A Son of the Hills | Page 8

the stove. Then
Mason Hope appeared, hands in pockets and lank hair falling on his
shoulders. Norman Teale came next, with Tansey Moore in tow.
"Howdy, Tod?" was the universal greeting as the County Club took its
place. The chair of Smith Crothers, and two or three overturned potato
baskets--seats of the junior members of the club--were empty. It was
beneath the dignity of any man present to question what had just
occurred, but every son of them had witnessed it and in due time would
touch upon the subject.
The stove, summer and winter, focussed their wandering eyes and acted
as a stimulus to their dormant faculties. From long practice and
inheritance every man could aim and hit the sawdust under the stove
when he expectorated. Even old Andrew Townley had never been
known to fail.
"There be some right good horses down to The Forge," Tansey Moore
ventured after a while.
"It's a blamed risky thing, though," said Mason Hope, "to let a--lady
drive 'em. I've allus noticed that a woman is more sot on gittin' where
she wants to git--than to considering how to git there. It's mighty risky
to trust horseflesh to a female. They seem to reckon all horses is
machines."
"I've seen men as didn't know a hoss from a steam engine," Norman
Teale broke in, glancing sharply at Moore. "Times is when a hoss has
to be sacrificed to man--but I reckon The Forge folks was taking some
risks when they-all hired out a team to a stranger."
"That stranger," said Greeley, hitting the nail on the head with a
violence that brought his audience to an upright position, "ain't nothing

short of, to my mind, than"--he glanced at Teale--"well, she ain't, and
that's my opinion! She comes loaded with facts up to her teeth. Knows
all the names, and says she's going to settle down over to Trouble Neck
and--live along with us-all quite a spell. Weak lungs and all, but she's a
right new brand."
"Hell!" ejaculated Teale, springing to his feet. "If the government has
got so low that it has to trifle with ladies--it's in a bad way. I reckon I
better git a-moving. Any mail, Tod? I take it right friendly that you
give me this hint. A lady may be hard to handle in some ways, but
we-all can at least know where she is--that's something."
After the departure of Teale the club fell into moody gloom. It was
always upsetting to have outside interference with their affairs. Even if
Teale wasn't arrested the whiskey would be limited for a time, and that
was a drawback to manly rights.
Andrew Townley fell into an audible doze; he was the oldest inhabitant
and a respected citizen. He was given to periods of senile dementia
preceded or followed by flashes of almost superhuman intelligence.
There were times when, arousing suddenly from sleep, he would bring
some startling memory with him that would electrify his hearers. He
was an institution and a relic--every one revered him and looked to his
simple comfort. Suddenly now, as the dense silence enveloped the club,
old Andrew awoke and remarked vividly:
"I was a-dreaming of Theodore Starr!"
"Now what in thunder!" cried Tod Greeley, who had purposely
refrained from mentioning some part of his late visitor's
conversation,--"what made you think of--Theodore Starr?"
"I reckon," whined the trembling old voice, "that it was 'long o' Liza
Hope. I was a-passing by and I heard her calling on God-a'mighty to
stand by her in her hour. Theodore Starr was mighty pitiful of women
in their hours."
Mason Hope felt called upon, at this, to explain and apologize. He did

so with the patient air of one detached and disdainful.
"Liza do make a powerful scene when she is called to pass through her
trial. This is her ninth, and I done urged her to act sensible, but when I
saw how it was going with her, I just left her to reason it out along her
own lines. Sally Taber is sitting 'long of her ready to help when the
time comes. I done all I could." Tansey Moore nodded significantly. He
had an unreasonable wife of his own, and he had no sympathy with
women in their "hours."
"Theodore Starr, he done say," Townley was becoming lachrymose,
"that women got mighty nigh to God when they reached up to Him in
their trial and offered life for a life. He done say if God didn't forgive a
woman every earthly thing for such suffering, he was no good God. He
done say that to me onct."
"That be plain blasphemy," Tansey Moore remarked. "I reckon he was
a right poor parson. The religion he doctored with was all soothin'
syrup and mighty diluted at that, where women