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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/23633-0.txt b/23633-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..58c6f1c --- /dev/null +++ b/23633-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2290 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of His “Day In Court”, 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: His “Day In Court” + 1895 + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +Illustrator: A. B. Frost + +Release Date: November 26, 2007 [EBook #23633] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS “DAY IN COURT” *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +HIS “DAY IN COURT” + +By Charles Egbert Craddock + +1895 + + +It had been a hard winter along the slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains, +and still the towering treeless domes were covered with snow, and the +vagrant winds were abroad, rioting among the clifty heights where they +held their tryst, or raiding down into the sheltered depths of the Cove, +where they seldom intruded. Nevertheless, on this turbulent rush was +borne in the fair spring of the year. The fragrance of the budding +wild-cherry was to be discerned amidst the keen slanting javelins of +the rain. A cognition of the renewal and the expanding of the forces of +nature pervaded the senses as distinctly as if one might hear the grass +growing, or feel along the chill currents of the air the vernal pulses +thrill. Night after night in the rifts of the breaking clouds close to +the horizon was glimpsed the stately sidereal Virgo, prefiguring and +promising the harvest, holding in her hand a gleaming ear of corn. +But it was not the constellation which the tumultuous torrent at the +mountain's base reflected in a starry glitter. From the hill-side above +a light cast its broken image among the ripples, as it shone for an +instant through the bosky laurel, white, stellular, splendid--only a +tallow dip suddenly placed in the window of a log-cabin, and as suddenly +withdrawn. + +For a gruff voice within growled out a remonstrance: “What ye doin' that +fur, Steve? Hev that thar candle got enny call ter bide in that thar +winder?” + +The interior, contrary to the customary aspect of the humble homes of +the region, was in great disarray. Cooking utensils stood uncleaned +about the hearth; dishes and bowls of earthen-ware were assembled upon +the table in such numbers as to suggest that several meals had been +eaten without the ceremony of laying the cloth anew, and that in default +of washing the crockery it had been re-enforced from the shelf so far as +the limited store might admit. Saddles and spinning-wheels, an ox-yoke +and trace-chains, reels and wash-tubs, were incongruously pushed +together in the corners. Only one of the three men in the room made +any effort to reduce the confusion to order. This was the square-faced, +black-bearded, thick-set young fellow who took the candle from the +window, and now advanced with it toward the hearth, holding it at an +angle that caused the flame to swiftly melt the tallow, which dripped +generously upon the floor. + +“I hev seen Eveliny do it,” he said, excitedly justifying himself. “I +noticed her sot the candle in the winder jes' las' night arter supper.” + He glanced about uncertainly, and his patience seemed to give way +suddenly. “Dad-burn the old candle! I dunno _whar_ ter set it,” he +cried, desperately, as he flung it from him, and it fell upon the floor +close to the wall. + +The dogs lifted their heads to look, and one soft-stepping old hound got +up with the nimbleness of expectation, and, with a prescient gratitude +astir in his tail, went and sniffed at it. His aspect drooped suddenly, +and he looked around in reproach at Stephen Quimbey, as if suspecting +a practical joke. But there was no merriment in the young mountaineer's +face. He threw himself into his chair with a heavy sigh, and desisted +for a time from the unaccustomed duty of clearing away the dishes after +supper. + +“An' 'ain't ye got the gumption ter sense what Eveliny sot the candle in +the winder fur?” his brother Timothy demanded, abruptly--“ez a sign ter +that thar durned Abs'lom Kittredge.” + +The other two men turned their heads and looked at the speaker with a +poignant intensity of interest. “I 'lowed ez much when I seen that light +ez I war a-kemin' home las' night,” he continued; “it shined spang down +the slope acrost the ruver an' through all the laurel; it looked plumb +like a star that hed fell ter yearth in that pitch-black night. I dun-no +how I s'picioned it, but ez I stood thar an' gazed I knowed somebody +war a-standin' an' gazin' too on the foot-bredge a mite ahead o' me. +I couldn't see him, an' he couldn't turn back an' pass me, the bredge +bein' too narrer. He war jes obligated ter go on. I hearn him breathe +quick; then--pit-pat, pit-pat, ez he walked straight toward that light. +An' he be 'bleeged ter hev hearn me, fur arter I crost I stopped. +Nuthin'. Jes' a whisper o' wind, an' jes' a swishin' from the ruver. +I knowed then he hed turned off inter the laurel. An' I went on, +a-whistlin' ter make him 'low ez I never s'picioned nuthin'. An' I kem +inter the house an' tole dad ez he'd better be a-lookin' arter Eveliny, +fur I b'lieved she war a-settin' her head ter run away an' marry Abs'lom +Kittredge.” + +“Waal, I ain't right up an' down sati'fied we oughter done what we +done,” exclaimed Stephen, fretfully. “It don't 'pear edzacly right fur +three men ter fire on one.” + +[Illustration: Old Joel Quimbey 081] + +Old Joel Quimbey, in his arm-chair in the chimney-corner, suddenly +lifted his head--a thin head with fine white hair, short and sparse, +upon it. His thin, lined face was clear-cut, with a pointed chin and an +aquiline nose. He maintained an air of indignant and rebellious grief, +and had hitherto sat silent, a gnarled and knotted hand on either arm +of his chair. His eyes gleamed keenly from under his heavy brows as he +turned his face upon his sons. “How could we know thar warn't but one, +eh?” + +He had not been a candidate for justice of the peace for nothing; he had +absorbed something of the methods and spirit of the law through sheer +propinquity to the office. “We-uns wouldn't be persumed ter _know_.” And +he ungrudgingly gave himself all the benefit of the doubt that the law +accords. + +“That's a true word!” exclaimed Stephen, quick to console his +conscience. “Jes' look at the fac's, now. We-uns in a plumb black +midnight hear a man a-gittin' over our fence; we git our rifles; +a-peekin' through the chinkin' we ketch a glimge o' him--” + +“Ha!” cried out Timothy, with savage satisfaction, “we seen him by the +light she set her head him on!” + +He was tall and lank, with a delicately hooked nose, high cheek-bones, +fierce dark eyes, and dark eyebrows, which were continually elevated, +corrugating his forehead. His hair was black, short and straight, and +he was clad in brown jeans, as were the others, with great cowhide boots +reaching to the knee. He fixed his fiery intent gaze on his brother as +the slower Stephen continued, “An' so we blaze away--” + +“An' one durned fool's so onlucky ez ter hit him an' not kill him,” + growled Timothy, again interrupting. “An' so whilst Eveliny runs out +a-screamin', 'He's dead! he's dead!--ye hev shot him dead!' we-uns make +no doubt but he _is_ dead, an' load up agin, lest his frien's mought +rush in on we-uns whilst we hedn't no use o' our shootin'-irons. An' +suddint--ye can't hear nuthin' but jes' a owel hoot-in' in the woods, or +old Pa'son Bates's dogs a-howlin' acrost the Cove. An' we go out with +a lantern, an' thar's jes' a pool o' blood in the dooryard, an' bloody +tracks down ter the laurel.” + +“Eveliny gone!” cried the old man, smiting his hands together; “my +leetle darter! The only one ez never gin me enny trouble. I couldn't hev +made out ter put up with this hyar worl' no longer when my wife died ef +it hedn't been fur Eveliny. Boys war wild an' mischeevious, an' folks +outside don't keer nuthin' 'bout ye--ef they _war_ ter 'lect ye ter +office 'twould be ter keep some other feller from hevin' it, 'kase they +'spise him more'n ye. An' hyar she's runned off an' married old Tom +Kittredge's gran'son, Josiah Kittredge's son--when our folks 'ain't +spoke ter none o' 'em fur fifty year--Josiah Kittredge's son--ha! ha! +ha!” He laughed aloud in tuneless scorn of himself and of this freak +of froward destiny and then fell to wringing his hands and calling upon +Evelina. + +The flare from the great chimney-place genially played over the huddled +confusion of the room and the brown logs of the wall, where the gigantic +shadows of the three men mimicked their every gesture with grotesque +exaggeration. The rainbow yarn on the warping bars, the strings of +red-pepper hanging from the ceiling, the burnished metallic flash from +the guns on their racks of deer antlers, served as incidents in the +monotony of the alternate yellow flicker and brown shadow. Deep under +the blaze the red coals pulsated, and in the farthest vistas of the fire +quivered a white heat. + +“Old Tom Kittredge,” the father resumed, after a time, “he jes' branded +yer gran'dad's cattle with his mark; he jes' cheated yer gran'dad, my +dad, out'n six head o' cattle.” + +“But then,” said the warlike Timothy, not willing to lose sight of +reprisal even in vague reminiscence, “he hed only one hand ter rob with +arter that, fur I hev hearn ez how when gran'dad got through with him +the doctor hed ter take his arm off.” + +“Sartainly, sartainly,” admitted the old man, in quiet assent. “An' +Josiah Kittredge he put out the eyes of a horse critter o' mine right +thar at the court-house door--” + +“Waal, arterward, we-uns fired his house over his head,” put in Tim. + +“An' Josiah Kittredge an' me,” the old man went on, “we-uns clinched +every time we met in this mortal life. Every time I go past the +graveyard whar he be buried I kin feel his fingers on my throat. He had +a nervy grip, but no variation; he always tuk holt the same way.” + +“Tears like ter me ez 'twar a fust-rate time ter fetch out the rifles +again,” remarked Tim, “this mornin', when old Pa'son Bates kem up +hyar an' 'lowed ez he hed married Eveliny ter Abs'lom Kittredge on +his death-bed; 'So be, pa'son,' I say. An' he tuk off his hat an' say, +'Thank the Lord, this will heal the breach an' make ye frien's!' An' +I say, 'Edzacly, pa'son, ef it _air_ Abs'lom's deathbed; but them +Kittredges air so smilin' an' deceiv-in' I be powerful feared he'll +cheat the King o' Terrors himself. I'll forgive 'em ennything--_over his +grave?_” + +“Pa'son war tuk toler'ble suddint in his temper,” said the literal +Steve. “I hearn him call yer talk onchristian, cussed sentiments, ez he +put out.” + +“Ye mus' keep up a Christian sperit, boys; that's the main thing,” said +the old man, who was esteemed very religious, and a pious Mentor in his +own family. He gazed meditatively into the fire. “What ailed Eveliny +ter git so tuk up with this hyar Abs'-lom? What made her like him?” he +propounded. + +“His big eyes, edzacly like a buck's, an' his long yaller hair,” sneered +the discerning Timothy, with the valid scorn of a big ugly man for a +slim pretty one. “'Twar jes 'count o' his long yaller hair his +mother called him Abs'lom. He war named Pete or Bob, I disremember +what--suthin' common--till his hair got so long an' curly, an' he sot +out ter be so plumb all-fired beautiful, an' his mother named him agin; +this time Abs'lom, arter the king's son, 'count o' his yaller hair.” + +“Git hung by his hair some o' these days in the woods, like him the +Bible tells about; that happened ter the sure-enough Abs'lom,” suggested +Stephen, hopefully. + +“Naw, sir,” said Tim; “when Abs'lom Kittredge gits hung it 'll be with +suthin' stronger'n hair; he'll stretch hemp.” He exchanged a glance of +triumphant prediction with his brother, and anon gazed ruefully into the +fire. + +“Ye talk like ez ef he war goin' ter live, boys,” said old Joel Quimbey, +irritably. “Pa'son 'lowed he war powerful low.” + +“Pa'son said he'd never hev got home alive 'thout she'd holped him,” + said Stephen. “She jes' tuk him an' drug him plumb ter the bars, though +I don't see how she done it, slim leetle critter ez she be; an' thar she +holped him git on his beastis; an' then--I declar' I feel ez ef I could +kill her fur a-demeanin' of herself so--she led that thar horse, him +a-ridin' an' a-leanin' on the neck o' the beastis, two mile up the +mountain, through the night.” + +“Waal, let her bide thar. I'll look on her face no mo',” declared the +old man, his toothless jaw shaking. “Kittredge she be now, an' none o' +the name kin come a-nigh me. How be I ever a-goin' 'bout 'mongst the +folks at the settlement agin with my darter married ter a Kittredge? How +Josiah an' his dad mus' be a-grinnin' in thar graves at me this night! +An' I 'low they hev got suthin' ter grin about.” + +And suddenly his grim face relaxed, and once more he began to smite his +hands together and to call aloud for Evelina. + +Timothy could offer no consolation, but stared dismally into the fire, +and Stephen rose with a sigh and addressed himself to pushing the +spinning-wheels and tubs and tables into the opposite corner of the +room, in the hope of solving the enigma of its wonted order. + +***** + +It seemed to Evelina afterward that when she climbed the rugged ways +of the mountain slope in that momentous night she left forever in the +depths of the Cove that free and careless young identity which she had +been. She did not accurately discriminate the moment in which she began +to realize that she was among her hereditary enemies, encompassed by +a hatred nourished to full proportions and to a savage strength long +before she drew her first breath. The fact only gradually claimed its +share in her consciousness as the tension of anxiety for Absalom's sake +relaxed, for the young mountaineer's strength and vitality were promptly +reasserted, and he rallied from the wound and his pallid and forlorn +estate with the recuperative power of the primitive man. By degrees she +came to expect the covert unfriendly glances his brother cast upon her, +the lowering averted mien of her sister-in-law, and now and again she +surprised a long, lingering, curious gaze in his mother's eyes. They +were all Kittredges! And she wondered how she could ever have dreamed +that she might live happily among them--one of them, for her name was +theirs. And then perhaps the young husband would stroll languidly in, +with his long hair curling on his blue jeans coat-collar, and an assured +smile in his dark brown eyes, and some lazy jest on his lips, certain of +a welcoming laugh, for he had been so near to death that they all had a +sense of acquisition in that he had been led back. For his sake they had +said little; his mother would busy herself in brewing his “yerb” tea, +and his brother would offer to saddle the mare if he felt that he could +ride, and they would all be very friendly together; and his alien wife +would presently slip out unnoticed into the “gyarden spot,” where the +rows of vegetables grew as they did in the Cove, turning upon her the +same neighborly looks they wore of yore, and showing not a strange leaf +among them. The sunshine wrapped itself in its old fine gilded gossamer +haze and drowsed upon the verdant slopes; the green jewelled “Juny-bugs” + whirred in the soft air; the mould was as richly brown as in Joel +Quimbey's own enclosure; the flag-lilies bloomed beside the onion bed; +and the woolly green leaves of the sage wore their old delicate tint and +gave out a familiar odor. + +Among this quaint company of the garden borders she spent much of her +time, now hoeing in a desultory fashion, now leaning on the long handle +of the implement and looking away upon the far reaches of the purple +mountains. As they stretched to vague distances they became blue, and +farther on the great azure domes merged into a still more tender hue, +and this in turn melted into a soft indeterminate tint that embellished +the faint horizon. Her dreaming eyes would grow bright and wistful; her +rich brown curling hair, set free by the yellow sun-bonnet that slipped +off her head and upon her shoulders, would airily float backward in the +wind; there was a lithe grace in the slender figure, albeit clad in a +yellow homespun of a deep dye, and the faded purplish neckerchief +was caught about a throat fairer even than the fair face, which was +delicately flushed. Absalom's mother, standing beside Peter, the eldest +son, in the doorway, watched her long one day. + +“It all kem about from that thar bran dance,” said Peter, a homely man, +with a sterling, narrow-minded wife and an ascetic sense of religion. +“Thar Satan waits, an' he gits nimbler every time ye shake yer foot. The +fiddler gin out the figger ter change partners, an' this hyar gal war +dancin' opposite Abs'lom, ez hed never looked nigh her till that day. +The gal didn't know _what_ ter do; she jes' stood still; but Abs'lom he +jes' danced up ter her ez keerless an' gay ez he always war, jes' like +she war ennybody else, an' when he held out his han' she gin him hern, +all a-trembly, an' lookin' up at him, plumb skeered ter death, her eyes +all wide an' sorter wishful, like some wild thing trapped in the woods. +An' then the durned fiddler, moved by the devil, I'll be be bound, plumb +furgot ter change 'em back. So they danced haf'n the day tergether. An' +arter that they war forever a-stealin' off an' accidentally meetin' at +the spring, an' whenst he war a-huntin' or she drivin' up the cow, an' +a-courtin' ginerally, till they war promised ter marry.” + +“'Twarn't the bran dance; 'twar suthin' ez fleet-in' an' ez useless,” + said his mother, standing in the door and gazing at the unconscious +girl, who was leaning upon the hoe, half in the shadow of the blooming +laurel that crowded about the enclosure and bent over the rail fence, +and half in the burnished sunshine; “she's plumb beautiful--thar's the +snare ez tangled Abs'lom's steps. I never 'lowed ter see the day ez +could show enny comfort fur his dad bein' dead, but we hev been spared +some o' the tallest cavortin' that ever war seen sence the Big Smoky +war built. Sometimes it plumb skeers me ter think ez we-uns hev got a +Quimbey abidin' up hyar along o' we-uns in _his_ house an' a-callin' o' +herse'f Kittredge. I looks ter see him a-stalkin' roun' hyar some night, +too outdone an' aggervated ter rest in his grave.” + +But the nights continued spectreless and peaceful on the Great Smoky, +and the same serene stars shone above the mountain as over the Cove. +Evelina could watch here, as often before, the rising moon ascending +through a rugged gap in the range, suffusing the dusky purple slopes and +the black crags on either hand with a pensive glamour, and revealing the +river below by the amber reflection its light evoked. She often sat on +the step of the porch, her elbow on her knees, her chin in her hand, +following with her shining eyes the pearly white mists loitering among +the ranges. Hear! a dog barks in the Cove, a cock crows, a horn is +wound, far, far away; it echoes faintly. And once more only the sounds +of the night--that vague stir in the windless woods, as if the forest +breathes, the far-away tinkle of water hidden in the darkness--and the +moon is among the summits. + +The men remained within, for Absalom avoided the chill night air, and +crouched over the smouldering fire. Peter's wife sedulously held aloof +from the ostracized Quimbey woman. But her mother-in-law had fallen into +the habit of sitting upon the porch these moonlit nights. The sparse, +newly-leafed hop and gourd vines clambering to its roof were all +delicately imaged on the floor, and the old woman's clumsy figure, her +grotesque sun-bonnet, her awkward arm-chair, were faithfully reproduced +in her shadow on the log wall of the cabin--even to the up-curling +smoke from her pipe. Once she suddenly took the stem from her mouth. +“Eveliny,” she said, “'pears like ter me ye talk mighty little. Thar +ain't no use in gittin' tongue-tied up hyar on the mounting.” + +Evelina started and raised her eyes, dilated with a stare of amazement +at this unexpected overture. + +“I ain't keerin',” said the old woman, recklessly, to herself, although +consciously recreant to the traditions of the family, and sacrificing +with a pang her distorted sense of loyalty and duty to her kindlier +impulse. “I warn't born a Kittredge nohow.” + +“Yes, 'm,” said Evelina, meekly; “but I don't feel much like talkin' +noways; I never talked much, bein' nobody but men-folks ter our house. +I'd ruther hear ye talk 'n talk myself.” + +“Listen at ye now! The headin' young folks o' this kentry 'll never rest +till they make thar elders shoulder _all_ the burdens. An' what air ye +wantin' a pore ole 'oman like me ter talk about?” + +Evelina hesitated a moment, then looked up, with a face radiant in the +moonbeams. “Tell all 'bout Abs'lom--afore I ever seen him.” + +His mother laughed. “Ye air a powerful fool, Eveliny.” + +The girl laughed a little, too. “I dunno ez I want ter be no wiser,” she +said. + +But one was his wife, and the other was his mother, and as they talked +of him daily and long, the bond between them was complete. + +***** + +“I hev got 'em both plumb fooled,” the handsome Absalom boasted at the +settlement, when the gossips wondered once more, as they had often done, +that there should be such unity of interest between old Joel Quimbey's +daughter and old Josiah Kittredge's widow. As time went on many rumors +of great peace on the mountain-side came to the father's ears, and he +grew more testy daily as he grew visibly older. These rumors multiplied +with the discovery that they were as wormwood and gall to him. Not that +he wished his daughter to be unhappy, but the joy which was his grief +and humiliation was needlessly flaunted into his face; the idlers about +the county town had invariably a new budget of details, being +supplied, somewhat maliciously, it must be confessed, by the Kittredges +themselves. The ceremony of planting one foot on the neck of the +vanquished was in their minds one of the essential concomitants of +victory. The bold Absalom, not thoroughly known to either of the +women who adored him, was ingenious in expedients, and had applied the +knowledge gleaned from his wife's reminiscences of her home, her father, +and her brothers to more accurately aim his darts. Sometimes old Quimbey +would fairly flee the town, and betake himself in a towering rage to his +deserted hearth, to brood futilely over the ashes, and devise impotent +schemes of vengeance. + +He often wondered afterward in dreary retrospection how he had survived +that first troublous year after his daughter's elopement, when he was +so lonely, so heavy-hearted at home, so harried and angered abroad. His +comforts, it is true, were amply insured: a widowed sister had come +to preside over his household--a deaf old woman, who had much to be +thankful for in her infirmity, for Joel Quimbey in his youth, before he +acquired religion, had been known as a singularly profane man--“a mos' +survigrus cusser”--and something of his old proficiency had returned to +him. Perhaps public sympathy for his troubles strengthened his hold upon +the regard of the community. For it was in the second year of Evelina's +marriage, in the splendid midsummer, when all the gifts of nature climax +to a gorgeous perfection, and candidates become incumbents, that he +unexpectedly attained the great ambition of his life. He was said to +have made the race for justice of the peace from sheer force of habit, +but by some unexplained freak of popularity the oft-defeated candidate +was successful by a large majority at the August election. + +“Laws-a-massy, boys,” he said, tremulously, to his triumphant sons, +when the result was announced, the excited flush on his thin old face +suffusing his hollow veinous temples, and rising into his fine white +hair, “how glad Eveliny would hev been ef--ef--” He was about to say if +she had lived, for he often spoke of her as if she were dead. He turned +suddenly back, and began to eagerly absorb the details of the race, as +if he had often before been elected, with calm superiority canvassing +the relative strength, or rather the relative weakness, of the defeated +aspirants. + +He could scarcely have measured the joy which the news gave to Evelina. +She was eminently susceptible of the elation of pride, the fervid glow +of success; but her tender heart melted in sympathetic divination of +all that this was to him who had sought it so long, and so unabashed +by defeat. She pined to see his triumph in his eyes, to hear it in his +voice. She wondered--nay, she knew that he longed to tell it to her. As +the year rolled around again to summer, and she heard from time to +time of his quarterly visits to the town as a member of the worshipful +Quarterly County Court, she began to hope that, softened by his +prosperity, lifted so high by his honors above all the cavillings of the +Kittredges, he might be more leniently disposed toward her, might pity +her, might even go so far as to forgive. + +But none of her filial messages reached her father's fiery old heart. + +“Ye'll be sure, Abs'lom, ef ye see Joe Boyd in town, ye'll tell him ter +gin dad my respec's, an' the word ez how the baby air a-thrivin', an' I +wants ter fotch him ter see the fambly at home, ef they'll lemme.” + +Then she would watch Absalom with all the confidence of happy +anticipation, as he rode off down the mountain with his hair flaunting, +and his spurs jingling, and his shy young horse curveting. + +But no word ever came in response; and sometimes she would take the +child in her arms and carry him down a path, worn smooth by her own +feet, to a jagged shoulder thrust out by the mountain where all the +slopes fell away, and a crag beetled over the depths of the Cove. Thence +she could discern certain vague lines marking the enclosure, and a tiny +cluster of foliage hardly recognizable as the orchard, in the midst of +which the cabin nestled. She could not distinguish them, but she knew +that the cows were coming to be milked, lowing and clanking their bells +tunefully, fording the river that had the sunset emblazoned upon it, or +standing flank deep amidst its ripples; the chickens might be going +to roost among the althea bushes; the lazy old dogs were astir on the +porch. She could picture her brothers at work about the barn; most often +a white-haired man who walked with a stick--alack! she did not fancy how +feebly, nor that his white hair had grown long and venerable, and tossed +in the breeze. “Ef he would jes lemme kem fur one haff'n hour!” she +would cry. + +But all her griefs were bewept on the crag, that there might be no tears +to distress the tenderhearted Absalom when she should return to the +house. + +The election of Squire Quimbey was a sad blow to the arrogant spirit of +the Kittredges. They had easily accustomed themselves to ascendency, and +they hotly resented the fact that fate had forborne the opportunity to +hit Joel Quimbey when he was down. They had used their utmost influence +to defeat him in the race, and had openly avowed their desire to see him +bite the dust. The inimical feeling between the families culminated one +rainy autumnal day in the town where the quarterly county court was in +session. + +A fire had been kindled in the great rusty stove, and crackled away with +grudging merriment inside, imparting no sentiment of cheer to the gaunt +bare room, with its dusty window-panes streaked with rain, its shutters +drearily flapping in the wind, and the floor bearing the imprint of +many boots burdened with the red clay of the region. The sound of slow +strolling feet in the brick-paved hall was monotonous and somnolent. + +Squire Quimbey sat in his place among the justices. Despite his pride of +office, he had not the heart for business that might formerly have been +his. More than once his attention wandered. He looked absently out of +the nearest window at the neighboring dwelling--a little frame-house +with a green yard; a well-sweep was defined against the gray sky, and +about the curb a file of geese followed with swaying gait the wise old +gander. “What a hand for fow-_els_ Eveliny war!” he muttered to himself; +“an' she hed luck with sech critters.” He used the obituary tense, for +Evelina had in some sort passed away. + +He rubbed his hand across his corrugated brow, and suddenly he became +aware that her husband was in the room, speaking to the chairman of the +county court, and claiming a certificate in the sum of two dollars each +for the scalps of one wolf, “an' one painter,” he continued, laying the +small furry repulsive objects upon the desk, “an' one dollar fur the +skelp of one wild-cat.” He was ready to take his oath that these animals +were killed by him running at large in this county. + +He had stooped a little in making the transfer. He came suddenly to +his full height, and stood with one hand in his leather belt, the other +shouldering his rifle. The old man scanned him curiously. The crude +light from the long windows was full upon his tall slim figure; his +yellow hair curled down upon the collar of his blue jeans coat; his +great miry boots were drawn high over the trousers to the knee; his +pensive deer-like eyes brightened with a touch of arrogance and enmity +as, turning slowly to see who was present, his glance encountered his +father-in-law's fiery gaze. + +“Mr. Cheerman! Mr. Cheerman!” exclaimed the old man, tremulously, “lemme +examinate that thar wild-cat skelp. Thanky, sir; thanky, sir; I wanter +see ef hain't off'n the head o' some old tame tomcat. An' this air a +painter's “--affecting to scan it by the window--“two ears 'cordin' to +law; yes, sir, two; and this”--his keen old face had all the white light +of the sad gray day on its bleaching hair and its many lines, and his +eager old hands trembled with the excitement of the significant satire +he enacted--“an' this air a wolf's, ye say? Yes; it's a Kittredge's; +same thing, Mr. Cheerman, by a diff'ent name; nuthin' in the code +'bout'n a premium fur a Kittredge's skelp; but same natur'; coward, +bully, thief--_thief!_” + +The words in the high cracked voice rang from the bare walls and bare +floors as he tossed the scalps from him, and sat down, laughing silently +in painful, mirthless fashion, his toothless jaw quivering, and his +shaking hands groping for the arms of his chair. + +“Who says a Kittredge air a thief says a lie!” cried out the young man, +recovering from his tense surprise. “I don't keer how old he be,” he +stipulated--for he had not thought to see her father so aged--“he lies.” + +The old man fixed him with a steady gaze and a sudden alternation of +calmness. “Ye air a Kittredge; ye stole my daughter from me.” + +“I never. She kem of her own accord.” + +“Damn ye!” the old man retorted to the unwelcome truth. There was +nothing else for him to say. “Damn the whole tribe of ye; everything +that goes by the accursed name of Kittredge, that's got a drop o' yer +blood, or a bone o' yer bones, or a puif o' yer breath--” + +“Squair! squair!” interposed an officious old colleague, taking him by +the elbow, “jes' quiet down now; ye air a-cussin' yer own gran'son.” + +“So be! so be!” cried the old man, in a frenzy of rage. “Damn 'em +all--all the Kittredge tribe!” He gasped for breath; his lips still +moved speechlessly as he fell back in his chair. + +Kittredge let his gun slip from his shoulder, the butt ringing heavily +as it struck upon the floor. “I ain't a-goin' ter take sech ez that +off'n ye, old man,” he cried, pallid with fury, for be it remembered +this grandson was that august institution, a first baby. “He sha'n't sit +up thar an' cuss the baby, Mr. Cheerman.” He appealed to the presiding +justice, holding up his right arm as tremulous as old Quimbey's own. “I +want the law! I ain't a-goin' ter tech a old man like him, an' my wife's +father, so I ax in the name o' peace fur the law. Don't deny it”--with a +warning glance--“'kase I ain't school-larned, an' dunno how ter get it. +Don't ye deny me the law! I _know_ the law don't 'low a magistrate an' +a jestice ter cuss in his high office, in the presence of the county +court. I want the law! I want the law!” + +The chairman of the court, who had risen in his excitement, turning +eagerly first to one and then to the other of the speakers, striving to +silence the colloquy, and in the sudden surprise of it at a momentary +loss how to take action, sat down abruptly, and with a face of +consternation. Profanity seemed to him so usual and necessary an +incident of conversation that it had never occurred to him until this +moment that by some strange aberration from the rational estimate of +essentials it was entered in the code as a violation of law. He would +fain have overlooked it, but the room was crowded with spectators. The +chairman would be a candidate for re-election as justice of the peace at +the expiration of his term. And after all what was old Quimbey to him, +or he to old Quimbey, that, with practically the whole town looking on, +he should destroy his political prospects and disregard the dignity of +his office. He had a certain twinge of conscience, and a recollection of +the choice and fluent oaths of his own repertory, but as he turned over +the pages of the code in search of the section he deftly argued that +they were uttered in his own presence as a person, not as a justice. + +And so for the first time old Joel Quimbey appeared as a law-breaker, +and was duly fined by the worshipful county court fifty cents for each +oath, that being the price at which the State rates the expensive and +impious luxury of swearing in the hearing of a justice of the peace, and +which in its discretion the court saw fit to adopt in this instance. + +The old man offered no remonstrance; he said not a word in his own +defence. He silently drew out his worn wallet, with much contortion of +his thin old anatomy in getting to his pocket, and paid his fines on the +spot. Absalom had already left the room, the clerk having made out the +certificates, the chairman of the court casting the scalps into the open +door of the stove, that they might be consumed by fire according to law. + +The young mountaineer wore a heavy frown, and his heart was ill at ease. +He sought some satisfaction in the evident opinion of the crowd which +now streamed out, for the excitements within were over, that he had done +a fine thing; a very clever thought, they considered it, to demand the +law of Mr. Chairman, that one of their worships should be dragged from +the bench and arraigned before the quarterly county court of which he +was a member. The result gave general satisfaction, although there were +those who found fault with the court's moderation, and complained that +the least possible cognizance had been taken of the offence. + +“Ho! ho! ho!” laughed an old codger in the street. “I jes knowed that +hurt old Joel Quimbey wuss 'n ef a body hed druv a knife through him; +he's been so proud o' bein' jestice 'mongst his betters, an' bein' +'lected at las', many times ez he hev run. Waal, Abs'lom, ye hev +proved thar's law fur jestices too. I tell ye ye hev got sense in yer +skull-i-bone.” + +But Absalom hung his head before these congratulations; he found no +relish in the old man's humbled pride. Yet had he not cursed the baby, +lumping him among the Kittredges? Absalom went about for a time, with a +hopeful anxiety in his eyes, searching for one of the younger Quim-beys, +in order to involve him in a fight that might have a provocation and a +result more to his mind. Somehow the recollection of the quivering and +aged figure of his wife's father, of the smitten look on his old face, +of his abashed and humbled demeanor before the court, was a reproach +to him, vivid and continuously present with his repetitious thoughts +forever re-enacting the scene. His hands trembled; he wanted to lay hold +on a younger man, to replace this aesthetic revenge with a quarrel more +wholesome in the estimation of his own conscience. But the Quimbey sons +were not in town to-day. He could only stroll about and hear himself +praised for this thing that he had done, and wonder how he should +meet Evelina with his conscience thus arrayed against himself for her +father's sake. “Plumb turned Quimbey, I swear,” he said, in helpless +reproach to this independent and coercive moral force within. His +dejection, he supposed, had reached its lowest limits, when a rumor +pervaded the town, so wild that he thought it could be only fantasy. + +It proved to be fact. Joel Quimbey, aggrieved, humbled, and indignant, +had resigned his office, and as Absalom rode out of town toward the +mountains, he saw the old man in his crumpled brown jeans suit, mounted +on his white mare, jogging down the red clay road, his head bowed before +the slanting lines of rain, on his way to his cheerless fireside. He +turned off presently, for the road to the levels of the Cove was not the +shorter cut that Absalom travelled to the mountains. But all the way +the young man fancied that he saw from time to time, as the bridle-path +curved in the intricacies of the laurel, the bowed old figure among +the mists, jogging along, his proud head and his stiff neck bent to the +slanting rain and the buffets of his unkind fate. And yet, pressing the +young horse to overtake him, Absalom could find naught but the fleecy +mists drifting down the bridle-path as the wind might will, or lurking +in the darkling nooks of the laurel when the wind would. + +***** + +The sun was shining on the mountains, and Absalom went up from the sad +gray rain and through the gloomy clouds of autumn hanging over the Cove +into a soft brilliant upper atmosphere--a generous after-thought of +summer--and the warm brightness of Evelina's smile. She stood in the +doorway as she saw him dismounting, with her finger on her lips, for +the baby was sleeping: he put much of his time into that occupation. The +tiny gourds hung yellow among the vines that clambered over the roof of +the porch, and a brave jack-bean--a friend of the sheltering eaves--made +shift to bloom purple and white, though others of the kind hung, crisp +and sere, and rattled their dry bones in every gust. The “gyarden spot” + at the side of the house was full of brown and withered skeletons of +the summer growths; among the crisp blades of the Indian-corn a sibilant +voice was forever whispering; down the tawny-colored vistas the pumpkins +glowed. The sky was blue; the yellow hickory flaming against it and +hanging over the roof of the cabin was a fine color to see. The red +sour-wood tree in the fence corner shook out a myriad of white tassels; +the rolling tumult of the gray clouds below thickened, and he could hear +the rain a-falling--falling into the dreary depths of the Cove. + +All this for him: why should he disquiet himself for the storm that +burst upon others? + +Evelina seemed a part of the brightness; her dark eyes so softly alight, +her curving red lips, the faint flush in her cheeks, her rich brown +hair, and the purplish kerchief about the neck of her yellow dress. Once +more she looked smilingly at him, and shook her head and laid her finger +on her lip. + +“I oughter been sati'fied with all I got, stiddier hectorin' other folks +till they 'ain't got no heart ter hold on ter what they been at sech +trouble ter git,” he said, as he turned out the horse and strode +gloomily toward the house with the saddle over his arm. + +“Hev ennybody been spiteful ter you-uns ter-day?” she asked, in an +almost maternal solicitude, and with a flash of partisan anger in her +eyes. + +“Git out'n my road, Eveliny,” he said, fretfully, pushing by, and +throwing the saddle on the floor. There was no one in the room but the +occupant of the rude box on rockers which served as cradle. + +Absalom had a swift, prescient fear. “She'll git it all out'n me ef +I don't look sharp,” he said to himself. Then aloud, “Whar's mam?” he +demanded, flinging himself into a chair and looking loweringly about. + +“Topknot hev jes kem off'n her nest with fourteen deedies, an' she an' +'Melia hev gone ter the barn ter see 'bout'n 'em.” + +“Whar's Pete?” + +“A-huntin'.” + +A pause. The fire smouldered audibly; a hickory-nut fell with a sharp +thwack on the clapboards of the roof, and rolled down and bounded to the +ground. + +Suddenly: “I seen yer dad ter-day,” he began, without coercion. “He gin +me a cussin', in the courtroom, 'fore all the folks. He cussed all the +Kit-tredges, _all_ o' 'em; him too”--he glanced in the direction of the +cradle--“cussed 'em black an' blue, an' called me a _thief_ fur marryin' +ye an kerry-in' ye off.” + +Her face turned scarlet, then pale. She sat down, her trembling hands +reaching out to rock the cradle, as if the youthful Kittredge might +be disturbed by the malediction hurled upon his tribe. But he slept +sturdily on. + +“Waal, now,” she said, making a great effort at self-control, “ye +oughtn't ter mind it. Ye know he war powerful tried. I never purtended +ter be ez sweet an' pritty ez the baby air, but how would you-uns feel +ef somebody ye despised war ter kem hyar an' tote him off from we-uns +forever?” + +“I'd cut thar hearts out,” he said, with prompt barbarity. + +“Thar, now!” exclaimed his wife, in triumphant logic. + +He gloomily eyed the smouldering coals. He was beginning to understand +the paternal sentiment. By his own heart he was learning the heart of +his wife's father. + +“I'd chop 'em inter minch-meat,” he continued, carrying his just +reprisals a step further. + +“Waal, don't do it right now,” said his wife, trying to laugh, yet +vaguely frightened by his vehemence. + +“Eveliny,” he cried, springing to his feet, “I be a-goin' ter tell ye +all 'bout'n it. I jes called on the cheerman fur the law agin him.” + +“Agin _dad!