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I like your spirit about the census, Hamilton," the old mountaineer continued, "an' if yo' can give the gov'nment any service, I reckon yo'd better try, but leave the mount'n districts either to popular favorites or to a stranger."
It was after one o'clock when the boy at last started for home and on the way was hailed by a stranger a little man who was trudging along the road with both hands thrust in his pockets. "Going far?" he asked. "Up th' mount'n to Hillcrest," said Bub. "Oh. May I have a lift?" "How fer?" "Well, I can't say how far I'll go. I'm undecided.
"He's done 'gaged hisse'f," she said, "ter cut an' haul wood fur Kunnel Martin ober on Little Mount'n fur de whole ob nex' week. It's fourteen or thirteen mile' from h'yar, an' ef he'd started ter-morrer mawnm', he'd los' a'mos' a whole day. 'Sides dat, I done tole him dat ef he git dar ter-night he'd have his supper frowed in. Wot you all want wid him? Gwine to pay him fur preachin'?"
The elder of the two, a boy about thirteen years old, went into the shack and returned in a moment bringing out two rifles. I turned the broncho's head up the trail, but Tom interposed. "'I 'low, he said, 'that ye'll hev ter leave yer horse-critter right hyar; thar ain't much of er trail up the mount'n.
I took the papers back to the town where I was teaching, to look over them. Among other things was a quaint old diary of my grandmother's great-aunt, she that was the buxom widow of Jed's story. It was full of homely items of her rustic occupations; what day she had "sett the broune hen," and how much butter was made the first month she had the "party-colored cowe from over the mount'n."
"Ef ye go up," said Bub with a grin, "guess ye'll hev to camp out an' eat scrub. Nobody don't take boarders, up th' mount'n." "I suppose not." He made no demand to be let out at the Huddle, so Bub drove on. "By the way," said the little man, "isn't there a place called Bigbee's, near here?" "Comin' to it pretty soon. They's some gals livin' there now, so ye won't care to stop."
He'd climbed a mount'n. It was pretty high. Ther' wa'n't no shelter. A gust o' that wind come an' took him." Nelson had turned back to his tubs, and was again banging and rubbing. "A mile down the trail, I think you said?" Tresler cried, springing hastily into the saddle. "Sure." And for the first time Tresler's horse felt the sharp prick of the spurs as he rode off.
"He's done 'gaged hisse'f," she said, "ter cut an' haul wood fur Kunnel Martin ober on Little Mount'n fur de whole ob nex' week. It's fourteen or thirteen mile' from h'yar, an' ef he'd started ter-morrer mawnin', he'd los' a'mos' a whole day, 'Sides dat, I done tole him dat ef he git dar ter-night he'd have his supper frowed in. Wot you all want wid him? Gwine to pay him fur preachin'?"
If the mount'n country was worth developin', we should have developed it; if not, we should have left." "I've often wondered why you didn't, Uncle Eli," said Hamilton. "Yo' must remember," the Kentuckian said, "that the mount'neers are a most independent lot. They want to be independent, an' up hyeh, every man is his own master.
The Barker house is two mile one way an' the Bigbee house is jus' half a mile down the slope; guess ye passed it, comin' up; but they ain't no one in the Bigbee house jus' now, 'cause Bigbee got shot on the mount'n las' year, a deer hunt'n', an' Bigbee's wife's married another man what says he's delicate like an' can't leave the city. But neighbors is plenty.
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