The Southerner | Page 9

jist kinder sighed:
"Kerpeow!"
"I kin hear hit echoin' through them woods yit. That Injun drapped my hands before I heerd the gun, an' she hadn't more'n sung out afore he wuz lyin' in a heap at my feet. The ball had gone clean through him----"
Tom paused again and looked for a long time in silence into the glowing coals. The little cabin was very still. The Boy lifted his face to his mother's curiously:
"Ma, you said God counted the beat of a sparrow's wing?"
"Yes."
"Well, what was He doin' when that Indian scalped my grandpa?"
The mother threw a startled look at the bold little questioner and answered reverently:
"Keeping watch in Heaven, my Boy. The hairs of your head are numbered and not one falls without his knowledge. We had to pay the price of blood for this beautiful country. Nothing is ever worth having that doesn't cost precious lives."
Again the cabin was still. An owl's deep cry boomed from the woods and a solitary wolf answered in the distance. The Boy's brow was wrinkled for a moment and then he suddenly looked up to his father's rugged face:
"And what became of Dan'l Boone?"
"Oh, he lit on his feet all right. He always did. He moved on with Stuart, built him another camp in the deepest woods he could find and hunted there all winter--jest think, Boy, all winter--every day--thar wuz a man that wuz a man shore nuff!"
"Yes, sirree!" the listener agreed.
The mother lifted her head and thoughtfully watched the sparkling eyes.
"And do you want to know why Daniel Boone was great, my son?" she quietly asked.
"Yes, why?" was the quick response.
"Because he used his mind and his hands, while the other men around him just used their hands. He learned to read and write when he was a little boy. He mixed brains with his powder and shot."
"Did he, Pa?" the questioner cried.
The father smiled. He could afford to be generous. The Boy looked to him as the authority on Daniel Boone.
"Yes, I reckon he did. He wuz smart. I didn't have no chance when I wuz little."
"Then I'm going to learn, too. Ma can teach me." He leaped from his father's lap and climbed into hers. "You will, won't you, Ma?"
The mother smiled us she slowly answered:
"Yes, Honey, I'll begin to-morrow night when you get back from hunting."
VI
Slowly but surely the indomitable will within the Boy's breast conquered the cries of aching muscles, and he went about his daily farm tasks with the dogged persistence of habit. He had learned to whistle at his work and his eager mind began to look for new worlds to conquer.
At the right moment the tempter appeared. It rained on Saturday and Austin, his neighbor, came over to see him. They cracked walnuts and hickory-nuts in the loft while the rain pattered noisily on the board roof. Austin had a definite suggestion for Sunday that would break the monotony of life.
"Let's me an' you not go ter meetin' ter-morrow?" the neighbor ventured for a starter.
"All right!" the Boy agreed. "Preachin' makes me tired anyhow."
"Me, too, an' I tell ye what I'll do. I'll get my Ma ter let me come ter your house to stay all day, an' when your folks go off ter meetin', me an' you'll have some fun!"
"What?"
"We'll stay all day on the creek banks, find duck nests, turkey and quail nests, an',----" Austin paused and dropped his voice, "go in swimmin' if we take a notion----"
The Boy slowly shook his head.
"No, less don't do that."
"Why?"
"'Cause Ma don't 'low me to go in the creek till June--says I might ketch my death o' cold."
"Shucks! I've been in twice already!"
"Have ye?"
"Yep!"
"And ye didn't get sick?"
"Do I look sick?"
"Not a bit."
"Well, then?"
"All right--we'll go."
The spirit of freedom born of the fields and woods had grown into something more than an attitude of mind. He was ready for the deed--the positive act of adventure. He didn't like to disobey his mother. But he couldn't afford to let Austin think that he was a molly-coddle, a mere babe hanging to her skirts. He was doing a man's work. It was time he took a few of man's privileges.
He revelled in the situation of adventure that night and saw himself the hero of stirring scenes.
Next morning on Austin's arrival he asked his mother to let him stay at home and play.
"Don't you want to go to meeting and hear the new preacher?" she asked persuasively.
"No, I'm tired."
The mother smiled indulgently. He was young--far too young yet to know the meaning of true religion. She was a Baptist, and the first principle of her religion was personal faith and direct relations of the individual soul with God. She remembered her own hours of torture in childhood.
"All right, Boy," she said graciously. "Be good now, while we're gone."
His