! This is none of your fry. This is the nest
-of me little, yellow friend of the wire, and you shan't be touching it.
-Don't blame you for wanting to see, though. My, but it's a fine nest and
-beauties of eggs. Will you be keeping away, or will I fire this stick at
-you?”
-
-Freckles dropped to the trail. The hen darted to the nest and settled on
-it with a tender, coddling movement. He of the yellow coat flew to the
-edge to make sure that everything was right. It would have been plain to
-the veriest novice that they were partners in that cradle.
-
-“Well, I'll be switched!” muttered Freckles. “If that ain't both their
-nest! And he's yellow and she's green, or she's yellow and he's green.
-Of course, I don't know, and I haven't any way to find out, but it's
-plain as the nose on your face that they are both ready to be fighting
-for that nest, so, of course, they belong. Doesn't that beat you? Say,
-that's what's been sticking me all of this week on that grass nest in
-the thorn tree down the line. One day a blue bird is setting, so I think
-it is hers. The next day a brown bird is on, and I chase it off because
-the nest is blue's. Next day the brown bird is on again, and I let her
-be, because I think it must be hers. Next day, be golly, blue's on, and
-off I send her because it's brown's; and now, I bet my hat, it's both
-their nest and I've only been bothering them and making a big fool of
-mesilf. Pretty specimen I am, pretending to be a friend to the birds,
-and so blamed ignorant I don't know which ones go in pairs, and blue and
-brown are a pair, of course, if yellow and green are--and there's the
-red birds! I never thought of them! He's red and she's gray--and now
-I want to be knowing, are they all different? Why no! Of course, they
-ain't! There's the jays all blue, and the crows all black.”
-
-The tide of Freckles' discontent welled until he almost choked with
-anger and chagrin. He plodded down the trail, scowling blackly and
-viciously spanging the wire. At the finches' nest he left the line
-and peered into the thorn tree. There was no bird brooding. He pressed
-closer to take a peep at the snowy, spotless little eggs he had found so
-beautiful, when at the slight noise up raised four tiny baby heads with
-wide-open mouths, uttering hunger cries. Freckles stepped back. The
-brown bird alighted on the edge and closed one cavity with a wiggling
-green worm, while not two minutes later the blue filled another with
-a white. That settled it. The blue and brown were mates. Once again
-Freckles repeated his “How I wish I knew!”
-
-Around the bridge spanning Sleepy Snake Creek the swale spread widely,
-the timber was scattering, and willows, rushes, marsh-grass, and
-splendid wild flowers grew abundantly. Here lazy, big, black water
-snakes, for which the creek was named, sunned on the bushes, wild ducks
-and grebe chattered, cranes and herons fished, and muskrats plowed the
-bank in queer, rolling furrows. It was always a place full of interest,
-so Freckles loved to linger on the bridge, watching the marsh and water
-people. He also transacted affairs of importance with the wild flowers
-and sweet marsh-grass. He enjoyed splashing through the shallow pools on
-either side of the bridge.
-
-Then, too, where the creek entered the swamp was a place of unusual
-beauty. The water spread in darksome, mossy, green pools. Water-plants
-and lilies grew luxuriantly, throwing up large, rank, green leaves.
-Nowhere else in the Limberlost could be found frog-music to equal
-that of the mouth of the creek. The drumming and piping rolled in
-never-ending orchestral effect, while the full chorus rang to its
-accompaniment throughout the season.
-
-Freckles slowly followed the path leading from the bridge to the line.
-It was the one spot at which he might relax his vigilance. The boldest
-timber thief the swamp ever had known would not have attempted to enter
-it by the mouth of the creek, on account of the water and because there
-was no protection from surrounding trees. He was bending the rank grass
-with his cudgel, and thinking of the shade the denser swamp afforded,
-when he suddenly dodged sidewise; the cudgel whistled sharply through
-the air and Freckles sprang back.
-
-From the clear sky above him, first level with his face, then skimming,
-dipping, tilting, whirling until it struck, quill down, in the path
-in front of him, came a glossy, iridescent, big black feather. As it
-touched the ground, Freckles snatched it up with almost a continuous
-movement facing the sky. There was not a tree of any size in a large
-open space. There was no wind to carry it. From the clear sky it had
-fallen, and Freckles, gazing eagerly into the arch of June blue with a
-few lazy clouds floating high in the sea of ether, had neither mind nor
-knowledge to dream of a bird hanging as if frozen there. He turned the
-big quill questioningly, and again his awed eyes swept the sky.
-
-“A feather dropped from Heaven!” he breathed reverently. “Are the holy
-angels moulting? But no; if they were, it would be white. Maybe all the
-angels are not for being white. What if the angels of God are white and
-those of the devil are black? But a black one has no business up there.
-Maybe some poor black angel is so tired of being punished it's for
-slipping to the gates, beating its wings trying to make the Master
-hear!”
-
-Again and again Freckles searched the sky, but there was no answering
-gleam of golden gates, no form of sailing bird; then he went slowly
-on his way, turning the feather and wondering about it. It was a wing
-quill, eighteen inches in length, with a heavy spine, gray at the base,
-shading to jet black at the tip, and it caught the play of the sun's
-rays in slanting gleams of green and bronze. Again Freckles' “old man
-of the sea” sat sullen and heavy on his shoulders and weighted him down
-until his step lagged and his heart ached.
-
-“Where did it come from? What is it? Oh, how I wish I knew!” he kept
-repeating as he turned and studied the feather, with almost unseeing
-eyes, so intently was he thinking.
-
-Before him spread a large, green pool, filled with rotting logs and
-leaves, bordered with delicate ferns and grasses among which lifted the
-creamy spikes of the arrow-head, the blue of water-hyacinth, and the
-delicate yellow of the jewel-flower. As Freckles leaned, handling the
-feather and staring at it, then into the depths of the pool, he once
-more gave voice to his old query: “I wonder what it is!”
-
-Straight across from him, couched in the mosses of a soggy old log, a
-big green bullfrog, with palpitant throat and batting eyes, lifted his
-head and bellowed in answer. “FIN' DOUT! FIN' DOUT!”
-
-“Wha--what's that?” stammered Freckles, almost too much bewildered to
-speak. “I--I know you are only a bullfrog, but, be jabbers, that sounded
-mightily like speech. Wouldn't you please to be saying it over?”
-
-The bullfrog cuddled contentedly in the ooze. Then suddenly he lifted
-his voice, and, as an imperative drumbeat, rolled it again: “FIN' DOUT!
-FIN' DOUT! FIN DOUT!”
-
-Freckles had the answer. Something seemed to snap in his brain. There
-was a wavering flame before his eyes. Then his mind cleared. His
-head lifted in a new poise, his shoulders squared, while his spine
-straightened. The agony was over. His soul floated free. Freckles came
-into his birthright.
-
-“Before God, I will!” He uttered the oath so impressively that the
-recording angel never winced as he posted it in the prayer column.
-
-Freckles set his hat over the top of one of the locust posts used
-between trees to hold up the wire while he fastened the feather securely
-in the band. Then he started down the line, talking to himself as men
-who have worked long alone always fall into the habit of doing.
-
-“What a fool I have been!” he muttered. “Of course that's what I have to
-do! There wouldn't likely anybody be doing it for me. Of course I can!
-What am I a man for? If I was a four-footed thing of the swamp, maybe I
-couldn't; but a man can do anything if he's the grit to work hard enough
-and stick at it, Mr. McLean is always saying, and here's the way I am to
-do it. He said, too, that there were people that knew everything in the
-swamp. Of course they have written books! The thing for me to be doing
-is to quit moping and be buying some. Never bought a book in me life,
-or anything else of much account, for that matter. Oh, ain't I glad I
-didn't waste me money! I'll surely be having enough to get a few. Let me
-see.”
-
-Freckles sat on a log, took his pencil and account-book, and figured
-on a back page. He had walked the timber-line ten months. His pay
-was thirty dollars a month, and his board cost him eight. That left
-twenty-two dollars a month, and his clothing had cost him very little.
-At the least he had two hundred dollars in the bank. He drew a deep
-breath and smiled at the sky with satisfaction.
-
-“I'll be having a book about all the birds, trees, flowers, butterflies,
-and----Yes, by gummy! I'll be having one about the frogs--if it takes
-every cent I have,” he promised himself.
-
-He put away the account-book, that was his most cherished possession,
-caught up his stick, and started down the line. The even tap, tap, and
-the cheery, gladsome whistle carried far ahead of him the message that
-Freckles was himself again.
-
-He fell into a rapid pace, for he had lost time that morning; when he
-rounded the last curve he was almost running. There was a chance that
-the Boss might be there for his weekly report.
-
-Then, wavering, flickering, darting here and there over the sweet
-marsh-grass, came a large black shadow, sweeping so closely before him
-that for the second time that morning Freckles dodged and sprang back.
-He had seen some owls and hawks of the swamp that he thought might be
-classed as large birds, but never anything like this, for six feet it
-spread its big, shining wings. Its strong feet could be seen drawn
-among its feathers. The sun glinted on its sharp, hooked beak. Its eyes
-glowed, caught the light, and seemed able to pierce the ground at his
-feet. It cared no more for Freckles than if he had not been there; for
-it perched on a low tree, while a second later it awkwardly hopped to
-the trunk of a lightning-riven elm, turned its back, and began searching
-the blue.
-
-Freckles looked just in time to see a second shadow sweep the grass; and
-another bird, a trifle smaller and not quite so brilliant in the light,
-slowly sailed down to perch beside the first. Evidently they were mates,
-for with a queer, rolling hop the first-comer shivered his bronze wings,
-sidled to the new arrival, and gave her a silly little peck on her
-wing. Then he coquettishly drew away and ogled her. He lifted his head,
-waddled from her a few steps, awkwardly ambled back, and gave her such
-a simple sort of kiss on her beak that Freckles burst into a laugh, but
-clapped his hand over his mouth to stifle the sound.
-
-The lover ducked and side-stepped a few feet. He spread his wings
-and slowly and softly waved them precisely as if he were fanning his
-charmer, which was indeed the result he accomplished. Then a wave of
-uncontrollable tenderness moved him so he hobbled to his bombardment
-once more. He faced her squarely this time, and turned his head from
-side to side with queer little jerks and indiscriminate peckings at her
-wings and head, and smirkings that really should have been irresistible.
-She yawned and shuffled away indifferently. Freckles reached up, pulled
-the quill from his hat, and looking from it to the birds, nodded in
-settled conviction.
-
-“So you're me black angels, ye spalpeens! No wonder you didn't get in!
-But I'll back you to come closer it than any other birds ever did. You
-fly higher than I can see. Have you picked the Limberlost for a good
-thing and come to try it? Well, you can be me chickens if you want to,
-but I'm blest if you ain't cool for new ones. Why don't you take this
-stick for a gun and go skinning a mile?”
-
-Freckles broke into an unrestrained laugh, for the bird-lover was keen
-about his courting, while evidently his mate was diffident. When he
-approached too boisterously, she relieved him of a goodly tuft of
-feathers and sent him backward in a series of squirmy little jumps that
-gave the boy an idea of what had happened up-sky to send the falling
-feather across his pathway.
-
-“Score one for the lady! I'll be umpiring this,” volunteered Freckles.
-
-With a ravishing swagger, half-lifted wings, and deep, guttural hissing,
-the lover approached again. He suddenly lifted his body, but she coolly
-rocked forward on the limb, glided gracefully beneath him, and slowly
-sailed into the Limberlost. He recovered himself and gazed after her in
-astonishment.
-
-Freckles hurried down the trail, shaking with laughter. When he neared
-the path to the clearing and saw the Boss sitting motionless on the mare
-that was the pride of his heart, the boy broke into a run.
-
-“Oh, Mr. McLean!” he cried. “I hope I haven't kept you waiting very
-long! And the sun is getting hot! I have been so slow this morning! I
-could have gone faster, only there were that many things to keep me, and
-I didn't know you would be here. I'll hurry after this. I've never had
-to be giving excuses before. The line wasn't down, and there wasn't a
-sign of trouble; it was other things that were making me late.”
-
-McLean, smiling on the boy, immediately noticed the difference in him.
-This flushed, panting, talkative lad was not the same creature who had
-sought him in despair and bitterness. He watched in wonder as Freckles
-mopped the perspiration from his forehead and began to laugh. Then,
-forgetting all his customary reserve with the Boss, the pent-up
-boyishness in the lad broke forth. With an eloquence of which he never
-dreamed he told his story. He talked with such enthusiasm that McLean
-never took his eyes from his face or shifted in the saddle until he
-described the strange bird-lover, and then the Boss suddenly bent over
-the pommel and laughed with the boy.
-
-Freckles decorated his story with keen appreciation and rare touches
-of Irish wit and drollery that made it most interesting as well as very
-funny. It was a first attempt at descriptive narration. With an inborn
-gift for striking the vital point, a naturalist's dawning enthusiasm for
-the wonders of the Limberlost, and the welling joy of his newly found
-happiness, he made McLean see the struggles of the moth and its freshly
-painted wings, the dainty, brilliant bird-mates of different colors, the
-feather sliding through the clear air, the palpitant throat and batting
-eyes of the frog; while his version of the big bird's courtship won for
-the Boss the best laugh he had enjoyed for years.
-
-“They're in the middle of a swamp now” said Freckles. “Do you suppose
-there is any chance of them staying with me chickens? If they do,
-they'll be about the queerest I have; but I tell you, sir, I am finding
-some plum good ones. There's a new kind over at the mouth of the creek
-that uses its wings like feet and walks on all fours. It travels like a
-thrashing machine. There's another, tall as me waist, with a bill a
-foot long, a neck near two, not the thickness of me wrist and an elegant
-color. He's some blue and gray, touched up with black, white, and brown.
-The voice of him is such that if he'd be going up and standing beside
-a tree and crying at it a few times he could be sawing it square off. I
-don't know but it would be a good idea to try him on the gang, sir.”
-
-McLean laughed. “Those must be blue herons, Freckles,” he said. “And
-it doesn't seem possible, but your description of the big black birds
-sounds like genuine black vultures. They are common enough in the South.
-I've seen them numerous around the lumber camps of Georgia, but I
-never before heard of any this far north. They must be strays. You have
-described perfectly our nearest equivalent to a branch of these birds
-called in Europe Pharaoh's Chickens, but if they are coming to the
-Limberlost they will have to drop Pharaoh and become Freckles' Chickens,
-like the remainder of the birds; won't they? Or are they too odd and
-ugly to interest you?”
-
-“Oh, not at all, at all!” cried Freckles, bursting into pure brogue in
-his haste. “I don't know as I'd be calling them exactly pretty, and they
-do move like a rocking-horse loping, but they are so big and fearless.
-They have a fine color for black birds, and their feet and beaks seem so
-strong. You never saw anything so keen as their eyes! And fly? Why, just
-think, sir, they must be flying miles straight up, for they were out of
-sight completely when the feather fell. I don't suppose I've a chicken
-in the swamp that can go as close heaven as those big, black fellows,
-and then----”
-
-Freckles' voice dragged and he hesitated.
-
-“Then what?” interestedly urged McLean.
-
-“He was loving her so,” answered Freckles in a hushed voice. “I know it
-looked awful funny, and I laughed and told on him, but if I'd taken time
-to think I don't believe I'd have done it. You see, I've seen such a
-little bit of loving in me life. You easily can be understanding that at
-the Home it was every day the old story of neglect and desertion. Always
-people that didn't even care enough for their children to keep them, so
-you see, sir, I had to like him for trying so hard to make her know how
-he loved her. Of course, they're only birds, but if they are caring for
-each other like that, why, it's just the same as people, ain't it?”
-
-Freckles lifted his brave, steady eyes to the Boss.
-
-“If anybody loved me like that, Mr. McLean, I wouldn't be spending any
-time on how they looked or moved. All I'd be thinking of would be how
-they felt toward me. If they will stay, I'll be caring as much for them
-as any chickens I have. If I did laugh at them I thought he was just
-fine!”
-
-The face of McLean was a study; but the honest eyes of the boy were so
-compelling that he found himself answering: “You are right, Freckles.
-He's a gentleman, isn't he? And the only real chicken you have. Of
-course he'll remain! The Limberlost will be paradise for his family. And
-now, Freckles, what has been the trouble all spring? You have done your
-work as faithfully as anyone could ask, but I can't help seeing that
-there is something wrong. Are you tired of your job?”
-
-“I love it,” answered Freckles. “It will almost break me heart when
-the gang comes and begins tearing up the swamp and scaring away me
-chickens.”
-
-“Then what is the trouble?” insisted McLean.
-
-“I think, sir, it's been books,” answered Freckles. “You see, I didn't
-realize it meself until the bullfrog told me this morning. I hadn't ever
-even heard about a place like this. Anyway, I wasn't understanding how
-it would be, if I had. Being among these beautiful things every day, I
-got so anxious like to be knowing and naming them, that it got to eating
-into me and went and made me near sick, when I was well as I could be.
-Of course, I learned to read, write, and figure some at school, but
-there was nothing there, or in any of the city that I ever got to see,
-that would make a fellow even be dreaming of such interesting things
-as there are here. I've seen the parks--but good Lord, they ain't even
-beginning to be in it with the Limberlost! It's all new and strange to
-me. I don't know a thing about any of it. The bullfrog told me to 'find
-out,' plain as day, and books are the only way; ain't they?”
-
-“Of course,” said McLean, astonished at himself for his heartfelt
-relief. He had not guessed until that minute what it would have meant
-to him to have Freckles give up. “You know enough to study out what you
-want yourself, if you have the books; don't you?”
-
-“I am pretty sure I do,” said Freckles. “I learned all I'd the chance at
-in the Home, and me schooling was good as far as it went. Wouldn't let
-you go past fourteen, you know. I always did me sums perfect, and loved
-me history books. I had them almost by heart. I never could get me
-grammar to suit them. They said it was just born in me to go wrong
-talking, and if it hadn't been I suppose I would have picked it up from
-the other children; but I'd the best voice of any of them in the Home
-or at school. I could knock them all out singing. I was always leader in
-the Home, and once one of the superintendents gave me carfare and let
-me go into the city and sing in a boys' choir. The master said I'd the
-swatest voice of them all until it got rough like, and then he made me
-quit for awhile, but he said it would be coming back by now, and I'm
-railly thinking it is, sir, for I've tried on the line a bit of late and
-it seems to go smooth again and lots stronger. That and me chickens have
-been all the company I've been having, and it will be all I'll want if I
-can have some books and learn the real names of things, where they come
-from, and why they do such interesting things. It's been fretting me
-more than I knew to be shut up here among all these wonders and not
-knowing a thing. I wanted to ask you what some books would cost me, and
-if you'd be having the goodness to get me the right ones. I think I have
-enough money.”
-
-Freckles offered his account-book and the Boss studied it gravely.
-
-“You needn't touch your account, Freckles,” he said. “Ten dollars from
-this month's pay will provide you everything you need to start on. I
-will write a friend in Grand Rapids today to select you the very best
-and send them at once.”
-
-Freckles' eyes were shining.
-
-“Never owned a book in me life!” he said. “Even me schoolbooks were
-never mine. Lord! How I used to wish I could have just one of them for
-me very own! Won't it be fun to see me sawbird and me little yellow
-fellow looking at me from the pages of a book, and their real names and
-all about them printed alongside? How long will it be taking, sir?”
-
-“Ten days should do it nicely,” said McLean. Then, seeing Freckles'
-lengthening face, he added: “I'll have Duncan bring you a ten-bushel
-store-box the next time he goes to town. He can haul it to the west
-entrance and set it up wherever you want it. You can put in your spare
-time filling it with the specimens you find until the books come,
-and then you can study out what you have. I suspect you could collect
-specimens that I could send to naturalists in the city and sell for you;
-things like that winged creature, this morning. I don't know much in
-that line, but it must have been a moth, and it might have been rare.
-I've seen them by the thousand in museums, and in all nature I don't
-remember rarer coloring than their wings. I'll order you a butterfly-net
-and box and show you how scientists pin specimens. Possibly you can make
-a fine collection of these swamp beauties. It will be all right for you
-to take a pair of different moths and butterflies, but I don't want to
-hear of your killing any birds. They are protected by heavy fines.”
-
-McLean rode away leaving Freckles staring aghast. Then he saw the point
-and smiled. Standing on the trail, he twirled the feather and thought
-over the morning.
-
-“Well, if life ain't getting to be worth living!” he said wonderingly.
-“Biggest streak of luck I ever had! 'Bout time something was coming my
-way, but I wouldn't ever thought anybody could strike such magnificent
-prospects through only a falling feather.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for New
-Experiences
-
-On Duncan's return from his next trip to town there was a big store-box
-loaded on the back of his wagon. He drove to the west entrance of the
-swamp, set the box on a stump that Freckles had selected in a beautiful,
-sheltered place, and made it secure on its foundations with a tree at
-its back.
-
-“It seems most a pity to nail into that tree,” said Duncan. “I haena the
-time to examine into the grain of it, but it looks as if it might be a
-rare ane. Anyhow, the nailin' winna hurt it deep, and havin' the case by
-it will make it safer if it is a guid ane.”
-
-“Isn't it an oak?” asked Freckles.
-
-“Ay,” said Duncan. “It looks like it might be ane of thae fine-grained
-white anes that mak' such grand furniture.”
-
-When the body of the case was secure, Duncan made a door from the lid
-and fastened it with hinges. He drove a staple, screwed on a latch, and
-gave Freckles a small padlock--so that he might fasten in his treasures
-safely. He made a shelf at the top for his books, and last of all
-covered the case with oil-cloth.
-
-It was the first time in Freckles' life that anyone ever had done that
-much for his pleasure, and it warmed his heart with pure joy. If the
-interior of the box already had been covered with the rarest treasures
-of the Limberlost he could have been no happier.
-
-When the big teamster stood back to look at his work he laughingly
-quoted, “'Neat, but no' gaudy,' as McLean says. All we're, needing now
-is a coat of paint to make a cupboard that would turn Sarah green with
-envy. Ye'll find that safe an' dry, lad, an' that's all that's needed.”
-
-“Mr. Duncan,” said Freckles, “I don't know why you are being so mighty
-good to me; but if you have any jobs at the cabin that I could do for
-you or Mrs. Duncan, hours off the line, it would make me mighty happy.”
-
-Duncan laughed. “Ye needna feel ye are obliged to me, lad. Ye mauna
-think I could take a half-day off in the best hauling season and go to
-town for boxes to rig up, and spend of my little for fixtures.”
-
-“I knew Mr. McLean sent you,” said Freckles, his eyes wide and bright
-with happiness. “It's so good of him. How I wish I could do something
-that would please him as much!”
-
-“Why, Freckles,” said Duncan, as he knelt and began collecting his
-tools, “I canna see that it will hurt ye to be told that ye are doing
-every day a thing that pleases the Boss as much as anything ye could
-do. Ye're being uncommon faithful, lad, and honest as old Father Time.
-McLean is trusting ye as he would his own flesh and blood.”
-
-“Oh, Duncan!” cried the happy boy. “Are you sure?”
-
-“Why I know,” answered Duncan. “I wadna venture to say so else. In those
-first days he cautioned me na to tell ye, but now he wadna care. D'ye
-ken, Freckles, that some of the single trees ye are guarding are worth a
-thousand dollars?”
-
-Freckles caught his breath and stood speechless.
-
-“Ye see,” said Duncan, “that's why they maun be watched so closely. They
-tak', say, for instance, a burl maple--bird's eye they call it in the
-factory, because it's full o' wee knots and twists that look like the
-eye of a bird. They saw it out in sheets no muckle thicker than writin'
-paper. Then they make up the funiture out of cheaper wood and cover it
-with the maple--veneer, they call it. When it's all done and polished ye
-never saw onythin' grander. Gang into a retail shop the next time ye
-are in town and see some. By sawin' it thin that way they get finish for
-thousands of dollars' worth of furniture from a single tree. If ye dinna
-watch faithful, and Black Jack gets out a few he has marked, it means
-the loss of more money than ye ever dreamed of, lad. The other night,
-down at camp, some son of Balaam was suggestin' that ye might be sellin'
-the Boss out to Jack and lettin' him tak' the trees secretly, and nobody
-wad ever ken till the gang gets here.”
-
-A wave of scarlet flooded Freckles' face and he blazed hotly at the
-insult.
-
-“And the Boss,” continued Duncan, coolly ignoring Freckles' anger, “he
-lays back just as cool as cowcumbers an' says: 'I'll give a thousand
-dollars to ony man that will show me a fresh stump when we reach the
-Limberlost,' says he. Some of the men just snapped him op that they'd
-find some. So you see bow the Boss is trustin' ye, lad.”
-
-“I am gladder than I can ever expriss,” said Freckles. “And now will I
-be walking double time to keep some of them from cutting a tree to get
-all that money!”
-
-“Mither o' Moses!” howled Duncan. “Ye can trust the Scotch to bungle
-things a'thegither. McLean was only meanin' to show ye all confidence
-and honor. He's gone and set a high price for some dirty whelp to ruin
-ye. I was just tryin' to show ye how he felt toward ye, and I've gone
-an' give ye that worry to bear. Damn the Scotch! They're so slow an' so
-dumb!”
-
-“Exciptin' prisint company?” sweetly inquired Freckles.
-
-“No!” growled Duncan. “Headin' the list! He'd nae business to set a
-price on ye, lad, for that's about the amount of it, an' I'd nae right
-to tell ye. We've both done ye ill, an' both meanin' the verra best.
-Juist what I'm always sayin' to Sarah.”
-
-“I am mighty proud of what you have been telling me, Duncan,” said
-Freckles. “I need the warning, sure. For with the books coming I might
-be timpted to neglect me work when double watching is needed. Thank you
-more than I can say for putting me on to it. What you've told me may be
-the saving of me. I won't stop for dinner now. I'll be getting along the
-east line, and when I come around about three, maybe Mother Duncan will
-let me have a glass of milk and a bite of something.”
-
-“Ye see now!” cried Duncan in disgust. “Ye'll start on that seven-mile
-tramp with na bite to stay your stomach. What was it I told ye?”
-
-“You told me that the Scotch had the hardest heads and the softest
-hearts of any people that's living,” answered Freckles.
-
-Duncan grunted in gratified disapproval.
-
-Freckles picked up his club and started down the line, whistling
-cheerily, for he had an unusually long repertoire upon which to draw.
-
-Duncan went straight to the lower camp, and calling McLean aside,
-repeated the conversation verbatim, ending: “And nae matter what happens
-now or ever, dinna ye dare let onythin' make ye believe that Freckles
-hasna guarded faithful as ony man could.”
-
-“I don't think anything could shake my faith in the lad,” answered
-McLean.
-
-Freckles was whistling merrily. He kept one eye religiously on the line.
-The other he divided between the path, his friends of the wire, and a
-search of the sky for his latest arrivals. Every day since their coming
-he had seen them, either hanging as small, black clouds above the swamp
-or bobbing over logs and trees with their queer, tilting walk. Whenever
-he could spare time, he entered the swamp and tried to make friends
-with them, for they were the tamest of all his unnumbered subjects. They
-ducked, dodged, and ambled around him, over logs and bushes, and not
-even a near approach would drive them to flight.
-
-For two weeks he had found them circling over the Limberlost regularly,
-but one morning the female was missing and only the big black chicken
-hung sentinel above the swamp. His mate did not reappear in the
-following days, and Freckles grew very anxious. He spoke of it to Mrs.
-Duncan, and she quieted his fears by raising a delightful hope in their
-stead.
-
-“Why, Freckles, if it's the hen-bird ye are missing, it's ten to one
-she's safe,” she said. “She's laid, and is setting, ye silly! Watch him
-and mark whaur he lichts. Then follow and find the nest. Some Sabbath
-we'll all gang see it.”
-
-Accepting this theory, Freckles began searching for the nest. Because
-these “chickens” were large, as the hawks, he looked among the treetops
-until he almost sprained the back of his neck. He had half the crow and
-hawk nests in the swamp located. He searched for this nest instead of
-collecting subjects for his case. He found the pair the middle of one
-forenoon on the elm where he had watched their love-making. The big
-black chicken was feeding his mate; so it was proved that they were a
-pair, they were both alive, and undoubtedly she was brooding. After that
-Freckles' nest-hunting continued with renewed zeal, but as he had no
-idea where to look and Duncan could offer no helpful suggestion, the
-nest was no nearer to being found.
-
-Coming from a long day on the trail, Freckles saw Duncan's children
-awaiting him much closer the swale than they usually ventured, and from
-their wild gestures he knew that something had happened. He began to
-run, but the cry that reached him was: “The books have come!”
-
-How they hurried! Freckles lifted the youngest to his shoulder, the
-second took his club and dinner pail, and when they reached Mrs. Duncan
-they found her at work on a big box. She had loosened the lid, and then
-she laughingly sat on it.
-
-“Ye canna have a peep in here until ye have washed and eaten supper,”
- she said. “It's all ready on the table. Ance ye begin on this, ye'll
-no be willin' to tak' your nose o' it till bedtime, and I willna get my
-work done the nicht. We've eaten long ago.”
-
-It was difficult work, but Freckles smiled bravely. He made himself
-neat, swallowed a few bites, then came so eagerly that Mrs. Duncan
-yielded, although she said she very well knew all the time that his
-supper would be spoiled.
-
-Lifting the lid, they removed the packing and found in that box books
-on birds, trees, flowers, moths, and butterflies. There was also one
-containing Freckles' bullfrog, true to life. Besides these were a
-butterfly-net, a naturalist's tin specimen-box, a bottle of cyanide,
-a box of cotton, a paper of long, steel specimen-pins, and a letter
-telling what all these things were and how to use them.
-
-At the discovery of each new treasure, Freckles shouted: “Will you be
-looking at this, now?”
-
-Mrs. Duncan cried: “Weel, I be drawed on!”
-
-The eldest boy turned a somersault for every extra, while the baby,
-trying to follow his example, bunched over in a sidewise sprawl and cut
-his foot on the axe with which his mother had prized up the box-lid.
-That sobered them, they carried the books indoors. Mrs. Duncan had a top
-shelf in her closet cleared for them, far above the reach of meddling
-little fingers.
-
-When Freckles started for the trail next morning, the shining new
-specimen-box flashed on his back. The black “chicken,” a mere speck in
-the blue, caught the gleam of it. The folded net hung beside the boy's
-hatchet, and the bird book was in the box. He walked the line and tested
-each section scrupulously, watching every foot of the trail, for he was
-determined not to slight his work; but if ever a boy “made haste slowly”
- in a hurry, it was Freckles that morning. When at last he reached the
-space he had cleared and planted around his case, his heart swelled with
-the pride of possessing even so much that he could call his own, while
-his quick eyes feasted on the beauty of it.
-
-He had made a large room with the door of the case set even with one
-side of it. On three sides, fine big bushes of wild rose climbed to the
-lower branches of the trees. Part of his walls were mallow, part alder,
-thorn, willow, and dogwood. Below there filled in a solid mass of pale
-pink sheep-laurel, and yellow St. John's wort, while the amber threads
-of the dodder interlaced everywhere. At one side the swamp came close,
-here cattails grew in profusion. In front of them he had planted a row
-of water-hyacinths without disturbing in the least the state of their
-azure bloom, and where the ground arose higher for his floor, a row of
-foxfire, that soon would be open.
-
-To the left he had discovered a queer natural arrangement of the trees,
-that grew to giant size and were set in a gradually narrowing space so
-that a long, open vista stretched away until lost in the dim recesses
-of the swamp. A little trimming of underbush, rolling of dead logs,
-levelling of floor and carpeting with moss, made it easy to understand
-why Freckles had named this the “cathedral”; yet he never had been
-taught that “the groves were God's first temples.”
-
-On either side of the trees that constituted the first arch of this dim
-vista of the swamp he planted ferns that grew waist-high thus early in
-the season, and so skilfully the work had been done that not a frond
-drooped because of the change. Opposite, he cleared a space and made a
-flower bed. He filled one end with every delicate, lacy vine and fern he
-could transplant successfully. The body of the bed was a riot of color.
-Here he set growing dainty blue-eyed-Marys and blue-eyed grass side
-by side. He planted harebells; violets, blue, white, and yellow; wild
-geranium, cardinal-flower, columbine, pink snake's mouth, buttercups,
-painted trilliums, and orchis. Here were blood-root, moccasin-flower,
-hepatica, pitcher-plant, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and every other flower of
-the Limberlost that was in bloom or bore a bud presaging a flower. Every
-day saw the addition of new specimens. The place would have driven a
-botanist wild with envy.
-
-On the line side he left the bushes thick for concealment, entering by a
-narrow path he and Duncan had cleared in setting up the case. He called
-this the front door, though he used every precaution to hide it. He
-built rustic seats between several of the trees, leveled the floor, and
-thickly carpeted it with rank, heavy, woolly-dog moss. Around the case
-he planted wild clematis, bittersweet, and wild-grapevines, and trained
-them over it until it was almost covered. Every day he planted new
-flowers, cut back rough bushes, and coaxed out graceful ones. His
-pride in his room was very great, but he had no idea how surprisingly
-beautiful it would appear to anyone who had not witnessed its growth and
-construction.
-
-This morning Freckles walked straight to his case, unlocked it, and set
-his apparatus and dinner inside. He planted a new specimen he had found
-close the trail, and, bringing his old scrap-bucket from the corner in
-which it was hidden, from a near-by pool he dipped water to pour over
-his carpet and flowers.
-
-Then he took out the bird book, settled comfortably on a bench, and
-with a deep sigh of satisfaction turned to the section headed. “V.” Past
-“veery” and “vireo” he went, down the line until his finger, trembling
-with eagerness, stopped at “vulture.”
-
-“'Great black California vulture,'” he read.
-
-“Humph! This side the Rockies will do for us.”
-
-“'Common turkey-buzzard.'”
-
-“Well, we ain't hunting common turkeys. McLean said chickens, and what
-he says goes.”
-
-“'Black vulture of the South.'”
-
-“Here we are arrived at once.”
-
-Freckles' finger followed the line, and he read scraps aloud.
-
-“'Common in the South. Sometimes called Jim Crow. Nearest equivalent to
-C-a-t-h-a-r-t-e-s A-t-r-a-t-a.'”
-
-“How the divil am I ever to learn them corkin' big words by mesel'?”
-
-“'--the Pharaoh's Chickens of European species. Sometimes stray north as
-far as Virginia and Kentucky----'”
-
-“And sometimes farther,” interpolated Freckles, “'cos I got them right
-here in Indiana so like these pictures I can just see me big chicken
-bobbing up to get his ears boxed. Hey?”
-
-“'Light-blue eggs'----”
-
-“Golly! I got to be seeing them!”
-
-“'--big as a common turkey's, but shaped like a hen's, heavily splotched
-with chocolate----'”
-
-“Caramels, I suppose. And----”
-
-“'--in hollow logs or stumps.'”
-
-“Oh, hagginy! Wasn't I barking up the wrong tree, though? Ought to been
-looking close the ground all this time. Now it's all to do over, and I
-suspect the sooner I start the sooner I'll be likely to find them.”
-
-Freckles put away his book, dampened the smudge-fire, without which the
-mosquitoes made the swamp almost unbearable, took his cudgel and lunch,
-and went to the line. He sat on a log, ate at dinner-time and drank his
-last drop of water. The heat of June was growing intense. Even on the
-west of the swamp, where one had full benefit of the breeze from the
-upland, it was beginning to be unpleasant in the middle of the day.
-
-He brushed the crumbs from his knees and sat resting awhile and watching
-the sky to see if his big chicken were hanging up there. But he came to
-the earth abruptly, for there were steps coming down the trail that
-were neither McLean's nor Duncan's--and there never had been others.
-Freckles' heart leaped hotly. He ran a quick hand over his belt to feel
-if his revolver and hatchet were there, caught up his cudgel and laid
-it across his knees--then sat quietly, waiting. Was it Black Jack,
-or someone even worse? Forced to do something to brace his nerves, he
-puckered his stiffening lips and began whistling a tune he had led in
-his clear tenor every year of his life at the Home Christmas exercises.
-
-     “Who comes this way, so blithe and gay,
-     Upon a merry Christmas day?”
-
-His quick Irish wit roused to the ridiculousness of it until he broke
-into a laugh that steadied him amazingly.
-
-Through the bushes he caught a glimpse of the oncoming figure. His heart
-flooded with joy, for it was a man from the gang. Wessner had been his
-bunk-mate the night he came down the corduroy. He knew him as well as
-any of McLean's men. This was no timber-thief. No doubt the Boss had
-sent him with a message. Freckles sprang up and called cheerily, a warm
-welcome on his face.
-
-“Well, it's good telling if you're glad to see me,” said Wessner, with
-something very like a breath of relief. “We been hearing down at the
-camp you were so mighty touchy you didn't allow a man within a rod of
-the line.”
-
-“No more do I,” answered Freckles, “if he's a stranger, but you're from
-McLean, ain't you?”
-
-“Oh, damn McLean!” said Wessner.
-
-Freckles gripped the cudgel until his knuckles slowly turned purple.
-
-“And are you railly saying so?” he inquired with elaborate politeness.
-
-“Yes, I am,” said Wessner. “So would every man of the gang if they
-wasn't too big cowards to say anything, unless maybe that other
-slobbering old Scotchman, Duncan. Grinding the lives out of us! Working
-us like dogs, and paying us starvation wages, while he rolls up his
-millions and lives like a prince!”
-
-Green lights began to play through the gray of Freckles' eyes.
-
-“Wessner,” he said impressively, “you'd make a fine pattern for the
-father of liars! Every man on that gang is strong and hilthy, paid all
-he earns, and treated with the courtesy of a gentleman! As for the Boss
-living like a prince, he shares fare with you every day of your lives!”
-
-Wessner was not a born diplomat, but he saw he was on the wrong tack, so
-he tried another.
-
-“How would you like to make a good big pile of money, without even
-lifting your hand?” he asked.
-
-“Humph!” said Freckles. “Have you been up to Chicago and cornered wheat,
-and are you offering me a friendly tip on the invistment of me fortune?”
-
-Wessner came close.
-
-“Freckles, old fellow,” he said, “if you let me give you a pointer, I
-can put you on to making a cool five hundred without stepping out of
-your tracks.”
-
-Freckles drew back.
-
-“You needn't be afraid of speaking up,” he said. “There isn't a soul in
-the Limberlost save the birds and the beasts, unless some of your sort's
-come along and's crowding the privileges of the legal tinints.”
-
-“None of my friends along,” said Wessner. “Nobody knew I came but Black,
-I--I mean a friend of mine. If you want to hear sense and act with
-reason, he can see you later, but it ain't necessary. We can make all
-the plans needed. The trick's so dead small and easy.”
-
-“Must be if you have the engineering of it,” said Freckles. But he
-heard, with a sigh of relief, that they were alone.
-
-Wessner was impervious. “You just bet it is! Why, only think, Freckles,
-slavin' away at a measly little thirty dollars a month, and here is a
-chance to clear five hundred in a day! You surely won't be the fool to
-miss it!”
-
-“And how was you proposing for me to stale it?” inquired Freckles. “Or
-am I just to find it laying in me path beside the line?”
-
-“That's it, Freckles,” blustered the Dutchman, “you're just to find it.
-You needn't do a thing. You needn't know a thing. You name a morning
-when you will walk up the west side of the swamp and then turn round
-and walk back down the same side again and the money is yours. Couldn't
-anything be easier than that, could it?”
-
-“Depinds entirely on the man,” said Freckles. The lilt of a lark hanging
-above the swale beside them was not sweeter than the sweetness of his
-voice. “To some it would seem to come aisy as breathing; and to some,
-wringin' the last drop of their heart's blood couldn't force thim! I'm
-not the man that goes into a scheme like that with the blindfold over
-me eyes, for, you see, it manes to break trust with the Boss; and I've
-served him faithful as I knew. You'll have to be making the thing very
-clear to me understanding.”
-
-“It's so dead easy,” repeated Wessner, “it makes me tired of the
-simpleness of it. You see there's a few trees in the swamp that's real
-gold mines. There's three especial. Two are back in, but one's square on
-the line. Why, your pottering old Scotch fool of a Boss nailed the
-wire to it with his own hands! He never noticed where the bark had been
-peeled, or saw what it was. If you will stay on this side of the trail
-just one day we can have it cut, loaded, and ready to drive out at
-night. Next morning you can find it, report, and be the busiest man
-in the search for us. We know where to fix it all safe and easy. Then
-McLean has a bet up with a couple of the gang that there can't be a raw
-stump found in the Limberlost. There's plenty of witnesses to swear to
-it, and I know three that will. There's a cool thousand, and this tree
-is worth all of that, raw. Say, it's a gold mine, I tell you, and just
-five hundred of it is yours. There's no danger on earth to you, for
-you've got McLean that bamboozled you could sell out the whole swamp and
-he'd never mistrust you. What do you say?”
-
-Freckles' soul was satisfied. “Is that all?” he asked.
-
-“No, it ain't,” said Wessner. “If you really want to brace up and be a
-man and go into the thing for keeps, you can make five times that in a
-week. My friend knows a dozen others we could get out in a few days, and
-all you'd have to do would be to keep out of sight. Then you could
-take your money and skip some night, and begin life like a gentleman
-somewhere else. What do you think about it?”
-
-Freckles purred like a kitten.
-
-“'Twould be a rare joke on the Boss,” he said, “to be stalin' from him
-the very thing he's trusted me to guard, and be getting me wages all
-winter throwed in free. And you're making the pay awful high. Me to
-be getting five hundred for such a simple little thing as that. You're
-trating me most royal indade! It's away beyond all I'd be expecting.
-Sivinteen cints would be a big price for that job. It must be looked
-into thorough. Just you wait here until I do a minute's turn in the
-swamp, and then I'll be eschorting you out of the clearing and giving
-you the answer.”
-
-Freckles lifted the overhanging bushes and hurried to the case. He
-unslung the specimen-box and laid it inside with his hatchet and
-revolver. He slipped the key in his pocket and went back to Wessner.
-
-“Now for the answer,” he said. “Stand up!”
-
-There was iron in his voice, and he was commanding as an outraged
-general. “Anything, you want to be taking off?” he questioned.
-
-Wessner looked the astonishment he felt. “Why, no, Freckles,” he said.
-
-“Have the goodness to be calling me Mister McLean,” snapped Freckles.
-“I'm after resarvin' me pet name for the use of me friends! You may
-stand with your back to the light or be taking any advantage you want.”
-
-“Why, what do you mean?” spluttered Wessner.
-
-“I'm manin',” said Freckles tersely, “to lick a quarter-section of hell
-out of you, and may the Holy Vargin stay me before I leave you here
-carrion, for your carcass would turn the stummicks of me chickens!”
-
-At the camp that morning, Wessner's conduct had been so palpable an
-excuse to force a discharge that Duncan moved near McLean and whispered,
-“Think of the boy, sir?”
-
-McLean was so troubled that, an hour later, he mounted Nellie and
-followed Wessner to his home in Wildcat Hollow, only to find that he had
-left there shortly before, heading for the Limberlost. McLean rode at
-top speed. When Mrs. Duncan told him that a man answering Wessner's
-description had gone down the west side of the swamp close noon, he left
-the mare in her charge and followed on foot. When he heard voices he
-entered the swamp and silently crept close just in time to hear Wessner
-whine: “But I can't fight you, Freckles. I hain't done nothing to you.
-I'm away bigger than you, and you've only one hand.”
-
-The Boss slid off his coat and crouched among the bushes, ready to
-spring; but as Freckles' voice reached him he held himself, with a
-strong effort, to learn what mettle was in the boy.
-
-“Don't you be wasting of me good time in the numbering of me hands,”
- cried Freckles. “The stringth of me cause will make up for the weakness
-of me mimbers, and the size of a cowardly thief doesn't count. You'll
-think all the wildcats of the Limberlost are turned loose on you whin I
-come against you, and as for me cause----I slept with you, Wessner, the
-night I came down the corduroy like a dirty, friendless tramp, and the
-Boss was for taking me up, washing, clothing, and feeding me, and giving
-me a home full of love and tinderness, and a master to look to, and
-good, well-earned money in the bank. He's trusting me his heartful, and
-here comes you, you spotted toad of the big road, and insults me, as is
-an honest Irish gintleman, by hinting that you concaive I'd be willing
-to shut me eyes and hold fast while you rob him of the thing I was set
-and paid to guard, and then act the sneak and liar to him, and ruin and
-eternally blacken the soul of me. You damned rascal,” raved Freckles,
-“be fighting before I forget the laws of a gintlemin's game and split
-your dirty head with me stick!”
-
-Wessner backed away, mumbling, “But I don't want to hurt you, Freckles!”
-
-“Oh, don't you!” raged the boy, now fairly frothing. “Well, you ain't
-resembling me none, for I'm itching like death to git me fingers in the
-face of you.”
-
-He danced up, and as Wessner lunged in self-defense, ducked under his
-arm as a bantam and punched him in the pit of the stomach so that he
-doubled with a groan. Before Wessner could straighten himself, Freckles
-was on him, fighting like the wildest fury that ever left the beautiful
-island. The Dutchman dealt thundering blows that sometimes landed and
-sent Freckles reeling, and sometimes missed, while he went plunging into
-the swale with the impetus of them. Freckles could not strike with half
-Wessner's force, but he could land three blows to the Dutchman's one.
-It was here that the boy's days of alert watching on the line, the
-perpetual swinging of the heavy cudgel, and the endurance of all weather
-stood him in good stead; for he was tough, and agile. He skipped,
-ducked, and dodged. For the first five minutes he endured fearful
-punishment. Then Wessner's breath commenced to whistle between his
-teeth, when Freckles only had begun fighting. He sprang back with shrill
-laughter.
-
-“Begolly! and will your honor be whistling the hornpipe for me to be
-dancing of?” he cried.
-
-SPANG! went his fist into Wessner's face, and he was past him into the
-swale.
-
-“And would you be pleased to tune up a little livelier?” he gasped, and
-clipped his ear as he sprang back. Wessner lunged at him in blind fury.
-Freckles, seeing an opening, forgot the laws of a gentleman's game and
-drove the toe of his heavy wading-boot in Wessner's middle until he
-doubled and fell heavily. In a flash Freckles was on him. For a time
-McLean could not see what was happening. “Go! Go to him now!” he
-commanded himself, but so intense was his desire to see the boy win
-alone that he did not stir.
-
-At last Freckles sprang up and backed away. “Time!” he yelled as a fury.
-“Be getting up, Mr. Wessner, and don't be afraid of hurting me. I'll let
-you throw in an extra hand and lick you to me complate satisfaction all
-the same. Did you hear me call the limit? Will you get up and be facing
-me?”
-
-As Wessner struggled to his feet, he resembled a battlefield, for his
-clothing was in ribbons and his face and hands streaming blood.
-
-“I--I guess I got enough,” he mumbled.
-
-“Oh, you do?” roared Freckles. “Well this ain't your say. You come on
-to me ground, lying about me Boss and intimatin' I'd stale from his very
-pockets. Now will you be standing up and taking your medicine like a
-man, or getting it poured down the throat of you like a baby? I ain't
-got enough! This is only just the beginning with me. Be looking out
-there!”
-
-He sprang against Wessner and sent him rolling. He attacked the
-unresisting figure and fought him until he lay limp and quiet and
-Freckles had no strength left to lift an arm. Then he arose and stepped
-back, gasping for breath. With his first lungful of air he shouted:
-“Time!” But the figure of Wessner lay motionless.
-
-Freckles watched him with regardful eye and saw at last that he was
-completely exhausted. He bent over him, and catching him by the back of
-the neck, jerked him to his knees. Wessner lifted the face of a whipped
-cur, and fearing further punishment, burst into shivering sobs, while
-the tears washed tiny rivulets through the blood and muck. Freckles
-stepped back, glaring at Wessner, but suddenly the scowl of anger and
-the ugly disfiguring red faded from the boy's face. He dabbed at a cut
-on his temple from which issued a tiny crimson stream, and jauntily
-shook back his hair. His face took on the innocent look of a cherub,
-and his voice rivaled that of a brooding dove, but into his eyes crept a
-look of diabolical mischief.
-
-He glanced vaguely around him until he saw his club, seized and twirled
-it as a drum major, stuck it upright in the muck, and marched on tiptoe
-to Wessner, mechanically, as a puppet worked by a string. Bending over,
-Freckles reached an arm around Wessner's waist and helped him to his
-feet.
-
-“Careful, now” he cautioned, “be careful, Freddy; there's danger of you
-hurting me.”
-
-Drawing a handkerchief from a back pocket, Freckles tenderly wiped
-Wessner's eyes and nose.
-
-“Come, Freddy, me child,” he admonished Wessner, “it's time little boys
-were going home. I've me work to do, and can't be entertaining you any
-more today. Come back tomorrow, if you ain't through yet, and we'll
-repate the perfarmance. Don't be staring at me so wild like! I would eat
-you, but I can't afford it. Me earnings, being honest, come slow, and
-I've no money to be squanderin' on the pailful of Dyspeptic's Delight it
-would be to taking to work you out of my innards!”
-
-Again an awful wrenching seized McLean. Freckles stepped back as
-Wessner, tottering and reeling, as a thoroughly drunken man, came toward
-the path, appearing indeed as if wildcats had attacked him.
-
-The cudgel spun high in air, and catching it with an expertness acquired
-by long practice on the line, the boy twirled it a second, shook back
-his thick hair bonnily, and stepping into the trail, followed Wessner.
-Because Freckles was Irish, it was impossible to do it silently, so
-presently his clear tenor rang out, though there were bad catches where
-he was hard pressed for breath:
-
-     “It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch.
-     Do you think it was the Irish hollered help?
-     Not much!
-     It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch----”
-
-Wessner turned and mumbled: “What you following me for? What are you
-going to do with me?”
-
-Freckles called the Limberlost to witness: “How's that for the
-ingratitude of a beast? And me troubling mesilf to show him off me
-territory with the honors of war!”
-
-Then he changed his tone completely and added: “Belike it's this,
-Freddy. You see, the Boss might come riding down this trail any minute,
-and the little mare's so wheedlesome that if she'd come on to you in
-your prisint state all of a sudden, she'd stop that short she'd send Mr.
-McLean out over the ears of her. No disparagement intinded to the sinse
-of the mare!” he added hastily.
-
-Wessner belched a fearful oath, while Freckles laughed merrily.
-
-“That's a sample of the thanks a generous act's always for getting,” he
-continued. “Here's me neglictin' me work to eschort you out proper, and
-you saying such awful words Freddy,” he demanded sternly, “do you want
-me to soap out your mouth? You don't seem to be realizing it, but if you
-was to buck into Mr. McLean in your prisint state, without me there
-to explain matters the chance is he'd cut the liver out of you; and I
-shouldn't think you'd be wanting such a fine gintleman as him to see
-that it's white!”
-
-Wessner grew ghastly under his grime and broke into a staggering run.
-
-“And now will you be looking at the manners of him?” questioned Freckles
-plaintively. “Going without even a 'thank you,' right in the face of all
-the pains I've taken to make it interesting for him!”
-
-Freckles twirled the club and stood as a soldier at attention
-until Wessner left the clearing, but it was the last scene of that
-performance. When the boy turned, there was deathly illness on his face,
-while his legs wavered beneath his weight. He staggered to the case, and
-opening it he took out a piece of cloth. He dipped it into the water,
-and sitting on a bench, he wiped the blood and grime from his face,
-while his breath sucked between his clenched teeth. He was shivering
-with pain and excitement in spite of himself. He unbuttoned the band of
-his right sleeve, and turning it back, exposed the blue-lined, calloused
-whiteness of his maimed arm, now vividly streaked with contusions, while
-in a series of circular dots the blood oozed slowly. Here Wessner had
-succeeded in setting his teeth. When Freckles saw what it was he forgave
-himself the kick in the pit of Wessner's stomach, and cursed fervently
-and deep.
-
-“Freckles, Freckles,” said McLean's voice.
-
-Freckles snatched down his sleeve and arose to his feet.
-
-“Excuse me, sir,” he said. “You'll surely be belavin' I thought meself
-alone.”
-
-McLean pushed him carefully to the seat, and bending over him, opened a
-pocket-case that he carried as regularly as his revolver and watch, for
-cuts and bruises were of daily occurrence among the gang.
-
-Taking the hurt arm, he turned back the sleeve and bathed and bound the
-wounds. He examined Freckles' head and body and convinced himself that
-there was no permanent injury, although the cruelty of the punishment
-the boy had borne set the Boss shuddering. Then he closed the
-case, shoved it into his pocket, and sat beside Freckles. All the
-indescribable beauty of the place was strong around him, but he saw
-only the bruised face of the suffering boy, who had hedged for the
-information he wanted as a diplomat, argued as a judge, fought as a
-sheik, and triumphed as a devil.
-
-When the pain lessened and breath relieved Freckles' pounding heart, he
-watched the Boss covertly. How had McLean gotten there and how long had
-he been there? Freckles did not dare ask. At last he arose, and going
-to the case, took out his revolver and the wire-mending apparatus and
-locked the door. Then he turned to McLean.
-
-“Have you any orders, sir?” he asked.
-
-“Yes,” said McLean, “I have, and you are to follow them to the letter.
-Turn over that apparatus to me and go straight home. Soak yourself in
-the hottest bath your skin will bear and go to bed at once. Now hurry.”
-
-“Mr. McLean,” said Freckles, “it's sorry I am to be telling you, but
-the afternoon's walking of the line ain't done. You see, I was just
-for getting to me feet to start, and I was on time, when up came
-a gintleman, and we got into a little heated argument. It's either
-settled, or it's just begun, but between us, I'm that late I haven't
-started for the afternoon yet. I must be going at once, for there's a
-tree I must find before the day's over.”
-
-“You plucky little idiot,” growled McLean. “You can't walk the line! I
-doubt if you can reach Duncan's. Don't you know when you are done up?
-You go to bed; I'll finish your work.”
-
-“Niver!” protested Freckles. “I was just a little done up for the
-prisint, a minute ago. I'm all right now. Riding-boots are far too low.
-The day's hot and the walk a good seven miles, sir. Niver!”
-
-As he reached for the outfit he pitched forward and his eyes closed.
-McLean stretched him on the moss and applied restoratives. When Freckles
-returned to consciousness, McLean ran to the cabin to tell Mrs. Duncan
-to have a hot bath ready, and to bring Nellie. That worthy woman
-promptly filled the wash-boiler, starting a roaring fire under it. She
-pushed the horse-trough from its base and rolled it to the kitchen.
-
-By the time McLean came again, leading Nelie and holding Freckles on her
-back, Mrs. Duncan was ready for business. She and the Boss laid Freckles
-in the trough and poured on hot water until he squirmed. They soaked and
-massaged him. Then they drew off the hot water and closed his pores with
-cold. Lastly they stretched him on the floor and chafed, rubbed, and
-kneaded him until he cried out for mercy. As they rolled him into bed,
-his eyes dropped shut, but a little later they flared open.
-
-“Mr. McLean,” he cried, “the tree! Oh, do be looking after the tree!”
-
-McLean bent over him. “Which tree, Freckles?”
-
-“I don't know exact sir; but it's on the east line, and the wire is
-fastened to it. He bragged that you nailed it yourself, sir. You'll know
-it by the bark having been laid open to the grain somewhere low down.
-Five hundred dollars he offered me--to be--selling you out--sir!”
-
-Freckles' head rolled over and his eyes dropped shut. McLean towered
-above the lad. His bright hair waved on the pillow. His face was
-swollen, and purple with bruises. His left arm, with the hand battered
-almost out of shape, stretched beside him, and the right, with no hand
-at all, lay across a chest that was a mass of purple welts. McLean's
-mind traveled to the night, almost a year before, when he had engaged
-Freckles, a stranger.
-
-The Boss bent, covering the hurt arm with one hand and laying the other
-with a caress on the boy's forehead. Freckles stirred at his touch, and
-whispered as softly as the swallows under the eaves: “If you're coming
-this way--tomorrow--be pleased to step over--and we'll repate--the
-chorus softly!”
-
-“Bless the gritty devil,” muttered McLean.
-
-Then he went out and told Mrs. Duncan to keep close watch on Freckles,
-also to send Duncan to him at the swamp the minute he came home.
-Following the trail to the line and back to the scent of the fight, the
-Boss entered Freckles' study quietly, as if his spirit, keeping there,
-might be roused, and gazed around with astonished eyes.
-
-How had the boy conceived it? What a picture he had wrought in living
-colors! He had the heart of a painter. He had the soul of a poet. The
-Boss stepped carefully over the velvet carpet to touch the walls of
-crisp verdure with gentle fingers. He stood long beside the flower
-bed, and gazed at the banked wall of bright bloom as if he doubted its
-reality.
-
-Where had Freckles ever found, and how had he transplanted such ferns?
-As McLean turned from them he stopped suddenly.
-
-He had reached the door of the cathedral. That which Freckles had
-attempted would have been patent to anyone. What had been in the heart
-of the shy, silent boy when he had found that long, dim stretch of
-forest, decorated its entrance, cleared and smoothed its aisle, and
-carpeted its altar? What veriest work of God was in these mighty living
-pillars and the arched dome of green! How similar to stained cathedral
-windows were the long openings between the trees, filled with rifts of
-blue, rays of gold, and the shifting emerald of leaves! Where could be
-found mosaics to match this aisle paved with living color and glowing
-light? Was Freckles a devout Christian, and did he worship here? Or was
-he an untaught heathen, and down this vista of entrancing loveliness did
-Pan come piping, and dryads, nymphs, and fairies dance for him?
-
-Who can fathom the heart of a boy? McLean had been thinking of Freckles
-as a creature of unswerving honesty, courage, and faithfulness. Here was
-evidence of a heart aching for beauty, art, companionship, worship. It
-was writ large all over the floor, walls, and furnishing of that little
-Limberlost clearing.
-
-When Duncan came, McLean told him the story of the fight, and they
-laughed until they cried. Then they started around the line in search of
-the tree.
-
-Said Duncan: “Now the boy is in for sore trouble!”
-
-“I hope not,” answered McLean. “You never in all your life saw a cur
-whipped so completely. He won't come back for the repetition of the
-chorus. We surely can find the tree. If we can't, Freckles can. I will
-bring enough of the gang to take it out at once. That will insure peace
-for a time, at least, and I am hoping that in a month more the whole
-gang may be moved here. It soon will be fall, and then, if he will go, I
-intend to send Freckles to my mother to be educated. With his quickness
-of mind and body and a few years' good help he can do anything. Why,
-Duncan, I'd give a hundred-dollar bill if you could have been here and
-seen for yourself.”
-
-“Yes, and I'd 'a' done murder,” muttered the big teamster. “I hope, sir,
-ye will make good your plans for Freckles, though I'd as soon see
-ony born child o' my ain taken from our home. We love the lad, me and
-Sarah.”
-
-Locating the tree was easy, because it was so well identified. When
-the rumble of the big lumber wagons passing the cabin on the way to the
-swamp wakened Freckles next morning, he sprang up and was soon following
-them. He was so sore and stiff that every movement was torture at first,
-but he grew easier, and shortly did not suffer so much. McLean scolded
-him for coming, yet in his heart triumphed over every new evidence of
-fineness in the boy.
-
-The tree was a giant maple, and so precious that they almost dug it out
-by the roots. When it was down, cut in lengths, and loaded, there was
-yet an empty wagon. As they were gathering up their tools to go, Duncan
-said: “There's a big hollow tree somewhere mighty close here that I've
-been wanting for a watering-trough for my stock; the one I have is so
-small. The Portland company cut this for elm butts last year, and it's
-six feet diameter and hollow for forty feet. It was a buster! While the
-men are here and there is an empty wagon, why mightn't I load it on and
-tak' it up to the barn as we pass?”
-
-McLean said he was very willing, ordered the driver to break line and
-load the log, detailing men to assist. He told Freckles to ride on a
-section of the maple with him, but now the boy asked to enter the swamp
-with Duncan.
-
-“I don't see why you want to go,” said McLean. “I have no business to
-let you out today at all.”
-
-“It's me chickens,” whispered Freckles in distress. “You see, I was just
-after finding yesterday, from me new book, how they do be nesting in
-hollow trees, and there ain't any too many in the swamp. There's just a
-chance that they might be in that one.”
-
-“Go ahead,” said McLean. “That's a different story. If they happen to be
-there, why tell Duncan he must give up the tree until they have finished
-with it.”
-
-Then he climbed on a wagon and was driven away. Freckles hurried into
-the swamp. He was a little behind, yet he could see the men. Before he
-overtook them, they had turned from the west road and had entered the
-swamp toward the east.
-
-They stopped at the trunk of a monstrous prostrate log. It had been cut
-three feet from the ground, over three-fourths of the way through, and
-had fallen toward the east, the body of the log still resting on the
-stump. The underbrush was almost impenetrable, but Duncan plunged in and
-with a crowbar began tapping along the trunk to decide how far it
-was hollow, so that they would know where to cut. As they waited his
-decision, there came from the mouth of it--on wings--a large black bird
-that swept over their heads.
-
-Freckles danced wildly. “It's me chickens! Oh, it's me chickens!” he
-shouted. “Oh, Duncan, come quick! You've found the nest of me precious
-chickens!”
-
-Duncan hurried to the mouth of the log, but Freckles was before him. He
-crashed through poison-vines and underbrush regardless of any danger,
-and climbed on the stump. When Duncan came he was shouting like a wild
-man.
-
-“It's hatched!” he yelled. “Oh, me big chicken has hatched out me little
-chicken, and there's another egg. I can see it plain, and oh, the funny
-little white baby! Oh, Duncan, can you see me little white chicken?”
-
-Duncan could easily see it; so could everyone else. Freckles crept into
-the log and tenderly carried the hissing, blinking little bird to the
-light in a leaf-lined hat. The men found it sufficiently wonderful to
-satisfy even Freckles, who had forgotten he was ever sore or stiff, and
-coddled over it with every blarneying term of endearment he knew.
-
-Duncan gathered his tools. “Deal's off, boys!” he said cheerfully. “This
-log mauna be touched until Freckles' chaukies have finished with it. We
-might as weel gang. Better put it back, Freckles. It's just out, and it
-may chill. Ye will probably hae twa the morn.”
-
-Freckles crept into the log and carefully deposited the baby beside
-the egg. When he came back, he said: “I made a big mistake not to be
-bringing the egg out with the baby, but I was fearing to touch it.
-It's shaped like a hen's egg, and it's big as a turkey's, and the
-beautifulest blue--just splattered with big brown splotches, like me
-book said, precise. Bet you never saw such a sight as it made on the
-yellow of the rotten wood beside that funny leathery-faced little white
-baby.”
-
-“Tell you what, Freckles,” said one of the teamsters. “Have you ever
-heard of this Bird Woman who goes all over the country with a camera and
-makes pictures? She made some on my brother Jim's place last summer, and
-Jim's so wild about them he quits plowing and goes after her about every
-nest he finds. He helps her all he can to take them, and then she gives
-him a picture. Jim's so proud of what he has he keeps them in the Bible.
-He shows them to everybody that comes, and brags about how he helped.
-If you're smart, you'll send for her and she'll come and make a picture
-just like life. If you help her, she will give you one. It would be
-uncommon pretty to keep, after your birds are gone. I dunno what they
-are. I never see their like before. They must be something rare. Any you
-fellows ever see a bird like that hereabouts?”
-
-No one ever had.
-
-“Well,” said the teamster, “failing to get this log lets me off till
-noon, and I'm going to town. I go right past her place. I've a big
-notion to stop and tell her. If she drives straight back in the swamp
-on the west road, and turns east at this big sycamore, she can't miss
-finding the tree, even if Freckles ain't here to show her. Jim says
-her work is a credit to the State she lives in, and any man is a measly
-creature who isn't willing to help her all he can. My old daddy used to
-say that all there was to religion was doing to the other fellow what
-you'd want him to do to you, and if I was making a living taking bird
-pictures, seems to me I'd be mighty glad for a chance to take one like
-that. So I'll just stop and tell her, and by gummy! maybe she will give
-me a picture of the little white sucker for my trouble.”
-
-Freckles touched his arm.
-
-“Will she be rough with it?” he asked.
-
-“Government land! No!” said the teamster. “She's dead down on anybody
-that shoots a bird or tears up a nest. Why, she's half killing herself
-in all kinds of places and weather to teach people to love and protect
-the birds. She's that plum careful of them that Jim's wife says she has
-Jim a standin' like a big fool holding an ombrelly over them when they
-are young and tender until she gets a focus, whatever that is. Jim says
-there ain't a bird on his place that don't actually seem to like having
-her around after she has wheedled them a few days, and the pictures she
-takes nobody would ever believe who didn't stand by and see.”
-
-“Will you he sure to tell her to come?” asked Freckles.
-
-Duncan slept at home that night. He heard Freckles slipping out early
-the next morning, but he was too sleepy to wonder why, until he came to
-do his morning chores. When he found that none of his stock was at all
-thirsty, and saw the water-trough brimming, he knew that the boy was
-trying to make up to him for the loss of the big trough that he had been
-so anxious to have.
-
-“Bless his fool little hot heart!” said Duncan. “And him so sore it is
-tearing him to move for anything. Nae wonder he has us all loving him!”
-
-Freckles was moving briskly, and his heart was so happy that he forgot
-all about the bruises. He hurried around the trail, and on his way down
-the east side he went to see the chickens. The mother bird was on the
-nest. He was afraid the other egg might be hatching, so he did not
-venture to disturb her. He made the round and reached his study early.
-He ate his lunch, but did not need to start on the second trip until the
-middle of the afternoon. He would have long hours to work on his flower
-bed, improve his study, and learn about his chickens. Lovingly he set
-his room in order and watered the flowers and carpet. He had chosen for
-his resting-place the coolest spot on the west side, where there was
-almost always a breeze; but today the heat was so intense that it
-penetrated even there.
-
-“I'm mighty glad there's nothing calling me inside!” he said. “There's
-no bit of air stirring, and it will just be steaming. Oh, but it's
-luck Duncan found the nest before it got so unbearing hot! I might have
-missed it altogether. Wouldn't it have been a shame to lose that sight?
-The cunning little divil! When he gets to toddling down that log to meet
-me, won't he be a circus? Wonder if he'll be as graceful a performer
-afoot as his father and mother?”
-
-The heat became more insistent. Noon came; Freckles ate his dinner and
-settled for an hour or two on a bench with a book.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-
-Perhaps there was a breath of sound--Freckles never afterward could
-remember--but for some reason he lifted his head as the bushes parted
-and the face of an angel looked between. Saints, nymphs, and fairies
-had floated down his cathedral aisle for him many times, with forms and
-voices of exquisite beauty.
-
-Parting the wild roses at the entrance was beauty of which Freckles
-never had dreamed. Was it real or would it vanish as the other dreams?
-He dropped his book, and rising to his feet, went a step closer, gazing
-intently. This was real flesh and blood. It was in every way kin to the
-Limberlost, for no bird of its branches swung with easier grace than
-this dainty young thing rocked on the bit of morass on which she stood.
-A sapling beside her was not straighter or rounder than her slender
-form. Her soft, waving hair clung around her face from the heat, and
-curled over her shoulders. It was all of one piece with the gold of the
-sun that filtered between the branches. Her eyes were the deepest blue
-of the iris, her lips the reddest red of the foxfire, while her cheeks
-were exactly of the same satin as the wild rose petals caressing them.
-She was smiling at Freckles in perfect confidence, and she cried:
-
-“Oh, I'm so delighted that I've found you!”
-
-The wildly leaping heart of Freckles burst from his body and fell in the
-black swamp-muck at her feet with such a thud that he did not understand
-how she could avoid hearing. He really felt that if she looked down she
-would see.
-
-Incredulous, he quavered: “An'--an' was you looking for me?”
-
-“I hoped I might find you,” said the Angel. “You see, I didn't do as
-I was told, and I'm lost. The Bird Woman said I should wait in the
-carriage until she came back. She's been gone hours. It's a perfect
-Turkish bath in there, and I'm all lumpy with mosquito bites. Just when
-I thought that I couldn't bear it another minute, along came the biggest
-Papilio Ajax you ever saw. I knew how pleased she'd be, so I ran after
-it. It flew so slow and so low that I thought a dozen times I had it.
-Then all at once it went from sight above the trees, and I couldn't find
-my way back to save me. I think I've walked more than an hour. I have
-been mired to my knees. A thorn raked my arm until it is bleeding, and
-I'm so tired and warm.”
-
-She parted the bushes farther. Freckles saw that her blue cotton frock
-clung to her, limp with perspiration. It was torn across the breast. One
-sleeve hung open from shoulder to elbow. A thorn had torn her arm until
-it was covered with blood, and the gnats and mosquitoes were clustering
-around it. Her feet were in lace hose and low shoes. Freckles gasped. In
-the Limberlost in low shoes! He caught an armful of moss from his carpet
-and buried it in the ooze in front of her for a footing.
-
-“Come out here so I can see where you are stepping. Quick, for the life
-of you!” he ordered.
-
-She smiled on him indulgently.
-
-“Why?” she inquired.
-
-“Did anybody let you come here and not be telling you of the snakes?”
- urged Freckles.
-
-“We met Mr. McLean on the corduroy, and he did say something about
-snakes, I believe. The Bird Woman put on leather leggings, and a nice,
-parboiled time she must be having! Worst dose I ever endured, and I'd
-nothing to do but swelter.”
-
-“Will you be coming out of there?” groaned Freckles.
-
-She laughed as if it were a fine joke.
-
-“Maybe if I'd be telling you I killed a rattler curled upon that same
-place you're standing, as long as me body and the thickness of me arm,
-you'd be moving where I can see your footing,” he urged insistently.
-
-“What a perfectly delightful little brogue you speak,” she said. “My
-father is Irish, and half should be enough to entitle me to that much.
-'Maybe--if I'd--be telling you,'” she imitated, rounding and accenting
-each word carefully.
-
-Freckles was beginning to feel a wildness in his head. He had derided
-Wessner at that same hour yesterday. Now his own eyes were filling with
-tears.
-
-“If you were understanding the danger!” he continued desperately.
-
-“Oh, I don't think there is much!”
-
-She tilted on the morass.
-
-“If you killed one snake here, it's probably all there is near; and
-anyway, the Bird Woman says a rattlesnake is a gentleman and always
-gives warning before he strikes. I don't hear any rattling. Do you?”
-
-“Would you be knowing it if you did?” asked Freckles, almost
-impatiently.
-
-How the laugh of the young thing rippled!
-
-“'Would I be knowing it?'” she mocked. “You should see the swamps of
-Michigan where they dump rattlers from the marl-dredgers three and four
-at a time!”
-
-Freckles stood astounded. She did know. She was not in the least afraid.
-She was depending on a rattlesnake to live up to his share of the
-contract and rattle in time for her to move. The one characteristic
-an Irishman admires in a woman, above all others, is courage. Freckles
-worshiped anew. He changed his tactics.
-
-“I'd be pleased to be receiving you at me front door,” he said, “but as
-you have arrived at the back, will you come in and be seated?”
-
-He waved toward a bench. The Angel came instantly.
-
-“Oh, how lovely and cool!” she cried.
-
-As she moved across his room, Freckles had difficult work to keep from
-falling on his knees; for they were very weak, while he was hard driven
-by an impulse to worship.
-
-“Did you arrange this?” she asked.
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles simply.
-
-“Someone must come with a big canvas and copy each side of it,” she
-said. “I never saw anything so beautiful! How I wish I might remain
-here with you! I will, some day, if you will let me; but now, if you can
-spare the time, will you help me find the carriage? If the Bird Woman
-comes back and I am gone, she will be almost distracted.”
-
-“Did you come on the west road?” asked Freckles.
-
-“I think so,” she said. “The man who told the Bird Woman said that
-was the only place the wires were down. We drove away in, and it was
-dreadful--over stumps and logs, and we mired to the hubs. I suppose you
-know, though. I should have stayed in the carriage, but I was so tired.
-I never dreamed of getting lost. I suspect I will be scolded finely.
-I go with the Bird Woman half the time during the summer vacations. My
-father says I learn a lot more than I do at school, and get it straight.
-I never came within a smell of being lost before. I thought, at first,
-it was going to be horrid; but since I've found you, maybe it will be
-good fun after all.”
-
-Freckles was amazed to hear himself excusing: “It was so hot in there.
-You couldn't be expected to bear it for hours and not be moving. I can
-take you around the trail almost to where you were. Then you can sit in
-the carriage, and I will go find the Bird Woman.”
-
-“You'll be killed if you do! When she stays this long, it means that she
-has a focus on something. You see, when she has a focus, and lies in the
-weeds and water for hours, and the sun bakes her, and things crawl over
-her, and then someone comes along and scares her bird away just as she
-has it coaxed up--why, she kills them. If I melt, you won't go after
-her. She's probably blistered and half eaten up; but she never will quit
-until she is satisfied.”
-
-“Then it will be safer to be taking care of you,” suggested Freckles.
-
-“Now you're talking sense!” said the Angel.
-
-“May I try to help your arm?” he asked.
-
-“Have you any idea how it hurts?” she parried.
-
-“A little,” said Freckles.
-
-“Well, Mr. McLean said We'd probably find his son here”
-
-“His son!” cried Freckles.
-
-“That's what he said. And that you would do anything you could for us;
-and that we could trust you with our lives. But I would have trusted
-you anyway, if I hadn't known a thing about you. Say, your father is
-rampaging proud of you, isn't he?”
-
-“I don't know,” answered the dazed Freckles.
-
-“Well, call on me if you want reliable information. He's so proud of you
-he is all swelled up like the toad in AEsop's Fables. If you have ever
-had an arm hurt like this, and can do anything, why, for pity sake, do
-it!”
-
-She turned back her sleeve, holding toward Freckles an arm of palest
-cameo, shaped so exquisitely that no sculptor could have chiseled it.
-
-Freckles unlocked his case, and taking out some cotton cloth, he tore it
-in strips. Then he brought a bucket of the cleanest water he could find.
-She yielded herself to his touch as a baby, and he bathed away the blood
-and bandaged the ugly, ragged wound. He finished his surgery by lapping
-the torn sleeve over the cloth and binding it down with a piece of
-twine, with the Angel's help about the knots.
-
-Freckles worked with trembling fingers and a face tense with
-earnestness.
-
-“Is it feeling any better?” he asked.
-
-“Oh, it's well now!” cried the Angel. “It doesn't hurt at all, any
-more.”
-
-“I'm mighty glad,” said Freckles. “But you had best go and be having
-your doctor fix it right; the minute you get home.”
-
-“Oh, bother! A little scratch like that!” jeered the Angel. “My blood is
-perfectly pure. It will heal in three days.”
-
-“It's cut cruel deep. It might be making a scar,” faltered Freckles, his
-eyes on the ground. “'Twould--'twould be an awful pity. A doctor might
-know something to prevent it.”
-
-“Why, I never thought of that!” exclaimed the Angel.
-
-“I noticed you didn't,” said Freckles softly. “I don't know much about
-it, but it seems as if most girls would.”
-
-The Angel thought intently, while Freckles still knelt beside her.
-Suddenly she gave herself an impatient little shake, lifted her glorious
-eyes full to his, and the smile that swept her sweet, young face was the
-loveliest thing that Freckles ever had seen.
-
-“Don't let's bother about it,” she proposed, with the faintest hint of
-a confiding gesture toward him. “It won't make a scar. Why, it couldn't,
-when you have dressed it so nicely.”
-
-The velvety touch of her warm arm was tingling in Freckles' fingertips.
-Dainty lace and fine white ribbon peeped through her torn dress. There
-were beautiful rings on her fingers. Every article she wore was of
-the finest material and in excellent taste. There was the trembling
-Limberlost guard in his coarse clothing, with his cotton rags and
-his old pail of swamp water. Freckles was sufficiently accustomed to
-contrasts to notice them, and sufficiently fine to be hurt by them
-always.
-
-He lifted his eyes with a shadowy pain in them to hers, and found them
-of serene, unconscious purity. What she had said was straight from a
-kind, untainted, young heart. She meant every word of it. Freckles' soul
-sickened. He scarcely knew whether he could muster strength to stand.
-
-“We must go and hunt for the carriage,” said the Angel, rising.
-
-In instant alarm for her, Freckles sprang up, grasped the cudgel, and
-led the way, sharply watching every step. He went as close the log as he
-felt that he dared, and with a little searching found the carriage. He
-cleared a path for the Angel, and with a sigh of relief saw her enter it
-safely. The heat was intense. She pushed the damp hair from her temples.
-
-“This is a shame!” said Freckles. “You'll never be coming here again.”
-
-“Oh yes I shall!” said the Angel. “The Bird Woman says that these birds
-remain over a month in the nest and she would like to make a picture
-every few days for seven or eight weeks, perhaps.”
-
-Freckles barely escaped crying aloud for joy.
-
-“Then don't you ever be torturing yourself and your horse to be coming
-in here again,” he said. “I'll show you a way to drive almost to the
-nest on the east trail, and then you can come around to my room and stay
-while the Bird Woman works. It's nearly always cool there, and there's
-comfortable seats, and water.”
-
-“Oh! did you have drinking-water there?” she cried. “I was never so
-thirsty or so hungry in my life, but I thought I wouldn't mention it.”
-
-“And I had not the wit to be seeing!” wailed Freckles. “I can be getting
-you a good drink in no time.”
-
-He turned to the trail.
-
-“Please wait a minute,” called the Angel. “What's your name? I want to
-think about you while you are gone.” Freckles lifted his face with the
-brown rift across it and smiled quizzically.
-
-“Freckles?” she guessed, with a peal of laughter. “And mine is----”
-
-“I'm knowing yours,” interrupted Freckles.
-
-“I don't believe you do. What is it?” asked the girl.
-
-“You won't be getting angry?”
-
-“Not until I've had the water, at least.”
-
-It was Freckles' turn to laugh. He whipped off his big, floppy straw
-hat, stood uncovered before her, and said, in the sweetest of all the
-sweet tones of his voice: “There's nothing you could be but the Swamp
-Angel.”
-
-The girl laughed happily.
-
-Once out of her sight, Freckles ran every step of the way to the cabin.
-Mrs. Duncan gave him a small bucket of water, cool from the well. He
-carried it in the crook of his right arm, and a basket filled with bread
-and butter, cold meat, apple pie, and pickles, in his left hand.
-
-“Pickles are kind o' cooling,” said Mrs. Duncan.
-
-Then Freckles ran again.
-
-The Angel was on her knees, reaching for the bucket, as he came up.
-
-“Be drinking slow,” he cautioned her.
-
-“Oh!” she cried, with a long breath of satisfaction. “It's so good! You
-are more than kind to bring it!”
-
-Freckles stood blinking in the dazzling glory of her smile until he
-scarcely could see to lift the basket.
-
-“Mercy!” she exclaimed. “I think I had better be naming you the 'Angel.'
-My Guardian Angel.”
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles. “I look the character every day--but today most
-emphatic!”
-
-“Angels don't go by looks,” laughed the girl. “Your father told us you
-had been scrapping. But he told us why. I'd gladly wear all your cuts
-and bruises if I could do anything that would make my father look as
-peacocky as yours did. He strutted about proper. I never saw anyone look
-prouder.”
-
-“Did he say he was proud of me?” marveled Freckles.
-
-“He didn't need to,” answered the Angel. “He was radiating pride from
-every pore. Now, have you brought me your dinner?”
-
-“I had my dinner two hours ago,” answered Freckles.
-
-“Honest Injun?” bantered the Angel.
-
-“Honest! I brought that on purpose for you.”
-
-“Well, if you knew how hungry I am, you would know how thankful I am, to
-the dot,” said the Angel.
-
-“Then you be eating,” cried the happy Freckles.
-
-The Angel sat on a big camera, spread the lunch on the carriage seat,
-and divided it in halves. The daintiest parts she could select she
-carefully put back into the basket. The remainder she ate. Again
-Freckles found her of the swamp, for though she was almost ravenous,
-she managed her food as gracefully as his little yellow fellow, and her
-every movement was easy and charming. As he watched her with famished
-eyes, Freckles told her of his birds, flowers, and books, and never
-realized what he was doing.
-
-He led the horse to a deep pool that he knew of, and the tortured
-creature drank greedily, and lovingly rubbed him with its nose as he
-wiped down its welted body with grass. Suddenly the Angel cried: “There
-comes the Bird Woman!”
-
-Freckles had intended leaving before she came, but now he was glad
-indeed to be there, for a warmer, more worn, and worse bitten creature
-he never had seen. She was staggering under a load of cameras and
-paraphernalia. Freckles ran to her aid. He took all he could carry of
-her load, stowed it in the back of the carriage, and helped her in.
-The Angel gave her water, knelt and unfastened the leggings, bathed her
-face, and offered the lunch.
-
-Freckles brought the horse. He was not sure about the harness, but the
-Angel knew, and soon they left the swamp. Then he showed them how to
-reach the chicken tree from the outside, indicated a cooler place for
-the horse, and told them how, the next time they came, the Angel could
-find his room while she waited.
-
-The Bird Woman finished her lunch, and lay back, almost too tired to
-speak.
-
-“Were you for getting Little Chicken's picture?” Freckles asked.
-
-“Finely!” she answered. “He posed splendidly. But I couldn't do anything
-with his mother. She will require coaxing.”
-
-“The Lord be praised!” muttered Freckles under his breath.
-
-The Bird Woman began to feel better.
-
-“Why do you call the baby vulture 'Little Chicken'?” she asked, leaning
-toward Freckles in an interested manner.
-
-“'Twas Duncan began it,” said Freckles. “You see, through the fierce
-cold of winter the birds of the swamp were almost starving. It is
-mighty lonely here, and they were all the company I was having. I got to
-carrying scraps and grain down to them. Duncan was that ginerous he was
-giving me of his wheat and corn from his chickens' feed, and he called
-the birds me swamp chickens. Then when these big black fellows came,
-Mr. McLean said they were our nearest kind to some in the old world
-that they called 'Pharaoh's Chickens,' and he called mine 'Freckles'
-Chickens.'”
-
-“Good enough!” cried the Bird Woman, her splotched purple face lighting
-with interest. “You must shoot something for them occasionally, and I'll
-bring more food when I come. If you will help me keep them until I
-get my series, I'll give you a copy of each study I make, mounted in a
-book.”
-
-Freckles drew a deep breath.
-
-“I'll be doing me very best,” he promised, and from the deeps he meant
-it.
-
-“I wonder if that other egg is going to hatch?” mused the Bird Woman. “I
-am afraid not. It should have pipped today. Isn't it a beauty! I never
-before saw either an egg or the young. They are rare this far north.”
-
-“So Mr. McLean said,” answered Freckles.
-
-Before they drove away, the Bird Woman thanked him for his kindness to
-the Angel and to her. She gave him her hand at parting, and Freckles
-joyfully realized that this was going to be another person for him to
-love. He could not remember, after they had driven away, that they even
-had noticed his missing hand, and for the first time in his life he had
-forgotten it.
-
-When the Bird Woman and the Angel were on the home road, she told of
-the little corner of paradise into which she had strayed and of her new
-name. The Bird Woman looked at the girl and guessed its appropriateness.
-
-“Did you know Mr. McLean had a son?” asked the Angel. “Isn't the little
-accent he has, and the way he twists a sentence, too dear? And isn't it
-too old-fashioned and funny to hear him call his father 'mister'?”
-
-“It sounds too good to be true,” said the Bird Woman, answering the
-last question first. “I am so tired of these present-day young men who
-patronizingly call their fathers 'Dad,' 'Governor,' 'Old Man' and 'Old
-Chap,' that the boy's attitude of respect and deference appealed to me
-as being fine as silk. There must be something rare about that young
-man.”
-
-She did not find it necessary to tell the Angel that for several years
-she had known the man who so proudly proclaimed himself Freckles' father
-to be a bachelor and a Scotchman. The Bird Woman had a fine way of
-attending strictly to her own business.
-
-Freckles turned to the trail, but he stopped at every wild brier to
-study the pink satin of the petals. She was not of his world, and
-better than any other he knew it; but she might be his Angel, and he was
-dreaming of naught but blind, silent worship. He finished the happiest
-day of his life, and that night he returned to the swamp as if drawn by
-invisible force. That Wessner would try for his revenge, he knew. That
-he would be abetted by Black Jack was almost certain, but fear had
-fled the happy heart of Freckles. He had kept his trust. He had won the
-respect of the Boss. No one ever could wipe from his heart the flood of
-holy adoration that had welled with the coming of his Angel. He would do
-his best, and trust for strength to meet the dark day of reckoning that
-he knew would come sooner or later. He swung round the trail, briskly
-tapping the wire, and singing in a voice that scarcely could have been
-surpassed for sweetness.
-
-At the edge of the clearing he came into the bright moonlight and there
-sat McLean on his mare. Freckles hurried to him.
-
-“Is there trouble?” he inquired anxiously.
-
-“That's what I wanted to ask you,” said the Boss. “I stopped at the
-cabin to see you a minute, before I turned in, and they said you had
-come down here. You must not do it, Freckles. The swamp is none too
-healthful at any time, and at night it is rank poison.”
-
-Freckles stood combing his fingers through Nellie's mane, while the
-dainty creature was twisting her head for his caresses. He pushed back
-his hat and looked into McLean's face. “It's come to the 'sleep with one
-eye open,' sir. I'm not looking for anything to be happening for a week
-or two, but it's bound to come, and soon. If I'm to keep me trust as
-I've promised you and meself, I've to live here mostly until the gang
-comes. You must be knowing that, sir.”
-
-“I'm afraid it's true, Freckles,” said McLean. “And I've decided to
-double the guard until we come. It will be only a few weeks, now; and
-I'm so anxious for you that you must not be left alone further. If
-anything should happen to you, Freckles, it would spoil one of the very
-dearest plans of my life.”
-
-Freckles heard with dismay the proposition to place a second guard.
-
-“Oh! no, no, Mr. McLean,” he cried. “Not for the world! I wouldn't be
-having a stranger around, scaring me birds and tramping up me study, and
-disturbing all me ways, for any money! I am all the guard you need! I
-will be faithful! I will turn over the lease with no tree missing--on
-me life, I will! Oh, don't be sending another man to set them saying
-I turned coward and asked for help. It will just kill the honor of me
-heart if you do it. The only thing I want is another gun. If it railly
-comes to trouble, six cartridges ain't many, and you know I am slow-like
-about reloading.” McLean reached into his hip pocket and handed a
-shining big revolver to Freckles, who slipped it beside the one already
-in his belt.
-
-Then the Boss sat brooding.
-
-“Freckles,” he said at last, “we never know the timber of a man's soul
-until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong.
-You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture, my boy, and you
-shall have your own way these few weeks yet. Then, if you will go, I
-intend to take you to the city and educate you, and you are to be my
-son, my lad--my own son!”
-
-Freckles twisted his finger in Nellie's mane to steady himself.
-
-“But why should you be doing that, sir?” he faltered.
-
-McLean slid his arm around the boy's shoulder and gathered him close.
-
-“Because I love you, Freckles,” he said simply.
-
-Freckles lifted a white face. “My God, sir!” he whispered. “Oh, my God!”
-
-McLean tightened his clasp a second longer, then he rode down the trail.
-
-Freckles lifted his hat and faced the sky. The harvest moon looked down,
-sheeting the swamp in silver glory. The Limberlost sang her night song.
-The swale softly rustled in the wind. Winged things of night brushed
-his face; and still Freckles gazed upward, trying to fathom these things
-that had come to him. There was no help from the sky. It seemed far
-away, cold, and blue. The earth, where flowers blossomed, angels walked,
-and love could be found, was better. But to One, above, he must make
-acknowledgment for these miracles. His lips moved and he began talking
-softly.
-
-“Thank You for each separate good thing that has come to me,” he said,
-“and above all for the falling of the feather. For if it didn't really
-fall from an angel, its falling brought an Angel, and if it's in the
-great heart of you to exercise yourself any further about me, oh, do
-please to be taking good care of her!”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-
-The following morning Freckles, inexpressibly happy, circled the
-Limberlost. He kept snatches of song ringing, as well as the wires. His
-heart was so full that tears of joy glistened in his eyes. He rigorously
-strove to divide his thought evenly between McLean and the Angel.
-He realized to the fullest the debt he already owed the Boss and the
-magnitude of last night's declaration and promises. He was hourly
-planning to deliver his trust and then enter with equal zeal on whatever
-task his beloved Boss saw fit to set him next. He wanted to be ready to
-meet every device that Wessner and Black Jack could think of to outwit
-him. He recognized their double leverage, for if they succeeded in
-felling even one tree McLean became liable for his wager.
-
-Freckles' brow wrinkled in his effort to think deeply and strongly, but
-from every swaying wild rose the Angel beckoned to him. When he crossed
-Sleepy Snake Creek and the goldfinch, waiting as ever, challenged: “SEE
-ME?” Freckles saw the dainty swaying grace of the Angel instead. What
-is a man to do with an Angel who dismembers herself and scatters over a
-whole swamp, thrusting a vivid reminder upon him at every turn?
-
-Freckles counted the days. This first one he could do little but test
-his wires, sing broken snatches, and dream; but before the week would
-bring her again he could do many things. He would carry all his books
-to the swamp to show to her. He would complete his flower bed, arrange
-every detail he had planned for his room, and make of it a bower fairies
-might envy. He must devise a way to keep water cool. He would ask Mrs.
-Duncan for a double lunch and an especially nice one the day of her next
-coming, so that if the Bird Woman happened to be late, the Angel might
-not suffer from thirst and hunger. He would tell her to bring heavy
-leather leggings, so that he might take her on a trip around the trail.
-She should make friends with all of his chickens and see their nests.
-
-On the line he talked of her incessantly.
-
-“You needn't be thinking,” he said to the goldfinch, “that because I'm
-coming down this line alone day after day, it's always to be so. Some of
-these times you'll be swinging on this wire, and you'll see me coming,
-and you'll swing, skip, and flirt yourself around, and chip up right
-spunky: 'SEE ME?' I'll be saying 'See you? Oh, Lord! See her!' You'll
-look, and there she'll stand. The sunshine won't look gold any more, or
-the roses pink, or the sky blue, because she'll be the pinkest, bluest,
-goldest thing of all. You'll be yelling yourself hoarse with the
-jealousy of her. The sawbird will stretch his neck out of joint, and
-she'll turn the heads of all the flowers. Wherever she goes, I can
-go back afterward and see the things she's seen, walk the path she's
-walked, hear the grasses whispering over all she's said; and if there's
-a place too swampy for her bits of feet; Holy Mother! Maybe--maybe she'd
-be putting the beautiful arms of her around me neck and letting me carry
-her over!”
-
-Freckles shivered as with a chill. He sent the cudgel whirling skyward,
-dexterously caught it, and set it spinning.
-
-“You damned presumptuous fool!” he cried. “The thing for you to be
-thinking of would be to stretch in the muck for the feet of her to be
-walking over, and then you could hold yourself holy to be even of that
-service to her.
-
-“Maybe she'll be wanting the cup me blue-and-brown chickens raised their
-babies in. Perhaps she'd like to stop at the pool and see me bullfrog
-that had the goodness to take on human speech to show me the way out of
-me trouble. If there's any feathers falling that day, why, it's from the
-wings of me chickens--it's sure to be, for the only Angel outside the
-gates will be walking this timberline, and every step of the way I'll be
-holding me breath and praying that she don't unfold wings and sail away
-before the hungry eyes of me.”
-
-So Freckles dreamed his dreams, made his plans, and watched his line.
-He counted not only the days, but the hours of each day. As he told them
-off, every one bringing her closer, he grew happier in the prospect of
-her coming. He managed daily to leave some offering at the big elm log
-for his black chickens. He slipped under the line at every passing, and
-went to make sure that nothing was molesting them. Though it was a long
-trip, he paid them several extra visits a day for fear a snake, hawk, or
-fox might have found the baby. For now his chickens not only represented
-all his former interest in them, but they furnished the inducement that
-was bringing his Angel.
-
-Possibly he could find other subjects that the Bird Woman wanted. The
-teamster had said that his brother went after her every time he found
-a nest. He never had counted the nests that he knew of, and it might be
-that among all the birds of the swamp some would be rare to her.
-
-The feathered folk of the Limberlost were practically undisturbed save
-by their natural enemies. It was very probable that among his chickens
-others as odd as the big black ones could be found. If she wanted
-pictures of half-grown birds, he could pick up fifty in one morning's
-trip around the line, for he had fed, handled, and made friends with
-them ever since their eyes opened.
-
-He had gathered bugs and worms all spring as he noticed them on the
-grass and bushes, and dropped them into the first little open mouth he
-had found. The babies gladly had accepted this queer tri-parent addition
-to their natural providers.
-
-When the week had passed, Freckles had his room crisp and glowing
-with fresh living things that represented every color of the swamp. He
-carried bark and filled all the muckiest places of the trail.
-
-It was middle July. The heat of the past few days had dried the water
-around and through the Limberlost, so that it was possible to cross it
-on foot in almost any direction--if one had an idea of direction and did
-not become completely lost in its rank tangle of vegetation and bushes.
-The brighter-hued flowers were opening. The trumpet-creepers were
-flaunting their gorgeous horns of red and gold sweetness from the tops
-of lordly oak and elm, and below entire pools were pink-sheeted in
-mallow bloom.
-
-The heat was doing one other thing that was bound to make Freckles, as a
-good Irishman, shiver. As the swale dried, its inhabitants were seeking
-the cooler depths of the swamp. They liked neither the heat nor leaving
-the field mice, moles, and young rabbits of their chosen location. He
-saw them crossing the trail every day as the heat grew intense. The
-rattlers were sadly forgetting their manners, for they struck on no
-provocation whatever, and did not even remember to rattle afterward.
-Daily Freckles was compelled to drive big black snakes and blue racers
-from the nests of his chickens. Often the terrified squalls of the
-parent birds would reach him far down the line and he would run to
-rescue the babies.
-
-He saw the Angel when the carriage turned from the corduroy into the
-clearing. They stopped at the west entrance to the swamp, waiting for
-him to precede them down the trail, as he had told them it was safest
-for the horse that he should do. They followed the east line to a point
-opposite the big chickens' tree, and Freckles carried in the cameras and
-showed the Bird Woman a path he had cleared to the log. He explained to
-her the effect the heat was having on the snakes, and creeping back to
-Little Chicken, brought him to the light. As she worked at setting up
-her camera, he told her of the birds of the line, while she stared at
-him, wide-eyed and incredulous.
-
-They arranged that Freckles should drive the carriage into the east
-entrance in the shade and then take the horse toward the north to a
-better place he knew. Then he was to entertain the Angel at his study or
-on the line until the Bird Woman finished her work and came to them.
-
-“This will take only a little time,” she said. “I know where to set the
-camera now, and Little Chicken is big enough to be good and too small
-to run away or to act very ugly, so I will be coming soon to see about
-those nests. I have ten plates along, and I surely won't use more
-than two on him; so perhaps I can get some nests or young birds this
-morning.”
-
-Freckles almost flew, for his dream had come true so soon. He was
-walking the timber-line and the Angel was following him. He asked to be
-excused for going first, because he wanted to be sure the trail was safe
-for her. She laughed at his fears, telling him that it was the polite
-thing for him to do, anyway.
-
-“Oh!” said Freckles, “so you was after knowing that? Well, I didn't
-s'pose you did, and I was afraid you'd think me wanting in respect to be
-preceding you!”
-
-The astonished Angel looked at him, caught the irrepressible gleam of
-Irish fun in his eyes, so they stood and laughed together.
-
-Freckles did not realize how he was talking that morning. He showed her
-many of the beautiful nests and eggs of the line. She could identify a
-number of them, but of some she was ignorant, so they made notes of the
-number and color of the eggs, material, and construction of nest, color,
-size, and shape of the birds, and went to find them in the book.
-
-At his room, when Freckles had lifted the overhanging bushes and stepped
-back for her to enter, his heart was all out of time and place. The
-study was vastly more beautiful than a week previous. The Angel drew a
-deep breath and stood gazing first at one side, then at another,
-then far down the cathedral aisle. “It's just fairyland!” she cried
-ecstatically. Then she turned and stared at Freckles as she had at his
-handiwork.
-
-“What are you planning to be?” she asked wonderingly.
-
-“Whatever Mr. McLean wants me to,” he replied.
-
-“What do you do most?” she asked.
-
-“Watch me lines.”
-
-“I don't mean work!”
-
-“Oh, in me spare time I keep me room and study in me books.”
-
-“Do you work on the room or the books most?”
-
-“On the room only what it takes to keep it up, and the rest of the time
-on me books.”
-
-The Angel studied him closely. “Well, maybe you are going to be a great
-scholar,” she said, “but you don't look it. Your face isn't right for
-that, but it's got something big in it--something really great. I
-must find out what it is and then you must work on it. Your father is
-expecting you to do something. One can tell by the way he talks. You
-should begin right away. You've wasted too much time already.”
-
-Poor Freckles hung his head. He never had wasted an hour in his life.
-There never had been one that was his to waste.
-
-The Angel, studying him intently, read the thought in his face. “Oh,
-I don't mean that!” she cried, with the frank dismay of sixteen.
-“Of course, you're not lazy! No one ever would think that from your
-appearance. It's this I mean: there is something fine, strong, and full
-of power in your face. There is something you are to do in this
-world, and no matter how you work at all these other things, or how
-successfully you do them, it is all wasted until you find the ONE THING
-that you can do best. If you hadn't a thing in the world to keep you,
-and could go anywhere you please and do anything you want, what would
-you do?” persisted the Angel.
-
-“I'd go to Chicago and sing in the First Episcopal choir,” answered
-Freckles promptly.
-
-The Angel dropped on a seat--the hat she had removed and held in her
-fingers rolled to her feet. “There!” she exclaimed vehemently. “You can
-see what I'm going to be. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You can sing? Of
-course you can sing! It is written all over you.”
-
-“Anyone with half wit could have seen he could sing, without having to
-be told,” she thought. “It's in the slenderness of his fingers and his
-quick nervous touch. It is in the brightness of his hair, the fire of
-his eyes, the breadth of his chest, the muscles of his throat and neck;
-and above all, it's in every tone of his voice, for even as he speak
-it's the sweetest sound I ever heard from the throat of a mortal.”
-
-“Will you do something for me?” she asked.
-
-“I'll do anything in the world you want me to,” said Freckles largely,
-“and if I can't do what you want, I'll go to work at once and I'll try
-'til I can.”
-
-“Good! That's business!” said the Angel. “You go over there and stand
-before that hedge and sing something. Just anything you think of first.”
-
-Freckles faced the Angel from his banked wall of brown, blue, and
-crimson, with its background of solid green, and lifting his face to
-the sky, he sang the first thing that came into his mind. It was a
-children's song that he had led for the little folks at the Home many
-times, recalled to his mind by the Angel's exclamation:
-
-     “To fairyland we go,
-     With a song of joy, heigh-o.
-     In dreams we'll stand upon that shore
-     And all the realm behold;
-     We'll see the sights so grand
-     That belong to fairyland,
-     Its mysteries we will explore,
-     Its beauties will unfold.
-
-     “Oh, tra, la, la, oh, ha, ha, ha!
-     We're happy now as we can be,
-     Our welcome song we will prolong,
-     And greet you with our melody.
-     O fairyland, sweet fairyland,
-     We love to sing----”
-
-
-No song could have given the intense sweetness and rollicking quality
-of Freckles' voice better scope. He forgot everything but pride in his
-work. He was singing the chorus, and the Angel was shivering in ecstasy,
-when clip! clip! came the sharply beating feet of a swiftly ridden horse
-down the trail from the north. They both sprang toward the entrance.
-
-“Freckles! Freckles!” called the voice of the Bird Woman.
-
-They were at the trail on the instant.
-
-“Both those revolvers loaded?” she asked.
-
-“Yes,” said Freckles.
-
-“Is there a way you can cut across the swamp and reach the chicken tree
-in a few minutes, and with little noise?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Then go flying,” said the Bird Woman. “Give the Angel a lift behind me,
-and we will ride the horse back where you left him and wait for you. I
-finished Little Chicken in no time and put him back. His mother came so
-close, I felt sure she would enter the log. The light was fine, so I set
-and focused the camera and covered it with branches, attached the long
-hose, and went away over a hundred feet and hid in some bushes to wait.
-A short, stout man and a tall, dark one passed me so closely I almost
-could have reached out and touched them. They carried a big saw on their
-shoulders. They said they could work until near noon, and then they must
-lay off until you passed and then try to load and get out at night. They
-went on--not entirely from sight--and began cutting a tree. Mr. McLean
-told me the other day what would probably happen here, and if they fell
-that tree he loses his wager on you. Keep to the east and north and
-hustle. We'll meet you at the carriage. I always am armed. Give Angel
-one of your revolvers, and you keep the other. We will separate and
-creep toward them from different sides and give them a fusillade that
-will send them flying. You hurry, now!”
-
-She lifted the reins and started briskly down the trail. The Angel,
-hatless and with sparkling eyes, was clinging around her waist.
-
-Freckles wheeled and ran. He worked his way with much care, dodging
-limbs and bushes with noiseless tread, and cutting as closely where
-he thought the men were as he felt that he dared if he were to remain
-unseen. As he ran he tried to think. It was Wessner, burning for his
-revenge, aided by the bully of the locality, that he was going to meet.
-He was accustomed to that thought but not to the complication of having
-two women on his hands who undoubtedly would have to be taken care of in
-spite of the Bird Woman's offer to help him. His heart was jarring as it
-never had before with running. He must follow the Bird Woman's plan and
-meet them at the carriage, but if they really did intend to try to help
-him, he must not allow it. Allow the Angel to try to handle a revolver
-in his defence? Never! Not for all the trees in the Limberlost! She
-might shoot herself. She might forget to watch sharply and run across
-a snake that was not particularly well behaved that morning. Freckles
-permitted himself a grim smile as he went speeding on.
-
-When he reached the carriage, the Bird Woman and the Angel had the horse
-hitched, the outfit packed, and were calmly waiting. The Bird Woman held
-a revolver in her hand. She wore dark clothing. They had pinned a big
-focusing cloth over the front of the Angel's light dress.
-
-“Give Angel one of your revolvers, quick!” said the Bird Woman. “We will
-creep up until we are in fair range. The underbrush is so thick and they
-are so busy that they will never notice us, if we don't make a noise.
-You fire first, then I will pop in from my direction, and then you,
-Angel, and shoot quite high, or else very low. We mustn't really hit
-them. We'll go close enough to the cowards to make it interesting, and
-keep it up until we have them going.”
-
-Freckles protested.
-
-The Bird Woman reached over, and, taking the smaller revolver from his
-belt, handed it to the Angel. “Keep your nerve steady, dear; watch where
-you step, and shoot high,” she said. “Go straight at them from where you
-are. Wait until you hear Freckles' first shot, then follow me as closely
-as you can, to let them know that we outnumber them. If you want to save
-McLean's wager on you, now you go!” she commanded Freckles, who, with an
-agonized glance at the Angel, ran toward the east.
-
-The Bird Woman chose the middle distance, and for a last time cautioned
-the Angel as she moved away to lie down and shoot high.
-
-Through the underbrush the Bird Woman crept even more closely than she
-had intended, found a clear range, and waited for Freckles' shot. There
-was one long minute of sickening suspense. The men straightened for
-breath. Work was difficult with a handsaw in the heat of the swamp. As
-they rested, the big dark fellow took a bottle from his pocket and began
-oiling the saw.
-
-“We got to keep mighty quiet,” he said, “and wait to fell it until that
-damned guard has gone to his dinner.”
-
-Again they bent to their work. Freckles' revolver spat fire. Lead
-spanged on steel. The saw-handle flew from Wessner's hand and he reeled
-from the jar of the shock. Black Jack straightened, uttering a fearful
-oath. The hat sailed from his head from the far northeast. The Angel
-had not waited for the Bird Woman, and her shot scarcely could have been
-called high. At almost the same instant the third shot whistled from the
-east. Black Jack sprang into the air with a yell of complete panic, for
-it ripped a heel from his boot. Freckles emptied his second chamber, and
-the earth spattered over Wessner. Shots poured in rapidly. Without
-even reaching for a weapon, both men ran toward the east road in great
-leaping bounds, while leaden slugs sung and hissed around them in deadly
-earnest.
-
-Freckles was trimming his corners as closely as he dared, but if the
-Angel did not really intend to hit, she was taking risks in a scandalous
-manner.
-
-When the men reached the trail, Freckles yelled at the top of his voice:
-“Head them off on the south, boys! Fire from the south!”
-
-As he had hoped, Jack and Wessner instantly plunged into the swale. A
-spattering of lead followed them. They crossed the swale, running low,
-with not even one backward glance, and entered the woods beyond the
-corduroy.
-
-Then the little party gathered at the tree.
-
-“I'd better fix this saw so they can't be using it if they come back,”
- said Freckles, taking out his hatchet and making saw-teeth fly.
-
-“Now we must leave here without being seen,” said the Bird Woman to the
-Angel. “It won't do for me to make enemies of these men, for I am likely
-to meet them while at work any day.”
-
-“You can do it by driving straight north on this road,” said Freckles.
-“I will go ahead and cut the wires for you. The swale is almost dry.
-You will only be sinking a little. In a few rods you will strike a
-cornfield. I will take down the fence and let you into that. Follow the
-furrows and drive straight across it until you come to the other side.
-Be following the fence south until you come to a road through the woods
-east of it. Then take that road and follow east until you reach the
-pike. You will come out on your way back to town, and two miles north
-of anywhere they are likely to be. Don't for your lives ever let it out
-that you did this,” he earnestly cautioned, “for it's black enemies you
-would be making.”
-
-Freckles clipped the wires and they drove through. The Angel leaned
-from the carriage and held out his revolver. Freckles looked at her in
-surprise. Her eyes were black, while her face was a deeper rose than
-usual. He felt that his own was white.
-
-“Did I shoot high enough?” she asked sweetly. “I really forgot about
-lying down.”
-
-Freckles winced. Did the child know how close she had gone? Surely she
-could not! Or was it possible that she had the nerve and skill to fire
-like that purposely?
-
-“I will send the first reliable man I meet for McLean,” said the Bird
-Woman, gathering up the lines. “If I don't meet one when we reach town,
-we will send a messenger. If it wasn't for having the gang see me, I
-would go myself; but I will promise you that you will have help in a
-little over two hours. You keep well hidden. They must think some of the
-gang is with you now. There isn't a chance that they will be back,
-but don't run any risks. Remain under cover. If they should come, it
-probably would be for their saw.” She laughed as at a fine joke.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-
-Round-eyed, Freckles watched the Bird Woman and the Angel drive away.
-After they were from sight and he was safely hidden among the branches
-of a small tree, he remembered that he neither had thanked them nor said
-good-bye. Considering what they had been through, they never would come
-again. His heart sank until he had palpitation in his wading-boots.
-
-Stretching the length of the limb, he thought deeply, though he was not
-thinking of Black Jack or Wessner. Would the Bird Woman and the Angel
-come again? No other woman whom he ever had known would. But did they
-resemble any other women he ever had known? He thought of the Bird
-Woman's unruffled face and the Angel's revolver practice, and presently
-he was not so sure that they would not return.
-
-What were the people in the big world like? His knowledge was so very
-limited. There had been people at the Home, who exchanged a stilted,
-perfunctory kindness for their salaries. The visitors who called on
-receiving days he had divided into three classes: the psalm-singing
-kind, who came with a tear in the eye and hypocrisy in every feature
-of their faces; the kind who dressed in silks and jewels, and handed to
-those poor little mother-hungry souls worn toys that their children
-no longer cared for, in exactly the same spirit in which they pitched
-biscuits to the monkeys at the zoo, and for the same reason--to see how
-they would take them and be amused by what they would do; and the third
-class, whom he considered real people. They made him feel they cared
-that he was there, and that they would have been glad to see him
-elsewhere.
-
-Now here was another class, that had all they needed of the world's best
-and were engaged in doing work that counted. They had things worth while
-to be proud of; and they had met him as a son and brother. With them he
-could, for the only time in his life, forget the lost hand that every
-day tortured him with a new pang. What kind of people were they and
-where did they belong among the classes he knew? He failed to decide,
-because he never had known others similar to them; but how he loved
-them!
-
-In the world where he was going soon, were the majority like them, or
-were they of the hypocrite and bun-throwing classes?
-
-He had forgotten the excitement of the morning and the passing of time
-when distant voices aroused him, and he gently lifted his head. Nearer
-and nearer they came, and as the heavy wagons rumbled down the east
-trail he could hear them plainly. The gang were shouting themselves
-hoarse for the Limberlost guard. Freckles did not feel that he deserved
-it. He would have given much to be able to go to the men and explain,
-but to McLean only could he tell his story.
-
-At the sight of Freckles the men threw up their hats and cheered. McLean
-shook hands with him warmly, but big Duncan gathered him into his arms
-and hugged him as a bear and choked over a few words of praise. The gang
-drove in and finished felling the tree. McLean was angry beyond measure
-at this attempt on his property, for in their haste to fell the tree
-the thieves had cut too high and wasted a foot and a half of valuable
-timber.
-
-When the last wagon rolled away, McLean sat on the stump and Freckles
-told the story he was aching to tell. The Boss scarcely could believe
-his senses. Also, he was much disappointed.
-
-“I have been almost praying all the way over, Freckles,” he said, “that
-you would have some evidence by which we could arrest those fellows and
-get them out of our way, but this will never do. We can't mix up those
-women in it. They have helped you save me the tree and my wager as well.
-Going across the country as she does, the Bird Woman never could be
-expected to testify against them.”
-
-“No, indeed; nor the Angel, either, sir,” said Freckles.
-
-“The Angel?” queried the astonished McLean.
-
-The Boss listened in silence while Freckles told of the coming and
-christening of the Angel.
-
-“I know her father well,” said McLean at last, “and I have often seen
-her. You are right; she is a beautiful young girl, and she appears to be
-utterly free from the least particle of false pride or foolishness. I do
-not understand why her father risks such a jewel in this place.”
-
-“He's daring it because she is a jewel, sir,” said Freckles, eagerly.
-“Why, she's trusting a rattlesnake to rattle before it strikes her, and
-of course, she thinks she can trust mankind as well. The man isn't made
-who wouldn't lay down the life of him for her. She doesn't need any
-care. Her face and the pretty ways of her are all the protection she
-would need in a band of howling savages.”
-
-“Did you say she handled one of the revolvers?” asked McLean.
-
-“She scared all the breath out of me body,” admitted Freckles. “Seems
-that her father has taught her to shoot. The Bird Woman told her
-distinctly to lie low and blaze away high, just to help scare them. The
-spunky little thing followed them right out into the west road, spitting
-lead like hail, and clipping all around the heads and heels of them; and
-I'm damned, sir, if I believe she'd cared a rap if she'd hit. I never
-saw much shooting, but if that wasn't the nearest to miss I ever want to
-see! Scared the life near out of me body with the fear that she'd drop
-one of them. As long as I'd no one to help me but a couple of women that
-didn't dare be mixed up in it, all I could do was to let them get away.”
-
-“Now, will they come back?” asked McLean.
-
-“Of course!” said Freckles. “They're not going to be taking that. You
-could stake your life on it, they'll be coming back. At least, Black
-Jack will. Wessner may not have the pluck, unless he is half drunk. Then
-he'd be a terror. And the next time--” Freckles hesitated.
-
-“What?”
-
-“It will be a question of who shoots first and straightest.”
-
-“Then the only thing for me to do is to double the guard and bring the
-gang here the first minute possible. As soon as I feel that we have the
-rarest of the stuff out below, we will come. The fact is, in many cases,
-until it is felled it's difficult to tell what a tree will prove to
-be. It won't do to leave you here longer alone. Jack has been shooting
-twenty years to your one, and it stands to reason that you are no match
-for him. Who of the gang would you like best to have with you?”
-
-“No one, sir,” said Freckles emphatically. “Next time is where I run.
-I won't try to fight them alone. I'll just be getting wind of them, and
-then make tracks for you. I'll need to come like lightning, and Duncan
-has no extra horse, so I'm thinking you'd best get me one--or perhaps a
-wheel would be better. I used to do extra work for the Home doctor, and
-he would let me take his bicycle to ride around the place. And at times
-the head nurse would loan me his for an hour. A wheel would cost less
-and be faster than a horse, and would take less care. I believe, if you
-are going to town soon, you had best pick up any kind of an old one
-at some second-hand store, for if I'm ever called to use it in a hurry
-there won't be the handlebars left after crossing the corduroy.”
-
-“Yes,” said McLean; “and if you didn't have a first-class wheel, you
-never could cross the corduroy on it at all.”
-
-As they walked to the cabin, McLean insisted on another guard, but
-Freckles was stubbornly set on fighting his battle alone. He made one
-mental condition. If the Bird Woman was going to give up the Little
-Chicken series, he would yield to the second guard, solely for the sake
-of her work and the presence of the Angel in the Limberlost. He did not
-propose to have a second man unless it were absolutely necessary, for
-he had been alone so long that he loved the solitude, his chickens,
-and flowers. The thought of having a stranger to all his ways come and
-meddle with his arrangements, frighten his pets, pull his flowers,
-and interrupt him when he wanted to study, so annoyed him that he was
-blinded to his real need for help.
-
-With McLean it was a case of letting his sober, better judgment be
-overridden by the boy he was growing so to love that he could not endure
-to oppose him, and to have Freckles keep his trust and win alone meant
-more than any money the Boss might lose.
-
-The following morning McLean brought the wheel, and Freckles took it to
-the trail to test it. It was new, chainless, with as little as possible
-to catch in hurried riding, and in every way the best of its kind.
-Freckles went skimming around the trail on it on a preliminary trip
-before he locked it in his case and started his minute examination of
-his line on foot. He glanced around his room as he left it, and then
-stood staring.
-
-On the moss before his prettiest seat lay the Angel's hat. In the
-excitement of yesterday all of them had forgotten it. He went and picked
-it up, oh! so carefully, gazing at it with hungry eyes, but touching it
-only to carry it to his case, where he hung it on the shining handlebar
-of the new wheel and locked it among his treasures. Then he went to the
-trail, with a new expression on his face and a strange throbbing in his
-heart. He was not in the least afraid of anything that morning. He felt
-he was the veriest Daniel, but all his lions seemed weak and harmless.
-
-What Black Jack's next move would be he could not imagine, but that
-there would be a move of some kind was certain. The big bully was not a
-man to give up his purpose, or to have the hat swept from his head
-with a bullet and bear it meekly. Moreover, Wessner would cling to his
-revenge with a Dutchman's singleness of mind.
-
-Freckles tried to think connectedly, but there were too many places on
-the trail where the Angel's footprints were vet visible. She had stepped
-in one mucky spot and left a sharp impression. The afternoon sun had
-baked it hard, and the horses' hoofs had not obliterated any part of it,
-as they had in so many places. Freckles stood fascinated, gazing at
-it. He measured it lovingly with his eye. He would not have ventured a
-caress on her hat any more than on her person, but this was different.
-Surely a footprint on a trail might belong to anyone who found and
-wanted it. He stooped under the wires and entered the swamp. With a
-little searching, he found a big piece of thick bark loose on a log and
-carefully peeling it, carried it out and covered the print so that the
-first rain would not obliterate it.
-
-When he reached his room, he tenderly laid the hat upon his bookshelf,
-and to wear off his awkwardness, mounted his wheel and went spinning on
-trail again. It was like flying, for the path was worn smooth with his
-feet and baked hard with the sun almost all the way. When he came to the
-bark, he veered far to one side and smiled at it in passing. Suddenly
-he was off the wheel, kneeling beside it. He removed his hat, carefully
-lifted the bark, and gazed lovingly at the imprint.
-
-“I wonder what she was going to say of me voice,” he whispered. “She
-never got it said, but from the face of her, I believe she was liking it
-fairly well. Perhaps she was going to say that singing was the big thing
-I was to be doing. That's what they all thought at the Home. Well, if
-it is, I'll just shut me eyes, think of me little room, the face of her
-watching, and the heart of her beating, and I'll raise them. Damn them,
-if singing will do it, I'll raise them from the benches!”
-
-With this dire threat, Freckles knelt, as at a wayside spring, and
-deliberately laid his lips on the footprint. Then he arose, appearing as
-if he had been drinking at the fountain of gladness.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the
-Encounter
-
-“Weel, I be drawed on!” exclaimed Mrs. Duncan.
-
-Freckles stood before her, holding the Angel's hat.
-
-“I've been thinking this long time that ye or Duncan would see that
-sunbonnets werena braw enough for a woman of my standing, and ye're a
-guid laddie to bring me this beautiful hat.”
-
-She turned it around, examining the weave of the straw and the foliage
-trimmings, passing her rough fingers over the satin ties delightedly. As
-she held it up, admiring it, Freckles' astonished eyes saw a new side of
-Sarah Duncan. She was jesting, but under the jest the fact loomed strong
-that, though poor, overworked, and with none but God-given refinement,
-there was something in her soul crying after that bit of feminine
-finery, and it made his heart ache for her. He resolved that when he
-reached the city he would send her a hat, if it took fifty dollars to do
-it.
-
-She lingeringly handed it back to him.
-
-“It's unco guid of ye to think of me,” she said lightly, “but I maun
-question your taste a wee. D'ye no think ye had best return this and get
-a woman with half her hair gray a little plainer headdress? Seems like
-that's far ower gay for me. I'm no' saying that it's no' exactly what
-I'd like to hae, but I mauna mak mysel' ridiculous. Ye'd best give this
-to somebody young and pretty, say about sixteen. Where did ye come by
-it, Freckles? If there's anything been dropping lately, ye hae forgotten
-to mention it.”
-
-“Do you see anything heavenly about that hat?” queried Freckles, holding
-it up.
-
-The morning breeze waved the ribbons gracefully, binding one around
-Freckles' sleeve and the other across his chest, where they caught and
-clung as if magnetized.
-
-“Yes,” said Sarah Duncan. “It's verra plain and simple, but it juist
-makes ye feel that it's all of the finest stuff. It's exactly what I'd
-call a heavenly hat.”
-
-“Sure,” said Freckles, “for it's belonging to an Angel!”
-
-Then he told her about the hat and asked her what he should do with it.
-
-“Take it to her, of course!” said Sarah Duncan. “Like it's the only ane
-she has and she may need it badly.”
-
-Freckles smiled. He had a clear idea about the hat being the only one
-the Angel had. However, there was a thing he felt he should do and
-wanted to do, but he was not sure.
-
-“You think I might be taking it home?” he said.
-
-“Of course ye must,” said Mrs. Duncan. “And without another hour's
-delay. It's been here two days noo, and she may want it, and be too busy
-or afraid to come.”
-
-“But how can I take it?” asked Freckles.
-
-“Gang spinning on your wheel. Ye can do it easy in an hour.”
-
-“But in that hour, what if----?”
-
-“Nonsense!” interrupted Sarah Duncan. “Ye've watched that timber-line
-until ye're grown fast to it, lad. Give me your boots and club and I'll
-gae walk the south end and watch doon the east and west sides until ye
-come back.”
-
-“Mrs. Duncan! You never would be doing it,” cried Freckles.
-
-“Why not?” inquired she.
-
-“But you know you're mortal afraid of snakes and a lot of other things
-in the swamp.”
-
-“I am afraid of snakes,” said Mrs. Duncan, “but likely they've gone into
-the swamp this hot weather. I'll juist stay on the trail and watch, and
-ye might hurry the least bit. The day's so bright it feels like storm. I
-can put the bairns on the woodpile to play until I get back. Ye gang awa
-and take the blessed little angel her beautiful hat.”
-
-“Are you sure it will be all right?” urged Freckles. “Do you think if
-Mr. McLean came he would care?”
-
-“Na,” said Mrs. Duncan; “I dinna. If ye and me agree that a thing ought
-to be done, and I watch in your place, why, it's bound to be all right
-with McLean. Let me pin the hat in a paper, and ye jump on your wheel
-and gang flying. Ought ye put on your Sabbath-day clothes?”
-
-Freckles shook his head. He knew what he should do, but there was no
-use in taking time to try to explain it to Mrs. Duncan while he was so
-hurried. He exchanged his wading-boots for shoes, gave her his club, and
-went spinning toward town. He knew very well where the Angel lived.
-He had seen her home many times, and he passed it again without even
-raising his eyes from the street, steering straight for her father's
-place of business.
-
-Carrying the hat, Freckles passed a long line of clerks, and at the door
-of the private office asked to see the proprietor. When he had waited
-a moment, a tall, spare, keen-eyed man faced him, and in brisk, nervous
-tones asked: “How can I serve you, sir?”
-
-Freckles handed him the package and answered, “By delivering to your
-daughter this hat, which she was after leaving at me place the other
-day, when she went away in a hurry. And by saying to her and the Bird
-Woman that I'm more thankful than I'll be having words to express for
-the brave things they was doing for me. I'm McLean's Limberlost guard,
-sir.”
-
-“Why don't you take it yourself?” questioned the Man of Affairs.
-
-Freckles' clear gray eyes met those of the Angel's father squarely, and
-he asked: “If you were in my place, would you take it to her yourself?”
-
-“No, I would not,” said that gentleman quickly.
-
-“Then why ask why I did not?” came Freckles' lamb-like query.
-
-“Bless me!” said the Angel's father. He stared at the package, then at
-the lifted chin of the boy, and then at the package again, and muttered,
-“Excuse me!”
-
-Freckles bowed.
-
-“It would be favoring me greatly if you would deliver the hat and the
-message. Good morning, sir,” and he turned away.
-
-“One minute,” said the Angel's father. “Suppose I give you permission to
-return this hat in person and make your own acknowledgments.”
-
-Freckles stood one moment thinking intently, and then he lifted those
-eyes of unswerving truth and asked: “Why should you, sir? You are
-kind, indade, to mention it, and it's thanking you I am for your good
-intintions, but my wanting to go or your being willing to have me ain't
-proving that your daughter would be wanting me or care to bother with
-me.”
-
-The Angel's father looked keenly into the face of this extraordinary
-young man, for he found it to his liking.
-
-“There's one other thing I meant to say,” said Freckles. “Every day I
-see something, and at times a lot of things, that I think the Bird Woman
-would be wanting pictures of badly, if she knew. You might be speaking
-of it to her, and if she'd want me to, I can send her word when I find
-things she wouldn't likely get elsewhere.”
-
-“If that's the case,” said the Angel's father, “and you feel under
-obligations for her assistance the other day, you can discharge them in
-that way. She is spending all her time in the fields and woods searching
-for subjects. If you run across things, perhaps rarer than she may find,
-about your work, it would save her the time she spends searching for
-subjects, and she could work in security under your protection. By all
-means let her know if you find subjects you think she could use, and we
-will do anything we can for you, if you will give her what help you can
-and see that she is as safe as possible.”
-
-“It's hungry for human beings I am,” said Freckles, “and it's like
-Heaven to me to have them come. Of course, I'll be telling or sending
-her word every time me work can spare me. Anything I can do it would
-make me uncommon happy, but”--again truth had to be told, because it was
-Freckles who was speaking--“when it comes to protecting them, I'd risk
-me life, to be sure, but even that mightn't do any good in some cases.
-There are many dangers to be reckoned with in the swamp, sir, that call
-for every person to look sharp. If there wasn't really thieving to guard
-against, why, McLean wouldn't need be paying out good money for a guard.
-I'd love them to be coming, and I'll do all I can, but you must be told
-that there's danger of them running into timber thieves again any day,
-sir.”
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel's father, “and I suppose there's danger of the
-earth opening up and swallowing the town any day, but I'm damned if
-I quit business for fear it will, and the Bird Woman won't, either.
-Everyone knows her and her work, and there is no danger in the world
-of anyone in any way molesting her, even if he were stealing a few of
-McLean's gold-plated trees. She's as safe in the Limberlost as she is at
-home, so far as timber thieves are concerned. All I am ever uneasy about
-are the snakes, poison-vines, and insects; and those are risks she must
-run anywhere. You need not hesitate a minute about that. I shall be glad
-to tell them what you wish. Thank you very much, and good day, sir.”
-
-There was no way in which Freckles could know it, but by following his
-best instincts and being what he conceived a gentleman should be, he
-surprised the Man of Affairs into thinking of him and seeing his face
-over his books many times that morning; whereas, if he had gone to the
-Angel as he had longed to do, her father never would have given him a
-second thought.
-
-On the street he drew a deep breath. How had he acquitted himself? He
-only knew that he had lived up to his best impulse, and that is all
-anyone can do. He glanced over his wheel to see that it was all right,
-and just as he stepped to the curb to mount he heard a voice that
-thrilled him through and through: “Freckles! Oh Freckles!”
-
-The Angel separated from a group of laughing, sweet-faced girls and came
-hurrying to him. She was in snowy white--a quaint little frock, with
-a marvel of soft lace around her throat and wrists. Through the sheer
-sleeves of it her beautiful, rounded arms showed distinctly, and it was
-cut just to the base of her perfect neck. On her head was a pure white
-creation of fancy braid, with folds on folds of tulle, soft and silken
-as cobwebs, lining the brim; while a mass of white roses clustered
-against the gold of her hair, crept around the crown, and fell in a riot
-to her shoulders at the back. There were gleams of gold with settings
-of blue on her fingers, and altogether she was the daintiest, sweetest
-sight he ever had seen. Freckles, standing on the curb, forgot himself
-in his cotton shirt, corduroys, and his belt to which his wire-cutter
-and pliers were hanging, and gazed as a man gazes when first he sees
-the woman he adores with all her charms enhanced by appropriate and
-beautiful clothing.
-
-“Oh Freckles,” she cried as she came to him. “I was wondering about you
-the other day. Do you know I never saw you in town before. You watch
-that old line so closely! Why did you come? Is there any trouble? Are
-you just starting to the Limberlost?”
-
-“I came to bring your hat,” said Freckles. “You forgot it in the rush
-the other day. I have left it with your father, and a message trying
-to ixpriss the gratitude of me for how you and the Bird Woman were for
-helping me out.”
-
-The Angel nodded gravely, then Freckles saw that he had done the proper
-thing in going to her father. His heart bounded until it jarred his
-body, for she was saying that she scarcely could wait for the time to
-come for the next picture of the Little Chicken series. “I want to hear
-the remainder of that song, and I hadn't even begun seeing your room
-yet,” she complained. “As for singing, if you can sing like that every
-day, I never can get enough of it. I wonder if I couldn't bring my banjo
-and some of the songs I like best. I'll play and you sing, and we'll put
-the birds out of commission.”
-
-Freckles stood on the curb with drooped eyes, for he felt that if
-he lifted them the tumult of tender adoration in them would show and
-frighten her.
-
-“I was afraid your ixperience the other day would scare you so that
-you'd never be coming again,” he found himself saying.
-
-The Angel laughed gaily.
-
-“Did I seem scared?” she questioned.
-
-“No,” said Freckles, “you did not.”
-
-“Oh, I just enjoyed that,” she cried. “Those hateful, stealing old
-things! I had a big notion to pink one of them, but I thought maybe
-someway it would be best for you that I shouldn't. They needed it. That
-didn't scare me; and as for the Bird Woman, she's accustomed to finding
-snakes, tramps, cross dogs, sheep, cattle, and goodness knows what! You
-can't frighten her when she's after a picture. Did they come back?”
-
-“No,” said Freckles. “The gang got there a little after noon and took
-out the tree, but I must tell you, and you must tell the Bird Woman,
-that there's no doubt but they will be coming back, and they will have
-to make it before long now, for it's soon the gang will be there to work
-on the swamp.”
-
-“Oh, what a shame!” cried the Angel. “They'll clear out roads, cut down
-the beautiful trees, and tear up everything. They'll drive away the
-birds and spoil the cathedral. When they have done their worst, then
-all these mills close here will follow in and take out the cheap timber.
-Then the landowners will dig a few ditches, build some fires, and in two
-summers more the Limberlost will be in corn and potatoes.”
-
-They looked at each other, and groaned despairingly in unison.
-
-“You like it, too,” said Freckles.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel, “I love it. Your room is a little piece right out
-of the heart of fairyland, and the cathedral is God's work, not yours.
-You only found it and opened the door after He had it completed. The
-birds, flowers, and vines are all so lovely. The Bird Woman says it is
-really a fact that the mallows, foxfire, iris, and lilies are larger and
-of richer coloring there than in the remainder of the country. She says
-it's because of the rich loam and muck. I hate seeing the swamp torn up,
-and to you it will be like losing your best friend; won't it?”
-
-“Something like,” said Freckles. “Still, I've the Limberlost in me heart
-so that all of it will be real to me while I live, no matter what they
-do to it. I'm glad past telling if you will be coming a few more times,
-at least until the gang arrives. Past that time I don't allow mesilf to
-be thinking.”
-
-“Come, have a cool drink before you start back,” said the Angel.
-
-“I couldn't possibly,” said Freckles. “I left Mrs. Duncan on the trail,
-and she's terribly afraid of a lot of things. If she even sees a big
-snake, I don't know what she'll do.”
-
-“It won't take but a minute, and you can ride fast enough to make up
-for it. Please. I want to think of something fine for you, to make up a
-little for what you did for me that first day.”
-
-Freckles looked in sheer wonderment into the beautiful face of the
-Angel. Did she truly mean it? Would she walk down that street with him,
-crippled, homely, in mean clothing, with the tools of his occupation on
-him, and share with him the treat she was offering? He could not believe
-it, even of the Angel. Still, in justice to the candor of her pure,
-sweet face, he would not think that she would make the offer and not
-mean it. She really did mean just what she said, but when it came to
-carrying out her offer and he saw the stares of her friends, the
-sneers of her enemies--if such as she could have enemies--and heard the
-whispered jeers of the curious, then she would see her mistake and be
-sorry. It would be only a manly thing for him to think this out, and
-save her from the results of her own blessed bigness of heart.
-
-“I railly must be off,” said Freckles earnestly, “but I'm thanking you
-more than you'll ever know for your kindness. I'll just be drinking
-bowls of icy things all me way home in the thoughts of it.”
-
-Down came the Angel's foot. Her eyes flashed indignantly. “There's no
-sense in that,” she said. “How do you think you would have felt when you
-knew I was warm and thirsty and you went and brought me a drink and
-I wouldn't take it because--because goodness knows why! You can ride
-faster to make up for the time. I've just thought out what I want to fix
-for you.”
-
-She stepped to his side and deliberately slipped her hand under his
-arm--that right arm that ended in an empty sleeve.
-
-“You are coming,” she said firmly. “I won't have it.”
-
-Freckles could not have told how he felt, neither could anyone else. His
-blood rioted and his head swam, but he kept his wits. He bent over her.
-
-“Please don't, Angel,” he said softly. “You don't understand.”
-
-How Freckles came to understand was a problem.
-
-“It's this,” he persisted. “If your father met me on the street, in
-my station and dress, with you on me arm, he'd have every right to be
-caning me before the people, and not a finger would I lift to stay him.”
-
-The Angel's eyes snapped. “If you think my father cares about my doing
-anything that is right and kind, and that makes me happy to do--why,
-then you completely failed in reading my father, and I'll ask him and
-just show you.”
-
-She dropped Freckles' arm and turned toward the entrance to the
-building. “Why, look there!” she exclaimed.
-
-Her father stood in a big window fronting the street, a bundle of papers
-in his hand, interestedly watching the little scene, with eyes that
-comprehended quite as thoroughly as if he had heard every word. The
-Angel caught his glance and made a despairing little gesture toward
-Freckles. The Man of Affairs answered her with a look of infinite
-tenderness. He nodded his head and waved the papers in the direction she
-had indicated, and the veriest dolt could have read the words his lips
-formed: “Take him along!”
-
-A sudden trembling seized Freckles. At sight of the Angel's father he
-had stepped back as far from her as he could, leaned the wheel against
-him, and snatched off his hat.
-
-The Angel turned on him with triumphing eyes.
-
-She was highly strung and not accustomed to being thwarted. “Did You see
-that?” she demanded. “Now are you satisfied? Will you come, or must I
-call a policeman to bring you?”
-
-Freckles went. There was nothing else to do. Guiding his wheel, he
-walked down the street beside her. On every hand she was kept busy
-giving and receiving the cheeriest greetings. She walked into the
-parlors exactly as if she owned them. A clerk came hurrying to meet her.
-
-“There's a table vacant beside a window where it is cool. I'll save it
-for you,” and he started back.
-
-“Please not,” said the Angel. “I've taken this man unawares, when
-he's in a rush. I'm afraid if we sit down we'll take too much time and
-afterward he will blame me.”
-
-She walked to the fountain, and a long row of people stared with all the
-varying degrees of insolence and curiosity that Freckles had felt they
-would. He glanced at the Angel. NOW would she see?
-
-“On my soul!” he muttered under his breath. “They don't aven touch her!”
-
-She laid down her sunshade and gloves. She walked to the end of the
-counter and turned the full battery of her eyes on the attendant.
-
-“Please,” she said.
-
-The white-aproned individual stepped back and gave delighted assent. The
-Angel stepped beside him, and selecting a tall, flaring glass, of almost
-paper thinness, she stooped and rolled it in a tray of cracked ice.
-
-“I want to mix a drink for my friend,” she said. “He has a long, hot
-ride before him, and I don't want him started off with one of those old
-palate-teasing sweetnesses that you mix just on purpose to drive a man
-back in ten minutes.” There was an appreciative laugh from the line at
-the counter.
-
-“I want a clear, cool, sparkling drink that has a tang of acid in it.
-Where's the cherry phosphate? That, not at all sweet, would be good;
-don't you think?”
-
-The attendant did think. He pointed out the different taps, and the
-Angel compounded the drink, while Freckles, standing so erect he almost
-leaned backward, gazed at her and paid no attention to anyone else. When
-she had the glass brimming, she tilted a little of its contents into a
-second glass and tasted it.
-
-“That's entirely too sweet for a thirsty man,” she said.
-
-She poured out half the mixture, and refilling the glass, tasted it a
-second time. She submitted that result to the attendant. “Isn't that
-about the thing?” she asked.
-
-He replied enthusiastically. “I'd get my wages raised ten a month if I
-could learn that trick.”
-
-The Angel carried the brimming, frosty glass to Freckles. He removed his
-hat, and lifting the icy liquid even with her eyes and looking straight
-into them, he said in the mellowest of all the mellow tones of his
-voice: “I'll be drinking it to the Swamp Angel.”
-
-As he had said to her that first day, she now cautioned him: “Be
-drinking slowly.”
-
-When the screen-door swung behind them, one of the men at the counter
-asked of the attendant: “Now, what did that mean?”
-
-“Exactly what you saw,” replied he, rather curtly. “We're accustomed
-to it here. Hardly a day passes, this hot weather, but she's picking
-up some poor, god-forsaken mortal and bringing him in. Then she comes
-behind the counter herself and fixes up a drink to suit the occasion.
-She's all sorts of fancies about what's what for all kinds of times and
-conditions, and you bet she can just hit the spot! Ain't a clerk here
-can put up a drink to touch her. She's a sort of knack at it. Every once
-in a while, when the Boss sees her, he calls out to her to mix him a
-drink.”
-
-“And does she?” asked the man with an interested grin.
-
-“Well, I guess! But first she goes back and sees how long it is since
-he's had a drink. What he drank last. How warm he is. When he ate last.
-Then she comes here and mixes a glass of fizz with a little touch of
-acid, and a bit of cherry, lemon, grape, pineapple, or something sour
-and cooling, and it hits the spot just as no spot was ever hit before.
-I honestly believe that the INTEREST she takes in it is half the
-trick, for I watch her closely and I can't come within gunshot of her
-concoctions. She has a running bill here. Her father settles once a
-month. She gives nine-tenths of it away. Hardly ever touches it herself,
-but when she does she makes me mix it. She's just old persimmons. Even
-the scrub-boy of this establishment would fight for her. It lasts the
-year round, for in winter it's some poor, frozen cuss that she's warming
-up on hot coffee or chocolate.”
-
-“Mighty queer specimen she had this time,” volunteered another. “Irish,
-hand off, straight as a ramrod, and something worth while in his face.
-Notice that hat peel off, and the eyes of him? There's a case of 'fight
-for her!' Wonder who he is?”
-
-“I think,” said a third, “that he's McLean's Limberlost guard, and I
-suspect she's gone to the swamp with the Bird Woman for pictures and
-knows him that way. I've heard that he is a master hand with the birds,
-and that would just suit the Bird Woman to a T.”
-
-On the street the Angel walked beside Freckles to the first crossing and
-there she stopped. “Now, will you promise to ride fast enough to make up
-for the five minutes that took?” she asked. “I am a little uneasy about
-Mrs. Duncan.”
-
-Freckles turned his wheel into the street. It seemed to him he had
-poured that delicious icy liquid into every vein in his body instead of
-his stomach. It even went to his brain.
-
-“Did you insist on fixing that drink because you knew how intoxicating
-'twould be?” he asked.
-
-There was subtlety in the compliment and it delighted the Angel. She
-laughed gleefully.
-
-“Next time, maybe you won't take so much coaxing,” she teased.
-
-“I wouldn't this, if I had known your father and been understanding you
-better. Do you really think the Bird Woman will be coming again?”
-
-The Angel jeered. “Wild horses couldn't drag her away,” she cried. “She
-will have hard work to wait the week out. I shouldn't be in the least
-surprised to see her start any hour.”
-
-Freckles could not endure the suspense; it had to come.
-
-“And you?” he questioned, but he dared not lift his eyes.
-
-“Wild horses me, too,” she laughed, “couldn't keep me away either! I
-dearly love to come, and the next time I am going to bring my banjo,
-and I'll play, and you sing for me some of the songs I like best; won't
-you?”
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles, because it was all he was capable of saying just
-then.
-
-“It's beginning to act stormy,” she said. “If you hurry you will just
-about make it. Now, good-bye.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to the
-Rescue
-
-Freckles was halfway to the Limberlost when he dismounted. He could ride
-no farther, because he could not see the road. He sat under a tree, and,
-leaning against it, sobs shook, twisted, and rent him. If they would
-remind him of his position, speak condescendingly, or notice his hand,
-he could endure it, but this--it surely would kill him! His hot, pulsing
-Irish blood was stirred deeply. What did they mean? Why did they do it?
-Were they like that to everyone? Was it pity?
-
-It could not be, for he knew that the Bird Woman and the Angel's father
-must know that he was not really McLean's son, and it did not matter
-to them in the least. In spite of accident and poverty, they evidently
-expected him to do something worth while in the world. That must be his
-remedy. He must work on his education. He must get away. He must find
-and do the great thing of which the Angel talked. For the first time,
-his thoughts turned anxiously toward the city and the beginning of his
-studies. McLean and the Duncans spoke of him as “the boy,” but he was
-a man. He must face life bravely and act a man's part. The Angel was a
-mere child. He must not allow her to torture him past endurance with her
-frank comradeship that meant to him high heaven, earth's richness, and
-all that lay between, and NOTHING to her.
-
-There was an ominous growl of thunder, and amazed at himself, Freckles
-snatched up his wheel and raced toward the swamp. He was worried to find
-his boots lying at the cabin door; the children playing on the woodpile
-told him that “mither” said they were so heavy she couldn't walk in
-them, and she had come back and taken them off. Thoroughly frightened,
-he stopped only long enough to slip them on, and then sped with all his
-strength for the Limberlost. To the west, the long, black, hard-beaten
-trail lay clear; but far up the east side, straight across the path, he
-could see what was certainly a limp, brown figure. Freckles spun with
-all his might.
-
-Face down, Sarah Duncan lay across the trail. When Freckles turned her
-over, his blood chilled at the look of horror settled on her face. There
-was a low humming and something spatted against him. Glancing around,
-Freckles shivered in terror, for there was a swarm of wild bees settled
-on a scrub-thorn only a few yards away. The air was filled with excited,
-unsettled bees making ready to lead farther in search of a suitable
-location. Then he thought he understood, and with a prayer of
-thankfulness in his heart that she had escaped, even so narrowly, he
-caught her up and hurried down the trail until they were well out of
-danger. He laid her in the shade, and carrying water from the swamp
-in the crown of his hat, he bathed her face and hands; but she lay in
-unbroken stillness, without a sign of life.
-
-She had found Freckles' boots so large and heavy that she had gone back
-and taken them off, although she was mortally afraid to approach the
-swamp without them. The thought of it made her nervous, and the fact
-that she never had been there alone added to her fears. She had not
-followed the trail many rods when her trouble began. She was not
-Freckles, so not a bird of the line was going to be fooled into thinking
-she was.
-
-They began jumping from their nests and darting from unexpected places
-around her head and feet, with quick whirs, that kept her starting and
-dodging. Before Freckles was halfway to the town, poor Mrs. Duncan was
-hysterical, and the Limberlost had neither sung nor performed for her.
-
-But there was trouble brewing. It was quiet and intensely hot, with that
-stifling stillness that precedes a summer storm, and feathers and
-fur were tense and nervous. The birds were singing only a few broken
-snatches, and flying around, seeking places of shelter. One moment
-everything seemed devoid of life, the next there was an unexpected
-whir, buzz, and sharp cry. Inside, a pandemonium of growling, spatting,
-snarling, and grunting broke loose.
-
-The swale bent flat before heavy gusts of wind, and the big black
-chicken swept lower and lower above the swamp. Patches of clouds
-gathered, shutting out the sun and making it very dark, and the next
-moment were swept away. The sun poured with fierce, burning brightness,
-and everything was quiet. It was at the first growl of thunder that
-Freckles really had noticed the weather, and putting his own troubles
-aside resolutely, raced for the swamp.
-
-Sarah Duncan paused on the line. “Weel, I wouldna stay in this place for
-a million a month,” she said aloud, and the sound of her voice brought
-no comfort, for it was so little like she had thought it that she
-glanced hastily around to see if it had really been she that spoke. She
-tremblingly wiped the perspiration from her face with the skirt of her
-sunbonnet.
-
-“Awfu' hot,” she panted huskily. “B'lieve there's going to be a big
-storm. I do hope Freckles will hurry.”
-
-Her chin was quivering as a terrified child's. She lifted her bonnet to
-replace it and brushed against a bush beside her. WHIRR, almost into her
-face, went a nighthawk stretched along a limb for its daytime nap. Mrs.
-Duncan cried out and sprang down the trail, alighting on a frog that was
-hopping across. The horrible croak it gave as she crushed it sickened
-her. She screamed wildly and jumped to one side. That carried her into
-the swale, where the grasses reached almost to her waist, and her horror
-of snakes returning, she made a flying leap for an old log lying beside
-the line. She alighted squarely, but it was so damp and rotten that she
-sank straight through it to her knees. She caught at the wire as she
-went down, and missing, raked her wrist across a barb until she tore a
-bleeding gash. Her fingers closed convulsively around the second strand.
-She was too frightened to scream now. Her tongue stiffened. She clung
-frantically to the sagging wire, and finally managed to grasp it with
-the other hand. Then she could reach the top wire, and so she drew
-herself up and found solid footing. She picked up the club that she
-had dropped in order to extricate herself. Leaning heavily on it,
-she managed to return to the trail, but she was trembling so that she
-scarcely could walk. Going a few steps farther, she came to the stump of
-the first tree that had been taken out.
-
-She sat bolt upright and very still, trying to collect her thoughts and
-reason away her terror. A squirrel above her dropped a nut, and as it
-came rattling down, bouncing from branch to branch, every nerve in her
-tugged wildly. When the disgusted squirrel barked loudly, she sprang to
-the trail.
-
-The wind arose higher, the changes from light to darkness were more
-abrupt, while the thunder came closer and louder at every peal. In
-swarms the blackbirds arose from the swale and came flocking to the
-interior, with a clamoring cry: “T'CHECK, T'CHECK.” Grackles marshaled
-to the tribal call: “TRALL-A-HEE, TRALL-A-HEE.” Red-winged blackbirds
-swept low, calling to belated mates: “FOL-LOW-ME, FOL-LOW-ME.” Big,
-jetty crows gathered close to her, crying, as if warning her to flee
-before it was everlastingly too late. A heron, fishing the near-by pool
-for Freckles' “find-out” frog, fell into trouble with a muskrat and
-uttered a rasping note that sent Mrs. Duncan a rod down the line without
-realizing that she had moved. She was too shaken to run far. She stopped
-and looked around her fearfully.
-
-Several bees struck her and were angrily buzzing before she noticed
-them. Then the humming swelled on all sides. A convulsive sob shook her,
-and she ran into the bushes, now into the swale, anywhere to avoid the
-swarming bees, ducking, dodging, fighting for her very life. Presently
-the humming seemed to become a little fainter. She found the trail
-again, and ran with all her might from a few of her angry pursuers.
-
-As she ran, straining every muscle, she suddenly became aware that,
-crossing the trail before her, was a big, round, black body, with brown
-markings on its back, like painted geometrical patterns. She tried to
-stop, but the louder buzzing behind warned her she dared not. Gathering
-her skirts higher, with hair flying around her face and her eyes almost
-bursting from their sockets, she ran straight toward it. The sound of
-her feet and the humming of the bees alarmed the rattler, so it stopped
-across the trail, lifting its head above the grasses of the swale and
-rattling inquiringly--rattled until the bees were outdone.
-
-Straight toward it went the panic-stricken woman, running wildly and
-uncontrollably. She took one leap, clearing its body on the path, then
-flew ahead with winged feet. The snake, coiled to strike, missed Mrs.
-Duncan and landed among the bees instead. They settled over and around
-it, and realizing that it had found trouble, it sank among the grasses
-and went threshing toward its den in the deep willow-fringed low ground.
-The swale appeared as if a reaper were cutting a wide swath. The mass of
-enraged bees darted angrily around, searching for it, and striking the
-scrub-thorn, began a temporary settling there to discover whether it
-were a suitable place. Completely exhausted, Mrs. Duncan staggered on a
-few steps farther, fell facing the path, where Freckles found her, and
-lay quietly.
-
-Freckles worked over her until she drew a long, quivering breath and
-opened her eyes.
-
-When she saw him bending above her, she closed them tightly, and
-gripping him, struggled to her feet. He helped her, and with his arm
-around and half carrying her, they made their way to the clearing. She
-clung to him with all her remaining strength, but open her eyes she
-would not until her children came clustering around her. Then, brawny,
-big Scotswoman though she was, she quietly keeled over again. The
-children added their wailing to Freckles' panic.
-
-This time he was so close the cabin that he could carry her into the
-house and lay her on the bed. He sent the oldest boy scudding down the
-corduroy for the nearest neighbor, and between them they undressed Mrs.
-Duncan and discovered that she was not bitten. They bathed and bound the
-bleeding wrist and coaxed her back to consciousness. She lay sobbing and
-shuddering. The first intelligent word she said was: “Freckles, look at
-that jar on the kitchen table and see if my yeast is no running ower.”
-
-Several days passed before she could give Duncan and Freckles any
-detailed account of what had happened to her, even then she could not
-do it without crying as the least of her babies. Freckles was almost
-heartbroken, and nursed her as well as any woman could have done; while
-big Duncan, with a heart full for them both, worked early and late to
-chink every crack of the cabin and examine every spot that possibly
-could harbor a snake. The effects of her morning on the trail kept her
-shivering half the time. She could not rest until she sent for McLean
-and begged him to save Freckles from further risk, in that place of
-horrors. The Boss went to the swamp with his mind fully determined to do
-so.
-
-Freckles stood and laughed at him. “Why, Mr. McLean, don't you let a
-woman's nervous system set you worrying about me,” he said. “I'm not
-denying how she felt, because I've been through it meself, but that's
-all over and gone. It's the height of me glory to fight it out with the
-old swamp, and all that's in it, or will be coming to it, and then
-to turn it over to you as I promised you and meself I'd do, sir. You
-couldn't break the heart of me entire quicker than to be taking it from
-me now, when I'm just on the home-stretch. It won't be over three or
-four weeks yet, and when I've gone it almost a year, why, what's that
-to me, sir? You mustn't let a woman get mixed up with business, for I've
-always heard about how it's bringing trouble.”
-
-McLean smiled. “What about that last tree?” he said.
-
-Freckles blushed and grinned appreciatively.
-
-“Angels and Bird Women don't count in the common run, sir,” he affirmed
-shamelessly.
-
-McLean sat in the saddle and laughed.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-
-The Bird Woman and the Angel did not seem to count in the common run,
-for they arrived on time for the third of the series and found McLean on
-the line talking to Freckles. The Boss was filled with enthusiasm over a
-marsh article of the Bird Woman's that he just had read. He begged to
-be allowed to accompany her into the swamp and watch the method by which
-she secured an illustration in such a location.
-
-The Bird Woman explained to him that it was an easy matter with the
-subject she then had in hand; and as Little Chicken was too small to
-be frightened by him, and big enough to be growing troublesome, she was
-glad for his company. They went to the chicken log together, leaving to
-the happy Freckles the care of the Angel, who had brought her banjo and
-a roll of songs that she wanted to hear him sing. The Bird Woman told
-them that they might practice in Freckles' room until she finished with
-Little Chicken, and then she and McLean would come to the concert.
-
-It was almost three hours before they finished and came down the west
-trail for their rest and lunch. McLean walked ahead, keeping sharp watch
-on the trail and clearing it of fallen limbs from overhanging trees. He
-sent a big piece of bark flying into the swale, and then stopped short
-and stared at the trail.
-
-The Bird Woman bent forward. Together they studied that imprint of
-the Angel's foot. At last their eyes met, the Bird Woman's filled with
-astonishment, and McLean's humid with pity. Neither said a word, but
-they knew. McLean entered the swale and hunted up the bark. He replaced
-it, and the Bird Woman carefully stepped over. As they reached the
-bushes at the entrance, the voice of the Angel stopped them, for it was
-commanding and filled with much impatience.
-
-“Freckles James Ross McLean!” she was saying. “You fill me with
-dark-blue despair! You're singing as if your voice were glass and might
-break at any minute. Why don't you sing as you did a week ago? Answer me
-that, please.”
-
-Freckles smiled confusedly at the Angel, who sat on one of his fancy
-seats, playing his accompaniment on her banjo.
-
-“You are a fraud,” she said. “Here you went last week and led me to
-think that there was the making of a great singer in you, and now you
-are singing--do you know how badly you are singing?”
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles meekly. “I'm thinking I'm too happy to be singing
-well today. The music don't come right only when I'm lonesome and sad.
-The world's for being all sunshine at prisint, for among you and Mr.
-McLean and the Bird Woman I'm after being THAT happy that I can't keep
-me thoughts on me notes. It's more than sorry I am to be disappointing
-you. Play it over, and I'll be beginning again, and this time I'll hold
-hard.”
-
-“Well,” said the Angel disgustedly, “it seems to me that if I had all
-the things to be proud of that you have, I'd lift up my head and sing!”
-
-“And what is it I've to be proud of, ma'am?” politely inquired Freckles.
-
-“Why, a whole worldful of things,” cried the Angel explosively. “For
-one thing, you can be good and proud over the way you've kept the timber
-thieves out of this lease, and the trust your father has in you. You can
-be proud that you've never even once disappointed him or failed in what
-he believed you could do. You can be proud over the way everyone speaks
-of you with trust and honor, and about how brave of heart and strong of
-body you are I heard a big man say a few days ago that the Limberlost
-was full of disagreeable things--positive dangers, unhealthful as it
-could be, and that since the memory of the first settlers it has been a
-rendezvous for runaways, thieves, and murderers. This swamp is named for
-a man that was lost here and wandered around 'til he starved. That man I
-was talking with said he wouldn't take your job for a thousand dollars
-a month--in fact, he said he wouldn't have it for any money, and you've
-never missed a day or lost a tree. Proud! Why, I should think you would
-just parade around about proper over that!
-
-“And you can always be proud that you are born an Irishman. My father
-is Irish, and if you want to see him get up and strut give him a teeny
-opening to enlarge on his race. He says that if the Irish had decent
-territory they'd lead the world. He says they've always been handicapped
-by lack of space and of fertile soil. He says if Ireland had been as big
-and fertile as Indiana, why, England wouldn't ever have had the upper
-hand. She'd only be an appendage. Fancy England an appendage! He says
-Ireland has the finest orators and the keenest statesmen in Europe
-today, and when England wants to fight, with whom does she fill her
-trenches? Irishmen, of course! Ireland has the greenest grass and trees,
-the finest stones and lakes, and they've jaunting-cars. I don't know
-just exactly what they are, but Ireland has all there are, anyway.
-They've a lot of great actors, and a few singers, and there never was a
-sweeter poet than one of theirs. You should hear my father recite 'Dear
-Harp of My Country.' He does it this way.”
-
-The Angel arose, made an elaborate old-time bow, and holding up the
-banjo, recited in clipping feet and meter, with rhythmic swing and a
-touch of brogue that was simply irresistible:
-
-“Dear harp of my country” [The Angel ardently clasped the banjo],
-
-“In darkness I found thee” [She held it to the light],
-
-“The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long” [She muted the
-strings with her rosy palm];
-
-“Then proudly, my own Irish harp, I unbound thee” [She threw up her head
-and swept a ringing harmony];
-
-“And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song” [She crashed into
-the notes of the accompaniment she had been playing for Freckles].
-
-“That's what you want to be thinking of!” she cried. “Not darkness, and
-lonesomeness, and sadness, but 'light, freedom, and song.' I can't begin
-to think offhand of all the big, splendid things an Irishman has to be
-proud of; but whatever they are, they are all yours, and you are a part
-of them. I just despise that 'saddest-when-I-sing' business. You can
-sing! Now you go over there and do it! Ireland has had her statesmen,
-warriors, actors, and poets; now you be her voice! You stand right out
-there before the cathedral door, and I'm going to come down the aisle
-playing that accompaniment, and when I stop in front of you--you sing!”
-
-The Angel's face wore an unusual flush. Her eyes were flashing and she
-was palpitating with earnestness.
-
-She parted the bushes and disappeared. Freckles, straight and tense,
-stood waiting. Presently, before he saw she was there, she was coming
-down the aisle toward him, playing compellingly, and rifts of light were
-touching her with golden glory. Freckles stood as if transfixed.
-
-The cathedral was majestically beautiful, from arched dome of frescoed
-gold, green, and blue in never-ending shades and harmonies, to the
-mosaic aisle she trod, richly inlaid in choicest colors, and gigantic
-pillars that were God's handiwork fashioned and perfected through ages
-of sunshine and rain. But the fair young face and divinely molded form
-of the Angel were His most perfect work of all. Never had she appeared
-so surpassingly beautiful. She was smiling encouragingly now, and as she
-came toward him, she struck the chords full and strong.
-
-The heart of poor Freckles almost burst with dull pain and his great
-love for her. In his desire to fulfill her expectations he forgot
-everything else, and when she reached his initial chord he was ready. He
-literally burst forth:
-
-     “Three little leaves of Irish green,
-     United on one stem,
-     Love, truth, and valor do they mean,
-     They form a magic gem.”
-
-The Angel's eyes widened curiously and her lips parted. A deep color
-swept into her cheeks. She had intended to arouse him. She had more than
-succeeded. She was too young to know that in the effort to rouse a man,
-women frequently kindle fires that they neither can quench nor control.
-Freckles was looking over her head now and singing that song, as it
-never had been sung before, for her alone; and instead of her helping
-him, as she had intended, he was carrying her with him on the waves
-of his voice, away, away into another world. When he struck into the
-chorus, wide-eyed and panting, she was swaying toward him and playing
-with all her might.
-
-     “Oh, do you love?  Oh, say you love
-     You love the shamrock green!”
-
-At the last note, Freckles' voice ceased and he looked at the Angel. He
-had given his best and his all. He fell on his knees and folded his arms
-across his breast. The Angel, as if magnetized, walked straight down the
-aisle to him, and running her fingers into the crisp masses of his red
-hair, tilted his head back and laid her lips on his forehead.
-
-Then she stepped back and faced him. “Good boy!” she said, in a voice
-that wavered from the throbbing of her shaken heart. “Dear boy! I knew
-you could do it! I knew it was in you! Freckles, when you go into the
-world, if you can face a big audience and sing like that, just once, you
-will be immortal, and anything you want will be yours.”
-
-“Anything!” gasped Freckles.
-
-“Anything,” said the Angel.
-
-Freckles arose, muttered something, and catching up his old bucket,
-plunged into the swamp blindly on a pretence of bringing water. The
-Angel walked slowly across the study, sat on the rustic bench, and,
-through narrowed lids, intently studied the tip of her shoe.
-
-On the trail the Bird Woman wheeled to McLean with a dumbfounded look.
-
-“God!” muttered he.
-
-At last the Bird Woman spoke.
-
-“Do you think the Angel knew she did that?” she asked softly.
-
-“No,” said McLean; “I do not. But the poor boy knew it. Heaven help
-him!”
-
-The Bird Woman stared across the gently waving swale. “I don't see how I
-am going to blame her,” she said at last. “It's so exactly what I would
-have done myself.”
-
-“Say the remainder,” demanded McLean hoarsely. “Do him justice.”
-
-“He was born a gentleman,” conceded the Bird Woman. “He took no
-advantage. He never even offered to touch her. Whatever that kiss meant
-to him, he recognized that it was the loving impulse of a child under
-stress of strong emotion. He was fine and manly as any man ever could
-have been.”
-
-McLean lifted his hat. “Thank you,” he said simply, and parted the
-bushes for her to enter Freckles' room.
-
-It was her first visit. Before she left she sent for her cameras and
-made studies of each side of it and of the cathedral. She was entranced
-with the delicate beauty of the place, while her eyes kept following
-Freckles as if she could not believe that it could be his conception and
-work.
-
-That was a happy day. The Bird Woman had brought a lunch, and they
-spread it, with Freckles' dinner, on the study floor and sat, resting
-and enjoying themselves. But the Angel put her banjo into its case,
-silently gathered her music, and no one mentioned the concert.
-
-The Bird Woman left McLean and the Angel to clear away the lunch, and
-with Freckles examined the walls of his room and told him all she knew
-about his shrubs and flowers. She analyzed a cardinal-flower and
-showed him what he had wanted to know all summer--why the bees
-buzzed ineffectually around it while the humming-birds found in it
-an ever-ready feast. Some of his specimens were so rare that she was
-unfamiliar with them, and with the flower book between them they
-knelt, studying the different varieties. She wandered the length of the
-cathedral aisle with him, and it was at her suggestion that he lighted
-his altar with a row of flaming foxfire.
-
-As Freckles came to the cabin from his long day at the swamp he saw
-Mrs. Chicken sweeping to the south and wondered where she was going. He
-stepped into the bright, cosy little kitchen, and as he reached down the
-wash-basin he asked Mrs. Duncan a question.
-
-“Mother Duncan, do kisses wash off?”
-
-So warm a wave swept her heart that a half-flush mantled her face. She
-straightened her shoulders and glanced at her hands tenderly.
-
-“Lord, na! Freckles,” she cried. “At least, the anes ye get from people
-ye love dinna. They dinna stay on the outside. They strike in until they
-find the center of your heart and make their stopping-place there, and
-naething can take them from ye--I doubt if even death----Na, lad, ye can
-be reet sure kisses dinna wash off!”
-
-Freckles set the basin down and muttered as he plunged his hot, tired
-face into the water, “I needn't be afraid to be washing, then, for that
-one struck in.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird
-Woman
-
-“I wish,” said Freckles at breakfast one morning, “that I had some way
-to be sending a message to the Bird Woman. I've something at the swamp
-that I'm believing never happened before, and surely she'll be wanting
-it.”
-
-“What now, Freckles?” asked Mrs. Duncan.
-
-“Why, the oddest thing you ever heard of,” said Freckles; “the whole
-insect tribe gone on a spree. I'm supposing it's my doings, but it all
-happened by accident, like. You see, on the swale side of the line,
-right against me trail, there's one of these scrub wild crabtrees. Where
-the grass grows thick around it, is the finest place you ever conceived
-of for snakes. Having women about has set me trying to clean out those
-fellows a bit, and yesterday I noticed that tree in passing. It struck
-me that it would be a good idea to be taking it out. First I thought I'd
-take me hatchet and cut it down, for it ain't thicker than me upper arm.
-Then I remembered how it was blooming in the spring and filling all the
-air with sweetness. The coloring of the blossoms is beautiful, and I
-hated to be killing it. I just cut the grass short all around it. Then
-I started at the ground, trimmed up the trunk near the height of
-me shoulder, and left the top spreading. That made it look so truly
-ornamental that, idle like, I chips off the rough places neat, and this
-morning, on me soul, it's a sight! You see, cutting off the limbs and
-trimming up the trunk sets the sap running. In this hot sun it ferments
-in a few hours. There isn't much room for more things to crowd on that
-tree than there are, and to get drunker isn't noways possible.”
-
-“Weel, I be drawed on!” exclaimed Mrs. Duncan. “What kind of things do
-ye mean, Freckles?”
-
-“Why, just an army of black ants. Some of them are sucking away like
-old topers. Some of them are setting up on their tails and hind legs,
-fiddling with their fore-feet and wiping their eyes. Some are rolling
-around on the ground, contented. There are quantities of big blue-bottle
-flies over the bark and hanging on the grasses around, too drunk to
-steer a course flying; so they just buzz away like flying, and all
-the time sitting still. The snake-feeders are too full to feed
-anything--even more sap to themselves. There's a lot of hard-backed
-bugs--beetles, I guess--colored like the brown, blue, and black of a
-peacock's tail. They hang on until the legs of them are so wake they
-can't stick a minute longer, and then they break away and fall to the
-ground. They just lay there on their backs, fably clawing air. When it
-wears off a bit, up they get, and go crawling back for more, and they so
-full they bump into each other and roll over. Sometimes they can't climb
-the tree until they wait to sober up a little. There's a lot of big
-black-and-gold bumblebees, done for entire, stumbling over the bark and
-rolling on the ground. They just lay there on their backs, rocking from
-side to side, singing to themselves like fat, happy babies. The wild
-bees keep up a steady buzzing with the beating of their wings.
-
-“The butterflies are the worst old topers of them all. They're just a
-circus! You never saw the like of the beauties! They come every color
-you could be naming, and every shape you could be thinking up. They
-drink and drink until, if I'm driving them away, they stagger as they
-fly and turn somersaults in the air. If I lave them alone, they cling to
-the grasses, shivering happy like; and I'm blest, Mother Duncan, if
-the best of them could be unlocking the front door with a lead pencil,
-even.”
-
-“I never heard of anything sae surprising,” said Mrs. Duncan.
-
-“It's a rare sight to watch them, and no one ever made a picture of a
-thing like that before, I'm for thinking,” said Freckles earnestly.
-
-“Na,” said Mrs. Duncan. “Ye can be pretty sure there didna. The Bird
-Woman must have word in some way, if ye walk the line and I walk to town
-and tell her. If ye think ye can wait until after supper, I am most
-sure ye can gang yoursel', for Duncan is coming home and he'd be glad to
-watch for ye. If he does na come, and na ane passes that I can send
-word with today, I really will gang early in the morning and tell her
-mysel'.”
-
-Freckles took his lunch and went to the swamp. He walked and watched
-eagerly. He could find no trace of anything, yet he felt a tense
-nervousness, as if trouble might be brooding. He examined every section
-of the wire, and kept watchful eyes on the grasses of the swale, in
-an effort to discover if anyone had passed through them; but he could
-discover no trace of anything to justify his fears.
-
-He tilted his hat brim to shade his face and looked for his chickens.
-They were hanging almost beyond sight in the sky.
-
-“Gee!” he said. “If I only had your sharp eyes and convenient location
-now, I wouldn't need be troubling so.”
-
-He reached his room and cautiously scanned the entrance before he
-stepped in. Then he pushed the bushes apart with his right arm and
-entered, his left hand on the butt of his favorite revolver. Instantly
-he knew that someone had been there. He stepped to the center of the
-room, closely scanning each wall and the floor. He could find no trace
-of a clue to confirm his belief, yet so intimate was he with the spirit
-of the place that he knew.
-
-How he knew he could not have told, yet he did know that someone had
-entered his room, sat on his benches, and walked over his floor. He was
-surest around the case. Nothing was disturbed, yet it seemed to Freckles
-that he could see where prying fingers had tried the lock. He stepped
-behind the case, carefully examining the ground all around it, and close
-beside the tree to which it was nailed he found a deep, fresh footprint
-in the spongy soil--a long, narrow print, that was never made by the
-foot of Wessner. His heart tugged in his breast as he mentally measured
-the print, but he did not linger, for now the feeling arose that he
-was being watched. It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of some
-intruder at his back. He knew he was examining things too closely: if
-anyone were watching, he did not want him to know that he felt it.
-
-He took the most open way, and carried water for his flowers and moss
-as usual; but he put himself into no position in which he was fully
-exposed, and his hand was close his revolver constantly. Growing restive
-at last under the strain, he plunged boldly into the swamp and searched
-minutely all around his room, but he could not discover the least thing
-to give him further cause for alarm. He unlocked his case, took out his
-wheel, and for the remainder of the day he rode and watched as he never
-had before. Several times he locked the wheel and crossed the swamp on
-foot, zigzagging to cover all the space possible. Every rod he traveled
-he used the caution that sprang from knowledge of danger and the
-direction from which it probably would come. Several times he thought of
-sending for McLean, but for his life he could not make up his mind to do
-it with nothing more tangible than one footprint to justify him.
-
-He waited until he was sure Duncan would be at home, if he were coming
-for the night, before he went to supper. The first thing he saw as he
-crossed the swale was the big bays in the yard.
-
-There had been no one passing that day, and Duncan readily agreed to
-watch until Freckles rode to town. He told Duncan of the footprint, and
-urged him to guard closely. Duncan said he might rest easy, and filling
-his pipe and taking a good revolver, the big man went to the Limberlost.
-
-Freckles made himself clean and neat, and raced to town, but it was
-night and the stars were shining before he reached the home of the Bird
-Woman. From afar he could see that the house was ablaze with lights. The
-lawn and veranda were strung with fancy lanterns and alive with people.
-He thought his errand important, so to turn back never occurred to
-Freckles. This was all the time or opportunity he would have. He must
-see the Bird Woman, and see her at once. He leaned his wheel inside the
-fence and walked up the broad front entrance. As he neared the steps, he
-saw that the place was swarming with young people, and the Angel, with
-an excuse to a group that surrounded her, came hurrying to him.
-
-“Oh Freckles!” she cried delightedly. “So you could come? We were so
-afraid you could not! I'm as glad as I can be!”
-
-“I don't understand,” said Freckles. “Were you expecting me?”
-
-“Why of course!” exclaimed the Angel. “Haven't you come to my party?
-Didn't you get my invitation? I sent you one.”
-
-“By mail?” asked Freckles.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel. “I had to help with the preparations, and I
-couldn't find time to drive out; but I wrote you a letter, and told
-you that the Bird Woman was giving a party for me, and we wanted you
-to come, surely. I told them at the office to put it with Mr. Duncan's
-mail.”
-
-“Then that's likely where it is at present,” said Freckles. “Duncan
-comes to town only once a week, and at times not that. He's home tonight
-for the first in a week. He's watching an hour for me until I come to
-the Bird Woman with a bit of work I thought she'd be caring to hear
-about bad. Is she where I can see her?”
-
-The Angel's face clouded.
-
-“What a disappointment!” she cried. “I did so want all my friends to
-know you. Can't you stay anyway?”
-
-Freckles glanced from his wading-boots to the patent leathers of some of
-the Angel's friends, and smiled whimsically, but there was no danger of
-his ever misjudging her again.
-
-“You know I cannot, Angel,” he said.
-
-“I am afraid I do,” she said ruefully. “It's too bad! But there is a
-thing I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is to hang
-on and win with your work. I think of you every day, and I just pray
-that those thieves are not getting ahead of you. Oh, Freckles, do watch
-closely!”
-
-She was so lovely a picture as she stood before him, ardent in his
-cause, that Freckles could not take his eyes from her to notice what her
-friends were thinking. If she did not mind, why should he? Anyway,
-if they really were the Angel's friends, probably they were better
-accustomed to her ways than he.
-
-Her face and bared neck and arms were like the wild rose bloom. Her
-soft frock of white tulle lifted and stirred around her with the gentle
-evening air. The beautiful golden hair, that crept around her temples
-and ears as if it loved to cling there, was caught back and bound with
-broad blue satin ribbon. There was a sash of blue at her waist, and
-knots of it catching up her draperies.
-
-“Must I go after the Bird Woman?” she pleaded.
-
-“Indade, you must,” answered Freckles firmly.
-
-The Angel went away, but returned to say that the Bird Woman was telling
-a story to those inside and she could not come for a short time.
-
-“You won't come in?” she pleaded.
-
-“I must not,” said Freckles. “I am not dressed to be among your friends,
-and I might be forgetting meself and stay too long.”
-
-“Then,” said the Angel, “we mustn't go through the house, because it
-would disturb the story; but I want you to come the outside way to the
-conservatory and have some of my birthday lunch and some cake to take to
-Mrs. Duncan and the babies. Won't that be fun?”
-
-Freckles thought that it would be more than fun, and followed
-delightedly.
-
-The Angel gave him a big glass, brimming with some icy, sparkling liquid
-that struck his palate as it never had been touched before, because a
-combination of frosty fruit juices had not been a frequent beverage with
-him. The night was warm, and the Angel most beautiful and kind. A triple
-delirium of spirit, mind, and body seized upon him and developed a
-boldness all unnatural. He slightly parted the heavy curtains that
-separated the conservatory from the company and looked between. He
-almost stopped breathing. He had read of things like that, but he never
-had seen them.
-
-The open space seemed to stretch through half a dozen rooms, all ablaze
-with lights, perfumed with flowers, and filled with elegantly dressed
-people. There were glimpses of polished floors, sparkling glass, and
-fine furnishings. From somewhere, the voice of his beloved Bird Woman
-arose and fell.
-
-The Angel crowded beside him and was watching also.
-
-“Doesn't it look pretty?” she whispered.
-
-“Do you suppose Heaven is any finer than that?” asked Freckles.
-
-The Angel began to laugh.
-
-“Do you want to be laughing harder than that?” queried Freckles.
-
-“A laugh is always good,” said the Angel. “A little more avoirdupois
-won't hurt me. Go ahead.”
-
-“Well then,” said Freckles, “it's only that I feel all over as if I
-belonged there. I could wear fine clothes, and move over those floors,
-and hold me own against the best of them.”
-
-“But where does my laugh come in?” demanded the Angel, as if she had
-been defrauded.
-
-“And you ask me where the laugh comes in, looking me in the face after
-that,” marveled Freckles.
-
-“I wouldn't be so foolish as to laugh at such a manifest truth as that,”
- said the Angel. “Anyone who knows you even half as well as I do, knows
-that you are never guilty of a discourtesy, and you move with twice the
-grace of any man here. Why shouldn't you feel as if you belonged where
-people are graceful and courteous?”
-
-“On me soul!” said Freckles, “you are kind to be thinking it. You are
-doubly kind to be saying it.”
-
-The curtains parted and a woman came toward them. Her silks and laces
-trailed across the polished floors. The lights gleamed on her neck and
-arms, and flashed from rare jewels. She was smiling brightly; and until
-she spoke, Freckles had not realized fully that it was his loved Bird
-Woman.
-
-Noticing his bewilderment, she cried: “Why, Freckles! Don't you know me
-in my war clothes?”
-
-“I do in the uniform in which you fight the Limberlost,” said Freckles.
-
-The Bird Woman laughed. Then he told her why he had come, but she
-scarcely could believe him. She could not say exactly when she would go,
-but she would make it as soon as possible, for she was most anxious for
-the study.
-
-While they talked, the Angel was busy packing a box of sandwiches,
-cake, fruit, and flowers. She gave him a last frosty glass, thanked him
-repeatedly for bringing news of new material; then Freckles went into
-the night. He rode toward the Limberlost with his eyes on the stars.
-Presently he removed his hat, hung it to his belt, and ruffled his
-hair to the sweep of the night wind. He filled the air all the way with
-snatches of oratorios, gospel hymns, and dialect and coon songs, in a
-startlingly varied programme. The one thing Freckles knew that he could
-do was to sing. The Duncans heard him coming a mile up the corduroy and
-could not believe their senses. Freckles unfastened the box from
-his belt, and gave Mrs. Duncan and the children all the eatables
-it contained, except one big piece of cake that he carried to the
-sweet-loving Duncan. He put the flowers back in the box and set it among
-his books. He did not say anything, but they understood it was not to be
-touched.
-
-“Thae's Freckles' flow'rs,” said a tiny Scotsman, “but,” he added
-cheerfully, “it's oor sweeties!”
-
-Freckles' face slowly flushed as he took Duncan's cake and started
-toward the swamp. While Duncan ate, Freckles told him something about
-the evening, as well as he could find words to express himself, and the
-big man was so amazed he kept forgetting the treat in his hands.
-
-Then Freckles mounted his wheel and began a spin that terminated only
-when the biggest Plymouth Rock in Duncan's coop saluted a new day, and
-long lines of light reddened the east. As he rode he sang, while he
-sang he worshiped, but the god he tried to glorify was a dim and faraway
-mystery. The Angel was warm flesh and blood.
-
-Every time he passed the little bark-covered imprint on the trail he
-dismounted, removed his hat, solemnly knelt and laid his lips on the
-impression. Because he kept no account himself, only the laughing-faced
-old man of the moon knew how often it happened; and as from the
-beginning, to the follies of earth that gentleman has ever been kind.
-
-With the near approach of dawn Freckles tuned his last note. Wearied
-almost to falling, he turned from the trail into the path leading to the
-cabin for a few hours' rest.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-
-As Freckles left the trail, from the swale close the south entrance,
-four large muscular men arose and swiftly and carefully entered the
-swamp by the wagon road. Two of them carried a big saw, the third, coils
-of rope and wire, and all of them were heavily armed. They left one man
-on guard at the entrance. The other three made their way through the
-darkness as best they could, and were soon at Freckles' room. He had
-left the swamp on his wheel from the west trail. They counted on his
-returning on the wheel and circling the east line before he came there.
-
-A little below the west entrance to Freckles' room, Black Jack stepped
-into the swale, and binding a wire tightly around a scrub oak, carried
-it below the waving grasses, stretched it taut across the trail, and
-fastened it to a tree in the swamp. Then he obliterated all signs of his
-work, and arranged the grass over the wire until it was so completely
-covered that only minute examination would reveal it. They entered
-Freckles' room with coarse oaths and jests. In a few moments, his
-specimen case with its precious contents was rolled into the swamp,
-while the saw was eating into one of the finest trees of the Limberlost.
-
-The first report from the man on watch was that Duncan had driven to the
-South camp; the second, that Freckles was coming. The man watching was
-sent to see on which side the boy turned into the path; as they had
-expected, he took the east. He was a little tired and his head was
-rather stupid, for he had not been able to sleep as he had hoped, but he
-was very happy. Although he watched until his eyes ached, he could see
-no sign of anyone having entered the swamp.
-
-He called a cheery greeting to all his chickens. At Sleepy Snake Creek
-he almost fell from his wheel with surprise: the saw-bird was surrounded
-by four lanky youngsters clamoring for breakfast. The father was
-strutting with all the importance of a drum major.
-
-“No use to expect the Bird Woman today,” said Freckles; “but now
-wouldn't she be jumping for a chance at that?”
-
-As soon as Freckles was far down the east line, the watch was posted
-below the room on the west to report his coming. It was only a few
-moments before the signal came. Then the saw stopped, and the rope was
-brought out and uncoiled close to a sapling. Wessner and Black Jack
-crowded to the very edge of the swamp a little above the wire, and
-crouched, waiting.
-
-They heard Freckles before they saw him. He came gliding down the line
-swiftly, and as he rode he was singing softly:
-
-     “Oh, do you love,
-     Oh, say you love----”
-
-He got no farther. The sharply driven wheel struck the tense wire and
-bounded back. Freckles shot over the handlebar and coasted down the
-trail on his chest. As he struck, Black Jack and Wessner were upon him.
-Wessner caught off an old felt hat and clapped it over Freckles' mouth,
-while Black Jack twisted the boy's arms behind him and they rushed him
-into his room. Almost before he realized that anything had happened, he
-was trussed to a tree and securely gagged.
-
-Then three of the men resumed work on the tree. The other followed
-the path Freckles had worn to Little Chicken's tree, and presently
-he reported that the wires were down and two teams with the loading
-apparatus coming to take out the timber. All the time the saw was slowly
-eating, eating into the big tree.
-
-Wessner went to the trail and removed the wire. He picked up Freckles'
-wheel, that did not seem to be injured, and leaned it against the bushes
-so that if anyone did pass on the trail he would not see it doubled in
-the swamp-grass.
-
-Then he came and stood in front of Freckles and laughed in devilish
-hate. To his own amazement, Freckles found himself looking fear in the
-face, and marveled that he was not afraid. Four to one! The tree halfway
-eaten through, the wagons coming up the inside road--he, bound and
-gagged! The men with Black Jack and Wessner had belonged to McLean's
-gang when last he had heard of them, but who those coming with the
-wagons might be he could not guess.
-
-If they secured that tree, McLean lost its value, lost his wager, and
-lost his faith in him. The words of the Angel hammered in his ears. “Oh,
-Freckles, do watch closely!”
-
-The saw worked steadily.
-
-When the tree was down and loaded, what would they do? Pull out, and
-leave him there to report them? It was not to be hoped for. The place
-always had been lawless. It could mean but one thing.
-
-A mist swept before his eyes, while his head swam. Was it only last
-night that he had worshiped the Angel in a delirium of happiness? And
-now, what? Wessner, released from a turn at the saw, walked to the
-flower bed, and tearing up a handful of rare ferns by the roots, started
-toward Freckles. His intention was obvious. Black Jack stopped him, with
-an oath.
-
-“You see here, Dutchy,” he bawled, “mebby you think you'll wash his face
-with that, but you won't. A contract's a contract. We agreed to take out
-these trees and leave him for you to dispose of whatever way you please,
-provided you shut him up eternally on this deal. But I'll not see a tied
-man tormented by a fellow that he can lick up the ground with, loose,
-and that's flat. It raises my gorge to think what he'll get when we're
-gone, but you needn't think you're free to begin before. Don't you lay a
-hand on him while I'm here! What do you say, boys?”
-
-“I say yes,” growled one of McLean's latest deserters. “What's more,
-we're a pack of fools to risk the dirty work of silencing him. You had
-him face down and you on his back; why the hell didn't you cover his
-head and roll him into the bushes until we were gone? When I went into
-this, I didn't understand that he was to see all of us and that there
-was murder on the ticket. I'm not up to it. I don't mind lifting trees
-we came for, but I'm cursed if I want blood on my hands.”
-
-“Well, you ain't going to get it,” bellowed Jack. “You fellows only
-contracted to help me get out my marked trees. He belong to Wessner, and
-it ain't in our deal what happens to him.”
-
-“Yes, and if Wessner finishes him safely, we are practically in for
-murder as well as stealing the trees; and if he don't, all hell's to
-pay. I think you've made a damnable bungle of this thing; that's what I
-think!”
-
-“Then keep your thoughts to yourself,” cried Jack. “We're doing this,
-and it's all planned safe and sure. As for killing that buck--come to
-think of it, killing is what he needs. He's away too good for this world
-of woe, anyhow. I tell you, it's all safe enough. His dropping out won't
-be the only secret the old Limberlost has never told. It's too dead easy
-to make it look like he helped take the timber and then cut. Why, he's
-played right into our hands. He was here at the swamp all last night,
-and back again in an hour or so. When we get our plan worked out, even
-old fool Duncan won't lift a finger to look for his carcass. We couldn't
-have him going in better shape.”
-
-“You just bet,” said Wessner. “I owe him all he'll get, and be damned to
-you, but I'll pay!” he snarled at Freckles.
-
-So it was killing, then. They were not only after this one tree, but
-many, and with his body it was their plan to kill his honor. To brand
-him a thief, with them, before the Angel, the Bird Woman, the dear Boss,
-and the Duncans--Freckles, in sick despair, sagged against the ropes.
-
-Then he gathered his forces and thought swiftly. There was no hope
-of McLean's coming. They had chosen a day when they knew he had a big
-contract at the South camp. The Boss could not come before tomorrow by
-any possibility, and there would be no tomorrow for the boy. Duncan was
-on his way to the South camp, and the Bird Woman had said she would come
-as soon as she could. After the fatigue of the party, it was useless
-to expect her and the Angel today, and God save them from coming! The
-Angel's father had said they would be as safe in the Limberlost as at
-home. What would he think of this?
-
-The sweat broke on Freckles' forehead. He tugged at the ropes whenever
-he felt that he dared, but they were passed around the tree and his body
-several times, and knotted on his chest. He was helpless. There was no
-hope, no help. And after they had conspired to make him appear a runaway
-thief to his loved ones, what was it that Wessner would do to him?
-
-Whatever it was, Freckles lifted his head and resolved that he would
-bear in mind what he had once heard the Bird Woman say. He would go out
-bonnily. Never would he let them see, if he grew afraid. After all, what
-did it matter what they did to his body if by some scheme of the devil
-they could encompass his disgrace?
-
-Then hope suddenly rose high in Freckles' breast. They could not do
-that! The Angel would not believe. Neither would McLean. He would keep
-up his courage. Kill him they could; dishonor him they could not.
-
-Yet, summon all the fortitude he might, that saw eating into the tree
-rasped his nerves worse and worse. With whirling brain he gazed into
-the Limberlost, searching for something, he knew not what, and in blank
-horror found his eyes focusing on the Angel. She was quite a distance
-away, but he could see her white lips and angry expression.
-
-Last week he had taken her and the Bird Woman across the swamp over the
-path he followed in going from his room to the chicken tree. He had told
-them the night before, that the butterfly tree was on the line close to
-this path. In figuring on their not coming that day, he failed to reckon
-with the enthusiasm of the Bird Woman. They must be there for the study,
-and the Angel had risked crossing the swamp in search of him. Or was
-there something in his room they needed? The blood surged in his ears as
-the roar of the Limberlost in the wrath of a storm.
-
-He looked again, and it had been a dream. She was not there. Had she
-been? For his life, Freckles could not tell whether he really had seen
-the Angel, or whether his strained senses had played him the most cruel
-trick of all. Or was it not the kindest? Now he could go with the vision
-of her lovely face fresh with him.
-
-“Thank You for that, oh God!” whispered Freckles. “'Twas more than kind
-of You and I don't s'pose I ought to be wanting anything else; but
-if You can, oh, I wish I could know before this ends, if 'twas me
-mother”--Freckles could not even whisper the words, for he hesitated a
-second and ended--“IF 'TWAS ME MOTHER DID IT!”
-
-“Freckles! Freckles! Oh, Freckles!” the voice of the Angel came calling.
-Freckles swayed forward and wrenched at the rope until it cut deeply
-into his body.
-
-“Hell!” cried Black Jack. “Who is that? Do you know?”
-
-Freckles nodded.
-
-Jack whipped out a revolver and snatched the gag from Freckles' mouth.
-
-“Say quick, or it's up with you right now, and whoever that is with
-you!”
-
-“It's the girl the Bird Woman takes with her,” whispered Freckles
-through dry, swollen lips.
-
-“They ain't due here for five days yet,” said Wessner. “We got on to
-that last week.”
-
-“Yes,” said Freckles, “but I found a tree covered with butterflies and
-things along the east line yesterday that I thought the Bird Woman would
-want extra, and I went to town to tell her last night. She said she'd
-come soon, but she didn't say when. They must be here. I take care of
-the girl while the Bird Woman works. Untie me quick until she is gone.
-I'll try to send her back, and then you can go on with your dirty work.”
-
-“He ain't lying,” volunteered Wessner. “I saw that tree covered with
-butterflies and him watching around it when we were spying on him
-yesterday.”
-
-“No, he leaves lying to your sort,” snapped Black Jack, as he undid the
-rope and pitched it across the room. “Remember that you're covered every
-move you make, my buck,” he cautioned.
-
-“Freckles! Freckles!” came the Angel's impatient voice, closer and
-closer.
-
-“I must be answering,” said Freckles, and Jack nodded. “Right here!”
- he called, and to the men: “You go on with your work, and remember
-one thing yourselves. The work of the Bird Woman is known all over the
-world. This girl's father is a rich man, and she is all he has. If you
-offer hurt of any kind to either of them, this world has no place far
-enough away or dark enough for you to be hiding in. Hell will be easy to
-what any man will get if he touches either of them!”
-
-“Freckles, where are you?” demanded the Angel.
-
-Soulsick with fear for her, Freckles went toward her and parted the
-bushes that she might enter. She came through without apparently giving
-him a glance, and the first words she said were: “Why have the gang come
-so soon? I didn't know you expected them for three weeks yet. Or is this
-some especial tree that Mr. McLean needs to fill an order right now?”
-
-Freckles hesitated. Would a man dare lie to save himself? No. But to
-save the Angel--surely that was different. He opened his lips, but the
-Angel was capable of saving herself. She walked among them, exactly as
-if she had been reared in a lumber camp, and never waited for an answer.
-
-“Why, your specimen case!” she cried. “Look! Haven't you noticed that
-it's tipped over? Set it straight, quickly!”
-
-A couple of the men stepped out and carefully righted the case.
-
-“There! That's better,” she said. “Freckles, I'm surprised at your being
-so careless. It would be a shame to break those lovely butterflies for
-one old tree! Is that a valuable tree? Why didn't you tell us last night
-you were going to take out a tree this morning? Oh, say, did you put
-your case there to protect that tree from that stealing old Black Jack
-and his gang? I bet you did! Well, if that wasn't bright! What kind of a
-tree is it?”
-
-“It's a white oak,” said Freckles.
-
-“Like those they make dining-tables and sideboards from?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“My! How interesting!” she cried. “I don't know a thing about timber,
-but my father wants me to learn just everything I can. I am going to ask
-him to let me come here and watch you until I know enough to boss a gang
-myself. Do you like to cut trees, gentlemen?” she asked with angelic
-sweetness of the men.
-
-Some of them appeared foolish and some grim, but one managed to say they
-did.
-
-Then the Angel's eyes turned full on Black Jack, and she gave the most
-natural little start of astonishment.
-
-“Oh! I almost thought that you were a ghost!” she cried. “But I see now
-that you are really and truly. Were you ever in Colorado?”
-
-“No,” said Jack.
-
-“I see you aren't the same man,” said the Angel. “You know, we were in
-Colorado last year, and there was a cowboy who was the handsomest man
-anywhere around. He'd come riding into town every night, and all we
-girls just adored him! Oh, but he was a beauty! I thought at first
-glance you were really he, but I see now he wasn't nearly so tall nor so
-broad as you, and only half as handsome.”
-
-The men began to laugh while Jack flushed crimson. The Angel joined in
-the laugh.
-
-“Well, I'll leave it to you! Isn't he handsome?” she challenged. “As for
-that cowboy's face, it couldn't be compared with yours. The only trouble
-with you is that your clothes are spoiling you. It's the dress those
-cowboys wear that makes half their attraction. If you were properly
-clothed, you could break the heart of the prettiest girl in the
-country.”
-
-With one accord the other men looked at Black Jack, and for the first
-time realized that he was a superb specimen of manhood, for he stood six
-feet tall, was broad, well-rounded, and had dark, even skin, big black
-eyes, and full red lips.
-
-“I'll tell you what!” exclaimed the Angel. “I'd just love to see you on
-horseback. Nothing sets a handsome man off so splendidly. Do you ride?”
-
-“Yes,” said Jack, and his eyes were burning on the Angel as if he would
-fathom the depths of her soul.
-
-“Well,” said the Angel winsomely, “I know what I just wish you'd do.
-I wish you would let your hair grow a little longer. Then wear a
-blue flannel shirt a little open at the throat, a red tie, and a
-broad-brimmed felt hat, and ride past my house of evenings. I'm always
-at home then, and almost always on the veranda, and, oh! but I would
-like to see you! Will you do that for me?” It is impossible to describe
-the art with which the Angel asked the question. She was looking
-straight into Jack's face, coarse and hardened with sin and careless
-living, which was now taking on a wholly different expression. The evil
-lines of it were softening and fading under her clear gaze. A dull red
-flamed into his bronze cheeks, while his eyes were growing brightly
-tender.
-
-“Yes,” he said, and the glance he gave the men was of such a nature that
-no one saw fit even to change countenance.
-
-“Oh, goody!” she cried, tilting on her toes. “I'll ask all the girls
-to come see, but they needn't stick in! We can get along without them,
-can't we?”
-
-Jack leaned toward her. He was the charmed fluttering bird, while the
-Angel was the snake.
-
-“Well, I rather guess!” he cried.
-
-The Angel drew a deep breath and surveyed him rapturously.
-
-“My, but you're tall!” she commented. “Do you suppose I ever will grow
-to reach your shoulders?”
-
-She stood on tiptoe and measured the distance with her eyes. Then she
-developed timid confusion, while her glance sought the ground.
-
-“I wish I could do something,” she half whispered.
-
-Jack seemed to increase an inch in height.
-
-“What?” he asked hoarsely.
-
-“Lariat Bill used always to have a bunch of red flowers in his shirt
-pocket. The red lit up his dark eyes and olive cheeks and made him
-splendid. May I put some red flowers on you?”
-
-Freckles stared as he wheezed for breath. He wished the earth would open
-and swallow him. Was he dead or alive? Since his Angel had seen Black
-Jack she never had glanced his way. Was she completely bewitched? Would
-she throw herself at the man's feet before them all? Couldn't she give
-him even one thought? Hadn't she seen that he was gagged and bound? Did
-she truly think that these were McLean's men? Why, she could not! It was
-only a few days ago that she had been close enough to this man and angry
-enough with him to peel the hat from his head with a shot! Suddenly a
-thing she had said jestingly to him one day came back with startling
-force: “You must take Angels on trust.” Of course you must! She was his
-Angel. She must have seen! His life, and what was far more, her own, was
-in her hands. There was nothing he could do but trust her. Surely she
-was working out some plan.
-
-The Angel knelt beside his flower bed and recklessly tore up by the
-roots a big bunch of foxfire.
-
-“These stems are so tough and sticky,” she said. “I can't break them.
-Loan me your knife,” she ordered Freckles.
-
-As she reached for the knife, her back was for one second toward the
-men. She looked into his eyes and deliberately winked.
-
-She severed the stems, tossed the knife to Freckles, and walking to
-Jack, laid the flowers over his heart.
-
-Freckles broke into a sweat of agony. He had said she would be safe in
-a herd of howling savages. Would she? If Black Jack even made a motion
-toward touching her, Freckles knew that from somewhere he would muster
-the strength to kill him. He mentally measured the distance to where his
-club lay and set his muscles for a spring. But no--by the splendor of
-God! The big fellow was baring his head with a hand that was unsteady.
-The Angel pulled one of the long silver pins from her hat and fastened
-her flowers securely.
-
-Freckles was quaking. What was to come next? What was she planning, and
-oh! did she understand the danger of her presence among those men; the
-real necessity for action?
-
-As the Angel stepped from Jack, she turned her head to one side and
-peered at him, quite as Freckles had seen the little yellow fellow do
-on the line a hundred times, and said: “Well, that does the trick! Isn't
-that fine? See how it sets him off, boys? Don't you forget the tie is to
-be red, and the first ride soon. I can't wait very long. Now I must go.
-The Bird Woman will be ready to start, and she will come here hunting me
-next, for she is busy today. What did I come here for anyway?”
-
-She glanced inquiringly around, and several of the men laughed. Oh, the
-delight of it! She had forgotten her errand for him! Jack had a second
-increase in height. The Angel glanced helplessly as if seeking a clue.
-Then her eyes fell, as if by accident, on Freckles, and she cried, “Oh,
-I know now! It was those magazines the Bird Woman promised you. I came
-to tell you that we put them under the box where we hide things, at
-the entrance to the swamp as we came in. I knew I would need my hands
-crossing the swamp, so I hid them there. You'll find them at the same
-old place.”
-
-Then Freckles spoke.
-
-“It's mighty risky for you to be crossing the swamp alone,” he said.
-“I'm surprised that the Bird Woman would be letting you try it. I know
-it's a little farther, but it's begging you I am to be going back by the
-trail. That's bad enough, but it's far safer than the swamp.”
-
-The Angel laughed merrily.
-
-“Oh stop your nonsense!” she cried. “I'm not afraid! Not in the least!
-The Bird Woman didn't want me to try following a path that I'd been over
-only once, but I was sure I could do it, and I'm rather proud of the
-performance. Now, don't go babying! You know I'm not afraid!”
-
-“No,” said Freckles gently, “I know you're not; but that has nothing to
-do with the fact that your friends are afraid for you. On the trail you
-can see your way a bit ahead, and you've all the world a better chance
-if you meet a snake.”
-
-Then Freckles had an inspiration. He turned to Jack imploringly.
-
-“You tell her!” he pleaded. “Tell her to go by the trail. She will for
-you.”
-
-The implication of this statement was so gratifying to Black Jack that
-he seemed again to expand and take on increase before their very eyes.
-
-“You bet!” exclaimed Jack. And to the Angel: “You better take Freckles'
-word for it, miss. He knows the old swamp better than any of us, except
-me, and if he says 'go by the trail,' you'd best do it.”
-
-The Angel hesitated. She wanted to recross the swamp and try to reach
-the horse. She knew Freckles would brave any danger to save her crossing
-the swamp alone, but she really was not afraid, while the trail added
-over a mile to the walk. She knew the path. She intended to run for dear
-life the instant she felt herself from their sight, and tucked in the
-folds of her blouse was a fine little 32-caliber revolver that her
-father had presented her for her share in what he was pleased to call
-her military exploit. One last glance at Freckles showed her the agony
-in his eyes, and immediately she imagined he had some other reason. She
-would follow the trail.
-
-“All right,” she said, giving Jack a thrilling glance. “If you say so,
-I'll return by the trail to please you. Good-bye, everybody.”
-
-She lifted the bushes and started toward the entrance.
-
-“You damned fool! Stop her!” growled Wessner. “Keep her till we're
-loaded, anyhow. You're playing hell! Can't you see that when this thing
-is found out, there she'll be to ruin all of us. If you let her go,
-every man of us has got to cut, and some of us will be caught sure.”
-
-Jack sprang forward. Freckles' heart muffled in his throat. The Angel
-seemed to divine Jack's coming. She was humming a little song. She
-deliberately stopped and began pulling the heads of the curious grasses
-that grew all around her. When she straightened, she took a step
-backward and called: “Ho! Freckles, the Bird Woman wants that natural
-history pamphlet returned. It belongs to a set she is going to have
-bound. That's one of the reasons we put it under the box. You be sure to
-get them as you go home tonight, for fear it rains or becomes damp with
-the heavy dews.”
-
-“All right,” said Freckles, but it was in a voice that he never had
-heard before.
-
-Then the Angel turned and sent a parting glance at Jack. She was
-overpoweringly human and bewitchingly lovely.
-
-“You won't forget that ride and the red tie,” she half asserted, half
-questioned.
-
-Jack succumbed. Freckles was his captive, but he was the Angel's, soul
-and body. His face wore the holiest look it ever had known as he softly
-re-echoed Freckles' “All right.” With her head held well up, the Angel
-walked slowly away, and Jack turned to the men.
-
-“Drop your damned staring and saw wood,” he shouted. “Don't you know
-anything at all about how to treat a lady?” It might have been a
-question which of the cronies that crouched over green wood fires in the
-cabins of Wildcat Hollow, eternally sucking a corncob pipe and stirring
-the endless kettles of stewing coon and opossum, had taught him to do
-even as well as he had by the Angel.
-
-The men muttered and threatened among themselves, but they began working
-desperately. Someone suggested that a man be sent to follow the Angel
-and to watch her and the Bird Woman leave the swamp. Freckles' heart
-sank within him, but Jack was in a delirium and past all caution.
-
-“Yes,” he sneered. “Mebby all of you had better give over on the saw and
-run after the girl. I guess not! Seems to me I got the favors. I didn't
-see no bouquets on the rest of you! If anybody follows her, I do, and
-I'm needed here among such a pack of idiots. There's no danger in that
-baby face. She wouldn't give me away! You double and work like forty,
-while me and Wessner will take the axes and begin to cut in on the other
-side.”
-
-“What about the noise?” asked Wessner.
-
-“No difference about the noise,” answered Jack. “She took us to be from
-McLean's gang, slick as grease. Make the chips fly!”
-
-So all of them attacked the big tree.
-
-Freckles sat on one of his benches and waited. In their haste to fell
-the tree and load it, so that the teamsters could start, and leave them
-free to attack another, they had forgotten to rebind him.
-
-The Angel was on the trail and safely started. The cold perspiration
-made Freckles' temples clammy and ran in little streams down his chest.
-It would take her more time to follow the trail, but her safety was
-Freckles' sole thought in urging her to go that way. He tried to figure
-on how long it would require to walk to the carriage. He wondered if the
-Bird Woman had unhitched. He followed the Angel every step of the way.
-He figured on when she would cross the path of the clearing, pass the
-deep pool where his “find-out” frog lived, cross Sleepy Snake Creek, and
-reach the carriage.
-
-He wondered what she would say to the Bird Woman, and how long it would
-take them to pack and start. He knew now that they would understand, and
-the Angel would try to get the Boss there in time to save his wager.
-She could never do it, for the saw was over half through, and Jack and
-Wessner cutting into the opposite side of the tree. It appeared as if
-they could fell at least that tree, before McLean could come, and if
-they did he lost his wager.
-
-When it was down, would they rebind him and leave him for Wessner to
-wreak his insane vengeance on, or would they take him along to the next
-tree and dispose of him when they had stolen all the timber they could?
-Jack had said that he should not be touched until he left. Surely he
-would not run all that risk for one tree, when he had many others of far
-greater value marked. Freckles felt that he had some hope to cling to
-now, but he found himself praying that the Angel would hurry.
-
-Once Jack came to Freckles and asked if he had any water. Freckles arose
-and showed him where he kept his drinking-water. Jack drank in great
-gulps, and as he passed back the bucket, he said: “When a man's got a
-chance of catching a fine girl like that, he ought not be mixed up in
-any dirty business. I wish to God I was out of this!”
-
-Freckles answered heartily: “I wish I was, too!”
-
-Jack stared at him a minute and then broke into a roar of rough
-laughter.
-
-“Blest if I blame you,” he said. “But you had your chance! We offered
-you a fair thing and you gave Wessner his answer. I ain't envying you
-when he gives you his.”
-
-“You're six to one,” answered Freckles. “It will be easy enough for you
-to be killing the body of me, but, curse you all, you can't blacken me
-soul!”
-
-“Well, I'd give anything you could name if I had your honesty,” said
-Jack.
-
-When the mighty tree fell, the Limberlost shivered and screamed with the
-echo. Freckles groaned in despair, but the gang took heart. That was
-so much accomplished. They knew where to dispose of it safely, with
-no questions asked. Before the day was over, they could remove three
-others, all suitable for veneer and worth far more than this. Then they
-would leave Freckles to Wessner and scatter for safety, with more money
-than they had ever hoped for in their possession.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack Falls
-upon Her
-
-On the line, the Angel gave one backward glance at Black Jack, to see
-that he had returned to his work. Then she gathered her skirts above her
-knees and leaped forward on the run. In the first three yards she passed
-Freckles' wheel. Instantly she imagined that was why he had insisted on
-her coming by the trail. She seized it and sprang on. The saddle was
-too high, but she was an expert rider and could catch the pedals as
-they came up. She stopped at Duncan's cabin long enough to remedy this,
-telling Mrs. Duncan while working what was happening, and for her to
-follow the east trail until she found the Bird Woman, and told her that
-she had gone after McLean and for her to leave the swamp as quickly as
-possible.
-
-Even with her fear for Freckles to spur her, Sarah Duncan blanched and
-began shivering at the idea of facing the Limberlost. The Angel looked
-her in the eyes.
-
-“No matter how afraid you are, you have to go,” she said. “If you don't
-the Bird Woman will go to Freckles' room, hunting me, and they will have
-trouble with her. If she isn't told to leave at once, they may follow
-me, and, finding I'm gone, do some terrible thing to Freckles. I can't
-go--that's flat--for if they caught me, then there'd be no one to go
-for help. You don't suppose they are going to take out the trees they're
-after and then leave Freckles to run and tell? They are going to murder
-the boy; that's what they are going to do. You run, and run for life!
-For Freckles' life! You can ride back with the Bird Woman.”
-
-The Angel saw Mrs. Duncan started; then began her race.
-
-Those awful miles of corduroy! Would they never end? She did not dare
-use the wheel too roughly, for if it broke she never could arrive on
-time afoot. Where her way was impassable for the wheel, she jumped off,
-and pushing it beside her or carrying it, she ran as fast as she could.
-The day was fearfully warm. The sun poured with the fierce baking heat
-of August. The bushes claimed her hat, and she did not stop for it.
-
-Where it was at all possible, the Angel mounted and pounded over the
-corduroy again. She was panting for breath and almost worn out when she
-reached the level pike. She had no idea how long she had been--and only
-two miles covered. She leaned over the bars, almost standing on the
-pedals, racing with all the strength in her body. The blood surged in
-her ears while her head swam, but she kept a straight course, and rode
-and rode. It seemed to her that she was standing still, while the trees
-and houses were racing past her.
-
-Once a farmer's big dog rushed angrily into the road and she swerved
-until she almost fell, but she regained her balance, and setting her
-muscles, pedaled as fast as she could. At last she lifted her head.
-Surely it could not be over a mile more. She had covered two of corduroy
-and at least three of gravel, and it was only six in all.
-
-She was reeling in the saddle, but she gripped the bars with new energy,
-and raced desperately. The sun beat on her bare head and hands. Just
-when she was choking with dust, and almost prostrate with heat and
-exhaustion--crash, she ran into a broken bottle. Snap! went the tire;
-the wheel swerved and pitched over. The Angel rolled into the thick
-yellow dust of the road and lay quietly.
-
-From afar, Duncan began to notice a strange, dust-covered object in the
-road, as he headed toward town with the first load of the day's felling.
-
-He chirruped to the bays and hurried them all he could. As he neared the
-Angel, he saw it was a woman and a broken wheel. He was beside her in an
-instant. He carried her to a shaded fence-corner, stretched her on
-the grass, and wiped the dust from the lovely face all dirt-streaked,
-crimson, and bearing a startling whiteness around the mouth and nose.
-
-Wheels were common enough. Many of the farmers' daughters owned and
-rode them, but he knew these same farmers' daughters; this face was a
-stranger's. He glanced at the Angel's tumbled clothing, the silkiness of
-her hair, with its pale satin ribbon, and noticed that she had lost her
-hat. Her lips tightened in an ominous quiver. He left her and picked
-up the wheel: as he had surmised, he knew it. This, then, was Freckles'
-Swamp Angel. There was trouble in the Limberlost, and she had broken
-down racing to McLean. Duncan turned the bays into a fence-corner, tied
-one of them, unharnessed the other, fastened up the trace chains, and
-hurried to the nearest farmhouse to send help to the Angel. He found a
-woman, who took a bottle of camphor, a jug of water, and some towels,
-and started on the run.
-
-Then Duncan put the bay to speed and raced to camp.
-
-The Angel, left alone, lay still for a second, then she shivered and
-opened her eyes. She saw that she was on the grass and the broken wheel
-beside her. Instantly she realized that someone had carried her there
-and gone after help. She sat up and looked around. She noticed the load
-of logs and the one horse. Someone was riding after help for her!
-
-“Oh, poor Freckles!” she wailed. “They may be killing him by now. Oh,
-how much time have I wasted?”
-
-She hurried to the other bay, her fingers flying as she set him free.
-Snatching up a big blacksnake whip that lay on the ground, she caught
-the hames, stretched along the horse's neck, and, for the first time,
-the fine, big fellow felt on his back the quality of the lash that
-Duncan was accustomed to crack over him. He was frightened, and ran at
-top speed.
-
-The Angel passed a wildly waving, screaming woman on the road, and a
-little later a man riding as if he, too, were in great haste. The man
-called to her, but she only lay lower and used the whip. Soon the feet
-of the man's horse sounded farther and farther away.
-
-At the South camp they were loading a second wagon, when the Angel
-appeared riding one of Duncan's bays, lathered and dripping, and cried:
-“Everybody go to Freckles! There are thieves stealing trees, and they
-had him bound. They're going to kill him!”
-
-She wheeled the horse toward the Limberlost. The alarm sounded through
-camp. The gang were not unprepared. McLean sprang to Nellie's back and
-raced after the Angel. As they passed Duncan, he wheeled and followed.
-Soon the pike was an irregular procession of barebacked riders, wildly
-driving flying horses toward the swamp.
-
-The Boss rode neck-and-neck with the Angel. He repeatedly commanded her
-to stop and fall out of line, until he remembered that he would need her
-to lead him to Freckles. Then he gave up and rode beside her, for she
-was sending the bay at as sharp a pace as the other horses could keep
-and hold out. He could see that she was not hearing him. He glanced back
-and saw that Duncan was close. There was something terrifying in the
-appearance of the big man, and the manner in which he sat his beast and
-rode. It would be a sad day for the man on whom Duncan's wrath broke.
-There were four others close behind him, and the pike filling with the
-remainder of the gang; so McLean took heart and raced beside the Angel.
-Over and over he asked her where the trouble was, but she only gripped
-the hames, leaned along the bay's neck, and slashed away with the
-blacksnake. The steaming horse, with crimson nostrils and heaving sides,
-stretched out and ran for home with all the speed there was in him.
-
-When they passed the cabin, the Bird Woman's carriage was there and Mrs.
-Duncan in the door wringing her hands, but the Bird Woman was nowhere to
-be seen. The Angel sent the bay along the path and turned into the west
-trail, while the men bunched and followed her. When she reached the
-entrance to Freckles' room, there were four men with her, and two more
-very close behind. She slid from the horse, and snatching the little
-revolver from her pocket, darted toward the bushes. McLean caught them
-back, and with drawn weapon, pressed beside her. There they stopped in
-astonishment.
-
-The Bird Woman blocked the entrance. Over a small limb lay her revolver.
-It was trained at short range on Black Jack and Wessner, who stood with
-their hands above their heads.
-
-Freckles, with the blood trickling down his face, from an ugly cut in
-his temple, was gagged and bound to the tree again; the remainder of the
-men were gone. Black Jack was raving as a maniac, and when they looked
-closer it was only the left arm that he raised. His right, with the
-hand shattered, hung helpless at his side, while his revolver lay
-at Freckles' feet. Wessner's weapon was in his belt, and beside him
-Freckles' club.
-
-Freckles' face was white, with colorless lips, but in his eyes was the
-strength of undying courage. McLean pushed past the Bird Woman crying.
-“Hold steady on them only one minute more!”
-
-He snatched the revolver from Wessner's belt, and stooped for Jack's.
-
-At that instant the Angel rushed past. She tore the gag from Freckles,
-and seizing the rope knotted on his chest, she tugged at it desperately.
-Under her fingers it gave way, and she hurled it to McLean. The men were
-crowding in, and Duncan seized Wessner. As the Angel saw Freckles stand
-out, free, she reached her arms to him and pitched forward. A fearful
-oath burst from the lips of Black Jack. To have saved his life, Freckles
-could not have avoided the glance of triumph he gave Jack, when folding
-the Angel in his arms and stretching her on the mosses.
-
-The Bird Woman cried out sharply for water as she ran to them. Someone
-sprang to bring that, and another to break open the case for brandy.
-As McLean arose from binding Wessner, there was a cry that Jack was
-escaping.
-
-He was already far in the swamp, running for its densest part in leaping
-bounds. Every man who could be spared plunged after him.
-
-Other members of the gang arriving, were sent to follow the tracks
-of the wagons. The teamsters had driven from the west entrance, and
-crossing the swale, had taken the same route the Bird Woman and the
-Angel had before them. There had been ample time for the drivers to
-reach the road; after that they could take any one of four directions.
-Traffic was heavy, and lumber wagons were passing almost constantly,
-so the men turned back and joined the more exciting hunt for a man.
-The remainder of the gang joined them, also farmers of the region and
-travelers attracted by the disturbance.
-
-Watchers were set along the trail at short intervals. They patrolled the
-line and roads through the swamp that night, with lighted torches, and
-the next day McLean headed as thorough a search as he felt could be made
-of one side, while Duncan covered the other; but Black Jack could not be
-found. Spies were set around his home, in Wildcat Hollow, to ascertain
-if he reached there or aid was being sent in any direction to him; but
-it was soon clear that his relatives were ignorant of his hiding-place,
-and were searching for him.
-
-Great is the elasticity of youth. A hot bath and a sound night's sleep
-renewed Freckles' strength, and it needed but little more to work the
-same result with the Angel. Freckles was on the trail early the next
-morning. Besides a crowd of people anxious to witness Jack's capture,
-he found four stalwart guards, one at each turn. In his heart he was
-compelled to admit that he was glad to have them there. Close noon,
-McLean placed his men in charge of Duncan, and taking Freckles, drove to
-town to see how the Angel fared. McLean visited a greenhouse and bought
-an armload of its finest products; but Freckles would have none of them.
-He would carry his message in a glowing mass of the Limberlost's first
-goldenrod.
-
-The Bird Woman received them, and in answer to their eager inquiries,
-said that the Angel was in no way seriously injured, only so bruised
-and shaken that their doctor had ordered her to lie quietly for the day.
-Though she was sore and stiff, they were having work to keep her in bed.
-Her callers sent up their flowers with their grateful regards, and the
-Angel promptly returned word that she wanted to see them.
-
-She reached both hands to McLean. “What if one old tree is gone? You
-don't care, sir? You feel that Freckles has kept his trust as nobody
-ever did before, don't you? You won't forget all those long first days
-of fright that you told us of, the fearful cold of winter, the rain,
-heat, and lonesomeness, and the brave days, and lately, nights, too, and
-let him feel that his trust is broken? Oh, Mr. McLean,” she begged,
-“say something to him! Do something to make him feel that it isn't for
-nothing he has watched and suffered it out with that old Limberlost.
-Make him see how great and fine it is, and how far, far better he has
-done than you or any of us expected! What's one old tree, anyway?” she
-cried passionately.
-
-“I was thinking before you came. Those other men were rank big cowards.
-They were scared for their lives. If they were the drivers, I wager you
-gloves against gloves they never took those logs out to the pike. My
-coming upset them. Before you feel bad any more, you go look and see if
-they didn't lose courage the minute they left Wessner and Black Jack,
-dump that timber and run. I don't believe they ever had the grit to
-drive out with it in daylight. Go see if they didn't figure on leaving
-the way we did the other morning, and you'll find the logs before you
-reach the road. They never risked taking them into the open, when they
-got away and had time to think. Of course they didn't!
-
-“And, then, another thing. You haven't lost your wager! It never will
-be claimed, because you made it with a stout, dark, red-faced man who
-drives a bay and a gray. He was right back of you, Mr. McLean, when I
-came yesterday. He went deathly white and shook on his feet when he saw
-those men probably would be caught. Some one of them was something to
-him, and you can just spot him for one of the men at the bottom of your
-troubles, and urging those younger fellows to steal from you. I suppose
-he'd promised to divide. You settle with him, and that business will
-stop.”
-
-She turned to Freckles. “And you be the happiest man alive, because you
-have kept your trust. Go look where I tell you and you'll find the logs.
-I can see just about where they are. When they go up that steep little
-hill, into the next woods after the cornfield, why, they could unloose
-the chains and the logs would roll from the wagons themselves. Now, you
-go look; and Mr. McLean, you do feel that Freckles has been brave and
-faithful? You won't love him any the less even if you don't find the
-logs.”
-
-The Angel's nerve gave way and she began to cry. Freckles could not
-endure it. He almost ran from the room, with the tears in his eyes; but
-McLean took the Angel from the Bird Woman's arms, and kissed her brave
-little face, stroked her hair, and petted her into quietness before he
-left.
-
-As they drove to the swamp, McLean so earnestly seconded all that the
-Angel had said that he soon had the boy feeling much better.
-
-“Freckles, your Angel has a spice of the devil in her, but she's superb!
-You needn't spend any time questioning or bewailing anything she does.
-Just worship blindly, my boy. By heaven! she's sense, courage, and
-beauty for half a dozen girls,” said McLean.
-
-“It's altogether right you are, sir,” affirmed Freckles heartily.
-Presently he added, “There's no question but the series is over now.”
-
-“Don't think it!” answered McLean. “The Bird Woman is working for
-success, and success along any line is not won by being scared out. She
-will be back on the usual day, and ten to one, the Angel will be with
-her. They are made of pretty stern stuff, and they don't scare worth
-a cent. Before I left, I told the Bird Woman it would be safe; and it
-will. You may do your usual walking, but those four guards are there to
-remain. They are under your orders absolutely. They are prohibited from
-firing on any bird or molesting anything that you want to protect, but
-there they remain, and this time it is useless for you to say one word.
-I have listened to your pride too long. You are too precious to me, and
-that voice of yours is too precious to the world to run any more risks.”
-
-“I am sorry to have anything spoil the series,” said Freckles, “and I'd
-love them to be coming, the Angel especial, but it can't be. You'll have
-to tell them so. You see, Jack would have been ready to stake his life
-she meant what she said and did to him. When the teams pulled out,
-Wessner seized me; then he and Jack went to quarreling over whether they
-should finish me then or take me to the next tree they were for felling.
-Between them they were pulling me around and hurting me bad. Wessner
-wanted to get at me right then, and Jack said he shouldn't be touching
-me till the last tree was out and all the rest of them gone. I'm
-belaying Jack really hated to see me done for in the beginning; and
-I think, too, he was afraid if Wessner finished me then he'd lose his
-nerve and cut, and they couldn't be managing the felling without him;
-anyway, they were hauling me round like I was already past all feeling,
-and they tied me up again. To keep me courage up, I twits Wessner about
-having to tie me and needing another man to help handle me. I told him
-what I'd do to him if I was free, and he grabs up me own club and lays
-open me head with it. When the blood came streaming, it set Jack raving,
-and he cursed and damned Wessner for a coward and a softy. Then Wessner
-turned on Jack and gives it to him for letting the Angel make a fool of
-him. Tells him she was just playing with him, and beyond all manner of
-doubt she'd gone after you, and there was nothing to do on account of
-his foolishness but finish me, get out, and let the rest of the timber
-go, for likely you was on the way right then. That drove Jack plum
-crazy.
-
-“I don't think he was for having a doubt of the Angel before, but then
-he just raved. He grabbed out his gun and turned on Wessner. Spang! It
-went out of his fist, and the order comes: 'Hands up!' Wessner reached
-for kingdom come like he was expecting to grab hold and pull himself
-up. Jack puts up what he has left. Then he leans over to me and tells me
-what he'll do to me if he ever gets out of there alive. Then, just like
-a snake hissing, he spits out what he'll do to her for playing him. He
-did get away, and with his strength, that wound in his hand won't be
-bothering him long. He'll do to me just what he said, and when he hears
-it really was she that went after you, why, he'll keep his oath about
-her.
-
-“He's lived in the swamp all his life, sir, and everybody says it's
-always been the home of cutthroats, outlaws, and runaways. He knows its
-most secret places as none of the others. He's alive. He's in there now,
-sir. Some way he'll keep alive. If you'd seen his face, all scarlet with
-passion, twisted with pain, and black with hate, and heard him swearing
-that oath, you'd know it was a sure thing. I ain't done with him yet,
-and I've brought this awful thing on her.”
-
-“And I haven't begun with him yet,” said McLean, setting his teeth.
-“I've been away too slow and too easy, believing there'd be no greater
-harm than the loss of a tree. I've sent for a couple of first-class
-detectives. We will put them on his track, and rout him out and rid the
-country of him. I don't propose for him to stop either our work or our
-pleasure. As for his being in the swamp now, I don't believe it. He'd
-find a way out last night, in spite of us. Don't you worry! I am at the
-helm now, and I'll see to that gentleman in my own way.”
-
-“I wish to my soul you had seen and heard him!” said Freckles,
-unconvinced.
-
-They entered the swamp, taking the route followed by the Bird Woman and
-the Angel. They really did find the logs, almost where the Angel had
-predicted they would be. McLean went to the South camp and had an
-interview with Crowen that completely convinced him that the Angel
-was correct there also. But he had no proof, so all he could do was to
-discharge the man, although his guilt was so apparent that he offered to
-withdraw the wager.
-
-Then McLean sent for a pack of bloodhounds and put them on the trail of
-Black Jack. They clung to it, on and on, into the depths of the swamp,
-leading their followers through what had been considered impassable and
-impenetrable ways, and finally, around near the west entrance and into
-the swale. Here the dogs bellowed, raved, and fell over each other in
-their excitement. They raced back and forth from swamp to swale, but
-follow the scent farther they would not, even though cruelly driven. At
-last their owner attributed their actions to snakes, and as they were
-very valuable dogs, abandoned the effort to urge them on. So that all
-they really established was the fact that Black Jack had eluded their
-vigilance and crossed the trail some time in the night. He had escaped
-to the swale; from there he probably crossed the corduroy, and reaching
-the lower end of the swamp, had found friends. It was a great relief to
-feel that he was not in the swamp, and it raised the spirits of every
-man on the line, though many of them expressed regrets that he who
-was undoubtedly most to blame should escape, while Wessner, who in the
-beginning was only his tool, should be left to punishment.
-
-But for Freckles, with Jack's fearful oath ringing in his ears, there
-was neither rest nor peace. He was almost ill when the day for the next
-study of the series arrived and he saw the Bird Woman and the Angel
-coming down the corduroy. The guards of the east line he left at their
-customary places, but those of the west he brought over and placed, one
-near Little Chicken's tree, and the other at the carriage. He was firm
-about the Angel's remaining in the carriage, that he did not offer to
-have unhitched. He went with the Bird Woman to secure the picture,
-which was the easiest matter it had been at any time yet, for the simple
-reason that the placing of the guards and the unusual movement around
-the swamp had made Mr. and Mrs. Chicken timid, and they had not carried
-Little Chicken the customary amount of food. Freckles, in the anxiety of
-the past few days, had neglected him, and he had been so hungry, much
-of the time, that when the Bird Woman held up a sweet-bread, although
-he had started toward the recesses of the log at her coming, he stopped;
-with slightly opened beak, he waited anxiously for the treat, and gave a
-study of great value, showing every point of his head, also his wing and
-tail development.
-
-When the Bird Woman proposed to look for other subjects close about the
-line, Freckles went so far as to tell her that Jack had made fearful
-threats against the Angel. He implored her to take the Angel home and
-keep her under unceasing guard until Jack was located. He wanted to
-tell her all about it, but he knew how dear the Angel was to her, and he
-dreaded to burden her with his fears when they might prove groundless.
-He allowed her to go, but afterward blamed himself severely for having
-done so.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV
-
-Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-
-“McLean,” said Mrs. Duncan, as the Boss paused to greet her in passing
-the cabin, “do you know that Freckles hasna been in bed the past five
-nights and all he's eaten in that many days ye could pack into a pint
-cup?”
-
-“Why, what does the boy mean?” demanded McLean. “There's no necessity
-for him being on guard, with the watch I've set on the line. I had no
-idea he was staying down there.”
-
-“He's no there,” said Mrs. Duncan. “He goes somewhere else. He leaves
-on his wheel juist after we're abed and rides in close cock-crow or a
-little earlier, and he's looking like death and nothing short of it.”
-
-“But where does he go?” asked McLean in astonishment.
-
-“I'm no given to bearing tales out of school,” said Sarah Duncan, “but
-in this case I'd tell ye if I could. What the trouble is I dinna ken. If
-it is no' stopped, he's in for dreadful sickness, and I thought ye could
-find out and help him. He's in sair trouble; that's all I know.”
-
-McLean sat brooding as he stroked Nellie's neck.
-
-At last he said: “I suspect I understand. At any rate, I think I can
-find out. Thank you for telling me.”
-
-“Ye'll no need telling, once ye clap your eyes on him,” prophesied
-Mrs. Duncan. “His face is all a glist'ny yellow, and he's peaked as a
-starving caged bird.”
-
-McLean rode to the Limberlost, and stopping in the shade, sat waiting
-for Freckles, whose hour for passing the foot of the lease had come.
-
-Along the north line came Freckles, fairly staggering. When he turned
-east and reached Sleepy Snake Creek, sliding through the swale as the
-long black snake for which it was named, he sat on the bridge and closed
-his burning eyes, but they would not remain shut. As if pulled by wires,
-the heavy lids flew open, while the outraged nerves and muscles of his
-body danced, twitched, and tingled.
-
-He bent forward and idly watched the limpid little stream flowing
-beneath his feet. Stretching into the swale, it came creeping between
-an impenetrable wall of magnificent wild flowers, vines, and ferns.
-Milkweed, goldenrod, ironwort, fringed gentians, cardinal-flowers, and
-turtle-head stood on the very edge of the creek, and every flower of
-them had a double in the water. Wild clematis crowned with snow the
-heads of trees scattered here and there on the bank.
-
-From afar the creek appeared to be murky, dirty water. Really it was
-clear and sparkling. The tinge of blackness was gained from its bed of
-muck showing through the transparent current. He could see small and
-wonderfully marked fish. What became of them when the creek spread into
-the swamp? For one thing, they would make mighty fine eating for the
-family of that self-satisfied old blue heron.
-
-Freckles sat so quietly that soon the brim of his hat was covered with
-snake-feeders, rasping their crisp wings and singing while they rested.
-Some of them settled on the club, and one on his shoulder. He was so
-motionless; feathers, fur, and gauze were so accustomed to him, that
-all through the swale they continued their daily life and forgot he was
-there.
-
-The heron family were wading the mouth of the creek. Freckles idly
-wondered whether the nerve-racking rasps they occasionally emitted
-indicated domestic felicity or a raging quarrel. He could not decide. A
-sheitpoke, with flaring crest, went stalking across a bare space
-close to the creek's mouth. A stately brown bittern waded into the
-clear-flowing water, lifting his feet high at every step, and setting
-them down carefully, as if he dreaded wetting them, and with slightly
-parted beak, stood eagerly watching around him for worms. Behind him
-were some mighty trees of the swamp above, and below the bank glowed a
-solid wall of goldenrod.
-
-No wonder the ancients had chosen yellow as the color to represent
-victory, for the fierce, conquering hue of the sun was in it. They had
-done well, too, in selecting purple as the emblem of royalty. It was a
-dignified, compelling color, while in its warm tone there was a hint of
-blood.
-
-It was the Limberlost's hour to proclaim her sovereignty and triumph.
-Everywhere she flaunted her yellow banner and trailed the purple of her
-mantle, that was paler in the thistle-heads, took on strength in the
-first opening asters, and glowed and burned in the ironwort.
-
-He gazed into her damp, mossy recesses where high-piled riven trees
-decayed under coats of living green, where dainty vines swayed and
-clambered, and here and there a yellow leaf, fluttering down, presaged
-the coming of winter. His love of the swamp laid hold of him and shook
-him with its force.
-
-Compellingly beautiful was the Limberlost, but cruel withal; for inside
-bleached the uncoffined bones of her victims, while she had missed
-cradling him, oh! so narrowly.
-
-He shifted restlessly; the movement sent the snake-feeders skimming. The
-hum of life swelled and roared in his strained ears. Small turtles, that
-had climbed on a log to sun, splashed clumsily into the water. Somewhere
-in the timber of the bridge a bloodthirsty little frog cried sharply.
-“KEEL'IM! KEEL'IM!”
-
-Freckles muttered: “It's worse than that Black Jack swore to do to me,
-little fellow.”
-
-A muskrat waddled down the bank and swam for the swamp, its pointed nose
-riffling the water into a shining trail in its wake.
-
-Then, below the turtle-log, a dripping silver-gray head, with shining
-eyes, was cautiously lifted, and Freckles' hand slid to his revolver.
-Higher and higher came the head, a long, heavy, furcoated body arose,
-now half, now three-fourths from the water. Freckles looked at his
-shaking hand and doubted, but he gathered his forces, the shot rang, and
-the otter lay quiet. He hurried down and tried to lift it. He scarcely
-could muster strength to carry it to the bridge. The consciousness that
-he really could go no farther with it made Freckles realize the fact
-that he was close the limit of human endurance. He could bear it little,
-if any, longer. Every hour the dear face of the Angel wavered before
-him, and behind it the awful distorted image of Black Jack, as he had
-sworn to the punishment he would mete out to her. He must either see
-McLean, or else make a trip to town and find her father. Which should
-he do? He was almost a stranger, so the Angel's father might not be
-impressed with what he said as he would if McLean went to him. Then he
-remembered that McLean had said he would come that morning. Freckles
-never had forgotten before. He hurried on the east trail as fast as his
-tottering legs would carry him.
-
-He stopped when he came to the first guard, and telling him of his luck,
-asked him to get the otter and carry it to the cabin, as he was anxious
-to meet McLean.
-
-Freckles passed the second guard without seeing him, and hurried to the
-Boss. He took off his hat, wiped his forehead, and stood silent under
-the eyes of McLean.
-
-The Boss was dumbfounded. Mrs. Duncan had led him to expect that he
-would find a change in Freckles, but this was almost deathly. The fact
-was apparent that the boy scarcely knew what he was doing. His eyes had
-a glazed, far-sighted appearance, that wrung the heart of the man who
-loved him. Without a thought of preliminaries, McLean leaned in the
-saddle and drew Freckles to him.
-
-“My poor lad!” he said. “My poor, dear lad! tell me, and we will try to
-right it!”
-
-Freckles had twisted his fingers in Nellie's mane. At the kind words his
-face dropped on McLean's thigh and he shook with a nervous chill. McLean
-gathered him closer and waited.
-
-When the guard came with the otter, McLean without a word motioned him
-to lay it down and leave them.
-
-“Freckles,” said McLean at last, “will you tell me, or must I set to
-work in the dark and try to find the trouble?”
-
-“Oh, I want to tell you! I must tell you, sir,” shuddered Freckles.
-“I cannot be bearing it the day out alone. I was coming to you when I
-remimbered you would be here.”
-
-He lifted his face and gazed across the swale, with his jaws set firmly
-a minute, as if gathering his forces. Then he spoke.
-
-“It's the Angel, sir,” he said.
-
-Instinctively McLean's grip on him tightened, and Freckles looked into
-the Boss's face in wonder.
-
-“I tried, the other day,” said Freckles, “and I couldn't seem to make
-you see. It's only that there hasn't been an hour, waking or sleeping,
-since the day she parted the bushes and looked into me room, that the
-face of her hasn't been before me in all the tinderness, beauty, and
-mischief of it. She talked to me friendly like. She trusted me entirely
-to take right care of her. She helped me with things about me books. She
-traited me like I was born a gintleman, and shared with me as if I were
-of her own blood. She walked the streets of the town with me before her
-friends with all the pride of a queen. She forgot herself and didn't
-mind the Bird Woman, and run big risks to help me out that first day,
-sir. This last time she walked into that gang of murderers, took their
-leader, and twisted him to the will of her. She outdone him and raced
-the life almost out of her trying to save me.
-
-“Since I can remimber, whatever the thing was that happened to me in the
-beginning has been me curse. I've been bitter, hard, and smarting under
-it hopelessly. She came by, and found me voice, and put hope of life and
-success like other men into me in spite of it.”
-
-Freckles held up his maimed arm.
-
-“Look at it, sir!” he said. “A thousand times I've cursed it, hanging
-there helpless. She took it on the street, before all the people, just
-as if she didn't see that it was a thing to hide and shrink from. Again
-and again I've had the feeling with her, if I didn't entirely forget it,
-that she didn't see it was gone and I must he pointing it out to her.
-Her touch on it was so sacred-like, at times since I've caught meself
-looking at the awful thing near like I was proud of it, sir. If I had
-been born your son she couldn't be traiting me more as her equal, and
-she can't help knowing you ain't truly me father. Nobody can know the
-homeliness or the ignorance of me better than I do, and all me lack of
-birth, relatives, and money, and what's it all to her?”
-
-Freckles stepped back, squared his shoulders, and with a royal lift of
-his head looked straight into the Boss's eyes.
-
-“You saw her in the beautiful little room of her, and you can't be
-forgetting how she begged and plead with you for me. She touched me
-body, and 'twas sanctified. She laid her lips on my brow, and 'twas
-sacrament. Nobody knows the height of her better than me. Nobody's
-studied my depths closer. There's no bridge for the great distance
-between us, sir, and clearest of all, I'm for realizing it: but she
-risked terrible things when she came to me among that gang of thieves.
-She wore herself past bearing to save me from such an easy thing as
-death! Now, here's me, a man, a big, strong man, and letting her live
-under that fearful oath, so worse than any death 'twould be for her, and
-lifting not a finger to save her. I cannot hear it, sir. It's killing me
-by inches! Black Jack's hand may not have been hurt so bad. Any hour he
-may be creeping up behind her! Any minute the awful revenge he swore
-to be taking may in some way fall on her, and I haven't even warned her
-father. I can't stay here doing nothing another hour. The five nights
-gone I've watched under her windows, but there's the whole of the day.
-She's her own horse and little cart, and's free to be driving through
-the town and country as she pleases. If any evil comes to her through
-Black Jack, it comes from her angel-like goodness to me. Somewhere he's
-hiding! Somewhere he is waiting his chance! Somewhere he is reaching out
-for her! I tell you I cannot, I dare not be bearing it longer!”
-
-“Freckles, be quiet!” said McLean, his eyes humid and his voice
-quivering with the pity of it all. “Believe me, I did not understand.
-I know the Angel's father well. I will go to him at once. I have
-transacted business with him for the past three years. I will make him
-see! I am only beginning to realize your agony, and the real danger
-there is for the Angel. Believe me, I will see that she is fully
-protected every hour of the day and night until Jack is located and
-disposed of. And I promise you further, that if I fail to move her
-father or make him understand the danger, I will maintain a guard over
-her until Jack is caught. Now will you go bathe, drink some milk, go to
-bed, and sleep for hours, and then be my brave, bright old boy again?”
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles simply.
-
-But McLean could see the flesh was twitching on the lad's bones.
-
-“What was it the guard brought there?” McLean asked in an effort to
-distract Freckles' thoughts.
-
-“Oh!” Freckles said, glancing where the Boss pointed, “I forgot it! 'Tis
-an otter, and fine past believing, for this warm weather. I shot it at
-the creek this morning. 'Twas a good shot, considering. I expected to
-miss.”
-
-Freckles picked up the animal and started toward McLean with it, but
-Nellie pricked up her dainty little ears, danced into the swale, and
-snorted with fright. Freckles dropped the otter and ran to her head.
-
-“For pity's sake, get her on the trail, sir,” he begged. “She's just
-about where the old king rattler crosses to go into the swamp--the old
-buster Duncan and I have been telling you of. I haven't a doubt but it
-was the one Mother Duncan met. 'Twas down the trail there, just a little
-farther on, that I found her, and it's sure to be close yet.”
-
-McLean slid from Nellie's back, led her into the trail farther down the
-line, and tied her to a bush. Then he went to examine the otter. It was
-a rare, big specimen, with exquisitely fine, long, silky hair.
-
-“What do you want to do with it, Freckles?” asked McLean, as he stroked
-the soft fur lingeringly. “Do you know that it is very valuable?”
-
-“I was for almost praying so, sir,” said Freckles. “As I saw it coming
-up the bank I thought this: Once somewhere in a book there was a picture
-of a young girl, and she was just a breath like the beautifulness of the
-Angel. Her hands were in a muff as big as her body, and I thought it
-was so pretty. I think she was some queen, or the like. Do you suppose
-I could have this skin tanned and made into such a muff as that?--an
-enormous big one, sir?”
-
-“Of course you can,” said McLean. “That's a fine idea and it's easy
-enough. We must box and express the otter, cold storage, by the first
-train. You stand guard a minute and I'll tell Hall to carry it to the
-cabin. I'll put Nellie to Duncan's rig, and we'll drive to town and call
-on the Angel's father. Then we'll start the otter while it is fresh, and
-I'll write your instructions later. It would be a mighty fine thing for
-you to give to the Angel as a little reminder of the Limberlost before
-it is despoiled, and as a souvenir of her trip for you.”
-
-Freckles lifted a face with a glow of happy color creeping into it and
-eyes lighting with a former brightness. Throwing his arms around McLean,
-he cried: “Oh, how I love you! Oh, I wish I could make you know how I
-love you!”
-
-McLean strained him to his breast.
-
-“God bless you, Freckles,” he said. “I do know! We're going to have some
-good old times out of this world together, and we can't begin too soon.
-Would you rather sleep first, or have a bite of lunch, take the drive
-with me, and then rest? I don't know but sleep will come sooner and
-deeper to take the ride and have your mind set at ease before you lie
-down. Suppose you go.”
-
-“Suppose I do,” said Freckles, with a glimmer of the old light in his
-eyes and newly found strength to shoulder the otter. Together they
-turned into the trail.
-
-McLean noticed and spoke of the big black chickens.
-
-“They've been hanging round out there for several days past,” said
-Freckles. “I'll tell you what I think it means. I think the old rattler
-has killed something too big for him to swallow, and he's keeping guard
-and won't let me chickens have it. I'm just sure, from the way the birds
-have acted out there all summer, that it is the rattler's den. You watch
-them now. See the way they dip and then rise, frightened like!”
-
-Suddenly McLean turned toward him with blanching face
-
-“Freckles!” he cried.
-
-“My God, sir!” shuddered Freckles.
-
-He dropped the otter, caught up his club, and plunged into the swale.
-Reaching for his revolver, McLean followed. The chickens circled higher
-at their coming, and the big snake lifted his head and rattled angrily.
-It sank in sinuous coils at the report of McLean's revolver, and
-together he and Freckles stood beside Black Jack. His fate was evident
-and most horrible.
-
-“Come,” said the Boss at last. “We don't dare touch him. We will get
-a sheet from Mrs. Duncan and tuck over him, to keep these swarms of
-insects away, and set Hall on guard, while we find the officers.”
-
-Freckles' lips closed resolutely. He deliberately thrust his club under
-Black Jack's body, and, raising him, rested it on his knee. He pulled
-a long silver pin from the front of the dead man's shirt and sent it
-spinning into the swale. Then he gathered up a few crumpled bright
-flowers and dropped them into the pool far away.
-
-“My soul is sick with the horror of this thing,” said McLean, as he
-and Freckles drove toward town. “I can't understand how Jack dared risk
-creeping through the swale, even in desperation. No one knew its dangers
-better than he. And why did he choose the rankest, muckiest place to
-cross the swamp?”
-
-“Don't you think, sir, it was because it was on a line with the
-Limberlost south of the corduroy? The grass was tallest there, and he
-counted on those willows to screen him. Once he got among them, he would
-have been safe to walk by stooping. If he'd made it past that place,
-he'd been sure to get out.”
-
-“Well, I'm as sorry for Jack as I know how to be,” said McLean, “but
-I can't help feeling relieved that our troubles are over, for now they
-are. With so dreadful a punishment for Jack, Wessner under arrest, and
-warrants for the others, we can count on their going away and remaining.
-As for anyone else, I don't think they will care to attempt stealing
-my timber after the experience of these men. There is no other man here
-with Jack's fine ability in woodcraft. He was an expert.”
-
-“Did you ever hear of anyone who ever tried to locate any trees
-excepting him?” asked Freckles.
-
-“No, I never did,” said McLean. “I am sure there was no one besides
-him. You see, it was only with the arrival of our company that the other
-fellows scented good stuff in the Limberlost, and tried to work in. Jack
-knew the swamp better than anyone here. When he found there were two
-companies trying to lease, he wanted to stand in with the one from which
-he could realize the most. Even then he had trees marked that he was
-trying to dispose of. I think his sole intention in forcing me to
-discharge him from my gang was to come here and try to steal timber. We
-had no idea, when we took the lease, what a gold mine it was.”
-
-“That's exactly what Wessner said that first day,” said Freckles
-eagerly. “That 'twas a 'gold mine'! He said he didn't know where the
-marked trees were, but he knew a man who did, and if I would hold off
-and let them get the marked ones, there were a dozen they could get out
-in a few days.”
-
-“Freckles!” cried McLean. “You don't mean a dozen!”
-
-“That's what he said, sir--a dozen. He said they couldn't tell how the
-grain of all of them would work up, of course, but they were all worth
-taking out, and five or six were real gold mines. This makes three
-they've tried, so there must be nine more marked, and several of them
-for being just fine.”
-
-“Well, I wish I knew which they are,” said McLean, “so I could get them
-out first.”
-
-“I have been thinking,” said Freckles. “I believe if you will leave one
-of the guards on the line--say Hall--that I will begin on the swamp,
-at the north end, and lay it off in sections, and try to hunt out the
-marked trees. I suppose they are all marked something like that first
-maple on the line was. Wessner mentioned another good one not so far
-from that. He said it was best of all. I'd be having the swelled head if
-I could find that. Of course, I don't know a thing about the trees, but
-I could hunt for the marks. Jack was so good at it he could tell some of
-them by the bark, but all he wanted to take that we've found so far have
-just had a deep chip cut out, rather low down, and where the bushes were
-thick over it. I believe I could be finding some of them.”
-
-“Good head!” said McLean. “We will do that. You may begin as soon as you
-are rested. And about things you come across in the swamp, Freckles--the
-most trifling little thing that you think the Bird Woman would want,
-take your wheel and go after her at any time. I'll leave two men on the
-line, so that you will have one on either side, and you can come and go
-as you please. Have you stopped to think of all we owe her, my boy?”
-
-“Yis; and the Angel--we owe her a lot, too,” said Freckles. “I owe her
-me life and honor. It's lying awake nights I'll have to be trying to
-think how I'm ever to pay her up.”
-
-“Well, begin with the muff,” suggested McLean. “That should be fine.”
-
-He bent down and ruffled the rich fur of the otter lying at his feet.
-
-“I don't exactly see how it comes to be in such splendid fur in summer.
-Their coats are always thick in cold weather, but this scarcely could
-be improved. I'll wire Cooper to be watching for it. They must have it
-fresh. When it's tanned we won't spare any expense in making it up. It
-should be a royal thing, and some way I think it will exactly suit the
-Angel. I can't think of anything that would be more appropriate for
-her.”
-
-“Neither can I,” agreed Freckles heartily. “When I reach the city
-there's one other thing, if I've the money after the muff is finished.”
-
-He told McLean of Mrs. Duncan's desire for a hat similar to the Angel's.
-He hesitated a little in the telling, keeping sharp watch on McLean's
-face. When he saw the Boss's eyes were full of comprehension and
-sympathy, he loved him anew, for, as ever, McLean was quick to
-understand. Instead of laughing, he said: “I think you'll have to let
-me in on that, too. You mustn't be selfish, you know. I'll tell you what
-we'll do. Send it for Christmas. I'll be home then, and we can fill a
-box. You get the hat. I'll add a dress and wrap. You buy Duncan a hat
-and gloves. I'll send him a big overcoat, and we'll put in a lot of
-little stuff for the babies. Won't that be fun?”
-
-Freckles fairly shivered with delight.
-
-“That would be away too serious for fun,” he said. “That would be
-heavenly. How long will it be?”
-
-He began counting the time, and McLean deliberately set himself to
-encourage Freckles and keep his thoughts from the trouble of the past
-few days, for he had been overwrought and needed quiet and rest.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV
-
-Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little Chicken
-Furnishes the Subject
-
-A week later everything at the Limberlost was precisely as it had been
-before the tragedy, except the case in Freckles' room now rested on the
-stump of the newly felled tree. Enough of the vines were left to cover
-it prettily, and every vestige of the havoc of a few days before was
-gone. New guards were patrolling the trail. Freckles was roughly laying
-off the swamp in sections and searching for marked trees. In that time
-he had found one deeply chipped and the chip cunningly replaced and
-tacked in. It promised to be quite rare, so he was jubilant. He also
-found so many subjects for the Bird Woman that her coming was of almost
-daily occurrence, and the hours he spent with her and the Angel were
-nothing less than golden.
-
-The Limberlost was now arrayed as the Queen of Sheba in all her glory.
-The first frosts of autumn had bejewelled her crown in flashing topaz,
-ruby, and emerald. Around her feet trailed the purple of her garments,
-while in her hand was her golden scepter. Everything was at full tide.
-It seemed as if nothing could grow lovelier, and it was all standing
-still a few weeks, waiting coming destruction.
-
-The swamp was palpitant with life. Every pair of birds that had flocked
-to it in the spring was now multiplied by from two to ten. The young
-were tame from Freckles' tri-parenthood, and so plump and sleek that
-they were quite as beautiful as their elders, even if in many cases
-they lacked their brilliant plumage. It was the same story of increase
-everywhere. There were chubby little ground-hogs scudding on the trail.
-There were cunning baby coons and opossums peeping from hollow logs and
-trees. Young muskrats followed their parents across the lagoons.
-
-If you could come upon a family of foxes that had not yet disbanded, and
-see the young playing with a wild duck's carcass that their mother had
-brought, and note the pride and satisfaction in her eyes as she lay
-at one side guarding them, it would be a picture not to be forgotten.
-Freckles never tired of studying the devotion of a fox mother to her
-babies. To him, whose early life had been so embittered by continual
-proof of neglect and cruelty in human parents toward their children, the
-love of these furred and feathered folk of the Limberlost was even more
-of a miracle than to the Bird Woman and the Angel.
-
-The Angel liked the baby rabbits and squirrels. Earlier in the season,
-when the young were yet very small, it so happened that at times
-Freckles could give into her hands one of these little ones. Then it was
-pure joy to stand back and watch her heaving breast, flushed cheek, and
-shining eyes. Hers were such lovely eyes. Freckles had discovered lately
-that they were not so dark as he had thought them at first, but that
-the length and thickness of lash, by which they were shaded, made them
-appear darker than they really were. They were forever changing. Now
-sparkling and darkling with wit, now humid with sympathy, now burning
-with the fire of courage, now taking on strength of color with ambition,
-now flashing indignantly at the abuse of any creature.
-
-She had carried several of the squirrel and bunny babies home, and had
-littered the conservatory with them. Her care of them was perfect. She
-was learning her natural history from nature, and having much healthful
-exercise. To her, they were the most interesting of all, but the
-Bird Woman preferred the birds, with a close second in the moths and
-butterflies.
-
-Brown butterfly time had come. The edge of the swale was filled with
-milkweed, and other plants beloved of them, and the air was golden with
-the flashing satin wings of the monarch, viceroy, and argynnis. They
-outnumbered those of any other color three to one.
-
-Among the birds it really seemed as if the little yellow fellows were
-in the preponderance. At least, they were until the redwinged blackbirds
-and bobolinks, that had nested on the upland, suddenly saw in the
-swamp the garden of the Lord and came swarming by hundreds to feast and
-adventure upon it these last few weeks before migration. Never was there
-a finer feast spread for the birds. The grasses were filled with seeds:
-so, too, were weeds of every variety. Fall berries were ripe. Wild
-grapes and black haws were ready. Bugs were creeping everywhere. The
-muck was yeasty with worms. Insects filled the air. Nature made glorious
-pause for holiday before her next change, and by none of the frequenters
-of the swamp was this more appreciated than by the big black chickens.
-
-They seemed to feel the new reign of peace and fullness most of all. As
-for food, they did not even have to hunt for themselves these days,
-for the feasts now being spread before Little Chicken were more than he
-could use, and he was glad to have his parents come down and help him.
-
-He was a fine, big, overgrown fellow, and his wings, with quills of
-jetty black, gleaming with bronze, were so strong they almost lifted his
-body. He had three inches of tail, and his beak and claws were sharp.
-His muscles began to clamor for exercise. He raced the forty feet of his
-home back and forth many times every hour of the day. After a few days
-of that, he began lifting and spreading his wings, and flopping them
-until the down on his back was filled with elm fiber. Then he commenced
-jumping. The funny little hops, springs, and sidewise bounds he gave
-set Freckles and the Angel, hidden in the swamp, watching him, into
-smothered chuckles of delight.
-
-Sometimes he fell to coquetting with himself; and that was the funniest
-thing of all, for he turned his head up, down, from side to side, and
-drew in his chin with prinky little jerks and tilts. He would stretch
-his neck, throw up his head, turn it to one side and smirk--actually
-smirk, the most complacent and self-satisfied smirk that anyone ever
-saw on the face of a bird. It was so comical that Freckles and the Angel
-told the Bird Woman of it one day.
-
-When she finished her work on Little Chicken, she left them the camera
-ready for use, telling them they might hide in the bushes and watch. If
-Little Chicken came out and truly smirked, and they could squeeze the
-bulb at the proper moment to snap him, she would be more than delighted.
-
-Freckles and the Angel quietly curled beside a big log, and with eager
-eyes and softest breathing they patiently waited; but Little Chicken had
-feasted before they told of his latest accomplishment. He was tired
-and sleepy, so he went into the log to bed, and for an hour he never
-stirred.
-
-They were becoming anxious, for the light soon would be gone, and they
-had so wanted to try for the picture. At last Little Chicken lifted his
-head, opened his beak, and gaped widely. He dozed a minute or two more.
-The Angel said that was his beauty sleep. Then he lazily gaped again
-and stood up, stretching and yawning. He ambled leisurely toward the
-gateway, and the Angel said: “Now, we may have a chance, at last.”
-
-“I do hope so,” shivered Freckles.
-
-With one accord they arose to their knees and trained their eyes on
-the mouth of the log. The light was full and strong. Little Chicken
-prospected again with no results. He dressed his plumage, polished his
-beak, and when he felt fine and in full toilet he began to flirt with
-himself. Freckles' eyes snapped and his breath sucked between his
-clenched teeth.
-
-“He's going to do it!” whispered the Angel. “That will come next. You'll
-best give me that bulb!”
-
-“Yis,” assented Freckles, but he was looking at the log and he made no
-move to relinquish the bulb.
-
-Little Chicken nodded daintily and ruffled his feathers. He gave his
-head sundry little sidewise jerks and rapidly shifted his point of
-vision. Once there was the fleeting little ghost of a smirk.
-
-“Now!--No!” snapped the Angel.
-
-Freckles leaned toward the bird. Tensely he waited. Unconsciously the
-hand of the Angel clasped his. He scarcely knew it was there. Suddenly
-Little Chicken sprang straight in the air and landed with a thud. The
-Angel started slightly, but Freckles was immovable. Then, as if in
-approval of his last performance, the big, overgrown baby wheeled until
-he was more than three-quarters, almost full side, toward the camera,
-straightened on his legs, squared his shoulders, stretched his neck full
-height, drew in his chin and smirked his most pronounced smirk, directly
-in the face of the lens.
-
-Freckles' fingers closed on the bulb convulsively, and the Angel's
-closed on his at the instant. Then she heaved a great sigh of relief and
-lifted her hands to push back the damp, clustering hair from her face.
-
-“How soon do you s'pose it will be finished?” came Freckles' strident
-whisper.
-
-For the first time the Angel looked at him. He was on his knees, leaning
-forward, his eyes directed toward the bird, the perspiration running in
-little streams down his red, mosquito-bitten face. His hat was awry, his
-bright hair rampant, his breast heaving with excitement, while he yet
-gripped the bulb with every ounce of strength in his body.
-
-“Do you think we were for getting it?” he asked.
-
-The Angel could only nod. Freckles heaved a deep sigh of relief.
-
-“Well, if that ain't the hardest work I ever did in me life!” he
-exclaimed. “It's no wonder the Bird Woman's for coming out of the swamp
-looking as if she's been through a fire, a flood, and a famine, if
-that's what she goes through day after day. But if you think we got it,
-why, it's worth all it took, and I'm glad as ever you are, sure!”
-
-They put the holders in the case, carefully closed the camera, set it in
-also, and carried it to the road.
-
-Then Freckles exulted.
-
-“Now, let's be telling the Bird Woman about it!” he shouted, wildly
-dancing and swinging his hat.
-
-“We got it! We got it! I bet a farm we got it!”
-
-Hand in hand they ran to the north end of the swamp, yelling “We got
-it!” like young Comanches, and never gave a thought to what they might
-do until a big blue-gray bird, with long neck and trailing legs, arose
-on flapping wings and sailed over the Limberlost.
-
-The Angel became white to the lips and gripped Freckles with both hands.
-He gulped with mortification and turned his back.
-
-To frighten her subject away carelessly! It was the head crime in the
-Bird Woman's category. She extended her hands as she arose, baked,
-blistered, and dripping, and exclaimed: “Bless you, my children! Bless
-you!” And it truly sounded as if she meant it.
-
-“Why, why----” stammered the bewildered Angel.
-
-Freckles hurried into the breach.
-
-“You must be for blaming it every bit on me. I was thinking we got
-Little Chicken's picture real good. I was so drunk with the joy of it I
-lost all me senses and, 'Let's run tell the Bird Woman,' says I. Like a
-fool I was for running, and I sort of dragged the Angel along.”
-
-“Oh Freckles!” expostulated the Angel. “Are you loony? Of course, it
-was all my fault! I've been with her hundreds of times. I knew perfectly
-well that I wasn't to let anything--NOT ANYTHING--scare her bird away!
-I was so crazy I forgot. The blame is all mine, and she'll never forgive
-me.”
-
-“She will, too!” cried Freckles. “Wasn't you for telling me that very
-first day that when people scared her birds away she just killed them!
-It's all me foolishness, and I'll never forgive meself!”
-
-The Bird Woman plunged into the swale at the mouth of Sleepy Snake
-Creek, and came wading toward them, with a couple of cameras and
-dripping tripods.
-
-“If you will permit me a word, my infants,” she said, “I will explain to
-you that I have had three shots at that fellow.”
-
-The Angel heaved a deep sigh of relief, and Freckles' face cleared a
-little.
-
-“Two of them,” continued the Bird Woman, “in the rushes--one facing,
-crest lowered; one light on back, crest flared; and the last on wing,
-when you came up. I simply had been praying for something to make him
-arise from that side, so that he would fly toward the camera, for he had
-waded around until in my position I couldn't do it myself. See? Behold
-in yourselves the answer to the prayers of the long-suffering!”
-
-Freckles took a step toward her.
-
-“Are you really meaning that?” he asked wonderingly. “Only think,
-Angel, we did the right thing! She won't lose her picture through the
-carelessness of us, when she's waited and soaked nearly two hours. She's
-not angry with us!”
-
-“Never was in a sweeter temper in my life,” said the Bird Woman, busily
-cleaning and packing the cameras.
-
-Freckles removed his hat and solemnly held out his hand. With equal
-solemnity the Angel grasped it. The Bird Woman laughed alone, for to
-them the situation had been too serious to develop any of the elements
-of fun.
-
-Then they loaded the carriage, and the Bird Woman and the Angel started
-for their homes. It had been a difficult time for all of them, so they
-were very tired, but they were joyful. Freckles was so happy it seemed
-to him that life could hold little more. As the Bird Woman was ready to
-drive away he laid his hand on the lines and looked into her face.
-
-“Do you suppose we got it?” he asked, so eagerly that she would have
-given much to be able to say yes with conviction.
-
-“Why, my dear, I don't know,” she said. “I've no way to judge. If you
-made the exposure just before you came to me, there was yet a fine
-light. If you waited until Little Chicken was close the entrance, you
-should have something good, even if you didn't catch just the fleeting
-expression for which you hoped. Of course, I can't say surely, but I
-think there is every reason to believe that you have it all right. I
-will develop the plate tonight, make you a proof from it early in the
-morning, and bring it when we come. It's only a question of a day or
-two now until the gang arrives. I want to work in all the studies I can
-before that time, for they are bound to disturb the birds. Mr. McLean
-will need you then, and I scarcely see how we are to do without you.”
-
-Moved by an impulse she never afterward regretted, she bent and laid her
-lips on Freckles' forehead, kissing him gently and thanking him for his
-many kindnesses to her in her loved work. Freckles started away so happy
-that he felt inclined to keep watching behind to see if the trail were
-not curling up and rolling down the line after him.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI
-
-Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-
-From afar Freckles saw them coming. The Angel was standing, waving her
-hat. He sprang on his wheel and raced, jolting and pounding, down the
-corduroy to meet them. The Bird Woman stopped the horse and the Angel
-gave him the bit of print paper. Freckles leaned the wheel against a
-tree and took the proof with eager fingers. He never before had seen
-a study from any of his chickens. He stood staring. When he turned his
-face toward them it was transfigured with delight.
-
-“You see!” he exclaimed, and began gazing again. “Oh, me Little
-Chicken!” he cried. “Oh me ilegant Little Chicken! I'd be giving all me
-money in the bank for you!”
-
-Then he thought of the Angel's muff and Mrs. Duncan's hat, and added,
-“or at least, all but what I'm needing bad for something else. Would you
-mind stopping at the cabin a minute and showing this to Mother Duncan?”
- he asked.
-
-“Give me that little book in your pocket,” said the Bird Woman.
-
-She folded the outer edges of the proof so that it would fit into the
-book, explaining as she did so its perishable nature in that state.
-Freckles went hurrying ahead, and they arrived in time to see Mrs.
-Duncan gazing as if awestruck, and to hear her bewildered “Weel I be
-drawed on!”
-
-Freckles and the Angel helped the Bird Woman to establish herself for a
-long day at the mouth of Sleepy Snake Creek. Then she sent them away and
-waited what luck would bring to her.
-
-“Now, what shall we do?” inquired the Angel, who was a bundle of nerves
-and energy.
-
-“Would you like to go to me room awhile?” asked Freckles.
-
-“If you don't care to very much, I'd rather not,” said the Angel. “I'll
-tell you. Let's go help Mrs. Duncan with dinner and play with the baby.
-I love a nice, clean baby.”
-
-They started toward the cabin. Every few minutes they stopped to
-investigate something or to chatter over some natural history wonder.
-The Angel had quick eyes; she seemed to see everything, but Freckles'
-were even quicker; for life itself had depended on their sharpness ever
-since the beginning of his work at the swamp. They saw it at the same
-time.
-
-“Someone has been making a flagpole,” said the Angel, running the toe of
-her shoe around the stump, evidently made that season. “Freckles, what
-would anyone cut a tree as small as that for?”
-
-“I don't know,” said Freckles.
-
-“Well, but I want to know!” said the Angel. “No one came away here and
-cut it for fun. They've taken it away. Let's go back and see if we can
-see it anywhere around there.”
-
-She turned, retraced her footsteps, and began eagerly searching.
-Freckles did the same.
-
-“There it is!” he exclaimed at last, “leaning against the trunk of that
-big maple.”
-
-“Yes, and leaning there has killed a patch of dried bark,” said the
-Angel. “See how dried it appears?”
-
-Freckles stared at her.
-
-“Angel!” he shouted, “I bet you it's a marked tree!”
-
-“Course it is!” cried the Angel. “No one would cut that sapling and
-carry it away there and lean it up for nothing. I'll tell you! This is
-one of Jack's marked trees. He's climbed up there above anyone's head,
-peeled the bark, and cut into the grain enough to be sure. Then he's
-laid the bark back and fastened it with that pole to mark it. You see,
-there're a lot of other big maples close around it. Can you climb to
-that place?”
-
-“Yes,” said Freckles; “if I take off my wading-boots I can.”
-
-“Then take them off,” said the Angel, “and do hurry! Can't you see that
-I am almost crazy to know if this tree is a marked one?”
-
-When they pushed the sapling over, a piece of bark as big as the crown
-of Freckles' hat fell away.
-
-“I believe it looks kind of nubby,” encouraged the Angel, backing away,
-with her face all screwed into a twist in an effort to intensify her
-vision.
-
-Freckles reached the opening, then slid rapidly to the ground. He was
-almost breathless while his eyes were flashing.
-
-“The bark's been cut clean with a knife, the sap scraped away, and a big
-chip taken out deep. The trunk is the twistiest thing you ever saw. It's
-full of eyes as a bird is of feathers!”
-
-The Angel was dancing and shaking his hand.
-
-“Oh, Freckles,” she cried, “I'm so delighted that you found it!”
-
-“But I didn't,” said the astonished Freckles. “That tree isn't my find;
-it's yours. I forgot it and was going on; you wouldn't give up, and kept
-talking about it, and turned back. You found it!”
-
-“You'd best be looking after your reputation for truth and veracity,”
- said the Angel. “You know you saw that sapling first!”
-
-“Yes, after you took me back and set me looking for it,” scoffed
-Freckles.
-
-The clear, ringing echo of strongly swung axes came crashing through the
-Limberlost.
-
-“'Tis the gang!” shouted Freckles. “They're clearing a place to make the
-camp. Let's go help!”
-
-“Hadn't we better mark that tree again?” cautioned the Angel. “It's away
-in here. There's such a lot of them, and all so much alike. We'd feel
-good and green to find it and then lose it.”
-
-Freckles lifted the sapling to replace it, but the Angel motioned him
-away.
-
-“Use your hatchet,” she said. “I predict this is the most valuable tree
-in the swamp. You found it. I'm going to play that you're my knight.
-Now, you nail my colors on it.”
-
-She reached up, and pulling a blue bow from her hair, untied and doubled
-it against the tree. Freckles turned his eyes from her and managed the
-fastening with shaking fingers. The Angel had called him her knight!
-Dear Lord, how he loved her! She must not see his face, or surely her
-quick eyes would read what he was fighting to hide. He did not dare lay
-his lips on that ribbon then, but that night he would return to it. When
-they had gone a little distance, they both looked back, and the morning
-breeze set the bit of blue waving them a farewell.
-
-They walked at a rapid pace.
-
-“I am sorry about scaring the birds,” said the Angel, “but it's almost
-time for them to go anyway. I feel dreadfully over having the swamp
-ruined, but isn't it a delight to hear the good, honest ring of those
-axes, instead of straining your ears for stealthy sounds? Isn't it
-fine to go openly and freely, with nothing worse than a snake or a
-poison-vine to fear?”
-
-“Ah!” said Freckles, with a long breath, “it's better than you can
-dream, Angel. Nobody will ever be guessing some of the things I've been
-through trying to keep me promise to the Boss, and to hold out until
-this day. That it's come with only one fresh stump, and the log from
-that saved, and this new tree to report, isn't it grand? Maybe Mr.
-McLean will be forgetting that stump when he sees this tree, Angel!”
-
-“He can't forget it,” said the Angel; and in answer to Freckles'
-startled eyes she added, “because he never had any reason to remember
-it. He couldn't have done a whit better himself. My father says so.
-You're all right, Freckles!”
-
-She reached him her hand, and as two children, they broke into a run
-when they came closer the gang. They left the swamp by the west road
-and followed the trail until they found the men. To the Angel it seemed
-complete charm. In the shadiest spot on the west side of the line, at
-the edge of the swamp and very close Freckles' room, they were
-cutting bushes and clearing space for a big tent for the men's
-sleeping-quarters, another for a dining-hall, and a board shack for the
-cook. The teamsters were unloading, the horses were cropping leaves from
-the bushes, while each man was doing his part toward the construction of
-the new Limberlost quarters.
-
-Freckles helped the Angel climb on a wagonload of canvas in the shade.
-She removed her leggings, wiped her heated face, and glowed with
-happiness and interest.
-
-The gang had been sifted carefully. McLean now felt that there was not a
-man in it who was not trustworthy.
-
-They all had heard of the Angel's plucky ride for Freckles' relief;
-several of them had been in the rescue party. Others, new since that
-time, had heard the tale rehearsed in its every aspect around the
-smudge-fires at night. Almost all of them knew the Angel by sight from
-her trips with the Bird Woman to their leases. They all knew her father,
-her position, and the luxuries of her home. Whatever course she had
-chosen with them they scarcely would have resented it, but the Angel
-never had been known to choose a course. Her spirit of friendliness was
-inborn and inbred. She loved everyone, so she sympathized with everyone.
-Her generosity was only limited by what was in her power to give.
-
-She came down the trail, hand in hand with the red-haired, freckled
-timber guard whom she had worn herself past the limit of endurance to
-save only a few weeks before, racing in her eagerness to reach them,
-and laughing her “Good morning, gentlemen,” right and left. When she was
-ensconced on the wagonload of tenting, she sat on a roll of canvas as a
-queen on her throne. There was not a man of the gang who did not respect
-her. She was a living exponent of universal brotherhood. There was no
-man among them who needed her exquisite face or dainty clothing to teach
-him that the deference due a gentlewoman should be paid her. That the
-spirit of good fellowship she radiated levied an especial tribute of its
-own, and it became their delight to honor and please her.
-
-As they raced toward the wagon--“Let me tell about the tree, please?”
- she begged Freckles.
-
-“Why, sure!” said Freckles.
-
-He probably would have said the same to anything she suggested. When
-McLean came, he found the Angel flushed and glowing, sitting on the
-wagon, her hands already filled. One of the men, who was cutting a
-scrub-oak, had carried to her a handful of crimson leaves. Another had
-gathered a bunch of delicate marsh-grass heads for her. Someone else,
-in taking out a bush, had found a daintily built and lined little nest,
-fresh as when made.
-
-She held up her treasures and greeted McLean, “Good morning, Mr. Boss of
-the Limberlost!”
-
-The gang shouted, while he bowed profoundly before her.
-
-“Everyone listen!” cried the Angel, climbing a roll of canvas. “I have
-something to say! Freckles has been guarding here over a year now, and
-he presents the Limberlost to you, with every tree in it saved; for good
-measure he has this morning located the rarest one of them all: the one
-in from the east line, that Wessner spoke of the first day--nearest the
-one you took out. All together! Everyone! Hurrah for Freckles!”
-
-With flushing cheeks and gleaming eyes, gaily waving the grass above
-her head, she led in three cheers and a tiger. Freckles slipped into the
-swamp and hid himself, for fear he could not conceal his pride and his
-great surging, throbbing love for her.
-
-The Angel subsided on the canvas and explained to McLean about the
-maple. The Boss was mightily pleased. He took Freckles and set out to
-re-locate and examine the tree. The Angel was interested in the making
-of the camp, so she preferred to remain with the men. With her sharp
-eyes she was watching every detail of construction; but when it came to
-the stretching of the dining-hall canvas she proceeded to take command.
-The men were driving the rope-pins, when the Angel arose on the wagon
-and, leaning forward, spoke to Duncan, who was directing the work.
-
-“I believe if you will swing that around a few feet farther, you will
-find it better, Mr. Duncan,” she said. “That way will let the hot sun in
-at noon, while the sides will cut off the best breeze.”
-
-“That's a fact,” said Duncan, studying the conditions.
-
-So, by shifting the pins a little, they obtained comfort for which they
-blessed the Angel every day. When they came to the sleeping-tent, they
-consulted her about that. She explained the general direction of the
-night breeze and indicated the best position for the tent. Before anyone
-knew how it happened, the Angel was standing on the wagon, directing
-the location and construction of the cooking-shack, the erection of the
-crane for the big boiling-pots, and the building of the store-room. She
-superintended the laying of the floor of the sleeping-tent lengthwise,
-So that it would be easier to sweep, and suggested a new arrangement of
-the cots that would afford all the men an equal share of night breeze.
-She left the wagon, and climbing on the newly erected dining-table,
-advised with the cook in placing his stove, table, and kitchen utensils.
-
-When Freckles returned from the tree to join in the work around the
-camp, he caught glimpses of her enthroned on a soapbox, cleaning beans.
-She called to him that they were invited for dinner, and that they had
-accepted the invitation.
-
-When the beans were steaming in the pot, the Angel advised the cook to
-soak them overnight the next time, so that they would cook more quickly
-and not burst. She was sure their cook at home did that way, and the
-CHEF of the gang thought it would be a good idea. The next Freckles saw
-of her she was paring potatoes. A little later she arranged the table.
-
-She swept it with a broom, instead of laying a cloth; took the hatchet
-and hammered the deepest dents from the tin plates, and nearly skinned
-her fingers scouring the tinware with rushes. She set the plates an even
-distance apart, and laid the forks and spoons beside them. When the cook
-threw away half a dozen fruit-cans, she gathered them up and melted off
-the tops, although she almost blistered her face and quite blistered her
-fingers doing it. Then she neatly covered these improvised vases with
-the Manila paper from the groceries, tying it with wisps of marshgrass.
-These she filled with fringed gentians, blazing-star, asters, goldenrod,
-and ferns, placing them the length of the dining-table. In one of the
-end cans she arranged her red leaves, and in the other the fancy grass.
-Two men, watching her, went away proud of themselves and said that she
-was “a born lady.” She laughingly caught up a paper bag and fitted it
-jauntily to her head in imitation of a cook's cap. Then she ground the
-coffee, and beat a couple of eggs to put in, “because there is company,”
- she gravely explained to the cook. She asked that delighted individual
-if he did not like it best that way, and he said he did not know,
-because he never had a chance to taste it. The Angel said that was
-her case exactly--she never had, either; she was not allowed anything
-stronger than milk. Then they laughed together.
-
-She told the cook about camping with her father, and explained that
-he made his coffee that way. When the steam began to rise from the big
-boiler, she stuffed the spout tightly with clean marshgrass, to keep the
-aroma in, placed the boiler where it would only simmer, and explained
-why. The influence of the Angel's visit lingered with the cook through
-the remainder of his life, while the men prayed for her frequent return.
-
-She was having a happy time, when McLean came back jubilant, from his
-trip to the tree. How jubilant he told only the Angel, for he had been
-obliged to lose faith in some trusted men of late, and had learned
-discretion by what he suffered. He planned to begin clearing out a road
-to the tree that same afternoon, and to set two guards every night, for
-it promised to be a rare treasure, so he was eager to see it on the way
-to the mills.
-
-“I am coming to see it felled,” cried the Angel. “I feel a sort of
-motherly interest in that tree.”
-
-McLean was highly amused. He would have staked his life on the honesty
-of either the Angel or Freckles; yet their versions of the finding of
-the tree differed widely.
-
-“Tell me, Angel,” the Boss said jestingly. “I think I have a right to
-know. Who really did locate that tree?”
-
-“Freckles,” she answered promptly and emphatically.
-
-“But he says quite as positively that it was you. I don't understand.”
-
-The Angel's legal look flashed into her face. Her eyes grew tense with
-earnestness. She glanced around, and seeing no towel or basin, held out
-her hand for Sears to pour water over them. Then, using the skirt of her
-dress to dry them, she climbed on the wagon.
-
-“I'll tell you, word for word, how it happened,” she said, “and then you
-shall decide, and Freckles and I will agree with you.”
-
-When she had finished her version, “Tell us, 'oh, most learned judge!'”
- she laughingly quoted, “which of us located that tree?”
-
-“Blest if I know who located it!” exclaimed McLean. “But I have a fairly
-accurate idea as to who put the blue ribbon on it.”
-
-The Boss smiled significantly at Freckles, who just had come, for they
-had planned that they would instruct the company to reserve enough of
-the veneer from that very tree to make the most beautiful dressing table
-they could design for the Angel's share of the discovery.
-
-“What will you have for yours?” McLean had asked of Freckles.
-
-“If it's all the same to you, I'll be taking mine out in music
-lessons--begging your pardon--voice culture,” said Freckles with a
-grimace.
-
-McLean laughed, for Freckles needed to see or hear only once to absorb
-learning as the thirsty earth sucks up water.
-
-The Angel placed McLean at the head of the table. She took the foot,
-with Freckles on her right, while the lumber gang, washed, brushed, and
-straightened until they felt unfamiliar with themselves and each other,
-filled the sides. That imposed a slight constraint. Then, too, the men
-were afraid of the flowers, the polished tableware, and above all, of
-the dainty grace of the Angel. Nowhere do men so display lack of good
-breeding and culture as in dining. To sprawl on the table, scoop
-with their knives, chew loudly, gulp coffee, and duck their heads as
-snapping-turtles for every bite, had not been noticed by them until the
-Angel, sitting straightly, suddenly made them remember that they,
-too, were possessed of spines. Instinctively every man at the table
-straightened.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII
-
-Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body
-
-To reach the tree was a more difficult task than McLean had supposed.
-The gang could approach nearest on the outside toward the east, but
-after they reached the end of the east entrance there was yet a mile
-of most impenetrable thicket, trees big and little, and bushes of every
-variety and stage of growth. In many places the muck had to be filled to
-give the horses and wagons a solid foundation over which to haul heavy
-loads. It was several days before they completed a road to the noble,
-big tree and were ready to fell it.
-
-When the sawing began, Freckles was watching down the road where it met
-the trail leading from Little Chicken's tree. He had gone to the tree
-ahead of the gang to remove the blue ribbon. Carefully folded, it now
-lay over his heart. He was promising himself much comfort with that
-ribbon, when he would leave for the city next month to begin his studies
-and dream the summer over again. It would help to make things tangible.
-When he was dressed as other men, and at his work, he knew where he
-meant to home that precious bit of blue. It should be his good-luck
-token, and he would wear it always to keep bright in memory the day on
-which the Angel had called him her knight.
-
-How he would study, and oh, how he would sing! If only he could fulfill
-McLean's expectations, and make the Angel proud of him! If only he could
-be a real knight!
-
-He could not understand why the Angel had failed to come. She had wanted
-to see their tree felled. She would be too late if she did not arrive
-soon. He had told her it would be ready that morning, and she had said
-she surely would be there. Why, of all mornings, was she late on this?
-
-McLean had ridden to town. If he had been there, Freckles would have
-asked that they delay the felling, but he scarcely liked to ask the
-gang. He really had no authority, although he thought the men would
-wait; but some way he found such embarrassment in framing the request
-that he waited until the work was practically ended. The saw was out,
-and the men were cutting into the felling side of the tree when the Boss
-rode in.
-
-His first word was to inquire for the Angel. When Freckles said she
-had not yet come, the Boss at once gave orders to stop work on the tree
-until she arrived; for he felt that she virtually had located it, and
-if she desired to see it felled, she should. As the men stepped back,
-a stiff morning breeze caught the top, that towered high above its
-fellows. There was an ominous grinding at the base, a shiver of the
-mighty trunk, then directly in line of its fall the bushes swung apart
-and the laughing face of the Angel looked on them.
-
-A groan of horror burst from the dry throats of the men, and reading the
-agony in their faces, she stopped short, glanced up, and understood.
-
-“South!” shouted McLean. “Run south!”
-
-The Angel was helpless. It was apparent that she did not know which way
-south was. There was another slow shiver of the big tree. The remainder
-of the gang stood motionless, but Freckles sprang past the trunk and
-went leaping in big bounds. He caught up the Angel and dashed through
-the thicket for safety. The swaying trunk was half over when, for an
-instant, a near-by tree stayed its fall. They saw Freckles' foot catch,
-and with the Angel he plunged headlong.
-
-A terrible cry broke from the men, while McLean covered his face.
-Instantly Freckles was up, with the Angel in his arms, struggling on.
-The outer limbs were on them when they saw Freckles hurl the Angel,
-face down, in the muck, as far from him as he could send her. Springing
-after, in an attempt to cover her body with his own, he whirled to see
-if they were yet in danger, and with outstretched arms braced himself
-for the shock. The branches shut them from sight, and the awful crash
-rocked the earth.
-
-McLean and Duncan ran with axes and saws. The remainder of the gang
-followed, and they worked desperately. It seemed a long time before they
-caught a glimpse of the Angel's blue dress, but it renewed their vigor.
-Duncan fell on his knees beside her and tore the muck from underneath
-her with his hands. In a few seconds he dragged her out, choking and
-stunned, but surely not fatally hurt.
-
-Freckles lay a little farther under the tree, a big limb pinning him
-down. His eyes were wide open. He was perfectly conscious. Duncan began
-mining beneath him, but Freckles stopped him.
-
-“You can't be moving me,” he said. “You must cut off the limb and lift
-it. I know.”
-
-Two men ran for the big saw. A number of them laid hold of the limb and
-bore up. In a short time it was removed, and Freckles lay free.
-
-The men bent over to lift him, but he motioned them away.
-
-“Don't be touching me until I rest a bit,” he pleaded.
-
-Then he twisted his head until he saw the Angel, who was wiping muck
-from her eyes and face on the skirt of her dress.
-
-“Try to get up,” he begged.
-
-McLean laid hold of the Angel and helped her to her feet.
-
-“Do you think any bones are broken?” gasped Freckles.
-
-The Angel shook her head and wiped muck.
-
-“You see if you can find any, sir,” Freckles commanded.
-
-The Angel yielded herself to McLean's touch, and he assured Freckles
-that she was not seriously injured.
-
-Freckles settled back, a smile of ineffable tenderness on his face.
-
-“Thank the Lord!” he hoarsely whispered.
-
-The Angel leaned toward him.
-
-“Now, Freckles, you!” she cried. “It's your turn. Please get up!”
-
-A pitiful spasm swept Freckles' face. The sight of it washed every
-vestige of color from the Angel's. She took hold of his hands.
-
-“Freckles, get up!” It was half command, half entreaty.
-
-“Easy, Angel, easy! Let me rest a bit first!” implored Freckles.
-
-She knelt beside him. He reached his arm around her and drew her
-closely. He looked at McLean in an agony of entreaty that brought the
-Boss to his knees on the other side.
-
-“Oh, Freckles!” McLean cried. “Not that! Surely we can do something! We
-must! Let me see!”
-
-He tried to unfasten Freckles' neckband, but his fingers shook so
-clumsily that the Angel pushed them away and herself laid Freckles'
-chest bare. With one hasty glance she gathered the clothing together
-and slipped her arm under his head. Freckles lifted his eyes of agony to
-hers.
-
-“You see?” he said.
-
-The Angel nodded dumbly.
-
-Freckles turned to McLean.
-
-“Thank you for everything,” he panted. “Where are the boys?”
-
-“They are all here,” said the Boss, “except a couple who have gone for
-doctors, Mrs. Duncan and the Bird Woman.”
-
-“It's no use trying to do anything,” said Freckles. “You won't forget
-the muff and the Christmas box. The muff especial?”
-
-There was a movement above them so pronounced that it attracted
-Freckles' attention, even in that extreme hour. He looked up, and a
-pleased smile flickered on his drawn face.
-
-“Why, if it ain't me Little Chicken!” he cried hoarsely. “He must be
-making his very first trip from the log. Now Duncan can have his big
-watering-trough.”
-
-“It was Little Chicken that made me late,” faltered the Angel. “I was
-so anxious to get here early I forgot to bring his breakfast from the
-carriage. He must have been hungry, for when I passed the log he started
-after me. He was so wabbly, and so slow flying from tree to tree and
-through the bushes, I just had to wait on him, for I couldn't drive him
-back.”
-
-“Of course you couldn't! Me bird has too amazing good sinse to go back
-when he could be following you,” exulted Freckles, exactly as if he did
-not realize what the delay had cost him. Then he lay silently thinking,
-but presently he asked slowly: “And so 'twas me Little Chicken that was
-making you late, Angel?”
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel.
-
-A spasm of fierce pain shook Freckles, and a look of uncertainty crossed
-his face.
-
-“All summer I've been thanking God for the falling of the feather and
-all the delights it's brought me,” he muttered, “but this looks as
-if----”
-
-He stopped short and raised questioning eyes to McLean.
-
-“I can't help being Irish, but I can help being superstitious,” he said.
-“I mustn't be laying it to the Almighty, or to me bird, must I?”
-
-“No, dear lad,” said McLean, stroking the brilliant hair. “The choice
-lay with you. You could have stood a rooted dolt like all the remainder
-of us. It was through your great love and your high courage that you
-made the sacrifice.”
-
-“Don't you be so naming it, sir!” cried Freckles. “It's just the
-reverse. If I could be giving me body the hundred times over to save
-hers from this, I'd be doing it and take joy with every pain.”
-
-He turned with a smile of adoring tenderness to the Angel. She was
-ghastly white, and her eyes were dull and glazed. She scarcely seemed to
-hear or understand what was coming, but she bravely tried to answer that
-smile.
-
-“Is my forehead covered with dirt?” he asked.
-
-She shook her head.
-
-“You did once,” he gasped.
-
-Instantly she laid her lips on his forehead, then on each cheek, and
-then in a long kiss on his lips.
-
-McLean bent over him.
-
-“Freckles,” he said brokenly, “you will never know how I love you. You
-won't go without saying good-bye to me?”
-
-That word stung the Angel to quick comprehension. She started as if
-arousing from sleep.
-
-“Good-bye?” she cried sharply, her eyes widening and the color rushing
-into her white face. “Good-bye! Why, what do you mean? Who's saying
-good-bye? Where could Freckles go, when he is hurt like this, save to
-the hospital? You needn't say good-bye for that. Of course, we will all
-go with him! You call up the men. We must start right away.”
-
-“It's no use, Angel,” said Freckles. “I'm thinking ivry bone in me
-breast is smashed. You'll have to be letting me go!”
-
-“I will not,” said the Angel flatly. “It's no use wasting precious time
-talking about it. You are alive. You are breathing; and no matter how
-badly your bones are broken, what are great surgeons for but to fix you
-up and make you well again? You promise me that you'll just grit your
-teeth and hang on when we hurt you, for we must start with you as
-quickly as it can be done. I don't know what has been the matter with
-me. Here's good time wasted already.”
-
-“Oh, Angel!” moaned Freckles, “I can't! You don't know how bad it is.
-I'll die the minute you are for trying to lift me!”
-
-“Of course you will, if you make up your mind to do it,” said the Angel.
-“But if you are determined you won't, and set yourself to breathing deep
-and strong, and hang on to me tight, I can get you out. Really you must,
-Freckles, no matter how it hurts, for you did this for me, and now I
-must save you, so you might as well promise.”
-
-She bent over him, trying to smile encouragement with her fear-stiffened
-lips.
-
-“You will promise, Freckles?”
-
-Big drops of cold sweat ran together on Freckles' temples.
-
-“Angel, darlin' Angel,” he pleaded, taking her hand in his. “You ain't
-understanding, and I can't for the life of me be telling you, but
-indade, it's best to be letting me go. This is my chance. Please say
-good-bye, and let me slip off quick!”
-
-He appealed to McLean.
-
-“Dear Boss, you know! You be telling her that, for me, living is far
-worse pain than dying. Tell her you know death is the best thing that
-could ever be happening to me!”
-
-“Merciful Heaven!” burst in the Angel. “I can't endure this delay!”
-
-She caught Freckles' hand to her breast, and bending over him, looked
-deeply into his stricken eyes.
-
-“'Angel, I give you my word of honor that I will keep right on
-breathing.' That's what you are going to promise me,” she said. “Do you
-say it?”
-
-Freckles hesitated.
-
-“Freckles!” imploringly commanded the Angel, “YOU DO SAY IT!”
-
-“Yis,” gasped Freckles.
-
-The Angel sprang to her feet.
-
-“Then that's all right,” she said, with a tinge of her old-time
-briskness. “You just keep breathing away like a steam engine, and I will
-do all the remainder.”
-
-The eager men gathered around her.
-
-“It's going to be a tough pull to get Freckles out,” she said, “but it's
-our only chance, so listen closely and don't for the lives of you fail
-me in doing quickly what I tell you. There's no time to spend falling
-down over each other; we must have some system. You four there get on
-those wagon horses and ride to the sleeping-tent. Get the stoutest cot,
-a couple of comforts, and a pillow. Ride back with them some way to
-save time. If you meet any other men of the gang, send them here to help
-carry the cot. We won't risk the jolt of driving with him. The others
-clear a path out to the road; and Mr. McLean, you take Nellie and ride
-to town. Tell my father how Freckles is hurt and that he risked it to
-save me. Tell him I'm going to take Freckles to Chicago on the noon
-train, and I want him to hold it if we are a little late. If he can't,
-then have a special ready at the station and another on the Pittsburgh
-at Fort Wayne, so we can go straight through. You needn't mind leaving
-us. The Bird Woman will be here soon. We will rest awhile.”
-
-She dropped into the muck beside Freckles and began stroking his hair
-and hand. He lay with his face of agony turned to hers, and fought to
-smother the groans that would tell her what he was suffering.
-
-When they stood ready to lift him, the Angel bent over him in a passion
-of tenderness.
-
-“Dear old Limberlost guard, we're going to lift you now,” she said. “I
-suspect you will faint from the pain of it, but we will be as easy as
-ever we can, and don't you dare forget your promise!”
-
-A whimsical half-smile touched Freckles' quivering lips.
-
-“Angel, can a man be remembering a promise when he ain't knowing?” he
-asked.
-
-“You can,” said the Angel stoutly, “because a promise means so much more
-to you than it does to most men.”
-
-A look of strength flashed into Freckles' face at her words.
-
-“I am ready,” he said.
-
-With the first touch his eyes closed, a mighty groan was wrenched from
-him, and he lay senseless. The Angel gave Duncan one panic-stricken
-look. Then she set her lips and gathered her forces again.
-
-“I guess that's a good thing,” she said. “Maybe he won't feel how we are
-hurting him. Oh boys, are you being quick and gentle?”
-
-She stepped to the side of the cot and bathed Freckles' face. Taking his
-hand in hers, she gave the word to start. She told the men to ask every
-able-bodied man they met to join them so that they could change carriers
-often and make good time.
-
-The Bird Woman insisted upon taking the Angel into the carriage and
-following the cot, but she refused to leave Freckles, and suggested
-that the Bird Woman drive ahead, pack them some clothing, and be at the
-station ready to accompany them to Chicago. All the way the Angel walked
-beside the cot, shading Freckles' face with a branch, and holding his
-hand. At every pause to change carriers she moistened his face and lips
-and watched each breath with heart-breaking anxiety.
-
-She scarcely knew when her father joined them, and taking the branch
-from her, slipped an arm around her waist and almost carried her. To the
-city streets and the swarm of curious, staring faces she paid no more
-attention than she had to the trees of the Limberlost. When the train
-came and the gang placed Freckles aboard, big Duncan made a place for
-the Angel beside the cot.
-
-With the best physician to be found, and with the Bird Woman and
-McLean in attendance, the four-hours' run to Chicago began. The Angel
-constantly watched over Freckles; bathed his face, stroked his hand,
-and gently fanned him. Not for an instant would she yield her place,
-or allow anyone else to do anything for him. The Bird Woman and McLean
-regarded her in amazement. There seemed to be no end to her resources
-and courage. The only time she spoke was to ask McLean if he were sure
-the special would be ready on the Pittsburgh road. He replied that it
-was made up and waiting.
-
-At five o'clock Freckles lay stretched on the operating-table of Lake
-View Hospital, while three of the greatest surgeons in Chicago bent over
-him. At their command, McLean picked up the unwilling Angel and carried
-her to the nurses to be bathed, have her bruises attended, and to be put
-to bed.
-
-In a place where it is difficult to surprise people, they were
-astonished women as they removed the Angel's dainty stained and torn
-clothing, drew off hose muck-baked to her limbs, soaked the dried loam
-from her silken hair, and washed the beautiful scratched, bruised,
-dirt-covered body. The Angel fell fast asleep long before they had
-finished, and lay deeply unconscious, while the fight for Freckles' life
-was being waged.
-
-Three days later she was the same Angel as of old, except that Freckles
-was constantly in her thoughts. The anxiety and responsibility that
-she felt for his condition had bred in her a touch of womanliness and
-authority that was new. That morning she arose early and hovered near
-Freckles' door. She had been allowed to remain with him constantly, for
-the nurses and surgeons had learned, with his returning consciousness,
-that for her alone would the active, highly strung, pain-racked sufferer
-be quiet and obey orders. When she was dropping from loss of sleep, the
-threat that she would fall ill had to be used to send her to bed. Then
-by telling Freckles that the Angel was asleep and they would waken her
-the moment he moved, they were able to control him for a short time.
-
-The surgeon was with Freckles. The Angel had been told that the word
-he brought that morning would be final, so she curled in a window seat,
-dropped the curtains behind her, and in dire anxiety, waited the opening
-of the door.
-
-Just as it unclosed, McLean came hurrying down the hall and to the
-surgeon, but with one glance at his face he stepped back in dismay;
-while the Angel, who had arisen, sank to the seat again, too dazed to
-come forward. The men faced each other. The Angel, with parted lips and
-frightened eyes, bent forward in tense anxiety.
-
-“I--I thought he was doing nicely?” faltered McLean.
-
-“He bore the operation well,” replied the surgeon, “and his wounds are
-not necessarily fatal. I told you that yesterday, but I did not tell you
-that something else probably would kill him; and it will. He need not
-die from the accident, but he will not live the day out.”
-
-“But why? What is it?” asked McLean hurriedly. “We all dearly love the
-boy. We have millions among us to do anything that money can accomplish.
-Why must he die, if those broken bones are not the cause?”
-
-“That is what I am going to give you the opportunity to tell me,”
- replied the surgeon. “He need not die from the accident, yet he is
-dying as fast as his splendid physical condition will permit, and it is
-because he so evidently prefers death to life. If he were full of hope
-and ambition to live, my work would be easy. If all of you love him as
-you prove you do, and there is unlimited means to give him anything he
-wants, why should he desire death?”
-
-“Is he dying?” demanded McLean.
-
-“He is,” said the surgeon. “He will not live this day out, unless some
-strong reaction sets in at once. He is so low, that preferring death to
-life, nature cannot overcome his inertia. If he is to live, he must be
-made to desire life. Now he undoubtedly wishes for death, and that it
-come quickly.”
-
-“Then he must die,” said McLean.
-
-His broad shoulders shook convulsively. His strong hands opened and
-closed mechanically.
-
-“Does that mean that you know what he desires and cannot, or will not,
-supply it?”
-
-McLean groaned in misery.
-
-“It means,” he said desperately, “that I know what he wants, but it is
-as far removed from my power to help him as it would be to give him a
-star. The thing for which he will die, he can never have.”
-
-“Then you must prepare for the end very shortly” said the surgeon,
-turning abruptly away.
-
-McLean caught his arm roughly.
-
-“You look here!” he cried in desperation. “You say that as if I could do
-something if I would. I tell you the boy is dear to me past expression.
-I would do anything--spend any sum. You have noticed and repeatedly
-commented on the young girl with me. It is that child that he wants! He
-worships her to adoration, and knowing he can never be anything to her,
-he prefers death to life. In God's name, what can I do about it?”
-
-“Barring that missing hand, I never examined a finer man,” said the
-surgeon, “and she seemed perfectly devoted to him; why cannot he have
-her?”
-
-“Why?” echoed McLean. “Why? Well, for many reasons! I told you he was my
-son. You probably knew that he was not. A little over a year ago I never
-had seen him. He joined one of my lumber gangs from the road. He is a
-stray, left at one of your homes for the friendless here in Chicago.
-When he grew up the superintendent bound him to a brutal man. He ran
-away and landed in one of my lumber camps. He has no name or knowledge
-of legal birth. The Angel--we have talked of her. You see what she is,
-physically and mentally. She has ancestors reaching back to Plymouth
-Rock, and across the sea for generations before that. She is an
-idolized, petted only child, and there is great wealth. Life holds
-everything for her, nothing for him. He sees it more plainly than anyone
-else could. There is nothing for the boy but death, if it is the Angel
-that is required to save him.”
-
-The Angel stood between them.
-
-“Well, I just guess not!” she cried. “If Freckles wants me, all he has
-to do is to say so, and he can have me!”
-
-The amazed men stepped back, staring at her.
-
-“That he will never say,” said McLean at last, “and you don't
-understand, Angel. I don't know how you came here. I wouldn't have had
-you hear that for the world, but since you have, dear girl, you must be
-told that it isn't your friendship or your kindness Freckles wants; it
-is your love.”
-
-The Angel looked straight into the great surgeon's eyes with her clear,
-steady orbs of blue, and then into McLean's with unwavering frankness.
-
-“Well, I do love him,” she said simply.
-
-McLean's arms dropped helplessly.
-
-“You don't understand,” he reiterated patiently. “It isn't the love of
-a friend, or a comrade, or a sister, that Freckles wants from you; it
-is the love of a sweetheart. And if to save the life he has offered
-for you, you are thinking of being generous and impulsive enough to
-sacrifice your future--in the absence of your father, it will become
-my plain duty, as the protector in whose hands he has placed you, to
-prevent such rashness. The very words you speak, and the manner in which
-you say them, prove that you are a mere child, and have not dreamed what
-love is.”
-
-Then the Angel grew splendid. A rosy flush swept the pallor of fear
-from her face. Her big eyes widened and dilated with intense lights. She
-seemed to leap to the height and the dignity of superb womanhood before
-their wondering gaze.
-
-“I never have had to dream of love,” she said proudly. “I never have
-known anything else, in all my life, but to love everyone and to have
-everyone love me. And there never has been anyone so dear as Freckles.
-If you will remember, we have been through a good deal together. I do
-love Freckles, just as I say I do. I don't know anything about the love
-of sweethearts, but I love him with all the love in my heart, and I
-think that will satisfy him.”
-
-“Surely it should!” muttered the man of knives and lancets.
-
-McLean reached to take hold of the Angel, but she saw the movement and
-swiftly stepped back.
-
-“As for my father,” she continued, “he at once told me what he learned
-from you about Freckles. I've known all you know for several weeks. That
-knowledge didn't change your love for him a particle. I think the Bird
-Woman loved him more. Why should you two have all the fine perceptions
-there are? Can't I see how brave, trustworthy, and splendid he is? Can't
-I see how his soul vibrates with his music, his love of beautiful things
-and the pangs of loneliness and heart hunger? Must you two love him
-with all the love there is, and I give him none? My father is never
-unreasonable. He won't expect me not to love Freckles, or not to tell
-him so, if the telling will save him.”
-
-She darted past McLean into Freckles' room, closed the door, and turned
-the key.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII
-
-Wherein Freckles refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable Birth, and
-the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-
-Freckles lay on a flat pillow, his body immovable in a plaster cast, his
-maimed arm, as always, hidden. His greedy gaze fastened at once on the
-Angel's face. She crossed to him with light step and bent over him with
-infinite tenderness. Her heart ached at the change in his appearance. He
-seemed so weak, heart hungry, so utterly hopeless, so alone. She could
-see that the night had been one long terror.
-
-For the first time she tried putting herself in Freckles' place. What
-would it mean to have no parents, no home, no name? No name! That was
-the worst of all. That was to be lost--indeed--utterly and hopelessly
-lost. The Angel lifted her hands to her dazed head and reeled, as she
-tried to face that proposition. She dropped on her knees beside the bed,
-slipped her arm under the pillow, and leaning over Freckles, set her
-lips on his forehead. He smiled faintly, but his wistful face appeared
-worse for it. It hurt the Angel to the heart.
-
-“Dear Freckles,” she said, “there is a story in your eyes this morning,
-tell me?”
-
-Freckles drew a long, wavering breath.
-
-“Angel,” he begged, “be generous! Be thinking of me a little. I'm so
-homesick and worn out, dear Angel, be giving me back me promise. Let me
-go?”
-
-“Why Freckles!” faltered the Angel. “You don't know what you are asking.
-'Let you go!' I cannot! I love you better than anyone, Freckles. I
-think you are the very finest person I ever knew. I have our lives all
-planned. I want you to be educated and learn all there is to know about
-singing, just as soon as you are well enough. By the time you have
-completed your education I will have finished college, and then I want,”
- she choked a second, “I want you to be my real knight, Freckles, and
-come to me and tell me that you--like me--a little. I have been counting
-on you for my sweetheart from the very first, Freckles. I can't give you
-up, unless you don't like me. But you do like me--just a little--don't
-you, Freckles?”
-
-Freckles lay whiter than the coverlet, his staring eyes on the ceiling
-and his breath wheezing between dry lips. The Angel awaited his answer
-a second, and when none came, she dropped her crimsoning face beside him
-on the pillow and whispered in his ear:
-
-“Freckles, I--I'm trying to make love to you. Oh, can't you help me only
-a little bit? It's awful hard all alone! I don't know how, when I really
-mean it, but Freckles, I love you. I must have you, and now I guess--I
-guess maybe I'd better kiss you next.”
-
-She lifted her shamed face and bravely laid her feverish, quivering lips
-on his. Her breath, like clover-bloom, was in his nostrils, and her hair
-touched his face. Then she looked into his eyes with reproach.
-
-“Freckles,” she panted, “Freckles! I didn't think it was in you to be
-mean!”
-
-“Mean, Angel! Mean to you?” gasped Freckles.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel. “Downright mean. When I kiss you, if you had any
-mercy at all you'd kiss back, just a little bit.”
-
-Freckles' sinewy fist knotted into the coverlet. His chin pointed
-ceilingward while his head rocked on the pillow.
-
-“Oh, Jesus!” burst from him in agony. “You ain't the only one that was
-crucified!”
-
-The Angel caught Freckles' hand and carried it to her breast.
-
-“Freckles!” she wailed in terror, “Freckles! It is a mistake? Is it that
-you don't want me?”
-
-Freckles' head rolled on in wordless suffering.
-
-“Wait a bit, Angel?” he panted at last. “Be giving me a little time!”
-
-The Angel arose with controlled features. She bathed his face,
-straightened his hair, and held water to his lips. It seemed a long time
-before he reached toward her. Instantly she knelt again, carried his
-hand to her breast, and leaned her cheek upon it.
