"Come on," he said, and when she went for her bonnet, he stepped into the room.
"How do you like it?" June nodded toward the window and Hale went to it.
"That"s Uncle Billy"s mill out thar."
"Why, so it is," said Hale smiling. "That"s fine."
The school-house, to June"s wonder, had shingles on the OUTSIDE around all the walls from roof to foundation, and a big bell hung on top of it under a little shingled roof of its own. A pale little man with spectacles and pale blue eyes met them at the door and he gave June a pale, slender hand and cleared his throat before he spoke to her.
"She"s never been to school," said Hale; "she can read and spell, but she"s not very strong on arithmetic."
"Very well, I"ll turn her over to the primary." The school-bell sounded; Hale left with a parting prophecy--"You"ll be proud of her some day"--at which June blushed and then, with a beating heart, she followed the little man into his office. A few minutes later, the a.s.sistant came in, and she was none other than the wonderful young woman whom Hale had called Miss Anne. There were a few instructions in a halting voice and with much clearing of the throat from the pale little man; and a moment later June walked the gauntlet of the eyes of her schoolmates, every one of whom looked up from his book or hers to watch her as she went to her seat. Miss Anne pointed out the arithmetic lesson and, without lifting her eyes, June bent with a flushed face to her task. It reddened with shame when she was called to the cla.s.s, for she sat on the bench, taller by a head and more than any of the boys and girls thereon, except one awkward youth who caught her eye and grinned with unashamed companionship. The teacher noticed her look and understood with a sudden keen sympathy, and naturally she was struck by the fact that the new pupil was the only one who never missed an answer.
"She won"t be there long," Miss Anne thought, and she gave June a smile for which the little girl was almost grateful. June spoke to no one, but walked through her schoolmates homeward, when school was over, like a haughty young queen. Miss Anne had gone ahead and was standing at the gate talking with Mrs. Crane, and the young woman spoke to June most kindly.
"Mr. Hale has been called away on business," she said, and June"s heart sank--"and I"m going to take care of you until he comes back."
"I"m much obleeged," she said, and while she was not ungracious, her manner indicated her belief that she could take care of herself. And Miss Anne felt uncomfortably that this extraordinary young person was steadily measuring her from head to foot. June saw the smart close-fitting gown, the dainty little boots, and the carefully brushed hair. She noticed how white her teeth were and her hands, and she saw that the nails looked polished and that the tips of them were like little white crescents; and she could still see every detail when she sat at her window, looting down at the old mill. She SAW Mr. Hale when he left, the young lady had said; and she had a headache now and was going home to LIE down. She understood now what Hale meant, on the mountainside when she was so angry with him. She was learning fast, and most from the two persons who were not conscious what they were teaching her. And she would learn in the school, too, for the slumbering ambition in her suddenly became pa.s.sionately definite now. She went to the mirror and looked at her hair--she would learn how to plait that in two braids down her back, as the other school-girls did. She looked at her hands and straightway she fell to scrubbing them with soap as she had never scrubbed them before. As she worked, she heard her name called and she opened the door.
"Yes, mam!" she answered, for already she had picked that up in the school-room.
"Come on, June, and go down the street with me."
"Yes, mam," she repeated, and she wiped her hands and hurried down. Mrs.
Crane had looked through the girl"s pathetic wardrobe, while she was at school that afternoon, had told Hale before he left and she had a surprise for little June. Together they went down the street and into the chief store in town and, to June"s amazement, Mrs. Crane began ordering things for "this little girl."
"Who"s a-goin" to pay fer all these things?" whispered June, aghast.
"Don"t you bother, honey. Mr. Hale said he would fix all that with your pappy. It"s some coal deal or something--don"t you bother!" And June in a quiver of happiness didn"t bother. Stockings, petticoats, some soft stuff for a new dress and TAN shoes that looked like the ones that wonderful young woman wore and then some long white things.
"What"s them fer?" she whispered, but the clerk heard her and laughed, whereat Mrs. Crane gave him such a glance that he retired quickly.
"Night-gowns, honey."
"You SLEEP in "em?" said June in an awed voice.
"That"s just what you do," said the good old woman, hardly less pleased than June.
"My, but you"ve got pretty feet."
"I wish they were half as purty as--"
"Well, they are," interrupted Mrs. Crane a little snappishly; apparently she did not like Miss Anne.
"Wrap "em up and Mr. Hale will attend to the bill."
"All right," said the clerk looking much mystified.
Outside the door, June looked up into the beaming goggles of the Hon.
Samuel Budd.
"Is THIS the little girl? Howdye, June," he said, and June put her hand in the Hon. Sam"s with a sudden trust in his voice.
"I"m going to help take care of you, too," said Mr. Budd, and June smiled at him with shy grat.i.tude. How kind everybody was!
"I"m much obleeged," she said, and she and Mrs. Crane went on back with their bundles.
