""As soon as Fiddler Abe starts singin" the girls an" boys begin comin" out of the woods like red ants out of a burnin" log, headin"
hotfoot for old Bender"s.
""Do I go?
""It ain"t a hour after candle lightin" when, with mebby it"s a pint of baldface onder the buckle of my belt, I"m jumpin" higher, shoutin"
louder, an" doin" more to loosen the puncheons in the floor than any four males of my species who"s present at that merry-makin". It he"ps old Bender, too, an" inspired by the company an" onder the inflooence of four or five stiff toddies, he resolves not to let that hoss trade carry him to a ontimely grave, an" is sittin" up in his blankets, yellin", "Wake snakes; an" Gin"ral Jackson fit the Injuns!" in happy accord with the sperit of his times.
""Fiddler Abe strikes into the exyooberant strains of "Little Black Bull Come Down the Mountains," an" I hauls Ten-spot Mollie out of the gin"ral ruck of calico for a reel. We calls her Ten-spot Mollie because she"s got five freckles on each cheek. All the same, when it comes to dancin", she"s sh.o.r.e a she-steamboat. Every time we swings she hefts me plumb free of the floor, an" bats my heels ag"in the rafters ontil both ankles is sprained.
""Sarah Ann falls jealous, seem" me an" Ten-spot Mollie thus pleasantly engaged, an" to get even goes to simperin" an" talkin"
giggle-talk to Mart Jenkins, who"s rid in from Rapid Run. Jenks is a offensive numbskull who"s wormed his way into soci"ty by lickin" all the boys "round his side of Gingham Mountain. At that, he"s merely tol"rated.
""Seein" Sarah Ann philanderin" with Jenks, I lets go of Ten-spot Mollie, who goes raspin" an" rollin" into a corner some abrupt, an"
sa"nters across to whar they"re at. Leanin" over Sarah Ann"s off-shoulder, bein" the one furthest from that onmitigated Jenks, I says, "Sweetheart, how can you waste time talkin" to this yere hooman Sahara, whose intellects is that sterile they wouldn"t raise cow-pease?"
""This makes Jenks oneasy, an" getting up, he reemarks, "d.i.c.k Stallins, I"ll be the all-firedest obleeged to you if you"ll attend on me to the foot of the hollow, an" bring your instrooments."
""At this I explains that I ain"t got my instrooments with me, havin"
left both rifle an" bowie in the dugout when I paddles over to the dance.
""Jenks makes a insultin" gesture, an" reetorts, "Don"t crawl, d.i.c.k Stallins. Borry old Bender"s nine-inch bootcher, an" come with me."
""To appease him I says I will, an" that I"ll j"ine him at the before named slaughter-ground in the flicker of a lamb"s tail. Jenks stalks off plumb satisfied, while I searches out Ben Hazlett, an" whispers that Jenks is askin" for him some urgent, an" has gone down the trace towards the foot of the hollow to look him up. Nacherally, my diplom"cy in this yere behalf sends Ben cavortin" after Jenks; an"
this relieves me a heap, knowin" that all Jenks wants is a fight, an"
Ben"ll do him jest as well as me.
""Which them was sh.o.r.ely happy days!" he continyoos, settin" down the bottle wharwith he"s been encouragin" his faculties. "Troo, every gent has to sleep with his head in a iron kettle for fear of Injuns, an" a hundred dollars is bigger"n a cord of wood, but life is plenty blissful jest the same."
""Was you afraid of this yere Jenks?" asks Boggs.
""No more"n if he"s a streak of lightnin". Only, I"ve got on a new huntin" shirt, made of green blanket cloth, an" I ain"t none strenuous about havin" that gyarment all slashed up.
""To proceed: After I dispatches Ben on the heels of Jenks that a-way it occurs to me that mebby I"m sort o" tired with the labors of the evenin", an" I"ll find my dugout, ferry myse"f over to my own proper wickyup, an" hit the hay for a snooze. I"m some hurried to the concloosion by the way in which eevents begins to acc.u.myoolate in my immedyit vicin"ty. Bill Wheeler announces without a word of warnin"
that he"s a flyin" alligator, besides advancin" the theery that Gene Hemphill is about as deeserv"dly pop"lar as a abolitionist in South Caroliny. I suspects that this att.i.toode of mind on Bill"s part is likely to provoke discussion, which suspicion is confirmed when Gene knocks Bill down, an" boots him into the dooryard. Once in the open, after a clout or two, Gene an" Bill goes to a clinch an" the fightin"
begins.
