People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1896 — IN THE HEART OF THE HILLS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IN THE HEART OF THE HILLS.

By SHERWIN CODY

“copvjuon. 1896. by T«r /wrm».

tie also began to realize bow tired he was and soon took ont his blanket and spread it on the grass. He thought he would have some lettuce, too, and he remembered that when he started out on his tramp he had taken pepper and salt in his bag for just this purpose. In a few moments he had picked some leaves of lettuce and washed them in a little brook just under the hill. He also filled his cup with water, and returning to his spread out blanket he emptied on to it the contents of his bag. There were a teaspoon, a knife besides the one he carried in his pocket, which he feared he might lose; a fork, his pepper and salt and a paper roll containing a change of underclothing and some handkerchiefs—all just as he had packed them when he left New York, tor till now he bad had no occasion to naa any of the things except the blanket and the tin dipper, which were fastened to the outside. But when he emptied the things out he saw, to bis unutterable surprise, a $1 bill nicely folded up, which had apparently been tucked in at one side. It rolled out on the blanket with the other things, and Alec sat looking at it in amazement without picking it up. How in the world had it come there? Rapidly his mind traveled back. Could any one have put it in before he left home? Impossible! There was no chance. Besides, he would doubtless have noticed it before this. There remained but one possibility. Maud bad put it there. When her mother sent her to do the chamber work, she could easily have slipped into bis room. He remembered now that he bad beard a slight noise as he went in his anger to get his things which he had not reflected on at the time. The girl bad not had too much time and must have hurried to escape being caught. Yes, it was Maud. She had felt that the money spent the day before had been on her account, and in justice some of it ought to be returned. It was impossible for Alec to assign any more sentimental reason. But he knew she must have very little money of her own, and perhaps this was all she had.

As he sat and thought be gTew very much ashamed of his anger at her in the morning. She bad suffered even more than he had. and instead of being angry at her he should have been very sorry and not minded his own injury. He wanted to go back and tell her bow sorry he was. He wondered if be could not devise some method by which he oonld get her away from the awful tyranny of her mother. If not be wished he oonld at least go back and tell her that he sympathized with her, But he decided that it was not best to go back just at present, and since the well dressed woman had not appeared with either a policeman or a dog, he packed his bag, folded up his blanket and proceeded on his way northward. By sunset he had walked fully 12 miles more and come into a small village, where he found a oonntry inn at which be could obtain a night’s lodging for 26 cents, and a grocery store at which he conld buy some crackers and cheese, which, helped out by some raspberries he had picked by the road, made his supper.

CHAPTER VI. HE MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE Of JOE HIGGINS. The village of Ashton Centre lay in a level niche among the hills, which fell away in irregular terraces to the south and west toward the river and ascended north and east toward the mountains. Here four roads met from the four points of the compass, and the common center was the half rotten watering trough fed from a running spring on a hill near by, and which stood in the middle of an open square bounded, as the geographies say, on the north by the church, the store and tavern, and the aristocratic bouses of the town, on the west by a tumbled down barn and dwelling said to be the oldest in town, on the south by the graveyard, its moss covered tombstones overgrown by tall grass, and by the blacksmith shop which stood in a corner of the graveyard where the south road came up, and on the east by smooth, well kept fields which rose in a gradual slope and were sprinkled by the neatest and most substantial farmhouses of the whole town. The store and tavern shared equally a square, brown painted modern building which stood not a rod from the church and seemed to rival it as the most conspicuous and important point of the village. Some pronounced the secret bar (and not so very secret either, though Ashton was a prohibition town) the lair of the devil, and the store was oertainly the rendezvous of all the loafers in town. This may account for the imaginary rivalry. As a matter of fact, while tbfc church was the religious center, and as such all important, tiie store and tavern was the secular center, and recognized as such by the respectable citizens of the town as well as the loafers. The proprietor was a bluff, good □atured man not at all suggestive of the devil, and a very good friend to every one. With his long, grizzled beard, stooped shoulders and devil may care eye, he was a refreshing example of cynical indifference to the woes of the world, though indeed be was always talking about them. “Well, sonny, what can I do for yon?'' be had said to Alec when be outre the night before. The yonng man, not over we 11 pleased at being called “sonny." considering his

