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diff --git a/23553-0.txt b/23553-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e2b2ff --- /dev/null +++ b/23553-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,956 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Miracle, by +Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +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: The Christmas Miracle + 1911 + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +Release Date: November 19, 2007 [EBook #23553] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE + +By Charles Egbert Craddock + +1911 + + +He yearned for a sign from the heavens. Could one intimation be +vouchsafed him, how it would confirm his faltering faith! Jubal Kennedy +was of the temperament impervious to spiritual subtleties, fain to reach +conclusions with the line and rule of mathematical demonstration. Thus, +all unreceptive, he looked through the mountain gap, as through some +stupendous gateway, on the splendors of autumn; the vast landscape +glamorous in a transparent amethystine haze; the foliage of the dense +primeval wilderness in the October richness of red and russet; the +“hunter's moon,” a full sphere of illuminated pearl, high in the blue +east while yet the dull vermilion sun swung westering above the massive +purple heights. He knew how the sap was sinking; that the growths of the +year had now failed; presently all would be shrouded in snow, but only +to rise again in the reassurance of vernal quickening, to glow anew in +the fullness of bloom, to attain eventually the perfection of fruition. +And still he was deaf to the reiterated analogy of death, and blind to +the immanent obvious prophecy of resurrection and the life to come. His +thoughts, as he stood on this jutting crag in Sunrise Gap, were with +a recent “experience meeting” at which he had sought to canvass his +spiritual needs. His demand of a sign from the heavens as evidence of +the existence of the God of revelation, as assurance of the awakening of +divine grace in the human heart, as actual proof that wistful mortality +is inherently endowed with immortality, had electrified this symposium. +Though it was fashionable, so to speak, in this remote cove among the +Great Smoky Mountains, to be repentant in rhetorical involutions and a +self-accuser in finespun interpretations of sin, doubt, or more properly +an eager questioning, a desire to possess the sacred mysteries of +religion, was unprecedented. Kennedy was a proud man, reticent, +reserved. Although the old parson, visibly surprised and startled, had +gently invited his full confidence, Kennedy had hastily swallowed his +words, as best he might, perceiving that the congregation had wholly +misinterpreted their true intent and that certain gossips had an unholy +relish of the sensation they had caused. + +Thereafter he indulged his poignant longings for the elucidation of the +veiled truths only when, as now, he wandered deep in the woods with his +rifle on his shoulder. He could not have said to-day that he was nearer +an inspiration, a hope, a “leading,” than heretofore, but as he stood on +the crag it was with the effect of a dislocation that he was torn from +the solemn theme by an interruption at a vital crisis. + +The faint vibrations of a violin stirred the reverent hush of the +landscape in the blended light of the setting sun and the “hunter's +moon.” Presently the musician came into view, advancing slowly through +the aisles of the red autumn forest. A rapt figure it was, swaying in +responsive ecstasy with the rhythmic cadence. The head, with its +long, blowsy yellow hair, was bowed over the dark polished wood of +the instrument; the eyes were half closed; the right arm, despite the +eccentric patches on the sleeve of the old brown-jeans coat, moved with +free, elastic gestures in all the liberties of a practiced bowing. If he +saw the hunter motionless on the brink of the crag, the fiddler gave +no intimation. His every faculty was as if enthralled by the swinging +iteration of the sweet melancholy melody, rendered with a breadth of +effect, an inspiration, it might almost have seemed, incongruous with +the infirmities of the crazy old fiddle. He was like a creature under +the sway of a spell, and apparently drawn by this dulcet lure of the +enchantment of sound was the odd procession that trailed silently after +him through these deep mountain fastnesses. + +A woman came first, arrayed in a ragged purple skirt and a yellow blouse +open at the throat, displaying a slender white neck which upheld a face +of pensive, inert beauty. She clasped in her arms a delicate