""It ain"t no time when the circ.u.mf"rence of trouble spreads. Bud Ingalls makes a pa.s.s at me pers"nal, an" by way of reeprisal I smashes a stewpan on him. Bud"s head goes through the bottom, like the clown through them paper hoops in a cirkus, the stewpan fittin" down "round his neck same as one of them Elizbethan ruffs. The stewpan ockyoopies so much of Bud"s attention that I gets impatient, an" so, tellin" him I ain"t got no time to wait, I leaves him strugglin" with that yootensil, an" strolls off down to the Hawgthief whistlin" "Sandy Land."
""It"s dark as the inside of a cow, an" somehow I misses the dugout; but bein" stubborn, an" plumb sot about gettin" home, I wades in an"
begins to swim. The old Hawgthief is bank full, but I"d have made t"other side all right if it ain"t that, as I swims out from onder the overhangin" branch of a tree, somethin" drops into the water behind me, an" comes snarlin" an" splashin" an" spittin" along in pursoote. I don"t pay much heed at the jump, but when it claws off my nigh moccasin, leavin" a inch-deep gash in my heel, I glances back an"
perceives by the two green eyes that I"ve become an object of comsoomin" int"rest to a pa"nter, or what you-all out yere calls a mountain lion, an" we-uns back in Tennessee a catamount."
""But a panther won"t swim," reemonstrates Tutt.
""Arizona catamounts won"t," returns old Stallins, "thar bein" no rivers to speak of. But in Tennessee, whar thar"s rivers to waste, them cats takes to the water like so many muskrats.
""When I finds that thar"s nothin" d.o.g.g.i.n" me but a catamount, I heads all casyooal for whar a tree"s done been lodged midstream, merely flingin" the reemark over my shoulder to the catamount that, if he keeps on annoyin" me, he"ll about pick up the makin"s of a maulin".
As I crawls out on the bole of the lodged tree, I can hear the catamount sn.i.g.g.e.rin", same as if he"s laughin" me to scorn, an" this yere insultin" contoomely half-way makes me mad. Which I ain"t in the habit of bein" took lightly by no catamount.
""Drawin" myse"f out o" the water, I straddles the bole of my tree, an" organizes for the catamount, who"s already crawlin" after me.
T"arin" off a convenient bough the thickness of your laig, I arranges myse"f as a reeception committee for visitin" catamounts, an" by way of beginnin" confers on my partic"lar anamile sech a bat over the snout that he falls back into the drink, an" starts to swimmin" fancy an" goin" "round in circles, same as if his funny-bone"s been teched.
""Every time he gets in reach I jabs him in the eye with the splinter end of the bough, an" at last he grows that disgusted at these formal"ties he swims off to the bank. Thar he camps down on his ha"nches, an" glares green-eyed at me across the ragin" flood.
""Sh.o.r.e, I could have raised the long yell for he"p, but am withheld by foolish pride. Besides, I can hear Ben an" Jenks tusslin" an"
gruntin" an" carryin" on over in the mouth of the hollow, as they kyarves into each other with their knives, an" don"t want to distract their attention.
""As I sets camped thar on my lodged tree, an" the catamount is planted on the bank, I hears the lippin" splash of a paddle, an" then a voice which sounds like a chime of bells floats across to ask, "d.i.c.k Stallins, you ornery runnigate, wharever be you?"
""It"s my Sarah Ann, whose love, gettin" the upper hand of maidenly reeserve, has sent her projectin" "round in search of me. She"s in my dugout.
