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@@ -0,0 +1,1618 @@ +Project Gutenberg's 'Hell fer Sartain' and Other Stories, by John Fox, Jr. + +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: 'Hell fer Sartain' and Other Stories + +Author: John Fox, Jr. + +Posting Date: July 20, 2008 [EBook #410] +Release Date: January, 1996 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'HELL FER SARTAIN' *** + + + + +Produced by Charles Keller. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + +'Hell fer Sartain' + +and + +Other Stories + + +by + +JOHN FOX, JR. + + + + + TO + MY BROTHER + JAMES + + +AUTHOR'S NOTE + + + + +CONTENTS + + + ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK + THROUGH THE GAP + A TRICK O' TRADE + GRAYSON'S BABY + COURTIN' ON CUTSHIN + THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND + THE SENATOR'S LAST TRADE + PREACHIN' ON KINGDOM-COME + THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS + A PURPLE RHODODENDRON + + + + +ON HELL-FER-SARTAIN CREEK + + +Thar was a dancin'-party Christmas night on "Hell fer Sartain." Jes +tu'n up the fust crick beyond the bend thar, an' climb onto a stump, +an' holler about ONCE, an' you'll see how the name come. Stranger, +hit's HELL fer sartain! Well, Rich Harp was thar from the head-waters, +an' Harve Hall toted Nance Osborn clean across the Cumberlan'. Fust +one ud swing Nance, an' then t'other. Then they'd take a pull out'n +the same bottle o' moonshine, an'--fust one an' then t'other--they'd +swing her agin. An' Abe Shivers a-settin' thar by the fire a-bitin' +his thumbs! + +Well, things was sorter whoopin', when somebody ups an' tells Harve +that Rich had said somep'n' agin Nance an' him, an' somebody ups an' +tells Rich that Harve had said somep'n' agin Nance an' HIM. In a +minute, stranger, hit was like two wild-cats in thar. Folks got 'em +parted, though, but thar was no more a-swingin' of Nance that night. +Harve toted her back over the Cumberlan', an' Rich's kinsfolks tuk him +up "Hell fer Sartain"; but Rich got loose, an' lit out lickety-split +fer Nance Osborn's. He knowed Harve lived too fer over Black Mountain +to go home that night, an' he rid right across the river an' up to +Nance's house, an' hollered fer Harve. Harve poked his head out'n the +loft--he knowed whut was wanted--an' Harve says, "Uh, come in hyeh an' +go to bed. Hit's too late!" An' Rich seed him a-gapin' like a chicken, +an' in he walked, stumblin' might' nigh agin the bed whar Nance was +a-layin', listenin' an' not sayin' a word. + +Stranger, them two fellers slept together plum frien'ly, an' they et +together plum frien'ly next mornin', an' they sa'ntered down to the +grocery plum frien'ly. An' Rich says, "Harve," says he, "let's have a +drink." "All right, Rich," says Harve. An' Rich says, "Harve," says +he, "you go out'n that door an' I'll go out'n this door." "All right, +Rich," says Harve, an' out they walked, steady, an' thar was two shoots +shot, an' Rich an' Harve both drapped, an' in ten minutes they was +stretched out on Nance's bed an' Nance was a-lopin' away fer the yarb +doctor. + +The gal nussed 'em both plum faithful. Rich didn't hev much to say, +an' Harve didn't hev much to say. Nance was sorter quiet, an' Nance's +mammy, ole Nance, jes grinned. Folks come in to ax atter 'em right +peart. Abe Shivers come cl'ar 'cross the river--powerful frien'ly--an' +ever' time Nance ud walk out to the fence with him. One time she +didn't come back, an' ole Nance fotched the boys thar dinner, an' ole +Nance fotched thar supper, an' then Rich he axed whut was the matter +with young Nance. An' ole Nance jes snorted. Atter a while Rich says: +"Harve," says he, "who tol' you that I said that word agin you an' +Nance?" "Abe Shivers," says Harve. "An' who tol' you," says Harve, +"that I said that word agin Nance an' YOU?" "Abe Shivers," says Rich. +An' both says, "Well, damn me!" An' Rich tu'ned right over an' begun +pullin' straws out'n the bed. He got two out, an' he bit one off, an' +he says: "Harve," says he, "I reckon we better draw fer him. The +shortes' gits him." An' they drawed. Well, nobody ever knowed which +got the shortes' straw, stranger, but-- + +Thar'll be a dancin'-party comin' Christmas night on "Hell fer +Sartain." Rich Harp 'll be thar from the head-waters. Harve Hall's +a-goin' to tote the Widder Shivers clean across the Cumberlan'. Fust +one 'll swing Nance, an' then t'other. Then they'll take a pull out'n +the same bottle o' moonshine, an'--fust one an' then t'other--they'll +swing her agin, jes the same. ABE won't be thar. He's a-settin' by a +bigger fire, I reckon (ef he ain't in it), a-bitin' his thumbs! + + + + +THROUGH THE GAP + + +When thistles go adrift, the sun sets down the valley between the +hills; when snow comes, it goes down behind the Cumberland and streams +through a great fissure that people call the Gap. Then the last light +drenches the parson's cottage under Imboden Hill, and leaves an +after-glow of glory on a majestic heap that lies against the east. +Sometimes it spans the Gap with a rainbow. + +Strange people and strange tales come through this Gap from the +Kentucky hills. Through it came these two, late one day--a man and a +woman--afoot. I met them at the foot-bridge over Roaring Fork. + +"Is thar a preacher anywhar aroun' hyeh?" he asked. I pointed to the +cottage under Imboden Hill. The girl flushed slightly and turned her +head away with a rather unhappy smile. Without a word, the mountaineer +led the way towards town. A moment more and a half-breed Malungian +passed me on the bridge and followed them. + +At dusk the next day I saw the mountaineer chopping wood at a shanty +under a clump of rhododendron on the river-bank. The girl was cooking +supper inside. The day following he was at work on the railroad, and +on Sunday, after church, I saw the parson. The two had not been to +him. Only that afternoon the mountaineer was on the bridge with +another woman, hideously rouged and with scarlet ribbons fluttering +from her bonnet. Passing on by the shanty, I saw the Malungian talking +to the girl. She apparently paid no heed to him until, just as he was +moving away, he said something mockingly, and with a nod of his head +back towards the bridge. She did not look up even then, but her face +got hard and white, and, looking back from the road, I saw her slipping +through the bushes into the dry bed of the creek, to make sure that +what the half-breed told her was true. + +The two men were working side by side on the railroad when I saw them +again, but on the first pay-day the doctor was called to attend the +Malungian, whose head was split open with a shovel. I was one of two +who went out to arrest his assailant, and I had no need to ask who he +was. The mountaineer was a devil, the foreman said, and I had to club +him with a pistol-butt before he would give in. He said he would get +even with me; but they all say that, and I paid no attention to the +threat. For a week he was kept in the calaboose, and when I passed the +shanty just after he was sent to the county-seat for trial, I found it +empty. The Malungian, too, was gone. Within a fortnight the +mountaineer was in the door of the shanty again. Having no accuser, he +had been discharged. He went back to his work, and if he opened his +lips I never knew. Every day I saw him at work, and he never failed to +give me a surly look. Every dusk I saw him in his door-way, waiting, +and I could guess for what. It was easy to believe that the stern +purpose in his face would make its way through space and draw her to +him again. And she did come back one day. I had just limped down the +mountain with a sprained ankle. A crowd of women was gathered at the +edge of the woods, looking with all their eyes to the shanty on the +river-bank. The girl stood in the door-way. The mountaineer was +coming back from work with his face down. + +"He hain't seed her yit," said one. "He's goin' to kill her shore. I +tol' her he would. She said she reckoned he would, but she didn't +keer." + +For a moment I was paralyzed by the tragedy at hand. She was in the +door looking at him when he raised his head. For one moment he stood +still, staring, and then he started towards her with a quickened step. +I started too, then, every step a torture, and