_--the law!”' Her voice dropped as she contemplated aghast +this terrible unapprehended force brought to oppress old Joel Quim-bey; +she felt a sudden poignant pang for his forlorn and lonely estate. + +“Never mind, never mind, Eveliny,” Absalom said, hastily, repenting of +his frantic candor and seeking to soothe her. + +“I _will_ mind,” she said, sternly. “What hev ye done ter dad?” + +“Nuthin',” he replied, sulkily--“nuthin'.” + +“Ye needn't try ter fool me, Abs'lom Kittredge. Ef ye ain't minded ter +tell me, I'll foot it down ter town an' find out. What did the law do +ter him?” + +“Jes fined him,” he said, striving to make light of it. + +“An' ye done that fur--_spite!_” she cried. “A-set-tin' the law ter +chouse a old man out'n money, fur gittin' mad an' sayin' ye stole his +only darter. Oh, I'll answer fur him”--she too had risen; her hand +trembled on the back of the chair, but her face was scornfully +smiling--“he don't mind the _money_; he'll never git you-uns _fined_ ter +pay back the gredge. He don't take his wrath out on folkses' _wallets_; +he grips thar throats, or teches the trigger o' his rifle. Laws-a-massy! +takin' out yer gredge that-a-way! It's ye poorer fur them dollars, +Abs'lom--'tain't him.” She laughed satirically, and turned to rock the +cradle. + +“What d'ye want me ter do? Fight a old man?” he exclaimed, angrily. + +She kept silence, only looking at him with a flushed cheek and a +scornful laughing eye. + +He went on, resentfully: “I ain't 'shamed,” he stoutly asserted. “Nobody +'lowed I oughter be, It's him, plumb bowed down with shame.” + +“The shoe's on the t'other foot,” she cried. “It's ye that oughter be +'shamed, an' ef ye ain't, it's more shame ter ye. What hev he got ter be +'shamed of?” + +“'Kase,” he retorted, “he war fetched up afore a court on a crim'nal +offence--a-cussin' afore the court! Ye may think it's no shame, but he +do; he war so 'shamed he gin up his office ez jestice o' the peace, what +he hev run fur four or five times, an' always got beat 'ceptin' wunst.” + +“Dad!” but for the whisper she seemed turning to stone; her dilated eyes +were fixed as she stared into his face. + +“An' I seen him a-ridin' off from town in the rain arterward, his head +hangin' plumb down ter the saddle-bow.” + +Her amazed eyes were still fastened upon his face, but her hand no +longer trembled on the back of the chair. + +He suddenly held out his own hand to her, his sympathy and regret +returning as he recalled the picture of the lonely wayfarer in the rain +that had touched him so. “Oh, Eveliny!” he cried, “I never war so beset +an' sorry an'--” + +She struck his hand down; her eyes blazed. Her aspect was all instinct +with anger. + +“I do declar' I'll never furgive ye--ter spite him so--an' kem an' tell +_me!_ An' shame him so ez he can't hold his place--an' kem an' tell +_me!_ An' bow him down so ez he can't show his face whar he hev been so +respected by all--an' kem an' tell _me!_ An' all fur spite, fur he hev +got nuthin' ye want now. An' I gin him up an' lef him lonely, an' all +fur you-uns. Ye air mean, Abs'lom Kit-tredge, an' I'm the mos' fursaken +fool on the face o' the yearth!” + +He tried to speak, but she held up her hand in expostulation. + +“Nare word--fur I won't answer. I do declar' I'll never speak ter ye +agin ez long ez I live.” + +He flung away with a laugh and a jeer. “That's right,” he said, +encouragingly; “plenty o' men would be powerful glad ef thar wives would +take pattern by that.” + +He caught up his hat and strode out of the room. He busied himself in +stabling his horse, and in looking after the stock. He could hear the +women's voices from the loft of the barn as they disputed about the +best methods of tending the newly hatched chickens, that had chipped +the shell so late in the fall as to be embarrassed by the frosts and the +coming cold weather. The last bee had ceased to drone about the great +crimson prince's-feather by the door-step, worn purplish through long +flaunting, and gone to seed. The clouds were creeping up and up the +slope, and others were journeying hither from over the mountains. A +sense of moisture was in the air, although a great column of dust sprang +up from the dry corn-field, with panic-stricken suggestions, and went +whirling away, carrying off withered blades in the rush. The first drops +of rain were pattering, with a resonant timbre in the midst, when Pete +came home with a newly killed deer on his horse, and the women, with +fluttering skirts and sun-bonnets, ran swiftly across from the barn to +the back door of the shed-room. Then the heavy downpour made the cabin +rock. + +“Why, Eveliny an' the baby oughtn't ter be out in this hyar +rain--they'll be drenched,” said the old woman, when they were all +safely housed except the two. “Whar be she?” + +“A-foolin' in the gyarden spot a-getherin' seed an' sech, like she +always be,” said the sister-in-law, tartly. + +Absalom ran out into the rain without his hat, his heart in the clutch +of a prescient terror. No; the summer was over for the garden as well +as for him; all forlorn and rifled, its few swaying shrubs tossed wildly +about, a mockery of the grace and bloom that had once embellished it. +His wet hair Streaming backward in the wind caught on the laurel boughs +as he went down and down the tangled path that her homesick feet had +worn to the crag which overlooked the Cove. Not there! He stood, +himself enveloped in the mist, and gazed blankly into the folds of the +dun-colored clouds that with tumultuous involutions surged above the +valley and baffled his vision. He realized it with a sinking heart. She +was gone. + +***** + +That afternoon--it was close upon nightfall--Stephen Quimbey, letting +down the bars for the cows, noticed through the slanting lines of rain, +serried against the masses of sober-hued vapors which hid the great +mountain towering above the Cove, a woman crossing the foot-bridge. He +turned and lifted down another bar, and then looked again. Something +was familiar in her aspect, certainly. He stood gravely staring. Her +sun-bonnet had fallen back upon her shoulders, and was hanging loosely +there by the strings tied beneath her chin; her brown hair, dishevelled' +by the storm, tossed back and forth in heavy wave-less locks, wet +through and through. When the wind freshened they lashed, thong-like, +her pallid oval face; more than once she put up her hand and tried to +gather them together, or to press them back--only one hand, for she +clasped a heavy bundle in her arms, and as she toiled along slowly up +the rocky slope, Stephen suddenly held his palm above his eyes. The +recognition was becoming definite, and yet he could scarcely believe his +senses: was it indeed Evelina, wind-tossed, tempest-beaten, and with as +many tears as rain-drops on her pale cheek? Evelina, forlorn and sorry, +and with swollen sad dark eyes, and listless exhausted step--here again +at the bars, where she had not stood since she dragged her wounded lover +thence on-that eventful night two years and more ago. + +Resentment for the domestic treachery was uppermost in his mind, and he +demanded surlily, when she had advanced within the sound of his words, +“What hev ye kem hyar fur?” + +“Ter stay,” she responded, briefly. + +His hand in an uncertain gesture laid hold upon his tuft of beard. + +“Fur good?” he faltered, amazed. + +She nodded silently. + +He stooped to lift down the lowest bar that she might pass. Suddenly +the bundle she clasped gave a dexterous twist; a small head, with +yellow downy hair, was thrust forth; a pair of fawn-like eyes fixed an +inquiring stare upon him; the pink face distended with a grin, to which +the two small teeth in the red mouth, otherwise empty, lent a singularly +merry expression; and with a manner that was a challenge to pursuit, the +head disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, tucked with affected +shyness under Evelina's arm. + +She left Stephen standing with the bar in his hand, staring blankly +after her, and ran into the cabin. + +Her father had no questions to ask--nor she. + +As he caught her in his arms he gave a great cry of joy that rang +through the house, and brought Timothy from the barn, in astonishment, +to the scene. + +“Eveliny's _home!_” he cried out to Tim, who, with the ox-yoke in his +hand, paused in the doorway. “Kem ter stay! Eveliny's _home!_ I knowed +she'd kem back to her old daddy. Eveliny's kem ter stay fur good.” + +“They tole me they'd hectored ye plumb out'n the town an' out'n yer +office. They hed the insurance ter tell _me_ that word!” she cried, +sobbing on his breast. + +“What d'ye reckon I keer fur enny jestice's cheer when I hev got ye +agin ter set alongside o' me by the fire?” he exclaimed, his cracked old +voice shrill with triumphant gladness. + +He pushed her into her rocking-chair in the chimney-corner, and laughed +again with the supreme pleasure of the moment, although she had leaned +her head against the logs of the wall, and was sobbing aloud with the +contending emotions that tore her heart. + +“Didn't ye ever want ter kem afore, Eveliny?” he demanded. “I hev been +a-pinin' fur a glimge o' ye.” He was in his own place now, his hands +trembling as they lay on the arms of his chair; a pathetic reproach was +in his voice. “Though old folks oughtn't ter expec' too much o' young +ones, ez be all tuk up naterally with tharse'fs,” he added, bravely. He +would not let his past lonely griefs mar the bright present. “Old folks +air mos'ly cumber-ers--mos'ly cumberers o' the yearth, ennyhow.” + +Her weeping had ceased; she was looking at him with dismayed surprise +in her eyes, still lustrous with unshed tears. “Why, dad I sent ye +a hundred messages ef I mought kem. I tole Abs'lom ter tell Joe +Boyd--bein' as ye liked Joe--I wanted ter see ye.” She leaned forward +and looked up at him with frowning intensity. “They never gin ye that +word?” + +He laughed aloud in sorry scorn. “We can't teach our chil'n nuthin',” + he philosophized. “They hev got ter hurt tharse'fs with all the thorns +an' the stings o' the yearth. Our sperience with the sharp things an' +bitter ones don't do them no sarvice. Naw, leetle darter--naw! Ye mought +ez well gin a message o' kindness ter a wolf, an' expec' him ter kerry +it ter some lonesome, helpless thing a-wounded by the way-side, ez gin +it ter a Kittredge.” + +“I never will speak ter one o' 'em agin ez long ez I live,” she cried, +with a fresh gust of tears. + +“Waal,” exclaimed the old man, reassuringly, and chirping high, “hyar +we all be agin, jes' the same ez we war afore. Don't cry, Eveliny; it's +jes' the same.” + +A sudden babbling intruded upon the conversation. The youthful +Kittredge, as he sat upon the wide flat stones of the hearth, was as +unwelcome here in the Cove as a Quimbey had been in the cabin on the +mountain. The great hickory fire called for his unmixed approval, coming +in, as he had done, from the gray wet day. He shuffled his bare pink +feet--exceedingly elastic and agile members they seemed to be, and he +had a remarkable “purchase” upon their use--and brought them smartly +down upon their heels as if this were one of the accepted gestures of +applause. Then he looked up at the dark frowning faces of his mother's +brothers, and gurgled with laughter, showing the fascinating spectacle +of his two front teeth. Perhaps it was the only Kittredge eye that they +were not willing to meet. They solemnly gazed beyond him and into the +fire, ignoring his very existence. He sustained the slight with an +admirable cheerfulness, and babbled and sputtered and flounced about +with his hands. He grew pinker in the generous firelight, and he looked +very fat as he sat in a heap on the floor. He seemed to have threads +tightly tied about his bolster-shaped limbs in places where elder people +prefer joints--in his ankles and wrists and elbows--for his arms were +bare, and although his frock of pink calico hung decorously high on one +shoulder, it drooped quite off from the other, showing a sturdy chest. + +His mother took slight notice of him; she was beginning to look about +the room with a certain critical disfavor at the different arrangement +of the household furniture adopted by her father's deaf and widowed old +sister who presided here now, and who, it chanced, had been called away +by the illness of a relative. Evelina got up presently, and shifted the +position of the spinning-wheels, placing the flax-wheel where the large +wheel had been. She then pushed out the table from the corner. “What +ailed her ter sot it hyar?” she grumbled, in a disaffected undertone, +and shoved it to the centre of the floor, where it had always stood +during her own sway. She cast a discerning glance up among the strings +of herbs and peppers hanging from above, and examined the shelves where +the simple stores for table use were arranged in earthen-ware bowls or +gourds--all with an air of vague dissatisfaction. She presently stepped +into the shed-room, and there looked over the piles of quilts. They +were in order, certainly, but placed in a different method from her own; +another woman's hand had been at work, and she was jealous of its very +touch among these familiar old things to which she seemed positively +akin. “I wonder how I made out ter bide so long on the mounting,” she +said; and with the recollection of the long-haired Absalom there was +another gush of tears and sobs, which she stifled as she could in one +of the old quilts that held many of her own stitches and was soothing to +touch. + +The infantile Kittredge, who was evidently not born to blush unseen, +seemed to realize that he had failed to attract the attention of the +three absorbed Quimbeys who sat about the fire. He blithely addressed +himself to another effort. He suddenly whisked himself over on +all-fours, and with a certain ursine aspect went nimbly across the +hearth, still holding up his downy yellow head, his pink face agrin, +and alluringly displaying his two facetious teeth. He caught the rung of +Tim's chair, and lifted himself tremulously to an upright posture. And +then it became evident that he was about to give an exhibition of +the thrilling feat of walking around a chair. With a truly Kittredge +perversity he had selected the one that had the savage Timothy seated +in it. For an instant the dark-browed face scowled down into his +unaffrighted eyes: it seemed as if Tim might kick him into the fire. +The next moment he had set out to circumnavigate, as it were. What a +prodigious force he expended upon it! How he gurgled and grinned and +twisted his head to observe the effect upon the men, all sedulously +gazing into the fire! how he bounced, and anon how he sank with sudden +genuflections! how limber his feet seemed, and what free agents! Surely +he never intended to put them down at that extravagant angle. More than +once one foot was placed on top of the other--an attitude that impeded +locomotion and resulted in his sitting down in an involuntary manner and +with some emphasis. With an appalling temerity he clutched Tim's great +miry boots to help him up and on his way round. Occasionally he swayed +to and fro, with his teeth on exhibition, laughing and babbling and +shrilly exclaiming, inarticulately bragging of his agile prowess, as +if he were able to defy all the Quimbeys, who would not notice him. And +when it was all over he went in his wriggling ursine gait back to the +hearth-stone, and there he was sitting, demurely enough, and as if he +had never moved, when his mother returned and found him. + +There was no indication that he had attracted a moment's attention. She +looked gravely down at him; then took her chair. A pair of blue yarn +socks was in her hand. “I never see sech darnin' ez Aunt Sairy Ann do +fur ye, dad; I hev jes tuk my shears an' cut this heel smang out, an' I +be goin' ter do it over.” + +She slipped a tiny gourd into the heel, and began to draw the slow +threads to and fro across it. + +The blaze, red and yellow, and with elusive purple gleams, leaped up the +chimney. The sap was still in the wood; it sang a summer-tide song. But +an autumn wind was blowing shrilly down the chimney; one could hear the +sibilant rush of the dead leaves on the blast. The window and the door +shook, and were still, and once more rattled as if a hand were on the +latch. + +Suddenly--“Ever weigh him?” her father asked. + +She sat upright with a nervous start. It was a moment before she +understood that it was of the Kittredge scion he spoke. + +With his high cracked laugh the old man leaned over, his outspread hand +hovering about the plump baby, uncertain where, in so much soft fatness, +it might be practicable to clutch him. There were some large horn +buttons on the back of his frock, a half-dozen of which, gathered +together, afforded a grasp. He lifted the child by them, laughing in +undisguised pleasure to feel the substantial strain upon the garment. + +“Toler'ble survigrus,” he declared, with his high chirp. + +His daughter suddenly sprang up with a pallid face and a pointing hand. + +“The winder!” she huskily cried--“suthin's at the winder!” + +But when they looked they saw only the dark square of tiny panes, +with the fireside scene genially reflected on it. And then she fell to +declaring that she had been dreaming, and besought them not to take +down their guns nor to search, and would not be still until they had +all seemed to concede the point; it was she who fastened the doors and +shutters, and she did not lie down to rest till they were all asleep and +hours had passed. None of them doubted that it was Absalom's face that +she had seen at the window, where the light had once lured him before, +and she knew that she had dreamed no dream like this. + +***** + +It soon became evident that whenever Joe Boyd was intrusted with a +message he would find means to deliver it. For upon him presently +devolved the difficult duties of ambassador. The first time that his +honest square face appeared at the rail fence, and the sound of his +voice roused Evelina as she stood feeding the poultry close by, she +returned his question with a counter-question hard to answer. + +“I hev been up the mounting,” he said, smiling, as he hooked his arms +over the rail fence. “Abs'-lom he say he wanter know when ye'll git yer +visit out an' kem home.” + +She leaned her elbow against the ash-hopper, balancing the wooden bowl +of corn-meal batter on its edge and trembling a little; the geese and +chickens and turkeys crowded, a noisy rout, about her feet. + +“Joe,” she said, irrelevantly, “ye air one o' the few men on this yearth +ez ain't a liar.” + +He stared at her gravely for a moment, then burst into a forced laugh. +“Ho! ho! I tell a bushel o' 'em a day, Eveliny!” He wagged his head in +an anxious affectation of mirth. + +[Illustration: Why'n't ye gin dad them messages 119] + +“Why'n't ye gin dad them messages ez Abs'lom gin ye from me?” + +Joe received this in blank amaze; then, with sudden comprehension, his +lower jaw dropped. He looked at her with a plea for pity in his eyes. +And yet his ready tact strove to reassert itself. + +“I mus' hev furgot 'em,” he faltered. + +“Did Abs'lom ever gin 'em ter ye?” she persisted. + +“_Ef he did_, I mus' hev furgot 'em,” he repeated, crestfallen and +hopeless. + +She laughed and turned jauntily away, once more throwing the corn-meal +batter to the greedily jostling poultry. “Tell Abs'lom I hev fund him +out,” she said. “He can't sot me agin dad no sech way. This be my home, +an' hyar I be goin' ter 'bide.” + +And so she left the good Joe Boyd hooked on by the elbows to the fence. + +The Quimbeys, who had heard this conversation from within, derived from +it no small elation. “She hev gin 'em the go-by fur good,” Timothy said, +confidently, to his father, who laughed in triumph, and pulled calmly at +his pipe, and looked ten years younger. + +But Steve was surlily anxious. “I'd place heap mo' dependence in Eveliny +ef she didn't hev this hyar way o' cryin' all the time. She 'lows she's +glad she kem--_so glad_ she hev lef Abs'lom fur good an' all--an' then +she busts out a-cryin' agin. I ain't able ter argufy on sech.” + +“Shucks! wimmen air always a-cryin', an' they don't mean _nuthin'_ by +it,” exclaimed the old man, in the plenitude of his wisdom. “It air jes' +one o' thar most contrarious ways. I hev seen 'em set down an' cry fur +joy an' pleasure.” + +But Steve was doubtful. “It be a powerful low-sperited gift fur them ez +hev ter 'bide along of 'em. Eveliny never useter be tearful in nowise. +Now she cries a heap mo' 'n that thar shoat”--his lips curled in +contempt as he glanced toward the door, through which was visible a +small rotund figure in pink calico, seated upon the lowest log of the +wood-pile--“ez she fotched down hyar with her. _He_ never hev hed a +reg'lar blate but two or three times sence he hev been hyar, an' them +war when that thar old tur-rkey gobbler teetered up ter him an' tuk +his corn-dodger that he war a-eatin' on plumb out'n his hand. _He_ hed +suthin' to holler fur--hed los' his breakfus.” + +“Don't he 'pear ter you-uns to be powerful peeg-eon-toed?” asked Tim, +anxiously, turning to his father. + +“The gawbbler?” faltered the amazed old man. + +“Naw; him, _him--Kittredge_,” said Tim, jerking his big thumb in the +direction of the small boy. + +“Law-dy Gawd A'mighty! _naw! naw!_” The grandfather indignantly +repudiated the imputation of the infirmity. One would have imagined that +he would deem it meet that a Kittredge should be pigeon-toed. “It's jes +the way _all_ babies hev got a-walkin'; he ain't right handy yit with +his feet--jes a-beginnin' ter walk, an' sech. Peegeon-toed! I say it, ye +fool!” He cast a glance of contempt on his eldest-born, and arrogantly +puffed his pipe. + +Again Joe Boyd came, and yet again. He brought messages contrite and +promissory from Absalom; he brought commands stern and insistent. He +came into the house at last, and sat and talked at the fireside in +the presence of the men of the family, who bore themselves in a manner +calculated to impress the Kittredge emissary with their triumph and +contempt for his mission, although they studiously kept silence, leaving +it to Evelina to answer. + +At last the old man, leaning forward, tapped Joe on the knee. “See hyar, +Joe. Ye hev always been a good frien' o' mine. This hyar man he stole +my darter from me, an' whenst she wanted ter be frien's, an' not let her +old dad die unforgiving he wouldn't let her send the word ter me. An' +then he sot himself ter spite an' hector me, an' fairly run me out'n the +town, an' harried me out'n my office; an' when she fund out--she wouldn't +take my word fur it--the deceivin' natur' o' the Kittredge tribe, she +hed hed enough o' 'em. I hev let ye argufy 'bout'n it; ye hev hed yer +fill of words. An' now I be tired out. Ye ain't 'lowin' she'll ever go +back ter her husband, air ye?” + +Joe dolorously shook his head. + +“Waal, ef ever ye kem hyar talkin' 'bout'n it agin, I'll be 'bleeged ter +take down my rifle ter ye.” + +Joe gazed, unmoved, into the fire. + +“An' that would be mighty hard on me, Joe, 'kase ye be so pop'lar +'mongst all, I dunno _what_ the kentry-side would do ter me ef I war ter +put a bullet inter ye. Ye air a young man, Joe. Ye oughter spare a old +man sech a danger ez that.” + +And so it happened that Joe Boyd's offices as mediator ceased. + +A week went by in silence and without result. + +Evelina's tears seemed to keep count of the minutes. The brothers +indignantly noted it, and even the old man was roused from the placid +securities of his theories concerning lachrymose womankind, and +remonstrated sometimes, and sometimes grew angry and exhorted her to +go back. What did it matter to her how her father was treated? He was a +cumberer of the ground, and many people besides her husband had thought +he had no right to sit in a justice's chair. And then she would burst +into tears once more, and declare again that she would never go back. + +The only thoroughly cheerful soul about the place was the intruding +Kittredge. He sat continuously--for the weather was fine--on the lowest +log of the wood-pile, and swung his bare pink feet among the chips and +bark, and seemed to have given up all ambition to walk. Occasionally red +and yellow leaves whisked past his astonished eyes, although these were +few now, for November was on the wane. He babbled to the chickens, who +pecked about him with as much indifference as if he were made of wood. +His two teeth came glittering out whenever the rooster crowed, and his +gleeful laugh--he rejoiced so in this handsomely endowed bird--could +be heard to the barn. The dogs seemed never to have known that he was +a Kittredge, and wagged their tails at the very sound of his voice, +and seized surreptitious opportunities to lick his face. Of all his +underfoot world only the gobbler awed him into gravity and silence; he +would gaze in dismay as the marauding fowl irresolutely approached from +around the wood pile, with long neck out-stretched and undulating gait, +applying first one eye and then the other to the pink hands, for the +gobbler seemed to consider them a perpetual repository of corn-dodgers, +which indeed they were. Then the head and the wabbling red wattles would +dart forth with a sudden peck, and the shriek that ensued proved that +nothing could be much amiss with the Kittredge lungs. + +One fine day he sat thus in the red November sunset. The sky, seen +through the interlacing black boughs above his head, was all amber and +crimson, save for a wide space of pure and pallid green, against which +the purplish-garnet wintry mountains darkly gloomed. Beyond the +rail fence the avenues of the bare woods were carpeted with the +sere yellowish leaves that gave back the sunlight with a responsive +illuminating effect, and thus the sylvan visitas glowed. The long +slanting beams elongated his squatty little shadow till it was hardly +a caricature. He heard the cow lowing as she came to be milked, fording +the river where the clouds were so splendidly reflected. The chickens +were going to roost. The odor of the wood, the newly-hewn chips, +imparted a fresh and fragrant aroma to the air. He had found among +them a sweet-gum ball and a pine cone, and was applying them to the +invariable test of taste. Suddenly he dropped them with a nervous +start, his lips trembled, his lower jaw fell, he was aware of a stealthy +approach. Something was creeping behind the wood-pile. He hardly had +time to bethink himself of his enemy the gobbler when he was clutched +under the arm, swung through the air with a swiftness that caused +the scream to evaporate in his throat, and the next moment he looked +quakingly up into his father's face with unrecognizing eyes; for he had +forgotten Absalom in these few weeks. He squirmed and wriggled as he was +held on the pommel of the saddle, winking and catching his breath and +spluttering, as preliminary proceedings to an outcry. There was a sudden +sound of heavily shod feet running across the puncheon floor within, a +wild, incoherent exclamation smote the air, an interval of significant +silence ensued. + +“Get up!” cried Absalom, not waiting for Tim's rifle, but spurring the +young horse, and putting him at the fence. The animal rose with the +elasticity and lightness of an uprearing ocean wave. The baby once more +twisted his soft neck, and looked anxiously into the rider's face. +This was not the gobbler. The gobbler did not ride horseback. Then +the affinity of the male infant for the noble equine animal suddenly +overbore all else. In elation he smote with his soft pink hand the +glossy arched neck before him. “Dul-lup!” he arrogantly echoed Absalom's +words. And thus father and son at a single bound disappeared into woods, +and so out of sight. + +***** + +The savage Tim was leaning upon his rifle in the doorway, his eyes +dilated, his breath short, his whole frame trembling with excitement, as +the other men, alarmed by Evelina's screams, rushed down from the barn. + +“What ails ye, Tim? Why'n't ye fire?” demanded his father. + +Tim turned an agitated, baffled look upon him. “I--I mought hev hit the +baby,” he faltered. + +“Hain't ye got no aim, ye durned sinner?” asked Stephen, furiously. + +“Bullet mought hev gone through him and struck inter the baby,” + expostulated Tim. + +“An' then agin it moughtn't!” cried Stephen. “Lawd, ef _I_ hed hed the +chance!” + +“Ye wouldn't hev done no differ,” declared Tim. + +“Hyar!” Steve caught his brother's gun and presented it to Tim's lips. +“Suck the bar'l. It's 'bout all ye air good fur.” + +The horses had been turned out. By the time they were caught and saddled +pursuit was evidently hopeless. The men strode in one by one, dashing +the saddles and bridles on the floor, and finding in angry expletives a +vent for their grief. And indeed it might have seemed that the Quimbeys +must have long sought a choice Kittredge infant for adoption, so far did +their bewailings discount Rachel's mourning. + +“Don't cry, Eveliny,” they said, ever and anon. “We-uns 'll git him back +fur ye.” + +But she had not shed a tear. She sat speechless, motionless, as if +turned to stone. + +“Laws-a-massy, child, ef ye would jes hev b'lieved _me_ 'bout'n them +Kittredges--Abs'lom in partic'lar--ye'd be happy an' free now,” said the +old man, his imagination somewhat extending his experience, for he had +had no knowledge of his son-in-law until their relationship began. + +The evening wore drearily on. Now and then the men roused themselves, +and with lowering faces discussed the opportunities of reprisal, and the +best means of rescuing the child. And whether they schemed to burn the +Kittredge cabin, or to arm themselves, burst in upon their enemies, +shooting and killing all who resisted, Evelina said nothing, but stared +into the fire with unnaturally dilated eyes, her white lined face all +drawn and somehow unrecognizable. + +“Never mind,” her father said at intervals, taking her cold hand, +“we-uns 'll git him back, Eveliny. The Lord hed a mother wunst, an' I'll +be bound He keeps a special pity for a woman an' her child.” + +“Oh, great gosh! who'd hev dreamt we'd hev missed him so!” cried Tim, +shifting his position, and slipping his left arm over the back of his +chair. “Jes ter think o' the leetle size o' him, an' the great big gap +he hev lef roun' this hyar ha'th-stone!” + +“An' yit he jes sot underfoot, 'mongst the cat an' the dogs, jes ez +humble!” said Stephen. + +“I'd git him back even ef he warn't no kin ter me, Eveliny,” declared +Tim, and he spoke advisedly, remembering that the youth was a Kittredge. + +Still Evelina said not a word. All that night she silently walked the +puncheon floor, while the rest of the household slept. The dogs, in +vague disturbance, because of the unprecedented vigil and stir in the +midnight, wheezed uneasily from time to time, and crept restlessly about +under the cabin, now and again thumping their backs or heads against the +floor; but at last they betook themselves to slumber. The hickory logs +broke in twain as they burned, and fell on either side, and presently +there was only the dull red glow of the embers on her pale face, and the +room was full of brown shadows, motionless, now that the flames flared +no more. Once when the red glow, growing ever dimmer, seemed almost +submerged beneath the gray ashes, she paused and stirred the coals. The +renewed glimmer showed a fixed expression in her eyes, becoming momently +more resolute. At intervals she knelt at the window and placed her hands +about her face to shut out the light from the hearth, and looked out +upon the night. How the chill stars loitered! How the dawn delayed! The +great mountain gloomed darkling above the Cove. The waning moon, all +melancholy and mystic, swung in the purple sky. The bare, stark boughs +of the trees gave out here and there a glimmer of hoar-frost. There was +no wind; when she heard the dry leaves whisk she caught a sudden glimpse +of a fox that, with his crafty shadow pursuing him, leaped upon the +wood-pile, nimbly ran along its length, and so, noiselessly, away--while +the dogs snored beneath the house. A cock crew from the chicken-roost; +the mountain echoed the resonant strain. She saw a mist come stealing +softly along a precipitous gorge; the gauzy web hung shimmering in the +moon; presently the trees were invisible; anon they showed rigid among +the soft enmeshment of the vapor, and again were lost to view.. + +She rose; there was a new energy in her step; she walked quickly across +the floor and unbarred the door. + +The little cabin on the mountain was lost among the clouds. It was +not yet day, but the old woman, with that proclivity to early rising +characteristic of advancing years, was already astir. It was in the +principal room of the cabin that she slept, and it contained another +bed, in which, placed crosswise, were five billet-shaped objects under +the quilts, which when awake identified themselves as Peter Kittredge's +children. She had dressed and uncovered the embers, and put on a few of +the chips which had been spread out on the hearth to dry, and had sat +down in the chimney corner. A timid blaze began to steal up, and again +was quenched, and only the smoke ascended in its form; then the +light flickered out once more, casting a gigantic shadow of her +sun-bonnet--for she had donned it thus early--half upon the brown and +yellow daubed wall, and half upon the dark ceiling, making a specious +stir amidst the peltry and strings of pop-corn hanging motionless +thence. + +She sighed heavily once or twice, and with an aged manner, and leaned +her elbows on her knees and gazed contemplatively at the fire. All at +once the ashes were whisked about the hearth as in a sudden draught, +and then were still. In momentary surprise she pushed her chair back, +hesitated, then replaced it, and calmly settled again her elbows on her +knees. Suddenly once more a whisking of the ashes; a cold shiver ran +through her, and she turned to see a hand fumbling at the batten shutter +close by. She stared for a moment as if paralyzed; her spectacles fell +to the floor from her nerveless hand, shattering the lenses on the +hearth. She rose trembling to her feet, and her lips parted as if to cry +out. They emitted no sound, and she turned with a terrified fascination +and looked back. The shutter had opened; there was no glass; the small +square of the window showed the nebulous gray mist without, and defined +upon it was Evelina's head, her dark hair streaming over the red shawl +held about it, her fair oval face pallid and pensive, and with a great +wistfulness upon it; her lustrous dark eyes glittered. + +“Mother,” her red lips quivered out. + +The old crone recognized no treachery in her heart. She laid a warning +finger upon her lips. All the men were asleep. + +Evelina stretched out her yearning arms. “Gin him ter me!” + +“Naw, naw, Eveliny,” huskily whispered Absalom's mother. “Ye oughter kem +hyar an' 'bide with yer husband--ye know ye ought.” + +Evelina still held out her insistent arms. “Gin him ter me!” she +pleaded. + +The old woman shook her head sternly. “Ye kem in, an' 'bide whar ye +b'long.” + +Evelina took a step nearer the window. She laid her hand on the sill. +“Spos'n 'twar Abs'lom whenst he war a baby,” she said, her eyes softly +brightening, “an' another woman hed him an' kep' him, 'kase ye an' his +dad fell out--would ye hev 'lowed she war right ter treat ye like ye +treat me--whenst Abs'lom war a baby?” + +Once more she held out her arms. + +There was a step in the inner shed-room; then silence. + +“Ye hain't got no excuse,” the soft voice urged; “ye know jes how I +feel, how ye'd hev felt, whenst Abs'lom war a baby.” + +The shawl had fallen back from her tender face; her eyes glowed, her +cheek was softly flushed. A sudden terror thrilled through her as she +again heard the heavy step approaching in the shed-room. “Whenst Abs'lom +war a baby,” she reiterated, her whole pleading heart in the tones. + +A sudden radiance seemed to illumine the sad, dun-colored folds of the +encompassing cloud; her face shone with a transfiguring happiness, for +the hustling old crone had handed out to her a warm, somnolent bundle, +and the shutter closed upon the mists with a bang. + +“The wind's riz powerful suddint,” Peter said, noticing the noise as he +came stumbling in, rubbing his eyes. He went and fastened the shutter, +while his mother tremulously mended the fire. + +The absence of the baby was not noticed for some time, and when the +father's hasty and angry questions elicited the reluctant facts, the +outcry for his loss was hardly less bitter among the Kittredges than +among the Quimbeys. The fugitives were shielded from capture by the +enveloping mist, and when Absalom returned from the search he could do +naught but indignantly upbraid his mother. + +[Illustration: Flung her apron over her head 133] + +She was terrified by her own deed, and cowered under Absalom's wrath. It +was in a moral collapse, she felt, that she could have done this +thing. She flung her apron over her head, and sat still and silent--a +monumental figure--among them. Once, roused by Absalom's reproaches, she +made some effort to defend and exculpate herself, speaking from behind +the enveloping apron. + +“I ain't born no Kittredge nohow,” she irrelevantly asseverated, “an' +I never war. An' when Eveliny axed me how I'd hev liked ter hev another +'oman take Abs'lom whenst he war a baby, I couldn't hold out no longer.” + +“Shucks!” cried Absalom, unfilially; “ye'd aheap better be a-studyin' +'bout'n my good now 'n whenst I war a baby--a-givin' away _my_ child ter +them Quimbeys; a-h'istin' him out'n the