-
-“Tell me, Freckles,” she whispered softly.
-
-“If I can,” said Freckles in agony. “It's just this. Angels are
-from above. Outcasts are from below. You've a sound body and you're
-beautifulest of all. You have everything that loving, careful raising
-and money can give you. I have so much less than nothing that I don't
-suppose I had any right to be born. It's a sure thing--nobody wanted me
-afterward, so of course, they didn't before. Some of them should have
-been telling you long ago.”
-
-“If that's all you have to say, Freckles, I've known that quite a
-while,” said the Angel stoutly. “Mr. McLean told my father, and he told
-me. That only makes me love you more, to pay for all you've missed.”
-
-“Then I'm wondering at you,” said Freckles in a voice of awe. “Can't you
-see that if you were willing and your father would come and offer you
-to me, I couldn't be touching the soles of your feet, in love--me, whose
-people brawled over me, cut off me hand, and throwed me away to freeze
-and to die! Me, who has no name just as much because I've no RIGHT to
-any, as because I don't know it. When I was little, I planned to find me
-father and mother when I grew up. Now I know me mother deserted me, and
-me father was maybe a thief and surely a liar. The pity for me suffering
-and the watching over me have gone to your head, dear Angel, and it's me
-must be thinking for you. If you could be forgetting me lost hand, where
-I was raised, and that I had no name to give you, and if you would be
-taking me as I am, some day people such as mine must be, might come upon
-you. I used to pray ivery night and morning and many times the day to
-see me mother. Now I only pray to die quickly and never risk the sight
-of her. 'Tain't no ways possible, Angel! It's a wildness of your dear
-head. Oh, do for mercy sake, kiss me once more and be letting me go!”
-
-“Not for a minute!” cried the Angel. “Not for a minute, if those are
-all the reasons you have. It's you who are wild in your head, but I can
-understand just how it happened. Being shut in that Home most of your
-life, and seeing children every day whose parents did neglect and desert
-them, makes you sure yours did the same; and yet there are so many other
-things that could have happened so much more easily than that. There are
-thousands of young couples who come to this country and start a family
-with none of their relatives here. Chicago is a big, wicked city, and
-grown people could disappear in many ways, and who would there ever be
-to find to whom their little children belonged? The minute my father
-told me how you felt, I began to study this thing over, and I've made up
-my mind you are dead wrong. I meant to ask my father or the Bird Woman
-to talk to you before you went away to school, but as matters are right
-now I guess I'll just do it myself. It's all so plain to me. Oh, if I
-could only make you see!”
-
-She buried her face in the pillow and presently lifted it, transfigured.
-
-“Now I have it!” she cried. “Oh, dear heart! I can make it so plain!
-Freckles, can you imagine you see the old Limberlost trail? Well when
-we followed it, you know there were places where ugly, prickly thistles
-overgrew the path, and you went ahead with your club and bent them back
-to keep them from stinging through my clothing. Other places there were
-big shining pools where lovely, snow-white lilies grew, and you waded
-in and gathered them for me. Oh dear heart, don't you see? It's this!
-Everywhere the wind carried that thistledown, other thistles sprang up
-and grew prickles; and wherever those lily seeds sank to the mire, the
-pure white of other lilies bloomed. But, Freckles, there was never
-a place anywhere in the Limberlost, or in the whole world, where the
-thistledown floated and sprang up and blossomed into white lilies!
-Thistles grow from thistles, and lilies from other lilies. Dear
-Freckles, think hard! You must see it! You are a lily, straight through.
-You never, never could have drifted from the thistle-patch.
-
-“Where did you find the courage to go into the Limberlost and face its
-terrors? You inherited it from the blood of a brave father, dear heart.
-Where did you get the pluck to hold for over a year a job that few men
-would have taken at all? You got it from a plucky mother, you bravest
-of boys. You attacked single-handed a man almost twice your size, and
-fought as a demon, merely at the suggestion that you be deceptive and
-dishonest. Could your mother or your father have been untruthful? Here
-you are, so hungry and starved that you are dying for love. Where
-did you get all that capacity for loving? You didn't inherit it from
-hardened, heartless people, who would disfigure you and purposely leave
-you to die, that's one sure thing. You once told me of saving your big
-bullfrog from a rattlesnake. You knew you risked a horrible death when
-you did it. Yet you will spend miserable years torturing yourself with
-the idea that your own mother might have cut off that hand. Shame on
-you, Freckles! Your mother would have done this----”
-
-The Angel deliberately turned back the cover, slipped up the sleeve, and
-laid her lips on the scars.
-
-“Freckles! Wake up!” she cried, almost shaking him. “Come to your
-senses! Be a thinking, reasoning man! You have brooded too much, and
-been all your life too much alone. It's all as plain as plain can be to
-me. You must see it! Like breeds like in this world! You must be some
-sort of a reproduction of your parents, and I am not afraid to vouch for
-them, not for a minute!
-
-“And then, too, if more proof is needed, here it is: Mr. McLean says
-that you never once have failed in tact and courtesy. He says that you
-are the most perfect gentleman he ever knew, and he has traveled the
-world over. How does it happen, Freckles? No one at that Home taught
-you. Hundreds of men couldn't be taught, even in a school of etiquette;
-so it must be instinctive with you. If it is, why, that means that it is
-born in you, and a direct inheritance from a race of men that have been
-gentlemen for ages, and couldn't be anything else.
-
-“Then there's your singing. I don't believe there ever was a mortal with
-a sweeter voice than yours, and while that doesn't prove anything, there
-is a point that does. The little training you had from that choirmaster
-won't account for the wonderful accent and ease with which you sing.
-Somewhere in your close blood is a marvelously trained vocalist; we
-every one of us believe that, Freckles.
-
-“Why does my father refer to you constantly as being of fine perceptions
-and honor? Because you are, Freckles. Why does the Bird Woman leave her
-precious work and come here to help look after you? I never heard of her
-losing any time over anyone else. It's because she loves you. And why
-does Mr. McLean turn all of his valuable business over to hired men and
-watch you personally? And why is he hunting excuses every day to spend
-money on you? My father says McLean is full Scotch-close with a dollar.
-He is a hard-headed business man, Freckles, and he is doing it because
-he finds you worthy of it. Worthy of all we all can do and more than we
-know how to do, dear heart! Freckles, are you listening to me? Oh! won't
-you see it? Won't you believe it?”
-
-“Oh, Angel!” chattered the bewildered Freckles, “are you truly maning
-it? Could it be?”
-
-“Of course it could,” flashed the Angel, “because it just is!”
-
-“But you can't prove it,” wailed Freckles. “It ain't giving me a name,
-or me honor!”
-
-“Freckles,” said the Angel sternly, “you are unreasonable! Why, I did
-prove every word I said! Everything proves it! You look here! If you
-knew for sure that I could give you a name and your honor, and prove
-to you that your mother did love you, why, then, would you just go to
-breathing like perpetual motion and hang on for dear life and get well?”
-
-A bright light shone in Freckles' eyes.
-
-“If I knew that, Angel,” he said solemnly, “you couldn't be killing me
-if you felled the biggest tree in the Limberlost smash on me!”
-
-“Then you go right to work,” said the Angel, “and before night I'll
-prove one thing to you: I can show you easily enough how much your
-mother loved you. That will be the first step, and then the remainder
-will all come. If my father and Mr. McLean are so anxious to spend some
-money, I'll give them a chance. I don't see why we haven't comprehended
-how you felt and so have been at work weeks ago. We've been awfully
-selfish. We've all been so comfortable, we never stopped to think what
-other people were suffering before our eyes. None of us has understood.
-I'll hire the finest detective in Chicago, and we'll go to work
-together. This is nothing compared with things people do find out. We'll
-go at it, beak and claw, and we'll show you a thing or two.”
-
-Freckles caught her sleeve.
-
-“Me mother, Angel! Me mother!” he marveled hoarsely. “Did you say
-you could be finding out today if me mother loved me? How? Oh, Angel!
-Nothing matters, IF ONLY ME MOTHER DIDN'T DO IT!”
-
-“Then you rest easy,” said the Angel, with large confidence. “Your
-mother didn't do it! Mothers of sons such as you don't do things like
-that. I'll go to work at once and prove it to you. The first thing to
-do is to go to that Home where you were and get the clothes you wore the
-night you were left there. I know that they are required to save those
-things carefully. We can find out almost all there is to know about your
-mother from them. Did you ever see them?”
-
-“Yis,” he replied.
-
-“Freckles! Were they white?” she cried.
-
-“Maybe they were once. They're all yellow with laying, and brown with
-blood-stains now” said Freckles, the old note of bitterness creeping in.
-“You can't be telling anything at all by them, Angel!”
-
-“Well, but I just can!” said the Angel positively. “I can see from the
-quality what kind of goods your mother could afford to buy. I can see
-from the cut whether she had good taste. I can see from the care she
-took in making them how much she loved and wanted you.”
-
-“But how? Angel, tell me how!” implored Freckles with trembling
-eagerness.
-
-“Why, easily enough,” said the Angel. “I thought you'd understand.
-People that can afford anything at all, always buy white for little new
-babies--linen and lace, and the very finest things to be had. There's a
-young woman living near us who cut up her wedding clothes to have fine
-things for her baby. Mothers who love and want their babies don't buy
-little rough, ready-made things, and they don't run up what they make on
-an old sewing machine. They make fine seams, and tucks, and put on lace
-and trimming by hand. They sit and stitch, and stitch--little, even
-stitches, every one just as careful. Their eyes shine and their faces
-glow. When they have to quit to do something else, they look sorry, and
-fold up their work so particularly. There isn't much worth knowing about
-your mother that those little clothes won't tell. I can see her putting
-the little stitches into them and smiling with shining eyes over your
-coming. Freckles, I'll wager you a dollar those little clothes of yours
-are just alive with the dearest, tiny handmade stitches.”
-
-A new light dawned in Freckles' eyes. A tinge of warm color swept into
-his face. Renewed strength was noticeable in his grip of her hands.
-
-“Oh Angel! Will you go now? Will you be hurrying?” he cried.
-
-“Right away,” said the Angel. “I won't stop for a thing, and I'll hurry
-with all my might.”
-
-She smoothed his pillow, straightened the cover, gave him one steady
-look in the eyes, and went quietly from the room.
-
-Outside the door, McLean and the surgeon anxiously awaited her. McLean
-caught her shoulders.
-
-“Angel, what have you done?” he demanded.
-
-The Angel smiled defiance into his eyes.
-
-“'What have I done?'” she repeated. “I've tried to save Freckles.”
-
-“What will your father say?” groaned McLean.
-
-“It strikes me,” said the Angel, “that what Freckles said would be to
-the point.”
-
-“Freckles!” exclaimed McLean. “What could he say?”
-
-“He seemed to be able to say several things,” answered the Angel
-sweetly. “I fancy the one that concerns you most at present was, that if
-my father should offer me to him he would not have me.”
-
-“And no one knows why better than I do,” cried McLean. “Every day he
-must astonish me with some new fineness.”
-
-He turned to the surgeon. “Save him!” he commanded. “Save him!” he
-implored. “He is too fine to be sacrificed.”
-
-“His salvation lies here,” said the surgeon, stroking the Angel's
-sunshiny hair, “and I can read in the face of her that she knows how she
-is going to work it out. Don't trouble for the boy. She will save him!”
-
-The Angel laughingly sped down the hall, and into the street, just as
-she was.
-
-“I have come,” she said to the matron of the Home, “to ask if you will
-allow me to examine, or, better yet, to take with me, the little clothes
-that a boy you called Freckles, discharged last fall, wore the night he
-was left here.”
-
-The woman looked at her in greater astonishment than the occasion
-demanded.
-
-“Well, I'd be glad to let you see them,” she said at last, “but the
-fact is we haven't them. I do hope we haven't made some mistake. I was
-thoroughly convinced, and so was the superintendent. We let his people
-take those things away yesterday. Who are you, and what do you want with
-them?”
-
-The Angel stood dazed and speechless, staring at the matron.
-
-“There couldn't have been a mistake,” continued the matron, seeing the
-Angel's distress. “Freckles was here when I took charge, ten years ago.
-These people had it all proved that he belonged to them. They had
-him traced to where he ran away in Illinois last fall, and there they
-completely lost track of him. I'm sorry you seem so disappointed, but it
-is all right. The man is his uncle, and as like the boy as he possibly
-could be. He is almost killed to go back without him. If you know where
-Freckles is, they'd give big money to find out.”
-
-The Angel laid a hand along each cheek to steady her chattering teeth.
-
-“Who are they?” she stammered. “Where are they going?”
-
-“They are Irish folks, miss,” said the matron. “They have been in
-Chicago and over the country for the past three months, hunting him
-everywhere. They have given up, and are starting home today. They----”
-
-“Did they leave an address? Where could I find them?” interrupted the
-Angel.
-
-“They left a card, and I notice the morning paper has the man's picture
-and is full of them. They've advertised a great deal in the city papers.
-It's a wonder you haven't seen something.”
-
-“Trains don't run right. We never get Chicago papers,” said the Angel.
-“Please give me that card quickly. They may escape me. I simply must
-catch them!”
-
-The matron hurried to the secretary and came back with a card.
-
-“Their addresses are there,” she said. “Both in Chicago and at their
-home. They made them full and plain, and I was to cable at once if I
-got the least clue of him at any time. If they've left the city, you can
-stop them in New York. You're sure to catch them before they sail--if
-you hurry.”
-
-The matron caught up a paper and thrust it into the Angel's hand as she
-ran to the street.
-
-The Angel glanced at the card. The Chicago address was Suite Eleven,
-Auditorium. She laid her hand on her driver's sleeve and looked into his
-eyes.
-
-“There is a fast-driving limit?” she asked.
-
-“Yes, miss.”
-
-“Will you crowd it all you can without danger of arrest? I will pay
-well. I must catch some people!”
-
-Then she smiled at him. The hospital, an Orphans' Home, and the
-Auditorium seemed a queer combination to that driver, but the Angel was
-always and everywhere the Angel, and her methods were strictly her own.
-
-“I will take you there as quickly as any man could with a team,” he said
-promptly.
-
-The Angel clung to the card and paper, and as best she could in the
-lurching, swaying cab, read the addresses over.
-
-“O'More, Suite Eleven, Auditorium.”
-
-“'O'More,'” she repeated. “Seems to fit Freckles to a dot. Wonder if
-that could be his name? 'Suite Eleven' means that you are pretty well
-fixed. Suites in the Auditorium come high.”
-
-Then she turned the card and read on its reverse, Lord Maxwell O'More,
-M. P., Killvany Place, County Clare, Ireland.
-
-The Angel sat on the edge of the seat, bracing her feet against the one
-opposite, as the cab pitched and swung around corners and past vehicles.
-She mechanically fingered the pasteboard and stared straight ahead. Then
-she drew a deep breath and read the card again.
-
-“A Lord-man!” she groaned despairingly. “A Lord-man! Bet my hoecake's
-scorched! Here I've gone and pledged my word to Freckles I'd find him
-some decent relatives, that he could be proud of, and now there isn't a
-chance out of a dozen that he'll have to be ashamed of them after all.
-It's too mean!”
-
-The tears of vexation rolled down the tired, nerve-racked Angel's
-cheeks.
-
-“This isn't going to do,” she said, resolutely wiping her eyes with the
-palm of her hand and gulping down the nervous spasm in her throat. “I
-must read this paper before I meet Lord O'More.”
-
-She blinked back the tears and spreading the paper on her knee, read:
-“After three months' fruitless search, Lord O'More gives up the quest of
-his lost nephew, and leaves Chicago today for his home in Ireland.”
-
-She read on, and realized every word. The likeness settled any doubt. It
-was Freckles over again, only older and well dressed.
-
-“Well, I must catch you if I can,” muttered the Angel. “But when I do,
-if you are a gentleman in name only, you shan't have Freckles; that's
-flat. You're not his father and he is twenty. Anyway, if the law will
-give him to you for one year, you can't spoil him, because nobody could,
-and,” she added, brightening, “he'll probably do you a lot of good.
-Freckles and I both must study years yet, and you should be something
-that will save him. I guess it will come out all right. At least, I
-don't believe you can take him away if I say no.”
-
-“Thank you; and wait, no matter how long,” she said to her driver.
-
-Catching up the paper, she hurried to the desk and laid down Lord
-O'More's card.
-
-“Has my uncle started yet?” she asked sweetly.
-
-The surprised clerk stepped back on a bellboy, and covertly kicked him
-for being in the way.
-
-“His lordship is in his room,” he said, with a low bow.
-
-“All right,” said the Angel, picking up the card. “I thought he might
-have started. I'll see him.”
-
-The clerk shoved the bellboy toward the Angel.
-
-“Show her ladyship to the elevator and Lord O'More's suite,” he said,
-bowing double.
-
-“Aw, thanks,” said the Angel with a slight nod, as she turned away.
-
-“I'm not sure,” she muttered to herself as the elevator sped upward,
-“whether it's the Irish or the English who say: 'Aw, thanks,' but it's
-probable he isn't either; and anyway, I just had to do something to
-counteract that 'All right.' How stupid of me!”
-
-At the bellboy's tap, the door swung open and the liveried servant
-thrust a cardtray before the Angel. The opening of the door created a
-current that swayed a curtain aside, and in an adjoining room, lounging
-in a big chair, with a paper in his hand, sat a man who was, beyond
-question, of Freckles' blood and race.
-
-With perfect control the Angel dropped Lord O'More's card in the tray,
-stepped past his servant, and stood before his lordship.
-
-“Good morning,” she said with tense politeness.
-
-Lord O'More said nothing. He carelessly glanced her over with amused
-curiosity, until her color began to deepen and her blood to run hotly.
-
-“Well, my dear,” he said at last, “how can I serve you?”
-
-Instantly the Angel became indignant. She had been so shielded in the
-midst of almost entire freedom, owing to the circumstances of her life,
-that the words and the look appeared to her as almost insulting. She
-lifted her head with a proud gesture.
-
-“I am not your 'dear,'” she said with slow distinctness. “There isn't a
-thing in the world you can do for me. I came here to see if I could do
-something--a very great something--for you; but if I don't like you, I
-won't do it!”
-
-Then Lord O'More did stare. Suddenly he broke into a ringing laugh.
-Without a change of attitude or expression, the Angel stood looking
-steadily at him.
-
-There was a silken rustle, then a beautiful woman with cheeks of satiny
-pink, dark hair, and eyes of pure Irish blue, moved to Lord O'More's
-side, and catching his arm, shook him impatiently.
-
-“Terence! Have you lost your senses?” she cried. “Didn't you understand
-what the child said? Look at her face! See what she has!”
-
-Lord O'More opened his eyes widely and sat up. He did look at the
-Angel's face intently, and suddenly found it so good that it was
-difficult to follow the next injunction. He arose instantly.
-
-“I beg your pardon,” he said. “The fact is, I am leaving Chicago sorely
-disappointed. It makes me bitter and reckless. I thought you one more of
-those queer, useless people who have thrust themselves on me constantly,
-and I was careless. Forgive me, and tell me why you came.”
-
-“I will if I like you,” said the Angel stoutly, “and if I don't, I
-won't!”
-
-“But I began all wrong, and now I don't know how to make you like me,”
- said his lordship, with sincere penitence in his tone.
-
-The Angel found herself yielding to his voice. He spoke in a soft,
-mellow, smoothly flowing Irish tone, and although his speech was
-perfectly correct, it was so rounded, and accented, and the sentences so
-turned, that it was Freckles over again. Still, it was a matter of the
-very greatest importance, and she must be sure; so she looked into the
-beautiful woman's face.
-
-“Are you his wife?” she asked.
-
-“Yes,” said the woman, “I am his wife.”
-
-“Well,” said the Angel judicially, “the Bird Woman says no one in the
-whole world knows all a man's bignesses and all his littlenesses as his
-wife does. What you think of him should do for me. Do you like him?”
-
-The question was so earnestly asked that it met with equal earnestness.
-The dark head moved caressingly against Lord O'More's sleeve.
-
-“Better than anyone in the whole world,” said Lady O'More promptly.
-
-The Angel mused a second, and then her legal tinge came to the fore
-again.
-
-“Yes, but have you anyone you could like better, if he wasn't all
-right?” she persisted.
-
-“I have three of his sons, two little daughters, a father, mother, and
-several brothers and sisters,” came the quick reply.
-
-“And you like him best?” persisted the Angel with finality.
-
-“I love him so much that I would give up every one of them with dry eyes
-if by so doing I could save him,” cried Lord O'More's wife.
-
-“Oh!” cried the Angel. “Oh, my!”
-
-She lifted her clear eyes to Lord O'More's and shook her head.
-
-“She never, never could do that!” she said. “But it's a mighty big thing
-to your credit that she THINKS she could. I guess I'll tell you why I
-came.”
-
-She laid down the paper, and touched the portrait.
-
-“When you were only a boy, did people call you Freckles?” she asked.
-
-“Dozens of good fellows all over Ireland and the Continent are doing it
-today,” answered Lord O'More.
-
-The Angel's face wore her most beautiful smile.
-
-“I was sure of it,” she said winningly. “That's what we call him, and he
-is so like you, I doubt if any one of those three boys of yours are
-more so. But it's been twenty years. Seems to me you've been a long time
-coming!”
-
-Lord O'More caught the Angel's wrists and his wife slipped her arms
-around her.
-
-“Steady, my girl!” said the man's voice hoarsely. “Don't make me think
-you've brought word of the boy at this last hour, unless you know
-surely.”
-
-“It's all right,” said the Angel. “We have him, and there's no chance
-of a mistake. If I hadn't gone to that Home for his little clothes, and
-heard of you and been hunting you, and had met you on the street, or
-anywhere, I would have stopped you and asked you who you were, just
-because you are so like him. It's all right. I can tell you where
-Freckles is; but whether you deserve to know--that's another matter!”
-
-Lord O'More did not hear her. He dropped in his chair, and covering his
-face, burst into those terrible sobs that shake and rend a strong man.
-Lady O'More hovered over him, weeping.
-
-“Umph! Looks pretty fair for Freckles,” muttered the Angel. “Lots of
-things can be explained; now perhaps they can explain this.”
-
-They did explain so satisfactorily that in a few minutes the Angel was
-on her feet, hurrying Lord and Lady O'More to reach the hospital. “You
-said Freckles' old nurse knew his mother's picture instantly,” said the
-Angel. “I want that picture and the bundle of little clothes.”
-
-Lady O'More gave them into her hands.
-
-The likeness was a large miniature, painted on ivory, with a frame of
-beaten gold. Surrounded by masses of dark hair was a delicately cut
-face. In the upper part of it there was no trace of Freckles, but
-the lips curving in a smile were his very own. The Angel gazed at it
-steadily. Then with a quivering breath she laid the portrait aside and
-reached both hands to Lord O'More.
-
-“That will save Freckles' life and insure his happiness,” she said
-positively. “Thank you, oh thank you for coming!”
-
-She opened the bundle of yellow and brown linen and gave only a glance
-at the texture and work. Then she gathered the little clothes and the
-picture to her heart and led the way to the cab.
-
-Ushering Lord and Lady O'More into the reception room, she said to
-McLean, “Please go call up my father and ask him to come on the first
-train.”
-
-She closed the door after him.
-
-“These are Freckles' people,” she said to the Bird Woman. “You can find
-out about each other; I'm going to him.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX
-
-Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-
-The nurse left the room quietly, as the Angel entered, carrying the
-bundle and picture. When they were alone, she turned to Freckles and saw
-that the crisis was indeed at hand.
-
-That she had good word to give him was his salvation, for despite the
-heavy plaster jacket that held his body immovable, his head was lifted
-from the pillow. Both arms reached for her. His lips and cheeks flamed,
-while his eyes flashed with excitement.
-
-“Angel,” he panted. “Oh Angel! Did you find them? Are they white? Are
-the little stitches there? OH ANGEL! DID ME MOTHER LOVE ME?”
-
-The words seemed to leap from his burning lips. The Angel dropped the
-bundle on the bed and laid the picture face down across his knees.
-She gently pushed his head to the pillow and caught his arms in a firm
-grasp.
-
-“Yes, dear heart,” she said with fullest assurance. “No little clothes
-were ever whiter. I never in all my life saw such dainty, fine, little
-stitches; and as for loving you, no boy's mother ever loved him more!”
-
-A nervous trembling seized Freckles.
-
-“Sure? Are you sure?” he urged with clicking teeth.
-
-“I know,” said the Angel firmly. “And Freckles, while you rest and be
-glad, I want to tell you a story. When you feel stronger we will look at
-the clothes together. They are here. They are all right. But while I
-was at the Home getting them, I heard of some people that were hunting
-a lost boy. I went to see them, and what they told me was all so exactly
-like what might have happened to you that I must tell you. Then you'll
-understand that things could be very different from what you always have
-tortured yourself with thinking. Are you strong enough to listen? May I
-tell you?”
-
-“Maybe 'twasn't me mother! Maybe someone else made those little
-stitches!”
-
-“Now, goosie, don't you begin that,” said the Angel, “because I know
-that it was!”
-
-“Know!” cried Freckles, his head springing from the pillow. “Know! How
-can you know?”
-
-The Angel gently soothed him back.
-
-“Why, because nobody else would ever sit and do it the way it is done.
-That's how I know,” she said emphatically. “Now you listen while I tell
-you about this lost boy and his people, who have hunted for months and
-can't find him.”
-
-Freckles lay quietly under her touch, but he did not hear a word that
-she was saying until his roving eyes rested on her face; he immediately
-noticed a remarkable thing. For the first time she was talking to him
-and avoiding his eyes. That was not like the Angel at all. It was the
-delight of hearing her speak that she looked one squarely in the face
-and with perfect frankness. There were no side glances and down-drooping
-eyes when the Angel talked; she was business straight through. Instantly
-Freckles' wandering thoughts fastened on her words.
-
-“--and he was a sour, grumpy, old man,” she was saying. “He always had
-been spoiled, because he was an only son, so he had a title, and a big
-estate. He would have just his way, no matter about his sweet little
-wife, or his boys, or anyone. So when his elder son fell in love with a
-beautiful girl having a title, the very girl of all the world his
-father wanted him to, and added a big adjoining estate to his, why, that
-pleased him mightily.
-
-“Then he went and ordered his younger son to marry a poky kind of a
-girl, that no one liked, to add another big estate on the other side,
-and that was different. That was all the world different, because the
-elder son had been in love all his life with the girl he married, and,
-oh, Freckles, it's no wonder, for I saw her! She's a beauty and she has
-the sweetest way.
-
-“But that poor younger son, he had been in love with the village
-vicar's daughter all his life. That's no wonder either, for she was more
-beautiful yet. She could sing as the angels, but she hadn't a cent. She
-loved him to death, too, if he was bony and freckled and red-haired--I
-don't mean that! They didn't say what color his hair was, but his
-father's must have been the reddest ever, for when he found out about
-them, and it wasn't anything so terrible, HE JUST CAVED!
-
-“The old man went to see the girl--the pretty one with no money, of
-course--and he hurt her feelings until she ran away. She went to London
-and began studying music. Soon she grew to be a fine singer, so she
-joined a company and came to this country.
-
-“When the younger son found that she had left London, he followed her.
-When she got here all alone, and afraid, and saw him coming to her, why,
-she was so glad she up and married him, just like anybody else would
-have done. He didn't want her to travel with the troupe, so when they
-reached Chicago they thought that would be a good place, and they
-stopped, while he hunted work. It was slow business, because he never
-had been taught to do a useful thing, and he didn't even know how to
-hunt work, least of all to do it when he found it; so pretty soon things
-were going wrong. But if he couldn't find work, she could always sing,
-so she sang at night, and made little things in the daytime. He didn't
-like her to sing in public, and he wouldn't allow her when he could
-HELP himself; but winter came, it was very cold, and fire was expensive.
-Rents went up, and they had to move farther out to cheaper and
-cheaper places; and you were coming--I mean, the boy that is lost was
-coming--and they were almost distracted. Then the man wrote and told his
-father all about it; and his father sent the letter back unopened with
-a line telling him never to write again. When the baby came, there was
-very little left to pawn for food and a doctor, and nothing at all for
-a nurse; so an old neighbor woman went in and took care of the young
-mother and the little baby, because she was so sorry for them. By that
-time they were away in the suburbs on the top floor of a little wooden
-house, among a lot of big factories, and it kept growing colder, with
-less to eat. Then the man grew desperate and he went just to find
-something to eat and the woman was desperate, too. She got up, left the
-old woman to take care of her baby, and went into the city to sing for
-some money. The woman became so cold she put the baby in bed and went
-home. Then a boiler blew up in a big factory beside the little house and
-set it on fire. A piece of iron was pitched across and broke through
-the roof. It came down smash, and cut just one little hand off the poor
-baby. It screamed and screamed; and the fire kept coming closer and
-closer.
-
-“The old woman ran out with the other people and saw what had happened.
-She knew there wasn't going to be time to wait for firemen or anything,
-so she ran into the building. She could hear the baby screaming, and she
-couldn't stand that; so she worked her way to it. There it was, all hurt
-and bleeding. Then she was almost scared to death over thinking what its
-mother would do to her for going away and leaving it, so she ran to a
-Home for little friendless babies, that was close, and banged on the
-door. Then she hid across the street until the baby was taken in, and
-then she ran back to see if her own house was burning. The big factory
-and the little house and a lot of others were all gone. The people there
-told her that the beautiful lady came back and ran into the house to
-find her baby. She had just gone in when her husband came, and he went
-in after her, and the house fell over both of them.”
-
-Freckles lay rigidly, with his eyes on the Angel's face, while she
-talked rapidly to the ceiling.
-
-“Then the old woman was sick about that poor little baby. She was afraid
-to tell them at the Home, because she knew she never should have left
-it, but she wrote a letter and sent it to where the beautiful woman,
-when she was ill, had said her husband's people lived. She told all
-about the little baby that she could remember: when it was born, how it
-was named for the man's elder brother, that its hand had been cut off in
-the fire, and where she had put it to be doctored and taken care of. She
-told them that its mother and father were both burned, and she begged
-and implored them to come after it.
-
-“You'd think that would have melted a heart of ice, but that old man
-hadn't any heart to melt, for he got that letter and read it. He hid it
-away among his papers and never told a soul. A few months ago he died.
-When his elder son went to settle his business, he found the letter
-almost the first thing. He dropped everything, and came, with his wife,
-to hunt that baby, because he always had loved his brother dearly, and
-wanted him back. He had hunted for him all he dared all these years, but
-when he got here you were gone--I mean the baby was gone, and I had to
-tell you, Freckles, for you see, it might have happened to you like that
-just as easy as to that other lost boy.”
-
-Freckles reached up and turned the Angel's face until he compelled her
-eyes to meet his.
-
-“Angel,” he asked quietly, “why don't you look at me when you are
-telling about that lost boy?”
-
-“I--I didn't know I wasn't,” faltered the Angel.
-
-“It seems to me,” said Freckles, his breath beginning to come in sharp
-wheezes, “that you got us rather mixed, and it ain't like you to be
-mixing things till one can't be knowing. If they were telling you so
-much, did they say which hand was for being off that lost boy?”
-
-The Angel's eyes escaped again.
-
-“It--it was the same as yours,” she ventured, barely breathing in her
-fear.
-
-Still Freckles lay rigid and whiter than the coverlet.
-
-“Would that boy be as old as me?” he asked.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel faintly.
-
-“Angel,” said Freckles at last, catching her wrist, “are you trying to
-tell me that there is somebody hunting a boy that you're thinking might
-be me? Are you belavin' you've found me relations?”
-
-Then the Angel's eyes came home. The time had come. She pinioned
-Freckles' arms to his sides and bent above him.
-
-“How strong are you, dear heart?” she breathed. “How brave are you? Can
-you bear it? Dare I tell you that?”
-
-“No!” gasped Freckles. “Not if you're sure! I can't bear it! I'll die if
-you do!”
-
-The day had been one unremitting strain with the Angel. Nerve tension
-was drawn to the finest thread. It snapped suddenly.
-
-“Die!” she flamed. “Die, if I tell you that! You said this morning that
-you would die if you DIDN'T know your name, and if your people were
-honorable. Now I've gone and found you a name that stands for ages of
-honor, a mother who loved you enough to go into the fire and die for
-you, and the nicest kind of relatives, and you turn round and say you'll
-die over that! YOU JUST TRY DYING AND YOU'LL GET A GOOD SLAP!”
-
-The Angel stood glaring at him. One second Freckles lay paralyzed and
-dumb with astonishment. The next the Irish in his soul arose above
-everything. A laugh burst from him. The terrified Angel caught him in
-her arms and tried to stifle the sound. She implored and commanded. When
-he was too worn to utter another sound, his eyes laughed silently.
-
-After a long time, when he was quiet and rested, the Angel commenced
-talking to him gently, and this time her big eyes, humid with tenderness
-and mellow with happiness, seemed as if they could not leave his face.
-
-“Dear Freckles,” she was saying, “across your knees there is the face of
-the mother who went into the fire for you, and I know the name--old and
-full of honor--to which you were born. Dear heart, which will you have
-first?”
-
-Freckles was very tired; the big drops of perspiration ran together on
-his temples; but the watching Angel caught the words his lips formed,
-“Me mother!”
-
-She lifted the lovely pictured face and set it in the nook of his arm.
-Freckles caught her hand and drew her beside him, and together they
-gazed at the picture while the tears slid over their cheeks.
-
-“Me mother! Oh, me mother! Can you ever be forgiving me? Oh, me
-beautiful little mother!” chanted Freckles over and over in exalted
-wonder, until he was so completely exhausted that his lips refused to
-form the question in his weary eyes.
-
-“Wait!” cried the Angel with inborn refinement, for she could no more
-answer that question than he could ask. “Wait, I will write it!”
-
-She hurried to the table, caught up the nurse's pencil, and on the back
-of a prescription tablet scrawled it: “Terence Maxwell O'More, Dunderry
-House, County Clare, Ireland.”
-
-Before she had finished came Freckles' voice: “Angel, are you hurrying?”
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel; “I am. But there is a good deal of it. I have to
-put in your house and country, so that you will feel located.”
-
-“Me house?” marveled Freckles.
-
-“Of course,” said the Angel. “Your uncle says your grandmother left your
-father her dower house and estate, because she knew his father would cut
-him off. You get that, and all your share of your grandfather's property
-besides. It is all set off for you and waiting. Lord O'More told me so.
-I suspect you are richer than McLean, Freckles.”
-
-She closed his fingers over the slip and straightened his hair.
-
-“Now you are all right, dear Limberlost guard,” she said. “You go to
-sleep and don't think of a thing but just pure joy, joy, joy! I'll keep
-your people until you wake up. You are too tired to see anyone else just
-now!”
-
-Freckles caught her skirt as she turned from him.
-
-“I'll go to sleep in five minutes,” he said, “if you will be doing just
-one thing more for me. Send for your father! Oh, Angel, send for him
-quick! How will I ever be waiting until he comes?”
-
-One instant the Angel stood looking at him. The next a crimson wave
-darkly stained her lovely face. Her chin began a spasmodic quivering and
-the tears sprang into her eyes. Her hands caught at her chest as if she
-were stifling. Freckles' grasp on her tightened until he drew her beside
-him. He slipped his arm around her and drew her face to his pillow.
-
-“Don't, Angel; for the love of mercy don't be doing that,” he implored.
-“I can't be bearing it. Tell me. You must tell me.”
-
-The Angel shook her head.
-
-“That ain't fair, Angel,” said Freckles. “You made me tell you when it
-was like tearing the heart raw from me breast. And you was for making
-everything heaven--just heaven and nothing else for me. If I'm so much
-more now than I was an hour ago, maybe I can be thinking of some way to
-fix things. You will be telling me?” he coaxed, moving his cheek against
-her hair.
-
-The Angel's head moved in negation. Freckles did a moment of intent
-thinking.
-
-“Maybe I can be guessing,” he whispered. “Will you be giving me three
-chances?”
-
-There was the faintest possible assent.
-
-“You didn't want me to be knowing me name,” guessed Freckles.
-
-The Angel's head sprang from the pillow and her tear-stained face flamed
-with outraged indignation.
-
-“Why, I did too!” she cried angrily.
-
-“One gone,” said Freckles calmly. “You didn't want me to have relatives,
-a home, and money.”
-
-“I did!” exclaimed the Angel. “Didn't I go myself, all alone, into the
-city, and find them when I was afraid as death? I did too!”
-
-“Two gone,” said Freckles. “You didn't want the beautifulest girl in the
-world to be telling me.----”
-
-Down went the Angel's face and a heavy sob shook her. Freckles' clasp
-tightened around her shoulders, while his face, in its conflicting
-emotions, was a study. He was so stunned and bewildered by the miracle
-that had been performed in bringing to light his name and relatives that
-he had no strength left for elaborate mental processes. Despite all
-it meant to him to know his name at last, and that he was of honorable
-birth--knowledge without which life was an eternal disgrace and burden
-the one thing that was hammering in Freckles' heart and beating in his
-brain, past any attempted expression, was the fact that, while nameless
-and possibly born in shame, the Angel had told him that she loved him.
-He could find no word with which to begin to voice the rapture of his
-heart over that. But if she regretted it--if it had been a thing done
-out of her pity for his condition, or her feeling of responsibility, if
-it killed him after all, there was only one thing left to do. Not for
-McLean, not for the Bird Woman, not for the Duncans would Freckles have
-done it--but for the Angel--if it would make her happy--he would do
-anything.
-
-“Angel,” whispered Freckles, with his lips against her hair, “you
-haven't learned your history book very well, or else you've forgotten.”
-
-“Forgotten what?” sobbed the Angel.
-
-“Forgotten about the real knight, Ladybird,” breathed Freckles. “Don't
-you know that, if anything happened that made his lady sorry, a real
-knight just simply couldn't be remembering it? Angel, darling little
-Swamp Angel, you be listening to me. There was one night on the trail,
-one solemn, grand, white night, that there wasn't ever any other like
-before or since, when the dear Boss put his arm around me and told me
-that he loved me; but if you care, Angel, if you don't want it that
-way, why, I ain't remembering that anyone else ever did--not in me whole
-life.”
-
-The Angel lifted her head and looked into the depths of Freckles' honest
-gray eyes, and they met hers unwaveringly; but the pain in them was
-pitiful.
-
-“Do you mean,” she demanded, “that you don't remember that a brazen,
-forward girl told you, when you hadn't asked her, that she”--the
-Angel choked on it a second, but she gave a gulp and brought it out
-bravely--“that she loved you?”
-
-“No!” cried Freckles. “No! I don't remember anything of the kind!”
-
-But all the songbirds of his soul burst into melody over that one little
-clause: “When you hadn't asked her.”
-
-“But you will,” said the Angel. “You may live to be an old, old man, and
-then you will.”
-
-“I will not!” cried Freckles. “How can you think it, Angel?”
-
-“You won't even LOOK as if you remember?”
-
-“I will not!” persisted Freckles. “I'll be swearing to it if you want me
-to. If you wasn't too tired to think this thing out straight, you'd be
-seeing that I couldn't--that I just simply couldn't! I'd rather give it
-all up now and go into eternity alone, without ever seeing a soul of me
-same blood, or me home, or hearing another man call me by the name I was
-born to, than to remember anything that would be hurting you, Angel. I
-should think you'd be understanding that it ain't no ways possible for
-me to do it.”
-
-The Angel's tear-stained face flashed into dazzling beauty. A
-half-hysterical little laugh broke from her heart and bubbled over her
-lips.
-
-“Oh, Freckles, forgive me!” she cried. “I've been through so much that
-I'm scarcely myself, or I wouldn't be here bothering you when you should
-be sleeping. Of course you couldn't! I knew it all the time! I was just
-scared! I was forgetting that you were you! You're too good a knight
-to remember a thing like that. Of course you are! And when you don't
-remember, why, then it's the same as if it never happened. I was almost
-killed because I'd gone and spoiled everything, but now it will be all
-right. Now you can go on and do things like other men, and I can have
-some flowers, and letters, and my sweetheart coming, and when you are
-SURE, why, then YOU can tell ME things, can't you? Oh, Freckles, I'm
-so glad! Oh, I'm so happy! It's dear of you not to remember, Freckles;
-perfectly dear! It's no wonder I love you so. The wonder would be if
-I did not. Oh, I should like to know how I'm ever going to make you
-understand how much I love you!”
-
-Pillow and all, she caught him to her breast one long second; then she
-was gone.
-
-Freckles lay dazed with astonishment. At last his amazed eyes searched
-the room for something approaching the human to which he could appeal,
-and falling on his mother's portrait, he set it before him.
-
-“For the love of life! Me little mother,” he panted, “did you hear that?
-Did you hear it! Tell me, am I living, or am I dead and all heaven come
-true this minute? Did you hear it?”
-
-He shook the frame in his impatience at receiving no answer.
-
-“You are only a pictured face,” he said at last, “and of course you
-can't talk; but the soul of you must be somewhere, and surely in this
-hour you are close enough to be hearing. Tell me, did you hear that? I
-can't ever be telling a living soul; but darling little mother, who
-gave your life for mine, I can always be talking of it to you! Every day
-we'll talk it over and try to understand the miracle of it. Tell me, are
-all women like that? Were you like me Swamp Angel? If you were, then I'm
-understanding why me father followed across the ocean and went into the
-fire.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX
-
-Wherein Freckles returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails for
-Ireland Without Him
-
-Freckles' voice ceased, his eyes closed, and his head rolled back from
-exhaustion. Later in the day he insisted on seeing Lord and Lady O'More,
-but he fainted before the resemblance of another man to him, and gave
-all of his friends a terrible fright.
-
-The next morning, the Man of Affairs, with a heart filled with
-misgivings, undertook the interview on which Freckles insisted. His
-fears were without cause. Freckles was the soul of honor and simplicity.
-
-“Have they been telling you what's come to me?” he asked without even
-waiting for a greeting.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel's father.
-
-“Do you think you have the very worst of it clear to your
-understanding?”
-
-Under Freckles' earnest eyes the Man of Affairs answered soberly: “I
-think I have, Mr. O'More.”
-
-That was the first time Freckles heard his name from the lips of
-another. One second he lay overcome; the next, tears filled his eyes,
-and he reached out his hand. Then the Angel's father understood, and he
-clasped that hand and held it in a strong, firm grasp.
-
-“Terence, my boy,” he said, “let me do the talking. I came here with
-the understanding that you wanted to ask me for my only child. I should
-like, at the proper time, to regard her marriage, if she has found the
-man she desires to marry, not as losing all I have, but as gaining a man
-on whom I can depend to love as a son and to take charge of my affairs
-for her when I retire from business. Bend all of your energies toward
-rapid recovery, and from this hour understand that my daughter and my
-home are yours.”
-
-“You're not forgetting this?”
-
-Freckles lifted his right arm.
-
-“Terence, I'm sorrier than I have words to express about that,” said
-the Man of Affairs. “It's a damnable pity! But if it's for me to choose
-whether I give all I have left in this world to a man lacking a hand, or
-to one of these gambling, tippling, immoral spendthrifts of today, with
-both hands and feet off their souls, and a rotten spot in the core, I
-choose you; and it seems that my daughter does the same. Put what is
-left you of that right arm to the best uses you can in this world, and
-never again mention or feel that it is defective so long as you live.
-Good day, sir!”
-
-“One minute more,” said Freckles. “Yesterday the Angel was telling me
-that there was money coming to me from two sources. She said that me
-grandmother had left me father all of her fortune and her house, because
-she knew that his father would be cutting him off, and also that me
-uncle had set aside for me what would be me father's interest in his
-father's estate.
-
-“Whatever the sum is that me grandmother left me father, because she
-loved him and wanted him to be having it, that I'll be taking. 'Twas
-hers from her father, and she had the right to be giving it as she
-chose. Anything from the man that knowingly left me father and me mother
-to go cold and hungry, and into the fire in misery, when just a little
-would have made life so beautiful to them, and saved me this crippled
-body--money that he willed from me when he knew I was living, of his
-blood and on charity among strangers, I don't touch, not if I freeze,
-starve, and burn too! If there ain't enough besides that, and I can't be
-earning enough to fix things for the Angel----”
-
-“We are not discussing money!” burst in the Man of Affairs. “We don't
-want any blood-money! We have all we need without it. If you don't feel
-right and easy over it, don't you touch a cent of any of it.”
-
-“It's right I should have what me grandmother intinded for me father,
-and I want it,” said Freckles, “but I'd die before I'd touch a cent of
-me grandfather's money!”
-
-
-“Now,” said the Angel, “we are all going home. We have done all we can
-for Freckles. His people are here. He should know them. They are very
-anxious to become acquainted with him. We'll resign him to them. When he
-is well, why, then he will be perfectly free to go to Ireland or come to
-the Limberlost, just as he chooses. We will go at once.”
-
-McLean held out for a week, and then he could endure it no longer.
-He was heart hungry for Freckles. Communing with himself in the long,
-soundful nights of the swamp, he had learned to his astonishment that
-for the past year his heart had been circling the Limberlost with
-Freckles. He began to wish that he had not left him. Perhaps the
-boy--his boy by first right, after all--was being neglected. If the
-Boss had been a nervous old woman, he scarcely could have imagined more
-things that might be going wrong.
-
-He started for Chicago, loaded with a big box of goldenrod, asters,
-fringed gentians, and crimson leaves, that the Angel carefully had
-gathered from Freckles' room, and a little, long slender package. He
-traveled with biting, stinging jealousy in his heart. He would not
-admit it even to himself, but he was unable to remain longer away from
-Freckles and leave him to the care of Lord O'More.
-
-In a few minutes' talk, while McLean awaited admission to Freckles'
-room, his lordship had chatted genially of Freckles' rapid recovery,
-of his delight that he was unspotted by his early surroundings, and
-his desire to visit the Limberlost with Freckles before they sailed;
-he expressed the hope that he could prevail upon the Angel's father to
-place her in his wife's care and have her education finished in Paris.
-He said they were anxious to do all they could to help bind Freckles'
-arrangements with the Angel, as both he and Lady O'More regarded her as
-the most promising girl they knew, and one who could be fitted to fill
-the high position in which Freckles would place her.
-
-Every word he uttered was pungent with bitterness to McLean. The swamp
-had lost its flavor without Freckles; and yet, as Lord O'More talked,
-McLean fervently wished himself in the heart of it. As he entered
-Freckles' room he almost lost his breath. Everything was changed.
-
-Freckles lay beside a window where he could follow Lake Michigan's
-blue until the horizon dipped into it. He could see big soft clouds,
-white-capped waves, shimmering sails, and puffing steamers trailing
-billowing banners of lavender and gray across the sky. Gulls and curlews
-wheeled over the water and dipped their wings in the foam. The room was
-filled with every luxury that taste and money could introduce.
-
-All the tan and sunburn had been washed from Freckles' face in sweats
-of agony. It was a smooth, even white, its brown rift scarcely showing.
-What the nurses and Lady O'More had done to Freckles' hair McLean could
-not guess, but it was the most beautiful that he ever had seen. Fine as
-floss, bright in color, waving and crisp, it fell around the white face.
-
-They had gotten his arms into and his chest covered with a finely
-embroidered, pale-blue silk shirt, with soft, white tie at the throat.
-Among the many changes that had taken place during his absence, the
-fact that Freckles was most attractive and barely escaped being handsome
-remained almost unnoticed by the Boss, so great was his astonishment at
-seeing both cuffs turned back and the right arm in view. Freckles was
-using the maimed arm that previously he always had hidden.
-
-“Oh Lord, sir, but I'm glad to see you!” cried Freckles, almost rolling
-from the bed as he reached toward McLean. “Tell me quick, is the Angel
-well and happy? Can me Little Chicken spread six feet of wing and
-sail to his mother? How's me new father, the Bird Woman, Duncans, and
-Nellie--darling little high-stepping Nelie? Me Aunt Alice is going to
-choose the hat just as soon as I'm mended enough to be going with her.
-How are all the gang? Have they found any more good trees? I've been
-thinking a lot, sir. I believe I can find others near that last one.
-Me Aunt Alice thinks maybe I can, and Uncle Terence says it's likely.
-Golly, but they're nice, ilegant people. I tell you I'm proud to be same
-blood with them! Come closer, quick! I was going to do this yesterday,
-and somehow I just felt that you'd surely be coming today and I waited.
-I'm selecting the Angel's ring stone. The ring she ordered for me is
-finished and they sent it to keep me company. See? It's an emerald--just
-me color, Lord O'More says.”
-
-Freckles flourished his hand.
-
-“Ain't that fine? Never took so much comfort with anything in me life.
-Every color of the old swamp is in it. I asked the Angel to have a
-little shamrock leaf cut on it, so every time I saw it I'd be thinking
-of the 'love, truth, and valor' of that song she was teaching me. Ain't
-that a beautiful song? Some of these days I'm going to make it echo. I'm
-a little afraid to be doing it with me voice yet, but me heart's tuning
-away on it every blessed hour. Will you be looking at these now?”
-
-Freckles tilted a tray of unset stones from Peacock's that would have
-ransomed several valuable kings. He held them toward McLean, stirring
-them with his right arm.
-
-“I tell you I'm glad to see you, sir” he said. “I tried to tell me uncle
-what I wanted, but this ain't for him to be mixed up in, anyway, and I
-don't think I made it clear to him. I couldn't seem to say the words I
-wanted. I can be telling you, sir.”
-
-McLean's heart began to thump as a lover's.
-
-“Go on, Freckles,” he said assuringly.
-
-“It's this,” said Freckles. “I told him that I would pay only three
-hundred dollars for the Angel's stone. I'm thinking that with what he
-has laid up for me, and the bigness of things that the Angel did for me,
-it seems like a stingy little sum to him. I know he thinks I should be
-giving much more, but I feel as if I just had to be buying that stone
-with money I earned meself; and that is all I have saved of me wages. I
-don't mind paying for the muff, or the drexing table, or Mrs. Duncan's
-things, from that other money, and later the Angel can have every last
-cent of me grandmother's, if she'll take it; but just now--oh, sir,
-can't you see that I have to be buying this stone with what I have in
-the bank? I'm feeling that I couldn't do any other way, and don't you
-think the Angel would rather have the best stone I can buy with the
-money I earned meself than a finer one paid for with other money?”
-
-“In other words, Freckles,” said the Boss in a husky voice, “you don't
-want to buy the Angel's ring with money. You want to give for it
-your first awful fear of the swamp. You want to pay for it with the
-loneliness and heart hunger you have suffered there, with last winter's
-freezing on the line and this summer's burning in the sun. You want it
-to stand to her for every hour in which you risked your life to fulfill
-your contract honorably. You want the price of that stone to be the
-fears that have chilled your heart--the sweat and blood of your body.”
-
-Freckles' eyes were filled with tears and his face quivering with
-feeling.
-
-“Dear Mr. McLean,” he said, reaching with a caress over the Boss's black
-hair and his cheek. “Dear Boss, that's why I've wanted you so. I knew
-you would know. Now you will be looking at these? I don't want emeralds,
-because that's what she gave me.”
-
-He pushed the green stones into a little heap of rejected ones. Then he
-singled out all the pearls.
-
-“Ain't they pretty things?” he said. “I'll be getting her some of those
-later. They are like lily faces, turtle-head flowers, dewdrops in the
-shade or moonlight; but they haven't the life in them that I want in the
-stone I give to the Angel right now.”
-
-Freckles heaped the pearls with the emeralds. He studied the diamonds a
-long time.
-
-“These things are so fascinating like they almost tempt one, though they
-ain't quite the proper thing,” he said. “I've always dearly loved to be
-watching yours, sir. I must get her some of these big ones, too, some
-day. They're like the Limberlost in January, when it's all ice-coated,
-and the sun is in the west and shines through and makes all you can see
-of the whole world look like fire and ice; but fire and ice ain't like
-the Angel.”
-
-The diamonds joined the emeralds and pearls. There was left a little red
-heap, and Freckles' fingers touched it with a new tenderness. His eyes
-were flashing.
-
-“I'm thinking here's me Angel's stone,” he exulted. “The Limberlost, and
-me with it, grew in mine; but it's going to bloom, and her with it, in
-this! There's the red of the wild poppies, the cardinal-flowers, and the
-little bunch of crushed foxfire that we found where she put it to save
-me. There's the light of the campfire, and the sun setting over Sleepy
-Snake Creek. There's the red of the blood we were willing to give for
-each other. It's like her lips, and like the drops that dried on her
-beautiful arm that first day, and I'm thinking it must be like the
-brave, tender, clean, red heart of her.”
-
-Freckles lifted the ruby to his lips and handed it to McLean.
-
-“I'll be signing me cheque and you have it set,” he said. “I want you to
-draw me money and pay for it with those very same dollars, sir.”
-
-Again the heart of McLean took hope.
-
-“Freckles, may I ask you something?” he said.
-
-“Why, sure,” said Freckles. “There's nothing you would be asking that it
-wouldn't be giving me joy to be telling you.”
-
-McLean's eyes traveled to Freckles' right arm with which he was moving
-the jewels.
-
-“Oh, that!” cried Freckles with a laugh. “You're wanting to know where
-all the bitterness is gone? Well sir, 'twas carried from me soul, heart,
-and body on the lips of an Angel. Seems that hurt was necessary in the
-beginning to make today come true. The wound had always been raw, but
-the Angel was healing it. If she doesn't care, I don't. Me dear new
-father doesn't, nor me aunt and uncle, and you never did. Why should I
-be fretting all me life about what can't be helped. The real truth is,
-that since what happened to it last week, I'm so everlastingly proud of
-it I catch meself sticking it out on display a bit.”
-
-Freckles looked the Boss in the eyes and began to laugh.
-
-“Well thank heaven!” said McLean.
-
-“Now it's me turn,” said Freckles. “I don't know as I ought to be asking
-you, and yet I can't see a reason good enough to keep me from it. It's
-a thing I've had on me mind every hour since I've had time to straighten
-things out a little. May I be asking you a question?”
-
-McLean reached over and took Freckles' hand. His voice was shaken with
-feeling as he replied: “Freckles, you almost hurt me. Will you never
-learn how much you are to me--how happy you make me in coming to me with
-anything, no matter what?”
-
-“Then it's this,” said Freckles, gripping the hand of McLean strongly.
-“If this accident, and all that's come to me since, had never happened,
-where was it you had planned to send me to school? What was it you meant
-for me to do?”
-
-“Why, Freckles,” answered McLean, “I'm scarcely prepared to state
-definitely. My ideas were rather hazy. I thought we would make a
-beginning and see which way things went. I figured on taking you to
-Grand Rapids first, and putting you in the care of my mother. I had an
-idea it would be best to secure a private tutor to coach you for a
-year or two, until you were ready to enter Ann Arbor or the Chicago
-University in good shape. Then I thought we'd finish in this country at
-Yale or Harvard, and end with Oxford, to get a good, all-round flavor.”
-
-“Is that all?” asked Freckles.
-
-“No; that's leaving the music out,” said McLean. “I intended to have
-your voice tested by some master, and if you really were endowed for a
-career as a great musician, and had inclinations that way, I wished to
-have you drop some of the college work and make music your chief study.
-Finally, I wanted us to take a trip through Europe and clear around the
-circle together.”
-
-“And then what?” queried Freckles breathlessly.
-
-“Why, then,” said McLean, “you know that my heart is hopelessly in the
-woods. I never will quit the timber business while there is timber to
-handle and breath in my body. I thought if you didn't make a profession
-of music, and had any inclination my way, we would stretch the
-partnership one more and take you into the firm, placing your work with
-me. Those plans may sound jumbled in the telling, but they have grown
-steadily on me, Freckles, as you have grown dear to me.”
-
-Freckles lifted anxious and eager eyes to McLean.
-
-“You told me once on the trail, and again when we thought that I was
-dying, that you loved me. Do these things that have come to me make any
-difference in any way with your feeing toward me?”
-
-“None,” said McLean. “How could they, Freckles? Nothing could make me
-love you more, and you never will do anything that will make me love you
-less.”
-
-“Glory be to God!” cried Freckles. “Glory to the Almighty! Hurry and
-be telling your mother I'm coming! Just as soon as I can get on me feet
-I'll be taking that ring to me Angel, and then I'll go to Grand Rapids
-and be making me start just as you planned, only that I can be paying me
-own way. When I'm educated enough, we'll all--the Angel and her father,
-the Bird Woman, you, and me--all of us will go together and see me house
-and me relations and be taking that trip. When we get back, we'll add
-O'More to the Lumber Company, and golly, sir, but we'll make things hum!
-Good land, sir! Don't do that! Why, Mr. McLean, dear Boss, dear father,
-don't be doing that! What is it?”
-
-“Nothing, nothing!” boomed McLean's deep bass; “nothing at all!”
-
-He abruptly turned, and hurried to the window.
-
-“This is a mighty fine view,” he said. “Lake's beautiful this morning.
-No wonder Chicago people are so proud of their city's location on its
-shore. But, Freckles, what is Lord O'More going to say to this?”
-
-“I don't know,” said Freckles. “I am going to be cut deep if he cares,
-for he's been more than good to me, and Lady Alice is next to me Angel.
-He's made me feel me blood and race me own possession. She's talked to
-me by the hour of me father and mother and me grandmother. She's made
-them all that real I can lay claim to them and feel that they are mine.
-I'm very sorry to be hurting them, if it will, but it can't be changed.
-Nobody ever puts the width of the ocean between me and the Angel. From
-here to the Limberlost is all I can be bearing peaceable. I want the
-education, and then I want to work and live here in the country where I
-was born, and where the ashes of me father and mother rest.
-
-“I'll be glad to see Ireland, and glad especial to see those little
-people who are my kin, but I ain't ever staying long. All me heart
-is the Angel's, and the Limberlost is calling every minute. You're
-thinking, sir, that when I look from that window I see the beautiful
-water, ain't you? I'm not.
-
-“I see soft, slow clouds oozing across the blue, me big black chickens
-hanging up there, and a great feather softly sliding down. I see mighty
-trees, swinging vines, bright flowers, and always masses of the wild
-roses, with the wild rose face of me Ladybird looking through. I see the
-swale rocking, smell the sweetness of the blooming things, and the damp,
-mucky odor of the swamp; and I hear me birds sing, me squirrels bark,
-the rattlers hiss, and the step of Wessner or Black Jack coming; and
-whether it's the things that I loved or the things that I feared, it's
-all a part of the day.
-
-“Me heart's all me Swamp Angel's, and me love is all hers, and I have
-her and the swamp so confused in me mind I never can be separating them.
-When I look at her, I see blue sky, the sun rifting through the leaves
-and pink and red flowers; and when I look at the Limberlost I see a pink
-face with blue eyes, gold hair, and red lips, and, it's the truth, sir,
-they're mixed till they're one to me!
-
-“I'm afraid it will be hurting some, but I have the feeing that I can be
-making my dear people understand, so that they will be willing to let
-me come back home. Send Lady O'More to put these flowers God made in the
-place of these glass-house ilegancies, and please be cutting the string
-of this little package the Angel's sent me.”
-
-As Freckles held up the package, the lights of the Limberlost flashed
-from the emerald on his finger. On the cover was printed: “To the
-Limberlost Guard!” Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent black feather.
-
-
-
-
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-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Freckles, by Gene Stratton-Porter</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
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-country where you are located before using this eBook.
-</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Freckles</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Gene Stratton-Porter</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February, 1994 [eBook #111]<br />
-[Most recently updated: March 17, 2023]</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger</div>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRECKLES ***</div>
-
-    <h1>
-      FRECKLES
-    </h1>
-    <h2>
-      By Gene Stratton-Porter
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <h4>
-      To all good Irishmen in general<br /> and one CHARLES DARWIN PORTER<br /> in
-      particular
-    </h4>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <h2>
-      Characters:
-    </h2>
-    <blockquote>
-      <p>
-        FRECKLES, a plucky waif who guards the Limberlost timber leases and<br />
-        dreams of Angels.<br /><br /> THE SWAMP ANGEL, in whom Freckles' sweetest
-        dream materializes.<br /><br /> MCLEAN, a member of a Grand Rapids lumber
-        company, who befriends<br /> Freckles.<br /><br /> MRS. DUNCAN, who gives
-        mother-love and a home to Freckles.<br /><br /> DUNCAN, head teamster of
-        McLean's timber gang.<br /><br /> THE BIRD WOMAN, who is collecting camera
-        studies of birds for a book.<br /><br /> LORD AND LADY O'MORE, who come
-        from Ireland in quest of a lost relative.<br /><br /> THE MAN OF AFFAIRS,
-        brusque of manner, but big of heart.<br /><br /> WESSNER, a Dutch
-        timber-thief who wants rascality made easy.<br /><br /> BLACK JACK, a
-        villain to whom thought of repentance comes too late.<br /><br /> SEARS,
-        camp cook.
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <blockquote>
-      <p class="toc">
-        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
-      </p>
-      <p>
-        <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003">
-        CHAPTER III </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006">
-        CHAPTER VI </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009">
-        CHAPTER IX </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012">
-        CHAPTER XII </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015">
-        CHAPTER XV </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018">
-        CHAPTER XVIII </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX </a><br />
-        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX </a>
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_TOC" id="link2H_TOC">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER I
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Freckles came down the corduroy that crosses the lower end of the
-      Limberlost. At a glance he might have been mistaken for a tramp, but he
-      was truly seeking work. He was intensely eager to belong somewhere and to
-      be attached to almost any enterprise that would furnish him food and
-      clothing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Long before he came in sight of the camp of the Grand Rapids Lumber
-      Company, he could hear the cheery voices of the men, the neighing of the
-      horses, and could scent the tempting odors of cooking food. A feeling of
-      homeless friendlessness swept over him in a sickening wave. Without
-      stopping to think, he turned into the newly made road and followed it to
-      the camp, where the gang was making ready for supper and bed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The scene was intensely attractive. The thickness of the swamp made a
-      dark, massive background below, while above towered gigantic trees. The
-      men were calling jovially back and forth as they unharnessed tired horses
-      that fell into attitudes of rest and crunched, in deep content, the grain
-      given them. Duncan, the brawny Scotch head-teamster, lovingly wiped the
-      flanks of his big bays with handfuls of pawpaw leaves, as he softly
-      whistled, &ldquo;O wha will be my dearie, O!&rdquo; and a cricket beneath the leaves
-      at his feet accompanied him. The green wood fire hissed and crackled
-      merrily. Wreathing tongues of flame wrapped around the big black kettles,
-      and when the cook lifted the lids to plunge in his testing-fork, gusts of
-      savory odors escaped.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles approached him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I want to speak with the Boss,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The cook glanced at him and answered carelessly: &ldquo;He can't use you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The color flooded Freckles' face, but he said simply: &ldquo;If you will be
-      having the goodness to point him out, we will give him a chance to do his
-      own talking.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      With a shrug of astonishment, the cook led the way to a rough board table
-      where a broad, square-shouldered man was bending over some account-books.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mr. McLean, here's another man wanting to be taken on the gang, I
-      suppose,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; came the cheery answer. &ldquo;I never needed a good man more than
-      I do just now.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The manager turned a page and carefully began a new line.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No use of your bothering with this fellow,&rdquo; volunteered the cook. &ldquo;He
-      hasn't but one hand.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The flush on Freckles' face burned deeper. His lips thinned to a mere
-      line. He lifted his shoulders, took a step forward, and thrust out his
-      right arm, from which the sleeve dangled empty at the wrist.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That will do, Sears,&rdquo; came the voice of the Boss sharply. &ldquo;I will
-      interview my man when I finish this report.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He turned to his work, while the cook hurried to the fires. Freckles stood
-      one instant as he had braced himself to meet the eyes of the manager; then
-      his arm dropped and a wave of whiteness swept him. The Boss had not even
-      turned his head. He had used the possessive. When he said &ldquo;my man,&rdquo; the
-      hungry heart of Freckles went reaching toward him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The boy drew a quivering breath. Then he whipped off his old hat and beat
-      the dust from it carefully. With his left hand he caught the right sleeve,
-      wiped his sweaty face, and tried to straighten his hair with his fingers.
-      He broke a spray of ironwort beside him and used the purple bloom to beat
-      the dust from his shoulders and limbs. The Boss, busy over his report,
-      was, nevertheless, vaguely alive to the toilet being made behind him, and
-      scored one for the man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean was a Scotchman. It was his habit to work slowly and methodically.
-      The men of his camps never had known him to be in a hurry or to lose his
-      temper. Discipline was inflexible, but the Boss was always kind. His
-      habits were simple. He shared camp life with his gangs. The only visible
-      signs of wealth consisted of a big, shimmering diamond stone of ice and
-      fire that glittered and burned on one of his fingers, and the dainty,
-      beautiful thoroughbred mare he rode between camps and across the country
-      on business.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      No man of McLean's gangs could honestly say that he ever had been
-      overdriven or underpaid. The Boss never had exacted any deference from his
-      men, yet so intense was his personality that no man of them ever had
-      attempted a familiarity. They all knew him to be a thorough gentleman, and
-      that in the great timber city several millions stood to his credit.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He was the only son of that McLean who had sent out the finest ships ever
-      built in Scotland. That his son should carry on this business after the
-      father's death had been his ambition. He had sent the boy through the
-      universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and allowed him several years'
-      travel before he should attempt his first commission for the firm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he was ordered to southern Canada and Michigan to purchase a
-      consignment of tall, straight timber for masts, and south to Indiana for
-      oak beams. The young man entered these mighty forests, parts of which lay
-      untouched since the dawn of the morning of time. The clear, cool, pungent
-      atmosphere was intoxicating. The intense silence, like that of a great
-      empty cathedral, fascinated him. He gradually learned that, to the shy
-      wood creatures that darted across his path or peeped inquiringly from
-      leafy ambush, he was brother. He found himself approaching, with a feeling
-      of reverence, those majestic trees that had stood through ages of sun,
-      wind, and snow. Soon it became difficult to fell them. When he had filled
-      his order and returned home, he was amazed to learn that in the swamps and
-      forests he had lost his heart and it was calling&mdash;forever calling
-      him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When he inherited his father's property, he promptly disposed of it, and,
-      with his mother, founded a home in a splendid residence in the outskirts
-      of Grand Rapids. With three partners, he organized a lumber company. His
-      work was to purchase, fell, and ship the timber to the mills. Marshall
-      managed the milling process and passed the lumber to the factory. From the
-      lumber, Barthol made beautiful and useful furniture, which Uptegrove
-      scattered all over the world from a big wholesale house. Of the thousands
-      who saw their faces reflected on the polished surfaces of that furniture
-      and found comfort in its use, few there were to whom it suggested mighty
-      forests and trackless swamps, and the man, big of soul and body, who cut
-      his way through them, and with the eye of experience doomed the proud
-      trees that were now entering the homes of civilization for service.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When McLean turned from his finished report, he faced a young man, yet
-      under twenty, tall, spare, heavily framed, closely freckled, and
-      red-haired, with a homely Irish face, but in the steady gray eyes,
-      straightly meeting his searching ones of blue, there was unswerving candor
-      and the appearance of longing not to be ignored. He was dressed in the
-      roughest of farm clothing, and seemed tired to the point of falling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are looking for work?&rdquo; questioned McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; answered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am very sorry,&rdquo; said the Boss with genuine sympathy in his every tone,
-      &ldquo;but there is only one man I want at present&mdash;a hardy, big fellow
-      with a stout heart and a strong body. I hoped that you would do, but I am
-      afraid you are too young and scarcely strong enough.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood, hat in hand, watching McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And what was it you thought I might be doing?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss could scarcely repress a start. Somewhere before accident and
-      poverty there had been an ancestor who used cultivated English, even with
-      an accent. The boy spoke in a mellow Irish voice, sweet and pure. It was
-      scarcely definite enough to be called brogue, yet there was a trick in the
-      turning of the sentence, the wrong sound of a letter here and there, that
-      was almost irresistible to McLean, and presaged a misuse of infinitives
-      and possessives with which he was very familiar and which touched him
-      nearly. He was of foreign birth, and despite years of alienation, in times
-      of strong feeling he committed inherited sins of accent and construction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's no child's job,&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;I am the field manager of a big
-      lumber company. We have just leased two thousand acres of the Limberlost.
-      Many of these trees are of great value. We can't leave our camp, six miles
-      south, for almost a year yet; so we have blazed a trail and strung barbed
-      wires securely around this lease. Before we return to our work, I must put
-      this property in the hands of a reliable, brave, strong man who will guard
-      it every hour of the day, and sleep with one eye open at night. I shall
-      require the entire length of the trail to be walked at least twice each
-      day, to make sure that our lines are up and that no one has been
-      trespassing.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was leaning forward, absorbing every word with such intense
-      eagerness that he was beguiling the Boss into explanations he had never
-      intended making.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But why wouldn't that be the finest job in the world for me?&rdquo; he pleaded.
-      &ldquo;I am never sick. I could walk the trail twice, three times every day, and
-      I'd be watching sharp all the while.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's because you are scarcely more than a boy, and this will be a trying
-      job for a work-hardened man,&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;You see, in the first
-      place, you would be afraid. In stretching our lines, we killed six
-      rattlesnakes almost as long as your body and as thick as your arm. It's
-      the price of your life to start through the marshgrass surrounding the
-      swamp unless you are covered with heavy leather above your knees.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You should be able to swim in case high water undermines the temporary
-      bridge we have built where Sleepy Snake Creek enters the swamp. The fall
-      and winter changes of weather are abrupt and severe, while I would want
-      strict watch kept every day. You would always be alone, and I don't
-      guarantee what is in the Limberlost. It is lying here as it has lain since
-      the beginning of time, and it is alive with forms and voices. I don't
-      pretend to say what all of them come from; but from a few slinking shapes
-      I've seen, and hair-raising yells I've heard, I'd rather not confront
-      their owners myself; and I am neither weak nor fearful.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Worst of all, any man who will enter the swamp to mark and steal timber
-      is desperate. One of my employees at the south camp, John Carter,
-      compelled me to discharge him for a number of serious reasons. He came
-      here, entered the swamp alone, and succeeded in locating and marking a
-      number of valuable trees that he was endeavoring to sell to a rival
-      company when we secured the lease. He has sworn to have these trees if he
-      has to die or to kill others to get them; and he is a man that the
-      strongest would not care to meet.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But if he came to steal trees, wouldn't he bring teams and men enough:
-      that all anyone could do would be to watch and be after you?&rdquo; queried the
-      boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then why couldn't I be watching just as closely, and coming as fast, as
-      an older, stronger man?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, by George, you could!&rdquo; exclaimed McLean. &ldquo;I don't know as the size
-      of a man would be half so important as his grit and faithfulness, come to
-      think of it. Sit on that log there and we will talk it over. What is your
-      name?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles shook his head at the proffer of a seat, and folding his arms,
-      stood straight as the trees around him. He grew a shade whiter, but his
-      eyes never faltered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good enough for everyday,&rdquo; laughed McLean, &ldquo;but I scarcely can put
-      'Freckles' on the company's books. Tell me your name.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I haven't any name,&rdquo; replied the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't understand,&rdquo; said McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was thinking from the voice and the face of you that you wouldn't,&rdquo;
-       said Freckles slowly. &ldquo;I've spent more time on it than I ever did on
-      anything else in all me life, and I don't understand. Does it seem to you
-      that anyone would take a newborn baby and row over it, until it was
-      bruised black, cut off its hand, and leave it out in a bitter night on the
-      steps of a charity home, to the care of strangers? That's what somebody
-      did to me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean stared aghast. He had no reply ready, and presently in a low voice
-      he suggested: &ldquo;And after?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The Home people took me in, and I was there the full legal age and
-      several years over. For the most part we were a lot of little Irishmen
-      together. They could always find homes for the other children, but nobody
-      would ever be wanting me on account of me arm.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Were they kind to you?&rdquo; McLean regretted the question the minute it was
-      asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; answered Freckles. The reply sounded so hopeless, even to
-      his own ears, that he hastened to qualify it by adding: &ldquo;You see, it's
-      like this, sir. Kindnesses that people are paid to lay off in job lots and
-      that belong equally to several hundred others, ain't going to be soaking
-      into any one fellow so much.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go on,&rdquo; said McLean, nodding comprehendingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's nothing worth the taking of your time to tell,&rdquo; replied Freckles.
-      &ldquo;The Home was in Chicago, and I was there all me life until three months
-      ago. When I was too old for the training they gave to the little children,
-      they sent me to the closest ward school as long as the law would let them;
-      but I was never like any of the other children, and they all knew it. I'd
-      to go and come like a prisoner, and be working around the Home early and
-      late for me board and clothes. I always wanted to learn mighty bad, but I
-      was glad when that was over.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Every few days, all me life, I'd to be called up, looked over, and
-      refused a home and love, on account of me hand and ugly face; but it was
-      all the home I'd ever known, and I didn't seem to belong to any place
-      else.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then a new superintendent was put in. He wasn't for being like any of the
-      others, and he swore he'd weed me out the first thing he did. He made a
-      plan to send me down the State to a man he said he knew who needed a boy.
-      He wasn't for remembering to tell that man that I was a hand short, and he
-      knocked me down the minute he found I was the boy who had been sent him.
-      Between noon and that evening, he and his son close my age had me in
-      pretty much the same shape in which I was found in the beginning, so I lay
-      awake that night and ran away. I'd like to have squared me account with
-      that boy before I left, but I didn't dare for fear of waking the old man,
-      and I knew I couldn't handle the two of them; but I'm hoping to meet him
-      alone some day before I die.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean tugged at his mustache to hide the smile on his lips, but he liked
-      the boy all the better for this confession.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I didn't even have to steal clothes to get rid of starting in me Home
-      ones,&rdquo; Freckles continued, &ldquo;for they had already taken all me clean, neat
-      things for the boy and put me into his rags, and that went almost as sore
-      as the beatings, for where I was we were always kept tidy and
-      sweet-smelling, anyway. I hustled clear into this State before I learned
-      that man couldn't have kept me if he'd wanted to. When I thought I was
-      good and away from him, I commenced hunting work, but it is with everybody
-      else just as it is with you, sir. Big, strong, whole men are the only ones
-      for being wanted.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have been studying over this matter,&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;I am not so
-      sure but that a man no older than you and similar in every way could do
-      this work very well, if he were not a coward, and had it in him to be
-      trustworthy and industrious.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles came forward a step.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you will give me a job where I can earn me food, clothes, and a place
-      to sleep,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if I can have a Boss to work for like other men, and
-      a place I feel I've a right to, I will do precisely what you tell me or
-      die trying.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He spoke so convincingly that McLean believed, although in his heart he
-      knew that to employ a stranger would be wretched business for a man with
-      the interests he had involved.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; the Boss found himself answering, &ldquo;I will enter you on my pay
-      rolls. We'll have supper, and then I will provide you with clean clothing,
-      wading-boots, the wire-mending apparatus, and a revolver. The first thing
-      in the morning, I will take you the length of the trail myself and explain
-      fully what I want done. All I ask of you is to come to me at once at the
-      south camp and tell me as a man if you find this job too hard for you. It
-      will not surprise me. It is work that few men would perform faithfully.
-      What name shall I put down?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' gaze never left McLean's face, and the Boss saw the swift spasm
-      of pain that swept his lonely, sensitive features.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I haven't any name,&rdquo; he said stubbornly, &ldquo;no more than one somebody
-      clapped on to me when they put me on the Home books, with not the thought
-      or care they'd name a house cat. I've seen how they enter those poor
-      little abandoned devils often enough to know. What they called me is no
-      more my name than it is yours. I don't know what mine is, and I never
-      will; but I am going to be your man and do your work, and I'll be glad to
-      answer to any name you choose to call me. Won't you please be giving me a
-      name, Mr. McLean?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss wheeled abruptly and began stacking his books. What he was
-      thinking was probably what any other gentleman would have thought in the
-      circumstances. With his eyes still downcast, and in a voice harsh with
-      huskiness, he spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will tell you what we will do, my lad,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My father was my
-      ideal man, and I loved him better than any other I have ever known. He
-      went out five years ago, but that he would have been proud to leave you
-      his name I firmly believe. If I give to you the name of my nearest kin and
-      the man I loved best&mdash;will that do?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' rigid attitude relaxed suddenly. His head dropped, and big tears
-      splashed on the soiled calico shirt. McLean was not surprised at the
-      silence, for he found that talking came none too easily just then.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I will write it on the roll&mdash;James Ross
-      McLean.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank you mightily,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;That makes me feel almost as if I
-      belonged, already.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You do,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;Until someone armed with every right comes to
-      claim you, you are mine. Now, come and take a bath, have some supper, and
-      go to bed.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As Freckles followed into the lights and sounds of the camp, his heart and
-      soul were singing for joy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER II
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Next morning found Freckles in clean, whole clothing, fed, and rested.
-      Then McLean outfitted him and gave him careful instruction in the use of
-      his weapon. The Boss showed him around the timber-line, and engaged him a
-      place to board with the family of his head teamster, Duncan, whom he had
-      brought from Scotland with him, and who lived in a small clearing he was
-      working out between the swamp and the corduroy. When the gang was started
-      for the south camp, Freckles was left to guard a fortune in the
-      Limberlost. That he was under guard himself those first weeks he never
-      knew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Each hour was torture to the boy. The restricted life of a great city
-      orphanage was the other extreme of the world compared with the Limberlost.
-      He was afraid for his life every minute. The heat was intense. The heavy
-      wading-boots rubbed his feet until they bled. He was sore and stiff from
-      his long tramp and outdoor exposure. The seven miles of trail was agony at
-      every step. He practiced at night, under the direction of Duncan, until he
-      grew sure in the use of his revolver. He cut a stout hickory cudgel, with
-      a knot on the end as big as his fist; this never left his hand. What he
-      thought in those first days he himself could not recall clearly afterward.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His heart stood still every time he saw the beautiful marsh-grass begin a
-      sinuous waving AGAINST the play of the wind, as McLean had told him it
-      would. He bolted half a mile with the first boom of the bittern, and his
-      hat lifted with every yelp of the sheitpoke. Once he saw a lean, shadowy
-      form following him, and fired his revolver. Then he was frightened worse
-      than ever for fear it might have been Duncan's collie.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The first afternoon that he found his wires down, and he was compelled to
-      plunge knee deep into the black swamp-muck to restring them, he became so
-      ill from fear and nervousness that he scarcely could control his shaking
-      hand to do the work. With every step, he felt that he would miss secure
-      footing and be swallowed in that clinging sea of blackness. In dumb agony
-      he plunged forward, clinging to the posts and trees until he had finished
-      restringing and testing the wire. He had consumed much time. Night closed
-      in. The Limberlost stirred gently, then shook herself, growled, and awoke
-      around him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There seemed to be a great owl hooting from every hollow tree, and a
-      little one screeching from every knothole. The bellowing of big bullfrogs
-      was not sufficiently deafening to shut out the wailing of whip-poor-wills
-      that seemed to come from every bush. Nighthawks swept past him with their
-      shivering cry, and bats struck his face. A prowling wildcat missed its
-      catch and screamed with rage. A straying fox bayed incessantly for its
-      mate.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The hair on the back of Freckles' neck arose as bristles, and his knees
-      wavered beneath him. He could not see whether the dreaded snakes were on
-      the trail, or, in the pandemonium, hear the rattle for which McLean had
-      cautioned him to listen. He stood motionless in an agony of fear. His
-      breath whistled between his teeth. The perspiration ran down his face and
-      body in little streams.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Something big, black, and heavy came crashing through the swamp close to
-      him, and with a yell of utter panic Freckles ran&mdash;how far he did not
-      know; but at last he gained control over himself and retraced his steps.
-      His jaws set stiffly and the sweat dried on his body. When he reached the
-      place from which he had started to run, he turned and with measured steps
-      made his way down the line. After a time he realized that he was only
-      walking, so he faced that sea of horrors again. When he came toward the
-      corduroy, the cudgel fell to test the wire at each step.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sounds that curdled his blood seemed to encompass him, and shapes of
-      terror to draw closer and closer. Fear had so gained the mastery that he
-      did not dare look behind him; and just when he felt that he would fall
-      dead before he ever reached the clearing, came Duncan's rolling call:
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Freckles!&rdquo; A shuddering sob burst in the boy's dry throat; but
-      he only told Duncan that finding the wire down had caused the delay.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The next morning he started on time. Day after day, with his heart
-      pounding, he ducked, dodged, ran when he could, and fought when he was
-      brought to bay. If he ever had an idea of giving up, no one knew it; for
-      he clung to his job without the shadow of wavering. All these things, in
-      so far as he guessed them, Duncan, who had been set to watch the first
-      weeks of Freckles' work, carried to the Boss at the south camp; but the
-      innermost, exquisite torture of the thing the big Scotchman never guessed,
-      and McLean, with his finer perceptions, came only a little closer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After a few weeks, when Freckles learned that he was still living, that he
-      had a home, and the very first money he ever had possessed was safe in his
-      pockets, he began to grow proud. He yet side-stepped, dodged, and hurried
-      to avoid being late again, but he was gradually developing the
-      fearlessness that men ever acquire of dangers to which they are hourly
-      accustomed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His heart seemed to be leaping when his first rattler disputed the trail
-      with him, but he mustered courage to attack it with his club. After its
-      head had been crushed, he mastered an Irishman's inborn repugnance for
-      snakes sufficiently to cut off its rattles to show Duncan. With this
-      victory, his greatest fear of them was gone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he began to realize that with the abundance of food in the swamp,
-      flesh-hunters would not come on the trail and attack him, and he had his
-      revolver for defence if they did. He soon learned to laugh at the big,
-      floppy birds that made horrible noises. One day, watching behind a tree,
-      he saw a crane solemnly performing a few measures of a belated nuptial
-      song-and-dance with his mate. Realizing that it was intended in
-      tenderness, no matter how it appeared, the lonely, starved heart of the
-      boy sympathized with them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Before the first month passed, he was fairly easy about his job; by the
-      next he rather liked it. Nature can be trusted to work her own miracle in
-      the heart of any man whose daily task keeps him alone among her sights,
-      sounds, and silences.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter loneliness was
-      the companionship of the birds and beasts of the swamp, it was the most
-      natural thing in the world that Freckles should turn to them for
-      friendship. He began by instinctively protecting the weak and helpless. He
-      was astonished at the quickness with which they became accustomed to him
-      and the disregard they showed for his movements, when they learned that he
-      was not a hunter, while the club he carried was used more frequently for
-      their benefit than his own. He scarcely could believe what he saw.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From the effort to protect the birds and animals, it was only a short step
-      to the possessive feeling, and with that sprang the impulse to caress and
-      provide. Through fall, when brooding was finished and the upland birds
-      sought the swamp in swarms to feast on its seeds and berries, Freckles was
-      content with watching them and speculating about them. Outside of half a
-      dozen of the very commonest they were strangers to him. The likeness of
-      their actions to humanity was an hourly surprise.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When black frost began stripping the Limberlost, cutting the ferns,
-      shearing the vines from the trees, mowing the succulent green things of
-      the swale, and setting the leaves swirling down, he watched the departing
-      troops of his friends with dismay. He began to realize that he would be
-      left alone. He made especial efforts toward friendliness with the hope
-      that he could induce some of them to stay. It was then that he conceived
-      the idea of carrying food to the birds; for he saw that they were leaving
-      for lack of it; but he could not stop them. Day after day, flocks gathered
-      and departed: by the time the first snow whitened his trail around the
-      Limberlost, there were left only the little black-and-white juncos, the
-      sapsuckers, yellow-hammers, a few patriarchs among the flaming cardinals,
-      the blue jays, the crows, and the quail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles began his wizard work. He cleared a space of swale, and
-      twice a day he spread a birds' banquet. By the middle of December the
-      strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed from the grass and
-      bushes. The snow fell, covering the swamp, and food was very scarce and
-      difficult to find. The birds scarcely waited until Freckles' back was
-      turned to attack his provisions. In a few weeks they flew toward the
-      clearing to meet him. During the bitter weather of January they came
-      halfway to the cabin every morning, and fluttered around him as doves all
-      the way to the feeding-ground. Before February they were so accustomed to
-      him, and so hunger-driven, that they would perch on his head and
-      shoulders, and the saucy jays would try to pry into his pockets.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles added to wheat and crumbs, every scrap of refuse food he
-      could find at the cabin. He carried to his pets the parings of apples,
-      turnips, potatoes, stray cabbage-leaves, and carrots, and tied to the
-      bushes meat-bones having scraps of fat and gristle. One morning, coming to
-      his feeding-ground unusually early, he found a gorgeous cardinal and a
-      rabbit side by side sociably nibbling a cabbage-leaf, and that instantly
-      gave to him the idea of cracking nuts, from the store he had gathered for
-      Duncan's children, for the squirrels, in the effort to add them to his
-      family. Soon he had them coming&mdash;red, gray, and black; then he became
-      filled with a vast impatience that he did not know their names or habits.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So the winter passed. Every week McLean rode to the Limberlost; never on
-      the same day or at the same hour. Always he found Freckles at his work,
-      faithful and brave, no matter how severe the weather.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The boy's earnings constituted his first money; and when the Boss
-      explained to him that he could leave them safe at a bank and carry away a
-      scrap of paper that represented the amount, he went straight on every
-      payday and made his deposit, keeping out barely what was necessary for his
-      board and clothing. What he wanted to do with his money he did not know,
-      but it gave to him a sense of freedom and power to feel that it was there&mdash;it
-      was his and he could have it when he chose. In imitation of McLean, he
-      bought a small pocket account-book, in which he carefully set down every
-      dollar he earned and every penny he spent. As his expenses were small and
-      the Boss paid him generously, it was astonishing how his little hoard
-      grew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That winter held the first hours of real happiness in Freckles' life. He
-      was free. He was doing a man's work faithfully, through every rigor of
-      rain, snow, and blizzard. He was gathering a wonderful strength of body,
-      paying his way, and saving money. Every man of the gang and of that
-      locality knew that he was under the protection of McLean, who was a power,
-      this had the effect of smoothing Freckles' path in many directions.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Duncan showed him that individual kindness for which his hungry heart
-      was longing. She had a hot drink ready for him when he came from a
-      freezing day on the trail. She knit him a heavy mitten for his left hand,
-      and devised a way to sew and pad the right sleeve that protected the
-      maimed arm in bitter weather. She patched his clothing&mdash;frequently
-      torn by the wire&mdash;and saved kitchen scraps for his birds, not because
-      she either knew or cared anything about them, but because she herself was
-      close enough to the swamp to be touched by its utter loneliness. When
-      Duncan laughed at her for this, she retorted: &ldquo;My God, mannie, if Freckles
-      hadna the birds and the beasts he would be always alone. It was never
-      meant for a human being to be so solitary. He'd get touched in the head if
-      he hadna them to think for and to talk to.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How much answer do ye think he gets to his talkin', lass?&rdquo; laughed
-      Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He gets the answer that keeps the eye bright, the heart happy, and the
-      feet walking faithful the rough path he's set them in,&rdquo; answered Mrs.
-      Duncan earnestly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan walked away appearing very thoughtful. The next morning he gave an
-      ear from the corn he was shelling for his chickens to Freckles, and told
-      him to carry it to his wild chickens in the Limberlost. Freckles laughed
-      delightedly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me chickens!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Why didn't I ever think of that before? Of course
-      they are! They are just little, brightly colored cocks and hens! But
-      'wild' is no good. What would you say to me 'wild chickens' being a good
-      deal tamer than yours here in your yard?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hoot, lad!&rdquo; cried Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Make yours light on your head and eat out of your hands and pockets,&rdquo;
-       challenged Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go and tell your fairy tales to the wee people! They're juist brash on
-      believin' things,&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;Ye canna invent any story too big to stop
-      them from callin' for a bigger.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I dare you to come see!&rdquo; retorted Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Take ye!&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;If ye make juist ane bird licht on your heid or
-      eat frae your hand, ye are free to help yoursel' to my corn-crib and wheat
-      bin the rest of the winter.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles sprang in air and howled in glee.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Duncan! You're too, aisy&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;When will you come?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll come next Sabbath,&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;And I'll believe the birds of the
-      Limberlost are tame as barnyard fowl when I see it, and no sooner!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      After that Freckles always spoke of the birds as his chickens, and the
-      Duncans followed his example. The very next Sabbath, Duncan, with his wife
-      and children, followed Freckles to the swamp. They saw a sight so
-      wonderful it will keep them talking all the remainder of their lives, and
-      make them unfailing friends of all the birds.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' chickens were awaiting him at the edge of the clearing. They cut
-      the frosty air around his head into curves and circles of crimson, blue,
-      and black. They chased each other from Freckles, and swept so closely
-      themselves that they brushed him with their outspread wings.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At their feeding-ground Freckles set down his old pail of scraps and swept
-      the snow from a small level space with a broom improvised of twigs. As
-      soon as his back was turned, the birds clustered over the food, snatching
-      scraps to carry to the nearest bushes. Several of the boldest, a big crow
-      and a couple of jays, settled on the rim and feasted at leisure, while a
-      cardinal, that hesitated to venture, fumed and scolded from a twig
-      overhead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles scattered his store. At once the ground resembled the spread
-      mantle of Montezuma, except that this mass of gaily colored feathers was
-      on the backs of living birds. While they feasted, Duncan gripped his
-      wife's arm and stared in astonishment; for from the bushes and dry grass,
-      with gentle cheeping and queer, throaty chatter, as if to encourage each
-      other, came flocks of quail. Before anyone saw it arrive, a big gray
-      rabbit sat in the midst of the feast, contentedly gnawing a cabbage-leaf.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo; came Mrs. Duncan's tense whisper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Shu-shu,&rdquo; cautioned Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lastly Freckles removed his cap. He began filling it with handfuls of
-      wheat from his pockets. In a swarm the grain-eaters arose around him as a
-      flock of tame pigeons. They perched on his arms and the cap, and in the
-      stress of hunger, forgetting all caution, a brilliant cock cardinal and an
-      equally gaudy jay fought for a perching-place on his head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Weel, I'm beat,&rdquo; muttered Duncan, forgetting the silence imposed on his
-      wife. &ldquo;I'll hae to give in. 'Seein' is believin'. A man wad hae to see
-      that to believe it. We mauna let the Boss miss that sight, for it's a
-      chance will no likely come twice in a life. Everything is snowed under and
-      thae craturs near starved, but trustin' Freckles that complete they are
-      tamer than our chickens. Look hard, bairns!&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;Ye winna see
-      the like o' yon again, while God lets ye live. Notice their color against
-      the ice and snow, and the pretty skippin' ways of them! And spunky! Weel,
-      I'm heat fair!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles emptied his cap, turned his pockets and scattered his last grain.
-      Then he waved his watching friends good-bye and started down the
-      timber-line.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A week later, Duncan and Freckles arose from breakfast to face the
-      bitterest morning of the winter. When Freckles, warmly capped and gloved,
-      stepped to the corner of the kitchen for his scrap-pail, he found a big
-      pan of steaming boiled wheat on the top of it. He wheeled to Mrs. Duncan
-      with a shining face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Were you fixing this warm food for me chickens or yours?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's for yours, Freckles,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I was afeared this cold weather
-      they wadna lay good without a warm bite now and then.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan laughed as he stepped to the other room for his pipe; but Freckles
-      faced Mrs. Duncan with a trace of every pang of starved mother-hunger he
-      ever had suffered written large on his homely, splotched, narrow features.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, how I wish you were my mother!&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Duncan attempted an echo of her husband's laugh.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Lord love the lad!&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;Why, Freckles, are ye no bright
-      enough to learn without being taught by a woman that I am your mither? If
-      a great man like yoursel' dinna ken that, learn it now and ne'er forget
-      it. Ance a woman is the wife of any man, she becomes wife to all men for
-      having had the wifely experience she kens! Ance a man-child has beaten his
-      way to life under the heart of a woman, she is mither to all men, for the
-      hearts of mithers are everywhere the same. Bless ye, laddie, I am your
-      mither!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She tucked the coarse scarf she had knit for him closer over his chest and
-      pulled his cap lower over his ears, but Freckles, whipping it off and
-      holding it under his arm, caught her rough, reddened hand and pressed it
-      to his lips in a long kiss. Then he hurried away to hide the happy,
-      embarrassing tears that were coming straight from his swelling heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Duncan, sobbing unrestrainedly, swept into the adjoining room and
-      threw herself into Duncan's arms.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, the puir lad!&rdquo; she wailed. &ldquo;Oh, the puir mither-hungry lad! He breaks
-      my heart!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan's arms closed convulsively around his wife. With a big, brown hand
-      he lovingly stroked her rough, sorrel hair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sarah, you're a guid woman!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You're a michty guid woman! Ye hae
-      a way o' speakin' out at times that's like the inspired prophets of the
-      Lord. If that had been put to me, now, I'd 'a' felt all I kent how to and
-      been keen enough to say the richt thing; but dang it, I'd 'a' stuttered
-      and stammered and got naething out that would ha' done onybody a mite o'
-      good. But ye, Sarah! Did ye see his face, woman? Ye sent him off lookin'
-      leke a white light of holiness had passed ower and settled on him. Ye sent
-      the lad away too happy for mortal words, Sarah. And ye made me that proud
-      o' ye! I wouldna trade ye an' my share o' the Limberlost with ony king ye
-      could mention.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He relaxed his clasp, and setting a heavy hand on each shoulder, he looked
-      straight into her eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye're prime, Sarah! Juist prime!&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sarah Duncan stood alone in the middle of her two-roomed log cabin and
-      lifted a bony, clawlike pair of hands, reddened by frequent immersion in
-      hot water, cracked and chafed by exposure to cold, black-lined by constant
-      battle with swamp-loam, calloused with burns, and stared at them
-      wonderingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Pretty-lookin' things ye are!&rdquo; she whispered. &ldquo;But ye hae juist been
-      kissed. And by such a man! Fine as God ever made at His verra best. Duncan
-      wouldna trade wi' a king! Na! Nor I wadna trade with a queen wi' a palace,
-      an' velvet gowns, an' diamonds big as hazelnuts, an' a hundred visitors a
-      day into the bargain. Ye've been that honored I'm blest if I can bear to
-      souse ye in dish-water. Still, that kiss winna come off! Naething can take
-      it from me, for it's mine till I dee. Lord, if I amna proud! Kisses on
-      these old claws! Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER III
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      So Freckles fared through the bitter winter. He was very happy. He had
-      hungered for freedom, love, and appreciation so long! He had been
-      unspeakably lonely at the Home; and the utter loneliness of a great desert
-      or forest is not so difficult to endure as the loneliness of being
-      constantly surrounded by crowds of people who do not care in the least
-      whether one is living or dead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      All through the winter Freckles' entire energy was given to keeping up his
-      lines and his &ldquo;chickens&rdquo; from freezing or starving. When the first breath
-      of spring touched the Limberlost, and the snow receded before it; when the
-      catkins began to bloom; when there came a hint of green to the trees,
-      bushes, and swale; when the rushes lifted their heads, and the pulse of
-      the newly resurrected season beat strongly in the heart of nature,
-      something new stirred in the breast of the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nature always levies her tribute. Now she laid a powerful hand on the soul
-      of Freckles, to which the boy's whole being responded, though he had not
-      the least idea what was troubling him. Duncan accepted his wife's theory
-      that it was a touch of spring fever, but Freckles knew better. He never
-      had been so well. Clean, hot, and steady the blood pulsed in his veins. He
-      was always hungry, and his most difficult work tired him not at all. For
-      long months, without a single intermission, he had tramped those seven
-      miles of trail twice each day, through every conceivable state of weather.
-      With the heavy club he gave his wires a sure test, and between sections,
-      first in play, afterward to keep his circulation going, he had acquired
-      the skill of an expert drum major. In his work there was exercise for
-      every muscle of his body each hour of the day, at night a bath, wholesome
-      food, and sound sleep in a room that never knew fire. He had gained flesh
-      and color, and developed a greater strength and endurance than anyone ever
-      could have guessed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nor did the Limberlost contain last year's terrors. He had been with her
-      in her hour of desolation, when stripped bare and deserted, she had stood
-      shivering, as if herself afraid. He had made excursions into the interior
-      until he was familiar with every path and road that ever had been cut. He
-      had sounded the depths of her deepest pools, and had learned why the trees
-      grew so magnificently. He had found that places of swamp and swale were
-      few compared with miles of solid timber-land, concealed by summer's
-      luxuriant undergrowth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sounds that at first had struck cold fear into his soul he now knew
-      had left on wing and silent foot at the approach of winter. As flock after
-      flock of the birds returned and he recognized the old echoes reawakening,
-      he found to his surprise that he had been lonely for them and was hailing
-      their return with great joy. All his fears were forgotten. Instead, he was
-      possessed of an overpowering desire to know what they were, to learn where
-      they had been, and whether they would make friends with him as the winter
-      birds had done; and if they did, would they be as fickle? For, with the
-      running sap, creeping worm, and winging bug, most of Freckles' &ldquo;chickens&rdquo;
-       had deserted him, entered the swamp, and feasted to such a state of
-      plethora on its store that they cared little for his supply, so that in
-      the strenuous days of mating and nest-building the boy was deserted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He chafed at the birds' ingratitude, but he found speedy consolation in
-      watching and befriending the newcomers. He surely would have been proud
-      and highly pleased if he had known that many of the former inhabitants of
-      the interior swamp now grouped their nests beside the timber-line solely
-      for the sake of his protection and company.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The yearly resurrection of the Limberlost is a mighty revival. Freckles
-      stood back and watched with awe and envy the gradual reclothing and
-      repopulation of the swamp. Keen-eyed and alert through danger and
-      loneliness, he noted every stage of development, from the first piping
-      frog and unsheathing bud, to full leafage and the return of the last
-      migrant.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The knowledge of his complete loneliness and utter insignificance was
-      hourly thrust upon him. He brooded and fretted until he was in a fever;
-      yet he never guessed the cause. He was filled with a vast impatience, a
-      longing that he scarcely could endure.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was June by the zodiac, June by the Limberlost, and by every delight of
-      a newly resurrected season it should have been June in the hearts of all
-      men. Yet Freckles scowled darkly as he came down the trail, and the
-      running TAP, TAP that tested the sagging wire and telegraphed word of his
-      coming to his furred and feathered friends of the swamp, this morning
-      carried the story of his discontent a mile ahead of him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' special pet, a dainty, yellow-coated, black-sleeved, cock
-      goldfinch, had remained on the wire for several days past the bravest of
-      all; and Freckles, absorbed with the cunning and beauty of the tiny
-      fellow, never guessed that he was being duped. For the goldfinch was
-      skipping, flirting, and swinging for the express purpose of so holding his
-      attention that he would not look up and see a small cradle of thistledown
-      and wool perilously near his head. In the beginning of brooding, the
-      spunky little homesteader had clung heroically to the wire when he was
-      almost paralyzed with fright. When day after day passed and brought only
-      softly whistled repetitions of his call, a handful of crumbs on the top of
-      a locust line-post, and gently worded coaxings, he grew in confidence. Of
-      late he had sung and swung during the passing of Freckles, who, not
-      dreaming of the nest and the solemn-eyed little hen so close above,
-      thought himself unusually gifted in his power to attract the birds. This
-      morning the goldfinch scarcely could believe his ears, and clung to the
-      wire until an unusually vicious rap sent him spinning a foot in air, and
-      his &ldquo;PTSEET&rdquo; came with a squall of utter panic.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The wires were ringing with a story the birds could not translate, and
-      Freckles was quite as ignorant of the trouble as they.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A peculiar movement beneath a small walnut tree caught his attention. He
-      stopped to investigate. There was an unusually large Luna cocoon, and the
-      moth was bursting the upper end in its struggles to reach light and air.
-      Freckles stood and stared.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's something in there trying to get out,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;Wonder if I
-      could help it? Guess I best not be trying. If I hadn't happened along,
-      there wouldn't have been anyone to do anything, and maybe I'd only be
-      hurting it. It's&mdash;it's&mdash;&mdash;Oh, skaggany! It's just being
-      born!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles gasped with surprise. The moth cleared the opening, and with many
-      wabblings and contortions climbed up the tree. He stared speechless with
-      amazement as the moth crept around a limb and clung to the under side.
-      There was a big pursy body, almost as large as his thumb, and of the very
-      snowiest white that Freckles ever had seen. There was a band of delicate
-      lavender across its forehead, and its feet were of the same colour; there
-      were antlers, like tiny, straw-colored ferns, on its head, and from its
-      shoulders hung the crumpled wet wings. As Freckles gazed, tense with
-      astonishment, he saw that these were expanding, drooping, taking on color,
-      and small, oval markings were beginning to show.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The minutes passed. Freckles' steady gaze never wavered. Without realizing
-      it, he was trembling with eagerness and anxiety. As he saw what was taking
-      place, &ldquo;It's going to fly,&rdquo; he breathed in hushed wonder. The morning sun
-      fell on the moth and dried its velvet down, while the warm air made it
-      fluffy. The rapidly growing wings began to show the most delicate green,
-      with lavender fore-ribs, transparent, eye-shaped markings, edged with
-      lines of red, tan, and black, and long, crisp trailers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was whispering to himself for fear of disturbing the moth. It
-      began a systematic exercise of raising and lowering its exquisite wings to
-      dry them and to establish circulation. The boy realized that soon it would
-      be able to spread them and sail away. His long-coming soul sent up its
-      first shivering cry.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know what it is! Oh, I wish I knew! How I wish I knew! It must be
-      something grand! It can't be a butterfly! It's away too big. Oh, I wish
-      there was someone to tell me what it is!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He climbed on the locust post, and balancing himself with the wire, held a
-      finger in the line of the moth's advance up the twig. It unhesitatingly
-      climbed on, so he stepped to the path, holding it to the light and
-      examining it closely. Then he held it in the shade and turned it, gloating
-      over its markings and beautiful coloring. When he held the moth to the
-      limb, it climbed on, still waving those magnificent wings.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My, but I'd like to be staying with you!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But if I was to stand
-      here all day you couldn't grow any prettier than you are right now, and I
-      wouldn't grow smart enough to tell what you are. I suppose there's someone
-      who knows. Of course there is! Mr. McLean said there were people who knew
-      every leaf, bird, and flower in the Limberlost. Oh Lord! How I wish You'd
-      be telling me just this one thing!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The goldfinch had ventured back to the wire, for there was his mate, only
-      a few inches above the man-creature's head; and indeed, he simply must not
-      be allowed to look up, so the brave little fellow rocked on the wire and
-      piped, as he had done every day for a week: &ldquo;SEE ME? SEE ME?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;See you! Of course I see you,&rdquo; growled Freckles. &ldquo;I see you day after
-      day, and what good is it doing me? I might see you every morning for a
-      year, and then not be able to be telling anyone about it. 'Seen a bird
-      with black silk wings&mdash;little, and yellow as any canary.' That's as
-      far as I'd get. What you doing here, anyway? Have you a mate? What's your
-      name? 'See you?' I reckon I see you; but I might as well be blind, for any
-      good it's doing me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles impatiently struck the wire. With a screech of fear, the
-      goldfinch fled precipitately. His mate arose from the nest with a whirr&mdash;Freckles
-      looked up and saw it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;O&mdash;ho!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;So THAT'S what you are doing here! You have a
-      wife. And so close my head I have been mighty near wearing a bird on my
-      bonnet, and never knew it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles laughed at his own jest, while in better humor he climbed to
-      examine the neat, tiny cradle and its contents. The hen darted at him in a
-      frenzy. &ldquo;Now, where do you come in?&rdquo; he demanded, when he saw that she was
-      not similar to the goldfinch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You be clearing out of here! This is none of your fry. This is the nest
-      of me little, yellow friend of the wire, and you shan't be touching it.
-      Don't blame you for wanting to see, though. My, but it's a fine nest and
-      beauties of eggs. Will you be keeping away, or will I fire this stick at
-      you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles dropped to the trail. The hen darted to the nest and settled on
-      it with a tender, coddling movement. He of the yellow coat flew to the
-      edge to make sure that everything was right. It would have been plain to
-      the veriest novice that they were partners in that cradle.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'll be switched!&rdquo; muttered Freckles. &ldquo;If that ain't both their
-      nest! And he's yellow and she's green, or she's yellow and he's green. Of
-      course, I don't know, and I haven't any way to find out, but it's plain as
-      the nose on your face that they are both ready to be fighting for that
-      nest, so, of course, they belong. Doesn't that beat you? Say, that's
-      what's been sticking me all of this week on that grass nest in the thorn
-      tree down the line. One day a blue bird is setting, so I think it is hers.
-      The next day a brown bird is on, and I chase it off because the nest is
-      blue's. Next day the brown bird is on again, and I let her be, because I
-      think it must be hers. Next day, be golly, blue's on, and off I send her
-      because it's brown's; and now, I bet my hat, it's both their nest and I've
-      only been bothering them and making a big fool of mesilf. Pretty specimen
-      I am, pretending to be a friend to the birds, and so blamed ignorant I
-      don't know which ones go in pairs, and blue and brown are a pair, of
-      course, if yellow and green are&mdash;and there's the red birds! I never
-      thought of them! He's red and she's gray&mdash;and now I want to be
-      knowing, are they all different? Why no! Of course, they ain't! There's
-      the jays all blue, and the crows all black.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The tide of Freckles' discontent welled until he almost choked with anger
-      and chagrin. He plodded down the trail, scowling blackly and viciously
-      spanging the wire. At the finches' nest he left the line and peered into
-      the thorn tree. There was no bird brooding. He pressed closer to take a
-      peep at the snowy, spotless little eggs he had found so beautiful, when at
-      the slight noise up raised four tiny baby heads with wide-open mouths,
-      uttering hunger cries. Freckles stepped back. The brown bird alighted on
-      the edge and closed one cavity with a wiggling green worm, while not two
-      minutes later the blue filled another with a white. That settled it. The
-      blue and brown were mates. Once again Freckles repeated his &ldquo;How I wish I
-      knew!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Around the bridge spanning Sleepy Snake Creek the swale spread widely, the
-      timber was scattering, and willows, rushes, marsh-grass, and splendid wild
-      flowers grew abundantly. Here lazy, big, black water snakes, for which the
-      creek was named, sunned on the bushes, wild ducks and grebe chattered,
-      cranes and herons fished, and muskrats plowed the bank in queer, rolling
-      furrows. It was always a place full of interest, so Freckles loved to
-      linger on the bridge, watching the marsh and water people. He also
-      transacted affairs of importance with the wild flowers and sweet
-      marsh-grass. He enjoyed splashing through the shallow pools on either side
-      of the bridge.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then, too, where the creek entered the swamp was a place of unusual
-      beauty. The water spread in darksome, mossy, green pools. Water-plants and
-      lilies grew luxuriantly, throwing up large, rank, green leaves. Nowhere
-      else in the Limberlost could be found frog-music to equal that of the
-      mouth of the creek. The drumming and piping rolled in never-ending
-      orchestral effect, while the full chorus rang to its accompaniment
-      throughout the season.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles slowly followed the path leading from the bridge to the line. It
-      was the one spot at which he might relax his vigilance. The boldest timber
-      thief the swamp ever had known would not have attempted to enter it by the
-      mouth of the creek, on account of the water and because there was no
-      protection from surrounding trees. He was bending the rank grass with his
-      cudgel, and thinking of the shade the denser swamp afforded, when he
-      suddenly dodged sidewise; the cudgel whistled sharply through the air and
-      Freckles sprang back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From the clear sky above him, first level with his face, then skimming,
-      dipping, tilting, whirling until it struck, quill down, in the path in
-      front of him, came a glossy, iridescent, big black feather. As it touched
-      the ground, Freckles snatched it up with almost a continuous movement
-      facing the sky. There was not a tree of any size in a large open space.
-      There was no wind to carry it. From the clear sky it had fallen, and
-      Freckles, gazing eagerly into the arch of June blue with a few lazy clouds
-      floating high in the sea of ether, had neither mind nor knowledge to dream
-      of a bird hanging as if frozen there. He turned the big quill
-      questioningly, and again his awed eyes swept the sky.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A feather dropped from Heaven!&rdquo; he breathed reverently. &ldquo;Are the holy
-      angels moulting? But no; if they were, it would be white. Maybe all the
-      angels are not for being white. What if the angels of God are white and
-      those of the devil are black? But a black one has no business up there.
-      Maybe some poor black angel is so tired of being punished it's for
-      slipping to the gates, beating its wings trying to make the Master hear!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Again and again Freckles searched the sky, but there was no answering
-      gleam of golden gates, no form of sailing bird; then he went slowly on his
-      way, turning the feather and wondering about it. It was a wing quill,
-      eighteen inches in length, with a heavy spine, gray at the base, shading
-      to jet black at the tip, and it caught the play of the sun's rays in
-      slanting gleams of green and bronze. Again Freckles' &ldquo;old man of the sea&rdquo;
-       sat sullen and heavy on his shoulders and weighted him down until his step
-      lagged and his heart ached.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Where did it come from? What is it? Oh, how I wish I knew!&rdquo; he kept
-      repeating as he turned and studied the feather, with almost unseeing eyes,
-      so intently was he thinking.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Before him spread a large, green pool, filled with rotting logs and
-      leaves, bordered with delicate ferns and grasses among which lifted the
-      creamy spikes of the arrow-head, the blue of water-hyacinth, and the
-      delicate yellow of the jewel-flower. As Freckles leaned, handling the
-      feather and staring at it, then into the depths of the pool, he once more
-      gave voice to his old query: &ldquo;I wonder what it is!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Straight across from him, couched in the mosses of a soggy old log, a big
-      green bullfrog, with palpitant throat and batting eyes, lifted his head
-      and bellowed in answer. &ldquo;FIN' DOUT! FIN' DOUT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wha&mdash;what's that?&rdquo; stammered Freckles, almost too much bewildered to
-      speak. &ldquo;I&mdash;I know you are only a bullfrog, but, be jabbers, that
-      sounded mightily like speech. Wouldn't you please to be saying it over?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The bullfrog cuddled contentedly in the ooze. Then suddenly he lifted his
-      voice, and, as an imperative drumbeat, rolled it again: &ldquo;FIN' DOUT! FIN'
-      DOUT! FIN DOUT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles had the answer. Something seemed to snap in his brain. There was
-      a wavering flame before his eyes. Then his mind cleared. His head lifted
-      in a new poise, his shoulders squared, while his spine straightened. The
-      agony was over. His soul floated free. Freckles came into his birthright.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Before God, I will!&rdquo; He uttered the oath so impressively that the
-      recording angel never winced as he posted it in the prayer column.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles set his hat over the top of one of the locust posts used between
-      trees to hold up the wire while he fastened the feather securely in the
-      band. Then he started down the line, talking to himself as men who have
-      worked long alone always fall into the habit of doing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What a fool I have been!&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;Of course that's what I have to
-      do! There wouldn't likely anybody be doing it for me. Of course I can!
-      What am I a man for? If I was a four-footed thing of the swamp, maybe I
-      couldn't; but a man can do anything if he's the grit to work hard enough
-      and stick at it, Mr. McLean is always saying, and here's the way I am to
-      do it. He said, too, that there were people that knew everything in the
-      swamp. Of course they have written books! The thing for me to be doing is
-      to quit moping and be buying some. Never bought a book in me life, or
-      anything else of much account, for that matter. Oh, ain't I glad I didn't
-      waste me money! I'll surely be having enough to get a few. Let me see.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles sat on a log, took his pencil and account-book, and figured on a
-      back page. He had walked the timber-line ten months. His pay was thirty
-      dollars a month, and his board cost him eight. That left twenty-two
-      dollars a month, and his clothing had cost him very little. At the least
-      he had two hundred dollars in the bank. He drew a deep breath and smiled
-      at the sky with satisfaction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll be having a book about all the birds, trees, flowers, butterflies,
-      and&mdash;&mdash;Yes, by gummy! I'll be having one about the frogs&mdash;if
-      it takes every cent I have,&rdquo; he promised himself.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He put away the account-book, that was his most cherished possession,
-      caught up his stick, and started down the line. The even tap, tap, and the
-      cheery, gladsome whistle carried far ahead of him the message that
-      Freckles was himself again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He fell into a rapid pace, for he had lost time that morning; when he
-      rounded the last curve he was almost running. There was a chance that the
-      Boss might be there for his weekly report.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then, wavering, flickering, darting here and there over the sweet
-      marsh-grass, came a large black shadow, sweeping so closely before him
-      that for the second time that morning Freckles dodged and sprang back. He
-      had seen some owls and hawks of the swamp that he thought might be classed
-      as large birds, but never anything like this, for six feet it spread its
-      big, shining wings. Its strong feet could be seen drawn among its
-      feathers. The sun glinted on its sharp, hooked beak. Its eyes glowed,
-      caught the light, and seemed able to pierce the ground at his feet. It
-      cared no more for Freckles than if he had not been there; for it perched
-      on a low tree, while a second later it awkwardly hopped to the trunk of a
-      lightning-riven elm, turned its back, and began searching the blue.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles looked just in time to see a second shadow sweep the grass; and
-      another bird, a trifle smaller and not quite so brilliant in the light,
-      slowly sailed down to perch beside the first. Evidently they were mates,
-      for with a queer, rolling hop the first-comer shivered his bronze wings,
-      sidled to the new arrival, and gave her a silly little peck on her wing.
-      Then he coquettishly drew away and ogled her. He lifted his head, waddled
-      from her a few steps, awkwardly ambled back, and gave her such a simple
-      sort of kiss on her beak that Freckles burst into a laugh, but clapped his
-      hand over his mouth to stifle the sound.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The lover ducked and side-stepped a few feet. He spread his wings and
-      slowly and softly waved them precisely as if he were fanning his charmer,
-      which was indeed the result he accomplished. Then a wave of uncontrollable
-      tenderness moved him so he hobbled to his bombardment once more. He faced
-      her squarely this time, and turned his head from side to side with queer
-      little jerks and indiscriminate peckings at her wings and head, and
-      smirkings that really should have been irresistible. She yawned and
-      shuffled away indifferently. Freckles reached up, pulled the quill from
-      his hat, and looking from it to the birds, nodded in settled conviction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;So you're me black angels, ye spalpeens! No wonder you didn't get in! But
-      I'll back you to come closer it than any other birds ever did. You fly
-      higher than I can see. Have you picked the Limberlost for a good thing and
-      come to try it? Well, you can be me chickens if you want to, but I'm blest
-      if you ain't cool for new ones. Why don't you take this stick for a gun
-      and go skinning a mile?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles broke into an unrestrained laugh, for the bird-lover was keen
-      about his courting, while evidently his mate was diffident. When he
-      approached too boisterously, she relieved him of a goodly tuft of feathers
-      and sent him backward in a series of squirmy little jumps that gave the
-      boy an idea of what had happened up-sky to send the falling feather across
-      his pathway.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Score one for the lady! I'll be umpiring this,&rdquo; volunteered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With a ravishing swagger, half-lifted wings, and deep, guttural hissing,
-      the lover approached again. He suddenly lifted his body, but she coolly
-      rocked forward on the limb, glided gracefully beneath him, and slowly
-      sailed into the Limberlost. He recovered himself and gazed after her in
-      astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles hurried down the trail, shaking with laughter. When he neared the
-      path to the clearing and saw the Boss sitting motionless on the mare that
-      was the pride of his heart, the boy broke into a run.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. McLean!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;I hope I haven't kept you waiting very long!
-      And the sun is getting hot! I have been so slow this morning! I could have
-      gone faster, only there were that many things to keep me, and I didn't
-      know you would be here. I'll hurry after this. I've never had to be giving
-      excuses before. The line wasn't down, and there wasn't a sign of trouble;
-      it was other things that were making me late.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean, smiling on the boy, immediately noticed the difference in him.
-      This flushed, panting, talkative lad was not the same creature who had
-      sought him in despair and bitterness. He watched in wonder as Freckles
-      mopped the perspiration from his forehead and began to laugh. Then,
-      forgetting all his customary reserve with the Boss, the pent-up boyishness
-      in the lad broke forth. With an eloquence of which he never dreamed he
-      told his story. He talked with such enthusiasm that McLean never took his
-      eyes from his face or shifted in the saddle until he described the strange
-      bird-lover, and then the Boss suddenly bent over the pommel and laughed
-      with the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles decorated his story with keen appreciation and rare touches of
-      Irish wit and drollery that made it most interesting as well as very
-      funny. It was a first attempt at descriptive narration. With an inborn
-      gift for striking the vital point, a naturalist's dawning enthusiasm for
-      the wonders of the Limberlost, and the welling joy of his newly found
-      happiness, he made McLean see the struggles of the moth and its freshly
-      painted wings, the dainty, brilliant bird-mates of different colors, the
-      feather sliding through the clear air, the palpitant throat and batting
-      eyes of the frog; while his version of the big bird's courtship won for
-      the Boss the best laugh he had enjoyed for years.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They're in the middle of a swamp now&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Do you suppose
-      there is any chance of them staying with me chickens? If they do, they'll
-      be about the queerest I have; but I tell you, sir, I am finding some plum
-      good ones. There's a new kind over at the mouth of the creek that uses its
-      wings like feet and walks on all fours. It travels like a thrashing
-      machine. There's another, tall as me waist, with a bill a foot long, a
-      neck near two, not the thickness of me wrist and an elegant color. He's
-      some blue and gray, touched up with black, white, and brown. The voice of
-      him is such that if he'd be going up and standing beside a tree and crying
-      at it a few times he could be sawing it square off. I don't know but it
-      would be a good idea to try him on the gang, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean laughed. &ldquo;Those must be blue herons, Freckles,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And it
-      doesn't seem possible, but your description of the big black birds sounds
-      like genuine black vultures. They are common enough in the South. I've
-      seen them numerous around the lumber camps of Georgia, but I never before
-      heard of any this far north. They must be strays. You have described
-      perfectly our nearest equivalent to a branch of these birds called in
-      Europe Pharaoh's Chickens, but if they are coming to the Limberlost they
-      will have to drop Pharaoh and become Freckles' Chickens, like the
-      remainder of the birds; won't they? Or are they too odd and ugly to
-      interest you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, not at all, at all!&rdquo; cried Freckles, bursting into pure brogue in his
-      haste. &ldquo;I don't know as I'd be calling them exactly pretty, and they do
-      move like a rocking-horse loping, but they are so big and fearless. They
-      have a fine color for black birds, and their feet and beaks seem so
-      strong. You never saw anything so keen as their eyes! And fly? Why, just
-      think, sir, they must be flying miles straight up, for they were out of
-      sight completely when the feather fell. I don't suppose I've a chicken in
-      the swamp that can go as close heaven as those big, black fellows, and
-      then&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' voice dragged and he hesitated.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then what?&rdquo; interestedly urged McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He was loving her so,&rdquo; answered Freckles in a hushed voice. &ldquo;I know it
-      looked awful funny, and I laughed and told on him, but if I'd taken time
-      to think I don't believe I'd have done it. You see, I've seen such a
-      little bit of loving in me life. You easily can be understanding that at
-      the Home it was every day the old story of neglect and desertion. Always
-      people that didn't even care enough for their children to keep them, so
-      you see, sir, I had to like him for trying so hard to make her know how he
-      loved her. Of course, they're only birds, but if they are caring for each
-      other like that, why, it's just the same as people, ain't it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted his brave, steady eyes to the Boss.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If anybody loved me like that, Mr. McLean, I wouldn't be spending any
-      time on how they looked or moved. All I'd be thinking of would be how they
-      felt toward me. If they will stay, I'll be caring as much for them as any
-      chickens I have. If I did laugh at them I thought he was just fine!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The face of McLean was a study; but the honest eyes of the boy were so
-      compelling that he found himself answering: &ldquo;You are right, Freckles. He's
-      a gentleman, isn't he? And the only real chicken you have. Of course he'll
-      remain! The Limberlost will be paradise for his family. And now, Freckles,
-      what has been the trouble all spring? You have done your work as
-      faithfully as anyone could ask, but I can't help seeing that there is
-      something wrong. Are you tired of your job?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I love it,&rdquo; answered Freckles. &ldquo;It will almost break me heart when the
-      gang comes and begins tearing up the swamp and scaring away me chickens.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then what is the trouble?&rdquo; insisted McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I think, sir, it's been books,&rdquo; answered Freckles. &ldquo;You see, I didn't
-      realize it meself until the bullfrog told me this morning. I hadn't ever
-      even heard about a place like this. Anyway, I wasn't understanding how it
-      would be, if I had. Being among these beautiful things every day, I got so
-      anxious like to be knowing and naming them, that it got to eating into me
-      and went and made me near sick, when I was well as I could be. Of course,
-      I learned to read, write, and figure some at school, but there was nothing
-      there, or in any of the city that I ever got to see, that would make a
-      fellow even be dreaming of such interesting things as there are here. I've
-      seen the parks&mdash;but good Lord, they ain't even beginning to be in it
-      with the Limberlost! It's all new and strange to me. I don't know a thing
-      about any of it. The bullfrog told me to 'find out,' plain as day, and
-      books are the only way; ain't they?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; said McLean, astonished at himself for his heartfelt relief.
-      He had not guessed until that minute what it would have meant to him to
-      have Freckles give up. &ldquo;You know enough to study out what you want
-      yourself, if you have the books; don't you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am pretty sure I do,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I learned all I'd the chance at
-      in the Home, and me schooling was good as far as it went. Wouldn't let you
-      go past fourteen, you know. I always did me sums perfect, and loved me
-      history books. I had them almost by heart. I never could get me grammar to
-      suit them. They said it was just born in me to go wrong talking, and if it
-      hadn't been I suppose I would have picked it up from the other children;
-      but I'd the best voice of any of them in the Home or at school. I could
-      knock them all out singing. I was always leader in the Home, and once one
-      of the superintendents gave me carfare and let me go into the city and
-      sing in a boys' choir. The master said I'd the swatest voice of them all
-      until it got rough like, and then he made me quit for awhile, but he said
-      it would be coming back by now, and I'm railly thinking it is, sir, for
-      I've tried on the line a bit of late and it seems to go smooth again and
-      lots stronger. That and me chickens have been all the company I've been
-      having, and it will be all I'll want if I can have some books and learn
-      the real names of things, where they come from, and why they do such
-      interesting things. It's been fretting me more than I knew to be shut up
-      here among all these wonders and not knowing a thing. I wanted to ask you
-      what some books would cost me, and if you'd be having the goodness to get
-      me the right ones. I think I have enough money.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles offered his account-book and the Boss studied it gravely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You needn't touch your account, Freckles,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Ten dollars from
-      this month's pay will provide you everything you need to start on. I will
-      write a friend in Grand Rapids today to select you the very best and send
-      them at once.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' eyes were shining.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Never owned a book in me life!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Even me schoolbooks were never
-      mine. Lord! How I used to wish I could have just one of them for me very
-      own! Won't it be fun to see me sawbird and me little yellow fellow looking
-      at me from the pages of a book, and their real names and all about them
-      printed alongside? How long will it be taking, sir?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ten days should do it nicely,&rdquo; said McLean. Then, seeing Freckles'
-      lengthening face, he added: &ldquo;I'll have Duncan bring you a ten-bushel
-      store-box the next time he goes to town. He can haul it to the west
-      entrance and set it up wherever you want it. You can put in your spare
-      time filling it with the specimens you find until the books come, and then
-      you can study out what you have. I suspect you could collect specimens
-      that I could send to naturalists in the city and sell for you; things like
-      that winged creature, this morning. I don't know much in that line, but it
-      must have been a moth, and it might have been rare. I've seen them by the
-      thousand in museums, and in all nature I don't remember rarer coloring
-      than their wings. I'll order you a butterfly-net and box and show you how
-      scientists pin specimens. Possibly you can make a fine collection of these
-      swamp beauties. It will be all right for you to take a pair of different
-      moths and butterflies, but I don't want to hear of your killing any birds.
-      They are protected by heavy fines.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean rode away leaving Freckles staring aghast. Then he saw the point
-      and smiled. Standing on the trail, he twirled the feather and thought over
-      the morning.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, if life ain't getting to be worth living!&rdquo; he said wonderingly.
-      &ldquo;Biggest streak of luck I ever had! 'Bout time something was coming my
-      way, but I wouldn't ever thought anybody could strike such magnificent
-      prospects through only a falling feather.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER IV
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for New
-      Experiences
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      On Duncan's return from his next trip to town there was a big store-box
-      loaded on the back of his wagon. He drove to the west entrance of the
-      swamp, set the box on a stump that Freckles had selected in a beautiful,
-      sheltered place, and made it secure on its foundations with a tree at its
-      back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It seems most a pity to nail into that tree,&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;I haena the
-      time to examine into the grain of it, but it looks as if it might be a
-      rare ane. Anyhow, the nailin' winna hurt it deep, and havin' the case by
-      it will make it safer if it is a guid ane.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Isn't it an oak?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;It looks like it might be ane of thae fine-grained
-      white anes that mak' such grand furniture.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      When the body of the case was secure, Duncan made a door from the lid and
-      fastened it with hinges. He drove a staple, screwed on a latch, and gave
-      Freckles a small padlock&mdash;so that he might fasten in his treasures
-      safely. He made a shelf at the top for his books, and last of all covered
-      the case with oil-cloth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was the first time in Freckles' life that anyone ever had done that
-      much for his pleasure, and it warmed his heart with pure joy. If the
-      interior of the box already had been covered with the rarest treasures of
-      the Limberlost he could have been no happier.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the big teamster stood back to look at his work he laughingly quoted,
-      &ldquo;'Neat, but no' gaudy,' as McLean says. All we're, needing now is a coat
-      of paint to make a cupboard that would turn Sarah green with envy. Ye'll
-      find that safe an' dry, lad, an' that's all that's needed.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mr. Duncan,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;I don't know why you are being so mighty
-      good to me; but if you have any jobs at the cabin that I could do for you
-      or Mrs. Duncan, hours off the line, it would make me mighty happy.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan laughed. &ldquo;Ye needna feel ye are obliged to me, lad. Ye mauna think
-      I could take a half-day off in the best hauling season and go to town for
-      boxes to rig up, and spend of my little for fixtures.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I knew Mr. McLean sent you,&rdquo; said Freckles, his eyes wide and bright with
-      happiness. &ldquo;It's so good of him. How I wish I could do something that
-      would please him as much!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, Freckles,&rdquo; said Duncan, as he knelt and began collecting his tools,
-      &ldquo;I canna see that it will hurt ye to be told that ye are doing every day a
-      thing that pleases the Boss as much as anything ye could do. Ye're being
-      uncommon faithful, lad, and honest as old Father Time. McLean is trusting
-      ye as he would his own flesh and blood.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Duncan!&rdquo; cried the happy boy. &ldquo;Are you sure?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why I know,&rdquo; answered Duncan. &ldquo;I wadna venture to say so else. In those
-      first days he cautioned me na to tell ye, but now he wadna care. D'ye ken,
-      Freckles, that some of the single trees ye are guarding are worth a
-      thousand dollars?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles caught his breath and stood speechless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye see,&rdquo; said Duncan, &ldquo;that's why they maun be watched so closely. They
-      tak', say, for instance, a burl maple&mdash;bird's eye they call it in the
-      factory, because it's full o' wee knots and twists that look like the eye
-      of a bird. They saw it out in sheets no muckle thicker than writin' paper.
-      Then they make up the funiture out of cheaper wood and cover it with the
-      maple&mdash;veneer, they call it. When it's all done and polished ye never
-      saw onythin' grander. Gang into a retail shop the next time ye are in town
-      and see some. By sawin' it thin that way they get finish for thousands of
-      dollars' worth of furniture from a single tree. If ye dinna watch
-      faithful, and Black Jack gets out a few he has marked, it means the loss
-      of more money than ye ever dreamed of, lad. The other night, down at camp,
-      some son of Balaam was suggestin' that ye might be sellin' the Boss out to
-      Jack and lettin' him tak' the trees secretly, and nobody wad ever ken till
-      the gang gets here.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A wave of scarlet flooded Freckles' face and he blazed hotly at the
-      insult.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And the Boss,&rdquo; continued Duncan, coolly ignoring Freckles' anger, &ldquo;he
-      lays back just as cool as cowcumbers an' says: 'I'll give a thousand
-      dollars to ony man that will show me a fresh stump when we reach the
-      Limberlost,' says he. Some of the men just snapped him op that they'd find
-      some. So you see bow the Boss is trustin' ye, lad.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am gladder than I can ever expriss,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;And now will I be
-      walking double time to keep some of them from cutting a tree to get all
-      that money!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mither o' Moses!&rdquo; howled Duncan. &ldquo;Ye can trust the Scotch to bungle
-      things a'thegither. McLean was only meanin' to show ye all confidence and
-      honor. He's gone and set a high price for some dirty whelp to ruin ye. I
-      was just tryin' to show ye how he felt toward ye, and I've gone an' give
-      ye that worry to bear. Damn the Scotch! They're so slow an' so dumb!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Exciptin' prisint company?&rdquo; sweetly inquired Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; growled Duncan. &ldquo;Headin' the list! He'd nae business to set a price
-      on ye, lad, for that's about the amount of it, an' I'd nae right to tell
-      ye. We've both done ye ill, an' both meanin' the verra best. Juist what
-      I'm always sayin' to Sarah.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am mighty proud of what you have been telling me, Duncan,&rdquo; said
-      Freckles. &ldquo;I need the warning, sure. For with the books coming I might be
-      timpted to neglect me work when double watching is needed. Thank you more
-      than I can say for putting me on to it. What you've told me may be the
-      saving of me. I won't stop for dinner now. I'll be getting along the east
-      line, and when I come around about three, maybe Mother Duncan will let me
-      have a glass of milk and a bite of something.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye see now!&rdquo; cried Duncan in disgust. &ldquo;Ye'll start on that seven-mile
-      tramp with na bite to stay your stomach. What was it I told ye?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You told me that the Scotch had the hardest heads and the softest hearts
-      of any people that's living,&rdquo; answered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan grunted in gratified disapproval.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles picked up his club and started down the line, whistling cheerily,
-      for he had an unusually long repertoire upon which to draw.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan went straight to the lower camp, and calling McLean aside, repeated
-      the conversation verbatim, ending: &ldquo;And nae matter what happens now or
-      ever, dinna ye dare let onythin' make ye believe that Freckles hasna
-      guarded faithful as ony man could.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't think anything could shake my faith in the lad,&rdquo; answered McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was whistling merrily. He kept one eye religiously on the line.
-      The other he divided between the path, his friends of the wire, and a
-      search of the sky for his latest arrivals. Every day since their coming he
-      had seen them, either hanging as small, black clouds above the swamp or
-      bobbing over logs and trees with their queer, tilting walk. Whenever he
-      could spare time, he entered the swamp and tried to make friends with
-      them, for they were the tamest of all his unnumbered subjects. They
-      ducked, dodged, and ambled around him, over logs and bushes, and not even
-      a near approach would drive them to flight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For two weeks he had found them circling over the Limberlost regularly,
-      but one morning the female was missing and only the big black chicken hung
-      sentinel above the swamp. His mate did not reappear in the following days,
-      and Freckles grew very anxious. He spoke of it to Mrs. Duncan, and she
-      quieted his fears by raising a delightful hope in their stead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, Freckles, if it's the hen-bird ye are missing, it's ten to one she's
-      safe,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;She's laid, and is setting, ye silly! Watch him and mark
-      whaur he lichts. Then follow and find the nest. Some Sabbath we'll all
-      gang see it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Accepting this theory, Freckles began searching for the nest. Because
-      these &ldquo;chickens&rdquo; were large, as the hawks, he looked among the treetops
-      until he almost sprained the back of his neck. He had half the crow and
-      hawk nests in the swamp located. He searched for this nest instead of
-      collecting subjects for his case. He found the pair the middle of one
-      forenoon on the elm where he had watched their love-making. The big black
-      chicken was feeding his mate; so it was proved that they were a pair, they
-      were both alive, and undoubtedly she was brooding. After that Freckles'
-      nest-hunting continued with renewed zeal, but as he had no idea where to
-      look and Duncan could offer no helpful suggestion, the nest was no nearer
-      to being found.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Coming from a long day on the trail, Freckles saw Duncan's children
-      awaiting him much closer the swale than they usually ventured, and from
-      their wild gestures he knew that something had happened. He began to run,
-      but the cry that reached him was: &ldquo;The books have come!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      How they hurried! Freckles lifted the youngest to his shoulder, the second
-      took his club and dinner pail, and when they reached Mrs. Duncan they
-      found her at work on a big box. She had loosened the lid, and then she
-      laughingly sat on it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye canna have a peep in here until ye have washed and eaten supper,&rdquo; she
-      said. &ldquo;It's all ready on the table. Ance ye begin on this, ye'll no be
-      willin' to tak' your nose o' it till bedtime, and I willna get my work
-      done the nicht. We've eaten long ago.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      It was difficult work, but Freckles smiled bravely. He made himself neat,
-      swallowed a few bites, then came so eagerly that Mrs. Duncan yielded,
-      although she said she very well knew all the time that his supper would be
-      spoiled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lifting the lid, they removed the packing and found in that box books on
-      birds, trees, flowers, moths, and butterflies. There was also one
-      containing Freckles' bullfrog, true to life. Besides these were a
-      butterfly-net, a naturalist's tin specimen-box, a bottle of cyanide, a box
-      of cotton, a paper of long, steel specimen-pins, and a letter telling what
-      all these things were and how to use them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the discovery of each new treasure, Freckles shouted: &ldquo;Will you be
-      looking at this, now?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Duncan cried: &ldquo;Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The eldest boy turned a somersault for every extra, while the baby, trying
-      to follow his example, bunched over in a sidewise sprawl and cut his foot
-      on the axe with which his mother had prized up the box-lid. That sobered
-      them, they carried the books indoors. Mrs. Duncan had a top shelf in her
-      closet cleared for them, far above the reach of meddling little fingers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When Freckles started for the trail next morning, the shining new
-      specimen-box flashed on his back. The black &ldquo;chicken,&rdquo; a mere speck in the
-      blue, caught the gleam of it. The folded net hung beside the boy's
-      hatchet, and the bird book was in the box. He walked the line and tested
-      each section scrupulously, watching every foot of the trail, for he was
-      determined not to slight his work; but if ever a boy &ldquo;made haste slowly&rdquo;
-       in a hurry, it was Freckles that morning. When at last he reached the
-      space he had cleared and planted around his case, his heart swelled with
-      the pride of possessing even so much that he could call his own, while his
-      quick eyes feasted on the beauty of it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had made a large room with the door of the case set even with one side
-      of it. On three sides, fine big bushes of wild rose climbed to the lower
-      branches of the trees. Part of his walls were mallow, part alder, thorn,
-      willow, and dogwood. Below there filled in a solid mass of pale pink
-      sheep-laurel, and yellow St. John's wort, while the amber threads of the
-      dodder interlaced everywhere. At one side the swamp came close, here
-      cattails grew in profusion. In front of them he had planted a row of
-      water-hyacinths without disturbing in the least the state of their azure
-      bloom, and where the ground arose higher for his floor, a row of foxfire,
-      that soon would be open.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To the left he had discovered a queer natural arrangement of the trees,
-      that grew to giant size and were set in a gradually narrowing space so
-      that a long, open vista stretched away until lost in the dim recesses of
-      the swamp. A little trimming of underbush, rolling of dead logs, levelling
-      of floor and carpeting with moss, made it easy to understand why Freckles
-      had named this the &ldquo;cathedral&rdquo;; yet he never had been taught that &ldquo;the
-      groves were God's first temples.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      On either side of the trees that constituted the first arch of this dim
-      vista of the swamp he planted ferns that grew waist-high thus early in the
-      season, and so skilfully the work had been done that not a frond drooped
-      because of the change. Opposite, he cleared a space and made a flower bed.
-      He filled one end with every delicate, lacy vine and fern he could
-      transplant successfully. The body of the bed was a riot of color. Here he
-      set growing dainty blue-eyed-Marys and blue-eyed grass side by side. He
-      planted harebells; violets, blue, white, and yellow; wild geranium,
-      cardinal-flower, columbine, pink snake's mouth, buttercups, painted
-      trilliums, and orchis. Here were blood-root, moccasin-flower, hepatica,
-      pitcher-plant, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and every other flower of the
-      Limberlost that was in bloom or bore a bud presaging a flower. Every day
-      saw the addition of new specimens. The place would have driven a botanist
-      wild with envy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the line side he left the bushes thick for concealment, entering by a
-      narrow path he and Duncan had cleared in setting up the case. He called
-      this the front door, though he used every precaution to hide it. He built
-      rustic seats between several of the trees, leveled the floor, and thickly
-      carpeted it with rank, heavy, woolly-dog moss. Around the case he planted
-      wild clematis, bittersweet, and wild-grapevines, and trained them over it
-      until it was almost covered. Every day he planted new flowers, cut back
-      rough bushes, and coaxed out graceful ones. His pride in his room was very
-      great, but he had no idea how surprisingly beautiful it would appear to
-      anyone who had not witnessed its growth and construction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This morning Freckles walked straight to his case, unlocked it, and set
-      his apparatus and dinner inside. He planted a new specimen he had found
-      close the trail, and, bringing his old scrap-bucket from the corner in
-      which it was hidden, from a near-by pool he dipped water to pour over his
-      carpet and flowers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he took out the bird book, settled comfortably on a bench, and with a
-      deep sigh of satisfaction turned to the section headed. &ldquo;V.&rdquo; Past &ldquo;veery&rdquo;
-       and &ldquo;vireo&rdquo; he went, down the line until his finger, trembling with
-      eagerness, stopped at &ldquo;vulture.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Great black California vulture,'&rdquo; he read.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Humph! This side the Rockies will do for us.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Common turkey-buzzard.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, we ain't hunting common turkeys. McLean said chickens, and what he
-      says goes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Black vulture of the South.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Here we are arrived at once.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' finger followed the line, and he read scraps aloud.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Common in the South. Sometimes called Jim Crow. Nearest equivalent to
-      C-a-t-h-a-r-t-e-s A-t-r-a-t-a.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How the divil am I ever to learn them corkin' big words by mesel'?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'&mdash;the Pharaoh's Chickens of European species. Sometimes stray north
-      as far as Virginia and Kentucky&mdash;&mdash;'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And sometimes farther,&rdquo; interpolated Freckles, &ldquo;'cos I got them right
-      here in Indiana so like these pictures I can just see me big chicken
-      bobbing up to get his ears boxed. Hey?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Light-blue eggs'&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Golly! I got to be seeing them!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'&mdash;big as a common turkey's, but shaped like a hen's, heavily
-      splotched with chocolate&mdash;&mdash;'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Caramels, I suppose. And&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'&mdash;in hollow logs or stumps.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, hagginy! Wasn't I barking up the wrong tree, though? Ought to been
-      looking close the ground all this time. Now it's all to do over, and I
-      suspect the sooner I start the sooner I'll be likely to find them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles put away his book, dampened the smudge-fire, without which the
-      mosquitoes made the swamp almost unbearable, took his cudgel and lunch,
-      and went to the line. He sat on a log, ate at dinner-time and drank his
-      last drop of water. The heat of June was growing intense. Even on the west
-      of the swamp, where one had full benefit of the breeze from the upland, it
-      was beginning to be unpleasant in the middle of the day.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He brushed the crumbs from his knees and sat resting awhile and watching
-      the sky to see if his big chicken were hanging up there. But he came to
-      the earth abruptly, for there were steps coming down the trail that were
-      neither McLean's nor Duncan's&mdash;and there never had been others.
-      Freckles' heart leaped hotly. He ran a quick hand over his belt to feel if
-      his revolver and hatchet were there, caught up his cudgel and laid it
-      across his knees&mdash;then sat quietly, waiting. Was it Black Jack, or
-      someone even worse? Forced to do something to brace his nerves, he
-      puckered his stiffening lips and began whistling a tune he had led in his
-      clear tenor every year of his life at the Home Christmas exercises.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;Who comes this way, so blithe and gay,
-     Upon a merry Christmas day?&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      His quick Irish wit roused to the ridiculousness of it until he broke into
-      a laugh that steadied him amazingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Through the bushes he caught a glimpse of the oncoming figure. His heart
-      flooded with joy, for it was a man from the gang. Wessner had been his
-      bunk-mate the night he came down the corduroy. He knew him as well as any
-      of McLean's men. This was no timber-thief. No doubt the Boss had sent him
-      with a message. Freckles sprang up and called cheerily, a warm welcome on
-      his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, it's good telling if you're glad to see me,&rdquo; said Wessner, with
-      something very like a breath of relief. &ldquo;We been hearing down at the camp
-      you were so mighty touchy you didn't allow a man within a rod of the
-      line.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No more do I,&rdquo; answered Freckles, &ldquo;if he's a stranger, but you're from
-      McLean, ain't you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, damn McLean!&rdquo; said Wessner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles gripped the cudgel until his knuckles slowly turned purple.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And are you railly saying so?&rdquo; he inquired with elaborate politeness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, I am,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;So would every man of the gang if they wasn't
-      too big cowards to say anything, unless maybe that other slobbering old
-      Scotchman, Duncan. Grinding the lives out of us! Working us like dogs, and
-      paying us starvation wages, while he rolls up his millions and lives like
-      a prince!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Green lights began to play through the gray of Freckles' eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wessner,&rdquo; he said impressively, &ldquo;you'd make a fine pattern for the father
-      of liars! Every man on that gang is strong and hilthy, paid all he earns,
-      and treated with the courtesy of a gentleman! As for the Boss living like
-      a prince, he shares fare with you every day of your lives!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner was not a born diplomat, but he saw he was on the wrong tack, so
-      he tried another.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How would you like to make a good big pile of money, without even lifting
-      your hand?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Have you been up to Chicago and cornered wheat,
-      and are you offering me a friendly tip on the invistment of me fortune?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner came close.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, old fellow,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if you let me give you a pointer, I can
-      put you on to making a cool five hundred without stepping out of your
-      tracks.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles drew back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You needn't be afraid of speaking up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There isn't a soul in
-      the Limberlost save the birds and the beasts, unless some of your sort's
-      come along and's crowding the privileges of the legal tinints.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;None of my friends along,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;Nobody knew I came but Black, I&mdash;I
-      mean a friend of mine. If you want to hear sense and act with reason, he
-      can see you later, but it ain't necessary. We can make all the plans
-      needed. The trick's so dead small and easy.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Must be if you have the engineering of it,&rdquo; said Freckles. But he heard,
-      with a sigh of relief, that they were alone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner was impervious. &ldquo;You just bet it is! Why, only think, Freckles,
-      slavin' away at a measly little thirty dollars a month, and here is a
-      chance to clear five hundred in a day! You surely won't be the fool to
-      miss it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And how was you proposing for me to stale it?&rdquo; inquired Freckles. &ldquo;Or am
-      I just to find it laying in me path beside the line?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's it, Freckles,&rdquo; blustered the Dutchman, &ldquo;you're just to find it.
-      You needn't do a thing. You needn't know a thing. You name a morning when
-      you will walk up the west side of the swamp and then turn round and walk
-      back down the same side again and the money is yours. Couldn't anything be
-      easier than that, could it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Depinds entirely on the man,&rdquo; said Freckles. The lilt of a lark hanging
-      above the swale beside them was not sweeter than the sweetness of his
-      voice. &ldquo;To some it would seem to come aisy as breathing; and to some,
-      wringin' the last drop of their heart's blood couldn't force thim! I'm not
-      the man that goes into a scheme like that with the blindfold over me eyes,
-      for, you see, it manes to break trust with the Boss; and I've served him
-      faithful as I knew. You'll have to be making the thing very clear to me
-      understanding.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's so dead easy,&rdquo; repeated Wessner, &ldquo;it makes me tired of the
-      simpleness of it. You see there's a few trees in the swamp that's real
-      gold mines. There's three especial. Two are back in, but one's square on
-      the line. Why, your pottering old Scotch fool of a Boss nailed the wire to
-      it with his own hands! He never noticed where the bark had been peeled, or
-      saw what it was. If you will stay on this side of the trail just one day
-      we can have it cut, loaded, and ready to drive out at night. Next morning
-      you can find it, report, and be the busiest man in the search for us. We
-      know where to fix it all safe and easy. Then McLean has a bet up with a
-      couple of the gang that there can't be a raw stump found in the
-      Limberlost. There's plenty of witnesses to swear to it, and I know three
-      that will. There's a cool thousand, and this tree is worth all of that,
-      raw. Say, it's a gold mine, I tell you, and just five hundred of it is
-      yours. There's no danger on earth to you, for you've got McLean that
-      bamboozled you could sell out the whole swamp and he'd never mistrust you.
-      What do you say?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' soul was satisfied. &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, it ain't,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;If you really want to brace up and be a man
-      and go into the thing for keeps, you can make five times that in a week.
-      My friend knows a dozen others we could get out in a few days, and all
-      you'd have to do would be to keep out of sight. Then you could take your
-      money and skip some night, and begin life like a gentleman somewhere else.
-      What do you think about it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles purred like a kitten.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Twould be a rare joke on the Boss,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to be stalin' from him the
-      very thing he's trusted me to guard, and be getting me wages all winter
-      throwed in free. And you're making the pay awful high. Me to be getting
-      five hundred for such a simple little thing as that. You're trating me
-      most royal indade! It's away beyond all I'd be expecting. Sivinteen cints
-      would be a big price for that job. It must be looked into thorough. Just
-      you wait here until I do a minute's turn in the swamp, and then I'll be
-      eschorting you out of the clearing and giving you the answer.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted the overhanging bushes and hurried to the case. He unslung
-      the specimen-box and laid it inside with his hatchet and revolver. He
-      slipped the key in his pocket and went back to Wessner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now for the answer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Stand up!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      There was iron in his voice, and he was commanding as an outraged general.
-      &ldquo;Anything, you want to be taking off?&rdquo; he questioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner looked the astonishment he felt. &ldquo;Why, no, Freckles,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have the goodness to be calling me Mister McLean,&rdquo; snapped Freckles. &ldquo;I'm
-      after resarvin' me pet name for the use of me friends! You may stand with
-      your back to the light or be taking any advantage you want.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, what do you mean?&rdquo; spluttered Wessner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm manin',&rdquo; said Freckles tersely, &ldquo;to lick a quarter-section of hell
-      out of you, and may the Holy Vargin stay me before I leave you here
-      carrion, for your carcass would turn the stummicks of me chickens!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      At the camp that morning, Wessner's conduct had been so palpable an excuse
-      to force a discharge that Duncan moved near McLean and whispered, &ldquo;Think
-      of the boy, sir?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean was so troubled that, an hour later, he mounted Nellie and followed
-      Wessner to his home in Wildcat Hollow, only to find that he had left there
-      shortly before, heading for the Limberlost. McLean rode at top speed. When
-      Mrs. Duncan told him that a man answering Wessner's description had gone
-      down the west side of the swamp close noon, he left the mare in her charge
-      and followed on foot. When he heard voices he entered the swamp and
-      silently crept close just in time to hear Wessner whine: &ldquo;But I can't
-      fight you, Freckles. I hain't done nothing to you. I'm away bigger than
-      you, and you've only one hand.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss slid off his coat and crouched among the bushes, ready to spring;
-      but as Freckles' voice reached him he held himself, with a strong effort,
-      to learn what mettle was in the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't you be wasting of me good time in the numbering of me hands,&rdquo; cried
-      Freckles. &ldquo;The stringth of me cause will make up for the weakness of me
-      mimbers, and the size of a cowardly thief doesn't count. You'll think all
-      the wildcats of the Limberlost are turned loose on you whin I come against
-      you, and as for me cause&mdash;&mdash;I slept with you, Wessner, the night
-      I came down the corduroy like a dirty, friendless tramp, and the Boss was
-      for taking me up, washing, clothing, and feeding me, and giving me a home
-      full of love and tinderness, and a master to look to, and good,
-      well-earned money in the bank. He's trusting me his heartful, and here
-      comes you, you spotted toad of the big road, and insults me, as is an
-      honest Irish gintleman, by hinting that you concaive I'd be willing to
-      shut me eyes and hold fast while you rob him of the thing I was set and
-      paid to guard, and then act the sneak and liar to him, and ruin and
-      eternally blacken the soul of me. You damned rascal,&rdquo; raved Freckles, &ldquo;be
-      fighting before I forget the laws of a gintlemin's game and split your
-      dirty head with me stick!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner backed away, mumbling, &ldquo;But I don't want to hurt you, Freckles!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, don't you!&rdquo; raged the boy, now fairly frothing. &ldquo;Well, you ain't
-      resembling me none, for I'm itching like death to git me fingers in the
-      face of you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He danced up, and as Wessner lunged in self-defense, ducked under his arm
-      as a bantam and punched him in the pit of the stomach so that he doubled
-      with a groan. Before Wessner could straighten himself, Freckles was on
-      him, fighting like the wildest fury that ever left the beautiful island.
-      The Dutchman dealt thundering blows that sometimes landed and sent
-      Freckles reeling, and sometimes missed, while he went plunging into the
-      swale with the impetus of them. Freckles could not strike with half
-      Wessner's force, but he could land three blows to the Dutchman's one. It
-      was here that the boy's days of alert watching on the line, the perpetual
-      swinging of the heavy cudgel, and the endurance of all weather stood him
-      in good stead; for he was tough, and agile. He skipped, ducked, and
-      dodged. For the first five minutes he endured fearful punishment. Then
-      Wessner's breath commenced to whistle between his teeth, when Freckles
-      only had begun fighting. He sprang back with shrill laughter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Begolly! and will your honor be whistling the hornpipe for me to be
-      dancing of?&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      SPANG! went his fist into Wessner's face, and he was past him into the
-      swale.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And would you be pleased to tune up a little livelier?&rdquo; he gasped, and
-      clipped his ear as he sprang back. Wessner lunged at him in blind fury.
-      Freckles, seeing an opening, forgot the laws of a gentleman's game and
-      drove the toe of his heavy wading-boot in Wessner's middle until he
-      doubled and fell heavily. In a flash Freckles was on him. For a time
-      McLean could not see what was happening. &ldquo;Go! Go to him now!&rdquo; he commanded
-      himself, but so intense was his desire to see the boy win alone that he
-      did not stir.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At last Freckles sprang up and backed away. &ldquo;Time!&rdquo; he yelled as a fury.
-      &ldquo;Be getting up, Mr. Wessner, and don't be afraid of hurting me. I'll let
-      you throw in an extra hand and lick you to me complate satisfaction all
-      the same. Did you hear me call the limit? Will you get up and be facing
-      me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As Wessner struggled to his feet, he resembled a battlefield, for his
-      clothing was in ribbons and his face and hands streaming blood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I&mdash;I guess I got enough,&rdquo; he mumbled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, you do?&rdquo; roared Freckles. &ldquo;Well this ain't your say. You come on to
-      me ground, lying about me Boss and intimatin' I'd stale from his very
-      pockets. Now will you be standing up and taking your medicine like a man,
-      or getting it poured down the throat of you like a baby? I ain't got
-      enough! This is only just the beginning with me. Be looking out there!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He sprang against Wessner and sent him rolling. He attacked the
-      unresisting figure and fought him until he lay limp and quiet and Freckles
-      had no strength left to lift an arm. Then he arose and stepped back,
-      gasping for breath. With his first lungful of air he shouted: &ldquo;Time!&rdquo; But
-      the figure of Wessner lay motionless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles watched him with regardful eye and saw at last that he was
-      completely exhausted. He bent over him, and catching him by the back of
-      the neck, jerked him to his knees. Wessner lifted the face of a whipped
-      cur, and fearing further punishment, burst into shivering sobs, while the
-      tears washed tiny rivulets through the blood and muck. Freckles stepped
-      back, glaring at Wessner, but suddenly the scowl of anger and the ugly
-      disfiguring red faded from the boy's face. He dabbed at a cut on his
-      temple from which issued a tiny crimson stream, and jauntily shook back
-      his hair. His face took on the innocent look of a cherub, and his voice
-      rivaled that of a brooding dove, but into his eyes crept a look of
-      diabolical mischief.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He glanced vaguely around him until he saw his club, seized and twirled it
-      as a drum major, stuck it upright in the muck, and marched on tiptoe to
-      Wessner, mechanically, as a puppet worked by a string. Bending over,
-      Freckles reached an arm around Wessner's waist and helped him to his feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Careful, now&rdquo; he cautioned, &ldquo;be careful, Freddy; there's danger of you
-      hurting me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Drawing a handkerchief from a back pocket, Freckles tenderly wiped
-      Wessner's eyes and nose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come, Freddy, me child,&rdquo; he admonished Wessner, &ldquo;it's time little boys
-      were going home. I've me work to do, and can't be entertaining you any
-      more today. Come back tomorrow, if you ain't through yet, and we'll repate
-      the perfarmance. Don't be staring at me so wild like! I would eat you, but
-      I can't afford it. Me earnings, being honest, come slow, and I've no money
-      to be squanderin' on the pailful of Dyspeptic's Delight it would be to
-      taking to work you out of my innards!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Again an awful wrenching seized McLean. Freckles stepped back as Wessner,
-      tottering and reeling, as a thoroughly drunken man, came toward the path,
-      appearing indeed as if wildcats had attacked him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The cudgel spun high in air, and catching it with an expertness acquired
-      by long practice on the line, the boy twirled it a second, shook back his
-      thick hair bonnily, and stepping into the trail, followed Wessner. Because
-      Freckles was Irish, it was impossible to do it silently, so presently his
-      clear tenor rang out, though there were bad catches where he was hard
-      pressed for breath:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch.
-     Do you think it was the Irish hollered help?
-     Not much!
-     It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      Wessner turned and mumbled: &ldquo;What you following me for? What are you going
-      to do with me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles called the Limberlost to witness: &ldquo;How's that for the ingratitude
-      of a beast? And me troubling mesilf to show him off me territory with the
-      honors of war!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he changed his tone completely and added: &ldquo;Belike it's this, Freddy.
-      You see, the Boss might come riding down this trail any minute, and the
-      little mare's so wheedlesome that if she'd come on to you in your prisint
-      state all of a sudden, she'd stop that short she'd send Mr. McLean out
-      over the ears of her. No disparagement intinded to the sinse of the mare!&rdquo;
-       he added hastily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner belched a fearful oath, while Freckles laughed merrily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's a sample of the thanks a generous act's always for getting,&rdquo; he
-      continued. &ldquo;Here's me neglictin' me work to eschort you out proper, and
-      you saying such awful words Freddy,&rdquo; he demanded sternly, &ldquo;do you want me
-      to soap out your mouth? You don't seem to be realizing it, but if you was
-      to buck into Mr. McLean in your prisint state, without me there to explain
-      matters the chance is he'd cut the liver out of you; and I shouldn't think
-      you'd be wanting such a fine gintleman as him to see that it's white!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner grew ghastly under his grime and broke into a staggering run.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And now will you be looking at the manners of him?&rdquo; questioned Freckles
-      plaintively. &ldquo;Going without even a 'thank you,' right in the face of all
-      the pains I've taken to make it interesting for him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles twirled the club and stood as a soldier at attention until
-      Wessner left the clearing, but it was the last scene of that performance.
-      When the boy turned, there was deathly illness on his face, while his legs
-      wavered beneath his weight. He staggered to the case, and opening it he
-      took out a piece of cloth. He dipped it into the water, and sitting on a
-      bench, he wiped the blood and grime from his face, while his breath sucked
-      between his clenched teeth. He was shivering with pain and excitement in
-      spite of himself. He unbuttoned the band of his right sleeve, and turning
-      it back, exposed the blue-lined, calloused whiteness of his maimed arm,
-      now vividly streaked with contusions, while in a series of circular dots
-      the blood oozed slowly. Here Wessner had succeeded in setting his teeth.
-      When Freckles saw what it was he forgave himself the kick in the pit of
-      Wessner's stomach, and cursed fervently and deep.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, Freckles,&rdquo; said McLean's voice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles snatched down his sleeve and arose to his feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Excuse me, sir,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You'll surely be belavin' I thought meself
-      alone.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean pushed him carefully to the seat, and bending over him, opened a
-      pocket-case that he carried as regularly as his revolver and watch, for
-      cuts and bruises were of daily occurrence among the gang.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Taking the hurt arm, he turned back the sleeve and bathed and bound the
-      wounds. He examined Freckles' head and body and convinced himself that
-      there was no permanent injury, although the cruelty of the punishment the
-      boy had borne set the Boss shuddering. Then he closed the case, shoved it
-      into his pocket, and sat beside Freckles. All the indescribable beauty of
-      the place was strong around him, but he saw only the bruised face of the
-      suffering boy, who had hedged for the information he wanted as a diplomat,
-      argued as a judge, fought as a sheik, and triumphed as a devil.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the pain lessened and breath relieved Freckles' pounding heart, he
-      watched the Boss covertly. How had McLean gotten there and how long had he
-      been there? Freckles did not dare ask. At last he arose, and going to the
-      case, took out his revolver and the wire-mending apparatus and locked the
-      door. Then he turned to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have you any orders, sir?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said McLean, &ldquo;I have, and you are to follow them to the letter.
-      Turn over that apparatus to me and go straight home. Soak yourself in the
-      hottest bath your skin will bear and go to bed at once. Now hurry.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mr. McLean,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;it's sorry I am to be telling you, but the
-      afternoon's walking of the line ain't done. You see, I was just for
-      getting to me feet to start, and I was on time, when up came a gintleman,
-      and we got into a little heated argument. It's either settled, or it's
-      just begun, but between us, I'm that late I haven't started for the
-      afternoon yet. I must be going at once, for there's a tree I must find
-      before the day's over.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You plucky little idiot,&rdquo; growled McLean. &ldquo;You can't walk the line! I
-      doubt if you can reach Duncan's. Don't you know when you are done up? You
-      go to bed; I'll finish your work.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Niver!&rdquo; protested Freckles. &ldquo;I was just a little done up for the prisint,
-      a minute ago. I'm all right now. Riding-boots are far too low. The day's
-      hot and the walk a good seven miles, sir. Niver!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As he reached for the outfit he pitched forward and his eyes closed.
-      McLean stretched him on the moss and applied restoratives. When Freckles
-      returned to consciousness, McLean ran to the cabin to tell Mrs. Duncan to
-      have a hot bath ready, and to bring Nellie. That worthy woman promptly
-      filled the wash-boiler, starting a roaring fire under it. She pushed the
-      horse-trough from its base and rolled it to the kitchen.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      By the time McLean came again, leading Nelie and holding Freckles on her
-      back, Mrs. Duncan was ready for business. She and the Boss laid Freckles
-      in the trough and poured on hot water until he squirmed. They soaked and
-      massaged him. Then they drew off the hot water and closed his pores with
-      cold. Lastly they stretched him on the floor and chafed, rubbed, and
-      kneaded him until he cried out for mercy. As they rolled him into bed, his
-      eyes dropped shut, but a little later they flared open.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mr. McLean,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;the tree! Oh, do be looking after the tree!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean bent over him. &ldquo;Which tree, Freckles?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know exact sir; but it's on the east line, and the wire is
-      fastened to it. He bragged that you nailed it yourself, sir. You'll know
-      it by the bark having been laid open to the grain somewhere low down. Five
-      hundred dollars he offered me&mdash;to be&mdash;selling you out&mdash;sir!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' head rolled over and his eyes dropped shut. McLean towered above
-      the lad. His bright hair waved on the pillow. His face was swollen, and
-      purple with bruises. His left arm, with the hand battered almost out of
-      shape, stretched beside him, and the right, with no hand at all, lay
-      across a chest that was a mass of purple welts. McLean's mind traveled to
-      the night, almost a year before, when he had engaged Freckles, a stranger.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss bent, covering the hurt arm with one hand and laying the other
-      with a caress on the boy's forehead. Freckles stirred at his touch, and
-      whispered as softly as the swallows under the eaves: &ldquo;If you're coming
-      this way&mdash;tomorrow&mdash;be pleased to step over&mdash;and we'll
-      repate&mdash;the chorus softly!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Bless the gritty devil,&rdquo; muttered McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he went out and told Mrs. Duncan to keep close watch on Freckles,
-      also to send Duncan to him at the swamp the minute he came home. Following
-      the trail to the line and back to the scent of the fight, the Boss entered
-      Freckles' study quietly, as if his spirit, keeping there, might be roused,
-      and gazed around with astonished eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How had the boy conceived it? What a picture he had wrought in living
-      colors! He had the heart of a painter. He had the soul of a poet. The Boss
-      stepped carefully over the velvet carpet to touch the walls of crisp
-      verdure with gentle fingers. He stood long beside the flower bed, and
-      gazed at the banked wall of bright bloom as if he doubted its reality.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Where had Freckles ever found, and how had he transplanted such ferns? As
-      McLean turned from them he stopped suddenly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had reached the door of the cathedral. That which Freckles had
-      attempted would have been patent to anyone. What had been in the heart of
-      the shy, silent boy when he had found that long, dim stretch of forest,
-      decorated its entrance, cleared and smoothed its aisle, and carpeted its
-      altar? What veriest work of God was in these mighty living pillars and the
-      arched dome of green! How similar to stained cathedral windows were the
-      long openings between the trees, filled with rifts of blue, rays of gold,
-      and the shifting emerald of leaves! Where could be found mosaics to match
-      this aisle paved with living color and glowing light? Was Freckles a
-      devout Christian, and did he worship here? Or was he an untaught heathen,
-      and down this vista of entrancing loveliness did Pan come piping, and
-      dryads, nymphs, and fairies dance for him?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Who can fathom the heart of a boy? McLean had been thinking of Freckles as
-      a creature of unswerving honesty, courage, and faithfulness. Here was
-      evidence of a heart aching for beauty, art, companionship, worship. It was
-      writ large all over the floor, walls, and furnishing of that little
-      Limberlost clearing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When Duncan came, McLean told him the story of the fight, and they laughed
-      until they cried. Then they started around the line in search of the tree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Said Duncan: &ldquo;Now the boy is in for sore trouble!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I hope not,&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;You never in all your life saw a cur
-      whipped so completely. He won't come back for the repetition of the
-      chorus. We surely can find the tree. If we can't, Freckles can. I will
-      bring enough of the gang to take it out at once. That will insure peace
-      for a time, at least, and I am hoping that in a month more the whole gang
-      may be moved here. It soon will be fall, and then, if he will go, I intend
-      to send Freckles to my mother to be educated. With his quickness of mind
-      and body and a few years' good help he can do anything. Why, Duncan, I'd
-      give a hundred-dollar bill if you could have been here and seen for
-      yourself.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, and I'd 'a' done murder,&rdquo; muttered the big teamster. &ldquo;I hope, sir,
-      ye will make good your plans for Freckles, though I'd as soon see ony born
-      child o' my ain taken from our home. We love the lad, me and Sarah.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Locating the tree was easy, because it was so well identified. When the
-      rumble of the big lumber wagons passing the cabin on the way to the swamp
-      wakened Freckles next morning, he sprang up and was soon following them.
-      He was so sore and stiff that every movement was torture at first, but he
-      grew easier, and shortly did not suffer so much. McLean scolded him for
-      coming, yet in his heart triumphed over every new evidence of fineness in
-      the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The tree was a giant maple, and so precious that they almost dug it out by
-      the roots. When it was down, cut in lengths, and loaded, there was yet an
-      empty wagon. As they were gathering up their tools to go, Duncan said:
-      &ldquo;There's a big hollow tree somewhere mighty close here that I've been
-      wanting for a watering-trough for my stock; the one I have is so small.
-      The Portland company cut this for elm butts last year, and it's six feet
-      diameter and hollow for forty feet. It was a buster! While the men are
-      here and there is an empty wagon, why mightn't I load it on and tak' it up
-      to the barn as we pass?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean said he was very willing, ordered the driver to break line and load
-      the log, detailing men to assist. He told Freckles to ride on a section of
-      the maple with him, but now the boy asked to enter the swamp with Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't see why you want to go,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;I have no business to let
-      you out today at all.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's me chickens,&rdquo; whispered Freckles in distress. &ldquo;You see, I was just
-      after finding yesterday, from me new book, how they do be nesting in
-      hollow trees, and there ain't any too many in the swamp. There's just a
-      chance that they might be in that one.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go ahead,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;That's a different story. If they happen to be
-      there, why tell Duncan he must give up the tree until they have finished
-      with it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he climbed on a wagon and was driven away. Freckles hurried into the
-      swamp. He was a little behind, yet he could see the men. Before he
-      overtook them, they had turned from the west road and had entered the
-      swamp toward the east.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They stopped at the trunk of a monstrous prostrate log. It had been cut
-      three feet from the ground, over three-fourths of the way through, and had
-      fallen toward the east, the body of the log still resting on the stump.
-      The underbrush was almost impenetrable, but Duncan plunged in and with a
-      crowbar began tapping along the trunk to decide how far it was hollow, so
-      that they would know where to cut. As they waited his decision, there came
-      from the mouth of it&mdash;on wings&mdash;a large black bird that swept
-      over their heads.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles danced wildly. &ldquo;It's me chickens! Oh, it's me chickens!&rdquo; he
-      shouted. &ldquo;Oh, Duncan, come quick! You've found the nest of me precious
-      chickens!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan hurried to the mouth of the log, but Freckles was before him. He
-      crashed through poison-vines and underbrush regardless of any danger, and
-      climbed on the stump. When Duncan came he was shouting like a wild man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's hatched!&rdquo; he yelled. &ldquo;Oh, me big chicken has hatched out me little
-      chicken, and there's another egg. I can see it plain, and oh, the funny
-      little white baby! Oh, Duncan, can you see me little white chicken?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan could easily see it; so could everyone else. Freckles crept into
-      the log and tenderly carried the hissing, blinking little bird to the
-      light in a leaf-lined hat. The men found it sufficiently wonderful to
-      satisfy even Freckles, who had forgotten he was ever sore or stiff, and
-      coddled over it with every blarneying term of endearment he knew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan gathered his tools. &ldquo;Deal's off, boys!&rdquo; he said cheerfully. &ldquo;This
-      log mauna be touched until Freckles' chaukies have finished with it. We
-      might as weel gang. Better put it back, Freckles. It's just out, and it
-      may chill. Ye will probably hae twa the morn.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles crept into the log and carefully deposited the baby beside the
-      egg. When he came back, he said: &ldquo;I made a big mistake not to be bringing
-      the egg out with the baby, but I was fearing to touch it. It's shaped like
-      a hen's egg, and it's big as a turkey's, and the beautifulest blue&mdash;just
-      splattered with big brown splotches, like me book said, precise. Bet you
-      never saw such a sight as it made on the yellow of the rotten wood beside
-      that funny leathery-faced little white baby.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Tell you what, Freckles,&rdquo; said one of the teamsters. &ldquo;Have you ever heard
-      of this Bird Woman who goes all over the country with a camera and makes
-      pictures? She made some on my brother Jim's place last summer, and Jim's
-      so wild about them he quits plowing and goes after her about every nest he
-      finds. He helps her all he can to take them, and then she gives him a
-      picture. Jim's so proud of what he has he keeps them in the Bible. He
-      shows them to everybody that comes, and brags about how he helped. If
-      you're smart, you'll send for her and she'll come and make a picture just
-      like life. If you help her, she will give you one. It would be uncommon
-      pretty to keep, after your birds are gone. I dunno what they are. I never
-      see their like before. They must be something rare. Any you fellows ever
-      see a bird like that hereabouts?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      No one ever had.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the teamster, &ldquo;failing to get this log lets me off till noon,
-      and I'm going to town. I go right past her place. I've a big notion to
-      stop and tell her. If she drives straight back in the swamp on the west
-      road, and turns east at this big sycamore, she can't miss finding the
-      tree, even if Freckles ain't here to show her. Jim says her work is a
-      credit to the State she lives in, and any man is a measly creature who
-      isn't willing to help her all he can. My old daddy used to say that all
-      there was to religion was doing to the other fellow what you'd want him to
-      do to you, and if I was making a living taking bird pictures, seems to me
-      I'd be mighty glad for a chance to take one like that. So I'll just stop
-      and tell her, and by gummy! maybe she will give me a picture of the little
-      white sucker for my trouble.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles touched his arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will she be rough with it?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Government land! No!&rdquo; said the teamster. &ldquo;She's dead down on anybody that
-      shoots a bird or tears up a nest. Why, she's half killing herself in all
-      kinds of places and weather to teach people to love and protect the birds.
-      She's that plum careful of them that Jim's wife says she has Jim a
-      standin' like a big fool holding an ombrelly over them when they are young
-      and tender until she gets a focus, whatever that is. Jim says there ain't
-      a bird on his place that don't actually seem to like having her around
-      after she has wheedled them a few days, and the pictures she takes nobody
-      would ever believe who didn't stand by and see.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you he sure to tell her to come?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan slept at home that night. He heard Freckles slipping out early the
-      next morning, but he was too sleepy to wonder why, until he came to do his
-      morning chores. When he found that none of his stock was at all thirsty,
-      and saw the water-trough brimming, he knew that the boy was trying to make
-      up to him for the loss of the big trough that he had been so anxious to
-      have.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Bless his fool little hot heart!&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;And him so sore it is
-      tearing him to move for anything. Nae wonder he has us all loving him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was moving briskly, and his heart was so happy that he forgot all
-      about the bruises. He hurried around the trail, and on his way down the
-      east side he went to see the chickens. The mother bird was on the nest. He
-      was afraid the other egg might be hatching, so he did not venture to
-      disturb her. He made the round and reached his study early. He ate his
-      lunch, but did not need to start on the second trip until the middle of
-      the afternoon. He would have long hours to work on his flower bed, improve
-      his study, and learn about his chickens. Lovingly he set his room in order
-      and watered the flowers and carpet. He had chosen for his resting-place
-      the coolest spot on the west side, where there was almost always a breeze;
-      but today the heat was so intense that it penetrated even there.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm mighty glad there's nothing calling me inside!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There's no
-      bit of air stirring, and it will just be steaming. Oh, but it's luck
-      Duncan found the nest before it got so unbearing hot! I might have missed
-      it altogether. Wouldn't it have been a shame to lose that sight? The
-      cunning little divil! When he gets to toddling down that log to meet me,
-      won't he be a circus? Wonder if he'll be as graceful a performer afoot as
-      his father and mother?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The heat became more insistent. Noon came; Freckles ate his dinner and
-      settled for an hour or two on a bench with a book.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER V
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Perhaps there was a breath of sound&mdash;Freckles never afterward could
-      remember&mdash;but for some reason he lifted his head as the bushes parted
-      and the face of an angel looked between. Saints, nymphs, and fairies had
-      floated down his cathedral aisle for him many times, with forms and voices
-      of exquisite beauty.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Parting the wild roses at the entrance was beauty of which Freckles never
-      had dreamed. Was it real or would it vanish as the other dreams? He
-      dropped his book, and rising to his feet, went a step closer, gazing
-      intently. This was real flesh and blood. It was in every way kin to the
-      Limberlost, for no bird of its branches swung with easier grace than this
-      dainty young thing rocked on the bit of morass on which she stood. A
-      sapling beside her was not straighter or rounder than her slender form.
-      Her soft, waving hair clung around her face from the heat, and curled over
-      her shoulders. It was all of one piece with the gold of the sun that
-      filtered between the branches. Her eyes were the deepest blue of the iris,
-      her lips the reddest red of the foxfire, while her cheeks were exactly of
-      the same satin as the wild rose petals caressing them. She was smiling at
-      Freckles in perfect confidence, and she cried:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, I'm so delighted that I've found you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The wildly leaping heart of Freckles burst from his body and fell in the
-      black swamp-muck at her feet with such a thud that he did not understand
-      how she could avoid hearing. He really felt that if she looked down she
-      would see.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Incredulous, he quavered: &ldquo;An'&mdash;an' was you looking for me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I hoped I might find you,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;You see, I didn't do as I was
-      told, and I'm lost. The Bird Woman said I should wait in the carriage
-      until she came back. She's been gone hours. It's a perfect Turkish bath in
-      there, and I'm all lumpy with mosquito bites. Just when I thought that I
-      couldn't bear it another minute, along came the biggest Papilio Ajax you
-      ever saw. I knew how pleased she'd be, so I ran after it. It flew so slow
-      and so low that I thought a dozen times I had it. Then all at once it went
-      from sight above the trees, and I couldn't find my way back to save me. I
-      think I've walked more than an hour. I have been mired to my knees. A
-      thorn raked my arm until it is bleeding, and I'm so tired and warm.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She parted the bushes farther. Freckles saw that her blue cotton frock
-      clung to her, limp with perspiration. It was torn across the breast. One
-      sleeve hung open from shoulder to elbow. A thorn had torn her arm until it
-      was covered with blood, and the gnats and mosquitoes were clustering
-      around it. Her feet were in lace hose and low shoes. Freckles gasped. In
-      the Limberlost in low shoes! He caught an armful of moss from his carpet
-      and buried it in the ooze in front of her for a footing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come out here so I can see where you are stepping. Quick, for the life of
-      you!&rdquo; he ordered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She smiled on him indulgently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; she inquired.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did anybody let you come here and not be telling you of the snakes?&rdquo;
-       urged Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We met Mr. McLean on the corduroy, and he did say something about snakes,
-      I believe. The Bird Woman put on leather leggings, and a nice, parboiled
-      time she must be having! Worst dose I ever endured, and I'd nothing to do
-      but swelter.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you be coming out of there?&rdquo; groaned Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She laughed as if it were a fine joke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe if I'd be telling you I killed a rattler curled upon that same
-      place you're standing, as long as me body and the thickness of me arm,
-      you'd be moving where I can see your footing,&rdquo; he urged insistently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What a perfectly delightful little brogue you speak,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;My
-      father is Irish, and half should be enough to entitle me to that much.
-      'Maybe&mdash;if I'd&mdash;be telling you,'&rdquo; she imitated, rounding and
-      accenting each word carefully.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was beginning to feel a wildness in his head. He had derided
-      Wessner at that same hour yesterday. Now his own eyes were filling with
-      tears.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you were understanding the danger!&rdquo; he continued desperately.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, I don't think there is much!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She tilted on the morass.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you killed one snake here, it's probably all there is near; and
-      anyway, the Bird Woman says a rattlesnake is a gentleman and always gives
-      warning before he strikes. I don't hear any rattling. Do you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Would you be knowing it if you did?&rdquo; asked Freckles, almost impatiently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How the laugh of the young thing rippled!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Would I be knowing it?'&rdquo; she mocked. &ldquo;You should see the swamps of
-      Michigan where they dump rattlers from the marl-dredgers three and four at
-      a time!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood astounded. She did know. She was not in the least afraid.
-      She was depending on a rattlesnake to live up to his share of the contract
-      and rattle in time for her to move. The one characteristic an Irishman
-      admires in a woman, above all others, is courage. Freckles worshiped anew.
-      He changed his tactics.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'd be pleased to be receiving you at me front door,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but as
-      you have arrived at the back, will you come in and be seated?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He waved toward a bench. The Angel came instantly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, how lovely and cool!&rdquo; she cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As she moved across his room, Freckles had difficult work to keep from
-      falling on his knees; for they were very weak, while he was hard driven by
-      an impulse to worship.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you arrange this?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles simply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Someone must come with a big canvas and copy each side of it,&rdquo; she said.
-      &ldquo;I never saw anything so beautiful! How I wish I might remain here with
-      you! I will, some day, if you will let me; but now, if you can spare the
-      time, will you help me find the carriage? If the Bird Woman comes back and
-      I am gone, she will be almost distracted.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you come on the west road?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I think so,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The man who told the Bird Woman said that was the
-      only place the wires were down. We drove away in, and it was dreadful&mdash;over
-      stumps and logs, and we mired to the hubs. I suppose you know, though. I
-      should have stayed in the carriage, but I was so tired. I never dreamed of
-      getting lost. I suspect I will be scolded finely. I go with the Bird Woman
-      half the time during the summer vacations. My father says I learn a lot
-      more than I do at school, and get it straight. I never came within a smell
-      of being lost before. I thought, at first, it was going to be horrid; but
-      since I've found you, maybe it will be good fun after all.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was amazed to hear himself excusing: &ldquo;It was so hot in there. You
-      couldn't be expected to bear it for hours and not be moving. I can take
-      you around the trail almost to where you were. Then you can sit in the
-      carriage, and I will go find the Bird Woman.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You'll be killed if you do! When she stays this long, it means that she
-      has a focus on something. You see, when she has a focus, and lies in the
-      weeds and water for hours, and the sun bakes her, and things crawl over
-      her, and then someone comes along and scares her bird away just as she has
-      it coaxed up&mdash;why, she kills them. If I melt, you won't go after her.
-      She's probably blistered and half eaten up; but she never will quit until
-      she is satisfied.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then it will be safer to be taking care of you,&rdquo; suggested Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now you're talking sense!&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;May I try to help your arm?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have you any idea how it hurts?&rdquo; she parried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A little,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, Mr. McLean said We'd probably find his son here&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;His son!&rdquo; cried Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's what he said. And that you would do anything you could for us; and
-      that we could trust you with our lives. But I would have trusted you
-      anyway, if I hadn't known a thing about you. Say, your father is rampaging
-      proud of you, isn't he?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; answered the dazed Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, call on me if you want reliable information. He's so proud of you
-      he is all swelled up like the toad in AEsop's Fables. If you have ever had
-      an arm hurt like this, and can do anything, why, for pity sake, do it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She turned back her sleeve, holding toward Freckles an arm of palest
-      cameo, shaped so exquisitely that no sculptor could have chiseled it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles unlocked his case, and taking out some cotton cloth, he tore it
-      in strips. Then he brought a bucket of the cleanest water he could find.
-      She yielded herself to his touch as a baby, and he bathed away the blood
-      and bandaged the ugly, ragged wound. He finished his surgery by lapping
-      the torn sleeve over the cloth and binding it down with a piece of twine,
-      with the Angel's help about the knots.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles worked with trembling fingers and a face tense with earnestness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is it feeling any better?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, it's well now!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;It doesn't hurt at all, any more.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm mighty glad,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;But you had best go and be having your
-      doctor fix it right; the minute you get home.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, bother! A little scratch like that!&rdquo; jeered the Angel. &ldquo;My blood is
-      perfectly pure. It will heal in three days.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's cut cruel deep. It might be making a scar,&rdquo; faltered Freckles, his
-      eyes on the ground. &ldquo;'Twould&mdash;'twould be an awful pity. A doctor
-      might know something to prevent it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, I never thought of that!&rdquo; exclaimed the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I noticed you didn't,&rdquo; said Freckles softly. &ldquo;I don't know much about it,
-      but it seems as if most girls would.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel thought intently, while Freckles still knelt beside her.
-      Suddenly she gave herself an impatient little shake, lifted her glorious
-      eyes full to his, and the smile that swept her sweet, young face was the
-      loveliest thing that Freckles ever had seen.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't let's bother about it,&rdquo; she proposed, with the faintest hint of a
-      confiding gesture toward him. &ldquo;It won't make a scar. Why, it couldn't,
-      when you have dressed it so nicely.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The velvety touch of her warm arm was tingling in Freckles' fingertips.
-      Dainty lace and fine white ribbon peeped through her torn dress. There
-      were beautiful rings on her fingers. Every article she wore was of the
-      finest material and in excellent taste. There was the trembling Limberlost
-      guard in his coarse clothing, with his cotton rags and his old pail of
-      swamp water. Freckles was sufficiently accustomed to contrasts to notice
-      them, and sufficiently fine to be hurt by them always.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He lifted his eyes with a shadowy pain in them to hers, and found them of
-      serene, unconscious purity. What she had said was straight from a kind,
-      untainted, young heart. She meant every word of it. Freckles' soul
-      sickened. He scarcely knew whether he could muster strength to stand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We must go and hunt for the carriage,&rdquo; said the Angel, rising.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In instant alarm for her, Freckles sprang up, grasped the cudgel, and led
-      the way, sharply watching every step. He went as close the log as he felt
-      that he dared, and with a little searching found the carriage. He cleared
-      a path for the Angel, and with a sigh of relief saw her enter it safely.
-      The heat was intense. She pushed the damp hair from her temples.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This is a shame!&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You'll never be coming here again.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh yes I shall!&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;The Bird Woman says that these birds
-      remain over a month in the nest and she would like to make a picture every
-      few days for seven or eight weeks, perhaps.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles barely escaped crying aloud for joy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then don't you ever be torturing yourself and your horse to be coming in
-      here again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'll show you a way to drive almost to the nest on
-      the east trail, and then you can come around to my room and stay while the
-      Bird Woman works. It's nearly always cool there, and there's comfortable
-      seats, and water.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh! did you have drinking-water there?&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I was never so
-      thirsty or so hungry in my life, but I thought I wouldn't mention it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And I had not the wit to be seeing!&rdquo; wailed Freckles. &ldquo;I can be getting
-      you a good drink in no time.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He turned to the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Please wait a minute,&rdquo; called the Angel. &ldquo;What's your name? I want to
-      think about you while you are gone.&rdquo; Freckles lifted his face with the
-      brown rift across it and smiled quizzically.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles?&rdquo; she guessed, with a peal of laughter. &ldquo;And mine is&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm knowing yours,&rdquo; interrupted Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't believe you do. What is it?&rdquo; asked the girl.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You won't be getting angry?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Not until I've had the water, at least.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      It was Freckles' turn to laugh. He whipped off his big, floppy straw hat,
-      stood uncovered before her, and said, in the sweetest of all the sweet
-      tones of his voice: &ldquo;There's nothing you could be but the Swamp Angel.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The girl laughed happily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Once out of her sight, Freckles ran every step of the way to the cabin.
-      Mrs. Duncan gave him a small bucket of water, cool from the well. He
-      carried it in the crook of his right arm, and a basket filled with bread
-      and butter, cold meat, apple pie, and pickles, in his left hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Pickles are kind o' cooling,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles ran again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel was on her knees, reaching for the bucket, as he came up.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Be drinking slow,&rdquo; he cautioned her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried, with a long breath of satisfaction. &ldquo;It's so good! You
-      are more than kind to bring it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood blinking in the dazzling glory of her smile until he
-      scarcely could see to lift the basket.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mercy!&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;I think I had better be naming you the 'Angel.'
-      My Guardian Angel.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I look the character every day&mdash;but today most
-      emphatic!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angels don't go by looks,&rdquo; laughed the girl. &ldquo;Your father told us you had
-      been scrapping. But he told us why. I'd gladly wear all your cuts and
-      bruises if I could do anything that would make my father look as peacocky
-      as yours did. He strutted about proper. I never saw anyone look prouder.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did he say he was proud of me?&rdquo; marveled Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He didn't need to,&rdquo; answered the Angel. &ldquo;He was radiating pride from
-      every pore. Now, have you brought me your dinner?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I had my dinner two hours ago,&rdquo; answered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Honest Injun?&rdquo; bantered the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Honest! I brought that on purpose for you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, if you knew how hungry I am, you would know how thankful I am, to
-      the dot,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then you be eating,&rdquo; cried the happy Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel sat on a big camera, spread the lunch on the carriage seat, and
-      divided it in halves. The daintiest parts she could select she carefully
-      put back into the basket. The remainder she ate. Again Freckles found her
-      of the swamp, for though she was almost ravenous, she managed her food as
-      gracefully as his little yellow fellow, and her every movement was easy
-      and charming. As he watched her with famished eyes, Freckles told her of
-      his birds, flowers, and books, and never realized what he was doing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He led the horse to a deep pool that he knew of, and the tortured creature
-      drank greedily, and lovingly rubbed him with its nose as he wiped down its
-      welted body with grass. Suddenly the Angel cried: &ldquo;There comes the Bird
-      Woman!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles had intended leaving before she came, but now he was glad indeed
-      to be there, for a warmer, more worn, and worse bitten creature he never
-      had seen. She was staggering under a load of cameras and paraphernalia.
-      Freckles ran to her aid. He took all he could carry of her load, stowed it
-      in the back of the carriage, and helped her in. The Angel gave her water,
-      knelt and unfastened the leggings, bathed her face, and offered the lunch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles brought the horse. He was not sure about the harness, but the
-      Angel knew, and soon they left the swamp. Then he showed them how to reach
-      the chicken tree from the outside, indicated a cooler place for the horse,
-      and told them how, the next time they came, the Angel could find his room
-      while she waited.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman finished her lunch, and lay back, almost too tired to
-      speak.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Were you for getting Little Chicken's picture?&rdquo; Freckles asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Finely!&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;He posed splendidly. But I couldn't do anything
-      with his mother. She will require coaxing.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The Lord be praised!&rdquo; muttered Freckles under his breath.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman began to feel better.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why do you call the baby vulture 'Little Chicken'?&rdquo; she asked, leaning
-      toward Freckles in an interested manner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Twas Duncan began it,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You see, through the fierce cold
-      of winter the birds of the swamp were almost starving. It is mighty lonely
-      here, and they were all the company I was having. I got to carrying scraps
-      and grain down to them. Duncan was that ginerous he was giving me of his
-      wheat and corn from his chickens' feed, and he called the birds me swamp
-      chickens. Then when these big black fellows came, Mr. McLean said they
-      were our nearest kind to some in the old world that they called 'Pharaoh's
-      Chickens,' and he called mine 'Freckles' Chickens.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good enough!&rdquo; cried the Bird Woman, her splotched purple face lighting
-      with interest. &ldquo;You must shoot something for them occasionally, and I'll
-      bring more food when I come. If you will help me keep them until I get my
-      series, I'll give you a copy of each study I make, mounted in a book.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles drew a deep breath.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll be doing me very best,&rdquo; he promised, and from the deeps he meant it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wonder if that other egg is going to hatch?&rdquo; mused the Bird Woman. &ldquo;I
-      am afraid not. It should have pipped today. Isn't it a beauty! I never
-      before saw either an egg or the young. They are rare this far north.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;So Mr. McLean said,&rdquo; answered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Before they drove away, the Bird Woman thanked him for his kindness to the
-      Angel and to her. She gave him her hand at parting, and Freckles joyfully
-      realized that this was going to be another person for him to love. He
-      could not remember, after they had driven away, that they even had noticed
-      his missing hand, and for the first time in his life he had forgotten it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the Bird Woman and the Angel were on the home road, she told of the
-      little corner of paradise into which she had strayed and of her new name.
-      The Bird Woman looked at the girl and guessed its appropriateness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you know Mr. McLean had a son?&rdquo; asked the Angel. &ldquo;Isn't the little
-      accent he has, and the way he twists a sentence, too dear? And isn't it
-      too old-fashioned and funny to hear him call his father 'mister'?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It sounds too good to be true,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman, answering the last
-      question first. &ldquo;I am so tired of these present-day young men who
-      patronizingly call their fathers 'Dad,' 'Governor,' 'Old Man' and 'Old
-      Chap,' that the boy's attitude of respect and deference appealed to me as
-      being fine as silk. There must be something rare about that young man.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She did not find it necessary to tell the Angel that for several years she
-      had known the man who so proudly proclaimed himself Freckles' father to be
-      a bachelor and a Scotchman. The Bird Woman had a fine way of attending
-      strictly to her own business.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles turned to the trail, but he stopped at every wild brier to study
-      the pink satin of the petals. She was not of his world, and better than
-      any other he knew it; but she might be his Angel, and he was dreaming of
-      naught but blind, silent worship. He finished the happiest day of his
-      life, and that night he returned to the swamp as if drawn by invisible
-      force. That Wessner would try for his revenge, he knew. That he would be
-      abetted by Black Jack was almost certain, but fear had fled the happy
-      heart of Freckles. He had kept his trust. He had won the respect of the
-      Boss. No one ever could wipe from his heart the flood of holy adoration
-      that had welled with the coming of his Angel. He would do his best, and
-      trust for strength to meet the dark day of reckoning that he knew would
-      come sooner or later. He swung round the trail, briskly tapping the wire,
-      and singing in a voice that scarcely could have been surpassed for
-      sweetness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the edge of the clearing he came into the bright moonlight and there
-      sat McLean on his mare. Freckles hurried to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is there trouble?&rdquo; he inquired anxiously.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's what I wanted to ask you,&rdquo; said the Boss. &ldquo;I stopped at the cabin
-      to see you a minute, before I turned in, and they said you had come down
-      here. You must not do it, Freckles. The swamp is none too healthful at any
-      time, and at night it is rank poison.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood combing his fingers through Nellie's mane, while the dainty
-      creature was twisting her head for his caresses. He pushed back his hat
-      and looked into McLean's face. &ldquo;It's come to the 'sleep with one eye
-      open,' sir. I'm not looking for anything to be happening for a week or
-      two, but it's bound to come, and soon. If I'm to keep me trust as I've
-      promised you and meself, I've to live here mostly until the gang comes.
-      You must be knowing that, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm afraid it's true, Freckles,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;And I've decided to double
-      the guard until we come. It will be only a few weeks, now; and I'm so
-      anxious for you that you must not be left alone further. If anything
-      should happen to you, Freckles, it would spoil one of the very dearest
-      plans of my life.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles heard with dismay the proposition to place a second guard.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh! no, no, Mr. McLean,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Not for the world! I wouldn't be
-      having a stranger around, scaring me birds and tramping up me study, and
-      disturbing all me ways, for any money! I am all the guard you need! I will
-      be faithful! I will turn over the lease with no tree missing&mdash;on me
-      life, I will! Oh, don't be sending another man to set them saying I turned
-      coward and asked for help. It will just kill the honor of me heart if you
-      do it. The only thing I want is another gun. If it railly comes to
-      trouble, six cartridges ain't many, and you know I am slow-like about
-      reloading.&rdquo; McLean reached into his hip pocket and handed a shining big
-      revolver to Freckles, who slipped it beside the one already in his belt.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Boss sat brooding.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;we never know the timber of a man's soul
-      until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong.
-      You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture, my boy, and you
-      shall have your own way these few weeks yet. Then, if you will go, I
-      intend to take you to the city and educate you, and you are to be my son,
-      my lad&mdash;my own son!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles twisted his finger in Nellie's mane to steady himself.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But why should you be doing that, sir?&rdquo; he faltered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean slid his arm around the boy's shoulder and gathered him close.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Because I love you, Freckles,&rdquo; he said simply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted a white face. &ldquo;My God, sir!&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;Oh, my God!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean tightened his clasp a second longer, then he rode down the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted his hat and faced the sky. The harvest moon looked down,
-      sheeting the swamp in silver glory. The Limberlost sang her night song.
-      The swale softly rustled in the wind. Winged things of night brushed his
-      face; and still Freckles gazed upward, trying to fathom these things that
-      had come to him. There was no help from the sky. It seemed far away, cold,
-      and blue. The earth, where flowers blossomed, angels walked, and love
-      could be found, was better. But to One, above, he must make acknowledgment
-      for these miracles. His lips moved and he began talking softly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank You for each separate good thing that has come to me,&rdquo; he said,
-      &ldquo;and above all for the falling of the feather. For if it didn't really
-      fall from an angel, its falling brought an Angel, and if it's in the great
-      heart of you to exercise yourself any further about me, oh, do please to
-      be taking good care of her!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER VI
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      The following morning Freckles, inexpressibly happy, circled the
-      Limberlost. He kept snatches of song ringing, as well as the wires. His
-      heart was so full that tears of joy glistened in his eyes. He rigorously
-      strove to divide his thought evenly between McLean and the Angel. He
-      realized to the fullest the debt he already owed the Boss and the
-      magnitude of last night's declaration and promises. He was hourly planning
-      to deliver his trust and then enter with equal zeal on whatever task his
-      beloved Boss saw fit to set him next. He wanted to be ready to meet every
-      device that Wessner and Black Jack could think of to outwit him. He
-      recognized their double leverage, for if they succeeded in felling even
-      one tree McLean became liable for his wager.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' brow wrinkled in his effort to think deeply and strongly, but
-      from every swaying wild rose the Angel beckoned to him. When he crossed
-      Sleepy Snake Creek and the goldfinch, waiting as ever, challenged: &ldquo;SEE
-      ME?&rdquo; Freckles saw the dainty swaying grace of the Angel instead. What is a
-      man to do with an Angel who dismembers herself and scatters over a whole
-      swamp, thrusting a vivid reminder upon him at every turn?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles counted the days. This first one he could do little but test his
-      wires, sing broken snatches, and dream; but before the week would bring
-      her again he could do many things. He would carry all his books to the
-      swamp to show to her. He would complete his flower bed, arrange every
-      detail he had planned for his room, and make of it a bower fairies might
-      envy. He must devise a way to keep water cool. He would ask Mrs. Duncan
-      for a double lunch and an especially nice one the day of her next coming,
-      so that if the Bird Woman happened to be late, the Angel might not suffer
-      from thirst and hunger. He would tell her to bring heavy leather leggings,
-      so that he might take her on a trip around the trail. She should make
-      friends with all of his chickens and see their nests.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the line he talked of her incessantly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You needn't be thinking,&rdquo; he said to the goldfinch, &ldquo;that because I'm
-      coming down this line alone day after day, it's always to be so. Some of
-      these times you'll be swinging on this wire, and you'll see me coming, and
-      you'll swing, skip, and flirt yourself around, and chip up right spunky:
-      'SEE ME?' I'll be saying 'See you? Oh, Lord! See her!' You'll look, and
-      there she'll stand. The sunshine won't look gold any more, or the roses
-      pink, or the sky blue, because she'll be the pinkest, bluest, goldest
-      thing of all. You'll be yelling yourself hoarse with the jealousy of her.
-      The sawbird will stretch his neck out of joint, and she'll turn the heads
-      of all the flowers. Wherever she goes, I can go back afterward and see the
-      things she's seen, walk the path she's walked, hear the grasses whispering
-      over all she's said; and if there's a place too swampy for her bits of
-      feet; Holy Mother! Maybe&mdash;maybe she'd be putting the beautiful arms
-      of her around me neck and letting me carry her over!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles shivered as with a chill. He sent the cudgel whirling skyward,
-      dexterously caught it, and set it spinning.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You damned presumptuous fool!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;The thing for you to be
-      thinking of would be to stretch in the muck for the feet of her to be
-      walking over, and then you could hold yourself holy to be even of that
-      service to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe she'll be wanting the cup me blue-and-brown chickens raised their
-      babies in. Perhaps she'd like to stop at the pool and see me bullfrog that
-      had the goodness to take on human speech to show me the way out of me
-      trouble. If there's any feathers falling that day, why, it's from the
-      wings of me chickens&mdash;it's sure to be, for the only Angel outside the
-      gates will be walking this timberline, and every step of the way I'll be
-      holding me breath and praying that she don't unfold wings and sail away
-      before the hungry eyes of me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      So Freckles dreamed his dreams, made his plans, and watched his line. He
-      counted not only the days, but the hours of each day. As he told them off,
-      every one bringing her closer, he grew happier in the prospect of her
-      coming. He managed daily to leave some offering at the big elm log for his
-      black chickens. He slipped under the line at every passing, and went to
-      make sure that nothing was molesting them. Though it was a long trip, he
-      paid them several extra visits a day for fear a snake, hawk, or fox might
-      have found the baby. For now his chickens not only represented all his
-      former interest in them, but they furnished the inducement that was
-      bringing his Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Possibly he could find other subjects that the Bird Woman wanted. The
-      teamster had said that his brother went after her every time he found a
-      nest. He never had counted the nests that he knew of, and it might be that
-      among all the birds of the swamp some would be rare to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The feathered folk of the Limberlost were practically undisturbed save by
-      their natural enemies. It was very probable that among his chickens others
-      as odd as the big black ones could be found. If she wanted pictures of
-      half-grown birds, he could pick up fifty in one morning's trip around the
-      line, for he had fed, handled, and made friends with them ever since their
-      eyes opened.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had gathered bugs and worms all spring as he noticed them on the grass
-      and bushes, and dropped them into the first little open mouth he had
-      found. The babies gladly had accepted this queer tri-parent addition to
-      their natural providers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the week had passed, Freckles had his room crisp and glowing with
-      fresh living things that represented every color of the swamp. He carried
-      bark and filled all the muckiest places of the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was middle July. The heat of the past few days had dried the water
-      around and through the Limberlost, so that it was possible to cross it on
-      foot in almost any direction&mdash;if one had an idea of direction and did
-      not become completely lost in its rank tangle of vegetation and bushes.
-      The brighter-hued flowers were opening. The trumpet-creepers were
-      flaunting their gorgeous horns of red and gold sweetness from the tops of
-      lordly oak and elm, and below entire pools were pink-sheeted in mallow
-      bloom.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The heat was doing one other thing that was bound to make Freckles, as a
-      good Irishman, shiver. As the swale dried, its inhabitants were seeking
-      the cooler depths of the swamp. They liked neither the heat nor leaving
-      the field mice, moles, and young rabbits of their chosen location. He saw
-      them crossing the trail every day as the heat grew intense. The rattlers
-      were sadly forgetting their manners, for they struck on no provocation
-      whatever, and did not even remember to rattle afterward. Daily Freckles
-      was compelled to drive big black snakes and blue racers from the nests of
-      his chickens. Often the terrified squalls of the parent birds would reach
-      him far down the line and he would run to rescue the babies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He saw the Angel when the carriage turned from the corduroy into the
-      clearing. They stopped at the west entrance to the swamp, waiting for him
-      to precede them down the trail, as he had told them it was safest for the
-      horse that he should do. They followed the east line to a point opposite
-      the big chickens' tree, and Freckles carried in the cameras and showed the
-      Bird Woman a path he had cleared to the log. He explained to her the
-      effect the heat was having on the snakes, and creeping back to Little
-      Chicken, brought him to the light. As she worked at setting up her camera,
-      he told her of the birds of the line, while she stared at him, wide-eyed
-      and incredulous.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They arranged that Freckles should drive the carriage into the east
-      entrance in the shade and then take the horse toward the north to a better
-      place he knew. Then he was to entertain the Angel at his study or on the
-      line until the Bird Woman finished her work and came to them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This will take only a little time,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I know where to set the
-      camera now, and Little Chicken is big enough to be good and too small to
-      run away or to act very ugly, so I will be coming soon to see about those
-      nests. I have ten plates along, and I surely won't use more than two on
-      him; so perhaps I can get some nests or young birds this morning.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles almost flew, for his dream had come true so soon. He was walking
-      the timber-line and the Angel was following him. He asked to be excused
-      for going first, because he wanted to be sure the trail was safe for her.
-      She laughed at his fears, telling him that it was the polite thing for him
-      to do, anyway.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;so you was after knowing that? Well, I didn't s'pose
-      you did, and I was afraid you'd think me wanting in respect to be
-      preceding you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The astonished Angel looked at him, caught the irrepressible gleam of
-      Irish fun in his eyes, so they stood and laughed together.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles did not realize how he was talking that morning. He showed her
-      many of the beautiful nests and eggs of the line. She could identify a
-      number of them, but of some she was ignorant, so they made notes of the
-      number and color of the eggs, material, and construction of nest, color,
-      size, and shape of the birds, and went to find them in the book.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At his room, when Freckles had lifted the overhanging bushes and stepped
-      back for her to enter, his heart was all out of time and place. The study
-      was vastly more beautiful than a week previous. The Angel drew a deep
-      breath and stood gazing first at one side, then at another, then far down
-      the cathedral aisle. &ldquo;It's just fairyland!&rdquo; she cried ecstatically. Then
-      she turned and stared at Freckles as she had at his handiwork.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What are you planning to be?&rdquo; she asked wonderingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Whatever Mr. McLean wants me to,&rdquo; he replied.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What do you do most?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Watch me lines.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't mean work!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, in me spare time I keep me room and study in me books.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you work on the room or the books most?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;On the room only what it takes to keep it up, and the rest of the time on
-      me books.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel studied him closely. &ldquo;Well, maybe you are going to be a great
-      scholar,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but you don't look it. Your face isn't right for
-      that, but it's got something big in it&mdash;something really great. I
-      must find out what it is and then you must work on it. Your father is
-      expecting you to do something. One can tell by the way he talks. You
-      should begin right away. You've wasted too much time already.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Poor Freckles hung his head. He never had wasted an hour in his life.
-      There never had been one that was his to waste.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel, studying him intently, read the thought in his face. &ldquo;Oh, I
-      don't mean that!&rdquo; she cried, with the frank dismay of sixteen. &ldquo;Of course,
-      you're not lazy! No one ever would think that from your appearance. It's
-      this I mean: there is something fine, strong, and full of power in your
-      face. There is something you are to do in this world, and no matter how
-      you work at all these other things, or how successfully you do them, it is
-      all wasted until you find the ONE THING that you can do best. If you
-      hadn't a thing in the world to keep you, and could go anywhere you please
-      and do anything you want, what would you do?&rdquo; persisted the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'd go to Chicago and sing in the First Episcopal choir,&rdquo; answered
-      Freckles promptly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel dropped on a seat&mdash;the hat she had removed and held in her
-      fingers rolled to her feet. &ldquo;There!&rdquo; she exclaimed vehemently. &ldquo;You can
-      see what I'm going to be. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You can sing? Of
-      course you can sing! It is written all over you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Anyone with half wit could have seen he could sing, without having to be
-      told,&rdquo; she thought. &ldquo;It's in the slenderness of his fingers and his quick
-      nervous touch. It is in the brightness of his hair, the fire of his eyes,
-      the breadth of his chest, the muscles of his throat and neck; and above
-      all, it's in every tone of his voice, for even as he speak it's the
-      sweetest sound I ever heard from the throat of a mortal.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you do something for me?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll do anything in the world you want me to,&rdquo; said Freckles largely,
-      &ldquo;and if I can't do what you want, I'll go to work at once and I'll try
-      'til I can.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good! That's business!&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;You go over there and stand
-      before that hedge and sing something. Just anything you think of first.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles faced the Angel from his banked wall of brown, blue, and crimson,
-      with its background of solid green, and lifting his face to the sky, he
-      sang the first thing that came into his mind. It was a children's song
-      that he had led for the little folks at the Home many times, recalled to
-      his mind by the Angel's exclamation:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;To fairyland we go,
-     With a song of joy, heigh-o.
-     In dreams we'll stand upon that shore
-     And all the realm behold;
-     We'll see the sights so grand
-     That belong to fairyland,
-     Its mysteries we will explore,
-     Its beauties will unfold.
-
-     &ldquo;Oh, tra, la, la, oh, ha, ha, ha!
-     We're happy now as we can be,
-     Our welcome song we will prolong,
-     And greet you with our melody.
-     O fairyland, sweet fairyland,
-     We love to sing&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      No song could have given the intense sweetness and rollicking quality of
-      Freckles' voice better scope. He forgot everything but pride in his work.
-      He was singing the chorus, and the Angel was shivering in ecstasy, when
-      clip! clip! came the sharply beating feet of a swiftly ridden horse down
-      the trail from the north. They both sprang toward the entrance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Freckles!&rdquo; called the voice of the Bird Woman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They were at the trail on the instant.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Both those revolvers loaded?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is there a way you can cut across the swamp and reach the chicken tree in
-      a few minutes, and with little noise?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then go flying,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman. &ldquo;Give the Angel a lift behind me,
-      and we will ride the horse back where you left him and wait for you. I
-      finished Little Chicken in no time and put him back. His mother came so
-      close, I felt sure she would enter the log. The light was fine, so I set
-      and focused the camera and covered it with branches, attached the long
-      hose, and went away over a hundred feet and hid in some bushes to wait. A
-      short, stout man and a tall, dark one passed me so closely I almost could
-      have reached out and touched them. They carried a big saw on their
-      shoulders. They said they could work until near noon, and then they must
-      lay off until you passed and then try to load and get out at night. They
-      went on&mdash;not entirely from sight&mdash;and began cutting a tree. Mr.
-      McLean told me the other day what would probably happen here, and if they
-      fell that tree he loses his wager on you. Keep to the east and north and
-      hustle. We'll meet you at the carriage. I always am armed. Give Angel one
-      of your revolvers, and you keep the other. We will separate and creep
-      toward them from different sides and give them a fusillade that will send
-      them flying. You hurry, now!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted the reins and started briskly down the trail. The Angel,
-      hatless and with sparkling eyes, was clinging around her waist.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles wheeled and ran. He worked his way with much care, dodging limbs
-      and bushes with noiseless tread, and cutting as closely where he thought
-      the men were as he felt that he dared if he were to remain unseen. As he
-      ran he tried to think. It was Wessner, burning for his revenge, aided by
-      the bully of the locality, that he was going to meet. He was accustomed to
-      that thought but not to the complication of having two women on his hands
-      who undoubtedly would have to be taken care of in spite of the Bird
-      Woman's offer to help him. His heart was jarring as it never had before
-      with running. He must follow the Bird Woman's plan and meet them at the
-      carriage, but if they really did intend to try to help him, he must not
-      allow it. Allow the Angel to try to handle a revolver in his defence?
-      Never! Not for all the trees in the Limberlost! She might shoot herself.
-      She might forget to watch sharply and run across a snake that was not
-      particularly well behaved that morning. Freckles permitted himself a grim
-      smile as he went speeding on.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When he reached the carriage, the Bird Woman and the Angel had the horse
-      hitched, the outfit packed, and were calmly waiting. The Bird Woman held a
-      revolver in her hand. She wore dark clothing. They had pinned a big
-      focusing cloth over the front of the Angel's light dress.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Give Angel one of your revolvers, quick!&rdquo; said the Bird Woman. &ldquo;We will
-      creep up until we are in fair range. The underbrush is so thick and they
-      are so busy that they will never notice us, if we don't make a noise. You
-      fire first, then I will pop in from my direction, and then you, Angel, and
-      shoot quite high, or else very low. We mustn't really hit them. We'll go
-      close enough to the cowards to make it interesting, and keep it up until
-      we have them going.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles protested.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman reached over, and, taking the smaller revolver from his
-      belt, handed it to the Angel. &ldquo;Keep your nerve steady, dear; watch where
-      you step, and shoot high,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Go straight at them from where you
-      are. Wait until you hear Freckles' first shot, then follow me as closely
-      as you can, to let them know that we outnumber them. If you want to save
-      McLean's wager on you, now you go!&rdquo; she commanded Freckles, who, with an
-      agonized glance at the Angel, ran toward the east.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman chose the middle distance, and for a last time cautioned
-      the Angel as she moved away to lie down and shoot high.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Through the underbrush the Bird Woman crept even more closely than she had
-      intended, found a clear range, and waited for Freckles' shot. There was
-      one long minute of sickening suspense. The men straightened for breath.
-      Work was difficult with a handsaw in the heat of the swamp. As they
-      rested, the big dark fellow took a bottle from his pocket and began oiling
-      the saw.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We got to keep mighty quiet,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and wait to fell it until that
-      damned guard has gone to his dinner.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Again they bent to their work. Freckles' revolver spat fire. Lead spanged
-      on steel. The saw-handle flew from Wessner's hand and he reeled from the
-      jar of the shock. Black Jack straightened, uttering a fearful oath. The
-      hat sailed from his head from the far northeast. The Angel had not waited
-      for the Bird Woman, and her shot scarcely could have been called high. At
-      almost the same instant the third shot whistled from the east. Black Jack
-      sprang into the air with a yell of complete panic, for it ripped a heel
-      from his boot. Freckles emptied his second chamber, and the earth
-      spattered over Wessner. Shots poured in rapidly. Without even reaching for
-      a weapon, both men ran toward the east road in great leaping bounds, while
-      leaden slugs sung and hissed around them in deadly earnest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was trimming his corners as closely as he dared, but if the Angel
-      did not really intend to hit, she was taking risks in a scandalous manner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the men reached the trail, Freckles yelled at the top of his voice:
-      &ldquo;Head them off on the south, boys! Fire from the south!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As he had hoped, Jack and Wessner instantly plunged into the swale. A
-      spattering of lead followed them. They crossed the swale, running low,
-      with not even one backward glance, and entered the woods beyond the
-      corduroy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the little party gathered at the tree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'd better fix this saw so they can't be using it if they come back,&rdquo;
-       said Freckles, taking out his hatchet and making saw-teeth fly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now we must leave here without being seen,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman to the
-      Angel. &ldquo;It won't do for me to make enemies of these men, for I am likely
-      to meet them while at work any day.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You can do it by driving straight north on this road,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I
-      will go ahead and cut the wires for you. The swale is almost dry. You will
-      only be sinking a little. In a few rods you will strike a cornfield. I
-      will take down the fence and let you into that. Follow the furrows and
-      drive straight across it until you come to the other side. Be following
-      the fence south until you come to a road through the woods east of it.
-      Then take that road and follow east until you reach the pike. You will
-      come out on your way back to town, and two miles north of anywhere they
-      are likely to be. Don't for your lives ever let it out that you did this,&rdquo;
-       he earnestly cautioned, &ldquo;for it's black enemies you would be making.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles clipped the wires and they drove through. The Angel leaned from
-      the carriage and held out his revolver. Freckles looked at her in
-      surprise. Her eyes were black, while her face was a deeper rose than
-      usual. He felt that his own was white.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did I shoot high enough?&rdquo; she asked sweetly. &ldquo;I really forgot about lying
-      down.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles winced. Did the child know how close she had gone? Surely she
-      could not! Or was it possible that she had the nerve and skill to fire
-      like that purposely?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will send the first reliable man I meet for McLean,&rdquo; said the Bird
-      Woman, gathering up the lines. &ldquo;If I don't meet one when we reach town, we
-      will send a messenger. If it wasn't for having the gang see me, I would go
-      myself; but I will promise you that you will have help in a little over
-      two hours. You keep well hidden. They must think some of the gang is with
-      you now. There isn't a chance that they will be back, but don't run any
-      risks. Remain under cover. If they should come, it probably would be for
-      their saw.&rdquo; She laughed as at a fine joke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER VII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Round-eyed, Freckles watched the Bird Woman and the Angel drive away.
-      After they were from sight and he was safely hidden among the branches of
-      a small tree, he remembered that he neither had thanked them nor said
-      good-bye. Considering what they had been through, they never would come
-      again. His heart sank until he had palpitation in his wading-boots.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Stretching the length of the limb, he thought deeply, though he was not
-      thinking of Black Jack or Wessner. Would the Bird Woman and the Angel come
-      again? No other woman whom he ever had known would. But did they resemble
-      any other women he ever had known? He thought of the Bird Woman's
-      unruffled face and the Angel's revolver practice, and presently he was not
-      so sure that they would not return.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      What were the people in the big world like? His knowledge was so very
-      limited. There had been people at the Home, who exchanged a stilted,
-      perfunctory kindness for their salaries. The visitors who called on
-      receiving days he had divided into three classes: the psalm-singing kind,
-      who came with a tear in the eye and hypocrisy in every feature of their
-      faces; the kind who dressed in silks and jewels, and handed to those poor
-      little mother-hungry souls worn toys that their children no longer cared
-      for, in exactly the same spirit in which they pitched biscuits to the
-      monkeys at the zoo, and for the same reason&mdash;to see how they would
-      take them and be amused by what they would do; and the third class, whom
-      he considered real people. They made him feel they cared that he was
-      there, and that they would have been glad to see him elsewhere.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Now here was another class, that had all they needed of the world's best
-      and were engaged in doing work that counted. They had things worth while
-      to be proud of; and they had met him as a son and brother. With them he
-      could, for the only time in his life, forget the lost hand that every day
-      tortured him with a new pang. What kind of people were they and where did
-      they belong among the classes he knew? He failed to decide, because he
-      never had known others similar to them; but how he loved them!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the world where he was going soon, were the majority like them, or were
-      they of the hypocrite and bun-throwing classes?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had forgotten the excitement of the morning and the passing of time
-      when distant voices aroused him, and he gently lifted his head. Nearer and
-      nearer they came, and as the heavy wagons rumbled down the east trail he
-      could hear them plainly. The gang were shouting themselves hoarse for the
-      Limberlost guard. Freckles did not feel that he deserved it. He would have
-      given much to be able to go to the men and explain, but to McLean only
-      could he tell his story.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the sight of Freckles the men threw up their hats and cheered. McLean
-      shook hands with him warmly, but big Duncan gathered him into his arms and
-      hugged him as a bear and choked over a few words of praise. The gang drove
-      in and finished felling the tree. McLean was angry beyond measure at this
-      attempt on his property, for in their haste to fell the tree the thieves
-      had cut too high and wasted a foot and a half of valuable timber.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the last wagon rolled away, McLean sat on the stump and Freckles told
-      the story he was aching to tell. The Boss scarcely could believe his
-      senses. Also, he was much disappointed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have been almost praying all the way over, Freckles,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that
-      you would have some evidence by which we could arrest those fellows and
-      get them out of our way, but this will never do. We can't mix up those
-      women in it. They have helped you save me the tree and my wager as well.
-      Going across the country as she does, the Bird Woman never could be
-      expected to testify against them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, indeed; nor the Angel, either, sir,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The Angel?&rdquo; queried the astonished McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss listened in silence while Freckles told of the coming and
-      christening of the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I know her father well,&rdquo; said McLean at last, &ldquo;and I have often seen her.
-      You are right; she is a beautiful young girl, and she appears to be
-      utterly free from the least particle of false pride or foolishness. I do
-      not understand why her father risks such a jewel in this place.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He's daring it because she is a jewel, sir,&rdquo; said Freckles, eagerly.
-      &ldquo;Why, she's trusting a rattlesnake to rattle before it strikes her, and of
-      course, she thinks she can trust mankind as well. The man isn't made who
-      wouldn't lay down the life of him for her. She doesn't need any care. Her
-      face and the pretty ways of her are all the protection she would need in a
-      band of howling savages.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you say she handled one of the revolvers?&rdquo; asked McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;She scared all the breath out of me body,&rdquo; admitted Freckles. &ldquo;Seems that
-      her father has taught her to shoot. The Bird Woman told her distinctly to
-      lie low and blaze away high, just to help scare them. The spunky little
-      thing followed them right out into the west road, spitting lead like hail,
-      and clipping all around the heads and heels of them; and I'm damned, sir,
-      if I believe she'd cared a rap if she'd hit. I never saw much shooting,
-      but if that wasn't the nearest to miss I ever want to see! Scared the life
-      near out of me body with the fear that she'd drop one of them. As long as
-      I'd no one to help me but a couple of women that didn't dare be mixed up
-      in it, all I could do was to let them get away.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, will they come back?&rdquo; asked McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course!&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;They're not going to be taking that. You
-      could stake your life on it, they'll be coming back. At least, Black Jack
-      will. Wessner may not have the pluck, unless he is half drunk. Then he'd
-      be a terror. And the next time&mdash;&rdquo; Freckles hesitated.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It will be a question of who shoots first and straightest.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then the only thing for me to do is to double the guard and bring the
-      gang here the first minute possible. As soon as I feel that we have the
-      rarest of the stuff out below, we will come. The fact is, in many cases,
-      until it is felled it's difficult to tell what a tree will prove to be. It
-      won't do to leave you here longer alone. Jack has been shooting twenty
-      years to your one, and it stands to reason that you are no match for him.
-      Who of the gang would you like best to have with you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No one, sir,&rdquo; said Freckles emphatically. &ldquo;Next time is where I run. I
-      won't try to fight them alone. I'll just be getting wind of them, and then
-      make tracks for you. I'll need to come like lightning, and Duncan has no
-      extra horse, so I'm thinking you'd best get me one&mdash;or perhaps a
-      wheel would be better. I used to do extra work for the Home doctor, and he
-      would let me take his bicycle to ride around the place. And at times the
-      head nurse would loan me his for an hour. A wheel would cost less and be
-      faster than a horse, and would take less care. I believe, if you are going
-      to town soon, you had best pick up any kind of an old one at some
-      second-hand store, for if I'm ever called to use it in a hurry there won't
-      be the handlebars left after crossing the corduroy.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said McLean; &ldquo;and if you didn't have a first-class wheel, you never
-      could cross the corduroy on it at all.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As they walked to the cabin, McLean insisted on another guard, but
-      Freckles was stubbornly set on fighting his battle alone. He made one
-      mental condition. If the Bird Woman was going to give up the Little
-      Chicken series, he would yield to the second guard, solely for the sake of
-      her work and the presence of the Angel in the Limberlost. He did not
-      propose to have a second man unless it were absolutely necessary, for he
-      had been alone so long that he loved the solitude, his chickens, and
-      flowers. The thought of having a stranger to all his ways come and meddle
-      with his arrangements, frighten his pets, pull his flowers, and interrupt
-      him when he wanted to study, so annoyed him that he was blinded to his
-      real need for help.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With McLean it was a case of letting his sober, better judgment be
-      overridden by the boy he was growing so to love that he could not endure
-      to oppose him, and to have Freckles keep his trust and win alone meant
-      more than any money the Boss might lose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The following morning McLean brought the wheel, and Freckles took it to
-      the trail to test it. It was new, chainless, with as little as possible to
-      catch in hurried riding, and in every way the best of its kind. Freckles
-      went skimming around the trail on it on a preliminary trip before he
-      locked it in his case and started his minute examination of his line on
-      foot. He glanced around his room as he left it, and then stood staring.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the moss before his prettiest seat lay the Angel's hat. In the
-      excitement of yesterday all of them had forgotten it. He went and picked
-      it up, oh! so carefully, gazing at it with hungry eyes, but touching it
-      only to carry it to his case, where he hung it on the shining handlebar of
-      the new wheel and locked it among his treasures. Then he went to the
-      trail, with a new expression on his face and a strange throbbing in his
-      heart. He was not in the least afraid of anything that morning. He felt he
-      was the veriest Daniel, but all his lions seemed weak and harmless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      What Black Jack's next move would be he could not imagine, but that there
-      would be a move of some kind was certain. The big bully was not a man to
-      give up his purpose, or to have the hat swept from his head with a bullet
-      and bear it meekly. Moreover, Wessner would cling to his revenge with a
-      Dutchman's singleness of mind.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles tried to think connectedly, but there were too many places on the
-      trail where the Angel's footprints were vet visible. She had stepped in
-      one mucky spot and left a sharp impression. The afternoon sun had baked it
-      hard, and the horses' hoofs had not obliterated any part of it, as they
-      had in so many places. Freckles stood fascinated, gazing at it. He
-      measured it lovingly with his eye. He would not have ventured a caress on
-      her hat any more than on her person, but this was different. Surely a
-      footprint on a trail might belong to anyone who found and wanted it. He
-      stooped under the wires and entered the swamp. With a little searching, he
-      found a big piece of thick bark loose on a log and carefully peeling it,
-      carried it out and covered the print so that the first rain would not
-      obliterate it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When he reached his room, he tenderly laid the hat upon his bookshelf, and
-      to wear off his awkwardness, mounted his wheel and went spinning on trail
-      again. It was like flying, for the path was worn smooth with his feet and
-      baked hard with the sun almost all the way. When he came to the bark, he
-      veered far to one side and smiled at it in passing. Suddenly he was off
-      the wheel, kneeling beside it. He removed his hat, carefully lifted the
-      bark, and gazed lovingly at the imprint.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wonder what she was going to say of me voice,&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;She never
-      got it said, but from the face of her, I believe she was liking it fairly
-      well. Perhaps she was going to say that singing was the big thing I was to
-      be doing. That's what they all thought at the Home. Well, if it is, I'll
-      just shut me eyes, think of me little room, the face of her watching, and
-      the heart of her beating, and I'll raise them. Damn them, if singing will
-      do it, I'll raise them from the benches!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      With this dire threat, Freckles knelt, as at a wayside spring, and
-      deliberately laid his lips on the footprint. Then he arose, appearing as
-      if he had been drinking at the fountain of gladness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER VIII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the Encounter
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood before her, holding the Angel's hat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I've been thinking this long time that ye or Duncan would see that
-      sunbonnets werena braw enough for a woman of my standing, and ye're a guid
-      laddie to bring me this beautiful hat.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She turned it around, examining the weave of the straw and the foliage
-      trimmings, passing her rough fingers over the satin ties delightedly. As
-      she held it up, admiring it, Freckles' astonished eyes saw a new side of
-      Sarah Duncan. She was jesting, but under the jest the fact loomed strong
-      that, though poor, overworked, and with none but God-given refinement,
-      there was something in her soul crying after that bit of feminine finery,
-      and it made his heart ache for her. He resolved that when he reached the
-      city he would send her a hat, if it took fifty dollars to do it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She lingeringly handed it back to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's unco guid of ye to think of me,&rdquo; she said lightly, &ldquo;but I maun
-      question your taste a wee. D'ye no think ye had best return this and get a
-      woman with half her hair gray a little plainer headdress? Seems like
-      that's far ower gay for me. I'm no' saying that it's no' exactly what I'd
-      like to hae, but I mauna mak mysel' ridiculous. Ye'd best give this to
-      somebody young and pretty, say about sixteen. Where did ye come by it,
-      Freckles? If there's anything been dropping lately, ye hae forgotten to
-      mention it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you see anything heavenly about that hat?&rdquo; queried Freckles, holding
-      it up.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The morning breeze waved the ribbons gracefully, binding one around
-      Freckles' sleeve and the other across his chest, where they caught and
-      clung as if magnetized.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Sarah Duncan. &ldquo;It's verra plain and simple, but it juist makes
-      ye feel that it's all of the finest stuff. It's exactly what I'd call a
-      heavenly hat.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sure,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;for it's belonging to an Angel!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he told her about the hat and asked her what he should do with it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Take it to her, of course!&rdquo; said Sarah Duncan. &ldquo;Like it's the only ane
-      she has and she may need it badly.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles smiled. He had a clear idea about the hat being the only one the
-      Angel had. However, there was a thing he felt he should do and wanted to
-      do, but he was not sure.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You think I might be taking it home?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course ye must,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan. &ldquo;And without another hour's delay.
-      It's been here two days noo, and she may want it, and be too busy or
-      afraid to come.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But how can I take it?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Gang spinning on your wheel. Ye can do it easy in an hour.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But in that hour, what if&mdash;&mdash;?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Nonsense!&rdquo; interrupted Sarah Duncan. &ldquo;Ye've watched that timber-line
-      until ye're grown fast to it, lad. Give me your boots and club and I'll
-      gae walk the south end and watch doon the east and west sides until ye
-      come back.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mrs. Duncan! You never would be doing it,&rdquo; cried Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; inquired she.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But you know you're mortal afraid of snakes and a lot of other things in
-      the swamp.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am afraid of snakes,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan, &ldquo;but likely they've gone into
-      the swamp this hot weather. I'll juist stay on the trail and watch, and ye
-      might hurry the least bit. The day's so bright it feels like storm. I can
-      put the bairns on the woodpile to play until I get back. Ye gang awa and
-      take the blessed little angel her beautiful hat.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Are you sure it will be all right?&rdquo; urged Freckles. &ldquo;Do you think if Mr.
-      McLean came he would care?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Na,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan; &ldquo;I dinna. If ye and me agree that a thing ought to
-      be done, and I watch in your place, why, it's bound to be all right with
-      McLean. Let me pin the hat in a paper, and ye jump on your wheel and gang
-      flying. Ought ye put on your Sabbath-day clothes?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles shook his head. He knew what he should do, but there was no use
-      in taking time to try to explain it to Mrs. Duncan while he was so
-      hurried. He exchanged his wading-boots for shoes, gave her his club, and
-      went spinning toward town. He knew very well where the Angel lived. He had
-      seen her home many times, and he passed it again without even raising his
-      eyes from the street, steering straight for her father's place of
-      business.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carrying the hat, Freckles passed a long line of clerks, and at the door
-      of the private office asked to see the proprietor. When he had waited a
-      moment, a tall, spare, keen-eyed man faced him, and in brisk, nervous
-      tones asked: &ldquo;How can I serve you, sir?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles handed him the package and answered, &ldquo;By delivering to your
-      daughter this hat, which she was after leaving at me place the other day,
-      when she went away in a hurry. And by saying to her and the Bird Woman
-      that I'm more thankful than I'll be having words to express for the brave
-      things they was doing for me. I'm McLean's Limberlost guard, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why don't you take it yourself?&rdquo; questioned the Man of Affairs.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' clear gray eyes met those of the Angel's father squarely, and he
-      asked: &ldquo;If you were in my place, would you take it to her yourself?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, I would not,&rdquo; said that gentleman quickly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then why ask why I did not?&rdquo; came Freckles' lamb-like query.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Bless me!&rdquo; said the Angel's father. He stared at the package, then at the
-      lifted chin of the boy, and then at the package again, and muttered,
-      &ldquo;Excuse me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles bowed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It would be favoring me greatly if you would deliver the hat and the
-      message. Good morning, sir,&rdquo; and he turned away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;One minute,&rdquo; said the Angel's father. &ldquo;Suppose I give you permission to
-      return this hat in person and make your own acknowledgments.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood one moment thinking intently, and then he lifted those eyes
-      of unswerving truth and asked: &ldquo;Why should you, sir? You are kind, indade,
-      to mention it, and it's thanking you I am for your good intintions, but my
-      wanting to go or your being willing to have me ain't proving that your
-      daughter would be wanting me or care to bother with me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's father looked keenly into the face of this extraordinary young
-      man, for he found it to his liking.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's one other thing I meant to say,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Every day I see
-      something, and at times a lot of things, that I think the Bird Woman would
-      be wanting pictures of badly, if she knew. You might be speaking of it to
-      her, and if she'd want me to, I can send her word when I find things she
-      wouldn't likely get elsewhere.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If that's the case,&rdquo; said the Angel's father, &ldquo;and you feel under
-      obligations for her assistance the other day, you can discharge them in
-      that way. She is spending all her time in the fields and woods searching
-      for subjects. If you run across things, perhaps rarer than she may find,
-      about your work, it would save her the time she spends searching for
-      subjects, and she could work in security under your protection. By all
-      means let her know if you find subjects you think she could use, and we
-      will do anything we can for you, if you will give her what help you can
-      and see that she is as safe as possible.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's hungry for human beings I am,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;and it's like Heaven
-      to me to have them come. Of course, I'll be telling or sending her word
-      every time me work can spare me. Anything I can do it would make me
-      uncommon happy, but&rdquo;&mdash;again truth had to be told, because it was
-      Freckles who was speaking&mdash;&ldquo;when it comes to protecting them, I'd
-      risk me life, to be sure, but even that mightn't do any good in some
-      cases. There are many dangers to be reckoned with in the swamp, sir, that
-      call for every person to look sharp. If there wasn't really thieving to
-      guard against, why, McLean wouldn't need be paying out good money for a
-      guard. I'd love them to be coming, and I'll do all I can, but you must be
-      told that there's danger of them running into timber thieves again any
-      day, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel's father, &ldquo;and I suppose there's danger of the earth
-      opening up and swallowing the town any day, but I'm damned if I quit
-      business for fear it will, and the Bird Woman won't, either. Everyone
-      knows her and her work, and there is no danger in the world of anyone in
-      any way molesting her, even if he were stealing a few of McLean's
-      gold-plated trees. She's as safe in the Limberlost as she is at home, so
-      far as timber thieves are concerned. All I am ever uneasy about are the
-      snakes, poison-vines, and insects; and those are risks she must run
-      anywhere. You need not hesitate a minute about that. I shall be glad to
-      tell them what you wish. Thank you very much, and good day, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      There was no way in which Freckles could know it, but by following his
-      best instincts and being what he conceived a gentleman should be, he
-      surprised the Man of Affairs into thinking of him and seeing his face over
-      his books many times that morning; whereas, if he had gone to the Angel as
-      he had longed to do, her father never would have given him a second
-      thought.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the street he drew a deep breath. How had he acquitted himself? He only
-      knew that he had lived up to his best impulse, and that is all anyone can
-      do. He glanced over his wheel to see that it was all right, and just as he
-      stepped to the curb to mount he heard a voice that thrilled him through
-      and through: &ldquo;Freckles! Oh Freckles!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel separated from a group of laughing, sweet-faced girls and came
-      hurrying to him. She was in snowy white&mdash;a quaint little frock, with
-      a marvel of soft lace around her throat and wrists. Through the sheer
-      sleeves of it her beautiful, rounded arms showed distinctly, and it was
-      cut just to the base of her perfect neck. On her head was a pure white
-      creation of fancy braid, with folds on folds of tulle, soft and silken as
-      cobwebs, lining the brim; while a mass of white roses clustered against
-      the gold of her hair, crept around the crown, and fell in a riot to her
-      shoulders at the back. There were gleams of gold with settings of blue on
-      her fingers, and altogether she was the daintiest, sweetest sight he ever
-      had seen. Freckles, standing on the curb, forgot himself in his cotton
-      shirt, corduroys, and his belt to which his wire-cutter and pliers were
-      hanging, and gazed as a man gazes when first he sees the woman he adores
-      with all her charms enhanced by appropriate and beautiful clothing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Freckles,&rdquo; she cried as she came to him. &ldquo;I was wondering about you
-      the other day. Do you know I never saw you in town before. You watch that
-      old line so closely! Why did you come? Is there any trouble? Are you just
-      starting to the Limberlost?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I came to bring your hat,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You forgot it in the rush the
-      other day. I have left it with your father, and a message trying to
-      ixpriss the gratitude of me for how you and the Bird Woman were for
-      helping me out.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel nodded gravely, then Freckles saw that he had done the proper
-      thing in going to her father. His heart bounded until it jarred his body,
-      for she was saying that she scarcely could wait for the time to come for
-      the next picture of the Little Chicken series. &ldquo;I want to hear the
-      remainder of that song, and I hadn't even begun seeing your room yet,&rdquo; she
-      complained. &ldquo;As for singing, if you can sing like that every day, I never
-      can get enough of it. I wonder if I couldn't bring my banjo and some of
-      the songs I like best. I'll play and you sing, and we'll put the birds out
-      of commission.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood on the curb with drooped eyes, for he felt that if he
-      lifted them the tumult of tender adoration in them would show and frighten
-      her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was afraid your ixperience the other day would scare you so that you'd
-      never be coming again,&rdquo; he found himself saying.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel laughed gaily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did I seem scared?&rdquo; she questioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;you did not.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, I just enjoyed that,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Those hateful, stealing old things!
-      I had a big notion to pink one of them, but I thought maybe someway it
-      would be best for you that I shouldn't. They needed it. That didn't scare
-      me; and as for the Bird Woman, she's accustomed to finding snakes, tramps,
-      cross dogs, sheep, cattle, and goodness knows what! You can't frighten her
-      when she's after a picture. Did they come back?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;The gang got there a little after noon and took out
-      the tree, but I must tell you, and you must tell the Bird Woman, that
-      there's no doubt but they will be coming back, and they will have to make
-      it before long now, for it's soon the gang will be there to work on the
-      swamp.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, what a shame!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;They'll clear out roads, cut down
-      the beautiful trees, and tear up everything. They'll drive away the birds
-      and spoil the cathedral. When they have done their worst, then all these
-      mills close here will follow in and take out the cheap timber. Then the
-      landowners will dig a few ditches, build some fires, and in two summers
-      more the Limberlost will be in corn and potatoes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      They looked at each other, and groaned despairingly in unison.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You like it, too,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;I love it. Your room is a little piece right out
-      of the heart of fairyland, and the cathedral is God's work, not yours. You
-      only found it and opened the door after He had it completed. The birds,
-      flowers, and vines are all so lovely. The Bird Woman says it is really a
-      fact that the mallows, foxfire, iris, and lilies are larger and of richer
-      coloring there than in the remainder of the country. She says it's because
-      of the rich loam and muck. I hate seeing the swamp torn up, and to you it
-      will be like losing your best friend; won't it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Something like,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Still, I've the Limberlost in me heart
-      so that all of it will be real to me while I live, no matter what they do
-      to it. I'm glad past telling if you will be coming a few more times, at
-      least until the gang arrives. Past that time I don't allow mesilf to be
-      thinking.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come, have a cool drink before you start back,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I couldn't possibly,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I left Mrs. Duncan on the trail,
-      and she's terribly afraid of a lot of things. If she even sees a big
-      snake, I don't know what she'll do.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It won't take but a minute, and you can ride fast enough to make up for
-      it. Please. I want to think of something fine for you, to make up a little
-      for what you did for me that first day.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles looked in sheer wonderment into the beautiful face of the Angel.
-      Did she truly mean it? Would she walk down that street with him, crippled,
-      homely, in mean clothing, with the tools of his occupation on him, and
-      share with him the treat she was offering? He could not believe it, even
-      of the Angel. Still, in justice to the candor of her pure, sweet face, he
-      would not think that she would make the offer and not mean it. She really
-      did mean just what she said, but when it came to carrying out her offer
-      and he saw the stares of her friends, the sneers of her enemies&mdash;if
-      such as she could have enemies&mdash;and heard the whispered jeers of the
-      curious, then she would see her mistake and be sorry. It would be only a
-      manly thing for him to think this out, and save her from the results of
-      her own blessed bigness of heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I railly must be off,&rdquo; said Freckles earnestly, &ldquo;but I'm thanking you
-      more than you'll ever know for your kindness. I'll just be drinking bowls
-      of icy things all me way home in the thoughts of it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Down came the Angel's foot. Her eyes flashed indignantly. &ldquo;There's no
-      sense in that,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;How do you think you would have felt when you
-      knew I was warm and thirsty and you went and brought me a drink and I
-      wouldn't take it because&mdash;because goodness knows why! You can ride
-      faster to make up for the time. I've just thought out what I want to fix
-      for you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She stepped to his side and deliberately slipped her hand under his arm&mdash;that
-      right arm that ended in an empty sleeve.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are coming,&rdquo; she said firmly. &ldquo;I won't have it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles could not have told how he felt, neither could anyone else. His
-      blood rioted and his head swam, but he kept his wits. He bent over her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Please don't, Angel,&rdquo; he said softly. &ldquo;You don't understand.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      How Freckles came to understand was a problem.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's this,&rdquo; he persisted. &ldquo;If your father met me on the street, in my
-      station and dress, with you on me arm, he'd have every right to be caning
-      me before the people, and not a finger would I lift to stay him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's eyes snapped. &ldquo;If you think my father cares about my doing
-      anything that is right and kind, and that makes me happy to do&mdash;why,
-      then you completely failed in reading my father, and I'll ask him and just
-      show you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She dropped Freckles' arm and turned toward the entrance to the building.
-      &ldquo;Why, look there!&rdquo; she exclaimed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Her father stood in a big window fronting the street, a bundle of papers
-      in his hand, interestedly watching the little scene, with eyes that
-      comprehended quite as thoroughly as if he had heard every word. The Angel
-      caught his glance and made a despairing little gesture toward Freckles.
-      The Man of Affairs answered her with a look of infinite tenderness. He
-      nodded his head and waved the papers in the direction she had indicated,
-      and the veriest dolt could have read the words his lips formed: &ldquo;Take him
-      along!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A sudden trembling seized Freckles. At sight of the Angel's father he had
-      stepped back as far from her as he could, leaned the wheel against him,
-      and snatched off his hat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel turned on him with triumphing eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She was highly strung and not accustomed to being thwarted. &ldquo;Did You see
-      that?&rdquo; she demanded. &ldquo;Now are you satisfied? Will you come, or must I call
-      a policeman to bring you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles went. There was nothing else to do. Guiding his wheel, he walked
-      down the street beside her. On every hand she was kept busy giving and
-      receiving the cheeriest greetings. She walked into the parlors exactly as
-      if she owned them. A clerk came hurrying to meet her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's a table vacant beside a window where it is cool. I'll save it for
-      you,&rdquo; and he started back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Please not,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I've taken this man unawares, when he's in
-      a rush. I'm afraid if we sit down we'll take too much time and afterward
-      he will blame me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She walked to the fountain, and a long row of people stared with all the
-      varying degrees of insolence and curiosity that Freckles had felt they
-      would. He glanced at the Angel. NOW would she see?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;On my soul!&rdquo; he muttered under his breath. &ldquo;They don't aven touch her!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She laid down her sunshade and gloves. She walked to the end of the
-      counter and turned the full battery of her eyes on the attendant.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Please,&rdquo; she said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The white-aproned individual stepped back and gave delighted assent. The
-      Angel stepped beside him, and selecting a tall, flaring glass, of almost
-      paper thinness, she stooped and rolled it in a tray of cracked ice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I want to mix a drink for my friend,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;He has a long, hot ride
-      before him, and I don't want him started off with one of those old
-      palate-teasing sweetnesses that you mix just on purpose to drive a man
-      back in ten minutes.&rdquo; There was an appreciative laugh from the line at the
-      counter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I want a clear, cool, sparkling drink that has a tang of acid in it.
-      Where's the cherry phosphate? That, not at all sweet, would be good; don't
-      you think?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The attendant did think. He pointed out the different taps, and the Angel
-      compounded the drink, while Freckles, standing so erect he almost leaned
-      backward, gazed at her and paid no attention to anyone else. When she had
-      the glass brimming, she tilted a little of its contents into a second
-      glass and tasted it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's entirely too sweet for a thirsty man,&rdquo; she said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She poured out half the mixture, and refilling the glass, tasted it a
-      second time. She submitted that result to the attendant. &ldquo;Isn't that about
-      the thing?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He replied enthusiastically. &ldquo;I'd get my wages raised ten a month if I
-      could learn that trick.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel carried the brimming, frosty glass to Freckles. He removed his
-      hat, and lifting the icy liquid even with her eyes and looking straight
-      into them, he said in the mellowest of all the mellow tones of his voice:
-      &ldquo;I'll be drinking it to the Swamp Angel.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As he had said to her that first day, she now cautioned him: &ldquo;Be drinking
-      slowly.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      When the screen-door swung behind them, one of the men at the counter
-      asked of the attendant: &ldquo;Now, what did that mean?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Exactly what you saw,&rdquo; replied he, rather curtly. &ldquo;We're accustomed to it
-      here. Hardly a day passes, this hot weather, but she's picking up some
-      poor, god-forsaken mortal and bringing him in. Then she comes behind the
-      counter herself and fixes up a drink to suit the occasion. She's all sorts
-      of fancies about what's what for all kinds of times and conditions, and
-      you bet she can just hit the spot! Ain't a clerk here can put up a drink
-      to touch her. She's a sort of knack at it. Every once in a while, when the
-      Boss sees her, he calls out to her to mix him a drink.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And does she?&rdquo; asked the man with an interested grin.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I guess! But first she goes back and sees how long it is since he's
-      had a drink. What he drank last. How warm he is. When he ate last. Then
-      she comes here and mixes a glass of fizz with a little touch of acid, and
-      a bit of cherry, lemon, grape, pineapple, or something sour and cooling,
-      and it hits the spot just as no spot was ever hit before. I honestly
-      believe that the INTEREST she takes in it is half the trick, for I watch
-      her closely and I can't come within gunshot of her concoctions. She has a
-      running bill here. Her father settles once a month. She gives nine-tenths
-      of it away. Hardly ever touches it herself, but when she does she makes me
-      mix it. She's just old persimmons. Even the scrub-boy of this
-      establishment would fight for her. It lasts the year round, for in winter
-      it's some poor, frozen cuss that she's warming up on hot coffee or
-      chocolate.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mighty queer specimen she had this time,&rdquo; volunteered another. &ldquo;Irish,
-      hand off, straight as a ramrod, and something worth while in his face.
-      Notice that hat peel off, and the eyes of him? There's a case of 'fight
-      for her!' Wonder who he is?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; said a third, &ldquo;that he's McLean's Limberlost guard, and I
-      suspect she's gone to the swamp with the Bird Woman for pictures and knows
-      him that way. I've heard that he is a master hand with the birds, and that
-      would just suit the Bird Woman to a T.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      On the street the Angel walked beside Freckles to the first crossing and
-      there she stopped. &ldquo;Now, will you promise to ride fast enough to make up
-      for the five minutes that took?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;I am a little uneasy about
-      Mrs. Duncan.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles turned his wheel into the street. It seemed to him he had poured
-      that delicious icy liquid into every vein in his body instead of his
-      stomach. It even went to his brain.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you insist on fixing that drink because you knew how intoxicating
-      'twould be?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There was subtlety in the compliment and it delighted the Angel. She
-      laughed gleefully.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Next time, maybe you won't take so much coaxing,&rdquo; she teased.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wouldn't this, if I had known your father and been understanding you
-      better. Do you really think the Bird Woman will be coming again?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel jeered. &ldquo;Wild horses couldn't drag her away,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;She
-      will have hard work to wait the week out. I shouldn't be in the least
-      surprised to see her start any hour.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles could not endure the suspense; it had to come.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you?&rdquo; he questioned, but he dared not lift his eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wild horses me, too,&rdquo; she laughed, &ldquo;couldn't keep me away either! I
-      dearly love to come, and the next time I am going to bring my banjo, and
-      I'll play, and you sing for me some of the songs I like best; won't you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles, because it was all he was capable of saying just
-      then.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's beginning to act stormy,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;If you hurry you will just
-      about make it. Now, good-bye.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER IX
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to the
-      Rescue
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was halfway to the Limberlost when he dismounted. He could ride
-      no farther, because he could not see the road. He sat under a tree, and,
-      leaning against it, sobs shook, twisted, and rent him. If they would
-      remind him of his position, speak condescendingly, or notice his hand, he
-      could endure it, but this&mdash;it surely would kill him! His hot, pulsing
-      Irish blood was stirred deeply. What did they mean? Why did they do it?
-      Were they like that to everyone? Was it pity?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It could not be, for he knew that the Bird Woman and the Angel's father
-      must know that he was not really McLean's son, and it did not matter to
-      them in the least. In spite of accident and poverty, they evidently
-      expected him to do something worth while in the world. That must be his
-      remedy. He must work on his education. He must get away. He must find and
-      do the great thing of which the Angel talked. For the first time, his
-      thoughts turned anxiously toward the city and the beginning of his
-      studies. McLean and the Duncans spoke of him as &ldquo;the boy,&rdquo; but he was a
-      man. He must face life bravely and act a man's part. The Angel was a mere
-      child. He must not allow her to torture him past endurance with her frank
-      comradeship that meant to him high heaven, earth's richness, and all that
-      lay between, and NOTHING to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There was an ominous growl of thunder, and amazed at himself, Freckles
-      snatched up his wheel and raced toward the swamp. He was worried to find
-      his boots lying at the cabin door; the children playing on the woodpile
-      told him that &ldquo;mither&rdquo; said they were so heavy she couldn't walk in them,
-      and she had come back and taken them off. Thoroughly frightened, he
-      stopped only long enough to slip them on, and then sped with all his
-      strength for the Limberlost. To the west, the long, black, hard-beaten
-      trail lay clear; but far up the east side, straight across the path, he
-      could see what was certainly a limp, brown figure. Freckles spun with all
-      his might.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Face down, Sarah Duncan lay across the trail. When Freckles turned her
-      over, his blood chilled at the look of horror settled on her face. There
-      was a low humming and something spatted against him. Glancing around,
-      Freckles shivered in terror, for there was a swarm of wild bees settled on
-      a scrub-thorn only a few yards away. The air was filled with excited,
-      unsettled bees making ready to lead farther in search of a suitable
-      location. Then he thought he understood, and with a prayer of thankfulness
-      in his heart that she had escaped, even so narrowly, he caught her up and
-      hurried down the trail until they were well out of danger. He laid her in
-      the shade, and carrying water from the swamp in the crown of his hat, he
-      bathed her face and hands; but she lay in unbroken stillness, without a
-      sign of life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She had found Freckles' boots so large and heavy that she had gone back
-      and taken them off, although she was mortally afraid to approach the swamp
-      without them. The thought of it made her nervous, and the fact that she
-      never had been there alone added to her fears. She had not followed the
-      trail many rods when her trouble began. She was not Freckles, so not a
-      bird of the line was going to be fooled into thinking she was.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They began jumping from their nests and darting from unexpected places
-      around her head and feet, with quick whirs, that kept her starting and
-      dodging. Before Freckles was halfway to the town, poor Mrs. Duncan was
-      hysterical, and the Limberlost had neither sung nor performed for her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But there was trouble brewing. It was quiet and intensely hot, with that
-      stifling stillness that precedes a summer storm, and feathers and fur were
-      tense and nervous. The birds were singing only a few broken snatches, and
-      flying around, seeking places of shelter. One moment everything seemed
-      devoid of life, the next there was an unexpected whir, buzz, and sharp
-      cry. Inside, a pandemonium of growling, spatting, snarling, and grunting
-      broke loose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The swale bent flat before heavy gusts of wind, and the big black chicken
-      swept lower and lower above the swamp. Patches of clouds gathered,
-      shutting out the sun and making it very dark, and the next moment were
-      swept away. The sun poured with fierce, burning brightness, and everything
-      was quiet. It was at the first growl of thunder that Freckles really had
-      noticed the weather, and putting his own troubles aside resolutely, raced
-      for the swamp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sarah Duncan paused on the line. &ldquo;Weel, I wouldna stay in this place for a
-      million a month,&rdquo; she said aloud, and the sound of her voice brought no
-      comfort, for it was so little like she had thought it that she glanced
-      hastily around to see if it had really been she that spoke. She
-      tremblingly wiped the perspiration from her face with the skirt of her
-      sunbonnet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Awfu' hot,&rdquo; she panted huskily. &ldquo;B'lieve there's going to be a big storm.
-      I do hope Freckles will hurry.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Her chin was quivering as a terrified child's. She lifted her bonnet to
-      replace it and brushed against a bush beside her. WHIRR, almost into her
-      face, went a nighthawk stretched along a limb for its daytime nap. Mrs.
-      Duncan cried out and sprang down the trail, alighting on a frog that was
-      hopping across. The horrible croak it gave as she crushed it sickened her.
-      She screamed wildly and jumped to one side. That carried her into the
-      swale, where the grasses reached almost to her waist, and her horror of
-      snakes returning, she made a flying leap for an old log lying beside the
-      line. She alighted squarely, but it was so damp and rotten that she sank
-      straight through it to her knees. She caught at the wire as she went down,
-      and missing, raked her wrist across a barb until she tore a bleeding gash.
-      Her fingers closed convulsively around the second strand. She was too
-      frightened to scream now. Her tongue stiffened. She clung frantically to
-      the sagging wire, and finally managed to grasp it with the other hand.
-      Then she could reach the top wire, and so she drew herself up and found
-      solid footing. She picked up the club that she had dropped in order to
-      extricate herself. Leaning heavily on it, she managed to return to the
-      trail, but she was trembling so that she scarcely could walk. Going a few
-      steps farther, she came to the stump of the first tree that had been taken
-      out.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She sat bolt upright and very still, trying to collect her thoughts and
-      reason away her terror. A squirrel above her dropped a nut, and as it came
-      rattling down, bouncing from branch to branch, every nerve in her tugged
-      wildly. When the disgusted squirrel barked loudly, she sprang to the
-      trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The wind arose higher, the changes from light to darkness were more
-      abrupt, while the thunder came closer and louder at every peal. In swarms
-      the blackbirds arose from the swale and came flocking to the interior,
-      with a clamoring cry: &ldquo;T'CHECK, T'CHECK.&rdquo; Grackles marshaled to the tribal
-      call: &ldquo;TRALL-A-HEE, TRALL-A-HEE.&rdquo; Red-winged blackbirds swept low, calling
-      to belated mates: &ldquo;FOL-LOW-ME, FOL-LOW-ME.&rdquo; Big, jetty crows gathered
-      close to her, crying, as if warning her to flee before it was
-      everlastingly too late. A heron, fishing the near-by pool for Freckles'
-      &ldquo;find-out&rdquo; frog, fell into trouble with a muskrat and uttered a rasping
-      note that sent Mrs. Duncan a rod down the line without realizing that she
-      had moved. She was too shaken to run far. She stopped and looked around
-      her fearfully.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Several bees struck her and were angrily buzzing before she noticed them.
-      Then the humming swelled on all sides. A convulsive sob shook her, and she
-      ran into the bushes, now into the swale, anywhere to avoid the swarming
-      bees, ducking, dodging, fighting for her very life. Presently the humming
-      seemed to become a little fainter. She found the trail again, and ran with
-      all her might from a few of her angry pursuers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As she ran, straining every muscle, she suddenly became aware that,
-      crossing the trail before her, was a big, round, black body, with brown
-      markings on its back, like painted geometrical patterns. She tried to
-      stop, but the louder buzzing behind warned her she dared not. Gathering
-      her skirts higher, with hair flying around her face and her eyes almost
-      bursting from their sockets, she ran straight toward it. The sound of her
-      feet and the humming of the bees alarmed the rattler, so it stopped across
-      the trail, lifting its head above the grasses of the swale and rattling
-      inquiringly&mdash;rattled until the bees were outdone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Straight toward it went the panic-stricken woman, running wildly and
-      uncontrollably. She took one leap, clearing its body on the path, then
-      flew ahead with winged feet. The snake, coiled to strike, missed Mrs.
-      Duncan and landed among the bees instead. They settled over and around it,
-      and realizing that it had found trouble, it sank among the grasses and
-      went threshing toward its den in the deep willow-fringed low ground. The
-      swale appeared as if a reaper were cutting a wide swath. The mass of
-      enraged bees darted angrily around, searching for it, and striking the
-      scrub-thorn, began a temporary settling there to discover whether it were
-      a suitable place. Completely exhausted, Mrs. Duncan staggered on a few
-      steps farther, fell facing the path, where Freckles found her, and lay
-      quietly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles worked over her until she drew a long, quivering breath and
-      opened her eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When she saw him bending above her, she closed them tightly, and gripping
-      him, struggled to her feet. He helped her, and with his arm around and
-      half carrying her, they made their way to the clearing. She clung to him
-      with all her remaining strength, but open her eyes she would not until her
-      children came clustering around her. Then, brawny, big Scotswoman though
-      she was, she quietly keeled over again. The children added their wailing
-      to Freckles' panic.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This time he was so close the cabin that he could carry her into the house
-      and lay her on the bed. He sent the oldest boy scudding down the corduroy
-      for the nearest neighbor, and between them they undressed Mrs. Duncan and
-      discovered that she was not bitten. They bathed and bound the bleeding
-      wrist and coaxed her back to consciousness. She lay sobbing and
-      shuddering. The first intelligent word she said was: &ldquo;Freckles, look at
-      that jar on the kitchen table and see if my yeast is no running ower.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Several days passed before she could give Duncan and Freckles any detailed
-      account of what had happened to her, even then she could not do it without
-      crying as the least of her babies. Freckles was almost heartbroken, and
-      nursed her as well as any woman could have done; while big Duncan, with a
-      heart full for them both, worked early and late to chink every crack of
-      the cabin and examine every spot that possibly could harbor a snake. The
-      effects of her morning on the trail kept her shivering half the time. She
-      could not rest until she sent for McLean and begged him to save Freckles
-      from further risk, in that place of horrors. The Boss went to the swamp
-      with his mind fully determined to do so.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood and laughed at him. &ldquo;Why, Mr. McLean, don't you let a
-      woman's nervous system set you worrying about me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'm not
-      denying how she felt, because I've been through it meself, but that's all
-      over and gone. It's the height of me glory to fight it out with the old
-      swamp, and all that's in it, or will be coming to it, and then to turn it
-      over to you as I promised you and meself I'd do, sir. You couldn't break
-      the heart of me entire quicker than to be taking it from me now, when I'm
-      just on the home-stretch. It won't be over three or four weeks yet, and
-      when I've gone it almost a year, why, what's that to me, sir? You mustn't
-      let a woman get mixed up with business, for I've always heard about how
-      it's bringing trouble.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean smiled. &ldquo;What about that last tree?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles blushed and grinned appreciatively.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angels and Bird Women don't count in the common run, sir,&rdquo; he affirmed
-      shamelessly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean sat in the saddle and laughed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER X
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman and the Angel did not seem to count in the common run, for
-      they arrived on time for the third of the series and found McLean on the
-      line talking to Freckles. The Boss was filled with enthusiasm over a marsh
-      article of the Bird Woman's that he just had read. He begged to be allowed
-      to accompany her into the swamp and watch the method by which she secured
-      an illustration in such a location.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman explained to him that it was an easy matter with the
-      subject she then had in hand; and as Little Chicken was too small to be
-      frightened by him, and big enough to be growing troublesome, she was glad
-      for his company. They went to the chicken log together, leaving to the
-      happy Freckles the care of the Angel, who had brought her banjo and a roll
-      of songs that she wanted to hear him sing. The Bird Woman told them that
-      they might practice in Freckles' room until she finished with Little
-      Chicken, and then she and McLean would come to the concert.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was almost three hours before they finished and came down the west
-      trail for their rest and lunch. McLean walked ahead, keeping sharp watch
-      on the trail and clearing it of fallen limbs from overhanging trees. He
-      sent a big piece of bark flying into the swale, and then stopped short and
-      stared at the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman bent forward. Together they studied that imprint of the
-      Angel's foot. At last their eyes met, the Bird Woman's filled with
-      astonishment, and McLean's humid with pity. Neither said a word, but they
-      knew. McLean entered the swale and hunted up the bark. He replaced it, and
-      the Bird Woman carefully stepped over. As they reached the bushes at the
-      entrance, the voice of the Angel stopped them, for it was commanding and
-      filled with much impatience.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles James Ross McLean!&rdquo; she was saying. &ldquo;You fill me with dark-blue
-      despair! You're singing as if your voice were glass and might break at any
-      minute. Why don't you sing as you did a week ago? Answer me that, please.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles smiled confusedly at the Angel, who sat on one of his fancy
-      seats, playing his accompaniment on her banjo.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are a fraud,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Here you went last week and led me to think
-      that there was the making of a great singer in you, and now you are
-      singing&mdash;do you know how badly you are singing?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles meekly. &ldquo;I'm thinking I'm too happy to be singing
-      well today. The music don't come right only when I'm lonesome and sad. The
-      world's for being all sunshine at prisint, for among you and Mr. McLean
-      and the Bird Woman I'm after being THAT happy that I can't keep me
-      thoughts on me notes. It's more than sorry I am to be disappointing you.
-      Play it over, and I'll be beginning again, and this time I'll hold hard.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Angel disgustedly, &ldquo;it seems to me that if I had all the
-      things to be proud of that you have, I'd lift up my head and sing!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And what is it I've to be proud of, ma'am?&rdquo; politely inquired Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, a whole worldful of things,&rdquo; cried the Angel explosively. &ldquo;For one
-      thing, you can be good and proud over the way you've kept the timber
-      thieves out of this lease, and the trust your father has in you. You can
-      be proud that you've never even once disappointed him or failed in what he
-      believed you could do. You can be proud over the way everyone speaks of
-      you with trust and honor, and about how brave of heart and strong of body
-      you are I heard a big man say a few days ago that the Limberlost was full
-      of disagreeable things&mdash;positive dangers, unhealthful as it could be,
-      and that since the memory of the first settlers it has been a rendezvous
-      for runaways, thieves, and murderers. This swamp is named for a man that
-      was lost here and wandered around 'til he starved. That man I was talking
-      with said he wouldn't take your job for a thousand dollars a month&mdash;in
-      fact, he said he wouldn't have it for any money, and you've never missed a
-      day or lost a tree. Proud! Why, I should think you would just parade
-      around about proper over that!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you can always be proud that you are born an Irishman. My father is
-      Irish, and if you want to see him get up and strut give him a teeny
-      opening to enlarge on his race. He says that if the Irish had decent
-      territory they'd lead the world. He says they've always been handicapped
-      by lack of space and of fertile soil. He says if Ireland had been as big
-      and fertile as Indiana, why, England wouldn't ever have had the upper
-      hand. She'd only be an appendage. Fancy England an appendage! He says
-      Ireland has the finest orators and the keenest statesmen in Europe today,
-      and when England wants to fight, with whom does she fill her trenches?
-      Irishmen, of course! Ireland has the greenest grass and trees, the finest
-      stones and lakes, and they've jaunting-cars. I don't know just exactly
-      what they are, but Ireland has all there are, anyway. They've a lot of
-      great actors, and a few singers, and there never was a sweeter poet than
-      one of theirs. You should hear my father recite 'Dear Harp of My Country.'
-      He does it this way.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel arose, made an elaborate old-time bow, and holding up the banjo,
-      recited in clipping feet and meter, with rhythmic swing and a touch of
-      brogue that was simply irresistible:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear harp of my country&rdquo; [The Angel ardently clasped the banjo],
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In darkness I found thee&rdquo; [She held it to the light],
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long&rdquo; [She muted the strings
-      with her rosy palm];
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then proudly, my own Irish harp, I unbound thee&rdquo; [She threw up her head
-      and swept a ringing harmony];
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song&rdquo; [She crashed into
-      the notes of the accompaniment she had been playing for Freckles].
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's what you want to be thinking of!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Not darkness, and
-      lonesomeness, and sadness, but 'light, freedom, and song.' I can't begin
-      to think offhand of all the big, splendid things an Irishman has to be
-      proud of; but whatever they are, they are all yours, and you are a part of
-      them. I just despise that 'saddest-when-I-sing' business. You can sing!
-      Now you go over there and do it! Ireland has had her statesmen, warriors,
-      actors, and poets; now you be her voice! You stand right out there before
-      the cathedral door, and I'm going to come down the aisle playing that
-      accompaniment, and when I stop in front of you&mdash;you sing!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's face wore an unusual flush. Her eyes were flashing and she was
-      palpitating with earnestness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She parted the bushes and disappeared. Freckles, straight and tense, stood
-      waiting. Presently, before he saw she was there, she was coming down the
-      aisle toward him, playing compellingly, and rifts of light were touching
-      her with golden glory. Freckles stood as if transfixed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The cathedral was majestically beautiful, from arched dome of frescoed
-      gold, green, and blue in never-ending shades and harmonies, to the mosaic
-      aisle she trod, richly inlaid in choicest colors, and gigantic pillars
-      that were God's handiwork fashioned and perfected through ages of sunshine
-      and rain. But the fair young face and divinely molded form of the Angel
-      were His most perfect work of all. Never had she appeared so surpassingly
-      beautiful. She was smiling encouragingly now, and as she came toward him,
-      she struck the chords full and strong.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The heart of poor Freckles almost burst with dull pain and his great love
-      for her. In his desire to fulfill her expectations he forgot everything
-      else, and when she reached his initial chord he was ready. He literally
-      burst forth:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;Three little leaves of Irish green,
-     United on one stem,
-     Love, truth, and valor do they mean,
-     They form a magic gem.&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's eyes widened curiously and her lips parted. A deep color swept
-      into her cheeks. She had intended to arouse him. She had more than
-      succeeded. She was too young to know that in the effort to rouse a man,
-      women frequently kindle fires that they neither can quench nor control.
-      Freckles was looking over her head now and singing that song, as it never
-      had been sung before, for her alone; and instead of her helping him, as
-      she had intended, he was carrying her with him on the waves of his voice,
-      away, away into another world. When he struck into the chorus, wide-eyed
-      and panting, she was swaying toward him and playing with all her might.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;Oh, do you love?  Oh, say you love
-     You love the shamrock green!&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      At the last note, Freckles' voice ceased and he looked at the Angel. He
-      had given his best and his all. He fell on his knees and folded his arms
-      across his breast. The Angel, as if magnetized, walked straight down the
-      aisle to him, and running her fingers into the crisp masses of his red
-      hair, tilted his head back and laid her lips on his forehead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then she stepped back and faced him. &ldquo;Good boy!&rdquo; she said, in a voice that
-      wavered from the throbbing of her shaken heart. &ldquo;Dear boy! I knew you
-      could do it! I knew it was in you! Freckles, when you go into the world,
-      if you can face a big audience and sing like that, just once, you will be
-      immortal, and anything you want will be yours.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Anything!&rdquo; gasped Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Anything,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles arose, muttered something, and catching up his old bucket,
-      plunged into the swamp blindly on a pretence of bringing water. The Angel
-      walked slowly across the study, sat on the rustic bench, and, through
-      narrowed lids, intently studied the tip of her shoe.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the trail the Bird Woman wheeled to McLean with a dumbfounded look.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;God!&rdquo; muttered he.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At last the Bird Woman spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you think the Angel knew she did that?&rdquo; she asked softly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said McLean; &ldquo;I do not. But the poor boy knew it. Heaven help him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman stared across the gently waving swale. &ldquo;I don't see how I
-      am going to blame her,&rdquo; she said at last. &ldquo;It's so exactly what I would
-      have done myself.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Say the remainder,&rdquo; demanded McLean hoarsely. &ldquo;Do him justice.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He was born a gentleman,&rdquo; conceded the Bird Woman. &ldquo;He took no advantage.
-      He never even offered to touch her. Whatever that kiss meant to him, he
-      recognized that it was the loving impulse of a child under stress of
-      strong emotion. He was fine and manly as any man ever could have been.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean lifted his hat. &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; he said simply, and parted the bushes
-      for her to enter Freckles' room.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was her first visit. Before she left she sent for her cameras and made
-      studies of each side of it and of the cathedral. She was entranced with
-      the delicate beauty of the place, while her eyes kept following Freckles
-      as if she could not believe that it could be his conception and work.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That was a happy day. The Bird Woman had brought a lunch, and they spread
-      it, with Freckles' dinner, on the study floor and sat, resting and
-      enjoying themselves. But the Angel put her banjo into its case, silently
-      gathered her music, and no one mentioned the concert.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman left McLean and the Angel to clear away the lunch, and with
-      Freckles examined the walls of his room and told him all she knew about
-      his shrubs and flowers. She analyzed a cardinal-flower and showed him what
-      he had wanted to know all summer&mdash;why the bees buzzed ineffectually
-      around it while the humming-birds found in it an ever-ready feast. Some of
-      his specimens were so rare that she was unfamiliar with them, and with the
-      flower book between them they knelt, studying the different varieties. She
-      wandered the length of the cathedral aisle with him, and it was at her
-      suggestion that he lighted his altar with a row of flaming foxfire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As Freckles came to the cabin from his long day at the swamp he saw Mrs.
-      Chicken sweeping to the south and wondered where she was going. He stepped
-      into the bright, cosy little kitchen, and as he reached down the
-      wash-basin he asked Mrs. Duncan a question.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mother Duncan, do kisses wash off?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      So warm a wave swept her heart that a half-flush mantled her face. She
-      straightened her shoulders and glanced at her hands tenderly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Lord, na! Freckles,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;At least, the anes ye get from people ye
-      love dinna. They dinna stay on the outside. They strike in until they find
-      the center of your heart and make their stopping-place there, and naething
-      can take them from ye&mdash;I doubt if even death&mdash;&mdash;Na, lad, ye
-      can be reet sure kisses dinna wash off!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles set the basin down and muttered as he plunged his hot, tired face
-      into the water, &ldquo;I needn't be afraid to be washing, then, for that one
-      struck in.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XI
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird Woman
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wish,&rdquo; said Freckles at breakfast one morning, &ldquo;that I had some way to
-      be sending a message to the Bird Woman. I've something at the swamp that
-      I'm believing never happened before, and surely she'll be wanting it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What now, Freckles?&rdquo; asked Mrs. Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, the oddest thing you ever heard of,&rdquo; said Freckles; &ldquo;the whole
-      insect tribe gone on a spree. I'm supposing it's my doings, but it all
-      happened by accident, like. You see, on the swale side of the line, right
-      against me trail, there's one of these scrub wild crabtrees. Where the
-      grass grows thick around it, is the finest place you ever conceived of for
-      snakes. Having women about has set me trying to clean out those fellows a
-      bit, and yesterday I noticed that tree in passing. It struck me that it
-      would be a good idea to be taking it out. First I thought I'd take me
-      hatchet and cut it down, for it ain't thicker than me upper arm. Then I
-      remembered how it was blooming in the spring and filling all the air with
-      sweetness. The coloring of the blossoms is beautiful, and I hated to be
-      killing it. I just cut the grass short all around it. Then I started at
-      the ground, trimmed up the trunk near the height of me shoulder, and left
-      the top spreading. That made it look so truly ornamental that, idle like,
-      I chips off the rough places neat, and this morning, on me soul, it's a
-      sight! You see, cutting off the limbs and trimming up the trunk sets the
-      sap running. In this hot sun it ferments in a few hours. There isn't much
-      room for more things to crowd on that tree than there are, and to get
-      drunker isn't noways possible.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Duncan. &ldquo;What kind of things do ye
-      mean, Freckles?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, just an army of black ants. Some of them are sucking away like old
-      topers. Some of them are setting up on their tails and hind legs, fiddling
-      with their fore-feet and wiping their eyes. Some are rolling around on the
-      ground, contented. There are quantities of big blue-bottle flies over the
-      bark and hanging on the grasses around, too drunk to steer a course
-      flying; so they just buzz away like flying, and all the time sitting
-      still. The snake-feeders are too full to feed anything&mdash;even more sap
-      to themselves. There's a lot of hard-backed bugs&mdash;beetles, I guess&mdash;colored
-      like the brown, blue, and black of a peacock's tail. They hang on until
-      the legs of them are so wake they can't stick a minute longer, and then
-      they break away and fall to the ground. They just lay there on their
-      backs, fably clawing air. When it wears off a bit, up they get, and go
-      crawling back for more, and they so full they bump into each other and
-      roll over. Sometimes they can't climb the tree until they wait to sober up
-      a little. There's a lot of big black-and-gold bumblebees, done for entire,
-      stumbling over the bark and rolling on the ground. They just lay there on
-      their backs, rocking from side to side, singing to themselves like fat,
-      happy babies. The wild bees keep up a steady buzzing with the beating of
-      their wings.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The butterflies are the worst old topers of them all. They're just a
-      circus! You never saw the like of the beauties! They come every color you
-      could be naming, and every shape you could be thinking up. They drink and
-      drink until, if I'm driving them away, they stagger as they fly and turn
-      somersaults in the air. If I lave them alone, they cling to the grasses,
-      shivering happy like; and I'm blest, Mother Duncan, if the best of them
-      could be unlocking the front door with a lead pencil, even.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I never heard of anything sae surprising,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's a rare sight to watch them, and no one ever made a picture of a
-      thing like that before, I'm for thinking,&rdquo; said Freckles earnestly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Na,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan. &ldquo;Ye can be pretty sure there didna. The Bird Woman
-      must have word in some way, if ye walk the line and I walk to town and
-      tell her. If ye think ye can wait until after supper, I am most sure ye
-      can gang yoursel', for Duncan is coming home and he'd be glad to watch for
-      ye. If he does na come, and na ane passes that I can send word with today,
-      I really will gang early in the morning and tell her mysel'.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles took his lunch and went to the swamp. He walked and watched
-      eagerly. He could find no trace of anything, yet he felt a tense
-      nervousness, as if trouble might be brooding. He examined every section of
-      the wire, and kept watchful eyes on the grasses of the swale, in an effort
-      to discover if anyone had passed through them; but he could discover no
-      trace of anything to justify his fears.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He tilted his hat brim to shade his face and looked for his chickens. They
-      were hanging almost beyond sight in the sky.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Gee!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I only had your sharp eyes and convenient location
-      now, I wouldn't need be troubling so.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He reached his room and cautiously scanned the entrance before he stepped
-      in. Then he pushed the bushes apart with his right arm and entered, his
-      left hand on the butt of his favorite revolver. Instantly he knew that
-      someone had been there. He stepped to the center of the room, closely
-      scanning each wall and the floor. He could find no trace of a clue to
-      confirm his belief, yet so intimate was he with the spirit of the place
-      that he knew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How he knew he could not have told, yet he did know that someone had
-      entered his room, sat on his benches, and walked over his floor. He was
-      surest around the case. Nothing was disturbed, yet it seemed to Freckles
-      that he could see where prying fingers had tried the lock. He stepped
-      behind the case, carefully examining the ground all around it, and close
-      beside the tree to which it was nailed he found a deep, fresh footprint in
-      the spongy soil&mdash;a long, narrow print, that was never made by the
-      foot of Wessner. His heart tugged in his breast as he mentally measured
-      the print, but he did not linger, for now the feeling arose that he was
-      being watched. It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of some
-      intruder at his back. He knew he was examining things too closely: if
-      anyone were watching, he did not want him to know that he felt it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He took the most open way, and carried water for his flowers and moss as
-      usual; but he put himself into no position in which he was fully exposed,
-      and his hand was close his revolver constantly. Growing restive at last
-      under the strain, he plunged boldly into the swamp and searched minutely
-      all around his room, but he could not discover the least thing to give him
-      further cause for alarm. He unlocked his case, took out his wheel, and for
-      the remainder of the day he rode and watched as he never had before.
-      Several times he locked the wheel and crossed the swamp on foot,
-      zigzagging to cover all the space possible. Every rod he traveled he used
-      the caution that sprang from knowledge of danger and the direction from
-      which it probably would come. Several times he thought of sending for
-      McLean, but for his life he could not make up his mind to do it with
-      nothing more tangible than one footprint to justify him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He waited until he was sure Duncan would be at home, if he were coming for
-      the night, before he went to supper. The first thing he saw as he crossed
-      the swale was the big bays in the yard.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There had been no one passing that day, and Duncan readily agreed to watch
-      until Freckles rode to town. He told Duncan of the footprint, and urged
-      him to guard closely. Duncan said he might rest easy, and filling his pipe
-      and taking a good revolver, the big man went to the Limberlost.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles made himself clean and neat, and raced to town, but it was night
-      and the stars were shining before he reached the home of the Bird Woman.
-      From afar he could see that the house was ablaze with lights. The lawn and
-      veranda were strung with fancy lanterns and alive with people. He thought
-      his errand important, so to turn back never occurred to Freckles. This was
-      all the time or opportunity he would have. He must see the Bird Woman, and
-      see her at once. He leaned his wheel inside the fence and walked up the
-      broad front entrance. As he neared the steps, he saw that the place was
-      swarming with young people, and the Angel, with an excuse to a group that
-      surrounded her, came hurrying to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Freckles!&rdquo; she cried delightedly. &ldquo;So you could come? We were so
-      afraid you could not! I'm as glad as I can be!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't understand,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Were you expecting me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why of course!&rdquo; exclaimed the Angel. &ldquo;Haven't you come to my party?
-      Didn't you get my invitation? I sent you one.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By mail?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I had to help with the preparations, and I
-      couldn't find time to drive out; but I wrote you a letter, and told you
-      that the Bird Woman was giving a party for me, and we wanted you to come,
-      surely. I told them at the office to put it with Mr. Duncan's mail.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then that's likely where it is at present,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Duncan comes
-      to town only once a week, and at times not that. He's home tonight for the
-      first in a week. He's watching an hour for me until I come to the Bird
-      Woman with a bit of work I thought she'd be caring to hear about bad. Is
-      she where I can see her?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's face clouded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What a disappointment!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I did so want all my friends to know
-      you. Can't you stay anyway?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles glanced from his wading-boots to the patent leathers of some of
-      the Angel's friends, and smiled whimsically, but there was no danger of
-      his ever misjudging her again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You know I cannot, Angel,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am afraid I do,&rdquo; she said ruefully. &ldquo;It's too bad! But there is a thing
-      I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is to hang on and
-      win with your work. I think of you every day, and I just pray that those
-      thieves are not getting ahead of you. Oh, Freckles, do watch closely!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She was so lovely a picture as she stood before him, ardent in his cause,
-      that Freckles could not take his eyes from her to notice what her friends
-      were thinking. If she did not mind, why should he? Anyway, if they really
-      were the Angel's friends, probably they were better accustomed to her ways
-      than he.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Her face and bared neck and arms were like the wild rose bloom. Her soft
-      frock of white tulle lifted and stirred around her with the gentle evening
-      air. The beautiful golden hair, that crept around her temples and ears as
-      if it loved to cling there, was caught back and bound with broad blue
-      satin ribbon. There was a sash of blue at her waist, and knots of it
-      catching up her draperies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Must I go after the Bird Woman?&rdquo; she pleaded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Indade, you must,&rdquo; answered Freckles firmly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel went away, but returned to say that the Bird Woman was telling a
-      story to those inside and she could not come for a short time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You won't come in?&rdquo; she pleaded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I must not,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I am not dressed to be among your friends,
-      and I might be forgetting meself and stay too long.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;we mustn't go through the house, because it would
-      disturb the story; but I want you to come the outside way to the
-      conservatory and have some of my birthday lunch and some cake to take to
-      Mrs. Duncan and the babies. Won't that be fun?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles thought that it would be more than fun, and followed delightedly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel gave him a big glass, brimming with some icy, sparkling liquid
-      that struck his palate as it never had been touched before, because a
-      combination of frosty fruit juices had not been a frequent beverage with
-      him. The night was warm, and the Angel most beautiful and kind. A triple
-      delirium of spirit, mind, and body seized upon him and developed a
-      boldness all unnatural. He slightly parted the heavy curtains that
-      separated the conservatory from the company and looked between. He almost
-      stopped breathing. He had read of things like that, but he never had seen
-      them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The open space seemed to stretch through half a dozen rooms, all ablaze
-      with lights, perfumed with flowers, and filled with elegantly dressed
-      people. There were glimpses of polished floors, sparkling glass, and fine
-      furnishings. From somewhere, the voice of his beloved Bird Woman arose and
-      fell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel crowded beside him and was watching also.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Doesn't it look pretty?&rdquo; she whispered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you suppose Heaven is any finer than that?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel began to laugh.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you want to be laughing harder than that?&rdquo; queried Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A laugh is always good,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;A little more avoirdupois won't
-      hurt me. Go ahead.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well then,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;it's only that I feel all over as if I
-      belonged there. I could wear fine clothes, and move over those floors, and
-      hold me own against the best of them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But where does my laugh come in?&rdquo; demanded the Angel, as if she had been
-      defrauded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you ask me where the laugh comes in, looking me in the face after
-      that,&rdquo; marveled Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wouldn't be so foolish as to laugh at such a manifest truth as that,&rdquo;
-       said the Angel. &ldquo;Anyone who knows you even half as well as I do, knows
-      that you are never guilty of a discourtesy, and you move with twice the
-      grace of any man here. Why shouldn't you feel as if you belonged where
-      people are graceful and courteous?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;On me soul!&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;you are kind to be thinking it. You are
-      doubly kind to be saying it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The curtains parted and a woman came toward them. Her silks and laces
-      trailed across the polished floors. The lights gleamed on her neck and
-      arms, and flashed from rare jewels. She was smiling brightly; and until
-      she spoke, Freckles had not realized fully that it was his loved Bird
-      Woman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Noticing his bewilderment, she cried: &ldquo;Why, Freckles! Don't you know me in
-      my war clothes?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I do in the uniform in which you fight the Limberlost,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman laughed. Then he told her why he had come, but she scarcely
-      could believe him. She could not say exactly when she would go, but she
-      would make it as soon as possible, for she was most anxious for the study.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      While they talked, the Angel was busy packing a box of sandwiches, cake,
-      fruit, and flowers. She gave him a last frosty glass, thanked him
-      repeatedly for bringing news of new material; then Freckles went into the
-      night. He rode toward the Limberlost with his eyes on the stars. Presently
-      he removed his hat, hung it to his belt, and ruffled his hair to the sweep
-      of the night wind. He filled the air all the way with snatches of
-      oratorios, gospel hymns, and dialect and coon songs, in a startlingly
-      varied programme. The one thing Freckles knew that he could do was to
-      sing. The Duncans heard him coming a mile up the corduroy and could not
-      believe their senses. Freckles unfastened the box from his belt, and gave
-      Mrs. Duncan and the children all the eatables it contained, except one big
-      piece of cake that he carried to the sweet-loving Duncan. He put the
-      flowers back in the box and set it among his books. He did not say
-      anything, but they understood it was not to be touched.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thae's Freckles' flow'rs,&rdquo; said a tiny Scotsman, &ldquo;but,&rdquo; he added
-      cheerfully, &ldquo;it's oor sweeties!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' face slowly flushed as he took Duncan's cake and started toward
-      the swamp. While Duncan ate, Freckles told him something about the
-      evening, as well as he could find words to express himself, and the big
-      man was so amazed he kept forgetting the treat in his hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles mounted his wheel and began a spin that terminated only when
-      the biggest Plymouth Rock in Duncan's coop saluted a new day, and long
-      lines of light reddened the east. As he rode he sang, while he sang he
-      worshiped, but the god he tried to glorify was a dim and faraway mystery.
-      The Angel was warm flesh and blood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Every time he passed the little bark-covered imprint on the trail he
-      dismounted, removed his hat, solemnly knelt and laid his lips on the
-      impression. Because he kept no account himself, only the laughing-faced
-      old man of the moon knew how often it happened; and as from the beginning,
-      to the follies of earth that gentleman has ever been kind.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With the near approach of dawn Freckles tuned his last note. Wearied
-      almost to falling, he turned from the trail into the path leading to the
-      cabin for a few hours' rest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      As Freckles left the trail, from the swale close the south entrance, four
-      large muscular men arose and swiftly and carefully entered the swamp by
-      the wagon road. Two of them carried a big saw, the third, coils of rope
-      and wire, and all of them were heavily armed. They left one man on guard
-      at the entrance. The other three made their way through the darkness as
-      best they could, and were soon at Freckles' room. He had left the swamp on
-      his wheel from the west trail. They counted on his returning on the wheel
-      and circling the east line before he came there.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A little below the west entrance to Freckles' room, Black Jack stepped
-      into the swale, and binding a wire tightly around a scrub oak, carried it
-      below the waving grasses, stretched it taut across the trail, and fastened
-      it to a tree in the swamp. Then he obliterated all signs of his work, and
-      arranged the grass over the wire until it was so completely covered that
-      only minute examination would reveal it. They entered Freckles' room with
-      coarse oaths and jests. In a few moments, his specimen case with its
-      precious contents was rolled into the swamp, while the saw was eating into
-      one of the finest trees of the Limberlost.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The first report from the man on watch was that Duncan had driven to the
-      South camp; the second, that Freckles was coming. The man watching was
-      sent to see on which side the boy turned into the path; as they had
-      expected, he took the east. He was a little tired and his head was rather
-      stupid, for he had not been able to sleep as he had hoped, but he was very
-      happy. Although he watched until his eyes ached, he could see no sign of
-      anyone having entered the swamp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He called a cheery greeting to all his chickens. At Sleepy Snake Creek he
-      almost fell from his wheel with surprise: the saw-bird was surrounded by
-      four lanky youngsters clamoring for breakfast. The father was strutting
-      with all the importance of a drum major.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No use to expect the Bird Woman today,&rdquo; said Freckles; &ldquo;but now wouldn't
-      she be jumping for a chance at that?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As soon as Freckles was far down the east line, the watch was posted below
-      the room on the west to report his coming. It was only a few moments
-      before the signal came. Then the saw stopped, and the rope was brought out
-      and uncoiled close to a sapling. Wessner and Black Jack crowded to the
-      very edge of the swamp a little above the wire, and crouched, waiting.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They heard Freckles before they saw him. He came gliding down the line
-      swiftly, and as he rode he was singing softly:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;Oh, do you love,
-     Oh, say you love&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      He got no farther. The sharply driven wheel struck the tense wire and
-      bounded back. Freckles shot over the handlebar and coasted down the trail
-      on his chest. As he struck, Black Jack and Wessner were upon him. Wessner
-      caught off an old felt hat and clapped it over Freckles' mouth, while
-      Black Jack twisted the boy's arms behind him and they rushed him into his
-      room. Almost before he realized that anything had happened, he was trussed
-      to a tree and securely gagged.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then three of the men resumed work on the tree. The other followed the
-      path Freckles had worn to Little Chicken's tree, and presently he reported
-      that the wires were down and two teams with the loading apparatus coming
-      to take out the timber. All the time the saw was slowly eating, eating
-      into the big tree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner went to the trail and removed the wire. He picked up Freckles'
-      wheel, that did not seem to be injured, and leaned it against the bushes
-      so that if anyone did pass on the trail he would not see it doubled in the
-      swamp-grass.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he came and stood in front of Freckles and laughed in devilish hate.
-      To his own amazement, Freckles found himself looking fear in the face, and
-      marveled that he was not afraid. Four to one! The tree halfway eaten
-      through, the wagons coming up the inside road&mdash;he, bound and gagged!
-      The men with Black Jack and Wessner had belonged to McLean's gang when
-      last he had heard of them, but who those coming with the wagons might be
-      he could not guess.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      If they secured that tree, McLean lost its value, lost his wager, and lost
-      his faith in him. The words of the Angel hammered in his ears. &ldquo;Oh,
-      Freckles, do watch closely!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The saw worked steadily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the tree was down and loaded, what would they do? Pull out, and leave
-      him there to report them? It was not to be hoped for. The place always had
-      been lawless. It could mean but one thing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A mist swept before his eyes, while his head swam. Was it only last night
-      that he had worshiped the Angel in a delirium of happiness? And now, what?
-      Wessner, released from a turn at the saw, walked to the flower bed, and
-      tearing up a handful of rare ferns by the roots, started toward Freckles.
-      His intention was obvious. Black Jack stopped him, with an oath.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see here, Dutchy,&rdquo; he bawled, &ldquo;mebby you think you'll wash his face
-      with that, but you won't. A contract's a contract. We agreed to take out
-      these trees and leave him for you to dispose of whatever way you please,
-      provided you shut him up eternally on this deal. But I'll not see a tied
-      man tormented by a fellow that he can lick up the ground with, loose, and
-      that's flat. It raises my gorge to think what he'll get when we're gone,
-      but you needn't think you're free to begin before. Don't you lay a hand on
-      him while I'm here! What do you say, boys?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I say yes,&rdquo; growled one of McLean's latest deserters. &ldquo;What's more, we're
-      a pack of fools to risk the dirty work of silencing him. You had him face
-      down and you on his back; why the hell didn't you cover his head and roll
-      him into the bushes until we were gone? When I went into this, I didn't
-      understand that he was to see all of us and that there was murder on the
-      ticket. I'm not up to it. I don't mind lifting trees we came for, but I'm
-      cursed if I want blood on my hands.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, you ain't going to get it,&rdquo; bellowed Jack. &ldquo;You fellows only
-      contracted to help me get out my marked trees. He belong to Wessner, and
-      it ain't in our deal what happens to him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, and if Wessner finishes him safely, we are practically in for murder
-      as well as stealing the trees; and if he don't, all hell's to pay. I think
-      you've made a damnable bungle of this thing; that's what I think!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then keep your thoughts to yourself,&rdquo; cried Jack. &ldquo;We're doing this, and
-      it's all planned safe and sure. As for killing that buck&mdash;come to
-      think of it, killing is what he needs. He's away too good for this world
-      of woe, anyhow. I tell you, it's all safe enough. His dropping out won't
-      be the only secret the old Limberlost has never told. It's too dead easy
-      to make it look like he helped take the timber and then cut. Why, he's
-      played right into our hands. He was here at the swamp all last night, and
-      back again in an hour or so. When we get our plan worked out, even old
-      fool Duncan won't lift a finger to look for his carcass. We couldn't have
-      him going in better shape.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You just bet,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;I owe him all he'll get, and be damned to
-      you, but I'll pay!&rdquo; he snarled at Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So it was killing, then. They were not only after this one tree, but many,
-      and with his body it was their plan to kill his honor. To brand him a
-      thief, with them, before the Angel, the Bird Woman, the dear Boss, and the
-      Duncans&mdash;Freckles, in sick despair, sagged against the ropes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he gathered his forces and thought swiftly. There was no hope of
-      McLean's coming. They had chosen a day when they knew he had a big
-      contract at the South camp. The Boss could not come before tomorrow by any
-      possibility, and there would be no tomorrow for the boy. Duncan was on his
-      way to the South camp, and the Bird Woman had said she would come as soon
-      as she could. After the fatigue of the party, it was useless to expect her
-      and the Angel today, and God save them from coming! The Angel's father had
-      said they would be as safe in the Limberlost as at home. What would he
-      think of this?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sweat broke on Freckles' forehead. He tugged at the ropes whenever he
-      felt that he dared, but they were passed around the tree and his body
-      several times, and knotted on his chest. He was helpless. There was no
-      hope, no help. And after they had conspired to make him appear a runaway
-      thief to his loved ones, what was it that Wessner would do to him?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Whatever it was, Freckles lifted his head and resolved that he would bear
-      in mind what he had once heard the Bird Woman say. He would go out
-      bonnily. Never would he let them see, if he grew afraid. After all, what
-      did it matter what they did to his body if by some scheme of the devil
-      they could encompass his disgrace?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then hope suddenly rose high in Freckles' breast. They could not do that!
-      The Angel would not believe. Neither would McLean. He would keep up his
-      courage. Kill him they could; dishonor him they could not.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yet, summon all the fortitude he might, that saw eating into the tree
-      rasped his nerves worse and worse. With whirling brain he gazed into the
-      Limberlost, searching for something, he knew not what, and in blank horror
-      found his eyes focusing on the Angel. She was quite a distance away, but
-      he could see her white lips and angry expression.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Last week he had taken her and the Bird Woman across the swamp over the
-      path he followed in going from his room to the chicken tree. He had told
-      them the night before, that the butterfly tree was on the line close to
-      this path. In figuring on their not coming that day, he failed to reckon
-      with the enthusiasm of the Bird Woman. They must be there for the study,
-      and the Angel had risked crossing the swamp in search of him. Or was there
-      something in his room they needed? The blood surged in his ears as the
-      roar of the Limberlost in the wrath of a storm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He looked again, and it had been a dream. She was not there. Had she been?
-      For his life, Freckles could not tell whether he really had seen the
-      Angel, or whether his strained senses had played him the most cruel trick
-      of all. Or was it not the kindest? Now he could go with the vision of her
-      lovely face fresh with him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank You for that, oh God!&rdquo; whispered Freckles. &ldquo;'Twas more than kind of
-      You and I don't s'pose I ought to be wanting anything else; but if You
-      can, oh, I wish I could know before this ends, if 'twas me mother&rdquo;&mdash;Freckles
-      could not even whisper the words, for he hesitated a second and ended&mdash;&ldquo;IF
-      'TWAS ME MOTHER DID IT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Freckles! Oh, Freckles!&rdquo; the voice of the Angel came calling.
-      Freckles swayed forward and wrenched at the rope until it cut deeply into
-      his body.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hell!&rdquo; cried Black Jack. &ldquo;Who is that? Do you know?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles nodded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack whipped out a revolver and snatched the gag from Freckles' mouth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Say quick, or it's up with you right now, and whoever that is with you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's the girl the Bird Woman takes with her,&rdquo; whispered Freckles through
-      dry, swollen lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They ain't due here for five days yet,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;We got on to that
-      last week.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;but I found a tree covered with butterflies and
-      things along the east line yesterday that I thought the Bird Woman would
-      want extra, and I went to town to tell her last night. She said she'd come
-      soon, but she didn't say when. They must be here. I take care of the girl
-      while the Bird Woman works. Untie me quick until she is gone. I'll try to
-      send her back, and then you can go on with your dirty work.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He ain't lying,&rdquo; volunteered Wessner. &ldquo;I saw that tree covered with
-      butterflies and him watching around it when we were spying on him
-      yesterday.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, he leaves lying to your sort,&rdquo; snapped Black Jack, as he undid the
-      rope and pitched it across the room. &ldquo;Remember that you're covered every
-      move you make, my buck,&rdquo; he cautioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Freckles!&rdquo; came the Angel's impatient voice, closer and closer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I must be answering,&rdquo; said Freckles, and Jack nodded. &ldquo;Right here!&rdquo; he
-      called, and to the men: &ldquo;You go on with your work, and remember one thing
-      yourselves. The work of the Bird Woman is known all over the world. This
-      girl's father is a rich man, and she is all he has. If you offer hurt of
-      any kind to either of them, this world has no place far enough away or
-      dark enough for you to be hiding in. Hell will be easy to what any man
-      will get if he touches either of them!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, where are you?&rdquo; demanded the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Soulsick with fear for her, Freckles went toward her and parted the bushes
-      that she might enter. She came through without apparently giving him a
-      glance, and the first words she said were: &ldquo;Why have the gang come so
-      soon? I didn't know you expected them for three weeks yet. Or is this some
-      especial tree that Mr. McLean needs to fill an order right now?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles hesitated. Would a man dare lie to save himself? No. But to save
-      the Angel&mdash;surely that was different. He opened his lips, but the
-      Angel was capable of saving herself. She walked among them, exactly as if
-      she had been reared in a lumber camp, and never waited for an answer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, your specimen case!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Look! Haven't you noticed that it's
-      tipped over? Set it straight, quickly!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A couple of the men stepped out and carefully righted the case.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There! That's better,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Freckles, I'm surprised at your being
-      so careless. It would be a shame to break those lovely butterflies for one
-      old tree! Is that a valuable tree? Why didn't you tell us last night you
-      were going to take out a tree this morning? Oh, say, did you put your case
-      there to protect that tree from that stealing old Black Jack and his gang?
-      I bet you did! Well, if that wasn't bright! What kind of a tree is it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's a white oak,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Like those they make dining-tables and sideboards from?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My! How interesting!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I don't know a thing about timber, but
-      my father wants me to learn just everything I can. I am going to ask him
-      to let me come here and watch you until I know enough to boss a gang
-      myself. Do you like to cut trees, gentlemen?&rdquo; she asked with angelic
-      sweetness of the men.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Some of them appeared foolish and some grim, but one managed to say they
-      did.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Angel's eyes turned full on Black Jack, and she gave the most
-      natural little start of astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh! I almost thought that you were a ghost!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;But I see now
-      that you are really and truly. Were you ever in Colorado?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Jack.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I see you aren't the same man,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;You know, we were in
-      Colorado last year, and there was a cowboy who was the handsomest man
-      anywhere around. He'd come riding into town every night, and all we girls
-      just adored him! Oh, but he was a beauty! I thought at first glance you
-      were really he, but I see now he wasn't nearly so tall nor so broad as
-      you, and only half as handsome.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The men began to laugh while Jack flushed crimson. The Angel joined in the
-      laugh.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'll leave it to you! Isn't he handsome?&rdquo; she challenged. &ldquo;As for
-      that cowboy's face, it couldn't be compared with yours. The only trouble
-      with you is that your clothes are spoiling you. It's the dress those
-      cowboys wear that makes half their attraction. If you were properly
-      clothed, you could break the heart of the prettiest girl in the country.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      With one accord the other men looked at Black Jack, and for the first time
-      realized that he was a superb specimen of manhood, for he stood six feet
-      tall, was broad, well-rounded, and had dark, even skin, big black eyes,
-      and full red lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll tell you what!&rdquo; exclaimed the Angel. &ldquo;I'd just love to see you on
-      horseback. Nothing sets a handsome man off so splendidly. Do you ride?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Jack, and his eyes were burning on the Angel as if he would
-      fathom the depths of her soul.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Angel winsomely, &ldquo;I know what I just wish you'd do. I
-      wish you would let your hair grow a little longer. Then wear a blue
-      flannel shirt a little open at the throat, a red tie, and a broad-brimmed
-      felt hat, and ride past my house of evenings. I'm always at home then, and
-      almost always on the veranda, and, oh! but I would like to see you! Will
-      you do that for me?&rdquo; It is impossible to describe the art with which the
-      Angel asked the question. She was looking straight into Jack's face,
-      coarse and hardened with sin and careless living, which was now taking on
-      a wholly different expression. The evil lines of it were softening and
-      fading under her clear gaze. A dull red flamed into his bronze cheeks,
-      while his eyes were growing brightly tender.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said, and the glance he gave the men was of such a nature that
-      no one saw fit even to change countenance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, goody!&rdquo; she cried, tilting on her toes. &ldquo;I'll ask all the girls to
-      come see, but they needn't stick in! We can get along without them, can't
-      we?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack leaned toward her. He was the charmed fluttering bird, while the
-      Angel was the snake.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I rather guess!&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel drew a deep breath and surveyed him rapturously.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My, but you're tall!&rdquo; she commented. &ldquo;Do you suppose I ever will grow to
-      reach your shoulders?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She stood on tiptoe and measured the distance with her eyes. Then she
-      developed timid confusion, while her glance sought the ground.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wish I could do something,&rdquo; she half whispered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack seemed to increase an inch in height.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What?&rdquo; he asked hoarsely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Lariat Bill used always to have a bunch of red flowers in his shirt
-      pocket. The red lit up his dark eyes and olive cheeks and made him
-      splendid. May I put some red flowers on you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stared as he wheezed for breath. He wished the earth would open
-      and swallow him. Was he dead or alive? Since his Angel had seen Black Jack
-      she never had glanced his way. Was she completely bewitched? Would she
-      throw herself at the man's feet before them all? Couldn't she give him
-      even one thought? Hadn't she seen that he was gagged and bound? Did she
-      truly think that these were McLean's men? Why, she could not! It was only
-      a few days ago that she had been close enough to this man and angry enough
-      with him to peel the hat from his head with a shot! Suddenly a thing she
-      had said jestingly to him one day came back with startling force: &ldquo;You
-      must take Angels on trust.&rdquo; Of course you must! She was his Angel. She
-      must have seen! His life, and what was far more, her own, was in her
-      hands. There was nothing he could do but trust her. Surely she was working
-      out some plan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel knelt beside his flower bed and recklessly tore up by the roots
-      a big bunch of foxfire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;These stems are so tough and sticky,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I can't break them. Loan
-      me your knife,&rdquo; she ordered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As she reached for the knife, her back was for one second toward the men.
