The house terrible

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Chapter I. Dandylion ” And Violet

A LAD sat Ashing one spring afternoon from the. banks of a wide river.

There was a great bend in the stream there and the swift current hugged the opposite shore, while where the boy sat there was a great cove or bay in which the water was deep and as quiet as though it lay in a roadside pond.

There was nothing attractive about the boy, except his evident intentness on the business in hand, which was well measured in its effect, by three fine bass that lay close by his side on the bank, strung- upon a forked twig, thdir bright scales glittering in the sunlight, and every now and then a muscular shudder or shiver of their bodies showing that they had not been long from the water.

The intense quiet of the place would have been the delight of any fisherman, suggesting great sport and a large catch, except there was something about it that gave the impression of a loneliness that was a little oppressive. In any direction that you might look the eye was met by -tall and wide-spreading trees, whose size indicated that they had stood there for ages and helped to make up the primeval forest. Nowhere could be seen a sign of the habitations of men or of civilized life. It -was all wild, untamed, but beautiful nature.

The lad was ragged, barefooted, unkempt and careless of apparel, with an expression, or perhaps no expression, on his face, that was peculiar, but he looked fresh and clean, and the state of his sandy hair was a sure indication that before getting down to ^the serious business of the afternoon he had taken a swim in the water, not so muclf for cleansing purposes as for the exhilaration afforded by diving, floating and exercising himself in the invit-

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From another point of view he was peculiar, being very profusely decorated with dandelions. They were tii|;ust in around his clothing and hair wherever there was an opportunity for them to cling and a great bunch of them was tied to his waist. He touched them once in a while to straighten them out or change their positions with an action that was somewhat similar in character to that which a lady would employ who smooths down or arranges on her wrists or about her neck the costliest laces.

There was another strange thing. On the left leg of the lad, on the firm, sun-burned fiesh, just below the knee, one could see — for the trousers hardly reached to the knee, and below the leg was bare — the mark of a dandelion', as distinct and clear as though it had been photographed there, stem, petal and calyx — everything except the color.

He sat there as dumb and motionless as a Sphinx, intently watching his ^^bob,’’ when he was touched on the shoulder by a small hand which remained where it had been put.

He was not startled, nor did he remove^his gaze from his bob,” only muttering something that sounded like Mum-mum-mum-brurr-mum.”

It was a girl of about his own age that stood by his side, resting her hand on his shoulder. Her approach had been so silent that hardly a leaf had been disturbed by her coming. No one, unless look-

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ing at her, could have told of her approach or her presence.

It was easy to see who and what she was. Her dead black hair, straight and wild, hanging loosely from her head and reaching just below her shoulders ; her cheek-bones, raised just enough above the height to which the European eye is accustomed to be noticeable, and her swarthy skin, told the story of her race. She, as was the boy, was barefooted and bareheaded, although she carried in her hand a nondescript garment Jhat might have been a hood or a bonnet. Her dress was only a gown reaching just below her knees, and was evidently, from the wool itself, of home-made manufacture, originally intended for and worn by an 61der person. Nevertheless, with all these things again&t her, she formed no ungraceful picture as she stood with her hand resting on the lad’s shoulder. There was a dignity in her posture and in the carriage of her head, a sad and somewhat melancholy expression in her face, that gave her a mature, even aged appearance not at all borne out by her evident youth. She presently took her hand from the boy’s shoulder and gently laid it on his sandy locks.

'' Poor Dandy ! ” she said, as she smoothed down the rough hair, much as one would caress a favorite dog. Poor Dandy ! ”

The lad shook his head a little impatiently and muttered as he had done before.

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He don’t know what I ’v^jant to do for him/’ she continued. He can’t understand. Poor fellow 1 ”

The bob ” went down with a sudden jerk, the boy sprang to his feet, eased up his line a little, and then, with a rapid swing of his pole, landed another good-sized bass by the side of those already strung. The two sat down on the bank, while the boy took the fish from his hook. Then he looked up at his companion. It was enough tp stamp him for what he was. It was a vacant, meaningless stare, with onl^^ sufficient intelligence in it to indicate that he recognized her.

