Over Paradise Ridge: A RomanceDaviess, Maria Thompson
General
Over Paradise Ridge: A Romance
Daviess, Maria Thompson
Harpeth Valley (Tenn.) -- Fiction; Love stories; Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
Then on Monday morning came the log-raising for the poet's lodge, and
everybody assembled long before Sam had nicked the last log with his
great big adz. We all sat around on the rocks and ends of the logs and
discussed how to begin before Sam got ready to tell us the right way.
The colonel and Miss Editha were standing a little to one side, and I
knew that he was being sentimental by the fluttering smile that came and
went on her tea-rose face; but suddenly he turned and said to daddy,
with his fierce old face lighting:
"Just look, Hayes, there's pioneer blood in them yet--and brawn, too,"
he added, as Tolly and Pink and Billy Robertson stripped off their coats
and came forward as Sam knocked the last crimson cedar chip from the
last log.
"Steady--up now, Tolly," said Sam, as Tolly bent to one end of one of
the long, rough cedar logs, that had so lately been a forest king, but
that was now dethroned and shorn of its branching power with which to
wrestle with the wind. Pink and Billy got holds in between. "Up--up,
boys! Now roll!" shouted Sam again, and with a strain and a heave they
landed the first log level and true on the stone underpinnings.
"Hip--hip--hurrah for the poet's house!" shouted Tolly, as he rolled his
shirt-sleeves up and spat on his hands to show his readiness for more
logs; and we all clapped, while Edith picked up a button that had popped
off his shirt with the strain of his big chest underneath.
Then for a second Sam's kind eyes sank down deep into mine and smoldered
there. I know he was praying for Peter as the rest cheered. Then he bent
and called out:
"Next. Up--up, boys! Steady!"
My eyes misted for a second, and Peter's pale face rose before them in
the mist. Peter is a man of dreams, for whom was being harnessed all
this sinew and brawn of reality. And men must plow and plant and reap
and hew and lift for their vision-bringers, and women must do it also.
It is only right. I am willing. Where were the neighbors to the Keatses
that they didn't--And I was about to be dissolved in a sea of sentiment
when Sam's voice hauled me to the surface as he shouted:
"Hi, Betty, get out and sight this end for a right angle-drop, as I
showed you. Wait! Back, boys!"
And after that I held the metal square and sighted until I felt as if I
had eaten a right angle, while Sam's crew heaved and raised and dropped
and rolled, until all four of the low walls were fitted into the
notches, log for log, and the roof-poles were laid just as the sun began
to quit his job and get on toward China.
"No four of their young Virginia pioneer ancestors who came over the
wilderness trail did it any quicker or better, Colonel," said daddy, as
he walked around to the back of the cabin and then again to the front.
As he spoke he laid his arm across Sam's shoulder--and I knew that the
breach was healed until the next time daddy tried to help him
financially.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account