-      She looked into his eyes and deliberately winked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She severed the stems, tossed the knife to Freckles, and walking to Jack,
-      laid the flowers over his heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles broke into a sweat of agony. He had said she would be safe in a
-      herd of howling savages. Would she? If Black Jack even made a motion
-      toward touching her, Freckles knew that from somewhere he would muster the
-      strength to kill him. He mentally measured the distance to where his club
-      lay and set his muscles for a spring. But no&mdash;by the splendor of God!
-      The big fellow was baring his head with a hand that was unsteady. The
-      Angel pulled one of the long silver pins from her hat and fastened her
-      flowers securely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was quaking. What was to come next? What was she planning, and
-      oh! did she understand the danger of her presence among those men; the
-      real necessity for action?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As the Angel stepped from Jack, she turned her head to one side and peered
-      at him, quite as Freckles had seen the little yellow fellow do on the line
-      a hundred times, and said: &ldquo;Well, that does the trick! Isn't that fine?
-      See how it sets him off, boys? Don't you forget the tie is to be red, and
-      the first ride soon. I can't wait very long. Now I must go. The Bird Woman
-      will be ready to start, and she will come here hunting me next, for she is
-      busy today. What did I come here for anyway?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She glanced inquiringly around, and several of the men laughed. Oh, the
-      delight of it! She had forgotten her errand for him! Jack had a second
-      increase in height. The Angel glanced helplessly as if seeking a clue.
-      Then her eyes fell, as if by accident, on Freckles, and she cried, &ldquo;Oh, I
-      know now! It was those magazines the Bird Woman promised you. I came to
-      tell you that we put them under the box where we hide things, at the
-      entrance to the swamp as we came in. I knew I would need my hands crossing
-      the swamp, so I hid them there. You'll find them at the same old place.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's mighty risky for you to be crossing the swamp alone,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'm
-      surprised that the Bird Woman would be letting you try it. I know it's a
-      little farther, but it's begging you I am to be going back by the trail.
-      That's bad enough, but it's far safer than the swamp.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel laughed merrily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh stop your nonsense!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I'm not afraid! Not in the least! The
-      Bird Woman didn't want me to try following a path that I'd been over only
-      once, but I was sure I could do it, and I'm rather proud of the
-      performance. Now, don't go babying! You know I'm not afraid!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Freckles gently, &ldquo;I know you're not; but that has nothing to do
-      with the fact that your friends are afraid for you. On the trail you can
-      see your way a bit ahead, and you've all the world a better chance if you
-      meet a snake.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles had an inspiration. He turned to Jack imploringly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You tell her!&rdquo; he pleaded. &ldquo;Tell her to go by the trail. She will for
-      you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The implication of this statement was so gratifying to Black Jack that he
-      seemed again to expand and take on increase before their very eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You bet!&rdquo; exclaimed Jack. And to the Angel: &ldquo;You better take Freckles'
-      word for it, miss. He knows the old swamp better than any of us, except
-      me, and if he says 'go by the trail,' you'd best do it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel hesitated. She wanted to recross the swamp and try to reach the
-      horse. She knew Freckles would brave any danger to save her crossing the
-      swamp alone, but she really was not afraid, while the trail added over a
-      mile to the walk. She knew the path. She intended to run for dear life the
-      instant she felt herself from their sight, and tucked in the folds of her
-      blouse was a fine little 32-caliber revolver that her father had presented
-      her for her share in what he was pleased to call her military exploit. One
-      last glance at Freckles showed her the agony in his eyes, and immediately
-      she imagined he had some other reason. She would follow the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; she said, giving Jack a thrilling glance. &ldquo;If you say so,
-      I'll return by the trail to please you. Good-bye, everybody.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted the bushes and started toward the entrance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You damned fool! Stop her!&rdquo; growled Wessner. &ldquo;Keep her till we're loaded,
-      anyhow. You're playing hell! Can't you see that when this thing is found
-      out, there she'll be to ruin all of us. If you let her go, every man of us
-      has got to cut, and some of us will be caught sure.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack sprang forward. Freckles' heart muffled in his throat. The Angel
-      seemed to divine Jack's coming. She was humming a little song. She
-      deliberately stopped and began pulling the heads of the curious grasses
-      that grew all around her. When she straightened, she took a step backward
-      and called: &ldquo;Ho! Freckles, the Bird Woman wants that natural history
-      pamphlet returned. It belongs to a set she is going to have bound. That's
-      one of the reasons we put it under the box. You be sure to get them as you
-      go home tonight, for fear it rains or becomes damp with the heavy dews.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said Freckles, but it was in a voice that he never had heard
-      before.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Angel turned and sent a parting glance at Jack. She was
-      overpoweringly human and bewitchingly lovely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You won't forget that ride and the red tie,&rdquo; she half asserted, half
-      questioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack succumbed. Freckles was his captive, but he was the Angel's, soul and
-      body. His face wore the holiest look it ever had known as he softly
-      re-echoed Freckles' &ldquo;All right.&rdquo; With her head held well up, the Angel
-      walked slowly away, and Jack turned to the men.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Drop your damned staring and saw wood,&rdquo; he shouted. &ldquo;Don't you know
-      anything at all about how to treat a lady?&rdquo; It might have been a question
-      which of the cronies that crouched over green wood fires in the cabins of
-      Wildcat Hollow, eternally sucking a corncob pipe and stirring the endless
-      kettles of stewing coon and opossum, had taught him to do even as well as
-      he had by the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The men muttered and threatened among themselves, but they began working
-      desperately. Someone suggested that a man be sent to follow the Angel and
-      to watch her and the Bird Woman leave the swamp. Freckles' heart sank
-      within him, but Jack was in a delirium and past all caution.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he sneered. &ldquo;Mebby all of you had better give over on the saw and
-      run after the girl. I guess not! Seems to me I got the favors. I didn't
-      see no bouquets on the rest of you! If anybody follows her, I do, and I'm
-      needed here among such a pack of idiots. There's no danger in that baby
-      face. She wouldn't give me away! You double and work like forty, while me
-      and Wessner will take the axes and begin to cut in on the other side.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What about the noise?&rdquo; asked Wessner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No difference about the noise,&rdquo; answered Jack. &ldquo;She took us to be from
-      McLean's gang, slick as grease. Make the chips fly!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      So all of them attacked the big tree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles sat on one of his benches and waited. In their haste to fell the
-      tree and load it, so that the teamsters could start, and leave them free
-      to attack another, they had forgotten to rebind him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel was on the trail and safely started. The cold perspiration made
-      Freckles' temples clammy and ran in little streams down his chest. It
-      would take her more time to follow the trail, but her safety was Freckles'
-      sole thought in urging her to go that way. He tried to figure on how long
-      it would require to walk to the carriage. He wondered if the Bird Woman
-      had unhitched. He followed the Angel every step of the way. He figured on
-      when she would cross the path of the clearing, pass the deep pool where
-      his &ldquo;find-out&rdquo; frog lived, cross Sleepy Snake Creek, and reach the
-      carriage.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He wondered what she would say to the Bird Woman, and how long it would
-      take them to pack and start. He knew now that they would understand, and
-      the Angel would try to get the Boss there in time to save his wager. She
-      could never do it, for the saw was over half through, and Jack and Wessner
-      cutting into the opposite side of the tree. It appeared as if they could
-      fell at least that tree, before McLean could come, and if they did he lost
-      his wager.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When it was down, would they rebind him and leave him for Wessner to wreak
-      his insane vengeance on, or would they take him along to the next tree and
-      dispose of him when they had stolen all the timber they could? Jack had
-      said that he should not be touched until he left. Surely he would not run
-      all that risk for one tree, when he had many others of far greater value
-      marked. Freckles felt that he had some hope to cling to now, but he found
-      himself praying that the Angel would hurry.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Once Jack came to Freckles and asked if he had any water. Freckles arose
-      and showed him where he kept his drinking-water. Jack drank in great
-      gulps, and as he passed back the bucket, he said: &ldquo;When a man's got a
-      chance of catching a fine girl like that, he ought not be mixed up in any
-      dirty business. I wish to God I was out of this!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles answered heartily: &ldquo;I wish I was, too!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack stared at him a minute and then broke into a roar of rough laughter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Blest if I blame you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But you had your chance! We offered you
-      a fair thing and you gave Wessner his answer. I ain't envying you when he
-      gives you his.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You're six to one,&rdquo; answered Freckles. &ldquo;It will be easy enough for you to
-      be killing the body of me, but, curse you all, you can't blacken me soul!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'd give anything you could name if I had your honesty,&rdquo; said Jack.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the mighty tree fell, the Limberlost shivered and screamed with the
-      echo. Freckles groaned in despair, but the gang took heart. That was so
-      much accomplished. They knew where to dispose of it safely, with no
-      questions asked. Before the day was over, they could remove three others,
-      all suitable for veneer and worth far more than this. Then they would
-      leave Freckles to Wessner and scatter for safety, with more money than
-      they had ever hoped for in their possession.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XIII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack Falls
-      upon Her
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      On the line, the Angel gave one backward glance at Black Jack, to see that
-      he had returned to his work. Then she gathered her skirts above her knees
-      and leaped forward on the run. In the first three yards she passed
-      Freckles' wheel. Instantly she imagined that was why he had insisted on
-      her coming by the trail. She seized it and sprang on. The saddle was too
-      high, but she was an expert rider and could catch the pedals as they came
-      up. She stopped at Duncan's cabin long enough to remedy this, telling Mrs.
-      Duncan while working what was happening, and for her to follow the east
-      trail until she found the Bird Woman, and told her that she had gone after
-      McLean and for her to leave the swamp as quickly as possible.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Even with her fear for Freckles to spur her, Sarah Duncan blanched and
-      began shivering at the idea of facing the Limberlost. The Angel looked her
-      in the eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No matter how afraid you are, you have to go,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;If you don't
-      the Bird Woman will go to Freckles' room, hunting me, and they will have
-      trouble with her. If she isn't told to leave at once, they may follow me,
-      and, finding I'm gone, do some terrible thing to Freckles. I can't go&mdash;that's
-      flat&mdash;for if they caught me, then there'd be no one to go for help.
-      You don't suppose they are going to take out the trees they're after and
-      then leave Freckles to run and tell? They are going to murder the boy;
-      that's what they are going to do. You run, and run for life! For Freckles'
-      life! You can ride back with the Bird Woman.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel saw Mrs. Duncan started; then began her race.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Those awful miles of corduroy! Would they never end? She did not dare use
-      the wheel too roughly, for if it broke she never could arrive on time
-      afoot. Where her way was impassable for the wheel, she jumped off, and
-      pushing it beside her or carrying it, she ran as fast as she could. The
-      day was fearfully warm. The sun poured with the fierce baking heat of
-      August. The bushes claimed her hat, and she did not stop for it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Where it was at all possible, the Angel mounted and pounded over the
-      corduroy again. She was panting for breath and almost worn out when she
-      reached the level pike. She had no idea how long she had been&mdash;and
-      only two miles covered. She leaned over the bars, almost standing on the
-      pedals, racing with all the strength in her body. The blood surged in her
-      ears while her head swam, but she kept a straight course, and rode and
-      rode. It seemed to her that she was standing still, while the trees and
-      houses were racing past her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Once a farmer's big dog rushed angrily into the road and she swerved until
-      she almost fell, but she regained her balance, and setting her muscles,
-      pedaled as fast as she could. At last she lifted her head. Surely it could
-      not be over a mile more. She had covered two of corduroy and at least
-      three of gravel, and it was only six in all.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She was reeling in the saddle, but she gripped the bars with new energy,
-      and raced desperately. The sun beat on her bare head and hands. Just when
-      she was choking with dust, and almost prostrate with heat and exhaustion&mdash;crash,
-      she ran into a broken bottle. Snap! went the tire; the wheel swerved and
-      pitched over. The Angel rolled into the thick yellow dust of the road and
-      lay quietly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From afar, Duncan began to notice a strange, dust-covered object in the
-      road, as he headed toward town with the first load of the day's felling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He chirruped to the bays and hurried them all he could. As he neared the
-      Angel, he saw it was a woman and a broken wheel. He was beside her in an
-      instant. He carried her to a shaded fence-corner, stretched her on the
-      grass, and wiped the dust from the lovely face all dirt-streaked, crimson,
-      and bearing a startling whiteness around the mouth and nose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wheels were common enough. Many of the farmers' daughters owned and rode
-      them, but he knew these same farmers' daughters; this face was a
-      stranger's. He glanced at the Angel's tumbled clothing, the silkiness of
-      her hair, with its pale satin ribbon, and noticed that she had lost her
-      hat. Her lips tightened in an ominous quiver. He left her and picked up
-      the wheel: as he had surmised, he knew it. This, then, was Freckles' Swamp
-      Angel. There was trouble in the Limberlost, and she had broken down racing
-      to McLean. Duncan turned the bays into a fence-corner, tied one of them,
-      unharnessed the other, fastened up the trace chains, and hurried to the
-      nearest farmhouse to send help to the Angel. He found a woman, who took a
-      bottle of camphor, a jug of water, and some towels, and started on the
-      run.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Duncan put the bay to speed and raced to camp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel, left alone, lay still for a second, then she shivered and
-      opened her eyes. She saw that she was on the grass and the broken wheel
-      beside her. Instantly she realized that someone had carried her there and
-      gone after help. She sat up and looked around. She noticed the load of
-      logs and the one horse. Someone was riding after help for her!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, poor Freckles!&rdquo; she wailed. &ldquo;They may be killing him by now. Oh, how
-      much time have I wasted?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She hurried to the other bay, her fingers flying as she set him free.
-      Snatching up a big blacksnake whip that lay on the ground, she caught the
-      hames, stretched along the horse's neck, and, for the first time, the
-      fine, big fellow felt on his back the quality of the lash that Duncan was
-      accustomed to crack over him. He was frightened, and ran at top speed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel passed a wildly waving, screaming woman on the road, and a
-      little later a man riding as if he, too, were in great haste. The man
-      called to her, but she only lay lower and used the whip. Soon the feet of
-      the man's horse sounded farther and farther away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the South camp they were loading a second wagon, when the Angel
-      appeared riding one of Duncan's bays, lathered and dripping, and cried:
-      &ldquo;Everybody go to Freckles! There are thieves stealing trees, and they had
-      him bound. They're going to kill him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She wheeled the horse toward the Limberlost. The alarm sounded through
-      camp. The gang were not unprepared. McLean sprang to Nellie's back and
-      raced after the Angel. As they passed Duncan, he wheeled and followed.
-      Soon the pike was an irregular procession of barebacked riders, wildly
-      driving flying horses toward the swamp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss rode neck-and-neck with the Angel. He repeatedly commanded her to
-      stop and fall out of line, until he remembered that he would need her to
-      lead him to Freckles. Then he gave up and rode beside her, for she was
-      sending the bay at as sharp a pace as the other horses could keep and hold
-      out. He could see that she was not hearing him. He glanced back and saw
-      that Duncan was close. There was something terrifying in the appearance of
-      the big man, and the manner in which he sat his beast and rode. It would
-      be a sad day for the man on whom Duncan's wrath broke. There were four
-      others close behind him, and the pike filling with the remainder of the
-      gang; so McLean took heart and raced beside the Angel. Over and over he
-      asked her where the trouble was, but she only gripped the hames, leaned
-      along the bay's neck, and slashed away with the blacksnake. The steaming
-      horse, with crimson nostrils and heaving sides, stretched out and ran for
-      home with all the speed there was in him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When they passed the cabin, the Bird Woman's carriage was there and Mrs.
-      Duncan in the door wringing her hands, but the Bird Woman was nowhere to
-      be seen. The Angel sent the bay along the path and turned into the west
-      trail, while the men bunched and followed her. When she reached the
-      entrance to Freckles' room, there were four men with her, and two more
-      very close behind. She slid from the horse, and snatching the little
-      revolver from her pocket, darted toward the bushes. McLean caught them
-      back, and with drawn weapon, pressed beside her. There they stopped in
-      astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman blocked the entrance. Over a small limb lay her revolver.
-      It was trained at short range on Black Jack and Wessner, who stood with
-      their hands above their heads.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles, with the blood trickling down his face, from an ugly cut in his
-      temple, was gagged and bound to the tree again; the remainder of the men
-      were gone. Black Jack was raving as a maniac, and when they looked closer
-      it was only the left arm that he raised. His right, with the hand
-      shattered, hung helpless at his side, while his revolver lay at Freckles'
-      feet. Wessner's weapon was in his belt, and beside him Freckles' club.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' face was white, with colorless lips, but in his eyes was the
-      strength of undying courage. McLean pushed past the Bird Woman crying.
-      &ldquo;Hold steady on them only one minute more!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He snatched the revolver from Wessner's belt, and stooped for Jack's.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At that instant the Angel rushed past. She tore the gag from Freckles, and
-      seizing the rope knotted on his chest, she tugged at it desperately. Under
-      her fingers it gave way, and she hurled it to McLean. The men were
-      crowding in, and Duncan seized Wessner. As the Angel saw Freckles stand
-      out, free, she reached her arms to him and pitched forward. A fearful oath
-      burst from the lips of Black Jack. To have saved his life, Freckles could
-      not have avoided the glance of triumph he gave Jack, when folding the
-      Angel in his arms and stretching her on the mosses.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman cried out sharply for water as she ran to them. Someone
-      sprang to bring that, and another to break open the case for brandy. As
-      McLean arose from binding Wessner, there was a cry that Jack was escaping.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He was already far in the swamp, running for its densest part in leaping
-      bounds. Every man who could be spared plunged after him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Other members of the gang arriving, were sent to follow the tracks of the
-      wagons. The teamsters had driven from the west entrance, and crossing the
-      swale, had taken the same route the Bird Woman and the Angel had before
-      them. There had been ample time for the drivers to reach the road; after
-      that they could take any one of four directions. Traffic was heavy, and
-      lumber wagons were passing almost constantly, so the men turned back and
-      joined the more exciting hunt for a man. The remainder of the gang joined
-      them, also farmers of the region and travelers attracted by the
-      disturbance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Watchers were set along the trail at short intervals. They patrolled the
-      line and roads through the swamp that night, with lighted torches, and the
-      next day McLean headed as thorough a search as he felt could be made of
-      one side, while Duncan covered the other; but Black Jack could not be
-      found. Spies were set around his home, in Wildcat Hollow, to ascertain if
-      he reached there or aid was being sent in any direction to him; but it was
-      soon clear that his relatives were ignorant of his hiding-place, and were
-      searching for him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Great is the elasticity of youth. A hot bath and a sound night's sleep
-      renewed Freckles' strength, and it needed but little more to work the same
-      result with the Angel. Freckles was on the trail early the next morning.
-      Besides a crowd of people anxious to witness Jack's capture, he found four
-      stalwart guards, one at each turn. In his heart he was compelled to admit
-      that he was glad to have them there. Close noon, McLean placed his men in
-      charge of Duncan, and taking Freckles, drove to town to see how the Angel
-      fared. McLean visited a greenhouse and bought an armload of its finest
-      products; but Freckles would have none of them. He would carry his message
-      in a glowing mass of the Limberlost's first goldenrod.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman received them, and in answer to their eager inquiries, said
-      that the Angel was in no way seriously injured, only so bruised and shaken
-      that their doctor had ordered her to lie quietly for the day. Though she
-      was sore and stiff, they were having work to keep her in bed. Her callers
-      sent up their flowers with their grateful regards, and the Angel promptly
-      returned word that she wanted to see them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She reached both hands to McLean. &ldquo;What if one old tree is gone? You don't
-      care, sir? You feel that Freckles has kept his trust as nobody ever did
-      before, don't you? You won't forget all those long first days of fright
-      that you told us of, the fearful cold of winter, the rain, heat, and
-      lonesomeness, and the brave days, and lately, nights, too, and let him
-      feel that his trust is broken? Oh, Mr. McLean,&rdquo; she begged, &ldquo;say something
-      to him! Do something to make him feel that it isn't for nothing he has
-      watched and suffered it out with that old Limberlost. Make him see how
-      great and fine it is, and how far, far better he has done than you or any
-      of us expected! What's one old tree, anyway?&rdquo; she cried passionately.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was thinking before you came. Those other men were rank big cowards.
-      They were scared for their lives. If they were the drivers, I wager you
-      gloves against gloves they never took those logs out to the pike. My
-      coming upset them. Before you feel bad any more, you go look and see if
-      they didn't lose courage the minute they left Wessner and Black Jack, dump
-      that timber and run. I don't believe they ever had the grit to drive out
-      with it in daylight. Go see if they didn't figure on leaving the way we
-      did the other morning, and you'll find the logs before you reach the road.
-      They never risked taking them into the open, when they got away and had
-      time to think. Of course they didn't!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And, then, another thing. You haven't lost your wager! It never will be
-      claimed, because you made it with a stout, dark, red-faced man who drives
-      a bay and a gray. He was right back of you, Mr. McLean, when I came
-      yesterday. He went deathly white and shook on his feet when he saw those
-      men probably would be caught. Some one of them was something to him, and
-      you can just spot him for one of the men at the bottom of your troubles,
-      and urging those younger fellows to steal from you. I suppose he'd
-      promised to divide. You settle with him, and that business will stop.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She turned to Freckles. &ldquo;And you be the happiest man alive, because you
-      have kept your trust. Go look where I tell you and you'll find the logs. I
-      can see just about where they are. When they go up that steep little hill,
-      into the next woods after the cornfield, why, they could unloose the
-      chains and the logs would roll from the wagons themselves. Now, you go
-      look; and Mr. McLean, you do feel that Freckles has been brave and
-      faithful? You won't love him any the less even if you don't find the
-      logs.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's nerve gave way and she began to cry. Freckles could not endure
-      it. He almost ran from the room, with the tears in his eyes; but McLean
-      took the Angel from the Bird Woman's arms, and kissed her brave little
-      face, stroked her hair, and petted her into quietness before he left.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As they drove to the swamp, McLean so earnestly seconded all that the
-      Angel had said that he soon had the boy feeling much better.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, your Angel has a spice of the devil in her, but she's superb!
-      You needn't spend any time questioning or bewailing anything she does.
-      Just worship blindly, my boy. By heaven! she's sense, courage, and beauty
-      for half a dozen girls,&rdquo; said McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's altogether right you are, sir,&rdquo; affirmed Freckles heartily.
-      Presently he added, &ldquo;There's no question but the series is over now.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't think it!&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;The Bird Woman is working for success,
-      and success along any line is not won by being scared out. She will be
-      back on the usual day, and ten to one, the Angel will be with her. They
-      are made of pretty stern stuff, and they don't scare worth a cent. Before
-      I left, I told the Bird Woman it would be safe; and it will. You may do
-      your usual walking, but those four guards are there to remain. They are
-      under your orders absolutely. They are prohibited from firing on any bird
-      or molesting anything that you want to protect, but there they remain, and
-      this time it is useless for you to say one word. I have listened to your
-      pride too long. You are too precious to me, and that voice of yours is too
-      precious to the world to run any more risks.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am sorry to have anything spoil the series,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;and I'd
-      love them to be coming, the Angel especial, but it can't be. You'll have
-      to tell them so. You see, Jack would have been ready to stake his life she
-      meant what she said and did to him. When the teams pulled out, Wessner
-      seized me; then he and Jack went to quarreling over whether they should
-      finish me then or take me to the next tree they were for felling. Between
-      them they were pulling me around and hurting me bad. Wessner wanted to get
-      at me right then, and Jack said he shouldn't be touching me till the last
-      tree was out and all the rest of them gone. I'm belaying Jack really hated
-      to see me done for in the beginning; and I think, too, he was afraid if
-      Wessner finished me then he'd lose his nerve and cut, and they couldn't be
-      managing the felling without him; anyway, they were hauling me round like
-      I was already past all feeling, and they tied me up again. To keep me
-      courage up, I twits Wessner about having to tie me and needing another man
-      to help handle me. I told him what I'd do to him if I was free, and he
-      grabs up me own club and lays open me head with it. When the blood came
-      streaming, it set Jack raving, and he cursed and damned Wessner for a
-      coward and a softy. Then Wessner turned on Jack and gives it to him for
-      letting the Angel make a fool of him. Tells him she was just playing with
-      him, and beyond all manner of doubt she'd gone after you, and there was
-      nothing to do on account of his foolishness but finish me, get out, and
-      let the rest of the timber go, for likely you was on the way right then.
-      That drove Jack plum crazy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't think he was for having a doubt of the Angel before, but then he
-      just raved. He grabbed out his gun and turned on Wessner. Spang! It went
-      out of his fist, and the order comes: 'Hands up!' Wessner reached for
-      kingdom come like he was expecting to grab hold and pull himself up. Jack
-      puts up what he has left. Then he leans over to me and tells me what he'll
-      do to me if he ever gets out of there alive. Then, just like a snake
-      hissing, he spits out what he'll do to her for playing him. He did get
-      away, and with his strength, that wound in his hand won't be bothering him
-      long. He'll do to me just what he said, and when he hears it really was
-      she that went after you, why, he'll keep his oath about her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He's lived in the swamp all his life, sir, and everybody says it's always
-      been the home of cutthroats, outlaws, and runaways. He knows its most
-      secret places as none of the others. He's alive. He's in there now, sir.
-      Some way he'll keep alive. If you'd seen his face, all scarlet with
-      passion, twisted with pain, and black with hate, and heard him swearing
-      that oath, you'd know it was a sure thing. I ain't done with him yet, and
-      I've brought this awful thing on her.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And I haven't begun with him yet,&rdquo; said McLean, setting his teeth. &ldquo;I've
-      been away too slow and too easy, believing there'd be no greater harm than
-      the loss of a tree. I've sent for a couple of first-class detectives. We
-      will put them on his track, and rout him out and rid the country of him. I
-      don't propose for him to stop either our work or our pleasure. As for his
-      being in the swamp now, I don't believe it. He'd find a way out last
-      night, in spite of us. Don't you worry! I am at the helm now, and I'll see
-      to that gentleman in my own way.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wish to my soul you had seen and heard him!&rdquo; said Freckles,
-      unconvinced.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They entered the swamp, taking the route followed by the Bird Woman and
-      the Angel. They really did find the logs, almost where the Angel had
-      predicted they would be. McLean went to the South camp and had an
-      interview with Crowen that completely convinced him that the Angel was
-      correct there also. But he had no proof, so all he could do was to
-      discharge the man, although his guilt was so apparent that he offered to
-      withdraw the wager.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then McLean sent for a pack of bloodhounds and put them on the trail of
-      Black Jack. They clung to it, on and on, into the depths of the swamp,
-      leading their followers through what had been considered impassable and
-      impenetrable ways, and finally, around near the west entrance and into the
-      swale. Here the dogs bellowed, raved, and fell over each other in their
-      excitement. They raced back and forth from swamp to swale, but follow the
-      scent farther they would not, even though cruelly driven. At last their
-      owner attributed their actions to snakes, and as they were very valuable
-      dogs, abandoned the effort to urge them on. So that all they really
-      established was the fact that Black Jack had eluded their vigilance and
-      crossed the trail some time in the night. He had escaped to the swale;
-      from there he probably crossed the corduroy, and reaching the lower end of
-      the swamp, had found friends. It was a great relief to feel that he was
-      not in the swamp, and it raised the spirits of every man on the line,
-      though many of them expressed regrets that he who was undoubtedly most to
-      blame should escape, while Wessner, who in the beginning was only his
-      tool, should be left to punishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But for Freckles, with Jack's fearful oath ringing in his ears, there was
-      neither rest nor peace. He was almost ill when the day for the next study
-      of the series arrived and he saw the Bird Woman and the Angel coming down
-      the corduroy. The guards of the east line he left at their customary
-      places, but those of the west he brought over and placed, one near Little
-      Chicken's tree, and the other at the carriage. He was firm about the
-      Angel's remaining in the carriage, that he did not offer to have
-      unhitched. He went with the Bird Woman to secure the picture, which was
-      the easiest matter it had been at any time yet, for the simple reason that
-      the placing of the guards and the unusual movement around the swamp had
-      made Mr. and Mrs. Chicken timid, and they had not carried Little Chicken
-      the customary amount of food. Freckles, in the anxiety of the past few
-      days, had neglected him, and he had been so hungry, much of the time, that
-      when the Bird Woman held up a sweet-bread, although he had started toward
-      the recesses of the log at her coming, he stopped; with slightly opened
-      beak, he waited anxiously for the treat, and gave a study of great value,
-      showing every point of his head, also his wing and tail development.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the Bird Woman proposed to look for other subjects close about the
-      line, Freckles went so far as to tell her that Jack had made fearful
-      threats against the Angel. He implored her to take the Angel home and keep
-      her under unceasing guard until Jack was located. He wanted to tell her
-      all about it, but he knew how dear the Angel was to her, and he dreaded to
-      burden her with his fears when they might prove groundless. He allowed her
-      to go, but afterward blamed himself severely for having done so.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XIV
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;McLean,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan, as the Boss paused to greet her in passing the
-      cabin, &ldquo;do you know that Freckles hasna been in bed the past five nights
-      and all he's eaten in that many days ye could pack into a pint cup?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, what does the boy mean?&rdquo; demanded McLean. &ldquo;There's no necessity for
-      him being on guard, with the watch I've set on the line. I had no idea he
-      was staying down there.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He's no there,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan. &ldquo;He goes somewhere else. He leaves on
-      his wheel juist after we're abed and rides in close cock-crow or a little
-      earlier, and he's looking like death and nothing short of it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But where does he go?&rdquo; asked McLean in astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm no given to bearing tales out of school,&rdquo; said Sarah Duncan, &ldquo;but in
-      this case I'd tell ye if I could. What the trouble is I dinna ken. If it
-      is no' stopped, he's in for dreadful sickness, and I thought ye could find
-      out and help him. He's in sair trouble; that's all I know.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean sat brooding as he stroked Nellie's neck.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At last he said: &ldquo;I suspect I understand. At any rate, I think I can find
-      out. Thank you for telling me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye'll no need telling, once ye clap your eyes on him,&rdquo; prophesied Mrs.
-      Duncan. &ldquo;His face is all a glist'ny yellow, and he's peaked as a starving
-      caged bird.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean rode to the Limberlost, and stopping in the shade, sat waiting for
-      Freckles, whose hour for passing the foot of the lease had come.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Along the north line came Freckles, fairly staggering. When he turned east
-      and reached Sleepy Snake Creek, sliding through the swale as the long
-      black snake for which it was named, he sat on the bridge and closed his
-      burning eyes, but they would not remain shut. As if pulled by wires, the
-      heavy lids flew open, while the outraged nerves and muscles of his body
-      danced, twitched, and tingled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He bent forward and idly watched the limpid little stream flowing beneath
-      his feet. Stretching into the swale, it came creeping between an
-      impenetrable wall of magnificent wild flowers, vines, and ferns. Milkweed,
-      goldenrod, ironwort, fringed gentians, cardinal-flowers, and turtle-head
-      stood on the very edge of the creek, and every flower of them had a double
-      in the water. Wild clematis crowned with snow the heads of trees scattered
-      here and there on the bank.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From afar the creek appeared to be murky, dirty water. Really it was clear
-      and sparkling. The tinge of blackness was gained from its bed of muck
-      showing through the transparent current. He could see small and
-      wonderfully marked fish. What became of them when the creek spread into
-      the swamp? For one thing, they would make mighty fine eating for the
-      family of that self-satisfied old blue heron.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles sat so quietly that soon the brim of his hat was covered with
-      snake-feeders, rasping their crisp wings and singing while they rested.
-      Some of them settled on the club, and one on his shoulder. He was so
-      motionless; feathers, fur, and gauze were so accustomed to him, that all
-      through the swale they continued their daily life and forgot he was there.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The heron family were wading the mouth of the creek. Freckles idly
-      wondered whether the nerve-racking rasps they occasionally emitted
-      indicated domestic felicity or a raging quarrel. He could not decide. A
-      sheitpoke, with flaring crest, went stalking across a bare space close to
-      the creek's mouth. A stately brown bittern waded into the clear-flowing
-      water, lifting his feet high at every step, and setting them down
-      carefully, as if he dreaded wetting them, and with slightly parted beak,
-      stood eagerly watching around him for worms. Behind him were some mighty
-      trees of the swamp above, and below the bank glowed a solid wall of
-      goldenrod.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      No wonder the ancients had chosen yellow as the color to represent
-      victory, for the fierce, conquering hue of the sun was in it. They had
-      done well, too, in selecting purple as the emblem of royalty. It was a
-      dignified, compelling color, while in its warm tone there was a hint of
-      blood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was the Limberlost's hour to proclaim her sovereignty and triumph.
-      Everywhere she flaunted her yellow banner and trailed the purple of her
-      mantle, that was paler in the thistle-heads, took on strength in the first
-      opening asters, and glowed and burned in the ironwort.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He gazed into her damp, mossy recesses where high-piled riven trees
-      decayed under coats of living green, where dainty vines swayed and
-      clambered, and here and there a yellow leaf, fluttering down, presaged the
-      coming of winter. His love of the swamp laid hold of him and shook him
-      with its force.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Compellingly beautiful was the Limberlost, but cruel withal; for inside
-      bleached the uncoffined bones of her victims, while she had missed
-      cradling him, oh! so narrowly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He shifted restlessly; the movement sent the snake-feeders skimming. The
-      hum of life swelled and roared in his strained ears. Small turtles, that
-      had climbed on a log to sun, splashed clumsily into the water. Somewhere
-      in the timber of the bridge a bloodthirsty little frog cried sharply.
-      &ldquo;KEEL'IM! KEEL'IM!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles muttered: &ldquo;It's worse than that Black Jack swore to do to me,
-      little fellow.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A muskrat waddled down the bank and swam for the swamp, its pointed nose
-      riffling the water into a shining trail in its wake.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then, below the turtle-log, a dripping silver-gray head, with shining
-      eyes, was cautiously lifted, and Freckles' hand slid to his revolver.
-      Higher and higher came the head, a long, heavy, furcoated body arose, now
-      half, now three-fourths from the water. Freckles looked at his shaking
-      hand and doubted, but he gathered his forces, the shot rang, and the otter
-      lay quiet. He hurried down and tried to lift it. He scarcely could muster
-      strength to carry it to the bridge. The consciousness that he really could
-      go no farther with it made Freckles realize the fact that he was close the
-      limit of human endurance. He could bear it little, if any, longer. Every
-      hour the dear face of the Angel wavered before him, and behind it the
-      awful distorted image of Black Jack, as he had sworn to the punishment he
-      would mete out to her. He must either see McLean, or else make a trip to
-      town and find her father. Which should he do? He was almost a stranger, so
-      the Angel's father might not be impressed with what he said as he would if
-      McLean went to him. Then he remembered that McLean had said he would come
-      that morning. Freckles never had forgotten before. He hurried on the east
-      trail as fast as his tottering legs would carry him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He stopped when he came to the first guard, and telling him of his luck,
-      asked him to get the otter and carry it to the cabin, as he was anxious to
-      meet McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles passed the second guard without seeing him, and hurried to the
-      Boss. He took off his hat, wiped his forehead, and stood silent under the
-      eyes of McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss was dumbfounded. Mrs. Duncan had led him to expect that he would
-      find a change in Freckles, but this was almost deathly. The fact was
-      apparent that the boy scarcely knew what he was doing. His eyes had a
-      glazed, far-sighted appearance, that wrung the heart of the man who loved
-      him. Without a thought of preliminaries, McLean leaned in the saddle and
-      drew Freckles to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My poor lad!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My poor, dear lad! tell me, and we will try to
-      right it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles had twisted his fingers in Nellie's mane. At the kind words his
-      face dropped on McLean's thigh and he shook with a nervous chill. McLean
-      gathered him closer and waited.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the guard came with the otter, McLean without a word motioned him to
-      lay it down and leave them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; said McLean at last, &ldquo;will you tell me, or must I set to work
-      in the dark and try to find the trouble?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, I want to tell you! I must tell you, sir,&rdquo; shuddered Freckles. &ldquo;I
-      cannot be bearing it the day out alone. I was coming to you when I
-      remimbered you would be here.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He lifted his face and gazed across the swale, with his jaws set firmly a
-      minute, as if gathering his forces. Then he spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's the Angel, sir,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Instinctively McLean's grip on him tightened, and Freckles looked into the
-      Boss's face in wonder.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I tried, the other day,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;and I couldn't seem to make you
-      see. It's only that there hasn't been an hour, waking or sleeping, since
-      the day she parted the bushes and looked into me room, that the face of
-      her hasn't been before me in all the tinderness, beauty, and mischief of
-      it. She talked to me friendly like. She trusted me entirely to take right
-      care of her. She helped me with things about me books. She traited me like
-      I was born a gintleman, and shared with me as if I were of her own blood.
-      She walked the streets of the town with me before her friends with all the
-      pride of a queen. She forgot herself and didn't mind the Bird Woman, and
-      run big risks to help me out that first day, sir. This last time she
-      walked into that gang of murderers, took their leader, and twisted him to
-      the will of her. She outdone him and raced the life almost out of her
-      trying to save me.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Since I can remimber, whatever the thing was that happened to me in the
-      beginning has been me curse. I've been bitter, hard, and smarting under it
-      hopelessly. She came by, and found me voice, and put hope of life and
-      success like other men into me in spite of it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles held up his maimed arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Look at it, sir!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A thousand times I've cursed it, hanging
-      there helpless. She took it on the street, before all the people, just as
-      if she didn't see that it was a thing to hide and shrink from. Again and
-      again I've had the feeling with her, if I didn't entirely forget it, that
-      she didn't see it was gone and I must he pointing it out to her. Her touch
-      on it was so sacred-like, at times since I've caught meself looking at the
-      awful thing near like I was proud of it, sir. If I had been born your son
-      she couldn't be traiting me more as her equal, and she can't help knowing
-      you ain't truly me father. Nobody can know the homeliness or the ignorance
-      of me better than I do, and all me lack of birth, relatives, and money,
-      and what's it all to her?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stepped back, squared his shoulders, and with a royal lift of his
-      head looked straight into the Boss's eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You saw her in the beautiful little room of her, and you can't be
-      forgetting how she begged and plead with you for me. She touched me body,
-      and 'twas sanctified. She laid her lips on my brow, and 'twas sacrament.
-      Nobody knows the height of her better than me. Nobody's studied my depths
-      closer. There's no bridge for the great distance between us, sir, and
-      clearest of all, I'm for realizing it: but she risked terrible things when
-      she came to me among that gang of thieves. She wore herself past bearing
-      to save me from such an easy thing as death! Now, here's me, a man, a big,
-      strong man, and letting her live under that fearful oath, so worse than
-      any death 'twould be for her, and lifting not a finger to save her. I
-      cannot hear it, sir. It's killing me by inches! Black Jack's hand may not
-      have been hurt so bad. Any hour he may be creeping up behind her! Any
-      minute the awful revenge he swore to be taking may in some way fall on
-      her, and I haven't even warned her father. I can't stay here doing nothing
-      another hour. The five nights gone I've watched under her windows, but
-      there's the whole of the day. She's her own horse and little cart, and's
-      free to be driving through the town and country as she pleases. If any
-      evil comes to her through Black Jack, it comes from her angel-like
-      goodness to me. Somewhere he's hiding! Somewhere he is waiting his chance!
-      Somewhere he is reaching out for her! I tell you I cannot, I dare not be
-      bearing it longer!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, be quiet!&rdquo; said McLean, his eyes humid and his voice quivering
-      with the pity of it all. &ldquo;Believe me, I did not understand. I know the
-      Angel's father well. I will go to him at once. I have transacted business
-      with him for the past three years. I will make him see! I am only
-      beginning to realize your agony, and the real danger there is for the
-      Angel. Believe me, I will see that she is fully protected every hour of
-      the day and night until Jack is located and disposed of. And I promise you
-      further, that if I fail to move her father or make him understand the
-      danger, I will maintain a guard over her until Jack is caught. Now will
-      you go bathe, drink some milk, go to bed, and sleep for hours, and then be
-      my brave, bright old boy again?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles simply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But McLean could see the flesh was twitching on the lad's bones.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What was it the guard brought there?&rdquo; McLean asked in an effort to
-      distract Freckles' thoughts.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; Freckles said, glancing where the Boss pointed, &ldquo;I forgot it! 'Tis
-      an otter, and fine past believing, for this warm weather. I shot it at the
-      creek this morning. 'Twas a good shot, considering. I expected to miss.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles picked up the animal and started toward McLean with it, but
-      Nellie pricked up her dainty little ears, danced into the swale, and
-      snorted with fright. Freckles dropped the otter and ran to her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;For pity's sake, get her on the trail, sir,&rdquo; he begged. &ldquo;She's just about
-      where the old king rattler crosses to go into the swamp&mdash;the old
-      buster Duncan and I have been telling you of. I haven't a doubt but it was
-      the one Mother Duncan met. 'Twas down the trail there, just a little
-      farther on, that I found her, and it's sure to be close yet.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean slid from Nellie's back, led her into the trail farther down the
-      line, and tied her to a bush. Then he went to examine the otter. It was a
-      rare, big specimen, with exquisitely fine, long, silky hair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What do you want to do with it, Freckles?&rdquo; asked McLean, as he stroked
-      the soft fur lingeringly. &ldquo;Do you know that it is very valuable?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was for almost praying so, sir,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;As I saw it coming up
-      the bank I thought this: Once somewhere in a book there was a picture of a
-      young girl, and she was just a breath like the beautifulness of the Angel.
-      Her hands were in a muff as big as her body, and I thought it was so
-      pretty. I think she was some queen, or the like. Do you suppose I could
-      have this skin tanned and made into such a muff as that?&mdash;an enormous
-      big one, sir?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course you can,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;That's a fine idea and it's easy
-      enough. We must box and express the otter, cold storage, by the first
-      train. You stand guard a minute and I'll tell Hall to carry it to the
-      cabin. I'll put Nellie to Duncan's rig, and we'll drive to town and call
-      on the Angel's father. Then we'll start the otter while it is fresh, and
-      I'll write your instructions later. It would be a mighty fine thing for
-      you to give to the Angel as a little reminder of the Limberlost before it
-      is despoiled, and as a souvenir of her trip for you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted a face with a glow of happy color creeping into it and
-      eyes lighting with a former brightness. Throwing his arms around McLean,
-      he cried: &ldquo;Oh, how I love you! Oh, I wish I could make you know how I love
-      you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean strained him to his breast.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;God bless you, Freckles,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I do know! We're going to have some
-      good old times out of this world together, and we can't begin too soon.
-      Would you rather sleep first, or have a bite of lunch, take the drive with
-      me, and then rest? I don't know but sleep will come sooner and deeper to
-      take the ride and have your mind set at ease before you lie down. Suppose
-      you go.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Suppose I do,&rdquo; said Freckles, with a glimmer of the old light in his eyes
-      and newly found strength to shoulder the otter. Together they turned into
-      the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean noticed and spoke of the big black chickens.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They've been hanging round out there for several days past,&rdquo; said
-      Freckles. &ldquo;I'll tell you what I think it means. I think the old rattler
-      has killed something too big for him to swallow, and he's keeping guard
-      and won't let me chickens have it. I'm just sure, from the way the birds
-      have acted out there all summer, that it is the rattler's den. You watch
-      them now. See the way they dip and then rise, frightened like!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Suddenly McLean turned toward him with blanching face
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My God, sir!&rdquo; shuddered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He dropped the otter, caught up his club, and plunged into the swale.
-      Reaching for his revolver, McLean followed. The chickens circled higher at
-      their coming, and the big snake lifted his head and rattled angrily. It
-      sank in sinuous coils at the report of McLean's revolver, and together he
-      and Freckles stood beside Black Jack. His fate was evident and most
-      horrible.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said the Boss at last. &ldquo;We don't dare touch him. We will get a
-      sheet from Mrs. Duncan and tuck over him, to keep these swarms of insects
-      away, and set Hall on guard, while we find the officers.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' lips closed resolutely. He deliberately thrust his club under
-      Black Jack's body, and, raising him, rested it on his knee. He pulled a
-      long silver pin from the front of the dead man's shirt and sent it
-      spinning into the swale. Then he gathered up a few crumpled bright flowers
-      and dropped them into the pool far away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My soul is sick with the horror of this thing,&rdquo; said McLean, as he and
-      Freckles drove toward town. &ldquo;I can't understand how Jack dared risk
-      creeping through the swale, even in desperation. No one knew its dangers
-      better than he. And why did he choose the rankest, muckiest place to cross
-      the swamp?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't you think, sir, it was because it was on a line with the Limberlost
-      south of the corduroy? The grass was tallest there, and he counted on
-      those willows to screen him. Once he got among them, he would have been
-      safe to walk by stooping. If he'd made it past that place, he'd been sure
-      to get out.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'm as sorry for Jack as I know how to be,&rdquo; said McLean, &ldquo;but I
-      can't help feeling relieved that our troubles are over, for now they are.
-      With so dreadful a punishment for Jack, Wessner under arrest, and warrants
-      for the others, we can count on their going away and remaining. As for
-      anyone else, I don't think they will care to attempt stealing my timber
-      after the experience of these men. There is no other man here with Jack's
-      fine ability in woodcraft. He was an expert.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you ever hear of anyone who ever tried to locate any trees excepting
-      him?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, I never did,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;I am sure there was no one besides him.
-      You see, it was only with the arrival of our company that the other
-      fellows scented good stuff in the Limberlost, and tried to work in. Jack
-      knew the swamp better than anyone here. When he found there were two
-      companies trying to lease, he wanted to stand in with the one from which
-      he could realize the most. Even then he had trees marked that he was
-      trying to dispose of. I think his sole intention in forcing me to
-      discharge him from my gang was to come here and try to steal timber. We
-      had no idea, when we took the lease, what a gold mine it was.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's exactly what Wessner said that first day,&rdquo; said Freckles eagerly.
-      &ldquo;That 'twas a 'gold mine'! He said he didn't know where the marked trees
-      were, but he knew a man who did, and if I would hold off and let them get
-      the marked ones, there were a dozen they could get out in a few days.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; cried McLean. &ldquo;You don't mean a dozen!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's what he said, sir&mdash;a dozen. He said they couldn't tell how
-      the grain of all of them would work up, of course, but they were all worth
-      taking out, and five or six were real gold mines. This makes three they've
-      tried, so there must be nine more marked, and several of them for being
-      just fine.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I wish I knew which they are,&rdquo; said McLean, &ldquo;so I could get them
-      out first.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have been thinking,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I believe if you will leave one of
-      the guards on the line&mdash;say Hall&mdash;that I will begin on the
-      swamp, at the north end, and lay it off in sections, and try to hunt out
-      the marked trees. I suppose they are all marked something like that first
-      maple on the line was. Wessner mentioned another good one not so far from
-      that. He said it was best of all. I'd be having the swelled head if I
-      could find that. Of course, I don't know a thing about the trees, but I
-      could hunt for the marks. Jack was so good at it he could tell some of
-      them by the bark, but all he wanted to take that we've found so far have
-      just had a deep chip cut out, rather low down, and where the bushes were
-      thick over it. I believe I could be finding some of them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good head!&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;We will do that. You may begin as soon as you
-      are rested. And about things you come across in the swamp, Freckles&mdash;the
-      most trifling little thing that you think the Bird Woman would want, take
-      your wheel and go after her at any time. I'll leave two men on the line,
-      so that you will have one on either side, and you can come and go as you
-      please. Have you stopped to think of all we owe her, my boy?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis; and the Angel&mdash;we owe her a lot, too,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I owe
-      her me life and honor. It's lying awake nights I'll have to be trying to
-      think how I'm ever to pay her up.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, begin with the muff,&rdquo; suggested McLean. &ldquo;That should be fine.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He bent down and ruffled the rich fur of the otter lying at his feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't exactly see how it comes to be in such splendid fur in summer.
-      Their coats are always thick in cold weather, but this scarcely could be
-      improved. I'll wire Cooper to be watching for it. They must have it fresh.
-      When it's tanned we won't spare any expense in making it up. It should be
-      a royal thing, and some way I think it will exactly suit the Angel. I
-      can't think of anything that would be more appropriate for her.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Neither can I,&rdquo; agreed Freckles heartily. &ldquo;When I reach the city there's
-      one other thing, if I've the money after the muff is finished.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He told McLean of Mrs. Duncan's desire for a hat similar to the Angel's.
-      He hesitated a little in the telling, keeping sharp watch on McLean's
-      face. When he saw the Boss's eyes were full of comprehension and sympathy,
-      he loved him anew, for, as ever, McLean was quick to understand. Instead
-      of laughing, he said: &ldquo;I think you'll have to let me in on that, too. You
-      mustn't be selfish, you know. I'll tell you what we'll do. Send it for
-      Christmas. I'll be home then, and we can fill a box. You get the hat. I'll
-      add a dress and wrap. You buy Duncan a hat and gloves. I'll send him a big
-      overcoat, and we'll put in a lot of little stuff for the babies. Won't
-      that be fun?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles fairly shivered with delight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That would be away too serious for fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That would be
-      heavenly. How long will it be?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He began counting the time, and McLean deliberately set himself to
-      encourage Freckles and keep his thoughts from the trouble of the past few
-      days, for he had been overwrought and needed quiet and rest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XV
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little Chicken
-      Furnishes the Subject
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      A week later everything at the Limberlost was precisely as it had been
-      before the tragedy, except the case in Freckles' room now rested on the
-      stump of the newly felled tree. Enough of the vines were left to cover it
-      prettily, and every vestige of the havoc of a few days before was gone.
-      New guards were patrolling the trail. Freckles was roughly laying off the
-      swamp in sections and searching for marked trees. In that time he had
-      found one deeply chipped and the chip cunningly replaced and tacked in. It
-      promised to be quite rare, so he was jubilant. He also found so many
-      subjects for the Bird Woman that her coming was of almost daily
-      occurrence, and the hours he spent with her and the Angel were nothing
-      less than golden.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Limberlost was now arrayed as the Queen of Sheba in all her glory. The
-      first frosts of autumn had bejewelled her crown in flashing topaz, ruby,
-      and emerald. Around her feet trailed the purple of her garments, while in
-      her hand was her golden scepter. Everything was at full tide. It seemed as
-      if nothing could grow lovelier, and it was all standing still a few weeks,
-      waiting coming destruction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The swamp was palpitant with life. Every pair of birds that had flocked to
-      it in the spring was now multiplied by from two to ten. The young were
-      tame from Freckles' tri-parenthood, and so plump and sleek that they were
-      quite as beautiful as their elders, even if in many cases they lacked
-      their brilliant plumage. It was the same story of increase everywhere.
-      There were chubby little ground-hogs scudding on the trail. There were
-      cunning baby coons and opossums peeping from hollow logs and trees. Young
-      muskrats followed their parents across the lagoons.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      If you could come upon a family of foxes that had not yet disbanded, and
-      see the young playing with a wild duck's carcass that their mother had
-      brought, and note the pride and satisfaction in her eyes as she lay at one
-      side guarding them, it would be a picture not to be forgotten. Freckles
-      never tired of studying the devotion of a fox mother to her babies. To
-      him, whose early life had been so embittered by continual proof of neglect
-      and cruelty in human parents toward their children, the love of these
-      furred and feathered folk of the Limberlost was even more of a miracle
-      than to the Bird Woman and the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel liked the baby rabbits and squirrels. Earlier in the season,
-      when the young were yet very small, it so happened that at times Freckles
-      could give into her hands one of these little ones. Then it was pure joy
-      to stand back and watch her heaving breast, flushed cheek, and shining
-      eyes. Hers were such lovely eyes. Freckles had discovered lately that they
-      were not so dark as he had thought them at first, but that the length and
-      thickness of lash, by which they were shaded, made them appear darker than
-      they really were. They were forever changing. Now sparkling and darkling
-      with wit, now humid with sympathy, now burning with the fire of courage,
-      now taking on strength of color with ambition, now flashing indignantly at
-      the abuse of any creature.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She had carried several of the squirrel and bunny babies home, and had
-      littered the conservatory with them. Her care of them was perfect. She was
-      learning her natural history from nature, and having much healthful
-      exercise. To her, they were the most interesting of all, but the Bird
-      Woman preferred the birds, with a close second in the moths and
-      butterflies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Brown butterfly time had come. The edge of the swale was filled with
-      milkweed, and other plants beloved of them, and the air was golden with
-      the flashing satin wings of the monarch, viceroy, and argynnis. They
-      outnumbered those of any other color three to one.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Among the birds it really seemed as if the little yellow fellows were in
-      the preponderance. At least, they were until the redwinged blackbirds and
-      bobolinks, that had nested on the upland, suddenly saw in the swamp the
-      garden of the Lord and came swarming by hundreds to feast and adventure
-      upon it these last few weeks before migration. Never was there a finer
-      feast spread for the birds. The grasses were filled with seeds: so, too,
-      were weeds of every variety. Fall berries were ripe. Wild grapes and black
-      haws were ready. Bugs were creeping everywhere. The muck was yeasty with
-      worms. Insects filled the air. Nature made glorious pause for holiday
-      before her next change, and by none of the frequenters of the swamp was
-      this more appreciated than by the big black chickens.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They seemed to feel the new reign of peace and fullness most of all. As
-      for food, they did not even have to hunt for themselves these days, for
-      the feasts now being spread before Little Chicken were more than he could
-      use, and he was glad to have his parents come down and help him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He was a fine, big, overgrown fellow, and his wings, with quills of jetty
-      black, gleaming with bronze, were so strong they almost lifted his body.
-      He had three inches of tail, and his beak and claws were sharp. His
-      muscles began to clamor for exercise. He raced the forty feet of his home
-      back and forth many times every hour of the day. After a few days of that,
-      he began lifting and spreading his wings, and flopping them until the down
-      on his back was filled with elm fiber. Then he commenced jumping. The
-      funny little hops, springs, and sidewise bounds he gave set Freckles and
-      the Angel, hidden in the swamp, watching him, into smothered chuckles of
-      delight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sometimes he fell to coquetting with himself; and that was the funniest
-      thing of all, for he turned his head up, down, from side to side, and drew
-      in his chin with prinky little jerks and tilts. He would stretch his neck,
-      throw up his head, turn it to one side and smirk&mdash;actually smirk, the
-      most complacent and self-satisfied smirk that anyone ever saw on the face
-      of a bird. It was so comical that Freckles and the Angel told the Bird
-      Woman of it one day.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When she finished her work on Little Chicken, she left them the camera
-      ready for use, telling them they might hide in the bushes and watch. If
-      Little Chicken came out and truly smirked, and they could squeeze the bulb
-      at the proper moment to snap him, she would be more than delighted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles and the Angel quietly curled beside a big log, and with eager
-      eyes and softest breathing they patiently waited; but Little Chicken had
-      feasted before they told of his latest accomplishment. He was tired and
-      sleepy, so he went into the log to bed, and for an hour he never stirred.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They were becoming anxious, for the light soon would be gone, and they had
-      so wanted to try for the picture. At last Little Chicken lifted his head,
-      opened his beak, and gaped widely. He dozed a minute or two more. The
-      Angel said that was his beauty sleep. Then he lazily gaped again and stood
-      up, stretching and yawning. He ambled leisurely toward the gateway, and
-      the Angel said: &ldquo;Now, we may have a chance, at last.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I do hope so,&rdquo; shivered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With one accord they arose to their knees and trained their eyes on the
-      mouth of the log. The light was full and strong. Little Chicken prospected
-      again with no results. He dressed his plumage, polished his beak, and when
-      he felt fine and in full toilet he began to flirt with himself. Freckles'
-      eyes snapped and his breath sucked between his clenched teeth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He's going to do it!&rdquo; whispered the Angel. &ldquo;That will come next. You'll
-      best give me that bulb!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; assented Freckles, but he was looking at the log and he made no
-      move to relinquish the bulb.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Little Chicken nodded daintily and ruffled his feathers. He gave his head
-      sundry little sidewise jerks and rapidly shifted his point of vision. Once
-      there was the fleeting little ghost of a smirk.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now!&mdash;No!&rdquo; snapped the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles leaned toward the bird. Tensely he waited. Unconsciously the hand
-      of the Angel clasped his. He scarcely knew it was there. Suddenly Little
-      Chicken sprang straight in the air and landed with a thud. The Angel
-      started slightly, but Freckles was immovable. Then, as if in approval of
-      his last performance, the big, overgrown baby wheeled until he was more
-      than three-quarters, almost full side, toward the camera, straightened on
-      his legs, squared his shoulders, stretched his neck full height, drew in
-      his chin and smirked his most pronounced smirk, directly in the face of
-      the lens.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' fingers closed on the bulb convulsively, and the Angel's closed
-      on his at the instant. Then she heaved a great sigh of relief and lifted
-      her hands to push back the damp, clustering hair from her face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How soon do you s'pose it will be finished?&rdquo; came Freckles' strident
-      whisper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For the first time the Angel looked at him. He was on his knees, leaning
-      forward, his eyes directed toward the bird, the perspiration running in
-      little streams down his red, mosquito-bitten face. His hat was awry, his
-      bright hair rampant, his breast heaving with excitement, while he yet
-      gripped the bulb with every ounce of strength in his body.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you think we were for getting it?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel could only nod. Freckles heaved a deep sigh of relief.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, if that ain't the hardest work I ever did in me life!&rdquo; he
-      exclaimed. &ldquo;It's no wonder the Bird Woman's for coming out of the swamp
-      looking as if she's been through a fire, a flood, and a famine, if that's
-      what she goes through day after day. But if you think we got it, why, it's
-      worth all it took, and I'm glad as ever you are, sure!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      They put the holders in the case, carefully closed the camera, set it in
-      also, and carried it to the road.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles exulted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, let's be telling the Bird Woman about it!&rdquo; he shouted, wildly
-      dancing and swinging his hat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We got it! We got it! I bet a farm we got it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Hand in hand they ran to the north end of the swamp, yelling &ldquo;We got it!&rdquo;
-       like young Comanches, and never gave a thought to what they might do until
-      a big blue-gray bird, with long neck and trailing legs, arose on flapping
-      wings and sailed over the Limberlost.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel became white to the lips and gripped Freckles with both hands.
-      He gulped with mortification and turned his back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To frighten her subject away carelessly! It was the head crime in the Bird
-      Woman's category. She extended her hands as she arose, baked, blistered,
-      and dripping, and exclaimed: &ldquo;Bless you, my children! Bless you!&rdquo; And it
-      truly sounded as if she meant it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, why&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; stammered the bewildered Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles hurried into the breach.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You must be for blaming it every bit on me. I was thinking we got Little
-      Chicken's picture real good. I was so drunk with the joy of it I lost all
-      me senses and, 'Let's run tell the Bird Woman,' says I. Like a fool I was
-      for running, and I sort of dragged the Angel along.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Freckles!&rdquo; expostulated the Angel. &ldquo;Are you loony? Of course, it was
-      all my fault! I've been with her hundreds of times. I knew perfectly well
-      that I wasn't to let anything&mdash;NOT ANYTHING&mdash;scare her bird
-      away! I was so crazy I forgot. The blame is all mine, and she'll never
-      forgive me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;She will, too!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;Wasn't you for telling me that very
-      first day that when people scared her birds away she just killed them!
-      It's all me foolishness, and I'll never forgive meself!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman plunged into the swale at the mouth of Sleepy Snake Creek,
-      and came wading toward them, with a couple of cameras and dripping
-      tripods.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you will permit me a word, my infants,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I will explain to
-      you that I have had three shots at that fellow.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel heaved a deep sigh of relief, and Freckles' face cleared a
-      little.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Two of them,&rdquo; continued the Bird Woman, &ldquo;in the rushes&mdash;one facing,
-      crest lowered; one light on back, crest flared; and the last on wing, when
-      you came up. I simply had been praying for something to make him arise
-      from that side, so that he would fly toward the camera, for he had waded
-      around until in my position I couldn't do it myself. See? Behold in
-      yourselves the answer to the prayers of the long-suffering!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles took a step toward her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Are you really meaning that?&rdquo; he asked wonderingly. &ldquo;Only think, Angel,
-      we did the right thing! She won't lose her picture through the
-      carelessness of us, when she's waited and soaked nearly two hours. She's
-      not angry with us!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Never was in a sweeter temper in my life,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman, busily
-      cleaning and packing the cameras.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles removed his hat and solemnly held out his hand. With equal
-      solemnity the Angel grasped it. The Bird Woman laughed alone, for to them
-      the situation had been too serious to develop any of the elements of fun.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then they loaded the carriage, and the Bird Woman and the Angel started
-      for their homes. It had been a difficult time for all of them, so they
-      were very tired, but they were joyful. Freckles was so happy it seemed to
-      him that life could hold little more. As the Bird Woman was ready to drive
-      away he laid his hand on the lines and looked into her face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you suppose we got it?&rdquo; he asked, so eagerly that she would have given
-      much to be able to say yes with conviction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, my dear, I don't know,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I've no way to judge. If you made
-      the exposure just before you came to me, there was yet a fine light. If
-      you waited until Little Chicken was close the entrance, you should have
-      something good, even if you didn't catch just the fleeting expression for
-      which you hoped. Of course, I can't say surely, but I think there is every
-      reason to believe that you have it all right. I will develop the plate
-      tonight, make you a proof from it early in the morning, and bring it when
-      we come. It's only a question of a day or two now until the gang arrives.
-      I want to work in all the studies I can before that time, for they are
-      bound to disturb the birds. Mr. McLean will need you then, and I scarcely
-      see how we are to do without you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Moved by an impulse she never afterward regretted, she bent and laid her
-      lips on Freckles' forehead, kissing him gently and thanking him for his
-      many kindnesses to her in her loved work. Freckles started away so happy
-      that he felt inclined to keep watching behind to see if the trail were not
-      curling up and rolling down the line after him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XVI
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      From afar Freckles saw them coming. The Angel was standing, waving her
-      hat. He sprang on his wheel and raced, jolting and pounding, down the
-      corduroy to meet them. The Bird Woman stopped the horse and the Angel gave
-      him the bit of print paper. Freckles leaned the wheel against a tree and
-      took the proof with eager fingers. He never before had seen a study from
-      any of his chickens. He stood staring. When he turned his face toward them
-      it was transfigured with delight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see!&rdquo; he exclaimed, and began gazing again. &ldquo;Oh, me Little Chicken!&rdquo;
-       he cried. &ldquo;Oh me ilegant Little Chicken! I'd be giving all me money in the
-      bank for you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he thought of the Angel's muff and Mrs. Duncan's hat, and added, &ldquo;or
-      at least, all but what I'm needing bad for something else. Would you mind
-      stopping at the cabin a minute and showing this to Mother Duncan?&rdquo; he
-      asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Give me that little book in your pocket,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She folded the outer edges of the proof so that it would fit into the
-      book, explaining as she did so its perishable nature in that state.
-      Freckles went hurrying ahead, and they arrived in time to see Mrs. Duncan
-      gazing as if awestruck, and to hear her bewildered &ldquo;Weel I be drawed on!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles and the Angel helped the Bird Woman to establish herself for a
-      long day at the mouth of Sleepy Snake Creek. Then she sent them away and
-      waited what luck would bring to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, what shall we do?&rdquo; inquired the Angel, who was a bundle of nerves
-      and energy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Would you like to go to me room awhile?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you don't care to very much, I'd rather not,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I'll
-      tell you. Let's go help Mrs. Duncan with dinner and play with the baby. I
-      love a nice, clean baby.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      They started toward the cabin. Every few minutes they stopped to
-      investigate something or to chatter over some natural history wonder. The
-      Angel had quick eyes; she seemed to see everything, but Freckles' were
-      even quicker; for life itself had depended on their sharpness ever since
-      the beginning of his work at the swamp. They saw it at the same time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Someone has been making a flagpole,&rdquo; said the Angel, running the toe of
-      her shoe around the stump, evidently made that season. &ldquo;Freckles, what
-      would anyone cut a tree as small as that for?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, but I want to know!&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;No one came away here and cut
-      it for fun. They've taken it away. Let's go back and see if we can see it
-      anywhere around there.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She turned, retraced her footsteps, and began eagerly searching. Freckles
-      did the same.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There it is!&rdquo; he exclaimed at last, &ldquo;leaning against the trunk of that
-      big maple.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, and leaning there has killed a patch of dried bark,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-      &ldquo;See how dried it appears?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stared at her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel!&rdquo; he shouted, &ldquo;I bet you it's a marked tree!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Course it is!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;No one would cut that sapling and carry
-      it away there and lean it up for nothing. I'll tell you! This is one of
-      Jack's marked trees. He's climbed up there above anyone's head, peeled the
-      bark, and cut into the grain enough to be sure. Then he's laid the bark
-      back and fastened it with that pole to mark it. You see, there're a lot of
-      other big maples close around it. Can you climb to that place?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Freckles; &ldquo;if I take off my wading-boots I can.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then take them off,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;and do hurry! Can't you see that I
-      am almost crazy to know if this tree is a marked one?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      When they pushed the sapling over, a piece of bark as big as the crown of
-      Freckles' hat fell away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I believe it looks kind of nubby,&rdquo; encouraged the Angel, backing away,
-      with her face all screwed into a twist in an effort to intensify her
-      vision.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles reached the opening, then slid rapidly to the ground. He was
-      almost breathless while his eyes were flashing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The bark's been cut clean with a knife, the sap scraped away, and a big
-      chip taken out deep. The trunk is the twistiest thing you ever saw. It's
-      full of eyes as a bird is of feathers!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel was dancing and shaking his hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Freckles,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;I'm so delighted that you found it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But I didn't,&rdquo; said the astonished Freckles. &ldquo;That tree isn't my find;
-      it's yours. I forgot it and was going on; you wouldn't give up, and kept
-      talking about it, and turned back. You found it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You'd best be looking after your reputation for truth and veracity,&rdquo; said
-      the Angel. &ldquo;You know you saw that sapling first!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, after you took me back and set me looking for it,&rdquo; scoffed Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The clear, ringing echo of strongly swung axes came crashing through the
-      Limberlost.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Tis the gang!&rdquo; shouted Freckles. &ldquo;They're clearing a place to make the
-      camp. Let's go help!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hadn't we better mark that tree again?&rdquo; cautioned the Angel. &ldquo;It's away
-      in here. There's such a lot of them, and all so much alike. We'd feel good
-      and green to find it and then lose it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted the sapling to replace it, but the Angel motioned him
-      away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Use your hatchet,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I predict this is the most valuable tree in
-      the swamp. You found it. I'm going to play that you're my knight. Now, you
-      nail my colors on it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She reached up, and pulling a blue bow from her hair, untied and doubled
-      it against the tree. Freckles turned his eyes from her and managed the
-      fastening with shaking fingers. The Angel had called him her knight! Dear
-      Lord, how he loved her! She must not see his face, or surely her quick
-      eyes would read what he was fighting to hide. He did not dare lay his lips
-      on that ribbon then, but that night he would return to it. When they had
-      gone a little distance, they both looked back, and the morning breeze set
-      the bit of blue waving them a farewell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They walked at a rapid pace.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am sorry about scaring the birds,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;but it's almost
-      time for them to go anyway. I feel dreadfully over having the swamp
-      ruined, but isn't it a delight to hear the good, honest ring of those
-      axes, instead of straining your ears for stealthy sounds? Isn't it fine to
-      go openly and freely, with nothing worse than a snake or a poison-vine to
-      fear?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Freckles, with a long breath, &ldquo;it's better than you can dream,
-      Angel. Nobody will ever be guessing some of the things I've been through
-      trying to keep me promise to the Boss, and to hold out until this day.
-      That it's come with only one fresh stump, and the log from that saved, and
-      this new tree to report, isn't it grand? Maybe Mr. McLean will be
-      forgetting that stump when he sees this tree, Angel!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He can't forget it,&rdquo; said the Angel; and in answer to Freckles' startled
-      eyes she added, &ldquo;because he never had any reason to remember it. He
-      couldn't have done a whit better himself. My father says so. You're all
-      right, Freckles!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She reached him her hand, and as two children, they broke into a run when
-      they came closer the gang. They left the swamp by the west road and
-      followed the trail until they found the men. To the Angel it seemed
-      complete charm. In the shadiest spot on the west side of the line, at the
-      edge of the swamp and very close Freckles' room, they were cutting bushes
-      and clearing space for a big tent for the men's sleeping-quarters, another
-      for a dining-hall, and a board shack for the cook. The teamsters were
-      unloading, the horses were cropping leaves from the bushes, while each man
-      was doing his part toward the construction of the new Limberlost quarters.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles helped the Angel climb on a wagonload of canvas in the shade. She
-      removed her leggings, wiped her heated face, and glowed with happiness and
-      interest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gang had been sifted carefully. McLean now felt that there was not a
-      man in it who was not trustworthy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They all had heard of the Angel's plucky ride for Freckles' relief;
-      several of them had been in the rescue party. Others, new since that time,
-      had heard the tale rehearsed in its every aspect around the smudge-fires
-      at night. Almost all of them knew the Angel by sight from her trips with
-      the Bird Woman to their leases. They all knew her father, her position,
-      and the luxuries of her home. Whatever course she had chosen with them
-      they scarcely would have resented it, but the Angel never had been known
-      to choose a course. Her spirit of friendliness was inborn and inbred. She
-      loved everyone, so she sympathized with everyone. Her generosity was only
-      limited by what was in her power to give.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She came down the trail, hand in hand with the red-haired, freckled timber
-      guard whom she had worn herself past the limit of endurance to save only a
-      few weeks before, racing in her eagerness to reach them, and laughing her
-      &ldquo;Good morning, gentlemen,&rdquo; right and left. When she was ensconced on the
-      wagonload of tenting, she sat on a roll of canvas as a queen on her
-      throne. There was not a man of the gang who did not respect her. She was a
-      living exponent of universal brotherhood. There was no man among them who
-      needed her exquisite face or dainty clothing to teach him that the
-      deference due a gentlewoman should be paid her. That the spirit of good
-      fellowship she radiated levied an especial tribute of its own, and it
-      became their delight to honor and please her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As they raced toward the wagon&mdash;&ldquo;Let me tell about the tree, please?&rdquo;
-       she begged Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, sure!&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He probably would have said the same to anything she suggested. When
-      McLean came, he found the Angel flushed and glowing, sitting on the wagon,
-      her hands already filled. One of the men, who was cutting a scrub-oak, had
-      carried to her a handful of crimson leaves. Another had gathered a bunch
-      of delicate marsh-grass heads for her. Someone else, in taking out a bush,
-      had found a daintily built and lined little nest, fresh as when made.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She held up her treasures and greeted McLean, &ldquo;Good morning, Mr. Boss of
-      the Limberlost!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The gang shouted, while he bowed profoundly before her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Everyone listen!&rdquo; cried the Angel, climbing a roll of canvas. &ldquo;I have
-      something to say! Freckles has been guarding here over a year now, and he
-      presents the Limberlost to you, with every tree in it saved; for good
-      measure he has this morning located the rarest one of them all: the one in
-      from the east line, that Wessner spoke of the first day&mdash;nearest the
-      one you took out. All together! Everyone! Hurrah for Freckles!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      With flushing cheeks and gleaming eyes, gaily waving the grass above her
-      head, she led in three cheers and a tiger. Freckles slipped into the swamp
-      and hid himself, for fear he could not conceal his pride and his great
-      surging, throbbing love for her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel subsided on the canvas and explained to McLean about the maple.
-      The Boss was mightily pleased. He took Freckles and set out to re-locate
-      and examine the tree. The Angel was interested in the making of the camp,
-      so she preferred to remain with the men. With her sharp eyes she was
-      watching every detail of construction; but when it came to the stretching
-      of the dining-hall canvas she proceeded to take command. The men were
-      driving the rope-pins, when the Angel arose on the wagon and, leaning
-      forward, spoke to Duncan, who was directing the work.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I believe if you will swing that around a few feet farther, you will find
-      it better, Mr. Duncan,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;That way will let the hot sun in at
-      noon, while the sides will cut off the best breeze.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's a fact,&rdquo; said Duncan, studying the conditions.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So, by shifting the pins a little, they obtained comfort for which they
-      blessed the Angel every day. When they came to the sleeping-tent, they
-      consulted her about that. She explained the general direction of the night
-      breeze and indicated the best position for the tent. Before anyone knew
-      how it happened, the Angel was standing on the wagon, directing the
-      location and construction of the cooking-shack, the erection of the crane
-      for the big boiling-pots, and the building of the store-room. She
-      superintended the laying of the floor of the sleeping-tent lengthwise, So
-      that it would be easier to sweep, and suggested a new arrangement of the
-      cots that would afford all the men an equal share of night breeze. She
-      left the wagon, and climbing on the newly erected dining-table, advised
-      with the cook in placing his stove, table, and kitchen utensils.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When Freckles returned from the tree to join in the work around the camp,
-      he caught glimpses of her enthroned on a soapbox, cleaning beans. She
-      called to him that they were invited for dinner, and that they had
-      accepted the invitation.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the beans were steaming in the pot, the Angel advised the cook to
-      soak them overnight the next time, so that they would cook more quickly
-      and not burst. She was sure their cook at home did that way, and the CHEF
-      of the gang thought it would be a good idea. The next Freckles saw of her
-      she was paring potatoes. A little later she arranged the table.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She swept it with a broom, instead of laying a cloth; took the hatchet and
-      hammered the deepest dents from the tin plates, and nearly skinned her
-      fingers scouring the tinware with rushes. She set the plates an even
-      distance apart, and laid the forks and spoons beside them. When the cook
-      threw away half a dozen fruit-cans, she gathered them up and melted off
-      the tops, although she almost blistered her face and quite blistered her
-      fingers doing it. Then she neatly covered these improvised vases with the
-      Manila paper from the groceries, tying it with wisps of marshgrass. These
-      she filled with fringed gentians, blazing-star, asters, goldenrod, and
-      ferns, placing them the length of the dining-table. In one of the end cans
-      she arranged her red leaves, and in the other the fancy grass. Two men,
-      watching her, went away proud of themselves and said that she was &ldquo;a born
-      lady.&rdquo; She laughingly caught up a paper bag and fitted it jauntily to her
-      head in imitation of a cook's cap. Then she ground the coffee, and beat a
-      couple of eggs to put in, &ldquo;because there is company,&rdquo; she gravely
-      explained to the cook. She asked that delighted individual if he did not
-      like it best that way, and he said he did not know, because he never had a
-      chance to taste it. The Angel said that was her case exactly&mdash;she
-      never had, either; she was not allowed anything stronger than milk. Then
-      they laughed together.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She told the cook about camping with her father, and explained that he
-      made his coffee that way. When the steam began to rise from the big
-      boiler, she stuffed the spout tightly with clean marshgrass, to keep the
-      aroma in, placed the boiler where it would only simmer, and explained why.
-      The influence of the Angel's visit lingered with the cook through the
-      remainder of his life, while the men prayed for her frequent return.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She was having a happy time, when McLean came back jubilant, from his trip
-      to the tree. How jubilant he told only the Angel, for he had been obliged
-      to lose faith in some trusted men of late, and had learned discretion by
-      what he suffered. He planned to begin clearing out a road to the tree that
-      same afternoon, and to set two guards every night, for it promised to be a
-      rare treasure, so he was eager to see it on the way to the mills.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am coming to see it felled,&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;I feel a sort of
-      motherly interest in that tree.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean was highly amused. He would have staked his life on the honesty of
-      either the Angel or Freckles; yet their versions of the finding of the
-      tree differed widely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Tell me, Angel,&rdquo; the Boss said jestingly. &ldquo;I think I have a right to
-      know. Who really did locate that tree?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; she answered promptly and emphatically.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But he says quite as positively that it was you. I don't understand.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's legal look flashed into her face. Her eyes grew tense with
-      earnestness. She glanced around, and seeing no towel or basin, held out
-      her hand for Sears to pour water over them. Then, using the skirt of her
-      dress to dry them, she climbed on the wagon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll tell you, word for word, how it happened,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and then you
-      shall decide, and Freckles and I will agree with you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      When she had finished her version, &ldquo;Tell us, 'oh, most learned judge!'&rdquo;
-       she laughingly quoted, &ldquo;which of us located that tree?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Blest if I know who located it!&rdquo; exclaimed McLean. &ldquo;But I have a fairly
-      accurate idea as to who put the blue ribbon on it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss smiled significantly at Freckles, who just had come, for they had
-      planned that they would instruct the company to reserve enough of the
-      veneer from that very tree to make the most beautiful dressing table they
-      could design for the Angel's share of the discovery.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What will you have for yours?&rdquo; McLean had asked of Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If it's all the same to you, I'll be taking mine out in music lessons&mdash;begging
-      your pardon&mdash;voice culture,&rdquo; said Freckles with a grimace.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean laughed, for Freckles needed to see or hear only once to absorb
-      learning as the thirsty earth sucks up water.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel placed McLean at the head of the table. She took the foot, with
-      Freckles on her right, while the lumber gang, washed, brushed, and
-      straightened until they felt unfamiliar with themselves and each other,
-      filled the sides. That imposed a slight constraint. Then, too, the men
-      were afraid of the flowers, the polished tableware, and above all, of the
-      dainty grace of the Angel. Nowhere do men so display lack of good breeding
-      and culture as in dining. To sprawl on the table, scoop with their knives,
-      chew loudly, gulp coffee, and duck their heads as snapping-turtles for
-      every bite, had not been noticed by them until the Angel, sitting
-      straightly, suddenly made them remember that they, too, were possessed of
-      spines. Instinctively every man at the table straightened.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XVII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      To reach the tree was a more difficult task than McLean had supposed. The
-      gang could approach nearest on the outside toward the east, but after they
-      reached the end of the east entrance there was yet a mile of most
-      impenetrable thicket, trees big and little, and bushes of every variety
-      and stage of growth. In many places the muck had to be filled to give the
-      horses and wagons a solid foundation over which to haul heavy loads. It
-      was several days before they completed a road to the noble, big tree and
-      were ready to fell it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the sawing began, Freckles was watching down the road where it met
-      the trail leading from Little Chicken's tree. He had gone to the tree
-      ahead of the gang to remove the blue ribbon. Carefully folded, it now lay
-      over his heart. He was promising himself much comfort with that ribbon,
-      when he would leave for the city next month to begin his studies and dream
-      the summer over again. It would help to make things tangible. When he was
-      dressed as other men, and at his work, he knew where he meant to home that
-      precious bit of blue. It should be his good-luck token, and he would wear
-      it always to keep bright in memory the day on which the Angel had called
-      him her knight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How he would study, and oh, how he would sing! If only he could fulfill
-      McLean's expectations, and make the Angel proud of him! If only he could
-      be a real knight!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He could not understand why the Angel had failed to come. She had wanted
-      to see their tree felled. She would be too late if she did not arrive
-      soon. He had told her it would be ready that morning, and she had said she
-      surely would be there. Why, of all mornings, was she late on this?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean had ridden to town. If he had been there, Freckles would have asked
-      that they delay the felling, but he scarcely liked to ask the gang. He
-      really had no authority, although he thought the men would wait; but some
-      way he found such embarrassment in framing the request that he waited
-      until the work was practically ended. The saw was out, and the men were
-      cutting into the felling side of the tree when the Boss rode in.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His first word was to inquire for the Angel. When Freckles said she had
-      not yet come, the Boss at once gave orders to stop work on the tree until
-      she arrived; for he felt that she virtually had located it, and if she
-      desired to see it felled, she should. As the men stepped back, a stiff
-      morning breeze caught the top, that towered high above its fellows. There
-      was an ominous grinding at the base, a shiver of the mighty trunk, then
-      directly in line of its fall the bushes swung apart and the laughing face
-      of the Angel looked on them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A groan of horror burst from the dry throats of the men, and reading the
-      agony in their faces, she stopped short, glanced up, and understood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;South!&rdquo; shouted McLean. &ldquo;Run south!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel was helpless. It was apparent that she did not know which way
-      south was. There was another slow shiver of the big tree. The remainder of
-      the gang stood motionless, but Freckles sprang past the trunk and went
-      leaping in big bounds. He caught up the Angel and dashed through the
-      thicket for safety. The swaying trunk was half over when, for an instant,
-      a near-by tree stayed its fall. They saw Freckles' foot catch, and with
-      the Angel he plunged headlong.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A terrible cry broke from the men, while McLean covered his face.
-      Instantly Freckles was up, with the Angel in his arms, struggling on. The
-      outer limbs were on them when they saw Freckles hurl the Angel, face down,
-      in the muck, as far from him as he could send her. Springing after, in an
-      attempt to cover her body with his own, he whirled to see if they were yet
-      in danger, and with outstretched arms braced himself for the shock. The
-      branches shut them from sight, and the awful crash rocked the earth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean and Duncan ran with axes and saws. The remainder of the gang
-      followed, and they worked desperately. It seemed a long time before they
-      caught a glimpse of the Angel's blue dress, but it renewed their vigor.
-      Duncan fell on his knees beside her and tore the muck from underneath her
-      with his hands. In a few seconds he dragged her out, choking and stunned,
-      but surely not fatally hurt.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay a little farther under the tree, a big limb pinning him down.
-      His eyes were wide open. He was perfectly conscious. Duncan began mining
-      beneath him, but Freckles stopped him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You can't be moving me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You must cut off the limb and lift it.
-      I know.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Two men ran for the big saw. A number of them laid hold of the limb and
-      bore up. In a short time it was removed, and Freckles lay free.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The men bent over to lift him, but he motioned them away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't be touching me until I rest a bit,&rdquo; he pleaded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he twisted his head until he saw the Angel, who was wiping muck from
-      her eyes and face on the skirt of her dress.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Try to get up,&rdquo; he begged.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean laid hold of the Angel and helped her to her feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you think any bones are broken?&rdquo; gasped Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel shook her head and wiped muck.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see if you can find any, sir,&rdquo; Freckles commanded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel yielded herself to McLean's touch, and he assured Freckles that
-      she was not seriously injured.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles settled back, a smile of ineffable tenderness on his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank the Lord!&rdquo; he hoarsely whispered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel leaned toward him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, Freckles, you!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It's your turn. Please get up!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A pitiful spasm swept Freckles' face. The sight of it washed every vestige
-      of color from the Angel's. She took hold of his hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, get up!&rdquo; It was half command, half entreaty.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Easy, Angel, easy! Let me rest a bit first!&rdquo; implored Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She knelt beside him. He reached his arm around her and drew her closely.
-      He looked at McLean in an agony of entreaty that brought the Boss to his
-      knees on the other side.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Freckles!&rdquo; McLean cried. &ldquo;Not that! Surely we can do something! We
-      must! Let me see!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He tried to unfasten Freckles' neckband, but his fingers shook so clumsily
-      that the Angel pushed them away and herself laid Freckles' chest bare.
-      With one hasty glance she gathered the clothing together and slipped her
-      arm under his head. Freckles lifted his eyes of agony to hers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel nodded dumbly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles turned to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank you for everything,&rdquo; he panted. &ldquo;Where are the boys?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They are all here,&rdquo; said the Boss, &ldquo;except a couple who have gone for
-      doctors, Mrs. Duncan and the Bird Woman.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's no use trying to do anything,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You won't forget the
-      muff and the Christmas box. The muff especial?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      There was a movement above them so pronounced that it attracted Freckles'
-      attention, even in that extreme hour. He looked up, and a pleased smile
-      flickered on his drawn face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, if it ain't me Little Chicken!&rdquo; he cried hoarsely. &ldquo;He must be
-      making his very first trip from the log. Now Duncan can have his big
-      watering-trough.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It was Little Chicken that made me late,&rdquo; faltered the Angel. &ldquo;I was so
-      anxious to get here early I forgot to bring his breakfast from the
-      carriage. He must have been hungry, for when I passed the log he started
-      after me. He was so wabbly, and so slow flying from tree to tree and
-      through the bushes, I just had to wait on him, for I couldn't drive him
-      back.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course you couldn't! Me bird has too amazing good sinse to go back
-      when he could be following you,&rdquo; exulted Freckles, exactly as if he did
-      not realize what the delay had cost him. Then he lay silently thinking,
-      but presently he asked slowly: &ldquo;And so 'twas me Little Chicken that was
-      making you late, Angel?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A spasm of fierce pain shook Freckles, and a look of uncertainty crossed
-      his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All summer I've been thanking God for the falling of the feather and all
-      the delights it's brought me,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;but this looks as if&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He stopped short and raised questioning eyes to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I can't help being Irish, but I can help being superstitious,&rdquo; he said.
-      &ldquo;I mustn't be laying it to the Almighty, or to me bird, must I?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, dear lad,&rdquo; said McLean, stroking the brilliant hair. &ldquo;The choice lay
-      with you. You could have stood a rooted dolt like all the remainder of us.
-      It was through your great love and your high courage that you made the
-      sacrifice.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't you be so naming it, sir!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;It's just the reverse.
-      If I could be giving me body the hundred times over to save hers from
-      this, I'd be doing it and take joy with every pain.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He turned with a smile of adoring tenderness to the Angel. She was ghastly
-      white, and her eyes were dull and glazed. She scarcely seemed to hear or
-      understand what was coming, but she bravely tried to answer that smile.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is my forehead covered with dirt?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She shook her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You did once,&rdquo; he gasped.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Instantly she laid her lips on his forehead, then on each cheek, and then
-      in a long kiss on his lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean bent over him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; he said brokenly, &ldquo;you will never know how I love you. You
-      won't go without saying good-bye to me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      That word stung the Angel to quick comprehension. She started as if
-      arousing from sleep.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good-bye?&rdquo; she cried sharply, her eyes widening and the color rushing
-      into her white face. &ldquo;Good-bye! Why, what do you mean? Who's saying
-      good-bye? Where could Freckles go, when he is hurt like this, save to the
-      hospital? You needn't say good-bye for that. Of course, we will all go
-      with him! You call up the men. We must start right away.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's no use, Angel,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I'm thinking ivry bone in me breast
-      is smashed. You'll have to be letting me go!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will not,&rdquo; said the Angel flatly. &ldquo;It's no use wasting precious time
-      talking about it. You are alive. You are breathing; and no matter how
-      badly your bones are broken, what are great surgeons for but to fix you up
-      and make you well again? You promise me that you'll just grit your teeth
-      and hang on when we hurt you, for we must start with you as quickly as it
-      can be done. I don't know what has been the matter with me. Here's good
-      time wasted already.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Angel!&rdquo; moaned Freckles, &ldquo;I can't! You don't know how bad it is. I'll
-      die the minute you are for trying to lift me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course you will, if you make up your mind to do it,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-      &ldquo;But if you are determined you won't, and set yourself to breathing deep
-      and strong, and hang on to me tight, I can get you out. Really you must,
-      Freckles, no matter how it hurts, for you did this for me, and now I must
-      save you, so you might as well promise.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She bent over him, trying to smile encouragement with her fear-stiffened
-      lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You will promise, Freckles?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Big drops of cold sweat ran together on Freckles' temples.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel, darlin' Angel,&rdquo; he pleaded, taking her hand in his. &ldquo;You ain't
-      understanding, and I can't for the life of me be telling you, but indade,
-      it's best to be letting me go. This is my chance. Please say good-bye, and
-      let me slip off quick!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He appealed to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear Boss, you know! You be telling her that, for me, living is far worse
-      pain than dying. Tell her you know death is the best thing that could ever
-      be happening to me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Merciful Heaven!&rdquo; burst in the Angel. &ldquo;I can't endure this delay!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She caught Freckles' hand to her breast, and bending over him, looked
-      deeply into his stricken eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Angel, I give you my word of honor that I will keep right on breathing.'
-      That's what you are going to promise me,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Do you say it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles hesitated.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; imploringly commanded the Angel, &ldquo;YOU DO SAY IT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; gasped Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel sprang to her feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then that's all right,&rdquo; she said, with a tinge of her old-time briskness.
-      &ldquo;You just keep breathing away like a steam engine, and I will do all the
-      remainder.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The eager men gathered around her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's going to be a tough pull to get Freckles out,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but it's
-      our only chance, so listen closely and don't for the lives of you fail me
-      in doing quickly what I tell you. There's no time to spend falling down
-      over each other; we must have some system. You four there get on those
-      wagon horses and ride to the sleeping-tent. Get the stoutest cot, a couple
-      of comforts, and a pillow. Ride back with them some way to save time. If
-      you meet any other men of the gang, send them here to help carry the cot.
-      We won't risk the jolt of driving with him. The others clear a path out to
-      the road; and Mr. McLean, you take Nellie and ride to town. Tell my father
-      how Freckles is hurt and that he risked it to save me. Tell him I'm going
-      to take Freckles to Chicago on the noon train, and I want him to hold it
-      if we are a little late. If he can't, then have a special ready at the
-      station and another on the Pittsburgh at Fort Wayne, so we can go straight
-      through. You needn't mind leaving us. The Bird Woman will be here soon. We
-      will rest awhile.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She dropped into the muck beside Freckles and began stroking his hair and
-      hand. He lay with his face of agony turned to hers, and fought to smother
-      the groans that would tell her what he was suffering.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When they stood ready to lift him, the Angel bent over him in a passion of
-      tenderness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear old Limberlost guard, we're going to lift you now,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I
-      suspect you will faint from the pain of it, but we will be as easy as ever
-      we can, and don't you dare forget your promise!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A whimsical half-smile touched Freckles' quivering lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel, can a man be remembering a promise when he ain't knowing?&rdquo; he
-      asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You can,&rdquo; said the Angel stoutly, &ldquo;because a promise means so much more
-      to you than it does to most men.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A look of strength flashed into Freckles' face at her words.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am ready,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With the first touch his eyes closed, a mighty groan was wrenched from
-      him, and he lay senseless. The Angel gave Duncan one panic-stricken look.
-      Then she set her lips and gathered her forces again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I guess that's a good thing,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Maybe he won't feel how we are
-      hurting him. Oh boys, are you being quick and gentle?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She stepped to the side of the cot and bathed Freckles' face. Taking his
-      hand in hers, she gave the word to start. She told the men to ask every
-      able-bodied man they met to join them so that they could change carriers
-      often and make good time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman insisted upon taking the Angel into the carriage and
-      following the cot, but she refused to leave Freckles, and suggested that
-      the Bird Woman drive ahead, pack them some clothing, and be at the station
-      ready to accompany them to Chicago. All the way the Angel walked beside
-      the cot, shading Freckles' face with a branch, and holding his hand. At
-      every pause to change carriers she moistened his face and lips and watched
-      each breath with heart-breaking anxiety.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She scarcely knew when her father joined them, and taking the branch from
-      her, slipped an arm around her waist and almost carried her. To the city
-      streets and the swarm of curious, staring faces she paid no more attention
-      than she had to the trees of the Limberlost. When the train came and the
-      gang placed Freckles aboard, big Duncan made a place for the Angel beside
-      the cot.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With the best physician to be found, and with the Bird Woman and McLean in
-      attendance, the four-hours' run to Chicago began. The Angel constantly
-      watched over Freckles; bathed his face, stroked his hand, and gently
-      fanned him. Not for an instant would she yield her place, or allow anyone
-      else to do anything for him. The Bird Woman and McLean regarded her in
-      amazement. There seemed to be no end to her resources and courage. The
-      only time she spoke was to ask McLean if he were sure the special would be
-      ready on the Pittsburgh road. He replied that it was made up and waiting.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At five o'clock Freckles lay stretched on the operating-table of Lake View
-      Hospital, while three of the greatest surgeons in Chicago bent over him.
-      At their command, McLean picked up the unwilling Angel and carried her to
-      the nurses to be bathed, have her bruises attended, and to be put to bed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a place where it is difficult to surprise people, they were astonished
-      women as they removed the Angel's dainty stained and torn clothing, drew
-      off hose muck-baked to her limbs, soaked the dried loam from her silken
-      hair, and washed the beautiful scratched, bruised, dirt-covered body. The
-      Angel fell fast asleep long before they had finished, and lay deeply
-      unconscious, while the fight for Freckles' life was being waged.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Three days later she was the same Angel as of old, except that Freckles
-      was constantly in her thoughts. The anxiety and responsibility that she
-      felt for his condition had bred in her a touch of womanliness and
-      authority that was new. That morning she arose early and hovered near
-      Freckles' door. She had been allowed to remain with him constantly, for
-      the nurses and surgeons had learned, with his returning consciousness,
-      that for her alone would the active, highly strung, pain-racked sufferer
-      be quiet and obey orders. When she was dropping from loss of sleep, the
-      threat that she would fall ill had to be used to send her to bed. Then by
-      telling Freckles that the Angel was asleep and they would waken her the
-      moment he moved, they were able to control him for a short time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The surgeon was with Freckles. The Angel had been told that the word he
-      brought that morning would be final, so she curled in a window seat,
-      dropped the curtains behind her, and in dire anxiety, waited the opening
-      of the door.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Just as it unclosed, McLean came hurrying down the hall and to the
-      surgeon, but with one glance at his face he stepped back in dismay; while
-      the Angel, who had arisen, sank to the seat again, too dazed to come
-      forward. The men faced each other. The Angel, with parted lips and
-      frightened eyes, bent forward in tense anxiety.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I&mdash;I thought he was doing nicely?&rdquo; faltered McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He bore the operation well,&rdquo; replied the surgeon, &ldquo;and his wounds are not
-      necessarily fatal. I told you that yesterday, but I did not tell you that
-      something else probably would kill him; and it will. He need not die from
-      the accident, but he will not live the day out.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But why? What is it?&rdquo; asked McLean hurriedly. &ldquo;We all dearly love the
-      boy. We have millions among us to do anything that money can accomplish.
-      Why must he die, if those broken bones are not the cause?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That is what I am going to give you the opportunity to tell me,&rdquo; replied
-      the surgeon. &ldquo;He need not die from the accident, yet he is dying as fast
-      as his splendid physical condition will permit, and it is because he so
-      evidently prefers death to life. If he were full of hope and ambition to
-      live, my work would be easy. If all of you love him as you prove you do,
-      and there is unlimited means to give him anything he wants, why should he
-      desire death?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is he dying?&rdquo; demanded McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He is,&rdquo; said the surgeon. &ldquo;He will not live this day out, unless some
-      strong reaction sets in at once. He is so low, that preferring death to
-      life, nature cannot overcome his inertia. If he is to live, he must be
-      made to desire life. Now he undoubtedly wishes for death, and that it come
-      quickly.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then he must die,&rdquo; said McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His broad shoulders shook convulsively. His strong hands opened and closed
-      mechanically.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Does that mean that you know what he desires and cannot, or will not,
-      supply it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean groaned in misery.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It means,&rdquo; he said desperately, &ldquo;that I know what he wants, but it is as
-      far removed from my power to help him as it would be to give him a star.
-      The thing for which he will die, he can never have.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then you must prepare for the end very shortly&rdquo; said the surgeon, turning
-      abruptly away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean caught his arm roughly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You look here!&rdquo; he cried in desperation. &ldquo;You say that as if I could do
-      something if I would. I tell you the boy is dear to me past expression. I
-      would do anything&mdash;spend any sum. You have noticed and repeatedly
-      commented on the young girl with me. It is that child that he wants! He
-      worships her to adoration, and knowing he can never be anything to her, he
-      prefers death to life. In God's name, what can I do about it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Barring that missing hand, I never examined a finer man,&rdquo; said the
-      surgeon, &ldquo;and she seemed perfectly devoted to him; why cannot he have
-      her?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; echoed McLean. &ldquo;Why? Well, for many reasons! I told you he was my
-      son. You probably knew that he was not. A little over a year ago I never
-      had seen him. He joined one of my lumber gangs from the road. He is a
-      stray, left at one of your homes for the friendless here in Chicago. When
-      he grew up the superintendent bound him to a brutal man. He ran away and
-      landed in one of my lumber camps. He has no name or knowledge of legal
-      birth. The Angel&mdash;we have talked of her. You see what she is,
-      physically and mentally. She has ancestors reaching back to Plymouth Rock,
-      and across the sea for generations before that. She is an idolized, petted
-      only child, and there is great wealth. Life holds everything for her,
-      nothing for him. He sees it more plainly than anyone else could. There is
-      nothing for the boy but death, if it is the Angel that is required to save
-      him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel stood between them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I just guess not!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;If Freckles wants me, all he has to
-      do is to say so, and he can have me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The amazed men stepped back, staring at her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That he will never say,&rdquo; said McLean at last, &ldquo;and you don't understand,
-      Angel. I don't know how you came here. I wouldn't have had you hear that
-      for the world, but since you have, dear girl, you must be told that it
-      isn't your friendship or your kindness Freckles wants; it is your love.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel looked straight into the great surgeon's eyes with her clear,
-      steady orbs of blue, and then into McLean's with unwavering frankness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I do love him,&rdquo; she said simply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean's arms dropped helplessly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You don't understand,&rdquo; he reiterated patiently. &ldquo;It isn't the love of a
-      friend, or a comrade, or a sister, that Freckles wants from you; it is the
-      love of a sweetheart. And if to save the life he has offered for you, you
-      are thinking of being generous and impulsive enough to sacrifice your
-      future&mdash;in the absence of your father, it will become my plain duty,
-      as the protector in whose hands he has placed you, to prevent such
-      rashness. The very words you speak, and the manner in which you say them,
-      prove that you are a mere child, and have not dreamed what love is.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Angel grew splendid. A rosy flush swept the pallor of fear from
-      her face. Her big eyes widened and dilated with intense lights. She seemed
-      to leap to the height and the dignity of superb womanhood before their
-      wondering gaze.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I never have had to dream of love,&rdquo; she said proudly. &ldquo;I never have known
-      anything else, in all my life, but to love everyone and to have everyone
-      love me. And there never has been anyone so dear as Freckles. If you will
-      remember, we have been through a good deal together. I do love Freckles,
-      just as I say I do. I don't know anything about the love of sweethearts,
-      but I love him with all the love in my heart, and I think that will
-      satisfy him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Surely it should!&rdquo; muttered the man of knives and lancets.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean reached to take hold of the Angel, but she saw the movement and
-      swiftly stepped back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;As for my father,&rdquo; she continued, &ldquo;he at once told me what he learned
-      from you about Freckles. I've known all you know for several weeks. That
-      knowledge didn't change your love for him a particle. I think the Bird
-      Woman loved him more. Why should you two have all the fine perceptions
-      there are? Can't I see how brave, trustworthy, and splendid he is? Can't I
-      see how his soul vibrates with his music, his love of beautiful things and
-      the pangs of loneliness and heart hunger? Must you two love him with all
-      the love there is, and I give him none? My father is never unreasonable.
-      He won't expect me not to love Freckles, or not to tell him so, if the
-      telling will save him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She darted past McLean into Freckles' room, closed the door, and turned
-      the key.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XVIII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable Birth, and
-      the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay on a flat pillow, his body immovable in a plaster cast, his
-      maimed arm, as always, hidden. His greedy gaze fastened at once on the
-      Angel's face. She crossed to him with light step and bent over him with
-      infinite tenderness. Her heart ached at the change in his appearance. He
-      seemed so weak, heart hungry, so utterly hopeless, so alone. She could see
-      that the night had been one long terror.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For the first time she tried putting herself in Freckles' place. What
-      would it mean to have no parents, no home, no name? No name! That was the
-      worst of all. That was to be lost&mdash;indeed&mdash;utterly and
-      hopelessly lost. The Angel lifted her hands to her dazed head and reeled,
-      as she tried to face that proposition. She dropped on her knees beside the
-      bed, slipped her arm under the pillow, and leaning over Freckles, set her
-      lips on his forehead. He smiled faintly, but his wistful face appeared
-      worse for it. It hurt the Angel to the heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear Freckles,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;there is a story in your eyes this morning,
-      tell me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles drew a long, wavering breath.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; he begged, &ldquo;be generous! Be thinking of me a little. I'm so
-      homesick and worn out, dear Angel, be giving me back me promise. Let me
-      go?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why Freckles!&rdquo; faltered the Angel. &ldquo;You don't know what you are asking.
-      'Let you go!' I cannot! I love you better than anyone, Freckles. I think
-      you are the very finest person I ever knew. I have our lives all planned.
-      I want you to be educated and learn all there is to know about singing,
-      just as soon as you are well enough. By the time you have completed your
-      education I will have finished college, and then I want,&rdquo; she choked a
-      second, &ldquo;I want you to be my real knight, Freckles, and come to me and
-      tell me that you&mdash;like me&mdash;a little. I have been counting on you
-      for my sweetheart from the very first, Freckles. I can't give you up,
-      unless you don't like me. But you do like me&mdash;just a little&mdash;don't
-      you, Freckles?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay whiter than the coverlet, his staring eyes on the ceiling and
-      his breath wheezing between dry lips. The Angel awaited his answer a
-      second, and when none came, she dropped her crimsoning face beside him on
-      the pillow and whispered in his ear:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, I&mdash;I'm trying to make love to you. Oh, can't you help me
-      only a little bit? It's awful hard all alone! I don't know how, when I
-      really mean it, but Freckles, I love you. I must have you, and now I guess&mdash;I
-      guess maybe I'd better kiss you next.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted her shamed face and bravely laid her feverish, quivering lips
-      on his. Her breath, like clover-bloom, was in his nostrils, and her hair
-      touched his face. Then she looked into his eyes with reproach.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; she panted, &ldquo;Freckles! I didn't think it was in you to be
-      mean!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mean, Angel! Mean to you?&rdquo; gasped Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;Downright mean. When I kiss you, if you had any
-      mercy at all you'd kiss back, just a little bit.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' sinewy fist knotted into the coverlet. His chin pointed
-      ceilingward while his head rocked on the pillow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Jesus!&rdquo; burst from him in agony. &ldquo;You ain't the only one that was
-      crucified!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel caught Freckles' hand and carried it to her breast.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; she wailed in terror, &ldquo;Freckles! It is a mistake? Is it that
-      you don't want me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' head rolled on in wordless suffering.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wait a bit, Angel?&rdquo; he panted at last. &ldquo;Be giving me a little time!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel arose with controlled features. She bathed his face,
-      straightened his hair, and held water to his lips. It seemed a long time
-      before he reached toward her. Instantly she knelt again, carried his hand
-      to her breast, and leaned her cheek upon it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Tell me, Freckles,&rdquo; she whispered softly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If I can,&rdquo; said Freckles in agony. &ldquo;It's just this. Angels are from
-      above. Outcasts are from below. You've a sound body and you're
-      beautifulest of all. You have everything that loving, careful raising and
-      money can give you. I have so much less than nothing that I don't suppose
-      I had any right to be born. It's a sure thing&mdash;nobody wanted me
-      afterward, so of course, they didn't before. Some of them should have been
-      telling you long ago.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If that's all you have to say, Freckles, I've known that quite a while,&rdquo;
-       said the Angel stoutly. &ldquo;Mr. McLean told my father, and he told me. That
-      only makes me love you more, to pay for all you've missed.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then I'm wondering at you,&rdquo; said Freckles in a voice of awe. &ldquo;Can't you
-      see that if you were willing and your father would come and offer you to
-      me, I couldn't be touching the soles of your feet, in love&mdash;me, whose
-      people brawled over me, cut off me hand, and throwed me away to freeze and
-      to die! Me, who has no name just as much because I've no RIGHT to any, as
-      because I don't know it. When I was little, I planned to find me father
-      and mother when I grew up. Now I know me mother deserted me, and me father
-      was maybe a thief and surely a liar. The pity for me suffering and the
-      watching over me have gone to your head, dear Angel, and it's me must be
-      thinking for you. If you could be forgetting me lost hand, where I was
-      raised, and that I had no name to give you, and if you would be taking me
-      as I am, some day people such as mine must be, might come upon you. I used
-      to pray ivery night and morning and many times the day to see me mother.
-      Now I only pray to die quickly and never risk the sight of her. 'Tain't no
-      ways possible, Angel! It's a wildness of your dear head. Oh, do for mercy
-      sake, kiss me once more and be letting me go!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Not for a minute!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;Not for a minute, if those are all
-      the reasons you have. It's you who are wild in your head, but I can
-      understand just how it happened. Being shut in that Home most of your
-      life, and seeing children every day whose parents did neglect and desert
-      them, makes you sure yours did the same; and yet there are so many other
-      things that could have happened so much more easily than that. There are
-      thousands of young couples who come to this country and start a family
-      with none of their relatives here. Chicago is a big, wicked city, and
-      grown people could disappear in many ways, and who would there ever be to
-      find to whom their little children belonged? The minute my father told me
-      how you felt, I began to study this thing over, and I've made up my mind
-      you are dead wrong. I meant to ask my father or the Bird Woman to talk to
-      you before you went away to school, but as matters are right now I guess
-      I'll just do it myself. It's all so plain to me. Oh, if I could only make
-      you see!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She buried her face in the pillow and presently lifted it, transfigured.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now I have it!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Oh, dear heart! I can make it so plain!
-      Freckles, can you imagine you see the old Limberlost trail? Well when we
-      followed it, you know there were places where ugly, prickly thistles
-      overgrew the path, and you went ahead with your club and bent them back to
-      keep them from stinging through my clothing. Other places there were big
-      shining pools where lovely, snow-white lilies grew, and you waded in and
-      gathered them for me. Oh dear heart, don't you see? It's this! Everywhere
-      the wind carried that thistledown, other thistles sprang up and grew
-      prickles; and wherever those lily seeds sank to the mire, the pure white
-      of other lilies bloomed. But, Freckles, there was never a place anywhere
-      in the Limberlost, or in the whole world, where the thistledown floated
-      and sprang up and blossomed into white lilies! Thistles grow from
-      thistles, and lilies from other lilies. Dear Freckles, think hard! You
-      must see it! You are a lily, straight through. You never, never could have
-      drifted from the thistle-patch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Where did you find the courage to go into the Limberlost and face its
-      terrors? You inherited it from the blood of a brave father, dear heart.
-      Where did you get the pluck to hold for over a year a job that few men
-      would have taken at all? You got it from a plucky mother, you bravest of
-      boys. You attacked single-handed a man almost twice your size, and fought
-      as a demon, merely at the suggestion that you be deceptive and dishonest.
-      Could your mother or your father have been untruthful? Here you are, so
-      hungry and starved that you are dying for love. Where did you get all that
-      capacity for loving? You didn't inherit it from hardened, heartless
-      people, who would disfigure you and purposely leave you to die, that's one
-      sure thing. You once told me of saving your big bullfrog from a
-      rattlesnake. You knew you risked a horrible death when you did it. Yet you
-      will spend miserable years torturing yourself with the idea that your own
-      mother might have cut off that hand. Shame on you, Freckles! Your mother
-      would have done this&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel deliberately turned back the cover, slipped up the sleeve, and
-      laid her lips on the scars.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Wake up!&rdquo; she cried, almost shaking him. &ldquo;Come to your senses!
-      Be a thinking, reasoning man! You have brooded too much, and been all your
-      life too much alone. It's all as plain as plain can be to me. You must see
-      it! Like breeds like in this world! You must be some sort of a
-      reproduction of your parents, and I am not afraid to vouch for them, not
-      for a minute!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And then, too, if more proof is needed, here it is: Mr. McLean says that
-      you never once have failed in tact and courtesy. He says that you are the
-      most perfect gentleman he ever knew, and he has traveled the world over.
-      How does it happen, Freckles? No one at that Home taught you. Hundreds of
-      men couldn't be taught, even in a school of etiquette; so it must be
-      instinctive with you. If it is, why, that means that it is born in you,
-      and a direct inheritance from a race of men that have been gentlemen for
-      ages, and couldn't be anything else.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then there's your singing. I don't believe there ever was a mortal with a
-      sweeter voice than yours, and while that doesn't prove anything, there is
-      a point that does. The little training you had from that choirmaster won't
-      account for the wonderful accent and ease with which you sing. Somewhere
-      in your close blood is a marvelously trained vocalist; we every one of us
-      believe that, Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why does my father refer to you constantly as being of fine perceptions
-      and honor? Because you are, Freckles. Why does the Bird Woman leave her
-      precious work and come here to help look after you? I never heard of her
-      losing any time over anyone else. It's because she loves you. And why does
-      Mr. McLean turn all of his valuable business over to hired men and watch
-      you personally? And why is he hunting excuses every day to spend money on
-      you? My father says McLean is full Scotch-close with a dollar. He is a
-      hard-headed business man, Freckles, and he is doing it because he finds
-      you worthy of it. Worthy of all we all can do and more than we know how to
-      do, dear heart! Freckles, are you listening to me? Oh! won't you see it?
-      Won't you believe it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Angel!&rdquo; chattered the bewildered Freckles, &ldquo;are you truly maning it?
-      Could it be?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course it could,&rdquo; flashed the Angel, &ldquo;because it just is!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But you can't prove it,&rdquo; wailed Freckles. &ldquo;It ain't giving me a name, or
-      me honor!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; said the Angel sternly, &ldquo;you are unreasonable! Why, I did
-      prove every word I said! Everything proves it! You look here! If you knew
-      for sure that I could give you a name and your honor, and prove to you
-      that your mother did love you, why, then, would you just go to breathing
-      like perpetual motion and hang on for dear life and get well?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A bright light shone in Freckles' eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If I knew that, Angel,&rdquo; he said solemnly, &ldquo;you couldn't be killing me if
-      you felled the biggest tree in the Limberlost smash on me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then you go right to work,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;and before night I'll prove
-      one thing to you: I can show you easily enough how much your mother loved
-      you. That will be the first step, and then the remainder will all come. If
-      my father and Mr. McLean are so anxious to spend some money, I'll give
-      them a chance. I don't see why we haven't comprehended how you felt and so
-      have been at work weeks ago. We've been awfully selfish. We've all been so
-      comfortable, we never stopped to think what other people were suffering
-      before our eyes. None of us has understood. I'll hire the finest detective
-      in Chicago, and we'll go to work together. This is nothing compared with
-      things people do find out. We'll go at it, beak and claw, and we'll show
-      you a thing or two.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles caught her sleeve.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me mother, Angel! Me mother!&rdquo; he marveled hoarsely. &ldquo;Did you say you
-      could be finding out today if me mother loved me? How? Oh, Angel! Nothing
-      matters, IF ONLY ME MOTHER DIDN'T DO IT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then you rest easy,&rdquo; said the Angel, with large confidence. &ldquo;Your mother
-      didn't do it! Mothers of sons such as you don't do things like that. I'll
-      go to work at once and prove it to you. The first thing to do is to go to
-      that Home where you were and get the clothes you wore the night you were
-      left there. I know that they are required to save those things carefully.
-      We can find out almost all there is to know about your mother from them.
-      Did you ever see them?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; he replied.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Were they white?&rdquo; she cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe they were once. They're all yellow with laying, and brown with
-      blood-stains now&rdquo; said Freckles, the old note of bitterness creeping in.
-      &ldquo;You can't be telling anything at all by them, Angel!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, but I just can!&rdquo; said the Angel positively. &ldquo;I can see from the
-      quality what kind of goods your mother could afford to buy. I can see from
-      the cut whether she had good taste. I can see from the care she took in
-      making them how much she loved and wanted you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But how? Angel, tell me how!&rdquo; implored Freckles with trembling eagerness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, easily enough,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I thought you'd understand. People
-      that can afford anything at all, always buy white for little new babies&mdash;linen
-      and lace, and the very finest things to be had. There's a young woman
-      living near us who cut up her wedding clothes to have fine things for her
-      baby. Mothers who love and want their babies don't buy little rough,
-      ready-made things, and they don't run up what they make on an old sewing
-      machine. They make fine seams, and tucks, and put on lace and trimming by
-      hand. They sit and stitch, and stitch&mdash;little, even stitches, every
-      one just as careful. Their eyes shine and their faces glow. When they have
-      to quit to do something else, they look sorry, and fold up their work so
-      particularly. There isn't much worth knowing about your mother that those
-      little clothes won't tell. I can see her putting the little stitches into
-      them and smiling with shining eyes over your coming. Freckles, I'll wager
-      you a dollar those little clothes of yours are just alive with the
-      dearest, tiny handmade stitches.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A new light dawned in Freckles' eyes. A tinge of warm color swept into his
-      face. Renewed strength was noticeable in his grip of her hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Angel! Will you go now? Will you be hurrying?&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Right away,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I won't stop for a thing, and I'll hurry
-      with all my might.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She smoothed his pillow, straightened the cover, gave him one steady look
-      in the eyes, and went quietly from the room.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Outside the door, McLean and the surgeon anxiously awaited her. McLean
-      caught her shoulders.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel, what have you done?&rdquo; he demanded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel smiled defiance into his eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'What have I done?'&rdquo; she repeated. &ldquo;I've tried to save Freckles.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What will your father say?&rdquo; groaned McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It strikes me,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;that what Freckles said would be to the
-      point.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; exclaimed McLean. &ldquo;What could he say?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He seemed to be able to say several things,&rdquo; answered the Angel sweetly.
-      &ldquo;I fancy the one that concerns you most at present was, that if my father
-      should offer me to him he would not have me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And no one knows why better than I do,&rdquo; cried McLean. &ldquo;Every day he must
-      astonish me with some new fineness.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He turned to the surgeon. &ldquo;Save him!&rdquo; he commanded. &ldquo;Save him!&rdquo; he
-      implored. &ldquo;He is too fine to be sacrificed.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;His salvation lies here,&rdquo; said the surgeon, stroking the Angel's sunshiny
-      hair, &ldquo;and I can read in the face of her that she knows how she is going
-      to work it out. Don't trouble for the boy. She will save him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel laughingly sped down the hall, and into the street, just as she
-      was.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have come,&rdquo; she said to the matron of the Home, &ldquo;to ask if you will
-      allow me to examine, or, better yet, to take with me, the little clothes
-      that a boy you called Freckles, discharged last fall, wore the night he
-      was left here.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman looked at her in greater astonishment than the occasion
-      demanded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'd be glad to let you see them,&rdquo; she said at last, &ldquo;but the fact
-      is we haven't them. I do hope we haven't made some mistake. I was
-      thoroughly convinced, and so was the superintendent. We let his people
-      take those things away yesterday. Who are you, and what do you want with
-      them?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel stood dazed and speechless, staring at the matron.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There couldn't have been a mistake,&rdquo; continued the matron, seeing the
-      Angel's distress. &ldquo;Freckles was here when I took charge, ten years ago.
-      These people had it all proved that he belonged to them. They had him
-      traced to where he ran away in Illinois last fall, and there they
-      completely lost track of him. I'm sorry you seem so disappointed, but it
-      is all right. The man is his uncle, and as like the boy as he possibly
-      could be. He is almost killed to go back without him. If you know where
-      Freckles is, they'd give big money to find out.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel laid a hand along each cheek to steady her chattering teeth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Who are they?&rdquo; she stammered. &ldquo;Where are they going?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They are Irish folks, miss,&rdquo; said the matron. &ldquo;They have been in Chicago
-      and over the country for the past three months, hunting him everywhere.
-      They have given up, and are starting home today. They&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did they leave an address? Where could I find them?&rdquo; interrupted the
-      Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They left a card, and I notice the morning paper has the man's picture
-      and is full of them. They've advertised a great deal in the city papers.
-      It's a wonder you haven't seen something.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Trains don't run right. We never get Chicago papers,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-      &ldquo;Please give me that card quickly. They may escape me. I simply must catch
-      them!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The matron hurried to the secretary and came back with a card.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Their addresses are there,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Both in Chicago and at their home.
-      They made them full and plain, and I was to cable at once if I got the
-      least clue of him at any time. If they've left the city, you can stop them
-      in New York. You're sure to catch them before they sail&mdash;if you
-      hurry.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The matron caught up a paper and thrust it into the Angel's hand as she
-      ran to the street.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel glanced at the card. The Chicago address was Suite Eleven,
-      Auditorium. She laid her hand on her driver's sleeve and looked into his
-      eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There is a fast-driving limit?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, miss.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you crowd it all you can without danger of arrest? I will pay well.
-      I must catch some people!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then she smiled at him. The hospital, an Orphans' Home, and the Auditorium
-      seemed a queer combination to that driver, but the Angel was always and
-      everywhere the Angel, and her methods were strictly her own.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will take you there as quickly as any man could with a team,&rdquo; he said
-      promptly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel clung to the card and paper, and as best she could in the
-      lurching, swaying cab, read the addresses over.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;O'More, Suite Eleven, Auditorium.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'O'More,'&rdquo; she repeated. &ldquo;Seems to fit Freckles to a dot. Wonder if that
-      could be his name? 'Suite Eleven' means that you are pretty well fixed.
-      Suites in the Auditorium come high.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then she turned the card and read on its reverse, Lord Maxwell O'More, M.
-      P., Killvany Place, County Clare, Ireland.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel sat on the edge of the seat, bracing her feet against the one
-      opposite, as the cab pitched and swung around corners and past vehicles.
-      She mechanically fingered the pasteboard and stared straight ahead. Then
-      she drew a deep breath and read the card again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A Lord-man!&rdquo; she groaned despairingly. &ldquo;A Lord-man! Bet my hoecake's
-      scorched! Here I've gone and pledged my word to Freckles I'd find him some
-      decent relatives, that he could be proud of, and now there isn't a chance
-      out of a dozen that he'll have to be ashamed of them after all. It's too
-      mean!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The tears of vexation rolled down the tired, nerve-racked Angel's cheeks.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This isn't going to do,&rdquo; she said, resolutely wiping her eyes with the
-      palm of her hand and gulping down the nervous spasm in her throat. &ldquo;I must
-      read this paper before I meet Lord O'More.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She blinked back the tears and spreading the paper on her knee, read:
-      &ldquo;After three months' fruitless search, Lord O'More gives up the quest of
-      his lost nephew, and leaves Chicago today for his home in Ireland.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She read on, and realized every word. The likeness settled any doubt. It
-      was Freckles over again, only older and well dressed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I must catch you if I can,&rdquo; muttered the Angel. &ldquo;But when I do, if
-      you are a gentleman in name only, you shan't have Freckles; that's flat.
-      You're not his father and he is twenty. Anyway, if the law will give him
-      to you for one year, you can't spoil him, because nobody could, and,&rdquo; she
-      added, brightening, &ldquo;he'll probably do you a lot of good. Freckles and I
-      both must study years yet, and you should be something that will save him.
-      I guess it will come out all right. At least, I don't believe you can take
-      him away if I say no.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank you; and wait, no matter how long,&rdquo; she said to her driver.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Catching up the paper, she hurried to the desk and laid down Lord O'More's
-      card.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Has my uncle started yet?&rdquo; she asked sweetly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The surprised clerk stepped back on a bellboy, and covertly kicked him for
-      being in the way.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;His lordship is in his room,&rdquo; he said, with a low bow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said the Angel, picking up the card. &ldquo;I thought he might have
-      started. I'll see him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The clerk shoved the bellboy toward the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Show her ladyship to the elevator and Lord O'More's suite,&rdquo; he said,
-      bowing double.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Aw, thanks,&rdquo; said the Angel with a slight nod, as she turned away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm not sure,&rdquo; she muttered to herself as the elevator sped upward,
-      &ldquo;whether it's the Irish or the English who say: 'Aw, thanks,' but it's
-      probable he isn't either; and anyway, I just had to do something to
-      counteract that 'All right.' How stupid of me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      At the bellboy's tap, the door swung open and the liveried servant thrust
-      a cardtray before the Angel. The opening of the door created a current
-      that swayed a curtain aside, and in an adjoining room, lounging in a big
-      chair, with a paper in his hand, sat a man who was, beyond question, of
-      Freckles' blood and race.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With perfect control the Angel dropped Lord O'More's card in the tray,
-      stepped past his servant, and stood before his lordship.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good morning,&rdquo; she said with tense politeness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord O'More said nothing. He carelessly glanced her over with amused
-      curiosity, until her color began to deepen and her blood to run hotly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, my dear,&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;how can I serve you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Instantly the Angel became indignant. She had been so shielded in the
-      midst of almost entire freedom, owing to the circumstances of her life,
-      that the words and the look appeared to her as almost insulting. She
-      lifted her head with a proud gesture.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am not your 'dear,'&rdquo; she said with slow distinctness. &ldquo;There isn't a
-      thing in the world you can do for me. I came here to see if I could do
-      something&mdash;a very great something&mdash;for you; but if I don't like
-      you, I won't do it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Lord O'More did stare. Suddenly he broke into a ringing laugh.
-      Without a change of attitude or expression, the Angel stood looking
-      steadily at him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There was a silken rustle, then a beautiful woman with cheeks of satiny
-      pink, dark hair, and eyes of pure Irish blue, moved to Lord O'More's side,
-      and catching his arm, shook him impatiently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Terence! Have you lost your senses?&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Didn't you understand
-      what the child said? Look at her face! See what she has!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord O'More opened his eyes widely and sat up. He did look at the Angel's
-      face intently, and suddenly found it so good that it was difficult to
-      follow the next injunction. He arose instantly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I beg your pardon,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The fact is, I am leaving Chicago sorely
-      disappointed. It makes me bitter and reckless. I thought you one more of
-      those queer, useless people who have thrust themselves on me constantly,
-      and I was careless. Forgive me, and tell me why you came.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will if I like you,&rdquo; said the Angel stoutly, &ldquo;and if I don't, I won't!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But I began all wrong, and now I don't know how to make you like me,&rdquo;
-       said his lordship, with sincere penitence in his tone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel found herself yielding to his voice. He spoke in a soft, mellow,
-      smoothly flowing Irish tone, and although his speech was perfectly
-      correct, it was so rounded, and accented, and the sentences so turned,
-      that it was Freckles over again. Still, it was a matter of the very
-      greatest importance, and she must be sure; so she looked into the
-      beautiful woman's face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Are you his wife?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;I am his wife.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Angel judicially, &ldquo;the Bird Woman says no one in the
-      whole world knows all a man's bignesses and all his littlenesses as his
-      wife does. What you think of him should do for me. Do you like him?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The question was so earnestly asked that it met with equal earnestness.
-      The dark head moved caressingly against Lord O'More's sleeve.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Better than anyone in the whole world,&rdquo; said Lady O'More promptly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel mused a second, and then her legal tinge came to the fore again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, but have you anyone you could like better, if he wasn't all right?&rdquo;
-       she persisted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have three of his sons, two little daughters, a father, mother, and
-      several brothers and sisters,&rdquo; came the quick reply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you like him best?&rdquo; persisted the Angel with finality.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I love him so much that I would give up every one of them with dry eyes
-      if by so doing I could save him,&rdquo; cried Lord O'More's wife.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;Oh, my!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted her clear eyes to Lord O'More's and shook her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;She never, never could do that!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But it's a mighty big thing
-      to your credit that she THINKS she could. I guess I'll tell you why I
-      came.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She laid down the paper, and touched the portrait.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;When you were only a boy, did people call you Freckles?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dozens of good fellows all over Ireland and the Continent are doing it
-      today,&rdquo; answered Lord O'More.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's face wore her most beautiful smile.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was sure of it,&rdquo; she said winningly. &ldquo;That's what we call him, and he
-      is so like you, I doubt if any one of those three boys of yours are more
-      so. But it's been twenty years. Seems to me you've been a long time
-      coming!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord O'More caught the Angel's wrists and his wife slipped her arms around
-      her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Steady, my girl!&rdquo; said the man's voice hoarsely. &ldquo;Don't make me think
-      you've brought word of the boy at this last hour, unless you know surely.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's all right,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;We have him, and there's no chance of a
-      mistake. If I hadn't gone to that Home for his little clothes, and heard
-      of you and been hunting you, and had met you on the street, or anywhere, I
-      would have stopped you and asked you who you were, just because you are so
-      like him. It's all right. I can tell you where Freckles is; but whether
-      you deserve to know&mdash;that's another matter!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord O'More did not hear her. He dropped in his chair, and covering his
-      face, burst into those terrible sobs that shake and rend a strong man.
-      Lady O'More hovered over him, weeping.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Umph! Looks pretty fair for Freckles,&rdquo; muttered the Angel. &ldquo;Lots of
-      things can be explained; now perhaps they can explain this.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      They did explain so satisfactorily that in a few minutes the Angel was on
-      her feet, hurrying Lord and Lady O'More to reach the hospital. &ldquo;You said
-      Freckles' old nurse knew his mother's picture instantly,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-      &ldquo;I want that picture and the bundle of little clothes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Lady O'More gave them into her hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The likeness was a large miniature, painted on ivory, with a frame of
-      beaten gold. Surrounded by masses of dark hair was a delicately cut face.
-      In the upper part of it there was no trace of Freckles, but the lips
-      curving in a smile were his very own. The Angel gazed at it steadily. Then
-      with a quivering breath she laid the portrait aside and reached both hands
-      to Lord O'More.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That will save Freckles' life and insure his happiness,&rdquo; she said
-      positively. &ldquo;Thank you, oh thank you for coming!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She opened the bundle of yellow and brown linen and gave only a glance at
-      the texture and work. Then she gathered the little clothes and the picture
-      to her heart and led the way to the cab.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ushering Lord and Lady O'More into the reception room, she said to McLean,
-      &ldquo;Please go call up my father and ask him to come on the first train.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She closed the door after him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;These are Freckles' people,&rdquo; she said to the Bird Woman. &ldquo;You can find
-      out about each other; I'm going to him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XIX
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      The nurse left the room quietly, as the Angel entered, carrying the bundle
-      and picture. When they were alone, she turned to Freckles and saw that the
-      crisis was indeed at hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That she had good word to give him was his salvation, for despite the
-      heavy plaster jacket that held his body immovable, his head was lifted
-      from the pillow. Both arms reached for her. His lips and cheeks flamed,
-      while his eyes flashed with excitement.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; he panted. &ldquo;Oh Angel! Did you find them? Are they white? Are the
-      little stitches there? OH ANGEL! DID ME MOTHER LOVE ME?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The words seemed to leap from his burning lips. The Angel dropped the
-      bundle on the bed and laid the picture face down across his knees. She
-      gently pushed his head to the pillow and caught his arms in a firm grasp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, dear heart,&rdquo; she said with fullest assurance. &ldquo;No little clothes
-      were ever whiter. I never in all my life saw such dainty, fine, little
-      stitches; and as for loving you, no boy's mother ever loved him more!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A nervous trembling seized Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sure? Are you sure?&rdquo; he urged with clicking teeth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; said the Angel firmly. &ldquo;And Freckles, while you rest and be
-      glad, I want to tell you a story. When you feel stronger we will look at
-      the clothes together. They are here. They are all right. But while I was
-      at the Home getting them, I heard of some people that were hunting a lost
-      boy. I went to see them, and what they told me was all so exactly like
-      what might have happened to you that I must tell you. Then you'll
-      understand that things could be very different from what you always have
-      tortured yourself with thinking. Are you strong enough to listen? May I
-      tell you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe 'twasn't me mother! Maybe someone else made those little stitches!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, goosie, don't you begin that,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;because I know that
-      it was!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Know!&rdquo; cried Freckles, his head springing from the pillow. &ldquo;Know! How can
-      you know?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel gently soothed him back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, because nobody else would ever sit and do it the way it is done.
-      That's how I know,&rdquo; she said emphatically. &ldquo;Now you listen while I tell
-      you about this lost boy and his people, who have hunted for months and
-      can't find him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay quietly under her touch, but he did not hear a word that she
-      was saying until his roving eyes rested on her face; he immediately
-      noticed a remarkable thing. For the first time she was talking to him and
-      avoiding his eyes. That was not like the Angel at all. It was the delight
-      of hearing her speak that she looked one squarely in the face and with
-      perfect frankness. There were no side glances and down-drooping eyes when
-      the Angel talked; she was business straight through. Instantly Freckles'
-      wandering thoughts fastened on her words.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;&mdash;and he was a sour, grumpy, old man,&rdquo; she was saying. &ldquo;He always
-      had been spoiled, because he was an only son, so he had a title, and a big
-      estate. He would have just his way, no matter about his sweet little wife,
-      or his boys, or anyone. So when his elder son fell in love with a
-      beautiful girl having a title, the very girl of all the world his father
-      wanted him to, and added a big adjoining estate to his, why, that pleased
-      him mightily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then he went and ordered his younger son to marry a poky kind of a girl,
-      that no one liked, to add another big estate on the other side, and that
-      was different. That was all the world different, because the elder son had
-      been in love all his life with the girl he married, and, oh, Freckles,
-      it's no wonder, for I saw her! She's a beauty and she has the sweetest
-      way.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But that poor younger son, he had been in love with the village vicar's
-      daughter all his life. That's no wonder either, for she was more beautiful
-      yet. She could sing as the angels, but she hadn't a cent. She loved him to
-      death, too, if he was bony and freckled and red-haired&mdash;I don't mean
-      that! They didn't say what color his hair was, but his father's must have
-      been the reddest ever, for when he found out about them, and it wasn't
-      anything so terrible, HE JUST CAVED!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The old man went to see the girl&mdash;the pretty one with no money, of
-      course&mdash;and he hurt her feelings until she ran away. She went to
-      London and began studying music. Soon she grew to be a fine singer, so she
-      joined a company and came to this country.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;When the younger son found that she had left London, he followed her.
-      When she got here all alone, and afraid, and saw him coming to her, why,
-      she was so glad she up and married him, just like anybody else would have
-      done. He didn't want her to travel with the troupe, so when they reached
-      Chicago they thought that would be a good place, and they stopped, while
-      he hunted work. It was slow business, because he never had been taught to
-      do a useful thing, and he didn't even know how to hunt work, least of all
-      to do it when he found it; so pretty soon things were going wrong. But if
-      he couldn't find work, she could always sing, so she sang at night, and
-      made little things in the daytime. He didn't like her to sing in public,
-      and he wouldn't allow her when he could HELP himself; but winter came, it
-      was very cold, and fire was expensive. Rents went up, and they had to move
-      farther out to cheaper and cheaper places; and you were coming&mdash;I
-      mean, the boy that is lost was coming&mdash;and they were almost
-      distracted. Then the man wrote and told his father all about it; and his
-      father sent the letter back unopened with a line telling him never to
-      write again. When the baby came, there was very little left to pawn for
-      food and a doctor, and nothing at all for a nurse; so an old neighbor
-      woman went in and took care of the young mother and the little baby,
-      because she was so sorry for them. By that time they were away in the
-      suburbs on the top floor of a little wooden house, among a lot of big
-      factories, and it kept growing colder, with less to eat. Then the man grew
-      desperate and he went just to find something to eat and the woman was
-      desperate, too. She got up, left the old woman to take care of her baby,
-      and went into the city to sing for some money. The woman became so cold
-      she put the baby in bed and went home. Then a boiler blew up in a big
-      factory beside the little house and set it on fire. A piece of iron was
-      pitched across and broke through the roof. It came down smash, and cut
-      just one little hand off the poor baby. It screamed and screamed; and the
-      fire kept coming closer and closer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The old woman ran out with the other people and saw what had happened.
-      She knew there wasn't going to be time to wait for firemen or anything, so
-      she ran into the building. She could hear the baby screaming, and she
-      couldn't stand that; so she worked her way to it. There it was, all hurt
-      and bleeding. Then she was almost scared to death over thinking what its
-      mother would do to her for going away and leaving it, so she ran to a Home
-      for little friendless babies, that was close, and banged on the door. Then
-      she hid across the street until the baby was taken in, and then she ran
-      back to see if her own house was burning. The big factory and the little
-      house and a lot of others were all gone. The people there told her that
-      the beautiful lady came back and ran into the house to find her baby. She
-      had just gone in when her husband came, and he went in after her, and the
-      house fell over both of them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay rigidly, with his eyes on the Angel's face, while she talked
-      rapidly to the ceiling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then the old woman was sick about that poor little baby. She was afraid
-      to tell them at the Home, because she knew she never should have left it,
-      but she wrote a letter and sent it to where the beautiful woman, when she
-      was ill, had said her husband's people lived. She told all about the
-      little baby that she could remember: when it was born, how it was named
-      for the man's elder brother, that its hand had been cut off in the fire,
-      and where she had put it to be doctored and taken care of. She told them
-      that its mother and father were both burned, and she begged and implored
-      them to come after it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You'd think that would have melted a heart of ice, but that old man
-      hadn't any heart to melt, for he got that letter and read it. He hid it
-      away among his papers and never told a soul. A few months ago he died.
-      When his elder son went to settle his business, he found the letter almost
-      the first thing. He dropped everything, and came, with his wife, to hunt
-      that baby, because he always had loved his brother dearly, and wanted him
-      back. He had hunted for him all he dared all these years, but when he got
-      here you were gone&mdash;I mean the baby was gone, and I had to tell you,
-      Freckles, for you see, it might have happened to you like that just as
-      easy as to that other lost boy.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles reached up and turned the Angel's face until he compelled her
-      eyes to meet his.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; he asked quietly, &ldquo;why don't you look at me when you are telling
-      about that lost boy?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I&mdash;I didn't know I wasn't,&rdquo; faltered the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It seems to me,&rdquo; said Freckles, his breath beginning to come in sharp
-      wheezes, &ldquo;that you got us rather mixed, and it ain't like you to be mixing
-      things till one can't be knowing. If they were telling you so much, did
-      they say which hand was for being off that lost boy?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's eyes escaped again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It&mdash;it was the same as yours,&rdquo; she ventured, barely breathing in her
-      fear.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Still Freckles lay rigid and whiter than the coverlet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Would that boy be as old as me?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel faintly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; said Freckles at last, catching her wrist, &ldquo;are you trying to
-      tell me that there is somebody hunting a boy that you're thinking might be
-      me? Are you belavin' you've found me relations?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Angel's eyes came home. The time had come. She pinioned Freckles'
-      arms to his sides and bent above him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How strong are you, dear heart?&rdquo; she breathed. &ldquo;How brave are you? Can
-      you bear it? Dare I tell you that?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; gasped Freckles. &ldquo;Not if you're sure! I can't bear it! I'll die if
-      you do!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The day had been one unremitting strain with the Angel. Nerve tension was
-      drawn to the finest thread. It snapped suddenly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Die!&rdquo; she flamed. &ldquo;Die, if I tell you that! You said this morning that
-      you would die if you DIDN'T know your name, and if your people were
-      honorable. Now I've gone and found you a name that stands for ages of
-      honor, a mother who loved you enough to go into the fire and die for you,
-      and the nicest kind of relatives, and you turn round and say you'll die
-      over that! YOU JUST TRY DYING AND YOU'LL GET A GOOD SLAP!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel stood glaring at him. One second Freckles lay paralyzed and dumb
-      with astonishment. The next the Irish in his soul arose above everything.
-      A laugh burst from him. The terrified Angel caught him in her arms and
-      tried to stifle the sound. She implored and commanded. When he was too
-      worn to utter another sound, his eyes laughed silently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After a long time, when he was quiet and rested, the Angel commenced
-      talking to him gently, and this time her big eyes, humid with tenderness
-      and mellow with happiness, seemed as if they could not leave his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear Freckles,&rdquo; she was saying, &ldquo;across your knees there is the face of
-      the mother who went into the fire for you, and I know the name&mdash;old
-      and full of honor&mdash;to which you were born. Dear heart, which will you
-      have first?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was very tired; the big drops of perspiration ran together on his
-      temples; but the watching Angel caught the words his lips formed, &ldquo;Me
-      mother!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted the lovely pictured face and set it in the nook of his arm.
-      Freckles caught her hand and drew her beside him, and together they gazed
-      at the picture while the tears slid over their cheeks.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me mother! Oh, me mother! Can you ever be forgiving me? Oh, me beautiful
-      little mother!&rdquo; chanted Freckles over and over in exalted wonder, until he
-      was so completely exhausted that his lips refused to form the question in
-      his weary eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wait!&rdquo; cried the Angel with inborn refinement, for she could no more
-      answer that question than he could ask. &ldquo;Wait, I will write it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She hurried to the table, caught up the nurse's pencil, and on the back of
-      a prescription tablet scrawled it: &ldquo;Terence Maxwell O'More, Dunderry
-      House, County Clare, Ireland.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Before she had finished came Freckles' voice: &ldquo;Angel, are you hurrying?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel; &ldquo;I am. But there is a good deal of it. I have to
-      put in your house and country, so that you will feel located.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me house?&rdquo; marveled Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;Your uncle says your grandmother left your
-      father her dower house and estate, because she knew his father would cut
-      him off. You get that, and all your share of your grandfather's property
-      besides. It is all set off for you and waiting. Lord O'More told me so. I
-      suspect you are richer than McLean, Freckles.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She closed his fingers over the slip and straightened his hair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now you are all right, dear Limberlost guard,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You go to sleep
-      and don't think of a thing but just pure joy, joy, joy! I'll keep your
-      people until you wake up. You are too tired to see anyone else just now!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles caught her skirt as she turned from him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll go to sleep in five minutes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if you will be doing just
-      one thing more for me. Send for your father! Oh, Angel, send for him
-      quick! How will I ever be waiting until he comes?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      One instant the Angel stood looking at him. The next a crimson wave darkly
-      stained her lovely face. Her chin began a spasmodic quivering and the
-      tears sprang into her eyes. Her hands caught at her chest as if she were
-      stifling. Freckles' grasp on her tightened until he drew her beside him.
-      He slipped his arm around her and drew her face to his pillow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't, Angel; for the love of mercy don't be doing that,&rdquo; he implored. &ldquo;I
-      can't be bearing it. Tell me. You must tell me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel shook her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That ain't fair, Angel,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You made me tell you when it was
-      like tearing the heart raw from me breast. And you was for making
-      everything heaven&mdash;just heaven and nothing else for me. If I'm so
-      much more now than I was an hour ago, maybe I can be thinking of some way
-      to fix things. You will be telling me?&rdquo; he coaxed, moving his cheek
-      against her hair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's head moved in negation. Freckles did a moment of intent
-      thinking.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe I can be guessing,&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;Will you be giving me three
-      chances?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      There was the faintest possible assent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You didn't want me to be knowing me name,&rdquo; guessed Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's head sprang from the pillow and her tear-stained face flamed
-      with outraged indignation.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, I did too!&rdquo; she cried angrily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;One gone,&rdquo; said Freckles calmly. &ldquo;You didn't want me to have relatives, a
-      home, and money.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I did!&rdquo; exclaimed the Angel. &ldquo;Didn't I go myself, all alone, into the
-      city, and find them when I was afraid as death? I did too!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Two gone,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You didn't want the beautifulest girl in the
-      world to be telling me.&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Down went the Angel's face and a heavy sob shook her. Freckles' clasp
-      tightened around her shoulders, while his face, in its conflicting
-      emotions, was a study. He was so stunned and bewildered by the miracle
-      that had been performed in bringing to light his name and relatives that
-      he had no strength left for elaborate mental processes. Despite all it
-      meant to him to know his name at last, and that he was of honorable birth&mdash;knowledge
-      without which life was an eternal disgrace and burden the one thing that
-      was hammering in Freckles' heart and beating in his brain, past any
-      attempted expression, was the fact that, while nameless and possibly born
-      in shame, the Angel had told him that she loved him. He could find no word
-      with which to begin to voice the rapture of his heart over that. But if
-      she regretted it&mdash;if it had been a thing done out of her pity for his
-      condition, or her feeling of responsibility, if it killed him after all,
-      there was only one thing left to do. Not for McLean, not for the Bird
-      Woman, not for the Duncans would Freckles have done it&mdash;but for the
-      Angel&mdash;if it would make her happy&mdash;he would do anything.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; whispered Freckles, with his lips against her hair, &ldquo;you haven't
-      learned your history book very well, or else you've forgotten.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Forgotten what?&rdquo; sobbed the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Forgotten about the real knight, Ladybird,&rdquo; breathed Freckles. &ldquo;Don't you
-      know that, if anything happened that made his lady sorry, a real knight
-      just simply couldn't be remembering it? Angel, darling little Swamp Angel,
-      you be listening to me. There was one night on the trail, one solemn,
-      grand, white night, that there wasn't ever any other like before or since,
-      when the dear Boss put his arm around me and told me that he loved me; but
-      if you care, Angel, if you don't want it that way, why, I ain't
-      remembering that anyone else ever did&mdash;not in me whole life.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel lifted her head and looked into the depths of Freckles' honest
-      gray eyes, and they met hers unwaveringly; but the pain in them was
-      pitiful.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you mean,&rdquo; she demanded, &ldquo;that you don't remember that a brazen,
-      forward girl told you, when you hadn't asked her, that she&rdquo;&mdash;the
-      Angel choked on it a second, but she gave a gulp and brought it out
-      bravely&mdash;&ldquo;that she loved you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;No! I don't remember anything of the kind!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      But all the songbirds of his soul burst into melody over that one little
-      clause: &ldquo;When you hadn't asked her.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But you will,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;You may live to be an old, old man, and
-      then you will.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will not!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;How can you think it, Angel?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You won't even LOOK as if you remember?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will not!&rdquo; persisted Freckles. &ldquo;I'll be swearing to it if you want me
-      to. If you wasn't too tired to think this thing out straight, you'd be
-      seeing that I couldn't&mdash;that I just simply couldn't! I'd rather give
-      it all up now and go into eternity alone, without ever seeing a soul of me
-      same blood, or me home, or hearing another man call me by the name I was
-      born to, than to remember anything that would be hurting you, Angel. I
-      should think you'd be understanding that it ain't no ways possible for me
-      to do it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's tear-stained face flashed into dazzling beauty. A
-      half-hysterical little laugh broke from her heart and bubbled over her
-      lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Freckles, forgive me!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I've been through so much that I'm
-      scarcely myself, or I wouldn't be here bothering you when you should be
-      sleeping. Of course you couldn't! I knew it all the time! I was just
-      scared! I was forgetting that you were you! You're too good a knight to
-      remember a thing like that. Of course you are! And when you don't
-      remember, why, then it's the same as if it never happened. I was almost
-      killed because I'd gone and spoiled everything, but now it will be all
-      right. Now you can go on and do things like other men, and I can have some
-      flowers, and letters, and my sweetheart coming, and when you are SURE,
-      why, then YOU can tell ME things, can't you? Oh, Freckles, I'm so glad!
-      Oh, I'm so happy! It's dear of you not to remember, Freckles; perfectly
-      dear! It's no wonder I love you so. The wonder would be if I did not. Oh,
-      I should like to know how I'm ever going to make you understand how much I
-      love you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Pillow and all, she caught him to her breast one long second; then she was
-      gone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay dazed with astonishment. At last his amazed eyes searched the
-      room for something approaching the human to which he could appeal, and
-      falling on his mother's portrait, he set it before him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;For the love of life! Me little mother,&rdquo; he panted, &ldquo;did you hear that?
-      Did you hear it! Tell me, am I living, or am I dead and all heaven come
-      true this minute? Did you hear it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He shook the frame in his impatience at receiving no answer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are only a pictured face,&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;and of course you can't
-      talk; but the soul of you must be somewhere, and surely in this hour you
-      are close enough to be hearing. Tell me, did you hear that? I can't ever
-      be telling a living soul; but darling little mother, who gave your life
-      for mine, I can always be talking of it to you! Every day we'll talk it
-      over and try to understand the miracle of it. Tell me, are all women like
-      that? Were you like me Swamp Angel? If you were, then I'm understanding
-      why me father followed across the ocean and went into the fire.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XX
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails for
-      Ireland Without Him
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' voice ceased, his eyes closed, and his head rolled back from
-      exhaustion. Later in the day he insisted on seeing Lord and Lady O'More,
-      but he fainted before the resemblance of another man to him, and gave all
-      of his friends a terrible fright.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The next morning, the Man of Affairs, with a heart filled with misgivings,
-      undertook the interview on which Freckles insisted. His fears were without
-      cause. Freckles was the soul of honor and simplicity.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have they been telling you what's come to me?&rdquo; he asked without even
-      waiting for a greeting.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel's father.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you think you have the very worst of it clear to your understanding?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Under Freckles' earnest eyes the Man of Affairs answered soberly: &ldquo;I think
-      I have, Mr. O'More.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      That was the first time Freckles heard his name from the lips of another.
-      One second he lay overcome; the next, tears filled his eyes, and he
-      reached out his hand. Then the Angel's father understood, and he clasped
-      that hand and held it in a strong, firm grasp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Terence, my boy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;let me do the talking. I came here with the
-      understanding that you wanted to ask me for my only child. I should like,
-      at the proper time, to regard her marriage, if she has found the man she
-      desires to marry, not as losing all I have, but as gaining a man on whom I
-      can depend to love as a son and to take charge of my affairs for her when
-      I retire from business. Bend all of your energies toward rapid recovery,
-      and from this hour understand that my daughter and my home are yours.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You're not forgetting this?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted his right arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Terence, I'm sorrier than I have words to express about that,&rdquo; said the
-      Man of Affairs. &ldquo;It's a damnable pity! But if it's for me to choose
-      whether I give all I have left in this world to a man lacking a hand, or
-      to one of these gambling, tippling, immoral spendthrifts of today, with
-      both hands and feet off their souls, and a rotten spot in the core, I
-      choose you; and it seems that my daughter does the same. Put what is left
-      you of that right arm to the best uses you can in this world, and never
-      again mention or feel that it is defective so long as you live. Good day,
-      sir!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;One minute more,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Yesterday the Angel was telling me that
-      there was money coming to me from two sources. She said that me
-      grandmother had left me father all of her fortune and her house, because
-      she knew that his father would be cutting him off, and also that me uncle
-      had set aside for me what would be me father's interest in his father's
-      estate.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Whatever the sum is that me grandmother left me father, because she loved
-      him and wanted him to be having it, that I'll be taking. 'Twas hers from
-      her father, and she had the right to be giving it as she chose. Anything
-      from the man that knowingly left me father and me mother to go cold and
-      hungry, and into the fire in misery, when just a little would have made
-      life so beautiful to them, and saved me this crippled body&mdash;money
-      that he willed from me when he knew I was living, of his blood and on
-      charity among strangers, I don't touch, not if I freeze, starve, and burn
-      too! If there ain't enough besides that, and I can't be earning enough to
-      fix things for the Angel&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We are not discussing money!&rdquo; burst in the Man of Affairs. &ldquo;We don't want
-      any blood-money! We have all we need without it. If you don't feel right
-      and easy over it, don't you touch a cent of any of it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's right I should have what me grandmother intinded for me father, and
-      I want it,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;but I'd die before I'd touch a cent of me
-      grandfather's money!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;we are all going home. We have done all we can for
-      Freckles. His people are here. He should know them. They are very anxious
-      to become acquainted with him. We'll resign him to them. When he is well,
-      why, then he will be perfectly free to go to Ireland or come to the
-      Limberlost, just as he chooses. We will go at once.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean held out for a week, and then he could endure it no longer. He was
-      heart hungry for Freckles. Communing with himself in the long, soundful
-      nights of the swamp, he had learned to his astonishment that for the past
-      year his heart had been circling the Limberlost with Freckles. He began to
-      wish that he had not left him. Perhaps the boy&mdash;his boy by first
-      right, after all&mdash;was being neglected. If the Boss had been a nervous
-      old woman, he scarcely could have imagined more things that might be going
-      wrong.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He started for Chicago, loaded with a big box of goldenrod, asters,
-      fringed gentians, and crimson leaves, that the Angel carefully had
-      gathered from Freckles' room, and a little, long slender package. He
-      traveled with biting, stinging jealousy in his heart. He would not admit
-      it even to himself, but he was unable to remain longer away from Freckles
-      and leave him to the care of Lord O'More.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a few minutes' talk, while McLean awaited admission to Freckles' room,
-      his lordship had chatted genially of Freckles' rapid recovery, of his
-      delight that he was unspotted by his early surroundings, and his desire to
-      visit the Limberlost with Freckles before they sailed; he expressed the
-      hope that he could prevail upon the Angel's father to place her in his
-      wife's care and have her education finished in Paris. He said they were
-      anxious to do all they could to help bind Freckles' arrangements with the
-      Angel, as both he and Lady O'More regarded her as the most promising girl
-      they knew, and one who could be fitted to fill the high position in which
-      Freckles would place her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Every word he uttered was pungent with bitterness to McLean. The swamp had
-      lost its flavor without Freckles; and yet, as Lord O'More talked, McLean
-      fervently wished himself in the heart of it. As he entered Freckles' room
-      he almost lost his breath. Everything was changed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay beside a window where he could follow Lake Michigan's blue
-      until the horizon dipped into it. He could see big soft clouds,
-      white-capped waves, shimmering sails, and puffing steamers trailing
-      billowing banners of lavender and gray across the sky. Gulls and curlews
-      wheeled over the water and dipped their wings in the foam. The room was
-      filled with every luxury that taste and money could introduce.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      All the tan and sunburn had been washed from Freckles' face in sweats of
-      agony. It was a smooth, even white, its brown rift scarcely showing. What
-      the nurses and Lady O'More had done to Freckles' hair McLean could not
-      guess, but it was the most beautiful that he ever had seen. Fine as floss,
-      bright in color, waving and crisp, it fell around the white face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They had gotten his arms into and his chest covered with a finely
-      embroidered, pale-blue silk shirt, with soft, white tie at the throat.
-      Among the many changes that had taken place during his absence, the fact
-      that Freckles was most attractive and barely escaped being handsome
-      remained almost unnoticed by the Boss, so great was his astonishment at
-      seeing both cuffs turned back and the right arm in view. Freckles was
-      using the maimed arm that previously he always had hidden.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Lord, sir, but I'm glad to see you!&rdquo; cried Freckles, almost rolling
-      from the bed as he reached toward McLean. &ldquo;Tell me quick, is the Angel
-      well and happy? Can me Little Chicken spread six feet of wing and sail to
-      his mother? How's me new father, the Bird Woman, Duncans, and Nellie&mdash;darling
-      little high-stepping Nelie? Me Aunt Alice is going to choose the hat just
-      as soon as I'm mended enough to be going with her. How are all the gang?
-      Have they found any more good trees? I've been thinking a lot, sir. I
-      believe I can find others near that last one. Me Aunt Alice thinks maybe I
-      can, and Uncle Terence says it's likely. Golly, but they're nice, ilegant
-      people. I tell you I'm proud to be same blood with them! Come closer,
-      quick! I was going to do this yesterday, and somehow I just felt that
-      you'd surely be coming today and I waited. I'm selecting the Angel's ring
-      stone. The ring she ordered for me is finished and they sent it to keep me
-      company. See? It's an emerald&mdash;just me color, Lord O'More says.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles flourished his hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ain't that fine? Never took so much comfort with anything in me life.
-      Every color of the old swamp is in it. I asked the Angel to have a little
-      shamrock leaf cut on it, so every time I saw it I'd be thinking of the
-      'love, truth, and valor' of that song she was teaching me. Ain't that a
-      beautiful song? Some of these days I'm going to make it echo. I'm a little
-      afraid to be doing it with me voice yet, but me heart's tuning away on it
-      every blessed hour. Will you be looking at these now?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles tilted a tray of unset stones from Peacock's that would have
-      ransomed several valuable kings. He held them toward McLean, stirring them
-      with his right arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I tell you I'm glad to see you, sir&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I tried to tell me uncle
-      what I wanted, but this ain't for him to be mixed up in, anyway, and I
-      don't think I made it clear to him. I couldn't seem to say the words I
-      wanted. I can be telling you, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean's heart began to thump as a lover's.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go on, Freckles,&rdquo; he said assuringly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's this,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I told him that I would pay only three
-      hundred dollars for the Angel's stone. I'm thinking that with what he has
-      laid up for me, and the bigness of things that the Angel did for me, it
-      seems like a stingy little sum to him. I know he thinks I should be giving
-      much more, but I feel as if I just had to be buying that stone with money
-      I earned meself; and that is all I have saved of me wages. I don't mind
-      paying for the muff, or the drexing table, or Mrs. Duncan's things, from
-      that other money, and later the Angel can have every last cent of me
-      grandmother's, if she'll take it; but just now&mdash;oh, sir, can't you
-      see that I have to be buying this stone with what I have in the bank? I'm
-      feeling that I couldn't do any other way, and don't you think the Angel
-      would rather have the best stone I can buy with the money I earned meself
-      than a finer one paid for with other money?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In other words, Freckles,&rdquo; said the Boss in a husky voice, &ldquo;you don't
-      want to buy the Angel's ring with money. You want to give for it your
-      first awful fear of the swamp. You want to pay for it with the loneliness
-      and heart hunger you have suffered there, with last winter's freezing on
-      the line and this summer's burning in the sun. You want it to stand to her
-      for every hour in which you risked your life to fulfill your contract
-      honorably. You want the price of that stone to be the fears that have
-      chilled your heart&mdash;the sweat and blood of your body.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' eyes were filled with tears and his face quivering with feeling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear Mr. McLean,&rdquo; he said, reaching with a caress over the Boss's black
-      hair and his cheek. &ldquo;Dear Boss, that's why I've wanted you so. I knew you
-      would know. Now you will be looking at these? I don't want emeralds,
-      because that's what she gave me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He pushed the green stones into a little heap of rejected ones. Then he
-      singled out all the pearls.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ain't they pretty things?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'll be getting her some of those
-      later. They are like lily faces, turtle-head flowers, dewdrops in the
-      shade or moonlight; but they haven't the life in them that I want in the
-      stone I give to the Angel right now.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles heaped the pearls with the emeralds. He studied the diamonds a
-      long time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;These things are so fascinating like they almost tempt one, though they
-      ain't quite the proper thing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I've always dearly loved to be
-      watching yours, sir. I must get her some of these big ones, too, some day.
-      They're like the Limberlost in January, when it's all ice-coated, and the
-      sun is in the west and shines through and makes all you can see of the
-      whole world look like fire and ice; but fire and ice ain't like the
-      Angel.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The diamonds joined the emeralds and pearls. There was left a little red
-      heap, and Freckles' fingers touched it with a new tenderness. His eyes
-      were flashing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm thinking here's me Angel's stone,&rdquo; he exulted. &ldquo;The Limberlost, and
-      me with it, grew in mine; but it's going to bloom, and her with it, in
-      this! There's the red of the wild poppies, the cardinal-flowers, and the
-      little bunch of crushed foxfire that we found where she put it to save me.
-      There's the light of the campfire, and the sun setting over Sleepy Snake
-      Creek. There's the red of the blood we were willing to give for each
-      other. It's like her lips, and like the drops that dried on her beautiful
-      arm that first day, and I'm thinking it must be like the brave, tender,
-      clean, red heart of her.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted the ruby to his lips and handed it to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll be signing me cheque and you have it set,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want you to
-      draw me money and pay for it with those very same dollars, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Again the heart of McLean took hope.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, may I ask you something?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, sure,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;There's nothing you would be asking that it
-      wouldn't be giving me joy to be telling you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean's eyes traveled to Freckles' right arm with which he was moving the
-      jewels.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, that!&rdquo; cried Freckles with a laugh. &ldquo;You're wanting to know where all
-      the bitterness is gone? Well sir, 'twas carried from me soul, heart, and
-      body on the lips of an Angel. Seems that hurt was necessary in the
-      beginning to make today come true. The wound had always been raw, but the
-      Angel was healing it. If she doesn't care, I don't. Me dear new father
-      doesn't, nor me aunt and uncle, and you never did. Why should I be
-      fretting all me life about what can't be helped. The real truth is, that
-      since what happened to it last week, I'm so everlastingly proud of it I
-      catch meself sticking it out on display a bit.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles looked the Boss in the eyes and began to laugh.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well thank heaven!&rdquo; said McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now it's me turn,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I don't know as I ought to be asking
-      you, and yet I can't see a reason good enough to keep me from it. It's a
-      thing I've had on me mind every hour since I've had time to straighten
-      things out a little. May I be asking you a question?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean reached over and took Freckles' hand. His voice was shaken with
-      feeling as he replied: &ldquo;Freckles, you almost hurt me. Will you never learn
-      how much you are to me&mdash;how happy you make me in coming to me with
-      anything, no matter what?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then it's this,&rdquo; said Freckles, gripping the hand of McLean strongly. &ldquo;If
-      this accident, and all that's come to me since, had never happened, where
-      was it you had planned to send me to school? What was it you meant for me
-      to do?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, Freckles,&rdquo; answered McLean, &ldquo;I'm scarcely prepared to state
-      definitely. My ideas were rather hazy. I thought we would make a beginning
-      and see which way things went. I figured on taking you to Grand Rapids
-      first, and putting you in the care of my mother. I had an idea it would be
-      best to secure a private tutor to coach you for a year or two, until you
-      were ready to enter Ann Arbor or the Chicago University in good shape.
-      Then I thought we'd finish in this country at Yale or Harvard, and end
-      with Oxford, to get a good, all-round flavor.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No; that's leaving the music out,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;I intended to have your
-      voice tested by some master, and if you really were endowed for a career
-      as a great musician, and had inclinations that way, I wished to have you
-      drop some of the college work and make music your chief study. Finally, I
-      wanted us to take a trip through Europe and clear around the circle
-      together.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And then what?&rdquo; queried Freckles breathlessly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, then,&rdquo; said McLean, &ldquo;you know that my heart is hopelessly in the
-      woods. I never will quit the timber business while there is timber to
-      handle and breath in my body. I thought if you didn't make a profession of
-      music, and had any inclination my way, we would stretch the partnership
-      one more and take you into the firm, placing your work with me. Those
-      plans may sound jumbled in the telling, but they have grown steadily on
-      me, Freckles, as you have grown dear to me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted anxious and eager eyes to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You told me once on the trail, and again when we thought that I was
-      dying, that you loved me. Do these things that have come to me make any
-      difference in any way with your feeing toward me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;None,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;How could they, Freckles? Nothing could make me love
-      you more, and you never will do anything that will make me love you less.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Glory be to God!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;Glory to the Almighty! Hurry and be
-      telling your mother I'm coming! Just as soon as I can get on me feet I'll
-      be taking that ring to me Angel, and then I'll go to Grand Rapids and be
-      making me start just as you planned, only that I can be paying me own way.
-      When I'm educated enough, we'll all&mdash;the Angel and her father, the
-      Bird Woman, you, and me&mdash;all of us will go together and see me house
-      and me relations and be taking that trip. When we get back, we'll add
-      O'More to the Lumber Company, and golly, sir, but we'll make things hum!
-      Good land, sir! Don't do that! Why, Mr. McLean, dear Boss, dear father,
-      don't be doing that! What is it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Nothing, nothing!&rdquo; boomed McLean's deep bass; &ldquo;nothing at all!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He abruptly turned, and hurried to the window.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This is a mighty fine view,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Lake's beautiful this morning. No
-      wonder Chicago people are so proud of their city's location on its shore.
-      But, Freckles, what is Lord O'More going to say to this?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I am going to be cut deep if he cares, for
-      he's been more than good to me, and Lady Alice is next to me Angel. He's
-      made me feel me blood and race me own possession. She's talked to me by
-      the hour of me father and mother and me grandmother. She's made them all
-      that real I can lay claim to them and feel that they are mine. I'm very
-      sorry to be hurting them, if it will, but it can't be changed. Nobody ever
-      puts the width of the ocean between me and the Angel. From here to the
-      Limberlost is all I can be bearing peaceable. I want the education, and
-      then I want to work and live here in the country where I was born, and
-      where the ashes of me father and mother rest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll be glad to see Ireland, and glad especial to see those little people
-      who are my kin, but I ain't ever staying long. All me heart is the
-      Angel's, and the Limberlost is calling every minute. You're thinking, sir,
-      that when I look from that window I see the beautiful water, ain't you?
-      I'm not.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I see soft, slow clouds oozing across the blue, me big black chickens
-      hanging up there, and a great feather softly sliding down. I see mighty
-      trees, swinging vines, bright flowers, and always masses of the wild
-      roses, with the wild rose face of me Ladybird looking through. I see the
-      swale rocking, smell the sweetness of the blooming things, and the damp,
-      mucky odor of the swamp; and I hear me birds sing, me squirrels bark, the
-      rattlers hiss, and the step of Wessner or Black Jack coming; and whether
-      it's the things that I loved or the things that I feared, it's all a part
-      of the day.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me heart's all me Swamp Angel's, and me love is all hers, and I have her
-      and the swamp so confused in me mind I never can be separating them. When
-      I look at her, I see blue sky, the sun rifting through the leaves and pink
-      and red flowers; and when I look at the Limberlost I see a pink face with
-      blue eyes, gold hair, and red lips, and, it's the truth, sir, they're
-      mixed till they're one to me!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm afraid it will be hurting some, but I have the feeing that I can be
-      making my dear people understand, so that they will be willing to let me
-      come back home. Send Lady O'More to put these flowers God made in the
-      place of these glass-house ilegancies, and please be cutting the string of
-      this little package the Angel's sent me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As Freckles held up the package, the lights of the Limberlost flashed from
-      the emerald on his finger. On the cover was printed: &ldquo;To the Limberlost
-      Guard!&rdquo; Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent black feather. Limberlost
-      Guard!&rdquo; Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent black feather.
-    </p>
-
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diff --git a/old/old-2025-03-06/111-0.txt b/old/old-2025-03-06/111-0.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index 0e8e5f6..0000000
--- a/old/old-2025-03-06/111-0.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,8889 +0,0 @@
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 111 ***
-
-FRECKLES
-
-By Gene Stratton-Porter
-
-
-
-
-  To all good Irishmen in general
-  and one CHARLES DARWIN PORTER
-  in particular
-
-
-
-Characters:
-
-
-  FRECKLES, a plucky waif who guards the Limberlost timber leases and
-  dreams of Angels.
-
-  THE SWAMP ANGEL, in whom Freckles' sweetest dream materializes.
-
-  MCLEAN, a member of a Grand Rapids lumber company, who befriends
-  Freckles.
-
-  MRS. DUNCAN, who gives mother-love and a home to Freckles.
-
-  DUNCAN, head teamster of McLean's timber gang.
-
-  THE BIRD WOMAN, who is collecting camera studies of birds for a book.
-
-  LORD AND LADY O'MORE, who come from Ireland in quest of a lost relative.
-
-  THE MAN OF AFFAIRS, brusque of manner, but big of heart.
-
-  WESSNER, a Dutch timber-thief who wants rascality made easy.
-
-  BLACK JACK, a villain to whom thought of repentance comes too late.
-
-  SEARS, camp cook.
-
-
-
-
-Contents:
-
-
-  I Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-
-  II Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-
-  III Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-
-  IV Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for New
-  Experiences
-
-  V Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-
-  VI Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-
-  VII Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-
-  VIII Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the
-  Encounter
-
-  IX Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to
-  the Rescue
-
-  X Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-
-  XI Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird
-  Woman
-
-  XII Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-
-  XIII Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack
-  Falls upon Her
-
-  XIV Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-
-  XV Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little
-  Chicken Furnishes the Subject
-
-  XVI Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-
-  XVII Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken
-  Body
-
-  XVIII Wherein Freckles Refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable
-  Birth, and the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-
-  XIX Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-
-  XX Wherein Freckles Returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails for
-  Ireland Without Him
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-
-Freckles came down the corduroy that crosses the lower end of the
-Limberlost. At a glance he might have been mistaken for a tramp, but he
-was truly seeking work. He was intensely eager to belong somewhere and
-to be attached to almost any enterprise that would furnish him food and
-clothing.
-
-Long before he came in sight of the camp of the Grand Rapids Lumber
-Company, he could hear the cheery voices of the men, the neighing of the
-horses, and could scent the tempting odors of cooking food. A feeling
-of homeless friendlessness swept over him in a sickening wave. Without
-stopping to think, he turned into the newly made road and followed it to
-the camp, where the gang was making ready for supper and bed.
-
-The scene was intensely attractive. The thickness of the swamp made a
-dark, massive background below, while above towered gigantic trees.
-The men were calling jovially back and forth as they unharnessed tired
-horses that fell into attitudes of rest and crunched, in deep content,
-the grain given them. Duncan, the brawny Scotch head-teamster, lovingly
-wiped the flanks of his big bays with handfuls of pawpaw leaves, as he
-softly whistled, “O wha will be my dearie, O!” and a cricket beneath
-the leaves at his feet accompanied him. The green wood fire hissed and
-crackled merrily. Wreathing tongues of flame wrapped around the big
-black kettles, and when the cook lifted the lids to plunge in his
-testing-fork, gusts of savory odors escaped.
-
-Freckles approached him.
-
-“I want to speak with the Boss,” he said.
-
-The cook glanced at him and answered carelessly: “He can't use you.”
-
-The color flooded Freckles' face, but he said simply: “If you will be
-having the goodness to point him out, we will give him a chance to do
-his own talking.”
-
-With a shrug of astonishment, the cook led the way to a rough board
-table where a broad, square-shouldered man was bending over some
-account-books.
-
-“Mr. McLean, here's another man wanting to be taken on the gang, I
-suppose,” he said.
-
-“All right,” came the cheery answer. “I never needed a good man more
-than I do just now.”
-
-The manager turned a page and carefully began a new line.
-
-“No use of your bothering with this fellow,” volunteered the cook. “He
-hasn't but one hand.”
-
-The flush on Freckles' face burned deeper. His lips thinned to a mere
-line. He lifted his shoulders, took a step forward, and thrust out his
-right arm, from which the sleeve dangled empty at the wrist.
-
-“That will do, Sears,” came the voice of the Boss sharply. “I will
-interview my man when I finish this report.”
-
-He turned to his work, while the cook hurried to the fires. Freckles
-stood one instant as he had braced himself to meet the eyes of the
-manager; then his arm dropped and a wave of whiteness swept him. The
-Boss had not even turned his head. He had used the possessive. When he
-said “my man,” the hungry heart of Freckles went reaching toward him.
-
-The boy drew a quivering breath. Then he whipped off his old hat and
-beat the dust from it carefully. With his left hand he caught the right
-sleeve, wiped his sweaty face, and tried to straighten his hair with
-his fingers. He broke a spray of ironwort beside him and used the purple
-bloom to beat the dust from his shoulders and limbs. The Boss, busy over
-his report, was, nevertheless, vaguely alive to the toilet being made
-behind him, and scored one for the man.
-
-McLean was a Scotchman. It was his habit to work slowly and
-methodically. The men of his camps never had known him to be in a hurry
-or to lose his temper. Discipline was inflexible, but the Boss was
-always kind. His habits were simple. He shared camp life with his gangs.
-The only visible signs of wealth consisted of a big, shimmering diamond
-stone of ice and fire that glittered and burned on one of his fingers,
-and the dainty, beautiful thoroughbred mare he rode between camps and
-across the country on business.
-
-No man of McLean's gangs could honestly say that he ever had been
-overdriven or underpaid. The Boss never had exacted any deference from
-his men, yet so intense was his personality that no man of them ever had
-attempted a familiarity. They all knew him to be a thorough gentleman,
-and that in the great timber city several millions stood to his credit.
-
-He was the only son of that McLean who had sent out the finest ships
-ever built in Scotland. That his son should carry on this business after
-the father's death had been his ambition. He had sent the boy through
-the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and allowed him several years'
-travel before he should attempt his first commission for the firm.
-
-Then he was ordered to southern Canada and Michigan to purchase a
-consignment of tall, straight timber for masts, and south to Indiana for
-oak beams. The young man entered these mighty forests, parts of which
-lay untouched since the dawn of the morning of time. The clear, cool,
-pungent atmosphere was intoxicating. The intense silence, like that of a
-great empty cathedral, fascinated him. He gradually learned that, to
-the shy wood creatures that darted across his path or peeped inquiringly
-from leafy ambush, he was brother. He found himself approaching, with a
-feeling of reverence, those majestic trees that had stood through ages
-of sun, wind, and snow. Soon it became difficult to fell them. When he
-had filled his order and returned home, he was amazed to learn that in
-the swamps and forests he had lost his heart and it was calling--forever
-calling him.
-
-When he inherited his father's property, he promptly disposed of it,
-and, with his mother, founded a home in a splendid residence in the
-outskirts of Grand Rapids. With three partners, he organized a lumber
-company. His work was to purchase, fell, and ship the timber to the
-mills. Marshall managed the milling process and passed the lumber to the
-factory. From the lumber, Barthol made beautiful and useful furniture,
-which Uptegrove scattered all over the world from a big wholesale house.
-Of the thousands who saw their faces reflected on the polished surfaces
-of that furniture and found comfort in its use, few there were to whom
-it suggested mighty forests and trackless swamps, and the man, big
-of soul and body, who cut his way through them, and with the eye of
-experience doomed the proud trees that were now entering the homes of
-civilization for service.
-
-When McLean turned from his finished report, he faced a young man,
-yet under twenty, tall, spare, heavily framed, closely freckled, and
-red-haired, with a homely Irish face, but in the steady gray eyes,
-straightly meeting his searching ones of blue, there was unswerving
-candor and the appearance of longing not to be ignored. He was dressed
-in the roughest of farm clothing, and seemed tired to the point of
-falling.
-
-“You are looking for work?” questioned McLean.
-
-“Yis,” answered Freckles.
-
-“I am very sorry,” said the Boss with genuine sympathy in his every
-tone, “but there is only one man I want at present--a hardy, big fellow
-with a stout heart and a strong body. I hoped that you would do, but I
-am afraid you are too young and scarcely strong enough.”
-
-Freckles stood, hat in hand, watching McLean.
-
-“And what was it you thought I might be doing?” he asked.
-
-The Boss could scarcely repress a start. Somewhere before accident and
-poverty there had been an ancestor who used cultivated English, even
-with an accent. The boy spoke in a mellow Irish voice, sweet and pure.
-It was scarcely definite enough to be called brogue, yet there was a
-trick in the turning of the sentence, the wrong sound of a letter here
-and there, that was almost irresistible to McLean, and presaged a misuse
-of infinitives and possessives with which he was very familiar and
-which touched him nearly. He was of foreign birth, and despite years of
-alienation, in times of strong feeling he committed inherited sins of
-accent and construction.
-
-“It's no child's job,” answered McLean. “I am the field manager of a
-big lumber company. We have just leased two thousand acres of the
-Limberlost. Many of these trees are of great value. We can't leave our
-camp, six miles south, for almost a year yet; so we have blazed a trail
-and strung barbed wires securely around this lease. Before we return to
-our work, I must put this property in the hands of a reliable, brave,
-strong man who will guard it every hour of the day, and sleep with one
-eye open at night. I shall require the entire length of the trail to be
-walked at least twice each day, to make sure that our lines are up and
-that no one has been trespassing.”
-
-Freckles was leaning forward, absorbing every word with such intense
-eagerness that he was beguiling the Boss into explanations he had never
-intended making.
-
-“But why wouldn't that be the finest job in the world for me?” he
-pleaded. “I am never sick. I could walk the trail twice, three times
-every day, and I'd be watching sharp all the while.”
-
-“It's because you are scarcely more than a boy, and this will be a
-trying job for a work-hardened man,” answered McLean. “You see, in the
-first place, you would be afraid. In stretching our lines, we killed six
-rattlesnakes almost as long as your body and as thick as your arm. It's
-the price of your life to start through the marshgrass surrounding the
-swamp unless you are covered with heavy leather above your knees.
-
-“You should be able to swim in case high water undermines the temporary
-bridge we have built where Sleepy Snake Creek enters the swamp. The fall
-and winter changes of weather are abrupt and severe, while I would want
-strict watch kept every day. You would always be alone, and I don't
-guarantee what is in the Limberlost. It is lying here as it has lain
-since the beginning of time, and it is alive with forms and voices. I
-don't pretend to say what all of them come from; but from a few slinking
-shapes I've seen, and hair-raising yells I've heard, I'd rather not
-confront their owners myself; and I am neither weak nor fearful.
-
-“Worst of all, any man who will enter the swamp to mark and steal
-timber is desperate. One of my employees at the south camp, John Carter,
-compelled me to discharge him for a number of serious reasons. He came
-here, entered the swamp alone, and succeeded in locating and marking
-a number of valuable trees that he was endeavoring to sell to a rival
-company when we secured the lease. He has sworn to have these trees if
-he has to die or to kill others to get them; and he is a man that the
-strongest would not care to meet.”
-
-“But if he came to steal trees, wouldn't he bring teams and men enough:
-that all anyone could do would be to watch and be after you?” queried
-the boy.
-
-“Yes,” replied McLean.
-
-“Then why couldn't I be watching just as closely, and coming as fast, as
-an older, stronger man?” asked Freckles.
-
-“Why, by George, you could!” exclaimed McLean. “I don't know as the size
-of a man would be half so important as his grit and faithfulness, come
-to think of it. Sit on that log there and we will talk it over. What is
-your name?”
-
-Freckles shook his head at the proffer of a seat, and folding his arms,
-stood straight as the trees around him. He grew a shade whiter, but his
-eyes never faltered.
-
-“Freckles!” he said.
-
-“Good enough for everyday,” laughed McLean, “but I scarcely can put
-'Freckles' on the company's books. Tell me your name.”
-
-“I haven't any name,” replied the boy.
-
-“I don't understand,” said McLean.
-
-“I was thinking from the voice and the face of you that you wouldn't,”
- said Freckles slowly. “I've spent more time on it than I ever did on
-anything else in all me life, and I don't understand. Does it seem to
-you that anyone would take a newborn baby and row over it, until it was
-bruised black, cut off its hand, and leave it out in a bitter night
-on the steps of a charity home, to the care of strangers? That's what
-somebody did to me.”
-
-McLean stared aghast. He had no reply ready, and presently in a low
-voice he suggested: “And after?”
-
-“The Home people took me in, and I was there the full legal age and
-several years over. For the most part we were a lot of little Irishmen
-together. They could always find homes for the other children, but
-nobody would ever be wanting me on account of me arm.”
-
-“Were they kind to you?” McLean regretted the question the minute it was
-asked.
-
-“I don't know,” answered Freckles. The reply sounded so hopeless, even
-to his own ears, that he hastened to qualify it by adding: “You see,
-it's like this, sir. Kindnesses that people are paid to lay off in job
-lots and that belong equally to several hundred others, ain't going to
-be soaking into any one fellow so much.”
-
-“Go on,” said McLean, nodding comprehendingly.
-
-“There's nothing worth the taking of your time to tell,” replied
-Freckles. “The Home was in Chicago, and I was there all me life until
-three months ago. When I was too old for the training they gave to the
-little children, they sent me to the closest ward school as long as the
-law would let them; but I was never like any of the other children, and
-they all knew it. I'd to go and come like a prisoner, and be working
-around the Home early and late for me board and clothes. I always wanted
-to learn mighty bad, but I was glad when that was over.
-
-“Every few days, all me life, I'd to be called up, looked over, and
-refused a home and love, on account of me hand and ugly face; but it was
-all the home I'd ever known, and I didn't seem to belong to any place
-else.
-
-“Then a new superintendent was put in. He wasn't for being like any of
-the others, and he swore he'd weed me out the first thing he did. He
-made a plan to send me down the State to a man he said he knew who
-needed a boy. He wasn't for remembering to tell that man that I was a
-hand short, and he knocked me down the minute he found I was the boy who
-had been sent him. Between noon and that evening, he and his son close
-my age had me in pretty much the same shape in which I was found in
-the beginning, so I lay awake that night and ran away. I'd like to have
-squared me account with that boy before I left, but I didn't dare for
-fear of waking the old man, and I knew I couldn't handle the two of
-them; but I'm hoping to meet him alone some day before I die.”
-
-McLean tugged at his mustache to hide the smile on his lips, but he
-liked the boy all the better for this confession.
-
-“I didn't even have to steal clothes to get rid of starting in me Home
-ones,” Freckles continued, “for they had already taken all me clean,
-neat things for the boy and put me into his rags, and that went almost
-as sore as the beatings, for where I was we were always kept tidy and
-sweet-smelling, anyway. I hustled clear into this State before I learned
-that man couldn't have kept me if he'd wanted to. When I thought I
-was good and away from him, I commenced hunting work, but it is with
-everybody else just as it is with you, sir. Big, strong, whole men are
-the only ones for being wanted.”
-
-“I have been studying over this matter,” answered McLean. “I am not so
-sure but that a man no older than you and similar in every way could do
-this work very well, if he were not a coward, and had it in him to be
-trustworthy and industrious.”
-
-Freckles came forward a step.
-
-“If you will give me a job where I can earn me food, clothes, and a
-place to sleep,” he said, “if I can have a Boss to work for like other
-men, and a place I feel I've a right to, I will do precisely what you
-tell me or die trying.”
-
-He spoke so convincingly that McLean believed, although in his heart he
-knew that to employ a stranger would be wretched business for a man with
-the interests he had involved.
-
-“Very well,” the Boss found himself answering, “I will enter you on my
-pay rolls. We'll have supper, and then I will provide you with clean
-clothing, wading-boots, the wire-mending apparatus, and a revolver.
-The first thing in the morning, I will take you the length of the trail
-myself and explain fully what I want done. All I ask of you is to come
-to me at once at the south camp and tell me as a man if you find this
-job too hard for you. It will not surprise me. It is work that few men
-would perform faithfully. What name shall I put down?”
-
-Freckles' gaze never left McLean's face, and the Boss saw the swift
-spasm of pain that swept his lonely, sensitive features.
-
-“I haven't any name,” he said stubbornly, “no more than one somebody
-clapped on to me when they put me on the Home books, with not the
-thought or care they'd name a house cat. I've seen how they enter those
-poor little abandoned devils often enough to know. What they called me
-is no more my name than it is yours. I don't know what mine is, and I
-never will; but I am going to be your man and do your work, and I'll be
-glad to answer to any name you choose to call me. Won't you please be
-giving me a name, Mr. McLean?”
-
-The Boss wheeled abruptly and began stacking his books. What he was
-thinking was probably what any other gentleman would have thought in the
-circumstances. With his eyes still downcast, and in a voice harsh with
-huskiness, he spoke.
-
-“I will tell you what we will do, my lad,” he said. “My father was my
-ideal man, and I loved him better than any other I have ever known. He
-went out five years ago, but that he would have been proud to leave you
-his name I firmly believe. If I give to you the name of my nearest kin
-and the man I loved best--will that do?”
-
-Freckles' rigid attitude relaxed suddenly. His head dropped, and big
-tears splashed on the soiled calico shirt. McLean was not surprised at
-the silence, for he found that talking came none too easily just then.
-
-“All right,” he said. “I will write it on the roll--James Ross McLean.”
-
-“Thank you mightily,” said Freckles. “That makes me feel almost as if I
-belonged, already.”
-
-“You do,” said McLean. “Until someone armed with every right comes to
-claim you, you are mine. Now, come and take a bath, have some supper,
-and go to bed.”
-
-As Freckles followed into the lights and sounds of the camp, his heart
-and soul were singing for joy.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-
-Next morning found Freckles in clean, whole clothing, fed, and rested.
-Then McLean outfitted him and gave him careful instruction in the use of
-his weapon. The Boss showed him around the timber-line, and engaged him
-a place to board with the family of his head teamster, Duncan, whom he
-had brought from Scotland with him, and who lived in a small clearing
-he was working out between the swamp and the corduroy. When the gang was
-started for the south camp, Freckles was left to guard a fortune in the
-Limberlost. That he was under guard himself those first weeks he never
-knew.
-
-Each hour was torture to the boy. The restricted life of a great
-city orphanage was the other extreme of the world compared with the
-Limberlost. He was afraid for his life every minute. The heat was
-intense. The heavy wading-boots rubbed his feet until they bled. He was
-sore and stiff from his long tramp and outdoor exposure. The seven
-miles of trail was agony at every step. He practiced at night, under the
-direction of Duncan, until he grew sure in the use of his revolver. He
-cut a stout hickory cudgel, with a knot on the end as big as his fist;
-this never left his hand. What he thought in those first days he himself
-could not recall clearly afterward.
-
-His heart stood still every time he saw the beautiful marsh-grass begin
-a sinuous waving AGAINST the play of the wind, as McLean had told him it
-would. He bolted half a mile with the first boom of the bittern, and his
-hat lifted with every yelp of the sheitpoke. Once he saw a lean, shadowy
-form following him, and fired his revolver. Then he was frightened worse
-than ever for fear it might have been Duncan's collie.
-
-The first afternoon that he found his wires down, and he was compelled
-to plunge knee deep into the black swamp-muck to restring them, he
-became so ill from fear and nervousness that he scarcely could control
-his shaking hand to do the work. With every step, he felt that he would
-miss secure footing and be swallowed in that clinging sea of blackness.
-In dumb agony he plunged forward, clinging to the posts and trees until
-he had finished restringing and testing the wire. He had consumed
-much time. Night closed in. The Limberlost stirred gently, then shook
-herself, growled, and awoke around him.
-
-There seemed to be a great owl hooting from every hollow tree, and
-a little one screeching from every knothole. The bellowing of big
-bullfrogs was not sufficiently deafening to shut out the wailing of
-whip-poor-wills that seemed to come from every bush. Nighthawks swept
-past him with their shivering cry, and bats struck his face. A prowling
-wildcat missed its catch and screamed with rage. A straying fox bayed
-incessantly for its mate.
-
-The hair on the back of Freckles' neck arose as bristles, and his knees
-wavered beneath him. He could not see whether the dreaded snakes were on
-the trail, or, in the pandemonium, hear the rattle for which McLean had
-cautioned him to listen. He stood motionless in an agony of fear. His
-breath whistled between his teeth. The perspiration ran down his face
-and body in little streams.
-
-Something big, black, and heavy came crashing through the swamp close
-to him, and with a yell of utter panic Freckles ran--how far he did not
-know; but at last he gained control over himself and retraced his steps.
-His jaws set stiffly and the sweat dried on his body. When he reached
-the place from which he had started to run, he turned and with measured
-steps made his way down the line. After a time he realized that he was
-only walking, so he faced that sea of horrors again. When he came toward
-the corduroy, the cudgel fell to test the wire at each step.
-
-Sounds that curdled his blood seemed to encompass him, and shapes of
-terror to draw closer and closer. Fear had so gained the mastery that he
-did not dare look behind him; and just when he felt that he would fall
-dead before he ever reached the clearing, came Duncan's rolling call:
-“Freckles! Freckles!” A shuddering sob burst in the boy's dry throat;
-but he only told Duncan that finding the wire down had caused the delay.
-
-The next morning he started on time. Day after day, with his heart
-pounding, he ducked, dodged, ran when he could, and fought when he was
-brought to bay. If he ever had an idea of giving up, no one knew it; for
-he clung to his job without the shadow of wavering. All these things, in
-so far as he guessed them, Duncan, who had been set to watch the first
-weeks of Freckles' work, carried to the Boss at the south camp; but
-the innermost, exquisite torture of the thing the big Scotchman never
-guessed, and McLean, with his finer perceptions, came only a little
-closer.
-
-After a few weeks, when Freckles learned that he was still living, that
-he had a home, and the very first money he ever had possessed was safe
-in his pockets, he began to grow proud. He yet side-stepped, dodged, and
-hurried to avoid being late again, but he was gradually developing the
-fearlessness that men ever acquire of dangers to which they are hourly
-accustomed.
-
-His heart seemed to be leaping when his first rattler disputed the trail
-with him, but he mustered courage to attack it with his club. After its
-head had been crushed, he mastered an Irishman's inborn repugnance for
-snakes sufficiently to cut off its rattles to show Duncan. With this
-victory, his greatest fear of them was gone.
-
-Then he began to realize that with the abundance of food in the swamp,
-flesh-hunters would not come on the trail and attack him, and he had his
-revolver for defence if they did. He soon learned to laugh at the big,
-floppy birds that made horrible noises. One day, watching behind a tree,
-he saw a crane solemnly performing a few measures of a belated nuptial
-song-and-dance with his mate. Realizing that it was intended in
-tenderness, no matter how it appeared, the lonely, starved heart of the
-boy sympathized with them.
-
-Before the first month passed, he was fairly easy about his job; by the
-next he rather liked it. Nature can be trusted to work her own miracle
-in the heart of any man whose daily task keeps him alone among her
-sights, sounds, and silences.
-
-When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter loneliness was
-the companionship of the birds and beasts of the swamp, it was the
-most natural thing in the world that Freckles should turn to them for
-friendship. He began by instinctively protecting the weak and helpless.
-He was astonished at the quickness with which they became accustomed to
-him and the disregard they showed for his movements, when they learned
-that he was not a hunter, while the club he carried was used more
-frequently for their benefit than his own. He scarcely could believe
-what he saw.
-
-From the effort to protect the birds and animals, it was only a short
-step to the possessive feeling, and with that sprang the impulse to
-caress and provide. Through fall, when brooding was finished and the
-upland birds sought the swamp in swarms to feast on its seeds and
-berries, Freckles was content with watching them and speculating about
-them. Outside of half a dozen of the very commonest they were strangers
-to him. The likeness of their actions to humanity was an hourly
-surprise.
-
-When black frost began stripping the Limberlost, cutting the ferns,
-shearing the vines from the trees, mowing the succulent green things
-of the swale, and setting the leaves swirling down, he watched the
-departing troops of his friends with dismay. He began to realize that he
-would be left alone. He made especial efforts toward friendliness with
-the hope that he could induce some of them to stay. It was then that he
-conceived the idea of carrying food to the birds; for he saw that they
-were leaving for lack of it; but he could not stop them. Day after day,
-flocks gathered and departed: by the time the first snow whitened
-his trail around the Limberlost, there were left only the little
-black-and-white juncos, the sapsuckers, yellow-hammers, a few patriarchs
-among the flaming cardinals, the blue jays, the crows, and the quail.
-
-Then Freckles began his wizard work. He cleared a space of swale, and
-twice a day he spread a birds' banquet. By the middle of December the
-strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed from the grass and
-bushes. The snow fell, covering the swamp, and food was very scarce and
-difficult to find. The birds scarcely waited until Freckles' back was
-turned to attack his provisions. In a few weeks they flew toward the
-clearing to meet him. During the bitter weather of January they came
-halfway to the cabin every morning, and fluttered around him as
-doves all the way to the feeding-ground. Before February they were so
-accustomed to him, and so hunger-driven, that they would perch on
-his head and shoulders, and the saucy jays would try to pry into his
-pockets.
-
-Then Freckles added to wheat and crumbs, every scrap of refuse food he
-could find at the cabin. He carried to his pets the parings of apples,
-turnips, potatoes, stray cabbage-leaves, and carrots, and tied to the
-bushes meat-bones having scraps of fat and gristle. One morning, coming
-to his feeding-ground unusually early, he found a gorgeous cardinal
-and a rabbit side by side sociably nibbling a cabbage-leaf, and that
-instantly gave to him the idea of cracking nuts, from the store he had
-gathered for Duncan's children, for the squirrels, in the effort to add
-them to his family. Soon he had them coming--red, gray, and black; then
-he became filled with a vast impatience that he did not know their names
-or habits.
-
-So the winter passed. Every week McLean rode to the Limberlost; never on
-the same day or at the same hour. Always he found Freckles at his work,
-faithful and brave, no matter how severe the weather.
-
-The boy's earnings constituted his first money; and when the Boss
-explained to him that he could leave them safe at a bank and carry away
-a scrap of paper that represented the amount, he went straight on every
-payday and made his deposit, keeping out barely what was necessary for
-his board and clothing. What he wanted to do with his money he did not
-know, but it gave to him a sense of freedom and power to feel that it
-was there--it was his and he could have it when he chose. In imitation
-of McLean, he bought a small pocket account-book, in which he carefully
-set down every dollar he earned and every penny he spent. As his
-expenses were small and the Boss paid him generously, it was astonishing
-how his little hoard grew.
-
-That winter held the first hours of real happiness in Freckles' life. He
-was free. He was doing a man's work faithfully, through every rigor of
-rain, snow, and blizzard. He was gathering a wonderful strength of body,
-paying his way, and saving money. Every man of the gang and of that
-locality knew that he was under the protection of McLean, who was
-a power, this had the effect of smoothing Freckles' path in many
-directions.
-
-Mrs. Duncan showed him that individual kindness for which his hungry
-heart was longing. She had a hot drink ready for him when he came from
-a freezing day on the trail. She knit him a heavy mitten for his left
-hand, and devised a way to sew and pad the right sleeve that protected
-the maimed arm in bitter weather. She patched his clothing--frequently
-torn by the wire--and saved kitchen scraps for his birds, not because
-she either knew or cared anything about them, but because she herself
-was close enough to the swamp to be touched by its utter loneliness.
-When Duncan laughed at her for this, she retorted: “My God, mannie, if
-Freckles hadna the birds and the beasts he would be always alone. It was
-never meant for a human being to be so solitary. He'd get touched in the
-head if he hadna them to think for and to talk to.”
-
-“How much answer do ye think he gets to his talkin', lass?” laughed
-Duncan.
-
-“He gets the answer that keeps the eye bright, the heart happy, and the
-feet walking faithful the rough path he's set them in,” answered Mrs.
-Duncan earnestly.
-
-Duncan walked away appearing very thoughtful. The next morning he gave
-an ear from the corn he was shelling for his chickens to Freckles, and
-told him to carry it to his wild chickens in the Limberlost. Freckles
-laughed delightedly.
-
-“Me chickens!” he said. “Why didn't I ever think of that before? Of
-course they are! They are just little, brightly colored cocks and hens!
-But 'wild' is no good. What would you say to me 'wild chickens' being a
-good deal tamer than yours here in your yard?”
-
-“Hoot, lad!” cried Duncan.
-
-“Make yours light on your head and eat out of your hands and pockets,”
- challenged Freckles.
-
-“Go and tell your fairy tales to the wee people! They're juist brash on
-believin' things,” said Duncan. “Ye canna invent any story too big to
-stop them from callin' for a bigger.”
-
-“I dare you to come see!” retorted Freckles.
-
-“Take ye!” said Duncan. “If ye make juist ane bird licht on your heid
-or eat frae your hand, ye are free to help yoursel' to my corn-crib and
-wheat bin the rest of the winter.”
-
-Freckles sprang in air and howled in glee.
-
-“Oh, Duncan! You're too, aisy” he cried. “When will you come?”
-
-“I'll come next Sabbath,” said Duncan. “And I'll believe the birds of
-the Limberlost are tame as barnyard fowl when I see it, and no sooner!”
-
-After that Freckles always spoke of the birds as his chickens, and the
-Duncans followed his example. The very next Sabbath, Duncan, with his
-wife and children, followed Freckles to the swamp. They saw a sight so
-wonderful it will keep them talking all the remainder of their lives,
-and make them unfailing friends of all the birds.
-
-Freckles' chickens were awaiting him at the edge of the clearing. They
-cut the frosty air around his head into curves and circles of crimson,
-blue, and black. They chased each other from Freckles, and swept so
-closely themselves that they brushed him with their outspread wings.
-
-At their feeding-ground Freckles set down his old pail of scraps and
-swept the snow from a small level space with a broom improvised of
-twigs. As soon as his back was turned, the birds clustered over the
-food, snatching scraps to carry to the nearest bushes. Several of the
-boldest, a big crow and a couple of jays, settled on the rim and feasted
-at leisure, while a cardinal, that hesitated to venture, fumed and
-scolded from a twig overhead.
-
-Then Freckles scattered his store. At once the ground resembled the
-spread mantle of Montezuma, except that this mass of gaily colored
-feathers was on the backs of living birds. While they feasted, Duncan
-gripped his wife's arm and stared in astonishment; for from the bushes
-and dry grass, with gentle cheeping and queer, throaty chatter, as if to
-encourage each other, came flocks of quail. Before anyone saw it arrive,
-a big gray rabbit sat in the midst of the feast, contentedly gnawing a
-cabbage-leaf.
-
-“Weel, I be drawed on!” came Mrs. Duncan's tense whisper.
-
-“Shu-shu,” cautioned Duncan.
-
-Lastly Freckles removed his cap. He began filling it with handfuls of
-wheat from his pockets. In a swarm the grain-eaters arose around him as
-a flock of tame pigeons. They perched on his arms and the cap, and in
-the stress of hunger, forgetting all caution, a brilliant cock cardinal
-and an equally gaudy jay fought for a perching-place on his head.
-
-“Weel, I'm beat,” muttered Duncan, forgetting the silence imposed on his
-wife. “I'll hae to give in. 'Seein' is believin'. A man wad hae to see
-that to believe it. We mauna let the Boss miss that sight, for it's a
-chance will no likely come twice in a life. Everything is snowed under
-and thae craturs near starved, but trustin' Freckles that complete they
-are tamer than our chickens. Look hard, bairns!” he whispered. “Ye winna
-see the like o' yon again, while God lets ye live. Notice their color
-against the ice and snow, and the pretty skippin' ways of them! And
-spunky! Weel, I'm heat fair!”
-
-Freckles emptied his cap, turned his pockets and scattered his last
-grain. Then he waved his watching friends good-bye and started down the
-timber-line.
-
-A week later, Duncan and Freckles arose from breakfast to face the
-bitterest morning of the winter. When Freckles, warmly capped and
-gloved, stepped to the corner of the kitchen for his scrap-pail, he
-found a big pan of steaming boiled wheat on the top of it. He wheeled to
-Mrs. Duncan with a shining face.
-
-“Were you fixing this warm food for me chickens or yours?” he asked.
-
-“It's for yours, Freckles,” she said. “I was afeared this cold weather
-they wadna lay good without a warm bite now and then.”
-
-Duncan laughed as he stepped to the other room for his pipe; but
-Freckles faced Mrs. Duncan with a trace of every pang of starved
-mother-hunger he ever had suffered written large on his homely,
-splotched, narrow features.
-
-“Oh, how I wish you were my mother!” he cried.
-
-Mrs. Duncan attempted an echo of her husband's laugh.
-
-“Lord love the lad!” she exclaimed. “Why, Freckles, are ye no bright
-enough to learn without being taught by a woman that I am your mither?
-If a great man like yoursel' dinna ken that, learn it now and ne'er
-forget it. Ance a woman is the wife of any man, she becomes wife to all
-men for having had the wifely experience she kens! Ance a man-child has
-beaten his way to life under the heart of a woman, she is mither to
-all men, for the hearts of mithers are everywhere the same. Bless ye,
-laddie, I am your mither!”
-
-She tucked the coarse scarf she had knit for him closer over his chest
-and pulled his cap lower over his ears, but Freckles, whipping it
-off and holding it under his arm, caught her rough, reddened hand and
-pressed it to his lips in a long kiss. Then he hurried away to hide the
-happy, embarrassing tears that were coming straight from his swelling
-heart.
-
-Mrs. Duncan, sobbing unrestrainedly, swept into the adjoining room and
-threw herself into Duncan's arms.
-
-“Oh, the puir lad!” she wailed. “Oh, the puir mither-hungry lad! He
-breaks my heart!”
-
-Duncan's arms closed convulsively around his wife. With a big, brown
-hand he lovingly stroked her rough, sorrel hair.
-
-“Sarah, you're a guid woman!” he said. “You're a michty guid woman! Ye
-hae a way o' speakin' out at times that's like the inspired prophets of
-the Lord. If that had been put to me, now, I'd 'a' felt all I kent how
-to and been keen enough to say the richt thing; but dang it, I'd 'a'
-stuttered and stammered and got naething out that would ha' done onybody
-a mite o' good. But ye, Sarah! Did ye see his face, woman? Ye sent him
-off lookin' leke a white light of holiness had passed ower and settled
-on him. Ye sent the lad away too happy for mortal words, Sarah. And
-ye made me that proud o' ye! I wouldna trade ye an' my share o' the
-Limberlost with ony king ye could mention.”
-
-He relaxed his clasp, and setting a heavy hand on each shoulder, he
-looked straight into her eyes.
-
-“Ye're prime, Sarah! Juist prime!” he said.
-
-Sarah Duncan stood alone in the middle of her two-roomed log cabin and
-lifted a bony, clawlike pair of hands, reddened by frequent immersion
-in hot water, cracked and chafed by exposure to cold, black-lined by
-constant battle with swamp-loam, calloused with burns, and stared at
-them wonderingly.
-
-“Pretty-lookin' things ye are!” she whispered. “But ye hae juist been
-kissed. And by such a man! Fine as God ever made at His verra best.
-Duncan wouldna trade wi' a king! Na! Nor I wadna trade with a queen wi'
-a palace, an' velvet gowns, an' diamonds big as hazelnuts, an' a hundred
-visitors a day into the bargain. Ye've been that honored I'm blest if
-I can bear to souse ye in dish-water. Still, that kiss winna come off!
-Naething can take it from me, for it's mine till I dee. Lord, if I amna
-proud! Kisses on these old claws! Weel, I be drawed on!”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-
-So Freckles fared through the bitter winter. He was very happy. He
-had hungered for freedom, love, and appreciation so long! He had been
-unspeakably lonely at the Home; and the utter loneliness of a great
-desert or forest is not so difficult to endure as the loneliness of
-being constantly surrounded by crowds of people who do not care in the
-least whether one is living or dead.
-
-All through the winter Freckles' entire energy was given to keeping up
-his lines and his “chickens” from freezing or starving. When the first
-breath of spring touched the Limberlost, and the snow receded before it;
-when the catkins began to bloom; when there came a hint of green to the
-trees, bushes, and swale; when the rushes lifted their heads, and the
-pulse of the newly resurrected season beat strongly in the heart of
-nature, something new stirred in the breast of the boy.
-
-Nature always levies her tribute. Now she laid a powerful hand on the
-soul of Freckles, to which the boy's whole being responded, though
-he had not the least idea what was troubling him. Duncan accepted his
-wife's theory that it was a touch of spring fever, but Freckles knew
-better. He never had been so well. Clean, hot, and steady the blood
-pulsed in his veins. He was always hungry, and his most difficult work
-tired him not at all. For long months, without a single intermission,
-he had tramped those seven miles of trail twice each day, through every
-conceivable state of weather. With the heavy club he gave his wires a
-sure test, and between sections, first in play, afterward to keep his
-circulation going, he had acquired the skill of an expert drum major.
-In his work there was exercise for every muscle of his body each hour of
-the day, at night a bath, wholesome food, and sound sleep in a room that
-never knew fire. He had gained flesh and color, and developed a greater
-strength and endurance than anyone ever could have guessed.
-
-Nor did the Limberlost contain last year's terrors. He had been with
-her in her hour of desolation, when stripped bare and deserted, she had
-stood shivering, as if herself afraid. He had made excursions into the
-interior until he was familiar with every path and road that ever
-had been cut. He had sounded the depths of her deepest pools, and had
-learned why the trees grew so magnificently. He had found that places
-of swamp and swale were few compared with miles of solid timber-land,
-concealed by summer's luxuriant undergrowth.
-
-The sounds that at first had struck cold fear into his soul he now knew
-had left on wing and silent foot at the approach of winter. As flock
-after flock of the birds returned and he recognized the old echoes
-reawakening, he found to his surprise that he had been lonely for
-them and was hailing their return with great joy. All his fears were
-forgotten. Instead, he was possessed of an overpowering desire to know
-what they were, to learn where they had been, and whether they would
-make friends with him as the winter birds had done; and if they did,
-would they be as fickle? For, with the running sap, creeping worm, and
-winging bug, most of Freckles' “chickens” had deserted him, entered the
-swamp, and feasted to such a state of plethora on its store that they
-cared little for his supply, so that in the strenuous days of mating and
-nest-building the boy was deserted.
-
-He chafed at the birds' ingratitude, but he found speedy consolation in
-watching and befriending the newcomers. He surely would have been proud
-and highly pleased if he had known that many of the former inhabitants
-of the interior swamp now grouped their nests beside the timber-line
-solely for the sake of his protection and company.
-
-The yearly resurrection of the Limberlost is a mighty revival. Freckles
-stood back and watched with awe and envy the gradual reclothing and
-repopulation of the swamp. Keen-eyed and alert through danger and
-loneliness, he noted every stage of development, from the first piping
-frog and unsheathing bud, to full leafage and the return of the last
-migrant.
-
-The knowledge of his complete loneliness and utter insignificance was
-hourly thrust upon him. He brooded and fretted until he was in a fever;
-yet he never guessed the cause. He was filled with a vast impatience, a
-longing that he scarcely could endure.
-
-It was June by the zodiac, June by the Limberlost, and by every delight
-of a newly resurrected season it should have been June in the hearts of
-all men. Yet Freckles scowled darkly as he came down the trail, and the
-running TAP, TAP that tested the sagging wire and telegraphed word
-of his coming to his furred and feathered friends of the swamp, this
-morning carried the story of his discontent a mile ahead of him.
-
-Freckles' special pet, a dainty, yellow-coated, black-sleeved, cock
-goldfinch, had remained on the wire for several days past the bravest
-of all; and Freckles, absorbed with the cunning and beauty of the tiny
-fellow, never guessed that he was being duped. For the goldfinch was
-skipping, flirting, and swinging for the express purpose of so holding
-his attention that he would not look up and see a small cradle of
-thistledown and wool perilously near his head. In the beginning of
-brooding, the spunky little homesteader had clung heroically to the wire
-when he was almost paralyzed with fright. When day after day passed
-and brought only softly whistled repetitions of his call, a handful of
-crumbs on the top of a locust line-post, and gently worded coaxings, he
-grew in confidence. Of late he had sung and swung during the passing of
-Freckles, who, not dreaming of the nest and the solemn-eyed little hen
-so close above, thought himself unusually gifted in his power to attract
-the birds. This morning the goldfinch scarcely could believe his ears,
-and clung to the wire until an unusually vicious rap sent him spinning a
-foot in air, and his “PTSEET” came with a squall of utter panic.
-
-The wires were ringing with a story the birds could not translate, and
-Freckles was quite as ignorant of the trouble as they.
-
-A peculiar movement beneath a small walnut tree caught his attention.
-He stopped to investigate. There was an unusually large Luna cocoon, and
-the moth was bursting the upper end in its struggles to reach light and
-air. Freckles stood and stared.
-
-“There's something in there trying to get out,” he muttered. “Wonder if
-I could help it? Guess I best not be trying. If I hadn't happened along,
-there wouldn't have been anyone to do anything, and maybe I'd only be
-hurting it. It's--it's----Oh, skaggany! It's just being born!”
-
-Freckles gasped with surprise. The moth cleared the opening, and with
-many wabblings and contortions climbed up the tree. He stared speechless
-with amazement as the moth crept around a limb and clung to the under
-side. There was a big pursy body, almost as large as his thumb, and of
-the very snowiest white that Freckles ever had seen. There was a band
-of delicate lavender across its forehead, and its feet were of the same
-colour; there were antlers, like tiny, straw-colored ferns, on its head,
-and from its shoulders hung the crumpled wet wings. As Freckles gazed,
-tense with astonishment, he saw that these were expanding, drooping,
-taking on color, and small, oval markings were beginning to show.
-
-The minutes passed. Freckles' steady gaze never wavered. Without
-realizing it, he was trembling with eagerness and anxiety. As he saw
-what was taking place, “It's going to fly,” he breathed in hushed
-wonder. The morning sun fell on the moth and dried its velvet down,
-while the warm air made it fluffy. The rapidly growing wings began to
-show the most delicate green, with lavender fore-ribs, transparent,
-eye-shaped markings, edged with lines of red, tan, and black, and long,
-crisp trailers.
-
-Freckles was whispering to himself for fear of disturbing the moth. It
-began a systematic exercise of raising and lowering its exquisite wings
-to dry them and to establish circulation. The boy realized that soon it
-would be able to spread them and sail away. His long-coming soul sent up
-its first shivering cry.
-
-“I don't know what it is! Oh, I wish I knew! How I wish I knew! It must
-be something grand! It can't be a butterfly! It's away too big. Oh, I
-wish there was someone to tell me what it is!”
-
-He climbed on the locust post, and balancing himself with the wire,
-held a finger in the line of the moth's advance up the twig. It
-unhesitatingly climbed on, so he stepped to the path, holding it to the
-light and examining it closely. Then he held it in the shade and turned
-it, gloating over its markings and beautiful coloring. When he held the
-moth to the limb, it climbed on, still waving those magnificent wings.
-
-“My, but I'd like to be staying with you!” he said. “But if I was to
-stand here all day you couldn't grow any prettier than you are right
-now, and I wouldn't grow smart enough to tell what you are. I suppose
-there's someone who knows. Of course there is! Mr. McLean said there
-were people who knew every leaf, bird, and flower in the Limberlost. Oh
-Lord! How I wish You'd be telling me just this one thing!”
-
-The goldfinch had ventured back to the wire, for there was his mate,
-only a few inches above the man-creature's head; and indeed, he simply
-must not be allowed to look up, so the brave little fellow rocked on the
-wire and piped, as he had done every day for a week: “SEE ME? SEE ME?”
-
-“See you! Of course I see you,” growled Freckles. “I see you day after
-day, and what good is it doing me? I might see you every morning for a
-year, and then not be able to be telling anyone about it. 'Seen a bird
-with black silk wings--little, and yellow as any canary.' That's as far
-as I'd get. What you doing here, anyway? Have you a mate? What's your
-name? 'See you?' I reckon I see you; but I might as well be blind, for
-any good it's doing me!”
-
-Freckles impatiently struck the wire. With a screech of fear, the
-goldfinch fled precipitately. His mate arose from the nest with a
-whirr--Freckles looked up and saw it.
-
-“O--ho!” he cried. “So THAT'S what you are doing here! You have a
-wife. And so close my head I have been mighty near wearing a bird on my
-bonnet, and never knew it!”
-
-Freckles laughed at his own jest, while in better humor he climbed to
-examine the neat, tiny cradle and its contents. The hen darted at him in
-a frenzy. “Now, where do you come in?” he demanded, when he saw that she
-was not similar to the goldfinch.
-
-“You be clearing out of here! This is none of your fry. This is the nest
-of me little, yellow friend of the wire, and you shan't be touching it.
-Don't blame you for wanting to see, though. My, but it's a fine nest and
-beauties of eggs. Will you be keeping away, or will I fire this stick at
-you?”
-
-Freckles dropped to the trail. The hen darted to the nest and settled on
-it with a tender, coddling movement. He of the yellow coat flew to the
-edge to make sure that everything was right. It would have been plain to
-the veriest novice that they were partners in that cradle.
-
-“Well, I'll be switched!” muttered Freckles. “If that ain't both their
-nest! And he's yellow and she's green, or she's yellow and he's green.
-Of course, I don't know, and I haven't any way to find out, but it's
-plain as the nose on your face that they are both ready to be fighting
-for that nest, so, of course, they belong. Doesn't that beat you? Say,
-that's what's been sticking me all of this week on that grass nest in
-the thorn tree down the line. One day a blue bird is setting, so I think
-it is hers. The next day a brown bird is on, and I chase it off because
-the nest is blue's. Next day the brown bird is on again, and I let her
-be, because I think it must be hers. Next day, be golly, blue's on, and
-off I send her because it's brown's; and now, I bet my hat, it's both
-their nest and I've only been bothering them and making a big fool of
-mesilf. Pretty specimen I am, pretending to be a friend to the birds,
-and so blamed ignorant I don't know which ones go in pairs, and blue and
-brown are a pair, of course, if yellow and green are--and there's the
-red birds! I never thought of them! He's red and she's gray--and now
-I want to be knowing, are they all different? Why no! Of course, they
-ain't! There's the jays all blue, and the crows all black.”
-
-The tide of Freckles' discontent welled until he almost choked with
-anger and chagrin. He plodded down the trail, scowling blackly and
-viciously spanging the wire. At the finches' nest he left the line
-and peered into the thorn tree. There was no bird brooding. He pressed
-closer to take a peep at the snowy, spotless little eggs he had found so
-beautiful, when at the slight noise up raised four tiny baby heads with
-wide-open mouths, uttering hunger cries. Freckles stepped back. The
-brown bird alighted on the edge and closed one cavity with a wiggling
-green worm, while not two minutes later the blue filled another with
-a white. That settled it. The blue and brown were mates. Once again
-Freckles repeated his “How I wish I knew!”
-
-Around the bridge spanning Sleepy Snake Creek the swale spread widely,
-the timber was scattering, and willows, rushes, marsh-grass, and
-splendid wild flowers grew abundantly. Here lazy, big, black water
-snakes, for which the creek was named, sunned on the bushes, wild ducks
-and grebe chattered, cranes and herons fished, and muskrats plowed the
-bank in queer, rolling furrows. It was always a place full of interest,
-so Freckles loved to linger on the bridge, watching the marsh and water
-people. He also transacted affairs of importance with the wild flowers
-and sweet marsh-grass. He enjoyed splashing through the shallow pools on
-either side of the bridge.
-
-Then, too, where the creek entered the swamp was a place of unusual
-beauty. The water spread in darksome, mossy, green pools. Water-plants
-and lilies grew luxuriantly, throwing up large, rank, green leaves.
-Nowhere else in the Limberlost could be found frog-music to equal
-that of the mouth of the creek. The drumming and piping rolled in
-never-ending orchestral effect, while the full chorus rang to its
-accompaniment throughout the season.
-
-Freckles slowly followed the path leading from the bridge to the line.
-It was the one spot at which he might relax his vigilance. The boldest
-timber thief the swamp ever had known would not have attempted to enter
-it by the mouth of the creek, on account of the water and because there
-was no protection from surrounding trees. He was bending the rank grass
-with his cudgel, and thinking of the shade the denser swamp afforded,
-when he suddenly dodged sidewise; the cudgel whistled sharply through
-the air and Freckles sprang back.
-
-From the clear sky above him, first level with his face, then skimming,
-dipping, tilting, whirling until it struck, quill down, in the path
-in front of him, came a glossy, iridescent, big black feather. As it
-touched the ground, Freckles snatched it up with almost a continuous
-movement facing the sky. There was not a tree of any size in a large
-open space. There was no wind to carry it. From the clear sky it had
-fallen, and Freckles, gazing eagerly into the arch of June blue with a
-few lazy clouds floating high in the sea of ether, had neither mind nor
-knowledge to dream of a bird hanging as if frozen there. He turned the
-big quill questioningly, and again his awed eyes swept the sky.
-
-“A feather dropped from Heaven!” he breathed reverently. “Are the holy
-angels moulting? But no; if they were, it would be white. Maybe all the
-angels are not for being white. What if the angels of God are white and
-those of the devil are black? But a black one has no business up there.
-Maybe some poor black angel is so tired of being punished it's for
-slipping to the gates, beating its wings trying to make the Master
-hear!”
-
-Again and again Freckles searched the sky, but there was no answering
-gleam of golden gates, no form of sailing bird; then he went slowly
-on his way, turning the feather and wondering about it. It was a wing
-quill, eighteen inches in length, with a heavy spine, gray at the base,
-shading to jet black at the tip, and it caught the play of the sun's
-rays in slanting gleams of green and bronze. Again Freckles' “old man
-of the sea” sat sullen and heavy on his shoulders and weighted him down
-until his step lagged and his heart ached.
-
-“Where did it come from? What is it? Oh, how I wish I knew!” he kept
-repeating as he turned and studied the feather, with almost unseeing
-eyes, so intently was he thinking.
-
-Before him spread a large, green pool, filled with rotting logs and
-leaves, bordered with delicate ferns and grasses among which lifted the
-creamy spikes of the arrow-head, the blue of water-hyacinth, and the
-delicate yellow of the jewel-flower. As Freckles leaned, handling the
-feather and staring at it, then into the depths of the pool, he once
-more gave voice to his old query: “I wonder what it is!”
-
-Straight across from him, couched in the mosses of a soggy old log, a
-big green bullfrog, with palpitant throat and batting eyes, lifted his
-head and bellowed in answer. “FIN' DOUT! FIN' DOUT!”
-
-“Wha--what's that?” stammered Freckles, almost too much bewildered to
-speak. “I--I know you are only a bullfrog, but, be jabbers, that sounded
-mightily like speech. Wouldn't you please to be saying it over?”
-
-The bullfrog cuddled contentedly in the ooze. Then suddenly he lifted
-his voice, and, as an imperative drumbeat, rolled it again: “FIN' DOUT!
-FIN' DOUT! FIN DOUT!”
-
-Freckles had the answer. Something seemed to snap in his brain. There
-was a wavering flame before his eyes. Then his mind cleared. His
-head lifted in a new poise, his shoulders squared, while his spine
-straightened. The agony was over. His soul floated free. Freckles came
-into his birthright.
-
-“Before God, I will!” He uttered the oath so impressively that the
-recording angel never winced as he posted it in the prayer column.
-
-Freckles set his hat over the top of one of the locust posts used
-between trees to hold up the wire while he fastened the feather securely
-in the band. Then he started down the line, talking to himself as men
-who have worked long alone always fall into the habit of doing.
-
-“What a fool I have been!” he muttered. “Of course that's what I have to
-do! There wouldn't likely anybody be doing it for me. Of course I can!
-What am I a man for? If I was a four-footed thing of the swamp, maybe I
-couldn't; but a man can do anything if he's the grit to work hard enough
-and stick at it, Mr. McLean is always saying, and here's the way I am to
-do it. He said, too, that there were people that knew everything in the
-swamp. Of course they have written books! The thing for me to be doing
-is to quit moping and be buying some. Never bought a book in me life,
-or anything else of much account, for that matter. Oh, ain't I glad I
-didn't waste me money! I'll surely be having enough to get a few. Let me
-see.”
-
-Freckles sat on a log, took his pencil and account-book, and figured
-on a back page. He had walked the timber-line ten months. His pay
-was thirty dollars a month, and his board cost him eight. That left
-twenty-two dollars a month, and his clothing had cost him very little.
-At the least he had two hundred dollars in the bank. He drew a deep
-breath and smiled at the sky with satisfaction.
-
-“I'll be having a book about all the birds, trees, flowers, butterflies,
-and----Yes, by gummy! I'll be having one about the frogs--if it takes
-every cent I have,” he promised himself.
-
-He put away the account-book, that was his most cherished possession,
-caught up his stick, and started down the line. The even tap, tap, and
-the cheery, gladsome whistle carried far ahead of him the message that
-Freckles was himself again.
-
-He fell into a rapid pace, for he had lost time that morning; when he
-rounded the last curve he was almost running. There was a chance that
-the Boss might be there for his weekly report.
-
-Then, wavering, flickering, darting here and there over the sweet
-marsh-grass, came a large black shadow, sweeping so closely before him
-that for the second time that morning Freckles dodged and sprang back.
-He had seen some owls and hawks of the swamp that he thought might be
-classed as large birds, but never anything like this, for six feet it
-spread its big, shining wings. Its strong feet could be seen drawn
-among its feathers. The sun glinted on its sharp, hooked beak. Its eyes
-glowed, caught the light, and seemed able to pierce the ground at his
-feet. It cared no more for Freckles than if he had not been there; for
-it perched on a low tree, while a second later it awkwardly hopped to
-the trunk of a lightning-riven elm, turned its back, and began searching
-the blue.
-
-Freckles looked just in time to see a second shadow sweep the grass; and
-another bird, a trifle smaller and not quite so brilliant in the light,
-slowly sailed down to perch beside the first. Evidently they were mates,
-for with a queer, rolling hop the first-comer shivered his bronze wings,
-sidled to the new arrival, and gave her a silly little peck on her
-wing. Then he coquettishly drew away and ogled her. He lifted his head,
-waddled from her a few steps, awkwardly ambled back, and gave her such
-a simple sort of kiss on her beak that Freckles burst into a laugh, but
-clapped his hand over his mouth to stifle the sound.
-
-The lover ducked and side-stepped a few feet. He spread his wings
-and slowly and softly waved them precisely as if he were fanning his
-charmer, which was indeed the result he accomplished. Then a wave of
-uncontrollable tenderness moved him so he hobbled to his bombardment
-once more. He faced her squarely this time, and turned his head from
-side to side with queer little jerks and indiscriminate peckings at her
-wings and head, and smirkings that really should have been irresistible.
-She yawned and shuffled away indifferently. Freckles reached up, pulled
-the quill from his hat, and looking from it to the birds, nodded in
-settled conviction.
-
-“So you're me black angels, ye spalpeens! No wonder you didn't get in!
-But I'll back you to come closer it than any other birds ever did. You
-fly higher than I can see. Have you picked the Limberlost for a good
-thing and come to try it? Well, you can be me chickens if you want to,
-but I'm blest if you ain't cool for new ones. Why don't you take this
-stick for a gun and go skinning a mile?”
-
-Freckles broke into an unrestrained laugh, for the bird-lover was keen
-about his courting, while evidently his mate was diffident. When he
-approached too boisterously, she relieved him of a goodly tuft of
-feathers and sent him backward in a series of squirmy little jumps that
-gave the boy an idea of what had happened up-sky to send the falling
-feather across his pathway.
-
-“Score one for the lady! I'll be umpiring this,” volunteered Freckles.
-
-With a ravishing swagger, half-lifted wings, and deep, guttural hissing,
-the lover approached again. He suddenly lifted his body, but she coolly
-rocked forward on the limb, glided gracefully beneath him, and slowly
-sailed into the Limberlost. He recovered himself and gazed after her in
-astonishment.
-
-Freckles hurried down the trail, shaking with laughter. When he neared
-the path to the clearing and saw the Boss sitting motionless on the mare
-that was the pride of his heart, the boy broke into a run.
-
-“Oh, Mr. McLean!” he cried. “I hope I haven't kept you waiting very
-long! And the sun is getting hot! I have been so slow this morning! I
-could have gone faster, only there were that many things to keep me, and
-I didn't know you would be here. I'll hurry after this. I've never had
-to be giving excuses before. The line wasn't down, and there wasn't a
-sign of trouble; it was other things that were making me late.”
-
-McLean, smiling on the boy, immediately noticed the difference in him.
-This flushed, panting, talkative lad was not the same creature who had
-sought him in despair and bitterness. He watched in wonder as Freckles
-mopped the perspiration from his forehead and began to laugh. Then,
-forgetting all his customary reserve with the Boss, the pent-up
-boyishness in the lad broke forth. With an eloquence of which he never
-dreamed he told his story. He talked with such enthusiasm that McLean
-never took his eyes from his face or shifted in the saddle until he
-described the strange bird-lover, and then the Boss suddenly bent over
-the pommel and laughed with the boy.
-
-Freckles decorated his story with keen appreciation and rare touches
-of Irish wit and drollery that made it most interesting as well as very
-funny. It was a first attempt at descriptive narration. With an inborn
-gift for striking the vital point, a naturalist's dawning enthusiasm for
-the wonders of the Limberlost, and the welling joy of his newly found
-happiness, he made McLean see the struggles of the moth and its freshly
-painted wings, the dainty, brilliant bird-mates of different colors, the
-feather sliding through the clear air, the palpitant throat and batting
-eyes of the frog; while his version of the big bird's courtship won for
-the Boss the best laugh he had enjoyed for years.
-
-“They're in the middle of a swamp now” said Freckles. “Do you suppose
-there is any chance of them staying with me chickens? If they do,
-they'll be about the queerest I have; but I tell you, sir, I am finding
-some plum good ones. There's a new kind over at the mouth of the creek
-that uses its wings like feet and walks on all fours. It travels like a
-thrashing machine. There's another, tall as me waist, with a bill a
-foot long, a neck near two, not the thickness of me wrist and an elegant
-color. He's some blue and gray, touched up with black, white, and brown.
-The voice of him is such that if he'd be going up and standing beside
-a tree and crying at it a few times he could be sawing it square off. I
-don't know but it would be a good idea to try him on the gang, sir.”
-
-McLean laughed. “Those must be blue herons, Freckles,” he said. “And
-it doesn't seem possible, but your description of the big black birds
-sounds like genuine black vultures. They are common enough in the South.
-I've seen them numerous around the lumber camps of Georgia, but I
-never before heard of any this far north. They must be strays. You have
-described perfectly our nearest equivalent to a branch of these birds
-called in Europe Pharaoh's Chickens, but if they are coming to the
-Limberlost they will have to drop Pharaoh and become Freckles' Chickens,
-like the remainder of the birds; won't they? Or are they too odd and
-ugly to interest you?”
-
-“Oh, not at all, at all!” cried Freckles, bursting into pure brogue in
-his haste. “I don't know as I'd be calling them exactly pretty, and they
-do move like a rocking-horse loping, but they are so big and fearless.
-They have a fine color for black birds, and their feet and beaks seem so
-strong. You never saw anything so keen as their eyes! And fly? Why, just
-think, sir, they must be flying miles straight up, for they were out of
-sight completely when the feather fell. I don't suppose I've a chicken
-in the swamp that can go as close heaven as those big, black fellows,
-and then----”
-
-Freckles' voice dragged and he hesitated.
-
-“Then what?” interestedly urged McLean.
-
-“He was loving her so,” answered Freckles in a hushed voice. “I know it
-looked awful funny, and I laughed and told on him, but if I'd taken time
-to think I don't believe I'd have done it. You see, I've seen such a
-little bit of loving in me life. You easily can be understanding that at
-the Home it was every day the old story of neglect and desertion. Always
-people that didn't even care enough for their children to keep them, so
-you see, sir, I had to like him for trying so hard to make her know how
-he loved her. Of course, they're only birds, but if they are caring for
-each other like that, why, it's just the same as people, ain't it?”
-
-Freckles lifted his brave, steady eyes to the Boss.
-
-“If anybody loved me like that, Mr. McLean, I wouldn't be spending any
-time on how they looked or moved. All I'd be thinking of would be how
-they felt toward me. If they will stay, I'll be caring as much for them
-as any chickens I have. If I did laugh at them I thought he was just
-fine!”
-
-The face of McLean was a study; but the honest eyes of the boy were so
-compelling that he found himself answering: “You are right, Freckles.
-He's a gentleman, isn't he? And the only real chicken you have. Of
-course he'll remain! The Limberlost will be paradise for his family. And
-now, Freckles, what has been the trouble all spring? You have done your
-work as faithfully as anyone could ask, but I can't help seeing that
-there is something wrong. Are you tired of your job?”
-
-“I love it,” answered Freckles. “It will almost break me heart when
-the gang comes and begins tearing up the swamp and scaring away me
-chickens.”
-
-“Then what is the trouble?” insisted McLean.
-
-“I think, sir, it's been books,” answered Freckles. “You see, I didn't
-realize it meself until the bullfrog told me this morning. I hadn't ever
-even heard about a place like this. Anyway, I wasn't understanding how
-it would be, if I had. Being among these beautiful things every day, I
-got so anxious like to be knowing and naming them, that it got to eating
-into me and went and made me near sick, when I was well as I could be.
-Of course, I learned to read, write, and figure some at school, but
-there was nothing there, or in any of the city that I ever got to see,
-that would make a fellow even be dreaming of such interesting things
-as there are here. I've seen the parks--but good Lord, they ain't even
-beginning to be in it with the Limberlost! It's all new and strange to
-me. I don't know a thing about any of it. The bullfrog told me to 'find
-out,' plain as day, and books are the only way; ain't they?”
-
-“Of course,” said McLean, astonished at himself for his heartfelt
-relief. He had not guessed until that minute what it would have meant
-to him to have Freckles give up. “You know enough to study out what you
-want yourself, if you have the books; don't you?”
-
-“I am pretty sure I do,” said Freckles. “I learned all I'd the chance at
-in the Home, and me schooling was good as far as it went. Wouldn't let
-you go past fourteen, you know. I always did me sums perfect, and loved
-me history books. I had them almost by heart. I never could get me
-grammar to suit them. They said it was just born in me to go wrong
-talking, and if it hadn't been I suppose I would have picked it up from
-the other children; but I'd the best voice of any of them in the Home
-or at school. I could knock them all out singing. I was always leader in
-the Home, and once one of the superintendents gave me carfare and let
-me go into the city and sing in a boys' choir. The master said I'd the
-swatest voice of them all until it got rough like, and then he made me
-quit for awhile, but he said it would be coming back by now, and I'm
-railly thinking it is, sir, for I've tried on the line a bit of late and
-it seems to go smooth again and lots stronger. That and me chickens have
-been all the company I've been having, and it will be all I'll want if I
-can have some books and learn the real names of things, where they come
-from, and why they do such interesting things. It's been fretting me
-more than I knew to be shut up here among all these wonders and not
-knowing a thing. I wanted to ask you what some books would cost me, and
-if you'd be having the goodness to get me the right ones. I think I have
-enough money.”
-
-Freckles offered his account-book and the Boss studied it gravely.
-
-“You needn't touch your account, Freckles,” he said. “Ten dollars from
-this month's pay will provide you everything you need to start on. I
-will write a friend in Grand Rapids today to select you the very best
-and send them at once.”
-
-Freckles' eyes were shining.
-
-“Never owned a book in me life!” he said. “Even me schoolbooks were
-never mine. Lord! How I used to wish I could have just one of them for
-me very own! Won't it be fun to see me sawbird and me little yellow
-fellow looking at me from the pages of a book, and their real names and
-all about them printed alongside? How long will it be taking, sir?”
-
-“Ten days should do it nicely,” said McLean. Then, seeing Freckles'
-lengthening face, he added: “I'll have Duncan bring you a ten-bushel
-store-box the next time he goes to town. He can haul it to the west
-entrance and set it up wherever you want it. You can put in your spare
-time filling it with the specimens you find until the books come,
-and then you can study out what you have. I suspect you could collect
-specimens that I could send to naturalists in the city and sell for you;
-things like that winged creature, this morning. I don't know much in
-that line, but it must have been a moth, and it might have been rare.
-I've seen them by the thousand in museums, and in all nature I don't
-remember rarer coloring than their wings. I'll order you a butterfly-net
-and box and show you how scientists pin specimens. Possibly you can make
-a fine collection of these swamp beauties. It will be all right for you
-to take a pair of different moths and butterflies, but I don't want to
-hear of your killing any birds. They are protected by heavy fines.”
-
-McLean rode away leaving Freckles staring aghast. Then he saw the point
-and smiled. Standing on the trail, he twirled the feather and thought
-over the morning.
-
-“Well, if life ain't getting to be worth living!” he said wonderingly.
-“Biggest streak of luck I ever had! 'Bout time something was coming my
-way, but I wouldn't ever thought anybody could strike such magnificent
-prospects through only a falling feather.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for New
-Experiences
-
-On Duncan's return from his next trip to town there was a big store-box
-loaded on the back of his wagon. He drove to the west entrance of the
-swamp, set the box on a stump that Freckles had selected in a beautiful,
-sheltered place, and made it secure on its foundations with a tree at
-its back.
-
-“It seems most a pity to nail into that tree,” said Duncan. “I haena the
-time to examine into the grain of it, but it looks as if it might be a
-rare ane. Anyhow, the nailin' winna hurt it deep, and havin' the case by
-it will make it safer if it is a guid ane.”
-
-“Isn't it an oak?” asked Freckles.
-
-“Ay,” said Duncan. “It looks like it might be ane of thae fine-grained
-white anes that mak' such grand furniture.”
-
-When the body of the case was secure, Duncan made a door from the lid
-and fastened it with hinges. He drove a staple, screwed on a latch, and
-gave Freckles a small padlock--so that he might fasten in his treasures
-safely. He made a shelf at the top for his books, and last of all
-covered the case with oil-cloth.
-
-It was the first time in Freckles' life that anyone ever had done that
-much for his pleasure, and it warmed his heart with pure joy. If the
-interior of the box already had been covered with the rarest treasures
-of the Limberlost he could have been no happier.
-
-When the big teamster stood back to look at his work he laughingly
-quoted, “'Neat, but no' gaudy,' as McLean says. All we're, needing now
-is a coat of paint to make a cupboard that would turn Sarah green with
-envy. Ye'll find that safe an' dry, lad, an' that's all that's needed.”
-
-“Mr. Duncan,” said Freckles, “I don't know why you are being so mighty
-good to me; but if you have any jobs at the cabin that I could do for
-you or Mrs. Duncan, hours off the line, it would make me mighty happy.”
-
-Duncan laughed. “Ye needna feel ye are obliged to me, lad. Ye mauna
-think I could take a half-day off in the best hauling season and go to
-town for boxes to rig up, and spend of my little for fixtures.”
-
-“I knew Mr. McLean sent you,” said Freckles, his eyes wide and bright
-with happiness. “It's so good of him. How I wish I could do something
-that would please him as much!”
-
-“Why, Freckles,” said Duncan, as he knelt and began collecting his
-tools, “I canna see that it will hurt ye to be told that ye are doing
-every day a thing that pleases the Boss as much as anything ye could
-do. Ye're being uncommon faithful, lad, and honest as old Father Time.
-McLean is trusting ye as he would his own flesh and blood.”
-
-“Oh, Duncan!” cried the happy boy. “Are you sure?”
-
-“Why I know,” answered Duncan. “I wadna venture to say so else. In those
-first days he cautioned me na to tell ye, but now he wadna care. D'ye
-ken, Freckles, that some of the single trees ye are guarding are worth a
-thousand dollars?”
-
-Freckles caught his breath and stood speechless.
-
-“Ye see,” said Duncan, “that's why they maun be watched so closely. They
-tak', say, for instance, a burl maple--bird's eye they call it in the
-factory, because it's full o' wee knots and twists that look like the
-eye of a bird. They saw it out in sheets no muckle thicker than writin'
-paper. Then they make up the funiture out of cheaper wood and cover it
-with the maple--veneer, they call it. When it's all done and polished ye
-never saw onythin' grander. Gang into a retail shop the next time ye
-are in town and see some. By sawin' it thin that way they get finish for
-thousands of dollars' worth of furniture from a single tree. If ye dinna
-watch faithful, and Black Jack gets out a few he has marked, it means
-the loss of more money than ye ever dreamed of, lad. The other night,
-down at camp, some son of Balaam was suggestin' that ye might be sellin'
-the Boss out to Jack and lettin' him tak' the trees secretly, and nobody
-wad ever ken till the gang gets here.”
-
-A wave of scarlet flooded Freckles' face and he blazed hotly at the
-insult.
-
-“And the Boss,” continued Duncan, coolly ignoring Freckles' anger, “he
-lays back just as cool as cowcumbers an' says: 'I'll give a thousand
-dollars to ony man that will show me a fresh stump when we reach the
-Limberlost,' says he. Some of the men just snapped him op that they'd
-find some. So you see bow the Boss is trustin' ye, lad.”
-
-“I am gladder than I can ever expriss,” said Freckles. “And now will I
-be walking double time to keep some of them from cutting a tree to get
-all that money!”
-
-“Mither o' Moses!” howled Duncan. “Ye can trust the Scotch to bungle
-things a'thegither. McLean was only meanin' to show ye all confidence
-and honor. He's gone and set a high price for some dirty whelp to ruin
-ye. I was just tryin' to show ye how he felt toward ye, and I've gone
-an' give ye that worry to bear. Damn the Scotch! They're so slow an' so
-dumb!”
-
-“Exciptin' prisint company?” sweetly inquired Freckles.
-
-“No!” growled Duncan. “Headin' the list! He'd nae business to set a
-price on ye, lad, for that's about the amount of it, an' I'd nae right
-to tell ye. We've both done ye ill, an' both meanin' the verra best.
-Juist what I'm always sayin' to Sarah.”
-
-“I am mighty proud of what you have been telling me, Duncan,” said
-Freckles. “I need the warning, sure. For with the books coming I might
-be timpted to neglect me work when double watching is needed. Thank you
-more than I can say for putting me on to it. What you've told me may be
-the saving of me. I won't stop for dinner now. I'll be getting along the
-east line, and when I come around about three, maybe Mother Duncan will
-let me have a glass of milk and a bite of something.”
-
-“Ye see now!” cried Duncan in disgust. “Ye'll start on that seven-mile
-tramp with na bite to stay your stomach. What was it I told ye?”
-
-“You told me that the Scotch had the hardest heads and the softest
-hearts of any people that's living,” answered Freckles.
-
-Duncan grunted in gratified disapproval.
-
-Freckles picked up his club and started down the line, whistling
-cheerily, for he had an unusually long repertoire upon which to draw.
-
-Duncan went straight to the lower camp, and calling McLean aside,
-repeated the conversation verbatim, ending: “And nae matter what happens
-now or ever, dinna ye dare let onythin' make ye believe that Freckles
-hasna guarded faithful as ony man could.”
-
-“I don't think anything could shake my faith in the lad,” answered
-McLean.
-
-Freckles was whistling merrily. He kept one eye religiously on the line.
-The other he divided between the path, his friends of the wire, and a
-search of the sky for his latest arrivals. Every day since their coming
-he had seen them, either hanging as small, black clouds above the swamp
-or bobbing over logs and trees with their queer, tilting walk. Whenever
-he could spare time, he entered the swamp and tried to make friends
-with them, for they were the tamest of all his unnumbered subjects. They
-ducked, dodged, and ambled around him, over logs and bushes, and not
-even a near approach would drive them to flight.
-
-For two weeks he had found them circling over the Limberlost regularly,
-but one morning the female was missing and only the big black chicken
-hung sentinel above the swamp. His mate did not reappear in the
-following days, and Freckles grew very anxious. He spoke of it to Mrs.
-Duncan, and she quieted his fears by raising a delightful hope in their
-stead.
-
-“Why, Freckles, if it's the hen-bird ye are missing, it's ten to one
-she's safe,” she said. “She's laid, and is setting, ye silly! Watch him
-and mark whaur he lichts. Then follow and find the nest. Some Sabbath
-we'll all gang see it.”
-
-Accepting this theory, Freckles began searching for the nest. Because
-these “chickens” were large, as the hawks, he looked among the treetops
-until he almost sprained the back of his neck. He had half the crow and
-hawk nests in the swamp located. He searched for this nest instead of
-collecting subjects for his case. He found the pair the middle of one
-forenoon on the elm where he had watched their love-making. The big
-black chicken was feeding his mate; so it was proved that they were a
-pair, they were both alive, and undoubtedly she was brooding. After that
-Freckles' nest-hunting continued with renewed zeal, but as he had no
-idea where to look and Duncan could offer no helpful suggestion, the
-nest was no nearer to being found.
-
-Coming from a long day on the trail, Freckles saw Duncan's children
-awaiting him much closer the swale than they usually ventured, and from
-their wild gestures he knew that something had happened. He began to
-run, but the cry that reached him was: “The books have come!”
-
-How they hurried! Freckles lifted the youngest to his shoulder, the
-second took his club and dinner pail, and when they reached Mrs. Duncan
-they found her at work on a big box. She had loosened the lid, and then
-she laughingly sat on it.
-
-“Ye canna have a peep in here until ye have washed and eaten supper,”
- she said. “It's all ready on the table. Ance ye begin on this, ye'll
-no be willin' to tak' your nose o' it till bedtime, and I willna get my
-work done the nicht. We've eaten long ago.”
-
-It was difficult work, but Freckles smiled bravely. He made himself
-neat, swallowed a few bites, then came so eagerly that Mrs. Duncan
-yielded, although she said she very well knew all the time that his
-supper would be spoiled.
-
-Lifting the lid, they removed the packing and found in that box books
-on birds, trees, flowers, moths, and butterflies. There was also one
-containing Freckles' bullfrog, true to life. Besides these were a
-butterfly-net, a naturalist's tin specimen-box, a bottle of cyanide,
-a box of cotton, a paper of long, steel specimen-pins, and a letter
-telling what all these things were and how to use them.
-
-At the discovery of each new treasure, Freckles shouted: “Will you be
-looking at this, now?”
-
-Mrs. Duncan cried: “Weel, I be drawed on!”
-
-The eldest boy turned a somersault for every extra, while the baby,
-trying to follow his example, bunched over in a sidewise sprawl and cut
-his foot on the axe with which his mother had prized up the box-lid.
-That sobered them, they carried the books indoors. Mrs. Duncan had a top
-shelf in her closet cleared for them, far above the reach of meddling
-little fingers.
-
-When Freckles started for the trail next morning, the shining new
-specimen-box flashed on his back. The black “chicken,” a mere speck in
-the blue, caught the gleam of it. The folded net hung beside the boy's
-hatchet, and the bird book was in the box. He walked the line and tested
-each section scrupulously, watching every foot of the trail, for he was
-determined not to slight his work; but if ever a boy “made haste slowly”
- in a hurry, it was Freckles that morning. When at last he reached the
-space he had cleared and planted around his case, his heart swelled with
-the pride of possessing even so much that he could call his own, while
-his quick eyes feasted on the beauty of it.
-
-He had made a large room with the door of the case set even with one
-side of it. On three sides, fine big bushes of wild rose climbed to the
-lower branches of the trees. Part of his walls were mallow, part alder,
-thorn, willow, and dogwood. Below there filled in a solid mass of pale
-pink sheep-laurel, and yellow St. John's wort, while the amber threads
-of the dodder interlaced everywhere. At one side the swamp came close,
-here cattails grew in profusion. In front of them he had planted a row
-of water-hyacinths without disturbing in the least the state of their
-azure bloom, and where the ground arose higher for his floor, a row of
-foxfire, that soon would be open.
-
-To the left he had discovered a queer natural arrangement of the trees,
-that grew to giant size and were set in a gradually narrowing space so
-that a long, open vista stretched away until lost in the dim recesses
-of the swamp. A little trimming of underbush, rolling of dead logs,
-levelling of floor and carpeting with moss, made it easy to understand
-why Freckles had named this the “cathedral”; yet he never had been
-taught that “the groves were God's first temples.”
-
-On either side of the trees that constituted the first arch of this dim
-vista of the swamp he planted ferns that grew waist-high thus early in
-the season, and so skilfully the work had been done that not a frond
-drooped because of the change. Opposite, he cleared a space and made a
-flower bed. He filled one end with every delicate, lacy vine and fern he
-could transplant successfully. The body of the bed was a riot of color.
-Here he set growing dainty blue-eyed-Marys and blue-eyed grass side
-by side. He planted harebells; violets, blue, white, and yellow; wild
-geranium, cardinal-flower, columbine, pink snake's mouth, buttercups,
-painted trilliums, and orchis. Here were blood-root, moccasin-flower,
-hepatica, pitcher-plant, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and every other flower of
-the Limberlost that was in bloom or bore a bud presaging a flower. Every
-day saw the addition of new specimens. The place would have driven a
-botanist wild with envy.
-
-On the line side he left the bushes thick for concealment, entering by a
-narrow path he and Duncan had cleared in setting up the case. He called
-this the front door, though he used every precaution to hide it. He
-built rustic seats between several of the trees, leveled the floor, and
-thickly carpeted it with rank, heavy, woolly-dog moss. Around the case
-he planted wild clematis, bittersweet, and wild-grapevines, and trained
-them over it until it was almost covered. Every day he planted new
-flowers, cut back rough bushes, and coaxed out graceful ones. His
-pride in his room was very great, but he had no idea how surprisingly
-beautiful it would appear to anyone who had not witnessed its growth and
-construction.
-
-This morning Freckles walked straight to his case, unlocked it, and set
-his apparatus and dinner inside. He planted a new specimen he had found
-close the trail, and, bringing his old scrap-bucket from the corner in
-which it was hidden, from a near-by pool he dipped water to pour over
-his carpet and flowers.
-
-Then he took out the bird book, settled comfortably on a bench, and
-with a deep sigh of satisfaction turned to the section headed. “V.” Past
-“veery” and “vireo” he went, down the line until his finger, trembling
-with eagerness, stopped at “vulture.”
-
-“'Great black California vulture,'” he read.
-
-“Humph! This side the Rockies will do for us.”
-
-“'Common turkey-buzzard.'”
-
-“Well, we ain't hunting common turkeys. McLean said chickens, and what
-he says goes.”
-
-“'Black vulture of the South.'”
-
-“Here we are arrived at once.”
-
-Freckles' finger followed the line, and he read scraps aloud.
-
-“'Common in the South. Sometimes called Jim Crow. Nearest equivalent to
-C-a-t-h-a-r-t-e-s A-t-r-a-t-a.'”
-
-“How the divil am I ever to learn them corkin' big words by mesel'?”
-
-“'--the Pharaoh's Chickens of European species. Sometimes stray north as
-far as Virginia and Kentucky----'”
-
-“And sometimes farther,” interpolated Freckles, “'cos I got them right
-here in Indiana so like these pictures I can just see me big chicken
-bobbing up to get his ears boxed. Hey?”
-
-“'Light-blue eggs'----”
-
-“Golly! I got to be seeing them!”
-
-“'--big as a common turkey's, but shaped like a hen's, heavily splotched
-with chocolate----'”
-
-“Caramels, I suppose. And----”
-
-“'--in hollow logs or stumps.'”
-
-“Oh, hagginy! Wasn't I barking up the wrong tree, though? Ought to been
-looking close the ground all this time. Now it's all to do over, and I
-suspect the sooner I start the sooner I'll be likely to find them.”
-
-Freckles put away his book, dampened the smudge-fire, without which the
-mosquitoes made the swamp almost unbearable, took his cudgel and lunch,
-and went to the line. He sat on a log, ate at dinner-time and drank his
-last drop of water. The heat of June was growing intense. Even on the
-west of the swamp, where one had full benefit of the breeze from the
-upland, it was beginning to be unpleasant in the middle of the day.
-
-He brushed the crumbs from his knees and sat resting awhile and watching
-the sky to see if his big chicken were hanging up there. But he came to
-the earth abruptly, for there were steps coming down the trail that
-were neither McLean's nor Duncan's--and there never had been others.
-Freckles' heart leaped hotly. He ran a quick hand over his belt to feel
-if his revolver and hatchet were there, caught up his cudgel and laid
-it across his knees--then sat quietly, waiting. Was it Black Jack,
-or someone even worse? Forced to do something to brace his nerves, he
-puckered his stiffening lips and began whistling a tune he had led in
-his clear tenor every year of his life at the Home Christmas exercises.
-
-     “Who comes this way, so blithe and gay,
-     Upon a merry Christmas day?”
-
-His quick Irish wit roused to the ridiculousness of it until he broke
-into a laugh that steadied him amazingly.
-
-Through the bushes he caught a glimpse of the oncoming figure. His heart
-flooded with joy, for it was a man from the gang. Wessner had been his
-bunk-mate the night he came down the corduroy. He knew him as well as
-any of McLean's men. This was no timber-thief. No doubt the Boss had
-sent him with a message. Freckles sprang up and called cheerily, a warm
-welcome on his face.
-
-“Well, it's good telling if you're glad to see me,” said Wessner, with
-something very like a breath of relief. “We been hearing down at the
-camp you were so mighty touchy you didn't allow a man within a rod of
-the line.”
-
-“No more do I,” answered Freckles, “if he's a stranger, but you're from
-McLean, ain't you?”
-
-“Oh, damn McLean!” said Wessner.
-
-Freckles gripped the cudgel until his knuckles slowly turned purple.
-
-“And are you railly saying so?” he inquired with elaborate politeness.
-
-“Yes, I am,” said Wessner. “So would every man of the gang if they
-wasn't too big cowards to say anything, unless maybe that other
-slobbering old Scotchman, Duncan. Grinding the lives out of us! Working
-us like dogs, and paying us starvation wages, while he rolls up his
-millions and lives like a prince!”
-
-Green lights began to play through the gray of Freckles' eyes.
-
-“Wessner,” he said impressively, “you'd make a fine pattern for the
-father of liars! Every man on that gang is strong and hilthy, paid all
-he earns, and treated with the courtesy of a gentleman! As for the Boss
-living like a prince, he shares fare with you every day of your lives!”
-
-Wessner was not a born diplomat, but he saw he was on the wrong tack, so
-he tried another.
-
-“How would you like to make a good big pile of money, without even
-lifting your hand?” he asked.
-
-“Humph!” said Freckles. “Have you been up to Chicago and cornered wheat,
-and are you offering me a friendly tip on the invistment of me fortune?”
-
-Wessner came close.
-
-“Freckles, old fellow,” he said, “if you let me give you a pointer, I
-can put you on to making a cool five hundred without stepping out of
-your tracks.”
-
-Freckles drew back.
-
-“You needn't be afraid of speaking up,” he said. “There isn't a soul in
-the Limberlost save the birds and the beasts, unless some of your sort's
-come along and's crowding the privileges of the legal tinints.”
-
-“None of my friends along,” said Wessner. “Nobody knew I came but Black,
-I--I mean a friend of mine. If you want to hear sense and act with
-reason, he can see you later, but it ain't necessary. We can make all
-the plans needed. The trick's so dead small and easy.”
-
-“Must be if you have the engineering of it,” said Freckles. But he
-heard, with a sigh of relief, that they were alone.
-
-Wessner was impervious. “You just bet it is! Why, only think, Freckles,
-slavin' away at a measly little thirty dollars a month, and here is a
-chance to clear five hundred in a day! You surely won't be the fool to
-miss it!”
-
-“And how was you proposing for me to stale it?” inquired Freckles. “Or
-am I just to find it laying in me path beside the line?”
-
-“That's it, Freckles,” blustered the Dutchman, “you're just to find it.
-You needn't do a thing. You needn't know a thing. You name a morning
-when you will walk up the west side of the swamp and then turn round
-and walk back down the same side again and the money is yours. Couldn't
-anything be easier than that, could it?”
-
-“Depinds entirely on the man,” said Freckles. The lilt of a lark hanging
-above the swale beside them was not sweeter than the sweetness of his
-voice. “To some it would seem to come aisy as breathing; and to some,
-wringin' the last drop of their heart's blood couldn't force thim! I'm
-not the man that goes into a scheme like that with the blindfold over
-me eyes, for, you see, it manes to break trust with the Boss; and I've
-served him faithful as I knew. You'll have to be making the thing very
-clear to me understanding.”
-
-“It's so dead easy,” repeated Wessner, “it makes me tired of the
-simpleness of it. You see there's a few trees in the swamp that's real
-gold mines. There's three especial. Two are back in, but one's square on
-the line. Why, your pottering old Scotch fool of a Boss nailed the
-wire to it with his own hands! He never noticed where the bark had been
-peeled, or saw what it was. If you will stay on this side of the trail
-just one day we can have it cut, loaded, and ready to drive out at
-night. Next morning you can find it, report, and be the busiest man
-in the search for us. We know where to fix it all safe and easy. Then
-McLean has a bet up with a couple of the gang that there can't be a raw
-stump found in the Limberlost. There's plenty of witnesses to swear to
-it, and I know three that will. There's a cool thousand, and this tree
-is worth all of that, raw. Say, it's a gold mine, I tell you, and just
-five hundred of it is yours. There's no danger on earth to you, for
-you've got McLean that bamboozled you could sell out the whole swamp and
-he'd never mistrust you. What do you say?”
-
-Freckles' soul was satisfied. “Is that all?” he asked.
-
-“No, it ain't,” said Wessner. “If you really want to brace up and be a
-man and go into the thing for keeps, you can make five times that in a
-week. My friend knows a dozen others we could get out in a few days, and
-all you'd have to do would be to keep out of sight. Then you could
-take your money and skip some night, and begin life like a gentleman
-somewhere else. What do you think about it?”
-
-Freckles purred like a kitten.
-
-“'Twould be a rare joke on the Boss,” he said, “to be stalin' from him
-the very thing he's trusted me to guard, and be getting me wages all
-winter throwed in free. And you're making the pay awful high. Me to
-be getting five hundred for such a simple little thing as that. You're
-trating me most royal indade! It's away beyond all I'd be expecting.
-Sivinteen cints would be a big price for that job. It must be looked
-into thorough. Just you wait here until I do a minute's turn in the
-swamp, and then I'll be eschorting you out of the clearing and giving
-you the answer.”
-
-Freckles lifted the overhanging bushes and hurried to the case. He
-unslung the specimen-box and laid it inside with his hatchet and
-revolver. He slipped the key in his pocket and went back to Wessner.
-
-“Now for the answer,” he said. “Stand up!”
-
-There was iron in his voice, and he was commanding as an outraged
-general. “Anything, you want to be taking off?” he questioned.
-
-Wessner looked the astonishment he felt. “Why, no, Freckles,” he said.
-
-“Have the goodness to be calling me Mister McLean,” snapped Freckles.
-“I'm after resarvin' me pet name for the use of me friends! You may
-stand with your back to the light or be taking any advantage you want.”
-
-“Why, what do you mean?” spluttered Wessner.
-
-“I'm manin',” said Freckles tersely, “to lick a quarter-section of hell
-out of you, and may the Holy Vargin stay me before I leave you here
-carrion, for your carcass would turn the stummicks of me chickens!”
-
-At the camp that morning, Wessner's conduct had been so palpable an
-excuse to force a discharge that Duncan moved near McLean and whispered,
-“Think of the boy, sir?”
-
-McLean was so troubled that, an hour later, he mounted Nellie and
-followed Wessner to his home in Wildcat Hollow, only to find that he had
-left there shortly before, heading for the Limberlost. McLean rode at
-top speed. When Mrs. Duncan told him that a man answering Wessner's
-description had gone down the west side of the swamp close noon, he left
-the mare in her charge and followed on foot. When he heard voices he
-entered the swamp and silently crept close just in time to hear Wessner
-whine: “But I can't fight you, Freckles. I hain't done nothing to you.
-I'm away bigger than you, and you've only one hand.”
-
-The Boss slid off his coat and crouched among the bushes, ready to
-spring; but as Freckles' voice reached him he held himself, with a
-strong effort, to learn what mettle was in the boy.
-
-“Don't you be wasting of me good time in the numbering of me hands,”
- cried Freckles. “The stringth of me cause will make up for the weakness
-of me mimbers, and the size of a cowardly thief doesn't count. You'll
-think all the wildcats of the Limberlost are turned loose on you whin I
-come against you, and as for me cause----I slept with you, Wessner, the
-night I came down the corduroy like a dirty, friendless tramp, and the
-Boss was for taking me up, washing, clothing, and feeding me, and giving
-me a home full of love and tinderness, and a master to look to, and
-good, well-earned money in the bank. He's trusting me his heartful, and
-here comes you, you spotted toad of the big road, and insults me, as is
-an honest Irish gintleman, by hinting that you concaive I'd be willing
-to shut me eyes and hold fast while you rob him of the thing I was set
-and paid to guard, and then act the sneak and liar to him, and ruin and
-eternally blacken the soul of me. You damned rascal,” raved Freckles,
-“be fighting before I forget the laws of a gintlemin's game and split
-your dirty head with me stick!”
-
-Wessner backed away, mumbling, “But I don't want to hurt you, Freckles!”
-
-“Oh, don't you!” raged the boy, now fairly frothing. “Well, you ain't
-resembling me none, for I'm itching like death to git me fingers in the
-face of you.”
-
-He danced up, and as Wessner lunged in self-defense, ducked under his
-arm as a bantam and punched him in the pit of the stomach so that he
-doubled with a groan. Before Wessner could straighten himself, Freckles
-was on him, fighting like the wildest fury that ever left the beautiful
-island. The Dutchman dealt thundering blows that sometimes landed and
-sent Freckles reeling, and sometimes missed, while he went plunging into
-the swale with the impetus of them. Freckles could not strike with half
-Wessner's force, but he could land three blows to the Dutchman's one.
-It was here that the boy's days of alert watching on the line, the
-perpetual swinging of the heavy cudgel, and the endurance of all weather
-stood him in good stead; for he was tough, and agile. He skipped,
-ducked, and dodged. For the first five minutes he endured fearful
-punishment. Then Wessner's breath commenced to whistle between his
-teeth, when Freckles only had begun fighting. He sprang back with shrill
-laughter.
-
-“Begolly! and will your honor be whistling the hornpipe for me to be
-dancing of?” he cried.
-
-SPANG! went his fist into Wessner's face, and he was past him into the
-swale.
-
-“And would you be pleased to tune up a little livelier?” he gasped, and
-clipped his ear as he sprang back. Wessner lunged at him in blind fury.
-Freckles, seeing an opening, forgot the laws of a gentleman's game and
-drove the toe of his heavy wading-boot in Wessner's middle until he
-doubled and fell heavily. In a flash Freckles was on him. For a time
-McLean could not see what was happening. “Go! Go to him now!” he
-commanded himself, but so intense was his desire to see the boy win
-alone that he did not stir.
-
-At last Freckles sprang up and backed away. “Time!” he yelled as a fury.
-“Be getting up, Mr. Wessner, and don't be afraid of hurting me. I'll let
-you throw in an extra hand and lick you to me complate satisfaction all
-the same. Did you hear me call the limit? Will you get up and be facing
-me?”
-
-As Wessner struggled to his feet, he resembled a battlefield, for his
-clothing was in ribbons and his face and hands streaming blood.
-
-“I--I guess I got enough,” he mumbled.
-
-“Oh, you do?” roared Freckles. “Well this ain't your say. You come on
-to me ground, lying about me Boss and intimatin' I'd stale from his very
-pockets. Now will you be standing up and taking your medicine like a
-man, or getting it poured down the throat of you like a baby? I ain't
-got enough! This is only just the beginning with me. Be looking out
-there!”
-
-He sprang against Wessner and sent him rolling. He attacked the
-unresisting figure and fought him until he lay limp and quiet and
-Freckles had no strength left to lift an arm. Then he arose and stepped
-back, gasping for breath. With his first lungful of air he shouted:
-“Time!” But the figure of Wessner lay motionless.
-
-Freckles watched him with regardful eye and saw at last that he was
-completely exhausted. He bent over him, and catching him by the back of
-the neck, jerked him to his knees. Wessner lifted the face of a whipped
-cur, and fearing further punishment, burst into shivering sobs, while
-the tears washed tiny rivulets through the blood and muck. Freckles
-stepped back, glaring at Wessner, but suddenly the scowl of anger and
-the ugly disfiguring red faded from the boy's face. He dabbed at a cut
-on his temple from which issued a tiny crimson stream, and jauntily
-shook back his hair. His face took on the innocent look of a cherub,
-and his voice rivaled that of a brooding dove, but into his eyes crept a
-look of diabolical mischief.
-
-He glanced vaguely around him until he saw his club, seized and twirled
-it as a drum major, stuck it upright in the muck, and marched on tiptoe
-to Wessner, mechanically, as a puppet worked by a string. Bending over,
-Freckles reached an arm around Wessner's waist and helped him to his
-feet.
-
-“Careful, now” he cautioned, “be careful, Freddy; there's danger of you
-hurting me.”
-
-Drawing a handkerchief from a back pocket, Freckles tenderly wiped
-Wessner's eyes and nose.
-
-“Come, Freddy, me child,” he admonished Wessner, “it's time little boys
-were going home. I've me work to do, and can't be entertaining you any
-more today. Come back tomorrow, if you ain't through yet, and we'll
-repate the perfarmance. Don't be staring at me so wild like! I would eat
-you, but I can't afford it. Me earnings, being honest, come slow, and
-I've no money to be squanderin' on the pailful of Dyspeptic's Delight it
-would be to taking to work you out of my innards!”
-
-Again an awful wrenching seized McLean. Freckles stepped back as
-Wessner, tottering and reeling, as a thoroughly drunken man, came toward
-the path, appearing indeed as if wildcats had attacked him.
-
-The cudgel spun high in air, and catching it with an expertness acquired
-by long practice on the line, the boy twirled it a second, shook back
-his thick hair bonnily, and stepping into the trail, followed Wessner.
-Because Freckles was Irish, it was impossible to do it silently, so
-presently his clear tenor rang out, though there were bad catches where
-he was hard pressed for breath:
-
-     “It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch.
-     Do you think it was the Irish hollered help?
-     Not much!
-     It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch----”
-
-Wessner turned and mumbled: “What you following me for? What are you
-going to do with me?”
-
-Freckles called the Limberlost to witness: “How's that for the
-ingratitude of a beast? And me troubling mesilf to show him off me
-territory with the honors of war!”
-
-Then he changed his tone completely and added: “Belike it's this,
-Freddy. You see, the Boss might come riding down this trail any minute,
-and the little mare's so wheedlesome that if she'd come on to you in
-your prisint state all of a sudden, she'd stop that short she'd send Mr.
-McLean out over the ears of her. No disparagement intinded to the sinse
-of the mare!” he added hastily.
-
-Wessner belched a fearful oath, while Freckles laughed merrily.
-
-“That's a sample of the thanks a generous act's always for getting,” he
-continued. “Here's me neglictin' me work to eschort you out proper, and
-you saying such awful words Freddy,” he demanded sternly, “do you want
-me to soap out your mouth? You don't seem to be realizing it, but if you
-was to buck into Mr. McLean in your prisint state, without me there
-to explain matters the chance is he'd cut the liver out of you; and I
-shouldn't think you'd be wanting such a fine gintleman as him to see
-that it's white!”
-
-Wessner grew ghastly under his grime and broke into a staggering run.
-
-“And now will you be looking at the manners of him?” questioned Freckles
-plaintively. “Going without even a 'thank you,' right in the face of all
-the pains I've taken to make it interesting for him!”
-
-Freckles twirled the club and stood as a soldier at attention
-until Wessner left the clearing, but it was the last scene of that
-performance. When the boy turned, there was deathly illness on his face,
-while his legs wavered beneath his weight. He staggered to the case, and
-opening it he took out a piece of cloth. He dipped it into the water,
-and sitting on a bench, he wiped the blood and grime from his face,
-while his breath sucked between his clenched teeth. He was shivering
-with pain and excitement in spite of himself. He unbuttoned the band of
-his right sleeve, and turning it back, exposed the blue-lined, calloused
-whiteness of his maimed arm, now vividly streaked with contusions, while
-in a series of circular dots the blood oozed slowly. Here Wessner had
-succeeded in setting his teeth. When Freckles saw what it was he forgave
-himself the kick in the pit of Wessner's stomach, and cursed fervently
-and deep.
-
-“Freckles, Freckles,” said McLean's voice.
-
-Freckles snatched down his sleeve and arose to his feet.
-
-“Excuse me, sir,” he said. “You'll surely be belavin' I thought meself
-alone.”
-
-McLean pushed him carefully to the seat, and bending over him, opened a
-pocket-case that he carried as regularly as his revolver and watch, for
-cuts and bruises were of daily occurrence among the gang.
-
-Taking the hurt arm, he turned back the sleeve and bathed and bound the
-wounds. He examined Freckles' head and body and convinced himself that
-there was no permanent injury, although the cruelty of the punishment
-the boy had borne set the Boss shuddering. Then he closed the
-case, shoved it into his pocket, and sat beside Freckles. All the
-indescribable beauty of the place was strong around him, but he saw
-only the bruised face of the suffering boy, who had hedged for the
-information he wanted as a diplomat, argued as a judge, fought as a
-sheik, and triumphed as a devil.
-
-When the pain lessened and breath relieved Freckles' pounding heart, he
-watched the Boss covertly. How had McLean gotten there and how long had
-he been there? Freckles did not dare ask. At last he arose, and going
-to the case, took out his revolver and the wire-mending apparatus and
-locked the door. Then he turned to McLean.
-
-“Have you any orders, sir?” he asked.
-
-“Yes,” said McLean, “I have, and you are to follow them to the letter.
-Turn over that apparatus to me and go straight home. Soak yourself in
-the hottest bath your skin will bear and go to bed at once. Now hurry.”
-
-“Mr. McLean,” said Freckles, “it's sorry I am to be telling you, but
-the afternoon's walking of the line ain't done. You see, I was just
-for getting to me feet to start, and I was on time, when up came
-a gintleman, and we got into a little heated argument. It's either
-settled, or it's just begun, but between us, I'm that late I haven't
-started for the afternoon yet. I must be going at once, for there's a
-tree I must find before the day's over.”
-
-“You plucky little idiot,” growled McLean. “You can't walk the line! I
-doubt if you can reach Duncan's. Don't you know when you are done up?
-You go to bed; I'll finish your work.”
-
-“Niver!” protested Freckles. “I was just a little done up for the
-prisint, a minute ago. I'm all right now. Riding-boots are far too low.
-The day's hot and the walk a good seven miles, sir. Niver!”
-
-As he reached for the outfit he pitched forward and his eyes closed.
-McLean stretched him on the moss and applied restoratives. When Freckles
-returned to consciousness, McLean ran to the cabin to tell Mrs. Duncan
-to have a hot bath ready, and to bring Nellie. That worthy woman
-promptly filled the wash-boiler, starting a roaring fire under it. She
-pushed the horse-trough from its base and rolled it to the kitchen.
-
-By the time McLean came again, leading Nelie and holding Freckles on her
-back, Mrs. Duncan was ready for business. She and the Boss laid Freckles
-in the trough and poured on hot water until he squirmed. They soaked and
-massaged him. Then they drew off the hot water and closed his pores with
-cold. Lastly they stretched him on the floor and chafed, rubbed, and
-kneaded him until he cried out for mercy. As they rolled him into bed,
-his eyes dropped shut, but a little later they flared open.
-
-“Mr. McLean,” he cried, “the tree! Oh, do be looking after the tree!”
-
-McLean bent over him. “Which tree, Freckles?”
-
-“I don't know exact sir; but it's on the east line, and the wire is
-fastened to it. He bragged that you nailed it yourself, sir. You'll know
-it by the bark having been laid open to the grain somewhere low down.
-Five hundred dollars he offered me--to be--selling you out--sir!”
-
-Freckles' head rolled over and his eyes dropped shut. McLean towered
-above the lad. His bright hair waved on the pillow. His face was
-swollen, and purple with bruises. His left arm, with the hand battered
-almost out of shape, stretched beside him, and the right, with no hand
-at all, lay across a chest that was a mass of purple welts. McLean's
-mind traveled to the night, almost a year before, when he had engaged
-Freckles, a stranger.
-
-The Boss bent, covering the hurt arm with one hand and laying the other
-with a caress on the boy's forehead. Freckles stirred at his touch, and
-whispered as softly as the swallows under the eaves: “If you're coming
-this way--tomorrow--be pleased to step over--and we'll repate--the
-chorus softly!”
-
-“Bless the gritty devil,” muttered McLean.
-
-Then he went out and told Mrs. Duncan to keep close watch on Freckles,
-also to send Duncan to him at the swamp the minute he came home.
-Following the trail to the line and back to the scent of the fight, the
-Boss entered Freckles' study quietly, as if his spirit, keeping there,
-might be roused, and gazed around with astonished eyes.
-
-How had the boy conceived it? What a picture he had wrought in living
-colors! He had the heart of a painter. He had the soul of a poet. The
-Boss stepped carefully over the velvet carpet to touch the walls of
-crisp verdure with gentle fingers. He stood long beside the flower
-bed, and gazed at the banked wall of bright bloom as if he doubted its
-reality.
-
-Where had Freckles ever found, and how had he transplanted such ferns?
-As McLean turned from them he stopped suddenly.
-
-He had reached the door of the cathedral. That which Freckles had
-attempted would have been patent to anyone. What had been in the heart
-of the shy, silent boy when he had found that long, dim stretch of
-forest, decorated its entrance, cleared and smoothed its aisle, and
-carpeted its altar? What veriest work of God was in these mighty living
-pillars and the arched dome of green! How similar to stained cathedral
-windows were the long openings between the trees, filled with rifts of
-blue, rays of gold, and the shifting emerald of leaves! Where could be
-found mosaics to match this aisle paved with living color and glowing
-light? Was Freckles a devout Christian, and did he worship here? Or was
-he an untaught heathen, and down this vista of entrancing loveliness did
-Pan come piping, and dryads, nymphs, and fairies dance for him?
-
-Who can fathom the heart of a boy? McLean had been thinking of Freckles
-as a creature of unswerving honesty, courage, and faithfulness. Here was
-evidence of a heart aching for beauty, art, companionship, worship. It
-was writ large all over the floor, walls, and furnishing of that little
-Limberlost clearing.
-
-When Duncan came, McLean told him the story of the fight, and they
-laughed until they cried. Then they started around the line in search of
-the tree.
-
-Said Duncan: “Now the boy is in for sore trouble!”
-
-“I hope not,” answered McLean. “You never in all your life saw a cur
-whipped so completely. He won't come back for the repetition of the
-chorus. We surely can find the tree. If we can't, Freckles can. I will
-bring enough of the gang to take it out at once. That will insure peace
-for a time, at least, and I am hoping that in a month more the whole
-gang may be moved here. It soon will be fall, and then, if he will go, I
-intend to send Freckles to my mother to be educated. With his quickness
-of mind and body and a few years' good help he can do anything. Why,
-Duncan, I'd give a hundred-dollar bill if you could have been here and
-seen for yourself.”
-
-“Yes, and I'd 'a' done murder,” muttered the big teamster. “I hope, sir,
-ye will make good your plans for Freckles, though I'd as soon see
-ony born child o' my ain taken from our home. We love the lad, me and
-Sarah.”
-
-Locating the tree was easy, because it was so well identified. When
-the rumble of the big lumber wagons passing the cabin on the way to the
-swamp wakened Freckles next morning, he sprang up and was soon following
-them. He was so sore and stiff that every movement was torture at first,
-but he grew easier, and shortly did not suffer so much. McLean scolded
-him for coming, yet in his heart triumphed over every new evidence of
-fineness in the boy.
-
-The tree was a giant maple, and so precious that they almost dug it out
-by the roots. When it was down, cut in lengths, and loaded, there was
-yet an empty wagon. As they were gathering up their tools to go, Duncan
-said: “There's a big hollow tree somewhere mighty close here that I've
-been wanting for a watering-trough for my stock; the one I have is so
-small. The Portland company cut this for elm butts last year, and it's
-six feet diameter and hollow for forty feet. It was a buster! While the
-men are here and there is an empty wagon, why mightn't I load it on and
-tak' it up to the barn as we pass?”
-
-McLean said he was very willing, ordered the driver to break line and
-load the log, detailing men to assist. He told Freckles to ride on a
-section of the maple with him, but now the boy asked to enter the swamp
-with Duncan.
-
-“I don't see why you want to go,” said McLean. “I have no business to
-let you out today at all.”
-
-“It's me chickens,” whispered Freckles in distress. “You see, I was just
-after finding yesterday, from me new book, how they do be nesting in
-hollow trees, and there ain't any too many in the swamp. There's just a
-chance that they might be in that one.”
-
-“Go ahead,” said McLean. “That's a different story. If they happen to be
-there, why tell Duncan he must give up the tree until they have finished
-with it.”
-
-Then he climbed on a wagon and was driven away. Freckles hurried into
-the swamp. He was a little behind, yet he could see the men. Before he
-overtook them, they had turned from the west road and had entered the
-swamp toward the east.
-
-They stopped at the trunk of a monstrous prostrate log. It had been cut
-three feet from the ground, over three-fourths of the way through, and
-had fallen toward the east, the body of the log still resting on the
-stump. The underbrush was almost impenetrable, but Duncan plunged in and
-with a crowbar began tapping along the trunk to decide how far it
-was hollow, so that they would know where to cut. As they waited his
-decision, there came from the mouth of it--on wings--a large black bird
-that swept over their heads.
-
-Freckles danced wildly. “It's me chickens! Oh, it's me chickens!” he
-shouted. “Oh, Duncan, come quick! You've found the nest of me precious
-chickens!”
-
-Duncan hurried to the mouth of the log, but Freckles was before him. He
-crashed through poison-vines and underbrush regardless of any danger,
-and climbed on the stump. When Duncan came he was shouting like a wild
-man.
-
-“It's hatched!” he yelled. “Oh, me big chicken has hatched out me little
-chicken, and there's another egg. I can see it plain, and oh, the funny
-little white baby! Oh, Duncan, can you see me little white chicken?”
-
-Duncan could easily see it; so could everyone else. Freckles crept into
-the log and tenderly carried the hissing, blinking little bird to the
-light in a leaf-lined hat. The men found it sufficiently wonderful to
-satisfy even Freckles, who had forgotten he was ever sore or stiff, and
-coddled over it with every blarneying term of endearment he knew.
-
-Duncan gathered his tools. “Deal's off, boys!” he said cheerfully. “This
-log mauna be touched until Freckles' chaukies have finished with it. We
-might as weel gang. Better put it back, Freckles. It's just out, and it
-may chill. Ye will probably hae twa the morn.”
-
-Freckles crept into the log and carefully deposited the baby beside
-the egg. When he came back, he said: “I made a big mistake not to be
-bringing the egg out with the baby, but I was fearing to touch it.
-It's shaped like a hen's egg, and it's big as a turkey's, and the
-beautifulest blue--just splattered with big brown splotches, like me
-book said, precise. Bet you never saw such a sight as it made on the
-yellow of the rotten wood beside that funny leathery-faced little white
-baby.”
-
-“Tell you what, Freckles,” said one of the teamsters. “Have you ever
-heard of this Bird Woman who goes all over the country with a camera and
-makes pictures? She made some on my brother Jim's place last summer, and
-Jim's so wild about them he quits plowing and goes after her about every
-nest he finds. He helps her all he can to take them, and then she gives
-him a picture. Jim's so proud of what he has he keeps them in the Bible.
-He shows them to everybody that comes, and brags about how he helped.
-If you're smart, you'll send for her and she'll come and make a picture
-just like life. If you help her, she will give you one. It would be
-uncommon pretty to keep, after your birds are gone. I dunno what they
-are. I never see their like before. They must be something rare. Any you
-fellows ever see a bird like that hereabouts?”
-
-No one ever had.
-
-“Well,” said the teamster, “failing to get this log lets me off till
-noon, and I'm going to town. I go right past her place. I've a big
-notion to stop and tell her. If she drives straight back in the swamp
-on the west road, and turns east at this big sycamore, she can't miss
-finding the tree, even if Freckles ain't here to show her. Jim says
-her work is a credit to the State she lives in, and any man is a measly
-creature who isn't willing to help her all he can. My old daddy used to
-say that all there was to religion was doing to the other fellow what
-you'd want him to do to you, and if I was making a living taking bird
-pictures, seems to me I'd be mighty glad for a chance to take one like
-that. So I'll just stop and tell her, and by gummy! maybe she will give
-me a picture of the little white sucker for my trouble.”
-
-Freckles touched his arm.
-
-“Will she be rough with it?” he asked.
-
-“Government land! No!” said the teamster. “She's dead down on anybody
-that shoots a bird or tears up a nest. Why, she's half killing herself
-in all kinds of places and weather to teach people to love and protect
-the birds. She's that plum careful of them that Jim's wife says she has
-Jim a standin' like a big fool holding an ombrelly over them when they
-are young and tender until she gets a focus, whatever that is. Jim says
-there ain't a bird on his place that don't actually seem to like having
-her around after she has wheedled them a few days, and the pictures she
-takes nobody would ever believe who didn't stand by and see.”
-
-“Will you he sure to tell her to come?” asked Freckles.
-
-Duncan slept at home that night. He heard Freckles slipping out early
-the next morning, but he was too sleepy to wonder why, until he came to
-do his morning chores. When he found that none of his stock was at all
-thirsty, and saw the water-trough brimming, he knew that the boy was
-trying to make up to him for the loss of the big trough that he had been
-so anxious to have.
-
-“Bless his fool little hot heart!” said Duncan. “And him so sore it is
-tearing him to move for anything. Nae wonder he has us all loving him!”
-
-Freckles was moving briskly, and his heart was so happy that he forgot
-all about the bruises. He hurried around the trail, and on his way down
-the east side he went to see the chickens. The mother bird was on the
-nest. He was afraid the other egg might be hatching, so he did not
-venture to disturb her. He made the round and reached his study early.
-He ate his lunch, but did not need to start on the second trip until the
-middle of the afternoon. He would have long hours to work on his flower
-bed, improve his study, and learn about his chickens. Lovingly he set
-his room in order and watered the flowers and carpet. He had chosen for
-his resting-place the coolest spot on the west side, where there was
-almost always a breeze; but today the heat was so intense that it
-penetrated even there.
-
-“I'm mighty glad there's nothing calling me inside!” he said. “There's
-no bit of air stirring, and it will just be steaming. Oh, but it's
-luck Duncan found the nest before it got so unbearing hot! I might have
-missed it altogether. Wouldn't it have been a shame to lose that sight?
-The cunning little divil! When he gets to toddling down that log to meet
-me, won't he be a circus? Wonder if he'll be as graceful a performer
-afoot as his father and mother?”
-
-The heat became more insistent. Noon came; Freckles ate his dinner and
-settled for an hour or two on a bench with a book.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-
-Perhaps there was a breath of sound--Freckles never afterward could
-remember--but for some reason he lifted his head as the bushes parted
-and the face of an angel looked between. Saints, nymphs, and fairies
-had floated down his cathedral aisle for him many times, with forms and
-voices of exquisite beauty.
-
-Parting the wild roses at the entrance was beauty of which Freckles
-never had dreamed. Was it real or would it vanish as the other dreams?
-He dropped his book, and rising to his feet, went a step closer, gazing
-intently. This was real flesh and blood. It was in every way kin to the
-Limberlost, for no bird of its branches swung with easier grace than
-this dainty young thing rocked on the bit of morass on which she stood.
-A sapling beside her was not straighter or rounder than her slender
-form. Her soft, waving hair clung around her face from the heat, and
-curled over her shoulders. It was all of one piece with the gold of the
-sun that filtered between the branches. Her eyes were the deepest blue
-of the iris, her lips the reddest red of the foxfire, while her cheeks
-were exactly of the same satin as the wild rose petals caressing them.
-She was smiling at Freckles in perfect confidence, and she cried:
-
-“Oh, I'm so delighted that I've found you!”
-
-The wildly leaping heart of Freckles burst from his body and fell in the
-black swamp-muck at her feet with such a thud that he did not understand
-how she could avoid hearing. He really felt that if she looked down she
-would see.
-
-Incredulous, he quavered: “An'--an' was you looking for me?”
-
-“I hoped I might find you,” said the Angel. “You see, I didn't do as
-I was told, and I'm lost. The Bird Woman said I should wait in the
-carriage until she came back. She's been gone hours. It's a perfect
-Turkish bath in there, and I'm all lumpy with mosquito bites. Just when
-I thought that I couldn't bear it another minute, along came the biggest
-Papilio Ajax you ever saw. I knew how pleased she'd be, so I ran after
-it. It flew so slow and so low that I thought a dozen times I had it.
-Then all at once it went from sight above the trees, and I couldn't find
-my way back to save me. I think I've walked more than an hour. I have
-been mired to my knees. A thorn raked my arm until it is bleeding, and
-I'm so tired and warm.”
-
-She parted the bushes farther. Freckles saw that her blue cotton frock
-clung to her, limp with perspiration. It was torn across the breast. One
-sleeve hung open from shoulder to elbow. A thorn had torn her arm until
-it was covered with blood, and the gnats and mosquitoes were clustering
-around it. Her feet were in lace hose and low shoes. Freckles gasped. In
-the Limberlost in low shoes! He caught an armful of moss from his carpet
-and buried it in the ooze in front of her for a footing.
-
-“Come out here so I can see where you are stepping. Quick, for the life
-of you!” he ordered.
-
-She smiled on him indulgently.
-
-“Why?” she inquired.
-
-“Did anybody let you come here and not be telling you of the snakes?”
- urged Freckles.
-
-“We met Mr. McLean on the corduroy, and he did say something about
-snakes, I believe. The Bird Woman put on leather leggings, and a nice,
-parboiled time she must be having! Worst dose I ever endured, and I'd
-nothing to do but swelter.”
-
-“Will you be coming out of there?” groaned Freckles.
-
-She laughed as if it were a fine joke.
-
-“Maybe if I'd be telling you I killed a rattler curled upon that same
-place you're standing, as long as me body and the thickness of me arm,
-you'd be moving where I can see your footing,” he urged insistently.
-
-“What a perfectly delightful little brogue you speak,” she said. “My
-father is Irish, and half should be enough to entitle me to that much.
-'Maybe--if I'd--be telling you,'” she imitated, rounding and accenting
-each word carefully.
-
-Freckles was beginning to feel a wildness in his head. He had derided
-Wessner at that same hour yesterday. Now his own eyes were filling with
-tears.
-
-“If you were understanding the danger!” he continued desperately.
-
-“Oh, I don't think there is much!”
-
-She tilted on the morass.
-
-“If you killed one snake here, it's probably all there is near; and
-anyway, the Bird Woman says a rattlesnake is a gentleman and always
-gives warning before he strikes. I don't hear any rattling. Do you?”
-
-“Would you be knowing it if you did?” asked Freckles, almost
-impatiently.
-
-How the laugh of the young thing rippled!
-
-“'Would I be knowing it?'” she mocked. “You should see the swamps of
-Michigan where they dump rattlers from the marl-dredgers three and four
-at a time!”
-
-Freckles stood astounded. She did know. She was not in the least afraid.
-She was depending on a rattlesnake to live up to his share of the
-contract and rattle in time for her to move. The one characteristic
-an Irishman admires in a woman, above all others, is courage. Freckles
-worshiped anew. He changed his tactics.
-
-“I'd be pleased to be receiving you at me front door,” he said, “but as
-you have arrived at the back, will you come in and be seated?”
-
-He waved toward a bench. The Angel came instantly.
-
-“Oh, how lovely and cool!” she cried.
-
-As she moved across his room, Freckles had difficult work to keep from
-falling on his knees; for they were very weak, while he was hard driven
-by an impulse to worship.
-
-“Did you arrange this?” she asked.
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles simply.
-
-“Someone must come with a big canvas and copy each side of it,” she
-said. “I never saw anything so beautiful! How I wish I might remain
-here with you! I will, some day, if you will let me; but now, if you can
-spare the time, will you help me find the carriage? If the Bird Woman
-comes back and I am gone, she will be almost distracted.”
-
-“Did you come on the west road?” asked Freckles.
-
-“I think so,” she said. “The man who told the Bird Woman said that
-was the only place the wires were down. We drove away in, and it was
-dreadful--over stumps and logs, and we mired to the hubs. I suppose you
-know, though. I should have stayed in the carriage, but I was so tired.
-I never dreamed of getting lost. I suspect I will be scolded finely.
-I go with the Bird Woman half the time during the summer vacations. My
-father says I learn a lot more than I do at school, and get it straight.
-I never came within a smell of being lost before. I thought, at first,
-it was going to be horrid; but since I've found you, maybe it will be
-good fun after all.”
-
-Freckles was amazed to hear himself excusing: “It was so hot in there.
-You couldn't be expected to bear it for hours and not be moving. I can
-take you around the trail almost to where you were. Then you can sit in
-the carriage, and I will go find the Bird Woman.”
-
-“You'll be killed if you do! When she stays this long, it means that she
-has a focus on something. You see, when she has a focus, and lies in the
-weeds and water for hours, and the sun bakes her, and things crawl over
-her, and then someone comes along and scares her bird away just as she
-has it coaxed up--why, she kills them. If I melt, you won't go after
-her. She's probably blistered and half eaten up; but she never will quit
-until she is satisfied.”
-
-“Then it will be safer to be taking care of you,” suggested Freckles.
-
-“Now you're talking sense!” said the Angel.
-
-“May I try to help your arm?” he asked.
-
-“Have you any idea how it hurts?” she parried.
-
-“A little,” said Freckles.
-
-“Well, Mr. McLean said We'd probably find his son here”
-
-“His son!” cried Freckles.
-
-“That's what he said. And that you would do anything you could for us;
-and that we could trust you with our lives. But I would have trusted
-you anyway, if I hadn't known a thing about you. Say, your father is
-rampaging proud of you, isn't he?”
-
-“I don't know,” answered the dazed Freckles.
-
-“Well, call on me if you want reliable information. He's so proud of you
-he is all swelled up like the toad in AEsop's Fables. If you have ever
-had an arm hurt like this, and can do anything, why, for pity sake, do
-it!”
-
-She turned back her sleeve, holding toward Freckles an arm of palest
-cameo, shaped so exquisitely that no sculptor could have chiseled it.
-
-Freckles unlocked his case, and taking out some cotton cloth, he tore it
-in strips. Then he brought a bucket of the cleanest water he could find.
-She yielded herself to his touch as a baby, and he bathed away the blood
-and bandaged the ugly, ragged wound. He finished his surgery by lapping
-the torn sleeve over the cloth and binding it down with a piece of
-twine, with the Angel's help about the knots.
-
-Freckles worked with trembling fingers and a face tense with
-earnestness.
-
-“Is it feeling any better?” he asked.
-
-“Oh, it's well now!” cried the Angel. “It doesn't hurt at all, any
-more.”
-
-“I'm mighty glad,” said Freckles. “But you had best go and be having
-your doctor fix it right; the minute you get home.”
-
-“Oh, bother! A little scratch like that!” jeered the Angel. “My blood is
-perfectly pure. It will heal in three days.”
-
-“It's cut cruel deep. It might be making a scar,” faltered Freckles, his
-eyes on the ground. “'Twould--'twould be an awful pity. A doctor might
-know something to prevent it.”
-
-“Why, I never thought of that!” exclaimed the Angel.
-
-“I noticed you didn't,” said Freckles softly. “I don't know much about
-it, but it seems as if most girls would.”
-
-The Angel thought intently, while Freckles still knelt beside her.
-Suddenly she gave herself an impatient little shake, lifted her glorious
-eyes full to his, and the smile that swept her sweet, young face was the
-loveliest thing that Freckles ever had seen.
-
-“Don't let's bother about it,” she proposed, with the faintest hint of
-a confiding gesture toward him. “It won't make a scar. Why, it couldn't,
-when you have dressed it so nicely.”
-
-The velvety touch of her warm arm was tingling in Freckles' fingertips.
-Dainty lace and fine white ribbon peeped through her torn dress. There
-were beautiful rings on her fingers. Every article she wore was of
-the finest material and in excellent taste. There was the trembling
-Limberlost guard in his coarse clothing, with his cotton rags and
-his old pail of swamp water. Freckles was sufficiently accustomed to
-contrasts to notice them, and sufficiently fine to be hurt by them
-always.
-
-He lifted his eyes with a shadowy pain in them to hers, and found them
-of serene, unconscious purity. What she had said was straight from a
-kind, untainted, young heart. She meant every word of it. Freckles' soul
-sickened. He scarcely knew whether he could muster strength to stand.
-
-“We must go and hunt for the carriage,” said the Angel, rising.
-
-In instant alarm for her, Freckles sprang up, grasped the cudgel, and
-led the way, sharply watching every step. He went as close the log as he
-felt that he dared, and with a little searching found the carriage. He
-cleared a path for the Angel, and with a sigh of relief saw her enter it
-safely. The heat was intense. She pushed the damp hair from her temples.
-
-“This is a shame!” said Freckles. “You'll never be coming here again.”
-
-“Oh yes I shall!” said the Angel. “The Bird Woman says that these birds
-remain over a month in the nest and she would like to make a picture
-every few days for seven or eight weeks, perhaps.”
-
-Freckles barely escaped crying aloud for joy.
-
-“Then don't you ever be torturing yourself and your horse to be coming
-in here again,” he said. “I'll show you a way to drive almost to the
-nest on the east trail, and then you can come around to my room and stay
-while the Bird Woman works. It's nearly always cool there, and there's
-comfortable seats, and water.”
-
-“Oh! did you have drinking-water there?” she cried. “I was never so
-thirsty or so hungry in my life, but I thought I wouldn't mention it.”
-
-“And I had not the wit to be seeing!” wailed Freckles. “I can be getting
-you a good drink in no time.”
-
-He turned to the trail.
-
-“Please wait a minute,” called the Angel. “What's your name? I want to
-think about you while you are gone.” Freckles lifted his face with the
-brown rift across it and smiled quizzically.
-
-“Freckles?” she guessed, with a peal of laughter. “And mine is----”
-
-“I'm knowing yours,” interrupted Freckles.
-
-“I don't believe you do. What is it?” asked the girl.
-
-“You won't be getting angry?”
-
-“Not until I've had the water, at least.”
-
-It was Freckles' turn to laugh. He whipped off his big, floppy straw
-hat, stood uncovered before her, and said, in the sweetest of all the
-sweet tones of his voice: “There's nothing you could be but the Swamp
-Angel.”
-
-The girl laughed happily.
-
-Once out of her sight, Freckles ran every step of the way to the cabin.
-Mrs. Duncan gave him a small bucket of water, cool from the well. He
-carried it in the crook of his right arm, and a basket filled with bread
-and butter, cold meat, apple pie, and pickles, in his left hand.
-
-“Pickles are kind o' cooling,” said Mrs. Duncan.
-
-Then Freckles ran again.
-
-The Angel was on her knees, reaching for the bucket, as he came up.
-
-“Be drinking slow,” he cautioned her.
-
-“Oh!” she cried, with a long breath of satisfaction. “It's so good! You
-are more than kind to bring it!”
-
-Freckles stood blinking in the dazzling glory of her smile until he
-scarcely could see to lift the basket.
-
-“Mercy!” she exclaimed. “I think I had better be naming you the 'Angel.'
-My Guardian Angel.”
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles. “I look the character every day--but today most
-emphatic!”
-
-“Angels don't go by looks,” laughed the girl. “Your father told us you
-had been scrapping. But he told us why. I'd gladly wear all your cuts
-and bruises if I could do anything that would make my father look as
-peacocky as yours did. He strutted about proper. I never saw anyone look
-prouder.”
-
-“Did he say he was proud of me?” marveled Freckles.
-
-“He didn't need to,” answered the Angel. “He was radiating pride from
-every pore. Now, have you brought me your dinner?”
-
-“I had my dinner two hours ago,” answered Freckles.
-
-“Honest Injun?” bantered the Angel.
-
-“Honest! I brought that on purpose for you.”
-
-“Well, if you knew how hungry I am, you would know how thankful I am, to
-the dot,” said the Angel.
-
-“Then you be eating,” cried the happy Freckles.
-
-The Angel sat on a big camera, spread the lunch on the carriage seat,
-and divided it in halves. The daintiest parts she could select she
-carefully put back into the basket. The remainder she ate. Again
-Freckles found her of the swamp, for though she was almost ravenous,
-she managed her food as gracefully as his little yellow fellow, and her
-every movement was easy and charming. As he watched her with famished
-eyes, Freckles told her of his birds, flowers, and books, and never
-realized what he was doing.
-
-He led the horse to a deep pool that he knew of, and the tortured
-creature drank greedily, and lovingly rubbed him with its nose as he
-wiped down its welted body with grass. Suddenly the Angel cried: “There
-comes the Bird Woman!”
-
-Freckles had intended leaving before she came, but now he was glad
-indeed to be there, for a warmer, more worn, and worse bitten creature
-he never had seen. She was staggering under a load of cameras and
-paraphernalia. Freckles ran to her aid. He took all he could carry of
-her load, stowed it in the back of the carriage, and helped her in.
-The Angel gave her water, knelt and unfastened the leggings, bathed her
-face, and offered the lunch.
-
-Freckles brought the horse. He was not sure about the harness, but the
-Angel knew, and soon they left the swamp. Then he showed them how to
-reach the chicken tree from the outside, indicated a cooler place for
-the horse, and told them how, the next time they came, the Angel could
-find his room while she waited.
-
-The Bird Woman finished her lunch, and lay back, almost too tired to
-speak.
-
-“Were you for getting Little Chicken's picture?” Freckles asked.
-
-“Finely!” she answered. “He posed splendidly. But I couldn't do anything
-with his mother. She will require coaxing.”
-
-“The Lord be praised!” muttered Freckles under his breath.
-
-The Bird Woman began to feel better.
-
-“Why do you call the baby vulture 'Little Chicken'?” she asked, leaning
-toward Freckles in an interested manner.
-
-“'Twas Duncan began it,” said Freckles. “You see, through the fierce
-cold of winter the birds of the swamp were almost starving. It is
-mighty lonely here, and they were all the company I was having. I got to
-carrying scraps and grain down to them. Duncan was that ginerous he was
-giving me of his wheat and corn from his chickens' feed, and he called
-the birds me swamp chickens. Then when these big black fellows came,
-Mr. McLean said they were our nearest kind to some in the old world
-that they called 'Pharaoh's Chickens,' and he called mine 'Freckles'
-Chickens.'”
-
-“Good enough!” cried the Bird Woman, her splotched purple face lighting
-with interest. “You must shoot something for them occasionally, and I'll
-bring more food when I come. If you will help me keep them until I
-get my series, I'll give you a copy of each study I make, mounted in a
-book.”
-
-Freckles drew a deep breath.
-
-“I'll be doing me very best,” he promised, and from the deeps he meant
-it.
-
-“I wonder if that other egg is going to hatch?” mused the Bird Woman. “I
-am afraid not. It should have pipped today. Isn't it a beauty! I never
-before saw either an egg or the young. They are rare this far north.”
-
-“So Mr. McLean said,” answered Freckles.
-
-Before they drove away, the Bird Woman thanked him for his kindness to
-the Angel and to her. She gave him her hand at parting, and Freckles
-joyfully realized that this was going to be another person for him to
-love. He could not remember, after they had driven away, that they even
-had noticed his missing hand, and for the first time in his life he had
-forgotten it.
-
-When the Bird Woman and the Angel were on the home road, she told of
-the little corner of paradise into which she had strayed and of her new
-name. The Bird Woman looked at the girl and guessed its appropriateness.
-
-“Did you know Mr. McLean had a son?” asked the Angel. “Isn't the little
-accent he has, and the way he twists a sentence, too dear? And isn't it
-too old-fashioned and funny to hear him call his father 'mister'?”
-
-“It sounds too good to be true,” said the Bird Woman, answering the
-last question first. “I am so tired of these present-day young men who
-patronizingly call their fathers 'Dad,' 'Governor,' 'Old Man' and 'Old
-Chap,' that the boy's attitude of respect and deference appealed to me
-as being fine as silk. There must be something rare about that young
-man.”
-
-She did not find it necessary to tell the Angel that for several years
-she had known the man who so proudly proclaimed himself Freckles' father
-to be a bachelor and a Scotchman. The Bird Woman had a fine way of
-attending strictly to her own business.
-
-Freckles turned to the trail, but he stopped at every wild brier to
-study the pink satin of the petals. She was not of his world, and
-better than any other he knew it; but she might be his Angel, and he was
-dreaming of naught but blind, silent worship. He finished the happiest
-day of his life, and that night he returned to the swamp as if drawn by
-invisible force. That Wessner would try for his revenge, he knew. That
-he would be abetted by Black Jack was almost certain, but fear had
-fled the happy heart of Freckles. He had kept his trust. He had won the
-respect of the Boss. No one ever could wipe from his heart the flood of
-holy adoration that had welled with the coming of his Angel. He would do
-his best, and trust for strength to meet the dark day of reckoning that
-he knew would come sooner or later. He swung round the trail, briskly
-tapping the wire, and singing in a voice that scarcely could have been
-surpassed for sweetness.
-
-At the edge of the clearing he came into the bright moonlight and there
-sat McLean on his mare. Freckles hurried to him.
-
-“Is there trouble?” he inquired anxiously.
-
-“That's what I wanted to ask you,” said the Boss. “I stopped at the
-cabin to see you a minute, before I turned in, and they said you had
-come down here. You must not do it, Freckles. The swamp is none too
-healthful at any time, and at night it is rank poison.”
-
-Freckles stood combing his fingers through Nellie's mane, while the
-dainty creature was twisting her head for his caresses. He pushed back
-his hat and looked into McLean's face. “It's come to the 'sleep with one
-eye open,' sir. I'm not looking for anything to be happening for a week
-or two, but it's bound to come, and soon. If I'm to keep me trust as
-I've promised you and meself, I've to live here mostly until the gang
-comes. You must be knowing that, sir.”
-
-“I'm afraid it's true, Freckles,” said McLean. “And I've decided to
-double the guard until we come. It will be only a few weeks, now; and
-I'm so anxious for you that you must not be left alone further. If
-anything should happen to you, Freckles, it would spoil one of the very
-dearest plans of my life.”
-
-Freckles heard with dismay the proposition to place a second guard.
-
-“Oh! no, no, Mr. McLean,” he cried. “Not for the world! I wouldn't be
-having a stranger around, scaring me birds and tramping up me study, and
-disturbing all me ways, for any money! I am all the guard you need! I
-will be faithful! I will turn over the lease with no tree missing--on
-me life, I will! Oh, don't be sending another man to set them saying
-I turned coward and asked for help. It will just kill the honor of me
-heart if you do it. The only thing I want is another gun. If it railly
-comes to trouble, six cartridges ain't many, and you know I am slow-like
-about reloading.” McLean reached into his hip pocket and handed a
-shining big revolver to Freckles, who slipped it beside the one already
-in his belt.
-
-Then the Boss sat brooding.
-
-“Freckles,” he said at last, “we never know the timber of a man's soul
-until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong.
-You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture, my boy, and you
-shall have your own way these few weeks yet. Then, if you will go, I
-intend to take you to the city and educate you, and you are to be my
-son, my lad--my own son!”
-
-Freckles twisted his finger in Nellie's mane to steady himself.
-
-“But why should you be doing that, sir?” he faltered.
-
-McLean slid his arm around the boy's shoulder and gathered him close.
-
-“Because I love you, Freckles,” he said simply.
-
-Freckles lifted a white face. “My God, sir!” he whispered. “Oh, my God!”
-
-McLean tightened his clasp a second longer, then he rode down the trail.
-
-Freckles lifted his hat and faced the sky. The harvest moon looked down,
-sheeting the swamp in silver glory. The Limberlost sang her night song.
