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diff --git a/old/23629-h.htm.2021-01-25 b/old/23629-h.htm.2021-01-25 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..71b6870 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/23629-h.htm.2021-01-25 @@ -0,0 +1,2402 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Riddle of the Rocks, by Charles Egbert Craddock + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Riddle Of The Rocks, 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 Riddle Of The Rocks + 1895 + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +Illustrator: A. B. Frost + +Release Date: November 26, 2007 [EBook #23629] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIDDLE OF THE ROCKS *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE RIDDLE OF THE ROCKS + </h1> + <h2> + By Charles Egbert Craddock <br /><br /> 1895 + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + Upon the steep slope of a certain “bald” among the Great Smoky Mountains + there lie, just at the verge of the strange stunted woods from which the + treeless dome emerges to touch the clouds, two great tilted blocks of + sandstone. They are of marked regularity of shape, as square as if hewn + with a chisel. Both are splintered and fissured; one is broken in twain. + No other rock is near. The earth in which they are embedded is the rich + black soil not unfrequently found upon the summits. Nevertheless no great + significance might seem to attach to their isolation—an outcropping + of ledges, perhaps; a fracture of the freeze; a trace of ancient + denudation by the waters of the spring in the gap, flowing now down the + trough of the gorge in a silvery braid of currents, and with a murmur that + is earnest of a song. + </p> + <p> + It may have been some distortion of the story heard only from the lips of + the circuit rider, some fantasy of tradition invested with the urgency of + fact, but Roger Purdee could not remember the time when he did not believe + that these were the stone tables of the Law that Moses flung down from the + mountain-top in his wrath. In the dense ignorance of the mountaineer, and + his secluded life, he knew of no foreign countries, no land holier than + the land of his home. There was no incongruity to his mind that it should + have been in the solemn silence and austere solitude of the “bald,” in the + magnificent ascendency of the Great Smoky, that the law-giver had met the + Lord and spoken with Him. Often as he lay at length on the strange barren + place, veiled with the clouds that frequented it, a sudden sunburst in + their midst would suggest anew what supernal splendors had once been here + vouchsafed to the faltering eye of man. The illusion had come to be very + dear to him; in this insistent localization of his faith it was all very + near. And so he would go down to the slope below, among the weird, stunted + trees, and look once more upon the broken tables, and ponder upon the + strange signs written by time thereon. The insistent fall of the rain, the + incisive blasts of the wind, coming again and again, though the centuries + went, were registered here in mystic runes. The surface had weathered to a + whitish-gray, but still in tiny depressions its pristine dark color showed + in rugose characters. A splintered fissure held delicate fucoid + impressions in fine script full of meaning. A series of worm-holes traced + erratic hieroglyphics across a scaling corner; all the varied texts were + illuminated by quartzose particles glittering in the sun, and here and + there fine green grains of glauconite. He knew no names like these, and + naught of meteorological potency. He had studied no other rock. His casual + notice had been arrested nowhere by similar signs. Under the influence of + his ignorant superstition, his cherished illusion, the lonely wilderness, + what wonder that, as he pondered upon the rocks, strange mysteries seemed + revealed to him? He found significance in these cabalistic scriptures—nay, + he read inspired words! With the ramrod of his gun he sought to follow the + fine tracings of the letters writ by the finger of the Lord on the stone + tables that Moses flung down from the mountain-top in his wrath. + </p> + <p> + With a devout thankfulness Purdee realized that he owned the land where + they lay. It was worth, perhaps, a few cents an acre; it was utterly + untillable, almost inaccessible, and his gratulation owed its fervor only + to its spiritual values. He was an idle and shiftless fellow, and had + known no glow of acquisition, no other pride of possession. He herded + cattle much of the time in the summer, and he hunted in the winter—wolves + chiefly, their hair being long and finer at this season, and the smaller + furry gentry; for he dealt in peltry. And so, despite the vastness of the + mountain wilds, he often came and knelt beside the rocks with his rifle in + his hand, and sought anew to decipher the mystic legends. His face, + bending over the tables of the Law with the earnest research of a student, + with the chastened subduement of devotion, with all the calm sentiments of + reverie, Jacked something of its normal aspect. When a sudden stir of the + leaves or the breaking of a twig recalled him to the world, and he would + lift his head, it might hardly seem the same face, so heavy was the lower + jaw, so insistent and coercive his eye. But if he took off his hat to + place therein his cotton bandana handkerchief or (if he were in luck and + burdened with game) the scalp of a wild-cat—valuable for the bounty + offered by the State—he showed a broad, massive forehead that added + the complement of expression, and suggested a doubt if it were ferocity + his countenance bespoke or force. His long black hair hung to his + shoulders, and he wore a tangled black beard; his deep-set dark blue eyes + were kindled with the fires of imagination. He was tall, and of a + commanding presence but for his stoop and his slouch. His garments seemed + a trifle less well ordered than those of his class, and bore here and + there the traces of the blood of beasts; on his trousers were grass stains + deeply grounded, for he knelt often to get a shot, and in meditation + beside the rocks. He spent little time otherwise upon his knees, and + perhaps it was some intuition of this fact that roused the wrath of + certain brethren of the camp-meeting when he suddenly appeared among them, + arrogating to himself peculiar spiritual experiences, proclaiming that his + mind had been opened to strange lore, repeating thrilling, quickening + words that he declared he had read on the dead rocks whereon were graven + the commandments of the Lord. The tumultuous tide of his rude eloquence, + his wild imagery, his ecstasy of faith, rolled over the assembly and awoke + it anew to enthusiasms. Much that he said was accepted by the more + intelligent ministers who led the meeting as figurative, as the finer + fervors of truth, and they felt the responsive glow of emotion and quiver + of sympathy. He intended it in its simple, literal significance. And to + the more local members of the congregation the fact was patent. “Sech a + pack o' lies hev seldom been tole in the hearin' o' Almighty Gawd,” said + Job Grinnell, a few days after the breaking up of camp. He was rehearsing + the proceedings at the meeting partly for the joy of hearing himself talk, + and partly at the instance of his wife, who had been prevented from + attending by the inopportune illness of one of the children. “Ez I loant + my ear ter the words o' that thar brazen buzzard I eyed him constant. Fur + I looked ter see the jedgmint o' the Lord descend upon him like S'phira + an' An'ias.” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Who!</i>” asked his wife, pausing in her task of picking up chips. He + had spoken of them so familiarly that one might imagine they lived close + by in the cove. + </p> + <p> + “An'ias an' S'phira—them in the Bible ez war streck by lightnin' fur + lyin',” he explained. + </p> + <p> + “I 'member <i>her</i>,” she said. “S'phia, I calls her.” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, A'gusta, <i>S'phira</i> do me jes ez well,” he said, with the + momentary sulkiness of one corrected. “Thar war a man along, though. An' + 'pears ter me thar war powerful leetle jestice in thar takin' off, ef + Roger Purdee be 'lowed ter stan' up thar in the face o' the meetin' an' + lie so ez no yearthly critter in the worl' could b'lieve him—'ceptin' + Brother Jacob Page, ez 'peared plumb out'n his head with religion, an' got + ter shoutin' when this Purdee tuk ter tellin' the law he read on them + rocks—Moses' tables, folks calls 'em—up yander in the + mounting.” + </p> + <p> + He nodded upward toward the great looming range above them. His house was + on a spur of the mountain, overshadowed by it; shielded. It was to him the + Almoner of Fate. One by one it doled out the days, dawning from its + summit; and thence, too, came the darkness and the glooms of night. One by + one it liberated from the enmeshments of its tangled wooded heights the + constellations to gladden the eye and lure the fancy. Its largess of + silver torrents flung down its slopes made fertile the little fields, and + bestowed a lilting song on the silence, and took a turn at the mill-wheel, + and did not disdain the thirst of the humble cattle. It gave pasturage in + summer, and shelter from the winds of the winter. It was the assertive + feature of his life; he could hardly have imagined existence without “the + mounting.” + </p> + <p> + “Tole what he read on them rocks—yes, sir, ez glib ez swallerin' a + persimmon. 'Twarn't the reg'lar ten comman'ments—some cur'ous new + texts—jes a-rollin' 'em out ez sanctified ez ef he hed been called + ter preach the gospel! An' thar war Brother Eden Bates a-answerin' 'Amen' + ter every one. An' Brother Jacob Page: 'Glory, brother! Ye hev received + the outpourin' of the Sperit! Shake hands, brother!' An' sech ez that. Ter + hev hearn the commotion they raised about that thar derned lyin' sinner + ye'd hev 'lowed the meetin' war held ter glorify him stiddier the Lord.” + </p> + <p> + Job Grinnell himself was a most notorious Christian. Renown, however, with + him could never be a superfluity, or even a sufficiency, and he grudged + the fame that these strange spiritual utterances were acquiring. He had + long enjoyed the distinction of being considered a miraculous convert; his + rescue from the wily enticements of Satan had been celebrated with much + shaking and clapping of hands, and cries of “Glory,” and muscular ecstasy. + </p> + <p> + His religious experiences thenceforth, his vacillations of hope and + despair, had been often elaborated amongst the brethren. But his was a + conventional soul; its expression was in the formulae and platitudes of + the camp-meeting. They sank into oblivion in the excitement attendant upon + Purdee's wild utterances from the mystic script of the rocks. + </p> + <p> + As Grinnell talked, he often paused in his work to imitate the + gesticulatory enthusiasms of the saints at the camp-meeting. He was a + thickset fellow of only medium height, and was called, somewhat + invidiously, “a chunky man.” His face was broad, prosaic, good-natured, + incapable of any fine gradations of expression. It indicated an elementary + rage or a sluggish placidity. He had a ragged beard of a reddish hue, and + hair a shade lighter. He wore blue jeans trousers and an unbleached cotton + shirt, and the whole system depended on one suspender. He was engaged in + skimming a great kettle of boiling sorghum with a perforated gourd, which + caught the scum and strained the liquor. The process was primitive; + instead of the usual sorghum boiler and furnace, the kettle was propped + upon stones laid together so as to concentrate the heat of the fire. His + wife was continually feeding the flames with chips which she brought in + her apron from the wood-pile. Her countenance was half hidden in her faded + pink sun-bonnet, which, however, did not obscure an expression responsive + to that on the man's face. She did not grudge Purdee the salvation he had + found; she only grudged him the prestige he had derived from its unique + method. + </p> + <p> + “Why can't the critter elude Satan with less n'ise?” she asked, + acrimoniously. + </p> + <p> + “Edzackly,” her husband chimed in. + </p> + <p> + Now and then both turned a supervisory glance at the sorghum mill down the + slope at some little distance, and close to the river. It had been a long + day for the old white mare, still trudging round and round the mill; + perhaps a long day as well for the two half-grown boys, one of whom fed + the machine, thrusting into it a stalk at a time, while the other brought + in his arms fresh supplies from the great pile of sorghum cane hard by. + </p> + <p> + All the door-yard of the little log cabin was bedaubed with the scum of + the sorghum which Job Grinnell flung from his perforated gourd upon the + ground. The idle dogs—and there were many—would find, when at + last disposed to move, a clog upon their nimble feet. They often sat down + with a wrinkling of brows and a puzzled expression of muzzle to + investigate their gelatinous paws with their tongues, not without certain + indications of pleasure, for the sorghum was very sweet; some of them, + that had acquired the taste for it from imitating the children, openly + begged. + </p> + <p> + One, a gaunt hound, hardly seemed so idle; he had a purpose in life, if it + might not be called a profession. He lay at length, his paws stretched out + before him, his head upon them; his big brown eyes were closed only at + intervals; ever and again they opened watchfully at the movement of a + small child, ten months old, perhaps, dressed in pink calico, who sat in + the shadow formed by the protruding clay and stick chimney, and played by + bouncing up and down and waving her fat hands, which seemed a perpetual + joy and delight of possession to her. Take her altogether, she was a + person of prepossessing appearance, despite her frank display of toothless + gums, and around her wide mouth the unseemly traces of sorghum. She had + the plumpest graces of dimples in every direction, big blue eyes with long + lashes, the whitest possible skin, and an extraordinary pair of pink feet, + which she rubbed together in moments of joy as if she had mistaken them + for her hands. Although she sputtered a good deal, she had a charming, + unaffected laugh, with the giggle attachment natural to the young of her + sex. