Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1920-10-05
CHAPTER I-continued.

- - opShcu, she fOOkcu up al
MIN with feverish quickness.
I've lived twenty years without the
world. I'll not go back to 1t now"
But, mother, If we just keep on this
way, you'll-you1l"-he hesitated at
the next word; finally let 1t fall-"die."
Die" she seemed to fondle the
word. "A small thing-to die!'
She sat musing as if she found
melancholy comfort in the thought.
But l shan't de-" she continued,
with a hasty glance up at his face.
My cough is worse today because my
medicine is gone"
The young man started
Your elecampane comet"
Il took the last of it yesterday"
Mother !"
He went to the cook stove and lifted
the saucer from a small jar in which
the roots were usually stepped. 1t was
empty and dry. There was great ten
derness in his voice as he came back
and bent over her chair.
"You shall have your elecampane
tea" he said, 'if the roots are to be
found in the Flatwoods; and you shall
sleep tonight in the old cabin up there
under the cool trees"
A ripple of pleased expectation, Of
half-awakened interest, broke the
drear surface OF the weary face-like
a faint glow back of curtain that
never raises.
He refilled the cup with cool water,
rummaged spade out of the locker
under the forward deck, and was just
| on the point of leaping to the bank
when he heard her speaking. He
| poked his head back inside the cur
tains, and she repeated what she had
| just said:
isn't the Flatwoods where the Wild
| Man lives? Seems to me / once heard
| that there is such man in these
| woods"
| He felt carelessly along the rusty bit
| of the spade with his thumb.
81 believe this is the woods"
maybe hes-I mean-he's not dan
| gerous?"
Dangerous A gray ghost of a
| man with a pitiful face. They say he
| goes through the woods as still as
| smoke, and leaves as little trail"
A minute later he had leaped ashore
climbed the bluffs and plunged into
the deep woods.
The root of the elecampane was
much esteemed as a remedy for
coughs, but 1t was by no means abun-
| dant. No one knew this fact better
| than the Pearlhunter.
The small stream that feeds the wa
| terfall at Fallen Rock is known as
Wolf run. Following up along its
course the Pearlhunter presently came
to a tiny thread of water that Joined It
from the west-probably the outlet of
some small pond tucked away among
the hills. 1t is along the open margins
of swamps and ponds, and never in
the thick woods, that the elecampane
| grows. Believing from the warmth
and dullness of it's water that the tiny
stream came from pond, rather than
from spring, the Pearlhunter fol-
lowed 1t.
| II had grown so small that the
| Pearlhunter began to fear 1t would
disappear altogether, when there came
n break in the forest line just ahead.
| A scramble through dense fringe of
hazel. and there 1t lay-a little pond
in the midst Of narrow glade in a
pocket of the hills, delicate inlay in
| the forest.
] The man glanced at the sun (;
! turned, and hurriedly looked about for
the elecampane. Along the east edge
of the glade. not far out from the
| fringe of hazel, he found it-a clump
of some dozen stalks. three or four of
them ready to bloom. The rusty spade
was soon at their roots7-probably the
first ground ever broken on the mar
| gin of that pond. Three plants he
digged. cut their stems close to the
ground, shook the dirt from their clus-
tiers of fieshy roots, and hurried down
the tiny outlet back to Wolf run.
1t was upon the gravelly margin OF
| n pool that the Pearlhunter stopped to
wash the elecampane roots, and cut
| them loose from the clusters in which
he had been carrying them. He had
finished the task and was storing
! them away in the pockets of his blouse
| when the song of thrush from some
where up the stream gradually worked
itself across his consciousness.
The song puzzled him. There were
nofes-certain little foreign flights; a
deeper witchery--that he could not
have believed possible to thrush's
throat. The Pearlhunter had 6 nice
ear for the sounds of the woods. He
stole cautiously up the bank. The
| sound when he had draw quite near,
did not appear to ceme from any tree.
hut from some place down close to the
water of another pool-another spot
inst ahead where the water stopped to
rest.
Parting the bushes with the utmost
caution. he crept up to the edge OF
the pool and peered forth. A woman
- girl-sar on fiat rock jutting out
from the opposite bank, her bare feet
swinging in the water. her body bent
s,igbtlv hack and propped on her
hands her face uplifted, her puckered
Inns pouring forth the song that had
drawn him to the spot. A sunbonnel
e,.o,, her arm: her shoes and