Heart of the Blue Ridge.
by Waldron Baily.
CHAPTER I
Where the trail bent over a knoll, Zeke halted, and put down from his shoulder the hickory cudgel with its dangling valise of black oilcloth--total of baggage with which he was faring forth into the world. Then, he straightened himself, and looked back over the way he had come.
There, to the east, the dusk of night still lay somberly, hardly touched by the coming dawn. Through the shadows, the mountain ma.s.ses loomed formidable and mysterious, vaguely outlined against the deeper gloom of valleys. The melancholy of the scene seemed a fit setting for the cottage that rested invisible within the forest, a half-mile distant from him. In imagination, he saw the withered old woman, his mother, still standing on the threshold, looking toward him, even as he looked toward her, her heart warm with love, her every thought a prayer for his happiness. It was borne in on Zeke once again that she would be very lonely in her desolate home, where death had spared to her only this son.... And, now, he was gone from her! A poignant sorrow welled in him.
Zeke thrust the emotion away, lest it unman him. He faced about, drearily enough, and stood with downcast, unseeing eyes, in anxious pondering. And then, presently, a.s.suagement was granted him. He lifted his gaze, and behold! here was another world, all of soft splendors, of throbbing radiance.
The eager beams of the unrisen sun shimmered above the mountain ranges of the horizon, and streamed toward the zenith in a panoply of harmonious hues, colorful promise of the May morning"s joyous mood. Of a sudden, under the soothing influence, the watcher became listener as well. His ears noted with delight the glad singing of the birds in the wood around about. His glance caught the white gleam of the tiny belled blossoms that cl.u.s.tered on a crooked sour-wood by the path, and the penetrant perfume of them stirred to life a new and subtler emotion. A flame of tenderness burned in the clear hazel of his eyes, as he stared out over the trail before him. Under the increasing light his gaze could distinguish the line of the valley a mile further on, in which the Siddon cottage lay hidden. His firmly-set lips relaxed abruptly into a smile of wistful softness. He swung stick and bag across his shoulder once again, and set off briskly down the slope of the knoll. His thoughts were no longer gray over the mother who mourned his going: they were roseate with antic.i.p.ations of beholding the girl he loved. Now, the mood of the morning danced in his blood.
The palpitant desire of all nature in the spring thrilled through his heart. His mind was filled with a vision of her gracious young loveliness, so soon to be present before him at their meeting....
Their meeting--their parting! At thought of that corollary, a cold despair clutched the lad, a despair that was nothing like the sedate sorrow over leaving his mother, a despair that was physical sickness, wrenching, nauseating, but pa.s.sed beyond the physical to rack the deeps of being. For the first time, jealousy surged hideous in him, born of the realization that she must be left exposed to the wooing of other men--she, the utterly desirable! In a fierce impulse of mingled fear and rage, he stopped short, and cried out:
"I"ll be d.a.m.ned if they kin steal her! She"s mine. She done told me so, and Plutiny wouldn"t lie!"
From an ambush of laurel bushes close beside the path, a tall, slender form stood forth, the lissome figure of a girl in the budding charm of womanhood. There was a lithe, curving beauty in the lines that the scant homespun gown outlined so clearly. The swift movement by which she revealed herself was instinct with grace. As she rested motionless, with arms extended in a gesture of appeal, there was a singular dignity in the pose, a distinction of personality that was in no wise marred by bare feet and shapeless gown; not even by the uncouthness of dialect, when she spoke. And winsomeness of form and bearing was crowned by the beauty of her face, in which the insipidity of regular features was redeemed by exquisite coloring of rose and white, and by the dusk brilliance of the eyes. The tender lips were wreathed to playful reproach, as she addressed the lover for whom she thus waited at the dawn:
"Zekie--oh, Zekie! Ye hain"t a-cussin" o" me, be ye?"
The young man, surprised, started, and regarded the girl in confusion.
The red that had suffused his tanned cheeks deepened to a burning blush of embarra.s.sment, as he realized that his outburst had been overheard by her who had been the cause of it. But his eyes met her quizzical glance with candid directness. After a moment, he spoke. All the harshness was gone from his voice; its soft drawl was vibrant with tenderness.
