Una of the Hill Country | Page 4

disaster she was wont to protest: "You jes'
watch me. I'll find out some way. I be ez knowin' ez any old owel."

Despite her slender physique and her recurrent heavy tasks the drear
doom of poverty with its multiform menace had cast no shadow on her
ethereal face, and her pensive dark gray eyes were full of serene light
as she met the visitor at the bars. A glimmer of mirth began to
scintillate beneath her long brown lashes, and she spoke first. "The
folks in the mountings air mighty nigh skeered out'n thar boots by yer
foolishness, Brent"--she sought to conserve a mien of reproof. "They
'low ez it war a manifestation of the Evil One."
Brent laughed delightedly. "Warn't it prime?" he said. "But I never
expected ter work sech a scatteration of the crowd Thar skeer plumb
terrified me. I jes' set out with the nimblest, an' run from the devil
myself."
"Won't them candidates fur office be mighty mad if they find out what
it war sure enough?" she queried anxiously. "They gin the crowd a
barbecue an' bran dance, an' arter all, the folks got quit of hevin' ter
hear them speak an' jaw about thar old politics an' sech."
"Them candidates air hoppin' mad fur true," he admitted. "I been down
yander at Gilfillan's store in the Cove an' I hearn the loafers thar talkin'
powerful 'bout the strange happening. An' them candidates war thar
gittin' ready ter start out fur town in thar buggy. An' that thar gay
one--though now he seems ez sober ez that sour one--he said 't warn't
no devil. 'Twar jes' a ventriloquisk from somewhar--that's jes' what that
town man called it. But I never said nuthin'. I kep' powerful quiet."
Brent Kayle was as vain a man as ever stood in shoe leather--even in
the midst of his absorption in his disclosure he could not refrain from a
pause to reflect on the signal success of his prank and laugh and plume
himself.
"But old Gilfillan he loves ter believe ez the devil air hotfoot arter other
folks with a pitchfork, an' he axed how then did sech a man happen ter
be in the mountings 'thout none knowin' of it. An' that candidate, the
gay one, he say he reckon the feller kem from that circus what is goin'
fer show in Shaftesville termorrer--mebbe he hearn 'bout the bran dance
an' wanted ter hev some fun out'n the country folks. That candidate say

he hed hearn dozens o' ventriloquisks in shows in the big
towns--though this war about the bes' one he could remember. He said
he hed no doubt this feller is paid good money in the show, fur jes' sech
fool tricks with his voice--good money!"
Valeria had listened in motionless amazement But he had now paused,
almost choking with his rush of emotion, his excitement, his sense of
triumph, and straight ensued a certain reluctance, a dull negation, a
prophetic recoil from responsibility that clogged his resolve. His eyes
roved uncertainly about the familiar domestic scene, darkening now,
duskily purple beneath the luminous pearly and roseate tints of the
twilight sky. The old woman was a-drowse on the porch of the rickety
little log-cabin beneath the gourd vines, the paralytic grandfather came
hirpling unsteadily through the doorway on his supporting crutch, his
pipe shaking in his shaking hand, while he muttered and mumbled to
himself--who knows what?--whether of terror of the future, or regret
for the past, or doubt and despair of to-day. The place was obviously so
meagre, so poverty-bitten, so eloquent of the hard struggle for mere
existence. If it had been necessary for Brent Kayle to put his hand to
the plow in its behalf the words would never have been spoken--but
"good money" for this idle trade, these facile pranks!
"Vallie," he said impulsively, "I'm going ter try it--ef ye'll go with me.
Ef ye war along I'd feel heartened ter stand up an' face the crowd in a
strange place. I always loved ye better than any of the other
gals--shucks!--whenst ye war about I never knowed ez they war alive."
Perhaps it was the after-glow of the sunset in the sky, but a crimson
flush sprang into her delicate cheek; her eyes were evasive, quickly
glancing here and there with an affectation of indifference, and she had
no mind to talk of love, she declared.
But she should think of her gran'dad and gran'mam, he persisted. How
had she the heart to deprive them of his willing aid? He declared he had
intended to ask her to marry him anyhow, for she had always seemed to
like him--she could not deny this--but now was the auspicious
time--to-morrow--while the circus was in Shaftesville, and "good
money" was to be had