infant, +ethereal of aspect with its flaxen hair, transparently pallid +complexion, and wide blue eyes. It was absolutely quiescent, save +that now and then it turned feebly in its waxen hands a little striped +red-and-yellow pomegranate. A sturdy blond toddler trudged behind, in a +checked blue cotton frock, short enough to disclose cherubic pink feet +and legs bare to the knee; he carried that treasure of rural juveniles, +a cornstalk violin. An old hound, his tail suavely wagging, padded along +the narrow path; and last of all came, with frequent pause to crop the +wayside herbage, a large cow, brindled red and white. + +“The whole fambly!” muttered Kennedy. Then, aloud, “Why don't you uns +kerry the baby, Basil Bedell, an' give yer wife a rest?” + +At the prosaic suggestion the crystal realm of dreams was shattered. The +bow, with a quavering discordant scrape upon the strings, paused. Then +Bedell slowly mastered the meaning of the interruption. + +“Kerry the baby! Why, Aurely won't let none but herself tech that baby.” + He laughed as he tossed the tousled yellow hair from his face, and +looked over his shoulder to speak to the infant. “It air sech a plumb +special delightsome peach, it air,--it air!” + +The pale face of the child lighted up with a smile of recognition and a +faint gleam of mirth. + +“I jes' kem out ennyhows ter drive up the cow,” Basil added. + +“Big job,” sneered Kennedy. “'Pears-like it takes the whole fambly to do +it.” + +Such slothful mismanagement was calculated to affront an energetic +spirit. Obviously, at this hour the woman should be at home cooking the +supper. + +“I follered along ter listen ter the fiddle,--ef ye hev enny call ter +know.” Mrs. Bedell replied to his unspoken thought, as if by divination. + +But indeed such strictures were not heard for the first time. They were +in some sort the penalty of the disinterested friendship which Kennedy +had harbored for Basil since their childhood. He wished that his compeer +might prosper in such simple wise as his own experience had proved to +be amply possible. Kennedy's earlier incentive to industry had been his +intention to marry, but the object of his affections had found him “too +mortal solemn,” and without a word of warning had married another man in +a distant cove. The element of treachery in this event had gone far to +reconcile the jilted lover to his future, bereft of her companionship, +but the habit of industry thus formed had continued of its own momentum. +It had resulted in forehanded thrift; he now possessed a comfortable +holding,--cattle, house, ample land; and he had all the intolerance +of the ant for the cricket. As Bedell lifted the bow once more, every +wincing nerve was enlisted in arresting it in mid-air. + +“Mighty long tramp fur Bobbie, thar,--why n't ye kerry him!” y + +The imperturbable calm still held fast on the musician's face. “Bob,” he +addressed the toddler, “will you uns let daddy kerry ye like a baby!” + +He swooped down as if to lift the child, the violin and bow in his left +hand. The hardy youngster backed off precipitately. + +“Don't ye _dare_ ter do it!” he virulently admonished his parent, a +resentful light in his blue eyes. Then, as Bedell sang a stave in a full +rich voice, “Bye-oh, Baby!” Bob vociferated anew, “Don't you _begin_ ter +dare do it!” every inch a man though a little one. + +“That's the kind of a fambly I hev got,” Basil commented easily. “Wife +an' boy an' baby all walk over me,--plumb stomp on me! Jes' enough lef +of me ter play the fiddle a leetle once in a while.” + +“Mighty nigh all the while, I be afeared,” Kennedy corrected the phrase. +“How did yer corn crap turn out!” he asked, as he too fell into line and +the procession moved on once more along the narrow path. + +“Well enough,” said Basil; “we uns hev got a sufficiency.” Then, as if +afraid of seeming boastful he qualified, “Ye know I hain't got but +one muel ter feed, an' the cow thar. My sheep gits thar pastur' on +the volunteer grass 'mongst the rocks, an' I hev jes' got a few head +ennyhows.” + +“But _why_ hain't ye got more, Basil! Why n't ye work more and quit +wastin' yer time on that old fool fiddle!” + +The limits of patience were reached. The musician fired up. “'Kase,” + he retorted, “I make enough. I hev got grace enough ter be thankful fur +sech ez be vouchsafed ter me. _I_ ain't wantin' no meracle.” + +Kennedy flushed, following in silence while the musician annotated his +triumph by a series of gay little harmonics, and young Hopeful, trudging +in the rear, executed a soundless fantasia on the cornstalk fiddle with +great brilliancy of technique. + +“You uns air talkin' 'bout whut