Heart of the Blue Ridge Part 21

"I kain't quite stomach thet-thar yarn o' Seth Jones's," he said. "As I remember, Dan Hodges threw me--hard!" He grinned wryly at the recollection. "I don't see how I could have thrown him off the Slide."

"But of course you did!" Plutina a.s.serted, with great spirit. "Pooh!

Ye could lick Dan Hodges any day in the week. An' Seth saw ye--that settles. .h.i.t!"

"I suppose so," Zeke conceded. "But Dan Hodges was a powerful fighter.

After all, I didn't do anything much for ye, Tiny," he added, with regret in his voice.

The girl was all indignation.

"Why, Zeke!" she cried. "The idea! Ye did hit all. Ye banged the love o' ye into thet-thar dawg, what hung on to me an' brung up the fairy cross fer a message." Chubbie, as if understanding, leaped to lick her hand. "An' ye give me the cross, Zeke. Mebby, thet's what saved me, all the time--thar on the precipice, an'--an' back thar--in the cave--with him. An' then ye threw Dan Hodges right offen the mounting.

Seth Jones seen ye do hit!"

It seemed to Zeke that he must perforce accept the heroism thrust upon him, though a doubt still lingered. Still, his memory of the fight was confused. Perhaps, after all, he had--.

Zeke broke off, and drew the girl close. Their lips met gently, tenderly, with the clinging of pa.s.sion. What mattered the history of evil days? They were past. Before them lay the future, radiant with rosy promise. In this blessed present, they were together. Love thrilled exquisitely on their lips; more exquisitely in their souls.

That love was, and it would remain, a n.o.ble and precious thing, great and very beautiful, as mighty and firm as the mountain looming yonder in immutable serenity and strength, as loyal, as enduring.... They walked on together, infinitely content.

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STORIES OF THE KENTUCKY MOUNTAINS

May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE.

Ill.u.s.trated by F. C. Yohn.

The "lonesome pine" from which the story takes its name was a tall tree that stood in solitary splendor on a mountain top. The fame of the pine lured a young engineer through Kentucky to catch the trail, and when he finally climbed to its shelter he found not only the pine but the _footprints of a girl_. And the girl proved to be lovely, piquant, and the trail of these girlish foot-prints led the young engineer a madder chase than "the trail of the lonesome pine."

THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME

Ill.u.s.trated by F. C. Yohn.

This is a story of Kentucky, in a settlement known as "Kingdom Come." It is a life rude, semi-barbarous; but natural and honest, from which often springs the flower of civilization.

"Chad," the "little shepherd" did not know who he was nor whence he came--he had just wandered from door to door since early childhood, seeking shelter with kindly mountaineers who gladly fathered and mothered this waif about whom there was such a mystery--a charming waif, by the way, who could play the banjo better that anyone else in the mountains.

A KNIGHT OF THE c.u.mBERLAND.

Ill.u.s.trated by F. C. Yohn.

The scenes are laid along the waters of the c.u.mberland, the lair of moonshiner and feudsman. The knight is a moonshiner's son, and the heroine a beautiful girl perversely christened "The Blight." Two impetuous young Southerners fall under the spell of "The Blight's"

charms and she learns what a large part jealousy and pistols have in the love making of the mountaineers.

Included in this volume is "h.e.l.l fer-Sartain" and other stories, some of Mr. Fox's most entertaining c.u.mberland valley narratives.

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