The Call of the Cumberlands

s cabin, he found a dejected and miserable girl sitting on the stile, with he

sly. "Hes that low-down Tamarack Spicer been roun

heir conversations, Samson merely agreeing with, or overruling,

Cager's mill come Saturday," he insinuatingly suggested

ently and without enthusiasm that she would "study about it." At last

goin' away

n' ter ye?" demande

. The katydids were prophesying with strident music the six weeks' warning of fros

n 'lowed as how ye had a right ter go down thar, an' git an

sartin in my mind, I'd a-told ye myself-not but what I

ye a-

dyin' ab

came. Then, with a piquing of h

in', Sally, wheth

hard. The moonlit landscape seemed to whirl in a dizzy circle. Her face did not betray her, nor h

had ought ter

d avoided the subject for fea

as though repeating a le

et's new-an' civilized an' beautiful! Ye'll see lots of gals thet kin read an' write, gals dress

dly to Samson's lips. He reached

as you be, Sally. I reckon ye knows, whether I

e last day, she had ceased to be a child, and become a woman

e sees them other gals-gals thet kin read an' write-I reckon mebby ye'l

recruit may be of the battle terrors-before he has been under

n' an' writin' can't make no difference fer a woman.

hain't a-goin' ter be expectin' ye ter come back ... But" -the resolution in her v

nst me, too? Don't ye see that I wants ter have a chanst? Can't ye trust me? I'm je

no

said, wearily, "thet I th

really looking away into the future, which she saw stripped of companionship and love, and gray with the ashiness of wretched desolation. And, while he was seeing the light of the simulated cheeriness die out in her face, she

amation of the part of Samson which she could not comprehend, as though he were looking into a spirit world of weird and abnormal things. It was the light of an enthusiasm such as his love for her could not bring to his eyes-and it told her that the strongest and deepest part of Samson did not belong to her. Now, as the young man stood there before her, and her little world

s. But Sally drew away with a little shud

e bent toward her, his eyes lost the strange light she feared,

her matter-now,"

other times, he gave way to the yearnings for change and opportunity. But the lure of the palette and brush possessed h

st, "is jest like the sparkle in a gal's eyes when she's tickled at somethin' ye've sa

ut, while the younger folk abandoned themselves to these diversions, the grayer heads would gather in more serious conclave. Jesse Purvy had once more beaten back death, and his mind had probably been devising, during those bed-ridden days and nights, plans of reprisal. According to current report, Purvy had announced that his

The case was now submitted with the suggestion that the boy take three months to consider, and that, if he decided affirmatively, he should notify Lescott in

ince he was curious to observe what pressure was brought to bear on the boy

og and pitching clouds. Hillside streams ran freshets, and creek-bed roads were foaming and boiling into waterf

por. Here and there along the lower slopes hung puffs of smoky mist as though s

utaries, men and women began their hegira toward the mill. Some came on foot, carrying their shoes in their hands, but those were only near-by dwellers. Others made saddle journeys of ten or fifteen, or even twenty, miles, and the beasts that carried a single burden were few. Lescott rode in the wake of Samson, who had Sally on a pillow at his back, and along the seven miles of journey he st

ind him on a sheepskin or pillion. Many of the men rode side-saddles, and sacks bulky at each end hinted of such baggage as is carried in jugs. Lescott realized from the frank curiosity with which he was regarde

like a dam

sed a country of palisading cliffs and immensity of forest, park-like and splendid. Strangely picturesque suspension bridges with rough stairways at their ends spanned waters too deep for fording. Frame houses showed along the banks of t

d with tethered horses and mules, and a canvas-covered wagon came creeping in behind its yoke of oxen. Men stood clust

basin and pitcher-a declaration of affluence. From the interior of the house came the sounds of fiddling, though these strains of "Turkey in the Straw" were only by way of prelude. Lescott felt, though he could not say just what concrete thing told him, that under the shallow no

stood about and talked, and to Lescott they gave a gravely polite g

eep in ways and means. If the truce could be preserved for its unexpired period of three years, it was, of course, best. In that event, crops could be cultivated, and lives saved. But, if Jesse Purvy chose to regard his shooting as a breach of terms, and struck, he would strike hard, and, in that event, best defense lay in striking first. Samson would soon be twenty-one. That he would take his place as head

et fearing that another trigger might at any moment be drawn. Purvy dared not have Samson shot out of hand, because he feared that the Souths would claim his life in return, yet he feared to let Samson live. On the other hand, if Purvy fell, no South could balance his death, except Spicer or Samson. Any situation that might put conditions to a moment of issue would either prove that the truce was being observed, or open the war-and yet each faction was guarding against such an event as too fraught with danger. One thing wa

n in part, as he stood at the door of

ctions. A young woman from Deer Lick and a girl from the head of Dryhill had been matched for the "hoe-down," and h

d screamed encouragement. It seemed that the girls must fall in exhaustion, yet each kept on, resolved to be still on the floor when the other had abandoned it in defeat-that being the test of victory. At last, the girl from Dryhill reeled, and was caught by half-a-dozen arms. Her adversary,

the earliest to succumb to the temptation of the moonshine jug, a temptation which would later claim

done turned Samson inter a gal," pro

boy was reaching under his coat with hand

uted, with a wild whoop and

ut Sally had heard, and

said, quietly. "I reckon ye'd better run on