Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-10
BY EDWIN CARLILE LITSEY.

lCopyrisht.)
WO men rode down a stony
gorge in the Kentucky noun
tains one soft night in sum-
mer. They rode knee TO knee.
stirrup TO stirrup. silently. The
moonlight fell brokenly through the trees
and vines and bushes. The men were far
past middle life. The beard of one was
gray and the beard of the other was
white but they rode sturdi1y and upright.
Upon the crupper of the horse on the
right little girl was seated astride. with
her arms around the man as far as they
would go. The men were thoroughly a
part of the wild scenery which surround
ed and enveloped them. Their clothing
was OF the coarsest kind: the unearthly
glamour of the witch light falling over
them could not hide their unkempt ap-
pearance-their obvious scorn of personal
seeming. But the horses we're sleek and
IN good trim. Down the gorge. through
the moonlight, rode the queer pair, STIR
rup to stirrup. never speaking.
For more years than a person OF that
region could vouchsafe with any degree
of accuracy there had been trouble. deep
and deadly, on Crowfoot. Crowfoot was
a trifurcated spur of the Cumberlands.
and from one end to the other the
ground was hostile. The Skidmores lived
the point further east and the Buck
ieys lived on the point further west. and
the intervening point of tle spur-com-
pleting CrOwfOot-was without Occu-
pants. Wild Bill Skidmore was the head
OF his clan and Long Jake Buckley was
the head of his. They had it from their
fathers. and their fathers from their
grandfathers. that years 60 Skidmore
had wronged a Buckley. or vice versa
according TO who was telling the tale.
and that constant and continued blood
shed was the only means OF redress
IL was blacklist treason for a man of
one house to look upon a girl of the OPP
posite clan with any feeling save that
OF disgust and hatred, and IL was equal
heresy for a girl to accept attentions
from an enemy to her blood. But all
such mundane arrangements fate laughs
to scorn in her own good time, and so
II came about that after years and years
of open warfare a Skidmore loved
Buckley. He was a hard-headed. hard
listed fellow. young Pete Skidmore.
And Rosie Buckley. was like a wild
flower of her native heath. He saw her
first at a dance on Big Goose creek. 1t
was a Buckley dance, and a Skidmore
hadn't any business to be within miles OF
the place, but with characteristic deviltry
o~ts had Jared over the intervening spur
TO have q look at the festivities. Skulk-
ing in the shadows at safe distance, he
watched the scene. and he saw that the
life of IL was one buXOm, red-cheeked
lass with black braided hair and a merry
laugh always on her lips. Before he left
ne heard some one call her name. SO he
knew who she was. Not many days later
ne CHANGED to see her alone and his heart
warmed with longing. He had swung
iown ravine early one morning with a
s;r.ng of squirrels in his hand and his
;Ln over his shoulder. and so on to the
iiit road leading to the nearest town.
Directly before him was Rosie Buckley.
'iding by herself to market. She had not
scen him. and lie stepped back to the side
" the road. She came jogging on. singing
rs she came. Ten feet away she raised