The Phantom Of Bogue Holauba / 1911

s upon the youthful mind a comprehension and appreciation of the eter

successively painted the great landscape-spring, with its timorous touch, its illumined haze, its tender, tentative green and gray and yellow; summer, with its flush of completion, its deep, luscious, definite verdure, and the golden richness of fruition; autumn, with a full brush and all chromatic splendors; winter, in melancholy sepia tones, black and brown and many sad variations of the pallors of white. So high was the little structure on the side of a transverse ridge that it commanded a vast fie

of water, were chiefly to be avoided for their proclivity to drown small boys intent on swimming or angling. Mountains, aside from the desirability of their recognition as forming one of the divisions of land somewhat easily distinguishable by the mo

cessfully defying danger; who fished and swam with impunity; who was ragged and torn from much climbing of crags; whose freckled face bore frequent red tokens of an indiscriminate sampling of berries. It is too much to say that Abner Sage would have been glad to have his warnings made terrible by some bodily disaster to the juvenile dare-devil of the school, but Leander Yerby's disobedient incredulity as to the ter

ler Sudley, who could not have done the like to save his stalwart life. He would stare dumfounded at the erudite personage at the head of the class; Leander's bare feet were always carefully adjusted to a crack between the puncheons of the floor, literally "toeing the mark"; his broad trousers, frayed out liberally at the hem, revealed his skinny and scarred little ankles, for his out-door adventures were not without a record upon the more impressionable portions of his anatomy; his waistband was drawn high up under his shoulder-blades and his ribs, and girt over the shoulders of his unbleached cotton shirt by braces, which all his learning did not pr

sure rising to his swarthy cheek as he thrust back his wide black hat on his long dark hair and turned his candid gray eye

gaze resting upon the champion scholar, who stood elated, confident, needing no commendati

t few who could so disport themselves in the intricacies of the English language; and Sudley, as he plodded homeward with his rifle on his shoulde

awl, "ye mustn't be so bad, hone

ld cheerily pipe out, and so the p

d from force of habit he continued to do so in addressing

under the knowledge that it was he who, through wrongheadedness or wrongheartedness, had contrived to make all the world besides the boy's enemy. Both wrongheaded and wronghearted he was, he sometimes told himself. For even now it still seemed to him that he had not judged amiss, that only the perversity of fate had thwarted him. Was it so fantastically improbable, so hopeless a solace that he had planned, that he should have thought his wife might take comfort for the death of their own child in making for its sake a home for another, orphaned, forlorn, a burden, and a glad riddanc

ans as they swung at the rear, the bucket for water swaying beneath, the mounted men beside it, the few head of swine and cattle driven before them. Years had passed, but he could feel anew the vague stir of the living bundle which he held on the pommel of his saddle, the sudden twist it gave to bring its inquiring, apprehensive eyes, so large in its thin, lank-jawed, piteous little countenance, to bear on his face, as if it understood its transfer of custody, and trembled lest a worse thing befall it.

d that he could think that another child could take the place of her dead child-all the dearer because it was dead; that she could play the traitor to its memory and forget her sacred grief; that she could do aught as long as she should live but sit her down to bewail her loss, every tear a tribute, every pang its inalienable right, her whole smitten existence a testimony to her love. It was in vain that he expostulated. The idea of substitution h

all said that he had seemed to esteem one baby as good as another, and that he was surprised that his wife was not consoled for the loss of her own child because he took it into his head to go and toll off the Yerby baby from his f

as no longer gaunt or pallid or apprehensive, but grew pink and cherubic of build, and arrogant of mind. He had no sensitive sub-current of suspicion as to his welcome; he filled the house with his gay babbling, and if no maternal chirpings encouraged the development of his ideas and his powers of speech, his cheerful spirits seemed strong enough to thrive on their own stalwart endowments. His hair began to curl, and a neighbor, remarking on it to Laurelia, and forgetting fo

had their own estim

kin notice her contrariousness more. Ef Tyler hedn't brung that chile home, like ez not she'd hev sot her heart on borryin' one herself from somebody. Lee-yander ain't in nowise abused, ez I kin see-ain't acquainted with the rod, like the Bible say he oughter be, an' ennybody kin see ez Laurelia don't like the name he gin her, yit she puts up with it. She larnt him ter call Ty 'Cap'n,' bein' she's sor

