Allegories; Christian fiction; Clergy -- Fiction; Ozark Mountains -- Fiction
“I don’t want to see him, nor any one else, now,” returned Ollie. “This
is our last evening together, Sammy, and I want you all to myself. Let
us go up the old Roark trail, around Cox’s Bald, and home through the
big, low gap.” He checked his horse as he spoke, for they had already
passed the point where the Roark trail leaves Fall Creek.
But the girl was determined to follow her impulse. “You can stop just a
minute,” she urged. “You really ought to see Matt, you know. We can
ride back this way if you like. It’s early yet.”
But the man held his place, and replied shortly, “I tell you I don’t
want to see anybody, and I am very sure that Young Matt doesn’t want to
see me, not with you, anyway.”
Sammy flushed at this, and answered with some warmth, “There is no
reason in the world why you should refuse to meet an old friend; but
you may do as you please, of course. Only I am going to the mill.” So
saying, she started down the valley, and as there was really nothing
else for him to do, the man followed.
As they approached the mill, Sammy called for Young Matt, who
immediately left his work, and came to them. The big fellow wore no
coat, and his great arms were bare, while his old shirt, patched and
faded and patched again, was soiled by engine grease and perspiration.
His trousers, too, held in place by suspenders repaired with belt
lacing and fastened with a nail, were covered with sawdust and dirt.
His hands and arms and even his face were treated liberally with the
same mixture that stained his clothing; and the shaggy red brown hair,
uncovered, was sadly tumbled. In his hand he held a wrench. The morrow
was grinding day, and he had been making some repairs about the engine.
Altogether, as the backwoodsman came forward, he presented a marked
contrast to the freshly clad, well groomed gentleman from the city. And
to the woman, the contrast was not without advantages to the man in the
good clothes. The thought flashed through her mind that the men who
would work for Ollie in the shops would look like this. It was the same
old advantage; the advantage that the captain has over the private; the
advantage of rank, regardless of worth.
Sammy greeted Young Matt warmly. “I just told Ollie that it was too bad
he had not seen you. You were away the night we called at your house,
you know; and he is going home to-morrow.”
The giant looked from one to the other. Evidently Sammy had not heard
of that meeting at the Lookout, and Stewart’s face grew red as he saw
what was in the big fellow’s mind. “I’m mighty glad to see you again,”
he said lamely. “I told Sammy that I had seen you, but she has
forgotten.”
“Oh, no, I haven’t,” replied the girl. “You said that you saw him in
the field as you passed the first day you came, but that you were in
such a hurry you didn’t stop.”
At this Ollie forced a loud laugh, and remarked that he was in
something of a hurry that day. He hoped that in the girl’s confusion
the point might be overlooked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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