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. ' U--: yr. ?--;U .V.lJ'-,-:-'; "v "; .1 IT WAS heavy sledding on the Upper Ottanoosii trail. The two lumbermen were nearing the close of the third day of the hard four day' haul, in from the settlements to the camp. At the head of the first team, his broad jaw set and his small gray eyes angry with fatigue, trudged the big figure of Red McWha. With his fiery red head and his large red face, he was the only one of his coloring in a large family so dark that they were known as the "Black McWhas," and his temper seemed to have been chronically soared by the singularity of his type. He was a $ood woodsman, however, and a good teamster, and his horse followed confidently at his heels like dogs. The second team was led by a tall, gaunt-jawed, one-eyed lumberman named Jim Johnson, invariably known as "Walley" From the fact that his blind eye was of a peculiar blankness, like whitish porcelain, he had been nick-named 'Wall Eye;" but owing to his general popularity, combined with the emphatic views he held on that particular .subject, the name had been mitigated to Walley. The two were hauling in supplies for Conroys Camp, on Little Ottanoosis Lake. Silently, but for the clank and creak of the harness, and the soft thut, thut of the trodden snow, the little procession toiled on through the soundless desolation. Presently the teams rounded a turn of the trail, and began to de scend the steep slope which led down to Joe Ood ding's solitary cabin on the edge of Burnt Brook Meadows. But there was no light in the window. No homely pungency of wood-smoke breathed welcome on the bit ter air. The cabin looked startlingly deserted. "Whoa!" commanded McWha sharply, and glanced around at Johnson with an angry misgiving in his eyes. The teams came to a stop with a shiver of all their bells. . . Then, upon the sudden stillness, arose the faint sound of a child s voice, hopelessly. "Somethin' wrong down yonder? growled McWha. As he spoke, Walley Johnson sprang past him, and went loping down the hill. ... Red McWha followed very deliberately with the teams. He resented anything emotional. And he " was prepared to feel himself aggrieved. When he reached the cabin door the sound of weep ing had stopped. Inside he found Walley Johoson on his knees before the stove, hurriedly lighting a fire. Wrapped in his coat, and clutching his arm as if afraid he might leave her, stood a tiny, flaxen-haired child, perhaps rive years old. The cabin was cold, al most as cold as the snapping night outside. Along the middle of the floor, with bedclothes from the bunk heaped awkwardly upon it in the little one's efforts to warm it back to responsive life, sprawled rigidly the lank body of Joe Godding. Red McWha stared for a moment in silence, then stooped, examined the dead man's face, and felt his breast. "Deader'n a herring"' he muttered. Johnson made no reply till the flame caught the kindling and rushed in from the open draught with a cordial roar. Then he stood up. "He's been dead these hours and hours!" he said. "An' the tire out! an' the kid most froze! A sick man like he was, to've kept the kid alone here with him that a way!" And he glanced down at the dead figure with severe reprobation. "Never was much good, that Joe Godding 1' mut tered McWha, always critical. As the two woodsmen discussed the situation, the child, a delicate-featured, blue-eyed girl, was gazing up from under her mop of bright hair, first at one, then at the other Walley Johnson was the one who had come in answer to her long wailing, who had hugged her close, and wrapped her up, and crooned over her in his pity, and driven away the terrors. But she did not like to look at him, though his gaunt, 'sallow face was strong and kind. I People are apt to talk easy generalities about the intuition of children! As a matter of fact, the little ones are not above judging quite as superficially and falsely as their elders The child looked at her pro tector's sightless eye, then turned away and sidled over to McWha with one hand coaxingly outstretched. McWha's mouth twisted sourly. Without appearing to see the tiny hand he deftly evaded it. Stooping over the dead man, he picked him up, straightened him out decently on his bunk, and covered him away from ight with the blankets. "Ye needn't be so crusty to the kid, when she wants to make up to ye !" protested Walley, as the little one turned back to him with a puzzled look in her tearful blue eyes. "It's all alike they be, six, or sixteen, er sixty six! remarked McWha sarcastically, stepping to the door. "I dont want none of 'em! Ye kin look out for 'er! I'm for the horses " "Don't talk out so loud!" admonished the little one. ?You'll wake daddy. Poor daddy's sick!" "Poor lamb!" murmured Johnson folding her to his great breast with a pang of pity. "No, we won't wake daddy. N'ow, tell me, what's yer name?" "Daddy called me Rosy-Lilly V answered the child playing with a button on Johnson's vest. "Is he get tin warmer now? He was so cold, an' he wouldn't speak to Rosy-Lilly!" "Rosy-Lilly it be!" agreed Johnson. "Now, we jest won't bother daddy, hrm bein' so sick! You an' me'll git supper." The cabin was warm now, and on tiptoe Johnson and Rosy-Lilly went about their work, setting the table, "bilin'" the tea, and frying the bacon. When ' Red McWha came in from the barn, and stamped the now from his feet, Rosy-Oily said "Hash!" laid her finger on her lips and glanced meaningly at the move less shape ia the bank, "We mus" let im sleep, Rosy-Lilly says! decreed Johnson with an emphasis which penetrated McWha's unsympathetic consciousness, and elicited a non-committal grunt. For nearly an hour the two men smoked tn silence, their steaming feet under the stove, their backs turned - toward the long unsrirring shape in the big bunk. At last Johnson stood up and shook himself. Well!" he drawled, "I s'pose we mas' be doin' the best we kin fer poor old Joe. We can't leave him here in the house!" ; "N. we can't," answered McWha "He'd ha'nt it, iian n too, ever after, like as not!' We got to give 'im lumberman's shift, till the boss kin send an' take - im back to the settlement for the parson to do 'im up light an' proper." So they buried poor Joe Godding deep in the snow under the .big elm behind the cabin ; and piled a mona ' tnent of cordwood above him, so that the foxes and wild cats oauld not disturb his lonely sleep; and sur mounted tb pile with a rude crass to signify its char . acter. Then, with lighter hearts, they went back to ' th cabin fire, which seemed to burn more freely now that the grim presence of its former master had been removed. -Now, what's to be done with the Wd with Rosy liHy? They do say in the settlements as bow Joe Godding hain't kith nor kin in the world, savin' an exceptin' only the kid," began Johnson. McWha nodded indifferently. "Well," went on Johnson, "we can't do nawthin' but take her on to the camp, now ! Mebbe the bossll let ihe hands keep her, to kinder chipper up the camp when things gits dull. I reckon when the boys sees her sweet face they'll all be wantin' to be guardeens to her!" McWha spat accurately into the crack of the grate. "I ain't got no fancy for young 'uns in camp, but ye kin do ez ye like, Walley Johnson," he answered grudg ingly. "Only I want it understood, right now, I ain't no guardcen, an' won't be to nawthin' that walks in petticoats !" "We'll tell the kid," Johnson went on, "as how her daddy had to be took away in the night because he was so sick, an' couldn't speak to nobody, an' we was goin' to take keer o' her till he gits back! an' that's the truth!" he added with a sudden passion of tend erness and pity in his tone. At this hint of emotion McWha laughed sarcasti cally. Then knocking out his pipe he proceeded to fill the stove for the night, and spread his blanket on the floor beside it. "If e want to make the camp a baby farm," he growled, "don't mind me!" "We'll every mother's son o' us be guardeen to her!" he declared. Kvery man in camp assented noisily, saving only Red McWha. He, as was expected of him, sat back and grinned. From the first, Rosy-Lilly made herself at home in the camp. For a few diys she fretted after her father, but Jimmy Brackctt was ever on hand to divert her mind with astounding fairy-tales, during the hours when the rest of the hands were away chop ping and hauling. Happily, a baby's sorrow is shorter than its remembrance, and Rosy-Lilly toon learned to If Rosy-Lilly felt rebuffed for the moment by Mc Wha's rudeness she seemed always to forget it the next time she saw him. ' But on one occasion the dis comfiture was McWha's. She had elicited the cus tomary rough demand, "Well Yaller-Top, what d'you want?" But this time the held her ground, though with Quivering lips." v "Yaller-Top ain't my name tall," she explained with baby politeness. "It's Rosy-Lilly; 'n' I jes' thought you might want me to sit on yer knee a little teeny mink." Much taken back, McWha glanced about the room with a loutish grin. Then he flushed angrily, as he felt the demand of the sudden silence. Looking down again, with a scowl, at the expectant little face of Rosy-Lilly, he growled: "Well, not as I knows of!" and rose to his feet, thrusting her brusquely aside. To cloak his embar rassment he slouched across the room