g ago ceased to remonstrate, or to seek to justify himself. It was with a spirit of making amends that he hastened to concede every point of question, to defer to her preference in all matters, and Laurelia's sway grew more and more absolute as the years wore on. Leander Yerby could remember no other surroundings than the ascetic atmosphere of

r. "Tells me, 'Yes, ma'am, cap'n,' an' 'Naw, ma'am, cap'n,' jes ter quiet me-like folks useter do ter ol

constraint in his manner, and a contraction of anxiety in his slow,

eter Teazely fur two rabbits what I cotch in my trap, an' my big red rooster, an' a bag o' seed pop-corn, an' the only hat I hev got in the worl'.' An' with that the consarn gin sech a yawp, it plumb went through my haid. An' then the critter jes tuk ter a-bowin' it back an' forth, a-playin' 'The Chicken in the Bread-trough' like deme

pa

xcited eyes fixed upon her. "Laurely," he exclaimed, "ye ain't meanin' ez that

head in reluc

at naught her displeasure, albeit in self-defence, perchance, he dared not say a word. With an eye alight and an absorbed

edless of the threatened ignominy alike of sun-bonnet or nightcap, Leander sat in the flickering sunshine and sha

ar much better fiddlin' this side o' kingdom come!" And with glad assurance he capered up and down, the bow elon

was that Laurelia, hearing him, far away in the open air, play once a plaintive, melodic strain, fugue-like with the elfin echoes, felt a strange soothing in the sound, found tears in her eyes, not all of pain but of sad pleasure, and assumed thenceforth something of the port of a connoisseur. She said she "couldn't abide a fiddle jes sawed helter-skelter by them ez hedn't larned, but ter play saaft an' slow an' solemn, and no dancin' chune, no frolic song-she warn't set agin that at all." And she desired of Leander a repet

es of his early days were merged into the warm uniform tint of his tanned complexion. His brown hair still curled; his shirt-collar fell away from his throat, roun

at chune agin, try ter set it in yer remembrance, an' play it whenst ye kem home," she said, wistfully, at last, as if this err

and his indifference bespoke a too great wealth of "chunes"; he could feel no lack in some unremembered

gay young blades about the countryside, sometimes reputed "evil men," were attributed to this exil

me deef fur life. At fust the racket of it even skeered Towse so he wouldn't come out from under the house fur two days an' better; he jes sot under thar an' growled, an' shivered, an' showed his teeth ef ennybody spoke ter him. Nobody don't lik

e or the bewilderments of a dream. She felt as if in some long-previous existence she had seen this man as he dismounted at the gate and came up the path with his saddle-bags over his arm. But it was not until he mustered an unready, unwilling smile, that had of good-wil

med. "I would hev knowed ye

y," he responded. "Let's pray that the good ti

not echo his wish, but somehow his manner savored of an

orted, aggressively. "Day a

s, Sister Sudley-we mus' think o

d come in his experience. Perchance his effervescent piety was only a habit of speech, and had no significance as far as she was concerned. The suspicion, however, tamed her in some sort. She a

see ye, an' I reckon ye will be powerful intereste

arge main room of the cabin, and had laid his saddle-bags down by the side of the chair in which he had seated himself, his elbows on

rolonged and dreary vocative, "I 'lowed ye war a godly woman. I knowed yer name 'mongst the church-goers an' the church-members." A faint flush sprang into her delicate faded cheek; a halo encircled this repute of sanctity

heredity, carry the war into the enemy's country, ascribing Leander's shortcomings to his Yerby blood, and with stern and superior joy proclaiming that he was neither kith nor kin of hers, she wondered afterward, for this valid ground of defence did not occur to her then. In these long mourning years she had grown dull; her mental processes were either a sad introspection or reminiscence. Now she could only take into account her sacrifices o