0 feet 10, inquired with dignified reserve the prioe of lodging in the "hotel.” "Well, sonny, that depends on what you’ve got to pay,"answered \he man, utterly ignoring the dignified reserve. “We ain’t one of your cheap one price lodging houses here. If a man hasn’t got but a quarter, we don’t charge him 50 cents. What’s the use? You oan’t get blood out of a stone. You’ll probably stay here all night and pay what you’ve got, and the charge will be according. That’ll save a row, and rows exhaust a man’s nerves. "I'm so rheumatic I can’t stand rows very well,” he added to the bystanders Uith a wink. Alec could not help smiling at the good humor of the man, for he could see that the keen eyes of the old fellow had been taking him in from top to toe, and evidently the inventory had not been unsatisfactory. "Well, if a quarter will satisfy you, I should like to turn in at once," answered Alec, and the man, whom the townspeople, respeotable as well as unrespectable, called Joe Higgins, always pronouncing the last name ont of respeot, lumbered stiffly, but rapidly, off toward the back door, calling: “All right, all right, sonny! Come on! The quicker you turn in the better it’ll suit me. for then I shall have you off my mind. An honored guest in the hotel iB always a weight on a man’s mind nntil he’s packed off to bed. ” When Alec found himself alone in his little whitewashed chamber, he felt leas forlorn than at any time sineo be left house, and tired as be was, with aching joints and heavy head, be found the springlees bed wonderfully oomfortable. In five minutes be was sound asleep. The little sleeping room bad an east window which looked ont past the white church, with its tall, serious spire, and up the green slope of the bill beyond, over the brow of which the sun rose. “The next morning Alec was wakened early by the clamorous singing of the birds, who seemed holding a regular concert. It was not yet 4 o’clock. So he lay still and began to think about his situation. For a time he had forgotten that it was at all a serious matter. But now, really for the first time since he had left home, be candidly considered what he was doing and into what it would lead him. He had come away from home because his father was angry with him. His father had said he was lazy. He and his father had had angry words, and his father bad told him that if that was the way he intended to oondaot himself he needn’t come to his father for funds. All that he called up vividly in his mind this morning. He bed come to the country in search of bis fortune, and be had not found the search altogether agreeable. Still, he would die rather than write to his father for money, and now there was coming to be something ab*ut this life that fascinated him.

Aleo had often heard how his father, Alexander, Sr., had gone to the city a poor boy, with only a dollar m hispacket and no immediate prospect of maze, how he had worked and starved aipd finally succeeded and grown rich. How a brilliant idea came to him. Why should not he, Alexander, Jt. , a poor olty boy, come to the country, with only $2 in hie pocket, and make bis fortune? Fortune is a curious thing. Von never know where it will turn up, and often it fails under the most propitious circumstances. As he dressed about 6 o’clock be made np his mind just what he would do. He would get a good breakfast, of which he felt the need, for his sapper had been only bread and cheese, and his dinner little mere. Then he would speak to the bluff proprietor, who seemed to l.ke him, and find out what men about town were likely to need help in haying. He must got work at once. That was his plan. Before he could do anything else he must have his living secured, and must be in a way to accumulate a small amount of ready capital “Well, sonny,” cried Joe Higgins when Alec camo into the store m soon as his toilet had been completed, “did you find the bed hard enough for you? Scuta folks think our beds are not hard enough for them, bnt I manage to get on well-enough, even if I am a young man. ’’ “The bed was very oomfortable, ’’ answered Aleo, with a smile. “You look white, sonny," raid the old fellow, with a sudden serious concern. "Better go in ahd have some breakfast with the folks. I Just got done mine. ’ ’ “I was just going to ask yog bow much yon charge for breakfast. I bare only a dollar, and don't know when I shall get any more unless I find a job hereabouts. You don’t know any one wants help In haying, do you?” “No, I don’t -know anybody wants help in baying. More want to help. “But if you ain’t got bnt a dollar, you’d better eat your breakfast first and ask me the price es it afterward. Then you’ll be sure to have it. 1 “You Just go inside that door there and tell ’Lisbeth to give you a plaoe next to her. Being a handsome girl and you a pretty man, she’ll probably consider it worth the prioe of a breakfast to have ycm sit beside her, and, being an indulgent father, I don’t grudge her any such little thing as that."