I said at the meetin' las' month,” + Kennedy observed at length. + +“An' so be all the mounting,” Aurelia interpolated with a sudden fierce +joy of reproof. + +Kennedy winced visibly. + +“The folks all 'low ez ye be no better than an onbeliever.” Aurelia was +bent on driving the blade home. “The idee of axin' fur a meracle at this +late day,--so ez _ye_ kin be satisfied in yer mind ez ye hev got grace! +Providence, though merciful, air _obleeged_, ter know ez sech air plumb +scandalous an' redic'lous.” + +“Why, Aurely, hesh up,” exclaimed her husband, startled from his wonted +leniency. “I hev never hearn ye talk in sech a key,--yer voice sounds +plumb out o' tune. I be plumb sorry, Jube, ez I spoke ter you uns 'bout +a meracle at all. But I frar consider'ble nettled by yer words, ye +see,--'kase I know I be a powerful, lazy, shif'less cuss----” + +“Ye know a lie, then,” his helpmate interrupted promptly. + +“Why, Aurely, hesh up,--ye--ye--_woman_, ye!” he concluded injuriously. +Then resuming his remarks to Kennedy, “I know I _do_ fool away a deal of +my time with the fiddle----” + +“The sound of it is like bread ter me,-- + +“I couldn't live without it,” interposed the unconquered Aurelia. +“Sometimes it minds me o' the singin' o' runnin' water in a lonesome +place. Then agin it minds me o' seein' sunshine in a dream. An' +sometimes it be sweet an' high an' fur off, like a voice from the sky, +tellin' what no mortial ever knowed before,--an' _then_ it minds me o' +the tune them angels sung ter the shepherds abidin' in the fields. I +_couldn't_ live without it.” + +“Woman, hold yer jaw!” Basil proclaimed comprehensively. Then, renewing +his explanation to Kennedy, “I kin see that I don't purvide fur my +fambly ez I ought ter do, through hatin' work and lovin' to play the +fiddle.” + +“I ain't goin' ter hear my home an' hearth reviled.” Aurelia laid an +imperative hand on her husband's arm. “Ye know ye couldn 't make more +out'n sech ground,--though I ain't faultin' our land, neither. We uns +hev enough an' ter spare, all we need an' more than we deserve. We don't +need ter ax a meracle from the skies ter stay our souls on faith, nor a +sign ter prove our grace.” + +“Now, _now, stop_, Aurely!--I declar', Jube I dunno what made me lay my +tongue ter sech a word ez that thar miser'ble benighted meracle! I be +powerful sorry I hurt yer feelin's, Jube; folks seekin' salvation git +mightily mis-put sometimes, an'----” + +“_I_ don't want ter hear none o' yer views on religion,” Kennedy +interrupted gruffly. An apology often augments the sense of injury. In +this instance it also annulled the provocation, for his own admission +put Bedell hopelessly in the wrong. “Ez a friend I war argufyin' with ye +agin' yer waste o' time with that old fool fiddle. Ye hev got wife an' +children, an' yit not so well off in this world's gear ez me, a single +man. I misdoubts ef ye hev hunted a day since the craps war laid by, or +hev got a pound o' jerked venison stored up fer winter. But this air +yer home,”--he pointed upward at a little clearing beginning, as they +approached, to be visible amidst the forest,--“an' ef ye air satisfied +with sech ez it be, that comes from laziness stiddier a contented +sperit.” + +With this caustic saying he suddenly left them, the procession standing +silently staring after him as he took his way through the woods in the +dusky red shadows of the autumnal gloaming. + +Aurelia's vaunted home was indeed a poor place,--not even the rude +though substantial log-cabin common to the region. It was a flimsy +shanty of boards, and except for its rickety porch was more like a box +than a house. It had its perch on a jutting eminence, where it seemed +the familiar of the skies, so did the clouds and winds circle about it. +Through the great gateway of Sunrise Gap it commanded a landscape of a +scope that might typify a world, in its multitude of mountain ranges, in +the intricacies of its intervening valleys, in the glittering coils +of its water-courses. Basil would sometimes sink into deep silences, +overpowered by the majesty of nature in this place. After a long hiatus +the bow would tremble and falter on the strings as if overawed for a +time; presently the theme would strengthen, expand, resound with large +meaning, and then he would send forth melodies that he had never before +played or heard, his own dream, the reflection of that mighty mood of +nature in the limpid pool of his receptive mind. + +Around were rocks, crags, chasms,--the fields which nourished the family +lay well from the verge, within the purlieus of the limited mountain +plateau. He had sought to persuade himself that it