us he mus' hev been! Fur when ye lef' him he hedn't a whole

the taunt struck home, but he was skilled

hty pore indeed,

udley, with true feminine inconsistency

I knows on, an' the gov'mint hev sot no tax o

to realize how near happiness she was-as near as her temperament could approach. But somehow the air was so soft; she could see from where she sat how the white velvet buds of the aspen-trees in the dooryard had lengthened into long, cream-tinted, furry tassels; the maples on the mountain-side lifted their red flowering boughs against the delicate blue sky; the grass was so green; the golden candlesticks bunched along the margin of the path to the rickety gate were all a-blossoming. The sweet appeal of spring had never been more insistent, more coercive. Somehow peace, and a placid content, seemed as essential incidents

lam'"-his voice dwelt with unvanquished emphasis upon the obnoxious words-"'mongst enny but them persumed ter be godly folks. Tyler war a toler'b

graces of life or of the spirit had she coveted, but her pre-eminence as a religionist she had fos

his house, an' all my neighbors will tell you the

ars ter be a fiddle on the wall, ain't it, Mis' Sudley?" he sai

, the crazy old fiddle had been naturalized, as it were, and had exchanged its domicile under the porch for a position on the wall. It was boldly visible, and apparently no more ashamed of i

wn log wall, its bow poised jauntily above it, and some glistening yellow reflectio

s admission, as if she had had half a mind to deny it. "A fiddle the thing air." Then, as she collected her thoughts, "Brother Pete Vickers 'lows ez he s

her own defence, for she secretly believed that old man Vickers must have be

, so quick was he to descry and pounce upon their shortcomings. If one's sins are sure to

reachin' o' Brother Peter Vickers?

a time or two. But he didn't git no call. The brethren 'lowed Brother Vickers war too slack in his idees o' religion. Some said his hell warn't half hot enough. Thar air some powerfu

iah Yerby sourly eyed her, feeling himself a loser with Brother Vicker

on 'n penance, ennyhow," he observed, bitterly.

er git what he axed fur sure's shootin'. Some o' the bretherin' sorter taxed him with his sperits, an' he 'lowed he couldn't holp but be che

hemiah. "An' that thar man ez goo

lined face. What there was in it to admonish her she could ha

d, fur in his sendin' it's the same. An' I know that air a true word. An' that's what makes me 'low what he said war true 'bout'n that fiddle; that I ought never ter hev pervented the boy from playin' 'round home an' sech, an' 'twarn't no sin but powerful comfortable an' pleasurable ter set roun' of a cold winter night an' hear him play them slow, sweet, dyin'-away chunes-" She

. Yes'm, Sister Sudley, that's jes what p'inted out my jewty plain afore my eyes, an' I riz up an' kem ter be instant in a-doin' of it. 'I'll not leave my own nevy in the tents o' sin,' I sez. 'I hev chil'n o' my own, hearty feeders an

as she gradually apprehended his meaning and his mission, changed from motionless white to a t

e kem hyar a-faultin' me, an' tellin' me ez I 'ain't done my jewty ennywhar or ennyhow!" she exclaimed, with a pride which, as a pious saint, she had never ex

sp'iled the boy; ye hev sp'iled him through kindness ter him, an' not ye so much ez Ty. Ty never hed so much ez a dog that would mind him!

, melancholy, forlorn, and diminutive wife. Nehemiah rose up and walked back and forth for a moment with an excited face and a bent back, and a

ded could command, sat looking at him with a changed face-a face that seemed twenty years younger; it had the expression it wore before it had grown pinched and ascetic and insistently sorrowful; one might guess how she had look

lldee an' ez nimble. An' under his chin war a fiddle, an' his head war craned down ter it." He mimicked the attitude as he stood on the hearth. "He never looked up wunst. Away he walked, light ez a plover, an' a-ping, pang, ping, pang," in a high falsetto, "went that fiddle! I war plumb 'shamed fur the critters in the woods t

Sudley, recognizing the description perfectly, b

d the gaunt and hard-featured Nehemia

t his mother's be-you-ti-ful blue eyes and her curling, silken brown hair-sorter red; little Yerby in that, me

hev a be-you-ti-ful curlin' nose, like the elephint in the show

man and his team, and slipped out to the barn with her news. She realized, with a strange enlightenment as to her own mental processes, what angry jealousy the look on his face would have roused in

tared at her dumfounded and piteous, s

, as it were, to his own old familiar identity; "ye ain't 'feared o' that thar snaggle-toothed skeer