winder!” + +She was glad to retort that he was “impident,” and to take refuge in an +aggrieved silence, as many another mother has done when outmatched by +logic. + +After this there was more cheerfulness in her hidden face than might +have been argued from her port of important sorrow. “Bes' ter hev +no jawin', though,” she said to herself, as she sat thus inscrutably +veiled. And deep in her repentant heart she was contradictorily glad +that Evelina and the baby were safe together down in the Cove. + +***** + +Old Joel Quimbey, putting on his spectacles, with a look of keenest +curiosity, to read a paper which the deputy-sheriff of the county +presented when he drew rein by the wood-pile one afternoon some three +weeks later, had some difficulty in identifying a certain Elnathan +Daniel Kittredge specified therein. He took off his spectacles, rubbed +them smartly, and put them on again. The writing was unchanged. Surely +it must mean the baby. That was the only Kittredge whose body they could +be summoned to produce on the 24th of December before the judge of the +circuit court, now in session. He turned the paper about and looked at +it, his natural interest as a man augmented by his recognition as an +ex-magistrate of its high important legal character. + +“Eveliny,” he quavered, at once flattered and furious, “dad-burned ef +Abs'lom hain't gone an' got out a _habeas corpus_ fur the baby!” + +The phrase had a sound so deadly that there was much ado to +satisfactorily explain the writ and its functions to Evelina, who +had felt at ease again since the baby was at home, and so effectually +guarded that to kidnap him was necessarily to murder two or three of the +vigilant and stalwart Quimbey men. So much joy did it afford the old +man to air his learning and consult his code--a relic of his +justiceship--that he belittled the danger of losing the said Elnathan +Daniel Kittredge in the interest with which he looked forward to the day +for him to be produced before the court. + +There was a gathering of the clans on that day. Quimbeys and Kittredges +who had not visited the town for twenty years were jogging thither +betimes that morning on the red clay roads, all unimpeded by the deep +mud which, frozen into stiff ruts and ridges here and there, made the +way hazardous to the running-gear. The lagging winter had come, and the +ground was half covered with a light fall of snow. + +The windows of the court-house were white with frost; the weighted doors +clanged continuously. An old codger, slowly ascending the steps, and +pushing into the semi-obscurity of the hall, paused as the door slammed +behind him, stared at the sheriff in surprise, then fixed him with a +bantering leer. The light that slanted through the open court-room +door fell upon the official's burly figure, his long red beard, his big +broad-brimmed hat pushed back from his laughing red face, consciously +ludicrous and abashed just now. + +“Hev ye made a find?” demanded the newcomer. + +For in the strong arms of the law sat, bolt-upright, Elnathan Daniel +Kittredge, his yellow head actively turning about, his face decorated +with a grin, and on most congenial terms with the sheriff. + +“They're lawin' 'bout'n him in thar “--the sheriff jerked his thumb +toward the door. “_Habeas corpus_ perceedin's. Dun no ez I ever see a +friskier leetle cuss. Durned ef I 'ain't got a good mind ter run off +with him myself.” + +The said Elnathan Daniel Kittredge once more squirmed round and settled +himself comfortably in the hollow of the sheriff's elbow, who marvelled +to find himself so deft in holding him, for it was twenty years since +his son--a gawky youth who now affected the company at the saloon, and +was none too filial--was the age and about the build of this infant +Kittredge. + +“They hed a reg'lar scrimmage hyar in the hall--them fool men--Quimbey +an' Kittredge. Old man Quimbey said suthin' ter Abs'lom Kittredge--I +dunno what all. Abs'lom never jawed back none. He jes made a dart an' +snatched this hyar leetle critter out'n his mother's arms, stiddier +waitin' fur the law, what he summonsed himself. Blest ef I didn't hev +ter hold my revolver ter his head, an' then crack him over the knuckles, +ter make him let go the child. I didn't want ter arrest him--mighty +clever boy, Abs'lom Kittredge! I promised that young woman I'd keep holt +o' the child till the law gins its say-so. I feel sorry fur her; she's +been through a heap.” + +“Waal, ye look mighty pritty, totin' him around hyar,” his friend +encouraged him with a grin. “I'll say that fur ye--ye look mighty +pritty.” + +And in fact the merriment in the hall at the sheriff's expense began +to grow so exhilarating as to make him feel that the proceedings within +were too interesting to lose. His broad red face with its big red beard +reappeared in the doorway--slightly embarrassed because of the sprightly +manners of his charge, who challenged to mirth every eye that glanced at +him by his toothful grin and his gurgles and bounces; he was evidently +enjoying the excitement and his conspicuous position. He manfully +gnawed at his corn-dodger from time to time, and from the manner in +which he fraternized with his new acquaintance, the sheriff, he seemed +old enough to dispense with maternal care, and, but for his incomplete +methods of locomotion, able to knock about town with the boys. The +Quimbeys took note of his mature demeanor with sinking hearts; they +looked anxiously at the judge, wondering if he had ever before seen +such precocity--anything so young to be so old: “He 'ain't never afore +'peared so survigrus--so _durned survigrus_ ez he do ter-day,” they +whispered to each other. + +“Yes, sir,” his father was saying, on examination, “year old. Eats +anything he kin git--cabbage an' fat meat an' anything. _Could_ walk if +he wanted ter. But he 'ain't been raised right”--he glanced at his wife +to observe the effect of this statement. He felt a pang as he noted her +pensive, downcast face, all tremulous and agitated, overwhelmed as she +was by the crowd and the infinite moment of the decision. But Absalom, +too, had his griefs, and they expressed themselves perversely. + +“He hev been pompered an' fattened by bein' let ter eat an' sleep so +much, till he be so heavy ter his self he don't wanter take the trouble +ter get about. He _could_ walk ennywhar. He's plumb survigrus.” + +And as if in confirmation, the youthful Kittredge lifted his voice to +display his lung power. He hilariously babbled, and suddenly roared out +a stentorian whoop, elicited by nothing in particular, then caught the +sheriff's beard, and buried in it his conscious pink face. + +The judge looked gravely up over his spectacles. He had a bronzed +complexion, a serious, pondering expression, a bald head, and a gray +beard. He wore a black broadcloth suit, somewhat old-fashioned in cut, +and his black velvet waist-coat had suffered an eruption of tiny +red satin spots. He had great respect for judicial decorums, and no +Kittredge, however youthful, or survigrus, or exalted in importance +by _habeas corpus_ proceedings, could “holler” unmolested where he +presided. + +“Mr. Sheriff,” he said, solemnly, “remove that child from the presence +of the court.” + +And the said Elnathan Daniel Kittredge went out gleefully kicking in the +arms of the law. + +The hundred or so grinning faces in the courtroom relapsed quickly into +gravity and excited interest. The rows of jeans-clad countrymen seated +upon the long benches on either side of the bar leaned forward with +intent attitudes. For this was a rich feast of local gossip, such as +had not been so bountifully spread within their recollection. All the +ancient Quimbey and Kittredge feuds contrived to be detailed anew in +offering to the judge reasons why father or mother was the more fit +custodian of the child in litigation. + +As Absalom sat listening to all this, his eyes were suddenly arrested +by his wife's face--half draped it was, half shadowed by her sun-bonnet, +its fine and delicate profile distinctly outlined against the +crystalline and frosted pane of the window near which she sat. The snow +without threw a white reflection upon it; its rich coloring in contrast +was the more intense; it was very pensive, with the heavy lids drooping +over the lustrous eyes, and with a pathetic appeal in its expression. + +And suddenly his thoughts wandered far afield. He wondered that it had +come to this; that she could have misunderstood him so; that he had +thought her hard and perverse and unforgiving. His heart was all at once +melting within him; somehow he was reminded how slight a thing she was, +and how strong was the power that nerved her slender hand to drag his +heavy weight, in his dead and helpless unconsciousness, down to the bars +and into the safety of the sheltering laurel that night, when he lay +wounded and bleeding under the lighted window of the cabin in the Cove. +A deep tenderness, an irresistible yearning had come upon him; he was +about to rise, he was about to speak he knew not what, when suddenly +her face was irradiated as one who sees a blessed vision; a happy light +sprang into her eyes; her lips curved with a smile; the quick tears +dropped one by one on her hands, nervously clasping and unclasping +each other. He was bewildered for a moment. Then he heard Peter gruffly +growling a half-whispered curse, and the voice of the judge, in the +exercise of his discretion, methodically droning out his reasons for +leaving so young a child in the custody of its mother, disregarding the +paramount rights of the father. The judge concluded by dispassionately +recommending the young couple to betake themselves home, and to try +to live in peace together, or, at any rate, like sane people. Then he +thrust his spectacles up on his forehead, drew a long sigh of dismissal, +and said, with a freshened look of interest, “Mr. Clerk, call the next +case.” + +The Quimbey and Kittredge factions poured into the hall; what cared +they for the disputed claims of Jenkins _versus_ Jones? The lovers +of sensation cherished a hope that there might be a lawless effort +to rescue the infant Kittredge from the custody to which he had been +committed by the court. The Quimbeys watchfully kept about him in +a close squad, his pink sun-bonnet, in which his head was eclipsed, +visible among their brawny jeans shoulders, as his mother carried him +in her arms. The sheriff looked smilingly after him from the court-house +steps, then inhaled a long breath, and began to roar out to the icy +air the name of a witness wanted within. Instead of a gate there was +a flight of steps on each side of the fence, surmounted by a small +platform. Evelina suddenly shrank back as she stood on the platform, for +beside the fence Absalom was waiting. Timothy hastily vaulted over the +fence, drew his “shooting-iron” from his boot-leg, and cocked it with +a metallic click, sharp and peremptory in the keen wintry air. For a +moment Absalom said not a word. He looked up at Evelina with as much +reproach as bitterness in his dark eyes. They were bright with the anger +that fired his blood; it was hot in his bronzed cheek; it quivered in +his hands. The dry and cold atmosphere amplified the graces of his long +curling yellow hair that she and his mother loved. His hat was pushed +back from his face. He had not spoken to her since the day of his +ill-starred confidence, but he would not be denied now. + +“Ye'll repent it,” he said, threateningly. “I'll take special pains fur +that.” + +She bestowed on him one defiant glance, and laughed--a bitter little +laugh. “Ye air ekal ter it; ye have a special gift fur makin' folks +repent they ever seen ye.” + +“The jedge jes gin him ter ye 'kase ye made him out sech a fibble little +pusson,” he sneered. “But it's jes fur a time.” + +She held the baby closer. He busied himself in taking off his sun-bonnet +and putting it on hind part before, gurgling with smothered laughter +to find himself thus queerly masked, and he made futile efforts to play +“peep-eye” with anybody jovially disposed in the crowd. But they +were all gravely absorbed in the conjugal quarrel at which they were +privileged to assist. + +“It's jes fur a time,” he reiterated. + +“Wait an' see!” she retorted, triumphantly. + +“I won't wait,” he declared, goaded; “I'll take him yit; an' when I do +I'll clar out'n the State o' Tennessee--see ef I don't!” + +She turned white and trembled. “Ye dassent,” she cried out shrilly. +“Ye'll be 'feared o' the law.” + +“Wait an' see!” He mockingly echoed her words, and turned in his old +confident manner, and strode out of the crowd. + +Faint and trembling, she crept into the old canvas-covered wagon, and +as it jogged along down the road stiff with its frozen ruts and ever +nearing the mountains, she clasped the cheerful Kittredge with a +yearning sense of loss, and declared that the judge had made him no +safer than before. It was in vain that her father, speaking from +the legal lore of the code, detailed the contempt of court that the +Kittredges would commit should they undertake to interfere with the +judicial decision--it might be even considered kidnapping. + +“But what good would that do me--an' the baby whisked plumb out'n the +State? Ef Abs'lom ain't 'feared o' Tim's rifle, what's he goin' ter +keer fur the pore jedge with nare weepon but his leetle contempt o' +court--ter jail Abs'lom, ef he kin make out ter ketch him!” + +She leaned against the swaying hoop of the cover of the wagon and burst +into tears. “Oh, none o' ye 'll do nuthin' fur me!” she exclaimed, in +frantic reproach. “Nuthin'!” + +“Ye talk like 'twar we-uns ez made up sech foolishness ez _habeas +corpus_ out'n our own heads,” said Timothy. “I 'ain't never looked ter +the law fur pertection. Hyar's the pertecter.” He touched the trigger of +his rifle and glanced reassuringly at his sister as he sat beside her on +the plank laid as a seat from side to side of the wagon. + +She calmed herself for a moment; then suddenly looked aghast at the +rifle, and with some occult and hideous thought, burst anew into tears. + +“Waal, sir,” exclaimed Stephen, outdone, “what with all this hyar daily +weepin' an' nightly mournin', I 'ain't got spunk enough lef ter stan' +up agin the leetlest Kittredge a-goin'. I ain't man enough ter sight a +rifle. Kittredges kin kem enny time an' take my hide, horns, an' tallow +ef they air minded so ter do.” + +“I 'lowed I hearn suthin' a-gallopin' down the road,” said Tim, +abruptly. + +Her tears suddenly ceased. She clutched the baby closer, and turned +and lifted the flap of the white curtain at the back of the wagon, +and looked out with a wild and terror-stricken eye. The red clay road +stretched curveless, a long way visible and vacant. The black bare trees +stood shivering in the chilly blast on either side; among them was an +occasional clump of funereal cedars. Away off the brown wooded hills +rose; snow lay in thin crust-like patches here and there, and again the +earth wore the pallid gray of the crab-grass or the ochreous red of the +gully-washed clay. + +“I don't see nuthin',” she said, in the bated voice of affrighted +suspense. + +While she still looked out flakes suddenly began to fly, hardly falling +at first, but poised tentatively, fluctuating athwart the scene, +presently thickening, quickening, obscuring it all, isolating the woods +with an added sense of solitude since the sight of the world and +the sound of it were so speedily annulled. Even the creak of the +wagon-wheels was muffled. Through the semicircular aperture in the front +of the wagon-cover the horns of the oxen were dimly seen amidst the +serried flakes; the snow whitened the backs of the beasts and added its +burden to their yoke. Once as they jogged on she fancied again that she +heard hoof-beats--this time a long way ahead, thundering over a little +bridge high above a swirling torrent, that reverberated with a hollow +tone to the faintest footfall. “Jes somebody ez hev passed we-uns, +takin' the short-cut by the bridle-path,” she ruminated. No pursuer, +evidently. + +Everything was deeply submerged in the snow before they reached the dark +little cabin nestling in the Cove. Motionless and dreary it was; not +even a blue and gauzy wreath curled out of the chimney, for the fire had +died on the hearth in their absence. No living creature was to be seen. +The fowls were huddled together in the hen-house, and the dogs had +accompanied the family to town, trotting beneath the wagon with lolling +tongues and smoking breath; when they nimbly climbed the fence their +circular footprints were the first traces to mar the level expanse of +the door-yard. The bare limbs of the trees were laden; the cedars bore +great flower-like tufts amidst the interlacing fibrous foliage. The +eaves were heavily thatched; the drifts lay in the fence corners. + +Everything was covered except, indeed, one side of the fodder-stack that +stood close to the barn. Evelina, going out to milk the cow, gazed at it +for a moment in surprise. The snow had slipped down from it, and lay +in rolls and piles about the base, intermixed with the sere husks and +blades that seemed torn out of the great cone. “Waal, sir, Spot mus' hev +been hongry fur true, ter kem a-foragin' this wise. Looks ez ef she hev +been fairly a-burrowin.” + +She turned and glanced over her shoulder at tracks in the +snow--shapeless holes, and filling fast--which she did not doubt were +the footprints of the big red cow, standing half in and half out of the +wide door, slowly chewing her cud, her breath visibly curling out on +the chill air, her great lips opening to emit a muttered low. She moved +forward suddenly into the shelter as Evelina started anew toward it, +holding the piggin in one hand and clasping the baby in the other arm. + +[Illustration: Stole noiselessly in the soft snow 145] + +Evelina noted the sound of her brothers' two axes, busy at the +wood-pile, their regular cleavage splitting the air with a sharp stroke +and bringing a crystalline shivering echo from the icy mountain. She did +not see the crouching figure that came cautiously burrowing out from +the stack. Absalom rose to his full height, looking keenly about him the +while, and stole noiselessly in the soft snow to the stable, and peered +in through a crevice in the wall. + +Evelina had placed the piggin upon the straw-covered ground, and stood +among the horned cattle and the huddling sheep, her soft melancholy face +half shaded by the red shawl thrown over her head and shoulders. A tress +of her brown hair escaped and curled about her white neck, and hung down +over the bosom of her dark-blue homespun dress. Against her shoulder the +dun-colored cow rubbed her horned head. The baby was in a pensive +mood, and scarcely babbled. The reflection of the snow was on his +face, heightening the exquisite purity of the tints of his infantile +complexion. His gentle, fawn-like eyes were full of soft and lustrous +languors. His long lashes drooped over them now, and again were lifted. +His short down of yellow hair glimmered golden against the red shawl +over his mother's shoulders. + +One of the beasts sank slowly upon the ground--a tired creature +doubtless, and night was at hand; then another, and still another. Their +posture reminded Absalom, as he looked, that this was Christmas Eve, +and of the old superstition that the cattle of the barns spend the night +upon their knees, in memory of the wondrous Presence that once graced +their lowly place. The boughs rattled suddenly in the chill blast above +his head; the drifts fell about him. He glanced up mechanically to see +in the zenith a star of gracious glister, tremulous and tender, in the +rifts of the breaking clouds. + +“I wonder ef it air the same star o' Bethlehem?” he said, thinking of +the great sidereal torch heralding the Light of the World. He had a +vague sense that this star has never set, however the wandering planets +may come and go in their wide journeys as the seasons roll. He looked +again into the glooming place, at the mother and her child, remembering +that the Lord of heaven and earth had once lain in a manger, and clung +to a humble earthly mother. + +The man shook with a sudden affright. He had intended to wrest the child +from her grasp, and mount and ride away; he was roused from his reverie +by the thrusting upon him of his opportunity, facilitated a hundredfold. +Evelina had evidently forgotten something. She hesitated for a moment; +then put the baby down upon a great pile of straw among the horned +creatures, and, catching her shawl about her head, ran swiftly to the +house. + +Absalom moved mechanically into the doorway. The child, still pensive +and silent, and looking tenderly infantile, lay upon the straw. A sudden +pang of pity for her pierced his heart: how her own would be desolated! +His horse, hitched in a clump of cedars, awaited him ten steps away. It +was his only chance--his last chance. And he had been hardly entreated. +The child's eyes rested, startled and dilated, upon him; he must be +quick. + +The next instant he turned suddenly, ran hastily through the snow, +crashed among the cedars, mounted his horse, and galloped away. + +It was only a moment that Evelina expected to be at the house, but the +gourd of salt which she sought was not in its place. She hurried out +with it at last, unprescient of any danger until all at once she saw the +footprints of a man in the snow, otherwise untrodden, about the +fodder-stack. She still heard the two axes at the wood-pile. Her father, +she knew, was at the house. + +A smothered scream escaped her lips. The steps had evidently gone +into the stable, and had come out thence. Her faltering strength could +scarcely support her to the door. And then she saw lying in the straw +Elnathan Daniel, beginning to babble and gurgle again, and to grow +very pink with joy over a new toy--a man's glove, a red woollen glove, +accidentally dropped in the straw. She caught it from his hands, and +turned it about curiously. She had knit it herself--for Absalom! + +When she came into the house, beaming with joy, the baby holding the +glove in his hands, the men listened to her in dumfounded amaze, and +with significant side glances at each other. + +“He wouldn't take the baby whenst he hed the chance, 'kase he knowed +'twould hurt me so. An' he never wanted ter torment me--I reckon he +never _did_ mean ter torment me. An' he did 'low wunst he war sorry he +spited dad. Oh! I hev been a heap too quick an' spiteful myself. I hev +been so terrible wrong! Look a-hyar; he lef' this glove ter show me he +hed been hyar, an' could hev tuk the baby ef he hed hed the heart ter do +it. Oh! I'm goin' right up the mounting an' tell him how sorry I be.” + +“Toler'ble cheap!” grumbled Stephen--“one old glove. An' he'll git +Elnathan Daniel an' ye too. A smart fox he be.” + +They could not dissuade her. And after a time it came to pass that the +Quimbey and Kittredge feuds were healed; for how could the heart of a +grandfather withstand a toddling spectacle in pink calico that ran away +one day some two years later, in company with an adventurous dog, and +came down the mountain to the cabin in the Cove, squeezing through the +fence rails after the manner of his underfoot world, proceeding thence +to the house, where he made himself very merry and very welcome? + +[Illustration: Old Quimbey and his grandson 151] + +And when Tim mounted his horse and rode up the mountain with the +youngster on the pommel of the saddle, lest Evelina should be out of +her mind with fright because of his absence, how should he and old Mrs. +Kittredge differ in their respective opinions of his vigorous growth, +and grace of countenance, and peartness of manner? On the strength of +this concurrence Tim was induced to “'light an' hitch,” and he even sat +on the cabin porch and talked over the crops with Absalom, who, the next +time he went to town, stopped at the cabin in the Cove to bring word how +El-nathan Daniel was “thrivin'.” The path that Evelina had worn to +the crag in those first homesick days on the mountain rapidly extended +itself into the Cove, and widened and grew smooth, as the grandfather +went up and the grandson came down. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His “Day In Court”, by +Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS “DAY IN COURT” *** + +***** This file should be named 23633-0.txt or 23633-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/3/23633/ + +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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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/23633-0.zip b/23633-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..79b111f --- /dev/null +++ b/23633-0.zip diff --git a/23633-h.zip b/23633-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c310e6 --- /dev/null +++ b/23633-h.zip diff --git a/23633-h/23633-h.htm b/23633-h/23633-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..37f4312 --- /dev/null +++ b/23633-h/23633-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2608 @@ +<?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> + His 'Day in Court', 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 His "Day In Court", 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: His "Day In Court" + 1895 + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +Illustrator: A. B. Frost + +Release Date: November 26, 2007 [EBook #23633] +Last Updated: March 8, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS "DAY IN COURT" *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + HIS “DAY IN COURT” + </h1> + <h2> + By Charles Egbert Craddock <br /><br /> 1895 + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + It had been a hard winter along the slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains, + and still the towering treeless domes were covered with snow, and the + vagrant winds were abroad, rioting among the clifty heights where they + held their tryst, or raiding down into the sheltered depths of the Cove, + where they seldom intruded. Nevertheless, on this turbulent rush was borne + in the fair spring of the year. The fragrance of the budding wild-cherry + was to be discerned amidst the keen slanting javelins of the rain. A + cognition of the renewal and the expanding of the forces of nature + pervaded the senses as distinctly as if one might hear the grass growing, + or feel along the chill currents of the air the vernal pulses thrill. + Night after night in the rifts of the breaking clouds close to the horizon + was glimpsed the stately sidereal Virgo, prefiguring and promising the + harvest, holding in her hand a gleaming ear of corn. But it was not the + constellation which the tumultuous torrent at the mountain's base + reflected in a starry glitter. From the hill-side above a light cast its + broken image among the ripples, as it shone for an instant through the + bosky laurel, white, stellular, splendid—only a tallow dip suddenly + placed in the window of a log-cabin, and as suddenly withdrawn. + </p> + <p> + For a gruff voice within growled out a remonstrance: “What ye doin' that + fur, Steve? Hev that thar candle got enny call ter bide in that thar + winder?” + </p> + <p> + The interior, contrary to the customary aspect of the humble homes of the + region, was in great disarray. Cooking utensils stood uncleaned about the + hearth; dishes and bowls of earthen-ware were assembled upon the table in + such numbers as to suggest that several meals had been eaten without the + ceremony of laying the cloth anew, and that in default of washing the + crockery it had been re-enforced from the shelf so far as the limited + store might admit. Saddles and spinning-wheels, an ox-yoke and + trace-chains, reels and wash-tubs, were incongruously pushed together in + the corners. Only one of the three men in the room made any effort to + reduce the confusion to order. This was the square-faced, black-bearded, + thick-set young fellow who took the candle from the window, and now + advanced with it toward the hearth, holding it at an angle that caused the + flame to swiftly melt the tallow, which dripped generously upon the floor. + </p> + <p> + “I hev seen Eveliny do it,” he said, excitedly justifying himself. “I + noticed her sot the candle in the winder jes' las' night arter supper.” He + glanced about uncertainly, and his patience seemed to give way suddenly. + “Dad-burn the old candle! I dunno <i>whar</i> ter set it,” he cried, + desperately, as he flung it from him, and it fell upon the floor close to + the wall. + </p> + <p> + The dogs lifted their heads to look, and one soft-stepping old hound got + up with the nimbleness of expectation, and, with a prescient gratitude + astir in his tail, went and sniffed at it. His aspect drooped suddenly, + and he looked around in reproach at Stephen Quimbey, as if suspecting a + practical joke. But there was no merriment in the young mountaineer's + face. He threw himself into his chair with a heavy sigh, and desisted for + a time from the unaccustomed duty of clearing away the dishes after + supper. + </p> + <p> + “An' 'ain't ye got the gumption ter sense what Eveliny sot the candle in + the winder fur?” his brother Timothy demanded, abruptly—“ez a sign + ter that thar durned Abs'lom Kittredge.” + </p> + <p> + The other two men turned their heads and looked at the speaker with a + poignant intensity of interest. “I 'lowed ez much when I seen that light + ez I war a-kemin' home las' night,” he continued; “it shined spang down + the slope acrost the ruver an' through all the laurel; it looked plumb + like a star that hed fell ter yearth in that pitch-black night. I dun-no + how I s'picioned it, but ez I stood thar an' gazed I knowed somebody war + a-standin' an' gazin' too on the foot-bredge a mite ahead o' me. I + couldn't see him, an' he couldn't turn back an' pass me, the bredge bein' + too narrer. He war jes obligated ter go on. I hearn him breathe quick; + then—pit-pat, pit-pat, ez he walked straight toward that light. An' + he be 'bleeged ter hev hearn me, fur arter I crost I stopped. Nuthin'. + Jes' a whisper o' wind, an' jes' a swishin' from the ruver. I knowed then + he hed turned off inter the laurel. An' I went on, a-whistlin' ter make + him 'low ez I never s'picioned nuthin'. An' I kem inter the house an' tole + dad ez he'd better be a-lookin' arter Eveliny, fur I b'lieved she war + a-settin' her head ter run away an' marry Abs'lom Kittredge.” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, I ain't right up an' down sati'fied we oughter done what we done,” + exclaimed Stephen, fretfully. “It don't 'pear edzacly right fur three men + ter fire on one.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/081.jpg" alt="Old Joel Quimbey 081 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Old Joel Quimbey, in his arm-chair in the chimney-corner, suddenly lifted + his head—a thin head with fine white hair, short and sparse, upon + it. His thin, lined face was clear-cut, with a pointed chin and an + aquiline nose. He maintained an air of indignant and rebellious grief, and + had hitherto sat silent, a gnarled and knotted hand on either arm of his + chair. His eyes gleamed keenly from under his heavy brows as he turned his + face upon his sons. “How could we know thar warn't but one, eh?” + </p> + <p> + He had not been a candidate for justice of the peace for nothing; he had + absorbed something of the methods and spirit of the law through sheer + propinquity to the office. “We-uns wouldn't be persumed ter <i>know</i>.” + And he ungrudgingly gave himself all the benefit of the doubt that the law + accords. + </p> + <p> + “That's a true word!” exclaimed Stephen, quick to console his conscience. + “Jes' look at the fac's, now. We-uns in a plumb black midnight hear a man + a-gittin' over our fence; we git our rifles; a-peekin' through the + chinkin' we ketch a glimge o' him—” + </p> + <p> + “Ha!” cried out Timothy, with savage satisfaction, “we seen him by the + light she set her head him on!” + </p> + <p> + He was tall and lank, with a delicately hooked nose, high cheek-bones, + fierce dark eyes, and dark eyebrows, which were continually elevated, + corrugating his forehead. His hair was black, short and straight, and he + was clad in brown jeans, as were the others, with great cowhide boots + reaching to the knee. He fixed his fiery intent gaze on his brother as the + slower Stephen continued, “An' so we blaze away—” + </p> + <p> + “An' one durned fool's so onlucky ez ter hit him an' not kill him,” + growled Timothy, again interrupting. “An' so whilst Eveliny runs out + a-screamin', 'He's dead! he's dead!—ye hev shot him dead!' we-uns + make no doubt but he <i>is</i> dead, an' load up agin, lest his frien's + mought rush in on we-uns whilst we hedn't no use o' our shootin'-irons. + An' suddint—ye can't hear nuthin' but jes' a owel hoot-in' in the + woods, or old Pa'son Bates's dogs a-howlin' acrost the Cove. An' we go out + with a lantern, an' thar's jes' a pool o' blood in the dooryard, an' + bloody tracks down ter the laurel.” + </p> + <p> + “Eveliny gone!” cried the old man, smiting his hands together; “my leetle + darter! The only one ez never gin me enny trouble. I couldn't hev made out + ter put up with this hyar worl' no longer when my wife died ef it hedn't + been fur Eveliny. Boys war wild an' mischeevious, an' folks outside don't + keer nuthin' 'bout ye—ef they <i>war</i> ter 'lect ye ter office + 'twould be ter keep some other feller from hevin' it, 'kase they 'spise + him more'n ye. An' hyar she's runned off an' married old Tom Kittredge's + gran'son, Josiah Kittredge's son—when our folks 'ain't spoke ter + none o' 'em fur fifty year—Josiah Kittredge's son—ha! ha! ha!” + He laughed aloud in tuneless scorn of himself and of this freak of froward + destiny and then fell to wringing his hands and calling upon Evelina. + </p> + <p> + The flare from the great chimney-place genially played over the huddled + confusion of the room and the brown logs of the wall, where the gigantic + shadows of the three men mimicked their every gesture with grotesque + exaggeration. The rainbow yarn on the warping bars, the strings of + red-pepper hanging from the ceiling, the burnished metallic flash from the + guns on their racks of deer antlers, served as incidents in the monotony + of the alternate yellow flicker and brown shadow. Deep under the blaze the + red coals pulsated, and in the farthest vistas of the fire quivered a + white heat. + </p> + <p> + “Old Tom Kittredge,” the father resumed, after a time, “he jes' branded + yer gran'dad's cattle with his mark; he jes' cheated yer gran'dad, my dad, + out'n six head o' cattle.” + </p> + <p> + “But then,” said the warlike Timothy, not willing to lose sight of + reprisal even in vague reminiscence, “he hed only one hand ter rob with + arter that, fur I hev hearn ez how when gran'dad got through with him the + doctor hed ter take his arm off.” + </p> + <p> + “Sartainly, sartainly,” admitted the old man, in quiet assent. “An' Josiah + Kittredge he put out the eyes of a horse critter o' mine right thar at the + court-house door—” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, arterward, we-uns fired his house over his head,” put in Tim. + </p> + <p> + “An' Josiah Kittredge an' me,” the old man went on, “we-uns clinched every + time we met in this mortal life. Every time I go past the graveyard whar + he be buried I kin feel his fingers on my throat. He had a nervy grip, but + no variation; he always tuk holt the same way.” + </p> + <p> + “Tears like ter me ez 'twar a fust-rate time ter fetch out the rifles + again,” remarked Tim, “this mornin', when old Pa'son Bates kem up hyar an' + 'lowed ez he hed married Eveliny ter Abs'lom Kittredge on his death-bed; + 'So be, pa'son,' I say. An' he tuk off his hat an' say, 'Thank the Lord, + this will heal the breach an' make ye frien's!' An' I say, 'Edzacly, + pa'son, ef it <i>air</i> Abs'lom's deathbed; but them Kittredges air so + smilin' an' deceiv-in' I be powerful feared he'll cheat the King o' + Terrors himself. I'll forgive 'em ennything—<i>over his grave?</i>” + </p> + <p> + “Pa'son war tuk toler'ble suddint in his temper,” said the literal Steve. + “I hearn him call yer talk onchristian, cussed sentiments, ez he put out.” + </p> + <p> + “Ye mus' keep up a Christian sperit, boys; that's the main thing,” said + the old man, who was esteemed very religious, and a pious Mentor in his + own family. He gazed meditatively into the fire. “What ailed Eveliny ter + git so tuk up with this hyar Abs'-lom? What made her like him?” he + propounded. + </p> + <p> + “His big eyes, edzacly like a buck's, an' his long yaller hair,” sneered + the discerning Timothy, with the valid scorn of a big ugly man for a slim + pretty one. “'Twar jes 'count o' his long yaller hair his mother called + him Abs'lom. He war named Pete or Bob, I disremember what—suthin' + common—till his hair got so long an' curly, an' he sot out ter be so + plumb all-fired beautiful, an' his mother named him agin; this time + Abs'lom, arter the king's son, 'count o' his yaller hair.” + </p> + <p> + “Git hung by his hair some o' these days in the woods, like him the Bible + tells about; that happened ter the sure-enough Abs'lom,” suggested + Stephen, hopefully. + </p> + <p> + “Naw, sir,” said Tim; “when Abs'lom Kittredge gits hung it 'll be with + suthin' stronger'n hair; he'll stretch hemp.” He exchanged a glance of + triumphant prediction with his brother, and anon gazed ruefully into the + fire. + </p> + <p> + “Ye talk like ez ef he war goin' ter live, boys,” said old Joel Quimbey, + irritably. “Pa'son 'lowed he war powerful low.” + </p> + <p> + “Pa'son said he'd never hev got home alive 'thout she'd holped him,” said + Stephen. “She jes' tuk him an' drug him plumb ter the bars, though I don't + see how she done it, slim leetle critter ez she be; an' thar she holped + him git on his beastis; an' then—I declar' I feel ez ef I could kill + her fur a-demeanin' of herself so—she led that thar horse, him + a-ridin' an' a-leanin' on the neck o' the beastis, two mile up the + mountain, through the night.” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, let her bide thar. I'll look on her face no mo',” declared the old + man, his toothless jaw shaking. “Kittredge she be now, an' none o' the + name kin come a-nigh me. How be I ever a-goin' 'bout 'mongst the folks at + the settlement agin with my darter married ter a Kittredge? How Josiah an' + his dad mus' be a-grinnin' in thar graves at me this night! An' I 'low + they hev got suthin' ter grin about.” + </p> + <p> + And suddenly his grim face relaxed, and once more he began to smite his + hands together and to call aloud for Evelina. + </p> + <p> + Timothy could offer no consolation, but stared dismally into the fire, and + Stephen rose with a sigh and addressed himself to pushing the + spinning-wheels and tubs and tables into the opposite corner of the room, + in the hope of solving the enigma of its wonted order. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + It seemed to Evelina afterward that when she climbed the rugged ways of + the mountain slope in that momentous night she left forever in the depths + of the Cove that free and careless young identity which she had been. She + did not accurately discriminate the moment in which she began to realize + that she was among her hereditary enemies, encompassed by a hatred + nourished to full proportions and to a savage strength long before she + drew her first breath. The fact only gradually claimed its share in her + consciousness as the tension of anxiety for Absalom's sake relaxed, for + the young mountaineer's strength and vitality were promptly reasserted, + and he rallied from the wound and his pallid and forlorn estate with the + recuperative power of the primitive man. By degrees she came to expect the + covert unfriendly glances his brother cast upon her, the lowering averted + mien of her sister-in-law, and now and again she surprised a long, + lingering, curious gaze in his mother's eyes. They were all Kittredges! + And she wondered how she could ever have dreamed that she might live + happily among them—one of them, for her name was theirs. And then + perhaps the young husband would stroll languidly in, with his long hair + curling on his blue jeans coat-collar, and an assured smile in his dark + brown eyes, and some lazy jest on his lips, certain of a welcoming laugh, + for he had been so near to death that they all had a sense of acquisition + in that he had been led back. For his sake they had said little; his + mother would busy herself in brewing his “yerb” tea, and his brother would + offer to saddle the mare if he felt that he could ride, and they would all + be very friendly together; and his alien wife would presently slip out + unnoticed into the “gyarden spot,” where the rows of vegetables grew as + they did in the Cove, turning upon her the same neighborly looks they wore + of yore, and showing not a strange leaf among them. The sunshine wrapped + itself in its old fine gilded gossamer haze and drowsed upon the verdant + slopes; the green jewelled “Juny-bugs” whirred in the soft air; the mould + was as richly brown as in Joel Quimbey's own enclosure; the flag-lilies + bloomed beside the onion bed; and the woolly green leaves of the sage wore + their old delicate tint and gave out a familiar odor. + </p> + <p> + Among this quaint company of the garden borders she spent much of her + time, now hoeing in a desultory fashion, now leaning on the long handle of + the implement and looking away upon the far reaches of the purple + mountains. As they stretched to vague distances they became blue, and + farther on the great azure domes merged into a still more tender hue, and + this in turn melted into a soft indeterminate tint that embellished the + faint horizon. Her dreaming eyes would grow bright and wistful; her rich + brown curling hair, set free by the yellow sun-bonnet that slipped off her + head and upon her shoulders, would airily float backward in the wind; + there was a lithe grace in the slender figure, albeit clad in a yellow + homespun of a deep dye, and the faded purplish neckerchief was caught + about a throat fairer even than the fair face, which was delicately + flushed. Absalom's mother, standing beside Peter, the eldest son, in the + doorway, watched her long one day. + </p> + <p> + “It all kem about from that thar bran dance,” said Peter, a homely man, + with a sterling, narrow-minded wife and an ascetic sense of religion. + “Thar Satan waits, an' he gits nimbler every time ye shake yer foot. The + fiddler gin out the figger ter change partners, an' this hyar gal war + dancin' opposite Abs'lom, ez hed never looked nigh her till that day. The + gal didn't know <i>what</i> ter do; she jes' stood still; but Abs'lom he + jes' danced up ter her ez keerless an' gay ez he always war, jes' like she + war ennybody else, an' when he held out his han' she gin him hern, all + a-trembly, an' lookin' up at him, plumb skeered ter death, her eyes all + wide an' sorter wishful, like some wild thing trapped in the woods. An' + then the durned fiddler, moved by the devil, I'll be be bound, plumb + furgot ter change 'em back. So they danced haf'n the day tergether. An' + arter that they war forever a-stealin' off an' accidentally meetin' at the + spring, an' whenst he war a-huntin' or she drivin' up the cow, an' + a-courtin' ginerally, till they war promised ter marry.” + </p> + <p> + “'Twarn't the bran dance; 'twar suthin' ez fleet-in' an' ez useless,” said + his mother, standing in the door and gazing at the unconscious girl, who + was leaning upon the hoe, half in the shadow of the blooming laurel that + crowded about the enclosure and bent over the rail fence, and half in the + burnished sunshine; “she's plumb beautiful—thar's the snare ez + tangled Abs'lom's steps. I never 'lowed ter see the day ez could show enny + comfort fur his dad bein' dead, but we hev been spared some o' the tallest + cavortin' that ever war seen sence the Big Smoky war built. Sometimes it + plumb skeers me ter think ez we-uns hev got a Quimbey abidin' up hyar + along o' we-uns in <i>his</i> house an' a-callin' o' herse'f Kittredge. I + looks ter see him a-stalkin' roun' hyar some night, too outdone an' + aggervated ter rest in his grave.” + </p> + <p> + But the nights continued spectreless and peaceful on the Great Smoky, and + the same serene stars shone above the mountain as over the Cove. Evelina + could watch here, as often before, the rising moon ascending through a + rugged gap in the range, suffusing the dusky purple slopes and the black + crags on either hand with a pensive glamour, and revealing the river below + by the amber reflection its light evoked. She often sat on the step of the + porch, her elbow on her knees, her chin in her hand, following with her + shining eyes the pearly white mists loitering among the ranges. Hear! a + dog barks in the Cove, a cock crows, a horn is wound, far, far away; it + echoes faintly. And once more only the sounds of the night—that + vague stir in the windless woods, as if the forest breathes, the far-away + tinkle of water hidden in the darkness—and the moon is among the + summits. + </p> + <p> + The men remained within, for Absalom avoided the chill night air, and + crouched over the smouldering fire. Peter's wife sedulously held aloof + from the ostracized Quimbey woman. But her mother-in-law had fallen into + the habit of sitting upon the porch these moonlit nights. The sparse, + newly-leafed hop and gourd vines clambering to its roof were all + delicately imaged on the floor, and the old woman's clumsy figure, her + grotesque sun-bonnet, her awkward arm-chair, were faithfully reproduced in + her shadow on the log wall of the cabin—even to the up-curling smoke + from her pipe. Once she suddenly took the stem from her mouth. “Eveliny,” + she said, “'pears like ter me ye talk mighty little. Thar ain't no use in + gittin' tongue-tied up hyar on the mounting.” + </p> + <p> + Evelina started and raised her eyes, dilated with a stare of amazement at + this unexpected overture. + </p> + <p> + “I ain't keerin',” said the old woman, recklessly, to herself, although + consciously recreant to the traditions of the family, and sacrificing with + a pang her distorted sense of loyalty and duty to her kindlier impulse. “I + warn't born a Kittredge nohow.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, 'm,” said Evelina, meekly; “but I don't feel much like talkin' + noways; I never talked much, bein' nobody but men-folks ter our house. I'd + ruther hear ye talk 'n talk myself.” + </p> + <p> + “Listen at ye now! The headin' young folks o' this kentry 'll never rest + till they make thar elders shoulder <i>all</i> the burdens. An' what air + ye wantin' a pore ole 'oman like me ter talk about?” + </p> + <p> + Evelina hesitated a moment, then looked up, with a face radiant in the + moonbeams. “Tell all 'bout Abs'lom—afore I ever seen him.” + </p> + <p> + His mother laughed. “Ye air a powerful fool, Eveliny.” + </p> + <p> + The girl laughed a little, too. “I dunno ez I want ter be no wiser,” she + said. + </p> + <p> + But one was his wife, and the other was his mother, and as they talked of + him daily and long, the bond between them was complete. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + “I hev got 'em both plumb fooled,” the handsome Absalom boasted at the + settlement, when the gossips wondered once more, as they had often done, + that there should be such unity of interest between old Joel Quimbey's + daughter and old Josiah Kittredge's widow. As time went on many rumors of + great peace on the mountain-side came to the father's ears, and he grew + more testy daily as he grew visibly older. These rumors multiplied with + the discovery that they were as wormwood and gall to him. Not that he + wished his daughter to be unhappy, but the joy which was his grief and + humiliation was needlessly flaunted into his face; the idlers about the + county town had invariably a new budget of details, being supplied, + somewhat maliciously, it must be confessed, by the Kittredges themselves. + The ceremony of planting one foot on the neck of the vanquished was in + their minds one of the essential concomitants of victory. The bold + Absalom, not thoroughly known to either of the women who adored him, was + ingenious in expedients, and had applied the knowledge gleaned from his + wife's reminiscences of her home, her father, and her brothers to more + accurately aim his darts. Sometimes old Quimbey would fairly flee the + town, and betake himself in a towering rage to his deserted hearth, to + brood futilely over the ashes, and devise impotent schemes of vengeance. + </p> + <p> + He often wondered afterward in dreary retrospection how he had survived + that first troublous year after his daughter's elopement, when he was so + lonely, so heavy-hearted at home, so harried and angered abroad. His + comforts, it is true, were amply insured: a widowed sister had come to + preside over his household—a deaf old woman, who had much to be + thankful for in her infirmity, for Joel Quimbey in his youth, before he + acquired religion, had been known as a singularly profane man—“a + mos' survigrus cusser”—and something of his old proficiency had + returned to him. Perhaps public sympathy for his troubles strengthened his + hold upon the regard of the community. For it was in the second year of + Evelina's marriage, in the splendid midsummer, when all the gifts of + nature climax to a gorgeous perfection, and candidates become incumbents, + that he unexpectedly attained the great ambition of his life. He was said + to have made the race for justice of the peace from sheer force of habit, + but by some unexplained freak of popularity the oft-defeated candidate was + successful by a large majority at the August election. + </p> + <p> + “Laws-a-massy, boys,” he said, tremulously, to his triumphant sons, when + the result was announced, the excited flush on his thin old face suffusing + his hollow veinous temples, and rising into his fine white hair, “how glad + Eveliny would hev been ef—ef—” He was about to say if she had + lived, for he often spoke of her as if she were dead. He turned suddenly + back, and began to eagerly absorb the details of the race, as if he had + often before been elected, with calm superiority canvassing the relative + strength, or rather the relative weakness, of the defeated aspirants. + </p> + <p> + He could scarcely have measured the joy which the news gave to Evelina. + She was eminently susceptible of the elation of pride, the fervid glow of + success; but her tender heart melted in sympathetic divination of all that + this was to him who had sought it so long, and so unabashed by defeat. She + pined to see his triumph in his eyes, to hear it in his voice. She + wondered—nay, she knew that he longed to tell it to her. As the year + rolled around again to summer, and she heard from time to time of his + quarterly visits to the town as a member of the worshipful Quarterly + County Court, she began to hope that, softened by his prosperity, lifted + so high by his honors above all the cavillings of the Kittredges, he might + be more leniently disposed toward her, might pity her, might even go so + far as to forgive. + </p> + <p> + But none of her filial messages reached her father's fiery old heart. + </p> + <p> + “Ye'll be sure, Abs'lom, ef ye see Joe Boyd in town, ye'll tell him ter + gin dad my respec's, an' the word ez how the baby air a-thrivin', an' I + wants ter fotch him ter see the fambly at home, ef they'll lemme.” + </p> + <p> + Then she would watch Absalom with all the confidence of happy + anticipation, as he rode off down the mountain with his hair flaunting, + and his spurs jingling, and his shy young horse curveting. + </p> + <p> + But no word ever came in response; and sometimes she would take the child + in her arms and carry him down a path, worn smooth by her own feet, to a + jagged shoulder thrust out by the mountain where all the slopes fell away, + and a crag beetled over the depths of the Cove. Thence she could discern + certain vague lines marking the enclosure, and a tiny cluster of foliage + hardly recognizable as the orchard, in the midst of which the cabin + nestled. She could not distinguish them, but she knew that the cows were + coming to be milked, lowing and clanking their bells tunefully, fording + the river that had the sunset emblazoned upon it, or standing flank deep + amidst its ripples; the chickens might be going to roost among the althea + bushes; the lazy old dogs were astir on the porch. She could picture her + brothers at work about the barn; most often a white-haired man who walked + with a stick—alack! she did not fancy how feebly, nor that his white + hair had grown long and venerable, and tossed in the breeze. “Ef he would + jes lemme kem fur one haff'n hour!” she would cry. + </p> + <p> + But all her griefs were bewept on the crag, that there might be no tears + to distress the tenderhearted Absalom when she should return to the house. + </p> + <p> + The election of Squire Quimbey was a sad blow to the arrogant spirit of + the Kittredges. They had easily accustomed themselves to ascendency, and + they hotly resented the fact that fate had forborne the opportunity to hit + Joel Quimbey when he was down. They had used their utmost influence to + defeat him in the race, and had openly avowed their desire to see him bite + the dust. The inimical feeling between the families culminated one rainy + autumnal day in the town where the quarterly county court was in session. + </p> + <p> + A fire had been kindled in the great rusty stove, and crackled away with + grudging merriment inside, imparting no sentiment of cheer to the gaunt + bare room, with its dusty window-panes streaked with rain, its shutters + drearily flapping in the wind, and the floor bearing the imprint of many + boots burdened with the red clay of the region. The sound of slow + strolling feet in the brick-paved hall was monotonous and somnolent. + </p> + <p> + Squire Quimbey sat in his place among the justices. Despite his pride of + office, he had not the heart for business that might formerly have been + his. More than once his attention wandered. He looked absently out of the + nearest window at the neighboring dwelling—a little frame-house with + a green yard; a well-sweep was defined against the gray sky, and about the + curb a file of geese followed with swaying gait the wise old gander. “What + a hand for fow-<i>els</i> Eveliny war!” he muttered to himself; “an' she + hed luck with sech critters.” He used the obituary tense, for Evelina had + in some sort passed away. + </p> + <p> + He rubbed his hand across his corrugated brow, and suddenly he became + aware that her husband was in the room, speaking to the chairman of the + county court, and claiming a certificate in the sum of two dollars each + for the scalps of one wolf, “an' one painter,” he continued, laying the + small furry repulsive objects upon the desk, “an' one dollar fur the skelp + of one wild-cat.” He was ready to take his oath that these animals were + killed by him running at large in this county. + </p> + <p> + He had stooped a little in making the transfer. He came suddenly to his + full height, and stood with one hand in his leather belt, the other + shouldering his rifle. The old man scanned him curiously. The crude light + from the long windows was full upon his tall slim figure; his yellow hair + curled down upon the collar of his blue jeans coat; his great miry boots + were drawn high over the trousers to the knee; his pensive deer-like eyes + brightened with a touch of arrogance and enmity as, turning slowly to see + who was present, his glance encountered his father-in-law's fiery gaze. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Cheerman! Mr. Cheerman!” exclaimed the old man, tremulously, “lemme + examinate that thar wild-cat skelp. Thanky, sir; thanky, sir; I wanter see + ef hain't off'n the head o' some old tame tomcat. An' this air a painter's + “—affecting to scan it by the window—“two ears 'cordin' to + law; yes, sir, two; and this”—his keen old face had all the white + light of the sad gray day on its bleaching hair and its many lines, and + his eager old hands trembled with the excitement of the significant satire + he enacted—“an' this air a wolf's, ye say? Yes; it's a Kittredge's; + same thing, Mr. Cheerman, by a diff'ent name; nuthin' in the code 'bout'n + a premium fur a Kittredge's skelp; but same natur'; coward, bully, thief—<i>thief!</i>” + </p> + <p> + The words in the high cracked voice rang from the bare walls and bare + floors as he tossed the scalps from him, and sat down, laughing silently + in painful, mirthless fashion, his toothless jaw quivering, and his + shaking hands groping for the arms of his chair. + </p> + <p> + “Who says a Kittredge air a thief says a lie!” cried out the young man, + recovering from his tense surprise. “I don't keer how old he be,” he + stipulated—for he had not thought to see her father so aged—“he + lies.” + </p> + <p> + The old man fixed him with a steady gaze and a sudden alternation of + calmness. “Ye air a Kittredge; ye stole my daughter from me.” + </p> + <p> + “I never. She kem of her own accord.” + </p> + <p> + “Damn ye!” the old man retorted to the unwelcome truth. There was nothing + else for him to say. “Damn the whole tribe of ye; everything that goes by + the accursed name of Kittredge, that's got a drop o' yer blood, or a bone + o' yer bones, or a puif o' yer breath—” + </p> + <p> + “Squair! squair!” interposed an officious old colleague, taking him by the + elbow, “jes' quiet down now; ye air a-cussin' yer own gran'son.” + </p> + <p> + “So be! so be!” cried the old man, in a frenzy of rage. “Damn 'em all—all + the Kittredge tribe!” He gasped for breath; his lips still moved + speechlessly as he fell back in his chair. + </p> + <p> + Kittredge let his gun slip from his shoulder, the butt ringing heavily as + it struck upon the floor. “I ain't a-goin' ter take sech ez that off'n ye, + old man,” he cried, pallid with fury, for be it remembered this grandson + was that august institution, a first baby. “He sha'n't sit up thar an' + cuss the baby, Mr. Cheerman.” He appealed to the presiding justice, + holding up his right arm as tremulous as old Quimbey's own. “I want the + law! I ain't a-goin' ter tech a old man like him, an' my wife's father, so + I ax in the name o' peace fur the law. Don't deny it”—with a warning + glance—“'kase I ain't school-larned, an' dunno how ter get it. Don't + ye deny me the law! I <i>know</i> the law don't 'low a magistrate an' a + jestice ter cuss in his high office, in the presence of the county court. + I want the law! I want the law!” + </p> + <p> + The chairman of the court, who had risen in his excitement, turning + eagerly first to one and then to the other of the speakers, striving to + silence the colloquy, and in the sudden surprise of it at a momentary loss + how to take action, sat down abruptly, and with a face of consternation. + Profanity seemed to him so usual and necessary an incident of conversation + that it had never occurred to him until this moment that by some strange + aberration from the rational estimate of essentials it was entered in the + code as a violation of law. He would fain have overlooked it, but the room + was crowded with spectators. The chairman would be a candidate for + re-election as justice of the peace at the expiration of his term. And + after all what was old Quimbey to him, or he to old Quimbey, that, with + practically the whole town looking on, he should destroy his political + prospects and disregard the dignity of his office. He had a certain twinge + of conscience, and a recollection of the choice and fluent oaths of his + own repertory, but as he turned over the pages of the code in search of + the section he deftly argued that they were uttered in his own presence as + a person, not as a justice. + </p> + <p> + And so for the first time old Joel Quimbey appeared as a law-breaker, and + was duly fined by the worshipful county court fifty cents for each oath, + that being the price at which the State rates the expensive and impious + luxury of swearing in the hearing of a justice of the peace, and which in + its discretion the court saw fit to adopt in this instance. + </p> + <p> + The old man offered no remonstrance; he said not a word in his own + defence. He silently drew out his worn wallet, with much contortion of his + thin old anatomy in getting to his pocket, and paid his fines on the spot. + Absalom had already left the room, the clerk having made out the + certificates, the chairman of the court casting the scalps into the open + door of the stove, that they might be consumed by fire according to law. + </p> + <p> + The young mountaineer wore a heavy frown, and his heart was ill at ease. + He sought some satisfaction in the evident opinion of the crowd which now + streamed out, for the excitements within were over, that he had done a + fine thing; a very clever thought, they considered it, to demand the law + of Mr. Chairman, that one of their worships should be dragged from the + bench and arraigned before the quarterly county court of which he was a + member. The result gave general satisfaction, although there were those + who found fault with the court's moderation, and complained that the least + possible cognizance had been taken of the offence. + </p> + <p> + “Ho! ho! ho!” laughed an old codger in the street. “I jes knowed that hurt + old Joel Quimbey wuss 'n ef a body hed druv a knife through him; he's been + so proud o' bein' jestice 'mongst his betters, an' bein' 'lected at las', + many times ez he hev run. Waal, Abs'lom, ye hev proved thar's law fur + jestices too. I tell ye ye hev got sense in yer skull-i-bone.” + </p> + <p> + But Absalom hung his head before these congratulations; he found no relish + in the old man's humbled pride. Yet had he not cursed the baby, lumping + him among the Kittredges? Absalom went about for a time, with a hopeful + anxiety in his eyes, searching for one of the younger Quim-beys, in order + to involve him in a fight that might have a provocation and a result more + to his mind. Somehow the recollection of the quivering and aged figure of + his wife's father, of the smitten look on his old face, of his abashed and + humbled demeanor before the court, was a reproach to him, vivid and + continuously present with his repetitious thoughts forever re-enacting the + scene. His hands trembled; he wanted to lay hold on a younger man, to + replace this aesthetic revenge with a quarrel more wholesome in the + estimation of his own conscience. But the Quimbey sons were not in town + to-day. He could only stroll about and hear himself praised for this thing + that he had done, and wonder how he should meet Evelina with his + conscience thus arrayed against himself for her father's sake. “Plumb + turned Quimbey, I swear,” he said, in helpless reproach to this + independent and coercive moral force within. His dejection, he supposed, + had reached its lowest limits, when a rumor pervaded the town, so wild + that he thought it could be only fantasy. + </p> + <p> + It proved to be fact. Joel Quimbey, aggrieved, humbled, and indignant, had + resigned his office, and as Absalom rode out of town toward the mountains, + he saw the old man in his crumpled brown jeans suit, mounted on his white + mare, jogging down the red clay road, his head bowed before the slanting + lines of rain, on his way to his cheerless fireside. He turned off + presently, for the road to the levels of the Cove was not the shorter cut + that Absalom travelled to the mountains. But all the way the young man + fancied that he saw from time to time, as the bridle-path curved in the + intricacies of the laurel, the bowed old figure among the mists, jogging + along, his proud head and his stiff neck bent to the slanting rain and the + buffets of his unkind fate. And yet, pressing the young horse to overtake + him, Absalom could find naught but the fleecy mists drifting down the + bridle-path as the wind might will, or lurking in the darkling nooks of + the laurel when the wind would. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + The sun was shining on the mountains, and Absalom went up from the sad + gray rain and through the gloomy clouds of autumn hanging over the Cove + into a soft brilliant upper atmosphere—a generous after-thought of + summer—and the warm brightness of Evelina's smile. She stood in the + doorway as she saw him dismounting, with her finger on her lips, for the + baby was sleeping: he put much of his time into that occupation. The tiny + gourds hung yellow among the vines that clambered over the roof of the + porch, and a brave jack-bean—a friend of the sheltering eaves—made + shift to bloom purple and white, though others of the kind hung, crisp and + sere, and rattled their dry bones in every gust. The “gyarden spot” at the + side of the house was full of brown and withered skeletons of the summer + growths; among the crisp blades of the Indian-corn a sibilant voice was + forever whispering; down the tawny-colored vistas the pumpkins glowed. The + sky was blue; the yellow hickory flaming against it and hanging over the + roof of the cabin was a fine color to see. The red sour-wood tree in the + fence corner shook out a myriad of white tassels; the rolling tumult of + the gray clouds below thickened, and he could hear the rain a-falling—falling + into the dreary depths of the Cove. + </p> + <p> + All this for him: why should he disquiet himself for the storm that burst + upon others? + </p> + <p> + Evelina seemed a part of the brightness; her dark eyes so softly alight, + her curving red lips, the faint flush in her cheeks, her rich brown hair, + and the purplish kerchief about the neck of her yellow dress. Once more + she looked smilingly at him, and shook her head and laid her finger on her + lip. + </p> + <p> + “I oughter been sati'fied with all I got, stiddier hectorin' other folks + till they 'ain't got no heart ter hold on ter what they been at sech + trouble ter git,” he said, as he turned out the horse and strode gloomily + toward the house with the saddle over his arm. + </p> + <p> + “Hev ennybody been spiteful ter you-uns ter-day?” she asked, in an almost + maternal solicitude, and with a flash of partisan anger in her eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Git out'n my road, Eveliny,” he said, fretfully, pushing by, and throwing + the saddle on the floor. There was no one in the room but the occupant of + the rude box on rockers which served as cradle. + </p> + <p> + Absalom had a swift, prescient fear. “She'll git it all out'n me ef I + don't look sharp,” he said to himself. Then aloud, “Whar's mam?” he + demanded, flinging himself into a chair and looking loweringly about. + </p> + <p> + “Topknot hev jes kem off'n her nest with fourteen deedies, an' she an' + 'Melia hev gone ter the barn ter see 'bout'n 'em.” + </p> + <p> + “Whar's Pete?” + </p> + <p> + “A-huntin'.” + </p> + <p> + A pause. The fire smouldered audibly; a hickory-nut fell with a sharp + thwack on the clapboards of the roof, and rolled down and bounded to the + ground. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly: “I seen yer dad ter-day,” he began, without coercion. “He gin me + a cussin', in the courtroom, 'fore all the folks. He cussed all the + Kit-tredges, <i>all</i> o' 'em; him too”—he glanced in the direction + of the cradle—“cussed 'em black an' blue, an' called me a <i>thief</i> + fur marryin' ye an kerry-in' ye off.” + </p> + <p> + Her face turned scarlet, then pale. She sat down, her trembling hands + reaching out to rock the cradle, as if the youthful Kittredge might be + disturbed by the malediction hurled upon his tribe. But he slept sturdily + on. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, now,” she said, making a great effort at self-control, “ye oughtn't + ter mind it. Ye know he war powerful tried. I never purtended ter be ez + sweet an' pritty ez the baby air, but how would you-uns feel ef somebody + ye despised war ter kem hyar an' tote him off from we-uns forever?” + </p> + <p> + “I'd cut thar hearts out,” he said, with prompt barbarity. + </p> + <p> + “Thar, now!” exclaimed his wife, in triumphant logic. + </p> + <p> + He gloomily eyed the smouldering coals. He was beginning to understand the + paternal sentiment. By his own heart he was learning the heart of his + wife's father. + </p> + <p> + “I'd chop 'em inter minch-meat,” he continued, carrying his just reprisals + a step further. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, don't do it right now,” said his wife, trying to laugh, yet vaguely + frightened by his vehemence. + </p> + <p> + “Eveliny,” he cried, springing to his feet, “I be a-goin' ter tell ye all + 'bout'n it. I jes called on the cheerman fur the law agin him.” + </p> + <p> + “Agin <i>dad!</i>—the law!”' Her voice dropped as she contemplated + aghast this terrible unapprehended force brought to oppress old Joel + Quim-bey; she felt a sudden poignant pang for his forlorn and lonely + estate. + </p> + <p> + “Never mind, never mind, Eveliny,” Absalom said, hastily, repenting of his + frantic candor and seeking to soothe her. + </p> + <p> + “I <i>will</i> mind,” she said, sternly. “What hev ye done ter dad?” + </p> + <p> + “Nuthin',” he replied, sulkily—“nuthin'.” + </p> + <p> + “Ye needn't try ter fool me, Abs'lom Kittredge. Ef ye ain't minded ter + tell me, I'll foot it down ter town an' find out. What did the law do ter + him?” + </p> + <p> + “Jes fined him,” he said, striving to make light of it. + </p> + <p> + “An' ye done that fur—<i>spite!</i>” she cried. “A-set-tin' the law + ter chouse a old man out'n money, fur gittin' mad an' sayin' ye stole his + only darter. Oh, I'll answer fur him”—she too had risen; her hand + trembled on the back of the chair, but her face was scornfully smiling—“he + don't mind the <i>money</i>; he'll never git you-uns <i>fined</i> ter pay + back the gredge. He don't take his wrath out on folkses' <i>wallets</i>; + he grips thar throats, or teches the trigger o' his rifle. Laws-a-massy! + takin' out yer gredge that-a-way! It's ye poorer fur them dollars, Abs'lom—'tain't + him.” She laughed satirically, and turned to rock the cradle. + </p> + <p> + “What d'ye want me ter do? Fight a old man?” he exclaimed, angrily. + </p> + <p> + She kept silence, only looking at him with a flushed cheek and a scornful + laughing eye. + </p> + <p> + He went on, resentfully: “I ain't 'shamed,” he stoutly asserted. “Nobody + 'lowed I oughter be, It's him, plumb bowed down with shame.” + </p> + <p> + “The shoe's on the t'other foot,” she cried. “It's ye that oughter be + 'shamed, an' ef ye ain't, it's more shame ter ye. What hev he got ter be + 'shamed of?” + </p> + <p> + “'Kase,” he retorted, “he war fetched up afore a court on a crim'nal + offence—a-cussin' afore the court! Ye may think it's no shame, but + he do; he war so 'shamed he gin up his office ez jestice o' the peace, + what he hev run fur four or five times, an' always got beat 'ceptin' + wunst.” + </p> + <p> + “Dad!” but for the whisper she seemed turning to stone; her dilated eyes + were fixed as she stared into his face. + </p> + <p> + “An' I seen him a-ridin' off from town in the rain arterward, his head + hangin' plumb down ter the saddle-bow.” + </p> + <p> + Her amazed eyes were still fastened upon his face, but her hand no longer + trembled on the back of the chair. + </p> + <p> + He suddenly held out his own hand to her, his sympathy and regret + returning as he recalled the picture of the lonely wayfarer in the rain + that had touched him so. “Oh, Eveliny!” he cried, “I never war so beset + an' sorry an'—” + </p> + <p> + She struck his hand down; her eyes blazed. Her aspect was all instinct + with anger. + </p> + <p> + “I do declar' I'll never furgive ye—ter spite him so—an' kem + an' tell <i>me!</i> An' shame him so ez he can't hold his place—an' + kem an' tell <i>me!</i> An' bow him down so ez he can't show his face whar + he hev been so respected by all—an' kem an' tell <i>me!</i> An' all + fur spite, fur he hev got nuthin' ye want now. An' I gin him up an' lef + him lonely, an' all fur you-uns. Ye air mean, Abs'lom Kit-tredge, an' I'm + the mos' fursaken fool on the face o' the yearth!” + </p> + <p> + He tried to speak, but she held up her hand in expostulation. + </p> + <p> + “Nare word—fur I won't answer. I do declar' I'll never speak ter ye + agin ez long ez I live.” + </p> + <p> + He flung away with a laugh and a jeer. “That's right,” he said, + encouragingly; “plenty o' men would be powerful glad ef thar wives would + take pattern by that.” + </p> + <p> + He caught up his hat and strode out of the room. He busied himself in + stabling his horse, and in looking after the stock. He could hear the + women's voices from the loft of the barn as they disputed about the best + methods of tending the newly hatched chickens, that had chipped the shell + so late in the fall as to be embarrassed by the frosts and the coming cold + weather. The last bee had ceased to drone about the great crimson + prince's-feather by the door-step, worn purplish through long flaunting, + and gone to seed. The clouds were creeping up and up the slope, and others + were journeying hither from over the mountains. A sense of moisture was in + the air, although a great column of dust sprang up from the dry + corn-field, with panic-stricken suggestions, and went whirling away, + carrying off withered blades in the rush. The first drops of rain were + pattering, with a resonant timbre in the midst, when Pete came home with a + newly killed deer on his horse, and the women, with fluttering skirts and + sun-bonnets, ran swiftly across from the barn to the back door of the + shed-room. Then the heavy downpour made the cabin rock. + </p> + <p> + “Why, Eveliny an' the baby oughtn't ter be out in this hyar rain—they'll + be drenched,” said the old woman, when they were all safely housed except + the two. “Whar be she?” + </p> + <p> + “A-foolin' in the gyarden spot a-getherin' seed an' sech, like she always + be,” said the sister-in-law, tartly. + </p> + <p> + Absalom ran out into the rain without his hat, his heart in the clutch of + a prescient terror. No; the summer was over for the garden as well as for + him; all forlorn and rifled, its few swaying shrubs tossed wildly about, a + mockery of the grace and bloom that had once embellished it. His wet hair + Streaming backward in the wind caught on the laurel boughs as he went down + and down the tangled path that her homesick feet had worn to the crag + which overlooked the Cove. Not there! He stood, himself enveloped in the + mist, and gazed blankly into the folds of the dun-colored clouds that with + tumultuous involutions surged above the valley and baffled his vision. He + realized it with a sinking heart. She was gone. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + That afternoon—it was close upon nightfall—Stephen Quimbey, + letting down the bars for the cows, noticed through the slanting lines of + rain, serried against the masses of sober-hued vapors which hid the great + mountain towering above the Cove, a woman crossing the foot-bridge. He + turned and lifted down another bar, and then looked again. Something was + familiar in her aspect, certainly. He stood gravely staring. Her + sun-bonnet had fallen back upon her shoulders, and was hanging loosely + there by the strings tied beneath her chin; her brown hair, dishevelled' + by the storm, tossed back and forth in heavy wave-less locks, wet through + and through. When the wind freshened they lashed, thong-like, her pallid + oval face; more than once she put up her hand and tried to gather them + together, or to press them back—only one hand, for she clasped a + heavy bundle in her arms, and as she toiled along slowly up the rocky + slope, Stephen suddenly held his palm above his eyes. The recognition was + becoming definite, and yet he could scarcely believe his senses: was it + indeed Evelina, wind-tossed, tempest-beaten, and with as many tears as + rain-drops on her pale cheek? Evelina, forlorn and sorry, and with swollen + sad dark eyes, and listless exhausted step—here again at the bars, + where she had not stood since she dragged her wounded lover thence on-that + eventful night two years and more ago. + </p> + <p> + Resentment for the domestic treachery was uppermost in his mind, and he + demanded surlily, when she had advanced within the sound of his words, + “What hev ye kem hyar fur?” + </p> + <p> + “Ter stay,” she responded, briefly. + </p> + <p> + His hand in an uncertain gesture laid hold upon his tuft of beard. + </p> + <p> + “Fur good?” he faltered, amazed. + </p> + <p> + She nodded silently. + </p> + <p> + He stooped to lift down the lowest bar that she might pass. Suddenly the + bundle she clasped gave a dexterous twist; a small head, with yellow downy + hair, was thrust forth; a pair of fawn-like eyes fixed an inquiring stare + upon him; the pink face distended with a grin, to which the two small + teeth in the red mouth, otherwise empty, lent a singularly merry + expression; and with a manner that was a challenge to pursuit, the head + disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, tucked with affected shyness + under Evelina's arm. + </p> + <p> + She left Stephen standing with the bar in his hand, staring blankly after + her, and ran into the cabin. + </p> + <p> + Her father had no questions to ask—nor she. + </p> + <p> + As he caught her in his arms he gave a great cry of joy that rang through + the house, and brought Timothy from the barn, in astonishment, to the + scene. + </p> + <p> + “Eveliny's <i>home!</i>” he cried out to Tim, who, with the ox-yoke in his + hand, paused in the doorway. “Kem ter stay! Eveliny's <i>home!