as I limped ahead she +made a gesture of terror and backed into the room before him. The door +closed, and I listened for a pistol-shot and a scream. It must have +been done with a knife, I thought, and quietly, for when I was within +ten paces of the cabin he opened the door again. His face was very +white; he held one hand behind him, and he was nervously fumbling at +his chill with the other. As he stepped towards me I caught the handle +of a pistol in my side pocket and waited. He looked at me sharply. + +"Did you say the preacher lived up thar?" he asked. + +"Yes," I said, breathlessly. + +In the door-way just then stood the girl with a bonnet in her hand, and +at a nod from him they started up the hill towards the cottage. They +came down again after a while, he stalking ahead, and she, after the +mountain fashion, behind. And after this fashion I saw them at sunset +next day pass over the bridge and into the mouth of the Gap whence they +came. Through this Gap come strange people and strange tales from the +Kentucky hills. Over it, sometimes, is the span of a rainbow. + + + + +A TRICK O' TRADE + + +Stranger, I'm a separATE man, an' I don't inQUIZite into no man's +business; but you ax me straight, an' I tell ye straight: You watch +ole Tom! + +Now, I'll take ole Tom Perkins' word agin anybody's 'ceptin' when hit +comes to a hoss trade ur a piece o' land. Fer in the tricks o' sech, +ole Tom 'lows--well, hit's diff'ent; an' I reckon, stranger, as how hit +sorter is. He was a-stayin' at Tom's house, the furriner was, +a-dickerin' fer a piece o' lan'--the same piece, mebbe, that you're +atter now--an' Tom keeps him thar fer a week to beat him out'n a +dollar, an' then won't let him pay nary a cent fer his boa'd. Now, +stranger, that's Tom. + +Well, Abe Shivers was a-workin' fer Tom--you've heerd tell o' Abe--an' +the furriner wasn't more'n half gone afore Tom seed that Abe was up to +some of his devilMINT. Abe kin hatch up more devilMINT in a minit than +Satan hisself kin in a week; so Tom jes got Abe out'n the stable under +a hoe-handle, an' tol' him to tell the whole thing straight ur he'd +have to go to glory right thar. An' Abe tol'! + +'Pears like Abe had foun' a streak o' iron ore on the lan', an' had +racked his jinny right down to Hazlan an' tol' the furriner, who was +thar a-buyin' wild lands right an' left. Co'se, Abe was goin' to make +the furriner whack up fer gittin' the lan' so cheap. Well, brother, +the furriner come up to Tom's an' got Tom into one o' them new-fangled +trades whut the furriners calls a option--t'other feller kin git out'n +hit, but you can't. The furriner 'lowed he'd send his podner up thar +next day to put the thing in writin' an' close up the trade. Hit +looked like ole Tom was ketched fer shore, an' ef Tom didn't ra'r, I'd +tell a man. He jes let that hoe-handle drap on Abe fer 'bout haffen +hour, jes to give him time to study, an' next day thar was ole Tom +a-settin' on his orchard fence a-lookin' mighty unknowin', when the +furriner's podner come a-prancin' up an' axed ef old Tom Perkins lived +thar. + +Ole Tom jes whispers. + +Now, I clean fergot to tell ye, stranger, that Abe Shivers nuver could +talk out loud. He tol' so many lies that the Lawd--jes to make things +even--sorter fixed Abe, I reckon, so he couldn't lie on more'n one side +o' the river at a time. Ole Tom jes knowed t'other furriner had tol' +this un 'bout Abe, an,' shore 'nough, the feller says, sorter soft, +says he: + +"Aw, you air the feller whut foun' the ore?" + +Ole Tom--makin' like he was Abe, mind ye--jes whispers: "Thar hain't +none thar." + +Stranger, the feller mos' fell off'n his hoss. "Whut?" says he. Ole +Tom kep' a-whisperin': "Thar hain't no coal--no nothing; ole Tom +Perkins made me tell t'other furriner them lies." + +Well, sir, the feller WAS mad. "Jes whut I tol' that fool podner of +mine," he says, an' he pull out a dollar an' gives hit to Tom. Tom jes +sticks out his han' with his thum' turned in jes so, an' the furriner +says, "Well, ef you can't talk, you kin make purty damn good signs"; +but he forks over four mo' dollars (he 'lowed ole Tom had saved him a +pile o' money), an' turns his hoss an' pulls up agin. He was a-gittin' +the land so durned cheap that I reckon he jes hated to let hit go, an' +he says, says he: "Well, hain't the groun' rich? Won't hit raise no +tabaccy nur corn nur nothin'?" + +Ole Tom jes whispers: + +"To tell you the p'int-blank truth, stranger, that land's so durned +pore that I hain't nuver been able to raise my voice." + +Now, brother, I'm a separATE man, an' I don't inQUIZite into no man's +business--but you ax me straight an' I tell ye straight. Ole Tom +Perkins kin trade with furriners, fer he have l'arned their ways. You +watch ole Tom! + + + + +GRAYSON'S BABY + + +The first snow sifted in through the Gap that night, and in a "shack" +of one room and a low loft a man was dead, a woman was sick to death, +and four children were barely alive; and nobody even knew. For they +were hill people, who sicken, suffer, and sometimes die, like animals, +and make no noise. + +Grayson, the Virginian, coming down from the woods that morning, saw +the big-hearted little doctor outside the door of the shack, walking up +and down, with his hands in his pockets. He was whistling softly when +Grayson got near, and, without stopping, pointed with his thumb within. +The oldest boy sat stolidly on the one chair in the room, his little +brother was on the floor hard by, and both were hugging a greasy stove. +The little girl was with her mother in the bed, both almost out of +sight under a heap of quilts. The baby was in a cradle, with its face +uncovered, whether dead or asleep Grayson could not tell. A pine +coffin was behind the door. It would not have been possible to add to +the disorder of the room, and the atmosphere made Grayson gasp. He +came out looking white. The first man to arrive thereafter took away +the eldest boy, a woman picked the baby girl from the bed, and a +childless young couple took up the pallid little fellow on the floor. +These were step-children. The baby boy that was left was the woman's +own. Nobody came for that, and Grayson went in again and looked at it +a long while. So little, so old a human face he had never seen. The +brow was wrinkled as with centuries of pain, and the little drawn mouth +looked as though the spirit within had fought its inheritance without a +murmur, and would fight on that way to the end. It was the pluck of +the face that drew Grayson. "I'll take it," he said. The doctor was +not without his sense of humor even then, but he nodded. "Cradle and +all," he said, gravely. And Grayson put both on one shoulder and +walked away. He had lost the power of giving further surprise in that +town, and had he met every man he knew, not one of them would have felt +at liberty to ask him what he was doing. An hour later the doctor +found the child in Grayson's room, and Grayson still looking at it. + +"Is it going to live, doctor?" + +The doctor shook his head. "Doubtful. Look at the color. It's +starved. There's nothing to do but to watch it and feed it. You can +do that." + +So Grayson watched it, with a fascination of which he was hardly +conscious. Never for one instant did its look change--the quiet, +unyielding endurance that no faith and no philosophy could ever bring +to him. It was ideal courage, that look, to accept the inevitable but +to fight it just that way. Half the little mountain town was talking +next day--that such a tragedy was possible by the public road-side, +with relief within sound of the baby's cry. The oldest boy was least +starved. Might made right in an extremity like his, and the boy had +taken care of himself. The young couple who had the second lad in +charge said they had been wakened at daylight the next morning by some +noise in the room. Looking up, they saw the little fellow at the +fireplace breaking an egg. He had built a fire, had got eggs from the +kitchen, and was cooking his breakfast. The little girl was +mischievous and cheery in spite of her bad plight, and nobody knew of +the baby except Grayson and the doctor. Grayson would let nobody else +in. As soon as it was well enough to be peevish and to cry, he took it +back to its mother, who was still abed. A long, dark