, his eyes eloq

hing plumb knocks me down; it jes

the pulses beat strongly responsive to it. Faith ruled the world. Some tiny bulbous thing at her feet that had impeded her step caught her attention. It was coming up from the black earth, and the buried darkness, and the chill winter's torpor, with all the impulses of confidence in the light without, and the warmth of the sun, and the fresh showers that

ng arm. It was powerless now. She perceived this, all dismayed at the responsibility that had fa

d, with a sharp tonic note of

tin' from him; I oughter made him sign papers agreein' fu

t meanin' ter let him take th

how the law stands. He air kin ter Lee-yande

anches of the aspens cast only the symmetrical outline of the tree form on the illumined grass, and seemed scarcely less bare than in winter, bu

tricate successions of tones, ending in a brilliant borrowed roulade, delivered with a wonderful velocity and élan. The long tail feathers, all standing stiffly upward, once more drooped; the mocking-bird turned his he

ke, throbbed tenderly for him. Ah, what was to be his fate! What unkind lot did the future hold for h

made the disclosure, for Sudley remained silent, the end of the ox-yoke in his tre

, the other holding a great brown gourd full of the clear water which he had busied himself in securing while she sought to prepare him to hear the worst. His lips, like a bent bow as she thought, were red and still moist as he now and then took the gourd from the

fright, his futile reliance on them who had always befriended him, his c

ith me, Cap'n?" he suddenly demanded. "Mought know I warn't industrious in the f

CTIVE DAY, INDUC

strious an' git cornsider'ble work out

in' enough fur the wuth o' feed out'n a toler'ble beastis like old Blaze-face thar, don't it, Neighbor?-an' how is it a-goin' ter be with a human ez mebbe will hold back an' air sot agin plo

in. He seen the fiddle, Lee; it's all complicated with

ourd. "Cap'n," he said, reassuringly, "jes let's hear Uncle Nehemiah talk some mo', an

us Uncle Nehemiah. However, Nehemiah Yerby could hardly be esteemed unsuspicious in any point of view, so fu

re than once he passed his hand across them with a troubled, harassed manner, and he sighed heavily. For which his co-conspirators could have fallen upon him. How could he be so dull, so forgetful of all save the fear of separation from the boy whom he had reared, whom he loved as his own son; how could he fail to know that a jaunty, assured mien might best serve his interests until at any rate the blow had fallen; why should he wear

in enny kind o' a free fight; but bekase he dun'no' how the law stands, an' air afeard the law mought

ashes and "crow-feet" about Nehemiah's eyes as he droned on an eve

in yearthly goods an' chattels," said Laurelia,

nexpected disclosure was twofold, in that it furnished a reason for Tyler's evident depression of spirits, demolishing the augury that his manner had afforded as to the

e did not observe the sudden rousing of Tyler Sudley from his revery, and the glance of indignant reproach which he cast on his wife. No man, however meek, or however bowed down with sorrow, will bear unmoved a gratuitous mention of his debts; it seems to wound him with all the rancor of insult, and to enrage him with the hopelessness o

sech?" he demanded, speculatively, with an inquiring and doubtful corrugation of his br

arely responded, blinking

owledge-readin' an' writin' an' cipherin' an' sech. How air ye expectin' to hold out, 'kase I know ye n

flank of the conversation with a complete summary of amounts, dates, and names of creditors, and he sought to balk this in its inception. Moreover, his forbearance with Nehemiah, with his presence, his personal

nder. I could look smart an' sober like him, but that's 'bout all the fur my school

ir verges as he nervously moistened them. His small eyes had brightened with

in' vigorous. Bein' ez I seen the Lord's hand war liberal with the gift

a thump. Despite his anxiety a slow light of ridicule began to

ars old, a-settin' on the same seat with the chil'n at the deestric' schoo

ffaw of great relish when Nehemiah sp

a-visitin' his sister, an' he kem an' gin me lessons

stood only too well. He had not learned so much himself to be unaware how much in time and labor learning costs. The

mus' hev tole ye 'bout Lee-yander hya

on, but the gay, affectionate, vaunting laugh, as Tyler Sudley turned around and clapped the b