to the water bucket and gulped a copious draught from the long handled tin dipper. Then with a furious glance at the child who was forgetting her wounded pride with the help of Jimmy Brackett and molasses cookej he climbed into his bunk and settled himself for sleep. "Ain't he ugly," murmured "Bird" Pidgeon to Wal ley Johnson, spitting indignantly on the stove-leg. "He'd 'a' cuffed the kid ef he dast, he glared at her that ugly?" "Like to see 'im try it r" responded Johnson through his teeth. After this for some days the pathetic little comedy halted. McWha would climb into the safe retreat of his bunk right after supper, and smoke there beyond danger of surprise or escalade. And Rosy-Lilly, for the moment, appeared to have dismissed him from her thoughts. Only ' the single piercing eye of Walley Johnson noted that she allowed herself, row and then, a swift but wistful glance toward McWha's bunk. ett's qualifications in her merciless little, balance. Here Brackett. was misguided enough to grin, be thinking him that now he "had the laugh" on the boss and Walley. That grin settled it "I dess you don't know- how to hear me say 'em, Jimmy!" .she announced inexorably. And picking up the skirt of her blue homespun, "nightie," so that she showed her little red woolen socks and white deer-hide moccasins, she tripped forth into the big-noisy room.' At the bright picture she made, her flax-gold hair tied in a knob. on top of her head, that it might not get tangled, the room fell silent instSntly and every eye was turned upon her. Unabashed by the scrutiny, she made her way sedately down the room arid across to McWha's bench. Unable to ignore her, and angry at the consciousness that he was. embarrassed, McWha eyed her with a grim stare. But Rosy-Lilly put out her hands to him confidingly. "I'm goin' to let you hear me my prayers," she said, her clear, baby voice carrying every syllable to the furthest corner of the room. An ugly light flamed into McWha's eyes, and he sprangto his feet, brushing the child rudely aside. "That's some o' Jimmy Brackert's work!" he shouted. "It's him put 'er up to it!" The whole room burst into a roar of laughter at the sight of his wrath. Snatching his cap from its peg he strode furiously out to the stable, slamming the door behind him. One day, however, Fate concluded to range herself on Rosy-Lilly's side. A dead branch, hurled through the air by the impact rff a falling tree, struck Red Mc Wha on the head, and he was carried home to the cabin unconscious, bleeding from a long gash in his scalp. The boss, something of a surgeon in his rough-and-ready way, as bosses need to be, washed the wound and sewed it up. Then he handed over his own bunk to the wounded man, declaring optimistically that Mc- makine. Then. hnrm; . nc w cook, he fussed over, the repeat her phrase "Poor Daddy had to go 'way off,'" without the quivering lips and wistful look which made the big woodsmen's hearts tighten so painfully beneath their homespun shirts. Rosy-Lilly had not been in the camp a week before McWha's "ugliness'" to her had aroused even the boss's resentment, and the boss was a just nan. Or course, it was gent-rally recognized that McWha was not bound, by any known law or obligation, to tike any notice of the child, still less t" "make a fuss over her" with the rest of the camp. There was absolutely nothing, to be done about it, for Red McWha was utterly within his rights. The evening meal, "supper," in Conroy's Camp was the time of relaxation, with only pipe apd bunk to come after. As the rough banter bounded boister ously this way and that above the heaped tin plates and steaming tin cups, Rosy-Lilly's big blue eyes would roam gravely from one face to another, as if trying to understand what it was all about. But at last her eyes would come always to the face of Red McWha, and rest there in wistful admiration. When supper was over, and pipes filled and lighted, some one would strike up a "chantey," one of those interminable, monotonous ballad-songs which are pe culiar to the lumber camps. These chanteys are always sung in a plaintive miner; some are sentimental or religious to the last degree, while others are amazingly vulgar. But from the hour of Rosy-Lilly's arrival in camp, all the vulgar chan teys were dropped, without a word said by anyone, from the woodmen's repertoire. During the songs, the smoking, and the lazy fun, Rosy-Lilly would slip from one big woodsman to an other, an inconspicuous little figure in, the smoke gloomed light of the oil lamps. Man after man would snatch her up to his knee, lay by his pipe, twist her silky yellow curls about his great blunt fingers, and