The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-10-14
A LITTLE MOUNTAIN MAID.
BY MARY TRACY EARLY.

snother's shoulders q d watched
Georgia Blount at her play. Bald
Top, Crabs Claw and Old Surly
stood nearest; sometimes they seemed
60 near that Georgia could talk to
them; and when low hanging cloud
shut them out of sight, or the blue
autumn haze yelled them softly and
held them aloof from her, che felt as
other children feel when th.ir frien e
turn away or refuse t. tell what the
thoughts are in their eyes.
A gnarlsd tree at the foot Of the
bluff which lifted the big dome Of
Copper Head about the mountain
side, and between the roots of this
tree Georgia had her play house.
Day in md day ouS no one ever came
in sight of it except the mountains,
but Georgia was never lonely. In
the mornings she bad to take all her
dolls out of their beds of moss and
dress them in fresh gowns of ST. INNER
or autumn leaves, or in stiff, fringy
costumes of pine needles. She was
much in earnest..about her dolls and
yet she sometimes clapped her hands
and laughed when they were dressed
and leaning in long row against
one OF the roots, they msue such an
elfn company. Some of them had
nuts for heads and some Of them
had acorns. Some of them had been
made out of Try, rounded rece p tao. les
of composite flower from which
the florets rad fallen and the viii ged
seeds flown away, leaving only the
circle Of bracts for a collar, and
stem with two branches, from which
the flower ends had been niped off,
for arms. These were the most
fragile of Georgia's children, and it
took q most skillful hanl to keep
the toilets without swapping their
necks, or their bodies or their limbs.
Georgia could do it, for she loved
them, and she had been dressing
them ever since she wa, big enough
to wander eff by herself up the
mountainside, and through the forest
which separated the home clearing
from the rugged, b1wlder. strewn
slope below the play house tree and
rock walls of the dome.
Georgia was much bigger now
than when she bad begun t. f.shion
dolls for he self with chubby, awk-
ward Tigers; she was 80 much bigger,
indeed, that she was IA years; she
might nave thought that she was
growing up if there had been anyone
to suggest it to her; but she had
seen no other children growing 0,
and the mountains did not tell her.
for they themselves had taken 80
long to grow that it never occurred |
to them that she would not con-
tlnue to be a little girl for centuries
aud centuries to come. She had
worked to do at home now, and that
was an interruption; vet every day,
before or after work, she managed !
to slip off toward the fores. path.
Among her dolls there was ore
made of corn cob, and far larger
thar the Others, and this one Georgia
dressed as man. He was a very
wicked-looking doll, having deen
black eyes and nose and mouth which
she had burned into his head with q
hot iron nail; and it was because be
was SO different from the rest that
she named him "the fureiguer"
after the way of southern mountain
people in speaking of any stranger
who comes among them. "The fur
eigner" lived in a corner all by him.
self back of the tree, and Georgia
always knew that when he came ont
among the others there was mi,c} ;ef
brewing. Sometimes she walked
'lsvly away from the tree catherine
leaves and grasses as she We If. and !
rs soon as she could slip away from ,
hers II, hurried stealthily hack
pull d tho foreigner out of his cor
ner, dropped him among the other
Tolls, ran to her leaf-gathering again.
70 tina she he surprised when she
inaly returned and found how he
had been romping up and down
among her mountain people. "Oh,
happy kingdom!" she always cried +
when she caught sight of him, "he i
haze c'me asln, aud oh, no. he d !
have been a-lavin' waste the llnd." !.
One day, a, she stood with her 4
lands held up in horror At a row of =
nountsin people who bad fallen O
'rostrate round the savage foreigner. p
real stranger came out from the e
hick forest and stood at the edge of 9
he natural -op.ning around the paw 5
louse tree. He saw her at once. p
are footed, red checked, with her 9.
Cured bandana knotted at her B
htoat, and he could hear her speas: p p
'ut she. Who should have be,n a. 4
lnick-eared AS rabbit, b-ing Just as p
ny, was too intent to notice tn. at, n
ing of his feet in the eparse, dry
utumpsgrass. b
"Folkses! folkses." she cri d nut Il
we's obleeged to run him off the
Mounting! HISS foreigner, an he
mt got no right hyer. Wes
bleegei to run him off the m unit
n.y."
The man who list-oed drew lit
e closer, yidg hot to make noise.
le knew that be himself was a Stu
gne'," aud he wanteo to fsar what
'ef the E..l might say; but he 4
'ughsd right out when be saw that
le was pointing at corn-cob doll. Is
eorgla jumped, gave single glance =
'er her shoulder and ran. It was M
'e thing to plan raid, on an intrud- :,
s 90 So.