The Boy from Hollow Hut.
by Isla May Mullins.
I
A STRANGER AND A PROMISE
The rabbit bounded away and was lost in the underbrush. Steve stood looking disgustedly after him, a limp figure, one shoulder dropping until the old knit suspender fell at his side, and a sullen, discouraged look settling in his brown eyes.
"I ain" no hunter noways. Peers lack I don"t even know "nough to ketch a rabbit," he said with scorn. "Whar"s that lazy Tige anyways?" he added, his scorn merging into wrath.
Then jerking the old suspender in place he straightened up on his st.u.r.dy, bare feet, and darted through the underbrush in the direction where the rabbit had disappeared.
"I"ll ketch you yit, yes I will, you same old cottontail," he muttered through clenched teeth.
There it was again! Just a moment the round, gray back darted above the bushes, and then plunging into deeper undergrowth, bounded on and on. But the slim, knotty brown legs plunged on and on too, till at last a swift, cruel stone felled the unlucky little woodlander, for Steve was a most skillful marksman.
"Huh! thought you"d git away from me, did ye?" said the boy, picking up the still body. "I reckons I kin do some things yit," he said, "ef I don"t know much."
The boy was in a strange, new mood. He did not understand himself.
Though a good hunter for a lad of twelve he had been heretofore a generous friend or conqueror of the fur and feathered folk, wont to deal gently with a fallen foe. Now he jerked up the limp body of the rabbit savagely and struck its head spitefully against a near-by tree trunk.
"I kin kill rabbits ef I can"t do nothin" else."
Just then a big black and tan dog came into view with the dignity befitting age. Boy and dog had been born the same month, but while one was scarcely well entered upon life, the other"s race was almost run.
The boy was usually most considerate of the infirmities of his lifelong friend, but to-day he scolded the dog till with drooping tail and grieved, uncomprehending eyes he slunk away out of sight.
A strange experience had come to the mountain boy the day before which had changed his whole world. It was as though the wooded mountains which hemmed in his little cabin home had parted for a moment and given him a glimpse of a fascinating world beyond. He and Tige had wandered farther from home that day than ever before, though wanderers they had always been, the woods holding a deep interest for Steve. He loved to hide in the densest solitudes, lie still with his dog and dream, fantastic, unreal dreams. Now a definite, tangible vision had come to him out of the solitude of a hazy November day in the mountains of Kentucky. He had lain for two hours or more in the stillness when suddenly Tige lifted his head and gave a sharp bark, then came the sound of voices, strange voices Steve at once knew them to be, and as he caught the tones more clearly, recognized that one at least was of a kind which he had never heard before. Keeping Tige quiet with a firm hand, he lifted his head and listened with ear and soul, then into view stepped a man of medium height with a clean, fine face, clothes of a sort unknown to the boy, and an easy, alert stride totally foreign to the mountaineer"s slouching gait. A mountain man accompanied him, but he too was a stranger to the boy.
The man of the new, strange species smiled at the boy"s gaping mouth and wonder-wide eyes.
"Well, son," he said pleasantly, "are you a sportsman too?"
The quick, clear, cultured voice, the unfamiliar accent was so utterly foreign to anything the boy had ever heard that he could not take in the import of the words, and amazed silence was his only reply.
"Wal," drawled the mountain guide, "who"d er thought er seein" a chap lack that heah? Whar"d you come from anyways?"
This was familiar vernacular, and Steve, rising slowly from the ground, and allowing Tige to make friendly acquaintance with the strangers, said:
"I lives at Hollow Hut and I comes over here whenever I pleases.
Whar"d you uns come from?"
The man gave a hearty but musical laugh at the ready dignity of the reply, but the boy"s mouth dropped once more in consternation, as words came again in crisp, foreign accent.
"I came from the city, my lad, to get some of your fine quail and deer. You are willing I should have a few, are you not? My friend here is showing me the way."
The mountain folk had proved a most entertaining study for this sportsman, and his interest was ready for each new specimen encountered. Turning to the guide he said:
"Suppose we lunch here," and taking out his watch continued, "yes, it is high time; twelve thirty to the minute."
The boy stepped forward involuntarily for a look at the queer, pretty thing in the man"s hand.
"What"s that?" he asked.
"Why, that"s a watch, son. Didn"t you ever see one?" said the man kindly.
