OUT OF THE WILDERNESS
On the way to God's Country at last! Already Chad had schooled himself
for the parting with Jack, and but for this he must--little man that he
was--have burst into tears. As it was, the lump in his throat stayed
there a long while, but it passed in the excitement of that mad race
down the river. The old Squire had never known such a tide.
"Boys," he said, gleefully, "we're goin' to make a REcord on this
trip--you jus' see if we don't. That is, if we ever git thar alive."
All the time the old man stood in the middle of the raft yelling
orders. Ahead was the Dillon raft, and the twin brothers--the giants,
one mild, the other sour-faced--were gesticulating angrily at each
other from bow and stern. As usual, they were quarrelling. On the
Turner raft, Dolph was at the bow, the school-master at the stern,
while Rube--who was cook--and Chad, in spite of a stinging pain in one
foot, built an oven of stones, where coffee could be boiled and bacon
broiled, and started a fire, for the air was chill on the river,
especially when they were running between the hills and no sun could
strike them.
When the fire blazed up, Chad sat by it watching Tall Tom and the
school-master at the stern oar and Rube at the bow. When the turn was
sharp, how they lashed the huge white blades through the yellow
water--with the handle across their broad chests, catching with their
toes in the little notches that had been chipped along the logs and
tossing the oars down and up with a mighty swing that made the blades
quiver and bend like the tops of pliant saplings! Then, on a run, they
would rush back to start the stroke again, while the old Squire yelled:
"Hit her up thar now--easy--easy! NOW! Hit her up! Hit her up--NOW!"
Now they passed between upright, wooded, gray mountain-sides, threaded
with faint lines of the coming green; now between gray walls of rock
streaked white with water-falls, and now past narrow little valleys
which were just beginning to sprout with corn. At the mouth of the
creeks they saw other rafts making ready and, now and then, a raft
would shoot out in the river from some creek ahead or behind them. In
an hour, they struck a smooth run of several hundred yards where the
men at the oars could sit still and rest, while the raft shot lightly
forward in the middle of the stream; and down the river they could see
the big Dillons making the next sharp turn and, even that far away,
they could hear Jerry yelling and swearing at his patient brother.
"Some o' these days," said the old Squire, "that fool Jake's a-goin' to
pick up somethin' an' knock that mean Jerry's head off. I wonder he
hain't done it afore. Hit's funny how brothers can hate when they do
git to hatin'."
That night, they tied up at Jackson--to be famous long after the war as
the seat of a bitter mountain-feud. At noon the next day, they struck
"the Nahrrers" (Narrows), where the river ran like a torrent between
high steep walls of rock, and where the men stood to the oars
watchfully and the old squire stood upright, watching every movement of
the raft; for "bowing" there would have meant destruction to the raft
and the death of them all. That night they were in Beattyville, whence
they floated next day, along lower hills and, now and then, past a
broad valley. Once Chad looked at the school-master--he wondered if
they were approaching the Bluegrass--but Caleb Hazel smiled and shook
his head. And had Chad waited another half hour, he would not have
asked the question, even with his eyes, for they swept between high
cliffs again--higher than he had yet seen.
That night they ran from dark to dawn, for the river was broader and a
brilliant moon was high; and, all night, Chad could hear the swish of
the oars, as they floated in mysterious silence past the trees and the
hills and the moonlit cliffs, and he lay on his back, looking up at the
moon and the stars, and thinking about the land to which he was going
and of Jack back in the land he had left; and of little Melissa. She
had behaved very strangely during the last few days before the boy had
left. She had not been sharp with him, even in play. She had been very
quiet--indeed, she scarcely spoke a word to him, but she did little
things for him that she had never done before, and she was unusually
kind to Jack. Once, Chad found her crying behind the barn, and then she
was very sharp with him, and told him to go away and cried more than
ever. Her little face looked very white, as she stood on the bank, and,
somehow, Chad saw it all that night in the river and among the trees
and up among the stars, but he little knew what it all meant to him or
to her. He thought of the Turners back at home, and he could see them
sitting around the big fire--Joel with his pipe, the old mother
spinning flax, Jack asleep on the hearth, and Melissa's big solemn eyes
shining from the dark corner where she lay wide-awake in bed and, when
he went to sleep, her eyes followed him in his dreams.