Dandy,” said the girl, ‘'she’s hit me ag’in, and I’m goin’ away/’ She spoke as though the blow to which she referred had struck her feelings, hurting them more than it had injured her physically.

“ Do you understand. Dandy ? ” she presentlyadded, pointing as she spoke toward the western hills. " I’m goin’ away to be with my own folks. I’ve bin lookin’ for you all the afternoon to tell you. Do jmu understand. Dandy ? ”

Dandy only stared hard at her for a moment, with a grin on his lips, looking for an instant in the direction she had pointed, and tlien he began to bait his hook again. She took hold of his arm.

“Can’t you hear me a minit ? ^’ she pleaded. “You’re the only friendi I’ve got in the world.

You’ve stood between me and her hand many and manj^ a time. You’ve g’iven me somethin’ to eat when I’ve been hungry, and you’ve gfiven me clothes when I was cold. I’ll t^i. you somethin’. Dandy.” She bent her head toward his ear. So you have seen a child filled with grief or overcome with sorrow or disappointment pour out its feelings to a favorite cat or 'dog, or some inanimate object like a doll or a piece of wood, and with just about as much of a response. Dandy,” said the girl, scarcely above a whisper, all these woods and hills, this river and this creek belong to me. My father has said so and my father never told lies. When I get to be a big woman I shall know how to get them. And when I do. Dandy, when I do ! ” She stopped speaking and took from the bosom of her dress a small roll, something about four inches long, like in size and appearance to a bunch of paper lamp-lighters or a thin and much worn strip of sheepskin folded tightly, and tied about the middle with a leathern string, whose two ends went about her neck and were fastened together there. ^^Look here. Dandy,” she said, earnestly. Look at this. This is what will give it all to me. My father gave it to me and it has never left my neck since he tied it there.”

Dandy’s attention had been attracted. He stepped close to his companion that he might take the roll in his hand, rubbed it between his fingers.

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smelled of it with a sniff and raised his eyes. His look went over her shoulder directed down the stream and fixed itself in the distance. The vacant stare gave place to a frightened, almost wild expression and his arms were raised in the air as though he was warding off some impending danger, w^ile a jumble of sounds, impossible to indicate in writing and of no intelligible character, came from his mouth. He flung his arms about, pointing at length with them both down the stream.

The girl, startled at first at the vehement actions of the lad, turned and looked. Just where the bend in the river began a large boat was appearing in sight, making its slow way up the stream, being laboriously poled along by two men, one at the bow and another at the stern.

The lad looked for only a minute more. He was trembling with excitement. He seized his pole, line and fish, and sprang, with a cry hardly of human significance, from the bank, dashed toward the woods and was immediately lost to sight.

The girl watched longer with intense interest. She saw that the boat was heavily laden and made very slow progress. Now and then, as the trees would permit, she saw besides, trudging along on the banks of the stream, others that undoubtedly belonged with the men in the boat. There were three or four women, several children, and in front of them, a number of cows, several horses, two or three pigs and some chickens and ducks. Will they never stop coming?” the girl murmured to herself with a wistful look. ^^They come by twos and threes and tens. Will they never stop ? ”

Chapter II. Bunns And Buttons

The boat slowly swung around the bend in the river and floated toward the quiet waters of the cove, more and more out of the influence of the current, requiring less force to impel it forward and moving with increasing rapidity. The persons on foot presently reached the spot where the young girl was standing, stopping before her and regarding her with interest if not with a little curiosity. She returned their gaze unmoved and without embarrassment. The little children of the party were the first to approach her with friendly intent in their actions. They tried to touch her and reached out their hands for the purpose, but she shrank from them, drawing her scant skirt closer about her. She was the first to speak, addressing herself to one of the women who seemed to be the eldest of the party.

What do you come here for ? ” she asked, fol-- lowing out the train of thought that was in her mind.

