A Mountain Europa | Page 4

withdrew them. As the
road wound up toward him, two figures were soon visible through the
undergrowth. Presently a head bonneted in blue rose above the bushes,
and Clayton's half-shut eyes opened wide and were fixed with a look of
amused expectancy where a turn of the path must bring rider and beast
into plain sight. Apparently some mountain girl, wearied by the climb
or in a spirit of fun, had mounted her cow while driving it home; and
with a smile at the thought of the confusion he would cause her,
Clayton stepped around the bowlder and waited. With the slow, easy
swing of climbing cattle, the beast brought its rider into view. A bag of
meal lay across its shoulders, and behind this the girl-for she was
plainly young-sat sidewise, with her bare feet dangling against its flank.
Her face was turned toward the valley below, and her loosened bonnet
half disclosed a head of bright yellow hair.
Catching sight of Clayton, the beast stopped and lifted its head, not the
meek, patient face he expected to see, but a head that was wrinkled and
vicious-the head of a bull. Only the sudden remembrance of a dead
mountain custom saved him from utter amazement. He had heard that
when beasts of burden were scarce, cows, and especially bulls, were
worked in ploughs and ridden by the mountaineers, even by the women.
But this had become a tradition, the humor of which greater prosperity
and contact with a new civilization had taught even the mountain
people to appreciate. The necessities of this girl were evidently as great
as her fear of ridicule seemed small. When the brute stopped, she began
striking him in the flank with her bare heel, without looking around,
and as he paid no attention to such painless goading, she turned with
sudden impatience and lifted a switch above his shoulders. The stick
was arrested in mid-air when she saw Clayton, and then dropped
harmlessly. The quick fire in her eyes died suddenly away, and for a
moment the two looked at each other with mutual curiosity, but only
for a moment. There was something in Clayton's gaze that displeased
her. Her face clouded, and she dropped her eyes.
"G'long," she said, in a low tone. But the bull had lowered his head, and
was standing with feet planted apart and tail waving uneasily. The girl
looked up in alarm.

"Watch out thar! " she called out, sharply. "Call that dog off- quick!"
Clayton turned, but his dog sprang past him and began to bark. The bull,
a lean, active, vicious-looking brute, answered with a snort.
"Call him off, I tell ye! " cried the girl, angrily, springing to the ground.
"Git out o' the way. Don't you see he's a-comm' at ye?"
The dog leaped nimbly into the bushes, and the maddened bull was
carried on by his own Impetus toward Clayton, who, with a quick
spring, landed in safety in a gully below the road. When he picked
himself up from the uneven ground where he had fallen, the beast had
disappeared around the bowlder. The bag had fallen, and had broken
open, and some of the meal was spilled on the ground. The girl, flushed
and angry, stood above it.
"Look thar, now," she said. "See whut you've done. Why'n't ye call that
dog off?"
"I couldn't," said Clayton, politely. " He wouldn't come. I'm sorry, very
sorry."
"Can't ye manage yer own dog?" she asked, half contemptuously.
"Not always."
"Then ye oughter leave him to home, and not let him go round
a-skeerin' folks' beastes." With a little gesture of indignation she
stooped and began scooping up the meal in her hand.
"Let me help you," said Clayton. The girl looked up in surprise.
You go 'way," she said.
But Clayton stayed, watching her helplessly. He wanted to carry the
bag for her, but she swung it to her shoulder, and moved away. He
followed her around the bowlder, where his late enemy was browsing
peacefully on sassafras-bushes.

"You stay thar now," said the girl, " and keep that dog back."
"Won't you let me help you get up?" he asked.
Without answering, the girl sprang lightly to the bull's back, Once only
she looked around at him. He took off his hat, and a puzzled expression
came into her face. Then, without a word or a nod, she rode away.
Clayton watched the odd pair till the bushes hid them.
"Europa, by Jove!" he exclaimed, and he sat down in bewilderment.
She was so very odd a creature, so different from the timid mountain
women who shrank with averted faces almost into the bushes when he
met them. She had looked him straight in the face with steady eyes, and
had spoken as