Middletown transcript., 1921-02-26
CHAPTER III-Continued.


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The rains fell increasingly for seven
days: not a downpour but constant
drlzZle that made the distant ridges
smoke. The parched earth seemed to
smack its lips, and little rivuIets be-
gan to fall and tumble over the beds
OF the dry streams. All danger of for
est fire was at once removed. and
Snowbird was no longer needed as q
lookout on old Bald mountain. She
went to her own home, her companion
back to the valley; and now that mis-
sister had taken his place as house
keeper, Bill had gone down to the
lower foothills with a great part of
the live stock. Dan spent these rainy
days in toll. on the hillsides, building
himself physically so that he might
pay mis- debts.
1t was no great pleasure, these
rainy days. He would have greatly
liked to have fingered in the square
mountain house, listening to the quiet
murmur Of the rain on the roof and
watching Snowbird at her household
tasks. She could, as her father had
said, make a biscuit She could also
roll up sleeves over trim. brown arms
and with entire good humor do a
weeks laundry for three hardwork-
ing men. He would have liked to sit
with her. through the long afternoons,
as she knitted beside the fireplace
to watch, the play of her graceful fin
gers and perhaps. now and then, to
touch her hands when he held tine
Skeins. But none of these things tran
spired. He drove himself from day.
light till dark, developing his body for
the tests that were sure to come.
The first few days nearly killed him.
He over-exercised in the chill rain.
and one anxious night he developed
ell the symptoms Of pneumonia. Such
a sickness would have been the one
thing needed to make the doctors
prophecy come true. But with Snow
birds aid, and numerous hot drinks
he fought it off.
She had made him go to bed, and
no human memory could be so dull as
to forget the little. whispered message
that she gave him with his last spooE-
full of medicine. She said she'd pray
for him, and she meant it t0o-li.eral,
entreating prayer that could not go I'M
heard. She was a mountain girl. and
her beliefs were those of her ances-
tOrs-simple and true and wholly
without affectation. But he hadn't
relaxed thereafter. He knew the time
had come to make the test. Night
after night he would go to bed half
sick from fatigue, but the mornings
would find him fresh. And after two
weeks, he knew he had passed the
crisis and was on the direct road to
complete recovery.
Sometimes he cut wood in the for
est: first. the telling of some tall pine,
then the trimming and hewing into
two-foot lengths. The blisters came
on his hands, broke and bled but
finally hardened into callosities. He
learned the most effective stroke to
hurl a shower of chips from beneath
the blade. His back and limbs hard
ened from the handling of heavy wood
and the cough was practically gone.
His frame filled out. His face became
swarthy from constant exposure. He
gained in weight.
One cloudy afternoon in early No
yember found Silas Lennox cutting
wood on the ridge behind his house. 1t
was still an open question with him
whether he and his daughter would
ATTEMPT to winter on the Divide. Dan
of course wanted to remain, yet there
were certain reasons, some very def
mite and others extremely vague, why
the prospect of the winter in the snow
fields did not appeal to the noun
taineer. In the first place, all signs
pointed to hard season. Although
the fall had come late, the SHOWS were
exceptionally early. The duck flight
was completed two weeks before its
usual time, and the rodents had dug
their burrows unusually deep. Be-
sides. too many months of snow weigh
heavily upon the spirit. The wolf
packs sing endlessly on the ridges,
and many unpleasant things may hap
pen. On previous years, some Of the
cabins on the ridges below had human
occupants; this winter the whole re-
gion for nearly seventy miles across
the mountains to the foothills, would
be wholly deserted by human beings.
Even the ranger station, twelve miles
across a steep ridge, would soon be
empty. OF course few ranchers had
homes few miles beyond the river,
but the wild cataracts did not freeze
in the coldest Of seasons, and there
were no bridges. Besides, most of the
more prosperous farmers wintered in
the valleys. Only few more days
would the road be passable for his
car: and no time must be lost in max
ing his decision.
Once the SHOWS came in reality,
there was nothing to do but stay. Sew
enty miles across the uncharted ridges
on snowshoes is an undertaking for
which even mOuntaineer has no
fondness. It might be the wisest thing,
after all. to load Snowbird and Dan
into his car and drive down to the
Valleys. The fall roundup would soon
be completed, Bill would return for
few days from the valleys with new
equipment to replace the broken light
ing system on the cur, and they could
avoid the bitter cold and snow that
Lennox had known so long. He
chopped at great log and wondered
what would suit him better-the COM
fort and safety Of the valleys or the
rugged glory Of the ridges.
But at that instant, the question of
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