Show ERNS 0 4 N by HARLAN HATCHER copyright by tho the bobbi merrill co SYNOPSIS in saul pattern of virginia cami came into the beautiful virgin country of 0 tile th ble big sandy valley in kentucky chief of i the perils were iero the shawnees Shai sh dinces nees who ali fought bought to hold their lands from rom thi the ever encroaching whites hites from a huge hug pinnacle saul gazed upon tile the fat at bot toms tome and tile the endless acres of 0 forest ir in its primeval neval quietude at the mouth of ol 01 the roupen anti and felt sin an eagerness to t possess it declaring it a place nt at for a nan anan to LIVE in five years later be h returned with fill barton his fifteen year old son and built a rude ruda cabin ir in sauls absence the indians attacked barton and wounded him bo badly saul was forced to return with him to virginia in 1796 when it was reasonably safe saul returned with his family a i patent tor for acres this time to tay lie he added to the cabin planted ted crops and fattened his stock on tile the rich meadows soon other bett settlers lers arrived A century later in the spring of 1886 ve w find cynthia pattern of tile die fifth generation following saul perched ol 01 the pinnacle from which tier her great great grandfather had first slewed leed wolfpen bottoms the valleys valley lieret lier heretofore ct untouched by the w waves aves of change swi sweeping the republic are at last beginning to feel that debtless rett les surge her dad sparrel and tier her brothels jilb jabe e jasper and abdal haie hae been busy converting tile tho old waier ater n heeled to steam power Sparr els triumph Is completo complete when the golden stream of meal pours forth nt fit the turning on of the steam cynthia reels feels that boi boin out of the has been buried aith ich saul cynthia Is a pretty and imaginative miss in her late teens who mho often recreated re created saul and her othir forebears and fancied them still living allvin sparrel proudly brings home the first meal out tit c the steam mill and julia his wife Is pleased generation after generation has added comforts and conveniences to sauls homestead and sparrel has not chirped shirked ch sh irked if CHAPTER II 11 continued S 3 t julia came into the room after n lit dt tie while and lay beside him under the soft warmth of the lie sea star blue and white coverlet youre not dot asleep sparrel io ijo julia its quiet this time ot of eight ive been listening to it I 1 used to wonder if wed be any bettor better off to tiare bare stayed in virginia I 1 dont any more sometimes it pears to me like this Is what everything before it has abeen aiming at and now its here and zalm 1 im looking at it and li listening to it that dont hardly sound und sensible does B weve got about nil all a body could 3 IR want here it aint things exactly julia its i its well something inside like ke the drum on a banjo its like ke going around the hill in tile the evening to hunt up tile the cows and when you yon think iou wont find them before dark you au hear a bell and there they acome come out of a hollow along the path a round around th the e bill at the edge of the leared cleared line one behind the ot other her and k snot a bit of hurry in them and that gelo cik in their eyes while they flick their balls and chew and ease along to the ched to be milked 11 they went nent on again without words lehey could hear bear cynthia in file I 1 lie next nest room sparrel yes 1 I was thIn thinking ling about abuwi aothia ilni sties id just turned se seventeen enteen when you rode up to the gate and stared at me with rny my dress full of alps a 4 you lou were taller than cynthia ir 1 I 1 1 I know much about books sparrel 5 parrel like you do 1 there are bettor better things for a worn wom la in than books julia you know the I iray iray of a house bouse and a family i A body can know both sparrel iund alcind iii not be hurt by it Cynt hias done y all tile books at the school and yours as s of t times me and I 1 reckon she knows is s much about a house and family as W ja do myself slip she ought to have a win gaer nt at books over oer at the Pi keville in tl tute the Pi keville institute julia yes tes sparrel she ought to go over feie here a winter apinter do a sight forber for her 1 I dont know if I 1 favor that much alla alia it might take tier her away from lo ke place here and spoil her content felth things they look to town ways od make young folks want to go off I 1 leplace instead of living better at me Cynt hias getting the learning ie e needs right here with you julia takes that kind of schooling to make good woman on a big place like tills this id d sties going to be a rood good one like i r i mother anyway it takes ready 0 ney and howd you ile be able to spare r t dont take much money sparrel d I 1 one of the wooton girls could ie over and help along if I 1 needed ei body bials did cynthia have this notion her 4 if 71 r I 1 no so she never said and I 1 iteal eak of it to her you read and know ako great sight sparrel and you dont jacow 1 ow how it Is to not take right in the cleaning acan ng of words in learning books he e ought to go il 1 I dont favor it much jullas hend head touched Sparr els shout YM er and he touched her face his rid aslies pS 0 SIles lies a fine girt julia slip she takes lakes