THE ABBOTT CABIN
It was quite evident that the picturesque log cabin which nestled against
the side of the mountain on a wide, overhanging ledge was indeed their
own. The road curved about twenty feet below it, and crude steps had been
hewn out of the rocks. The small boy tumbled out of the stage almost
before it came to a standstill.
"Oh, Julie, look-it, will you! We've got a real stairway leading right up
to our front door. I'll beat you to the cabin."
Julie, equally excited, scurried up after her brother and reached the top
almost as soon as he did. Then they turned and shouted joyfully to the
two below them: "Jane! Dan! Look at us! We're top of the world."
"Oh, boy!" Gerald capered about, unable to stand still. "I'm glad I came.
I bet you, Julie, we'll have a million adventures, maybe more." But Dan
was calling and so they scampered back down the rocky flight of stairs.
The older lad laughed at their enthusiasm. "I know just how you feel," he
told them. "If I weren't afraid of shocking your sedate sister here, I
believe I would--well--I don't know just what I would do."
"Stand on your head," Gerald prompted. "Do it, Dan. I'll dare you."
But the older boy was needed just then to tell the surly driver where the
trunks were to be put. "Let me help you, Mr. Wallace." Dan made an
attempt to take one end of a trunk, but the husky man, with the
unchangeable countenance, merely grunted his dissent, and swinging a
trunk up on his broad shoulders, he began the ascent of the steep stone
stairs quite as though it were not a herculean task.
Dan followed. "Just leave them on the porch until we get our bearings,"
he directed. "We can move them in after we have unpacked." Then, from the
loose change that he had in his pocket, he paid the man. A few moments
later the stage rumbled on its way up the road, which circled the
mountain and then descended to a hamlet in the valley on the other side.
As soon as the four young Abbotts were alone, Dan, slipping an arm about
Jane, exclaimed: "Think of it, sister! Isn't it almost beyond
comprehension that we have such magnificence right in our front
door-yard." He took a long breath. The pine trees, though not large, were
spicily fragrant. Then, whirling toward her, he caught both of her hands,
and there were actually tears in his eyes as he said, "Jane, I'm going to
live! I know that I am!"
Selfish as the girl was, she could not but respond to her brother's
enthusiasm. The younger children had raced away on a tour of discovery.
Their excited voices were heard exclaiming about something they had
discovered beyond the cabin. Clear and high Gerry's voice rang out: "Dan,
Jane, come quick! We've found Roaring Creek, and it isn't making a
terrible lot of noise at all."
But the older boy had noted the extreme weariness on his sister's face.
He well knew that she had sacrificed herself to come to a country which
did not appeal to her; where she had to meet people whom she considered
far beneath her, and she had done it all to help him get well. Instantly
the boy decided that he would make Jane's comfort his first care, that
her stay with him might be as pleasant as possible, and so he called
back: "After a time, Gerald. Come on; I'm going to unlock the door. Don't
you want to see what's on the inside of our cabin?"
"Oh, boy, don't I, though!" Gerry, closely followed by Julie, raced back
to the wide front porch, which was made of logs. Dan took from his
satchel a very large key and holding it up, he called merrily, "The key
to health and happiness."
"You left out something," Gerry prompted. "It's health, wealth and
happiness. Maybe we'll find that lost mine, who knows?"
Dan merely laughed at that. "Now," he said, as he put the key in the
lock, "what do you suppose we'll find on the other side of this door?"
What they saw delighted the hearts of three of the young people. A large
log cabin room with a long window on either side of the door. At the back
was a crude fireplace made of rocks. There was no window on that side of
the room, as a wall of the mountain came so close to the cabin that there
would have been no view.
The rafters were logs with the bark still on, and the furniture had been
made of saplings. There were leather cushions in the chairs, but the
thing that made Gerald caper about, mad with joy, was a bearskin on one
of the walls.
"Oh, look-it, will you, Dan? What kind of a bear is it? Do you think it
is a grizzly, and do you s'pose it's that one Dad said came right down
here to our ledge? Do you, Dan?"
The older boy looked at the rather small bearskin and shook his head.
"No, it isn't a grizzly," he said. "I think it is the skin of a black
bear. But here is another on the floor in front of the fireplace. That's
Dad's bear, I remember now. This old fellow was the grizzly who was
unfortunate enough to come down here to try to help himself to Dad's
supplies."
Jane had dropped wearily into a big chair that really was comfortable
with its leather-covered cushions, and Dan, noting how tired she was,
exclaimed:
"Jane, I'll unlock the packing trunk and get out some of the bedding, and
if you wish, you may lie down for a while. Dad said there were two good
beds here and several cots."
Gerald and Julie had darted through a door at one side and, reappearing,
they beckoned to their big brother.
"We've found one of 'em," the younger lad announced. "It's in a dandee
room! I bet you Jane will choose it for hers."
Then Julie chimed in with: "Jane, please come and see it."