""The catamount identifies her as soon as me; an" thinkin" she ought to be easy, he slides into the water ag"in an" starts for the boat. It"s that dark I ain"t sh.o.r.e of his deesigns ontil I sees him reach up, tip the dugout over, an" set Sarah Ann to wallowin" in the rushin" torrent. The dugout upsets on the catamount, an" this so confooses him that, by the time he"s got his bearin"s, Sarah Ann"s been swept down to my tree, an" I"ve lifted her to a seat by my side. The catamount don"t try to lay siege to our p"sition, recognizing it as impregnable, but paddles back to the sh.o.r.e an"
goes into watchful camp as prior.
""For myse"f, I"m so elevated with love an" affection at havin" Sarah Ann with me, I dismisses the catamount as a dead issue, an" as sech beneath contempt, an" by way of mollifyin" Sarah Ann"s feelin"s, cuts loose an" kisses her a gross or two of times, an" each like the crack of a bull-whacker"s whip.
""Old Bender hears them caresses plumb up to his house--as well he may, they"re that onreeserved an" earnest--an" thinks it"s some one shootin" a rifle. It has the effect of bringin" out the old Spartan with his Hawkins; an" the first word of it that reaches me an" Sarah Ann is him, Marm Bender an" the whole b"ilin" of folks is down thar on the bank, tryin" to make out in the gen"ral dimness whatever be we-all lovers doin" out thar in the middle of the Hawgthief on a snag.
""They don"t deetect my catamount none, which sagacious feline slinks off into the shadows covered with confoosion; all they sees is us. An"
the spectacle certainly excites old Bender. "Gen"ral Jackson fit the Injuns!" he exclaims, as all of a sudden a thought strikes him; "that measly excoose for a Union Democrat out thar is seekin" to eelope with our Sarah Ann."
""The old murderer starts to get a bead on me with the Hawkins.
"Father," yells Marm Bender, pullin" at his sleeve, "you sh.o.r.e must be mistook."
""Old Bender won"t have it. "Maw," he returns, strivin" to disengage himse"f, "I was never mistook about nothin" in my life but once, an"
that"s when I shifts from baldface whiskey to hard cider on a temp"rance argyooment. Let me go, woman, till I drill the miscreant an" wash the stain from our fam"ly honor."
""Before the old hom"cide can get to launderin" the fam"ly honor in my blood, however, Sarah Ann has interposed. "Don"t go to blazing away at my d.i.c.key, pop," she sings out, "or I"ll sh.o.r.e burn every improvement you got, an" leave you an" maw an" me roofless in the midst of the wilderness."
""This goes a long way towards soberin" down old Bender, because he knows my Sarah Ann"s the c.u.mberland hollyhock to put them menaces into execootion. He lowers the muzzle of his old 8-squar", an" allows if I promises to marry the girl I can swim ash.o.r.e an" be forgiven.
""Thus the matter ends mighty amic"ble. We"all goes trackin" up to the house, a preacher is rushed to the scene from Pineknot, an" them nuptials between Sarah Ann an" me is sol"mnized. Sh.o.r.e, Jenks an" Ben is thar. They"re found by a committee of their friends scattered about at the foot of the hollow, an" is collected an" brought up to the weddin" in blankets. Dave Daniels, who surveys the scene next day, says you could plant corn whar they fit, it"s that plowed up.
""Followin" the cer"mony Marm Bender an" the old gent takes me into their hearts an" cabin like I"m their own an" only son. He"s a great old daddy-in-law, old Bender is, an" is ven"rated for forty miles about Gingham Mountain, as deevoted heart an" soul to baldface, seven-up an" sin in any shape.
""That match-makin" catamount?
""We hives him. Me an" my new daddy-in-law tracks him to his reetreat, an" when we"re through he"s plumb used up. I confers the pelt on my Sarah Ann; an" she spreads it on the floor over by her side of the bed, so as to put her little number sevens on it when she boils out of a winter"s mornin" to light the fire, an" rustle me my matoot"nal buckwheat cakes an" sa"sage.""
III
CYNTHIANA, PET-NAMED ORIGINAL SIN
"This yere speecific heroine is a heap onconventional, so much so as to be plumb puzzlin" to the common mind. Jest the same, she finishes winner, an" makes herse"f a gen"ral source of pride. She don"t notify us, none whatever, that she intends a Wolfville deboo; jest nacherally descends upon us, that a-way, as onannounced as a mink on a settin"