The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come | Page 7

a blossoming wild cucumber and an umbrella-tree with
huger flowers and leaves; and, sometimes, a giant magnolia with a
thick creamy flower that the boy could not have spanned with both
hands and big, thin oval leaves, a man's stride from tip to stem. Soon,
he was below the sunlight and in the cool shadows where the water ran
noisily and the air hummed with the wings of bees. On the last spur, he
came upon a cow browsing on sassafras-bushes right in the path and
the last shadow of his loneliness straightway left him. She was old,
mild, and unfearing, and she started down the road in front of him as

though she thought he had come to drive her home, or as though she
knew he was homeless and was leading him to shelter. A little farther
on, the river flashed up a welcome to him through the trees and at the
edge of the water, her mellow bell led him down stream and he
followed. In the next hollow, he stooped to drink from a branch that ran
across the road and, when he rose to start again, his bare feet stopped as
though riven suddenly to the ground; for, half way up the next low
slope, was another figure as motionless as his--with a bare head, bare
feet, a startled face and wide eyes--but motionless only until the eyes
met his: then there was a flash of bright hair and scarlet homespun, and
the little feet, that had trod down the centuries to meet his, left the earth
as though they had wings and Chad saw them, in swift flight, pass
silently over the hill. The next moment, Jack came too near the old
brindle and, with a sweep of her horns at him and a toss of tail and
heels in the air, she, too, swept over the slope and on, until the sound of
her bell passed out of hearing. Even to-day, in lonely parts of the
Cumberland, the sudden coming of a stranger may put women and
children to flight-- something like this had happened before to
Chad--but the sudden desertion and the sudden silence drew him in a
flash back to the lonely cabin he had left and the lonely graves under
the big poplar and, with a quivering lip, he sat down. Jack, too, dropped
to his haunches and sat hopeless, but not for long. The chill of night
was coming on and Jack was getting hungry. So he rose presently and
trotted ahead and squatted again, looking back and waiting. But still
Chad sat irresolute and in a moment, Jack heard something that
disturbed him, for he threw his ears toward the top of the hill and, with
a growl, trotted back to Chad and sat close to him, looking up the slope.
Chad rose then with his thumb on the lock of his gun and over the hill
came a tall figure and a short one, about Chad's size and a dog, with
white feet and white face, that was bigger than Jack: and behind them,
three more figures, one of which was the tallest of the group. All
stopped when they saw Chad, who dropped the butt of his gun at once
to the ground. At once the strange dog, with a low snarl, started down
toward the two little strangers with his yellow ears pointed, the hair
bristling along his back, and his teeth in sight. Jack answered the
challenge with an eager whimper, but dropped his tail, at Chad's sharp
command--for Chad did not care to meet the world as an enemy, when

he was looking for a friend. The group stood dumb with astonishment
for a moment and the small boy's mouth was wide-open with surprise,
but the strange dog came on with his tail rigid, and lifting his feet high.
"Begone!" said Chad, sharply, but the dog would not begone; he still
came on as though bent on a fight.
"Call yo' dog off," Chad called aloud. "My dog'll kill him. You better
call him off," he called again, in some concern, but the tall boy in front
laughed scornfully.
"Let's see him," he said, and the small one laughed, too.
Chad's eyes flashed--no boy can stand an insult to his dog--and the
curves of his open lips snapped together in a straight red line. "All
right," he said, placidly, and, being tired, he dropped back on a stone by
the wayside to await results. The very tone of his voice struck all
shackles of restraint from Jack, who, with a springy trot, went forward
slowly, as though he were making up a definite plan of action; for Jack
had a fighting way of his own, which Chad knew.
"Sick him, Whizzer!" shouted the tall boy,