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly there sounded an echo of it, as it were—a shrill, nervous + little whinny; the boys whirled round to see whence it came. The + persistent rasping noise of the sorghum mill and the bubbling of the + caldron had prevented them from hearing an approach. There, quite close at + hand, peering through the rails of the fence, was a little girl of seven + or eight years of age. + </p> + <p> + “I wanter kem in an' see you-uns's baby!” she exclaimed, in a high, shrill + voice. “I want to pat it on the head.” + </p> + <p> + She was a forlorn little specimen, very thin and sharp-featured. Her + homespun dress was short enough to show how fragile were the long lean + legs that supported her. The curtain of her sun-bonnet, which was + evidently made for a much larger person, hung down nearly to the hem of + her skirt; as she turned and glanced anxiously down the road, evidently + suspecting a pursuer, she looked like an erratic sun-bonnet out for a + stroll on a pair of borrowed legs. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/331.jpg" alt="She Smiled Upon the Baby 331 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + She turned again suddenly and applied her thin, freckled little face to + the crack between the rails. She smiled upon the baby, who smiled in + response, and gave a little bounce that might be accounted a courtesy. The + younger of the boys left the cane pile and ran up to his brother at the + mill, which was close to the fence. “Don't ye let her do it,” he said, + venomously. “That thar gal is one of the Purdee fambly. I know her. Don't + let her in.” And he ran back to the cane. + </p> + <p> + Grinnell had seemed pleased by this homage at the shrine of the family + idol; but at the very mention of the “Purdee fambly” his face hardened, an + angry light sprang into his eyes, and his gesture in skimming with the + perforated gourd the scum from the boiling sorghum was as energetic as if + with the action he were dashing the “Purdee fambly” from off the face of + the earth. It was an ancient feud; his grandfather and some contemporary + Purdee had fallen out about the ownership of certain vagrant cattle; there + had been blows and bloodshed; other members of the connection had been + dragged into the controversy; summary reprisals were followed by + counter-reprisals. Barns were mysteriously fired, hen-roosts robbed, + horses unaccountably lamed, sheep feloniously sheared by unknown parties; + the feeling widened and deepened, and had been handed down to the present + generation with now and then a fresh provocation, on the part of one or + the other, to renew and continue the rankling old grudges. + </p> + <p> + And here stood the hereditary enemy, wanting to pat their baby on the + head. + </p> + <p> + “Naw, sir, ye won't!” exclaimed the boy at the mill, greatly incensed at + the boldness of this proposition, glaring at the lean, tender, wistful + little face between the rails of the fence. + </p> + <p> + But the baby, who had not sense enough to know anything about hereditary + enemies, bounced and laughed and gurgled and sputtered with glee, and + waved her hands, and had never looked fatter or more beguiling. + </p> + <p> + “I jes wanter pat it wunst,” sighed the hereditary enemy, with a lithe + writhing of her thin little anatomy in the anguish of denial—“<i>jes + wunst!</i> + </p> + <p> + “Naw, sir!” exclaimed the youthful Grinnell, more insistently than before. + He did not continue, for suddenly there came running down the road a boy + of his own size, out of breath, and red and angry—the pursuer, + evidently, that the hereditary enemy had feared, for she crouched up + against the fence with a whimper. + </p> + <p> + “Kem along away from thar, ye miser'ble little stack o' bones!” he cried, + seizing his sister by one hand and giving her a jerk—“a-foolin' + round them Grinnells' fence an' a-hankerin' arter thar old baby!” + </p> + <p> + He felt that the pride of the Purdee family was involved in this admission + of envy. + </p> + <p> + “I jes wanter pat it on the head <i>wunst</i>,” she sighed. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, ye won't now,” said the Grinnell boys in chorus. + </p> + <p> + The Purdee grasp was gentler on the little girl's arm. This was due not to + fraternal feeling so much as to loyalty to the clan; “stack o' bones” + though she was, they were Purdee bones. + </p> + <p> + “Kem along,” Ab Purdee exhorted her. “A baby ain't nuthin' extry, nohow”—he + glanced scoffingly at the infantile Grinnell. “The mountings air fairly + a-roamin' with 'em.” + </p> + <p> + “We-uns 'ain't got none at our house,” whined the sun-bonnet, droopingly, + moving off slowly on its legs, which, indeed, seemed borrowed, so + unsteady, and loath to go they were. + </p> + <p> + The Grinnell boys laughed aloud, jeeringly and ostentatiously, and the + Purdee blood was moved to retort: “We-uns don't want none sech ez that. + Nary tooth in her head!” + </p> + <p> + And indeed the widely stretched babbling lips displayed a vast vacuity of + gum. + </p> + <p> + Job Grinnell, who had listened with an attentive ear to the talk of the + children, had nevertheless continued his constant skimming of the scum. + Now he rose from his bent posture, tossed the scum upon the ground, and + with the perforated gourd in his hand turned and looked at his wife. + Augusta had dropped her apron and chips, and stood with folded arms across + her breast, her face wearing an expression of exasperated expectancy. + </p> + <p> + The Grinnell boys were humbled and abashed. The wicked scion of the Purdee + house, joying to note how true his shaft had sped, was again fitting his + bow. + </p> + <p> + “An' ez bald-headed ez the mounting.” + </p> + <p> + The baby had a big precedent, but although no peculiar shame attaches to + the bare pinnacle of the summit, she—despite the difference in size + and age—was expected to show up more fully furnished, and in keeping + with the rule of humanity and the gentilities of life. + </p> + <p> + No teeth, no hair, no sign of any: the fact that she was so backward was a + sore point with all the family. Job Grinnell suddenly dropped the + perforated gourd, and started down toward the fence. The acrimony of the + old feud was as a trait bred in the bone. Such hatred as was inherent in + him was evoked by his religious jealousies, and the pious sense that he + was following the traditions of his elders and upholding the family honor + blended in gentlest satisfaction with his personal animosity toward Roger + Purdee as he noticed the boy edging off from the fence to a safe distance. + He eyed him derisively for a moment. + </p> + <p> + “Kin ye kerry a message straight?” The boy looked up with an expression of + sullen acquiescence, but said nothing. “Ax yer dad—an'ye kin tell + him the word kems from me—whether he hev read sech ez this on the + lawgiver's stone tables yander in the mounting: 'An' ye shall claim sech + ez be yourn, an' yer neighbor's belongings shall ye in no wise boastfully + medjure fur yourn, nor look upon it fur covet-iousness, nor yit git up a + big name in the kentry fur ownin' sech ez be another's.'” + </p> + <p> + He laughed silently—a twinkling, wrinkling demonstration over all + his broad face—a laugh that was younger than the man, and would have + befitted a square-faced boy. + </p> + <p> + The youthful Purdee, expectant of a cuffing, stood his ground more + doubtfully still under the insidious thrusts of this strange weapon, + sarcasm. He knew that they were intended to hurt; he was wounded primarily + in the intention, but the exact lesion he could not locate. He could meet + a threat with a bold face, and return a blow with the best. But he was + mortified in this failure of understanding, and perplexity cowed him as + contention could not. He hung his head with its sullen questioning eyes, + and he found great solace in a jagged bit of cloth on the torn bosom of + his shirt, which he could turn in his embarrassed fingers. + </p> + <p> + “Whar be yer dad?” Grinnell asked. + </p> + <p> + “Up yander in the mounting,” replied the subdued Purdee. + </p> + <p> + “A-readin' of mighty s'prisin' matter writ on the rocks o' the yearth!” + exclaimed Grinnell, with a laugh. “Waal, jes keep that sayin' o' mine in + yer head, an' tell him when he kems home. An' look a-hyar, ef enny mo' o' + his stray shoats kem about hyar, I'll snip thar ears an' gin 'em my mark.” + </p> + <p> + The youth of the Purdee clan meditated on this for a moment. He could not + remember that they had missed any shoats. Then the full meaning of the + phrase dawned upon him—it was he and the wiry little sister thus + demeaned with a porcine appellation, and whose ears were threatened. He + looked up at the fence, the little low house, the barn close by, the + sorghum mill, the drying leaves of tobacco on the scaffold, the saltatory + baby; his eyes filled with helpless tears, that could not conceal the + burning hatred he was born to bear them all. He was hot and cold by turns; + he stood staring, silent and defiant, motionless, sullen. He heard the + melodic measure of the river, with its crystalline, keen vibrations + against the rocks; the munching teeth of the old mare—allowed to + come to a stand-still that the noise of the sorghum mill might not impinge + upon the privileges of the quarrel; and the high, ecstatic whinny of the + little sister waiting on the opposite bank of the river, having crossed + the foot-bridge. There the Grinnell baby had chanced to spy her, and had + bounced and grinned and sputtered affably. It was she who had made all the + trouble yearning after the Grinnell baby. + </p> + <p> + He would not stay, however, to be ignominiously beaten, for Grinnell had + turned away, and was looking about the ground as if in search of a thick + stick. He accounted himself no craven, thus numerically at a disadvantage, + to turn shortly about, take his way down the rocky slope, cross the + footbridge, jerk the little girl by one hand and lead her whimpering off, + while the round-eyed Grinnell baby stared gravely after her with + inconceivable emotions. These presently resulted in rendering her cross; + she whined a little and rubbed her eyes, and, smarting from her own + ill-treatment of them, gave a sharp yelp of dismay. The old dog arose and + went and sat close by her, eying her solemnly and wagging his tail, as if + begging her to observe how content he was. His dignity was somewhat + impaired by sudden abrupt snaps at flies, which caused her to wink, stare, + and be silent in astonishment. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, Job Grinnell,” exclaimed Augusta, as her husband came back and took + the perforated gourd from her hand—for she had been skimming the + sorghum in his absence—“ye air the longest-tongued man, ter be so + short-legged, I ever see!” + </p> + <p> + He looked a trifle discomfited. He had deported himself with unwonted + decision, conscious that Augusta was looking on, and in truth somewhat + supported by the expectation of her approval. + </p> + <p> + “What ails ye ter say words ye can't abide by—ye 'low ye 'pear so + graceful on the back track?