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Show life SYNOPSIS In 17S5 Saul Pattern of Virginia came Into the beautiful virgin country coun-try of the Big Sandy valley In Kentucky. Chief of the perils were the Shawneea, who sought to hold their lands from the ever-encroaching whites. From a huge pinnacle Saul gazed upon the fat bottoms and the endless acres of forest In Its primeval pri-meval quietude at the mouth of the Wolfpen, and felt an eagerness to possess It, declaring It a place fit for a man to LIVE In! Five years later he returned with Barton, his flfteen-year-old son, and built a rude cabin. In Saul's absence the Indians In-dians attacked Barton and wounded him bo badly Saul was forced to return re-turn with him to Virginia. In 17S6, when It was reasonably safe, Saul returned with his family and a patent pat-ent for 4,000 acres, this time to stay. He added to the cabin, planted crops and fattened his stock on the rich meadows. Soon after settlers arrived. A century later, In the spring of 1885, we find Cynthia Pattern, Pat-tern, of the fifth generation following follow-ing Saul, perched on the pinnacle from which her great-great-grandfather had first viewed Wolfpen Bottoms. Bot-toms. The valleys, heretofore untouched un-touched by the waves of change sweeping the Republic, are at last beginning to feel that restless Burge. Her dad, Sparrel, and her brothers, Jesse, Jasper and Abral, convert the old water - wheeled mill to steam power. Cynthia feels that something out of the past has been buried with Saul. Cynthia is a pretty and imaginative imagina-tive miss In her late teens, who often re-created Saul and her other forebears, fore-bears, and fancied them still living. Sparrel proudly brings home the first meal out of the steam mill, and Julia, his wife, is pleased. Generation Genera-tion after generation has added comforts com-forts and conveniences to Saul's homestead, and Sparrel has not shirked. The family goes easily into the work of the new season, due to the simplicity of life designed long ago on the Wolfpen. Joy is abundant. abun-dant. Jesse plans to study law. A stranger, Shellenberger by name, comes to Wolfpen, Intent on buying timber. Sparrel refuses his offer. Shellenberger tells of progress In the outside world. With the advent of Shellenberger some Intangible disturbing dis-turbing ' alteration seems to affect the atmosphere of Wolfpen. Sparrel Spar-rel decides to Bell timber land to Shellenberger. Jesse arranges to Btudy law with Tandy Morgan. CHAPTER VI Continued a "I wonder how big Is an ocean and a boat on It, and If a stick ever floats that far from here? I don't reckon It really does. It'd go and get caught on something or other, or get waterlogged and sinking before be-fore It got a very far piece away from where It started. Funny the way I've Just been wandering around and killing off a day this way, and Mother will be wondering what's become of me. Somehow the feel of things Is different and their meaning changed when three of your menfolk ride off to sell the timber." She began to observe that It had grown cooler, and she remembered that she had seen the shadow of the Pinnacle come creeping up the bank, pulling the sunshine back under un-der the hill, and she knew with this return of the time sense that she had overlived the noon with out hunger and that evening was moving Into the bottoms and she must go back. While she was reorganizing re-organizing her senses to this new moment, she heard the sound of a hoof beat on a stone, then a splash In the creek, and she looked across the ford at Doug Mason on bis mule. She had expected to see no one. but his presence seemed good to her after the lonely musings. "llowdy, Dong." "Why, howdy, Cynthia. Well. 1 don't reckon 1 figured on seeing you down here all by yourself." "Oh, I Just wandered off and was sitting here looking at things." "Don't look like there's much ol anything to look at Just sitting there on an elm roof "I've seen a plenty, and a wholt lot more than anybody can see all at one time. Hut I'M look at It scuus-more scuus-more when I'm busy around the house. A body has to look In as well as out to see things." Doug looked out at her In the puzzled puz-zled Incomprehension he so often regarded her with, and then shifted Uls eyes to the mule, patting her neck. "I Just didn't allow to see you down here," he said. "Well, anyway 1 ought to be get ting back. I didn't think about H being so far along into the evening