"Well," laughed Hale, "you will want to talk like them anyhow, because everybody who is learning tries to talk the same way." June was silent, and Hale plunged unconsciously on.
"Up at the Pine now you said, "I SEED you when I was A-LAYIN on the edge of the cliff"; now you ought to have said, "I SAW you when I was LYING--""
"I wasn"t," she said sharply, "I don"t tell lies--" her hand shot from his waist and she slid suddenly to the ground. He pulled in his horse and turned a bewildered face. She had lighted on her feet and was poised back above him like an enraged eaglet--her thin nostrils quivering, her mouth as tight as a bow-string, and her eyes two points of fire.
"Why--June!"
"Ef you don"t like my clothes an" the way I talk, I reckon I"d better go back home." With a groan Hale tumbled from his horse. Fool that he was, he had forgotten the sensitive pride of the mountaineer, even while he was thinking of that pride. He knew that fun might be made of her speech and her garb by her schoolmates over at the Gap, and he was trying to prepare her--to save her mortification, to make her understand.
"Why, June, little girl, I didn"t mean to hurt your feelings. You don"t understand--you can"t now, but you will. Trust me, won"t you? _I_ like you just as you are. I LOVE the way you talk. But other people--forgive me, won"t you?" he pleaded. "I"m sorry. I wouldn"t hurt you for the world."
She didn"t understand--she hardly heard what he said, but she did know his distress was genuine and his sorrow: and his voice melted her fierce little heart. The tears began to come, while she looked, and when he put his arms about her, she put her face on his breast and sobbed.
"There now!" he said soothingly. "It"s all right now. I"m so sorry--so very sorry," and he patted her on the shoulder and laid his hand across her temple and hair, and pressed her head tight to his breast. Almost as suddenly she stopped sobbing and loosening herself turned away from him.
"I"m a fool--that"s what I am," she said hotly.
"No, you aren"t! Come on, little girl! We"re friends again, aren"t we?"
June was digging at her eyes with both hands.
"Aren"t we?"
"Yes," she said with an angry little catch of her breath, and she turned submissively to let him lift her to her seat. Then she looked down into his face.
"Jack," she said, and he started again at the frank address, "I ain"t NEVER GOIN" TO DO THAT NO MORE."
"Yes, you are, little girl," he said soberly but cheerily. "You"re goin"
to do it whenever I"m wrong or whenever you think I"m wrong." She shook her head seriously.
"No, Jack."
In a few minutes they were at the foot of the mountain and on a level road.
"Hold tight!" Hale shouted, "I"m going to let him out now." At the touch of his spur, the big black horse sprang into a gallop, faster and faster, until he was pounding the hard road in a swift run like thunder.
At the creek Hale pulled in and looked around. June"s bonnet was down, her hair was tossed, her eyes were sparkling fearlessly, and her face was flushed with joy.
"Like it, June?"
"I never did know nothing like it."
"You weren"t scared?"
"Skeered o" what?" she asked, and Hale wondered if there was anything of which she would be afraid.
They were entering the Gap now and June"s eyes got big with wonder over the mighty up-shooting peaks and the rushing torrent.
"See that big rock yonder, June?" June craned her neck to follow with her eyes his outstretched finger.
"Uh, huh."
"Well, that"s called Bee Rock, because it"s covered with flowers--purple rhododendrons and laurel--and bears used to go there for wild honey.
They say that once on a time folks around here put whiskey in the honey and the bears got so drunk that people came and knocked "em in the head with clubs."
"Well, what do you think o" that!" said June wonderingly.
Before them a big mountain loomed, and a few minutes later, at the mouth of the Gap, Hale stopped and turned his horse sidewise.
"There we are, June," he said.
June saw the lovely little valley rimmed with big mountains. She could follow the course of the two rivers that encircled it by the trees that fringed their banks, and she saw smoke rising here and there and that was all. She was a little disappointed.
"It"s mighty purty," she said, "I never seed"--she paused, but went on without correcting herself--"so much level land in all my life."
The morning mail had just come in as they rode by the post-office and several men hailed her escort, and all stared with some wonder at her.
Hale smiled to himself, drew up for none and put on a face of utter unconsciousness that he was doing anything unusual. June felt vaguely uncomfortable. Ahead of them, when they turned the corner of the street, her eyes fell on a strange tall red house with yellow tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, that was not built of wood and had two sets of windows one above the other, and before that Hale drew up.
"Here we are. Get down, little girl."
"Good-morning!" said a voice. Hale looked around and flushed, and June looked around and stared--transfixed as by a vision from another world--at the dainty figure behind them in a walking suit, a short skirt that showed two little feet in laced tan boots and a cap with a plume, under which was a pair of wide blue eyes with long lashes, and a mouth that suggested active mischief and gentle mockery.
"Oh, good-morning," said Hale, and he added gently, "Get down, June!"
The little girl slipped to the ground and began pulling her bonnet on with both hands--but the newcomer had caught sight of the Psyche knot that made June look like a little old woman strangely young, and the mockery at her lips was gently accentuated by a smile. Hale swung from his saddle.
"This is the little girl I told you about, Miss Anne," he said. "She"s come over to go to school." Instantly, almost, Miss Anne had been melted by the forlorn looking little creature who stood before her, shy for the moment and dumb, and she came forward with her gloved hand outstretched.
But June had seen that smile. She gave her hand, and Miss Anne straightway was no little surprised; there was no more shyness in the dark eyes that blazed from the recesses of the sun-bonnet, and Miss Anne was so startled when she looked into them that all she could say was: "Dear me!" A portly woman with a kind face appeared at the door of the red brick house and came to the gate.
"Here she is, Mrs. Crane," called Hale.
"Howdye, June!" said the Widow Crane kindly. "Come right in!" In her June knew straightway she had a friend and she picked up her bundle and followed upstairs--the first real stairs she had ever seen--and into a room on the floor of which was a rag carpet. There was a bed in one corner with a white counterpane and a washstand with a bowl and pitcher, which, too, she had never seen before.
"Make yourself at home right now," said the Widow Crane, pulling open a drawer under a big looking-gla.s.s--"and put your things here. That"s your bed," and out she went.
How clean it was! There were some flowers in a gla.s.s vase on the mantel.
There were white curtains at the big window and a bed to herself--her own bed. She went over to the window. There was a steep bank, lined with rhododendrons, right under it. There was a mill-dam below and down the stream she could hear the creaking of a water-wheel, and she could see it dripping and shining in the sun--a gristmill! She thought of Uncle Billy and ole Hon, and in spite of a little pang of home-sickness she felt no loneliness at all.
"I KNEW she would be pretty," said Miss Anne at the gate outside.
"I TOLD you she was pretty," said Hale.
"But not so pretty as THAT," said Miss Anne. "We will be great friends."
"I hope so--for her sake," said Hale.
Hale waited till noon-recess was nearly over, and then he went to take June to the school-house. He was told that she was in her room and he went up and knocked at the door. There was no answer--for one does not knock on doors for entrance in the mountains, and, thinking he had made a mistake, he was about to try another room, when June opened the door to see what the matter was. She gave him a glad smile.