whisper wood-folk tales or baby nonsense into her pink little ear. She would listen solemnly for a minute or two, then wriggle .down and move, on to another of her admirers. But before long she would be stand ing by the bench on which sat Red McWha with one big knee usually hooked high above the other, and his broad back reclined against the edge of a bqnk. For a few moments the child- would stand there smit ing with a perennial confidence, waiting to be noticed. Then she would come closer and look op coaxingly into his face. If McWha were not eri grossed in song, it would soon become impossible for him to ignore her. He would suddenly look down at her with his fierce eyes, knit his shaggy red brows, and demand harshhr, "Well, Yaller-Top, an' what.tfyt wwtf where his big form -lounged in a gloom of smoke. For a time now, Rosy-Lilly left McWha alone so markedly that it looked as if Walley Johnson or Jimmy Brackett had admonished her on the subject. She con tinued, indeed, to cast at him eyes of pleading re proach, but always from a distance, and such appeals relied off McWha's crude perception like water off a muskrat's fur. He had nothing "agin' her," as he would have put it, only she would keep out of his way. Nearly a week went by before Rosy-Lilly saw an other chance to assail McWha's forbidding defences. This time she made what her innocent heart con curred to be a tremendous bid for the bad-tempered woodsman's favor. Incidentally, too, she revealed a stent whith the bos and Walhy Johnson had been guarding with guilty solicitude ever since her coming to the camp. It chanced that the boss and Johnson together were kept away from camp one night, till near morning, laying out a new "landing" over on Forks Brook. When it came time for Rosy-Lilly to be put to bed, the honor fell, as a matter of course, to Jimmy Brackett. Rosy-Lilly went with him will ingly enough, but not till after a moment of hesita tion, in which her eyes wandered involuntarily to the broad red face df McWha behind its cloud of smoke. As a nurse-maid Jimmy Brackett flattered himself that he was a success, till the moment came when Rosy-Lilly was to be rucked into her bunk. Then she stood and eyed him with solemn question. "What's wrong, me Honey-bug?" asked Brackett anxiously. "You haint beard me my prayers !" replied Rosy Lilly, with a toucfKof severity in her voice. "Eh? What's that?" stammered. Brackett, startled quite out. of his wonted composure. "Don't you know little girls has to say their prayers afore they goes to bed?" she demanded. "No r .admitted Brackett truthfully, wondering how he was going to get out of the unexpected situation. "Walley Johnson hears me mine!" continued the child, her eyes very wide open as she weighed Brack- COtTBGBT, m EX KBACHXD THE PITCHING LOG WH2U0H ROSY LILtY 8TIU. CUJKG Wha would come round all right It was hours later when McWha began to recover consciousness; and just then, as it happened, there was no one near him but Rosy-Lilly. Smitten with pity, the child was standing beside the bunk, mur muring "Poor I Poor! I so sorry 1" and slowly shak ing her head and lightly patting the hig, limp hand where it lay outside the blanket McWha half opened Jus eyes, and their faint glance fell on the top of Rosy Lilly's head as it bent over his hand. With a wry smile he shut them again. But to his surprise he fch rather gratified. At last he opened his eyes wide, felt his bandaged head, and called for a drink of water. To his surprise he was answered by Rosy-Lilly, so promptly that it seemed as if she had been listening for his voice. She came carrying the tin of water in both little hands ; and lifting it very carefully she tried to hold it to his lips. While they were fumbling over it Jimmy Brackett hurried in, followed by the boss, and Rosy-Lilly's nursing was superseded. The boss had to bold him up so that he could drink, and when he had feverishly gulped about a quart he lay' back on his pillow with a huge sigh, declaring weakly that he was all right. , '"Ye 8 9s mighty easy, Red," said the boss cheer fully, considenn' the heft o' the knot 'at hit ye. . But you McWhas was always hard. to kill" , . . McWTia's hand was drooping loosely over the edge of the bunk. He felt the child's tiny fingers brushing; it again, softly and tender. And the sensation-was so novel that he quite forgot to reply to the boss' pleasantry. . During the two days McWha was kept a prisoner he had nothing to da but smoke and - whittle. , H itove consumed with curiosity, especu-lv .hi-! uwuiuun vi looacco juice anH apparently digging beads off M iJ H Which he alurauc V"111"!? . . -j D j( Mir not let her bo near en,!, , f mysterious occupation. ' UH the "following day McUhl but not till after breakf. ,t 3t departed. Rosy-Lilly, with one h'dj Irttle apron, was standi , Z M out. She alanced un v.; ' '! rwa McWha would not loot L. 1 .V0 sullenly harsh as ever; but a , H To hrr U proved to be a little dark-br0n tily carved. anf with two kT. wrs, cunningly set into its R05V-Lillv hl,aA ,h. ... '0r first proud imoukr u- rt , " m H it. But a subtler instinct wfeOT irom tne way the gift had been b ' was meant hihr UinH . ostl - . - - -"i'j yji ici rri and hid it in her himW L at it from time to time thr.'u .'