Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1910-11-08

in cove stood twenty years aSo Z"
soualid cabin, daubed with unmlNeu
clay and rooted with boards into whlch
not a metal nail had been driven. EN-
cent to the initiated it would have been
difBcult TO think Of this as a human
habitation, and yet it was not unlike
scores. not to say hundreds, OF other
tenements set in the glens ana against
the mountain scarps of this Wild ana
almost inaccessible region. or acces-
sories il had none except a puny sheu
against the cabins back wall, te"
acres of rocky croft and the boundless
freedom and solitude of the embracing
mountains and sky. This was the
home of Len Lambert, mountain clans
man, moonshiner, and general suspect
The blue roof of the mountain SKY
more frequently sheltered the head OF
lambert than did the smoky roof OF
his cabin. but his mother, mummieo
crone of seventy, and Tenny, his only
child. cluug day in and day out TO the
inhospitable hovel, cultivated the stony
acres of croft, prepared their scant
meals. and kept home and welcome
such as they could for the son and
father on his uncertain returns.
II was the autumn of the year, and
not far from the hour of sunset ana
Tenny Lambert, the mountalheer
daughter, sat at the single door OF the
cabin with her back against the Jamp
and her bare feet drawn up under her
hOmespun gown. A casual observer
would have set her age down at hfteen'
possibly more, but it was, in fact, much
less, Both her hands and her feet were
large, the former having been helped
in their growth by hard work from
childhood, and the latter having sell
dom known the embarrassment Oh
shoes. Her face was round and come
lv. but not wholly free from disparag-
ing freckles lurking below the lids OF
her earnest gray eyes, and at the roots
of her honey colored hair.
She was an almost perfect type OF
that Alsatian stock from which the
Appalachian mountaineers are belleV-
ed to have been derived, they having
followed, according to tradition, the
northward reaching of those Carolina
streams about whose estuaries their
Gallic forebearers settled generations
ago. In the mountain valleys and
coves that lie between the axis of the
Blue Ridge and that of the Cumber-
lands they found a habitat from which
neither the cross flowing tides OF I'M
migration nor the changes of time have
dislodged them.
So she sat, this untaught, neglected
and meanly clad mountain girl, en-
hodying in her half developed SOUL
which looked through her wide nature
lit eyes, the hopes, the passions and,
TO a degree. the nobleness of far off
ancestry. The question as to whose
sons and daughters we are is deeper
and more significant than all other
PHILOSOPHERS. From their mountain
hinterlands. infested with ignorance,
prejudice and often with lawlessness,
have come with surprising frequency
intellects and spirits that have made
these binds and their children the lid
die of civilization.
The deeply sunken sun cast thG
shadow of Clingman's Dome for across
the eastward lying scarps and valleys.
The afterglOw fell soft and wide along
the opposing slopes, and the echo
breeding witchery which Immediately
forewalks the night was fast claiming
the whole face of visible nature. Sun
dry muffled sounds were heard in the
cabin where Granny Lambert was
about the evening meal. a column of
blue smoke rolled up the low clay
chimney and drifted lazily through the
upper void. Soon a star appeared in
the path of the long departed sun, and
then another and quickly the sky was
full of eyes, and then the world was
peopled with moving shadows.
"Tenny Lambert" called the grand
mother from within the cabin, what
do you 'uns be dOin' settin thar, like
a ninny a lookin' at nothin'?"
20 granny" answered the girl, Il
amt a lookin at nOthin'; I'm a look
in at somethin', an a hearin some
thin. too. There's somethin' in me a
talkin' all the time, an them red patch
IS on the sky, an the shadders l see
a walkin' through the cove-they're
all a talkin' back at me. Sometimes |
feel jst like Id so wild ef | don't lis
ten to EN-"
Well, keep on a listenin," return
ed the grandmother, "'taint no harm |
reckon, an hit don't cost nothin, I'm
shore"
And Tenny continued To- listen; but
before she was aware of it one of the
myriad shadows that teemed in and
out of the deepening gloom became
tangible. and suddenly stood in human
shape at her elbow.
"Howdy. Tenny, what he you 'uns
a thinkn' about" asked the material
iZed shadow.
The girl looked up and recognized in
her questioner Prince Bardwell, a
young mountaineer from the other side
of the valley. Seen in the starlight
Prince was an athletic looking youth
of eighteen, with frank face and
voice. and a noticeable poll of fine
hair. In him also it was easy To dis
cover signs of attempted reversiOn TO
an earlier and nubler type: but the
struggle had clearly been precarious
one: it had been against ignorance and
Iawlessness under the influence of
which he had been bred. \ strong
ethical sense was rising up i'm him, and
was destined to dominate at last, hut
ere it came to be his conscious self il
was to pass through bitter urdeals and
walk the sorrOwful way.
one circumstance was helping
nightly toward the dominance of this
higher self 1t was the always potent
mastery of love. In secret hr had
nursed his rustic passion until now il
was waXed strong. and was become
l,ou.u auJ tbnu than hirnSplt