Daddy and the boys will be getting fn 'about dark." She arose from the roots and stepped out into the path where the sun caught the pink In her checks and the luster In her bl.ick hair, and Doug's eyes were frankly upon her. "Is Sparrel over at town?" "Yes, early this morning." "I wanted to see him. .Ma's got her twins around her heart m.un lie says, and she's right pu..rl. again this evening. She needs some of Sparrel's medicine." "I don't know whether he's got any or not, but Mother knows, and Daddy will be along soon. Come on up to the house and wait and eat with us." "I don't reckon I can do that. I'll have to be getting back. There ain't nobody there with her right now." They walked up the path together, togeth-er, leading his animal. "You folks about got all your crops In?" Doug asked. "They're about all In now, I guess. How are your crops?" "I got the lower part of Buzzard to put In yet and some late melons down by the bam there by the creek." They went through the gate Into the lower orchard and Doug closed it. "I'm getting things up and In pretty pret-ty good shape again around the place," Doug said. "I'm figuring on a new kitchen back of the house and a covered-over porch between like down at Connoley's." "I guess your mother'll like that." "I reckon she will, but I wasn't Just thinking of her by herself," and he was full of surprise at hearing himself say a thing he didn't know he was going to say. Doug was twenty. He had lived all his years on the Mason place Joining Sparrel Pattern on one side of Gannon. Cynthia saw the flush, on his face without turning to look toward him. She made no answer but to continue to walk easily by his side on the edge of Long Bottom. "I've got something nobody knows about, and I've a mind to tell you what It Is." "I won't have any talk on It, Doug, If you want to tell me." "I got a big 'seng patch set out and they're coming up, hundreds of them. I went out and gathered up "There Ain't Nobody There With Her Right Now." seeds out of the berries last fall and planted them In that open spot at the head of Buzzard. I ought to have a sight of money out of them if the price stays up till the drover comes." "I'm proud you thought of raising rais-ing It Instead of going all over the hills hunting for It" Doug threw the bridle reins over a paling, and then walked on through the barn-lot by Cynthia's side. They went through the gate by the well Into the yard. Julia was coming around the house wearing wear-ing her great calmness which seemed to partake of the timeless alteration of eveulng and morning ! In this valley surrounded and protected pro-tected by thick acres of trees. She greeted Doug with a soft kindness and Inquired of his mother. "I'll Just see If I can't find some of Sparrel's medicine for her," she said. In the small pantry. like room behind be-hind the kitchen where Sparrel kept some of his pharmacy, she found a bottle of brown medicine smelling pungently of sassafras and foxglove fox-glove and marked In Sparrel's neat penmanship, "Dropsy Heart pains." "You hotter stay and eat with us," Julia said. "Sparrel and the boys'II be along soon now, and Abral's out milking." "I don't guess I can tonight. I ou.elit to be getting back now." "Well, you be sure and let ns know how your mother ots along, and I'll tell Sparrel w hen he comes." "I'm sure much obliged to yon all." Doug said. Lingering at the gate. Cynthia watched the evening absorb him as the morning had effaced Sparrel and taken away Jesse, and she felt that the day had been long uud dis turbingly strange. She watered the sheep, tasting the difference in the atmosphere of the place as the restlessness rest-lessness of evening surged over all things with the portent of night with Its quiet and Its restoration. Then she went back to the kitchen to help with the supper. When Cynthia heard through the dusk the steps of Abral as he went Into the spring house with the milk, and then the sound of Sparrel and the boys on the porch, she began to feel that the balance was almost restored as before. But as she lay that night thinking over the day and Its moods, and of the brief account of Sparrel's meeting meet-ing with Shellenberger and their plans for surveying the place, she knew that all was not quite as before. be-fore. And as she fell asleep she heard the restless voice of the disturbed dis-turbed timberland sighing over the leaves of the forests and running down Into the roots and hiding there twisted between