"No, Honey, I hain"t a"cussin" o" you-all. I was jest a-mentionin"
some folks. But I hain"t a-feared. n.o.body hain"t a-goin" to steal yer love from me."
"n.o.body--never, Zeke!" the girl answered, simply. There was an infinite honesty, an unalterable loyalty, in the curt words.
As he listened, the flush died from the lover"s face; contentment shone in his expression.
"I knowed hit, Honey--I knowed hit all the time. I know when I come back I"ll find ye waitin"."
"Ye"ll come back, I reckon, with fool idees "bout what yer women-folks ought to wear, like them furriners down below." Her face relaxed into a genial smile, which brought a dimple to shadow the pink bloom of her cheek. But there was a trace of pensiveness; the vague hint of jealousy in the slow tones:
"Yes, I"ll be a-waitin" till ye come, Zekie. An" if the wearin" o"
shoes an" stockin"s "ll make ye any happier, why, I guess I kin stand "em--an" them ladies" straighteners, too. Yep, I"d wear "em, if they did squeeze me fit to bust."
Since Plutina had thus come to meet him, there was no need that he should follow further the trail toward the Siddon cabin, which lay out of his course. At the girl"s suggestion that she should accompany him a little way on the first stage of his journey out into the world, the two turned back toward the broader path, which led to the southwest until it met the North Wilkesboro" road. The two walked side by side, along this lovers" lane of nature"s kindly devising. They went sedately, in all seeming, for the mountain folk are chary in demonstrations of affection. Yet, beneath the austere mask imposed by convention, their hearts were thrilling with the rapture each found in the near presence of the other. The glamour of romance was like a golden mist over all the scene, irradiating each leaf and flower, softening the bird-calls to fairy flutings, draping the nakedness of distant rugged peaks, bearing gently the purling of the limpid brook along which the path ran in devious complacence. Often, indeed, the lovers" way led them into the shallows, through which their bare feet splashed unconcerned. The occasional prismatic flash of a leaping trout in the deeper pools caught their eyes. So, presently, the girl was moved to speak--with visible effort, very shyly, for the expression of her love in words was a thing unfamiliar, difficult.
"I sha"n"t have n.o.body to make flies fer now," she said dully. "I jest hain"t a-goin" arter the trout fer fun no more till ye comes back."
Zeke would have answered, but he checked the words at his lips, lest the trembling of his voice might betray a feeling deemed inconsistent with manliness. They went forward in silence, a-quiver with desire each of the other, yet mute with the forced repression of custom. Now, too, the sorrow of the parting so close at hand, colored their mood more and more, so that the golden glamour first dimmed and then changed into a sinister pall which overhung all the loveliness of the morning. At a turn in the path, where it topped a rise, before descending a long slope to the highway, Zeke came to a standstill. The girl paused obediently beside him. He fumbled in a pocket awkwardly, and drew forth a tiny square of coffee-colored stone, roughly lined, which he held out toward his companion. The tracery of the crystal formed a Maltese cross. The girl expressed no surprise. She accepted the token with a grave nod as he dropped it into her palm, and she remained gazing down at it with eyes hidden under the heavy white lids and long, curving lashes of shadowy brown.
Zeke spoke, very earnestly:
"Hit"s fer good luck, Tiny--fer good luck to he"p ye while we"re apart. Mebby, hit "ll git in hits work by softenin" the hardness o"
yer gran"pap"s heart agin me."
In truth, the concentration of his thought on the fragment of stone had been enough of itself to give a talisman occult potence. That concentration of desire for the girl"s well-being was not merely of this moment. It had been with him constantly during long hours of tedious clambering yesterday, when he followed the channel of Garden Creek through its tortuous course among the ravines of the Blue Ridge, through the narrow defile of the Devil"s Garden, sunless, strewn with rubble of boulders, with a chaos of shattered rock ma.s.ses--debris, superst.i.tion said, of cataclysm--of the Crucifixion, when the mountain crests tore themselves asunder, and cast their pinnacles into the abyss for rage and grief. The searcher had climbed on and on, until he reached the nook sacred to the crystals. For concerning these, also, the superst.i.tion had its say, and told that the little pieces of stone, with the cross marked on each, were, in fact, the miraculously preserved tears shed by the fairies of these fastnesses in the dread hour of the Saviour"s anguish. The lover had sought long for a crystal that should be perfect. Now that it lay within the girl"s hand, he was content of his toil. Surely, whatever the truth concerning its origin, it was a holy thing, for the emblem it bore. It would serve to shield her against aught evil that might threaten--even the grandfather"s enmity against him, which set a barrier between them and happiness.