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + He bent over the sorghum, silently skimming. His composure was somewhat + ruffled, and in throwing away the scum his gesture was of negligent and + discursive aim; the boiling fluid bespattered the foot of one of the + omnipresent dogs, whose shrieks rent the sky and whose activity on three + legs amazed the earth. He ran yelping to Mrs. Grinnell, nearly overturning + her in his turbulent demand for sympathy; then scampered across to the + boys, who readily enough stopped their work to examine the wounded member + and condole with its wheezing proprietor. + </p> + <p> + “What ye mean, A'gusta?” Grinnell said at length. “Kase I 'lowed I'd cut + thar ears? I ain't foolin', Kem meddlin' about remarkin' on our chill'n + agin, I'll show 'em.” + </p> + <p> + Augusta looked at him in exasperation. “I ain't keerin' ef all the Purdees + war deef,” she remarked, inhumanly, “but what war them words ye sent fur a + message ter Purdee?—'bout pridin' on what ain't theirn.” + </p> + <p> + Grinnell in his turn looked at her—but dubiously, However much a man + is under the domination of his wife, he is seldom wholly frank. It is in + this wise that his individuality is preserved to him. “I war jes wantin' + ter know ef them words war on the rocks,” he said with a disingenuousness + worthy of a higher culture. + </p> + <p> + She received this with distrust. “I kin tell ye now—they ain't,” she + said, discriminatingly; “Pur-dee's words don't sound like <i>them</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, now, what's the differ?” he demanded, with an indignation natural + enough to aspiring humanity detecting a slur upon one's literary style. + </p> + <p> + “Waal—” she paused as she knelt down to feed the fire, holding-the + fragrant chips in her hand; the flame flickered out and lighted up her + reflective eyes while she endeavored to express the distinction she felt: + “Purdee's words don't sound ter me like the words of a man sech ez men + be.” + </p> + <p> + Grinnell wrinkled his brows, trying to follow her here. + </p> + <p> + “They sound ter me like the words spoke in a dream—the pernouncings + of a vision.” Mrs. Grinnell fancied that she too had a gift of Biblical + phraseology. “They sound ter me like things I hearn whenst I war + a-hungered arter righteousness an' seekin' religion, an' bided alone in + the wilderness a-waitin' o' the Sperit.” + </p> + <p> + “'Gusta!” suddenly exclaimed her husband, with the cadence of amazed + conviction, “ye b'lieve the lie o' that critter, an' that he reads the + words o' the Lord on the rock!” + </p> + <p> + She looked up a little startled. She had been unconscious of the + circuitous approaches of credence, and shared his astonishment in the + conclusion. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, sir!” he said, more hurt and cast down than one would have deemed + possible. “I'm willin' ter hev it so. I'm jes nuthin' but a sinner an' a + fool, ripenin' fur damnation, an' he air a saint o' the yearth!” + </p> + <p> + Now such sayings as this were frequent upon Job Grinnell's tongue. He did + not believe them; their utility was in their challenge to contradiction. + Thus they often promoted an increased cordiality of the domestic relations + and an accession of self-esteem. + </p> + <p> + Augusta, however, was tired; the boiling sorghum and the September sun + were debilitating in their effects. There was something in the scene with + the youthful Purdee that grated upon her half-developed sensibilities. The + baby was whimpering outright, and the cow was lowing at the bars. She gave + her irritation the luxury of withholding the salve to Grinnell's wounded + vanity. She said nothing. The tribute to Purdee went for what it was + worth, and he was forced to swallow the humble-pie he had taken into his + mouth, albeit it stuck in his throat. + </p> + <p> + A shadow seemed to have fallen into the moral atmosphere as the gentle + dusk came early on. One had a sense as if bereft, remembering that so + short a time ago at this hour the sun was still high, and that the + full-pulsed summer day throbbed to a climax of color and bloom and + redundant life. Now, the scent of harvests was on the air; in the stubble + of the sorghum patch she saw a quail's brood more than half-grown, now + afoot, and again taking to wing with a loud whirring sound. The perfume of + ripening muscadines came from the bank of the river. The papaws hung + globular among the leaves of the bushes, and the persimmons were + reddening. + </p> + <p> + The vermilion sun was low in the sky above the purpling mountains; the + stream had changed from a crystalline brown to red, to gold, and now it + was beginning to be purple and silver. And this reminded her that the + full-moon was up, and she turned to look at it—so pearly and + luminous above the jagged ridge-pole of the dark little house on the rise. + The sky about it was blue, refining into an exquisitely delicate and + ethereal neutrality near the horizon. The baby had fallen asleep, with its + bald head on the old dog's shoulder. + </p> + <p> + After the supper was over, the sorghum fire still burned beneath the great + kettle, for the syrup was not yet made, and sorghum-boiling is an industry + that cannot be intermitted. The fire in the midst of the gentle shadow and + sheen of the night had a certain profane, discordant effect. Pete's + ill-defined figure slouching over it while he skimmed the syrup was grimly + suggestive of the distillations of strange elixirs and unhallowed liquors, + and his simple face, lighted by a sudden darting red flame, had + unrecognizable significance and was of sinister intent. For Pete was + detailed to attend to the boiling; the grinding was done, and the old + white mare stood still in the midst of the sorghum stubble and the + moonlight, as motionless and white as if she were carved in marble. Job + Grinnell sat and smoked on the porch. + </p> + <p> + Presently he got up suddenly, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and + looked at it carefully before he stuck it into his pocket. He went, + without a word, down the rocky slope, past the old drowsing mare, and + across the foot-bridge. Two or three of the dogs, watching him as he + reappeared on the opposite bank, affected a mistake in identity. They + growled, then barked outright, and at last ran down and climbed the fence + and bounded about it, baying the vista where he had vanished, until the + sleepy old mare turned her head and gazed in mild surprise at them. + </p> + <p> + Augusta sat alone on the step of the porch. + </p> + <p> + She had various regrets in her mind, incipient even before he had quite + gone, and now defining themselves momently with added poignancy. A woman + who, in her retirement at home, charges herself with the control of a + man's conduct abroad, is never likely to be devoid of speculation upon + probable disasters to ensue upon any abatement of the activities of her + discretion. She was sorry that she had allowed so trifling a matter to mar + the serenity of the family; her conscience upbraided her that she had not + besought him to avoid the blacksmith's shop, where certain men of the + neighborhood were wont to congregate and drink deep into the night. Above + all, her mind went back to the enigmatical message, and she wondered that + she could have been so forgetful as to fail to urge him to forbear + angering Purdee, for this would have a cumulative effect upon all the + rancors of the old quarrels, and inaugurate perhaps a new series of + reprisals. + </p> + <p> + “I ain't afeard o' no Purdee ez ever stepped,” she said to herself, + defining her position. “But I'm fur peace. An' ef the Purdees will leave + we-uns be, I ain't a-goin' ter meddle along o' them.” + </p> + <p> + She remembered an old barn-burning, in the days when she and her husband + were newly married, at his father's house. She looked up at the barn hard + by, on a line with the dwelling, with that tenderness which one feels for + a thing, not because of its value, but for the sake of possession, for the + kinship with the objects that belong to the home. A cat was sitting high + in a crevice in the logs where the daubing had fallen out; the moon + glittered in its great yellow eyes. A frog was leaping along the open + space about the rude step at Augusta's feet. A clump of mullein leaves, + silvered by the light, spangled by the dew, hid him presently. What an + elusive glistening gauze hung over the valley far below, where the sense + of distance was limited by the sense of sight!—for it was here only + that the night, though so brilliant, must attest the incomparable lucidity + of daylight. She could not even distinguish, amidst those soft sheens of + the moon and the dew, the Lombardy poplar that grew above the door of old + Squire Grove's house down in the cove; in the daytime it was visible like + a tiny finger pointing upward. How drowsy was the sound of the katydid, + now loudening, now falling, now fainting away! And the tree-toad shrilled + in the dog-wood tree. The frogs, too, by the river in iterative fugue sent + forth a song as suggestive of the margins as the scent of the fern, and + the mint, and the fragrant weeds. + </p> + <p> + A convulsive start! She did not know that she slept until she was again + awake. The moon had travelled many a mile along the highways of the skies. + It hung over the purple mountains, over the farthest valley. The cicada + had grown dumb. The stars were few and faint. The air was chill. + </p> + <p> + She started to her feet; her garments were heavy with dew. The fire + beneath the sorghum kettle had died to a coal, flaring or fading as the + faint fluctuations of the wind might will. Near it Pete slumbered where he + too had sat down to rest. And Job—Job had never returned. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/345.jpg" alt="The Blacksmith's Shop 345 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + He had found it a lightsome enough scene at the blacksmith's shop, where + it was understood that the neighboring politicians collogued at times, or + brethren in the church discussed matters of discipline or more spiritual + affairs. In which of these interests a certain corpulent jug was most + active it would be difficult perhaps to accurately judge. The great + barn-like doors were flung wide open, and there was a group of men half + within the shelter and half without; the shoeing-stool, a broken plough, + an empty keg, a log, and a rickety chair sufficed to seat the company. The + moonlight falling into the door showed the great slouching, darkling + figures, the anvil, the fire of the forge (a dim ashy coal), and the + shadowy hood merging indistinguishably into the deep duskiness of the + interior. In contrast, the scene glimpsed through the low window at the + back of the shop had a certain vivid illuminated effect. A spider web, + revealing its geometric perfection, hung half across one corner of the + rude casement; the moonbeams without were individualized in fine filar + delicacy, like the ravellings of a silver skein. The boughs of a tree + which grew on a slope close below almost touched the lintel; the leaves + seemed a translucent green; a bird slept on a twig, its head beneath its + wing. + </p> + <p> + Back of the cabin, which was situated on a limited terrace, the great + altitudes of the mountain rose into the infinity of the night. + </p> + <p> + The drawling conversation was beset, as it were, by faint fleckings of + sound, lightly drawn from a crazy old fiddle under the chin of a gaunt, + yellow-haired young giant, one Ephraim Blinks, who lolled on a log, and + who by these vague harmonies unconsciously gave to the talk of his + comrades a certain theatrical effect. + </p> + <p> + Grinnell slouched up and sat down among them, responding with a nod to the + unceremonious “Hy're, Job?” of the blacksmith, who seemed thus to do the + abbreviated honors of the occasion. The others did not so formally notice + his coming. + </p> + <p> + The subject of conversation was the same that had pervaded his own + thoughts. He was irritated to observe how Purdee had usurped public + attention, and yet he himself listened with keenest interest. + </p> + <p> + “Waal,” said the ponderous blacksmith, “I kin onderstan' mighty well ez + Moses would hev been mighty mad ter see them folks a-worshippin' o' a calf—senseless + critters they be! 