a lit smart after her mother mollier A tulla ulla lay by his side blile feeling tile aln T in his war nav of to her and elac ng in cynthia herself project projected eil ill n to the books she had missed they did not communicate any more in words but in a harmonious silence u which aich united their separate bodies before the late moon could get through tile the win they hey and ill all their houm hold were fallen asleep in ill tile tl night ight quiet of olf pen CHAPTER ill III the simple pattern of life designed so long ong ago on Wolf lien qs as again carrying the family eally into the work of the no ne season there was a sense 0 of f pence peace and certainty certainly which came front tills eittle repetition of in an old giulini riu rou lini lint established by she generations erat crat ions or of men sit in the llie sun min flooded neav ineal in ing room liy by the lie wooden luom loom is lial bwl made annl shirrel Sp Ii irrel arrel had im pr veil Neil wc ng tier her thoughts nio ille little elish mele twill dioning info arc goods under miller tier lingers fingers as she ossed the lip shuttle nod and the and tile hip heating enting li sley shed pick beat step stell two threads lied blied pik heat vellon in the lie dimness lii lim mess ness blue in file shuttle r bcd pick ilk I 1 hat 11 to tile left piling lung to tile alie bial it planting glinting time lime is a good time pi oien en u when lien a hody sits at a too loom you vou can loul look out over lie ion ions porch whole elicio tile honeysuckle awning will vill arch abode tile the steps and aind across the gray palings halings at the corner ol of the woodlot anti and mothers garden and over the root roof of the corncrib corn crib and tile elder cider mill and tanbark tan bark shed aboe the sea of peach tree buds and the spring tan kled green of oc the willows and then a little way up the he hill is jesse plowing maybe be by tomorrow I 1 can help with mth the planting baddy and the boys out inn in the bottoms and on the cleared edges of the hills with tile the mules turning oer the rich soil getting ready for me lue to drop tile thick way was beans into the hills of corn and watch them lie there pink arid and lavender and purple striped beads by the side of mhd adlow grains of corn Coi covering ering them over vi with till a brown blanket of earth and saying to them shut your eyes and go to sleep tor for a short spell but dont fall fail to wake make up tip with the sun when it is morning I therell be sugar cane grov growing ving up like hearth brooms for thick brown sorghum and ba big potatoes in darn barn hollow and long iong yellow sweet potatoes in ID house field bield and peaches and apples for drying and to make butter of and pears for preserves in mothers spiced cart earthenware jars and each bott bottom omand and hollow will be full of its own special crop all because we plant seeds in the spring and the earth Is alive outside the hollow was full ol of life and sound as it alwaes was as it always had been in ID the spring the chickens in the barnyard the scream of the hawks darting across the hollow the liquid notes of nesting cardinals the dolorous cooing of doves in the tulip trees all the sounds not meant for death stretching back through the years her family had been here back into the past when indians camped on the pinnacle and deer came to lick salt below the orchard in wolf pen bottoms theres mother alother going into her garden how she loves to pull a hoe through the ground and rake it alive into beds of parsnips par snips and radishes and beets and lettuce and build up little mounds exactly a lioe hoe handle apart for muskmelons musk melons and arranging everything according to its height in the sun and its shadows length and decorating all the edges with mith awers flowers its like weaving a patterned blanket passing slowly along a row julia trained framed berbela in tile the window before cynthia she stooped to in a graceful are arc bending to the hoe cynthia waved to her out of the bubble of joy that was within her she keeps breaking up the ae clods and pounding at them until sue she has out ev every one bigger than a swallows egg she Is pretty mother la is she was a whole lot burtler when she was eighteen than I 1 am she was taller and straighter and her hair was brown and her teeth whiter will I 1 be standing in the woodlot wood lot with a dress full of plue pine chips when a man comes riding up ill know him the minute I 1 set eyes on him bin just like mother alother knew daddy I 1 just stood there cynthia and gashed right at him with illy mouth gaping open 1 I reckon lie he had bad ridden all the way from wolfpen down don 0 0 scioto to see his sister your aunt rachel lie was tall and straight and his beard was silky and flax colored I 1 just stared like an owl surprised by a light tic he pulled up his horse right in front of 0 the gate and his blue eyes looked agape at me then lie he said youre the purt lest sight I 1 ever saw in my born days then I 1 looked down reddening to the roots of my hair and saw me holding my dress up full of chips I 1 was so plagued I 1 could have crawled in a pinhole pin hole I 1 dropped the chips and ran like a scared rabbit back to the kitchen and looked back from tile the curtained window lie sat there on his big bay horse