Bristol news. [volume] (Bristol, Va. & Tenn.) 1867-189?, 1871-10-20
CHAPTER VI.
A NIGHT AT PETE JoNEs's.

4 4
| found that -ter-lOOking individu-
al III the act OF kicking one of his ma
ny dogs out Of the house.
! Come in, stranger, come in. You'll
| find this 'ere house full of brats, but |
guess you kin kick your way around
| among 'em. Take a cheer. Here, git
out go to thunder with you" And
with THESE mild impcratives, he boxed
one of his boys over in one direction
and one of his girls over in the other
Il believe in trainin' up children to
mind when they'r spoke to, he said
to Ralph apOlOgetically.
But it seemed 10 the tacher that he
wanted them to mind just little be-
| fore they were spoken to.
P'raps you'd like bed. Well, Jest
climb up the ladder on the outside of
the house. Takes up a thunderin'
sight of room to have a stairs inside,
and we ha'n't got no room to spare.
You'Il find bed in the fuTdest corn
er. My Pete's already got half of it,
and you can take t'OtheT half. Eff
Pete goes to takin' his halfin the md
die, and trying to take yourn on both
sides, jest kick him."
In this cOmfortless bed sin the furd-
est corner" Ralph found sleep out of
the question. Pete took three fourths
of the bed, and Hannah took all of his
thoughts. So he lay, AID looked out
through the cracks i'll the ''clapbOards"
as they call rough shingles in the old
West at the stars. For the clouds
had now broken away. And he lay
thus recOunting to himself, rs miser
counts the pieces that compose his
hoard, every step of that road from the
time he had Oyertaken Hannah i'll the
hollow to the fence. Then he imag-
iEed again the pleasure of helping her
over. and then he retraced the ground
to the bOX-alder tree at the spring; and
repeated TO himself the conversation
until he came to the part in which she
said that only time and God could
help her. What did she mean? What
was the hidden part of her life? What
was the connection between her and
ShOcky?
Hours wore on, and still the mind
of Ralph Hartsook went back and
travelled the same road, over the fence,
past the box-alder, up to the ineXpli-
cable part OF the conversation, and
stood bewildered with the same puZ-
zlng questions about the bound girls
life.
At last he got up, drew on his clothes.
and sat down on the top of the ladder,
looking down over the bluegrass pas
ture Which lay on the border between
the land OF Jones and the land Of
Means. The earth was white with
moonlight. lie could not sleep. Why
not walk? Ii might enable him 10
sleep. And once determined on walk
ing, he did not hesitate a moment ~
To the direction in which he SIN uld
walk. The bluegrass pasture twis il
not like unto the garden OF Eden? J
lay right before him. That bOX-aider
was it not IL tree Of life?) stood just
in sight. 70 spring over the fence
and takc the path down the hill and
over the brook was as quickly done *
decided upon. 20 stand again under
the box-ald-r, TO climb again over the
farther fence, and to walk down the
road toward the schOol-hOuSe, was so
easy and 50 delightful that il was done
without thought. For Ralph was 4
man iull Of eidH who, when he saw
no wrong III anything that proposed
itself. was apt TO follow his inpulsc
without dehberatiOn. And this keep
ing company with the stars, and the
memory of a delightful walk, were 20
much better than the commonplace
Flat Creek life, that he threw himself
into his night excursion with cnthusi-
asin.
At las he stood in the little hollow
where first he had ined himself to
Hannah. 1t was the very spot at
which ShOcky, too, had met him n
few mornings before. He leaned
against the fence and tried TO solve
again the puzzle of Hannah's troubles.
For that she had troubles he did not
doubt. Neither did lac doubt lhat he
could help her if he could discover
what they were. But he had no clue.
All az once his heart stood still. He
heard the thud OF hsr-es' hOofs com
ing down the road. Until that mo
mcnt he had not felt his own lOneli-
ness. lie shrank back further into
the fruce-corEcr. The hOrscmen were
gulloping. There were three of them,
and there was one figure that seemed
familiar to Ralph. But lac could not
tell who il was. Neither could he re-
member having seen the horse. which
was a sorrel with white left forefOot
and a white nose. The men noticed
him and reincd up little. Why he
should have been startled by the pres
ence of these men he could not tell,
but an indefnable dread seized him.
They galloped on, and he stood still
shiyeYing with a nervous fear. The
cold seemed to have gotten iHtO his
bones. He remembered that the whole
region lying ON Flat Creek Bnd CIifty
Creek had the reputation of being in
tested with thieves, who practiced
horse-stealing and house-breaking.-
For ever since the day when Murrell's
confederate bands were paralyzed by
the death Of their leader, there have
still existed gangs of desperad0es in
parts Of Southern Indiana and Illinois
and in Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, and
and the Southwest. 1t was out of
these materials that border rufiians
have grown, and the nine members Of
the Reno band who were hanged twOOr
three years ago by lynch law, were re-