The guide smiled derisively: "Wal, I reckons not," while the boy, too interested for reply, asked again:
"What"s a watch?" and the man with his genial laugh said:
"Son, we will be greatly pleased if you will take lunch with us. My name is Polk, Samuel Polk," he said, touching his cap with the unfailing courtesy of a true gentleman. "And after we eat I will show you the watch and tell you all about it."
But the mountaineer does not readily eat with "furriners," so Steve stood near by and looked on while the two men ate very strange things.
Little cans were opened and tiny fish taken out that looked exceedingly queer. Mr. Polk, trying to persuade the boy to eat, explained that these were sardines, some square, white things were crackers, a thick stuff was cheese and that some big, round, yellow things were oranges. But Steve only stared in silence till the meal was over though Tige, with no instinctive handicap, accepted delicious sc.r.a.ps with astonishment and relish.
So amazed, however, had the boy been with it all that he nearly forgot about the watch. But when he remembered and the man let him take it in his rusty, brown fingers, that was the most wonderful moment of all. The tick, tick inside was a marvel, almost a thing uncanny to the boy, and when it was explained how the hands went round and round, telling the time of day, it surely seemed a thing beyond mortal ken.
The guide drawled out with a superior air: "Wal, sonny, you come from the backwoods sh.o.r.e ef you never heerd tell of a watch before."
The boy looked squarely at him in sullen resentment a moment, but with such opportunity at hand he wouldn"t waste time with the likes of him.
He asked, "What moves them things round?" and the man kindly opened the watch at the back and displayed all the cunning wheels which respond to the loosening spring, explained how it was wound each day to keep it from running down, and in answer to the boy"s eager questions as to how such things were made told him something of watch manufacture.
At last the wonderful hour was over and the two strange men prepared to leave.
"Good-bye, son," said the man; "one of these days you will leave the mountains and go out into the big world to live a life of usefulness and honour, I hope."
The words, so simple and commonplace to the man, were to the boy like a telescope lifted to the unknown heavens, but through which he could not yet look. He watched the men go down the mountainside, the strange words which he did not comprehend, but was never to forget, ringing in his ears. A bit of heavy timber hid them at last, and the boy stood dejected a moment, his heart swelling with an agony of strange longing, while the dog looked up at him almost pleading to understand.
Then suddenly, with a cry of hope, Steve sprang after them, the dog following. Breathless he came upon them, and the man turned in surprise at the tragic voice and face. When the boy could speak he panted out:
"I"ve got the bes" fox skin anywheres hereabout. I"ll swap it with you uns fer that watch thing."
The man suppressed a smile and kindly replied:
"Why, lad, I couldn"t do without it for the rest of this hunting trip, but I tell you what I will do. When I get back to the city I"ll send you one."
"Then ef yer"ll come home with me I"ll give ye the fox skin now," the boy responded promptly.
"Oh, never mind about the fox skin now; I must get back to camp before dark and we are many miles away," said the man.
"But I can"t take the watch "thout you git the skin," said the boy st.u.r.dily.
"Well, now, I"ll tell you," said the man, realizing that he had struck the stubborn, independent pride of a mountaineer. "You give me your name, tell me where you live and I"ll send you the watch; then next time I"m over here I"ll get the skin." The address was a difficult matter to determine, but the mountaineer helped them out.
This satisfied the boy and he saw the two strangers depart with better spirit, since he could look forward to the coming of the watch. He did not understand how it would ever reach him, but trusted the stranger implicitly. When the last sound of departing feet among the underbrush had died away, Steve turned and went home with long, rapid strides, the dog recognizing the relief and following with wagging tail.
He found supper on the table, the savoury bacon and hoe-cake greeting him from the door. The head of the family, lean, lank and brown, was already transporting huge mouthfuls from the tin platter to his mouth; the fat, slovenly daughter sat for a moment to rest and cool her face before beginning to eat, while the mother still occupied a chimney corner, pipe in mouth, for she "hadn"t wanted nothin" to eat lately, her stomick seemed off the hooks somehow." These, with the boy, composed the family, a row of graves out under the trees at the back of the hut filling the long gap between Mirandy, a young woman of twenty-one, and Steve. The boy sat down, but before he ate that remarkable tale of his morning experience had to be told. When he was done the father said: