A MAID OF THE KENTUCKY HILLS
BY EDWIN CARLILE LITSEY
Author of "The Man from Jericho," etc.
_ILLUSTRATED BY JOHN CASSEL_
CHICAGO BROWNE & HOWELL COMPANY 1913
COPYRIGHT, 1913 BROWNE & HOWELL COMPANY
_Copyright in England All rights reserved_
PUBLISHED, NOVEMBER, 1913
THE PLIMPTON PRESS NORWOOD, MASS, USA
TO SARA OF THE SUNNY HAIR
[Illustration: _I knelt on the tree, bent down, and took her upheld hand in mine._]
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE IN WHICH I GO TO 'CROMBIE
CHAPTER TWO IN WHICH I GO TO 'CROMBIE AGAIN
CHAPTER THREE IN WHICH I FIND A LODGE IN THE WILDERNESS
CHAPTER FOUR IN WHICH I MEET A DRYAD
CHAPTER FIVE IN WHICH I SAY WHAT I PLEASE
CHAPTER SIX IN WHICH I MEET A SATYR
CHAPTER SEVEN IN WHICH THE SATYR AND I SIT CHEEK BY JOWL
CHAPTER EIGHT IN WHICH I PITCH MY TENT TOWARD HEBRON FOR THE SPACE OF AN AFTERNOON
CHAPTER NINE IN WHICH I SIT UPON A HILLTOP AND REFLECT TO NO ADVANTAGE
CHAPTER TEN IN WHICH I SPEND A PLEASANT HOUR AND HEAR SOME NEWS
CHAPTER ELEVEN IN WHICH OTHER CHARACTERS COME INTO OUR STORY
CHAPTER TWELVE IN WHICH I ATTEND AN ORATORIO
CHAPTER THIRTEEN IN WHICH I SUFFER FOUR SHOCKS, THREE OF THE EARTH AND ONE FROM THE SKY, AND FIND ANOTHER MAID A-FISHING
CHAPTER FOURTEEN IN WHICH YET A FIFTH SHOCK ARRIVES, AND ROUNDS OUT THE DAY
CHAPTER FIFTEEN IN WHICH THE HISTORIAN UNBLUSHINGLY SHOWS HIMSELF TO BE A HUMAN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN IN WHICH MUCH ADDED LIGHT IS SHED UPON MISS BERYL DRANE, BUT ONLY A GLIMMER UPON MY PROBLEM
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN IN WHICH I ENTERTAIN SERIOUSLY A CHIVALROUS NOTION TO MY GREAT DETRIMENT
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN IN WHICH I DESCEND INTO HELL
CHAPTER NINETEEN IN WHICH THE SATYR AND THE NARRATOR BECOME VERY DRUNK, AND THE LATTER IS LIFTED TO EARTH AGAIN
CHAPTER TWENTY IN WHICH I VIEW AN EMPTY WORLD, ACT A HYPOCRITE, AND HEAR A CONFESSION OF LOVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE IN WHICH, STRANGE TO SAY, TIME PASSES. ALSO I RECEIVE THREE WARNINGS, AND WITNESS AN UNPARALLELED EPISODE IN THE SMITHY OF BUCK STEELE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO IN WHICH I SPAR WITH DEATH
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE IN WHICH, THOUGH THE WORLD IS STILL A VOID, THERE IS THE SHINING OF A GREAT LIGHT
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Maid of the Kentucky Hills by Litsey
- 2: Then I silently gave him the handkerchief
- 3: Like the berries of the mistletoe
- 4: But tell me more about this infernal flower
- 5: The sooner I went the sooner I would return
- 6: I have been all over Bald Knob a dozen times
- 7: Just come to the shack with me
- 8: Not quite half way up the knob
- 9: I held my breath as it fell fainter and fainter
- 10: Leaving the apex of the knob absolutely bare
- 11: A girl was standing on the further side of the glade
- 12: Its tail a graceful gray plume
- 13: 'Cause Buck says they're mean an' stuck up
- 14: You know it's lonesome for me out here
- 15: Never to be understood transmutation of sap to bud and leaf
- 16: I would have thought it the hiss of a serpent
- 17: To morrow I am going to Lizard Point
- 18: With an extra tuft on the chin which curved sideways
- 19: His nose was pug another satyr touch and his neck long
- 20: Shoving the skillet toward him
- 21: Then you are some sort of cousin to Lessie
- 22: They's other thin's lots o' thin's I heerd
- 23: I would go to Hebron and buy all the seed I wanted
- 24: Paralleling the left fork of the cloven creek
- 25: And she was knitting and rocking
- 26: 'N' chick'ns wuth fifteen cents a poun' at th' store
- 27: Whut on airth air gels comin' to this day 'n' time
- 28: But be keerful always be keerful
- 29: Drownd 'em with terbacker juice
- 30: You's good to our Jeffy to S'firy's Jeffy
- 31: With characteristic irrelevance Ain't Granny tur'ble
- 32: I climbed to the very top of my hill of refuge
- 33: But have you never heard the love note of the jay
- 34: And started up where the ascent was comparatively gradual
- 35: I can make nothing yet of Lessie or her household
- 36: The bench is big enough for two
- 37: Is there no school here in the neighborhood at Hebron
- 38: Poor little Dryad in her windowless house
- 39: I must get some water from the creek
- 40: Something was wrong with Lessie
- 41: 'n' w'en I don't feel lak seein' 'im he'll go on 'way
- 42: Here Lessie stopped and faced me
- 43: And looked intently up to where Lessie lived
- 44: Wondering where all this gravel came from
- 45: Hebron lay beneath my gaze small
- 46: She came forward and held out the bucket
- 47: Surely you don't live at Hebron
- 48: At length I reached a rail fence
- 49: So you are ze stranger on ze Bal' Knob
- 50: It is now three days since I went to Hebron
- 51: I now saw the flash of cannon through the jagged embrasures
- 52: A rent showed in the cloud canopy
- 53: I started to ask the storekeeper where Buck was
- 54: A darkness spread over the glen
- 55: If Lessie had not left the pool she would leave soon
- 56: And with its coming the gloom deepened
- 57: And Buck wheeled more than half around
- 58: And when Buck began to stir I was capable of standing erect
- 59: Did it matter so very greatly what Buck told
- 60: But the Dryad was all engrossed with the prospects
- 61: And an instant later Lessie was on her feet
- 62: That I have never seen a girl with a swan like neck
- 63: Lessie gave her fishing pole into Granf'er's care
- 64: 'n' w'en she's pickl'n' she's turble busy
- 65: 'n' w'en I saw myseff I felt I c'd boss anybody
- 66: Where did Lessie get her refined features
- 67: When the shock had passed I did not essay to soothe him
- 68: Then I walked down to the bench under the pine
- 69: But she had ceased to be an incident
- 70: I have said that I love Lessie well enough to marry her
- 71: I am in love in love with an untamed Dryad of the oak glade
- 72: Do men ever deserve what they receive from women
- 73: A hammock was swung across the center of the place
- 74: I was thoroughly uncomfortable
- 75: But when Beryl Drane flung this low insinuation in my face
- 76: Zey never dark ze door of ze church
- 77: Ze wil' ma'm'selle you call Lessie
- 78: And these boors have corrupted it to Lessie
- 79: Celeste wore a white shirt waist
- 80: It don't look like Gran'fer's writ ing
- 81: And spread the copybook out afresh
- 82: And the Dryad was for licking it off
- 83: Then try'n' to fool 'n' ruin my Lessie
- 84: Whut cause has a gal to make up sich a yarn as this
- 85: But in hell one cannot choose his path
- 86: At first I crouched under it sinisterly
- 87: Elbows on knees and face in hands
- 88: A gray shape was disturbing the nebulous perspective
- 89: A pair which seemed made of sulphur
- 90: Celeste did not cry from fright
- 91: In genuine and open curiosity Whur 'n hell yo' ben
- 92: He drew the stopper with his teeth
- 93: Dost know him the great god Pan
- 94: And I poured them out upon the helpless head of Jeff Angel
- 95: And started determinedly toward the mantel
- 96: I's hongry onct belly hongry 'n' yo' give me good grub
- 97: And here I am mortally in love with Celeste Somebody
- 98: Brushed the smoke from her eyes
- 99: Have you seen Lessie this morning
- 100: Toller relinquished her grasp on the stick
- 101: Toller was actually embarrassed
- 102: I wanted Celeste Celeste Celeste
- 103: Mees Bereel goes home yest'day
- 104: They went to git Lessie 'way frum you
- 105: I know yo 're lovin' Lessie 'n' lovin' her hones'
- 106: Jeff would find her or if he did not
- 107: Then she would take Celeste away
- 108: All was not well between Buck and Celeste
- 109: And had banished a man with an ulcerated throat
- 110: I went to Hebron in the afternoon
- 111: Yo' 'll hev to be kind o' durn keerful
- 112: Over which the band to his pants refused to meet
- 113: Bart Crawley promptly made answer
- 114: Not wuth haul'n' out o' this here shop
- 115: Certain it is he left Hebron at once
- 116: Passed on to the closed window
- 117: Again failed to surmount the cot
- 118: Sunday and Monday I kept to the plateau
- 119: Todler sighed wearily at its conclusion
- 120: A sheer limestone precipice fifty or sixty feet high
- 121: Th' ol' man finally went crazy
- 122: Suddenly the deputy wheeled and faced me
- 123: Even though Celeste has not returned
- 124: In it she confess she tol' ze ze ze lie on you
- 125: He had gone into the knobs about Hebron
- 126: In case ze papers be not foun'
- 127: Where it had lain secure for a score of years
- 128: Then my unchecked thoughts drifted to Celeste
- 129: I would go to the Dryad's Glade
- 130: The Satyr was piping and dancing
- 131: Glaring insanely from me to Celeste
- 132: Leaping now and then into the air like a demoniac
- 133: I gathered my strength and leaped to meet him
- 134: And sitting near the table was my Dryad