"Old Ab himself don't know no mo'! I'll be b

, and his smile was mechanical a

r ter playin' the fiddle." He hesitated for a moment, longing to stigmatize its ungodliness; but the recollection of Tyler Sudley's uncert

rightly and obediently when his uncle wagged an uncouthly sportive head (Nehemiah's anatomy lent itself to the gay an

y ye. How much air nine tim

with a bright, docile counte

trembled during the pause, for it seemed so threatening. They smiled at each other, unconsci

ir twelve times eight

e the answer, qu

ne exultation, as he brought down the fore-legs of the chair

under the nominal incumbency of this unlettered lout. Had the whole transaction been open and acknowledged, Leander would have had scant appetite for the work under this master; but he revolted at the flimsy, contemptible sham; he bitterly resented the innuendoes against the piety of the Sudleys, not that he cared for piety, save in the abstract; he was daunted by the brutal ignorance, the doltish inefficiency of the imposture that had so readily accepted his patently false answers to the simple questions. He had a sort of crude reverence for education,

ter keep store, they'd be welcome; but I won't play stalkin'-horse

saw that he was alone in his discovery. Neither Sudley nor his wife had perceived any connection between the store, the pr

by the moonlight admitted through the little square window at the gable end-so silent, so still, it seemed that it too slept like the silent house. The winds slumbered amidst the mute woods; a bank of cloud that he could see from his lowly couch lay in the south becalmed. The bird's song had ceased. It seemed to him as he lifted himself on his elbow that he had never known the world so hushed. The rustle of the quilt of gay glazed calico was of note in the quietude; the impact of his bare foot on the floor was hardly a sound, rather an annotation of his weight and his movement; yet in default of all else the sense of hearing marked it. His scheme seemed impracticable as for an instant he wavered at the head of the ladder that served as a stairway; the next moment his foot was upon the rungs, his light, lithe figure slipping down it like a shadow. The room below, all eclipsed in a

r hand clutched the boughs of a great holly-tree close beside the house. It was only the moonlight on those smooth, lustrous leaves, but it seemed as if smiling white faces looked suddenly down from among the shadows: at this lonely hour, with none awake to see, what strange things may there not be astir in the world, what unmeasured, unknown forces, sometimes felt through the dulling sleep of mortals, and then called dreams! As he stood breathless upon the ground the wind awoke. He heard it race around the corner of the house, bending the lilac bushes, and then it softly buffeted him full in the face and twirled his hat on the ground. As he stooped to pick it up he heard whispers and laughter in the lustrous boughs of the holly, and the gleaming faces shifted with the shadows. He looked fearfully over his shoulder; the rising wind might waken some one of the household. His "Neighbor" was, he knew, solicitous about the weather, and suspicious of its intentions lest it not hold fine till all the oats be sown. A pang wrung his heart; he remembered the long line of seasons when, planting corn in the pleasant spring days, his "Neighbor" had opened the furrow with the plough, and the "Captain" had followed, dropping the grains, and he had brought up the rear with his hoe, coverin

vengeance he sought to implicate Sudley as accessory to the mysterious disappearance. He found some small measure of solace in stumping up and down the floor before the hearth, furiously railing at the absent host, for Sudley had not yet relinquished the bootless quest, and indignantly upbraiding the forlorn, white-faced, grief-stricken Laurelia, who sat silent and stony, her faded eyes on the fire, heedless of his word

he boy up to it, for Leander was not so lacking in feeling as to flee from his own bloo

in a counterpart frame of mind, charging Nehemiah with the responsibility of the disaster. It was strange to Laurelia that she, who

im, an' he hev runned away an' tuk ter the woods tarrified by the very sight of ye," he averred. "He'll never kem back; no, he'll never k

ders the temper pliable, and when Nehemiah sought to point a moral in the absence of the violin, and for the first time in Sudley's presence protested that he desired to save Leander from that device of the

pecimen of the skill of the Sudleys in rearing children. He had been pampered and spoiled, according to general report, and more than one of his successive interlocutors were polite enough to opine that the change to Nehemiah'

kon," was the universal surmise. "He

mystery than Leander's refuge. Nothing more definite could be elicited than a vague rumor t

y upon the possibility that he might secure the postmastership without the capable assistant whose services were essential. In this perverse sequence of events disaster to his application was more to be desired than success. He foresaw himself browbeaten, humiliated, detected, a butt for the ridicule of the community, his pretensions in the dust, his pitiful imposture unmasked. And beyond these ?sthetic misfortunes, t

