The Call of the Cumberlands

his axe slip, and the cutting edge gashed his ankle. Since to the discoverer belongs the christening, that water-course became Cripple-shin, and so it is to-day set down on

able rift. Together, and as comrades, they had made their homes, and founded their race. What original grievance had sprung up between their descendants none of the present generation knew-perhaps it was a farm line or disputed ti

rs and McCagers. Other families, related only by marriage and close association, were, in feud alignment, none the less "Souths." And over beyond the ridge, where the springs and brooks flo

ep in veins of bituminous wealth. But to that time he looked with foreboding, for he had been raised to the standards of his forefathers, and saw in the coming of a new régime a curtailment of personal liberty. For new-fangled ideas he held only the aversion of deep-rooted prejudice. He hoped that he might live out his days, and pass before the foreigner held his land, and the Law became a power stronger than the individual or the clan. The Law was his enemy, because it said to him, "Thou shalt not," when he sought to take the yellow corn which bruising labor had coaxed from scattered rock-strewn fields to his own mash-vat and still. It meant, also, a tyrannous power usually seized and administered by enemies, which undertook to forbid the personal settlement of personal quarrels. But

of the weird. The sweep of the stone-guarded well rose in a yard tramped bare of grass. The house itself, a rambling structure of logs, with additions of undressed lumber, was without lights. The cabin, which h

unded guest of to-day. One of the kinsmen proved to have a rude working knowledge of bone-setting, and before the half-hour h

he stile, and Sally herself appeared with the announc

r, she timidly slipped farther back into the shadowy door of the cabin, and dropped down on the sill, where, with her hands clasped about her knees, she gazed curiously at himself. She did not speak, but sat immovable with her thick hair falli

nosyllabic comment from the taciturn group threatened to reveal to the gi

skeered ter go

either nervousness nor fear, and yet there was something el

him, "but, ef ye wants ter walk as

taking his hat and

although he was alien to their ways, he was sympathetic and to be trusted. Once that assurance was given, the family talk went on much as though he

than himself, though she was really younger, appeared,

d; and the mountaineers, knocking the ashes

d crane. The food, coarse and greasy, but not unwholesome, was set on a long table covered with oilcloth. The

ers, and, before the meal ended, Samson returned and dropped without comment into h

quavered. The more distant line of mountains showed in a mist of silver, and the nearer heights in blue -gray silhouette. A wizardry of night and softness settled like a benediction, and from the dark door of the house stole the quaint folk

e moonlight in his eyes, and, besides the moonlight, that sparkle which is the esse

t somehow what there is is jest about the right ones. Hit whispers ter a feller, the same as a mammy whispers ter her baby.

ives reflected such poetry of feeling, could be one with the savage young animal who had, two hou

t do that. Music and color are two expression

quivering shadows in the water; and Lescott asked cautio

skies and hills and thei

was half-ashame

d, "I 'lows that I hain't muc

withdrawal again into the shell of taciturnity. After a few moments of silence, he slowly turned his head, and glanced at his companion, to find him standing rigidly with his elbows resting on the top palings of the fence. He had thrown his rough hat to the ground, and his face in the pale moonlight was raised. His eyes under the black mane of hair were glowing deeply with a fire of something like exaltation, as he gazed away. It was the expression of

n doggedly-"even Sally kain't see how a man kin keer about things like skies and the color of the hills, ner the way ther sunset splashes the sky clea

trong fingers grasped his tensed biceps u

ighty God builds hills like them"-he swept both hands out in a wide circle- "an' makes 'em green in summer, an' lets 'em blaze in red an' yaller in ther fall, an' hangs blue skies over 'em an' makes ther sun shine, an' at night sprinkles 'em with stars an' a moon like the

n no other country. I don't know whether all places is like these hyar mountings er not, but I knows thet the Lord didn't 'low fer men ter live blind, not seein' no beauty in nothin'; ner not feelin' nothin' but hate an' meanness-ner studyin' 'bout nothin' but deviltry.

o their customary mold of stoical hardness. It occurred to him that his outburst had been a long one and

o a unique and strangely interesting edifice of character, and his own speech as he talked there by the pali

hain't never talked that-away with no other man. Ye jest seemed ter kind of compel me ter do hit. When I says things like thet ter Sally,

avely, "is because they

and mists an' colors the same es ef they was thar in front

and his voice fell

the maple can sha

les goi

of marching soldiery under a dozen flags. To Samson South, it suggested only one: mili

and kindled the logs on the deep hearth. There was no other light, and, until the flames climbed to roaring volume, spreading their zone of yellow brightness, only the circle about th

voice, keyed to a stubborn note, as though

feller thet grows up plumb ign'ran

rew a contemplativ

, Samson. Thet's a heap more schoolin' then I

almost accusing-"I'd hev lamed more then j

. He had ideas about law an' all that, an' he talked 'em. He got shot ter death. Yore Uncle John South went down below, an' got ter be a la

hing and the ol

run him outen

blazed the boy. "He didn't

"He'd done rented a house down below though, an' was a-fixin'

it?" deman

cer, was eddicated. H

se Purvy was runnin'

r the door of his hous

rn-an' shot h

t of

nnin' attar newfangled idees. They gets too much notion of goin' ter law-an' thet'

thet didn't hev no eddication," suggested the youngest Sou