Laughing mwarcuy in spice ox nunself at the man’s awkward kindliness

under his rough exterior, Alec went into the dining room, where the family were at breakfast?, and, seeing a vacant place beside a tall, rather good looking girl, he asked if he might take it She looked up at him with laughing eyes, for she had eivdently overheard her father’s remarks, which had been quite loud enough, and promptly assented, getting np herself to wait on him. As he ate bis breakfast and felt the physical man satisfied, hope mounted higher and higher, something of his old confident bearing returned to him, and unconsciously he showed in his bearing the education and breeding of a gentleman. When he returned to the store, the proprietor was possibly a little less warm, and showed small enthusiasm when Alec inquired particularly about the places where he might find work. Mr. Higgins bluntly told him be might go to Dan Piper or Frank Davis or Joe Fyles, though he, the proprietor, did not know that they wanted anybody—in fact, was under the impression they had all the help they needed. But the young man might go and see. Alec handed out 50 cents of what remained of his dollar, and asked if that would settle their accounts, and Joe Higgins said be supposed it woufd have to. What had caused the change of manner Alec oould not imagine, but he saw the man watching him furtively from nnder his bushy brows. He went away very much less hopeful and happy than he had been an hour before. Afterward he found out that a suspioion had entered the mind of Joe Higgins (because of his somewhat independent manner) that he was a city fellow masquerading as a tramp for tho amusement of it.

CHAPTER VII. JONATHAN FINCHLEY TELLS HOW ALEO TBIED TO MOW. Before night of that first day Alec’s arrival became a matter of general interest to the town. The suspicion that Mr. Higgins had conceived of him in the morning seemed to follow him. “Who’s that yonng fellow with the thin face and the white hands you’ve got here?" asked Mr. Stillings, the village sexton, a short, heavy, smooth faced man, a person cf tho highest consequence in the village, and much respected,since he was considered wealthy. “He oome around and wanted to get a job baying for me, but I told him I didn’t have no haying myself. I put it all out Then he wanted to know who I put It out to, and I told him Frank Davis gener’ly did it, and he said as he was going to see if Frank Davis wouldn’t give him a job. Ho struck me aB a pretty pert looking yonng fellow to be a-coming up here to work in haying. Anv relation o’ yours, Joe?" “He’s about the same relation as your bull calf, ” answered Mr. Higgins gravely, and his reply was followed by a guffaw of laughter all around the store. “I jedge they’re both equally high stepping,’’ commented Bent, a humorous old miser who lived ip a nutshell of a house which was as blaok inside as a brick oven, and as bare, though they said be was s worth SBO,OOO, and the beet men of the village borrowed money from him on their land till people said jokingly that before he died Bent would own the town. Bent’s remark also caused a guffaw of langhter.

“He come around to see me this morning, too,” said Jonathan Finchley, one of the biggest farmers of the region, as he sat comfortably on the counter on the opposite side of the store from Joe Higgins. He chuokled to himself a minute or two before he went on, so that all eyes were fixed on him inquiringly. “I was mowing that ten acre lot on the sidebill up above my house," he said at last, “and I didn’t have only Andy and Jim and myself. Felix and Sibley were down finishing np a little hoeing in the garden that had to be done before we got fairly Into haying. Well, along oome this city crack and says he wanted a job. I asked him es he could mow, and he says, 4 Yes, I guess so. ’ I kind o’ thought he didn't know anything about it, but I said: All right. You don’t look right strong, and I reckon you’ll blister your hands the first day. But I’ll give you a dollar for the rest of today. ’ So I took him down to the barn and ground Sib’s scythe for him and flung it for him, as be didn’t seem to take hold very smart. When I give it to him, he stood there a-holding it on the ground till I took up mine. Then he took his under his arm just as I did mine, and kind of easy and graceful, and I thought mebbe he could mow, after aIL “ Well, I tell you it was fun to see him when we got up there. He sort of waited till be saw .us begin, and as he started in late he was quite a piece behind. But I kept looking round over my shoulder to see him. First he tried the big swing, and the blame point went right into the ground and the heel flapped clean over and yanked the whole blame business out of his hands. He looked up at me sort of frightened, but I didn’t let on ez I had seen. “Well, he didn’t do that agin. He sort o’ gingerly tried to put the scythe round the grass and yank it off. “I didn’t say nothing, bnt I let him work away there till I got round. He’d

