The Secret of the Storm Country | Page 2

woods and sold them in the city and the men worked
occasionally, as the fit struck them. But the winters were bitter and
cruel. The countryside, buried deep in snow, made travel difficult.
When the mercury shrank timidly into the bulb and fierce winds
howled down the lake, the Silent City seemed, indeed, the Storm
Country.
"I were up to the Graves' place yesterday, helpin' Professor Young,"
said Jake Brewer, the youngest and most active of the three men.
"Never had no use fer that duffer, Dominie Graves, myself," answered

Longman. The speaker turned a serious face to the third member of the
party. "Ner you nuther, eh, Orn?"
Orn Skinner was an enormous man, some six and a half feet tall. Two
great humps on his shoulders accentuated the breadth and thickness of
his chest while they tended to conceal the length of his arms. A few
months before he'd been in the death house at Auburn. Through the
efforts of Deforrest Young, the dean of the Law College at Cornell,
he'd been pardoned and sent home.
The gigantic squatter removed his pipe from his mouth and smoothed
the thready white beard, straggling over his chin.
"Nope, I hated 'im," he muttered. "He done me dirt 'nough. If it hadn't
been fer Tess an' Lawyer Young, he'd a hung me sure."
"Ye didn't git the deed to yer shack land afore he died, did ye, Orn?"
interrupted "Satisfied" Longman. "Tessibel told ma the preacher
promised it to ye."
A moody expression settled in Skinner's eyes. "So he did promise it,"
he explained. "He writ Tess a letter. He said as how he were sorry for
his meanness an' would give me the deed. But he didn't!"
A shrill voice calling his name brought "Satisfied" Longman to his feet,
and he hobbled away toward the shack.
"'Pears like 'Satisfied' ain't got much strength any more," said Skinner.
"He ain't been worth much of anythin' sence I got back."
"Him an' Ma Longman've failed a lot sence Myry an' Ezry died,"
agreed Jake. "An' no wonder! Them two didn't amount to much to my
way o' thinkin', but their pa an' ma set considerable store by 'em ... Ben
Letts were a bad 'un, too. It used to make me plumb ugly to see 'im
botherin' Tess when ye was shet up, Orn, an' him all the time the daddy
of Myry's brat."
"Yep, Ben were bad," agreed Skinner. "I were sure he done the shootin',

but 'tweren't till Ezry swore he saw 'im that the lawyer could prove I
didn't do it. But Tess says Myry loved Ben. Women air queer critters,
ain't they?"
"Myry sure was," assented Brewer, thoughtfully. "In spite of Ezry's
tellin' her, Ben'd most drowned him, an' done the killin' they was goin'
to hang you fer, up she gits an' takes the brat an' goes off with Ben. It
were the worst storm of the year. No wonder him, Myry an' their brat
all was drowned."
Longman, coming out of the shack, overheard the last remark. The
other two fell silent. After he'd sat down again, he dissipated their
embarrassment by saying,
"But Tess says Myry air happy now 'cause she air got Ben. Fer myself,
I dunno, though. But, if Myry air satisfied, me an' ma air satisfied, too."
The other two nodded in solemn sympathy. After a moment, Jake took
out his pipe and filled it. Holding the lighted match above the bowl, he
glanced at Skinner.
"Where air Tess?" he asked.
"She air up to Young's. He air learnin' her book stuff, an' his sister air
helpin' the brat sing. It air astonishin' how the brat takes to it. Jest like a
duck to water."
"Tess air awful smart," sighed Longman, "an' she air awful good, too.
She sings fer ma 'most every day. I heard her only yesterday, somethin'
'bout New Jerusylem. Ma loves Tessibel's singin'."
Then, for perhaps the space of three minutes, they lapsed into silence.
At length, Jake Brewer spoke,
"Be ye goin' to let her marry the Student Graves, Orn?" he asked.
"I dunno," Skinner muttered, "but I know this much, I don't like high
born pups like him hangin' 'round my girl. 'Tain't fittin' an' I told Tess

so!"
Orn knocked the ashes out of his pipe and rose slowly.
"Guess I'll be moseyin' 'long, pals," he smiled. "The brat'll be back 'fore
long."
"Wait a minute, Orn," Longman broke in. "Ma's got some pork an'
beans she wants to send up to Mother Moll. She thought, mebbe, Tess'd
take 'em to 'er."
"Sure, 'Satisfied,' I'll take 'em home an' the brat'll take 'em up the ravine
next time she goes to the professor's."
"Mother Moll were the only one of us all," Jake told Skinner, while
Longman was