he varmints." And thus Job Grinnell's
enigmatical message, that had the ring of defiance, might remain
indefinitely postponed.

Abner had not realized how long a time it had been delayed, until one
evening at the wood-pile, in tossing off a great stick to hew into
lengths for the chimney-place, he noticed that thin ice had formed in
the moss and the dank cool shadows of the interstices. "I tell ye now,
winter air a-comm'," he observed. He stood leaning on his axe-handle
and looking down upon the scene so far below; for Pur-dee's house was
perched half-way up on the mountain-side, and he could see over the
world how it fared as the sun went down. Far away upon the levels of
the valley of East Tennessee a golden haze glittered resplendent, lying
close upon an irradiated earth, and ever brightening toward the horizon,
and it seemed as if the sun in sinking might hope to fall in fairer
spheres than the skies he had left, for they were of a dun-color and an
opaque consistency. Only one horizontal rift gave glimpses of a dazzling
ochreous tint of indescribable brilliancy, from the focus of which the
divergent light was shed upon the western limits of the land. Chilhowee,
near at hand, was dark enough--a purplish garnet hue; but the scarlet
of the sour-wood gleamed in the cove; the hickory still flared gallantly
yellow; the receding ranges to the north and south were blue and more
faintly azure. The little log cabin stood with small fields about it,
for Purdee barely subsisted on the fruits of the soil, and did not
seek to profit. It had only one room, with a loft above; the barn was a
makeshift of poles, badly chinked, and showing through the crevices what
scanty store there was of corn and pumpkins. A black-and-white work-ox,
that had evidently no deficiency of ribs, stood outside of the fence and
gazed, a forlorn Tantalus, at these unattainable dainties; now and then
a muttered low escaped his lips. Nobody noticed him or sympathized with
him, except perhaps the little girl, who had come out in her sun-bonnet
to help her brother bring in the fuel. He gruffly accepted her company,
a little ashamed of her because she was a girl; since, however, there
was no other boy by to laugh, he permitted her the delusion that she was
of assistance.

As he paused to rest he reiterated, "Winter air a-comin', I tell ye."

"D'ye reckon, Ab," she asked, in her high, thin little voice, her hands
full of chips and the basket at her feet, "ez G