the leaf-mold and the sand. The days that followed Sparrel's journey to town were tense, and the self-contained peace and quiet of the familiar routine were Interrupted Inter-rupted by an unfamiliar consciousness conscious-ness of suspense. Cynthia felt it acutely as she sat in the weaving-room weaving-room with a shuttle of thread in her lap going over the brief account Sparrel and the boys had given of their day in Pikevllle. "It has made a difference In everybody, seems like. Daddy tries to be Just the same but yon can see It on his mind, Jasper Is thinking about Jane Burden all right, but he won't ever say anything to anybody. Abral Is nervous and wants the strange men to hurry and come in here. Jesse Is all wrapped up in his law book and puzzling all the time over the hard words. Mother spends hours in her garden tapping the earth with her hoe and not showing that anything Is any different, but that is her way and she makes everything seem all right as it is. I'll be right glad when Daddy gets his herbs mixed up for me to take down to Mason's and feel the Fine-mare Fine-mare move under my legs." Julia placed two loaves of her freshly baked wheat bread In the round basket and Sparrel put in a large bottle of his compound. "And tell her If she needs anything any-thing to just tell you," Julia said. Cynthia went down to the barn. The Finemare tidily brushed and curried was already saddled and waiting under the shed by the stile block. She set the basket on the step and went into the barn to look for Jesse. She found him in the harness-room astride a saddle on a wooden frame by the open window bending over his law book propped against the pommel of the saddle. "This is the way we farm on Wolfpen this spring," Cynthi'i said. Jesse was startled at the sound of her voice and almost dropped the Blackstone. "I was Just reading a page or two of law. The Fine-mare's Fine-mare's all saddled for you." "I saw. Much obliged to you, Jesse, for doing it You looked like it was right hard reading." "It Is awful hard some places, and I got to hunt up lots of words In Dad's dictionary. See here now. 'This law of nature, being coeval with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of course superior in obligation ob-ligation to any other.' What is 'coeval'? Do you know?" "Not If It don't mean as evil as mankind." "No, it couldn't be that. That would make the law be evil, don't you see? And then it says 'In order or-der to apply this to the particular exigencies of each Individual.' Wonder Won-der what an individual's 'exigencies' are?" "I don't know, Jesse. That's hard. But lawyers have to know lots of big words about simple things. You'll have to ask Tandy Morgan. But It is nice you're reading about It Do you know when the surveyors survey-ors are coming?" "Just any time now." Jesse laid the book on the shelf above the saddle rack and went with Cynthia to the shed to unhitch un-hitch the Finemare. Cynthia arranged ar-ranged herself on the red and green carpet-covered side-saddle, her right knee In the leather rest, and her full blue homespun skirt spread carefully care-fully over her feet Jesse handed her the basket and opened the gate. "Are you going to see Sarah Mason Ma-son or Doug?" Jesse asked, lifting his eyebrows. "I'm taking medicine to Sarah, and I reckon he'll be out In a hollow hol-low plowing like a body ought to be on a day like this," Cynthia said riding rid-ing off. She rode smoothly In rhythm with the movement of the Finemare, down Wolfpen and Into Gannon Creek at the ford, listening to the liquid sounds of the horse hoofs against the boulders under the water, wa-ter, feeling the mare stretch out her neck and nose to gain freedom from the bridle to drink at leisure under the shadow of the Pinnacle. The Mason place was Just off the road behind a weathered paling fence. Cynthia left the Fineuiare under the elm tree by the gate. The yard was full of chickens. She found Sarah on the hack porch which connected the old house with the summer kitchen. The fhxir was laid but the roof was unfinished. "nil, for land's sakes. It's you. Cynthia." Sarah began, painfully drawing her bare and swollen ankles under her faded dress. ?he was a heavy woman, and her flabby face was lined with work and su:Tering. Her agitation and distress at the mere si.iu of a kind neiglilior bearing bear-ing gifts of medicine and fresh wheat bread sent a twist throi gh Cynthia's stomach and she suffered with her. "Law, Cynthia, I'm