'Twarn't no use flingin' down them rocks, though, an' + gittin' 'em bruk. Sandstone ain't like metal; ye can't heat it an' draw it + down an' weld it agin.” + </p> + <p> + His round black head shone in the moonlight, glistening because of his + habit of plunging it, by way of making his toilet, into the barrel of + water where he tempered his steel. He crossed his huge folded bare arms + over his breast, and leaned back against the door on two legs of the + rickety chair. + </p> + <p> + “Naw, sir,” another chimed in. “He mought hev knowed he'd jes hev ter go + ter quarryin' agin.” + </p> + <p> + “They air always a-crackin' up them folks in the Bible ez sech powerful + wise men,” said another, whose untrained mind evidently held the germs of + advanced thinking. “'Pears ter me ez some of 'em conducted tharselves ez + foolish ez enny folks I know—this hyar very Moses one o' 'em. + Throwin' down them rocks 'minds me o' old man Pinner's tantrums. Sher'ff + kem ter his house 'bout a jedgmint debt, an' levied on his craps. An' + arter he war gone old man tuk a axe an' gashed bodaciously inter the loom + an' hacked it up. Ez ef that war goin' ter do enny good! His wife war the + mos' outed woman I ever see. They 'ain't got nare nother loom nuther, an' + hain't hearn no advices from the Lord.” + </p> + <p> + The violinist paused in his playing. “They 'lowed Moses war a meek man + too,” he said. “He killed a man with a brick-badge an' buried him in the + sand. Mighty meek ways”—with a satirical grimace. + </p> + <p> + The others, divining that this was urged in justification and precedent + for devious modern ways that were not meek, did not pursue this branch of + the subject. + </p> + <p> + “S'prised me some,” remarked the advanced thinker, “ter hear ez them + tables o' stone war up on the bald o' the mounting thar. I hed drawed the + idee ez 'twar in some other kentry somewhar—I dunno—” He + stopped blankly. He could not formulate his geographical ignorance. “An' I + never knowed,” he resumed, presently, “ez thar war enough gold in + Tennessee ter make a gold calf; they fund gold hyar, but 'twar mighty + leetle.” + </p> + <p> + “Mebbe 'twar a mighty leetle calf,” suggested the blacksmith. + </p> + <p> + “Mebbe so,” assented the other. + </p> + <p> + “Mebbe 'twar a silver one,” speculated a third; “plenty o' silver they + 'low thar air in the mountings.” + </p> + <p> + The violinist spoke up suddenly. “Git one o' them Injuns over yander ter + Quallatown right seasonable drunk, an' he'll tell ye a power o' places + whar the old folks said thar war silver.” He bowed his chin once more upon + the instrument, and again the slow drawling conversation proceeded to soft + music. + </p> + <p> + “Ef ye'll b'lieve me,” said the advanced thinker, “I never war so + conflusticated in my life ez I war when he stood up in meetin' an' told + 'bout'n the tables of the law bein' on the bald! I 'lowed 'twar somewhar + 'mongst some sort'n people named 'Gyptians.” + </p> + <p> + “Mebbe some o' them Injuns air named 'Gyptians',” suggested Spears, the + blacksmith. + </p> + <p> + “Naw, sir,” spoke up the fiddler, who had been to Quallatown, and was the + ethnographic authority of the meeting. “Tennessee Injuns be named + Cher'-kee, an' Chick'saw, an' Creeks.” + </p> + <p> + There was a silence. The moonlight sifted through the dark little shanty + of a shop; the fretting and foaming of a mountain stream arose from far + down the steep slope, where there was a series of cascades, a fine + water-power, utilized by a mill. The sudden raucous note of a night-hawk + jarred upon the air, and a shadow on silent wings sped past. The road was + dusty in front of the shop, and for a space there was no shade. Into the + full radiance of the moonlight a rabbit bounded along, rising erect with a + most human look of affright in its great shining eyes as it tremulously + gazed at the motionless figures. It too was motionless for a moment. The + young musician made a lunge at it with his bow; it sprang away with a + violent start—its elongated grotesque shadow bounding kangaroo-like + beside it—into the soft gloom of the bushes. There was no other + traveller along the road, and the talk was renewed without further + interruption. “Waal, sir, ef'twarn't fur the testimony o' the words he + reads ez air graven on them rocks, I couldn't-git my cornsent ter b'lieve + ez Moses ever war in Tennessee,” said the advanced thinker. “I ain't + onder-takin' ter say what State he settled in, but I 'lowed 'twarn't hyar. + It mus' hev been, though, 'count o' the scripture on them broken tables.” + </p> + <p> + “I never knowed a meetin' woke ter sech a pint o' holiness. The saints jes + rampaged around till it fairly sounded like the cavortin's o' the + ungodly,” a retrospective voice chimed in. + </p> + <p> + “I raised thirty-two hyme chunes,” said the musician, who had a great gift + in quiring, and was the famed possessor of a robust tenor voice. “A leetle + mo' gloryin' aroun' an' I'd hev kem ter the eend o' my row, an' hev hed + ter begin over agin.” He spoke with acrimony, reviewing the jeopardy in + which his <i>repertoire</i> had been placed. + </p> + <p> + “Waal,” said the blacksmith, passing his hand over his black head, as + sleek and shining as a beaver's, “I'm a-goin' up ter the bald o' the + mounting some day soon, ef so be I kin make out ter shoe that mare o' + mine”—for the blacksmith's mount was always barefoot—“I'm + afeard ter trest her unshod on them slippery slopes; I want ter read some + o' them sayin's on the stone tables myself. I likes ter git a tex' or the + eend o' a hyme set a-goin' in my head—seems somehow ter teach itself + ter the anvil, an' then it jes says it back an' forth all day. Yestiddy I + never seen its beat—'Christ—war—born—in—Bethlehem.' + The anvil jes rang with that ez ef the actial metal hed the gift o' prayer + an' praise.” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, sir,” exclaimed Job Grinnell, who had been having frequent + colloquies aside with the companionable jug, “ye mought jes ez well save + yer shoes an' let yer mare go barefoot. Thar ain't nare sign o' a word + writ on them rocks.” + </p> + <p> + They all sat staring at him. Even the singing, long-drawn vibrations of + the violin were still. + </p> + <p> + “By Hokey!” exclaimed the young musician, “I'll take Purdee's word ez soon + ez yourn.” + </p> + <p> + The whiskey which Grinnell had drunk had rendered him more plastic still + to jealousy. The day was not so long past when Purdee's oath would have + been esteemed a poor dependence against the word of so zealous a brother + as he—a pillar in the church, a shining light of the congregation. + He noted the significant fact that it behooved him to justify himself; it + irked him that this was exacted as a tribute to Purdee's newly acquired + sanctity. + </p> + <p> + “Purdee's jes a-lyin' an' a-foolin' ye,” he declared. “Ever been up on the + bald?” + </p> + <p> + They had lived in its shadow all their lives. + </p> + <p> + Even by the circuitous mountain ways it was not more than five miles from + where they sat. But none had chanced to have a call to go, and it was to + them as a foreign land to be explored. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, I hev, time an' agin,” said Grinnell. “I dunno who gin them rocks + the name of Moses' tables o' the Law. Moses must hev hed a powerful block + an' tackle ter lift sech tremenjious rocks. I hev known 'em named sech fur + many a year. But I seen 'em not three weeks ago, an' thar ain't nare word + writ on 'em. Thar's the mounting; thar's the rocks; ye kin go an' + stare-gaze 'em an' sati'fy yerse'fs.” + </p> + <p> + Whether it were by reason of the cumulative influences of the continual + references to the jug, or of that sense of reviviscence, that more alert + energy, which the cool Southern nights always impart after the sultry + summer days, the suggestion that they should go now and solve the mystery, + and meet the dawn upon the summit of the bald, found instant acceptance, + which it might not have secured in the stolid daylight. + </p> + <p> + The moon, splendid, a lustrous white encircled by a great halo of + translucent green, swung high above the duskily purple mountains. Below in + the valleys its progress was followed by an opalescent gossamer presence + that was like the overflowing fulness, the surplusage, of light rather + than mist. The shadows of the great trees were interlaced with dazzling + silver gleams. The night was almost as bright as the day, but cool and + dank, full of sylvan fragrance and restful silence and a romantic liberty. + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith carried his rifle, for wolves were often abroad in the + wilderness. Two or three others were similarly armed; the advanced thinker + had a hunting-knife, Job Grinnell a pistol that went by the name of + “shootin'-iron.” The musician carried no weapon. “I ain't 'feared o' no + wolf,” he said; “I'll play 'em a chune.” He went on in the vanguard, his + tousled yellow hair idealized with many a shimmer in the moonlight as it + hung curling down on his blue jeans coat, his cheek laid softly on the + violin, the bow glancing back and forth as if strung with moonbeams as he + played. The men woke the solemn silences with their loud mirthful voices; + they startled precipitate echoes; they fell into disputes and wrangled + loudly, and would have turned back if sure of the way home, but Job + Grinnell led steadily on, and they were fain to follow. They lagged to + look at a spot where some man, unheeded even by tradition, had dug his + heart's grave in a vain search for precious metal. A deep excavation in + the midst of the wilderness told the story; how long ago it was might be + guessed from the age of a stalwart oak that had sunk roots into its + depths; the shadows were heavy about it; a sense of despair brooded in the + loneliness. And so up and up the endless ascent; sometimes great chasms + were at one side, stretching further and further, and crowding the narrow + path—the herder's trail—against the sheer ascent, till it + seemed that the treacherous mountains were yawning to engulf them. The air + was growing colder, but was exquisitely clear and exhilarating; the great + dewy ferns flung silvery fronds athwart the way; vines in stupendous + lengths swung from the tops of gigantic trees to the roots. Hark! among + them birds chirp; a matutinal impulse seems astir in the woods; the moon + is undimmed; the stars faint only because of her splendors; but one can + feel that the earth has roused itself to a sense of a new day. And there, + with such feathery flashes of white foam, such brilliant straight lengths + of translucent water, such a leaping grace of impetuous motion, the + currents of the mountain stream, like the arrows of Diana, shoot down the + slopes. And now a vague mist is among the trees, and when it clears away + they seem shrunken, as under a spell, to half their size. They grow + smaller and smaller still, oak and chestnut and beech, but dwarfed and + gnarled like some old orchard. And suddenly they cease, and the vast + grassy dome uprises against the sky, in which the moon is paling into a + dull similitude of itself; no longer wondrous, transcendent, but like some + lily of opaque whiteness, fair and fading. Beneath is a purple, deeply + serious, and sombre earth, to which mists minister, silent and solemn; + myriads of mountains loom on every hand; the half-seen mysteries of the + river, which, charged with the red clay of its banks, is of a tawny color, + gleams as it winds in and out among the white vapors that reach in + fantastic forms from heaven above to the valley below. There is a certain + relief in the mist—it veils the infinities of the scene, on which + the mind can lay but a trembling hold. + </p> + <p> + “Folks tell all sort'n cur'ous tales 'bout'n this hyar spot,” said Job + Grinnell, his square face, his red hair hanging about his ears, and his + ragged red beard visible in the dull light of the coming day. + </p> + <p> + “I hev hearn folks 'low ez a pa'tridge up hyar will look ez big ez a + Dominicky rooster. An' ef ye listens ye kin hear words from somewhar. An' + sometimes in the cattle-herdin' season the beastises will kem an' crowd + tergether, an' stan' on the bald in the moonlight all night.” + </p> + <p> + “I dunno,” said the advanced thinker, “ez I be s'prised enny ef Purdee, ez + be huntin' up hyar so constant, hev got sorter teched in the head, ter + take up sech a cur'ous notion 'bout'n them rocks.” + </p> + <p> + He glanced along the slope at the spot, visible now, where Moses flung the + stone tables and they broke in twain. And there, standing beside them, was + a man of great height, dressed in blue jeans, his broad-brimmed hat pushed + from his brow, and his meditative dark eyes fixed upon the rocks; a deer, + all gray and antlered, lay dead at his feet, and his rifle rested on the + ground as he leaned on the muzzle. + </p> + <p> + A glance was interchanged between the others. Their intention, the + promptings of curiosity, had flagged during the long tramp and the gradual + waning of the influence of the jug. The coincidence