The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-05-05
IN SMOKY MOUNTAINS
BY SUSAN r. cLAeETT.

cause it seemed the only thing to do.
Now he was waiting for the team that
would carry him into the pines on the
slope of Old Smoky.
He raised him head. A mule stood
near by, Hopping his ears and lazily
twitching bushy tail. In front of him
was young girl, very little girl, who
said:
"Guess l came for you, but l thought
you was to be lady"
"Why?" Marshall asked.
II don't know, 'cept that Julie
guessed it from your letter, you wrote
so ladylike. l don't believe she'd have
taken you if she'd known you was Q
man."
"Any special reason why she
shouldn't?' he asked.
Maybe" was the noncommittal am
swer, "but now you're here we'd better
start" She looked about with keen
eyes. II wonder where that station
mans gone an put your trunk?'
I'm sitting on it. But how are we
to get 1t into the wagon. The agents
gone and I haven't the strength of q
kitten"
She looked at him reflettively. "You
are kinder peaked, but you jes' leave
things to me. l can manage, by
pushing it toward the edge an backin'
Bet to the platform. You jes' git in an
sit down an you needn't feel skeered
of the mule. Bet knows when to be-
have herself"
Two weeks later, with Mollie's help,
big oak and there faced a dilemma!
He had sensed something wrong as he
lay in bed during those first days, but
| had been too listless to ask questions.
Now Mollie told him that their granny
had died in the spring and with her
death the little pension she had re-
ceived had ceased. Julie had seen his
advertisement in an old newspaper
and thought they might as well take
boarder, as they needed money.
"But," Mollie ended, simply, I'VE
thought you was a lady, and now all
the folks is talkin'."
"What can I do, Mollie?" Tom
asked, desperately. "Tm not well
enough to go away"
me an jules been talkin' an we
thought you might go up the noun
tain to Jim Hawn's old cabin. He's
gone, but there's a bed, an me an
Julie can fill bag with pine needles
for a mattress, an Julie can cook you
something to eat an / can tote -
you. You can be real comft'hld
there, an we don't neiittii reeifa ~ "a 81 s
| you to CO." she finished, wistfdlly
| "And I don't want to co." Marslhl I
answered. "If you and Julie can fix 1t
that way I'm satisfied. But ! will tell
you what to do. Get someone to bring
me q chair or two and some other
things from the village, if I am to SET
up housekeeping. And there is some
thing else" He drew the child close
to him. Il heard you say you felt real
bad because you couldn't go to the
district school. Wouldn't you like me
to teach you? It would be something
for me to do, and you could come
to me in your spare time. I'm pretty
sure you will learn more with me
than in that schoolhouse two miles
away. What do you say to my planY
Breathless, but with shining eyes
Mollie looked at him, yet all she said
was: wont Julie be glad? She cried
because I couldn't CO."
1t was settled after Marshall had
his talk with the older sister, and
that same night, after a ride up the
mountain upon the bare back of old
Bet, he slept upon bed of fragrant
pine needles In the forsaken cabin.
Ten days later in the comforting
knowledge of returning strength hi
found work ready at his hand.
Julie was the last to come. She was
an entirely unknown quantity, al
though for month or more she hat
cared for his material needs. MOllit
had always been the go-between, but
one evening Julie climbed the path tt
his cabin. an offlcial-lookirg paper II
her hand. This she handed him ask
ing If he could tell her what was writ
ten upon the yellowing sheets. His
first glance told him the writing was
French.
"Have you any idea what is writer
here who your parents were?" nc
asked, touching the paper.
| She shook her head. Granny tolt
me to keep it; that might need i
some day"
II will write this out in English,
he said. After moments thought h'
asked: ''Do You know anything o.
French history?"
"a little" she told him."
Then you will understand when
tell you your people were among thu
Huguenots that We're driven out o
France years ago. Many of them set
tied In the Carolinas, but as tim
| passed there was no one to teach them
the children grew up in ignorance o
their ancestors, and of all else. for tn
matter of that. This paper tells M
that your NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
was Alphonse d'Armand and that hi
wife was Julie de Guesclin. 1t woul'