-The swale softly rustled in the wind. Winged things of night brushed
-his face; and still Freckles gazed upward, trying to fathom these things
-that had come to him. There was no help from the sky. It seemed far
-away, cold, and blue. The earth, where flowers blossomed, angels walked,
-and love could be found, was better. But to One, above, he must make
-acknowledgment for these miracles. His lips moved and he began talking
-softly.
-
-“Thank You for each separate good thing that has come to me,” he said,
-“and above all for the falling of the feather. For if it didn't really
-fall from an angel, its falling brought an Angel, and if it's in the
-great heart of you to exercise yourself any further about me, oh, do
-please to be taking good care of her!”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-
-The following morning Freckles, inexpressibly happy, circled the
-Limberlost. He kept snatches of song ringing, as well as the wires. His
-heart was so full that tears of joy glistened in his eyes. He rigorously
-strove to divide his thought evenly between McLean and the Angel.
-He realized to the fullest the debt he already owed the Boss and the
-magnitude of last night's declaration and promises. He was hourly
-planning to deliver his trust and then enter with equal zeal on whatever
-task his beloved Boss saw fit to set him next. He wanted to be ready to
-meet every device that Wessner and Black Jack could think of to outwit
-him. He recognized their double leverage, for if they succeeded in
-felling even one tree McLean became liable for his wager.
-
-Freckles' brow wrinkled in his effort to think deeply and strongly, but
-from every swaying wild rose the Angel beckoned to him. When he crossed
-Sleepy Snake Creek and the goldfinch, waiting as ever, challenged: “SEE
-ME?” Freckles saw the dainty swaying grace of the Angel instead. What
-is a man to do with an Angel who dismembers herself and scatters over a
-whole swamp, thrusting a vivid reminder upon him at every turn?
-
-Freckles counted the days. This first one he could do little but test
-his wires, sing broken snatches, and dream; but before the week would
-bring her again he could do many things. He would carry all his books
-to the swamp to show to her. He would complete his flower bed, arrange
-every detail he had planned for his room, and make of it a bower fairies
-might envy. He must devise a way to keep water cool. He would ask Mrs.
-Duncan for a double lunch and an especially nice one the day of her next
-coming, so that if the Bird Woman happened to be late, the Angel might
-not suffer from thirst and hunger. He would tell her to bring heavy
-leather leggings, so that he might take her on a trip around the trail.
-She should make friends with all of his chickens and see their nests.
-
-On the line he talked of her incessantly.
-
-“You needn't be thinking,” he said to the goldfinch, “that because I'm
-coming down this line alone day after day, it's always to be so. Some of
-these times you'll be swinging on this wire, and you'll see me coming,
-and you'll swing, skip, and flirt yourself around, and chip up right
-spunky: 'SEE ME?' I'll be saying 'See you? Oh, Lord! See her!' You'll
-look, and there she'll stand. The sunshine won't look gold any more, or
-the roses pink, or the sky blue, because she'll be the pinkest, bluest,
-goldest thing of all. You'll be yelling yourself hoarse with the
-jealousy of her. The sawbird will stretch his neck out of joint, and
-she'll turn the heads of all the flowers. Wherever she goes, I can
-go back afterward and see the things she's seen, walk the path she's
-walked, hear the grasses whispering over all she's said; and if there's
-a place too swampy for her bits of feet; Holy Mother! Maybe--maybe she'd
-be putting the beautiful arms of her around me neck and letting me carry
-her over!”
-
-Freckles shivered as with a chill. He sent the cudgel whirling skyward,
-dexterously caught it, and set it spinning.
-
-“You damned presumptuous fool!” he cried. “The thing for you to be
-thinking of would be to stretch in the muck for the feet of her to be
-walking over, and then you could hold yourself holy to be even of that
-service to her.
-
-“Maybe she'll be wanting the cup me blue-and-brown chickens raised their
-babies in. Perhaps she'd like to stop at the pool and see me bullfrog
-that had the goodness to take on human speech to show me the way out of
-me trouble. If there's any feathers falling that day, why, it's from the
-wings of me chickens--it's sure to be, for the only Angel outside the
-gates will be walking this timberline, and every step of the way I'll be
-holding me breath and praying that she don't unfold wings and sail away
-before the hungry eyes of me.”
-
-So Freckles dreamed his dreams, made his plans, and watched his line.
-He counted not only the days, but the hours of each day. As he told them
-off, every one bringing her closer, he grew happier in the prospect of
-her coming. He managed daily to leave some offering at the big elm log
-for his black chickens. He slipped under the line at every passing, and
-went to make sure that nothing was molesting them. Though it was a long
-trip, he paid them several extra visits a day for fear a snake, hawk, or
-fox might have found the baby. For now his chickens not only represented
-all his former interest in them, but they furnished the inducement that
-was bringing his Angel.
-
-Possibly he could find other subjects that the Bird Woman wanted. The
-teamster had said that his brother went after her every time he found
-a nest. He never had counted the nests that he knew of, and it might be
-that among all the birds of the swamp some would be rare to her.
-
-The feathered folk of the Limberlost were practically undisturbed save
-by their natural enemies. It was very probable that among his chickens
-others as odd as the big black ones could be found. If she wanted
-pictures of half-grown birds, he could pick up fifty in one morning's
-trip around the line, for he had fed, handled, and made friends with
-them ever since their eyes opened.
-
-He had gathered bugs and worms all spring as he noticed them on the
-grass and bushes, and dropped them into the first little open mouth he
-had found. The babies gladly had accepted this queer tri-parent addition
-to their natural providers.
-
-When the week had passed, Freckles had his room crisp and glowing
-with fresh living things that represented every color of the swamp. He
-carried bark and filled all the muckiest places of the trail.
-
-It was middle July. The heat of the past few days had dried the water
-around and through the Limberlost, so that it was possible to cross it
-on foot in almost any direction--if one had an idea of direction and did
-not become completely lost in its rank tangle of vegetation and bushes.
-The brighter-hued flowers were opening. The trumpet-creepers were
-flaunting their gorgeous horns of red and gold sweetness from the tops
-of lordly oak and elm, and below entire pools were pink-sheeted in
-mallow bloom.
-
-The heat was doing one other thing that was bound to make Freckles, as a
-good Irishman, shiver. As the swale dried, its inhabitants were seeking
-the cooler depths of the swamp. They liked neither the heat nor leaving
-the field mice, moles, and young rabbits of their chosen location. He
-saw them crossing the trail every day as the heat grew intense. The
-rattlers were sadly forgetting their manners, for they struck on no
-provocation whatever, and did not even remember to rattle afterward.
-Daily Freckles was compelled to drive big black snakes and blue racers
-from the nests of his chickens. Often the terrified squalls of the
-parent birds would reach him far down the line and he would run to
-rescue the babies.
-
-He saw the Angel when the carriage turned from the corduroy into the
-clearing. They stopped at the west entrance to the swamp, waiting for
-him to precede them down the trail, as he had told them it was safest
-for the horse that he should do. They followed the east line to a point
-opposite the big chickens' tree, and Freckles carried in the cameras and
-showed the Bird Woman a path he had cleared to the log. He explained to
-her the effect the heat was having on the snakes, and creeping back to
-Little Chicken, brought him to the light. As she worked at setting up
-her camera, he told her of the birds of the line, while she stared at
-him, wide-eyed and incredulous.
-
-They arranged that Freckles should drive the carriage into the east
-entrance in the shade and then take the horse toward the north to a
-better place he knew. Then he was to entertain the Angel at his study or
-on the line until the Bird Woman finished her work and came to them.
-
-“This will take only a little time,” she said. “I know where to set the
-camera now, and Little Chicken is big enough to be good and too small
-to run away or to act very ugly, so I will be coming soon to see about
-those nests. I have ten plates along, and I surely won't use more
-than two on him; so perhaps I can get some nests or young birds this
-morning.”
-
-Freckles almost flew, for his dream had come true so soon. He was
-walking the timber-line and the Angel was following him. He asked to be
-excused for going first, because he wanted to be sure the trail was safe
-for her. She laughed at his fears, telling him that it was the polite
-thing for him to do, anyway.
-
-“Oh!” said Freckles, “so you was after knowing that? Well, I didn't
-s'pose you did, and I was afraid you'd think me wanting in respect to be
-preceding you!”
-
-The astonished Angel looked at him, caught the irrepressible gleam of
-Irish fun in his eyes, so they stood and laughed together.
-
-Freckles did not realize how he was talking that morning. He showed her
-many of the beautiful nests and eggs of the line. She could identify a
-number of them, but of some she was ignorant, so they made notes of the
-number and color of the eggs, material, and construction of nest, color,
-size, and shape of the birds, and went to find them in the book.
-
-At his room, when Freckles had lifted the overhanging bushes and stepped
-back for her to enter, his heart was all out of time and place. The
-study was vastly more beautiful than a week previous. The Angel drew a
-deep breath and stood gazing first at one side, then at another,
-then far down the cathedral aisle. “It's just fairyland!” she cried
-ecstatically. Then she turned and stared at Freckles as she had at his
-handiwork.
-
-“What are you planning to be?” she asked wonderingly.
-
-“Whatever Mr. McLean wants me to,” he replied.
-
-“What do you do most?” she asked.
-
-“Watch me lines.”
-
-“I don't mean work!”
-
-“Oh, in me spare time I keep me room and study in me books.”
-
-“Do you work on the room or the books most?”
-
-“On the room only what it takes to keep it up, and the rest of the time
-on me books.”
-
-The Angel studied him closely. “Well, maybe you are going to be a great
-scholar,” she said, “but you don't look it. Your face isn't right for
-that, but it's got something big in it--something really great. I
-must find out what it is and then you must work on it. Your father is
-expecting you to do something. One can tell by the way he talks. You
-should begin right away. You've wasted too much time already.”
-
-Poor Freckles hung his head. He never had wasted an hour in his life.
-There never had been one that was his to waste.
-
-The Angel, studying him intently, read the thought in his face. “Oh,
-I don't mean that!” she cried, with the frank dismay of sixteen.
-“Of course, you're not lazy! No one ever would think that from your
-appearance. It's this I mean: there is something fine, strong, and full
-of power in your face. There is something you are to do in this
-world, and no matter how you work at all these other things, or how
-successfully you do them, it is all wasted until you find the ONE THING
-that you can do best. If you hadn't a thing in the world to keep you,
-and could go anywhere you please and do anything you want, what would
-you do?” persisted the Angel.
-
-“I'd go to Chicago and sing in the First Episcopal choir,” answered
-Freckles promptly.
-
-The Angel dropped on a seat--the hat she had removed and held in her
-fingers rolled to her feet. “There!” she exclaimed vehemently. “You can
-see what I'm going to be. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You can sing? Of
-course you can sing! It is written all over you.”
-
-“Anyone with half wit could have seen he could sing, without having to
-be told,” she thought. “It's in the slenderness of his fingers and his
-quick nervous touch. It is in the brightness of his hair, the fire of
-his eyes, the breadth of his chest, the muscles of his throat and neck;
-and above all, it's in every tone of his voice, for even as he speak
-it's the sweetest sound I ever heard from the throat of a mortal.”
-
-“Will you do something for me?” she asked.
-
-“I'll do anything in the world you want me to,” said Freckles largely,
-“and if I can't do what you want, I'll go to work at once and I'll try
-'til I can.”
-
-“Good! That's business!” said the Angel. “You go over there and stand
-before that hedge and sing something. Just anything you think of first.”
-
-Freckles faced the Angel from his banked wall of brown, blue, and
-crimson, with its background of solid green, and lifting his face to
-the sky, he sang the first thing that came into his mind. It was a
-children's song that he had led for the little folks at the Home many
-times, recalled to his mind by the Angel's exclamation:
-
-     “To fairyland we go,
-     With a song of joy, heigh-o.
-     In dreams we'll stand upon that shore
-     And all the realm behold;
-     We'll see the sights so grand
-     That belong to fairyland,
-     Its mysteries we will explore,
-     Its beauties will unfold.
-
-     “Oh, tra, la, la, oh, ha, ha, ha!
-     We're happy now as we can be,
-     Our welcome song we will prolong,
-     And greet you with our melody.
-     O fairyland, sweet fairyland,
-     We love to sing----”
-
-
-No song could have given the intense sweetness and rollicking quality
-of Freckles' voice better scope. He forgot everything but pride in his
-work. He was singing the chorus, and the Angel was shivering in ecstasy,
-when clip! clip! came the sharply beating feet of a swiftly ridden horse
-down the trail from the north. They both sprang toward the entrance.
-
-“Freckles! Freckles!” called the voice of the Bird Woman.
-
-They were at the trail on the instant.
-
-“Both those revolvers loaded?” she asked.
-
-“Yes,” said Freckles.
-
-“Is there a way you can cut across the swamp and reach the chicken tree
-in a few minutes, and with little noise?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“Then go flying,” said the Bird Woman. “Give the Angel a lift behind me,
-and we will ride the horse back where you left him and wait for you. I
-finished Little Chicken in no time and put him back. His mother came so
-close, I felt sure she would enter the log. The light was fine, so I set
-and focused the camera and covered it with branches, attached the long
-hose, and went away over a hundred feet and hid in some bushes to wait.
-A short, stout man and a tall, dark one passed me so closely I almost
-could have reached out and touched them. They carried a big saw on their
-shoulders. They said they could work until near noon, and then they must
-lay off until you passed and then try to load and get out at night. They
-went on--not entirely from sight--and began cutting a tree. Mr. McLean
-told me the other day what would probably happen here, and if they fell
-that tree he loses his wager on you. Keep to the east and north and
-hustle. We'll meet you at the carriage. I always am armed. Give Angel
-one of your revolvers, and you keep the other. We will separate and
-creep toward them from different sides and give them a fusillade that
-will send them flying. You hurry, now!”
-
-She lifted the reins and started briskly down the trail. The Angel,
-hatless and with sparkling eyes, was clinging around her waist.
-
-Freckles wheeled and ran. He worked his way with much care, dodging
-limbs and bushes with noiseless tread, and cutting as closely where
-he thought the men were as he felt that he dared if he were to remain
-unseen. As he ran he tried to think. It was Wessner, burning for his
-revenge, aided by the bully of the locality, that he was going to meet.
-He was accustomed to that thought but not to the complication of having
-two women on his hands who undoubtedly would have to be taken care of in
-spite of the Bird Woman's offer to help him. His heart was jarring as it
-never had before with running. He must follow the Bird Woman's plan and
-meet them at the carriage, but if they really did intend to try to help
-him, he must not allow it. Allow the Angel to try to handle a revolver
-in his defence? Never! Not for all the trees in the Limberlost! She
-might shoot herself. She might forget to watch sharply and run across
-a snake that was not particularly well behaved that morning. Freckles
-permitted himself a grim smile as he went speeding on.
-
-When he reached the carriage, the Bird Woman and the Angel had the horse
-hitched, the outfit packed, and were calmly waiting. The Bird Woman held
-a revolver in her hand. She wore dark clothing. They had pinned a big
-focusing cloth over the front of the Angel's light dress.
-
-“Give Angel one of your revolvers, quick!” said the Bird Woman. “We will
-creep up until we are in fair range. The underbrush is so thick and they
-are so busy that they will never notice us, if we don't make a noise.
-You fire first, then I will pop in from my direction, and then you,
-Angel, and shoot quite high, or else very low. We mustn't really hit
-them. We'll go close enough to the cowards to make it interesting, and
-keep it up until we have them going.”
-
-Freckles protested.
-
-The Bird Woman reached over, and, taking the smaller revolver from his
-belt, handed it to the Angel. “Keep your nerve steady, dear; watch where
-you step, and shoot high,” she said. “Go straight at them from where you
-are. Wait until you hear Freckles' first shot, then follow me as closely
-as you can, to let them know that we outnumber them. If you want to save
-McLean's wager on you, now you go!” she commanded Freckles, who, with an
-agonized glance at the Angel, ran toward the east.
-
-The Bird Woman chose the middle distance, and for a last time cautioned
-the Angel as she moved away to lie down and shoot high.
-
-Through the underbrush the Bird Woman crept even more closely than she
-had intended, found a clear range, and waited for Freckles' shot. There
-was one long minute of sickening suspense. The men straightened for
-breath. Work was difficult with a handsaw in the heat of the swamp. As
-they rested, the big dark fellow took a bottle from his pocket and began
-oiling the saw.
-
-“We got to keep mighty quiet,” he said, “and wait to fell it until that
-damned guard has gone to his dinner.”
-
-Again they bent to their work. Freckles' revolver spat fire. Lead
-spanged on steel. The saw-handle flew from Wessner's hand and he reeled
-from the jar of the shock. Black Jack straightened, uttering a fearful
-oath. The hat sailed from his head from the far northeast. The Angel
-had not waited for the Bird Woman, and her shot scarcely could have been
-called high. At almost the same instant the third shot whistled from the
-east. Black Jack sprang into the air with a yell of complete panic, for
-it ripped a heel from his boot. Freckles emptied his second chamber, and
-the earth spattered over Wessner. Shots poured in rapidly. Without
-even reaching for a weapon, both men ran toward the east road in great
-leaping bounds, while leaden slugs sung and hissed around them in deadly
-earnest.
-
-Freckles was trimming his corners as closely as he dared, but if the
-Angel did not really intend to hit, she was taking risks in a scandalous
-manner.
-
-When the men reached the trail, Freckles yelled at the top of his voice:
-“Head them off on the south, boys! Fire from the south!”
-
-As he had hoped, Jack and Wessner instantly plunged into the swale. A
-spattering of lead followed them. They crossed the swale, running low,
-with not even one backward glance, and entered the woods beyond the
-corduroy.
-
-Then the little party gathered at the tree.
-
-“I'd better fix this saw so they can't be using it if they come back,”
- said Freckles, taking out his hatchet and making saw-teeth fly.
-
-“Now we must leave here without being seen,” said the Bird Woman to the
-Angel. “It won't do for me to make enemies of these men, for I am likely
-to meet them while at work any day.”
-
-“You can do it by driving straight north on this road,” said Freckles.
-“I will go ahead and cut the wires for you. The swale is almost dry.
-You will only be sinking a little. In a few rods you will strike a
-cornfield. I will take down the fence and let you into that. Follow the
-furrows and drive straight across it until you come to the other side.
-Be following the fence south until you come to a road through the woods
-east of it. Then take that road and follow east until you reach the
-pike. You will come out on your way back to town, and two miles north
-of anywhere they are likely to be. Don't for your lives ever let it out
-that you did this,” he earnestly cautioned, “for it's black enemies you
-would be making.”
-
-Freckles clipped the wires and they drove through. The Angel leaned
-from the carriage and held out his revolver. Freckles looked at her in
-surprise. Her eyes were black, while her face was a deeper rose than
-usual. He felt that his own was white.
-
-“Did I shoot high enough?” she asked sweetly. “I really forgot about
-lying down.”
-
-Freckles winced. Did the child know how close she had gone? Surely she
-could not! Or was it possible that she had the nerve and skill to fire
-like that purposely?
-
-“I will send the first reliable man I meet for McLean,” said the Bird
-Woman, gathering up the lines. “If I don't meet one when we reach town,
-we will send a messenger. If it wasn't for having the gang see me, I
-would go myself; but I will promise you that you will have help in a
-little over two hours. You keep well hidden. They must think some of the
-gang is with you now. There isn't a chance that they will be back,
-but don't run any risks. Remain under cover. If they should come, it
-probably would be for their saw.” She laughed as at a fine joke.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-
-Round-eyed, Freckles watched the Bird Woman and the Angel drive away.
-After they were from sight and he was safely hidden among the branches
-of a small tree, he remembered that he neither had thanked them nor said
-good-bye. Considering what they had been through, they never would come
-again. His heart sank until he had palpitation in his wading-boots.
-
-Stretching the length of the limb, he thought deeply, though he was not
-thinking of Black Jack or Wessner. Would the Bird Woman and the Angel
-come again? No other woman whom he ever had known would. But did they
-resemble any other women he ever had known? He thought of the Bird
-Woman's unruffled face and the Angel's revolver practice, and presently
-he was not so sure that they would not return.
-
-What were the people in the big world like? His knowledge was so very
-limited. There had been people at the Home, who exchanged a stilted,
-perfunctory kindness for their salaries. The visitors who called on
-receiving days he had divided into three classes: the psalm-singing
-kind, who came with a tear in the eye and hypocrisy in every feature
-of their faces; the kind who dressed in silks and jewels, and handed to
-those poor little mother-hungry souls worn toys that their children
-no longer cared for, in exactly the same spirit in which they pitched
-biscuits to the monkeys at the zoo, and for the same reason--to see how
-they would take them and be amused by what they would do; and the third
-class, whom he considered real people. They made him feel they cared
-that he was there, and that they would have been glad to see him
-elsewhere.
-
-Now here was another class, that had all they needed of the world's best
-and were engaged in doing work that counted. They had things worth while
-to be proud of; and they had met him as a son and brother. With them he
-could, for the only time in his life, forget the lost hand that every
-day tortured him with a new pang. What kind of people were they and
-where did they belong among the classes he knew? He failed to decide,
-because he never had known others similar to them; but how he loved
-them!
-
-In the world where he was going soon, were the majority like them, or
-were they of the hypocrite and bun-throwing classes?
-
-He had forgotten the excitement of the morning and the passing of time
-when distant voices aroused him, and he gently lifted his head. Nearer
-and nearer they came, and as the heavy wagons rumbled down the east
-trail he could hear them plainly. The gang were shouting themselves
-hoarse for the Limberlost guard. Freckles did not feel that he deserved
-it. He would have given much to be able to go to the men and explain,
-but to McLean only could he tell his story.
-
-At the sight of Freckles the men threw up their hats and cheered. McLean
-shook hands with him warmly, but big Duncan gathered him into his arms
-and hugged him as a bear and choked over a few words of praise. The gang
-drove in and finished felling the tree. McLean was angry beyond measure
-at this attempt on his property, for in their haste to fell the tree
-the thieves had cut too high and wasted a foot and a half of valuable
-timber.
-
-When the last wagon rolled away, McLean sat on the stump and Freckles
-told the story he was aching to tell. The Boss scarcely could believe
-his senses. Also, he was much disappointed.
-
-“I have been almost praying all the way over, Freckles,” he said, “that
-you would have some evidence by which we could arrest those fellows and
-get them out of our way, but this will never do. We can't mix up those
-women in it. They have helped you save me the tree and my wager as well.
-Going across the country as she does, the Bird Woman never could be
-expected to testify against them.”
-
-“No, indeed; nor the Angel, either, sir,” said Freckles.
-
-“The Angel?” queried the astonished McLean.
-
-The Boss listened in silence while Freckles told of the coming and
-christening of the Angel.
-
-“I know her father well,” said McLean at last, “and I have often seen
-her. You are right; she is a beautiful young girl, and she appears to be
-utterly free from the least particle of false pride or foolishness. I do
-not understand why her father risks such a jewel in this place.”
-
-“He's daring it because she is a jewel, sir,” said Freckles, eagerly.
-“Why, she's trusting a rattlesnake to rattle before it strikes her, and
-of course, she thinks she can trust mankind as well. The man isn't made
-who wouldn't lay down the life of him for her. She doesn't need any
-care. Her face and the pretty ways of her are all the protection she
-would need in a band of howling savages.”
-
-“Did you say she handled one of the revolvers?” asked McLean.
-
-“She scared all the breath out of me body,” admitted Freckles. “Seems
-that her father has taught her to shoot. The Bird Woman told her
-distinctly to lie low and blaze away high, just to help scare them. The
-spunky little thing followed them right out into the west road, spitting
-lead like hail, and clipping all around the heads and heels of them; and
-I'm damned, sir, if I believe she'd cared a rap if she'd hit. I never
-saw much shooting, but if that wasn't the nearest to miss I ever want to
-see! Scared the life near out of me body with the fear that she'd drop
-one of them. As long as I'd no one to help me but a couple of women that
-didn't dare be mixed up in it, all I could do was to let them get away.”
-
-“Now, will they come back?” asked McLean.
-
-“Of course!” said Freckles. “They're not going to be taking that. You
-could stake your life on it, they'll be coming back. At least, Black
-Jack will. Wessner may not have the pluck, unless he is half drunk. Then
-he'd be a terror. And the next time--” Freckles hesitated.
-
-“What?”
-
-“It will be a question of who shoots first and straightest.”
-
-“Then the only thing for me to do is to double the guard and bring the
-gang here the first minute possible. As soon as I feel that we have the
-rarest of the stuff out below, we will come. The fact is, in many cases,
-until it is felled it's difficult to tell what a tree will prove to
-be. It won't do to leave you here longer alone. Jack has been shooting
-twenty years to your one, and it stands to reason that you are no match
-for him. Who of the gang would you like best to have with you?”
-
-“No one, sir,” said Freckles emphatically. “Next time is where I run.
-I won't try to fight them alone. I'll just be getting wind of them, and
-then make tracks for you. I'll need to come like lightning, and Duncan
-has no extra horse, so I'm thinking you'd best get me one--or perhaps a
-wheel would be better. I used to do extra work for the Home doctor, and
-he would let me take his bicycle to ride around the place. And at times
-the head nurse would loan me his for an hour. A wheel would cost less
-and be faster than a horse, and would take less care. I believe, if you
-are going to town soon, you had best pick up any kind of an old one
-at some second-hand store, for if I'm ever called to use it in a hurry
-there won't be the handlebars left after crossing the corduroy.”
-
-“Yes,” said McLean; “and if you didn't have a first-class wheel, you
-never could cross the corduroy on it at all.”
-
-As they walked to the cabin, McLean insisted on another guard, but
-Freckles was stubbornly set on fighting his battle alone. He made one
-mental condition. If the Bird Woman was going to give up the Little
-Chicken series, he would yield to the second guard, solely for the sake
-of her work and the presence of the Angel in the Limberlost. He did not
-propose to have a second man unless it were absolutely necessary, for
-he had been alone so long that he loved the solitude, his chickens,
-and flowers. The thought of having a stranger to all his ways come and
-meddle with his arrangements, frighten his pets, pull his flowers,
-and interrupt him when he wanted to study, so annoyed him that he was
-blinded to his real need for help.
-
-With McLean it was a case of letting his sober, better judgment be
-overridden by the boy he was growing so to love that he could not endure
-to oppose him, and to have Freckles keep his trust and win alone meant
-more than any money the Boss might lose.
-
-The following morning McLean brought the wheel, and Freckles took it to
-the trail to test it. It was new, chainless, with as little as possible
-to catch in hurried riding, and in every way the best of its kind.
-Freckles went skimming around the trail on it on a preliminary trip
-before he locked it in his case and started his minute examination of
-his line on foot. He glanced around his room as he left it, and then
-stood staring.
-
-On the moss before his prettiest seat lay the Angel's hat. In the
-excitement of yesterday all of them had forgotten it. He went and picked
-it up, oh! so carefully, gazing at it with hungry eyes, but touching it
-only to carry it to his case, where he hung it on the shining handlebar
-of the new wheel and locked it among his treasures. Then he went to the
-trail, with a new expression on his face and a strange throbbing in his
-heart. He was not in the least afraid of anything that morning. He felt
-he was the veriest Daniel, but all his lions seemed weak and harmless.
-
-What Black Jack's next move would be he could not imagine, but that
-there would be a move of some kind was certain. The big bully was not a
-man to give up his purpose, or to have the hat swept from his head
-with a bullet and bear it meekly. Moreover, Wessner would cling to his
-revenge with a Dutchman's singleness of mind.
-
-Freckles tried to think connectedly, but there were too many places on
-the trail where the Angel's footprints were vet visible. She had stepped
-in one mucky spot and left a sharp impression. The afternoon sun had
-baked it hard, and the horses' hoofs had not obliterated any part of it,
-as they had in so many places. Freckles stood fascinated, gazing at
-it. He measured it lovingly with his eye. He would not have ventured a
-caress on her hat any more than on her person, but this was different.
-Surely a footprint on a trail might belong to anyone who found and
-wanted it. He stooped under the wires and entered the swamp. With a
-little searching, he found a big piece of thick bark loose on a log and
-carefully peeling it, carried it out and covered the print so that the
-first rain would not obliterate it.
-
-When he reached his room, he tenderly laid the hat upon his bookshelf,
-and to wear off his awkwardness, mounted his wheel and went spinning on
-trail again. It was like flying, for the path was worn smooth with his
-feet and baked hard with the sun almost all the way. When he came to the
-bark, he veered far to one side and smiled at it in passing. Suddenly
-he was off the wheel, kneeling beside it. He removed his hat, carefully
-lifted the bark, and gazed lovingly at the imprint.
-
-“I wonder what she was going to say of me voice,” he whispered. “She
-never got it said, but from the face of her, I believe she was liking it
-fairly well. Perhaps she was going to say that singing was the big thing
-I was to be doing. That's what they all thought at the Home. Well, if
-it is, I'll just shut me eyes, think of me little room, the face of her
-watching, and the heart of her beating, and I'll raise them. Damn them,
-if singing will do it, I'll raise them from the benches!”
-
-With this dire threat, Freckles knelt, as at a wayside spring, and
-deliberately laid his lips on the footprint. Then he arose, appearing as
-if he had been drinking at the fountain of gladness.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the
-Encounter
-
-“Weel, I be drawed on!” exclaimed Mrs. Duncan.
-
-Freckles stood before her, holding the Angel's hat.
-
-“I've been thinking this long time that ye or Duncan would see that
-sunbonnets werena braw enough for a woman of my standing, and ye're a
-guid laddie to bring me this beautiful hat.”
-
-She turned it around, examining the weave of the straw and the foliage
-trimmings, passing her rough fingers over the satin ties delightedly. As
-she held it up, admiring it, Freckles' astonished eyes saw a new side of
-Sarah Duncan. She was jesting, but under the jest the fact loomed strong
-that, though poor, overworked, and with none but God-given refinement,
-there was something in her soul crying after that bit of feminine
-finery, and it made his heart ache for her. He resolved that when he
-reached the city he would send her a hat, if it took fifty dollars to do
-it.
-
-She lingeringly handed it back to him.
-
-“It's unco guid of ye to think of me,” she said lightly, “but I maun
-question your taste a wee. D'ye no think ye had best return this and get
-a woman with half her hair gray a little plainer headdress? Seems like
-that's far ower gay for me. I'm no' saying that it's no' exactly what
-I'd like to hae, but I mauna mak mysel' ridiculous. Ye'd best give this
-to somebody young and pretty, say about sixteen. Where did ye come by
-it, Freckles? If there's anything been dropping lately, ye hae forgotten
-to mention it.”
-
-“Do you see anything heavenly about that hat?” queried Freckles, holding
-it up.
-
-The morning breeze waved the ribbons gracefully, binding one around
-Freckles' sleeve and the other across his chest, where they caught and
-clung as if magnetized.
-
-“Yes,” said Sarah Duncan. “It's verra plain and simple, but it juist
-makes ye feel that it's all of the finest stuff. It's exactly what I'd
-call a heavenly hat.”
-
-“Sure,” said Freckles, “for it's belonging to an Angel!”
-
-Then he told her about the hat and asked her what he should do with it.
-
-“Take it to her, of course!” said Sarah Duncan. “Like it's the only ane
-she has and she may need it badly.”
-
-Freckles smiled. He had a clear idea about the hat being the only one
-the Angel had. However, there was a thing he felt he should do and
-wanted to do, but he was not sure.
-
-“You think I might be taking it home?” he said.
-
-“Of course ye must,” said Mrs. Duncan. “And without another hour's
-delay. It's been here two days noo, and she may want it, and be too busy
-or afraid to come.”
-
-“But how can I take it?” asked Freckles.
-
-“Gang spinning on your wheel. Ye can do it easy in an hour.”
-
-“But in that hour, what if----?”
-
-“Nonsense!” interrupted Sarah Duncan. “Ye've watched that timber-line
-until ye're grown fast to it, lad. Give me your boots and club and I'll
-gae walk the south end and watch doon the east and west sides until ye
-come back.”
-
-“Mrs. Duncan! You never would be doing it,” cried Freckles.
-
-“Why not?” inquired she.
-
-“But you know you're mortal afraid of snakes and a lot of other things
-in the swamp.”
-
-“I am afraid of snakes,” said Mrs. Duncan, “but likely they've gone into
-the swamp this hot weather. I'll juist stay on the trail and watch, and
-ye might hurry the least bit. The day's so bright it feels like storm. I
-can put the bairns on the woodpile to play until I get back. Ye gang awa
-and take the blessed little angel her beautiful hat.”
-
-“Are you sure it will be all right?” urged Freckles. “Do you think if
-Mr. McLean came he would care?”
-
-“Na,” said Mrs. Duncan; “I dinna. If ye and me agree that a thing ought
-to be done, and I watch in your place, why, it's bound to be all right
-with McLean. Let me pin the hat in a paper, and ye jump on your wheel
-and gang flying. Ought ye put on your Sabbath-day clothes?”
-
-Freckles shook his head. He knew what he should do, but there was no
-use in taking time to try to explain it to Mrs. Duncan while he was so
-hurried. He exchanged his wading-boots for shoes, gave her his club, and
-went spinning toward town. He knew very well where the Angel lived.
-He had seen her home many times, and he passed it again without even
-raising his eyes from the street, steering straight for her father's
-place of business.
-
-Carrying the hat, Freckles passed a long line of clerks, and at the door
-of the private office asked to see the proprietor. When he had waited
-a moment, a tall, spare, keen-eyed man faced him, and in brisk, nervous
-tones asked: “How can I serve you, sir?”
-
-Freckles handed him the package and answered, “By delivering to your
-daughter this hat, which she was after leaving at me place the other
-day, when she went away in a hurry. And by saying to her and the Bird
-Woman that I'm more thankful than I'll be having words to express for
-the brave things they was doing for me. I'm McLean's Limberlost guard,
-sir.”
-
-“Why don't you take it yourself?” questioned the Man of Affairs.
-
-Freckles' clear gray eyes met those of the Angel's father squarely, and
-he asked: “If you were in my place, would you take it to her yourself?”
-
-“No, I would not,” said that gentleman quickly.
-
-“Then why ask why I did not?” came Freckles' lamb-like query.
-
-“Bless me!” said the Angel's father. He stared at the package, then at
-the lifted chin of the boy, and then at the package again, and muttered,
-“Excuse me!”
-
-Freckles bowed.
-
-“It would be favoring me greatly if you would deliver the hat and the
-message. Good morning, sir,” and he turned away.
-
-“One minute,” said the Angel's father. “Suppose I give you permission to
-return this hat in person and make your own acknowledgments.”
-
-Freckles stood one moment thinking intently, and then he lifted those
-eyes of unswerving truth and asked: “Why should you, sir? You are
-kind, indade, to mention it, and it's thanking you I am for your good
-intintions, but my wanting to go or your being willing to have me ain't
-proving that your daughter would be wanting me or care to bother with
-me.”
-
-The Angel's father looked keenly into the face of this extraordinary
-young man, for he found it to his liking.
-
-“There's one other thing I meant to say,” said Freckles. “Every day I
-see something, and at times a lot of things, that I think the Bird Woman
-would be wanting pictures of badly, if she knew. You might be speaking
-of it to her, and if she'd want me to, I can send her word when I find
-things she wouldn't likely get elsewhere.”
-
-“If that's the case,” said the Angel's father, “and you feel under
-obligations for her assistance the other day, you can discharge them in
-that way. She is spending all her time in the fields and woods searching
-for subjects. If you run across things, perhaps rarer than she may find,
-about your work, it would save her the time she spends searching for
-subjects, and she could work in security under your protection. By all
-means let her know if you find subjects you think she could use, and we
-will do anything we can for you, if you will give her what help you can
-and see that she is as safe as possible.”
-
-“It's hungry for human beings I am,” said Freckles, “and it's like
-Heaven to me to have them come. Of course, I'll be telling or sending
-her word every time me work can spare me. Anything I can do it would
-make me uncommon happy, but”--again truth had to be told, because it was
-Freckles who was speaking--“when it comes to protecting them, I'd risk
-me life, to be sure, but even that mightn't do any good in some cases.
-There are many dangers to be reckoned with in the swamp, sir, that call
-for every person to look sharp. If there wasn't really thieving to guard
-against, why, McLean wouldn't need be paying out good money for a guard.
-I'd love them to be coming, and I'll do all I can, but you must be told
-that there's danger of them running into timber thieves again any day,
-sir.”
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel's father, “and I suppose there's danger of the
-earth opening up and swallowing the town any day, but I'm damned if
-I quit business for fear it will, and the Bird Woman won't, either.
-Everyone knows her and her work, and there is no danger in the world
-of anyone in any way molesting her, even if he were stealing a few of
-McLean's gold-plated trees. She's as safe in the Limberlost as she is at
-home, so far as timber thieves are concerned. All I am ever uneasy about
-are the snakes, poison-vines, and insects; and those are risks she must
-run anywhere. You need not hesitate a minute about that. I shall be glad
-to tell them what you wish. Thank you very much, and good day, sir.”
-
-There was no way in which Freckles could know it, but by following his
-best instincts and being what he conceived a gentleman should be, he
-surprised the Man of Affairs into thinking of him and seeing his face
-over his books many times that morning; whereas, if he had gone to the
-Angel as he had longed to do, her father never would have given him a
-second thought.
-
-On the street he drew a deep breath. How had he acquitted himself? He
-only knew that he had lived up to his best impulse, and that is all
-anyone can do. He glanced over his wheel to see that it was all right,
-and just as he stepped to the curb to mount he heard a voice that
-thrilled him through and through: “Freckles! Oh Freckles!”
-
-The Angel separated from a group of laughing, sweet-faced girls and came
-hurrying to him. She was in snowy white--a quaint little frock, with
-a marvel of soft lace around her throat and wrists. Through the sheer
-sleeves of it her beautiful, rounded arms showed distinctly, and it was
-cut just to the base of her perfect neck. On her head was a pure white
-creation of fancy braid, with folds on folds of tulle, soft and silken
-as cobwebs, lining the brim; while a mass of white roses clustered
-against the gold of her hair, crept around the crown, and fell in a riot
-to her shoulders at the back. There were gleams of gold with settings
-of blue on her fingers, and altogether she was the daintiest, sweetest
-sight he ever had seen. Freckles, standing on the curb, forgot himself
-in his cotton shirt, corduroys, and his belt to which his wire-cutter
-and pliers were hanging, and gazed as a man gazes when first he sees
-the woman he adores with all her charms enhanced by appropriate and
-beautiful clothing.
-
-“Oh Freckles,” she cried as she came to him. “I was wondering about you
-the other day. Do you know I never saw you in town before. You watch
-that old line so closely! Why did you come? Is there any trouble? Are
-you just starting to the Limberlost?”
-
-“I came to bring your hat,” said Freckles. “You forgot it in the rush
-the other day. I have left it with your father, and a message trying
-to ixpriss the gratitude of me for how you and the Bird Woman were for
-helping me out.”
-
-The Angel nodded gravely, then Freckles saw that he had done the proper
-thing in going to her father. His heart bounded until it jarred his
-body, for she was saying that she scarcely could wait for the time to
-come for the next picture of the Little Chicken series. “I want to hear
-the remainder of that song, and I hadn't even begun seeing your room
-yet,” she complained. “As for singing, if you can sing like that every
-day, I never can get enough of it. I wonder if I couldn't bring my banjo
-and some of the songs I like best. I'll play and you sing, and we'll put
-the birds out of commission.”
-
-Freckles stood on the curb with drooped eyes, for he felt that if
-he lifted them the tumult of tender adoration in them would show and
-frighten her.
-
-“I was afraid your ixperience the other day would scare you so that
-you'd never be coming again,” he found himself saying.
-
-The Angel laughed gaily.
-
-“Did I seem scared?” she questioned.
-
-“No,” said Freckles, “you did not.”
-
-“Oh, I just enjoyed that,” she cried. “Those hateful, stealing old
-things! I had a big notion to pink one of them, but I thought maybe
-someway it would be best for you that I shouldn't. They needed it. That
-didn't scare me; and as for the Bird Woman, she's accustomed to finding
-snakes, tramps, cross dogs, sheep, cattle, and goodness knows what! You
-can't frighten her when she's after a picture. Did they come back?”
-
-“No,” said Freckles. “The gang got there a little after noon and took
-out the tree, but I must tell you, and you must tell the Bird Woman,
-that there's no doubt but they will be coming back, and they will have
-to make it before long now, for it's soon the gang will be there to work
-on the swamp.”
-
-“Oh, what a shame!” cried the Angel. “They'll clear out roads, cut down
-the beautiful trees, and tear up everything. They'll drive away the
-birds and spoil the cathedral. When they have done their worst, then
-all these mills close here will follow in and take out the cheap timber.
-Then the landowners will dig a few ditches, build some fires, and in two
-summers more the Limberlost will be in corn and potatoes.”
-
-They looked at each other, and groaned despairingly in unison.
-
-“You like it, too,” said Freckles.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel, “I love it. Your room is a little piece right out
-of the heart of fairyland, and the cathedral is God's work, not yours.
-You only found it and opened the door after He had it completed. The
-birds, flowers, and vines are all so lovely. The Bird Woman says it is
-really a fact that the mallows, foxfire, iris, and lilies are larger and
-of richer coloring there than in the remainder of the country. She says
-it's because of the rich loam and muck. I hate seeing the swamp torn up,
-and to you it will be like losing your best friend; won't it?”
-
-“Something like,” said Freckles. “Still, I've the Limberlost in me heart
-so that all of it will be real to me while I live, no matter what they
-do to it. I'm glad past telling if you will be coming a few more times,
-at least until the gang arrives. Past that time I don't allow mesilf to
-be thinking.”
-
-“Come, have a cool drink before you start back,” said the Angel.
-
-“I couldn't possibly,” said Freckles. “I left Mrs. Duncan on the trail,
-and she's terribly afraid of a lot of things. If she even sees a big
-snake, I don't know what she'll do.”
-
-“It won't take but a minute, and you can ride fast enough to make up
-for it. Please. I want to think of something fine for you, to make up a
-little for what you did for me that first day.”
-
-Freckles looked in sheer wonderment into the beautiful face of the
-Angel. Did she truly mean it? Would she walk down that street with him,
-crippled, homely, in mean clothing, with the tools of his occupation on
-him, and share with him the treat she was offering? He could not believe
-it, even of the Angel. Still, in justice to the candor of her pure,
-sweet face, he would not think that she would make the offer and not
-mean it. She really did mean just what she said, but when it came to
-carrying out her offer and he saw the stares of her friends, the
-sneers of her enemies--if such as she could have enemies--and heard the
-whispered jeers of the curious, then she would see her mistake and be
-sorry. It would be only a manly thing for him to think this out, and
-save her from the results of her own blessed bigness of heart.
-
-“I railly must be off,” said Freckles earnestly, “but I'm thanking you
-more than you'll ever know for your kindness. I'll just be drinking
-bowls of icy things all me way home in the thoughts of it.”
-
-Down came the Angel's foot. Her eyes flashed indignantly. “There's no
-sense in that,” she said. “How do you think you would have felt when you
-knew I was warm and thirsty and you went and brought me a drink and
-I wouldn't take it because--because goodness knows why! You can ride
-faster to make up for the time. I've just thought out what I want to fix
-for you.”
-
-She stepped to his side and deliberately slipped her hand under his
-arm--that right arm that ended in an empty sleeve.
-
-“You are coming,” she said firmly. “I won't have it.”
-
-Freckles could not have told how he felt, neither could anyone else. His
-blood rioted and his head swam, but he kept his wits. He bent over her.
-
-“Please don't, Angel,” he said softly. “You don't understand.”
-
-How Freckles came to understand was a problem.
-
-“It's this,” he persisted. “If your father met me on the street, in
-my station and dress, with you on me arm, he'd have every right to be
-caning me before the people, and not a finger would I lift to stay him.”
-
-The Angel's eyes snapped. “If you think my father cares about my doing
-anything that is right and kind, and that makes me happy to do--why,
-then you completely failed in reading my father, and I'll ask him and
-just show you.”
-
-She dropped Freckles' arm and turned toward the entrance to the
-building. “Why, look there!” she exclaimed.
-
-Her father stood in a big window fronting the street, a bundle of papers
-in his hand, interestedly watching the little scene, with eyes that
-comprehended quite as thoroughly as if he had heard every word. The
-Angel caught his glance and made a despairing little gesture toward
-Freckles. The Man of Affairs answered her with a look of infinite
-tenderness. He nodded his head and waved the papers in the direction she
-had indicated, and the veriest dolt could have read the words his lips
-formed: “Take him along!”
-
-A sudden trembling seized Freckles. At sight of the Angel's father he
-had stepped back as far from her as he could, leaned the wheel against
-him, and snatched off his hat.
-
-The Angel turned on him with triumphing eyes.
-
-She was highly strung and not accustomed to being thwarted. “Did You see
-that?” she demanded. “Now are you satisfied? Will you come, or must I
-call a policeman to bring you?”
-
-Freckles went. There was nothing else to do. Guiding his wheel, he
-walked down the street beside her. On every hand she was kept busy
-giving and receiving the cheeriest greetings. She walked into the
-parlors exactly as if she owned them. A clerk came hurrying to meet her.
-
-“There's a table vacant beside a window where it is cool. I'll save it
-for you,” and he started back.
-
-“Please not,” said the Angel. “I've taken this man unawares, when
-he's in a rush. I'm afraid if we sit down we'll take too much time and
-afterward he will blame me.”
-
-She walked to the fountain, and a long row of people stared with all the
-varying degrees of insolence and curiosity that Freckles had felt they
-would. He glanced at the Angel. NOW would she see?
-
-“On my soul!” he muttered under his breath. “They don't aven touch her!”
-
-She laid down her sunshade and gloves. She walked to the end of the
-counter and turned the full battery of her eyes on the attendant.
-
-“Please,” she said.
-
-The white-aproned individual stepped back and gave delighted assent. The
-Angel stepped beside him, and selecting a tall, flaring glass, of almost
-paper thinness, she stooped and rolled it in a tray of cracked ice.
-
-“I want to mix a drink for my friend,” she said. “He has a long, hot
-ride before him, and I don't want him started off with one of those old
-palate-teasing sweetnesses that you mix just on purpose to drive a man
-back in ten minutes.” There was an appreciative laugh from the line at
-the counter.
-
-“I want a clear, cool, sparkling drink that has a tang of acid in it.
-Where's the cherry phosphate? That, not at all sweet, would be good;
-don't you think?”
-
-The attendant did think. He pointed out the different taps, and the
-Angel compounded the drink, while Freckles, standing so erect he almost
-leaned backward, gazed at her and paid no attention to anyone else. When
-she had the glass brimming, she tilted a little of its contents into a
-second glass and tasted it.
-
-“That's entirely too sweet for a thirsty man,” she said.
-
-She poured out half the mixture, and refilling the glass, tasted it a
-second time. She submitted that result to the attendant. “Isn't that
-about the thing?” she asked.
-
-He replied enthusiastically. “I'd get my wages raised ten a month if I
-could learn that trick.”
-
-The Angel carried the brimming, frosty glass to Freckles. He removed his
-hat, and lifting the icy liquid even with her eyes and looking straight
-into them, he said in the mellowest of all the mellow tones of his
-voice: “I'll be drinking it to the Swamp Angel.”
-
-As he had said to her that first day, she now cautioned him: “Be
-drinking slowly.”
-
-When the screen-door swung behind them, one of the men at the counter
-asked of the attendant: “Now, what did that mean?”
-
-“Exactly what you saw,” replied he, rather curtly. “We're accustomed
-to it here. Hardly a day passes, this hot weather, but she's picking
-up some poor, god-forsaken mortal and bringing him in. Then she comes
-behind the counter herself and fixes up a drink to suit the occasion.
-She's all sorts of fancies about what's what for all kinds of times and
-conditions, and you bet she can just hit the spot! Ain't a clerk here
-can put up a drink to touch her. She's a sort of knack at it. Every once
-in a while, when the Boss sees her, he calls out to her to mix him a
-drink.”
-
-“And does she?” asked the man with an interested grin.
-
-“Well, I guess! But first she goes back and sees how long it is since
-he's had a drink. What he drank last. How warm he is. When he ate last.
-Then she comes here and mixes a glass of fizz with a little touch of
-acid, and a bit of cherry, lemon, grape, pineapple, or something sour
-and cooling, and it hits the spot just as no spot was ever hit before.
-I honestly believe that the INTEREST she takes in it is half the
-trick, for I watch her closely and I can't come within gunshot of her
-concoctions. She has a running bill here. Her father settles once a
-month. She gives nine-tenths of it away. Hardly ever touches it herself,
-but when she does she makes me mix it. She's just old persimmons. Even
-the scrub-boy of this establishment would fight for her. It lasts the
-year round, for in winter it's some poor, frozen cuss that she's warming
-up on hot coffee or chocolate.”
-
-“Mighty queer specimen she had this time,” volunteered another. “Irish,
-hand off, straight as a ramrod, and something worth while in his face.
-Notice that hat peel off, and the eyes of him? There's a case of 'fight
-for her!' Wonder who he is?”
-
-“I think,” said a third, “that he's McLean's Limberlost guard, and I
-suspect she's gone to the swamp with the Bird Woman for pictures and
-knows him that way. I've heard that he is a master hand with the birds,
-and that would just suit the Bird Woman to a T.”
-
-On the street the Angel walked beside Freckles to the first crossing and
-there she stopped. “Now, will you promise to ride fast enough to make up
-for the five minutes that took?” she asked. “I am a little uneasy about
-Mrs. Duncan.”
-
-Freckles turned his wheel into the street. It seemed to him he had
-poured that delicious icy liquid into every vein in his body instead of
-his stomach. It even went to his brain.
-
-“Did you insist on fixing that drink because you knew how intoxicating
-'twould be?” he asked.
-
-There was subtlety in the compliment and it delighted the Angel. She
-laughed gleefully.
-
-“Next time, maybe you won't take so much coaxing,” she teased.
-
-“I wouldn't this, if I had known your father and been understanding you
-better. Do you really think the Bird Woman will be coming again?”
-
-The Angel jeered. “Wild horses couldn't drag her away,” she cried. “She
-will have hard work to wait the week out. I shouldn't be in the least
-surprised to see her start any hour.”
-
-Freckles could not endure the suspense; it had to come.
-
-“And you?” he questioned, but he dared not lift his eyes.
-
-“Wild horses me, too,” she laughed, “couldn't keep me away either! I
-dearly love to come, and the next time I am going to bring my banjo,
-and I'll play, and you sing for me some of the songs I like best; won't
-you?”
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles, because it was all he was capable of saying just
-then.
-
-“It's beginning to act stormy,” she said. “If you hurry you will just
-about make it. Now, good-bye.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to the
-Rescue
-
-Freckles was halfway to the Limberlost when he dismounted. He could ride
-no farther, because he could not see the road. He sat under a tree, and,
-leaning against it, sobs shook, twisted, and rent him. If they would
-remind him of his position, speak condescendingly, or notice his hand,
-he could endure it, but this--it surely would kill him! His hot, pulsing
-Irish blood was stirred deeply. What did they mean? Why did they do it?
-Were they like that to everyone? Was it pity?
-
-It could not be, for he knew that the Bird Woman and the Angel's father
-must know that he was not really McLean's son, and it did not matter
-to them in the least. In spite of accident and poverty, they evidently
-expected him to do something worth while in the world. That must be his
-remedy. He must work on his education. He must get away. He must find
-and do the great thing of which the Angel talked. For the first time,
-his thoughts turned anxiously toward the city and the beginning of his
-studies. McLean and the Duncans spoke of him as “the boy,” but he was
-a man. He must face life bravely and act a man's part. The Angel was a
-mere child. He must not allow her to torture him past endurance with her
-frank comradeship that meant to him high heaven, earth's richness, and
-all that lay between, and NOTHING to her.
-
-There was an ominous growl of thunder, and amazed at himself, Freckles
-snatched up his wheel and raced toward the swamp. He was worried to find
-his boots lying at the cabin door; the children playing on the woodpile
-told him that “mither” said they were so heavy she couldn't walk in
-them, and she had come back and taken them off. Thoroughly frightened,
-he stopped only long enough to slip them on, and then sped with all his
-strength for the Limberlost. To the west, the long, black, hard-beaten
-trail lay clear; but far up the east side, straight across the path, he
-could see what was certainly a limp, brown figure. Freckles spun with
-all his might.
-
-Face down, Sarah Duncan lay across the trail. When Freckles turned her
-over, his blood chilled at the look of horror settled on her face. There
-was a low humming and something spatted against him. Glancing around,
-Freckles shivered in terror, for there was a swarm of wild bees settled
-on a scrub-thorn only a few yards away. The air was filled with excited,
-unsettled bees making ready to lead farther in search of a suitable
-location. Then he thought he understood, and with a prayer of
-thankfulness in his heart that she had escaped, even so narrowly, he
-caught her up and hurried down the trail until they were well out of
-danger. He laid her in the shade, and carrying water from the swamp
-in the crown of his hat, he bathed her face and hands; but she lay in
-unbroken stillness, without a sign of life.
-
-She had found Freckles' boots so large and heavy that she had gone back
-and taken them off, although she was mortally afraid to approach the
-swamp without them. The thought of it made her nervous, and the fact
-that she never had been there alone added to her fears. She had not
-followed the trail many rods when her trouble began. She was not
-Freckles, so not a bird of the line was going to be fooled into thinking
-she was.
-
-They began jumping from their nests and darting from unexpected places
-around her head and feet, with quick whirs, that kept her starting and
-dodging. Before Freckles was halfway to the town, poor Mrs. Duncan was
-hysterical, and the Limberlost had neither sung nor performed for her.
-
-But there was trouble brewing. It was quiet and intensely hot, with that
-stifling stillness that precedes a summer storm, and feathers and
-fur were tense and nervous. The birds were singing only a few broken
-snatches, and flying around, seeking places of shelter. One moment
-everything seemed devoid of life, the next there was an unexpected
-whir, buzz, and sharp cry. Inside, a pandemonium of growling, spatting,
-snarling, and grunting broke loose.
-
-The swale bent flat before heavy gusts of wind, and the big black
-chicken swept lower and lower above the swamp. Patches of clouds
-gathered, shutting out the sun and making it very dark, and the next
-moment were swept away. The sun poured with fierce, burning brightness,
-and everything was quiet. It was at the first growl of thunder that
-Freckles really had noticed the weather, and putting his own troubles
-aside resolutely, raced for the swamp.
-
-Sarah Duncan paused on the line. “Weel, I wouldna stay in this place for
-a million a month,” she said aloud, and the sound of her voice brought
-no comfort, for it was so little like she had thought it that she
-glanced hastily around to see if it had really been she that spoke. She
-tremblingly wiped the perspiration from her face with the skirt of her
-sunbonnet.
-
-“Awfu' hot,” she panted huskily. “B'lieve there's going to be a big
-storm. I do hope Freckles will hurry.”
-
-Her chin was quivering as a terrified child's. She lifted her bonnet to
-replace it and brushed against a bush beside her. WHIRR, almost into her
-face, went a nighthawk stretched along a limb for its daytime nap. Mrs.
-Duncan cried out and sprang down the trail, alighting on a frog that was
-hopping across. The horrible croak it gave as she crushed it sickened
-her. She screamed wildly and jumped to one side. That carried her into
-the swale, where the grasses reached almost to her waist, and her horror
-of snakes returning, she made a flying leap for an old log lying beside
-the line. She alighted squarely, but it was so damp and rotten that she
-sank straight through it to her knees. She caught at the wire as she
-went down, and missing, raked her wrist across a barb until she tore a
-bleeding gash. Her fingers closed convulsively around the second strand.
-She was too frightened to scream now. Her tongue stiffened. She clung
-frantically to the sagging wire, and finally managed to grasp it with
-the other hand. Then she could reach the top wire, and so she drew
-herself up and found solid footing. She picked up the club that she
-had dropped in order to extricate herself. Leaning heavily on it,
-she managed to return to the trail, but she was trembling so that she
-scarcely could walk. Going a few steps farther, she came to the stump of
-the first tree that had been taken out.
-
-She sat bolt upright and very still, trying to collect her thoughts and
-reason away her terror. A squirrel above her dropped a nut, and as it
-came rattling down, bouncing from branch to branch, every nerve in her
-tugged wildly. When the disgusted squirrel barked loudly, she sprang to
-the trail.
-
-The wind arose higher, the changes from light to darkness were more
-abrupt, while the thunder came closer and louder at every peal. In
-swarms the blackbirds arose from the swale and came flocking to the
-interior, with a clamoring cry: “T'CHECK, T'CHECK.” Grackles marshaled
-to the tribal call: “TRALL-A-HEE, TRALL-A-HEE.” Red-winged blackbirds
-swept low, calling to belated mates: “FOL-LOW-ME, FOL-LOW-ME.” Big,
-jetty crows gathered close to her, crying, as if warning her to flee
-before it was everlastingly too late. A heron, fishing the near-by pool
-for Freckles' “find-out” frog, fell into trouble with a muskrat and
-uttered a rasping note that sent Mrs. Duncan a rod down the line without
-realizing that she had moved. She was too shaken to run far. She stopped
-and looked around her fearfully.
-
-Several bees struck her and were angrily buzzing before she noticed
-them. Then the humming swelled on all sides. A convulsive sob shook her,
-and she ran into the bushes, now into the swale, anywhere to avoid the
-swarming bees, ducking, dodging, fighting for her very life. Presently
-the humming seemed to become a little fainter. She found the trail
-again, and ran with all her might from a few of her angry pursuers.
-
-As she ran, straining every muscle, she suddenly became aware that,
-crossing the trail before her, was a big, round, black body, with brown
-markings on its back, like painted geometrical patterns. She tried to
-stop, but the louder buzzing behind warned her she dared not. Gathering
-her skirts higher, with hair flying around her face and her eyes almost
-bursting from their sockets, she ran straight toward it. The sound of
-her feet and the humming of the bees alarmed the rattler, so it stopped
-across the trail, lifting its head above the grasses of the swale and
-rattling inquiringly--rattled until the bees were outdone.
-
-Straight toward it went the panic-stricken woman, running wildly and
-uncontrollably. She took one leap, clearing its body on the path, then
-flew ahead with winged feet. The snake, coiled to strike, missed Mrs.
-Duncan and landed among the bees instead. They settled over and around
-it, and realizing that it had found trouble, it sank among the grasses
-and went threshing toward its den in the deep willow-fringed low ground.
-The swale appeared as if a reaper were cutting a wide swath. The mass of
-enraged bees darted angrily around, searching for it, and striking the
-scrub-thorn, began a temporary settling there to discover whether it
-were a suitable place. Completely exhausted, Mrs. Duncan staggered on a
-few steps farther, fell facing the path, where Freckles found her, and
-lay quietly.
-
-Freckles worked over her until she drew a long, quivering breath and
-opened her eyes.
-
-When she saw him bending above her, she closed them tightly, and
-gripping him, struggled to her feet. He helped her, and with his arm
-around and half carrying her, they made their way to the clearing. She
-clung to him with all her remaining strength, but open her eyes she
-would not until her children came clustering around her. Then, brawny,
-big Scotswoman though she was, she quietly keeled over again. The
-children added their wailing to Freckles' panic.
-
-This time he was so close the cabin that he could carry her into the
-house and lay her on the bed. He sent the oldest boy scudding down the
-corduroy for the nearest neighbor, and between them they undressed Mrs.
-Duncan and discovered that she was not bitten. They bathed and bound the
-bleeding wrist and coaxed her back to consciousness. She lay sobbing and
-shuddering. The first intelligent word she said was: “Freckles, look at
-that jar on the kitchen table and see if my yeast is no running ower.”
-
-Several days passed before she could give Duncan and Freckles any
-detailed account of what had happened to her, even then she could not
-do it without crying as the least of her babies. Freckles was almost
-heartbroken, and nursed her as well as any woman could have done; while
-big Duncan, with a heart full for them both, worked early and late to
-chink every crack of the cabin and examine every spot that possibly
-could harbor a snake. The effects of her morning on the trail kept her
-shivering half the time. She could not rest until she sent for McLean
-and begged him to save Freckles from further risk, in that place of
-horrors. The Boss went to the swamp with his mind fully determined to do
-so.
-
-Freckles stood and laughed at him. “Why, Mr. McLean, don't you let a
-woman's nervous system set you worrying about me,” he said. “I'm not
-denying how she felt, because I've been through it meself, but that's
-all over and gone. It's the height of me glory to fight it out with the
-old swamp, and all that's in it, or will be coming to it, and then
-to turn it over to you as I promised you and meself I'd do, sir. You
-couldn't break the heart of me entire quicker than to be taking it from
-me now, when I'm just on the home-stretch. It won't be over three or
-four weeks yet, and when I've gone it almost a year, why, what's that
-to me, sir? You mustn't let a woman get mixed up with business, for I've
-always heard about how it's bringing trouble.”
-
-McLean smiled. “What about that last tree?” he said.
-
-Freckles blushed and grinned appreciatively.
-
-“Angels and Bird Women don't count in the common run, sir,” he affirmed
-shamelessly.
-
-McLean sat in the saddle and laughed.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-
-The Bird Woman and the Angel did not seem to count in the common run,
-for they arrived on time for the third of the series and found McLean on
-the line talking to Freckles. The Boss was filled with enthusiasm over a
-marsh article of the Bird Woman's that he just had read. He begged to
-be allowed to accompany her into the swamp and watch the method by which
-she secured an illustration in such a location.
-
-The Bird Woman explained to him that it was an easy matter with the
-subject she then had in hand; and as Little Chicken was too small to
-be frightened by him, and big enough to be growing troublesome, she was
-glad for his company. They went to the chicken log together, leaving to
-the happy Freckles the care of the Angel, who had brought her banjo and
-a roll of songs that she wanted to hear him sing. The Bird Woman told
-them that they might practice in Freckles' room until she finished with
-Little Chicken, and then she and McLean would come to the concert.
-
-It was almost three hours before they finished and came down the west
-trail for their rest and lunch. McLean walked ahead, keeping sharp watch
-on the trail and clearing it of fallen limbs from overhanging trees. He
-sent a big piece of bark flying into the swale, and then stopped short
-and stared at the trail.
-
-The Bird Woman bent forward. Together they studied that imprint of
-the Angel's foot. At last their eyes met, the Bird Woman's filled with
-astonishment, and McLean's humid with pity. Neither said a word, but
-they knew. McLean entered the swale and hunted up the bark. He replaced
-it, and the Bird Woman carefully stepped over. As they reached the
-bushes at the entrance, the voice of the Angel stopped them, for it was
-commanding and filled with much impatience.
-
-“Freckles James Ross McLean!” she was saying. “You fill me with
-dark-blue despair! You're singing as if your voice were glass and might
-break at any minute. Why don't you sing as you did a week ago? Answer me
-that, please.”
-
-Freckles smiled confusedly at the Angel, who sat on one of his fancy
-seats, playing his accompaniment on her banjo.
-
-“You are a fraud,” she said. “Here you went last week and led me to
-think that there was the making of a great singer in you, and now you
-are singing--do you know how badly you are singing?”
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles meekly. “I'm thinking I'm too happy to be singing
-well today. The music don't come right only when I'm lonesome and sad.
-The world's for being all sunshine at prisint, for among you and Mr.
-McLean and the Bird Woman I'm after being THAT happy that I can't keep
-me thoughts on me notes. It's more than sorry I am to be disappointing
-you. Play it over, and I'll be beginning again, and this time I'll hold
-hard.”
-
-“Well,” said the Angel disgustedly, “it seems to me that if I had all
-the things to be proud of that you have, I'd lift up my head and sing!”
-
-“And what is it I've to be proud of, ma'am?” politely inquired Freckles.
-
-“Why, a whole worldful of things,” cried the Angel explosively. “For
-one thing, you can be good and proud over the way you've kept the timber
-thieves out of this lease, and the trust your father has in you. You can
-be proud that you've never even once disappointed him or failed in what
-he believed you could do. You can be proud over the way everyone speaks
-of you with trust and honor, and about how brave of heart and strong of
-body you are I heard a big man say a few days ago that the Limberlost
-was full of disagreeable things--positive dangers, unhealthful as it
-could be, and that since the memory of the first settlers it has been a
-rendezvous for runaways, thieves, and murderers. This swamp is named for
-a man that was lost here and wandered around 'til he starved. That man I
-was talking with said he wouldn't take your job for a thousand dollars
-a month--in fact, he said he wouldn't have it for any money, and you've
-never missed a day or lost a tree. Proud! Why, I should think you would
-just parade around about proper over that!
-
-“And you can always be proud that you are born an Irishman. My father
-is Irish, and if you want to see him get up and strut give him a teeny
-opening to enlarge on his race. He says that if the Irish had decent
-territory they'd lead the world. He says they've always been handicapped
-by lack of space and of fertile soil. He says if Ireland had been as big
-and fertile as Indiana, why, England wouldn't ever have had the upper
-hand. She'd only be an appendage. Fancy England an appendage! He says
-Ireland has the finest orators and the keenest statesmen in Europe
-today, and when England wants to fight, with whom does she fill her
-trenches? Irishmen, of course! Ireland has the greenest grass and trees,
-the finest stones and lakes, and they've jaunting-cars. I don't know
-just exactly what they are, but Ireland has all there are, anyway.
-They've a lot of great actors, and a few singers, and there never was a
-sweeter poet than one of theirs. You should hear my father recite 'Dear
-Harp of My Country.' He does it this way.”
-
-The Angel arose, made an elaborate old-time bow, and holding up the
-banjo, recited in clipping feet and meter, with rhythmic swing and a
-touch of brogue that was simply irresistible:
-
-“Dear harp of my country” [The Angel ardently clasped the banjo],
-
-“In darkness I found thee” [She held it to the light],
-
-“The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long” [She muted the
-strings with her rosy palm];
-
-“Then proudly, my own Irish harp, I unbound thee” [She threw up her head
-and swept a ringing harmony];
-
-“And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song” [She crashed into
-the notes of the accompaniment she had been playing for Freckles].
-
-“That's what you want to be thinking of!” she cried. “Not darkness, and
-lonesomeness, and sadness, but 'light, freedom, and song.' I can't begin
-to think offhand of all the big, splendid things an Irishman has to be
-proud of; but whatever they are, they are all yours, and you are a part
-of them. I just despise that 'saddest-when-I-sing' business. You can
-sing! Now you go over there and do it! Ireland has had her statesmen,
-warriors, actors, and poets; now you be her voice! You stand right out
-there before the cathedral door, and I'm going to come down the aisle
-playing that accompaniment, and when I stop in front of you--you sing!”
-
-The Angel's face wore an unusual flush. Her eyes were flashing and she
-was palpitating with earnestness.
-
-She parted the bushes and disappeared. Freckles, straight and tense,
-stood waiting. Presently, before he saw she was there, she was coming
-down the aisle toward him, playing compellingly, and rifts of light were
-touching her with golden glory. Freckles stood as if transfixed.
-
-The cathedral was majestically beautiful, from arched dome of frescoed
-gold, green, and blue in never-ending shades and harmonies, to the
-mosaic aisle she trod, richly inlaid in choicest colors, and gigantic
-pillars that were God's handiwork fashioned and perfected through ages
-of sunshine and rain. But the fair young face and divinely molded form
-of the Angel were His most perfect work of all. Never had she appeared
-so surpassingly beautiful. She was smiling encouragingly now, and as she
-came toward him, she struck the chords full and strong.
-
-The heart of poor Freckles almost burst with dull pain and his great
-love for her. In his desire to fulfill her expectations he forgot
-everything else, and when she reached his initial chord he was ready. He
-literally burst forth:
-
-     “Three little leaves of Irish green,
-     United on one stem,
-     Love, truth, and valor do they mean,
-     They form a magic gem.”
-
-The Angel's eyes widened curiously and her lips parted. A deep color
-swept into her cheeks. She had intended to arouse him. She had more than
-succeeded. She was too young to know that in the effort to rouse a man,
-women frequently kindle fires that they neither can quench nor control.
-Freckles was looking over her head now and singing that song, as it
-never had been sung before, for her alone; and instead of her helping
-him, as she had intended, he was carrying her with him on the waves
-of his voice, away, away into another world. When he struck into the
-chorus, wide-eyed and panting, she was swaying toward him and playing
-with all her might.
-
-     “Oh, do you love?  Oh, say you love
-     You love the shamrock green!”
-
-At the last note, Freckles' voice ceased and he looked at the Angel. He
-had given his best and his all. He fell on his knees and folded his arms
-across his breast. The Angel, as if magnetized, walked straight down the
-aisle to him, and running her fingers into the crisp masses of his red
-hair, tilted his head back and laid her lips on his forehead.
-
-Then she stepped back and faced him. “Good boy!” she said, in a voice
-that wavered from the throbbing of her shaken heart. “Dear boy! I knew
-you could do it! I knew it was in you! Freckles, when you go into the
-world, if you can face a big audience and sing like that, just once, you
-will be immortal, and anything you want will be yours.”
-
-“Anything!” gasped Freckles.
-
-“Anything,” said the Angel.
-
-Freckles arose, muttered something, and catching up his old bucket,
-plunged into the swamp blindly on a pretence of bringing water. The
-Angel walked slowly across the study, sat on the rustic bench, and,
-through narrowed lids, intently studied the tip of her shoe.
-
-On the trail the Bird Woman wheeled to McLean with a dumbfounded look.
-
-“God!” muttered he.
-
-At last the Bird Woman spoke.
-
-“Do you think the Angel knew she did that?” she asked softly.
-
-“No,” said McLean; “I do not. But the poor boy knew it. Heaven help
-him!”
-
-The Bird Woman stared across the gently waving swale. “I don't see how I
-am going to blame her,” she said at last. “It's so exactly what I would
-have done myself.”
-
-“Say the remainder,” demanded McLean hoarsely. “Do him justice.”
-
-“He was born a gentleman,” conceded the Bird Woman. “He took no
-advantage. He never even offered to touch her. Whatever that kiss meant
-to him, he recognized that it was the loving impulse of a child under
-stress of strong emotion. He was fine and manly as any man ever could
-have been.”
-
-McLean lifted his hat. “Thank you,” he said simply, and parted the
-bushes for her to enter Freckles' room.
-
-It was her first visit. Before she left she sent for her cameras and
-made studies of each side of it and of the cathedral. She was entranced
-with the delicate beauty of the place, while her eyes kept following
-Freckles as if she could not believe that it could be his conception and
-work.
-
-That was a happy day. The Bird Woman had brought a lunch, and they
-spread it, with Freckles' dinner, on the study floor and sat, resting
-and enjoying themselves. But the Angel put her banjo into its case,
-silently gathered her music, and no one mentioned the concert.
-
-The Bird Woman left McLean and the Angel to clear away the lunch, and
-with Freckles examined the walls of his room and told him all she knew
-about his shrubs and flowers. She analyzed a cardinal-flower and
-showed him what he had wanted to know all summer--why the bees
-buzzed ineffectually around it while the humming-birds found in it
-an ever-ready feast. Some of his specimens were so rare that she was
-unfamiliar with them, and with the flower book between them they
-knelt, studying the different varieties. She wandered the length of the
-cathedral aisle with him, and it was at her suggestion that he lighted
-his altar with a row of flaming foxfire.
-
-As Freckles came to the cabin from his long day at the swamp he saw
-Mrs. Chicken sweeping to the south and wondered where she was going. He
-stepped into the bright, cosy little kitchen, and as he reached down the
-wash-basin he asked Mrs. Duncan a question.
-
-“Mother Duncan, do kisses wash off?”
-
-So warm a wave swept her heart that a half-flush mantled her face. She
-straightened her shoulders and glanced at her hands tenderly.
-
-“Lord, na! Freckles,” she cried. “At least, the anes ye get from people
-ye love dinna. They dinna stay on the outside. They strike in until they
-find the center of your heart and make their stopping-place there, and
-naething can take them from ye--I doubt if even death----Na, lad, ye can
-be reet sure kisses dinna wash off!”
-
-Freckles set the basin down and muttered as he plunged his hot, tired
-face into the water, “I needn't be afraid to be washing, then, for that
-one struck in.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird
-Woman
-
-“I wish,” said Freckles at breakfast one morning, “that I had some way
-to be sending a message to the Bird Woman. I've something at the swamp
-that I'm believing never happened before, and surely she'll be wanting
-it.”
-
-“What now, Freckles?” asked Mrs. Duncan.
-
-“Why, the oddest thing you ever heard of,” said Freckles; “the whole
-insect tribe gone on a spree. I'm supposing it's my doings, but it all
-happened by accident, like. You see, on the swale side of the line,
-right against me trail, there's one of these scrub wild crabtrees. Where
-the grass grows thick around it, is the finest place you ever conceived
-of for snakes. Having women about has set me trying to clean out those
-fellows a bit, and yesterday I noticed that tree in passing. It struck
-me that it would be a good idea to be taking it out. First I thought I'd
-take me hatchet and cut it down, for it ain't thicker than me upper arm.
-Then I remembered how it was blooming in the spring and filling all the
-air with sweetness. The coloring of the blossoms is beautiful, and I
-hated to be killing it. I just cut the grass short all around it. Then
-I started at the ground, trimmed up the trunk near the height of
-me shoulder, and left the top spreading. That made it look so truly
-ornamental that, idle like, I chips off the rough places neat, and this
-morning, on me soul, it's a sight! You see, cutting off the limbs and
-trimming up the trunk sets the sap running. In this hot sun it ferments
-in a few hours. There isn't much room for more things to crowd on that
-tree than there are, and to get drunker isn't noways possible.”
-
-“Weel, I be drawed on!” exclaimed Mrs. Duncan. “What kind of things do
-ye mean, Freckles?”
-
-“Why, just an army of black ants. Some of them are sucking away like
-old topers. Some of them are setting up on their tails and hind legs,
-fiddling with their fore-feet and wiping their eyes. Some are rolling
-around on the ground, contented. There are quantities of big blue-bottle
-flies over the bark and hanging on the grasses around, too drunk to
-steer a course flying; so they just buzz away like flying, and all
-the time sitting still. The snake-feeders are too full to feed
-anything--even more sap to themselves. There's a lot of hard-backed
-bugs--beetles, I guess--colored like the brown, blue, and black of a
-peacock's tail. They hang on until the legs of them are so wake they
-can't stick a minute longer, and then they break away and fall to the
-ground. They just lay there on their backs, fably clawing air. When it
-wears off a bit, up they get, and go crawling back for more, and they so
-full they bump into each other and roll over. Sometimes they can't climb
-the tree until they wait to sober up a little. There's a lot of big
-black-and-gold bumblebees, done for entire, stumbling over the bark and
-rolling on the ground. They just lay there on their backs, rocking from
-side to side, singing to themselves like fat, happy babies. The wild
-bees keep up a steady buzzing with the beating of their wings.
-
-“The butterflies are the worst old topers of them all. They're just a
-circus! You never saw the like of the beauties! They come every color
-you could be naming, and every shape you could be thinking up. They
-drink and drink until, if I'm driving them away, they stagger as they
-fly and turn somersaults in the air. If I lave them alone, they cling to
-the grasses, shivering happy like; and I'm blest, Mother Duncan, if
-the best of them could be unlocking the front door with a lead pencil,
-even.”
-
-“I never heard of anything sae surprising,” said Mrs. Duncan.
-
-“It's a rare sight to watch them, and no one ever made a picture of a
-thing like that before, I'm for thinking,” said Freckles earnestly.
-
-“Na,” said Mrs. Duncan. “Ye can be pretty sure there didna. The Bird
-Woman must have word in some way, if ye walk the line and I walk to town
-and tell her. If ye think ye can wait until after supper, I am most
-sure ye can gang yoursel', for Duncan is coming home and he'd be glad to
-watch for ye. If he does na come, and na ane passes that I can send
-word with today, I really will gang early in the morning and tell her
-mysel'.”
-
-Freckles took his lunch and went to the swamp. He walked and watched
-eagerly. He could find no trace of anything, yet he felt a tense
-nervousness, as if trouble might be brooding. He examined every section
-of the wire, and kept watchful eyes on the grasses of the swale, in
-an effort to discover if anyone had passed through them; but he could
-discover no trace of anything to justify his fears.
-
-He tilted his hat brim to shade his face and looked for his chickens.
-They were hanging almost beyond sight in the sky.
-
-“Gee!” he said. “If I only had your sharp eyes and convenient location
-now, I wouldn't need be troubling so.”
-
-He reached his room and cautiously scanned the entrance before he
-stepped in. Then he pushed the bushes apart with his right arm and
-entered, his left hand on the butt of his favorite revolver. Instantly
-he knew that someone had been there. He stepped to the center of the
-room, closely scanning each wall and the floor. He could find no trace
-of a clue to confirm his belief, yet so intimate was he with the spirit
-of the place that he knew.
-
-How he knew he could not have told, yet he did know that someone had
-entered his room, sat on his benches, and walked over his floor. He was
-surest around the case. Nothing was disturbed, yet it seemed to Freckles
-that he could see where prying fingers had tried the lock. He stepped
-behind the case, carefully examining the ground all around it, and close
-beside the tree to which it was nailed he found a deep, fresh footprint
-in the spongy soil--a long, narrow print, that was never made by the
-foot of Wessner. His heart tugged in his breast as he mentally measured
-the print, but he did not linger, for now the feeling arose that he
-was being watched. It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of some
-intruder at his back. He knew he was examining things too closely: if
-anyone were watching, he did not want him to know that he felt it.
-
-He took the most open way, and carried water for his flowers and moss
-as usual; but he put himself into no position in which he was fully
-exposed, and his hand was close his revolver constantly. Growing restive
-at last under the strain, he plunged boldly into the swamp and searched
-minutely all around his room, but he could not discover the least thing
-to give him further cause for alarm. He unlocked his case, took out his
-wheel, and for the remainder of the day he rode and watched as he never
-had before. Several times he locked the wheel and crossed the swamp on
-foot, zigzagging to cover all the space possible. Every rod he traveled
-he used the caution that sprang from knowledge of danger and the
-direction from which it probably would come. Several times he thought of
-sending for McLean, but for his life he could not make up his mind to do
-it with nothing more tangible than one footprint to justify him.
-
-He waited until he was sure Duncan would be at home, if he were coming
-for the night, before he went to supper. The first thing he saw as he
-crossed the swale was the big bays in the yard.
-
-There had been no one passing that day, and Duncan readily agreed to
-watch until Freckles rode to town. He told Duncan of the footprint, and
-urged him to guard closely. Duncan said he might rest easy, and filling
-his pipe and taking a good revolver, the big man went to the Limberlost.
-
-Freckles made himself clean and neat, and raced to town, but it was
-night and the stars were shining before he reached the home of the Bird
-Woman. From afar he could see that the house was ablaze with lights. The
-lawn and veranda were strung with fancy lanterns and alive with people.
-He thought his errand important, so to turn back never occurred to
-Freckles. This was all the time or opportunity he would have. He must
-see the Bird Woman, and see her at once. He leaned his wheel inside the
-fence and walked up the broad front entrance. As he neared the steps, he
-saw that the place was swarming with young people, and the Angel, with
-an excuse to a group that surrounded her, came hurrying to him.
-
-“Oh Freckles!” she cried delightedly. “So you could come? We were so
-afraid you could not! I'm as glad as I can be!”
-
-“I don't understand,” said Freckles. “Were you expecting me?”
-
-“Why of course!” exclaimed the Angel. “Haven't you come to my party?
-Didn't you get my invitation? I sent you one.”
-
-“By mail?” asked Freckles.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel. “I had to help with the preparations, and I
-couldn't find time to drive out; but I wrote you a letter, and told
-you that the Bird Woman was giving a party for me, and we wanted you
-to come, surely. I told them at the office to put it with Mr. Duncan's
-mail.”
-
-“Then that's likely where it is at present,” said Freckles. “Duncan
-comes to town only once a week, and at times not that. He's home tonight
-for the first in a week. He's watching an hour for me until I come to
-the Bird Woman with a bit of work I thought she'd be caring to hear
-about bad. Is she where I can see her?”
-
-The Angel's face clouded.
-
-“What a disappointment!” she cried. “I did so want all my friends to
-know you. Can't you stay anyway?”
-
-Freckles glanced from his wading-boots to the patent leathers of some of
-the Angel's friends, and smiled whimsically, but there was no danger of
-his ever misjudging her again.
-
-“You know I cannot, Angel,” he said.
-
-“I am afraid I do,” she said ruefully. “It's too bad! But there is a
-thing I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is to hang
-on and win with your work. I think of you every day, and I just pray
-that those thieves are not getting ahead of you. Oh, Freckles, do watch
-closely!”
-
-She was so lovely a picture as she stood before him, ardent in his
-cause, that Freckles could not take his eyes from her to notice what her
-friends were thinking. If she did not mind, why should he? Anyway,
-if they really were the Angel's friends, probably they were better
-accustomed to her ways than he.
-
-Her face and bared neck and arms were like the wild rose bloom. Her
-soft frock of white tulle lifted and stirred around her with the gentle
-evening air. The beautiful golden hair, that crept around her temples
-and ears as if it loved to cling there, was caught back and bound with
-broad blue satin ribbon. There was a sash of blue at her waist, and
-knots of it catching up her draperies.
-
-“Must I go after the Bird Woman?” she pleaded.
-
-“Indade, you must,” answered Freckles firmly.
-
-The Angel went away, but returned to say that the Bird Woman was telling
-a story to those inside and she could not come for a short time.
-
-“You won't come in?” she pleaded.
-
-“I must not,” said Freckles. “I am not dressed to be among your friends,
-and I might be forgetting meself and stay too long.”
-
-“Then,” said the Angel, “we mustn't go through the house, because it
-would disturb the story; but I want you to come the outside way to the
-conservatory and have some of my birthday lunch and some cake to take to
-Mrs. Duncan and the babies. Won't that be fun?”
-
-Freckles thought that it would be more than fun, and followed
-delightedly.
-
-The Angel gave him a big glass, brimming with some icy, sparkling liquid
-that struck his palate as it never had been touched before, because a
-combination of frosty fruit juices had not been a frequent beverage with
-him. The night was warm, and the Angel most beautiful and kind. A triple
-delirium of spirit, mind, and body seized upon him and developed a
-boldness all unnatural. He slightly parted the heavy curtains that
-separated the conservatory from the company and looked between. He
-almost stopped breathing. He had read of things like that, but he never
-had seen them.
-
-The open space seemed to stretch through half a dozen rooms, all ablaze
-with lights, perfumed with flowers, and filled with elegantly dressed
-people. There were glimpses of polished floors, sparkling glass, and
-fine furnishings. From somewhere, the voice of his beloved Bird Woman
-arose and fell.
-
-The Angel crowded beside him and was watching also.
-
-“Doesn't it look pretty?” she whispered.
-
-“Do you suppose Heaven is any finer than that?” asked Freckles.
-
-The Angel began to laugh.
-
-“Do you want to be laughing harder than that?” queried Freckles.
-
-“A laugh is always good,” said the Angel. “A little more avoirdupois
-won't hurt me. Go ahead.”
-
-“Well then,” said Freckles, “it's only that I feel all over as if I
-belonged there. I could wear fine clothes, and move over those floors,
-and hold me own against the best of them.”
-
-“But where does my laugh come in?” demanded the Angel, as if she had
-been defrauded.
-
-“And you ask me where the laugh comes in, looking me in the face after
-that,” marveled Freckles.
-
-“I wouldn't be so foolish as to laugh at such a manifest truth as that,”
- said the Angel. “Anyone who knows you even half as well as I do, knows
-that you are never guilty of a discourtesy, and you move with twice the
-grace of any man here. Why shouldn't you feel as if you belonged where
-people are graceful and courteous?”
-
-“On me soul!” said Freckles, “you are kind to be thinking it. You are
-doubly kind to be saying it.”
-
-The curtains parted and a woman came toward them. Her silks and laces
-trailed across the polished floors. The lights gleamed on her neck and
-arms, and flashed from rare jewels. She was smiling brightly; and until
-she spoke, Freckles had not realized fully that it was his loved Bird
-Woman.
-
-Noticing his bewilderment, she cried: “Why, Freckles! Don't you know me
-in my war clothes?”
-
-“I do in the uniform in which you fight the Limberlost,” said Freckles.
-
-The Bird Woman laughed. Then he told her why he had come, but she
-scarcely could believe him. She could not say exactly when she would go,
-but she would make it as soon as possible, for she was most anxious for
-the study.
-
-While they talked, the Angel was busy packing a box of sandwiches,
-cake, fruit, and flowers. She gave him a last frosty glass, thanked him
-repeatedly for bringing news of new material; then Freckles went into
-the night. He rode toward the Limberlost with his eyes on the stars.
-Presently he removed his hat, hung it to his belt, and ruffled his
-hair to the sweep of the night wind. He filled the air all the way with
-snatches of oratorios, gospel hymns, and dialect and coon songs, in a
-startlingly varied programme. The one thing Freckles knew that he could
-do was to sing. The Duncans heard him coming a mile up the corduroy and
-could not believe their senses. Freckles unfastened the box from
-his belt, and gave Mrs. Duncan and the children all the eatables
-it contained, except one big piece of cake that he carried to the
-sweet-loving Duncan. He put the flowers back in the box and set it among
-his books. He did not say anything, but they understood it was not to be
-touched.
-
-“Thae's Freckles' flow'rs,” said a tiny Scotsman, “but,” he added
-cheerfully, “it's oor sweeties!”
-
-Freckles' face slowly flushed as he took Duncan's cake and started
-toward the swamp. While Duncan ate, Freckles told him something about
-the evening, as well as he could find words to express himself, and the
-big man was so amazed he kept forgetting the treat in his hands.
-
-Then Freckles mounted his wheel and began a spin that terminated only
-when the biggest Plymouth Rock in Duncan's coop saluted a new day, and
-long lines of light reddened the east. As he rode he sang, while he
-sang he worshiped, but the god he tried to glorify was a dim and faraway
-mystery. The Angel was warm flesh and blood.
-
-Every time he passed the little bark-covered imprint on the trail he
-dismounted, removed his hat, solemnly knelt and laid his lips on the
-impression. Because he kept no account himself, only the laughing-faced
-old man of the moon knew how often it happened; and as from the
-beginning, to the follies of earth that gentleman has ever been kind.
-
-With the near approach of dawn Freckles tuned his last note. Wearied
-almost to falling, he turned from the trail into the path leading to the
-cabin for a few hours' rest.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-
-As Freckles left the trail, from the swale close the south entrance,
-four large muscular men arose and swiftly and carefully entered the
-swamp by the wagon road. Two of them carried a big saw, the third, coils
-of rope and wire, and all of them were heavily armed. They left one man
-on guard at the entrance. The other three made their way through the
-darkness as best they could, and were soon at Freckles' room. He had
-left the swamp on his wheel from the west trail. They counted on his
-returning on the wheel and circling the east line before he came there.
-
-A little below the west entrance to Freckles' room, Black Jack stepped
-into the swale, and binding a wire tightly around a scrub oak, carried
-it below the waving grasses, stretched it taut across the trail, and
-fastened it to a tree in the swamp. Then he obliterated all signs of his
-work, and arranged the grass over the wire until it was so completely
-covered that only minute examination would reveal it. They entered
-Freckles' room with coarse oaths and jests. In a few moments, his
-specimen case with its precious contents was rolled into the swamp,
-while the saw was eating into one of the finest trees of the Limberlost.
-
-The first report from the man on watch was that Duncan had driven to the
-South camp; the second, that Freckles was coming. The man watching was
-sent to see on which side the boy turned into the path; as they had
-expected, he took the east. He was a little tired and his head was
-rather stupid, for he had not been able to sleep as he had hoped, but he
-was very happy. Although he watched until his eyes ached, he could see
-no sign of anyone having entered the swamp.
-
-He called a cheery greeting to all his chickens. At Sleepy Snake Creek
-he almost fell from his wheel with surprise: the saw-bird was surrounded
-by four lanky youngsters clamoring for breakfast. The father was
-strutting with all the importance of a drum major.
-
-“No use to expect the Bird Woman today,” said Freckles; “but now
-wouldn't she be jumping for a chance at that?”
-
-As soon as Freckles was far down the east line, the watch was posted
-below the room on the west to report his coming. It was only a few
-moments before the signal came. Then the saw stopped, and the rope was
-brought out and uncoiled close to a sapling. Wessner and Black Jack
-crowded to the very edge of the swamp a little above the wire, and
-crouched, waiting.
-
-They heard Freckles before they saw him. He came gliding down the line
-swiftly, and as he rode he was singing softly:
-
-     “Oh, do you love,
-     Oh, say you love----”
-
-He got no farther. The sharply driven wheel struck the tense wire and
-bounded back. Freckles shot over the handlebar and coasted down the
-trail on his chest. As he struck, Black Jack and Wessner were upon him.
-Wessner caught off an old felt hat and clapped it over Freckles' mouth,
-while Black Jack twisted the boy's arms behind him and they rushed him
-into his room. Almost before he realized that anything had happened, he
-was trussed to a tree and securely gagged.
-
-Then three of the men resumed work on the tree. The other followed
-the path Freckles had worn to Little Chicken's tree, and presently
-he reported that the wires were down and two teams with the loading
-apparatus coming to take out the timber. All the time the saw was slowly
-eating, eating into the big tree.
-
-Wessner went to the trail and removed the wire. He picked up Freckles'
-wheel, that did not seem to be injured, and leaned it against the bushes
-so that if anyone did pass on the trail he would not see it doubled in
-the swamp-grass.
-
-Then he came and stood in front of Freckles and laughed in devilish
-hate. To his own amazement, Freckles found himself looking fear in the
-face, and marveled that he was not afraid. Four to one! The tree halfway
-eaten through, the wagons coming up the inside road--he, bound and
-gagged! The men with Black Jack and Wessner had belonged to McLean's
-gang when last he had heard of them, but who those coming with the
-wagons might be he could not guess.
-
-If they secured that tree, McLean lost its value, lost his wager, and
-lost his faith in him. The words of the Angel hammered in his ears. “Oh,
-Freckles, do watch closely!”
-
-The saw worked steadily.
-
-When the tree was down and loaded, what would they do? Pull out, and
-leave him there to report them? It was not to be hoped for. The place
-always had been lawless. It could mean but one thing.
-
-A mist swept before his eyes, while his head swam. Was it only last
-night that he had worshiped the Angel in a delirium of happiness? And
-now, what? Wessner, released from a turn at the saw, walked to the
-flower bed, and tearing up a handful of rare ferns by the roots, started
-toward Freckles. His intention was obvious. Black Jack stopped him, with
-an oath.
-
-“You see here, Dutchy,” he bawled, “mebby you think you'll wash his face
-with that, but you won't. A contract's a contract. We agreed to take out
-these trees and leave him for you to dispose of whatever way you please,
-provided you shut him up eternally on this deal. But I'll not see a tied
-man tormented by a fellow that he can lick up the ground with, loose,
-and that's flat. It raises my gorge to think what he'll get when we're
-gone, but you needn't think you're free to begin before. Don't you lay a
-hand on him while I'm here! What do you say, boys?”
-
-“I say yes,” growled one of McLean's latest deserters. “What's more,
-we're a pack of fools to risk the dirty work of silencing him. You had
-him face down and you on his back; why the hell didn't you cover his
-head and roll him into the bushes until we were gone? When I went into
-this, I didn't understand that he was to see all of us and that there
-was murder on the ticket. I'm not up to it. I don't mind lifting trees
-we came for, but I'm cursed if I want blood on my hands.”
-
-“Well, you ain't going to get it,” bellowed Jack. “You fellows only
-contracted to help me get out my marked trees. He belong to Wessner, and
-it ain't in our deal what happens to him.”
-
-“Yes, and if Wessner finishes him safely, we are practically in for
-murder as well as stealing the trees; and if he don't, all hell's to
-pay. I think you've made a damnable bungle of this thing; that's what I
-think!”
-
-“Then keep your thoughts to yourself,” cried Jack. “We're doing this,
-and it's all planned safe and sure. As for killing that buck--come to
-think of it, killing is what he needs. He's away too good for this world
-of woe, anyhow. I tell you, it's all safe enough. His dropping out won't
-be the only secret the old Limberlost has never told. It's too dead easy
-to make it look like he helped take the timber and then cut. Why, he's
-played right into our hands. He was here at the swamp all last night,
-and back again in an hour or so. When we get our plan worked out, even
-old fool Duncan won't lift a finger to look for his carcass. We couldn't
-have him going in better shape.”
-
-“You just bet,” said Wessner. “I owe him all he'll get, and be damned to
-you, but I'll pay!” he snarled at Freckles.
-
-So it was killing, then. They were not only after this one tree, but
-many, and with his body it was their plan to kill his honor. To brand
-him a thief, with them, before the Angel, the Bird Woman, the dear Boss,
-and the Duncans--Freckles, in sick despair, sagged against the ropes.
-
-Then he gathered his forces and thought swiftly. There was no hope
-of McLean's coming. They had chosen a day when they knew he had a big
-contract at the South camp. The Boss could not come before tomorrow by
-any possibility, and there would be no tomorrow for the boy. Duncan was
-on his way to the South camp, and the Bird Woman had said she would come
-as soon as she could. After the fatigue of the party, it was useless
-to expect her and the Angel today, and God save them from coming! The
-Angel's father had said they would be as safe in the Limberlost as at
-home. What would he think of this?
-
-The sweat broke on Freckles' forehead. He tugged at the ropes whenever
-he felt that he dared, but they were passed around the tree and his body
-several times, and knotted on his chest. He was helpless. There was no
-hope, no help. And after they had conspired to make him appear a runaway
-thief to his loved ones, what was it that Wessner would do to him?
-
-Whatever it was, Freckles lifted his head and resolved that he would
-bear in mind what he had once heard the Bird Woman say. He would go out
-bonnily. Never would he let them see, if he grew afraid. After all, what
-did it matter what they did to his body if by some scheme of the devil
-they could encompass his disgrace?
-
-Then hope suddenly rose high in Freckles' breast. They could not do
-that! The Angel would not believe. Neither would McLean. He would keep
-up his courage. Kill him they could; dishonor him they could not.
-
-Yet, summon all the fortitude he might, that saw eating into the tree
-rasped his nerves worse and worse. With whirling brain he gazed into
-the Limberlost, searching for something, he knew not what, and in blank
-horror found his eyes focusing on the Angel. She was quite a distance
-away, but he could see her white lips and angry expression.
-
-Last week he had taken her and the Bird Woman across the swamp over the
-path he followed in going from his room to the chicken tree. He had told
-them the night before, that the butterfly tree was on the line close to
-this path. In figuring on their not coming that day, he failed to reckon
-with the enthusiasm of the Bird Woman. They must be there for the study,
-and the Angel had risked crossing the swamp in search of him. Or was
-there something in his room they needed? The blood surged in his ears as
-the roar of the Limberlost in the wrath of a storm.
-
-He looked again, and it had been a dream. She was not there. Had she
-been? For his life, Freckles could not tell whether he really had seen
-the Angel, or whether his strained senses had played him the most cruel
-trick of all. Or was it not the kindest? Now he could go with the vision
-of her lovely face fresh with him.
-
-“Thank You for that, oh God!” whispered Freckles. “'Twas more than kind
-of You and I don't s'pose I ought to be wanting anything else; but
-if You can, oh, I wish I could know before this ends, if 'twas me
-mother”--Freckles could not even whisper the words, for he hesitated a
-second and ended--“IF 'TWAS ME MOTHER DID IT!”
-
-“Freckles! Freckles! Oh, Freckles!” the voice of the Angel came calling.
-Freckles swayed forward and wrenched at the rope until it cut deeply
-into his body.
-
-“Hell!” cried Black Jack. “Who is that? Do you know?”
-
-Freckles nodded.
-
-Jack whipped out a revolver and snatched the gag from Freckles' mouth.
-
-“Say quick, or it's up with you right now, and whoever that is with
-you!”
-
-“It's the girl the Bird Woman takes with her,” whispered Freckles
-through dry, swollen lips.
-
-“They ain't due here for five days yet,” said Wessner. “We got on to
-that last week.”
-
-“Yes,” said Freckles, “but I found a tree covered with butterflies and
-things along the east line yesterday that I thought the Bird Woman would
-want extra, and I went to town to tell her last night. She said she'd
-come soon, but she didn't say when. They must be here. I take care of
-the girl while the Bird Woman works. Untie me quick until she is gone.
-I'll try to send her back, and then you can go on with your dirty work.”
-
-“He ain't lying,” volunteered Wessner. “I saw that tree covered with
-butterflies and him watching around it when we were spying on him
-yesterday.”
-
-“No, he leaves lying to your sort,” snapped Black Jack, as he undid the
-rope and pitched it across the room. “Remember that you're covered every
-move you make, my buck,” he cautioned.
-
-“Freckles! Freckles!” came the Angel's impatient voice, closer and
-closer.
-
-“I must be answering,” said Freckles, and Jack nodded. “Right here!”
- he called, and to the men: “You go on with your work, and remember
-one thing yourselves. The work of the Bird Woman is known all over the
-world. This girl's father is a rich man, and she is all he has. If you
-offer hurt of any kind to either of them, this world has no place far
-enough away or dark enough for you to be hiding in. Hell will be easy to
-what any man will get if he touches either of them!”
-
-“Freckles, where are you?” demanded the Angel.
-
-Soulsick with fear for her, Freckles went toward her and parted the
-bushes that she might enter. She came through without apparently giving
-him a glance, and the first words she said were: “Why have the gang come
-so soon? I didn't know you expected them for three weeks yet. Or is this
-some especial tree that Mr. McLean needs to fill an order right now?”
-
-Freckles hesitated. Would a man dare lie to save himself? No. But to
-save the Angel--surely that was different. He opened his lips, but the
-Angel was capable of saving herself. She walked among them, exactly as
-if she had been reared in a lumber camp, and never waited for an answer.
-
-“Why, your specimen case!” she cried. “Look! Haven't you noticed that
-it's tipped over? Set it straight, quickly!”
-
-A couple of the men stepped out and carefully righted the case.
-
-“There! That's better,” she said. “Freckles, I'm surprised at your being
-so careless. It would be a shame to break those lovely butterflies for
-one old tree! Is that a valuable tree? Why didn't you tell us last night
-you were going to take out a tree this morning? Oh, say, did you put
-your case there to protect that tree from that stealing old Black Jack
-and his gang? I bet you did! Well, if that wasn't bright! What kind of a
-tree is it?”
-
-“It's a white oak,” said Freckles.
-
-“Like those they make dining-tables and sideboards from?”
-
-“Yes.”
-
-“My! How interesting!” she cried. “I don't know a thing about timber,
-but my father wants me to learn just everything I can. I am going to ask
-him to let me come here and watch you until I know enough to boss a gang
-myself. Do you like to cut trees, gentlemen?” she asked with angelic
-sweetness of the men.
-
-Some of them appeared foolish and some grim, but one managed to say they
-did.
-
-Then the Angel's eyes turned full on Black Jack, and she gave the most
-natural little start of astonishment.
-
-“Oh! I almost thought that you were a ghost!” she cried. “But I see now
-that you are really and truly. Were you ever in Colorado?”
-
-“No,” said Jack.
-
-“I see you aren't the same man,” said the Angel. “You know, we were in
-Colorado last year, and there was a cowboy who was the handsomest man
-anywhere around. He'd come riding into town every night, and all we
-girls just adored him! Oh, but he was a beauty! I thought at first
-glance you were really he, but I see now he wasn't nearly so tall nor so
-broad as you, and only half as handsome.”
-
-The men began to laugh while Jack flushed crimson. The Angel joined in
-the laugh.
-
-“Well, I'll leave it to you! Isn't he handsome?” she challenged. “As for
-that cowboy's face, it couldn't be compared with yours. The only trouble
-with you is that your clothes are spoiling you. It's the dress those
-cowboys wear that makes half their attraction. If you were properly
-clothed, you could break the heart of the prettiest girl in the
-country.”
-
-With one accord the other men looked at Black Jack, and for the first
-time realized that he was a superb specimen of manhood, for he stood six
-feet tall, was broad, well-rounded, and had dark, even skin, big black
-eyes, and full red lips.
-
-“I'll tell you what!” exclaimed the Angel. “I'd just love to see you on
-horseback. Nothing sets a handsome man off so splendidly. Do you ride?”
-
-“Yes,” said Jack, and his eyes were burning on the Angel as if he would
-fathom the depths of her soul.
-
-“Well,” said the Angel winsomely, “I know what I just wish you'd do.
-I wish you would let your hair grow a little longer. Then wear a
-blue flannel shirt a little open at the throat, a red tie, and a
-broad-brimmed felt hat, and ride past my house of evenings. I'm always
-at home then, and almost always on the veranda, and, oh! but I would
-like to see you! Will you do that for me?” It is impossible to describe
-the art with which the Angel asked the question. She was looking
-straight into Jack's face, coarse and hardened with sin and careless
-living, which was now taking on a wholly different expression. The evil
-lines of it were softening and fading under her clear gaze. A dull red
-flamed into his bronze cheeks, while his eyes were growing brightly
-tender.
-
-“Yes,” he said, and the glance he gave the men was of such a nature that
-no one saw fit even to change countenance.
-
-“Oh, goody!” she cried, tilting on her toes. “I'll ask all the girls
-to come see, but they needn't stick in! We can get along without them,
-can't we?”
-
-Jack leaned toward her. He was the charmed fluttering bird, while the
-Angel was the snake.
-
-“Well, I rather guess!” he cried.
-
-The Angel drew a deep breath and surveyed him rapturously.
-
-“My, but you're tall!” she commented. “Do you suppose I ever will grow
-to reach your shoulders?”
-
-She stood on tiptoe and measured the distance with her eyes. Then she
-developed timid confusion, while her glance sought the ground.
-
-“I wish I could do something,” she half whispered.
-
-Jack seemed to increase an inch in height.
-
-“What?” he asked hoarsely.
-
-“Lariat Bill used always to have a bunch of red flowers in his shirt
-pocket. The red lit up his dark eyes and olive cheeks and made him
-splendid. May I put some red flowers on you?”
-
-Freckles stared as he wheezed for breath. He wished the earth would open
-and swallow him. Was he dead or alive? Since his Angel had seen Black
-Jack she never had glanced his way. Was she completely bewitched? Would
-she throw herself at the man's feet before them all? Couldn't she give
-him even one thought? Hadn't she seen that he was gagged and bound? Did
-she truly think that these were McLean's men? Why, she could not! It was
-only a few days ago that she had been close enough to this man and angry
-enough with him to peel the hat from his head with a shot! Suddenly a
-thing she had said jestingly to him one day came back with startling
-force: “You must take Angels on trust.” Of course you must! She was his
-Angel. She must have seen! His life, and what was far more, her own, was
-in her hands. There was nothing he could do but trust her. Surely she
-was working out some plan.
-
-The Angel knelt beside his flower bed and recklessly tore up by the
-roots a big bunch of foxfire.
-
-“These stems are so tough and sticky,” she said. “I can't break them.
-Loan me your knife,” she ordered Freckles.
-
-As she reached for the knife, her back was for one second toward the
-men. She looked into his eyes and deliberately winked.
-
-She severed the stems, tossed the knife to Freckles, and walking to
-Jack, laid the flowers over his heart.
-
-Freckles broke into a sweat of agony. He had said she would be safe in
-a herd of howling savages. Would she? If Black Jack even made a motion
-toward touching her, Freckles knew that from somewhere he would muster
-the strength to kill him. He mentally measured the distance to where his
-club lay and set his muscles for a spring. But no--by the splendor of
-God! The big fellow was baring his head with a hand that was unsteady.
-The Angel pulled one of the long silver pins from her hat and fastened
-her flowers securely.
-
-Freckles was quaking. What was to come next? What was she planning, and
-oh! did she understand the danger of her presence among those men; the
-real necessity for action?
-
-As the Angel stepped from Jack, she turned her head to one side and
-peered at him, quite as Freckles had seen the little yellow fellow do
-on the line a hundred times, and said: “Well, that does the trick! Isn't
-that fine? See how it sets him off, boys? Don't you forget the tie is to
-be red, and the first ride soon. I can't wait very long. Now I must go.
-The Bird Woman will be ready to start, and she will come here hunting me
-next, for she is busy today. What did I come here for anyway?”
-
-She glanced inquiringly around, and several of the men laughed. Oh, the
-delight of it! She had forgotten her errand for him! Jack had a second
-increase in height. The Angel glanced helplessly as if seeking a clue.
-Then her eyes fell, as if by accident, on Freckles, and she cried, “Oh,
-I know now! It was those magazines the Bird Woman promised you. I came
-to tell you that we put them under the box where we hide things, at
-the entrance to the swamp as we came in. I knew I would need my hands
-crossing the swamp, so I hid them there. You'll find them at the same
-old place.”
-
-Then Freckles spoke.
-
-“It's mighty risky for you to be crossing the swamp alone,” he said.
-“I'm surprised that the Bird Woman would be letting you try it. I know
-it's a little farther, but it's begging you I am to be going back by the
-trail. That's bad enough, but it's far safer than the swamp.”
-
-The Angel laughed merrily.
-
-“Oh stop your nonsense!” she cried. “I'm not afraid! Not in the least!
-The Bird Woman didn't want me to try following a path that I'd been over
-only once, but I was sure I could do it, and I'm rather proud of the
-performance. Now, don't go babying! You know I'm not afraid!”
-
-“No,” said Freckles gently, “I know you're not; but that has nothing to
-do with the fact that your friends are afraid for you. On the trail you
-can see your way a bit ahead, and you've all the world a better chance
-if you meet a snake.”
-
-Then Freckles had an inspiration. He turned to Jack imploringly.
-
-“You tell her!” he pleaded. “Tell her to go by the trail. She will for
-you.”
-
-The implication of this statement was so gratifying to Black Jack that
-he seemed again to expand and take on increase before their very eyes.
-
-“You bet!” exclaimed Jack. And to the Angel: “You better take Freckles'
-word for it, miss. He knows the old swamp better than any of us, except
-me, and if he says 'go by the trail,' you'd best do it.”
-
-The Angel hesitated. She wanted to recross the swamp and try to reach
-the horse. She knew Freckles would brave any danger to save her crossing
-the swamp alone, but she really was not afraid, while the trail added
-over a mile to the walk. She knew the path. She intended to run for dear
-life the instant she felt herself from their sight, and tucked in the
-folds of her blouse was a fine little 32-caliber revolver that her
-father had presented her for her share in what he was pleased to call
-her military exploit. One last glance at Freckles showed her the agony
-in his eyes, and immediately she imagined he had some other reason. She
-would follow the trail.
-
-“All right,” she said, giving Jack a thrilling glance. “If you say so,
-I'll return by the trail to please you. Good-bye, everybody.”
-
-She lifted the bushes and started toward the entrance.
-
-“You damned fool! Stop her!” growled Wessner. “Keep her till we're
-loaded, anyhow. You're playing hell! Can't you see that when this thing
-is found out, there she'll be to ruin all of us. If you let her go,
-every man of us has got to cut, and some of us will be caught sure.”
-
-Jack sprang forward. Freckles' heart muffled in his throat. The Angel
-seemed to divine Jack's coming. She was humming a little song. She
-deliberately stopped and began pulling the heads of the curious grasses
-that grew all around her. When she straightened, she took a step
-backward and called: “Ho! Freckles, the Bird Woman wants that natural
-history pamphlet returned. It belongs to a set she is going to have
-bound. That's one of the reasons we put it under the box. You be sure to
-get them as you go home tonight, for fear it rains or becomes damp with
-the heavy dews.”
-
-“All right,” said Freckles, but it was in a voice that he never had
-heard before.
-
-Then the Angel turned and sent a parting glance at Jack. She was
-overpoweringly human and bewitchingly lovely.
-
-“You won't forget that ride and the red tie,” she half asserted, half
-questioned.
-
-Jack succumbed. Freckles was his captive, but he was the Angel's, soul
-and body. His face wore the holiest look it ever had known as he softly
-re-echoed Freckles' “All right.” With her head held well up, the Angel
-walked slowly away, and Jack turned to the men.
-
-“Drop your damned staring and saw wood,” he shouted. “Don't you know
-anything at all about how to treat a lady?” It might have been a
-question which of the cronies that crouched over green wood fires in the
-cabins of Wildcat Hollow, eternally sucking a corncob pipe and stirring
-the endless kettles of stewing coon and opossum, had taught him to do
-even as well as he had by the Angel.
-
-The men muttered and threatened among themselves, but they began working
-desperately. Someone suggested that a man be sent to follow the Angel
-and to watch her and the Bird Woman leave the swamp. Freckles' heart
-sank within him, but Jack was in a delirium and past all caution.
-
-“Yes,” he sneered. “Mebby all of you had better give over on the saw and
-run after the girl. I guess not! Seems to me I got the favors. I didn't
-see no bouquets on the rest of you! If anybody follows her, I do, and
-I'm needed here among such a pack of idiots. There's no danger in that
-baby face. She wouldn't give me away! You double and work like forty,
-while me and Wessner will take the axes and begin to cut in on the other
-side.”
-
-“What about the noise?” asked Wessner.
-
-“No difference about the noise,” answered Jack. “She took us to be from
-McLean's gang, slick as grease. Make the chips fly!”
-
-So all of them attacked the big tree.
-
-Freckles sat on one of his benches and waited. In their haste to fell
-the tree and load it, so that the teamsters could start, and leave them
-free to attack another, they had forgotten to rebind him.
-
-The Angel was on the trail and safely started. The cold perspiration
-made Freckles' temples clammy and ran in little streams down his chest.
-It would take her more time to follow the trail, but her safety was
-Freckles' sole thought in urging her to go that way. He tried to figure
-on how long it would require to walk to the carriage. He wondered if the
-Bird Woman had unhitched. He followed the Angel every step of the way.
-He figured on when she would cross the path of the clearing, pass the
-deep pool where his “find-out” frog lived, cross Sleepy Snake Creek, and
-reach the carriage.
-
-He wondered what she would say to the Bird Woman, and how long it would
-take them to pack and start. He knew now that they would understand, and
-the Angel would try to get the Boss there in time to save his wager.
-She could never do it, for the saw was over half through, and Jack and
-Wessner cutting into the opposite side of the tree. It appeared as if
-they could fell at least that tree, before McLean could come, and if
-they did he lost his wager.
-
-When it was down, would they rebind him and leave him for Wessner to
-wreak his insane vengeance on, or would they take him along to the next
-tree and dispose of him when they had stolen all the timber they could?
-Jack had said that he should not be touched until he left. Surely he
-would not run all that risk for one tree, when he had many others of far
-greater value marked. Freckles felt that he had some hope to cling to
-now, but he found himself praying that the Angel would hurry.
-
-Once Jack came to Freckles and asked if he had any water. Freckles arose
-and showed him where he kept his drinking-water. Jack drank in great
-gulps, and as he passed back the bucket, he said: “When a man's got a
-chance of catching a fine girl like that, he ought not be mixed up in
-any dirty business. I wish to God I was out of this!”
-
-Freckles answered heartily: “I wish I was, too!”
-
-Jack stared at him a minute and then broke into a roar of rough
-laughter.
-
-“Blest if I blame you,” he said. “But you had your chance! We offered
-you a fair thing and you gave Wessner his answer. I ain't envying you
-when he gives you his.”
-
-“You're six to one,” answered Freckles. “It will be easy enough for you
-to be killing the body of me, but, curse you all, you can't blacken me
-soul!”
-
-“Well, I'd give anything you could name if I had your honesty,” said
-Jack.
-
-When the mighty tree fell, the Limberlost shivered and screamed with the
-echo. Freckles groaned in despair, but the gang took heart. That was
-so much accomplished. They knew where to dispose of it safely, with
-no questions asked. Before the day was over, they could remove three
-others, all suitable for veneer and worth far more than this. Then they
-would leave Freckles to Wessner and scatter for safety, with more money
-than they had ever hoped for in their possession.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack Falls
-upon Her
-
-On the line, the Angel gave one backward glance at Black Jack, to see
-that he had returned to his work. Then she gathered her skirts above her
-knees and leaped forward on the run. In the first three yards she passed
-Freckles' wheel. Instantly she imagined that was why he had insisted on
-her coming by the trail. She seized it and sprang on. The saddle was
-too high, but she was an expert rider and could catch the pedals as
-they came up. She stopped at Duncan's cabin long enough to remedy this,
-telling Mrs. Duncan while working what was happening, and for her to
-follow the east trail until she found the Bird Woman, and told her that
-she had gone after McLean and for her to leave the swamp as quickly as
-possible.
-
-Even with her fear for Freckles to spur her, Sarah Duncan blanched and
-began shivering at the idea of facing the Limberlost. The Angel looked
-her in the eyes.
-
-“No matter how afraid you are, you have to go,” she said. “If you don't
-the Bird Woman will go to Freckles' room, hunting me, and they will have
-trouble with her. If she isn't told to leave at once, they may follow
-me, and, finding I'm gone, do some terrible thing to Freckles. I can't
-go--that's flat--for if they caught me, then there'd be no one to go
-for help. You don't suppose they are going to take out the trees they're
-after and then leave Freckles to run and tell? They are going to murder
-the boy; that's what they are going to do. You run, and run for life!
-For Freckles' life! You can ride back with the Bird Woman.”
-
-The Angel saw Mrs. Duncan started; then began her race.
-
-Those awful miles of corduroy! Would they never end? She did not dare
-use the wheel too roughly, for if it broke she never could arrive on
-time afoot. Where her way was impassable for the wheel, she jumped off,
-and pushing it beside her or carrying it, she ran as fast as she could.
-The day was fearfully warm. The sun poured with the fierce baking heat
-of August. The bushes claimed her hat, and she did not stop for it.
-
-Where it was at all possible, the Angel mounted and pounded over the
-corduroy again. She was panting for breath and almost worn out when she
-reached the level pike. She had no idea how long she had been--and only
-two miles covered. She leaned over the bars, almost standing on the
-pedals, racing with all the strength in her body. The blood surged in
-her ears while her head swam, but she kept a straight course, and rode
-and rode. It seemed to her that she was standing still, while the trees
-and houses were racing past her.
-
-Once a farmer's big dog rushed angrily into the road and she swerved
-until she almost fell, but she regained her balance, and setting her
-muscles, pedaled as fast as she could. At last she lifted her head.
-Surely it could not be over a mile more. She had covered two of corduroy
-and at least three of gravel, and it was only six in all.
-
-She was reeling in the saddle, but she gripped the bars with new energy,
-and raced desperately. The sun beat on her bare head and hands. Just
-when she was choking with dust, and almost prostrate with heat and
-exhaustion--crash, she ran into a broken bottle. Snap! went the tire;
-the wheel swerved and pitched over. The Angel rolled into the thick
-yellow dust of the road and lay quietly.
-
-From afar, Duncan began to notice a strange, dust-covered object in the
-road, as he headed toward town with the first load of the day's felling.
-
-He chirruped to the bays and hurried them all he could. As he neared the
-Angel, he saw it was a woman and a broken wheel. He was beside her in an
-instant. He carried her to a shaded fence-corner, stretched her on
-the grass, and wiped the dust from the lovely face all dirt-streaked,
-crimson, and bearing a startling whiteness around the mouth and nose.
-
-Wheels were common enough. Many of the farmers' daughters owned and
-rode them, but he knew these same farmers' daughters; this face was a
-stranger's. He glanced at the Angel's tumbled clothing, the silkiness of
-her hair, with its pale satin ribbon, and noticed that she had lost her
-hat. Her lips tightened in an ominous quiver. He left her and picked
-up the wheel: as he had surmised, he knew it. This, then, was Freckles'
-Swamp Angel. There was trouble in the Limberlost, and she had broken
-down racing to McLean. Duncan turned the bays into a fence-corner, tied
-one of them, unharnessed the other, fastened up the trace chains, and
-hurried to the nearest farmhouse to send help to the Angel. He found a
-woman, who took a bottle of camphor, a jug of water, and some towels,
-and started on the run.
-
-Then Duncan put the bay to speed and raced to camp.
-
-The Angel, left alone, lay still for a second, then she shivered and
-opened her eyes. She saw that she was on the grass and the broken wheel
-beside her. Instantly she realized that someone had carried her there
-and gone after help. She sat up and looked around. She noticed the load
-of logs and the one horse. Someone was riding after help for her!
-
-“Oh, poor Freckles!” she wailed. “They may be killing him by now. Oh,
-how much time have I wasted?”
-
-She hurried to the other bay, her fingers flying as she set him free.
-Snatching up a big blacksnake whip that lay on the ground, she caught
-the hames, stretched along the horse's neck, and, for the first time,
-the fine, big fellow felt on his back the quality of the lash that
-Duncan was accustomed to crack over him. He was frightened, and ran at
-top speed.
-
-The Angel passed a wildly waving, screaming woman on the road, and a
-little later a man riding as if he, too, were in great haste. The man
-called to her, but she only lay lower and used the whip. Soon the feet
-of the man's horse sounded farther and farther away.
-
-At the South camp they were loading a second wagon, when the Angel
-appeared riding one of Duncan's bays, lathered and dripping, and cried:
-“Everybody go to Freckles! There are thieves stealing trees, and they
-had him bound. They're going to kill him!”
-
-She wheeled the horse toward the Limberlost. The alarm sounded through
-camp. The gang were not unprepared. McLean sprang to Nellie's back and
-raced after the Angel. As they passed Duncan, he wheeled and followed.
-Soon the pike was an irregular procession of barebacked riders, wildly
-driving flying horses toward the swamp.
-
-The Boss rode neck-and-neck with the Angel. He repeatedly commanded her
-to stop and fall out of line, until he remembered that he would need her
-to lead him to Freckles. Then he gave up and rode beside her, for she
-was sending the bay at as sharp a pace as the other horses could keep
-and hold out. He could see that she was not hearing him. He glanced back
-and saw that Duncan was close. There was something terrifying in the
-appearance of the big man, and the manner in which he sat his beast and
-rode. It would be a sad day for the man on whom Duncan's wrath broke.
-There were four others close behind him, and the pike filling with the
-remainder of the gang; so McLean took heart and raced beside the Angel.
-Over and over he asked her where the trouble was, but she only gripped
-the hames, leaned along the bay's neck, and slashed away with the
-blacksnake. The steaming horse, with crimson nostrils and heaving sides,
-stretched out and ran for home with all the speed there was in him.
-
-When they passed the cabin, the Bird Woman's carriage was there and Mrs.
-Duncan in the door wringing her hands, but the Bird Woman was nowhere to
-be seen. The Angel sent the bay along the path and turned into the west
-trail, while the men bunched and followed her. When she reached the
-entrance to Freckles' room, there were four men with her, and two more
-very close behind. She slid from the horse, and snatching the little
-revolver from her pocket, darted toward the bushes. McLean caught them
-back, and with drawn weapon, pressed beside her. There they stopped in
-astonishment.
-
-The Bird Woman blocked the entrance. Over a small limb lay her revolver.
-It was trained at short range on Black Jack and Wessner, who stood with
-their hands above their heads.
-
-Freckles, with the blood trickling down his face, from an ugly cut in
-his temple, was gagged and bound to the tree again; the remainder of the
-men were gone. Black Jack was raving as a maniac, and when they looked
-closer it was only the left arm that he raised. His right, with the
-hand shattered, hung helpless at his side, while his revolver lay
-at Freckles' feet. Wessner's weapon was in his belt, and beside him
-Freckles' club.
-
-Freckles' face was white, with colorless lips, but in his eyes was the
-strength of undying courage. McLean pushed past the Bird Woman crying.
-“Hold steady on them only one minute more!”
-
-He snatched the revolver from Wessner's belt, and stooped for Jack's.
-
-At that instant the Angel rushed past. She tore the gag from Freckles,
-and seizing the rope knotted on his chest, she tugged at it desperately.
-Under her fingers it gave way, and she hurled it to McLean. The men were
-crowding in, and Duncan seized Wessner. As the Angel saw Freckles stand
-out, free, she reached her arms to him and pitched forward. A fearful
-oath burst from the lips of Black Jack. To have saved his life, Freckles
-could not have avoided the glance of triumph he gave Jack, when folding
-the Angel in his arms and stretching her on the mosses.
-
-The Bird Woman cried out sharply for water as she ran to them. Someone
-sprang to bring that, and another to break open the case for brandy.
-As McLean arose from binding Wessner, there was a cry that Jack was
-escaping.
-
-He was already far in the swamp, running for its densest part in leaping
-bounds. Every man who could be spared plunged after him.
-
-Other members of the gang arriving, were sent to follow the tracks
-of the wagons. The teamsters had driven from the west entrance, and
-crossing the swale, had taken the same route the Bird Woman and the
-Angel had before them. There had been ample time for the drivers to
-reach the road; after that they could take any one of four directions.
-Traffic was heavy, and lumber wagons were passing almost constantly,
-so the men turned back and joined the more exciting hunt for a man.
-The remainder of the gang joined them, also farmers of the region and
-travelers attracted by the disturbance.
-
-Watchers were set along the trail at short intervals. They patrolled the
-line and roads through the swamp that night, with lighted torches, and
-the next day McLean headed as thorough a search as he felt could be made
-of one side, while Duncan covered the other; but Black Jack could not be
-found. Spies were set around his home, in Wildcat Hollow, to ascertain
-if he reached there or aid was being sent in any direction to him; but
-it was soon clear that his relatives were ignorant of his hiding-place,
-and were searching for him.
-
-Great is the elasticity of youth. A hot bath and a sound night's sleep
-renewed Freckles' strength, and it needed but little more to work the
-same result with the Angel. Freckles was on the trail early the next
-morning. Besides a crowd of people anxious to witness Jack's capture,
-he found four stalwart guards, one at each turn. In his heart he was
-compelled to admit that he was glad to have them there. Close noon,
-McLean placed his men in charge of Duncan, and taking Freckles, drove to
-town to see how the Angel fared. McLean visited a greenhouse and bought
-an armload of its finest products; but Freckles would have none of them.
-He would carry his message in a glowing mass of the Limberlost's first
-goldenrod.
-
-The Bird Woman received them, and in answer to their eager inquiries,
-said that the Angel was in no way seriously injured, only so bruised
-and shaken that their doctor had ordered her to lie quietly for the day.
-Though she was sore and stiff, they were having work to keep her in bed.
-Her callers sent up their flowers with their grateful regards, and the
-Angel promptly returned word that she wanted to see them.
-
-She reached both hands to McLean. “What if one old tree is gone? You
-don't care, sir? You feel that Freckles has kept his trust as nobody
-ever did before, don't you? You won't forget all those long first days
-of fright that you told us of, the fearful cold of winter, the rain,
-heat, and lonesomeness, and the brave days, and lately, nights, too, and
-let him feel that his trust is broken? Oh, Mr. McLean,” she begged,
-“say something to him! Do something to make him feel that it isn't for
-nothing he has watched and suffered it out with that old Limberlost.
-Make him see how great and fine it is, and how far, far better he has
-done than you or any of us expected! What's one old tree, anyway?” she
-cried passionately.
-
-“I was thinking before you came. Those other men were rank big cowards.
-They were scared for their lives. If they were the drivers, I wager you
-gloves against gloves they never took those logs out to the pike. My
-coming upset them. Before you feel bad any more, you go look and see if
-they didn't lose courage the minute they left Wessner and Black Jack,
-dump that timber and run. I don't believe they ever had the grit to
-drive out with it in daylight. Go see if they didn't figure on leaving
-the way we did the other morning, and you'll find the logs before you
-reach the road. They never risked taking them into the open, when they
-got away and had time to think. Of course they didn't!
-
-“And, then, another thing. You haven't lost your wager! It never will
-be claimed, because you made it with a stout, dark, red-faced man who
-drives a bay and a gray. He was right back of you, Mr. McLean, when I
-came yesterday. He went deathly white and shook on his feet when he saw
-those men probably would be caught. Some one of them was something to
-him, and you can just spot him for one of the men at the bottom of your
-troubles, and urging those younger fellows to steal from you. I suppose
-he'd promised to divide. You settle with him, and that business will
-stop.”
-
-She turned to Freckles. “And you be the happiest man alive, because you
-have kept your trust. Go look where I tell you and you'll find the logs.
-I can see just about where they are. When they go up that steep little
-hill, into the next woods after the cornfield, why, they could unloose
-the chains and the logs would roll from the wagons themselves. Now, you
-go look; and Mr. McLean, you do feel that Freckles has been brave and
-faithful? You won't love him any the less even if you don't find the
-logs.”
-
-The Angel's nerve gave way and she began to cry. Freckles could not
-endure it. He almost ran from the room, with the tears in his eyes; but
-McLean took the Angel from the Bird Woman's arms, and kissed her brave
-little face, stroked her hair, and petted her into quietness before he
-left.
-
-As they drove to the swamp, McLean so earnestly seconded all that the
-Angel had said that he soon had the boy feeling much better.
-
-“Freckles, your Angel has a spice of the devil in her, but she's superb!
-You needn't spend any time questioning or bewailing anything she does.
-Just worship blindly, my boy. By heaven! she's sense, courage, and
-beauty for half a dozen girls,” said McLean.
-
-“It's altogether right you are, sir,” affirmed Freckles heartily.
-Presently he added, “There's no question but the series is over now.”
-
-“Don't think it!” answered McLean. “The Bird Woman is working for
-success, and success along any line is not won by being scared out. She
-will be back on the usual day, and ten to one, the Angel will be with
-her. They are made of pretty stern stuff, and they don't scare worth
-a cent. Before I left, I told the Bird Woman it would be safe; and it
-will. You may do your usual walking, but those four guards are there to
-remain. They are under your orders absolutely. They are prohibited from
-firing on any bird or molesting anything that you want to protect, but
-there they remain, and this time it is useless for you to say one word.
-I have listened to your pride too long. You are too precious to me, and
-that voice of yours is too precious to the world to run any more risks.”
-
-“I am sorry to have anything spoil the series,” said Freckles, “and I'd
-love them to be coming, the Angel especial, but it can't be. You'll have
-to tell them so. You see, Jack would have been ready to stake his life
-she meant what she said and did to him. When the teams pulled out,
-Wessner seized me; then he and Jack went to quarreling over whether they
-should finish me then or take me to the next tree they were for felling.
-Between them they were pulling me around and hurting me bad. Wessner
-wanted to get at me right then, and Jack said he shouldn't be touching
-me till the last tree was out and all the rest of them gone. I'm
-belaying Jack really hated to see me done for in the beginning; and
-I think, too, he was afraid if Wessner finished me then he'd lose his
-nerve and cut, and they couldn't be managing the felling without him;
-anyway, they were hauling me round like I was already past all feeling,
-and they tied me up again. To keep me courage up, I twits Wessner about
-having to tie me and needing another man to help handle me. I told him
-what I'd do to him if I was free, and he grabs up me own club and lays
-open me head with it. When the blood came streaming, it set Jack raving,
-and he cursed and damned Wessner for a coward and a softy. Then Wessner
-turned on Jack and gives it to him for letting the Angel make a fool of
-him. Tells him she was just playing with him, and beyond all manner of
-doubt she'd gone after you, and there was nothing to do on account of
-his foolishness but finish me, get out, and let the rest of the timber
-go, for likely you was on the way right then. That drove Jack plum
-crazy.
-
-“I don't think he was for having a doubt of the Angel before, but then
-he just raved. He grabbed out his gun and turned on Wessner. Spang! It
-went out of his fist, and the order comes: 'Hands up!' Wessner reached
-for kingdom come like he was expecting to grab hold and pull himself
-up. Jack puts up what he has left. Then he leans over to me and tells me
-what he'll do to me if he ever gets out of there alive. Then, just like
-a snake hissing, he spits out what he'll do to her for playing him. He
-did get away, and with his strength, that wound in his hand won't be
-bothering him long. He'll do to me just what he said, and when he hears
-it really was she that went after you, why, he'll keep his oath about
-her.
-
-“He's lived in the swamp all his life, sir, and everybody says it's
-always been the home of cutthroats, outlaws, and runaways. He knows its
-most secret places as none of the others. He's alive. He's in there now,
-sir. Some way he'll keep alive. If you'd seen his face, all scarlet with
-passion, twisted with pain, and black with hate, and heard him swearing
-that oath, you'd know it was a sure thing. I ain't done with him yet,
-and I've brought this awful thing on her.”
-
-“And I haven't begun with him yet,” said McLean, setting his teeth.
-“I've been away too slow and too easy, believing there'd be no greater
-harm than the loss of a tree. I've sent for a couple of first-class
-detectives. We will put them on his track, and rout him out and rid the
-country of him. I don't propose for him to stop either our work or our
-pleasure. As for his being in the swamp now, I don't believe it. He'd
-find a way out last night, in spite of us. Don't you worry! I am at the
-helm now, and I'll see to that gentleman in my own way.”
-
-“I wish to my soul you had seen and heard him!” said Freckles,
-unconvinced.
-
-They entered the swamp, taking the route followed by the Bird Woman and
-the Angel. They really did find the logs, almost where the Angel had
-predicted they would be. McLean went to the South camp and had an
-interview with Crowen that completely convinced him that the Angel
-was correct there also. But he had no proof, so all he could do was to
-discharge the man, although his guilt was so apparent that he offered to
-withdraw the wager.
-
-Then McLean sent for a pack of bloodhounds and put them on the trail of
-Black Jack. They clung to it, on and on, into the depths of the swamp,
-leading their followers through what had been considered impassable and
-impenetrable ways, and finally, around near the west entrance and into
-the swale. Here the dogs bellowed, raved, and fell over each other in
-their excitement. They raced back and forth from swamp to swale, but
-follow the scent farther they would not, even though cruelly driven. At
-last their owner attributed their actions to snakes, and as they were
-very valuable dogs, abandoned the effort to urge them on. So that all
-they really established was the fact that Black Jack had eluded their
-vigilance and crossed the trail some time in the night. He had escaped
-to the swale; from there he probably crossed the corduroy, and reaching
-the lower end of the swamp, had found friends. It was a great relief to
-feel that he was not in the swamp, and it raised the spirits of every
-man on the line, though many of them expressed regrets that he who
-was undoubtedly most to blame should escape, while Wessner, who in the
-beginning was only his tool, should be left to punishment.
-
-But for Freckles, with Jack's fearful oath ringing in his ears, there
-was neither rest nor peace. He was almost ill when the day for the next
-study of the series arrived and he saw the Bird Woman and the Angel
-coming down the corduroy. The guards of the east line he left at their
-customary places, but those of the west he brought over and placed, one
-near Little Chicken's tree, and the other at the carriage. He was firm
-about the Angel's remaining in the carriage, that he did not offer to
-have unhitched. He went with the Bird Woman to secure the picture,
-which was the easiest matter it had been at any time yet, for the simple
-reason that the placing of the guards and the unusual movement around
-the swamp had made Mr. and Mrs. Chicken timid, and they had not carried
-Little Chicken the customary amount of food. Freckles, in the anxiety of
-the past few days, had neglected him, and he had been so hungry, much
-of the time, that when the Bird Woman held up a sweet-bread, although
-he had started toward the recesses of the log at her coming, he stopped;
-with slightly opened beak, he waited anxiously for the treat, and gave a
-study of great value, showing every point of his head, also his wing and
-tail development.
-
-When the Bird Woman proposed to look for other subjects close about the
-line, Freckles went so far as to tell her that Jack had made fearful
-threats against the Angel. He implored her to take the Angel home and
-keep her under unceasing guard until Jack was located. He wanted to
-tell her all about it, but he knew how dear the Angel was to her, and he
-dreaded to burden her with his fears when they might prove groundless.
-He allowed her to go, but afterward blamed himself severely for having
-done so.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV
-
-Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-
-“McLean,” said Mrs. Duncan, as the Boss paused to greet her in passing
-the cabin, “do you know that Freckles hasna been in bed the past five
-nights and all he's eaten in that many days ye could pack into a pint
-cup?”
-
-“Why, what does the boy mean?” demanded McLean. “There's no necessity
-for him being on guard, with the watch I've set on the line. I had no
-idea he was staying down there.”
-
-“He's no there,” said Mrs. Duncan. “He goes somewhere else. He leaves
-on his wheel juist after we're abed and rides in close cock-crow or a
-little earlier, and he's looking like death and nothing short of it.”
-
-“But where does he go?” asked McLean in astonishment.
-
-“I'm no given to bearing tales out of school,” said Sarah Duncan, “but
-in this case I'd tell ye if I could. What the trouble is I dinna ken. If
-it is no' stopped, he's in for dreadful sickness, and I thought ye could
-find out and help him. He's in sair trouble; that's all I know.”
-
-McLean sat brooding as he stroked Nellie's neck.
-
-At last he said: “I suspect I understand. At any rate, I think I can
-find out. Thank you for telling me.”
-
-“Ye'll no need telling, once ye clap your eyes on him,” prophesied
-Mrs. Duncan. “His face is all a glist'ny yellow, and he's peaked as a
-starving caged bird.”
-
-McLean rode to the Limberlost, and stopping in the shade, sat waiting
-for Freckles, whose hour for passing the foot of the lease had come.
-
-Along the north line came Freckles, fairly staggering. When he turned
-east and reached Sleepy Snake Creek, sliding through the swale as the
-long black snake for which it was named, he sat on the bridge and closed
-his burning eyes, but they would not remain shut. As if pulled by wires,
-the heavy lids flew open, while the outraged nerves and muscles of his
-body danced, twitched, and tingled.
-
-He bent forward and idly watched the limpid little stream flowing
-beneath his feet. Stretching into the swale, it came creeping between
-an impenetrable wall of magnificent wild flowers, vines, and ferns.
-Milkweed, goldenrod, ironwort, fringed gentians, cardinal-flowers, and
-turtle-head stood on the very edge of the creek, and every flower of
-them had a double in the water. Wild clematis crowned with snow the
-heads of trees scattered here and there on the bank.
-
-From afar the creek appeared to be murky, dirty water. Really it was
-clear and sparkling. The tinge of blackness was gained from its bed of
-muck showing through the transparent current. He could see small and
-wonderfully marked fish. What became of them when the creek spread into
-the swamp? For one thing, they would make mighty fine eating for the
-family of that self-satisfied old blue heron.
-
-Freckles sat so quietly that soon the brim of his hat was covered with
-snake-feeders, rasping their crisp wings and singing while they rested.
-Some of them settled on the club, and one on his shoulder. He was so
-motionless; feathers, fur, and gauze were so accustomed to him, that
-all through the swale they continued their daily life and forgot he was
-there.
-
-The heron family were wading the mouth of the creek. Freckles idly
-wondered whether the nerve-racking rasps they occasionally emitted
-indicated domestic felicity or a raging quarrel. He could not decide. A
-sheitpoke, with flaring crest, went stalking across a bare space
-close to the creek's mouth. A stately brown bittern waded into the
-clear-flowing water, lifting his feet high at every step, and setting
-them down carefully, as if he dreaded wetting them, and with slightly
-parted beak, stood eagerly watching around him for worms. Behind him
-were some mighty trees of the swamp above, and below the bank glowed a
-solid wall of goldenrod.
-
-No wonder the ancients had chosen yellow as the color to represent
-victory, for the fierce, conquering hue of the sun was in it. They had
-done well, too, in selecting purple as the emblem of royalty. It was a
-dignified, compelling color, while in its warm tone there was a hint of
-blood.
-
-It was the Limberlost's hour to proclaim her sovereignty and triumph.
-Everywhere she flaunted her yellow banner and trailed the purple of her
-mantle, that was paler in the thistle-heads, took on strength in the
-first opening asters, and glowed and burned in the ironwort.
-
-He gazed into her damp, mossy recesses where high-piled riven trees
-decayed under coats of living green, where dainty vines swayed and
-clambered, and here and there a yellow leaf, fluttering down, presaged
-the coming of winter. His love of the swamp laid hold of him and shook
-him with its force.
-
-Compellingly beautiful was the Limberlost, but cruel withal; for inside
-bleached the uncoffined bones of her victims, while she had missed
-cradling him, oh! so narrowly.
-
-He shifted restlessly; the movement sent the snake-feeders skimming. The
-hum of life swelled and roared in his strained ears. Small turtles, that
-had climbed on a log to sun, splashed clumsily into the water. Somewhere
-in the timber of the bridge a bloodthirsty little frog cried sharply.
-“KEEL'IM! KEEL'IM!”
-
-Freckles muttered: “It's worse than that Black Jack swore to do to me,
-little fellow.”
-
-A muskrat waddled down the bank and swam for the swamp, its pointed nose
-riffling the water into a shining trail in its wake.
-
-Then, below the turtle-log, a dripping silver-gray head, with shining
-eyes, was cautiously lifted, and Freckles' hand slid to his revolver.
-Higher and higher came the head, a long, heavy, furcoated body arose,
-now half, now three-fourths from the water. Freckles looked at his
-shaking hand and doubted, but he gathered his forces, the shot rang, and
-the otter lay quiet. He hurried down and tried to lift it. He scarcely
-could muster strength to carry it to the bridge. The consciousness that
-he really could go no farther with it made Freckles realize the fact
-that he was close the limit of human endurance. He could bear it little,
-if any, longer. Every hour the dear face of the Angel wavered before
-him, and behind it the awful distorted image of Black Jack, as he had
-sworn to the punishment he would mete out to her. He must either see
-McLean, or else make a trip to town and find her father. Which should
-he do? He was almost a stranger, so the Angel's father might not be
-impressed with what he said as he would if McLean went to him. Then he
-remembered that McLean had said he would come that morning. Freckles
-never had forgotten before. He hurried on the east trail as fast as his
-tottering legs would carry him.
-
-He stopped when he came to the first guard, and telling him of his luck,
-asked him to get the otter and carry it to the cabin, as he was anxious
-to meet McLean.
-
-Freckles passed the second guard without seeing him, and hurried to the
-Boss. He took off his hat, wiped his forehead, and stood silent under
-the eyes of McLean.
-
-The Boss was dumbfounded. Mrs. Duncan had led him to expect that he
-would find a change in Freckles, but this was almost deathly. The fact
-was apparent that the boy scarcely knew what he was doing. His eyes had
-a glazed, far-sighted appearance, that wrung the heart of the man who
-loved him. Without a thought of preliminaries, McLean leaned in the
-saddle and drew Freckles to him.
-
-“My poor lad!” he said. “My poor, dear lad! tell me, and we will try to
-right it!”
-
-Freckles had twisted his fingers in Nellie's mane. At the kind words his
-face dropped on McLean's thigh and he shook with a nervous chill. McLean
-gathered him closer and waited.
-
-When the guard came with the otter, McLean without a word motioned him
-to lay it down and leave them.
-
-“Freckles,” said McLean at last, “will you tell me, or must I set to
-work in the dark and try to find the trouble?”
-
-“Oh, I want to tell you! I must tell you, sir,” shuddered Freckles.
-“I cannot be bearing it the day out alone. I was coming to you when I
-remimbered you would be here.”
-
-He lifted his face and gazed across the swale, with his jaws set firmly
-a minute, as if gathering his forces. Then he spoke.
-
-“It's the Angel, sir,” he said.
-
-Instinctively McLean's grip on him tightened, and Freckles looked into
-the Boss's face in wonder.
-
-“I tried, the other day,” said Freckles, “and I couldn't seem to make
-you see. It's only that there hasn't been an hour, waking or sleeping,
-since the day she parted the bushes and looked into me room, that the
-face of her hasn't been before me in all the tinderness, beauty, and
-mischief of it. She talked to me friendly like. She trusted me entirely
-to take right care of her. She helped me with things about me books. She
-traited me like I was born a gintleman, and shared with me as if I were
-of her own blood. She walked the streets of the town with me before her
-friends with all the pride of a queen. She forgot herself and didn't
-mind the Bird Woman, and run big risks to help me out that first day,
-sir. This last time she walked into that gang of murderers, took their
-leader, and twisted him to the will of her. She outdone him and raced
-the life almost out of her trying to save me.
-
-“Since I can remimber, whatever the thing was that happened to me in the
-beginning has been me curse. I've been bitter, hard, and smarting under
-it hopelessly. She came by, and found me voice, and put hope of life and
-success like other men into me in spite of it.”
-
-Freckles held up his maimed arm.
-
-“Look at it, sir!” he said. “A thousand times I've cursed it, hanging
-there helpless. She took it on the street, before all the people, just
-as if she didn't see that it was a thing to hide and shrink from. Again
-and again I've had the feeling with her, if I didn't entirely forget it,
-that she didn't see it was gone and I must he pointing it out to her.
-Her touch on it was so sacred-like, at times since I've caught meself
-looking at the awful thing near like I was proud of it, sir. If I had
-been born your son she couldn't be traiting me more as her equal, and
-she can't help knowing you ain't truly me father. Nobody can know the
-homeliness or the ignorance of me better than I do, and all me lack of
-birth, relatives, and money, and what's it all to her?”
-
-Freckles stepped back, squared his shoulders, and with a royal lift of
-his head looked straight into the Boss's eyes.
-
-“You saw her in the beautiful little room of her, and you can't be
-forgetting how she begged and plead with you for me. She touched me
-body, and 'twas sanctified. She laid her lips on my brow, and 'twas
-sacrament. Nobody knows the height of her better than me. Nobody's
-studied my depths closer. There's no bridge for the great distance
-between us, sir, and clearest of all, I'm for realizing it: but she
-risked terrible things when she came to me among that gang of thieves.
-She wore herself past bearing to save me from such an easy thing as
-death! Now, here's me, a man, a big, strong man, and letting her live
-under that fearful oath, so worse than any death 'twould be for her, and
-lifting not a finger to save her. I cannot hear it, sir. It's killing me
-by inches! Black Jack's hand may not have been hurt so bad. Any hour he
-may be creeping up behind her! Any minute the awful revenge he swore
-to be taking may in some way fall on her, and I haven't even warned her
-father. I can't stay here doing nothing another hour. The five nights
-gone I've watched under her windows, but there's the whole of the day.
-She's her own horse and little cart, and's free to be driving through
-the town and country as she pleases. If any evil comes to her through
-Black Jack, it comes from her angel-like goodness to me. Somewhere he's
-hiding! Somewhere he is waiting his chance! Somewhere he is reaching out
-for her! I tell you I cannot, I dare not be bearing it longer!”
-
-“Freckles, be quiet!” said McLean, his eyes humid and his voice
-quivering with the pity of it all. “Believe me, I did not understand.
-I know the Angel's father well. I will go to him at once. I have
-transacted business with him for the past three years. I will make him
-see! I am only beginning to realize your agony, and the real danger
-there is for the Angel. Believe me, I will see that she is fully
-protected every hour of the day and night until Jack is located and
-disposed of. And I promise you further, that if I fail to move her
-father or make him understand the danger, I will maintain a guard over
-her until Jack is caught. Now will you go bathe, drink some milk, go to
-bed, and sleep for hours, and then be my brave, bright old boy again?”
-
-“Yis,” said Freckles simply.
-
-But McLean could see the flesh was twitching on the lad's bones.
-
-“What was it the guard brought there?” McLean asked in an effort to
-distract Freckles' thoughts.
-
-“Oh!” Freckles said, glancing where the Boss pointed, “I forgot it! 'Tis
-an otter, and fine past believing, for this warm weather. I shot it at
-the creek this morning. 'Twas a good shot, considering. I expected to
-miss.”
-
-Freckles picked up the animal and started toward McLean with it, but
-Nellie pricked up her dainty little ears, danced into the swale, and
-snorted with fright. Freckles dropped the otter and ran to her head.
-
-“For pity's sake, get her on the trail, sir,” he begged. “She's just
-about where the old king rattler crosses to go into the swamp--the old
-buster Duncan and I have been telling you of. I haven't a doubt but it
-was the one Mother Duncan met. 'Twas down the trail there, just a little
-farther on, that I found her, and it's sure to be close yet.”
-
-McLean slid from Nellie's back, led her into the trail farther down the
-line, and tied her to a bush. Then he went to examine the otter. It was
-a rare, big specimen, with exquisitely fine, long, silky hair.
-
-“What do you want to do with it, Freckles?” asked McLean, as he stroked
-the soft fur lingeringly. “Do you know that it is very valuable?”
-
-“I was for almost praying so, sir,” said Freckles. “As I saw it coming
-up the bank I thought this: Once somewhere in a book there was a picture
-of a young girl, and she was just a breath like the beautifulness of the
-Angel. Her hands were in a muff as big as her body, and I thought it
-was so pretty. I think she was some queen, or the like. Do you suppose
-I could have this skin tanned and made into such a muff as that?--an
-enormous big one, sir?”
-
-“Of course you can,” said McLean. “That's a fine idea and it's easy
-enough. We must box and express the otter, cold storage, by the first
-train. You stand guard a minute and I'll tell Hall to carry it to the
-cabin. I'll put Nellie to Duncan's rig, and we'll drive to town and call
-on the Angel's father. Then we'll start the otter while it is fresh, and
-I'll write your instructions later. It would be a mighty fine thing for
-you to give to the Angel as a little reminder of the Limberlost before
-it is despoiled, and as a souvenir of her trip for you.”
-
-Freckles lifted a face with a glow of happy color creeping into it and
-eyes lighting with a former brightness. Throwing his arms around McLean,
-he cried: “Oh, how I love you! Oh, I wish I could make you know how I
-love you!”
-
-McLean strained him to his breast.
-
-“God bless you, Freckles,” he said. “I do know! We're going to have some
-good old times out of this world together, and we can't begin too soon.
-Would you rather sleep first, or have a bite of lunch, take the drive
-with me, and then rest? I don't know but sleep will come sooner and
-deeper to take the ride and have your mind set at ease before you lie
-down. Suppose you go.”
-
-“Suppose I do,” said Freckles, with a glimmer of the old light in his
-eyes and newly found strength to shoulder the otter. Together they
-turned into the trail.
-
-McLean noticed and spoke of the big black chickens.
-
-“They've been hanging round out there for several days past,” said
-Freckles. “I'll tell you what I think it means. I think the old rattler
-has killed something too big for him to swallow, and he's keeping guard
-and won't let me chickens have it. I'm just sure, from the way the birds
-have acted out there all summer, that it is the rattler's den. You watch
-them now. See the way they dip and then rise, frightened like!”
-
-Suddenly McLean turned toward him with blanching face
-
-“Freckles!” he cried.
-
-“My God, sir!” shuddered Freckles.
-
-He dropped the otter, caught up his club, and plunged into the swale.
-Reaching for his revolver, McLean followed. The chickens circled higher
-at their coming, and the big snake lifted his head and rattled angrily.
-It sank in sinuous coils at the report of McLean's revolver, and
-together he and Freckles stood beside Black Jack. His fate was evident
-and most horrible.
-
-“Come,” said the Boss at last. “We don't dare touch him. We will get
-a sheet from Mrs. Duncan and tuck over him, to keep these swarms of
-insects away, and set Hall on guard, while we find the officers.”
-
-Freckles' lips closed resolutely. He deliberately thrust his club under
-Black Jack's body, and, raising him, rested it on his knee. He pulled
-a long silver pin from the front of the dead man's shirt and sent it
-spinning into the swale. Then he gathered up a few crumpled bright
-flowers and dropped them into the pool far away.
-
-“My soul is sick with the horror of this thing,” said McLean, as he
-and Freckles drove toward town. “I can't understand how Jack dared risk
-creeping through the swale, even in desperation. No one knew its dangers
-better than he. And why did he choose the rankest, muckiest place to
-cross the swamp?”
-
-“Don't you think, sir, it was because it was on a line with the
-Limberlost south of the corduroy? The grass was tallest there, and he
-counted on those willows to screen him. Once he got among them, he would
-have been safe to walk by stooping. If he'd made it past that place,
-he'd been sure to get out.”
-
-“Well, I'm as sorry for Jack as I know how to be,” said McLean, “but
-I can't help feeling relieved that our troubles are over, for now they
-are. With so dreadful a punishment for Jack, Wessner under arrest, and
-warrants for the others, we can count on their going away and remaining.
-As for anyone else, I don't think they will care to attempt stealing
-my timber after the experience of these men. There is no other man here
-with Jack's fine ability in woodcraft. He was an expert.”
-
-“Did you ever hear of anyone who ever tried to locate any trees
-excepting him?” asked Freckles.
-
-“No, I never did,” said McLean. “I am sure there was no one besides
-him. You see, it was only with the arrival of our company that the other
-fellows scented good stuff in the Limberlost, and tried to work in. Jack
-knew the swamp better than anyone here. When he found there were two
-companies trying to lease, he wanted to stand in with the one from which
-he could realize the most. Even then he had trees marked that he was
-trying to dispose of. I think his sole intention in forcing me to
-discharge him from my gang was to come here and try to steal timber. We
-had no idea, when we took the lease, what a gold mine it was.”
-
-“That's exactly what Wessner said that first day,” said Freckles
-eagerly. “That 'twas a 'gold mine'! He said he didn't know where the
-marked trees were, but he knew a man who did, and if I would hold off
-and let them get the marked ones, there were a dozen they could get out
-in a few days.”
-
-“Freckles!” cried McLean. “You don't mean a dozen!”
-
-“That's what he said, sir--a dozen. He said they couldn't tell how the
-grain of all of them would work up, of course, but they were all worth
-taking out, and five or six were real gold mines. This makes three
-they've tried, so there must be nine more marked, and several of them
-for being just fine.”
-
-“Well, I wish I knew which they are,” said McLean, “so I could get them
-out first.”
-
-“I have been thinking,” said Freckles. “I believe if you will leave one
-of the guards on the line--say Hall--that I will begin on the swamp,
-at the north end, and lay it off in sections, and try to hunt out the
-marked trees. I suppose they are all marked something like that first
-maple on the line was. Wessner mentioned another good one not so far
-from that. He said it was best of all. I'd be having the swelled head if
-I could find that. Of course, I don't know a thing about the trees, but
-I could hunt for the marks. Jack was so good at it he could tell some of
-them by the bark, but all he wanted to take that we've found so far have
-just had a deep chip cut out, rather low down, and where the bushes were
-thick over it. I believe I could be finding some of them.”
-
-“Good head!” said McLean. “We will do that. You may begin as soon as you
-are rested. And about things you come across in the swamp, Freckles--the
-most trifling little thing that you think the Bird Woman would want,
-take your wheel and go after her at any time. I'll leave two men on the
-line, so that you will have one on either side, and you can come and go
-as you please. Have you stopped to think of all we owe her, my boy?”
-
-“Yis; and the Angel--we owe her a lot, too,” said Freckles. “I owe her
-me life and honor. It's lying awake nights I'll have to be trying to
-think how I'm ever to pay her up.”
-
-“Well, begin with the muff,” suggested McLean. “That should be fine.”
-
-He bent down and ruffled the rich fur of the otter lying at his feet.
-
-“I don't exactly see how it comes to be in such splendid fur in summer.
-Their coats are always thick in cold weather, but this scarcely could
-be improved. I'll wire Cooper to be watching for it. They must have it
-fresh. When it's tanned we won't spare any expense in making it up. It
-should be a royal thing, and some way I think it will exactly suit the
-Angel. I can't think of anything that would be more appropriate for
-her.”
-
-“Neither can I,” agreed Freckles heartily. “When I reach the city
-there's one other thing, if I've the money after the muff is finished.”
-
-He told McLean of Mrs. Duncan's desire for a hat similar to the Angel's.
-He hesitated a little in the telling, keeping sharp watch on McLean's
-face. When he saw the Boss's eyes were full of comprehension and
-sympathy, he loved him anew, for, as ever, McLean was quick to
-understand. Instead of laughing, he said: “I think you'll have to let
-me in on that, too. You mustn't be selfish, you know. I'll tell you what
-we'll do. Send it for Christmas. I'll be home then, and we can fill a
-box. You get the hat. I'll add a dress and wrap. You buy Duncan a hat
-and gloves. I'll send him a big overcoat, and we'll put in a lot of
-little stuff for the babies. Won't that be fun?”
-
-Freckles fairly shivered with delight.
-
-“That would be away too serious for fun,” he said. “That would be
-heavenly. How long will it be?”
-
-He began counting the time, and McLean deliberately set himself to
-encourage Freckles and keep his thoughts from the trouble of the past
-few days, for he had been overwrought and needed quiet and rest.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV
-
-Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little Chicken
-Furnishes the Subject
-
-A week later everything at the Limberlost was precisely as it had been
-before the tragedy, except the case in Freckles' room now rested on the
-stump of the newly felled tree. Enough of the vines were left to cover
-it prettily, and every vestige of the havoc of a few days before was
-gone. New guards were patrolling the trail. Freckles was roughly laying
-off the swamp in sections and searching for marked trees. In that time
-he had found one deeply chipped and the chip cunningly replaced and
-tacked in. It promised to be quite rare, so he was jubilant. He also
-found so many subjects for the Bird Woman that her coming was of almost
-daily occurrence, and the hours he spent with her and the Angel were
-nothing less than golden.
-
-The Limberlost was now arrayed as the Queen of Sheba in all her glory.
-The first frosts of autumn had bejewelled her crown in flashing topaz,
-ruby, and emerald. Around her feet trailed the purple of her garments,
-while in her hand was her golden scepter. Everything was at full tide.
-It seemed as if nothing could grow lovelier, and it was all standing
-still a few weeks, waiting coming destruction.
-
-The swamp was palpitant with life. Every pair of birds that had flocked
-to it in the spring was now multiplied by from two to ten. The young
-were tame from Freckles' tri-parenthood, and so plump and sleek that
-they were quite as beautiful as their elders, even if in many cases
-they lacked their brilliant plumage. It was the same story of increase
-everywhere. There were chubby little ground-hogs scudding on the trail.
-There were cunning baby coons and opossums peeping from hollow logs and
-trees. Young muskrats followed their parents across the lagoons.
-
-If you could come upon a family of foxes that had not yet disbanded, and
-see the young playing with a wild duck's carcass that their mother had
-brought, and note the pride and satisfaction in her eyes as she lay
-at one side guarding them, it would be a picture not to be forgotten.
-Freckles never tired of studying the devotion of a fox mother to her
-babies. To him, whose early life had been so embittered by continual
-proof of neglect and cruelty in human parents toward their children, the
-love of these furred and feathered folk of the Limberlost was even more
-of a miracle than to the Bird Woman and the Angel.
-
-The Angel liked the baby rabbits and squirrels. Earlier in the season,
-when the young were yet very small, it so happened that at times
-Freckles could give into her hands one of these little ones. Then it was
-pure joy to stand back and watch her heaving breast, flushed cheek, and
-shining eyes. Hers were such lovely eyes. Freckles had discovered lately
-that they were not so dark as he had thought them at first, but that
-the length and thickness of lash, by which they were shaded, made them
-appear darker than they really were. They were forever changing. Now
-sparkling and darkling with wit, now humid with sympathy, now burning
-with the fire of courage, now taking on strength of color with ambition,
-now flashing indignantly at the abuse of any creature.
-
-She had carried several of the squirrel and bunny babies home, and had
-littered the conservatory with them. Her care of them was perfect. She
-was learning her natural history from nature, and having much healthful
-exercise. To her, they were the most interesting of all, but the
-Bird Woman preferred the birds, with a close second in the moths and
-butterflies.
-
-Brown butterfly time had come. The edge of the swale was filled with
-milkweed, and other plants beloved of them, and the air was golden with
-the flashing satin wings of the monarch, viceroy, and argynnis. They
-outnumbered those of any other color three to one.
-
-Among the birds it really seemed as if the little yellow fellows were
-in the preponderance. At least, they were until the redwinged blackbirds
-and bobolinks, that had nested on the upland, suddenly saw in the
-swamp the garden of the Lord and came swarming by hundreds to feast and
-adventure upon it these last few weeks before migration. Never was there
-a finer feast spread for the birds. The grasses were filled with seeds:
-so, too, were weeds of every variety. Fall berries were ripe. Wild
-grapes and black haws were ready. Bugs were creeping everywhere. The
-muck was yeasty with worms. Insects filled the air. Nature made glorious
-pause for holiday before her next change, and by none of the frequenters
-of the swamp was this more appreciated than by the big black chickens.
-
-They seemed to feel the new reign of peace and fullness most of all. As
-for food, they did not even have to hunt for themselves these days,
-for the feasts now being spread before Little Chicken were more than he
-could use, and he was glad to have his parents come down and help him.
-
-He was a fine, big, overgrown fellow, and his wings, with quills of
-jetty black, gleaming with bronze, were so strong they almost lifted his
-body. He had three inches of tail, and his beak and claws were sharp.
-His muscles began to clamor for exercise. He raced the forty feet of his
-home back and forth many times every hour of the day. After a few days
-of that, he began lifting and spreading his wings, and flopping them
-until the down on his back was filled with elm fiber. Then he commenced
-jumping. The funny little hops, springs, and sidewise bounds he gave
-set Freckles and the Angel, hidden in the swamp, watching him, into
-smothered chuckles of delight.
-
-Sometimes he fell to coquetting with himself; and that was the funniest
-thing of all, for he turned his head up, down, from side to side, and
-drew in his chin with prinky little jerks and tilts. He would stretch
-his neck, throw up his head, turn it to one side and smirk--actually
-smirk, the most complacent and self-satisfied smirk that anyone ever
-saw on the face of a bird. It was so comical that Freckles and the Angel
-told the Bird Woman of it one day.
-
-When she finished her work on Little Chicken, she left them the camera
-ready for use, telling them they might hide in the bushes and watch. If
-Little Chicken came out and truly smirked, and they could squeeze the
-bulb at the proper moment to snap him, she would be more than delighted.
-
-Freckles and the Angel quietly curled beside a big log, and with eager
-eyes and softest breathing they patiently waited; but Little Chicken had
-feasted before they told of his latest accomplishment. He was tired
-and sleepy, so he went into the log to bed, and for an hour he never
-stirred.
-
-They were becoming anxious, for the light soon would be gone, and they
-had so wanted to try for the picture. At last Little Chicken lifted his
-head, opened his beak, and gaped widely. He dozed a minute or two more.
-The Angel said that was his beauty sleep. Then he lazily gaped again
-and stood up, stretching and yawning. He ambled leisurely toward the
-gateway, and the Angel said: “Now, we may have a chance, at last.”
-
-“I do hope so,” shivered Freckles.
-
-With one accord they arose to their knees and trained their eyes on
-the mouth of the log. The light was full and strong. Little Chicken
-prospected again with no results. He dressed his plumage, polished his
-beak, and when he felt fine and in full toilet he began to flirt with
-himself. Freckles' eyes snapped and his breath sucked between his
-clenched teeth.
-
-“He's going to do it!” whispered the Angel. “That will come next. You'll
-best give me that bulb!”
-
-“Yis,” assented Freckles, but he was looking at the log and he made no
-move to relinquish the bulb.
-
-Little Chicken nodded daintily and ruffled his feathers. He gave his
-head sundry little sidewise jerks and rapidly shifted his point of
-vision. Once there was the fleeting little ghost of a smirk.
-
-“Now!--No!” snapped the Angel.
-
-Freckles leaned toward the bird. Tensely he waited. Unconsciously the
-hand of the Angel clasped his. He scarcely knew it was there. Suddenly
-Little Chicken sprang straight in the air and landed with a thud. The
-Angel started slightly, but Freckles was immovable. Then, as if in
-approval of his last performance, the big, overgrown baby wheeled until
-he was more than three-quarters, almost full side, toward the camera,
-straightened on his legs, squared his shoulders, stretched his neck full
-height, drew in his chin and smirked his most pronounced smirk, directly
-in the face of the lens.
-
-Freckles' fingers closed on the bulb convulsively, and the Angel's
-closed on his at the instant. Then she heaved a great sigh of relief and
-lifted her hands to push back the damp, clustering hair from her face.
-
-“How soon do you s'pose it will be finished?” came Freckles' strident
-whisper.
-
-For the first time the Angel looked at him. He was on his knees, leaning
-forward, his eyes directed toward the bird, the perspiration running in
-little streams down his red, mosquito-bitten face. His hat was awry, his
-bright hair rampant, his breast heaving with excitement, while he yet
-gripped the bulb with every ounce of strength in his body.
-
-“Do you think we were for getting it?” he asked.
-
-The Angel could only nod. Freckles heaved a deep sigh of relief.
-
-“Well, if that ain't the hardest work I ever did in me life!” he
-exclaimed. “It's no wonder the Bird Woman's for coming out of the swamp
-looking as if she's been through a fire, a flood, and a famine, if
-that's what she goes through day after day. But if you think we got it,
-why, it's worth all it took, and I'm glad as ever you are, sure!”
-
-They put the holders in the case, carefully closed the camera, set it in
-also, and carried it to the road.
-
-Then Freckles exulted.
-
-“Now, let's be telling the Bird Woman about it!” he shouted, wildly
-dancing and swinging his hat.
-
-“We got it! We got it! I bet a farm we got it!”
-
-Hand in hand they ran to the north end of the swamp, yelling “We got
-it!” like young Comanches, and never gave a thought to what they might
-do until a big blue-gray bird, with long neck and trailing legs, arose
-on flapping wings and sailed over the Limberlost.
-
-The Angel became white to the lips and gripped Freckles with both hands.
-He gulped with mortification and turned his back.
-
-To frighten her subject away carelessly! It was the head crime in the
-Bird Woman's category. She extended her hands as she arose, baked,
-blistered, and dripping, and exclaimed: “Bless you, my children! Bless
-you!” And it truly sounded as if she meant it.
-
-“Why, why----” stammered the bewildered Angel.
-
-Freckles hurried into the breach.
-
-“You must be for blaming it every bit on me. I was thinking we got
-Little Chicken's picture real good. I was so drunk with the joy of it I
-lost all me senses and, 'Let's run tell the Bird Woman,' says I. Like a
-fool I was for running, and I sort of dragged the Angel along.”
-
-“Oh Freckles!” expostulated the Angel. “Are you loony? Of course, it
-was all my fault! I've been with her hundreds of times. I knew perfectly
-well that I wasn't to let anything--NOT ANYTHING--scare her bird away!
-I was so crazy I forgot. The blame is all mine, and she'll never forgive
-me.”
-
-“She will, too!” cried Freckles. “Wasn't you for telling me that very
-first day that when people scared her birds away she just killed them!
-It's all me foolishness, and I'll never forgive meself!”
-
-The Bird Woman plunged into the swale at the mouth of Sleepy Snake
-Creek, and came wading toward them, with a couple of cameras and
-dripping tripods.
-
-“If you will permit me a word, my infants,” she said, “I will explain to
-you that I have had three shots at that fellow.”
-
-The Angel heaved a deep sigh of relief, and Freckles' face cleared a
-little.
-
-“Two of them,” continued the Bird Woman, “in the rushes--one facing,
-crest lowered; one light on back, crest flared; and the last on wing,
-when you came up. I simply had been praying for something to make him
-arise from that side, so that he would fly toward the camera, for he had
-waded around until in my position I couldn't do it myself. See? Behold
-in yourselves the answer to the prayers of the long-suffering!”
-
-Freckles took a step toward her.
-
-“Are you really meaning that?” he asked wonderingly. “Only think,
-Angel, we did the right thing! She won't lose her picture through the
-carelessness of us, when she's waited and soaked nearly two hours. She's
-not angry with us!”
-
-“Never was in a sweeter temper in my life,” said the Bird Woman, busily
-cleaning and packing the cameras.
-
-Freckles removed his hat and solemnly held out his hand. With equal
-solemnity the Angel grasped it. The Bird Woman laughed alone, for to
-them the situation had been too serious to develop any of the elements
-of fun.
-
-Then they loaded the carriage, and the Bird Woman and the Angel started
-for their homes. It had been a difficult time for all of them, so they
-were very tired, but they were joyful. Freckles was so happy it seemed
-to him that life could hold little more. As the Bird Woman was ready to
-drive away he laid his hand on the lines and looked into her face.
-
-“Do you suppose we got it?” he asked, so eagerly that she would have
-given much to be able to say yes with conviction.
-
-“Why, my dear, I don't know,” she said. “I've no way to judge. If you
-made the exposure just before you came to me, there was yet a fine
-light. If you waited until Little Chicken was close the entrance, you
-should have something good, even if you didn't catch just the fleeting
-expression for which you hoped. Of course, I can't say surely, but I
-think there is every reason to believe that you have it all right. I
-will develop the plate tonight, make you a proof from it early in the
-morning, and bring it when we come. It's only a question of a day or
-two now until the gang arrives. I want to work in all the studies I can
-before that time, for they are bound to disturb the birds. Mr. McLean
-will need you then, and I scarcely see how we are to do without you.”
-
-Moved by an impulse she never afterward regretted, she bent and laid her
-lips on Freckles' forehead, kissing him gently and thanking him for his
-many kindnesses to her in her loved work. Freckles started away so happy
-that he felt inclined to keep watching behind to see if the trail were
-not curling up and rolling down the line after him.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI
-
-Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-
-From afar Freckles saw them coming. The Angel was standing, waving her
-hat. He sprang on his wheel and raced, jolting and pounding, down the
-corduroy to meet them. The Bird Woman stopped the horse and the Angel
-gave him the bit of print paper. Freckles leaned the wheel against a
-tree and took the proof with eager fingers. He never before had seen
-a study from any of his chickens. He stood staring. When he turned his
-face toward them it was transfigured with delight.
-
-“You see!” he exclaimed, and began gazing again. “Oh, me Little
-Chicken!” he cried. “Oh me ilegant Little Chicken! I'd be giving all me
-money in the bank for you!”
-
-Then he thought of the Angel's muff and Mrs. Duncan's hat, and added,
-“or at least, all but what I'm needing bad for something else. Would you
-mind stopping at the cabin a minute and showing this to Mother Duncan?”
- he asked.
-
-“Give me that little book in your pocket,” said the Bird Woman.
-
-She folded the outer edges of the proof so that it would fit into the
-book, explaining as she did so its perishable nature in that state.
-Freckles went hurrying ahead, and they arrived in time to see Mrs.
-Duncan gazing as if awestruck, and to hear her bewildered “Weel I be
-drawed on!”
-
-Freckles and the Angel helped the Bird Woman to establish herself for a
-long day at the mouth of Sleepy Snake Creek. Then she sent them away and
-waited what luck would bring to her.
-
-“Now, what shall we do?” inquired the Angel, who was a bundle of nerves
-and energy.
-
-“Would you like to go to me room awhile?” asked Freckles.
-
-“If you don't care to very much, I'd rather not,” said the Angel. “I'll
-tell you. Let's go help Mrs. Duncan with dinner and play with the baby.
-I love a nice, clean baby.”
-
-They started toward the cabin. Every few minutes they stopped to
-investigate something or to chatter over some natural history wonder.
-The Angel had quick eyes; she seemed to see everything, but Freckles'
-were even quicker; for life itself had depended on their sharpness ever
-since the beginning of his work at the swamp. They saw it at the same
-time.
-
-“Someone has been making a flagpole,” said the Angel, running the toe of
-her shoe around the stump, evidently made that season. “Freckles, what
-would anyone cut a tree as small as that for?”
-
-“I don't know,” said Freckles.
-
-“Well, but I want to know!” said the Angel. “No one came away here and
-cut it for fun. They've taken it away. Let's go back and see if we can
-see it anywhere around there.”
-
-She turned, retraced her footsteps, and began eagerly searching.
-Freckles did the same.
-
-“There it is!” he exclaimed at last, “leaning against the trunk of that
-big maple.”
-
-“Yes, and leaning there has killed a patch of dried bark,” said the
-Angel. “See how dried it appears?”
-
-Freckles stared at her.
-
-“Angel!” he shouted, “I bet you it's a marked tree!”
-
-“Course it is!” cried the Angel. “No one would cut that sapling and
-carry it away there and lean it up for nothing. I'll tell you! This is
-one of Jack's marked trees. He's climbed up there above anyone's head,
-peeled the bark, and cut into the grain enough to be sure. Then he's
-laid the bark back and fastened it with that pole to mark it. You see,
-there're a lot of other big maples close around it. Can you climb to
-that place?”
-
-“Yes,” said Freckles; “if I take off my wading-boots I can.”
-
-“Then take them off,” said the Angel, “and do hurry! Can't you see that
-I am almost crazy to know if this tree is a marked one?”
-
-When they pushed the sapling over, a piece of bark as big as the crown
-of Freckles' hat fell away.
-
-“I believe it looks kind of nubby,” encouraged the Angel, backing away,
-with her face all screwed into a twist in an effort to intensify her
-vision.
-
-Freckles reached the opening, then slid rapidly to the ground. He was
-almost breathless while his eyes were flashing.
-
-“The bark's been cut clean with a knife, the sap scraped away, and a big
-chip taken out deep. The trunk is the twistiest thing you ever saw. It's
-full of eyes as a bird is of feathers!”
-
-The Angel was dancing and shaking his hand.
-
-“Oh, Freckles,” she cried, “I'm so delighted that you found it!”
-
-“But I didn't,” said the astonished Freckles. “That tree isn't my find;
-it's yours. I forgot it and was going on; you wouldn't give up, and kept
-talking about it, and turned back. You found it!”
-
-“You'd best be looking after your reputation for truth and veracity,”
- said the Angel. “You know you saw that sapling first!”
-
-“Yes, after you took me back and set me looking for it,” scoffed
-Freckles.
-
-The clear, ringing echo of strongly swung axes came crashing through the
-Limberlost.
-
-“'Tis the gang!” shouted Freckles. “They're clearing a place to make the
-camp. Let's go help!”
-
-“Hadn't we better mark that tree again?” cautioned the Angel. “It's away
-in here. There's such a lot of them, and all so much alike. We'd feel
-good and green to find it and then lose it.”
-
-Freckles lifted the sapling to replace it, but the Angel motioned him
-away.
-
-“Use your hatchet,” she said. “I predict this is the most valuable tree
-in the swamp. You found it. I'm going to play that you're my knight.
-Now, you nail my colors on it.”
-
-She reached up, and pulling a blue bow from her hair, untied and doubled
-it against the tree. Freckles turned his eyes from her and managed the
-fastening with shaking fingers. The Angel had called him her knight!
-Dear Lord, how he loved her! She must not see his face, or surely her
-quick eyes would read what he was fighting to hide. He did not dare lay
-his lips on that ribbon then, but that night he would return to it. When
-they had gone a little distance, they both looked back, and the morning
-breeze set the bit of blue waving them a farewell.
-
-They walked at a rapid pace.
-
-“I am sorry about scaring the birds,” said the Angel, “but it's almost
-time for them to go anyway. I feel dreadfully over having the swamp
-ruined, but isn't it a delight to hear the good, honest ring of those
-axes, instead of straining your ears for stealthy sounds? Isn't it
-fine to go openly and freely, with nothing worse than a snake or a
-poison-vine to fear?”
-
-“Ah!” said Freckles, with a long breath, “it's better than you can
-dream, Angel. Nobody will ever be guessing some of the things I've been
-through trying to keep me promise to the Boss, and to hold out until
-this day. That it's come with only one fresh stump, and the log from
-that saved, and this new tree to report, isn't it grand? Maybe Mr.
-McLean will be forgetting that stump when he sees this tree, Angel!”
-
-“He can't forget it,” said the Angel; and in answer to Freckles'
-startled eyes she added, “because he never had any reason to remember
-it. He couldn't have done a whit better himself. My father says so.
-You're all right, Freckles!”
-
-She reached him her hand, and as two children, they broke into a run
-when they came closer the gang. They left the swamp by the west road
-and followed the trail until they found the men. To the Angel it seemed
-complete charm. In the shadiest spot on the west side of the line, at
-the edge of the swamp and very close Freckles' room, they were
-cutting bushes and clearing space for a big tent for the men's
-sleeping-quarters, another for a dining-hall, and a board shack for the
-cook. The teamsters were unloading, the horses were cropping leaves from
-the bushes, while each man was doing his part toward the construction of
-the new Limberlost quarters.
-
-Freckles helped the Angel climb on a wagonload of canvas in the shade.
-She removed her leggings, wiped her heated face, and glowed with
-happiness and interest.
-
-The gang had been sifted carefully. McLean now felt that there was not a
-man in it who was not trustworthy.
-
-They all had heard of the Angel's plucky ride for Freckles' relief;
-several of them had been in the rescue party. Others, new since that
-time, had heard the tale rehearsed in its every aspect around the
-smudge-fires at night. Almost all of them knew the Angel by sight from
-her trips with the Bird Woman to their leases. They all knew her father,
-her position, and the luxuries of her home. Whatever course she had
-chosen with them they scarcely would have resented it, but the Angel
-never had been known to choose a course. Her spirit of friendliness was
-inborn and inbred. She loved everyone, so she sympathized with everyone.
-Her generosity was only limited by what was in her power to give.
-
-She came down the trail, hand in hand with the red-haired, freckled
-timber guard whom she had worn herself past the limit of endurance to
-save only a few weeks before, racing in her eagerness to reach them,
-and laughing her “Good morning, gentlemen,” right and left. When she was
-ensconced on the wagonload of tenting, she sat on a roll of canvas as a
-queen on her throne. There was not a man of the gang who did not respect
-her. She was a living exponent of universal brotherhood. There was no
-man among them who needed her exquisite face or dainty clothing to teach
-him that the deference due a gentlewoman should be paid her. That the
-spirit of good fellowship she radiated levied an especial tribute of its
-own, and it became their delight to honor and please her.
-
-As they raced toward the wagon--“Let me tell about the tree, please?”
- she begged Freckles.
-
-“Why, sure!” said Freckles.
-
-He probably would have said the same to anything she suggested. When
-McLean came, he found the Angel flushed and glowing, sitting on the
-wagon, her hands already filled. One of the men, who was cutting a
-scrub-oak, had carried to her a handful of crimson leaves. Another had
-gathered a bunch of delicate marsh-grass heads for her. Someone else,
-in taking out a bush, had found a daintily built and lined little nest,
-fresh as when made.
-
-She held up her treasures and greeted McLean, “Good morning, Mr. Boss of
-the Limberlost!”
-
-The gang shouted, while he bowed profoundly before her.
-
-“Everyone listen!” cried the Angel, climbing a roll of canvas. “I have
-something to say! Freckles has been guarding here over a year now, and
-he presents the Limberlost to you, with every tree in it saved; for good
-measure he has this morning located the rarest one of them all: the one
-in from the east line, that Wessner spoke of the first day--nearest the
-one you took out. All together! Everyone! Hurrah for Freckles!”
-
-With flushing cheeks and gleaming eyes, gaily waving the grass above
-her head, she led in three cheers and a tiger. Freckles slipped into the
-swamp and hid himself, for fear he could not conceal his pride and his
-great surging, throbbing love for her.
-
-The Angel subsided on the canvas and explained to McLean about the
-maple. The Boss was mightily pleased. He took Freckles and set out to
-re-locate and examine the tree. The Angel was interested in the making
-of the camp, so she preferred to remain with the men. With her sharp
-eyes she was watching every detail of construction; but when it came to
-the stretching of the dining-hall canvas she proceeded to take command.
-The men were driving the rope-pins, when the Angel arose on the wagon
-and, leaning forward, spoke to Duncan, who was directing the work.
-
-“I believe if you will swing that around a few feet farther, you will
-find it better, Mr. Duncan,” she said. “That way will let the hot sun in
-at noon, while the sides will cut off the best breeze.”
-
-“That's a fact,” said Duncan, studying the conditions.
-
-So, by shifting the pins a little, they obtained comfort for which they
-blessed the Angel every day. When they came to the sleeping-tent, they
-consulted her about that. She explained the general direction of the
-night breeze and indicated the best position for the tent. Before anyone
-knew how it happened, the Angel was standing on the wagon, directing
-the location and construction of the cooking-shack, the erection of the
-crane for the big boiling-pots, and the building of the store-room. She
-superintended the laying of the floor of the sleeping-tent lengthwise,
-So that it would be easier to sweep, and suggested a new arrangement of
-the cots that would afford all the men an equal share of night breeze.
-She left the wagon, and climbing on the newly erected dining-table,
-advised with the cook in placing his stove, table, and kitchen utensils.
-
-When Freckles returned from the tree to join in the work around the
-camp, he caught glimpses of her enthroned on a soapbox, cleaning beans.
-She called to him that they were invited for dinner, and that they had
-accepted the invitation.
-
-When the beans were steaming in the pot, the Angel advised the cook to
-soak them overnight the next time, so that they would cook more quickly
-and not burst. She was sure their cook at home did that way, and the
-CHEF of the gang thought it would be a good idea. The next Freckles saw
-of her she was paring potatoes. A little later she arranged the table.
-
-She swept it with a broom, instead of laying a cloth; took the hatchet
-and hammered the deepest dents from the tin plates, and nearly skinned
-her fingers scouring the tinware with rushes. She set the plates an even
-distance apart, and laid the forks and spoons beside them. When the cook
-threw away half a dozen fruit-cans, she gathered them up and melted off
-the tops, although she almost blistered her face and quite blistered her
-fingers doing it. Then she neatly covered these improvised vases with
-the Manila paper from the groceries, tying it with wisps of marshgrass.
-These she filled with fringed gentians, blazing-star, asters, goldenrod,
-and ferns, placing them the length of the dining-table. In one of the
-end cans she arranged her red leaves, and in the other the fancy grass.
-Two men, watching her, went away proud of themselves and said that she
-was “a born lady.” She laughingly caught up a paper bag and fitted it
-jauntily to her head in imitation of a cook's cap. Then she ground the
-coffee, and beat a couple of eggs to put in, “because there is company,”
- she gravely explained to the cook. She asked that delighted individual
-if he did not like it best that way, and he said he did not know,
-because he never had a chance to taste it. The Angel said that was
-her case exactly--she never had, either; she was not allowed anything
-stronger than milk. Then they laughed together.
-
-She told the cook about camping with her father, and explained that
-he made his coffee that way. When the steam began to rise from the big
-boiler, she stuffed the spout tightly with clean marshgrass, to keep the
-aroma in, placed the boiler where it would only simmer, and explained
-why. The influence of the Angel's visit lingered with the cook through
-the remainder of his life, while the men prayed for her frequent return.
-
-She was having a happy time, when McLean came back jubilant, from his
-trip to the tree. How jubilant he told only the Angel, for he had been
-obliged to lose faith in some trusted men of late, and had learned
-discretion by what he suffered. He planned to begin clearing out a road
-to the tree that same afternoon, and to set two guards every night, for
-it promised to be a rare treasure, so he was eager to see it on the way
-to the mills.
-
-“I am coming to see it felled,” cried the Angel. “I feel a sort of
-motherly interest in that tree.”
-
-McLean was highly amused. He would have staked his life on the honesty
-of either the Angel or Freckles; yet their versions of the finding of
-the tree differed widely.
-
-“Tell me, Angel,” the Boss said jestingly. “I think I have a right to
-know. Who really did locate that tree?”
-
-“Freckles,” she answered promptly and emphatically.
-
-“But he says quite as positively that it was you. I don't understand.”
-
-The Angel's legal look flashed into her face. Her eyes grew tense with
-earnestness. She glanced around, and seeing no towel or basin, held out
-her hand for Sears to pour water over them. Then, using the skirt of her
-dress to dry them, she climbed on the wagon.
-
-“I'll tell you, word for word, how it happened,” she said, “and then you
-shall decide, and Freckles and I will agree with you.”
-
-When she had finished her version, “Tell us, 'oh, most learned judge!'”
- she laughingly quoted, “which of us located that tree?”
-
-“Blest if I know who located it!” exclaimed McLean. “But I have a fairly
-accurate idea as to who put the blue ribbon on it.”
-
-The Boss smiled significantly at Freckles, who just had come, for they
-had planned that they would instruct the company to reserve enough of
-the veneer from that very tree to make the most beautiful dressing table
-they could design for the Angel's share of the discovery.
-
-“What will you have for yours?” McLean had asked of Freckles.
-
-“If it's all the same to you, I'll be taking mine out in music
-lessons--begging your pardon--voice culture,” said Freckles with a
-grimace.
-
-McLean laughed, for Freckles needed to see or hear only once to absorb
-learning as the thirsty earth sucks up water.
-
-The Angel placed McLean at the head of the table. She took the foot,
-with Freckles on her right, while the lumber gang, washed, brushed, and
-straightened until they felt unfamiliar with themselves and each other,
-filled the sides. That imposed a slight constraint. Then, too, the men
-were afraid of the flowers, the polished tableware, and above all, of
-the dainty grace of the Angel. Nowhere do men so display lack of good
-breeding and culture as in dining. To sprawl on the table, scoop
-with their knives, chew loudly, gulp coffee, and duck their heads as
-snapping-turtles for every bite, had not been noticed by them until the
-Angel, sitting straightly, suddenly made them remember that they,
-too, were possessed of spines. Instinctively every man at the table
-straightened.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII
-
-Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body
-
-To reach the tree was a more difficult task than McLean had supposed.
-The gang could approach nearest on the outside toward the east, but
-after they reached the end of the east entrance there was yet a mile
-of most impenetrable thicket, trees big and little, and bushes of every
-variety and stage of growth. In many places the muck had to be filled to
-give the horses and wagons a solid foundation over which to haul heavy
-loads. It was several days before they completed a road to the noble,
-big tree and were ready to fell it.
-
-When the sawing began, Freckles was watching down the road where it met
-the trail leading from Little Chicken's tree. He had gone to the tree
-ahead of the gang to remove the blue ribbon. Carefully folded, it now
-lay over his heart. He was promising himself much comfort with that
-ribbon, when he would leave for the city next month to begin his studies
-and dream the summer over again. It would help to make things tangible.
-When he was dressed as other men, and at his work, he knew where he
-meant to home that precious bit of blue. It should be his good-luck
-token, and he would wear it always to keep bright in memory the day on
-which the Angel had called him her knight.
-
-How he would study, and oh, how he would sing! If only he could fulfill
-McLean's expectations, and make the Angel proud of him! If only he could
-be a real knight!
-
-He could not understand why the Angel had failed to come. She had wanted
-to see their tree felled. She would be too late if she did not arrive
-soon. He had told her it would be ready that morning, and she had said
-she surely would be there. Why, of all mornings, was she late on this?
-
-McLean had ridden to town. If he had been there, Freckles would have
-asked that they delay the felling, but he scarcely liked to ask the
-gang. He really had no authority, although he thought the men would
-wait; but some way he found such embarrassment in framing the request
-that he waited until the work was practically ended. The saw was out,
-and the men were cutting into the felling side of the tree when the Boss
-rode in.
-
-His first word was to inquire for the Angel. When Freckles said she
-had not yet come, the Boss at once gave orders to stop work on the tree
-until she arrived; for he felt that she virtually had located it, and
-if she desired to see it felled, she should. As the men stepped back,
-a stiff morning breeze caught the top, that towered high above its
-fellows. There was an ominous grinding at the base, a shiver of the
-mighty trunk, then directly in line of its fall the bushes swung apart
-and the laughing face of the Angel looked on them.
-
-A groan of horror burst from the dry throats of the men, and reading the
-agony in their faces, she stopped short, glanced up, and understood.
-
-“South!” shouted McLean. “Run south!”
-
-The Angel was helpless. It was apparent that she did not know which way
-south was. There was another slow shiver of the big tree. The remainder
-of the gang stood motionless, but Freckles sprang past the trunk and
-went leaping in big bounds. He caught up the Angel and dashed through
-the thicket for safety. The swaying trunk was half over when, for an
-instant, a near-by tree stayed its fall. They saw Freckles' foot catch,
-and with the Angel he plunged headlong.
-
-A terrible cry broke from the men, while McLean covered his face.
-Instantly Freckles was up, with the Angel in his arms, struggling on.
-The outer limbs were on them when they saw Freckles hurl the Angel,
-face down, in the muck, as far from him as he could send her. Springing
-after, in an attempt to cover her body with his own, he whirled to see
-if they were yet in danger, and with outstretched arms braced himself
-for the shock. The branches shut them from sight, and the awful crash
-rocked the earth.
-
-McLean and Duncan ran with axes and saws. The remainder of the gang
-followed, and they worked desperately. It seemed a long time before they
-caught a glimpse of the Angel's blue dress, but it renewed their vigor.
-Duncan fell on his knees beside her and tore the muck from underneath
-her with his hands. In a few seconds he dragged her out, choking and
-stunned, but surely not fatally hurt.
-
-Freckles lay a little farther under the tree, a big limb pinning him
-down. His eyes were wide open. He was perfectly conscious. Duncan began
-mining beneath him, but Freckles stopped him.
-
-“You can't be moving me,” he said. “You must cut off the limb and lift
-it. I know.”
-
-Two men ran for the big saw. A number of them laid hold of the limb and
-bore up. In a short time it was removed, and Freckles lay free.
-
-The men bent over to lift him, but he motioned them away.
-
-“Don't be touching me until I rest a bit,” he pleaded.
-
-Then he twisted his head until he saw the Angel, who was wiping muck
-from her eyes and face on the skirt of her dress.
-
-“Try to get up,” he begged.
-
-McLean laid hold of the Angel and helped her to her feet.
-
-“Do you think any bones are broken?” gasped Freckles.
-
-The Angel shook her head and wiped muck.
-
-“You see if you can find any, sir,” Freckles commanded.
-
-The Angel yielded herself to McLean's touch, and he assured Freckles
-that she was not seriously injured.
-
-Freckles settled back, a smile of ineffable tenderness on his face.
-
-“Thank the Lord!” he hoarsely whispered.
-
-The Angel leaned toward him.
-
-“Now, Freckles, you!” she cried. “It's your turn. Please get up!”
-
-A pitiful spasm swept Freckles' face. The sight of it washed every
-vestige of color from the Angel's. She took hold of his hands.
-
-“Freckles, get up!” It was half command, half entreaty.
-
-“Easy, Angel, easy! Let me rest a bit first!” implored Freckles.
-
-She knelt beside him. He reached his arm around her and drew her
-closely. He looked at McLean in an agony of entreaty that brought the
-Boss to his knees on the other side.
-
-“Oh, Freckles!” McLean cried. “Not that! Surely we can do something! We
-must! Let me see!”
-
-He tried to unfasten Freckles' neckband, but his fingers shook so
-clumsily that the Angel pushed them away and herself laid Freckles'
-chest bare. With one hasty glance she gathered the clothing together
-and slipped her arm under his head. Freckles lifted his eyes of agony to
-hers.
-
-“You see?” he said.
-
-The Angel nodded dumbly.
-
-Freckles turned to McLean.
-
-“Thank you for everything,” he panted. “Where are the boys?”
-
-“They are all here,” said the Boss, “except a couple who have gone for
-doctors, Mrs. Duncan and the Bird Woman.”
-
-“It's no use trying to do anything,” said Freckles. “You won't forget
-the muff and the Christmas box. The muff especial?”
-
-There was a movement above them so pronounced that it attracted
-Freckles' attention, even in that extreme hour. He looked up, and a
-pleased smile flickered on his drawn face.
-
-“Why, if it ain't me Little Chicken!” he cried hoarsely. “He must be
-making his very first trip from the log. Now Duncan can have his big
-watering-trough.”
-
-“It was Little Chicken that made me late,” faltered the Angel. “I was
-so anxious to get here early I forgot to bring his breakfast from the
-carriage. He must have been hungry, for when I passed the log he started
-after me. He was so wabbly, and so slow flying from tree to tree and
-through the bushes, I just had to wait on him, for I couldn't drive him
-back.”
-
-“Of course you couldn't! Me bird has too amazing good sinse to go back
-when he could be following you,” exulted Freckles, exactly as if he did
-not realize what the delay had cost him. Then he lay silently thinking,
-but presently he asked slowly: “And so 'twas me Little Chicken that was
-making you late, Angel?”
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel.
-
-A spasm of fierce pain shook Freckles, and a look of uncertainty crossed
-his face.
-
-“All summer I've been thanking God for the falling of the feather and
-all the delights it's brought me,” he muttered, “but this looks as
-if----”
-
-He stopped short and raised questioning eyes to McLean.
-
-“I can't help being Irish, but I can help being superstitious,” he said.
-“I mustn't be laying it to the Almighty, or to me bird, must I?”
-
-“No, dear lad,” said McLean, stroking the brilliant hair. “The choice
-lay with you. You could have stood a rooted dolt like all the remainder
-of us. It was through your great love and your high courage that you
-made the sacrifice.”
-
-“Don't you be so naming it, sir!” cried Freckles. “It's just the
-reverse. If I could be giving me body the hundred times over to save
-hers from this, I'd be doing it and take joy with every pain.”
-
-He turned with a smile of adoring tenderness to the Angel. She was
-ghastly white, and her eyes were dull and glazed. She scarcely seemed to
-hear or understand what was coming, but she bravely tried to answer that
-smile.
-
-“Is my forehead covered with dirt?” he asked.
-
-She shook her head.
-
-“You did once,” he gasped.
-
-Instantly she laid her lips on his forehead, then on each cheek, and
-then in a long kiss on his lips.
-
-McLean bent over him.
-
-“Freckles,” he said brokenly, “you will never know how I love you. You
-won't go without saying good-bye to me?”
-
-That word stung the Angel to quick comprehension. She started as if
-arousing from sleep.
-
-“Good-bye?” she cried sharply, her eyes widening and the color rushing
-into her white face. “Good-bye! Why, what do you mean? Who's saying
-good-bye? Where could Freckles go, when he is hurt like this, save to
-the hospital? You needn't say good-bye for that. Of course, we will all
-go with him! You call up the men. We must start right away.”
-
-“It's no use, Angel,” said Freckles. “I'm thinking ivry bone in me
-breast is smashed. You'll have to be letting me go!”
-
-“I will not,” said the Angel flatly. “It's no use wasting precious time
-talking about it. You are alive. You are breathing; and no matter how
-badly your bones are broken, what are great surgeons for but to fix you
-up and make you well again? You promise me that you'll just grit your
-teeth and hang on when we hurt you, for we must start with you as
-quickly as it can be done. I don't know what has been the matter with
-me. Here's good time wasted already.”
-
-“Oh, Angel!” moaned Freckles, “I can't! You don't know how bad it is.
-I'll die the minute you are for trying to lift me!”
-
-“Of course you will, if you make up your mind to do it,” said the Angel.
-“But if you are determined you won't, and set yourself to breathing deep
-and strong, and hang on to me tight, I can get you out. Really you must,
-Freckles, no matter how it hurts, for you did this for me, and now I
-must save you, so you might as well promise.”
-
-She bent over him, trying to smile encouragement with her fear-stiffened
-lips.
-
-“You will promise, Freckles?”
-
-Big drops of cold sweat ran together on Freckles' temples.
-
-“Angel, darlin' Angel,” he pleaded, taking her hand in his. “You ain't
-understanding, and I can't for the life of me be telling you, but
-indade, it's best to be letting me go. This is my chance. Please say
-good-bye, and let me slip off quick!”
-
-He appealed to McLean.
-
-“Dear Boss, you know! You be telling her that, for me, living is far
-worse pain than dying. Tell her you know death is the best thing that
-could ever be happening to me!”
-
-“Merciful Heaven!” burst in the Angel. “I can't endure this delay!”
-
-She caught Freckles' hand to her breast, and bending over him, looked
-deeply into his stricken eyes.
-
-“'Angel, I give you my word of honor that I will keep right on
-breathing.' That's what you are going to promise me,” she said. “Do you
-say it?”
-
-Freckles hesitated.
-
-“Freckles!” imploringly commanded the Angel, “YOU DO SAY IT!”
-
-“Yis,” gasped Freckles.
-
-The Angel sprang to her feet.
-
-“Then that's all right,” she said, with a tinge of her old-time
-briskness. “You just keep breathing away like a steam engine, and I will
-do all the remainder.”
-
-The eager men gathered around her.
-
-“It's going to be a tough pull to get Freckles out,” she said, “but it's
-our only chance, so listen closely and don't for the lives of you fail
-me in doing quickly what I tell you. There's no time to spend falling
-down over each other; we must have some system. You four there get on
-those wagon horses and ride to the sleeping-tent. Get the stoutest cot,
-a couple of comforts, and a pillow. Ride back with them some way to
-save time. If you meet any other men of the gang, send them here to help
-carry the cot. We won't risk the jolt of driving with him. The others
-clear a path out to the road; and Mr. McLean, you take Nellie and ride
-to town. Tell my father how Freckles is hurt and that he risked it to
-save me. Tell him I'm going to take Freckles to Chicago on the noon
-train, and I want him to hold it if we are a little late. If he can't,
-then have a special ready at the station and another on the Pittsburgh
-at Fort Wayne, so we can go straight through. You needn't mind leaving
-us. The Bird Woman will be here soon. We will rest awhile.”
-
-She dropped into the muck beside Freckles and began stroking his hair
-and hand. He lay with his face of agony turned to hers, and fought to
-smother the groans that would tell her what he was suffering.
-
-When they stood ready to lift him, the Angel bent over him in a passion
-of tenderness.
-
-“Dear old Limberlost guard, we're going to lift you now,” she said. “I
-suspect you will faint from the pain of it, but we will be as easy as
-ever we can, and don't you dare forget your promise!”
-
-A whimsical half-smile touched Freckles' quivering lips.
-
-“Angel, can a man be remembering a promise when he ain't knowing?” he
-asked.
-
-“You can,” said the Angel stoutly, “because a promise means so much more
-to you than it does to most men.”
-
-A look of strength flashed into Freckles' face at her words.
-
-“I am ready,” he said.
-
-With the first touch his eyes closed, a mighty groan was wrenched from
-him, and he lay senseless. The Angel gave Duncan one panic-stricken
-look. Then she set her lips and gathered her forces again.
-
-“I guess that's a good thing,” she said. “Maybe he won't feel how we are
-hurting him. Oh boys, are you being quick and gentle?”
-
-She stepped to the side of the cot and bathed Freckles' face. Taking his
-hand in hers, she gave the word to start. She told the men to ask every
-able-bodied man they met to join them so that they could change carriers
-often and make good time.
-
-The Bird Woman insisted upon taking the Angel into the carriage and
-following the cot, but she refused to leave Freckles, and suggested
-that the Bird Woman drive ahead, pack them some clothing, and be at the
-station ready to accompany them to Chicago. All the way the Angel walked
-beside the cot, shading Freckles' face with a branch, and holding his
-hand. At every pause to change carriers she moistened his face and lips
-and watched each breath with heart-breaking anxiety.
-
-She scarcely knew when her father joined them, and taking the branch
-from her, slipped an arm around her waist and almost carried her. To the
-city streets and the swarm of curious, staring faces she paid no more
-attention than she had to the trees of the Limberlost. When the train
-came and the gang placed Freckles aboard, big Duncan made a place for
-the Angel beside the cot.
-
-With the best physician to be found, and with the Bird Woman and
-McLean in attendance, the four-hours' run to Chicago began. The Angel
-constantly watched over Freckles; bathed his face, stroked his hand,
-and gently fanned him. Not for an instant would she yield her place,
-or allow anyone else to do anything for him. The Bird Woman and McLean
-regarded her in amazement. There seemed to be no end to her resources
-and courage. The only time she spoke was to ask McLean if he were sure
-the special would be ready on the Pittsburgh road. He replied that it
-was made up and waiting.
-
-At five o'clock Freckles lay stretched on the operating-table of Lake
-View Hospital, while three of the greatest surgeons in Chicago bent over
-him. At their command, McLean picked up the unwilling Angel and carried
-her to the nurses to be bathed, have her bruises attended, and to be put
-to bed.
-
-In a place where it is difficult to surprise people, they were
-astonished women as they removed the Angel's dainty stained and torn
-clothing, drew off hose muck-baked to her limbs, soaked the dried loam
-from her silken hair, and washed the beautiful scratched, bruised,
-dirt-covered body. The Angel fell fast asleep long before they had
-finished, and lay deeply unconscious, while the fight for Freckles' life
-was being waged.
-
-Three days later she was the same Angel as of old, except that Freckles
-was constantly in her thoughts. The anxiety and responsibility that
-she felt for his condition had bred in her a touch of womanliness and
-authority that was new. That morning she arose early and hovered near
-Freckles' door. She had been allowed to remain with him constantly, for
-the nurses and surgeons had learned, with his returning consciousness,
-that for her alone would the active, highly strung, pain-racked sufferer
-be quiet and obey orders. When she was dropping from loss of sleep, the
-threat that she would fall ill had to be used to send her to bed. Then
-by telling Freckles that the Angel was asleep and they would waken her
-the moment he moved, they were able to control him for a short time.
-
-The surgeon was with Freckles. The Angel had been told that the word
-he brought that morning would be final, so she curled in a window seat,
-dropped the curtains behind her, and in dire anxiety, waited the opening
-of the door.
-
-Just as it unclosed, McLean came hurrying down the hall and to the
-surgeon, but with one glance at his face he stepped back in dismay;
-while the Angel, who had arisen, sank to the seat again, too dazed to
-come forward. The men faced each other. The Angel, with parted lips and
-frightened eyes, bent forward in tense anxiety.
-
-“I--I thought he was doing nicely?” faltered McLean.
-
-“He bore the operation well,” replied the surgeon, “and his wounds are
-not necessarily fatal. I told you that yesterday, but I did not tell you
-that something else probably would kill him; and it will. He need not
-die from the accident, but he will not live the day out.”
-
-“But why? What is it?” asked McLean hurriedly. “We all dearly love the
-boy. We have millions among us to do anything that money can accomplish.
-Why must he die, if those broken bones are not the cause?”
-
-“That is what I am going to give you the opportunity to tell me,”
- replied the surgeon. “He need not die from the accident, yet he is
-dying as fast as his splendid physical condition will permit, and it is
-because he so evidently prefers death to life. If he were full of hope
-and ambition to live, my work would be easy. If all of you love him as
-you prove you do, and there is unlimited means to give him anything he
-wants, why should he desire death?”
-
-“Is he dying?” demanded McLean.
-
-“He is,” said the surgeon. “He will not live this day out, unless some
-strong reaction sets in at once. He is so low, that preferring death to
-life, nature cannot overcome his inertia. If he is to live, he must be
-made to desire life. Now he undoubtedly wishes for death, and that it
-come quickly.”
-
-“Then he must die,” said McLean.
-
-His broad shoulders shook convulsively. His strong hands opened and
-closed mechanically.
-
-“Does that mean that you know what he desires and cannot, or will not,
-supply it?”
-
-McLean groaned in misery.
-
-“It means,” he said desperately, “that I know what he wants, but it is
-as far removed from my power to help him as it would be to give him a
-star. The thing for which he will die, he can never have.”
-
-“Then you must prepare for the end very shortly” said the surgeon,
-turning abruptly away.
-
-McLean caught his arm roughly.
-
-“You look here!” he cried in desperation. “You say that as if I could do
-something if I would. I tell you the boy is dear to me past expression.
-I would do anything--spend any sum. You have noticed and repeatedly
-commented on the young girl with me. It is that child that he wants! He
-worships her to adoration, and knowing he can never be anything to her,
-he prefers death to life. In God's name, what can I do about it?”
-
-“Barring that missing hand, I never examined a finer man,” said the
-surgeon, “and she seemed perfectly devoted to him; why cannot he have
-her?”
-
-“Why?” echoed McLean. “Why? Well, for many reasons! I told you he was my
-son. You probably knew that he was not. A little over a year ago I never
-had seen him. He joined one of my lumber gangs from the road. He is a
-stray, left at one of your homes for the friendless here in Chicago.
-When he grew up the superintendent bound him to a brutal man. He ran
-away and landed in one of my lumber camps. He has no name or knowledge
-of legal birth. The Angel--we have talked of her. You see what she is,
-physically and mentally. She has ancestors reaching back to Plymouth
-Rock, and across the sea for generations before that. She is an
-idolized, petted only child, and there is great wealth. Life holds
-everything for her, nothing for him. He sees it more plainly than anyone
-else could. There is nothing for the boy but death, if it is the Angel
-that is required to save him.”
-
-The Angel stood between them.
-
-“Well, I just guess not!” she cried. “If Freckles wants me, all he has
-to do is to say so, and he can have me!”
-
-The amazed men stepped back, staring at her.
-
-“That he will never say,” said McLean at last, “and you don't
-understand, Angel. I don't know how you came here. I wouldn't have had
-you hear that for the world, but since you have, dear girl, you must be
-told that it isn't your friendship or your kindness Freckles wants; it
-is your love.”
-
-The Angel looked straight into the great surgeon's eyes with her clear,
-steady orbs of blue, and then into McLean's with unwavering frankness.
-
-“Well, I do love him,” she said simply.
-
-McLean's arms dropped helplessly.
-
-“You don't understand,” he reiterated patiently. “It isn't the love of
-a friend, or a comrade, or a sister, that Freckles wants from you; it
-is the love of a sweetheart. And if to save the life he has offered
-for you, you are thinking of being generous and impulsive enough to
-sacrifice your future--in the absence of your father, it will become
-my plain duty, as the protector in whose hands he has placed you, to
-prevent such rashness. The very words you speak, and the manner in which
-you say them, prove that you are a mere child, and have not dreamed what
-love is.”
-
-Then the Angel grew splendid. A rosy flush swept the pallor of fear
-from her face. Her big eyes widened and dilated with intense lights. She
-seemed to leap to the height and the dignity of superb womanhood before
-their wondering gaze.
-
-“I never have had to dream of love,” she said proudly. “I never have
-known anything else, in all my life, but to love everyone and to have
-everyone love me. And there never has been anyone so dear as Freckles.
-If you will remember, we have been through a good deal together. I do
-love Freckles, just as I say I do. I don't know anything about the love
-of sweethearts, but I love him with all the love in my heart, and I
-think that will satisfy him.”
-
-“Surely it should!” muttered the man of knives and lancets.
-
-McLean reached to take hold of the Angel, but she saw the movement and
-swiftly stepped back.
-
-“As for my father,” she continued, “he at once told me what he learned
-from you about Freckles. I've known all you know for several weeks. That
-knowledge didn't change your love for him a particle. I think the Bird
-Woman loved him more. Why should you two have all the fine perceptions
-there are? Can't I see how brave, trustworthy, and splendid he is? Can't
-I see how his soul vibrates with his music, his love of beautiful things
-and the pangs of loneliness and heart hunger? Must you two love him
-with all the love there is, and I give him none? My father is never
-unreasonable. He won't expect me not to love Freckles, or not to tell
-him so, if the telling will save him.”
-
-She darted past McLean into Freckles' room, closed the door, and turned
-the key.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII
-
-Wherein Freckles refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable Birth, and
-the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-
-Freckles lay on a flat pillow, his body immovable in a plaster cast, his
-maimed arm, as always, hidden. His greedy gaze fastened at once on the
-Angel's face. She crossed to him with light step and bent over him with
-infinite tenderness. Her heart ached at the change in his appearance. He
-seemed so weak, heart hungry, so utterly hopeless, so alone. She could
-see that the night had been one long terror.
-
-For the first time she tried putting herself in Freckles' place. What
-would it mean to have no parents, no home, no name? No name! That was
-the worst of all. That was to be lost--indeed--utterly and hopelessly
-lost. The Angel lifted her hands to her dazed head and reeled, as she
-tried to face that proposition. She dropped on her knees beside the bed,
-slipped her arm under the pillow, and leaning over Freckles, set her
-lips on his forehead. He smiled faintly, but his wistful face appeared
-worse for it. It hurt the Angel to the heart.
-
-“Dear Freckles,” she said, “there is a story in your eyes this morning,
-tell me?”
-
-Freckles drew a long, wavering breath.
-
-“Angel,” he begged, “be generous! Be thinking of me a little. I'm so
-homesick and worn out, dear Angel, be giving me back me promise. Let me
-go?”
-
-“Why Freckles!” faltered the Angel. “You don't know what you are asking.
-'Let you go!' I cannot! I love you better than anyone, Freckles. I
-think you are the very finest person I ever knew. I have our lives all
-planned. I want you to be educated and learn all there is to know about
-singing, just as soon as you are well enough. By the time you have
-completed your education I will have finished college, and then I want,”
- she choked a second, “I want you to be my real knight, Freckles, and
-come to me and tell me that you--like me--a little. I have been counting
-on you for my sweetheart from the very first, Freckles. I can't give you
-up, unless you don't like me. But you do like me--just a little--don't
-you, Freckles?”
-
-Freckles lay whiter than the coverlet, his staring eyes on the ceiling
-and his breath wheezing between dry lips. The Angel awaited his answer
-a second, and when none came, she dropped her crimsoning face beside him
-on the pillow and whispered in his ear:
-
-“Freckles, I--I'm trying to make love to you. Oh, can't you help me only
-a little bit? It's awful hard all alone! I don't know how, when I really
-mean it, but Freckles, I love you. I must have you, and now I guess--I
-guess maybe I'd better kiss you next.”
-
-She lifted her shamed face and bravely laid her feverish, quivering lips
-on his. Her breath, like clover-bloom, was in his nostrils, and her hair
-touched his face. Then she looked into his eyes with reproach.
-
-“Freckles,” she panted, “Freckles! I didn't think it was in you to be
-mean!”
-
-“Mean, Angel! Mean to you?” gasped Freckles.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel. “Downright mean. When I kiss you, if you had any
-mercy at all you'd kiss back, just a little bit.”
-
-Freckles' sinewy fist knotted into the coverlet. His chin pointed
-ceilingward while his head rocked on the pillow.
-
-“Oh, Jesus!” burst from him in agony. “You ain't the only one that was
-crucified!”
-
-The Angel caught Freckles' hand and carried it to her breast.
-
-“Freckles!” she wailed in terror, “Freckles! It is a mistake? Is it that
-you don't want me?”
-
-Freckles' head rolled on in wordless suffering.
-
-“Wait a bit, Angel?” he panted at last. “Be giving me a little time!”
-
-The Angel arose with controlled features. She bathed his face,
-straightened his hair, and held water to his lips. It seemed a long time
-before he reached toward her. Instantly she knelt again, carried his
-hand to her breast, and leaned her cheek upon it.
-
-“Tell me, Freckles,” she whispered softly.
-
-“If I can,” said Freckles in agony. “It's just this. Angels are
-from above. Outcasts are from below. You've a sound body and you're
-beautifulest of all. You have everything that loving, careful raising
-and money can give you. I have so much less than nothing that I don't
-suppose I had any right to be born. It's a sure thing--nobody wanted me
-afterward, so of course, they didn't before. Some of them should have
-been telling you long ago.”
-
-“If that's all you have to say, Freckles, I've known that quite a
-while,” said the Angel stoutly. “Mr. McLean told my father, and he told
-me. That only makes me love you more, to pay for all you've missed.”
-
-“Then I'm wondering at you,” said Freckles in a voice of awe. “Can't you
-see that if you were willing and your father would come and offer you
-to me, I couldn't be touching the soles of your feet, in love--me, whose
-people brawled over me, cut off me hand, and throwed me away to freeze
-and to die! Me, who has no name just as much because I've no RIGHT to
-any, as because I don't know it. When I was little, I planned to find me
-father and mother when I grew up. Now I know me mother deserted me, and
-me father was maybe a thief and surely a liar. The pity for me suffering
-and the watching over me have gone to your head, dear Angel, and it's me
-must be thinking for you. If you could be forgetting me lost hand, where
-I was raised, and that I had no name to give you, and if you would be
-taking me as I am, some day people such as mine must be, might come upon
-you. I used to pray ivery night and morning and many times the day to
-see me mother. Now I only pray to die quickly and never risk the sight
-of her. 'Tain't no ways possible, Angel! It's a wildness of your dear
-head. Oh, do for mercy sake, kiss me once more and be letting me go!”
-
-“Not for a minute!” cried the Angel. “Not for a minute, if those are
-all the reasons you have. It's you who are wild in your head, but I can
-understand just how it happened. Being shut in that Home most of your
-life, and seeing children every day whose parents did neglect and desert
-them, makes you sure yours did the same; and yet there are so many other
-things that could have happened so much more easily than that. There are
-thousands of young couples who come to this country and start a family
-with none of their relatives here. Chicago is a big, wicked city, and
-grown people could disappear in many ways, and who would there ever be
-to find to whom their little children belonged? The minute my father
-told me how you felt, I began to study this thing over, and I've made up
-my mind you are dead wrong. I meant to ask my father or the Bird Woman
-to talk to you before you went away to school, but as matters are right
-now I guess I'll just do it myself. It's all so plain to me. Oh, if I
-could only make you see!”
-
-She buried her face in the pillow and presently lifted it, transfigured.
-
-“Now I have it!” she cried. “Oh, dear heart! I can make it so plain!
-Freckles, can you imagine you see the old Limberlost trail? Well when
-we followed it, you know there were places where ugly, prickly thistles
-overgrew the path, and you went ahead with your club and bent them back
-to keep them from stinging through my clothing. Other places there were
-big shining pools where lovely, snow-white lilies grew, and you waded
-in and gathered them for me. Oh dear heart, don't you see? It's this!
-Everywhere the wind carried that thistledown, other thistles sprang up
-and grew prickles; and wherever those lily seeds sank to the mire, the
-pure white of other lilies bloomed. But, Freckles, there was never
-a place anywhere in the Limberlost, or in the whole world, where the
-thistledown floated and sprang up and blossomed into white lilies!
-Thistles grow from thistles, and lilies from other lilies. Dear
-Freckles, think hard! You must see it! You are a lily, straight through.
-You never, never could have drifted from the thistle-patch.
-
-“Where did you find the courage to go into the Limberlost and face its
-terrors? You inherited it from the blood of a brave father, dear heart.
-Where did you get the pluck to hold for over a year a job that few men
-would have taken at all? You got it from a plucky mother, you bravest
-of boys. You attacked single-handed a man almost twice your size, and
-fought as a demon, merely at the suggestion that you be deceptive and
-dishonest. Could your mother or your father have been untruthful? Here
-you are, so hungry and starved that you are dying for love. Where
-did you get all that capacity for loving? You didn't inherit it from
-hardened, heartless people, who would disfigure you and purposely leave
-you to die, that's one sure thing. You once told me of saving your big
-bullfrog from a rattlesnake. You knew you risked a horrible death when
-you did it. Yet you will spend miserable years torturing yourself with
-the idea that your own mother might have cut off that hand. Shame on
-you, Freckles! Your mother would have done this----”
-
-The Angel deliberately turned back the cover, slipped up the sleeve, and
-laid her lips on the scars.
-
-“Freckles! Wake up!” she cried, almost shaking him. “Come to your
-senses! Be a thinking, reasoning man! You have brooded too much, and
-been all your life too much alone. It's all as plain as plain can be to
-me. You must see it! Like breeds like in this world! You must be some
-sort of a reproduction of your parents, and I am not afraid to vouch for
-them, not for a minute!
-
-“And then, too, if more proof is needed, here it is: Mr. McLean says
-that you never once have failed in tact and courtesy. He says that you
-are the most perfect gentleman he ever knew, and he has traveled the
-world over. How does it happen, Freckles? No one at that Home taught
-you. Hundreds of men couldn't be taught, even in a school of etiquette;
-so it must be instinctive with you. If it is, why, that means that it is
-born in you, and a direct inheritance from a race of men that have been
-gentlemen for ages, and couldn't be anything else.
-
-“Then there's your singing. I don't believe there ever was a mortal with
-a sweeter voice than yours, and while that doesn't prove anything, there
-is a point that does. The little training you had from that choirmaster
-won't account for the wonderful accent and ease with which you sing.
-Somewhere in your close blood is a marvelously trained vocalist; we
-every one of us believe that, Freckles.
-
-“Why does my father refer to you constantly as being of fine perceptions
-and honor? Because you are, Freckles. Why does the Bird Woman leave her
-precious work and come here to help look after you? I never heard of her
-losing any time over anyone else. It's because she loves you. And why
-does Mr. McLean turn all of his valuable business over to hired men and
-watch you personally? And why is he hunting excuses every day to spend
-money on you? My father says McLean is full Scotch-close with a dollar.
-He is a hard-headed business man, Freckles, and he is doing it because
-he finds you worthy of it. Worthy of all we all can do and more than we
-know how to do, dear heart! Freckles, are you listening to me? Oh! won't
-you see it? Won't you believe it?”
-
-“Oh, Angel!” chattered the bewildered Freckles, “are you truly maning
-it? Could it be?”
-
-“Of course it could,” flashed the Angel, “because it just is!”
-
-“But you can't prove it,” wailed Freckles. “It ain't giving me a name,
-or me honor!”
-
-“Freckles,” said the Angel sternly, “you are unreasonable! Why, I did
-prove every word I said! Everything proves it! You look here! If you
-knew for sure that I could give you a name and your honor, and prove
-to you that your mother did love you, why, then, would you just go to
-breathing like perpetual motion and hang on for dear life and get well?”
-
-A bright light shone in Freckles' eyes.
-
-“If I knew that, Angel,” he said solemnly, “you couldn't be killing me
-if you felled the biggest tree in the Limberlost smash on me!”
-
-“Then you go right to work,” said the Angel, “and before night I'll
-prove one thing to you: I can show you easily enough how much your
-mother loved you. That will be the first step, and then the remainder
-will all come. If my father and Mr. McLean are so anxious to spend some
-money, I'll give them a chance. I don't see why we haven't comprehended
-how you felt and so have been at work weeks ago. We've been awfully
-selfish. We've all been so comfortable, we never stopped to think what
-other people were suffering before our eyes. None of us has understood.
-I'll hire the finest detective in Chicago, and we'll go to work
-together. This is nothing compared with things people do find out. We'll
-go at it, beak and claw, and we'll show you a thing or two.”
-
-Freckles caught her sleeve.
-
-“Me mother, Angel! Me mother!” he marveled hoarsely. “Did you say
-you could be finding out today if me mother loved me? How? Oh, Angel!
-Nothing matters, IF ONLY ME MOTHER DIDN'T DO IT!”
-
-“Then you rest easy,” said the Angel, with large confidence. “Your
-mother didn't do it! Mothers of sons such as you don't do things like
-that. I'll go to work at once and prove it to you. The first thing to
-do is to go to that Home where you were and get the clothes you wore the
-night you were left there. I know that they are required to save those
-things carefully. We can find out almost all there is to know about your
-mother from them. Did you ever see them?”
-
-“Yis,” he replied.
-
-“Freckles! Were they white?” she cried.
-
-“Maybe they were once. They're all yellow with laying, and brown with
-blood-stains now” said Freckles, the old note of bitterness creeping in.
-“You can't be telling anything at all by them, Angel!”
-
-“Well, but I just can!” said the Angel positively. “I can see from the
-quality what kind of goods your mother could afford to buy. I can see
-from the cut whether she had good taste. I can see from the care she
-took in making them how much she loved and wanted you.”
-
-“But how? Angel, tell me how!” implored Freckles with trembling
-eagerness.
-
-“Why, easily enough,” said the Angel. “I thought you'd understand.
-People that can afford anything at all, always buy white for little new
-babies--linen and lace, and the very finest things to be had. There's a
-young woman living near us who cut up her wedding clothes to have fine
-things for her baby. Mothers who love and want their babies don't buy
-little rough, ready-made things, and they don't run up what they make on
-an old sewing machine. They make fine seams, and tucks, and put on lace
-and trimming by hand. They sit and stitch, and stitch--little, even
-stitches, every one just as careful. Their eyes shine and their faces
-glow. When they have to quit to do something else, they look sorry, and
-fold up their work so particularly. There isn't much worth knowing about
-your mother that those little clothes won't tell. I can see her putting
-the little stitches into them and smiling with shining eyes over your
-coming. Freckles, I'll wager you a dollar those little clothes of yours
-are just alive with the dearest, tiny handmade stitches.”
-
-A new light dawned in Freckles' eyes. A tinge of warm color swept into
-his face. Renewed strength was noticeable in his grip of her hands.
-
-“Oh Angel! Will you go now? Will you be hurrying?” he cried.
-
-“Right away,” said the Angel. “I won't stop for a thing, and I'll hurry
-with all my might.”
-
-She smoothed his pillow, straightened the cover, gave him one steady
-look in the eyes, and went quietly from the room.
-
-Outside the door, McLean and the surgeon anxiously awaited her. McLean
-caught her shoulders.
-
-“Angel, what have you done?” he demanded.
-
-The Angel smiled defiance into his eyes.
-
-“'What have I done?'” she repeated. “I've tried to save Freckles.”
-
-“What will your father say?” groaned McLean.
-
-“It strikes me,” said the Angel, “that what Freckles said would be to
-the point.”
-
-“Freckles!” exclaimed McLean. “What could he say?”
-
-“He seemed to be able to say several things,” answered the Angel
-sweetly. “I fancy the one that concerns you most at present was, that if
-my father should offer me to him he would not have me.”
-
-“And no one knows why better than I do,” cried McLean. “Every day he
-must astonish me with some new fineness.”
-
-He turned to the surgeon. “Save him!” he commanded. “Save him!” he
-implored. “He is too fine to be sacrificed.”
-
-“His salvation lies here,” said the surgeon, stroking the Angel's
-sunshiny hair, “and I can read in the face of her that she knows how she
-is going to work it out. Don't trouble for the boy. She will save him!”
-
-The Angel laughingly sped down the hall, and into the street, just as
-she was.
-
-“I have come,” she said to the matron of the Home, “to ask if you will
-allow me to examine, or, better yet, to take with me, the little clothes
-that a boy you called Freckles, discharged last fall, wore the night he
-was left here.”
-
-The woman looked at her in greater astonishment than the occasion
-demanded.
-
-“Well, I'd be glad to let you see them,” she said at last, “but the
-fact is we haven't them. I do hope we haven't made some mistake. I was
-thoroughly convinced, and so was the superintendent. We let his people
-take those things away yesterday. Who are you, and what do you want with
-them?”
-
-The Angel stood dazed and speechless, staring at the matron.
-
-“There couldn't have been a mistake,” continued the matron, seeing the
-Angel's distress. “Freckles was here when I took charge, ten years ago.
-These people had it all proved that he belonged to them. They had
-him traced to where he ran away in Illinois last fall, and there they
-completely lost track of him. I'm sorry you seem so disappointed, but it
-is all right. The man is his uncle, and as like the boy as he possibly
-could be. He is almost killed to go back without him. If you know where
-Freckles is, they'd give big money to find out.”
-
-The Angel laid a hand along each cheek to steady her chattering teeth.
-
-“Who are they?” she stammered. “Where are they going?”
-
-“They are Irish folks, miss,” said the matron. “They have been in
-Chicago and over the country for the past three months, hunting him
-everywhere. They have given up, and are starting home today. They----”
-
-“Did they leave an address? Where could I find them?” interrupted the
-Angel.
-
-“They left a card, and I notice the morning paper has the man's picture
-and is full of them. They've advertised a great deal in the city papers.
-It's a wonder you haven't seen something.”
-
-“Trains don't run right. We never get Chicago papers,” said the Angel.
-“Please give me that card quickly. They may escape me. I simply must
-catch them!”
-
-The matron hurried to the secretary and came back with a card.
-
-“Their addresses are there,” she said. “Both in Chicago and at their
-home. They made them full and plain, and I was to cable at once if I
-got the least clue of him at any time. If they've left the city, you can
-stop them in New York. You're sure to catch them before they sail--if
-you hurry.”
-
-The matron caught up a paper and thrust it into the Angel's hand as she
-ran to the street.
-
-The Angel glanced at the card. The Chicago address was Suite Eleven,
-Auditorium. She laid her hand on her driver's sleeve and looked into his
-eyes.
-
-“There is a fast-driving limit?” she asked.
-
-“Yes, miss.”
-
-“Will you crowd it all you can without danger of arrest? I will pay
-well. I must catch some people!”
-
-Then she smiled at him. The hospital, an Orphans' Home, and the
-Auditorium seemed a queer combination to that driver, but the Angel was
-always and everywhere the Angel, and her methods were strictly her own.
-
-“I will take you there as quickly as any man could with a team,” he said
-promptly.
-
-The Angel clung to the card and paper, and as best she could in the
-lurching, swaying cab, read the addresses over.
-
-“O'More, Suite Eleven, Auditorium.”
-
-“'O'More,'” she repeated. “Seems to fit Freckles to a dot. Wonder if
-that could be his name? 'Suite Eleven' means that you are pretty well
-fixed. Suites in the Auditorium come high.”
-
-Then she turned the card and read on its reverse, Lord Maxwell O'More,
-M. P., Killvany Place, County Clare, Ireland.
-
-The Angel sat on the edge of the seat, bracing her feet against the one
-opposite, as the cab pitched and swung around corners and past vehicles.
-She mechanically fingered the pasteboard and stared straight ahead. Then
-she drew a deep breath and read the card again.
-
-“A Lord-man!” she groaned despairingly. “A Lord-man! Bet my hoecake's
-scorched! Here I've gone and pledged my word to Freckles I'd find him
-some decent relatives, that he could be proud of, and now there isn't a
-chance out of a dozen that he'll have to be ashamed of them after all.
-It's too mean!”
-
-The tears of vexation rolled down the tired, nerve-racked Angel's
-cheeks.
-
-“This isn't going to do,” she said, resolutely wiping her eyes with the
-palm of her hand and gulping down the nervous spasm in her throat. “I
-must read this paper before I meet Lord O'More.”
-
-She blinked back the tears and spreading the paper on her knee, read:
-“After three months' fruitless search, Lord O'More gives up the quest of
-his lost nephew, and leaves Chicago today for his home in Ireland.”
-
-She read on, and realized every word. The likeness settled any doubt. It
-was Freckles over again, only older and well dressed.
-
-“Well, I must catch you if I can,” muttered the Angel. “But when I do,
-if you are a gentleman in name only, you shan't have Freckles; that's
-flat. You're not his father and he is twenty. Anyway, if the law will
-give him to you for one year, you can't spoil him, because nobody could,
-and,” she added, brightening, “he'll probably do you a lot of good.
-Freckles and I both must study years yet, and you should be something
-that will save him. I guess it will come out all right. At least, I
-don't believe you can take him away if I say no.”
-
-“Thank you; and wait, no matter how long,” she said to her driver.
-
-Catching up the paper, she hurried to the desk and laid down Lord
-O'More's card.
-
-“Has my uncle started yet?” she asked sweetly.
-
-The surprised clerk stepped back on a bellboy, and covertly kicked him
-for being in the way.
-
-“His lordship is in his room,” he said, with a low bow.
-
-“All right,” said the Angel, picking up the card. “I thought he might
-have started. I'll see him.”
-
-The clerk shoved the bellboy toward the Angel.
-
-“Show her ladyship to the elevator and Lord O'More's suite,” he said,
-bowing double.
-
-“Aw, thanks,” said the Angel with a slight nod, as she turned away.
-
-“I'm not sure,” she muttered to herself as the elevator sped upward,
-“whether it's the Irish or the English who say: 'Aw, thanks,' but it's
-probable he isn't either; and anyway, I just had to do something to
-counteract that 'All right.' How stupid of me!”
-
-At the bellboy's tap, the door swung open and the liveried servant
-thrust a cardtray before the Angel. The opening of the door created a
-current that swayed a curtain aside, and in an adjoining room, lounging
-in a big chair, with a paper in his hand, sat a man who was, beyond
-question, of Freckles' blood and race.
-
-With perfect control the Angel dropped Lord O'More's card in the tray,
-stepped past his servant, and stood before his lordship.
-
-“Good morning,” she said with tense politeness.
-
-Lord O'More said nothing. He carelessly glanced her over with amused
-curiosity, until her color began to deepen and her blood to run hotly.
-
-“Well, my dear,” he said at last, “how can I serve you?”
-
-Instantly the Angel became indignant. She had been so shielded in the
-midst of almost entire freedom, owing to the circumstances of her life,
-that the words and the look appeared to her as almost insulting. She
-lifted her head with a proud gesture.
-
-“I am not your 'dear,'” she said with slow distinctness. “There isn't a
-thing in the world you can do for me. I came here to see if I could do
-something--a very great something--for you; but if I don't like you, I
-won't do it!”
-
-Then Lord O'More did stare. Suddenly he broke into a ringing laugh.
-Without a change of attitude or expression, the Angel stood looking
-steadily at him.
-
-There was a silken rustle, then a beautiful woman with cheeks of satiny
-pink, dark hair, and eyes of pure Irish blue, moved to Lord O'More's
-side, and catching his arm, shook him impatiently.
-
-“Terence! Have you lost your senses?” she cried. “Didn't you understand
-what the child said? Look at her face! See what she has!”
-
-Lord O'More opened his eyes widely and sat up. He did look at the
-Angel's face intently, and suddenly found it so good that it was
-difficult to follow the next injunction. He arose instantly.
-
-“I beg your pardon,” he said. “The fact is, I am leaving Chicago sorely
-disappointed. It makes me bitter and reckless. I thought you one more of
-those queer, useless people who have thrust themselves on me constantly,
-and I was careless. Forgive me, and tell me why you came.”
-
-“I will if I like you,” said the Angel stoutly, “and if I don't, I
-won't!”
-
-“But I began all wrong, and now I don't know how to make you like me,”
- said his lordship, with sincere penitence in his tone.
-
-The Angel found herself yielding to his voice. He spoke in a soft,
-mellow, smoothly flowing Irish tone, and although his speech was
-perfectly correct, it was so rounded, and accented, and the sentences so
-turned, that it was Freckles over again. Still, it was a matter of the
-very greatest importance, and she must be sure; so she looked into the
-beautiful woman's face.
-
-“Are you his wife?” she asked.
-
-“Yes,” said the woman, “I am his wife.”
-
-“Well,” said the Angel judicially, “the Bird Woman says no one in the
-whole world knows all a man's bignesses and all his littlenesses as his
-wife does. What you think of him should do for me. Do you like him?”
-
-The question was so earnestly asked that it met with equal earnestness.
-The dark head moved caressingly against Lord O'More's sleeve.
-
-“Better than anyone in the whole world,” said Lady O'More promptly.
-
-The Angel mused a second, and then her legal tinge came to the fore
-again.
-
-“Yes, but have you anyone you could like better, if he wasn't all
-right?” she persisted.
-
-“I have three of his sons, two little daughters, a father, mother, and
-several brothers and sisters,” came the quick reply.
-
-“And you like him best?” persisted the Angel with finality.
-
-“I love him so much that I would give up every one of them with dry eyes
-if by so doing I could save him,” cried Lord O'More's wife.
-
-“Oh!” cried the Angel. “Oh, my!”
-
-She lifted her clear eyes to Lord O'More's and shook her head.
-
-“She never, never could do that!” she said. “But it's a mighty big thing
-to your credit that she THINKS she could. I guess I'll tell you why I
-came.”
-
-She laid down the paper, and touched the portrait.
-
-“When you were only a boy, did people call you Freckles?” she asked.
-
-“Dozens of good fellows all over Ireland and the Continent are doing it
-today,” answered Lord O'More.
-
-The Angel's face wore her most beautiful smile.
-
-“I was sure of it,” she said winningly. “That's what we call him, and he
-is so like you, I doubt if any one of those three boys of yours are
-more so. But it's been twenty years. Seems to me you've been a long time
-coming!”
-
-Lord O'More caught the Angel's wrists and his wife slipped her arms
-around her.
-
-“Steady, my girl!” said the man's voice hoarsely. “Don't make me think
-you've brought word of the boy at this last hour, unless you know
-surely.”
-
-“It's all right,” said the Angel. “We have him, and there's no chance
-of a mistake. If I hadn't gone to that Home for his little clothes, and
-heard of you and been hunting you, and had met you on the street, or
-anywhere, I would have stopped you and asked you who you were, just
-because you are so like him. It's all right. I can tell you where
-Freckles is; but whether you deserve to know--that's another matter!”
-
-Lord O'More did not hear her. He dropped in his chair, and covering his
-face, burst into those terrible sobs that shake and rend a strong man.
-Lady O'More hovered over him, weeping.
-
-“Umph! Looks pretty fair for Freckles,” muttered the Angel. “Lots of
-things can be explained; now perhaps they can explain this.”
-
-They did explain so satisfactorily that in a few minutes the Angel was
-on her feet, hurrying Lord and Lady O'More to reach the hospital. “You
-said Freckles' old nurse knew his mother's picture instantly,” said the
-Angel. “I want that picture and the bundle of little clothes.”
-
-Lady O'More gave them into her hands.
-
-The likeness was a large miniature, painted on ivory, with a frame of
-beaten gold. Surrounded by masses of dark hair was a delicately cut
-face. In the upper part of it there was no trace of Freckles, but
-the lips curving in a smile were his very own. The Angel gazed at it
-steadily. Then with a quivering breath she laid the portrait aside and
-reached both hands to Lord O'More.
-
-“That will save Freckles' life and insure his happiness,” she said
-positively. “Thank you, oh thank you for coming!”
-
-She opened the bundle of yellow and brown linen and gave only a glance
-at the texture and work. Then she gathered the little clothes and the
-picture to her heart and led the way to the cab.
-
-Ushering Lord and Lady O'More into the reception room, she said to
-McLean, “Please go call up my father and ask him to come on the first
-train.”
-
-She closed the door after him.
-
-“These are Freckles' people,” she said to the Bird Woman. “You can find
-out about each other; I'm going to him.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX
-
-Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-
-The nurse left the room quietly, as the Angel entered, carrying the
-bundle and picture. When they were alone, she turned to Freckles and saw
-that the crisis was indeed at hand.
-
-That she had good word to give him was his salvation, for despite the
-heavy plaster jacket that held his body immovable, his head was lifted
-from the pillow. Both arms reached for her. His lips and cheeks flamed,
-while his eyes flashed with excitement.
-
-“Angel,” he panted. “Oh Angel! Did you find them? Are they white? Are
-the little stitches there? OH ANGEL! DID ME MOTHER LOVE ME?”
-
-The words seemed to leap from his burning lips. The Angel dropped the
-bundle on the bed and laid the picture face down across his knees.
-She gently pushed his head to the pillow and caught his arms in a firm
-grasp.
-
-“Yes, dear heart,” she said with fullest assurance. “No little clothes
-were ever whiter. I never in all my life saw such dainty, fine, little
-stitches; and as for loving you, no boy's mother ever loved him more!”
-
-A nervous trembling seized Freckles.
-
-“Sure? Are you sure?” he urged with clicking teeth.
-
-“I know,” said the Angel firmly. “And Freckles, while you rest and be
-glad, I want to tell you a story. When you feel stronger we will look at
-the clothes together. They are here. They are all right. But while I
-was at the Home getting them, I heard of some people that were hunting
-a lost boy. I went to see them, and what they told me was all so exactly
-like what might have happened to you that I must tell you. Then you'll
-understand that things could be very different from what you always have
-tortured yourself with thinking. Are you strong enough to listen? May I
-tell you?”
-
-“Maybe 'twasn't me mother! Maybe someone else made those little
-stitches!”
-
-“Now, goosie, don't you begin that,” said the Angel, “because I know
-that it was!”
-
-“Know!” cried Freckles, his head springing from the pillow. “Know! How
-can you know?”
-
-The Angel gently soothed him back.
-
-“Why, because nobody else would ever sit and do it the way it is done.
-That's how I know,” she said emphatically. “Now you listen while I tell
-you about this lost boy and his people, who have hunted for months and
-can't find him.”
-
-Freckles lay quietly under her touch, but he did not hear a word that
-she was saying until his roving eyes rested on her face; he immediately
-noticed a remarkable thing. For the first time she was talking to him
-and avoiding his eyes. That was not like the Angel at all. It was the
-delight of hearing her speak that she looked one squarely in the face
-and with perfect frankness. There were no side glances and down-drooping
-eyes when the Angel talked; she was business straight through. Instantly
-Freckles' wandering thoughts fastened on her words.
-
-“--and he was a sour, grumpy, old man,” she was saying. “He always had
-been spoiled, because he was an only son, so he had a title, and a big
-estate. He would have just his way, no matter about his sweet little
-wife, or his boys, or anyone. So when his elder son fell in love with a
-beautiful girl having a title, the very girl of all the world his
-father wanted him to, and added a big adjoining estate to his, why, that
-pleased him mightily.
-
-“Then he went and ordered his younger son to marry a poky kind of a
-girl, that no one liked, to add another big estate on the other side,
-and that was different. That was all the world different, because the
-elder son had been in love all his life with the girl he married, and,
-oh, Freckles, it's no wonder, for I saw her! She's a beauty and she has
-the sweetest way.
-
-“But that poor younger son, he had been in love with the village
-vicar's daughter all his life. That's no wonder either, for she was more
-beautiful yet. She could sing as the angels, but she hadn't a cent. She
-loved him to death, too, if he was bony and freckled and red-haired--I
-don't mean that! They didn't say what color his hair was, but his
-father's must have been the reddest ever, for when he found out about
-them, and it wasn't anything so terrible, HE JUST CAVED!
-
-“The old man went to see the girl--the pretty one with no money, of
-course--and he hurt her feelings until she ran away. She went to London
-and began studying music. Soon she grew to be a fine singer, so she
-joined a company and came to this country.
-
-“When the younger son found that she had left London, he followed her.
-When she got here all alone, and afraid, and saw him coming to her, why,
-she was so glad she up and married him, just like anybody else would
-have done. He didn't want her to travel with the troupe, so when they
-reached Chicago they thought that would be a good place, and they
-stopped, while he hunted work. It was slow business, because he never
-had been taught to do a useful thing, and he didn't even know how to
-hunt work, least of all to do it when he found it; so pretty soon things
-were going wrong. But if he couldn't find work, she could always sing,
-so she sang at night, and made little things in the daytime. He didn't
-like her to sing in public, and he wouldn't allow her when he could
-HELP himself; but winter came, it was very cold, and fire was expensive.
-Rents went up, and they had to move farther out to cheaper and
-cheaper places; and you were coming--I mean, the boy that is lost was
-coming--and they were almost distracted. Then the man wrote and told his
-father all about it; and his father sent the letter back unopened with
-a line telling him never to write again. When the baby came, there was
-very little left to pawn for food and a doctor, and nothing at all for
-a nurse; so an old neighbor woman went in and took care of the young
-mother and the little baby, because she was so sorry for them. By that
-time they were away in the suburbs on the top floor of a little wooden
-house, among a lot of big factories, and it kept growing colder, with
-less to eat. Then the man grew desperate and he went just to find
-something to eat and the woman was desperate, too. She got up, left the
-old woman to take care of her baby, and went into the city to sing for
-some money. The woman became so cold she put the baby in bed and went
-home. Then a boiler blew up in a big factory beside the little house and
-set it on fire. A piece of iron was pitched across and broke through
-the roof. It came down smash, and cut just one little hand off the poor
-baby. It screamed and screamed; and the fire kept coming closer and
-closer.
-
-“The old woman ran out with the other people and saw what had happened.
-She knew there wasn't going to be time to wait for firemen or anything,
-so she ran into the building. She could hear the baby screaming, and she
-couldn't stand that; so she worked her way to it. There it was, all hurt
-and bleeding. Then she was almost scared to death over thinking what its
-mother would do to her for going away and leaving it, so she ran to a
-Home for little friendless babies, that was close, and banged on the
-door. Then she hid across the street until the baby was taken in, and
-then she ran back to see if her own house was burning. The big factory
-and the little house and a lot of others were all gone. The people there
-told her that the beautiful lady came back and ran into the house to
-find her baby. She had just gone in when her husband came, and he went
-in after her, and the house fell over both of them.”
-
-Freckles lay rigidly, with his eyes on the Angel's face, while she
-talked rapidly to the ceiling.
-
-“Then the old woman was sick about that poor little baby. She was afraid
-to tell them at the Home, because she knew she never should have left
-it, but she wrote a letter and sent it to where the beautiful woman,
-when she was ill, had said her husband's people lived. She told all
-about the little baby that she could remember: when it was born, how it
-was named for the man's elder brother, that its hand had been cut off in
-the fire, and where she had put it to be doctored and taken care of. She
-told them that its mother and father were both burned, and she begged
-and implored them to come after it.
-
-“You'd think that would have melted a heart of ice, but that old man
-hadn't any heart to melt, for he got that letter and read it. He hid it
-away among his papers and never told a soul. A few months ago he died.
-When his elder son went to settle his business, he found the letter
-almost the first thing. He dropped everything, and came, with his wife,
-to hunt that baby, because he always had loved his brother dearly, and
-wanted him back. He had hunted for him all he dared all these years, but
-when he got here you were gone--I mean the baby was gone, and I had to
-tell you, Freckles, for you see, it might have happened to you like that
-just as easy as to that other lost boy.”
-
-Freckles reached up and turned the Angel's face until he compelled her
-eyes to meet his.
-
-“Angel,” he asked quietly, “why don't you look at me when you are
-telling about that lost boy?”
-
-“I--I didn't know I wasn't,” faltered the Angel.
-
-“It seems to me,” said Freckles, his breath beginning to come in sharp
-wheezes, “that you got us rather mixed, and it ain't like you to be
-mixing things till one can't be knowing. If they were telling you so
-much, did they say which hand was for being off that lost boy?”
-
-The Angel's eyes escaped again.
-
-“It--it was the same as yours,” she ventured, barely breathing in her
-fear.
-
-Still Freckles lay rigid and whiter than the coverlet.
-
-“Would that boy be as old as me?” he asked.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel faintly.
-
-“Angel,” said Freckles at last, catching her wrist, “are you trying to
-tell me that there is somebody hunting a boy that you're thinking might
-be me? Are you belavin' you've found me relations?”
-
-Then the Angel's eyes came home. The time had come. She pinioned
-Freckles' arms to his sides and bent above him.
-
-“How strong are you, dear heart?” she breathed. “How brave are you? Can
-you bear it? Dare I tell you that?”
-
-“No!” gasped Freckles. “Not if you're sure! I can't bear it! I'll die if
-you do!”
-
-The day had been one unremitting strain with the Angel. Nerve tension
-was drawn to the finest thread. It snapped suddenly.
-
-“Die!” she flamed. “Die, if I tell you that! You said this morning that
-you would die if you DIDN'T know your name, and if your people were
-honorable. Now I've gone and found you a name that stands for ages of
-honor, a mother who loved you enough to go into the fire and die for
-you, and the nicest kind of relatives, and you turn round and say you'll
-die over that! YOU JUST TRY DYING AND YOU'LL GET A GOOD SLAP!”
-
-The Angel stood glaring at him. One second Freckles lay paralyzed and
-dumb with astonishment. The next the Irish in his soul arose above
-everything. A laugh burst from him. The terrified Angel caught him in
-her arms and tried to stifle the sound. She implored and commanded. When
-he was too worn to utter another sound, his eyes laughed silently.
-
-After a long time, when he was quiet and rested, the Angel commenced
-talking to him gently, and this time her big eyes, humid with tenderness
-and mellow with happiness, seemed as if they could not leave his face.
-
-“Dear Freckles,” she was saying, “across your knees there is the face of
-the mother who went into the fire for you, and I know the name--old and
-full of honor--to which you were born. Dear heart, which will you have
-first?”
-
-Freckles was very tired; the big drops of perspiration ran together on
-his temples; but the watching Angel caught the words his lips formed,
-“Me mother!”
-
-She lifted the lovely pictured face and set it in the nook of his arm.
-Freckles caught her hand and drew her beside him, and together they
-gazed at the picture while the tears slid over their cheeks.
-
-“Me mother! Oh, me mother! Can you ever be forgiving me? Oh, me
-beautiful little mother!” chanted Freckles over and over in exalted
-wonder, until he was so completely exhausted that his lips refused to
-form the question in his weary eyes.
-
-“Wait!” cried the Angel with inborn refinement, for she could no more
-answer that question than he could ask. “Wait, I will write it!”
-
-She hurried to the table, caught up the nurse's pencil, and on the back
-of a prescription tablet scrawled it: “Terence Maxwell O'More, Dunderry
-House, County Clare, Ireland.”
-
-Before she had finished came Freckles' voice: “Angel, are you hurrying?”
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel; “I am. But there is a good deal of it. I have to
-put in your house and country, so that you will feel located.”
-
-“Me house?” marveled Freckles.
-
-“Of course,” said the Angel. “Your uncle says your grandmother left your
-father her dower house and estate, because she knew his father would cut
-him off. You get that, and all your share of your grandfather's property
-besides. It is all set off for you and waiting. Lord O'More told me so.
-I suspect you are richer than McLean, Freckles.”
-
-She closed his fingers over the slip and straightened his hair.
-
-“Now you are all right, dear Limberlost guard,” she said. “You go to
-sleep and don't think of a thing but just pure joy, joy, joy! I'll keep
-your people until you wake up. You are too tired to see anyone else just
-now!”
-
-Freckles caught her skirt as she turned from him.
-
-“I'll go to sleep in five minutes,” he said, “if you will be doing just
-one thing more for me. Send for your father! Oh, Angel, send for him
-quick! How will I ever be waiting until he comes?”
-
-One instant the Angel stood looking at him. The next a crimson wave
-darkly stained her lovely face. Her chin began a spasmodic quivering and
-the tears sprang into her eyes. Her hands caught at her chest as if she
-were stifling. Freckles' grasp on her tightened until he drew her beside
-him. He slipped his arm around her and drew her face to his pillow.
-
-“Don't, Angel; for the love of mercy don't be doing that,” he implored.
-“I can't be bearing it. Tell me. You must tell me.”
-
-The Angel shook her head.
-
-“That ain't fair, Angel,” said Freckles. “You made me tell you when it
-was like tearing the heart raw from me breast. And you was for making
-everything heaven--just heaven and nothing else for me. If I'm so much
-more now than I was an hour ago, maybe I can be thinking of some way to
-fix things. You will be telling me?” he coaxed, moving his cheek against
-her hair.
-
-The Angel's head moved in negation. Freckles did a moment of intent
-thinking.
-
-“Maybe I can be guessing,” he whispered. “Will you be giving me three
-chances?”
-
-There was the faintest possible assent.
-
-“You didn't want me to be knowing me name,” guessed Freckles.
-
-The Angel's head sprang from the pillow and her tear-stained face flamed
-with outraged indignation.
-
-“Why, I did too!” she cried angrily.
-
-“One gone,” said Freckles calmly. “You didn't want me to have relatives,
-a home, and money.”
-
-“I did!” exclaimed the Angel. “Didn't I go myself, all alone, into the
-city, and find them when I was afraid as death? I did too!”
-
-“Two gone,” said Freckles. “You didn't want the beautifulest girl in the
-world to be telling me.----”
-
-Down went the Angel's face and a heavy sob shook her. Freckles' clasp
-tightened around her shoulders, while his face, in its conflicting
-emotions, was a study. He was so stunned and bewildered by the miracle
-that had been performed in bringing to light his name and relatives that
-he had no strength left for elaborate mental processes. Despite all
-it meant to him to know his name at last, and that he was of honorable
-birth--knowledge without which life was an eternal disgrace and burden
-the one thing that was hammering in Freckles' heart and beating in his
-brain, past any attempted expression, was the fact that, while nameless
-and possibly born in shame, the Angel had told him that she loved him.
-He could find no word with which to begin to voice the rapture of his
-heart over that. But if she regretted it--if it had been a thing done
-out of her pity for his condition, or her feeling of responsibility, if
-it killed him after all, there was only one thing left to do. Not for
-McLean, not for the Bird Woman, not for the Duncans would Freckles have
-done it--but for the Angel--if it would make her happy--he would do
-anything.
-
-“Angel,” whispered Freckles, with his lips against her hair, “you
-haven't learned your history book very well, or else you've forgotten.”
-
-“Forgotten what?” sobbed the Angel.
-
-“Forgotten about the real knight, Ladybird,” breathed Freckles. “Don't
-you know that, if anything happened that made his lady sorry, a real
-knight just simply couldn't be remembering it? Angel, darling little
-Swamp Angel, you be listening to me. There was one night on the trail,
-one solemn, grand, white night, that there wasn't ever any other like
-before or since, when the dear Boss put his arm around me and told me
-that he loved me; but if you care, Angel, if you don't want it that
-way, why, I ain't remembering that anyone else ever did--not in me whole
-life.”
-
-The Angel lifted her head and looked into the depths of Freckles' honest
-gray eyes, and they met hers unwaveringly; but the pain in them was
-pitiful.
-
-“Do you mean,” she demanded, “that you don't remember that a brazen,
-forward girl told you, when you hadn't asked her, that she”--the
-Angel choked on it a second, but she gave a gulp and brought it out
-bravely--“that she loved you?”
-
-“No!” cried Freckles. “No! I don't remember anything of the kind!”
-
-But all the songbirds of his soul burst into melody over that one little
-clause: “When you hadn't asked her.”
-
-“But you will,” said the Angel. “You may live to be an old, old man, and
-then you will.”
-
-“I will not!” cried Freckles. “How can you think it, Angel?”
-
-“You won't even LOOK as if you remember?”
-
-“I will not!” persisted Freckles. “I'll be swearing to it if you want me
-to. If you wasn't too tired to think this thing out straight, you'd be
-seeing that I couldn't--that I just simply couldn't! I'd rather give it
-all up now and go into eternity alone, without ever seeing a soul of me
-same blood, or me home, or hearing another man call me by the name I was
-born to, than to remember anything that would be hurting you, Angel. I
-should think you'd be understanding that it ain't no ways possible for
-me to do it.”
-
-The Angel's tear-stained face flashed into dazzling beauty. A
-half-hysterical little laugh broke from her heart and bubbled over her
-lips.
-
-“Oh, Freckles, forgive me!” she cried. “I've been through so much that
-I'm scarcely myself, or I wouldn't be here bothering you when you should
-be sleeping. Of course you couldn't! I knew it all the time! I was just
-scared! I was forgetting that you were you! You're too good a knight
-to remember a thing like that. Of course you are! And when you don't
-remember, why, then it's the same as if it never happened. I was almost
-killed because I'd gone and spoiled everything, but now it will be all
-right. Now you can go on and do things like other men, and I can have
-some flowers, and letters, and my sweetheart coming, and when you are
-SURE, why, then YOU can tell ME things, can't you? Oh, Freckles, I'm
-so glad! Oh, I'm so happy! It's dear of you not to remember, Freckles;
-perfectly dear! It's no wonder I love you so. The wonder would be if
-I did not. Oh, I should like to know how I'm ever going to make you
-understand how much I love you!”
-
-Pillow and all, she caught him to her breast one long second; then she
-was gone.
-
-Freckles lay dazed with astonishment. At last his amazed eyes searched
-the room for something approaching the human to which he could appeal,
-and falling on his mother's portrait, he set it before him.
-
-“For the love of life! Me little mother,” he panted, “did you hear that?
-Did you hear it! Tell me, am I living, or am I dead and all heaven come
-true this minute? Did you hear it?”
-
-He shook the frame in his impatience at receiving no answer.
-
-“You are only a pictured face,” he said at last, “and of course you
-can't talk; but the soul of you must be somewhere, and surely in this
-hour you are close enough to be hearing. Tell me, did you hear that? I
-can't ever be telling a living soul; but darling little mother, who
-gave your life for mine, I can always be talking of it to you! Every day
-we'll talk it over and try to understand the miracle of it. Tell me, are
-all women like that? Were you like me Swamp Angel? If you were, then I'm
-understanding why me father followed across the ocean and went into the
-fire.”
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX
-
-Wherein Freckles returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails for
-Ireland Without Him
-
-Freckles' voice ceased, his eyes closed, and his head rolled back from
-exhaustion. Later in the day he insisted on seeing Lord and Lady O'More,
-but he fainted before the resemblance of another man to him, and gave
-all of his friends a terrible fright.
-
-The next morning, the Man of Affairs, with a heart filled with
-misgivings, undertook the interview on which Freckles insisted. His
-fears were without cause. Freckles was the soul of honor and simplicity.
-
-“Have they been telling you what's come to me?” he asked without even
-waiting for a greeting.
-
-“Yes,” said the Angel's father.
-
-“Do you think you have the very worst of it clear to your
-understanding?”
-
-Under Freckles' earnest eyes the Man of Affairs answered soberly: “I
-think I have, Mr. O'More.”
-
-That was the first time Freckles heard his name from the lips of
-another. One second he lay overcome; the next, tears filled his eyes,
-and he reached out his hand. Then the Angel's father understood, and he
-clasped that hand and held it in a strong, firm grasp.
-
-“Terence, my boy,” he said, “let me do the talking. I came here with
-the understanding that you wanted to ask me for my only child. I should
-like, at the proper time, to regard her marriage, if she has found the
-man she desires to marry, not as losing all I have, but as gaining a man
-on whom I can depend to love as a son and to take charge of my affairs
-for her when I retire from business. Bend all of your energies toward
-rapid recovery, and from this hour understand that my daughter and my
-home are yours.”
-
-“You're not forgetting this?”
-
-Freckles lifted his right arm.
-
-“Terence, I'm sorrier than I have words to express about that,” said
-the Man of Affairs. “It's a damnable pity! But if it's for me to choose
-whether I give all I have left in this world to a man lacking a hand, or
-to one of these gambling, tippling, immoral spendthrifts of today, with
-both hands and feet off their souls, and a rotten spot in the core, I
-choose you; and it seems that my daughter does the same. Put what is
-left you of that right arm to the best uses you can in this world, and
-never again mention or feel that it is defective so long as you live.
-Good day, sir!”
-
-“One minute more,” said Freckles. “Yesterday the Angel was telling me
-that there was money coming to me from two sources. She said that me
-grandmother had left me father all of her fortune and her house, because
-she knew that his father would be cutting him off, and also that me
-uncle had set aside for me what would be me father's interest in his
-father's estate.
-
-“Whatever the sum is that me grandmother left me father, because she
-loved him and wanted him to be having it, that I'll be taking. 'Twas
-hers from her father, and she had the right to be giving it as she
-chose. Anything from the man that knowingly left me father and me mother
-to go cold and hungry, and into the fire in misery, when just a little
-would have made life so beautiful to them, and saved me this crippled
-body--money that he willed from me when he knew I was living, of his
-blood and on charity among strangers, I don't touch, not if I freeze,
-starve, and burn too! If there ain't enough besides that, and I can't be
-earning enough to fix things for the Angel----”
-
-“We are not discussing money!” burst in the Man of Affairs. “We don't
-want any blood-money! We have all we need without it. If you don't feel
-right and easy over it, don't you touch a cent of any of it.”
-
-“It's right I should have what me grandmother intinded for me father,
-and I want it,” said Freckles, “but I'd die before I'd touch a cent of
-me grandfather's money!”
-
-
-“Now,” said the Angel, “we are all going home. We have done all we can
-for Freckles. His people are here. He should know them. They are very
-anxious to become acquainted with him. We'll resign him to them. When he
-is well, why, then he will be perfectly free to go to Ireland or come to
-the Limberlost, just as he chooses. We will go at once.”
-
-McLean held out for a week, and then he could endure it no longer.
-He was heart hungry for Freckles. Communing with himself in the long,
-soundful nights of the swamp, he had learned to his astonishment that
-for the past year his heart had been circling the Limberlost with
-Freckles. He began to wish that he had not left him. Perhaps the
-boy--his boy by first right, after all--was being neglected. If the
-Boss had been a nervous old woman, he scarcely could have imagined more
-things that might be going wrong.
-
-He started for Chicago, loaded with a big box of goldenrod, asters,
-fringed gentians, and crimson leaves, that the Angel carefully had
-gathered from Freckles' room, and a little, long slender package. He
-traveled with biting, stinging jealousy in his heart. He would not
-admit it even to himself, but he was unable to remain longer away from
-Freckles and leave him to the care of Lord O'More.
-
-In a few minutes' talk, while McLean awaited admission to Freckles'
-room, his lordship had chatted genially of Freckles' rapid recovery,
-of his delight that he was unspotted by his early surroundings, and
-his desire to visit the Limberlost with Freckles before they sailed;
-he expressed the hope that he could prevail upon the Angel's father to
-place her in his wife's care and have her education finished in Paris.
-He said they were anxious to do all they could to help bind Freckles'
-arrangements with the Angel, as both he and Lady O'More regarded her as
-the most promising girl they knew, and one who could be fitted to fill
-the high position in which Freckles would place her.
-
-Every word he uttered was pungent with bitterness to McLean. The swamp
-had lost its flavor without Freckles; and yet, as Lord O'More talked,
-McLean fervently wished himself in the heart of it. As he entered
-Freckles' room he almost lost his breath. Everything was changed.
-
-Freckles lay beside a window where he could follow Lake Michigan's
-blue until the horizon dipped into it. He could see big soft clouds,
-white-capped waves, shimmering sails, and puffing steamers trailing
-billowing banners of lavender and gray across the sky. Gulls and curlews
-wheeled over the water and dipped their wings in the foam. The room was
-filled with every luxury that taste and money could introduce.
-
-All the tan and sunburn had been washed from Freckles' face in sweats
-of agony. It was a smooth, even white, its brown rift scarcely showing.
-What the nurses and Lady O'More had done to Freckles' hair McLean could
-not guess, but it was the most beautiful that he ever had seen. Fine as
-floss, bright in color, waving and crisp, it fell around the white face.
-
-They had gotten his arms into and his chest covered with a finely
-embroidered, pale-blue silk shirt, with soft, white tie at the throat.
-Among the many changes that had taken place during his absence, the
-fact that Freckles was most attractive and barely escaped being handsome
-remained almost unnoticed by the Boss, so great was his astonishment at
-seeing both cuffs turned back and the right arm in view. Freckles was
-using the maimed arm that previously he always had hidden.
-
-“Oh Lord, sir, but I'm glad to see you!” cried Freckles, almost rolling
-from the bed as he reached toward McLean. “Tell me quick, is the Angel
-well and happy? Can me Little Chicken spread six feet of wing and
-sail to his mother? How's me new father, the Bird Woman, Duncans, and
-Nellie--darling little high-stepping Nelie? Me Aunt Alice is going to
-choose the hat just as soon as I'm mended enough to be going with her.
-How are all the gang? Have they found any more good trees? I've been
-thinking a lot, sir. I believe I can find others near that last one.
-Me Aunt Alice thinks maybe I can, and Uncle Terence says it's likely.
-Golly, but they're nice, ilegant people. I tell you I'm proud to be same
-blood with them! Come closer, quick! I was going to do this yesterday,
-and somehow I just felt that you'd surely be coming today and I waited.
-I'm selecting the Angel's ring stone. The ring she ordered for me is
-finished and they sent it to keep me company. See? It's an emerald--just
-me color, Lord O'More says.”
-
-Freckles flourished his hand.
-
-“Ain't that fine? Never took so much comfort with anything in me life.
-Every color of the old swamp is in it. I asked the Angel to have a
-little shamrock leaf cut on it, so every time I saw it I'd be thinking
-of the 'love, truth, and valor' of that song she was teaching me. Ain't
-that a beautiful song? Some of these days I'm going to make it echo. I'm
-a little afraid to be doing it with me voice yet, but me heart's tuning
-away on it every blessed hour. Will you be looking at these now?”
-
-Freckles tilted a tray of unset stones from Peacock's that would have
-ransomed several valuable kings. He held them toward McLean, stirring
-them with his right arm.
-
-“I tell you I'm glad to see you, sir” he said. “I tried to tell me uncle
-what I wanted, but this ain't for him to be mixed up in, anyway, and I
-don't think I made it clear to him. I couldn't seem to say the words I
-wanted. I can be telling you, sir.”
-
-McLean's heart began to thump as a lover's.
-
-“Go on, Freckles,” he said assuringly.
-
-“It's this,” said Freckles. “I told him that I would pay only three
-hundred dollars for the Angel's stone. I'm thinking that with what he
-has laid up for me, and the bigness of things that the Angel did for me,
-it seems like a stingy little sum to him. I know he thinks I should be
-giving much more, but I feel as if I just had to be buying that stone
-with money I earned meself; and that is all I have saved of me wages. I
-don't mind paying for the muff, or the drexing table, or Mrs. Duncan's
-things, from that other money, and later the Angel can have every last
-cent of me grandmother's, if she'll take it; but just now--oh, sir,
-can't you see that I have to be buying this stone with what I have in
-the bank? I'm feeling that I couldn't do any other way, and don't you
-think the Angel would rather have the best stone I can buy with the
-money I earned meself than a finer one paid for with other money?”
-
-“In other words, Freckles,” said the Boss in a husky voice, “you don't
-want to buy the Angel's ring with money. You want to give for it
-your first awful fear of the swamp. You want to pay for it with the
-loneliness and heart hunger you have suffered there, with last winter's
-freezing on the line and this summer's burning in the sun. You want it
-to stand to her for every hour in which you risked your life to fulfill
-your contract honorably. You want the price of that stone to be the
-fears that have chilled your heart--the sweat and blood of your body.”
-
-Freckles' eyes were filled with tears and his face quivering with
-feeling.
-
-“Dear Mr. McLean,” he said, reaching with a caress over the Boss's black
-hair and his cheek. “Dear Boss, that's why I've wanted you so. I knew
-you would know. Now you will be looking at these? I don't want emeralds,
-because that's what she gave me.”
-
-He pushed the green stones into a little heap of rejected ones. Then he
-singled out all the pearls.
-
-“Ain't they pretty things?” he said. “I'll be getting her some of those
-later. They are like lily faces, turtle-head flowers, dewdrops in the
-shade or moonlight; but they haven't the life in them that I want in the
-stone I give to the Angel right now.”
-
-Freckles heaped the pearls with the emeralds. He studied the diamonds a
-long time.
-
-“These things are so fascinating like they almost tempt one, though they
-ain't quite the proper thing,” he said. “I've always dearly loved to be
-watching yours, sir. I must get her some of these big ones, too, some
-day. They're like the Limberlost in January, when it's all ice-coated,
-and the sun is in the west and shines through and makes all you can see
-of the whole world look like fire and ice; but fire and ice ain't like
-the Angel.”
-
-The diamonds joined the emeralds and pearls. There was left a little red
-heap, and Freckles' fingers touched it with a new tenderness. His eyes
-were flashing.
-
-“I'm thinking here's me Angel's stone,” he exulted. “The Limberlost, and
-me with it, grew in mine; but it's going to bloom, and her with it, in
-this! There's the red of the wild poppies, the cardinal-flowers, and the
-little bunch of crushed foxfire that we found where she put it to save
-me. There's the light of the campfire, and the sun setting over Sleepy
-Snake Creek. There's the red of the blood we were willing to give for
-each other. It's like her lips, and like the drops that dried on her
-beautiful arm that first day, and I'm thinking it must be like the
-brave, tender, clean, red heart of her.”
-
-Freckles lifted the ruby to his lips and handed it to McLean.
-
-“I'll be signing me cheque and you have it set,” he said. “I want you to
-draw me money and pay for it with those very same dollars, sir.”
-
-Again the heart of McLean took hope.
-
-“Freckles, may I ask you something?” he said.
-
-“Why, sure,” said Freckles. “There's nothing you would be asking that it
-wouldn't be giving me joy to be telling you.”
-
-McLean's eyes traveled to Freckles' right arm with which he was moving
-the jewels.
-
-“Oh, that!” cried Freckles with a laugh. “You're wanting to know where
-all the bitterness is gone? Well sir, 'twas carried from me soul, heart,
-and body on the lips of an Angel. Seems that hurt was necessary in the
-beginning to make today come true. The wound had always been raw, but
-the Angel was healing it. If she doesn't care, I don't. Me dear new
-father doesn't, nor me aunt and uncle, and you never did. Why should I
-be fretting all me life about what can't be helped. The real truth is,
-that since what happened to it last week, I'm so everlastingly proud of
-it I catch meself sticking it out on display a bit.”
-
-Freckles looked the Boss in the eyes and began to laugh.
-
-“Well thank heaven!” said McLean.
-
-“Now it's me turn,” said Freckles. “I don't know as I ought to be asking
-you, and yet I can't see a reason good enough to keep me from it. It's
-a thing I've had on me mind every hour since I've had time to straighten
-things out a little. May I be asking you a question?”
-
-McLean reached over and took Freckles' hand. His voice was shaken with
-feeling as he replied: “Freckles, you almost hurt me. Will you never
-learn how much you are to me--how happy you make me in coming to me with
-anything, no matter what?”
-
-“Then it's this,” said Freckles, gripping the hand of McLean strongly.
-“If this accident, and all that's come to me since, had never happened,
-where was it you had planned to send me to school? What was it you meant
-for me to do?”
-
-“Why, Freckles,” answered McLean, “I'm scarcely prepared to state
-definitely. My ideas were rather hazy. I thought we would make a
-beginning and see which way things went. I figured on taking you to
-Grand Rapids first, and putting you in the care of my mother. I had an
-idea it would be best to secure a private tutor to coach you for a
-year or two, until you were ready to enter Ann Arbor or the Chicago
-University in good shape. Then I thought we'd finish in this country at
-Yale or Harvard, and end with Oxford, to get a good, all-round flavor.”
-
-“Is that all?” asked Freckles.
-
-“No; that's leaving the music out,” said McLean. “I intended to have
-your voice tested by some master, and if you really were endowed for a
-career as a great musician, and had inclinations that way, I wished to
-have you drop some of the college work and make music your chief study.
-Finally, I wanted us to take a trip through Europe and clear around the
-circle together.”
-
-“And then what?” queried Freckles breathlessly.
-
-“Why, then,” said McLean, “you know that my heart is hopelessly in the
-woods. I never will quit the timber business while there is timber to
-handle and breath in my body. I thought if you didn't make a profession
-of music, and had any inclination my way, we would stretch the
-partnership one more and take you into the firm, placing your work with
-me. Those plans may sound jumbled in the telling, but they have grown
-steadily on me, Freckles, as you have grown dear to me.”
-
-Freckles lifted anxious and eager eyes to McLean.
-
-“You told me once on the trail, and again when we thought that I was
-dying, that you loved me. Do these things that have come to me make any
-difference in any way with your feeing toward me?”
-
-“None,” said McLean. “How could they, Freckles? Nothing could make me
-love you more, and you never will do anything that will make me love you
-less.”
-
-“Glory be to God!” cried Freckles. “Glory to the Almighty! Hurry and
-be telling your mother I'm coming! Just as soon as I can get on me feet
-I'll be taking that ring to me Angel, and then I'll go to Grand Rapids
-and be making me start just as you planned, only that I can be paying me
-own way. When I'm educated enough, we'll all--the Angel and her father,
-the Bird Woman, you, and me--all of us will go together and see me house
-and me relations and be taking that trip. When we get back, we'll add
-O'More to the Lumber Company, and golly, sir, but we'll make things hum!
-Good land, sir! Don't do that! Why, Mr. McLean, dear Boss, dear father,
-don't be doing that! What is it?”
-
-“Nothing, nothing!” boomed McLean's deep bass; “nothing at all!”
-
-He abruptly turned, and hurried to the window.
-
-“This is a mighty fine view,” he said. “Lake's beautiful this morning.
-No wonder Chicago people are so proud of their city's location on its
-shore. But, Freckles, what is Lord O'More going to say to this?”
-
-“I don't know,” said Freckles. “I am going to be cut deep if he cares,
-for he's been more than good to me, and Lady Alice is next to me Angel.
-He's made me feel me blood and race me own possession. She's talked to
-me by the hour of me father and mother and me grandmother. She's made
-them all that real I can lay claim to them and feel that they are mine.
-I'm very sorry to be hurting them, if it will, but it can't be changed.
-Nobody ever puts the width of the ocean between me and the Angel. From
-here to the Limberlost is all I can be bearing peaceable. I want the
-education, and then I want to work and live here in the country where I
-was born, and where the ashes of me father and mother rest.
-
-“I'll be glad to see Ireland, and glad especial to see those little
-people who are my kin, but I ain't ever staying long. All me heart
-is the Angel's, and the Limberlost is calling every minute. You're
-thinking, sir, that when I look from that window I see the beautiful
-water, ain't you? I'm not.
-
-“I see soft, slow clouds oozing across the blue, me big black chickens
-hanging up there, and a great feather softly sliding down. I see mighty
-trees, swinging vines, bright flowers, and always masses of the wild
-roses, with the wild rose face of me Ladybird looking through. I see the
-swale rocking, smell the sweetness of the blooming things, and the damp,
-mucky odor of the swamp; and I hear me birds sing, me squirrels bark,
-the rattlers hiss, and the step of Wessner or Black Jack coming; and
-whether it's the things that I loved or the things that I feared, it's
-all a part of the day.
-
-“Me heart's all me Swamp Angel's, and me love is all hers, and I have
-her and the swamp so confused in me mind I never can be separating them.
-When I look at her, I see blue sky, the sun rifting through the leaves
-and pink and red flowers; and when I look at the Limberlost I see a pink
-face with blue eyes, gold hair, and red lips, and, it's the truth, sir,
-they're mixed till they're one to me!
-
-“I'm afraid it will be hurting some, but I have the feeing that I can be
-making my dear people understand, so that they will be willing to let
-me come back home. Send Lady O'More to put these flowers God made in the
-place of these glass-house ilegancies, and please be cutting the string
-of this little package the Angel's sent me.”
-
-As Freckles held up the package, the lights of the Limberlost flashed
-from the emerald on his finger. On the cover was printed: “To the
-Limberlost Guard!” Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent black feather.
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 111 ***
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-<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Freckles, by Gene Stratton-Porter</title>
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-<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 111 ***</div>
-
-    <h1>
-      FRECKLES
-    </h1>
-    <h2>
-      By Gene Stratton-Porter
-    </h2>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <h4>
-      To all good Irishmen in general<br /> and one CHARLES DARWIN PORTER<br /> in
-      particular
-    </h4>
-    <p>
-      <br />
-    </p>
-    <h2>
-      Characters:
-    </h2>
-    <blockquote>
-      <p>
-        FRECKLES, a plucky waif who guards the Limberlost timber leases and<br />
-        dreams of Angels.<br /><br /> THE SWAMP ANGEL, in whom Freckles' sweetest
-        dream materializes.<br /><br /> MCLEAN, a member of a Grand Rapids lumber
-        company, who befriends<br /> Freckles.<br /><br /> MRS. DUNCAN, who gives
-        mother-love and a home to Freckles.<br /><br /> DUNCAN, head teamster of
-        McLean's timber gang.<br /><br /> THE BIRD WOMAN, who is collecting camera
-        studies of birds for a book.<br /><br /> LORD AND LADY O'MORE, who come
-        from Ireland in quest of a lost relative.<br /><br /> THE MAN OF AFFAIRS,
-        brusque of manner, but big of heart.<br /><br /> WESSNER, a Dutch
-        timber-thief who wants rascality made easy.<br /><br /> BLACK JACK, a
-        villain to whom thought of repentance comes too late.<br /><br /> SEARS,
-        camp cook.
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <hr />
-    <p>
-      <br /> <br />
-    </p>
-    <blockquote>
-      <p class="toc">
-        <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big>
-      </p>
-      <p>
-        <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003">
-        CHAPTER III </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006">
-        CHAPTER VI </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009">
-        CHAPTER IX </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012">
-        CHAPTER XII </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015">
-        CHAPTER XV </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI </a><br /> <a
-        href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018">
-        CHAPTER XVIII </a><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX </a><br />
-        <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX </a>
-      </p>
-    </blockquote>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2H_TOC" id="link2H_TOC">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER I
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Freckles came down the corduroy that crosses the lower end of the
-      Limberlost. At a glance he might have been mistaken for a tramp, but he
-      was truly seeking work. He was intensely eager to belong somewhere and to
-      be attached to almost any enterprise that would furnish him food and
-      clothing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Long before he came in sight of the camp of the Grand Rapids Lumber
-      Company, he could hear the cheery voices of the men, the neighing of the
-      horses, and could scent the tempting odors of cooking food. A feeling of
-      homeless friendlessness swept over him in a sickening wave. Without
-      stopping to think, he turned into the newly made road and followed it to
-      the camp, where the gang was making ready for supper and bed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The scene was intensely attractive. The thickness of the swamp made a
-      dark, massive background below, while above towered gigantic trees. The
-      men were calling jovially back and forth as they unharnessed tired horses
-      that fell into attitudes of rest and crunched, in deep content, the grain
-      given them. Duncan, the brawny Scotch head-teamster, lovingly wiped the
-      flanks of his big bays with handfuls of pawpaw leaves, as he softly
-      whistled, &ldquo;O wha will be my dearie, O!&rdquo; and a cricket beneath the leaves
-      at his feet accompanied him. The green wood fire hissed and crackled
-      merrily. Wreathing tongues of flame wrapped around the big black kettles,
-      and when the cook lifted the lids to plunge in his testing-fork, gusts of
-      savory odors escaped.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles approached him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I want to speak with the Boss,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The cook glanced at him and answered carelessly: &ldquo;He can't use you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The color flooded Freckles' face, but he said simply: &ldquo;If you will be
-      having the goodness to point him out, we will give him a chance to do his
-      own talking.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      With a shrug of astonishment, the cook led the way to a rough board table
-      where a broad, square-shouldered man was bending over some account-books.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mr. McLean, here's another man wanting to be taken on the gang, I
-      suppose,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; came the cheery answer. &ldquo;I never needed a good man more than
-      I do just now.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The manager turned a page and carefully began a new line.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No use of your bothering with this fellow,&rdquo; volunteered the cook. &ldquo;He
-      hasn't but one hand.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The flush on Freckles' face burned deeper. His lips thinned to a mere
-      line. He lifted his shoulders, took a step forward, and thrust out his
-      right arm, from which the sleeve dangled empty at the wrist.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That will do, Sears,&rdquo; came the voice of the Boss sharply. &ldquo;I will
-      interview my man when I finish this report.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He turned to his work, while the cook hurried to the fires. Freckles stood
-      one instant as he had braced himself to meet the eyes of the manager; then
-      his arm dropped and a wave of whiteness swept him. The Boss had not even
-      turned his head. He had used the possessive. When he said &ldquo;my man,&rdquo; the
-      hungry heart of Freckles went reaching toward him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The boy drew a quivering breath. Then he whipped off his old hat and beat
-      the dust from it carefully. With his left hand he caught the right sleeve,
-      wiped his sweaty face, and tried to straighten his hair with his fingers.
-      He broke a spray of ironwort beside him and used the purple bloom to beat
-      the dust from his shoulders and limbs. The Boss, busy over his report,
-      was, nevertheless, vaguely alive to the toilet being made behind him, and
-      scored one for the man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean was a Scotchman. It was his habit to work slowly and methodically.
-      The men of his camps never had known him to be in a hurry or to lose his
-      temper. Discipline was inflexible, but the Boss was always kind. His
-      habits were simple. He shared camp life with his gangs. The only visible
-      signs of wealth consisted of a big, shimmering diamond stone of ice and
-      fire that glittered and burned on one of his fingers, and the dainty,
-      beautiful thoroughbred mare he rode between camps and across the country
-      on business.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      No man of McLean's gangs could honestly say that he ever had been
-      overdriven or underpaid. The Boss never had exacted any deference from his
-      men, yet so intense was his personality that no man of them ever had
-      attempted a familiarity. They all knew him to be a thorough gentleman, and
-      that in the great timber city several millions stood to his credit.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He was the only son of that McLean who had sent out the finest ships ever
-      built in Scotland. That his son should carry on this business after the
-      father's death had been his ambition. He had sent the boy through the
-      universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and allowed him several years'
-      travel before he should attempt his first commission for the firm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he was ordered to southern Canada and Michigan to purchase a
-      consignment of tall, straight timber for masts, and south to Indiana for
-      oak beams. The young man entered these mighty forests, parts of which lay
-      untouched since the dawn of the morning of time. The clear, cool, pungent
-      atmosphere was intoxicating. The intense silence, like that of a great
-      empty cathedral, fascinated him. He gradually learned that, to the shy
-      wood creatures that darted across his path or peeped inquiringly from
-      leafy ambush, he was brother. He found himself approaching, with a feeling
-      of reverence, those majestic trees that had stood through ages of sun,
-      wind, and snow. Soon it became difficult to fell them. When he had filled
-      his order and returned home, he was amazed to learn that in the swamps and
-      forests he had lost his heart and it was calling&mdash;forever calling
-      him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When he inherited his father's property, he promptly disposed of it, and,
-      with his mother, founded a home in a splendid residence in the outskirts
-      of Grand Rapids. With three partners, he organized a lumber company. His
-      work was to purchase, fell, and ship the timber to the mills. Marshall
-      managed the milling process and passed the lumber to the factory. From the
-      lumber, Barthol made beautiful and useful furniture, which Uptegrove
-      scattered all over the world from a big wholesale house. Of the thousands
-      who saw their faces reflected on the polished surfaces of that furniture
-      and found comfort in its use, few there were to whom it suggested mighty
-      forests and trackless swamps, and the man, big of soul and body, who cut
-      his way through them, and with the eye of experience doomed the proud
-      trees that were now entering the homes of civilization for service.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When McLean turned from his finished report, he faced a young man, yet
-      under twenty, tall, spare, heavily framed, closely freckled, and
-      red-haired, with a homely Irish face, but in the steady gray eyes,
-      straightly meeting his searching ones of blue, there was unswerving candor
-      and the appearance of longing not to be ignored. He was dressed in the
-      roughest of farm clothing, and seemed tired to the point of falling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are looking for work?&rdquo; questioned McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; answered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am very sorry,&rdquo; said the Boss with genuine sympathy in his every tone,
-      &ldquo;but there is only one man I want at present&mdash;a hardy, big fellow
-      with a stout heart and a strong body. I hoped that you would do, but I am
-      afraid you are too young and scarcely strong enough.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood, hat in hand, watching McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And what was it you thought I might be doing?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss could scarcely repress a start. Somewhere before accident and
-      poverty there had been an ancestor who used cultivated English, even with
-      an accent. The boy spoke in a mellow Irish voice, sweet and pure. It was
-      scarcely definite enough to be called brogue, yet there was a trick in the
-      turning of the sentence, the wrong sound of a letter here and there, that
-      was almost irresistible to McLean, and presaged a misuse of infinitives
-      and possessives with which he was very familiar and which touched him
-      nearly. He was of foreign birth, and despite years of alienation, in times
-      of strong feeling he committed inherited sins of accent and construction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's no child's job,&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;I am the field manager of a big
-      lumber company. We have just leased two thousand acres of the Limberlost.
-      Many of these trees are of great value. We can't leave our camp, six miles
-      south, for almost a year yet; so we have blazed a trail and strung barbed
-      wires securely around this lease. Before we return to our work, I must put
-      this property in the hands of a reliable, brave, strong man who will guard
-      it every hour of the day, and sleep with one eye open at night. I shall
-      require the entire length of the trail to be walked at least twice each
-      day, to make sure that our lines are up and that no one has been
-      trespassing.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was leaning forward, absorbing every word with such intense
-      eagerness that he was beguiling the Boss into explanations he had never
-      intended making.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But why wouldn't that be the finest job in the world for me?&rdquo; he pleaded.
-      &ldquo;I am never sick. I could walk the trail twice, three times every day, and
-      I'd be watching sharp all the while.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's because you are scarcely more than a boy, and this will be a trying
-      job for a work-hardened man,&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;You see, in the first
-      place, you would be afraid. In stretching our lines, we killed six
-      rattlesnakes almost as long as your body and as thick as your arm. It's
-      the price of your life to start through the marshgrass surrounding the
-      swamp unless you are covered with heavy leather above your knees.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You should be able to swim in case high water undermines the temporary
-      bridge we have built where Sleepy Snake Creek enters the swamp. The fall
-      and winter changes of weather are abrupt and severe, while I would want
-      strict watch kept every day. You would always be alone, and I don't
-      guarantee what is in the Limberlost. It is lying here as it has lain since
-      the beginning of time, and it is alive with forms and voices. I don't
-      pretend to say what all of them come from; but from a few slinking shapes
-      I've seen, and hair-raising yells I've heard, I'd rather not confront
-      their owners myself; and I am neither weak nor fearful.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Worst of all, any man who will enter the swamp to mark and steal timber
-      is desperate. One of my employees at the south camp, John Carter,
-      compelled me to discharge him for a number of serious reasons. He came
-      here, entered the swamp alone, and succeeded in locating and marking a
-      number of valuable trees that he was endeavoring to sell to a rival
-      company when we secured the lease. He has sworn to have these trees if he
-      has to die or to kill others to get them; and he is a man that the
-      strongest would not care to meet.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But if he came to steal trees, wouldn't he bring teams and men enough:
-      that all anyone could do would be to watch and be after you?&rdquo; queried the
-      boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; replied McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then why couldn't I be watching just as closely, and coming as fast, as
-      an older, stronger man?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, by George, you could!&rdquo; exclaimed McLean. &ldquo;I don't know as the size
-      of a man would be half so important as his grit and faithfulness, come to
-      think of it. Sit on that log there and we will talk it over. What is your
-      name?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles shook his head at the proffer of a seat, and folding his arms,
-      stood straight as the trees around him. He grew a shade whiter, but his
-      eyes never faltered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good enough for everyday,&rdquo; laughed McLean, &ldquo;but I scarcely can put
-      'Freckles' on the company's books. Tell me your name.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I haven't any name,&rdquo; replied the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't understand,&rdquo; said McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was thinking from the voice and the face of you that you wouldn't,&rdquo;
-       said Freckles slowly. &ldquo;I've spent more time on it than I ever did on
-      anything else in all me life, and I don't understand. Does it seem to you
-      that anyone would take a newborn baby and row over it, until it was
-      bruised black, cut off its hand, and leave it out in a bitter night on the
-      steps of a charity home, to the care of strangers? That's what somebody
-      did to me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean stared aghast. He had no reply ready, and presently in a low voice
-      he suggested: &ldquo;And after?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The Home people took me in, and I was there the full legal age and
-      several years over. For the most part we were a lot of little Irishmen
-      together. They could always find homes for the other children, but nobody
-      would ever be wanting me on account of me arm.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Were they kind to you?&rdquo; McLean regretted the question the minute it was
-      asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; answered Freckles. The reply sounded so hopeless, even to
-      his own ears, that he hastened to qualify it by adding: &ldquo;You see, it's
-      like this, sir. Kindnesses that people are paid to lay off in job lots and
-      that belong equally to several hundred others, ain't going to be soaking
-      into any one fellow so much.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go on,&rdquo; said McLean, nodding comprehendingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's nothing worth the taking of your time to tell,&rdquo; replied Freckles.
-      &ldquo;The Home was in Chicago, and I was there all me life until three months
-      ago. When I was too old for the training they gave to the little children,
-      they sent me to the closest ward school as long as the law would let them;
-      but I was never like any of the other children, and they all knew it. I'd
-      to go and come like a prisoner, and be working around the Home early and
-      late for me board and clothes. I always wanted to learn mighty bad, but I
-      was glad when that was over.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Every few days, all me life, I'd to be called up, looked over, and
-      refused a home and love, on account of me hand and ugly face; but it was
-      all the home I'd ever known, and I didn't seem to belong to any place
-      else.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then a new superintendent was put in. He wasn't for being like any of the
-      others, and he swore he'd weed me out the first thing he did. He made a
-      plan to send me down the State to a man he said he knew who needed a boy.
-      He wasn't for remembering to tell that man that I was a hand short, and he
-      knocked me down the minute he found I was the boy who had been sent him.
-      Between noon and that evening, he and his son close my age had me in
-      pretty much the same shape in which I was found in the beginning, so I lay
-      awake that night and ran away. I'd like to have squared me account with
-      that boy before I left, but I didn't dare for fear of waking the old man,
-      and I knew I couldn't handle the two of them; but I'm hoping to meet him
-      alone some day before I die.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean tugged at his mustache to hide the smile on his lips, but he liked
-      the boy all the better for this confession.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I didn't even have to steal clothes to get rid of starting in me Home
-      ones,&rdquo; Freckles continued, &ldquo;for they had already taken all me clean, neat
-      things for the boy and put me into his rags, and that went almost as sore
-      as the beatings, for where I was we were always kept tidy and
-      sweet-smelling, anyway. I hustled clear into this State before I learned
-      that man couldn't have kept me if he'd wanted to. When I thought I was
-      good and away from him, I commenced hunting work, but it is with everybody
-      else just as it is with you, sir. Big, strong, whole men are the only ones
-      for being wanted.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have been studying over this matter,&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;I am not so
-      sure but that a man no older than you and similar in every way could do
-      this work very well, if he were not a coward, and had it in him to be
-      trustworthy and industrious.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles came forward a step.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you will give me a job where I can earn me food, clothes, and a place
-      to sleep,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if I can have a Boss to work for like other men, and
-      a place I feel I've a right to, I will do precisely what you tell me or
-      die trying.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He spoke so convincingly that McLean believed, although in his heart he
-      knew that to employ a stranger would be wretched business for a man with
-      the interests he had involved.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Very well,&rdquo; the Boss found himself answering, &ldquo;I will enter you on my pay
-      rolls. We'll have supper, and then I will provide you with clean clothing,
-      wading-boots, the wire-mending apparatus, and a revolver. The first thing
-      in the morning, I will take you the length of the trail myself and explain
-      fully what I want done. All I ask of you is to come to me at once at the
-      south camp and tell me as a man if you find this job too hard for you. It
-      will not surprise me. It is work that few men would perform faithfully.
-      What name shall I put down?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' gaze never left McLean's face, and the Boss saw the swift spasm
-      of pain that swept his lonely, sensitive features.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I haven't any name,&rdquo; he said stubbornly, &ldquo;no more than one somebody
-      clapped on to me when they put me on the Home books, with not the thought
-      or care they'd name a house cat. I've seen how they enter those poor
-      little abandoned devils often enough to know. What they called me is no
-      more my name than it is yours. I don't know what mine is, and I never
-      will; but I am going to be your man and do your work, and I'll be glad to
-      answer to any name you choose to call me. Won't you please be giving me a
-      name, Mr. McLean?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss wheeled abruptly and began stacking his books. What he was
-      thinking was probably what any other gentleman would have thought in the
-      circumstances. With his eyes still downcast, and in a voice harsh with
-      huskiness, he spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will tell you what we will do, my lad,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My father was my
-      ideal man, and I loved him better than any other I have ever known. He
-      went out five years ago, but that he would have been proud to leave you
-      his name I firmly believe. If I give to you the name of my nearest kin and
-      the man I loved best&mdash;will that do?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' rigid attitude relaxed suddenly. His head dropped, and big tears
-      splashed on the soiled calico shirt. McLean was not surprised at the
-      silence, for he found that talking came none too easily just then.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I will write it on the roll&mdash;James Ross
-      McLean.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank you mightily,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;That makes me feel almost as if I
-      belonged, already.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You do,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;Until someone armed with every right comes to
-      claim you, you are mine. Now, come and take a bath, have some supper, and
-      go to bed.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As Freckles followed into the lights and sounds of the camp, his heart and
-      soul were singing for joy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER II
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Next morning found Freckles in clean, whole clothing, fed, and rested.
-      Then McLean outfitted him and gave him careful instruction in the use of
-      his weapon. The Boss showed him around the timber-line, and engaged him a
-      place to board with the family of his head teamster, Duncan, whom he had
-      brought from Scotland with him, and who lived in a small clearing he was
-      working out between the swamp and the corduroy. When the gang was started
-      for the south camp, Freckles was left to guard a fortune in the
-      Limberlost. That he was under guard himself those first weeks he never
-      knew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Each hour was torture to the boy. The restricted life of a great city
-      orphanage was the other extreme of the world compared with the Limberlost.
-      He was afraid for his life every minute. The heat was intense. The heavy
-      wading-boots rubbed his feet until they bled. He was sore and stiff from
-      his long tramp and outdoor exposure. The seven miles of trail was agony at
-      every step. He practiced at night, under the direction of Duncan, until he
-      grew sure in the use of his revolver. He cut a stout hickory cudgel, with
-      a knot on the end as big as his fist; this never left his hand. What he
-      thought in those first days he himself could not recall clearly afterward.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His heart stood still every time he saw the beautiful marsh-grass begin a
-      sinuous waving AGAINST the play of the wind, as McLean had told him it
-      would. He bolted half a mile with the first boom of the bittern, and his
-      hat lifted with every yelp of the sheitpoke. Once he saw a lean, shadowy
-      form following him, and fired his revolver. Then he was frightened worse
-      than ever for fear it might have been Duncan's collie.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The first afternoon that he found his wires down, and he was compelled to
-      plunge knee deep into the black swamp-muck to restring them, he became so
-      ill from fear and nervousness that he scarcely could control his shaking
-      hand to do the work. With every step, he felt that he would miss secure
-      footing and be swallowed in that clinging sea of blackness. In dumb agony
-      he plunged forward, clinging to the posts and trees until he had finished
-      restringing and testing the wire. He had consumed much time. Night closed
-      in. The Limberlost stirred gently, then shook herself, growled, and awoke
-      around him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There seemed to be a great owl hooting from every hollow tree, and a
-      little one screeching from every knothole. The bellowing of big bullfrogs
-      was not sufficiently deafening to shut out the wailing of whip-poor-wills
-      that seemed to come from every bush. Nighthawks swept past him with their
-      shivering cry, and bats struck his face. A prowling wildcat missed its
-      catch and screamed with rage. A straying fox bayed incessantly for its
-      mate.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The hair on the back of Freckles' neck arose as bristles, and his knees
-      wavered beneath him. He could not see whether the dreaded snakes were on
-      the trail, or, in the pandemonium, hear the rattle for which McLean had
-      cautioned him to listen. He stood motionless in an agony of fear. His
-      breath whistled between his teeth. The perspiration ran down his face and
-      body in little streams.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Something big, black, and heavy came crashing through the swamp close to
-      him, and with a yell of utter panic Freckles ran&mdash;how far he did not
-      know; but at last he gained control over himself and retraced his steps.
-      His jaws set stiffly and the sweat dried on his body. When he reached the
-      place from which he had started to run, he turned and with measured steps
-      made his way down the line. After a time he realized that he was only
-      walking, so he faced that sea of horrors again. When he came toward the
-      corduroy, the cudgel fell to test the wire at each step.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sounds that curdled his blood seemed to encompass him, and shapes of
-      terror to draw closer and closer. Fear had so gained the mastery that he
-      did not dare look behind him; and just when he felt that he would fall
-      dead before he ever reached the clearing, came Duncan's rolling call:
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Freckles!&rdquo; A shuddering sob burst in the boy's dry throat; but
-      he only told Duncan that finding the wire down had caused the delay.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The next morning he started on time. Day after day, with his heart
-      pounding, he ducked, dodged, ran when he could, and fought when he was
-      brought to bay. If he ever had an idea of giving up, no one knew it; for
-      he clung to his job without the shadow of wavering. All these things, in
-      so far as he guessed them, Duncan, who had been set to watch the first
-      weeks of Freckles' work, carried to the Boss at the south camp; but the
-      innermost, exquisite torture of the thing the big Scotchman never guessed,
-      and McLean, with his finer perceptions, came only a little closer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After a few weeks, when Freckles learned that he was still living, that he
-      had a home, and the very first money he ever had possessed was safe in his
-      pockets, he began to grow proud. He yet side-stepped, dodged, and hurried
-      to avoid being late again, but he was gradually developing the
-      fearlessness that men ever acquire of dangers to which they are hourly
-      accustomed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His heart seemed to be leaping when his first rattler disputed the trail
-      with him, but he mustered courage to attack it with his club. After its
-      head had been crushed, he mastered an Irishman's inborn repugnance for
-      snakes sufficiently to cut off its rattles to show Duncan. With this
-      victory, his greatest fear of them was gone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he began to realize that with the abundance of food in the swamp,
-      flesh-hunters would not come on the trail and attack him, and he had his
-      revolver for defence if they did. He soon learned to laugh at the big,
-      floppy birds that made horrible noises. One day, watching behind a tree,
-      he saw a crane solemnly performing a few measures of a belated nuptial
-      song-and-dance with his mate. Realizing that it was intended in
-      tenderness, no matter how it appeared, the lonely, starved heart of the
-      boy sympathized with them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Before the first month passed, he was fairly easy about his job; by the
-      next he rather liked it. Nature can be trusted to work her own miracle in
-      the heart of any man whose daily task keeps him alone among her sights,
-      sounds, and silences.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter loneliness was
-      the companionship of the birds and beasts of the swamp, it was the most
-      natural thing in the world that Freckles should turn to them for
-      friendship. He began by instinctively protecting the weak and helpless. He
-      was astonished at the quickness with which they became accustomed to him
-      and the disregard they showed for his movements, when they learned that he
-      was not a hunter, while the club he carried was used more frequently for
-      their benefit than his own. He scarcely could believe what he saw.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From the effort to protect the birds and animals, it was only a short step
-      to the possessive feeling, and with that sprang the impulse to caress and
-      provide. Through fall, when brooding was finished and the upland birds
-      sought the swamp in swarms to feast on its seeds and berries, Freckles was
-      content with watching them and speculating about them. Outside of half a
-      dozen of the very commonest they were strangers to him. The likeness of
-      their actions to humanity was an hourly surprise.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When black frost began stripping the Limberlost, cutting the ferns,
-      shearing the vines from the trees, mowing the succulent green things of
-      the swale, and setting the leaves swirling down, he watched the departing
-      troops of his friends with dismay. He began to realize that he would be
-      left alone. He made especial efforts toward friendliness with the hope
-      that he could induce some of them to stay. It was then that he conceived
-      the idea of carrying food to the birds; for he saw that they were leaving
-      for lack of it; but he could not stop them. Day after day, flocks gathered
-      and departed: by the time the first snow whitened his trail around the
-      Limberlost, there were left only the little black-and-white juncos, the
-      sapsuckers, yellow-hammers, a few patriarchs among the flaming cardinals,
-      the blue jays, the crows, and the quail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles began his wizard work. He cleared a space of swale, and
-      twice a day he spread a birds' banquet. By the middle of December the
-      strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed from the grass and
-      bushes. The snow fell, covering the swamp, and food was very scarce and
-      difficult to find. The birds scarcely waited until Freckles' back was
-      turned to attack his provisions. In a few weeks they flew toward the
-      clearing to meet him. During the bitter weather of January they came
-      halfway to the cabin every morning, and fluttered around him as doves all
-      the way to the feeding-ground. Before February they were so accustomed to
-      him, and so hunger-driven, that they would perch on his head and
-      shoulders, and the saucy jays would try to pry into his pockets.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles added to wheat and crumbs, every scrap of refuse food he
-      could find at the cabin. He carried to his pets the parings of apples,
-      turnips, potatoes, stray cabbage-leaves, and carrots, and tied to the
-      bushes meat-bones having scraps of fat and gristle. One morning, coming to
-      his feeding-ground unusually early, he found a gorgeous cardinal and a
-      rabbit side by side sociably nibbling a cabbage-leaf, and that instantly
-      gave to him the idea of cracking nuts, from the store he had gathered for
-      Duncan's children, for the squirrels, in the effort to add them to his
-      family. Soon he had them coming&mdash;red, gray, and black; then he became
-      filled with a vast impatience that he did not know their names or habits.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So the winter passed. Every week McLean rode to the Limberlost; never on
-      the same day or at the same hour. Always he found Freckles at his work,
-      faithful and brave, no matter how severe the weather.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The boy's earnings constituted his first money; and when the Boss
-      explained to him that he could leave them safe at a bank and carry away a
-      scrap of paper that represented the amount, he went straight on every
-      payday and made his deposit, keeping out barely what was necessary for his
-      board and clothing. What he wanted to do with his money he did not know,
-      but it gave to him a sense of freedom and power to feel that it was there&mdash;it
-      was his and he could have it when he chose. In imitation of McLean, he
-      bought a small pocket account-book, in which he carefully set down every
-      dollar he earned and every penny he spent. As his expenses were small and
-      the Boss paid him generously, it was astonishing how his little hoard
-      grew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That winter held the first hours of real happiness in Freckles' life. He
-      was free. He was doing a man's work faithfully, through every rigor of
-      rain, snow, and blizzard. He was gathering a wonderful strength of body,
-      paying his way, and saving money. Every man of the gang and of that
-      locality knew that he was under the protection of McLean, who was a power,
-      this had the effect of smoothing Freckles' path in many directions.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Duncan showed him that individual kindness for which his hungry heart
-      was longing. She had a hot drink ready for him when he came from a
-      freezing day on the trail. She knit him a heavy mitten for his left hand,
-      and devised a way to sew and pad the right sleeve that protected the
-      maimed arm in bitter weather. She patched his clothing&mdash;frequently
-      torn by the wire&mdash;and saved kitchen scraps for his birds, not because
-      she either knew or cared anything about them, but because she herself was
-      close enough to the swamp to be touched by its utter loneliness. When
-      Duncan laughed at her for this, she retorted: &ldquo;My God, mannie, if Freckles
-      hadna the birds and the beasts he would be always alone. It was never
-      meant for a human being to be so solitary. He'd get touched in the head if
-      he hadna them to think for and to talk to.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How much answer do ye think he gets to his talkin', lass?&rdquo; laughed
-      Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He gets the answer that keeps the eye bright, the heart happy, and the
-      feet walking faithful the rough path he's set them in,&rdquo; answered Mrs.