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The woman, for reply, only laughed lightly; but oije of the children took up the answer and pertly said : To live. What d’ye s’pose ? ”

The country is full of you now,” pursued the girl. Hardly a day passes that some new ones do not show themselves, and up at the P’int the houses are gettin’ thicker’n trees, and the new folks are swarmin’ like bees. I can’t see what brings ’em.”^

The woman laughed again, and replying only to tlie first words of the girl, exclaimed : Full of us! Why, for miles and miles we have traveled without seein’ a human bein’ or any sign of human life. The sight of you is welcome to us, showin’ that we are not in a wilderness. Does^any one live around here ? What’s your name ? ” The whole party had by this time gathered about the girl, who was watching them cautiously and with not very welcoming eyes. Presently, however, she said :

My father called me Alita, which, in your language, means a wild flower or a violet. That is my name here. She calls me that sometimes, but mostly, as do the others, only Vile I ” Then, not only the woman, but all the others with her, laughed.

Yes,” continued the girl, ^Hhat’s what they all do, when they speak my name or hear it spoken in that way/’ turning to go as she spoke.

But you haven’t told us if any one lives around here,” the woman said.

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Alita stopped and looked at the whole group with melancholy contempt. Haven’t I told you,” she cried, that the country is full of you ? ”

‘‘ It doesn’t look it,” said the woman.

Close by here,” the girl continued, 'Ms Cap’n Burket and his family, a little ways off the Grissels, Highmans, Galatians, Macombers and the Quicks. They are before you come to the* P’int, and there, I couldn’t tell you how many there are — ” A great shouting here interrupted the girl, coming from the forest into which the lad had plunged, and by this time, too, the boat had reached a point nearly opposite to that on the bank where they stood. In a moment or two more the lad himself appeared among the trees, flying toward them with his arms outstretched and his mouth uttering indescribable sounds. Close behind him, also running as well as the trees would permit, came two or three men, several well-grown boys, an eager dog, and, still behind them all, four women.

The lad stood on the bank pointing eagerly toward the boat, while his face was turned to the ioremost of the men that followed him. This one was bony, stoop-shouldered, muscular and hard as to his physical characteristics, with a melancholy cast of countenance that looked solemnly wise beyond his apparent opportunities. The contrast between his appearance and the cheer3% welcoming tone of his voice was marked as he called out ;

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n

Pull in ! Pull in ! Tarry for the night/’

The men on the boat looked and did not hesitate a moment in making response. They headed toward the shore and in a few minutes their keel grated against the bank. In a few minutes more they themselves stood upon the land, and there was a general handshaking all around. The women had already become acquainted, and were chattering among themselves as if they had known each other for as many years as they had minutes.

The heartiness of the welcome was equaled by the frankness with which the invitation to stop was ac^pted. To the one party, the coming of the strangers and immigrants was like the arrival on an island far removed from the centers of civilization, of a company fresh from the outer world, bringing with them tidings of what was there going on. To the strangers and immigrants it was like meeting friends in an unknown and untried land. Each was hungry for the other. Each could give to the other what he most desired to know.

We’re from the Jarseys,’’ the elder of the -strangers said, “and I’m Abraham Button. These are all my family and my belongings. We foller my eldei^ brother into these regions, where I’m told land is cheap and the sile kind.”

“Your elder brother?” questioningly and rather musingly replied he who had welcomed the r stranger. I, too, follered my elder brother here. Poor old Isaac! He died broken-hearted.” This with a sigh and a downward look with his eyes.

He had a peculiar habit, noticeable on half an hour’s acquaintance with him, of stopping ani slowly shaking ^his head, while a still more melancholy shadow than ever gathered in his face. It was as though some thought continually recurred to him, too big or indistinct for utterance or too important or sascred to be ignored. It came instantly and departed with equal rapidity.

Presently he looked up again and asked : Button ? Button ? Hot Absalom Button ? ”

The stranger nodded his head.

I know him well,” the man went on. He lives only abodt fifteen miles toward the lake, in the valley of the Horse’s Heads.”