When he awoke, the day was just glimmering over the hills, and the
chill air made him shiver, as he built up the fire and began to get
breakfast ready. At noon, that day, though the cliffs were still high,
the raft swung out into a broader current, where the water ran smoothly
and, once, the hills parted and, looking past a log-cabin on the bank
of the river, Chad saw a stone house--relic of pioneer days--and,
farther out, through a gap in the hills, a huge house with great
pillars around it and, on the hill-side, many sheep and fat cattle and
a great barn. There dwelt one of the lords of the Bluegrass land, and
again Chad looked to the school-master and, this time, the
school-master smiled and nodded as though to say:
"We're getting close now, Chad." So Chad rose to his feet thrilled, and
watched the scene until the hills shut it off again. One more night and
one more dawn, and, before the sun rose, the hills had grown smaller
and smaller and the glimpses between them more frequent and, at last,
far down the river, Chad saw a column of smoke and all the men on the
raft took off their hats and shouted. The end of the trip was near, for
that black column meant the capital!
Chad trembled on his feet and his heart rose into his throat, while
Caleb Hazel seemed hardly less moved. His hat was off and he stood
motionless, with his face uplifted, and his grave eyes fastened on that
dark column as though it rose from the pillar of fire that was leading
him to some promised land.
As they rounded the next curve, some monster swept out of the low hills
on the right, with a shriek that startled the boy almost into terror
and, with a mighty puffing and rumbling, shot out of sight again. The
school-master shouted to Chad, and the Turner brothers grinned at him
delightedly:
"Steam-cars!" they cried, and Chad nodded back gravely, trying to hold
in his wonder.
Sweeping around the next curve, another monster hove in sight with the
same puffing and a long "h-o-o-ot!" A monster on the river and moving
up stream steadily, with no oar and no man in sight, and the Turners
and the school-master shouted again. Chad's eyes grew big with wonder
and he ran forward to see the rickety little steamboat approach and,
with wide eyes, devoured it, as it wheezed and labored up-stream past
them--watched the thundering stern-wheel threshing the water into a
wake of foam far behind it and flashing its blades, water-dripping in
the sun--watched it till it puffed and wheezed and labored on out of
sight. Great Heavens! to think that he--Chad--was seeing all that!
About the next bend, more but thinner columns of smoke were visible.
Soon the very hills over the capital could be seen, with little green
wheat-fields dotting them and, as the raft drew a little closer, Chad
could see houses on the hills--more strange houses of wood and stone,
and porches, and queer towers on them from which glistened shining
points.
"What's them?" he asked.
"Lightnin'-rods," said Tom, and Chad understood, for the school-master
had told him about them back in the mountains. Was there anything that
Caleb Hazel had not told him? The haze over the town was now visible,
and soon they swept past tall chimneys puffing out smoke, great
warehouses covered on the outside with weather-brown tin, and, straight
ahead--Heavens, what a bridge!--arching clear over the river and
covered like a house, from which people were looking down on them as
they swept under. There were the houses, in two rows on the streets,
jammed up against each other and without any yards. And people! Where
had so many people come from? Close to the river and beyond the bridge
was another great mansion, with tall pillars, about it was a green
yard, as smooth as a floor, and negroes and children were standing on
the outskirting stone wall and looking down at them as they floated by.
And another great house still, and a big garden with little paths
running through it and more patches of that strange green grass. Was
that bluegrass? It was, but it didn't look blue and it didn't look like
any other grass Chad had ever seen. Below this bridge was another
bridge, but not so high, and, while Chad looked, another black monster
on wheels went crashing over it.
Tom and the school-master were working the raft slowly to the shore
now, and, a little farther down, Chad could see more rafts tied
up--rafts, rafts, nothing but rafts on the river, everywhere! Up the
bank a mighty buzzing was going on, amid a cloud of dust, and little
cars with logs on them were shooting about amid the gleamings of many
saws, and, now and then, a log would leap from the river and start up
toward that dust-cloud with two glistening iron teeth sunk in one end
and a long iron chain stretching up along a groove built of boards--and
Heaven only knew what was pulling it up. On the bank was a stout,
jolly-looking man, whose red, kind face looked familiar to Chad, as he
ran down shouting a welcome to the Squire. Then the raft slipped along
another raft, Tom sprang aboard it with the grape-vine cable, and the
school-master leaped aboard with another cable from the stern.