-      Duncan earnestly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan walked away appearing very thoughtful. The next morning he gave an
-      ear from the corn he was shelling for his chickens to Freckles, and told
-      him to carry it to his wild chickens in the Limberlost. Freckles laughed
-      delightedly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me chickens!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Why didn't I ever think of that before? Of course
-      they are! They are just little, brightly colored cocks and hens! But
-      'wild' is no good. What would you say to me 'wild chickens' being a good
-      deal tamer than yours here in your yard?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hoot, lad!&rdquo; cried Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Make yours light on your head and eat out of your hands and pockets,&rdquo;
-       challenged Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go and tell your fairy tales to the wee people! They're juist brash on
-      believin' things,&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;Ye canna invent any story too big to stop
-      them from callin' for a bigger.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I dare you to come see!&rdquo; retorted Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Take ye!&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;If ye make juist ane bird licht on your heid or
-      eat frae your hand, ye are free to help yoursel' to my corn-crib and wheat
-      bin the rest of the winter.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles sprang in air and howled in glee.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Duncan! You're too, aisy&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;When will you come?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll come next Sabbath,&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;And I'll believe the birds of the
-      Limberlost are tame as barnyard fowl when I see it, and no sooner!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      After that Freckles always spoke of the birds as his chickens, and the
-      Duncans followed his example. The very next Sabbath, Duncan, with his wife
-      and children, followed Freckles to the swamp. They saw a sight so
-      wonderful it will keep them talking all the remainder of their lives, and
-      make them unfailing friends of all the birds.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' chickens were awaiting him at the edge of the clearing. They cut
-      the frosty air around his head into curves and circles of crimson, blue,
-      and black. They chased each other from Freckles, and swept so closely
-      themselves that they brushed him with their outspread wings.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At their feeding-ground Freckles set down his old pail of scraps and swept
-      the snow from a small level space with a broom improvised of twigs. As
-      soon as his back was turned, the birds clustered over the food, snatching
-      scraps to carry to the nearest bushes. Several of the boldest, a big crow
-      and a couple of jays, settled on the rim and feasted at leisure, while a
-      cardinal, that hesitated to venture, fumed and scolded from a twig
-      overhead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles scattered his store. At once the ground resembled the spread
-      mantle of Montezuma, except that this mass of gaily colored feathers was
-      on the backs of living birds. While they feasted, Duncan gripped his
-      wife's arm and stared in astonishment; for from the bushes and dry grass,
-      with gentle cheeping and queer, throaty chatter, as if to encourage each
-      other, came flocks of quail. Before anyone saw it arrive, a big gray
-      rabbit sat in the midst of the feast, contentedly gnawing a cabbage-leaf.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo; came Mrs. Duncan's tense whisper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Shu-shu,&rdquo; cautioned Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lastly Freckles removed his cap. He began filling it with handfuls of
-      wheat from his pockets. In a swarm the grain-eaters arose around him as a
-      flock of tame pigeons. They perched on his arms and the cap, and in the
-      stress of hunger, forgetting all caution, a brilliant cock cardinal and an
-      equally gaudy jay fought for a perching-place on his head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Weel, I'm beat,&rdquo; muttered Duncan, forgetting the silence imposed on his
-      wife. &ldquo;I'll hae to give in. 'Seein' is believin'. A man wad hae to see
-      that to believe it. We mauna let the Boss miss that sight, for it's a
-      chance will no likely come twice in a life. Everything is snowed under and
-      thae craturs near starved, but trustin' Freckles that complete they are
-      tamer than our chickens. Look hard, bairns!&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;Ye winna see
-      the like o' yon again, while God lets ye live. Notice their color against
-      the ice and snow, and the pretty skippin' ways of them! And spunky! Weel,
-      I'm heat fair!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles emptied his cap, turned his pockets and scattered his last grain.
-      Then he waved his watching friends good-bye and started down the
-      timber-line.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A week later, Duncan and Freckles arose from breakfast to face the
-      bitterest morning of the winter. When Freckles, warmly capped and gloved,
-      stepped to the corner of the kitchen for his scrap-pail, he found a big
-      pan of steaming boiled wheat on the top of it. He wheeled to Mrs. Duncan
-      with a shining face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Were you fixing this warm food for me chickens or yours?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's for yours, Freckles,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I was afeared this cold weather
-      they wadna lay good without a warm bite now and then.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan laughed as he stepped to the other room for his pipe; but Freckles
-      faced Mrs. Duncan with a trace of every pang of starved mother-hunger he
-      ever had suffered written large on his homely, splotched, narrow features.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, how I wish you were my mother!&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Duncan attempted an echo of her husband's laugh.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Lord love the lad!&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;Why, Freckles, are ye no bright
-      enough to learn without being taught by a woman that I am your mither? If
-      a great man like yoursel' dinna ken that, learn it now and ne'er forget
-      it. Ance a woman is the wife of any man, she becomes wife to all men for
-      having had the wifely experience she kens! Ance a man-child has beaten his
-      way to life under the heart of a woman, she is mither to all men, for the
-      hearts of mithers are everywhere the same. Bless ye, laddie, I am your
-      mither!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She tucked the coarse scarf she had knit for him closer over his chest and
-      pulled his cap lower over his ears, but Freckles, whipping it off and
-      holding it under his arm, caught her rough, reddened hand and pressed it
-      to his lips in a long kiss. Then he hurried away to hide the happy,
-      embarrassing tears that were coming straight from his swelling heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Duncan, sobbing unrestrainedly, swept into the adjoining room and
-      threw herself into Duncan's arms.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, the puir lad!&rdquo; she wailed. &ldquo;Oh, the puir mither-hungry lad! He breaks
-      my heart!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan's arms closed convulsively around his wife. With a big, brown hand
-      he lovingly stroked her rough, sorrel hair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sarah, you're a guid woman!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You're a michty guid woman! Ye hae
-      a way o' speakin' out at times that's like the inspired prophets of the
-      Lord. If that had been put to me, now, I'd 'a' felt all I kent how to and
-      been keen enough to say the richt thing; but dang it, I'd 'a' stuttered
-      and stammered and got naething out that would ha' done onybody a mite o'
-      good. But ye, Sarah! Did ye see his face, woman? Ye sent him off lookin'
-      leke a white light of holiness had passed ower and settled on him. Ye sent
-      the lad away too happy for mortal words, Sarah. And ye made me that proud
-      o' ye! I wouldna trade ye an' my share o' the Limberlost with ony king ye
-      could mention.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He relaxed his clasp, and setting a heavy hand on each shoulder, he looked
-      straight into her eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye're prime, Sarah! Juist prime!&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sarah Duncan stood alone in the middle of her two-roomed log cabin and
-      lifted a bony, clawlike pair of hands, reddened by frequent immersion in
-      hot water, cracked and chafed by exposure to cold, black-lined by constant
-      battle with swamp-loam, calloused with burns, and stared at them
-      wonderingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Pretty-lookin' things ye are!&rdquo; she whispered. &ldquo;But ye hae juist been
-      kissed. And by such a man! Fine as God ever made at His verra best. Duncan
-      wouldna trade wi' a king! Na! Nor I wadna trade with a queen wi' a palace,
-      an' velvet gowns, an' diamonds big as hazelnuts, an' a hundred visitors a
-      day into the bargain. Ye've been that honored I'm blest if I can bear to
-      souse ye in dish-water. Still, that kiss winna come off! Naething can take
-      it from me, for it's mine till I dee. Lord, if I amna proud! Kisses on
-      these old claws! Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER III
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      So Freckles fared through the bitter winter. He was very happy. He had
-      hungered for freedom, love, and appreciation so long! He had been
-      unspeakably lonely at the Home; and the utter loneliness of a great desert
-      or forest is not so difficult to endure as the loneliness of being
-      constantly surrounded by crowds of people who do not care in the least
-      whether one is living or dead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      All through the winter Freckles' entire energy was given to keeping up his
-      lines and his &ldquo;chickens&rdquo; from freezing or starving. When the first breath
-      of spring touched the Limberlost, and the snow receded before it; when the
-      catkins began to bloom; when there came a hint of green to the trees,
-      bushes, and swale; when the rushes lifted their heads, and the pulse of
-      the newly resurrected season beat strongly in the heart of nature,
-      something new stirred in the breast of the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nature always levies her tribute. Now she laid a powerful hand on the soul
-      of Freckles, to which the boy's whole being responded, though he had not
-      the least idea what was troubling him. Duncan accepted his wife's theory
-      that it was a touch of spring fever, but Freckles knew better. He never
-      had been so well. Clean, hot, and steady the blood pulsed in his veins. He
-      was always hungry, and his most difficult work tired him not at all. For
-      long months, without a single intermission, he had tramped those seven
-      miles of trail twice each day, through every conceivable state of weather.
-      With the heavy club he gave his wires a sure test, and between sections,
-      first in play, afterward to keep his circulation going, he had acquired
-      the skill of an expert drum major. In his work there was exercise for
-      every muscle of his body each hour of the day, at night a bath, wholesome
-      food, and sound sleep in a room that never knew fire. He had gained flesh
-      and color, and developed a greater strength and endurance than anyone ever
-      could have guessed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Nor did the Limberlost contain last year's terrors. He had been with her
-      in her hour of desolation, when stripped bare and deserted, she had stood
-      shivering, as if herself afraid. He had made excursions into the interior
-      until he was familiar with every path and road that ever had been cut. He
-      had sounded the depths of her deepest pools, and had learned why the trees
-      grew so magnificently. He had found that places of swamp and swale were
-      few compared with miles of solid timber-land, concealed by summer's
-      luxuriant undergrowth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sounds that at first had struck cold fear into his soul he now knew
-      had left on wing and silent foot at the approach of winter. As flock after
-      flock of the birds returned and he recognized the old echoes reawakening,
-      he found to his surprise that he had been lonely for them and was hailing
-      their return with great joy. All his fears were forgotten. Instead, he was
-      possessed of an overpowering desire to know what they were, to learn where
-      they had been, and whether they would make friends with him as the winter
-      birds had done; and if they did, would they be as fickle? For, with the
-      running sap, creeping worm, and winging bug, most of Freckles' &ldquo;chickens&rdquo;
-       had deserted him, entered the swamp, and feasted to such a state of
-      plethora on its store that they cared little for his supply, so that in
-      the strenuous days of mating and nest-building the boy was deserted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He chafed at the birds' ingratitude, but he found speedy consolation in
-      watching and befriending the newcomers. He surely would have been proud
-      and highly pleased if he had known that many of the former inhabitants of
-      the interior swamp now grouped their nests beside the timber-line solely
-      for the sake of his protection and company.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The yearly resurrection of the Limberlost is a mighty revival. Freckles
-      stood back and watched with awe and envy the gradual reclothing and
-      repopulation of the swamp. Keen-eyed and alert through danger and
-      loneliness, he noted every stage of development, from the first piping
-      frog and unsheathing bud, to full leafage and the return of the last
-      migrant.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The knowledge of his complete loneliness and utter insignificance was
-      hourly thrust upon him. He brooded and fretted until he was in a fever;
-      yet he never guessed the cause. He was filled with a vast impatience, a
-      longing that he scarcely could endure.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was June by the zodiac, June by the Limberlost, and by every delight of
-      a newly resurrected season it should have been June in the hearts of all
-      men. Yet Freckles scowled darkly as he came down the trail, and the
-      running TAP, TAP that tested the sagging wire and telegraphed word of his
-      coming to his furred and feathered friends of the swamp, this morning
-      carried the story of his discontent a mile ahead of him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' special pet, a dainty, yellow-coated, black-sleeved, cock
-      goldfinch, had remained on the wire for several days past the bravest of
-      all; and Freckles, absorbed with the cunning and beauty of the tiny
-      fellow, never guessed that he was being duped. For the goldfinch was
-      skipping, flirting, and swinging for the express purpose of so holding his
-      attention that he would not look up and see a small cradle of thistledown
-      and wool perilously near his head. In the beginning of brooding, the
-      spunky little homesteader had clung heroically to the wire when he was
-      almost paralyzed with fright. When day after day passed and brought only
-      softly whistled repetitions of his call, a handful of crumbs on the top of
-      a locust line-post, and gently worded coaxings, he grew in confidence. Of
-      late he had sung and swung during the passing of Freckles, who, not
-      dreaming of the nest and the solemn-eyed little hen so close above,
-      thought himself unusually gifted in his power to attract the birds. This
-      morning the goldfinch scarcely could believe his ears, and clung to the
-      wire until an unusually vicious rap sent him spinning a foot in air, and
-      his &ldquo;PTSEET&rdquo; came with a squall of utter panic.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The wires were ringing with a story the birds could not translate, and
-      Freckles was quite as ignorant of the trouble as they.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A peculiar movement beneath a small walnut tree caught his attention. He
-      stopped to investigate. There was an unusually large Luna cocoon, and the
-      moth was bursting the upper end in its struggles to reach light and air.
-      Freckles stood and stared.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's something in there trying to get out,&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;Wonder if I
-      could help it? Guess I best not be trying. If I hadn't happened along,
-      there wouldn't have been anyone to do anything, and maybe I'd only be
-      hurting it. It's&mdash;it's&mdash;&mdash;Oh, skaggany! It's just being
-      born!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles gasped with surprise. The moth cleared the opening, and with many
-      wabblings and contortions climbed up the tree. He stared speechless with
-      amazement as the moth crept around a limb and clung to the under side.
-      There was a big pursy body, almost as large as his thumb, and of the very
-      snowiest white that Freckles ever had seen. There was a band of delicate
-      lavender across its forehead, and its feet were of the same colour; there
-      were antlers, like tiny, straw-colored ferns, on its head, and from its
-      shoulders hung the crumpled wet wings. As Freckles gazed, tense with
-      astonishment, he saw that these were expanding, drooping, taking on color,
-      and small, oval markings were beginning to show.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The minutes passed. Freckles' steady gaze never wavered. Without realizing
-      it, he was trembling with eagerness and anxiety. As he saw what was taking
-      place, &ldquo;It's going to fly,&rdquo; he breathed in hushed wonder. The morning sun
-      fell on the moth and dried its velvet down, while the warm air made it
-      fluffy. The rapidly growing wings began to show the most delicate green,
-      with lavender fore-ribs, transparent, eye-shaped markings, edged with
-      lines of red, tan, and black, and long, crisp trailers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was whispering to himself for fear of disturbing the moth. It
-      began a systematic exercise of raising and lowering its exquisite wings to
-      dry them and to establish circulation. The boy realized that soon it would
-      be able to spread them and sail away. His long-coming soul sent up its
-      first shivering cry.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know what it is! Oh, I wish I knew! How I wish I knew! It must be
-      something grand! It can't be a butterfly! It's away too big. Oh, I wish
-      there was someone to tell me what it is!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He climbed on the locust post, and balancing himself with the wire, held a
-      finger in the line of the moth's advance up the twig. It unhesitatingly
-      climbed on, so he stepped to the path, holding it to the light and
-      examining it closely. Then he held it in the shade and turned it, gloating
-      over its markings and beautiful coloring. When he held the moth to the
-      limb, it climbed on, still waving those magnificent wings.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My, but I'd like to be staying with you!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But if I was to stand
-      here all day you couldn't grow any prettier than you are right now, and I
-      wouldn't grow smart enough to tell what you are. I suppose there's someone
-      who knows. Of course there is! Mr. McLean said there were people who knew
-      every leaf, bird, and flower in the Limberlost. Oh Lord! How I wish You'd
-      be telling me just this one thing!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The goldfinch had ventured back to the wire, for there was his mate, only
-      a few inches above the man-creature's head; and indeed, he simply must not
-      be allowed to look up, so the brave little fellow rocked on the wire and
-      piped, as he had done every day for a week: &ldquo;SEE ME? SEE ME?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;See you! Of course I see you,&rdquo; growled Freckles. &ldquo;I see you day after
-      day, and what good is it doing me? I might see you every morning for a
-      year, and then not be able to be telling anyone about it. 'Seen a bird
-      with black silk wings&mdash;little, and yellow as any canary.' That's as
-      far as I'd get. What you doing here, anyway? Have you a mate? What's your
-      name? 'See you?' I reckon I see you; but I might as well be blind, for any
-      good it's doing me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles impatiently struck the wire. With a screech of fear, the
-      goldfinch fled precipitately. His mate arose from the nest with a whirr&mdash;Freckles
-      looked up and saw it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;O&mdash;ho!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;So THAT'S what you are doing here! You have a
-      wife. And so close my head I have been mighty near wearing a bird on my
-      bonnet, and never knew it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles laughed at his own jest, while in better humor he climbed to
-      examine the neat, tiny cradle and its contents. The hen darted at him in a
-      frenzy. &ldquo;Now, where do you come in?&rdquo; he demanded, when he saw that she was
-      not similar to the goldfinch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You be clearing out of here! This is none of your fry. This is the nest
-      of me little, yellow friend of the wire, and you shan't be touching it.
-      Don't blame you for wanting to see, though. My, but it's a fine nest and
-      beauties of eggs. Will you be keeping away, or will I fire this stick at
-      you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles dropped to the trail. The hen darted to the nest and settled on
-      it with a tender, coddling movement. He of the yellow coat flew to the
-      edge to make sure that everything was right. It would have been plain to
-      the veriest novice that they were partners in that cradle.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'll be switched!&rdquo; muttered Freckles. &ldquo;If that ain't both their
-      nest! And he's yellow and she's green, or she's yellow and he's green. Of
-      course, I don't know, and I haven't any way to find out, but it's plain as
-      the nose on your face that they are both ready to be fighting for that
-      nest, so, of course, they belong. Doesn't that beat you? Say, that's
-      what's been sticking me all of this week on that grass nest in the thorn
-      tree down the line. One day a blue bird is setting, so I think it is hers.
-      The next day a brown bird is on, and I chase it off because the nest is
-      blue's. Next day the brown bird is on again, and I let her be, because I
-      think it must be hers. Next day, be golly, blue's on, and off I send her
-      because it's brown's; and now, I bet my hat, it's both their nest and I've
-      only been bothering them and making a big fool of mesilf. Pretty specimen
-      I am, pretending to be a friend to the birds, and so blamed ignorant I
-      don't know which ones go in pairs, and blue and brown are a pair, of
-      course, if yellow and green are&mdash;and there's the red birds! I never
-      thought of them! He's red and she's gray&mdash;and now I want to be
-      knowing, are they all different? Why no! Of course, they ain't! There's
-      the jays all blue, and the crows all black.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The tide of Freckles' discontent welled until he almost choked with anger
-      and chagrin. He plodded down the trail, scowling blackly and viciously
-      spanging the wire. At the finches' nest he left the line and peered into
-      the thorn tree. There was no bird brooding. He pressed closer to take a
-      peep at the snowy, spotless little eggs he had found so beautiful, when at
-      the slight noise up raised four tiny baby heads with wide-open mouths,
-      uttering hunger cries. Freckles stepped back. The brown bird alighted on
-      the edge and closed one cavity with a wiggling green worm, while not two
-      minutes later the blue filled another with a white. That settled it. The
-      blue and brown were mates. Once again Freckles repeated his &ldquo;How I wish I
-      knew!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Around the bridge spanning Sleepy Snake Creek the swale spread widely, the
-      timber was scattering, and willows, rushes, marsh-grass, and splendid wild
-      flowers grew abundantly. Here lazy, big, black water snakes, for which the
-      creek was named, sunned on the bushes, wild ducks and grebe chattered,
-      cranes and herons fished, and muskrats plowed the bank in queer, rolling
-      furrows. It was always a place full of interest, so Freckles loved to
-      linger on the bridge, watching the marsh and water people. He also
-      transacted affairs of importance with the wild flowers and sweet
-      marsh-grass. He enjoyed splashing through the shallow pools on either side
-      of the bridge.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then, too, where the creek entered the swamp was a place of unusual
-      beauty. The water spread in darksome, mossy, green pools. Water-plants and
-      lilies grew luxuriantly, throwing up large, rank, green leaves. Nowhere
-      else in the Limberlost could be found frog-music to equal that of the
-      mouth of the creek. The drumming and piping rolled in never-ending
-      orchestral effect, while the full chorus rang to its accompaniment
-      throughout the season.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles slowly followed the path leading from the bridge to the line. It
-      was the one spot at which he might relax his vigilance. The boldest timber
-      thief the swamp ever had known would not have attempted to enter it by the
-      mouth of the creek, on account of the water and because there was no
-      protection from surrounding trees. He was bending the rank grass with his
-      cudgel, and thinking of the shade the denser swamp afforded, when he
-      suddenly dodged sidewise; the cudgel whistled sharply through the air and
-      Freckles sprang back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From the clear sky above him, first level with his face, then skimming,
-      dipping, tilting, whirling until it struck, quill down, in the path in
-      front of him, came a glossy, iridescent, big black feather. As it touched
-      the ground, Freckles snatched it up with almost a continuous movement
-      facing the sky. There was not a tree of any size in a large open space.
-      There was no wind to carry it. From the clear sky it had fallen, and
-      Freckles, gazing eagerly into the arch of June blue with a few lazy clouds
-      floating high in the sea of ether, had neither mind nor knowledge to dream
-      of a bird hanging as if frozen there. He turned the big quill
-      questioningly, and again his awed eyes swept the sky.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A feather dropped from Heaven!&rdquo; he breathed reverently. &ldquo;Are the holy
-      angels moulting? But no; if they were, it would be white. Maybe all the
-      angels are not for being white. What if the angels of God are white and
-      those of the devil are black? But a black one has no business up there.
-      Maybe some poor black angel is so tired of being punished it's for
-      slipping to the gates, beating its wings trying to make the Master hear!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Again and again Freckles searched the sky, but there was no answering
-      gleam of golden gates, no form of sailing bird; then he went slowly on his
-      way, turning the feather and wondering about it. It was a wing quill,
-      eighteen inches in length, with a heavy spine, gray at the base, shading
-      to jet black at the tip, and it caught the play of the sun's rays in
-      slanting gleams of green and bronze. Again Freckles' &ldquo;old man of the sea&rdquo;
-       sat sullen and heavy on his shoulders and weighted him down until his step
-      lagged and his heart ached.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Where did it come from? What is it? Oh, how I wish I knew!&rdquo; he kept
-      repeating as he turned and studied the feather, with almost unseeing eyes,
-      so intently was he thinking.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Before him spread a large, green pool, filled with rotting logs and
-      leaves, bordered with delicate ferns and grasses among which lifted the
-      creamy spikes of the arrow-head, the blue of water-hyacinth, and the
-      delicate yellow of the jewel-flower. As Freckles leaned, handling the
-      feather and staring at it, then into the depths of the pool, he once more
-      gave voice to his old query: &ldquo;I wonder what it is!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Straight across from him, couched in the mosses of a soggy old log, a big
-      green bullfrog, with palpitant throat and batting eyes, lifted his head
-      and bellowed in answer. &ldquo;FIN' DOUT! FIN' DOUT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wha&mdash;what's that?&rdquo; stammered Freckles, almost too much bewildered to
-      speak. &ldquo;I&mdash;I know you are only a bullfrog, but, be jabbers, that
-      sounded mightily like speech. Wouldn't you please to be saying it over?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The bullfrog cuddled contentedly in the ooze. Then suddenly he lifted his
-      voice, and, as an imperative drumbeat, rolled it again: &ldquo;FIN' DOUT! FIN'
-      DOUT! FIN DOUT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles had the answer. Something seemed to snap in his brain. There was
-      a wavering flame before his eyes. Then his mind cleared. His head lifted
-      in a new poise, his shoulders squared, while his spine straightened. The
-      agony was over. His soul floated free. Freckles came into his birthright.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Before God, I will!&rdquo; He uttered the oath so impressively that the
-      recording angel never winced as he posted it in the prayer column.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles set his hat over the top of one of the locust posts used between
-      trees to hold up the wire while he fastened the feather securely in the
-      band. Then he started down the line, talking to himself as men who have
-      worked long alone always fall into the habit of doing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What a fool I have been!&rdquo; he muttered. &ldquo;Of course that's what I have to
-      do! There wouldn't likely anybody be doing it for me. Of course I can!
-      What am I a man for? If I was a four-footed thing of the swamp, maybe I
-      couldn't; but a man can do anything if he's the grit to work hard enough
-      and stick at it, Mr. McLean is always saying, and here's the way I am to
-      do it. He said, too, that there were people that knew everything in the
-      swamp. Of course they have written books! The thing for me to be doing is
-      to quit moping and be buying some. Never bought a book in me life, or
-      anything else of much account, for that matter. Oh, ain't I glad I didn't
-      waste me money! I'll surely be having enough to get a few. Let me see.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles sat on a log, took his pencil and account-book, and figured on a
-      back page. He had walked the timber-line ten months. His pay was thirty
-      dollars a month, and his board cost him eight. That left twenty-two
-      dollars a month, and his clothing had cost him very little. At the least
-      he had two hundred dollars in the bank. He drew a deep breath and smiled
-      at the sky with satisfaction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll be having a book about all the birds, trees, flowers, butterflies,
-      and&mdash;&mdash;Yes, by gummy! I'll be having one about the frogs&mdash;if
-      it takes every cent I have,&rdquo; he promised himself.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He put away the account-book, that was his most cherished possession,
-      caught up his stick, and started down the line. The even tap, tap, and the
-      cheery, gladsome whistle carried far ahead of him the message that
-      Freckles was himself again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He fell into a rapid pace, for he had lost time that morning; when he
-      rounded the last curve he was almost running. There was a chance that the
-      Boss might be there for his weekly report.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then, wavering, flickering, darting here and there over the sweet
-      marsh-grass, came a large black shadow, sweeping so closely before him
-      that for the second time that morning Freckles dodged and sprang back. He
-      had seen some owls and hawks of the swamp that he thought might be classed
-      as large birds, but never anything like this, for six feet it spread its
-      big, shining wings. Its strong feet could be seen drawn among its
-      feathers. The sun glinted on its sharp, hooked beak. Its eyes glowed,
-      caught the light, and seemed able to pierce the ground at his feet. It
-      cared no more for Freckles than if he had not been there; for it perched
-      on a low tree, while a second later it awkwardly hopped to the trunk of a
-      lightning-riven elm, turned its back, and began searching the blue.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles looked just in time to see a second shadow sweep the grass; and
-      another bird, a trifle smaller and not quite so brilliant in the light,
-      slowly sailed down to perch beside the first. Evidently they were mates,
-      for with a queer, rolling hop the first-comer shivered his bronze wings,
-      sidled to the new arrival, and gave her a silly little peck on her wing.
-      Then he coquettishly drew away and ogled her. He lifted his head, waddled
-      from her a few steps, awkwardly ambled back, and gave her such a simple
-      sort of kiss on her beak that Freckles burst into a laugh, but clapped his
-      hand over his mouth to stifle the sound.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The lover ducked and side-stepped a few feet. He spread his wings and
-      slowly and softly waved them precisely as if he were fanning his charmer,
-      which was indeed the result he accomplished. Then a wave of uncontrollable
-      tenderness moved him so he hobbled to his bombardment once more. He faced
-      her squarely this time, and turned his head from side to side with queer
-      little jerks and indiscriminate peckings at her wings and head, and
-      smirkings that really should have been irresistible. She yawned and
-      shuffled away indifferently. Freckles reached up, pulled the quill from
-      his hat, and looking from it to the birds, nodded in settled conviction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;So you're me black angels, ye spalpeens! No wonder you didn't get in! But
-      I'll back you to come closer it than any other birds ever did. You fly
-      higher than I can see. Have you picked the Limberlost for a good thing and
-      come to try it? Well, you can be me chickens if you want to, but I'm blest
-      if you ain't cool for new ones. Why don't you take this stick for a gun
-      and go skinning a mile?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles broke into an unrestrained laugh, for the bird-lover was keen
-      about his courting, while evidently his mate was diffident. When he
-      approached too boisterously, she relieved him of a goodly tuft of feathers
-      and sent him backward in a series of squirmy little jumps that gave the
-      boy an idea of what had happened up-sky to send the falling feather across
-      his pathway.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Score one for the lady! I'll be umpiring this,&rdquo; volunteered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With a ravishing swagger, half-lifted wings, and deep, guttural hissing,
-      the lover approached again. He suddenly lifted his body, but she coolly
-      rocked forward on the limb, glided gracefully beneath him, and slowly
-      sailed into the Limberlost. He recovered himself and gazed after her in
-      astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles hurried down the trail, shaking with laughter. When he neared the
-      path to the clearing and saw the Boss sitting motionless on the mare that
-      was the pride of his heart, the boy broke into a run.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Mr. McLean!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;I hope I haven't kept you waiting very long!
-      And the sun is getting hot! I have been so slow this morning! I could have
-      gone faster, only there were that many things to keep me, and I didn't
-      know you would be here. I'll hurry after this. I've never had to be giving
-      excuses before. The line wasn't down, and there wasn't a sign of trouble;
-      it was other things that were making me late.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean, smiling on the boy, immediately noticed the difference in him.
-      This flushed, panting, talkative lad was not the same creature who had
-      sought him in despair and bitterness. He watched in wonder as Freckles
-      mopped the perspiration from his forehead and began to laugh. Then,
-      forgetting all his customary reserve with the Boss, the pent-up boyishness
-      in the lad broke forth. With an eloquence of which he never dreamed he
-      told his story. He talked with such enthusiasm that McLean never took his
-      eyes from his face or shifted in the saddle until he described the strange
-      bird-lover, and then the Boss suddenly bent over the pommel and laughed
-      with the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles decorated his story with keen appreciation and rare touches of
-      Irish wit and drollery that made it most interesting as well as very
-      funny. It was a first attempt at descriptive narration. With an inborn
-      gift for striking the vital point, a naturalist's dawning enthusiasm for
-      the wonders of the Limberlost, and the welling joy of his newly found
-      happiness, he made McLean see the struggles of the moth and its freshly
-      painted wings, the dainty, brilliant bird-mates of different colors, the
-      feather sliding through the clear air, the palpitant throat and batting
-      eyes of the frog; while his version of the big bird's courtship won for
-      the Boss the best laugh he had enjoyed for years.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They're in the middle of a swamp now&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Do you suppose
-      there is any chance of them staying with me chickens? If they do, they'll
-      be about the queerest I have; but I tell you, sir, I am finding some plum
-      good ones. There's a new kind over at the mouth of the creek that uses its
-      wings like feet and walks on all fours. It travels like a thrashing
-      machine. There's another, tall as me waist, with a bill a foot long, a
-      neck near two, not the thickness of me wrist and an elegant color. He's
-      some blue and gray, touched up with black, white, and brown. The voice of
-      him is such that if he'd be going up and standing beside a tree and crying
-      at it a few times he could be sawing it square off. I don't know but it
-      would be a good idea to try him on the gang, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean laughed. &ldquo;Those must be blue herons, Freckles,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;And it
-      doesn't seem possible, but your description of the big black birds sounds
-      like genuine black vultures. They are common enough in the South. I've
-      seen them numerous around the lumber camps of Georgia, but I never before
-      heard of any this far north. They must be strays. You have described
-      perfectly our nearest equivalent to a branch of these birds called in
-      Europe Pharaoh's Chickens, but if they are coming to the Limberlost they
-      will have to drop Pharaoh and become Freckles' Chickens, like the
-      remainder of the birds; won't they? Or are they too odd and ugly to
-      interest you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, not at all, at all!&rdquo; cried Freckles, bursting into pure brogue in his
-      haste. &ldquo;I don't know as I'd be calling them exactly pretty, and they do
-      move like a rocking-horse loping, but they are so big and fearless. They
-      have a fine color for black birds, and their feet and beaks seem so
-      strong. You never saw anything so keen as their eyes! And fly? Why, just
-      think, sir, they must be flying miles straight up, for they were out of
-      sight completely when the feather fell. I don't suppose I've a chicken in
-      the swamp that can go as close heaven as those big, black fellows, and
-      then&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' voice dragged and he hesitated.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then what?&rdquo; interestedly urged McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He was loving her so,&rdquo; answered Freckles in a hushed voice. &ldquo;I know it
-      looked awful funny, and I laughed and told on him, but if I'd taken time
-      to think I don't believe I'd have done it. You see, I've seen such a
-      little bit of loving in me life. You easily can be understanding that at
-      the Home it was every day the old story of neglect and desertion. Always
-      people that didn't even care enough for their children to keep them, so
-      you see, sir, I had to like him for trying so hard to make her know how he
-      loved her. Of course, they're only birds, but if they are caring for each
-      other like that, why, it's just the same as people, ain't it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted his brave, steady eyes to the Boss.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If anybody loved me like that, Mr. McLean, I wouldn't be spending any
-      time on how they looked or moved. All I'd be thinking of would be how they
-      felt toward me. If they will stay, I'll be caring as much for them as any
-      chickens I have. If I did laugh at them I thought he was just fine!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The face of McLean was a study; but the honest eyes of the boy were so
-      compelling that he found himself answering: &ldquo;You are right, Freckles. He's
-      a gentleman, isn't he? And the only real chicken you have. Of course he'll
-      remain! The Limberlost will be paradise for his family. And now, Freckles,
-      what has been the trouble all spring? You have done your work as
-      faithfully as anyone could ask, but I can't help seeing that there is
-      something wrong. Are you tired of your job?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I love it,&rdquo; answered Freckles. &ldquo;It will almost break me heart when the
-      gang comes and begins tearing up the swamp and scaring away me chickens.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then what is the trouble?&rdquo; insisted McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I think, sir, it's been books,&rdquo; answered Freckles. &ldquo;You see, I didn't
-      realize it meself until the bullfrog told me this morning. I hadn't ever
-      even heard about a place like this. Anyway, I wasn't understanding how it
-      would be, if I had. Being among these beautiful things every day, I got so
-      anxious like to be knowing and naming them, that it got to eating into me
-      and went and made me near sick, when I was well as I could be. Of course,
-      I learned to read, write, and figure some at school, but there was nothing
-      there, or in any of the city that I ever got to see, that would make a
-      fellow even be dreaming of such interesting things as there are here. I've
-      seen the parks&mdash;but good Lord, they ain't even beginning to be in it
-      with the Limberlost! It's all new and strange to me. I don't know a thing
-      about any of it. The bullfrog told me to 'find out,' plain as day, and
-      books are the only way; ain't they?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; said McLean, astonished at himself for his heartfelt relief.
-      He had not guessed until that minute what it would have meant to him to
-      have Freckles give up. &ldquo;You know enough to study out what you want
-      yourself, if you have the books; don't you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am pretty sure I do,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I learned all I'd the chance at
-      in the Home, and me schooling was good as far as it went. Wouldn't let you
-      go past fourteen, you know. I always did me sums perfect, and loved me
-      history books. I had them almost by heart. I never could get me grammar to
-      suit them. They said it was just born in me to go wrong talking, and if it
-      hadn't been I suppose I would have picked it up from the other children;
-      but I'd the best voice of any of them in the Home or at school. I could
-      knock them all out singing. I was always leader in the Home, and once one
-      of the superintendents gave me carfare and let me go into the city and
-      sing in a boys' choir. The master said I'd the swatest voice of them all
-      until it got rough like, and then he made me quit for awhile, but he said
-      it would be coming back by now, and I'm railly thinking it is, sir, for
-      I've tried on the line a bit of late and it seems to go smooth again and
-      lots stronger. That and me chickens have been all the company I've been
-      having, and it will be all I'll want if I can have some books and learn
-      the real names of things, where they come from, and why they do such
-      interesting things. It's been fretting me more than I knew to be shut up
-      here among all these wonders and not knowing a thing. I wanted to ask you
-      what some books would cost me, and if you'd be having the goodness to get
-      me the right ones. I think I have enough money.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles offered his account-book and the Boss studied it gravely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You needn't touch your account, Freckles,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Ten dollars from
-      this month's pay will provide you everything you need to start on. I will
-      write a friend in Grand Rapids today to select you the very best and send
-      them at once.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' eyes were shining.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Never owned a book in me life!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Even me schoolbooks were never
-      mine. Lord! How I used to wish I could have just one of them for me very
-      own! Won't it be fun to see me sawbird and me little yellow fellow looking
-      at me from the pages of a book, and their real names and all about them
-      printed alongside? How long will it be taking, sir?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ten days should do it nicely,&rdquo; said McLean. Then, seeing Freckles'
-      lengthening face, he added: &ldquo;I'll have Duncan bring you a ten-bushel
-      store-box the next time he goes to town. He can haul it to the west
-      entrance and set it up wherever you want it. You can put in your spare
-      time filling it with the specimens you find until the books come, and then
-      you can study out what you have. I suspect you could collect specimens
-      that I could send to naturalists in the city and sell for you; things like
-      that winged creature, this morning. I don't know much in that line, but it
-      must have been a moth, and it might have been rare. I've seen them by the
-      thousand in museums, and in all nature I don't remember rarer coloring
-      than their wings. I'll order you a butterfly-net and box and show you how
-      scientists pin specimens. Possibly you can make a fine collection of these
-      swamp beauties. It will be all right for you to take a pair of different
-      moths and butterflies, but I don't want to hear of your killing any birds.
-      They are protected by heavy fines.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean rode away leaving Freckles staring aghast. Then he saw the point
-      and smiled. Standing on the trail, he twirled the feather and thought over
-      the morning.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, if life ain't getting to be worth living!&rdquo; he said wonderingly.
-      &ldquo;Biggest streak of luck I ever had! 'Bout time something was coming my
-      way, but I wouldn't ever thought anybody could strike such magnificent
-      prospects through only a falling feather.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER IV
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for New
-      Experiences
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      On Duncan's return from his next trip to town there was a big store-box
-      loaded on the back of his wagon. He drove to the west entrance of the
-      swamp, set the box on a stump that Freckles had selected in a beautiful,
-      sheltered place, and made it secure on its foundations with a tree at its
-      back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It seems most a pity to nail into that tree,&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;I haena the
-      time to examine into the grain of it, but it looks as if it might be a
-      rare ane. Anyhow, the nailin' winna hurt it deep, and havin' the case by
-      it will make it safer if it is a guid ane.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Isn't it an oak?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ay,&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;It looks like it might be ane of thae fine-grained
-      white anes that mak' such grand furniture.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      When the body of the case was secure, Duncan made a door from the lid and
-      fastened it with hinges. He drove a staple, screwed on a latch, and gave
-      Freckles a small padlock&mdash;so that he might fasten in his treasures
-      safely. He made a shelf at the top for his books, and last of all covered
-      the case with oil-cloth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was the first time in Freckles' life that anyone ever had done that
-      much for his pleasure, and it warmed his heart with pure joy. If the
-      interior of the box already had been covered with the rarest treasures of
-      the Limberlost he could have been no happier.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the big teamster stood back to look at his work he laughingly quoted,
-      &ldquo;'Neat, but no' gaudy,' as McLean says. All we're, needing now is a coat
-      of paint to make a cupboard that would turn Sarah green with envy. Ye'll
-      find that safe an' dry, lad, an' that's all that's needed.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mr. Duncan,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;I don't know why you are being so mighty
-      good to me; but if you have any jobs at the cabin that I could do for you
-      or Mrs. Duncan, hours off the line, it would make me mighty happy.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan laughed. &ldquo;Ye needna feel ye are obliged to me, lad. Ye mauna think
-      I could take a half-day off in the best hauling season and go to town for
-      boxes to rig up, and spend of my little for fixtures.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I knew Mr. McLean sent you,&rdquo; said Freckles, his eyes wide and bright with
-      happiness. &ldquo;It's so good of him. How I wish I could do something that
-      would please him as much!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, Freckles,&rdquo; said Duncan, as he knelt and began collecting his tools,
-      &ldquo;I canna see that it will hurt ye to be told that ye are doing every day a
-      thing that pleases the Boss as much as anything ye could do. Ye're being
-      uncommon faithful, lad, and honest as old Father Time. McLean is trusting
-      ye as he would his own flesh and blood.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Duncan!&rdquo; cried the happy boy. &ldquo;Are you sure?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why I know,&rdquo; answered Duncan. &ldquo;I wadna venture to say so else. In those
-      first days he cautioned me na to tell ye, but now he wadna care. D'ye ken,
-      Freckles, that some of the single trees ye are guarding are worth a
-      thousand dollars?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles caught his breath and stood speechless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye see,&rdquo; said Duncan, &ldquo;that's why they maun be watched so closely. They
-      tak', say, for instance, a burl maple&mdash;bird's eye they call it in the
-      factory, because it's full o' wee knots and twists that look like the eye
-      of a bird. They saw it out in sheets no muckle thicker than writin' paper.
-      Then they make up the funiture out of cheaper wood and cover it with the
-      maple&mdash;veneer, they call it. When it's all done and polished ye never
-      saw onythin' grander. Gang into a retail shop the next time ye are in town
-      and see some. By sawin' it thin that way they get finish for thousands of
-      dollars' worth of furniture from a single tree. If ye dinna watch
-      faithful, and Black Jack gets out a few he has marked, it means the loss
-      of more money than ye ever dreamed of, lad. The other night, down at camp,
-      some son of Balaam was suggestin' that ye might be sellin' the Boss out to
-      Jack and lettin' him tak' the trees secretly, and nobody wad ever ken till
-      the gang gets here.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A wave of scarlet flooded Freckles' face and he blazed hotly at the
-      insult.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And the Boss,&rdquo; continued Duncan, coolly ignoring Freckles' anger, &ldquo;he
-      lays back just as cool as cowcumbers an' says: 'I'll give a thousand
-      dollars to ony man that will show me a fresh stump when we reach the
-      Limberlost,' says he. Some of the men just snapped him op that they'd find
-      some. So you see bow the Boss is trustin' ye, lad.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am gladder than I can ever expriss,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;And now will I be
-      walking double time to keep some of them from cutting a tree to get all
-      that money!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mither o' Moses!&rdquo; howled Duncan. &ldquo;Ye can trust the Scotch to bungle
-      things a'thegither. McLean was only meanin' to show ye all confidence and
-      honor. He's gone and set a high price for some dirty whelp to ruin ye. I
-      was just tryin' to show ye how he felt toward ye, and I've gone an' give
-      ye that worry to bear. Damn the Scotch! They're so slow an' so dumb!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Exciptin' prisint company?&rdquo; sweetly inquired Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; growled Duncan. &ldquo;Headin' the list! He'd nae business to set a price
-      on ye, lad, for that's about the amount of it, an' I'd nae right to tell
-      ye. We've both done ye ill, an' both meanin' the verra best. Juist what
-      I'm always sayin' to Sarah.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am mighty proud of what you have been telling me, Duncan,&rdquo; said
-      Freckles. &ldquo;I need the warning, sure. For with the books coming I might be
-      timpted to neglect me work when double watching is needed. Thank you more
-      than I can say for putting me on to it. What you've told me may be the
-      saving of me. I won't stop for dinner now. I'll be getting along the east
-      line, and when I come around about three, maybe Mother Duncan will let me
-      have a glass of milk and a bite of something.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye see now!&rdquo; cried Duncan in disgust. &ldquo;Ye'll start on that seven-mile
-      tramp with na bite to stay your stomach. What was it I told ye?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You told me that the Scotch had the hardest heads and the softest hearts
-      of any people that's living,&rdquo; answered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan grunted in gratified disapproval.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles picked up his club and started down the line, whistling cheerily,
-      for he had an unusually long repertoire upon which to draw.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan went straight to the lower camp, and calling McLean aside, repeated
-      the conversation verbatim, ending: &ldquo;And nae matter what happens now or
-      ever, dinna ye dare let onythin' make ye believe that Freckles hasna
-      guarded faithful as ony man could.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't think anything could shake my faith in the lad,&rdquo; answered McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was whistling merrily. He kept one eye religiously on the line.
-      The other he divided between the path, his friends of the wire, and a
-      search of the sky for his latest arrivals. Every day since their coming he
-      had seen them, either hanging as small, black clouds above the swamp or
-      bobbing over logs and trees with their queer, tilting walk. Whenever he
-      could spare time, he entered the swamp and tried to make friends with
-      them, for they were the tamest of all his unnumbered subjects. They
-      ducked, dodged, and ambled around him, over logs and bushes, and not even
-      a near approach would drive them to flight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For two weeks he had found them circling over the Limberlost regularly,
-      but one morning the female was missing and only the big black chicken hung
-      sentinel above the swamp. His mate did not reappear in the following days,
-      and Freckles grew very anxious. He spoke of it to Mrs. Duncan, and she
-      quieted his fears by raising a delightful hope in their stead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, Freckles, if it's the hen-bird ye are missing, it's ten to one she's
-      safe,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;She's laid, and is setting, ye silly! Watch him and mark
-      whaur he lichts. Then follow and find the nest. Some Sabbath we'll all
-      gang see it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Accepting this theory, Freckles began searching for the nest. Because
-      these &ldquo;chickens&rdquo; were large, as the hawks, he looked among the treetops
-      until he almost sprained the back of his neck. He had half the crow and
-      hawk nests in the swamp located. He searched for this nest instead of
-      collecting subjects for his case. He found the pair the middle of one
-      forenoon on the elm where he had watched their love-making. The big black
-      chicken was feeding his mate; so it was proved that they were a pair, they
-      were both alive, and undoubtedly she was brooding. After that Freckles'
-      nest-hunting continued with renewed zeal, but as he had no idea where to
-      look and Duncan could offer no helpful suggestion, the nest was no nearer
-      to being found.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Coming from a long day on the trail, Freckles saw Duncan's children
-      awaiting him much closer the swale than they usually ventured, and from
-      their wild gestures he knew that something had happened. He began to run,
-      but the cry that reached him was: &ldquo;The books have come!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      How they hurried! Freckles lifted the youngest to his shoulder, the second
-      took his club and dinner pail, and when they reached Mrs. Duncan they
-      found her at work on a big box. She had loosened the lid, and then she
-      laughingly sat on it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye canna have a peep in here until ye have washed and eaten supper,&rdquo; she
-      said. &ldquo;It's all ready on the table. Ance ye begin on this, ye'll no be
-      willin' to tak' your nose o' it till bedtime, and I willna get my work
-      done the nicht. We've eaten long ago.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      It was difficult work, but Freckles smiled bravely. He made himself neat,
-      swallowed a few bites, then came so eagerly that Mrs. Duncan yielded,
-      although she said she very well knew all the time that his supper would be
-      spoiled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lifting the lid, they removed the packing and found in that box books on
-      birds, trees, flowers, moths, and butterflies. There was also one
-      containing Freckles' bullfrog, true to life. Besides these were a
-      butterfly-net, a naturalist's tin specimen-box, a bottle of cyanide, a box
-      of cotton, a paper of long, steel specimen-pins, and a letter telling what
-      all these things were and how to use them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the discovery of each new treasure, Freckles shouted: &ldquo;Will you be
-      looking at this, now?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Mrs. Duncan cried: &ldquo;Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The eldest boy turned a somersault for every extra, while the baby, trying
-      to follow his example, bunched over in a sidewise sprawl and cut his foot
-      on the axe with which his mother had prized up the box-lid. That sobered
-      them, they carried the books indoors. Mrs. Duncan had a top shelf in her
-      closet cleared for them, far above the reach of meddling little fingers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When Freckles started for the trail next morning, the shining new
-      specimen-box flashed on his back. The black &ldquo;chicken,&rdquo; a mere speck in the
-      blue, caught the gleam of it. The folded net hung beside the boy's
-      hatchet, and the bird book was in the box. He walked the line and tested
-      each section scrupulously, watching every foot of the trail, for he was
-      determined not to slight his work; but if ever a boy &ldquo;made haste slowly&rdquo;
-       in a hurry, it was Freckles that morning. When at last he reached the
-      space he had cleared and planted around his case, his heart swelled with
-      the pride of possessing even so much that he could call his own, while his
-      quick eyes feasted on the beauty of it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had made a large room with the door of the case set even with one side
-      of it. On three sides, fine big bushes of wild rose climbed to the lower
-      branches of the trees. Part of his walls were mallow, part alder, thorn,
-      willow, and dogwood. Below there filled in a solid mass of pale pink
-      sheep-laurel, and yellow St. John's wort, while the amber threads of the
-      dodder interlaced everywhere. At one side the swamp came close, here
-      cattails grew in profusion. In front of them he had planted a row of
-      water-hyacinths without disturbing in the least the state of their azure
-      bloom, and where the ground arose higher for his floor, a row of foxfire,
-      that soon would be open.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To the left he had discovered a queer natural arrangement of the trees,
-      that grew to giant size and were set in a gradually narrowing space so
-      that a long, open vista stretched away until lost in the dim recesses of
-      the swamp. A little trimming of underbush, rolling of dead logs, levelling
-      of floor and carpeting with moss, made it easy to understand why Freckles
-      had named this the &ldquo;cathedral&rdquo;; yet he never had been taught that &ldquo;the
-      groves were God's first temples.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      On either side of the trees that constituted the first arch of this dim
-      vista of the swamp he planted ferns that grew waist-high thus early in the
-      season, and so skilfully the work had been done that not a frond drooped
-      because of the change. Opposite, he cleared a space and made a flower bed.
-      He filled one end with every delicate, lacy vine and fern he could
-      transplant successfully. The body of the bed was a riot of color. Here he
-      set growing dainty blue-eyed-Marys and blue-eyed grass side by side. He
-      planted harebells; violets, blue, white, and yellow; wild geranium,
-      cardinal-flower, columbine, pink snake's mouth, buttercups, painted
-      trilliums, and orchis. Here were blood-root, moccasin-flower, hepatica,
-      pitcher-plant, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and every other flower of the
-      Limberlost that was in bloom or bore a bud presaging a flower. Every day
-      saw the addition of new specimens. The place would have driven a botanist
-      wild with envy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the line side he left the bushes thick for concealment, entering by a
-      narrow path he and Duncan had cleared in setting up the case. He called
-      this the front door, though he used every precaution to hide it. He built
-      rustic seats between several of the trees, leveled the floor, and thickly
-      carpeted it with rank, heavy, woolly-dog moss. Around the case he planted
-      wild clematis, bittersweet, and wild-grapevines, and trained them over it
-      until it was almost covered. Every day he planted new flowers, cut back
-      rough bushes, and coaxed out graceful ones. His pride in his room was very
-      great, but he had no idea how surprisingly beautiful it would appear to
-      anyone who had not witnessed its growth and construction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This morning Freckles walked straight to his case, unlocked it, and set
-      his apparatus and dinner inside. He planted a new specimen he had found
-      close the trail, and, bringing his old scrap-bucket from the corner in
-      which it was hidden, from a near-by pool he dipped water to pour over his
-      carpet and flowers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he took out the bird book, settled comfortably on a bench, and with a
-      deep sigh of satisfaction turned to the section headed. &ldquo;V.&rdquo; Past &ldquo;veery&rdquo;
-       and &ldquo;vireo&rdquo; he went, down the line until his finger, trembling with
-      eagerness, stopped at &ldquo;vulture.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Great black California vulture,'&rdquo; he read.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Humph! This side the Rockies will do for us.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Common turkey-buzzard.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, we ain't hunting common turkeys. McLean said chickens, and what he
-      says goes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Black vulture of the South.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Here we are arrived at once.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' finger followed the line, and he read scraps aloud.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Common in the South. Sometimes called Jim Crow. Nearest equivalent to
-      C-a-t-h-a-r-t-e-s A-t-r-a-t-a.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How the divil am I ever to learn them corkin' big words by mesel'?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'&mdash;the Pharaoh's Chickens of European species. Sometimes stray north
-      as far as Virginia and Kentucky&mdash;&mdash;'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And sometimes farther,&rdquo; interpolated Freckles, &ldquo;'cos I got them right
-      here in Indiana so like these pictures I can just see me big chicken
-      bobbing up to get his ears boxed. Hey?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Light-blue eggs'&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Golly! I got to be seeing them!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'&mdash;big as a common turkey's, but shaped like a hen's, heavily
-      splotched with chocolate&mdash;&mdash;'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Caramels, I suppose. And&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'&mdash;in hollow logs or stumps.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, hagginy! Wasn't I barking up the wrong tree, though? Ought to been
-      looking close the ground all this time. Now it's all to do over, and I
-      suspect the sooner I start the sooner I'll be likely to find them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles put away his book, dampened the smudge-fire, without which the
-      mosquitoes made the swamp almost unbearable, took his cudgel and lunch,
-      and went to the line. He sat on a log, ate at dinner-time and drank his
-      last drop of water. The heat of June was growing intense. Even on the west
-      of the swamp, where one had full benefit of the breeze from the upland, it
-      was beginning to be unpleasant in the middle of the day.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He brushed the crumbs from his knees and sat resting awhile and watching
-      the sky to see if his big chicken were hanging up there. But he came to
-      the earth abruptly, for there were steps coming down the trail that were
-      neither McLean's nor Duncan's&mdash;and there never had been others.
-      Freckles' heart leaped hotly. He ran a quick hand over his belt to feel if
-      his revolver and hatchet were there, caught up his cudgel and laid it
-      across his knees&mdash;then sat quietly, waiting. Was it Black Jack, or
-      someone even worse? Forced to do something to brace his nerves, he
-      puckered his stiffening lips and began whistling a tune he had led in his
-      clear tenor every year of his life at the Home Christmas exercises.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;Who comes this way, so blithe and gay,
-     Upon a merry Christmas day?&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      His quick Irish wit roused to the ridiculousness of it until he broke into
-      a laugh that steadied him amazingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Through the bushes he caught a glimpse of the oncoming figure. His heart
-      flooded with joy, for it was a man from the gang. Wessner had been his
-      bunk-mate the night he came down the corduroy. He knew him as well as any
-      of McLean's men. This was no timber-thief. No doubt the Boss had sent him
-      with a message. Freckles sprang up and called cheerily, a warm welcome on
-      his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, it's good telling if you're glad to see me,&rdquo; said Wessner, with
-      something very like a breath of relief. &ldquo;We been hearing down at the camp
-      you were so mighty touchy you didn't allow a man within a rod of the
-      line.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No more do I,&rdquo; answered Freckles, &ldquo;if he's a stranger, but you're from
-      McLean, ain't you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, damn McLean!&rdquo; said Wessner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles gripped the cudgel until his knuckles slowly turned purple.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And are you railly saying so?&rdquo; he inquired with elaborate politeness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, I am,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;So would every man of the gang if they wasn't
-      too big cowards to say anything, unless maybe that other slobbering old
-      Scotchman, Duncan. Grinding the lives out of us! Working us like dogs, and
-      paying us starvation wages, while he rolls up his millions and lives like
-      a prince!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Green lights began to play through the gray of Freckles' eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wessner,&rdquo; he said impressively, &ldquo;you'd make a fine pattern for the father
-      of liars! Every man on that gang is strong and hilthy, paid all he earns,
-      and treated with the courtesy of a gentleman! As for the Boss living like
-      a prince, he shares fare with you every day of your lives!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner was not a born diplomat, but he saw he was on the wrong tack, so
-      he tried another.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How would you like to make a good big pile of money, without even lifting
-      your hand?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Humph!&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Have you been up to Chicago and cornered wheat,
-      and are you offering me a friendly tip on the invistment of me fortune?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner came close.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, old fellow,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if you let me give you a pointer, I can
-      put you on to making a cool five hundred without stepping out of your
-      tracks.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles drew back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You needn't be afraid of speaking up,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There isn't a soul in
-      the Limberlost save the birds and the beasts, unless some of your sort's
-      come along and's crowding the privileges of the legal tinints.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;None of my friends along,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;Nobody knew I came but Black, I&mdash;I
-      mean a friend of mine. If you want to hear sense and act with reason, he
-      can see you later, but it ain't necessary. We can make all the plans
-      needed. The trick's so dead small and easy.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Must be if you have the engineering of it,&rdquo; said Freckles. But he heard,
-      with a sigh of relief, that they were alone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner was impervious. &ldquo;You just bet it is! Why, only think, Freckles,
-      slavin' away at a measly little thirty dollars a month, and here is a
-      chance to clear five hundred in a day! You surely won't be the fool to
-      miss it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And how was you proposing for me to stale it?&rdquo; inquired Freckles. &ldquo;Or am
-      I just to find it laying in me path beside the line?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's it, Freckles,&rdquo; blustered the Dutchman, &ldquo;you're just to find it.
-      You needn't do a thing. You needn't know a thing. You name a morning when
-      you will walk up the west side of the swamp and then turn round and walk
-      back down the same side again and the money is yours. Couldn't anything be
-      easier than that, could it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Depinds entirely on the man,&rdquo; said Freckles. The lilt of a lark hanging
-      above the swale beside them was not sweeter than the sweetness of his
-      voice. &ldquo;To some it would seem to come aisy as breathing; and to some,
-      wringin' the last drop of their heart's blood couldn't force thim! I'm not
-      the man that goes into a scheme like that with the blindfold over me eyes,
-      for, you see, it manes to break trust with the Boss; and I've served him
-      faithful as I knew. You'll have to be making the thing very clear to me
-      understanding.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's so dead easy,&rdquo; repeated Wessner, &ldquo;it makes me tired of the
-      simpleness of it. You see there's a few trees in the swamp that's real
-      gold mines. There's three especial. Two are back in, but one's square on
-      the line. Why, your pottering old Scotch fool of a Boss nailed the wire to
-      it with his own hands! He never noticed where the bark had been peeled, or
-      saw what it was. If you will stay on this side of the trail just one day
-      we can have it cut, loaded, and ready to drive out at night. Next morning
-      you can find it, report, and be the busiest man in the search for us. We
-      know where to fix it all safe and easy. Then McLean has a bet up with a
-      couple of the gang that there can't be a raw stump found in the
-      Limberlost. There's plenty of witnesses to swear to it, and I know three
-      that will. There's a cool thousand, and this tree is worth all of that,
-      raw. Say, it's a gold mine, I tell you, and just five hundred of it is
-      yours. There's no danger on earth to you, for you've got McLean that
-      bamboozled you could sell out the whole swamp and he'd never mistrust you.
-      What do you say?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' soul was satisfied. &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, it ain't,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;If you really want to brace up and be a man
-      and go into the thing for keeps, you can make five times that in a week.
-      My friend knows a dozen others we could get out in a few days, and all
-      you'd have to do would be to keep out of sight. Then you could take your
-      money and skip some night, and begin life like a gentleman somewhere else.
-      What do you think about it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles purred like a kitten.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Twould be a rare joke on the Boss,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to be stalin' from him the
-      very thing he's trusted me to guard, and be getting me wages all winter
-      throwed in free. And you're making the pay awful high. Me to be getting
-      five hundred for such a simple little thing as that. You're trating me
-      most royal indade! It's away beyond all I'd be expecting. Sivinteen cints
-      would be a big price for that job. It must be looked into thorough. Just
-      you wait here until I do a minute's turn in the swamp, and then I'll be
-      eschorting you out of the clearing and giving you the answer.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted the overhanging bushes and hurried to the case. He unslung
-      the specimen-box and laid it inside with his hatchet and revolver. He
-      slipped the key in his pocket and went back to Wessner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now for the answer,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Stand up!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      There was iron in his voice, and he was commanding as an outraged general.
-      &ldquo;Anything, you want to be taking off?&rdquo; he questioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner looked the astonishment he felt. &ldquo;Why, no, Freckles,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have the goodness to be calling me Mister McLean,&rdquo; snapped Freckles. &ldquo;I'm
-      after resarvin' me pet name for the use of me friends! You may stand with
-      your back to the light or be taking any advantage you want.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, what do you mean?&rdquo; spluttered Wessner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm manin',&rdquo; said Freckles tersely, &ldquo;to lick a quarter-section of hell
-      out of you, and may the Holy Vargin stay me before I leave you here
-      carrion, for your carcass would turn the stummicks of me chickens!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      At the camp that morning, Wessner's conduct had been so palpable an excuse
-      to force a discharge that Duncan moved near McLean and whispered, &ldquo;Think
-      of the boy, sir?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean was so troubled that, an hour later, he mounted Nellie and followed
-      Wessner to his home in Wildcat Hollow, only to find that he had left there
-      shortly before, heading for the Limberlost. McLean rode at top speed. When
-      Mrs. Duncan told him that a man answering Wessner's description had gone
-      down the west side of the swamp close noon, he left the mare in her charge
-      and followed on foot. When he heard voices he entered the swamp and
-      silently crept close just in time to hear Wessner whine: &ldquo;But I can't
-      fight you, Freckles. I hain't done nothing to you. I'm away bigger than
-      you, and you've only one hand.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss slid off his coat and crouched among the bushes, ready to spring;
-      but as Freckles' voice reached him he held himself, with a strong effort,
-      to learn what mettle was in the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't you be wasting of me good time in the numbering of me hands,&rdquo; cried
-      Freckles. &ldquo;The stringth of me cause will make up for the weakness of me
-      mimbers, and the size of a cowardly thief doesn't count. You'll think all
-      the wildcats of the Limberlost are turned loose on you whin I come against
-      you, and as for me cause&mdash;&mdash;I slept with you, Wessner, the night
-      I came down the corduroy like a dirty, friendless tramp, and the Boss was
-      for taking me up, washing, clothing, and feeding me, and giving me a home
-      full of love and tinderness, and a master to look to, and good,
-      well-earned money in the bank. He's trusting me his heartful, and here
-      comes you, you spotted toad of the big road, and insults me, as is an
-      honest Irish gintleman, by hinting that you concaive I'd be willing to
-      shut me eyes and hold fast while you rob him of the thing I was set and
-      paid to guard, and then act the sneak and liar to him, and ruin and
-      eternally blacken the soul of me. You damned rascal,&rdquo; raved Freckles, &ldquo;be
-      fighting before I forget the laws of a gintlemin's game and split your
-      dirty head with me stick!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner backed away, mumbling, &ldquo;But I don't want to hurt you, Freckles!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, don't you!&rdquo; raged the boy, now fairly frothing. &ldquo;Well, you ain't
-      resembling me none, for I'm itching like death to git me fingers in the
-      face of you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He danced up, and as Wessner lunged in self-defense, ducked under his arm
-      as a bantam and punched him in the pit of the stomach so that he doubled
-      with a groan. Before Wessner could straighten himself, Freckles was on
-      him, fighting like the wildest fury that ever left the beautiful island.
-      The Dutchman dealt thundering blows that sometimes landed and sent
-      Freckles reeling, and sometimes missed, while he went plunging into the
-      swale with the impetus of them. Freckles could not strike with half
-      Wessner's force, but he could land three blows to the Dutchman's one. It
-      was here that the boy's days of alert watching on the line, the perpetual
-      swinging of the heavy cudgel, and the endurance of all weather stood him
-      in good stead; for he was tough, and agile. He skipped, ducked, and
-      dodged. For the first five minutes he endured fearful punishment. Then
-      Wessner's breath commenced to whistle between his teeth, when Freckles
-      only had begun fighting. He sprang back with shrill laughter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Begolly! and will your honor be whistling the hornpipe for me to be
-      dancing of?&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      SPANG! went his fist into Wessner's face, and he was past him into the
-      swale.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And would you be pleased to tune up a little livelier?&rdquo; he gasped, and
-      clipped his ear as he sprang back. Wessner lunged at him in blind fury.
-      Freckles, seeing an opening, forgot the laws of a gentleman's game and
-      drove the toe of his heavy wading-boot in Wessner's middle until he
-      doubled and fell heavily. In a flash Freckles was on him. For a time
-      McLean could not see what was happening. &ldquo;Go! Go to him now!&rdquo; he commanded
-      himself, but so intense was his desire to see the boy win alone that he
-      did not stir.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At last Freckles sprang up and backed away. &ldquo;Time!&rdquo; he yelled as a fury.
-      &ldquo;Be getting up, Mr. Wessner, and don't be afraid of hurting me. I'll let
-      you throw in an extra hand and lick you to me complate satisfaction all
-      the same. Did you hear me call the limit? Will you get up and be facing
-      me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As Wessner struggled to his feet, he resembled a battlefield, for his
-      clothing was in ribbons and his face and hands streaming blood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I&mdash;I guess I got enough,&rdquo; he mumbled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, you do?&rdquo; roared Freckles. &ldquo;Well this ain't your say. You come on to
-      me ground, lying about me Boss and intimatin' I'd stale from his very
-      pockets. Now will you be standing up and taking your medicine like a man,
-      or getting it poured down the throat of you like a baby? I ain't got
-      enough! This is only just the beginning with me. Be looking out there!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He sprang against Wessner and sent him rolling. He attacked the
-      unresisting figure and fought him until he lay limp and quiet and Freckles
-      had no strength left to lift an arm. Then he arose and stepped back,
-      gasping for breath. With his first lungful of air he shouted: &ldquo;Time!&rdquo; But
-      the figure of Wessner lay motionless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles watched him with regardful eye and saw at last that he was
-      completely exhausted. He bent over him, and catching him by the back of
-      the neck, jerked him to his knees. Wessner lifted the face of a whipped
-      cur, and fearing further punishment, burst into shivering sobs, while the
-      tears washed tiny rivulets through the blood and muck. Freckles stepped
-      back, glaring at Wessner, but suddenly the scowl of anger and the ugly
-      disfiguring red faded from the boy's face. He dabbed at a cut on his
-      temple from which issued a tiny crimson stream, and jauntily shook back
-      his hair. His face took on the innocent look of a cherub, and his voice
-      rivaled that of a brooding dove, but into his eyes crept a look of
-      diabolical mischief.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He glanced vaguely around him until he saw his club, seized and twirled it
-      as a drum major, stuck it upright in the muck, and marched on tiptoe to
-      Wessner, mechanically, as a puppet worked by a string. Bending over,
-      Freckles reached an arm around Wessner's waist and helped him to his feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Careful, now&rdquo; he cautioned, &ldquo;be careful, Freddy; there's danger of you
-      hurting me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Drawing a handkerchief from a back pocket, Freckles tenderly wiped
-      Wessner's eyes and nose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come, Freddy, me child,&rdquo; he admonished Wessner, &ldquo;it's time little boys
-      were going home. I've me work to do, and can't be entertaining you any
-      more today. Come back tomorrow, if you ain't through yet, and we'll repate
-      the perfarmance. Don't be staring at me so wild like! I would eat you, but
-      I can't afford it. Me earnings, being honest, come slow, and I've no money
-      to be squanderin' on the pailful of Dyspeptic's Delight it would be to
-      taking to work you out of my innards!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Again an awful wrenching seized McLean. Freckles stepped back as Wessner,
-      tottering and reeling, as a thoroughly drunken man, came toward the path,
-      appearing indeed as if wildcats had attacked him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The cudgel spun high in air, and catching it with an expertness acquired
-      by long practice on the line, the boy twirled it a second, shook back his
-      thick hair bonnily, and stepping into the trail, followed Wessner. Because
-      Freckles was Irish, it was impossible to do it silently, so presently his
-      clear tenor rang out, though there were bad catches where he was hard
-      pressed for breath:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch.
-     Do you think it was the Irish hollered help?
-     Not much!
-     It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      Wessner turned and mumbled: &ldquo;What you following me for? What are you going
-      to do with me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles called the Limberlost to witness: &ldquo;How's that for the ingratitude
-      of a beast? And me troubling mesilf to show him off me territory with the
-      honors of war!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he changed his tone completely and added: &ldquo;Belike it's this, Freddy.
-      You see, the Boss might come riding down this trail any minute, and the
-      little mare's so wheedlesome that if she'd come on to you in your prisint
-      state all of a sudden, she'd stop that short she'd send Mr. McLean out
-      over the ears of her. No disparagement intinded to the sinse of the mare!&rdquo;
-       he added hastily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner belched a fearful oath, while Freckles laughed merrily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's a sample of the thanks a generous act's always for getting,&rdquo; he
-      continued. &ldquo;Here's me neglictin' me work to eschort you out proper, and
-      you saying such awful words Freddy,&rdquo; he demanded sternly, &ldquo;do you want me
-      to soap out your mouth? You don't seem to be realizing it, but if you was
-      to buck into Mr. McLean in your prisint state, without me there to explain
-      matters the chance is he'd cut the liver out of you; and I shouldn't think
-      you'd be wanting such a fine gintleman as him to see that it's white!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner grew ghastly under his grime and broke into a staggering run.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And now will you be looking at the manners of him?&rdquo; questioned Freckles
-      plaintively. &ldquo;Going without even a 'thank you,' right in the face of all
-      the pains I've taken to make it interesting for him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles twirled the club and stood as a soldier at attention until
-      Wessner left the clearing, but it was the last scene of that performance.
-      When the boy turned, there was deathly illness on his face, while his legs
-      wavered beneath his weight. He staggered to the case, and opening it he
-      took out a piece of cloth. He dipped it into the water, and sitting on a
-      bench, he wiped the blood and grime from his face, while his breath sucked
-      between his clenched teeth. He was shivering with pain and excitement in
-      spite of himself. He unbuttoned the band of his right sleeve, and turning
-      it back, exposed the blue-lined, calloused whiteness of his maimed arm,
-      now vividly streaked with contusions, while in a series of circular dots
-      the blood oozed slowly. Here Wessner had succeeded in setting his teeth.
-      When Freckles saw what it was he forgave himself the kick in the pit of
-      Wessner's stomach, and cursed fervently and deep.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, Freckles,&rdquo; said McLean's voice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles snatched down his sleeve and arose to his feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Excuse me, sir,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You'll surely be belavin' I thought meself
-      alone.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean pushed him carefully to the seat, and bending over him, opened a
-      pocket-case that he carried as regularly as his revolver and watch, for
-      cuts and bruises were of daily occurrence among the gang.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Taking the hurt arm, he turned back the sleeve and bathed and bound the
-      wounds. He examined Freckles' head and body and convinced himself that
-      there was no permanent injury, although the cruelty of the punishment the
-      boy had borne set the Boss shuddering. Then he closed the case, shoved it
-      into his pocket, and sat beside Freckles. All the indescribable beauty of
-      the place was strong around him, but he saw only the bruised face of the
-      suffering boy, who had hedged for the information he wanted as a diplomat,
-      argued as a judge, fought as a sheik, and triumphed as a devil.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the pain lessened and breath relieved Freckles' pounding heart, he
-      watched the Boss covertly. How had McLean gotten there and how long had he
-      been there? Freckles did not dare ask. At last he arose, and going to the
-      case, took out his revolver and the wire-mending apparatus and locked the
-      door. Then he turned to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have you any orders, sir?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said McLean, &ldquo;I have, and you are to follow them to the letter.
-      Turn over that apparatus to me and go straight home. Soak yourself in the
-      hottest bath your skin will bear and go to bed at once. Now hurry.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mr. McLean,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;it's sorry I am to be telling you, but the
-      afternoon's walking of the line ain't done. You see, I was just for
-      getting to me feet to start, and I was on time, when up came a gintleman,
-      and we got into a little heated argument. It's either settled, or it's
-      just begun, but between us, I'm that late I haven't started for the
-      afternoon yet. I must be going at once, for there's a tree I must find
-      before the day's over.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You plucky little idiot,&rdquo; growled McLean. &ldquo;You can't walk the line! I
-      doubt if you can reach Duncan's. Don't you know when you are done up? You
-      go to bed; I'll finish your work.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Niver!&rdquo; protested Freckles. &ldquo;I was just a little done up for the prisint,
-      a minute ago. I'm all right now. Riding-boots are far too low. The day's
-      hot and the walk a good seven miles, sir. Niver!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As he reached for the outfit he pitched forward and his eyes closed.
-      McLean stretched him on the moss and applied restoratives. When Freckles
-      returned to consciousness, McLean ran to the cabin to tell Mrs. Duncan to
-      have a hot bath ready, and to bring Nellie. That worthy woman promptly
-      filled the wash-boiler, starting a roaring fire under it. She pushed the
-      horse-trough from its base and rolled it to the kitchen.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      By the time McLean came again, leading Nelie and holding Freckles on her
-      back, Mrs. Duncan was ready for business. She and the Boss laid Freckles
-      in the trough and poured on hot water until he squirmed. They soaked and
-      massaged him. Then they drew off the hot water and closed his pores with
-      cold. Lastly they stretched him on the floor and chafed, rubbed, and
-      kneaded him until he cried out for mercy. As they rolled him into bed, his
-      eyes dropped shut, but a little later they flared open.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mr. McLean,&rdquo; he cried, &ldquo;the tree! Oh, do be looking after the tree!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean bent over him. &ldquo;Which tree, Freckles?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know exact sir; but it's on the east line, and the wire is
-      fastened to it. He bragged that you nailed it yourself, sir. You'll know
-      it by the bark having been laid open to the grain somewhere low down. Five
-      hundred dollars he offered me&mdash;to be&mdash;selling you out&mdash;sir!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' head rolled over and his eyes dropped shut. McLean towered above
-      the lad. His bright hair waved on the pillow. His face was swollen, and
-      purple with bruises. His left arm, with the hand battered almost out of
-      shape, stretched beside him, and the right, with no hand at all, lay
-      across a chest that was a mass of purple welts. McLean's mind traveled to
-      the night, almost a year before, when he had engaged Freckles, a stranger.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss bent, covering the hurt arm with one hand and laying the other
-      with a caress on the boy's forehead. Freckles stirred at his touch, and
-      whispered as softly as the swallows under the eaves: &ldquo;If you're coming
-      this way&mdash;tomorrow&mdash;be pleased to step over&mdash;and we'll
-      repate&mdash;the chorus softly!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Bless the gritty devil,&rdquo; muttered McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he went out and told Mrs. Duncan to keep close watch on Freckles,
-      also to send Duncan to him at the swamp the minute he came home. Following
-      the trail to the line and back to the scent of the fight, the Boss entered
-      Freckles' study quietly, as if his spirit, keeping there, might be roused,
-      and gazed around with astonished eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How had the boy conceived it? What a picture he had wrought in living
-      colors! He had the heart of a painter. He had the soul of a poet. The Boss
-      stepped carefully over the velvet carpet to touch the walls of crisp
-      verdure with gentle fingers. He stood long beside the flower bed, and
-      gazed at the banked wall of bright bloom as if he doubted its reality.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Where had Freckles ever found, and how had he transplanted such ferns? As
-      McLean turned from them he stopped suddenly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had reached the door of the cathedral. That which Freckles had
-      attempted would have been patent to anyone. What had been in the heart of
-      the shy, silent boy when he had found that long, dim stretch of forest,
-      decorated its entrance, cleared and smoothed its aisle, and carpeted its
-      altar? What veriest work of God was in these mighty living pillars and the
-      arched dome of green! How similar to stained cathedral windows were the
-      long openings between the trees, filled with rifts of blue, rays of gold,
-      and the shifting emerald of leaves! Where could be found mosaics to match
-      this aisle paved with living color and glowing light? Was Freckles a
-      devout Christian, and did he worship here? Or was he an untaught heathen,
-      and down this vista of entrancing loveliness did Pan come piping, and
-      dryads, nymphs, and fairies dance for him?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Who can fathom the heart of a boy? McLean had been thinking of Freckles as
-      a creature of unswerving honesty, courage, and faithfulness. Here was
-      evidence of a heart aching for beauty, art, companionship, worship. It was
-      writ large all over the floor, walls, and furnishing of that little
-      Limberlost clearing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When Duncan came, McLean told him the story of the fight, and they laughed
-      until they cried. Then they started around the line in search of the tree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Said Duncan: &ldquo;Now the boy is in for sore trouble!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I hope not,&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;You never in all your life saw a cur
-      whipped so completely. He won't come back for the repetition of the
-      chorus. We surely can find the tree. If we can't, Freckles can. I will
-      bring enough of the gang to take it out at once. That will insure peace
-      for a time, at least, and I am hoping that in a month more the whole gang
-      may be moved here. It soon will be fall, and then, if he will go, I intend
-      to send Freckles to my mother to be educated. With his quickness of mind
-      and body and a few years' good help he can do anything. Why, Duncan, I'd
-      give a hundred-dollar bill if you could have been here and seen for
-      yourself.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, and I'd 'a' done murder,&rdquo; muttered the big teamster. &ldquo;I hope, sir,
-      ye will make good your plans for Freckles, though I'd as soon see ony born
-      child o' my ain taken from our home. We love the lad, me and Sarah.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Locating the tree was easy, because it was so well identified. When the
-      rumble of the big lumber wagons passing the cabin on the way to the swamp
-      wakened Freckles next morning, he sprang up and was soon following them.
-      He was so sore and stiff that every movement was torture at first, but he
-      grew easier, and shortly did not suffer so much. McLean scolded him for
-      coming, yet in his heart triumphed over every new evidence of fineness in
-      the boy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The tree was a giant maple, and so precious that they almost dug it out by
-      the roots. When it was down, cut in lengths, and loaded, there was yet an
-      empty wagon. As they were gathering up their tools to go, Duncan said:
-      &ldquo;There's a big hollow tree somewhere mighty close here that I've been
-      wanting for a watering-trough for my stock; the one I have is so small.
-      The Portland company cut this for elm butts last year, and it's six feet
-      diameter and hollow for forty feet. It was a buster! While the men are
-      here and there is an empty wagon, why mightn't I load it on and tak' it up
-      to the barn as we pass?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean said he was very willing, ordered the driver to break line and load
-      the log, detailing men to assist. He told Freckles to ride on a section of
-      the maple with him, but now the boy asked to enter the swamp with Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't see why you want to go,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;I have no business to let
-      you out today at all.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's me chickens,&rdquo; whispered Freckles in distress. &ldquo;You see, I was just
-      after finding yesterday, from me new book, how they do be nesting in
-      hollow trees, and there ain't any too many in the swamp. There's just a
-      chance that they might be in that one.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go ahead,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;That's a different story. If they happen to be
-      there, why tell Duncan he must give up the tree until they have finished
-      with it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he climbed on a wagon and was driven away. Freckles hurried into the
-      swamp. He was a little behind, yet he could see the men. Before he
-      overtook them, they had turned from the west road and had entered the
-      swamp toward the east.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They stopped at the trunk of a monstrous prostrate log. It had been cut
-      three feet from the ground, over three-fourths of the way through, and had
-      fallen toward the east, the body of the log still resting on the stump.
-      The underbrush was almost impenetrable, but Duncan plunged in and with a
-      crowbar began tapping along the trunk to decide how far it was hollow, so
-      that they would know where to cut. As they waited his decision, there came
-      from the mouth of it&mdash;on wings&mdash;a large black bird that swept
-      over their heads.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles danced wildly. &ldquo;It's me chickens! Oh, it's me chickens!&rdquo; he
-      shouted. &ldquo;Oh, Duncan, come quick! You've found the nest of me precious
-      chickens!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan hurried to the mouth of the log, but Freckles was before him. He
-      crashed through poison-vines and underbrush regardless of any danger, and
-      climbed on the stump. When Duncan came he was shouting like a wild man.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's hatched!&rdquo; he yelled. &ldquo;Oh, me big chicken has hatched out me little
-      chicken, and there's another egg. I can see it plain, and oh, the funny
-      little white baby! Oh, Duncan, can you see me little white chicken?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan could easily see it; so could everyone else. Freckles crept into
-      the log and tenderly carried the hissing, blinking little bird to the
-      light in a leaf-lined hat. The men found it sufficiently wonderful to
-      satisfy even Freckles, who had forgotten he was ever sore or stiff, and
-      coddled over it with every blarneying term of endearment he knew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan gathered his tools. &ldquo;Deal's off, boys!&rdquo; he said cheerfully. &ldquo;This
-      log mauna be touched until Freckles' chaukies have finished with it. We
-      might as weel gang. Better put it back, Freckles. It's just out, and it
-      may chill. Ye will probably hae twa the morn.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles crept into the log and carefully deposited the baby beside the
-      egg. When he came back, he said: &ldquo;I made a big mistake not to be bringing
-      the egg out with the baby, but I was fearing to touch it. It's shaped like
-      a hen's egg, and it's big as a turkey's, and the beautifulest blue&mdash;just
-      splattered with big brown splotches, like me book said, precise. Bet you
-      never saw such a sight as it made on the yellow of the rotten wood beside
-      that funny leathery-faced little white baby.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Tell you what, Freckles,&rdquo; said one of the teamsters. &ldquo;Have you ever heard
-      of this Bird Woman who goes all over the country with a camera and makes
-      pictures? She made some on my brother Jim's place last summer, and Jim's
-      so wild about them he quits plowing and goes after her about every nest he
-      finds. He helps her all he can to take them, and then she gives him a
-      picture. Jim's so proud of what he has he keeps them in the Bible. He
-      shows them to everybody that comes, and brags about how he helped. If
-      you're smart, you'll send for her and she'll come and make a picture just
-      like life. If you help her, she will give you one. It would be uncommon
-      pretty to keep, after your birds are gone. I dunno what they are. I never
-      see their like before. They must be something rare. Any you fellows ever
-      see a bird like that hereabouts?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      No one ever had.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the teamster, &ldquo;failing to get this log lets me off till noon,
-      and I'm going to town. I go right past her place. I've a big notion to
-      stop and tell her. If she drives straight back in the swamp on the west
-      road, and turns east at this big sycamore, she can't miss finding the
-      tree, even if Freckles ain't here to show her. Jim says her work is a
-      credit to the State she lives in, and any man is a measly creature who
-      isn't willing to help her all he can. My old daddy used to say that all
-      there was to religion was doing to the other fellow what you'd want him to
-      do to you, and if I was making a living taking bird pictures, seems to me
-      I'd be mighty glad for a chance to take one like that. So I'll just stop
-      and tell her, and by gummy! maybe she will give me a picture of the little
-      white sucker for my trouble.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles touched his arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will she be rough with it?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Government land! No!&rdquo; said the teamster. &ldquo;She's dead down on anybody that
-      shoots a bird or tears up a nest. Why, she's half killing herself in all
-      kinds of places and weather to teach people to love and protect the birds.
-      She's that plum careful of them that Jim's wife says she has Jim a
-      standin' like a big fool holding an ombrelly over them when they are young
-      and tender until she gets a focus, whatever that is. Jim says there ain't
-      a bird on his place that don't actually seem to like having her around
-      after she has wheedled them a few days, and the pictures she takes nobody
-      would ever believe who didn't stand by and see.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you he sure to tell her to come?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Duncan slept at home that night. He heard Freckles slipping out early the
-      next morning, but he was too sleepy to wonder why, until he came to do his
-      morning chores. When he found that none of his stock was at all thirsty,
-      and saw the water-trough brimming, he knew that the boy was trying to make
-      up to him for the loss of the big trough that he had been so anxious to
-      have.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Bless his fool little hot heart!&rdquo; said Duncan. &ldquo;And him so sore it is
-      tearing him to move for anything. Nae wonder he has us all loving him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was moving briskly, and his heart was so happy that he forgot all
-      about the bruises. He hurried around the trail, and on his way down the
-      east side he went to see the chickens. The mother bird was on the nest. He
-      was afraid the other egg might be hatching, so he did not venture to
-      disturb her. He made the round and reached his study early. He ate his
-      lunch, but did not need to start on the second trip until the middle of
-      the afternoon. He would have long hours to work on his flower bed, improve
-      his study, and learn about his chickens. Lovingly he set his room in order
-      and watered the flowers and carpet. He had chosen for his resting-place
-      the coolest spot on the west side, where there was almost always a breeze;
-      but today the heat was so intense that it penetrated even there.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm mighty glad there's nothing calling me inside!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;There's no
-      bit of air stirring, and it will just be steaming. Oh, but it's luck
-      Duncan found the nest before it got so unbearing hot! I might have missed
-      it altogether. Wouldn't it have been a shame to lose that sight? The
-      cunning little divil! When he gets to toddling down that log to meet me,
-      won't he be a circus? Wonder if he'll be as graceful a performer afoot as
-      his father and mother?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The heat became more insistent. Noon came; Freckles ate his dinner and
-      settled for an hour or two on a bench with a book.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER V
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Perhaps there was a breath of sound&mdash;Freckles never afterward could
-      remember&mdash;but for some reason he lifted his head as the bushes parted
-      and the face of an angel looked between. Saints, nymphs, and fairies had
-      floated down his cathedral aisle for him many times, with forms and voices
-      of exquisite beauty.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Parting the wild roses at the entrance was beauty of which Freckles never
-      had dreamed. Was it real or would it vanish as the other dreams? He
-      dropped his book, and rising to his feet, went a step closer, gazing
-      intently. This was real flesh and blood. It was in every way kin to the
-      Limberlost, for no bird of its branches swung with easier grace than this
-      dainty young thing rocked on the bit of morass on which she stood. A
-      sapling beside her was not straighter or rounder than her slender form.
-      Her soft, waving hair clung around her face from the heat, and curled over
-      her shoulders. It was all of one piece with the gold of the sun that
-      filtered between the branches. Her eyes were the deepest blue of the iris,
-      her lips the reddest red of the foxfire, while her cheeks were exactly of
-      the same satin as the wild rose petals caressing them. She was smiling at
-      Freckles in perfect confidence, and she cried:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, I'm so delighted that I've found you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The wildly leaping heart of Freckles burst from his body and fell in the
-      black swamp-muck at her feet with such a thud that he did not understand
-      how she could avoid hearing. He really felt that if she looked down she
-      would see.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Incredulous, he quavered: &ldquo;An'&mdash;an' was you looking for me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I hoped I might find you,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;You see, I didn't do as I was
-      told, and I'm lost. The Bird Woman said I should wait in the carriage
-      until she came back. She's been gone hours. It's a perfect Turkish bath in
-      there, and I'm all lumpy with mosquito bites. Just when I thought that I
-      couldn't bear it another minute, along came the biggest Papilio Ajax you
-      ever saw. I knew how pleased she'd be, so I ran after it. It flew so slow
-      and so low that I thought a dozen times I had it. Then all at once it went
-      from sight above the trees, and I couldn't find my way back to save me. I
-      think I've walked more than an hour. I have been mired to my knees. A
-      thorn raked my arm until it is bleeding, and I'm so tired and warm.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She parted the bushes farther. Freckles saw that her blue cotton frock
-      clung to her, limp with perspiration. It was torn across the breast. One
-      sleeve hung open from shoulder to elbow. A thorn had torn her arm until it
-      was covered with blood, and the gnats and mosquitoes were clustering
-      around it. Her feet were in lace hose and low shoes. Freckles gasped. In
-      the Limberlost in low shoes! He caught an armful of moss from his carpet
-      and buried it in the ooze in front of her for a footing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come out here so I can see where you are stepping. Quick, for the life of
-      you!&rdquo; he ordered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She smiled on him indulgently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; she inquired.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did anybody let you come here and not be telling you of the snakes?&rdquo;
-       urged Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We met Mr. McLean on the corduroy, and he did say something about snakes,
-      I believe. The Bird Woman put on leather leggings, and a nice, parboiled
-      time she must be having! Worst dose I ever endured, and I'd nothing to do
-      but swelter.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you be coming out of there?&rdquo; groaned Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She laughed as if it were a fine joke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe if I'd be telling you I killed a rattler curled upon that same
-      place you're standing, as long as me body and the thickness of me arm,
-      you'd be moving where I can see your footing,&rdquo; he urged insistently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What a perfectly delightful little brogue you speak,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;My
-      father is Irish, and half should be enough to entitle me to that much.
-      'Maybe&mdash;if I'd&mdash;be telling you,'&rdquo; she imitated, rounding and
-      accenting each word carefully.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was beginning to feel a wildness in his head. He had derided
-      Wessner at that same hour yesterday. Now his own eyes were filling with
-      tears.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you were understanding the danger!&rdquo; he continued desperately.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, I don't think there is much!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She tilted on the morass.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you killed one snake here, it's probably all there is near; and
-      anyway, the Bird Woman says a rattlesnake is a gentleman and always gives
-      warning before he strikes. I don't hear any rattling. Do you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Would you be knowing it if you did?&rdquo; asked Freckles, almost impatiently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How the laugh of the young thing rippled!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Would I be knowing it?'&rdquo; she mocked. &ldquo;You should see the swamps of
-      Michigan where they dump rattlers from the marl-dredgers three and four at
-      a time!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood astounded. She did know. She was not in the least afraid.
-      She was depending on a rattlesnake to live up to his share of the contract
-      and rattle in time for her to move. The one characteristic an Irishman
-      admires in a woman, above all others, is courage. Freckles worshiped anew.
-      He changed his tactics.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'd be pleased to be receiving you at me front door,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;but as
-      you have arrived at the back, will you come in and be seated?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He waved toward a bench. The Angel came instantly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, how lovely and cool!&rdquo; she cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As she moved across his room, Freckles had difficult work to keep from
-      falling on his knees; for they were very weak, while he was hard driven by
-      an impulse to worship.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you arrange this?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles simply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Someone must come with a big canvas and copy each side of it,&rdquo; she said.
-      &ldquo;I never saw anything so beautiful! How I wish I might remain here with
-      you! I will, some day, if you will let me; but now, if you can spare the
-      time, will you help me find the carriage? If the Bird Woman comes back and
-      I am gone, she will be almost distracted.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you come on the west road?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I think so,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The man who told the Bird Woman said that was the
-      only place the wires were down. We drove away in, and it was dreadful&mdash;over
-      stumps and logs, and we mired to the hubs. I suppose you know, though. I
-      should have stayed in the carriage, but I was so tired. I never dreamed of
-      getting lost. I suspect I will be scolded finely. I go with the Bird Woman
-      half the time during the summer vacations. My father says I learn a lot
-      more than I do at school, and get it straight. I never came within a smell
-      of being lost before. I thought, at first, it was going to be horrid; but
-      since I've found you, maybe it will be good fun after all.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was amazed to hear himself excusing: &ldquo;It was so hot in there. You
-      couldn't be expected to bear it for hours and not be moving. I can take
-      you around the trail almost to where you were. Then you can sit in the
-      carriage, and I will go find the Bird Woman.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You'll be killed if you do! When she stays this long, it means that she
-      has a focus on something. You see, when she has a focus, and lies in the
-      weeds and water for hours, and the sun bakes her, and things crawl over
-      her, and then someone comes along and scares her bird away just as she has
-      it coaxed up&mdash;why, she kills them. If I melt, you won't go after her.
-      She's probably blistered and half eaten up; but she never will quit until
-      she is satisfied.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then it will be safer to be taking care of you,&rdquo; suggested Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now you're talking sense!&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;May I try to help your arm?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have you any idea how it hurts?&rdquo; she parried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A little,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, Mr. McLean said We'd probably find his son here&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;His son!&rdquo; cried Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's what he said. And that you would do anything you could for us; and
-      that we could trust you with our lives. But I would have trusted you
-      anyway, if I hadn't known a thing about you. Say, your father is rampaging
-      proud of you, isn't he?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; answered the dazed Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, call on me if you want reliable information. He's so proud of you
-      he is all swelled up like the toad in AEsop's Fables. If you have ever had
-      an arm hurt like this, and can do anything, why, for pity sake, do it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She turned back her sleeve, holding toward Freckles an arm of palest
-      cameo, shaped so exquisitely that no sculptor could have chiseled it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles unlocked his case, and taking out some cotton cloth, he tore it
-      in strips. Then he brought a bucket of the cleanest water he could find.
-      She yielded herself to his touch as a baby, and he bathed away the blood
-      and bandaged the ugly, ragged wound. He finished his surgery by lapping
-      the torn sleeve over the cloth and binding it down with a piece of twine,
-      with the Angel's help about the knots.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles worked with trembling fingers and a face tense with earnestness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is it feeling any better?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, it's well now!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;It doesn't hurt at all, any more.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm mighty glad,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;But you had best go and be having your
-      doctor fix it right; the minute you get home.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, bother! A little scratch like that!&rdquo; jeered the Angel. &ldquo;My blood is
-      perfectly pure. It will heal in three days.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's cut cruel deep. It might be making a scar,&rdquo; faltered Freckles, his
-      eyes on the ground. &ldquo;'Twould&mdash;'twould be an awful pity. A doctor
-      might know something to prevent it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, I never thought of that!&rdquo; exclaimed the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I noticed you didn't,&rdquo; said Freckles softly. &ldquo;I don't know much about it,
-      but it seems as if most girls would.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel thought intently, while Freckles still knelt beside her.
-      Suddenly she gave herself an impatient little shake, lifted her glorious
-      eyes full to his, and the smile that swept her sweet, young face was the
-      loveliest thing that Freckles ever had seen.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't let's bother about it,&rdquo; she proposed, with the faintest hint of a
-      confiding gesture toward him. &ldquo;It won't make a scar. Why, it couldn't,
-      when you have dressed it so nicely.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The velvety touch of her warm arm was tingling in Freckles' fingertips.
-      Dainty lace and fine white ribbon peeped through her torn dress. There
-      were beautiful rings on her fingers. Every article she wore was of the
-      finest material and in excellent taste. There was the trembling Limberlost
-      guard in his coarse clothing, with his cotton rags and his old pail of
-      swamp water. Freckles was sufficiently accustomed to contrasts to notice
-      them, and sufficiently fine to be hurt by them always.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He lifted his eyes with a shadowy pain in them to hers, and found them of
-      serene, unconscious purity. What she had said was straight from a kind,
-      untainted, young heart. She meant every word of it. Freckles' soul
-      sickened. He scarcely knew whether he could muster strength to stand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We must go and hunt for the carriage,&rdquo; said the Angel, rising.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In instant alarm for her, Freckles sprang up, grasped the cudgel, and led
-      the way, sharply watching every step. He went as close the log as he felt
-      that he dared, and with a little searching found the carriage. He cleared
-      a path for the Angel, and with a sigh of relief saw her enter it safely.
-      The heat was intense. She pushed the damp hair from her temples.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This is a shame!&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You'll never be coming here again.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh yes I shall!&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;The Bird Woman says that these birds
-      remain over a month in the nest and she would like to make a picture every
-      few days for seven or eight weeks, perhaps.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles barely escaped crying aloud for joy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then don't you ever be torturing yourself and your horse to be coming in
-      here again,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'll show you a way to drive almost to the nest on
-      the east trail, and then you can come around to my room and stay while the
-      Bird Woman works. It's nearly always cool there, and there's comfortable
-      seats, and water.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh! did you have drinking-water there?&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I was never so
-      thirsty or so hungry in my life, but I thought I wouldn't mention it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And I had not the wit to be seeing!&rdquo; wailed Freckles. &ldquo;I can be getting
-      you a good drink in no time.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He turned to the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Please wait a minute,&rdquo; called the Angel. &ldquo;What's your name? I want to
-      think about you while you are gone.&rdquo; Freckles lifted his face with the
-      brown rift across it and smiled quizzically.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles?&rdquo; she guessed, with a peal of laughter. &ldquo;And mine is&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm knowing yours,&rdquo; interrupted Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't believe you do. What is it?&rdquo; asked the girl.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You won't be getting angry?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Not until I've had the water, at least.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      It was Freckles' turn to laugh. He whipped off his big, floppy straw hat,
-      stood uncovered before her, and said, in the sweetest of all the sweet
-      tones of his voice: &ldquo;There's nothing you could be but the Swamp Angel.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The girl laughed happily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Once out of her sight, Freckles ran every step of the way to the cabin.
-      Mrs. Duncan gave him a small bucket of water, cool from the well. He
-      carried it in the crook of his right arm, and a basket filled with bread
-      and butter, cold meat, apple pie, and pickles, in his left hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Pickles are kind o' cooling,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles ran again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel was on her knees, reaching for the bucket, as he came up.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Be drinking slow,&rdquo; he cautioned her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; she cried, with a long breath of satisfaction. &ldquo;It's so good! You
-      are more than kind to bring it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood blinking in the dazzling glory of her smile until he
-      scarcely could see to lift the basket.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mercy!&rdquo; she exclaimed. &ldquo;I think I had better be naming you the 'Angel.'
-      My Guardian Angel.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I look the character every day&mdash;but today most
-      emphatic!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angels don't go by looks,&rdquo; laughed the girl. &ldquo;Your father told us you had
-      been scrapping. But he told us why. I'd gladly wear all your cuts and
-      bruises if I could do anything that would make my father look as peacocky
-      as yours did. He strutted about proper. I never saw anyone look prouder.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did he say he was proud of me?&rdquo; marveled Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He didn't need to,&rdquo; answered the Angel. &ldquo;He was radiating pride from
-      every pore. Now, have you brought me your dinner?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I had my dinner two hours ago,&rdquo; answered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Honest Injun?&rdquo; bantered the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Honest! I brought that on purpose for you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, if you knew how hungry I am, you would know how thankful I am, to
-      the dot,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then you be eating,&rdquo; cried the happy Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel sat on a big camera, spread the lunch on the carriage seat, and
-      divided it in halves. The daintiest parts she could select she carefully
-      put back into the basket. The remainder she ate. Again Freckles found her
-      of the swamp, for though she was almost ravenous, she managed her food as
-      gracefully as his little yellow fellow, and her every movement was easy
-      and charming. As he watched her with famished eyes, Freckles told her of
-      his birds, flowers, and books, and never realized what he was doing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He led the horse to a deep pool that he knew of, and the tortured creature
-      drank greedily, and lovingly rubbed him with its nose as he wiped down its
-      welted body with grass. Suddenly the Angel cried: &ldquo;There comes the Bird
-      Woman!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles had intended leaving before she came, but now he was glad indeed
-      to be there, for a warmer, more worn, and worse bitten creature he never
-      had seen. She was staggering under a load of cameras and paraphernalia.
-      Freckles ran to her aid. He took all he could carry of her load, stowed it
-      in the back of the carriage, and helped her in. The Angel gave her water,
-      knelt and unfastened the leggings, bathed her face, and offered the lunch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles brought the horse. He was not sure about the harness, but the
-      Angel knew, and soon they left the swamp. Then he showed them how to reach
-      the chicken tree from the outside, indicated a cooler place for the horse,
-      and told them how, the next time they came, the Angel could find his room
-      while she waited.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman finished her lunch, and lay back, almost too tired to
-      speak.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Were you for getting Little Chicken's picture?&rdquo; Freckles asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Finely!&rdquo; she answered. &ldquo;He posed splendidly. But I couldn't do anything
-      with his mother. She will require coaxing.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The Lord be praised!&rdquo; muttered Freckles under his breath.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman began to feel better.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why do you call the baby vulture 'Little Chicken'?&rdquo; she asked, leaning
-      toward Freckles in an interested manner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Twas Duncan began it,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You see, through the fierce cold
-      of winter the birds of the swamp were almost starving. It is mighty lonely
-      here, and they were all the company I was having. I got to carrying scraps
-      and grain down to them. Duncan was that ginerous he was giving me of his
-      wheat and corn from his chickens' feed, and he called the birds me swamp
-      chickens. Then when these big black fellows came, Mr. McLean said they
-      were our nearest kind to some in the old world that they called 'Pharaoh's
-      Chickens,' and he called mine 'Freckles' Chickens.'&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good enough!&rdquo; cried the Bird Woman, her splotched purple face lighting
-      with interest. &ldquo;You must shoot something for them occasionally, and I'll
-      bring more food when I come. If you will help me keep them until I get my
-      series, I'll give you a copy of each study I make, mounted in a book.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles drew a deep breath.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll be doing me very best,&rdquo; he promised, and from the deeps he meant it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wonder if that other egg is going to hatch?&rdquo; mused the Bird Woman. &ldquo;I
-      am afraid not. It should have pipped today. Isn't it a beauty! I never
-      before saw either an egg or the young. They are rare this far north.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;So Mr. McLean said,&rdquo; answered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Before they drove away, the Bird Woman thanked him for his kindness to the
-      Angel and to her. She gave him her hand at parting, and Freckles joyfully
-      realized that this was going to be another person for him to love. He
-      could not remember, after they had driven away, that they even had noticed
-      his missing hand, and for the first time in his life he had forgotten it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the Bird Woman and the Angel were on the home road, she told of the
-      little corner of paradise into which she had strayed and of her new name.
-      The Bird Woman looked at the girl and guessed its appropriateness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you know Mr. McLean had a son?&rdquo; asked the Angel. &ldquo;Isn't the little
-      accent he has, and the way he twists a sentence, too dear? And isn't it
-      too old-fashioned and funny to hear him call his father 'mister'?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It sounds too good to be true,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman, answering the last
-      question first. &ldquo;I am so tired of these present-day young men who
-      patronizingly call their fathers 'Dad,' 'Governor,' 'Old Man' and 'Old
-      Chap,' that the boy's attitude of respect and deference appealed to me as
-      being fine as silk. There must be something rare about that young man.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She did not find it necessary to tell the Angel that for several years she
-      had known the man who so proudly proclaimed himself Freckles' father to be
-      a bachelor and a Scotchman. The Bird Woman had a fine way of attending
-      strictly to her own business.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles turned to the trail, but he stopped at every wild brier to study
-      the pink satin of the petals. She was not of his world, and better than
-      any other he knew it; but she might be his Angel, and he was dreaming of
-      naught but blind, silent worship. He finished the happiest day of his
-      life, and that night he returned to the swamp as if drawn by invisible
-      force. That Wessner would try for his revenge, he knew. That he would be
-      abetted by Black Jack was almost certain, but fear had fled the happy
-      heart of Freckles. He had kept his trust. He had won the respect of the
-      Boss. No one ever could wipe from his heart the flood of holy adoration
-      that had welled with the coming of his Angel. He would do his best, and
-      trust for strength to meet the dark day of reckoning that he knew would
-      come sooner or later. He swung round the trail, briskly tapping the wire,
-      and singing in a voice that scarcely could have been surpassed for
-      sweetness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the edge of the clearing he came into the bright moonlight and there
-      sat McLean on his mare. Freckles hurried to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is there trouble?&rdquo; he inquired anxiously.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's what I wanted to ask you,&rdquo; said the Boss. &ldquo;I stopped at the cabin
-      to see you a minute, before I turned in, and they said you had come down
-      here. You must not do it, Freckles. The swamp is none too healthful at any
-      time, and at night it is rank poison.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood combing his fingers through Nellie's mane, while the dainty
-      creature was twisting her head for his caresses. He pushed back his hat
-      and looked into McLean's face. &ldquo;It's come to the 'sleep with one eye
-      open,' sir. I'm not looking for anything to be happening for a week or
-      two, but it's bound to come, and soon. If I'm to keep me trust as I've
-      promised you and meself, I've to live here mostly until the gang comes.
-      You must be knowing that, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm afraid it's true, Freckles,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;And I've decided to double
-      the guard until we come. It will be only a few weeks, now; and I'm so
-      anxious for you that you must not be left alone further. If anything
-      should happen to you, Freckles, it would spoil one of the very dearest
-      plans of my life.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles heard with dismay the proposition to place a second guard.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh! no, no, Mr. McLean,&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;Not for the world! I wouldn't be
-      having a stranger around, scaring me birds and tramping up me study, and
-      disturbing all me ways, for any money! I am all the guard you need! I will
-      be faithful! I will turn over the lease with no tree missing&mdash;on me
-      life, I will! Oh, don't be sending another man to set them saying I turned
-      coward and asked for help. It will just kill the honor of me heart if you
-      do it. The only thing I want is another gun. If it railly comes to
-      trouble, six cartridges ain't many, and you know I am slow-like about
-      reloading.&rdquo; McLean reached into his hip pocket and handed a shining big
-      revolver to Freckles, who slipped it beside the one already in his belt.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Boss sat brooding.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;we never know the timber of a man's soul
-      until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong.
-      You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture, my boy, and you
-      shall have your own way these few weeks yet. Then, if you will go, I
-      intend to take you to the city and educate you, and you are to be my son,
-      my lad&mdash;my own son!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles twisted his finger in Nellie's mane to steady himself.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But why should you be doing that, sir?&rdquo; he faltered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean slid his arm around the boy's shoulder and gathered him close.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Because I love you, Freckles,&rdquo; he said simply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted a white face. &ldquo;My God, sir!&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;Oh, my God!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean tightened his clasp a second longer, then he rode down the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted his hat and faced the sky. The harvest moon looked down,
-      sheeting the swamp in silver glory. The Limberlost sang her night song.
-      The swale softly rustled in the wind. Winged things of night brushed his
-      face; and still Freckles gazed upward, trying to fathom these things that
-      had come to him. There was no help from the sky. It seemed far away, cold,
-      and blue. The earth, where flowers blossomed, angels walked, and love
-      could be found, was better. But to One, above, he must make acknowledgment
-      for these miracles. His lips moved and he began talking softly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank You for each separate good thing that has come to me,&rdquo; he said,
-      &ldquo;and above all for the falling of the feather. For if it didn't really
-      fall from an angel, its falling brought an Angel, and if it's in the great
-      heart of you to exercise yourself any further about me, oh, do please to
-      be taking good care of her!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER VI
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      The following morning Freckles, inexpressibly happy, circled the
-      Limberlost. He kept snatches of song ringing, as well as the wires. His
-      heart was so full that tears of joy glistened in his eyes. He rigorously
-      strove to divide his thought evenly between McLean and the Angel. He
-      realized to the fullest the debt he already owed the Boss and the
-      magnitude of last night's declaration and promises. He was hourly planning
-      to deliver his trust and then enter with equal zeal on whatever task his
-      beloved Boss saw fit to set him next. He wanted to be ready to meet every
-      device that Wessner and Black Jack could think of to outwit him. He
-      recognized their double leverage, for if they succeeded in felling even
-      one tree McLean became liable for his wager.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' brow wrinkled in his effort to think deeply and strongly, but
-      from every swaying wild rose the Angel beckoned to him. When he crossed
-      Sleepy Snake Creek and the goldfinch, waiting as ever, challenged: &ldquo;SEE
-      ME?&rdquo; Freckles saw the dainty swaying grace of the Angel instead. What is a
-      man to do with an Angel who dismembers herself and scatters over a whole
-      swamp, thrusting a vivid reminder upon him at every turn?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles counted the days. This first one he could do little but test his
-      wires, sing broken snatches, and dream; but before the week would bring
-      her again he could do many things. He would carry all his books to the
-      swamp to show to her. He would complete his flower bed, arrange every
-      detail he had planned for his room, and make of it a bower fairies might
-      envy. He must devise a way to keep water cool. He would ask Mrs. Duncan
-      for a double lunch and an especially nice one the day of her next coming,
-      so that if the Bird Woman happened to be late, the Angel might not suffer
-      from thirst and hunger. He would tell her to bring heavy leather leggings,
-      so that he might take her on a trip around the trail. She should make
-      friends with all of his chickens and see their nests.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the line he talked of her incessantly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You needn't be thinking,&rdquo; he said to the goldfinch, &ldquo;that because I'm
-      coming down this line alone day after day, it's always to be so. Some of
-      these times you'll be swinging on this wire, and you'll see me coming, and
-      you'll swing, skip, and flirt yourself around, and chip up right spunky:
-      'SEE ME?' I'll be saying 'See you? Oh, Lord! See her!' You'll look, and
-      there she'll stand. The sunshine won't look gold any more, or the roses
-      pink, or the sky blue, because she'll be the pinkest, bluest, goldest
-      thing of all. You'll be yelling yourself hoarse with the jealousy of her.
-      The sawbird will stretch his neck out of joint, and she'll turn the heads
-      of all the flowers. Wherever she goes, I can go back afterward and see the
-      things she's seen, walk the path she's walked, hear the grasses whispering
-      over all she's said; and if there's a place too swampy for her bits of
-      feet; Holy Mother! Maybe&mdash;maybe she'd be putting the beautiful arms
-      of her around me neck and letting me carry her over!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles shivered as with a chill. He sent the cudgel whirling skyward,
-      dexterously caught it, and set it spinning.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You damned presumptuous fool!&rdquo; he cried. &ldquo;The thing for you to be
-      thinking of would be to stretch in the muck for the feet of her to be
-      walking over, and then you could hold yourself holy to be even of that
-      service to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe she'll be wanting the cup me blue-and-brown chickens raised their
-      babies in. Perhaps she'd like to stop at the pool and see me bullfrog that
-      had the goodness to take on human speech to show me the way out of me
-      trouble. If there's any feathers falling that day, why, it's from the
-      wings of me chickens&mdash;it's sure to be, for the only Angel outside the
-      gates will be walking this timberline, and every step of the way I'll be
-      holding me breath and praying that she don't unfold wings and sail away
-      before the hungry eyes of me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      So Freckles dreamed his dreams, made his plans, and watched his line. He
-      counted not only the days, but the hours of each day. As he told them off,
-      every one bringing her closer, he grew happier in the prospect of her
-      coming. He managed daily to leave some offering at the big elm log for his
-      black chickens. He slipped under the line at every passing, and went to
-      make sure that nothing was molesting them. Though it was a long trip, he
-      paid them several extra visits a day for fear a snake, hawk, or fox might
-      have found the baby. For now his chickens not only represented all his
-      former interest in them, but they furnished the inducement that was
-      bringing his Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Possibly he could find other subjects that the Bird Woman wanted. The
-      teamster had said that his brother went after her every time he found a
-      nest. He never had counted the nests that he knew of, and it might be that
-      among all the birds of the swamp some would be rare to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The feathered folk of the Limberlost were practically undisturbed save by
-      their natural enemies. It was very probable that among his chickens others
-      as odd as the big black ones could be found. If she wanted pictures of
-      half-grown birds, he could pick up fifty in one morning's trip around the
-      line, for he had fed, handled, and made friends with them ever since their
-      eyes opened.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had gathered bugs and worms all spring as he noticed them on the grass
-      and bushes, and dropped them into the first little open mouth he had
-      found. The babies gladly had accepted this queer tri-parent addition to
-      their natural providers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the week had passed, Freckles had his room crisp and glowing with
-      fresh living things that represented every color of the swamp. He carried
-      bark and filled all the muckiest places of the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was middle July. The heat of the past few days had dried the water
-      around and through the Limberlost, so that it was possible to cross it on
-      foot in almost any direction&mdash;if one had an idea of direction and did
-      not become completely lost in its rank tangle of vegetation and bushes.
-      The brighter-hued flowers were opening. The trumpet-creepers were
-      flaunting their gorgeous horns of red and gold sweetness from the tops of
-      lordly oak and elm, and below entire pools were pink-sheeted in mallow
-      bloom.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The heat was doing one other thing that was bound to make Freckles, as a
-      good Irishman, shiver. As the swale dried, its inhabitants were seeking
-      the cooler depths of the swamp. They liked neither the heat nor leaving
-      the field mice, moles, and young rabbits of their chosen location. He saw
-      them crossing the trail every day as the heat grew intense. The rattlers
-      were sadly forgetting their manners, for they struck on no provocation
-      whatever, and did not even remember to rattle afterward. Daily Freckles
-      was compelled to drive big black snakes and blue racers from the nests of
-      his chickens. Often the terrified squalls of the parent birds would reach
-      him far down the line and he would run to rescue the babies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He saw the Angel when the carriage turned from the corduroy into the
-      clearing. They stopped at the west entrance to the swamp, waiting for him
-      to precede them down the trail, as he had told them it was safest for the
-      horse that he should do. They followed the east line to a point opposite
-      the big chickens' tree, and Freckles carried in the cameras and showed the
-      Bird Woman a path he had cleared to the log. He explained to her the
-      effect the heat was having on the snakes, and creeping back to Little
-      Chicken, brought him to the light. As she worked at setting up her camera,
-      he told her of the birds of the line, while she stared at him, wide-eyed
-      and incredulous.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They arranged that Freckles should drive the carriage into the east
-      entrance in the shade and then take the horse toward the north to a better
-      place he knew. Then he was to entertain the Angel at his study or on the
-      line until the Bird Woman finished her work and came to them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This will take only a little time,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I know where to set the
-      camera now, and Little Chicken is big enough to be good and too small to
-      run away or to act very ugly, so I will be coming soon to see about those
-      nests. I have ten plates along, and I surely won't use more than two on
-      him; so perhaps I can get some nests or young birds this morning.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles almost flew, for his dream had come true so soon. He was walking
-      the timber-line and the Angel was following him. He asked to be excused
-      for going first, because he wanted to be sure the trail was safe for her.
-      She laughed at his fears, telling him that it was the polite thing for him
-      to do, anyway.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;so you was after knowing that? Well, I didn't s'pose
-      you did, and I was afraid you'd think me wanting in respect to be
-      preceding you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The astonished Angel looked at him, caught the irrepressible gleam of
-      Irish fun in his eyes, so they stood and laughed together.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles did not realize how he was talking that morning. He showed her
-      many of the beautiful nests and eggs of the line. She could identify a
-      number of them, but of some she was ignorant, so they made notes of the
-      number and color of the eggs, material, and construction of nest, color,
-      size, and shape of the birds, and went to find them in the book.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At his room, when Freckles had lifted the overhanging bushes and stepped
-      back for her to enter, his heart was all out of time and place. The study
-      was vastly more beautiful than a week previous. The Angel drew a deep
-      breath and stood gazing first at one side, then at another, then far down
-      the cathedral aisle. &ldquo;It's just fairyland!&rdquo; she cried ecstatically. Then
-      she turned and stared at Freckles as she had at his handiwork.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What are you planning to be?&rdquo; she asked wonderingly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Whatever Mr. McLean wants me to,&rdquo; he replied.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What do you do most?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Watch me lines.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't mean work!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, in me spare time I keep me room and study in me books.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you work on the room or the books most?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;On the room only what it takes to keep it up, and the rest of the time on
-      me books.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel studied him closely. &ldquo;Well, maybe you are going to be a great
-      scholar,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but you don't look it. Your face isn't right for
-      that, but it's got something big in it&mdash;something really great. I
-      must find out what it is and then you must work on it. Your father is
-      expecting you to do something. One can tell by the way he talks. You
-      should begin right away. You've wasted too much time already.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Poor Freckles hung his head. He never had wasted an hour in his life.
-      There never had been one that was his to waste.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel, studying him intently, read the thought in his face. &ldquo;Oh, I
-      don't mean that!&rdquo; she cried, with the frank dismay of sixteen. &ldquo;Of course,
-      you're not lazy! No one ever would think that from your appearance. It's
-      this I mean: there is something fine, strong, and full of power in your
-      face. There is something you are to do in this world, and no matter how
-      you work at all these other things, or how successfully you do them, it is
-      all wasted until you find the ONE THING that you can do best. If you
-      hadn't a thing in the world to keep you, and could go anywhere you please
-      and do anything you want, what would you do?&rdquo; persisted the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'd go to Chicago and sing in the First Episcopal choir,&rdquo; answered
-      Freckles promptly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel dropped on a seat&mdash;the hat she had removed and held in her
-      fingers rolled to her feet. &ldquo;There!&rdquo; she exclaimed vehemently. &ldquo;You can
-      see what I'm going to be. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You can sing? Of
-      course you can sing! It is written all over you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Anyone with half wit could have seen he could sing, without having to be
-      told,&rdquo; she thought. &ldquo;It's in the slenderness of his fingers and his quick
-      nervous touch. It is in the brightness of his hair, the fire of his eyes,
-      the breadth of his chest, the muscles of his throat and neck; and above
-      all, it's in every tone of his voice, for even as he speak it's the
-      sweetest sound I ever heard from the throat of a mortal.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you do something for me?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll do anything in the world you want me to,&rdquo; said Freckles largely,
-      &ldquo;and if I can't do what you want, I'll go to work at once and I'll try
-      'til I can.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good! That's business!&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;You go over there and stand
-      before that hedge and sing something. Just anything you think of first.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles faced the Angel from his banked wall of brown, blue, and crimson,
-      with its background of solid green, and lifting his face to the sky, he
-      sang the first thing that came into his mind. It was a children's song
-      that he had led for the little folks at the Home many times, recalled to
-      his mind by the Angel's exclamation:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;To fairyland we go,
-     With a song of joy, heigh-o.
-     In dreams we'll stand upon that shore
-     And all the realm behold;
-     We'll see the sights so grand
-     That belong to fairyland,
-     Its mysteries we will explore,
-     Its beauties will unfold.
-
-     &ldquo;Oh, tra, la, la, oh, ha, ha, ha!
-     We're happy now as we can be,
-     Our welcome song we will prolong,
-     And greet you with our melody.
-     O fairyland, sweet fairyland,
-     We love to sing&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      No song could have given the intense sweetness and rollicking quality of
-      Freckles' voice better scope. He forgot everything but pride in his work.
-      He was singing the chorus, and the Angel was shivering in ecstasy, when
-      clip! clip! came the sharply beating feet of a swiftly ridden horse down
-      the trail from the north. They both sprang toward the entrance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Freckles!&rdquo; called the voice of the Bird Woman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They were at the trail on the instant.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Both those revolvers loaded?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is there a way you can cut across the swamp and reach the chicken tree in
-      a few minutes, and with little noise?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then go flying,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman. &ldquo;Give the Angel a lift behind me,
-      and we will ride the horse back where you left him and wait for you. I
-      finished Little Chicken in no time and put him back. His mother came so
-      close, I felt sure she would enter the log. The light was fine, so I set
-      and focused the camera and covered it with branches, attached the long
-      hose, and went away over a hundred feet and hid in some bushes to wait. A
-      short, stout man and a tall, dark one passed me so closely I almost could
-      have reached out and touched them. They carried a big saw on their
-      shoulders. They said they could work until near noon, and then they must
-      lay off until you passed and then try to load and get out at night. They
-      went on&mdash;not entirely from sight&mdash;and began cutting a tree. Mr.
-      McLean told me the other day what would probably happen here, and if they
-      fell that tree he loses his wager on you. Keep to the east and north and
-      hustle. We'll meet you at the carriage. I always am armed. Give Angel one
-      of your revolvers, and you keep the other. We will separate and creep
-      toward them from different sides and give them a fusillade that will send
-      them flying. You hurry, now!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted the reins and started briskly down the trail. The Angel,
-      hatless and with sparkling eyes, was clinging around her waist.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles wheeled and ran. He worked his way with much care, dodging limbs
-      and bushes with noiseless tread, and cutting as closely where he thought
-      the men were as he felt that he dared if he were to remain unseen. As he
-      ran he tried to think. It was Wessner, burning for his revenge, aided by
-      the bully of the locality, that he was going to meet. He was accustomed to
-      that thought but not to the complication of having two women on his hands
-      who undoubtedly would have to be taken care of in spite of the Bird
-      Woman's offer to help him. His heart was jarring as it never had before
-      with running. He must follow the Bird Woman's plan and meet them at the
-      carriage, but if they really did intend to try to help him, he must not
-      allow it. Allow the Angel to try to handle a revolver in his defence?
-      Never! Not for all the trees in the Limberlost! She might shoot herself.
-      She might forget to watch sharply and run across a snake that was not
-      particularly well behaved that morning. Freckles permitted himself a grim
-      smile as he went speeding on.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When he reached the carriage, the Bird Woman and the Angel had the horse
-      hitched, the outfit packed, and were calmly waiting. The Bird Woman held a
-      revolver in her hand. She wore dark clothing. They had pinned a big
-      focusing cloth over the front of the Angel's light dress.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Give Angel one of your revolvers, quick!&rdquo; said the Bird Woman. &ldquo;We will
-      creep up until we are in fair range. The underbrush is so thick and they
-      are so busy that they will never notice us, if we don't make a noise. You
-      fire first, then I will pop in from my direction, and then you, Angel, and
-      shoot quite high, or else very low. We mustn't really hit them. We'll go
-      close enough to the cowards to make it interesting, and keep it up until
-      we have them going.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles protested.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman reached over, and, taking the smaller revolver from his
-      belt, handed it to the Angel. &ldquo;Keep your nerve steady, dear; watch where
-      you step, and shoot high,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Go straight at them from where you
-      are. Wait until you hear Freckles' first shot, then follow me as closely
-      as you can, to let them know that we outnumber them. If you want to save
-      McLean's wager on you, now you go!&rdquo; she commanded Freckles, who, with an
-      agonized glance at the Angel, ran toward the east.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman chose the middle distance, and for a last time cautioned
-      the Angel as she moved away to lie down and shoot high.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Through the underbrush the Bird Woman crept even more closely than she had
-      intended, found a clear range, and waited for Freckles' shot. There was
-      one long minute of sickening suspense. The men straightened for breath.
-      Work was difficult with a handsaw in the heat of the swamp. As they
-      rested, the big dark fellow took a bottle from his pocket and began oiling
-      the saw.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We got to keep mighty quiet,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and wait to fell it until that
-      damned guard has gone to his dinner.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Again they bent to their work. Freckles' revolver spat fire. Lead spanged
-      on steel. The saw-handle flew from Wessner's hand and he reeled from the
-      jar of the shock. Black Jack straightened, uttering a fearful oath. The
-      hat sailed from his head from the far northeast. The Angel had not waited
-      for the Bird Woman, and her shot scarcely could have been called high. At
-      almost the same instant the third shot whistled from the east. Black Jack
-      sprang into the air with a yell of complete panic, for it ripped a heel
-      from his boot. Freckles emptied his second chamber, and the earth
-      spattered over Wessner. Shots poured in rapidly. Without even reaching for
-      a weapon, both men ran toward the east road in great leaping bounds, while
-      leaden slugs sung and hissed around them in deadly earnest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was trimming his corners as closely as he dared, but if the Angel
-      did not really intend to hit, she was taking risks in a scandalous manner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the men reached the trail, Freckles yelled at the top of his voice:
-      &ldquo;Head them off on the south, boys! Fire from the south!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As he had hoped, Jack and Wessner instantly plunged into the swale. A
-      spattering of lead followed them. They crossed the swale, running low,
-      with not even one backward glance, and entered the woods beyond the
-      corduroy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the little party gathered at the tree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'd better fix this saw so they can't be using it if they come back,&rdquo;
-       said Freckles, taking out his hatchet and making saw-teeth fly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now we must leave here without being seen,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman to the
-      Angel. &ldquo;It won't do for me to make enemies of these men, for I am likely
-      to meet them while at work any day.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You can do it by driving straight north on this road,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I
-      will go ahead and cut the wires for you. The swale is almost dry. You will
-      only be sinking a little. In a few rods you will strike a cornfield. I
-      will take down the fence and let you into that. Follow the furrows and
-      drive straight across it until you come to the other side. Be following
-      the fence south until you come to a road through the woods east of it.
-      Then take that road and follow east until you reach the pike. You will
-      come out on your way back to town, and two miles north of anywhere they
-      are likely to be. Don't for your lives ever let it out that you did this,&rdquo;
-       he earnestly cautioned, &ldquo;for it's black enemies you would be making.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles clipped the wires and they drove through. The Angel leaned from
-      the carriage and held out his revolver. Freckles looked at her in
-      surprise. Her eyes were black, while her face was a deeper rose than
-      usual. He felt that his own was white.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did I shoot high enough?&rdquo; she asked sweetly. &ldquo;I really forgot about lying
-      down.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles winced. Did the child know how close she had gone? Surely she
-      could not! Or was it possible that she had the nerve and skill to fire
-      like that purposely?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will send the first reliable man I meet for McLean,&rdquo; said the Bird
-      Woman, gathering up the lines. &ldquo;If I don't meet one when we reach town, we
-      will send a messenger. If it wasn't for having the gang see me, I would go
-      myself; but I will promise you that you will have help in a little over
-      two hours. You keep well hidden. They must think some of the gang is with
-      you now. There isn't a chance that they will be back, but don't run any
-      risks. Remain under cover. If they should come, it probably would be for
-      their saw.&rdquo; She laughed as at a fine joke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER VII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Round-eyed, Freckles watched the Bird Woman and the Angel drive away.
-      After they were from sight and he was safely hidden among the branches of
-      a small tree, he remembered that he neither had thanked them nor said
-      good-bye. Considering what they had been through, they never would come
-      again. His heart sank until he had palpitation in his wading-boots.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Stretching the length of the limb, he thought deeply, though he was not
-      thinking of Black Jack or Wessner. Would the Bird Woman and the Angel come
-      again? No other woman whom he ever had known would. But did they resemble
-      any other women he ever had known? He thought of the Bird Woman's
-      unruffled face and the Angel's revolver practice, and presently he was not
-      so sure that they would not return.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      What were the people in the big world like? His knowledge was so very
-      limited. There had been people at the Home, who exchanged a stilted,
-      perfunctory kindness for their salaries. The visitors who called on
-      receiving days he had divided into three classes: the psalm-singing kind,
-      who came with a tear in the eye and hypocrisy in every feature of their
-      faces; the kind who dressed in silks and jewels, and handed to those poor
-      little mother-hungry souls worn toys that their children no longer cared
-      for, in exactly the same spirit in which they pitched biscuits to the
-      monkeys at the zoo, and for the same reason&mdash;to see how they would
-      take them and be amused by what they would do; and the third class, whom
-      he considered real people. They made him feel they cared that he was
-      there, and that they would have been glad to see him elsewhere.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Now here was another class, that had all they needed of the world's best
-      and were engaged in doing work that counted. They had things worth while
-      to be proud of; and they had met him as a son and brother. With them he
-      could, for the only time in his life, forget the lost hand that every day
-      tortured him with a new pang. What kind of people were they and where did
-      they belong among the classes he knew? He failed to decide, because he
-      never had known others similar to them; but how he loved them!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In the world where he was going soon, were the majority like them, or were
-      they of the hypocrite and bun-throwing classes?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He had forgotten the excitement of the morning and the passing of time
-      when distant voices aroused him, and he gently lifted his head. Nearer and
-      nearer they came, and as the heavy wagons rumbled down the east trail he
-      could hear them plainly. The gang were shouting themselves hoarse for the
-      Limberlost guard. Freckles did not feel that he deserved it. He would have
-      given much to be able to go to the men and explain, but to McLean only
-      could he tell his story.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the sight of Freckles the men threw up their hats and cheered. McLean
-      shook hands with him warmly, but big Duncan gathered him into his arms and
-      hugged him as a bear and choked over a few words of praise. The gang drove
-      in and finished felling the tree. McLean was angry beyond measure at this
-      attempt on his property, for in their haste to fell the tree the thieves
-      had cut too high and wasted a foot and a half of valuable timber.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the last wagon rolled away, McLean sat on the stump and Freckles told
-      the story he was aching to tell. The Boss scarcely could believe his
-      senses. Also, he was much disappointed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have been almost praying all the way over, Freckles,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;that
-      you would have some evidence by which we could arrest those fellows and
-      get them out of our way, but this will never do. We can't mix up those
-      women in it. They have helped you save me the tree and my wager as well.
-      Going across the country as she does, the Bird Woman never could be
-      expected to testify against them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, indeed; nor the Angel, either, sir,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The Angel?&rdquo; queried the astonished McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss listened in silence while Freckles told of the coming and
-      christening of the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I know her father well,&rdquo; said McLean at last, &ldquo;and I have often seen her.
-      You are right; she is a beautiful young girl, and she appears to be
-      utterly free from the least particle of false pride or foolishness. I do
-      not understand why her father risks such a jewel in this place.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He's daring it because she is a jewel, sir,&rdquo; said Freckles, eagerly.
-      &ldquo;Why, she's trusting a rattlesnake to rattle before it strikes her, and of
-      course, she thinks she can trust mankind as well. The man isn't made who
-      wouldn't lay down the life of him for her. She doesn't need any care. Her
-      face and the pretty ways of her are all the protection she would need in a
-      band of howling savages.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you say she handled one of the revolvers?&rdquo; asked McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;She scared all the breath out of me body,&rdquo; admitted Freckles. &ldquo;Seems that
-      her father has taught her to shoot. The Bird Woman told her distinctly to
-      lie low and blaze away high, just to help scare them. The spunky little
-      thing followed them right out into the west road, spitting lead like hail,
-      and clipping all around the heads and heels of them; and I'm damned, sir,
-      if I believe she'd cared a rap if she'd hit. I never saw much shooting,
-      but if that wasn't the nearest to miss I ever want to see! Scared the life
-      near out of me body with the fear that she'd drop one of them. As long as
-      I'd no one to help me but a couple of women that didn't dare be mixed up
-      in it, all I could do was to let them get away.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, will they come back?&rdquo; asked McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course!&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;They're not going to be taking that. You
-      could stake your life on it, they'll be coming back. At least, Black Jack
-      will. Wessner may not have the pluck, unless he is half drunk. Then he'd
-      be a terror. And the next time&mdash;&rdquo; Freckles hesitated.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It will be a question of who shoots first and straightest.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then the only thing for me to do is to double the guard and bring the
-      gang here the first minute possible. As soon as I feel that we have the
-      rarest of the stuff out below, we will come. The fact is, in many cases,
-      until it is felled it's difficult to tell what a tree will prove to be. It
-      won't do to leave you here longer alone. Jack has been shooting twenty
-      years to your one, and it stands to reason that you are no match for him.
-      Who of the gang would you like best to have with you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No one, sir,&rdquo; said Freckles emphatically. &ldquo;Next time is where I run. I
-      won't try to fight them alone. I'll just be getting wind of them, and then
-      make tracks for you. I'll need to come like lightning, and Duncan has no
-      extra horse, so I'm thinking you'd best get me one&mdash;or perhaps a
-      wheel would be better. I used to do extra work for the Home doctor, and he
-      would let me take his bicycle to ride around the place. And at times the
-      head nurse would loan me his for an hour. A wheel would cost less and be
-      faster than a horse, and would take less care. I believe, if you are going
-      to town soon, you had best pick up any kind of an old one at some
-      second-hand store, for if I'm ever called to use it in a hurry there won't
-      be the handlebars left after crossing the corduroy.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said McLean; &ldquo;and if you didn't have a first-class wheel, you never
-      could cross the corduroy on it at all.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As they walked to the cabin, McLean insisted on another guard, but
-      Freckles was stubbornly set on fighting his battle alone. He made one
-      mental condition. If the Bird Woman was going to give up the Little
-      Chicken series, he would yield to the second guard, solely for the sake of
-      her work and the presence of the Angel in the Limberlost. He did not
-      propose to have a second man unless it were absolutely necessary, for he
-      had been alone so long that he loved the solitude, his chickens, and
-      flowers. The thought of having a stranger to all his ways come and meddle
-      with his arrangements, frighten his pets, pull his flowers, and interrupt
-      him when he wanted to study, so annoyed him that he was blinded to his
-      real need for help.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With McLean it was a case of letting his sober, better judgment be
-      overridden by the boy he was growing so to love that he could not endure
-      to oppose him, and to have Freckles keep his trust and win alone meant
-      more than any money the Boss might lose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The following morning McLean brought the wheel, and Freckles took it to
-      the trail to test it. It was new, chainless, with as little as possible to
-      catch in hurried riding, and in every way the best of its kind. Freckles
-      went skimming around the trail on it on a preliminary trip before he
-      locked it in his case and started his minute examination of his line on
-      foot. He glanced around his room as he left it, and then stood staring.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the moss before his prettiest seat lay the Angel's hat. In the
-      excitement of yesterday all of them had forgotten it. He went and picked
-      it up, oh! so carefully, gazing at it with hungry eyes, but touching it
-      only to carry it to his case, where he hung it on the shining handlebar of
-      the new wheel and locked it among his treasures. Then he went to the
-      trail, with a new expression on his face and a strange throbbing in his
-      heart. He was not in the least afraid of anything that morning. He felt he
-      was the veriest Daniel, but all his lions seemed weak and harmless.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      What Black Jack's next move would be he could not imagine, but that there
-      would be a move of some kind was certain. The big bully was not a man to
-      give up his purpose, or to have the hat swept from his head with a bullet
-      and bear it meekly. Moreover, Wessner would cling to his revenge with a
-      Dutchman's singleness of mind.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles tried to think connectedly, but there were too many places on the
-      trail where the Angel's footprints were vet visible. She had stepped in
-      one mucky spot and left a sharp impression. The afternoon sun had baked it
-      hard, and the horses' hoofs had not obliterated any part of it, as they
-      had in so many places. Freckles stood fascinated, gazing at it. He
-      measured it lovingly with his eye. He would not have ventured a caress on
-      her hat any more than on her person, but this was different. Surely a
-      footprint on a trail might belong to anyone who found and wanted it. He
-      stooped under the wires and entered the swamp. With a little searching, he
-      found a big piece of thick bark loose on a log and carefully peeling it,
-      carried it out and covered the print so that the first rain would not
-      obliterate it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When he reached his room, he tenderly laid the hat upon his bookshelf, and
-      to wear off his awkwardness, mounted his wheel and went spinning on trail
-      again. It was like flying, for the path was worn smooth with his feet and
-      baked hard with the sun almost all the way. When he came to the bark, he
-      veered far to one side and smiled at it in passing. Suddenly he was off
-      the wheel, kneeling beside it. He removed his hat, carefully lifted the
-      bark, and gazed lovingly at the imprint.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wonder what she was going to say of me voice,&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;She never
-      got it said, but from the face of her, I believe she was liking it fairly
-      well. Perhaps she was going to say that singing was the big thing I was to
-      be doing. That's what they all thought at the Home. Well, if it is, I'll
-      just shut me eyes, think of me little room, the face of her watching, and
-      the heart of her beating, and I'll raise them. Damn them, if singing will
-      do it, I'll raise them from the benches!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      With this dire threat, Freckles knelt, as at a wayside spring, and
-      deliberately laid his lips on the footprint. Then he arose, appearing as
-      if he had been drinking at the fountain of gladness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER VIII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the Encounter
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood before her, holding the Angel's hat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I've been thinking this long time that ye or Duncan would see that
-      sunbonnets werena braw enough for a woman of my standing, and ye're a guid
-      laddie to bring me this beautiful hat.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She turned it around, examining the weave of the straw and the foliage
-      trimmings, passing her rough fingers over the satin ties delightedly. As
-      she held it up, admiring it, Freckles' astonished eyes saw a new side of
-      Sarah Duncan. She was jesting, but under the jest the fact loomed strong
-      that, though poor, overworked, and with none but God-given refinement,
-      there was something in her soul crying after that bit of feminine finery,
-      and it made his heart ache for her. He resolved that when he reached the
-      city he would send her a hat, if it took fifty dollars to do it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She lingeringly handed it back to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's unco guid of ye to think of me,&rdquo; she said lightly, &ldquo;but I maun
-      question your taste a wee. D'ye no think ye had best return this and get a
-      woman with half her hair gray a little plainer headdress? Seems like
-      that's far ower gay for me. I'm no' saying that it's no' exactly what I'd
-      like to hae, but I mauna mak mysel' ridiculous. Ye'd best give this to
-      somebody young and pretty, say about sixteen. Where did ye come by it,
-      Freckles? If there's anything been dropping lately, ye hae forgotten to
-      mention it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you see anything heavenly about that hat?&rdquo; queried Freckles, holding
-      it up.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The morning breeze waved the ribbons gracefully, binding one around
-      Freckles' sleeve and the other across his chest, where they caught and
-      clung as if magnetized.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Sarah Duncan. &ldquo;It's verra plain and simple, but it juist makes
-      ye feel that it's all of the finest stuff. It's exactly what I'd call a
-      heavenly hat.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sure,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;for it's belonging to an Angel!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he told her about the hat and asked her what he should do with it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Take it to her, of course!&rdquo; said Sarah Duncan. &ldquo;Like it's the only ane
-      she has and she may need it badly.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles smiled. He had a clear idea about the hat being the only one the
-      Angel had. However, there was a thing he felt he should do and wanted to
-      do, but he was not sure.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You think I might be taking it home?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course ye must,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan. &ldquo;And without another hour's delay.
-      It's been here two days noo, and she may want it, and be too busy or
-      afraid to come.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But how can I take it?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Gang spinning on your wheel. Ye can do it easy in an hour.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But in that hour, what if&mdash;&mdash;?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Nonsense!&rdquo; interrupted Sarah Duncan. &ldquo;Ye've watched that timber-line
-      until ye're grown fast to it, lad. Give me your boots and club and I'll
-      gae walk the south end and watch doon the east and west sides until ye
-      come back.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mrs. Duncan! You never would be doing it,&rdquo; cried Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why not?&rdquo; inquired she.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But you know you're mortal afraid of snakes and a lot of other things in
-      the swamp.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am afraid of snakes,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan, &ldquo;but likely they've gone into
-      the swamp this hot weather. I'll juist stay on the trail and watch, and ye
-      might hurry the least bit. The day's so bright it feels like storm. I can
-      put the bairns on the woodpile to play until I get back. Ye gang awa and
-      take the blessed little angel her beautiful hat.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Are you sure it will be all right?&rdquo; urged Freckles. &ldquo;Do you think if Mr.
-      McLean came he would care?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Na,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan; &ldquo;I dinna. If ye and me agree that a thing ought to
-      be done, and I watch in your place, why, it's bound to be all right with
-      McLean. Let me pin the hat in a paper, and ye jump on your wheel and gang
-      flying. Ought ye put on your Sabbath-day clothes?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles shook his head. He knew what he should do, but there was no use
-      in taking time to try to explain it to Mrs. Duncan while he was so
-      hurried. He exchanged his wading-boots for shoes, gave her his club, and
-      went spinning toward town. He knew very well where the Angel lived. He had
-      seen her home many times, and he passed it again without even raising his
-      eyes from the street, steering straight for her father's place of
-      business.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Carrying the hat, Freckles passed a long line of clerks, and at the door
-      of the private office asked to see the proprietor. When he had waited a
-      moment, a tall, spare, keen-eyed man faced him, and in brisk, nervous
-      tones asked: &ldquo;How can I serve you, sir?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles handed him the package and answered, &ldquo;By delivering to your
-      daughter this hat, which she was after leaving at me place the other day,
-      when she went away in a hurry. And by saying to her and the Bird Woman
-      that I'm more thankful than I'll be having words to express for the brave
-      things they was doing for me. I'm McLean's Limberlost guard, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why don't you take it yourself?&rdquo; questioned the Man of Affairs.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' clear gray eyes met those of the Angel's father squarely, and he
-      asked: &ldquo;If you were in my place, would you take it to her yourself?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, I would not,&rdquo; said that gentleman quickly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then why ask why I did not?&rdquo; came Freckles' lamb-like query.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Bless me!&rdquo; said the Angel's father. He stared at the package, then at the
-      lifted chin of the boy, and then at the package again, and muttered,
-      &ldquo;Excuse me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles bowed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It would be favoring me greatly if you would deliver the hat and the
-      message. Good morning, sir,&rdquo; and he turned away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;One minute,&rdquo; said the Angel's father. &ldquo;Suppose I give you permission to
-      return this hat in person and make your own acknowledgments.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood one moment thinking intently, and then he lifted those eyes
-      of unswerving truth and asked: &ldquo;Why should you, sir? You are kind, indade,
-      to mention it, and it's thanking you I am for your good intintions, but my
-      wanting to go or your being willing to have me ain't proving that your
-      daughter would be wanting me or care to bother with me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's father looked keenly into the face of this extraordinary young
-      man, for he found it to his liking.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's one other thing I meant to say,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Every day I see
-      something, and at times a lot of things, that I think the Bird Woman would
-      be wanting pictures of badly, if she knew. You might be speaking of it to
-      her, and if she'd want me to, I can send her word when I find things she
-      wouldn't likely get elsewhere.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If that's the case,&rdquo; said the Angel's father, &ldquo;and you feel under
-      obligations for her assistance the other day, you can discharge them in
-      that way. She is spending all her time in the fields and woods searching
-      for subjects. If you run across things, perhaps rarer than she may find,
-      about your work, it would save her the time she spends searching for
-      subjects, and she could work in security under your protection. By all
-      means let her know if you find subjects you think she could use, and we
-      will do anything we can for you, if you will give her what help you can
-      and see that she is as safe as possible.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's hungry for human beings I am,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;and it's like Heaven
-      to me to have them come. Of course, I'll be telling or sending her word
-      every time me work can spare me. Anything I can do it would make me
-      uncommon happy, but&rdquo;&mdash;again truth had to be told, because it was
-      Freckles who was speaking&mdash;&ldquo;when it comes to protecting them, I'd
-      risk me life, to be sure, but even that mightn't do any good in some
-      cases. There are many dangers to be reckoned with in the swamp, sir, that
-      call for every person to look sharp. If there wasn't really thieving to
-      guard against, why, McLean wouldn't need be paying out good money for a
-      guard. I'd love them to be coming, and I'll do all I can, but you must be
-      told that there's danger of them running into timber thieves again any
-      day, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel's father, &ldquo;and I suppose there's danger of the earth
-      opening up and swallowing the town any day, but I'm damned if I quit
-      business for fear it will, and the Bird Woman won't, either. Everyone
-      knows her and her work, and there is no danger in the world of anyone in
-      any way molesting her, even if he were stealing a few of McLean's
-      gold-plated trees. She's as safe in the Limberlost as she is at home, so
-      far as timber thieves are concerned. All I am ever uneasy about are the
-      snakes, poison-vines, and insects; and those are risks she must run
-      anywhere. You need not hesitate a minute about that. I shall be glad to
-      tell them what you wish. Thank you very much, and good day, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      There was no way in which Freckles could know it, but by following his
-      best instincts and being what he conceived a gentleman should be, he
-      surprised the Man of Affairs into thinking of him and seeing his face over
-      his books many times that morning; whereas, if he had gone to the Angel as
-      he had longed to do, her father never would have given him a second
-      thought.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the street he drew a deep breath. How had he acquitted himself? He only
-      knew that he had lived up to his best impulse, and that is all anyone can
-      do. He glanced over his wheel to see that it was all right, and just as he
-      stepped to the curb to mount he heard a voice that thrilled him through
-      and through: &ldquo;Freckles! Oh Freckles!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel separated from a group of laughing, sweet-faced girls and came
-      hurrying to him. She was in snowy white&mdash;a quaint little frock, with
-      a marvel of soft lace around her throat and wrists. Through the sheer
-      sleeves of it her beautiful, rounded arms showed distinctly, and it was
-      cut just to the base of her perfect neck. On her head was a pure white
-      creation of fancy braid, with folds on folds of tulle, soft and silken as
-      cobwebs, lining the brim; while a mass of white roses clustered against
-      the gold of her hair, crept around the crown, and fell in a riot to her
-      shoulders at the back. There were gleams of gold with settings of blue on
-      her fingers, and altogether she was the daintiest, sweetest sight he ever
-      had seen. Freckles, standing on the curb, forgot himself in his cotton
-      shirt, corduroys, and his belt to which his wire-cutter and pliers were
-      hanging, and gazed as a man gazes when first he sees the woman he adores
-      with all her charms enhanced by appropriate and beautiful clothing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Freckles,&rdquo; she cried as she came to him. &ldquo;I was wondering about you
-      the other day. Do you know I never saw you in town before. You watch that
-      old line so closely! Why did you come? Is there any trouble? Are you just
-      starting to the Limberlost?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I came to bring your hat,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You forgot it in the rush the
-      other day. I have left it with your father, and a message trying to
-      ixpriss the gratitude of me for how you and the Bird Woman were for
-      helping me out.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel nodded gravely, then Freckles saw that he had done the proper
-      thing in going to her father. His heart bounded until it jarred his body,
-      for she was saying that she scarcely could wait for the time to come for
-      the next picture of the Little Chicken series. &ldquo;I want to hear the
-      remainder of that song, and I hadn't even begun seeing your room yet,&rdquo; she
-      complained. &ldquo;As for singing, if you can sing like that every day, I never
-      can get enough of it. I wonder if I couldn't bring my banjo and some of
-      the songs I like best. I'll play and you sing, and we'll put the birds out
-      of commission.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood on the curb with drooped eyes, for he felt that if he
-      lifted them the tumult of tender adoration in them would show and frighten
-      her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was afraid your ixperience the other day would scare you so that you'd
-      never be coming again,&rdquo; he found himself saying.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel laughed gaily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did I seem scared?&rdquo; she questioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;you did not.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, I just enjoyed that,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Those hateful, stealing old things!
-      I had a big notion to pink one of them, but I thought maybe someway it
-      would be best for you that I shouldn't. They needed it. That didn't scare
-      me; and as for the Bird Woman, she's accustomed to finding snakes, tramps,
-      cross dogs, sheep, cattle, and goodness knows what! You can't frighten her
-      when she's after a picture. Did they come back?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;The gang got there a little after noon and took out
-      the tree, but I must tell you, and you must tell the Bird Woman, that
-      there's no doubt but they will be coming back, and they will have to make
-      it before long now, for it's soon the gang will be there to work on the
-      swamp.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, what a shame!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;They'll clear out roads, cut down
-      the beautiful trees, and tear up everything. They'll drive away the birds
-      and spoil the cathedral. When they have done their worst, then all these
-      mills close here will follow in and take out the cheap timber. Then the
-      landowners will dig a few ditches, build some fires, and in two summers
-      more the Limberlost will be in corn and potatoes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      They looked at each other, and groaned despairingly in unison.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You like it, too,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;I love it. Your room is a little piece right out
-      of the heart of fairyland, and the cathedral is God's work, not yours. You
-      only found it and opened the door after He had it completed. The birds,
-      flowers, and vines are all so lovely. The Bird Woman says it is really a
-      fact that the mallows, foxfire, iris, and lilies are larger and of richer
-      coloring there than in the remainder of the country. She says it's because
-      of the rich loam and muck. I hate seeing the swamp torn up, and to you it
-      will be like losing your best friend; won't it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Something like,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Still, I've the Limberlost in me heart
-      so that all of it will be real to me while I live, no matter what they do
-      to it. I'm glad past telling if you will be coming a few more times, at
-      least until the gang arrives. Past that time I don't allow mesilf to be
-      thinking.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come, have a cool drink before you start back,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I couldn't possibly,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I left Mrs. Duncan on the trail,
-      and she's terribly afraid of a lot of things. If she even sees a big
-      snake, I don't know what she'll do.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It won't take but a minute, and you can ride fast enough to make up for
-      it. Please. I want to think of something fine for you, to make up a little
-      for what you did for me that first day.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles looked in sheer wonderment into the beautiful face of the Angel.
-      Did she truly mean it? Would she walk down that street with him, crippled,
-      homely, in mean clothing, with the tools of his occupation on him, and
-      share with him the treat she was offering? He could not believe it, even
-      of the Angel. Still, in justice to the candor of her pure, sweet face, he
-      would not think that she would make the offer and not mean it. She really
-      did mean just what she said, but when it came to carrying out her offer
-      and he saw the stares of her friends, the sneers of her enemies&mdash;if
-      such as she could have enemies&mdash;and heard the whispered jeers of the
-      curious, then she would see her mistake and be sorry. It would be only a
-      manly thing for him to think this out, and save her from the results of
-      her own blessed bigness of heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I railly must be off,&rdquo; said Freckles earnestly, &ldquo;but I'm thanking you
-      more than you'll ever know for your kindness. I'll just be drinking bowls
-      of icy things all me way home in the thoughts of it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Down came the Angel's foot. Her eyes flashed indignantly. &ldquo;There's no
-      sense in that,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;How do you think you would have felt when you
-      knew I was warm and thirsty and you went and brought me a drink and I
-      wouldn't take it because&mdash;because goodness knows why! You can ride
-      faster to make up for the time. I've just thought out what I want to fix
-      for you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She stepped to his side and deliberately slipped her hand under his arm&mdash;that
-      right arm that ended in an empty sleeve.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are coming,&rdquo; she said firmly. &ldquo;I won't have it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles could not have told how he felt, neither could anyone else. His
-      blood rioted and his head swam, but he kept his wits. He bent over her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Please don't, Angel,&rdquo; he said softly. &ldquo;You don't understand.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      How Freckles came to understand was a problem.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's this,&rdquo; he persisted. &ldquo;If your father met me on the street, in my
-      station and dress, with you on me arm, he'd have every right to be caning
-      me before the people, and not a finger would I lift to stay him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's eyes snapped. &ldquo;If you think my father cares about my doing
-      anything that is right and kind, and that makes me happy to do&mdash;why,
-      then you completely failed in reading my father, and I'll ask him and just
-      show you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She dropped Freckles' arm and turned toward the entrance to the building.
-      &ldquo;Why, look there!&rdquo; she exclaimed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Her father stood in a big window fronting the street, a bundle of papers
-      in his hand, interestedly watching the little scene, with eyes that
-      comprehended quite as thoroughly as if he had heard every word. The Angel
-      caught his glance and made a despairing little gesture toward Freckles.
-      The Man of Affairs answered her with a look of infinite tenderness. He
-      nodded his head and waved the papers in the direction she had indicated,
-      and the veriest dolt could have read the words his lips formed: &ldquo;Take him
-      along!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A sudden trembling seized Freckles. At sight of the Angel's father he had
-      stepped back as far from her as he could, leaned the wheel against him,
-      and snatched off his hat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel turned on him with triumphing eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She was highly strung and not accustomed to being thwarted. &ldquo;Did You see
-      that?&rdquo; she demanded. &ldquo;Now are you satisfied? Will you come, or must I call
-      a policeman to bring you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles went. There was nothing else to do. Guiding his wheel, he walked
-      down the street beside her. On every hand she was kept busy giving and
-      receiving the cheeriest greetings. She walked into the parlors exactly as
-      if she owned them. A clerk came hurrying to meet her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There's a table vacant beside a window where it is cool. I'll save it for
-      you,&rdquo; and he started back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Please not,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I've taken this man unawares, when he's in
-      a rush. I'm afraid if we sit down we'll take too much time and afterward
-      he will blame me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She walked to the fountain, and a long row of people stared with all the
-      varying degrees of insolence and curiosity that Freckles had felt they
-      would. He glanced at the Angel. NOW would she see?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;On my soul!&rdquo; he muttered under his breath. &ldquo;They don't aven touch her!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She laid down her sunshade and gloves. She walked to the end of the
-      counter and turned the full battery of her eyes on the attendant.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Please,&rdquo; she said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The white-aproned individual stepped back and gave delighted assent. The
-      Angel stepped beside him, and selecting a tall, flaring glass, of almost
-      paper thinness, she stooped and rolled it in a tray of cracked ice.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I want to mix a drink for my friend,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;He has a long, hot ride
-      before him, and I don't want him started off with one of those old
-      palate-teasing sweetnesses that you mix just on purpose to drive a man
-      back in ten minutes.&rdquo; There was an appreciative laugh from the line at the
-      counter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I want a clear, cool, sparkling drink that has a tang of acid in it.
-      Where's the cherry phosphate? That, not at all sweet, would be good; don't
-      you think?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The attendant did think. He pointed out the different taps, and the Angel
-      compounded the drink, while Freckles, standing so erect he almost leaned
-      backward, gazed at her and paid no attention to anyone else. When she had
-      the glass brimming, she tilted a little of its contents into a second
-      glass and tasted it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's entirely too sweet for a thirsty man,&rdquo; she said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She poured out half the mixture, and refilling the glass, tasted it a
-      second time. She submitted that result to the attendant. &ldquo;Isn't that about
-      the thing?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He replied enthusiastically. &ldquo;I'd get my wages raised ten a month if I
-      could learn that trick.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel carried the brimming, frosty glass to Freckles. He removed his
-      hat, and lifting the icy liquid even with her eyes and looking straight
-      into them, he said in the mellowest of all the mellow tones of his voice:
-      &ldquo;I'll be drinking it to the Swamp Angel.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As he had said to her that first day, she now cautioned him: &ldquo;Be drinking
-      slowly.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      When the screen-door swung behind them, one of the men at the counter
-      asked of the attendant: &ldquo;Now, what did that mean?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Exactly what you saw,&rdquo; replied he, rather curtly. &ldquo;We're accustomed to it
-      here. Hardly a day passes, this hot weather, but she's picking up some
-      poor, god-forsaken mortal and bringing him in. Then she comes behind the
-      counter herself and fixes up a drink to suit the occasion. She's all sorts
-      of fancies about what's what for all kinds of times and conditions, and
-      you bet she can just hit the spot! Ain't a clerk here can put up a drink
-      to touch her. She's a sort of knack at it. Every once in a while, when the
-      Boss sees her, he calls out to her to mix him a drink.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And does she?&rdquo; asked the man with an interested grin.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I guess! But first she goes back and sees how long it is since he's
-      had a drink. What he drank last. How warm he is. When he ate last. Then
-      she comes here and mixes a glass of fizz with a little touch of acid, and
-      a bit of cherry, lemon, grape, pineapple, or something sour and cooling,
-      and it hits the spot just as no spot was ever hit before. I honestly
-      believe that the INTEREST she takes in it is half the trick, for I watch
-      her closely and I can't come within gunshot of her concoctions. She has a
-      running bill here. Her father settles once a month. She gives nine-tenths
-      of it away. Hardly ever touches it herself, but when she does she makes me
-      mix it. She's just old persimmons. Even the scrub-boy of this
-      establishment would fight for her. It lasts the year round, for in winter
-      it's some poor, frozen cuss that she's warming up on hot coffee or
-      chocolate.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mighty queer specimen she had this time,&rdquo; volunteered another. &ldquo;Irish,
-      hand off, straight as a ramrod, and something worth while in his face.
-      Notice that hat peel off, and the eyes of him? There's a case of 'fight
-      for her!' Wonder who he is?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I think,&rdquo; said a third, &ldquo;that he's McLean's Limberlost guard, and I
-      suspect she's gone to the swamp with the Bird Woman for pictures and knows
-      him that way. I've heard that he is a master hand with the birds, and that
-      would just suit the Bird Woman to a T.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      On the street the Angel walked beside Freckles to the first crossing and
-      there she stopped. &ldquo;Now, will you promise to ride fast enough to make up
-      for the five minutes that took?&rdquo; she asked. &ldquo;I am a little uneasy about
-      Mrs. Duncan.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles turned his wheel into the street. It seemed to him he had poured
-      that delicious icy liquid into every vein in his body instead of his
-      stomach. It even went to his brain.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you insist on fixing that drink because you knew how intoxicating
-      'twould be?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There was subtlety in the compliment and it delighted the Angel. She
-      laughed gleefully.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Next time, maybe you won't take so much coaxing,&rdquo; she teased.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wouldn't this, if I had known your father and been understanding you
-      better. Do you really think the Bird Woman will be coming again?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel jeered. &ldquo;Wild horses couldn't drag her away,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;She
-      will have hard work to wait the week out. I shouldn't be in the least
-      surprised to see her start any hour.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles could not endure the suspense; it had to come.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you?&rdquo; he questioned, but he dared not lift his eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wild horses me, too,&rdquo; she laughed, &ldquo;couldn't keep me away either! I
-      dearly love to come, and the next time I am going to bring my banjo, and
-      I'll play, and you sing for me some of the songs I like best; won't you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles, because it was all he was capable of saying just
-      then.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's beginning to act stormy,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;If you hurry you will just
-      about make it. Now, good-bye.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER IX
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to the
-      Rescue
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was halfway to the Limberlost when he dismounted. He could ride
-      no farther, because he could not see the road. He sat under a tree, and,
-      leaning against it, sobs shook, twisted, and rent him. If they would
-      remind him of his position, speak condescendingly, or notice his hand, he
-      could endure it, but this&mdash;it surely would kill him! His hot, pulsing
-      Irish blood was stirred deeply. What did they mean? Why did they do it?
-      Were they like that to everyone? Was it pity?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It could not be, for he knew that the Bird Woman and the Angel's father
-      must know that he was not really McLean's son, and it did not matter to
-      them in the least. In spite of accident and poverty, they evidently
-      expected him to do something worth while in the world. That must be his
-      remedy. He must work on his education. He must get away. He must find and
-      do the great thing of which the Angel talked. For the first time, his
-      thoughts turned anxiously toward the city and the beginning of his
-      studies. McLean and the Duncans spoke of him as &ldquo;the boy,&rdquo; but he was a
-      man. He must face life bravely and act a man's part. The Angel was a mere
-      child. He must not allow her to torture him past endurance with her frank
-      comradeship that meant to him high heaven, earth's richness, and all that
-      lay between, and NOTHING to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There was an ominous growl of thunder, and amazed at himself, Freckles
-      snatched up his wheel and raced toward the swamp. He was worried to find
-      his boots lying at the cabin door; the children playing on the woodpile
-      told him that &ldquo;mither&rdquo; said they were so heavy she couldn't walk in them,
-      and she had come back and taken them off. Thoroughly frightened, he
-      stopped only long enough to slip them on, and then sped with all his
-      strength for the Limberlost. To the west, the long, black, hard-beaten
-      trail lay clear; but far up the east side, straight across the path, he
-      could see what was certainly a limp, brown figure. Freckles spun with all
-      his might.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Face down, Sarah Duncan lay across the trail. When Freckles turned her
-      over, his blood chilled at the look of horror settled on her face. There
-      was a low humming and something spatted against him. Glancing around,
-      Freckles shivered in terror, for there was a swarm of wild bees settled on
-      a scrub-thorn only a few yards away. The air was filled with excited,
-      unsettled bees making ready to lead farther in search of a suitable
-      location. Then he thought he understood, and with a prayer of thankfulness
-      in his heart that she had escaped, even so narrowly, he caught her up and
-      hurried down the trail until they were well out of danger. He laid her in
-      the shade, and carrying water from the swamp in the crown of his hat, he
-      bathed her face and hands; but she lay in unbroken stillness, without a
-      sign of life.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She had found Freckles' boots so large and heavy that she had gone back
-      and taken them off, although she was mortally afraid to approach the swamp
-      without them. The thought of it made her nervous, and the fact that she
-      never had been there alone added to her fears. She had not followed the
-      trail many rods when her trouble began. She was not Freckles, so not a
-      bird of the line was going to be fooled into thinking she was.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They began jumping from their nests and darting from unexpected places
-      around her head and feet, with quick whirs, that kept her starting and
-      dodging. Before Freckles was halfway to the town, poor Mrs. Duncan was
-      hysterical, and the Limberlost had neither sung nor performed for her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But there was trouble brewing. It was quiet and intensely hot, with that
-      stifling stillness that precedes a summer storm, and feathers and fur were
-      tense and nervous. The birds were singing only a few broken snatches, and
-      flying around, seeking places of shelter. One moment everything seemed
-      devoid of life, the next there was an unexpected whir, buzz, and sharp
-      cry. Inside, a pandemonium of growling, spatting, snarling, and grunting
-      broke loose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The swale bent flat before heavy gusts of wind, and the big black chicken
-      swept lower and lower above the swamp. Patches of clouds gathered,
-      shutting out the sun and making it very dark, and the next moment were
-      swept away. The sun poured with fierce, burning brightness, and everything
-      was quiet. It was at the first growl of thunder that Freckles really had
-      noticed the weather, and putting his own troubles aside resolutely, raced
-      for the swamp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sarah Duncan paused on the line. &ldquo;Weel, I wouldna stay in this place for a
-      million a month,&rdquo; she said aloud, and the sound of her voice brought no
-      comfort, for it was so little like she had thought it that she glanced
-      hastily around to see if it had really been she that spoke. She
-      tremblingly wiped the perspiration from her face with the skirt of her
-      sunbonnet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Awfu' hot,&rdquo; she panted huskily. &ldquo;B'lieve there's going to be a big storm.
-      I do hope Freckles will hurry.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Her chin was quivering as a terrified child's. She lifted her bonnet to
-      replace it and brushed against a bush beside her. WHIRR, almost into her
-      face, went a nighthawk stretched along a limb for its daytime nap. Mrs.
-      Duncan cried out and sprang down the trail, alighting on a frog that was
-      hopping across. The horrible croak it gave as she crushed it sickened her.
-      She screamed wildly and jumped to one side. That carried her into the
-      swale, where the grasses reached almost to her waist, and her horror of
-      snakes returning, she made a flying leap for an old log lying beside the
-      line. She alighted squarely, but it was so damp and rotten that she sank
-      straight through it to her knees. She caught at the wire as she went down,
-      and missing, raked her wrist across a barb until she tore a bleeding gash.
-      Her fingers closed convulsively around the second strand. She was too
-      frightened to scream now. Her tongue stiffened. She clung frantically to
-      the sagging wire, and finally managed to grasp it with the other hand.
-      Then she could reach the top wire, and so she drew herself up and found
-      solid footing. She picked up the club that she had dropped in order to
-      extricate herself. Leaning heavily on it, she managed to return to the
-      trail, but she was trembling so that she scarcely could walk. Going a few
-      steps farther, she came to the stump of the first tree that had been taken
-      out.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She sat bolt upright and very still, trying to collect her thoughts and
-      reason away her terror. A squirrel above her dropped a nut, and as it came
-      rattling down, bouncing from branch to branch, every nerve in her tugged
-      wildly. When the disgusted squirrel barked loudly, she sprang to the
-      trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The wind arose higher, the changes from light to darkness were more
-      abrupt, while the thunder came closer and louder at every peal. In swarms
-      the blackbirds arose from the swale and came flocking to the interior,
-      with a clamoring cry: &ldquo;T'CHECK, T'CHECK.&rdquo; Grackles marshaled to the tribal
-      call: &ldquo;TRALL-A-HEE, TRALL-A-HEE.&rdquo; Red-winged blackbirds swept low, calling
-      to belated mates: &ldquo;FOL-LOW-ME, FOL-LOW-ME.&rdquo; Big, jetty crows gathered
-      close to her, crying, as if warning her to flee before it was
-      everlastingly too late. A heron, fishing the near-by pool for Freckles'
-      &ldquo;find-out&rdquo; frog, fell into trouble with a muskrat and uttered a rasping
-      note that sent Mrs. Duncan a rod down the line without realizing that she
-      had moved. She was too shaken to run far. She stopped and looked around
-      her fearfully.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Several bees struck her and were angrily buzzing before she noticed them.
-      Then the humming swelled on all sides. A convulsive sob shook her, and she
-      ran into the bushes, now into the swale, anywhere to avoid the swarming
-      bees, ducking, dodging, fighting for her very life. Presently the humming
-      seemed to become a little fainter. She found the trail again, and ran with
-      all her might from a few of her angry pursuers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As she ran, straining every muscle, she suddenly became aware that,
-      crossing the trail before her, was a big, round, black body, with brown
-      markings on its back, like painted geometrical patterns. She tried to
-      stop, but the louder buzzing behind warned her she dared not. Gathering
-      her skirts higher, with hair flying around her face and her eyes almost
-      bursting from their sockets, she ran straight toward it. The sound of her
-      feet and the humming of the bees alarmed the rattler, so it stopped across
-      the trail, lifting its head above the grasses of the swale and rattling
-      inquiringly&mdash;rattled until the bees were outdone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Straight toward it went the panic-stricken woman, running wildly and
-      uncontrollably. She took one leap, clearing its body on the path, then
-      flew ahead with winged feet. The snake, coiled to strike, missed Mrs.
-      Duncan and landed among the bees instead. They settled over and around it,
-      and realizing that it had found trouble, it sank among the grasses and
-      went threshing toward its den in the deep willow-fringed low ground. The
-      swale appeared as if a reaper were cutting a wide swath. The mass of
-      enraged bees darted angrily around, searching for it, and striking the
-      scrub-thorn, began a temporary settling there to discover whether it were
-      a suitable place. Completely exhausted, Mrs. Duncan staggered on a few
-      steps farther, fell facing the path, where Freckles found her, and lay
-      quietly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles worked over her until she drew a long, quivering breath and
-      opened her eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When she saw him bending above her, she closed them tightly, and gripping
-      him, struggled to her feet. He helped her, and with his arm around and
-      half carrying her, they made their way to the clearing. She clung to him
-      with all her remaining strength, but open her eyes she would not until her
-      children came clustering around her. Then, brawny, big Scotswoman though
-      she was, she quietly keeled over again. The children added their wailing
-      to Freckles' panic.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      This time he was so close the cabin that he could carry her into the house
-      and lay her on the bed. He sent the oldest boy scudding down the corduroy
-      for the nearest neighbor, and between them they undressed Mrs. Duncan and
-      discovered that she was not bitten. They bathed and bound the bleeding
-      wrist and coaxed her back to consciousness. She lay sobbing and
-      shuddering. The first intelligent word she said was: &ldquo;Freckles, look at
-      that jar on the kitchen table and see if my yeast is no running ower.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Several days passed before she could give Duncan and Freckles any detailed
-      account of what had happened to her, even then she could not do it without
-      crying as the least of her babies. Freckles was almost heartbroken, and
-      nursed her as well as any woman could have done; while big Duncan, with a
-      heart full for them both, worked early and late to chink every crack of
-      the cabin and examine every spot that possibly could harbor a snake. The
-      effects of her morning on the trail kept her shivering half the time. She
-      could not rest until she sent for McLean and begged him to save Freckles
-      from further risk, in that place of horrors. The Boss went to the swamp
-      with his mind fully determined to do so.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stood and laughed at him. &ldquo;Why, Mr. McLean, don't you let a
-      woman's nervous system set you worrying about me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'm not
-      denying how she felt, because I've been through it meself, but that's all
-      over and gone. It's the height of me glory to fight it out with the old
-      swamp, and all that's in it, or will be coming to it, and then to turn it
-      over to you as I promised you and meself I'd do, sir. You couldn't break
-      the heart of me entire quicker than to be taking it from me now, when I'm
-      just on the home-stretch. It won't be over three or four weeks yet, and
-      when I've gone it almost a year, why, what's that to me, sir? You mustn't
-      let a woman get mixed up with business, for I've always heard about how
-      it's bringing trouble.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean smiled. &ldquo;What about that last tree?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles blushed and grinned appreciatively.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angels and Bird Women don't count in the common run, sir,&rdquo; he affirmed
-      shamelessly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean sat in the saddle and laughed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER X
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman and the Angel did not seem to count in the common run, for
-      they arrived on time for the third of the series and found McLean on the
-      line talking to Freckles. The Boss was filled with enthusiasm over a marsh
-      article of the Bird Woman's that he just had read. He begged to be allowed
-      to accompany her into the swamp and watch the method by which she secured
-      an illustration in such a location.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman explained to him that it was an easy matter with the
-      subject she then had in hand; and as Little Chicken was too small to be
-      frightened by him, and big enough to be growing troublesome, she was glad
-      for his company. They went to the chicken log together, leaving to the
-      happy Freckles the care of the Angel, who had brought her banjo and a roll
-      of songs that she wanted to hear him sing. The Bird Woman told them that
-      they might practice in Freckles' room until she finished with Little
-      Chicken, and then she and McLean would come to the concert.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was almost three hours before they finished and came down the west
-      trail for their rest and lunch. McLean walked ahead, keeping sharp watch
-      on the trail and clearing it of fallen limbs from overhanging trees. He
-      sent a big piece of bark flying into the swale, and then stopped short and
-      stared at the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman bent forward. Together they studied that imprint of the
-      Angel's foot. At last their eyes met, the Bird Woman's filled with
-      astonishment, and McLean's humid with pity. Neither said a word, but they
-      knew. McLean entered the swale and hunted up the bark. He replaced it, and
-      the Bird Woman carefully stepped over. As they reached the bushes at the
-      entrance, the voice of the Angel stopped them, for it was commanding and
-      filled with much impatience.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles James Ross McLean!&rdquo; she was saying. &ldquo;You fill me with dark-blue
-      despair! You're singing as if your voice were glass and might break at any
-      minute. Why don't you sing as you did a week ago? Answer me that, please.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles smiled confusedly at the Angel, who sat on one of his fancy
-      seats, playing his accompaniment on her banjo.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are a fraud,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Here you went last week and led me to think
-      that there was the making of a great singer in you, and now you are
-      singing&mdash;do you know how badly you are singing?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles meekly. &ldquo;I'm thinking I'm too happy to be singing
-      well today. The music don't come right only when I'm lonesome and sad. The
-      world's for being all sunshine at prisint, for among you and Mr. McLean
-      and the Bird Woman I'm after being THAT happy that I can't keep me
-      thoughts on me notes. It's more than sorry I am to be disappointing you.
-      Play it over, and I'll be beginning again, and this time I'll hold hard.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Angel disgustedly, &ldquo;it seems to me that if I had all the
-      things to be proud of that you have, I'd lift up my head and sing!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And what is it I've to be proud of, ma'am?&rdquo; politely inquired Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, a whole worldful of things,&rdquo; cried the Angel explosively. &ldquo;For one
-      thing, you can be good and proud over the way you've kept the timber
-      thieves out of this lease, and the trust your father has in you. You can
-      be proud that you've never even once disappointed him or failed in what he
-      believed you could do. You can be proud over the way everyone speaks of
-      you with trust and honor, and about how brave of heart and strong of body
-      you are I heard a big man say a few days ago that the Limberlost was full
-      of disagreeable things&mdash;positive dangers, unhealthful as it could be,
-      and that since the memory of the first settlers it has been a rendezvous
-      for runaways, thieves, and murderers. This swamp is named for a man that
-      was lost here and wandered around 'til he starved. That man I was talking
-      with said he wouldn't take your job for a thousand dollars a month&mdash;in
-      fact, he said he wouldn't have it for any money, and you've never missed a
-      day or lost a tree. Proud! Why, I should think you would just parade
-      around about proper over that!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you can always be proud that you are born an Irishman. My father is
-      Irish, and if you want to see him get up and strut give him a teeny
-      opening to enlarge on his race. He says that if the Irish had decent
-      territory they'd lead the world. He says they've always been handicapped
-      by lack of space and of fertile soil. He says if Ireland had been as big
-      and fertile as Indiana, why, England wouldn't ever have had the upper
-      hand. She'd only be an appendage. Fancy England an appendage! He says
-      Ireland has the finest orators and the keenest statesmen in Europe today,
-      and when England wants to fight, with whom does she fill her trenches?
-      Irishmen, of course! Ireland has the greenest grass and trees, the finest
-      stones and lakes, and they've jaunting-cars. I don't know just exactly
-      what they are, but Ireland has all there are, anyway. They've a lot of
-      great actors, and a few singers, and there never was a sweeter poet than
-      one of theirs. You should hear my father recite 'Dear Harp of My Country.'
-      He does it this way.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel arose, made an elaborate old-time bow, and holding up the banjo,
-      recited in clipping feet and meter, with rhythmic swing and a touch of
-      brogue that was simply irresistible:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear harp of my country&rdquo; [The Angel ardently clasped the banjo],
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In darkness I found thee&rdquo; [She held it to the light],
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long&rdquo; [She muted the strings
-      with her rosy palm];
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then proudly, my own Irish harp, I unbound thee&rdquo; [She threw up her head
-      and swept a ringing harmony];
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song&rdquo; [She crashed into
-      the notes of the accompaniment she had been playing for Freckles].
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's what you want to be thinking of!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Not darkness, and
-      lonesomeness, and sadness, but 'light, freedom, and song.' I can't begin
-      to think offhand of all the big, splendid things an Irishman has to be
-      proud of; but whatever they are, they are all yours, and you are a part of
-      them. I just despise that 'saddest-when-I-sing' business. You can sing!
-      Now you go over there and do it! Ireland has had her statesmen, warriors,
-      actors, and poets; now you be her voice! You stand right out there before
-      the cathedral door, and I'm going to come down the aisle playing that
-      accompaniment, and when I stop in front of you&mdash;you sing!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's face wore an unusual flush. Her eyes were flashing and she was
-      palpitating with earnestness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She parted the bushes and disappeared. Freckles, straight and tense, stood
-      waiting. Presently, before he saw she was there, she was coming down the
-      aisle toward him, playing compellingly, and rifts of light were touching
-      her with golden glory. Freckles stood as if transfixed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The cathedral was majestically beautiful, from arched dome of frescoed
-      gold, green, and blue in never-ending shades and harmonies, to the mosaic
-      aisle she trod, richly inlaid in choicest colors, and gigantic pillars
-      that were God's handiwork fashioned and perfected through ages of sunshine
-      and rain. But the fair young face and divinely molded form of the Angel
-      were His most perfect work of all. Never had she appeared so surpassingly
-      beautiful. She was smiling encouragingly now, and as she came toward him,
-      she struck the chords full and strong.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The heart of poor Freckles almost burst with dull pain and his great love
-      for her. In his desire to fulfill her expectations he forgot everything
-      else, and when she reached his initial chord he was ready. He literally
-      burst forth:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;Three little leaves of Irish green,
-     United on one stem,
-     Love, truth, and valor do they mean,
-     They form a magic gem.&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's eyes widened curiously and her lips parted. A deep color swept
-      into her cheeks. She had intended to arouse him. She had more than
-      succeeded. She was too young to know that in the effort to rouse a man,
-      women frequently kindle fires that they neither can quench nor control.
-      Freckles was looking over her head now and singing that song, as it never
-      had been sung before, for her alone; and instead of her helping him, as
-      she had intended, he was carrying her with him on the waves of his voice,
-      away, away into another world. When he struck into the chorus, wide-eyed
-      and panting, she was swaying toward him and playing with all her might.
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;Oh, do you love?  Oh, say you love
-     You love the shamrock green!&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      At the last note, Freckles' voice ceased and he looked at the Angel. He
-      had given his best and his all. He fell on his knees and folded his arms
-      across his breast. The Angel, as if magnetized, walked straight down the
-      aisle to him, and running her fingers into the crisp masses of his red
-      hair, tilted his head back and laid her lips on his forehead.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then she stepped back and faced him. &ldquo;Good boy!&rdquo; she said, in a voice that
-      wavered from the throbbing of her shaken heart. &ldquo;Dear boy! I knew you
-      could do it! I knew it was in you! Freckles, when you go into the world,
-      if you can face a big audience and sing like that, just once, you will be
-      immortal, and anything you want will be yours.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Anything!&rdquo; gasped Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Anything,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles arose, muttered something, and catching up his old bucket,
-      plunged into the swamp blindly on a pretence of bringing water. The Angel
-      walked slowly across the study, sat on the rustic bench, and, through
-      narrowed lids, intently studied the tip of her shoe.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      On the trail the Bird Woman wheeled to McLean with a dumbfounded look.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;God!&rdquo; muttered he.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At last the Bird Woman spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you think the Angel knew she did that?&rdquo; she asked softly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said McLean; &ldquo;I do not. But the poor boy knew it. Heaven help him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman stared across the gently waving swale. &ldquo;I don't see how I
-      am going to blame her,&rdquo; she said at last. &ldquo;It's so exactly what I would
-      have done myself.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Say the remainder,&rdquo; demanded McLean hoarsely. &ldquo;Do him justice.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He was born a gentleman,&rdquo; conceded the Bird Woman. &ldquo;He took no advantage.
-      He never even offered to touch her. Whatever that kiss meant to him, he
-      recognized that it was the loving impulse of a child under stress of
-      strong emotion. He was fine and manly as any man ever could have been.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean lifted his hat. &ldquo;Thank you,&rdquo; he said simply, and parted the bushes
-      for her to enter Freckles' room.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was her first visit. Before she left she sent for her cameras and made
-      studies of each side of it and of the cathedral. She was entranced with
-      the delicate beauty of the place, while her eyes kept following Freckles
-      as if she could not believe that it could be his conception and work.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That was a happy day. The Bird Woman had brought a lunch, and they spread
-      it, with Freckles' dinner, on the study floor and sat, resting and
-      enjoying themselves. But the Angel put her banjo into its case, silently
-      gathered her music, and no one mentioned the concert.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman left McLean and the Angel to clear away the lunch, and with
-      Freckles examined the walls of his room and told him all she knew about
-      his shrubs and flowers. She analyzed a cardinal-flower and showed him what
-      he had wanted to know all summer&mdash;why the bees buzzed ineffectually
-      around it while the humming-birds found in it an ever-ready feast. Some of
-      his specimens were so rare that she was unfamiliar with them, and with the
-      flower book between them they knelt, studying the different varieties. She
-      wandered the length of the cathedral aisle with him, and it was at her
-      suggestion that he lighted his altar with a row of flaming foxfire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As Freckles came to the cabin from his long day at the swamp he saw Mrs.
-      Chicken sweeping to the south and wondered where she was going. He stepped
-      into the bright, cosy little kitchen, and as he reached down the
-      wash-basin he asked Mrs. Duncan a question.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mother Duncan, do kisses wash off?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      So warm a wave swept her heart that a half-flush mantled her face. She
-      straightened her shoulders and glanced at her hands tenderly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Lord, na! Freckles,&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;At least, the anes ye get from people ye
-      love dinna. They dinna stay on the outside. They strike in until they find
-      the center of your heart and make their stopping-place there, and naething
-      can take them from ye&mdash;I doubt if even death&mdash;&mdash;Na, lad, ye
-      can be reet sure kisses dinna wash off!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles set the basin down and muttered as he plunged his hot, tired face
-      into the water, &ldquo;I needn't be afraid to be washing, then, for that one
-      struck in.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XI
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird Woman
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wish,&rdquo; said Freckles at breakfast one morning, &ldquo;that I had some way to
-      be sending a message to the Bird Woman. I've something at the swamp that
-      I'm believing never happened before, and surely she'll be wanting it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What now, Freckles?&rdquo; asked Mrs. Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, the oddest thing you ever heard of,&rdquo; said Freckles; &ldquo;the whole
-      insect tribe gone on a spree. I'm supposing it's my doings, but it all
-      happened by accident, like. You see, on the swale side of the line, right
-      against me trail, there's one of these scrub wild crabtrees. Where the
-      grass grows thick around it, is the finest place you ever conceived of for
-      snakes. Having women about has set me trying to clean out those fellows a
-      bit, and yesterday I noticed that tree in passing. It struck me that it
-      would be a good idea to be taking it out. First I thought I'd take me
-      hatchet and cut it down, for it ain't thicker than me upper arm. Then I
-      remembered how it was blooming in the spring and filling all the air with
-      sweetness. The coloring of the blossoms is beautiful, and I hated to be
-      killing it. I just cut the grass short all around it. Then I started at
-      the ground, trimmed up the trunk near the height of me shoulder, and left
-      the top spreading. That made it look so truly ornamental that, idle like,
-      I chips off the rough places neat, and this morning, on me soul, it's a
-      sight! You see, cutting off the limbs and trimming up the trunk sets the
-      sap running. In this hot sun it ferments in a few hours. There isn't much
-      room for more things to crowd on that tree than there are, and to get
-      drunker isn't noways possible.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Weel, I be drawed on!&rdquo; exclaimed Mrs. Duncan. &ldquo;What kind of things do ye
-      mean, Freckles?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, just an army of black ants. Some of them are sucking away like old
-      topers. Some of them are setting up on their tails and hind legs, fiddling
-      with their fore-feet and wiping their eyes. Some are rolling around on the
-      ground, contented. There are quantities of big blue-bottle flies over the
-      bark and hanging on the grasses around, too drunk to steer a course
-      flying; so they just buzz away like flying, and all the time sitting
-      still. The snake-feeders are too full to feed anything&mdash;even more sap
-      to themselves. There's a lot of hard-backed bugs&mdash;beetles, I guess&mdash;colored
-      like the brown, blue, and black of a peacock's tail. They hang on until
-      the legs of them are so wake they can't stick a minute longer, and then
-      they break away and fall to the ground. They just lay there on their
-      backs, fably clawing air. When it wears off a bit, up they get, and go
-      crawling back for more, and they so full they bump into each other and
-      roll over. Sometimes they can't climb the tree until they wait to sober up
-      a little. There's a lot of big black-and-gold bumblebees, done for entire,
-      stumbling over the bark and rolling on the ground. They just lay there on
-      their backs, rocking from side to side, singing to themselves like fat,
-      happy babies. The wild bees keep up a steady buzzing with the beating of
-      their wings.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The butterflies are the worst old topers of them all. They're just a
-      circus! You never saw the like of the beauties! They come every color you
-      could be naming, and every shape you could be thinking up. They drink and
-      drink until, if I'm driving them away, they stagger as they fly and turn
-      somersaults in the air. If I lave them alone, they cling to the grasses,
-      shivering happy like; and I'm blest, Mother Duncan, if the best of them
-      could be unlocking the front door with a lead pencil, even.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I never heard of anything sae surprising,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's a rare sight to watch them, and no one ever made a picture of a
-      thing like that before, I'm for thinking,&rdquo; said Freckles earnestly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Na,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan. &ldquo;Ye can be pretty sure there didna. The Bird Woman
-      must have word in some way, if ye walk the line and I walk to town and
-      tell her. If ye think ye can wait until after supper, I am most sure ye
-      can gang yoursel', for Duncan is coming home and he'd be glad to watch for
-      ye. If he does na come, and na ane passes that I can send word with today,
-      I really will gang early in the morning and tell her mysel'.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles took his lunch and went to the swamp. He walked and watched
-      eagerly. He could find no trace of anything, yet he felt a tense
-      nervousness, as if trouble might be brooding. He examined every section of
-      the wire, and kept watchful eyes on the grasses of the swale, in an effort
-      to discover if anyone had passed through them; but he could discover no
-      trace of anything to justify his fears.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He tilted his hat brim to shade his face and looked for his chickens. They
-      were hanging almost beyond sight in the sky.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Gee!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;If I only had your sharp eyes and convenient location
-      now, I wouldn't need be troubling so.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He reached his room and cautiously scanned the entrance before he stepped
-      in. Then he pushed the bushes apart with his right arm and entered, his
-      left hand on the butt of his favorite revolver. Instantly he knew that
-      someone had been there. He stepped to the center of the room, closely
-      scanning each wall and the floor. He could find no trace of a clue to
-      confirm his belief, yet so intimate was he with the spirit of the place
-      that he knew.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How he knew he could not have told, yet he did know that someone had
-      entered his room, sat on his benches, and walked over his floor. He was
-      surest around the case. Nothing was disturbed, yet it seemed to Freckles
-      that he could see where prying fingers had tried the lock. He stepped
-      behind the case, carefully examining the ground all around it, and close
-      beside the tree to which it was nailed he found a deep, fresh footprint in
-      the spongy soil&mdash;a long, narrow print, that was never made by the
-      foot of Wessner. His heart tugged in his breast as he mentally measured
-      the print, but he did not linger, for now the feeling arose that he was
-      being watched. It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of some
-      intruder at his back. He knew he was examining things too closely: if
-      anyone were watching, he did not want him to know that he felt it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He took the most open way, and carried water for his flowers and moss as
-      usual; but he put himself into no position in which he was fully exposed,
-      and his hand was close his revolver constantly. Growing restive at last
-      under the strain, he plunged boldly into the swamp and searched minutely
-      all around his room, but he could not discover the least thing to give him
-      further cause for alarm. He unlocked his case, took out his wheel, and for
-      the remainder of the day he rode and watched as he never had before.
-      Several times he locked the wheel and crossed the swamp on foot,
-      zigzagging to cover all the space possible. Every rod he traveled he used
-      the caution that sprang from knowledge of danger and the direction from
-      which it probably would come. Several times he thought of sending for
-      McLean, but for his life he could not make up his mind to do it with
-      nothing more tangible than one footprint to justify him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He waited until he was sure Duncan would be at home, if he were coming for
-      the night, before he went to supper. The first thing he saw as he crossed
-      the swale was the big bays in the yard.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There had been no one passing that day, and Duncan readily agreed to watch
-      until Freckles rode to town. He told Duncan of the footprint, and urged
-      him to guard closely. Duncan said he might rest easy, and filling his pipe
-      and taking a good revolver, the big man went to the Limberlost.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles made himself clean and neat, and raced to town, but it was night
-      and the stars were shining before he reached the home of the Bird Woman.
-      From afar he could see that the house was ablaze with lights. The lawn and
-      veranda were strung with fancy lanterns and alive with people. He thought
-      his errand important, so to turn back never occurred to Freckles. This was
-      all the time or opportunity he would have. He must see the Bird Woman, and
-      see her at once. He leaned his wheel inside the fence and walked up the
-      broad front entrance. As he neared the steps, he saw that the place was
-      swarming with young people, and the Angel, with an excuse to a group that
-      surrounded her, came hurrying to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Freckles!&rdquo; she cried delightedly. &ldquo;So you could come? We were so
-      afraid you could not! I'm as glad as I can be!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't understand,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Were you expecting me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why of course!&rdquo; exclaimed the Angel. &ldquo;Haven't you come to my party?
-      Didn't you get my invitation? I sent you one.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;By mail?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I had to help with the preparations, and I
-      couldn't find time to drive out; but I wrote you a letter, and told you
-      that the Bird Woman was giving a party for me, and we wanted you to come,
-      surely. I told them at the office to put it with Mr. Duncan's mail.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then that's likely where it is at present,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Duncan comes
-      to town only once a week, and at times not that. He's home tonight for the
-      first in a week. He's watching an hour for me until I come to the Bird
-      Woman with a bit of work I thought she'd be caring to hear about bad. Is
-      she where I can see her?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's face clouded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What a disappointment!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I did so want all my friends to know
-      you. Can't you stay anyway?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles glanced from his wading-boots to the patent leathers of some of
-      the Angel's friends, and smiled whimsically, but there was no danger of
-      his ever misjudging her again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You know I cannot, Angel,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am afraid I do,&rdquo; she said ruefully. &ldquo;It's too bad! But there is a thing
-      I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is to hang on and
-      win with your work. I think of you every day, and I just pray that those
-      thieves are not getting ahead of you. Oh, Freckles, do watch closely!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She was so lovely a picture as she stood before him, ardent in his cause,
-      that Freckles could not take his eyes from her to notice what her friends
-      were thinking. If she did not mind, why should he? Anyway, if they really
-      were the Angel's friends, probably they were better accustomed to her ways
-      than he.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Her face and bared neck and arms were like the wild rose bloom. Her soft
-      frock of white tulle lifted and stirred around her with the gentle evening
-      air. The beautiful golden hair, that crept around her temples and ears as
-      if it loved to cling there, was caught back and bound with broad blue
-      satin ribbon. There was a sash of blue at her waist, and knots of it
-      catching up her draperies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Must I go after the Bird Woman?&rdquo; she pleaded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Indade, you must,&rdquo; answered Freckles firmly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel went away, but returned to say that the Bird Woman was telling a
-      story to those inside and she could not come for a short time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You won't come in?&rdquo; she pleaded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I must not,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I am not dressed to be among your friends,
-      and I might be forgetting meself and stay too long.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;we mustn't go through the house, because it would
-      disturb the story; but I want you to come the outside way to the
-      conservatory and have some of my birthday lunch and some cake to take to
-      Mrs. Duncan and the babies. Won't that be fun?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles thought that it would be more than fun, and followed delightedly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel gave him a big glass, brimming with some icy, sparkling liquid
-      that struck his palate as it never had been touched before, because a
-      combination of frosty fruit juices had not been a frequent beverage with
-      him. The night was warm, and the Angel most beautiful and kind. A triple
-      delirium of spirit, mind, and body seized upon him and developed a
-      boldness all unnatural. He slightly parted the heavy curtains that
-      separated the conservatory from the company and looked between. He almost
-      stopped breathing. He had read of things like that, but he never had seen
-      them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The open space seemed to stretch through half a dozen rooms, all ablaze
-      with lights, perfumed with flowers, and filled with elegantly dressed
-      people. There were glimpses of polished floors, sparkling glass, and fine
-      furnishings. From somewhere, the voice of his beloved Bird Woman arose and
-      fell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel crowded beside him and was watching also.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Doesn't it look pretty?&rdquo; she whispered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you suppose Heaven is any finer than that?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel began to laugh.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you want to be laughing harder than that?&rdquo; queried Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A laugh is always good,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;A little more avoirdupois won't
-      hurt me. Go ahead.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well then,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;it's only that I feel all over as if I
-      belonged there. I could wear fine clothes, and move over those floors, and
-      hold me own against the best of them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But where does my laugh come in?&rdquo; demanded the Angel, as if she had been
-      defrauded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you ask me where the laugh comes in, looking me in the face after
-      that,&rdquo; marveled Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wouldn't be so foolish as to laugh at such a manifest truth as that,&rdquo;
-       said the Angel. &ldquo;Anyone who knows you even half as well as I do, knows
-      that you are never guilty of a discourtesy, and you move with twice the
-      grace of any man here. Why shouldn't you feel as if you belonged where
-      people are graceful and courteous?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;On me soul!&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;you are kind to be thinking it. You are
-      doubly kind to be saying it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The curtains parted and a woman came toward them. Her silks and laces
-      trailed across the polished floors. The lights gleamed on her neck and
-      arms, and flashed from rare jewels. She was smiling brightly; and until
-      she spoke, Freckles had not realized fully that it was his loved Bird
-      Woman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Noticing his bewilderment, she cried: &ldquo;Why, Freckles! Don't you know me in
-      my war clothes?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I do in the uniform in which you fight the Limberlost,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman laughed. Then he told her why he had come, but she scarcely
-      could believe him. She could not say exactly when she would go, but she
-      would make it as soon as possible, for she was most anxious for the study.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      While they talked, the Angel was busy packing a box of sandwiches, cake,
-      fruit, and flowers. She gave him a last frosty glass, thanked him
-      repeatedly for bringing news of new material; then Freckles went into the
-      night. He rode toward the Limberlost with his eyes on the stars. Presently
-      he removed his hat, hung it to his belt, and ruffled his hair to the sweep
-      of the night wind. He filled the air all the way with snatches of
-      oratorios, gospel hymns, and dialect and coon songs, in a startlingly
-      varied programme. The one thing Freckles knew that he could do was to
-      sing. The Duncans heard him coming a mile up the corduroy and could not
-      believe their senses. Freckles unfastened the box from his belt, and gave
-      Mrs. Duncan and the children all the eatables it contained, except one big
-      piece of cake that he carried to the sweet-loving Duncan. He put the
-      flowers back in the box and set it among his books. He did not say
-      anything, but they understood it was not to be touched.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thae's Freckles' flow'rs,&rdquo; said a tiny Scotsman, &ldquo;but,&rdquo; he added
-      cheerfully, &ldquo;it's oor sweeties!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' face slowly flushed as he took Duncan's cake and started toward
-      the swamp. While Duncan ate, Freckles told him something about the
-      evening, as well as he could find words to express himself, and the big
-      man was so amazed he kept forgetting the treat in his hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles mounted his wheel and began a spin that terminated only when
-      the biggest Plymouth Rock in Duncan's coop saluted a new day, and long
-      lines of light reddened the east. As he rode he sang, while he sang he
-      worshiped, but the god he tried to glorify was a dim and faraway mystery.
-      The Angel was warm flesh and blood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Every time he passed the little bark-covered imprint on the trail he
-      dismounted, removed his hat, solemnly knelt and laid his lips on the
-      impression. Because he kept no account himself, only the laughing-faced
-      old man of the moon knew how often it happened; and as from the beginning,
-      to the follies of earth that gentleman has ever been kind.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With the near approach of dawn Freckles tuned his last note. Wearied
-      almost to falling, he turned from the trail into the path leading to the
-      cabin for a few hours' rest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      As Freckles left the trail, from the swale close the south entrance, four
-      large muscular men arose and swiftly and carefully entered the swamp by
-      the wagon road. Two of them carried a big saw, the third, coils of rope
-      and wire, and all of them were heavily armed. They left one man on guard
-      at the entrance. The other three made their way through the darkness as
-      best they could, and were soon at Freckles' room. He had left the swamp on
-      his wheel from the west trail. They counted on his returning on the wheel
-      and circling the east line before he came there.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A little below the west entrance to Freckles' room, Black Jack stepped
-      into the swale, and binding a wire tightly around a scrub oak, carried it
-      below the waving grasses, stretched it taut across the trail, and fastened
-      it to a tree in the swamp. Then he obliterated all signs of his work, and
-      arranged the grass over the wire until it was so completely covered that
-      only minute examination would reveal it. They entered Freckles' room with
-      coarse oaths and jests. In a few moments, his specimen case with its
-      precious contents was rolled into the swamp, while the saw was eating into
-      one of the finest trees of the Limberlost.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The first report from the man on watch was that Duncan had driven to the
-      South camp; the second, that Freckles was coming. The man watching was
-      sent to see on which side the boy turned into the path; as they had
-      expected, he took the east. He was a little tired and his head was rather
-      stupid, for he had not been able to sleep as he had hoped, but he was very
-      happy. Although he watched until his eyes ached, he could see no sign of
-      anyone having entered the swamp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He called a cheery greeting to all his chickens. At Sleepy Snake Creek he
-      almost fell from his wheel with surprise: the saw-bird was surrounded by
-      four lanky youngsters clamoring for breakfast. The father was strutting
-      with all the importance of a drum major.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No use to expect the Bird Woman today,&rdquo; said Freckles; &ldquo;but now wouldn't
-      she be jumping for a chance at that?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As soon as Freckles was far down the east line, the watch was posted below
-      the room on the west to report his coming. It was only a few moments
-      before the signal came. Then the saw stopped, and the rope was brought out
-      and uncoiled close to a sapling. Wessner and Black Jack crowded to the
-      very edge of the swamp a little above the wire, and crouched, waiting.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They heard Freckles before they saw him. He came gliding down the line
-      swiftly, and as he rode he was singing softly:
-    </p>
-<pre xml:space="preserve">
-     &ldquo;Oh, do you love,
-     Oh, say you love&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
- </pre>
-    <p>
-      He got no farther. The sharply driven wheel struck the tense wire and
-      bounded back. Freckles shot over the handlebar and coasted down the trail
-      on his chest. As he struck, Black Jack and Wessner were upon him. Wessner
-      caught off an old felt hat and clapped it over Freckles' mouth, while
-      Black Jack twisted the boy's arms behind him and they rushed him into his
-      room. Almost before he realized that anything had happened, he was trussed
-      to a tree and securely gagged.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then three of the men resumed work on the tree. The other followed the
-      path Freckles had worn to Little Chicken's tree, and presently he reported
-      that the wires were down and two teams with the loading apparatus coming
-      to take out the timber. All the time the saw was slowly eating, eating
-      into the big tree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wessner went to the trail and removed the wire. He picked up Freckles'
-      wheel, that did not seem to be injured, and leaned it against the bushes
-      so that if anyone did pass on the trail he would not see it doubled in the
-      swamp-grass.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he came and stood in front of Freckles and laughed in devilish hate.
-      To his own amazement, Freckles found himself looking fear in the face, and
-      marveled that he was not afraid. Four to one! The tree halfway eaten
-      through, the wagons coming up the inside road&mdash;he, bound and gagged!
-      The men with Black Jack and Wessner had belonged to McLean's gang when
-      last he had heard of them, but who those coming with the wagons might be
-      he could not guess.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      If they secured that tree, McLean lost its value, lost his wager, and lost
-      his faith in him. The words of the Angel hammered in his ears. &ldquo;Oh,
-      Freckles, do watch closely!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The saw worked steadily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the tree was down and loaded, what would they do? Pull out, and leave
-      him there to report them? It was not to be hoped for. The place always had
-      been lawless. It could mean but one thing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A mist swept before his eyes, while his head swam. Was it only last night
-      that he had worshiped the Angel in a delirium of happiness? And now, what?
-      Wessner, released from a turn at the saw, walked to the flower bed, and
-      tearing up a handful of rare ferns by the roots, started toward Freckles.
-      His intention was obvious. Black Jack stopped him, with an oath.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see here, Dutchy,&rdquo; he bawled, &ldquo;mebby you think you'll wash his face
-      with that, but you won't. A contract's a contract. We agreed to take out
-      these trees and leave him for you to dispose of whatever way you please,
-      provided you shut him up eternally on this deal. But I'll not see a tied
-      man tormented by a fellow that he can lick up the ground with, loose, and
-      that's flat. It raises my gorge to think what he'll get when we're gone,
-      but you needn't think you're free to begin before. Don't you lay a hand on
-      him while I'm here! What do you say, boys?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I say yes,&rdquo; growled one of McLean's latest deserters. &ldquo;What's more, we're
-      a pack of fools to risk the dirty work of silencing him. You had him face
-      down and you on his back; why the hell didn't you cover his head and roll
-      him into the bushes until we were gone? When I went into this, I didn't
-      understand that he was to see all of us and that there was murder on the
-      ticket. I'm not up to it. I don't mind lifting trees we came for, but I'm
-      cursed if I want blood on my hands.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, you ain't going to get it,&rdquo; bellowed Jack. &ldquo;You fellows only
-      contracted to help me get out my marked trees. He belong to Wessner, and
-      it ain't in our deal what happens to him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, and if Wessner finishes him safely, we are practically in for murder
-      as well as stealing the trees; and if he don't, all hell's to pay. I think
-      you've made a damnable bungle of this thing; that's what I think!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then keep your thoughts to yourself,&rdquo; cried Jack. &ldquo;We're doing this, and
-      it's all planned safe and sure. As for killing that buck&mdash;come to
-      think of it, killing is what he needs. He's away too good for this world
-      of woe, anyhow. I tell you, it's all safe enough. His dropping out won't
-      be the only secret the old Limberlost has never told. It's too dead easy
-      to make it look like he helped take the timber and then cut. Why, he's
-      played right into our hands. He was here at the swamp all last night, and
-      back again in an hour or so. When we get our plan worked out, even old
-      fool Duncan won't lift a finger to look for his carcass. We couldn't have
-      him going in better shape.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You just bet,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;I owe him all he'll get, and be damned to
-      you, but I'll pay!&rdquo; he snarled at Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So it was killing, then. They were not only after this one tree, but many,
-      and with his body it was their plan to kill his honor. To brand him a
-      thief, with them, before the Angel, the Bird Woman, the dear Boss, and the
-      Duncans&mdash;Freckles, in sick despair, sagged against the ropes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he gathered his forces and thought swiftly. There was no hope of
-      McLean's coming. They had chosen a day when they knew he had a big
-      contract at the South camp. The Boss could not come before tomorrow by any
-      possibility, and there would be no tomorrow for the boy. Duncan was on his
-      way to the South camp, and the Bird Woman had said she would come as soon
-      as she could. After the fatigue of the party, it was useless to expect her
-      and the Angel today, and God save them from coming! The Angel's father had
-      said they would be as safe in the Limberlost as at home. What would he
-      think of this?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The sweat broke on Freckles' forehead. He tugged at the ropes whenever he
-      felt that he dared, but they were passed around the tree and his body
-      several times, and knotted on his chest. He was helpless. There was no
-      hope, no help. And after they had conspired to make him appear a runaway
-      thief to his loved ones, what was it that Wessner would do to him?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Whatever it was, Freckles lifted his head and resolved that he would bear
-      in mind what he had once heard the Bird Woman say. He would go out
-      bonnily. Never would he let them see, if he grew afraid. After all, what
-      did it matter what they did to his body if by some scheme of the devil
-      they could encompass his disgrace?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then hope suddenly rose high in Freckles' breast. They could not do that!
-      The Angel would not believe. Neither would McLean. He would keep up his
-      courage. Kill him they could; dishonor him they could not.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Yet, summon all the fortitude he might, that saw eating into the tree
-      rasped his nerves worse and worse. With whirling brain he gazed into the
-      Limberlost, searching for something, he knew not what, and in blank horror
-      found his eyes focusing on the Angel. She was quite a distance away, but
-      he could see her white lips and angry expression.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Last week he had taken her and the Bird Woman across the swamp over the
-      path he followed in going from his room to the chicken tree. He had told
-      them the night before, that the butterfly tree was on the line close to
-      this path. In figuring on their not coming that day, he failed to reckon
-      with the enthusiasm of the Bird Woman. They must be there for the study,
-      and the Angel had risked crossing the swamp in search of him. Or was there
-      something in his room they needed? The blood surged in his ears as the
-      roar of the Limberlost in the wrath of a storm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He looked again, and it had been a dream. She was not there. Had she been?
-      For his life, Freckles could not tell whether he really had seen the
-      Angel, or whether his strained senses had played him the most cruel trick
-      of all. Or was it not the kindest? Now he could go with the vision of her
-      lovely face fresh with him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank You for that, oh God!&rdquo; whispered Freckles. &ldquo;'Twas more than kind of
-      You and I don't s'pose I ought to be wanting anything else; but if You
-      can, oh, I wish I could know before this ends, if 'twas me mother&rdquo;&mdash;Freckles
-      could not even whisper the words, for he hesitated a second and ended&mdash;&ldquo;IF
-      'TWAS ME MOTHER DID IT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Freckles! Oh, Freckles!&rdquo; the voice of the Angel came calling.
-      Freckles swayed forward and wrenched at the rope until it cut deeply into
-      his body.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hell!&rdquo; cried Black Jack. &ldquo;Who is that? Do you know?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles nodded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack whipped out a revolver and snatched the gag from Freckles' mouth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Say quick, or it's up with you right now, and whoever that is with you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's the girl the Bird Woman takes with her,&rdquo; whispered Freckles through
-      dry, swollen lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They ain't due here for five days yet,&rdquo; said Wessner. &ldquo;We got on to that
-      last week.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;but I found a tree covered with butterflies and
-      things along the east line yesterday that I thought the Bird Woman would
-      want extra, and I went to town to tell her last night. She said she'd come
-      soon, but she didn't say when. They must be here. I take care of the girl
-      while the Bird Woman works. Untie me quick until she is gone. I'll try to
-      send her back, and then you can go on with your dirty work.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He ain't lying,&rdquo; volunteered Wessner. &ldquo;I saw that tree covered with
-      butterflies and him watching around it when we were spying on him
-      yesterday.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, he leaves lying to your sort,&rdquo; snapped Black Jack, as he undid the
-      rope and pitched it across the room. &ldquo;Remember that you're covered every
-      move you make, my buck,&rdquo; he cautioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Freckles!&rdquo; came the Angel's impatient voice, closer and closer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I must be answering,&rdquo; said Freckles, and Jack nodded. &ldquo;Right here!&rdquo; he
-      called, and to the men: &ldquo;You go on with your work, and remember one thing
-      yourselves. The work of the Bird Woman is known all over the world. This
-      girl's father is a rich man, and she is all he has. If you offer hurt of
-      any kind to either of them, this world has no place far enough away or
-      dark enough for you to be hiding in. Hell will be easy to what any man
-      will get if he touches either of them!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, where are you?&rdquo; demanded the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Soulsick with fear for her, Freckles went toward her and parted the bushes
-      that she might enter. She came through without apparently giving him a
-      glance, and the first words she said were: &ldquo;Why have the gang come so
-      soon? I didn't know you expected them for three weeks yet. Or is this some
-      especial tree that Mr. McLean needs to fill an order right now?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles hesitated. Would a man dare lie to save himself? No. But to save
-      the Angel&mdash;surely that was different. He opened his lips, but the
-      Angel was capable of saving herself. She walked among them, exactly as if
-      she had been reared in a lumber camp, and never waited for an answer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, your specimen case!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Look! Haven't you noticed that it's
-      tipped over? Set it straight, quickly!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A couple of the men stepped out and carefully righted the case.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There! That's better,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Freckles, I'm surprised at your being
-      so careless. It would be a shame to break those lovely butterflies for one
-      old tree! Is that a valuable tree? Why didn't you tell us last night you
-      were going to take out a tree this morning? Oh, say, did you put your case
-      there to protect that tree from that stealing old Black Jack and his gang?
-      I bet you did! Well, if that wasn't bright! What kind of a tree is it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's a white oak,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Like those they make dining-tables and sideboards from?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My! How interesting!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I don't know a thing about timber, but
-      my father wants me to learn just everything I can. I am going to ask him
-      to let me come here and watch you until I know enough to boss a gang
-      myself. Do you like to cut trees, gentlemen?&rdquo; she asked with angelic
-      sweetness of the men.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Some of them appeared foolish and some grim, but one managed to say they
-      did.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Angel's eyes turned full on Black Jack, and she gave the most
-      natural little start of astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh! I almost thought that you were a ghost!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;But I see now
-      that you are really and truly. Were you ever in Colorado?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Jack.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I see you aren't the same man,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;You know, we were in
-      Colorado last year, and there was a cowboy who was the handsomest man
-      anywhere around. He'd come riding into town every night, and all we girls
-      just adored him! Oh, but he was a beauty! I thought at first glance you
-      were really he, but I see now he wasn't nearly so tall nor so broad as
-      you, and only half as handsome.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The men began to laugh while Jack flushed crimson. The Angel joined in the
-      laugh.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'll leave it to you! Isn't he handsome?&rdquo; she challenged. &ldquo;As for
-      that cowboy's face, it couldn't be compared with yours. The only trouble
-      with you is that your clothes are spoiling you. It's the dress those
-      cowboys wear that makes half their attraction. If you were properly
-      clothed, you could break the heart of the prettiest girl in the country.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      With one accord the other men looked at Black Jack, and for the first time
-      realized that he was a superb specimen of manhood, for he stood six feet
-      tall, was broad, well-rounded, and had dark, even skin, big black eyes,
-      and full red lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll tell you what!&rdquo; exclaimed the Angel. &ldquo;I'd just love to see you on
-      horseback. Nothing sets a handsome man off so splendidly. Do you ride?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Jack, and his eyes were burning on the Angel as if he would
-      fathom the depths of her soul.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Angel winsomely, &ldquo;I know what I just wish you'd do. I
-      wish you would let your hair grow a little longer. Then wear a blue
-      flannel shirt a little open at the throat, a red tie, and a broad-brimmed
-      felt hat, and ride past my house of evenings. I'm always at home then, and
-      almost always on the veranda, and, oh! but I would like to see you! Will
-      you do that for me?&rdquo; It is impossible to describe the art with which the
-      Angel asked the question. She was looking straight into Jack's face,
-      coarse and hardened with sin and careless living, which was now taking on
-      a wholly different expression. The evil lines of it were softening and
-      fading under her clear gaze. A dull red flamed into his bronze cheeks,
-      while his eyes were growing brightly tender.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he said, and the glance he gave the men was of such a nature that
-      no one saw fit even to change countenance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, goody!&rdquo; she cried, tilting on her toes. &ldquo;I'll ask all the girls to
-      come see, but they needn't stick in! We can get along without them, can't
-      we?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack leaned toward her. He was the charmed fluttering bird, while the
-      Angel was the snake.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I rather guess!&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel drew a deep breath and surveyed him rapturously.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My, but you're tall!&rdquo; she commented. &ldquo;Do you suppose I ever will grow to
-      reach your shoulders?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She stood on tiptoe and measured the distance with her eyes. Then she
-      developed timid confusion, while her glance sought the ground.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wish I could do something,&rdquo; she half whispered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack seemed to increase an inch in height.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What?&rdquo; he asked hoarsely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Lariat Bill used always to have a bunch of red flowers in his shirt
-      pocket. The red lit up his dark eyes and olive cheeks and made him
-      splendid. May I put some red flowers on you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stared as he wheezed for breath. He wished the earth would open
-      and swallow him. Was he dead or alive? Since his Angel had seen Black Jack
-      she never had glanced his way. Was she completely bewitched? Would she
-      throw herself at the man's feet before them all? Couldn't she give him
-      even one thought? Hadn't she seen that he was gagged and bound? Did she
-      truly think that these were McLean's men? Why, she could not! It was only
-      a few days ago that she had been close enough to this man and angry enough
-      with him to peel the hat from his head with a shot! Suddenly a thing she
-      had said jestingly to him one day came back with startling force: &ldquo;You
-      must take Angels on trust.&rdquo; Of course you must! She was his Angel. She
-      must have seen! His life, and what was far more, her own, was in her
-      hands. There was nothing he could do but trust her. Surely she was working
-      out some plan.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel knelt beside his flower bed and recklessly tore up by the roots
-      a big bunch of foxfire.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;These stems are so tough and sticky,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I can't break them. Loan
-      me your knife,&rdquo; she ordered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As she reached for the knife, her back was for one second toward the men.
-      She looked into his eyes and deliberately winked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She severed the stems, tossed the knife to Freckles, and walking to Jack,
-      laid the flowers over his heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles broke into a sweat of agony. He had said she would be safe in a
-      herd of howling savages. Would she? If Black Jack even made a motion
-      toward touching her, Freckles knew that from somewhere he would muster the
-      strength to kill him. He mentally measured the distance to where his club
-      lay and set his muscles for a spring. But no&mdash;by the splendor of God!
-      The big fellow was baring his head with a hand that was unsteady. The
-      Angel pulled one of the long silver pins from her hat and fastened her
-      flowers securely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was quaking. What was to come next? What was she planning, and
-      oh! did she understand the danger of her presence among those men; the
-      real necessity for action?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As the Angel stepped from Jack, she turned her head to one side and peered
-      at him, quite as Freckles had seen the little yellow fellow do on the line
-      a hundred times, and said: &ldquo;Well, that does the trick! Isn't that fine?
-      See how it sets him off, boys? Don't you forget the tie is to be red, and
-      the first ride soon. I can't wait very long. Now I must go. The Bird Woman
-      will be ready to start, and she will come here hunting me next, for she is
-      busy today. What did I come here for anyway?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She glanced inquiringly around, and several of the men laughed. Oh, the
-      delight of it! She had forgotten her errand for him! Jack had a second
-      increase in height. The Angel glanced helplessly as if seeking a clue.
-      Then her eyes fell, as if by accident, on Freckles, and she cried, &ldquo;Oh, I
-      know now! It was those magazines the Bird Woman promised you. I came to
-      tell you that we put them under the box where we hide things, at the
-      entrance to the swamp as we came in. I knew I would need my hands crossing
-      the swamp, so I hid them there. You'll find them at the same old place.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's mighty risky for you to be crossing the swamp alone,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'm
-      surprised that the Bird Woman would be letting you try it. I know it's a
-      little farther, but it's begging you I am to be going back by the trail.
-      That's bad enough, but it's far safer than the swamp.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel laughed merrily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh stop your nonsense!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I'm not afraid! Not in the least! The
-      Bird Woman didn't want me to try following a path that I'd been over only
-      once, but I was sure I could do it, and I'm rather proud of the
-      performance. Now, don't go babying! You know I'm not afraid!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No,&rdquo; said Freckles gently, &ldquo;I know you're not; but that has nothing to do
-      with the fact that your friends are afraid for you. On the trail you can
-      see your way a bit ahead, and you've all the world a better chance if you
-      meet a snake.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles had an inspiration. He turned to Jack imploringly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You tell her!&rdquo; he pleaded. &ldquo;Tell her to go by the trail. She will for
-      you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The implication of this statement was so gratifying to Black Jack that he
-      seemed again to expand and take on increase before their very eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You bet!&rdquo; exclaimed Jack. And to the Angel: &ldquo;You better take Freckles'
-      word for it, miss. He knows the old swamp better than any of us, except
-      me, and if he says 'go by the trail,' you'd best do it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel hesitated. She wanted to recross the swamp and try to reach the
-      horse. She knew Freckles would brave any danger to save her crossing the
-      swamp alone, but she really was not afraid, while the trail added over a
-      mile to the walk. She knew the path. She intended to run for dear life the
-      instant she felt herself from their sight, and tucked in the folds of her
-      blouse was a fine little 32-caliber revolver that her father had presented
-      her for her share in what he was pleased to call her military exploit. One
-      last glance at Freckles showed her the agony in his eyes, and immediately
-      she imagined he had some other reason. She would follow the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; she said, giving Jack a thrilling glance. &ldquo;If you say so,
-      I'll return by the trail to please you. Good-bye, everybody.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted the bushes and started toward the entrance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You damned fool! Stop her!&rdquo; growled Wessner. &ldquo;Keep her till we're loaded,
-      anyhow. You're playing hell! Can't you see that when this thing is found
-      out, there she'll be to ruin all of us. If you let her go, every man of us
-      has got to cut, and some of us will be caught sure.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack sprang forward. Freckles' heart muffled in his throat. The Angel
-      seemed to divine Jack's coming. She was humming a little song. She
-      deliberately stopped and began pulling the heads of the curious grasses
-      that grew all around her. When she straightened, she took a step backward
-      and called: &ldquo;Ho! Freckles, the Bird Woman wants that natural history
-      pamphlet returned. It belongs to a set she is going to have bound. That's
-      one of the reasons we put it under the box. You be sure to get them as you
-      go home tonight, for fear it rains or becomes damp with the heavy dews.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said Freckles, but it was in a voice that he never had heard
-      before.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Angel turned and sent a parting glance at Jack. She was
-      overpoweringly human and bewitchingly lovely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You won't forget that ride and the red tie,&rdquo; she half asserted, half
-      questioned.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack succumbed. Freckles was his captive, but he was the Angel's, soul and
-      body. His face wore the holiest look it ever had known as he softly
-      re-echoed Freckles' &ldquo;All right.&rdquo; With her head held well up, the Angel
-      walked slowly away, and Jack turned to the men.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Drop your damned staring and saw wood,&rdquo; he shouted. &ldquo;Don't you know
-      anything at all about how to treat a lady?&rdquo; It might have been a question
-      which of the cronies that crouched over green wood fires in the cabins of
-      Wildcat Hollow, eternally sucking a corncob pipe and stirring the endless
-      kettles of stewing coon and opossum, had taught him to do even as well as
-      he had by the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The men muttered and threatened among themselves, but they began working
-      desperately. Someone suggested that a man be sent to follow the Angel and
-      to watch her and the Bird Woman leave the swamp. Freckles' heart sank
-      within him, but Jack was in a delirium and past all caution.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; he sneered. &ldquo;Mebby all of you had better give over on the saw and
-      run after the girl. I guess not! Seems to me I got the favors. I didn't
-      see no bouquets on the rest of you! If anybody follows her, I do, and I'm
-      needed here among such a pack of idiots. There's no danger in that baby
-      face. She wouldn't give me away! You double and work like forty, while me
-      and Wessner will take the axes and begin to cut in on the other side.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What about the noise?&rdquo; asked Wessner.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No difference about the noise,&rdquo; answered Jack. &ldquo;She took us to be from
-      McLean's gang, slick as grease. Make the chips fly!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      So all of them attacked the big tree.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles sat on one of his benches and waited. In their haste to fell the
-      tree and load it, so that the teamsters could start, and leave them free
-      to attack another, they had forgotten to rebind him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel was on the trail and safely started. The cold perspiration made
-      Freckles' temples clammy and ran in little streams down his chest. It
-      would take her more time to follow the trail, but her safety was Freckles'
-      sole thought in urging her to go that way. He tried to figure on how long
-      it would require to walk to the carriage. He wondered if the Bird Woman
-      had unhitched. He followed the Angel every step of the way. He figured on
-      when she would cross the path of the clearing, pass the deep pool where
-      his &ldquo;find-out&rdquo; frog lived, cross Sleepy Snake Creek, and reach the
-      carriage.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He wondered what she would say to the Bird Woman, and how long it would
-      take them to pack and start. He knew now that they would understand, and
-      the Angel would try to get the Boss there in time to save his wager. She
-      could never do it, for the saw was over half through, and Jack and Wessner
-      cutting into the opposite side of the tree. It appeared as if they could
-      fell at least that tree, before McLean could come, and if they did he lost
-      his wager.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When it was down, would they rebind him and leave him for Wessner to wreak
-      his insane vengeance on, or would they take him along to the next tree and
-      dispose of him when they had stolen all the timber they could? Jack had
-      said that he should not be touched until he left. Surely he would not run
-      all that risk for one tree, when he had many others of far greater value
-      marked. Freckles felt that he had some hope to cling to now, but he found
-      himself praying that the Angel would hurry.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Once Jack came to Freckles and asked if he had any water. Freckles arose
-      and showed him where he kept his drinking-water. Jack drank in great
-      gulps, and as he passed back the bucket, he said: &ldquo;When a man's got a
-      chance of catching a fine girl like that, he ought not be mixed up in any
-      dirty business. I wish to God I was out of this!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles answered heartily: &ldquo;I wish I was, too!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Jack stared at him a minute and then broke into a roar of rough laughter.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Blest if I blame you,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But you had your chance! We offered you
-      a fair thing and you gave Wessner his answer. I ain't envying you when he
-      gives you his.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You're six to one,&rdquo; answered Freckles. &ldquo;It will be easy enough for you to
-      be killing the body of me, but, curse you all, you can't blacken me soul!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'd give anything you could name if I had your honesty,&rdquo; said Jack.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the mighty tree fell, the Limberlost shivered and screamed with the
-      echo. Freckles groaned in despair, but the gang took heart. That was so
-      much accomplished. They knew where to dispose of it safely, with no
-      questions asked. Before the day was over, they could remove three others,
-      all suitable for veneer and worth far more than this. Then they would
-      leave Freckles to Wessner and scatter for safety, with more money than
-      they had ever hoped for in their possession.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XIII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack Falls
-      upon Her
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      On the line, the Angel gave one backward glance at Black Jack, to see that
-      he had returned to his work. Then she gathered her skirts above her knees
-      and leaped forward on the run. In the first three yards she passed
-      Freckles' wheel. Instantly she imagined that was why he had insisted on
-      her coming by the trail. She seized it and sprang on. The saddle was too
-      high, but she was an expert rider and could catch the pedals as they came
-      up. She stopped at Duncan's cabin long enough to remedy this, telling Mrs.
-      Duncan while working what was happening, and for her to follow the east
-      trail until she found the Bird Woman, and told her that she had gone after
-      McLean and for her to leave the swamp as quickly as possible.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Even with her fear for Freckles to spur her, Sarah Duncan blanched and
-      began shivering at the idea of facing the Limberlost. The Angel looked her
-      in the eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No matter how afraid you are, you have to go,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;If you don't
-      the Bird Woman will go to Freckles' room, hunting me, and they will have
-      trouble with her. If she isn't told to leave at once, they may follow me,
-      and, finding I'm gone, do some terrible thing to Freckles. I can't go&mdash;that's
-      flat&mdash;for if they caught me, then there'd be no one to go for help.
-      You don't suppose they are going to take out the trees they're after and
-      then leave Freckles to run and tell? They are going to murder the boy;
-      that's what they are going to do. You run, and run for life! For Freckles'
-      life! You can ride back with the Bird Woman.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel saw Mrs. Duncan started; then began her race.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Those awful miles of corduroy! Would they never end? She did not dare use
-      the wheel too roughly, for if it broke she never could arrive on time
-      afoot. Where her way was impassable for the wheel, she jumped off, and
-      pushing it beside her or carrying it, she ran as fast as she could. The
-      day was fearfully warm. The sun poured with the fierce baking heat of
-      August. The bushes claimed her hat, and she did not stop for it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Where it was at all possible, the Angel mounted and pounded over the
-      corduroy again. She was panting for breath and almost worn out when she
-      reached the level pike. She had no idea how long she had been&mdash;and
-      only two miles covered. She leaned over the bars, almost standing on the
-      pedals, racing with all the strength in her body. The blood surged in her
-      ears while her head swam, but she kept a straight course, and rode and
-      rode. It seemed to her that she was standing still, while the trees and
-      houses were racing past her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Once a farmer's big dog rushed angrily into the road and she swerved until
-      she almost fell, but she regained her balance, and setting her muscles,
-      pedaled as fast as she could. At last she lifted her head. Surely it could
-      not be over a mile more. She had covered two of corduroy and at least
-      three of gravel, and it was only six in all.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She was reeling in the saddle, but she gripped the bars with new energy,
-      and raced desperately. The sun beat on her bare head and hands. Just when
-      she was choking with dust, and almost prostrate with heat and exhaustion&mdash;crash,
-      she ran into a broken bottle. Snap! went the tire; the wheel swerved and
-      pitched over. The Angel rolled into the thick yellow dust of the road and
-      lay quietly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From afar, Duncan began to notice a strange, dust-covered object in the
-      road, as he headed toward town with the first load of the day's felling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He chirruped to the bays and hurried them all he could. As he neared the
-      Angel, he saw it was a woman and a broken wheel. He was beside her in an
-      instant. He carried her to a shaded fence-corner, stretched her on the
-      grass, and wiped the dust from the lovely face all dirt-streaked, crimson,
-      and bearing a startling whiteness around the mouth and nose.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Wheels were common enough. Many of the farmers' daughters owned and rode
-      them, but he knew these same farmers' daughters; this face was a
-      stranger's. He glanced at the Angel's tumbled clothing, the silkiness of
-      her hair, with its pale satin ribbon, and noticed that she had lost her
-      hat. Her lips tightened in an ominous quiver. He left her and picked up
-      the wheel: as he had surmised, he knew it. This, then, was Freckles' Swamp
-      Angel. There was trouble in the Limberlost, and she had broken down racing
-      to McLean. Duncan turned the bays into a fence-corner, tied one of them,
-      unharnessed the other, fastened up the trace chains, and hurried to the
-      nearest farmhouse to send help to the Angel. He found a woman, who took a
-      bottle of camphor, a jug of water, and some towels, and started on the
-      run.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Duncan put the bay to speed and raced to camp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel, left alone, lay still for a second, then she shivered and
-      opened her eyes. She saw that she was on the grass and the broken wheel
-      beside her. Instantly she realized that someone had carried her there and
-      gone after help. She sat up and looked around. She noticed the load of
-      logs and the one horse. Someone was riding after help for her!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, poor Freckles!&rdquo; she wailed. &ldquo;They may be killing him by now. Oh, how
-      much time have I wasted?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She hurried to the other bay, her fingers flying as she set him free.
-      Snatching up a big blacksnake whip that lay on the ground, she caught the
-      hames, stretched along the horse's neck, and, for the first time, the
-      fine, big fellow felt on his back the quality of the lash that Duncan was
-      accustomed to crack over him. He was frightened, and ran at top speed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel passed a wildly waving, screaming woman on the road, and a
-      little later a man riding as if he, too, were in great haste. The man
-      called to her, but she only lay lower and used the whip. Soon the feet of
-      the man's horse sounded farther and farther away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At the South camp they were loading a second wagon, when the Angel
-      appeared riding one of Duncan's bays, lathered and dripping, and cried:
-      &ldquo;Everybody go to Freckles! There are thieves stealing trees, and they had
-      him bound. They're going to kill him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She wheeled the horse toward the Limberlost. The alarm sounded through
-      camp. The gang were not unprepared. McLean sprang to Nellie's back and
-      raced after the Angel. As they passed Duncan, he wheeled and followed.
-      Soon the pike was an irregular procession of barebacked riders, wildly
-      driving flying horses toward the swamp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss rode neck-and-neck with the Angel. He repeatedly commanded her to
-      stop and fall out of line, until he remembered that he would need her to
-      lead him to Freckles. Then he gave up and rode beside her, for she was
-      sending the bay at as sharp a pace as the other horses could keep and hold
-      out. He could see that she was not hearing him. He glanced back and saw
-      that Duncan was close. There was something terrifying in the appearance of
-      the big man, and the manner in which he sat his beast and rode. It would
-      be a sad day for the man on whom Duncan's wrath broke. There were four
-      others close behind him, and the pike filling with the remainder of the
-      gang; so McLean took heart and raced beside the Angel. Over and over he
-      asked her where the trouble was, but she only gripped the hames, leaned
-      along the bay's neck, and slashed away with the blacksnake. The steaming
-      horse, with crimson nostrils and heaving sides, stretched out and ran for
-      home with all the speed there was in him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When they passed the cabin, the Bird Woman's carriage was there and Mrs.
-      Duncan in the door wringing her hands, but the Bird Woman was nowhere to
-      be seen. The Angel sent the bay along the path and turned into the west
-      trail, while the men bunched and followed her. When she reached the
-      entrance to Freckles' room, there were four men with her, and two more
-      very close behind. She slid from the horse, and snatching the little
-      revolver from her pocket, darted toward the bushes. McLean caught them
-      back, and with drawn weapon, pressed beside her. There they stopped in
-      astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman blocked the entrance. Over a small limb lay her revolver.
-      It was trained at short range on Black Jack and Wessner, who stood with
-      their hands above their heads.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles, with the blood trickling down his face, from an ugly cut in his
-      temple, was gagged and bound to the tree again; the remainder of the men
-      were gone. Black Jack was raving as a maniac, and when they looked closer
-      it was only the left arm that he raised. His right, with the hand
-      shattered, hung helpless at his side, while his revolver lay at Freckles'
-      feet. Wessner's weapon was in his belt, and beside him Freckles' club.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' face was white, with colorless lips, but in his eyes was the
-      strength of undying courage. McLean pushed past the Bird Woman crying.
-      &ldquo;Hold steady on them only one minute more!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He snatched the revolver from Wessner's belt, and stooped for Jack's.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At that instant the Angel rushed past. She tore the gag from Freckles, and
-      seizing the rope knotted on his chest, she tugged at it desperately. Under
-      her fingers it gave way, and she hurled it to McLean. The men were
-      crowding in, and Duncan seized Wessner. As the Angel saw Freckles stand
-      out, free, she reached her arms to him and pitched forward. A fearful oath
-      burst from the lips of Black Jack. To have saved his life, Freckles could
-      not have avoided the glance of triumph he gave Jack, when folding the
-      Angel in his arms and stretching her on the mosses.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman cried out sharply for water as she ran to them. Someone
-      sprang to bring that, and another to break open the case for brandy. As
-      McLean arose from binding Wessner, there was a cry that Jack was escaping.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He was already far in the swamp, running for its densest part in leaping
-      bounds. Every man who could be spared plunged after him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Other members of the gang arriving, were sent to follow the tracks of the
-      wagons. The teamsters had driven from the west entrance, and crossing the
-      swale, had taken the same route the Bird Woman and the Angel had before
-      them. There had been ample time for the drivers to reach the road; after
-      that they could take any one of four directions. Traffic was heavy, and
-      lumber wagons were passing almost constantly, so the men turned back and
-      joined the more exciting hunt for a man. The remainder of the gang joined
-      them, also farmers of the region and travelers attracted by the
-      disturbance.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Watchers were set along the trail at short intervals. They patrolled the
-      line and roads through the swamp that night, with lighted torches, and the
-      next day McLean headed as thorough a search as he felt could be made of
-      one side, while Duncan covered the other; but Black Jack could not be
-      found. Spies were set around his home, in Wildcat Hollow, to ascertain if
-      he reached there or aid was being sent in any direction to him; but it was
-      soon clear that his relatives were ignorant of his hiding-place, and were
-      searching for him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Great is the elasticity of youth. A hot bath and a sound night's sleep
-      renewed Freckles' strength, and it needed but little more to work the same
-      result with the Angel. Freckles was on the trail early the next morning.
-      Besides a crowd of people anxious to witness Jack's capture, he found four
-      stalwart guards, one at each turn. In his heart he was compelled to admit
-      that he was glad to have them there. Close noon, McLean placed his men in
-      charge of Duncan, and taking Freckles, drove to town to see how the Angel
-      fared. McLean visited a greenhouse and bought an armload of its finest
-      products; but Freckles would have none of them. He would carry his message
-      in a glowing mass of the Limberlost's first goldenrod.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman received them, and in answer to their eager inquiries, said
-      that the Angel was in no way seriously injured, only so bruised and shaken
-      that their doctor had ordered her to lie quietly for the day. Though she
-      was sore and stiff, they were having work to keep her in bed. Her callers
-      sent up their flowers with their grateful regards, and the Angel promptly
-      returned word that she wanted to see them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She reached both hands to McLean. &ldquo;What if one old tree is gone? You don't
-      care, sir? You feel that Freckles has kept his trust as nobody ever did
-      before, don't you? You won't forget all those long first days of fright
-      that you told us of, the fearful cold of winter, the rain, heat, and
-      lonesomeness, and the brave days, and lately, nights, too, and let him
-      feel that his trust is broken? Oh, Mr. McLean,&rdquo; she begged, &ldquo;say something
-      to him! Do something to make him feel that it isn't for nothing he has
-      watched and suffered it out with that old Limberlost. Make him see how
-      great and fine it is, and how far, far better he has done than you or any
-      of us expected! What's one old tree, anyway?&rdquo; she cried passionately.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was thinking before you came. Those other men were rank big cowards.
-      They were scared for their lives. If they were the drivers, I wager you
-      gloves against gloves they never took those logs out to the pike. My
-      coming upset them. Before you feel bad any more, you go look and see if
-      they didn't lose courage the minute they left Wessner and Black Jack, dump
-      that timber and run. I don't believe they ever had the grit to drive out
-      with it in daylight. Go see if they didn't figure on leaving the way we
-      did the other morning, and you'll find the logs before you reach the road.
-      They never risked taking them into the open, when they got away and had
-      time to think. Of course they didn't!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And, then, another thing. You haven't lost your wager! It never will be
-      claimed, because you made it with a stout, dark, red-faced man who drives
-      a bay and a gray. He was right back of you, Mr. McLean, when I came
-      yesterday. He went deathly white and shook on his feet when he saw those
-      men probably would be caught. Some one of them was something to him, and
-      you can just spot him for one of the men at the bottom of your troubles,
-      and urging those younger fellows to steal from you. I suppose he'd
-      promised to divide. You settle with him, and that business will stop.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She turned to Freckles. &ldquo;And you be the happiest man alive, because you
-      have kept your trust. Go look where I tell you and you'll find the logs. I
-      can see just about where they are. When they go up that steep little hill,
-      into the next woods after the cornfield, why, they could unloose the
-      chains and the logs would roll from the wagons themselves. Now, you go
-      look; and Mr. McLean, you do feel that Freckles has been brave and
-      faithful? You won't love him any the less even if you don't find the
-      logs.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's nerve gave way and she began to cry. Freckles could not endure
-      it. He almost ran from the room, with the tears in his eyes; but McLean
-      took the Angel from the Bird Woman's arms, and kissed her brave little
-      face, stroked her hair, and petted her into quietness before he left.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As they drove to the swamp, McLean so earnestly seconded all that the
-      Angel had said that he soon had the boy feeling much better.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, your Angel has a spice of the devil in her, but she's superb!
-      You needn't spend any time questioning or bewailing anything she does.
-      Just worship blindly, my boy. By heaven! she's sense, courage, and beauty
-      for half a dozen girls,&rdquo; said McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's altogether right you are, sir,&rdquo; affirmed Freckles heartily.
-      Presently he added, &ldquo;There's no question but the series is over now.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't think it!&rdquo; answered McLean. &ldquo;The Bird Woman is working for success,
-      and success along any line is not won by being scared out. She will be
-      back on the usual day, and ten to one, the Angel will be with her. They
-      are made of pretty stern stuff, and they don't scare worth a cent. Before
-      I left, I told the Bird Woman it would be safe; and it will. You may do
-      your usual walking, but those four guards are there to remain. They are
-      under your orders absolutely. They are prohibited from firing on any bird
-      or molesting anything that you want to protect, but there they remain, and
-      this time it is useless for you to say one word. I have listened to your
-      pride too long. You are too precious to me, and that voice of yours is too
-      precious to the world to run any more risks.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am sorry to have anything spoil the series,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;and I'd
-      love them to be coming, the Angel especial, but it can't be. You'll have
-      to tell them so. You see, Jack would have been ready to stake his life she
-      meant what she said and did to him. When the teams pulled out, Wessner
-      seized me; then he and Jack went to quarreling over whether they should
-      finish me then or take me to the next tree they were for felling. Between
-      them they were pulling me around and hurting me bad. Wessner wanted to get
-      at me right then, and Jack said he shouldn't be touching me till the last
-      tree was out and all the rest of them gone. I'm belaying Jack really hated
-      to see me done for in the beginning; and I think, too, he was afraid if
-      Wessner finished me then he'd lose his nerve and cut, and they couldn't be
-      managing the felling without him; anyway, they were hauling me round like
-      I was already past all feeling, and they tied me up again. To keep me
-      courage up, I twits Wessner about having to tie me and needing another man
-      to help handle me. I told him what I'd do to him if I was free, and he
-      grabs up me own club and lays open me head with it. When the blood came
-      streaming, it set Jack raving, and he cursed and damned Wessner for a
-      coward and a softy. Then Wessner turned on Jack and gives it to him for
-      letting the Angel make a fool of him. Tells him she was just playing with
-      him, and beyond all manner of doubt she'd gone after you, and there was
-      nothing to do on account of his foolishness but finish me, get out, and
-      let the rest of the timber go, for likely you was on the way right then.
-      That drove Jack plum crazy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't think he was for having a doubt of the Angel before, but then he
-      just raved. He grabbed out his gun and turned on Wessner. Spang! It went
-      out of his fist, and the order comes: 'Hands up!' Wessner reached for
-      kingdom come like he was expecting to grab hold and pull himself up. Jack
-      puts up what he has left. Then he leans over to me and tells me what he'll
-      do to me if he ever gets out of there alive. Then, just like a snake
-      hissing, he spits out what he'll do to her for playing him. He did get
-      away, and with his strength, that wound in his hand won't be bothering him
-      long. He'll do to me just what he said, and when he hears it really was
-      she that went after you, why, he'll keep his oath about her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He's lived in the swamp all his life, sir, and everybody says it's always
-      been the home of cutthroats, outlaws, and runaways. He knows its most
-      secret places as none of the others. He's alive. He's in there now, sir.
-      Some way he'll keep alive. If you'd seen his face, all scarlet with
-      passion, twisted with pain, and black with hate, and heard him swearing
-      that oath, you'd know it was a sure thing. I ain't done with him yet, and
-      I've brought this awful thing on her.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And I haven't begun with him yet,&rdquo; said McLean, setting his teeth. &ldquo;I've
-      been away too slow and too easy, believing there'd be no greater harm than
-      the loss of a tree. I've sent for a couple of first-class detectives. We
-      will put them on his track, and rout him out and rid the country of him. I
-      don't propose for him to stop either our work or our pleasure. As for his
-      being in the swamp now, I don't believe it. He'd find a way out last
-      night, in spite of us. Don't you worry! I am at the helm now, and I'll see
-      to that gentleman in my own way.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I wish to my soul you had seen and heard him!&rdquo; said Freckles,
-      unconvinced.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They entered the swamp, taking the route followed by the Bird Woman and
-      the Angel. They really did find the logs, almost where the Angel had
-      predicted they would be. McLean went to the South camp and had an
-      interview with Crowen that completely convinced him that the Angel was
-      correct there also. But he had no proof, so all he could do was to
-      discharge the man, although his guilt was so apparent that he offered to
-      withdraw the wager.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then McLean sent for a pack of bloodhounds and put them on the trail of
-      Black Jack. They clung to it, on and on, into the depths of the swamp,
-      leading their followers through what had been considered impassable and
-      impenetrable ways, and finally, around near the west entrance and into the
-      swale. Here the dogs bellowed, raved, and fell over each other in their
-      excitement. They raced back and forth from swamp to swale, but follow the
-      scent farther they would not, even though cruelly driven. At last their
-      owner attributed their actions to snakes, and as they were very valuable
-      dogs, abandoned the effort to urge them on. So that all they really
-      established was the fact that Black Jack had eluded their vigilance and
-      crossed the trail some time in the night. He had escaped to the swale;
-      from there he probably crossed the corduroy, and reaching the lower end of
-      the swamp, had found friends. It was a great relief to feel that he was
-      not in the swamp, and it raised the spirits of every man on the line,
-      though many of them expressed regrets that he who was undoubtedly most to
-      blame should escape, while Wessner, who in the beginning was only his
-      tool, should be left to punishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But for Freckles, with Jack's fearful oath ringing in his ears, there was
-      neither rest nor peace. He was almost ill when the day for the next study
-      of the series arrived and he saw the Bird Woman and the Angel coming down
-      the corduroy. The guards of the east line he left at their customary
-      places, but those of the west he brought over and placed, one near Little
-      Chicken's tree, and the other at the carriage. He was firm about the
-      Angel's remaining in the carriage, that he did not offer to have
-      unhitched. He went with the Bird Woman to secure the picture, which was
-      the easiest matter it had been at any time yet, for the simple reason that
-      the placing of the guards and the unusual movement around the swamp had
-      made Mr. and Mrs. Chicken timid, and they had not carried Little Chicken
-      the customary amount of food. Freckles, in the anxiety of the past few
-      days, had neglected him, and he had been so hungry, much of the time, that
-      when the Bird Woman held up a sweet-bread, although he had started toward
-      the recesses of the log at her coming, he stopped; with slightly opened
-      beak, he waited anxiously for the treat, and gave a study of great value,
-      showing every point of his head, also his wing and tail development.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the Bird Woman proposed to look for other subjects close about the
-      line, Freckles went so far as to tell her that Jack had made fearful
-      threats against the Angel. He implored her to take the Angel home and keep
-      her under unceasing guard until Jack was located. He wanted to tell her
-      all about it, but he knew how dear the Angel was to her, and he dreaded to
-      burden her with his fears when they might prove groundless. He allowed her
-      to go, but afterward blamed himself severely for having done so.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XIV
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;McLean,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan, as the Boss paused to greet her in passing the
-      cabin, &ldquo;do you know that Freckles hasna been in bed the past five nights
-      and all he's eaten in that many days ye could pack into a pint cup?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, what does the boy mean?&rdquo; demanded McLean. &ldquo;There's no necessity for
-      him being on guard, with the watch I've set on the line. I had no idea he
-      was staying down there.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He's no there,&rdquo; said Mrs. Duncan. &ldquo;He goes somewhere else. He leaves on
-      his wheel juist after we're abed and rides in close cock-crow or a little
-      earlier, and he's looking like death and nothing short of it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But where does he go?&rdquo; asked McLean in astonishment.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm no given to bearing tales out of school,&rdquo; said Sarah Duncan, &ldquo;but in
-      this case I'd tell ye if I could. What the trouble is I dinna ken. If it
-      is no' stopped, he's in for dreadful sickness, and I thought ye could find
-      out and help him. He's in sair trouble; that's all I know.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean sat brooding as he stroked Nellie's neck.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At last he said: &ldquo;I suspect I understand. At any rate, I think I can find
-      out. Thank you for telling me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ye'll no need telling, once ye clap your eyes on him,&rdquo; prophesied Mrs.
-      Duncan. &ldquo;His face is all a glist'ny yellow, and he's peaked as a starving
-      caged bird.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean rode to the Limberlost, and stopping in the shade, sat waiting for
-      Freckles, whose hour for passing the foot of the lease had come.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Along the north line came Freckles, fairly staggering. When he turned east
-      and reached Sleepy Snake Creek, sliding through the swale as the long
-      black snake for which it was named, he sat on the bridge and closed his
-      burning eyes, but they would not remain shut. As if pulled by wires, the
-      heavy lids flew open, while the outraged nerves and muscles of his body
-      danced, twitched, and tingled.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He bent forward and idly watched the limpid little stream flowing beneath
-      his feet. Stretching into the swale, it came creeping between an
-      impenetrable wall of magnificent wild flowers, vines, and ferns. Milkweed,
-      goldenrod, ironwort, fringed gentians, cardinal-flowers, and turtle-head
-      stood on the very edge of the creek, and every flower of them had a double
-      in the water. Wild clematis crowned with snow the heads of trees scattered
-      here and there on the bank.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      From afar the creek appeared to be murky, dirty water. Really it was clear
-      and sparkling. The tinge of blackness was gained from its bed of muck
-      showing through the transparent current. He could see small and
-      wonderfully marked fish. What became of them when the creek spread into
-      the swamp? For one thing, they would make mighty fine eating for the
-      family of that self-satisfied old blue heron.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles sat so quietly that soon the brim of his hat was covered with
-      snake-feeders, rasping their crisp wings and singing while they rested.
-      Some of them settled on the club, and one on his shoulder. He was so
-      motionless; feathers, fur, and gauze were so accustomed to him, that all
-      through the swale they continued their daily life and forgot he was there.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The heron family were wading the mouth of the creek. Freckles idly
-      wondered whether the nerve-racking rasps they occasionally emitted
-      indicated domestic felicity or a raging quarrel. He could not decide. A
-      sheitpoke, with flaring crest, went stalking across a bare space close to
-      the creek's mouth. A stately brown bittern waded into the clear-flowing
-      water, lifting his feet high at every step, and setting them down
-      carefully, as if he dreaded wetting them, and with slightly parted beak,
-      stood eagerly watching around him for worms. Behind him were some mighty
-      trees of the swamp above, and below the bank glowed a solid wall of
-      goldenrod.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      No wonder the ancients had chosen yellow as the color to represent
-      victory, for the fierce, conquering hue of the sun was in it. They had
-      done well, too, in selecting purple as the emblem of royalty. It was a
-      dignified, compelling color, while in its warm tone there was a hint of
-      blood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      It was the Limberlost's hour to proclaim her sovereignty and triumph.
-      Everywhere she flaunted her yellow banner and trailed the purple of her
-      mantle, that was paler in the thistle-heads, took on strength in the first
-      opening asters, and glowed and burned in the ironwort.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He gazed into her damp, mossy recesses where high-piled riven trees
-      decayed under coats of living green, where dainty vines swayed and
-      clambered, and here and there a yellow leaf, fluttering down, presaged the
-      coming of winter. His love of the swamp laid hold of him and shook him
-      with its force.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Compellingly beautiful was the Limberlost, but cruel withal; for inside
-      bleached the uncoffined bones of her victims, while she had missed
-      cradling him, oh! so narrowly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He shifted restlessly; the movement sent the snake-feeders skimming. The
-      hum of life swelled and roared in his strained ears. Small turtles, that
-      had climbed on a log to sun, splashed clumsily into the water. Somewhere
-      in the timber of the bridge a bloodthirsty little frog cried sharply.
-      &ldquo;KEEL'IM! KEEL'IM!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles muttered: &ldquo;It's worse than that Black Jack swore to do to me,
-      little fellow.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A muskrat waddled down the bank and swam for the swamp, its pointed nose
-      riffling the water into a shining trail in its wake.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then, below the turtle-log, a dripping silver-gray head, with shining
-      eyes, was cautiously lifted, and Freckles' hand slid to his revolver.
-      Higher and higher came the head, a long, heavy, furcoated body arose, now
-      half, now three-fourths from the water. Freckles looked at his shaking
-      hand and doubted, but he gathered his forces, the shot rang, and the otter
-      lay quiet. He hurried down and tried to lift it. He scarcely could muster
-      strength to carry it to the bridge. The consciousness that he really could
-      go no farther with it made Freckles realize the fact that he was close the
-      limit of human endurance. He could bear it little, if any, longer. Every
-      hour the dear face of the Angel wavered before him, and behind it the
-      awful distorted image of Black Jack, as he had sworn to the punishment he
-      would mete out to her. He must either see McLean, or else make a trip to
-      town and find her father. Which should he do? He was almost a stranger, so
-      the Angel's father might not be impressed with what he said as he would if
-      McLean went to him. Then he remembered that McLean had said he would come
-      that morning. Freckles never had forgotten before. He hurried on the east
-      trail as fast as his tottering legs would carry him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He stopped when he came to the first guard, and telling him of his luck,
-      asked him to get the otter and carry it to the cabin, as he was anxious to
-      meet McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles passed the second guard without seeing him, and hurried to the
-      Boss. He took off his hat, wiped his forehead, and stood silent under the
-      eyes of McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss was dumbfounded. Mrs. Duncan had led him to expect that he would
-      find a change in Freckles, but this was almost deathly. The fact was
-      apparent that the boy scarcely knew what he was doing. His eyes had a
-      glazed, far-sighted appearance, that wrung the heart of the man who loved
-      him. Without a thought of preliminaries, McLean leaned in the saddle and
-      drew Freckles to him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My poor lad!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;My poor, dear lad! tell me, and we will try to
-      right it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles had twisted his fingers in Nellie's mane. At the kind words his
-      face dropped on McLean's thigh and he shook with a nervous chill. McLean
-      gathered him closer and waited.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the guard came with the otter, McLean without a word motioned him to
-      lay it down and leave them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; said McLean at last, &ldquo;will you tell me, or must I set to work
-      in the dark and try to find the trouble?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, I want to tell you! I must tell you, sir,&rdquo; shuddered Freckles. &ldquo;I
-      cannot be bearing it the day out alone. I was coming to you when I
-      remimbered you would be here.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He lifted his face and gazed across the swale, with his jaws set firmly a
-      minute, as if gathering his forces. Then he spoke.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's the Angel, sir,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Instinctively McLean's grip on him tightened, and Freckles looked into the
-      Boss's face in wonder.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I tried, the other day,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;and I couldn't seem to make you
-      see. It's only that there hasn't been an hour, waking or sleeping, since
-      the day she parted the bushes and looked into me room, that the face of
-      her hasn't been before me in all the tinderness, beauty, and mischief of
-      it. She talked to me friendly like. She trusted me entirely to take right
-      care of her. She helped me with things about me books. She traited me like
-      I was born a gintleman, and shared with me as if I were of her own blood.
-      She walked the streets of the town with me before her friends with all the
-      pride of a queen. She forgot herself and didn't mind the Bird Woman, and
-      run big risks to help me out that first day, sir. This last time she
-      walked into that gang of murderers, took their leader, and twisted him to
-      the will of her. She outdone him and raced the life almost out of her
-      trying to save me.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Since I can remimber, whatever the thing was that happened to me in the
-      beginning has been me curse. I've been bitter, hard, and smarting under it
-      hopelessly. She came by, and found me voice, and put hope of life and
-      success like other men into me in spite of it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles held up his maimed arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Look at it, sir!&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;A thousand times I've cursed it, hanging
-      there helpless. She took it on the street, before all the people, just as
-      if she didn't see that it was a thing to hide and shrink from. Again and
-      again I've had the feeling with her, if I didn't entirely forget it, that
-      she didn't see it was gone and I must he pointing it out to her. Her touch
-      on it was so sacred-like, at times since I've caught meself looking at the
-      awful thing near like I was proud of it, sir. If I had been born your son
-      she couldn't be traiting me more as her equal, and she can't help knowing
-      you ain't truly me father. Nobody can know the homeliness or the ignorance
-      of me better than I do, and all me lack of birth, relatives, and money,
-      and what's it all to her?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stepped back, squared his shoulders, and with a royal lift of his
-      head looked straight into the Boss's eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You saw her in the beautiful little room of her, and you can't be
-      forgetting how she begged and plead with you for me. She touched me body,
-      and 'twas sanctified. She laid her lips on my brow, and 'twas sacrament.
-      Nobody knows the height of her better than me. Nobody's studied my depths
-      closer. There's no bridge for the great distance between us, sir, and
-      clearest of all, I'm for realizing it: but she risked terrible things when
-      she came to me among that gang of thieves. She wore herself past bearing
-      to save me from such an easy thing as death! Now, here's me, a man, a big,
-      strong man, and letting her live under that fearful oath, so worse than
-      any death 'twould be for her, and lifting not a finger to save her. I
-      cannot hear it, sir. It's killing me by inches! Black Jack's hand may not
-      have been hurt so bad. Any hour he may be creeping up behind her! Any
-      minute the awful revenge he swore to be taking may in some way fall on
-      her, and I haven't even warned her father. I can't stay here doing nothing
-      another hour. The five nights gone I've watched under her windows, but
-      there's the whole of the day. She's her own horse and little cart, and's
-      free to be driving through the town and country as she pleases. If any
-      evil comes to her through Black Jack, it comes from her angel-like
-      goodness to me. Somewhere he's hiding! Somewhere he is waiting his chance!
-      Somewhere he is reaching out for her! I tell you I cannot, I dare not be
-      bearing it longer!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, be quiet!&rdquo; said McLean, his eyes humid and his voice quivering
-      with the pity of it all. &ldquo;Believe me, I did not understand. I know the
-      Angel's father well. I will go to him at once. I have transacted business
-      with him for the past three years. I will make him see! I am only
-      beginning to realize your agony, and the real danger there is for the
-      Angel. Believe me, I will see that she is fully protected every hour of
-      the day and night until Jack is located and disposed of. And I promise you
-      further, that if I fail to move her father or make him understand the
-      danger, I will maintain a guard over her until Jack is caught. Now will
-      you go bathe, drink some milk, go to bed, and sleep for hours, and then be
-      my brave, bright old boy again?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; said Freckles simply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      But McLean could see the flesh was twitching on the lad's bones.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What was it the guard brought there?&rdquo; McLean asked in an effort to
-      distract Freckles' thoughts.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; Freckles said, glancing where the Boss pointed, &ldquo;I forgot it! 'Tis
-      an otter, and fine past believing, for this warm weather. I shot it at the
-      creek this morning. 'Twas a good shot, considering. I expected to miss.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles picked up the animal and started toward McLean with it, but
-      Nellie pricked up her dainty little ears, danced into the swale, and
-      snorted with fright. Freckles dropped the otter and ran to her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;For pity's sake, get her on the trail, sir,&rdquo; he begged. &ldquo;She's just about
-      where the old king rattler crosses to go into the swamp&mdash;the old
-      buster Duncan and I have been telling you of. I haven't a doubt but it was
-      the one Mother Duncan met. 'Twas down the trail there, just a little
-      farther on, that I found her, and it's sure to be close yet.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean slid from Nellie's back, led her into the trail farther down the
-      line, and tied her to a bush. Then he went to examine the otter. It was a
-      rare, big specimen, with exquisitely fine, long, silky hair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What do you want to do with it, Freckles?&rdquo; asked McLean, as he stroked
-      the soft fur lingeringly. &ldquo;Do you know that it is very valuable?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was for almost praying so, sir,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;As I saw it coming up
-      the bank I thought this: Once somewhere in a book there was a picture of a
-      young girl, and she was just a breath like the beautifulness of the Angel.
-      Her hands were in a muff as big as her body, and I thought it was so
-      pretty. I think she was some queen, or the like. Do you suppose I could
-      have this skin tanned and made into such a muff as that?&mdash;an enormous
-      big one, sir?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course you can,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;That's a fine idea and it's easy
-      enough. We must box and express the otter, cold storage, by the first
-      train. You stand guard a minute and I'll tell Hall to carry it to the
-      cabin. I'll put Nellie to Duncan's rig, and we'll drive to town and call
-      on the Angel's father. Then we'll start the otter while it is fresh, and
-      I'll write your instructions later. It would be a mighty fine thing for
-      you to give to the Angel as a little reminder of the Limberlost before it
-      is despoiled, and as a souvenir of her trip for you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted a face with a glow of happy color creeping into it and
-      eyes lighting with a former brightness. Throwing his arms around McLean,
-      he cried: &ldquo;Oh, how I love you! Oh, I wish I could make you know how I love
-      you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean strained him to his breast.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;God bless you, Freckles,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I do know! We're going to have some
-      good old times out of this world together, and we can't begin too soon.
-      Would you rather sleep first, or have a bite of lunch, take the drive with
-      me, and then rest? I don't know but sleep will come sooner and deeper to
-      take the ride and have your mind set at ease before you lie down. Suppose
-      you go.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Suppose I do,&rdquo; said Freckles, with a glimmer of the old light in his eyes
-      and newly found strength to shoulder the otter. Together they turned into
-      the trail.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean noticed and spoke of the big black chickens.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They've been hanging round out there for several days past,&rdquo; said
-      Freckles. &ldquo;I'll tell you what I think it means. I think the old rattler
-      has killed something too big for him to swallow, and he's keeping guard
-      and won't let me chickens have it. I'm just sure, from the way the birds
-      have acted out there all summer, that it is the rattler's den. You watch
-      them now. See the way they dip and then rise, frightened like!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Suddenly McLean turned toward him with blanching face
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My God, sir!&rdquo; shuddered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He dropped the otter, caught up his club, and plunged into the swale.
-      Reaching for his revolver, McLean followed. The chickens circled higher at
-      their coming, and the big snake lifted his head and rattled angrily. It
-      sank in sinuous coils at the report of McLean's revolver, and together he
-      and Freckles stood beside Black Jack. His fate was evident and most
-      horrible.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Come,&rdquo; said the Boss at last. &ldquo;We don't dare touch him. We will get a
-      sheet from Mrs. Duncan and tuck over him, to keep these swarms of insects
-      away, and set Hall on guard, while we find the officers.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' lips closed resolutely. He deliberately thrust his club under
-      Black Jack's body, and, raising him, rested it on his knee. He pulled a
-      long silver pin from the front of the dead man's shirt and sent it
-      spinning into the swale. Then he gathered up a few crumpled bright flowers
-      and dropped them into the pool far away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;My soul is sick with the horror of this thing,&rdquo; said McLean, as he and
-      Freckles drove toward town. &ldquo;I can't understand how Jack dared risk
-      creeping through the swale, even in desperation. No one knew its dangers
-      better than he. And why did he choose the rankest, muckiest place to cross
-      the swamp?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't you think, sir, it was because it was on a line with the Limberlost
-      south of the corduroy? The grass was tallest there, and he counted on
-      those willows to screen him. Once he got among them, he would have been
-      safe to walk by stooping. If he'd made it past that place, he'd been sure
-      to get out.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'm as sorry for Jack as I know how to be,&rdquo; said McLean, &ldquo;but I
-      can't help feeling relieved that our troubles are over, for now they are.
-      With so dreadful a punishment for Jack, Wessner under arrest, and warrants
-      for the others, we can count on their going away and remaining. As for
-      anyone else, I don't think they will care to attempt stealing my timber
-      after the experience of these men. There is no other man here with Jack's
-      fine ability in woodcraft. He was an expert.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did you ever hear of anyone who ever tried to locate any trees excepting
-      him?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, I never did,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;I am sure there was no one besides him.
-      You see, it was only with the arrival of our company that the other
-      fellows scented good stuff in the Limberlost, and tried to work in. Jack
-      knew the swamp better than anyone here. When he found there were two
-      companies trying to lease, he wanted to stand in with the one from which
-      he could realize the most. Even then he had trees marked that he was
-      trying to dispose of. I think his sole intention in forcing me to
-      discharge him from my gang was to come here and try to steal timber. We
-      had no idea, when we took the lease, what a gold mine it was.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's exactly what Wessner said that first day,&rdquo; said Freckles eagerly.
-      &ldquo;That 'twas a 'gold mine'! He said he didn't know where the marked trees
-      were, but he knew a man who did, and if I would hold off and let them get
-      the marked ones, there were a dozen they could get out in a few days.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; cried McLean. &ldquo;You don't mean a dozen!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's what he said, sir&mdash;a dozen. He said they couldn't tell how
-      the grain of all of them would work up, of course, but they were all worth
-      taking out, and five or six were real gold mines. This makes three they've
-      tried, so there must be nine more marked, and several of them for being
-      just fine.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I wish I knew which they are,&rdquo; said McLean, &ldquo;so I could get them
-      out first.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have been thinking,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I believe if you will leave one of
-      the guards on the line&mdash;say Hall&mdash;that I will begin on the
-      swamp, at the north end, and lay it off in sections, and try to hunt out
-      the marked trees. I suppose they are all marked something like that first
-      maple on the line was. Wessner mentioned another good one not so far from
-      that. He said it was best of all. I'd be having the swelled head if I
-      could find that. Of course, I don't know a thing about the trees, but I
-      could hunt for the marks. Jack was so good at it he could tell some of
-      them by the bark, but all he wanted to take that we've found so far have
-      just had a deep chip cut out, rather low down, and where the bushes were
-      thick over it. I believe I could be finding some of them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good head!&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;We will do that. You may begin as soon as you
-      are rested. And about things you come across in the swamp, Freckles&mdash;the
-      most trifling little thing that you think the Bird Woman would want, take
-      your wheel and go after her at any time. I'll leave two men on the line,
-      so that you will have one on either side, and you can come and go as you
-      please. Have you stopped to think of all we owe her, my boy?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis; and the Angel&mdash;we owe her a lot, too,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I owe
-      her me life and honor. It's lying awake nights I'll have to be trying to
-      think how I'm ever to pay her up.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, begin with the muff,&rdquo; suggested McLean. &ldquo;That should be fine.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He bent down and ruffled the rich fur of the otter lying at his feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't exactly see how it comes to be in such splendid fur in summer.
-      Their coats are always thick in cold weather, but this scarcely could be
-      improved. I'll wire Cooper to be watching for it. They must have it fresh.
-      When it's tanned we won't spare any expense in making it up. It should be
-      a royal thing, and some way I think it will exactly suit the Angel. I
-      can't think of anything that would be more appropriate for her.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Neither can I,&rdquo; agreed Freckles heartily. &ldquo;When I reach the city there's
-      one other thing, if I've the money after the muff is finished.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He told McLean of Mrs. Duncan's desire for a hat similar to the Angel's.
-      He hesitated a little in the telling, keeping sharp watch on McLean's
-      face. When he saw the Boss's eyes were full of comprehension and sympathy,
-      he loved him anew, for, as ever, McLean was quick to understand. Instead
-      of laughing, he said: &ldquo;I think you'll have to let me in on that, too. You
-      mustn't be selfish, you know. I'll tell you what we'll do. Send it for
-      Christmas. I'll be home then, and we can fill a box. You get the hat. I'll
-      add a dress and wrap. You buy Duncan a hat and gloves. I'll send him a big
-      overcoat, and we'll put in a lot of little stuff for the babies. Won't
-      that be fun?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles fairly shivered with delight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That would be away too serious for fun,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;That would be
-      heavenly. How long will it be?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He began counting the time, and McLean deliberately set himself to
-      encourage Freckles and keep his thoughts from the trouble of the past few
-      days, for he had been overwrought and needed quiet and rest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XV
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little Chicken
-      Furnishes the Subject
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      A week later everything at the Limberlost was precisely as it had been
-      before the tragedy, except the case in Freckles' room now rested on the
-      stump of the newly felled tree. Enough of the vines were left to cover it
-      prettily, and every vestige of the havoc of a few days before was gone.
-      New guards were patrolling the trail. Freckles was roughly laying off the
-      swamp in sections and searching for marked trees. In that time he had
-      found one deeply chipped and the chip cunningly replaced and tacked in. It
-      promised to be quite rare, so he was jubilant. He also found so many
-      subjects for the Bird Woman that her coming was of almost daily
-      occurrence, and the hours he spent with her and the Angel were nothing
-      less than golden.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Limberlost was now arrayed as the Queen of Sheba in all her glory. The
-      first frosts of autumn had bejewelled her crown in flashing topaz, ruby,
-      and emerald. Around her feet trailed the purple of her garments, while in
-      her hand was her golden scepter. Everything was at full tide. It seemed as
-      if nothing could grow lovelier, and it was all standing still a few weeks,
-      waiting coming destruction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The swamp was palpitant with life. Every pair of birds that had flocked to
-      it in the spring was now multiplied by from two to ten. The young were
-      tame from Freckles' tri-parenthood, and so plump and sleek that they were
-      quite as beautiful as their elders, even if in many cases they lacked
-      their brilliant plumage. It was the same story of increase everywhere.
-      There were chubby little ground-hogs scudding on the trail. There were
-      cunning baby coons and opossums peeping from hollow logs and trees. Young
-      muskrats followed their parents across the lagoons.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      If you could come upon a family of foxes that had not yet disbanded, and
-      see the young playing with a wild duck's carcass that their mother had
-      brought, and note the pride and satisfaction in her eyes as she lay at one
-      side guarding them, it would be a picture not to be forgotten. Freckles
-      never tired of studying the devotion of a fox mother to her babies. To
-      him, whose early life had been so embittered by continual proof of neglect
-      and cruelty in human parents toward their children, the love of these
-      furred and feathered folk of the Limberlost was even more of a miracle
-      than to the Bird Woman and the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel liked the baby rabbits and squirrels. Earlier in the season,
-      when the young were yet very small, it so happened that at times Freckles
-      could give into her hands one of these little ones. Then it was pure joy
-      to stand back and watch her heaving breast, flushed cheek, and shining
-      eyes. Hers were such lovely eyes. Freckles had discovered lately that they
-      were not so dark as he had thought them at first, but that the length and
-      thickness of lash, by which they were shaded, made them appear darker than
-      they really were. They were forever changing. Now sparkling and darkling
-      with wit, now humid with sympathy, now burning with the fire of courage,
-      now taking on strength of color with ambition, now flashing indignantly at
-      the abuse of any creature.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She had carried several of the squirrel and bunny babies home, and had
-      littered the conservatory with them. Her care of them was perfect. She was
-      learning her natural history from nature, and having much healthful
-      exercise. To her, they were the most interesting of all, but the Bird
-      Woman preferred the birds, with a close second in the moths and
-      butterflies.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Brown butterfly time had come. The edge of the swale was filled with
-      milkweed, and other plants beloved of them, and the air was golden with
-      the flashing satin wings of the monarch, viceroy, and argynnis. They
-      outnumbered those of any other color three to one.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Among the birds it really seemed as if the little yellow fellows were in
-      the preponderance. At least, they were until the redwinged blackbirds and
-      bobolinks, that had nested on the upland, suddenly saw in the swamp the
-      garden of the Lord and came swarming by hundreds to feast and adventure
-      upon it these last few weeks before migration. Never was there a finer
-      feast spread for the birds. The grasses were filled with seeds: so, too,
-      were weeds of every variety. Fall berries were ripe. Wild grapes and black
-      haws were ready. Bugs were creeping everywhere. The muck was yeasty with
-      worms. Insects filled the air. Nature made glorious pause for holiday
-      before her next change, and by none of the frequenters of the swamp was
-      this more appreciated than by the big black chickens.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They seemed to feel the new reign of peace and fullness most of all. As
-      for food, they did not even have to hunt for themselves these days, for
-      the feasts now being spread before Little Chicken were more than he could
-      use, and he was glad to have his parents come down and help him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He was a fine, big, overgrown fellow, and his wings, with quills of jetty
-      black, gleaming with bronze, were so strong they almost lifted his body.
-      He had three inches of tail, and his beak and claws were sharp. His
-      muscles began to clamor for exercise. He raced the forty feet of his home
-      back and forth many times every hour of the day. After a few days of that,
-      he began lifting and spreading his wings, and flopping them until the down
-      on his back was filled with elm fiber. Then he commenced jumping. The
-      funny little hops, springs, and sidewise bounds he gave set Freckles and
-      the Angel, hidden in the swamp, watching him, into smothered chuckles of
-      delight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Sometimes he fell to coquetting with himself; and that was the funniest
-      thing of all, for he turned his head up, down, from side to side, and drew
-      in his chin with prinky little jerks and tilts. He would stretch his neck,
-      throw up his head, turn it to one side and smirk&mdash;actually smirk, the
-      most complacent and self-satisfied smirk that anyone ever saw on the face
-      of a bird. It was so comical that Freckles and the Angel told the Bird
-      Woman of it one day.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When she finished her work on Little Chicken, she left them the camera
-      ready for use, telling them they might hide in the bushes and watch. If
-      Little Chicken came out and truly smirked, and they could squeeze the bulb
-      at the proper moment to snap him, she would be more than delighted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles and the Angel quietly curled beside a big log, and with eager
-      eyes and softest breathing they patiently waited; but Little Chicken had
-      feasted before they told of his latest accomplishment. He was tired and
-      sleepy, so he went into the log to bed, and for an hour he never stirred.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They were becoming anxious, for the light soon would be gone, and they had
-      so wanted to try for the picture. At last Little Chicken lifted his head,
-      opened his beak, and gaped widely. He dozed a minute or two more. The
-      Angel said that was his beauty sleep. Then he lazily gaped again and stood
-      up, stretching and yawning. He ambled leisurely toward the gateway, and
-      the Angel said: &ldquo;Now, we may have a chance, at last.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I do hope so,&rdquo; shivered Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With one accord they arose to their knees and trained their eyes on the
-      mouth of the log. The light was full and strong. Little Chicken prospected
-      again with no results. He dressed his plumage, polished his beak, and when
-      he felt fine and in full toilet he began to flirt with himself. Freckles'
-      eyes snapped and his breath sucked between his clenched teeth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He's going to do it!&rdquo; whispered the Angel. &ldquo;That will come next. You'll
-      best give me that bulb!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; assented Freckles, but he was looking at the log and he made no
-      move to relinquish the bulb.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Little Chicken nodded daintily and ruffled his feathers. He gave his head
-      sundry little sidewise jerks and rapidly shifted his point of vision. Once
-      there was the fleeting little ghost of a smirk.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now!&mdash;No!&rdquo; snapped the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles leaned toward the bird. Tensely he waited. Unconsciously the hand
-      of the Angel clasped his. He scarcely knew it was there. Suddenly Little
-      Chicken sprang straight in the air and landed with a thud. The Angel
-      started slightly, but Freckles was immovable. Then, as if in approval of
-      his last performance, the big, overgrown baby wheeled until he was more
-      than three-quarters, almost full side, toward the camera, straightened on
-      his legs, squared his shoulders, stretched his neck full height, drew in
-      his chin and smirked his most pronounced smirk, directly in the face of
-      the lens.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' fingers closed on the bulb convulsively, and the Angel's closed
-      on his at the instant. Then she heaved a great sigh of relief and lifted
-      her hands to push back the damp, clustering hair from her face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How soon do you s'pose it will be finished?&rdquo; came Freckles' strident
-      whisper.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For the first time the Angel looked at him. He was on his knees, leaning
-      forward, his eyes directed toward the bird, the perspiration running in
-      little streams down his red, mosquito-bitten face. His hat was awry, his
-      bright hair rampant, his breast heaving with excitement, while he yet
-      gripped the bulb with every ounce of strength in his body.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you think we were for getting it?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel could only nod. Freckles heaved a deep sigh of relief.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, if that ain't the hardest work I ever did in me life!&rdquo; he
-      exclaimed. &ldquo;It's no wonder the Bird Woman's for coming out of the swamp
-      looking as if she's been through a fire, a flood, and a famine, if that's
-      what she goes through day after day. But if you think we got it, why, it's
-      worth all it took, and I'm glad as ever you are, sure!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      They put the holders in the case, carefully closed the camera, set it in
-      also, and carried it to the road.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Freckles exulted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, let's be telling the Bird Woman about it!&rdquo; he shouted, wildly
-      dancing and swinging his hat.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We got it! We got it! I bet a farm we got it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Hand in hand they ran to the north end of the swamp, yelling &ldquo;We got it!&rdquo;
-       like young Comanches, and never gave a thought to what they might do until
-      a big blue-gray bird, with long neck and trailing legs, arose on flapping
-      wings and sailed over the Limberlost.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel became white to the lips and gripped Freckles with both hands.
-      He gulped with mortification and turned his back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      To frighten her subject away carelessly! It was the head crime in the Bird
-      Woman's category. She extended her hands as she arose, baked, blistered,
-      and dripping, and exclaimed: &ldquo;Bless you, my children! Bless you!&rdquo; And it
-      truly sounded as if she meant it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, why&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo; stammered the bewildered Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles hurried into the breach.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You must be for blaming it every bit on me. I was thinking we got Little
-      Chicken's picture real good. I was so drunk with the joy of it I lost all
-      me senses and, 'Let's run tell the Bird Woman,' says I. Like a fool I was
-      for running, and I sort of dragged the Angel along.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Freckles!&rdquo; expostulated the Angel. &ldquo;Are you loony? Of course, it was
-      all my fault! I've been with her hundreds of times. I knew perfectly well
-      that I wasn't to let anything&mdash;NOT ANYTHING&mdash;scare her bird
-      away! I was so crazy I forgot. The blame is all mine, and she'll never
-      forgive me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;She will, too!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;Wasn't you for telling me that very
-      first day that when people scared her birds away she just killed them!
-      It's all me foolishness, and I'll never forgive meself!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman plunged into the swale at the mouth of Sleepy Snake Creek,
-      and came wading toward them, with a couple of cameras and dripping
-      tripods.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you will permit me a word, my infants,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;I will explain to
-      you that I have had three shots at that fellow.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel heaved a deep sigh of relief, and Freckles' face cleared a
-      little.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Two of them,&rdquo; continued the Bird Woman, &ldquo;in the rushes&mdash;one facing,
-      crest lowered; one light on back, crest flared; and the last on wing, when
-      you came up. I simply had been praying for something to make him arise
-      from that side, so that he would fly toward the camera, for he had waded
-      around until in my position I couldn't do it myself. See? Behold in
-      yourselves the answer to the prayers of the long-suffering!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles took a step toward her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Are you really meaning that?&rdquo; he asked wonderingly. &ldquo;Only think, Angel,
-      we did the right thing! She won't lose her picture through the
-      carelessness of us, when she's waited and soaked nearly two hours. She's
-      not angry with us!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Never was in a sweeter temper in my life,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman, busily
-      cleaning and packing the cameras.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles removed his hat and solemnly held out his hand. With equal
-      solemnity the Angel grasped it. The Bird Woman laughed alone, for to them
-      the situation had been too serious to develop any of the elements of fun.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then they loaded the carriage, and the Bird Woman and the Angel started
-      for their homes. It had been a difficult time for all of them, so they
-      were very tired, but they were joyful. Freckles was so happy it seemed to
-      him that life could hold little more. As the Bird Woman was ready to drive
-      away he laid his hand on the lines and looked into her face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you suppose we got it?&rdquo; he asked, so eagerly that she would have given
-      much to be able to say yes with conviction.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, my dear, I don't know,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I've no way to judge. If you made
-      the exposure just before you came to me, there was yet a fine light. If
-      you waited until Little Chicken was close the entrance, you should have
-      something good, even if you didn't catch just the fleeting expression for
-      which you hoped. Of course, I can't say surely, but I think there is every
-      reason to believe that you have it all right. I will develop the plate
-      tonight, make you a proof from it early in the morning, and bring it when
-      we come. It's only a question of a day or two now until the gang arrives.
-      I want to work in all the studies I can before that time, for they are
-      bound to disturb the birds. Mr. McLean will need you then, and I scarcely
-      see how we are to do without you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Moved by an impulse she never afterward regretted, she bent and laid her
-      lips on Freckles' forehead, kissing him gently and thanking him for his
-      many kindnesses to her in her loved work. Freckles started away so happy
-      that he felt inclined to keep watching behind to see if the trail were not
-      curling up and rolling down the line after him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XVI
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      From afar Freckles saw them coming. The Angel was standing, waving her
-      hat. He sprang on his wheel and raced, jolting and pounding, down the
-      corduroy to meet them. The Bird Woman stopped the horse and the Angel gave
-      him the bit of print paper. Freckles leaned the wheel against a tree and
-      took the proof with eager fingers. He never before had seen a study from
-      any of his chickens. He stood staring. When he turned his face toward them
-      it was transfigured with delight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see!&rdquo; he exclaimed, and began gazing again. &ldquo;Oh, me Little Chicken!&rdquo;
-       he cried. &ldquo;Oh me ilegant Little Chicken! I'd be giving all me money in the
-      bank for you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he thought of the Angel's muff and Mrs. Duncan's hat, and added, &ldquo;or
-      at least, all but what I'm needing bad for something else. Would you mind
-      stopping at the cabin a minute and showing this to Mother Duncan?&rdquo; he
-      asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Give me that little book in your pocket,&rdquo; said the Bird Woman.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She folded the outer edges of the proof so that it would fit into the
-      book, explaining as she did so its perishable nature in that state.
-      Freckles went hurrying ahead, and they arrived in time to see Mrs. Duncan
-      gazing as if awestruck, and to hear her bewildered &ldquo;Weel I be drawed on!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles and the Angel helped the Bird Woman to establish herself for a
-      long day at the mouth of Sleepy Snake Creek. Then she sent them away and
-      waited what luck would bring to her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, what shall we do?&rdquo; inquired the Angel, who was a bundle of nerves
-      and energy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Would you like to go to me room awhile?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If you don't care to very much, I'd rather not,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I'll
-      tell you. Let's go help Mrs. Duncan with dinner and play with the baby. I
-      love a nice, clean baby.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      They started toward the cabin. Every few minutes they stopped to
-      investigate something or to chatter over some natural history wonder. The
-      Angel had quick eyes; she seemed to see everything, but Freckles' were
-      even quicker; for life itself had depended on their sharpness ever since
-      the beginning of his work at the swamp. They saw it at the same time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Someone has been making a flagpole,&rdquo; said the Angel, running the toe of
-      her shoe around the stump, evidently made that season. &ldquo;Freckles, what
-      would anyone cut a tree as small as that for?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, but I want to know!&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;No one came away here and cut
-      it for fun. They've taken it away. Let's go back and see if we can see it
-      anywhere around there.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She turned, retraced her footsteps, and began eagerly searching. Freckles
-      did the same.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There it is!&rdquo; he exclaimed at last, &ldquo;leaning against the trunk of that
-      big maple.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, and leaning there has killed a patch of dried bark,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-      &ldquo;See how dried it appears?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles stared at her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel!&rdquo; he shouted, &ldquo;I bet you it's a marked tree!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Course it is!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;No one would cut that sapling and carry
-      it away there and lean it up for nothing. I'll tell you! This is one of
-      Jack's marked trees. He's climbed up there above anyone's head, peeled the
-      bark, and cut into the grain enough to be sure. Then he's laid the bark
-      back and fastened it with that pole to mark it. You see, there're a lot of
-      other big maples close around it. Can you climb to that place?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said Freckles; &ldquo;if I take off my wading-boots I can.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then take them off,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;and do hurry! Can't you see that I
-      am almost crazy to know if this tree is a marked one?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      When they pushed the sapling over, a piece of bark as big as the crown of
-      Freckles' hat fell away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I believe it looks kind of nubby,&rdquo; encouraged the Angel, backing away,
-      with her face all screwed into a twist in an effort to intensify her
-      vision.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles reached the opening, then slid rapidly to the ground. He was
-      almost breathless while his eyes were flashing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The bark's been cut clean with a knife, the sap scraped away, and a big
-      chip taken out deep. The trunk is the twistiest thing you ever saw. It's
-      full of eyes as a bird is of feathers!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel was dancing and shaking his hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Freckles,&rdquo; she cried, &ldquo;I'm so delighted that you found it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But I didn't,&rdquo; said the astonished Freckles. &ldquo;That tree isn't my find;
-      it's yours. I forgot it and was going on; you wouldn't give up, and kept
-      talking about it, and turned back. You found it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You'd best be looking after your reputation for truth and veracity,&rdquo; said
-      the Angel. &ldquo;You know you saw that sapling first!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, after you took me back and set me looking for it,&rdquo; scoffed Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The clear, ringing echo of strongly swung axes came crashing through the
-      Limberlost.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Tis the gang!&rdquo; shouted Freckles. &ldquo;They're clearing a place to make the
-      camp. Let's go help!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Hadn't we better mark that tree again?&rdquo; cautioned the Angel. &ldquo;It's away
-      in here. There's such a lot of them, and all so much alike. We'd feel good
-      and green to find it and then lose it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted the sapling to replace it, but the Angel motioned him
-      away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Use your hatchet,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I predict this is the most valuable tree in
-      the swamp. You found it. I'm going to play that you're my knight. Now, you
-      nail my colors on it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She reached up, and pulling a blue bow from her hair, untied and doubled
-      it against the tree. Freckles turned his eyes from her and managed the
-      fastening with shaking fingers. The Angel had called him her knight! Dear
-      Lord, how he loved her! She must not see his face, or surely her quick
-      eyes would read what he was fighting to hide. He did not dare lay his lips
-      on that ribbon then, but that night he would return to it. When they had
-      gone a little distance, they both looked back, and the morning breeze set
-      the bit of blue waving them a farewell.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They walked at a rapid pace.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am sorry about scaring the birds,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;but it's almost
-      time for them to go anyway. I feel dreadfully over having the swamp
-      ruined, but isn't it a delight to hear the good, honest ring of those
-      axes, instead of straining your ears for stealthy sounds? Isn't it fine to
-      go openly and freely, with nothing worse than a snake or a poison-vine to
-      fear?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Freckles, with a long breath, &ldquo;it's better than you can dream,
-      Angel. Nobody will ever be guessing some of the things I've been through
-      trying to keep me promise to the Boss, and to hold out until this day.
-      That it's come with only one fresh stump, and the log from that saved, and
-      this new tree to report, isn't it grand? Maybe Mr. McLean will be
-      forgetting that stump when he sees this tree, Angel!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He can't forget it,&rdquo; said the Angel; and in answer to Freckles' startled
-      eyes she added, &ldquo;because he never had any reason to remember it. He
-      couldn't have done a whit better himself. My father says so. You're all
-      right, Freckles!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She reached him her hand, and as two children, they broke into a run when
-      they came closer the gang. They left the swamp by the west road and
-      followed the trail until they found the men. To the Angel it seemed
-      complete charm. In the shadiest spot on the west side of the line, at the
-      edge of the swamp and very close Freckles' room, they were cutting bushes
-      and clearing space for a big tent for the men's sleeping-quarters, another
-      for a dining-hall, and a board shack for the cook. The teamsters were
-      unloading, the horses were cropping leaves from the bushes, while each man
-      was doing his part toward the construction of the new Limberlost quarters.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles helped the Angel climb on a wagonload of canvas in the shade. She
-      removed her leggings, wiped her heated face, and glowed with happiness and
-      interest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The gang had been sifted carefully. McLean now felt that there was not a
-      man in it who was not trustworthy.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They all had heard of the Angel's plucky ride for Freckles' relief;
-      several of them had been in the rescue party. Others, new since that time,
-      had heard the tale rehearsed in its every aspect around the smudge-fires
-      at night. Almost all of them knew the Angel by sight from her trips with
-      the Bird Woman to their leases. They all knew her father, her position,
-      and the luxuries of her home. Whatever course she had chosen with them
-      they scarcely would have resented it, but the Angel never had been known
-      to choose a course. Her spirit of friendliness was inborn and inbred. She
-      loved everyone, so she sympathized with everyone. Her generosity was only
-      limited by what was in her power to give.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She came down the trail, hand in hand with the red-haired, freckled timber
-      guard whom she had worn herself past the limit of endurance to save only a
-      few weeks before, racing in her eagerness to reach them, and laughing her
-      &ldquo;Good morning, gentlemen,&rdquo; right and left. When she was ensconced on the
-      wagonload of tenting, she sat on a roll of canvas as a queen on her
-      throne. There was not a man of the gang who did not respect her. She was a
-      living exponent of universal brotherhood. There was no man among them who
-      needed her exquisite face or dainty clothing to teach him that the
-      deference due a gentlewoman should be paid her. That the spirit of good
-      fellowship she radiated levied an especial tribute of its own, and it
-      became their delight to honor and please her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      As they raced toward the wagon&mdash;&ldquo;Let me tell about the tree, please?&rdquo;
-       she begged Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, sure!&rdquo; said Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He probably would have said the same to anything she suggested. When
-      McLean came, he found the Angel flushed and glowing, sitting on the wagon,
-      her hands already filled. One of the men, who was cutting a scrub-oak, had
-      carried to her a handful of crimson leaves. Another had gathered a bunch
-      of delicate marsh-grass heads for her. Someone else, in taking out a bush,
-      had found a daintily built and lined little nest, fresh as when made.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She held up her treasures and greeted McLean, &ldquo;Good morning, Mr. Boss of
-      the Limberlost!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The gang shouted, while he bowed profoundly before her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Everyone listen!&rdquo; cried the Angel, climbing a roll of canvas. &ldquo;I have
-      something to say! Freckles has been guarding here over a year now, and he
-      presents the Limberlost to you, with every tree in it saved; for good
-      measure he has this morning located the rarest one of them all: the one in
-      from the east line, that Wessner spoke of the first day&mdash;nearest the
-      one you took out. All together! Everyone! Hurrah for Freckles!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      With flushing cheeks and gleaming eyes, gaily waving the grass above her
-      head, she led in three cheers and a tiger. Freckles slipped into the swamp
-      and hid himself, for fear he could not conceal his pride and his great
-      surging, throbbing love for her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel subsided on the canvas and explained to McLean about the maple.
-      The Boss was mightily pleased. He took Freckles and set out to re-locate
-      and examine the tree. The Angel was interested in the making of the camp,
-      so she preferred to remain with the men. With her sharp eyes she was
-      watching every detail of construction; but when it came to the stretching
-      of the dining-hall canvas she proceeded to take command. The men were
-      driving the rope-pins, when the Angel arose on the wagon and, leaning
-      forward, spoke to Duncan, who was directing the work.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I believe if you will swing that around a few feet farther, you will find
-      it better, Mr. Duncan,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;That way will let the hot sun in at
-      noon, while the sides will cut off the best breeze.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That's a fact,&rdquo; said Duncan, studying the conditions.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      So, by shifting the pins a little, they obtained comfort for which they
-      blessed the Angel every day. When they came to the sleeping-tent, they
-      consulted her about that. She explained the general direction of the night
-      breeze and indicated the best position for the tent. Before anyone knew
-      how it happened, the Angel was standing on the wagon, directing the
-      location and construction of the cooking-shack, the erection of the crane
-      for the big boiling-pots, and the building of the store-room. She
-      superintended the laying of the floor of the sleeping-tent lengthwise, So
-      that it would be easier to sweep, and suggested a new arrangement of the
-      cots that would afford all the men an equal share of night breeze. She
-      left the wagon, and climbing on the newly erected dining-table, advised
-      with the cook in placing his stove, table, and kitchen utensils.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When Freckles returned from the tree to join in the work around the camp,
-      he caught glimpses of her enthroned on a soapbox, cleaning beans. She
-      called to him that they were invited for dinner, and that they had
-      accepted the invitation.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the beans were steaming in the pot, the Angel advised the cook to
-      soak them overnight the next time, so that they would cook more quickly
-      and not burst. She was sure their cook at home did that way, and the CHEF
-      of the gang thought it would be a good idea. The next Freckles saw of her
-      she was paring potatoes. A little later she arranged the table.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She swept it with a broom, instead of laying a cloth; took the hatchet and
-      hammered the deepest dents from the tin plates, and nearly skinned her
-      fingers scouring the tinware with rushes. She set the plates an even
-      distance apart, and laid the forks and spoons beside them. When the cook
-      threw away half a dozen fruit-cans, she gathered them up and melted off
-      the tops, although she almost blistered her face and quite blistered her
-      fingers doing it. Then she neatly covered these improvised vases with the
-      Manila paper from the groceries, tying it with wisps of marshgrass. These
-      she filled with fringed gentians, blazing-star, asters, goldenrod, and
-      ferns, placing them the length of the dining-table. In one of the end cans
-      she arranged her red leaves, and in the other the fancy grass. Two men,
-      watching her, went away proud of themselves and said that she was &ldquo;a born
-      lady.&rdquo; She laughingly caught up a paper bag and fitted it jauntily to her
-      head in imitation of a cook's cap. Then she ground the coffee, and beat a
-      couple of eggs to put in, &ldquo;because there is company,&rdquo; she gravely
-      explained to the cook. She asked that delighted individual if he did not
-      like it best that way, and he said he did not know, because he never had a
-      chance to taste it. The Angel said that was her case exactly&mdash;she
-      never had, either; she was not allowed anything stronger than milk. Then
-      they laughed together.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She told the cook about camping with her father, and explained that he
-      made his coffee that way. When the steam began to rise from the big
-      boiler, she stuffed the spout tightly with clean marshgrass, to keep the
-      aroma in, placed the boiler where it would only simmer, and explained why.
-      The influence of the Angel's visit lingered with the cook through the
-      remainder of his life, while the men prayed for her frequent return.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She was having a happy time, when McLean came back jubilant, from his trip
-      to the tree. How jubilant he told only the Angel, for he had been obliged
-      to lose faith in some trusted men of late, and had learned discretion by
-      what he suffered. He planned to begin clearing out a road to the tree that
-      same afternoon, and to set two guards every night, for it promised to be a
-      rare treasure, so he was eager to see it on the way to the mills.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am coming to see it felled,&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;I feel a sort of
-      motherly interest in that tree.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean was highly amused. He would have staked his life on the honesty of
-      either the Angel or Freckles; yet their versions of the finding of the
-      tree differed widely.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Tell me, Angel,&rdquo; the Boss said jestingly. &ldquo;I think I have a right to
-      know. Who really did locate that tree?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; she answered promptly and emphatically.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But he says quite as positively that it was you. I don't understand.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's legal look flashed into her face. Her eyes grew tense with
-      earnestness. She glanced around, and seeing no towel or basin, held out
-      her hand for Sears to pour water over them. Then, using the skirt of her
-      dress to dry them, she climbed on the wagon.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll tell you, word for word, how it happened,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;and then you
-      shall decide, and Freckles and I will agree with you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      When she had finished her version, &ldquo;Tell us, 'oh, most learned judge!'&rdquo;
-       she laughingly quoted, &ldquo;which of us located that tree?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Blest if I know who located it!&rdquo; exclaimed McLean. &ldquo;But I have a fairly
-      accurate idea as to who put the blue ribbon on it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Boss smiled significantly at Freckles, who just had come, for they had
-      planned that they would instruct the company to reserve enough of the
-      veneer from that very tree to make the most beautiful dressing table they
-      could design for the Angel's share of the discovery.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What will you have for yours?&rdquo; McLean had asked of Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If it's all the same to you, I'll be taking mine out in music lessons&mdash;begging
-      your pardon&mdash;voice culture,&rdquo; said Freckles with a grimace.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean laughed, for Freckles needed to see or hear only once to absorb
-      learning as the thirsty earth sucks up water.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel placed McLean at the head of the table. She took the foot, with
-      Freckles on her right, while the lumber gang, washed, brushed, and
-      straightened until they felt unfamiliar with themselves and each other,
-      filled the sides. That imposed a slight constraint. Then, too, the men
-      were afraid of the flowers, the polished tableware, and above all, of the
-      dainty grace of the Angel. Nowhere do men so display lack of good breeding
-      and culture as in dining. To sprawl on the table, scoop with their knives,
-      chew loudly, gulp coffee, and duck their heads as snapping-turtles for
-      every bite, had not been noticed by them until the Angel, sitting
-      straightly, suddenly made them remember that they, too, were possessed of
-      spines. Instinctively every man at the table straightened.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XVII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      To reach the tree was a more difficult task than McLean had supposed. The
-      gang could approach nearest on the outside toward the east, but after they
-      reached the end of the east entrance there was yet a mile of most
-      impenetrable thicket, trees big and little, and bushes of every variety
-      and stage of growth. In many places the muck had to be filled to give the
-      horses and wagons a solid foundation over which to haul heavy loads. It
-      was several days before they completed a road to the noble, big tree and
-      were ready to fell it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When the sawing began, Freckles was watching down the road where it met
-      the trail leading from Little Chicken's tree. He had gone to the tree
-      ahead of the gang to remove the blue ribbon. Carefully folded, it now lay
-      over his heart. He was promising himself much comfort with that ribbon,
-      when he would leave for the city next month to begin his studies and dream
-      the summer over again. It would help to make things tangible. When he was
-      dressed as other men, and at his work, he knew where he meant to home that
-      precious bit of blue. It should be his good-luck token, and he would wear
-      it always to keep bright in memory the day on which the Angel had called
-      him her knight.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      How he would study, and oh, how he would sing! If only he could fulfill
-      McLean's expectations, and make the Angel proud of him! If only he could
-      be a real knight!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He could not understand why the Angel had failed to come. She had wanted
-      to see their tree felled. She would be too late if she did not arrive
-      soon. He had told her it would be ready that morning, and she had said she
-      surely would be there. Why, of all mornings, was she late on this?
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean had ridden to town. If he had been there, Freckles would have asked
-      that they delay the felling, but he scarcely liked to ask the gang. He
-      really had no authority, although he thought the men would wait; but some
-      way he found such embarrassment in framing the request that he waited
-      until the work was practically ended. The saw was out, and the men were
-      cutting into the felling side of the tree when the Boss rode in.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His first word was to inquire for the Angel. When Freckles said she had
-      not yet come, the Boss at once gave orders to stop work on the tree until
-      she arrived; for he felt that she virtually had located it, and if she
-      desired to see it felled, she should. As the men stepped back, a stiff
-      morning breeze caught the top, that towered high above its fellows. There
-      was an ominous grinding at the base, a shiver of the mighty trunk, then
-      directly in line of its fall the bushes swung apart and the laughing face
-      of the Angel looked on them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A groan of horror burst from the dry throats of the men, and reading the
-      agony in their faces, she stopped short, glanced up, and understood.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;South!&rdquo; shouted McLean. &ldquo;Run south!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel was helpless. It was apparent that she did not know which way
-      south was. There was another slow shiver of the big tree. The remainder of
-      the gang stood motionless, but Freckles sprang past the trunk and went
-      leaping in big bounds. He caught up the Angel and dashed through the
-      thicket for safety. The swaying trunk was half over when, for an instant,
-      a near-by tree stayed its fall. They saw Freckles' foot catch, and with
-      the Angel he plunged headlong.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A terrible cry broke from the men, while McLean covered his face.
-      Instantly Freckles was up, with the Angel in his arms, struggling on. The
-      outer limbs were on them when they saw Freckles hurl the Angel, face down,
-      in the muck, as far from him as he could send her. Springing after, in an
-      attempt to cover her body with his own, he whirled to see if they were yet
-      in danger, and with outstretched arms braced himself for the shock. The
-      branches shut them from sight, and the awful crash rocked the earth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean and Duncan ran with axes and saws. The remainder of the gang
-      followed, and they worked desperately. It seemed a long time before they
-      caught a glimpse of the Angel's blue dress, but it renewed their vigor.
-      Duncan fell on his knees beside her and tore the muck from underneath her
-      with his hands. In a few seconds he dragged her out, choking and stunned,
-      but surely not fatally hurt.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay a little farther under the tree, a big limb pinning him down.
-      His eyes were wide open. He was perfectly conscious. Duncan began mining
-      beneath him, but Freckles stopped him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You can't be moving me,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;You must cut off the limb and lift it.
-      I know.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Two men ran for the big saw. A number of them laid hold of the limb and
-      bore up. In a short time it was removed, and Freckles lay free.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The men bent over to lift him, but he motioned them away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't be touching me until I rest a bit,&rdquo; he pleaded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Then he twisted his head until he saw the Angel, who was wiping muck from
-      her eyes and face on the skirt of her dress.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Try to get up,&rdquo; he begged.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean laid hold of the Angel and helped her to her feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you think any bones are broken?&rdquo; gasped Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel shook her head and wiped muck.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see if you can find any, sir,&rdquo; Freckles commanded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel yielded herself to McLean's touch, and he assured Freckles that
-      she was not seriously injured.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles settled back, a smile of ineffable tenderness on his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank the Lord!&rdquo; he hoarsely whispered.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel leaned toward him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, Freckles, you!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;It's your turn. Please get up!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A pitiful spasm swept Freckles' face. The sight of it washed every vestige
-      of color from the Angel's. She took hold of his hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, get up!&rdquo; It was half command, half entreaty.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Easy, Angel, easy! Let me rest a bit first!&rdquo; implored Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She knelt beside him. He reached his arm around her and drew her closely.
-      He looked at McLean in an agony of entreaty that brought the Boss to his
-      knees on the other side.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Freckles!&rdquo; McLean cried. &ldquo;Not that! Surely we can do something! We
-      must! Let me see!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He tried to unfasten Freckles' neckband, but his fingers shook so clumsily
-      that the Angel pushed them away and herself laid Freckles' chest bare.
-      With one hasty glance she gathered the clothing together and slipped her
-      arm under his head. Freckles lifted his eyes of agony to hers.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You see?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel nodded dumbly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles turned to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank you for everything,&rdquo; he panted. &ldquo;Where are the boys?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They are all here,&rdquo; said the Boss, &ldquo;except a couple who have gone for
-      doctors, Mrs. Duncan and the Bird Woman.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's no use trying to do anything,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You won't forget the
-      muff and the Christmas box. The muff especial?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      There was a movement above them so pronounced that it attracted Freckles'
-      attention, even in that extreme hour. He looked up, and a pleased smile
-      flickered on his drawn face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, if it ain't me Little Chicken!&rdquo; he cried hoarsely. &ldquo;He must be
-      making his very first trip from the log. Now Duncan can have his big
-      watering-trough.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It was Little Chicken that made me late,&rdquo; faltered the Angel. &ldquo;I was so
-      anxious to get here early I forgot to bring his breakfast from the
-      carriage. He must have been hungry, for when I passed the log he started
-      after me. He was so wabbly, and so slow flying from tree to tree and
-      through the bushes, I just had to wait on him, for I couldn't drive him
-      back.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course you couldn't! Me bird has too amazing good sinse to go back
-      when he could be following you,&rdquo; exulted Freckles, exactly as if he did
-      not realize what the delay had cost him. Then he lay silently thinking,
-      but presently he asked slowly: &ldquo;And so 'twas me Little Chicken that was
-      making you late, Angel?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      A spasm of fierce pain shook Freckles, and a look of uncertainty crossed
-      his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All summer I've been thanking God for the falling of the feather and all
-      the delights it's brought me,&rdquo; he muttered, &ldquo;but this looks as if&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He stopped short and raised questioning eyes to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I can't help being Irish, but I can help being superstitious,&rdquo; he said.
-      &ldquo;I mustn't be laying it to the Almighty, or to me bird, must I?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No, dear lad,&rdquo; said McLean, stroking the brilliant hair. &ldquo;The choice lay
-      with you. You could have stood a rooted dolt like all the remainder of us.
-      It was through your great love and your high courage that you made the
-      sacrifice.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't you be so naming it, sir!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;It's just the reverse.
