FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>   >|  
attention and admiration. The shiftless one drew a long breath of mingled welcome and approval. "I knew that he would be first," he murmured. Then he sat down and began to broil a juicy deer steak on the end of a sharpened stick. Henry Ware came into the little glade. He had seen the fire afar and he knew who waited. All was plain to him like the print of a book, and, without a word, he dropped down on the other side of the fire facing Shif'less Sol. The two nodded, but their eyes spoke far more. Sol held out the steak, now crisp and brown and full of savor, and Henry began to eat. Sol quickly broiled another for himself, and joined him in the pleasant task, over which they were silent for a little while. "I was on the Ohio," said Henry at last, "when the trapper brought me your message, but I started at once." "O' course," said Shif'less Sol, "I never doubted it for a minute. I reckon that you've come about seven hundred miles." "Nearer eight," said Henry, "but I'm fresh and strong, and we need all our strength, Sol, because it's a great task that lies before us." "It shorely is," said Sol, "an' that's why I sent the message. I don't want to brag, Henry, but we've done a big thing or two before, an' maybe we kin do a bigger now." He spoke the dialect of the border, he was not a man of books, but that great look of exaltation came into his face again, and the boy on the other side of the fire shared it. "It seems to me, Sol," said Henry presently, "that we've been selected for work of a certain kind. We finish one job, and then another on the same line begins." "Mebbe it's because we like to do it, an' are fit fur it," said Sol philosophically. "I've noticed that a river gen'ally runs in a bed that suits it. I don't know whether the bed is thar because the river is, or the river is thar 'cause the bed is, but it's shore that they're both thar together, an' you can't git aroun' that." "There's something in what you say," said Henry. Then they relapsed into silence, and, in a half hour, as if by mutual consent, they rose, left the fire burning, and departed, still walking steadily toward the south. The country grew rougher. The hills were higher and closer together, and the undergrowth became thick. Neither took any precautions as they passed among the slender bushes, frequently trampling them down and leaving signs that the blindest could not fail to see. Now and then the two looked back, but
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31  
32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

message

 

philosophically

 

noticed

 

shared

 
presently
 

exaltation

 

selected

 

begins

 

finish

 

Neither


precautions
 

passed

 
rougher
 
higher
 

closer

 

undergrowth

 
slender
 

bushes

 
looked
 
blindest

trampling

 

frequently

 

leaving

 

country

 
relapsed
 
silence
 

border

 

walking

 

steadily

 

departed


burning

 
mutual
 

consent

 

strong

 

dropped

 
facing
 

nodded

 

waited

 
quickly
 

mingled


approval

 

breath

 

attention

 
admiration
 

shiftless

 

murmured

 

sharpened

 

broiled

 

strength

 

Nearer