But Chad changed his mind suddenly. If they were in doubt about wanting him-he was in no doubt as to what he would do.
"No, I reckon I"d better git on," he said st.u.r.dily, and he turned and limped back up the hill to the road-still wondering, and he remembered that, in the mountains, when people wanted to stay all night, they usually stopped before sundown. Travelling after dark was suspicious in the mountains, and perhaps it was in this land, too. So, with this thought, he had half a mind to go back and explain, but he pushed on. Half a mile farther, his foot was so bad that he stopped with a cry of pain in the road and, seeing a barn close by, he climbed the fence and into the loft and burrowed himself under the hay. From under the shed he could see the stars rising. It was very still and very lonely and he was hungry-hungrier and lonelier than he had ever been in his life, and a sob of helplessness rose to his lips-if he only had Jack-but he held it back.
"I got to ack like a man now." And, saying this over and over to himself, he went to sleep.
CHAPTER 7.
A FRIEND ON THE ROAD
Rain fell that night-gentle rain and warm, for the south wind rose at midnight. At four o clock a shower made the shingles over Chad rattle sharply, but without wakening the lad, and then the rain ceased; and when Chad climbed stiffly from his loft-the world was drenched and still, and the dawn was warm, for spring had come that morning, and Chad trudged along the road-unchilled. Every now and then he had to stop to rest his foot. Now and then he would see people getting breakfast ready in the farm-houses that he pa.s.sed, and, though his little belly was drawn with pain, he would not stop and ask for something to eat-for he did not want to risk another rebuff. The sun rose and the light leaped from every wet blade of gra.s.s and bursting leaf to meet it-leaped as though flashing back gladness that the spring was come. For a little while Chad forgot his hunger and forgot his foot-like the leaf and gra.s.s-blade his stout heart answered with gladness, too, and he trudged on.
Meanwhile, far behind him, an old carriage rolled out of a big yard and started toward him and toward Lexington. In the driver"s seat was an old gray-haired, gray-bearded negro with knotty hands and a kindly face; while, on the oval shaped seat behind the lumbering old vehicle, sat a little darky with his bare legs dangling down. In the carriage sat a man who might have been a stout squire straight from merry England, except that there was a little tilt to the brim of his slouch hat that one never sees except on the head of a Southerner, and in his strong, but easy, good-natured mouth was a pipe of corn-cob with a long cane stem. The horses that drew him were a handsome pair of half thoroughbreds, and the old driver, with his eyes half closed, looked as though, even that early in the morning, he were dozing. An hour later, the pike ran through an old wooden-covered bridge, to one side of which a road led down to the water, and the old negro turned the carriage to the creek to let his horses drink. The carriage stood still in the middle of the stream and presently the old driver turned his head: "Mars Cal!" he called in a low voice. The Major raised his head. The old negro was pointing with his whip ahead and the Major saw something sitting on the stone fence, some twenty yards beyond, which stirred him sharply from his mood of contemplation.
"Shades of Dan"l Boone!" he said, softly. It was a miniature pioneer-the little still figure watching him solemnly and silently. Across the boy"s lap lay a long rifle-the Major could see that it had a flintlock-and on his tangled hair was a c.o.o.nskin cap-the scalp above his steady dark eyes and the tail hanging down the lad"s neck. And on his feet were-moccasins! The carriage moved out of the stream and the old driver got down to hook the check-reins over the shining bit of metal that curved back over the little saddles to which the boy"s eyes had swiftly strayed. Then they came back to the Major.
"Howdye!" said Chad.
"Good-mornin", little man," said the Major pleasantly, and Chad knew straightway that he had found a friend. But there was silence. Chad scanned the horses and the strange vehicle and the old driver and the little pickaninny who, hearing the boy"s voice, had stood up on his seat and was grinning over one of the hind wheels, and then his eyes rested on the Major with a simple confidence and unconscious appeal that touched the Major at once.
"Are you goin" my way?" The Major"s nature was too mellow and easy-going to pay any attention to final g"s. Chad lifted his old gun and pointed up the road.
"I"m a-goin" thataway."
"Well, don"t you want to ride?"
"Yes," he said, simply.
"Climb right in, my boy."
So Chad climbed in, and, holding the old rifle upright between his knees, he looked straight forward, in silence, while the Major studied him with a quiet smile.
"Where are you from, little man?"
"I come from the mountains."
"The mountains?" said the Major.
The Major had fished and hunted in the mountains, and somewhere in that unknown region he owned a kingdom of wild mountain-land, but he knew as little about the people as he knew about the Hottentots, and cared hardly more.
"What are you doin" up here?"
"I"m goin" home," said Chad.
"How did you happen to come away?"
"Oh, I been wantin" to see the settleMINTS."
"The settleMINTS," echoed the Major, and then he understood. He recalled having heard the mountaineers call the Bluegra.s.s region the "settlemints" before.
"I come down on a raft with Dolph and Tom and Rube and the Squire and the school-teacher, an" I got lost in Frankfort. They"ve gone on, I reckon, an" I"m tryin" to ketch "em."
"What will you do if you don"t?"
"Foller"em," said Chad, st.u.r.dily.
"Does your father live down in the mountains?"
"No," said Chad, shortly.
The Major looked at the lad gravely.
"Don"t little boys down in the mountains ever say sir to their elders?"
"No," said Chad. "No, sir," he added gravely and the Major broke into a pleased laugh-the boy was quick as lightning.
"I ain"t got no daddy. An" no mammy-I ain"t got-nothin"." It was said quite simply, as though his purpose merely was not to sail under false colors, and the Major"s answer was quick and apologetic:
"Oh!" he said, and for a moment there was silence again. Chad watched the woods, the fields, and the cattle, the strange grain growing about him, and the birds and the trees. Not a thing escaped his keen eye, and, now and then, he would ask a question which the Major would answer with some surprise and wonder. His artless ways pleased the old fellow.
"You haven"t told me your name."
"You hain"t axed me."
"Well, I axe you now," laughed the Major, but Chad saw nothing to laugh at.
"Chad," he said.
"Chad what?"
Now it had always been enough in the mountains, when anybody asked his name, for him to answer simply-Chad. He hesitated now and his brow wrinkled as though he were thinking hard.
"I don"t know," said Chad.
"What? Don"t know your own name?" The boy looked up into the Major"s face with eyes that were so frank and unashamed and at the same time so vaguely troubled that the Major was abashed.
"Of course not," he said kindly, as though it were the most natural thing in the world that a boy should not know his own name. Presently the Major said, reflectively:
"Chadwick."
"Chad," corrected the boy.
"Yes, I know"; and the Major went on thinking that Chadwick happened to be an ancestral name in his own family.
Chad"s brow was still wrinkled-he was trying to think what old Nathan Cherry used to call him.