The Story of Ab | Page 5

and far between brown shoulders.
It was a fine head of hair; there could be no question about that. It had
gloss and color. Captious critics, reasoning from the standpoint of
another age, might think it needed combing, but that is only a matter of
opinion. It was tangled together in a compact and fluffy mass, and so
did not wander into the woman's eyes, which was a good thing and a
great convenience, for bright eyes and unobstructed vision were
required in those lively days.
The face of this lady showed, at a glance, that no cosmetic had ever
been relied upon to give it an artificial charm. As a matter of fact it
would have been difficult to use cosmetics upon that face in the modern
way, for there was a suggestion of something more than down upon the
countenance, and there were certain irregularities of facial outline so
prominent that such details as the little matter of complexion must be
trifling. The eyes were deep set and small, the nose was short and thick
and possessed a certain vagueness of outline not easy of description.
The upper lip was excessively long and the under lip protruding. The
chin was well defined and firm. The mouth was rather wide, and the
teeth were strong and even, and as white as any ivory ever seen. Such
was the face, and there may be added some details of interest about the
figure. The arms of this fascinating woman were perfectly proportioned.
They were adapted to the times and were very beautiful. Down each of
them from shoulder to elbow ran a strip of short dark hair. From either
hand ran upward to the elbow another strip of hair, and the two,
meeting at the elbow, formed a delightful little tuft reminding one of
what is known as a "widow's peak," or that little point which grows
down so charmingly on an occasional woman's forehead. Her biceps
were tremendous, as must necessarily be the case with a lady
accustomed to swing from limb to limb along the treetops. Her thumb
was nearly as long as her fingers, and the palms of her hands were hard.
Her legs were like her arms in their degree of muscular development
and hairy adornment. She had beautiful feet. It is to be admitted that
her heels projected a trifle more than is counted the ideal thing at the
present day, and that her big toe and all the other toes were very much
in evidence, but there is not one woman in ten thousand now who could
as handily pick up objects with her toes as could the mother of the baby

Ab. She was as brown as a nut, with the tan of a half tropical summer,
and as healthy a creature, from tawny head to backward sloping heel, as
ever trod a path in the world's history. This was the quality of the lady
who came so swiftly to learn the nature of her offspring's trouble.
Ladies of that day attended, as a rule, to the wants of their own children.
A wet nurse was a thing unknown and a dry one as unthought of. This
was good for the children.
The woman made a dive into the little hollow and picked the babe from
its nest of leaves and tossed him up lightly, and at once his crying
ceased, and his little brown arms went around her neck, and he cooed
and prattled in very much the same fashion as does a babe of the
present time. He was content, all in a moment, yet some noise must
have aroused him, for, as it chanced, there was great need that this
particular babe at this particular moment should have awakened and
cried aloud for his mother. This was made evident immediately. As the
woman tossed him aloft in her arms and cuddled him again there came
a sound to her ears which made her leap like some wilder creature of
the forest up to a little vantage ground. She turned her head, and
then--you should have seen the woman!
Very nearly above them swung down one of the branches of a great
beech tree. The mother threw the child into the hollow of her left arm,
and leaped upward a yard to catch the branch with her right hand. So
she hung dangling. Then, instantly, holding him firmly by one arm in
her left hand, she lowered the child between her legs and clasped them
about him closely. And then, had it been your fortune to be born in
those times, you might have seen good climbing. With both her strong
arms free, this vigorous matron ran up the stout beech limb which
depended downward from the great bole of the tree until