The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1888-03-22
HE PROMISED mls MOTHER.
BY CHARLES ReBERr CRADDocK.

BY CHARLES EGBERr CRADDocK.
The sun had barely shown the rim of
his great red disc above the sombre
woods and snow-crowned crags of the
opposite ridge, when Dick Herne, his
rifle in his hand, stepped out of his faith
er's log cabin, perched high among the
precipices of Old Windy Mountain. He
waited 'motionless for moment, and all
the family trooped to the door to assist
at the time-honored ceremony of firing a
salute to the day.
Suddenly the whole landscape catches
a rosy glow, Dick whips up his rifle, a
jet of fame darts swiftly out, sharp re-
port rings all around the world, and the
sun goes grandly up-while the little
tow-headed mountaineers hurrah shrllv
for Christmas p
As he began to reload his gun the
small boys clustered around him, their
hands in the pockets of their baggy
jeans trousers, their heads inquir1ngly
askew.
"They air a-goin' ter hev a pea-fowel
fur dinner down yander ter Birk's Mill"
Dick remarked.
The smallest boy smacked his lips
not that he knew how pea-fowsl tastes,
but he imagined unutterable things.
Somehows hate fur ye ter 60 ter
eat at Birk's Mill-they air sech set O.
drinkin' men down thar ter Malviny's
house," said Dicks mother, as she stood
in the doorway, and looked anxiously at
him.
For his elder sister was Birk's wife,
| and to this great feast he was invited as
representative of the family, his father
being disabled by !" rheumatics," and his
mother kept at home by the necessity Of
providing dinner for those four small
boys.
Hain't I done promised ye not ter
tech drap O liquor this Chris'mus day ?"
asked Dick.
"That's fac'," his mother admitted.
"But boys, an men folks ginerally, air
scandalous easy ter break promis whar
whisky is in it."
"Tll hev ye ter know that when / gin
my word l keeps it !" cried Dick, pride
fully.
He little dreamed how that promise
was to be assailed before the sun went
down.
He was tall, sinewy boy, deft Of foot
as all these mountaineers are, and sew
en-mile walk in the snow to Birk's Mill
he considered mere trif1e. He tramped
along cheerily enough through the silent
solitudes of the dense forests. Only at
long intervals the stiffness was broken by
the cracking of bough under the weight
of snow, or the whistling of gust Of
wind through the narrow valley far be-
low.
All at once-it was a terrible shock of
surprise-he was sinking! Was there
nothing beneath him but the vague
| depths of air to the base of the mountain
He realized with culver of dismay that
he had mistaken huge drift-6lled fisure,
between a jutting crag and the wall of
the ridge, for the solid, snow-covered
ground. He tossed his arms about wildly
in his effort to grasp something firm. The
motion only dislodged the drift. He felt
that it was falling, and was going down
-down-down with it, He saw the trees
on the summit of Old Windy disappear
He caught one glimpse of the neighbor-
ing ridges. Then he was blinded and en-
yeloped in this cruel whiteness. One last
thought of the pea-fowel," and he
seemed to slide swiftly away from the
world with the snow.
He was unconscious probably only for
q few minutes. When he came to him
self he found that he was lying, halfsub-
merged in the great drift on the slope of
the mountain, and the dark icicle-begirt
cliff lowered high above. He stretched
his limbs-no bones broken He could
hardly believe that he had fallen unhurt
from those heights. He did not appre-
ciate how gradually the snow had slid
down. Being so densely packed, too, it
had buoyed him up, and kept him from
dashing against the sharp, jagged edges
in the jar when the moving mass was
abruptly arrested by knoll of earth.
He was still little dizzy and faint, but
otherwise uninjured.
Now great perplexity took hold on
him. How was he to make his way back
ND the mountain he asked himself, as he
looked at the inaccessible cliffs looming
high into the air. ALI the world around
him was unfamiliar. Even his wide
wanderings had never brought him into
this vast, snowy, trackless wilderness,
that stretched out on every side. He
would be half the day in finding the
valley road that led to Birk's Mill. He
rose to his feet and gazed about him in
painful ipdecision. The next moment a
thrill shot through him to which he was
unaccustomed. He had never before
shaken except with the cold-but this
was fear.
For be heard voicesl Not from the
cliffs above, but from below! Not from
the dense growth of young pines on the
slope of the mountain, but from the
depths of the earth beneath. He stood
motionless, listening intently, his eyes
distended and bis heart beating fast.
ALI silencel Not even the wind stirred
in the pine thicket. The snow lay heavy
among the dark green branches, and
every slender needle was encased in ice
Dick rubbed his eyes. II was no dream
There was the thicket-but whose were
the voices that had rung out family from
beneath itf
A crowd Of superstitions surged upor
him. He cast . fearful glsnce at the
ghastly, snow-coyered woods and sheetce
earth. He was remembering hresid'
legends, horrible enough to raise the han
} on . civilized, educated boys's head
much more horrible, then, to . yount
barbarian like Dick.
Suddenly those voices from the eartl
nrain! One was ringing drunkel