was to save all the +arable land for tillage that he had placed his house and door-yard here, +but both he and Aurelia were secretly aware of the subterfuge; he would +fain be always within the glamour of the prospect through Sunrise Gap! + +Their interlocutor had truly deemed that the woman should have been +earlier at home cooking the supper. Dusk had deepened to darkness long +before the meal smoked upon the board. The spinning-wheel had begun to +whir for her evening stint when other hill-folks had betaken themselves +to bed. Basil puffed his pipe before the fire; the flicker and +flare pervaded every nook of the bright little house. Strings of +red-pepper-pods flaunted in festoons from the beams; the baby slumbered +under a gay quilt in his rude cradle, never far from his mother's hand, +but the bluff little boy was still up and about, although his aspect, +round and burly, in a scanty nightgown, gave token of recognition of the +fact that bed was his appropriate place. His shrill plaintive voice rose +ever and anon wakefully. + +“I wanter hear a bear tale,--I wanter hear a bear tale.” + +Thus Basil must needs knock the ashes from his pipe the better to devote +himself to the narration,--a prince of raconteurs, to judge by the +spell-bound interest of the youngster who stood at his knee and hung +on his words. Even Aurelia checked the whir of her wheel to listen +smilingly. She broke out laughing in appreciative pleasure when Basil +took up the violin to show how a jovial old bear, who intruded into this +very house one day when all the family were away at the church in the +cove, and who mistook the instrument for a banjo, addressed himself to +picking out this tune, singing the while a quaint and ursine lay. Basil +embellished the imitation with a masterly effect of realistic growls. + +“Ef ye keep goin' at that gait, Basil,” Aurelia admonished him, +“daylight will ketch us all wide awake around the fire,--no wonder the +child won't go to bed.” She seemed suddenly impressed with the pervasive +cheer. “What a fool that man, Jube Kennedy, must be! How _could_ +ennybody hev a sweeter, darlinger home than we uns hev got hyar in +Sunrise Gap!” + +On the languorous autumn a fierce winter ensued. The cold came early. +The deciduous growths of the forests were leafless ere November waned, +rifled by the riotous marauding winds. December set in with the gusty +snow flying fast. Drear were the gray skies; ghastly the sheeted ranges. +Drifts piled high in bleak ravines, and the grim gneissoid crags were +begirt with gigantic icicles. But about the little house in Sunrise +Gap that kept so warm a heart, the holly trees showed their glad green +leaves and the red berries glowed with a mystic significance. + +As the weeks wore on, the place was often in Kennedy's mind, although +he had not seen it since that autumn afternoon when he had bestirred +himself to rebuke its owner concerning the inadequacies of the domestic +provision. His admonition had been kindly meant and had not deserved +the retort, the flippant ridicule of his spiritual yearnings. Though he +still winced from the recollection, he was sorry that he had resisted +the importunacy of Basil's apology. He realized that Aurelia had +persisted to the limit of her power in the embitterment of the +controversy, but even Aurelia he was disposed to forgive as time passed +on. When Christinas Day dawned, the vague sentiment began to assume the +definiteness of a purpose, and noontide found him on his way to Sunrise +Gap. + +There was now no path through the woods; the snow lay deep over all, +unbroken save at long intervals when queer footprints gave token of the +stirring abroad of the sylvan denizens, and he felt an idle interest in +distinguishing the steps of wolf and fox, of opossum and weasel. In the +intricacies of the forest aisles, amid laden boughs of pine and fir, +there was a suggestion of darkness, but all the sky held not enough +light to cast the shadow of a bole on the white blank spaces of the +snow-covered ground. A vague blue haze clothed the air; yet as he drew +near the mountain brink, all was distinct in the vast landscape, the +massive ranges and alternating valleys in infinite repetition. + +He wondered when near the house that he had not heard the familiar +barking of the old hound; then he remembered that the sound of his +horse's hoofs was muffled by the snow. He was glad to be unheralded. +He would like to surprise Aurelia into geniality before her vicarious +rancor for Basil's sake should be roused anew. As he emerged from +the thick growths of the holly, with the icy scintillations of its +clustering green leaves and red