The older girl, who was feeling terribly sorry for herself, rose
languidly and went with the small sister. The boys followed.
"Why, what a nice room this is!" Dan, truly pleased, remarked. Then
anxiously, and in his voice there was a note that was almost imploring,
he asked: "Jane, dear, don't you think you can be comfortable in here?"
The girl's heart was touched by the tone more than the words, and she
turned away that she might not show how near, how very near, she had been
to crying out her unhappiness. It was hardship to her to be in a log
cabin where there were none of the luxuries and conveniences to which she
had been used. She smiled at her brother, but he saw her lips tremble. He
was tempted to tell her to go back to civilization, since it was all
going to be so hard for her, but something prompted him to wait one week.
Inwardly he resolved: "If Jane is not happy here by one week from today,
I am going to insist that she return to Newport and to the friend Merry
for whom she cares so much."
But Jane, too, had been making a resolve, and so when she spoke her voice
sounded more cheerful.
"It is a nice room," she said. "That wide window has a wonderful view of
the mountains and the valley." It was hard to keep from adding, "If
anyone cares for such a view, which I do not."
But instead she looked up at the rafters. "What are those great bundles
that are hanging up there?" she inquired.
Dan laughed. "Why, those bundles, Dad said, contain the mattress and
bedding which he and mother stored away. They are wrapped in canvas and
so he expected that we would find them in good condition."
"But how are we to get them?" Julie wanted to know.
Gerald's quick eyes found the answer to that.
"Look-it!" he cried, pointing. "There's a ladder nailed right against the
back wall. I'll skin up that in two jiffs. Give me your knife, Dan. I'll
cut the ropes."
The boy was soon sliding along a rafter. "Out of the way down below
there!" he shouted the warning. "Here they come!"
There was a soft thud, followed by another as the two great bundles fell
to the floor. An excellent mattress was in one of them and clean warm
blankets in the other.
"Now, I'll get the sheets from the packing trunk and a pillow case, and
in less than no time at all we'll have a fine bed in our lady's chamber."
Dan led Jane to another large comfortable though rustic chair as he said:
"The rest of us are going to pretend that you are a princess today and we
are going to wait upon you. By tomorrow, when you have had a long sleep,
perhaps you will want to be a mountain girl."
Again there was the yearning note in his voice. How he hoped that Jane
would want to stay, but a week would tell.
Jane was quite willing to pretend that she was a princess and be waited
upon, and so half an hour later, when the bed in her room was made, she
consented to lie down and try to make up the many hours of sleep that she
had lost on the train. Hardly had her head touched the pillow before she
was sound asleep. Two of her windows, that swung inward, were wide open
and a soft mountain breeze wafted to her the scent of the pines. Even
though she was not conscious of it, the peace of the mountains was
quieting her restless soul. She had supposed that, as soon as she were
alone, she would sob out her unhappiness, but her weariness had been too
great, and not a tear had been shed.
Julie reported that Jane had gone right to sleep and Dan's face
brightened. Surely his sister-pal would feel better when she awakened and
how could she help loving it all, so high up on their wonderful mountain.
The younger children had gone on another trip of exploration, and soon
burst back into the big living-room with the information that on the
other side of the cabin there were two smaller bedrooms and a real
kitchen.
Dan held up a warning hand and framed the word "quiet" with his lips, and
so the excited children took his hands and dragged him from the deep easy
chair where he had sought to rest for a moment and showed him what lay
behind the two doors on the other side of the cabin. "Aren't these little
bedrooms the cunningest?" Julie whispered. "See the front one has a bed
in it like Jane's and the other has the cot. But there are three of us,
so what shall we do?" Julie's brown eyes were suddenly serious and
inquiring.
"That's easy!" Dan told her. "Dad said there were several cots. See,
there they are, hanging up on the rafters. I shall take one of those and
put it out on the wide front porch. That's where I want to sleep. I don't
want to be shut in by walls. And Julie may have this pretty front room
with the bed and Gerald the other. Now, let's get them made up, just as
quietly as we can. Then we will unpack the supplies that you got from the
store, Julie, and prepare a noon meal."
The cots were untied from the rafters and one was placed on the porch in
the position chosen by Dan, then the bedding was put on all of them and
it was 11 o'clock and the sun was riding hot and high above the mountain
when Julie, suddenly becoming demure, announced that she wanted Dan to go
to sleep also, and that she and Gerald would get the lunch.
The older boy did not require much urging and when he saw the eager light
in the eyes of the little girl, who had in the beginning supposed that
she alone was to be the one to take care of him, he decided to do as she
wished. Julie had had six months' training with her grandmother, who
believed that a girl could not begin too young to learn how to cook, and
she had often boasted that she had a very apt pupil.
He soon heard the children whispering and laughing happily at the back of
the cabin, then a door was closed softly and the lad heard only the
soughing in the pine trees close to the porch and the humming of the
winged insects far and near. Then he, too, fell into a much needed
slumber.