. right she brought it forth, but u. in; arrJ ns trims .iuic, so mat it quite escape! con-. when he could not help ncire i-' ' -'"'vs in ner irms. x ins t uiniiiimrrti hnu .. . on McWha. whn ..,;.- ip?irH , .... .. 05,.,,, (jium, jti ; V" . .lxvy-L-"). on her pin strove to Win his attenllnn CU. s " ,. '"-""j "dci won, or wit'i tfcf .,., ymun.c r0w 1 ,,.,vi uiuibj cru on smoothly in the c now 100 occupied to do ant 4o uwii uusiness. It chanced this year that the Spring ..i a- """V"" 5WI". and trom f,trH lauuinjj lne logs came down m black; vdl,5. JUSI wiow Lonroy s Ump the nvtl uuiiu a narrow Dena angled witn ih,t J iua ncrr, now, in sp;te ot the Dave Logan and his crew, the I, gs jam. A . .... m ims stage ot artairs the bos', ax in M ois way across tne monstrous tanpl- f the jajii Ln.iwt.tii me gicdi wnnr jh regain ter of the structure. Here lu pr.ic:;-ed eve p rated the timbers whih held the .--ruairi Jtcy logs as the men walled then., T.mt svitn nis ax. 1 hen, returmug to the short for two volunteers to dare the ta-.k of c ey logs away. Such a task is the most perilous tbt i in all his daring career, can be callei aye Dave Logan had some brilliant teats ot J to his credit, from trx da;.s her. re he if boss; and 'now, when he called for lotais unmarried man in camp re ponded, with lion, or course, ot vaiirv Johnson. r.a vision unfitted him for such a vent :re Tne "$ird" Pigeon and Andy White, became tin enly "smart" axmen, but also adepts a x game of "runnmg logs With a jaunty air the two yoc-.g men d hands, gripped their axes, sprang oat ileal of the jam and plied their heavy blades, h the work of these two, chopping rnnlly n 1 that colossal front of death. Their duty 1 less than to bring the toppling brow of the upon them, yet cheat fate at the last imc siDie, oy leaping 10 snore ociorc uiz unm whelmed them. Suddenly, while the two key logs m i cut through, the trained eye ot the Dos! settling near the top ol the jam. his yen tore throufrh the clamor of the waten stant came a vast irrumbhne not loud, a?rJ dullinir all other sounds. The two choj wildly for shore, as the whole face of tie to crumble in a breath. At this mnment a scream of terror WIS everv heart stoooed. Some thirty yards stream, and a doen, perhaps, from shortj Lilly on a loir. While none were oljswrt had gleefully clambered out over the soM inff for inruer mims. But now. when tie she was so terror-stricken that she coi try to get ashore. She just fell do -Jl and clung to it screaming. A groan of horror went up. The aW tv.. k,.,l, ,. ic ntrradv under war 'on leaned wildlv out upon the nearest W foremost, and was dragged back, reborn t... t-i . An-r ihf-e :rce just as jonnsou - - . yj lowing cry of rage and anguish ; then km t form shot past, leaping far out up "! with miraculous sure-footedness n. 1. ...l Rcsv-Lll V St v " v.. .1,- r-V He tucked V arm like a rag-baby. Then he turr.ei M :.r.. a n. canine baatoi en lor an uisiaui, mv . - . ... .. -r Ar and 1 OV a great snoux oi wu... hushed in a second as a log reared msi path and hurled him DacKwa.u.. --. E atrength that seemed more than taw hlaicolf rlimbed forth drippmg. w . ilia .1 .,rrinff leaps no about Tne men waited with W a two Jeet-of shore a log tjj was jerked aside just before he re inr in the air s he fell so as to ( came dowfl across it on r) "ae m lence. As be fell, the boss, the others, sprang out to .t somehow, and. coverea w- - teeL sueceeaea in argB gripped about the child that tiey Rosy-Lilly, when f I $ wttH terror, but warmed stretched out upon the bank. m abut and his . white hps half Tbe, to be put down. She ran he, tin, han.ds,.and 1 fell Y-7 - . ,nr1 wirfl 1 vyna openea ros cjj, ttTJ upon one elbow. A look of g over his iace, he glanced at him... Then be looked down a with shamefaced tenderness. toward YittL re-sare- j kr face down k doc" to patca.mc ay - -aakgr. v.:. K : '--I S ' V 'A
The Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, N.C.)
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May 6, 1909, edition 1
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