Produced by David Garcia, Katherine Ward, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net. This file was produced from images generously made available by The Kentuckiana Digital Library VOICES BIRTH-MARKS THE MAN AND THE ELEPHANT MATT J. HOLT _Author of Chit-Chat, Nirvana_ LOUISVILLE THE STANDARD PRINTING CO., Inc. 1922 Copyrighted 1922 by The Author INDEX · VOICES ......................................................... 7 · BIRTH-MARKS .................................................... 71 · THE MAN AND THE ELEPHANT ....................................... 341 VOICES Knowest thou only the language of man? Hast never heard the plaintive flute of Pan, Or those gladsome carols that greet the light? Or the wild, strange voices of darkest night? Each of earth’s creatures when at work or play, Each of nature’s force in some strange way, Has a manner of attaining to God’s ear, And a voice which those attuned may hear. Voices of spring are love songs of the birds, Fragrant poems of lilacs, lacking words; Summer voices are of riper, mellower strain; Autumn’s, sing of harvest and life not vain; Winter tells the story of what has been, Season of reflection, of the voice within, Promise of tomorrow, freedom from sin. Big Creek bisects the narrow valley and the road to Hyden follows the bank, crossing from side to side as the sheerness of the mountain side makes necessary. Here and there the valley broadens until there is almost enough level land for a farm; and always where there is a little width of valley you find a mountain home. The mountain tops and sides are great wildernesses, though sometimes in a cove or on the plateau a hermit or outcast family makes its home. At old man Litman’s place the valley is quite narrow, except below the “Rock House,” where there is an old field cleared by his grandfather, who came from Virginia in 1795. A sprawling rail fence, hedged about by thrifty bush growth, encircles the old field; pawpaw bushes growing in the fence corners encroach to the ruts of the road; and each year new growth of sumac and persimmon appropriate yet more of the old field; which having been cultivated for near a century and grown unproductive, is given over to a volunteer crop of broom sedge, which furnishes meager pasturage for an old mule and two cows.