</i> I + knowed she'd kem back to her old daddy. Eveliny's kem ter stay fur good.” + </p> + <p> + “They tole me they'd hectored ye plumb out'n the town an' out'n yer + office. They hed the insurance ter tell <i>me</i> that word!” she cried, + sobbing on his breast. + </p> + <p> + “What d'ye reckon I keer fur enny jestice's cheer when I hev got ye agin + ter set alongside o' me by the fire?” he exclaimed, his cracked old voice + shrill with triumphant gladness. + </p> + <p> + He pushed her into her rocking-chair in the chimney-corner, and laughed + again with the supreme pleasure of the moment, although she had leaned her + head against the logs of the wall, and was sobbing aloud with the + contending emotions that tore her heart. + </p> + <p> + “Didn't ye ever want ter kem afore, Eveliny?” he demanded. “I hev been + a-pinin' fur a glimge o' ye.” He was in his own place now, his hands + trembling as they lay on the arms of his chair; a pathetic reproach was in + his voice. “Though old folks oughtn't ter expec' too much o' young ones, + ez be all tuk up naterally with tharse'fs,” he added, bravely. He would + not let his past lonely griefs mar the bright present. “Old folks air + mos'ly cumber-ers—mos'ly cumberers o' the yearth, ennyhow.” + </p> + <p> + Her weeping had ceased; she was looking at him with dismayed surprise in + her eyes, still lustrous with unshed tears. “Why, dad I sent ye a hundred + messages ef I mought kem. I tole Abs'lom ter tell Joe Boyd—bein' as + ye liked Joe—I wanted ter see ye.” She leaned forward and looked up + at him with frowning intensity. “They never gin ye that word?” + </p> + <p> + He laughed aloud in sorry scorn. “We can't teach our chil'n nuthin',” he + philosophized. “They hev got ter hurt tharse'fs with all the thorns an' + the stings o' the yearth. Our sperience with the sharp things an' bitter + ones don't do them no sarvice. Naw, leetle darter—naw! Ye mought ez + well gin a message o' kindness ter a wolf, an' expec' him ter kerry it ter + some lonesome, helpless thing a-wounded by the way-side, ez gin it ter a + Kittredge.” + </p> + <p> + “I never will speak ter one o' 'em agin ez long ez I live,” she cried, + with a fresh gust of tears. + </p> + <p> + “Waal,” exclaimed the old man, reassuringly, and chirping high, “hyar we + all be agin, jes' the same ez we war afore. Don't cry, Eveliny; it's jes' + the same.” + </p> + <p> + A sudden babbling intruded upon the conversation. The youthful Kittredge, + as he sat upon the wide flat stones of the hearth, was as unwelcome here + in the Cove as a Quimbey had been in the cabin on the mountain. The great + hickory fire called for his unmixed approval, coming in, as he had done, + from the gray wet day. He shuffled his bare pink feet—exceedingly + elastic and agile members they seemed to be, and he had a remarkable + “purchase” upon their use—and brought them smartly down upon their + heels as if this were one of the accepted gestures of applause. Then he + looked up at the dark frowning faces of his mother's brothers, and gurgled + with laughter, showing the fascinating spectacle of his two front teeth. + Perhaps it was the only Kittredge eye that they were not willing to meet. + They solemnly gazed beyond him and into the fire, ignoring his very + existence. He sustained the slight with an admirable cheerfulness, and + babbled and sputtered and flounced about with his hands. He grew pinker in + the generous firelight, and he looked very fat as he sat in a heap on the + floor. He seemed to have threads tightly tied about his bolster-shaped + limbs in places where elder people prefer joints—in his ankles and + wrists and elbows—for his arms were bare, and although his frock of + pink calico hung decorously high on one shoulder, it drooped quite off + from the other, showing a sturdy chest. + </p> + <p> + His mother took slight notice of him; she was beginning to look about the + room with a certain critical disfavor at the different arrangement of the + household furniture adopted by her father's deaf and widowed old sister + who presided here now, and who, it chanced, had been called away by the + illness of a relative. Evelina got up presently, and shifted the position + of the spinning-wheels, placing the flax-wheel where the large wheel had + been. She then pushed out the table from the corner. “What ailed her ter + sot it hyar?” she grumbled, in a disaffected undertone, and shoved it to + the centre of the floor, where it had always stood during her own sway. + She cast a discerning glance up among the strings of herbs and peppers + hanging from above, and examined the shelves where the simple stores for + table use were arranged in earthen-ware bowls or gourds—all with an + air of vague dissatisfaction. She presently stepped into the shed-room, + and there looked over the piles of quilts. They were in order, certainly, + but placed in a different method from her own; another woman's hand had + been at work, and she was jealous of its very touch among these familiar + old things to which she seemed positively akin. “I wonder how I made out + ter bide so long on the mounting,” she said; and with the recollection of + the long-haired Absalom there was another gush of tears and sobs, which + she stifled as she could in one of the old quilts that held many of her + own stitches and was soothing to touch. + </p> + <p> + The infantile Kittredge, who was evidently not born to blush unseen, + seemed to realize that he had failed to attract the attention of the three + absorbed Quimbeys who sat about the fire. He blithely addressed himself to + another effort. He suddenly whisked himself over on all-fours, and with a + certain ursine aspect went nimbly across the hearth, still holding up his + downy yellow head, his pink face agrin, and alluringly displaying his two + facetious teeth. He caught the rung of Tim's chair, and lifted himself + tremulously to an upright posture. And then it became evident that he was + about to give an exhibition of the thrilling feat of walking around a + chair. With a truly Kittredge perversity he had selected the one that had + the savage Timothy seated in it. For an instant the dark-browed face + scowled down into his unaffrighted eyes: it seemed as if Tim might kick + him into the fire. The next moment he had set out to circumnavigate, as it + were. What a prodigious force he expended upon it! How he gurgled and + grinned and twisted his head to observe the effect upon the men, all + sedulously gazing into the fire! how he bounced, and anon how he sank with + sudden genuflections! how limber his feet seemed, and what free agents! + Surely he never intended to put them down at that extravagant angle. More + than once one foot was placed on top of the other—an attitude that + impeded locomotion and resulted in his sitting down in an involuntary + manner and with some emphasis. With an appalling temerity he clutched + Tim's great miry boots to help him up and on his way round. Occasionally + he swayed to and fro, with his teeth on exhibition, laughing and babbling + and shrilly exclaiming, inarticulately bragging of his agile prowess, as + if he were able to defy all the Quimbeys, who would not notice him. And + when it was all over he went in his wriggling ursine gait back to the + hearth-stone, and there he was sitting, demurely enough, and as if he had + never moved, when his mother returned and found him. + </p> + <p> + There was no indication that he had attracted a moment's attention. She + looked gravely down at him; then took her chair. A pair of blue yarn socks + was in her hand. “I never see sech darnin' ez Aunt Sairy Ann do fur ye, + dad; I hev jes tuk my shears an' cut this heel smang out, an' I be goin' + ter do it over.” + </p> + <p> + She slipped a tiny gourd into the heel, and began to draw the slow threads + to and fro across it. + </p> + <p> + The blaze, red and yellow, and with elusive purple gleams, leaped up the + chimney. The sap was still in the wood; it sang a summer-tide song. But an + autumn wind was blowing shrilly down the chimney; one could hear the + sibilant rush of the dead leaves on the blast. The window and the door + shook, and were still, and once more rattled as if a hand were on the + latch. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly—“Ever weigh him?” her father asked. + </p> + <p> + She sat upright with a nervous start. It was a moment before she + understood that it was of the Kittredge scion he spoke. + </p> + <p> + With his high cracked laugh the old man leaned over, his outspread hand + hovering about the plump baby, uncertain where, in so much soft fatness, + it might be practicable to clutch him. There were some large horn buttons + on the back of his frock, a half-dozen of which, gathered together, + afforded a grasp. He lifted the child by them, laughing in undisguised + pleasure to feel the substantial strain upon the garment. + </p> + <p> + “Toler'ble survigrus,” he declared, with his high chirp. + </p> + <p> + His daughter suddenly sprang up with a pallid face and a pointing hand. + </p> + <p> + “The winder!” she huskily cried—“suthin's at the winder!” + </p> + <p> + But when they looked they saw only the dark square of tiny panes, with the + fireside scene genially reflected on it. And then she fell to declaring + that she had been dreaming, and besought them not to take down their guns + nor to search, and would not be still until they had all seemed to concede + the point; it was she who fastened the doors and shutters, and she did not + lie down to rest till they were all asleep and hours had passed. None of + them doubted that it was Absalom's face that she had seen at the window, + where the light had once lured him before, and she knew that she had + dreamed no dream like this. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + It soon became evident that whenever Joe Boyd was intrusted with a message + he would find means to deliver it. For upon him presently devolved the + difficult duties of ambassador. The first time that his honest square face + appeared at the rail fence, and the sound of his voice roused Evelina as + she stood feeding the poultry close by, she returned his question with a + counter-question hard to answer. + </p> + <p> + “I hev been up the mounting,” he said, smiling, as he hooked his arms over + the rail fence. “Abs'-lom he say he wanter know when ye'll git yer visit + out an' kem home.” + </p> + <p> + She leaned her elbow against the ash-hopper, balancing the wooden bowl of + corn-meal batter on its edge and trembling a little; the geese and + chickens and turkeys crowded, a noisy rout, about her feet. + </p> + <p> + “Joe,” she said, irrelevantly, “ye air one o' the few men on this yearth + ez ain't a liar.” + </p> + <p> + He stared at her gravely for a moment, then burst into a forced laugh. + “Ho! ho! I tell a bushel o' 'em a day, Eveliny!” He wagged his head in an + anxious affectation of mirth. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/119.jpg" alt="Why'n't Ye Gin Dad Them Messages 119 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + “Why'n't ye gin dad them messages ez Abs'lom gin ye from me?” + </p> + <p> + Joe received this in blank amaze; then, with sudden comprehension, his + lower jaw dropped. He looked at her with a plea for pity in his eyes. And + yet his ready tact strove to reassert itself. + </p> + <p> + “I mus' hev furgot 'em,” he faltered. + </p> + <p> + “Did Abs'lom ever gin 'em ter ye?” she persisted. + </p> + <p> + “<i>Ef he did</i>, I mus' hev furgot 'em,” he repeated, crestfallen and + hopeless. + </p> + <p> + She laughed and turned jauntily away, once more throwing the corn-meal + batter to the greedily jostling poultry. “Tell Abs'lom I hev fund him + out,” she said. “He can't sot me agin dad no sech way. This be my home, + an' hyar I be goin' ter 'bide.” + </p> + <p> + And so she left the good Joe Boyd hooked on by the elbows to the fence. + </p> + <p> + The Quimbeys, who had heard this conversation from within, derived from it + no small elation. “She hev gin 'em the go-by fur good,” Timothy said, + confidently, to his father, who laughed in triumph, and pulled calmly at + his pipe, and looked ten years younger. + </p> + <p> + But Steve was surlily anxious. “I'd place heap mo' dependence in Eveliny + ef she didn't hev this hyar way o' cryin' all the time. She 'lows she's + glad she kem—<i>so glad</i> she hev lef Abs'lom fur good an' all—an' + then she busts out a-cryin' agin. I ain't able ter argufy on sech.” + </p> + <p> + “Shucks! wimmen air always a-cryin', an' they don't mean <i>nuthin''</i> by + it,” exclaimed the old man, in the plenitude of his wisdom. “It air jes' + one o' thar most contrarious ways. I hev seen 'em set down an' cry fur joy + an' pleasure.” + </p> + <p> + But Steve was doubtful. “It be a powerful low-sperited gift fur them ez + hev ter 'bide along of 'em. Eveliny never useter be tearful in nowise. Now + she cries a heap mo' 'n that thar shoat”—his lips curled in contempt + as he glanced toward the door, through which was visible a small rotund + figure in pink calico, seated upon the lowest log of the wood-pile—“ez + she fotched down hyar with her. <i>He</i> never hev hed a reg'lar blate + but two or three times sence he hev been hyar, an' them war when that thar + old tur-rkey gobbler teetered up ter him an' tuk his corn-dodger that he + war a-eatin' on plumb out'n his hand. <i>He</i> hed suthin' to holler fur—hed + los' his breakfus.” + </p> + <p> + “Don't he 'pear ter you-uns to be powerful peeg-eon-toed?” asked Tim, + anxiously, turning to his father. + </p> + <p> + “The gawbbler?” faltered the amazed old man. + </p> + <p> + “Naw; him, <i>him—Kittredge</i>,” said Tim, jerking his big thumb in + the direction of the small boy. + </p> + <p> + “Law-dy Gawd A'mighty! <i>naw! naw!</i>” The grandfather indignantly + repudiated the imputation of the infirmity. One would have imagined that + he would deem it meet that a Kittredge should be pigeon-toed. “It's jes + the way <i>all</i> babies hev got a-walkin'; he ain't right handy yit with + his feet—jes a-beginnin' ter walk, an' sech. Peegeon-toed! I say it, + ye fool!” He cast a glance of contempt on his eldest-born, and arrogantly + puffed his pipe. + </p> + <p> + Again Joe Boyd came, and yet again. He brought messages contrite and + promissory from Absalom; he brought commands stern and insistent. He came + into the house at last, and sat and talked at the fireside in the presence + of the men of the family, who bore themselves in a manner calculated to + impress the Kittredge emissary with their triumph and contempt for his + mission, although they studiously kept silence, leaving it to Evelina to + answer. + </p> + <p> + At last the old man, leaning forward, tapped Joe on the knee. “See hyar, + Joe. Ye hev always been a good frien' o' mine. This hyar man he stole my + darter from me, an' whenst she wanted ter be frien's, an' not let her old + dad die unforgiving he wouldn't let her send the word ter me. An' then he + sot himself ter spite an' hector me, an' fairly run me out'n the town, an' + harried me out'n my office; an' when she fund out—she wouldn't take + my word fur it—the deceivin' natur' o' the Kittredge tribe, she hed + hed enough o' 'em. I hev let ye argufy 'bout'n it; ye hev hed yer fill of + words. An' now I be tired out. Ye ain't 'lowin' she'll ever go back ter + her husband, air ye?” + </p> + <p> + Joe dolorously shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, ef ever ye kem hyar talkin' 'bout'n it agin, I'll be 'bleeged ter + take down my rifle ter ye.” + </p> + <p> + Joe gazed, unmoved, into the fire. + </p> + <p> + “An' that would be mighty hard on me, Joe, 'kase ye be so pop'lar 'mongst + all, I dunno <i>what</i> the kentry-side would do ter me ef I war ter put + a bullet inter ye. Ye air a young man, Joe. Ye oughter spare a old man + sech a danger ez that.” + </p> + <p> + And so it happened that Joe Boyd's offices as mediator ceased. + </p> + <p> + A week went by in silence and without result. + </p> + <p> + Evelina's tears seemed to keep count of the minutes. The brothers + indignantly noted it, and even the old man was roused from the placid + securities of his theories concerning lachrymose womankind, and + remonstrated sometimes, and sometimes grew angry and exhorted her to go + back. What did it matter to her how her father was treated? He was a + cumberer of the ground, and many people besides her husband had thought he + had no right to sit in a justice's chair. And then she would burst into + tears once more, and declare again that she would never go back. + </p> + <p> + The only thoroughly cheerful soul about the place was the intruding + Kittredge. He sat continuously—for the weather was fine—on the + lowest log of the wood-pile, and swung his bare pink feet among the chips + and bark, and seemed to have given up all ambition to walk. Occasionally + red and yellow leaves whisked past his astonished eyes, although these + were few now, for November was on the wane. He babbled to the chickens, + who pecked about him with as much indifference as if he were made of wood. + His two teeth came glittering out whenever the rooster crowed, and his + gleeful laugh—he rejoiced so in this handsomely endowed bird—could + be heard to the barn. The dogs seemed never to have known that he was a + Kittredge, and wagged their tails at the very sound of his voice, and + seized surreptitious opportunities to lick his face. Of all his underfoot + world only the gobbler awed him into gravity and silence; he would gaze in + dismay as the marauding fowl irresolutely approached from around the wood + pile, with long neck out-stretched and undulating gait, applying first one + eye and then the other to the pink hands, for the gobbler seemed to + consider them a perpetual repository of corn-dodgers, which indeed they + were. Then the head and the wabbling red wattles would dart forth with a + sudden peck, and the shriek that ensued proved that nothing could be much + amiss with the Kittredge lungs. + </p> + <p> + One fine day he sat thus in the red November sunset. The sky, seen through + the interlacing black boughs above his head, was all amber and crimson, + save for a wide space of pure and pallid green, against which the + purplish-garnet wintry mountains darkly gloomed. Beyond the rail fence the + avenues of the bare woods were carpeted with the sere yellowish leaves + that gave back the sunlight with a responsive illuminating effect, and + thus the sylvan visitas glowed. The long slanting beams elongated his + squatty little shadow till it was hardly a caricature. He heard the cow + lowing as she came to be milked, fording the river where the clouds were + so splendidly reflected. The chickens were going to roost. The odor of the + wood, the newly-hewn chips, imparted a fresh and fragrant aroma to the + air. He had found among them a sweet-gum ball and a pine cone, and was + applying them to the invariable test of taste. Suddenly he dropped them + with a nervous start, his lips trembled, his lower jaw fell, he was aware + of a stealthy approach. Something was creeping behind the wood-pile. He + hardly had time to bethink himself of his enemy the gobbler when he was + clutched under the arm, swung through the air with a swiftness that caused + the scream to evaporate in his throat, and the next moment he looked + quakingly up into his father's face with unrecognizing eyes; for he had + forgotten Absalom in these few weeks. He squirmed and wriggled as he was + held on the pommel of the saddle, winking and catching his breath and + spluttering, as preliminary proceedings to an outcry. There was a sudden + sound of heavily shod feet running across the puncheon floor within, a + wild, incoherent exclamation smote the air, an interval of significant + silence ensued. + </p> + <p> + “Get up!” cried Absalom, not waiting for Tim's rifle, but spurring the + young horse, and putting him at the fence. The animal rose with the + elasticity and lightness of an uprearing ocean wave. The baby once more + twisted his soft neck, and looked anxiously into the rider's face. This + was not the gobbler. The gobbler did not ride horseback. Then the affinity + of the male infant for the noble equine animal suddenly overbore all else. + In elation he smote with his soft pink hand the glossy arched neck before + him. “Dul-lup!” he arrogantly echoed Absalom's words. And thus father and + son at a single bound disappeared into woods, and so out of sight. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + The savage Tim was leaning upon his rifle in the doorway, his eyes + dilated, his breath short, his whole frame trembling with excitement, as + the other men, alarmed by Evelina's screams, rushed down from the barn. + </p> + <p> + “What ails ye, Tim? Why'n't ye fire?” demanded his father. + </p> + <p> + Tim turned an agitated, baffled look upon him. “I—I mought hev hit + the baby,” he faltered. + </p> + <p> + “Hain't ye got no aim, ye durned sinner?” asked Stephen, furiously. + </p> + <p> + “Bullet mought hev gone through him and struck inter the baby,” + expostulated Tim. + </p> + <p> + “An' then agin it moughtn't!” cried Stephen. “Lawd, ef <i>I</i> hed hed + the chance!” + </p> + <p> + “Ye wouldn't hev done no differ,” declared Tim. + </p> + <p> + “Hyar!” Steve caught his brother's gun and presented it to Tim's lips. + “Suck the bar'l. It's 'bout all ye air good fur.” + </p> + <p> + The horses had been turned out. By the time they were caught and saddled + pursuit was evidently hopeless. The men strode in one by one, dashing the + saddles and bridles on the floor, and finding in angry expletives a vent + for their grief. And indeed it might have seemed that the Quimbeys must + have long sought a choice Kittredge infant for adoption, so far did their + bewailings discount Rachel's mourning. + </p> + <p> + “Don't cry, Eveliny,” they said, ever and anon. “We-uns 'll git him back + fur ye.” + </p> + <p> + But she had not shed a tear. She sat speechless, motionless, as if turned + to stone. + </p> + <p> + “Laws-a-massy, child, ef ye would jes hev b'lieved <i>me</i> 'bout'n them + Kittredges—Abs'lom in partic'lar—ye'd be happy an' free now,” + said the old man, his imagination somewhat extending his experience, for + he had had no knowledge of his son-in-law until their relationship began. + </p> + <p> + The evening wore drearily on. Now and then the men roused themselves, and + with lowering faces discussed the opportunities of reprisal, and the best + means of rescuing the child. And whether they schemed to burn the + Kittredge cabin, or to arm themselves, burst in upon their enemies, + shooting and killing all who resisted, Evelina said nothing, but stared + into the fire with unnaturally dilated eyes, her white lined face all + drawn and somehow unrecognizable. + </p> + <p> + “Never mind,” her father said at intervals, taking her cold hand, “we-uns + 'll git him back, Eveliny. The Lord hed a mother wunst, an' I'll be bound + He keeps a special pity for a woman an' her child.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, great gosh! who'd hev dreamt we'd hev missed him so!” cried Tim, + shifting his position, and slipping his left arm over the back of his + chair. “Jes ter think o' the leetle size o' him, an' the great big gap he + hev lef roun' this hyar ha'th-stone!” + </p> + <p> + “An' yit he jes sot underfoot, 'mongst the cat an' the dogs, jes ez + humble!” said Stephen. + </p> + <p> + “I'd git him back even ef he warn't no kin ter me, Eveliny,” declared Tim, + and he spoke advisedly, remembering that the youth was a Kittredge. + </p> + <p> + Still Evelina said not a word. All that night she silently walked the + puncheon floor, while the rest of the household slept. The dogs, in vague + disturbance, because of the unprecedented vigil and stir in the midnight, + wheezed uneasily from time to time, and crept restlessly about under the + cabin, now and again thumping their backs or heads against the floor; but + at last they betook themselves to slumber. The hickory logs broke in twain + as they burned, and fell on either side, and presently there was only the + dull red glow of the embers on her pale face, and the room was full of + brown shadows, motionless, now that the flames flared no more. Once when + the red glow, growing ever dimmer, seemed almost submerged beneath the + gray ashes, she paused and stirred the coals. The renewed glimmer showed a + fixed expression in her eyes, becoming momently more resolute. At + intervals she knelt at the window and placed her hands about her face to + shut out the light from the hearth, and looked out upon the night. How the + chill stars loitered! How the dawn delayed! The great mountain gloomed + darkling above the Cove. The waning moon, all melancholy and mystic, swung + in the purple sky. The bare, stark boughs of the trees gave out here and + there a glimmer of hoar-frost. There was no wind; when she heard the dry + leaves whisk she caught a sudden glimpse of a fox that, with his crafty + shadow pursuing him, leaped upon the wood-pile, nimbly ran along its + length, and so, noiselessly, away—while the dogs snored beneath the + house. A cock crew from the chicken-roost; the mountain echoed the + resonant strain. She saw a mist come stealing softly along a precipitous + gorge; the gauzy web hung shimmering in the moon; presently the trees were + invisible; anon they showed rigid among the soft enmeshment of the vapor, + and again were lost to view.. + </p> + <p> + She rose; there was a new energy in her step; she walked quickly across + the floor and unbarred the door. + </p> + <p> + The little cabin on the mountain was lost among the clouds. It was not yet + day, but the old woman, with that proclivity to early rising + characteristic of advancing years, was already astir. It was in the + principal room of the cabin that she slept, and it contained another bed, + in which, placed crosswise, were five billet-shaped objects under the + quilts, which when awake identified themselves as Peter Kittredge's + children. She had dressed and uncovered the embers, and put on a few of + the chips which had been spread out on the hearth to dry, and had sat down + in the chimney corner. A timid blaze began to steal up, and again was + quenched, and only the smoke ascended in its form; then the light + flickered out once more, casting a gigantic shadow of her sun-bonnet—for + she had donned it thus early—half upon the brown and yellow daubed + wall, and half upon the dark ceiling, making a specious stir amidst the + peltry and strings of pop-corn hanging motionless thence. + </p> + <p> + She sighed heavily once or twice, and with an aged manner, and leaned her + elbows on her knees and gazed contemplatively at the fire. All at once the + ashes were whisked about the hearth as in a sudden draught, and then were + still. In momentary surprise she pushed her chair back, hesitated, then + replaced it, and calmly settled again her elbows on her knees. Suddenly + once more a whisking of the ashes; a cold shiver ran through her, and she + turned to see a hand fumbling at the batten shutter close by. She stared + for a moment as if paralyzed; her spectacles fell to the floor from her + nerveless hand, shattering the lenses on the hearth. She rose trembling to + her feet, and her lips parted as if to cry out. They emitted no sound, and + she turned with a terrified fascination and looked back. The shutter had + opened; there was no glass; the small square of the window showed the + nebulous gray mist without, and defined upon it was Evelina's head, her + dark hair streaming over the red shawl held about it, her fair oval face + pallid and pensive, and with a great wistfulness upon it; her lustrous + dark eyes glittered. + </p> + <p> + “Mother,” her red lips quivered out. + </p> + <p> + The old crone recognized no treachery in her heart. She laid a warning + finger upon her lips. All the men were asleep. + </p> + <p> + Evelina stretched out her yearning arms. “Gin him ter me!” + </p> + <p> + “Naw, naw, Eveliny,” huskily whispered Absalom's mother. “Ye oughter kem + hyar an' 'bide with yer husband—ye know ye ought.” + </p> + <p> + Evelina still held out her insistent arms. “Gin him ter me!” she pleaded. + </p> + <p> + The old woman shook her head sternly. “Ye kem in, an' 'bide whar ye + b'long.” + </p> + <p> + Evelina took a step nearer the window. She laid her hand on the sill. + “Spos'n 'twar Abs'lom whenst he war a baby,” she said, her eyes softly + brightening, “an' another woman hed him an' kep' him, 'kase ye an' his dad + fell out—would ye hev 'lowed she war right ter treat ye like ye + treat me—whenst Abs'lom war a baby?” + </p> + <p> + Once more she held out her arms. + </p> + <p> + There was a step in the inner shed-room; then silence. + </p> + <p> + “Ye hain't got no excuse,” the soft voice urged; “ye know jes how I feel, + how ye'd hev felt, whenst Abs'lom war a baby.” + </p> + <p> + The shawl had fallen back from her tender face; her eyes glowed, her cheek + was softly flushed. A sudden terror thrilled through her as she again + heard the heavy step approaching in the shed-room. “Whenst Abs'lom war a + baby,” she reiterated, her whole pleading heart in the tones. + </p> + <p> + A sudden radiance seemed to illumine the sad, dun-colored folds of the + encompassing cloud; her face shone with a transfiguring happiness, for the + hustling old crone had handed out to her a warm, somnolent bundle, and the + shutter closed upon the mists with a bang. + </p> + <p> + “The wind's riz powerful suddint,” Peter said, noticing the noise as he + came stumbling in, rubbing his eyes. He went and fastened the shutter, + while his mother tremulously mended the fire. + </p> + <p> + The absence of the baby was not noticed for some time, and when the + father's hasty and angry questions elicited the reluctant facts, the + outcry for his loss was hardly less bitter among the Kittredges than among + the Quimbeys. The fugitives were shielded from capture by the enveloping + mist, and when Absalom returned from the search he could do naught but + indignantly upbraid his mother. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/133.jpg" alt="Flung Her Apron over Her Head 133 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + She was terrified by her own deed, and cowered under Absalom's wrath. It + was in a moral collapse, she felt, that she could have done this thing. + She flung her apron over her head, and sat still and silent—a + monumental figure—among them. Once, roused by Absalom's reproaches, + she made some effort to defend and exculpate herself, speaking from behind + the enveloping apron. + </p> + <p> + “I ain't born no Kittredge nohow,” she irrelevantly asseverated, “an' I + never war. An' when Eveliny axed me how I'd hev liked ter hev another + 'oman take Abs'lom whenst he war a baby, I couldn't hold out no longer.” + </p> + <p> + “Shucks!” cried Absalom, unfilially; “ye'd aheap better be a-studyin' + 'bout'n my good now 'n whenst I war a baby—a-givin' away <i>my</i> + child ter them Quimbeys; a-h'istin' him out'n the winder!” + </p> + <p> + She was glad to retort that he was “impident,” and to take refuge in an + aggrieved silence, as many another mother has done when outmatched by + logic. + </p> + <p> + After this there was more cheerfulness in her hidden face than might have + been argued from her port of important sorrow. “Bes' ter hev no jawin', + though,” she said to herself, as she sat thus inscrutably veiled. And deep + in her repentant heart she was contradictorily glad that Evelina and the + baby were safe together down in the Cove. + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + Old Joel Quimbey, putting on his spectacles, with a look of keenest + curiosity, to read a paper which the deputy-sheriff of the county + presented when he drew rein by the wood-pile one afternoon some three + weeks later, had some difficulty in identifying a certain Elnathan Daniel + Kittredge specified therein. He took off his spectacles, rubbed them + smartly, and put them on again. The writing was unchanged. Surely it must + mean the baby. That was the only Kittredge whose body they could be + summoned to produce on the 24th of December before the judge of the + circuit court, now in session. He turned the paper about and looked at it, + his natural interest as a man augmented by his recognition as an + ex-magistrate of its high important legal character. + </p> + <p> + “Eveliny,” he quavered, at once flattered and furious, “dad-burned ef + Abs'lom hain't gone an' got out a <i>habeas corpus</i> fur the baby!” + </p> + <p> + The phrase had a sound so deadly that there was much ado to satisfactorily + explain the writ and its functions to Evelina, who had felt at ease again + since the baby was at home, and so effectually guarded that to kidnap him + was necessarily to murder two or three of the vigilant and stalwart + Quimbey men. So much joy did it afford the old man to air his learning and + consult his code—a relic of his justiceship—that he belittled + the danger of losing the said Elnathan Daniel Kittredge in the interest + with which he looked forward to the day for him to be produced before the + court. + </p> + <p> + There was a gathering of the clans on that day. Quimbeys and Kittredges + who had not visited the town for twenty years were jogging thither betimes + that morning on the red clay roads, all unimpeded by the deep mud which, + frozen into stiff ruts and ridges here and there, made the way hazardous + to the running-gear. The lagging winter had come, and the ground was half + covered with a light fall of snow. + </p> + <p> + The windows of the court-house were white with frost; the weighted doors + clanged continuously. An old codger, slowly ascending the steps, and + pushing into the semi-obscurity of the hall, paused as the door slammed + behind him, stared at the sheriff in surprise, then fixed him with a + bantering leer. The light that slanted through the open court-room door + fell upon the official's burly figure, his long red beard, his big + broad-brimmed hat pushed back from his laughing red face, consciously + ludicrous and abashed just now. + </p> + <p> + “Hev ye made a find?” demanded the newcomer. + </p> + <p> + For in the strong arms of the law sat, bolt-upright, Elnathan Daniel + Kittredge, his yellow head actively turning about, his face decorated with + a grin, and on most congenial terms with the sheriff. + </p> + <p> + “They're lawin' 'bout'n him in thar “—the sheriff jerked his thumb + toward the door. “<i>Habeas corpus</i> perceedin's. Dun no ez I ever see a + friskier leetle cuss. Durned ef I 'ain't got a good mind ter run off with + him myself.” + </p> + <p> + The said Elnathan Daniel Kittredge once more squirmed round and settled + himself comfortably in the hollow of the sheriff's elbow, who marvelled to + find himself so deft in holding him, for it was twenty years since his son—a + gawky youth who now affected the company at the saloon, and was none too + filial—was the age and about the build of this infant Kittredge. + </p> + <p> + “They hed a reg'lar scrimmage hyar in the hall—them fool men—Quimbey + an' Kittredge. Old man Quimbey said suthin' ter Abs'lom Kittredge—I + dunno what all. Abs'lom never jawed back none. He jes made a dart an' + snatched this hyar leetle critter out'n his mother's arms, stiddier + waitin' fur the law, what he summonsed himself. Blest ef I didn't hev ter + hold my revolver ter his head, an' then crack him over the knuckles, ter + make him let go the child. I didn't want ter arrest him—mighty + clever boy, Abs'lom Kittredge! I promised that young woman I'd keep holt + o' the child till the law gins its say-so. I feel sorry fur her; she's + been through a heap.” + </p> + <p> + “Waal, ye look mighty pritty, totin' him around hyar,” his friend + encouraged him with a grin. “I'll say that fur ye—ye look mighty + pritty.” + </p> + <p> + And in fact the merriment in the hall at the sheriff's expense began to + grow so exhilarating as to make him feel that the proceedings within were + too interesting to lose. His broad red face with its big red beard + reappeared in the doorway—slightly embarrassed because of the + sprightly manners of his charge, who challenged to mirth every eye that + glanced at him by his toothful grin and his gurgles and bounces; he was + evidently enjoying the excitement and his conspicuous position. He + manfully gnawed at his corn-dodger from time to time, and from the manner + in which he fraternized with his new acquaintance, the sheriff, he seemed + old enough to dispense with maternal care, and, but for his incomplete + methods of locomotion, able to knock about town with the boys. The + Quimbeys took note of his mature demeanor with sinking hearts; they looked + anxiously at the judge, wondering if he had ever before seen such + precocity—anything so young to be so old: “He 'ain't never afore + 'peared so survigrus—so <i>durned survigrus</i> ez he do ter-day,” + they whispered to each other. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir,” his father was saying, on examination, “year old. Eats + anything he kin git—cabbage an' fat meat an' anything. <i>Could</i> + walk if he wanted ter. But he 'ain't been raised right”—he glanced + at his wife to observe the effect of this statement. He felt a pang as he + noted her pensive, downcast face, all tremulous and agitated, overwhelmed + as she was by the crowd and the infinite moment of the decision. But + Absalom, too, had his griefs, and they expressed themselves perversely. + </p> + <p> + “He hev been pompered an' fattened by bein' let ter eat an' sleep so much, + till he be so heavy ter his self he don't wanter take the trouble ter get + about. He <i>could</i> walk ennywhar. He's plumb survigrus.” + </p> + <p> + And as if in confirmation, the youthful Kittredge lifted his voice to + display his lung power. He hilariously babbled, and suddenly roared out a + stentorian whoop, elicited by nothing in particular, then caught the + sheriff's beard, and buried in it his conscious pink face. + </p> + <p> + The judge looked gravely up over his spectacles. He had a bronzed + complexion, a serious, pondering expression, a bald head, and a gray + beard. He wore a black broadcloth suit, somewhat old-fashioned in cut, and + his black velvet waist-coat had suffered an eruption of tiny red satin + spots. He had great respect for judicial decorums, and no Kittredge, + however youthful, or survigrus, or exalted in importance by <i>habeas + corpus</i> proceedings, could “holler” unmolested where he presided. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Sheriff,” he said, solemnly, “remove that child from the presence of + the court.” + </p> + <p> + And the said Elnathan Daniel Kittredge went out gleefully kicking in the + arms of the law. + </p> + <p> + The hundred or so grinning faces in the courtroom relapsed quickly into + gravity and excited interest. The rows of jeans-clad countrymen seated + upon the long benches on either side of the bar leaned forward with intent + attitudes. For this was a rich feast of local gossip, such as had not been + so bountifully spread within their recollection. All the ancient Quimbey + and Kittredge feuds contrived to be detailed anew in offering to the judge + reasons why father or mother was the more fit custodian of the child in + litigation. + </p> + <p> + As Absalom sat listening to all this, his eyes were suddenly arrested by + his wife's face—half draped it was, half shadowed by her sun-bonnet, + its fine and delicate profile distinctly outlined against the crystalline + and frosted pane of the window near which she sat. The snow without threw + a white reflection upon it; its rich coloring in contrast was the more + intense; it was very pensive, with the heavy lids drooping over the + lustrous eyes, and with a pathetic appeal in its expression. + </p> + <p> + And suddenly his thoughts wandered far afield. He wondered that it had + come to this; that she could have misunderstood him so; that he had + thought her hard and perverse and unforgiving. His heart was all at once + melting within him; somehow he was reminded how slight a thing she was, + and how strong was the power that nerved her slender hand to drag his + heavy weight, in his dead and helpless unconsciousness, down to the bars + and into the safety of the sheltering laurel that night, when he lay + wounded and bleeding under the lighted window of the cabin in the Cove. A + deep tenderness, an irresistible yearning had come upon him; he was about + to rise, he was about to speak he knew not what, when suddenly her face + was irradiated as one who sees a blessed vision; a happy light sprang into + her eyes; her lips curved with a smile; the quick tears dropped one by one + on her hands, nervously clasping and unclasping each other. He was + bewildered for a moment. Then he heard Peter gruffly growling a + half-whispered curse, and the voice of the judge, in the exercise of his + discretion, methodically droning out his reasons for leaving so young a + child in the custody of its mother, disregarding the paramount rights of + the father. The judge concluded by dispassionately recommending the young + couple to betake themselves home, and to try to live in peace together, + or, at any rate, like sane people. Then he thrust his spectacles up on his + forehead, drew a long sigh of dismissal, and said, with a freshened look + of interest, “Mr. Clerk, call the next case.” + </p> + <p> + The Quimbey and Kittredge factions poured into the hall; what cared they + for the disputed claims of Jenkins <i>versus</i> Jones? The lovers of + sensation cherished a hope that there might be a lawless effort to rescue + the infant Kittredge from the custody to which he had been committed by + the court. The Quimbeys watchfully kept about him in a close squad, his + pink sun-bonnet, in which his head was eclipsed, visible among their + brawny jeans shoulders, as his mother carried him in her arms. The sheriff + looked smilingly after him from the court-house steps, then inhaled a long + breath, and began to roar out to the icy air the name of a witness wanted + within. Instead of a gate there was a flight of steps on each side of the + fence, surmounted by a small platform. Evelina suddenly shrank back as she + stood on the platform, for beside the fence Absalom was waiting. Timothy + hastily vaulted over the fence, drew his “shooting-iron” from his + boot-leg, and cocked it with a metallic click, sharp and peremptory in the + keen wintry air. For a moment Absalom said not a word. He looked up at + Evelina with as much reproach as bitterness in his dark eyes. They were + bright with the anger that fired his blood; it was hot in his bronzed + cheek; it quivered in his hands. The dry and cold atmosphere amplified the + graces of his long curling yellow hair that she and his mother loved. His + hat was pushed back from his face. He had not spoken to her since the day + of his ill-starred confidence, but he would not be denied now. + </p> + <p> + “Ye'll repent it,” he said, threateningly. “I'll take special pains fur + that.” + </p> + <p> + She bestowed on him one defiant glance, and laughed—a bitter little + laugh. “Ye air ekal ter it; ye have a special gift fur makin' folks repent + they ever seen ye.” + </p> + <p> + “The jedge jes gin him ter ye 'kase ye made him out sech a fibble little + pusson,” he sneered. “But it's jes fur a time.” + </p> + <p> + She held the baby closer. He busied himself in taking off his sun-bonnet + and putting it on hind part before, gurgling with smothered laughter to + find himself thus queerly masked, and he made futile efforts to play + “peep-eye” with anybody jovially disposed in the crowd. But they were all + gravely absorbed in the conjugal quarrel at which they were privileged to + assist. + </p> + <p> + “It's jes fur a time,” he reiterated. + </p> + <p> + “Wait an' see!” she retorted, triumphantly. + </p> + <p> + “I won't wait,” he declared, goaded; “I'll take him yit; an' when I do + I'll clar out'n the State o' Tennessee—see ef I don't!” + </p> + <p> + She turned white and trembled. “Ye dassent,” she cried out shrilly. “Ye'll + be 'feared o' the law.” + </p> + <p> + “Wait an' see!” He mockingly echoed her words, and turned in his old + confident manner, and strode out of the crowd. + </p> + <p> + Faint and trembling, she crept into the old canvas-covered wagon, and as + it jogged along down the road stiff with its frozen ruts and ever nearing + the mountains, she clasped the cheerful Kittredge with a yearning sense of + loss, and declared that the judge had made him no safer than before. It + was in vain that her father, speaking from the legal lore of the code, + detailed the contempt of court that the Kittredges would commit should + they undertake to interfere with the judicial decision—it might be + even considered kidnapping. + </p> + <p> + “But what good would that do me—an' the baby whisked plumb out'n the + State? Ef Abs'lom ain't 'feared o' Tim's rifle, what's he goin' ter keer + fur the pore jedge with nare weepon but his leetle contempt o' court—ter + jail Abs'lom, ef he kin make out ter ketch him!” + </p> + <p> + She leaned against the swaying hoop of the cover of the wagon and burst + into tears. “Oh, none o' ye 'll do nuthin' fur me!” she exclaimed, in + frantic reproach. “Nuthin'!” + </p> + <p> + “Ye talk like 'twar we-uns ez made up sech foolishness ez <i>habeas corpus</i> + out'n our own heads,” said Timothy. “I 'ain't never looked ter the law fur + pertection. Hyar's the pertecter.” He touched the trigger of his rifle and + glanced reassuringly at his sister as he sat beside her on the plank laid + as a seat from side to side of the wagon. + </p> + <p> + She calmed herself for a moment; then suddenly looked aghast at the rifle, + and with some occult and hideous thought, burst anew into tears. + </p> + <p> + “Waal, sir,” exclaimed Stephen, outdone, “what with all this hyar daily + weepin' an' nightly mournin', I 'ain't got spunk enough lef ter stan' up + agin the leetlest Kittredge a-goin'. I ain't man enough ter sight a rifle. + Kittredges kin kem enny time an' take my hide, horns, an' tallow ef they + air minded so ter do.” + </p> + <p> + “I 'lowed I hearn suthin' a-gallopin' down the road,” said Tim, abruptly. + </p> + <p> + Her tears suddenly ceased. She clutched the baby closer, and turned and + lifted the flap of the white curtain at the back of the wagon, and looked + out with a wild and terror-stricken eye. The red clay road stretched + curveless, a long way visible and vacant. The black bare trees stood + shivering in the chilly blast on either side; among them was an occasional + clump of funereal cedars. Away off the brown wooded hills rose; snow lay + in thin crust-like patches here and there, and again the earth wore the + pallid gray of the crab-grass or the ochreous red of the gully-washed + clay. + </p> + <p> + “I don't see nuthin',” she said, in the bated voice of affrighted + suspense. + </p> + <p> + While she still looked out flakes suddenly began to fly, hardly falling at + first, but poised tentatively, fluctuating athwart the scene, presently + thickening, quickening, obscuring it all, isolating the woods with an + added sense of solitude since the sight of the world and the sound of it + were so speedily annulled. Even the creak of the wagon-wheels was muffled. + Through the semicircular aperture in the front of the wagon-cover the + horns of the oxen were dimly seen amidst the serried flakes; the snow + whitened the backs of the beasts and added its burden to their yoke. Once + as they jogged on she fancied again that she heard hoof-beats—this + time a long way ahead, thundering over a little bridge high above a + swirling torrent, that reverberated with a hollow tone to the faintest + footfall. “Jes somebody ez hev passed we-uns, takin' the short-cut by the + bridle-path,” she ruminated. No pursuer, evidently. + </p> + <p> + Everything was deeply submerged in the snow before they reached the dark + little cabin nestling in the Cove. Motionless and dreary it was; not even + a blue and gauzy wreath curled out of the chimney, for the fire had died + on the hearth in their absence. No living creature was to be seen. The + fowls were huddled together in the hen-house, and the dogs had accompanied + the family to town, trotting beneath the wagon with lolling tongues and + smoking breath; when they nimbly climbed the fence their circular + footprints were the first traces to mar the level expanse of the + door-yard. The bare limbs of the trees were laden; the cedars bore great + flower-like tufts amidst the interlacing fibrous foliage. The eaves were + heavily thatched; the drifts lay in the fence corners. + </p> + <p> + Everything was covered except, indeed, one side of the fodder-stack that + stood close to the barn. Evelina, going out to milk the cow, gazed at it + for a moment in surprise. The snow had slipped down from it, and lay in + rolls and piles about the base, intermixed with the sere husks and blades + that seemed torn out of the great cone. “Waal, sir, Spot mus' hev been + hongry fur true, ter kem a-foragin' this wise. Looks ez ef she hev been + fairly a-burrowin.” + </p> + <p> + She turned and glanced over her shoulder at tracks in the snow—shapeless + holes, and filling fast—which she did not doubt were the footprints + of the big red cow, standing half in and half out of the wide door, slowly + chewing her cud, her breath visibly curling out on the chill air, her + great lips opening to emit a muttered low. She moved forward suddenly into + the shelter as Evelina started anew toward it, holding the piggin in one + hand and clasping the baby in the other arm. + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/145.jpg" alt="Stole Noiselessly in the Soft Snow 145 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + Evelina noted the sound of her brothers' two axes, busy at the wood-pile, + their regular cleavage splitting the air with a sharp stroke and bringing + a crystalline shivering echo from the icy mountain. She did not see the + crouching figure that came cautiously burrowing out from the stack. + Absalom rose to his full height, looking keenly about him the while, and + stole noiselessly in the soft snow to the stable, and peered in through a + crevice in the wall. + </p> + <p> + Evelina had placed the piggin upon the straw-covered ground, and stood + among the horned cattle and the huddling sheep, her soft melancholy face + half shaded by the red shawl thrown over her head and shoulders. A tress + of her brown hair escaped and curled about her white neck, and hung down + over the bosom of her dark-blue homespun dress. Against her shoulder the + dun-colored cow rubbed her horned head. The baby was in a pensive mood, + and scarcely babbled. The reflection of the snow was on his face, + heightening the exquisite purity of the tints of his infantile complexion. + His gentle, fawn-like eyes were full of soft and lustrous languors. His + long lashes drooped over them now, and again were lifted. His short down + of yellow hair glimmered golden against the red shawl over his mother's + shoulders. + </p> + <p> + One of the beasts sank slowly upon the ground—a tired creature + doubtless, and night was at hand; then another, and still another. Their + posture reminded Absalom, as he looked, that this was Christmas Eve, and + of the old superstition that the cattle of the barns spend the night upon + their knees, in memory of the wondrous Presence that once graced their + lowly place. The boughs rattled suddenly in the chill blast above his + head; the drifts fell about him. He glanced up mechanically to see in the + zenith a star of gracious glister, tremulous and tender, in the rifts of + the breaking clouds. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder ef it air the same star o' Bethlehem?” he said, thinking of the + great sidereal torch heralding the Light of the World. He had a vague + sense that this star has never set, however the wandering planets may come + and go in their wide journeys as the seasons roll. He looked again into + the glooming place, at the mother and her child, remembering that the Lord + of heaven and earth had once lain in a manger, and clung to a humble + earthly mother. + </p> + <p> + The man shook with a sudden affright. He had intended to wrest the child + from her grasp, and mount and ride away; he was roused from his reverie by + the thrusting upon him of his opportunity, facilitated a hundredfold. + Evelina had evidently forgotten something. She hesitated for a moment; + then put the baby down upon a great pile of straw among the horned + creatures, and, catching her shawl about her head, ran swiftly to the + house. + </p> + <p> + Absalom moved mechanically into the doorway. The child, still pensive and + silent, and looking tenderly infantile, lay upon the straw. A sudden pang + of pity for her pierced his heart: how her own would be desolated! His + horse, hitched in a clump of cedars, awaited him ten steps away. It was + his only chance—his last chance. And he had been hardly entreated. + The child's eyes rested, startled and dilated, upon him; he must be quick. + </p> + <p> + The next instant he turned suddenly, ran hastily through the snow, crashed + among the cedars, mounted his horse, and galloped away. + </p> + <p> + It was only a moment that Evelina expected to be at the house, but the + gourd of salt which she sought was not in its place. She hurried out with + it at last, unprescient of any danger until all at once she saw the + footprints of a man in the snow, otherwise untrodden, about the + fodder-stack. She still heard the two axes at the wood-pile. Her father, + she knew, was at the house. + </p> + <p> + A smothered scream escaped her lips. The steps had evidently gone into the + stable, and had come out thence. Her faltering strength could scarcely + support her to the door. And then she saw lying in the straw Elnathan + Daniel, beginning to babble and gurgle again, and to grow very pink with + joy over a new toy—a man's glove, a red woollen glove, accidentally + dropped in the straw. She caught it from his hands, and turned it about + curiously. She had knit it herself—for Absalom! + </p> + <p> + When she came into the house, beaming with joy, the baby holding the glove + in his hands, the men listened to her in dumfounded amaze, and with + significant side glances at each other. + </p> + <p> + “He wouldn't take the baby whenst he hed the chance, 'kase he knowed + 'twould hurt me so. An' he never wanted ter torment me—I reckon he + never <i>did</i> mean ter torment me. An' he did 'low wunst he war sorry + he spited dad. Oh! I hev been a heap too quick an' spiteful myself. I hev + been so terrible wrong! Look a-hyar; he lef' this glove ter show me he hed + been hyar, an' could hev tuk the baby ef he hed hed the heart ter do it. + Oh! I'm goin' right up the mounting an' tell him how sorry I be.” + </p> + <p> + “Toler'ble cheap!” grumbled Stephen—“one old glove. An' he'll git + Elnathan Daniel an' ye too. A smart fox he be.” + </p> + <p> + They could not dissuade her. And after a time it came to pass that the + Quimbey and Kittredge feuds were healed; for how could the heart of a + grandfather withstand a toddling spectacle in pink calico that ran away + one day some two years later, in company with an adventurous dog, and came + down the mountain to the cabin in the Cove, squeezing through the fence + rails after the manner of his underfoot world, proceeding thence to the + house, where he made himself very merry and very welcome? + </p> + <p> + <a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> + <!-- IMG --></a> + </p> + <div class="fig" style="width:80%"> + <img src="images/151.jpg" alt="Old Quimbey and his Grandson 151 " width="100%" /><br /> + </div> + <p> + And when Tim mounted his horse and rode up the mountain with the youngster + on the pommel of the saddle, lest Evelina should be out of her mind with + fright because of his absence, how should he and old Mrs. Kittredge differ + in their respective opinions of his vigorous growth, and grace of + countenance, and peartness of manner? On the strength of this concurrence + Tim was induced to “'light an' hitch,” and he even sat on the cabin porch + and talked over the crops with Absalom, who, the next time he went to + town, stopped at the cabin in the Cove to bring word how El-nathan Daniel + was “thrivin'.” The path that Evelina had worn to the crag in those first + homesick days on the mountain rapidly extended itself into the Cove, and + widened and grew smooth, as the grandfather went up and the grandson came + down. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His “Day In Court”, by +Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS “DAY IN COURT” *** + +***** This file should be named 23633-h.htm or 23633-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/3/23633/ + +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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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: His "Day In Court" + 1895 + +Author: Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +Illustrator: A. B. Frost + +Release Date: November 26, 2007 [EBook #23633] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS "DAY IN COURT" *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +HIS "DAY IN COURT" + +By Charles Egbert Craddock + +1895 + + +It had been a hard winter along the slopes of the Great Smoky Mountains, +and still the towering treeless domes were covered with snow, and the +vagrant winds were abroad, rioting among the clifty heights where they +held their tryst, or raiding down into the sheltered depths of the Cove, +where they seldom intruded. Nevertheless, on this turbulent rush was +borne in the fair spring of the year. The fragrance of the budding +wild-cherry was to be discerned amidst the keen slanting javelins of +the rain. A cognition of the renewal and the expanding of the forces of +nature pervaded the senses as distinctly as if one might hear the grass +growing, or feel along the chill currents of the air the vernal pulses +thrill. Night after night in the rifts of the breaking clouds close to +the horizon was glimpsed the stately sidereal Virgo, prefiguring and +promising the harvest, holding in her hand a gleaming ear of corn. +But it was not the constellation which the tumultuous torrent at the +mountain's base reflected in a starry glitter. From the hill-side above +a light cast its broken image among the ripples, as it shone for an +instant through the bosky laurel, white, stellular, splendid--only a +tallow dip suddenly placed in the window of a log-cabin, and as suddenly +withdrawn. + +For a gruff voice within growled out a remonstrance: "What ye doin' that +fur, Steve? Hev that thar candle got enny call ter bide in that thar +winder?" + +The interior, contrary to the customary aspect of the humble homes of +the region, was in great disarray. Cooking utensils stood uncleaned +about the hearth; dishes and bowls of earthen-ware were assembled upon +the table in such numbers as to suggest that several meals had been +eaten without the ceremony of laying the cloth anew, and that in default +of washing the crockery it had been re-enforced from the shelf so far as +the limited store might admit. Saddles and spinning-wheels, an ox-yoke +and trace-chains, reels and wash-tubs, were incongruously pushed +together in the corners. Only one of the three men in the room made +any effort to reduce the confusion to order. This was the square-faced, +black-bearded, thick-set young fellow who took the candle from the +window, and now advanced with it toward the hearth, holding it at an +angle that caused the flame to swiftly melt the tallow, which dripped +generously upon the floor. + +"I hev seen Eveliny do it," he said, excitedly justifying himself. "I +noticed her sot the candle in the winder jes' las' night arter supper." +He glanced about uncertainly, and his patience seemed to give way +suddenly. "Dad-burn the old candle! I dunno _whar_ ter set it," he +cried, desperately, as he flung it from him, and it fell upon the floor +close to the wall. + +The dogs lifted their heads to look, and one soft-stepping old hound got +up with the nimbleness of expectation, and, with a prescient gratitude +astir in his tail, went and sniffed at it. His aspect drooped suddenly, +and he looked around in reproach at Stephen Quimbey, as if suspecting +a practical joke. But there was no merriment in the young mountaineer's +face. He threw himself into his chair with a heavy sigh, and desisted +for a time from the unaccustomed duty of clearing away the dishes after +supper. + +"An' 'ain't ye got the gumption ter sense what Eveliny sot the candle in +the winder fur?" his brother Timothy demanded, abruptly--"ez a sign ter +that thar durned Abs'lom Kittredge." + +The other two men turned their heads and looked at the speaker with a +poignant intensity of interest. "I 'lowed ez much when I seen that light +ez I war a-kemin' home las' night," he continued; "it shined spang down +the slope acrost the ruver an' through all the laurel; it looked plumb +like a star that hed fell ter yearth in that pitch-black night. I dun-no +how I s'picioned it, but ez I stood thar an' gazed I knowed somebody +war a-standin' an' gazin' too on the foot-bredge a mite ahead o' me. +I couldn't see him, an' he couldn't turn back an' pass me, the bredge +bein' too narrer. He war jes obligated ter go on. I hearn him breathe +quick; then--pit-pat, pit-pat, ez he walked straight toward that light. +An' he be 'bleeged ter hev hearn me, fur arter I crost I stopped. +Nuthin'. Jes' a whisper o' wind, an' jes' a swishin' from the ruver. +I knowed then he hed turned off inter the laurel. An' I went on, +a-whistlin' ter make him 'low ez I never s'picioned nuthin'. An' I kem +inter the house an' tole dad ez he'd better be a-lookin' arter Eveliny, +fur I b'lieved she war a-settin' her head ter run away an' marry Abs'lom +Kittredge." + +"Waal, I ain't right up an' down sati'fied we oughter done what we +done," exclaimed Stephen, fretfully. "It don't 'pear edzacly right fur +three men ter fire on one." + +[Illustration: Old Joel Quimbey 081] + +Old Joel Quimbey, in his arm-chair in the chimney-corner, suddenly +lifted his head--a thin head with fine white hair, short and sparse, +upon it. His thin, lined face was clear-cut, with a pointed chin and an +aquiline nose. He maintained an air of indignant and rebellious grief, +and had hitherto sat silent, a gnarled and knotted hand on either arm +of his chair. His eyes gleamed keenly from under his heavy brows as he +turned his face upon his sons. "How could we know thar warn't but one, +eh?" + +He had not been a candidate for justice of the peace for nothing; he had +absorbed something of the methods and spirit of the law through sheer +propinquity to the office. "We-uns wouldn't be persumed ter _know_." And +he ungrudgingly gave himself all the benefit of the doubt that the law +accords. + +"That's a true word!" exclaimed Stephen, quick to console his +conscience. "Jes' look at the fac's, now. We-uns in a plumb black +midnight hear a man a-gittin' over our fence; we git our rifles; +a-peekin' through the chinkin' we ketch a glimge o' him--" + +"Ha!" cried out Timothy, with savage satisfaction, "we seen him by the +light she set her head him on!" + +He was tall and lank, with a delicately hooked nose, high cheek-bones, +fierce dark eyes, and dark eyebrows, which were continually elevated, +corrugating his forehead. His hair was black, short and straight, and +he was clad in brown jeans, as were the others, with great cowhide boots +reaching to the knee. He fixed his fiery intent gaze on his brother as +the slower Stephen continued, "An' so we blaze away--" + +"An' one durned fool's so onlucky ez ter hit him an' not kill him," +growled Timothy, again interrupting. "An' so whilst Eveliny runs out +a-screamin', 'He's dead! he's dead!--ye hev shot him dead!' we-uns make +no doubt but he _is_ dead, an' load up agin, lest his frien's mought +rush in on we-uns whilst we hedn't no use o' our shootin'-irons. An' +suddint--ye can't hear nuthin' but jes' a owel hoot-in' in the woods, or +old Pa'son Bates's dogs a-howlin' acrost the Cove. An' we go out with +a lantern, an' thar's jes' a pool o' blood in the dooryard, an' bloody +tracks down ter the laurel." + +"Eveliny gone!" cried the old man, smiting his hands together; "my +leetle darter! The only one ez never gin me enny trouble. I couldn't hev +made out ter put up with this hyar worl' no longer when my wife died ef +it hedn't been fur Eveliny. Boys war wild an' mischeevious, an' folks +outside don't keer nuthin' 'bout ye--ef they _war_ ter 'lect ye ter +office 'twould be ter keep some other feller from hevin' it, 'kase they +'spise him more'n ye. An' hyar she's runned off an' married old Tom +Kittredge's gran'son, Josiah Kittredge's son--when our folks 'ain't +spoke ter none o' 'em fur fifty year--Josiah Kittredge's son--ha! ha! +ha!" He laughed aloud in tuneless scorn of himself and of this freak +of froward destiny and then fell to wringing his hands and calling upon +Evelina. + +The flare from the great chimney-place genially played over the huddled +confusion of the room and the brown logs of the wall, where the gigantic +shadows of the three men mimicked their every gesture with grotesque +exaggeration. The rainbow yarn on the warping bars, the strings of +red-pepper hanging from the ceiling, the burnished metallic flash from +the guns on their racks of deer antlers, served as incidents in the +monotony of the alternate yellow flicker and brown shadow. Deep under +the blaze the red coals pulsated, and in the farthest vistas of the fire +quivered a white heat. + +"Old Tom Kittredge," the father resumed, after a time, "he jes' branded +yer gran'dad's cattle with his mark; he jes' cheated yer gran'dad, my +dad, out'n six head o' cattle." + +"But then," said the warlike Timothy, not willing to lose sight of +reprisal even in vague reminiscence, "he hed only one hand ter rob with +arter that, fur I hev hearn ez how when gran'dad got through with him +the doctor hed ter take his arm off." + +"Sartainly, sartainly," admitted the old man, in quiet assent. "An' +Josiah Kittredge he put out the eyes of a horse critter o' mine right +thar at the court-house door--" + +"Waal, arterward, we-uns fired his house over his head," put in Tim. + +"An' Josiah Kittredge an' me," the old man went on, "we-uns clinched +every time we met in this mortal life. Every time I go past the +graveyard whar he be buried I kin feel his fingers on my throat. He had +a nervy grip, but no variation; he always tuk holt the same way." + +"Tears like ter me ez 'twar a fust-rate time ter fetch out the rifles +again," remarked Tim, "this mornin', when old Pa'son Bates kem up +hyar an' 'lowed ez he hed married Eveliny ter Abs'lom Kittredge on +his death-bed; 'So be, pa'son,' I say. An' he tuk off his hat an' say, +'Thank the Lord, this will heal the breach an' make ye frien's!' An' +I say, 'Edzacly, pa'son, ef it _air_ Abs'lom's deathbed; but them +Kittredges air so smilin' an' deceiv-in' I be powerful feared he'll +cheat the King o' Terrors himself. I'll forgive 'em ennything--_over his +grave?_" + +"Pa'son war tuk toler'ble suddint in his temper," said the literal +Steve. "I hearn him call yer talk onchristian, cussed sentiments, ez he +put out." + +"Ye mus' keep up a Christian sperit, boys; that's the main thing," said +the old man, who was esteemed very religious, and a pious Mentor in his +own family. He gazed meditatively into the fire. "What ailed Eveliny +ter git so tuk up with this hyar Abs'-lom? What made her like him?" he +propounded. + +"His big eyes, edzacly like a buck's, an' his long yaller hair," sneered +the discerning Timothy, with the valid scorn of a big ugly man for a +slim pretty one. "'Twar jes 'count o' his long yaller hair his +mother called him Abs'lom. He war named Pete or Bob, I disremember +what--suthin' common--till his hair got so long an' curly, an' he sot +out ter be so plumb all-fired beautiful, an' his mother named him agin; +this time Abs'lom, arter the king's son, 'count o' his yaller hair." + +"Git hung by his hair some o' these days in the woods, like him the +Bible tells about; that happened ter the sure-enough Abs'lom," suggested +Stephen, hopefully. + +"Naw, sir," said Tim; "when Abs'lom Kittredge gits hung it 'll be with +suthin' stronger'n hair; he'll stretch hemp." He exchanged a glance of +triumphant prediction with his brother, and anon gazed ruefully into the +fire. + +"Ye talk like ez ef he war goin' ter live, boys," said old Joel Quimbey, +irritably. "Pa'son 'lowed he war powerful low." + +"Pa'son said he'd never hev got home alive 'thout she'd holped him," +said Stephen. "She jes' tuk him an' drug him plumb ter the bars, though +I don't see how she done it, slim leetle critter ez she be; an' thar she +holped him git on his beastis; an' then--I declar' I feel ez ef I could +kill her fur a-demeanin' of herself so--she led that thar horse, him +a-ridin' an' a-leanin' on the neck o' the beastis, two mile up the +mountain, through the night." + +"Waal, let her bide thar. I'll look on her face no mo'," declared the +old man, his toothless jaw shaking. "Kittredge she be now, an' none o' +the name kin come a-nigh me. How be I ever a-goin' 'bout 'mongst the +folks at the settlement agin with my darter married ter a Kittredge? How +Josiah an' his dad mus' be a-grinnin' in thar graves at me this night! +An' I 'low they hev got suthin' ter grin about." + +And suddenly his grim face relaxed, and once more he began to smite his +hands together and to call aloud for Evelina. + +Timothy could offer no consolation, but stared dismally into the fire, +and Stephen rose with a sigh and addressed himself to pushing the +spinning-wheels and tubs and tables into the opposite corner of the +room, in the hope of solving the enigma of its wonted order. + +***** + +It seemed to Evelina afterward that when she climbed the rugged ways +of the mountain slope in that momentous night she left forever in the +depths of the Cove that free and careless young identity which she had +been. She did not accurately discriminate the moment in which she began +to realize that she was among her hereditary enemies, encompassed by +a hatred nourished to full proportions and to a savage strength long +before she drew her first breath. The fact only gradually claimed its +share in her consciousness as the tension of anxiety for Absalom's sake +relaxed, for the young mountaineer's strength and vitality were promptly +reasserted, and he rallied from the wound and his pallid and forlorn +estate with the recuperative power of the primitive man. By degrees she +came to expect the covert unfriendly glances his brother cast upon her, +the lowering averted mien of her sister-in-law, and now and again she +surprised a long, lingering, curious gaze in his mother's eyes. They +were all Kittredges! And she wondered how she could ever have dreamed +that she might live happily among them--one of them, for her name was +theirs. And then perhaps the young husband would stroll languidly in, +with his long hair curling on his blue jeans coat-collar, and an assured +smile in his dark brown eyes, and some lazy jest on his lips, certain of +a welcoming laugh, for he had been so near to death that they all had a +sense of acquisition in that he had been led back. For his sake they had +said little; his mother would busy herself in brewing his "yerb" tea, +and his brother would offer to saddle the mare if he felt that he could +ride, and they would all be very friendly together; and his alien wife +would presently slip out unnoticed into the "gyarden spot," where the +rows of vegetables grew as they did in the Cove, turning upon her the +same neighborly looks they wore of yore, and showing not a strange leaf +among them. The sunshine wrapped itself in its old fine gilded gossamer +haze and drowsed upon the verdant slopes; the green jewelled "Juny-bugs" +whirred in the soft air; the mould was as richly brown as in Joel +Quimbey's own enclosure; the flag-lilies bloomed beside the onion bed; +and the woolly green leaves of the sage wore their old delicate tint and +gave out a familiar odor. + +Among this quaint company of the garden borders she spent much of her +time, now hoeing in a desultory fashion, now leaning on the long handle +of the implement and looking away upon the far reaches of the purple +mountains. As they stretched to vague distances they became blue, and +farther on the great azure domes merged into a still more tender hue, +and this in turn melted into a soft indeterminate tint that embellished +the faint horizon. Her dreaming eyes would grow bright and wistful; her +rich brown curling hair, set free by the yellow sun-bonnet that slipped +off her head and upon her shoulders, would airily float backward in the +wind; there was a lithe grace in the slender figure, albeit clad in a +yellow homespun of a deep dye, and the faded purplish neckerchief +was caught about a throat fairer even than the fair face, which was +delicately flushed. Absalom's mother, standing beside Peter, the eldest +son, in the doorway, watched her long one day. + +"It all kem about from that thar bran dance," said Peter, a homely man, +with a sterling, narrow-minded wife and an ascetic sense of religion. +"Thar Satan waits, an' he gits nimbler every time ye shake yer foot. The +fiddler gin out the figger ter change partners, an' this hyar gal war +dancin' opposite Abs'lom, ez hed never looked nigh her till that day. +The gal didn't know _what_ ter do; she jes' stood still; but Abs'lom he +jes' danced up ter her ez keerless an' gay ez he always war, jes' like +she war ennybody else, an' when he held out his han' she gin him hern, +all a-trembly, an' lookin' up at him, plumb skeered ter death, her eyes +all wide an' sorter wishful, like some wild thing trapped in the woods. +An' then the durned fiddler, moved by the devil, I'll be be bound, plumb +furgot ter change 'em back. So they danced haf'n the day tergether. An' +arter that they war forever a-stealin' off an' accidentally meetin' at +the spring, an' whenst he war a-huntin' or she drivin' up the cow, an' +a-courtin' ginerally, till they war promised ter marry." + +"'Twarn't the bran dance; 'twar suthin' ez fleet-in' an' ez useless," +said his mother, standing in the door and gazing at the unconscious +girl, who was leaning upon the hoe, half in the shadow of the blooming +laurel that crowded about the enclosure and bent over the rail fence, +and half in the burnished sunshine; "she's plumb beautiful--thar's the +snare ez tangled Abs'lom's steps. I never 'lowed ter see the day ez +could show enny comfort fur his dad bein' dead, but we hev been spared +some o' the tallest cavortin' that ever war seen sence the Big Smoky +war built. Sometimes it plumb skeers me ter think ez we-uns hev got a +Quimbey abidin' up hyar along o' we-uns in _his_ house an' a-callin' o' +herse'f Kittredge. I looks ter see him a-stalkin' roun' hyar some night, +too outdone an' aggervated ter rest in his grave." + +But the nights continued spectreless and peaceful on the Great Smoky, +and the same serene stars shone above the mountain as over the Cove. +Evelina could watch here, as often before, the rising moon ascending +through a rugged gap in the range, suffusing the dusky purple slopes and +the black crags on either hand with a pensive glamour, and revealing the +river below by the amber reflection its light evoked. She often sat on +the step of the porch, her elbow on her knees, her chin in her hand, +following with her shining eyes the pearly white mists loitering among +the ranges. Hear! a dog barks in the Cove, a cock crows, a horn is +wound, far, far away; it echoes faintly. And once more only the sounds +of the night--that vague stir in the windless woods, as if the forest +breathes, the far-away tinkle of water hidden in the darkness--and the +moon is among the summits. + +The men remained within, for Absalom avoided the chill night air, and +crouched over the smouldering fire. Peter's wife sedulously held aloof +from the ostracized Quimbey woman. But her mother-in-law had fallen into +the habit of sitting upon the porch these moonlit nights. The sparse, +newly-leafed hop and gourd vines clambering to its roof were all +delicately imaged on the floor, and the old woman's clumsy figure, her +grotesque sun-bonnet, her awkward arm-chair, were faithfully reproduced +in her shadow on the log wall of the cabin--even to the up-curling +smoke from her pipe. Once she suddenly took the stem from her mouth. +"Eveliny," she said, "'pears like ter me ye talk mighty little. Thar +ain't no use in gittin' tongue-tied up hyar on the mounting." + +Evelina started and raised her eyes, dilated with a stare of amazement +at this unexpected overture. + +"I ain't keerin'," said the old woman, recklessly, to herself, although +consciously recreant to the traditions of the family, and sacrificing +with a pang her distorted sense of loyalty and duty to her kindlier +impulse. "I warn't born a Kittredge nohow." + +"Yes, 'm," said Evelina, meekly; "but I don't feel much like talkin' +noways; I never talked much, bein' nobody but men-folks ter our house. +I'd ruther hear ye talk 'n talk myself." + +"Listen at ye now! The headin' young folks o' this kentry 'll never rest +till they make thar elders shoulder _all_ the burdens. An' what air ye +wantin' a pore ole 'oman like me ter talk about?" + +Evelina hesitated a moment, then looked up, with a face radiant in the +moonbeams. "Tell all 'bout Abs'lom--afore I ever seen him." + +His mother laughed. "Ye air a powerful fool, Eveliny." + +The girl laughed a little, too. "I dunno ez I want ter be no wiser," she +said. + +But one was his wife, and the other was his mother, and as they talked +of him daily and long, the bond between them was complete. + +***** + +"I hev got 'em both plumb fooled," the handsome Absalom boasted at the +settlement, when the gossips wondered once more, as they had often done, +that there should be such unity of interest between old Joel Quimbey's +daughter and old Josiah Kittredge's widow. As time went on many rumors +of great peace on the mountain-side came to the father's ears, and he +grew more testy daily as he grew visibly older. These rumors multiplied +with the discovery that they were as wormwood and gall to him. Not that +he wished his daughter to be unhappy, but the joy which was his grief +and humiliation was needlessly flaunted into his face; the idlers about +the county town had invariably a new budget of details, being +supplied, somewhat maliciously, it must be confessed, by the Kittredges +themselves. The ceremony of planting one foot on the neck of the +vanquished was in their minds one of the essential concomitants of +victory. The bold Absalom, not thoroughly known to either of the +women who adored him, was ingenious in expedients, and had applied the +knowledge gleaned from his wife's reminiscences of her home, her father, +and her brothers to more accurately aim his darts. Sometimes old Quimbey +would fairly flee the town, and betake himself in a towering rage to his +deserted hearth, to brood futilely over the ashes, and devise impotent +schemes of vengeance. + +He often wondered afterward in dreary retrospection how he had survived +that first troublous year after his daughter's elopement, when he was +so lonely, so heavy-hearted at home, so harried and angered abroad. His +comforts, it is true, were amply insured: a widowed sister had come +to preside over his household--a deaf old woman, who had much to be +thankful for in her infirmity, for Joel Quimbey in his youth, before he +acquired religion, had been known as a singularly profane man--"a mos' +survigrus cusser"--and something of his old proficiency had returned to +him. Perhaps public sympathy for his troubles strengthened his hold upon +the regard of the community. For it was in the second year of Evelina's +marriage, in the splendid midsummer, when all the gifts of nature climax +to a gorgeous perfection, and candidates become incumbents, that he +unexpectedly attained the great ambition of his life. He was said to +have made the race for justice of the peace from sheer force of habit, +but by some unexplained freak of popularity the oft-defeated candidate +was successful by a large majority at the August election. + +"Laws-a-massy, boys," he said, tremulously, to his triumphant sons, +when the result was announced, the excited flush on his thin old face +suffusing his hollow veinous temples, and rising into his fine white +hair, "how glad Eveliny would hev been ef--ef--" He was about to say if +she had lived, for he often spoke of her as if she were dead. He turned +suddenly back, and began to eagerly absorb the details of the race, as +if he had often before been elected, with calm superiority canvassing +the relative strength, or rather the relative weakness, of the defeated +aspirants. + +He could scarcely have measured the joy which the news gave to Evelina. +She was eminently susceptible of the elation of pride, the fervid glow +of success; but her tender heart melted in sympathetic divination of +all that this was to him who had sought it so long, and so unabashed +by defeat. She pined to see his triumph in his eyes, to hear it in his +voice. She wondered--nay, she knew that he longed to tell it to her. As +the year rolled around again to summer, and she heard from time to +time of his quarterly visits to the town as a member of the worshipful +Quarterly County Court, she began to hope that, softened by his +prosperity, lifted so high by his honors above all the cavillings of the +Kittredges, he might be more leniently disposed toward her, might pity +her, might even go so far as to forgive. + +But none of her filial messages reached her father's fiery old heart. + +"Ye'll be sure, Abs'lom, ef ye see Joe Boyd in town, ye'll tell him ter +gin dad my respec's, an' the word ez how the baby air a-thrivin', an' I +wants ter fotch him ter see the fambly at home, ef they'll lemme." + +Then she would watch Absalom with all the confidence of happy +anticipation, as he rode off down the mountain with his hair flaunting, +and his spurs jingling, and his shy young horse curveting. + +But no word ever came in response; and sometimes she would take the +child in her arms and carry him down a path, worn smooth by her own +feet, to a jagged shoulder thrust out by the mountain where all the +slopes fell away, and a crag beetled over the depths of the Cove. Thence +she could discern certain vague lines marking the enclosure, and a tiny +cluster of foliage hardly recognizable as the orchard, in the midst of +which the cabin nestled. She could not distinguish them, but she knew +that the cows were coming to be milked, lowing and clanking their bells +tunefully, fording the river that had the sunset emblazoned upon it, or +standing flank deep amidst its ripples; the chickens might be going +to roost among the althea bushes; the lazy old dogs were astir on the +porch. She could picture her brothers at work about the barn; most often +a white-haired man who walked with a stick--alack! she did not fancy how +feebly, nor that his white hair had grown long and venerable, and tossed +in the breeze. "Ef he would jes lemme kem fur one haff'n hour!" she +would cry. + +But all her griefs were bewept on the crag, that there might be no tears +to distress the tenderhearted Absalom when she should return to the +house. + +The election of Squire Quimbey was a sad blow to the arrogant spirit of +the Kittredges. They had easily accustomed themselves to ascendency, and +they hotly resented the fact that fate had forborne the opportunity to +hit Joel Quimbey when he was down. They had used their utmost influence +to defeat him in the race, and had openly avowed their desire to see him +bite the dust. The inimical feeling between the families culminated one +rainy autumnal day in the town where the quarterly county court was in +session. + +A fire had been kindled in the great rusty stove, and crackled away with +grudging merriment inside, imparting no sentiment of cheer to the gaunt +bare room, with its dusty window-panes streaked with rain, its shutters +drearily flapping in the wind, and the floor bearing the imprint of +many boots burdened with the red clay of the region. The sound of slow +strolling feet in the brick-paved hall was monotonous and somnolent. + +Squire Quimbey sat in his place among the justices. Despite his pride of +office, he had not the heart for business that might formerly have been +his. More than once his attention wandered. He looked absently out of +the nearest window at the neighboring dwelling--a little frame-house +with a green yard; a well-sweep was defined against the gray sky, and +about the curb a file of geese followed with swaying gait the wise old +gander. "What a hand for fow-_els_ Eveliny war!" he muttered to himself; +"an' she hed luck with sech critters." He used the obituary tense, for +Evelina had in some sort passed away. + +He rubbed his hand across his corrugated brow, and suddenly he became +aware that her husband was in the room, speaking to the chairman of the +county court, and claiming a certificate in the sum of two dollars each +for the scalps of one wolf, "an' one painter," he continued, laying the +small furry repulsive objects upon the desk, "an' one dollar fur the +skelp of one wild-cat." He was ready to take his oath that these animals +were killed by him running at large in this county. + +He had stooped a little in making the transfer. He came suddenly to +his full height, and stood with one hand in his leather belt, the other +shouldering his rifle. The old man scanned him curiously. The crude +light from the long windows was full upon his tall slim figure; his +yellow hair curled down upon the collar of his blue jeans coat; his +great miry boots were drawn high over the trousers to the knee; his +pensive deer-like eyes brightened with a touch of arrogance and enmity +as, turning slowly to see who was present, his glance encountered his +father-in-law's fiery gaze. + +"Mr. Cheerman! Mr. Cheerman!" exclaimed the old man, tremulously, "lemme +examinate that thar wild-cat skelp. Thanky, sir; thanky, sir; I wanter +see ef hain't off'n the head o' some old tame tomcat. An' this air a +painter's "--affecting to scan it by the window--"two ears 'cordin' to +law; yes, sir, two; and this"--his keen old face had all the white light +of the sad gray day on its bleaching hair and its many lines, and his +eager old hands trembled with the excitement of the significant satire +he enacted--"an' this air a wolf's, ye say? Yes; it's a Kittredge's; +same thing, Mr. Cheerman, by a diff'ent name; nuthin' in the code +'bout'n a premium fur a Kittredge's skelp; but same natur'; coward, +bully, thief--_thief!