mountaineer was +there, of whom the woman seemed half afraid. He followed Grayson +outside. + +"Say, podner," he said, with an unpleasant smile, "ye don't go up to +Cracker's Neck fer nothin', do ye?" + +The woman had lived at Cracker's Neck before she appeared at the Gap, +and it did not come to Grayson what the man meant until he was half-way +to his room. Then he flushed hot and wheeled back to the cabin, but +the mountaineer was gone. + +"Tell that fellow he had better keep out of my way," he said to the +woman, who understood, and wanted to say something, but not knowing +how, nodded simply. In a few days the other children went back to the +cabin, and day and night Grayson went to see the child, until it was +out of danger, and afterwards. It was not long before the women in +town complained that the mother was ungrateful. When they sent things +to eat to her the servant brought back word that she had called out, +"'Set them over thar,' without so much as a thanky." One message was +that "she didn' want no second-hand victuals from nobody's table." +Somebody suggested sending the family to the poor-house. The mother +said "she'd go out on her crutches and hoe corn fust, and that the +people who talked 'bout sendin' her to the po'-house had better save +their breath to make prayers with." One day she was hired to do some +washing. The mistress of the house happened not to rise until ten +o'clock. Next morning the mountain woman did not appear until that +hour. "She wasn't goin' to work a lick while that woman was a-layin' +in bed," she said, frankly. And when the lady went down town, she too +disappeared. Nor would she, she explained to Grayson, "while that +woman was a-struttin' the streets." + +After that, one by one, they let her alone, and the woman made not a +word of complaint. Within a week she was working in the fields, when +she should have been back in bed. The result was that the child +sickened again. The old look came back to its face, and Grayson was +there night and day. He was having trouble out in Kentucky about this +time, and he went to the Blue Grass pretty often. Always, however, he +left money with me to see that the child was properly buried if it +should die while he was gone; and once he telegraphed to ask how it +was. He said he was sometimes afraid to open my letters for fear that +he should read that the baby was dead. The child knew Grayson's voice, +his step. It would go to him from its own mother. When it was sickest +and lying torpid it would move the instant he stepped into the room, +and, when he spoke, would hold out its thin arms, without opening its +eyes, and for hours Grayson would walk the floor with the troubled +little baby over his shoulder. I thought several times it would die +when, on one trip, Grayson was away for two weeks. One midnight, +indeed, I found the mother moaning, and three female harpies about the +cradle. The baby was dying this time, and I ran back for a flask of +whiskey. Ten minutes late with the whiskey that night would have been +too late. The baby got to know me and my voice during that fortnight, +but it was still in danger when Grayson got back, and we went to see it +together. It was very weak, and we both leaned over the cradle, from +either side, and I saw the pity and affection--yes, hungry, half-shamed +affection--in Grayson's face. The child opened its eyes, looked from +one to the other, and held out its arms to ME. Grayson should have +known that the child forgot--that it would forget its own mother. He +turned sharply, and his face was a little pale. He gave something to +the woman, and not till then did I notice that her soft black eyes +never left him while he was in the cabin. The child got well; but +Grayson never went to the shack again, and he said nothing when I came +in one night and told him that some mountaineer--a long, dark +fellow-had taken the woman, the children, and the household gods of the +shack back into the mountains. + +"They don't grieve long," I said, "these people." + +But long afterwards I saw the woman again along the dusty road that +leads into the Gap. She had heard over in the mountains that Grayson +was dead, and had walked for two days to learn if it was true. I +pointed back towards Bee Rock, and told her that he had fallen from a +cliff back there. She did not move, nor did her look change. +Moreover, she said nothing, and, being in a hurry, I had to ride on. + +At the foot-bridge over Roaring Fork I looked back. The woman was +still there, under the hot mid-day sun and in the dust of the road, +motionless. + + + + +COURTIN' ON CUTSHIN + + +Hit was this way, stranger. When hit comes to handlin' a right peert +gal, Jeb Somers air about the porest man on Fryin' Pan, I reckon; an' +Polly Ann Sturgill have got the vineg'rest tongue on Cutshin or any +other crick. + +So the boys over on Fryin' Pan made it up to git 'em together. Abe +Shivers--you've heerd tell o' Abe--tol' Jeb that Polly Ann had seed him +in Hazlan (which she hadn't, of co'se), an' had said p'int-blank that +he was the likeliest feller she'd seed in them mountains. An' he tol' +Polly Ann that Jeb was ravin' crazy 'bout her. The pure misery of it +jes made him plumb delirious, Abe said; an' 'f Polly Ann wanted to find +her match fer languige an' talkin' out peert--well, she jes ought to +strike Jeb Somers. Fact is, stranger, Jeb Somers air might' nigh a +idgit; but Jeb 'lowed he'd rack right over on Cutshin an' set up with +Polly Ann Sturgill; an' Abe tells Polly Ann the king bee air comin'. +An' Polly Ann's cousin, Nance Osborn, comes over from Hell fer Sartain +(whut runs into Kingdom-Come) to stay all night an' see the fun. + +Now, I hain't been a-raftin' logs down to the settlemints o' Kaintuck +fer nigh on to twenty year fer nothin', An' I know gallivantin' is +diff'ent with us mountain fellers an' you furriners, in the premises, +anyways, as them lawyers up to court says; though I reckon hit's purty +much the same atter the premises is over. Whar you says "courtin'," +now, we says "talkin' to." Sallie Spurlock over on Fryin' Pan is +a-talkin' to Jim Howard now. Sallie's sister hain't nuver talked to no +man. An' whar you says "makin' a call on a young lady," we says +"settin' up with a gal"! An', stranger, we does it. We hain't got +more'n one room hardly ever in these mountains, an' we're jes obleeged +to set up to do any courtin' at all. + +Well, you go over to Sallie's to stay all night some time, an' purty +soon atter supper Jim Howard comes in. The ole man an' the ole woman +goes to bed, an' the chil'un an' you go to bed, an' ef you keeps one +eye open you'll see Jim's cheer an' Sallie's cheer a-movin' purty soon, +till they gets plumb together. Then, stranger, hit begins. Now I want +ye to understand that settin' up means business. We don't 'low no +foolishness in these mountains; an' 'f two fellers happens to meet at +the same house, they jes makes the gal say which one she likes best, +an' t'other one gits! Well, you'll see Jim put his arm 'round Sallie's +neck an' whisper a long while--jes so. Mebbe you've noticed whut +fellers us mountain folks air fer whisperin'. You've seed fellers +a-whisperin' all over Hazlan on court day, hain't ye? Ole Tom Perkins +'ll put his arm aroun' yo' neck an' whisper in yo' year ef he's ten +mile out'n the woods. I reckon thar's jes so much devilmint a-goin' on +in these mountains, folks is naturely afeerd to talk out loud. + +Well, Jim let's go an' Sallie puts her arm aroun' Jim's neck an' +whispers a long while--jes so; an' 'f you happen to wake up anywhar to +two o'clock in the mornin' you'll see jes that a-goin' on. Brother, +that's settin' up. + +Well, Jeb Somers, as I was a-sayin' in the premises, 'lowed he'd rack +right over on Cutshin an' set up with Polly Ann comin' Christmas night. +An' Abe tells Polly Ann Jeb says he aims to have her fer a Christmas +gift afore mornin'. Polly Ann jes sniffed sorter, but you know women +folks air always mighty ambitious jes to SEE a feller anyways, 'f he's +a-pinin' fer 'em. So Jeb come, an' Jeb was fixed up now fittin' to +kill. Jeb had his hair oiled down nice an' slick, and his mustache was +jes black as powder could make hit. Naturely hit was red; but a feller +can't do nothin' in these mountains with a red mustache; an' Jeb