kind of haggled np tne grass ior a lew feet. I reckon he’d pulled it off with his hands. Looked as if he bed. When I got round there, I perlitely asked him to step aside, and he did very perlitely, too, far he’s a perlite sort o’ fellow, and then I mowed over he’d tramped down, and it was no easy job neither. Then I says: ’I guess you’d better go home, sonny. I guess you’re ruther tired out. Es you get rested up, you ken come around tomorro’. * "Andy, he was mad, and wanted to give the fellow fits. Bat I told him that the young fellow looked awful white, and I was sort o’ sorry for him, and I didn’t say nothing more, and he asked where he should put the scythe, and I told him to hang it in the barn, and he went down to the barn and hung it up, and walked off, and didn’t say a blame word. "I reckon he was some city fello’just trying what he could do. Thougm he knowed it all and was going to show us. But I was sort of sorry for him, he looked so blame white. ” A long silence followed this pathetio narrative, though bursts of laughter bad been scattered through it. Everybody was wondering where the young oity fellow had gone when he walked away, and there seemed to be an uncomfortable fear that he might turn np again, along with a curiosity to see what he would say or do if he did. Before night everybody in the village would know of his experience at Jonathan Finchley’B, and if be returned he wonld meet a brazen wall of well fortified curiosity. ’Lisbeth was the only one in the store who hadn’t laughed at the jokes,'and she acted very much as if she hadn’t beard anything that had been said, she worked awav so steadily. Bnt her manner made Mr. Higgins a trifle uncomfortable, and he tried to rally her about the young man. She remained glum, however, which made him still more uncomfortable, and he had a private wish that they shouldn't see Aleo again. In the meantime the boy himself had fallen into a state of intense despair. ..•nr .-.i c ... .. a mtirning, he vr»* Ir.ll of hope and confidence. Hofelfc sure that if ho didn’t know just how to do anything in particular be could soon learn. He imagined farm work didn’t require a great amount of skill. That he should be tired he knew, but he was prepared for that. Nothing oould be harder, he fancied, than hoeing potatoes and he had survived that. When Mr. Finchley asked him if he could mow he at once applied his policy of asserting his knowledge, hoping that by quick observation he could make it good. But mowing didn’t seem at all like hoeing potatoes. He couldn’t get the knack of it at all. Ho knew he was failing, but he kept at it in sheer desperation nntil Mr. Finchley had come and taken his work out of his hands. That gentleman hadn’t done it with anything like the good humor and gentle sarcasm he had described in his story. His face had had a hard, severe expression and his eyes had shone with brilliant anger. He had said much what he bad ascribed to himself, hut the feeling of Alec was what Adam’s must have been when he was driven from the garden of Eden, though possibly Adam felt more defiance and independent resolution.

CHAPTER VIII-. ALICE 18 BEFRIENDED BY ’LISBETH. That night the store was lighted np, and the double door stood invitingly open. Rough farmers and tho village loafers were sitting about on the steps outside, or within the door on the long, grimy settee, and the various barrels, kegs and boxes. Somebody was telling a story, and the company seemed to be genial, though never more than one person spoke at a time, and two or three did most of the talking, while the rest Wire content to be audience or whispered awkward commentaries to each other. I Alec hesitated and stood a moment , looking at them, wondering if they , were talking about him. He had not meant to go near the store again. He | dare not spend his money for a lodging at the tavern after he had failed. Why 1 Bhould he? Bnt he might go and buy some crackers and a piece of cheese, | for he suddenly realized that he was i hungry. Then one of the loafers 6aw him and i cried out: j “I’ll he blowed, if there ain’t that i city coon ont there in the dark. Come , on, yonng fello’, and let’s have a look at you I"" The rest of the company were silent as death, and sat gazing into the darfe- ; ness. | “Come on. Don’t be bashful,” cried ! the first speaker. “We won’t hurt yon. Oome up here to give us mowin lessons, I s’pose. ” ! A chuckle of langhter went round the crowd, and Aleo was for running away , at the top of his speed, only he dare not i invite pursuit in that way. Instead be | walked straight into the store, paying not the slightest notice to the men who sat about, and asked for a dime’s worth of crackers and cheese. | “What’s that, sonny?” asked Joe Higgins from the oonnter, where he lay at i full length on his back. “Crackers and ! cheese? I ain’t got no cheese left. Will 1 crackers do yon?” Mr. Higgins made no motion to get up, though Alec said he would have the crackers. After a pause Mr. Higgins volunteered the information that bis rheumatism was so bad that night he thought he couldn’t get the crackers himself, but be would call ’Lisbeth. Whereupon he bellowed: “ ’Lisbeth!” (TO BE CONTINUED.)

"Well, sonny,” cried Joe Higgins.