of meeting Purdee here + revived their interest. Grinnell, remembering the ancient feud, held back, + being unlikely to elicit Purdee's views in the face of their + contradiction. The blacksmith and the young fiddler took their way down + toward him. + </p> + <p> + He looked up with a start, seeing them at some little distance. His full, + contemplative eyes rested upon them for a moment almost devoid of + questioning. It was not the face of a man who finds himself confronted + with the discovery of his duplicity and his hypocrisy. There was a strange + doubt stirring in the blacksmith's heart As he approached he looked upon + the storied cocks with a sort of solemn awe, as if they had indeed been + given by the hand of the Lord to his servant, who broke them here in his + wrath. He knew that the step of the musician slackened as he followed. + What holy mysteries were they not rushing in upon? He spoke in a bated + voice. + </p> + <p> + “Roger,” he said, “we'uns hearn ye tell 'bout the scriptures graven on + these hyar tables ez Moses flung down, an' we'uns 'lowed we'uns would kem + an' read some fur ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/357.jpg" alt="Tables of the Law 357 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Purdee did not speak nor hesitate; he moved aside that the blacksmith + might stand where he had been—as it were at the foot of the page. + </p> + <p> + But what transcendent glories thronged the heavens—what august + splendors of dawn! Had the sun ever before risen like this, with the sky + an emblazonment of red, of gold, of darting gleams of light; with the + mountains most royally purple or most radiantly blue; with the prismatic + mists in flight; with the slow climax of the dazzling sphere ascending to + dominate it all? + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith knelt down to read. The musician, his silent violin under + his chin, leaned over his comrade's shoulder. The hunter stood still, + expectant. + </p> + <p> + Alas! the corrugations of time; the fissile results of the frost; the + wavering line of ripple-marks of Seas that shall ebb no more; growth of + lichen; an army of ants in full march; a passion-flower trailing from a + crevice, its purple blooms lying upon the gray stone near where it is + stamped with the fossil imprint of a sea-weed, faded long ago and + forgotten. Or is it, alas! for the eyes that can see only this? + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith looked up with a twinkling leer; the violinist recovered + his full height, and drew the bow dashingly across the strings; then let + his arm fall. + </p> + <p> + “Roger,” the blacksmith said, “dad-burned ef I kin read ennything hyar.” + </p> + <p> + The young musician looked over his brawny shoulder in silence. + </p> + <p> + “Whar d'ye make out enny letters, Roger?” persisted Spears. + </p> + <p> + Purdee leaned over and eagerly pointed with his ramrod to a curious + corrugation of the surface of the rock. Again the blacksmith bent down; + the musician craned forward, his yellow hair hanging about his bronzed + face. + </p> + <p> + “I hev been toler'ble well acquainted with the alphabit,” said Spears, + “fur goin' on thirty year an' better, an' I'll swar ter Heaven thar ain't + nare sign of a letter thar.” + </p> + <p> + Purdee stared at him in wild-eyed amazement for a moment. Then he flung + himself upon his knees beside the great rock, and guiding his ramrod over + the surface, he exclaimed, “Hyar, Spears; right hyar!” + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith was all incredulous as he lent himself to a new posture, + and leaned forward to look with the languid indulgence of one who will not + again entertain doubt. + </p> + <p> + “Nare A, nor B, nor C, nor none o' the fambly,” he declared. “These hyar + rocks ain't no Moses' tables sure enough; Moses never war in Tennessee. + They be jes like enny other rock, an' thar ain't a word o' writin' on + 'em.” + </p> + <p> + He looked up with a curious questioning at Pur-dee's face—a strange + face for a man detected in a falsehood, a trick. The deep-set eyes were + wide as if straining for perception denied them. Despite the chill, rare + air, great drops had started on his brow, and were falling upon his beard, + and upon his hands. These strong hands were quivering; they hovered above + the signs on the rocks. The mystic letters, the inspired words, where were + they? Grope as he might, he could not find them. Alas! doubt and denial + had climbed the mountain—the awful limitations of the more finite + human creature—and his inspiration and the finer enthusiasms of the + truth were dead. + </p> + <p> + Dead with a throe that was almost like a literal death. This—on this + he had lived; the ether of ecstasy was the breath of his life. He clutched + at the stained red handkerchief knotted about his throat as if he were + suffocating; he tore it open as he swayed backward on his knees. He did + not hear—or he did not heed—the laugh among the little crowd + on the bald—satirical, rallying, zestful. He was deaf to the strains + of the violin, jeeringly and jerkingly playing a foolish tune. It was + growing fainter, for they had all turned about to betake themselves once + more to the world below. He could have seen, had he cared to see, their + bearded grinning faces peering through the stunted trees, as descending + they came near the spot where he had lavished the spiritual graces of his + feeling, his enthusiasm, his devotion, his earnest reaching for something + higher, for something holy, which had refreshed his famished soul; had + given to its dumbness words; had erased the values of the years, of the + nations; had made him friends with Moses on the “bald”; had revealed to + him the finger of the Lord on the stone. + </p> + <p> + He took no heed of his gestures, of which, indeed, he was unconscious. + They were fine dramatically, and of great power, as he alternately rose to + his full height, beating his breast in despair, and again sank upon his + knees, with a pondering brow and a searching eye, and a hovering, + trembling hand, striving to find the clew he had lost. They might have + impressed a more appreciative audience, but not one more entertained than + the cluster of men who looked and paused and leered in amusement at one + another, and thrust out satirical tongues. Long after they had + disappeared, the strains of the violin could be heard, filling the solemn, + stricken, strangely stunted woods with a grotesquely merry presence, + hilarious and jeering. + </p> + <p> + Purdee found it possible to survive the destruction of illusions. Most of + us do. It wrought in him, however, the saturnine changes natural upon the + relinquishment of a dear and dead fantasy. This ethereal entity is a more + essential component of happiness than one might imagine from the extreme + tenuity of the conditions of its existence. Purdee's fantasy may have been + a poor thing, but, although he could calmly enough close its eyes, and + straighten its limbs, and bury it decently from out the offended view of + fact, he felt that he should mourn it in his heart as long as he should + live. And he was bereaved. + </p> + <p> + There is a certain stage in every sorrow when it rejects sympathy. Purdee, + always taciturn, grave, uncommunicative, was, invested with an austere + aloofness, and was hardly to be approached as he sat, silent and absent, + brooding over the fire at his own home. When roused by some circumstance + of the domestic routine, and it became apparent that his mood was not + sullenness or anger, but simple and complete introversion, it added a + dignity and suggested a remoteness that were yet less reassuring. His son, + who stood in awe of him—not because of paternal severity, but + because no boy could refrain from a worshipping respect for so miraculous + a shot, a woodsman so subtly equipped with all elusive sylvan instincts + and knowledge—forbore to break upon his meditations by the delivery + of Grinnel's message. Nevertheless the consciousness of withholding it + weighed heavily upon him. He only pretermitted it for a time, until a more + receptive state of mind should warrant it. Day by day, however, he looked + with eagerness when he came into the cabin in the evening to ascertain if + his father were still seated in the chimney-corner silently smoking his + pipe. Purdee had seldom remained at home so long at a time, and the boy + had a daily fear that the gun on the primitive rack of deer antlers would + be missing, and word left in the family that he had taken the trail up the + mountain, and would return “'cord-in' ter luck with the varmints.” And + thus Job Grinnell's enigmatical message, that had the ring of defiance, + might remain indefinitely postponed. + </p> + <p> + Abner had not realized how long a time it had been delayed, until one + evening at the wood-pile, in tossing off a great stick to hew into lengths + for the chimney-place, he noticed that thin ice had formed in the moss and + the dank cool shadows of the interstices. “I tell ye now, winter air + a-comm',” he observed. He stood leaning on his axe-handle and looking down + upon the scene so far below; for Pur-dee's house was perched half-way up + on the mountain-side, and he could see over the world how it fared as the + sun went down. Far away upon the levels of the valley of East Tennessee a + golden haze glittered resplendent, lying close upon an irradiated earth, + and ever brightening toward the horizon, and it seemed as if the sun in + sinking might hope to fall in fairer spheres than the skies he had left, + for they were of a dun-color and an opaque consistency. Only one + horizontal rift gave glimpses of a dazzling ochreous tint of indescribable + brilliancy, from the focus of which the divergent light was shed upon the + western limits of the land. Chilhowee, near at hand, was dark enough—a + purplish garnet hue; but the scarlet of the sour-wood gleamed in the cove; + the hickory still flared gallantly yellow; the receding ranges to the + north and south were blue and more faintly azure. The little log cabin + stood with small fields about it, for Purdee barely subsisted on the + fruits of the soil, and did not seek to profit. It had only one room, with + a loft above; the barn was a makeshift of poles, badly chinked, and + showing through the crevices what scanty store there was of corn and + pumpkins. A black-and-white work-ox, that had evidently no deficiency of + ribs, stood outside of the fence and gazed, a forlorn Tantalus, at these + unattainable dainties; now and then a muttered low escaped his lips. + Nobody noticed him or sympathized with him, except perhaps the little + girl, who had come out in her sun-bonnet to help her brother bring in the + fuel. He gruffly accepted her company, a little ashamed of her because she + was a girl; since, however, there was no other boy by to laugh, he + permitted her the delusion that she was of assistance. + </p> + <p> + As he paused to rest he reiterated, “Winter air a-comin', I tell ye.” + </p> + <p> + “D'ye reckon, Ab,” she asked, in her high, thin little voice, her hands + full of chips and the basket at her feet, “ez Grinnell's baby knows + Chris'mus air a-comin'?” + </p> + <p> + He glowered at her as he leaned on the axe. “I reckon Grinnell's old baby + dunno B from Bull-foot,” he declared, gruffly. + </p> + <p> + The recollection of the message came over him. He had a pang of regret, + remembering all the old grudges against the Grinnells. They were + re-enforced by this irrepressible yearning after their baby, this + admission that they had aught which was not essentially despicable. + Nevertheless, he suddenly saw a reason for the Grinnell baby's existence; + he loaded up both arms with the sticks of wood, and, followed by the + peripatetic sun-bonnet, conscientiously weighed down with one billet, he + strode into the house, and let his burden fall with a mighty clatter in + the corner of the chimney. The sun-bonnet staggered up and threw her stick + on the top of the pile of wood. + </p> + <p> + Purdee, sitting silently smoking, glanced up at the noise. Abner took + advantage of the momentary notice to claim, too, the attention of his + mother. “I wish ye'd make Eunice quit talkin' 'bout the Grinnells' old + baby, like she war actially demented—uglies' bald-headed, + slab-sided, slobbery old baby I ever see—nare tooth in its head! I + do despise them Grinnells.” + </p> + <p> + As he anticipated, his father spoke suddenly: “Ye jes keep away from + thar,” he said, sternly. “I trest them folks no furder 'n a rattlesnake.” + </p> + <p> + “<i>I</i> ain't consortin' along o' 'em,” declared the boy. “But I + actially hed ter take Eunice by the scalp o' her head an' lug her off one + day when she hung on thar fence a-stare-gazin' Grinnell's baby like 'twar + fatten ter eat.” + </p> + <p> + The child's mother, a cadaverous, pale woman, was listlessly stringing the + warping-bars with hanks of variegated yarn. The grandmother, who conserved + a much more active and youthful interest in life, took down a brown gourd + used as a scrap-basket that was on a protruding lath of the clay-and-stick + chimney, and hunted among the scraps of homespun and bits of yarn stowed + within it. The room was much like the gourd in its aged brown tint; its + indigenous aspect, as if it had not been made with hands, but was some + spontaneous production of the soil; with its bits of bright color—the + peppers hanging from the rafters, the rainbow-hued yarn festooning the + warping-bars, the red coals of the fire, the blue and yellow ware ranged + on the shelf, the brown puncheon floor and walls and ceiling and chimney—it + might have seemed the interior of a similar gourd of gigantic proportions. + She dressed a twig from the pile of wood in a gay scrap of cloth, casting + glances the while at the little girl, and handed it to her. + </p> + <p> + “I hain't never seen ez good a baby ez this,” she said, with the + convincing coercive mendacity of a grandmother. + </p> + <p> + The little girl accepted it humbly; it was a good baby doubtless of its + sort, but it was not alive, which could not be denied of the Grinnell + baby, Grinnell though it was. + </p> + <p> + “An' Job Grinnell he kem down ter the fence, an' 'lowed he'd slit our + ears, an' named us shoats,” continued her brother. Purdee lifted his head. + “An' sent a word ter dad,” said the boy, tremulously. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/367.jpg" alt="What Word Did he Send Ter Me? 367 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + “What word did he send ter—<i>me?</i>” cried Purdee. + </p> + <p> + The boy quailed to tell him. “He tole me ter ax ye ef ye ever read sech ez + this on Moses' tables in the mountings—' An' ye shell claim sech ez + be yer own, an' yer neighbors' belongings shell ye in no wise boastfully + medjure fur yourn, nor look upon it fur covetiousness, nor yit git a big + name up in the kentry fur ownin' sech ez be another's,'” faltered the + sturdy Abner. + </p> + <p> + The next moment he felt an infinite relief. He suddenly recognized the + fact that he had been chiefly restrained from repeating the words by an + unrealized terror lest they prove true—lest something his father + claimed was not his, indeed. + </p> + <p> + But the expression of anger on Purdee's face was merged first in blank + astonishment, then in perplexed cogitation, then in renewed and + overpowering amazement. + </p> + <p> + The wife turned from the warping-bars with a vague stare of surprise, one + hand poised uncertainly upon a peg of the frame, the other holding a hank + of “spun truck.” The grandmother looked over her spectacles with eyes + sharp enough to seem subsidized to see through the mystery. + </p> + <p> + “In the name o' reason and religion, Roger Purdee,” she adjured him, “what + air that thar perverted Philistine talkin' 'bout?” + </p> + <p> + “It air more'n I kin jedge of,” said Purdee, still vainly cogitating. + </p> + <p> + He sat for a time silent, his dark eyes bent on the fire, his broad, high + forehead covered by his hat pulled down over it, his long, tangled, dark + locks hanging on his collar. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly he rose, took down his gun, and started toward the door. + </p> + <p> + “Roger,” cried his wife, shrilly, “I'd leave the critter be. Lord knows + thar's been enough blood spilt an' good shelter burned along o' them + Purdees' an' Grinnells' quar'ls in times gone. Laws-a-massy!”—she + wrung her hands, all hampered though they were in the “spun truck “—“I'd + ruther be a sheep 'thout a soul, an' live in peace.” + </p> + <p> + “A sca'ce ch'ice,” commented her mother. “Sheep's got ter be butchered. + I'd ruther be the butcher, myself—healthier.” + </p> + <p> + Purdee was gone. He had glanced absently at his wife as if he hardly + heard. He waited till she paused; then, without answer, he stepped hastily + out of the door and walked away. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + The cronies at the blacksmith's shop latterly gathered within the great + flaring door, for the frost lay on the dead leaves without, the stars + scintillated with chill suggestions, and the wind was abroad on nights + like these. On shrill pipes it played; so weird, so wild, so prophetic + were its tones that it found only a shrinking in the heart of him whose + ear it constrained to listen. The sound of the torrent far below was + accelerated to an agitated, tumultuous plaint, all unknown when its pulses + were bated by summer languors. The moon was in the turmoil of the clouds, + which, routed in some wild combat with the winds, were streaming westward. + </p> + <p> + And although the rigors of the winter were in abeyance, and the late + purple aster called the Christmas-flower bloomed in the sheltered grass at + the door, the forge fire, flaring or dully glowing, overhung with its + dusky hood, was a friendly thing to see, and in its vague illumination the + rude interior of the shanty—the walls, the implements of the trade, + the bearded faces grouped about, the shadowy figures seated on whatever + might serve, a block of wood, the shoeing-stool, a plough, or perched on + the anvil—became visible to Roger Purdee from far down the road as + he approached. Even the head of a horse could be seen thrust in at the + window, while the brute, hitched outside, beguiled the dreary waiting by + watching with a luminous, intelligent eye the gossips within, as if he + understood the drawling colloquy. They were suffering some dearth of + timely topics, supplying the deficiency with reminiscences more or less + stale, and had expected no such sensation as they experienced when a long + shadow fell athwart the doorway,—the broad aperture glimmering a + silvery gray contrasted with the brown duskiness of the interior and the + purple darkness of the distance; the forge fire showed Purdee's tall + figure leaning on the doorframe, and lighted up his serious face beneath + his great broad-brimmed hat, his intent, earnest eyes, his tangled black + beard and locks. He gave no greeting, and silence fell upon them as his + searching gaze scanned them one by one. + </p> + <p> + “Whar's Job Grinnell?” he demanded, abruptly. + </p> + <p> + There was a shuffling of feet, as if those members most experienced relief + from the constraint that silence had imposed upon the party. A vibration + from the violin—a sigh as if the instrument had been suddenly moved + rather than a touch upon the strings—intimated that the young + musician was astir. But it was Spears, the blacksmith, who spoke. + </p> + <p> + “Kem in, Roger,” he called out, cordially, as he rose, his massive figure + and his sleek head showing in the dull red light on the other side of the + anvil, his bare arms folded across his chest. “Naw, Job ain't hyar; hain't + been hyar for a right smart while.” + </p> + <p> + There was a suggestion of disappointment in the attitude of the motionless + figure at the door. The deeply earnest, pondering face, visible albeit the + red light from the forge-fire was so dull, was keenly watched. For the + inquiry was fraught with peculiar meaning to those cognizant of the long + and bitter feud. + </p> + <p> + “I ax,” said Purdee, presently, “kase Grinnell sent me a mighty cur'ous + word the t'other day.” He lifted his head. “Hev enny o' you-uns hearn him + 'low lately ez I claim ennything ez ain't mine?” + </p> + <p> + There was silence for a moment. Then the forge was suddenly throbbing with + the zigzagging of the bow of the violin jauntily dandering along the + strings. His keen sensibility apprehended the sudden jocosity as a jeer, + but before he could say aught the blacksmith had undertaken to reply. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, Purdee, ef ye hedn't axed me, I warn't layin' off ter say nuthin + 'bout'n it. 'Tain't no con-sarn o' mine ez I knows on. But sence ye <i>hev</i> + axed me, I hold my jaw fur the fear o' no man. The words ain't writ ez I + be feared ter pernounce. An' ez all the kentry hev hearn 'bout'n it + 'ceptin' you-uns, I dunno ez I hev enny call ter hold my jaw. The Lord + 'ain't set no seal on my lips ez I knows on.” + </p> + <p> + “Naw, sir!” said Purdee, his great eyes glooming through the dusk and + flashing with impatience. “He 'ain't set no seal on yer lips, ter jedge by + the way ye wallop yer tongue about inside o' 'em with fool words. Whyn't + ye bite off what ye air tryin' ter chaw?” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, then,” said the admonished orator, bluntly, “Grinnell 'lows ye + don't own that thar lan' around them rocks on the bald, no more'n ye read + enny writin' on 'em.” + </p> + <p> + “Not them rocks!” cried Purdee, standing suddenly erect—“the tables + o' the Law, writ with the finger o' the Lord—an' Moses flung 'em + down thar an' bruk 'em. All the kentry knows they air Moses' tables. An' + the groun' whar they lie air mine.” + </p> + <p> + “'Tain't, Grinnell say 'tain't.” + </p> + <p> + “Naw, sir,” chimed in the young musician, his violin silent. “Job Grinnell + declars he owns it hisself, an' ef he war willin' ter stan' the expense + he'd set up his rights, but the lan' ain't wuth it. He 'lows his line runs + spang over them rocks, an' a heap furder.” + </p> + <p> + Purdee was silent; one or two of the gossips laughed jeeringly; he had + been proved a liar once. It was well that he did not deny; he was put to + open shame among them. + </p> + <p> + “An' Grinnell say,” continued Blinks, “ez ye hev gone an' tole big tales + 'mongst the brethren fur ownin' sech ez ain't yourn, an' readin' of + s'prisin' sayin's on the rocks.” + </p> + <p> + He bent his head to a series of laughing harmonics, and when he raised it, + hearing no retort, the silvery gray square of the door was empty. He saw + the moon glimmer on the clumps of grass outside where the Christmas flower + bloomed. + </p> + <p> + The group sat staring in amaze; the blacksmith strode to the door and + looked out, himself a massive, dark silhouette upon the shimmering + neutrality of the background. There was no figure in sight; no faint + foot-fall was audible, no rustle of the sere leaves; only the voice of the + mountain torrent, far below, challenged the stillness with its insistent + cry. + </p> + <p> + He looked back for a moment, with a vague, strange doubt if he had seen + aught, heard aught, in the scene just past. “Hain't Purdee been hyar?” he + asked, passing his hand across his eyes. The sense of having dreamed was + so strong upon him that he stretched his arms and yawned. + </p> + <p> + The gleaming teeth of the grouped shadows demonstrated the merriment + evoked by the query. The chuckle was arrested midway. + </p> + <p> + “Ye 'pear ter 'low ez suthin' hev happened ter Purdee, an' that thar war + his harnt,” suggested one. + </p> + <p> + The bold young musician laid down his violin suddenly. The instrument + struck upon a keg of nails, and gave out an abrupt, discordant jangle, + startling to the nerves. “Shet up, ye durned squeech-owl!” he exclaimed, + irritably. Then, lowering his voice, he asked: “Didn't they 'low down + yander in the Cove ez Widder Peters, the day her husband war killed by the + landslide up in the mounting, heard a hoe a-scrapin' mightily on the + gravel in the gyarden-spot, an' went ter the door, an' seen him thar + a-workin', an' axed him when he kem home? An' he never lifted his head, + but hoed on. An' she went down thar 'mongst the corn, an' she couldn't + find nobody. An' jes then the John's boys rid up an' 'lowed ez Jim Peters + war dead, an' hed been fund in the mounting, an' they war a-fetchin' of + him then.” + </p> + <p> + The horse's head within the window nodded violently among the shadows, and + the stones rolled beneath his hoof as he pawed the ground. + </p> + <p> + “Mis' Peters she knowed suthin' were a-goin' ter happen when she seen that + harnt a-hoein'.” + </p> + <p> + “I reckon she did,” said the blacksmith, stretching himself, his nerves + still under the delusion of recent awakening. “Jim never hoed none when he + war alive. She mought hev knowed he war dead ef she seen him hoein'.” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, sir,” exclaimed the violinist, “I'm a-goin' up yander ter Purdee's + ter-morrer ter find out what he died of, an' when.” + </p> + <p> + That he was alive was proved the next day, to the astonishment of the + smith and his friends. The forge was the voting-place of the district, and + there, while the fire was flaring, the bellows blowing, the anvil ringing, + the echo vibrating, now loud, now faint, with the antiphonal chant of the + hammer and the sledge, a notice was posted to inform the adjacent owners + that Roger Purdee's land, held under an original grant from the State, + would be processioned according to law some twenty days after date, and + the boundaries thereof defined and established. The fac-simile of the + notice, too, was posted on the court-house door in the county town twenty + miles away, for there were those who journeyed so far to see it. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder,” said the blacksmith, as he stood in the unfamiliar street and + gazed at it, his big arms, usually bare, now hampered with his coat + sleeves and folded upon his chest—“I wonder ef he footed it all the + way ter town at the gait he tuk when he lit out from the forge?” + </p> + <p> + It was a momentous day when the county surveyor planted his Jacob's-staff + upon the State line on the summit of the bald. His sworn chain-bearers, + two tall young fellows clad in jeans, with broad-brimmed wool hats, their + heavy boots drawn high over their trousers, stood ready and waiting, with + the sticks and clanking chain, on the margin of the ice-cold spring + gushing out on this bleak height, and signifying more than a fountain in + the wilderness, since it served to define the southeast corner of Purdee's + land. The two enemies were perceptibly conscious of each other. Grinnell's + broad face and small eyes laden with fat lids were persistently averted. + Purdee often glanced toward him gloweringly, his head held, nevertheless, + a little askance, as if he rejected the very sight. There was the fire of + a desperate intention in his eyes. Looking at his face, shaded by his + broad-brimmed hat, one could hardly have doubted now whether it expressed + most ferocity or force. His breath came quick—the bated breath of a + man who watches and waits for a supreme moment. His blue jeans coat was + buttoned close about his sun-burned throat, where the stained red + handkerchief was knotted. He wore a belt with his powder-horn and + bullet-pouch, and carried his rifle on his shoulder; the hand that held it + trembled, and he tried to quell the quiver. “I'll prove it fust, an' kill + him arterward—kill him arterward,” he muttered. + </p> + <p> + In the other hand he held a yellowed old paper. Now and then he bent his + earnest dark eyes upon the grant, made many a year ago by the State of + Tennessee to his grandfather; for there had been no subsequent + conveyances. + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith had come begirt with his leather apron, his shirt-sleeves + rolled up, and with his hammer in his hand, an inopportune customer having + jeopardized his chance of sharing in the sensation of the day. The other + neighbors all wore their coats closely buttoned. Blinks carried his violin + hung upon his back; the sharp timbre of the wind, cutting through the + leafless boughs of the stunted woods, had a kindred fibrous resonance. + Clouds hung low far beneath them; here and there, as they looked, the + trees on the slopes showed above and again below the masses of clinging + vapors. Sometimes close at hand a peak would reveal itself, asserting the + solemn vicinage of the place, then draw its veil slowly about it, and + stand invisible and in austere silence. The surveyor, a stalwart figure, + his closely buttoned coat giving him a military aspect, looked + disconsolately downward. + </p> + <p> + “I hoped I'd die before this,” he remarked. “I'm equal to getting over + anything in nature that's flat or oblique, but the vertical beats me.” + </p> + <p> + He bent to take sight for a moment, the group silently watching him. + Suddenly he came to the perpendicular, and strode off down the rugged + slope over gullies and bowlders, through rills and briery tangles, his + eyes distended and eager as if he were led into the sylvan depths by the + lure of a vision. The chain-bearers followed, continually bending and + rising, the recurrent genuflections resembling the fervors of some + religious rite. The chain rustled sibilantly among the dead leaves, and + was ever and anon drawn out to its extremest length. Then the dull clank + of the links was silent. + </p> + <p> + “Stick!” called out the young mountaineer in the rear. + </p> + <p> + “Stuck!” responded his comrade ahead. + </p> + <p> + And once more the writhing and jingling among the withered leaves. The + surveyor strode on, turning his face neither to the right nor to the left, + with his Jacob's-staff held upright before him. The other men trooped + along scatteringly, dodging under the low boughs of the stunted trees. + They pressed hastily together when the great square rocks—Moses' + tables of the Law—came into view, lying where it was said the man of + God flung them upon the sere slope below, both splintered and fissured, + and one broken in twain. The surveyor was bearing straight down upon them. + The men running on either side could not determine whether the line would + fall within the spot or just beyond. They broke into wild exclamations. + </p> + <p> + “Ye may hammer me out ez flat ez a skene,” cried the blacksmith, “ef I + don't b'lieve ez Purdee hev got 'em.” + </p> + <p> + “Naw, sir, naw!” cried another fervent amateur; “thar's the north. I jes + now viewed Grinnell's dad's deed; the line undertakes ter run with + Pur-dee's line; he hev got seven hunderd poles ter the north; ef they air + a-goin' ter the north, them tables o' the Law air Grinnell's.” + </p> + <p> + A wild chorus ensued. + </p> + <p> + “Naw!” “Yes!” “Thar they go!” “A-bear-in' off that-a-way!” “Beats my + time!” as they stumbled and scuttled alongside the acolytes of the + Compass, who bowed down and rose up at every length of the chain. Suddenly + a cry from the chain-bearers. + </p> + <p> + “Out!” + </p> + <p> + Stillness ensued. + </p> + <p> + The surveyor stopped to register the “out.” It was a moment of thrilling + suspense; the rocks lay only a few chains further; Grinnell, into whose + confidence doubt had begun to be instilled, said to himself, all + a-tremble, that he would hardly have staked his veracity, his standing + with the brethren, if he had realized that it was so close a matter as + this. He had long known that his father owned the greater part of the + unproductive wilderness lying between the two ravines; the land was almost + worthless by reason of the steep slants which rendered it utterly + untillable. He was sure that by the terms of his deed, which his father + had from its vendor, Squire Bates, his line included the Moses' tables on + which Purdee had built so fallacious a repute of holiness. He looked once + more at the paper—“thence from Crystal Spring with Purdee's line + north seven hundred poles to a stake in the middle of the river.” + </p> + <p> + Purdee too was all a-quiver with eagerness. He had not beheld those rocks + since that terrible day when all the fine values of his gifted vision had + been withdrawn from him, and he could read no more with eyes blinded by + the limitations of what other men could see—the infinitely petty + purlieus of the average sense. He had a vague idea that should they say + this was his land where those strange rocks lay, he would see again, he + would read undreamed-of words, writ with a pen of fire. He started toward + them, and then with a conscious effort he held back. + </p> + <p> + The surveyor took no heed of the sentiments involved in processioning + Purdee's land. He stood leaning on his Jacob's-staff, as interesting to + him as Moses' rocks, and in his view infinitely more useful, and wiped his + brow, and looked about, and yawned. To him it was merely the surveying for + a foolish cause of a very impracticable and steep tract of land, and the + only reason it should be countenanced by heaven or earth was the fees + involved. And this was what he saw at the end of Purdee's line. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly he took up his Jacob's-staff and marched on with a long stride, + bearing straight down upon the rocks. The whole <i>cortège</i> started + anew—the genuflecting chain-bearers, the dodging, scrambling, + running spectators. On one of the strange stunted leafless trees a colony + of vagrant crows had perched, eerie enough to seem the denizens of those + weird forests; they broke into raucous laughter—Haw! haw! haw!—rising + to a wild commotion of harsh, derisive discord as the men once more gave + vent to loud, excited cries. For the surveyor, stalking ahead, had passed + beyond the great tables of the Law; the chain-bearers were drawing + Purdee's line on the other side of them, and they had fallen, if ever they + fell here from Moses' hand and broke in twain, upon Purdee's land, granted + to his ancestor by the State of Tennessee. + </p> + <p> + He could not speak for joy, for pride. His dark eyes were illumined by a + glancing, amber light. He took off his hat and smoothed with his rough + hand his long black hair, falling from his massive forehead. He leaned + against one of the stunted oaks, shouldering his rifle that he had loaded + for Grinnell—he could hardly believe this, although he remembered + it. He did not want to shoot Grinnell; he would not waste the good lead! + </p> + <p> + And indeed Grinnell had much ado to defend himself against the sneers and + rebukes with which the party beguiled the way through the wintry woods. + “Ter go a-claimin' another man's land, an' put him ter the expense o' + processionin' it, an' git his line run!” exclaimed the blacksmith, + indignantly. “An' ye 'ain't got nare sign o' a show at Moses' tables!” + </p> + <p> + “I dunno how this hyar line air a-runnin',” declared Grinnell, sorely + beset. “I don't b'lieve it air a-runnin' north.” + </p> + <p> + The surveyor was hard by. He had planted his staff again, and was once + more taking his bearings. He looked up for a second. + </p> + <p> + “Northwest,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Grinnell stared for a moment; then strode up to the surveyor, and pointed + with his stubby finger at a word on his deed. + </p> + <p> + The official looked with interest at it; he held up suddenly Purdee's + grant and read aloud, “From Crystal Spring seven hundred poles <i>northwest</i> + to a stake in the middle of the river.” + </p> + <p> + He examined, too, the original plat of survey which he had taken to guide + him, and also the plat made when Squire Bates sold to Grinnell's father; “<i>northwest</i>” + they all agreed. There was evidently a clerical error on the part of the + scrivener who had written Grinnell's deed. + </p> + <p> + In a moment the harassed man saw that through the processioning of + Purdee's land he had lost heavily in the extent of his supposed + possessions. He it was who had claimed what was rightfully another's. And + because of the charge Purdee was the richer by a huge slice of mountain + land—how large he could not say, as he ruefully followed the line of + survey. + </p> + <p> + But for this discovery the interest of processioning Purdee's land would + have subsided with the determination of the ownership of the limited + environment of the stone tables of the Law. Now, as they followed the + ever-diverging line to the northwest, the group was pervaded by a subdued + and tremulous excitement, in which even the surveyor shared. Two or three + whispered apart now and then, and Grinnell, struggling to suppress his + dismay, was keenly conscious of the glances that sought him again and + again in the effort to judge how he was taking it. Only Purdee himself was + withdrawn from the interest that swayed them all. He had loitered at + first, dallying with a temptation to slip silently from the party and + retrace his way to the tables and ascertain, perchance, if some vestige of + that mystic scripture might not reveal itself to him anew, or if it had + been only some morbid fancy, some futile influence of solitude, some + fevered condition of the blood or the brain, that had traced on the stone + those gracious words, the mere echo of which—his stuttered, vague + recollections—had roused the camp-meeting to fervid enthusiasms + undreamed of before. And then he put from him the project—some other + time, perhaps, for doubts lurked in his heart, hesitation chilled his + resolve—some other time, when his companions and their prosaic + influence were all far away. He was roused abruptly, as he stalked along, + to the perception of the deepening excitement among them. They had emerged + from the dense growths of the mountain to the lower slope, where pastures + and fields—whence the grain had been harvested—and a garden + and a dwelling, with barns and fences, lay before them all. And as Purdee + stopped and stared, the realization of a certain significant fact struck + him so suddenly that it seemed to take his breath away. That divergent + line stretching to the northwest had left within his boundaries the land + on