had a +big black ribbon tied in the butt o' the bigges' pistol Abe Shivers +could borrer fer him--hit was a badge o' death an' deestruction to his +enemies, Abe said, an' I tell ye Jeb did look like a man. He never +opened his mouth atter he says "howdy"--Jeb never does say nothin'; +Jeb's one o' them fellers whut hides thar lack o' brains by a-lookin' +solemn an' a-keepin' still, but thar don't nobody say much tell the ole +folks air gone to bed, an' Polly Ann jes 'lowed Jeb was a-waitin'. +Fact is, stranger, Abe Shivers had got Jeb a leetle disguised by +liquer, an' he did look fat an' sassy, ef he couldn't talk, a-settin' +over in the corner a-plunkin' the banjer an' a-knockin' off "Sour-wood +Mountain" an' "Jinny git aroun'" an' "Soapsuds over the Fence." + + "Chickens a-crowin' on Sour-wood Mountain, + Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee! + Git yo' dawgs an' we'll go huntin', + Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!" + +An' when Jeb comes to + + "I've got a gal at the head o' the holler, + Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!" + +he jes turns one eye 'round on Polly Ann, an' then swings his chin +aroun' as though he didn't give a cuss fer nothin'. + + "She won't come, an' I won't foller, + Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedy-dahdy-dee!" + + +Well, sir, Nance seed that Polly Ann was a-eyin' Jeb sort o' flustered +like, an' she come might' nigh splittin' right thar an' a-sp'ilin' the +fun, fer she knowed what a skeery fool Jeb was. An' when the ole folks +goes to bed, Nance lays thar under a quilt a-watchin' an' a-listenin'. +Well, Jeb knowed the premises, ef he couldn't talk, an' purty soon +Nance heerd Jeb's cheer creak a leetle, an' she says, Jeb's a-comin', +and Jeb was; an' Polly Ann 'lowed Jeb was jes a leetle TOO resolute an' +quick-like, an' she got her hand ready to give him one lick anyways fer +bein' so brigaty. I don't know as she'd 'a' hit him more'n ONCE. Jeb +had a farm, an' Polly Ann--well, Polly Ann was a-gittin' along. But +Polly Ann sot thar jes as though she didn't know Jeb was a-comin', an' +Jeb stopped once an' says, + +"You hain't got nothin' agin me, has ye?" + +An' Polly Ann says, sorter quick, + +"Naw; ef I had, I'd push it." + +Well, Jeb mos' fell off his cheer, when, ef he hadn't been sech a +skeery idgit, he'd 'a' knowed that Polly Ann was plain open an' shet +a-biddin' fer him. But he sot thar like a knot on a log fer haffen +hour, an' then he rickollected, I reckon, that Abe had tol' him Polly +Ann was peppery an' he mustn't mind, fer Jeb begun a-movin' ag'in till +he was slam-bang agin Polly Ann's cheer. An' thar he sot like a +punkin, not sayin' a word nur doin' nothin'. An' while Polly Ann was +a-wonderin' ef he was gone plumb crazy, blame me ef that durned fool +didn't turn roun' to that peppery gal an' say, + +"Booh, Polly Ann!" + +Well, Nance had to stuff the bedquilt in her mouth right thar to keep +from hollerin' out loud, fer Polly Ann's hand was a-hangin' down by the +cheer, jes a-waitin' fer a job, and Nance seed the fingers a-twitchin'. +An' Jeb waits another haffen hour an' Jeb says, + +"Ortern't I be killed?" + +"Whut fer?" says Polly Ann, sorter sharp. + +An' Jeb says, "Fer bein' so devilish." + +Well, brother, Nance snorted right out thar, an' Polly Ann Sturgill's +hand riz up jes once; an' I've heerd Jeb Somers say the next time he +jumps out o' the Fryin' Pan he's a-goin' to take hell-fire 'stid o' +Cutshin fer a place to light. + + + + +THE MESSAGE IN THE SAND + + +Stranger, you furriners don't nuver seem to consider that a woman has +always got the devil to fight in two people at once! Hit's two agin +one, I tell ye, an' hit hain't fa'r. + +That's what I said more'n two year ago, when Rosie Branham was a-layin' +up thar at Dave Hall's, white an' mos' dead. An', GOD, boys, I says, +that leetle thing in thar by her shorely can't be to blame. + +Thar hain't been a word agin Rosie sence; an', stranger, I reckon thar +nuver will be. Fer, while the gal hain't got hide o' kith or kin, thar +air two fellers up hyeh sorter lookin' atter Rosie; an' one of 'em is +the shootin'es' man on this crick, I reckon, 'cept one; an', stranger, +that's t'other. + +Rosie kep' her mouth shet fer a long while; an' I reckon as how the +feller 'lowed she wasn't goin' to tell. Co'se the woman folks got hit +out'n her--they al'ays gits whut they want, as you know--an' thar the +sorry cuss was--a-livin' up thar in the Bend, jes aroun' that bluff o' +lorrel yander, a-lookin' pious, an' a-singin', an' a-sayin' Amen louder +'n anybody when thar was meetin'. + +Well, my boy Jim an' a lot o' fellers jes went up fer him right away. +I don't know as the boys would 'a' killed him EXACTLY ef they had +kotched him, though they mought; but they got Abe Shivers, as tol' the +feller they was a-comin'--you've heard tell o' Abe-an' they mos' beat +Abraham Shivers to death. Stranger, the sorry cuss was Dave. Rosie +hadn't no daddy an' no mammy; an' she was jes a-workin' at Dave's fer +her victuals an' clo'es. 'Pears like the pore gal was jes tricked into +evil. Looked like she was sorter 'witched--an' anyways, stranger, she +was a fightin' Satan in HERSELF, as well as in Dave. Hit was two agin +one, I tell ye, an' hit wasn't fa'r. + +Co'se they turned Rosie right out in the road I hain't got a word to +say agin Dave's wife fer that; an' atter a while the boys lets Dave +come back, to take keer o' his ole mammy, of co'se, but I tell ye +Dave's a-playin' a purty lonesome tune. He keeps purty shy YIT. He +don't nuver sa'nter down this way. 'Pears like he don't seem to think +hit's healthy fer him down hyeh, an' I reckon Dave's right. + +Rosie? Oh, well, I sorter tuk Rosie in myself. Yes, she's been livin' +thar in the shack with me an' my boy Jim, an' the-- Why, thar he is +now, stranger. That's him a-wallerin' out thar in the road. Do you +reckon thar'd be a single thing agin that leetle cuss ef he had to +stan' up on Jedgment Day jes as he is now? + +Look hyeh, stranger, whut you reckon the Lawd kep' a-writin' thar on +the groun' that day when them fellers was a-pesterin' him 'bout that +pore woman? Don't you jes know he was a writin' 'bout sech as HIM--an' +Rosie? I tell ye, brother, he writ thar jes what I'm al'ays a-sayin'. + +Hit hain't the woman's fault. I said it more'n two year ago, when +Rosie was up thar at ole Dave's, an' I said it yestiddy, when my boy +Jim come to me an' 'lowed as how he aimed to take Rosie down to town +to-day an' git married. + +"You ricollect, dad," says Jim, "her mammy?" + +"Yes, Jim," I says; "all the better reason not to be too hard on Rosie." + +I'm a-lookin' fer 'em both back right now, stranger; an' ef you will, +I'll be mighty glad to have ye stay right hyeh to the infair this very +night. Thar nuver was a word agin Rosie afore, thar hain't been sence, +an' you kin ride up an' down this river till the crack o' doom an' +you'll nuver hear a word agin her ag'in. Fer, as I tol' you, my boy, +Jim is the shootin'es' feller on this crick, I reckon, 'cept ONE, an', +stranger, that's ME! + + + + +THE SENATOR'S LAST TRADE + + +A drove of lean cattle were swinging easily over Black Mountain, and +behind them came a big man with wild black hair and a bushy beard. Now +and then he would gnaw at his mustache with his long, yellow teeth, or +would sit down to let his lean horse rest, and would flip meaninglessly +at the bushes with a switch. Sometimes his bushy head would droop over +on his breast, and he would snap it up sharply and start painfully on. +Robber, cattle-thief, outlaw he might have been in another century; for +he filled the figure of any robber hero in life or romance, and yet he +was only the Senator from Bell, as he was known in the little Kentucky +capital; or, as he was known in his mountain home, just the Senator, +who had toiled and schemed and grown rich and grown poor; who had +suffered long and was kind. + +Only that Christmas he had gutted every store in town. "Give me +everything you have, brother," he said, across each counter; and next +day every man, woman, and child in the mountain town had a present from +the Senator's hands. He looked like a brigand that day, as he looked +now, but he called every man his brother, and his eye, while black and +lustreless as