berries, he drew rein so suddenly that +the horse was thrown back on his haunches. The rider sat as if petrified +in the presence of an awful disaster. + +The house was gone! Even the site had vanished! Kennedy stared +bewildered. Slowly the realization of what had chanced here began to +creep through his brain. Evidently there had been a gigantic landslide. +The cliff-like projection was broken sheer off,--hurled into the depths +of the valley. Some action of subterranean waters, throughout ages, +doubtless, had been undermining the great crags till the rocky crust +of the earth had collapsed. He could see even now how the freeze had +fractured outcropping ledges where the ice had gathered in the fissures. +A deep abyss that he remembered as being at a considerable distance +from the mountain's brink, once spanned by a foot-bridge, now showed +the remnant of its jagged, shattered walls at the extreme verge of the +precipice. + +A cold chill of horror benumbed his senses. Basil, the wife, the +children,--where were they? A terrible death, surely, to be torn from +the warm securities of the hearth-stone, without a moment's warning, +and hurled into the midst of this frantic turmoil of nature, down to +the depths of the gap,--a thousand feet below! And at what time had this +dread fate befallen his friend? He remembered that at the cross-roads' +store, when he had paused on his way to warm himself that morning, some +gossip was detailing the phenomenon of unseasonable thunder during the +previous night, while others protested that it must have been only +the clamors of “Christmas guns” firing all along the country-side. “A +turrible clap, it was,” the raconteur had persisted. “Sounded ez ef all +creation hed split apart.” Perhaps, therefore, the catastrophe might be +recent. Kennedy could scarcely command his muscles as he dismounted and +made his way slowly and cautiously to the verge. + +Any deviation from the accustomed routine of nature has an unnerving +effect, unparalleled by disaster in other sort; no individual danger or +doom, the aspect of death by drowning, or gunshot, or disease, can so +abash the reason and stultify normal expectation. Kennedy was scarcely +conscious that he saw the vast disorder of the landslide, scattered from +the precipice on the mountain's brink to the depths of the Gap--inverted +roots of great pines thrust out in mid-air, foundations of crags riven +asunder and hurled in monstrous fragments along the steep slant, unknown +streams newly liberated from the caverns of the range and cascading from +the crevices of the rocks. In effect he could not believe his own eyes. +His mind realized the perception of his senses only when his heart +suddenly plunged with a wild hope,--he had discerned amongst the turmoil +a shape of line and rule, the little box-like hut! Caught as it was in +the boughs of a cluster of pines and firs, uprooted and thrust out at an +incline a little less than vertical, the inmates might have been spared +such shock of the fall as would otherwise have proved fatal. Had the +house been one of the substantial log-cabins of the region its timbers +must have been torn one from another, the daubing and chinking scattered +as mere atoms. But the more flimsy character of the little dwelling +had thus far served to save it,--the interdependent “framing” of its +structure held fast; the upright studding and boards, nailed stoutly on, +rendered it indeed the box that it looked. It was, so to speak, built in +one piece, and no part was subjected to greater strain than another. +But should the earth cave anew, should the tough fibres of one of those +gigantic roots tear out from the loosened friable soil, should the +elastic supporting branches barely sway in some errant gust of wind, the +little box would fall hundreds of feet, cracked like a nut, shattering +against the rocks of the levels below. + +He wondered if the inmates yet lived,--he pitied them still more if +they only existed to realize their peril, to await in an anguish of +fear their ultimate doom. Perhaps--he felt he was but trifling with +despair--some rescue might be devised. + +Such a weird cry he set up on the brink of the mountain!