[Illustration]
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Private Jediah Cromwell was homesick for the first time since his
induction into the Army. If he had gotten homesick on any of at least
a dozen other occasions during his first two weeks in the service, he
might never have gotten beyond the induction center. But the wonders
and delights of his first venture beyond the almost inaccessible West
Virginia hills of his birth had kept him too awed and interested to
think about home.
When Cletus Miller headed up the trail to Bluebird Gulch, Ma felt him
coming around the bend below the waterfall a mile across the gorge.
She laid down her skinning knife and wiped her hands clean of the
blood of the rabbits Jed had brought in earlier in the morning.
"Sonny," she called to Jed, "trouble's acoming."