The what ? ” asked the stranger. That sounds like a name out of the ^Pilgrim’s Progress.’ ”

The man laughed. ^'Ho doubt it sounds strange to your ears, but we are used to it. When the first settlers came into that region they found a great quantity of horse’s heads there, some scattered about, but mostly piled in heaps. The Indians never had any horses. On ‘inquiry it was found that the general who made his famous raid into this region some twenty years ago, not having the wherewithal to care for and keep his horses and

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having’ worked them beyond endurance, considered it only merciful to kill a large number of them, leaving their bones to bleach in the valley. This much we are told by some of his soldiers, who returned after the war and settled in the neighborhood. It is easy to speak of the locality and to identify and describe it in the way I have described it. It is a name that is fastened to the spot and will probably forever cling to it. I hope so. Now as for me, I am Obed Bunn. This is my family and my dog. I came here from Buryilk ten years ago. I have a clearing not many rods from here, and I’m glad to welcome you to Diahoga Coun^. The more that comes, the better and the merrier.”

There came loud and impatient cries from the boat, and all ej^es were turned in that direction. There was a deep, heavy voice and a weak, thin one, and both seemed to be uttering the same words. They were profane words mostly, making inquiry as to the cause of the stoppage and as to the probable time when the journey would continue.

Hi ! ” cried Abraham Button. ‘"What’s the matter down there ? Who’s boat is this ? ”

At the stern of the boat had' been fashioned a low awning with short curtains ail around it. These were being violently shaken, and presently a leg in tightly fitting black trousers was protruded therefrom and toward the bank. Its mate immediately followed, and then the fig*ure of a very slender man with a very pale face emerged and stood upon the ground.

The devil himself ! ’’ ejaculated Obed Bunn. ^^Jephthah Karkle ! ” The melancholy shadow gathered on his face for an instant, his eyes again sought the ground, and his hands were tightly clasped as he muttered under his breath :

If I could onl3^ be sure. If I could only be sure!” Then, looking up and addressing Button, he added:

You donT travel in the best of company, I should say.”

^^They pay well, anyhow,” was Button’s rejoinder, ‘^and I have to look out for my dollars.”

‘^They?” Bunn asked. Who’s the, other one?”

Button straightened himself up with some pride, as one will who is giving important information, and answered : Colonel Brentford Atwater, and. he’s come to buy up this whole valley if he likes it.”

‘‘Um! Um ! ” muttered Bunn. ^‘What’s Colonel Atwater, a lawyer ? ”

Button nodded, saying also : ^^So I was told.”

"'Lawyer ! ” sheered Bunn. "We don’t want him here. Karkle’s a lawyer, and there’s enough on ’em up to the P’int now. They’re no good. If he was a carpenter or blacksmith or tanner and currier or shoemaker or hatter or tailor, he’d be more’n welcome. But law3"er, pish ! ’’ only the last word was a more emphatic one.

‘‘Yes, but he’s got money,” argued Button?

“No doubt,” replied Bunn; “else Jephthah Karkle wouldn’t be an^^where around him.”

“ I was told in Buryilk,” continued Button, “ that Atwater had a trunk full of gold which he had left in the bank there; that he was coming here now with Karkle to commence building a house, the contract for which had been made with a man by the name of Cameron Catlin — ”

“ Cam. Cat, the carpenter ? Good! I’m glad of it. He’s one of the best of fellows living, turning a hand for any one who may need him, with one of the prettiest women in the valley for a wife and three fine children. I hope the house is a big one, and that there’ll be money in it for him. Do you remember having heard whereabouts it’s to be?”

“No. Only in what was told me there was much said of the Great Plains and the Mound.”

Obed'Bunn shook his head in rather a. doubtful manner, but vouchsafed no reason for such suggestive action.

“You see,” continued Button, “Colonel Atwater came out with that expedition here twenty years ago of which you spoke, and he picked out this valley as the land of promise. Anything the matter with it that makes you shake your head ? ”

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‘^ISTot much/’ said Bunn, emerg-ing' from his dubious condition. You can raise anything here that grows. I’ve seen cornstalks in this valley sixteen feet high and you can buy land at eighteen pence the acre ! ”

Well, what is it, then?” pursued Button.