in ina a trance and then rode on at d a gallop to your aunt Rac bachels na chels bels and the first time rime I 1 ever saw sparrel pattern some day hell come riding pen lien here on a bay mare fifteen hands or better and ill be there by the lie pear tree in my blue cashmere dress with one land hand lifted ilfred to a branch of blossoms like tills this and hell stop his mare and look and look at me and then say lady youre the prettiest sight I 1 ever saw in my life some day im going to go down the creek and down the big sandy to the groat great world and ant see the steamboats and railroad trains and the brick roads in the towns tomus I 1 could ride the fine maro mare arid and be down there in about three das dais jesse said but I 1 want to stay anywhere else id rathor rather be here on wolfpen to live I 1 think I 1 would and see mother alother making her garden with poppies all around it and then lien after a while the big hollyhocks holly hocks standing up lip straight like ladies and princes with proud colored buttons on their dresses and bright medals on choir breasts looking clean up and over mer the palings halings and over the earn find and over the blue larkspurs lark spurs dilong tile the path palli and not dot see seeing a single wood weed in the whole garden nor a clod bigger than a swallows egg would sou better be a milte hollyhock SL standing IDdIng up straight in a corner by a brang rod red stalk and when the wind comes down the hollow in the evening through tile the garden hed lean over lind and touch you with the top blos blossom som or would you better be a hawk sating sailing over tile the pinnacle on the wind or a love dove mabe while tier her fingers tossed delicately the lie shuttle of blue wool beti between een the shod ile ot of golden thread in the harness harnes and tile bolt of twill grew b by y t the 1 e M width edth sr I 1 0 10 T 7 il al X 3 I 1 rk 1 hlll I 1 N Y you ou are the Purt lest iest sight I 1 ever saw in my born days of 0 each strand the smell of the pines on Cran esnest mountain was gathered up and blown lightly on the wind into tier her thou thought glit through the open window by the loom people ought to have been trees they live quiet and dont make trouble for other people they say folks are like dogs and chickens and foxes and such but like trees mother is ls a spray of april redbud looking at herself in a clear pool daddy Is a good hickory not dot tough but straight and honest jasper tries to sit a mule and hae folks look when he goes by lile like they do at daddy but lie cant quite jasper is a chestnut jesse Is good but not like daddy jesse is good poplar straight yellow poplar abdal is lil hickory kory but hes full of knots boots pignut hickory daddy Is straight grained jenny ashes white barked sycamore but ashes turning yellow since she married jim walker when daddy want ant her to lucy 1 I guess ashes mulberry and cynthia now what are you your own self ill be a pear tree by the well with pink edged blossoms and gold la in the heart the days were growing longer over wolfpen hollows cynthia spoke about it watching the long shadows adois bb going before the blaze of sun into the timber earlier in the morning and coming out later in the afternoon slie she was in the fields for the planting she loved to sense the changing moods of a day from the cool vigor of tile the early morning through the slowed pace und under erthe the hot sun of noon then the ebb and drowsiness of the first hour after dinner the dreamy relaxation and fatigue in the afternoon the tired joy of the end of day and tile the smell of the damp and the plowed bottom land its aa site she walked back to the house through tile the dusk she liked best the long silence of the afternoon when mien the teams were scattered with her union among the fields near enough to be seen far enough not to affect the moment a round around her then there was a whispering in fit tile timber on one slope of the hollow and an answering rustle from the opposite hillside slie she thought of what the cices uces were saying and saw that the shadows which came silently out of tile the woods wood sand and hurried across the bottoms were the fingers of tulip trees which aich would soon be scattering brown dust from their bursting hearts core the mood was different when she worked with some one and at its best when ihen she helped jes jesic se set out the sweet potato plants that time now came alit and when toward three in the afternoon tile the sun was tar far enough toward the pinnacle not to n fiber the plants she went up to mouse house field where jesse was building the ridges and leveling olt off the tops with a rake putting out the sweet potato plants Is about the best part of plant planting ilig she said removing her shoes and let tins ling her ber feet taste the soft warmth of tile the yielding ground they went to tile the hotbeds near the patch they carefully pulled off the sturdy sprouts for planting and laid them roots down in a shallow basket then cynthia dropped them at ten inch intervals on the top of the ridge and poured a gourd of water on their roots in the hole jesse had bad made with his long fingers cynthia filled the process with a delicate mystery lina imagining ining that she was taking live lire people from dark beds where they were |