June"s hands so trembled when she found herself alone with her treasures that she could hardly unpack them. When she had folded and laid them away, she had to unfold them to look at them again. She hurried to bed that night merely that she might put on one of those wonderful night-gowns, and again she had to look all her treasures over. She was glad that she had brought the doll because HE had given it to her, but she said to herself "I"m a-gittin" too big now fer dolls!" and she put it away. Then she set the lamp on the mantel-piece so that she could see herself in her wonderful night-gown. She let her shining hair fall like molten gold around her shoulders, and she wondered whether she could ever look like the dainty creature that just now was the model she so pa.s.sionately wanted to be like. Then she blew out the lamp and sat a while by the window, looking down through the rhododendrons, at the shining water and at the old water-wheel sleepily at rest in the moonlight. She knelt down then at her bedside to say her prayers--as her dead sister had taught her to do--and she asked G.o.d to bless Jack--wondering as she prayed that she had heard n.o.body else call him Jack--and then she lay down with her breast heaving. She had told him she would never do that again, but she couldn"t help it now--the tears came and from happiness she cried herself softly to sleep.
XIII
Hale rode that night under a brilliant moon to the worm of a railroad that had been creeping for many years toward the Gap. The head of it was just protruding from the Natural Tunnel twenty miles away. There he sent his horse back, slept in a shanty till morning, and then the train crawled through a towering bench of rock. The mouth of it on the other side opened into a mighty amphitheatre with solid rock walls shooting vertically hundreds of feet upward. Vertically, he thought--with the back of his head between his shoulders as he looked up--they were more than vertical--they were actually concave. The Almighty had not only stored riches immeasurable in the hills behind him--He had driven this pa.s.sage Himself to help puny man to reach them, and yet the wretched road was going toward them like a snail. On the fifth night, thereafter he was back there at the tunnel again from New York--with a grim mouth and a happy eye. He had brought success with him this time and there was no sleep for him that night. He had been delayed by a wreck, it was two o"clock in the morning, and not a horse was available; so he started those twenty miles afoot, and day was breaking when he looked down on the little valley shrouded in mist and just wakening from sleep.
Things had been moving while he was away, as he quickly learned.
The English were buying lands right and left at the gap sixty miles southwest. Two companies had purchased most of the town-site where he was--HIS town-site--and were going to pool their holdings and form an improvement company. But a good deal was left, and straightway Hale got a map from his office and with it in his hand walked down the curve of the river and over Poplar Hill and beyond. Early breakfast was ready when he got back to the hotel. He swallowed a cup of coffee so hastily that it burned him, and June, when she pa.s.sed his window on her way to school, saw him busy over his desk. She started to shout to him, but he looked so haggard and grim that she was afraid, and went on, vaguely hurt by a preoccupation that seemed quite to have excluded her. For two hours then, Hale haggled and bargained, and at ten o"clock he went to the telegraph office. The operator who was speculating in a small way himself smiled when he read the telegram.
"A thousand an acre?" he repeated with a whistle. "You could have got that at twenty-five per--three months ago."
"I know," said Hale, "there"s time enough yet." Then he went to his room, pulled the blinds down and went to sleep, while rumour played with his name through the town.
It was nearly the closing hour of school when, dressed and freshly shaven, he stepped out into the pale afternoon and walked up toward the schoolhouse. The children were pouring out of the doors. At the gate there was a sudden commotion, he saw a crimson figure flash into the group that had stopped there, and flash out, and then June came swiftly toward him followed closely by a tall boy with a cap on his head. That far away he could see that she was angry and he hurried toward her. Her face was white with rage, her mouth was tight and her dark eyes were aflame. Then from the group another tall boy darted out and behind him ran a smaller one, bellowing. Hale heard the boy with the cap call kindly:
"Hold on, little girl! I won"t let "em touch you." June stopped with him and Hale ran to them.
"Here," he called, "what"s the matter?"
June burst into crying when she saw him and leaned over the fence sobbing. The tall lad with the cap had his back to Hale, and he waited till the other two boys came up. Then he pointed to the smaller one and spoke to Hale without looking around.
"Why, that little skate there was teasing this little girl and--"
"She slapped him," said Hale grimly. The lad with the cap turned. His eyes were dancing and the shock of curly hair that stuck from his absurd little cap shook with his laughter.
"Slapped him! She knocked him as flat as a pancake."
"Yes, an" you said you"d stand fer her," said the other tall boy who was plainly a mountain lad. He was near bursting with rage.
"You bet I will," said the boy with the cap heartily, "right now!" and he dropped his books to the ground.
"Hold on!" said Hale, jumping between them. "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," he said to the mountain boy.
"I wasn"t atter the gal," he said indignantly. "I was comin" fer him."
The boy with the cap tried to get away from Hale"s grasp.
"No use, sir," he said coolly. "You"d better let us settle it now. We"ll have to do it some time. I know the breed. He"ll fight all right and there"s no use puttin" it off. It"s got to come."