The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come

The Little Shepherd of Kingdom
Come
by John Fox, Jr.

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Title: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
Author: John Fox, Jr.

Release Date: Feb, 2000 [EBook #2059] [Most recently updated: June
9, 2002]
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LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME ***

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THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME
by JOHN FOX, JR.

To CURRIE DUKE DAUGHTER OF THE CHIEF AMONG
MORGAN'S MEN
KENTUCKY, APRIL, 1898
CONTENTS
1. TWO RUNAWAYS FROM LONESOME 2. FIGHTING THEIR
WAY 3. A "BLAB SCHOOL" ON KINGDOM COME 4. THE
COMING OF THE TIDE 5. OUT OF THE WILDERNESS 6. LOST
AT THE CAPITAL 7. A FRIEND ON THE ROAD 8. HOME WITH
THE MAJOR 9. MARGARET 10. THE BLUEGRASS 11. A
TOURNAMENT 12. BACK TO KINGDOM COME 13. ON TRIAL
FOR HIS LIFE 14. THE MAJOR IN THE MOUNTAINS 15. TO
COLLEGE IN THE BLUEGRASS 16. AGAIN THE BAR SINISTER
17. CHADWICK BUFORD, GENTLEMAN 18. THE SPIRIT OF '76

AND THE SHADOW OF '61 19. THE BLUE OR THE GRAY 20.
OFF TO THE WAR 21. MELISSA 22. MORGAN'S MEN 23. CHAD
CAPTURES AN OLD FRIEND 24. A RACE BETWEEN DIXIE AND
DAWN 25. AFTER DAWS DILLON--GUERILLA 26. BROTHER
AGAINST BROTHER AT LAST 27. AT THE HOSPITAL OF
MORGAN'S MEN 28. PALL-BEARERS OF THE LOST CAUSE 29.
MELISSA AND MARGARET 30. PEACE 31. THE WESTWARD
WAY

THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME
CHAPTER 1
TWO RUNAWAYS FROM LONESOME
The days of that April had been days of mist and rain. Sometimes, for
hours, there would come a miracle of blue sky, white cloud, and yellow
light, but always between dark and dark the rain would fall and the mist
creep up the mountains and steam from the tops--only to roll together
from either range, drip back into the valleys, and lift, straightway, as
mist again. So that, all the while Nature was trying to give lustier life to
every living thing in the lowland Bluegrass, all the while a gaunt
skeleton was stalking down the Cumberland--tapping with fleshless
knuckles, now at some unlovely cottage of faded white and green, and
now at a log cabin, stark and gray. Passing the mouth of Lonesome, he
flashed his scythe into its unlifeing shadows and went stalking on. High
up, at the source of the dismal little stream, the point of the shining
blade darted thrice into the open door of a cabin set deep into a shaggy
flank of Black Mountain, and three spirits, within, were quickly loosed
from aching flesh for the long flight into the unknown.
It was the spirit of the plague that passed, taking with it the breath of
the unlucky and the unfit: and in the hut on Lonesome three were
dead--a gaunt mountaineer, a gaunt daughter, and a gaunt son. Later,
the mother, too, "jes' kind o' got tired," as little Chad said, and soon to
her worn hands and feet came the well-earned rest. Nobody was left

then but Chad and Jack, and Jack was a dog with a belly to feed and
went for less than nothing with everybody but his little master and the
chance mountaineer who had sheep to guard. So, for the fourth time,
Chad, with Jack at his heels, trudged up to the point of a wooded spur
above the cabin, where, at the foot of a giant poplar and under a
wilderness of shaking June leaves, were three piles of rough boards,
loosely covering three hillocks of rain-beaten earth; and, near them, an
open grave. There was no service sung or spoken over the dead, for the
circuit-rider was then months away; so, unnoticed, Chad stood behind
the big poplar, watching the neighbors gently let down into the shallow
trench a home-made coffin,