night, was as brooding and just as kind. + +When the boom went down, with it and with everybody else went the +Senator. Slowly he got dusty, ragged, long of hair. He looked +tortured and ever-restless. You never saw him still; always he swept +by you, flapping his legs on his lean horse or his arms in his rickety +buggy here, there, everywhere--turning, twisting, fighting his way back +to freedom--and not a murmur. Still was every man his brother, and if +some forgot his once open hand, he forgot it no more completely than +did the Senator. He went very far to pay his debts. He felt honor +bound, indeed, to ask his sister to give back the farm that he had +given her, which, very properly people said, she declined to do. +Nothing could kill hope in the Senator's breast; he would hand back the +farm in another year, he said; but the sister was firm, and without a +word still, the Senator went other ways and schemed through the nights, +and worked and rode and walked and traded through the days, until now, +when the light was beginning to glimmer, his end was come. + +This was the Senator's last trade, and in sight, down in a Kentucky +valley, was home. Strangely enough, the Senator did not care at all, +and he had just enough sanity left to wonder why, and to be worried. +It was the "walking typhoid" that had caught up with him, and he was +listless, and he made strange gestures and did foolish things as he +stumbled down the mountain. He was going over a little knoll now, and +he could see the creek that ran around his house, but he was not +touched. He would just as soon have lain down right where he was, or +have turned around and gone back, except that it was hot and he wanted +to get to the water. He remembered that it was nigh Christmas; he saw +the snow about him and the cakes of ice in the creek. He knew that he +ought not to be hot, and yet he was--so hot that he refused to reason +with himself even a minute, and hurried on. It was odd that it should +be so, but just about that time, over in Virginia, a cattle dealer, +nearing home, stopped to tell a neighbor how he had tricked some +black-whiskered fool up in the mountains. It may have been just when +he was laughing aloud over there, that the Senator, over here, tore his +woollen shirt from his great hairy chest and rushed into the icy +stream, clapping his arms to his burning sides and shouting in his +frenzy. + +"If he had lived a little longer," said a constituent, "he would have +lost the next election. He hadn't the money, you know." + +"If he had lived a little longer," said the mountain preacher high up +on Yellow Creek, "I'd have got that trade I had on hand with him +through. Not that I wanted him to die, but if he had to--why--" + +"If he had lived a little longer," said the Senator's lawyer, "he would +have cleaned off the score against him." + +"If he had lived a little longer," said the Senator's sister, not +meaning to be unkind, "he would have got all I have." + +That was what life held for the Senator. Death was more kind. + + + + +PREACHIN' ON KINGDOM-COME + + +I've told ye, stranger, that Hell fer Sartain empties, as it oughter, +of co'se, into Kingdom-Come. You can ketch the devil 'most any day in +the week on Hell fer Sartain, an' sometimes you can git Glory +everlastin' on Kingdom-Come. Hit's the only meetin'-house thar in +twenty miles aroun'. + +Well, the reg'lar rider, ole Jim Skaggs, was dead, an' the bretherin +was a-lookin' aroun' fer somebody to step into ole Jim's shoes. Thar'd +been one young feller up thar from the settlemints, a-cavortin' aroun', +an' they was studyin' 'bout gittin' him. + +"Bretherin' an' sisteren," I says, atter the leetle chap was gone, +"he's got the fortitood to speak an' he shorely is well favored. He's +got a mighty good hawk eye fer spyin' out evil--an' the gals; he can +outholler ole Jim; an' IF," I says, "any IDEES ever comes to him, he'll +be a hell-rouser shore--but they ain't comin'!" An', so sayin', I takes +my foot in my hand an' steps fer home. + +Stranger, them fellers over thar hain't seed much o' this world. Lots +of 'em nuver seed the cyars; some of 'em nuver seed a wagon. An' atter +jowerin' an' noratin' fer 'bout two hours, what you reckon they said +they aimed to do? They believed they'd take that ar man Beecher, ef +they could git him to come. They'd heerd o' Henry endurin' the war, +an' they knowed he was agin the rebs, an' they wanted Henry if they +could jes git him to come. + +Well, I snorted, an' the feud broke out on Hell fer Sartain betwixt the +Days an' the Dillons. Mace Day shot Daws Dillon's brother, as I +rickollect--somep'n's al'ays a-startin' up that plaguey war an' +a-makin' things frolicsome over thar--an' ef it hadn't a-been fer a +tall young feller with black hair an' a scar across his forehead, who +was a-goin' through the mountains a-settlin' these wars, blame me ef I +believe thar ever would 'a' been any mo' preachin' on Kingdom-Come. +This feller comes over from Hazlan an' says he aims to hold a meetin' +on Kingdom-Come. "Brother," I says, "that's what no preacher have ever +did whilst this war is a-goin' on." An' he says, sort o' quiet, "Well, +then, I reckon I'll have to do what no preacher have ever did." An' I +ups an' says: "Brother, an ole jedge come up here once from the +settlemints to hold couht. 'Jedge,' I says, 'that's what no jedge have +ever did without soldiers since this war's been a-goin' on.' An', +brother, the jedge's words was yours, p'int-blank. 'All right,' he +says, 'then I'll have to do what no other jedge have ever did.' An', +brother," says I to the preacher, "the jedge done it shore. He jes +laid under the couht-house fer two days whilst the boys fit over him. +An' when I sees the jedge a-makin' tracks fer the settlemints, I says, +'Jedge,' I says, 'you spoke a parable shore.'" + +Well, sir, the long preacher looked jes as though he was a-sayin' to +hisself, "Yes, I hear ye, but I don't heed ye," an' when he says, "Jes +the same, I'm a-goin' to hold a meetin' on Kingdom-Come," why, I jes +takes my foot in my hand an' ag'in I steps fer home. + +That night, stranger, I seed another feller from Hazlan, who was +a-tellin' how this here preacher had stopped the war over thar, an' had +got the Marcums an' Braytons to shakin' hands; an' next day ole Tom +Perkins stops in an' says that WHARAS there mought 'a' been preachin' +somewhar an' sometime, thar nuver had been PREACHIN' afore on +Kingdom-Come. So I goes over to the meetin' house, an' they was all +thar--Daws Dillon an' Mace Day, the leaders in the war, an' Abe Shivers +(you've heerd tell o' Abe) who was a-carryin' tales from one side to +t'other an' a-stirrin' up hell ginerally, as Abe most al'ays is; an' +thar was Daws on one side o' the meetin'-house an' Mace on t'other, an' +both jes a-watchin' fer t'other to make a move, an' thar'd 'a' been +billy-hell to pay right thar! Stranger, that long preacher talked jes +as easy as I'm a-talkin' now, an' hit was p'int-blank as the feller +from Hazlan said. You jes ought 'a' heerd him tellin' about the Lawd +a-bein' as pore as any feller thar, an' a-makin' barns an' fences an' +ox-yokes an' sech like; an' not a-bein' able to write his own +name--havin' to make his mark mebbe--when he started out to save the +world. An' how they tuk him an' nailed him onto a cross when he'd come +down fer nothin' but to save 'em; an' stuck a spear big as a corn-knife +into his side, an' give him vinegar; an' his own mammy a-standin' down +thar on the ground a-cryin' an' a-watchin' him an' he a-fergivin' all +of 'em then an' thar! + +Thar nuver had been nothin' like that afore on Kingdom-Come, an' all +along I heerd fellers a-layin' thar guns down; an when the preacher +called out fer sinners, blame me ef the fust feller that riz wasn't +Mace Day. An' Mace says, "Stranger, 'f what you say is true, I reckon +the Lawd 'll fergive me too, but I don't believe Daws Dillon ever +will," an' Mace stood thar lookin' around fer Daws. An' all of a +sudden the preacher got up straight an' called out, "Is thar a human in +this house mean an' sorry enough to stand betwixt a man an' his Maker"? +An' right thar, stranger, Daws riz. "Naw, by God, thar hain' t!" Daws +says, an' he walks up to Mace a-holdin' out his hand, an' they all +busts out cryin' an' shakin' hands--Days