The crystal would abide with her in sign of his love"s endurance, strong to save her and to cherish her against any ill. He sighed with relief, when she raised the crystal, and dropped it within her bosom.
Still, as always, fearful of showing emotion too openly, Zeke hastened to introduce a new topic. He took from a pocket a book of twelve two-cent postage stamps, to secure which he had trudged the four miles from his mother"s cabin to the Cherry Lane post-office. The book, in its turn, was proffered to Plutina, who accepted it in mild bewilderment.
The lover explained:
"Honey," he said, without any embarra.s.sment over the fact, "ye knows my ole mammy hain"t edicated, an" I want ye to write for her once a month, arter I write to tell ye whar I"ll be."
The girl nodded tacit acceptance of the trust, and consigned the stamps to a resting place alongside the crystal. And then, after a little, she spoke heavily:
"I reckon as how you-all better be a-joggin", Zeke."
For answer, the lad caught the girl in his arms, and gave her a kiss on either cheek--the hearty, noisy smacks of the mountaineer"s courting. But, in the next instant, he drew her close in an embrace that crushed the two warm bodies to rapture. His lips met hers, and clung, till their beings mingled. Afterward, he went from her voicelessly. Voicelessly, she let him go.... There could be no words to comfort the bitterness of such parting.
CHAPTER II
When he was come within view of Joines" mill and store on Roaring River, Zeke halted again for a final look back toward the wild home land, which he was now leaving for the first time. The blackness of his mood after parting with the girl had pa.s.sed, though melancholy still made him its own. The resilience of youth was turning his spirits again toward the hopes that had inspired this going forth from his own familiar little wilderness into the vast and unknown wilderness of the world beyond. As he stared out at the scattered peaks, reared like conning towers over the sprawling medley of ridge and valley, a throb of fondness shook his heart. It was not sprung from esthetic appreciation of the wild and romantic landscape, though this had been sufficient to justify the stir of feeling. His sensibility was aroused by the dear friendliness of all the scene, where hollows and heights had been his constant haunts through all the days of childhood and adolescence until this hour. Of a sudden, he realized as never before a profound tenderness for this country of beetling crags and crystal rivers, of serene s.p.a.ces and balsamic airs. Hitherto, he had esteemed the neighborhood in some dull, matter-of-course fashion, such as folk ordinarily give to their native territory. But, in this instant of illumination, on the eve of separating himself from the place, love of it surged within him. This was his home, the dwelling of his dear ones. He felt toward it a quick reverence as for something strangely sacred. His eyes went to the great bulk of Stone Mountain, which jutted just before him to the east, its league of naked rock lying like some monstrous guardian of the place. Somehow, the dignity of the ma.s.sive curving cliffs soothed him, heartened him anew. The immutability of the huge mound of stone was a prophecy. Through the ages, it had maintained its ward steadfastly. So it would remain. A gush of confidence washed away the last of the watcher"s depression. He could go on his way undismayed.
These things here that were so dear to him would abide his return. The old mother and Plutina would rest secure against his homecoming. The time, after all, would not be long. Meantime, there was the great adventure. Zeke whirled, and trudged blithely onward.
Opportunity had come to Zeke Higgins, and he had not hesitated to seize it. His desire for a larger life than that of the tiny, scrabbly mountain farm had been early excited; it had persisted; it had increased steadily, though the possibility of its realization had seemed remote. Stark poverty demanded that he remain to coax a scant living from the soil for his mother. Yet, his determination was fixed.
