Down the Ravine

absorption, Birt paused to put them up, remembering the vagrant mountain cattle that might stray in upon the corn. He found the familiar little job difficult enough, f

wn the gale, was not much better off, for all its vaunted nocturnal vision. As it drifted by, on the currents of the wind, its noiseless,

Then he exclaimed irritably, "Oh, g'wa

, close at hand, amongst the glooms, a faint chuckle. S

e down-pour of the rain, the sonorous gusts of the wi

l this trouble ez I hev hed along o' Nate

ecalled hi

s he plodded on heavily down the path, his mind once more busy with all the d

w of the State according priority to the finder of mineral. The mine was his, but he had hi

him," he said resolute

omehow the episode of the afternoon had left so vivid an impression on Birt's mind that hours afterward he seemed to see the dull, clouded sky, the sombre, encircling w

tear it into bits, and cast it to the turbulent mountain winds. It was not his, to b

rgued with hi

is no place for Reason to debate the qu

wrong, although he would not admit it. He would not forego his revenge - it was too dear; he was to

gnorant that the deed which he contemplated was a crim

over and again to himself, "I'll git even with Nate Griggs; he'll he

rain soon ceased; the wind began to scatter the clouds; through a rift

close behind him. He turned and looked back into the obscurities of the forest. Nothing - a fr

e did not hesitate. He stepped over the bars, which lay as usual on the ground, and walked across the yard

pulsion when he touch

reated me," he remonstra

omething close behind him. All at once he knew what it was, even before a flash of the distant lightning re

had followed him to-night, as

ar, Tennessee!

ands, to understand, even to question. But had he been seized by the whole Griggs tribe, he could not have been so p

innocence. Not here - not now could he be vindictive, malicious. With some urgent, inborn impulse strongly

d that he should have c

Tennessee hedn't stepped up so powerful peart I moughtn't hev come ter my senses in time. I mought hev tore up Nate

ver her knitting, and Rufe asleep in his chair, and the fire smouldering on the hearth, all as he had left it, he might have thought

er, who stared in drowsy astonishment at

her out," Birt explained. "It 'pears ter hev rain

his statement. Her streaming hair flirted drops of water on the floo

ye air follerin' Birt off from the house, an' I ain't surprised none ef it eats ye! But shucks!" Mrs. Dicey

tter unintelligibly about an "owel," and to chuckle so, that Birt had sudden

he owl had startled him, and the little gi

r powerful peart," he said, affectionately,

orning was pierced by the gilded, glittering javelins of the sunrise, flung from over the misty eastern mountains. As the day dawned all sylvan fascinations were alert in the woods. The fragrant winds were ga

for the fireplace, when he noticed a squirrel, sleek woodland dandy,

roaching hoofs along the road, and presently from around the curve a woman appe

when she reined up beside it. Birt dropped his axe and joined them, expecting to hear more about Nate's grant and the gold mine. Rufe and Tennessee added their company without any definite intention. Pete and Joe were hurrying out of the house toward the grou

propriate gesticulation, it aided in expounding to Mrs. Dicey the astonishing news that Nate had found a gold mine on vacant land, an

d of the Assayer. But indeed Nate had only learned of the existenc

pplemented all this by the creditable statements that Nate had turned twe

gile that it was startling to witness the temerity with which he kicked up his frolicsome heels. The dogs, with that odd canine affectation of having just perce

to lamenting that she had been working all her life for nothing, and it would take so little to make the family comfortable, and that her children s

loom and trouble in his fac

day an' night o' how smart ye be - stiddy an' sensible an' hard-workin' jes' like a man - an' what a good son ye hev been to me!

heerful laugh, in whic

said, kneeling down on the hearth, and uncovering th

mine. I reckon sech a good son ez ye be, an' a gold mine too

door. Then he paused, and broke forth with passionate incoherence, telling amidst sobs and

d the despair in which they were at last merged, he did not notice, for a t

rew silent; then s

t as if graven in stone; only her eyes spoke, an eloquent anguish. Her faculties were n

e realize the loss of the mine? Fo

alled tone. "Did ye hide it from

s head. The

sked deprecatingly, holding out her worn, h

n' but

s mother air bound ter take

me," said the

hide it from me? Wha

t me ter go pardners with

wouldn't!" s

he war a snake

ed that air

him!" cried Birt vain

se at last with a sigh and went mechanic

between them. He fe

said, defending his motives. "I 'lowed ez I

a heap o' store by yer mother, an' war willin' ter trust her - ye an' me hevin' been through mig

th resolved itself into tears with