an' Dillons--jes as the +preacher had made 'em do over in Hazlan. An' atter the thing was over, +I steps up to the preacher an' I says: + +"Brother," I says, "YOU spoke a parable, shore." + + + + +THE PASSING OF ABRAHAM SHIVERS + + +"I tell ye, boys, hit hain t often a feller has the chance o' doin' so +much good jes by DYIN'. Fer 'f Abe Shivers air gone, shorely gone, the +rest of us--every durn one of us--air a-goin' to be saved. Fer Abe +Shivers--you hain't heerd tell o' ABE? Well, you must be a stranger in +these mountains o' Kaintuck, shore. + +"I don't know, stranger, as Abe ever was borned; nobody in these +mountains knows it 'f he was. The fust time I ever heerd tell o' Abe +he was a-hollerin' fer his rights one mawnin' at daylight, endurin' the +war, jes outside o' ole Tom Perkins' door on Fryin' Pan. Abe was left +thar by some home-gyard, I reckon. Well, nobody air ever turned out'n +doors in these mountains, as you know, an' Abe got his rights that +mawin', an' he's been a-gittin' 'em ever sence. Tom already had a +houseful, but 'f any feller got the bigges' hunk o' corn-bread, that +feller was Abe; an' ef any feller got a-whalin', hit wasn't Abe. + +"Abe tuk to lyin' right naturely--looked like--afore he could talk. +Fact is, Abe nuver could do nothin' but jes whisper. Still, Abe could +manage to send a lie furder with that rattlin' whisper than ole Tom +could with that big horn o' hisn what tells the boys the revenoos air +comin' up Fryin' Pan.' + +"Didn't take Abe long to git to braggin' an' drinkin' an' naggin' an' +hectorin'--everything, 'mos', 'cept fightin'. Nobody ever drawed Abe +Shivers into a fight. I don't know as he was afeerd; looked like Abe +was a-havin' sech a tarnation good time with his devilmint he jes +didn't want to run no risk o' havin' hit stopped. An' sech devilmint! +Hit ud take a coon's age, I reckon, to tell ye. + +"The boys was a-goin' up the river one night to git ole Dave Hall fer +trickin' Rosie Branham into evil. Some feller goes ahead an' tells ole +Dave they's a-comin.' Hit was Abe. Some feller finds a streak o' ore +on ole Tom Perkins' land, an' racks his jinny down to town, an' tells a +furriner thar, an' Tom comes might' nigh sellin' the land fer nothin'. +Now Tom raised Abe, but, jes the same, the feller was Abe. + +"One night somebody guides the revenoos in on Hell fer Sartain, an' +they cuts up four stills. Hit was Abe. The same night, mind ye, a +feller slips in among the revenoos while they's asleep, and cuts off +their hosses' manes an' tails--muled every durned critter uv 'em. +Stranger, hit was Abe. An' as fer women-folks--well, Abe was the ill +favoredest feller I ever see, an' he couldn't talk; still, Abe was +sassy, an' you know how sass counts with the gals; an' Abe's whisperin' +come in jes as handy as any feller's settin' up; so 'f ever you seed a +man with a Winchester a-lookin' fer the feller who had cut him out, +stranger, he was a-lookin' fer Abe. + +"Somebody tells Harve Hall, up thar at a dance on Hell-fer-Sartain one +Christmas night, that Rich Harp had said somep'n' agin him an' Nance +Osborn. An' somebody tells Rich that Harve had said sompe'n' agin +Nance an' HIM. Hit was one an' the same feller, stranger, an' the +feller was Abe. Well, while Rich an' Harve was a-gittin' well, +somebody runs off with Nance. Hit was Abe. Then Rich an' Harve jes +draws straws fer a feller. Stranger, they drawed fer Abe. Hit's purty +hard to believe that Abe air gone, 'cept that Rich Harp an' Harve Hall +don't never draw no straws fer nothin'; but 'f by the grace o' +Goddle-mighty Abe air gone, why, as I was a-sayin', the rest of +us--every durned one of us air a-goin' to be saved, shore. Fer Abe's +gone fust, an' ef thar's only one Jedgment Day, the Lawd 'll nuver git +to us." + + + + +A PURPLE RHODODENDRON + + +The purple rhododendron is rare. Up in the Gap here, Bee Rock, hung +out over Roaring Rock, blossoms with it--as a gray cloud purples with +the sunrise. This rock was tossed lightly on edge when the earth was +young, and stands vertical. To get the flowers you climb the mountain +to one side, and, balancing on the rock's thin edge, slip down by roots +and past rattlesnake dens till you hang out over the water and reach +for them. To avoid snakes it is best to go when it is cool, at +daybreak. + +I know but one other place in this southwest corner of Virginia where +there is another bush of purple rhododendron, and one bush only is +there. This hangs at the throat of a peak not far away, whose ageless +gray head is bent over a ravine that sinks like a spear thrust into the +side of the mountain. Swept only by high wind and eagle wings as this +is, I yet knew one man foolhardy enough to climb to it for a flower. +He brought one blossom down: and to this day I do not know that it was +not the act of a coward; yes, though Grayson did it, actually smiling +all the way from peak to ravine, and though he was my best friend--best +loved then and since. I believe he was the strangest man I have ever +known, and I say this with thought; for his eccentricities were +sincere. In all he did I cannot remember having even suspected +anything theatrical but once. + +We were all Virginians or Kentuckians at the Gap, and Grayson was a +Virginian. You might have guessed that he was a Southerner from his +voice and from the way he spoke of women--but no more. Otherwise, he +might have been a Moor, except for his color, which was about the only +racial characteristic he had. He had been educated abroad and, after +the English habit, had travelled everywhere. And yet I can imagine no +more lonely way between the eternities than the path Grayson trod alone. + +He came to the Gap in the early days, and just why he came I never +knew. He had studied the iron question a long time, he told me, and +what I thought reckless speculation was, it seems, deliberate judgment +to him. His money "in the dirt," as the phrase was, Grayson got him a +horse and rode the hills and waited. He was intimate with nobody. +Occasionally he would play poker with us and sometimes he drank a good +deal, but liquor never loosed his tongue. At poker his face told as +little as the back of his cards, and he won more than admiration--even +from the Kentuckians, who are artists at the game; but the money went +from a free hand, and, after a diversion like this, he was apt to be +moody and to keep more to himself than ever. Every fortnight or two he +would disappear, always over Sunday. In three or four days he would +turn up again, black with brooding, and then he was the last man to +leave the card-table or he kept away from it altogether. Where he went +nobody knew; and he was not the man anybody would question. + +One night two of us Kentuckians were sitting in the club, and from a +home paper I read aloud the rumored engagement of a girl we both +knew--who was famous for beauty in the Bluegrass, as was her mother +before her and the mother before her--to an unnamed Virginian. Grayson +sat near, smoking a pipe; and when I read the girl's name I saw him +take the meerschaum from his lips, and I felt his eyes on me. It was a +mystery how, but I knew at once that Grayson was the man. He sought me +out after that and seemed to want to make friends. I was willing, or, +rather he made me more than willing; for he was irresistible to me, as +I imagine he would have been to anybody. We got to walking together +and riding together at night, and we were soon rather intimate; but for +a long time he never so much as spoke the girl's name. Indeed, he kept +away from the Bluegrass for nearly two months; but when he did go he +stayed a fortnight. + +This time he came for me as soon as he got back to the Gap. It was +just before midnight, and we went as usual back of Imboden Hill, +through moon-dappled beeches, and Grayson turned off into the woods +where there was no path, both of us silent. We rode through tremulous, +shining leaves--Grayson's horse choosing a way for himself--and, +threshing through a patch of high, strong weeds, we circled past an +amphitheatre of deadened trees whose crooked arms were tossed out into +the moonlight, and halted on the spur. The moon was poised over +Morris's farm; South Fork was shining under us like a loop of gold, the +mountains lay about in