which his enemy had built his home. + </p> + <p> + He looked; then he smote his thigh and laughed aloud. + </p> + <p> + The rocks on the river-bank caught the sound, and echoed it again and + again, till the air seemed full of derisive voices. Under their stings of + jeering clamor, and under the anguish of the calamity which his reeling + senses could scarcely measure, Job Grinnell's composure suddenly gave way. + He threw up his arms and called upon Heaven; he turned and glared + furiously at his enemy. Then, as Purdee's laughter still jarred the air, + he drew a “shooting-iron” from his pocket. The blacksmith closed with him, + struggling to disarm him. The weapon was discharged in the turmoil, the + ball glancing away in the first quiver of sunshine that had reached the + earth to-day, and falling spent across the river. + </p> + <p> + Grinnell wrested himself from the restraining grasp, and rushed down the + slope to his gate to hide himself from the gaze of the world—his + world, that little group. Then remembering that it was no longer his gate, + he turned from it in an agony of loathing. And knowing that earth held no + shelter for him but the sufferance of another man's roof, he plunged into + the leafless woods as if he heavily dragged himself by a power which + warred within him with other strong motives, and disappeared among the + myriads of holly bushes all aglow with their red berries. + </p> + <p> + The spectators still followed the surveyor and his Jacob's-staff, but + Purdee lingered. He walked around the fence with a fierce, gloating eye, a + panther-like, loping tread, as a beast might patrol a fold before he + plunders it. All the venom of the old feud had risen to the opportunity. + Here was his enemy at his mercy. He knew that it was less than seven years + since the enclosures had been made, acres and acres of tillable land + cleared, the houses built—all achieved which converted the + worthlessness of a wilderness into the sterling values of a farm. He—he, + Roger Purdee—was a rich man for the “mountings,” joining his little + to this competence. All the cruelties, all the insults, all the traditions + of the old vendetta came thronging into his mind, as distinctly presented + as if they were a series of hideous pictures; for he was not used to think + in detail, but in the full portrayal of scenes. + </p> + <p> + The Purdee wrongs were all avenged. This result was so complete, so + baffling, so ruinous temporally, so humiliating spiritually! It was the + fullest replication of revenge for all that had challenged it. + </p> + <p> + “How Uncle Ezra would hev rej'iced ter hev lived ter see this day!” he + thought, with a pious regret that the dead might not know. + </p> + <p> + The next moment his attention was suddenly attracted by a movement in the + door-yard. A woman had been hanging out clothes to dry, and she turned to + go in, without seeing the striding figure patrolling the enclosure. A baby—a + small bundle of a red dress—was seated on the pile of sorghum-cane + where the mill had worked in the autumn; the stalks were broken, and + flimsy with frost and decay, and washed by the rains to a pallid hue, yet + more marked in contrast with the brown ground. The baby's dress made a + bright bit of color amidst the dreary tones. As Purdee caught sight of it + he remembered that this was “Grinnell's old baby,” who had been the cause + of the renewal of the ancient quarrel, which had resulted so benignantly + for him. “I owe you a good turn, sis,” he murmured, satirically, glaring + at the child as the unconscious mother lifted her to go in the house. The + baby, looking over the maternal shoulder, encountered the stern eyes + staring at her. She stared gravely too. Then with a bounce and a gurgle + she beamed upon him from out the retirement of her flapping sun-bonnet; + she smiled radiantly, and finally laughed outright, and waved her hands + and again bounced beguilingly, and thus toothlessly coquetting, + disappeared within the door. + </p> + <p> + Before Purdee reached home, flakes of snow, the first of the season, were + whirling through the gray dusk noiselessly, ceaselessly, always falling, + yet never seeming to fall, rather to restlessly pervade the air with a + vacillating alienation from all the laws of gravitation. Elusive + fascinations of thought were liberated with the shining crystalline aerial + pulsation; some mysterious attraction dwelt down long vistas amongst the + bare trees; their fine fibrous grace of branch and twig was accented by + the snow, which lay upon them with exquisite lightness, despite the + aggregated bulk, not the densely packed effect which the boughs would show + to-morrow. The crags were crowned; their grim faces looked frowningly out + like a warrior's from beneath a wreath. Nowhere could the brown ground be + seen; already the pine boughs bent, the needles failing to pierce the + drifts. On the banks of the stream, on the slopes of the mountain, in + wildest jungles, in the niches and crevices of bare cliffs, the + holly-berries glowed red in the midst of the ever-green snow-laden leaves + and ice-barbed twigs. When his house at last came into view, the roof was + deeply covered; the dizzying whirl had followed every line of the + rail-fence; scurrying away along the furthest zigzags there was a + vanishing glimpse of a squirrel; the boles of the trees were embedded in + drifts; the chickens had gone to roost; the sheep were huddling in the + broad door of the rude stable; he saw their heads lifted against the dark + background within, where the ox was vaguely glimpsed. He caught their mild + glance despite the snow that in-starred with its ever-shifting crystals + the dark space of the aperture, and intervened as a veil. They suddenly + reminded him of the season—that it was Christmas Eve; of the sheep + which so many years ago beheld the angel of the Lord and the glory of the + great light that shone about the shepherds abiding in the fields. Did they + follow, he wondered, the shepherds who went to seek for Christ? Ah, as he + paused meditatively beside the rail-fence—what matter how long ago + it was, how far away!—he saw those sheep lying about the fields + under the vast midnight sky. They lift their sleepy heads. Dawn? not yet, + surely; and they lay them down again. And one must bleat aloud, turning to + see the quickening sky; and one, woolly, white, white as snow, with eyes + illumined by the heralding heavens, struggles to its feet, and another, + and the flock is astir; and the shepherds, drowsing doubtless, are + awakened to good tidings of great joy. + </p> + <p> + What a night that was!—this night—Christmas Eve. He wondered + he had not thought of it before. And the light still shines, and the angel + waits, and the eternal hosts proclaim peace on earth, good-will toward + men, and summon us all to go and follow the shepherds and see—what? + A little child cradled in a manger. The mountaineer, leaning on his gun by + the rail-fence, looked through the driving snow with the lights of + divination kindling in his eyes, seeing it all, feeling its meaning as + never before. Christ came thus, he knew, for a purpose. He could have come + in the chariots of the sun or on the wings of the wind. But He was cradled + as a little child, that men might revere humanity for the sake of Him who + had graced it; that they, thinking on Him, might be good to one another + and to all little children. + </p> + <p> + As he burst into the door of his house the elations of his high religious + mood were rudely dispelled by shrill cries of congratulation from his wife + and her mother. For the news had preceded him. Ephraim Blinks with his + fiddle had stopped there on his way to play at some neighboring + merry-making, and had acquainted them with the result of processioning + Purdee's land. + </p> + <p> + “We'll go down thar an' live!” cried his wife, with a gush of joyful + tears. “Arter all our scratch-in' along like ten-toed chickens all this + time, we'll hev comfort an' plenty! We'll live in Grinnell's good house! + But ter think o' our trials, an' how pore we hev been!” + </p> + <p> + “This air the Purdees' day!” cried the grandmother, her face flushed with + the semblance of youth. “Arter all ez hev kem an' gone, the jedg-mint o' + the Lord hev descended on Grinnell, an' he air cast out. An' his fields, + an' house, an' bin, an' barn, air Purdee's!” + </p> + <p> + The fire flared and faded; shadows of the night gloomed thick in the room—this + night of nights that bestowed so much, that imposed so much on man and on + his fellow-man! + </p> + <p> + “Ain't the Grinnell baby got <i>no</i> home?” whimpered the hereditary + enemy. + </p> + <p> + The mountaineer remembered the Lord of heaven and earth cradled, a little + Child, in the manger. He remembered, too, the humble child smiling its + guileless good-will at the fence. He broke out suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “How kem the fields Purdee's,” he cried, leaning his back against the door + and striking the puncheon floor with the butt of the gun till it rang + again and again, “or the house, or the bin, or the barn? Did he plant 'em? + Did he build 'em? Who made 'em his'n?” + </p> + <p> + “The law!” exclaimed both women in a breath. + </p> + <p> + “Thar ain't no law in heaven or yearth ez kin gin an' honest man what + ain't his'n by rights,” he declared. + </p> + <p> + An insistent feminine clamor arose, protesting the sovereign power of the + law. He quaked for a moment; dominant though he was in his own house, he + could not face them, but he could flee. He suddenly stepped out of the + door, and when they opened it and looked after him in the snowy dusk and + the whitened woods, he was gone. + </p> + <p> + And popular opinion coincided with them when it became known that he had + formally relinquished his right to that portion of the land improved by + Grinnell. He said to the old squire who drew up the quit-claim deed, which + he executed that Christmas Eve, that he was not willing to profit by his + enemy's mistake, and thus the consideration expressed in the conveyance + was the value of the land, considered not as a farm, but as so many acres + of wilderness before an axe was laid to the trunk of a tree or the soil + upturned by a plough. It was the minimum of value, and Grinnell came + cheaply off. + </p> + <p> + The blacksmith, the mountain fiddler, and the advanced thinker, who had + been active in the survey, balked of the expected excitement attendant + upon the ousting of Grinnell, and some sensational culmination of the + ancient feud, were not in sympathy with the pacific result, and spoke as + if they had given themselves to unrequited labors. + </p> + <p> + “Thar ain't no way o' settlin' what that thar critter Purdee owns 'ceptin' + ez consarns Moses' tables o' the Law. He clings ter them,” they said, in + conclave about the forge fire when the big doors were closed and the snow, + banking up the crevices, kept out the wind. “There ain't no use in + percessionin' Purdee's land.” + </p> + <p> + And indeed Purdee's possessions were wider far than even that divergent + line which the county surveyor ran out might seem to warrant; for on the + mountain-tops largest realms of solemn thought were open to him. He levied + tribute upon the liberties of an enthused imagination. He exulted in the + freedom of the expanding spaces of a spiritual perception of the spiritual + things. When the snow slipped away from the tables of the Law, the man who + had read strange scripture engraven thereon took his way one day, + doubtful, but faltering with hope, up and up to the vast dome of the + mountain, and knelt beside the rocks to see if perchance he might trace + anew those mystic runes which he once had some fine instinct to decipher. + And as he pondered long he found, or thought he found, here a familiar + character, and there a slowly developing word, and anon—did he see + it aright?—a phrase; and suddenly it was discovered to him that, + whether their origin were a sacred mystery or the fantastic scroll-work of + time as the rock weathered, high thoughts, evoking thrilling emotions, + bear scant import to one who apprehends only in mental acceptance. And he + realised that the multiform texts which he had read in the fine and + curious script were but paraphrases of the simple mandate to be good to + one another for the sake of that holy Child cradled in manger, and to all + little children. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Riddle Of The Rocks, by +Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RIDDLE OF THE ROCKS *** + +***** This file should be named 23629-h.htm or 23629-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/2/23629/ + +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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