-      If I could be giving me body the hundred times over to save hers from
-      this, I'd be doing it and take joy with every pain.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He turned with a smile of adoring tenderness to the Angel. She was ghastly
-      white, and her eyes were dull and glazed. She scarcely seemed to hear or
-      understand what was coming, but she bravely tried to answer that smile.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is my forehead covered with dirt?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She shook her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You did once,&rdquo; he gasped.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Instantly she laid her lips on his forehead, then on each cheek, and then
-      in a long kiss on his lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean bent over him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; he said brokenly, &ldquo;you will never know how I love you. You
-      won't go without saying good-bye to me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      That word stung the Angel to quick comprehension. She started as if
-      arousing from sleep.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good-bye?&rdquo; she cried sharply, her eyes widening and the color rushing
-      into her white face. &ldquo;Good-bye! Why, what do you mean? Who's saying
-      good-bye? Where could Freckles go, when he is hurt like this, save to the
-      hospital? You needn't say good-bye for that. Of course, we will all go
-      with him! You call up the men. We must start right away.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's no use, Angel,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I'm thinking ivry bone in me breast
-      is smashed. You'll have to be letting me go!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will not,&rdquo; said the Angel flatly. &ldquo;It's no use wasting precious time
-      talking about it. You are alive. You are breathing; and no matter how
-      badly your bones are broken, what are great surgeons for but to fix you up
-      and make you well again? You promise me that you'll just grit your teeth
-      and hang on when we hurt you, for we must start with you as quickly as it
-      can be done. I don't know what has been the matter with me. Here's good
-      time wasted already.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Angel!&rdquo; moaned Freckles, &ldquo;I can't! You don't know how bad it is. I'll
-      die the minute you are for trying to lift me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course you will, if you make up your mind to do it,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-      &ldquo;But if you are determined you won't, and set yourself to breathing deep
-      and strong, and hang on to me tight, I can get you out. Really you must,
-      Freckles, no matter how it hurts, for you did this for me, and now I must
-      save you, so you might as well promise.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She bent over him, trying to smile encouragement with her fear-stiffened
-      lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You will promise, Freckles?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Big drops of cold sweat ran together on Freckles' temples.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel, darlin' Angel,&rdquo; he pleaded, taking her hand in his. &ldquo;You ain't
-      understanding, and I can't for the life of me be telling you, but indade,
-      it's best to be letting me go. This is my chance. Please say good-bye, and
-      let me slip off quick!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He appealed to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear Boss, you know! You be telling her that, for me, living is far worse
-      pain than dying. Tell her you know death is the best thing that could ever
-      be happening to me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Merciful Heaven!&rdquo; burst in the Angel. &ldquo;I can't endure this delay!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She caught Freckles' hand to her breast, and bending over him, looked
-      deeply into his stricken eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'Angel, I give you my word of honor that I will keep right on breathing.'
-      That's what you are going to promise me,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Do you say it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles hesitated.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; imploringly commanded the Angel, &ldquo;YOU DO SAY IT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; gasped Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel sprang to her feet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then that's all right,&rdquo; she said, with a tinge of her old-time briskness.
-      &ldquo;You just keep breathing away like a steam engine, and I will do all the
-      remainder.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The eager men gathered around her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's going to be a tough pull to get Freckles out,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;but it's
-      our only chance, so listen closely and don't for the lives of you fail me
-      in doing quickly what I tell you. There's no time to spend falling down
-      over each other; we must have some system. You four there get on those
-      wagon horses and ride to the sleeping-tent. Get the stoutest cot, a couple
-      of comforts, and a pillow. Ride back with them some way to save time. If
-      you meet any other men of the gang, send them here to help carry the cot.
-      We won't risk the jolt of driving with him. The others clear a path out to
-      the road; and Mr. McLean, you take Nellie and ride to town. Tell my father
-      how Freckles is hurt and that he risked it to save me. Tell him I'm going
-      to take Freckles to Chicago on the noon train, and I want him to hold it
-      if we are a little late. If he can't, then have a special ready at the
-      station and another on the Pittsburgh at Fort Wayne, so we can go straight
-      through. You needn't mind leaving us. The Bird Woman will be here soon. We
-      will rest awhile.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She dropped into the muck beside Freckles and began stroking his hair and
-      hand. He lay with his face of agony turned to hers, and fought to smother
-      the groans that would tell her what he was suffering.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      When they stood ready to lift him, the Angel bent over him in a passion of
-      tenderness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear old Limberlost guard, we're going to lift you now,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;I
-      suspect you will faint from the pain of it, but we will be as easy as ever
-      we can, and don't you dare forget your promise!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A whimsical half-smile touched Freckles' quivering lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel, can a man be remembering a promise when he ain't knowing?&rdquo; he
-      asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You can,&rdquo; said the Angel stoutly, &ldquo;because a promise means so much more
-      to you than it does to most men.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A look of strength flashed into Freckles' face at her words.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am ready,&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With the first touch his eyes closed, a mighty groan was wrenched from
-      him, and he lay senseless. The Angel gave Duncan one panic-stricken look.
-      Then she set her lips and gathered her forces again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I guess that's a good thing,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Maybe he won't feel how we are
-      hurting him. Oh boys, are you being quick and gentle?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She stepped to the side of the cot and bathed Freckles' face. Taking his
-      hand in hers, she gave the word to start. She told the men to ask every
-      able-bodied man they met to join them so that they could change carriers
-      often and make good time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Bird Woman insisted upon taking the Angel into the carriage and
-      following the cot, but she refused to leave Freckles, and suggested that
-      the Bird Woman drive ahead, pack them some clothing, and be at the station
-      ready to accompany them to Chicago. All the way the Angel walked beside
-      the cot, shading Freckles' face with a branch, and holding his hand. At
-      every pause to change carriers she moistened his face and lips and watched
-      each breath with heart-breaking anxiety.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      She scarcely knew when her father joined them, and taking the branch from
-      her, slipped an arm around her waist and almost carried her. To the city
-      streets and the swarm of curious, staring faces she paid no more attention
-      than she had to the trees of the Limberlost. When the train came and the
-      gang placed Freckles aboard, big Duncan made a place for the Angel beside
-      the cot.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With the best physician to be found, and with the Bird Woman and McLean in
-      attendance, the four-hours' run to Chicago began. The Angel constantly
-      watched over Freckles; bathed his face, stroked his hand, and gently
-      fanned him. Not for an instant would she yield her place, or allow anyone
-      else to do anything for him. The Bird Woman and McLean regarded her in
-      amazement. There seemed to be no end to her resources and courage. The
-      only time she spoke was to ask McLean if he were sure the special would be
-      ready on the Pittsburgh road. He replied that it was made up and waiting.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      At five o'clock Freckles lay stretched on the operating-table of Lake View
-      Hospital, while three of the greatest surgeons in Chicago bent over him.
-      At their command, McLean picked up the unwilling Angel and carried her to
-      the nurses to be bathed, have her bruises attended, and to be put to bed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a place where it is difficult to surprise people, they were astonished
-      women as they removed the Angel's dainty stained and torn clothing, drew
-      off hose muck-baked to her limbs, soaked the dried loam from her silken
-      hair, and washed the beautiful scratched, bruised, dirt-covered body. The
-      Angel fell fast asleep long before they had finished, and lay deeply
-      unconscious, while the fight for Freckles' life was being waged.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Three days later she was the same Angel as of old, except that Freckles
-      was constantly in her thoughts. The anxiety and responsibility that she
-      felt for his condition had bred in her a touch of womanliness and
-      authority that was new. That morning she arose early and hovered near
-      Freckles' door. She had been allowed to remain with him constantly, for
-      the nurses and surgeons had learned, with his returning consciousness,
-      that for her alone would the active, highly strung, pain-racked sufferer
-      be quiet and obey orders. When she was dropping from loss of sleep, the
-      threat that she would fall ill had to be used to send her to bed. Then by
-      telling Freckles that the Angel was asleep and they would waken her the
-      moment he moved, they were able to control him for a short time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The surgeon was with Freckles. The Angel had been told that the word he
-      brought that morning would be final, so she curled in a window seat,
-      dropped the curtains behind her, and in dire anxiety, waited the opening
-      of the door.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Just as it unclosed, McLean came hurrying down the hall and to the
-      surgeon, but with one glance at his face he stepped back in dismay; while
-      the Angel, who had arisen, sank to the seat again, too dazed to come
-      forward. The men faced each other. The Angel, with parted lips and
-      frightened eyes, bent forward in tense anxiety.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I&mdash;I thought he was doing nicely?&rdquo; faltered McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He bore the operation well,&rdquo; replied the surgeon, &ldquo;and his wounds are not
-      necessarily fatal. I told you that yesterday, but I did not tell you that
-      something else probably would kill him; and it will. He need not die from
-      the accident, but he will not live the day out.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But why? What is it?&rdquo; asked McLean hurriedly. &ldquo;We all dearly love the
-      boy. We have millions among us to do anything that money can accomplish.
-      Why must he die, if those broken bones are not the cause?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That is what I am going to give you the opportunity to tell me,&rdquo; replied
-      the surgeon. &ldquo;He need not die from the accident, yet he is dying as fast
-      as his splendid physical condition will permit, and it is because he so
-      evidently prefers death to life. If he were full of hope and ambition to
-      live, my work would be easy. If all of you love him as you prove you do,
-      and there is unlimited means to give him anything he wants, why should he
-      desire death?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is he dying?&rdquo; demanded McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He is,&rdquo; said the surgeon. &ldquo;He will not live this day out, unless some
-      strong reaction sets in at once. He is so low, that preferring death to
-      life, nature cannot overcome his inertia. If he is to live, he must be
-      made to desire life. Now he undoubtedly wishes for death, and that it come
-      quickly.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then he must die,&rdquo; said McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      His broad shoulders shook convulsively. His strong hands opened and closed
-      mechanically.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Does that mean that you know what he desires and cannot, or will not,
-      supply it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean groaned in misery.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It means,&rdquo; he said desperately, &ldquo;that I know what he wants, but it is as
-      far removed from my power to help him as it would be to give him a star.
-      The thing for which he will die, he can never have.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then you must prepare for the end very shortly&rdquo; said the surgeon, turning
-      abruptly away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean caught his arm roughly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You look here!&rdquo; he cried in desperation. &ldquo;You say that as if I could do
-      something if I would. I tell you the boy is dear to me past expression. I
-      would do anything&mdash;spend any sum. You have noticed and repeatedly
-      commented on the young girl with me. It is that child that he wants! He
-      worships her to adoration, and knowing he can never be anything to her, he
-      prefers death to life. In God's name, what can I do about it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Barring that missing hand, I never examined a finer man,&rdquo; said the
-      surgeon, &ldquo;and she seemed perfectly devoted to him; why cannot he have
-      her?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why?&rdquo; echoed McLean. &ldquo;Why? Well, for many reasons! I told you he was my
-      son. You probably knew that he was not. A little over a year ago I never
-      had seen him. He joined one of my lumber gangs from the road. He is a
-      stray, left at one of your homes for the friendless here in Chicago. When
-      he grew up the superintendent bound him to a brutal man. He ran away and
-      landed in one of my lumber camps. He has no name or knowledge of legal
-      birth. The Angel&mdash;we have talked of her. You see what she is,
-      physically and mentally. She has ancestors reaching back to Plymouth Rock,
-      and across the sea for generations before that. She is an idolized, petted
-      only child, and there is great wealth. Life holds everything for her,
-      nothing for him. He sees it more plainly than anyone else could. There is
-      nothing for the boy but death, if it is the Angel that is required to save
-      him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel stood between them.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I just guess not!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;If Freckles wants me, all he has to
-      do is to say so, and he can have me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The amazed men stepped back, staring at her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That he will never say,&rdquo; said McLean at last, &ldquo;and you don't understand,
-      Angel. I don't know how you came here. I wouldn't have had you hear that
-      for the world, but since you have, dear girl, you must be told that it
-      isn't your friendship or your kindness Freckles wants; it is your love.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel looked straight into the great surgeon's eyes with her clear,
-      steady orbs of blue, and then into McLean's with unwavering frankness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I do love him,&rdquo; she said simply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean's arms dropped helplessly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You don't understand,&rdquo; he reiterated patiently. &ldquo;It isn't the love of a
-      friend, or a comrade, or a sister, that Freckles wants from you; it is the
-      love of a sweetheart. And if to save the life he has offered for you, you
-      are thinking of being generous and impulsive enough to sacrifice your
-      future&mdash;in the absence of your father, it will become my plain duty,
-      as the protector in whose hands he has placed you, to prevent such
-      rashness. The very words you speak, and the manner in which you say them,
-      prove that you are a mere child, and have not dreamed what love is.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Angel grew splendid. A rosy flush swept the pallor of fear from
-      her face. Her big eyes widened and dilated with intense lights. She seemed
-      to leap to the height and the dignity of superb womanhood before their
-      wondering gaze.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I never have had to dream of love,&rdquo; she said proudly. &ldquo;I never have known
-      anything else, in all my life, but to love everyone and to have everyone
-      love me. And there never has been anyone so dear as Freckles. If you will
-      remember, we have been through a good deal together. I do love Freckles,
-      just as I say I do. I don't know anything about the love of sweethearts,
-      but I love him with all the love in my heart, and I think that will
-      satisfy him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Surely it should!&rdquo; muttered the man of knives and lancets.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean reached to take hold of the Angel, but she saw the movement and
-      swiftly stepped back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;As for my father,&rdquo; she continued, &ldquo;he at once told me what he learned
-      from you about Freckles. I've known all you know for several weeks. That
-      knowledge didn't change your love for him a particle. I think the Bird
-      Woman loved him more. Why should you two have all the fine perceptions
-      there are? Can't I see how brave, trustworthy, and splendid he is? Can't I
-      see how his soul vibrates with his music, his love of beautiful things and
-      the pangs of loneliness and heart hunger? Must you two love him with all
-      the love there is, and I give him none? My father is never unreasonable.
-      He won't expect me not to love Freckles, or not to tell him so, if the
-      telling will save him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She darted past McLean into Freckles' room, closed the door, and turned
-      the key.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XVIII
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable Birth, and
-      the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay on a flat pillow, his body immovable in a plaster cast, his
-      maimed arm, as always, hidden. His greedy gaze fastened at once on the
-      Angel's face. She crossed to him with light step and bent over him with
-      infinite tenderness. Her heart ached at the change in his appearance. He
-      seemed so weak, heart hungry, so utterly hopeless, so alone. She could see
-      that the night had been one long terror.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      For the first time she tried putting herself in Freckles' place. What
-      would it mean to have no parents, no home, no name? No name! That was the
-      worst of all. That was to be lost&mdash;indeed&mdash;utterly and
-      hopelessly lost. The Angel lifted her hands to her dazed head and reeled,
-      as she tried to face that proposition. She dropped on her knees beside the
-      bed, slipped her arm under the pillow, and leaning over Freckles, set her
-      lips on his forehead. He smiled faintly, but his wistful face appeared
-      worse for it. It hurt the Angel to the heart.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear Freckles,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;there is a story in your eyes this morning,
-      tell me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles drew a long, wavering breath.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; he begged, &ldquo;be generous! Be thinking of me a little. I'm so
-      homesick and worn out, dear Angel, be giving me back me promise. Let me
-      go?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why Freckles!&rdquo; faltered the Angel. &ldquo;You don't know what you are asking.
-      'Let you go!' I cannot! I love you better than anyone, Freckles. I think
-      you are the very finest person I ever knew. I have our lives all planned.
-      I want you to be educated and learn all there is to know about singing,
-      just as soon as you are well enough. By the time you have completed your
-      education I will have finished college, and then I want,&rdquo; she choked a
-      second, &ldquo;I want you to be my real knight, Freckles, and come to me and
-      tell me that you&mdash;like me&mdash;a little. I have been counting on you
-      for my sweetheart from the very first, Freckles. I can't give you up,
-      unless you don't like me. But you do like me&mdash;just a little&mdash;don't
-      you, Freckles?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay whiter than the coverlet, his staring eyes on the ceiling and
-      his breath wheezing between dry lips. The Angel awaited his answer a
-      second, and when none came, she dropped her crimsoning face beside him on
-      the pillow and whispered in his ear:
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, I&mdash;I'm trying to make love to you. Oh, can't you help me
-      only a little bit? It's awful hard all alone! I don't know how, when I
-      really mean it, but Freckles, I love you. I must have you, and now I guess&mdash;I
-      guess maybe I'd better kiss you next.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted her shamed face and bravely laid her feverish, quivering lips
-      on his. Her breath, like clover-bloom, was in his nostrils, and her hair
-      touched his face. Then she looked into his eyes with reproach.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; she panted, &ldquo;Freckles! I didn't think it was in you to be
-      mean!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Mean, Angel! Mean to you?&rdquo; gasped Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;Downright mean. When I kiss you, if you had any
-      mercy at all you'd kiss back, just a little bit.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' sinewy fist knotted into the coverlet. His chin pointed
-      ceilingward while his head rocked on the pillow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Jesus!&rdquo; burst from him in agony. &ldquo;You ain't the only one that was
-      crucified!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel caught Freckles' hand and carried it to her breast.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; she wailed in terror, &ldquo;Freckles! It is a mistake? Is it that
-      you don't want me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' head rolled on in wordless suffering.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wait a bit, Angel?&rdquo; he panted at last. &ldquo;Be giving me a little time!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel arose with controlled features. She bathed his face,
-      straightened his hair, and held water to his lips. It seemed a long time
-      before he reached toward her. Instantly she knelt again, carried his hand
-      to her breast, and leaned her cheek upon it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Tell me, Freckles,&rdquo; she whispered softly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If I can,&rdquo; said Freckles in agony. &ldquo;It's just this. Angels are from
-      above. Outcasts are from below. You've a sound body and you're
-      beautifulest of all. You have everything that loving, careful raising and
-      money can give you. I have so much less than nothing that I don't suppose
-      I had any right to be born. It's a sure thing&mdash;nobody wanted me
-      afterward, so of course, they didn't before. Some of them should have been
-      telling you long ago.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If that's all you have to say, Freckles, I've known that quite a while,&rdquo;
-       said the Angel stoutly. &ldquo;Mr. McLean told my father, and he told me. That
-      only makes me love you more, to pay for all you've missed.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then I'm wondering at you,&rdquo; said Freckles in a voice of awe. &ldquo;Can't you
-      see that if you were willing and your father would come and offer you to
-      me, I couldn't be touching the soles of your feet, in love&mdash;me, whose
-      people brawled over me, cut off me hand, and throwed me away to freeze and
-      to die! Me, who has no name just as much because I've no RIGHT to any, as
-      because I don't know it. When I was little, I planned to find me father
-      and mother when I grew up. Now I know me mother deserted me, and me father
-      was maybe a thief and surely a liar. The pity for me suffering and the
-      watching over me have gone to your head, dear Angel, and it's me must be
-      thinking for you. If you could be forgetting me lost hand, where I was
-      raised, and that I had no name to give you, and if you would be taking me
-      as I am, some day people such as mine must be, might come upon you. I used
-      to pray ivery night and morning and many times the day to see me mother.
-      Now I only pray to die quickly and never risk the sight of her. 'Tain't no
-      ways possible, Angel! It's a wildness of your dear head. Oh, do for mercy
-      sake, kiss me once more and be letting me go!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Not for a minute!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;Not for a minute, if those are all
-      the reasons you have. It's you who are wild in your head, but I can
-      understand just how it happened. Being shut in that Home most of your
-      life, and seeing children every day whose parents did neglect and desert
-      them, makes you sure yours did the same; and yet there are so many other
-      things that could have happened so much more easily than that. There are
-      thousands of young couples who come to this country and start a family
-      with none of their relatives here. Chicago is a big, wicked city, and
-      grown people could disappear in many ways, and who would there ever be to
-      find to whom their little children belonged? The minute my father told me
-      how you felt, I began to study this thing over, and I've made up my mind
-      you are dead wrong. I meant to ask my father or the Bird Woman to talk to
-      you before you went away to school, but as matters are right now I guess
-      I'll just do it myself. It's all so plain to me. Oh, if I could only make
-      you see!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She buried her face in the pillow and presently lifted it, transfigured.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now I have it!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Oh, dear heart! I can make it so plain!
-      Freckles, can you imagine you see the old Limberlost trail? Well when we
-      followed it, you know there were places where ugly, prickly thistles
-      overgrew the path, and you went ahead with your club and bent them back to
-      keep them from stinging through my clothing. Other places there were big
-      shining pools where lovely, snow-white lilies grew, and you waded in and
-      gathered them for me. Oh dear heart, don't you see? It's this! Everywhere
-      the wind carried that thistledown, other thistles sprang up and grew
-      prickles; and wherever those lily seeds sank to the mire, the pure white
-      of other lilies bloomed. But, Freckles, there was never a place anywhere
-      in the Limberlost, or in the whole world, where the thistledown floated
-      and sprang up and blossomed into white lilies! Thistles grow from
-      thistles, and lilies from other lilies. Dear Freckles, think hard! You
-      must see it! You are a lily, straight through. You never, never could have
-      drifted from the thistle-patch.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Where did you find the courage to go into the Limberlost and face its
-      terrors? You inherited it from the blood of a brave father, dear heart.
-      Where did you get the pluck to hold for over a year a job that few men
-      would have taken at all? You got it from a plucky mother, you bravest of
-      boys. You attacked single-handed a man almost twice your size, and fought
-      as a demon, merely at the suggestion that you be deceptive and dishonest.
-      Could your mother or your father have been untruthful? Here you are, so
-      hungry and starved that you are dying for love. Where did you get all that
-      capacity for loving? You didn't inherit it from hardened, heartless
-      people, who would disfigure you and purposely leave you to die, that's one
-      sure thing. You once told me of saving your big bullfrog from a
-      rattlesnake. You knew you risked a horrible death when you did it. Yet you
-      will spend miserable years torturing yourself with the idea that your own
-      mother might have cut off that hand. Shame on you, Freckles! Your mother
-      would have done this&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel deliberately turned back the cover, slipped up the sleeve, and
-      laid her lips on the scars.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Wake up!&rdquo; she cried, almost shaking him. &ldquo;Come to your senses!
-      Be a thinking, reasoning man! You have brooded too much, and been all your
-      life too much alone. It's all as plain as plain can be to me. You must see
-      it! Like breeds like in this world! You must be some sort of a
-      reproduction of your parents, and I am not afraid to vouch for them, not
-      for a minute!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And then, too, if more proof is needed, here it is: Mr. McLean says that
-      you never once have failed in tact and courtesy. He says that you are the
-      most perfect gentleman he ever knew, and he has traveled the world over.
-      How does it happen, Freckles? No one at that Home taught you. Hundreds of
-      men couldn't be taught, even in a school of etiquette; so it must be
-      instinctive with you. If it is, why, that means that it is born in you,
-      and a direct inheritance from a race of men that have been gentlemen for
-      ages, and couldn't be anything else.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then there's your singing. I don't believe there ever was a mortal with a
-      sweeter voice than yours, and while that doesn't prove anything, there is
-      a point that does. The little training you had from that choirmaster won't
-      account for the wonderful accent and ease with which you sing. Somewhere
-      in your close blood is a marvelously trained vocalist; we every one of us
-      believe that, Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why does my father refer to you constantly as being of fine perceptions
-      and honor? Because you are, Freckles. Why does the Bird Woman leave her
-      precious work and come here to help look after you? I never heard of her
-      losing any time over anyone else. It's because she loves you. And why does
-      Mr. McLean turn all of his valuable business over to hired men and watch
-      you personally? And why is he hunting excuses every day to spend money on
-      you? My father says McLean is full Scotch-close with a dollar. He is a
-      hard-headed business man, Freckles, and he is doing it because he finds
-      you worthy of it. Worthy of all we all can do and more than we know how to
-      do, dear heart! Freckles, are you listening to me? Oh! won't you see it?
-      Won't you believe it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Angel!&rdquo; chattered the bewildered Freckles, &ldquo;are you truly maning it?
-      Could it be?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course it could,&rdquo; flashed the Angel, &ldquo;because it just is!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But you can't prove it,&rdquo; wailed Freckles. &ldquo;It ain't giving me a name, or
-      me honor!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles,&rdquo; said the Angel sternly, &ldquo;you are unreasonable! Why, I did
-      prove every word I said! Everything proves it! You look here! If you knew
-      for sure that I could give you a name and your honor, and prove to you
-      that your mother did love you, why, then, would you just go to breathing
-      like perpetual motion and hang on for dear life and get well?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A bright light shone in Freckles' eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;If I knew that, Angel,&rdquo; he said solemnly, &ldquo;you couldn't be killing me if
-      you felled the biggest tree in the Limberlost smash on me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then you go right to work,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;and before night I'll prove
-      one thing to you: I can show you easily enough how much your mother loved
-      you. That will be the first step, and then the remainder will all come. If
-      my father and Mr. McLean are so anxious to spend some money, I'll give
-      them a chance. I don't see why we haven't comprehended how you felt and so
-      have been at work weeks ago. We've been awfully selfish. We've all been so
-      comfortable, we never stopped to think what other people were suffering
-      before our eyes. None of us has understood. I'll hire the finest detective
-      in Chicago, and we'll go to work together. This is nothing compared with
-      things people do find out. We'll go at it, beak and claw, and we'll show
-      you a thing or two.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles caught her sleeve.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me mother, Angel! Me mother!&rdquo; he marveled hoarsely. &ldquo;Did you say you
-      could be finding out today if me mother loved me? How? Oh, Angel! Nothing
-      matters, IF ONLY ME MOTHER DIDN'T DO IT!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then you rest easy,&rdquo; said the Angel, with large confidence. &ldquo;Your mother
-      didn't do it! Mothers of sons such as you don't do things like that. I'll
-      go to work at once and prove it to you. The first thing to do is to go to
-      that Home where you were and get the clothes you wore the night you were
-      left there. I know that they are required to save those things carefully.
-      We can find out almost all there is to know about your mother from them.
-      Did you ever see them?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yis,&rdquo; he replied.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles! Were they white?&rdquo; she cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe they were once. They're all yellow with laying, and brown with
-      blood-stains now&rdquo; said Freckles, the old note of bitterness creeping in.
-      &ldquo;You can't be telling anything at all by them, Angel!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, but I just can!&rdquo; said the Angel positively. &ldquo;I can see from the
-      quality what kind of goods your mother could afford to buy. I can see from
-      the cut whether she had good taste. I can see from the care she took in
-      making them how much she loved and wanted you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But how? Angel, tell me how!&rdquo; implored Freckles with trembling eagerness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, easily enough,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I thought you'd understand. People
-      that can afford anything at all, always buy white for little new babies&mdash;linen
-      and lace, and the very finest things to be had. There's a young woman
-      living near us who cut up her wedding clothes to have fine things for her
-      baby. Mothers who love and want their babies don't buy little rough,
-      ready-made things, and they don't run up what they make on an old sewing
-      machine. They make fine seams, and tucks, and put on lace and trimming by
-      hand. They sit and stitch, and stitch&mdash;little, even stitches, every
-      one just as careful. Their eyes shine and their faces glow. When they have
-      to quit to do something else, they look sorry, and fold up their work so
-      particularly. There isn't much worth knowing about your mother that those
-      little clothes won't tell. I can see her putting the little stitches into
-      them and smiling with shining eyes over your coming. Freckles, I'll wager
-      you a dollar those little clothes of yours are just alive with the
-      dearest, tiny handmade stitches.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A new light dawned in Freckles' eyes. A tinge of warm color swept into his
-      face. Renewed strength was noticeable in his grip of her hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Angel! Will you go now? Will you be hurrying?&rdquo; he cried.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Right away,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;I won't stop for a thing, and I'll hurry
-      with all my might.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She smoothed his pillow, straightened the cover, gave him one steady look
-      in the eyes, and went quietly from the room.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Outside the door, McLean and the surgeon anxiously awaited her. McLean
-      caught her shoulders.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel, what have you done?&rdquo; he demanded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel smiled defiance into his eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'What have I done?'&rdquo; she repeated. &ldquo;I've tried to save Freckles.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;What will your father say?&rdquo; groaned McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It strikes me,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;that what Freckles said would be to the
-      point.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles!&rdquo; exclaimed McLean. &ldquo;What could he say?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;He seemed to be able to say several things,&rdquo; answered the Angel sweetly.
-      &ldquo;I fancy the one that concerns you most at present was, that if my father
-      should offer me to him he would not have me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And no one knows why better than I do,&rdquo; cried McLean. &ldquo;Every day he must
-      astonish me with some new fineness.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He turned to the surgeon. &ldquo;Save him!&rdquo; he commanded. &ldquo;Save him!&rdquo; he
-      implored. &ldquo;He is too fine to be sacrificed.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;His salvation lies here,&rdquo; said the surgeon, stroking the Angel's sunshiny
-      hair, &ldquo;and I can read in the face of her that she knows how she is going
-      to work it out. Don't trouble for the boy. She will save him!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel laughingly sped down the hall, and into the street, just as she
-      was.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have come,&rdquo; she said to the matron of the Home, &ldquo;to ask if you will
-      allow me to examine, or, better yet, to take with me, the little clothes
-      that a boy you called Freckles, discharged last fall, wore the night he
-      was left here.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The woman looked at her in greater astonishment than the occasion
-      demanded.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I'd be glad to let you see them,&rdquo; she said at last, &ldquo;but the fact
-      is we haven't them. I do hope we haven't made some mistake. I was
-      thoroughly convinced, and so was the superintendent. We let his people
-      take those things away yesterday. Who are you, and what do you want with
-      them?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel stood dazed and speechless, staring at the matron.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There couldn't have been a mistake,&rdquo; continued the matron, seeing the
-      Angel's distress. &ldquo;Freckles was here when I took charge, ten years ago.
-      These people had it all proved that he belonged to them. They had him
-      traced to where he ran away in Illinois last fall, and there they
-      completely lost track of him. I'm sorry you seem so disappointed, but it
-      is all right. The man is his uncle, and as like the boy as he possibly
-      could be. He is almost killed to go back without him. If you know where
-      Freckles is, they'd give big money to find out.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel laid a hand along each cheek to steady her chattering teeth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Who are they?&rdquo; she stammered. &ldquo;Where are they going?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They are Irish folks, miss,&rdquo; said the matron. &ldquo;They have been in Chicago
-      and over the country for the past three months, hunting him everywhere.
-      They have given up, and are starting home today. They&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Did they leave an address? Where could I find them?&rdquo; interrupted the
-      Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;They left a card, and I notice the morning paper has the man's picture
-      and is full of them. They've advertised a great deal in the city papers.
-      It's a wonder you haven't seen something.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Trains don't run right. We never get Chicago papers,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-      &ldquo;Please give me that card quickly. They may escape me. I simply must catch
-      them!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The matron hurried to the secretary and came back with a card.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Their addresses are there,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;Both in Chicago and at their home.
-      They made them full and plain, and I was to cable at once if I got the
-      least clue of him at any time. If they've left the city, you can stop them
-      in New York. You're sure to catch them before they sail&mdash;if you
-      hurry.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The matron caught up a paper and thrust it into the Angel's hand as she
-      ran to the street.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel glanced at the card. The Chicago address was Suite Eleven,
-      Auditorium. She laid her hand on her driver's sleeve and looked into his
-      eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;There is a fast-driving limit?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, miss.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Will you crowd it all you can without danger of arrest? I will pay well.
-      I must catch some people!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then she smiled at him. The hospital, an Orphans' Home, and the Auditorium
-      seemed a queer combination to that driver, but the Angel was always and
-      everywhere the Angel, and her methods were strictly her own.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will take you there as quickly as any man could with a team,&rdquo; he said
-      promptly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel clung to the card and paper, and as best she could in the
-      lurching, swaying cab, read the addresses over.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;O'More, Suite Eleven, Auditorium.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;'O'More,'&rdquo; she repeated. &ldquo;Seems to fit Freckles to a dot. Wonder if that
-      could be his name? 'Suite Eleven' means that you are pretty well fixed.
-      Suites in the Auditorium come high.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then she turned the card and read on its reverse, Lord Maxwell O'More, M.
-      P., Killvany Place, County Clare, Ireland.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel sat on the edge of the seat, bracing her feet against the one
-      opposite, as the cab pitched and swung around corners and past vehicles.
-      She mechanically fingered the pasteboard and stared straight ahead. Then
-      she drew a deep breath and read the card again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;A Lord-man!&rdquo; she groaned despairingly. &ldquo;A Lord-man! Bet my hoecake's
-      scorched! Here I've gone and pledged my word to Freckles I'd find him some
-      decent relatives, that he could be proud of, and now there isn't a chance
-      out of a dozen that he'll have to be ashamed of them after all. It's too
-      mean!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The tears of vexation rolled down the tired, nerve-racked Angel's cheeks.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This isn't going to do,&rdquo; she said, resolutely wiping her eyes with the
-      palm of her hand and gulping down the nervous spasm in her throat. &ldquo;I must
-      read this paper before I meet Lord O'More.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She blinked back the tears and spreading the paper on her knee, read:
-      &ldquo;After three months' fruitless search, Lord O'More gives up the quest of
-      his lost nephew, and leaves Chicago today for his home in Ireland.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She read on, and realized every word. The likeness settled any doubt. It
-      was Freckles over again, only older and well dressed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, I must catch you if I can,&rdquo; muttered the Angel. &ldquo;But when I do, if
-      you are a gentleman in name only, you shan't have Freckles; that's flat.
-      You're not his father and he is twenty. Anyway, if the law will give him
-      to you for one year, you can't spoil him, because nobody could, and,&rdquo; she
-      added, brightening, &ldquo;he'll probably do you a lot of good. Freckles and I
-      both must study years yet, and you should be something that will save him.
-      I guess it will come out all right. At least, I don't believe you can take
-      him away if I say no.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Thank you; and wait, no matter how long,&rdquo; she said to her driver.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Catching up the paper, she hurried to the desk and laid down Lord O'More's
-      card.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Has my uncle started yet?&rdquo; she asked sweetly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The surprised clerk stepped back on a bellboy, and covertly kicked him for
-      being in the way.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;His lordship is in his room,&rdquo; he said, with a low bow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;All right,&rdquo; said the Angel, picking up the card. &ldquo;I thought he might have
-      started. I'll see him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The clerk shoved the bellboy toward the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Show her ladyship to the elevator and Lord O'More's suite,&rdquo; he said,
-      bowing double.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Aw, thanks,&rdquo; said the Angel with a slight nod, as she turned away.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm not sure,&rdquo; she muttered to herself as the elevator sped upward,
-      &ldquo;whether it's the Irish or the English who say: 'Aw, thanks,' but it's
-      probable he isn't either; and anyway, I just had to do something to
-      counteract that 'All right.' How stupid of me!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      At the bellboy's tap, the door swung open and the liveried servant thrust
-      a cardtray before the Angel. The opening of the door created a current
-      that swayed a curtain aside, and in an adjoining room, lounging in a big
-      chair, with a paper in his hand, sat a man who was, beyond question, of
-      Freckles' blood and race.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      With perfect control the Angel dropped Lord O'More's card in the tray,
-      stepped past his servant, and stood before his lordship.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Good morning,&rdquo; she said with tense politeness.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord O'More said nothing. He carelessly glanced her over with amused
-      curiosity, until her color began to deepen and her blood to run hotly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well, my dear,&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;how can I serve you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Instantly the Angel became indignant. She had been so shielded in the
-      midst of almost entire freedom, owing to the circumstances of her life,
-      that the words and the look appeared to her as almost insulting. She
-      lifted her head with a proud gesture.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I am not your 'dear,'&rdquo; she said with slow distinctness. &ldquo;There isn't a
-      thing in the world you can do for me. I came here to see if I could do
-      something&mdash;a very great something&mdash;for you; but if I don't like
-      you, I won't do it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then Lord O'More did stare. Suddenly he broke into a ringing laugh.
-      Without a change of attitude or expression, the Angel stood looking
-      steadily at him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      There was a silken rustle, then a beautiful woman with cheeks of satiny
-      pink, dark hair, and eyes of pure Irish blue, moved to Lord O'More's side,
-      and catching his arm, shook him impatiently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Terence! Have you lost your senses?&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;Didn't you understand
-      what the child said? Look at her face! See what she has!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord O'More opened his eyes widely and sat up. He did look at the Angel's
-      face intently, and suddenly found it so good that it was difficult to
-      follow the next injunction. He arose instantly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I beg your pardon,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;The fact is, I am leaving Chicago sorely
-      disappointed. It makes me bitter and reckless. I thought you one more of
-      those queer, useless people who have thrust themselves on me constantly,
-      and I was careless. Forgive me, and tell me why you came.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will if I like you,&rdquo; said the Angel stoutly, &ldquo;and if I don't, I won't!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But I began all wrong, and now I don't know how to make you like me,&rdquo;
-       said his lordship, with sincere penitence in his tone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel found herself yielding to his voice. He spoke in a soft, mellow,
-      smoothly flowing Irish tone, and although his speech was perfectly
-      correct, it was so rounded, and accented, and the sentences so turned,
-      that it was Freckles over again. Still, it was a matter of the very
-      greatest importance, and she must be sure; so she looked into the
-      beautiful woman's face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Are you his wife?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the woman, &ldquo;I am his wife.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well,&rdquo; said the Angel judicially, &ldquo;the Bird Woman says no one in the
-      whole world knows all a man's bignesses and all his littlenesses as his
-      wife does. What you think of him should do for me. Do you like him?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The question was so earnestly asked that it met with equal earnestness.
-      The dark head moved caressingly against Lord O'More's sleeve.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Better than anyone in the whole world,&rdquo; said Lady O'More promptly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel mused a second, and then her legal tinge came to the fore again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, but have you anyone you could like better, if he wasn't all right?&rdquo;
-       she persisted.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I have three of his sons, two little daughters, a father, mother, and
-      several brothers and sisters,&rdquo; came the quick reply.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And you like him best?&rdquo; persisted the Angel with finality.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I love him so much that I would give up every one of them with dry eyes
-      if by so doing I could save him,&rdquo; cried Lord O'More's wife.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh!&rdquo; cried the Angel. &ldquo;Oh, my!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted her clear eyes to Lord O'More's and shook her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;She never, never could do that!&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;But it's a mighty big thing
-      to your credit that she THINKS she could. I guess I'll tell you why I
-      came.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She laid down the paper, and touched the portrait.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;When you were only a boy, did people call you Freckles?&rdquo; she asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dozens of good fellows all over Ireland and the Continent are doing it
-      today,&rdquo; answered Lord O'More.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's face wore her most beautiful smile.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I was sure of it,&rdquo; she said winningly. &ldquo;That's what we call him, and he
-      is so like you, I doubt if any one of those three boys of yours are more
-      so. But it's been twenty years. Seems to me you've been a long time
-      coming!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord O'More caught the Angel's wrists and his wife slipped her arms around
-      her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Steady, my girl!&rdquo; said the man's voice hoarsely. &ldquo;Don't make me think
-      you've brought word of the boy at this last hour, unless you know surely.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's all right,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;We have him, and there's no chance of a
-      mistake. If I hadn't gone to that Home for his little clothes, and heard
-      of you and been hunting you, and had met you on the street, or anywhere, I
-      would have stopped you and asked you who you were, just because you are so
-      like him. It's all right. I can tell you where Freckles is; but whether
-      you deserve to know&mdash;that's another matter!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Lord O'More did not hear her. He dropped in his chair, and covering his
-      face, burst into those terrible sobs that shake and rend a strong man.
-      Lady O'More hovered over him, weeping.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Umph! Looks pretty fair for Freckles,&rdquo; muttered the Angel. &ldquo;Lots of
-      things can be explained; now perhaps they can explain this.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      They did explain so satisfactorily that in a few minutes the Angel was on
-      her feet, hurrying Lord and Lady O'More to reach the hospital. &ldquo;You said
-      Freckles' old nurse knew his mother's picture instantly,&rdquo; said the Angel.
-      &ldquo;I want that picture and the bundle of little clothes.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Lady O'More gave them into her hands.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The likeness was a large miniature, painted on ivory, with a frame of
-      beaten gold. Surrounded by masses of dark hair was a delicately cut face.
-      In the upper part of it there was no trace of Freckles, but the lips
-      curving in a smile were his very own. The Angel gazed at it steadily. Then
-      with a quivering breath she laid the portrait aside and reached both hands
-      to Lord O'More.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That will save Freckles' life and insure his happiness,&rdquo; she said
-      positively. &ldquo;Thank you, oh thank you for coming!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She opened the bundle of yellow and brown linen and gave only a glance at
-      the texture and work. Then she gathered the little clothes and the picture
-      to her heart and led the way to the cab.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Ushering Lord and Lady O'More into the reception room, she said to McLean,
-      &ldquo;Please go call up my father and ask him to come on the first train.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She closed the door after him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;These are Freckles' people,&rdquo; she said to the Bird Woman. &ldquo;You can find
-      out about each other; I'm going to him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XIX
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      The nurse left the room quietly, as the Angel entered, carrying the bundle
-      and picture. When they were alone, she turned to Freckles and saw that the
-      crisis was indeed at hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      That she had good word to give him was his salvation, for despite the
-      heavy plaster jacket that held his body immovable, his head was lifted
-      from the pillow. Both arms reached for her. His lips and cheeks flamed,
-      while his eyes flashed with excitement.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; he panted. &ldquo;Oh Angel! Did you find them? Are they white? Are the
-      little stitches there? OH ANGEL! DID ME MOTHER LOVE ME?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The words seemed to leap from his burning lips. The Angel dropped the
-      bundle on the bed and laid the picture face down across his knees. She
-      gently pushed his head to the pillow and caught his arms in a firm grasp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes, dear heart,&rdquo; she said with fullest assurance. &ldquo;No little clothes
-      were ever whiter. I never in all my life saw such dainty, fine, little
-      stitches; and as for loving you, no boy's mother ever loved him more!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      A nervous trembling seized Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Sure? Are you sure?&rdquo; he urged with clicking teeth.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I know,&rdquo; said the Angel firmly. &ldquo;And Freckles, while you rest and be
-      glad, I want to tell you a story. When you feel stronger we will look at
-      the clothes together. They are here. They are all right. But while I was
-      at the Home getting them, I heard of some people that were hunting a lost
-      boy. I went to see them, and what they told me was all so exactly like
-      what might have happened to you that I must tell you. Then you'll
-      understand that things could be very different from what you always have
-      tortured yourself with thinking. Are you strong enough to listen? May I
-      tell you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe 'twasn't me mother! Maybe someone else made those little stitches!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now, goosie, don't you begin that,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;because I know that
-      it was!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Know!&rdquo; cried Freckles, his head springing from the pillow. &ldquo;Know! How can
-      you know?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel gently soothed him back.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, because nobody else would ever sit and do it the way it is done.
-      That's how I know,&rdquo; she said emphatically. &ldquo;Now you listen while I tell
-      you about this lost boy and his people, who have hunted for months and
-      can't find him.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay quietly under her touch, but he did not hear a word that she
-      was saying until his roving eyes rested on her face; he immediately
-      noticed a remarkable thing. For the first time she was talking to him and
-      avoiding his eyes. That was not like the Angel at all. It was the delight
-      of hearing her speak that she looked one squarely in the face and with
-      perfect frankness. There were no side glances and down-drooping eyes when
-      the Angel talked; she was business straight through. Instantly Freckles'
-      wandering thoughts fastened on her words.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;&mdash;and he was a sour, grumpy, old man,&rdquo; she was saying. &ldquo;He always
-      had been spoiled, because he was an only son, so he had a title, and a big
-      estate. He would have just his way, no matter about his sweet little wife,
-      or his boys, or anyone. So when his elder son fell in love with a
-      beautiful girl having a title, the very girl of all the world his father
-      wanted him to, and added a big adjoining estate to his, why, that pleased
-      him mightily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then he went and ordered his younger son to marry a poky kind of a girl,
-      that no one liked, to add another big estate on the other side, and that
-      was different. That was all the world different, because the elder son had
-      been in love all his life with the girl he married, and, oh, Freckles,
-      it's no wonder, for I saw her! She's a beauty and she has the sweetest
-      way.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But that poor younger son, he had been in love with the village vicar's
-      daughter all his life. That's no wonder either, for she was more beautiful
-      yet. She could sing as the angels, but she hadn't a cent. She loved him to
-      death, too, if he was bony and freckled and red-haired&mdash;I don't mean
-      that! They didn't say what color his hair was, but his father's must have
-      been the reddest ever, for when he found out about them, and it wasn't
-      anything so terrible, HE JUST CAVED!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The old man went to see the girl&mdash;the pretty one with no money, of
-      course&mdash;and he hurt her feelings until she ran away. She went to
-      London and began studying music. Soon she grew to be a fine singer, so she
-      joined a company and came to this country.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;When the younger son found that she had left London, he followed her.
-      When she got here all alone, and afraid, and saw him coming to her, why,
-      she was so glad she up and married him, just like anybody else would have
-      done. He didn't want her to travel with the troupe, so when they reached
-      Chicago they thought that would be a good place, and they stopped, while
-      he hunted work. It was slow business, because he never had been taught to
-      do a useful thing, and he didn't even know how to hunt work, least of all
-      to do it when he found it; so pretty soon things were going wrong. But if
-      he couldn't find work, she could always sing, so she sang at night, and
-      made little things in the daytime. He didn't like her to sing in public,
-      and he wouldn't allow her when he could HELP himself; but winter came, it
-      was very cold, and fire was expensive. Rents went up, and they had to move
-      farther out to cheaper and cheaper places; and you were coming&mdash;I
-      mean, the boy that is lost was coming&mdash;and they were almost
-      distracted. Then the man wrote and told his father all about it; and his
-      father sent the letter back unopened with a line telling him never to
-      write again. When the baby came, there was very little left to pawn for
-      food and a doctor, and nothing at all for a nurse; so an old neighbor
-      woman went in and took care of the young mother and the little baby,
-      because she was so sorry for them. By that time they were away in the
-      suburbs on the top floor of a little wooden house, among a lot of big
-      factories, and it kept growing colder, with less to eat. Then the man grew
-      desperate and he went just to find something to eat and the woman was
-      desperate, too. She got up, left the old woman to take care of her baby,
-      and went into the city to sing for some money. The woman became so cold
-      she put the baby in bed and went home. Then a boiler blew up in a big
-      factory beside the little house and set it on fire. A piece of iron was
-      pitched across and broke through the roof. It came down smash, and cut
-      just one little hand off the poor baby. It screamed and screamed; and the
-      fire kept coming closer and closer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;The old woman ran out with the other people and saw what had happened.
-      She knew there wasn't going to be time to wait for firemen or anything, so
-      she ran into the building. She could hear the baby screaming, and she
-      couldn't stand that; so she worked her way to it. There it was, all hurt
-      and bleeding. Then she was almost scared to death over thinking what its
-      mother would do to her for going away and leaving it, so she ran to a Home
-      for little friendless babies, that was close, and banged on the door. Then
-      she hid across the street until the baby was taken in, and then she ran
-      back to see if her own house was burning. The big factory and the little
-      house and a lot of others were all gone. The people there told her that
-      the beautiful lady came back and ran into the house to find her baby. She
-      had just gone in when her husband came, and he went in after her, and the
-      house fell over both of them.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay rigidly, with his eyes on the Angel's face, while she talked
-      rapidly to the ceiling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then the old woman was sick about that poor little baby. She was afraid
-      to tell them at the Home, because she knew she never should have left it,
-      but she wrote a letter and sent it to where the beautiful woman, when she
-      was ill, had said her husband's people lived. She told all about the
-      little baby that she could remember: when it was born, how it was named
-      for the man's elder brother, that its hand had been cut off in the fire,
-      and where she had put it to be doctored and taken care of. She told them
-      that its mother and father were both burned, and she begged and implored
-      them to come after it.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You'd think that would have melted a heart of ice, but that old man
-      hadn't any heart to melt, for he got that letter and read it. He hid it
-      away among his papers and never told a soul. A few months ago he died.
-      When his elder son went to settle his business, he found the letter almost
-      the first thing. He dropped everything, and came, with his wife, to hunt
-      that baby, because he always had loved his brother dearly, and wanted him
-      back. He had hunted for him all he dared all these years, but when he got
-      here you were gone&mdash;I mean the baby was gone, and I had to tell you,
-      Freckles, for you see, it might have happened to you like that just as
-      easy as to that other lost boy.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles reached up and turned the Angel's face until he compelled her
-      eyes to meet his.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; he asked quietly, &ldquo;why don't you look at me when you are telling
-      about that lost boy?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I&mdash;I didn't know I wasn't,&rdquo; faltered the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It seems to me,&rdquo; said Freckles, his breath beginning to come in sharp
-      wheezes, &ldquo;that you got us rather mixed, and it ain't like you to be mixing
-      things till one can't be knowing. If they were telling you so much, did
-      they say which hand was for being off that lost boy?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's eyes escaped again.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It&mdash;it was the same as yours,&rdquo; she ventured, barely breathing in her
-      fear.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Still Freckles lay rigid and whiter than the coverlet.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Would that boy be as old as me?&rdquo; he asked.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel faintly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; said Freckles at last, catching her wrist, &ldquo;are you trying to
-      tell me that there is somebody hunting a boy that you're thinking might be
-      me? Are you belavin' you've found me relations?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Then the Angel's eyes came home. The time had come. She pinioned Freckles'
-      arms to his sides and bent above him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;How strong are you, dear heart?&rdquo; she breathed. &ldquo;How brave are you? Can
-      you bear it? Dare I tell you that?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; gasped Freckles. &ldquo;Not if you're sure! I can't bear it! I'll die if
-      you do!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The day had been one unremitting strain with the Angel. Nerve tension was
-      drawn to the finest thread. It snapped suddenly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Die!&rdquo; she flamed. &ldquo;Die, if I tell you that! You said this morning that
-      you would die if you DIDN'T know your name, and if your people were
-      honorable. Now I've gone and found you a name that stands for ages of
-      honor, a mother who loved you enough to go into the fire and die for you,
-      and the nicest kind of relatives, and you turn round and say you'll die
-      over that! YOU JUST TRY DYING AND YOU'LL GET A GOOD SLAP!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel stood glaring at him. One second Freckles lay paralyzed and dumb
-      with astonishment. The next the Irish in his soul arose above everything.
-      A laugh burst from him. The terrified Angel caught him in her arms and
-      tried to stifle the sound. She implored and commanded. When he was too
-      worn to utter another sound, his eyes laughed silently.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      After a long time, when he was quiet and rested, the Angel commenced
-      talking to him gently, and this time her big eyes, humid with tenderness
-      and mellow with happiness, seemed as if they could not leave his face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear Freckles,&rdquo; she was saying, &ldquo;across your knees there is the face of
-      the mother who went into the fire for you, and I know the name&mdash;old
-      and full of honor&mdash;to which you were born. Dear heart, which will you
-      have first?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles was very tired; the big drops of perspiration ran together on his
-      temples; but the watching Angel caught the words his lips formed, &ldquo;Me
-      mother!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She lifted the lovely pictured face and set it in the nook of his arm.
-      Freckles caught her hand and drew her beside him, and together they gazed
-      at the picture while the tears slid over their cheeks.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me mother! Oh, me mother! Can you ever be forgiving me? Oh, me beautiful
-      little mother!&rdquo; chanted Freckles over and over in exalted wonder, until he
-      was so completely exhausted that his lips refused to form the question in
-      his weary eyes.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Wait!&rdquo; cried the Angel with inborn refinement, for she could no more
-      answer that question than he could ask. &ldquo;Wait, I will write it!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She hurried to the table, caught up the nurse's pencil, and on the back of
-      a prescription tablet scrawled it: &ldquo;Terence Maxwell O'More, Dunderry
-      House, County Clare, Ireland.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Before she had finished came Freckles' voice: &ldquo;Angel, are you hurrying?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel; &ldquo;I am. But there is a good deal of it. I have to
-      put in your house and country, so that you will feel located.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me house?&rdquo; marveled Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Of course,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;Your uncle says your grandmother left your
-      father her dower house and estate, because she knew his father would cut
-      him off. You get that, and all your share of your grandfather's property
-      besides. It is all set off for you and waiting. Lord O'More told me so. I
-      suspect you are richer than McLean, Freckles.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      She closed his fingers over the slip and straightened his hair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now you are all right, dear Limberlost guard,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;You go to sleep
-      and don't think of a thing but just pure joy, joy, joy! I'll keep your
-      people until you wake up. You are too tired to see anyone else just now!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles caught her skirt as she turned from him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll go to sleep in five minutes,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;if you will be doing just
-      one thing more for me. Send for your father! Oh, Angel, send for him
-      quick! How will I ever be waiting until he comes?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      One instant the Angel stood looking at him. The next a crimson wave darkly
-      stained her lovely face. Her chin began a spasmodic quivering and the
-      tears sprang into her eyes. Her hands caught at her chest as if she were
-      stifling. Freckles' grasp on her tightened until he drew her beside him.
-      He slipped his arm around her and drew her face to his pillow.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Don't, Angel; for the love of mercy don't be doing that,&rdquo; he implored. &ldquo;I
-      can't be bearing it. Tell me. You must tell me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel shook her head.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;That ain't fair, Angel,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You made me tell you when it was
-      like tearing the heart raw from me breast. And you was for making
-      everything heaven&mdash;just heaven and nothing else for me. If I'm so
-      much more now than I was an hour ago, maybe I can be thinking of some way
-      to fix things. You will be telling me?&rdquo; he coaxed, moving his cheek
-      against her hair.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's head moved in negation. Freckles did a moment of intent
-      thinking.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Maybe I can be guessing,&rdquo; he whispered. &ldquo;Will you be giving me three
-      chances?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      There was the faintest possible assent.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You didn't want me to be knowing me name,&rdquo; guessed Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's head sprang from the pillow and her tear-stained face flamed
-      with outraged indignation.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, I did too!&rdquo; she cried angrily.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;One gone,&rdquo; said Freckles calmly. &ldquo;You didn't want me to have relatives, a
-      home, and money.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I did!&rdquo; exclaimed the Angel. &ldquo;Didn't I go myself, all alone, into the
-      city, and find them when I was afraid as death? I did too!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Two gone,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;You didn't want the beautifulest girl in the
-      world to be telling me.&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Down went the Angel's face and a heavy sob shook her. Freckles' clasp
-      tightened around her shoulders, while his face, in its conflicting
-      emotions, was a study. He was so stunned and bewildered by the miracle
-      that had been performed in bringing to light his name and relatives that
-      he had no strength left for elaborate mental processes. Despite all it
-      meant to him to know his name at last, and that he was of honorable birth&mdash;knowledge
-      without which life was an eternal disgrace and burden the one thing that
-      was hammering in Freckles' heart and beating in his brain, past any
-      attempted expression, was the fact that, while nameless and possibly born
-      in shame, the Angel had told him that she loved him. He could find no word
-      with which to begin to voice the rapture of his heart over that. But if
-      she regretted it&mdash;if it had been a thing done out of her pity for his
-      condition, or her feeling of responsibility, if it killed him after all,
-      there was only one thing left to do. Not for McLean, not for the Bird
-      Woman, not for the Duncans would Freckles have done it&mdash;but for the
-      Angel&mdash;if it would make her happy&mdash;he would do anything.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Angel,&rdquo; whispered Freckles, with his lips against her hair, &ldquo;you haven't
-      learned your history book very well, or else you've forgotten.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Forgotten what?&rdquo; sobbed the Angel.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Forgotten about the real knight, Ladybird,&rdquo; breathed Freckles. &ldquo;Don't you
-      know that, if anything happened that made his lady sorry, a real knight
-      just simply couldn't be remembering it? Angel, darling little Swamp Angel,
-      you be listening to me. There was one night on the trail, one solemn,
-      grand, white night, that there wasn't ever any other like before or since,
-      when the dear Boss put his arm around me and told me that he loved me; but
-      if you care, Angel, if you don't want it that way, why, I ain't
-      remembering that anyone else ever did&mdash;not in me whole life.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel lifted her head and looked into the depths of Freckles' honest
-      gray eyes, and they met hers unwaveringly; but the pain in them was
-      pitiful.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you mean,&rdquo; she demanded, &ldquo;that you don't remember that a brazen,
-      forward girl told you, when you hadn't asked her, that she&rdquo;&mdash;the
-      Angel choked on it a second, but she gave a gulp and brought it out
-      bravely&mdash;&ldquo;that she loved you?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;No! I don't remember anything of the kind!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      But all the songbirds of his soul burst into melody over that one little
-      clause: &ldquo;When you hadn't asked her.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;But you will,&rdquo; said the Angel. &ldquo;You may live to be an old, old man, and
-      then you will.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will not!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;How can you think it, Angel?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You won't even LOOK as if you remember?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I will not!&rdquo; persisted Freckles. &ldquo;I'll be swearing to it if you want me
-      to. If you wasn't too tired to think this thing out straight, you'd be
-      seeing that I couldn't&mdash;that I just simply couldn't! I'd rather give
-      it all up now and go into eternity alone, without ever seeing a soul of me
-      same blood, or me home, or hearing another man call me by the name I was
-      born to, than to remember anything that would be hurting you, Angel. I
-      should think you'd be understanding that it ain't no ways possible for me
-      to do it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The Angel's tear-stained face flashed into dazzling beauty. A
-      half-hysterical little laugh broke from her heart and bubbled over her
-      lips.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, Freckles, forgive me!&rdquo; she cried. &ldquo;I've been through so much that I'm
-      scarcely myself, or I wouldn't be here bothering you when you should be
-      sleeping. Of course you couldn't! I knew it all the time! I was just
-      scared! I was forgetting that you were you! You're too good a knight to
-      remember a thing like that. Of course you are! And when you don't
-      remember, why, then it's the same as if it never happened. I was almost
-      killed because I'd gone and spoiled everything, but now it will be all
-      right. Now you can go on and do things like other men, and I can have some
-      flowers, and letters, and my sweetheart coming, and when you are SURE,
-      why, then YOU can tell ME things, can't you? Oh, Freckles, I'm so glad!
-      Oh, I'm so happy! It's dear of you not to remember, Freckles; perfectly
-      dear! It's no wonder I love you so. The wonder would be if I did not. Oh,
-      I should like to know how I'm ever going to make you understand how much I
-      love you!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Pillow and all, she caught him to her breast one long second; then she was
-      gone.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay dazed with astonishment. At last his amazed eyes searched the
-      room for something approaching the human to which he could appeal, and
-      falling on his mother's portrait, he set it before him.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;For the love of life! Me little mother,&rdquo; he panted, &ldquo;did you hear that?
-      Did you hear it! Tell me, am I living, or am I dead and all heaven come
-      true this minute? Did you hear it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He shook the frame in his impatience at receiving no answer.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You are only a pictured face,&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;and of course you can't
-      talk; but the soul of you must be somewhere, and surely in this hour you
-      are close enough to be hearing. Tell me, did you hear that? I can't ever
-      be telling a living soul; but darling little mother, who gave your life
-      for mine, I can always be talking of it to you! Every day we'll talk it
-      over and try to understand the miracle of it. Tell me, are all women like
-      that? Were you like me Swamp Angel? If you were, then I'm understanding
-      why me father followed across the ocean and went into the fire.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020">
-      <!--  H2 anchor --> </a>
-    </p>
-    <div style="height: 4em;">
-      <br /><br /><br /><br />
-    </div>
-    <h2>
-      CHAPTER XX
-    </h2>
-    <h3>
-      Wherein Freckles returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails for
-      Ireland Without Him
-    </h3>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' voice ceased, his eyes closed, and his head rolled back from
-      exhaustion. Later in the day he insisted on seeing Lord and Lady O'More,
-      but he fainted before the resemblance of another man to him, and gave all
-      of his friends a terrible fright.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      The next morning, the Man of Affairs, with a heart filled with misgivings,
-      undertook the interview on which Freckles insisted. His fears were without
-      cause. Freckles was the soul of honor and simplicity.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Have they been telling you what's come to me?&rdquo; he asked without even
-      waiting for a greeting.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Yes,&rdquo; said the Angel's father.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Do you think you have the very worst of it clear to your understanding?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Under Freckles' earnest eyes the Man of Affairs answered soberly: &ldquo;I think
-      I have, Mr. O'More.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      That was the first time Freckles heard his name from the lips of another.
-      One second he lay overcome; the next, tears filled his eyes, and he
-      reached out his hand. Then the Angel's father understood, and he clasped
-      that hand and held it in a strong, firm grasp.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Terence, my boy,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;let me do the talking. I came here with the
-      understanding that you wanted to ask me for my only child. I should like,
-      at the proper time, to regard her marriage, if she has found the man she
-      desires to marry, not as losing all I have, but as gaining a man on whom I
-      can depend to love as a son and to take charge of my affairs for her when
-      I retire from business. Bend all of your energies toward rapid recovery,
-      and from this hour understand that my daughter and my home are yours.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You're not forgetting this?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted his right arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Terence, I'm sorrier than I have words to express about that,&rdquo; said the
-      Man of Affairs. &ldquo;It's a damnable pity! But if it's for me to choose
-      whether I give all I have left in this world to a man lacking a hand, or
-      to one of these gambling, tippling, immoral spendthrifts of today, with
-      both hands and feet off their souls, and a rotten spot in the core, I
-      choose you; and it seems that my daughter does the same. Put what is left
-      you of that right arm to the best uses you can in this world, and never
-      again mention or feel that it is defective so long as you live. Good day,
-      sir!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;One minute more,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;Yesterday the Angel was telling me that
-      there was money coming to me from two sources. She said that me
-      grandmother had left me father all of her fortune and her house, because
-      she knew that his father would be cutting him off, and also that me uncle
-      had set aside for me what would be me father's interest in his father's
-      estate.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Whatever the sum is that me grandmother left me father, because she loved
-      him and wanted him to be having it, that I'll be taking. 'Twas hers from
-      her father, and she had the right to be giving it as she chose. Anything
-      from the man that knowingly left me father and me mother to go cold and
-      hungry, and into the fire in misery, when just a little would have made
-      life so beautiful to them, and saved me this crippled body&mdash;money
-      that he willed from me when he knew I was living, of his blood and on
-      charity among strangers, I don't touch, not if I freeze, starve, and burn
-      too! If there ain't enough besides that, and I can't be earning enough to
-      fix things for the Angel&mdash;&mdash;&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;We are not discussing money!&rdquo; burst in the Man of Affairs. &ldquo;We don't want
-      any blood-money! We have all we need without it. If you don't feel right
-      and easy over it, don't you touch a cent of any of it.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's right I should have what me grandmother intinded for me father, and
-      I want it,&rdquo; said Freckles, &ldquo;but I'd die before I'd touch a cent of me
-      grandfather's money!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now,&rdquo; said the Angel, &ldquo;we are all going home. We have done all we can for
-      Freckles. His people are here. He should know them. They are very anxious
-      to become acquainted with him. We'll resign him to them. When he is well,
-      why, then he will be perfectly free to go to Ireland or come to the
-      Limberlost, just as he chooses. We will go at once.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean held out for a week, and then he could endure it no longer. He was
-      heart hungry for Freckles. Communing with himself in the long, soundful
-      nights of the swamp, he had learned to his astonishment that for the past
-      year his heart had been circling the Limberlost with Freckles. He began to
-      wish that he had not left him. Perhaps the boy&mdash;his boy by first
-      right, after all&mdash;was being neglected. If the Boss had been a nervous
-      old woman, he scarcely could have imagined more things that might be going
-      wrong.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      He started for Chicago, loaded with a big box of goldenrod, asters,
-      fringed gentians, and crimson leaves, that the Angel carefully had
-      gathered from Freckles' room, and a little, long slender package. He
-      traveled with biting, stinging jealousy in his heart. He would not admit
-      it even to himself, but he was unable to remain longer away from Freckles
-      and leave him to the care of Lord O'More.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      In a few minutes' talk, while McLean awaited admission to Freckles' room,
-      his lordship had chatted genially of Freckles' rapid recovery, of his
-      delight that he was unspotted by his early surroundings, and his desire to
-      visit the Limberlost with Freckles before they sailed; he expressed the
-      hope that he could prevail upon the Angel's father to place her in his
-      wife's care and have her education finished in Paris. He said they were
-      anxious to do all they could to help bind Freckles' arrangements with the
-      Angel, as both he and Lady O'More regarded her as the most promising girl
-      they knew, and one who could be fitted to fill the high position in which
-      Freckles would place her.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Every word he uttered was pungent with bitterness to McLean. The swamp had
-      lost its flavor without Freckles; and yet, as Lord O'More talked, McLean
-      fervently wished himself in the heart of it. As he entered Freckles' room
-      he almost lost his breath. Everything was changed.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lay beside a window where he could follow Lake Michigan's blue
-      until the horizon dipped into it. He could see big soft clouds,
-      white-capped waves, shimmering sails, and puffing steamers trailing
-      billowing banners of lavender and gray across the sky. Gulls and curlews
-      wheeled over the water and dipped their wings in the foam. The room was
-      filled with every luxury that taste and money could introduce.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      All the tan and sunburn had been washed from Freckles' face in sweats of
-      agony. It was a smooth, even white, its brown rift scarcely showing. What
-      the nurses and Lady O'More had done to Freckles' hair McLean could not
-      guess, but it was the most beautiful that he ever had seen. Fine as floss,
-      bright in color, waving and crisp, it fell around the white face.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      They had gotten his arms into and his chest covered with a finely
-      embroidered, pale-blue silk shirt, with soft, white tie at the throat.
-      Among the many changes that had taken place during his absence, the fact
-      that Freckles was most attractive and barely escaped being handsome
-      remained almost unnoticed by the Boss, so great was his astonishment at
-      seeing both cuffs turned back and the right arm in view. Freckles was
-      using the maimed arm that previously he always had hidden.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh Lord, sir, but I'm glad to see you!&rdquo; cried Freckles, almost rolling
-      from the bed as he reached toward McLean. &ldquo;Tell me quick, is the Angel
-      well and happy? Can me Little Chicken spread six feet of wing and sail to
-      his mother? How's me new father, the Bird Woman, Duncans, and Nellie&mdash;darling
-      little high-stepping Nelie? Me Aunt Alice is going to choose the hat just
-      as soon as I'm mended enough to be going with her. How are all the gang?
-      Have they found any more good trees? I've been thinking a lot, sir. I
-      believe I can find others near that last one. Me Aunt Alice thinks maybe I
-      can, and Uncle Terence says it's likely. Golly, but they're nice, ilegant
-      people. I tell you I'm proud to be same blood with them! Come closer,
-      quick! I was going to do this yesterday, and somehow I just felt that
-      you'd surely be coming today and I waited. I'm selecting the Angel's ring
-      stone. The ring she ordered for me is finished and they sent it to keep me
-      company. See? It's an emerald&mdash;just me color, Lord O'More says.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles flourished his hand.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ain't that fine? Never took so much comfort with anything in me life.
-      Every color of the old swamp is in it. I asked the Angel to have a little
-      shamrock leaf cut on it, so every time I saw it I'd be thinking of the
-      'love, truth, and valor' of that song she was teaching me. Ain't that a
-      beautiful song? Some of these days I'm going to make it echo. I'm a little
-      afraid to be doing it with me voice yet, but me heart's tuning away on it
-      every blessed hour. Will you be looking at these now?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles tilted a tray of unset stones from Peacock's that would have
-      ransomed several valuable kings. He held them toward McLean, stirring them
-      with his right arm.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I tell you I'm glad to see you, sir&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I tried to tell me uncle
-      what I wanted, but this ain't for him to be mixed up in, anyway, and I
-      don't think I made it clear to him. I couldn't seem to say the words I
-      wanted. I can be telling you, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean's heart began to thump as a lover's.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Go on, Freckles,&rdquo; he said assuringly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;It's this,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I told him that I would pay only three
-      hundred dollars for the Angel's stone. I'm thinking that with what he has
-      laid up for me, and the bigness of things that the Angel did for me, it
-      seems like a stingy little sum to him. I know he thinks I should be giving
-      much more, but I feel as if I just had to be buying that stone with money
-      I earned meself; and that is all I have saved of me wages. I don't mind
-      paying for the muff, or the drexing table, or Mrs. Duncan's things, from
-      that other money, and later the Angel can have every last cent of me
-      grandmother's, if she'll take it; but just now&mdash;oh, sir, can't you
-      see that I have to be buying this stone with what I have in the bank? I'm
-      feeling that I couldn't do any other way, and don't you think the Angel
-      would rather have the best stone I can buy with the money I earned meself
-      than a finer one paid for with other money?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;In other words, Freckles,&rdquo; said the Boss in a husky voice, &ldquo;you don't
-      want to buy the Angel's ring with money. You want to give for it your
-      first awful fear of the swamp. You want to pay for it with the loneliness
-      and heart hunger you have suffered there, with last winter's freezing on
-      the line and this summer's burning in the sun. You want it to stand to her
-      for every hour in which you risked your life to fulfill your contract
-      honorably. You want the price of that stone to be the fears that have
-      chilled your heart&mdash;the sweat and blood of your body.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles' eyes were filled with tears and his face quivering with feeling.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Dear Mr. McLean,&rdquo; he said, reaching with a caress over the Boss's black
-      hair and his cheek. &ldquo;Dear Boss, that's why I've wanted you so. I knew you
-      would know. Now you will be looking at these? I don't want emeralds,
-      because that's what she gave me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He pushed the green stones into a little heap of rejected ones. Then he
-      singled out all the pearls.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Ain't they pretty things?&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I'll be getting her some of those
-      later. They are like lily faces, turtle-head flowers, dewdrops in the
-      shade or moonlight; but they haven't the life in them that I want in the
-      stone I give to the Angel right now.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles heaped the pearls with the emeralds. He studied the diamonds a
-      long time.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;These things are so fascinating like they almost tempt one, though they
-      ain't quite the proper thing,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I've always dearly loved to be
-      watching yours, sir. I must get her some of these big ones, too, some day.
-      They're like the Limberlost in January, when it's all ice-coated, and the
-      sun is in the west and shines through and makes all you can see of the
-      whole world look like fire and ice; but fire and ice ain't like the
-      Angel.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      The diamonds joined the emeralds and pearls. There was left a little red
-      heap, and Freckles' fingers touched it with a new tenderness. His eyes
-      were flashing.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm thinking here's me Angel's stone,&rdquo; he exulted. &ldquo;The Limberlost, and
-      me with it, grew in mine; but it's going to bloom, and her with it, in
-      this! There's the red of the wild poppies, the cardinal-flowers, and the
-      little bunch of crushed foxfire that we found where she put it to save me.
-      There's the light of the campfire, and the sun setting over Sleepy Snake
-      Creek. There's the red of the blood we were willing to give for each
-      other. It's like her lips, and like the drops that dried on her beautiful
-      arm that first day, and I'm thinking it must be like the brave, tender,
-      clean, red heart of her.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted the ruby to his lips and handed it to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll be signing me cheque and you have it set,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I want you to
-      draw me money and pay for it with those very same dollars, sir.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Again the heart of McLean took hope.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Freckles, may I ask you something?&rdquo; he said.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, sure,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;There's nothing you would be asking that it
-      wouldn't be giving me joy to be telling you.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean's eyes traveled to Freckles' right arm with which he was moving the
-      jewels.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Oh, that!&rdquo; cried Freckles with a laugh. &ldquo;You're wanting to know where all
-      the bitterness is gone? Well sir, 'twas carried from me soul, heart, and
-      body on the lips of an Angel. Seems that hurt was necessary in the
-      beginning to make today come true. The wound had always been raw, but the
-      Angel was healing it. If she doesn't care, I don't. Me dear new father
-      doesn't, nor me aunt and uncle, and you never did. Why should I be
-      fretting all me life about what can't be helped. The real truth is, that
-      since what happened to it last week, I'm so everlastingly proud of it I
-      catch meself sticking it out on display a bit.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles looked the Boss in the eyes and began to laugh.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Well thank heaven!&rdquo; said McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Now it's me turn,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I don't know as I ought to be asking
-      you, and yet I can't see a reason good enough to keep me from it. It's a
-      thing I've had on me mind every hour since I've had time to straighten
-      things out a little. May I be asking you a question?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      McLean reached over and took Freckles' hand. His voice was shaken with
-      feeling as he replied: &ldquo;Freckles, you almost hurt me. Will you never learn
-      how much you are to me&mdash;how happy you make me in coming to me with
-      anything, no matter what?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Then it's this,&rdquo; said Freckles, gripping the hand of McLean strongly. &ldquo;If
-      this accident, and all that's come to me since, had never happened, where
-      was it you had planned to send me to school? What was it you meant for me
-      to do?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, Freckles,&rdquo; answered McLean, &ldquo;I'm scarcely prepared to state
-      definitely. My ideas were rather hazy. I thought we would make a beginning
-      and see which way things went. I figured on taking you to Grand Rapids
-      first, and putting you in the care of my mother. I had an idea it would be
-      best to secure a private tutor to coach you for a year or two, until you
-      were ready to enter Ann Arbor or the Chicago University in good shape.
-      Then I thought we'd finish in this country at Yale or Harvard, and end
-      with Oxford, to get a good, all-round flavor.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Is that all?&rdquo; asked Freckles.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;No; that's leaving the music out,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;I intended to have your
-      voice tested by some master, and if you really were endowed for a career
-      as a great musician, and had inclinations that way, I wished to have you
-      drop some of the college work and make music your chief study. Finally, I
-      wanted us to take a trip through Europe and clear around the circle
-      together.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;And then what?&rdquo; queried Freckles breathlessly.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Why, then,&rdquo; said McLean, &ldquo;you know that my heart is hopelessly in the
-      woods. I never will quit the timber business while there is timber to
-      handle and breath in my body. I thought if you didn't make a profession of
-      music, and had any inclination my way, we would stretch the partnership
-      one more and take you into the firm, placing your work with me. Those
-      plans may sound jumbled in the telling, but they have grown steadily on
-      me, Freckles, as you have grown dear to me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      Freckles lifted anxious and eager eyes to McLean.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;You told me once on the trail, and again when we thought that I was
-      dying, that you loved me. Do these things that have come to me make any
-      difference in any way with your feeing toward me?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;None,&rdquo; said McLean. &ldquo;How could they, Freckles? Nothing could make me love
-      you more, and you never will do anything that will make me love you less.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Glory be to God!&rdquo; cried Freckles. &ldquo;Glory to the Almighty! Hurry and be
-      telling your mother I'm coming! Just as soon as I can get on me feet I'll
-      be taking that ring to me Angel, and then I'll go to Grand Rapids and be
-      making me start just as you planned, only that I can be paying me own way.
-      When I'm educated enough, we'll all&mdash;the Angel and her father, the
-      Bird Woman, you, and me&mdash;all of us will go together and see me house
-      and me relations and be taking that trip. When we get back, we'll add
-      O'More to the Lumber Company, and golly, sir, but we'll make things hum!
-      Good land, sir! Don't do that! Why, Mr. McLean, dear Boss, dear father,
-      don't be doing that! What is it?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Nothing, nothing!&rdquo; boomed McLean's deep bass; &ldquo;nothing at all!&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      He abruptly turned, and hurried to the window.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;This is a mighty fine view,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Lake's beautiful this morning. No
-      wonder Chicago people are so proud of their city's location on its shore.
-      But, Freckles, what is Lord O'More going to say to this?&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I don't know,&rdquo; said Freckles. &ldquo;I am going to be cut deep if he cares, for
-      he's been more than good to me, and Lady Alice is next to me Angel. He's
-      made me feel me blood and race me own possession. She's talked to me by
-      the hour of me father and mother and me grandmother. She's made them all
-      that real I can lay claim to them and feel that they are mine. I'm very
-      sorry to be hurting them, if it will, but it can't be changed. Nobody ever
-      puts the width of the ocean between me and the Angel. From here to the
-      Limberlost is all I can be bearing peaceable. I want the education, and
-      then I want to work and live here in the country where I was born, and
-      where the ashes of me father and mother rest.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'll be glad to see Ireland, and glad especial to see those little people
-      who are my kin, but I ain't ever staying long. All me heart is the
-      Angel's, and the Limberlost is calling every minute. You're thinking, sir,
-      that when I look from that window I see the beautiful water, ain't you?
-      I'm not.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I see soft, slow clouds oozing across the blue, me big black chickens
-      hanging up there, and a great feather softly sliding down. I see mighty
-      trees, swinging vines, bright flowers, and always masses of the wild
-      roses, with the wild rose face of me Ladybird looking through. I see the
-      swale rocking, smell the sweetness of the blooming things, and the damp,
-      mucky odor of the swamp; and I hear me birds sing, me squirrels bark, the
-      rattlers hiss, and the step of Wessner or Black Jack coming; and whether
-      it's the things that I loved or the things that I feared, it's all a part
-      of the day.
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;Me heart's all me Swamp Angel's, and me love is all hers, and I have her
-      and the swamp so confused in me mind I never can be separating them. When
-      I look at her, I see blue sky, the sun rifting through the leaves and pink
-      and red flowers; and when I look at the Limberlost I see a pink face with
-      blue eyes, gold hair, and red lips, and, it's the truth, sir, they're
-      mixed till they're one to me!
-    </p>
-    <p>
-      &ldquo;I'm afraid it will be hurting some, but I have the feeing that I can be
-      making my dear people understand, so that they will be willing to let me
-      come back home. Send Lady O'More to put these flowers God made in the
-      place of these glass-house ilegancies, and please be cutting the string of
-      this little package the Angel's sent me.&rdquo;
-     </p>
-    <p>
-      As Freckles held up the package, the lights of the Limberlost flashed from
-      the emerald on his finger. On the cover was printed: &ldquo;To the Limberlost
-      Guard!&rdquo; Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent black feather. Limberlost
-      Guard!&rdquo; Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent black feather.
-    </p>
-
-<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 111 ***</div>
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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of Freckles, by Gene Stratton-Porter
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
-almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
-re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
-with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
-
-
-Title: Freckles
-
-Author: Gene Stratton-Porter
-
-Release Date: March 8, 2006 [EBook #111]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: ASCII
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRECKLES ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer and David Widger
-
-
-
-
-
-FRECKLES
-
-By Gene Stratton-Porter
-
-
-
-
-  To all good Irishmen in general
-  and one CHARLES DARWIN PORTER
-  in particular
-
-
-
-Characters:
-
-
-  FRECKLES, a plucky waif who guards the Limberlost timber leases and
-  dreams of Angels.
-
-  THE SWAMP ANGEL, in whom Freckles' sweetest dream materializes.
-
-  MCLEAN, a member of a Grand Rapids lumber company, who befriends
-  Freckles.
-
-  MRS. DUNCAN, who gives mother-love and a home to Freckles.
-
-  DUNCAN, head teamster of McLean's timber gang.
-
-  THE BIRD WOMAN, who is collecting camera studies of birds for a book.
-
-  LORD AND LADY O'MORE, who come from Ireland in quest of a lost relative.
-
-  THE MAN OF AFFAIRS, brusque of manner, but big of heart.
-
-  WESSNER, a Dutch timber-thief who wants rascality made easy.
-
-  BLACK JACK, a villain to whom thought of repentance comes too late.
-
-  SEARS, camp cook.
-
-
-
-
-Contents:
-
-
-  I Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-
-  II Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-
-  III Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-
-  IV Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for New
-  Experiences
-
-  V Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-
-  VI Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-
-  VII Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-
-  VIII Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the
-  Encounter
-
-  IX Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to
-  the Rescue
-
-  X Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-
-  XI Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird
-  Woman
-
-  XII Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-
-  XIII Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack
-  Falls upon Her
-
-  XIV Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-
-  XV Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little
-  Chicken Furnishes the Subject
-
-  XVI Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-
-  XVII Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken
-  Body
-
-  XVIII Wherein Freckles Refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable
-  Birth, and the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-
-  XIX Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-
-  XX Wherein Freckles Returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails for
-  Ireland Without Him
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-
-Freckles came down the corduroy that crosses the lower end of the
-Limberlost. At a glance he might have been mistaken for a tramp, but he
-was truly seeking work. He was intensely eager to belong somewhere and
-to be attached to almost any enterprise that would furnish him food and
-clothing.
-
-Long before he came in sight of the camp of the Grand Rapids Lumber
-Company, he could hear the cheery voices of the men, the neighing of the
-horses, and could scent the tempting odors of cooking food. A feeling
-of homeless friendlessness swept over him in a sickening wave. Without
-stopping to think, he turned into the newly made road and followed it to
-the camp, where the gang was making ready for supper and bed.
-
-The scene was intensely attractive. The thickness of the swamp made a
-dark, massive background below, while above towered gigantic trees.
-The men were calling jovially back and forth as they unharnessed tired
-horses that fell into attitudes of rest and crunched, in deep content,
-the grain given them. Duncan, the brawny Scotch head-teamster, lovingly
-wiped the flanks of his big bays with handfuls of pawpaw leaves, as he
-softly whistled, "O wha will be my dearie, O!" and a cricket beneath
-the leaves at his feet accompanied him. The green wood fire hissed and
-crackled merrily. Wreathing tongues of flame wrapped around the big
-black kettles, and when the cook lifted the lids to plunge in his
-testing-fork, gusts of savory odors escaped.
-
-Freckles approached him.
-
-"I want to speak with the Boss," he said.
-
-The cook glanced at him and answered carelessly: "He can't use you."
-
-The color flooded Freckles' face, but he said simply: "If you will be
-having the goodness to point him out, we will give him a chance to do
-his own talking."
-
-With a shrug of astonishment, the cook led the way to a rough board
-table where a broad, square-shouldered man was bending over some
-account-books.
-
-"Mr. McLean, here's another man wanting to be taken on the gang, I
-suppose," he said.
-
-"All right," came the cheery answer. "I never needed a good man more
-than I do just now."
-
-The manager turned a page and carefully began a new line.
-
-"No use of your bothering with this fellow," volunteered the cook. "He
-hasn't but one hand."
-
-The flush on Freckles' face burned deeper. His lips thinned to a mere
-line. He lifted his shoulders, took a step forward, and thrust out his
-right arm, from which the sleeve dangled empty at the wrist.
-
-"That will do, Sears," came the voice of the Boss sharply. "I will
-interview my man when I finish this report."
-
-He turned to his work, while the cook hurried to the fires. Freckles
-stood one instant as he had braced himself to meet the eyes of the
-manager; then his arm dropped and a wave of whiteness swept him. The
-Boss had not even turned his head. He had used the possessive. When he
-said "my man," the hungry heart of Freckles went reaching toward him.
-
-The boy drew a quivering breath. Then he whipped off his old hat and
-beat the dust from it carefully. With his left hand he caught the right
-sleeve, wiped his sweaty face, and tried to straighten his hair with
-his fingers. He broke a spray of ironwort beside him and used the purple
-bloom to beat the dust from his shoulders and limbs. The Boss, busy over
-his report, was, nevertheless, vaguely alive to the toilet being made
-behind him, and scored one for the man.
-
-McLean was a Scotchman. It was his habit to work slowly and
-methodically. The men of his camps never had known him to be in a hurry
-or to lose his temper. Discipline was inflexible, but the Boss was
-always kind. His habits were simple. He shared camp life with his gangs.
-The only visible signs of wealth consisted of a big, shimmering diamond
-stone of ice and fire that glittered and burned on one of his fingers,
-and the dainty, beautiful thoroughbred mare he rode between camps and
-across the country on business.
-
-No man of McLean's gangs could honestly say that he ever had been
-overdriven or underpaid. The Boss never had exacted any deference from
-his men, yet so intense was his personality that no man of them ever had
-attempted a familiarity. They all knew him to be a thorough gentleman,
-and that in the great timber city several millions stood to his credit.
-
-He was the only son of that McLean who had sent out the finest ships
-ever built in Scotland. That his son should carry on this business after
-the father's death had been his ambition. He had sent the boy through
-the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and allowed him several years'
-travel before he should attempt his first commission for the firm.
-
-Then he was ordered to southern Canada and Michigan to purchase a
-consignment of tall, straight timber for masts, and south to Indiana for
-oak beams. The young man entered these mighty forests, parts of which
-lay untouched since the dawn of the morning of time. The clear, cool,
-pungent atmosphere was intoxicating. The intense silence, like that of a
-great empty cathedral, fascinated him. He gradually learned that, to
-the shy wood creatures that darted across his path or peeped inquiringly
-from leafy ambush, he was brother. He found himself approaching, with a
-feeling of reverence, those majestic trees that had stood through ages
-of sun, wind, and snow. Soon it became difficult to fell them. When he
-had filled his order and returned home, he was amazed to learn that in
-the swamps and forests he had lost his heart and it was calling--forever
-calling him.
-
-When he inherited his father's property, he promptly disposed of it,
-and, with his mother, founded a home in a splendid residence in the
-outskirts of Grand Rapids. With three partners, he organized a lumber
-company. His work was to purchase, fell, and ship the timber to the
-mills. Marshall managed the milling process and passed the lumber to the
-factory. From the lumber, Barthol made beautiful and useful furniture,
-which Uptegrove scattered all over the world from a big wholesale house.
-Of the thousands who saw their faces reflected on the polished surfaces
-of that furniture and found comfort in its use, few there were to whom
-it suggested mighty forests and trackless swamps, and the man, big
-of soul and body, who cut his way through them, and with the eye of
-experience doomed the proud trees that were now entering the homes of
-civilization for service.
-
-When McLean turned from his finished report, he faced a young man,
-yet under twenty, tall, spare, heavily framed, closely freckled, and
-red-haired, with a homely Irish face, but in the steady gray eyes,
-straightly meeting his searching ones of blue, there was unswerving
-candor and the appearance of longing not to be ignored. He was dressed
-in the roughest of farm clothing, and seemed tired to the point of
-falling.
-
-"You are looking for work?" questioned McLean.
-
-"Yis," answered Freckles.
-
-"I am very sorry," said the Boss with genuine sympathy in his every
-tone, "but there is only one man I want at present--a hardy, big fellow
-with a stout heart and a strong body. I hoped that you would do, but I
-am afraid you are too young and scarcely strong enough."
-
-Freckles stood, hat in hand, watching McLean.
-
-"And what was it you thought I might be doing?" he asked.
-
-The Boss could scarcely repress a start. Somewhere before accident and
-poverty there had been an ancestor who used cultivated English, even
-with an accent. The boy spoke in a mellow Irish voice, sweet and pure.
-It was scarcely definite enough to be called brogue, yet there was a
-trick in the turning of the sentence, the wrong sound of a letter here
-and there, that was almost irresistible to McLean, and presaged a misuse
-of infinitives and possessives with which he was very familiar and
-which touched him nearly. He was of foreign birth, and despite years of
-alienation, in times of strong feeling he committed inherited sins of
-accent and construction.
-
-"It's no child's job," answered McLean. "I am the field manager of a
-big lumber company. We have just leased two thousand acres of the
-Limberlost. Many of these trees are of great value. We can't leave our
-camp, six miles south, for almost a year yet; so we have blazed a trail
-and strung barbed wires securely around this lease. Before we return to
-our work, I must put this property in the hands of a reliable, brave,
-strong man who will guard it every hour of the day, and sleep with one
-eye open at night. I shall require the entire length of the trail to be
-walked at least twice each day, to make sure that our lines are up and
-that no one has been trespassing."
-
-Freckles was leaning forward, absorbing every word with such intense
-eagerness that he was beguiling the Boss into explanations he had never
-intended making.
-
-"But why wouldn't that be the finest job in the world for me?" he
-pleaded. "I am never sick. I could walk the trail twice, three times
-every day, and I'd be watching sharp all the while."
-
-"It's because you are scarcely more than a boy, and this will be a
-trying job for a work-hardened man," answered McLean. "You see, in the
-first place, you would be afraid. In stretching our lines, we killed six
-rattlesnakes almost as long as your body and as thick as your arm. It's
-the price of your life to start through the marshgrass surrounding the
-swamp unless you are covered with heavy leather above your knees.
-
-"You should be able to swim in case high water undermines the temporary
-bridge we have built where Sleepy Snake Creek enters the swamp. The fall
-and winter changes of weather are abrupt and severe, while I would want
-strict watch kept every day. You would always be alone, and I don't
-guarantee what is in the Limberlost. It is lying here as it has lain
-since the beginning of time, and it is alive with forms and voices. I
-don't pretend to say what all of them come from; but from a few slinking
-shapes I've seen, and hair-raising yells I've heard, I'd rather not
-confront their owners myself; and I am neither weak nor fearful.
-
-"Worst of all, any man who will enter the swamp to mark and steal
-timber is desperate. One of my employees at the south camp, John Carter,
-compelled me to discharge him for a number of serious reasons. He came
-here, entered the swamp alone, and succeeded in locating and marking
-a number of valuable trees that he was endeavoring to sell to a rival
-company when we secured the lease. He has sworn to have these trees if
-he has to die or to kill others to get them; and he is a man that the
-strongest would not care to meet."
-
-"But if he came to steal trees, wouldn't he bring teams and men enough:
-that all anyone could do would be to watch and be after you?" queried
-the boy.
-
-"Yes," replied McLean.
-
-"Then why couldn't I be watching just as closely, and coming as fast, as
-an older, stronger man?" asked Freckles.
-
-"Why, by George, you could!" exclaimed McLean. "I don't know as the size
-of a man would be half so important as his grit and faithfulness, come
-to think of it. Sit on that log there and we will talk it over. What is
-your name?"
-
-Freckles shook his head at the proffer of a seat, and folding his arms,
-stood straight as the trees around him. He grew a shade whiter, but his
-eyes never faltered.
-
-"Freckles!" he said.
-
-"Good enough for everyday," laughed McLean, "but I scarcely can put
-'Freckles' on the company's books. Tell me your name."
-
-"I haven't any name," replied the boy.
-
-"I don't understand," said McLean.
-
-"I was thinking from the voice and the face of you that you wouldn't,"
-said Freckles slowly. "I've spent more time on it than I ever did on
-anything else in all me life, and I don't understand. Does it seem to
-you that anyone would take a newborn baby and row over it, until it was
-bruised black, cut off its hand, and leave it out in a bitter night
-on the steps of a charity home, to the care of strangers? That's what
-somebody did to me."
-
-McLean stared aghast. He had no reply ready, and presently in a low
-voice he suggested: "And after?"
-
-"The Home people took me in, and I was there the full legal age and
-several years over. For the most part we were a lot of little Irishmen
-together. They could always find homes for the other children, but
-nobody would ever be wanting me on account of me arm."
-
-"Were they kind to you?" McLean regretted the question the minute it was
-asked.
-
-"I don't know," answered Freckles. The reply sounded so hopeless, even
-to his own ears, that he hastened to qualify it by adding: "You see,
-it's like this, sir. Kindnesses that people are paid to lay off in job
-lots and that belong equally to several hundred others, ain't going to
-be soaking into any one fellow so much."
-
-"Go on," said McLean, nodding comprehendingly.
-
-"There's nothing worth the taking of your time to tell," replied
-Freckles. "The Home was in Chicago, and I was there all me life until
-three months ago. When I was too old for the training they gave to the
-little children, they sent me to the closest ward school as long as the
-law would let them; but I was never like any of the other children, and
-they all knew it. I'd to go and come like a prisoner, and be working
-around the Home early and late for me board and clothes. I always wanted
-to learn mighty bad, but I was glad when that was over.
-
-"Every few days, all me life, I'd to be called up, looked over, and
-refused a home and love, on account of me hand and ugly face; but it was
-all the home I'd ever known, and I didn't seem to belong to any place
-else.
-
-"Then a new superintendent was put in. He wasn't for being like any of
-the others, and he swore he'd weed me out the first thing he did. He
-made a plan to send me down the State to a man he said he knew who
-needed a boy. He wasn't for remembering to tell that man that I was a
-hand short, and he knocked me down the minute he found I was the boy who
-had been sent him. Between noon and that evening, he and his son close
-my age had me in pretty much the same shape in which I was found in
-the beginning, so I lay awake that night and ran away. I'd like to have
-squared me account with that boy before I left, but I didn't dare for
-fear of waking the old man, and I knew I couldn't handle the two of
-them; but I'm hoping to meet him alone some day before I die."
-
-McLean tugged at his mustache to hide the smile on his lips, but he
-liked the boy all the better for this confession.
-
-"I didn't even have to steal clothes to get rid of starting in me Home
-ones," Freckles continued, "for they had already taken all me clean,
-neat things for the boy and put me into his rags, and that went almost
-as sore as the beatings, for where I was we were always kept tidy and
-sweet-smelling, anyway. I hustled clear into this State before I learned
-that man couldn't have kept me if he'd wanted to. When I thought I
-was good and away from him, I commenced hunting work, but it is with
-everybody else just as it is with you, sir. Big, strong, whole men are
-the only ones for being wanted."
-
-"I have been studying over this matter," answered McLean. "I am not so
-sure but that a man no older than you and similar in every way could do
-this work very well, if he were not a coward, and had it in him to be
-trustworthy and industrious."
-
-Freckles came forward a step.
-
-"If you will give me a job where I can earn me food, clothes, and a
-place to sleep," he said, "if I can have a Boss to work for like other
-men, and a place I feel I've a right to, I will do precisely what you
-tell me or die trying."
-
-He spoke so convincingly that McLean believed, although in his heart he
-knew that to employ a stranger would be wretched business for a man with
-the interests he had involved.
-
-"Very well," the Boss found himself answering, "I will enter you on my
-pay rolls. We'll have supper, and then I will provide you with clean
-clothing, wading-boots, the wire-mending apparatus, and a revolver.
-The first thing in the morning, I will take you the length of the trail
-myself and explain fully what I want done. All I ask of you is to come
-to me at once at the south camp and tell me as a man if you find this
-job too hard for you. It will not surprise me. It is work that few men
-would perform faithfully. What name shall I put down?"
-
-Freckles' gaze never left McLean's face, and the Boss saw the swift
-spasm of pain that swept his lonely, sensitive features.
-
-"I haven't any name," he said stubbornly, "no more than one somebody
-clapped on to me when they put me on the Home books, with not the
-thought or care they'd name a house cat. I've seen how they enter those
-poor little abandoned devils often enough to know. What they called me
-is no more my name than it is yours. I don't know what mine is, and I
-never will; but I am going to be your man and do your work, and I'll be
-glad to answer to any name you choose to call me. Won't you please be
-giving me a name, Mr. McLean?"
-
-The Boss wheeled abruptly and began stacking his books. What he was
-thinking was probably what any other gentleman would have thought in the
-circumstances. With his eyes still downcast, and in a voice harsh with
-huskiness, he spoke.
-
-"I will tell you what we will do, my lad," he said. "My father was my
-ideal man, and I loved him better than any other I have ever known. He
-went out five years ago, but that he would have been proud to leave you
-his name I firmly believe. If I give to you the name of my nearest kin
-and the man I loved best--will that do?"
-
-Freckles' rigid attitude relaxed suddenly. His head dropped, and big
-tears splashed on the soiled calico shirt. McLean was not surprised at
-the silence, for he found that talking came none too easily just then.
-
-"All right," he said. "I will write it on the roll--James Ross McLean."
-
-"Thank you mightily," said Freckles. "That makes me feel almost as if I
-belonged, already."
-
-"You do," said McLean. "Until someone armed with every right comes to
-claim you, you are mine. Now, come and take a bath, have some supper,
-and go to bed."
-
-As Freckles followed into the lights and sounds of the camp, his heart
-and soul were singing for joy.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-
-Next morning found Freckles in clean, whole clothing, fed, and rested.
-Then McLean outfitted him and gave him careful instruction in the use of
-his weapon. The Boss showed him around the timber-line, and engaged him
-a place to board with the family of his head teamster, Duncan, whom he
-had brought from Scotland with him, and who lived in a small clearing
-he was working out between the swamp and the corduroy. When the gang was
-started for the south camp, Freckles was left to guard a fortune in the
-Limberlost. That he was under guard himself those first weeks he never
-knew.
-
-Each hour was torture to the boy. The restricted life of a great
-city orphanage was the other extreme of the world compared with the
-Limberlost. He was afraid for his life every minute. The heat was
-intense. The heavy wading-boots rubbed his feet until they bled. He was
-sore and stiff from his long tramp and outdoor exposure. The seven
-miles of trail was agony at every step. He practiced at night, under the
-direction of Duncan, until he grew sure in the use of his revolver. He
-cut a stout hickory cudgel, with a knot on the end as big as his fist;
-this never left his hand. What he thought in those first days he himself
-could not recall clearly afterward.
-
-His heart stood still every time he saw the beautiful marsh-grass begin
-a sinuous waving AGAINST the play of the wind, as McLean had told him it
-would. He bolted half a mile with the first boom of the bittern, and his
-hat lifted with every yelp of the sheitpoke. Once he saw a lean, shadowy
-form following him, and fired his revolver. Then he was frightened worse
-than ever for fear it might have been Duncan's collie.
-
-The first afternoon that he found his wires down, and he was compelled
-to plunge knee deep into the black swamp-muck to restring them, he
-became so ill from fear and nervousness that he scarcely could control
-his shaking hand to do the work. With every step, he felt that he would
-miss secure footing and be swallowed in that clinging sea of blackness.
-In dumb agony he plunged forward, clinging to the posts and trees until
-he had finished restringing and testing the wire. He had consumed
-much time. Night closed in. The Limberlost stirred gently, then shook
-herself, growled, and awoke around him.
-
-There seemed to be a great owl hooting from every hollow tree, and
-a little one screeching from every knothole. The bellowing of big
-bullfrogs was not sufficiently deafening to shut out the wailing of
-whip-poor-wills that seemed to come from every bush. Nighthawks swept
-past him with their shivering cry, and bats struck his face. A prowling
-wildcat missed its catch and screamed with rage. A straying fox bayed
-incessantly for its mate.
-
-The hair on the back of Freckles' neck arose as bristles, and his knees
-wavered beneath him. He could not see whether the dreaded snakes were on
-the trail, or, in the pandemonium, hear the rattle for which McLean had
-cautioned him to listen. He stood motionless in an agony of fear. His
-breath whistled between his teeth. The perspiration ran down his face
-and body in little streams.
-
-Something big, black, and heavy came crashing through the swamp close
-to him, and with a yell of utter panic Freckles ran--how far he did not
-know; but at last he gained control over himself and retraced his steps.
-His jaws set stiffly and the sweat dried on his body. When he reached
-the place from which he had started to run, he turned and with measured
-steps made his way down the line. After a time he realized that he was
-only walking, so he faced that sea of horrors again. When he came toward
-the corduroy, the cudgel fell to test the wire at each step.
-
-Sounds that curdled his blood seemed to encompass him, and shapes of
-terror to draw closer and closer. Fear had so gained the mastery that he
-did not dare look behind him; and just when he felt that he would fall
-dead before he ever reached the clearing, came Duncan's rolling call:
-"Freckles! Freckles!" A shuddering sob burst in the boy's dry throat;
-but he only told Duncan that finding the wire down had caused the delay.
-
-The next morning he started on time. Day after day, with his heart
-pounding, he ducked, dodged, ran when he could, and fought when he was
-brought to bay. If he ever had an idea of giving up, no one knew it; for
-he clung to his job without the shadow of wavering. All these things, in
-so far as he guessed them, Duncan, who had been set to watch the first
-weeks of Freckles' work, carried to the Boss at the south camp; but
-the innermost, exquisite torture of the thing the big Scotchman never
-guessed, and McLean, with his finer perceptions, came only a little
-closer.
-
-After a few weeks, when Freckles learned that he was still living, that
-he had a home, and the very first money he ever had possessed was safe
-in his pockets, he began to grow proud. He yet side-stepped, dodged, and
-hurried to avoid being late again, but he was gradually developing the
-fearlessness that men ever acquire of dangers to which they are hourly
-accustomed.
-
-His heart seemed to be leaping when his first rattler disputed the trail
-with him, but he mustered courage to attack it with his club. After its
-head had been crushed, he mastered an Irishman's inborn repugnance for
-snakes sufficiently to cut off its rattles to show Duncan. With this
-victory, his greatest fear of them was gone.
-
-Then he began to realize that with the abundance of food in the swamp,
-flesh-hunters would not come on the trail and attack him, and he had his
-revolver for defence if they did. He soon learned to laugh at the big,
-floppy birds that made horrible noises. One day, watching behind a tree,
-he saw a crane solemnly performing a few measures of a belated nuptial
-song-and-dance with his mate. Realizing that it was intended in
-tenderness, no matter how it appeared, the lonely, starved heart of the
-boy sympathized with them.
-
-Before the first month passed, he was fairly easy about his job; by the
-next he rather liked it. Nature can be trusted to work her own miracle
-in the heart of any man whose daily task keeps him alone among her
-sights, sounds, and silences.
-
-When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter loneliness was
-the companionship of the birds and beasts of the swamp, it was the
-most natural thing in the world that Freckles should turn to them for
-friendship. He began by instinctively protecting the weak and helpless.
-He was astonished at the quickness with which they became accustomed to
-him and the disregard they showed for his movements, when they learned
-that he was not a hunter, while the club he carried was used more
-frequently for their benefit than his own. He scarcely could believe
-what he saw.
-
-From the effort to protect the birds and animals, it was only a short
-step to the possessive feeling, and with that sprang the impulse to
-caress and provide. Through fall, when brooding was finished and the
-upland birds sought the swamp in swarms to feast on its seeds and
-berries, Freckles was content with watching them and speculating about
-them. Outside of half a dozen of the very commonest they were strangers
-to him. The likeness of their actions to humanity was an hourly
-surprise.
-
-When black frost began stripping the Limberlost, cutting the ferns,
-shearing the vines from the trees, mowing the succulent green things
-of the swale, and setting the leaves swirling down, he watched the
-departing troops of his friends with dismay. He began to realize that he
-would be left alone. He made especial efforts toward friendliness with
-the hope that he could induce some of them to stay. It was then that he
-conceived the idea of carrying food to the birds; for he saw that they
-were leaving for lack of it; but he could not stop them. Day after day,
-flocks gathered and departed: by the time the first snow whitened
-his trail around the Limberlost, there were left only the little
-black-and-white juncos, the sapsuckers, yellow-hammers, a few patriarchs
-among the flaming cardinals, the blue jays, the crows, and the quail.
-
-Then Freckles began his wizard work. He cleared a space of swale, and
-twice a day he spread a birds' banquet. By the middle of December the
-strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed from the grass and
-bushes. The snow fell, covering the swamp, and food was very scarce and
-difficult to find. The birds scarcely waited until Freckles' back was
-turned to attack his provisions. In a few weeks they flew toward the
-clearing to meet him. During the bitter weather of January they came
-halfway to the cabin every morning, and fluttered around him as
-doves all the way to the feeding-ground. Before February they were so
-accustomed to him, and so hunger-driven, that they would perch on
-his head and shoulders, and the saucy jays would try to pry into his
-pockets.
-
-Then Freckles added to wheat and crumbs, every scrap of refuse food he
-could find at the cabin. He carried to his pets the parings of apples,
-turnips, potatoes, stray cabbage-leaves, and carrots, and tied to the
-bushes meat-bones having scraps of fat and gristle. One morning, coming
-to his feeding-ground unusually early, he found a gorgeous cardinal
-and a rabbit side by side sociably nibbling a cabbage-leaf, and that
-instantly gave to him the idea of cracking nuts, from the store he had
-gathered for Duncan's children, for the squirrels, in the effort to add
-them to his family. Soon he had them coming--red, gray, and black; then
-he became filled with a vast impatience that he did not know their names
-or habits.
-
-So the winter passed. Every week McLean rode to the Limberlost; never on
-the same day or at the same hour. Always he found Freckles at his work,
-faithful and brave, no matter how severe the weather.
-
-The boy's earnings constituted his first money; and when the Boss
-explained to him that he could leave them safe at a bank and carry away
-a scrap of paper that represented the amount, he went straight on every
-payday and made his deposit, keeping out barely what was necessary for
-his board and clothing. What he wanted to do with his money he did not
-know, but it gave to him a sense of freedom and power to feel that it
-was there--it was his and he could have it when he chose. In imitation
-of McLean, he bought a small pocket account-book, in which he carefully
-set down every dollar he earned and every penny he spent. As his
-expenses were small and the Boss paid him generously, it was astonishing
-how his little hoard grew.
-
-That winter held the first hours of real happiness in Freckles' life. He
-was free. He was doing a man's work faithfully, through every rigor of
-rain, snow, and blizzard. He was gathering a wonderful strength of body,
-paying his way, and saving money. Every man of the gang and of that
-locality knew that he was under the protection of McLean, who was
-a power, this had the effect of smoothing Freckles' path in many
-directions.
-
-Mrs. Duncan showed him that individual kindness for which his hungry
-heart was longing. She had a hot drink ready for him when he came from
-a freezing day on the trail. She knit him a heavy mitten for his left
-hand, and devised a way to sew and pad the right sleeve that protected
-the maimed arm in bitter weather. She patched his clothing--frequently
-torn by the wire--and saved kitchen scraps for his birds, not because
-she either knew or cared anything about them, but because she herself
-was close enough to the swamp to be touched by its utter loneliness.
-When Duncan laughed at her for this, she retorted: "My God, mannie, if
-Freckles hadna the birds and the beasts he would be always alone. It was
-never meant for a human being to be so solitary. He'd get touched in the
-head if he hadna them to think for and to talk to."
-
-"How much answer do ye think he gets to his talkin', lass?" laughed
-Duncan.
-
-"He gets the answer that keeps the eye bright, the heart happy, and the
-feet walking faithful the rough path he's set them in," answered Mrs.
-Duncan earnestly.
-
-Duncan walked away appearing very thoughtful. The next morning he gave
-an ear from the corn he was shelling for his chickens to Freckles, and
-told him to carry it to his wild chickens in the Limberlost. Freckles
-laughed delightedly.
-
-"Me chickens!" he said. "Why didn't I ever think of that before? Of
-course they are! They are just little, brightly colored cocks and hens!
-But 'wild' is no good. What would you say to me 'wild chickens' being a
-good deal tamer than yours here in your yard?"
-
-"Hoot, lad!" cried Duncan.
-
-"Make yours light on your head and eat out of your hands and pockets,"
-challenged Freckles.
-
-"Go and tell your fairy tales to the wee people! They're juist brash on
-believin' things," said Duncan. "Ye canna invent any story too big to
-stop them from callin' for a bigger."
-
-"I dare you to come see!" retorted Freckles.
-
-"Take ye!" said Duncan. "If ye make juist ane bird licht on your heid
-or eat frae your hand, ye are free to help yoursel' to my corn-crib and
-wheat bin the rest of the winter."
-
-Freckles sprang in air and howled in glee.
-
-"Oh, Duncan! You're too, aisy" he cried. "When will you come?"
-
-"I'll come next Sabbath," said Duncan. "And I'll believe the birds of
-the Limberlost are tame as barnyard fowl when I see it, and no sooner!"
-
-After that Freckles always spoke of the birds as his chickens, and the
-Duncans followed his example. The very next Sabbath, Duncan, with his
-wife and children, followed Freckles to the swamp. They saw a sight so
-wonderful it will keep them talking all the remainder of their lives,
-and make them unfailing friends of all the birds.
-
-Freckles' chickens were awaiting him at the edge of the clearing. They
-cut the frosty air around his head into curves and circles of crimson,
-blue, and black. They chased each other from Freckles, and swept so
-closely themselves that they brushed him with their outspread wings.
-
-At their feeding-ground Freckles set down his old pail of scraps and
-swept the snow from a small level space with a broom improvised of
-twigs. As soon as his back was turned, the birds clustered over the
-food, snatching scraps to carry to the nearest bushes. Several of the
-boldest, a big crow and a couple of jays, settled on the rim and feasted
-at leisure, while a cardinal, that hesitated to venture, fumed and
-scolded from a twig overhead.
-
-Then Freckles scattered his store. At once the ground resembled the
-spread mantle of Montezuma, except that this mass of gaily colored
-feathers was on the backs of living birds. While they feasted, Duncan
-gripped his wife's arm and stared in astonishment; for from the bushes
-and dry grass, with gentle cheeping and queer, throaty chatter, as if to
-encourage each other, came flocks of quail. Before anyone saw it arrive,
-a big gray rabbit sat in the midst of the feast, contentedly gnawing a
-cabbage-leaf.
-
-"Weel, I be drawed on!" came Mrs. Duncan's tense whisper.
-
-"Shu-shu," cautioned Duncan.
-
-Lastly Freckles removed his cap. He began filling it with handfuls of
-wheat from his pockets. In a swarm the grain-eaters arose around him as
-a flock of tame pigeons. They perched on his arms and the cap, and in
-the stress of hunger, forgetting all caution, a brilliant cock cardinal
-and an equally gaudy jay fought for a perching-place on his head.
-
-"Weel, I'm beat," muttered Duncan, forgetting the silence imposed on his
-wife. "I'll hae to give in. 'Seein' is believin'. A man wad hae to see
-that to believe it. We mauna let the Boss miss that sight, for it's a
-chance will no likely come twice in a life. Everything is snowed under
-and thae craturs near starved, but trustin' Freckles that complete they
-are tamer than our chickens. Look hard, bairns!" he whispered. "Ye winna
-see the like o' yon again, while God lets ye live. Notice their color
-against the ice and snow, and the pretty skippin' ways of them! And
-spunky! Weel, I'm heat fair!"
-
-Freckles emptied his cap, turned his pockets and scattered his last
-grain. Then he waved his watching friends good-bye and started down the
-timber-line.
-
-A week later, Duncan and Freckles arose from breakfast to face the
-bitterest morning of the winter. When Freckles, warmly capped and
-gloved, stepped to the corner of the kitchen for his scrap-pail, he
-found a big pan of steaming boiled wheat on the top of it. He wheeled to
-Mrs. Duncan with a shining face.
-
-"Were you fixing this warm food for me chickens or yours?" he asked.
-
-"It's for yours, Freckles," she said. "I was afeared this cold weather
-they wadna lay good without a warm bite now and then."
-
-Duncan laughed as he stepped to the other room for his pipe; but
-Freckles faced Mrs. Duncan with a trace of every pang of starved
-mother-hunger he ever had suffered written large on his homely,
-splotched, narrow features.
-
-"Oh, how I wish you were my mother!" he cried.
-
-Mrs. Duncan attempted an echo of her husband's laugh.
-
-"Lord love the lad!" she exclaimed. "Why, Freckles, are ye no bright
-enough to learn without being taught by a woman that I am your mither?
-If a great man like yoursel' dinna ken that, learn it now and ne'er
-forget it. Ance a woman is the wife of any man, she becomes wife to all
-men for having had the wifely experience she kens! Ance a man-child has
-beaten his way to life under the heart of a woman, she is mither to
-all men, for the hearts of mithers are everywhere the same. Bless ye,
-laddie, I am your mither!"
-
-She tucked the coarse scarf she had knit for him closer over his chest
-and pulled his cap lower over his ears, but Freckles, whipping it
-off and holding it under his arm, caught her rough, reddened hand and
-pressed it to his lips in a long kiss. Then he hurried away to hide the
-happy, embarrassing tears that were coming straight from his swelling
-heart.
-
-Mrs. Duncan, sobbing unrestrainedly, swept into the adjoining room and
-threw herself into Duncan's arms.
-
-"Oh, the puir lad!" she wailed. "Oh, the puir mither-hungry lad! He
-breaks my heart!"
-
-Duncan's arms closed convulsively around his wife. With a big, brown
-hand he lovingly stroked her rough, sorrel hair.
-
-"Sarah, you're a guid woman!" he said. "You're a michty guid woman! Ye
-hae a way o' speakin' out at times that's like the inspired prophets of
-the Lord. If that had been put to me, now, I'd 'a' felt all I kent how
-to and been keen enough to say the richt thing; but dang it, I'd 'a'
-stuttered and stammered and got naething out that would ha' done onybody
-a mite o' good. But ye, Sarah! Did ye see his face, woman? Ye sent him
-off lookin' leke a white light of holiness had passed ower and settled
-on him. Ye sent the lad away too happy for mortal words, Sarah. And
-ye made me that proud o' ye! I wouldna trade ye an' my share o' the
-Limberlost with ony king ye could mention."
-
-He relaxed his clasp, and setting a heavy hand on each shoulder, he
-looked straight into her eyes.
-
-"Ye're prime, Sarah! Juist prime!" he said.
-
-Sarah Duncan stood alone in the middle of her two-roomed log cabin and
-lifted a bony, clawlike pair of hands, reddened by frequent immersion
-in hot water, cracked and chafed by exposure to cold, black-lined by
-constant battle with swamp-loam, calloused with burns, and stared at
-them wonderingly.
-
-"Pretty-lookin' things ye are!" she whispered. "But ye hae juist been
-kissed. And by such a man! Fine as God ever made at His verra best.
-Duncan wouldna trade wi' a king! Na! Nor I wadna trade with a queen wi'
-a palace, an' velvet gowns, an' diamonds big as hazelnuts, an' a hundred
-visitors a day into the bargain. Ye've been that honored I'm blest if
-I can bear to souse ye in dish-water. Still, that kiss winna come off!
-Naething can take it from me, for it's mine till I dee. Lord, if I amna
-proud! Kisses on these old claws! Weel, I be drawed on!"
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-
-So Freckles fared through the bitter winter. He was very happy. He
-had hungered for freedom, love, and appreciation so long! He had been
-unspeakably lonely at the Home; and the utter loneliness of a great
-desert or forest is not so difficult to endure as the loneliness of
-being constantly surrounded by crowds of people who do not care in the
-least whether one is living or dead.
-
-All through the winter Freckles' entire energy was given to keeping up
-his lines and his "chickens" from freezing or starving. When the first
-breath of spring touched the Limberlost, and the snow receded before it;
-when the catkins began to bloom; when there came a hint of green to the
-trees, bushes, and swale; when the rushes lifted their heads, and the
-pulse of the newly resurrected season beat strongly in the heart of
-nature, something new stirred in the breast of the boy.
-
-Nature always levies her tribute. Now she laid a powerful hand on the
-soul of Freckles, to which the boy's whole being responded, though
-he had not the least idea what was troubling him. Duncan accepted his
-wife's theory that it was a touch of spring fever, but Freckles knew
-better. He never had been so well. Clean, hot, and steady the blood
-pulsed in his veins. He was always hungry, and his most difficult work
-tired him not at all. For long months, without a single intermission,
-he had tramped those seven miles of trail twice each day, through every
-conceivable state of weather. With the heavy club he gave his wires a
-sure test, and between sections, first in play, afterward to keep his
-circulation going, he had acquired the skill of an expert drum major.
-In his work there was exercise for every muscle of his body each hour of
-the day, at night a bath, wholesome food, and sound sleep in a room that
-never knew fire. He had gained flesh and color, and developed a greater
-strength and endurance than anyone ever could have guessed.
-
-Nor did the Limberlost contain last year's terrors. He had been with
-her in her hour of desolation, when stripped bare and deserted, she had
-stood shivering, as if herself afraid. He had made excursions into the
-interior until he was familiar with every path and road that ever
-had been cut. He had sounded the depths of her deepest pools, and had
-learned why the trees grew so magnificently. He had found that places
-of swamp and swale were few compared with miles of solid timber-land,
-concealed by summer's luxuriant undergrowth.
-
-The sounds that at first had struck cold fear into his soul he now knew
-had left on wing and silent foot at the approach of winter. As flock
-after flock of the birds returned and he recognized the old echoes
-reawakening, he found to his surprise that he had been lonely for
-them and was hailing their return with great joy. All his fears were
-forgotten. Instead, he was possessed of an overpowering desire to know
-what they were, to learn where they had been, and whether they would
-make friends with him as the winter birds had done; and if they did,
-would they be as fickle? For, with the running sap, creeping worm, and
-winging bug, most of Freckles' "chickens" had deserted him, entered the
-swamp, and feasted to such a state of plethora on its store that they
-cared little for his supply, so that in the strenuous days of mating and
-nest-building the boy was deserted.
-
-He chafed at the birds' ingratitude, but he found speedy consolation in
-watching and befriending the newcomers. He surely would have been proud
-and highly pleased if he had known that many of the former inhabitants
-of the interior swamp now grouped their nests beside the timber-line
-solely for the sake of his protection and company.
-
-The yearly resurrection of the Limberlost is a mighty revival. Freckles
-stood back and watched with awe and envy the gradual reclothing and
-repopulation of the swamp. Keen-eyed and alert through danger and
-loneliness, he noted every stage of development, from the first piping
-frog and unsheathing bud, to full leafage and the return of the last
-migrant.
-
-The knowledge of his complete loneliness and utter insignificance was
-hourly thrust upon him. He brooded and fretted until he was in a fever;
-yet he never guessed the cause. He was filled with a vast impatience, a
-longing that he scarcely could endure.
-
-It was June by the zodiac, June by the Limberlost, and by every delight
-of a newly resurrected season it should have been June in the hearts of
-all men. Yet Freckles scowled darkly as he came down the trail, and the
-running TAP, TAP that tested the sagging wire and telegraphed word
-of his coming to his furred and feathered friends of the swamp, this
-morning carried the story of his discontent a mile ahead of him.
-
-Freckles' special pet, a dainty, yellow-coated, black-sleeved, cock
-goldfinch, had remained on the wire for several days past the bravest
-of all; and Freckles, absorbed with the cunning and beauty of the tiny
-fellow, never guessed that he was being duped. For the goldfinch was
-skipping, flirting, and swinging for the express purpose of so holding
-his attention that he would not look up and see a small cradle of
-thistledown and wool perilously near his head. In the beginning of
-brooding, the spunky little homesteader had clung heroically to the wire
-when he was almost paralyzed with fright. When day after day passed
-and brought only softly whistled repetitions of his call, a handful of
-crumbs on the top of a locust line-post, and gently worded coaxings, he
-grew in confidence. Of late he had sung and swung during the passing of
-Freckles, who, not dreaming of the nest and the solemn-eyed little hen
-so close above, thought himself unusually gifted in his power to attract
-the birds. This morning the goldfinch scarcely could believe his ears,
-and clung to the wire until an unusually vicious rap sent him spinning a
-foot in air, and his "PTSEET" came with a squall of utter panic.
-
-The wires were ringing with a story the birds could not translate, and
-Freckles was quite as ignorant of the trouble as they.
-
-A peculiar movement beneath a small walnut tree caught his attention.
-He stopped to investigate. There was an unusually large Luna cocoon, and
-the moth was bursting the upper end in its struggles to reach light and
-air. Freckles stood and stared.
-
-"There's something in there trying to get out," he muttered. "Wonder if
-I could help it? Guess I best not be trying. If I hadn't happened along,
-there wouldn't have been anyone to do anything, and maybe I'd only be
-hurting it. It's--it's----Oh, skaggany! It's just being born!"
-
-Freckles gasped with surprise. The moth cleared the opening, and with
-many wabblings and contortions climbed up the tree. He stared speechless
-with amazement as the moth crept around a limb and clung to the under
-side. There was a big pursy body, almost as large as his thumb, and of
-the very snowiest white that Freckles ever had seen. There was a band
-of delicate lavender across its forehead, and its feet were of the same
-colour; there were antlers, like tiny, straw-colored ferns, on its head,
-and from its shoulders hung the crumpled wet wings. As Freckles gazed,
-tense with astonishment, he saw that these were expanding, drooping,
-taking on color, and small, oval markings were beginning to show.
-
-The minutes passed. Freckles' steady gaze never wavered. Without
-realizing it, he was trembling with eagerness and anxiety. As he saw
-what was taking place, "It's going to fly," he breathed in hushed
-wonder. The morning sun fell on the moth and dried its velvet down,
-while the warm air made it fluffy. The rapidly growing wings began to
-show the most delicate green, with lavender fore-ribs, transparent,
-eye-shaped markings, edged with lines of red, tan, and black, and long,
-crisp trailers.
-
-Freckles was whispering to himself for fear of disturbing the moth. It
-began a systematic exercise of raising and lowering its exquisite wings
-to dry them and to establish circulation. The boy realized that soon it
-would be able to spread them and sail away. His long-coming soul sent up
-its first shivering cry.
-
-"I don't know what it is! Oh, I wish I knew! How I wish I knew! It must
-be something grand! It can't be a butterfly! It's away too big. Oh, I
-wish there was someone to tell me what it is!"
-
-He climbed on the locust post, and balancing himself with the wire,
-held a finger in the line of the moth's advance up the twig. It
-unhesitatingly climbed on, so he stepped to the path, holding it to the
-light and examining it closely. Then he held it in the shade and turned
-it, gloating over its markings and beautiful coloring. When he held the
-moth to the limb, it climbed on, still waving those magnificent wings.
-
-"My, but I'd like to be staying with you!" he said. "But if I was to
-stand here all day you couldn't grow any prettier than you are right
-now, and I wouldn't grow smart enough to tell what you are. I suppose
-there's someone who knows. Of course there is! Mr. McLean said there
-were people who knew every leaf, bird, and flower in the Limberlost. Oh
-Lord! How I wish You'd be telling me just this one thing!"
-
-The goldfinch had ventured back to the wire, for there was his mate,
-only a few inches above the man-creature's head; and indeed, he simply
-must not be allowed to look up, so the brave little fellow rocked on the
-wire and piped, as he had done every day for a week: "SEE ME? SEE ME?"
-
-"See you! Of course I see you," growled Freckles. "I see you day after
-day, and what good is it doing me? I might see you every morning for a
-year, and then not be able to be telling anyone about it. 'Seen a bird
-with black silk wings--little, and yellow as any canary.' That's as far
-as I'd get. What you doing here, anyway? Have you a mate? What's your
-name? 'See you?' I reckon I see you; but I might as well be blind, for
-any good it's doing me!"
-
-Freckles impatiently struck the wire. With a screech of fear, the
-goldfinch fled precipitately. His mate arose from the nest with a
-whirr--Freckles looked up and saw it.
-
-"O--ho!" he cried. "So THAT'S what you are doing here! You have a
-wife. And so close my head I have been mighty near wearing a bird on my
-bonnet, and never knew it!"
-
-Freckles laughed at his own jest, while in better humor he climbed to
-examine the neat, tiny cradle and its contents. The hen darted at him in
-a frenzy. "Now, where do you come in?" he demanded, when he saw that she
-was not similar to the goldfinch.
-
-"You be clearing out of here! This is none of your fry. This is the nest
-of me little, yellow friend of the wire, and you shan't be touching it.
-Don't blame you for wanting to see, though. My, but it's a fine nest and
-beauties of eggs. Will you be keeping away, or will I fire this stick at
-you?"
-
-Freckles dropped to the trail. The hen darted to the nest and settled on
-it with a tender, coddling movement. He of the yellow coat flew to the
-edge to make sure that everything was right. It would have been plain to
-the veriest novice that they were partners in that cradle.
-
-"Well, I'll be switched!" muttered Freckles. "If that ain't both their
-nest! And he's yellow and she's green, or she's yellow and he's green.
-Of course, I don't know, and I haven't any way to find out, but it's
-plain as the nose on your face that they are both ready to be fighting
-for that nest, so, of course, they belong. Doesn't that beat you? Say,
-that's what's been sticking me all of this week on that grass nest in
-the thorn tree down the line. One day a blue bird is setting, so I think
-it is hers. The next day a brown bird is on, and I chase it off because
-the nest is blue's. Next day the brown bird is on again, and I let her
-be, because I think it must be hers. Next day, be golly, blue's on, and
-off I send her because it's brown's; and now, I bet my hat, it's both
-their nest and I've only been bothering them and making a big fool of
-mesilf. Pretty specimen I am, pretending to be a friend to the birds,
-and so blamed ignorant I don't know which ones go in pairs, and blue and
-brown are a pair, of course, if yellow and green are--and there's the
-red birds! I never thought of them! He's red and she's gray--and now
-I want to be knowing, are they all different? Why no! Of course, they
-ain't! There's the jays all blue, and the crows all black."
-
-The tide of Freckles' discontent welled until he almost choked with
-anger and chagrin. He plodded down the trail, scowling blackly and
-viciously spanging the wire. At the finches' nest he left the line
-and peered into the thorn tree. There was no bird brooding. He pressed
-closer to take a peep at the snowy, spotless little eggs he had found so
-beautiful, when at the slight noise up raised four tiny baby heads with
-wide-open mouths, uttering hunger cries. Freckles stepped back. The
-brown bird alighted on the edge and closed one cavity with a wiggling
-green worm, while not two minutes later the blue filled another with
-a white. That settled it. The blue and brown were mates. Once again
-Freckles repeated his "How I wish I knew!"
-
-Around the bridge spanning Sleepy Snake Creek the swale spread widely,
-the timber was scattering, and willows, rushes, marsh-grass, and
-splendid wild flowers grew abundantly. Here lazy, big, black water
-snakes, for which the creek was named, sunned on the bushes, wild ducks
-and grebe chattered, cranes and herons fished, and muskrats plowed the
-bank in queer, rolling furrows. It was always a place full of interest,
-so Freckles loved to linger on the bridge, watching the marsh and water
-people. He also transacted affairs of importance with the wild flowers
-and sweet marsh-grass. He enjoyed splashing through the shallow pools on
-either side of the bridge.
-
-Then, too, where the creek entered the swamp was a place of unusual
-beauty. The water spread in darksome, mossy, green pools. Water-plants
-and lilies grew luxuriantly, throwing up large, rank, green leaves.
-Nowhere else in the Limberlost could be found frog-music to equal
-that of the mouth of the creek. The drumming and piping rolled in
-never-ending orchestral effect, while the full chorus rang to its
-accompaniment throughout the season.
-
-Freckles slowly followed the path leading from the bridge to the line.
-It was the one spot at which he might relax his vigilance. The boldest
-timber thief the swamp ever had known would not have attempted to enter
-it by the mouth of the creek, on account of the water and because there
-was no protection from surrounding trees. He was bending the rank grass
-with his cudgel, and thinking of the shade the denser swamp afforded,
-when he suddenly dodged sidewise; the cudgel whistled sharply through
-the air and Freckles sprang back.
-
-From the clear sky above him, first level with his face, then skimming,
-dipping, tilting, whirling until it struck, quill down, in the path
-in front of him, came a glossy, iridescent, big black feather. As it
-touched the ground, Freckles snatched it up with almost a continuous
-movement facing the sky. There was not a tree of any size in a large
-open space. There was no wind to carry it. From the clear sky it had
-fallen, and Freckles, gazing eagerly into the arch of June blue with a
-few lazy clouds floating high in the sea of ether, had neither mind nor
-knowledge to dream of a bird hanging as if frozen there. He turned the
-big quill questioningly, and again his awed eyes swept the sky.
-
-"A feather dropped from Heaven!" he breathed reverently. "Are the holy
-angels moulting? But no; if they were, it would be white. Maybe all the
-angels are not for being white. What if the angels of God are white and
-those of the devil are black? But a black one has no business up there.
-Maybe some poor black angel is so tired of being punished it's for
-slipping to the gates, beating its wings trying to make the Master
-hear!"
-
-Again and again Freckles searched the sky, but there was no answering
-gleam of golden gates, no form of sailing bird; then he went slowly
-on his way, turning the feather and wondering about it. It was a wing
-quill, eighteen inches in length, with a heavy spine, gray at the base,
-shading to jet black at the tip, and it caught the play of the sun's
-rays in slanting gleams of green and bronze. Again Freckles' "old man
-of the sea" sat sullen and heavy on his shoulders and weighted him down
-until his step lagged and his heart ached.
-
-"Where did it come from? What is it? Oh, how I wish I knew!" he kept
-repeating as he turned and studied the feather, with almost unseeing
-eyes, so intently was he thinking.
-
-Before him spread a large, green pool, filled with rotting logs and
-leaves, bordered with delicate ferns and grasses among which lifted the
-creamy spikes of the arrow-head, the blue of water-hyacinth, and the
-delicate yellow of the jewel-flower. As Freckles leaned, handling the
-feather and staring at it, then into the depths of the pool, he once
-more gave voice to his old query: "I wonder what it is!"
-
-Straight across from him, couched in the mosses of a soggy old log, a
-big green bullfrog, with palpitant throat and batting eyes, lifted his
-head and bellowed in answer. "FIN' DOUT! FIN' DOUT!"
-
-"Wha--what's that?" stammered Freckles, almost too much bewildered to
-speak. "I--I know you are only a bullfrog, but, be jabbers, that sounded
-mightily like speech. Wouldn't you please to be saying it over?"
-
-The bullfrog cuddled contentedly in the ooze. Then suddenly he lifted
-his voice, and, as an imperative drumbeat, rolled it again: "FIN' DOUT!
-FIN' DOUT! FIN DOUT!"
-
-Freckles had the answer. Something seemed to snap in his brain. There
-was a wavering flame before his eyes. Then his mind cleared. His
-head lifted in a new poise, his shoulders squared, while his spine
-straightened. The agony was over. His soul floated free. Freckles came
-into his birthright.
-
-"Before God, I will!" He uttered the oath so impressively that the
-recording angel never winced as he posted it in the prayer column.
-
-Freckles set his hat over the top of one of the locust posts used
-between trees to hold up the wire while he fastened the feather securely
-in the band. Then he started down the line, talking to himself as men
-who have worked long alone always fall into the habit of doing.
-
-"What a fool I have been!" he muttered. "Of course that's what I have to
-do! There wouldn't likely anybody be doing it for me. Of course I can!
-What am I a man for? If I was a four-footed thing of the swamp, maybe I
-couldn't; but a man can do anything if he's the grit to work hard enough
-and stick at it, Mr. McLean is always saying, and here's the way I am to
-do it. He said, too, that there were people that knew everything in the
-swamp. Of course they have written books! The thing for me to be doing
-is to quit moping and be buying some. Never bought a book in me life,
-or anything else of much account, for that matter. Oh, ain't I glad I
-didn't waste me money! I'll surely be having enough to get a few. Let me
-see."
-
-Freckles sat on a log, took his pencil and account-book, and figured
-on a back page. He had walked the timber-line ten months. His pay
-was thirty dollars a month, and his board cost him eight. That left
-twenty-two dollars a month, and his clothing had cost him very little.
-At the least he had two hundred dollars in the bank. He drew a deep
-breath and smiled at the sky with satisfaction.
-
-"I'll be having a book about all the birds, trees, flowers, butterflies,
-and----Yes, by gummy! I'll be having one about the frogs--if it takes
-every cent I have," he promised himself.
-
-He put away the account-book, that was his most cherished possession,
-caught up his stick, and started down the line. The even tap, tap, and
-the cheery, gladsome whistle carried far ahead of him the message that
-Freckles was himself again.
-
-He fell into a rapid pace, for he had lost time that morning; when he
-rounded the last curve he was almost running. There was a chance that
-the Boss might be there for his weekly report.
-
-Then, wavering, flickering, darting here and there over the sweet
-marsh-grass, came a large black shadow, sweeping so closely before him
-that for the second time that morning Freckles dodged and sprang back.
-He had seen some owls and hawks of the swamp that he thought might be
-classed as large birds, but never anything like this, for six feet it
-spread its big, shining wings. Its strong feet could be seen drawn
-among its feathers. The sun glinted on its sharp, hooked beak. Its eyes
-glowed, caught the light, and seemed able to pierce the ground at his
-feet. It cared no more for Freckles than if he had not been there; for
-it perched on a low tree, while a second later it awkwardly hopped to
-the trunk of a lightning-riven elm, turned its back, and began searching
-the blue.
-
-Freckles looked just in time to see a second shadow sweep the grass; and
-another bird, a trifle smaller and not quite so brilliant in the light,
-slowly sailed down to perch beside the first. Evidently they were mates,
-for with a queer, rolling hop the first-comer shivered his bronze wings,
-sidled to the new arrival, and gave her a silly little peck on her
-wing. Then he coquettishly drew away and ogled her. He lifted his head,
-waddled from her a few steps, awkwardly ambled back, and gave her such
-a simple sort of kiss on her beak that Freckles burst into a laugh, but
-clapped his hand over his mouth to stifle the sound.
-
-The lover ducked and side-stepped a few feet. He spread his wings
-and slowly and softly waved them precisely as if he were fanning his
-charmer, which was indeed the result he accomplished. Then a wave of
-uncontrollable tenderness moved him so he hobbled to his bombardment
-once more. He faced her squarely this time, and turned his head from
-side to side with queer little jerks and indiscriminate peckings at her
-wings and head, and smirkings that really should have been irresistible.
-She yawned and shuffled away indifferently. Freckles reached up, pulled
-the quill from his hat, and looking from it to the birds, nodded in
-settled conviction.
-
-"So you're me black angels, ye spalpeens! No wonder you didn't get in!
-But I'll back you to come closer it than any other birds ever did. You
-fly higher than I can see. Have you picked the Limberlost for a good
-thing and come to try it? Well, you can be me chickens if you want to,
-but I'm blest if you ain't cool for new ones. Why don't you take this
-stick for a gun and go skinning a mile?"
-
-Freckles broke into an unrestrained laugh, for the bird-lover was keen
-about his courting, while evidently his mate was diffident. When he
-approached too boisterously, she relieved him of a goodly tuft of
-feathers and sent him backward in a series of squirmy little jumps that
-gave the boy an idea of what had happened up-sky to send the falling
-feather across his pathway.
-
-"Score one for the lady! I'll be umpiring this," volunteered Freckles.
-
-With a ravishing swagger, half-lifted wings, and deep, guttural hissing,
-the lover approached again. He suddenly lifted his body, but she coolly
-rocked forward on the limb, glided gracefully beneath him, and slowly
-sailed into the Limberlost. He recovered himself and gazed after her in
-astonishment.
-
-Freckles hurried down the trail, shaking with laughter. When he neared
-the path to the clearing and saw the Boss sitting motionless on the mare
-that was the pride of his heart, the boy broke into a run.
-
-"Oh, Mr. McLean!" he cried. "I hope I haven't kept you waiting very
-long! And the sun is getting hot! I have been so slow this morning! I
-could have gone faster, only there were that many things to keep me, and
-I didn't know you would be here. I'll hurry after this. I've never had
-to be giving excuses before. The line wasn't down, and there wasn't a
-sign of trouble; it was other things that were making me late."
-
-McLean, smiling on the boy, immediately noticed the difference in him.
-This flushed, panting, talkative lad was not the same creature who had
-sought him in despair and bitterness. He watched in wonder as Freckles
-mopped the perspiration from his forehead and began to laugh. Then,
-forgetting all his customary reserve with the Boss, the pent-up
-boyishness in the lad broke forth. With an eloquence of which he never
-dreamed he told his story. He talked with such enthusiasm that McLean
-never took his eyes from his face or shifted in the saddle until he
-described the strange bird-lover, and then the Boss suddenly bent over
-the pommel and laughed with the boy.
-
-Freckles decorated his story with keen appreciation and rare touches
-of Irish wit and drollery that made it most interesting as well as very
-funny. It was a first attempt at descriptive narration. With an inborn
-gift for striking the vital point, a naturalist's dawning enthusiasm for
-the wonders of the Limberlost, and the welling joy of his newly found
-happiness, he made McLean see the struggles of the moth and its freshly
-painted wings, the dainty, brilliant bird-mates of different colors, the
-feather sliding through the clear air, the palpitant throat and batting
-eyes of the frog; while his version of the big bird's courtship won for
-the Boss the best laugh he had enjoyed for years.
-
-"They're in the middle of a swamp now" said Freckles. "Do you suppose
-there is any chance of them staying with me chickens? If they do,
-they'll be about the queerest I have; but I tell you, sir, I am finding
-some plum good ones. There's a new kind over at the mouth of the creek
-that uses its wings like feet and walks on all fours. It travels like a
-thrashing machine. There's another, tall as me waist, with a bill a
-foot long, a neck near two, not the thickness of me wrist and an elegant
-color. He's some blue and gray, touched up with black, white, and brown.
-The voice of him is such that if he'd be going up and standing beside
-a tree and crying at it a few times he could be sawing it square off. I
-don't know but it would be a good idea to try him on the gang, sir."
-
-McLean laughed. "Those must be blue herons, Freckles," he said. "And
-it doesn't seem possible, but your description of the big black birds
-sounds like genuine black vultures. They are common enough in the South.
-I've seen them numerous around the lumber camps of Georgia, but I
-never before heard of any this far north. They must be strays. You have
-described perfectly our nearest equivalent to a branch of these birds
-called in Europe Pharaoh's Chickens, but if they are coming to the
-Limberlost they will have to drop Pharaoh and become Freckles' Chickens,
-like the remainder of the birds; won't they? Or are they too odd and
-ugly to interest you?"
-
-"Oh, not at all, at all!" cried Freckles, bursting into pure brogue in
-his haste. "I don't know as I'd be calling them exactly pretty, and they
-do move like a rocking-horse loping, but they are so big and fearless.
-They have a fine color for black birds, and their feet and beaks seem so
-strong. You never saw anything so keen as their eyes! And fly? Why, just
-think, sir, they must be flying miles straight up, for they were out of
-sight completely when the feather fell. I don't suppose I've a chicken
-in the swamp that can go as close heaven as those big, black fellows,
-and then----"
-
-Freckles' voice dragged and he hesitated.
-
-"Then what?" interestedly urged McLean.
-
-"He was loving her so," answered Freckles in a hushed voice. "I know it
-looked awful funny, and I laughed and told on him, but if I'd taken time
-to think I don't believe I'd have done it. You see, I've seen such a
-little bit of loving in me life. You easily can be understanding that at
-the Home it was every day the old story of neglect and desertion. Always
-people that didn't even care enough for their children to keep them, so
-you see, sir, I had to like him for trying so hard to make her know how
-he loved her. Of course, they're only birds, but if they are caring for
-each other like that, why, it's just the same as people, ain't it?"
-
-Freckles lifted his brave, steady eyes to the Boss.
-
-"If anybody loved me like that, Mr. McLean, I wouldn't be spending any
-time on how they looked or moved. All I'd be thinking of would be how
-they felt toward me. If they will stay, I'll be caring as much for them
-as any chickens I have. If I did laugh at them I thought he was just
-fine!"
-
-The face of McLean was a study; but the honest eyes of the boy were so
-compelling that he found himself answering: "You are right, Freckles.
-He's a gentleman, isn't he? And the only real chicken you have. Of
-course he'll remain! The Limberlost will be paradise for his family. And
-now, Freckles, what has been the trouble all spring? You have done your
-work as faithfully as anyone could ask, but I can't help seeing that
-there is something wrong. Are you tired of your job?"
-
-"I love it," answered Freckles. "It will almost break me heart when
-the gang comes and begins tearing up the swamp and scaring away me
-chickens."
-
-"Then what is the trouble?" insisted McLean.
-
-"I think, sir, it's been books," answered Freckles. "You see, I didn't
-realize it meself until the bullfrog told me this morning. I hadn't ever
-even heard about a place like this. Anyway, I wasn't understanding how
-it would be, if I had. Being among these beautiful things every day, I
-got so anxious like to be knowing and naming them, that it got to eating
-into me and went and made me near sick, when I was well as I could be.
-Of course, I learned to read, write, and figure some at school, but
-there was nothing there, or in any of the city that I ever got to see,
-that would make a fellow even be dreaming of such interesting things
-as there are here. I've seen the parks--but good Lord, they ain't even
-beginning to be in it with the Limberlost! It's all new and strange to
-me. I don't know a thing about any of it. The bullfrog told me to 'find
-out,' plain as day, and books are the only way; ain't they?"
-
-"Of course," said McLean, astonished at himself for his heartfelt
-relief. He had not guessed until that minute what it would have meant
-to him to have Freckles give up. "You know enough to study out what you
-want yourself, if you have the books; don't you?"
-
-"I am pretty sure I do," said Freckles. "I learned all I'd the chance at
-in the Home, and me schooling was good as far as it went. Wouldn't let
-you go past fourteen, you know. I always did me sums perfect, and loved
-me history books. I had them almost by heart. I never could get me
-grammar to suit them. They said it was just born in me to go wrong
-talking, and if it hadn't been I suppose I would have picked it up from
-the other children; but I'd the best voice of any of them in the Home
-or at school. I could knock them all out singing. I was always leader in
-the Home, and once one of the superintendents gave me carfare and let
-me go into the city and sing in a boys' choir. The master said I'd the
-swatest voice of them all until it got rough like, and then he made me
-quit for awhile, but he said it would be coming back by now, and I'm
-railly thinking it is, sir, for I've tried on the line a bit of late and
-it seems to go smooth again and lots stronger. That and me chickens have
-been all the company I've been having, and it will be all I'll want if I
-can have some books and learn the real names of things, where they come
-from, and why they do such interesting things. It's been fretting me
-more than I knew to be shut up here among all these wonders and not
-knowing a thing. I wanted to ask you what some books would cost me, and
-if you'd be having the goodness to get me the right ones. I think I have
-enough money."
-
-Freckles offered his account-book and the Boss studied it gravely.
-
-"You needn't touch your account, Freckles," he said. "Ten dollars from
-this month's pay will provide you everything you need to start on. I
-will write a friend in Grand Rapids today to select you the very best
-and send them at once."
-
-Freckles' eyes were shining.
-
-"Never owned a book in me life!" he said. "Even me schoolbooks were
-never mine. Lord! How I used to wish I could have just one of them for
-me very own! Won't it be fun to see me sawbird and me little yellow
-fellow looking at me from the pages of a book, and their real names and
-all about them printed alongside? How long will it be taking, sir?"
-
-"Ten days should do it nicely," said McLean. Then, seeing Freckles'
-lengthening face, he added: "I'll have Duncan bring you a ten-bushel
-store-box the next time he goes to town. He can haul it to the west
-entrance and set it up wherever you want it. You can put in your spare
-time filling it with the specimens you find until the books come,
-and then you can study out what you have. I suspect you could collect
-specimens that I could send to naturalists in the city and sell for you;
-things like that winged creature, this morning. I don't know much in
-that line, but it must have been a moth, and it might have been rare.
-I've seen them by the thousand in museums, and in all nature I don't
-remember rarer coloring than their wings. I'll order you a butterfly-net
-and box and show you how scientists pin specimens. Possibly you can make
-a fine collection of these swamp beauties. It will be all right for you
-to take a pair of different moths and butterflies, but I don't want to
-hear of your killing any birds. They are protected by heavy fines."
-
-McLean rode away leaving Freckles staring aghast. Then he saw the point
-and smiled. Standing on the trail, he twirled the feather and thought
-over the morning.
-
-"Well, if life ain't getting to be worth living!" he said wonderingly.
-"Biggest streak of luck I ever had! 'Bout time something was coming my
-way, but I wouldn't ever thought anybody could strike such magnificent
-prospects through only a falling feather."
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for New
-Experiences
-
-On Duncan's return from his next trip to town there was a big store-box
-loaded on the back of his wagon. He drove to the west entrance of the
-swamp, set the box on a stump that Freckles had selected in a beautiful,
-sheltered place, and made it secure on its foundations with a tree at
-its back.
-
-"It seems most a pity to nail into that tree," said Duncan. "I haena the
-time to examine into the grain of it, but it looks as if it might be a
-rare ane. Anyhow, the nailin' winna hurt it deep, and havin' the case by
-it will make it safer if it is a guid ane."
-
-"Isn't it an oak?" asked Freckles.
-
-"Ay," said Duncan. "It looks like it might be ane of thae fine-grained
-white anes that mak' such grand furniture."
-
-When the body of the case was secure, Duncan made a door from the lid
-and fastened it with hinges. He drove a staple, screwed on a latch, and
-gave Freckles a small padlock--so that he might fasten in his treasures
-safely. He made a shelf at the top for his books, and last of all
-covered the case with oil-cloth.
-
-It was the first time in Freckles' life that anyone ever had done that
-much for his pleasure, and it warmed his heart with pure joy. If the
-interior of the box already had been covered with the rarest treasures
-of the Limberlost he could have been no happier.
-
-When the big teamster stood back to look at his work he laughingly
-quoted, "'Neat, but no' gaudy,' as McLean says. All we're, needing now
-is a coat of paint to make a cupboard that would turn Sarah green with
-envy. Ye'll find that safe an' dry, lad, an' that's all that's needed."
-
-"Mr. Duncan," said Freckles, "I don't know why you are being so mighty
-good to me; but if you have any jobs at the cabin that I could do for
-you or Mrs. Duncan, hours off the line, it would make me mighty happy."
-
-Duncan laughed. "Ye needna feel ye are obliged to me, lad. Ye mauna
-think I could take a half-day off in the best hauling season and go to
-town for boxes to rig up, and spend of my little for fixtures."
-
-"I knew Mr. McLean sent you," said Freckles, his eyes wide and bright
-with happiness. "It's so good of him. How I wish I could do something
-that would please him as much!"
-
-"Why, Freckles," said Duncan, as he knelt and began collecting his
-tools, "I canna see that it will hurt ye to be told that ye are doing
-every day a thing that pleases the Boss as much as anything ye could
-do. Ye're being uncommon faithful, lad, and honest as old Father Time.
-McLean is trusting ye as he would his own flesh and blood."
-
-"Oh, Duncan!" cried the happy boy. "Are you sure?"
-
-"Why I know," answered Duncan. "I wadna venture to say so else. In those
-first days he cautioned me na to tell ye, but now he wadna care. D'ye
-ken, Freckles, that some of the single trees ye are guarding are worth a
-thousand dollars?"
-
-Freckles caught his breath and stood speechless.
-
-"Ye see," said Duncan, "that's why they maun be watched so closely. They
-tak', say, for instance, a burl maple--bird's eye they call it in the
-factory, because it's full o' wee knots and twists that look like the
-eye of a bird. They saw it out in sheets no muckle thicker than writin'
-paper. Then they make up the funiture out of cheaper wood and cover it
-with the maple--veneer, they call it. When it's all done and polished ye
-never saw onythin' grander. Gang into a retail shop the next time ye
-are in town and see some. By sawin' it thin that way they get finish for
-thousands of dollars' worth of furniture from a single tree. If ye dinna
-watch faithful, and Black Jack gets out a few he has marked, it means
-the loss of more money than ye ever dreamed of, lad. The other night,
-down at camp, some son of Balaam was suggestin' that ye might be sellin'
-the Boss out to Jack and lettin' him tak' the trees secretly, and nobody
-wad ever ken till the gang gets here."
-
-A wave of scarlet flooded Freckles' face and he blazed hotly at the
-insult.
-
-"And the Boss," continued Duncan, coolly ignoring Freckles' anger, "he
-lays back just as cool as cowcumbers an' says: 'I'll give a thousand
-dollars to ony man that will show me a fresh stump when we reach the
-Limberlost,' says he. Some of the men just snapped him op that they'd
-find some. So you see bow the Boss is trustin' ye, lad."
-
-"I am gladder than I can ever expriss," said Freckles. "And now will I
-be walking double time to keep some of them from cutting a tree to get
-all that money!"
-
-"Mither o' Moses!" howled Duncan. "Ye can trust the Scotch to bungle
-things a'thegither. McLean was only meanin' to show ye all confidence
-and honor. He's gone and set a high price for some dirty whelp to ruin
-ye. I was just tryin' to show ye how he felt toward ye, and I've gone
-an' give ye that worry to bear. Damn the Scotch! They're so slow an' so
-dumb!"
-
-"Exciptin' prisint company?" sweetly inquired Freckles.
-
-"No!" growled Duncan. "Headin' the list! He'd nae business to set a
-price on ye, lad, for that's about the amount of it, an' I'd nae right
-to tell ye. We've both done ye ill, an' both meanin' the verra best.
-Juist what I'm always sayin' to Sarah."
-
-"I am mighty proud of what you have been telling me, Duncan," said
-Freckles. "I need the warning, sure. For with the books coming I might
-be timpted to neglect me work when double watching is needed. Thank you
-more than I can say for putting me on to it. What you've told me may be
-the saving of me. I won't stop for dinner now. I'll be getting along the
-east line, and when I come around about three, maybe Mother Duncan will
-let me have a glass of milk and a bite of something."
-
-"Ye see now!" cried Duncan in disgust. "Ye'll start on that seven-mile
-tramp with na bite to stay your stomach. What was it I told ye?"
-
-"You told me that the Scotch had the hardest heads and the softest
-hearts of any people that's living," answered Freckles.
-
-Duncan grunted in gratified disapproval.
-
-Freckles picked up his club and started down the line, whistling
-cheerily, for he had an unusually long repertoire upon which to draw.
-
-Duncan went straight to the lower camp, and calling McLean aside,
-repeated the conversation verbatim, ending: "And nae matter what happens
-now or ever, dinna ye dare let onythin' make ye believe that Freckles
-hasna guarded faithful as ony man could."
-
-"I don't think anything could shake my faith in the lad," answered
-McLean.
-
-Freckles was whistling merrily. He kept one eye religiously on the line.
-The other he divided between the path, his friends of the wire, and a
-search of the sky for his latest arrivals. Every day since their coming
-he had seen them, either hanging as small, black clouds above the swamp
-or bobbing over logs and trees with their queer, tilting walk. Whenever
-he could spare time, he entered the swamp and tried to make friends
-with them, for they were the tamest of all his unnumbered subjects. They
-ducked, dodged, and ambled around him, over logs and bushes, and not
-even a near approach would drive them to flight.
-
-For two weeks he had found them circling over the Limberlost regularly,
-but one morning the female was missing and only the big black chicken
-hung sentinel above the swamp. His mate did not reappear in the
-following days, and Freckles grew very anxious. He spoke of it to Mrs.
-Duncan, and she quieted his fears by raising a delightful hope in their
-stead.
-
-"Why, Freckles, if it's the hen-bird ye are missing, it's ten to one
-she's safe," she said. "She's laid, and is setting, ye silly! Watch him
-and mark whaur he lichts. Then follow and find the nest. Some Sabbath
-we'll all gang see it."
-
-Accepting this theory, Freckles began searching for the nest. Because
-these "chickens" were large, as the hawks, he looked among the treetops
-until he almost sprained the back of his neck. He had half the crow and
-hawk nests in the swamp located. He searched for this nest instead of
-collecting subjects for his case. He found the pair the middle of one
-forenoon on the elm where he had watched their love-making. The big
-black chicken was feeding his mate; so it was proved that they were a
-pair, they were both alive, and undoubtedly she was brooding. After that
-Freckles' nest-hunting continued with renewed zeal, but as he had no
-idea where to look and Duncan could offer no helpful suggestion, the
-nest was no nearer to being found.
-
-Coming from a long day on the trail, Freckles saw Duncan's children
-awaiting him much closer the swale than they usually ventured, and from
-their wild gestures he knew that something had happened. He began to
-run, but the cry that reached him was: "The books have come!"
-
-How they hurried! Freckles lifted the youngest to his shoulder, the
-second took his club and dinner pail, and when they reached Mrs. Duncan
-they found her at work on a big box. She had loosened the lid, and then
-she laughingly sat on it.
-
-"Ye canna have a peep in here until ye have washed and eaten supper,"
-she said. "It's all ready on the table. Ance ye begin on this, ye'll
-no be willin' to tak' your nose o' it till bedtime, and I willna get my
-work done the nicht. We've eaten long ago."
-
-It was difficult work, but Freckles smiled bravely. He made himself
-neat, swallowed a few bites, then came so eagerly that Mrs. Duncan
-yielded, although she said she very well knew all the time that his
-supper would be spoiled.
-
-Lifting the lid, they removed the packing and found in that box books
-on birds, trees, flowers, moths, and butterflies. There was also one
-containing Freckles' bullfrog, true to life. Besides these were a
-butterfly-net, a naturalist's tin specimen-box, a bottle of cyanide,
-a box of cotton, a paper of long, steel specimen-pins, and a letter
-telling what all these things were and how to use them.
-
-At the discovery of each new treasure, Freckles shouted: "Will you be
-looking at this, now?"
-
-Mrs. Duncan cried: "Weel, I be drawed on!"
-
-The eldest boy turned a somersault for every extra, while the baby,
-trying to follow his example, bunched over in a sidewise sprawl and cut
-his foot on the axe with which his mother had prized up the box-lid.
-That sobered them, they carried the books indoors. Mrs. Duncan had a top
-shelf in her closet cleared for them, far above the reach of meddling
-little fingers.
-
-When Freckles started for the trail next morning, the shining new
-specimen-box flashed on his back. The black "chicken," a mere speck in
-the blue, caught the gleam of it. The folded net hung beside the boy's
-hatchet, and the bird book was in the box. He walked the line and tested
-each section scrupulously, watching every foot of the trail, for he was
-determined not to slight his work; but if ever a boy "made haste slowly"
-in a hurry, it was Freckles that morning. When at last he reached the
-space he had cleared and planted around his case, his heart swelled with
-the pride of possessing even so much that he could call his own, while
-his quick eyes feasted on the beauty of it.
-
-He had made a large room with the door of the case set even with one
-side of it. On three sides, fine big bushes of wild rose climbed to the
-lower branches of the trees. Part of his walls were mallow, part alder,
-thorn, willow, and dogwood. Below there filled in a solid mass of pale
-pink sheep-laurel, and yellow St. John's wort, while the amber threads
-of the dodder interlaced everywhere. At one side the swamp came close,
-here cattails grew in profusion. In front of them he had planted a row
-of water-hyacinths without disturbing in the least the state of their
-azure bloom, and where the ground arose higher for his floor, a row of
-foxfire, that soon would be open.
-
-To the left he had discovered a queer natural arrangement of the trees,
-that grew to giant size and were set in a gradually narrowing space so
-that a long, open vista stretched away until lost in the dim recesses
-of the swamp. A little trimming of underbush, rolling of dead logs,
-levelling of floor and carpeting with moss, made it easy to understand
-why Freckles had named this the "cathedral"; yet he never had been
-taught that "the groves were God's first temples."
-
-On either side of the trees that constituted the first arch of this dim
-vista of the swamp he planted ferns that grew waist-high thus early in
-the season, and so skilfully the work had been done that not a frond
-drooped because of the change. Opposite, he cleared a space and made a
-flower bed. He filled one end with every delicate, lacy vine and fern he
-could transplant successfully. The body of the bed was a riot of color.
-Here he set growing dainty blue-eyed-Marys and blue-eyed grass side
-by side. He planted harebells; violets, blue, white, and yellow; wild
-geranium, cardinal-flower, columbine, pink snake's mouth, buttercups,
-painted trilliums, and orchis. Here were blood-root, moccasin-flower,
-hepatica, pitcher-plant, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and every other flower of
-the Limberlost that was in bloom or bore a bud presaging a flower. Every
-day saw the addition of new specimens. The place would have driven a
-botanist wild with envy.
-
-On the line side he left the bushes thick for concealment, entering by a
-narrow path he and Duncan had cleared in setting up the case. He called
-this the front door, though he used every precaution to hide it. He
-built rustic seats between several of the trees, leveled the floor, and
-thickly carpeted it with rank, heavy, woolly-dog moss. Around the case
-he planted wild clematis, bittersweet, and wild-grapevines, and trained
-them over it until it was almost covered. Every day he planted new
-flowers, cut back rough bushes, and coaxed out graceful ones. His
-pride in his room was very great, but he had no idea how surprisingly
-beautiful it would appear to anyone who had not witnessed its growth and
-construction.
-
-This morning Freckles walked straight to his case, unlocked it, and set
-his apparatus and dinner inside. He planted a new specimen he had found
-close the trail, and, bringing his old scrap-bucket from the corner in
-which it was hidden, from a near-by pool he dipped water to pour over
-his carpet and flowers.
-
-Then he took out the bird book, settled comfortably on a bench, and
-with a deep sigh of satisfaction turned to the section headed. "V." Past
-"veery" and "vireo" he went, down the line until his finger, trembling
-with eagerness, stopped at "vulture."
-
-"'Great black California vulture,'" he read.
-
-"Humph! This side the Rockies will do for us."
-
-"'Common turkey-buzzard.'"
-
-"Well, we ain't hunting common turkeys. McLean said chickens, and what
-he says goes."
-
-"'Black vulture of the South.'"
-
-"Here we are arrived at once."
-
-Freckles' finger followed the line, and he read scraps aloud.
-
-"'Common in the South. Sometimes called Jim Crow. Nearest equivalent to
-C-a-t-h-a-r-t-e-s A-t-r-a-t-a.'"
-
-"How the divil am I ever to learn them corkin' big words by mesel'?"
-
-"'--the Pharaoh's Chickens of European species. Sometimes stray north as
-far as Virginia and Kentucky----'"
-
-"And sometimes farther," interpolated Freckles, "'cos I got them right
-here in Indiana so like these pictures I can just see me big chicken
-bobbing up to get his ears boxed. Hey?"
-
-"'Light-blue eggs'----"
-
-"Golly! I got to be seeing them!"
-
-"'--big as a common turkey's, but shaped like a hen's, heavily splotched
-with chocolate----'"
-
-"Caramels, I suppose. And----"
-
-"'--in hollow logs or stumps.'"
-
-"Oh, hagginy! Wasn't I barking up the wrong tree, though? Ought to been
-looking close the ground all this time. Now it's all to do over, and I
-suspect the sooner I start the sooner I'll be likely to find them."
-
-Freckles put away his book, dampened the smudge-fire, without which the
-mosquitoes made the swamp almost unbearable, took his cudgel and lunch,
-and went to the line. He sat on a log, ate at dinner-time and drank his
-last drop of water. The heat of June was growing intense. Even on the
-west of the swamp, where one had full benefit of the breeze from the
-upland, it was beginning to be unpleasant in the middle of the day.
-
-He brushed the crumbs from his knees and sat resting awhile and watching
-the sky to see if his big chicken were hanging up there. But he came to
-the earth abruptly, for there were steps coming down the trail that
-were neither McLean's nor Duncan's--and there never had been others.
-Freckles' heart leaped hotly. He ran a quick hand over his belt to feel
-if his revolver and hatchet were there, caught up his cudgel and laid
-it across his knees--then sat quietly, waiting. Was it Black Jack,
-or someone even worse? Forced to do something to brace his nerves, he
-puckered his stiffening lips and began whistling a tune he had led in
-his clear tenor every year of his life at the Home Christmas exercises.
-
-     "Who comes this way, so blithe and gay,
-     Upon a merry Christmas day?"
-
-His quick Irish wit roused to the ridiculousness of it until he broke
-into a laugh that steadied him amazingly.
-
-Through the bushes he caught a glimpse of the oncoming figure. His heart
-flooded with joy, for it was a man from the gang. Wessner had been his
-bunk-mate the night he came down the corduroy. He knew him as well as
-any of McLean's men. This was no timber-thief. No doubt the Boss had
-sent him with a message. Freckles sprang up and called cheerily, a warm
-welcome on his face.
-
-"Well, it's good telling if you're glad to see me," said Wessner, with
-something very like a breath of relief. "We been hearing down at the
-camp you were so mighty touchy you didn't allow a man within a rod of
-the line."
-
-"No more do I," answered Freckles, "if he's a stranger, but you're from
-McLean, ain't you?"
-
-"Oh, damn McLean!" said Wessner.
-
-Freckles gripped the cudgel until his knuckles slowly turned purple.
-
-"And are you railly saying so?" he inquired with elaborate politeness.
-
-"Yes, I am," said Wessner. "So would every man of the gang if they
-wasn't too big cowards to say anything, unless maybe that other
-slobbering old Scotchman, Duncan. Grinding the lives out of us! Working
-us like dogs, and paying us starvation wages, while he rolls up his
-millions and lives like a prince!"
-
-Green lights began to play through the gray of Freckles' eyes.
-
-"Wessner," he said impressively, "you'd make a fine pattern for the
-father of liars! Every man on that gang is strong and hilthy, paid all
-he earns, and treated with the courtesy of a gentleman! As for the Boss
-living like a prince, he shares fare with you every day of your lives!"
-
-Wessner was not a born diplomat, but he saw he was on the wrong tack, so
-he tried another.
-
-"How would you like to make a good big pile of money, without even
-lifting your hand?" he asked.
-
-"Humph!" said Freckles. "Have you been up to Chicago and cornered wheat,
-and are you offering me a friendly tip on the invistment of me fortune?"
-
-Wessner came close.
-
-"Freckles, old fellow," he said, "if you let me give you a pointer, I
-can put you on to making a cool five hundred without stepping out of
-your tracks."
-
-Freckles drew back.
-
-"You needn't be afraid of speaking up," he said. "There isn't a soul in
-the Limberlost save the birds and the beasts, unless some of your sort's
-come along and's crowding the privileges of the legal tinints."
-
-"None of my friends along," said Wessner. "Nobody knew I came but Black,
-I--I mean a friend of mine. If you want to hear sense and act with
-reason, he can see you later, but it ain't necessary. We can make all
-the plans needed. The trick's so dead small and easy."
-
-"Must be if you have the engineering of it," said Freckles. But he
-heard, with a sigh of relief, that they were alone.
-
-Wessner was impervious. "You just bet it is! Why, only think, Freckles,
-slavin' away at a measly little thirty dollars a month, and here is a
-chance to clear five hundred in a day! You surely won't be the fool to
-miss it!"
-
-"And how was you proposing for me to stale it?" inquired Freckles. "Or
-am I just to find it laying in me path beside the line?"
-
-"That's it, Freckles," blustered the Dutchman, "you're just to find it.
-You needn't do a thing. You needn't know a thing. You name a morning
-when you will walk up the west side of the swamp and then turn round
-and walk back down the same side again and the money is yours. Couldn't
-anything be easier than that, could it?"
-
-"Depinds entirely on the man," said Freckles. The lilt of a lark hanging
-above the swale beside them was not sweeter than the sweetness of his
-voice. "To some it would seem to come aisy as breathing; and to some,
-wringin' the last drop of their heart's blood couldn't force thim! I'm
-not the man that goes into a scheme like that with the blindfold over
-me eyes, for, you see, it manes to break trust with the Boss; and I've
-served him faithful as I knew. You'll have to be making the thing very
-clear to me understanding."
-
-"It's so dead easy," repeated Wessner, "it makes me tired of the
-simpleness of it. You see there's a few trees in the swamp that's real
-gold mines. There's three especial. Two are back in, but one's square on
-the line. Why, your pottering old Scotch fool of a Boss nailed the
-wire to it with his own hands! He never noticed where the bark had been
-peeled, or saw what it was. If you will stay on this side of the trail
-just one day we can have it cut, loaded, and ready to drive out at
-night. Next morning you can find it, report, and be the busiest man
-in the search for us. We know where to fix it all safe and easy. Then
-McLean has a bet up with a couple of the gang that there can't be a raw
-stump found in the Limberlost. There's plenty of witnesses to swear to
-it, and I know three that will. There's a cool thousand, and this tree
-is worth all of that, raw. Say, it's a gold mine, I tell you, and just
-five hundred of it is yours. There's no danger on earth to you, for
-you've got McLean that bamboozled you could sell out the whole swamp and
-he'd never mistrust you. What do you say?"
-
-Freckles' soul was satisfied. "Is that all?" he asked.
-
-"No, it ain't," said Wessner. "If you really want to brace up and be a
-man and go into the thing for keeps, you can make five times that in a
-week. My friend knows a dozen others we could get out in a few days, and
-all you'd have to do would be to keep out of sight. Then you could
-take your money and skip some night, and begin life like a gentleman
-somewhere else. What do you think about it?"
-
-Freckles purred like a kitten.
-
-"'Twould be a rare joke on the Boss," he said, "to be stalin' from him
-the very thing he's trusted me to guard, and be getting me wages all
-winter throwed in free. And you're making the pay awful high. Me to
-be getting five hundred for such a simple little thing as that. You're
-trating me most royal indade! It's away beyond all I'd be expecting.
-Sivinteen cints would be a big price for that job. It must be looked
-into thorough. Just you wait here until I do a minute's turn in the
-swamp, and then I'll be eschorting you out of the clearing and giving
-you the answer."
-
-Freckles lifted the overhanging bushes and hurried to the case. He
-unslung the specimen-box and laid it inside with his hatchet and
-revolver. He slipped the key in his pocket and went back to Wessner.
-
-"Now for the answer," he said. "Stand up!"
-
-There was iron in his voice, and he was commanding as an outraged
-general. "Anything, you want to be taking off?" he questioned.
-
-Wessner looked the astonishment he felt. "Why, no, Freckles," he said.
-
-"Have the goodness to be calling me Mister McLean," snapped Freckles.
-"I'm after resarvin' me pet name for the use of me friends! You may
-stand with your back to the light or be taking any advantage you want."
-
-"Why, what do you mean?" spluttered Wessner.
-
-"I'm manin'," said Freckles tersely, "to lick a quarter-section of hell
-out of you, and may the Holy Vargin stay me before I leave you here
-carrion, for your carcass would turn the stummicks of me chickens!"
-
-At the camp that morning, Wessner's conduct had been so palpable an
-excuse to force a discharge that Duncan moved near McLean and whispered,
-"Think of the boy, sir?"
-
-McLean was so troubled that, an hour later, he mounted Nellie and
-followed Wessner to his home in Wildcat Hollow, only to find that he had
-left there shortly before, heading for the Limberlost. McLean rode at
-top speed. When Mrs. Duncan told him that a man answering Wessner's
-description had gone down the west side of the swamp close noon, he left
-the mare in her charge and followed on foot. When he heard voices he
-entered the swamp and silently crept close just in time to hear Wessner
-whine: "But I can't fight you, Freckles. I hain't done nothing to you.
-I'm away bigger than you, and you've only one hand."
-
-The Boss slid off his coat and crouched among the bushes, ready to
-spring; but as Freckles' voice reached him he held himself, with a
-strong effort, to learn what mettle was in the boy.
-
-"Don't you be wasting of me good time in the numbering of me hands,"
-cried Freckles. "The stringth of me cause will make up for the weakness
-of me mimbers, and the size of a cowardly thief doesn't count. You'll
-think all the wildcats of the Limberlost are turned loose on you whin I
-come against you, and as for me cause----I slept with you, Wessner, the
-night I came down the corduroy like a dirty, friendless tramp, and the
-Boss was for taking me up, washing, clothing, and feeding me, and giving
-me a home full of love and tinderness, and a master to look to, and
-good, well-earned money in the bank. He's trusting me his heartful, and
-here comes you, you spotted toad of the big road, and insults me, as is
-an honest Irish gintleman, by hinting that you concaive I'd be willing
-to shut me eyes and hold fast while you rob him of the thing I was set
-and paid to guard, and then act the sneak and liar to him, and ruin and
-eternally blacken the soul of me. You damned rascal," raved Freckles,
-"be fighting before I forget the laws of a gintlemin's game and split
-your dirty head with me stick!"
-
-Wessner backed away, mumbling, "But I don't want to hurt you, Freckles!"
-
-"Oh, don't you!" raged the boy, now fairly frothing. "Well, you ain't
-resembling me none, for I'm itching like death to git me fingers in the
-face of you."
-
-He danced up, and as Wessner lunged in self-defense, ducked under his
-arm as a bantam and punched him in the pit of the stomach so that he
-doubled with a groan. Before Wessner could straighten himself, Freckles
-was on him, fighting like the wildest fury that ever left the beautiful
-island. The Dutchman dealt thundering blows that sometimes landed and
-sent Freckles reeling, and sometimes missed, while he went plunging into
-the swale with the impetus of them. Freckles could not strike with half
-Wessner's force, but he could land three blows to the Dutchman's one.
-It was here that the boy's days of alert watching on the line, the
-perpetual swinging of the heavy cudgel, and the endurance of all weather
-stood him in good stead; for he was tough, and agile. He skipped,
-ducked, and dodged. For the first five minutes he endured fearful
-punishment. Then Wessner's breath commenced to whistle between his
-teeth, when Freckles only had begun fighting. He sprang back with shrill
-laughter.
-
-"Begolly! and will your honor be whistling the hornpipe for me to be
-dancing of?" he cried.
-
-SPANG! went his fist into Wessner's face, and he was past him into the
-swale.
-
-"And would you be pleased to tune up a little livelier?" he gasped, and
-clipped his ear as he sprang back. Wessner lunged at him in blind fury.
-Freckles, seeing an opening, forgot the laws of a gentleman's game and
-drove the toe of his heavy wading-boot in Wessner's middle until he
-doubled and fell heavily. In a flash Freckles was on him. For a time
-McLean could not see what was happening. "Go! Go to him now!" he
-commanded himself, but so intense was his desire to see the boy win
-alone that he did not stir.
-
-At last Freckles sprang up and backed away. "Time!" he yelled as a fury.
-"Be getting up, Mr. Wessner, and don't be afraid of hurting me. I'll let
-you throw in an extra hand and lick you to me complate satisfaction all
-the same. Did you hear me call the limit? Will you get up and be facing
-me?"
-
-As Wessner struggled to his feet, he resembled a battlefield, for his
-clothing was in ribbons and his face and hands streaming blood.
-
-"I--I guess I got enough," he mumbled.
-
-"Oh, you do?" roared Freckles. "Well this ain't your say. You come on
-to me ground, lying about me Boss and intimatin' I'd stale from his very
-pockets. Now will you be standing up and taking your medicine like a
-man, or getting it poured down the throat of you like a baby? I ain't
-got enough! This is only just the beginning with me. Be looking out
-there!"
-
-He sprang against Wessner and sent him rolling. He attacked the
-unresisting figure and fought him until he lay limp and quiet and
-Freckles had no strength left to lift an arm. Then he arose and stepped
-back, gasping for breath. With his first lungful of air he shouted:
-"Time!" But the figure of Wessner lay motionless.
-
-Freckles watched him with regardful eye and saw at last that he was
-completely exhausted. He bent over him, and catching him by the back of
-the neck, jerked him to his knees. Wessner lifted the face of a whipped
-cur, and fearing further punishment, burst into shivering sobs, while
-the tears washed tiny rivulets through the blood and muck. Freckles
-stepped back, glaring at Wessner, but suddenly the scowl of anger and
-the ugly disfiguring red faded from the boy's face. He dabbed at a cut
-on his temple from which issued a tiny crimson stream, and jauntily
-shook back his hair. His face took on the innocent look of a cherub,
-and his voice rivaled that of a brooding dove, but into his eyes crept a
-look of diabolical mischief.
-
-He glanced vaguely around him until he saw his club, seized and twirled
-it as a drum major, stuck it upright in the muck, and marched on tiptoe
-to Wessner, mechanically, as a puppet worked by a string. Bending over,
-Freckles reached an arm around Wessner's waist and helped him to his
-feet.
-
-"Careful, now" he cautioned, "be careful, Freddy; there's danger of you
-hurting me."
-
-Drawing a handkerchief from a back pocket, Freckles tenderly wiped
-Wessner's eyes and nose.
-
-"Come, Freddy, me child," he admonished Wessner, "it's time little boys
-were going home. I've me work to do, and can't be entertaining you any
-more today. Come back tomorrow, if you ain't through yet, and we'll
-repate the perfarmance. Don't be staring at me so wild like! I would eat
-you, but I can't afford it. Me earnings, being honest, come slow, and
-I've no money to be squanderin' on the pailful of Dyspeptic's Delight it
-would be to taking to work you out of my innards!"
-
-Again an awful wrenching seized McLean. Freckles stepped back as
-Wessner, tottering and reeling, as a thoroughly drunken man, came toward
-the path, appearing indeed as if wildcats had attacked him.
-
-The cudgel spun high in air, and catching it with an expertness acquired
-by long practice on the line, the boy twirled it a second, shook back
-his thick hair bonnily, and stepping into the trail, followed Wessner.
-Because Freckles was Irish, it was impossible to do it silently, so
-presently his clear tenor rang out, though there were bad catches where
-he was hard pressed for breath:
-
-     "It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch.
-     Do you think it was the Irish hollered help?
-     Not much!
-     It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch----"
-
-Wessner turned and mumbled: "What you following me for? What are you
-going to do with me?"
-
-Freckles called the Limberlost to witness: "How's that for the
-ingratitude of a beast? And me troubling mesilf to show him off me
-territory with the honors of war!"
-
-Then he changed his tone completely and added: "Belike it's this,
-Freddy. You see, the Boss might come riding down this trail any minute,
-and the little mare's so wheedlesome that if she'd come on to you in
-your prisint state all of a sudden, she'd stop that short she'd send Mr.
-McLean out over the ears of her. No disparagement intinded to the sinse
-of the mare!" he added hastily.
-
-Wessner belched a fearful oath, while Freckles laughed merrily.
-
-"That's a sample of the thanks a generous act's always for getting," he
-continued. "Here's me neglictin' me work to eschort you out proper, and
-you saying such awful words Freddy," he demanded sternly, "do you want
-me to soap out your mouth? You don't seem to be realizing it, but if you
-was to buck into Mr. McLean in your prisint state, without me there
-to explain matters the chance is he'd cut the liver out of you; and I
-shouldn't think you'd be wanting such a fine gintleman as him to see
-that it's white!"
-
-Wessner grew ghastly under his grime and broke into a staggering run.
-
-"And now will you be looking at the manners of him?" questioned Freckles
-plaintively. "Going without even a 'thank you,' right in the face of all
-the pains I've taken to make it interesting for him!"
-
-Freckles twirled the club and stood as a soldier at attention
-until Wessner left the clearing, but it was the last scene of that
-performance. When the boy turned, there was deathly illness on his face,
-while his legs wavered beneath his weight. He staggered to the case, and
-opening it he took out a piece of cloth. He dipped it into the water,
-and sitting on a bench, he wiped the blood and grime from his face,
-while his breath sucked between his clenched teeth. He was shivering
-with pain and excitement in spite of himself. He unbuttoned the band of
-his right sleeve, and turning it back, exposed the blue-lined, calloused
-whiteness of his maimed arm, now vividly streaked with contusions, while
-in a series of circular dots the blood oozed slowly. Here Wessner had
-succeeded in setting his teeth. When Freckles saw what it was he forgave
-himself the kick in the pit of Wessner's stomach, and cursed fervently
-and deep.
-
-"Freckles, Freckles," said McLean's voice.
-
-Freckles snatched down his sleeve and arose to his feet.
-
-"Excuse me, sir," he said. "You'll surely be belavin' I thought meself
-alone."
-
-McLean pushed him carefully to the seat, and bending over him, opened a
-pocket-case that he carried as regularly as his revolver and watch, for
-cuts and bruises were of daily occurrence among the gang.
-
-Taking the hurt arm, he turned back the sleeve and bathed and bound the
-wounds. He examined Freckles' head and body and convinced himself that
-there was no permanent injury, although the cruelty of the punishment
-the boy had borne set the Boss shuddering. Then he closed the
-case, shoved it into his pocket, and sat beside Freckles. All the
-indescribable beauty of the place was strong around him, but he saw
-only the bruised face of the suffering boy, who had hedged for the
-information he wanted as a diplomat, argued as a judge, fought as a
-sheik, and triumphed as a devil.
-
-When the pain lessened and breath relieved Freckles' pounding heart, he
-watched the Boss covertly. How had McLean gotten there and how long had
-he been there? Freckles did not dare ask. At last he arose, and going
-to the case, took out his revolver and the wire-mending apparatus and
-locked the door. Then he turned to McLean.
-
-"Have you any orders, sir?" he asked.
-
-"Yes," said McLean, "I have, and you are to follow them to the letter.
-Turn over that apparatus to me and go straight home. Soak yourself in
-the hottest bath your skin will bear and go to bed at once. Now hurry."
-
-"Mr. McLean," said Freckles, "it's sorry I am to be telling you, but
-the afternoon's walking of the line ain't done. You see, I was just
-for getting to me feet to start, and I was on time, when up came
-a gintleman, and we got into a little heated argument. It's either
-settled, or it's just begun, but between us, I'm that late I haven't
-started for the afternoon yet. I must be going at once, for there's a
-tree I must find before the day's over."
-
-"You plucky little idiot," growled McLean. "You can't walk the line! I
-doubt if you can reach Duncan's. Don't you know when you are done up?
-You go to bed; I'll finish your work."
-
-"Niver!" protested Freckles. "I was just a little done up for the
-prisint, a minute ago. I'm all right now. Riding-boots are far too low.
-The day's hot and the walk a good seven miles, sir. Niver!"
-
-As he reached for the outfit he pitched forward and his eyes closed.
-McLean stretched him on the moss and applied restoratives. When Freckles
-returned to consciousness, McLean ran to the cabin to tell Mrs. Duncan
-to have a hot bath ready, and to bring Nellie. That worthy woman
-promptly filled the wash-boiler, starting a roaring fire under it. She
-pushed the horse-trough from its base and rolled it to the kitchen.
-
-By the time McLean came again, leading Nelie and holding Freckles on her
-back, Mrs. Duncan was ready for business. She and the Boss laid Freckles
-in the trough and poured on hot water until he squirmed. They soaked and
-massaged him. Then they drew off the hot water and closed his pores with
-cold. Lastly they stretched him on the floor and chafed, rubbed, and
-kneaded him until he cried out for mercy. As they rolled him into bed,
-his eyes dropped shut, but a little later they flared open.
-
-"Mr. McLean," he cried, "the tree! Oh, do be looking after the tree!"
-
-McLean bent over him. "Which tree, Freckles?"
-
-"I don't know exact sir; but it's on the east line, and the wire is
-fastened to it. He bragged that you nailed it yourself, sir. You'll know
-it by the bark having been laid open to the grain somewhere low down.
-Five hundred dollars he offered me--to be--selling you out--sir!"
-
-Freckles' head rolled over and his eyes dropped shut. McLean towered
-above the lad. His bright hair waved on the pillow. His face was
-swollen, and purple with bruises. His left arm, with the hand battered
-almost out of shape, stretched beside him, and the right, with no hand
-at all, lay across a chest that was a mass of purple welts. McLean's
-mind traveled to the night, almost a year before, when he had engaged
-Freckles, a stranger.
-
-The Boss bent, covering the hurt arm with one hand and laying the other
-with a caress on the boy's forehead. Freckles stirred at his touch, and
-whispered as softly as the swallows under the eaves: "If you're coming
-this way--tomorrow--be pleased to step over--and we'll repate--the
-chorus softly!"
-
-"Bless the gritty devil," muttered McLean.
-
-Then he went out and told Mrs. Duncan to keep close watch on Freckles,
-also to send Duncan to him at the swamp the minute he came home.
-Following the trail to the line and back to the scent of the fight, the
-Boss entered Freckles' study quietly, as if his spirit, keeping there,
-might be roused, and gazed around with astonished eyes.
-
-How had the boy conceived it? What a picture he had wrought in living
-colors! He had the heart of a painter. He had the soul of a poet. The
-Boss stepped carefully over the velvet carpet to touch the walls of
-crisp verdure with gentle fingers. He stood long beside the flower
-bed, and gazed at the banked wall of bright bloom as if he doubted its
-reality.
-
-Where had Freckles ever found, and how had he transplanted such ferns?
-As McLean turned from them he stopped suddenly.
-
-He had reached the door of the cathedral. That which Freckles had
-attempted would have been patent to anyone. What had been in the heart
-of the shy, silent boy when he had found that long, dim stretch of
-forest, decorated its entrance, cleared and smoothed its aisle, and
-carpeted its altar? What veriest work of God was in these mighty living
-pillars and the arched dome of green! How similar to stained cathedral
-windows were the long openings between the trees, filled with rifts of
-blue, rays of gold, and the shifting emerald of leaves! Where could be
-found mosaics to match this aisle paved with living color and glowing
-light? Was Freckles a devout Christian, and did he worship here? Or was
-he an untaught heathen, and down this vista of entrancing loveliness did
-Pan come piping, and dryads, nymphs, and fairies dance for him?
-
-Who can fathom the heart of a boy? McLean had been thinking of Freckles
-as a creature of unswerving honesty, courage, and faithfulness. Here was
-evidence of a heart aching for beauty, art, companionship, worship. It
-was writ large all over the floor, walls, and furnishing of that little
-Limberlost clearing.
-
-When Duncan came, McLean told him the story of the fight, and they
-laughed until they cried. Then they started around the line in search of
-the tree.
-
-Said Duncan: "Now the boy is in for sore trouble!"
-
-"I hope not," answered McLean. "You never in all your life saw a cur
-whipped so completely. He won't come back for the repetition of the
-chorus. We surely can find the tree. If we can't, Freckles can. I will
-bring enough of the gang to take it out at once. That will insure peace
-for a time, at least, and I am hoping that in a month more the whole
-gang may be moved here. It soon will be fall, and then, if he will go, I
-intend to send Freckles to my mother to be educated. With his quickness
-of mind and body and a few years' good help he can do anything. Why,
-Duncan, I'd give a hundred-dollar bill if you could have been here and
-seen for yourself."
-
-"Yes, and I'd 'a' done murder," muttered the big teamster. "I hope, sir,
-ye will make good your plans for Freckles, though I'd as soon see
-ony born child o' my ain taken from our home. We love the lad, me and
-Sarah."
-
-Locating the tree was easy, because it was so well identified. When
-the rumble of the big lumber wagons passing the cabin on the way to the
-swamp wakened Freckles next morning, he sprang up and was soon following
-them. He was so sore and stiff that every movement was torture at first,
-but he grew easier, and shortly did not suffer so much. McLean scolded
-him for coming, yet in his heart triumphed over every new evidence of
-fineness in the boy.
-
-The tree was a giant maple, and so precious that they almost dug it out
-by the roots. When it was down, cut in lengths, and loaded, there was
-yet an empty wagon. As they were gathering up their tools to go, Duncan
-said: "There's a big hollow tree somewhere mighty close here that I've
-been wanting for a watering-trough for my stock; the one I have is so
-small. The Portland company cut this for elm butts last year, and it's
-six feet diameter and hollow for forty feet. It was a buster! While the
-men are here and there is an empty wagon, why mightn't I load it on and
-tak' it up to the barn as we pass?"
-
-McLean said he was very willing, ordered the driver to break line and
-load the log, detailing men to assist. He told Freckles to ride on a
-section of the maple with him, but now the boy asked to enter the swamp
-with Duncan.
-
-"I don't see why you want to go," said McLean. "I have no business to
-let you out today at all."
-
-"It's me chickens," whispered Freckles in distress. "You see, I was just
-after finding yesterday, from me new book, how they do be nesting in
-hollow trees, and there ain't any too many in the swamp. There's just a
-chance that they might be in that one."
-
-"Go ahead," said McLean. "That's a different story. If they happen to be
-there, why tell Duncan he must give up the tree until they have finished
-with it."
-
-Then he climbed on a wagon and was driven away. Freckles hurried into
-the swamp. He was a little behind, yet he could see the men. Before he
-overtook them, they had turned from the west road and had entered the
-swamp toward the east.
-
-They stopped at the trunk of a monstrous prostrate log. It had been cut
-three feet from the ground, over three-fourths of the way through, and
-had fallen toward the east, the body of the log still resting on the
-stump. The underbrush was almost impenetrable, but Duncan plunged in and
-with a crowbar began tapping along the trunk to decide how far it
-was hollow, so that they would know where to cut. As they waited his
-decision, there came from the mouth of it--on wings--a large black bird
-that swept over their heads.
-
-Freckles danced wildly. "It's me chickens! Oh, it's me chickens!" he
-shouted. "Oh, Duncan, come quick! You've found the nest of me precious
-chickens!"
-
-Duncan hurried to the mouth of the log, but Freckles was before him. He
-crashed through poison-vines and underbrush regardless of any danger,
-and climbed on the stump. When Duncan came he was shouting like a wild
-man.
-
-"It's hatched!" he yelled. "Oh, me big chicken has hatched out me little
-chicken, and there's another egg. I can see it plain, and oh, the funny
-little white baby! Oh, Duncan, can you see me little white chicken?"
-
-Duncan could easily see it; so could everyone else. Freckles crept into
-the log and tenderly carried the hissing, blinking little bird to the
-light in a leaf-lined hat. The men found it sufficiently wonderful to
-satisfy even Freckles, who had forgotten he was ever sore or stiff, and
-coddled over it with every blarneying term of endearment he knew.
-
-Duncan gathered his tools. "Deal's off, boys!" he said cheerfully. "This
-log mauna be touched until Freckles' chaukies have finished with it. We
-might as weel gang. Better put it back, Freckles. It's just out, and it
-may chill. Ye will probably hae twa the morn."
-
-Freckles crept into the log and carefully deposited the baby beside
-the egg. When he came back, he said: "I made a big mistake not to be
-bringing the egg out with the baby, but I was fearing to touch it.
-It's shaped like a hen's egg, and it's big as a turkey's, and the
-beautifulest blue--just splattered with big brown splotches, like me
-book said, precise. Bet you never saw such a sight as it made on the
-yellow of the rotten wood beside that funny leathery-faced little white
-baby."
-
-"Tell you what, Freckles," said one of the teamsters. "Have you ever
-heard of this Bird Woman who goes all over the country with a camera and
-makes pictures? She made some on my brother Jim's place last summer, and
-Jim's so wild about them he quits plowing and goes after her about every
-nest he finds. He helps her all he can to take them, and then she gives
-him a picture. Jim's so proud of what he has he keeps them in the Bible.
-He shows them to everybody that comes, and brags about how he helped.
-If you're smart, you'll send for her and she'll come and make a picture
-just like life. If you help her, she will give you one. It would be
-uncommon pretty to keep, after your birds are gone. I dunno what they
-are. I never see their like before. They must be something rare. Any you
-fellows ever see a bird like that hereabouts?"
-
-No one ever had.
-
-"Well," said the teamster, "failing to get this log lets me off till
-noon, and I'm going to town. I go right past her place. I've a big
-notion to stop and tell her. If she drives straight back in the swamp
-on the west road, and turns east at this big sycamore, she can't miss
-finding the tree, even if Freckles ain't here to show her. Jim says
-her work is a credit to the State she lives in, and any man is a measly
-creature who isn't willing to help her all he can. My old daddy used to
-say that all there was to religion was doing to the other fellow what
-you'd want him to do to you, and if I was making a living taking bird
-pictures, seems to me I'd be mighty glad for a chance to take one like
-that. So I'll just stop and tell her, and by gummy! maybe she will give
-me a picture of the little white sucker for my trouble."
-
-Freckles touched his arm.
-
-"Will she be rough with it?" he asked.
-
-"Government land! No!" said the teamster. "She's dead down on anybody
-that shoots a bird or tears up a nest. Why, she's half killing herself
-in all kinds of places and weather to teach people to love and protect
-the birds. She's that plum careful of them that Jim's wife says she has
-Jim a standin' like a big fool holding an ombrelly over them when they
-are young and tender until she gets a focus, whatever that is. Jim says
-there ain't a bird on his place that don't actually seem to like having
-her around after she has wheedled them a few days, and the pictures she
-takes nobody would ever believe who didn't stand by and see."
-
-"Will you he sure to tell her to come?" asked Freckles.
-
-Duncan slept at home that night. He heard Freckles slipping out early
-the next morning, but he was too sleepy to wonder why, until he came to
-do his morning chores. When he found that none of his stock was at all
-thirsty, and saw the water-trough brimming, he knew that the boy was
-trying to make up to him for the loss of the big trough that he had been
-so anxious to have.
-
-"Bless his fool little hot heart!" said Duncan. "And him so sore it is
-tearing him to move for anything. Nae wonder he has us all loving him!"
-
-Freckles was moving briskly, and his heart was so happy that he forgot
-all about the bruises. He hurried around the trail, and on his way down
-the east side he went to see the chickens. The mother bird was on the
-nest. He was afraid the other egg might be hatching, so he did not
-venture to disturb her. He made the round and reached his study early.
-He ate his lunch, but did not need to start on the second trip until the
-middle of the afternoon. He would have long hours to work on his flower
-bed, improve his study, and learn about his chickens. Lovingly he set
-his room in order and watered the flowers and carpet. He had chosen for
-his resting-place the coolest spot on the west side, where there was
-almost always a breeze; but today the heat was so intense that it
-penetrated even there.
-
-"I'm mighty glad there's nothing calling me inside!" he said. "There's
-no bit of air stirring, and it will just be steaming. Oh, but it's
-luck Duncan found the nest before it got so unbearing hot! I might have
-missed it altogether. Wouldn't it have been a shame to lose that sight?
-The cunning little divil! When he gets to toddling down that log to meet
-me, won't he be a circus? Wonder if he'll be as graceful a performer
-afoot as his father and mother?"
-
-The heat became more insistent. Noon came; Freckles ate his dinner and
-settled for an hour or two on a bench with a book.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-
-Perhaps there was a breath of sound--Freckles never afterward could
-remember--but for some reason he lifted his head as the bushes parted
-and the face of an angel looked between. Saints, nymphs, and fairies
-had floated down his cathedral aisle for him many times, with forms and
-voices of exquisite beauty.
-
-Parting the wild roses at the entrance was beauty of which Freckles
-never had dreamed. Was it real or would it vanish as the other dreams?
-He dropped his book, and rising to his feet, went a step closer, gazing
-intently. This was real flesh and blood. It was in every way kin to the
-Limberlost, for no bird of its branches swung with easier grace than
-this dainty young thing rocked on the bit of morass on which she stood.
-A sapling beside her was not straighter or rounder than her slender
-form. Her soft, waving hair clung around her face from the heat, and
-curled over her shoulders. It was all of one piece with the gold of the
-sun that filtered between the branches. Her eyes were the deepest blue
-of the iris, her lips the reddest red of the foxfire, while her cheeks
-were exactly of the same satin as the wild rose petals caressing them.
-She was smiling at Freckles in perfect confidence, and she cried:
-
-"Oh, I'm so delighted that I've found you!"
-
-The wildly leaping heart of Freckles burst from his body and fell in the
-black swamp-muck at her feet with such a thud that he did not understand
-how she could avoid hearing. He really felt that if she looked down she
-would see.
-
-Incredulous, he quavered: "An'--an' was you looking for me?"
-
-"I hoped I might find you," said the Angel. "You see, I didn't do as
-I was told, and I'm lost. The Bird Woman said I should wait in the
-carriage until she came back. She's been gone hours. It's a perfect
-Turkish bath in there, and I'm all lumpy with mosquito bites. Just when
-I thought that I couldn't bear it another minute, along came the biggest
-Papilio Ajax you ever saw. I knew how pleased she'd be, so I ran after
-it. It flew so slow and so low that I thought a dozen times I had it.
-Then all at once it went from sight above the trees, and I couldn't find
-my way back to save me. I think I've walked more than an hour. I have
-been mired to my knees. A thorn raked my arm until it is bleeding, and
-I'm so tired and warm."
-
-She parted the bushes farther. Freckles saw that her blue cotton frock
-clung to her, limp with perspiration. It was torn across the breast. One
-sleeve hung open from shoulder to elbow. A thorn had torn her arm until
-it was covered with blood, and the gnats and mosquitoes were clustering
-around it. Her feet were in lace hose and low shoes. Freckles gasped. In
-the Limberlost in low shoes! He caught an armful of moss from his carpet
-and buried it in the ooze in front of her for a footing.
-
-"Come out here so I can see where you are stepping. Quick, for the life
-of you!" he ordered.
-
-She smiled on him indulgently.
-
-"Why?" she inquired.
-
-"Did anybody let you come here and not be telling you of the snakes?"
-urged Freckles.
-
-"We met Mr. McLean on the corduroy, and he did say something about
-snakes, I believe. The Bird Woman put on leather leggings, and a nice,
-parboiled time she must be having! Worst dose I ever endured, and I'd
-nothing to do but swelter."
-
-"Will you be coming out of there?" groaned Freckles.
-
-She laughed as if it were a fine joke.
-
-"Maybe if I'd be telling you I killed a rattler curled upon that same
-place you're standing, as long as me body and the thickness of me arm,
-you'd be moving where I can see your footing," he urged insistently.
-
-"What a perfectly delightful little brogue you speak," she said. "My
-father is Irish, and half should be enough to entitle me to that much.
-'Maybe--if I'd--be telling you,'" she imitated, rounding and accenting
-each word carefully.
-
-Freckles was beginning to feel a wildness in his head. He had derided
-Wessner at that same hour yesterday. Now his own eyes were filling with
-tears.
-
-"If you were understanding the danger!" he continued desperately.
-
-"Oh, I don't think there is much!"
-
-She tilted on the morass.
-
-"If you killed one snake here, it's probably all there is near; and
-anyway, the Bird Woman says a rattlesnake is a gentleman and always
-gives warning before he strikes. I don't hear any rattling. Do you?"
-
-"Would you be knowing it if you did?" asked Freckles, almost
-impatiently.
-
-How the laugh of the young thing rippled!
-
-"'Would I be knowing it?'" she mocked. "You should see the swamps of
-Michigan where they dump rattlers from the marl-dredgers three and four
-at a time!"
-
-Freckles stood astounded. She did know. She was not in the least afraid.
-She was depending on a rattlesnake to live up to his share of the
-contract and rattle in time for her to move. The one characteristic
-an Irishman admires in a woman, above all others, is courage. Freckles
-worshiped anew. He changed his tactics.
-
-"I'd be pleased to be receiving you at me front door," he said, "but as
-you have arrived at the back, will you come in and be seated?"
-
-He waved toward a bench. The Angel came instantly.
-
-"Oh, how lovely and cool!" she cried.
-
-As she moved across his room, Freckles had difficult work to keep from
-falling on his knees; for they were very weak, while he was hard driven
-by an impulse to worship.
-
-"Did you arrange this?" she asked.
-
-"Yis," said Freckles simply.
-
-"Someone must come with a big canvas and copy each side of it," she
-said. "I never saw anything so beautiful! How I wish I might remain
-here with you! I will, some day, if you will let me; but now, if you can
-spare the time, will you help me find the carriage? If the Bird Woman
-comes back and I am gone, she will be almost distracted."
-
-"Did you come on the west road?" asked Freckles.
-
-"I think so," she said. "The man who told the Bird Woman said that
-was the only place the wires were down. We drove away in, and it was
-dreadful--over stumps and logs, and we mired to the hubs. I suppose you
-know, though. I should have stayed in the carriage, but I was so tired.
-I never dreamed of getting lost. I suspect I will be scolded finely.
-I go with the Bird Woman half the time during the summer vacations. My
-father says I learn a lot more than I do at school, and get it straight.
-I never came within a smell of being lost before. I thought, at first,
-it was going to be horrid; but since I've found you, maybe it will be
-good fun after all."
-
-Freckles was amazed to hear himself excusing: "It was so hot in there.
-You couldn't be expected to bear it for hours and not be moving. I can
-take you around the trail almost to where you were. Then you can sit in
-the carriage, and I will go find the Bird Woman."
-
-"You'll be killed if you do! When she stays this long, it means that she
-has a focus on something. You see, when she has a focus, and lies in the
-weeds and water for hours, and the sun bakes her, and things crawl over
-her, and then someone comes along and scares her bird away just as she
-has it coaxed up--why, she kills them. If I melt, you won't go after
-her. She's probably blistered and half eaten up; but she never will quit
-until she is satisfied."
-
-"Then it will be safer to be taking care of you," suggested Freckles.
-
-"Now you're talking sense!" said the Angel.
-
-"May I try to help your arm?" he asked.
-
-"Have you any idea how it hurts?" she parried.
-
-"A little," said Freckles.
-
-"Well, Mr. McLean said We'd probably find his son here"
-
-"His son!" cried Freckles.
-
-"That's what he said. And that you would do anything you could for us;
-and that we could trust you with our lives. But I would have trusted
-you anyway, if I hadn't known a thing about you. Say, your father is
-rampaging proud of you, isn't he?"
-
-"I don't know," answered the dazed Freckles.
-
-"Well, call on me if you want reliable information. He's so proud of you
-he is all swelled up like the toad in AEsop's Fables. If you have ever
-had an arm hurt like this, and can do anything, why, for pity sake, do
-it!"
-
-She turned back her sleeve, holding toward Freckles an arm of palest
-cameo, shaped so exquisitely that no sculptor could have chiseled it.
-
-Freckles unlocked his case, and taking out some cotton cloth, he tore it
-in strips. Then he brought a bucket of the cleanest water he could find.
-She yielded herself to his touch as a baby, and he bathed away the blood
-and bandaged the ugly, ragged wound. He finished his surgery by lapping
-the torn sleeve over the cloth and binding it down with a piece of
-twine, with the Angel's help about the knots.
-
-Freckles worked with trembling fingers and a face tense with
-earnestness.
-
-"Is it feeling any better?" he asked.
-
-"Oh, it's well now!" cried the Angel. "It doesn't hurt at all, any
-more."
-
-"I'm mighty glad," said Freckles. "But you had best go and be having
-your doctor fix it right; the minute you get home."
-
-"Oh, bother! A little scratch like that!" jeered the Angel. "My blood is
-perfectly pure. It will heal in three days."
-
-"It's cut cruel deep. It might be making a scar," faltered Freckles, his
-eyes on the ground. "'Twould--'twould be an awful pity. A doctor might
-know something to prevent it."
-
-"Why, I never thought of that!" exclaimed the Angel.
-
-"I noticed you didn't," said Freckles softly. "I don't know much about
-it, but it seems as if most girls would."
-
-The Angel thought intently, while Freckles still knelt beside her.
-Suddenly she gave herself an impatient little shake, lifted her glorious
-eyes full to his, and the smile that swept her sweet, young face was the
-loveliest thing that Freckles ever had seen.
-
-"Don't let's bother about it," she proposed, with the faintest hint of
-a confiding gesture toward him. "It won't make a scar. Why, it couldn't,
-when you have dressed it so nicely."
-
-The velvety touch of her warm arm was tingling in Freckles' fingertips.
-Dainty lace and fine white ribbon peeped through her torn dress. There
-were beautiful rings on her fingers. Every article she wore was of
-the finest material and in excellent taste. There was the trembling
-Limberlost guard in his coarse clothing, with his cotton rags and
-his old pail of swamp water. Freckles was sufficiently accustomed to
-contrasts to notice them, and sufficiently fine to be hurt by them
-always.
-
-He lifted his eyes with a shadowy pain in them to hers, and found them
-of serene, unconscious purity. What she had said was straight from a
-kind, untainted, young heart. She meant every word of it. Freckles' soul
-sickened. He scarcely knew whether he could muster strength to stand.
-
-"We must go and hunt for the carriage," said the Angel, rising.
-
-In instant alarm for her, Freckles sprang up, grasped the cudgel, and
-led the way, sharply watching every step. He went as close the log as he
-felt that he dared, and with a little searching found the carriage. He
-cleared a path for the Angel, and with a sigh of relief saw her enter it
-safely. The heat was intense. She pushed the damp hair from her temples.
-
-"This is a shame!" said Freckles. "You'll never be coming here again."
-
-"Oh yes I shall!" said the Angel. "The Bird Woman says that these birds
-remain over a month in the nest and she would like to make a picture
-every few days for seven or eight weeks, perhaps."
-
-Freckles barely escaped crying aloud for joy.
-
-"Then don't you ever be torturing yourself and your horse to be coming
-in here again," he said. "I'll show you a way to drive almost to the
-nest on the east trail, and then you can come around to my room and stay
-while the Bird Woman works. It's nearly always cool there, and there's
-comfortable seats, and water."
-
-"Oh! did you have drinking-water there?" she cried. "I was never so
-thirsty or so hungry in my life, but I thought I wouldn't mention it."
-
-"And I had not the wit to be seeing!" wailed Freckles. "I can be getting
-you a good drink in no time."
-
-He turned to the trail.
-
-"Please wait a minute," called the Angel. "What's your name? I want to
-think about you while you are gone." Freckles lifted his face with the
-brown rift across it and smiled quizzically.
-
-"Freckles?" she guessed, with a peal of laughter. "And mine is----"
-
-"I'm knowing yours," interrupted Freckles.
-
-"I don't believe you do. What is it?" asked the girl.
-
-"You won't be getting angry?"
-
-"Not until I've had the water, at least."
-
-It was Freckles' turn to laugh. He whipped off his big, floppy straw
-hat, stood uncovered before her, and said, in the sweetest of all the
-sweet tones of his voice: "There's nothing you could be but the Swamp
-Angel."
-
-The girl laughed happily.
-
-Once out of her sight, Freckles ran every step of the way to the cabin.
-Mrs. Duncan gave him a small bucket of water, cool from the well. He
-carried it in the crook of his right arm, and a basket filled with bread
-and butter, cold meat, apple pie, and pickles, in his left hand.
-
-"Pickles are kind o' cooling," said Mrs. Duncan.
-
-Then Freckles ran again.
-
-The Angel was on her knees, reaching for the bucket, as he came up.
-
-"Be drinking slow," he cautioned her.
-
-"Oh!" she cried, with a long breath of satisfaction. "It's so good! You
-are more than kind to bring it!"
-
-Freckles stood blinking in the dazzling glory of her smile until he
-scarcely could see to lift the basket.
-
-"Mercy!" she exclaimed. "I think I had better be naming you the 'Angel.'
-My Guardian Angel."
-
-"Yis," said Freckles. "I look the character every day--but today most
-emphatic!"
-
-"Angels don't go by looks," laughed the girl. "Your father told us you
-had been scrapping. But he told us why. I'd gladly wear all your cuts
-and bruises if I could do anything that would make my father look as
-peacocky as yours did. He strutted about proper. I never saw anyone look
-prouder."
-
-"Did he say he was proud of me?" marveled Freckles.
-
-"He didn't need to," answered the Angel. "He was radiating pride from
-every pore. Now, have you brought me your dinner?"
-
-"I had my dinner two hours ago," answered Freckles.
-
-"Honest Injun?" bantered the Angel.
-
-"Honest! I brought that on purpose for you."
-
-"Well, if you knew how hungry I am, you would know how thankful I am, to
-the dot," said the Angel.
-
-"Then you be eating," cried the happy Freckles.
-
-The Angel sat on a big camera, spread the lunch on the carriage seat,
-and divided it in halves. The daintiest parts she could select she
-carefully put back into the basket. The remainder she ate. Again
-Freckles found her of the swamp, for though she was almost ravenous,
-she managed her food as gracefully as his little yellow fellow, and her
-every movement was easy and charming. As he watched her with famished
-eyes, Freckles told her of his birds, flowers, and books, and never
-realized what he was doing.
-
-He led the horse to a deep pool that he knew of, and the tortured
-creature drank greedily, and lovingly rubbed him with its nose as he
-wiped down its welted body with grass. Suddenly the Angel cried: "There
-comes the Bird Woman!"
-
-Freckles had intended leaving before she came, but now he was glad
-indeed to be there, for a warmer, more worn, and worse bitten creature
-he never had seen. She was staggering under a load of cameras and
-paraphernalia. Freckles ran to her aid. He took all he could carry of
-her load, stowed it in the back of the carriage, and helped her in.
-The Angel gave her water, knelt and unfastened the leggings, bathed her
-face, and offered the lunch.
-
-Freckles brought the horse. He was not sure about the harness, but the
-Angel knew, and soon they left the swamp. Then he showed them how to
-reach the chicken tree from the outside, indicated a cooler place for
-the horse, and told them how, the next time they came, the Angel could
-find his room while she waited.
-
-The Bird Woman finished her lunch, and lay back, almost too tired to
-speak.
-
-"Were you for getting Little Chicken's picture?" Freckles asked.
-
-"Finely!" she answered. "He posed splendidly. But I couldn't do anything
-with his mother. She will require coaxing."
-
-"The Lord be praised!" muttered Freckles under his breath.
-
-The Bird Woman began to feel better.
-
-"Why do you call the baby vulture 'Little Chicken'?" she asked, leaning
-toward Freckles in an interested manner.
-
-"'Twas Duncan began it," said Freckles. "You see, through the fierce
-cold of winter the birds of the swamp were almost starving. It is
-mighty lonely here, and they were all the company I was having. I got to
-carrying scraps and grain down to them. Duncan was that ginerous he was
-giving me of his wheat and corn from his chickens' feed, and he called
-the birds me swamp chickens. Then when these big black fellows came,
-Mr. McLean said they were our nearest kind to some in the old world
-that they called 'Pharaoh's Chickens,' and he called mine 'Freckles'
-Chickens.'"
-
-"Good enough!" cried the Bird Woman, her splotched purple face lighting
-with interest. "You must shoot something for them occasionally, and I'll
-bring more food when I come. If you will help me keep them until I
-get my series, I'll give you a copy of each study I make, mounted in a
-book."
-
-Freckles drew a deep breath.
-
-"I'll be doing me very best," he promised, and from the deeps he meant
-it.
-
-"I wonder if that other egg is going to hatch?" mused the Bird Woman. "I
-am afraid not. It should have pipped today. Isn't it a beauty! I never
-before saw either an egg or the young. They are rare this far north."
-
-"So Mr. McLean said," answered Freckles.
-
-Before they drove away, the Bird Woman thanked him for his kindness to
-the Angel and to her. She gave him her hand at parting, and Freckles
-joyfully realized that this was going to be another person for him to
-love. He could not remember, after they had driven away, that they even
-had noticed his missing hand, and for the first time in his life he had
-forgotten it.
-
-When the Bird Woman and the Angel were on the home road, she told of
-the little corner of paradise into which she had strayed and of her new
-name. The Bird Woman looked at the girl and guessed its appropriateness.
-
-"Did you know Mr. McLean had a son?" asked the Angel. "Isn't the little
-accent he has, and the way he twists a sentence, too dear? And isn't it
-too old-fashioned and funny to hear him call his father 'mister'?"
-
-"It sounds too good to be true," said the Bird Woman, answering the
-last question first. "I am so tired of these present-day young men who
-patronizingly call their fathers 'Dad,' 'Governor,' 'Old Man' and 'Old
-Chap,' that the boy's attitude of respect and deference appealed to me
-as being fine as silk. There must be something rare about that young
-man."
-
-She did not find it necessary to tell the Angel that for several years
-she had known the man who so proudly proclaimed himself Freckles' father
-to be a bachelor and a Scotchman. The Bird Woman had a fine way of
-attending strictly to her own business.
-
-Freckles turned to the trail, but he stopped at every wild brier to
-study the pink satin of the petals. She was not of his world, and
-better than any other he knew it; but she might be his Angel, and he was
-dreaming of naught but blind, silent worship. He finished the happiest
-day of his life, and that night he returned to the swamp as if drawn by
-invisible force. That Wessner would try for his revenge, he knew. That
-he would be abetted by Black Jack was almost certain, but fear had
-fled the happy heart of Freckles. He had kept his trust. He had won the
-respect of the Boss. No one ever could wipe from his heart the flood of
-holy adoration that had welled with the coming of his Angel. He would do
-his best, and trust for strength to meet the dark day of reckoning that
-he knew would come sooner or later. He swung round the trail, briskly
-tapping the wire, and singing in a voice that scarcely could have been
-surpassed for sweetness.
-
-At the edge of the clearing he came into the bright moonlight and there
-sat McLean on his mare. Freckles hurried to him.
-
-"Is there trouble?" he inquired anxiously.
-
-"That's what I wanted to ask you," said the Boss. "I stopped at the
-cabin to see you a minute, before I turned in, and they said you had
-come down here. You must not do it, Freckles. The swamp is none too
-healthful at any time, and at night it is rank poison."
-
-Freckles stood combing his fingers through Nellie's mane, while the
-dainty creature was twisting her head for his caresses. He pushed back
-his hat and looked into McLean's face. "It's come to the 'sleep with one
-eye open,' sir. I'm not looking for anything to be happening for a week
-or two, but it's bound to come, and soon. If I'm to keep me trust as
-I've promised you and meself, I've to live here mostly until the gang
-comes. You must be knowing that, sir."
-
-"I'm afraid it's true, Freckles," said McLean. "And I've decided to
-double the guard until we come. It will be only a few weeks, now; and
-I'm so anxious for you that you must not be left alone further. If
-anything should happen to you, Freckles, it would spoil one of the very
-dearest plans of my life."
-
-Freckles heard with dismay the proposition to place a second guard.
-
-"Oh! no, no, Mr. McLean," he cried. "Not for the world! I wouldn't be
-having a stranger around, scaring me birds and tramping up me study, and
-disturbing all me ways, for any money! I am all the guard you need! I
-will be faithful! I will turn over the lease with no tree missing--on
-me life, I will! Oh, don't be sending another man to set them saying
-I turned coward and asked for help. It will just kill the honor of me
-heart if you do it. The only thing I want is another gun. If it railly
-comes to trouble, six cartridges ain't many, and you know I am slow-like
-about reloading." McLean reached into his hip pocket and handed a
-shining big revolver to Freckles, who slipped it beside the one already
-in his belt.
-
-Then the Boss sat brooding.
-
-"Freckles," he said at last, "we never know the timber of a man's soul
-until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain out strong.
-You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture, my boy, and you
-shall have your own way these few weeks yet. Then, if you will go, I
-intend to take you to the city and educate you, and you are to be my
-son, my lad--my own son!"
-
-Freckles twisted his finger in Nellie's mane to steady himself.
-
-"But why should you be doing that, sir?" he faltered.
-
-McLean slid his arm around the boy's shoulder and gathered him close.
-
-"Because I love you, Freckles," he said simply.
-
-Freckles lifted a white face. "My God, sir!" he whispered. "Oh, my God!"
-
-McLean tightened his clasp a second longer, then he rode down the trail.
-
-Freckles lifted his hat and faced the sky. The harvest moon looked down,
-sheeting the swamp in silver glory. The Limberlost sang her night song.
-The swale softly rustled in the wind. Winged things of night brushed
-his face; and still Freckles gazed upward, trying to fathom these things
-that had come to him. There was no help from the sky. It seemed far
-away, cold, and blue. The earth, where flowers blossomed, angels walked,
-and love could be found, was better. But to One, above, he must make
-acknowledgment for these miracles. His lips moved and he began talking
-softly.
-
-"Thank You for each separate good thing that has come to me," he said,
-"and above all for the falling of the feather. For if it didn't really
-fall from an angel, its falling brought an Angel, and if it's in the
-great heart of you to exercise yourself any further about me, oh, do
-please to be taking good care of her!"
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-
-The following morning Freckles, inexpressibly happy, circled the
-Limberlost. He kept snatches of song ringing, as well as the wires. His
-heart was so full that tears of joy glistened in his eyes. He rigorously
-strove to divide his thought evenly between McLean and the Angel.
-He realized to the fullest the debt he already owed the Boss and the
-magnitude of last night's declaration and promises. He was hourly
-planning to deliver his trust and then enter with equal zeal on whatever
-task his beloved Boss saw fit to set him next. He wanted to be ready to
-meet every device that Wessner and Black Jack could think of to outwit
-him. He recognized their double leverage, for if they succeeded in
-felling even one tree McLean became liable for his wager.
-
-Freckles' brow wrinkled in his effort to think deeply and strongly, but
-from every swaying wild rose the Angel beckoned to him. When he crossed
-Sleepy Snake Creek and the goldfinch, waiting as ever, challenged: "SEE
-ME?" Freckles saw the dainty swaying grace of the Angel instead. What
-is a man to do with an Angel who dismembers herself and scatters over a
-whole swamp, thrusting a vivid reminder upon him at every turn?
-
-Freckles counted the days. This first one he could do little but test
-his wires, sing broken snatches, and dream; but before the week would
-bring her again he could do many things. He would carry all his books
-to the swamp to show to her. He would complete his flower bed, arrange
-every detail he had planned for his room, and make of it a bower fairies
-might envy. He must devise a way to keep water cool. He would ask Mrs.
-Duncan for a double lunch and an especially nice one the day of her next
-coming, so that if the Bird Woman happened to be late, the Angel might
-not suffer from thirst and hunger. He would tell her to bring heavy
-leather leggings, so that he might take her on a trip around the trail.
-She should make friends with all of his chickens and see their nests.
-
-On the line he talked of her incessantly.
-
-"You needn't be thinking," he said to the goldfinch, "that because I'm
-coming down this line alone day after day, it's always to be so. Some of
-these times you'll be swinging on this wire, and you'll see me coming,
-and you'll swing, skip, and flirt yourself around, and chip up right
-spunky: 'SEE ME?' I'll be saying 'See you? Oh, Lord! See her!' You'll
-look, and there she'll stand. The sunshine won't look gold any more, or
-the roses pink, or the sky blue, because she'll be the pinkest, bluest,
-goldest thing of all. You'll be yelling yourself hoarse with the
-jealousy of her. The sawbird will stretch his neck out of joint, and
-she'll turn the heads of all the flowers. Wherever she goes, I can
-go back afterward and see the things she's seen, walk the path she's
-walked, hear the grasses whispering over all she's said; and if there's
-a place too swampy for her bits of feet; Holy Mother! Maybe--maybe she'd
-be putting the beautiful arms of her around me neck and letting me carry
-her over!"
-
-Freckles shivered as with a chill. He sent the cudgel whirling skyward,
-dexterously caught it, and set it spinning.
-
-"You damned presumptuous fool!" he cried. "The thing for you to be
-thinking of would be to stretch in the muck for the feet of her to be
-walking over, and then you could hold yourself holy to be even of that
-service to her.
-
-"Maybe she'll be wanting the cup me blue-and-brown chickens raised their
-babies in. Perhaps she'd like to stop at the pool and see me bullfrog
-that had the goodness to take on human speech to show me the way out of
-me trouble. If there's any feathers falling that day, why, it's from the
-wings of me chickens--it's sure to be, for the only Angel outside the
-gates will be walking this timberline, and every step of the way I'll be
-holding me breath and praying that she don't unfold wings and sail away
-before the hungry eyes of me."
-
-So Freckles dreamed his dreams, made his plans, and watched his line.
-He counted not only the days, but the hours of each day. As he told them
-off, every one bringing her closer, he grew happier in the prospect of
-her coming. He managed daily to leave some offering at the big elm log
-for his black chickens. He slipped under the line at every passing, and
-went to make sure that nothing was molesting them. Though it was a long
-trip, he paid them several extra visits a day for fear a snake, hawk, or
-fox might have found the baby. For now his chickens not only represented
-all his former interest in them, but they furnished the inducement that
-was bringing his Angel.
-
-Possibly he could find other subjects that the Bird Woman wanted. The
-teamster had said that his brother went after her every time he found
-a nest. He never had counted the nests that he knew of, and it might be
-that among all the birds of the swamp some would be rare to her.
-
-The feathered folk of the Limberlost were practically undisturbed save
-by their natural enemies. It was very probable that among his chickens
-others as odd as the big black ones could be found. If she wanted
-pictures of half-grown birds, he could pick up fifty in one morning's
-trip around the line, for he had fed, handled, and made friends with
-them ever since their eyes opened.
-
-He had gathered bugs and worms all spring as he noticed them on the
-grass and bushes, and dropped them into the first little open mouth he
-had found. The babies gladly had accepted this queer tri-parent addition
-to their natural providers.
-
-When the week had passed, Freckles had his room crisp and glowing
-with fresh living things that represented every color of the swamp. He
-carried bark and filled all the muckiest places of the trail.
-
-It was middle July. The heat of the past few days had dried the water
-around and through the Limberlost, so that it was possible to cross it
-on foot in almost any direction--if one had an idea of direction and did
-not become completely lost in its rank tangle of vegetation and bushes.
-The brighter-hued flowers were opening. The trumpet-creepers were
-flaunting their gorgeous horns of red and gold sweetness from the tops
-of lordly oak and elm, and below entire pools were pink-sheeted in
-mallow bloom.
-
-The heat was doing one other thing that was bound to make Freckles, as a
-good Irishman, shiver. As the swale dried, its inhabitants were seeking
-the cooler depths of the swamp. They liked neither the heat nor leaving
-the field mice, moles, and young rabbits of their chosen location. He
-saw them crossing the trail every day as the heat grew intense. The
-rattlers were sadly forgetting their manners, for they struck on no
-provocation whatever, and did not even remember to rattle afterward.
-Daily Freckles was compelled to drive big black snakes and blue racers
-from the nests of his chickens. Often the terrified squalls of the
-parent birds would reach him far down the line and he would run to
-rescue the babies.
-
-He saw the Angel when the carriage turned from the corduroy into the
-clearing. They stopped at the west entrance to the swamp, waiting for
-him to precede them down the trail, as he had told them it was safest
-for the horse that he should do. They followed the east line to a point
-opposite the big chickens' tree, and Freckles carried in the cameras and
-showed the Bird Woman a path he had cleared to the log. He explained to
-her the effect the heat was having on the snakes, and creeping back to
-Little Chicken, brought him to the light. As she worked at setting up
-her camera, he told her of the birds of the line, while she stared at
-him, wide-eyed and incredulous.
-
-They arranged that Freckles should drive the carriage into the east
-entrance in the shade and then take the horse toward the north to a
-better place he knew. Then he was to entertain the Angel at his study or
-on the line until the Bird Woman finished her work and came to them.
-
-"This will take only a little time," she said. "I know where to set the
-camera now, and Little Chicken is big enough to be good and too small
-to run away or to act very ugly, so I will be coming soon to see about
-those nests. I have ten plates along, and I surely won't use more
-than two on him; so perhaps I can get some nests or young birds this
-morning."
-
-Freckles almost flew, for his dream had come true so soon. He was
-walking the timber-line and the Angel was following him. He asked to be
-excused for going first, because he wanted to be sure the trail was safe
-for her. She laughed at his fears, telling him that it was the polite
-thing for him to do, anyway.
-
-"Oh!" said Freckles, "so you was after knowing that? Well, I didn't
-s'pose you did, and I was afraid you'd think me wanting in respect to be
-preceding you!"
-
-The astonished Angel looked at him, caught the irrepressible gleam of
-Irish fun in his eyes, so they stood and laughed together.
-
-Freckles did not realize how he was talking that morning. He showed her
-many of the beautiful nests and eggs of the line. She could identify a
-number of them, but of some she was ignorant, so they made notes of the
-number and color of the eggs, material, and construction of nest, color,
-size, and shape of the birds, and went to find them in the book.
-
-At his room, when Freckles had lifted the overhanging bushes and stepped
-back for her to enter, his heart was all out of time and place. The
-study was vastly more beautiful than a week previous. The Angel drew a
-deep breath and stood gazing first at one side, then at another,
-then far down the cathedral aisle. "It's just fairyland!" she cried
-ecstatically. Then she turned and stared at Freckles as she had at his
-handiwork.
-
-"What are you planning to be?" she asked wonderingly.
-
-"Whatever Mr. McLean wants me to," he replied.
-
-"What do you do most?" she asked.
-
-"Watch me lines."
-
-"I don't mean work!"
-
-"Oh, in me spare time I keep me room and study in me books."
-
-"Do you work on the room or the books most?"
-
-"On the room only what it takes to keep it up, and the rest of the time
-on me books."
-
-The Angel studied him closely. "Well, maybe you are going to be a great
-scholar," she said, "but you don't look it. Your face isn't right for
-that, but it's got something big in it--something really great. I
-must find out what it is and then you must work on it. Your father is
-expecting you to do something. One can tell by the way he talks. You
-should begin right away. You've wasted too much time already."
-
-Poor Freckles hung his head. He never had wasted an hour in his life.
-There never had been one that was his to waste.
-
-The Angel, studying him intently, read the thought in his face. "Oh,
-I don't mean that!" she cried, with the frank dismay of sixteen.
-"Of course, you're not lazy! No one ever would think that from your
-appearance. It's this I mean: there is something fine, strong, and full
-of power in your face. There is something you are to do in this
-world, and no matter how you work at all these other things, or how
-successfully you do them, it is all wasted until you find the ONE THING
-that you can do best. If you hadn't a thing in the world to keep you,
-and could go anywhere you please and do anything you want, what would
-you do?" persisted the Angel.
-
-"I'd go to Chicago and sing in the First Episcopal choir," answered
-Freckles promptly.
-
-The Angel dropped on a seat--the hat she had removed and held in her
-fingers rolled to her feet. "There!" she exclaimed vehemently. "You can
-see what I'm going to be. Nothing! Absolutely nothing! You can sing? Of
-course you can sing! It is written all over you."
-
-"Anyone with half wit could have seen he could sing, without having to
-be told," she thought. "It's in the slenderness of his fingers and his
-quick nervous touch. It is in the brightness of his hair, the fire of
-his eyes, the breadth of his chest, the muscles of his throat and neck;
-and above all, it's in every tone of his voice, for even as he speak
-it's the sweetest sound I ever heard from the throat of a mortal."
-
-"Will you do something for me?" she asked.
-
-"I'll do anything in the world you want me to," said Freckles largely,
-"and if I can't do what you want, I'll go to work at once and I'll try
-'til I can."
-
-"Good! That's business!" said the Angel. "You go over there and stand
-before that hedge and sing something. Just anything you think of first."
-
-Freckles faced the Angel from his banked wall of brown, blue, and
-crimson, with its background of solid green, and lifting his face to
-the sky, he sang the first thing that came into his mind. It was a
-children's song that he had led for the little folks at the Home many
-times, recalled to his mind by the Angel's exclamation:
-
-     "To fairyland we go,
-     With a song of joy, heigh-o.
-     In dreams we'll stand upon that shore
-     And all the realm behold;
-     We'll see the sights so grand
-     That belong to fairyland,
-     Its mysteries we will explore,
-     Its beauties will unfold.
-
-     "Oh, tra, la, la, oh, ha, ha, ha!
-     We're happy now as we can be,
-     Our welcome song we will prolong,
-     And greet you with our melody.
-     O fairyland, sweet fairyland,
-     We love to sing----"
-
-
-No song could have given the intense sweetness and rollicking quality
-of Freckles' voice better scope. He forgot everything but pride in his
-work. He was singing the chorus, and the Angel was shivering in ecstasy,
-when clip! clip! came the sharply beating feet of a swiftly ridden horse
-down the trail from the north. They both sprang toward the entrance.
-
-"Freckles! Freckles!" called the voice of the Bird Woman.
-
-They were at the trail on the instant.
-
-"Both those revolvers loaded?" she asked.
-
-"Yes," said Freckles.
-
-"Is there a way you can cut across the swamp and reach the chicken tree
-in a few minutes, and with little noise?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"Then go flying," said the Bird Woman. "Give the Angel a lift behind me,
-and we will ride the horse back where you left him and wait for you. I
-finished Little Chicken in no time and put him back. His mother came so
-close, I felt sure she would enter the log. The light was fine, so I set
-and focused the camera and covered it with branches, attached the long
-hose, and went away over a hundred feet and hid in some bushes to wait.
-A short, stout man and a tall, dark one passed me so closely I almost
-could have reached out and touched them. They carried a big saw on their
-shoulders. They said they could work until near noon, and then they must
-lay off until you passed and then try to load and get out at night. They
-went on--not entirely from sight--and began cutting a tree. Mr. McLean
-told me the other day what would probably happen here, and if they fell
-that tree he loses his wager on you. Keep to the east and north and
-hustle. We'll meet you at the carriage. I always am armed. Give Angel
-one of your revolvers, and you keep the other. We will separate and
-creep toward them from different sides and give them a fusillade that
-will send them flying. You hurry, now!"
-
-She lifted the reins and started briskly down the trail. The Angel,
-hatless and with sparkling eyes, was clinging around her waist.
-
-Freckles wheeled and ran. He worked his way with much care, dodging
-limbs and bushes with noiseless tread, and cutting as closely where
-he thought the men were as he felt that he dared if he were to remain
-unseen. As he ran he tried to think. It was Wessner, burning for his
-revenge, aided by the bully of the locality, that he was going to meet.
-He was accustomed to that thought but not to the complication of having
-two women on his hands who undoubtedly would have to be taken care of in
-spite of the Bird Woman's offer to help him. His heart was jarring as it
-never had before with running. He must follow the Bird Woman's plan and
-meet them at the carriage, but if they really did intend to try to help
-him, he must not allow it. Allow the Angel to try to handle a revolver
-in his defence? Never! Not for all the trees in the Limberlost! She
-might shoot herself. She might forget to watch sharply and run across
-a snake that was not particularly well behaved that morning. Freckles
-permitted himself a grim smile as he went speeding on.
-
-When he reached the carriage, the Bird Woman and the Angel had the horse
-hitched, the outfit packed, and were calmly waiting. The Bird Woman held
-a revolver in her hand. She wore dark clothing. They had pinned a big
-focusing cloth over the front of the Angel's light dress.
-
-"Give Angel one of your revolvers, quick!" said the Bird Woman. "We will
-creep up until we are in fair range. The underbrush is so thick and they
-are so busy that they will never notice us, if we don't make a noise.
-You fire first, then I will pop in from my direction, and then you,
-Angel, and shoot quite high, or else very low. We mustn't really hit
-them. We'll go close enough to the cowards to make it interesting, and
-keep it up until we have them going."
-
-Freckles protested.
-
-The Bird Woman reached over, and, taking the smaller revolver from his
-belt, handed it to the Angel. "Keep your nerve steady, dear; watch where
-you step, and shoot high," she said. "Go straight at them from where you
-are. Wait until you hear Freckles' first shot, then follow me as closely
-as you can, to let them know that we outnumber them. If you want to save
-McLean's wager on you, now you go!" she commanded Freckles, who, with an
-agonized glance at the Angel, ran toward the east.
-
-The Bird Woman chose the middle distance, and for a last time cautioned
-the Angel as she moved away to lie down and shoot high.
-
-Through the underbrush the Bird Woman crept even more closely than she
-had intended, found a clear range, and waited for Freckles' shot. There
-was one long minute of sickening suspense. The men straightened for
-breath. Work was difficult with a handsaw in the heat of the swamp. As
-they rested, the big dark fellow took a bottle from his pocket and began
-oiling the saw.
-
-"We got to keep mighty quiet," he said, "and wait to fell it until that
-damned guard has gone to his dinner."
-
-Again they bent to their work. Freckles' revolver spat fire. Lead
-spanged on steel. The saw-handle flew from Wessner's hand and he reeled
-from the jar of the shock. Black Jack straightened, uttering a fearful
-oath. The hat sailed from his head from the far northeast. The Angel
-had not waited for the Bird Woman, and her shot scarcely could have been
-called high. At almost the same instant the third shot whistled from the
-east. Black Jack sprang into the air with a yell of complete panic, for
-it ripped a heel from his boot. Freckles emptied his second chamber, and
-the earth spattered over Wessner. Shots poured in rapidly. Without
-even reaching for a weapon, both men ran toward the east road in great
-leaping bounds, while leaden slugs sung and hissed around them in deadly
-earnest.
-
-Freckles was trimming his corners as closely as he dared, but if the
-Angel did not really intend to hit, she was taking risks in a scandalous
-manner.
-
-When the men reached the trail, Freckles yelled at the top of his voice:
-"Head them off on the south, boys! Fire from the south!"
-
-As he had hoped, Jack and Wessner instantly plunged into the swale. A
-spattering of lead followed them. They crossed the swale, running low,
-with not even one backward glance, and entered the woods beyond the
-corduroy.
-
-Then the little party gathered at the tree.
-
-"I'd better fix this saw so they can't be using it if they come back,"
-said Freckles, taking out his hatchet and making saw-teeth fly.
-
-"Now we must leave here without being seen," said the Bird Woman to the
-Angel. "It won't do for me to make enemies of these men, for I am likely
-to meet them while at work any day."
-
-"You can do it by driving straight north on this road," said Freckles.
-"I will go ahead and cut the wires for you. The swale is almost dry.
-You will only be sinking a little. In a few rods you will strike a
-cornfield. I will take down the fence and let you into that. Follow the
-furrows and drive straight across it until you come to the other side.
-Be following the fence south until you come to a road through the woods
-east of it. Then take that road and follow east until you reach the
-pike. You will come out on your way back to town, and two miles north
-of anywhere they are likely to be. Don't for your lives ever let it out
-that you did this," he earnestly cautioned, "for it's black enemies you
-would be making."
-
-Freckles clipped the wires and they drove through. The Angel leaned
-from the carriage and held out his revolver. Freckles looked at her in
-surprise. Her eyes were black, while her face was a deeper rose than
-usual. He felt that his own was white.
-
-"Did I shoot high enough?" she asked sweetly. "I really forgot about
-lying down."
-
-Freckles winced. Did the child know how close she had gone? Surely she
-could not! Or was it possible that she had the nerve and skill to fire
-like that purposely?
-
-"I will send the first reliable man I meet for McLean," said the Bird
-Woman, gathering up the lines. "If I don't meet one when we reach town,
-we will send a messenger. If it wasn't for having the gang see me, I
-would go myself; but I will promise you that you will have help in a
-little over two hours. You keep well hidden. They must think some of the
-gang is with you now. There isn't a chance that they will be back,
-but don't run any risks. Remain under cover. If they should come, it
-probably would be for their saw." She laughed as at a fine joke.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-
-Round-eyed, Freckles watched the Bird Woman and the Angel drive away.
-After they were from sight and he was safely hidden among the branches
-of a small tree, he remembered that he neither had thanked them nor said
-good-bye. Considering what they had been through, they never would come
-again. His heart sank until he had palpitation in his wading-boots.
-
-Stretching the length of the limb, he thought deeply, though he was not
-thinking of Black Jack or Wessner. Would the Bird Woman and the Angel
-come again? No other woman whom he ever had known would. But did they
-resemble any other women he ever had known? He thought of the Bird
-Woman's unruffled face and the Angel's revolver practice, and presently
-he was not so sure that they would not return.
-
-What were the people in the big world like? His knowledge was so very
-limited. There had been people at the Home, who exchanged a stilted,
-perfunctory kindness for their salaries. The visitors who called on
-receiving days he had divided into three classes: the psalm-singing
-kind, who came with a tear in the eye and hypocrisy in every feature
-of their faces; the kind who dressed in silks and jewels, and handed to
-those poor little mother-hungry souls worn toys that their children
-no longer cared for, in exactly the same spirit in which they pitched
-biscuits to the monkeys at the zoo, and for the same reason--to see how
-they would take them and be amused by what they would do; and the third
-class, whom he considered real people. They made him feel they cared
-that he was there, and that they would have been glad to see him
-elsewhere.
-
-Now here was another class, that had all they needed of the world's best
-and were engaged in doing work that counted. They had things worth while
-to be proud of; and they had met him as a son and brother. With them he
-could, for the only time in his life, forget the lost hand that every
-day tortured him with a new pang. What kind of people were they and
-where did they belong among the classes he knew? He failed to decide,
-because he never had known others similar to them; but how he loved
-them!
-
-In the world where he was going soon, were the majority like them, or
-were they of the hypocrite and bun-throwing classes?
-
-He had forgotten the excitement of the morning and the passing of time
-when distant voices aroused him, and he gently lifted his head. Nearer
-and nearer they came, and as the heavy wagons rumbled down the east
-trail he could hear them plainly. The gang were shouting themselves
-hoarse for the Limberlost guard. Freckles did not feel that he deserved
-it. He would have given much to be able to go to the men and explain,
-but to McLean only could he tell his story.
-
-At the sight of Freckles the men threw up their hats and cheered. McLean
-shook hands with him warmly, but big Duncan gathered him into his arms
-and hugged him as a bear and choked over a few words of praise. The gang
-drove in and finished felling the tree. McLean was angry beyond measure
-at this attempt on his property, for in their haste to fell the tree
-the thieves had cut too high and wasted a foot and a half of valuable
-timber.
-
-When the last wagon rolled away, McLean sat on the stump and Freckles
-told the story he was aching to tell. The Boss scarcely could believe
-his senses. Also, he was much disappointed.
-
-"I have been almost praying all the way over, Freckles," he said, "that
-you would have some evidence by which we could arrest those fellows and
-get them out of our way, but this will never do. We can't mix up those
-women in it. They have helped you save me the tree and my wager as well.
-Going across the country as she does, the Bird Woman never could be
-expected to testify against them."
-
-"No, indeed; nor the Angel, either, sir," said Freckles.
-
-"The Angel?" queried the astonished McLean.
-
-The Boss listened in silence while Freckles told of the coming and
-christening of the Angel.
-
-"I know her father well," said McLean at last, "and I have often seen
-her. You are right; she is a beautiful young girl, and she appears to be
-utterly free from the least particle of false pride or foolishness. I do
-not understand why her father risks such a jewel in this place."
-
-"He's daring it because she is a jewel, sir," said Freckles, eagerly.
-"Why, she's trusting a rattlesnake to rattle before it strikes her, and
-of course, she thinks she can trust mankind as well. The man isn't made
-who wouldn't lay down the life of him for her. She doesn't need any
-care. Her face and the pretty ways of her are all the protection she
-would need in a band of howling savages."
-
-"Did you say she handled one of the revolvers?" asked McLean.
-
-"She scared all the breath out of me body," admitted Freckles. "Seems
-that her father has taught her to shoot. The Bird Woman told her
-distinctly to lie low and blaze away high, just to help scare them. The
-spunky little thing followed them right out into the west road, spitting
-lead like hail, and clipping all around the heads and heels of them; and
-I'm damned, sir, if I believe she'd cared a rap if she'd hit. I never
-saw much shooting, but if that wasn't the nearest to miss I ever want to
-see! Scared the life near out of me body with the fear that she'd drop
-one of them. As long as I'd no one to help me but a couple of women that
-didn't dare be mixed up in it, all I could do was to let them get away."
-
-"Now, will they come back?" asked McLean.
-
-"Of course!" said Freckles. "They're not going to be taking that. You
-could stake your life on it, they'll be coming back. At least, Black
-Jack will. Wessner may not have the pluck, unless he is half drunk. Then
-he'd be a terror. And the next time--" Freckles hesitated.
-
-"What?"
-
-"It will be a question of who shoots first and straightest."
-
-"Then the only thing for me to do is to double the guard and bring the
-gang here the first minute possible. As soon as I feel that we have the
-rarest of the stuff out below, we will come. The fact is, in many cases,
-until it is felled it's difficult to tell what a tree will prove to
-be. It won't do to leave you here longer alone. Jack has been shooting
-twenty years to your one, and it stands to reason that you are no match
-for him. Who of the gang would you like best to have with you?"
-
-"No one, sir," said Freckles emphatically. "Next time is where I run.
-I won't try to fight them alone. I'll just be getting wind of them, and
-then make tracks for you. I'll need to come like lightning, and Duncan
-has no extra horse, so I'm thinking you'd best get me one--or perhaps a
-wheel would be better. I used to do extra work for the Home doctor, and
-he would let me take his bicycle to ride around the place. And at times
-the head nurse would loan me his for an hour. A wheel would cost less
-and be faster than a horse, and would take less care. I believe, if you
-are going to town soon, you had best pick up any kind of an old one
-at some second-hand store, for if I'm ever called to use it in a hurry
-there won't be the handlebars left after crossing the corduroy."
-
-"Yes," said McLean; "and if you didn't have a first-class wheel, you
-never could cross the corduroy on it at all."
-
-As they walked to the cabin, McLean insisted on another guard, but
-Freckles was stubbornly set on fighting his battle alone. He made one
-mental condition. If the Bird Woman was going to give up the Little
-Chicken series, he would yield to the second guard, solely for the sake
-of her work and the presence of the Angel in the Limberlost. He did not
-propose to have a second man unless it were absolutely necessary, for
-he had been alone so long that he loved the solitude, his chickens,
-and flowers. The thought of having a stranger to all his ways come and
-meddle with his arrangements, frighten his pets, pull his flowers,
-and interrupt him when he wanted to study, so annoyed him that he was
-blinded to his real need for help.
-
-With McLean it was a case of letting his sober, better judgment be
-overridden by the boy he was growing so to love that he could not endure
-to oppose him, and to have Freckles keep his trust and win alone meant
-more than any money the Boss might lose.
-
-The following morning McLean brought the wheel, and Freckles took it to
-the trail to test it. It was new, chainless, with as little as possible
-to catch in hurried riding, and in every way the best of its kind.
-Freckles went skimming around the trail on it on a preliminary trip
-before he locked it in his case and started his minute examination of
-his line on foot. He glanced around his room as he left it, and then
-stood staring.
-
-On the moss before his prettiest seat lay the Angel's hat. In the
-excitement of yesterday all of them had forgotten it. He went and picked
-it up, oh! so carefully, gazing at it with hungry eyes, but touching it
-only to carry it to his case, where he hung it on the shining handlebar
-of the new wheel and locked it among his treasures. Then he went to the
-trail, with a new expression on his face and a strange throbbing in his
-heart. He was not in the least afraid of anything that morning. He felt
-he was the veriest Daniel, but all his lions seemed weak and harmless.
-
-What Black Jack's next move would be he could not imagine, but that
-there would be a move of some kind was certain. The big bully was not a
-man to give up his purpose, or to have the hat swept from his head
-with a bullet and bear it meekly. Moreover, Wessner would cling to his
-revenge with a Dutchman's singleness of mind.
-
-Freckles tried to think connectedly, but there were too many places on
-the trail where the Angel's footprints were vet visible. She had stepped
-in one mucky spot and left a sharp impression. The afternoon sun had
-baked it hard, and the horses' hoofs had not obliterated any part of it,
-as they had in so many places. Freckles stood fascinated, gazing at
-it. He measured it lovingly with his eye. He would not have ventured a
-caress on her hat any more than on her person, but this was different.
-Surely a footprint on a trail might belong to anyone who found and
-wanted it. He stooped under the wires and entered the swamp. With a
-little searching, he found a big piece of thick bark loose on a log and
-carefully peeling it, carried it out and covered the print so that the
-first rain would not obliterate it.
-
-When he reached his room, he tenderly laid the hat upon his bookshelf,
-and to wear off his awkwardness, mounted his wheel and went spinning on
-trail again. It was like flying, for the path was worn smooth with his
-feet and baked hard with the sun almost all the way. When he came to the
-bark, he veered far to one side and smiled at it in passing. Suddenly
-he was off the wheel, kneeling beside it. He removed his hat, carefully
-lifted the bark, and gazed lovingly at the imprint.
-
-"I wonder what she was going to say of me voice," he whispered. "She
-never got it said, but from the face of her, I believe she was liking it
-fairly well. Perhaps she was going to say that singing was the big thing
-I was to be doing. That's what they all thought at the Home. Well, if
-it is, I'll just shut me eyes, think of me little room, the face of her
-watching, and the heart of her beating, and I'll raise them. Damn them,
-if singing will do it, I'll raise them from the benches!"
-
-With this dire threat, Freckles knelt, as at a wayside spring, and
-deliberately laid his lips on the footprint. Then he arose, appearing as
-if he had been drinking at the fountain of gladness.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the
-Encounter
-
-"Weel, I be drawed on!" exclaimed Mrs. Duncan.
-
-Freckles stood before her, holding the Angel's hat.
-
-"I've been thinking this long time that ye or Duncan would see that
-sunbonnets werena braw enough for a woman of my standing, and ye're a
-guid laddie to bring me this beautiful hat."
-
-She turned it around, examining the weave of the straw and the foliage
-trimmings, passing her rough fingers over the satin ties delightedly. As
-she held it up, admiring it, Freckles' astonished eyes saw a new side of
-Sarah Duncan. She was jesting, but under the jest the fact loomed strong
-that, though poor, overworked, and with none but God-given refinement,
-there was something in her soul crying after that bit of feminine
-finery, and it made his heart ache for her. He resolved that when he
-reached the city he would send her a hat, if it took fifty dollars to do
-it.
-
-She lingeringly handed it back to him.
-
-"It's unco guid of ye to think of me," she said lightly, "but I maun
-question your taste a wee. D'ye no think ye had best return this and get
-a woman with half her hair gray a little plainer headdress? Seems like
-that's far ower gay for me. I'm no' saying that it's no' exactly what
-I'd like to hae, but I mauna mak mysel' ridiculous. Ye'd best give this
-to somebody young and pretty, say about sixteen. Where did ye come by
-it, Freckles? If there's anything been dropping lately, ye hae forgotten
-to mention it."
-
-"Do you see anything heavenly about that hat?" queried Freckles, holding
-it up.
-
-The morning breeze waved the ribbons gracefully, binding one around
-Freckles' sleeve and the other across his chest, where they caught and
-clung as if magnetized.
-
-"Yes," said Sarah Duncan. "It's verra plain and simple, but it juist
-makes ye feel that it's all of the finest stuff. It's exactly what I'd
-call a heavenly hat."
-
-"Sure," said Freckles, "for it's belonging to an Angel!"
-
-Then he told her about the hat and asked her what he should do with it.
-
-"Take it to her, of course!" said Sarah Duncan. "Like it's the only ane
-she has and she may need it badly."
-
-Freckles smiled. He had a clear idea about the hat being the only one
-the Angel had. However, there was a thing he felt he should do and
-wanted to do, but he was not sure.
-
-"You think I might be taking it home?" he said.
-
-"Of course ye must," said Mrs. Duncan. "And without another hour's
-delay. It's been here two days noo, and she may want it, and be too busy
-or afraid to come."
-
-"But how can I take it?" asked Freckles.
-
-"Gang spinning on your wheel. Ye can do it easy in an hour."
-
-"But in that hour, what if----?"
-
-"Nonsense!" interrupted Sarah Duncan. "Ye've watched that timber-line
-until ye're grown fast to it, lad. Give me your boots and club and I'll
-gae walk the south end and watch doon the east and west sides until ye
-come back."
-
-"Mrs. Duncan! You never would be doing it," cried Freckles.
-
-"Why not?" inquired she.
-
-"But you know you're mortal afraid of snakes and a lot of other things
-in the swamp."
-
-"I am afraid of snakes," said Mrs. Duncan, "but likely they've gone into
-the swamp this hot weather. I'll juist stay on the trail and watch, and
-ye might hurry the least bit. The day's so bright it feels like storm. I
-can put the bairns on the woodpile to play until I get back. Ye gang awa
-and take the blessed little angel her beautiful hat."
-
-"Are you sure it will be all right?" urged Freckles. "Do you think if
-Mr. McLean came he would care?"
-
-"Na," said Mrs. Duncan; "I dinna. If ye and me agree that a thing ought
-to be done, and I watch in your place, why, it's bound to be all right
-with McLean. Let me pin the hat in a paper, and ye jump on your wheel
-and gang flying. Ought ye put on your Sabbath-day clothes?"
-
-Freckles shook his head. He knew what he should do, but there was no
-use in taking time to try to explain it to Mrs. Duncan while he was so
-hurried. He exchanged his wading-boots for shoes, gave her his club, and
-went spinning toward town. He knew very well where the Angel lived.
-He had seen her home many times, and he passed it again without even
-raising his eyes from the street, steering straight for her father's
-place of business.
-
-Carrying the hat, Freckles passed a long line of clerks, and at the door
-of the private office asked to see the proprietor. When he had waited
-a moment, a tall, spare, keen-eyed man faced him, and in brisk, nervous
-tones asked: "How can I serve you, sir?"
-
-Freckles handed him the package and answered, "By delivering to your
-daughter this hat, which she was after leaving at me place the other
-day, when she went away in a hurry. And by saying to her and the Bird
-Woman that I'm more thankful than I'll be having words to express for
-the brave things they was doing for me. I'm McLean's Limberlost guard,
-sir."
-
-"Why don't you take it yourself?" questioned the Man of Affairs.
-
-Freckles' clear gray eyes met those of the Angel's father squarely, and
-he asked: "If you were in my place, would you take it to her yourself?"
-
-"No, I would not," said that gentleman quickly.
-
-"Then why ask why I did not?" came Freckles' lamb-like query.
-
-"Bless me!" said the Angel's father. He stared at the package, then at
-the lifted chin of the boy, and then at the package again, and muttered,
-"Excuse me!"
-
-Freckles bowed.
-
-"It would be favoring me greatly if you would deliver the hat and the
-message. Good morning, sir," and he turned away.
-
-"One minute," said the Angel's father. "Suppose I give you permission to
-return this hat in person and make your own acknowledgments."
-
-Freckles stood one moment thinking intently, and then he lifted those
-eyes of unswerving truth and asked: "Why should you, sir? You are
-kind, indade, to mention it, and it's thanking you I am for your good
-intintions, but my wanting to go or your being willing to have me ain't
-proving that your daughter would be wanting me or care to bother with
-me."
-
-The Angel's father looked keenly into the face of this extraordinary
-young man, for he found it to his liking.
-
-"There's one other thing I meant to say," said Freckles. "Every day I
-see something, and at times a lot of things, that I think the Bird Woman
-would be wanting pictures of badly, if she knew. You might be speaking
-of it to her, and if she'd want me to, I can send her word when I find
-things she wouldn't likely get elsewhere."
-
-"If that's the case," said the Angel's father, "and you feel under
-obligations for her assistance the other day, you can discharge them in
-that way. She is spending all her time in the fields and woods searching
-for subjects. If you run across things, perhaps rarer than she may find,
-about your work, it would save her the time she spends searching for
-subjects, and she could work in security under your protection. By all
-means let her know if you find subjects you think she could use, and we
-will do anything we can for you, if you will give her what help you can
-and see that she is as safe as possible."
-
-"It's hungry for human beings I am," said Freckles, "and it's like
-Heaven to me to have them come. Of course, I'll be telling or sending
-her word every time me work can spare me. Anything I can do it would
-make me uncommon happy, but"--again truth had to be told, because it was
-Freckles who was speaking--"when it comes to protecting them, I'd risk
-me life, to be sure, but even that mightn't do any good in some cases.
-There are many dangers to be reckoned with in the swamp, sir, that call
-for every person to look sharp. If there wasn't really thieving to guard
-against, why, McLean wouldn't need be paying out good money for a guard.
-I'd love them to be coming, and I'll do all I can, but you must be told
-that there's danger of them running into timber thieves again any day,
-sir."
-
-"Yes," said the Angel's father, "and I suppose there's danger of the
-earth opening up and swallowing the town any day, but I'm damned if
-I quit business for fear it will, and the Bird Woman won't, either.
-Everyone knows her and her work, and there is no danger in the world
-of anyone in any way molesting her, even if he were stealing a few of
-McLean's gold-plated trees. She's as safe in the Limberlost as she is at
-home, so far as timber thieves are concerned. All I am ever uneasy about
-are the snakes, poison-vines, and insects; and those are risks she must
-run anywhere. You need not hesitate a minute about that. I shall be glad
-to tell them what you wish. Thank you very much, and good day, sir."
-
-There was no way in which Freckles could know it, but by following his
-best instincts and being what he conceived a gentleman should be, he
-surprised the Man of Affairs into thinking of him and seeing his face
-over his books many times that morning; whereas, if he had gone to the
-Angel as he had longed to do, her father never would have given him a
-second thought.
-
-On the street he drew a deep breath. How had he acquitted himself? He
-only knew that he had lived up to his best impulse, and that is all
-anyone can do. He glanced over his wheel to see that it was all right,
-and just as he stepped to the curb to mount he heard a voice that
-thrilled him through and through: "Freckles! Oh Freckles!"
-
-The Angel separated from a group of laughing, sweet-faced girls and came
-hurrying to him. She was in snowy white--a quaint little frock, with
-a marvel of soft lace around her throat and wrists. Through the sheer
-sleeves of it her beautiful, rounded arms showed distinctly, and it was
-cut just to the base of her perfect neck. On her head was a pure white
-creation of fancy braid, with folds on folds of tulle, soft and silken
-as cobwebs, lining the brim; while a mass of white roses clustered
-against the gold of her hair, crept around the crown, and fell in a riot
-to her shoulders at the back. There were gleams of gold with settings
-of blue on her fingers, and altogether she was the daintiest, sweetest
-sight he ever had seen. Freckles, standing on the curb, forgot himself
-in his cotton shirt, corduroys, and his belt to which his wire-cutter
-and pliers were hanging, and gazed as a man gazes when first he sees
-the woman he adores with all her charms enhanced by appropriate and
-beautiful clothing.
-
-"Oh Freckles," she cried as she came to him. "I was wondering about you
-the other day. Do you know I never saw you in town before. You watch
-that old line so closely! Why did you come? Is there any trouble? Are
-you just starting to the Limberlost?"
-
-"I came to bring your hat," said Freckles. "You forgot it in the rush
-the other day. I have left it with your father, and a message trying
-to ixpriss the gratitude of me for how you and the Bird Woman were for
-helping me out."
-
-The Angel nodded gravely, then Freckles saw that he had done the proper
-thing in going to her father. His heart bounded until it jarred his
-body, for she was saying that she scarcely could wait for the time to
-come for the next picture of the Little Chicken series. "I want to hear
-the remainder of that song, and I hadn't even begun seeing your room
-yet," she complained. "As for singing, if you can sing like that every
-day, I never can get enough of it. I wonder if I couldn't bring my banjo
-and some of the songs I like best. I'll play and you sing, and we'll put
-the birds out of commission."
-
-Freckles stood on the curb with drooped eyes, for he felt that if
-he lifted them the tumult of tender adoration in them would show and
-frighten her.
-
-"I was afraid your ixperience the other day would scare you so that
-you'd never be coming again," he found himself saying.
-
-The Angel laughed gaily.
-
-"Did I seem scared?" she questioned.
-
-"No," said Freckles, "you did not."
-
-"Oh, I just enjoyed that," she cried. "Those hateful, stealing old
-things! I had a big notion to pink one of them, but I thought maybe
-someway it would be best for you that I shouldn't. They needed it. That
-didn't scare me; and as for the Bird Woman, she's accustomed to finding
-snakes, tramps, cross dogs, sheep, cattle, and goodness knows what! You
-can't frighten her when she's after a picture. Did they come back?"
-
-"No," said Freckles. "The gang got there a little after noon and took
-out the tree, but I must tell you, and you must tell the Bird Woman,
-that there's no doubt but they will be coming back, and they will have
-to make it before long now, for it's soon the gang will be there to work
-on the swamp."
-
-"Oh, what a shame!" cried the Angel. "They'll clear out roads, cut down
-the beautiful trees, and tear up everything. They'll drive away the
-birds and spoil the cathedral. When they have done their worst, then
-all these mills close here will follow in and take out the cheap timber.
-Then the landowners will dig a few ditches, build some fires, and in two
-summers more the Limberlost will be in corn and potatoes."
-
-They looked at each other, and groaned despairingly in unison.
-
-"You like it, too," said Freckles.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel, "I love it. Your room is a little piece right out
-of the heart of fairyland, and the cathedral is God's work, not yours.
-You only found it and opened the door after He had it completed. The
-birds, flowers, and vines are all so lovely. The Bird Woman says it is
-really a fact that the mallows, foxfire, iris, and lilies are larger and
-of richer coloring there than in the remainder of the country. She says
-it's because of the rich loam and muck. I hate seeing the swamp torn up,
-and to you it will be like losing your best friend; won't it?"
-
-"Something like," said Freckles. "Still, I've the Limberlost in me heart
-so that all of it will be real to me while I live, no matter what they
-do to it. I'm glad past telling if you will be coming a few more times,
-at least until the gang arrives. Past that time I don't allow mesilf to
-be thinking."
-
-"Come, have a cool drink before you start back," said the Angel.
-
-"I couldn't possibly," said Freckles. "I left Mrs. Duncan on the trail,
-and she's terribly afraid of a lot of things. If she even sees a big
-snake, I don't know what she'll do."
-
-"It won't take but a minute, and you can ride fast enough to make up
-for it. Please. I want to think of something fine for you, to make up a
-little for what you did for me that first day."
-
-Freckles looked in sheer wonderment into the beautiful face of the
-Angel. Did she truly mean it? Would she walk down that street with him,
-crippled, homely, in mean clothing, with the tools of his occupation on
-him, and share with him the treat she was offering? He could not believe
-it, even of the Angel. Still, in justice to the candor of her pure,
-sweet face, he would not think that she would make the offer and not
-mean it. She really did mean just what she said, but when it came to
-carrying out her offer and he saw the stares of her friends, the
-sneers of her enemies--if such as she could have enemies--and heard the
-whispered jeers of the curious, then she would see her mistake and be
-sorry. It would be only a manly thing for him to think this out, and
-save her from the results of her own blessed bigness of heart.
-
-"I railly must be off," said Freckles earnestly, "but I'm thanking you
-more than you'll ever know for your kindness. I'll just be drinking
-bowls of icy things all me way home in the thoughts of it."
-
-Down came the Angel's foot. Her eyes flashed indignantly. "There's no
-sense in that," she said. "How do you think you would have felt when you
-knew I was warm and thirsty and you went and brought me a drink and
-I wouldn't take it because--because goodness knows why! You can ride
-faster to make up for the time. I've just thought out what I want to fix
-for you."
-
-She stepped to his side and deliberately slipped her hand under his
-arm--that right arm that ended in an empty sleeve.
-
-"You are coming," she said firmly. "I won't have it."
-
-Freckles could not have told how he felt, neither could anyone else. His
-blood rioted and his head swam, but he kept his wits. He bent over her.
-
-"Please don't, Angel," he said softly. "You don't understand."
-
-How Freckles came to understand was a problem.
-
-"It's this," he persisted. "If your father met me on the street, in
-my station and dress, with you on me arm, he'd have every right to be
-caning me before the people, and not a finger would I lift to stay him."
-
-The Angel's eyes snapped. "If you think my father cares about my doing
-anything that is right and kind, and that makes me happy to do--why,
-then you completely failed in reading my father, and I'll ask him and
-just show you."
-
-She dropped Freckles' arm and turned toward the entrance to the
-building. "Why, look there!" she exclaimed.
-
-Her father stood in a big window fronting the street, a bundle of papers
-in his hand, interestedly watching the little scene, with eyes that
-comprehended quite as thoroughly as if he had heard every word. The
-Angel caught his glance and made a despairing little gesture toward
-Freckles. The Man of Affairs answered her with a look of infinite
-tenderness. He nodded his head and waved the papers in the direction she
-had indicated, and the veriest dolt could have read the words his lips
-formed: "Take him along!"
-
-A sudden trembling seized Freckles. At sight of the Angel's father he
-had stepped back as far from her as he could, leaned the wheel against
-him, and snatched off his hat.
-
-The Angel turned on him with triumphing eyes.
-
-She was highly strung and not accustomed to being thwarted. "Did You see
-that?" she demanded. "Now are you satisfied? Will you come, or must I
-call a policeman to bring you?"
-
-Freckles went. There was nothing else to do. Guiding his wheel, he
-walked down the street beside her. On every hand she was kept busy
-giving and receiving the cheeriest greetings. She walked into the
-parlors exactly as if she owned them. A clerk came hurrying to meet her.
-
-"There's a table vacant beside a window where it is cool. I'll save it
-for you," and he started back.
-
-"Please not," said the Angel. "I've taken this man unawares, when
-he's in a rush. I'm afraid if we sit down we'll take too much time and
-afterward he will blame me."
-
-She walked to the fountain, and a long row of people stared with all the
-varying degrees of insolence and curiosity that Freckles had felt they
-would. He glanced at the Angel. NOW would she see?
-
-"On my soul!" he muttered under his breath. "They don't aven touch her!"
-
-She laid down her sunshade and gloves. She walked to the end of the
-counter and turned the full battery of her eyes on the attendant.
-
-"Please," she said.
-
-The white-aproned individual stepped back and gave delighted assent. The
-Angel stepped beside him, and selecting a tall, flaring glass, of almost
-paper thinness, she stooped and rolled it in a tray of cracked ice.
-
-"I want to mix a drink for my friend," she said. "He has a long, hot
-ride before him, and I don't want him started off with one of those old
-palate-teasing sweetnesses that you mix just on purpose to drive a man
-back in ten minutes." There was an appreciative laugh from the line at
-the counter.
-
-"I want a clear, cool, sparkling drink that has a tang of acid in it.
-Where's the cherry phosphate? That, not at all sweet, would be good;
-don't you think?"
-
-The attendant did think. He pointed out the different taps, and the
-Angel compounded the drink, while Freckles, standing so erect he almost
-leaned backward, gazed at her and paid no attention to anyone else. When
-she had the glass brimming, she tilted a little of its contents into a
-second glass and tasted it.
-
-"That's entirely too sweet for a thirsty man," she said.
-
-She poured out half the mixture, and refilling the glass, tasted it a
-second time. She submitted that result to the attendant. "Isn't that
-about the thing?" she asked.
-
-He replied enthusiastically. "I'd get my wages raised ten a month if I
-could learn that trick."
-
-The Angel carried the brimming, frosty glass to Freckles. He removed his
-hat, and lifting the icy liquid even with her eyes and looking straight
-into them, he said in the mellowest of all the mellow tones of his
-voice: "I'll be drinking it to the Swamp Angel."
-
-As he had said to her that first day, she now cautioned him: "Be
-drinking slowly."
-
-When the screen-door swung behind them, one of the men at the counter
-asked of the attendant: "Now, what did that mean?"
-
-"Exactly what you saw," replied he, rather curtly. "We're accustomed
-to it here. Hardly a day passes, this hot weather, but she's picking
-up some poor, god-forsaken mortal and bringing him in. Then she comes
-behind the counter herself and fixes up a drink to suit the occasion.
-She's all sorts of fancies about what's what for all kinds of times and
-conditions, and you bet she can just hit the spot! Ain't a clerk here
-can put up a drink to touch her. She's a sort of knack at it. Every once
-in a while, when the Boss sees her, he calls out to her to mix him a
-drink."
-
-"And does she?" asked the man with an interested grin.
-
-"Well, I guess! But first she goes back and sees how long it is since
-he's had a drink. What he drank last. How warm he is. When he ate last.
-Then she comes here and mixes a glass of fizz with a little touch of
-acid, and a bit of cherry, lemon, grape, pineapple, or something sour
-and cooling, and it hits the spot just as no spot was ever hit before.
-I honestly believe that the INTEREST she takes in it is half the
-trick, for I watch her closely and I can't come within gunshot of her
-concoctions. She has a running bill here. Her father settles once a
-month. She gives nine-tenths of it away. Hardly ever touches it herself,
-but when she does she makes me mix it. She's just old persimmons. Even
-the scrub-boy of this establishment would fight for her. It lasts the
-year round, for in winter it's some poor, frozen cuss that she's warming
-up on hot coffee or chocolate."
-
-"Mighty queer specimen she had this time," volunteered another. "Irish,
-hand off, straight as a ramrod, and something worth while in his face.
-Notice that hat peel off, and the eyes of him? There's a case of 'fight
-for her!' Wonder who he is?"
-
-"I think," said a third, "that he's McLean's Limberlost guard, and I
-suspect she's gone to the swamp with the Bird Woman for pictures and
-knows him that way. I've heard that he is a master hand with the birds,
-and that would just suit the Bird Woman to a T."
-
-On the street the Angel walked beside Freckles to the first crossing and
-there she stopped. "Now, will you promise to ride fast enough to make up
-for the five minutes that took?" she asked. "I am a little uneasy about
-Mrs. Duncan."
-
-Freckles turned his wheel into the street. It seemed to him he had
-poured that delicious icy liquid into every vein in his body instead of
-his stomach. It even went to his brain.
-
-"Did you insist on fixing that drink because you knew how intoxicating
-'twould be?" he asked.
-
-There was subtlety in the compliment and it delighted the Angel. She
-laughed gleefully.
-
-"Next time, maybe you won't take so much coaxing," she teased.
-
-"I wouldn't this, if I had known your father and been understanding you
-better. Do you really think the Bird Woman will be coming again?"
-
-The Angel jeered. "Wild horses couldn't drag her away," she cried. "She
-will have hard work to wait the week out. I shouldn't be in the least
-surprised to see her start any hour."
-
-Freckles could not endure the suspense; it had to come.
-
-"And you?" he questioned, but he dared not lift his eyes.
-
-"Wild horses me, too," she laughed, "couldn't keep me away either! I
-dearly love to come, and the next time I am going to bring my banjo,
-and I'll play, and you sing for me some of the songs I like best; won't
-you?"
-
-"Yis," said Freckles, because it was all he was capable of saying just
-then.
-
-"It's beginning to act stormy," she said. "If you hurry you will just
-about make it. Now, good-bye."
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles Comes to the
-Rescue
-
-Freckles was halfway to the Limberlost when he dismounted. He could ride
-no farther, because he could not see the road. He sat under a tree, and,
-leaning against it, sobs shook, twisted, and rent him. If they would
-remind him of his position, speak condescendingly, or notice his hand,
-he could endure it, but this--it surely would kill him! His hot, pulsing
-Irish blood was stirred deeply. What did they mean? Why did they do it?
-Were they like that to everyone? Was it pity?
-
-It could not be, for he knew that the Bird Woman and the Angel's father
-must know that he was not really McLean's son, and it did not matter
-to them in the least. In spite of accident and poverty, they evidently
-expected him to do something worth while in the world. That must be his
-remedy. He must work on his education. He must get away. He must find
-and do the great thing of which the Angel talked. For the first time,
-his thoughts turned anxiously toward the city and the beginning of his
-studies. McLean and the Duncans spoke of him as "the boy," but he was
-a man. He must face life bravely and act a man's part. The Angel was a
-mere child. He must not allow her to torture him past endurance with her
-frank comradeship that meant to him high heaven, earth's richness, and
-all that lay between, and NOTHING to her.
-
-There was an ominous growl of thunder, and amazed at himself, Freckles
-snatched up his wheel and raced toward the swamp. He was worried to find
-his boots lying at the cabin door; the children playing on the woodpile
-told him that "mither" said they were so heavy she couldn't walk in
-them, and she had come back and taken them off. Thoroughly frightened,
-he stopped only long enough to slip them on, and then sped with all his
-strength for the Limberlost. To the west, the long, black, hard-beaten
-trail lay clear; but far up the east side, straight across the path, he
-could see what was certainly a limp, brown figure. Freckles spun with
-all his might.
-
-Face down, Sarah Duncan lay across the trail. When Freckles turned her
-over, his blood chilled at the look of horror settled on her face. There
-was a low humming and something spatted against him. Glancing around,
-Freckles shivered in terror, for there was a swarm of wild bees settled
-on a scrub-thorn only a few yards away. The air was filled with excited,
-unsettled bees making ready to lead farther in search of a suitable
-location. Then he thought he understood, and with a prayer of
-thankfulness in his heart that she had escaped, even so narrowly, he
-caught her up and hurried down the trail until they were well out of
-danger. He laid her in the shade, and carrying water from the swamp
-in the crown of his hat, he bathed her face and hands; but she lay in
-unbroken stillness, without a sign of life.
-
-She had found Freckles' boots so large and heavy that she had gone back
-and taken them off, although she was mortally afraid to approach the
-swamp without them. The thought of it made her nervous, and the fact
-that she never had been there alone added to her fears. She had not
-followed the trail many rods when her trouble began. She was not
-Freckles, so not a bird of the line was going to be fooled into thinking
-she was.
-
-They began jumping from their nests and darting from unexpected places
-around her head and feet, with quick whirs, that kept her starting and
-dodging. Before Freckles was halfway to the town, poor Mrs. Duncan was
-hysterical, and the Limberlost had neither sung nor performed for her.
-
-But there was trouble brewing. It was quiet and intensely hot, with that
-stifling stillness that precedes a summer storm, and feathers and
-fur were tense and nervous. The birds were singing only a few broken
-snatches, and flying around, seeking places of shelter. One moment
-everything seemed devoid of life, the next there was an unexpected
-whir, buzz, and sharp cry. Inside, a pandemonium of growling, spatting,
-snarling, and grunting broke loose.
-
-The swale bent flat before heavy gusts of wind, and the big black
-chicken swept lower and lower above the swamp. Patches of clouds
-gathered, shutting out the sun and making it very dark, and the next
-moment were swept away. The sun poured with fierce, burning brightness,
-and everything was quiet. It was at the first growl of thunder that
-Freckles really had noticed the weather, and putting his own troubles
-aside resolutely, raced for the swamp.
-
-Sarah Duncan paused on the line. "Weel, I wouldna stay in this place for
-a million a month," she said aloud, and the sound of her voice brought
-no comfort, for it was so little like she had thought it that she
-glanced hastily around to see if it had really been she that spoke. She
-tremblingly wiped the perspiration from her face with the skirt of her
-sunbonnet.
-
-"Awfu' hot," she panted huskily. "B'lieve there's going to be a big
-storm. I do hope Freckles will hurry."
-
-Her chin was quivering as a terrified child's. She lifted her bonnet to
-replace it and brushed against a bush beside her. WHIRR, almost into her
-face, went a nighthawk stretched along a limb for its daytime nap. Mrs.
-Duncan cried out and sprang down the trail, alighting on a frog that was
-hopping across. The horrible croak it gave as she crushed it sickened
-her. She screamed wildly and jumped to one side. That carried her into
-the swale, where the grasses reached almost to her waist, and her horror
-of snakes returning, she made a flying leap for an old log lying beside
-the line. She alighted squarely, but it was so damp and rotten that she
-sank straight through it to her knees. She caught at the wire as she
-went down, and missing, raked her wrist across a barb until she tore a
-bleeding gash. Her fingers closed convulsively around the second strand.
-She was too frightened to scream now. Her tongue stiffened. She clung
-frantically to the sagging wire, and finally managed to grasp it with
-the other hand. Then she could reach the top wire, and so she drew
-herself up and found solid footing. She picked up the club that she
-had dropped in order to extricate herself. Leaning heavily on it,
-she managed to return to the trail, but she was trembling so that she
-scarcely could walk. Going a few steps farther, she came to the stump of
-the first tree that had been taken out.
-
-She sat bolt upright and very still, trying to collect her thoughts and
-reason away her terror. A squirrel above her dropped a nut, and as it
-came rattling down, bouncing from branch to branch, every nerve in her
-tugged wildly. When the disgusted squirrel barked loudly, she sprang to
-the trail.
-
-The wind arose higher, the changes from light to darkness were more
-abrupt, while the thunder came closer and louder at every peal. In
-swarms the blackbirds arose from the swale and came flocking to the
-interior, with a clamoring cry: "T'CHECK, T'CHECK." Grackles marshaled
-to the tribal call: "TRALL-A-HEE, TRALL-A-HEE." Red-winged blackbirds
-swept low, calling to belated mates: "FOL-LOW-ME, FOL-LOW-ME." Big,
-jetty crows gathered close to her, crying, as if warning her to flee
-before it was everlastingly too late. A heron, fishing the near-by pool
-for Freckles' "find-out" frog, fell into trouble with a muskrat and
-uttered a rasping note that sent Mrs. Duncan a rod down the line without
-realizing that she had moved. She was too shaken to run far. She stopped
-and looked around her fearfully.
-
-Several bees struck her and were angrily buzzing before she noticed
-them. Then the humming swelled on all sides. A convulsive sob shook her,
-and she ran into the bushes, now into the swale, anywhere to avoid the
-swarming bees, ducking, dodging, fighting for her very life. Presently
-the humming seemed to become a little fainter. She found the trail
-again, and ran with all her might from a few of her angry pursuers.
-
-As she ran, straining every muscle, she suddenly became aware that,
-crossing the trail before her, was a big, round, black body, with brown
-markings on its back, like painted geometrical patterns. She tried to
-stop, but the louder buzzing behind warned her she dared not. Gathering
-her skirts higher, with hair flying around her face and her eyes almost
-bursting from their sockets, she ran straight toward it. The sound of
-her feet and the humming of the bees alarmed the rattler, so it stopped
-across the trail, lifting its head above the grasses of the swale and
-rattling inquiringly--rattled until the bees were outdone.
-
-Straight toward it went the panic-stricken woman, running wildly and
-uncontrollably. She took one leap, clearing its body on the path, then
-flew ahead with winged feet. The snake, coiled to strike, missed Mrs.
-Duncan and landed among the bees instead. They settled over and around
-it, and realizing that it had found trouble, it sank among the grasses
-and went threshing toward its den in the deep willow-fringed low ground.
-The swale appeared as if a reaper were cutting a wide swath. The mass of
-enraged bees darted angrily around, searching for it, and striking the
-scrub-thorn, began a temporary settling there to discover whether it
-were a suitable place. Completely exhausted, Mrs. Duncan staggered on a
-few steps farther, fell facing the path, where Freckles found her, and
-lay quietly.
-
-Freckles worked over her until she drew a long, quivering breath and
-opened her eyes.
-
-When she saw him bending above her, she closed them tightly, and
-gripping him, struggled to her feet. He helped her, and with his arm
-around and half carrying her, they made their way to the clearing. She
-clung to him with all her remaining strength, but open her eyes she
-would not until her children came clustering around her. Then, brawny,
-big Scotswoman though she was, she quietly keeled over again. The
-children added their wailing to Freckles' panic.
-
-This time he was so close the cabin that he could carry her into the
-house and lay her on the bed. He sent the oldest boy scudding down the
-corduroy for the nearest neighbor, and between them they undressed Mrs.
-Duncan and discovered that she was not bitten. They bathed and bound the
-bleeding wrist and coaxed her back to consciousness. She lay sobbing and
-shuddering. The first intelligent word she said was: "Freckles, look at
-that jar on the kitchen table and see if my yeast is no running ower."
-
-Several days passed before she could give Duncan and Freckles any
-detailed account of what had happened to her, even then she could not
-do it without crying as the least of her babies. Freckles was almost
-heartbroken, and nursed her as well as any woman could have done; while
-big Duncan, with a heart full for them both, worked early and late to
-chink every crack of the cabin and examine every spot that possibly
-could harbor a snake. The effects of her morning on the trail kept her
-shivering half the time. She could not rest until she sent for McLean
-and begged him to save Freckles from further risk, in that place of
-horrors. The Boss went to the swamp with his mind fully determined to do
-so.
-
-Freckles stood and laughed at him. "Why, Mr. McLean, don't you let a
-woman's nervous system set you worrying about me," he said. "I'm not
-denying how she felt, because I've been through it meself, but that's
-all over and gone. It's the height of me glory to fight it out with the
-old swamp, and all that's in it, or will be coming to it, and then
-to turn it over to you as I promised you and meself I'd do, sir. You
-couldn't break the heart of me entire quicker than to be taking it from
-me now, when I'm just on the home-stretch. It won't be over three or
-four weeks yet, and when I've gone it almost a year, why, what's that
-to me, sir? You mustn't let a woman get mixed up with business, for I've
-always heard about how it's bringing trouble."
-
-McLean smiled. "What about that last tree?" he said.
-
-Freckles blushed and grinned appreciatively.
-
-"Angels and Bird Women don't count in the common run, sir," he affirmed
-shamelessly.
-
-McLean sat in the saddle and laughed.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-
-The Bird Woman and the Angel did not seem to count in the common run,
-for they arrived on time for the third of the series and found McLean on
-the line talking to Freckles. The Boss was filled with enthusiasm over a
-marsh article of the Bird Woman's that he just had read. He begged to
-be allowed to accompany her into the swamp and watch the method by which
-she secured an illustration in such a location.
-
-The Bird Woman explained to him that it was an easy matter with the
-subject she then had in hand; and as Little Chicken was too small to
-be frightened by him, and big enough to be growing troublesome, she was
-glad for his company. They went to the chicken log together, leaving to
-the happy Freckles the care of the Angel, who had brought her banjo and
-a roll of songs that she wanted to hear him sing. The Bird Woman told
-them that they might practice in Freckles' room until she finished with
-Little Chicken, and then she and McLean would come to the concert.
-
-It was almost three hours before they finished and came down the west
-trail for their rest and lunch. McLean walked ahead, keeping sharp watch
-on the trail and clearing it of fallen limbs from overhanging trees. He
-sent a big piece of bark flying into the swale, and then stopped short
-and stared at the trail.
-
-The Bird Woman bent forward. Together they studied that imprint of
-the Angel's foot. At last their eyes met, the Bird Woman's filled with
-astonishment, and McLean's humid with pity. Neither said a word, but
-they knew. McLean entered the swale and hunted up the bark. He replaced
-it, and the Bird Woman carefully stepped over. As they reached the
-bushes at the entrance, the voice of the Angel stopped them, for it was
-commanding and filled with much impatience.
-
-"Freckles James Ross McLean!" she was saying. "You fill me with
-dark-blue despair! You're singing as if your voice were glass and might
-break at any minute. Why don't you sing as you did a week ago? Answer me
-that, please."
-
-Freckles smiled confusedly at the Angel, who sat on one of his fancy
-seats, playing his accompaniment on her banjo.
-
-"You are a fraud," she said. "Here you went last week and led me to
-think that there was the making of a great singer in you, and now you
-are singing--do you know how badly you are singing?"
-
-"Yis," said Freckles meekly. "I'm thinking I'm too happy to be singing
-well today. The music don't come right only when I'm lonesome and sad.
-The world's for being all sunshine at prisint, for among you and Mr.
-McLean and the Bird Woman I'm after being THAT happy that I can't keep
-me thoughts on me notes. It's more than sorry I am to be disappointing
-you. Play it over, and I'll be beginning again, and this time I'll hold
-hard."
-
-"Well," said the Angel disgustedly, "it seems to me that if I had all
-the things to be proud of that you have, I'd lift up my head and sing!"
-
-"And what is it I've to be proud of, ma'am?" politely inquired Freckles.
-
-"Why, a whole worldful of things," cried the Angel explosively. "For
-one thing, you can be good and proud over the way you've kept the timber
-thieves out of this lease, and the trust your father has in you. You can
-be proud that you've never even once disappointed him or failed in what
-he believed you could do. You can be proud over the way everyone speaks
-of you with trust and honor, and about how brave of heart and strong of
-body you are I heard a big man say a few days ago that the Limberlost
-was full of disagreeable things--positive dangers, unhealthful as it
-could be, and that since the memory of the first settlers it has been a
-rendezvous for runaways, thieves, and murderers. This swamp is named for
-a man that was lost here and wandered around 'til he starved. That man I
-was talking with said he wouldn't take your job for a thousand dollars
-a month--in fact, he said he wouldn't have it for any money, and you've
-never missed a day or lost a tree. Proud! Why, I should think you would
-just parade around about proper over that!
-
-"And you can always be proud that you are born an Irishman. My father
-is Irish, and if you want to see him get up and strut give him a teeny
-opening to enlarge on his race. He says that if the Irish had decent
-territory they'd lead the world. He says they've always been handicapped
-by lack of space and of fertile soil. He says if Ireland had been as big
-and fertile as Indiana, why, England wouldn't ever have had the upper
-hand. She'd only be an appendage. Fancy England an appendage! He says
-Ireland has the finest orators and the keenest statesmen in Europe
-today, and when England wants to fight, with whom does she fill her
-trenches? Irishmen, of course! Ireland has the greenest grass and trees,
-the finest stones and lakes, and they've jaunting-cars. I don't know
-just exactly what they are, but Ireland has all there are, anyway.
-They've a lot of great actors, and a few singers, and there never was a
-sweeter poet than one of theirs. You should hear my father recite 'Dear
-Harp of My Country.' He does it this way."
-
-The Angel arose, made an elaborate old-time bow, and holding up the
-banjo, recited in clipping feet and meter, with rhythmic swing and a
-touch of brogue that was simply irresistible:
-
-"Dear harp of my country" [The Angel ardently clasped the banjo],
-
-"In darkness I found thee" [She held it to the light],
-
-"The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long" [She muted the
-strings with her rosy palm];
-
-"Then proudly, my own Irish harp, I unbound thee" [She threw up her head
-and swept a ringing harmony];
-
-"And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song" [She crashed into
-the notes of the accompaniment she had been playing for Freckles].
-
-"That's what you want to be thinking of!" she cried. "Not darkness, and
-lonesomeness, and sadness, but 'light, freedom, and song.' I can't begin
-to think offhand of all the big, splendid things an Irishman has to be
-proud of; but whatever they are, they are all yours, and you are a part
-of them. I just despise that 'saddest-when-I-sing' business. You can
-sing! Now you go over there and do it! Ireland has had her statesmen,
-warriors, actors, and poets; now you be her voice! You stand right out
-there before the cathedral door, and I'm going to come down the aisle
-playing that accompaniment, and when I stop in front of you--you sing!"
-
-The Angel's face wore an unusual flush. Her eyes were flashing and she
-was palpitating with earnestness.
-
-She parted the bushes and disappeared. Freckles, straight and tense,
-stood waiting. Presently, before he saw she was there, she was coming
-down the aisle toward him, playing compellingly, and rifts of light were
-touching her with golden glory. Freckles stood as if transfixed.
-
-The cathedral was majestically beautiful, from arched dome of frescoed
-gold, green, and blue in never-ending shades and harmonies, to the
-mosaic aisle she trod, richly inlaid in choicest colors, and gigantic
-pillars that were God's handiwork fashioned and perfected through ages
-of sunshine and rain. But the fair young face and divinely molded form
-of the Angel were His most perfect work of all. Never had she appeared
-so surpassingly beautiful. She was smiling encouragingly now, and as she
-came toward him, she struck the chords full and strong.
-
-The heart of poor Freckles almost burst with dull pain and his great
-love for her. In his desire to fulfill her expectations he forgot
-everything else, and when she reached his initial chord he was ready. He
-literally burst forth:
-
-     "Three little leaves of Irish green,
-     United on one stem,
-     Love, truth, and valor do they mean,
-     They form a magic gem."
-
-The Angel's eyes widened curiously and her lips parted. A deep color
-swept into her cheeks. She had intended to arouse him. She had more than
-succeeded. She was too young to know that in the effort to rouse a man,
-women frequently kindle fires that they neither can quench nor control.
-Freckles was looking over her head now and singing that song, as it
-never had been sung before, for her alone; and instead of her helping
-him, as she had intended, he was carrying her with him on the waves
-of his voice, away, away into another world. When he struck into the
-chorus, wide-eyed and panting, she was swaying toward him and playing
-with all her might.
-
-     "Oh, do you love?  Oh, say you love
-     You love the shamrock green!"
-
-At the last note, Freckles' voice ceased and he looked at the Angel. He
-had given his best and his all. He fell on his knees and folded his arms
-across his breast. The Angel, as if magnetized, walked straight down the
-aisle to him, and running her fingers into the crisp masses of his red
-hair, tilted his head back and laid her lips on his forehead.
-
-Then she stepped back and faced him. "Good boy!" she said, in a voice
-that wavered from the throbbing of her shaken heart. "Dear boy! I knew
-you could do it! I knew it was in you! Freckles, when you go into the
-world, if you can face a big audience and sing like that, just once, you
-will be immortal, and anything you want will be yours."
-
-"Anything!" gasped Freckles.
-
-"Anything," said the Angel.
-
-Freckles arose, muttered something, and catching up his old bucket,
-plunged into the swamp blindly on a pretence of bringing water. The
-Angel walked slowly across the study, sat on the rustic bench, and,
-through narrowed lids, intently studied the tip of her shoe.
-
-On the trail the Bird Woman wheeled to McLean with a dumbfounded look.
-
-"God!" muttered he.
-
-At last the Bird Woman spoke.
-
-"Do you think the Angel knew she did that?" she asked softly.
-
-"No," said McLean; "I do not. But the poor boy knew it. Heaven help
-him!"
-
-The Bird Woman stared across the gently waving swale. "I don't see how I
-am going to blame her," she said at last. "It's so exactly what I would
-have done myself."
-
-"Say the remainder," demanded McLean hoarsely. "Do him justice."
-
-"He was born a gentleman," conceded the Bird Woman. "He took no
-advantage. He never even offered to touch her. Whatever that kiss meant
-to him, he recognized that it was the loving impulse of a child under
-stress of strong emotion. He was fine and manly as any man ever could
-have been."
-
-McLean lifted his hat. "Thank you," he said simply, and parted the
-bushes for her to enter Freckles' room.
-
-It was her first visit. Before she left she sent for her cameras and
-made studies of each side of it and of the cathedral. She was entranced
-with the delicate beauty of the place, while her eyes kept following
-Freckles as if she could not believe that it could be his conception and
-work.
-
-That was a happy day. The Bird Woman had brought a lunch, and they
-spread it, with Freckles' dinner, on the study floor and sat, resting
-and enjoying themselves. But the Angel put her banjo into its case,
-silently gathered her music, and no one mentioned the concert.
-
-The Bird Woman left McLean and the Angel to clear away the lunch, and
-with Freckles examined the walls of his room and told him all she knew
-about his shrubs and flowers. She analyzed a cardinal-flower and
-showed him what he had wanted to know all summer--why the bees
-buzzed ineffectually around it while the humming-birds found in it
-an ever-ready feast. Some of his specimens were so rare that she was
-unfamiliar with them, and with the flower book between them they
-knelt, studying the different varieties. She wandered the length of the
-cathedral aisle with him, and it was at her suggestion that he lighted
-his altar with a row of flaming foxfire.
-
-As Freckles came to the cabin from his long day at the swamp he saw
-Mrs. Chicken sweeping to the south and wondered where she was going. He
-stepped into the bright, cosy little kitchen, and as he reached down the
-wash-basin he asked Mrs. Duncan a question.
-
-"Mother Duncan, do kisses wash off?"
-
-So warm a wave swept her heart that a half-flush mantled her face. She
-straightened her shoulders and glanced at her hands tenderly.
-
-"Lord, na! Freckles," she cried. "At least, the anes ye get from people
-ye love dinna. They dinna stay on the outside. They strike in until they
-find the center of your heart and make their stopping-place there, and
-naething can take them from ye--I doubt if even death----Na, lad, ye can
-be reet sure kisses dinna wash off!"
-
-Freckles set the basin down and muttered as he plunged his hot, tired
-face into the water, "I needn't be afraid to be washing, then, for that
-one struck in."
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XI
-
-Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird
-Woman
-
-"I wish," said Freckles at breakfast one morning, "that I had some way
-to be sending a message to the Bird Woman. I've something at the swamp
-that I'm believing never happened before, and surely she'll be wanting
-it."
-
-"What now, Freckles?" asked Mrs. Duncan.
-
-"Why, the oddest thing you ever heard of," said Freckles; "the whole
-insect tribe gone on a spree. I'm supposing it's my doings, but it all
-happened by accident, like. You see, on the swale side of the line,
-right against me trail, there's one of these scrub wild crabtrees. Where
-the grass grows thick around it, is the finest place you ever conceived
-of for snakes. Having women about has set me trying to clean out those
-fellows a bit, and yesterday I noticed that tree in passing. It struck
-me that it would be a good idea to be taking it out. First I thought I'd
-take me hatchet and cut it down, for it ain't thicker than me upper arm.
-Then I remembered how it was blooming in the spring and filling all the
-air with sweetness. The coloring of the blossoms is beautiful, and I
-hated to be killing it. I just cut the grass short all around it. Then
-I started at the ground, trimmed up the trunk near the height of
-me shoulder, and left the top spreading. That made it look so truly
-ornamental that, idle like, I chips off the rough places neat, and this
-morning, on me soul, it's a sight! You see, cutting off the limbs and
-trimming up the trunk sets the sap running. In this hot sun it ferments
-in a few hours. There isn't much room for more things to crowd on that
-tree than there are, and to get drunker isn't noways possible."
-
-"Weel, I be drawed on!" exclaimed Mrs. Duncan. "What kind of things do
-ye mean, Freckles?"
-
-"Why, just an army of black ants. Some of them are sucking away like
-old topers. Some of them are setting up on their tails and hind legs,
-fiddling with their fore-feet and wiping their eyes. Some are rolling
-around on the ground, contented. There are quantities of big blue-bottle
-flies over the bark and hanging on the grasses around, too drunk to
-steer a course flying; so they just buzz away like flying, and all
-the time sitting still. The snake-feeders are too full to feed
-anything--even more sap to themselves. There's a lot of hard-backed
-bugs--beetles, I guess--colored like the brown, blue, and black of a
-peacock's tail. They hang on until the legs of them are so wake they
-can't stick a minute longer, and then they break away and fall to the
-ground. They just lay there on their backs, fably clawing air. When it
-wears off a bit, up they get, and go crawling back for more, and they so
-full they bump into each other and roll over. Sometimes they can't climb
-the tree until they wait to sober up a little. There's a lot of big
-black-and-gold bumblebees, done for entire, stumbling over the bark and
-rolling on the ground. They just lay there on their backs, rocking from
-side to side, singing to themselves like fat, happy babies. The wild
-bees keep up a steady buzzing with the beating of their wings.
-
-"The butterflies are the worst old topers of them all. They're just a
-circus! You never saw the like of the beauties! They come every color
-you could be naming, and every shape you could be thinking up. They
-drink and drink until, if I'm driving them away, they stagger as they
-fly and turn somersaults in the air. If I lave them alone, they cling to
-the grasses, shivering happy like; and I'm blest, Mother Duncan, if
-the best of them could be unlocking the front door with a lead pencil,
-even."
-
-"I never heard of anything sae surprising," said Mrs. Duncan.
-
-"It's a rare sight to watch them, and no one ever made a picture of a
-thing like that before, I'm for thinking," said Freckles earnestly.
-
-"Na," said Mrs. Duncan. "Ye can be pretty sure there didna. The Bird
-Woman must have word in some way, if ye walk the line and I walk to town
-and tell her. If ye think ye can wait until after supper, I am most
-sure ye can gang yoursel', for Duncan is coming home and he'd be glad to
-watch for ye. If he does na come, and na ane passes that I can send
-word with today, I really will gang early in the morning and tell her
-mysel'."
-
-Freckles took his lunch and went to the swamp. He walked and watched
-eagerly. He could find no trace of anything, yet he felt a tense
-nervousness, as if trouble might be brooding. He examined every section
-of the wire, and kept watchful eyes on the grasses of the swale, in
-an effort to discover if anyone had passed through them; but he could
-discover no trace of anything to justify his fears.
-
-He tilted his hat brim to shade his face and looked for his chickens.
-They were hanging almost beyond sight in the sky.
-
-"Gee!" he said. "If I only had your sharp eyes and convenient location
-now, I wouldn't need be troubling so."
-
-He reached his room and cautiously scanned the entrance before he
-stepped in. Then he pushed the bushes apart with his right arm and
-entered, his left hand on the butt of his favorite revolver. Instantly
-he knew that someone had been there. He stepped to the center of the
-room, closely scanning each wall and the floor. He could find no trace
-of a clue to confirm his belief, yet so intimate was he with the spirit
-of the place that he knew.
-
-How he knew he could not have told, yet he did know that someone had
-entered his room, sat on his benches, and walked over his floor. He was
-surest around the case. Nothing was disturbed, yet it seemed to Freckles
-that he could see where prying fingers had tried the lock. He stepped
-behind the case, carefully examining the ground all around it, and close
-beside the tree to which it was nailed he found a deep, fresh footprint
-in the spongy soil--a long, narrow print, that was never made by the
-foot of Wessner. His heart tugged in his breast as he mentally measured
-the print, but he did not linger, for now the feeling arose that he
-was being watched. It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of some
-intruder at his back. He knew he was examining things too closely: if
-anyone were watching, he did not want him to know that he felt it.
-
-He took the most open way, and carried water for his flowers and moss
-as usual; but he put himself into no position in which he was fully
-exposed, and his hand was close his revolver constantly. Growing restive
-at last under the strain, he plunged boldly into the swamp and searched
-minutely all around his room, but he could not discover the least thing
-to give him further cause for alarm. He unlocked his case, took out his
-wheel, and for the remainder of the day he rode and watched as he never
-had before. Several times he locked the wheel and crossed the swamp on
-foot, zigzagging to cover all the space possible. Every rod he traveled
-he used the caution that sprang from knowledge of danger and the
-direction from which it probably would come. Several times he thought of
-sending for McLean, but for his life he could not make up his mind to do
-it with nothing more tangible than one footprint to justify him.
-
-He waited until he was sure Duncan would be at home, if he were coming
-for the night, before he went to supper. The first thing he saw as he
-crossed the swale was the big bays in the yard.
-
-There had been no one passing that day, and Duncan readily agreed to
-watch until Freckles rode to town. He told Duncan of the footprint, and
-urged him to guard closely. Duncan said he might rest easy, and filling
-his pipe and taking a good revolver, the big man went to the Limberlost.
-
-Freckles made himself clean and neat, and raced to town, but it was
-night and the stars were shining before he reached the home of the Bird
-Woman. From afar he could see that the house was ablaze with lights. The
-lawn and veranda were strung with fancy lanterns and alive with people.
-He thought his errand important, so to turn back never occurred to
-Freckles. This was all the time or opportunity he would have. He must
-see the Bird Woman, and see her at once. He leaned his wheel inside the
-fence and walked up the broad front entrance. As he neared the steps, he
-saw that the place was swarming with young people, and the Angel, with
-an excuse to a group that surrounded her, came hurrying to him.
-
-"Oh Freckles!" she cried delightedly. "So you could come? We were so
-afraid you could not! I'm as glad as I can be!"
-
-"I don't understand," said Freckles. "Were you expecting me?"
-
-"Why of course!" exclaimed the Angel. "Haven't you come to my party?
-Didn't you get my invitation? I sent you one."
-
-"By mail?" asked Freckles.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel. "I had to help with the preparations, and I
-couldn't find time to drive out; but I wrote you a letter, and told
-you that the Bird Woman was giving a party for me, and we wanted you
-to come, surely. I told them at the office to put it with Mr. Duncan's
-mail."
-
-"Then that's likely where it is at present," said Freckles. "Duncan
-comes to town only once a week, and at times not that. He's home tonight
-for the first in a week. He's watching an hour for me until I come to
-the Bird Woman with a bit of work I thought she'd be caring to hear
-about bad. Is she where I can see her?"
-
-The Angel's face clouded.
-
-"What a disappointment!" she cried. "I did so want all my friends to
-know you. Can't you stay anyway?"
-
-Freckles glanced from his wading-boots to the patent leathers of some of
-the Angel's friends, and smiled whimsically, but there was no danger of
-his ever misjudging her again.
-
-"You know I cannot, Angel," he said.
-
-"I am afraid I do," she said ruefully. "It's too bad! But there is a
-thing I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is to hang
-on and win with your work. I think of you every day, and I just pray
-that those thieves are not getting ahead of you. Oh, Freckles, do watch
-closely!"
-
-She was so lovely a picture as she stood before him, ardent in his
-cause, that Freckles could not take his eyes from her to notice what her
-friends were thinking. If she did not mind, why should he? Anyway,
-if they really were the Angel's friends, probably they were better
-accustomed to her ways than he.
-
-Her face and bared neck and arms were like the wild rose bloom. Her
-soft frock of white tulle lifted and stirred around her with the gentle
-evening air. The beautiful golden hair, that crept around her temples
-and ears as if it loved to cling there, was caught back and bound with
-broad blue satin ribbon. There was a sash of blue at her waist, and
-knots of it catching up her draperies.
-
-"Must I go after the Bird Woman?" she pleaded.
-
-"Indade, you must," answered Freckles firmly.
-
-The Angel went away, but returned to say that the Bird Woman was telling
-a story to those inside and she could not come for a short time.
-
-"You won't come in?" she pleaded.
-
-"I must not," said Freckles. "I am not dressed to be among your friends,
-and I might be forgetting meself and stay too long."
-
-"Then," said the Angel, "we mustn't go through the house, because it
-would disturb the story; but I want you to come the outside way to the
-conservatory and have some of my birthday lunch and some cake to take to
-Mrs. Duncan and the babies. Won't that be fun?"
-
-Freckles thought that it would be more than fun, and followed
-delightedly.
-
-The Angel gave him a big glass, brimming with some icy, sparkling liquid
-that struck his palate as it never had been touched before, because a
-combination of frosty fruit juices had not been a frequent beverage with
-him. The night was warm, and the Angel most beautiful and kind. A triple
-delirium of spirit, mind, and body seized upon him and developed a
-boldness all unnatural. He slightly parted the heavy curtains that
-separated the conservatory from the company and looked between. He
-almost stopped breathing. He had read of things like that, but he never
-had seen them.
-
-The open space seemed to stretch through half a dozen rooms, all ablaze
-with lights, perfumed with flowers, and filled with elegantly dressed
-people. There were glimpses of polished floors, sparkling glass, and
-fine furnishings. From somewhere, the voice of his beloved Bird Woman
-arose and fell.
-
-The Angel crowded beside him and was watching also.
-
-"Doesn't it look pretty?" she whispered.
-
-"Do you suppose Heaven is any finer than that?" asked Freckles.
-
-The Angel began to laugh.
-
-"Do you want to be laughing harder than that?" queried Freckles.
-
-"A laugh is always good," said the Angel. "A little more avoirdupois
-won't hurt me. Go ahead."
-
-"Well then," said Freckles, "it's only that I feel all over as if I
-belonged there. I could wear fine clothes, and move over those floors,
-and hold me own against the best of them."
-
-"But where does my laugh come in?" demanded the Angel, as if she had
-been defrauded.
-
-"And you ask me where the laugh comes in, looking me in the face after
-that," marveled Freckles.
-
-"I wouldn't be so foolish as to laugh at such a manifest truth as that,"
-said the Angel. "Anyone who knows you even half as well as I do, knows
-that you are never guilty of a discourtesy, and you move with twice the
-grace of any man here. Why shouldn't you feel as if you belonged where
-people are graceful and courteous?"
-
-"On me soul!" said Freckles, "you are kind to be thinking it. You are
-doubly kind to be saying it."
-
-The curtains parted and a woman came toward them. Her silks and laces
-trailed across the polished floors. The lights gleamed on her neck and
-arms, and flashed from rare jewels. She was smiling brightly; and until
-she spoke, Freckles had not realized fully that it was his loved Bird
-Woman.
-
-Noticing his bewilderment, she cried: "Why, Freckles! Don't you know me
-in my war clothes?"
-
-"I do in the uniform in which you fight the Limberlost," said Freckles.
-
-The Bird Woman laughed. Then he told her why he had come, but she
-scarcely could believe him. She could not say exactly when she would go,
-but she would make it as soon as possible, for she was most anxious for
-the study.
-
-While they talked, the Angel was busy packing a box of sandwiches,
-cake, fruit, and flowers. She gave him a last frosty glass, thanked him
-repeatedly for bringing news of new material; then Freckles went into
-the night. He rode toward the Limberlost with his eyes on the stars.
-Presently he removed his hat, hung it to his belt, and ruffled his
-hair to the sweep of the night wind. He filled the air all the way with
-snatches of oratorios, gospel hymns, and dialect and coon songs, in a
-startlingly varied programme. The one thing Freckles knew that he could
-do was to sing. The Duncans heard him coming a mile up the corduroy and
-could not believe their senses. Freckles unfastened the box from
-his belt, and gave Mrs. Duncan and the children all the eatables
-it contained, except one big piece of cake that he carried to the
-sweet-loving Duncan. He put the flowers back in the box and set it among
-his books. He did not say anything, but they understood it was not to be
-touched.