a saw-mill at the most eligible point. The surveyor had his especial vanity, and it was expressed in his frequent boast that he carried a complete map of the county graven upon his brain; he was wont to esteem it a gracious opportunity when a casual question in a group of loungers enabled him to display his familiarity with every portion of his rugged and mountainous region, which was indeed astonishing, even taking into consideration his incumbency for a number of terms, aided by a strong head for locality. Nehemiah Yerby's scheme was incalculably favored by this circumstance, but he found it unexpected

nther Ridge? Why, man alive, that thre

se into silence, while the surveyor, loving to do what he could do well, was lured

s of sech a stream ez Hide-an'-Seek Creek are past finding out. It's a 'sinking creek,' you know; goes along with a good volume and a swift current for a while to the west, then disappears into the earth, a

eek?" demanded Nehemiah, scepti

s," promptly replied the man of the compass, with a triumphant snap of the eye, as if he entertained a certain pride in the vagaries of his untamed mountain friend. "Nobody

" exclaimed Neh

ss ter live, an' ye jes applied fur the post-office down at the cross-roads? Ye

nkled face showed the flush of discomfitur

rter all's come an' gone. Nothin'

ye don't?" demanded the surveyor, incredul

Nehemiah, posed beyond recuperation. "I mus

is conversation had taken place at the blacksmith's shop at

l the out-o'-the-way water-power in the kentry fifty mile from where he b'longs. He's a heap likelier t

r's mind was of the type prompt in reaching conclusion

ncy; now, in turbulent glee among the rocks, riotously chanting aloud, challenging the echoes, and waking far and near the forest quiet; and again it was merely a low, restful murmur, intimating deep, serene pools and a dallying of the currents, lapsed in the fulness of content. Then Nehemiah Yerby would be beset with fears that he would lose this whisper, and his progress was slight; he would pause to listen, hearing nothing; would turn to right, to left; would take his way back through the labyrinth of the laurel to catch a thread of sound, a mere crystalline tremor, and once more follow this transient lure. As the stream came down a gorge at a swifter pace and in a succession of leaps-a glassy cataract visible here and there, airily sporting with rainbows, affiliating with ferns and moss and marshy growths, the bounding spray glittering in the sunshine-it flung forth continuously tinkling harmonies in clear crystal tones, so penetrating, so definitely melodic, that more than once, as he paced along on his jaded horse, he heard in their midst, without disassociating the sounds, the ping,

, he slowly turned his horse's rein and took his way out of danger. It was chiefly some demonstration on the animal's part that he had feared. A snort, a hoof-beat, a whinny would betray him, and very liable was the animal to any of these expressions. One realizes how unnecessary is speech for the exposition of opinion when brought into contradictory relations with the horse which one rides or drives. All day had this animal snorted his doubts of his master's sanity; all day had he protested against these aimless, fruitless rambles; all day had he held back with a high head and a hard mouth, while whip and spur pressed him through laurel almost impenetrable, and throug

gratefully, as they wended their way along; for without the horse he could not hav

e present, he struck a sharp gait that would have done honor to his youthful days, for he had worn out several pairs of legs in Nehemiah's fields, and was often spoken of as bei

eason. It too was suffused with the urgent pungency of the rising sap, with the fragrance of the wild-cherry, wit

ng languished under the bank of ashes. The tallow dip seemed full of caloric, and melted rapidly in pendulous drippings. He now and again mopped his red face, usually so bloodless, with his big bandanna handkerchief, while all the zephyrs were fanning the flying tresses of Spring at the window, and the soft, sweet, delicately attuned vernal chorus of the marshes were tentatively running over sotto voce their allotted melodies for the season. Oh, it was a fine night outside, and why should a moth, soft-winged and cream-tinted and silken-textured, come whisking in from the dark, as silently as a spirit, to supervise Nehemiah Yerby's letter, and travel up and down the page all befouled with the ink? And as he sought to save the sense of those significant sentences from its trailing silken draperies, why

d upon the place. Leander would be captured among the moonshiners, but his youth and his uncle's representations-for he would give the officers an inkling of t