Down the Ravine

ne in his absence, all unaware of his proximity

cipline. Byers had given heed to more crafty counsels. On the whole he was now glad that he had not had the opportunity to make Birt and the hickory sprout acquainted with each other. This would be an acknowledgment that he had been terrified by the manufactured ghost, and he preferred foregoing open revenge to encountering the jocose tanner's ridicule, and the

ded and at their limp condition, and when she found a bunch of cockle-burs in the worsted fringes of the shawl she declared that witches must have had it, for she had not worn it since early in April when there were no cockle-burs.

He worked on doggedly, scheming all the time to get off from the tanyard, and

Griggs! No; only for a moment he thought this was Nate. But this fellow's eyes were not so close together; his hair was less s

over his arm, and he shoul

ck Rufe's hat over his eyes, as the small boy stood in front of the low-spirited mule, both hands

e stooped to pick up his hat the mule showed some curiosit

hes into the mule's age, came up to the other two boys. Tim had

y, an' I thought I

e since he hev been gone aw

e home," re

e?" Birt asked with

" said Tim

icated with his partner about their prop

e aimed ter bide away

t. I hev been so onlucky ez I couldn't make out ter pay him nohow in the worl'. Ye see, I traded with Nate fur a shoat, an' the spiteful beastis sneaked out'n my pen, an' went rootin' round the aidge o' the clearin', an' war toted off bodaciously b

mpression, amounting to a conviction, that there was som

d what he hev jes' got 'entered' ez he calls it? He hev got a grant

'entered!'"

e 'entry-taker,' they calls him, an' gits it 'entered,' an' the surveyor kem an' medjured it, an' then Nate got a grant fur it, an' now it air his'n.

gasped Birt, possess

ered expression could not for an instant have

l down the ravine nigh that thar salt-lic

white face had at last arre

er porely an' sick all of a suddint; tel

. He was generally much cowed and kept down by Nate, and was unaccustomed to respect and

s the law in Tennessee, ter git a title ter vacant land ez jes' b'longs ter the State. Mebbe them air the ways

years older. Now he began to appreciate that Nate was indeed a man grown, and had become sophist

g allowed to talk without contradiction o

long," he said reflectively. "H

' the State?" excla

' 'bout. Nate hed ter pay him three dollars an' better fur medjurin' the land. He tole Nate ez his land war ez steep an' rocky a spot ez thar war in Tennessee

t, who hung with feverish inte

e needn't hev been in sech a hurry ter enter his land, 'kase the entry-taker told it ter him ez it air the law in Tennessee ez ennybody ez finds a mine or val'able min'ral on vaca

emonstration but for the in

odd year ago - in 1831, I believe he said. He 'lowed them mountings hain't got no coal like our'n hev, an' the Cumberland Mountings hain't got no gold

extremes has afforded scope for vacillati

stiff, white folded paper sticking out of the breast pocket. "I reckon when he tole me ter tote his gun an' co

ands full, as he tried to hold the gun, and turn the coat on his arm. He finally hung the garment on a peg

de o' that thar boy?" he exc

rently from Rufe's pocket. This chicken differed from o

her nest with fourteen of the spryest deedies that ever stepped. One in especial had so won upon Rufe by its beauty and grace of

that came within his eccentric orbit seemed to realize that, - and the deedie was content

, Rufus Dicey, had sent to him from the "valley kentry" a present of a pair of game

and at once asked for the deedie in the small boy's pocket. Rufe, however, refused to part from the chick of his adoption, and presently Tim, w

coveted the whole. His craft had secured it for himself alone. He had the legal title to the land, the mine - all! There seemed absolutely no vulnerable point in his scheme. With suddenly sharpened perceptions, Birt realized that if he should now claim the discovery and the consequent right of thir

revolving vengeful purposes in his mind. Every moment he grew more bitter, as he reflected upon his wrecked scheme, his wonderful fatuity

a whirl, and the familiar scene swayed, strange and distorted, before him. He steadied himsel

e sultry world; an angry storm was in the air. The first vivid flash and simul

"Ye lef' no wood hyar, an' ye said ye would borry the mule, an' come home early a-purpose to haul some. An' me

wded out the recollecti

uddenly, "An' whar war Rufe, an' Pete, an' Joe, ez ye hed

bled somehows, ez ye can't pick up chips an' bresh an' sech?" h

e's trap ez ye sot fur squir'ls," Mrs. Dicey explai

nough wood for breakfast tomorrow, and then he fell silent.

is mother asked at the supper table. "Pears-

ble and resumed his chair by the window, and

the wall, and about the rude shutter which closed the glassless window. Now and then a crash from the forest told of a riven tree. But the storm had no terrors for the inmates of this humble dwelling. Pete and Joe

and crept noiselessly to the door; the fastening was the primitive latch with a string attached; it opened without a sound in his cautious handl

hought he indistinctly heard the door open again. He drea

roar of the wind, the dash of the rain, and

his dreary reflections and the fie

gs," he said, over and again.