tranquil heaps, and the moon-mist rose luminous +between them. There Grayson turned to me with an eager light in his +eyes that I had never seen before. + +"This has a new beauty to-night!" he said; and then "I told her about +you, and she said that she used to know you--well." I was glad my face +was in shadow--I could hardly keep back a brutal laugh--and Grayson, +unseeing, went on to speak of her as I had never heard any man speak of +any woman. In the end, he said that she had just promised to be his +wife. I answered nothing. Other men, I knew, had said that with the +same right, perhaps, and had gone from her to go back no more. And I +was one of them. Grayson had met her at White Sulphur five years +before, and had loved her ever since. She had known it from the first, +he said, and I guessed then what was going to happen to him. I +marvelled, listening to the man, for it was the star of constancy in +her white soul that was most lustrous to him--and while I wondered the +marvel became a commonplace. Did not every lover think his loved one +exempt from the frailty that names other women? There is no ideal of +faith or of purity that does not live in countless women to-day. I +believe that; but could I not recall one friend who walked with +Divinity through pine woods for one immortal spring, and who, being +sick to death, was quite finished--learning her at last? Did I not +know lovers who believed sacred to themselves, in the name of love, +lips that had been given to many another without it? And now did I not +know--but I knew too much, and to Grayson I said nothing. + +That spring the "boom" came. Grayson's property quadrupled in value +and quadrupled again. I was his lawyer, and I plead with him to sell; +but Grayson laughed. He was not speculating; he had invested on +judgment; he would sell only at a certain figure. The figure was +actually reached, and Grayson let half go. The boom fell, and Grayson +took the tumble with a jest. It would come again in the autumn, he +said, and he went off to meet the girl at White Sulphur. + +I worked right hard that summer, but I missed him, and I surely was +glad when he came back. Something was wrong; I saw it at once. He did +not mention her name, and for a while he avoided even me. I sought him +then, and gradually I got him into our old habit of walking up into the +Gap and of sitting out after supper on a big rock in the valley, +listening to the run of the river and watching the afterglow over the +Cumberland, the moon rise over Wallen's Ridge and the stars come out. +Waiting for him to speak, I learned for the first time then another +secret of his wretched melancholy. It was the hopelessness of that +time, perhaps, that disclosed it. Grayson had lost the faith of his +childhood. Most men do that at some time or other, but Grayson had no +business, no profession, no art in which to find relief. Indeed, there +was but one substitute possible, and that came like a gift straight +from the God whom he denied. Love came, and Grayson's ideals of love, +as of everything else, were morbid and quixotic. He believed that he +owed it to the woman he should marry never to have loved another. He +had loved but one woman, he said, and he should love but one. I +believed him then literally when he said that his love for the Kentucky +girl was his religion now--the only anchor left him in his sea of +troubles, the only star that gave him guiding light. Without this +love, what then? + +I had a strong impulse to ask him, but Grayson shivered, as though he +divined my thought, and, in some relentless way, our talk drifted to +the question of suicide. I was not surprised that he rather defended +it. Neither of us said anything new, only I did not like the way he +talked. He was too deliberate, too serious, as though he were really +facing a possible fact. He had no religious scruples, he said, no +family ties; he had nothing to do with bringing himself into life; +why--if it was not worth living, not bearable--why should he not end +it? He gave the usual authority, and I gave the usual answer. +Religion aside, if we did not know that we were here for some purpose, +we did not know that we were not; and here we were anyway, and our duty +was plain. Desertion was the act of a coward, and that Grayson could +not deny. + +That autumn the crash of '91 came across the water from England, and +Grayson gave up. He went to Richmond, and came back with money enough +to pay off his notes, and I think it took nearly all he had. Still, he +played poker steadily now--for poker had been resumed when it was no +longer possible to gamble in lots--he drank a good deal, and he began +just at this time to take a singular interest in our volunteer police +guard. He had always been on hand when there was trouble, and I +sha'n't soon forget him the day Senator Mahone spoke, when we were +punching a crowd of mountaineers back with cocked Winchesters. He had +lost his hat in a struggle with one giant; he looked half crazy with +anger, and yet he was white and perfectly cool, and I noticed that he +never had to tell a man but once to stand back. Now he was the first +man to answer a police whistle. When we were guarding Talt Hall, he +always volunteered when there was any unusual risk to run. When we +raided the Pound to capture a gang of desperadoes, he insisted on going +ahead as spy; and when we got restless lying out in the woods waiting +for daybreak, and the captain suggested a charge on the cabin, Grayson +was by his side when it was made. Grayson sprang through the door +first, and he was the man who thrust his reckless head up into the loft +and lighted a match to see if the murderers were there. Most of us did +foolish things in those days under stress of excitement, but Grayson, I +saw, was weak enough to be reckless. His trouble with the girl, +whatever it was, was serious enough to make him apparently care little +whether he were alive or dead. And still I saw that not yet even had +he lost hope. He was having a sore fight with his pride, and he got +body-worn and heart-sick over it. Of course he was worsted, and in the +end, from sheer weakness, he went back to her once more. + +I shall never see another face like his when Grayson came back that +last time. I never noticed before that there were silver hairs about +his temples. He stayed in his room, and had his meals sent to him. He +came out only to ride, and then at night. Waking the third morning at +daybreak, I saw him through the window galloping past, and I knew he +had spent the night on Black Mountain. I went to his room as soon as I +got up, and Grayson was lying across his bed with his face down, his +clothes on, and in his right hand was a revolver. I reeled into a +chair before I had strength enough to bend over him, and when I did I +found him asleep. I left him as he was, and I never let him know that +I had been to his room; but I got him out on the rock again that night, +and I turned our talk again to suicide. I said it was small, mean, +cowardly, criminal, contemptible! I was savagely in earnest, and +Grayson shivered and said not a word. I thought he was in better mind +after that. We got to taking night rides again, and I stayed as +closely to him as I could, for times got worse and trouble was upon +everybody. Notes fell thicker than snowflakes, and, through the +foolish policy of the company, foreclosures had to be made. Grayson +went to the wall like the rest of us. I asked him what he had done +with the money he had made. He had given away a great deal to poorer +kindred; he had paid his dead father's debts; he had played away a good +deal, and he had lost the rest. His faith was still imperturbable. He +had a dozen rectangles of "dirt," and from these, he said, it would all +come back some day. Still, he felt the sudden poverty keenly, but he +faced it as he did any other physical fact in life--dauntless. He used +to be fond of saying that no one thing could make him miserable. But +he would talk with mocking earnestness about some much-dreaded +combination; and a favorite phrase of his--which got to have peculiar +significance--was "the cohorts of hell," who closed in on him when he +was sick and weak, and who fell back when he got well. He had one +strange habit, too, from which I got comfort. He