_" + +The words in the high cracked voice rang from the bare walls and bare +floors as he tossed the scalps from him, and sat down, laughing silently +in painful, mirthless fashion, his toothless jaw quivering, and his +shaking hands groping for the arms of his chair. + +"Who says a Kittredge air a thief says a lie!" cried out the young man, +recovering from his tense surprise. "I don't keer how old he be," he +stipulated--for he had not thought to see her father so aged--"he lies." + +The old man fixed him with a steady gaze and a sudden alternation of +calmness. "Ye air a Kittredge; ye stole my daughter from me." + +"I never. She kem of her own accord." + +"Damn ye!" the old man retorted to the unwelcome truth. There was +nothing else for him to say. "Damn the whole tribe of ye; everything +that goes by the accursed name of Kittredge, that's got a drop o' yer +blood, or a bone o' yer bones, or a puif o' yer breath--" + +"Squair! squair!" interposed an officious old colleague, taking him by +the elbow, "jes' quiet down now; ye air a-cussin' yer own gran'son." + +"So be! so be!" cried the old man, in a frenzy of rage. "Damn 'em +all--all the Kittredge tribe!" He gasped for breath; his lips still +moved speechlessly as he fell back in his chair. + +Kittredge let his gun slip from his shoulder, the butt ringing heavily +as it struck upon the floor. "I ain't a-goin' ter take sech ez that +off'n ye, old man," he cried, pallid with fury, for be it remembered +this grandson was that august institution, a first baby. "He sha'n't sit +up thar an' cuss the baby, Mr. Cheerman." He appealed to the presiding +justice, holding up his right arm as tremulous as old Quimbey's own. "I +want the law! I ain't a-goin' ter tech a old man like him, an' my wife's +father, so I ax in the name o' peace fur the law. Don't deny it"--with a +warning glance--"'kase I ain't school-larned, an' dunno how ter get it. +Don't ye deny me the law! I _know_ the law don't 'low a magistrate an' +a jestice ter cuss in his high office, in the presence of the county +court. I want the law! I want the law!" + +The chairman of the court, who had risen in his excitement, turning +eagerly first to one and then to the other of the speakers, striving to +silence the colloquy, and in the sudden surprise of it at a momentary +loss how to take action, sat down abruptly, and with a face of +consternation. Profanity seemed to him so usual and necessary an +incident of conversation that it had never occurred to him until this +moment that by some strange aberration from the rational estimate of +essentials it was entered in the code as a violation of law. He would +fain have overlooked it, but the room was crowded with spectators. The +chairman would be a candidate for re-election as justice of the peace at +the expiration of his term. And after all what was old Quimbey to him, +or he to old Quimbey, that, with practically the whole town looking on, +he should destroy his political prospects and disregard the dignity of +his office. He had a certain twinge of conscience, and a recollection of +the choice and fluent oaths of his own repertory, but as he turned over +the pages of the code in search of the section he deftly argued that +they were uttered in his own presence as a person, not as a justice. + +And so for the first time old Joel Quimbey appeared as a law-breaker, +and was duly fined by the worshipful county court fifty cents for each +oath, that being the price at which the State rates the expensive and +impious luxury of swearing in the hearing of a justice of the peace, and +which in its discretion the court saw fit to adopt in this instance. + +The old man offered no remonstrance; he said not a word in his own +defence. He silently drew out his worn wallet, with much contortion of +his thin old anatomy in getting to his pocket, and paid his fines on the +spot. Absalom had already left the room, the clerk having made out the +certificates, the chairman of the court casting the scalps into the open +door of the stove, that they might be consumed by fire according to law. + +The young mountaineer wore a heavy frown, and his heart was ill at ease. +He sought some satisfaction in the evident opinion of the crowd which +now streamed out, for the excitements within were over, that he had done +a fine thing; a very clever thought, they considered it, to demand the +law of Mr. Chairman, that one of their worships should be dragged from +the bench and arraigned before the quarterly county court of which he +was a member. The result gave general satisfaction, although there were +those who found fault with the court's moderation, and complained that +the least possible cognizance had been taken of the offence. + +"Ho! ho! ho!" laughed an old codger in the street. "I jes knowed that +hurt old Joel Quimbey wuss 'n ef a body hed druv a knife through him; +he's been so proud o' bein' jestice 'mongst his betters, an' bein' +'lected at las', many times ez he hev run. Waal, Abs'lom, ye hev +proved thar's law fur jestices too. I tell ye ye hev got sense in yer +skull-i-bone." + +But Absalom hung his head before these congratulations; he found no +relish in the old man's humbled pride. Yet had he not cursed the baby, +lumping him among the Kittredges? Absalom went about for a time, with a +hopeful anxiety in his eyes, searching for one of the younger Quim-beys, +in order to involve him in a fight that might have a provocation and a +result more to his mind. Somehow the recollection of the quivering and +aged figure of his wife's father, of the smitten look on his old face, +of his abashed and humbled demeanor before the court, was a reproach +to him, vivid and continuously present with his repetitious thoughts +forever re-enacting the scene. His hands trembled; he wanted to lay hold +on a younger man, to replace this aesthetic revenge with a quarrel more +wholesome in the estimation of his own conscience. But the Quimbey sons +were not in town to-day. He could only stroll about and hear himself +praised for this thing that he had done, and wonder how he should +meet Evelina with his conscience thus arrayed against himself for her +father's sake. "Plumb turned Quimbey, I swear," he said, in helpless +reproach to this independent and coercive moral force within. His +dejection, he supposed, had reached its lowest limits, when a rumor +pervaded the town, so wild that he thought it could be only fantasy. + +It proved to be fact. Joel Quimbey, aggrieved, humbled, and indignant, +had resigned his office, and as Absalom rode out of town toward the +mountains, he saw the old man in his crumpled brown jeans suit, mounted +on his white mare, jogging down the red clay road, his head bowed before +the slanting lines of rain, on his way to his cheerless fireside. He +turned off presently, for the road to the levels of the Cove was not the +shorter cut that Absalom travelled to the mountains. But all the way +the young man fancied that he saw from time to time, as the bridle-path +curved in the intricacies of the laurel, the bowed old figure among +the mists, jogging along, his proud head and his stiff neck bent to the +slanting rain and the buffets of his unkind fate. And yet, pressing the +young horse to overtake him, Absalom could find naught but the fleecy +mists drifting down the bridle-path as the wind might will, or lurking +in the darkling nooks of the laurel when the wind would. + +***** + +The sun was shining on the mountains, and Absalom went up from the sad +gray rain and through the gloomy clouds of autumn hanging over the Cove +into a soft brilliant upper atmosphere--a generous after-thought of +summer--and the warm brightness of Evelina's smile. She stood in the +doorway as she saw him dismounting, with her finger on her lips, for +the baby was sleeping: he put much of his time into that occupation. The +tiny gourds hung yellow among the vines that clambered over the roof of +the porch, and a brave jack-bean--a friend of the sheltering eaves--made +shift to bloom purple and white, though others of the kind hung, crisp +and sere, and rattled their dry bones in every gust. The "gyarden spot" +at the side of the house was full of brown and withered skeletons of +the summer growths; among the crisp blades of the Indian-corn a sibilant +voice was forever whispering; down the tawny-colored vistas the pumpkins +glowed. The sky was blue; the yellow hickory flaming against it and +hanging over the roof of the cabin was a fine color to see. The red +sour-wood tree in the fence corner shook out a myriad of white tassels; +the rolling tumult of the gray clouds below thickened, and he could hear +the rain a-falling--falling into the dreary depths of the Cove. + +All this for him: why should he disquiet himself for the storm that +burst upon others? + +Evelina seemed a part of the brightness; her dark eyes so softly alight, +her curving red lips, the faint flush in her cheeks, her rich brown +hair, and the purplish kerchief about the neck of her yellow dress. Once +more she looked smilingly at him, and shook her head and laid her finger +on her lip. + +"I oughter been sati'fied with all I got, stiddier hectorin' other folks +till they 'ain't got no heart ter hold on ter what they been at sech +trouble ter git," he said, as he turned out the horse and strode +gloomily toward the house with the saddle over his arm. + +"Hev ennybody been spiteful ter you-uns ter-day?" she asked, in an +almost maternal solicitude, and with a flash of partisan anger in her +eyes. + +"Git out'n my road, Eveliny," he said, fretfully, pushing by, and +throwing the saddle on the floor. There was no one in the room but the +occupant of the rude box on rockers which served as cradle. + +Absalom had a swift, prescient fear. "She'll git it all out'n me ef +I don't look sharp," he said to himself. Then aloud, "Whar's mam?" he +demanded, flinging himself into a chair and looking loweringly about. + +"Topknot hev jes kem off'n her nest with fourteen deedies, an' she an' +'Melia hev gone ter the barn ter see 'bout'n 'em." + +"Whar's Pete?" + +"A-huntin'." + +A pause. The fire smouldered audibly; a hickory-nut fell with a sharp +thwack on the clapboards of the roof, and rolled down and bounded to the +ground. + +Suddenly: "I seen yer dad ter-day," he began, without coercion. "He gin +me a cussin', in the courtroom, 'fore all the folks. He cussed all the +Kit-tredges, _all_ o' 'em; him too"--he glanced in the direction of the +cradle--"cussed 'em black an' blue, an' called me a _thief_ fur marryin' +ye an kerry-in' ye off." + +Her face turned scarlet, then pale. She sat down, her trembling hands +reaching out to rock the cradle, as if the youthful Kittredge might +be disturbed by the malediction hurled upon his tribe. But he slept +sturdily on. + +"Waal, now," she said, making a great effort at self-control, "ye +oughtn't ter mind it. Ye know he war powerful tried. I never purtended +ter be ez sweet an' pritty ez the baby air, but how would you-uns feel +ef somebody ye despised war ter kem hyar an' tote him off from we-uns +forever?" + +"I'd cut thar hearts out," he said, with prompt barbarity. + +"Thar, now!" exclaimed his wife, in triumphant logic. + +He gloomily eyed the smouldering coals. He was beginning to understand +the paternal sentiment. By his own heart he was learning the heart of +his wife's father. + +"I'd chop 'em inter minch-meat," he continued, carrying his just +reprisals a step further. + +"Waal, don't do it right now," said his wife, trying to laugh, yet +vaguely frightened by his vehemence. + +"Eveliny," he cried, springing to his feet, "I be a-goin' ter tell ye +all 'bout'n it. I jes called on the cheerman fur the law agin him." + +"Agin _dad!_--the law!"' Her voice dropped as she contemplated aghast +this terrible unapprehended force brought to oppress old Joel Quim-bey; +she felt a sudden poignant pang for his forlorn and lonely estate. + +"Never mind, never mind, Eveliny," Absalom said, hastily, repenting of +his frantic candor and seeking to soothe her. + +"I _will_ mind," she said, sternly. "What hev ye done ter dad?" + +"Nuthin'," he replied, sulkily--"nuthin'." + +"Ye needn't try ter fool me, Abs'lom Kittredge. Ef ye ain't minded ter +tell me, I'll foot it down ter town an' find out. What did the law do +ter him?" + +"Jes fined him," he said, striving to make light of it. + +"An' ye done that fur--_spite!_" she cried. "A-set-tin' the law ter +chouse a old man out'n money, fur gittin' mad an' sayin' ye stole his +only darter. Oh, I'll answer fur him"--she too had risen; her hand +trembled on the back of the chair, but her face was scornfully +smiling--"he don't mind the _money_; he'll never git you-uns _fined_ ter +pay back the gredge. He don't take his wrath out on folkses' _wallets_; +he grips thar throats, or teches the trigger o' his rifle. Laws-a-massy! +takin' out yer gredge that-a-way! It's ye poorer fur them dollars, +Abs'lom--'tain't him." She laughed satirically, and turned to rock the +cradle. + +"What d'ye want me ter do? Fight a old man?" he exclaimed, angrily. + +She kept silence, only looking at him with a flushed cheek and a +scornful laughing eye. + +He went on, resentfully: "I ain't 'shamed," he stoutly asserted. "Nobody +'lowed I oughter be, It's him, plumb bowed down with shame." + +"The shoe's on the t'other foot," she cried. "It's ye that oughter be +'shamed, an' ef ye ain't, it's more shame ter ye. What hev he got ter be +'shamed of?" + +"'Kase," he retorted, "he war fetched up afore a court on a crim'nal +offence--a-cussin' afore the court! Ye may think it's no shame, but he +do; he war so 'shamed he gin up his office ez jestice o' the peace, what +he hev run fur four or five times, an' always got beat 'ceptin' wunst." + +"Dad!" but for the whisper she seemed turning to stone; her dilated eyes +were fixed as she stared into his face. + +"An' I seen him a-ridin' off from town in the rain arterward, his head +hangin' plumb down ter the saddle-bow." + +Her amazed eyes were still fastened upon his face, but her hand no +longer trembled on the back of the chair. + +He suddenly held out his own hand to her, his sympathy and regret +returning as he recalled the picture of the lonely wayfarer in the rain +that had touched him so. "Oh, Eveliny!" he cried, "I never war so beset +an' sorry an'--" + +She struck his hand down; her eyes blazed. Her aspect was all instinct +with anger. + +"I do declar' I'll never furgive ye--ter spite him so--an' kem an' tell +_me!_ An' shame him so ez he can't hold his place--an' kem an' tell +_me!_ An' bow him down so ez he can't show his face whar he hev been so +respected by all--an' kem an' tell _me!_ An' all fur spite, fur he hev +got nuthin' ye want now. An' I gin him up an' lef him lonely, an' all +fur you-uns. Ye air mean, Abs'lom Kit-tredge, an' I'm the mos' fursaken +fool on the face o' the yearth!" + +He tried to speak, but she held up her hand in expostulation. + +"Nare word--fur I won't answer. I do declar' I'll never speak ter ye +agin ez long ez I live." + +He flung away with a laugh and a jeer. "That's right," he said, +encouragingly; "plenty o' men would be powerful glad ef thar wives would +take pattern by that." + +He caught up his hat and strode out of the room. He busied himself in +stabling his horse, and in looking after the stock. He could hear the +women's voices from the loft of the barn as they disputed about the +best methods of tending the newly hatched chickens, that had chipped +the shell so late in the fall as to be embarrassed by the frosts and the +coming cold weather. The last bee had ceased to drone about the great +crimson prince's-feather by the door-step, worn purplish through long +flaunting, and gone to seed. The clouds were creeping up and up the +slope, and others were journeying hither from over the mountains. A +sense of moisture was in the air, although a great column of dust sprang +up from the dry corn-field, with panic-stricken suggestions, and went +whirling away, carrying off withered blades in the rush. The first drops +of rain were pattering, with a resonant timbre in the midst, when Pete +came home with a newly killed deer on his horse, and the women, with +fluttering skirts and sun-bonnets, ran swiftly across from the barn to +the back door of the shed-room. Then the heavy downpour made the cabin +rock. + +"Why, Eveliny an' the baby oughtn't ter be out in this hyar +rain--they'll be drenched," said the old woman, when they were all +safely housed except the two. "Whar be she?" + +"A-foolin' in the gyarden spot a-getherin' seed an' sech, like she +always be," said the sister-in-law, tartly. + +Absalom ran out into the rain without his hat, his heart in the clutch +of a prescient terror. No; the summer was over for the garden as well +as for him; all forlorn and rifled, its few swaying shrubs tossed wildly +about, a mockery of the grace and bloom that had once embellished it. +His wet hair Streaming backward in the wind caught on the laurel boughs +as he went down and down the tangled path that her homesick feet had +worn to the crag which overlooked the Cove. Not there! He stood, +himself enveloped in the mist, and gazed blankly into the folds of the +dun-colored clouds that with tumultuous involutions surged above the +valley and baffled his vision. He realized it with a sinking heart. She +was gone. + +***** + +That afternoon--it was close upon nightfall--Stephen Quimbey, letting +down the bars for the cows, noticed through the slanting lines of rain, +serried against the masses of sober-hued vapors which hid the great +mountain towering above the Cove, a woman crossing the foot-bridge. He +turned and lifted down another bar, and then looked again. Something +was familiar in her aspect, certainly. He stood gravely staring. Her +sun-bonnet had fallen back upon her shoulders, and was hanging loosely +there by the strings tied beneath her chin; her brown hair, dishevelled' +by the storm, tossed back and forth in heavy wave-less locks, wet +through and through. When the wind freshened they lashed, thong-like, +her pallid oval face; more than once she put up her hand and tried to +gather them together, or to press them back--only one hand, for she +clasped a heavy bundle in her arms, and as she toiled along slowly up +the rocky slope, Stephen suddenly held his palm above his eyes. The +recognition was becoming definite, and yet he could scarcely believe his +senses: was it indeed Evelina, wind-tossed, tempest-beaten, and with as +many tears as rain-drops on her pale cheek? Evelina, forlorn and sorry, +and with swollen sad dark eyes, and listless exhausted step--here again +at the bars, where she had not stood since she dragged her wounded lover +thence on-that eventful night two years and more ago. + +Resentment for the domestic treachery was uppermost in his mind, and he +demanded surlily, when she had advanced within the sound of his words, +"What hev ye kem hyar fur?" + +"Ter stay," she responded, briefly. + +His hand in an uncertain gesture laid hold upon his tuft of beard. + +"Fur good?" he faltered, amazed. + +She nodded silently. + +He stooped to lift down the lowest bar that she might pass. Suddenly +the bundle she clasped gave a dexterous twist; a small head, with +yellow downy hair, was thrust forth; a pair of fawn-like eyes fixed an +inquiring stare upon him; the pink face distended with a grin, to which +the two small teeth in the red mouth, otherwise empty, lent a singularly +merry expression; and with a manner that was a challenge to pursuit, the +head disappeared as suddenly as it had appeared, tucked with affected +shyness under Evelina's arm. + +She left Stephen standing with the bar in his hand, staring blankly +after her, and ran into the cabin. + +Her father had no questions to ask--nor she. + +As he caught her in his arms he gave a great cry of joy that rang +through the house, and brought Timothy from the barn, in astonishment, +to the scene. + +"Eveliny's _home!_" he cried out to Tim, who, with the ox-yoke in his +hand, paused in the doorway. "Kem ter stay! Eveliny's _home!_ I knowed +she'd kem back to her old daddy. Eveliny's kem ter stay fur good." + +"They tole me they'd hectored ye plumb out'n the town an' out'n yer +office. They hed the insurance ter tell _me_ that word!" she cried, +sobbing on his breast. + +"What d'ye reckon I keer fur enny jestice's cheer when I hev got ye +agin ter set alongside o' me by the fire?" he exclaimed, his cracked old +voice shrill with triumphant gladness. + +He pushed her into her rocking-chair in the chimney-corner, and laughed +again with the supreme pleasure of the moment, although she had leaned +her head against the logs of the wall, and was sobbing aloud with the +contending emotions that tore her heart. + +"Didn't ye ever want ter kem afore, Eveliny?" he demanded. "I hev been +a-pinin' fur a glimge o' ye." He was in his own place now, his hands +trembling as they lay on the arms of his chair; a pathetic reproach was +in his voice. "Though old folks oughtn't ter expec' too much o' young +ones, ez be all tuk up naterally with tharse'fs," he added, bravely. He +would not let his past lonely griefs mar the bright present. "Old folks +air mos'ly cumber-ers--mos'ly cumberers o' the yearth, ennyhow." + +Her weeping had ceased; she was looking at him with dismayed surprise +in her eyes, still lustrous with unshed tears. "Why, dad I sent ye +a hundred messages ef I mought kem. I tole Abs'lom ter tell Joe +Boyd--bein' as ye liked Joe--I wanted ter see ye." She leaned forward +and looked up at him with frowning intensity. "They never gin ye that +word?" + +He laughed aloud in sorry scorn. "We can't teach our chil'n nuthin'," +he philosophized. "They hev got ter hurt tharse'fs with all the thorns +an' the stings o' the yearth. Our sperience with the sharp things an' +bitter ones don't do them no sarvice. Naw, leetle darter--naw! Ye mought +ez well gin a message o' kindness ter a wolf, an' expec' him ter kerry +it ter some lonesome, helpless thing a-wounded by the way-side, ez gin +it ter a Kittredge." + +"I never will speak ter one o' 'em agin ez long ez I live," she cried, +with a fresh gust of tears. + +"Waal," exclaimed the old man, reassuringly, and chirping high, "hyar +we all be agin, jes' the same ez we war afore. Don't cry, Eveliny; it's +jes' the same." + +A sudden babbling intruded upon the conversation. The youthful +Kittredge, as he sat upon the wide flat stones of the hearth, was as +unwelcome here in the Cove as a Quimbey had been in the cabin on the +mountain. The great hickory fire called for his unmixed approval, coming +in, as he had done, from the gray wet day. He shuffled his bare pink +feet--exceedingly elastic and agile members they seemed to be, and he +had a remarkable "purchase" upon their use--and brought them smartly +down upon their heels as if this were one of the accepted gestures of +applause. Then he looked up at the dark frowning faces of his mother's +brothers, and gurgled with laughter, showing the fascinating spectacle +of his two front teeth. Perhaps it was the only Kittredge eye that they +were not willing to meet. They solemnly gazed beyond him and into the +fire, ignoring his very existence. He sustained the slight with an +admirable cheerfulness, and babbled and sputtered and flounced about +with his hands. He grew pinker in the generous firelight, and he looked +very fat as he sat in a heap on the floor. He seemed to have threads +tightly tied about his bolster-shaped limbs in places where elder people +prefer joints--in his ankles and wrists and elbows--for his arms were +bare, and although his frock of pink calico hung decorously high on one +shoulder, it drooped quite off from the other, showing a sturdy chest. + +His mother took slight notice of him; she was beginning to look about +the room with a certain critical disfavor at the different arrangement +of the household furniture adopted by her father's deaf and widowed old +sister who presided here now, and who, it chanced, had been called away +by the illness of a relative. Evelina got up presently, and shifted the +position of the spinning-wheels, placing the flax-wheel where the large +wheel had been. She then pushed out the table from the corner. "What +ailed her ter sot it hyar?" she grumbled, in a disaffected undertone, +and shoved it to the centre of the floor, where it had always stood +during her own sway. She cast a discerning glance up among the strings +of herbs and peppers hanging from above, and examined the shelves where +the simple stores for table use were arranged in earthen-ware bowls or +gourds--all with an air of vague dissatisfaction. She presently stepped +into the shed-room, and there looked over the piles of quilts. They +were in order, certainly, but placed in a different method from her own; +another woman's hand had been at work, and she was jealous of its very +touch among these familiar old things to which she seemed positively +akin. "I wonder how I made out ter bide so long on the mounting," she +said; and with the recollection of the long-haired Absalom there was +another gush of tears and sobs, which she stifled as she could in one +of the old quilts that held many of her own stitches and was soothing to +touch. + +The infantile Kittredge, who was evidently not born to blush unseen, +seemed to realize that he had failed to attract the attention of the +three absorbed Quimbeys who sat about the fire. He blithely addressed +himself to another effort. He suddenly whisked himself over on +all-fours, and with a certain ursine aspect went nimbly across the +hearth, still holding up his downy yellow head, his pink face agrin, +and alluringly displaying his two facetious teeth. He caught the rung of +Tim's chair, and lifted himself tremulously to an upright posture. And +then it became evident that he was about to give an exhibition of +the thrilling feat of walking around a chair. With a truly Kittredge +perversity he had selected the one that had the savage Timothy seated +in it. For an instant the dark-browed face scowled down into his +unaffrighted eyes: it seemed as if Tim might kick him into the fire. +The next moment he had set out to circumnavigate, as it were. What a +prodigious force he expended upon it! How he gurgled and grinned and +twisted his head to observe the effect upon the men, all sedulously +gazing into the fire! how he bounced, and anon how he sank with sudden +genuflections! how limber his feet seemed, and what free agents! Surely +he never intended to put them down at that extravagant angle. More than +once one foot was placed on top of the other--an attitude that impeded +locomotion and resulted in his sitting down in an involuntary manner and +with some emphasis. With an appalling temerity he clutched Tim's great +miry boots to help him up and on his way round. Occasionally he swayed +to and fro, with his teeth on exhibition, laughing and babbling and +shrilly exclaiming, inarticulately bragging of his agile prowess, as +if he were able to defy all the Quimbeys, who would not notice him. And +when it was all over he went in his wriggling ursine gait back to the +hearth-stone, and there he was sitting, demurely enough, and as if he +had never moved, when his mother returned and found him. + +There was no indication that he had attracted a moment's attention. She +looked gravely down at him; then took her chair. A pair of blue yarn +socks was in her hand. "I never see sech darnin' ez Aunt Sairy Ann do +fur ye, dad; I hev jes tuk my shears an' cut this heel smang out, an' I +be goin' ter do it over." + +She slipped a tiny gourd into the heel, and began to draw the slow +threads to and fro across it. + +The blaze, red and yellow, and with elusive purple gleams, leaped up the +chimney. The sap was still in the wood; it sang a summer-tide song. But +an autumn wind was blowing shrilly down the chimney; one could hear the +sibilant rush of the dead leaves on the blast. The window and the door +shook, and were still, and once more rattled as if a hand were on the +latch. + +Suddenly--"Ever weigh him?" her father asked. + +She sat upright with a nervous start. It was a moment before she +understood that it was of the Kittredge scion he spoke. + +With his high cracked laugh the old man leaned over, his outspread hand +hovering about the plump baby, uncertain where, in so much soft fatness, +it might be practicable to clutch him. There were some large horn +buttons on the back of his frock, a half-dozen of which, gathered +together, afforded a grasp. He lifted the child by them, laughing in +undisguised pleasure to feel the substantial strain upon the garment. + +"Toler'ble survigrus," he declared, with his high chirp. + +His daughter suddenly sprang up with a pallid face and a pointing hand. + +"The winder!" she huskily cried--"suthin's at the winder!" + +But when they looked they saw only the dark square of tiny panes, +with the fireside scene genially reflected on it. And then she fell to +declaring that she had been dreaming, and besought them not to take +down their guns nor to search, and would not be still until they had +all seemed to concede the point; it was she who fastened the doors and +shutters, and she did not lie down to rest till they were all asleep and +hours had passed. None of them doubted that it was Absalom's face that +she had seen at the window, where the light had once lured him before, +and she knew that she had dreamed no dream like this. + +***** + +It soon became evident that whenever Joe Boyd was intrusted with a +message he would find means to deliver it. For upon him presently +devolved the difficult duties of ambassador. The first time that his +honest square face appeared at the rail fence, and the sound of his +voice roused Evelina as she stood feeding the poultry close by, she +returned his question with a counter-question hard to answer. + +"I hev been up the mounting," he said, smiling, as he hooked his arms +over the rail fence. "Abs'-lom he say he wanter know when ye'll git yer +visit out an' kem home." + +She leaned her elbow against the ash-hopper, balancing the wooden bowl +of corn-meal batter on its edge and trembling a little; the geese and +chickens and turkeys crowded, a noisy rout, about her feet. + +"Joe," she said, irrelevantly, "ye air one o' the few men on this yearth +ez ain't a liar." + +He stared at her gravely for a moment, then burst into a forced laugh. +"Ho! ho! I tell a bushel o' 'em a day, Eveliny!" He wagged his head in +an anxious affectation of mirth. + +[Illustration: Why'n't ye gin dad them messages 119] + +"Why'n't ye gin dad them messages ez Abs'lom gin ye from me?" + +Joe received this in blank amaze; then, with sudden comprehension, his +lower jaw dropped. He looked at her with a plea for pity in his eyes. +And yet his ready tact strove to reassert itself. + +"I mus' hev furgot 'em," he faltered. + +"Did Abs'lom ever gin 'em ter ye?" she persisted. + +"_Ef he did_, I mus' hev furgot 'em," he repeated, crestfallen and +hopeless. + +She laughed and turned jauntily away, once more throwing the corn-meal +batter to the greedily jostling poultry. "Tell Abs'lom I hev fund him +out," she said. "He can't sot me agin dad no sech way. This be my home, +an' hyar I be goin' ter 'bide." + +And so she left the good Joe Boyd hooked on by the elbows to the fence. + +The Quimbeys, who had heard this conversation from within, derived from +it no small elation. "She hev gin 'em the go-by fur good," Timothy said, +confidently, to his father, who laughed in triumph, and pulled calmly at +his pipe, and looked ten years younger. + +But Steve was surlily anxious. "I'd place heap mo' dependence in Eveliny +ef she didn't hev this hyar way o' cryin' all the time. She 'lows she's +glad she kem--_so glad_ she hev lef Abs'lom fur good an' all--an' then +she busts out a-cryin' agin. I ain't able ter argufy on sech." + +"Shucks! wimmen air always a-cryin', an' they don't mean _nuthin'_ by +it," exclaimed the old man, in the plenitude of his wisdom. "It air jes' +one o' thar most contrarious ways. I hev seen 'em set down an' cry fur +joy an' pleasure." + +But Steve was doubtful. "It be a powerful low-sperited gift fur them ez +hev ter 'bide along of 'em. Eveliny never useter be tearful in nowise. +Now she cries a heap mo' 'n that thar shoat"--his lips curled in +contempt as he glanced toward the door, through which was visible a +small rotund figure in pink calico, seated upon the lowest log of the +wood-pile--"ez she fotched down hyar with her. _He_ never hev hed a +reg'lar blate but two or three times sence he hev been hyar, an' them +war when that thar old tur-rkey gobbler teetered up ter him an' tuk +his corn-dodger that he war a-eatin' on plumb out'n his hand. _He_ hed +suthin' to holler fur--hed los' his breakfus." + +"Don't he 'pear ter you-uns to be powerful peeg-eon-toed?" asked Tim, +anxiously, turning to his father. + +"The gawbbler?" faltered the amazed old man. + +"Naw; him, _him--Kittredge_," said Tim, jerking his big thumb in the +direction of the small boy. + +"Law-dy Gawd A'mighty! _naw! naw!