"Why, boy," cried the stout man. "Where's yo' dog?" Then Chad
recognized him, for he was none other than the cattle-dealer who had
given him Jack.
"I left him at home."
"Is he all right?"
"Yes--I reckon."
"Then I'd like to have him back again."
Chad smiled and shook his head.
"Not much."
"Well, he's the best sheep-dog on earth."
The raft slowed up, creaking--slower--straining and creaking, and
stopped. The trip was over, and the Squire had made his "record," for
the red-faced man whistled incredulously when the old man told him what
day he had left Kingdom Come.
An hour later the big Dillon twins hove in sight, just as the Turner
party was climbing the sawdust hill into the town, where Dolph and Rube
were for taking the middle of the street like other mountaineers, who
were marching thus ahead of them, single file, but Tom and the
school-master laughed at them and drew them over to the sidewalk.
Bricks and stones laid down for people to walk on--how wonderful. And
all the houses were of brick or were weather-boarded--all built
together wall against wall. And the stores with the big glass windows
all filled with wonderful things! Then a pair of swinging green
shutters through which, while Chad and the school-master waited
outside, Tom insisted on taking Dolph and Rube and giving them their
first drink of Bluegrass whiskey--red liquor, as the hill-men call it.
A little farther on, they all stopped still on a corner of the street,
while the school-master pointed out to Chad and Dolph and Rube the
Capitol--a mighty structure of massive stone, with majestic stone
columns, where people went to the Legislature. How they looked with
wondering eyes at the great flag floating lazily over it, and at the
wonderful fountain tossing water in the air, and with the water three
white balls which leaped and danced in the jet of shining spray and
never flew away from it. How did they stay there? The school-master
laughed--Chad had asked him a question at last that he couldn't answer.
And the tall spiked iron fence that ran all the way around the yard,
which was full of trees--how wonderful that was, too! As they stood
looking, law-makers and visitors poured out through the doors--a brave
array--some of them in tight trousers, high hats, and blue coats with
brass buttons, and, as they passed, Caleb Hazel reverently whispered
the names of those he knew--distinguished lawyers, statesmen, and
Mexican veterans: witty Tom Marshall; Roger Hanson, bulky, brilliant;
stately Preston, eagle-eyed Buckner, and Breckenridge, the magnificent,
forensic in bearing. Chad was thrilled.
A little farther on, they turned to the left, and the school-master
pointed out the Governor's mansion, and there, close by, was a high
gray wall--a wall as high as a house, with a wooden box taller than a
man on each corner, and, inside, another big gray building in which,
visible above the walls, were grated windows--the penitentiary! Every
mountaineer has heard that word, and another--the Legislator.
Chad shivered as he looked, for he could recall that sometimes down in
the mountains a man would disappear for years and turn up again at
home, whitened by confinement; and, during his absence, when anyone
asked about him, the answer was penitentiary. He wondered what those
boxes on the walls were for, and he was about to ask, when a guard
stepped from one of them with a musket and started to patrol the wall,
and he had no need to ask. Tom wanted to go up on the hill and look at
the Armory and the graveyard, but the school-master said they did not
have time, and, on the moment, the air was startled with whistles far
and near--six o'clock! At once Caleb Hazel led the way to supper in the
boarding-house, where a kind-faced old lady spoke to Chad in a motherly
way, and where the boy saw his first hot biscuit and was almost afraid
to eat anything at the table for fear he might do something wrong. For
the first time in his life, too, he slept on a mattress without any
feather-bed, and Chad lay wondering, but unsatisfied still. Not yet had
he been out of sight of the hills, but the master had told him that
they would see the Bluegrass next day, when they were to start back to
the mountains by train as far as Lexington. And Chad went to sleep,
dreaming his old dream.