Jason did not meet young Aaron on the train, though as he neared the
county-seat he kept a close watch, whenever the train stopped at a
station, on both doors of his car, with his bag on the seat in front of
him unbuckled and unlocked. At the last station was one Honeycutt
lounging about, but plainly evasive of him. There was a little group of
Hawns about the Hawn store and hotel, and more Honeycutts and Hawns on
the other side of the street farther down, but little Aaron did not
appear. It seemed, as he learned a few minutes later, that both
factions were in town for the meeting between Aaron and him, and later
still he learned that young Honeycutt loped into town after Jason had
started up the river and was much badgered about his late arrival. At
the forks of the road Jason turned toward the mines, for he had been
casually told by Arch Hawn that he would find his mother up that way.
The old circuit rider's wife threw her arms around the boy when he came
to her porch, and she smiled significantly when she told him that his
mother had walked over the spur that morning to take a look at her old
home, and that Mavis had gone with her.
Jason slowly climbed the spur. To his surprise he saw a spiral of smoke
ascending on the other side, just where he once used to see it, but he
did not hurry, for it might be coming from a miner's cabin that had
been built near the old place. On top of the spur, however, he
stopped-quite stunned. That smoke was coming out of his mother's old
chimney. There was a fence around the yard, which was clear of weeds.
The barn was rebuilt, there was a cow browsing near it, and near her
were three or four busily rooting pigs. And stringing beans on the
porch were his mother--and Mavis Hawn. Jason shouted his bewilderment,
and the two women lifted their eyes. A high, shrill, glad answer came
from his mother, who rose to meet him, but Mavis sat where she was with
idle hands.
"Mammy!" cried Jason, for there was a rich color in the pallid face he
had last seen, she looked years younger, and she was smiling. It was
all the doing of Arch Hawn--a generous impulse or an act of justice
long deferred.
"Why, Jason!" said his mother. "Arch is a-goin' to gimme back the farm
fer my use as long as I live."
And Mavis had left the old circuit rider and come to live with her. The
girl looked quiet, placid, content--only, for a moment, she sank the
deep lights of her eyes deep into his and the scrutiny seemed to bring
her peace, for she drew a long breath and at him her eyes smiled. There
was more when later Mavis had strolled down toward the barn to leave
the two alone.
"Is Mavis goin' to live with you all the time?"
"Hit looks like hit--she brought over ever'thing she has."
The mother smiled suddenly, looked to see that the girl was out of
sight, and then led the way into the house and up into the attic, where
she reached behind the rafters.
"Look hyeh," she said, and she pulled into sight the fishing-pole and
the old bow and arrow that Jason had given Mavis years and years ago.
"She fetched 'em over when I wasn't hyeh an' HID 'em."
Slyly the mother watched her son's face, and though Jason said nothing,
she got her reward when she saw him color faintly. She was too wise to
say anything more herself, nor did she show any consciousness when the
three were together in the porch, nor make any move to leave them
alone. The two women went to their work again, and while Mavis asked
nothing, the mother plied Jason with questions about Colonel and Mrs.
Pendleton and Marjorie and Gray, and had him tell about his graduating
speech and Commencement Day. The girl listened eagerly, though all the
time her eyes were fixed on her busy fingers, and when Jason told that
Gray would most likely come back to the hills, now that his father
would get well, she did not even lift her eyes and the calm of her face
changed not at all.
A little later Jason started back over to the mines. From the corner of
the yard he saw the path he used to follow when he was digging for his
big seam of coal. He passed his trysting-place with Mavis on top of the
spur, walled in now, as then, with laurel and rhododendron. Again he
felt the same pang of sympathy when he saw her own cabin on the other
side, tenanted now by negro miners. Together their feet had beat every
road, foot-path, trail, the rocky bed of every little creek that
interlaced in the great green cup of the hills about him. So that all
that day he walked with memories and Mavis Hawn; all that day it was
good to think that his mother's home was hers, that he would find her
there when his day's work was done, and that she would be lonesome no
more. And it was a comfort when he went down the spur before sunset to
see her in the porch, to get her smile of welcome that for all her calm
sense of power seemed shy, to see her moving around the house, helping
his mother in the kitchen, and, after the old way, waiting on him at
the table. Jason slept in the loft of his childhood that night, and
again he pulled out the old bow and arrow, bandling them gently and
looking at them long. From his bed he could look through the same
little window out on the night. The trees were full-leafed and as still
as though sculptured from the hill of broken shadows and flecks of
moonlight that had paled on their way through thin mists just rising.
High from the tree-trunks came the high vibrant whir of toads, the
calls of katydids were echoing through forest aisles, and from the
ground crickets chirped modestly upward. The peace and freshness and
wildness of it all! Ah, God, it was good to be home again!