Down the Ravine

the old gentleman held out hi

ttle man!" he sai

sudden distrust. Who was this strang

spicious color to the little mountaineer, who had never seen men clad in aught but the brown jeans habitually worn by the hunters of the range. He remembere

harp declivities, falling twice or thrice in his

climbed down from rail to rail, his sullen "Lemme 'lone, now!" was answered by sundry snaps at his heels and a low growl. Not that Towse would really have

se sprouts of chickweed and clumps of mullein that grew just beneath, for there were no steps, and Towse bo

le clearing and humble log-cabin were but meagre suggestions of that strong, full-pulsed h

however, was wide awake, and busily canvassing how to account to Birt for the lack of a message from Nate Griggs, for he would not confess how untrustw

attention as she came to the door.

the voice of accusation. She had no idea of

mself. "Hain't teched 'em, n

an' ain't partic'lar what ye say," rejoined his mother,

at the tanyard. He set out at a brisk pace. He had no mind to be long alone in the woods since his strange adventure down the ra

as still at work. He turned and looke

" he called sonorously, above t

orrer by sun-up!" piped out

when he was obliged to labor so

at had started on his head and face. He felt sick, and sad, and extremely wicked, - a sorry contrast to Birt, who was so honest and reliab

d a mystic chant. The drone of the katydid vibrated in the laurel, and the shrill-voiced cricket chirped. Two of the men were in the shed examining a green hide by the light of a perforated tin lant

that some mischance had detained Nate to-day, and t

te should not go to the ravine until the work commenced was more than he ought to have asked. And perhaps, too, the trespasser was not Nate! The traces of shallow delving might have been left

rgued human presence in that lonely spot; a rock dislodged and rolling heavily down the gorge might have thus scraped into the

eoccupied when he lifted Tennessee to his shoulder and trudged off homeward, with

ugh he laughed more than ever, he felt it was very hard to be gay without the subtle essence of mirth. That lie! - it seemed to grow; before supper was over it was as big as the warping-bars, and when they all sat in a semicircle in the open passage,

use. Time was afoot - it always is - but Birt might not know how it sped; no shadows on the spent tan this dark day! Over his shoulder he was forever glancing, hoping that Nate would presently appear

ten remarked, "The tanyard owes me good foot-gear - ef the rest o' the mounting hev ter go barefoot." The expression of his face was somewhat masked by a heavy grizzled beard, but from beneath the wide brim of his hat his eyes peered out with a jocose twinkle. His mouth seemed chiefly useful as a receptacle for his pipe-stem, for he spoke through his nose. His voice was

around and around the bark-mill. The patient old animal, being in no danger of

e day, ef things keep on ez disapp'intin' ez they hev been lately," thoug

ound caused him to turn his head. His heart gave a bound when he saw that on the other side of the fence the underbrush was astir along the path which wound through the woods to the tanyard. Somebody was coming; he hoped even yet that it mig

ointment. Then he was disposed to investi

small boy was inside the tanyard, "be you-uns

into his freckled face. He even opened his mouth to exhibit astonishment - exhibit

come yit?"

enly put into t

n' ter trade with ter take yer pla

be hyar ter-day by sun-up. Rufe b

with fortitude the pucker in his mouth, since it enabled him to make such faces at Towse as caused the dog to snap and growl in a frenzy of surprised indignation. He had fashioned a corn-stalk fiddle - that instrument so dear

d out, suddenly, "I ha

ignantly, and Juba

own in the ravine by the lick, ez it

ehood with which he had accounted for it,

want nobody workin' in this hyar tanyard ez looks ez mournful ez ye do - like ez ef ye hed been buried an' dug up. But hu

tan?" asked

startled, and glancing h

by the lick,"

fully, "an' nuthin' lik

borhood of his hidden treasure, but he could not now question Rufe, for

ds, and his lips distended with a wide grin in

nd glaring down solemnly at Rufe; "ef ever I ketches ye goin' of yerrand

s eyes widening at the prospect

y queer when ye stand out thar on the spent tan, with jes' yer meat on yer bones, an 'loo

' on it, too," said Perkins. Which no doubt

enough ter go 'bout in respect'ble society ag'in. 'T would hurt ye mightily, I'm thinkin'. Ef I war you-uns, I

r. "An' ef I war you-uns, Andy Byers, I'd find su'thin' better ter do'n

!" said the man who had hitherto

bal!" said Byers, laughi

yerself," retor

hat Rufe had approached the shed; judging by his gestures, he was asking a vari

t split the gloom, and a radiant afternoon seemed to emerge. The moist leaves shone; far down the aisles of the woods the fugitive mists, in elusive dryadic suggestions, chased each other into the distance. Althoug

efooted, tow-headed children were making mud pies in a marshy dip close by. An ancient hound, that had renounced the chase and assumed in his old age the o

ut, for these were the child

est of the small boys shrilly piped out, "He he

development! "When

er come back f

v he gone?" ask

nded the same

id he s

shoats, and the hound seemed to consult together in the endeavor to distinguish "da

e of a spokesman

leaving this choice syndicate se

in high relief against the crimson west and the purpling ranges in the distance. The little cabin was quite alone in the world. No other house, no field, no clearing, was visible in all the vast expanse of mountains and vall

spoke close at hand. And then it was that Mrs. Griggs lamented her husband's course in "raisin' the house hyar so nigh the bluff

nted by a cotton cap with a wide and impressive ruffle, which, swaying and nodding, served to emphasize her remarks. She was conferring in a loud drawl with her

ds me sorter o' that thar tremenjious buck we hed las' September. He

uffle flapped

shot nothin' likelier'n a yaller-hammer sence I been born. S'pos'n ye jes' takes ter goin' a-huntin', an' skinnin' deer, an' cutt

n nowise dismayed. "I dunno but that p

y terminated as she g

ey a-hint ye. Howdy Bi

rstep. "I hain't got time ter 'light." Then precipitately opening the subject

ed whar he war bound fur. Nate hev turned twenty-one year old," she continued, "an' he 'lows he air a man growed, an' obligated ter obey nobody but hisself. From the headin'

cretion it need no

d Birt, who had wistfully ad

, the greatest privilege his kentry kin confer on him is ter make it capital puni

on her cap di

ed. "An' I s'pose he 'lows ez I hev

be gone?" asked Birt, dismayed b

it inter his head ter go ter the Cross-roads, a-courtin' a gal thar ez he hev been talkin' about powerful, lately. But they tells me," Mrs. Griggs expostulated, as it were, "that them gals at the Cross-roads is in no way desirable, - special

e 'lowed ter come

ggervated 'bout this caper o' Nate's. I ain't afeard he'll git hisself hurt no ways whilst he be gone, for Nate is mighty apt ter take keer o' Nate." She nodded her h

rtcomings, his absent eyes fixed upon the wide landscape, and hi

id; midway below the dark purple summits a dun, opaque vapor asserted itself in dreary, aerial suspension. Beneath it he could see a file of cows, homeward bound, along the road that encircled the mountain's base. He heard t