_" The grandfather indignantly +repudiated the imputation of the infirmity. One would have imagined that +he would deem it meet that a Kittredge should be pigeon-toed. "It's jes +the way _all_ babies hev got a-walkin'; he ain't right handy yit with +his feet--jes a-beginnin' ter walk, an' sech. Peegeon-toed! I say it, ye +fool!" He cast a glance of contempt on his eldest-born, and arrogantly +puffed his pipe. + +Again Joe Boyd came, and yet again. He brought messages contrite and +promissory from Absalom; he brought commands stern and insistent. He +came into the house at last, and sat and talked at the fireside in +the presence of the men of the family, who bore themselves in a manner +calculated to impress the Kittredge emissary with their triumph and +contempt for his mission, although they studiously kept silence, leaving +it to Evelina to answer. + +At last the old man, leaning forward, tapped Joe on the knee. "See hyar, +Joe. Ye hev always been a good frien' o' mine. This hyar man he stole +my darter from me, an' whenst she wanted ter be frien's, an' not let her +old dad die unforgiving he wouldn't let her send the word ter me. An' +then he sot himself ter spite an' hector me, an' fairly run me out'n the +town, an' harried me out'n my office; an' when she fund out--she wouldn't +take my word fur it--the deceivin' natur' o' the Kittredge tribe, she +hed hed enough o' 'em. I hev let ye argufy 'bout'n it; ye hev hed yer +fill of words. An' now I be tired out. Ye ain't 'lowin' she'll ever go +back ter her husband, air ye?" + +Joe dolorously shook his head. + +"Waal, ef ever ye kem hyar talkin' 'bout'n it agin, I'll be 'bleeged ter +take down my rifle ter ye." + +Joe gazed, unmoved, into the fire. + +"An' that would be mighty hard on me, Joe, 'kase ye be so pop'lar +'mongst all, I dunno _what_ the kentry-side would do ter me ef I war ter +put a bullet inter ye. Ye air a young man, Joe. Ye oughter spare a old +man sech a danger ez that." + +And so it happened that Joe Boyd's offices as mediator ceased. + +A week went by in silence and without result. + +Evelina's tears seemed to keep count of the minutes. The brothers +indignantly noted it, and even the old man was roused from the placid +securities of his theories concerning lachrymose womankind, and +remonstrated sometimes, and sometimes grew angry and exhorted her to +go back. What did it matter to her how her father was treated? He was a +cumberer of the ground, and many people besides her husband had thought +he had no right to sit in a justice's chair. And then she would burst +into tears once more, and declare again that she would never go back. + +The only thoroughly cheerful soul about the place was the intruding +Kittredge. He sat continuously--for the weather was fine--on the lowest +log of the wood-pile, and swung his bare pink feet among the chips and +bark, and seemed to have given up all ambition to walk. Occasionally red +and yellow leaves whisked past his astonished eyes, although these were +few now, for November was on the wane. He babbled to the chickens, who +pecked about him with as much indifference as if he were made of wood. +His two teeth came glittering out whenever the rooster crowed, and his +gleeful laugh--he rejoiced so in this handsomely endowed bird--could +be heard to the barn. The dogs seemed never to have known that he was +a Kittredge, and wagged their tails at the very sound of his voice, +and seized surreptitious opportunities to lick his face. Of all his +underfoot world only the gobbler awed him into gravity and silence; he +would gaze in dismay as the marauding fowl irresolutely approached from +around the wood pile, with long neck out-stretched and undulating gait, +applying first one eye and then the other to the pink hands, for the +gobbler seemed to consider them a perpetual repository of corn-dodgers, +which indeed they were. Then the head and the wabbling red wattles would +dart forth with a sudden peck, and the shriek that ensued proved that +nothing could be much amiss with the Kittredge lungs. + +One fine day he sat thus in the red November sunset. The sky, seen +through the interlacing black boughs above his head, was all amber and +crimson, save for a wide space of pure and pallid green, against which +the purplish-garnet wintry mountains darkly gloomed. Beyond the +rail fence the avenues of the bare woods were carpeted with the +sere yellowish leaves that gave back the sunlight with a responsive +illuminating effect, and thus the sylvan visitas glowed. The long +slanting beams elongated his squatty little shadow till it was hardly +a caricature. He heard the cow lowing as she came to be milked, fording +the river where the clouds were so splendidly reflected. The chickens +were going to roost. The odor of the wood, the newly-hewn chips, +imparted a fresh and fragrant aroma to the air. He had found among +them a sweet-gum ball and a pine cone, and was applying them to the +invariable test of taste. Suddenly he dropped them with a nervous +start, his lips trembled, his lower jaw fell, he was aware of a stealthy +approach. Something was creeping behind the wood-pile. He hardly had +time to bethink himself of his enemy the gobbler when he was clutched +under the arm, swung through the air with a swiftness that caused +the scream to evaporate in his throat, and the next moment he looked +quakingly up into his father's face with unrecognizing eyes; for he had +forgotten Absalom in these few weeks. He squirmed and wriggled as he was +held on the pommel of the saddle, winking and catching his breath and +spluttering, as preliminary proceedings to an outcry. There was a sudden +sound of heavily shod feet running across the puncheon floor within, a +wild, incoherent exclamation smote the air, an interval of significant +silence ensued. + +"Get up!" cried Absalom, not waiting for Tim's rifle, but spurring the +young horse, and putting him at the fence. The animal rose with the +elasticity and lightness of an uprearing ocean wave. The baby once more +twisted his soft neck, and looked anxiously into the rider's face. +This was not the gobbler. The gobbler did not ride horseback. Then +the affinity of the male infant for the noble equine animal suddenly +overbore all else. In elation he smote with his soft pink hand the +glossy arched neck before him. "Dul-lup!" he arrogantly echoed Absalom's +words. And thus father and son at a single bound disappeared into woods, +and so out of sight. + +***** + +The savage Tim was leaning upon his rifle in the doorway, his eyes +dilated, his breath short, his whole frame trembling with excitement, as +the other men, alarmed by Evelina's screams, rushed down from the barn. + +"What ails ye, Tim? Why'n't ye fire?" demanded his father. + +Tim turned an agitated, baffled look upon him. "I--I mought hev hit the +baby," he faltered. + +"Hain't ye got no aim, ye durned sinner?" asked Stephen, furiously. + +"Bullet mought hev gone through him and struck inter the baby," +expostulated Tim. + +"An' then agin it moughtn't!" cried Stephen. "Lawd, ef _I_ hed hed the +chance!" + +"Ye wouldn't hev done no differ," declared Tim. + +"Hyar!" Steve caught his brother's gun and presented it to Tim's lips. +"Suck the bar'l. It's 'bout all ye air good fur." + +The horses had been turned out. By the time they were caught and saddled +pursuit was evidently hopeless. The men strode in one by one, dashing +the saddles and bridles on the floor, and finding in angry expletives a +vent for their grief. And indeed it might have seemed that the Quimbeys +must have long sought a choice Kittredge infant for adoption, so far did +their bewailings discount Rachel's mourning. + +"Don't cry, Eveliny," they said, ever and anon. "We-uns 'll git him back +fur ye." + +But she had not shed a tear. She sat speechless, motionless, as if +turned to stone. + +"Laws-a-massy, child, ef ye would jes hev b'lieved _me_ 'bout'n them +Kittredges--Abs'lom in partic'lar--ye'd be happy an' free now," said the +old man, his imagination somewhat extending his experience, for he had +had no knowledge of his son-in-law until their relationship began. + +The evening wore drearily on. Now and then the men roused themselves, +and with lowering faces discussed the opportunities of reprisal, and the +best means of rescuing the child. And whether they schemed to burn the +Kittredge cabin, or to arm themselves, burst in upon their enemies, +shooting and killing all who resisted, Evelina said nothing, but stared +into the fire with unnaturally dilated eyes, her white lined face all +drawn and somehow unrecognizable. + +"Never mind," her father said at intervals, taking her cold hand, +"we-uns 'll git him back, Eveliny. The Lord hed a mother wunst, an' I'll +be bound He keeps a special pity for a woman an' her child." + +"Oh, great gosh! who'd hev dreamt we'd hev missed him so!" cried Tim, +shifting his position, and slipping his left arm over the back of his +chair. "Jes ter think o' the leetle size o' him, an' the great big gap +he hev lef roun' this hyar ha'th-stone!" + +"An' yit he jes sot underfoot, 'mongst the cat an' the dogs, jes ez +humble!" said Stephen. + +"I'd git him back even ef he warn't no kin ter me, Eveliny," declared +Tim, and he spoke advisedly, remembering that the youth was a Kittredge. + +Still Evelina said not a word. All that night she silently walked the +puncheon floor, while the rest of the household slept. The dogs, in +vague disturbance, because of the unprecedented vigil and stir in the +midnight, wheezed uneasily from time to time, and crept restlessly about +under the cabin, now and again thumping their backs or heads against the +floor; but at last they betook themselves to slumber. The hickory logs +broke in twain as they burned, and fell on either side, and presently +there was only the dull red glow of the embers on her pale face, and the +room was full of brown shadows, motionless, now that the flames flared +no more. Once when the red glow, growing ever dimmer, seemed almost +submerged beneath the gray ashes, she paused and stirred the coals. The +renewed glimmer showed a fixed expression in her eyes, becoming momently +more resolute. At intervals she knelt at the window and placed her hands +about her face to shut out the light from the hearth, and looked out +upon the night. How the chill stars loitered! How the dawn delayed! The +great mountain gloomed darkling above the Cove. The waning moon, all +melancholy and mystic, swung in the purple sky. The bare, stark boughs +of the trees gave out here and there a glimmer of hoar-frost. There was +no wind; when she heard the dry leaves whisk she caught a sudden glimpse +of a fox that, with his crafty shadow pursuing him, leaped upon the +wood-pile, nimbly ran along its length, and so, noiselessly, away--while +the dogs snored beneath the house. A cock crew from the chicken-roost; +the mountain echoed the resonant strain. She saw a mist come stealing +softly along a precipitous gorge; the gauzy web hung shimmering in the +moon; presently the trees were invisible; anon they showed rigid among +the soft enmeshment of the vapor, and again were lost to view.. + +She rose; there was a new energy in her step; she walked quickly across +the floor and unbarred the door. + +The little cabin on the mountain was lost among the clouds. It was +not yet day, but the old woman, with that proclivity to early rising +characteristic of advancing years, was already astir. It was in the +principal room of the cabin that she slept, and it contained another +bed, in which, placed crosswise, were five billet-shaped objects under +the quilts, which when awake identified themselves as Peter Kittredge's +children. She had dressed and uncovered the embers, and put on a few of +the chips which had been spread out on the hearth to dry, and had sat +down in the chimney corner. A timid blaze began to steal up, and again +was quenched, and only the smoke ascended in its form; then the +light flickered out once more, casting a gigantic shadow of her +sun-bonnet--for she had donned it thus early--half upon the brown and +yellow daubed wall, and half upon the dark ceiling, making a specious +stir amidst the peltry and strings of pop-corn hanging motionless +thence. + +She sighed heavily once or twice, and with an aged manner, and leaned +her elbows on her knees and gazed contemplatively at the fire. All at +once the ashes were whisked about the hearth as in a sudden draught, +and then were still. In momentary surprise she pushed her chair back, +hesitated, then replaced it, and calmly settled again her elbows on her +knees. Suddenly once more a whisking of the ashes; a cold shiver ran +through her, and she turned to see a hand fumbling at the batten shutter +close by. She stared for a moment as if paralyzed; her spectacles fell +to the floor from her nerveless hand, shattering the lenses on the +hearth. She rose trembling to her feet, and her lips parted as if to cry +out. They emitted no sound, and she turned with a terrified fascination +and looked back. The shutter had opened; there was no glass; the small +square of the window showed the nebulous gray mist without, and defined +upon it was Evelina's head, her dark hair streaming over the red shawl +held about it, her fair oval face pallid and pensive, and with a great +wistfulness upon it; her lustrous dark eyes glittered. + +"Mother," her red lips quivered out. + +The old crone recognized no treachery in her heart. She laid a warning +finger upon her lips. All the men were asleep. + +Evelina stretched out her yearning arms. "Gin him ter me!" + +"Naw, naw, Eveliny," huskily whispered Absalom's mother. "Ye oughter kem +hyar an' 'bide with yer husband--ye know ye ought." + +Evelina still held out her insistent arms. "Gin him ter me!" she +pleaded. + +The old woman shook her head sternly. "Ye kem in, an' 'bide whar ye +b'long." + +Evelina took a step nearer the window. She laid her hand on the sill. +"Spos'n 'twar Abs'lom whenst he war a baby," she said, her eyes softly +brightening, "an' another woman hed him an' kep' him, 'kase ye an' his +dad fell out--would ye hev 'lowed she war right ter treat ye like ye +treat me--whenst Abs'lom war a baby?" + +Once more she held out her arms. + +There was a step in the inner shed-room; then silence. + +"Ye hain't got no excuse," the soft voice urged; "ye know jes how I +feel, how ye'd hev felt, whenst Abs'lom war a baby." + +The shawl had fallen back from her tender face; her eyes glowed, her +cheek was softly flushed. A sudden terror thrilled through her as she +again heard the heavy step approaching in the shed-room. "Whenst Abs'lom +war a baby," she reiterated, her whole pleading heart in the tones. + +A sudden radiance seemed to illumine the sad, dun-colored folds of the +encompassing cloud; her face shone with a transfiguring happiness, for +the hustling old crone had handed out to her a warm, somnolent bundle, +and the shutter closed upon the mists with a bang. + +"The wind's riz powerful suddint," Peter said, noticing the noise as he +came stumbling in, rubbing his eyes. He went and fastened the shutter, +while his mother tremulously mended the fire. + +The absence of the baby was not noticed for some time, and when the +father's hasty and angry questions elicited the reluctant facts, the +outcry for his loss was hardly less bitter among the Kittredges than +among the Quimbeys. The fugitives were shielded from capture by the +enveloping mist, and when Absalom returned from the search he could do +naught but indignantly upbraid his mother. + +[Illustration: Flung her apron over her head 133] + +She was terrified by her own deed, and cowered under Absalom's wrath. It +was in a moral collapse, she felt, that she could have done this +thing. She flung her apron over her head, and sat still and silent--a +monumental figure--among them. Once, roused by Absalom's reproaches, she +made some effort to defend and exculpate herself, speaking from behind +the enveloping apron. + +"I ain't born no Kittredge nohow," she irrelevantly asseverated, "an' +I never war. An' when Eveliny axed me how I'd hev liked ter hev another +'oman take Abs'lom whenst he war a baby, I couldn't hold out no longer." + +"Shucks!" cried Absalom, unfilially; "ye'd aheap better be a-studyin' +'bout'n my good now 'n whenst I war a baby--a-givin' away _my_ child ter +them Quimbeys; a-h'istin' him out'n the winder!" + +She was glad to retort that he was "impident," and to take refuge in an +aggrieved silence, as many another mother has done when outmatched by +logic. + +After this there was more cheerfulness in her hidden face than might +have been argued from her port of important sorrow. "Bes' ter hev +no jawin', though," she said to herself, as she sat thus inscrutably +veiled. And deep in her repentant heart she was contradictorily glad +that Evelina and the baby were safe together down in the Cove. + +***** + +Old Joel Quimbey, putting on his spectacles, with a look of keenest +curiosity, to read a paper which the deputy-sheriff of the county +presented when he drew rein by the wood-pile one afternoon some three +weeks later, had some difficulty in identifying a certain Elnathan +Daniel Kittredge specified therein. He took off his spectacles, rubbed +them smartly, and put them on again. The writing was unchanged. Surely +it must mean the baby. That was the only Kittredge whose body they could +be summoned to produce on the 24th of December before the judge of the +circuit court, now in session. He turned the paper about and looked at +it, his natural interest as a man augmented by his recognition as an +ex-magistrate of its high important legal character. + +"Eveliny," he quavered, at once flattered and furious, "dad-burned ef +Abs'lom hain't gone an' got out a _habeas corpus_ fur the baby!" + +The phrase had a sound so deadly that there was much ado to +satisfactorily explain the writ and its functions to Evelina, who +had felt at ease again since the baby was at home, and so effectually +guarded that to kidnap him was necessarily to murder two or three of the +vigilant and stalwart Quimbey men. So much joy did it afford the old +man to air his learning and consult his code--a relic of his +justiceship--that he belittled the danger of losing the said Elnathan +Daniel Kittredge in the interest with which he looked forward to the day +for him to be produced before the court. + +There was a gathering of the clans on that day. Quimbeys and Kittredges +who had not visited the town for twenty years were jogging thither +betimes that morning on the red clay roads, all unimpeded by the deep +mud which, frozen into stiff ruts and ridges here and there, made the +way hazardous to the running-gear. The lagging winter had come, and the +ground was half covered with a light fall of snow. + +The windows of the court-house were white with frost; the weighted doors +clanged continuously. An old codger, slowly ascending the steps, and +pushing into the semi-obscurity of the hall, paused as the door slammed +behind him, stared at the sheriff in surprise, then fixed him with a +bantering leer. The light that slanted through the open court-room +door fell upon the official's burly figure, his long red beard, his big +broad-brimmed hat pushed back from his laughing red face, consciously +ludicrous and abashed just now. + +"Hev ye made a find?" demanded the newcomer. + +For in the strong arms of the law sat, bolt-upright, Elnathan Daniel +Kittredge, his yellow head actively turning about, his face decorated +with a grin, and on most congenial terms with the sheriff. + +"They're lawin' 'bout'n him in thar "--the sheriff jerked his thumb +toward the door. "_Habeas corpus_ perceedin's. Dun no ez I ever see a +friskier leetle cuss. Durned ef I 'ain't got a good mind ter run off +with him myself." + +The said Elnathan Daniel Kittredge once more squirmed round and settled +himself comfortably in the hollow of the sheriff's elbow, who marvelled +to find himself so deft in holding him, for it was twenty years since +his son--a gawky youth who now affected the company at the saloon, and +was none too filial--was the age and about the build of this infant +Kittredge. + +"They hed a reg'lar scrimmage hyar in the hall--them fool men--Quimbey +an' Kittredge. Old man Quimbey said suthin' ter Abs'lom Kittredge--I +dunno what all. Abs'lom never jawed back none. He jes made a dart an' +snatched this hyar leetle critter out'n his mother's arms, stiddier +waitin' fur the law, what he summonsed himself. Blest ef I didn't hev +ter hold my revolver ter his head, an' then crack him over the knuckles, +ter make him let go the child. I didn't want ter arrest him--mighty +clever boy, Abs'lom Kittredge! I promised that young woman I'd keep holt +o' the child till the law gins its say-so. I feel sorry fur her; she's +been through a heap." + +"Waal, ye look mighty pritty, totin' him around hyar," his friend +encouraged him with a grin. "I'll say that fur ye--ye look mighty +pritty." + +And in fact the merriment in the hall at the sheriff's expense began +to grow so exhilarating as to make him feel that the proceedings within +were too interesting to lose. His broad red face with its big red beard +reappeared in the doorway--slightly embarrassed because of the sprightly +manners of his charge, who challenged to mirth every eye that glanced at +him by his toothful grin and his gurgles and bounces; he was evidently +enjoying the excitement and his conspicuous position. He manfully +gnawed at his corn-dodger from time to time, and from the manner in +which he fraternized with his new acquaintance, the sheriff, he seemed +old enough to dispense with maternal care, and, but for his incomplete +methods of locomotion, able to knock about town with the boys. The +Quimbeys took note of his mature demeanor with sinking hearts; they +looked anxiously at the judge, wondering if he had ever before seen +such precocity--anything so young to be so old: "He 'ain't never afore +'peared so survigrus--so _durned survigrus_ ez he do ter-day," they +whispered to each other. + +"Yes, sir," his father was saying, on examination, "year old. Eats +anything he kin git--cabbage an' fat meat an' anything. _Could_ walk if +he wanted ter. But he 'ain't been raised right"--he glanced at his wife +to observe the effect of this statement. He felt a pang as he noted her +pensive, downcast face, all tremulous and agitated, overwhelmed as she +was by the crowd and the infinite moment of the decision. But Absalom, +too, had his griefs, and they expressed themselves perversely. + +"He hev been pompered an' fattened by bein' let ter eat an' sleep so +much, till he be so heavy ter his self he don't wanter take the trouble +ter get about. He _could_ walk ennywhar. He's plumb survigrus." + +And as if in confirmation, the youthful Kittredge lifted his voice to +display his lung power. He hilariously babbled, and suddenly roared out +a stentorian whoop, elicited by nothing in particular, then caught the +sheriff's beard, and buried in it his conscious pink face. + +The judge looked gravely up over his spectacles. He had a bronzed +complexion, a serious, pondering expression, a bald head, and a gray +beard. He wore a black broadcloth suit, somewhat old-fashioned in cut, +and his black velvet waist-coat had suffered an eruption of tiny +red satin spots. He had great respect for judicial decorums, and no +Kittredge, however youthful, or survigrus, or exalted in importance +by _habeas corpus_ proceedings, could "holler" unmolested where he +presided. + +"Mr. Sheriff," he said, solemnly, "remove that child from the presence +of the court." + +And the said Elnathan Daniel Kittredge went out gleefully kicking in the +arms of the law. + +The hundred or so grinning faces in the courtroom relapsed quickly into +gravity and excited interest. The rows of jeans-clad countrymen seated +upon the long benches on either side of the bar leaned forward with +intent attitudes. For this was a rich feast of local gossip, such as +had not been so bountifully spread within their recollection. All the +ancient Quimbey and Kittredge feuds contrived to be detailed anew in +offering to the judge reasons why father or mother was the more fit +custodian of the child in litigation. + +As Absalom sat listening to all this, his eyes were suddenly arrested +by his wife's face--half draped it was, half shadowed by her sun-bonnet, +its fine and delicate profile distinctly outlined against the +crystalline and frosted pane of the window near which she sat. The snow +without threw a white reflection upon it; its rich coloring in contrast +was the more intense; it was very pensive, with the heavy lids drooping +over the lustrous eyes, and with a pathetic appeal in its expression. + +And suddenly his thoughts wandered far afield. He wondered that it had +come to this; that she could have misunderstood him so; that he had +thought her hard and perverse and unforgiving. His heart was all at once +melting within him; somehow he was reminded how slight a thing she was, +and how strong was the power that nerved her slender hand to drag his +heavy weight, in his dead and helpless unconsciousness, down to the bars +and into the safety of the sheltering laurel that night, when he lay +wounded and bleeding under the lighted window of the cabin in the Cove. +A deep tenderness, an irresistible yearning had come upon him; he was +about to rise, he was about to speak he knew not what, when suddenly +her face was irradiated as one who sees a blessed vision; a happy light +sprang into her eyes; her lips curved with a smile; the quick tears +dropped one by one on her hands, nervously clasping and unclasping +each other. He was bewildered for a moment. Then he heard Peter gruffly +growling a half-whispered curse, and the voice of the judge, in the +exercise of his discretion, methodically droning out his reasons for +leaving so young a child in the custody of its mother, disregarding the +paramount rights of the father. The judge concluded by dispassionately +recommending the young couple to betake themselves home, and to try +to live in peace together, or, at any rate, like sane people. Then he +thrust his spectacles up on his forehead, drew a long sigh of dismissal, +and said, with a freshened look of interest, "Mr. Clerk, call the next +case." + +The Quimbey and Kittredge factions poured into the hall; what cared +they for the disputed claims of Jenkins _versus_ Jones? The lovers +of sensation cherished a hope that there might be a lawless effort +to rescue the infant Kittredge from the custody to which he had been +committed by the court. The Quimbeys watchfully kept about him in +a close squad, his pink sun-bonnet, in which his head was eclipsed, +visible among their brawny jeans shoulders, as his mother carried him +in her arms. The sheriff looked smilingly after him from the court-house +steps, then inhaled a long breath, and began to roar out to the icy +air the name of a witness wanted within. Instead of a gate there was +a flight of steps on each side of the fence, surmounted by a small +platform. Evelina suddenly shrank back as she stood on the platform, for +beside the fence Absalom was waiting. Timothy hastily vaulted over the +fence, drew his "shooting-iron" from his boot-leg, and cocked it with +a metallic click, sharp and peremptory in the keen wintry air. For a +moment Absalom said not a word. He looked up at Evelina with as much +reproach as bitterness in his dark eyes. They were bright with the anger +that fired his blood; it was hot in his bronzed cheek; it quivered in +his hands. The dry and cold atmosphere amplified the graces of his long +curling yellow hair that she and his mother loved. His hat was pushed +back from his face. He had not spoken to her since the day of his +ill-starred confidence, but he would not be denied now. + +"Ye'll repent it," he said, threateningly. "I'll take special pains fur +that." + +She bestowed on him one defiant glance, and laughed--a bitter little +laugh. "Ye air ekal ter it; ye have a special gift fur makin' folks +repent they ever seen ye." + +"The jedge jes gin him ter ye 'kase ye made him out sech a fibble little +pusson," he sneered. "But it's jes fur a time." + +She held the baby closer. He busied himself in taking off his sun-bonnet +and putting it on hind part before, gurgling with smothered laughter +to find himself thus queerly masked, and he made futile efforts to play +"peep-eye" with anybody jovially disposed in the crowd. But they +were all gravely absorbed in the conjugal quarrel at which they were +privileged to assist. + +"It's jes fur a time," he reiterated. + +"Wait an' see!" she retorted, triumphantly. + +"I won't wait," he declared, goaded; "I'll take him yit; an' when I do +I'll clar out'n the State o' Tennessee--see ef I don't!" + +She turned white and trembled. "Ye dassent," she cried out shrilly. +"Ye'll be 'feared o' the law." + +"Wait an' see!" He mockingly echoed her words, and turned in his old +confident manner, and strode out of the crowd. + +Faint and trembling, she crept into the old canvas-covered wagon, and +as it jogged along down the road stiff with its frozen ruts and ever +nearing the mountains, she clasped the cheerful Kittredge with a +yearning sense of loss, and declared that the judge had made him no +safer than before. It was in vain that her father, speaking from +the legal lore of the code, detailed the contempt of court that the +Kittredges would commit should they undertake to interfere with the +judicial decision--it might be even considered kidnapping. + +"But what good would that do me--an' the baby whisked plumb out'n the +State? Ef Abs'lom ain't 'feared o' Tim's rifle, what's he goin' ter +keer fur the pore jedge with nare weepon but his leetle contempt o' +court--ter jail Abs'lom, ef he kin make out ter ketch him!" + +She leaned against the swaying hoop of the cover of the wagon and burst +into tears. "Oh, none o' ye 'll do nuthin' fur me!" she exclaimed, in +frantic reproach. "Nuthin'!" + +"Ye talk like 'twar we-uns ez made up sech foolishness ez _habeas +corpus_ out'n our own heads," said Timothy. "I 'ain't never looked ter +the law fur pertection. Hyar's the pertecter." He touched the trigger of +his rifle and glanced reassuringly at his sister as he sat beside her on +the plank laid as a seat from side to side of the wagon. + +She calmed herself for a moment; then suddenly looked aghast at the +rifle, and with some occult and hideous thought, burst anew into tears. + +"Waal, sir," exclaimed Stephen, outdone, "what with all this hyar daily +weepin' an' nightly mournin', I 'ain't got spunk enough lef ter stan' +up agin the leetlest Kittredge a-goin'. I ain't man enough ter sight a +rifle. Kittredges kin kem enny time an' take my hide, horns, an' tallow +ef they air minded so ter do." + +"I 'lowed I hearn suthin' a-gallopin' down the road," said Tim, +abruptly. + +Her tears suddenly ceased. She clutched the baby closer, and turned +and lifted the flap of the white curtain at the back of the wagon, +and looked out with a wild and terror-stricken eye. The red clay road +stretched curveless, a long way visible and vacant. The black bare trees +stood shivering in the chilly blast on either side; among them was an +occasional clump of funereal cedars. Away off the brown wooded hills +rose; snow lay in thin crust-like patches here and there, and again the +earth wore the pallid gray of the crab-grass or the ochreous red of the +gully-washed clay. + +"I don't see nuthin'," she said, in the bated voice of affrighted +suspense. + +While she still looked out flakes suddenly began to fly, hardly falling +at first, but poised tentatively, fluctuating athwart the scene, +presently thickening, quickening, obscuring it all, isolating the woods +with an added sense of solitude since the sight of the world and +the sound of it were so speedily annulled. Even the creak of the +wagon-wheels was muffled. Through the semicircular aperture in the front +of the wagon-cover the horns of the oxen were dimly seen amidst the +serried flakes; the snow whitened the backs of the beasts and added its +burden to their yoke. Once as they jogged on she fancied again that she +heard hoof-beats--this time a long way ahead, thundering over a little +bridge high above a swirling torrent, that reverberated with a hollow +tone to the faintest footfall. "Jes somebody ez hev passed we-uns, +takin' the short-cut by the bridle-path," she ruminated. No pursuer, +evidently. + +Everything was deeply submerged in the snow before they reached the dark +little cabin nestling in the Cove. Motionless and dreary it was; not +even a blue and gauzy wreath curled out of the chimney, for the fire had +died on the hearth in their absence. No living creature was to be seen. +The fowls were huddled together in the hen-house, and the dogs had +accompanied the family to town, trotting beneath the wagon with lolling +tongues and smoking breath; when they nimbly climbed the fence their +circular footprints were the first traces to mar the level expanse of +the door-yard. The bare limbs of the trees were laden; the cedars bore +great flower-like tufts amidst the interlacing fibrous foliage. The +eaves were heavily thatched; the drifts lay in the fence corners. + +Everything was covered except, indeed, one side of the fodder-stack that +stood close to the barn. Evelina, going out to milk the cow, gazed at it +for a moment in surprise. The snow had slipped down from it, and lay +in rolls and piles about the base, intermixed with the sere husks and +blades that seemed torn out of the great cone. "Waal, sir, Spot mus' hev +been hongry fur true, ter kem a-foragin' this wise. Looks ez ef she hev +been fairly a-burrowin." + +She turned and glanced over her shoulder at tracks in the +snow--shapeless holes, and filling fast--which she did not doubt were +the footprints of the big red cow, standing half in and half out of the +wide door, slowly chewing her cud, her breath visibly curling out on +the chill air, her great lips opening to emit a muttered low. She moved +forward suddenly into the shelter as Evelina started anew toward it, +holding the piggin in one hand and clasping the baby in the other arm. + +[Illustration: Stole noiselessly in the soft snow 145] + +Evelina noted the sound of her brothers' two axes, busy at the +wood-pile, their regular cleavage splitting the air with a sharp stroke +and bringing a crystalline shivering echo from the icy mountain. She did +not see the crouching figure that came cautiously burrowing out from +the stack. Absalom rose to his full height, looking keenly about him the +while, and stole noiselessly in the soft snow to the stable, and peered +in through a crevice in the wall. + +Evelina had placed the piggin upon the straw-covered ground, and stood +among the horned cattle and the huddling sheep, her soft melancholy face +half shaded by the red shawl thrown over her head and shoulders. A tress +of her brown hair escaped and curled about her white neck, and hung down +over the bosom of her dark-blue homespun dress. Against her shoulder the +dun-colored cow rubbed her horned head. The baby was in a pensive +mood, and scarcely babbled. The reflection of the snow was on his +face, heightening the exquisite purity of the tints of his infantile +complexion. His gentle, fawn-like eyes were full of soft and lustrous +languors. His long lashes drooped over them now, and again were lifted. +His short down of yellow hair glimmered golden against the red shawl +over his mother's shoulders. + +One of the beasts sank slowly upon the ground--a tired creature +doubtless, and night was at hand; then another, and still another. Their +posture reminded Absalom, as he looked, that this was Christmas Eve, +and of the old superstition that the cattle of the barns spend the night +upon their knees, in memory of the wondrous Presence that once graced +their lowly place. The boughs rattled suddenly in the chill blast above +his head; the drifts fell about him. He glanced up mechanically to see +in the zenith a star of gracious glister, tremulous and tender, in the +rifts of the breaking clouds. + +"I wonder ef it air the same star o' Bethlehem?" he said, thinking of +the great sidereal torch heralding the Light of the World. He had a +vague sense that this star has never set, however the wandering planets +may come and go in their wide journeys as the seasons roll. He looked +again into the glooming place, at the mother and her child, remembering +that the Lord of heaven and earth had once lain in a manger, and clung +to a humble earthly mother. + +The man shook with a sudden affright. He had intended to wrest the child +from her grasp, and mount and ride away; he was roused from his reverie +by the thrusting upon him of his opportunity, facilitated a hundredfold. +Evelina had evidently forgotten something. She hesitated for a moment; +then put the baby down upon a great pile of straw among the horned +creatures, and, catching her shawl about her head, ran swiftly to the +house. + +Absalom moved mechanically into the doorway. The child, still pensive +and silent, and looking tenderly infantile, lay upon the straw. A sudden +pang of pity for her pierced his heart: how her own would be desolated! +His horse, hitched in a clump of cedars, awaited him ten steps away. It +was his only chance--his last chance. And he had been hardly entreated. +The child's eyes rested, startled and dilated, upon him; he must be +quick. + +The next instant he turned suddenly, ran hastily through the snow, +crashed among the cedars, mounted his horse, and galloped away. + +It was only a moment that Evelina expected to be at the house, but the +gourd of salt which she sought was not in its place. She hurried out +with it at last, unprescient of any danger until all at once she saw the +footprints of a man in the snow, otherwise untrodden, about the +fodder-stack. She still heard the two axes at the wood-pile. Her father, +she knew, was at the house. + +A smothered scream escaped her lips. The steps had evidently gone +into the stable, and had come out thence. Her faltering strength could +scarcely support her to the door. And then she saw lying in the straw +Elnathan Daniel, beginning to babble and gurgle again, and to grow +very pink with joy over a new toy--a man's glove, a red woollen glove, +accidentally dropped in the straw. She caught it from his hands, and +turned it about curiously. She had knit it herself--for Absalom! + +When she came into the house, beaming with joy, the baby holding the +glove in his hands, the men listened to her in dumfounded amaze, and +with significant side glances at each other. + +"He wouldn't take the baby whenst he hed the chance, 'kase he knowed +'twould hurt me so. An' he never wanted ter torment me--I reckon he +never _did_ mean ter torment me. An' he did 'low wunst he war sorry he +spited dad. Oh! I hev been a heap too quick an' spiteful myself. I hev +been so terrible wrong! Look a-hyar; he lef' this glove ter show me he +hed been hyar, an' could hev tuk the baby ef he hed hed the heart ter do +it. Oh! I'm goin' right up the mounting an' tell him how sorry I be." + +"Toler'ble cheap!" grumbled Stephen--"one old glove. An' he'll git +Elnathan Daniel an' ye too. A smart fox he be." + +They could not dissuade her. And after a time it came to pass that the +Quimbey and Kittredge feuds were healed; for how could the heart of a +grandfather withstand a toddling spectacle in pink calico that ran away +one day some two years later, in company with an adventurous dog, and +came down the mountain to the cabin in the Cove, squeezing through the +fence rails after the manner of his underfoot world, proceeding thence +to the house, where he made himself very merry and very welcome? + +[Illustration: Old Quimbey and his grandson 151] + +And when Tim mounted his horse and rode up the mountain with the +youngster on the pommel of the saddle, lest Evelina should be out of +her mind with fright because of his absence, how should he and old Mrs. +Kittredge differ in their respective opinions of his vigorous growth, +and grace of countenance, and peartness of manner? On the strength of +this concurrence Tim was induced to "'light an' hitch," and he even sat +on the cabin porch and talked over the crops with Absalom, who, the next +time he went to town, stopped at the cabin in the Cove to bring word how +El-nathan Daniel was "thrivin'." The path that Evelina had worn to +the crag in those first homesick days on the mountain rapidly extended +itself into the Cove, and widened and grew smooth, as the grandfather +went up and the grandson came down. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of His "Day In Court", by +Charles Egbert Craddock (AKA Mary Noailles Murfree) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HIS "DAY IN COURT" *** + +***** This file should be named 23633.txt or 23633.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/3/23633/ + +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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