--full of +horror, grief, and that poignant hope. The echoes of the Gap seemed +reluctant to repeat the tones, dull, slow, muffled in snow. But a sturdy +halloo responded from the window, uppermost now, for the house lay +on its side amongst the boughs. Kennedy thought he saw the pallid +simulacrum of a face. + +“This be Jube Kennedy,” he cried, reassuringly. “I be goin' ter fetch +help,--men, ropes, and a windlass.” + +“Make haste then,--we uns be nigh friz.” + +“Ye air in no danger of fire, then?” asked the practical man. + +“We hev hed none,--before we war flunged off'n the bluff we hed +squinched the fire ter pledjure Bob, ez he war afeard Santy Claus would +scorch his feet comm' down the chimbley,--powerful lucky fur we uns; the +fire would hev burnt the house bodaciously.” + +Kennedy hardly stayed to hear. He was off in a moment, galloping at +frantic speed along the snowy trail scarcely traceable in the sad light +of the gray day; taking short cuts through the densities of the laurel; +torn by jagged rocks and tangles of thorny growths and broken branches +of great trees; plunging now and again into deep drifts above concealed +icy chasms, and rescuing with inexpressible difficulty the floundering, +struggling horse; reaching again the open sheeted roadway, bruised, +bleeding, exhausted, yet furiously plunging forward, rousing the +sparsely settled country-side with imperative insistence for help in +this matter of life or death! + +Death, indeed, only,--for the enterprise was pronounced impossible by +those more experienced than Kennedy. Among the men now on the bluff were +several who had been employed in the silver mines of this region, and +they demonstrated conclusively that a rope could not be worked clear of +the obstructions of the face of the rugged and shattered cliffs; that +a human being, drawn from the cabin, strapped in a chair, must needs be +torn from it and flung into the abyss below, or beaten to a frightful +death against the jagged rocks in the transit. + +“But not ef the chair war ter be steadied by a guy-rope from--say--from +that thar old pine tree over thar,” Kennedy insisted, indicating the +long bole of a partially uprooted and inverted tree on the steeps. “The +chair would swing cl'ar of the bluff then.” + +“But, Jube, it is onpossible ter git a guy-rope over ter that +tree,--more than a man's life is wuth ter try it.” + +A moment ensued of absolute silence,--space, however, for a hard-fought +battle. + +The aspect of that mad world below, with every condition of creation +reversed; a mistake in the adjustment of the winch and gear by the +excited, reluctant, disapproving men; an overstrain on the fibres of the +long-used rope; a slip on the treacherous ice; the dizzy whirl of the +senses that even a glance downward at those drear depths set astir in +the brain,--all were canvassed within his mental processes, all were +duly realized in their entirety ere he said with a spare dull voice and +dry lips,-- + +“Fix ter let me down ter that thar leanin' pine, boys,--I'll kerry a +guy-rope over thar.” + +At one side the crag beetled, and although it was impossible thence to +reach the cabin with a rope it would swing clear of obstructions here, +and might bring the rescuer within touch of the pine, where could be +fastened the guy-rope; the other end would be affixed to the chair which +could be lowered to the cabin only from the rugged face of the cliff. +Kennedy harbored no self-deception; he more than doubted the outcome of +the enterprise. He quaked and turned pale with dread as with the great +rope knotted about his arm-pits and around his waist he was swung over +the brink at the point where the crag jutted forth,--lower and lower +still; now nearing the slanting inverted pine, caught amidst the débris +of earth and rock; now failing to reach its boughs; once more swinging +back to a great distance, so did the length of the rope increase the +scope of the pendulum; now nearing the pine again, and at last fairly +lodged on the icy bole, knotting and coiling about it the end of the +guy-rope, on which he had come and on which he must needs return. + +It seemed, through the inexpert handling of the little group, a long +time before the stout arm-chair was secured to the cables, slowly +lowered, and landed at last on the outside of the hut. Many an anxious +glance was cast at the slate-gray sky. An inopportune flurry of snow, a +flaw of wind:--and even now all would be lost. Dusk too impended, and +as the rope began to coil on the windlass at the signal to hoist every +eye was strained to discern the identity of the first voyagers in this +aerial journey,--the two children, securely lashed to the chair. This +was well,--all felt that both parents might best wait, might risk +the added delay. The chair came swinging easily, swiftly, along the +gradations of the rise, the guy-rope holding it well from the chances +of contact with the jagged projections of the face of the cliff, and the +first shout of triumph rang sonorously from the summit. + +When next the chair rested on the cabin beside the window, a thrill of +anxiety and anger went