that glad to see you I have to cry. Why, it's been months since I saw you, hain't It, and I can't get out any more and Hessie had to go over to help out at Elley's a spell and Doug's head over heels In work and everybody's busy with the planting and I can't get around to do anything or see anybody and I get so lonesome some days. And I get to thinking about Grier dropping dead In the oats patch it's five year come July and wondering why the good Lord willed it that way. It's been hard since then with me down and all, but Doug took right a-hold just like he was a man and not a fifteen-year-old boy and he's done fine. He'll go for Julia's wheat bread ; we don't have none In the house. How's Julia and all the folks and how's her flowers this year? It's been an early spring and not much danger of more frost is there?" Sarah paused to wipe the last of her tears. Cynthia put from her mind the thought of deformity and pain, and looked into the lonely heart of Sarah Mason. She selected select-ed one of the questions, and said with compassion, "Her garden looks just fine this year. How is Elley getting along now?" But she did not hear the story of Elley's stomach trouble since the last baby was born. She was gazing gaz-ing across the yard, following her own reflection, "The grass Is awful aw-ful long and bending over and needs a sickle In it Sarah Mason asked about Mother's flowers because she's not able to plant any. The garden looks bare. The meadow is pretty the way it goes past the barn and down to the creek. The Mason place always smells musty, somehow like it wasn't happy in its life. It's not just because Grier Mason nor Doug never built a mill or a brick kiln or a dyeing vat or a smooth finished loom for their women. It's just the way one place differs from another the way people do. Maybe Grier Mason dropping dead cradling oats and Sarah full of misery and Elley's trouble and Doug hard working got settled In down here and won't leave. I don't think I could ever marry Doug and come to this place to live. Maybe if I actually loved him. He'll make a tine place, but it seems like it squeezes some good part clean out of a body, even just sitting here In the ... I must be listening to Sarah when she's talking to me." "A body has to bear what's put upon them. He knows what's best for us. Doug's been making this porch in the evenings. He's such a good boy." She dabbed her eyes. "Did the medicine help you any?" Cynthia asked. "It helps a sight. I don't know what we'd do on this creek If we didn't have Sparrel to look after us." "Mother said tell you if there was anything else she could do." She got up and put the empty basket over her arm. "Much obliged. You're not going go-ing back a'ready, Cynthia, so soon?" "I ought to get back now." "Doug, he'll he put out to hear you've been here and him not seeing you. He thinks a sight of you, Cynthia, Cyn-thia, and that's plain." "I just rode down a minute to see how you were and bring the medicine." medi-cine." Cynthia listened politely for a time to the urgings of Sarah Mason, Ma-son, and when she could she said a final good-by. The soft thump of the horse's hoofs in the moist earth soon established es-tablished a new rhythm In her soul and she emerged from the feeling of oppression which had engulfed her before the pained and weeping face of Sarah Mason. Doug was watering his mules in a little pool in the branch at the mouth of Buzzard Hollow. In a flash of Joy he called out to Cynthia. Cyn-thia. His voice took form slowly and waited an instant before she could recognize It as something outside out-side of her own thought "Why, howdy, Doug." "Where you been down our way?" "To your house to take some things to your mother." "You don't need to be rushing right back so soon." "I guess I'll have to be getting back this time." Doug had left his mules to drink and had come down to the road. Cynthia observed that his face was older than twenty years, and already al-ready heavily tanned. He was barefoot bare-foot He rubbed the nose of the Finemare. "She's a beauty," he said. "How -you getting on with your plowing?" Cynthia asked. "I got all tbe low bottoms done now." He was captivated by her as she sat above him on the side of the Finemare. her knee pushing out the blue twill of her skirt which spread neatly to the tip of her shoe In the stirrup, the round basket on her right arm, her dark hair lustrous under the straw hat. her pink skin glowing nmlnr her erea. (TO BE COSTISVED) |