would deliberately +walk into and defy any temptation that beset him. That was the way he +strengthened himself, he said. I knew what his temptation was now, and +I thought of this habit when I found him asleep with his revolver, and +I got hope from it now, when the dreaded combination (whatever that +was) seemed actually to have come. + +I could see now that he got worse daily. He stopped his mockeries, his +occasional fits of reckless gayety. He stopped poker--resolutely--he +couldn't afford to lose now; and, what puzzled me, he stopped drinking. +The man simply looked tired, always hopelessly tired; and I could +believe him sincere in all his foolish talk about his blessed Nirvana: +which was the peace he craved, which was end enough for him. + +Winter broke. May drew near; and one afternoon, when Grayson and I +took our walk up through the Gap, he carried along a huge spy-glass of +mine, which had belonged to a famous old desperado, who watched his +enemies with it from the mountain-tops. We both helped capture him, +and I defended him. He was sentenced to hang--the glass was my fee. +We sat down opposite Bee Rock, and for the first time Grayson told me +of that last scene with her. He spoke without bitterness, and he told +me what she said, word for word, without a breath of blame for her. I +do not believe that he judged her at all; she did not know--he always +said; she did not KNOW; and then, when I opened my lips, Grayson +reached silently for my wrist, and I can feel again the warning crush +of his fingers, and I say nothing against her now. + +I asked Grayson what his answer was. + +"I asked her," he said, solemnly, "if she had ever seen a purple +rhododendron." + +I almost laughed, picturing the scene--the girl bewildered by his +absurd question--Grayson calm, superbly courteous. It was a mental +peculiarity of his--this irrelevancy--and it was like him to end a +matter of life and death in just that way. + +"I told her I should send her one. I am waiting for them to come out," +he added; and he lay back with his head against a stone and sighted the +telescope on a dizzy point, about which buzzards were circling. + +"There is just one bush of rhododendron up there," he went on. "I saw +it looking down from the Point last spring. I imagine it must blossom +earlier than that across there on Bee Rock, being always in the sun. +No, it's not budding yet," he added, with his eye to the glass. + +"You see that ledge just to the left? I dropped a big rock from the +Point square on a rattler who was sunning himself there last spring. I +can see a foothold all the way up the cliff. It can be done," he +concluded, in a tone that made me turn sharply upon him. + +"Do you really mean to climb up there?" I asked, harshly. + +"If it blossoms first up there--I'll get it where it blooms first." In +a moment I was angry and half sick with suspicion, for I knew his +obstinacy; and then began what I am half ashamed to tell. + +Every day thereafter Grayson took that glass with him, and I went along +to humor him. I watched Bee Rock, and he that one bush at the throat +of the peak--neither of us talking over the matter again. It was +uncanny, that rivalry--sun and wind in one spot, sun and wind in +another--Nature herself casting the fate of a half-crazed fool with a +flower. It was utterly absurd, but I got nervous over +it--apprehensive, dismal. + +A week later it rained for two days, and the water was high. The next +day the sun shone, and that afternoon Grayson smiled, looking through +the glass, and handed it to me. I knew what I should see. One purple +cluster, full blown, was shaking in the wind. Grayson was leaning back +in a dream when I let the glass down. A cool breath from the woods +behind us brought the odor of roots and of black earth; up in the +leaves and sunlight somewhere a wood-thrush was singing, and I saw in +Grayson's face what I had not seen for a long time, and that was +peace--the peace of stubborn purpose. He did not come for me the next +day, nor the next; but the next he did, earlier than usual. + +"I am going to get that rhododendron," he said. "I have been half-way +up--it can be reached." So had I been half-way up. With nerve and +agility the flower could be got, and both these Grayson had. If he had +wanted to climb up there and drop, he could have done it alone, and he +would have known that I should have found him. Grayson was testing +himself again, and, angry with him for the absurdity of the thing and +with myself for humoring it, but still not sure of him, I picked up my +hat and went. I swore to myself silently that it was the last time I +should pay any heed to his whims. I believed this would be the last. +The affair with the girl was over. The flower sent, I knew Grayson +would never mention her name again. + +Nature was radiant that afternoon. The mountains had the leafy +luxuriance of June, and a rich, sunlit haze drowsed on them between the +shadows starting out over the valley and the clouds so white that the +blue of the sky looked dark. Two eagles shot across the mouth of the +Gap as we neared it, and high beyond buzzards were sailing over +Grayson's rhododendron. + +I went up the ravine with him and I climbed up behind him--Grayson +going very deliberately and whistling softly. He called down to me +when he reached the shelf that looked half-way. + +"You mustn't come any farther than this," he said. "Get out on that +rock and I'll drop them down to you." + +Then he jumped from the ledge and caught the body of a small tree close +to the roots, and my heart sank at such recklessness and all my fears +rose again. I scrambled hastily to the ledge, but I could get no +farther. I might possibly make the jump he had made--but how should I +ever get back? How would he? I called angrily after him now, and he +wouldn't answer me. I called him a fool, a coward; I stamped the ledge +like a child--but Grayson kept on, foot after hand, with stealthy +caution, and the purple cluster nodding down at him made my head whirl. +I had to lie down to keep from tumbling from the ledge; and there on my +side, gripping a pine bush, I lay looking up at him. He was close to +the flowers now, and just before he took the last upward step he turned +and looked down that awful height with as calm a face as though he +could have dropped and floated unhurt to the ravine beneath. + +Then with his left hand he caught the ledge to the left, strained up, +and, holding thus, reached out with his right. The hand closed about +the cluster, and the twig was broken. Grayson gave a great shout then. +He turned his head as though to drop them, and, that far away, I heard +the sibilant whir of rattles. I saw a snake's crest within a yard of +his face, and, my God! I saw Grayson loose his left hand to guard it! +The snake struck at his arm, and Grayson reeled and caught back once at +the ledge with his left hand. He caught once, I say, to do him full +justice; then, without a word, he dropped--and I swear there was a +smile on his face when he shot down past me into the trees. + + +I found him down there in the ravine with nearly every bone in his body +crushed. His left arm was under him, and outstretched in his right +hand was the shattered cluster, with every blossom gone but one. One +white half of his face was unmarked, and on it was still the shadow of +a smile. I think it meant more than that Grayson believed that he was +near peace at last. It meant that Fate had done the deed for him and +that he was glad. Whether he would have done it himself, I do not +know; and that is why I say that though Grayson brought the flower +down--smiling from peak to ravine--I do not know that he was not, after +all, a coward. + +That night I wrote to the woman in Kentucky. I told her that Grayson +had fallen from a cliff while climbing for flowers; and that he was +dead. Along with these words, I sent a purple rhododendron. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of 'Hell fer Sartain' and Other Stories, by +John Fox, Jr. + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'HELL FER SARTAIN' *** + +***** This file should be named 410.txt or 410.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/4/1/410/ + +Produced by Charles Keller. 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