Smiles | Page 6

in out of the darkness, caught her
up in his huge arms and submitted with a quizzical smile while she
pulled his face toward hers by tugging at his long beard, and kissed
him.
Across the tumbled masses of her hair the newcomer's still piercing
dark eyes, blinking a little under their shaggy brows as the fire leaped
in the draft from the open door, caught sight of Donald as he stood
back among the shadows. He straightened up suddenly, and his brows
drew together in a suspicious scowl.
The city man knew enough of the primitive code of the mountain
people to understand that the presence of a man,--especially a strange
man,--alone in the house with a young woman, was fraught with
unpleasant possibilities. But, before he could speak, the child-woman
had launched into a vivacious, if ungrammatical, explanation and story
of what had occurred. In substantiation she now raised her short skirt
and lifted the bandaged foot, with utter freedom from embarrassment,
and laughed deliciously until an answering smile crept slowly into the
eyes of the old mountaineer.
With a simple courtesy, which seemed to hold something of innate
majesty, he stepped forward, and extended a weatherbeaten hand,
several sizes larger than Donald's, and boomed out in a deep voice that
matched his physical proportions, "Yo're suttinly welcome, stranger.
What happened warn't no fault o' yourn, and I'm plumb obleeged ter ye
fer fixin' up my granddarter's hurt. Draw up a cheer fer the stranger,
Smiles, he'll jine us in a bite er supper. The fare's simple, but I war
raised on't, and 'pears ter me thet I top ye some."

"I should say that you did. You make me feel small, and it's not often
any man does that ... physically, I mean."
The two clasped hands, and Donald winced as his own powerful fingers
cracked under the crushing pressure of those of the older man, who
seemed to take a boyish delight in this display of his tremendous
strength.
"What a colossus he is," thought Donald, as he gritted his teeth to keep
back the involuntary exclamation of pain, for, although the massive
shoulders and Jovian head of the mountaineer were stooped forward, he
towered fully three inches above the six foot city athlete, and his
iron-gray beard, rusted with tobacco juice about his mouth, swept over
his chest almost to his waist.
"Thanks for the invitation," he said aloud, as he covertly nursed his
right hand. "It's mighty kind of you, but I don't want to impose longer,
and, besides, I'd better start back to Fayville before it gets dark
altogether. If you'll just tell me the most direct way, ..."
"Wall, I reckon the most deerect way air ter go straight through the
woods thar a piece, an' then jump off'n a four hundred foot cliff," the
old man chuckled titanically. "But I likewise reckon taint pra'tical;
leastwise, not onless yo' happen ter be one o' them new-fangled
aviationeers I've hearn tell on. However, here ye be, an' here yo're goin'
ter stay twill atter supper. Come, child. Sot on another plate fer the
doctor man."
"Donald MacDonald's my name, sir."
"Peers like yo'r paw stuttered when he give yo' thet name," laughed the
giant. "Mine's Jerry Webb--'Big Jerry,' they mostwise calls me
hyarerbouts." There was simple pride in the nickname evident in his
voice.
"Of course, if you really want me to stay, I'd be glad enough to do it,
Mr. Webb, although I don't like to cause any more trouble for Miss ..."

"'Rose' air the given name of my leetle gal, but folks gener'ly calls her
Smiles, fer short." The old man spoke with a noticeable tenderness
toning his big voice.
"And there's no need of explaining the reason," answered Donald in a
low aside so that the child, who was busy over the stewing kettle on its
primitive crane, might not hear. "I never expect to see another to equal
hers."
His host sent a sharp glance at him, then, softening, it travelled to the
graceful form of the girl silhouetted against the ruddy glow of the open
fire, whose reflection outlined her warm flesh with a tint of burnished
copper.
"Yes," he responded simply. "Seems like, when thet leetle gal's sweet
face lights up with a smile, hit's like a sunbeam a-breakin' through the
leaves an' playin' on a waterpool in the quiet woods."
"Oh," interrupted Rose with a cry. "I done plumb ferget ter git the milk
from Uncle Perly's, but 'twon't take more'n a minute. Kin I take Mike?"
she added, pleadingly, as she buried her slim fingers in the rough hair
on the dog's neck, while he stood sniffing acquaintance with the huge
boots and homespun pantaloons of the giant.
"Sure; that is if you're not still afraid