He got some smattering of education, along with Plutina, from a kindly Quaker who came among the "Boomers" of the Blue Ridge as a missionary school-teacher. Thus, Zeke learned surprisingly much. His thirsty brain took up knowledge as a sponge takes up water. So great was his grat.i.tude to this instructor that, when the stranger was revealed as a revenue officer questing illicit stills, Zeke, despite inherited prejudice, guided the hunted man by secret trails over the mountains into Virginia, and thereby undoubtedly saved a life. Indeed, the disappearance of the officer was so well contrived that the mountaineers themselves for a time did not suspect the fact of the escape. There is a great basin in the rock on the north side of Stone Mountain. It has been hollowed out through centuries by the little stream that comes leaping madly down the ledges. The cauldron has a sinister repute. It is deemed the sepulchre of more than one spy, cast down into the abyss from the mountain"s brim. It was generally believed that the false school-teacher was of the number.
Somehow, long afterward, report had it that the man was alive. Rumor implicated Zeke as having had a share in the fellow"s escape. Old d.i.c.k Siddon, Plutina"s grandfather, heard. He had hated the "revenuers" always. Since the death of his only son at their hands, his hatred had become a mania. He was a strong man, fierce in anger.
When he bade his grandchild dismiss her favored suitor, she feigned obedience. She, and Zeke as well, knew the futility of fighting the old man"s prejudices. But, with the optimism of youth, the lovers hoped for happiness. A little older, they might at least defy the hostile guardian. In the meantime, Zeke was determined to attain material prosperity during the period of waiting.
Then, Richard Sutton came into the mountains of the Blue Ridge. He chanced on Zeke, made use of the lad as a guide. Soon mutual liking and respect developed. Sutton was a manufacturer of tree-nails--the wooden pins used in ships" timbers. Here in the ranges was an abundance of locust timber, the best for his need. And there was much talk of a branch railway to come. His alert business imagination saw that a factory located at the source of supply would be advantageous.
He saw, too, the capacity for development in his young friend. Zeke"s familiarity with the region might be valuable--more valuable still his popularity and the respect accorded him in the community. Sutton suggested to the young man that he should come to New York presently, there to learn the details of manufacture, with the prospect of return, later on, to manage the business in the mountains. Naturally, the project was splendid to Zeke"s ambition. His only fear had been lest his departure be delayed by lack of money, for pride would not let him confess his extremity to Sutton. There must be some cash in hand for his mother"s support, until he should be able to send her more. Then, as he fretted, opportunity favored him anew, for a surveying party came to run a railroad branch north to Stone Mountain.
He was employed as ax-man and a.s.sistant cook. His wages solved the difficulty, so far as his mother"s need was concerned. For the rest, he took only a small sum to his own use, since he was minded to work his way north on shipboard from Norfolk. It was in accord with such high hopes that this May morning found him tramping, barefooted, into Joines" store, with the black oilcloth valise slung from his shoulder.
The halt here was a necessary feature in Zeke"s itinerary. On a previous visit to the store, he had purchased a pair of serviceable, if rather ungainly, shoes. Since he would have no occasion for their use at home, he had saved himself the trouble of carrying them to and fro.
"I reckon I"ll take them-thar shoes o" mine," he said to the grizzled proprietor, after an exchange of friendly greetings with the few loungers present. These were well aware of his planned departure, though ignorant of his definite aims.
"Ye hain"t a-goin" to put "em on yit, be ye?" the storekeeper inquired, solicitously.
"Not till I git to North Wilkesboro"," Zeke answered, to the obvious relief of the a.s.sembly, as he opened the bag. While he was busy stowing the shoes, the onlookers commented cynically on the follies of fashion.
"An" I"ve hearn tell," one concluded, "that durn-nigh everybody done war shoes in the city, all year roun"."
Perhaps the young man felt a pleasant glow of superiority in reflecting on the fact that such following of city fashion would soon distinguish him. But his innocent vanity was not to be unduly flattered.
"Ca"late to stay away till ye"ve made yer fortin, in course, sonny?"
one of the older men suggested. He enjoyed some local reputation as a wag, the maintenance of which so absorbed his energies that his wife, who had lost whatever sense of humor she might once have had, toiled both indoors and out.