-
-"Thae's Freckles' flow'rs," said a tiny Scotsman, "but," he added
-cheerfully, "it's oor sweeties!"
-
-Freckles' face slowly flushed as he took Duncan's cake and started
-toward the swamp. While Duncan ate, Freckles told him something about
-the evening, as well as he could find words to express himself, and the
-big man was so amazed he kept forgetting the treat in his hands.
-
-Then Freckles mounted his wheel and began a spin that terminated only
-when the biggest Plymouth Rock in Duncan's coop saluted a new day, and
-long lines of light reddened the east. As he rode he sang, while he
-sang he worshiped, but the god he tried to glorify was a dim and faraway
-mystery. The Angel was warm flesh and blood.
-
-Every time he passed the little bark-covered imprint on the trail he
-dismounted, removed his hat, solemnly knelt and laid his lips on the
-impression. Because he kept no account himself, only the laughing-faced
-old man of the moon knew how often it happened; and as from the
-beginning, to the follies of earth that gentleman has ever been kind.
-
-With the near approach of dawn Freckles tuned his last note. Wearied
-almost to falling, he turned from the trail into the path leading to the
-cabin for a few hours' rest.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XII
-
-Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-
-As Freckles left the trail, from the swale close the south entrance,
-four large muscular men arose and swiftly and carefully entered the
-swamp by the wagon road. Two of them carried a big saw, the third, coils
-of rope and wire, and all of them were heavily armed. They left one man
-on guard at the entrance. The other three made their way through the
-darkness as best they could, and were soon at Freckles' room. He had
-left the swamp on his wheel from the west trail. They counted on his
-returning on the wheel and circling the east line before he came there.
-
-A little below the west entrance to Freckles' room, Black Jack stepped
-into the swale, and binding a wire tightly around a scrub oak, carried
-it below the waving grasses, stretched it taut across the trail, and
-fastened it to a tree in the swamp. Then he obliterated all signs of his
-work, and arranged the grass over the wire until it was so completely
-covered that only minute examination would reveal it. They entered
-Freckles' room with coarse oaths and jests. In a few moments, his
-specimen case with its precious contents was rolled into the swamp,
-while the saw was eating into one of the finest trees of the Limberlost.
-
-The first report from the man on watch was that Duncan had driven to the
-South camp; the second, that Freckles was coming. The man watching was
-sent to see on which side the boy turned into the path; as they had
-expected, he took the east. He was a little tired and his head was
-rather stupid, for he had not been able to sleep as he had hoped, but he
-was very happy. Although he watched until his eyes ached, he could see
-no sign of anyone having entered the swamp.
-
-He called a cheery greeting to all his chickens. At Sleepy Snake Creek
-he almost fell from his wheel with surprise: the saw-bird was surrounded
-by four lanky youngsters clamoring for breakfast. The father was
-strutting with all the importance of a drum major.
-
-"No use to expect the Bird Woman today," said Freckles; "but now
-wouldn't she be jumping for a chance at that?"
-
-As soon as Freckles was far down the east line, the watch was posted
-below the room on the west to report his coming. It was only a few
-moments before the signal came. Then the saw stopped, and the rope was
-brought out and uncoiled close to a sapling. Wessner and Black Jack
-crowded to the very edge of the swamp a little above the wire, and
-crouched, waiting.
-
-They heard Freckles before they saw him. He came gliding down the line
-swiftly, and as he rode he was singing softly:
-
-     "Oh, do you love,
-     Oh, say you love----"
-
-He got no farther. The sharply driven wheel struck the tense wire and
-bounded back. Freckles shot over the handlebar and coasted down the
-trail on his chest. As he struck, Black Jack and Wessner were upon him.
-Wessner caught off an old felt hat and clapped it over Freckles' mouth,
-while Black Jack twisted the boy's arms behind him and they rushed him
-into his room. Almost before he realized that anything had happened, he
-was trussed to a tree and securely gagged.
-
-Then three of the men resumed work on the tree. The other followed
-the path Freckles had worn to Little Chicken's tree, and presently
-he reported that the wires were down and two teams with the loading
-apparatus coming to take out the timber. All the time the saw was slowly
-eating, eating into the big tree.
-
-Wessner went to the trail and removed the wire. He picked up Freckles'
-wheel, that did not seem to be injured, and leaned it against the bushes
-so that if anyone did pass on the trail he would not see it doubled in
-the swamp-grass.
-
-Then he came and stood in front of Freckles and laughed in devilish
-hate. To his own amazement, Freckles found himself looking fear in the
-face, and marveled that he was not afraid. Four to one! The tree halfway
-eaten through, the wagons coming up the inside road--he, bound and
-gagged! The men with Black Jack and Wessner had belonged to McLean's
-gang when last he had heard of them, but who those coming with the
-wagons might be he could not guess.
-
-If they secured that tree, McLean lost its value, lost his wager, and
-lost his faith in him. The words of the Angel hammered in his ears. "Oh,
-Freckles, do watch closely!"
-
-The saw worked steadily.
-
-When the tree was down and loaded, what would they do? Pull out, and
-leave him there to report them? It was not to be hoped for. The place
-always had been lawless. It could mean but one thing.
-
-A mist swept before his eyes, while his head swam. Was it only last
-night that he had worshiped the Angel in a delirium of happiness? And
-now, what? Wessner, released from a turn at the saw, walked to the
-flower bed, and tearing up a handful of rare ferns by the roots, started
-toward Freckles. His intention was obvious. Black Jack stopped him, with
-an oath.
-
-"You see here, Dutchy," he bawled, "mebby you think you'll wash his face
-with that, but you won't. A contract's a contract. We agreed to take out
-these trees and leave him for you to dispose of whatever way you please,
-provided you shut him up eternally on this deal. But I'll not see a tied
-man tormented by a fellow that he can lick up the ground with, loose,
-and that's flat. It raises my gorge to think what he'll get when we're
-gone, but you needn't think you're free to begin before. Don't you lay a
-hand on him while I'm here! What do you say, boys?"
-
-"I say yes," growled one of McLean's latest deserters. "What's more,
-we're a pack of fools to risk the dirty work of silencing him. You had
-him face down and you on his back; why the hell didn't you cover his
-head and roll him into the bushes until we were gone? When I went into
-this, I didn't understand that he was to see all of us and that there
-was murder on the ticket. I'm not up to it. I don't mind lifting trees
-we came for, but I'm cursed if I want blood on my hands."
-
-"Well, you ain't going to get it," bellowed Jack. "You fellows only
-contracted to help me get out my marked trees. He belong to Wessner, and
-it ain't in our deal what happens to him."
-
-"Yes, and if Wessner finishes him safely, we are practically in for
-murder as well as stealing the trees; and if he don't, all hell's to
-pay. I think you've made a damnable bungle of this thing; that's what I
-think!"
-
-"Then keep your thoughts to yourself," cried Jack. "We're doing this,
-and it's all planned safe and sure. As for killing that buck--come to
-think of it, killing is what he needs. He's away too good for this world
-of woe, anyhow. I tell you, it's all safe enough. His dropping out won't
-be the only secret the old Limberlost has never told. It's too dead easy
-to make it look like he helped take the timber and then cut. Why, he's
-played right into our hands. He was here at the swamp all last night,
-and back again in an hour or so. When we get our plan worked out, even
-old fool Duncan won't lift a finger to look for his carcass. We couldn't
-have him going in better shape."
-
-"You just bet," said Wessner. "I owe him all he'll get, and be damned to
-you, but I'll pay!" he snarled at Freckles.
-
-So it was killing, then. They were not only after this one tree, but
-many, and with his body it was their plan to kill his honor. To brand
-him a thief, with them, before the Angel, the Bird Woman, the dear Boss,
-and the Duncans--Freckles, in sick despair, sagged against the ropes.
-
-Then he gathered his forces and thought swiftly. There was no hope
-of McLean's coming. They had chosen a day when they knew he had a big
-contract at the South camp. The Boss could not come before tomorrow by
-any possibility, and there would be no tomorrow for the boy. Duncan was
-on his way to the South camp, and the Bird Woman had said she would come
-as soon as she could. After the fatigue of the party, it was useless
-to expect her and the Angel today, and God save them from coming! The
-Angel's father had said they would be as safe in the Limberlost as at
-home. What would he think of this?
-
-The sweat broke on Freckles' forehead. He tugged at the ropes whenever
-he felt that he dared, but they were passed around the tree and his body
-several times, and knotted on his chest. He was helpless. There was no
-hope, no help. And after they had conspired to make him appear a runaway
-thief to his loved ones, what was it that Wessner would do to him?
-
-Whatever it was, Freckles lifted his head and resolved that he would
-bear in mind what he had once heard the Bird Woman say. He would go out
-bonnily. Never would he let them see, if he grew afraid. After all, what
-did it matter what they did to his body if by some scheme of the devil
-they could encompass his disgrace?
-
-Then hope suddenly rose high in Freckles' breast. They could not do
-that! The Angel would not believe. Neither would McLean. He would keep
-up his courage. Kill him they could; dishonor him they could not.
-
-Yet, summon all the fortitude he might, that saw eating into the tree
-rasped his nerves worse and worse. With whirling brain he gazed into
-the Limberlost, searching for something, he knew not what, and in blank
-horror found his eyes focusing on the Angel. She was quite a distance
-away, but he could see her white lips and angry expression.
-
-Last week he had taken her and the Bird Woman across the swamp over the
-path he followed in going from his room to the chicken tree. He had told
-them the night before, that the butterfly tree was on the line close to
-this path. In figuring on their not coming that day, he failed to reckon
-with the enthusiasm of the Bird Woman. They must be there for the study,
-and the Angel had risked crossing the swamp in search of him. Or was
-there something in his room they needed? The blood surged in his ears as
-the roar of the Limberlost in the wrath of a storm.
-
-He looked again, and it had been a dream. She was not there. Had she
-been? For his life, Freckles could not tell whether he really had seen
-the Angel, or whether his strained senses had played him the most cruel
-trick of all. Or was it not the kindest? Now he could go with the vision
-of her lovely face fresh with him.
-
-"Thank You for that, oh God!" whispered Freckles. "'Twas more than kind
-of You and I don't s'pose I ought to be wanting anything else; but
-if You can, oh, I wish I could know before this ends, if 'twas me
-mother"--Freckles could not even whisper the words, for he hesitated a
-second and ended--"IF 'TWAS ME MOTHER DID IT!"
-
-"Freckles! Freckles! Oh, Freckles!" the voice of the Angel came calling.
-Freckles swayed forward and wrenched at the rope until it cut deeply
-into his body.
-
-"Hell!" cried Black Jack. "Who is that? Do you know?"
-
-Freckles nodded.
-
-Jack whipped out a revolver and snatched the gag from Freckles' mouth.
-
-"Say quick, or it's up with you right now, and whoever that is with
-you!"
-
-"It's the girl the Bird Woman takes with her," whispered Freckles
-through dry, swollen lips.
-
-"They ain't due here for five days yet," said Wessner. "We got on to
-that last week."
-
-"Yes," said Freckles, "but I found a tree covered with butterflies and
-things along the east line yesterday that I thought the Bird Woman would
-want extra, and I went to town to tell her last night. She said she'd
-come soon, but she didn't say when. They must be here. I take care of
-the girl while the Bird Woman works. Untie me quick until she is gone.
-I'll try to send her back, and then you can go on with your dirty work."
-
-"He ain't lying," volunteered Wessner. "I saw that tree covered with
-butterflies and him watching around it when we were spying on him
-yesterday."
-
-"No, he leaves lying to your sort," snapped Black Jack, as he undid the
-rope and pitched it across the room. "Remember that you're covered every
-move you make, my buck," he cautioned.
-
-"Freckles! Freckles!" came the Angel's impatient voice, closer and
-closer.
-
-"I must be answering," said Freckles, and Jack nodded. "Right here!"
-he called, and to the men: "You go on with your work, and remember
-one thing yourselves. The work of the Bird Woman is known all over the
-world. This girl's father is a rich man, and she is all he has. If you
-offer hurt of any kind to either of them, this world has no place far
-enough away or dark enough for you to be hiding in. Hell will be easy to
-what any man will get if he touches either of them!"
-
-"Freckles, where are you?" demanded the Angel.
-
-Soulsick with fear for her, Freckles went toward her and parted the
-bushes that she might enter. She came through without apparently giving
-him a glance, and the first words she said were: "Why have the gang come
-so soon? I didn't know you expected them for three weeks yet. Or is this
-some especial tree that Mr. McLean needs to fill an order right now?"
-
-Freckles hesitated. Would a man dare lie to save himself? No. But to
-save the Angel--surely that was different. He opened his lips, but the
-Angel was capable of saving herself. She walked among them, exactly as
-if she had been reared in a lumber camp, and never waited for an answer.
-
-"Why, your specimen case!" she cried. "Look! Haven't you noticed that
-it's tipped over? Set it straight, quickly!"
-
-A couple of the men stepped out and carefully righted the case.
-
-"There! That's better," she said. "Freckles, I'm surprised at your being
-so careless. It would be a shame to break those lovely butterflies for
-one old tree! Is that a valuable tree? Why didn't you tell us last night
-you were going to take out a tree this morning? Oh, say, did you put
-your case there to protect that tree from that stealing old Black Jack
-and his gang? I bet you did! Well, if that wasn't bright! What kind of a
-tree is it?"
-
-"It's a white oak," said Freckles.
-
-"Like those they make dining-tables and sideboards from?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"My! How interesting!" she cried. "I don't know a thing about timber,
-but my father wants me to learn just everything I can. I am going to ask
-him to let me come here and watch you until I know enough to boss a gang
-myself. Do you like to cut trees, gentlemen?" she asked with angelic
-sweetness of the men.
-
-Some of them appeared foolish and some grim, but one managed to say they
-did.
-
-Then the Angel's eyes turned full on Black Jack, and she gave the most
-natural little start of astonishment.
-
-"Oh! I almost thought that you were a ghost!" she cried. "But I see now
-that you are really and truly. Were you ever in Colorado?"
-
-"No," said Jack.
-
-"I see you aren't the same man," said the Angel. "You know, we were in
-Colorado last year, and there was a cowboy who was the handsomest man
-anywhere around. He'd come riding into town every night, and all we
-girls just adored him! Oh, but he was a beauty! I thought at first
-glance you were really he, but I see now he wasn't nearly so tall nor so
-broad as you, and only half as handsome."
-
-The men began to laugh while Jack flushed crimson. The Angel joined in
-the laugh.
-
-"Well, I'll leave it to you! Isn't he handsome?" she challenged. "As for
-that cowboy's face, it couldn't be compared with yours. The only trouble
-with you is that your clothes are spoiling you. It's the dress those
-cowboys wear that makes half their attraction. If you were properly
-clothed, you could break the heart of the prettiest girl in the
-country."
-
-With one accord the other men looked at Black Jack, and for the first
-time realized that he was a superb specimen of manhood, for he stood six
-feet tall, was broad, well-rounded, and had dark, even skin, big black
-eyes, and full red lips.
-
-"I'll tell you what!" exclaimed the Angel. "I'd just love to see you on
-horseback. Nothing sets a handsome man off so splendidly. Do you ride?"
-
-"Yes," said Jack, and his eyes were burning on the Angel as if he would
-fathom the depths of her soul.
-
-"Well," said the Angel winsomely, "I know what I just wish you'd do.
-I wish you would let your hair grow a little longer. Then wear a
-blue flannel shirt a little open at the throat, a red tie, and a
-broad-brimmed felt hat, and ride past my house of evenings. I'm always
-at home then, and almost always on the veranda, and, oh! but I would
-like to see you! Will you do that for me?" It is impossible to describe
-the art with which the Angel asked the question. She was looking
-straight into Jack's face, coarse and hardened with sin and careless
-living, which was now taking on a wholly different expression. The evil
-lines of it were softening and fading under her clear gaze. A dull red
-flamed into his bronze cheeks, while his eyes were growing brightly
-tender.
-
-"Yes," he said, and the glance he gave the men was of such a nature that
-no one saw fit even to change countenance.
-
-"Oh, goody!" she cried, tilting on her toes. "I'll ask all the girls
-to come see, but they needn't stick in! We can get along without them,
-can't we?"
-
-Jack leaned toward her. He was the charmed fluttering bird, while the
-Angel was the snake.
-
-"Well, I rather guess!" he cried.
-
-The Angel drew a deep breath and surveyed him rapturously.
-
-"My, but you're tall!" she commented. "Do you suppose I ever will grow
-to reach your shoulders?"
-
-She stood on tiptoe and measured the distance with her eyes. Then she
-developed timid confusion, while her glance sought the ground.
-
-"I wish I could do something," she half whispered.
-
-Jack seemed to increase an inch in height.
-
-"What?" he asked hoarsely.
-
-"Lariat Bill used always to have a bunch of red flowers in his shirt
-pocket. The red lit up his dark eyes and olive cheeks and made him
-splendid. May I put some red flowers on you?"
-
-Freckles stared as he wheezed for breath. He wished the earth would open
-and swallow him. Was he dead or alive? Since his Angel had seen Black
-Jack she never had glanced his way. Was she completely bewitched? Would
-she throw herself at the man's feet before them all? Couldn't she give
-him even one thought? Hadn't she seen that he was gagged and bound? Did
-she truly think that these were McLean's men? Why, she could not! It was
-only a few days ago that she had been close enough to this man and angry
-enough with him to peel the hat from his head with a shot! Suddenly a
-thing she had said jestingly to him one day came back with startling
-force: "You must take Angels on trust." Of course you must! She was his
-Angel. She must have seen! His life, and what was far more, her own, was
-in her hands. There was nothing he could do but trust her. Surely she
-was working out some plan.
-
-The Angel knelt beside his flower bed and recklessly tore up by the
-roots a big bunch of foxfire.
-
-"These stems are so tough and sticky," she said. "I can't break them.
-Loan me your knife," she ordered Freckles.
-
-As she reached for the knife, her back was for one second toward the
-men. She looked into his eyes and deliberately winked.
-
-She severed the stems, tossed the knife to Freckles, and walking to
-Jack, laid the flowers over his heart.
-
-Freckles broke into a sweat of agony. He had said she would be safe in
-a herd of howling savages. Would she? If Black Jack even made a motion
-toward touching her, Freckles knew that from somewhere he would muster
-the strength to kill him. He mentally measured the distance to where his
-club lay and set his muscles for a spring. But no--by the splendor of
-God! The big fellow was baring his head with a hand that was unsteady.
-The Angel pulled one of the long silver pins from her hat and fastened
-her flowers securely.
-
-Freckles was quaking. What was to come next? What was she planning, and
-oh! did she understand the danger of her presence among those men; the
-real necessity for action?
-
-As the Angel stepped from Jack, she turned her head to one side and
-peered at him, quite as Freckles had seen the little yellow fellow do
-on the line a hundred times, and said: "Well, that does the trick! Isn't
-that fine? See how it sets him off, boys? Don't you forget the tie is to
-be red, and the first ride soon. I can't wait very long. Now I must go.
-The Bird Woman will be ready to start, and she will come here hunting me
-next, for she is busy today. What did I come here for anyway?"
-
-She glanced inquiringly around, and several of the men laughed. Oh, the
-delight of it! She had forgotten her errand for him! Jack had a second
-increase in height. The Angel glanced helplessly as if seeking a clue.
-Then her eyes fell, as if by accident, on Freckles, and she cried, "Oh,
-I know now! It was those magazines the Bird Woman promised you. I came
-to tell you that we put them under the box where we hide things, at
-the entrance to the swamp as we came in. I knew I would need my hands
-crossing the swamp, so I hid them there. You'll find them at the same
-old place."
-
-Then Freckles spoke.
-
-"It's mighty risky for you to be crossing the swamp alone," he said.
-"I'm surprised that the Bird Woman would be letting you try it. I know
-it's a little farther, but it's begging you I am to be going back by the
-trail. That's bad enough, but it's far safer than the swamp."
-
-The Angel laughed merrily.
-
-"Oh stop your nonsense!" she cried. "I'm not afraid! Not in the least!
-The Bird Woman didn't want me to try following a path that I'd been over
-only once, but I was sure I could do it, and I'm rather proud of the
-performance. Now, don't go babying! You know I'm not afraid!"
-
-"No," said Freckles gently, "I know you're not; but that has nothing to
-do with the fact that your friends are afraid for you. On the trail you
-can see your way a bit ahead, and you've all the world a better chance
-if you meet a snake."
-
-Then Freckles had an inspiration. He turned to Jack imploringly.
-
-"You tell her!" he pleaded. "Tell her to go by the trail. She will for
-you."
-
-The implication of this statement was so gratifying to Black Jack that
-he seemed again to expand and take on increase before their very eyes.
-
-"You bet!" exclaimed Jack. And to the Angel: "You better take Freckles'
-word for it, miss. He knows the old swamp better than any of us, except
-me, and if he says 'go by the trail,' you'd best do it."
-
-The Angel hesitated. She wanted to recross the swamp and try to reach
-the horse. She knew Freckles would brave any danger to save her crossing
-the swamp alone, but she really was not afraid, while the trail added
-over a mile to the walk. She knew the path. She intended to run for dear
-life the instant she felt herself from their sight, and tucked in the
-folds of her blouse was a fine little 32-caliber revolver that her
-father had presented her for her share in what he was pleased to call
-her military exploit. One last glance at Freckles showed her the agony
-in his eyes, and immediately she imagined he had some other reason. She
-would follow the trail.
-
-"All right," she said, giving Jack a thrilling glance. "If you say so,
-I'll return by the trail to please you. Good-bye, everybody."
-
-She lifted the bushes and started toward the entrance.
-
-"You damned fool! Stop her!" growled Wessner. "Keep her till we're
-loaded, anyhow. You're playing hell! Can't you see that when this thing
-is found out, there she'll be to ruin all of us. If you let her go,
-every man of us has got to cut, and some of us will be caught sure."
-
-Jack sprang forward. Freckles' heart muffled in his throat. The Angel
-seemed to divine Jack's coming. She was humming a little song. She
-deliberately stopped and began pulling the heads of the curious grasses
-that grew all around her. When she straightened, she took a step
-backward and called: "Ho! Freckles, the Bird Woman wants that natural
-history pamphlet returned. It belongs to a set she is going to have
-bound. That's one of the reasons we put it under the box. You be sure to
-get them as you go home tonight, for fear it rains or becomes damp with
-the heavy dews."
-
-"All right," said Freckles, but it was in a voice that he never had
-heard before.
-
-Then the Angel turned and sent a parting glance at Jack. She was
-overpoweringly human and bewitchingly lovely.
-
-"You won't forget that ride and the red tie," she half asserted, half
-questioned.
-
-Jack succumbed. Freckles was his captive, but he was the Angel's, soul
-and body. His face wore the holiest look it ever had known as he softly
-re-echoed Freckles' "All right." With her head held well up, the Angel
-walked slowly away, and Jack turned to the men.
-
-"Drop your damned staring and saw wood," he shouted. "Don't you know
-anything at all about how to treat a lady?" It might have been a
-question which of the cronies that crouched over green wood fires in the
-cabins of Wildcat Hollow, eternally sucking a corncob pipe and stirring
-the endless kettles of stewing coon and opossum, had taught him to do
-even as well as he had by the Angel.
-
-The men muttered and threatened among themselves, but they began working
-desperately. Someone suggested that a man be sent to follow the Angel
-and to watch her and the Bird Woman leave the swamp. Freckles' heart
-sank within him, but Jack was in a delirium and past all caution.
-
-"Yes," he sneered. "Mebby all of you had better give over on the saw and
-run after the girl. I guess not! Seems to me I got the favors. I didn't
-see no bouquets on the rest of you! If anybody follows her, I do, and
-I'm needed here among such a pack of idiots. There's no danger in that
-baby face. She wouldn't give me away! You double and work like forty,
-while me and Wessner will take the axes and begin to cut in on the other
-side."
-
-"What about the noise?" asked Wessner.
-
-"No difference about the noise," answered Jack. "She took us to be from
-McLean's gang, slick as grease. Make the chips fly!"
-
-So all of them attacked the big tree.
-
-Freckles sat on one of his benches and waited. In their haste to fell
-the tree and load it, so that the teamsters could start, and leave them
-free to attack another, they had forgotten to rebind him.
-
-The Angel was on the trail and safely started. The cold perspiration
-made Freckles' temples clammy and ran in little streams down his chest.
-It would take her more time to follow the trail, but her safety was
-Freckles' sole thought in urging her to go that way. He tried to figure
-on how long it would require to walk to the carriage. He wondered if the
-Bird Woman had unhitched. He followed the Angel every step of the way.
-He figured on when she would cross the path of the clearing, pass the
-deep pool where his "find-out" frog lived, cross Sleepy Snake Creek, and
-reach the carriage.
-
-He wondered what she would say to the Bird Woman, and how long it would
-take them to pack and start. He knew now that they would understand, and
-the Angel would try to get the Boss there in time to save his wager.
-She could never do it, for the saw was over half through, and Jack and
-Wessner cutting into the opposite side of the tree. It appeared as if
-they could fell at least that tree, before McLean could come, and if
-they did he lost his wager.
-
-When it was down, would they rebind him and leave him for Wessner to
-wreak his insane vengeance on, or would they take him along to the next
-tree and dispose of him when they had stolen all the timber they could?
-Jack had said that he should not be touched until he left. Surely he
-would not run all that risk for one tree, when he had many others of far
-greater value marked. Freckles felt that he had some hope to cling to
-now, but he found himself praying that the Angel would hurry.
-
-Once Jack came to Freckles and asked if he had any water. Freckles arose
-and showed him where he kept his drinking-water. Jack drank in great
-gulps, and as he passed back the bucket, he said: "When a man's got a
-chance of catching a fine girl like that, he ought not be mixed up in
-any dirty business. I wish to God I was out of this!"
-
-Freckles answered heartily: "I wish I was, too!"
-
-Jack stared at him a minute and then broke into a roar of rough
-laughter.
-
-"Blest if I blame you," he said. "But you had your chance! We offered
-you a fair thing and you gave Wessner his answer. I ain't envying you
-when he gives you his."
-
-"You're six to one," answered Freckles. "It will be easy enough for you
-to be killing the body of me, but, curse you all, you can't blacken me
-soul!"
-
-"Well, I'd give anything you could name if I had your honesty," said
-Jack.
-
-When the mighty tree fell, the Limberlost shivered and screamed with the
-echo. Freckles groaned in despair, but the gang took heart. That was
-so much accomplished. They knew where to dispose of it safely, with
-no questions asked. Before the day was over, they could remove three
-others, all suitable for veneer and worth far more than this. Then they
-would leave Freckles to Wessner and scatter for safety, with more money
-than they had ever hoped for in their possession.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII
-
-Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack Falls
-upon Her
-
-On the line, the Angel gave one backward glance at Black Jack, to see
-that he had returned to his work. Then she gathered her skirts above her
-knees and leaped forward on the run. In the first three yards she passed
-Freckles' wheel. Instantly she imagined that was why he had insisted on
-her coming by the trail. She seized it and sprang on. The saddle was
-too high, but she was an expert rider and could catch the pedals as
-they came up. She stopped at Duncan's cabin long enough to remedy this,
-telling Mrs. Duncan while working what was happening, and for her to
-follow the east trail until she found the Bird Woman, and told her that
-she had gone after McLean and for her to leave the swamp as quickly as
-possible.
-
-Even with her fear for Freckles to spur her, Sarah Duncan blanched and
-began shivering at the idea of facing the Limberlost. The Angel looked
-her in the eyes.
-
-"No matter how afraid you are, you have to go," she said. "If you don't
-the Bird Woman will go to Freckles' room, hunting me, and they will have
-trouble with her. If she isn't told to leave at once, they may follow
-me, and, finding I'm gone, do some terrible thing to Freckles. I can't
-go--that's flat--for if they caught me, then there'd be no one to go
-for help. You don't suppose they are going to take out the trees they're
-after and then leave Freckles to run and tell? They are going to murder
-the boy; that's what they are going to do. You run, and run for life!
-For Freckles' life! You can ride back with the Bird Woman."
-
-The Angel saw Mrs. Duncan started; then began her race.
-
-Those awful miles of corduroy! Would they never end? She did not dare
-use the wheel too roughly, for if it broke she never could arrive on
-time afoot. Where her way was impassable for the wheel, she jumped off,
-and pushing it beside her or carrying it, she ran as fast as she could.
-The day was fearfully warm. The sun poured with the fierce baking heat
-of August. The bushes claimed her hat, and she did not stop for it.
-
-Where it was at all possible, the Angel mounted and pounded over the
-corduroy again. She was panting for breath and almost worn out when she
-reached the level pike. She had no idea how long she had been--and only
-two miles covered. She leaned over the bars, almost standing on the
-pedals, racing with all the strength in her body. The blood surged in
-her ears while her head swam, but she kept a straight course, and rode
-and rode. It seemed to her that she was standing still, while the trees
-and houses were racing past her.
-
-Once a farmer's big dog rushed angrily into the road and she swerved
-until she almost fell, but she regained her balance, and setting her
-muscles, pedaled as fast as she could. At last she lifted her head.
-Surely it could not be over a mile more. She had covered two of corduroy
-and at least three of gravel, and it was only six in all.
-
-She was reeling in the saddle, but she gripped the bars with new energy,
-and raced desperately. The sun beat on her bare head and hands. Just
-when she was choking with dust, and almost prostrate with heat and
-exhaustion--crash, she ran into a broken bottle. Snap! went the tire;
-the wheel swerved and pitched over. The Angel rolled into the thick
-yellow dust of the road and lay quietly.
-
-From afar, Duncan began to notice a strange, dust-covered object in the
-road, as he headed toward town with the first load of the day's felling.
-
-He chirruped to the bays and hurried them all he could. As he neared the
-Angel, he saw it was a woman and a broken wheel. He was beside her in an
-instant. He carried her to a shaded fence-corner, stretched her on
-the grass, and wiped the dust from the lovely face all dirt-streaked,
-crimson, and bearing a startling whiteness around the mouth and nose.
-
-Wheels were common enough. Many of the farmers' daughters owned and
-rode them, but he knew these same farmers' daughters; this face was a
-stranger's. He glanced at the Angel's tumbled clothing, the silkiness of
-her hair, with its pale satin ribbon, and noticed that she had lost her
-hat. Her lips tightened in an ominous quiver. He left her and picked
-up the wheel: as he had surmised, he knew it. This, then, was Freckles'
-Swamp Angel. There was trouble in the Limberlost, and she had broken
-down racing to McLean. Duncan turned the bays into a fence-corner, tied
-one of them, unharnessed the other, fastened up the trace chains, and
-hurried to the nearest farmhouse to send help to the Angel. He found a
-woman, who took a bottle of camphor, a jug of water, and some towels,
-and started on the run.
-
-Then Duncan put the bay to speed and raced to camp.
-
-The Angel, left alone, lay still for a second, then she shivered and
-opened her eyes. She saw that she was on the grass and the broken wheel
-beside her. Instantly she realized that someone had carried her there
-and gone after help. She sat up and looked around. She noticed the load
-of logs and the one horse. Someone was riding after help for her!
-
-"Oh, poor Freckles!" she wailed. "They may be killing him by now. Oh,
-how much time have I wasted?"
-
-She hurried to the other bay, her fingers flying as she set him free.
-Snatching up a big blacksnake whip that lay on the ground, she caught
-the hames, stretched along the horse's neck, and, for the first time,
-the fine, big fellow felt on his back the quality of the lash that
-Duncan was accustomed to crack over him. He was frightened, and ran at
-top speed.
-
-The Angel passed a wildly waving, screaming woman on the road, and a
-little later a man riding as if he, too, were in great haste. The man
-called to her, but she only lay lower and used the whip. Soon the feet
-of the man's horse sounded farther and farther away.
-
-At the South camp they were loading a second wagon, when the Angel
-appeared riding one of Duncan's bays, lathered and dripping, and cried:
-"Everybody go to Freckles! There are thieves stealing trees, and they
-had him bound. They're going to kill him!"
-
-She wheeled the horse toward the Limberlost. The alarm sounded through
-camp. The gang were not unprepared. McLean sprang to Nellie's back and
-raced after the Angel. As they passed Duncan, he wheeled and followed.
-Soon the pike was an irregular procession of barebacked riders, wildly
-driving flying horses toward the swamp.
-
-The Boss rode neck-and-neck with the Angel. He repeatedly commanded her
-to stop and fall out of line, until he remembered that he would need her
-to lead him to Freckles. Then he gave up and rode beside her, for she
-was sending the bay at as sharp a pace as the other horses could keep
-and hold out. He could see that she was not hearing him. He glanced back
-and saw that Duncan was close. There was something terrifying in the
-appearance of the big man, and the manner in which he sat his beast and
-rode. It would be a sad day for the man on whom Duncan's wrath broke.
-There were four others close behind him, and the pike filling with the
-remainder of the gang; so McLean took heart and raced beside the Angel.
-Over and over he asked her where the trouble was, but she only gripped
-the hames, leaned along the bay's neck, and slashed away with the
-blacksnake. The steaming horse, with crimson nostrils and heaving sides,
-stretched out and ran for home with all the speed there was in him.
-
-When they passed the cabin, the Bird Woman's carriage was there and Mrs.
-Duncan in the door wringing her hands, but the Bird Woman was nowhere to
-be seen. The Angel sent the bay along the path and turned into the west
-trail, while the men bunched and followed her. When she reached the
-entrance to Freckles' room, there were four men with her, and two more
-very close behind. She slid from the horse, and snatching the little
-revolver from her pocket, darted toward the bushes. McLean caught them
-back, and with drawn weapon, pressed beside her. There they stopped in
-astonishment.
-
-The Bird Woman blocked the entrance. Over a small limb lay her revolver.
-It was trained at short range on Black Jack and Wessner, who stood with
-their hands above their heads.
-
-Freckles, with the blood trickling down his face, from an ugly cut in
-his temple, was gagged and bound to the tree again; the remainder of the
-men were gone. Black Jack was raving as a maniac, and when they looked
-closer it was only the left arm that he raised. His right, with the
-hand shattered, hung helpless at his side, while his revolver lay
-at Freckles' feet. Wessner's weapon was in his belt, and beside him
-Freckles' club.
-
-Freckles' face was white, with colorless lips, but in his eyes was the
-strength of undying courage. McLean pushed past the Bird Woman crying.
-"Hold steady on them only one minute more!"
-
-He snatched the revolver from Wessner's belt, and stooped for Jack's.
-
-At that instant the Angel rushed past. She tore the gag from Freckles,
-and seizing the rope knotted on his chest, she tugged at it desperately.
-Under her fingers it gave way, and she hurled it to McLean. The men were
-crowding in, and Duncan seized Wessner. As the Angel saw Freckles stand
-out, free, she reached her arms to him and pitched forward. A fearful
-oath burst from the lips of Black Jack. To have saved his life, Freckles
-could not have avoided the glance of triumph he gave Jack, when folding
-the Angel in his arms and stretching her on the mosses.
-
-The Bird Woman cried out sharply for water as she ran to them. Someone
-sprang to bring that, and another to break open the case for brandy.
-As McLean arose from binding Wessner, there was a cry that Jack was
-escaping.
-
-He was already far in the swamp, running for its densest part in leaping
-bounds. Every man who could be spared plunged after him.
-
-Other members of the gang arriving, were sent to follow the tracks
-of the wagons. The teamsters had driven from the west entrance, and
-crossing the swale, had taken the same route the Bird Woman and the
-Angel had before them. There had been ample time for the drivers to
-reach the road; after that they could take any one of four directions.
-Traffic was heavy, and lumber wagons were passing almost constantly,
-so the men turned back and joined the more exciting hunt for a man.
-The remainder of the gang joined them, also farmers of the region and
-travelers attracted by the disturbance.
-
-Watchers were set along the trail at short intervals. They patrolled the
-line and roads through the swamp that night, with lighted torches, and
-the next day McLean headed as thorough a search as he felt could be made
-of one side, while Duncan covered the other; but Black Jack could not be
-found. Spies were set around his home, in Wildcat Hollow, to ascertain
-if he reached there or aid was being sent in any direction to him; but
-it was soon clear that his relatives were ignorant of his hiding-place,
-and were searching for him.
-
-Great is the elasticity of youth. A hot bath and a sound night's sleep
-renewed Freckles' strength, and it needed but little more to work the
-same result with the Angel. Freckles was on the trail early the next
-morning. Besides a crowd of people anxious to witness Jack's capture,
-he found four stalwart guards, one at each turn. In his heart he was
-compelled to admit that he was glad to have them there. Close noon,
-McLean placed his men in charge of Duncan, and taking Freckles, drove to
-town to see how the Angel fared. McLean visited a greenhouse and bought
-an armload of its finest products; but Freckles would have none of them.
-He would carry his message in a glowing mass of the Limberlost's first
-goldenrod.
-
-The Bird Woman received them, and in answer to their eager inquiries,
-said that the Angel was in no way seriously injured, only so bruised
-and shaken that their doctor had ordered her to lie quietly for the day.
-Though she was sore and stiff, they were having work to keep her in bed.
-Her callers sent up their flowers with their grateful regards, and the
-Angel promptly returned word that she wanted to see them.
-
-She reached both hands to McLean. "What if one old tree is gone? You
-don't care, sir? You feel that Freckles has kept his trust as nobody
-ever did before, don't you? You won't forget all those long first days
-of fright that you told us of, the fearful cold of winter, the rain,
-heat, and lonesomeness, and the brave days, and lately, nights, too, and
-let him feel that his trust is broken? Oh, Mr. McLean," she begged,
-"say something to him! Do something to make him feel that it isn't for
-nothing he has watched and suffered it out with that old Limberlost.
-Make him see how great and fine it is, and how far, far better he has
-done than you or any of us expected! What's one old tree, anyway?" she
-cried passionately.
-
-"I was thinking before you came. Those other men were rank big cowards.
-They were scared for their lives. If they were the drivers, I wager you
-gloves against gloves they never took those logs out to the pike. My
-coming upset them. Before you feel bad any more, you go look and see if
-they didn't lose courage the minute they left Wessner and Black Jack,
-dump that timber and run. I don't believe they ever had the grit to
-drive out with it in daylight. Go see if they didn't figure on leaving
-the way we did the other morning, and you'll find the logs before you
-reach the road. They never risked taking them into the open, when they
-got away and had time to think. Of course they didn't!
-
-"And, then, another thing. You haven't lost your wager! It never will
-be claimed, because you made it with a stout, dark, red-faced man who
-drives a bay and a gray. He was right back of you, Mr. McLean, when I
-came yesterday. He went deathly white and shook on his feet when he saw
-those men probably would be caught. Some one of them was something to
-him, and you can just spot him for one of the men at the bottom of your
-troubles, and urging those younger fellows to steal from you. I suppose
-he'd promised to divide. You settle with him, and that business will
-stop."
-
-She turned to Freckles. "And you be the happiest man alive, because you
-have kept your trust. Go look where I tell you and you'll find the logs.
-I can see just about where they are. When they go up that steep little
-hill, into the next woods after the cornfield, why, they could unloose
-the chains and the logs would roll from the wagons themselves. Now, you
-go look; and Mr. McLean, you do feel that Freckles has been brave and
-faithful? You won't love him any the less even if you don't find the
-logs."
-
-The Angel's nerve gave way and she began to cry. Freckles could not
-endure it. He almost ran from the room, with the tears in his eyes; but
-McLean took the Angel from the Bird Woman's arms, and kissed her brave
-little face, stroked her hair, and petted her into quietness before he
-left.
-
-As they drove to the swamp, McLean so earnestly seconded all that the
-Angel had said that he soon had the boy feeling much better.
-
-"Freckles, your Angel has a spice of the devil in her, but she's superb!
-You needn't spend any time questioning or bewailing anything she does.
-Just worship blindly, my boy. By heaven! she's sense, courage, and
-beauty for half a dozen girls," said McLean.
-
-"It's altogether right you are, sir," affirmed Freckles heartily.
-Presently he added, "There's no question but the series is over now."
-
-"Don't think it!" answered McLean. "The Bird Woman is working for
-success, and success along any line is not won by being scared out. She
-will be back on the usual day, and ten to one, the Angel will be with
-her. They are made of pretty stern stuff, and they don't scare worth
-a cent. Before I left, I told the Bird Woman it would be safe; and it
-will. You may do your usual walking, but those four guards are there to
-remain. They are under your orders absolutely. They are prohibited from
-firing on any bird or molesting anything that you want to protect, but
-there they remain, and this time it is useless for you to say one word.
-I have listened to your pride too long. You are too precious to me, and
-that voice of yours is too precious to the world to run any more risks."
-
-"I am sorry to have anything spoil the series," said Freckles, "and I'd
-love them to be coming, the Angel especial, but it can't be. You'll have
-to tell them so. You see, Jack would have been ready to stake his life
-she meant what she said and did to him. When the teams pulled out,
-Wessner seized me; then he and Jack went to quarreling over whether they
-should finish me then or take me to the next tree they were for felling.
-Between them they were pulling me around and hurting me bad. Wessner
-wanted to get at me right then, and Jack said he shouldn't be touching
-me till the last tree was out and all the rest of them gone. I'm
-belaying Jack really hated to see me done for in the beginning; and
-I think, too, he was afraid if Wessner finished me then he'd lose his
-nerve and cut, and they couldn't be managing the felling without him;
-anyway, they were hauling me round like I was already past all feeling,
-and they tied me up again. To keep me courage up, I twits Wessner about
-having to tie me and needing another man to help handle me. I told him
-what I'd do to him if I was free, and he grabs up me own club and lays
-open me head with it. When the blood came streaming, it set Jack raving,
-and he cursed and damned Wessner for a coward and a softy. Then Wessner
-turned on Jack and gives it to him for letting the Angel make a fool of
-him. Tells him she was just playing with him, and beyond all manner of
-doubt she'd gone after you, and there was nothing to do on account of
-his foolishness but finish me, get out, and let the rest of the timber
-go, for likely you was on the way right then. That drove Jack plum
-crazy.
-
-"I don't think he was for having a doubt of the Angel before, but then
-he just raved. He grabbed out his gun and turned on Wessner. Spang! It
-went out of his fist, and the order comes: 'Hands up!' Wessner reached
-for kingdom come like he was expecting to grab hold and pull himself
-up. Jack puts up what he has left. Then he leans over to me and tells me
-what he'll do to me if he ever gets out of there alive. Then, just like
-a snake hissing, he spits out what he'll do to her for playing him. He
-did get away, and with his strength, that wound in his hand won't be
-bothering him long. He'll do to me just what he said, and when he hears
-it really was she that went after you, why, he'll keep his oath about
-her.
-
-"He's lived in the swamp all his life, sir, and everybody says it's
-always been the home of cutthroats, outlaws, and runaways. He knows its
-most secret places as none of the others. He's alive. He's in there now,
-sir. Some way he'll keep alive. If you'd seen his face, all scarlet with
-passion, twisted with pain, and black with hate, and heard him swearing
-that oath, you'd know it was a sure thing. I ain't done with him yet,
-and I've brought this awful thing on her."
-
-"And I haven't begun with him yet," said McLean, setting his teeth.
-"I've been away too slow and too easy, believing there'd be no greater
-harm than the loss of a tree. I've sent for a couple of first-class
-detectives. We will put them on his track, and rout him out and rid the
-country of him. I don't propose for him to stop either our work or our
-pleasure. As for his being in the swamp now, I don't believe it. He'd
-find a way out last night, in spite of us. Don't you worry! I am at the
-helm now, and I'll see to that gentleman in my own way."
-
-"I wish to my soul you had seen and heard him!" said Freckles,
-unconvinced.
-
-They entered the swamp, taking the route followed by the Bird Woman and
-the Angel. They really did find the logs, almost where the Angel had
-predicted they would be. McLean went to the South camp and had an
-interview with Crowen that completely convinced him that the Angel
-was correct there also. But he had no proof, so all he could do was to
-discharge the man, although his guilt was so apparent that he offered to
-withdraw the wager.
-
-Then McLean sent for a pack of bloodhounds and put them on the trail of
-Black Jack. They clung to it, on and on, into the depths of the swamp,
-leading their followers through what had been considered impassable and
-impenetrable ways, and finally, around near the west entrance and into
-the swale. Here the dogs bellowed, raved, and fell over each other in
-their excitement. They raced back and forth from swamp to swale, but
-follow the scent farther they would not, even though cruelly driven. At
-last their owner attributed their actions to snakes, and as they were
-very valuable dogs, abandoned the effort to urge them on. So that all
-they really established was the fact that Black Jack had eluded their
-vigilance and crossed the trail some time in the night. He had escaped
-to the swale; from there he probably crossed the corduroy, and reaching
-the lower end of the swamp, had found friends. It was a great relief to
-feel that he was not in the swamp, and it raised the spirits of every
-man on the line, though many of them expressed regrets that he who
-was undoubtedly most to blame should escape, while Wessner, who in the
-beginning was only his tool, should be left to punishment.
-
-But for Freckles, with Jack's fearful oath ringing in his ears, there
-was neither rest nor peace. He was almost ill when the day for the next
-study of the series arrived and he saw the Bird Woman and the Angel
-coming down the corduroy. The guards of the east line he left at their
-customary places, but those of the west he brought over and placed, one
-near Little Chicken's tree, and the other at the carriage. He was firm
-about the Angel's remaining in the carriage, that he did not offer to
-have unhitched. He went with the Bird Woman to secure the picture,
-which was the easiest matter it had been at any time yet, for the simple
-reason that the placing of the guards and the unusual movement around
-the swamp had made Mr. and Mrs. Chicken timid, and they had not carried
-Little Chicken the customary amount of food. Freckles, in the anxiety of
-the past few days, had neglected him, and he had been so hungry, much
-of the time, that when the Bird Woman held up a sweet-bread, although
-he had started toward the recesses of the log at her coming, he stopped;
-with slightly opened beak, he waited anxiously for the treat, and gave a
-study of great value, showing every point of his head, also his wing and
-tail development.
-
-When the Bird Woman proposed to look for other subjects close about the
-line, Freckles went so far as to tell her that Jack had made fearful
-threats against the Angel. He implored her to take the Angel home and
-keep her under unceasing guard until Jack was located. He wanted to
-tell her all about it, but he knew how dear the Angel was to her, and he
-dreaded to burden her with his fears when they might prove groundless.
-He allowed her to go, but afterward blamed himself severely for having
-done so.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIV
-
-Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-
-"McLean," said Mrs. Duncan, as the Boss paused to greet her in passing
-the cabin, "do you know that Freckles hasna been in bed the past five
-nights and all he's eaten in that many days ye could pack into a pint
-cup?"
-
-"Why, what does the boy mean?" demanded McLean. "There's no necessity
-for him being on guard, with the watch I've set on the line. I had no
-idea he was staying down there."
-
-"He's no there," said Mrs. Duncan. "He goes somewhere else. He leaves
-on his wheel juist after we're abed and rides in close cock-crow or a
-little earlier, and he's looking like death and nothing short of it."
-
-"But where does he go?" asked McLean in astonishment.
-
-"I'm no given to bearing tales out of school," said Sarah Duncan, "but
-in this case I'd tell ye if I could. What the trouble is I dinna ken. If
-it is no' stopped, he's in for dreadful sickness, and I thought ye could
-find out and help him. He's in sair trouble; that's all I know."
-
-McLean sat brooding as he stroked Nellie's neck.
-
-At last he said: "I suspect I understand. At any rate, I think I can
-find out. Thank you for telling me."
-
-"Ye'll no need telling, once ye clap your eyes on him," prophesied
-Mrs. Duncan. "His face is all a glist'ny yellow, and he's peaked as a
-starving caged bird."
-
-McLean rode to the Limberlost, and stopping in the shade, sat waiting
-for Freckles, whose hour for passing the foot of the lease had come.
-
-Along the north line came Freckles, fairly staggering. When he turned
-east and reached Sleepy Snake Creek, sliding through the swale as the
-long black snake for which it was named, he sat on the bridge and closed
-his burning eyes, but they would not remain shut. As if pulled by wires,
-the heavy lids flew open, while the outraged nerves and muscles of his
-body danced, twitched, and tingled.
-
-He bent forward and idly watched the limpid little stream flowing
-beneath his feet. Stretching into the swale, it came creeping between
-an impenetrable wall of magnificent wild flowers, vines, and ferns.
-Milkweed, goldenrod, ironwort, fringed gentians, cardinal-flowers, and
-turtle-head stood on the very edge of the creek, and every flower of
-them had a double in the water. Wild clematis crowned with snow the
-heads of trees scattered here and there on the bank.
-
-From afar the creek appeared to be murky, dirty water. Really it was
-clear and sparkling. The tinge of blackness was gained from its bed of
-muck showing through the transparent current. He could see small and
-wonderfully marked fish. What became of them when the creek spread into
-the swamp? For one thing, they would make mighty fine eating for the
-family of that self-satisfied old blue heron.
-
-Freckles sat so quietly that soon the brim of his hat was covered with
-snake-feeders, rasping their crisp wings and singing while they rested.
-Some of them settled on the club, and one on his shoulder. He was so
-motionless; feathers, fur, and gauze were so accustomed to him, that
-all through the swale they continued their daily life and forgot he was
-there.
-
-The heron family were wading the mouth of the creek. Freckles idly
-wondered whether the nerve-racking rasps they occasionally emitted
-indicated domestic felicity or a raging quarrel. He could not decide. A
-sheitpoke, with flaring crest, went stalking across a bare space
-close to the creek's mouth. A stately brown bittern waded into the
-clear-flowing water, lifting his feet high at every step, and setting
-them down carefully, as if he dreaded wetting them, and with slightly
-parted beak, stood eagerly watching around him for worms. Behind him
-were some mighty trees of the swamp above, and below the bank glowed a
-solid wall of goldenrod.
-
-No wonder the ancients had chosen yellow as the color to represent
-victory, for the fierce, conquering hue of the sun was in it. They had
-done well, too, in selecting purple as the emblem of royalty. It was a
-dignified, compelling color, while in its warm tone there was a hint of
-blood.
-
-It was the Limberlost's hour to proclaim her sovereignty and triumph.
-Everywhere she flaunted her yellow banner and trailed the purple of her
-mantle, that was paler in the thistle-heads, took on strength in the
-first opening asters, and glowed and burned in the ironwort.
-
-He gazed into her damp, mossy recesses where high-piled riven trees
-decayed under coats of living green, where dainty vines swayed and
-clambered, and here and there a yellow leaf, fluttering down, presaged
-the coming of winter. His love of the swamp laid hold of him and shook
-him with its force.
-
-Compellingly beautiful was the Limberlost, but cruel withal; for inside
-bleached the uncoffined bones of her victims, while she had missed
-cradling him, oh! so narrowly.
-
-He shifted restlessly; the movement sent the snake-feeders skimming. The
-hum of life swelled and roared in his strained ears. Small turtles, that
-had climbed on a log to sun, splashed clumsily into the water. Somewhere
-in the timber of the bridge a bloodthirsty little frog cried sharply.
-"KEEL'IM! KEEL'IM!"
-
-Freckles muttered: "It's worse than that Black Jack swore to do to me,
-little fellow."
-
-A muskrat waddled down the bank and swam for the swamp, its pointed nose
-riffling the water into a shining trail in its wake.
-
-Then, below the turtle-log, a dripping silver-gray head, with shining
-eyes, was cautiously lifted, and Freckles' hand slid to his revolver.
-Higher and higher came the head, a long, heavy, furcoated body arose,
-now half, now three-fourths from the water. Freckles looked at his
-shaking hand and doubted, but he gathered his forces, the shot rang, and
-the otter lay quiet. He hurried down and tried to lift it. He scarcely
-could muster strength to carry it to the bridge. The consciousness that
-he really could go no farther with it made Freckles realize the fact
-that he was close the limit of human endurance. He could bear it little,
-if any, longer. Every hour the dear face of the Angel wavered before
-him, and behind it the awful distorted image of Black Jack, as he had
-sworn to the punishment he would mete out to her. He must either see
-McLean, or else make a trip to town and find her father. Which should
-he do? He was almost a stranger, so the Angel's father might not be
-impressed with what he said as he would if McLean went to him. Then he
-remembered that McLean had said he would come that morning. Freckles
-never had forgotten before. He hurried on the east trail as fast as his
-tottering legs would carry him.
-
-He stopped when he came to the first guard, and telling him of his luck,
-asked him to get the otter and carry it to the cabin, as he was anxious
-to meet McLean.
-
-Freckles passed the second guard without seeing him, and hurried to the
-Boss. He took off his hat, wiped his forehead, and stood silent under
-the eyes of McLean.
-
-The Boss was dumbfounded. Mrs. Duncan had led him to expect that he
-would find a change in Freckles, but this was almost deathly. The fact
-was apparent that the boy scarcely knew what he was doing. His eyes had
-a glazed, far-sighted appearance, that wrung the heart of the man who
-loved him. Without a thought of preliminaries, McLean leaned in the
-saddle and drew Freckles to him.
-
-"My poor lad!" he said. "My poor, dear lad! tell me, and we will try to
-right it!"
-
-Freckles had twisted his fingers in Nellie's mane. At the kind words his
-face dropped on McLean's thigh and he shook with a nervous chill. McLean
-gathered him closer and waited.
-
-When the guard came with the otter, McLean without a word motioned him
-to lay it down and leave them.
-
-"Freckles," said McLean at last, "will you tell me, or must I set to
-work in the dark and try to find the trouble?"
-
-"Oh, I want to tell you! I must tell you, sir," shuddered Freckles.
-"I cannot be bearing it the day out alone. I was coming to you when I
-remimbered you would be here."
-
-He lifted his face and gazed across the swale, with his jaws set firmly
-a minute, as if gathering his forces. Then he spoke.
-
-"It's the Angel, sir," he said.
-
-Instinctively McLean's grip on him tightened, and Freckles looked into
-the Boss's face in wonder.
-
-"I tried, the other day," said Freckles, "and I couldn't seem to make
-you see. It's only that there hasn't been an hour, waking or sleeping,
-since the day she parted the bushes and looked into me room, that the
-face of her hasn't been before me in all the tinderness, beauty, and
-mischief of it. She talked to me friendly like. She trusted me entirely
-to take right care of her. She helped me with things about me books. She
-traited me like I was born a gintleman, and shared with me as if I were
-of her own blood. She walked the streets of the town with me before her
-friends with all the pride of a queen. She forgot herself and didn't
-mind the Bird Woman, and run big risks to help me out that first day,
-sir. This last time she walked into that gang of murderers, took their
-leader, and twisted him to the will of her. She outdone him and raced
-the life almost out of her trying to save me.
-
-"Since I can remimber, whatever the thing was that happened to me in the
-beginning has been me curse. I've been bitter, hard, and smarting under
-it hopelessly. She came by, and found me voice, and put hope of life and
-success like other men into me in spite of it."
-
-Freckles held up his maimed arm.
-
-"Look at it, sir!" he said. "A thousand times I've cursed it, hanging
-there helpless. She took it on the street, before all the people, just
-as if she didn't see that it was a thing to hide and shrink from. Again
-and again I've had the feeling with her, if I didn't entirely forget it,
-that she didn't see it was gone and I must he pointing it out to her.
-Her touch on it was so sacred-like, at times since I've caught meself
-looking at the awful thing near like I was proud of it, sir. If I had
-been born your son she couldn't be traiting me more as her equal, and
-she can't help knowing you ain't truly me father. Nobody can know the
-homeliness or the ignorance of me better than I do, and all me lack of
-birth, relatives, and money, and what's it all to her?"
-
-Freckles stepped back, squared his shoulders, and with a royal lift of
-his head looked straight into the Boss's eyes.
-
-"You saw her in the beautiful little room of her, and you can't be
-forgetting how she begged and plead with you for me. She touched me
-body, and 'twas sanctified. She laid her lips on my brow, and 'twas
-sacrament. Nobody knows the height of her better than me. Nobody's
-studied my depths closer. There's no bridge for the great distance
-between us, sir, and clearest of all, I'm for realizing it: but she
-risked terrible things when she came to me among that gang of thieves.
-She wore herself past bearing to save me from such an easy thing as
-death! Now, here's me, a man, a big, strong man, and letting her live
-under that fearful oath, so worse than any death 'twould be for her, and
-lifting not a finger to save her. I cannot hear it, sir. It's killing me
-by inches! Black Jack's hand may not have been hurt so bad. Any hour he
-may be creeping up behind her! Any minute the awful revenge he swore
-to be taking may in some way fall on her, and I haven't even warned her
-father. I can't stay here doing nothing another hour. The five nights
-gone I've watched under her windows, but there's the whole of the day.
-She's her own horse and little cart, and's free to be driving through
-the town and country as she pleases. If any evil comes to her through
-Black Jack, it comes from her angel-like goodness to me. Somewhere he's
-hiding! Somewhere he is waiting his chance! Somewhere he is reaching out
-for her! I tell you I cannot, I dare not be bearing it longer!"
-
-"Freckles, be quiet!" said McLean, his eyes humid and his voice
-quivering with the pity of it all. "Believe me, I did not understand.
-I know the Angel's father well. I will go to him at once. I have
-transacted business with him for the past three years. I will make him
-see! I am only beginning to realize your agony, and the real danger
-there is for the Angel. Believe me, I will see that she is fully
-protected every hour of the day and night until Jack is located and
-disposed of. And I promise you further, that if I fail to move her
-father or make him understand the danger, I will maintain a guard over
-her until Jack is caught. Now will you go bathe, drink some milk, go to
-bed, and sleep for hours, and then be my brave, bright old boy again?"
-
-"Yis," said Freckles simply.
-
-But McLean could see the flesh was twitching on the lad's bones.
-
-"What was it the guard brought there?" McLean asked in an effort to
-distract Freckles' thoughts.
-
-"Oh!" Freckles said, glancing where the Boss pointed, "I forgot it! 'Tis
-an otter, and fine past believing, for this warm weather. I shot it at
-the creek this morning. 'Twas a good shot, considering. I expected to
-miss."
-
-Freckles picked up the animal and started toward McLean with it, but
-Nellie pricked up her dainty little ears, danced into the swale, and
-snorted with fright. Freckles dropped the otter and ran to her head.
-
-"For pity's sake, get her on the trail, sir," he begged. "She's just
-about where the old king rattler crosses to go into the swamp--the old
-buster Duncan and I have been telling you of. I haven't a doubt but it
-was the one Mother Duncan met. 'Twas down the trail there, just a little
-farther on, that I found her, and it's sure to be close yet."
-
-McLean slid from Nellie's back, led her into the trail farther down the
-line, and tied her to a bush. Then he went to examine the otter. It was
-a rare, big specimen, with exquisitely fine, long, silky hair.
-
-"What do you want to do with it, Freckles?" asked McLean, as he stroked
-the soft fur lingeringly. "Do you know that it is very valuable?"
-
-"I was for almost praying so, sir," said Freckles. "As I saw it coming
-up the bank I thought this: Once somewhere in a book there was a picture
-of a young girl, and she was just a breath like the beautifulness of the
-Angel. Her hands were in a muff as big as her body, and I thought it
-was so pretty. I think she was some queen, or the like. Do you suppose
-I could have this skin tanned and made into such a muff as that?--an
-enormous big one, sir?"
-
-"Of course you can," said McLean. "That's a fine idea and it's easy
-enough. We must box and express the otter, cold storage, by the first
-train. You stand guard a minute and I'll tell Hall to carry it to the
-cabin. I'll put Nellie to Duncan's rig, and we'll drive to town and call
-on the Angel's father. Then we'll start the otter while it is fresh, and
-I'll write your instructions later. It would be a mighty fine thing for
-you to give to the Angel as a little reminder of the Limberlost before
-it is despoiled, and as a souvenir of her trip for you."
-
-Freckles lifted a face with a glow of happy color creeping into it and
-eyes lighting with a former brightness. Throwing his arms around McLean,
-he cried: "Oh, how I love you! Oh, I wish I could make you know how I
-love you!"
-
-McLean strained him to his breast.
-
-"God bless you, Freckles," he said. "I do know! We're going to have some
-good old times out of this world together, and we can't begin too soon.
-Would you rather sleep first, or have a bite of lunch, take the drive
-with me, and then rest? I don't know but sleep will come sooner and
-deeper to take the ride and have your mind set at ease before you lie
-down. Suppose you go."
-
-"Suppose I do," said Freckles, with a glimmer of the old light in his
-eyes and newly found strength to shoulder the otter. Together they
-turned into the trail.
-
-McLean noticed and spoke of the big black chickens.
-
-"They've been hanging round out there for several days past," said
-Freckles. "I'll tell you what I think it means. I think the old rattler
-has killed something too big for him to swallow, and he's keeping guard
-and won't let me chickens have it. I'm just sure, from the way the birds
-have acted out there all summer, that it is the rattler's den. You watch
-them now. See the way they dip and then rise, frightened like!"
-
-Suddenly McLean turned toward him with blanching face
-
-"Freckles!" he cried.
-
-"My God, sir!" shuddered Freckles.
-
-He dropped the otter, caught up his club, and plunged into the swale.
-Reaching for his revolver, McLean followed. The chickens circled higher
-at their coming, and the big snake lifted his head and rattled angrily.
-It sank in sinuous coils at the report of McLean's revolver, and
-together he and Freckles stood beside Black Jack. His fate was evident
-and most horrible.
-
-"Come," said the Boss at last. "We don't dare touch him. We will get
-a sheet from Mrs. Duncan and tuck over him, to keep these swarms of
-insects away, and set Hall on guard, while we find the officers."
-
-Freckles' lips closed resolutely. He deliberately thrust his club under
-Black Jack's body, and, raising him, rested it on his knee. He pulled
-a long silver pin from the front of the dead man's shirt and sent it
-spinning into the swale. Then he gathered up a few crumpled bright
-flowers and dropped them into the pool far away.
-
-"My soul is sick with the horror of this thing," said McLean, as he
-and Freckles drove toward town. "I can't understand how Jack dared risk
-creeping through the swale, even in desperation. No one knew its dangers
-better than he. And why did he choose the rankest, muckiest place to
-cross the swamp?"
-
-"Don't you think, sir, it was because it was on a line with the
-Limberlost south of the corduroy? The grass was tallest there, and he
-counted on those willows to screen him. Once he got among them, he would
-have been safe to walk by stooping. If he'd made it past that place,
-he'd been sure to get out."
-
-"Well, I'm as sorry for Jack as I know how to be," said McLean, "but
-I can't help feeling relieved that our troubles are over, for now they
-are. With so dreadful a punishment for Jack, Wessner under arrest, and
-warrants for the others, we can count on their going away and remaining.
-As for anyone else, I don't think they will care to attempt stealing
-my timber after the experience of these men. There is no other man here
-with Jack's fine ability in woodcraft. He was an expert."
-
-"Did you ever hear of anyone who ever tried to locate any trees
-excepting him?" asked Freckles.
-
-"No, I never did," said McLean. "I am sure there was no one besides
-him. You see, it was only with the arrival of our company that the other
-fellows scented good stuff in the Limberlost, and tried to work in. Jack
-knew the swamp better than anyone here. When he found there were two
-companies trying to lease, he wanted to stand in with the one from which
-he could realize the most. Even then he had trees marked that he was
-trying to dispose of. I think his sole intention in forcing me to
-discharge him from my gang was to come here and try to steal timber. We
-had no idea, when we took the lease, what a gold mine it was."
-
-"That's exactly what Wessner said that first day," said Freckles
-eagerly. "That 'twas a 'gold mine'! He said he didn't know where the
-marked trees were, but he knew a man who did, and if I would hold off
-and let them get the marked ones, there were a dozen they could get out
-in a few days."
-
-"Freckles!" cried McLean. "You don't mean a dozen!"
-
-"That's what he said, sir--a dozen. He said they couldn't tell how the
-grain of all of them would work up, of course, but they were all worth
-taking out, and five or six were real gold mines. This makes three
-they've tried, so there must be nine more marked, and several of them
-for being just fine."
-
-"Well, I wish I knew which they are," said McLean, "so I could get them
-out first."
-
-"I have been thinking," said Freckles. "I believe if you will leave one
-of the guards on the line--say Hall--that I will begin on the swamp,
-at the north end, and lay it off in sections, and try to hunt out the
-marked trees. I suppose they are all marked something like that first
-maple on the line was. Wessner mentioned another good one not so far
-from that. He said it was best of all. I'd be having the swelled head if
-I could find that. Of course, I don't know a thing about the trees, but
-I could hunt for the marks. Jack was so good at it he could tell some of
-them by the bark, but all he wanted to take that we've found so far have
-just had a deep chip cut out, rather low down, and where the bushes were
-thick over it. I believe I could be finding some of them."
-
-"Good head!" said McLean. "We will do that. You may begin as soon as you
-are rested. And about things you come across in the swamp, Freckles--the
-most trifling little thing that you think the Bird Woman would want,
-take your wheel and go after her at any time. I'll leave two men on the
-line, so that you will have one on either side, and you can come and go
-as you please. Have you stopped to think of all we owe her, my boy?"
-
-"Yis; and the Angel--we owe her a lot, too," said Freckles. "I owe her
-me life and honor. It's lying awake nights I'll have to be trying to
-think how I'm ever to pay her up."
-
-"Well, begin with the muff," suggested McLean. "That should be fine."
-
-He bent down and ruffled the rich fur of the otter lying at his feet.
-
-"I don't exactly see how it comes to be in such splendid fur in summer.
-Their coats are always thick in cold weather, but this scarcely could
-be improved. I'll wire Cooper to be watching for it. They must have it
-fresh. When it's tanned we won't spare any expense in making it up. It
-should be a royal thing, and some way I think it will exactly suit the
-Angel. I can't think of anything that would be more appropriate for
-her."
-
-"Neither can I," agreed Freckles heartily. "When I reach the city
-there's one other thing, if I've the money after the muff is finished."
-
-He told McLean of Mrs. Duncan's desire for a hat similar to the Angel's.
-He hesitated a little in the telling, keeping sharp watch on McLean's
-face. When he saw the Boss's eyes were full of comprehension and
-sympathy, he loved him anew, for, as ever, McLean was quick to
-understand. Instead of laughing, he said: "I think you'll have to let
-me in on that, too. You mustn't be selfish, you know. I'll tell you what
-we'll do. Send it for Christmas. I'll be home then, and we can fill a
-box. You get the hat. I'll add a dress and wrap. You buy Duncan a hat
-and gloves. I'll send him a big overcoat, and we'll put in a lot of
-little stuff for the babies. Won't that be fun?"
-
-Freckles fairly shivered with delight.
-
-"That would be away too serious for fun," he said. "That would be
-heavenly. How long will it be?"
-
-He began counting the time, and McLean deliberately set himself to
-encourage Freckles and keep his thoughts from the trouble of the past
-few days, for he had been overwrought and needed quiet and rest.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XV
-
-Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little Chicken
-Furnishes the Subject
-
-A week later everything at the Limberlost was precisely as it had been
-before the tragedy, except the case in Freckles' room now rested on the
-stump of the newly felled tree. Enough of the vines were left to cover
-it prettily, and every vestige of the havoc of a few days before was
-gone. New guards were patrolling the trail. Freckles was roughly laying
-off the swamp in sections and searching for marked trees. In that time
-he had found one deeply chipped and the chip cunningly replaced and
-tacked in. It promised to be quite rare, so he was jubilant. He also
-found so many subjects for the Bird Woman that her coming was of almost
-daily occurrence, and the hours he spent with her and the Angel were
-nothing less than golden.
-
-The Limberlost was now arrayed as the Queen of Sheba in all her glory.
-The first frosts of autumn had bejewelled her crown in flashing topaz,
-ruby, and emerald. Around her feet trailed the purple of her garments,
-while in her hand was her golden scepter. Everything was at full tide.
-It seemed as if nothing could grow lovelier, and it was all standing
-still a few weeks, waiting coming destruction.
-
-The swamp was palpitant with life. Every pair of birds that had flocked
-to it in the spring was now multiplied by from two to ten. The young
-were tame from Freckles' tri-parenthood, and so plump and sleek that
-they were quite as beautiful as their elders, even if in many cases
-they lacked their brilliant plumage. It was the same story of increase
-everywhere. There were chubby little ground-hogs scudding on the trail.
-There were cunning baby coons and opossums peeping from hollow logs and
-trees. Young muskrats followed their parents across the lagoons.
-
-If you could come upon a family of foxes that had not yet disbanded, and
-see the young playing with a wild duck's carcass that their mother had
-brought, and note the pride and satisfaction in her eyes as she lay
-at one side guarding them, it would be a picture not to be forgotten.
-Freckles never tired of studying the devotion of a fox mother to her
-babies. To him, whose early life had been so embittered by continual
-proof of neglect and cruelty in human parents toward their children, the
-love of these furred and feathered folk of the Limberlost was even more
-of a miracle than to the Bird Woman and the Angel.
-
-The Angel liked the baby rabbits and squirrels. Earlier in the season,
-when the young were yet very small, it so happened that at times
-Freckles could give into her hands one of these little ones. Then it was
-pure joy to stand back and watch her heaving breast, flushed cheek, and
-shining eyes. Hers were such lovely eyes. Freckles had discovered lately
-that they were not so dark as he had thought them at first, but that
-the length and thickness of lash, by which they were shaded, made them
-appear darker than they really were. They were forever changing. Now
-sparkling and darkling with wit, now humid with sympathy, now burning
-with the fire of courage, now taking on strength of color with ambition,
-now flashing indignantly at the abuse of any creature.
-
-She had carried several of the squirrel and bunny babies home, and had
-littered the conservatory with them. Her care of them was perfect. She
-was learning her natural history from nature, and having much healthful
-exercise. To her, they were the most interesting of all, but the
-Bird Woman preferred the birds, with a close second in the moths and
-butterflies.
-
-Brown butterfly time had come. The edge of the swale was filled with
-milkweed, and other plants beloved of them, and the air was golden with
-the flashing satin wings of the monarch, viceroy, and argynnis. They
-outnumbered those of any other color three to one.
-
-Among the birds it really seemed as if the little yellow fellows were
-in the preponderance. At least, they were until the redwinged blackbirds
-and bobolinks, that had nested on the upland, suddenly saw in the
-swamp the garden of the Lord and came swarming by hundreds to feast and
-adventure upon it these last few weeks before migration. Never was there
-a finer feast spread for the birds. The grasses were filled with seeds:
-so, too, were weeds of every variety. Fall berries were ripe. Wild
-grapes and black haws were ready. Bugs were creeping everywhere. The
-muck was yeasty with worms. Insects filled the air. Nature made glorious
-pause for holiday before her next change, and by none of the frequenters
-of the swamp was this more appreciated than by the big black chickens.
-
-They seemed to feel the new reign of peace and fullness most of all. As
-for food, they did not even have to hunt for themselves these days,
-for the feasts now being spread before Little Chicken were more than he
-could use, and he was glad to have his parents come down and help him.
-
-He was a fine, big, overgrown fellow, and his wings, with quills of
-jetty black, gleaming with bronze, were so strong they almost lifted his
-body. He had three inches of tail, and his beak and claws were sharp.
-His muscles began to clamor for exercise. He raced the forty feet of his
-home back and forth many times every hour of the day. After a few days
-of that, he began lifting and spreading his wings, and flopping them
-until the down on his back was filled with elm fiber. Then he commenced
-jumping. The funny little hops, springs, and sidewise bounds he gave
-set Freckles and the Angel, hidden in the swamp, watching him, into
-smothered chuckles of delight.
-
-Sometimes he fell to coquetting with himself; and that was the funniest
-thing of all, for he turned his head up, down, from side to side, and
-drew in his chin with prinky little jerks and tilts. He would stretch
-his neck, throw up his head, turn it to one side and smirk--actually
-smirk, the most complacent and self-satisfied smirk that anyone ever
-saw on the face of a bird. It was so comical that Freckles and the Angel
-told the Bird Woman of it one day.
-
-When she finished her work on Little Chicken, she left them the camera
-ready for use, telling them they might hide in the bushes and watch. If
-Little Chicken came out and truly smirked, and they could squeeze the
-bulb at the proper moment to snap him, she would be more than delighted.
-
-Freckles and the Angel quietly curled beside a big log, and with eager
-eyes and softest breathing they patiently waited; but Little Chicken had
-feasted before they told of his latest accomplishment. He was tired
-and sleepy, so he went into the log to bed, and for an hour he never
-stirred.
-
-They were becoming anxious, for the light soon would be gone, and they
-had so wanted to try for the picture. At last Little Chicken lifted his
-head, opened his beak, and gaped widely. He dozed a minute or two more.
-The Angel said that was his beauty sleep. Then he lazily gaped again
-and stood up, stretching and yawning. He ambled leisurely toward the
-gateway, and the Angel said: "Now, we may have a chance, at last."
-
-"I do hope so," shivered Freckles.
-
-With one accord they arose to their knees and trained their eyes on
-the mouth of the log. The light was full and strong. Little Chicken
-prospected again with no results. He dressed his plumage, polished his
-beak, and when he felt fine and in full toilet he began to flirt with
-himself. Freckles' eyes snapped and his breath sucked between his
-clenched teeth.
-
-"He's going to do it!" whispered the Angel. "That will come next. You'll
-best give me that bulb!"
-
-"Yis," assented Freckles, but he was looking at the log and he made no
-move to relinquish the bulb.
-
-Little Chicken nodded daintily and ruffled his feathers. He gave his
-head sundry little sidewise jerks and rapidly shifted his point of
-vision. Once there was the fleeting little ghost of a smirk.
-
-"Now!--No!" snapped the Angel.
-
-Freckles leaned toward the bird. Tensely he waited. Unconsciously the
-hand of the Angel clasped his. He scarcely knew it was there. Suddenly
-Little Chicken sprang straight in the air and landed with a thud. The
-Angel started slightly, but Freckles was immovable. Then, as if in
-approval of his last performance, the big, overgrown baby wheeled until
-he was more than three-quarters, almost full side, toward the camera,
-straightened on his legs, squared his shoulders, stretched his neck full
-height, drew in his chin and smirked his most pronounced smirk, directly
-in the face of the lens.
-
-Freckles' fingers closed on the bulb convulsively, and the Angel's
-closed on his at the instant. Then she heaved a great sigh of relief and
-lifted her hands to push back the damp, clustering hair from her face.
-
-"How soon do you s'pose it will be finished?" came Freckles' strident
-whisper.
-
-For the first time the Angel looked at him. He was on his knees, leaning
-forward, his eyes directed toward the bird, the perspiration running in
-little streams down his red, mosquito-bitten face. His hat was awry, his
-bright hair rampant, his breast heaving with excitement, while he yet
-gripped the bulb with every ounce of strength in his body.
-
-"Do you think we were for getting it?" he asked.
-
-The Angel could only nod. Freckles heaved a deep sigh of relief.
-
-"Well, if that ain't the hardest work I ever did in me life!" he
-exclaimed. "It's no wonder the Bird Woman's for coming out of the swamp
-looking as if she's been through a fire, a flood, and a famine, if
-that's what she goes through day after day. But if you think we got it,
-why, it's worth all it took, and I'm glad as ever you are, sure!"
-
-They put the holders in the case, carefully closed the camera, set it in
-also, and carried it to the road.
-
-Then Freckles exulted.
-
-"Now, let's be telling the Bird Woman about it!" he shouted, wildly
-dancing and swinging his hat.
-
-"We got it! We got it! I bet a farm we got it!"
-
-Hand in hand they ran to the north end of the swamp, yelling "We got
-it!" like young Comanches, and never gave a thought to what they might
-do until a big blue-gray bird, with long neck and trailing legs, arose
-on flapping wings and sailed over the Limberlost.
-
-The Angel became white to the lips and gripped Freckles with both hands.
-He gulped with mortification and turned his back.
-
-To frighten her subject away carelessly! It was the head crime in the
-Bird Woman's category. She extended her hands as she arose, baked,
-blistered, and dripping, and exclaimed: "Bless you, my children! Bless
-you!" And it truly sounded as if she meant it.
-
-"Why, why----" stammered the bewildered Angel.
-
-Freckles hurried into the breach.
-
-"You must be for blaming it every bit on me. I was thinking we got
-Little Chicken's picture real good. I was so drunk with the joy of it I
-lost all me senses and, 'Let's run tell the Bird Woman,' says I. Like a
-fool I was for running, and I sort of dragged the Angel along."
-
-"Oh Freckles!" expostulated the Angel. "Are you loony? Of course, it
-was all my fault! I've been with her hundreds of times. I knew perfectly
-well that I wasn't to let anything--NOT ANYTHING--scare her bird away!
-I was so crazy I forgot. The blame is all mine, and she'll never forgive
-me."
-
-"She will, too!" cried Freckles. "Wasn't you for telling me that very
-first day that when people scared her birds away she just killed them!
-It's all me foolishness, and I'll never forgive meself!"
-
-The Bird Woman plunged into the swale at the mouth of Sleepy Snake
-Creek, and came wading toward them, with a couple of cameras and
-dripping tripods.
-
-"If you will permit me a word, my infants," she said, "I will explain to
-you that I have had three shots at that fellow."
-
-The Angel heaved a deep sigh of relief, and Freckles' face cleared a
-little.
-
-"Two of them," continued the Bird Woman, "in the rushes--one facing,
-crest lowered; one light on back, crest flared; and the last on wing,
-when you came up. I simply had been praying for something to make him
-arise from that side, so that he would fly toward the camera, for he had
-waded around until in my position I couldn't do it myself. See? Behold
-in yourselves the answer to the prayers of the long-suffering!"
-
-Freckles took a step toward her.
-
-"Are you really meaning that?" he asked wonderingly. "Only think,
-Angel, we did the right thing! She won't lose her picture through the
-carelessness of us, when she's waited and soaked nearly two hours. She's
-not angry with us!"
-
-"Never was in a sweeter temper in my life," said the Bird Woman, busily
-cleaning and packing the cameras.
-
-Freckles removed his hat and solemnly held out his hand. With equal
-solemnity the Angel grasped it. The Bird Woman laughed alone, for to
-them the situation had been too serious to develop any of the elements
-of fun.
-
-Then they loaded the carriage, and the Bird Woman and the Angel started
-for their homes. It had been a difficult time for all of them, so they
-were very tired, but they were joyful. Freckles was so happy it seemed
-to him that life could hold little more. As the Bird Woman was ready to
-drive away he laid his hand on the lines and looked into her face.
-
-"Do you suppose we got it?" he asked, so eagerly that she would have
-given much to be able to say yes with conviction.
-
-"Why, my dear, I don't know," she said. "I've no way to judge. If you
-made the exposure just before you came to me, there was yet a fine
-light. If you waited until Little Chicken was close the entrance, you
-should have something good, even if you didn't catch just the fleeting
-expression for which you hoped. Of course, I can't say surely, but I
-think there is every reason to believe that you have it all right. I
-will develop the plate tonight, make you a proof from it early in the
-morning, and bring it when we come. It's only a question of a day or
-two now until the gang arrives. I want to work in all the studies I can
-before that time, for they are bound to disturb the birds. Mr. McLean
-will need you then, and I scarcely see how we are to do without you."
-
-Moved by an impulse she never afterward regretted, she bent and laid her
-lips on Freckles' forehead, kissing him gently and thanking him for his
-many kindnesses to her in her loved work. Freckles started away so happy
-that he felt inclined to keep watching behind to see if the trail were
-not curling up and rolling down the line after him.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVI
-
-Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-
-From afar Freckles saw them coming. The Angel was standing, waving her
-hat. He sprang on his wheel and raced, jolting and pounding, down the
-corduroy to meet them. The Bird Woman stopped the horse and the Angel
-gave him the bit of print paper. Freckles leaned the wheel against a
-tree and took the proof with eager fingers. He never before had seen
-a study from any of his chickens. He stood staring. When he turned his
-face toward them it was transfigured with delight.
-
-"You see!" he exclaimed, and began gazing again. "Oh, me Little
-Chicken!" he cried. "Oh me ilegant Little Chicken! I'd be giving all me
-money in the bank for you!"
-
-Then he thought of the Angel's muff and Mrs. Duncan's hat, and added,
-"or at least, all but what I'm needing bad for something else. Would you
-mind stopping at the cabin a minute and showing this to Mother Duncan?"
-he asked.
-
-"Give me that little book in your pocket," said the Bird Woman.
-
-She folded the outer edges of the proof so that it would fit into the
-book, explaining as she did so its perishable nature in that state.
-Freckles went hurrying ahead, and they arrived in time to see Mrs.
-Duncan gazing as if awestruck, and to hear her bewildered "Weel I be
-drawed on!"
-
-Freckles and the Angel helped the Bird Woman to establish herself for a
-long day at the mouth of Sleepy Snake Creek. Then she sent them away and
-waited what luck would bring to her.
-
-"Now, what shall we do?" inquired the Angel, who was a bundle of nerves
-and energy.
-
-"Would you like to go to me room awhile?" asked Freckles.
-
-"If you don't care to very much, I'd rather not," said the Angel. "I'll
-tell you. Let's go help Mrs. Duncan with dinner and play with the baby.
-I love a nice, clean baby."
-
-They started toward the cabin. Every few minutes they stopped to
-investigate something or to chatter over some natural history wonder.
-The Angel had quick eyes; she seemed to see everything, but Freckles'
-were even quicker; for life itself had depended on their sharpness ever
-since the beginning of his work at the swamp. They saw it at the same
-time.
-
-"Someone has been making a flagpole," said the Angel, running the toe of
-her shoe around the stump, evidently made that season. "Freckles, what
-would anyone cut a tree as small as that for?"
-
-"I don't know," said Freckles.
-
-"Well, but I want to know!" said the Angel. "No one came away here and
-cut it for fun. They've taken it away. Let's go back and see if we can
-see it anywhere around there."
-
-She turned, retraced her footsteps, and began eagerly searching.
-Freckles did the same.
-
-"There it is!" he exclaimed at last, "leaning against the trunk of that
-big maple."
-
-"Yes, and leaning there has killed a patch of dried bark," said the
-Angel. "See how dried it appears?"
-
-Freckles stared at her.
-
-"Angel!" he shouted, "I bet you it's a marked tree!"
-
-"Course it is!" cried the Angel. "No one would cut that sapling and
-carry it away there and lean it up for nothing. I'll tell you! This is
-one of Jack's marked trees. He's climbed up there above anyone's head,
-peeled the bark, and cut into the grain enough to be sure. Then he's
-laid the bark back and fastened it with that pole to mark it. You see,
-there're a lot of other big maples close around it. Can you climb to
-that place?"
-
-"Yes," said Freckles; "if I take off my wading-boots I can."
-
-"Then take them off," said the Angel, "and do hurry! Can't you see that
-I am almost crazy to know if this tree is a marked one?"
-
-When they pushed the sapling over, a piece of bark as big as the crown
-of Freckles' hat fell away.
-
-"I believe it looks kind of nubby," encouraged the Angel, backing away,
-with her face all screwed into a twist in an effort to intensify her
-vision.
-
-Freckles reached the opening, then slid rapidly to the ground. He was
-almost breathless while his eyes were flashing.
-
-"The bark's been cut clean with a knife, the sap scraped away, and a big
-chip taken out deep. The trunk is the twistiest thing you ever saw. It's
-full of eyes as a bird is of feathers!"
-
-The Angel was dancing and shaking his hand.
-
-"Oh, Freckles," she cried, "I'm so delighted that you found it!"
-
-"But I didn't," said the astonished Freckles. "That tree isn't my find;
-it's yours. I forgot it and was going on; you wouldn't give up, and kept
-talking about it, and turned back. You found it!"
-
-"You'd best be looking after your reputation for truth and veracity,"
-said the Angel. "You know you saw that sapling first!"
-
-"Yes, after you took me back and set me looking for it," scoffed
-Freckles.
-
-The clear, ringing echo of strongly swung axes came crashing through the
-Limberlost.
-
-"'Tis the gang!" shouted Freckles. "They're clearing a place to make the
-camp. Let's go help!"
-
-"Hadn't we better mark that tree again?" cautioned the Angel. "It's away
-in here. There's such a lot of them, and all so much alike. We'd feel
-good and green to find it and then lose it."
-
-Freckles lifted the sapling to replace it, but the Angel motioned him
-away.
-
-"Use your hatchet," she said. "I predict this is the most valuable tree
-in the swamp. You found it. I'm going to play that you're my knight.
-Now, you nail my colors on it."
-
-She reached up, and pulling a blue bow from her hair, untied and doubled
-it against the tree. Freckles turned his eyes from her and managed the
-fastening with shaking fingers. The Angel had called him her knight!
-Dear Lord, how he loved her! She must not see his face, or surely her
-quick eyes would read what he was fighting to hide. He did not dare lay
-his lips on that ribbon then, but that night he would return to it. When
-they had gone a little distance, they both looked back, and the morning
-breeze set the bit of blue waving them a farewell.
-
-They walked at a rapid pace.
-
-"I am sorry about scaring the birds," said the Angel, "but it's almost
-time for them to go anyway. I feel dreadfully over having the swamp
-ruined, but isn't it a delight to hear the good, honest ring of those
-axes, instead of straining your ears for stealthy sounds? Isn't it
-fine to go openly and freely, with nothing worse than a snake or a
-poison-vine to fear?"
-
-"Ah!" said Freckles, with a long breath, "it's better than you can
-dream, Angel. Nobody will ever be guessing some of the things I've been
-through trying to keep me promise to the Boss, and to hold out until
-this day. That it's come with only one fresh stump, and the log from
-that saved, and this new tree to report, isn't it grand? Maybe Mr.
-McLean will be forgetting that stump when he sees this tree, Angel!"
-
-"He can't forget it," said the Angel; and in answer to Freckles'
-startled eyes she added, "because he never had any reason to remember
-it. He couldn't have done a whit better himself. My father says so.
-You're all right, Freckles!"
-
-She reached him her hand, and as two children, they broke into a run
-when they came closer the gang. They left the swamp by the west road
-and followed the trail until they found the men. To the Angel it seemed
-complete charm. In the shadiest spot on the west side of the line, at
-the edge of the swamp and very close Freckles' room, they were
-cutting bushes and clearing space for a big tent for the men's
-sleeping-quarters, another for a dining-hall, and a board shack for the
-cook. The teamsters were unloading, the horses were cropping leaves from
-the bushes, while each man was doing his part toward the construction of
-the new Limberlost quarters.
-
-Freckles helped the Angel climb on a wagonload of canvas in the shade.
-She removed her leggings, wiped her heated face, and glowed with
-happiness and interest.
-
-The gang had been sifted carefully. McLean now felt that there was not a
-man in it who was not trustworthy.
-
-They all had heard of the Angel's plucky ride for Freckles' relief;
-several of them had been in the rescue party. Others, new since that
-time, had heard the tale rehearsed in its every aspect around the
-smudge-fires at night. Almost all of them knew the Angel by sight from
-her trips with the Bird Woman to their leases. They all knew her father,
-her position, and the luxuries of her home. Whatever course she had
-chosen with them they scarcely would have resented it, but the Angel
-never had been known to choose a course. Her spirit of friendliness was
-inborn and inbred. She loved everyone, so she sympathized with everyone.
-Her generosity was only limited by what was in her power to give.
-
-She came down the trail, hand in hand with the red-haired, freckled
-timber guard whom she had worn herself past the limit of endurance to
-save only a few weeks before, racing in her eagerness to reach them,
-and laughing her "Good morning, gentlemen," right and left. When she was
-ensconced on the wagonload of tenting, she sat on a roll of canvas as a
-queen on her throne. There was not a man of the gang who did not respect
-her. She was a living exponent of universal brotherhood. There was no
-man among them who needed her exquisite face or dainty clothing to teach
-him that the deference due a gentlewoman should be paid her. That the
-spirit of good fellowship she radiated levied an especial tribute of its
-own, and it became their delight to honor and please her.
-
-As they raced toward the wagon--"Let me tell about the tree, please?"
-she begged Freckles.
-
-"Why, sure!" said Freckles.
-
-He probably would have said the same to anything she suggested. When
-McLean came, he found the Angel flushed and glowing, sitting on the
-wagon, her hands already filled. One of the men, who was cutting a
-scrub-oak, had carried to her a handful of crimson leaves. Another had
-gathered a bunch of delicate marsh-grass heads for her. Someone else,
-in taking out a bush, had found a daintily built and lined little nest,
-fresh as when made.
-
-She held up her treasures and greeted McLean, "Good morning, Mr. Boss of
-the Limberlost!"
-
-The gang shouted, while he bowed profoundly before her.
-
-"Everyone listen!" cried the Angel, climbing a roll of canvas. "I have
-something to say! Freckles has been guarding here over a year now, and
-he presents the Limberlost to you, with every tree in it saved; for good
-measure he has this morning located the rarest one of them all: the one
-in from the east line, that Wessner spoke of the first day--nearest the
-one you took out. All together! Everyone! Hurrah for Freckles!"
-
-With flushing cheeks and gleaming eyes, gaily waving the grass above
-her head, she led in three cheers and a tiger. Freckles slipped into the
-swamp and hid himself, for fear he could not conceal his pride and his
-great surging, throbbing love for her.
-
-The Angel subsided on the canvas and explained to McLean about the
-maple. The Boss was mightily pleased. He took Freckles and set out to
-re-locate and examine the tree. The Angel was interested in the making
-of the camp, so she preferred to remain with the men. With her sharp
-eyes she was watching every detail of construction; but when it came to
-the stretching of the dining-hall canvas she proceeded to take command.
-The men were driving the rope-pins, when the Angel arose on the wagon
-and, leaning forward, spoke to Duncan, who was directing the work.
-
-"I believe if you will swing that around a few feet farther, you will
-find it better, Mr. Duncan," she said. "That way will let the hot sun in
-at noon, while the sides will cut off the best breeze."
-
-"That's a fact," said Duncan, studying the conditions.
-
-So, by shifting the pins a little, they obtained comfort for which they
-blessed the Angel every day. When they came to the sleeping-tent, they
-consulted her about that. She explained the general direction of the
-night breeze and indicated the best position for the tent. Before anyone
-knew how it happened, the Angel was standing on the wagon, directing
-the location and construction of the cooking-shack, the erection of the
-crane for the big boiling-pots, and the building of the store-room. She
-superintended the laying of the floor of the sleeping-tent lengthwise,
-So that it would be easier to sweep, and suggested a new arrangement of
-the cots that would afford all the men an equal share of night breeze.
-She left the wagon, and climbing on the newly erected dining-table,
-advised with the cook in placing his stove, table, and kitchen utensils.
-
-When Freckles returned from the tree to join in the work around the
-camp, he caught glimpses of her enthroned on a soapbox, cleaning beans.
-She called to him that they were invited for dinner, and that they had
-accepted the invitation.
-
-When the beans were steaming in the pot, the Angel advised the cook to
-soak them overnight the next time, so that they would cook more quickly
-and not burst. She was sure their cook at home did that way, and the
-CHEF of the gang thought it would be a good idea. The next Freckles saw
-of her she was paring potatoes. A little later she arranged the table.
-
-She swept it with a broom, instead of laying a cloth; took the hatchet
-and hammered the deepest dents from the tin plates, and nearly skinned
-her fingers scouring the tinware with rushes. She set the plates an even
-distance apart, and laid the forks and spoons beside them. When the cook
-threw away half a dozen fruit-cans, she gathered them up and melted off
-the tops, although she almost blistered her face and quite blistered her
-fingers doing it. Then she neatly covered these improvised vases with
-the Manila paper from the groceries, tying it with wisps of marshgrass.
-These she filled with fringed gentians, blazing-star, asters, goldenrod,
-and ferns, placing them the length of the dining-table. In one of the
-end cans she arranged her red leaves, and in the other the fancy grass.
-Two men, watching her, went away proud of themselves and said that she
-was "a born lady." She laughingly caught up a paper bag and fitted it
-jauntily to her head in imitation of a cook's cap. Then she ground the
-coffee, and beat a couple of eggs to put in, "because there is company,"
-she gravely explained to the cook. She asked that delighted individual
-if he did not like it best that way, and he said he did not know,
-because he never had a chance to taste it. The Angel said that was
-her case exactly--she never had, either; she was not allowed anything
-stronger than milk. Then they laughed together.
-
-She told the cook about camping with her father, and explained that
-he made his coffee that way. When the steam began to rise from the big
-boiler, she stuffed the spout tightly with clean marshgrass, to keep the
-aroma in, placed the boiler where it would only simmer, and explained
-why. The influence of the Angel's visit lingered with the cook through
-the remainder of his life, while the men prayed for her frequent return.
-
-She was having a happy time, when McLean came back jubilant, from his
-trip to the tree. How jubilant he told only the Angel, for he had been
-obliged to lose faith in some trusted men of late, and had learned
-discretion by what he suffered. He planned to begin clearing out a road
-to the tree that same afternoon, and to set two guards every night, for
-it promised to be a rare treasure, so he was eager to see it on the way
-to the mills.
-
-"I am coming to see it felled," cried the Angel. "I feel a sort of
-motherly interest in that tree."
-
-McLean was highly amused. He would have staked his life on the honesty
-of either the Angel or Freckles; yet their versions of the finding of
-the tree differed widely.
-
-"Tell me, Angel," the Boss said jestingly. "I think I have a right to
-know. Who really did locate that tree?"
-
-"Freckles," she answered promptly and emphatically.
-
-"But he says quite as positively that it was you. I don't understand."
-
-The Angel's legal look flashed into her face. Her eyes grew tense with
-earnestness. She glanced around, and seeing no towel or basin, held out
-her hand for Sears to pour water over them. Then, using the skirt of her
-dress to dry them, she climbed on the wagon.
-
-"I'll tell you, word for word, how it happened," she said, "and then you
-shall decide, and Freckles and I will agree with you."
-
-When she had finished her version, "Tell us, 'oh, most learned judge!'"
-she laughingly quoted, "which of us located that tree?"
-
-"Blest if I know who located it!" exclaimed McLean. "But I have a fairly
-accurate idea as to who put the blue ribbon on it."
-
-The Boss smiled significantly at Freckles, who just had come, for they
-had planned that they would instruct the company to reserve enough of
-the veneer from that very tree to make the most beautiful dressing table
-they could design for the Angel's share of the discovery.
-
-"What will you have for yours?" McLean had asked of Freckles.
-
-"If it's all the same to you, I'll be taking mine out in music
-lessons--begging your pardon--voice culture," said Freckles with a
-grimace.
-
-McLean laughed, for Freckles needed to see or hear only once to absorb
-learning as the thirsty earth sucks up water.
-
-The Angel placed McLean at the head of the table. She took the foot,
-with Freckles on her right, while the lumber gang, washed, brushed, and
-straightened until they felt unfamiliar with themselves and each other,
-filled the sides. That imposed a slight constraint. Then, too, the men
-were afraid of the flowers, the polished tableware, and above all, of
-the dainty grace of the Angel. Nowhere do men so display lack of good
-breeding and culture as in dining. To sprawl on the table, scoop
-with their knives, chew loudly, gulp coffee, and duck their heads as
-snapping-turtles for every bite, had not been noticed by them until the
-Angel, sitting straightly, suddenly made them remember that they,
-too, were possessed of spines. Instinctively every man at the table
-straightened.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVII
-
-Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body
-
-To reach the tree was a more difficult task than McLean had supposed.
-The gang could approach nearest on the outside toward the east, but
-after they reached the end of the east entrance there was yet a mile
-of most impenetrable thicket, trees big and little, and bushes of every
-variety and stage of growth. In many places the muck had to be filled to
-give the horses and wagons a solid foundation over which to haul heavy
-loads. It was several days before they completed a road to the noble,
-big tree and were ready to fell it.
-
-When the sawing began, Freckles was watching down the road where it met
-the trail leading from Little Chicken's tree. He had gone to the tree
-ahead of the gang to remove the blue ribbon. Carefully folded, it now
-lay over his heart. He was promising himself much comfort with that
-ribbon, when he would leave for the city next month to begin his studies
-and dream the summer over again. It would help to make things tangible.
-When he was dressed as other men, and at his work, he knew where he
-meant to home that precious bit of blue. It should be his good-luck
-token, and he would wear it always to keep bright in memory the day on
-which the Angel had called him her knight.
-
-How he would study, and oh, how he would sing! If only he could fulfill
-McLean's expectations, and make the Angel proud of him! If only he could
-be a real knight!
-
-He could not understand why the Angel had failed to come. She had wanted
-to see their tree felled. She would be too late if she did not arrive
-soon. He had told her it would be ready that morning, and she had said
-she surely would be there. Why, of all mornings, was she late on this?
-
-McLean had ridden to town. If he had been there, Freckles would have
-asked that they delay the felling, but he scarcely liked to ask the
-gang. He really had no authority, although he thought the men would
-wait; but some way he found such embarrassment in framing the request
-that he waited until the work was practically ended. The saw was out,
-and the men were cutting into the felling side of the tree when the Boss
-rode in.
-
-His first word was to inquire for the Angel. When Freckles said she
-had not yet come, the Boss at once gave orders to stop work on the tree
-until she arrived; for he felt that she virtually had located it, and
-if she desired to see it felled, she should. As the men stepped back,
-a stiff morning breeze caught the top, that towered high above its
-fellows. There was an ominous grinding at the base, a shiver of the
-mighty trunk, then directly in line of its fall the bushes swung apart
-and the laughing face of the Angel looked on them.
-
-A groan of horror burst from the dry throats of the men, and reading the
-agony in their faces, she stopped short, glanced up, and understood.
-
-"South!" shouted McLean. "Run south!"
-
-The Angel was helpless. It was apparent that she did not know which way
-south was. There was another slow shiver of the big tree. The remainder
-of the gang stood motionless, but Freckles sprang past the trunk and
-went leaping in big bounds. He caught up the Angel and dashed through
-the thicket for safety. The swaying trunk was half over when, for an
-instant, a near-by tree stayed its fall. They saw Freckles' foot catch,
-and with the Angel he plunged headlong.
-
-A terrible cry broke from the men, while McLean covered his face.
-Instantly Freckles was up, with the Angel in his arms, struggling on.
-The outer limbs were on them when they saw Freckles hurl the Angel,
-face down, in the muck, as far from him as he could send her. Springing
-after, in an attempt to cover her body with his own, he whirled to see
-if they were yet in danger, and with outstretched arms braced himself
-for the shock. The branches shut them from sight, and the awful crash
-rocked the earth.
-
-McLean and Duncan ran with axes and saws. The remainder of the gang
-followed, and they worked desperately. It seemed a long time before they
-caught a glimpse of the Angel's blue dress, but it renewed their vigor.
-Duncan fell on his knees beside her and tore the muck from underneath
-her with his hands. In a few seconds he dragged her out, choking and
-stunned, but surely not fatally hurt.
-
-Freckles lay a little farther under the tree, a big limb pinning him
-down. His eyes were wide open. He was perfectly conscious. Duncan began
-mining beneath him, but Freckles stopped him.
-
-"You can't be moving me," he said. "You must cut off the limb and lift
-it. I know."
-
-Two men ran for the big saw. A number of them laid hold of the limb and
-bore up. In a short time it was removed, and Freckles lay free.
-
-The men bent over to lift him, but he motioned them away.
-
-"Don't be touching me until I rest a bit," he pleaded.
-
-Then he twisted his head until he saw the Angel, who was wiping muck
-from her eyes and face on the skirt of her dress.
-
-"Try to get up," he begged.
-
-McLean laid hold of the Angel and helped her to her feet.
-
-"Do you think any bones are broken?" gasped Freckles.
-
-The Angel shook her head and wiped muck.
-
-"You see if you can find any, sir," Freckles commanded.
-
-The Angel yielded herself to McLean's touch, and he assured Freckles
-that she was not seriously injured.
-
-Freckles settled back, a smile of ineffable tenderness on his face.
-
-"Thank the Lord!" he hoarsely whispered.
-
-The Angel leaned toward him.
-
-"Now, Freckles, you!" she cried. "It's your turn. Please get up!"
-
-A pitiful spasm swept Freckles' face. The sight of it washed every
-vestige of color from the Angel's. She took hold of his hands.
-
-"Freckles, get up!" It was half command, half entreaty.
-
-"Easy, Angel, easy! Let me rest a bit first!" implored Freckles.
-
-She knelt beside him. He reached his arm around her and drew her
-closely. He looked at McLean in an agony of entreaty that brought the
-Boss to his knees on the other side.
-
-"Oh, Freckles!" McLean cried. "Not that! Surely we can do something! We
-must! Let me see!"
-
-He tried to unfasten Freckles' neckband, but his fingers shook so
-clumsily that the Angel pushed them away and herself laid Freckles'
-chest bare. With one hasty glance she gathered the clothing together
-and slipped her arm under his head. Freckles lifted his eyes of agony to
-hers.
-
-"You see?" he said.
-
-The Angel nodded dumbly.
-
-Freckles turned to McLean.
-
-"Thank you for everything," he panted. "Where are the boys?"
-
-"They are all here," said the Boss, "except a couple who have gone for
-doctors, Mrs. Duncan and the Bird Woman."
-
-"It's no use trying to do anything," said Freckles. "You won't forget
-the muff and the Christmas box. The muff especial?"
-
-There was a movement above them so pronounced that it attracted
-Freckles' attention, even in that extreme hour. He looked up, and a
-pleased smile flickered on his drawn face.
-
-"Why, if it ain't me Little Chicken!" he cried hoarsely. "He must be
-making his very first trip from the log. Now Duncan can have his big
-watering-trough."
-
-"It was Little Chicken that made me late," faltered the Angel. "I was
-so anxious to get here early I forgot to bring his breakfast from the
-carriage. He must have been hungry, for when I passed the log he started
-after me. He was so wabbly, and so slow flying from tree to tree and
-through the bushes, I just had to wait on him, for I couldn't drive him
-back."
-
-"Of course you couldn't! Me bird has too amazing good sinse to go back
-when he could be following you," exulted Freckles, exactly as if he did
-not realize what the delay had cost him. Then he lay silently thinking,
-but presently he asked slowly: "And so 'twas me Little Chicken that was
-making you late, Angel?"
-
-"Yes," said the Angel.
-
-A spasm of fierce pain shook Freckles, and a look of uncertainty crossed
-his face.
-
-"All summer I've been thanking God for the falling of the feather and
-all the delights it's brought me," he muttered, "but this looks as
-if----"
-
-He stopped short and raised questioning eyes to McLean.
-
-"I can't help being Irish, but I can help being superstitious," he said.
-"I mustn't be laying it to the Almighty, or to me bird, must I?"
-
-"No, dear lad," said McLean, stroking the brilliant hair. "The choice
-lay with you. You could have stood a rooted dolt like all the remainder
-of us. It was through your great love and your high courage that you
-made the sacrifice."
-
-"Don't you be so naming it, sir!" cried Freckles. "It's just the
-reverse. If I could be giving me body the hundred times over to save
-hers from this, I'd be doing it and take joy with every pain."
-
-He turned with a smile of adoring tenderness to the Angel. She was
-ghastly white, and her eyes were dull and glazed. She scarcely seemed to
-hear or understand what was coming, but she bravely tried to answer that
-smile.
-
-"Is my forehead covered with dirt?" he asked.
-
-She shook her head.
-
-"You did once," he gasped.
-
-Instantly she laid her lips on his forehead, then on each cheek, and
-then in a long kiss on his lips.
-
-McLean bent over him.
-
-"Freckles," he said brokenly, "you will never know how I love you. You
-won't go without saying good-bye to me?"
-
-That word stung the Angel to quick comprehension. She started as if
-arousing from sleep.
-
-"Good-bye?" she cried sharply, her eyes widening and the color rushing
-into her white face. "Good-bye! Why, what do you mean? Who's saying
-good-bye? Where could Freckles go, when he is hurt like this, save to
-the hospital? You needn't say good-bye for that. Of course, we will all
-go with him! You call up the men. We must start right away."
-
-"It's no use, Angel," said Freckles. "I'm thinking ivry bone in me
-breast is smashed. You'll have to be letting me go!"
-
-"I will not," said the Angel flatly. "It's no use wasting precious time
-talking about it. You are alive. You are breathing; and no matter how
-badly your bones are broken, what are great surgeons for but to fix you
-up and make you well again? You promise me that you'll just grit your
-teeth and hang on when we hurt you, for we must start with you as
-quickly as it can be done. I don't know what has been the matter with
-me. Here's good time wasted already."
-
-"Oh, Angel!" moaned Freckles, "I can't! You don't know how bad it is.
-I'll die the minute you are for trying to lift me!"
-
-"Of course you will, if you make up your mind to do it," said the Angel.
-"But if you are determined you won't, and set yourself to breathing deep
-and strong, and hang on to me tight, I can get you out. Really you must,
-Freckles, no matter how it hurts, for you did this for me, and now I
-must save you, so you might as well promise."
-
-She bent over him, trying to smile encouragement with her fear-stiffened
-lips.
-
-"You will promise, Freckles?"
-
-Big drops of cold sweat ran together on Freckles' temples.
-
-"Angel, darlin' Angel," he pleaded, taking her hand in his. "You ain't
-understanding, and I can't for the life of me be telling you, but
-indade, it's best to be letting me go. This is my chance. Please say
-good-bye, and let me slip off quick!"
-
-He appealed to McLean.
-
-"Dear Boss, you know! You be telling her that, for me, living is far
-worse pain than dying. Tell her you know death is the best thing that
-could ever be happening to me!"
-
-"Merciful Heaven!" burst in the Angel. "I can't endure this delay!"
-
-She caught Freckles' hand to her breast, and bending over him, looked
-deeply into his stricken eyes.
-
-"'Angel, I give you my word of honor that I will keep right on
-breathing.' That's what you are going to promise me," she said. "Do you
-say it?"
-
-Freckles hesitated.
-
-"Freckles!" imploringly commanded the Angel, "YOU DO SAY IT!"
-
-"Yis," gasped Freckles.
-
-The Angel sprang to her feet.
-
-"Then that's all right," she said, with a tinge of her old-time
-briskness. "You just keep breathing away like a steam engine, and I will
-do all the remainder."
-
-The eager men gathered around her.
-
-"It's going to be a tough pull to get Freckles out," she said, "but it's
-our only chance, so listen closely and don't for the lives of you fail
-me in doing quickly what I tell you. There's no time to spend falling
-down over each other; we must have some system. You four there get on
-those wagon horses and ride to the sleeping-tent. Get the stoutest cot,
-a couple of comforts, and a pillow. Ride back with them some way to
-save time. If you meet any other men of the gang, send them here to help
-carry the cot. We won't risk the jolt of driving with him. The others
-clear a path out to the road; and Mr. McLean, you take Nellie and ride
-to town. Tell my father how Freckles is hurt and that he risked it to
-save me. Tell him I'm going to take Freckles to Chicago on the noon
-train, and I want him to hold it if we are a little late. If he can't,
-then have a special ready at the station and another on the Pittsburgh
-at Fort Wayne, so we can go straight through. You needn't mind leaving
-us. The Bird Woman will be here soon. We will rest awhile."
-
-She dropped into the muck beside Freckles and began stroking his hair
-and hand. He lay with his face of agony turned to hers, and fought to
-smother the groans that would tell her what he was suffering.
-
-When they stood ready to lift him, the Angel bent over him in a passion
-of tenderness.
-
-"Dear old Limberlost guard, we're going to lift you now," she said. "I
-suspect you will faint from the pain of it, but we will be as easy as
-ever we can, and don't you dare forget your promise!"
-
-A whimsical half-smile touched Freckles' quivering lips.
-
-"Angel, can a man be remembering a promise when he ain't knowing?" he
-asked.
-
-"You can," said the Angel stoutly, "because a promise means so much more
-to you than it does to most men."
-
-A look of strength flashed into Freckles' face at her words.
-
-"I am ready," he said.
-
-With the first touch his eyes closed, a mighty groan was wrenched from
-him, and he lay senseless. The Angel gave Duncan one panic-stricken
-look. Then she set her lips and gathered her forces again.
-
-"I guess that's a good thing," she said. "Maybe he won't feel how we are
-hurting him. Oh boys, are you being quick and gentle?"
-
-She stepped to the side of the cot and bathed Freckles' face. Taking his
-hand in hers, she gave the word to start. She told the men to ask every
-able-bodied man they met to join them so that they could change carriers
-often and make good time.
-
-The Bird Woman insisted upon taking the Angel into the carriage and
-following the cot, but she refused to leave Freckles, and suggested
-that the Bird Woman drive ahead, pack them some clothing, and be at the
-station ready to accompany them to Chicago. All the way the Angel walked
-beside the cot, shading Freckles' face with a branch, and holding his
-hand. At every pause to change carriers she moistened his face and lips
-and watched each breath with heart-breaking anxiety.
-
-She scarcely knew when her father joined them, and taking the branch
-from her, slipped an arm around her waist and almost carried her. To the
-city streets and the swarm of curious, staring faces she paid no more
-attention than she had to the trees of the Limberlost. When the train
-came and the gang placed Freckles aboard, big Duncan made a place for
-the Angel beside the cot.
-
-With the best physician to be found, and with the Bird Woman and
-McLean in attendance, the four-hours' run to Chicago began. The Angel
-constantly watched over Freckles; bathed his face, stroked his hand,
-and gently fanned him. Not for an instant would she yield her place,
-or allow anyone else to do anything for him. The Bird Woman and McLean
-regarded her in amazement. There seemed to be no end to her resources
-and courage. The only time she spoke was to ask McLean if he were sure
-the special would be ready on the Pittsburgh road. He replied that it
-was made up and waiting.
-
-At five o'clock Freckles lay stretched on the operating-table of Lake
-View Hospital, while three of the greatest surgeons in Chicago bent over
-him. At their command, McLean picked up the unwilling Angel and carried
-her to the nurses to be bathed, have her bruises attended, and to be put
-to bed.
-
-In a place where it is difficult to surprise people, they were
-astonished women as they removed the Angel's dainty stained and torn
-clothing, drew off hose muck-baked to her limbs, soaked the dried loam
-from her silken hair, and washed the beautiful scratched, bruised,
-dirt-covered body. The Angel fell fast asleep long before they had
-finished, and lay deeply unconscious, while the fight for Freckles' life
-was being waged.
-
-Three days later she was the same Angel as of old, except that Freckles
-was constantly in her thoughts. The anxiety and responsibility that
-she felt for his condition had bred in her a touch of womanliness and
-authority that was new. That morning she arose early and hovered near
-Freckles' door. She had been allowed to remain with him constantly, for
-the nurses and surgeons had learned, with his returning consciousness,
-that for her alone would the active, highly strung, pain-racked sufferer
-be quiet and obey orders. When she was dropping from loss of sleep, the
-threat that she would fall ill had to be used to send her to bed. Then
-by telling Freckles that the Angel was asleep and they would waken her
-the moment he moved, they were able to control him for a short time.
-
-The surgeon was with Freckles. The Angel had been told that the word
-he brought that morning would be final, so she curled in a window seat,
-dropped the curtains behind her, and in dire anxiety, waited the opening
-of the door.
-
-Just as it unclosed, McLean came hurrying down the hall and to the
-surgeon, but with one glance at his face he stepped back in dismay;
-while the Angel, who had arisen, sank to the seat again, too dazed to
-come forward. The men faced each other. The Angel, with parted lips and
-frightened eyes, bent forward in tense anxiety.
-
-"I--I thought he was doing nicely?" faltered McLean.
-
-"He bore the operation well," replied the surgeon, "and his wounds are
-not necessarily fatal. I told you that yesterday, but I did not tell you
-that something else probably would kill him; and it will. He need not
-die from the accident, but he will not live the day out."
-
-"But why? What is it?" asked McLean hurriedly. "We all dearly love the
-boy. We have millions among us to do anything that money can accomplish.
-Why must he die, if those broken bones are not the cause?"
-
-"That is what I am going to give you the opportunity to tell me,"
-replied the surgeon. "He need not die from the accident, yet he is
-dying as fast as his splendid physical condition will permit, and it is
-because he so evidently prefers death to life. If he were full of hope
-and ambition to live, my work would be easy. If all of you love him as
-you prove you do, and there is unlimited means to give him anything he
-wants, why should he desire death?"
-
-"Is he dying?" demanded McLean.
-
-"He is," said the surgeon. "He will not live this day out, unless some
-strong reaction sets in at once. He is so low, that preferring death to
-life, nature cannot overcome his inertia. If he is to live, he must be
-made to desire life. Now he undoubtedly wishes for death, and that it
-come quickly."
-
-"Then he must die," said McLean.
-
-His broad shoulders shook convulsively. His strong hands opened and
-closed mechanically.
-
-"Does that mean that you know what he desires and cannot, or will not,
-supply it?"
-
-McLean groaned in misery.
-
-"It means," he said desperately, "that I know what he wants, but it is
-as far removed from my power to help him as it would be to give him a
-star. The thing for which he will die, he can never have."
-
-"Then you must prepare for the end very shortly" said the surgeon,
-turning abruptly away.
-
-McLean caught his arm roughly.
-
-"You look here!" he cried in desperation. "You say that as if I could do
-something if I would. I tell you the boy is dear to me past expression.
-I would do anything--spend any sum. You have noticed and repeatedly
-commented on the young girl with me. It is that child that he wants! He
-worships her to adoration, and knowing he can never be anything to her,
-he prefers death to life. In God's name, what can I do about it?"
-
-"Barring that missing hand, I never examined a finer man," said the
-surgeon, "and she seemed perfectly devoted to him; why cannot he have
-her?"
-
-"Why?" echoed McLean. "Why? Well, for many reasons! I told you he was my
-son. You probably knew that he was not. A little over a year ago I never
-had seen him. He joined one of my lumber gangs from the road. He is a
-stray, left at one of your homes for the friendless here in Chicago.
-When he grew up the superintendent bound him to a brutal man. He ran
-away and landed in one of my lumber camps. He has no name or knowledge
-of legal birth. The Angel--we have talked of her. You see what she is,
-physically and mentally. She has ancestors reaching back to Plymouth
-Rock, and across the sea for generations before that. She is an
-idolized, petted only child, and there is great wealth. Life holds
-everything for her, nothing for him. He sees it more plainly than anyone
-else could. There is nothing for the boy but death, if it is the Angel
-that is required to save him."
-
-The Angel stood between them.
-
-"Well, I just guess not!" she cried. "If Freckles wants me, all he has
-to do is to say so, and he can have me!"
-
-The amazed men stepped back, staring at her.
-
-"That he will never say," said McLean at last, "and you don't
-understand, Angel. I don't know how you came here. I wouldn't have had
-you hear that for the world, but since you have, dear girl, you must be
-told that it isn't your friendship or your kindness Freckles wants; it
-is your love."
-
-The Angel looked straight into the great surgeon's eyes with her clear,
-steady orbs of blue, and then into McLean's with unwavering frankness.
-
-"Well, I do love him," she said simply.
-
-McLean's arms dropped helplessly.
-
-"You don't understand," he reiterated patiently. "It isn't the love of
-a friend, or a comrade, or a sister, that Freckles wants from you; it
-is the love of a sweetheart. And if to save the life he has offered
-for you, you are thinking of being generous and impulsive enough to
-sacrifice your future--in the absence of your father, it will become
-my plain duty, as the protector in whose hands he has placed you, to
-prevent such rashness. The very words you speak, and the manner in which
-you say them, prove that you are a mere child, and have not dreamed what
-love is."
-
-Then the Angel grew splendid. A rosy flush swept the pallor of fear
-from her face. Her big eyes widened and dilated with intense lights. She
-seemed to leap to the height and the dignity of superb womanhood before
-their wondering gaze.
-
-"I never have had to dream of love," she said proudly. "I never have
-known anything else, in all my life, but to love everyone and to have
-everyone love me. And there never has been anyone so dear as Freckles.
-If you will remember, we have been through a good deal together. I do
-love Freckles, just as I say I do. I don't know anything about the love
-of sweethearts, but I love him with all the love in my heart, and I
-think that will satisfy him."
-
-"Surely it should!" muttered the man of knives and lancets.
-
-McLean reached to take hold of the Angel, but she saw the movement and
-swiftly stepped back.
-
-"As for my father," she continued, "he at once told me what he learned
-from you about Freckles. I've known all you know for several weeks. That
-knowledge didn't change your love for him a particle. I think the Bird
-Woman loved him more. Why should you two have all the fine perceptions
-there are? Can't I see how brave, trustworthy, and splendid he is? Can't
-I see how his soul vibrates with his music, his love of beautiful things
-and the pangs of loneliness and heart hunger? Must you two love him
-with all the love there is, and I give him none? My father is never
-unreasonable. He won't expect me not to love Freckles, or not to tell
-him so, if the telling will save him."
-
-She darted past McLean into Freckles' room, closed the door, and turned
-the key.
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XVIII
-
-Wherein Freckles refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable Birth, and
-the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-
-Freckles lay on a flat pillow, his body immovable in a plaster cast, his
-maimed arm, as always, hidden. His greedy gaze fastened at once on the
-Angel's face. She crossed to him with light step and bent over him with
-infinite tenderness. Her heart ached at the change in his appearance. He
-seemed so weak, heart hungry, so utterly hopeless, so alone. She could
-see that the night had been one long terror.
-
-For the first time she tried putting herself in Freckles' place. What
-would it mean to have no parents, no home, no name? No name! That was
-the worst of all. That was to be lost--indeed--utterly and hopelessly
-lost. The Angel lifted her hands to her dazed head and reeled, as she
-tried to face that proposition. She dropped on her knees beside the bed,
-slipped her arm under the pillow, and leaning over Freckles, set her
-lips on his forehead. He smiled faintly, but his wistful face appeared
-worse for it. It hurt the Angel to the heart.
-
-"Dear Freckles," she said, "there is a story in your eyes this morning,
-tell me?"
-
-Freckles drew a long, wavering breath.
-
-"Angel," he begged, "be generous! Be thinking of me a little. I'm so
-homesick and worn out, dear Angel, be giving me back me promise. Let me
-go?"
-
-"Why Freckles!" faltered the Angel. "You don't know what you are asking.
-'Let you go!' I cannot! I love you better than anyone, Freckles. I
-think you are the very finest person I ever knew. I have our lives all
-planned. I want you to be educated and learn all there is to know about
-singing, just as soon as you are well enough. By the time you have
-completed your education I will have finished college, and then I want,"
-she choked a second, "I want you to be my real knight, Freckles, and
-come to me and tell me that you--like me--a little. I have been counting
-on you for my sweetheart from the very first, Freckles. I can't give you
-up, unless you don't like me. But you do like me--just a little--don't
-you, Freckles?"
-
-Freckles lay whiter than the coverlet, his staring eyes on the ceiling
-and his breath wheezing between dry lips. The Angel awaited his answer
-a second, and when none came, she dropped her crimsoning face beside him
-on the pillow and whispered in his ear:
-
-"Freckles, I--I'm trying to make love to you. Oh, can't you help me only
-a little bit? It's awful hard all alone! I don't know how, when I really
-mean it, but Freckles, I love you. I must have you, and now I guess--I
-guess maybe I'd better kiss you next."
-
-She lifted her shamed face and bravely laid her feverish, quivering lips
-on his. Her breath, like clover-bloom, was in his nostrils, and her hair
-touched his face. Then she looked into his eyes with reproach.
-
-"Freckles," she panted, "Freckles! I didn't think it was in you to be
-mean!"
-
-"Mean, Angel! Mean to you?" gasped Freckles.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel. "Downright mean. When I kiss you, if you had any
-mercy at all you'd kiss back, just a little bit."
-
-Freckles' sinewy fist knotted into the coverlet. His chin pointed
-ceilingward while his head rocked on the pillow.
-
-"Oh, Jesus!" burst from him in agony. "You ain't the only one that was
-crucified!"
-
-The Angel caught Freckles' hand and carried it to her breast.
-
-"Freckles!" she wailed in terror, "Freckles! It is a mistake? Is it that
-you don't want me?"
-
-Freckles' head rolled on in wordless suffering.
-
-"Wait a bit, Angel?" he panted at last. "Be giving me a little time!"
-
-The Angel arose with controlled features. She bathed his face,
-straightened his hair, and held water to his lips. It seemed a long time
-before he reached toward her. Instantly she knelt again, carried his
-hand to her breast, and leaned her cheek upon it.
-
-"Tell me, Freckles," she whispered softly.
-
-"If I can," said Freckles in agony. "It's just this. Angels are
-from above. Outcasts are from below. You've a sound body and you're
-beautifulest of all. You have everything that loving, careful raising
-and money can give you. I have so much less than nothing that I don't
-suppose I had any right to be born. It's a sure thing--nobody wanted me
-afterward, so of course, they didn't before. Some of them should have
-been telling you long ago."
-
-"If that's all you have to say, Freckles, I've known that quite a
-while," said the Angel stoutly. "Mr. McLean told my father, and he told
-me. That only makes me love you more, to pay for all you've missed."
-
-"Then I'm wondering at you," said Freckles in a voice of awe. "Can't you
-see that if you were willing and your father would come and offer you
-to me, I couldn't be touching the soles of your feet, in love--me, whose
-people brawled over me, cut off me hand, and throwed me away to freeze
-and to die! Me, who has no name just as much because I've no RIGHT to
-any, as because I don't know it. When I was little, I planned to find me
-father and mother when I grew up. Now I know me mother deserted me, and
-me father was maybe a thief and surely a liar. The pity for me suffering
-and the watching over me have gone to your head, dear Angel, and it's me
-must be thinking for you. If you could be forgetting me lost hand, where
-I was raised, and that I had no name to give you, and if you would be
-taking me as I am, some day people such as mine must be, might come upon
-you. I used to pray ivery night and morning and many times the day to
-see me mother. Now I only pray to die quickly and never risk the sight
-of her. 'Tain't no ways possible, Angel! It's a wildness of your dear
-head. Oh, do for mercy sake, kiss me once more and be letting me go!"
-
-"Not for a minute!" cried the Angel. "Not for a minute, if those are
-all the reasons you have. It's you who are wild in your head, but I can
-understand just how it happened. Being shut in that Home most of your
-life, and seeing children every day whose parents did neglect and desert
-them, makes you sure yours did the same; and yet there are so many other
-things that could have happened so much more easily than that. There are
-thousands of young couples who come to this country and start a family
-with none of their relatives here. Chicago is a big, wicked city, and
-grown people could disappear in many ways, and who would there ever be
-to find to whom their little children belonged? The minute my father
-told me how you felt, I began to study this thing over, and I've made up
-my mind you are dead wrong. I meant to ask my father or the Bird Woman
-to talk to you before you went away to school, but as matters are right
-now I guess I'll just do it myself. It's all so plain to me. Oh, if I
-could only make you see!"
-
-She buried her face in the pillow and presently lifted it, transfigured.
-
-"Now I have it!" she cried. "Oh, dear heart! I can make it so plain!
-Freckles, can you imagine you see the old Limberlost trail? Well when
-we followed it, you know there were places where ugly, prickly thistles
-overgrew the path, and you went ahead with your club and bent them back
-to keep them from stinging through my clothing. Other places there were
-big shining pools where lovely, snow-white lilies grew, and you waded
-in and gathered them for me. Oh dear heart, don't you see? It's this!
-Everywhere the wind carried that thistledown, other thistles sprang up
-and grew prickles; and wherever those lily seeds sank to the mire, the
-pure white of other lilies bloomed. But, Freckles, there was never
-a place anywhere in the Limberlost, or in the whole world, where the
-thistledown floated and sprang up and blossomed into white lilies!
-Thistles grow from thistles, and lilies from other lilies. Dear
-Freckles, think hard! You must see it! You are a lily, straight through.
-You never, never could have drifted from the thistle-patch.
-
-"Where did you find the courage to go into the Limberlost and face its
-terrors? You inherited it from the blood of a brave father, dear heart.
-Where did you get the pluck to hold for over a year a job that few men
-would have taken at all? You got it from a plucky mother, you bravest
-of boys. You attacked single-handed a man almost twice your size, and
-fought as a demon, merely at the suggestion that you be deceptive and
-dishonest. Could your mother or your father have been untruthful? Here
-you are, so hungry and starved that you are dying for love. Where
-did you get all that capacity for loving? You didn't inherit it from
-hardened, heartless people, who would disfigure you and purposely leave
-you to die, that's one sure thing. You once told me of saving your big
-bullfrog from a rattlesnake. You knew you risked a horrible death when
-you did it. Yet you will spend miserable years torturing yourself with
-the idea that your own mother might have cut off that hand. Shame on
-you, Freckles! Your mother would have done this----"
-
-The Angel deliberately turned back the cover, slipped up the sleeve, and
-laid her lips on the scars.
-
-"Freckles! Wake up!" she cried, almost shaking him. "Come to your
-senses! Be a thinking, reasoning man! You have brooded too much, and
-been all your life too much alone. It's all as plain as plain can be to
-me. You must see it! Like breeds like in this world! You must be some
-sort of a reproduction of your parents, and I am not afraid to vouch for
-them, not for a minute!
-
-"And then, too, if more proof is needed, here it is: Mr. McLean says
-that you never once have failed in tact and courtesy. He says that you
-are the most perfect gentleman he ever knew, and he has traveled the
-world over. How does it happen, Freckles? No one at that Home taught
-you. Hundreds of men couldn't be taught, even in a school of etiquette;
-so it must be instinctive with you. If it is, why, that means that it is
-born in you, and a direct inheritance from a race of men that have been
-gentlemen for ages, and couldn't be anything else.
-
-"Then there's your singing. I don't believe there ever was a mortal with
-a sweeter voice than yours, and while that doesn't prove anything, there
-is a point that does. The little training you had from that choirmaster
-won't account for the wonderful accent and ease with which you sing.
-Somewhere in your close blood is a marvelously trained vocalist; we
-every one of us believe that, Freckles.
-
-"Why does my father refer to you constantly as being of fine perceptions
-and honor? Because you are, Freckles. Why does the Bird Woman leave her
-precious work and come here to help look after you? I never heard of her
-losing any time over anyone else. It's because she loves you. And why
-does Mr. McLean turn all of his valuable business over to hired men and
-watch you personally? And why is he hunting excuses every day to spend
-money on you? My father says McLean is full Scotch-close with a dollar.
-He is a hard-headed business man, Freckles, and he is doing it because
-he finds you worthy of it. Worthy of all we all can do and more than we
-know how to do, dear heart! Freckles, are you listening to me? Oh! won't
-you see it? Won't you believe it?"
-
-"Oh, Angel!" chattered the bewildered Freckles, "are you truly maning
-it? Could it be?"
-
-"Of course it could," flashed the Angel, "because it just is!"
-
-"But you can't prove it," wailed Freckles. "It ain't giving me a name,
-or me honor!"
-
-"Freckles," said the Angel sternly, "you are unreasonable! Why, I did
-prove every word I said! Everything proves it! You look here! If you
-knew for sure that I could give you a name and your honor, and prove
-to you that your mother did love you, why, then, would you just go to
-breathing like perpetual motion and hang on for dear life and get well?"
-
-A bright light shone in Freckles' eyes.
-
-"If I knew that, Angel," he said solemnly, "you couldn't be killing me
-if you felled the biggest tree in the Limberlost smash on me!"
-
-"Then you go right to work," said the Angel, "and before night I'll
-prove one thing to you: I can show you easily enough how much your
-mother loved you. That will be the first step, and then the remainder
-will all come. If my father and Mr. McLean are so anxious to spend some
-money, I'll give them a chance. I don't see why we haven't comprehended
-how you felt and so have been at work weeks ago. We've been awfully
-selfish. We've all been so comfortable, we never stopped to think what
-other people were suffering before our eyes. None of us has understood.
-I'll hire the finest detective in Chicago, and we'll go to work
-together. This is nothing compared with things people do find out. We'll
-go at it, beak and claw, and we'll show you a thing or two."
-
-Freckles caught her sleeve.
-
-"Me mother, Angel! Me mother!" he marveled hoarsely. "Did you say
-you could be finding out today if me mother loved me? How? Oh, Angel!
-Nothing matters, IF ONLY ME MOTHER DIDN'T DO IT!"
-
-"Then you rest easy," said the Angel, with large confidence. "Your
-mother didn't do it! Mothers of sons such as you don't do things like
-that. I'll go to work at once and prove it to you. The first thing to
-do is to go to that Home where you were and get the clothes you wore the
-night you were left there. I know that they are required to save those
-things carefully. We can find out almost all there is to know about your
-mother from them. Did you ever see them?"
-
-"Yis," he replied.
-
-"Freckles! Were they white?" she cried.
-
-"Maybe they were once. They're all yellow with laying, and brown with
-blood-stains now" said Freckles, the old note of bitterness creeping in.
-"You can't be telling anything at all by them, Angel!"
-
-"Well, but I just can!" said the Angel positively. "I can see from the
-quality what kind of goods your mother could afford to buy. I can see
-from the cut whether she had good taste. I can see from the care she
-took in making them how much she loved and wanted you."
-
-"But how? Angel, tell me how!" implored Freckles with trembling
-eagerness.
-
-"Why, easily enough," said the Angel. "I thought you'd understand.
-People that can afford anything at all, always buy white for little new
-babies--linen and lace, and the very finest things to be had. There's a
-young woman living near us who cut up her wedding clothes to have fine
-things for her baby. Mothers who love and want their babies don't buy
-little rough, ready-made things, and they don't run up what they make on
-an old sewing machine. They make fine seams, and tucks, and put on lace
-and trimming by hand. They sit and stitch, and stitch--little, even
-stitches, every one just as careful. Their eyes shine and their faces
-glow. When they have to quit to do something else, they look sorry, and
-fold up their work so particularly. There isn't much worth knowing about
-your mother that those little clothes won't tell. I can see her putting
-the little stitches into them and smiling with shining eyes over your
-coming. Freckles, I'll wager you a dollar those little clothes of yours
-are just alive with the dearest, tiny handmade stitches."
-
-A new light dawned in Freckles' eyes. A tinge of warm color swept into
-his face. Renewed strength was noticeable in his grip of her hands.
-
-"Oh Angel! Will you go now? Will you be hurrying?" he cried.
-
-"Right away," said the Angel. "I won't stop for a thing, and I'll hurry
-with all my might."
-
-She smoothed his pillow, straightened the cover, gave him one steady
-look in the eyes, and went quietly from the room.
-
-Outside the door, McLean and the surgeon anxiously awaited her. McLean
-caught her shoulders.
-
-"Angel, what have you done?" he demanded.
-
-The Angel smiled defiance into his eyes.
-
-"'What have I done?'" she repeated. "I've tried to save Freckles."
-
-"What will your father say?" groaned McLean.
-
-"It strikes me," said the Angel, "that what Freckles said would be to
-the point."
-
-"Freckles!" exclaimed McLean. "What could he say?"
-
-"He seemed to be able to say several things," answered the Angel
-sweetly. "I fancy the one that concerns you most at present was, that if
-my father should offer me to him he would not have me."
-
-"And no one knows why better than I do," cried McLean. "Every day he
-must astonish me with some new fineness."
-
-He turned to the surgeon. "Save him!" he commanded. "Save him!" he
-implored. "He is too fine to be sacrificed."
-
-"His salvation lies here," said the surgeon, stroking the Angel's
-sunshiny hair, "and I can read in the face of her that she knows how she
-is going to work it out. Don't trouble for the boy. She will save him!"
-
-The Angel laughingly sped down the hall, and into the street, just as
-she was.
-
-"I have come," she said to the matron of the Home, "to ask if you will
-allow me to examine, or, better yet, to take with me, the little clothes
-that a boy you called Freckles, discharged last fall, wore the night he
-was left here."
-
-The woman looked at her in greater astonishment than the occasion
-demanded.
-
-"Well, I'd be glad to let you see them," she said at last, "but the
-fact is we haven't them. I do hope we haven't made some mistake. I was
-thoroughly convinced, and so was the superintendent. We let his people
-take those things away yesterday. Who are you, and what do you want with
-them?"
-
-The Angel stood dazed and speechless, staring at the matron.
-
-"There couldn't have been a mistake," continued the matron, seeing the
-Angel's distress. "Freckles was here when I took charge, ten years ago.
-These people had it all proved that he belonged to them. They had
-him traced to where he ran away in Illinois last fall, and there they
-completely lost track of him. I'm sorry you seem so disappointed, but it
-is all right. The man is his uncle, and as like the boy as he possibly
-could be. He is almost killed to go back without him. If you know where
-Freckles is, they'd give big money to find out."
-
-The Angel laid a hand along each cheek to steady her chattering teeth.
-
-"Who are they?" she stammered. "Where are they going?"
-
-"They are Irish folks, miss," said the matron. "They have been in
-Chicago and over the country for the past three months, hunting him
-everywhere. They have given up, and are starting home today. They----"
-
-"Did they leave an address? Where could I find them?" interrupted the
-Angel.
-
-"They left a card, and I notice the morning paper has the man's picture
-and is full of them. They've advertised a great deal in the city papers.
-It's a wonder you haven't seen something."
-
-"Trains don't run right. We never get Chicago papers," said the Angel.
-"Please give me that card quickly. They may escape me. I simply must
-catch them!"
-
-The matron hurried to the secretary and came back with a card.
-
-"Their addresses are there," she said. "Both in Chicago and at their
-home. They made them full and plain, and I was to cable at once if I
-got the least clue of him at any time. If they've left the city, you can
-stop them in New York. You're sure to catch them before they sail--if
-you hurry."
-
-The matron caught up a paper and thrust it into the Angel's hand as she
-ran to the street.
-
-The Angel glanced at the card. The Chicago address was Suite Eleven,
-Auditorium. She laid her hand on her driver's sleeve and looked into his
-eyes.
-
-"There is a fast-driving limit?" she asked.
-
-"Yes, miss."
-
-"Will you crowd it all you can without danger of arrest? I will pay
-well. I must catch some people!"
-
-Then she smiled at him. The hospital, an Orphans' Home, and the
-Auditorium seemed a queer combination to that driver, but the Angel was
-always and everywhere the Angel, and her methods were strictly her own.
-
-"I will take you there as quickly as any man could with a team," he said
-promptly.
-
-The Angel clung to the card and paper, and as best she could in the
-lurching, swaying cab, read the addresses over.
-
-"O'More, Suite Eleven, Auditorium."
-
-"'O'More,'" she repeated. "Seems to fit Freckles to a dot. Wonder if
-that could be his name? 'Suite Eleven' means that you are pretty well
-fixed. Suites in the Auditorium come high."
-
-Then she turned the card and read on its reverse, Lord Maxwell O'More,
-M. P., Killvany Place, County Clare, Ireland.
-
-The Angel sat on the edge of the seat, bracing her feet against the one
-opposite, as the cab pitched and swung around corners and past vehicles.
-She mechanically fingered the pasteboard and stared straight ahead. Then
-she drew a deep breath and read the card again.
-
-"A Lord-man!" she groaned despairingly. "A Lord-man! Bet my hoecake's
-scorched! Here I've gone and pledged my word to Freckles I'd find him
-some decent relatives, that he could be proud of, and now there isn't a
-chance out of a dozen that he'll have to be ashamed of them after all.
-It's too mean!"
-
-The tears of vexation rolled down the tired, nerve-racked Angel's
-cheeks.
-
-"This isn't going to do," she said, resolutely wiping her eyes with the
-palm of her hand and gulping down the nervous spasm in her throat. "I
-must read this paper before I meet Lord O'More."
-
-She blinked back the tears and spreading the paper on her knee, read:
-"After three months' fruitless search, Lord O'More gives up the quest of
-his lost nephew, and leaves Chicago today for his home in Ireland."
-
-She read on, and realized every word. The likeness settled any doubt. It
-was Freckles over again, only older and well dressed.
-
-"Well, I must catch you if I can," muttered the Angel. "But when I do,
-if you are a gentleman in name only, you shan't have Freckles; that's
-flat. You're not his father and he is twenty. Anyway, if the law will
-give him to you for one year, you can't spoil him, because nobody could,
-and," she added, brightening, "he'll probably do you a lot of good.
-Freckles and I both must study years yet, and you should be something
-that will save him. I guess it will come out all right. At least, I
-don't believe you can take him away if I say no."
-
-"Thank you; and wait, no matter how long," she said to her driver.
-
-Catching up the paper, she hurried to the desk and laid down Lord
-O'More's card.
-
-"Has my uncle started yet?" she asked sweetly.
-
-The surprised clerk stepped back on a bellboy, and covertly kicked him
-for being in the way.
-
-"His lordship is in his room," he said, with a low bow.
-
-"All right," said the Angel, picking up the card. "I thought he might
-have started. I'll see him."
-
-The clerk shoved the bellboy toward the Angel.
-
-"Show her ladyship to the elevator and Lord O'More's suite," he said,
-bowing double.
-
-"Aw, thanks," said the Angel with a slight nod, as she turned away.
-
-"I'm not sure," she muttered to herself as the elevator sped upward,
-"whether it's the Irish or the English who say: 'Aw, thanks,' but it's
-probable he isn't either; and anyway, I just had to do something to
-counteract that 'All right.' How stupid of me!"
-
-At the bellboy's tap, the door swung open and the liveried servant
-thrust a cardtray before the Angel. The opening of the door created a
-current that swayed a curtain aside, and in an adjoining room, lounging
-in a big chair, with a paper in his hand, sat a man who was, beyond
-question, of Freckles' blood and race.
-
-With perfect control the Angel dropped Lord O'More's card in the tray,
-stepped past his servant, and stood before his lordship.
-
-"Good morning," she said with tense politeness.
-
-Lord O'More said nothing. He carelessly glanced her over with amused
-curiosity, until her color began to deepen and her blood to run hotly.
-
-"Well, my dear," he said at last, "how can I serve you?"
-
-Instantly the Angel became indignant. She had been so shielded in the
-midst of almost entire freedom, owing to the circumstances of her life,
-that the words and the look appeared to her as almost insulting. She
-lifted her head with a proud gesture.
-
-"I am not your 'dear,'" she said with slow distinctness. "There isn't a
-thing in the world you can do for me. I came here to see if I could do
-something--a very great something--for you; but if I don't like you, I
-won't do it!"
-
-Then Lord O'More did stare. Suddenly he broke into a ringing laugh.
-Without a change of attitude or expression, the Angel stood looking
-steadily at him.
-
-There was a silken rustle, then a beautiful woman with cheeks of satiny
-pink, dark hair, and eyes of pure Irish blue, moved to Lord O'More's
-side, and catching his arm, shook him impatiently.
-
-"Terence! Have you lost your senses?" she cried. "Didn't you understand
-what the child said? Look at her face! See what she has!"
-
-Lord O'More opened his eyes widely and sat up. He did look at the
-Angel's face intently, and suddenly found it so good that it was
-difficult to follow the next injunction. He arose instantly.
-
-"I beg your pardon," he said. "The fact is, I am leaving Chicago sorely
-disappointed. It makes me bitter and reckless. I thought you one more of
-those queer, useless people who have thrust themselves on me constantly,
-and I was careless. Forgive me, and tell me why you came."
-
-"I will if I like you," said the Angel stoutly, "and if I don't, I
-won't!"
-
-"But I began all wrong, and now I don't know how to make you like me,"
-said his lordship, with sincere penitence in his tone.
-
-The Angel found herself yielding to his voice. He spoke in a soft,
-mellow, smoothly flowing Irish tone, and although his speech was
-perfectly correct, it was so rounded, and accented, and the sentences so
-turned, that it was Freckles over again. Still, it was a matter of the
-very greatest importance, and she must be sure; so she looked into the
-beautiful woman's face.
-
-"Are you his wife?" she asked.
-
-"Yes," said the woman, "I am his wife."
-
-"Well," said the Angel judicially, "the Bird Woman says no one in the
-whole world knows all a man's bignesses and all his littlenesses as his
-wife does. What you think of him should do for me. Do you like him?"
-
-The question was so earnestly asked that it met with equal earnestness.
-The dark head moved caressingly against Lord O'More's sleeve.
-
-"Better than anyone in the whole world," said Lady O'More promptly.
-
-The Angel mused a second, and then her legal tinge came to the fore
-again.
-
-"Yes, but have you anyone you could like better, if he wasn't all
-right?" she persisted.
-
-"I have three of his sons, two little daughters, a father, mother, and
-several brothers and sisters," came the quick reply.
-
-"And you like him best?" persisted the Angel with finality.
-
-"I love him so much that I would give up every one of them with dry eyes
-if by so doing I could save him," cried Lord O'More's wife.
-
-"Oh!" cried the Angel. "Oh, my!"
-
-She lifted her clear eyes to Lord O'More's and shook her head.
-
-"She never, never could do that!" she said. "But it's a mighty big thing
-to your credit that she THINKS she could. I guess I'll tell you why I
-came."
-
-She laid down the paper, and touched the portrait.
-
-"When you were only a boy, did people call you Freckles?" she asked.
-
-"Dozens of good fellows all over Ireland and the Continent are doing it
-today," answered Lord O'More.
-
-The Angel's face wore her most beautiful smile.
-
-"I was sure of it," she said winningly. "That's what we call him, and he
-is so like you, I doubt if any one of those three boys of yours are
-more so. But it's been twenty years. Seems to me you've been a long time
-coming!"
-
-Lord O'More caught the Angel's wrists and his wife slipped her arms
-around her.
-
-"Steady, my girl!" said the man's voice hoarsely. "Don't make me think
-you've brought word of the boy at this last hour, unless you know
-surely."
-
-"It's all right," said the Angel. "We have him, and there's no chance
-of a mistake. If I hadn't gone to that Home for his little clothes, and
-heard of you and been hunting you, and had met you on the street, or
-anywhere, I would have stopped you and asked you who you were, just
-because you are so like him. It's all right. I can tell you where
-Freckles is; but whether you deserve to know--that's another matter!"
-
-Lord O'More did not hear her. He dropped in his chair, and covering his
-face, burst into those terrible sobs that shake and rend a strong man.
-Lady O'More hovered over him, weeping.
-
-"Umph! Looks pretty fair for Freckles," muttered the Angel. "Lots of
-things can be explained; now perhaps they can explain this."
-
-They did explain so satisfactorily that in a few minutes the Angel was
-on her feet, hurrying Lord and Lady O'More to reach the hospital. "You
-said Freckles' old nurse knew his mother's picture instantly," said the
-Angel. "I want that picture and the bundle of little clothes."
-
-Lady O'More gave them into her hands.
-
-The likeness was a large miniature, painted on ivory, with a frame of
-beaten gold. Surrounded by masses of dark hair was a delicately cut
-face. In the upper part of it there was no trace of Freckles, but
-the lips curving in a smile were his very own. The Angel gazed at it
-steadily. Then with a quivering breath she laid the portrait aside and
-reached both hands to Lord O'More.
-
-"That will save Freckles' life and insure his happiness," she said
-positively. "Thank you, oh thank you for coming!"
-
-She opened the bundle of yellow and brown linen and gave only a glance
-at the texture and work. Then she gathered the little clothes and the
-picture to her heart and led the way to the cab.
-
-Ushering Lord and Lady O'More into the reception room, she said to
-McLean, "Please go call up my father and ask him to come on the first
-train."
-
-She closed the door after him.
-
-"These are Freckles' people," she said to the Bird Woman. "You can find
-out about each other; I'm going to him."
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XIX
-
-Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-
-The nurse left the room quietly, as the Angel entered, carrying the
-bundle and picture. When they were alone, she turned to Freckles and saw
-that the crisis was indeed at hand.
-
-That she had good word to give him was his salvation, for despite the
-heavy plaster jacket that held his body immovable, his head was lifted
-from the pillow. Both arms reached for her. His lips and cheeks flamed,
-while his eyes flashed with excitement.
-
-"Angel," he panted. "Oh Angel! Did you find them? Are they white? Are
-the little stitches there? OH ANGEL! DID ME MOTHER LOVE ME?"
-
-The words seemed to leap from his burning lips. The Angel dropped the
-bundle on the bed and laid the picture face down across his knees.
-She gently pushed his head to the pillow and caught his arms in a firm
-grasp.
-
-"Yes, dear heart," she said with fullest assurance. "No little clothes
-were ever whiter. I never in all my life saw such dainty, fine, little
-stitches; and as for loving you, no boy's mother ever loved him more!"
-
-A nervous trembling seized Freckles.
-
-"Sure? Are you sure?" he urged with clicking teeth.
-
-"I know," said the Angel firmly. "And Freckles, while you rest and be
-glad, I want to tell you a story. When you feel stronger we will look at
-the clothes together. They are here. They are all right. But while I
-was at the Home getting them, I heard of some people that were hunting
-a lost boy. I went to see them, and what they told me was all so exactly
-like what might have happened to you that I must tell you. Then you'll
-understand that things could be very different from what you always have
-tortured yourself with thinking. Are you strong enough to listen? May I
-tell you?"
-
-"Maybe 'twasn't me mother! Maybe someone else made those little
-stitches!"
-
-"Now, goosie, don't you begin that," said the Angel, "because I know
-that it was!"
-
-"Know!" cried Freckles, his head springing from the pillow. "Know! How
-can you know?"
-
-The Angel gently soothed him back.
-
-"Why, because nobody else would ever sit and do it the way it is done.
-That's how I know," she said emphatically. "Now you listen while I tell
-you about this lost boy and his people, who have hunted for months and
-can't find him."
-
-Freckles lay quietly under her touch, but he did not hear a word that
-she was saying until his roving eyes rested on her face; he immediately
-noticed a remarkable thing. For the first time she was talking to him
-and avoiding his eyes. That was not like the Angel at all. It was the
-delight of hearing her speak that she looked one squarely in the face
-and with perfect frankness. There were no side glances and down-drooping
-eyes when the Angel talked; she was business straight through. Instantly
-Freckles' wandering thoughts fastened on her words.
-
-"--and he was a sour, grumpy, old man," she was saying. "He always had
-been spoiled, because he was an only son, so he had a title, and a big
-estate. He would have just his way, no matter about his sweet little
-wife, or his boys, or anyone. So when his elder son fell in love with a
-beautiful girl having a title, the very girl of all the world his
-father wanted him to, and added a big adjoining estate to his, why, that
-pleased him mightily.
-
-"Then he went and ordered his younger son to marry a poky kind of a
-girl, that no one liked, to add another big estate on the other side,
-and that was different. That was all the world different, because the
-elder son had been in love all his life with the girl he married, and,
-oh, Freckles, it's no wonder, for I saw her! She's a beauty and she has
-the sweetest way.
-
-"But that poor younger son, he had been in love with the village
-vicar's daughter all his life. That's no wonder either, for she was more
-beautiful yet. She could sing as the angels, but she hadn't a cent. She
-loved him to death, too, if he was bony and freckled and red-haired--I
-don't mean that! They didn't say what color his hair was, but his
-father's must have been the reddest ever, for when he found out about
-them, and it wasn't anything so terrible, HE JUST CAVED!
-
-"The old man went to see the girl--the pretty one with no money, of
-course--and he hurt her feelings until she ran away. She went to London
-and began studying music. Soon she grew to be a fine singer, so she
-joined a company and came to this country.
-
-"When the younger son found that she had left London, he followed her.
-When she got here all alone, and afraid, and saw him coming to her, why,
-she was so glad she up and married him, just like anybody else would
-have done. He didn't want her to travel with the troupe, so when they
-reached Chicago they thought that would be a good place, and they
-stopped, while he hunted work. It was slow business, because he never
-had been taught to do a useful thing, and he didn't even know how to
-hunt work, least of all to do it when he found it; so pretty soon things
-were going wrong. But if he couldn't find work, she could always sing,
-so she sang at night, and made little things in the daytime. He didn't
-like her to sing in public, and he wouldn't allow her when he could
-HELP himself; but winter came, it was very cold, and fire was expensive.
-Rents went up, and they had to move farther out to cheaper and
-cheaper places; and you were coming--I mean, the boy that is lost was
-coming--and they were almost distracted. Then the man wrote and told his
-father all about it; and his father sent the letter back unopened with
-a line telling him never to write again. When the baby came, there was
-very little left to pawn for food and a doctor, and nothing at all for
-a nurse; so an old neighbor woman went in and took care of the young
-mother and the little baby, because she was so sorry for them. By that
-time they were away in the suburbs on the top floor of a little wooden
-house, among a lot of big factories, and it kept growing colder, with
-less to eat. Then the man grew desperate and he went just to find
-something to eat and the woman was desperate, too. She got up, left the
-old woman to take care of her baby, and went into the city to sing for
-some money. The woman became so cold she put the baby in bed and went
-home. Then a boiler blew up in a big factory beside the little house and
-set it on fire. A piece of iron was pitched across and broke through
-the roof. It came down smash, and cut just one little hand off the poor
-baby. It screamed and screamed; and the fire kept coming closer and
-closer.
-
-"The old woman ran out with the other people and saw what had happened.
-She knew there wasn't going to be time to wait for firemen or anything,
-so she ran into the building. She could hear the baby screaming, and she
-couldn't stand that; so she worked her way to it. There it was, all hurt
-and bleeding. Then she was almost scared to death over thinking what its
-mother would do to her for going away and leaving it, so she ran to a
-Home for little friendless babies, that was close, and banged on the
-door. Then she hid across the street until the baby was taken in, and
-then she ran back to see if her own house was burning. The big factory
-and the little house and a lot of others were all gone. The people there
-told her that the beautiful lady came back and ran into the house to
-find her baby. She had just gone in when her husband came, and he went
-in after her, and the house fell over both of them."
-
-Freckles lay rigidly, with his eyes on the Angel's face, while she
-talked rapidly to the ceiling.
-
-"Then the old woman was sick about that poor little baby. She was afraid
-to tell them at the Home, because she knew she never should have left
-it, but she wrote a letter and sent it to where the beautiful woman,
-when she was ill, had said her husband's people lived. She told all
-about the little baby that she could remember: when it was born, how it
-was named for the man's elder brother, that its hand had been cut off in
-the fire, and where she had put it to be doctored and taken care of. She
-told them that its mother and father were both burned, and she begged
-and implored them to come after it.
-
-"You'd think that would have melted a heart of ice, but that old man
-hadn't any heart to melt, for he got that letter and read it. He hid it
-away among his papers and never told a soul. A few months ago he died.
-When his elder son went to settle his business, he found the letter
-almost the first thing. He dropped everything, and came, with his wife,
-to hunt that baby, because he always had loved his brother dearly, and
-wanted him back. He had hunted for him all he dared all these years, but
-when he got here you were gone--I mean the baby was gone, and I had to
-tell you, Freckles, for you see, it might have happened to you like that
-just as easy as to that other lost boy."
-
-Freckles reached up and turned the Angel's face until he compelled her
-eyes to meet his.
-
-"Angel," he asked quietly, "why don't you look at me when you are
-telling about that lost boy?"
-
-"I--I didn't know I wasn't," faltered the Angel.
-
-"It seems to me," said Freckles, his breath beginning to come in sharp
-wheezes, "that you got us rather mixed, and it ain't like you to be
-mixing things till one can't be knowing. If they were telling you so
-much, did they say which hand was for being off that lost boy?"
-
-The Angel's eyes escaped again.
-
-"It--it was the same as yours," she ventured, barely breathing in her
-fear.
-
-Still Freckles lay rigid and whiter than the coverlet.
-
-"Would that boy be as old as me?" he asked.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel faintly.
-
-"Angel," said Freckles at last, catching her wrist, "are you trying to
-tell me that there is somebody hunting a boy that you're thinking might
-be me? Are you belavin' you've found me relations?"
-
-Then the Angel's eyes came home. The time had come. She pinioned
-Freckles' arms to his sides and bent above him.
-
-"How strong are you, dear heart?" she breathed. "How brave are you? Can
-you bear it? Dare I tell you that?"
-
-"No!" gasped Freckles. "Not if you're sure! I can't bear it! I'll die if
-you do!"
-
-The day had been one unremitting strain with the Angel. Nerve tension
-was drawn to the finest thread. It snapped suddenly.
-
-"Die!" she flamed. "Die, if I tell you that! You said this morning that
-you would die if you DIDN'T know your name, and if your people were
-honorable. Now I've gone and found you a name that stands for ages of
-honor, a mother who loved you enough to go into the fire and die for
-you, and the nicest kind of relatives, and you turn round and say you'll
-die over that! YOU JUST TRY DYING AND YOU'LL GET A GOOD SLAP!"
-
-The Angel stood glaring at him. One second Freckles lay paralyzed and
-dumb with astonishment. The next the Irish in his soul arose above
-everything. A laugh burst from him. The terrified Angel caught him in
-her arms and tried to stifle the sound. She implored and commanded. When
-he was too worn to utter another sound, his eyes laughed silently.
-
-After a long time, when he was quiet and rested, the Angel commenced
-talking to him gently, and this time her big eyes, humid with tenderness
-and mellow with happiness, seemed as if they could not leave his face.
-
-"Dear Freckles," she was saying, "across your knees there is the face of
-the mother who went into the fire for you, and I know the name--old and
-full of honor--to which you were born. Dear heart, which will you have
-first?"
-
-Freckles was very tired; the big drops of perspiration ran together on
-his temples; but the watching Angel caught the words his lips formed,
-"Me mother!"
-
-She lifted the lovely pictured face and set it in the nook of his arm.
-Freckles caught her hand and drew her beside him, and together they
-gazed at the picture while the tears slid over their cheeks.
-
-"Me mother! Oh, me mother! Can you ever be forgiving me? Oh, me
-beautiful little mother!" chanted Freckles over and over in exalted
-wonder, until he was so completely exhausted that his lips refused to
-form the question in his weary eyes.
-
-"Wait!" cried the Angel with inborn refinement, for she could no more
-answer that question than he could ask. "Wait, I will write it!"
-
-She hurried to the table, caught up the nurse's pencil, and on the back
-of a prescription tablet scrawled it: "Terence Maxwell O'More, Dunderry
-House, County Clare, Ireland."
-
-Before she had finished came Freckles' voice: "Angel, are you hurrying?"
-
-"Yes," said the Angel; "I am. But there is a good deal of it. I have to
-put in your house and country, so that you will feel located."
-
-"Me house?" marveled Freckles.
-
-"Of course," said the Angel. "Your uncle says your grandmother left your
-father her dower house and estate, because she knew his father would cut
-him off. You get that, and all your share of your grandfather's property
-besides. It is all set off for you and waiting. Lord O'More told me so.
-I suspect you are richer than McLean, Freckles."
-
-She closed his fingers over the slip and straightened his hair.
-
-"Now you are all right, dear Limberlost guard," she said. "You go to
-sleep and don't think of a thing but just pure joy, joy, joy! I'll keep
-your people until you wake up. You are too tired to see anyone else just
-now!"
-
-Freckles caught her skirt as she turned from him.
-
-"I'll go to sleep in five minutes," he said, "if you will be doing just
-one thing more for me. Send for your father! Oh, Angel, send for him
-quick! How will I ever be waiting until he comes?"
-
-One instant the Angel stood looking at him. The next a crimson wave
-darkly stained her lovely face. Her chin began a spasmodic quivering and
-the tears sprang into her eyes. Her hands caught at her chest as if she
-were stifling. Freckles' grasp on her tightened until he drew her beside
-him. He slipped his arm around her and drew her face to his pillow.
-
-"Don't, Angel; for the love of mercy don't be doing that," he implored.
-"I can't be bearing it. Tell me. You must tell me."
-
-The Angel shook her head.
-
-"That ain't fair, Angel," said Freckles. "You made me tell you when it
-was like tearing the heart raw from me breast. And you was for making
-everything heaven--just heaven and nothing else for me. If I'm so much
-more now than I was an hour ago, maybe I can be thinking of some way to
-fix things. You will be telling me?" he coaxed, moving his cheek against
-her hair.
-
-The Angel's head moved in negation. Freckles did a moment of intent
-thinking.
-
-"Maybe I can be guessing," he whispered. "Will you be giving me three
-chances?"
-
-There was the faintest possible assent.
-
-"You didn't want me to be knowing me name," guessed Freckles.
-
-The Angel's head sprang from the pillow and her tear-stained face flamed
-with outraged indignation.
-
-"Why, I did too!" she cried angrily.
-
-"One gone," said Freckles calmly. "You didn't want me to have relatives,
-a home, and money."
-
-"I did!" exclaimed the Angel. "Didn't I go myself, all alone, into the
-city, and find them when I was afraid as death? I did too!"
-
-"Two gone," said Freckles. "You didn't want the beautifulest girl in the
-world to be telling me.----"
-
-Down went the Angel's face and a heavy sob shook her. Freckles' clasp
-tightened around her shoulders, while his face, in its conflicting
-emotions, was a study. He was so stunned and bewildered by the miracle
-that had been performed in bringing to light his name and relatives that
-he had no strength left for elaborate mental processes. Despite all
-it meant to him to know his name at last, and that he was of honorable
-birth--knowledge without which life was an eternal disgrace and burden
-the one thing that was hammering in Freckles' heart and beating in his
-brain, past any attempted expression, was the fact that, while nameless
-and possibly born in shame, the Angel had told him that she loved him.
-He could find no word with which to begin to voice the rapture of his
-heart over that. But if she regretted it--if it had been a thing done
-out of her pity for his condition, or her feeling of responsibility, if
-it killed him after all, there was only one thing left to do. Not for
-McLean, not for the Bird Woman, not for the Duncans would Freckles have
-done it--but for the Angel--if it would make her happy--he would do
-anything.
-
-"Angel," whispered Freckles, with his lips against her hair, "you
-haven't learned your history book very well, or else you've forgotten."
-
-"Forgotten what?" sobbed the Angel.
-
-"Forgotten about the real knight, Ladybird," breathed Freckles. "Don't
-you know that, if anything happened that made his lady sorry, a real
-knight just simply couldn't be remembering it? Angel, darling little
-Swamp Angel, you be listening to me. There was one night on the trail,
-one solemn, grand, white night, that there wasn't ever any other like
-before or since, when the dear Boss put his arm around me and told me
-that he loved me; but if you care, Angel, if you don't want it that
-way, why, I ain't remembering that anyone else ever did--not in me whole
-life."
-
-The Angel lifted her head and looked into the depths of Freckles' honest
-gray eyes, and they met hers unwaveringly; but the pain in them was
-pitiful.
-
-"Do you mean," she demanded, "that you don't remember that a brazen,
-forward girl told you, when you hadn't asked her, that she"--the
-Angel choked on it a second, but she gave a gulp and brought it out
-bravely--"that she loved you?"
-
-"No!" cried Freckles. "No! I don't remember anything of the kind!"
-
-But all the songbirds of his soul burst into melody over that one little
-clause: "When you hadn't asked her."
-
-"But you will," said the Angel. "You may live to be an old, old man, and
-then you will."
-
-"I will not!" cried Freckles. "How can you think it, Angel?"
-
-"You won't even LOOK as if you remember?"
-
-"I will not!" persisted Freckles. "I'll be swearing to it if you want me
-to. If you wasn't too tired to think this thing out straight, you'd be
-seeing that I couldn't--that I just simply couldn't! I'd rather give it
-all up now and go into eternity alone, without ever seeing a soul of me
-same blood, or me home, or hearing another man call me by the name I was
-born to, than to remember anything that would be hurting you, Angel. I
-should think you'd be understanding that it ain't no ways possible for
-me to do it."
-
-The Angel's tear-stained face flashed into dazzling beauty. A
-half-hysterical little laugh broke from her heart and bubbled over her
-lips.
-
-"Oh, Freckles, forgive me!" she cried. "I've been through so much that
-I'm scarcely myself, or I wouldn't be here bothering you when you should
-be sleeping. Of course you couldn't! I knew it all the time! I was just
-scared! I was forgetting that you were you! You're too good a knight
-to remember a thing like that. Of course you are! And when you don't
-remember, why, then it's the same as if it never happened. I was almost
-killed because I'd gone and spoiled everything, but now it will be all
-right. Now you can go on and do things like other men, and I can have
-some flowers, and letters, and my sweetheart coming, and when you are
-SURE, why, then YOU can tell ME things, can't you? Oh, Freckles, I'm
-so glad! Oh, I'm so happy! It's dear of you not to remember, Freckles;
-perfectly dear! It's no wonder I love you so. The wonder would be if
-I did not. Oh, I should like to know how I'm ever going to make you
-understand how much I love you!"
-
-Pillow and all, she caught him to her breast one long second; then she
-was gone.
-
-Freckles lay dazed with astonishment. At last his amazed eyes searched
-the room for something approaching the human to which he could appeal,
-and falling on his mother's portrait, he set it before him.
-
-"For the love of life! Me little mother," he panted, "did you hear that?
-Did you hear it! Tell me, am I living, or am I dead and all heaven come
-true this minute? Did you hear it?"
-
-He shook the frame in his impatience at receiving no answer.
-
-"You are only a pictured face," he said at last, "and of course you
-can't talk; but the soul of you must be somewhere, and surely in this
-hour you are close enough to be hearing. Tell me, did you hear that? I
-can't ever be telling a living soul; but darling little mother, who
-gave your life for mine, I can always be talking of it to you! Every day
-we'll talk it over and try to understand the miracle of it. Tell me, are
-all women like that? Were you like me Swamp Angel? If you were, then I'm
-understanding why me father followed across the ocean and went into the
-fire."
-
-
-
-CHAPTER XX
-
-Wherein Freckles returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails for
-Ireland Without Him
-
-Freckles' voice ceased, his eyes closed, and his head rolled back from
-exhaustion. Later in the day he insisted on seeing Lord and Lady O'More,
-but he fainted before the resemblance of another man to him, and gave
-all of his friends a terrible fright.
-
-The next morning, the Man of Affairs, with a heart filled with
-misgivings, undertook the interview on which Freckles insisted. His
-fears were without cause. Freckles was the soul of honor and simplicity.
-
-"Have they been telling you what's come to me?" he asked without even
-waiting for a greeting.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel's father.
-
-"Do you think you have the very worst of it clear to your
-understanding?"
-
-Under Freckles' earnest eyes the Man of Affairs answered soberly: "I
-think I have, Mr. O'More."
-
-That was the first time Freckles heard his name from the lips of
-another. One second he lay overcome; the next, tears filled his eyes,
-and he reached out his hand. Then the Angel's father understood, and he
-clasped that hand and held it in a strong, firm grasp.
-
-"Terence, my boy," he said, "let me do the talking. I came here with
-the understanding that you wanted to ask me for my only child. I should
-like, at the proper time, to regard her marriage, if she has found the
-man she desires to marry, not as losing all I have, but as gaining a man
-on whom I can depend to love as a son and to take charge of my affairs
-for her when I retire from business. Bend all of your energies toward
-rapid recovery, and from this hour understand that my daughter and my
-home are yours."
-
-"You're not forgetting this?"
-
-Freckles lifted his right arm.
-
-"Terence, I'm sorrier than I have words to express about that," said
-the Man of Affairs. "It's a damnable pity! But if it's for me to choose
-whether I give all I have left in this world to a man lacking a hand, or
-to one of these gambling, tippling, immoral spendthrifts of today, with
-both hands and feet off their souls, and a rotten spot in the core, I
-choose you; and it seems that my daughter does the same. Put what is
-left you of that right arm to the best uses you can in this world, and
-never again mention or feel that it is defective so long as you live.
-Good day, sir!"
-
-"One minute more," said Freckles. "Yesterday the Angel was telling me
-that there was money coming to me from two sources. She said that me
-grandmother had left me father all of her fortune and her house, because
-she knew that his father would be cutting him off, and also that me
-uncle had set aside for me what would be me father's interest in his
-father's estate.
-
-"Whatever the sum is that me grandmother left me father, because she
-loved him and wanted him to be having it, that I'll be taking. 'Twas
-hers from her father, and she had the right to be giving it as she
-chose. Anything from the man that knowingly left me father and me mother
-to go cold and hungry, and into the fire in misery, when just a little
-would have made life so beautiful to them, and saved me this crippled
-body--money that he willed from me when he knew I was living, of his
-blood and on charity among strangers, I don't touch, not if I freeze,
-starve, and burn too! If there ain't enough besides that, and I can't be
-earning enough to fix things for the Angel----"
-
-"We are not discussing money!" burst in the Man of Affairs. "We don't
-want any blood-money! We have all we need without it. If you don't feel
-right and easy over it, don't you touch a cent of any of it."
-
-"It's right I should have what me grandmother intinded for me father,
-and I want it," said Freckles, "but I'd die before I'd touch a cent of
-me grandfather's money!"
-
-
-"Now," said the Angel, "we are all going home. We have done all we can
-for Freckles. His people are here. He should know them. They are very
-anxious to become acquainted with him. We'll resign him to them. When he
-is well, why, then he will be perfectly free to go to Ireland or come to
-the Limberlost, just as he chooses. We will go at once."
-
-McLean held out for a week, and then he could endure it no longer.
-He was heart hungry for Freckles. Communing with himself in the long,
-soundful nights of the swamp, he had learned to his astonishment that
-for the past year his heart had been circling the Limberlost with
-Freckles. He began to wish that he had not left him. Perhaps the
-boy--his boy by first right, after all--was being neglected. If the
-Boss had been a nervous old woman, he scarcely could have imagined more
-things that might be going wrong.
-
-He started for Chicago, loaded with a big box of goldenrod, asters,
-fringed gentians, and crimson leaves, that the Angel carefully had
-gathered from Freckles' room, and a little, long slender package. He
-traveled with biting, stinging jealousy in his heart. He would not
-admit it even to himself, but he was unable to remain longer away from
-Freckles and leave him to the care of Lord O'More.
-
-In a few minutes' talk, while McLean awaited admission to Freckles'
-room, his lordship had chatted genially of Freckles' rapid recovery,
-of his delight that he was unspotted by his early surroundings, and
-his desire to visit the Limberlost with Freckles before they sailed;
-he expressed the hope that he could prevail upon the Angel's father to
-place her in his wife's care and have her education finished in Paris.
-He said they were anxious to do all they could to help bind Freckles'
-arrangements with the Angel, as both he and Lady O'More regarded her as
-the most promising girl they knew, and one who could be fitted to fill
-the high position in which Freckles would place her.
-
-Every word he uttered was pungent with bitterness to McLean. The swamp
-had lost its flavor without Freckles; and yet, as Lord O'More talked,
-McLean fervently wished himself in the heart of it. As he entered
-Freckles' room he almost lost his breath. Everything was changed.
-
-Freckles lay beside a window where he could follow Lake Michigan's
-blue until the horizon dipped into it. He could see big soft clouds,
-white-capped waves, shimmering sails, and puffing steamers trailing
-billowing banners of lavender and gray across the sky. Gulls and curlews
-wheeled over the water and dipped their wings in the foam. The room was
-filled with every luxury that taste and money could introduce.
-
-All the tan and sunburn had been washed from Freckles' face in sweats
-of agony. It was a smooth, even white, its brown rift scarcely showing.
-What the nurses and Lady O'More had done to Freckles' hair McLean could
-not guess, but it was the most beautiful that he ever had seen. Fine as
-floss, bright in color, waving and crisp, it fell around the white face.
-
-They had gotten his arms into and his chest covered with a finely
-embroidered, pale-blue silk shirt, with soft, white tie at the throat.
-Among the many changes that had taken place during his absence, the
-fact that Freckles was most attractive and barely escaped being handsome
-remained almost unnoticed by the Boss, so great was his astonishment at
-seeing both cuffs turned back and the right arm in view. Freckles was
-using the maimed arm that previously he always had hidden.
-
-"Oh Lord, sir, but I'm glad to see you!" cried Freckles, almost rolling
-from the bed as he reached toward McLean. "Tell me quick, is the Angel
-well and happy? Can me Little Chicken spread six feet of wing and
-sail to his mother? How's me new father, the Bird Woman, Duncans, and
-Nellie--darling little high-stepping Nelie? Me Aunt Alice is going to
-choose the hat just as soon as I'm mended enough to be going with her.
-How are all the gang? Have they found any more good trees? I've been
-thinking a lot, sir. I believe I can find others near that last one.
-Me Aunt Alice thinks maybe I can, and Uncle Terence says it's likely.
-Golly, but they're nice, ilegant people. I tell you I'm proud to be same
-blood with them! Come closer, quick! I was going to do this yesterday,
-and somehow I just felt that you'd surely be coming today and I waited.
-I'm selecting the Angel's ring stone. The ring she ordered for me is
-finished and they sent it to keep me company. See? It's an emerald--just
-me color, Lord O'More says."
-
-Freckles flourished his hand.
-
-"Ain't that fine? Never took so much comfort with anything in me life.
-Every color of the old swamp is in it. I asked the Angel to have a
-little shamrock leaf cut on it, so every time I saw it I'd be thinking
-of the 'love, truth, and valor' of that song she was teaching me. Ain't
-that a beautiful song? Some of these days I'm going to make it echo. I'm
-a little afraid to be doing it with me voice yet, but me heart's tuning
-away on it every blessed hour. Will you be looking at these now?"
-
-Freckles tilted a tray of unset stones from Peacock's that would have
-ransomed several valuable kings. He held them toward McLean, stirring
-them with his right arm.
-
-"I tell you I'm glad to see you, sir" he said. "I tried to tell me uncle
-what I wanted, but this ain't for him to be mixed up in, anyway, and I
-don't think I made it clear to him. I couldn't seem to say the words I
-wanted. I can be telling you, sir."
-
-McLean's heart began to thump as a lover's.
-
-"Go on, Freckles," he said assuringly.
-
-"It's this," said Freckles. "I told him that I would pay only three
-hundred dollars for the Angel's stone. I'm thinking that with what he
-has laid up for me, and the bigness of things that the Angel did for me,
-it seems like a stingy little sum to him. I know he thinks I should be
-giving much more, but I feel as if I just had to be buying that stone
-with money I earned meself; and that is all I have saved of me wages. I
-don't mind paying for the muff, or the drexing table, or Mrs. Duncan's
-things, from that other money, and later the Angel can have every last
-cent of me grandmother's, if she'll take it; but just now--oh, sir,
-can't you see that I have to be buying this stone with what I have in
-the bank? I'm feeling that I couldn't do any other way, and don't you
-think the Angel would rather have the best stone I can buy with the
-money I earned meself than a finer one paid for with other money?"
-
-"In other words, Freckles," said the Boss in a husky voice, "you don't
-want to buy the Angel's ring with money. You want to give for it
-your first awful fear of the swamp. You want to pay for it with the
-loneliness and heart hunger you have suffered there, with last winter's
-freezing on the line and this summer's burning in the sun. You want it
-to stand to her for every hour in which you risked your life to fulfill
-your contract honorably. You want the price of that stone to be the
-fears that have chilled your heart--the sweat and blood of your body."
-
-Freckles' eyes were filled with tears and his face quivering with
-feeling.
-
-"Dear Mr. McLean," he said, reaching with a caress over the Boss's black
-hair and his cheek. "Dear Boss, that's why I've wanted you so. I knew
-you would know. Now you will be looking at these? I don't want emeralds,
-because that's what she gave me."
-
-He pushed the green stones into a little heap of rejected ones. Then he
-singled out all the pearls.
-
-"Ain't they pretty things?" he said. "I'll be getting her some of those
-later. They are like lily faces, turtle-head flowers, dewdrops in the
-shade or moonlight; but they haven't the life in them that I want in the
-stone I give to the Angel right now."
-
-Freckles heaped the pearls with the emeralds. He studied the diamonds a
-long time.
-
-"These things are so fascinating like they almost tempt one, though they
-ain't quite the proper thing," he said. "I've always dearly loved to be
-watching yours, sir. I must get her some of these big ones, too, some
-day. They're like the Limberlost in January, when it's all ice-coated,
-and the sun is in the west and shines through and makes all you can see
-of the whole world look like fire and ice; but fire and ice ain't like
-the Angel."
-
-The diamonds joined the emeralds and pearls. There was left a little red
-heap, and Freckles' fingers touched it with a new tenderness. His eyes
-were flashing.
-
-"I'm thinking here's me Angel's stone," he exulted. "The Limberlost, and
-me with it, grew in mine; but it's going to bloom, and her with it, in
-this! There's the red of the wild poppies, the cardinal-flowers, and the
-little bunch of crushed foxfire that we found where she put it to save
-me. There's the light of the campfire, and the sun setting over Sleepy
-Snake Creek. There's the red of the blood we were willing to give for
-each other. It's like her lips, and like the drops that dried on her
-beautiful arm that first day, and I'm thinking it must be like the
-brave, tender, clean, red heart of her."
-
-Freckles lifted the ruby to his lips and handed it to McLean.
-
-"I'll be signing me cheque and you have it set," he said. "I want you to
-draw me money and pay for it with those very same dollars, sir."
-
-Again the heart of McLean took hope.
-
-"Freckles, may I ask you something?" he said.
-
-"Why, sure," said Freckles. "There's nothing you would be asking that it
-wouldn't be giving me joy to be telling you."
-
-McLean's eyes traveled to Freckles' right arm with which he was moving
-the jewels.
-
-"Oh, that!" cried Freckles with a laugh. "You're wanting to know where
-all the bitterness is gone? Well sir, 'twas carried from me soul, heart,
-and body on the lips of an Angel. Seems that hurt was necessary in the
-beginning to make today come true. The wound had always been raw, but
-the Angel was healing it. If she doesn't care, I don't. Me dear new
-father doesn't, nor me aunt and uncle, and you never did. Why should I
-be fretting all me life about what can't be helped. The real truth is,
-that since what happened to it last week, I'm so everlastingly proud of
-it I catch meself sticking it out on display a bit."
-
-Freckles looked the Boss in the eyes and began to laugh.
-
-"Well thank heaven!" said McLean.
-
-"Now it's me turn," said Freckles. "I don't know as I ought to be asking
-you, and yet I can't see a reason good enough to keep me from it. It's
-a thing I've had on me mind every hour since I've had time to straighten
-things out a little. May I be asking you a question?"
-
-McLean reached over and took Freckles' hand. His voice was shaken with
-feeling as he replied: "Freckles, you almost hurt me. Will you never
-learn how much you are to me--how happy you make me in coming to me with
-anything, no matter what?"
-
-"Then it's this," said Freckles, gripping the hand of McLean strongly.
-"If this accident, and all that's come to me since, had never happened,
-where was it you had planned to send me to school? What was it you meant
-for me to do?"
-
-"Why, Freckles," answered McLean, "I'm scarcely prepared to state
-definitely. My ideas were rather hazy. I thought we would make a
-beginning and see which way things went. I figured on taking you to
-Grand Rapids first, and putting you in the care of my mother. I had an
-idea it would be best to secure a private tutor to coach you for a
-year or two, until you were ready to enter Ann Arbor or the Chicago
-University in good shape. Then I thought we'd finish in this country at
-Yale or Harvard, and end with Oxford, to get a good, all-round flavor."
-
-"Is that all?" asked Freckles.
-
-"No; that's leaving the music out," said McLean. "I intended to have
-your voice tested by some master, and if you really were endowed for a
-career as a great musician, and had inclinations that way, I wished to
-have you drop some of the college work and make music your chief study.
-Finally, I wanted us to take a trip through Europe and clear around the
-circle together."
-
-"And then what?" queried Freckles breathlessly.
-
-"Why, then," said McLean, "you know that my heart is hopelessly in the
-woods. I never will quit the timber business while there is timber to
-handle and breath in my body. I thought if you didn't make a profession
-of music, and had any inclination my way, we would stretch the
-partnership one more and take you into the firm, placing your work with
-me. Those plans may sound jumbled in the telling, but they have grown
-steadily on me, Freckles, as you have grown dear to me."
-
-Freckles lifted anxious and eager eyes to McLean.
-
-"You told me once on the trail, and again when we thought that I was
-dying, that you loved me. Do these things that have come to me make any
-difference in any way with your feeing toward me?"
-
-"None," said McLean. "How could they, Freckles? Nothing could make me
-love you more, and you never will do anything that will make me love you
-less."
-
-"Glory be to God!" cried Freckles. "Glory to the Almighty! Hurry and
-be telling your mother I'm coming! Just as soon as I can get on me feet
-I'll be taking that ring to me Angel, and then I'll go to Grand Rapids
-and be making me start just as you planned, only that I can be paying me
-own way. When I'm educated enough, we'll all--the Angel and her father,
-the Bird Woman, you, and me--all of us will go together and see me house
-and me relations and be taking that trip. When we get back, we'll add
-O'More to the Lumber Company, and golly, sir, but we'll make things hum!
-Good land, sir! Don't do that! Why, Mr. McLean, dear Boss, dear father,
-don't be doing that! What is it?"
-
-"Nothing, nothing!" boomed McLean's deep bass; "nothing at all!"
-
-He abruptly turned, and hurried to the window.
-
-"This is a mighty fine view," he said. "Lake's beautiful this morning.
-No wonder Chicago people are so proud of their city's location on its
-shore. But, Freckles, what is Lord O'More going to say to this?"
-
-"I don't know," said Freckles. "I am going to be cut deep if he cares,
-for he's been more than good to me, and Lady Alice is next to me Angel.
-He's made me feel me blood and race me own possession. She's talked to
-me by the hour of me father and mother and me grandmother. She's made
-them all that real I can lay claim to them and feel that they are mine.
-I'm very sorry to be hurting them, if it will, but it can't be changed.
-Nobody ever puts the width of the ocean between me and the Angel. From
-here to the Limberlost is all I can be bearing peaceable. I want the
-education, and then I want to work and live here in the country where I
-was born, and where the ashes of me father and mother rest.
-
-"I'll be glad to see Ireland, and glad especial to see those little
-people who are my kin, but I ain't ever staying long. All me heart
-is the Angel's, and the Limberlost is calling every minute. You're
-thinking, sir, that when I look from that window I see the beautiful
-water, ain't you? I'm not.
-
-"I see soft, slow clouds oozing across the blue, me big black chickens
-hanging up there, and a great feather softly sliding down. I see mighty
-trees, swinging vines, bright flowers, and always masses of the wild
-roses, with the wild rose face of me Ladybird looking through. I see the
-swale rocking, smell the sweetness of the blooming things, and the damp,
-mucky odor of the swamp; and I hear me birds sing, me squirrels bark,
-the rattlers hiss, and the step of Wessner or Black Jack coming; and
-whether it's the things that I loved or the things that I feared, it's
-all a part of the day.
-
-"Me heart's all me Swamp Angel's, and me love is all hers, and I have
-her and the swamp so confused in me mind I never can be separating them.
-When I look at her, I see blue sky, the sun rifting through the leaves
-and pink and red flowers; and when I look at the Limberlost I see a pink
-face with blue eyes, gold hair, and red lips, and, it's the truth, sir,
-they're mixed till they're one to me!
-
-"I'm afraid it will be hurting some, but I have the feeing that I can be
-making my dear people understand, so that they will be willing to let
-me come back home. Send Lady O'More to put these flowers God made in the
-place of these glass-house ilegancies, and please be cutting the string
-of this little package the Angel's sent me."
-
-As Freckles held up the package, the lights of the Limberlost flashed
-from the emerald on his finger. On the cover was printed: "To the
-Limberlost Guard!" Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent black feather.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Freckles, by Gene Stratton-Porter
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-
-
-
-                                 FRECKLES
-
-                           Gene Stratton-Porter
-
-
-
-
-                                   To
-                           all good Irishmen
-                              in general
-                               and one
-                         CHARLES DARWIN PORTER
-                              in particular
-
-
-
-                                 Characters
-
-
-FRECKLES, a plucky waif who guards the Limberlost timber leases
-and dreams of Angels.
-
-THE SWAMP ANGEL, in whom Freckles' sweetest dream materializes.
-
-MCLEAN, a member of a Grand Rapids lumber company, who befriends Freckles.
-
-MRS. DUNCAN, who gives mother-love and a home to Freckles.
-
-DUNCAN, head teamster of McLean's timber gang.
-
-THE BIRD WOMAN, who is collecting camera studies of birds for a book.
-
-LORD AND LADY O'MORE, who come from Ireland in quest of a lost relative.
-
-THE MAN OF AFFAIRS, brusque of manner, but big of heart.
-
-WESSNER, a Dutch timber-thief who wants rascality made easy.
-
-BLACK JACK, a villain to whom thought of repentance comes too late.
-
-SEARS, camp cook.
-
-
-
-
-
-                                 Contents
-
-
-
-I    Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-
-II   Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-
-III  Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-
-IV   Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way for
-     New Experiences
-
-V    Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-
-VI   Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-
-VII  Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-
-VIII Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by
-     the Encounter
-
-IX   Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles
-     Comes to the Rescue
-
-X    Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-
-XI   Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the
-     Bird Woman
-
-XII  Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-
-XIII Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black
-     Jack Falls upon Her
-
-XIV Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-
-XV Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little
-   Chicken Furnishes the Subject
-
-XVI Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-
-XVII Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body
-
-XVIII Wherein Freckles Refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable
-      Birth, and the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-
-XIX Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-
-XX Wherein Freckles Returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More
-   Sails for Ireland Without Him
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER I
-
-Wherein Great Risks Are Taken and the Limberlost Guard Is Hired
-
-Freckles came down the corduroy that crosses the lower end of
-the Limberlost.  At a glance he might have been mistaken for a
-tramp, but he was truly seeking work.  He was intensely eager
-to belong somewhere and to be attached to almost any enterprise
-that would furnish him food and clothing.
-
-Long before he came in sight of the camp of the Grand Rapids Lumber
-Company, he could hear the cheery voices of the men, the neighing
-of the horses, and could scent the tempting odors of cooking food. 
-A feeling of homeless friendlessness swept over him in a sickening wave. 
-Without stopping to think, he turned into the newly made road and
-followed it to the camp, where the gang was making ready for supper
-and bed.
-
-The scene was intensely attractive.  The thickness of the swamp
-made a dark, massive background below, while above towered
-gigantic trees.  The men were calling jovially back and forth as
-they unharnessed tired horses that fell into attitudes of rest and
-crunched, in deep content, the grain given them.  Duncan, the brawny
-Scotch head-teamster, lovingly wiped the flanks of his big bays
-with handfuls of pawpaw leaves, as he softly whistled, "O wha will
-be my dearie, O!" and a cricket beneath the leaves at his feet
-accompanied him.  The green wood fire hissed and crackled merrily. 
-Wreathing tongues of flame wrapped around the big black kettles,
-and when the cook lifted the lids to plunge in his testing-fork,
-gusts of savory odors escaped.
-
-Freckles approached him.
-
-"I want to speak with the Boss," he said.
-
-The cook glanced at him and answered carelessly:  "He can't use you."
-
-The color flooded Freckles' face, but he said simply:  "If you will
-be having the goodness to point him out, we will give him a chance
-to do his own talking."
-
-With a shrug of astonishment, the cook led the way to a rough board
-table where a broad, square-shouldered man was bending over some
-account-books.
-
-"Mr. McLean, here's another man wanting to be taken on the gang,
-I suppose," he said.
-
-"All right," came the cheery answer.  "I never needed a good man
-more than I do just now."
-
-The manager turned a page and carefully began a new line.
-
-"No use of your bothering with this fellow," volunteered the cook. 
-"He hasn't but one hand."
-
-The flush on Freckles' face burned deeper.  His lips thinned to a
-mere line.  He lifted his shoulders, took a step forward, and thrust
-out his right arm, from which the sleeve dangled empty at the wrist.
-
-"That will do, Sears," came the voice of the Boss sharply.  "I will
-interview my man when I finish this report."
-
-He turned to his work, while the cook hurried to the fires. 
-Freckles stood one instant as he had braced himself to meet the
-eyes of the manager; then his arm dropped and a wave of whiteness
-swept him.  The Boss had not even turned his head.  He had used
-the possessive.  When he said "my man," the hungry heart of
-Freckles went reaching toward him.
-
-The boy drew a quivering breath.  Then he whipped off his old hat
-and beat the dust from it carefully.  With his left hand he caught
-the right sleeve, wiped his sweaty face, and tried to straighten
-his hair with his fingers.  He broke a spray of ironwort beside
-him and used the purple bloom to beat the dust from his shoulders
-and limbs.  The Boss, busy over his report, was, nevertheless, vaguely
-alive to the toilet being made behind him, and scored one for the man.
-
-McLean was a Scotchman.  It was his habit to work slowly
-and methodically.  The men of his camps never had known him to be
-in a hurry or to lose his temper.  Discipline was inflexible, but
-the Boss was always kind.  His habits were simple.  He shared camp
-life with his gangs.  The only visible signs of wealth consisted
-of a big, shimmering diamond stone of ice and fire that glittered
-and burned on one of his fingers, and the dainty, beautiful
-thoroughbred mare he rode between camps and across the country
-on business.
-
-No man of McLean's gangs could honestly say that he ever had been
-overdriven or underpaid.  The Boss never had exacted any deference
-from his men, yet so intense was his personality that no man of
-them ever had attempted a familiarity.  They all knew him to be a
-thorough gentleman, and that in the great timber city several
-millions stood to his credit.
-
-He was the only son of that McLean who had sent out the finest
-ships ever built in Scotland.  That his son should carry on this
-business after the father's death had been his ambition.  He had
-sent the boy through the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh, and
-allowed him several years' travel before he should attempt his
-first commission for the firm.
-
-Then he was ordered to southern Canada and Michigan to purchase
-a consignment of tall, straight timber for masts, and south to
-Indiana for oak beams.  The young man entered these mighty forests,
-parts of which lay untouched since the dawn of the morning of time. 
-The clear, cool, pungent atmosphere was intoxicating.  The intense
-silence, like that of a great empty cathedral, fascinated him. 
-He gradually learned that, to the shy wood creatures that darted
-across his path or peeped inquiringly from leafy ambush, he
-was brother.  He found himself approaching, with a feeling of
-reverence, those majestic trees that had stood through ages of
-sun, wind, and snow.  Soon it became difficult to fell them. 
-When he had filled his order and returned home, he was amazed
-to learn that in the swamps and forests he had lost his heart
-and it was calling--forever calling him.
-
-When he inherited his father's property, he promptly disposed of
-it, and, with his mother, founded a home in a splendid residence in
-the outskirts of Grand Rapids.  With three partners, he organized a
-lumber company.  His work was to purchase, fell, and ship the timber
-to the mills.  Marshall managed the milling process and passed the
-lumber to the factory.  From the lumber, Barthol made beautiful and
-useful furniture, which Uptegrove scattered all over the world from
-a big wholesale house.  Of the thousands who saw their faces
-reflected on the polished surfaces of that furniture and found
-comfort in its use, few there were to whom it suggested mighty
-forests and trackless swamps, and the man, big of soul and body,
-who cut his way through them, and with the eye of experience doomed
-the proud trees that were now entering the homes of civilization
-for service.
-
-When McLean turned from his finished report, he faced a young man,
-yet under twenty, tall, spare, heavily framed, closely freckled,
-and red-haired, with a homely Irish face, but in the steady gray
-eyes, straightly meeting his searching ones of blue, there was
-unswerving candor and the appearance of longing not to be ignored. 
-He was dressed in the roughest of farm clothing, and seemed tired
-to the point of falling.
-
-"You are looking for work?" questioned McLean.
-
-"Yis," answered Freckles.
-
-"I am very sorry," said the Boss with genuine sympathy in his every
-tone, "but there is only one man I want at present--a hardy, big
-fellow with a stout heart and a strong body.  I hoped that you would
-do, but I am afraid you are too young and scarcely strong enough."
-
-Freckles stood, hat in hand, watching McLean.
-
-"And what was it you thought I might be doing?" he asked.
-
-The Boss could scarcely repress a start.  Somewhere before accident
-and poverty there had been an ancestor who used cultivated English,
-even with an accent.  The boy spoke in a mellow Irish voice, sweet
-and pure.  It was scarcely definite enough to be called brogue, yet
-there was a trick in the turning of the sentence, the wrong sound
-of a letter here and there, that was almost irresistible to McLean,
-and presaged a misuse of infinitives and possessives with which he
-was very familiar and which touched him nearly.  He was of foreign
-birth, and despite years of alienation, in times of strong feeling
-he committed inherited sins of accent and construction.
-
-"It's no child's job," answered McLean.  "I am the field manager of
-a big lumber company.  We have just leased two thousand acres of
-the Limberlost.  Many of these trees are of great value.  We can't
-leave our camp, six miles south, for almost a year yet; so we have
-blazed a trail and strung barbed wires securely around this lease. 
-Before we return to our work, I must put this property in the hands
-of a reliable, brave, strong man who will guard it every hour of
-the day, and sleep with one eye open at night.  I shall require the
-entire length of the trail to be walked at least twice each day, to
-make sure that our lines are up and that no one has been trespassing."
-
-Freckles was leaning forward, absorbing every word with such
-intense eagerness that he was beguiling the Boss into explanations
-he had never intended making.
-
-"But why wouldn't that be the finest job in the world for me?"
-he pleaded.  "I am never sick.  I could walk the trail twice,
-three times every day, and I'd be watching sharp all the while."
-
-"It's because you are scarcely more than a boy, and this will be a
-trying job for a work-hardened man," answered McLean.  "You see, in
-the first place, you would be afraid.  In stretching our lines, we
-killed six rattlesnakes almost as long as your body and as thick as
-your arm.  It's the price of your life to start through the
-marshgrass surrounding the swamp unless you are covered with
-heavy leather above your knees.
-
-"You should be able to swim in case high water undermines the
-temporary bridge we have built where Sleepy Snake Creek enters
-the swamp.  The fall and winter changes of weather are abrupt and
-severe, while I would want strict watch kept every day.  You would
-always be alone, and I don't guarantee what is in the Limberlost. 
-It is lying here as it has lain since the beginning of time, and it
-is alive with forms and voices.  I don't pretend to say what all of
-them come from; but from a few slinking shapes I've seen, and
-hair-raising yells I've heard, I'd rather not confront their owners
-myself; and I am neither weak nor fearful.
-
-"Worst of all, any man who will enter the swamp to mark and steal
-timber is desperate.  One of my employees at the south camp, John
-Carter, compelled me to discharge him for a number of serious reasons. 
-He came here, entered the swamp alone, and succeeded in locating
-and marking a number of valuable trees that he was endeavoring
-to sell to a rival company when we secured the lease.  He has
-sworn to have these trees if he has to die or to kill others to
-get them; and he is a man that the strongest would not care to meet."
-
-"But if he came to steal trees, wouldn't he bring teams and men
-enough: that all anyone could do would be to watch and be after
-you?" queried the boy.
-
-"Yes," replied McLean.
-
-"Then why couldn't I be watching just as closely, and coming as
-fast, as an older, stronger man?" asked Freckles.
-
-"Why, by George, you could!" exclaimed McLean.  "I don't know as
-the size of a man would be half so important as his grit and
-faithfulness, come to think of it.  Sit on that log there and we
-will talk it over.  What is your name?"
-
-Freckles shook his head at the proffer of a seat, and folding his
-arms, stood straight as the trees around him.  He grew a shade
-whiter, but his eyes never faltered.
-
-"Freckles!" he said.
-
-"Good enough for everyday," laughed McLean, "but I scarcely can
-put `Freckles' on the company's books.  Tell me your name."
-
-"I haven't any name," replied the boy.
-
-"I don't understand," said McLean.
-
-"I was thinking from the voice and the face of you that you
-wouldn't," said Freckles slowly.  "I've spent more time on it than
-I ever did on anything else in all me life, and I don't understand. 
-Does it seem to you that anyone would take a newborn baby and row
-over it, until it was bruised black, cut off its hand, and leave it
-out in a bitter night on the steps of a charity home, to the care
-of strangers?  That's what somebody did to me."
-
-McLean stared aghast.  He had no reply ready, and presently in a low
-voice he suggested:  "And after?"
-
-"The Home people took me in, and I was there the full legal age and
-several years over.  For the most part we were a lot of little
-Irishmen together.  They could always find homes for the other
-children, but nobody would ever be wanting me on account of me arm."
-
-"Were they kind to you?" McLean regretted the question the minute
-it was asked.
-
-"I don't know," answered Freckles.  The reply sounded so hopeless,
-even to his own ears, that he hastened to qualify it by adding: 
-"You see, it's like this, sir.  Kindnesses that people are paid to
-lay off in job lots and that belong equally to several hundred
-others, ain't going to be soaking into any one fellow so much."
-
-"Go on," said McLean, nodding comprehendingly.
-
-"There's nothing worth the taking of your time to tell,"
-replied Freckles.  "The Home was in Chicago, and I was there all
-me life until three months ago.  When I was too old for the
-training they gave to the little children, they sent me to the
-closest ward school as long as the law would let them; but I was
-never like any of the other children, and they all knew it. 
-I'd to go and come like a prisoner, and be working around the
-Home early and late for me board and clothes.  I always wanted
-to learn mighty bad, but I was glad when that was over.
-
-"Every few days, all me life, I'd to be called up, looked over,
-and refused a home and love, on account of me hand and ugly face;
-but it was all the home I'd ever known, and I didn't seem to
-belong to any place else.
-
-"Then a new superintendent was put in.  He wasn't for being like
-any of the others, and he swore he'd weed me out the first thing
-he did.  He made a plan to send me down the State to a man he said
-he knew who needed a boy.  He wasn't for remembering to tell that man
-that I was a hand short, and he knocked me down the minute he found
-I was the boy who had been sent him.  Between noon and that evening,
-he and his son close my age had me in pretty much the same shape in
-which I was found in the beginning, so I lay awake that night and
-ran away.  I'd like to have squared me account with that boy before
-I left, but I didn't dare for fear of waking the old man, and I
-knew I couldn't handle the two of them; but I'm hoping to meet him
-alone some day before I die."
-
-McLean tugged at his mustache to hide the smile on his lips, but he
-liked the boy all the better for this confession.
-
-"I didn't even have to steal clothes to get rid of starting in me
-Home ones," Freckles continued, "for they had already taken all me
-clean, neat things for the boy and put me into his rags, and that
-went almost as sore as the beatings, for where I was we were always
-kept tidy and sweet-smelling, anyway.  I hustled clear into this
-State before I learned that man couldn't have kept me if he'd
-wanted to.  When I thought I was good and away from him, I
-commenced hunting work, but it is with everybody else just as it
-is with you, sir.  Big, strong, whole men are the only ones for
-being wanted."
-
-"I have been studying over this matter," answered McLean.  "I am not
-so sure but that a man no older than you and similar in every way
-could do this work very well, if he were not a coward, and had it
-in him to be trustworthy and industrious."
-
-Freckles came forward a step.
-
-"If you will give me a job where I can earn me food, clothes, and
-a place to sleep," he said, "if I can have a Boss to work for like
-other men, and a place I feel I've a right to, I will do precisely
-what you tell me or die trying."
-
-He spoke so convincingly that McLean believed, although in his
-heart he knew that to employ a stranger would be wretched business
-for a man with the interests he had involved.
-
-"Very well," the Boss found himself answering, "I will enter you on
-my pay rolls.  We'll have supper, and then I will provide you with
-clean clothing, wading-boots, the wire-mending apparatus, and
-a revolver.  The first thing in the morning, I will take you the
-length of the trail myself and explain fully what I want done. 
-All I ask of you is to come to me at once at the south camp and
-tell me as a man if you find this job too hard for you.  It will not
-surprise me.  It is work that few men would perform faithfully. 
-What name shall I put down?"
-
-Freckles' gaze never left McLean's face, and the Boss saw the
-swift spasm of pain that swept his lonely, sensitive features.
-
-"I haven't any name," he said stubbornly, "no more than one
-somebody clapped on to me when they put me on the Home books, with
-not the thought or care they'd name a house cat.  I've seen how they
-enter those poor little abandoned devils often enough to know. 
-What they called me is no more my name than it is yours.  I don't
-know what mine is, and I never will; but I am going to be your man
-and do your work, and I'll be glad to answer to any name you choose
-to call me.  Won't you please be giving me a name, Mr. McLean?"
-
-The Boss wheeled abruptly and began stacking his books.  What he was
-thinking was probably what any other gentleman would have thought
-in the circumstances.  With his eyes still downcast, and in a voice
-harsh with huskiness, he spoke.
-
-"I will tell you what we will do, my lad," he said.  "My father
-was my ideal man, and I loved him better than any other I have
-ever known.  He went out five years ago, but that he would have been
-proud to leave you his name I firmly believe.  If I give to you the
-name of my nearest kin and the man I loved best--will that do?"
-
-Freckles' rigid attitude relaxed suddenly.  His head dropped, and
-big tears splashed on the soiled calico shirt.  McLean was not
-surprised at the silence, for he found that talking came none too
-easily just then.
-
-"All right," he said.  "I will write it on the roll--James Ross McLean."
-
-"Thank you mightily," said Freckles.  "That makes me feel almost as
-if I belonged, already."
-
-"You do," said McLean.  "Until someone armed with every right comes
-to claim you, you are mine.  Now, come and take a bath, have some
-supper, and go to bed."
-
-As Freckles followed into the lights and sounds of the camp, his
-heart and soul were singing for joy.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER II
-
-          Wherein Freckles Proves His Mettle and Finds Friends
-
-Next morning found Freckles in clean, whole clothing, fed,
-and rested.  Then McLean outfitted him and gave him careful
-instruction in the use of his weapon.  The Boss showed him around
-the timber-line, and engaged him a place to board with the family
-of his head teamster, Duncan, whom he had brought from Scotland with
-him, and who lived in a small clearing he was working out between
-the swamp and the corduroy.  When the gang was started for the
-south camp, Freckles was left to guard a fortune in the Limberlost. 
-That he was under guard himself those first weeks he never knew.
-
-Each hour was torture to the boy.  The restricted life of a great
-city orphanage was the other extreme of the world compared with
-the Limberlost.  He was afraid for his life every minute.  The heat
-was intense.  The heavy wading-boots rubbed his feet until they bled. 
-He was sore and stiff from his long tramp and outdoor exposure. 
-The seven miles of trail was agony at every step.  He practiced at
-night, under the direction of Duncan, until he grew sure in the use
-of his revolver.  He cut a stout hickory cudgel, with a knot on the
-end as big as his fist; this never left his hand.  What he thought
-in those first days he himself could not recall clearly afterward.
-
-His heart stood still every time he saw the beautiful marsh-grass
-begin a sinuous waving AGAINST the play of the wind, as McLean had
-told him it would.  He bolted half a mile with the first boom of
-the bittern, and his hat lifted with every yelp of the sheitpoke. 
-Once he saw a lean, shadowy form following him, and fired his revolver. 
-Then he was frightened worse than ever for fear it might have been
-Duncan's collie.
-
-The first afternoon that he found his wires down, and he was
-compelled to plunge knee deep into the black swamp-muck to restring
-them, he became so ill from fear and nervousness that he scarcely
-could control his shaking hand to do the work.  With every step, he
-felt that he would miss secure footing and be swallowed in that
-clinging sea of blackness.  In dumb agony he plunged forward,
-clinging to the posts and trees until he had finished restringing
-and testing the wire.  He had consumed much time.  Night closed in. 
-The Limberlost stirred gently, then shook herself, growled, and
-awoke around him.
-
-There seemed to be a great owl hooting from every hollow tree, and
-a little one screeching from every knothole.  The bellowing of big
-bullfrogs was not sufficiently deafening to shut out the wailing of
-whip-poor-wills that seemed to come from every bush.  Nighthawks swept
-past him with their shivering cry, and bats struck his face. 
-A prowling wildcat missed its catch and screamed with rage. 
-A straying fox bayed incessantly for its mate.
-
-The hair on the back of Freckles' neck arose as bristles, and his
-knees wavered beneath him.  He could not see whether the dreaded
-snakes were on the trail, or, in the pandemonium, hear the rattle
-for which McLean had cautioned him to listen.  He stood motionless
-in an agony of fear.  His breath whistled between his teeth. 
-The perspiration ran down his face and body in little streams.
-
-Something big, black, and heavy came crashing through the swamp
-close to him, and with a yell of utter panic Freckles ran--how far
-he did not know; but at last he gained control over himself and
-retraced his steps.  His jaws set stiffly and the sweat dried on
-his body.  When he reached the place from which he had started to
-run, he turned and with measured steps made his way down the line. 
-After a time he realized that he was only walking, so he faced
-that sea of horrors again.  When he came toward the corduroy,
-the cudgel fell to test the wire at each step.
-
-Sounds that curdled his blood seemed to encompass him, and shapes
-of terror to draw closer and closer.  Fear had so gained the mastery
-that he did not dare look behind him; and just when he felt that he
-would fall dead before he ever reached the clearing, came Duncan's
-rolling call:  "Freckles!  Freckles!"  A shuddering sob burst in the
-boy's dry throat; but he only told Duncan that finding the wire
-down had caused the delay.
-
-The next morning he started on time.  Day after day, with his heart
-pounding, he ducked, dodged, ran when he could, and fought when he
-was brought to bay.  If he ever had an idea of giving up, no one
-knew it; for he clung to his job without the shadow of wavering. 
-All these things, in so far as he guessed them, Duncan, who had
-been set to watch the first weeks of Freckles' work, carried to the
-Boss at the south camp; but the innermost, exquisite torture of the
-thing the big Scotchman never guessed, and McLean, with his finer
-perceptions, came only a little closer.
-
-After a few weeks, when Freckles learned that he was still living,
-that he had a home, and the very first money he ever had possessed
-was safe in his pockets, he began to grow proud.  He yet side-
-stepped, dodged, and hurried to avoid being late again, but he
-was gradually developing the fearlessness that men ever acquire
-of dangers to which they are hourly accustomed.
-
-His heart seemed to be leaping when his first rattler disputed the
-trail with him, but he mustered courage to attack it with his club. 
-After its head had been crushed, he mastered an Irishman's inborn
-repugnance for snakes sufficiently to cut off its rattles to
-show Duncan.  With this victory, his greatest fear of them was gone.
-
-Then he began to realize that with the abundance of food in the
-swamp, flesh-hunters would not come on the trail and attack him,
-and he had his revolver for defence if they did.  He soon learned to
-laugh at the big, floppy birds that made horrible noises.  One day,
-watching behind a tree, he saw a crane solemnly performing a few
-measures of a belated nuptial song-and-dance with his mate. 
-Realizing that it was intended in tenderness, no matter how it
-appeared, the lonely, starved heart of the boy sympathized with them.
-
-Before the first month passed, he was fairly easy about his job; by
-the next he rather liked it.  Nature can be trusted to work her own
-miracle in the heart of any man whose daily task keeps him alone
-among her sights, sounds, and silences.
-
-When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter
-loneliness was the companionship of the birds and beasts of the
-swamp, it was the most natural thing in the world that Freckles
-should turn to them for friendship.  He began by instinctively
-protecting the weak and helpless.  He was astonished at the
-quickness with which they became accustomed to him and the
-disregard they showed for his movements, when they learned that
-he was not a hunter, while the club he carried was used more
-frequently for their benefit than his own.  He scarcely could
-believe what he saw.
-
-From the effort to protect the birds and animals, it was only a
-short step to the possessive feeling, and with that sprang the
-impulse to caress and provide.  Through fall, when brooding was
-finished and the upland birds sought the swamp in swarms to feast
-on its seeds and berries, Freckles was content with watching them
-and speculating about them.  Outside of half a dozen of the very
-commonest they were strangers to him.  The likeness of their actions
-to humanity was an hourly surprise.
-
-When black frost began stripping the Limberlost, cutting the ferns,
-shearing the vines from the trees, mowing the succulent green
-things of the swale, and setting the leaves swirling down, he
-watched the departing troops of his friends with dismay.  He began
-to realize that he would be left alone.  He made especial efforts
-toward friendliness with the hope that he could induce some of them
-to stay.  It was then that he conceived the idea of carrying food to
-the birds; for he saw that they were leaving for lack of it; but he
-could not stop them.  Day after day, flocks gathered and departed:
-by the time the first snow whitened his trail around the Limberlost,
-there were left only the little black-and-white juncos, the
-sapsuckers, yellow-hammers, a few patriarchs among the flaming
-cardinals, the blue jays, the crows, and the quail.
-
-Then Freckles began his wizard work.  He cleared a space of swale,
-and twice a day he spread a birds' banquet.  By the middle of
-December the strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed
-from the grass and bushes.  The snow fell, covering the swamp, and
-food was very scarce and difficult to find.  The birds scarcely
-waited until Freckles' back was turned to attack his provisions. 
-In a few weeks they flew toward the clearing to meet him.  During the
-bitter weather of January they came halfway to the cabin every
-morning, and fluttered around him as doves all the way to the
-feeding-ground.  Before February they were so accustomed to him, and
-so hunger-driven, that they would perch on his head and shoulders,
-and the saucy jays would try to pry into his pockets.
-
-Then Freckles added to wheat and crumbs, every scrap of refuse food
-he could find at the cabin.  He carried to his pets the parings of
-apples, turnips, potatoes, stray cabbage-leaves, and carrots, and
-tied to the bushes meat-bones having scraps of fat and gristle. 
-One morning, coming to his feeding-ground unusually early, he found
-a gorgeous cardinal and a rabbit side by side sociably nibbling a
-cabbage-leaf, and that instantly gave to him the idea of cracking
-nuts, from the store he had gathered for Duncan's children, for the
-squirrels, in the effort to add them to his family.  Soon he had
-them coming--red, gray, and black; then he became filled with a
-vast impatience that he did not know their names or habits.
-
-So the winter passed.  Every week McLean rode to the Limberlost;
-never on the same day or at the same hour.  Always he found Freckles
-at his work, faithful and brave, no matter how severe the weather.
-
-The boy's earnings constituted his first money; and when the Boss
-explained to him that he could leave them safe at a bank and carry
-away a scrap of paper that represented the amount, he went straight
-on every payday and made his deposit, keeping out barely what was
-necessary for his board and clothing.  What he wanted to do with his
-money he did not know, but it gave to him a sense of freedom and
-power to feel that it was there--it was his and he could have it
-when he chose.  In imitation of McLean, he bought a small pocket
-account-book, in which he carefully set down every dollar he earned
-and every penny he spent.  As his expenses were small and the Boss
-paid him generously, it was astonishing how his little hoard grew.
-
-That winter held the first hours of real happiness in Freckles' life. 
-He was free.  He was doing a man's work faithfully, through
-every rigor of rain, snow, and blizzard.  He was gathering a
-wonderful strength of body, paying his way, and saving money. 
-Every man of the gang and of that locality knew that he was under
-the protection of McLean, who was a power, this had the effect of
-smoothing Freckles' path in many directions.
-
-Mrs. Duncan showed him that individual kindness for which his
-hungry heart was longing.  She had a hot drink ready for him when he
-came from a freezing day on the trail.  She knit him a heavy mitten
-for his left hand, and devised a way to sew and pad the right
-sleeve that protected the maimed arm in bitter weather.  She patched
-his clothing--frequently torn by the wire--and saved kitchen scraps
-for his birds, not because she either knew or cared anything about
-them, but because she herself was close enough to the swamp to be
-touched by its utter loneliness.  When Duncan laughed at her for
-this, she retorted:  "My God, mannie, if Freckles hadna the birds
-and the beasts he would be always alone.  It was never meant for a
-human being to be so solitary.  He'd get touched in the head if he
-hadna them to think for and to talk to."
-
-"How much answer do ye think he gets to his talkin', lass?"
-laughed Duncan.
-
-"He gets the answer that keeps the eye bright, the heart happy,
-and the feet walking faithful the rough path he's set them in,"
-answered Mrs. Duncan earnestly.
-
-Duncan walked away appearing very thoughtful.  The next morning
-he gave an ear from the corn he was shelling for his chickens to
-Freckles, and told him to carry it to his wild chickens in
-the Limberlost.  Freckles laughed delightedly.
-
-"Me chickens!" he said.  "Why didn't I ever think of that before? 
-Of course they are!  They are just little, brightly colored cocks
-and hens!  But `wild' is no good.  What would you say to me `wild
-chickens' being a good deal tamer than yours here in your yard?"
-
-"Hoot, lad!" cried Duncan.
-
-"Make yours light on your head and eat out of your hands and
-pockets," challenged Freckles.
-
-"Go and tell your fairy tales to the wee people!  They're juist
-brash on believin' things," said Duncan.  "Ye canna invent any
-story too big to stop them from callin' for a bigger."
-
-"I dare you to come see!" retorted Freckles.
-
-"Take ye!" said Duncan.  "If ye make juist ane bird licht on your
-heid or eat frae your hand, ye are free to help yoursel' to my
-corn-crib and wheat bin the rest of the winter."
-
-Freckles sprang in air and howled in glee.
-
-"Oh, Duncan!  You're too, aisy" he cried.  "When will you come?"
-
-"I'll come next Sabbath," said Duncan.  "And I'll believe the birds of
-the Limberlost are tame as barnyard fowl when I see it, and no sooner!"
-
-After that Freckles always spoke of the birds as his chickens, and
-the Duncans followed his example.  The very next Sabbath, Duncan,
-with his wife and children, followed Freckles to the swamp. 
-They saw a sight so wonderful it will keep them talking all the
-remainder of their lives, and make them unfailing friends of all
-the birds.
-
-Freckles' chickens were awaiting him at the edge of the clearing. 
-They cut the frosty air around his head into curves and circles of
-crimson, blue, and black.  They chased each other from Freckles, and
-swept so closely themselves that they brushed him with their
-outspread wings.
-
-At their feeding-ground Freckles set down his old pail of scraps
-and swept the snow from a small level space with a broom improvised
-of twigs.  As soon as his back was turned, the birds clustered over
-the food, snatching scraps to carry to the nearest bushes.  Several of
-the boldest, a big crow and a couple of jays, settled on the rim and
-feasted at leisure, while a cardinal, that hesitated to venture,
-fumed and scolded from a twig overhead.
-
-Then Freckles scattered his store.  At once the ground resembled the
-spread mantle of Montezuma, except that this mass of gaily colored
-feathers was on the backs of living birds.  While they feasted,
-Duncan gripped his wife's arm and stared in astonishment; for from
-the bushes and dry grass, with gentle cheeping and queer, throaty
-chatter, as if to encourage each other, came flocks of quail. 
-Before anyone saw it arrive, a big gray rabbit sat in the midst of
-the feast, contentedly gnawing a cabbage-leaf.
-
-"Weel, I be drawed on!" came Mrs. Duncan's tense whisper.
-
-"Shu-shu," cautioned Duncan.
-
-Lastly Freckles removed his cap.  He began filling it with handfuls
-of wheat from his pockets.  In a swarm the grain-eaters arose around
-him as a flock of tame pigeons.  They perched on his arms and the
-cap, and in the stress of hunger, forgetting all caution, a
-brilliant cock cardinal and an equally gaudy jay fought for a
-perching-place on his head.
-
-"Weel, I'm beat," muttered Duncan, forgetting the silence imposed
-on his wife.  "I'll hae to give in.  `Seein' is believin'.  A man
-wad hae to see that to believe it.  We mauna let the Boss miss that
-sight, for it's a chance will no likely come twice in a life. 
-Everything is snowed under and thae craturs near starved, but
-trustin' Freckles that complete they are tamer than our chickens. 
-Look hard, bairns!" he whispered.  "Ye winna see the like o' yon
-again, while God lets ye live.  Notice their color against the ice
-and snow, and the pretty skippin' ways of them!  And spunky! 
-Weel, I'm heat fair!"
-
-Freckles emptied his cap, turned his pockets and scattered his
-last grain.  Then he waved his watching friends good-bye and
-started down the timber-line.
-
-A week later, Duncan and Freckles arose from breakfast to face the
-bitterest morning of the winter.  When Freckles, warmly capped and
-gloved, stepped to the corner of the kitchen for his scrap-pail, he
-found a big pan of steaming boiled wheat on the top of it.  He wheeled
-to Mrs. Duncan with a shining face.
-
-"Were you fixing this warm food for me chickens or yours?" he asked.
-
-"It's for yours, Freckles," she said.  "I was afeared this cold
-weather they wadna lay good without a warm bite now and then."
-
-Duncan laughed as he stepped to the other room for his pipe; but
-Freckles faced Mrs. Duncan with a trace of every pang of starved
-mother-hunger he ever had suffered written large on his homely,
-splotched, narrow features.
-
-"Oh, how I wish you were my mother!" he cried.
-
-Mrs. Duncan attempted an echo of her husband's laugh.
-
-"Lord love the lad!" she exclaimed.  "Why, Freckles, are ye no
-bright enough to learn without being taught by a woman that I am
-your mither?  If a great man like yoursel' dinna ken that, learn it
-now and ne'er forget it.  Ance a woman is the wife of any man, she
-becomes wife to all men for having had the wifely experience she kens! 
-Ance a man-child has beaten his way to life under the heart of a
-woman, she is mither to all men, for the hearts of mithers are
-everywhere the same.  Bless ye, laddie, I am your mither!"
-
-She tucked the coarse scarf she had knit for him closer over his
-chest and pulled his cap lower over his ears, but Freckles,
-whipping it off and holding it under his arm, caught her rough,
-reddened hand and pressed it to his lips in a long kiss.  Then he
-hurried away to hide the happy, embarrassing tears that were coming
-straight from his swelling heart.
-
-Mrs. Duncan, sobbing unrestrainedly, swept into the adjoining room
-and threw herself into Duncan's arms.
-
-"Oh, the puir lad!" she wailed.  "Oh, the puir mither-hungry lad! 
-He breaks my heart!"
-
-Duncan's arms closed convulsively around his wife.  With a big,
-brown hand he lovingly stroked her rough, sorrel hair.
-
-"Sarah, you're a guid woman!" he said.  "You're a michty guid woman! 
-Ye hae a way o' speakin' out at times that's like the inspired
-prophets of the Lord.  If that had been put to me, now, I'd `a' felt
-all I kent how to and been keen enough to say the richt thing; but
-dang it, I'd `a' stuttered and stammered and got naething out that
-would ha' done onybody a mite o' good.  But ye, Sarah!  Did ye see
-his face, woman?  Ye sent him off lookin' leke a white light of
-holiness had passed ower and settled on him.  Ye sent the lad away
-too happy for mortal words, Sarah.  And ye made me that proud o' ye! 
-I wouldna trade ye an' my share o' the Limberlost with ony king ye
-could mention."
-
-He relaxed his clasp, and setting a heavy hand on each shoulder, he
-looked straight into her eyes.
-
-"Ye're prime, Sarah!  Juist prime!" he said.
-
-Sarah Duncan stood alone in the middle of her two-roomed log cabin
-and lifted a bony, clawlike pair of hands, reddened by frequent
-immersion in hot water, cracked and chafed by exposure to cold,
-black-lined by constant battle with swamp-loam, calloused with
-burns, and stared at them wonderingly.
-
-"Pretty-lookin' things ye are!" she whispered.  "But ye hae juist
-been kissed.  And by such a man!  Fine as God ever made at His
-verra best.  Duncan wouldna trade wi' a king!  Na!  Nor I wadna
-trade with a queen wi' a palace, an' velvet gowns, an' diamonds
-big as hazelnuts, an' a hundred visitors a day into the bargain. 
-Ye've been that honored I'm blest if I can bear to souse ye in
-dish-water.  Still, that kiss winna come off!  Naething can take it
-from me, for it's mine till I dee.  Lord, if I amna proud!  Kisses on
-these old claws!  Weel, I be drawed on!"
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER III
-
-                 Wherein a Feather Falls and a Soul Is Born
-
-So Freckles fared through the bitter winter.  He was very happy. 
-He had hungered for freedom, love, and appreciation so long! 
-He had been unspeakably lonely at the Home; and the utter
-loneliness of a great desert or forest is not so difficult to
-endure as the loneliness of being constantly surrounded by crowds
-of people who do not care in the least whether one is living or dead.
-
-All through the winter Freckles' entire energy was given to keeping
-up his lines and his "chickens" from freezing or starving.  When the
-first breath of spring touched the Limberlost, and the snow receded
-before it; when the catkins began to bloom; when there came a hint
-of green to the trees, bushes, and swale; when the rushes lifted
-their heads, and the pulse of the newly resurrected season beat
-strongly in the heart of nature, something new stirred in the
-breast of the boy.
-
-Nature always levies her tribute.  Now she laid a powerful hand on the
-soul of Freckles, to which the boy's whole being responded, though
-he had not the least idea what was troubling him.  Duncan accepted
-his wife's theory that it was a touch of spring fever, but Freckles
-knew better.  He never had been so well.  Clean, hot, and steady
-the blood pulsed in his veins.  He was always hungry, and his most
-difficult work tired him not at all.  For long months, without a
-single intermission, he had tramped those seven miles of trail twice
-each day, through every conceivable state of weather.  With the
-heavy club he gave his wires a sure test, and between sections,
-first in play, afterward to keep his circulation going, he had
-acquired the skill of an expert drum major.  In his work there was
-exercise for every muscle of his body each hour of the day, at
-night a bath, wholesome food, and sound sleep in a room that never
-knew fire.  He had gained flesh and color, and developed a greater
-strength and endurance than anyone ever could have guessed.
-
-Nor did the Limberlost contain last year's terrors.  He had been
-with her in her hour of desolation, when stripped bare and
-deserted, she had stood shivering, as if herself afraid.  He had
-made excursions into the interior until he was familiar with every
-path and road that ever had been cut.  He had sounded the depths of
-her deepest pools, and had learned why the trees grew so magnificently. 
-He had found that places of swamp and swale were few compared with
-miles of solid timber-land, concealed by summer's luxuriant undergrowth.
-
-The sounds that at first had struck cold fear into his soul he now
-knew had left on wing and silent foot at the approach of winter. 
-As flock after flock of the birds returned and he recognized the
-old echoes reawakening, he found to his surprise that he had
-been lonely for them and was hailing their return with great joy. 
-All his fears were forgotten.  Instead, he was possessed of an
-overpowering desire to know what they were, to learn where they had
-been, and whether they would make friends with him as the winter
-birds had done; and if they did, would they be as fickle?  For, with
-the running sap, creeping worm, and winging bug, most of Freckles'
-"chickens" had deserted him, entered the swamp, and feasted to such
-a state of plethora on its store that they cared little for his
-supply, so that in the strenuous days of mating and nest-building
-the boy was deserted.
-
-He chafed at the birds' ingratitude, but he found speedy
-consolation in watching and befriending the newcomers.  He surely
-would have been proud and highly pleased if he had known that many
-of the former inhabitants of the interior swamp now grouped their
-nests beside the timber-line solely for the sake of his protection
-and company.
-
-The yearly resurrection of the Limberlost is a mighty revival. 
-Freckles stood back and watched with awe and envy the gradual
-reclothing and repopulation of the swamp.  Keen-eyed and alert
-through danger and loneliness, he noted every stage of development,
-from the first piping frog and unsheathing bud, to full leafage and
-the return of the last migrant.
-
-The knowledge of his complete loneliness and utter insignificance
-was hourly thrust upon him.  He brooded and fretted until he was in
-a fever; yet he never guessed the cause.  He was filled with a vast
-impatience, a longing that he scarcely could endure.
-
-It was June by the zodiac, June by the Limberlost, and by every
-delight of a newly resurrected season it should have been June in
-the hearts of all men.  Yet Freckles scowled darkly as he came down
-the trail, and the running TAP, TAP that tested the sagging wire
-and telegraphed word of his coming to his furred and feathered
-friends of the swamp, this morning carried the story of his
-discontent a mile ahead of him.
-
-Freckles' special pet, a dainty, yellow-coated, black-sleeved, cock
-goldfinch, had remained on the wire for several days past the
-bravest of all; and Freckles, absorbed with the cunning and beauty
-of the tiny fellow, never guessed that he was being duped.  For the
-goldfinch was skipping, flirting, and swinging for the express
-purpose of so holding his attention that he would not look up and
-see a small cradle of thistledown and wool perilously near his head. 
-In the beginning of brooding, the spunky little homesteader had clung
-heroically to the wire when he was almost paralyzed with fright. 
-When day after day passed and brought only softly whistled
-repetitions of his call, a handful of crumbs on the top of a locust
-line-post, and gently worded coaxings, he grew in confidence. 
-Of late he had sung and swung during the passing of Freckles, who,
-not dreaming of the nest and the solemn-eyed little hen so close above,
-thought himself unusually gifted in his power to attract the birds.
-This morning the goldfinch scarcely could believe his ears, and
-clung to the wire until an unusually vicious rap sent him spinning
-a foot in air, and his "PTSEET" came with a squall of utter panic.
-
-The wires were ringing with a story the birds could not translate,
-and Freckles was quite as ignorant of the trouble as they.
-
-A peculiar movement beneath a small walnut tree caught his attention. 
-He stopped to investigate.  There was an unusually large Luna
-cocoon, and the moth was bursting the upper end in its struggles
-to reach light and air.  Freckles stood and stared.
-
-"There's something in there trying to get out," he muttered. 
-"Wonder if I could help it?  Guess I best not be trying.  If I hadn't
-happened along, there wouldn't have been anyone to do anything, and
-maybe I'd only be hurting it.  It's--it's----Oh, skaggany!  It's just
-being born!"
-
-Freckles gasped with surprise.  The moth cleared the opening, and
-with many wabblings and contortions climbed up the tree.  He stared
-speechless with amazement as the moth crept around a limb and clung
-to the under side.  There was a big pursy body, almost as large as
-his thumb, and of the very snowiest white that Freckles ever had seen. 
-There was a band of delicate lavender across its forehead, and its
-feet were of the same colour; there were antlers, like tiny,
-straw-colored ferns, on its head, and from its shoulders hung
-the crumpled wet wings.  As Freckles gazed, tense with astonishment,
-he saw that these were expanding, drooping, taking on color, and
-small, oval markings were beginning to show.
-
-The minutes passed.  Freckles' steady gaze never wavered. 
-Without realizing it, he was trembling with eagerness and anxiety. 
-As he saw what was taking place, "It's going to fly," he breathed
-in hushed wonder.  The morning sun fell on the moth and dried its
-velvet down, while the warm air made it fluffy.  The rapidly growing
-wings began to show the most delicate green, with lavender
-fore-ribs, transparent, eye-shaped markings, edged with lines of
-red, tan, and black, and long, crisp trailers.
-
-Freckles was whispering to himself for fear of disturbing the moth. 
-It began a systematic exercise of raising and lowering its
-exquisite wings to dry them and to establish circulation.  The boy
-realized that soon it would be able to spread them and sail away. 
-His long-coming soul sent up its first shivering cry.
-
-"I don't know what it is!  Oh, I wish I knew!  How I wish I knew! 
-It must be something grand!  It can't be a butterfly!  It's away
-too big.  Oh, I wish there was someone to tell me what it is!"
-
-He climbed on the locust post, and balancing himself with the wire,
-held a finger in the line of the moth's advance up the twig. 
-It unhesitatingly climbed on, so he stepped to the path, holding
-it to the light and examining it closely.  Then he held it in the
-shade and turned it, gloating over its markings and beautiful coloring.
-When he held the moth to the limb, it climbed on, still waving those
-magnificent wings.
-
-"My, but I'd like to be staying with you!" he said.  "But if I was
-to stand here all day you couldn't grow any prettier than you are
-right now, and I wouldn't grow smart enough to tell what you are. 
-I suppose there's someone who knows.  Of course there is!  Mr. McLean
-said there were people who knew every leaf, bird, and flower in
-the Limberlost.  Oh Lord!  How I wish You'd be telling me just this
-one thing!"
-
-The goldfinch had ventured back to the wire, for there was his
-mate, only a few inches above the man-creature's head; and indeed,
-he simply must not be allowed to look up, so the brave little
-fellow rocked on the wire and piped, as he had done every day for
-a week:  "SEE ME?  SEE ME?"
-
-"See you!  Of course I see you," growled Freckles.  "I see you day
-after day, and what good is it doing me?  I might see you every
-morning for a year, and then not be able to be telling anyone
-about it.  `Seen a bird with black silk wings--little, and yellow
-as any canary.' That's as far as I'd get.  What you doing here, anyway?
-Have you a mate?  What's your name?  `See you?'  I reckon I see you;
-but I might as well be blind, for any good it's doing me!"
-
-Freckles impatiently struck the wire.  With a screech of fear, the
-goldfinch fled precipitately.  His mate arose from the nest with a
-whirr--Freckles looked up and saw it.
-
-"O--ho!" he cried.  "So THAT'S what you are doing here!  You have
-a wife.  And so close my head I have been mighty near wearing a bird
-on my bonnet, and never knew it!"
-
-Freckles laughed at his own jest, while in better humor he climbed
-to examine the neat, tiny cradle and its contents.  The hen darted
-at him in a frenzy.  "Now, where do you come in?" he demanded, when
-he saw that she was not similar to the goldfinch.
-
-"You be clearing out of here!  This is none of your fry.  This is the
-nest of me little, yellow friend of the wire, and you shan't be
-touching it.  Don't blame you for wanting to see, though.  My, but
-it's a fine nest and beauties of eggs.  Will you be keeping away, or
-will I fire this stick at you?"
-
-Freckles dropped to the trail.  The hen darted to the nest and
-settled on it with a tender, coddling movement.  He of the yellow
-coat flew to the edge to make sure that everything was right. 
-It would have been plain to the veriest novice that they were
-partners in that cradle.
-
-"Well, I'll be switched!" muttered Freckles.  "If that ain't both
-their nest!  And he's yellow and she's green, or she's yellow and
-he's green.  Of course, I don't know, and I haven't any way to find
-out, but it's plain as the nose on your face that they are both
-ready to be fighting for that nest, so, of course, they belong. 
-Doesn't that beat you?  Say, that's what's been sticking me all
-of this week on that grass nest in the thorn tree down the line. 
-One day a blue bird is setting, so I think it is hers.  The next day
-a brown bird is on, and I chase it off because the nest is blue's. 
-Next day the brown bird is on again, and I let her be, because I
-think it must be hers.  Next day, be golly, blue's on, and off I
-send her because it's brown's; and now, I bet my hat, it's both
-their nest and I've only been bothering them and making a big fool
-of mesilf.  Pretty specimen I am, pretending to be a friend to the
-birds, and so blamed ignorant I don't know which ones go in pairs,
-and blue and brown are a pair, of course, if yellow and green
-are--and there's the red birds!  I never thought of them!  He's red
-and she's gray--and now I want to be knowing, are they all different? 
-Why no!  Of course, they ain't!  There's the jays all blue, and
-the crows all black."
-
-The tide of Freckles' discontent welled until he almost choked with
-anger and chagrin.  He plodded down the trail, scowling blackly and
-viciously spanging the wire.  At the finches' nest he left the line
-and peered into the thorn tree.  There was no bird brooding. 
-He pressed closer to take a peep at the snowy, spotless little eggs
-he had found so beautiful, when at the slight noise up raised four
-tiny baby heads with wide-open mouths, uttering hunger cries. 
-Freckles stepped back.  The brown bird alighted on the edge and
-closed one cavity with a wiggling green worm, while not two minutes
-later the blue filled another with a white.  That settled it. 
-The blue and brown were mates.  Once again Freckles repeated his
-"How I wish I knew!"
-
-Around the bridge spanning Sleepy Snake Creek the swale spread
-widely, the timber was scattering, and willows, rushes, marsh-
-grass, and splendid wild flowers grew abundantly.  Here lazy,
-big, black water snakes, for which the creek was named, sunned on
-the bushes, wild ducks and grebe chattered, cranes and herons
-fished, and muskrats plowed the bank in queer, rolling furrows. 
-It was always a place full of interest, so Freckles loved to linger on
-the bridge, watching the marsh and water people.  He also transacted
-affairs of importance with the wild flowers and sweet marsh-grass. 
-He enjoyed splashing through the shallow pools on either side of
-the bridge.
-
-Then, too, where the creek entered the swamp was a place of
-unusual beauty.  The water spread in darksome, mossy, green pools. 
-Water-plants and lilies grew luxuriantly, throwing up large, rank,
-green leaves.  Nowhere else in the Limberlost could be found
-frog-music to equal that of the mouth of the creek.  The drumming
-and piping rolled in never-ending orchestral effect, while the full
-chorus rang to its accompaniment throughout the season.
-
-Freckles slowly followed the path leading from the bridge to
-the line.  It was the one spot at which he might relax his vigilance. 
-The boldest timber thief the swamp ever had known would not have
-attempted to enter it by the mouth of the creek, on account of the
-water and because there was no protection from surrounding trees. 
-He was bending the rank grass with his cudgel, and thinking of the
-shade the denser swamp afforded, when he suddenly dodged sidewise;
-the cudgel whistled sharply through the air and Freckles sprang back.
-
-From the clear sky above him, first level with his face, then skimming,
-dipping, tilting, whirling until it struck, quill down, in the path
-in front of him, came a glossy, iridescent, big black feather.  As it
-touched the ground, Freckles snatched it up with almost a continuous
-movement facing the sky.  There was not a tree of any size in a
-large open space.  There was no wind to carry it.  From the clear sky
-it had fallen, and Freckles, gazing eagerly into the arch of June
-blue with a few lazy clouds floating high in the sea of ether,
-had neither mind nor knowledge to dream of a bird hanging as if
-frozen there.  He turned the big quill questioningly, and again
-his awed eyes swept the sky.
-
-"A feather dropped from Heaven!" he breathed reverently.  "Are the
-holy angels moulting?  But no; if they were, it would be white. 
-Maybe all the angels are not for being white.  What if the angels of
-God are white and those of the devil are black?  But a black one has
-no business up there.  Maybe some poor black angel is so tired of
-being punished it's for slipping to the gates, beating its wings
-trying to make the Master hear!"
-
-Again and again Freckles searched the sky, but there was no
-answering gleam of golden gates, no form of sailing bird; then he
-went slowly on his way, turning the feather and wondering about it. 
-It was a wing quill, eighteen inches in length, with a heavy spine,
-gray at the base, shading to jet black at the tip, and it caught the
-play of the sun's rays in slanting gleams of green and bronze. 
-Again Freckles' "old man of the sea" sat sullen and heavy on his
-shoulders and weighted him down until his step lagged and his
-heart ached.
-
-"Where did it come from?  What is it?  Oh, how I wish I knew!" he
-kept repeating as he turned and studied the feather, with almost
-unseeing eyes, so intently was he thinking.
-
-Before him spread a large, green pool, filled with rotting logs and
-leaves, bordered with delicate ferns and grasses among which lifted
-the creamy spikes of the arrow-head, the blue of water-hyacinth,
-and the delicate yellow of the jewel-flower.  As Freckles leaned,
-handling the feather and staring at it, then into the depths of the
-pool, he once more gave voice to his old query:  "I wonder what it is!"
-
-Straight across from him, couched in the mosses of a soggy old log,
-a big green bullfrog, with palpitant throat and batting eyes,
-lifted his head and bellowed in answer.  "FIN' DOUT!  FIN' DOUT!"
-
-"Wha--what's that?" stammered Freckles, almost too much bewildered
-to speak.  "I--I know you are only a bullfrog, but, be jabbers, that
-sounded mightily like speech.  Wouldn't you please to be saying it over?"
-
-The bullfrog cuddled contentedly in the ooze.  Then suddenly he
-lifted his voice, and, as an imperative drumbeat, rolled it again:
-"FIN' DOUT!  FIN' DOUT!  FIN DOUT!"
-
-Freckles had the answer.  Something seemed to snap in his brain.
-There was a wavering flame before his eyes.  Then his mind cleared. 
-His head lifted in a new poise, his shoulders squared, while his
-spine straightened.  The agony was over.  His soul floated free. 
-Freckles came into his birthright.
-
-"Before God, I will!" He uttered the oath so impressively that the
-recording angel never winced as he posted it in the prayer column.
-
-Freckles set his hat over the top of one of the locust posts used
-between trees to hold up the wire while he fastened the feather
-securely in the band.  Then he started down the line, talking to
-himself as men who have worked long alone always fall into the
-habit of doing.
-
-"What a fool I have been!" he muttered.  "Of course that's what I
-have to do!  There wouldn't likely anybody be doing it for me. 
-Of course I can!  What am I a man for?  If I was a four-footed thing
-of the swamp, maybe I couldn't; but a man can do anything if he's
-the grit to work hard enough and stick at it, Mr. McLean is always
-saying, and here's the way I am to do it.  He said, too, that there
-were people that knew everything in the swamp.  Of course they have
-written books!  The thing for me to be doing is to quit moping and be
-buying some.  Never bought a book in me life, or anything else of much
-account, for that matter.  Oh, ain't I glad I didn't waste me money! 
-I'll surely be having enough to get a few.  Let me see."
-
-Freckles sat on a log, took his pencil and account-book, and
-figured on a back page.  He had walked the timber-line ten months. 
-His pay was thirty dollars a month, and his board cost him eight. 
-That left twenty-two dollars a month, and his clothing had cost him
-very little.  At the least he had two hundred dollars in the bank. 
-He drew a deep breath and smiled at the sky with satisfaction.
-
-"I'll be having a book about all the birds, trees, flowers,
-butterflies, and----Yes, by gummy!  I'll be having one about the
-frogs--if it takes every cent I have," he promised himself.
-
-He put away the account-book, that was his most cherished
-possession, caught up his stick, and started down the line. 
-The even tap, tap, and the cheery, gladsome whistle carried
-far ahead of him the message that Freckles was himself again.
-
-He fell into a rapid pace, for he had lost time that morning; when
-he rounded the last curve he was almost running.  There was a chance
-that the Boss might be there for his weekly report.
-
-Then, wavering, flickering, darting here and there over the sweet
-marsh-grass, came a large black shadow, sweeping so closely before
-him that for the second time that morning Freckles dodged and
-sprang back.  He had seen some owls and hawks of the swamp that he
-thought might be classed as large birds, but never anything like
-this, for six feet it spread its big, shining wings.  Its strong
-feet could be seen drawn among its feathers.  The sun glinted on its
-sharp, hooked beak.  Its eyes glowed, caught the light, and seemed
-able to pierce the ground at his feet.  It cared no more for
-Freckles than if he had not been there; for it perched on a low
-tree, while a second later it awkwardly hopped to the trunk of a
-lightning-riven elm, turned its back, and began searching the blue.
-
-Freckles looked just in time to see a second shadow sweep the grass;
-and another bird, a trifle smaller and not quite so brilliant
-in the light, slowly sailed down to perch beside the first. 
-Evidently they were mates, for with a queer, rolling hop the
-first-comer shivered his bronze wings, sidled to the new arrival,
-and gave her a silly little peck on her wing.  Then he coquettishly
-drew away and ogled her.  He lifted his head, waddled from her a few
-steps, awkwardly ambled back, and gave her such a simple sort of
-kiss on her beak that Freckles burst into a laugh, but clapped his
-hand over his mouth to stifle the sound.
-
-The lover ducked and side-stepped a few feet.  He spread his wings
-and slowly and softly waved them precisely as if he were fanning
-his charmer, which was indeed the result he accomplished.  Then a
-wave of uncontrollable tenderness moved him so he hobbled to his
-bombardment once more.  He faced her squarely this time, and turned
-his head from side to side with queer little jerks and
-indiscriminate peckings at her wings and head, and smirkings that
-really should have been irresistible.  She yawned and shuffled away
-indifferently.  Freckles reached up, pulled the quill from his hat,
-and looking from it to the birds, nodded in settled conviction.
-
-"So you're me black angels, ye spalpeens!  No wonder you didn't
-get in!  But I'll back you to come closer it than any other birds
-ever did.  You fly higher than I can see.  Have you picked the
-Limberlost for a good thing and come to try it?  Well, you can be
-me chickens if you want to, but I'm blest if you ain't cool for
-new ones.  Why don't you take this stick for a gun and go skinning
-a mile?"
-
-Freckles broke into an unrestrained laugh, for the bird-lover was
-keen about his courting, while evidently his mate was diffident. 
-When he approached too boisterously, she relieved him of a goodly
-tuft of feathers and sent him backward in a series of squirmy
-little jumps that gave the boy an idea of what had happened up-sky
-to send the falling feather across his pathway.
-
-"Score one for the lady!  I'll be umpiring this," volunteered Freckles.
-
-With a ravishing swagger, half-lifted wings, and deep, guttural
-hissing, the lover approached again.  He suddenly lifted his body,
-but she coolly rocked forward on the limb, glided gracefully
-beneath him, and slowly sailed into the Limberlost.  He recovered
-himself and gazed after her in astonishment.
-
-Freckles hurried down the trail, shaking with laughter.  When he
-neared the path to the clearing and saw the Boss sitting motionless
-on the mare that was the pride of his heart, the boy broke into a run.
-
-"Oh, Mr. McLean!" he cried.  "I hope I haven't kept you waiting very
-long!  And the sun is getting hot!  I have been so slow this morning! 
-I could have gone faster, only there were that many things to keep
-me, and I didn't know you would be here.  I'll hurry after this. 
-I've never had to be giving excuses before.  The line wasn't down,
-and there wasn't a sign of trouble; it was other things that were
-making me late."
-
-McLean, smiling on the boy, immediately noticed the difference
-in him.  This flushed, panting, talkative lad was not the same
-creature who had sought him in despair and bitterness.  He watched
-in wonder as Freckles mopped the perspiration from his forehead and
-began to laugh.  Then, forgetting all his customary reserve with
-the Boss, the pent-up boyishness in the lad broke forth.  With an
-eloquence of which he never dreamed he told his story.  He talked
-with such enthusiasm that McLean never took his eyes from his face
-or shifted in the saddle until he described the strange bird-lover,
-and then the Boss suddenly bent over the pommel and laughed with
-the boy.
-
-Freckles decorated his story with keen appreciation and rare
-touches of Irish wit and drollery that made it most interesting as
-well as very funny.  It was a first attempt at descriptive
-narration.  With an inborn gift for striking the vital point, a
-naturalist's dawning enthusiasm for the wonders of the Limberlost,
-and the welling joy of his newly found happiness, he made McLean
-see the struggles of the moth and its freshly painted wings, the
-dainty, brilliant bird-mates of different colors, the feather
-sliding through the clear air, the palpitant throat and batting
-eyes of the frog; while his version of the big bird's courtship won
-for the Boss the best laugh he had enjoyed for years.
-
-"They're in the middle of a swamp now" said Freckles.  "Do you
-suppose there is any chance of them staying with me chickens? 
-If they do, they'll be about the queerest I have; but I tell you, sir,
-I am finding some plum good ones.  There's a new kind over at the
-mouth of the creek that uses its wings like feet and walks on all
-fours.  It travels like a thrashing machine.  There's another, tall
-as me waist, with a bill a foot long, a neck near two, not the
-thickness of me wrist and an elegant color.  He's some blue and
-gray, touched up with black, white, and brown.  The voice of him is
-such that if he'd be going up and standing beside a tree and crying
-at it a few times he could be sawing it square off.  I don't know
-but it would be a good idea to try him on the gang, sir."
-
-McLean laughed.  "Those must be blue herons, Freckles," he said.
-"And it doesn't seem possible, but your description of the big
-black birds sounds like genuine black vultures.  They are common
-enough in the South.  I've seen them numerous around the lumber
-camps of Georgia, but I never before heard of any this far north.
-They must be strays.  You have described perfectly our nearest
-equivalent to a branch of these birds called in Europe Pharaoh's
-Chickens, but if they are coming to the Limberlost they will have
-to drop Pharaoh and become Freckles' Chickens, like the remainder of
-the birds; won't they?  Or are they too odd and ugly to interest you?"
-
-"Oh, not at all, at all!" cried Freckles, bursting into pure brogue
-in his haste.  "I don't know as I'd be calling them exactly pretty,
-and they do move like a rocking-horse loping, but they are so big
-and fearless.  They have a fine color for black birds, and their
-feet and beaks seem so strong.  You never saw anything so keen as
-their eyes!  And fly?  Why, just think, sir, they must be flying
-miles straight up, for they were out of sight completely when the
-feather fell.  I don't suppose I've a chicken in the swamp that can
-go as close heaven as those big, black fellows, and then----"
-
-Freckles' voice dragged and he hesitated.
-
-"Then what?" interestedly urged McLean.
-
-"He was loving her so," answered Freckles in a hushed voice.  "I
-know it looked awful funny, and I laughed and told on him, but if
-I'd taken time to think I don't believe I'd have done it.  You see,
-I've seen such a little bit of loving in me life.  You easily can be
-understanding that at the Home it was every day the old story of
-neglect and desertion.  Always people that didn't even care enough
-for their children to keep them, so you see, sir, I had to like him
-for trying so hard to make her know how he loved her.  Of course,
-they're only birds, but if they are caring for each other like
-that, why, it's just the same as people, ain't it?"
-
-Freckles lifted his brave, steady eyes to the Boss.
-
-"If anybody loved me like that, Mr. McLean, I wouldn't be spending
-any time on how they looked or moved.  All I'd be thinking of would
-be how they felt toward me.  If they will stay, I'll be caring as
-much for them as any chickens I have.  If I did laugh at them I
-thought he was just fine!"
-
-The face of McLean was a study; but the honest eyes of the boy were
-so compelling that he found himself answering:  "You are right,
-Freckles.  He's a gentleman, isn't he?  And the only real chicken
-you have.  Of course he'll remain!  The Limberlost will be paradise
-for his family.  And now, Freckles, what has been the trouble
-all spring?  You have done your work as faithfully as anyone could
-ask, but I can't help seeing that there is something wrong.  Are you
-tired of your job?"
-
-"I love it," answered Freckles.  "It will almost break me heart when the
-gang comes and begins tearing up the swamp and scaring away me chickens."
-
-"Then what is the trouble?" insisted McLean.
-
-"I think, sir, it's been books," answered Freckles.  "You see, I
-didn't realize it meself until the bullfrog told me this morning. 
-I hadn't ever even heard about a place like this.  Anyway, I wasn't
-understanding how it would be, if I had.  Being among these
-beautiful things every day, I got so anxious like to be knowing and
-naming them, that it got to eating into me and went and made me
-near sick, when I was well as I could be.  Of course, I learned to
-read, write, and figure some at school, but there was nothing
-there, or in any of the city that I ever got to see, that would
-make a fellow even be dreaming of such interesting things as there
-are here.  I've seen the parks--but good Lord, they ain't even
-beginning to be in it with the Limberlost!  It's all new and strange
-to me.  I don't know a thing about any of it.  The bullfrog told me
-to `find out,' plain as day, and books are the only way; ain't they?"
-
-"Of course," said McLean, astonished at himself for his
-heartfelt relief.  He had not guessed until that minute what it
-would have meant to him to have Freckles give up.  "You know
-enough to study out what you want yourself, if you have the books;
-don't you?"
-
-"I am pretty sure I do," said Freckles.  "I learned all I'd the
-chance at in the Home, and me schooling was good as far as it went.
-Wouldn't let you go past fourteen, you know.  I always did me sums
-perfect, and loved me history books.  I had them almost by heart.  I
-never could get me grammar to suit them.  They said it was just born
-in me to go wrong talking, and if it hadn't been I suppose I would
-have picked it up from the other children; but I'd the best voice
-of any of them in the Home or at school.  I could knock them all
-out singing.  I was always leader in the Home, and once one of the
-superintendents gave me carfare and let me go into the city and
-sing in a boys' choir.  The master said I'd the swatest voice of
-them all until it got rough like, and then he made me quit for
-awhile, but he said it would be coming back by now, and I'm railly
-thinking it is, sir, for I've tried on the line a bit of late and
-it seems to go smooth again and lots stronger.  That and me chickens
-have been all the company I've been having, and it will be all I'll
-want if I can have some books and learn the real names of things,
-where they come from, and why they do such interesting things.  It's
-been fretting me more than I knew to be shut up here among all
-these wonders and not knowing a thing.  I wanted to ask you what
-some books would cost me, and if you'd be having the goodness to
-get me the right ones.  I think I have enough money"
-
-Freckles offered his account-book and the Boss studied it gravely.
-
-"You needn't touch your account, Freckles," he said.  "Ten dollars
-from this month's pay will provide you everything you need to start on. 
-I will write a friend in Grand Rapids today to select you the very
-best and send them at once."
-
-Freckles' eyes were shining.
-
-"Never owned a book in me life!" he said.  "Even me schoolbooks were
-never mine.  Lord!  How I used to wish I could have just one of them
-for me very own!  Won't it be fun to see me sawbird and me little
-yellow fellow looking at me from the pages of a book, and their
-real names and all about them printed alongside?  How long will it
-be taking, sir?"
-
-"Ten days should do it nicely," said McLean.  Then, seeing Freckles'
-lengthening face, he added:  "I'll have Duncan bring you a
-ten-bushel store-box the next time he goes to town.  He can haul it
-to the west entrance and set it up wherever you want it.  You can
-put in your spare time filling it with the specimens you find until
-the books come, and then you can study out what you have.  I suspect
-you could collect specimens that I could send to naturalists in the
-city and sell for you; things like that winged creature, this morning. 
-I don't know much in that line, but it must have been a moth, and
-it might have been rare.  I've seen them by the thousand in
-museums, and in all nature I don't remember rarer coloring than
-their wings.  I'll order you a butterfly-net and box and show you
-how scientists pin specimens.  Possibly you can make a fine
-collection of these swamp beauties.  It will be all right for you to
-take a pair of different moths and butterflies, but I don't want to
-hear of your killing any birds.  They are protected by heavy fines."
-
-McLean rode away leaving Freckles staring aghast.  Then he saw the
-point and smiled.  Standing on the trail, he twirled the feather and
-thought over the morning.
-
-"Well, if life ain't getting to be worth living!" he said wonderingly. 
-"Biggest streak of luck I ever had!  `Bout time something was
-coming my way, but I wouldn't ever thought anybody could strike
-such magnificent prospects through only a falling feather."
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER IV
-
-       Wherein Freckles Faces Trouble Bravely and Opens the Way
-                            for New Experiences
-
-On Duncan's return from his next trip to town there was a big
-store-box loaded on the back of his wagon.  He drove to the west
-entrance of the swamp, set the box on a stump that Freckles had
-selected in a beautiful, sheltered place, and made it secure on its
-foundations with a tree at its back.
-
-"It seems most a pity to nail into that tree," said Duncan. 
-"I haena the time to examine into the grain of it, but it looks as
-if it might be a rare ane.  Anyhow, the nailin' winna hurt it deep,
-and havin' the case by it will make it safer if it is a guid ane."
-
-"Isn't it an oak?" asked Freckles.
-
-"Ay," said Duncan.  "It looks like it might be ane of thae
-fine-grained white anes that mak' such grand furniture."
-
-When the body of the case was secure, Duncan made a door from the
-lid and fastened it with hinges.  He drove a staple, screwed on a
-latch, and gave Freckles a small padlock--so that he might fasten
-in his treasures safely.  He made a shelf at the top for his books,
-and last of all covered the case with oil-cloth.
-
-It was the first time in Freckles' life that anyone ever had done
-that much for his pleasure, and it warmed his heart with pure joy.
-If the interior of the box already had been covered with the rarest
-treasures of the Limberlost he could have been no happier.
-
-When the big teamster stood back to look at his work he laughingly
-quoted, "`Neat, but no' gaudy,' as McLean says.  All we're, needing
-now is a coat of paint to make a cupboard that would turn Sarah
-green with envy.  Ye'll find that safe an' dry, lad, an' that's all
-that's needed."
-
-"Mr. Duncan," said Freckles, "I don't know why you are being so
-mighty good to me; but if you have any jobs at the cabin that I
-could do for you or Mrs. Duncan, hours off the line, it would make
-me mighty happy."
-
-Duncan laughed.  "Ye needna feel ye are obliged to me, lad.  Ye mauna
-think I could take a half-day off in the best hauling season and go
-to town for boxes to rig up, and spend of my little for fixtures."
-
-"I knew Mr. McLean sent you," said Freckles, his eyes wide and
-bright with happiness.  "It's so good of him.  How I wish I could do
-something that would please him as much!"
-
-"Why, Freckles," said Duncan, as he knelt and began collecting his
-tools, "I canna see that it will hurt ye to be told that ye are
-doing every day a thing that pleases the Boss as much as anything
-ye could do.  Ye're being uncommon faithful, lad, and honest as old
-Father Time.  McLean is trusting ye as he would his own flesh and blood."
-
-"Oh, Duncan!" cried the happy boy.  "Are you sure?"
-
-"Why I know," answered Duncan.  "I wadna venture to say so else. 
-In those first days he cautioned me na to tell ye, but now he
-wadna care.  D'ye ken, Freckles, that some of the single trees
-ye are guarding are worth a thousand dollars?"
-
-Freckles caught his breath and stood speechless.
-
-"Ye see," said Duncan, "that's why they maun be watched so closely.
-They tak', say, for instance, a burl maple--bird's eye they call it
-in the factory, because it's full o' wee knots and twists that look
-like the eve of a bird.  They saw it out in sheets no muckle thicker
-than writin' paper.  Then they make up the funiture out of cheaper
-wood and cover it with the maple--veneer, they call it.  When it's
-all done and polished ye never saw onythin' grander.  Gang into a
-retail shop the next time ye are in town and see some.  By sawin' it
-thin that way they get finish for thousands of dollars' worth of
-furniture from a single tree.  If ye dinna watch faithful, and Black
-Jack gets out a few he has marked, it means the loss of more money
-than ye ever dreamed of, lad.  The other night, down at camp, some
-son of Balaam was suggestin' that ye might be sellin' the Boss out
-to Jack and lettin' him tak' the trees secretly, and nobody wad
-ever ken till the gang gets here."
-
-A wave of scarlet flooded Freckles' face and he blazed hotly at the insult.
-
-"And the Boss," continued Duncan, coolly ignoring Freckles' anger,
-"he lays back just as cool as cowcumbers an' says:  `I'll give a
-thousand dollars to ony man that will show me a fresh stump when we
-reach the Limberlost,' says he.  Some of the men just snapped him op
-that they'd find some.  So you see bow the Boss is trustin' ye, lad."
-
-"I am gladder than I can ever expriss," said Freckles.  "And now
-will I be walking double time to keep some of them from cutting a
-tree to get all that money!"
-
-"Mither o' Moses!" howled Duncan.  "Ye can trust the Scotch to
-bungle things a'thegither.  McLean was only meanin' to show ye all
-confidence and honor.  He's gone and set a high price for some dirty
-whelp to ruin ye.  I was just tryin' to show ye how he felt toward
-ye, and I've gone an' give ye that worry to bear.  Damn the Scotch! 
-They're so slow an' so dumb!"
-
-"Exciptin' prisint company?" sweetly inquired Freckles.
-
-"No!" growled Duncan.  "Headin' the list!  He'd nae business to set
-a price on ye, lad, for that's about the amount of it, an' I'd nae
-right to tell ye.  We've both done ye ill, an' both meanin' the
-verra best.  Juist what I'm always sayin' to Sarah."
-
-"I am mighty proud of what you have been telling me, Duncan,"
-said Freckles.  "I need the warning, sure.  For with the books
-coming I might be timpted to neglect me work when double watching
-is needed.  Thank you more than I can say for putting me on to it. 
-What you've told me may be the saving of me.  I won't stop for
-dinner now.  I'll be getting along the east line, and when I come
-around about three, maybe Mother Duncan will let me have a glass
-of milk and a bite of something."
-
-"Ye see now!" cried Duncan in disgust.  "Ye'll start on that
-seven-mile tramp with na bite to stay your stomach.  What was it I
-told ye?"
-
-"You told me that the Scotch had the hardest heads and the softest
-hearts of any people that's living," answered Freckles.
-
-Duncan grunted in gratified disapproval.
-
-Freckles picked up his club and started down the line, whistling
-cheerily, for he had an unusually long repertoire upon which to draw.
-
-Duncan went straight to the lower camp, and calling McLean aside,
-repeated the conversation verbatim, ending:  "And nae matter what
-happens now or ever, dinna ye dare let onythin' make ye believe
-that Freckles hasna guarded faithful as ony man could."
-
-"I don't think anything could shake my faith in the lad," answered McLean.
-
-Freckles was whistling merrily.  He kept one eye religiously on
-the line.  The other he divided between the path, his friends of the
-wire, and a search of the sky for his latest arrivals.  Every day
-since their coming he had seen them, either hanging as small, black
-clouds above the swamp or bobbing over logs and trees with their
-queer, tilting walk.  Whenever he could spare time, he entered the
-swamp and tried to make friends with them, for they were the tamest
-of all his unnumbered subjects.  They ducked, dodged, and ambled
-around him, over logs and bushes, and not even a near approach
-would drive them to flight.
-
-For two weeks he had found them circling over the Limberlost
-regularly, but one morning the female was missing and only the big
-black chicken hung sentinel above the swamp.  His mate did not
-reappear in the following days, and Freckles grew very anxious. 
-He spoke of it to Mrs. Duncan, and she quieted his fears by raising
-a delightful hope in their stead.
-
-"Why, Freckles, if it's the hen-bird ye are missing, it's ten to
-one she's safe," she said.  "She's laid, and is setting, ye silly! 
-Watch him and mark whaur he lichts.  Then follow and find the nest. 
-Some Sabbath we'll all gang see it."
-
-Accepting this theory, Freckles began searching for the nest.
-Because these "chickens" were large, as the hawks, he looked among
-the treetops until he almost sprained the back of his neck.  He had
-half the crow and hawk nests in the swamp located.  He searched for
-this nest instead of collecting subjects for his case.  He found the
-pair the middle of one forenoon on the elm where he had watched
-their love-making.  The big black chicken was feeding his mate; so
-it was proved that they were a pair, they were both alive, and
-undoubtedly she was brooding.  After that Freckles' nest-hunting
-continued with renewed zeal, but as he had no idea where to look
-and Duncan could offer no helpful suggestion, the nest was no
-nearer to being found.
-
-Coming from a long day on the trail, Freckles saw Duncan's children
-awaiting him much closer the swale than they usually ventured, and
-from their wild gestures he knew that something had happened. 
-He began to run, but the cry that reached him was:  "The books
-have come!"
-
-How they hurried!  Freckles lifted the youngest to his shoulder, the
-second took his club and dinner pail, and when they reached Mrs.
-Duncan they found her at work on a big box.  She had loosened the
-lid, and then she laughingly sat on it.
-
-"Ye canna have a peep in here until ye have washed and eaten
-supper," she said.  "It's all ready on the table.  Ance ye begin on
-this, ye'll no be willin' to tak' your nose o' it till bedtime, and
-I willna get my work done the nicht.  We've eaten long ago."
-
-It was difficult work, but Freckles smiled bravely.  He made himself
-neat, swallowed a few bites, then came so eagerly that Mrs. Duncan
-yielded, although she said she very well knew all the time that his
-supper would be spoiled.
-
-Lifting the lid, they removed the packing and found in that box
-books on birds, trees, flowers, moths, and butterflies.  There was
-also one containing Freckles' bullfrog, true to life.  Besides these
-were a butterfly-net, a naturalist's tin specimen-box, a bottle of
-cyanide, a box of cotton, a paper of long, steel specimen-pins, and
-a letter telling what all these things were and how to use them.
-
-At the discovery of each new treasure, Freckles shouted:  "Will you
-be looking at this, now?"
-
-Mrs. Duncan cried:  "Weel, I be drawed on!"
-
-The eldest boy turned a somersault for every extra, while the baby,
-trying to follow his example, bunched over in a sidewise sprawl and
-cut his foot on the axe with which his mother had prized up the
-box-lid.  That sobered them, they carried the books indoors.  Mrs.
-Duncan had a top shelf in her closet cleared for them, far above
-the reach of meddling little fingers.
-
-When Freckles started for the trail next morning, the shining new
-specimen-box flashed on his back.  The black "chicken," a mere speck
-in the blue, caught the gleam of it.  The folded net hung beside the
-boy's hatchet, and the bird book was in the box.  He walked the line
-and tested each section scrupulously, watching every foot of the
-trail, for he was determined not to slight his work; but if ever a
-boy "made haste slowly" in a hurry, it was Freckles that morning. 
-When at last he reached the space he had cleared and planted around
-his case, his heart swelled with the pride of possessing even so
-much that he could call his own, while his quick eyes feasted on
-the beauty of it.
-
-He had made a large room with the door of the case set even with
-one side of it.  On three sides, fine big bushes of wild rose
-climbed to the lower branches of the trees.  Part of his walls were
-mallow, part alder, thorn, willow, and dogwood.  Below there filled
-in a solid mass of pale pink sheep-laurel, and yellow St. John's
-wort, while the amber threads of the dodder interlaced everywhere. 
-At one side the swamp came close, here cattails grew in profusion. 
-In front of them he had planted a row of water-hyacinths without
-disturbing in the least the state of their azure bloom, and where
-the ground arose higher for his floor, a row of foxfire, that soon
-would be open.
-
-To the left he had discovered a queer natural arrangement of the
-trees, that grew to giant size and were set in a gradually
-narrowing space so that a long, open vista stretched away until
-lost in the dim recesses of the swamp.  A little trimming of
-underbush, rolling of dead logs, levelling of floor and carpeting
-with moss, made it easy to understand why Freckles had named this
-the "cathedral"; yet he never had been taught that "the groves were
-God's first temples."
-
-On either side of the trees that constituted the first arch of this
-dim vista of the swamp he planted ferns that grew waist-high thus
-early in the season, and so skilfully the work had been done that
-not a frond drooped because of the change.  Opposite, he cleared a
-space and made a flower bed.  He filled one end with every delicate,
-lacy vine and fern he could transplant successfully.  The body of
-the bed was a riot of color.  Here he set growing dainty
-blue-eyed-Marys and blue-eyed grass side by side.  He planted
-harebells; violets, blue, white, and yellow; wild geranium,
-cardinal-flower, columbine, pink snake's mouth, buttercups, painted
-trilliums, and orchis.  Here were blood-root, moccasin-flower,
-hepatica, pitcher-plant, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and every other flower
-of the Limberlost that was in bloom or bore a bud presaging a
-flower.  Every day saw the addition of new specimens.  The place
-would have driven a botanist wild with envy.
-
-On the line side he left the bushes thick for concealment, entering
-by a narrow path he and Duncan had cleared in setting up the case.
-He called this the front door, though he used every precaution to
-hide it.  He built rustic seats between several of the trees,
-leveled the floor, and thickly carpeted it with rank, heavy,
-woolly-dog moss.  Around the case he planted wild clematis,
-bittersweet, and wild-grapevines, and trained them over it until it
-was almost covered.  Every day he planted new flowers, cut back
-rough bushes, and coaxed out graceful ones.  His pride in his room
-was very great, but he had no idea how surprisingly beautiful it
-would appear to anyone who had not witnessed its growth and construction.
-
-This morning Freckles walked straight to his case, unlocked it, and
-set his apparatus and dinner inside.  He planted a new specimen he
-had found close the trail, and, bringing his old scrap-bucket from
-the corner in which it was hidden, from a near-by pool he dipped
-water to pour over his carpet and flowers.
-
-Then he took out the bird book, settled comfortably on a bench, and
-with a deep sigh of satisfaction turned to the section headed.  "V." 
-Past "veery" and "vireo" he went, down the line until his finger,
-trembling with eagerness, stopped at "vulture."
-
-"`Great black California vulture,'" he read.
-
-"Humph!  This side the Rockies will do for us."
-
-"`Common turkey-buzzard.'"
-
-"Well, we ain't hunting common turkeys.  McLean said chickens, and
-what he says goes."
-
-"`Black vulture of the South.'"
-
-"Here we are arrived at once."
-
-Freckles' finger followed the line, and he read scraps aloud.
-
-"`Common in the South.  Sometimes called Jim Crow.  Nearest
-equivalent to C-a-t-h-a-r-t-e-s A-t-r-a-t-a.'"
-
-"How the divil am I ever to learn them corkin' big words by mesel'?"
-
-"`--the Pharaoh's Chickens of European species.  Sometimes stray
-north as far as Virginia and Kentucky----'"
-
-"And sometimes farther," interpolated Freckles, "'cos I got them
-right here in Indiana so like these pictures I can just see me big
-chicken bobbing up to get his ears boxed.  Hey?"
-
-"`Light-blue eggs'----"
-
-"Golly!  I got to be seeing them!"
-
-"`--big as a common turkey's, but shaped like a hen's, heavily
-splotched with chocolate----'"
-
-"Caramels, I suppose.  And----"
-
-"`--in hollow logs or stumps.'"
-
-"Oh, hagginy!  Wasn't I barking up the wrong tree, though?  Ought to
-been looking close the ground all this time.  Now it's all to do
-over, and I suspect the sooner I start the sooner I'll be likely to
-find them."
-
-Freckles put away his book, dampened the smudge-fire, without which
-the mosquitoes made the swamp almost unbearable, took his cudgel
-and lunch, and went to the line.  He sat on a log, ate at
-dinner-time and drank his last drop of water.  The heat of June was
-growing intense.  Even on the west of the swamp, where one had full
-benefit of the breeze from the upland, it was beginning to be
-unpleasant in the middle of the day.
-
-He brushed the crumbs from his knees and sat resting awhile and
-watching the sky to see if his big chicken were hanging up there. 
-But he came to the earth abruptly, for there were steps coming down
-the trail that were neither McLean's nor Duncan's--and there never
-had been others.  Freckles' heart leaped hotly.  He ran a quick hand
-over his belt to feel if his revolver and hatchet were there,
-caught up his cudgel and laid it across his knees--then sat quietly,
-waiting.  Was it Black Jack, or someone even worse?  Forced to do
-something to brace his nerves, he puckered his stiffening lips and
-began whistling a tune he had led in his clear tenor every year of
-his life at the Home Christmas exercises.
-
-            "Who comes this way, so blithe and gay,
-             Upon a merry Christmas day?"
-
-
-His quick Irish wit roused to the ridiculousness of it until he
-broke into a laugh that steadied him amazingly.
-
-Through the bushes he caught a glimpse of the oncoming figure.  His
-heart flooded with joy, for it was a man from the gang.  Wessner had
-been his bunk-mate the night he came down the corduroy.  He knew him
-as well as any of McLean's men.  This was no timber-thief.  No doubt
-the Boss had sent him with a message.  Freckles sprang up and called
-cheerily, a warm welcome on his face.
-
-"Well, it's good telling if you're glad to see me," said Wessner,
-with something very like a breath of relief.  "We been hearing down
-at the camp you were so mighty touchy you didn't allow a man within
-a rod of the line."
-
-"No more do I," answered Freckles, "if he's a stranger, but you're
-from McLean, ain't you?"
-
-"Oh, damn McLean!" said Wessner.
-
-Freckles gripped the cudgel until his knuckles slowly turned purple.
-
-"And are you railly saying so?" he inquired with elaborate politeness.
-
-"Yes, I am," said Wessner.  "So would every man of the gang if they
-wasn't too big cowards to say anything, unless maybe that other
-slobbering old Scotchman, Duncan.  Grinding the lives out of us! 
-Working us like dogs, and paying us starvation wages, while he
-rolls up his millions and lives like a prince!"
-
-Green lights began to play through the gray of Freckles' eyes.
-
-"Wessner," he said impressively, "you'd make a fine pattern for the
-father of liars!  Every man on that gang is strong and hilthy, paid
-all he earns, and treated with the courtesy of a gentleman!  As for
-the Boss living like a prince, he shares fare with you every day of
-your lives!"
-
-Wessner was not a born diplomat, but he saw he was on the wrong
-tack, so he tried another.
-
-"How would you like to make a good big pile of money, without even
-lifting your hand?" he asked.
-
-"Humph!" said Freckles.  "Have you been up to Chicago and cornered
-wheat, and are you offering me a friendly tip on the invistment of
-me fortune?"
-
-Wessner came close.
-
-"Freckles, old fellow," he said, "if you let me give you a pointer,
-I can put you on to making a cool five hundred without stepping out
-of your tracks."
-
-Freckles drew back.
-
-"You needn't be afraid of speaking up," he said.  "There isn't a
-soul in the Limberlost save the birds and the beasts, unless some
-of your sort's come along and's crowding the privileges of the
-legal tinints."
-
-"None of my friends along," said Wessner.  "Nobody knew I came but
-Black, I--I mean a friend of mine.  If you want to hear sense and
-act with reason, he can see you later, but it ain't necessary.  We
-can make all the plans needed.  The trick's so dead small and easy."
-
-"Must be if you have the engineering of it," said Freckles.  But he
-heard, with a sigh of relief, that they were alone.
-
-Wessner was impervious.  "You just bet it is!  Why, only think,
-Freckles, slavin' away at a measly little thirty dollars a month,
-and here is a chance to clear five hundred in a day!  You surely
-won't be the fool to miss it!"
-
-"And how was you proposing for me to stale it?" inquired Freckles.
-"Or am I just to find it laying in me path beside the line?"
-
-"That's it, Freckles," blustered the Dutchman, "you're just to
-find it.  You needn't do a thing.  You needn't know a thing. 
-You name a morning when you will walk up the west side of the
-swamp and then turn round and walk back down the same side again
-and the money is yours.  Couldn't anything be easier than that,
-could it?"
-
-"Depinds entirely on the man," said Freckles.  The lilt of a lark
-hanging above the swale beside them was not sweeter than the
-sweetness of his voice.  "To some it would seem to come aisy as
-breathing; and to some, wringin' the last drop of their heart's
-blood couldn't force thim!  I'm not the man that goes into a scheme
-like that with the blindfold over me eyes, for, you see, it manes
-to break trust with the Boss; and I've served him faithful as I knew. 
-You'll have to be making the thing very clear to me understanding."
-
-"It's so dead easy," repeated Wessner, "it makes me tired of the
-simpleness of it.  You see there's a few trees in the swamp that's
-real gold mines.  There's three especial.  Two are back in, but one's
-square on the line.  Why, your pottering old Scotch fool of a Boss
-nailed the wire to it with his own hands!  He never noticed where
-the bark had been peeled, or saw what it was.  If you will stay on
-this side of the trail just one day we can have it cut, loaded, and
-ready to drive out at night.  Next morning you can find it, report,
-and be the busiest man in the search for us.  We know where to fix
-it all safe and easy.  Then McLean has a bet up with a couple of
-the gang that there can't be a raw stump found in the Limberlost.
-There's plenty of witnesses to swear to it, and I know three that will. 
-There's a cool thousand, and this tree is worth all of that, raw. 
-Say, it's a gold mine, I tell you, and just five hundred of it
-is yours.  There's no danger on earth to you, for you've got McLean
-that bamboozled you could sell out the whole swamp and he'd never
-mistrust you.  What do you say?"
-
-Freckles' soul was satisfied.  "Is that all?" he asked.
-
-"No, it ain't," said Wessner.  "If you really want to brace up and
-be a man and go into the thing for keeps, you can make five times
-that in a week.  My friend knows a dozen others we could get out in
-a few days, and all you'd have to do would be to keep out of sight.
-Then you could take your money and skip some night, and begin life
-like a gentleman somewhere else.  What do you think about it?"
-
-Freckles purred like a kitten.
-
-"'Twould be a rare joke on the Boss," he said, "to be stalin' from
-him the very thing he's trusted me to guard, and be getting me wages
-all winter throwed in free.  And you're making the pay awful high. 
-Me to be getting five hundred for such a simple little thing as that. 
-You're trating me most royal indade!  It's away beyond all I'd
-be expecting.  Sivinteen cints would be a big price for that job. 
-It must be looked into thorough.  Just you wait here until I do
-a minute's turn in the swamp, and then I'll be eschorting you out
-of the clearing and giving you the answer."
-
-Freckles lifted the overhanging bushes and hurried to the case. 
-He unslung the specimen-box and laid it inside with his hatchet
-and revolver.  He slipped the key in his pocket and went back
-to Wessner.
-
-"Now for the answer," he said.  "Stand up!"
-
-There was iron in his voice, and he was commanding as an
-outraged general.  "Anything, you want to be taking off?"
-he questioned.
-
-Wessner looked the astonishment he felt.  "Why, no, Freckles," he said.
-
-"Have the goodness to be calling me Mister McLean," snapped Freckles. 
-"I'm after resarvin' me pet name for the use of me friends! 
-You may stand with your back to the light or be taking any
-advantage you want."
-
-"Why, what do you mean?" spluttered Wessner.
-
-"I'm manin'," said Freckles tersely, "to lick a quarter-section of
-hell out of you, and may the Holy Vargin stay me before I leave you
-here carrion, for your carcass would turn the stummicks of me chickens!"
-
-At the camp that morning, Wessner's conduct had been so palpable
-an excuse to force a discharge that Duncan moved near McLean and
-whispered, "Think of the boy, sir?"
-
-McLean was so troubled that, an hour later, he mounted Nellie and
-followed Wessner to his home in Wildcat Hollow, only to find that
-he had left there shortly before, heading for the Limberlost. 
-McLean rode at top speed.  When Mrs. Duncan told him that a man
-answering Wessner's description had gone down the west side of the
-swamp close noon, he left the mare in her charge and followed on foot. 
-When he heard voices he entered the swamp and silently crept close
-just in time to hear Wessner whine:  "But I can't fight you, Freckles. 
-I hain't done nothing to you.  I'm away bigger than you, and you've
-only one hand."
-
-The Boss slid off his coat and crouched among the bushes, ready to
-spring; but as Freckles' voice reached him he held himself, with a
-strong effort, to learn what mettle was in the boy.
-
-"Don't you be wasting of me good time in the numbering of me
-hands," cried Freckles.  "The stringth of me cause will make up
-for the weakness of me mimbers, and the size of a cowardly thief
-doesn't count.  You'll think all the wildcats of the Limberlost
-are turned loose on you whin I come against you, and as for me
-cause----I slept with you, Wessner, the night I came down the
-corduroy like a dirty, friendless tramp, and the Boss was for
-taking me up, washing, clothing, and feeding me, and giving me a
-home full of love and tinderness, and a master to look to, and
-good, well-earned money in the bank.  He's trusting me his heartful,
-and here comes you, you spotted toad of the big road, and insults
-me, as is an honest Irish gintleman, by hinting that you concaive
-I'd be willing to shut me eyes and hold fast while you rob him of
-the thing I was set and paid to guard, and then act the sneak
-and liar to him, and ruin and eternally blacken the soul of me. 
-You damned rascal," raved Freckles, "be fighting before I forget the
-laws of a gintlemin's game and split your dirty head with me stick!"
-
-Wessner backed away, mumbling, "But I don't want to hurt you, Freckles!"
-
-"Oh, don't you!" raged the boy, now fairly frothing.  "Well, you
-ain't resembling me none, for I'm itching like death to git me
-fingers in the face of you."
-
-He danced up, and as Wessner lunged in self-defense, ducked under
-his arm as a bantam and punched him in the pit of the stomach so
-that he doubled with a groan.  Before Wessner could straighten
-himself, Freckles was on him, fighting like the wildest fury that
-ever left the beautiful island.  The Dutchman dealt thundering blows
-that sometimes landed and sent Freckles reeling, and sometimes missed,
-while he went plunging into the swale with the impetus of them. 
-Freckles could not strike with half Wessner's force, but he could
-land three blows to the Dutchman's one.  It was here that the boy's
-days of alert watching on the line, the perpetual swinging of the
-heavy cudgel, and the endurance of all weather stood him in good
-stead; for he was tough, and agile.  He skipped, ducked, and dodged. 
-For the first five minutes he endured fearful punishment. 
-Then Wessner's breath commenced to whistle between his teeth, when
-Freckles only had begun fighting.  He sprang back with shrill laughter.
-
-"Begolly!  and will your honor be whistling the hornpipe for me to
-be dancing of?" he cried.
-
-SPANG! went his fist into Wessner's face, and he was past him into
-the swale.
-
-"And would you be pleased to tune up a little livelier?" he gasped,
-and clipped his ear as he sprang back.  Wessner lunged at him in
-blind fury.  Freckles, seeing an opening, forgot the laws of a
-gentleman's game and drove the toe of his heavy wading-boot in
-Wessner's middle until he doubled and fell heavily.  In a flash
-Freckles was on him.  For a time McLean could not see what
-was happening.  "Go!  Go to him now!" he commanded himself,
-but so intense was his desire to see the boy win alone that he
-did not stir.
-
-At last Freckles sprang up and backed away.  "Time!" he yelled as
-a fury.  "Be getting up, Mr. Wessner, and don't be afraid of
-hurting me.  I'll let you throw in an extra hand and lick you to
-me complate satisfaction all the same.  Did you hear me call
-the limit?  Will you get up and be facing me?"
-
-As Wessner struggled to his feet, he resembled a battlefield, for
-his clothing was in ribbons and his face and hands streaming blood.
-
-"I--I guess I got enough," he mumbled.
-
-"Oh, you do?" roared Freckles.  "Well this ain't your say.  You come
-on to me ground, lying about me Boss and intimatin' I'd stale from
-his very pockets.  Now will you be standing up and taking your
-medicine like a man, or getting it poured down the throat of you
-like a baby?  I ain't got enough!  This is only just the beginning
-with me.  Be looking out there!"
-
-He sprang against Wessner and sent him rolling.  He attacked the
-unresisting figure and fought him until he lay limp and quiet and
-Freckles had no strength left to lift an arm.  Then he arose and
-stepped back, gasping for breath.  With his first lungful of air
-he shouted:  "Time!" But the figure of Wessner lay motionless.
-
-Freckles watched him with regardful eye and saw at last that he was
-completely exhausted.  He bent over him, and catching him by the
-back of the neck, jerked him to his knees.  Wessner lifted the face
-of a whipped cur, and fearing further punishment, burst into
-shivering sobs, while the tears washed tiny rivulets through the
-blood and muck.  Freckles stepped back, glaring at Wessner, but
-suddenly the scowl of anger and the ugly disfiguring red faded from
-the boy's face.  He dabbed at a cut on his temple from which issued
-a tiny crimson stream, and jauntily shook back his hair.  His face
-took on the innocent look of a cherub, and his voice rivaled that of
-a brooding dove, but into his eyes crept a look of diabolical mischief.
-
-He glanced vaguely around him until he saw his club, seized and
-twirled it as a drum major, stuck it upright in the muck, and
-marched on tiptoe to Wessner, mechanically, as a puppet worked by
-a string.  Bending over, Freckles reached an arm around Wessner's
-waist and helped him to his feet.
-
-"Careful, now" he cautioned, "be careful, Freddy; there's danger of
-you hurting me."
-
-Drawing a handkerchief from a back pocket, Freckles tenderly wiped
-Wessner's eyes and nose.
-
-"Come, Freddy, me child," he admonished Wessner, "it's time little
-boys were going home.  I've me work to do, and can't be entertaining
-you any more today.  Come back tomorrow, if you ain't through yet,
-and we'll repate the perfarmance.  Don't be staring at me so wild like! 
-I would eat you, but I can't afford it.  Me earnings, being honest,
-come slow, and I've no money to be squanderin' on the pailful of
-Dyspeptic's Delight it would be to taking to work you out of my innards!"
-
-Again an awful wrenching seized McLean.  Freckles stepped back as
-Wessner, tottering and reeling, as a thoroughly drunken man, came
-toward the path, appearing indeed as if wildcats had attacked him.
-
-The cudgel spun high in air, and catching it with an expertness
-acquired by long practice on the line, the boy twirled it a second,
-shook back his thick hair bonnily, and stepping into the trail,
-followed Wessner.  Because Freckles was Irish, it was impossible to
-do it silently, so presently his clear tenor rang out, though there
-were bad catches where he was hard pressed for breath:
-
-            "It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch.
-             Do you think it was the Irish hollered help?
-                  Not much!
-             It was the Dutch.  It was the Dutch----"
-
-
-Wessner turned and mumbled:  "What you following me for?  What are
-you going to do with me?"
-
-Freckles called the Limberlost to witness:  "How's that for the
-ingratitude of a beast?  And me troubling mesilf to show him off me
-territory with the honors of war!"
-
-Then he changed his tone completely and added:  "Belike it's
-this, Freddy.  You see, the Boss might come riding down this trail
-any minute, and the little mare's so wheedlesome that if she'd
-come on to you in your prisint state all of a sudden, she'd stop
-that short she'd send Mr. McLean out over the ears of her. 
-No disparagement intinded to the sinse of the mare!" he added hastily.
-
-Wessner belched a fearful oath, while Freckles laughed merrily.
-
-"That's a sample of the thanks a generous act's always for
-getting," he continued.  "Here's me negictin' me work to eschort you
-out proper, and you saying such awful words Freddy," he demanded
-sternly, "do you want me to soap out your mouth?  You don't seem to
-be realizing it, but if you was to buck into Mr. McLean in your
-prisint state, without me there to explain matters the chance is
-he'd cut the liver out of you; and I shouldn't think you'd be
-wanting such a fine gintleman as him to see that it's white!"
-
-Wessner grew ghastly under his grime and broke into a staggering run.
-
-"And now will you be looking at the manners of him?" questioned
-Freckles plaintively.  "Going without even a `thank you,' right in
-the face of all the pains I've taken to make it interesting for him!"
-
-Freckles twirled the club and stood as a soldier at attention until
-Wessner left the clearing, but it was the last scene of that
-performance.  When the boy turned, there was deathly illness on his
-face, while his legs wavered beneath his weight.  He staggered to
-the case, and opening it he took out a piece of cloth.  He dipped it
-into the water, and sitting on a bench, he wiped the blood and grime
-from his face, while his breath sucked between his clenched teeth. 
-He was shivering with pain and excitement in spite of himself. 
-He unbuttoned the band of his right sleeve, and turning it back,
-exposed the blue-lined, calloused whiteness of his maimed arm,
-now vividly streaked with contusions, while in a series of circular
-dots the blood oozed slowly.  Here Wessner had succeeded in setting
-his teeth.  When Freckles saw what it was he forgave himself the
-kick in the pit of Wessner's stomach, and cursed fervently and deep.
-
-"Freckles, Freckles," said McLean's voice.
-
-Freckles snatched down his sleeve and arose to his feet.
-
-"Excuse me, sir," he said.  "You'll surely be belavin' I thought
-meself alone."
-
-McLean pushed him carefully to the seat, and bending over him,
-opened a pocket-case that he carried as regularly as his revolver and
-watch, for cuts and bruises were of daily occurrence among the gang.
-
-Taking the hurt arm, he turned back the sleeve and bathed and bound
-the wounds.  He examined Freckles' head and body and convinced
-himself that there was no permanent injury, although the cruelty of
-the punishment the boy had borne set the Boss shuddering.  Then he
-closed the case, shoved it into his pocket, and sat beside Freckles. 
-All the indescribable beauty of the place was strong around him,
-but he saw only the bruised face of the suffering boy, who had
-hedged for the information he wanted as a diplomat, argued as a
-judge, fought as a sheik, and triumphed as a devil.
-
-When the pain lessened and breath reieved Freckles' pounding heart,
-he watched the Boss covertly.  How had McLean gotten there and how
-long had he been there?  Freckles did not dare ask.  At last he
-arose, and going to the case, took out his revolver and the wire-
-mending apparatus and locked the door.  Then he turned to McLean.
-
-"Have you any orders, sir?" he asked.
-
-"Yes," said McLean, "I have, and you are to follow them to
-the letter.  Turn over that apparatus to me and go straight home. 
-Soak yourself in the hottest bath your skin will bear and go to
-bed at once.  Now hurry."
-
-"Mr. McLean," said Freckles, "it's sorry I am to be telling you,
-but the afternoon's walking of the line ain't done.  You see, I was
-just for getting to me feet to start, and I was on time, when up
-came a gintleman, and we got into a little heated argument. 
-It's either settled, or it's just begun, but between us, I'm that
-late I haven't started for the afternoon yet.  I must be going
-at once, for there's a tree I must find before the day's over."
-
-"You plucky little idiot," growled McLean.  "You can't walk the line! 
-I doubt if you can reach Duncan's.  Don't you know when you are
-done up?  You go to bed; I'll finish your work."
-
-"Niver!" protested Freckles.  "I was just a little done up for the
-prisint, a minute ago.  I'm all right now.  Riding-boots are far
-too low.  The day's hot and the walk a good seven miles, sir.  Niver!"
-
-As he reached for the outfit he pitched forward and his eyes closed. 
-McLean stretched him on the moss and applied restoratives. 
-When Freckles returned to consciousness, McLean ran to the cabin to
-tell Mrs. Duncan to have a hot bath ready, and to bring Nellie. 
-That worthy woman promptly filled the wash-boiler, starting a
-roaring fire under it.  She pushed the horse-trough from its base
-and rolled it to the kitchen.
-
-By the time McLean came again, leading Nelie and holding Freckles
-on her back, Mrs. Duncan was ready for business.  She and the Boss
-laid Freckles in the trough and poured on hot water until he squirmed. 
-They soaked and massaged him.  Then they drew off the hot water and
-closed his pores with cold.  Lastly they stretched him on the floor
-and chafed, rubbed, and kneaded him until he cried out for mercy. 
-As they rolled him into bed, his eyes dropped shut, but a little
-later they flared open.
-
-"Mr. McLean," he cried, "the tree!  Oh, do be looking after the tree!"
-
-McLean bent over him.  "Which tree, Freckles?"
-
-"I don't know exact" sir; but it's on the east line, and the wire
-is fastened to it.  He bragged that you nailed it yourself, sir. 
-You'll know it by the bark having been laid open to the grain
-somewhere low down.  Five hundred dollars he offered me--to be--
-selling you out--sir!"
-
-Freckles' head rolled over and his eyes dropped shut.  McLean towered
-above the lad.  His bright hair waved on the pillow.  His face was
-swollen, and purple with bruises.  His left arm, with the hand
-battered almost out of shape, stretched beside him, and the right,
-with no hand at all, lay across a chest that was a mass of purple welts. 
-McLean's mind traveled to the night, almost a year before, when he
-had engaged Freckles, a stranger.
-
-The Boss bent, covering the hurt arm with one hand and laying the
-other with a caress on the boy's forehead.  Freckles stirred at his
-touch, and whispered as softly as the swallows under the eaves: 
-"If you're coming this way--tomorrow--be pleased to step over--
-and we'll repate--the chorus softly!"
-
-"Bless the gritty devil," muttered McLean.
-
-Then he went out and told Mrs. Duncan to keep close watch on
-Freckles, also to send Duncan to him at the swamp the minute he
-came home.  Following the trail to the line and back to the scent
-of the fight, the Boss entered Freckles' study quietly, as if his
-spirit, keeping there, might be roused, and gazed around with
-astonished eyes.
-
-How had the boy conceived it?  What a picture he had wrought in
-living colors!  He had the heart of a painter.  He had the soul of
-a poet.  The Boss stepped carefully over the velvet carpet to touch
-the walls of crisp verdure with gentle fingers.  He stood long
-beside the flower bed, and gazed at the banked wall of bright bloom
-as if he doubted its reality.
-
-Where had Freckles ever found, and how had he transplanted
-such ferns?  As McLean turned from them he stopped suddenly.
-
-He had reached the door of the cathedral.  That which Freckles had
-attempted would have been patent to anyone.  What had been in the
-heart of the shy, silent boy when he had found that long, dim
-stretch of forest, decorated its entrance, cleared and smoothed
-its aisle, and carpeted its altar?  What veriest work of God was
-in these mighty living pillars and the arched dome of green! 
-How similar to stained cathedral windows were the long openings
-between the trees, filled with rifts of blue, rays of gold, and the
-shifting emerald of leaves!  Where could be found mosaics to match
-this aisle paved with living color and glowing light?  Was Freckles
-a devout Christian, and did he worship here?  Or was he an untaught
-heathen, and down this vista of entrancing loveliness did Pan come
-piping, and dryads, nymphs, and fairies dance for him?
-
-Who can fathom the heart of a boy?  McLean had been thinking of
-Freckles as a creature of unswerving honesty, courage, and
-faithfulness.  Here was evidence of a heart aching for beauty, art,
-companionship, worship.  It was writ large all over the floor,
-walls, and furnishing of that little Limberlost clearing.
-
-When Duncan came, McLean told him the story of the fight, and they
-laughed until they cried.  Then they started around the line in
-search of the tree.
-
-Said Duncan:  "Now the boy is in for sore trouble!"
-
-"I hope not," answered McLean.  "You never in all your life saw a
-cur whipped so completely.  He won't come back for the repetition of
-the chorus.  We surely can find the tree.  If we can't, Freckles can.
-I will bring enough of the gang to take it out at once.  That will
-insure peace for a time, at least, and I am hoping that in a month
-more the whole gang may be moved here.  It soon will be fall, and
-then, if he will go, I intend to send Freckles to my mother to
-be educated.  With his quickness of mind and body and a few years'
-good help he can do anything.  Why, Duncan, I'd give a hundred-
-dollar bill if you could have been here and seen for yourself."
-
-"Yes, and I'd `a' done murder," muttered the big teamster.  "I hope,
-sir, ye will make good your plans for Freckles, though I'd as soon
-see ony born child o' my ain taken from our home.  We love the lad,
-me and Sarah."
-
-Locating the tree was easy, because it was so well identified. 
-When the rumble of the big lumber wagons passing the cabin on the
-way to the swamp wakened Freckles next morning, he sprang up and
-was soon following them.  He was so sore and stiff that every
-movement was torture at first, but he grew easier, and shortly did
-not suffer so much.  McLean scolded him for coming, yet in his
-heart triumphed over every new evidence of fineness in the boy.
-
-The tree was a giant maple, and so precious that they almost dug it
-out by the roots.  When it was down, cut in lengths, and loaded,
-there was yet an empty wagon.  As they were gathering up their tools
-to go, Duncan said:  "There's a big hollow tree somewhere mighty
-close here that I've been wanting for a watering-trough for my
-stock; the one I have is so small.  The Portland company cut this
-for elm butts last year, and it's six feet diameter and hollow for
-forty feet.  It was a buster!  While the men are here and there is an
-empty wagon, why mightn't I load it on and tak' it up to the barn
-as we pass?"
-
-McLean said he was very willing, ordered the driver to break line
-and load the log, detailing men to assist.  He told Freckles to ride
-on a section of the maple with him, but now the boy asked to enter
-the swamp with Duncan.
-
-"I don't see why you want to go," said McLean.  "I have no business
-to let you out today at all."
-
-"It's me chickens," whispered Freckles in distress.  "You see, I was
-just after finding yesterday, from me new book, how they do be
-nesting in hollow trees, and there ain't any too many in the swamp.
-There's just a chance that they might be in that one."
-
-"Go ahead," said McLean.  "That's a different story.  If they happen
-to be there, why tell Duncan he must give up the tree until they
-have finished with it."
-
-Then he climbed on a wagon and was driven away.  Freckles hurried
-into the swamp.  He was a little behind, yet he could see the men. 
-Before he overtook them, they had turned from the west road and had
-entered the swamp toward the east.
-
-They stopped at the trunk of a monstrous prostrate log.  It had been
-cut three feet from the ground, over three-fourths of the way
-through, and had fallen toward the east, the body of the log still
-resting on the stump.  The underbrush was almost impenetrable, but
-Duncan plunged in and with a crowbar began tapping along the trunk
-to decide how far it was hollow, so that they would know where to cut. 
-As they waited his decision, there came from the mouth of it--on
-wings--a large black bird that swept over their heads.
-
-Freckles danced wildly.  "It's me chickens!  Oh, it's me chickens!"
-he shouted.  "Oh, Duncan, come quick!  You've found the nest of me
-precious chickens!"
-
-Duncan hurried to the mouth of the log, but Freckles was before him. 
-He crashed through poison-vines and underbrush regardless of any
-danger, and climbed on the stump.  When Duncan came he was shouting
-like a wild man.
-
-"It's hatched!" he yelled.  "Oh, me big chicken has hatched out me
-little chicken, and there's another egg.  I can see it plain, and
-oh, the funny little white baby!  Oh, Duncan, can you see me little
-white chicken?"
-
-Duncan could easily see it; so could everyone else.  Freckles crept
-into the log and tenderly carried the hissing, blinking little bird
-to the light in a leaf-lined hat.  The men found it sufficiently
-wonderful to satisfy even Freckles, who had forgotten he was ever
-sore or stiff, and coddled over it with every blarneying term of
-endearment he knew.
-
-Duncan gathered his tools.  "Deal's off, boys!" he said cheerfully.
-"This log mauna be touched until Freckles' chaukies have finished
-with it.  We might as weel gang.  Better put it back, Freckles. 
-It's just out, and it may chill.  Ye will probably hae twa the morn."
-
-Freckles crept into the log and carefully deposited the baby beside
-the egg.  When he came back, he said:  "I made a big mistake not to
-be bringing the egg out with the baby, but I was fearing to touch it. 
-It's shaped like a hen's egg, and it's big as a turkey's, and the
-beautifulest blue--just splattered with big brown splotches,
-like me book said, precise.  Bet you never saw such a sight as it
-made on the yellow of the rotten wood beside that funny
-leathery-faced little white baby."
-
-"Tell you what, Freckles," said one of the teamsters.  "Have you
-ever heard of this Bird Woman who goes all over the country with a
-camera and makes pictures?  She made some on my brother Jim's place
-last summer, and Jim's so wild about them he quits plowing and goes
-after her about every nest he finds.  He helps her all he can to
-take them, and then she gives him a picture.  Jim's so proud of what
-he has he keeps them in the Bible.  He shows them to everybody that
-comes, and brags about how he helped.  If you're smart, you'll send
-for her and she'll come and make a picture just like life.  If you
-help her, she will give you one.  It would be uncommon pretty to
-keep, after your birds are gone.  I dunno what they are.  I never see
-their like before.  They must be something rare.  Any you fellows
-ever see a bird like that hereabouts?"
-
-No one ever had.
-
-"Well," said the teamster, "failing to get this log lets me off
-till noon, and I'm going to town.  I go right past her place. 
-I've a big notion to stop and tell her.  If she drives straight
-back in the swamp on the west road, and turns east at this big
-sycamore, she can't miss finding the tree, even if Freckles ain't
-here to show her.  Jim says her work is a credit to the State she
-lives in, and any man is a measly creature who isn't willing to
-help her all he can.  My old daddy used to say that all there was
-to religion was doing to the other fellow what you'd want him to
-do to you, and if I was making a living taking bird pictures,
-seems to me I'd be mighty glad for a chance to take one like that. 
-So I'll just stop and tell her, and by gummy!  maybe she will give
-me a picture of the little white sucker for my trouble."
-
-Freckles touched his arm.
-
-"Will she be rough with it?" he asked.
-
-"Government land!  No!" said the teamster.  "She's dead down on
-anybody that shoots a bird or tears up a nest.  Why, she's half
-killing herself in all kinds of places and weather to teach people
-to love and protect the birds.  She's that plum careful of them that
-Jim's wife says she has Jim a standin' like a big fool holding an
-ombrelly over them when they are young and tender until she gets a
-focus, whatever that is.  Jim says there ain't a bird on his place
-that don't actually seem to like having her around after she has
-wheedled them a few days, and the pictures she takes nobody would
-ever believe who didn't stand by and see."
-
-"Will you he sure to tell her to come?" asked Freckles.
-
-Duncan slept at home that night.  He heard Freckles slipping out
-early the next morning, but he was too sleepy to wonder why, until
-he came to do his morning chores.  When he found that none of his
-stock was at all thirsty, and saw the water-trough brimming, he
-knew that the boy was trying to make up to him for the loss of the
-big trough that he had been so anxious to have.
-
-"Bless his fool little hot heart!" said Duncan.  "And him so sore it
-is tearing him to move for anything.  Nae wonder he has us all
-loving him!"
-
-Freckles was moving briskly, and his heart was so happy that he
-forgot all about the bruises.  He hurried around the trail, and on
-his way down the east side he went to see the chickens.  The mother
-bird was on the nest.  He was afraid the other egg might be
-hatching, so he did not venture to disturb her.  He made the round
-and reached his study early.  He ate his lunch, but did not need
-to start on the second trip until the middle of the afternoon. 
-He would have long hours to work on his flower bed, improve his study,
-and learn about his chickens.  Lovingly he set his room in order and
-watered the flowers and carpet.  He had chosen for his resting-place
-the coolest spot on the west side, where there was almost always a
-breeze; but today the heat was so intense that it penetrated even there.
-
-"I'm mighty glad there's nothing calling me inside!" he said.
-"There's no bit of air stirring, and it will just be steaming. 
-Oh, but it's luck Duncan found the nest before it got so unbearing hot!
-I might have missed it altogether.  Wouldn't it have been a shame to
-lose that sight?  The cunning little divil!  When he gets to toddling
-down that log to meet me, won't he be a circus?  Wonder if he'll be
-as graceful a performer afoot as his father and mother?"
-
-The heat became more insistent.  Noon came; Freckles ate his dinner
-and settled for an hour or two on a bench with a book.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER V
-
-            Wherein an Angel Materializes and a Man Worships
-
-Perhaps there was a breath of sound--Freckles never afterward could
-remember--but for some reason he lifted his head as the bushes
-parted and the face of an angel looked between.  Saints, nymphs, and
-fairies had floated down his cathedral aisle for him many times,
-with forms and voices of exquisite beauty.
-
-Parting the wild roses at the entrance was beauty of which
-Freckles never had dreamed.  Was it real or would it vanish as the
-other dreams?  He dropped his book, and rising to his feet, went a step
-closer, gazing intently.  This was real flesh and blood.  It was in
-every way kin to the Limberlost, for no bird of its branches swung
-with easier grace than this dainty young thing rocked on the bit of
-morass on which she stood.  A sapling beside her was not straighter
-or rounder than her slender form.  Her soft, waving hair clung
-around her face from the heat, and curled over her shoulders. 