through Kennedy's heart to note, from his perch +on the leaning pine, a struggle between husband and wife as to who +should go first. Each was eager to take the many risks incident to the +long wait in this precarious lodgment. The man was the stronger. Aurelia +was forced into the chair, tied fast, pushed off, waving' her hand to +her husband, shedding floods of tears, looking at him for the last time, +as she fancied, and calling out dismally, “Far'well, Basil, far'-well.” + +Even this lugubrious demonstration could not damp the spirits of the men +working like mad at the windlass. They were jovial enough for bursts +of laughter when it became apparent that Basil had utilized the ensuing +interval to tie together, in preparation for the ascent with himself, +the two objects which he next most treasured, his violin and his old +hound. The trusty chair bore all aloft, and Basil was received with +welcoming acclamations. + +Before the rope was wound anew and for the last time, the aspect of +the group on the cliff had changed. It had grown eerie, indistinct. The +pines and firs showed no longer their sempervirent green, but were black +amid the white tufted lines on their branches, that still served to +accentuate their symmetry. The vale had disappeared in a sinister abyss +of gloom, though Kennedy would not look down at its menace, but upward, +always upward. Thus he saw, like some radiant and splendid star, the +first torch whitely aglow on the brink of the precipice. It opened long +avenues of light adown the snowy landscape,--soft blue shadows trailed +after it, like half-descried draperies of elusive hovering beings. Soon +the torch was duplicated; another and then another began to glow. Now +several drew together, and like a constellation glimmered crownlike +on the brow of the night, as he felt the rope stir with the signal to +hoist. + +Upward, always upward, his eyes on that radiant stellular coronal, as +it shone white and splendid in the snowy night. And now it had lost its +mystic glamour,--disintegrated by gradual approach he could see the long +handles of the pine-knots; the red verges of the flame; the blue and +yellow tones of the focus; the trailing wreaths of dun-tinted smoke that +rose from them. Then became visible the faces of the men who held them, +all crowding eagerly to the verge. But it was in a solemn silence +that he was received; a drear cold darkness, every torch being stuick +downward into the snow; a frantic haste in unharnessing him from the +ropes, for he was almost frozen. He was hardly apt enough to interpret +this as an emotion too deep for words, but now and again, as he was +disentangled, he felt about his shoulders a furtive hug, and more than +one pair of the ministering hands must needs pause to wring his own +hands hard. They practically carried him to a fire that had been built +in a sheltered place in one of those grottoes of the region, locally +called “Rock-houses.” Its cavernous portal gave upon a dark interior, +and not until they had turned a corner in a tunnel-like passage was +revealed an arched space in a rayonnant suffusion of light, the fire +itself obscured by the figures about it. His eyes were caught first by +the aspect of a youthful mother with a golden-haired babe on her breast; +close by showed the head and horns of a cow; the mule was mercifully +sheltered too, and stood near, munching his fodder; a cluster of +sheep pressed after the steps of half a dozen men, that somehow in the +clare-obscure reminded him of the shepherds of old summoned by good +tidings of great joy. + +A sudden figure started up with streaming white hair and patriarchal +beard. + +“Will ye deny ez ye hev hed a sign from the heavens, Jubal Kennedy?” the +old circuit-rider straitly demanded. “How could ye hev strengthened yer +heart fur sech a deed onless the grace o' God prevailed mightily +within ye? Inasmuch as ye hev done it unto one o' the least o' these my +brethern, ye hev done it unto me.” + +“That ain't the _kind_ o' sign, parson,” Kennedy faltered. “I be lookin' +fur a meracle in the yearth or in the air, that I kin view or hear.” + +“The kingdom o' Christ is a spiritual kingdom,” said the parson +solemnly. “The kingdom o' Christ is a _spiritual_ kingdom, an' great are +the wonders that are wrought therein.” + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Christmas Miracle, by +Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE *** + +***** This file should be named 23553-0.txt or 23553-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/5/5/23553/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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