Phil was, in fact, _a_ Montgomery. Her great-grandfather, Amzi
Montgomery, observing the unpopulous Hoosier landscape with a shrewd
eye, had, in the year of grace 1829, opened a general store on the exact
spot now occupied by Montgomery's Bank, and the proper authorities a few
years later called the name of the place Montgomery, which it remains to
this day. This explains why the superintendent of schools overlooked the
temerity of Amzi's great-granddaughter in electing the Main Street fauna
as the subject of her commencement address rather than her indebtedness
to the poets, though it may not be illuminative as to the holes in
Phil's stockings. But on this point we shall be enlightened later.
Phil raised her head. There had come a lull in the whisper of the
weather spirit in the sycamores, and she was aware of a sound that was
not the noise of the creek among the boulders. It was a strain of music
not of nature's making and Phil's healthy young curiosity was instantly
aroused by it. Her father maintained his lonely vigil by the fire, quite
oblivious of her and of all things. She caught another strain, and then
began climbing the cliff.
The ascent was difficult, but she drew herself up swiftly, catching at
bushes, seeking with accustomed feet the secure limestone ledges that
promised safety, pausing to listen when bits of loosened stone fell
behind her. Finally, catching the protruding roots of a great sycamore
whose shadow had guided her, she gained the top. The moon, invisible in
the vale, now greeted her as it rose superbly above a dark woodland
across a wide stretch of intervening field. But there were nearer lights
than those of star and moon, and their presence afforded her a thrill of
surprise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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