Ain’t there any land left to take up ? ”

^^Left ? ” retorted Bunn. Up near the Great Plains, beyond the Mound, there are acres on acres that have not even yet been looked at, but ^mu don’t know who owns it.”

All this time the slender man, Jephthah Karkle, had been assisting to alight from the boat a very large individual, who, with short legs, was having as much trouble for a place on w^hich to rest his feet as did the dove that was first sent from the Ark.

He couldn’t see at all where he was going b^^ reason of the low curtains and awning, and he seemed afraid to thrust his legs over far enough to insure his feet touching the ground. The group on the bank looking, laughed long and loud at the spectacle presented of two stout legs in boots and knee-breeches, the rest of the body being hidden by the curtain, waving helplessly over the side of the boat. There were grunts and groans and oaths within as a running accompaniment to the futile efforts.

Jephthah Karkle was unable to help physically.

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and could only give a moral support by crying, in his thin, piping voice: ‘^Just a little further, colonel. A little further. One inch more and you’ll have it.”

But the inch couldn’t be made.

Abraham Button, watching the scene, finally ran down to the boat, and, reaching underneath the curtains, with stalwart arms seized the man by the shoulders and pulled him with a sudden and impatient jerk to the land, so sudden that it would not have been surprising if he had left the head behind.

With a great oath. Colonel Atwater straightened and shook himself and looked around. He was very large, in height and rotundity, with an impressive face, deep black hair and eyebrows, and cold, forbidding black eyes. Notwithstanding his size, when he finally got firmly on his feet he moved readily and actively, with a self-assured and self-conscious air that only fell a little short of being pompous with an innate sense of superiority manifest over his surroundings.

That was like being born again,” he said, with a voice that sounded as if it came somewhere from far underground. What you got here ? ” he asked, presently, as he looked about him and up upon the bank. ^^This is not the P’int, Karkle.”

This last expression was flung at the slender man as though it had been shot from a Krupp gun,

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and startled that individual so that for an instant he trembled.

Karkle had some peculiar actions at all times that were as disagrreeable as was the expression of his face. His hands seemed never to be still. They were in his pockets one moment, behind his back the next, tipping* his hat forward or backward or to the side the next, unbuttoning the lower button of his vest the next, or buttoning or unbuttoning his coat the next. He scratched his nose, one of his ears, or took off his hat to scratch his head ; he pulled at his cuffs, laid his finger against his nose or caressed his chin with his thumb. Kestless, restless hands — as though he must constantly occupy them or they would get into something with which they had no business.

^‘You’re right, colonel,” he said, presently.

This is not the P’int, but it’s precious near to it. It’s less than half a mile away.”

“ What do we stop here for then ? ” the colonel inquired, petulantly. ^^If it’s so near, let’s go on afoot.”

He had his answer from the bank above. Dandy lion stood there waving his hand toward them, and Violet came down the bank, and speaking to Button, said : She says they are all ready for

you now.”

Colonel Atwater seemed somewhat impressed by Violet, He looked at her long and earnestly.

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and as he looked seemed to be studying out some problem in his mind. Presently in the deepest tones of his voice, which greatly disturbed her, he asked : Who’s she, and I’d like to know what it

is that is ready ? ”

^^Mrs. Bunn — ” began Yiolet, but shrinking from the colonel’s steady gaze she said no more, flying up the bank and away from the reach of his cold black eyes.

Bunn ? ” the colonel muttered, looking toward Karkle, and then he added, quickly : Come,

Jephthah, let’s get on.”

But Karkle had pulled him by the sleeve and in his thin voice, that was little above a whisper, answered : Better hadn’t. No use offending them.

They have the Bible idea of a stranger in these out-of-the-way spots. Every one’s as good as every one else here. Better make friends than enemies at the start. They might be suspicious and lay it up against you. I stay.”

And so did the colonel.