-It was all of one piece with the gold of the sun that filtered
-between the branches.  Her eyes were the deepest blue of the iris,
-her lips the reddest red of the foxfire, while her cheeks were
-exactly of the same satin as the wild rose petals caressing them. 
-She was smiling at Freckles in perfect confidence, and she cried:
-
-"Oh, I'm so delighted that I've found you!"
-
-The wildly leaping heart of Freckles burst from his body and fell
-in the black swamp-muck at her feet with such a thud that he did
-not understand how she could avoid hearing.  He really felt that if
-she looked down she would see.
-
-Incredulous, he quavered:  "An'--an' was you looking for me?"
-
-"I hoped I might find you," said the Angel.  "You see, I didn't do
-as I was told, and I'm lost.  The Bird Woman said I should wait in
-the carriage until she came back.  She's been gone hours.  It's a
-perfect Turkish bath in there, and I'm all lumpy with mosquito bites. 
-Just when I thought that I couldn't bear it another minute,
-along came the biggest Papilio Ajax you ever saw.  I knew how
-pleased she'd be, so I ran after it.  It flew so slow and so low
-that I thought a dozen times I had it.  Then all at once it went
-from sight above the trees, and I couldn't find my way back to save me. 
-I think I've walked more than an hour.  I have been mired to my knees. 
-A thorn raked my arm until it is bleeding, and I'm so tired and warm."
-
-She parted the bushes farther.  Freckles saw that her blue cotton
-frock clung to her, limp with perspiration.  It was torn across
-the breast.  One sleeve hung open from shoulder to elbow.  A thorn
-had torn her arm until it was covered with blood, and the gnats and
-mosquitoes were clustering around it.  Her feet were in lace hose
-and low shoes.  Freckles gasped.  In the Limberlost in low shoes! 
-He caught an armful of moss from his carpet and buried it in the
-ooze in front of her for a footing.
-
-"Come out here so I can see where you are stepping.  Quick, for the
-life of you!" he ordered.
-
-She smiled on him indulgently.
-
-"Why?" she inquired.
-
-"Did anybody let you come here and not be telling you of the
-snakes?" urged Freckles.
-
-"We met Mr. McLean on the corduroy, and he did say something about
-snakes, I believe.  The Bird Woman put on leather leggings, and a
-nice, parboiled time she must be having!  Worst dose I ever endured,
-and I'd nothing to do but swelter."
-
-"Will you be coming out of there?" groaned Freckles.
-
-She laughed as if it were a fine joke.
-
-"Maybe if I'd be telling you I killed a rattler curled upon that
-same place you're standing, as long as me body and the thickness
-of me arm, you'd be moving where I can see your footing,"
-he urged insistently.
-
-"What a perfectly delightful little brogue you speak," she said. 
-"My father is Irish, and half should be enough to entitle me to
-that much.  `Maybe--if I'd--be telling you,'" she imitated, rounding
-and accenting each word carefully.
-
-Freckles was beginning to feel a wildness in his head.  He had
-derided Wessner at that same hour yesterday.  Now his own eyes were
-filling with tears.
-
-"If you were understanding the danger!" he continued desperately.
-
-"Oh, I don't think there is much!"
-
-She tilted on the morass.
-
-"If you killed one snake here, it's probably all there is near; and
-anyway, the Bird Woman says a rattlesnake is a gentleman and always
-gives warning before he strikes.  I don't hear any rattling.  Do you?"
-
-"Would you be knowing it if you did?" asked Freckles, almost impatiently.
-
-How the laugh of the young thing rippled!
-
-"`Would I be knowing it?'" she mocked.  "You should see the swamps
-of Michigan where they dump rattlers from the marl-dredgers three
-and four at a time!"
-
-Freckles stood astounded.  She did know.  She was not in the
-least afraid.  She was depending on a rattlesnake to live up to
-his share of the contract and rattle in time for her to move. 
-The one characteristic an Irishman admires in a woman, above all
-others, is courage.  Freckles worshiped anew.  He changed his tactics.
-
-"I'd be pleased to be receiving you at me front door," he said,
-"but as you have arrived at the back, will you come in and be seated?"
-
-He waved toward a bench.  The Angel came instantly.
-
-"Oh, how lovely and cool!" she cried.
-
-As she moved across his room, Freckles had difficult work to keep
-from falling on his knees; for they were very weak, while he was
-hard driven by an impulse to worship.
-
-"Did you arrange this?" she asked.
-
-"Yis," said Freckles simply.
-
-"Someone must come with a big canvas and copy each side of it," she
-said.  "I never saw anything so beautiful!  How I wish I might remain
-here with you!  I will, some day, if you will let me; but now, if
-you can spare the time, will you help me find the carriage?  If the
-Bird Woman comes back and I am gone, she will be almost distracted."
-
-"Did you come on the west road?" asked Freckles.
-
-"I think so," she said.  "The man who told the Bird Woman said that
-was the only place the wires were down.  We drove away in, and it
-was dreadful--over stumps and logs, and we mired to the hubs.  I
-suppose you know, though.  I should have stayed in the carriage, but
-I was so tired.  I never dreamed of getting lost.  I suspect I will
-be scolded finely.  I go with the Bird Woman half the time during
-the summer vacations.  My father says I learn a lot more than I do
-at school, and get it straight.  I never came within a smell of
-being lost before.  I thought, at first, it was going to be horrid;
-but since I've found you, maybe it will be good fun after all."
-
-Freckles was amazed to hear himself excusing:  "It was so hot
-in there.  You couldn't be expected to bear it for hours and not
-be moving.  I can take you around the trail almost to where you were. 
-Then you can sit in the carriage, and I will go find the Bird Woman."
-
-"You'll be killed if you do!  When she stays this long, it means
-that she has a focus on something.  You see, when she has a focus,
-and lies in the weeds and water for hours, and the sun bakes her,
-and things crawl over her, and then someone comes along and scares
-her bird away just as she has it coaxed up--why, she kills them. 
-If I melt, you won't go after her.  She's probably blistered and
-half eaten up; but she never will quit until she is satisfied."
-
-"Then it will be safer to be taking care of you," suggested Freckles.
-
-"Now you're talking sense!" said the Angel.
-
-"May I try to help your arm?" he asked.
-
-"Have you any idea how it hurts?" she parried.
-
-"A little," said Freckles.
-
-"Well, Mr. McLean said We'd probably find his son here"
-
-"His son!" cried Freckles.
-
-"That's what he said.  And that you would do anything you could for
-us; and that we could trust you with our lives.  But I would have
-trusted you anyway, if I hadn't known a thing about you.  Say, your
-father is rampaging proud of you, isn't he?"
-
-"I don't know," answered the dazed Freckles.
-
-"Well, call on me if you want reliable information.  He's so proud
-of you he is all swelled up like the toad in AEsop's Fables.  If you
-have ever had an arm hurt like this, and can do anything, why, for
-pity sake, do it!"
-
-She turned back her sleeve, holding toward Freckles an arm of
-palest cameo, shaped so exquisitely that no sculptor could have
-chiseled it.
-
-Freckles unlocked his case, and taking out some cotton cloth, he
-tore it in strips.  Then he brought a bucket of the cleanest water
-he could find.  She yielded herself to his touch as a baby, and
-he bathed away the blood and bandaged the ugly, ragged wound. 
-He finished his surgery by lapping the torn sleeve over the cloth
-and binding it down with a piece of twine, with the Angel's help
-about the knots.
-
-Freckles worked with trembling fingers and a face tense with earnestness.
-
-"Is it feeling any better?" he asked.
-
-"Oh, it's well now!" cried the Angel.  "It doesn't hurt at all, any more."
-
-"I'm mighty glad," said Freckles.  "But you had best go and be
-having your doctor fix it right; the minute you get home."
-
-"Oh, bother!  A little scratch like that!" jeered the Angel. 
-"My blood is perfectly pure.  It will heal in three days."
-
-"It's cut cruel deep.  It might be making a scar," faltered Freckles,
-his eyes on the ground.  "'Twould--'twould be an awful pity. 
-A doctor might know something to prevent it."
-
-"Why, I never thought of that!" exclaimed the Angel.
-
-"I noticed you didn't," said Freckles softly.  "I don't know much
-about it, but it seems as if most girls would."
-
-The Angel thought intently, while Freckles still knelt beside her.
-Suddenly she gave herself an impatient little shake, lifted her
-glorious eyes full to his, and the smile that swept her sweet,
-young face was the loveliest thing that Freckles ever had seen.
-
-"Don't let's bother about it," she proposed, with the faintest hint
-of a confiding gesture toward him.  "It won't make a scar.  Why, it
-couldn't, when you have dressed it so nicely."
-
-The velvety touch of her warm arm was tingling in Freckles' fingertips. 
-Dainty lace and fine white ribbon peeped through her torn dress. 
-There were beautiful rings on her fingers.  Every article she wore
-was of the finest material and in excellent taste.  There was the
-trembling Limberlost guard in his coarse clothing, with his cotton
-rags and his old pail of swamp water.  Freckles was sufficiently
-accustomed to contrasts to notice them, and sufficiently fine to be
-hurt by them always.
-
-He lifted his eyes with a shadowy pain in them to hers, and found
-them of serene, unconscious purity.  What she had said was straight
-from a kind, untainted, young heart.  She meant every word of it. 
-Freckles' soul sickened.  He scarcely knew whether he could muster
-strength to stand.
-
-"We must go and hunt for the carriage," said the Angel, rising.
-
-In instant alarm for her, Freckles sprang up, grasped the cudgel,
-and led the way, sharply watching every step.  He went as close the
-log as he felt that he dared, and with a little searching found
-the carriage.  He cleared a path for the Angel, and with a sigh of
-relief saw her enter it safely.  The heat was intense.  She pushed
-the damp hair from her temples.
-
-"This is a shame!" said Freckles.  "You'll never be coming here again."
-
-"Oh yes I shall!" said the Angel.  "The Bird Woman says that these
-birds remain over a month in the nest and she would like to make a
-picture every few days for seven or eight weeks, perhaps."
-
-Freckles barely escaped crying aloud for joy.
-
-"Then don't you ever be torturing yourself and your horse to be
-coming in here again," he said.  "I'll show you a way to drive
-almost to the nest on the east trail, and then you can come around
-to my room and stay while the Bird Woman works.  It's nearly always
-cool there, and there's comfortable seats, and water."
-
-"Oh!  did you have drinking-water there?" she cried.  "I was never so
-thirsty or so hungry in my life, but I thought I wouldn't mention it."
-
-"And I had not the wit to be seeing!" wailed Freckles.  "I can be
-getting you a good drink in no time."
-
-He turned to the trail.
-
-"Please wait a minute," called the Angel.  "What's your name?  I want
-to think about you while you are gone."  Freckles lifted his face
-with the brown rift across it and smiled quizzically.
-
-"Freckles?" she guessed, with a peal of laughter.  "And mine is----"
-
-"I'm knowing yours," interrupted Freckles.
-
-"I don't believe you do.  What is it?" asked the girl.
-
-"You won't be getting angry?"
-
-"Not until I've had the water, at least."
-
-It was Freckles' turn to laugh.  He whipped off his big, floppy
-straw hat, stood uncovered before her, and said, in the sweetest of
-all the sweet tones of his voice:  "There's nothing you could be but
-the Swamp Angel."
-
-The girl laughed happily.
-
-Once out of her sight, Freckles ran every step of the way to
-the cabin.  Mrs. Duncan gave him a small bucket of water, cool from
-the well.  He carried it in the crook of his right arm, and a basket
-filled with bread and butter, cold meat, apple pie, and pickles, in
-his left hand.
-
-"Pickles are kind o' cooling," said Mrs. Duncan.
-
-Then Freckles ran again.
-
-The Angel was on her knees, reaching for the bucket, as he came up.
-
-"Be drinking slow," he cautioned her.
-
-"Oh!" she cried, with a long breath of satisfaction.  "It's so good!
-You are more than kind to bring it!"
-
-Freckles stood blinking in the dazzling glory of her smile until he
-scarcely could see to lift the basket.
-
-"Mercy!" she exclaimed.  "I think I had better be naming you
-the `Angel.' My Guardian Angel."
-
-"Yis," said Freckles.  "I look the character every day--but today
-most emphatic!"
-
-"Angels don't go by looks," laughed the girl.  "Your father told us
-you had been scrapping.  But he told us why.  I'd gladly wear all
-your cuts and bruises if I could do anything that would make my
-father look as peacocky as yours did.  He strutted about proper. 
-I never saw anyone look prouder."
-
-"Did he say he was proud of me?" marveled Freckles.
-
-"He didn't need to," answered the Angel.  "He was radiating
-pride from every pore.  Now, have you brought me your dinner?"
-
-"I had my dinner two hours ago," answered Freckles.
-
-"Honest Injun?" bantered the Angel.
-
-"Honest!  I brought that on purpose for you."
-
-"Well, if you knew how hungry I am, you would know how thankful
-I am, to the dot," said the Angel.
-
-"Then you be eating," cried the happy Freckles.
-
-The Angel sat on a big camera, spread the lunch on the carriage
-seat, and divided it in halves.  The daintiest parts she could
-select she carefully put back into the basket.  The remainder
-she ate.  Again Freckles found her of the swamp, for though she was
-almost ravenous, she managed her food as gracefully as his little
-yellow fellow, and her every movement was easy and charming.  As he
-watched her with famished eyes, Freckles told her of his birds,
-flowers, and books, and never realized what he was doing.
-
-He led the horse to a deep pool that he knew of, and the tortured
-creature drank greedily, and lovingly rubbed him with its nose as
-he wiped down its welted body with grass.  Suddenly the Angel cried: 
-"There comes the Bird Woman!"
-
-Freckles had intended leaving before she came, but now he was glad
-indeed to be there, for a warmer, more worn, and worse bitten
-creature he never had seen.  She was staggering under a load of
-cameras and paraphernalia.  Freckles ran to her aid.  He took all he
-could carry of her load, stowed it in the back of the carriage, and
-helped her in.  The Angel gave her water, knelt and unfastened the
-leggings, bathed her face, and offered the lunch.
-
-Freckles brought the horse.  He was not sure about the harness, but
-the Angel knew, and soon they left the swamp.  Then he showed them
-how to reach the chicken tree from the outside, indicated a cooler
-place for the horse, and told them how, the next time they came,
-the Angel could find his room while she waited.
-
-The Bird Woman finished her lunch, and lay back, almost too tired
-to speak.
-
-"Were you for getting Little Chicken's picture?" Freckles asked.
-
-"Finely!" she answered.  "He posed splendidly.  But I couldn't do
-anything with his mother.  She will require coaxing."
-
-"The Lord be praised!" muttered Freckles under his breath.
-
-The Bird Woman began to feel better.
-
-"Why do you call the baby vulture `Little Chicken'?" she asked,
-leaning toward Freckles in an interested manner.
-
-"'Twas Duncan began it," said Freckles.  "You see, through the
-fierce cold of winter the birds of the swamp were almost starving.
-It is mighty lonely here, and they were all the company I was having. 
-I got to carrying scraps and grain down to them.  Duncan was
-that ginerous he was giving me of his wheat and corn from his
-chickens' feed, and he called the birds me swamp chickens. 
-Then when these big black fellows came, Mr. McLean said they were
-our nearest kind to some in the old world that they called
-`Pharaoh's Chickens,' and he called mine `Freckles' Chickens.'"
-
-"Good enough!" cried the Bird Woman, her splotched purple face
-lighting with interest.  "You must shoot something for them
-occasionally, and I'll bring more food when I come.  If you will
-help me keep them until I get my series, I'll give you a copy of
-each study I make, mounted in a book."
-
-Freckles drew a deep breath.
-
-"I'll be doing me very best," he promised, and from the deeps he
-meant it.
-
-"I wonder if that other egg is going to hatch?" mused the Bird Woman. 
-"I am afraid not.  It should have pipped today.  Isn't it a beauty! 
-I never before saw either an egg or the young.  They are rare this
-far north."
-
-"So Mr. McLean said," answered Freckles.
-
-Before they drove away, the Bird Woman thanked him for his kindness
-to the Angel and to her.  She gave him her hand at parting, and
-Freckles joyfully realized that this was going to be another person
-for him to love.  He could not remember, after they had driven away,
-that they even had noticed his missing hand, and for the first time
-in his life he had forgotten it.
-
-When the Bird Woman and the Angel were on the home road, she told
-of the little corner of paradise into which she had strayed and
-of her new name.  The Bird Woman looked at the girl and guessed
-its appropriateness.
-
-"Did you know Mr. McLean had a son?" asked the Angel.  "Isn't the
-little accent he has, and the way he twists a sentence, too dear?
-And isn't it too old-fashioned and funny to hear him call his
-father `mister'?"
-
-"It sounds too good to be true," said the Bird Woman, answering the
-last question first.  "I am so tired of these present-day young men
-who patronizingly call their fathers `Dad,' `Governor,' `Old Man"
-and `Old Chap,' that the boy's attitude of respect and deference
-appealed to me as being fine as silk.  There must be something rare
-about that young man."
-
-She did not find it necessary to tell the Angel that for several
-years she had known the man who so proudly proclaimed himself
-Freckles' father to be a bachelor and a Scotchman.  The Bird Woman
-had a fine way of attending strictly to her own business.
-
-Freckles turned to the trail, but he stopped at every wild brier to
-study the pink satin of the petals.  She was not of his world, and
-better than any other he knew it; but she might be his Angel, and
-he was dreaming of naught but blind, silent worship.  He finished
-the happiest day of his life, and that night he returned to the
-swamp as if drawn by invisible force.  That Wessner would try for
-his revenge, he knew.  That he would be abetted by Black Jack was
-almost certain, but fear had fled the happy heart of Freckles. 
-He had kept his trust.  He had won the respect of the Boss. 
-No one ever could wipe from his heart the flood of holy adoration
-that had welled with the coming of his Angel.  He would do his best,
-and trust for strength to meet the dark day of reckoning that he
-knew would come sooner or later.  He swung round the trail, briskly
-tapping the wire, and singing in a voice that scarcely could have
-been surpassed for sweetness.
-
-At the edge of the clearing he came into the bright moonlight and
-there sat McLean on his mare.  Freckles hurried to him.
-
-"Is there trouble?" he inquired anxiously.
-
-"That's what I wanted to ask you," said the Boss.  "I stopped at the
-cabin to see you a minute, before I turned in, and they said you
-had come down here.  You must not do it, Freckles.  The swamp is none
-too healthful at any time, and at night it is rank poison."
-
-Freckles stood combing his fingers through Nellie's mane, while the
-dainty creature was twisting her head for his caresses.  He pushed
-back his hat and looked into McLean's face.  "It's come to the
-`sleep with one eye open,' sir.  I'm not looking for anything to be
-happening for a week or two, but it's bound to come, and soon. 
-If I'm to keep me trust as I've promised you and meself, I've to live
-here mostly until the gang comes.  You must be knowing that, sir."
-
-"I'm afraid it's true, Freckles," said McLean.  "And I've decided to
-double the guard until we come.  It will be only a few weeks, now;
-and I'm so anxious for you that you must not be left alone further.
-If anything should happen to you, Freckles, it would spoil one of
-the very dearest plans of my life."
-
-Freckles heard with dismay the proposition to place a second guard.
-
-"Oh!  no, no, Mr. McLean," he cried.  "Not for the world!  I wouldn't
-be having a stranger around, scaring me birds and tramping up me
-study, and disturbing all me ways, for any money!  I am all the
-guard you need!  I will be faithful!  I will turn over the lease with
-no tree missing--on me life, I will!  Oh, don't be sending another
-man to set them saying I turned coward and asked for help.  It will
-just kill the honor of me heart if you do it.  The only thing I want
-is another gun.  If it railly comes to trouble, six cartridges ain't
-many, and you know I am slow-like about reloading."  McLean reached
-into his hip pocket and handed a shining big revolver to Freckles,
-who slipped it beside the one already in his belt.
-
-Then the Boss sat brooding.
-
-"Freckles," he said at last, "we never know the timber of a man's
-soul until something cuts into him deeply and brings the grain
-out strong.  You've the making of a mighty fine piece of furniture,
-my boy, and you shall have your own way these few weeks yet. 
-Then, if you will go, I intend to take you to the city and educate
-you, and you are to be my son, my lad--my own son!"
-
-Freckles twisted his finger in Nellie's mane to steady himself.
-
-"But why should you be doing that, sir?" he faltered.
-
-McLean slid his arm around the boy's shoulder and gathered him close.
-
-"Because I love you, Freckles," he said simply.
-
-Freckles lifted a white face.  "My God, sir!" he whispered.  "Oh, my God!"
-
-McLean tightened his clasp a second longer, then he rode down the trail.
-
-Freckles lifted his hat and faced the sky.  The harvest moon looked
-down, sheeting the swamp in silver glory.  The Limberlost sang her
-night song.  The swale softly rustled in the wind.  Winged things of
-night brushed his face; and still Freckles gazed upward, trying to
-fathom these things that had come to him.  There was no help from
-the sky.  It seemed far away, cold, and blue.  The earth, where
-flowers blossomed, angels walked, and love could be found, was better. 
-But to One, above, he must make acknowledgment for these miracles. 
-His lips moved and he began talking softly.
-
-"Thank You for each separate good thing that has come to me," he
-said, "and above all for the falling of the feather.  For if it
-didn't really fall from an angel, its falling brought an Angel, and
-if it's in the great heart of you to exercise yourself any further
-about me, oh, do please to be taking good care of her!"
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER VI
-
-            Wherein a Fight Occurs and Women Shoot Straight
-
-The following morning Freckles, inexpressibly happy, circled the
-Limberlost.  He kept snatches of song ringing, as well as the wires.
-His heart was so full that tears of joy glistened in his eyes. 
-He rigorously strove to divide his thought evenly between McLean and
-the Angel.  He realized to the fullest the debt he already owed the
-Boss and the magnitude of last night's declaration and promises. 
-He was hourly planning to deliver his trust and then enter with
-equal zeal on whatever task his beloved Boss saw fit to set him next. 
-He wanted to be ready to meet every device that Wessner and Black Jack
-could think of to outwit him.  He recognized their double leverage,
-for if they succeeded in felling even one tree McLean became liable
-for his wager.
-
-Freckles' brow wrinkled in his effort to think deeply and strongly,
-but from every swaying wild rose the Angel beckoned to him.  When he
-crossed Sleepy Snake Creek and the goldfinch, waiting as ever,
-challenged:  "SEE ME?" Freckles saw the dainty swaying grace of the
-Angel instead.  What is a man to do with an Angel who dismembers
-herself and scatters over a whole swamp, thrusting a vivid reminder
-upon him at every turn?
-
-Freckles counted the days.  This first one he could do little but
-test his wires, sing broken snatches, and dream; but before the
-week would bring her again he could do many things.  He would carry
-all his books to the swamp to show to her.  He would complete his
-flower bed, arrange every detail he had planned for his room, and
-make of it a bower fairies might envy.  He must devise a way to keep
-water cool.  He would ask Mrs. Duncan for a double lunch and an
-especially nice one the day of her next coming, so that if the Bird
-Woman happened to be late, the Angel might not suffer from thirst
-and hunger.  He would tell her to bring heavy leather leggings, so
-that he might take her on a trip around the trail.  She should make
-friends with all of his chickens and see their nests.
-
-On the line he talked of her incessantly.
-
-"You needn't be thinking," he said to the goldfinch, "that because
-I'm coming down this line alone day after day, it's always to be so. 
-Some of these times you'll be swinging on this wire, and you'll
-see me coming, and you'll swing, skip, and flirt yourself around,
-and chip up right spunky:  `SEE ME?' I'll be saying `See you? 
-Oh, Lord!  See her!' You'll look, and there she'll stand. 
-The sunshine won't look gold any more, or the roses pink, or the
-sky blue, because she'll be the pinkest, bluest, goldest thing
-of all.  You'll be yelling yourself hoarse with the jealousy of her. 
-The sawbird will stretch his neck out of joint, and she'll turn the
-heads of all the flowers.  Wherever she goes, I can go back
-afterward and see the things she's seen, walk the path she's walked,
-hear the grasses whispering over all she's said; and if there's
-a place too swampy for her bits of feet; Holy Mother!  Maybe--maybe
-she'd be putting the beautiful arms of her around me neck and letting
-me carry her over!"
-
-Freckles shivered as with a chill.  He sent the cudgel whirling
-skyward, dexterously caught it, and set it spinning.
-
-"You damned presumptuous fool!" he cried.  "The thing for you to be
-thinking of would be to stretch in the muck for the feet of her to
-be walking over, and then you could hold yourself holy to be even
-of that service to her.
-
-"Maybe she'll be wanting the cup me blue-and-brown chickens raised
-their babies in.  Perhaps she'd like to stop at the pool and see me
-bullfrog that had the goodness to take on human speech to show me
-the way out of me trouble.  If there's any feathers falling that
-day, why, it's from the wings of me chickens--it's sure to be, for
-the only Angel outside the gates will be walking this timberline,
-and every step of the way I'll be holding me breath and praying that
-she don't unfold wings and sail away before the hungry eyes of me."
-
-So Freckles dreamed his dreams, made his plans, and watched his line. 
-He counted not only the days, but the hours of each day.  As he
-told them off, every one bringing her closer, he grew happier in
-the prospect of her coming.  He managed daily to leave some offering
-at the big elm log for his black chickens.  He slipped under the
-line at every passing, and went to make sure that nothing was
-molesting them.  Though it was a long trip, he paid them several
-extra visits a day for fear a snake, hawk, or fox might have found
-the baby.  For now his chickens not only represented all his former
-interest in them, but they furnished the inducement that was
-bringing his Angel.
-
-Possibly he could find other subjects that the Bird Woman wanted.
-The teamster had said that his brother went after her every time he
-found a nest.  He never had counted the nests that he knew of, and
-it might be that among all the birds of the swamp some would be
-rare to her.
-
-The feathered folk of the Limberlost were practically undisturbed
-save by their natural enemies.  It was very probable that among his
-chickens others as odd as the big black ones could be found.  If she
-wanted pictures of half-grown birds, he could pick up fifty in one
-morning's trip around the line, for he had fed, handled, and made
-friends with them ever since their eyes opened.
-
-He had gathered bugs and worms all spring as he noticed them on the
-grass and bushes, and dropped them into the first little open mouth
-he had found.  The babies gladly had accepted this queer tri-parent
-addition to their natural providers.
-
-When the week had passed, Freckles had his room crisp and glowing
-with fresh living things that represented every color of the swamp.
-He carried bark and filled all the muckiest places of the trail.
-
-It was middle July.  The heat of the past few days had dried the
-water around and through the Limberlost, so that it was possible to
-cross it on foot in almost any direction--if one had an idea of
-direction and did not become completely lost in its rank tangle of
-vegetation and bushes.  The brighter-hued flowers were opening. 
-The trumpet-creepers were flaunting their gorgeous horns of red
-and gold sweetness from the tops of lordly oak and elm, and below
-entire pools were pink-sheeted in mallow bloom.
-
-The heat was doing one other thing that was bound to make Freckles,
-as a good Irishman, shiver.  As the swale dried, its inhabitants
-were seeking the cooler depths of the swamp.  They liked neither the
-heat nor leaving the field mice, moles, and young rabbits of their
-chosen location.  He saw them crossing the trail every day as the
-heat grew intense.  The rattlers were sadly forgetting their
-manners, for they struck on no provocation whatever, and did not
-even remember to rattle afterward.  Daily Freckles was compelled to
-drive big black snakes and blue racers from the nests of his chickens. 
-Often the terrified squalls of the parent birds would reach him far
-down the line and he would run to rescue the babies.
-
-He saw the Angel when the carriage turned from the corduroy into
-the clearing.  They stopped at the west entrance to the swamp,
-waiting for him to precede them down the trail, as he had told them
-it was safest for the horse that he should do.  They followed the
-east line to a point opposite the big chickens' tree, and Freckles
-carried in the cameras and showed the Bird Woman a path he had
-cleared to the log.  He explained to her the effect the heat was
-having on the snakes, and creeping back to Little Chicken, brought
-him to the light.  As she worked at setting up her camera, he told
-her of the birds of the line, while she stared at him, wide-eyed
-and incredulous.
-
-They arranged that Freckles should drive the carriage into the east
-entrance in the shade and then take the horse toward the north to
-a better place he knew.  Then he was to entertain the Angel at his
-study or on the line until the Bird Woman finished her work and
-came to them.
-
-"This will take only a little time," she said.  "I know where to set
-the camera now, and Little Chicken is big enough to be good and too
-small to run away or to act very ugly, so I will be coming soon to
-see about those nests.  I have ten plates along, and I surely won't
-use more than two on him; so perhaps I can get some nests or young
-birds this morning."
-
-Freckles almost flew, for his dream had come true so soon.  He was
-walking the timber-line and the Angel was following him.  He asked
-to be excused for going first, because he wanted to be sure the
-trail was safe for her.  She laughed at his fears, telling him that
-it was the polite thing for him to do, anyway.
-
-"Oh!" said Freckles, "so you was after knowing that?  Well, I didn't
-s'pose you did, and I was afraid you'd think me wanting in respect
-to be preceding you!"
-
-The astonished Angel looked at him, caught the irrepressible gleam
-of Irish fun in his eyes, so they stood and laughed together.
-
-Freckles did not realize how he was talking that morning.  He showed
-her many of the beautiful nests and eggs of the line.  She could
-identify a number of them, but of some she was ignorant, so they
-made notes of the number and color of the eggs, material, and
-construction of nest, color, size, and shape of the birds, and went
-to find them in the book.
-
-At his room, when Freckles had lifted the overhanging bushes and
-stepped back for her to enter, his heart was all out of time
-and place.  The study was vastly more beautiful than a week previous. 
-The Angel drew a deep breath and stood gazing first at one side,
-then at another, then far down the cathedral aisle.  "It's just
-fairyland!" she cried ecstatically.  Then she turned and stared at
-Freckles as she had at his handiwork.
-
-"What are you planning to be?" she asked wonderingly.
-
-"Whatever Mr. McLean wants me to," he replied.
-
-"What do you do most?" she asked.
-
-"Watch me lines."
-
-"I don't mean work!"
-
-"Oh, in me spare time I keep me room and study in me books."
-
-"Do you work on the room or the books most?"
-
-"On the room only what it takes to keep it up, and the rest of the
-time on me books."
-
-The Angel studied him closely.  "Well, maybe you are going to be a
-great scholar," she said, "but you don't look it.  Your face isn't
-right for that, but it's got something big in it--something really great. 
-I must find out what it is and then you must work on it. Your father
-is expecting you to do something.  One can tell by the way he talks. 
-You should begin right away.  You've wasted too much time already."
-
-Poor Freckles hung his head.  He never had wasted an hour in his life. 
-There never had been one that was his to waste.
-
-The Angel, studying him intently, read the thought in his face.
-"Oh, I don't mean that!" she cried, with the frank dismay of
-sixteen.  "Of course, you're not lazy!  No one ever would think that
-from your appearance.  It's this I mean: there is something fine,
-strong, and full of power in your face.  There is something you are
-to do in this world, and no matter how you work at all these other
-things, or how successfully you do them, it is all wasted until you
-find the ONE THING that you can do best.  If you hadn't a thing in
-the world to keep you, and could go anywhere you please and do
-anything you want, what would you do?" persisted the Angel.
-
-"I'd go to Chicago and sing in the First Episcopal choir," answered
-Freckles promptly.
-
-The Angel dropped on a seat--the hat she had removed and held in
-her fingers rolled to her feet.  "There!" she exclaimed vehemently.
-"You can see what I'm going to be.  Nothing!  Absolutely nothing! 
-You can sing?  Of course you can sing!  It is written all over you."
-
-"Anyone with half wit could have seen he could sing, without having
-to be told," she thought.  "It's in the slenderness of his fingers
-and his quick nervous touch.  It is in the brightness of his hair,
-the fire of his eyes, the breadth of his chest, the muscles of his
-throat and neck; and above all, it's in every tone of his voice,
-for even as he speak it's the sweetest sound I ever heard from the
-throat of a mortal."
-
-"Will you do something for me?" she asked.
-
-"I'll do anything in the world you want me to," said Freckles
-largely, "and if I can't do what you want, I'll go to work at once
-and I'll try `til I can."
-
-"Good!  That's business!" said the Angel.  "You go over there and
-stand before that hedge and sing something.  Just anything you think
-of first."
-
-Freckles faced the Angel from his banked wall of brown, blue, and
-crimson, with its background of solid green, and lifting his face
-to the sky, he sang the first thing that came into his mind.  It was
-a children's song that he had led for the little folks at the Home
-many times, recalled to his mind by the Angel's exclamation:
-
-            "To fairyland we go,
-             With a song of joy, heigh-o.
-             In dreams we'll stand upon that shore
-             And all the realm behold;
-             We'll see the sights so grand
-             That belong to fairyland,
-             Its mysteries we will explore,
-             Its beauties will unfold.
-
-Oh, tra, la, la, oh, ha, ha, ha!  We're happy now as we can be,
-Our welcome song we will prolong, and greet you with our melody.
-O fairyland, sweet fairyland, we love to sing----"
-
-
-No song could have given the intense sweetness and rollicking
-quality of Freckles' voice better scope.  He forgot everything but
-pride in his work.  He was singing the chorus, and the Angel was
-shivering in ecstasy, when clip!  clip!  came the sharply beating
-feet of a swiftly ridden horse down the trail from the north.  They
-both sprang toward the entrance.
-
-"Freckles!  Freckles!" called the voice of the Bird Woman.
-
-They were at the trail on the instant.
-
-"Both those revolvers loaded?" she asked.
-
-"Yes," said Freckles.
-
-"Is there a way you can cut across the swamp and reach the chicken
-tree in a few minutes, and with little noise?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"Then go flying," said the Bird Woman.  "Give the Angel a lift
-behind me, and we will ride the horse back where you left him and
-wait for you.  I finished Little Chicken in no time and put him back. 
-His mother came so close, I felt sure she would enter the log. 
-The light was fine, so I set and focused the camera and covered
-it with branches, attached the long hose, and went away over a
-hundred feet and hid in some bushes to wait.  A short, stout man
-and a tall, dark one passed me so closely I almost could have reached
-out and touched them.  They carried a big saw on their shoulders. 
-They said they could work until near noon, and then they must lay
-off until you passed and then try to load and get out at night. 
-They went on--not entirely from sight--and began cutting a tree. 
-Mr. McLean told me the other day what would probably happen here,
-and if they fell that tree he loses his wager on you.  Keep to the
-east and north and hustle.  We'll meet you at the carriage.  I always
-am armed.  Give Angel one of your revolvers, and you keep the other. 
-We will separate and creep toward them from different sides and
-give them a fusillade that will send them flying.  You hurry, now!"
-
-She lifted the reins and started briskly down the trail.  The Angel,
-hatless and with sparkling eyes, was clinging around her waist.
-
-Freckles wheeled and ran.  He worked his way with much care, dodging
-limbs and bushes with noiseless tread, and cutting as closely where
-he thought the men were as he felt that he dared if he were to
-remain unseen.  As he ran he tried to think.  It was Wessner, burning
-for his revenge, aided by the bully of the locality, that he was
-going to meet.  He was accustomed to that thought but not to the
-complication of having two women on his hands who undoubtedly would
-have to be taken care of in spite of the Bird Woman's offer to help him. 
-His heart was jarring as it never had before with running.  He must
-follow the Bird Woman's plan and meet them at the carriage, but if
-they really did intend to try to help him, he must not allow it. 
-Allow the Angel to try to handle a revolver in his defence?  Never! 
-Not for all the trees in the Limberlost!  She might shoot herself. 
-She might forget to watch sharply and run across a snake that was
-not particularly well behaved that morning.  Freckles permitted
-himself a grim smile as he went speeding on.
-
-When he reached the carriage, the Bird Woman and the Angel had the
-horse hitched, the outfit packed, and were calmly waiting.  The Bird
-Woman held a revolver in her hand.  She wore dark clothing.  They had
-pinned a big focusing cloth over the front of the Angel's light dress.
-
-"Give Angel one of your revolvers, quick!" said the Bird Woman. 
-"We will creep up until we are in fair range.  The underbrush is so
-thick and they are so busy that they will never notice us, if we
-don't make a noise.  You fire first, then I will pop in from my
-direction, and then you, Angel, and shoot quite high, or else very low. 
-We mustn't really hit them.  We'll go close enough to the cowards
-to make it interesting, and keep it up until we have them going."
-
-Freckles protested.
-
-The Bird Woman reached over, and, taking the smaller revolver from
-his belt, handed it to the Angel.  "Keep your nerve steady, dear;
-watch where you step, and shoot high," she said.  "Go straight at
-them from where you are.  Wait until you hear Freckles' first shot,
-then follow me as closely as you can, to let them know that we
-outnumber them.  If you want to save McLean's wager on you, now you
-go!" she commanded Freckles, who, with an agonized glance at the
-Angel, ran toward the east.
-
-The Bird Woman chose the middle distance, and for a last time
-cautioned the Angel as she moved away to lie down and shoot high.
-
-Through the underbrush the Bird Woman crept even more closely than
-she had intended, found a clear range, and waited for Freckles' shot. 
-There was one long minute of sickening suspense.  The men
-straightened for breath.  Work was difficult with a handsaw in the
-heat of the swamp.  As they rested, the big dark fellow took a
-bottle from his pocket and began oiling the saw.
-
-"We got to keep mighty quiet," he said, "and wait to fell it until
-that damned guard has gone to his dinner."
-
-Again they bent to their work.  Freckles' revolver spat fire.  Lead
-spanged on steel.  The saw-handle flew from Wessner's hand and he
-reeled from the jar of the shock.  Black Jack straightened, uttering
-a fearful oath.  The hat sailed from his head from the far northeast. 
-The Angel had not waited for the Bird Woman, and her shot scarcely
-could have been called high.  At almost the same instant the third
-shot whistled from the east.  Black Jack sprang into the air with
-a yell of complete panic, for it ripped a heel from his boot. 
-Freckles emptied his second chamber, and the earth spattered
-over Wessner.  Shots poured in rapidly.  Without even reaching
-for a weapon, both men ran toward the east road in great leaping
-bounds, while leaden slugs sung and hissed around them in
-deadly earnest.
-
-Freckles was trimming his corners as closely as he dared, but if
-the Angel did not really intend to hit, she was taking risks in a
-scandalous manner.
-
-When the men reached the trail, Freckles yelled at the top of his
-voice:  "Head them off on the south, boys!  Fire from the south!"
-
-As he had hoped, Jack and Wessner instantly plunged into the swale.
-A spattering of lead followed them.  They crossed the swale, running
-low, with not even one backward glance, and entered the woods
-beyond the corduroy.
-
-Then the little party gathered at the tree.
-
-"I'd better fix this saw so they can't be using it if they come
-back," said Freckles, taking out his hatchet and making saw-teeth fly.
-
-"Now we must leave here without being seen," said the Bird Woman to
-the Angel.  "It won't do for me to make enemies of these men, for I
-am likely to meet them while at work any day."
-
-"You can do it by driving straight north on this road," said Freckles. 
-"I will go ahead and cut the wires for you.  The swale is almost dry. 
-You will only be sinking a little.  In a few rods you will strike
-a cornfield.  I will take down the fence and let you into that. 
-Follow the furrows and drive straight across it until you come to
-the other side.  Be following the fence south until you come to a
-road through the woods east of it.  Then take that road and follow
-east until you reach the pike.  You will come out on your way back
-to town, and two miles north of anywhere they are likely to be. 
-Don't for your lives ever let it out that you did this," he
-earnestly cautioned, "for it's black enemies you would be making."
-
-Freckles clipped the wires and they drove through.  The Angel leaned
-from the carriage and held out his revolver.  Freckles looked at her
-in surprise.  Her eyes were black, while her face was a deeper rose
-than usual.  He felt that his own was white.
-
-"Did I shoot high enough?" she asked sweetly.  "I really forgot
-about lying down."
-
-Freckles winced.  Did the child know how close she had gone? 
-Surely she could not!  Or was it possible that she had the nerve
-and skill to fire like that purposely?
-
-"I will send the first reliable man I meet for McLean," said the
-Bird Woman, gathering up the lines.  "If I don't meet one when we
-reach town, we will send a messenger.  If it wasn't for having the
-gang see me, I would go myself; but I will promise you that you
-will have help in a little over two hours.  You keep well hidden.
-They must think some of the gang is with you now.  There isn't a
-chance that they will be back, but don't run any risks.  Remain
-under cover.  If they should come, it probably would be for
-their saw."  She laughed as at a fine joke.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER VII
-
-    Wherein Freckles Wins Honor and Finds a Footprint on the Trail
-
-Round-eyed, Freckles watched the Bird Woman and the Angel drive
-away.  After they were from sight and he was safely hidden among the
-branches of a small tree, he remembered that he neither had thanked
-them nor said good-bye.  Considering what they had been through,
-they never would come again.  His heart sank until he had
-palpitation in his wading-boots.
-
-Stretching the length of the limb, he thought deeply, though he was
-not thinking of Black Jack or Wessner.  Would the Bird Woman and the
-Angel come again?  No other woman whom he ever had known would. 
-But did they resemble any other women he ever had known?  He thought
-of the Bird Woman's unruffled face and the Angel's revolver practice,
-and presently he was not so sure that they would not return.
-
-What were the people in the big world like?  His knowledge was so
-very limited.  There had been people at the Home, who exchanged a
-stilted, perfunctory kindness for their salaries.  The visitors who
-called on receiving days he had divided into three classes: the
-psalm-singing kind, who came with a tear in the eye and hypocrisy
-in every feature of their faces; the kind who dressed in silks and
-jewels, and handed to those poor little mother-hungry souls worn
-toys that their children no longer cared for, in exactly the same
-spirit in which they pitched biscuits to the monkeys at the zoo,
-and for the same reason--to see how they would take them and be
-amused by what they would do; and the third class, whom he
-considered real people.  They made him feel they cared that he was
-there, and that they would have been glad to see him elsewhere.
-
-Now here was another class, that had all they needed of the world's
-best and were engaged in doing work that counted.  They had things
-worth while to be proud of; and they had met him as a son and brother. 
-With them he could, for the only time in his life, forget the
-lost hand that every day tortured him with a new pang.  What kind
-of people were they and where did they belong among the classes
-he knew?  He failed to decide, because he never had known others
-similar to them; but how he loved them!
-
-In the world where he was going soon, were the majority like them,
-or were they of the hypocrite and bun-throwing classes?
-
-He had forgotten the excitement of the morning and the passing of
-time when distant voices aroused him, and he gently lifted his head. 
-Nearer and nearer they came, and as the heavy wagons rumbled down
-the east trail he could hear them plainly.  The gang were shouting
-themselves hoarse for the Limberlost guard.  Freckles did not feel
-that he deserved it.  He would have given much to he able to go
-to the men and explain, but to McLean only could he tell his story.
-
-At the sight of Freckles the men threw up their hats and cheered.
-McLean shook hands with him warmly, but big Duncan gathered him
-into his arms and hugged him as a bear and choked over a few words
-of praise.  The gang drove in and finished felling the tree. 
-McLean was angry beyond measure at this attempt on his property,
-for in their haste to fell the tree the thieves had cut too high
-and wasted a foot and a half of valuable timber.
-
-When the last wagon rolled away, McLean sat on the stump and
-Freckles told the story he was aching to tell.  The Boss scarcely
-could believe his senses.  Also, he was much disappointed.
-
-"I have been almost praying all the way over, Freckles," he said,
-"that you would have some evidence by which we could arrest those
-fellows and get them out of our way, but this will never do. 
-We can't mix up those women in it.  They have helped you save me
-the tree and my wager as well.  Going across the country as she
-does, the Bird Woman never could be expected to testify against them."
-
-"No, indeed; nor the Angel, either, sir," said Freckles.
-
-"The Angel?" queried the astonished McLean.
-
-The Boss listened in silence while Freckles told of the coming and
-christening of the Angel.
-
-"I know her father well," said McLean at last, "and I have often
-seen her.  You are right; she is a beautiful young girl, and she
-appears to be utterly free from the least particle of false pride
-or foolishness.  I do not understand why her father risks such a
-jewel in this place."
-
-"He's daring it because she is a jewel, sir," said Freckles, eagerly. 
-"Why, she's trusting a rattlesnake to rattle before it strikes her,
-and of course, she thinks she can trust mankind as well.  The man
-isn't made who wouldn't lay down the life of him for her.  She doesn't
-need any care.  Her face and the pretty ways of her are all the
-protection she would need in a band of howling savages."
-
-"Did you say she handled one of the revolvers?" asked McLean.
-
-"She scared all the breath out of me body," admitted Freckles.
-"Seems that her father has taught her to shoot.  The Bird Woman told
-her distinctly to lie low and blaze away high, just to help scare them. 
-The spunky little thing followed them right out into the west
-road, spitting lead like hail, and clipping all around the heads
-and heels of them; and I'm damned, sir, if I believe she'd cared a
-rap if she'd hit.  I never saw much shooting, but if that wasn't the
-nearest to miss I ever want to see!  Scared the life near out of me
-body with the fear that she'd drop one of them.  As long as I'd no
-one to help me but a couple of women that didn't dare be mixed up
-in it, all I could do was to let them get away."
-
-"Now, will they come back?" asked McLean.
-
-"Of course!" said Freckles.  "They're not going to be taking that.
-You could stake your life on it, they'll be coming back.  At least,
-Black Jack will.  Wessner may not have the pluck, unless he is
-half drunk.  Then he'd be a terror.  And the next time--"
-Freckles hesitated.
-
-"What?"
-
-"It will be a question of who shoots first and straightest."
-
-"Then the only thing for me to do is to double the guard and bring
-the gang here the first minute possible.  As soon as I feel that we
-have the rarest of the stuff out below, we will come.  The fact is,
-in many cases, until it is felled it's difficult to tell what a
-tree will prove to be.  It won't do to leave you here longer alone.
-Jack has been shooting twenty years to your one, and it stands to
-reason that you are no match for him.  Who of the gang would you
-like best to have with you?"
-
-"No one, sir," said Freckles emphatically.  "Next time is where I run. 
-I won't try to fight them alone.  I'll just be getting wind of
-them, and then make tracks for you.  I'll need to come like
-lightning, and Duncan has no extra horse, so I'm thinking you'd
-best get me one--or perhaps a wheel would be better.  I used to do
-extra work for the Home doctor, and he would let me take his
-bicycle to ride around the place.  And at times the head nurse would
-loan me his for an hour.  A wheel would cost less and be faster than
-a horse, and would take less care.  I believe, if you are going to
-town soon, you had best pick up any kind of an old one at some
-second-hand store, for if I'm ever called to use it in a hurry
-there won't be the handlebars left after crossing the corduroy."
-
-"Yes," said McLean; "and if you didn't have a first-class wheel,
-you never could cross the corduroy on it at all."
-
-As they walked to the cabin, McLean insisted on another guard, but
-Freckles was stubbornly set on fighting his battle alone.  He made
-one mental condition.  If the Bird Woman was going to give up the
-Little Chicken series, he would yield to the second guard, solely
-for the sake of her work and the presence of the Angel in the
-Limberlost.  He did not propose to have a second man unless it were
-absolutely necessary, for he had been alone so long that he loved
-the solitude, his chickens, and flowers.  The thought of having a
-stranger to all his ways come and meddle with his arrangements,
-frighten his pets, pull his flowers, and interrupt him when he
-wanted to study, so annoyed him that he was blinded to his real
-need for help.
-
-With McLean it was a case of letting his sober, better judgment be
-overridden by the boy he was growing so to love that he could not
-endure to oppose him, and to have Freckles keep his trust and win
-alone meant more than any money the Boss might lose.
-
-The following morning McLean brought the wheel, and Freckles took
-it to the trail to test it.  It was new, chainless, with as little
-as possible to catch in hurried riding, and in every way the best
-of its kind.  Freckles went skimming around the trail on it on a
-preliminary trip before he locked it in his case and started his
-minute examination of his line on foot.  He glanced around his room
-as he left it, and then stood staring.
-
-On the moss before his prettiest seat lay the Angel's hat.  In the
-excitement of yesterday all of them had forgotten it.  He went and
-picked it up, oh!  so carefully, gazing at it with hungry eyes, but
-touching it only to carry it to his case, where he hung it on the
-shining handlebar of the new wheel and locked it among his treasures. 
-Then he went to the trail, with a new expression on his face and
-a strange throbbing in his heart.  He was not in the least afraid
-of anything that morning.  He felt he was the veriest Daniel, but
-all his lions seemed weak and harmless.
-
-What Black Jack's next move would be he could not imagine, but that
-there would be a move of some kind was certain.  The big bully was
-not a man to give up his purpose, or to have the hat swept from his
-head with a bullet and bear it meekly.  Moreover, Wessner would
-cling to his revenge with a Dutchman's singleness of mind.
-
-Freckles tried to think connectedly, but there were too many places
-on the trail where the Angel's footprints were vet visible.  She had
-stepped in one mucky spot and left a sharp impression.  The afternoon
-sun had baked it hard, and the horses' hoofs had not obliterated
-any part of it, as they had in so many places.  Freckles stood
-fascinated, gazing at it.  He measured it lovingly with his eye. 
-He would not have ventured a caress on her hat any more than
-on her person, but this was different.  Surely a footprint on a
-trail might belong to anyone who found and wanted it.  He stooped
-under the wires and entered the swamp.  With a little searching, he
-found a big piece of thick bark loose on a log and carefully
-peeling it, carried it out and covered the print so that the first
-rain would not obliterate it.
-
-When he reached his room, he tenderly laid the hat upon his
-bookshelf, and to wear off his awkwardness, mounted his wheel and
-went spinning on trail again.  It was like flying, for the path was
-worn smooth with his feet and baked hard with the sun almost all
-the way.  When he came to the bark, he veered far to one side and
-smiled at it in passing.  Suddenly he was off the wheel, kneeling
-beside it.  He removed his hat, carefully lifted the bark, and gazed
-lovingly at the imprint.
-
-"I wonder what she was going to say of me voice," he whispered.
-"She never got it said, but from the face of her, I believe she was
-liking it fairly well.  Perhaps she was going to say that singing
-was the big thing I was to be doing.  That's what they all thought
-at the Home.  Well, if it is, I'll just shut me eyes, think of me
-little room, the face of her watching, and the heart of her
-beating, and I'll raise them.  Damn them, if singing will do it,
-I'll raise them from the benches!"
-
-With this dire threat, Freckles knelt, as at a wayside spring, and
-deliberately laid his lips on the footprint.  Then he arose,
-appearing as if he had been drinking at the fountain of gladness.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER VIII
-
-Wherein Freckles Meets a Man of Affairs and Loses Nothing by the Encounter
-
-"Weel, I be drawed on!" exclaimed Mrs. Duncan.
-
-Freckles stood before her, holding the Angel's hat.
-
-"I've been thinking this long time that ye or Duncan would see that
-sunbonnets werena braw enough for a woman of my standing, and ye're
-a guid laddie to bring me this beautiful hat."
-
-She turned it around, examining the weave of the straw and the
-foliage trimmings, passing her rough fingers over the satin
-ties delightedly.  As she held it up, admiring it, Freckles'
-astonished eyes saw a new side of Sarah Duncan.  She was jesting,
-but under the jest the fact loomed strong that, though poor,
-overworked, and with none but God-given refinement, there was
-something in her soul crying after that bit of feminine finery,
-and it made his heart ache for her.  He resolved that when he
-reached the city he would send her a hat, if it took fifty
-dollars to do it.
-
-She lingeringly handed it back to him.
-
-"It's unco guid of ye to think of me," she said lightly, "but I maun
-question your taste a wee.  D'ye no think ye had best return this
-and get a woman with half her hair gray a little plainer headdress? 
-Seems like that's far ower gay for me.  I'm no' saying that it's
-no' exactly what I'd like to hae, but I mauna mak mysel' ridiculous. 
-Ye'd best give this to somebody young and pretty, say about sixteen. 
-Where did ye come by it, Freckles?  If there's anything been
-dropping lately, ye hae forgotten to mention it."
-
-"Do you see anything heavenly about that hat?" queried Freckles,
-holding it up.
-
-The morning breeze waved the ribbons gracefully, binding one around
-Freckles' sleeve and the other across his chest, where they caught
-and clung as if magnetized.
-
-"Yes," said Sarah Duncan.  "It's verra plain and simple, but it
-juist makes ye feel that it's all of the finest stuff.  It's exactly
-what I'd call a heavenly hat."
-
-"Sure," said Freckles, "for it's belonging to an Angel!"
-
-Then he told her about the hat and asked her what he should do with it.
-
-"Take it to her, of course!" said Sarah Duncan.  "Like it's the only
-ane she has and she may need it badly."
-
-Freckles smiled.  He had a clear idea about the hat being the only
-one the Angel had.  However, there was a thing he felt he should do
-and wanted to do, but he was not sure.
-
-"You think I might be taking it home?" he said.
-
-"Of course ye must," said Mrs. Duncan.  "And without another
-hour's delay.  It's been here two days noo, and she may want it,
-and be too busy or afraid to come."
-
-"But how can I take it?" asked Freckles.
-
-"Gang spinning on your wheel.  Ye can do it easy in an hour."
-
-"But in that hour, what if----?"
-
-"Nonsense!" interrupted Sarah Duncan.  "Ye've watched that
-timber-line until ye're grown fast to it, lad.  Give me your boots
-and club and I'll gae walk the south end and watch doon the east
-and west sides until ye come back."
-
-"Mrs. Duncan!  You never would be doing it," cried Freckles.
-
-"Why not?" inquired she.
-
-"But you know you're mortal afraid of snakes and a lot of other
-things in the swamp."
-
-"I am afraid of snakes," said Mrs. Duncan, "but likely they've gone
-into the swamp this hot weather.  I'll juist stay on the trail and
-watch, and ye might hurry the least bit.  The day's so bright it
-feels like storm.  I can put the bairns on the woodpile to play
-until I get back.  Ye gang awa and take the blessed little angel her
-beautiful hat."
-
-"Are you sure it will be all right?" urged Freckles.  "Do you think
-if Mr. McLean came he would care?"
-
-"Na," said Mrs. Duncan; "I dinna.  If ye and me agree that a thing
-ought to be done, and I watch in your place, why, it's bound to be
-all right with McLean.  Let me pin the hat in a paper, and ye jump
-on your wheel and gang flying.  Ought ye put on your Sabbath-day clothes?"
-
-Freckles shook his head.  He knew what he should do, but there was
-no use in taking time to try to explain it to Mrs. Duncan while he
-was so hurried.  He exchanged his wading-boots for shoes, gave her
-his club, and went spinning toward town.  He knew very well where
-the Angel lived.  He had seen her home many times, and he passed it
-again without even raising his eyes from the street, steering
-straight for her father's place of business.
-
-Carrying the hat, Freckles passed a long line of clerks, and at the
-door of the private office asked to see the proprietor.  When he had
-waited a moment, a tall, spare, keen-eyed man faced him, and in
-brisk, nervous tones asked:  "How can I serve you, sir?"
-
-Freckles handed him the package and answered, "By delivering to
-your daughter this hat, which she was after leaving at me place the
-other day, when she went away in a hurry.  And by saying to her and
-the Bird Woman that I'm more thankful than I'll be having words to
-express for the brave things they was doing for me.  I'm McLean's
-Limberlost guard, sir."
-
-"Why don't you take it yourself?" questioned the Man of Affairs.
-
-Freckles' clear gray eyes met those of the Angel's father squarely, and
-he asked:  "If you were in my place, would you take it to her yourself?"
-
-"No, I would not," said that gentleman quickly.
-
-"Then why ask why I did not?" came Freckles' lamb-like query.
-
-"Bless me!" said the Angel's father.  He stared at the package, then
-at the lifted chin of the boy, and then at the package again, and
-muttered, "Excuse me!"
-
-Freckles bowed.
-
-"It would be favoring me greatly if you would deliver the hat and
-the message.  Good morning, sir," and he turned away.
-
-"One minute," said the Angel's father.  "Suppose I give you permission
-to return this hat in person and make your own acknowledgments."
-
-Freckles stood one moment thinking intently, and then he lifted
-those eyes of unswerving truth and asked:  "Why should you, sir? 
-You are kind, indade, to mention it, and it's thanking you I am for
-your good intintions, but my wanting to go or your being willing to
-have me ain't proving that your daughter would be wanting me or
-care to bother with me."
-
-The Angel's father looked keenly into the face of this
-extraordinary young man, for he found it to his liking.
-
-"There's one other thing I meant to say," said Freckles.  "Every day
-I see something, and at times a lot of things, that I think the
-Bird Woman would be wanting pictures of badly, if she knew. 
-You might be speaking of it to her, and if she'd want me to,
-I can send her word when I find things she wouldn't likely
-get elsewhere."
-
-"If that's the case," said the Angel's father, "and you feel under
-obligations for her assistance the other day, you can discharge
-them in that way.  She is spending all her time in the fields and
-woods searching for subjects.  If you run across things, perhaps
-rarer than she may find, about your work, it would save her the
-time she spends searching for subjects, and she could work in
-security under your protection.  By all means let her know if you
-find subjects you think she could use, and we will do anything we
-can for you, if you will give her what help you can and see that
-she is as safe as possible."
-
-"It's hungry for human beings I am," said Freckles, "and it's like
-Heaven to me to have them come.  Of course, I'll be telling or
-sending her word every time me work can spare me.  Anything I can do
-it would make me uncommon happy, but"--again truth had to be told,
-because it was Freckles who was speaking--"when it comes to
-protecting them, I'd risk me life, to be sure, but even that
-mightn't do any good in some cases.  There are many dangers to be
-reckoned with in the swamp, sir, that call for every person to
-look sharp.  If there wasn't really thieving to guard against, why,
-McLean wouldn't need be paying out good money for a guard.  I'd love
-them to be coming, and I'll do all I can, but you must be told that
-there's danger of them running into timber thieves again any day, sir."
-
-"Yes," said the Angel's father, "and I suppose there's danger of
-the earth opening up and swallowing the town any day, but I'm
-damned if I quit business for fear it will, and the Bird Woman
-won't, either.  Everyone knows her and her work, and there is no
-danger in the world of anyone in any way molesting her, even if he
-were stealing a few of McLean's gold-plated trees.  She's as safe
-in the Limberlost as she is at home, so far as timber thieves
-are concerned.  All I am ever uneasy about are the snakes, poison-
-vines, and insects; and those are risks she must run anywhere. 
-You need not hesitate a minute about that.  I shall be glad to tell
-them what you wish.  Thank you very much, and good day, sir."
-
-There was no way in which Freckles could know it, but by following
-his best instincts and being what he conceived a gentleman should
-be, he surprised the Man of Affairs into thinking of him and seeing
-his face over his books many times that morning; whereas, if he had
-gone to the Angel as he had longed to do, her father never would
-have given him a second thought.
-
-On the street he drew a deep breath.  How had he acquitted himself?
-He only knew that he had lived up to his best impulse, and that is
-all anyone can do.  He glanced over his wheel to see that it was all
-right, and just as he stepped to the curb to mount he heard a voice
-that thrilled him through and through:  "Freckles!  Oh Freckles!"
-
-The Angel separated from a group of laughing, sweet-faced girls and
-came hurrying to him.  She was in snowy white--a quaint little
-frock, with a marvel of soft lace around her throat and wrists.
-Through the sheer sleeves of it her beautiful, rounded arms showed
-distinctly, and it was cut just to the base of her perfect neck. 
-On her head was a pure white creation of fancy braid, with folds on
-folds of tulle, soft and silken as cobwebs, lining the brim; while
-a mass of white roses clustered against the gold of her hair, crept
-around the crown, and fell in a riot to her shoulders at the back.
-There were gleams of gold with settings of blue on her fingers, and
-altogether she was the daintiest, sweetest sight he ever had seen.
-Freckles, standing on the curb, forgot himself in his cotton shirt,
-corduroys, and his belt to which his wire-cutter and pliers were
-hanging, and gazed as a man gazes when first he sees the woman he adores
-with all her charms enhanced by appropriate and beautiful clothing.
-
-"Oh Freckles," she cried as she came to him.  "I was wondering about
-you the other day.  Do you know I never saw you in town before. 
-You watch that old line so closely!  Why did you come?  Is there
-any trouble?  Are you just starting to the Limberlost?"
-
-"I came to bring your hat," said Freckles.  "You forgot it in the
-rush the other day.  I have left it with your father, and a message
-trying to ixpriss the gratitude of me for how you and the Bird
-Woman were for helping me out."
-
-The Angel nodded gravely, then Freckles saw that he had done the
-proper thing in going to her father.  His heart bounded until it
-jarred his body, for she was saying that she scarcely could wait for
-the time to come for the next picture of the Little Chicken series. 
-"I want to hear the remainder of that song, and I hadn't even
-begun seeing your room yet," she complained.  "As for singing,
-if you can sing like that every day, I never can get enough of it.
-I wonder if I couldn't bring my banjo and some of the songs I
-like best.  I'll play and you sing, and we'll put the birds out
-of commission."
-
-Freckles stood on the curb with drooped eyes, for he felt that if
-he lifted them the tumult of tender adoration in them would show
-and frighten her.
-
-"I was afraid your ixperience the other day would scare you so that
-you'd never be coming again," he found himself saying.
-
-The Angel laughed gaily.
-
-"Did I seem scared?" she questioned.
-
-"No," said Freckles, "you did not."
-
-"Oh, I just enjoyed that," she cried.  "Those hateful, stealing
-old things!  I had a big notion to pink one of them, but I thought
-maybe someway it would be best for you that I shouldn't.  They needed it.
-That didn't scare me; and as for the Bird Woman, she's accustomed
-to finding snakes, tramps, cross dogs, sheep, cattle, and goodness
-knows what!  You can't frighten her when she's after a picture. 
-Did they come back?"
-
-"No," said Freckles.  "The gang got there a little after noon and
-took out the tree, but I must tell you, and you must tell the Bird
-Woman, that there's no doubt but they will be coming back, and they
-will have to make it before long now, for it's soon the gang will
-be there to work on the swamp."
-
-"Oh, what a shame!" cried the Angel.  "They'll clear out roads, cut
-down the beautiful trees, and tear up everything.  They'll drive
-away the birds and spoil the cathedral.  When they have done their
-worst, then all these mills close here will follow in and take out
-the cheap timber.  Then the landowners will dig a few ditches, build
-some fires, and in two summers more the Limberlost will be in corn
-and potatoes."
-
-They looked at each other, and groaned despairingly in unison.
-
-"You like it, too," said Freckles.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel, "I love it.  Your room is a little piece
-right out of the heart of fairyland, and the cathedral is God's
-work, not yours.  You only found it and opened the door after He had
-it completed.  The birds, flowers, and vines are all so lovely. 
-The Bird Woman says it is really a fact that the mallows, foxfire,
-iris, and lilies are larger and of richer coloring there than in
-the remainder of the country.  She says it's because of the rich
-loam and muck.  I hate seeing the swamp torn up, and to you it will
-be like losing your best friend; won't it?"
-
-"Something like," said Freckles.  "Still, I've the Limberlost in me
-heart so that all of it will be real to me while I live, no matter
-what they do to it.  I'm glad past telling if you will be coming a
-few more times, at least until the gang arrives.  Past that time I
-don't allow mesilf to be thinking."
-
-"Come, have a cool drink before you start back," said the Angel.
-
-"I couldn't possibly," said Freckles.  "I left Mrs. Duncan on the
-trail, and she's terribly afraid of a lot of things.  If she even
-sees a big snake, I don't know what she'll do."
-
-"It won't take but a minute, and you can ride fast enough to make
-up for it.  Please.  I want to think of something fine for you, to
-make up a little for what you did for me that first day."
-
-Freckles looked in sheer wonderment into the beautiful face of
-the Angel.  Did she truly mean it?  Would she walk down that street
-with him, crippled, homely, in mean clothing, with the tools of his
-occupation on him, and share with him the treat she was offering?
-He could not believe it, even of the Angel.  Still, in justice to
-the candor of her pure, sweet face, he would not think that she
-would make the offer and not mean it.  She really did mean just what
-she said, but when it came to carrying out her offer and he saw the
-stares of her friends, the sneers of her enemies--if such as she
-could have enemies--and heard the whispered jeers of the curious,
-then she would see her mistake and be sorry.  It would be only a
-manly thing for him to think this out, and save her from the
-results of her own blessed bigness of heart.
-
-"I railly must be off," said Freckles earnestly, "but I'm thanking
-you more than you'll ever know for your kindness.  I'll just be
-drinking bowls of icy things all me way home in the thoughts of it."
-
-Down came the Angel's foot.  Her eyes flashed indignantly.  "There's
-no sense in that," she said.  "How do you think you would have felt
-when you knew I was warm and thirsty and you went and brought me a
-drink and I wouldn't take it because--because goodness knows why!
-You can ride faster to make up for the time.  I've just thought out
-what I want to fix for you."
-
-She stepped to his side and deliberately slipped her hand under his
-arm--that right arm that ended in an empty sleeve.
-
-"You are coming," she said firmly.  "I won't have it."
-
-Freckles could not have told how he felt, neither could anyone else. 
-His blood rioted and his head swam, but he kept his wits.  He bent
-over her.
-
-"Please don't, Angel," he said softly.  "You don't understand."
-
-How Freckles came to understand was a problem.
-
-"It's this," he persisted.  "If your father met me on the street, in
-my station and dress, with you on me arm, he'd have every right to
-be caning me before the people, and not a finger would I lift to
-stay him."
-
-The Angel's eyes snapped.  "If you think my father cares about my
-doing anything that is right and kind, and that makes me happy to
-do--why, then you completely failed in reading my father, and I'll
-ask him and just show you."
-
-She dropped Freckles' arm and turned toward the entrance to
-the building.  "Why, look there!" she exclaimed.
-
-Her father stood in a big window fronting the street, a bundle of
-papers in his hand, interestedly watching the little scene, with
-eyes that comprehended quite as thoroughly as if he had heard
-every word.  The Angel caught his glance and made a despairing little
-gesture toward Freckles.  The Man of Affairs answered her with a
-look of infinite tenderness.  He nodded his head and waved the
-papers in the direction she had indicated, and the veriest dolt
-could have read the words his lips formed:  "Take him along!"
-
-A sudden trembling seized Freckles.  At sight of the Angel's father
-he had stepped back as far from her as he could, leaned the wheel
-against him, and snatched off his hat.
-
-The Angel turned on him with triumphing eyes.
-
-She was highly strung and not accustomed to being thwarted. 
-"Did You see that?" she demanded.  "Now are you satisfied? 
-Will you come, or must I call a policeman to bring you?"
-
-Freckles went.  There was nothing else to do.  Guiding his wheel, he
-walked down the street beside her.  On every hand she was kept busy
-giving and receiving the cheeriest greetings.  She walked into the
-parlors exactly as if she owned them.  A clerk came hurrying to meet her.
-
-"There's a table vacant beside a window where it is cool.  I'll save
-it for you," and he started back.
-
-"Please not," said the Angel.  "I've taken this man unawares, when
-he's in a rush.  I'm afraid if we sit down we'll take too much time
-and afterward he will blame me."
-
-She walked to the fountain, and a long row of people stared with
-all the varying degrees of insolence and curiosity that Freckles
-had felt they would.  He glanced at the Angel.  NOW would she see?
-
-"On my soul!" he muttered under his breath.  "They don't aven touch her!"
-
-She laid down her sunshade and gloves.  She walked to the end of the
-counter and turned the full battery of her eyes on the attendant.
-
-"Please," she said.
-
-The white-aproned individual stepped back and gave delighted assent. 
-The Angel stepped beside him, and selecting a tall, flaring glass,
-of almost paper thinness, she stooped and rolled it in a tray of
-cracked ice.
-
-"I want to mix a drink for my friend," she said.  "He has a long,
-hot ride before him, and I don't want him started off with one of
-those old palate-teasing sweetnesses that you mix just on purpose
-to drive a man back in ten minutes."  There was an appreciative
-laugh from the line at the counter.
-
-"I want a clear, cool, sparkling drink that has a tang of acid in it. 
-Where's the cherry phosphate?  That, not at all sweet, would be good;
-don't you think?"
-
-The attendant did think.  He pointed out the different taps, and the
-Angel compounded the drink, while Freckles, standing so erect he
-almost leaned backward, gazed at her and paid no attention to
-anyone else.  When she had the glass brimming, she tilted a little
-of its contents into a second glass and tasted it.
-
-"That's entirely too sweet for a thirsty man," she said.
-
-She poured out half the mixture, and refilling the glass, tasted
-it a second time.  She submitted that result to the attendant. 
-"Isn't that about the thing?" she asked.
-
-He replied enthusiastically.  "I'd get my wages raised ten a month
-if I could learn that trick."
-
-The Angel carried the brimming, frosty glass to Freckles.  He removed
-his hat, and lifting the icy liquid even with her eyes and looking
-straight into them, he said in the mellowest of all the mellow
-tones of his voice:  "I'll be drinking it to the Swamp Angel."
-
-As he had said to her that first day, she now cautioned him: 
-"Be drinking slowly."
-
-When the screen-door swung behind them, one of the men at the
-counter asked of the attendant:  "Now, what did that mean?"
-
-"Exactly what you saw," replied he, rather curtly.  "We're accustomed
-to it here.  Hardly a day passes, this hot weather, but she's
-picking up some poor, god-forsaken mortal and bringing him in. 
-Then she comes behind the counter herself and fixes up a drink
-to suit the occasion.  She's all sorts of fancies about what's what
-for all kinds of times and conditions, and you bet she can just hit
-the spot!  Ain't a clerk here can put up a drink to touch her. 
-She's a sort of knack at it.  Every once in a while, when the Boss
-sees her, he calls out to her to mix him a drink."
-
-"And does she?" asked the man with an interested grin.
-
-"Well, I guess!  But first she goes back and sees how long it is
-since he's had a drink.  What he drank last.  How warm he is.  When he
-ate last.  Then she comes here and mixes a glass of fizz with a
-little touch of acid, and a bit of cherry, lemon, grape, pineapple,
-or something sour and cooling, and it hits the spot just as no spot
-was ever hit before.  I honestly believe that the INTEREST she takes
-in it is half the trick, for I watch her closely and I can't come
-within gunshot of her concoctions.  She has a running bill here. 
-Her father settles once a month.  She gives nine-tenths of it away.
-Hardly ever touches it herself, but when she does she makes me mix it. 
-She's just old persimmons.  Even the scrub-boy of this establishment
-would fight for her.  It lasts the year round, for in winter it's some
-poor, frozen cuss that she's warming up on hot coffee or chocolate."
-
-"Mighty queer specimen she had this time," volunteered another.
-"Irish, hand off, straight as a ramrod, and something worth while
-in his face.  Notice that hat peel off, and the eyes of him? 
-There's a case of `fight for her!' Wonder who he is?"
-
-"I think," said a third, "that he's McLean's Limberlost guard, and
-I suspect she's gone to the swamp with the Bird Woman for pictures
-and knows him that way.  I've heard that he is a master hand with
-the birds, and that would just suit the Bird Woman to a T."
-
-On the street the Angel walked beside Freckles to the first
-crossing and there she stopped.  "Now, will you promise to ride fast
-enough to make up for the five minutes that took?" she asked. 
-"I am a little uneasy about Mrs. Duncan."
-
-Freckles turned his wheel into the street.  It seemed to him he had
-poured that delicious icy liquid into every vein in his body
-instead of his stomach.  It even went to his brain.
-
-"Did you insist on fixing that drink because you knew how
-intoxicating `twould be?" he asked.
-
-There was subtlety in the compliment and it delighted the Angel.
-She laughed gleefully.
-
-"Next time, maybe you won't take so much coaxing," she teased.
-
-"I wouldn't this, if I had known your father and been understanding
-you better.  Do you really think the Bird Woman will be coming again?"
-
-The Angel jeered.  "Wild horses couldn't drag her away," she cried.
-"She will have hard work to wait the week out.  I shouldn't be in
-the least surprised to see her start any hour."
-
-Freckles could not endure the suspense; it had to come.
-
-"And you?" he questioned, but he dared not lift his eyes.
-
-"Wild horses me, too," she laughed, "couldn't keep me away either!
-I dearly love to come, and the next time I am going to bring my
-banjo, and I'll play, and you sing for me some of the songs I like
-best; won't you?"
-
-"Yis," said Freckles, because it was all he was capable of saying
-just then.
-
-"It's beginning to act stormy," she said.  "If you hurry you will
-just about make it.  Now, good-bye."
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER IX
-
-      Wherein the Limberlost Falls upon Mrs. Duncan and Freckles
-                            Comes to the Rescue
-
-Freckles was halfway to the Limberlost when he dismounted.  He could
-ride no farther, because he could not see the road.  He sat under a
-tree, and, leaning against it, sobs shook, twisted, and rent him.
-If they would remind him of his position, speak condescendingly, or
-notice his hand, he could endure it, but this--it surely would kill him! 
-His hot, pulsing Irish blood was stirred deeply.  What did they mean? 
-Why did they do it?  Were they like that to everyone?  Was it pity?
-
-It could not be, for he knew that the Bird Woman and the Angel's
-father must know that he was not really McLean's son, and it did
-not matter to them in the least.  In spite of accident and poverty,
-they evidently expected him to do something worth while in the world. 
-That must be his remedy.  He must work on his education.  He must
-get away.  He must find and do the great thing of which the
-Angel talked.  For the first time, his thoughts turned anxiously
-toward the city and the beginning of his studies.  McLean and the
-Duncans spoke of him as "the boy," but he was a man.  He must face
-life bravely and act a man's part.  The Angel was a mere child. 
-He must not allow her to torture him past endurance with her frank
-comradeship that meant to him high heaven, earth's richness, and
-all that lay between, and NOTHING to her.
-
-There was an ominous growl of thunder, and amazed at himself,
-Freckles snatched up his wheel and raced toward the swamp.  He was
-worried to find his boots lying at the cabin door; the children
-playing on the woodpile told him that "mither" said they were so
-heavy she couldn't walk in them, and she had come back and taken
-them off.  Thoroughly frightened, he stopped only long enough to
-slip them on, and then sped with all his strength for the Limberlost. 
-To the west, the long, black, hard-beaten trail lay clear; but far
-up the east side, straight across the path, he could see what was
-certainly a limp, brown figure.  Freckles spun with all his might.
-
-Face down, Sarah Duncan lay across the trail.  When Freckles turned
-her over, his blood chilled at the look of horror settled on her face. 
-There was a low humming and something spatted against him.
-Glancing around, Freckles shivered in terror, for there was a swarm
-of wild bees settled on a scrub-thorn only a few yards away. 
-The air was filled with excited, unsettled bees making ready to
-lead farther in search of a suitable location.  Then he thought he
-understood, and with a prayer of thankfulness in his heart that she
-had escaped, even so narrowly, he caught her up and hurried down
-the trail until they were well out of danger.  He laid her in the
-shade, and carrying water from the swamp in the crown of his hat,
-he bathed her face and hands; but she lay in unbroken stillness,
-without a sign of life.
-
-She had found Freckles' boots so large and heavy that she had gone
-back and taken them off, although she was mortally afraid to
-approach the swamp without them.  The thought of it made her
-nervous, and the fact that she never had been there alone added to
-her fears.  She had not followed the trail many rods when her
-trouble began.  She was not Freckles, so not a bird of the line was
-going to be fooled into thinking she was.
-
-They began jumping from their nests and darting from unexpected
-places around her head and feet, with quick whirs, that kept her
-starting and dodging.  Before Freckles was halfway to the town, poor
-Mrs. Duncan was hysterical, and the Limberlost had neither sung nor
-performed for her.
-
-But there was trouble brewing.  It was quiet and intensely hot, with
-that stifling stillness that precedes a summer storm, and feathers
-and fur were tense and nervous.  The birds were singing only a few
-broken snatches, and flying around, seeking places of shelter. 
-One moment everything seemed devoid of life, the next there was an
-unexpected whir, buzz, and sharp cry.  Inside, a pandemonium of
-growling, spatting, snarling, and grunting broke loose.
-
-The swale bent flat before heavy gusts of wind, and the big black
-chicken swept lower and lower above the swamp.  Patches of clouds
-gathered, shutting out the sun and making it very dark, and the
-next moment were swept away.  The sun poured with fierce, burning
-brightness, and everything was quiet.  It was at the first growl of
-thunder that Freckles really had noticed the weather, and putting
-his own troubles aside resolutely, raced for the swamp.
-
-Sarah Duncan paused on the line.  "Weel, I wouldna stay in this
-place for a million a month," she said aloud, and the sound of her
-voice brought no comfort, for it was so little like she had thought
-it that she glanced hastily around to see if it had really been she
-that spoke.  She tremblingly wiped the perspiration from her face
-with the skirt of her sunbonnet.
-
-"Awfu' hot," she panted huskily.  "B'lieve there's going to be a
-big storm.  I do hope Freckles will hurry."
-
-Her chin was quivering as a terrified child's.  She lifted her
-bonnet to replace it and brushed against a bush beside her. 
-WHIRR, almost into her face, went a nighthawk stretched along a limb
-for its daytime nap.  Mrs. Duncan cried out and sprang down the trail,
-alighting on a frog that was hopping across.  The horrible croak it
-gave as she crushed it sickened her.  She screamed wildly and jumped
-to one side.  That carried her into the swale, where the grasses
-reached almost to her waist, and her horror of snakes returning,
-she made a flying leap for an old log lying beside the line. 
-She alighted squarely, but it was so damp and rotten that she sank
-straight through it to her knees.  She caught at the wire as she
-went down, and missing, raked her wrist across a barb until she
-tore a bleeding gash.  Her fingers closed convulsively around the
-second strand.  She was too frightened to scream now.  Her tongue
-stiffened.  She clung frantically to the sagging wire, and finally
-managed to grasp it with the other hand.  Then she could reach the top
-wire, and so she drew herself up and found solid footing.  She picked
-up the club that she had dropped in order to extricate herself. 
-Leaning heavily on it, she managed to return to the trail, but
-she was trembling so that she scarcely could walk.  Going a few
-steps farther, she came to the stump of the first tree that had
-been taken out.
-
-She sat bolt upright and very still, trying to collect her thoughts
-and reason away her terror.  A squirrel above her dropped a nut, and
-as it came rattling down, bouncing from branch to branch, every
-nerve in her tugged wildly.  When the disgusted squirrel barked
-loudly, she sprang to the trail.
-
-The wind arose higher, the changes from light to darkness were more
-abrupt, while the thunder came closer and louder at every peal. 
-In swarms the blackbirds arose from the swale and came flocking
-to the interior, with a clamoring cry:  "T'CHECK, T'CHECK." 
-Grackles marshaled to the tribal call:  "TRALL-A-HEE, TRALL-A-HEE."
-Red-winged blackbirds swept low, calling to belated mates: 
-"FOL-LOW-ME, FOL-LOW-ME."  Big, jetty crows gathered close to her,
-crying, as if warning her to flee before it was everlastingly
-too late.  A heron, fishing the near-by pool for Freckles' "find-out"
-frog, fell into trouble with a muskrat and uttered a rasping note
-that sent Mrs. Duncan a rod down the line without realizing that
-she had moved.  She was too shaken to run far.  She stopped and
-looked around her fearfully.
-
-Several bees struck her and were angrily buzzing before she
-noticed them.  Then the humming swelled on all sides. 
-A convulsive sob shook her, and she ran into the bushes,
-now into the swale, anywhere to avoid the swarming bees, ducking,
-dodging, fighting for her very life.  Presently the humming
-seemed to become a little fainter.  She found the trail again,
-and ran with all her might from a few of her angry pursuers.
-
-As she ran, straining every muscle, she suddenly became aware that,
-crossing the trail before her, was a big, round, black body, with
-brown markings on its back, like painted geometrical patterns. 
-She tried to stop, but the louder buzzing behind warned her she
-dared not.  Gathering her skirts higher, with hair flying around her
-face and her eyes almost bursting from their sockets, she ran straight
-toward it.  The sound of her feet and the humming of the bees
-alarmed the rattler, so it stopped across the trail, lifting its
-head above the grasses of the swale and rattling inquiringly--rattled
-until the bees were outdone.
-
-Straight toward it went the panic-stricken woman, running wildly
-and uncontrollably.  She took one leap, clearing its body on the
-path, then flew ahead with winged feet.  The snake, coiled to
-strike, missed Mrs. Duncan and landed among the bees instead. 
-They settled over and around it, and realizing that it had found
-trouble, it sank among the grasses and went threshing toward its
-den in the deep willow-fringed low ground.  The swale appeared as if
-a reaper were cutting a wide swath.  The mass of enraged bees darted
-angrily around, searching for it, and striking the scrub-thorn,
-began a temporary settling there to discover whether it were a
-suitable place.  Completely exhausted, Mrs. Duncan staggered on a
-few steps farther, fell facing the path, where Freckles found her,
-and lay quietly.
-
-Freckles worked over her until she drew a long, quivering breath
-and opened her eyes.
-
-When she saw him bending above her, she closed them tightly, and
-gripping him, struggled to her feet.  He helped her, and with his
-arm around and half carrying her, they made their way to the clearing. 
-She clung to him with all her remaining strength, but open her eyes
-she would not until her children came clustering around her. 
-Then, brawny, big Scotswoman though she was, she quietly keeled
-over again.  The children added their wailing to Freckles' panic.
-
-This time he was so close the cabin that he could carry her into
-the house and lay her on the bed.  He sent the oldest boy scudding
-down the corduroy for the nearest neighbor, and between them they
-undressed Mrs. Duncan and discovered that she was not bitten. 
-They bathed and bound the bleeding wrist and coaxed her back
-to consciousness.  She lay sobbing and shuddering.  The first
-intelligent word she said was:  "Freckles, look at that jar on the
-kitchen table and see if my yeast is no running ower."
-
-Several days passed before she could give Duncan and Freckles any
-detailed account of what had happened to her, even then she could
-not do it without crying as the least of her babies.  Freckles was
-almost heartbroken, and nursed her as well as any woman could have
-done; while big Duncan, with a heart full for them both, worked
-early and late to chink every crack of the cabin and examine every
-spot that possibly could harbor a snake.  The effects of her morning
-on the trail kept her shivering half the time.  She could not rest
-until she sent for McLean and begged him to save Freckles from
-further risk, in that place of horrors.  The Boss went to the swamp
-with his mind fully determined to do so.
-
-Freckles stood and laughed at him.  "Why, Mr. McLean, don't you
-let a woman's nervous system set you worrying about me," he said. 
-"I'm not denying how she felt, because I've been through it meself,
-but that's all over and gone.  It's the height of me glory to fight it
-out with the old swamp, and all that's in it, or will be coming to
-it, and then to turn it over to you as I promised you and meself
-I'd do, sir.  You couldn't break the heart of me entire quicker than
-to be taking it from me now, when I'm just on the home-stretch. 
-It won't be over three or four weeks yet, and when I've gone it
-almost a year, why, what's that to me, sir?  You mustn't let a
-woman get mixed up with business, for I've always heard about how
-it's bringing trouble."
-
-McLean smiled.  "What about that last tree?" he said.
-
-Freckles blushed and grinned appreciatively.
-
-"Angels and Bird Women don't count in the common run, sir," he
-affirmed shamelessly.
-
-McLean sat in the saddle and laughed.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER X
-
-   Wherein Freckles Strives Mightily and the Swamp Angel Rewards Him
-
-The Bird Woman and the Angel did not seem to count in the common
-run, for they arrived on time for the third of the series and found
-McLean on the line talking to Freckles.  The Boss was filled with
-enthusiasm over a marsh article of the Bird Woman's that he just
-had read.  He begged to be allowed to accompany her into the swamp
-and watch the method by which she secured an illustration in such
-a location.
-
-The Bird Woman explained to him that it was an easy matter with the
-subject she then had in hand; and as Little Chicken was too small
-to be frightened by him, and big enough to be growing troublesome,
-she was glad for his company.  They went to the chicken log
-together, leaving to the happy Freckles the care of the Angel, who
-had brought her banjo and a roll of songs that she wanted to hear
-him sing.  The Bird Woman told them that they might practice in
-Freckles' room until she finished with Little Chicken, and then she
-and McLean would come to the concert.
-
-It was almost three hours before they finished and came down the
-west trail for their rest and lunch.  McLean walked ahead, keeping
-sharp watch on the trail and clearing it of fallen limbs from
-overhanging trees.  He sent a big piece of bark flying into the
-swale, and then stopped short and stared at the trail.
-
-The Bird Woman bent forward.  Together they studied that imprint of
-the Angel's foot.  At last their eyes met, the Bird Woman's filled
-with astonishment, and McLean's humid with pity.  Neither said a
-word, but they knew.  McLean entered the swale and hunted up the bark. 
-He replaced it, and the Bird Woman carefully stepped over.  As they
-reached the bushes at the entrance, the voice of the Angel stopped
-them, for it was commanding and filled with much impatience.
-
-"Freckles James Ross McLean!" she was saying.  "You fill me with
-dark-blue despair!  You're singing as if your voice were glass and
-might break at any minute.  Why don't you sing as you did a week ago? 
-Answer me that, please."
-
-Freckles smiled confusedly at the Angel, who sat on one of his
-fancy seats, playing his accompaniment on her banjo.
-
-"You are a fraud," she said.  "Here you went last week and led me to
-think that there was the making of a great singer in you, and now
-you are singing--do you know how badly you are singing?"
-
-"Yis," said Freckles meekly.  "I'm thinking I'm too happy to be
-singing well today.  The music don't come right only when I'm
-lonesome and sad.  The world's for being all sunshine at prisint,
-for among you and Mr. McLean and the Bird Woman I'm after being
-THAT happy that I can't keep me thoughts on me notes.  It's more
-than sorry I am to be disappointing you.  Play it over, and I'll be
-beginning again, and this time I'll hold hard."
-
-"Well," said the Angel disgustedly, "it seems to me that if I had
-all the things to be proud of that you have, I'd lift up my head
-and sing!"
-
-"And what is it I've to be proud of, ma'am?" politely inquired Freckles.
-
-"Why, a whole worldful of things," cried the Angel explosively.
-"For one thing, you can be good and proud over the way you've kept
-the timber thieves out of this lease, and the trust your father has
-in you.  You can be proud that you've never even once disappointed
-him or failed in what he believed you could do.  You can be proud
-over the way everyone speaks of you with trust and honor, and about
-how brave of heart and strong of body you are I heard a big man say
-a few days ago that the Limberlost was full of disagreeable
-things--positive dangers, unhealthful as it could be, and that
-since the memory of the first settlers it has been a rendezvous for
-runaways, thieves, and murderers.  This swamp is named for a man
-that was lost here and wandered around `til he starved.  That man I
-was talking with said he wouldn't take your job for a thousand
-dollars a month--in fact, he said he wouldn't have it for any
-money, and you've never missed a day or lost a tree.  Proud!  Why, I
-should think you would just parade around about proper over that!
-
-"And you can always be proud that you are born an Irishman.  My
-father is Irish, and if you want to see him get up and strut give
-him a teeny opening to enlarge on his race.  He says that if the
-Irish had decent territory they'd lead the world.  He says they've
-always been handicapped by lack of space and of fertile soil. 
-He says if Ireland had been as big and fertile as Indiana, why,
-England wouldn't ever have had the upper hand.  She'd only be an
-appendage.  Fancy England an appendage!  He says Ireland has the
-finest orators and the keenest statesmen in Europe today, and when
-England wants to fight, with whom does she fill her trenches?
-Irishmen, of course!  Ireland has the greenest grass and trees, the
-finest stones and lakes, and they've jaunting-cars.  I don't know
-just exactly what they are, but Ireland has all there are, anyway.
-They've a lot of great actors, and a few singers, and there never
-was a sweeter poet than one of theirs.  You should hear my father
-recite `Dear Harp of My Country.' He does it this way."
-
-The Angel arose, made an elaborate old-time bow, and holding up the
-banjo, recited in clipping feet and meter, with rhythmic swing and
-a touch of brogue that was simply irresistible:
-
-"Dear harp of my country" [The Angel ardently clasped the banjo],
-
-"In darkness I found thee" [She held it to the light],
-
-"The cold chain of silence had hung o'er thee long" [She muted the
-strings with her rosy palm];
-
-"Then proudly, my own Irish harp, I unbound thee" [She threw up her
-head and swept a ringing harmony];
-
-"And gave all thy chords to light, freedom, and song" [She crashed
-into the notes of the accompaniment she had been playing for Freckles].
-
-"That's what you want to be thinking of!" she cried.  "Not darkness,
-and lonesomeness, and sadness, but `light, freedom, and song.' 
-I can't begin to think offhand of all the big, splendid things an
-Irishman has to be proud of; but whatever they are, they are all
-yours, and you are a part of them.  I just despise that `saddest-
-when-I-sing' business.  You can sing!  Now you go over there
-and do it!  Ireland has had her statesmen, warriors, actors, and
-poets; now you be her voice!  You stand right out there before the
-cathedral door, and I'm going to come down the aisle playing that
-accompaniment, and when I stop in front of you--you sing!"
-
-The Angel's face wore an unusual flush.  Her eyes were flashing and
-she was palpitating with earnestness.
-
-She parted the bushes and disappeared.  Freckles, straight and
-tense, stood waiting.  Presently, before he saw she was there, she
-was coming down the aisle toward him, playing compellingly, and
-rifts of light were touching her with golden glory.  Freckles stood
-as if transfixed.
-
-The cathedral was majestically beautiful, from arched dome of
-frescoed gold, green, and blue in never-ending shades and
-harmonies, to the mosaic aisle she trod, richly inlaid in choicest
-colors, and gigantic pillars that were God's handiwork fashioned
-and perfected through ages of sunshine and rain.  But the fair young
-face and divinely molded form of the Angel were His most perfect
-work of all.  Never had she appeared so surpassingly beautiful. 
-She was smiling encouragingly now, and as she came toward him, she
-struck the chords full and strong.
-
-The heart of poor Freckles almost burst with dull pain and his
-great love for her.  In his desire to fulfill her expectations he
-forgot everything else, and when she reached his initial chord he
-was ready.  He literally burst forth:
-
-
-            "Three little leaves of Irish green,
-                United on one stem,
-             Love, truth, and valor do they mean,
-                They form a magic gem."
-
-
-The Angel's eyes widened curiously and her lips parted.  A deep
-color swept into her cheeks.  She had intended to arouse him. 
-She had more than succeeded.  She was too young to know that in the
-effort to rouse a man, women frequently kindle fires that they
-neither can quench nor control.  Freckles was looking over her head
-now and singing that song, as it never had been sung before, for
-her alone; and instead of her helping him, as she had intended, he
-was carrying her with him on the waves of his voice, away, away
-into another world.  When he struck into the chorus, wide-eyed and
-panting, she was swaying toward him and playing with all her might.
-
-
-            "Oh, do you love?  Oh, say you love
-                You love the shamrock green!"
-
-
-At the last note, Freckles' voice ceased and he looked at the Angel. 
-He had given his best and his all.  He fell on his knees and
-folded his arms across his breast.  The Angel, as if magnetized,
-walked straight down the aisle to him, and running her fingers into
-the crisp masses of his red hair, tilted his head back and laid her
-lips on his forehead.
-
-Then she stepped back and faced him.  "Good boy!" she said, in a
-voice that wavered from the throbbing of her shaken heart. 
-"Dear boy!  I knew you could do it!  I knew it was in you! 
-Freckles, when you go into the world, if you can face a big
-audience and sing like that, just once, you will be immortal,
-and anything you want will be yours."
-
-"Anything!" gasped Freckles.
-
-"Anything," said the Angel.
-
-Freckles arose, muttered something, and catching up his old bucket,
-plunged into the swamp blindly on a pretence of bringing water. 
-The Angel walked slowly across the study, sat on the rustic bench,
-and, through narrowed lids, intently studied the tip of her shoe.
-
-On the trail the Bird Woman wheeled to McLean with a dumbfounded look.
-
-"God!" muttered he.
-
-At last the Bird Woman spoke.
-
-"Do you think the Angel knew she did that?" she asked softly.
-
-"No," said McLean; "I do not.  But the poor boy knew it.  Heaven help him!"
-
-The Bird Woman stared across the gently waving swale.  "I don't see
-how I am going to blame her," she said at last.  "It's so exactly
-what I would have done myself."
-
-"Say the remainder," demanded McLean hoarsely.  "Do him justice."
-
-"He was born a gentleman," conceded the Bird Woman.  "He took
-no advantage.  He never even offered to touch her.  Whatever that
-kiss meant to him, he recognized that it was the loving impulse of a
-child under stress of strong emotion.  He was fine and manly as any
-man ever could have been."
-
-McLean lifted his hat.  "Thank you," he said simply, and parted the
-bushes for her to enter Freckles' room.
-
-It was her first visit.  Before she left she sent for her cameras
-and made studies of each side of it and of the cathedral.  She was
-entranced with the delicate beauty of the place, while her eyes
-kept following Freckles as if she could not believe that it could
-be his conception and work.
-
-That was a happy day.  The Bird Woman had brought a lunch, and they
-spread it, with Freckles' dinner, on the study floor and sat,
-resting and enjoying themselves.  But the Angel put her banjo into
-its case, silently gathered her music, and no one mentioned the concert.
-
-The Bird Woman left McLean and the Angel to clear away the lunch,
-and with Freckles examined the walls of his room and told him all
-she knew about his shrubs and flowers.  She analyzed a
-cardinal-flower and showed him what he had wanted to know all
-summer--why the bees buzzed ineffectually around it while the
-humming-birds found in it an ever-ready feast.  Some of his
-specimens were so rare that she was unfamiliar with them, and
-with the flower book between them they knelt, studying the
-different varieties.  She wandered the length of the cathedral
-aisle with him, and it was at her suggestion that he lighted his
-altar with a row of flaming foxfire.
-
-As Freckles came to the cabin from his long day at the swamp he saw
-Mrs. Chicken sweeping to the south and wondered where she was going. 
-He stepped into the bright, cosy little kitchen, and as he reached
-down the wash-basin he asked Mrs. Duncan a question.
-
-"Mother Duncan, do kisses wash off?"
-
-So warm a wave swept her heart that a half-flush mantled her face.
-She straightened her shoulders and glanced at her hands tenderly.
-
-"Lord, na!  Freckles," she cried.  "At least, the anes ye get from
-people ye love dinna.  They dinna stay on the outside.  They strike
-in until they find the center of your heart and make their
-stopping-place there, and naething can take them from ye--I doubt
-if even death----Na, lad, ye can be reet sure kisses dinna wash off!"
-
-Freckles set the basin down and muttered as he plunged his hot,
-tired face into the water, "I needn't be afraid to be washing,
-then, for that one struck in."
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XI
-
-Wherein the Butterflies Go on a Spree and Freckles Informs the Bird Woman
-
-"I wish," said Freckles at breakfast one morning, "that I had some
-way to be sending a message to the Bird Woman.  I've something at
-the swamp that I'm believing never happened before, and surely
-she'll be wanting it."
-
-"What now, Freckles?" asked Mrs. Duncan.
-
-"Why, the oddest thing you ever heard of," said Freckles; "the
-whole insect tribe gone on a spree.  I'm supposing it's my doings,
-but it all happened by accident, like.  You see, on the swale side
-of the line, right against me trail, there's one of these scrub
-wild crabtrees.  Where the grass grows thick around it, is the
-finest place you ever conceived of for snakes.  Having women about
-has set me trying to clean out those fellows a bit, and yesterday
-I noticed that tree in passing.  It struck me that it would be a
-good idea to be taking it out.  First I thought I'd take me hatchet
-and cut it down, for it ain't thicker than me upper arm.  Then I
-remembered how it was blooming in the spring and filling all the
-air with sweetness.  The coloring of the blossoms is beautiful, and
-I hated to be killing it.  I just cut the grass short all around it.
-Then I started at the ground, trimmed up the trunk near the height
-of me shoulder, and left the top spreading.  That made it look so
-truly ornamental that, idle like, I chips off the rough places neat,
-and this morning, on me soul, it's a sight!  You see, cutting off
-the limbs and trimming up the trunk sets the sap running.  In this
-hot sun it ferments in a few hours.  There isn't much room for more
-things to crowd on that tree than there are, and to get drunker
-isn't noways possible."
-
-"Weel, I be drawed on!" exclaimed Mrs. Duncan.  "What kind of things
-do ye mean, Freckles?"
-
-"Why, just an army of black ants.  Some of them are sucking away
-like old topers.  Some of them are setting up on their tails and
-hind legs, fiddling with their fore-feet and wiping their eyes.
-Some are rolling around on the ground, contented.  There are
-quantities of big blue-bottle flies over the bark and hanging on
-the grasses around, too drunk to steer a course flying; so they
-just buzz away like flying, and all the time sitting still. 
-The snake-feeders are too full to feed anything--even more sap to
-themselves.  There's a lot of hard-backed bugs--beetles, I
-guess--colored like the brown, blue, and black of a peacock's tail.
-They hang on until the legs of them are so wake they can't stick a
-minute longer, and then they break away and fall to the ground.
-They just lay there on their backs, fably clawing air.  When it
-wears off a bit, up they get, and go crawling back for more, and they
-so full they bump into each other and roll over.  Sometimes they
-can't climb the tree until they wait to sober up a little.
-There's a lot of big black-and-gold bumblebees, done for entire,
-stumbling over the bark and rolling on the ground.  They just lay
-there on their backs, rocking from side to side, singing to
-themselves like fat, happy babies.  The wild bees keep up a steady
-buzzing with the beating of their wings.
-
-"The butterflies are the worst old topers of them all.  They're just
-a circus!  You never saw the like of the beauties!  They come every
-color you could be naming, and every shape you could be thinking up. 
-They drink and drink until, if I'm driving them away, they stagger
-as they fly and turn somersaults in the air.  If I lave them alone,
-they cling to the grasses, shivering happy like; and I'm blest,
-Mother Duncan, if the best of them could be unlocking the front
-door with a lead pencil, even."
-
-"I never heard of anything sae surprising," said Mrs. Duncan.
-
-"It's a rare sight to watch them, and no one ever made a picture of
-a thing like that before, I'm for thinking," said Freckles earnestly.
-
-"Na," said Mrs. Duncan.  "Ye can be pretty sure there didna.  The
-Bird Woman must have word in some way, if ye walk the line and I
-walk to town and tell her.  If ye think ye can wait until after
-supper, I am most sure ye can gang yoursel', for Duncan is coming
-home and he'd be glad to watch for ye.  If he does na come, and na
-ane passes that I can send word with today, I really will gang
-early in the morning and tell her mysel'."
-
-Freckles took his lunch and went to the swamp.  He walked and
-watched eagerly.  He could find no trace of anything, yet he felt a
-tense nervousness, as if trouble might be brooding.  He examined
-every section of the wire, and kept watchful eyes on the grasses of
-the swale, in an effort to discover if anyone had passed through
-them; but he could discover no trace of anything to justify his fears.
-
-He tilted his hat brim to shade his face and looked for his chickens. 
-They were hanging almost beyond sight in the sky.
-
-"Gee!" he said.  "If I only had your sharp eyes and convenient
-location now, I wouldn't need be troubling so."
-
-He reached his room and cautiously scanned the entrance before he
-stepped in.  Then he pushed the bushes apart with his right arm and
-entered, his left hand on the butt of his favorite revolver.
-Instantly he knew that someone had been there.  He stepped to the
-center of the room, closely scanning each wall and the floor. 
-He could find no trace of a clue to confirm his belief, yet so
-intimate was he with the spirit of the place that he knew.
-
-How he knew he could not have told, yet he did know that someone
-had entered his room, sat on his benches, and walked over his floor. 
-He was surest around the case.  Nothing was disturbed, yet it
-seemed to Freckles that he could see where prying fingers had tried
-the lock.  He stepped behind the case, carefully examining the
-ground all around it, and close beside the tree to which it was
-nailed he found a deep, fresh footprint in the spongy soil--a long,
-narrow print, that was never made by the foot of Wessner.  His heart
-tugged in his breast as he mentally measured the print, but he did
-not linger, for now the feeling arose that he was being watched. 
-It seemed to him that he could feel the eyes of some intruder at
-his back.  He knew he was examining things too closely: if anyone
-were watching, he did not want him to know that he felt it.
-
-He took the most open way, and carried water for his flowers and
-moss as usual; but he put himself into no position in which he was
-fully exposed, and his hand was close his revolver constantly.
-Growing restive at last under the strain, he plunged boldly into
-the swamp and searched minutely all around his room, but he could
-not discover the least thing to give him further cause for alarm.
-He unlocked his case, took out his wheel, and for the remainder of
-the day he rode and watched as he never had before.  Several times
-he locked the wheel and crossed the swamp on foot, zigzagging to
-cover all the space possible.  Every rod he traveled he used the
-caution that sprang from knowledge of danger and the direction from
-which it probably would come.  Several times he thought of sending
-for McLean, but for his life he could not make up his mind to do it
-with nothing more tangible than one footprint to justify him.
-
-He waited until he was sure Duncan would be at home, if he were
-coming for the night, before he went to supper.  The first thing he
-saw as he crossed the swale was the big bays in the yard.
-
-There had been no one passing that day, and Duncan readily agreed
-to watch until Freckles rode to town.  He told Duncan of the
-footprint, and urged him to guard closely.  Duncan said he might
-rest easy, and filling his pipe and taking a good revolver, the big
-man went to the Limberlost.
-
-Freckles made himself clean and neat, and raced to town, but it was
-night and the stars were shining before he reached the home of the
-Bird Woman.  From afar he could see that the house was ablaze
-with lights.  The lawn and veranda were strung with fancy lanterns and
-alive with people.  He thought his errand important, so to turn back
-never occurred to Freckles.  This was all the time or opportunity
-he would have.  He must see the Bird Woman, and see her at once. 
-He leaned his wheel inside the fence and walked up the broad
-front entrance.  As he neared the steps, he saw that the place was
-swarming with young people, and the Angel, with an excuse to a
-group that surrounded her, came hurrying to him.
-
-"Oh Freckles!" she cried delightedly.  "So you could come?  We were
-so afraid you could not!  I'm as glad as I can be!"
-
-"I don't understand," said Freckles.  "Were you expecting me?"
-
-"Why of course!" exclaimed the Angel.  "Haven't you come to my party? 
-Didn't you get my invitation?  I sent you one."
-
-"By mail?" asked Freckles.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel.  "I had to help with the preparations, and I
-couldn't find time to drive out; but I wrote you a letter, and told
-you that the Bird Woman was giving a party for me, and we wanted
-you to come, surely.  I told them at the office to put it with Mr.
-Duncan's mail."
-
-"Then that's likely where it is at present," said Freckles. 
-"Duncan comes to town only once a week, and at times not that. 
-He's home tonight for the first in a week.  He's watching an
-hour for me until I come to the Bird Woman with a bit of work
-I thought she'd be caring to hear about bad.  Is she where I
-can see her?"
-
-The Angel's face clouded.
-
-"What a disappointment!" she cried.  "I did so want all my friends
-to know you.  Can't you stay anyway?"
-
-Freckles glanced from his wading-boots to the patent leathers of
-some of the Angel's friends, and smiled whimsically, but there was
-no danger of his ever misjudging her again.
-
-"You know I cannot, Angel," he said.
-
-"I am afraid I do," she said ruefully.  "It's too bad!  But there is
-a thing I want for you more than to come to my party, and that is
-to hang on and win with your work.  I think of you every day, and I
-just pray that those thieves are not getting ahead of you. 
-Oh, Freckles, do watch closely!"
-
-She was so lovely a picture as she stood before him, ardent in his
-cause, that Freckles could not take his eyes from her to notice
-what her friends were thinking.  If she did not mind, why should he? 
-Anyway, if they really were the Angel's friends, probably they were
-better accustomed to her ways than he.
-
-Her face and bared neck and arms were like the wild rose bloom. 
-Her soft frock of white tulle lifted and stirred around her with the
-gentle evening air.  The beautiful golden hair, that crept around
-her temples and ears as if it loved to cling there, was caught back
-and bound with broad blue satin ribbon.  There was a sash of blue at
-her waist, and knots of it catching up her draperies.
-
-"Must I go after the Bird Woman?" she pleaded.
-
-"Indade, you must," answered Freckles firmly.
-
-The Angel went away, but returned to say that the Bird Woman was
-telling a story to those inside and she could not come for a short time.
-
-"You won't come in?" she pleaded.
-
-"I must not," said Freckles.  "I am not dressed to be among your
-friends, and I might be forgetting meself and stay too long."
-
-"Then," said the Angel, "we mustn't go through the house, because
-it would disturb the story; but I want you to come the outside way
-to the conservatory and have some of my birthday lunch and some
-cake to take to Mrs. Duncan and the babies.  Won't that be fun?"
-
-Freckles thought that it would be more than fun, and followed delightedly.
-
-The Angel gave him a big glass, brimming with some icy, sparkling
-liquid that struck his palate as it never had been touched before,
-because a combination of frosty fruit juices had not been a
-frequent beverage with him.  The night was warm, and the Angel most
-beautiful and kind.  A triple delirium of spirit, mind, and body
-seized upon him and developed a boldness all unnatural.  He slightly
-parted the heavy curtains that separated the conservatory from the
-company and looked between.  He almost stopped breathing.  He had
-read of things like that, but he never had seen them.
-
-The open space seemed to stretch through half a dozen rooms, all
-ablaze with lights, perfumed with flowers, and filled with
-elegantly dressed people.  There were glimpses of polished floors,
-sparkling glass, and fine furnishings.  From somewhere, the voice of
-his beloved Bird Woman arose and fell.
-
-The Angel crowded beside him and was watching also.
-
-"Doesn't it look pretty?" she whispered.
-
-"Do you suppose Heaven is any finer than that?" asked Freckles.
-
-The Angel began to laugh.
-
-"Do you want to be laughing harder than that?" queried Freckles.
-
-"A laugh is always good," said the Angel.  "A little more
-avoirdupois won't hurt me.  Go ahead."
-
-"Well then," said Freckles, "it's only that I feel all over as if
-I belonged there.  I could wear fine clothes, and move over those
-floors, and hold me own against the best of them."
-
-"But where does my laugh come in?" demanded the Angel, as if she
-had been defrauded.
-
-"And you ask me where the laugh comes in, looking me in the face
-after that," marveled Freckles.
-
-"I wouldn't be so foolish as to laugh at such a manifest truth as
-that," said the Angel.  "Anyone who knows you even half as well as
-I do, knows that you are never guilty of a discourtesy, and you
-move with twice the grace of any man here.  Why shouldn't you feel
-as if you belonged where people are graceful and courteous?"
-
-"On me soul!" said Freckles, "you are kind to be thinking it. 
-You are doubly kind to be saying it."
-
-The curtains parted and a woman came toward them.  Her silks and
-laces trailed across the polished floors.  The lights gleamed on her
-neck and arms, and flashed from rare jewels.  She was smiling
-brightly; and until she spoke, Freckles had not realized fully that
-it was his loved Bird Woman.
-
-Noticing his bewilderment, she cried:  "Why, Freckles!  Don't you
-know me in my war clothes?"
-
-"I do in the uniform in which you fight the Limberlost," said Freckles.
-
-The Bird Woman laughed.  Then he told her why he had come, but she
-scarcely could believe him.  She could not say exactly when she
-would go, but she would make it as soon as possible, for she was
-most anxious for the study.
-
-While they talked, the Angel was busy packing a box of sandwiches,
-cake, fruit, and flowers.  She gave him a last frosty glass, thanked
-him repeatedly for bringing news of new material; then Freckles
-went into the night.  He rode toward the Limberlost with his eyes on
-the stars.  Presently he removed his hat, hung it to his belt, and
-ruffled his hair to the sweep of the night wind.  He filled the air
-all the way with snatches of oratorios, gospel hymns, and dialect
-and coon songs, in a startlingly varied programme.  The one thing
-Freckles knew that he could do was to sing.  The Duncans heard him
-coming a mile up the corduroy and could not believe their senses.
-Freckles unfastened the box from his belt, and gave Mrs. Duncan and
-the children all the eatables it contained, except one big piece of
-cake that he carried to the sweet-loving Duncan.  He put the flowers
-back in the box and set it among his books.  He did not say
-anything, but they understood it was not to be touched.
-
-"Thae's Freckles' flow'rs," said a tiny Scotsman, "but," he added
-cheerfully, "it's oor sweeties!"
-
-Freckles' face slowly flushed as he took Duncan's cake and started
-toward the swamp.  While Duncan ate, Freckles told him something
-about the evening, as well as he could find words to express
-himself, and the big man was so amazed he kept forgetting the treat
-in his hands.
-
-Then Freckles mounted his wheel and began a spin that terminated
-only when the biggest Plymouth Rock in Duncan's coop saluted a new
-day, and long lines of light reddened the east.  As he rode he sang,
-while he sang he worshiped, but the god he tried to glorify was a
-dim and faraway mystery.  The Angel was warm flesh and blood.
-
-Every time he passed the little bark-covered imprint on the trail
-he dismounted, removed his hat, solemnly knelt and laid his lips on
-the impression.  Because he kept no account himself, only the
-laughing-faced old man of the moon knew how often it happened; and
-as from the beginning, to the follies of earth that gentleman has
-ever been kind.
-
-With the near approach of dawn Freckles tuned his last note.
-Wearied almost to falling, he turned from the trail into the path
-leading to the cabin for a few hours' rest.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XII
-
-   Wherein Black Jack Captures Freckles and the Angel Captures Jack
-
-As Freckles left the trail, from the swale close the south
-entrance, four large muscular men arose and swiftly and carefully
-entered the swamp by the wagon road.  Two of them carried a big saw,
-the third, coils of rope and wire, and all of them were heavily armed. 
-They left one man on guard at the entrance.  The other three made
-their way through the darkness as best they could, and were soon
-at Freckles' room.  He had left the swamp on his wheel from the
-west trail.  They counted on his returning on the wheel and circling
-the east line before he came there.
-
-A little below the west entrance to Freckles' room, Black Jack
-stepped into the swale, and binding a wire tightly around a scrub
-oak, carried it below the waving grasses, stretched it taut across
-the trail, and fastened it to a tree in the swamp.  Then he
-obliterated all signs of his work, and arranged the grass over
-the wire until it was so completely covered that only minute
-examination would reveal it.  They entered Freckles' room with
-coarse oaths and jests.  In a few moments, his specimen case with
-its precious contents was rolled into the swamp, while the saw was
-eating into one of the finest trees of the Limberlost.
-
-The first report from the man on watch was that Duncan had driven
-to the South camp; the second, that Freckles was coming.  The man
-watching was sent to see on which side the boy turned into the
-path; as they had expected, he took the east.  He was a little tired
-and his head was rather stupid, for he had not been able to sleep
-as he had hoped, but he was very happy.  Although he watched until
-his eyes ached, he could see no sign of anyone having entered the swamp.
-
-He called a cheery greeting to all his chickens.  At Sleepy Snake
-Creek he almost fell from his wheel with surprise: the saw-bird
-was surrounded by four lanky youngsters clamoring for breakfast. 
-The father was strutting with all the importance of a drum major.
-
-"No use to expect the Bird Woman today," said Freckles; "but now
-wouldn't she be jumping for a chance at that?"
-
-As soon as Freckles was far down the east line, the watch was
-posted below the room on the west to report his coming.  It was only
-a few moments before the signal came.  Then the saw stopped, and the
-rope was brought out and uncoiled close to a sapling.  Wessner and
-Black Jack crowded to the very edge of the swamp a little above the
-wire, and crouched, waiting.
-
-They heard Freckles before they saw him.  He came gliding down the
-line swiftly, and as he rode he was singing softly:
-
-
-            "Oh, do you love,
-             Oh, say you love----"
-
-
-He got no farther.  The sharply driven wheel struck the tense wire
-and bounded back.  Freckles shot over the handlebar and coasted down
-the trail on his chest.  As he struck, Black Jack and Wessner were
-upon him.  Wessner caught off an old felt hat and clapped it over
-Freckles' mouth, while Black Jack twisted the boy's arms behind him
-and they rushed him into his room.  Almost before he realized that
-anything had happened, he was trussed to a tree and securely gagged.
-
-Then three of the men resumed work on the tree.  The other followed
-the path Freckles had worn to Little Chicken's tree, and presently
-he reported that the wires were down and two teams with the loading
-apparatus coming to take out the timber.  All the time the saw was
-slowly eating, eating into the big tree.
-
-Wessner went to the trail and removed the wire.  He picked up
-Freckles' wheel, that did not seem to be injured, and leaned it
-against the bushes so that if anyone did pass on the trail he would
-not see it doubled in the swamp-grass.
-
-Then he came and stood in front of Freckles and laughed in
-devilish hate.  To his own amazement, Freckles found himself
-looking fear in the face, and marveled that he was not afraid. 
-Four to one!  The tree halfway eaten through, the wagons coming
-up the inside road--he, bound and gagged!  The men with Black
-Jack and Wessner had belonged to McLean's gang when last he
-had heard of them, but who those coming with the wagons might
-be he could not guess.
-
-If they secured that tree, McLean lost its value, lost his wager,
-and lost his faith in him.  The words of the Angel hammered in
-his ears.  "Oh, Freckles, do watch closely!"
-
-The saw worked steadily.
-
-When the tree was down and loaded, what would they do?  Pull out,
-and leave him there to report them?  It was not to be hoped for. 
-The place always had been lawless.  It could mean but one thing.
-
-A mist swept before his eyes, while his head swam.  Was it only last
-night that he had worshiped the Angel in a delirium of happiness?
-And now, what?  Wessner, released from a turn at the saw, walked to
-the flower bed, and tearing up a handful of rare ferns by the
-roots, started toward Freckles.  His intention was obvious. 
-Black Jack stopped him, with an oath.
-
-"You see here, Dutchy," he bawled, "mebby you think you'll wash his
-face with that, but you won't.  A contract's a contract.  We agreed
-to take out these trees and leave him for you to dispose of whatever
-way you please, provided you shut him up eternally on this deal. 
-But I'll not see a tied man tormented by a fellow that he can
-lick up the ground with, loose, and that's flat.  It raises my gorge
-to think what he'll get when we're gone, but you needn't think
-you're free to begin before.  Don't you lay a hand on him while
-I'm here!  What do you say, boys?"
-
-"I say yes," growled one of McLean's latest deserters.  "What's more,
-we're a pack of fools to risk the dirty work of silencing him. 
-You had him face down and you on his back; why the hell didn't
-you cover his head and roll him into the bushes until we were gone?
-When I went into this, I didn't understand that he was to see all
-of us and that there was murder on the ticket.  I'm not up to it. 
-I don't mind lifting trees we came for, but I'm cursed if I want
-blood on my hands."
-
-"Well, you ain't going to get it," bellowed Jack.  "You fellows
-only contracted to help me get out my marked trees.  He belong to
-Wessner, and it ain't in our deal what happens to him."
-
-"Yes, and if Wessner finishes him safely, we are practically in for
-murder as well as stealing the trees; and if he don't, all hell's
-to pay.  I think you've made a damnable bungle of this thing; that's
-what I think!"
-
-"Then keep your thoughts to yourself," cried Jack.  "We're doing
-this, and it's all planned safe and sure.  As for killing that
-buck--come to think of it, killing is what he needs.  He's away too
-good for this world of woe, anyhow.  I tell you, it's all safe
-enough.  His dropping out won't be the only secret the old
-Limberlost has never told.  It's too dead easy to make it look like
-he helped take the timber and then cut.  Why, he's played right into
-our hands.  He was here at the swamp all last night, and back again
-in an hour or so.  When we get our plan worked out, even old fool
-Duncan won't lift a finger to look for his carcass.  We couldn't
-have him going in better shape."
-
-"You just bet," said Wessner.  "I owe him all he'll get, and be
-damned to you, but I'll pay!" he snarled at Freckles.
-
-So it was killing, then.  They were not only after this one tree,
-but many, and with his body it was their plan to kill his honor. 
-To brand him a thief, with them, before the Angel, the Bird Woman,
-the dear Boss, and the Duncans--Freckles, in sick despair, sagged
-against the ropes.
-
-Then he gathered his forces and thought swiftly.  There was no hope
-of McLean's coming.  They had chosen a day when they knew he had a
-big contract at the South camp.  The Boss could not come before
-tomorrow by any possibility, and there would be no tomorrow for
-the boy.  Duncan was on his way to the South camp, and the Bird Woman
-had said she would come as soon as she could.  After the fatigue of
-the party, it was useless to expect her and the Angel today, and
-God save them from coming!  The Angel's father had said they would
-be as safe in the Limberlost as at home.  What would he think of this?
-
-The sweat broke on Freckles' forehead.  He tugged at the ropes
-whenever he felt that he dared, but they were passed around the
-tree and his body several times, and knotted on his chest. 
-He was helpless.  There was no hope, no help.  And after they had
-conspired to make him appear a runaway thief to his loved ones,
-what was it that Wessner would do to him?
-
-Whatever it was, Freckles lifted his head and resolved that he
-would bear in mind what he had once heard the Bird Woman say. 
-He would go out bonnily.  Never would he let them see, if he
-grew afraid.  After all, what did it matter what they did to his
-body if by some scheme of the devil they could encompass his disgrace?
-
-Then hope suddenly rose high in Freckles' breast.  They could not
-do that!  The Angel would not believe.  Neither would McLean.  He would
-keep up his courage.  Kill him they could; dishonor him they could not.
-
-Yet, summon all the fortitude he might, that saw eating into the
-tree rasped his nerves worse and worse.  With whirling brain he
-gazed into the Limberlost, searching for something, he knew not
-what, and in blank horror found his eyes focusing on the Angel. 
-She was quite a distance away, but he could see her white lips and
-angry expression.
-
-Last week he had taken her and the Bird Woman across the swamp over
-the path he followed in going from his room to the chicken tree. 
-He had told them the night before, that the butterfly tree was on the
-line close to this path.  In figuring on their not coming that day,
-he failed to reckon with the enthusiasm of the Bird Woman.  They must
-be there for the study, and the Angel had risked crossing the swamp
-in search of him.  Or was there something in his room they needed? 
-The blood surged in his ears as the roar of the Limberlost in the
-wrath of a storm.
-
-He looked again, and it had been a dream.  She was not there. 
-Had she been?  For his life, Freckles could not tell whether he
-really had seen the Angel, or whether his strained senses had
-played him the most cruel trick of all.  Or was it not the kindest? 
-Now he could go with the vision of her lovely face fresh with him.
-
-"Thank You for that, oh God!" whispered Freckles."  `Twas more than
-kind of You and I don't s'pose I ought to be wanting anything else;
-but if You can, oh, I wish I could know before this ends, if `twas
-me mother"--Freckles could not even whisper the words, for he
-hesitated a second and ended--"IF `TWAS ME MOTHER DID IT!"
-
-"Freckles!  Freckles!  Oh, Freckles!" the voice of the Angel
-came calling.  Freckles swayed forward and wrenched at the rope
-until it cut deeply into his body.
-
-"Hell!" cried Black Jack.  "Who is that?  Do you know?"
-
-Freckles nodded.
-
-Jack whipped out a revolver and snatched the gag from Freckles' mouth.
-
-"Say quick, or it's up with you right now, and whoever that is with you!"
-
-"It's the girl the Bird Woman takes with her," whispered Freckles
-through dry, swollen lips.
-
-"They ain't due here for five days yet," said Wessner.  "We got on
-to that last week."
-
-"Yes," said Freckles, "but I found a tree covered with butterflies
-and things along the east line yesterday that I thought the Bird
-Woman would want extra, and I went to town to tell her last night. 
-She said she'd come soon, but she didn't say when.  They must be
-here.  I take care of the girl while the Bird Woman works.  Untie me
-quick until she is gone.  I'll try to send her back, and then you
-can go on with your dirty work."
-
-"He ain't lying," volunteered Wessner.  "I saw that tree covered
-with butterflies and him watching around it when we were spying on
-him yesterday."
-
-"No, he leaves lying to your sort," snapped Black Jack, as he undid
-the rope and pitched it across the room.  "Remember that you're
-covered every move you make, my buck," he cautioned.
-
-"Freckles!  Freckles!" came the Angel's impatient voice, closer and closer.
-
-"I must be answering," said Freckles, and Jack nodded.  "Right here!"
-he called, and to the men:  "You go on with your work, and
-remember one thing yourselves.  The work of the Bird Woman is known
-all over the world.  This girl's father is a rich man, and she is
-all he has.  If you offer hurt of any kind to either of them, this
-world has no place far enough away or dark enough for you to be
-hiding in.  Hell will be easy to what any man will get if he touches
-either of them!"
-
-"Freckles, where are you?" demanded the Angel.
-
-Soulsick with fear for her, Freckles went toward her and parted the
-bushes that she might enter.  She came through without apparently
-giving him a glance, and the first words she said were:  "Why have
-the gang come so soon?  I didn't know you expected them for three
-weeks yet.  Or is this some especial tree that Mr. McLean needs to
-fill an order right now?"
-
-Freckles hesitated.  Would a man dare lie to save himself?  No. 
-But to save the Angel--surely that was different.  He opened his lips,
-but the Angel was capable of saving herself.  She walked among them,
-exactly as if she had been reared in a lumber camp, and never
-waited for an answer.
-
-"Why, your specimen case!" she cried.  "Look!  Haven't you noticed
-that it's tipped over?  Set it straight, quickly!"
-
-A couple of the men stepped out and carefully righted the case.
-
-"There!  That's better," she said.  "Freckles, I'm surprised at your
-being so careless.  It would be a shame to break those lovely
-butterflies for one old tree!  Is that a valuable tree?  Why didn't
-you tell us last night you were going to take out a tree this morning? 
-Oh, say, did you put your case there to protect that tree from
-that stealing old Black Jack and his gang?  I bet you did! 
-Well, if that wasn't bright!  What kind of a tree is it?"
-
-"It's a white oak," said Freckles.
-
-"Like those they make dining-tables and sideboards from?"
-
-"Yes."
-
-"My!  How interesting!" she cried.  "I don't know a thing about
-timber, but my father wants me to learn just everything I can.  I am
-going to ask him to let me come here and watch you until I know
-enough to boss a gang myself.  Do you like to cut trees, gentlemen?"
-she asked with angelic sweetness of the men.
-
-Some of them appeared foolish and some grim, but one managed to say
-they did.
-
-Then the Angel's eyes turned full on Black Jack, and she gave the
-most natural little start of astonishment.
-
-"Oh!  I almost thought that you were a ghost!" she cried.  "But I see
-now that you are really and truly.  Were you ever in Colorado?"
-
-"No," said Jack.
-
-"I see you aren't the same man," said the Angel.  "You know, we
-were in Colorado last year, and there was a cowboy who was the
-handsomest man anywhere around.  He'd come riding into town every
-night, and all we girls just adored him!  Oh, but he was a beauty!
-I thought at first glance you were really he, but I see now he
-wasn't nearly so tall nor so broad as you, and only half as handsome."
-
-The men began to laugh while Jack flushed crimson.  The Angel joined
-in the laugh.
-
-"Well, I'll leave it to you!  Isn't he handsome?" she challenged.
-"As for that cowboy's face, it couldn't be compared with yours. 
-The only trouble with you is that your clothes are spoiling you. 
-It's the dress those cowboys wear that makes half their attraction. 
-If you were properly clothed, you could break the heart of the
-prettiest girl in the country."
-
-With one accord the other men looked at Black Jack, and for the
-first time realized that he was a superb specimen of manhood, for
-he stood six feet tall, was broad, well-rounded, and had dark, even
-skin, big black eyes, and full red lips.
-
-"I'll tell you what!" exclaimed the Angel.  "I'd just love to see
-you on horseback.  Nothing sets a handsome man off so splendidly. 
-Do you ride?"
-
-"Yes," said Jack, and his eyes were burning on the Angel as if he
-would fathom the depths of her soul.
-
-"Well," said the Angel winsomely, "I know what I just wish you'd do. 
-I wish you would let your hair grow a little longer.  Then wear
-a blue flannel shirt a little open at the throat, a red tie, and a
-broad-brimmed felt hat, and ride past my house of evenings. 
-I'm always at home then, and almost always on the veranda, and, oh!
-but I would like to see you!  Will you do that for me?" It is impossible
-to describe the art with which the Angel asked the question.  She was
-looking straight into Jack's face, coarse and hardened with sin and
-careless living, which was now taking on a wholly different expression. 
-The evil lines of it were softening and fading under her clear gaze. 
-A dull red flamed into his bronze cheeks, while his eyes were
-growing brightly tender.
-
-"Yes," he said, and the glance he gave the men was of such a nature
-that no one saw fit even to change countenance.
-
-"Oh, goody!" she cried, tilting on her toes.  "I'll ask all the
-girls to come see, but they needn't stick in!  We can get along
-without them, can't we?"
-
-Jack leaned toward her.  He was the charmed fluttering bird, while
-the Angel was the snake.
-
-"Well, I rather guess!" he cried.
-
-The Angel drew a deep breath and surveyed him rapturously.
-
-"My, but you're tall!" she commented.  "Do you suppose I ever will
-grow to reach your shoulders?"
-
-She stood on tiptoe and measured the distance with her eyes.  Then she
-developed timid confusion, while her glance sought the ground.
-
-"I wish I could do something," she half whispered.
-
-Jack seemed to increase an inch in height.
-
-"What?" he asked hoarsely.
-
-"Lariat Bill used always to have a bunch of red flowers in his
-shirt pocket.  The red lit up his dark eyes and olive cheeks and
-made him splendid.  May I put some red flowers on you?"
-
-Freckles stared as he wheezed for breath.  He wished the earth would
-open and swallow him.  Was he dead or alive?  Since his Angel had
-seen Black Jack she never had glanced his way.  Was she completely
-bewitched?  Would she throw herself at the man's feet before them all? 
-Couldn't she give him even one thought?  Hadn't she seen that
-he was gagged and bound?  Did she truly think that these were
-McLean's men?  Why, she could not!  It was only a few days ago that
-she had been close enough to this man and angry enough with him to
-peel the hat from his head with a shot!  Suddenly a thing she had
-said jestingly to him one day came back with startling force: 
-"You must take Angels on trust."  Of course you must!  She was
-his Angel.  She must have seen!  His life, and what was far more,
-her own, was in her hands.  There was nothing he could do but
-trust her.  Surely she was working out some plan.
-
-The Angel knelt beside his flower bed and recklessly tore up by the
-roots a big bunch of foxfire.
-
-"These stems are so tough and sticky," she said.  "I can't
-break them.  Loan me your knife," she ordered Freckles.
-
-As she reached for the knife, her back was for one second toward
-the men.  She looked into his eyes and deliberately winked.
-
-She severed the stems, tossed the knife to Freckles, and walking to
-Jack, laid the flowers over his heart.
-
-Freckles broke into a sweat of agony.  He had said she would be safe
-in a herd of howling savages.  Would she?  If Black Jack even made a
-motion toward touching her, Freckles knew that from somewhere he
-would muster the strength to kill him.  He mentally measured the
-distance to where his club lay and set his muscles for a spring.
-But no--by the splendor of God!  The big fellow was baring his head
-with a hand that was unsteady.  The Angel pulled one of the long
-silver pins from her hat and fastened her flowers securely.
-
-Freckles was quaking.  What was to come next?  What was she planning,
-and oh!  did she understand the danger of her presence among those
-men; the real necessity for action?
-
-As the Angel stepped from Jack, she turned her head to one side and
-peered at him, quite as Freckles had seen the little yellow fellow
-do on the line a hundred times, and said:  "Well, that does the trick! 
-Isn't that fine?  See how it sets him off, boys?  Don't you forget
-the tie is to be red, and the first ride soon.  I can't wait
-very long.  Now I must go.  The Bird Woman will be ready to start,
-and she will come here hunting me next, for she is busy today. 
-What did I come here for anyway?"
-
-She glanced inquiringly around, and several of the men laughed. 
-Oh, the delight of it!  She had forgotten her errand for him! 
-Jack had a second increase in height.  The Angel glanced helplessly
-as if seeking a clue.  Then her eyes fell, as if by accident, on
-Freckles, and she cried, "Oh, I know now!  It was those magazines
-the Bird Woman promised you.  I came to tell you that we put them
-under the box where we hide things, at the entrance to the swamp
-as we came in.  I knew I would need my hands crossing the swamp,
-so I hid them there.  You'll find them at the same old place."
-
-Then Freckles spoke.
-
-"It's mighty risky for you to be crossing the swamp alone," he said. 
-"I'm surprised that the Bird Woman would be letting you try it. 
-I know it's a little farther, but it's begging you I am to be
-going back by the trail.  That's bad enough, but it's far safer than
-the swamp."
-
-The Angel laughed merrily.
-
-"Oh stop your nonsense!" she cried.  "I'm not afraid!  Not in
-the least!  The Bird Woman didn't want me to try following a path
-that I'd been over only once, but I was sure I could do it, and I'm
-rather proud of the performance.  Now, don't go babying!  You know
-I'm not afraid!"
-
-"No," said Freckles gently, "I know you're not; but that has
-nothing to do with the fact that your friends are afraid for you.
-On the trail you can see your way a bit ahead, and you've all the
-world a better chance if you meet a snake."
-
-Then Freckles had an inspiration.  He turned to Jack imploringly.
-
-"You tell her!" he pleaded.  "Tell her to go by the trail.  She will
-for you."
-
-The implication of this statement was so gratifying to Black Jack
-that he seemed again to expand and take on increase before their
-very eyes.
-
-"You bet!" exclaimed Jack.  And to the Angel:  "You better take
-Freckles' word for it, miss.  He knows the old swamp better than any
-of us, except me, and if he says `go by the trail,' you'd best do it."
-
-The Angel hesitated.  She wanted to recross the swamp and try to
-reach the horse.  She knew Freckles would brave any danger to save
-her crossing the swamp alone, but she really was not afraid, while
-the trail added over a mile to the walk.  She knew the path. 
-She intended to run for dear life the instant she felt herself from
-their sight, and tucked in the folds of her blouse was a fine
-little 32-caliber revolver that her father had presented her for
-her share in what he was pleased to call her military exploit. 
-One last glance at Freckles showed her the agony in his eyes, and
-immediately she imagined he had some other reason.  She would follow
-the trail.
-
-"All right," she said, giving Jack a thrilling glance.  "If you say
-so, I'll return by the trail to please you.  Good-bye, everybody."
-
-She lifted the bushes and started toward the entrance.
-
-"You damned fool!  Stop her!" growled Wessner.  "Keep her till we're
-loaded, anyhow.  You're playing hell!  Can't you see that when this
-thing is found out, there she'll be to ruin all of us.  If you let
-her go, every man of us has got to cut, and some of us will be
-caught sure."
-
-Jack sprang forward.  Freckles' heart muffled in his throat. 
-The Angel seemed to divine Jack's coming.  She was humming a
-little song.  She deliberately stopped and began pulling the heads
-of the curious grasses that grew all around her.  When she straightened,
-she took a step backward and called:  "Ho!  Freckles, the Bird Woman
-wants that natural history pamphlet returned.  It belongs to a set
-she is going to have bound.  That's one of the reasons we put it
-under the box.  You be sure to get them as you go home tonight, for
-fear it rains or becomes damp with the heavy dews."
-
-"All right," said Freckles, but it was in a voice that he never had
-heard before.
-
-Then the Angel turned and sent a parting glance at Jack.  She was
-overpoweringly human and bewitchingly lovely.
-
-"You won't forget that ride and the red tie," she half asserted,
-half questioned.
-
-Jack succumbed.  Freckles was his captive, but he was the Angel's,
-soul and body.  His face wore the holiest look it ever had known as
-he softly re-echoed Freckles' "All right."  With her head held well
-up, the Angel walked slowly away, and Jack turned to the men.
-
-"Drop your damned staring and saw wood," he shouted.  "Don't you
-know anything at all about how to treat a lady?" It might have been
-a question which of the cronies that crouched over green wood fires
-in the cabins of Wildcat Hollow, eternally sucking a corncob pipe
-and stirring the endless kettles of stewing coon and opossum, had
-taught him to do even as well as he had by the Angel.
-
-The men muttered and threatened among themselves, but they began
-working desperately.  Someone suggested that a man be sent to follow
-the Angel and to watch her and the Bird Woman leave the swamp.
-Freckles' heart sank within him, but Jack was in a delirium and
-past all caution.
-
-"Yes," he sneered.  "Mebby all of you had better give over on the
-saw and run after the girl.  I guess not!  Seems to me I got the
-favors.  I didn't see no bouquets on the rest of you!  If anybody
-follows her, I do, and I'm needed here among such a pack of idiots.
-There's no danger in that baby face.  She wouldn't give me away! 
-You double and work like forty, while me and Wessner will take the
-axes and begin to cut in on the other side."
-
-"What about the noise?" asked Wessner.
-
-"No difference about the noise," answered Jack.  "She took us to be
-from McLean's gang, slick as grease.  Make the chips fly!"
-
-So all of them attacked the big tree.
-
-Freckles sat on one of his benches and waited.  In their haste to
-fell the tree and load it, so that the teamsters could start, and
-leave them free to attack another, they had forgotten to rebind him.
-
-The Angel was on the trail and safely started.  The cold
-perspiration made Freckles' temples clammy and ran in little
-streams down his chest.  It would take her more time to follow the
-trail, but her safety was Freckles' sole thought in urging her to
-go that way.  He tried to figure on how long it would require to
-walk to the carriage.  He wondered if the Bird Woman had unhitched.
-He followed the Angel every step of the way.  He figured on when she
-would cross the path of the clearing, pass the deep pool where his
-"find-out" frog lived, cross Sleepy Snake Creek, and reach the carriage.
-
-He wondered what she would say to the Bird Woman, and how long it
-would take them to pack and start.  He knew now that they would
-understand, and the Angel would try to get the Boss there in time
-to save his wager.  She could never do it, for the saw was over half
-through, and Jack and Wessner cutting into the opposite side of
-the tree.  It appeared as if they could fell at least that tree,
-before McLean could come, and if they did he lost his wager.
-
-When it was down, would they rebind him and leave him for Wessner
-to wreak his insane vengeance on, or would they take him along to
-the next tree and dispose of him when they had stolen all the
-timber they could?  Jack had said that he should not be touched
-until he left.  Surely he would not run all that risk for one tree,
-when he had many others of far greater value marked.  Freckles felt
-that he had some hope to cling to now, but he found himself praying
-that the Angel would hurry.
-
-Once Jack came to Freckles and asked if he had any water.  Freckles
-arose and showed him where he kept his drinking-water.  Jack drank
-in great gulps, and as he passed back the bucket, he said:  "When a
-man's got a chance of catching a fine girl like that, he ought not
-be mixed up in any dirty business.  I wish to God I was out of this!"
-
-Freckles answered heartily:  "I wish I was, too!"
-
-Jack stared at him a minute and then broke into a roar of rough laughter.
-
-"Blest if I blame you," he said.  "But you had your chance! 
-We offered you a fair thing and you gave Wessner his answer. 
-I ain't envying you when he gives you his."
-
-"You're six to one," answered Freckles.  "It will be easy enough for
-you to be killing the body of me, but, curse you all, you can't
-blacken me soul!"
-
-"Well, I'd give anything you could name if I had your honesty,"
-said Jack.
-
-When the mighty tree fell, the Limberlost shivered and screamed
-with the echo.  Freckles groaned in despair, but the gang took heart. 
-That was so much accomplished.  They knew where to dispose of it
-safely, with no questions asked.  Before the day was over, they
-could remove three others, all suitable for veneer and worth far
-more than this.  Then they would leave Freckles to Wessner and
-scatter for safety, with more money than they had ever hoped for in
-their possession.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XIII
-
-     Wherein the Angel Releases Freckles, and the Curse of Black Jack
-                                Falls upon Her
-
-On the line, the Angel gave one backward glance at Black Jack, to
-see that he had returned to his work.  Then she gathered her skirts
-above her knees and leaped forward on the run.  In the first three
-yards she passed Freckles' wheel.  Instantly she imagined that was
-why he had insisted on her coming by the trail.  She seized it and
-sprang on.  The saddle was too high, but she was an expert rider and
-could catch the pedals as they came up.  She stopped at Duncan's
-cabin long enough to remedy this, telling Mrs. Duncan while working
-what was happening, and for her to follow the east trail until she
-found the Bird Woman, and told her that she had gone after McLean
-and for her to leave the swamp as quickly as possible.
-
-Even with her fear for Freckles to spur her, Sarah Duncan blanched
-and began shivering at the idea of facing the Limberlost.  The Angel
-looked her in the eyes.
-
-"No matter how afraid you are, you have to go," she said.  "If you
-don't the Bird Woman will go to Freckles' room, hunting me, and
-they will have trouble with her.  If she isn't told to leave at
-once, they may follow me, and, finding I'm gone, do some terrible
-thing to Freckles.  I can't go--that's flat--for if they caught me,
-then there'd be no one to go for help.  You don't suppose they are
-going to take out the trees they're after and then leave Freckles
-to run and tell?  They are going to murder the boy; that's what they
-are going to do.  You run, and run for life!  For Freckles' life! 
-You can ride back with the Bird Woman."
-
-The Angel saw Mrs. Duncan started; then began her race.
-
-Those awful miles of corduroy!  Would they never end?  She did not
-dare use the wheel too roughly, for if it broke she never could
-arrive on time afoot.  Where her way was impassable for the wheel,
-she jumped off, and pushing it beside her or carrying it, she ran
-as fast as she could.  The day was fearfully warm.  The sun poured
-with the fierce baking heat of August.  The bushes claimed her hat,
-and she did not stop for it.
-
-Where it was at all possible, the Angel mounted and pounded over
-the corduroy again.  She was panting for breath and almost worn out
-when she reached the level pike.  She had no idea how long she had
-been--and only two miles covered.  She leaned over the bars, almost
-standing on the pedals, racing with all the strength in her body.
-The blood surged in her ears while her head swam, but she kept a
-straight course, and rode and rode.  It seemed to her that she was
-standing still, while the trees and houses were racing past her.
-
-Once a farmer's big dog rushed angrily into the road and she
-swerved until she almost fell, but she regained her balance, and
-setting her muscles, pedaled as fast as she could.  At last she
-lifted her head.  Surely it could not be over a mile more.  She had
-covered two of corduroy and at least three of gravel, and it was
-only six in all.
-
-She was reeling in the saddle, but she gripped the bars with new
-energy, and raced desperately.  The sun beat on her bare head and
-hands.  Just when she was choking with dust, and almost prostrate
-with heat and exhaustion--crash, she ran into a broken bottle.
-Snap! went the tire; the wheel swerved and pitched over.  The Angel
-rolled into the thick yellow dust of the road and lay quietly.
-
-From afar, Duncan began to notice a strange, dust-covered object in the
-road, as he headed toward town with the first load of the day's felling.
-
-He chirruped to the bays and hurried them all he could.  As he
-neared the Angel, he saw it was a woman and a broken wheel.  He was
-beside her in an instant.  He carried her to a shaded fence-corner,
-stretched her on the grass, and wiped the dust from the lovely face
-all dirt-streaked, crimson, and bearing a startling whiteness
-around the mouth and nose.
-
-Wheels were common enough.  Many of the farmers' daughters owned and
-rode them, but he knew these same farmers' daughters; this face was
-a stranger's.  He glanced at the Angel's tumbled clothing, the
-silkiness of her hair, with its pale satin ribbon, and noticed that
-she had lost her hat.  Her lips tightened in an ominous quiver. 
-He left her and picked up the wheel: as he had surmised, he knew it.
-This, then, was Freckles' Swamp Angel.  There was trouble in the
-Limberlost, and she had broken down racing to McLean.  Duncan turned
-the bays into a fence-corner, tied one of them, unharnessed the
-other, fastened up the trace chains, and hurried to the nearest
-farmhouse to send help to the Angel.  He found a woman, who took a
-bottle of camphor, a jug of water, and some towels, and started on
-the run.
-
-Then Duncan put the bay to speed and raced to camp.
-
-The Angel, left alone, lay still for a second, then she shivered
-and opened her eyes.  She saw that she was on the grass and the
-broken wheel beside her.  Instantly she realized that someone had
-carried her there and gone after help.  She sat up and looked
-around.  She noticed the load of logs and the one horse.  Someone was
-riding after help for her!
-
-"Oh, poor Freckles!" she wailed.  "They may be killing him by now.
-Oh, how much time have I wasted?"
-
-She hurried to the other bay, her fingers flying as she set him free. 
-Snatching up a big blacksnake whip that lay on the ground, she
-caught the hames, stretched along the horse's neck, and, for
-the first time, the fine, big fellow felt on his back the quality
-of the lash that Duncan was accustomed to crack over him.  He was
-frightened, and ran at top speed.
-
-The Angel passed a wildly waving, screaming woman on the road, and
-a little later a man riding as if he, too, were in great haste. 
-The man called to her, but she only lay lower and used the whip. 
-Soon the feet of the man's horse sounded farther and farther away.
-
-At the South camp they were loading a second wagon, when the Angel
-appeared riding one of Duncan's bays, lathered and dripping, and
-cried:  "Everybody go to Freckles!  There are thieves stealing trees,
-and they had him bound.  They're going to kill him!"
-
-She wheeled the horse toward the Limberlost.  The alarm sounded
-through camp.  The gang were not unprepared.  McLean sprang to
-Nellie's back and raced after the Angel.  As they passed Duncan, he
-wheeled and followed.  Soon the pike was an irregular procession of
-barebacked riders, wildly driving flying horses toward the swamp.
-
-The Boss rode neck-and-neck with the Angel.  He repeatedly commanded
-her to stop and fall out of line, until he remembered that he would
-need her to lead him to Freckles.  Then he gave up and rode beside
-her, for she was sending the bay at as sharp a pace as the other
-horses could keep and hold out.  He could see that she was not
-hearing him.  He glanced back and saw that Duncan was close. 
-There was something terrifying in the appearance of the big man, and
-the manner in which he sat his beast and rode.  It would be a sad day
-for the man on whom Duncan's wrath broke.  There were four others
-close behind him, and the pike filling with the remainder of the
-gang; so McLean took heart and raced beside the Angel.  Over and
-over he asked her where the trouble was, but she only gripped the
-hames, leaned along the bay's neck, and slashed away with the
-blacksnake.  The steaming horse, with crimson nostrils and heaving
-sides, stretched out and ran for home with all the speed there was
-in him.
-
-When they passed the cabin, the Bird Woman's carriage was there and
-Mrs. Duncan in the door wringing her hands, but the Bird Woman was
-nowhere to be seen.  The Angel sent the bay along the path and
-turned into the west trail, while the men bunched and followed her.
-When she reached the entrance to Freckles' room, there were four
-men with her, and two more very close behind.  She slid from the
-horse, and snatching the little revolver from her pocket, darted
-toward the bushes.  McLean caught them back, and with drawn weapon,
-pressed beside her.  There they stopped in astonishment.
-
-The Bird Woman blocked the entrance.  Over a small limb lay
-her revolver.  It was trained at short range on Black Jack and
-Wessner, who stood with their hands above their heads.
-
-Freckles, with the blood trickling down his face, from an ugly cut
-in his temple, was gagged and bound to the tree again; the
-remainder of the men were gone.  Black Jack was raving as a maniac,
-and when they looked closer it was only the left arm that he raised. 
-His right, with the hand shattered, hung helpless at his side,
-while his revolver lay at Freckles' feet.  Wessner's weapon
-was in his belt, and beside him Freckles' club.
-
-Freckles' face was white, with colorless lips, but in his eyes was
-the strength of undying courage.  McLean pushed past the Bird
-Woman crying.  "Hold steady on them only one minute more!"
-
-He snatched the revolver from Wessner's belt, and stooped for Jack's.
-
-At that instant the Angel rushed past.  She tore the gag from
-Freckles, and seizing the rope knotted on his chest, she tugged at
-it desperately.  Under her fingers it gave way, and she hurled it
-to McLean.  The men were crowding in, and Duncan seized Wessner. 
-As the Angel saw Freckles stand out, free, she reached her arms to him
-and pitched forward.  A fearful oath burst from the lips of Black Jack.
-To have saved his life, Freckles could not have avoided the glance
-of triumph he gave Jack, when folding the Angel in his arms and
-stretching her on the mosses.
-
-The Bird Woman cried out sharply for water as she ran to them.
-Someone sprang to bring that, and another to break open the case
-for brandy.  As McLean arose from binding Wessner, there was a cry
-that Jack was escaping.
-
-He was already far in the swamp, running for its densest part in
-leaping bounds.  Every man who could be spared plunged after him.
-
-Other members of the gang arriving, were sent to follow the tracks
-of the wagons.  The teamsters had driven from the west entrance, and
-crossing the swale, had taken the same route the Bird Woman and the
-Angel had before them.  There had been ample time for the drivers to
-reach the road; after that they could take any one of four directions. 
-Traffic was heavy, and lumber wagons were passing almost constantly,
-so the men turned back and joined the more exciting hunt for a man. 
-The remainder of the gang joined them, also farmers of the region
-and travelers attracted by the disturbance.
-
-Watchers were set along the trail at short intervals.  They patrolled
-the line and roads through the swamp that night, with lighted torches,
-and the next day McLean headed as thorough a search as he felt could
-be made of one side, while Duncan covered the other; but Black Jack
-could not be found.  Spies were set around his home, in Wildcat
-Hollow, to ascertain if he reached there or aid was being sent in
-any direction to him; but it was soon clear that his relatives were
-ignorant of his hiding-place, and were searching for him.
-
-Great is the elasticity of youth.  A hot bath and a sound night's
-sleep renewed Freckles' strength, and it needed but little more to
-work the same result with the Angel.  Freckles was on the trail
-early the next morning.  Besides a crowd of people anxious to witness
-Jack's capture, he found four stalwart guards, one at each turn. 
-In his heart he was compelled to admit that he was glad to have
-them there.  Close noon, McLean placed his men in charge of Duncan,
-and taking Freckles, drove to town to see how the Angel fared. 
-McLean visited a greenhouse and bought an armload of its finest
-products; but Freckles would have none of them.  He would carry
-his message in a glowing mass of the Limberlost's first goldenrod.
-
-The Bird Woman received them, and in answer to their eager
-inquiries, said that the Angel was in no way seriously injured,
-only so bruised and shaken that their doctor had ordered her to lie
-quietly for the day.  Though she was sore and stiff, they were
-having work to keep her in bed.  Her callers sent up their flowers
-with their grateful regards, and the Angel promptly returned word
-that she wanted to see them.
-
-She reached both hands to McLean.  "What if one old tree is gone?
-You don't care, sir?  You feel that Freckles has kept his trust as
-nobody ever did before, don't you?  You won't forget all those long
-first days of fright that you told us of, the fearful cold of
-winter, the rain, heat, and lonesomeness, and the brave days, and
-lately, nights, too, and let him feel that his trust is broken? 
-Oh, Mr. McLean," she begged, "say something to him!  Do something to
-make him feel that it isn't for nothing he has watched and suffered
-it out with that old Limberlost.  Make him see how great and fine it
-is, and how far, far better he has done than you or any of us expected! 
-What's one old tree, anyway?" she cried passionately.
-
-"I was thinking before you came.  Those other men were rank
-big cowards.  They were scared for their lives.  If they were the
-drivers, I wager you gloves against gloves they never took those
-logs out to the pike.  My coming upset them.  Before you feel bad any
-more, you go look and see if they didn't lose courage the minute
-they left Wessner and Black Jack, dump that timber and run.  I don't
-believe they ever had the grit to drive out with it in daylight. 
-Go see if they didn't figure on leaving the way we did the other
-morning, and you'll find the logs before you reach the road. 
-They never risked taking them into the open, when they got away
-and had time to think.  Of course they didn't!
-
-"And, then, another thing.  You haven't lost your wager!  It never
-will be claimed, because you made it with a stout, dark, red-faced
-man who drives a bay and a gray.  He was right back of you, Mr.
-McLean, when I came yesterday.  He went deathly white and shook on
-his feet when he saw those men probably would be caught.  Some one
-of them was something to him, and you can just spot him for one of
-the men at the bottom of your troubles, and urging those younger
-fellows to steal from you.  I suppose he'd promised to divide. 
-You settle with him, and that business will stop."
-
-She turned to Freckles.  "And you be the happiest man alive, because
-you have kept your trust.  Go look where I tell you and you'll find
-the logs.  I can see just about where they are.  When they go up that
-steep little hill, into the next woods after the cornfield, why,
-they could unloose the chains and the logs would roll from the
-wagons themselves.  Now, you go look; and Mr. McLean, you do feel
-that Freckles has been brave and faithful?  You won't love him any
-the less even if you don't find the logs"
-
-The Angel's nerve gave way and she began to cry.  Freckles could not
-endure it.  He almost ran from the room, with the tears in his eyes;
-but McLean took the Angel from the Bird Woman's arms, and kissed
-her brave little face, stroked her hair, and petted her into
-quietness before he left.
-
-As they drove to the swamp, McLean so earnestly seconded all that
-the Angel had said that he soon had the boy feeling much better.
-
-"Freckles, your Angel has a spice of the devil in her, but
-she's superb!  You needn't spend any time questioning or bewailing
-anything she does.  Just worship blindly, my boy.  By heaven! she's
-sense, courage, and beauty for half a dozen girls," said McLean.
-
-"It's altogether right you are, sir," affirmed Freckles heartily.
-Presently he added, "There's no question but the series is over now."
-
-"Don't think it!" answered McLean.  "The Bird Woman is working for
-success, and success along any line is not won by being scared out.
-She will be back on the usual day, and ten to one, the Angel will
-be with her.  They are made of pretty stern stuff, and they don't
-scare worth a cent.  Before I left, I told the Bird Woman it would
-be safe; and it will.  You may do your usual walking, but those four
-guards are there to remain.  They are under your orders absolutely.
-They are prohibited from firing on any bird or molesting anything
-that you want to protect, but there they remain, and this time it
-is useless for you to say one word.  I have listened to your pride
-too long.  You are too precious to me, and that voice of yours is
-too precious to the world to run any more risks."
-
-"I am sorry to have anything spoil the series," said Freckles, "and
-I'd love them to be coming, the Angel especial, but it can't be.
-You'll have to tell them so.  You see, Jack would have been ready to
-stake his life she meant what she said and did to him.  When the
-teams pulled out, Wessner seized me; then he and Jack went to
-quarreling over whether they should finish me then or take me to
-the next tree they were for felling.  Between them they were pulling
-me around and hurting me bad.  Wessner wanted to get at me right
-then, and Jack said he shouldn't be touching me till the last tree
-was out and all the rest of them gone.  I'm belaying Jack really
-hated to see me done for in the beginning; and I think, too, he was
-afraid if Wessner finished me then he'd lose his nerve and cut, and
-they couldn't be managing the felling without him; anyway, they
-were hauling me round like I was already past all feeling, and they
-tied me up again.  To keep me courage up, I twits Wessner about
-having to tie me and needing another man to help handle me.  I told
-him what I'd do to him if I was free, and he grabs up me own club
-and lays open me head with it.  When the blood came streaming, it
-set Jack raving, and he cursed and damned Wessner for a coward and
-a softy.  Then Wessner turned on Jack and gives it to him for
-letting the Angel make a fool of him.  Tells him she was just
-playing with him, and beyond all manner of doubt she'd gone after
-you, and there was nothing to do on account of his foolishness but
-finish me, get out, and let the rest of the timber go, for likely
-you was on the way right then.  That drove Jack plum crazy.
-
-"I don't think he was for having a doubt of the Angel before, but
-then he just raved.  He grabbed out his gun and turned on Wessner.
-Spang!  It went out of his fist, and the order comes:  `Hands up!'
-Wessner reached for kingdom come like he was expecting to grab hold
-and pull himself up.  Jack puts up what he has left.  Then he leans
-over to me and tells me what he'll do to me if he ever gets out of
-there alive.  Then, just like a snake hissing, he spits out what
-he'll do to her for playing him.  He did get away, and with his
-strength, that wound in his hand won't be bothering him long. 
-He'll do to me just what he said, and when he hears it really was
-she that went after you, why, he'll keep his oath about her.
-
-"He's lived in the swamp all his life, sir, and everybody says it's
-always been the home of cutthroats, outlaws, and runaways.  He knows
-its most secret places as none of the others.  He's alive.  He's in
-there now, sir.  Some way he'll keep alive.  If you'd seen his face,
-all scarlet with passion, twisted with pain, and black with hate,
-and heard him swearing that oath, you'd know it was a sure thing.
-I ain't done with him yet, and I've brought this awful thing on her."
-
-"And I haven't begun with him yet," said McLean, setting his teeth.
-"I've been away too slow and too easy, believing there'd be no
-greater harm than the loss of a tree.  I've sent for a couple of
-first-class detectives.  We will put them on his track, and rout him
-out and rid the country of him.  I don't propose for him to stop
-either our work or our pleasure.  As for his being in the swamp now,
-I don't believe it.  He'd find a way out last night, in spite of us.
-Don't you worry!  I am at the helm now, and I'll see to that
-gentleman in my own way."
-
-"I wish to my soul you had seen and heard him!" said Freckles, unconvinced.
-
-They entered the swamp, taking the route followed by the Bird Woman
-and the Angel.  They really did find the logs, almost where the
-Angel had predicted they would be.  McLean went to the South camp
-and had an interview with Crowen that completely convinced him that
-the Angel was correct there also.  But he had no proof, so all he
-could do was to discharge the man, although his guilt was so
-apparent that he offered to withdraw the wager.
-
-Then McLean sent for a pack of bloodhounds and put them on the
-trail of Black Jack.  They clung to it, on and on, into the depths
-of the swamp, leading their followers through what had been
-considered impassable and impenetrable ways, and finally, around
-near the west entrance and into the swale.  Here the dogs bellowed,
-raved, and fell over each other in their excitement.  They raced
-back and forth from swamp to swale, but follow the scent farther
-they would not, even though cruelly driven.  At last their owner
-attributed their actions to snakes, and as they were very valuable
-dogs, abandoned the effort to urge them on.  So that all they really
-established was the fact that Black Jack had eluded their vigilance
-and crossed the trail some time in the night.  He had escaped to the
-swale; from there he probably crossed the corduroy, and reaching
-the lower end of the swamp, had found friends.  It was a great
-relief to feel that he was not in the swamp, and it raised the
-spirits of every man on the line, though many of them expressed
-regrets that he who was undoubtedly most to blame should escape,
-while Wessner, who in the beginning was only his tool, should be
-left to punishment.
-
-But for Freckles, with Jack's fearful oath ringing in his ears,
-there was neither rest nor peace.  He was almost ill when the day
-for the next study of the series arrived and he saw the Bird Woman
-and the Angel coming down the corduroy.  The guards of the east line
-he left at their customary places, but those of the west he brought
-over and placed, one near Little Chicken's tree, and the other at
-the carriage.  He was firm about the Angel's remaining in the
-carriage, that he did not offer to have unhitched.  He went with the
-Bird Woman to secure the picture, which was the easiest matter it
-had been at any time yet, for the simple reason that the placing of
-the guards and the unusual movement around the swamp had made Mr.
-and Mrs. Chicken timid, and they had not carried Little Chicken the
-customary amount of food.  Freckles, in the anxiety of the past few
-days, had neglected him, and he had been so hungry, much of the
-time, that when the Bird Woman held up a sweet-bread, although he
-had started toward the recesses of the log at her coming, he
-stopped; with slightly opened beak, he waited anxiously for the
-treat, and gave a study of great value, showing every point of his
-head, also his wing and tail development.
-
-When the Bird Woman proposed to look for other subjects close about
-the line, Freckles went so far as to tell her that Jack had made
-fearful threats against the Angel.  He implored her to take the
-Angel home and keep her under unceasing guard until Jack was
-located.  He wanted to tell her all about it, but he knew how dear
-the Angel was to her, and he dreaded to burden her with his fears
-when they might prove groundless.  He allowed her to go, but
-afterward blamed himself severely for having done so.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XIV
-
-     Wherein Freckles Nurses a Heartache and Black Jack Drops Out
-
-"McLean," said Mrs. Duncan, as the Boss paused to greet her in
-passing the cabin, "do you know that Freckles hasna been in bed the
-past five nights and all he's eaten in that many days ye could pack
-into a pint cup?"
-
-"Why, what does the boy mean?" demanded McLean.  "There's no
-necessity for him being on guard, with the watch I've set on
-the line.  I had no idea he was staying down there."
-
-"He's no there," said Mrs. Duncan.  "He goes somewhere else. 
-He leaves on his wheel juist after we're abed and rides in close
-cock-crow or a little earlier, and he's looking like death and
-nothing short of it."
-
-"But where does he go?" asked McLean in astonishment.
-
-"I'm no given to bearing tales out of school," said Sarah Duncan,
-"but in this case I'd tell ye if I could.  What the trouble is I
-dinna ken.  If it is no' stopped, he's in for dreadful sickness, and
-I thought ye could find out and help him.  He's in sair trouble;
-that's all I know."
-
-McLean sat brooding as he stroked Nellie's neck.
-
-At last he said:  "I suspect I understand.  At any rate, I think I
-can find out.  Thank you for telling me."
-
-"Ye'll no need telling, once ye clap your eyes on him," prophesied
-Mrs. Duncan.  "His face is all a glist'ny yellow, and he's peaked as
-a starving caged bird."
-
-McLean rode to the Limberlost, and stopping in the shade, sat
-waiting for Freckles, whose hour for passing the foot of the lease
-had come.
-
-Along the north line came Freckles, fairly staggering.  When he
-turned east and reached Sleepy Snake Creek, sliding through the
-swale as the long black snake for which it was named, he sat on the
-bridge and closed his burning eyes, but they would not remain shut.
-As if pulled by wires, the heavy lids flew open, while the outraged
-nerves and muscles of his body danced, twitched, and tingled.
-
-He bent forward and idly watched the limpid little stream flowing
-beneath his feet.  Stretching into the swale, it came creeping
-between an impenetrable wall of magnificent wild flowers, vines,
-and ferns.  Milkweed, goldenrod, ironwort, fringed gentians,
-cardinal-flowers, and turtle-head stood on the very edge of the
-creek, and every flower of them had a double in the water. 
-Wild clematis crowned with snow the heads of trees scattered
-here and there on the bank.
-
-From afar the creek appeared to be murky, dirty water.  Really it
-was clear and sparkling.  The tinge of blackness was gained from its
-bed of muck showing through the transparent current.  He could see
-small and wonderfully marked fish.  What became of them when the
-creek spread into the swamp?  For one thing, they would make mighty
-fine eating for the family of that self-satisfied old blue heron.
-
-Freckles sat so quietly that soon the brim of his hat was covered
-with snake-feeders, rasping their crisp wings and singing while
-they rested.  Some of them settled on the club, and one on
-his shoulder.  He was so motionless; feathers, fur, and gauze were
-so accustomed to him, that all through the swale they continued
-their daily life and forgot he was there.
-
-The heron family were wading the mouth of the creek.  Freckles idly
-wondered whether the nerve-racking rasps they occasionally emitted
-indicated domestic felicity or a raging quarrel.  He could not decide. 
-A sheitpoke, with flaring crest, went stalking across a bare
-space close to the creek's mouth.  A stately brown bittern waded
-into the clear-flowing water, lifting his feet high at every
-step, and setting them down carefully, as if he dreaded wetting
-them, and with slightly parted beak, stood eagerly watching around
-him for worms.  Behind him were some mighty trees of the swamp
-above, and below the bank glowed a solid wall of goldenrod.
-
-No wonder the ancients had chosen yellow as the color to represent
-victory, for the fierce, conquering hue of the sun was in it. 
-They had done well, too, in selecting purple as the emblem of royalty. 
-It was a dignified, compelling color, while in its warm tone there
-was a hint of blood.
-
-It was the Limberlost's hour to proclaim her sovereignty and triumph. 
-Everywhere she flaunted her yellow banner and trailed the purple of
-her mantle, that was paler in the thistle-heads, took on strength
-in the first opening asters, and glowed and burned in the ironwort.
-
-He gazed into her damp, mossy recesses where high-piled riven trees
-decayed under coats of living green, where dainty vines swayed and
-clambered, and here and there a yellow leaf, fluttering down,
-presaged the coming of winter.  His love of the swamp laid hold of
-him and shook him with its force.
-
-Compellingly beautiful was the Limberlost, but cruel withal; for
-inside bleached the uncoffined bones of her victims, while she had
-missed cradling him, oh!  so narrowly.
-
-He shifted restlessly; the movement sent the snake-feeders skimming. 
-The hum of life swelled and roared in his strained ears. 
-Small turtles, that had climbed on a log to sun, splashed clumsily
-into the water.  Somewhere in the timber of the bridge a
-bloodthirsty little frog cried sharply.  "KEEL'IM!  KEEL'IM!"
-
-Freckles muttered:  "It's worse than that Black Jack swore to do to
-me, little fellow."
-
-A muskrat waddled down the bank and swam for the swamp, its pointed
-nose riffling the water into a shining trail in its wake.
-
-Then, below the turtle-log, a dripping silver-gray head, with
-shining eyes, was cautiously lifted, and Freckles' hand slid to his
-revolver.  Higher and higher came the head, a long, heavy, furcoated
-body arose, now half, now three-fourths from the water.  Freckles
-looked at his shaking hand and doubted, but he gathered his forces,
-the shot rang, and the otter lay quiet.  He hurried down and tried to
-lift it.  He scarcely could muster strength to carry it to the bridge. 
-The consciousness that he really could go no farther with it made
-Freckles realize the fact that he was close the limit of
-human endurance.  He could bear it little, if any, longer. 
-Every hour the dear face of the Angel wavered before him, and
-behind it the awful distorted image of Black Jack, as he had sworn
-to the punishment he would mete out to her.  He must either see
-McLean, or else make a trip to town and find her father.  Which should
-he do?  He was almost a stranger, so the Angel's father might not be
-impressed with what he said as he would if McLean went to him. 
-Then he remembered that McLean had said he would come that morning. 
-Freckles never had forgotten before.  He hurried on the east trail
-as fast as his tottering legs would carry him.
-
-He stopped when he came to the first guard, and telling him of his
-luck, asked him to get the otter and carry it to the cabin, as he
-was anxious to meet McLean.
-
-Freckles passed the second guard without seeing him, and hurried to
-the Boss.  He took off his hat, wiped his forehead, and stood silent
-under the eyes of McLean.
-
-The Boss was dumbfounded.  Mrs. Duncan had led him to expect that
-he would find a change in Freckles, but this was almost deathly. 
-The fact was apparent that the boy scarcely knew what he was doing. 
-His eyes had a glazed, far-sighted appearance, that wrung the heart of
-the man who loved him.  Without a thought of preliminaries, McLean
-leaned in the saddle and drew Freckles to him.
-
-"My poor lad!" he said.  "My poor, dear lad! tell me, and we will
-try to right it!"
-
-Freckles had twisted his fingers in Nellie's mane.  At the kind
-words his face dropped on McLean's thigh and he shook with a
-nervous chill.  McLean gathered him closer and waited.
-
-When the guard came with the otter, McLean without a word motioned
-him to lay it down and leave them.
-
-"Freckles," said McLean at last, "will you tell me, or must I set
-to work in the dark and try to find the trouble?"
-
-"Oh, I want to tell you!  I must tell you, sir," shuddered Freckles.
-"I cannot be bearing it the day out alone.  I was coming to you when
-I remimbered you would be here."
-
-He lifted his face and gazed across the swale, with his jaws set
-firmly a minute, as if gathering his forces.  Then he spoke.
-
-"It's the Angel, sir," he said.
-
-Instinctively McLean's grip on him tightened, and Freckles looked
-into the Boss's face in wonder.
-
-"I tried, the other day," said Freckles, "and I couldn't seem to
-make you see.  It's only that there hasn't been an hour, waking or
-sleeping, since the day she parted the bushes and looked into me
-room, that the face of her hasn't been before me in all the
-tinderness, beauty, and mischief of it.  She talked to me
-friendly like.  She trusted me entirely to take right care of her. 
-She helped me with things about me books.  She traited me like I
-was born a gintleman, and shared with me as if I were of her own blood. 
-She walked the streets of the town with me before her friends with all
-the pride of a queen.  She forgot herself and didn't mind the Bird
-Woman, and run big risks to help me out that first day, sir. 
-This last time she walked into that gang of murderers, took their
-leader, and twisted him to the will of her.  She outdone him and
-raced the life almost out of her trying to save me.
-
-"Since I can remimber, whatever the thing was that happened to me
-in the beginning has been me curse.  I've been bitter, hard, and
-smarting under it hopelessly.  She came by, and found me voice, and
-put hope of life and success like other men into me in spite of it."
-
-Freckles held up his maimed arm.
-
-"Look at it, sir!" he said.  "A thousand times I've cursed it,
-hanging there helpless.  She took it on the street, before all the
-people, just as if she didn't see that it was a thing to hide and
-shrink from.  Again and again I've had the feeling with her, if I
-didn't entirely forget it, that she didn't see it was gone and I
-must he pointing it out to her.  Her touch on it was so sacred-like,
-at times since I've caught meself looking at the awful thing near
-like I was proud of it, sir.  If I had been born your son she
-couldn't be traiting me more as her equal, and she can't help
-knowing you ain't truly me father.  Nobody can know the homeliness
-or the ignorance of me better than I do, and all me lack of birth,
-relatives, and money, and what's it all to her?"
-
-Freckles stepped back, squared his shoulders, and with a royal lift
-of his head looked straight into the Boss's eyes.
-
-"You saw her in the beautiful little room of her, and you can't be
-forgetting how she begged and plead with you for me.  She touched
-me body, and `twas sanctified.  She laid her lips on my brow, and
-`twas sacrament.  Nobody knows the height of her better than me. 
-Nobody's studied my depths closer.  There's no bridge for the great
-distance between us, sir, and clearest of all, I'm for realizing it:
-but she risked terrible things when she came to me among that gang
-of thieves.  She wore herself past bearing to save me from such an
-easy thing as death!  Now, here's me, a man, a big, strong man, and
-letting her live under that fearful oath, so worse than any death
-`twould be for her, and lifting not a finger to save her.  I cannot
-hear it, sir.  It's killing me by inches!  Black Jack's hand may not
-have been hurt so bad.  Any hour he may be creeping up behind her!
-Any minute the awful revenge he swore to be taking may in some way
-fall on her, and I haven't even warned her father.  I can't stay
-here doing nothing another hour.  The five nights gone I've watched
-under her windows, but there's the whole of the day.  She's her own
-horse and little cart, and's free to be driving through the town and
-country as she pleases.  If any evil comes to her through Black Jack,
-it comes from her angel-like goodness to me.  Somewhere he's hiding! 
-Somewhere he is waiting his chance!  Somewhere he is reaching out
-for her!  I tell you I cannot, I dare not be bearing it longer!"
-
-"Freckles, be quiet!" said McLean, his eyes humid and his voice
-quivering with the pity of it all.  "Believe me, I did not understand. 
-I know the Angel's father well.  I will go to him at once.  I have
-transacted business with him for the past three years.  I will make
-him see!  I am only beginning to realize your agony, and the real
-danger there is for the Angel.  Believe me, I will see that she
-is fully protected every hour of the day and night until Jack
-is located and disposed of.  And I promise you further, that if I
-fail to move her father or make him understand the danger, I will
-maintain a guard over her until Jack is caught.  Now will you go
-bathe, drink some milk, go to bed, and sleep for hours, and then be
-my brave, bright old boy again?"
-
-"Yis," said Freckles simply.
-
-But McLean could see the flesh was twitching on the lad's bones.
-
-"What was it the guard brought there?" McLean asked in an effort to
-distract Freckles' thoughts.
-
-"Oh!" Freckles said, glancing where the Boss pointed, "I forgot it!
-`Tis an otter, and fine past believing, for this warm weather. 
-I shot it at the creek this morning.  `Twas a good shot, considering. 
-I expected to miss."
-
-Freckles picked up the animal and started toward McLean with it,
-but Nellie pricked up her dainty little ears, danced into the
-swale, and snorted with fright.  Freckles dropped the otter and ran
-to her head.
-
-"For pity's sake, get her on the trail, sir," he begged.  "She's
-just about where the old king rattler crosses to go into the
-swamp--the old buster Duncan and I have been telling you of. 
-I haven't a doubt but it was the one Mother Duncan met.  'Twas down
-the trail there, just a little farther on, that I found her, and
-it's sure to be close yet."
-
-McLean slid from Nellie's back, led her into the trail farther down
-the line, and tied her to a bush.  Then he went to examine the otter. 
-It was a rare, big specimen, with exquisitely fine, long, silky hair.
-
-"What do you want to do with it, Freckles?" asked McLean, as he stroked
-the soft fur lingeringly.  "Do you know that it is very valuable?"
-
-"I was for almost praying so, sir," said Freckles.  "As I saw it
-coming up the bank I thought this:  Once somewhere in a book there
-was a picture of a young girl, and she was just a breath like the
-beautifulness of the Angel.  Her hands were in a muff as big as her
-body, and I thought it was so pretty.  I think she was some queen,
-or the like.  Do you suppose I could have this skin tanned and made
-into such a muff as that?--an enormous big one, sir?"
-
-"Of course you can," said McLean.  "That's a fine idea and it's
-easy enough.  We must box and express the otter, cold storage, by the
-first train.  You stand guard a minute and I'll tell Hall to carry
-it to the cabin.  I'll put Nellie to Duncan's rig, and we'll drive
-to town and call on the Angel's father.  Then we'll start the otter
-while it is fresh, and I'll write your instructions later.  It would
-be a mighty fine thing for you to give to the Angel as a little
-reminder of the Limberlost before it is despoiled, and as a
-souvenir of her trip for you."
-
-Freckles lifted a face with a glow of happy color creeping into it
-and eyes lighting with a former brightness.  Throwing his arms
-around McLean, he cried:  "Oh, how I love you!  Oh, I wish I could
-make you know how I love you!"
-
-McLean strained him to his breast.
-
-"God bless you, Freckles," he said.  "I do know!  We're going to have
-some good old times out of this world together, and we can't begin
-too soon.  Would you rather sleep first, or have a bite of lunch,
-take the drive with me, and then rest?  I don't know but sleep will
-come sooner and deeper to take the ride and have your mind set at
-ease before you lie down.  Suppose you go."
-
-"Suppose I do," said Freckles, with a glimmer of the old light
-in his eyes and newly found strength to shoulder the otter. 
-Together they turned into the trail.
-
-McLean noticed and spoke of the big black chickens.
-
-"They've been hanging round out there for several days past,"
-said Freckles.  "I'll tell you what I think it means.  I think the
-old rattler has killed something too big for him to swallow, and he's
-keeping guard and won't let me chickens have it.  I'm just sure,
-from the way the birds have acted out there all summer, that it is
-the rattler's den.  You watch them now.  See the way they dip and
-then rise, frightened like!"
-
-Suddenly McLean turned toward him with blanching face
-
-"Freckles!" he cried.
-
-"My God, sir!" shuddered Freckles.
-
-He dropped the otter, caught up his club, and plunged into the swale. 
-Reaching for his revolver, McLean followed.  The chickens
-circled higher at their coming, and the big snake lifted his head
-and rattled angrily.  It sank in sinuous coils at the report of
-McLean's revolver, and together he and Freckles stood beside Black Jack. 
-His fate was evident and most horrible.
-
-"Come," said the Boss at last.  "We don't dare touch him.  We will get
-a sheet from Mrs. Duncan and tuck over him, to keep these swarms of
-insects away, and set Hall on guard, while we find the officers."
-
-Freckles' lips closed resolutely.  He deliberately thrust his club
-under Black Jack's body, and, raising him, rested it on his knee.
-He pulled a long silver pin from the front of the dead man's shirt
-and sent it spinning into the swale.  Then he gathered up a few
-crumpled bright flowers and dropped them into the pool far away.
-
-"My soul is sick with the horror of this thing," said McLean, as he
-and Freckles drove toward town.  "I can't understand how Jack dared
-risk creeping through the swale, even in desperation.  No one knew
-its dangers better than he.  And why did he choose the rankest,
-muckiest place to cross the swamp?"
-
-"Don't you think, sir, it was because it was on a line with the
-Limberlost south of the corduroy?  The grass was tallest there, and
-he counted on those willows to screen him.  Once he got among them,
-he would have been safe to walk by stooping.  If he'd made it past
-that place, he'd been sure to get out."
-
-"Well, I'm as sorry for Jack as I know how to be," said McLean,
-"but I can't help feeling relieved that our troubles are over, for
-now they are.  With so dreadful a punishment for Jack, Wessner under
-arrest, and warrants for the others, we can count on their going
-away and remaining.  As for anyone else, I don't think they will
-care to attempt stealing my timber after the experience of these men. 
-There is no other man here with Jack's fine ability in woodcraft. 
-He was an expert."
-
-"Did you ever hear of anyone who ever tried to locate any trees
-excepting him?" asked Freckles.
-
-"No, I never did," said McLean.  "I am sure there was no one
-besides him.  You see, it was only with the arrival of our company
-that the other fellows scented good stuff in the Limberlost, and
-tried to work in.  Jack knew the swamp better than anyone here. 
-When he found there were two companies trying to lease, he wanted
-to stand in with the one from which he could realize the most. 
-Even then he had trees marked that he was trying to dispose of. 
-I think his sole intention in forcing me to discharge him from
-my gang was to come here and try to steal timber.  We had no idea,
-when we took the lease, what a gold mine it was."
-
-"That's exactly what Wessner said that first day," said Freckles eagerly. 
-"That 'twas a `gold mine'!  He said he didn't know where the marked
-trees were, but he knew a man who did, and if I would hold off and
-let them get the marked ones, there were a dozen they could get out
-in a few days."
-
-"Freckles!" cried McLean.  "You don't mean a dozen!"
-
-"That's what he said, sir--a dozen.  He said they couldn't tell how
-the grain of all of them would work up, of course, but they were
-all worth taking out, and five or six were real gold mines.  This
-makes three they've tried, so there must be nine more marked, and
-several of them for being just fine."
-
-"Well, I wish I knew which they are," said McLean, "so I could get
-them out first."
-
-"I have been thinking," said Freckles.  "I believe if you will leave
-one of the guards on the line--say Hall--that I will begin on the
-swamp, at the north end, and lay it off in sections, and try to
-hunt out the marked trees.  I suppose they are all marked something
-like that first maple on the line was.  Wessner mentioned another
-good one not so far from that.  He said it was best of all.  I'd be
-having the swelled head if I could find that.  Of course, I don't
-know a thing about the trees, but I could hunt for the marks. 
-Jack was so good at it he could tell some of them by the bark, but all
-he wanted to take that we've found so far have just had a deep chip
-cut out, rather low down, and where the bushes were thick over it.
-I believe I could be finding some of them."
-
-"Good head!" said McLean.  "We will do that.  You may begin as soon
-as you are rested.  And about things you come across in the swamp,
-Freckles--the most trifling little thing that you think the Bird
-Woman would want, take your wheel and go after her at any time.
-I'll leave two men on the line, so that you will have one on either
-side, and you can come and go as you please.  Have you stopped to
-think of all we owe her, my boy?"
-
-"Yis; and the Angel--we owe her a lot, too," said Freckles.  "I owe
-her me life and honor.  It's lying awake nights I'll have to be
-trying to think how I'm ever to pay her up."
-
-"Well, begin with the muff," suggested McLean.  "That should be fine."
-
-He bent down and ruffled the rich fur of the otter lying at his feet.
-
-"I don't exactly see how it comes to be in such splendid fur in summer. 
-Their coats are always thick in cold weather, but this scarcely
-could be improved.  I'll wire Cooper to be watching for it.
-They must have it fresh.  When it's tanned we won't spare any
-expense in making it up.  It should be a royal thing, and some way
-I think it will exactly suit the Angel.  I can't think of anything
-that would be more appropriate for her."
-
-"Neither can I," agreed Freckles heartily.  "When I reach the city
-there's one other thing, if I've the money after the muff is finished."
-
-He told McLean of Mrs. Duncan's desire for a hat similar to
-the Angel's.  He hesitated a little in the telling, keeping sharp
-watch on McLean's face.  When he saw the Boss's eyes were full of
-comprehension and sympathy, he loved him anew, for, as ever, McLean
-was quick to understand.  Instead of laughing, he said:  "I think
-you'll have to let me in on that, too.  You mustn't be selfish,
-you know.  I'll tell you what we'll do.  Send it for Christmas. 
-I'll be home then, and we can fill a box.  You get the hat. 
-I'll add a dress and wrap.  You buy Duncan a hat and gloves. 
-I'll send him a big overcoat, and we'll put in a lot of little
-stuff for the babies.  Won't that be fun?"
-
-Freckles fairly shivered with delight.
-
-"That would be away too serious for fun," he said.  "That would
-be heavenly.  How long will it be?"
-
-He began counting the time, and McLean deliberately set himself to
-encourage Freckles and keep his thoughts from the trouble of the
-past few days, for he had been overwrought and needed quiet and rest.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XV
-
-   Wherein Freckles and the Angel Try Taking a Picture, and Little
-                       Chicken Furnishes the Subject
-
-A week later everything at the Limberlost was precisely as it had
-been before the tragedy, except the case in Freckles' room now
-rested on the stump of the newly felled tree.  Enough of the vines
-were left to cover it prettily, and every vestige of the havoc of
-a few days before was gone.  New guards were patrolling the trail.
-Freckles was roughly laying off the swamp in sections and searching
-for marked trees.  In that time he had found one deeply chipped and
-the chip cunningly replaced and tacked in.  It promised to be quite
-rare, so he was jubilant.  He also found so many subjects for the
-Bird Woman that her coming was of almost daily occurrence, and the
-hours he spent with her and the Angel were nothing less than golden.
-
-The Limberlost was now arrayed as the Queen of Sheba in all her glory. 
-The first frosts of autumn had bejewelled her crown in flashing
-topaz, ruby, and emerald.  Around her feet trailed the purple
-of her garments, while in her hand was her golden scepter.
-Everything was at full tide.  It seemed as if nothing could grow
-lovelier, and it was all standing still a few weeks, waiting
-coming destruction.
-
-The swamp was palpitant with life.  Every pair of birds that had
-flocked to it in the spring was now multiplied by from two to ten.
-The young were tame from Freckles' tri-parenthood, and so plump and
-sleek that they were quite as beautiful as their elders, even if in
-many cases they lacked their brilliant plumage.  It was the same
-story of increase everywhere.  There were chubby little ground-hogs
-scudding on the trail.  There were cunning baby coons and opossums
-peeping from hollow logs and trees.  Young muskrats followed their
-parents across the lagoons.
-
-If you could come upon a family of foxes that had not yet
-disbanded, and see the young playing with a wild duck's carcass
-that their mother had brought, and note the pride and satisfaction
-in her eyes as she lay at one side guarding them, it would be a
-picture not to be forgotten.  Freckles never tired of studying the
-devotion of a fox mother to her babies.  To him, whose early life
-had been so embittered by continual proof of neglect and cruelty in
-human parents toward their children, the love of these furred and
-feathered folk of the Limberlost was even more of a miracle than to
-the Bird Woman and the Angel.
-
-The Angel liked the baby rabbits and squirrels.  Earlier in the
-season, when the young were yet very small, it so happened that at
-times Freckles could give into her hands one of these little ones.
-Then it was pure joy to stand back and watch her heaving breast,
-flushed cheek, and shining eyes.  Hers were such lovely eyes.
-Freckles had discovered lately that they were not so dark as he had
-thought them at first, but that the length and thickness of lash,
-by which they were shaded, made them appear darker than they really
-were.  They were forever changing.  Now sparkling and darkling with
-wit, now humid with sympathy, now burning with the fire of courage,
-now taking on strength of color with ambition, now flashing
-indignantly at the abuse of any creature.
-
-She had carried several of the squirrel and bunny babies home, and
-had littered the conservatory with them.  Her care of them was perfect. 
-She was learning her natural history from nature, and having much
-healthful exercise.  To her, they were the most interesting of all,
-but the Bird Woman preferred the birds, with a close second in the
-moths and butterflies.
-
-Brown butterfly time had come.  The edge of the swale was filled
-with milkweed, and other plants beloved of them, and the air was
-golden with the flashing satin wings of the monarch, viceroy,
-and argynnis.  They outnumbered those of any other color three to one.
-
-Among the birds it really seemed as if the little yellow fellows
-were in the preponderance.  At least, they were until the redwinged
-blackbirds and bobolinks, that had nested on the upland, suddenly
-saw in the swamp the garden of the Lord and came swarming by hundreds
-to feast and adventure upon it these last few weeks before migration. 
-Never was there a finer feast spread for the birds.  The grasses
-were filled with seeds: so, too, were weeds of every variety. 
-Fall berries were ripe.  Wild grapes and black haws were ready. 
-Bugs were creeping everywhere.  The muck was yeasty with worms. 
-Insects filled the air.  Nature made glorious pause for holiday
-before her next change, and by none of the frequenters of the
-swamp was this more appreciated than by the big black chickens.
-
-They seemed to feel the new reign of peace and fullness most of all. 
-As for food, they did not even have to hunt for themselves these
-days, for the feasts now being spread before Little Chicken
-were more than he could use, and he was glad to have his parents
-come down and help him.
-
-He was a fine, big, overgrown fellow, and his wings, with quills of
-jetty black, gleaming with bronze, were so strong they almost
-lifted his body.  He had three inches of tail, and his beak and
-claws were sharp.  His muscles began to clamor for exercise. 
-He raced the forty feet of his home back and forth many times every
-hour of the day.  After a few days of that, he began lifting and
-spreading his wings, and flopping them until the down on his back
-was filled with elm fiber.  Then he commenced jumping.  The funny
-little hops, springs, and sidewise bounds he gave set Freckles and
-the Angel, hidden in the swamp, watching him, into smothered
-chuckles of delight.
-
-Sometimes he fell to coquetting with himself; and that was the
-funniest thing of all, for he turned his head up, down, from side
-to side, and drew in his chin with prinky little jerks and tilts.
-He would stretch his neck, throw up his head, turn it to one side
-and smirk--actually smirk, the most complacent and self-satisfied
-smirk that anyone ever saw on the face of a bird.  It was so comical
-that Freckles and the Angel told the Bird Woman of it one day.
-
-When she finished her work on Little Chicken, she left them the
-camera ready for use, telling them they might hide in the bushes
-and watch.  If Little Chicken came out and truly smirked, and they
-could squeeze the bulb at the proper moment to snap him, she would
-be more than delighted.
-
-Freckles and the Angel quietly curled beside a big log, and with
-eager eyes and softest breathing they patiently waited; but Little
-Chicken had feasted before they told of his latest accomplishment.
-He was tired and sleepy, so he went into the log to bed, and for an
-hour he never stirred.
-
-They were becoming anxious, for the light soon would be gone, and
-they had so wanted to try for the picture.  At last Little Chicken
-lifted his head, opened his beak, and gaped widely.  He dozed a
-minute or two more.  The Angel said that was his beauty sleep. 
-Then he lazily gaped again and stood up, stretching and yawning. 
-He ambled leisurely toward the gateway, and the Angel said: 
-"Now, we may have a chance, at last."
-
-"I do hope so," shivered Freckles.
-
-With one accord they arose to their knees and trained their eyes on
-the mouth of the log.  The light was full and strong.  Little Chicken
-prospected again with no results.  He dressed his plumage, polished
-his beak, and when he felt fine and in full toilet he began to
-flirt with himself.  Freckles' eyes snapped and his breath sucked
-between his clenched teeth.
-
-"He's going to do it!" whispered the Angel.  "That will come next.
-You'll best give me that bulb!"
-
-"Yis," assented Freckles, but he was looking at the log and he made
-no move to relinquish the bulb.
-
-Little Chicken nodded daintily and ruffled his feathers.  He gave
-his head sundry little sidewise jerks and rapidly shifted his point
-of vision.  Once there was the fleeting little ghost of a smirk.
-
-"Now!--No!" snapped the Angel.
-
-Freckles leaned toward the bird.  Tensely he waited.  Unconsciously
-the hand of the Angel clasped his.  He scarcely knew it was there.
-Suddenly Little Chicken sprang straight in the air and landed with
-a thud.  The Angel started slightly, but Freckles was immovable.
-Then, as if in approval of his last performance, the big, overgrown
-baby wheeled until he was more than three-quarters, almost full
-side, toward the camera, straightened on his legs, squared his
-shoulders, stretched his neck full height, drew in his chin and
-smirked his most pronounced smirk, directly in the face of the lens.
-
-Freckles' fingers closed on the bulb convulsively, and the Angel's
-closed on his at the instant.  Then she heaved a great sigh of
-relief and lifted her hands to push back the damp, clustering hair
-from her face.
-
-"How soon do you s'pose it will be finished?" came Freckles'
-strident whisper.
-
-For the first time the Angel looked at him.  He was on his knees,
-leaning forward, his eyes directed toward the bird, the
-perspiration running in little streams down his red,
-mosquito-bitten face.  His hat was awry, his bright hair rampant,
-his breast heaving with excitement, while he yet gripped the bulb
-with every ounce of strength in his body.
-
-"Do you think we were for getting it?" he asked.
-
-The Angel could only nod.  Freckles heaved a deep sigh of relief.
-
-"Well, if that ain't the hardest work I ever did in me life!"
-he exclaimed.  "It's no wonder the Bird Woman's for coming out of
-the swamp looking as if she's been through a fire, a flood, and a
-famine, if that's what she goes through day after day.  But if you
-think we got it, why, it's worth all it took, and I'm glad as ever
-you are, sure!"
-
-They put the holders in the case, carefully closed the camera, set
-it in also, and carried it to the road.
-
-Then Freckles exulted.
-
-"Now, let's be telling the Bird Woman about it!" he shouted, wildly
-dancing and swinging his hat.
-
-"We got it!  We got it!  I bet a farm we got it!"
-
-Hand in hand they ran to the north end of the swamp, yelling "We
-got it!" like young Comanches, and never gave a thought to what
-they might do until a big blue-gray bird, with long neck and
-trailing legs, arose on flapping wings and sailed over the Limberlost.
-
-The Angel became white to the lips and gripped Freckles with
-both hands.  He gulped with mortification and turned his back.
-
-To frighten her subject away carelessly!  It was the head crime in
-the Bird Woman's category.  She extended her hands as she arose,
-baked, blistered, and dripping, and exclaimed:  "Bless you, my
-children!  Bless you!" And it truly sounded as if she meant it.
-
-"Why, why----" stammered the bewildered Angel.
-
-Freckles hurried into the breach.
-
-"You must be for blaming it every bit on me.  I was thinking we got
-Little Chicken's picture real good.  I was so drunk with the joy of
-it I lost all me senses and, `Let's run tell the Bird Woman,' says I. 
-Like a fool I was for running, and I sort of dragged the Angel along."
-
-"Oh Freckles!" expostulated the Angel.  "Are you loony?  Of course,
-it was all my fault!  I've been with her hundreds of times.  I knew
-perfectly well that I wasn't to let anything--NOT ANYTHING--scare
-her bird away!  I was so crazy I forgot.  The blame is all mine, and
-she'll never forgive me."
-
-"She will, too!" cried Freckles.  "Wasn't you for telling me that
-very first day that when people scared her birds away she just
-killed them!  It's all me foolishness, and I'll never forgive meself!"
-
-The Bird Woman plunged into the swale at the mouth of Sleepy Snake
-Creek, and came wading toward them, with a couple of cameras and
-dripping tripods.
-
-"If you will permit me a word, my infants," she said, "I will
-explain to you that I have had three shots at that fellow."
-
-The Angel heaved a deep sigh of relief, and Freckles' face cleared
-a little.
-
-"Two of them," continued the Bird Woman, "in the rushes--one
-facing, crest lowered; one light on back, crest flared; and the
-last on wing, when you came up.  I simply had been praying for
-something to make him arise from that side, so that he would fly
-toward the camera, for he had waded around until in my position I
-couldn't do it myself.  See?  Behold in yourselves the answer to the
-prayers of the long-suffering!"
-
-Freckles took a step toward her.
-
-"Are you really meaning that?" he asked wonderingly.  "Only think,
-Angel, we did the right thing!  She won't lose her picture through
-the carelessness of us, when she's waited and soaked nearly two hours. 
-She's not angry with us!"
-
-"Never was in a sweeter temper in my life," said the Bird Woman,
-busily cleaning and packing the cameras.
-
-Freckles removed his hat and solemnly held out his hand.  With equal
-solemnity the Angel grasped it.  The Bird Woman laughed alone, for
-to them the situation had been too serious to develop any of the
-elements of fun.
-
-Then they loaded the carriage, and the Bird Woman and the Angel
-started for their homes.  It had been a difficult time for all of
-them, so they were very tired, but they were joyful.  Freckles was
-so happy it seemed to him that life could hold little more.  As the
-Bird Woman was ready to drive away he laid his hand on the lines
-and looked into her face.
-
-"Do you suppose we got it?" he asked, so eagerly that she would
-have given much to be able to say yes with conviction.
-
-"Why, my dear, I don't know," she said.  "I've no way to judge. 
-If you made the exposure just before you came to me, there was yet
-a fine light.  If you waited until Little Chicken was close the
-entrance, you should have something good, even if you didn't catch
-just the fleeting expression for which you hoped.  Of course, I
-can't say surely, but I think there is every reason to believe that
-you have it all right.  I will develop the plate tonight, make you
-a proof from it early in the morning, and bring it when we come.
-It's only a question of a day or two now until the gang arrives. 
-I want to work in all the studies I can before that time, for they
-are bound to disturb the birds.  Mr. McLean will need you then, and
-I scarcely see how we are to do without you."
-
-Moved by an impulse she never afterward regretted, she bent and
-laid her lips on Freckles' forehead, kissing him gently and
-thanking him for his many kindnesses to her in her loved work.
-Freckles started away so happy that he felt inclined to keep
-watching behind to see if the trail were not curling up and rolling
-down the line after him.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XVI
-
-    Wherein the Angel Locates a Rare Tree and Dines with the Gang
-
-From afar Freckles saw them coming.  The Angel was standing, waving
-her hat.  He sprang on his wheel and raced, jolting and pounding,
-down the corduroy to meet them.  The Bird Woman stopped the horse
-and the Angel gave him the bit of print paper.  Freckles leaned the
-wheel against a tree and took the proof with eager fingers. 
-He never before had seen a study from any of his chickens. 
-He stood staring.  When he turned his face toward them it was
-transfigured with delight.
-
-"You see!" he exclaimed, and began gazing again.  "Oh, me Little
-Chicken!" he cried.  "Oh me ilegant Little Chicken!  I'd be giving
-all me money in the bank for you!"
-
-Then he thought of the Angel's muff and Mrs. Duncan's hat, and
-added, "or at least, all but what I'm needing bad for something else. 
-Would you mind stopping at the cabin a minute and showing this
-to Mother Duncan?" he asked.
-
-"Give me that little book in your pocket," said the Bird Woman.
-
-She folded the outer edges of the proof so that it would fit into
-the book, explaining as she did so its perishable nature in
-that state.  Freckles went hurrying ahead, and they arrived in time
-to see Mrs. Duncan gazing as if awestruck, and to hear her bewildered
-"Weel I be drawed on!"
-
-Freckles and the Angel helped the Bird Woman to establish herself
-for a long day at the mouth of Sleepy Snake Creek.  Then she sent
-them away and waited what luck would bring to her.
-
-"Now, what shall we do?" inquired the Angel, who was a bundle of
-nerves and energy.
-
-"Would you like to go to me room awhile?" asked Freckles.
-
-"If you don't care to very much, I'd rather not," said the Angel.
-"I'll tell you.  Let's go help Mrs. Duncan with dinner and play with
-the baby.  I love a nice, clean baby."
-
-They started toward the cabin.  Every few minutes they stopped to
-investigate something or to chatter over some natural history wonder. 
-The Angel had quick eyes; she seemed to see everything, but Freckles'
-were even quicker; for life itself had depended on their sharpness
-ever since the beginning of his work at the swamp.  They saw it at
-the same time.
-
-"Someone has been making a flagpole," said the Angel, running the
-toe of her shoe around the stump, evidently made that season.
-"Freckles, what would anyone cut a tree as small as that for?"
-
-"I don't know," said Freckles.
-
-"Well, but I want to know!" said the Angel.  "No one came away here
-and cut it for fun.  They've taken it away.  Let's go back and see if
-we can see it anywhere around there."
-
-She turned, retraced her footsteps, and began eagerly searching.
-Freckles did the same.
-
-"There it is!" he exclaimed at last, "leaning against the trunk of
-that big maple."
-
-"Yes, and leaning there has killed a patch of dried bark," said
-the Angel.  "See how dried it appears?"
-
-Freckles stared at her.
-
-"Angel!" he shouted, "I bet you it's a marked tree!"
-
-"Course it is!" cried the Angel.  "No one would cut that sapling and
-carry it away there and lean it up for nothing.  I'll tell you!  This
-is one of Jack's marked trees.  He's climbed up there above anyone's
-head, peeled the bark, and cut into the grain enough to be sure.
-Then he's laid the bark back and fastened it with that pole to mark it. 
-You see, there're a lot of other big maples close around it.  Can you
-climb to that place?"
-
-"Yes," said Freckles; "if I take off my wading-boots I can."
-
-"Then take them off," said the Angel, "and do hurry!  Can't you see
-that I am almost crazy to know if this tree is a marked one?"
-
-When they pushed the sapling over, a piece of bark as big as the
-crown of Freckles' hat fell away.
-
-"I believe it looks kind of nubby," encouraged the Angel, backing
-away, with her face all screwed into a twist in an effort to
-intensify her vision.
-
-Freckles reached the opening, then slid rapidly to the ground. 
-He was almost breathless while his eyes were flashing.
-
-"The bark's been cut clean with a knife, the sap scraped away, and
-a big chip taken out deep.  The trunk is the twistiest thing you
-ever saw.  It's full of eyes as a bird is of feathers!"
-
-The Angel was dancing and shaking his hand.
-
-"Oh, Freckles," she cried, "I'm so delighted that you found it!"
-
-"But I didn't," said the astonished Freckles.  "That tree isn't my
-find; it's yours.  I forgot it and was going on; you wouldn't give
-up, and kept talking about it, and turned back.  You found it!"
-
-"You'd best be looking after your reputation for truth and
-veracity," said the Angel.  "You know you saw that sapling first!"
-
-"Yes, after you took me back and set me looking for it," scoffed Freckles.
-
-The clear, ringing echo of strongly swung axes came crashing
-through the Limberlost.
-
-"'Tis the gang!" shouted Freckles.  "They're clearing a place to
-make the camp.  Let's go help!"
-
-"Hadn't we better mark that tree again?" cautioned the Angel. 
-"It's away in here.  There's such a lot of them, and all so
-much alike.  We'd feel good and green to find it and then lose it."
-
-Freckles lifted the sapling to replace it, but the Angel motioned
-him away.
-
-"Use your hatchet," she said.  "I predict this is the most valuable
-tree in the swamp.  You found it.  I'm going to play that you're
-my knight.  Now, you nail my colors on it."
-
-She reached up, and pulling a blue bow from her hair, untied and
-doubled it against the tree.  Freckles turned his eyes from her and
-managed the fastening with shaking fingers.  The Angel had called
-him her knight!  Dear Lord, how he loved her!  She must not see his
-face, or surely her quick eyes would read what he was fighting to hide. 
-He did not dare lay his lips on that ribbon then, but that night
-he would return to it.  When they had gone a little distance,
-they both looked back, and the morning breeze set the bit of blue
-waving them a farewell.
-
-They walked at a rapid pace.
-
-"I am sorry about scaring the birds," said the Angel, "but it's
-almost time for them to go anyway.  I feel dreadfully over having
-the swamp ruined, but isn't it a delight to hear the good, honest
-ring of those axes, instead of straining your ears for stealthy
-sounds?  Isn't it fine to go openly and freely, with nothing worse
-than a snake or a poison-vine to fear?"
-
-"Ah!" said Freckles, with a long breath, "it's better than you can
-dream, Angel.  Nobody will ever be guessing some of the things I've
-been through trying to keep me promise to the Boss, and to hold out
-until this day.  That it's come with only one fresh stump, and the
-log from that saved, and this new tree to report, isn't it grand?
-Maybe Mr. McLean will be forgetting that stump when he sees this
-tree, Angel!"
-
-"He can't forget it," said the Angel; and in answer to Freckles'
-startled eyes she added, "because he never had any reason to
-remember it.  He couldn't have done a whit better himself.  My father
-says so.  You're all right, Freckles!"
-
-She reached him her hand, and as two children, they broke into a
-run when they came closer the gang.  They left the swamp by the west
-road and followed the trail until they found the men.  To the Angel
-it seemed complete charm.  In the shadiest spot on the west side of
-the line, at the edge of the swamp and very close Freckles' room,
-they were cutting bushes and clearing space for a big tent for the
-men's sleeping-quarters, another for a dining-hall, and a board
-shack for the cook.  The teamsters were unloading, the horses were
-cropping leaves from the bushes, while each man was doing his part
-toward the construction of the new Limberlost quarters.
-
-Freckles helped the Angel climb on a wagonload of canvas in the shade. 
-She removed her leggings, wiped her heated face, and glowed with
-happiness and interest.
-
-The gang had been sifted carefully.  McLean now felt that there was
-not a man in it who was not trustworthy.
-
-They all had heard of the Angel's plucky ride for Freckles' relief;
-several of them had been in the rescue party.  Others, new since
-that time, had heard the tale rehearsed in its every aspect around
-the smudge-fires at night.  Almost all of them knew the Angel by
-sight from her trips with the Bird Woman to their leases.  They all
-knew her father, her position, and the luxuries of her home.
-Whatever course she had chosen with them they scarcely would have
-resented it, but the Angel never had been known to choose a course.
-Her spirit of friendliness was inborn and inbred.  She loved
-everyone, so she sympathized with everyone.  Her generosity was only
-limited by what was in her power to give.
-
-She came down the trail, hand in hand with the red-haired, freckled
-timber guard whom she had worn herself past the limit of endurance
-to save only a few weeks before, racing in her eagerness to reach
-them, and laughing her "Good morning, gentlemen," right and left.
-When she was ensconced on the wagonload of tenting, she sat on a
-roll of canvas as a queen on her throne.  There was not a man of the
-gang who did not respect her.  She was a living exponent of
-universal brotherhood.  There was no man among them who needed her
-exquisite face or dainty clothing to teach him that the deference
-due a gentlewoman should be paid her.  That the spirit of good
-fellowship she radiated levied an especial tribute of its own, and
-it became their delight to honor and please her.
-
-As they raced toward the wagon--"Let me tell about the tree,
-please?" she begged Freckles.
-
-"Why, sure!" said Freckles.
-
-He probably would have said the same to anything she suggested.
-When McLean came, he found the Angel flushed and glowing, sitting
-on the wagon, her hands already filled.  One of the men, who was
-cutting a scrub-oak, had carried to her a handful of crimson leaves. 
-Another had gathered a bunch of delicate marsh-grass heads for her. 
-Someone else, in taking out a bush, had found a daintily built and
-lined little nest, fresh as when made.
-
-She held up her treasures and greeted McLean, "Good morning, Mr.
-Boss of the Limberlost!"
-
-The gang shouted, while he bowed profoundly before her.
-
-"Everyone listen!" cried the Angel, climbing a roll of canvas. 
-"I have something to say!  Freckles has been guarding here over a year
-now, and he presents the Limberlost to you, with every tree in it
-saved; for good measure he has this morning located the rarest one
-of them all: the one in from the east line, that Wessner spoke of
-the first day--nearest the one you took out.  All together! 
-Everyone!  Hurrah for Freckles!"
-
-With flushing cheeks and gleaming eyes, gaily waving the grass above
-her head, she led in three cheers and a tiger.  Freckles slipped
-into the swamp and hid himself, for fear he could not conceal his
-pride and his great surging, throbbing love for her.
-
-The Angel subsided on the canvas and explained to McLean about
-the maple.  The Boss was mightily pleased.  He took Freckles and
-set out to re-locate and examine the tree.  The Angel was interested
-in the making of the camp, so she preferred to remain with the men. 
-With her sharp eyes she was watching every detail of construction;
-but when it came to the stretching of the dining-hall canvas she
-proceeded to take command.  The men were driving the rope-pins, when
-the Angel arose on the wagon and, leaning forward, spoke to Duncan,
-who was directing the work.
-
-"I believe if you will swing that around a few feet farther, you
-will find it better, Mr. Duncan," she said.  "That way will let the
-hot sun in at noon, while the sides will cut off the best breeze."
-
-"That's a fact," said Duncan, studying the conditions.
-
-So, by shifting the pins a little, they obtained comfort for which
-they blessed the Angel every day.  When they came to the
-sleeping-tent, they consulted her about that.  She explained the
-general direction of the night breeze and indicated the best
-position for the tent.  Before anyone knew how it happened, the
-Angel was standing on the wagon, directing the location and
-construction of the cooking-shack, the erection of the crane
-for the big boiling-pots, and the building of the store-room. 
-She superintended the laying of the floor of the sleeping-tent
-lengthwise, So that it would be easier to sweep, and suggested a
-new arrangement of the cots that would afford all the men an equal
-share of night breeze.  She left the wagon, and climbing on the
-newly erected dining-table, advised with the cook in placing his
-stove, table, and kitchen utensils.
-
-When Freckles returned from the tree to join in the work around the
-camp, he caught glimpses of her enthroned on a soapbox, cleaning beans. 
-She called to him that they were invited for dinner, and that they
-had accepted the invitation.
-
-When the beans were steaming in the pot, the Angel advised the cook
-to soak them overnight the next time, so that they would cook more
-quickly and not burst.  She was sure their cook at home did that
-way, and the CHEF of the gang thought it would be a good idea. 
-The next Freckles saw of her she was paring potatoes.  A little later
-she arranged the table.
-
-She swept it with a broom, instead of laying a cloth; took the
-hatchet and hammered the deepest dents from the tin plates, and
-nearly skinned her fingers scouring the tinware with rushes. 
-She set the plates an even distance apart, and laid the forks and
-spoons beside them.  When the cook threw away half a dozen
-fruit-cans, she gathered them up and melted off the tops, although
-she almost blistered her face and quite blistered her fingers doing it. 
-Then she neatly covered these improvised vases with the Manila paper
-from the groceries, tying it with wisps of marshgrass.  These she
-filled with fringed gentians, blazing-star, asters, goldenrod,
-and ferns, placing them the length of the dining-table.  In one of
-the end cans she arranged her red leaves, and in the other the
-fancy grass.  Two men, watching her, went away proud of themselves
-and said that she was "a born lady."  She laughingly caught up a
-paper bag and fitted it jauntily to her head in imitation of a
-cook's cap.  Then she ground the coffee, and beat a couple of eggs
-to put in, "because there is company," she gravely explained to
-the cook.  She asked that delighted individual if he did not like it
-best that way, and he said he did not know, because he never had a
-chance to taste it.  The Angel said that was her case exactly--she
-never had, either; she was not allowed anything stronger than milk.
-Then they laughed together.
-
-She told the cook about camping with her father, and explained that
-he made his coffee that way.  When the steam began to rise from the
-big boiler, she stuffed the spout tightly with clean marshgrass, to
-keep the aroma in, placed the boiler where it would only simmer,
-and explained why.  The influence of the Angel's visit lingered with
-the cook through the remainder of his life, while the men prayed
-for her frequent return.
-
-She was having a happy time, when McLean came back jubilant, from
-his trip to the tree.  How jubilant he told only the Angel, for he
-had been obliged to lose faith in some trusted men of late, and had
-learned discretion by what he suffered.  He planned to begin
-clearing out a road to the tree that same afternoon, and to set two
-guards every night, for it promised to be a rare treasure, so he
-was eager to see it on the way to the mills.
-
-"I am coming to see it felled," cried the Angel.  "I feel a sort of
-motherly interest in that tree."
-
-McLean was highly amused.  He would have staked his life on the
-honesty of either the Angel or Freckles; yet their versions of the
-finding of the tree differed widely.
-
-"Tell me, Angel," the Boss said jestingly.  "I think I have a right
-to know.  Who really did locate that tree?"
-
-"Freckles," she answered promptly and emphatically.
-
-"But he says quite as positively that it was you.  I don't understand."
-
-The Angel's legal look flashed into her face.  Her eyes grew tense
-with earnestness.  She glanced around, and seeing no towel or basin,
-held out her hand for Sears to pour water over them.  Then, using
-the skirt of her dress to dry them, she climbed on the wagon.
-
-"I'll tell you, word for word, how it happened," she said, "and
-then you shall decide, and Freckles and I will agree with you."
-
-When she had finished her version, "Tell us, `oh, most learned
-judge!'" she laughingly quoted, "which of us located that tree?"
-
-"Blest if I know who located it!" exclaimed McLean.  "But I have a
-fairly accurate idea as to who put the blue ribbon on it."
-
-The Boss smiled significantly at Freckles, who just had come, for
-they had planned that they would instruct the company to reserve
-enough of the veneer from that very tree to make the most beautiful
-dressing table they could design for the Angel's share of the discovery.
-
-"What will you have for yours?" McLean had asked of Freckles.
-
-"If it's all the same to you, I'll be taking mine out in music lessons--
-begging your pardon--voice culture," said Freckles with a grimace.
-
-McLean laughed, for Freckles needed to see or hear only once to
-absorb learning as the thirsty earth sucks up water.
-
-The Angel placed McLean at the head of the table.  She took the
-foot, with Freckles on her right, while the lumber gang, washed,
-brushed, and straightened until they felt unfamiliar with
-themselves and each other, filled the sides.  That imposed a slight
-constraint.  Then, too, the men were afraid of the flowers, the
-polished tableware, and above all, of the dainty grace of the Angel. 
-Nowhere do men so display lack of good breeding and culture as
-in dining.  To sprawl on the table, scoop with their knives, chew
-loudly, gulp coffee, and duck their heads as snapping-turtles for
-every bite, had not been noticed by them until the Angel, sitting
-straightly, suddenly made them remember that they, too, were
-possessed of spines.  Instinctively every man at the table straightened.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XVII
-
-Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body
-
-To reach the tree was a more difficult task than McLean had supposed. 
-The gang could approach nearest on the outside toward the east,
-but after they reached the end of the east entrance there was
-yet a mile of most impenetrable thicket, trees big and little, and
-bushes of every variety and stage of growth.  In many places the
-muck had to be filled to give the horses and wagons a solid
-foundation over which to haul heavy loads.  It was several days
-before they completed a road to the noble, big tree and were ready
-to fell it.
-
-When the sawing began, Freckles was watching down the road where it
-met the trail leading from Little Chicken's tree.  He had gone to the
-tree ahead of the gang to remove the blue ribbon.  Carefully folded,
-it now lay over his heart.  He was promising himself much
-comfort with that ribbon, when he would leave for the city next
-month to begin his studies and dream the summer over again. 
-It would help to make things tangible.  When he was dressed as other
-men, and at his work, he knew where he meant to home that precious
-bit of blue.  It should be his good-luck token, and he would wear it
-always to keep bright in memory the day on which the Angel had
-called him her knight.
-
-How he would study, and oh, how he would sing!  If only he could
-fulfill McLean's expectations, and make the Angel proud of him! 
-If only he could be a real knight!
-
-He could not understand why the Angel had failed to come.  She had
-wanted to see their tree felled.  She would be too late if she did
-not arrive soon.  He had told her it would be ready that morning,
-and she had said she surely would be there.  Why, of all mornings,
-was she late on this?
-
-McLean had ridden to town.  If he had been there, Freckles would
-have asked that they delay the felling, but he scarcely liked to
-ask the gang.  He really had no authority, although he thought the
-men would wait; but some way he found such embarrassment in framing
-the request that he waited until the work was practically ended.
-The saw was out, and the men were cutting into the felling side of
-the tree when the Boss rode in.
-
-His first word was to inquire for the Angel.  When Freckles said she
-had not yet come, the Boss at once gave orders to stop work on the
-tree until she arrived; for he felt that she virtually had located
-it, and if she desired to see it felled, she should.  As the men
-stepped back, a stiff morning breeze caught the top, that towered
-high above its fellows.  There was an ominous grinding at the base,
-a shiver of the mighty trunk, then directly in line of its fall the
-bushes swung apart and the laughing face of the Angel looked on them.
-
-A groan of horror burst from the dry throats of the men, and
-reading the agony in their faces, she stopped short, glanced up,
-and understood.
-
-"South!" shouted McLean.  "Run south!"
-
-The Angel was helpless.  It was apparent that she did not know which
-way south was.  There was another slow shiver of the big tree. 
-The remainder of the gang stood motionless, but Freckles sprang past
-the trunk and went leaping in big bounds.  He caught up the Angel
-and dashed through the thicket for safety.  The swaying trunk was
-half over when, for an instant, a near-by tree stayed its fall. 
-They saw Freckles' foot catch, and with the Angel he plunged headlong.
-
-A terrible cry broke from the men, while McLean covered his face.
-Instantly Freckles was up, with the Angel in his arms, struggling on. 
-The outer limbs were on them when they saw Freckles hurl the
-Angel, face down, in the muck, as far from him as he could send her. 
-Springing after, in an attempt to cover her body with his own,
-he whirled to see if they were yet in danger, and with outstretched
-arms braced himself for the shock.  The branches shut them from
-sight, and the awful crash rocked the earth.
-
-McLean and Duncan ran with axes and saws.  The remainder of the gang
-followed, and they worked desperately.  It seemed a long time before
-they caught a glimpse of the Angel's blue dress, but it renewed
-their vigor.  Duncan fell on his knees beside her and tore the muck
-from underneath her with his hands.  In a few seconds he dragged her
-out, choking and stunned, but surely not fatally hurt.
-
-Freckles lay a little farther under the tree, a big limb pinning
-him down.  His eyes were wide open.  He was perfectly conscious.
-Duncan began mining beneath him, but Freckles stopped him.
-
-"You can't be moving me," he said.  "You must cut off the limb and
-lift it.  I know."
-
-Two men ran for the big saw.  A number of them laid hold of the limb
-and bore up.  In a short time it was removed, and Freckles lay free.
-
-The men bent over to lift him, but he motioned them away.
-
-"Don't be touching me until I rest a bit," he pleaded.
-
-Then he twisted his head until he saw the Angel, who was wiping
-muck from her eyes and face on the skirt of her dress.
-
-"Try to get up," he begged.
-
-McLean laid hold of the Angel and helped her to her feet.
-
-"Do you think any bones are broken?" gasped Freckles.
-
-The Angel shook her head and wiped muck.
-
-"You see if you can find any, sir," Freckles commanded.
-
-The Angel yielded herself to McLean's touch, and he assured
-Freckles that she was not seriously injured.
-
-Freckles settled back, a smile of ineffable tenderness on his face.
-
-"Thank the Lord!" he hoarsely whispered.
-
-The Angel leaned toward him.
-
-"Now, Freckles, you!" she cried.  "It's your turn.  Please get up!"
-
-A pitiful spasm swept Freckles' face.  The sight of it washed every
-vestige of color from the Angel's.  She took hold of his hands.
-
-"Freckles, get up!" It was half command, half entreaty.
-
-"Easy, Angel, easy!  Let me rest a bit first!" implored Freckles.
-
-She knelt beside him.  He reached his arm around her and drew
-her closely.  He looked at McLean in an agony of entreaty that
-brought the Boss to his knees on the other side.
-
-"Oh, Freckles!" McLean cried.  "Not that!  Surely we can do something! 
-We must!  Let me see!"
-
-He tried to unfasten Freckles' neckband, but his fingers shook so
-clumsily that the Angel pushed them away and herself laid Freckles'
-chest bare.  With one hasty glance she gathered the clothing
-together and slipped her arm under his head.  Freckles lifted his
-eyes of agony to hers.
-
-"You see?" he said.
-
-The Angel nodded dumbly.
-
-Freckles turned to McLean.
-
-"Thank you for everything," he panted.  "Where are the boys?"
-
-"They are all here," said the Boss, "except a couple who have gone
-for doctors, Mrs. Duncan and the Bird Woman."
-
-"It's no use trying to do anything," said Freckles.  "You won't
-forget the muff and the Christmas box.  The muff especial?"
-
-There was a movement above them so pronounced that it attracted
-Freckles' attention, even in that extreme hour.  He looked up, and
-a pleased smile flickered on his drawn face.
-
-"Why, if it ain't me Little Chicken!" he cried hoarsely.  "He must
-be making his very first trip from the log.  Now Duncan can have his
-big watering-trough."
-
-"It was Little Chicken that made me late," faltered the Angel. 
-"I was so anxious to get here early I forgot to bring his breakfast
-from the carriage.  He must have been hungry, for when I passed the
-log he started after me.  He was so wabbly, and so slow flying from
-tree to tree and through the bushes, I just had to wait on him, for
-I couldn't drive him back."
-
-"Of course you couldn't!  Me bird has too amazing good sinse to go
-back when he could be following you," exulted Freckles, exactly as
-if he did not realize what the delay had cost him.  Then he lay
-silently thinking, but presently he asked slowly:  "And so `twas me
-Little Chicken that was making you late, Angel?"
-
-"Yes," said the Angel.
-
-A spasm of fierce pain shook Freckles, and a look of uncertainty
-crossed his face.
-
-"All summer I've been thanking God for the falling of the feather
-and all the delights it's brought me," he muttered, "but this looks
-as if----"
-
-He stopped short and raised questioning eyes to McLean.
-
-"I can't help being Irish, but I can help being superstitious,"
-he said.  "I mustn't be laying it to the Almighty, or to me bird,
-must I?"
-
-"No, dear lad," said McLean, stroking the brilliant hair. 
-"The choice lay with you.  You could have stood a rooted dolt like
-all the remainder of us.  It was through your great love and your
-high courage that you made the sacrifice."
-
-"Don't you be so naming it, sir!" cried Freckles.  "It's just
-the reverse.  If I could be giving me body the hundred times over to
-save hers from this, I'd be doing it and take joy with every pain."
-
-He turned with a smile of adoring tenderness to the Angel.  She was
-ghastly white, and her eyes were dull and glazed.  She scarcely
-seemed to hear or understand what was coming, but she bravely tried
-to answer that smile.
-
-"Is my forehead covered with dirt?" he asked.
-
-She shook her head.
-
-"You did once," he gasped.
-
-Instantly she laid her lips on his forehead, then on each cheek,
-and then in a long kiss on his lips.
-
-McLean bent over him.
-
-"Freckles," he said brokenly, "you will never know how I love you.
-You won't go without saying good-bye to me?"
-
-That word stung the Angel to quick comprehension.  She started as if
-arousing from sleep.
-
-"Good-bye?" she cried sharply, her eyes widening and the color
-rushing into her white face.  "Good-bye!  Why, what do you mean?
-Who's saying good-bye?  Where could Freckles go, when he is hurt
-like this, save to the hospital?  You needn't say good-bye for that.
-Of course, we will all go with him!  You call up the men.  We must
-start right away."
-
-"It's no use, Angel," said Freckles.  "I'm thinking ivry bone in me
-breast is smashed.  You'll have to be letting me go!"
-
-"I will not," said the Angel flatly.  "It's no use wasting precious
-time talking about it.  You are alive.  You are breathing; and no
-matter how badly your bones are broken, what are great surgeons for
-but to fix you up and make you well again?  You promise me that
-you'll just grit your teeth and hang on when we hurt you, for we
-must start with you as quickly as it can be done.  I don't know what
-has been the matter with me.  Here's good time wasted already."
-
-"Oh, Angel!" moaned Freckles, "I can't!  You don't know how bad it is. 
-I'll die the minute you are for trying to lift me!"
-
-"Of course you will, if you make up your mind to do it," said
-the Angel.  "But if you are determined you won't, and set yourself to
-breathing deep and strong, and hang on to me tight, I can get you out. 
-Really you must, Freckles, no matter how it hurts, for you did this
-for me, and now I must save you, so you might as well promise."
-
-She bent over him, trying to smile encouragement with her
-fear-stiffened lips.
-
-"You will promise, Freckles?"
-
-Big drops of cold sweat ran together on Freckles' temples.
-
-"Angel, darlin' Angel," he pleaded, taking her hand in his. 
-"You ain't understanding, and I can't for the life of me be
-telling you, but indade, it's best to be letting me go. 
-This is my chance.  Please say good-bye, and let me slip
-off quick!"
-
-He appealed to McLean.
-
-"Dear Boss, you know!  You be telling her that, for me, living is
-far worse pain than dying.  Tell her you know death is the best
-thing that could ever be happening to me!"
-
-"Merciful Heaven!" burst in the Angel.  "I can't endure this delay!"
-
-She caught Freckles' hand to her breast, and bending over him,
-looked deeply into his stricken eyes.
-
-"`Angel, I give you my word of honor that I will keep right
-on breathing.' That's what you are going to promise me," she said. 
-"Do you say it?"
-
-Freckles hesitated.
-
-"Freckles!" imploringly commanded the Angel, "YOU DO SAY IT!"
-
-"Yis," gasped Freckles.
-
-The Angel sprang to her feet.
-
-"Then that's all right," she said, with a tinge of her old-
-time briskness.  "You just keep breathing away like a steam
-engine, and I will do all the remainder."
-
-The eager men gathered around her.
-
-"It's going to be a tough pull to get Freckles out," she said, "but
-it's our only chance, so listen closely and don't for the lives of
-you fail me in doing quickly what I tell you.  There's no time to
-spend falling down over each other; we must have some system. 
-You four there get on those wagon horses and ride to the sleeping-tent. 
-Get the stoutest cot, a couple of comforts, and a pillow.  Ride back
-with them some way to save time.  If you meet any other men of the
-gang, send them here to help carry the cot.  We won't risk the jolt
-of driving with him.  The others clear a path out to the road; and
-Mr. McLean, you take Nellie and ride to town.  Tell my father how
-Freckles is hurt and that he risked it to save me.  Tell him I'm
-going to take Freckles to Chicago on the noon train, and I want him
-to hold it if we are a little late.  If he can't, then have a
-special ready at the station and another on the Pittsburgh at Fort
-Wayne, so we can go straight through.  You needn't mind leaving us.
-The Bird Woman will be here soon.  We will rest awhile."
-
-She dropped into the muck beside Freckles and began stroking his
-hair and hand.  He lay with his face of agony turned to hers, and
-fought to smother the groans that would tell her what he was suffering.
-
-When they stood ready to lift him, the Angel bent over him in a
-passion of tenderness.
-
-"Dear old Limberlost guard, we're going to lift you now," she said.
-"I suspect you will faint from the pain of it, but we will be as
-easy as ever we can, and don't you dare forget your promise!"
-
-A whimsical half-smile touched Freckles' quivering lips.
-
-"Angel, can a man be remembering a promise when he ain't knowing?"
-he asked.
-
-"You can," said the Angel stoutly, "because a promise means so much
-more to you than it does to most men."
-
-A look of strength flashed into Freckles' face at her words.
-
-"I am ready," he said.
-
-With the first touch his eyes closed, a mighty groan was wrenched
-from him, and he lay senseless.  The Angel gave Duncan one panic-
-stricken look.  Then she set her lips and gathered her forces again.
-
-"I guess that's a good thing," she said.  "Maybe he won't feel how
-we are hurting him.  Oh boys, are you being quick and gentle?"
-
-She stepped to the side of the cot and bathed Freckles' face.
-Taking his hand in hers, she gave the word to start.  She told the
-men to ask every able-bodied man they met to join them so that they
-could change carriers often and make good time.
-
-The Bird Woman insisted upon taking the Angel into the carriage and
-following the cot, but she refused to leave Freckles, and suggested
-that the Bird Woman drive ahead, pack them some clothing, and be at
-the station ready to accompany them to Chicago.  All the way the
-Angel walked beside the cot, shading Freckles' face with a branch,
-and holding his hand.  At every pause to change carriers she
-moistened his face and lips and watched each breath with
-heart-breaking anxiety.
-
-She scarcely knew when her father joined them, and taking the branch
-from her, slipped an arm around her waist and almost carried her. 
-To the city streets and the swarm of curious, staring faces she
-paid no more attention than she had to the trees of the Limberlost. 
-When the train came and the gang placed Freckles aboard, big
-Duncan made a place for the Angel beside the cot.
-
-With the best physician to be found, and with the Bird Woman and
-McLean in attendance, the four-hours' run to Chicago began.  The Angel
-constantly watched over Freckles; bathed his face, stroked his
-hand, and gently fanned him.  Not for an instant would she yield
-her place, or allow anyone else to do anything for him.  The Bird
-Woman and McLean regarded her in amazement.  There seemed to be no
-end to her resources and courage.  The only time she spoke was to
-ask McLean if he were sure the special would be ready on the
-Pittsburgh road.  He replied that it was made up and waiting.
-
-At five o'clock Freckles lay stretched on the operating-table of
-Lake View Hospital, while three of the greatest surgeons in Chicago
-bent over him.  At their command, McLean picked up the unwilling
-Angel and carried her to the nurses to be bathed, have her bruises
-attended, and to be put to bed.
-
-In a place where it is difficult to surprise people, they were
-astonished women as they removed the Angel's dainty stained and
-torn clothing, drew off hose muck-baked to her limbs, soaked the
-dried loam from her silken hair, and washed the beautiful
-scratched, bruised, dirt-covered body.  The Angel fell fast asleep
-long before they had finished, and lay deeply unconscious, while
-the fight for Freckles' life was being waged.
-
-Three days later she was the same Angel as of old, except that
-Freckles was constantly in her thoughts.  The anxiety and
-responsibility that she felt for his condition had bred in her a
-touch of womanliness and authority that was new.  That morning she
-arose early and hovered near Freckles' door.  She had been allowed
-to remain with him constantly, for the nurses and surgeons had
-learned, with his returning consciousness, that for her alone would
-the active, highly strung, pain-racked sufferer be quiet and obey
-orders.  When she was dropping from loss of sleep, the threat that
-she would fall ill had to be used to send her to bed.  Then by
-telling Freckles that the Angel was asleep and they would waken her
-the moment he moved, they were able to control him for a short time.
-
-The surgeon was with Freckles.  The Angel had been told that the
-word he brought that morning would be final, so she curled in a
-window seat, dropped the curtains behind her, and in dire anxiety,
-waited the opening of the door.
-
-Just as it unclosed, McLean came hurrying down the hall and to the
-surgeon, but with one glance at his face he stepped back in dismay;
-while the Angel, who had arisen, sank to the seat again, too dazed
-to come forward.  The men faced each other.  The Angel, with parted
-lips and frightened eyes, bent forward in tense anxiety.
-
-"I--I thought he was doing nicely?" faltered McLean.
-
-"He bore the operation well," replied the surgeon, "and his wounds
-are not necessarily fatal.  I told you that yesterday, but I did not
-tell you that something else probably would kill him; and it will.
-He need not die from the accident, but he will not live the day out."
-
-"But why?  What is it?" asked McLean hurriedly.  "We all dearly love
-the boy.  We have millions among us to do anything that money
-can accomplish.  Why must he die, if those broken bones are not
-the cause?"
-
-"That is what I am going to give you the opportunity to tell me,"
-replied the surgeon.  "He need not die from the accident, yet he is
-dying as fast as his splendid physical condition will permit, and
-it is because he so evidently prefers death to life.  If he were
-full of hope and ambition to live, my work would be easy.  If all of
-you love him as you prove you do, and there is unlimited means to
-give him anything he wants, why should he desire death?"
-
-"Is he dying?" demanded McLean.
-
-"He is," said the surgeon.  "He will not live this day out, unless
-some strong reaction sets in at once.  He is so low, that preferring
-death to life, nature cannot overcome his inertia.  If he is to
-live, he must be made to desire life.  Now he undoubtedly wishes for
-death, and that it come quickly."
-
-"Then he must die," said McLean.
-
-His broad shoulders shook convulsively.  His strong hands opened and
-closed mechanically.
-
-"Does that mean that you know what he desires and cannot, or will
-not, supply it?"
-
-McLean groaned in misery.
-
-"It means," he said desperately, "that I know what he wants, but it
-is as far removed from my power to help him as it would be to give
-him a star.  The thing for which he will die, he can never have."
-
-"Then you must prepare for the end very shortly" said the surgeon,
-turning abruptly away.
-
-McLean caught his arm roughly.
-
-"You look here!" he cried in desperation.  "You say that as if I
-could do something if I would.  I tell you the boy is dear to me
-past expression.  I would do anything--spend any sum.  You have
-noticed and repeatedly commented on the young girl with me.  It is
-that child that he wants!  He worships her to adoration, and knowing
-he can never be anything to her, he prefers death to life.  In God's
-name, what can I do about it?"
-
-"Barring that missing hand, I never examined a finer man," said the
-surgeon, "and she seemed perfectly devoted to him; why cannot he
-have her?"
-
-"Why?" echoed McLean.  "Why?  Well, for many reasons!  I told you he
-was my son.  You probably knew that he was not.  A little over a year
-ago I never had seen him.  He joined one of my lumber gangs from
-the road.  He is a stray, left at one of your homes for the friendless
-here in Chicago.  When he grew up the superintendent bound him to a
-brutal man.  He ran away and landed in one of my lumber camps.  He
-has no name or knowledge of legal birth.  The Angel--we have talked
-of her.  You see what she is, physically and mentally.  She has
-ancestors reaching back to Plymouth Rock, and across the sea for
-generations before that.  She is an idolized, petted only child, and
-there is great wealth.  Life holds everything for her, nothing for him. 
-He sees it more plainly than anyone else could.  There is nothing
-for the boy but death, if it is the Angel that is required to save him."
-
-The Angel stood between them.
-
-"Well, I just guess not!" she cried.  "If Freckles wants me, all he
-has to do is to say so, and he can have me!"
-
-The amazed men stepped back, staring at her.
-
-"That he will never say," said McLean at last, "and you don't
-understand, Angel.  I don't know how you came here.  I wouldn't have
-had you hear that for the world, but since you have, dear girl, you
-must be told that it isn't your friendship or your kindness
-Freckles wants; it is your love."
-
-The Angel looked straight into the great surgeon's eyes with her clear,
-steady orbs of blue, and then into McLean's with unwavering frankness.
-
-"Well, I do love him," she said simply.
-
-McLean's arms dropped helplessly.
-
-"You don't understand," he reiterated patiently.  "It isn't the love
-of a friend, or a comrade, or a sister, that Freckles wants from
-you; it is the love of a sweetheart.  And if to save the life he has
-offered for you, you are thinking of being generous and impulsive
-enough to sacrifice your future--in the absence of your father, it
-will become my plain duty, as the protector in whose hands he has
-placed you, to prevent such rashness.  The very words you speak, and
-the manner in which you say them, prove that you are a mere child,
-and have not dreamed what love is."
-
-Then the Angel grew splendid.  A rosy flush swept the pallor of fear
-from her face.  Her big eyes widened and dilated with intense lights. 
-She seemed to leap to the height and the dignity of superb womanhood
-before their wondering gaze.
-
-"I never have had to dream of love," she said proudly.  "I never
-have known anything else, in all my life, but to love everyone and
-to have everyone love me.  And there never has been anyone so dear
-as Freckles.  If you will remember, we have been through a good deal
-together.  I do love Freckles, just as I say I do.  I don't know
-anything about the love of sweethearts, but I love him with all the
-love in my heart, and I think that will satisfy him."
-
-"Surely it should!" muttered the man of knives and lancets.
-
-McLean reached to take hold of the Angel, but she saw the movement
-and swiftly stepped back.
-
-"As for my father," she continued, "he at once told me what he
-learned from you about Freckles.  I've known all you know for
-several weeks.  That knowledge didn't change your love for him
-a particle.  I think the Bird Woman loved him more.  Why should
-you two have all the fine perceptions there are?  Can't I see how
-brave, trustworthy, and splendid he is?  Can't I see how his soul
-vibrates with his music, his love of beautiful things and the pangs
-of loneliness and heart hunger?  Must you two love him with all the
-love there is, and I give him none?  My father is never unreasonable. 
-He won't expect me not to love Freckles, or not to tell him so,
-if the telling will save him."
-
-She darted past McLean into Freckles' room, closed the door, and
-turned the key.
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XVIII
-
-   Wherein Freckles refuses Love Without Knowledge of Honorable Birth,
-                      and the Angel Goes in Quest of it
-
-Freckles lay on a flat pillow, his body immovable in a plaster
-cast, his maimed arm, as always, hidden.  His greedy gaze fastened
-at once on the Angel's face.  She crossed to him with light step and
-bent over him with infinite tenderness.  Her heart ached at the
-change in his appearance.  He seemed so weak, heart hungry, so
-utterly hopeless, so alone.  She could see that the night had been
-one long terror.
-
-For the first time she tried putting herself in Freckles' place.
-What would it mean to have no parents, no home, no name?  No name!
-That was the worst of all.  That was to be lost--indeed--utterly and
-hopelessly lost.  The Angel lifted her hands to her dazed head and
-reeled, as she tried to face that proposition.  She dropped on her
-knees beside the bed, slipped her arm under the pillow, and leaning
-over Freckles, set her lips on his forehead.  He smiled faintly, but
-his wistful face appeared worse for it.  It hurt the Angel to the heart.
-
-"Dear Freckles," she said, "there is a story in your eyes this
-morning, tell me?"
-
-Freckles drew a long, wavering breath.
-
-"Angel," he begged, "be generous!  Be thinking of me a little. 
-I'm so homesick and worn out, dear Angel, be giving me back me promise.
-Let me go?"
-
-"Why Freckles!" faltered the Angel.  "You don't know what you
-are asking.  `Let you go!' I cannot!  I love you better than
-anyone, Freckles.  I think you are the very finest person I ever knew. 
-I have our lives all planned.  I want you to be educated and learn
-all there is to know about singing, just as soon as you are well enough. 
-By the time you have completed your education I will have
-finished college, and then I want," she choked a second, "I want
-you to be my real knight, Freckles, and come to me and tell me that
-you--like me--a little.  I have been counting on you for my
-sweetheart from the very first, Freckles.  I can't give you up,
-unless you don't like me.  But you do like me--just a little--don't
-you, Freckles?"
-
-Freckles lay whiter than the coverlet, his staring eyes on the
-ceiling and his breath wheezing between dry lips.  The Angel awaited
-his answer a second, and when none came, she dropped her crimsoning
-face beside him on the pillow and whispered in his ear:
-
-"Freckles, I--I'm trying to make love to you.  Oh, can't you help me
-only a little bit?  It's awful hard all alone!  I don't know how,
-when I really mean it, but Freckles, I love you.  I must have you,
-and now I guess--I guess maybe I'd better kiss you next."
-
-She lifted her shamed face and bravely laid her feverish, quivering
-lips on his.  Her breath, like clover-bloom, was in his nostrils, and
-her hair touched his face.  Then she looked into his eyes with reproach.
-
-"Freckles," she panted, "Freckles!  I didn't think it was in you to
-be mean!"
-
-"Mean, Angel!  Mean to you?" gasped Freckles.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel.  "Downright mean.  When I kiss you, if you had
-any mercy at all you'd kiss back, just a little bit."
-
-Freckles' sinewy fist knotted into the coverlet.  His chin pointed
-ceilingward while his head rocked on the pillow.
-
-"Oh, Jesus!" burst from him in agony.  "You ain't the only one that
-was crucified!"
-
-The Angel caught Freckles' hand and carried it to her breast.
-
-"Freckles!" she wailed in terror, "Freckles!  It is a mistake?  Is it
-that you don't want me?"
-
-Freckles' head rolled on in wordless suffering.
-
-"Wait a bit, Angel?" he panted at last.  "Be giving me a little time!"
-
-The Angel arose with controlled features.  She bathed his face,
-straightened his hair, and held water to his lips.  It seemed a long
-time before he reached toward her.  Instantly she knelt again,
-carried his hand to her breast, and leaned her cheek upon it.
-
-"Tell me, Freckles," she whispered softly.
-
-"If I can," said Freckles in agony.  "It's just this.  Angels are
-from above.  Outcasts are from below.  You've a sound body and you're
-beautifulest of all.  You have everything that loving, careful
-raising and money can give you.  I have so much less than nothing
-that I don't suppose I had any right to be born.  It's a sure
-thing--nobody wanted me afterward, so of course, they didn't
-before.  Some of them should have been telling you long ago."
-
-"If that's all you have to say, Freckles, I've known that quite a
-while," said the Angel stoutly.  "Mr. McLean told my father, and he
-told me.  That only makes me love you more, to pay for all you've missed."
-
-"Then I'm wondering at you," said Freckles in a voice of awe.
-"Can't you see that if you were willing and your father would come
-and offer you to me, I couldn't be touching the soles of your feet,
-in love--me, whose people brawled over me, cut off me hand, and
-throwed me away to freeze and to die!  Me, who has no name just as
-much because I've no RIGHT to any, as because I don't know it. 
-When I was little, I planned to find me father and mother when I
-grew up.  Now I know me mother deserted me, and me father was maybe a
-thief and surely a liar.  The pity for me suffering and the watching
-over me have gone to your head, dear Angel, and it's me must be
-thinking for you.  If you could be forgetting me lost hand, where I
-was raised, and that I had no name to give you, and if you would be
-taking me as I am, some day people such as mine must be, might come
-upon you.  I used to pray ivery night and morning and many times the
-day to see me mother.  Now I only pray to die quickly and never risk
-the sight of her.  'Tain't no ways possible, Angel!  It's a wildness
-of your dear head.  Oh, do for mercy sake, kiss me once more and be
-letting me go!"
-
-"Not for a minute!" cried the Angel.  "Not for a minute, if those
-are all the reasons you have.  It's you who are wild in your head,
-but I can understand just how it happened.  Being shut in that Home
-most of your life, and seeing children every day whose parents did
-neglect and desert them, makes you sure yours did the same; and yet
-there are so many other things that could have happened so much
-more easily than that.  There are thousands of young couples who
-come to this country and start a family with none of their
-relatives here.  Chicago is a big, wicked city, and grown people
-could disappear in many ways, and who would there ever be to find
-to whom their little children belonged?  The minute my father told
-me how you felt, I began to study this thing over, and I've made up
-my mind you are dead wrong.  I meant to ask my father or the Bird
-Woman to talk to you before you went away to school, but as matters
-are right now I guess I'll just do it myself.  It's all so plain
-to me.  Oh, if I could only make you see!"
-
-She buried her face in the pillow and presently lifted it, transfigured.
-
-"Now I have it!" she cried.  "Oh, dear heart!  I can make it
-so plain!  Freckles, can you imagine you see the old Limberlost trail?
-Well when we followed it, you know there were places where ugly,
-prickly thistles overgrew the path, and you went ahead with your
-club and bent them back to keep them from stinging through my clothing. 
-Other places there were big shining pools where lovely, snow-white
-lilies grew, and you waded in and gathered them for me.  Oh dear
-heart, don't you see?  It's this!  Everywhere the wind carried
-that thistledown, other thistles sprang up and grew prickles;
-and wherever those lily seeds sank to the mire, the pure white
-of other lilies bloomed.  But, Freckles, there was never a
-place anywhere in the Limberlost, or in the whole world, where the
-thistledown floated and sprang up and blossomed into white lilies! 
-Thistles grow from thistles, and lilies from other lilies. 
-Dear Freckles, think hard!  You must see it!  You are a lily,
-straight through.  You never, never could have drifted from the
-thistle-patch.
-
-"Where did you find the courage to go into the Limberlost and face
-its terrors?  You inherited it from the blood of a brave father,
-dear heart.  Where did you get the pluck to hold for over a year a
-job that few men would have taken at all?  You got it from a plucky
-mother, you bravest of boys.  You attacked single-handed a man
-almost twice your size, and fought as a demon, merely at the
-suggestion that you be deceptive and dishonest.  Could your mother
-or your father have been untruthful?  Here you are, so hungry and
-starved that you are dying for love.  Where did you get all that
-capacity for loving?  You didn't inherit it from hardened, heartless
-people, who would disfigure you and purposely leave you to die,
-that's one sure thing.  You once told me of saving your big bullfrog
-from a rattlesnake.  You knew you risked a horrible death when you
-did it.  Yet you will spend miserable years torturing yourself with
-the idea that your own mother might have cut off that hand.  Shame on
-you, Freckles!  Your mother would have done this----"
-
-The Angel deliberately turned back the cover, slipped up the
-sleeve, and laid her lips on the scars.
-
-"Freckles!  Wake up!" she cried, almost shaking him.  "Come to
-your senses!  Be a thinking, reasoning man!  You have brooded too much,
-and been all your life too much alone.  It's all as plain as plain
-can be to me.  You must see it!  Like breeds like in this world! 
-You must be some sort of a reproduction of your parents, and I am not
-afraid to vouch for them, not for a minute!
-
-"And then, too, if more proof is needed, here it is:  Mr. McLean
-says that you never once have failed in tact and courtesy.  He says
-that you are the most perfect gentleman he ever knew, and he has
-traveled the world over.  How does it happen, Freckles?  No one at
-that Home taught you.  Hundreds of men couldn't be taught, even in
-a school of etiquette; so it must be instinctive with you.  If it
-is, why, that means that it is born in you, and a direct
-inheritance from a race of men that have been gentlemen for ages,
-and couldn't be anything else.
-
-"Then there's your singing.  I don't believe there ever was a mortal
-with a sweeter voice than yours, and while that doesn't prove
-anything, there is a point that does.  The little training you had
-from that choirmaster won't account for the wonderful accent and
-ease with which you sing.  Somewhere in your close blood is a
-marvelously trained vocalist; we every one of us believe that, Freckles.
-
-"Why does my father refer to you constantly as being of fine
-perceptions and honor?  Because you are, Freckles.  Why does the Bird
-Woman leave her precious work and come here to help look after you?
-I never heard of her losing any time over anyone else.  It's because
-she loves you.  And why does Mr. McLean turn all of his valuable
-business over to hired men and watch you personally?  And why is he
-hunting excuses every day to spend money on you?  My father says
-McLean is full Scotch-close with a dollar.  He is a hard-headed
-business man, Freckles, and he is doing it because he finds you
-worthy of it.  Worthy of all we all can do and more than we know how
-to do, dear heart!  Freckles, are you listening to me?  Oh!  won't you
-see it?  Won't you believe it?"
-
-"Oh, Angel!" chattered the bewildered Freckles, "are you truly
-maning it?  Could it be?"
-
-"Of course it could," flashed the Angel, "because it just is!"
-
-"But you can't prove it," wailed Freckles.  "It ain't giving me a
-name, or me honor!"
-
-"Freckles," said the Angel sternly, "you are unreasonable!  Why, I
-did prove every word I said!  Everything proves it!  You look here!
-If you knew for sure that I could give you a name and your honor,
-and prove to you that your mother did love you, why, then, would
-you just go to breathing like perpetual motion and hang on for dear
-life and get well?"
-
-A bright light shone in Freckles' eyes.
-
-"If I knew that, Angel," he said solemnly, "you couldn't be killing
-me if you felled the biggest tree in the Limberlost smash on me!"
-
-"Then you go right to work," said the Angel, "and before night I'll
-prove one thing to you:  I can show you easily enough how much your
-mother loved you.  That will be the first step, and then the
-remainder will all come.  If my father and Mr. McLean are so anxious
-to spend some money, I'll give them a chance.  I don't see why we
-haven't comprehended how you felt and so have been at work weeks ago. 
-We've been awfully selfish.  We've all been so comfortable, we never
-stopped to think what other people were suffering before our eyes. 
-None of us has understood.  I'll hire the finest detective in
-Chicago, and we'll go to work together.  This is nothing compared
-with things people do find out.  We'll go at it, beak and claw, and
-we'll show you a thing or two."
-
-Freckles caught her sleeve.
-
-"Me mother, Angel!  Me mother!" he marveled hoarsely.  "Did you say
-you could be finding out today if me mother loved me?  How?  Oh, Angel! 
-Nothing matters, IF ONLY ME MOTHER DIDN'T DO IT!"
-
-"Then you rest easy," said the Angel, with large confidence. 
-"Your mother didn't do it!  Mothers of sons such as you don't do things
-like that.  I'll go to work at once and prove it to you.  The first
-thing to do is to go to that Home where you were and get the
-clothes you wore the night you were left there.  I know that they
-are required to save those things carefully.  We can find out almost
-all there is to know about your mother from them.  Did you ever see them?"
-
-"Yis," he replied.
-
-"Freckles!  Were they white?" she cried.
-
-"Maybe they were once.  They're all yellow with laying, and brown
-with blood-stains now" said Freckles, the old note of bitterness
-creeping in.  "You can't be telling anything at all by them, Angel!"
-
-"Well, but I just can!" said the Angel positively.  "I can see from
-the quality what kind of goods your mother could afford to buy. 
-I can see from the cut whether she had good taste.  I can see from
-the care she took in making them how much she loved and wanted you."
-
-"But how?  Angel, tell me how!" implored Freckles with trembling eagerness.
-
-"Why, easily enough," said the Angel.  "I thought you'd understand.
-People that can afford anything at all, always buy white for little
-new babies--linen and lace, and the very finest things to be had.
-There's a young woman living near us who cut up her wedding clothes
-to have fine things for her baby.  Mothers who love and want their
-babies don't buy little rough, ready-made things, and they don't
-run up what they make on an old sewing machine.  They make fine
-seams, and tucks, and put on lace and trimming by hand.  They sit and
-stitch, and stitch--little, even stitches, every one just as careful. 
-Their eyes shine and their faces glow.  When they have to quit to
-do something else, they look sorry, and fold up their work
-so particularly.  There isn't much worth knowing about your mother
-that those little clothes won't tell.  I can see her putting the
-little stitches into them and smiling with shining eyes over
-your coming.  Freckles, I'll wager you a dollar those little clothes
-of yours are just alive with the dearest, tiny handmade stitches."
-
-A new light dawned in Freckles' eyes.  A tinge of warm color swept
-into his face.  Renewed strength was noticeable in his grip of her hands.
-
-"Oh Angel!  Will you go now?  Will you be hurrying?" he cried.
-
-"Right away," said the Angel.  "I won't stop for a thing, and I'll
-hurry with all my might."
-
-She smoothed his pillow, straightened the cover, gave him one
-steady look in the eyes, and went quietly from the room.
-
-Outside the door, McLean and the surgeon anxiously awaited her.
-McLean caught her shoulders.
-
-"Angel, what have you done?" he demanded.
-
-The Angel smiled defiance into his eyes.
-
-"`What have I done?'" she repeated.  "I've tried to save Freckles."
-
-"What will your father say?" groaned McLean.
-
-"It strikes me," said the Angel, "that what Freckles said would be
-to the point."
-
-"Freckles!" exclaimed McLean.  "What could he say?"
-
-"He seemed to be able to say several things," answered the
-Angel sweetly.  "I fancy the one that concerns you most at present
-was, that if my father should offer me to him he would not have me."
-
-"And no one knows why better than I do," cried McLean.  "Every day
-he must astonish me with some new fineness."
-
-He turned to the surgeon.  "Save him!" he commanded.  "Save him!"
-he implored.  "He is too fine to be sacrificed."
-
-"His salvation lies here," said the surgeon, stroking the Angel's
-sunshiny hair, "and I can read in the face of her that she knows
-how she is going to work it out.  Don't trouble for the boy. 
-She will save him!"
-
-The Angel laughingly sped down the hall, and into the street, just
-as she was.
-
-"I have come," she said to the matron of the Home, "to ask if you
-will allow me to examine, or, better yet, to take with me, the
-little clothes that a boy you called Freckles, discharged last
-fall, wore the night he was left here."
-
-The woman looked at her in greater astonishment than the occasion demanded.
-
-"Well, I'd be glad to let you see them," she said at last, "but the
-fact is we haven't them.  I do hope we haven't made some mistake. 
-I was thoroughly convinced, and so was the superintendent.  We let his
-people take those things away yesterday.  Who are you, and what do
-you want with them?"
-
-The Angel stood dazed and speechless, staring at the matron.
-
-"There couldn't have been a mistake," continued the matron, seeing
-the Angel's distress.  "Freckles was here when I took charge, ten
-years ago.  These people had it all proved that he belonged to them.
-They had him traced to where he ran away in Illinois last fall, and
-there they completely lost track of him.  I'm sorry you seem so
-disappointed, but it is all right.  The man is his uncle, and as
-like the boy as he possibly could be.  He is almost killed to go
-back without him.  If you know where Freckles is, they'd give big
-money to find out."
-
-The Angel laid a hand along each cheek to steady her chattering teeth.
-
-"Who are they?" she stammered.  "Where are they going?"
-
-"They are Irish folks, miss," said the matron.  "They have been in
-Chicago and over the country for the past three months, hunting him
-everywhere.  They have given up, and are starting home today.  They----"
-
-"Did they leave an address?  Where could I find them?" interrupted
-the Angel.
-
-"They left a card, and I notice the morning paper has the man's
-picture and is full of them.  They've advertised a great deal in the
-city papers.  It's a wonder you haven't seen something."
-
-"Trains don't run right.  We never get Chicago papers," said
-the Angel.  "Please give me that card quickly.  They may escape me. 
-I simply must catch them!"
-
-The matron hurried to the secretary and came back with a card.
-
-"Their addresses are there," she said.  "Both in Chicago and at
-their home.  They made them full and plain, and I was to cable at
-once if I got the least clue of him at any time.  If they've left
-the city, you can stop them in New York.  You're sure to catch them
-before they sail--if you hurry."
-
-The matron caught up a paper and thrust it into the Angel's hand as
-she ran to the street.
-
-The Angel glanced at the card.  The Chicago address was Suite
-Eleven, Auditorium.  She laid her hand on her driver's sleeve and
-looked into his eyes.
-
-"There is a fast-driving limit?" she asked.
-
-"Yes, miss."
-
-"Will you crowd it all you can without danger of arrest?  I will
-pay well.  I must catch some people!"
-
-Then she smiled at him.  The hospital, an Orphans' Home, and the
-Auditorium seemed a queer combination to that driver, but the Angel
-was always and everywhere the Angel, and her methods were strictly
-her own.
-
-"I will take you there as quickly as any man could with a team," he
-said promptly.
-
-The Angel clung to the card and paper, and as best she could in the
-lurching, swaying cab, read the addresses over.
-
-"O'More, Suite Eleven, Auditorium."
-
-"`O'More,'" she repeated.  "Seems to fit Freckles to a dot.  Wonder if
-that could be his name?  `Suite Eleven' means that you are pretty
-well fixed.  Suites in the Auditorium come high."
-
-Then she turned the card and read on its reverse, Lord Maxwell
-O'More, M.  P., Killvany Place, County Clare, Ireland.
-
-The Angel sat on the edge of the seat, bracing her feet against the
-one opposite, as the cab pitched and swung around corners and
-past vehicles.  She mechanically fingered the pasteboard and stared
-straight ahead.  Then she drew a deep breath and read the card again.
-
-"A Lord-man!" she groaned despairingly.  "A Lord-man!  Bet my
-hoecake's scorched!  Here I've gone and pledged my word to Freckles
-I'd find him some decent relatives, that he could be proud of, and
-now there isn't a chance out of a dozen that he'll have to be
-ashamed of them after all.  It's too mean!"
-
-The tears of vexation rolled down the tired, nerve-racked Angel's cheeks.
-
-"This isn't going to do," she said, resolutely wiping her eyes with
-the palm of her hand and gulping down the nervous spasm in her throat. 
-"I must read this paper before I meet Lord O'More."
-
-She blinked back the tears and spreading the paper on her knee, read: 
-"After three months' fruitless search, Lord O'More gives up the
-quest of his lost nephew, and leaves Chicago today for his home
-in Ireland."
-
-She read on, and realized every word.  The likeness settled any doubt. 
-It was Freckles over again, only older and well dressed.
-
-"Well, I must catch you if I can," muttered the Angel.  "But when I
-do, if you are a gentleman in name only, you shan't have Freckles;
-that's flat.  You're not his father and he is twenty.  Anyway, if the
-law will give him to you for one year, you can't spoil him, because
-nobody could, and," she added, brightening, "he'll probably do you
-a lot of good.  Freckles and I both must study years yet, and you
-should be something that will save him.  I guess it will come out
-all right.  At least, I don't believe you can take him away if I say no."
-
-"Thank you; and wait, no matter how long," she said to her driver.
-
-Catching up the paper, she hurried to the desk and laid down Lord
-O'More's card.
-
-"Has my uncle started yet?" she asked sweetly.
-
-The surprised clerk stepped back on a bellboy, and covertly kicked
-him for being in the way.
-
-"His lordship is in his room," he said, with a low bow.
-
-"All right," said the Angel, picking up the card.  "I thought he
-might have started.  I'll see him."
-
-The clerk shoved the bellboy toward the Angel.
-
-"Show her ladyship to the elevator and Lord O'More's suite," he
-said, bowing double.
-
-"Aw, thanks," said the Angel with a slight nod, as she turned away.
-
-"I'm not sure," she muttered to herself as the elevator sped
-upward, "whether it's the Irish or the English who say: 
-`Aw, thanks,' but it's probable he isn't either; and anyway,
-I just had to do something to counteract that `All right.' 
-How stupid of me!"
-
-At the bellboy's tap, the door swung open and the liveried servant
-thrust a cardtray before the Angel.  The opening of the door created
-a current that swayed a curtain aside, and in an adjoining room,
-lounging in a big chair, with a paper in his hand, sat a man who
-was, beyond question, of Freckles' blood and race.
-
-With perfect control the Angel dropped Lord O'More's card in the
-tray, stepped past his servant, and stood before his lordship.
-
-"Good morning," she said with tense politeness.
-
-Lord O'More said nothing.  He carelessly glanced her over with
-amused curiosity, until her color began to deepen and her blood to
-run hotly.
-
-"Well, my dear," he said at last, "how can I serve you?"
-
-Instantly the Angel became indignant.  She had been so shielded
-in the midst of almost entire freedom, owing to the circumstances
-of her life, that the words and the look appeared to her as
-almost insulting.  She lifted her head with a proud gesture.
-
-"I am not your `dear,'" she said with slow distinctness.  "There
-isn't a thing in the world you can do for me.  I came here to see if
-I could do something--a very great something--for you; but if I
-don't like you, I won't do it!"
-
-Then Lord O'More did stare.  Suddenly he broke into a ringing laugh.
-Without a change of attitude or expression, the Angel stood looking
-steadily at him.
-
-There was a silken rustle, then a beautiful woman with cheeks of
-satiny pink, dark hair, and eyes of pure Irish blue, moved to Lord
-O'More's side, and catching his arm, shook him impatiently.
-
-"Terence!  Have you lost your senses?" she cried.  "Didn't you
-understand what the child said?  Look at her face!  See what she has!"
-
-Lord O'More opened his eyes widely and sat up.  He did look at the
-Angel's face intently, and suddenly found it so good that it was
-difficult to follow the next injunction.  He arose instantly.
-
-"I beg your pardon," he said.  "The fact is, I am leaving Chicago
-sorely disappointed.  It makes me bitter and reckless.  I thought you
-one more of those queer, useless people who have thrust themselves
-on me constantly, and I was careless.  Forgive me, and tell me why
-you came."
-
-"I will if I like you," said the Angel stoutly, "and if I don't, I won't!"
-
-"But I began all wrong, and now I don't know how to make you like
-me," said his lordship, with sincere penitence in his tone.
-
-The Angel found herself yielding to his voice.  He spoke in a soft,
-mellow, smoothly flowing Irish tone, and although his speech was
-perfectly correct, it was so rounded, and accented, and the
-sentences so turned, that it was Freckles over again.  Still, it was
-a matter of the very greatest importance, and she must be sure; so
-she looked into the beautiful woman's face.
-
-"Are you his wife?" she asked.
-
-"Yes," said the woman, "I am his wife."
-
-"Well," said the Angel judicially, "the Bird Woman says no one in
-the whole world knows all a man's bignesses and all his
-littlenesses as his wife does.  What you think of him should do
-for me.  Do you like him?"
-
-The question was so earnestly asked that it met with equal earnestness.
-The dark head moved caressingly against Lord O'More's sleeve.
-
-"Better than anyone in the whole world," said Lady O'More promptly.
-
-The Angel mused a second, and then her legal tinge came to the fore again.
-
-"Yes, but have you anyone you could like better, if he wasn't all
-right?" she persisted.
-
-"I have three of his sons, two little daughters, a father, mother,
-and several brothers and sisters," came the quick reply.
-
-"And you like him best?" persisted the Angel with finality.
-
-"I love him so much that I would give up every one of them with dry
-eyes if by so doing I could save him," cried Lord O'More's wife.
-
-"Oh!" cried the Angel.  "Oh, my!"
-
-She lifted her clear eyes to Lord O'More's and shook her head.
-
-"She never, never could do that!" she said.  "But it's a mighty big
-thing to your credit that she THINKS she could.  I guess I'll tell
-you why I came."
-
-She laid down the paper, and touched the portrait.
-
-"When you were only a boy, did people call you Freckles?" she asked.
-
-"Dozens of good fellows all over Ireland and the Continent are
-doing it today," answered Lord O'More.
-
-The Angel's face wore her most beautiful smile.
-
-"I was sure of it," she said winningly.  "That's what we call him,
-and he is so like you, I doubt if any one of those three boys of
-yours are more so.  But it's been twenty years.  Seems to me you've
-been a long time coming!"
-
-Lord O'More caught the Angel's wrists and his wife slipped her arms
-around her.
-
-"Steady, my girl!" said the man's voice hoarsely.  "Don't make me
-think you've brought word of the boy at this last hour, unless you
-know surely."
-
-"It's all right," said the Angel.  "We have him, and there's no
-chance of a mistake.  If I hadn't gone to that Home for his little
-clothes, and heard of you and been hunting you, and had met you on
-the street, or anywhere, I would have stopped you and asked you who
-you were, just because you are so like him.  It's all right.  I can
-tell you where Freckles is; but whether you deserve to know--that's
-another matter!"
-
-Lord O'More did not hear her.  He dropped in his chair, and covering
-his face, burst into those terrible sobs that shake and rend a
-strong man.  Lady O'More hovered over him, weeping.
-
-"Umph!  Looks pretty fair for Freckles," muttered the Angel. 
-"Lots of things can be explained; now perhaps they can explain this."
-
-They did explain so satisfactorily that in a few minutes the Angel
-was on her feet, hurrying Lord and Lady O'More to reach the hospital. 
-"You said Freckles' old nurse knew his mother's picture instantly,"
-said the Angel.  "I want that picture and the bundle of little clothes."
-
-Lady O'More gave them into her hands.
-
-The likeness was a large miniature, painted on ivory, with a frame
-of beaten gold.  Surrounded by masses of dark hair was a delicately
-cut face.  In the upper part of it there was no trace of Freckles,
-but the lips curving in a smile were his very own.  The Angel gazed
-at it steadily.  Then with a quivering breath she laid the portrait
-aside and reached both hands to Lord O'More.
-
-"That will save Freckles' life and insure his happiness," she
-said positively.  "Thank you, oh thank you for coming!"
-
-She opened the bundle of yellow and brown linen and gave only a
-glance at the texture and work.  Then she gathered the little
-clothes and the picture to her heart and led the way to the cab.
-
-Ushering Lord and Lady O'More into the reception room, she said to
-McLean, "Please go call up my father and ask him to come on the
-first train."
-
-She closed the door after him.
-
-"These are Freckles' people," she said to the Bird Woman.  "You can
-find out about each other; I'm going to him."
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XIX
-
-Wherein Freckles Finds His Birthright and the Angel Loses Her Heart
-
-The nurse left the room quietly, as the Angel entered, carrying the
-bundle and picture.  When they were alone, she turned to Freckles
-and saw that the crisis was indeed at hand.
-
-That she had good word to give him was his salvation, for despite
-the heavy plaster jacket that held his body immovable, his head was
-lifted from the pillow.  Both arms reached for her.  His lips and
-cheeks flamed, while his eyes flashed with excitement.
-
-"Angel," he panted.  "Oh Angel!  Did you find them?  Are they white?
-Are the little stitches there?  OH ANGEL!  DID ME MOTHER LOVE ME?"
-
-The words seemed to leap from his burning lips.  The Angel dropped
-the bundle on the bed and laid the picture face down across his knees. 
-She gently pushed his head to the pillow and caught his arms in a
-firm grasp.
-
-"Yes, dear heart," she said with fullest assurance.  "No little
-clothes were ever whiter.  I never in all my life saw such dainty,
-fine, little stitches; and as for loving you, no boy's mother ever
-loved him more!"
-
-A nervous trembling seized Freckles.
-
-"Sure?  Are you sure?" he urged with clicking teeth.
-
-"I know," said the Angel firmly.  "And Freckles, while you rest and
-be glad, I want to tell you a story.  When you feel stronger we will
-look at the clothes together.  They are here.  They are all right.
-But while I was at the Home getting them, I heard of some people
-that were hunting a lost boy.  I went to see them, and what they
-told me was all so exactly like what might have happened to you that
-I must tell you.  Then you'll understand that things could be very
-different from what you always have tortured yourself with thinking. 
-Are you strong enough to listen?  May I tell you?"
-
-"Maybe 'twasn't me mother!  Maybe someone else made those little stitches!"
-
-"Now, goosie, don't you begin that," said the Angel, "because I
-know that it was!"
-
-"Know!" cried Freckles, his head springing from the pillow.  "Know!
-How can you know?"
-
-The Angel gently soothed him back.
-
-"Why, because nobody else would ever sit and do it the way it
-is done.  That's how I know," she said emphatically.  "Now you
-listen while I tell you about this lost boy and his people, who
-have hunted for months and can't find him."
-
-Freckles lay quietly under her touch, but he did not hear a word
-that she was saying until his roving eyes rested on her face; he
-immediately noticed a remarkable thing.  For the first time she was
-talking to him and avoiding his eyes.  That was not like the Angel
-at all.  It was the delight of hearing her speak that she looked one
-squarely in the face and with perfect frankness.  There were no side
-glances and down-drooping eyes when the Angel talked; she was
-business straight through.  Instantly Freckles' wandering thoughts
-fastened on her words.
-
-"--and he was a sour, grumpy, old man," she was saying.  "He always
-had been spoiled, because he was an only son, so he had a title,
-and a big estate.  He would have just his way, no matter about his
-sweet little wife, or his boys, or anyone.  So when his elder son
-fell in love with a beautiful girl having a title, the very girl of
-all the world his father wanted him to, and added a big adjoining
-estate to his, why, that pleased him mightily.
-
-"Then he went and ordered his younger son to marry a poky kind of
-a girl, that no one liked, to add another big estate on the other
-side, and that was different.  That was all the world different,
-because the elder son had been in love all his life with the girl
-he married, and, oh, Freckles, it's no wonder, for I saw her! 
-She's a beauty and she has the sweetest way.
-
-"But that poor younger son, he had been in love with the village
-vicar's daughter all his life.  That's no wonder either, for she was
-more beautiful yet.  She could sing as the angels, but she hadn't a
-cent.  She loved him to death, too, if he was bony and freckled and
-red-haired--I don't mean that!  They didn't say what color his hair
-was, but his father's must have been the reddest ever, for when he
-found out about them, and it wasn't anything so terrible, HE JUST CAVED!
-
-"The old man went to see the girl--the pretty one with no money, of
-course--and he hurt her feelings until she ran away.  She went to
-London and began studying music.  Soon she grew to be a fine singer,
-so she joined a company and came to this country.
-
-"When the younger son found that she had left London, he followed her. 
-When she got here all alone, and afraid, and saw him coming to her,
-why, she was so glad she up and married him, just like anybody
-else would have done.  He didn't want her to travel with the troupe,
-so when they reached Chicago they thought that would be a good
-place, and they stopped, while he hunted work.  It was slow
-business, because he never had been taught to do a useful thing,
-and he didn't even know how to hunt work, least of all to do it
-when he found it; so pretty soon things were going wrong.  But if he
-couldn't find work, she could always sing, so she sang at night,
-and made little things in the daytime.  He didn't like her to sing
-in public, and he wouldn't allow her when he could HELP himself;
-but winter came, it was very cold, and fire was expensive. 
-Rents went up, and they had to move farther out to cheaper and
-cheaper places; and you were coming--I mean, the boy that is lost
-was coming--and they were almost distracted.  Then the man wrote and
-told his father all about it; and his father sent the letter back
-unopened with a line telling him never to write again.  When the
-baby came, there was very little left to pawn for food and a
-doctor, and nothing at all for a nurse; so an old neighbor woman
-went in and took care of the young mother and the little baby,
-because she was so sorry for them.  By that time they were away in
-the suburbs on the top floor of a little wooden house, among a lot
-of big factories, and it kept growing colder, with less to eat.
-Then the man grew desperate and he went just to find something to
-eat and the woman was desperate, too.  She got up, left the old
-woman to take care of her baby, and went into the city to sing for
-some money.  The woman became so cold she put the baby in bed and
-went home.  Then a boiler blew up in a big factory beside the little
-house and set it on fire.  A piece of iron was pitched across and
-broke through the roof.  It came down smash, and cut just one little
-hand off the poor baby.  It screamed and screamed; and the fire kept
-coming closer and closer.
-
-"The old woman ran out with the other people and saw what had happened. 
-She knew there wasn't going to be time to wait for firemen or
-anything, so she ran into the building.  She could hear the baby
-screaming, and she couldn't stand that; so she worked her way to it. 
-There it was, all hurt and bleeding.  Then she was almost scared
-to death over thinking what its mother would do to her for
-going away and leaving it, so she ran to a Home for little
-friendless babies, that was close, and banged on the door.  Then she
-hid across the street until the baby was taken in, and then she ran
-back to see if her own house was burning.  The big factory and the
-little house and a lot of others were all gone.  The people there
-told her that the beautiful lady came back and ran into the house
-to find her baby.  She had just gone in when her husband came, and
-he went in after her, and the house fell over both of them."
-
-Freckles lay rigidly, with his eyes on the Angel's face, while she
-talked rapidly to the ceiling.
-
-"Then the old woman was sick about that poor little baby.  She was
-afraid to tell them at the Home, because she knew she never should
-have left it, but she wrote a letter and sent it to where the
-beautiful woman, when she was ill, had said her husband's people lived. 
-She told all about the little baby that she could remember:
-when it was born, how it was named for the man's elder brother,
-that its hand had been cut off in the fire, and where she had put
-it to be doctored and taken care of.  She told them that its mother
-and father were both burned, and she begged and implored them to
-come after it.
-
-"You'd think that would have melted a heart of ice, but that old
-man hadn't any heart to melt, for he got that letter and read it. 
-He hid it away among his papers and never told a soul.  A few months
-ago he died.  When his elder son went to settle his business, he
-found the letter almost the first thing.  He dropped everything, and
-came, with his wife, to hunt that baby, because he always had loved
-his brother dearly, and wanted him back.  He had hunted for him all
-he dared all these years, but when he got here you were gone--I
-mean the baby was gone, and I had to tell you, Freckles, for you
-see, it might have happened to you like that just as easy as to
-that other lost boy."
-
-Freckles reached up and turned the Angel's face until he compelled
-her eyes to meet his.
-
-"Angel," he asked quietly, "why don't you look at me when you are
-telling about that lost boy?"
-
-"I--I didn't know I wasn't," faltered the Angel.
-
-"It seems to me," said Freckles, his breath beginning to come in
-sharp wheezes, "that you got us rather mixed, and it ain't like you
-to be mixing things till one can't be knowing.  If they were telling
-you so much, did they say which hand was for being off that lost boy?"
-
-The Angel's eyes escaped again.
-
-"It--it was the same as yours," she ventured, barely breathing in
-her fear.
-
-Still Freckles lay rigid and whiter than the coverlet.
-
-"Would that boy be as old as me?" he asked.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel faintly.
-
-"Angel," said Freckles at last, catching her wrist, "are you trying
-to tell me that there is somebody hunting a boy that you're
-thinking might be me?  Are you belavin' you've found me relations?"
-
-Then the Angel's eyes came home.  The time had come.  She pinioned
-Freckles' arms to his sides and bent above him.
-
-"How strong are you, dear heart?" she breathed.  "How brave are you?
-Can you bear it?  Dare I tell you that?"
-
-"No!" gasped Freckles.  "Not if you're sure!  I can't bear it! 
-I'll die if you do!"
-
-The day had been one unremitting strain with the Angel. 
-Nerve tension was drawn to the finest thread.  It snapped suddenly.
-
-"Die!" she flamed.  "Die, if I tell you that!  You said this morning
-that you would die if you DIDN'T know your name, and if your people
-were honorable.  Now I've gone and found you a name that stands for
-ages of honor, a mother who loved you enough to go into the fire
-and die for you, and the nicest kind of relatives, and you turn
-round and say you'll die over that!  YOU JUST TRY DYING AND YOU'LL
-GET A GOOD SLAP!"
-
-The Angel stood glaring at him.  One second Freckles lay paralyzed
-and dumb with astonishment.  The next the Irish in his soul arose
-above everything.  A laugh burst from him.  The terrified Angel
-caught him in her arms and tried to stifle the sound.  She implored
-and commanded.  When he was too worn to utter another sound, his
-eyes laughed silently.
-
-After a long time, when he was quiet and rested, the Angel
-commenced talking to him gently, and this time her big eyes, humid
-with tenderness and mellow with happiness, seemed as if they could
-not leave his face.
-
-"Dear Freckles," she was saying, "across your knees there is the
-face of the mother who went into the fire for you, and I know the
-name--old and full of honor--to which you were born.  Dear heart,
-which will you have first?"
-
-Freckles was very tired; the big drops of perspiration ran together
-on his temples; but the watching Angel caught the words his lips
-formed, "Me mother!"
-
-She lifted the lovely pictured face and set it in the nook of his arm. 
-Freckles caught her hand and drew her beside him, and together
-they gazed at the picture while the tears slid over their cheeks.
-
-"Me mother!  Oh, me mother!  Can you ever be forgiving me?  Oh, me
-beautiful little mother!" chanted Freckles over and over in exalted
-wonder, until he was so completely exhausted that his lips refused
-to form the question in his weary eyes.
-
-"Wait!" cried the Angel with inborn refinement, for she could no
-more answer that question than he could ask.  "Wait, I will write it!"
-
-She hurried to the table, caught up the nurse's pencil, and on the
-back of a prescription tablet scrawled it:  "Terence Maxwell O'More,
-Dunderry House, County Clare, Ireland."
-
-Before she had finished came Freckles' voice:  "Angel, are you hurrying?"
-
-"Yes," said the Angel; "I am.  But there is a good deal of it.  I have
-to put in your house and country, so that you will feel located."
-
-"Me house?" marveled Freckles.
-
-"Of course," said the Angel.  "Your uncle says your grandmother left
-your father her dower house and estate, because she knew his father
-would cut him off.  You get that, and all your share of your
-grandfather's property besides.  It is all set off for you and
-waiting.  Lord O'More told me so.  I suspect you are richer than
-McLean, Freckles."
-
-She closed his fingers over the slip and straightened his hair.
-
-"Now you are all right, dear Limberlost guard," she said.  "You go
-to sleep and don't think of a thing but just pure joy, joy, joy!
-I'll keep your people until you wake up.  You are too tired to see
-anyone else just now!"
-
-Freckles caught her skirt as she turned from him.
-
-"I'll go to sleep in five minutes," he said, "if you will be doing
-just one thing more for me.  Send for your father!  Oh, Angel, send
-for him quick!  How will I ever be waiting until he comes?"
-
-One instant the Angel stood looking at him.  The next a crimson wave
-darkly stained her lovely face.  Her chin began a spasmodic
-quivering and the tears sprang into her eyes.  Her hands caught at
-her chest as if she were stifling.  Freckles' grasp on her tightened
-until he drew her beside him.  He slipped his arm around her and
-drew her face to his pillow.
-
-"Don't, Angel; for the love of mercy don't be doing that,"
-he implored.  "I can't be bearing it.  Tell me.  You must tell me."
-
-The Angel shook her head.
-
-"That ain't fair, Angel," said Freckles.  "You made me tell you
-when it was like tearing the heart raw from me breast.  And you was
-for making everything heaven--just heaven and nothing else for me. 
-If I'm so much more now than I was an hour ago, maybe I can be
-thinking of some way to fix things.  You will be telling me?" he
-coaxed, moving his cheek against her hair.
-
-The Angel's head moved in negation.  Freckles did a moment of
-intent thinking.
-
-"Maybe I can be guessing," he whispered.  "Will you be giving me
-three chances?"
-
-There was the faintest possible assent.
-
-"You didn't want me to be knowing me name," guessed Freckles.
-
-The Angel's head sprang from the pillow and her tear-stained face
-flamed with outraged indignation.
-
-"Why, I did too!" she cried angrily.
-
-"One gone," said Freckles calmly.  "You didn't want me to have
-relatives, a home, and money."
-
-"I did!" exclaimed the Angel.  "Didn't I go myself, all alone, into
-the city, and find them when I was afraid as death?  I did too!"
-
-"Two gone," said Freckles.  "You didn't want the beautifulest girl
-in the world to be telling me.----"
-
-Down went the Angel's face and a heavy sob shook her.  Freckles'
-clasp tightened around her shoulders, while his face, in its
-conflicting emotions, was a study.  He was so stunned and bewildered
-by the miracle that had been performed in bringing to light his
-name and relatives that he had no strength left for elaborate
-mental processes.  Despite all it meant to him to know his name at
-last, and that he was of honorable birth--knowledge without which
-life was an eternal disgrace and burden the one thing that was
-hammering in Freckles' heart and beating in his brain, past any
-attempted expression, was the fact that, while nameless and
-possibly born in shame, the Angel had told him that she loved him.
-He could find no word with which to begin to voice the rapture of
-his heart over that.  But if she regretted it--if it had been a
-thing done out of her pity for his condition, or her feeling of
-responsibility, if it killed him after all, there was only one
-thing left to do.  Not for McLean, not for the Bird Woman, not for
-the Duncans would Freckles have done it--but for the Angel--if it
-would make her happy--he would do anything.
-
-"Angel," whispered Freckles, with his lips against her hair, "you
-haven't learned your history book very well, or else you've forgotten."
-
-"Forgotten what?" sobbed the Angel.
-
-"Forgotten about the real knight, Ladybird," breathed Freckles.
-"Don't you know that, if anything happened that made his lady
-sorry, a real knight just simply couldn't be remembering it?  Angel,
-darling little Swamp Angel, you be listening to me.  There was one
-night on the trail, one solemn, grand, white night, that there
-wasn't ever any other like before or since, when the dear Boss put
-his arm around me and told me that he loved me; but if you care,
-Angel, if you don't want it that way, why, I ain't remembering that
-anyone else ever did--not in me whole life."
-
-The Angel lifted her head and looked into the depths of Freckles'
-honest gray eyes, and they met hers unwaveringly; but the pain in
-them was pitiful.
-
-"Do you mean," she demanded, "that you don't remember that a
-brazen, forward girl told you, when you hadn't asked her, that
-she"--the Angel choked on it a second, but she gave a gulp and
-brought it out bravely--"that she loved you?"
-
-"No!" cried Freckles.  "No!  I don't remember anything of the kind!"
-
-But all the songbirds of his soul burst into melody over that one
-little clause:  "When you hadn't asked her."
-
-"But you will," said the Angel.  "You may live to be an old, old
-man, and then you will."
-
-"I will not!" cried Freckles.  "How can you think it, Angel?"
-
-"You won't even LOOK as if you remember?"
-
-"I will not!" persisted Freckles.  "I'll be swearing to it if you
-want me to.  If you wasn't too tired to think this thing out
-straight, you'd be seeing that I couldn't--that I just simply
-couldn't!  I'd rather give it all up now and go into eternity alone,
-without ever seeing a soul of me same blood, or me home, or hearing
-another man call me by the name I was born to, than to remember
-anything that would be hurting you, Angel.  I should think you'd be
-understanding that it ain't no ways possible for me to do it."
-
-The Angel's tear-stained face flashed into dazzling beauty. 
-A half-hysterical little laugh broke from her heart and bubbled over
-her lips.
-
-"Oh, Freckles, forgive me!" she cried.  "I've been through so much
-that I'm scarcely myself, or I wouldn't be here bothering you when you
-should be sleeping.  Of course you couldn't!  I knew it all the time! 
-I was just scared!  I was forgetting that you were you!  You're too
-good a knight to remember a thing like that.  Of course you are! 
-And when you don't remember, why, then it's the same as if it
-never happened.  I was almost killed because I'd gone and spoiled
-everything, but now it will be all right.  Now you can go on and do
-things like other men, and I can have some flowers, and letters,
-and my sweetheart coming, and when you are SURE, why, then YOU can tell
-ME things, can't you?  Oh, Freckles, I'm so glad!  Oh, I'm so happy! 
-It's dear of you not to remember, Freckles; perfectly dear!
-It's no wonder I love you so.  The wonder would be if I did not. 
-Oh, I should like to know how I'm ever going to make you understand
-how much I love you!"
-
-Pillow and all, she caught him to her breast one long second; then
-she was gone.
-
-Freckles lay dazed with astonishment.  At last his amazed eyes
-searched the room for something approaching the human to which he
-could appeal, and falling on his mother's portrait, he set it
-before him.
-
-"For the love of life!  Me little mother," he panted, "did you
-hear that?  Did you hear it!  Tell me, am I living, or am I dead and
-all heaven come true this minute?  Did you hear it?"
-
-He shook the frame in his impatience at receiving no answer.
-
-"You are only a pictured face," he said at last, "and of course you
-can't talk; but the soul of you must be somewhere, and surely in this
-hour you are close enough to be hearing.  Tell me, did you hear that? 
-I can't ever be telling a living soul; but darling little mother,
-who gave your life for mine, I can always be talking of it
-to you!  Every day we'll talk it over and try to understand the
-miracle of it.  Tell me, are all women like that?  Were you like me
-Swamp Angel?  If you were, then I'm understanding why me father
-followed across the ocean and went into the fire."
-
-
-
-                                 CHAPTER XX
-
-Wherein Freckles returns to the Limberlost, and Lord O'More Sails
-                          for Ireland Without Him
-
-Freckles' voice ceased, his eyes closed, and his head rolled back
-from exhaustion.  Later in the day he insisted on seeing Lord and
-Lady O'More, but he fainted before the resemblance of another man
-to him, and gave all of his friends a terrible fright.
-
-The next morning, the Man of Affairs, with a heart filled with
-misgivings, undertook the interview on which Freckles insisted. 
-His fears were without cause.  Freckles was the soul of honor
-and simplicity.
-
-"Have they been telling you what's come to me?" he asked without
-even waiting for a greeting.
-
-"Yes," said the Angel's father.
-
-"Do you think you have the very worst of it clear to your understanding?"
-
-Under Freckles' earnest eyes the Man of Affairs answered soberly:
-"I think I have, Mr. O'More."
-
-That was the first time Freckles heard his name from the lips
-of another.  One second he lay overcome; the next, tears filled his
-eyes, and he reached out his hand.  Then the Angel's father understood,
-and he clasped that hand and held it in a strong, firm grasp.
-
-"Terence, my boy," he said, "let me do the talking.  I came here
-with the understanding that you wanted to ask me for my only child.
-I should like, at the proper time, to regard her marriage, if she
-has found the man she desires to marry, not as losing all I have,
-but as gaining a man on whom I can depend to love as a son and to
-take charge of my affairs for her when I retire from business. 
-Bend all of your energies toward rapid recovery, and from this hour
-understand that my daughter and my home are yours."
-
-"You're not forgetting this?"
-
-Freckles lifted his right arm.
-
-"Terence, I'm sorrier than I have words to express about that,"
-said the Man of Affairs.  "It's a damnable pity!  But if it's for me
-to choose whether I give all I have left in this world to a man
-lacking a hand, or to one of these gambling, tippling, immoral
-spendthrifts of today, with both hands and feet off their souls,
-and a rotten spot in the core, I choose you; and it seems that my
-daughter does the same.  Put what is left you of that right arm to
-the best uses you can in this world, and never again mention or
-feel that it is defective so long as you live.  Good day, sir!"
-
-"One minute more," said Freckles.  "Yesterday the Angel was telling
-me that there was money coming to me from two sources.  She said
-that me grandmother had left me father all of her fortune and her
-house, because she knew that his father would be cutting him off,
-and also that me uncle had set aside for me what would be me
-father's interest in his father's estate.
-
-"Whatever the sum is that me grandmother left me father, because
-she loved him and wanted him to be having it, that I'll be taking.
-'Twas hers from her father, and she had the right to be giving it
-as she chose.  Anything from the man that knowingly left me father
-and me mother to go cold and hungry, and into the fire in misery,
-when just a little would have made life so beautiful to them, and
-saved me this crippled body--money that he willed from me when he
-knew I was living, of his blood and on charity among strangers, I
-don't touch, not if I freeze, starve, and burn too!  If there ain't
-enough besides that, and I can't be earning enough to fix things
-for the Angel----"
-
-"We are not discussing money!" burst in the Man of Affairs. 
-"We don't want any blood-money!  We have all we need without it. 
-If you don't feel right and easy over it, don't you touch a cent
-of any of it."
-
-"It's right I should have what me grandmother intinded for me
-father, and I want it," said Freckles, "but I'd die before I'd
-touch a cent of me grandfather's money!"
-
-
-"Now," said the Angel, "we are all going home.  We have done all we
-can for Freckles.  His people are here.  He should know them.  They are
-very anxious to become acquainted with him.  We'll resign him to them. 
-When he is well, why, then he will be perfectly free to go to
-Ireland or come to the Limberlost, just as he chooses.  We will go
-at once."
-
-McLean held out for a week, and then he could endure it no longer.
-He was heart hungry for Freckles.  Communing with himself in the
-long, soundful nights of the swamp, he had learned to his
-astonishment that for the past year his heart had been circling the
-Limberlost with Freckles.  He began to wish that he had not left him. 
-Perhaps the boy--his boy by first right, after all--was being neglected. 
-If the Boss had been a nervous old woman, he scarcely could have
-imagined more things that might be going wrong.
-
-He started for Chicago, loaded with a big box of goldenrod, asters,
-fringed gentians, and crimson leaves, that the Angel carefully had
-gathered from Freckles' room, and a little, long slender package.
-He traveled with biting, stinging jealousy in his heart.  He would
-not admit it even to himself, but he was unable to remain longer
-away from Freckles and leave him to the care of Lord O'More.
-
-In a few minutes' talk, while McLean awaited admission to Freckles'
-room, his lordship had chatted genially of Freckles' rapid
-recovery, of his delight that he was unspotted by his early
-surroundings, and his desire to visit the Limberlost with Freckles
-before they sailed; he expressed the hope that he could prevail
-upon the Angel's father to place her in his wife's care and have
-her education finished in Paris.  He said they were anxious to do
-all they could to help bind Freckles' arrangements with the Angel,
-as both he and Lady O'More regarded her as the most promising girl
-they knew, and one who could be fitted to fill the high position in
-which Freckles would place her.
-
-Every word he uttered was pungent with bitterness to McLean.  The
-swamp had lost its flavor without Freckles; and yet, as Lord O'More
-talked, McLean fervently wished himself in the heart of it.  As he
-entered Freckles' room he almost lost his breath.  Everything was changed.
-
-Freckles lay beside a window where he could follow Lake Michigan's
-blue until the horizon dipped into it.  He could see big soft
-clouds, white-capped waves, shimmering sails, and puffing steamers
-trailing billowing banners of lavender and gray across the sky.
-Gulls and curlews wheeled over the water and dipped their wings in
-the foam.  The room was filled with every luxury that taste and
-money could introduce.
-
-All the tan and sunburn had been washed from Freckles' face in
-sweats of agony.  It was a smooth, even white, its brown rift
-scarcely showing.  What the nurses and Lady O'More had done to
-Freckles' hair McLean could not guess, but it was the most
-beautiful that he ever had seen.  Fine as floss, bright in color,
-waving and crisp, it fell around the white face.
-
-They had gotten his arms into and his chest covered with a finely
-embroidered, pale-blue silk shirt, with soft, white tie at the throat. 
-Among the many changes that had taken place during his absence,
-the fact that Freckles was most attractive and barely escaped
-being handsome remained almost unnoticed by the Boss, so great
-was his astonishment at seeing both cuffs turned back and the
-right arm in view.  Freckles was using the maimed arm that
-previously he always had hidden.
-
-"Oh Lord, sir, but I'm glad to see you!" cried Freckles, almost
-rolling from the bed as he reached toward McLean.  "Tell me quick,
-is the Angel well and happy?  Can me Little Chicken spread six feet
-of wing and sail to his mother?  How's me new father, the Bird
-Woman, Duncans, and Nellie--darling little high-stepping Nelie? 
-Me Aunt Alice is going to choose the hat just as soon as I'm mended
-enough to be going with her.  How are all the gang?  Have they found
-any more good trees?  I've been thinking a lot, sir.  I believe I can
-find others near that last one.  Me Aunt Alice thinks maybe I can,
-and Uncle Terence says it's likely.  Golly, but they're nice,
-ilegant people.  I tell you I'm proud to be same blood with them!
-Come closer, quick!  I was going to do this yesterday, and somehow
-I just felt that you'd surely be coming today and I waited. 
-I'm selecting the Angel's ring stone.  The ring she ordered for me
-is finished and they sent it to keep me company.  See?  It's an
-emerald--just me color, Lord O'More says."
-
-Freckles flourished his hand.
-
-"Ain't that fine?  Never took so much comfort with anything in
-me life.  Every color of the old swamp is in it.  I asked the Angel
-to have a little shamrock leaf cut on it, so every time I saw it I'd
-be thinking of the `love, truth, and valor' of that song she was
-teaching me.  Ain't that a beautiful song?  Some of these days I'm
-going to make it echo.  I'm a little afraid to be doing it with me
-voice yet, but me heart's tuning away on it every blessed hour.
-Will you be looking at these now?"
-
-Freckles tilted a tray of unset stones from Peacock's that would
-have ransomed several valuable kings.  He held them toward McLean,
-stirring them with his right arm.
-
-"I tell you I'm glad to see you, sir" he said.  "I tried to tell me
-uncle what I wanted, but this ain't for him to be mixed up in,
-anyway, and I don't think I made it clear to him.  I couldn't seem
-to say the words I wanted.  I can be telling you, sir."
-
-McLean's heart began to thump as a lover's.
-
-"Go on, Freckles," he said assuringly.
-
-"It's this," said Freckles.  "I told him that I would pay only three
-hundred dollars for the Angel's stone.  I'm thinking that with what
-he has laid up for me, and the bigness of things that the Angel did
-for me, it seems like a stingy little sum to him.  I know he thinks
-I should be giving much more, but I feel as if I just had to be
-buying that stone with money I earned meself; and that is all I
-have saved of me wages.  I don't mind paying for the muff, or the
-drexing table, or Mrs. Duncan's things, from that other money, and
-later the Angel can have every last cent of me grandmother's, if
-she'll take it; but just now--oh, sir, can't you see that I have to
-be buying this stone with what I have in the bank?  I'm feeling that
-I couldn't do any other way, and don't you think the Angel would
-rather have the best stone I can buy with the money I earned meself
-than a finer one paid for with other money?"
-
-"In other words, Freckles," said the Boss in a husky voice, "you
-don't want to buy the Angel's ring with money.  You want to give for
-it your first awful fear of the swamp.  You want to pay for it with
-the loneliness and heart hunger you have suffered there, with last
-winter's freezing on the line and this summer's burning in the sun.
-You want it to stand to her for every hour in which you risked your
-life to fulfill your contract honorably.  You want the price of that
-stone to be the fears that have chilled your heart--the sweat and
-blood of your body."
-
-Freckles' eyes were filled with tears and his face quivering with feeling.
-
-"Dear Mr. McLean," he said, reaching with a caress over the Boss's
-black hair and his cheek.  "Dear Boss, that's why I've wanted you so. 
-I knew you would know.  Now you will be looking at these?  I don't
-want emeralds, because that's what she gave me."
-
-He pushed the green stones into a little heap of rejected ones.
-Then he singled out all the pearls.
-
-"Ain't they pretty things?" he said.  "I'll be getting her some of
-those later.  They are like lily faces, turtle-head flowers,
-dewdrops in the shade or moonlight; but they haven't the life in
-them that I want in the stone I give to the Angel right now."
-
-Freckles heaped the pearls with the emeralds.  He studied the
-diamonds a long time.
-
-"These things are so fascinating like they almost tempt one, though
-they ain't quite the proper thing," he said.  "I've always dearly
-loved to be watching yours, sir.  I must get her some of these big
-ones, too, some day.  They're like the Limberlost in January, when
-it's all ice-coated, and the sun is in the west and shines through
-and makes all you can see of the whole world look like fire and
-ice; but fire and ice ain't like the Angel."
-
-The diamonds joined the emeralds and pearls.  There was left a
-little red heap, and Freckles' fingers touched it with a new
-tenderness.  His eyes were flashing.
-
-"I'm thinking here's me Angel's stone," he exulted.  "The
-Limberlost, and me with it, grew in mine; but it's going to bloom,
-and her with it, in this!  There's the red of the wild poppies, the
-cardinal-flowers, and the little bunch of crushed foxfire that we
-found where she put it to save me.  There's the light of the
-campfire, and the sun setting over Sleepy Snake Creek.  There's the
-red of the blood we were willing to give for each other.  It's like
-her lips, and like the drops that dried on her beautiful arm that
-first day, and I'm thinking it must be like the brave, tender,
-clean, red heart of her."
-
-Freckles lifted the ruby to his lips and handed it to McLean.
-
-"I'll be signing me cheque and you have it set," he said.  "I want
-you to draw me money and pay for it with those very same dollars, sir."
-
-Again the heart of McLean took hope.
-
-"Freckles, may I ask you something?" he said.
-
-"Why, sure," said Freckles.  "There's nothing you would be asking
-that it wouldn't be giving me joy to be telling you."
-
-McLean's eyes traveled to Freckles' right arm with which he was
-moving the jewels.
-
-"Oh, that!" cried Freckles with a laugh.  "You're wanting to know
-where all the bitterness is gone?  Well sir, 'twas carried from me
-soul, heart, and body on the lips of an Angel.  Seems that hurt was
-necessary in the beginning to make today come true.  The wound had
-always been raw, but the Angel was healing it.  If she doesn't care,
-I don't.  Me dear new father doesn't, nor me aunt and uncle, and you
-never did.  Why should I be fretting all me life about what can't
-be helped.  The real truth is, that since what happened to it last
-week, I'm so everlastingly proud of it I catch meself sticking it
-out on display a bit."
-
-Freckles looked the Boss in the eyes and began to laugh.
-
-"Well thank heaven!" said McLean.
-
-"Now it's me turn," said Freckles.  "I don't know as I ought to be
-asking you, and yet I can't see a reason good enough to keep me
-from it.  It's a thing I've had on me mind every hour since I've had
-time to straighten things out a little.  May I be asking you a question?"
-
-McLean reached over and took Freckles' hand.  His voice was shaken
-with feeling as he replied:  "Freckles, you almost hurt me.  Will you
-never learn how much you are to me--how happy you make me in coming
-to me with anything, no matter what?"
-
-"Then it's this," said Freckles, gripping the hand of McLean strongly. 
-"If this accident, and all that's come to me since, had never
-happened, where was it you had planned to send me to school? 
-What was it you meant for me to do?"
-
-"Why, Freckles," answered McLean, "I'm scarcely prepared to
-state definitely.  My ideas were rather hazy.  I thought we would
-make a beginning and see which way things went.  I figured on taking
-you to Grand Rapids first, and putting you in the care of my mother. 
-I had an idea it would be best to secure a private tutor to coach you
-for a year or two, until you were ready to enter Ann Arbor or the
-Chicago University in good shape.  Then I thought we'd finish in
-this country at Yale or Harvard, and end with Oxford, to get a
-good, all-round flavor."
-
-"Is that all?" asked Freckles.
-
-"No; that's leaving the music out," said McLean.  "I intended to
-have your voice tested by some master, and if you really were
-endowed for a career as a great musician, and had inclinations that
-way, I wished to have you drop some of the college work and make
-music your chief study.  Finally, I wanted us to take a trip through
-Europe and clear around the circle together"
-
-"And then what?" queried Freckles breathlessly.
-
-"Why, then," said McLean, "you know that my heart is hopelessly in
-the woods.  I never will quit the timber business while there is
-timber to handle and breath in my body.  I thought if you didn't
-make a profession of music, and had any inclination my way, we
-would stretch the partnership one more and take you into the firm,
-placing your work with me.  Those plans may sound jumbled in the
-telling, but they have grown steadily on me, Freckles, as you have
-grown dear to me."
-
-Freckles lifted anxious and eager eyes to McLean.
-
-"You told me once on the trail, and again when we thought that I
-was dying, that you loved me.  Do these things that have come to me
-make any difference in any way with your feeing toward me?"
-
-"None," said McLean.  "How could they, Freckles?  Nothing could make
-me love you more, and you never will do anything that will make me
-love you less."
-
-"Glory be to God!" cried Freckles.  "Glory to the Almighty!  Hurry
-and be telling your mother I'm coming!  Just as soon as I can get on
-me feet I'll be taking that ring to me Angel, and then I'll go to
-Grand Rapids and be making me start just as you planned, only that
-I can be paying me own way.  When I'm educated enough, we'll
-all--the Angel and her father, the Bird Woman, you, and me--all of
-us will go together and see me house and me relations and be taking
-that trip.  When we get back, we'll add O'More to the Lumber
-Company, and golly, sir, but we'll make things hum!  Good land, sir!
-Don't do that!  Why, Mr. McLean, dear Boss, dear father, don't be
-doing that!  What is it?"
-
-"Nothing, nothing!" boomed McLean's deep bass; "nothing at all!"
-
-He abruptly turned, and hurried to the window.
-
-"This is a mighty fine view," he said.  "Lake's beautiful
-this morning.  No wonder Chicago people are so proud of their city's
-location on its shore.  But, Freckles, what is Lord O'More going to
-say to this?"
-
-"I don't know," said Freckles.  "I am going to be cut deep if he
-cares, for he's been more than good to me, and Lady Alice is next
-to me Angel.  He's made me feel me blood and race me own possession.
-She's talked to me by the hour of me father and mother and
-me grandmother.  She's made them all that real I can lay claim to them
-and feel that they are mine.  I'm very sorry to be hurting them, if
-it will, but it can't be changed.  Nobody ever puts the width of the
-ocean between me and the Angel.  From here to the Limberlost is all
-I can be bearing peaceable.  I want the education, and then I want
-to work and live here in the country where I was born, and where
-the ashes of me father and mother rest.
-
-"I'll be glad to see Ireland, and glad especial to see those little
-people who are my kin, but I ain't ever staying long.  All me heart
-is the Angel's, and the Limberlost is calling every minute. 
-You're thinking, sir, that when I look from that window I see the
-beautiful water, ain't you?  I'm not.
-
-"I see soft, slow clouds oozing across the blue, me big black
-chickens hanging up there, and a great feather softly sliding down.
-I see mighty trees, swinging vines, bright flowers, and always
-masses of the wild roses, with the wild rose face of me Ladybird
-looking through.  I see the swale rocking, smell the sweetness of
-the blooming things, and the damp, mucky odor of the swamp; and I
-hear me birds sing, me squirrels bark, the rattlers hiss, and the
-step of Wessner or Black Jack coming; and whether it's the things
-that I loved or the things that I feared, it's all a part of the day.
-
-"Me heart's all me Swamp Angel's, and me love is all hers, and I
-have her and the swamp so confused in me mind I never can be
-separating them.  When I look at her, I see blue sky, the sun
-rifting through the leaves and pink and red flowers; and when I
-look at the Limberlost I see a pink face with blue eyes, gold hair,
-and red lips, and, it's the truth, sir, they're mixed till they're
-one to me!
-
-"I'm afraid it will be hurting some, but I have the feeing that I
-can be making my dear people understand, so that they will be
-willing to let me come back home.  Send Lady O'More to put these
-flowers God made in the place of these glass-house ilegancies, and
-please be cutting the string of this little package the Angel's
-sent me."
-
-As Freckles held up the package, the lights of the Limberlost
-flashed from the emerald on his finger.  On the cover was printed:
-"To the Limberlost Guard!"  Under it was a big, crisp, iridescent
-black feather.
-
-
-End of Project Gutenberg etext of "Freckles"
-
-
-
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