xt7j6q1sfr6x https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7j6q1sfr6x/data/mets.xml Rice, Cale Young, 1872-1943. 1923  books b92-262-31850158 English Century, : New York ; London : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Youth's way  / by Cale Young Rice. text Youth's way  / by Cale Young Rice. 1923 2002 true xt7j6q1sfr6x section xt7j6q1sfr6x 

















YOUTH'S WAY

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YOUTH'S



WAY



                 BY
       CALE YOUNG RICE
Author of "Shadowy Thresholds," "Wraiths and Realities,"
         "Collected Plays and Poems"



New York & London
THE CENTURY CO.
      I923

 

















Copyright, 1923, by
THE CENTURY Co.


























PPINTZD IN U. S. A.

 


















YOUTH'S WAY

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    YOUTH'S WAY

                CHAPTER I

M ff OST people kindled at sight of David
       Anson and longed for (children, if they
had none. The stricter of them, simple farmer
folk, felt at the same time that a boy of twelve
had better think more of fields at his feet
than of what went on inside his small head. But
this was rather because they distrusted his ardent
imaginativeness, which stirred to hunger, if not
dissatisfaction, the dull monotony of their meager
lives. No good, they were sure, would come of it.
A full measure of this ardor was certainly to be
seen in David's gray eyes, under their shock of
red-brown hair, on the most expectant morning
of his young years. After an early farm break-
fast he had not gone with Uncle William to the
barn, where the day's work was beginning, nor
had he hung questioningly about while Aunt Mary
                     3

 
YOUTH'S WAY



cleared away and made ready to churn. Instead
he hastened around the long, low house, made of
soundest logs, to three great oaks, his playfel-
lows, by the gate. There, seated on a fence-post,
he was gazing up the white dust road that
stretched away to the hills.
  The sun had just risen above these Kentucky
hills rimming Anson farm, and was, as Aunt
Mary once told him, laughing away the pretense
of the June wheat that dewdrops hanging on
its ears were diamonds. The corn, breast-high,
was whispering with fresh green briskness; doubt-
less trying, David chuckled, to ask, Who Is
coming A jay, in the oak-leaves overhead,
egotistically shrieked a right to make as much
noise as any boy. And between assertions of the
jay there came from a rail fence dividing wheat-
land and woodland a clear, glad lark-note that
caused David to look yearningly down the road
again, though he knew that Hallie, and Ronald
with her, could not come for hours yet.
  David had lived at Anson farm with Uncle Wil-
liam and Aunt Mary ever since his mother and
father died seven years before; mother, he
was told, because a little baby brother the doc-



4

 
YOUTH'S WAY



tor was going to bring did n't come, and father
because mother died and because he was wounded
in the Civil War. After f our more of these
years Uncle William was, perhaps, going to send
him to the city, where Uncle George lived, and
where he was to go to school with Hallie and
Ronald, whom he was to greet for the first time
to-day.
  What would Hallie and Ronald be like Aunt
Mary said that if girls were flowers Hallie would
be a wild rose, or if birds, a lark, though she did
live in a city. She showed David Hallie's pic-
ture, too, sent by Aunt Sylvia, and said Hallie
was fair, with ripples of hair that had not de-
cided yet whether to be gold or brown, because
it 's not always possible to tell until later what
your life 's going to be and which color will suit
best. The picture faced you, with large eyes that
seemed ready to wonder at you, and possibly, if
you gave them good reason, I;o admire.
  From the moment of beholding this picture Da-
vid had determined that if Leroism or slavery
could avail those eyes should admire him; and as
is the way with us, man and boy, he thereupon
took stock of his own and the farm's most winsome



a

 
YOUTH'S WAY



resources. Consequently he had not been abashed
last night when Uncle William told him the mean-
ing of the Scripture reading, "And Jacob served
for Rachel seven years." He was prepared even
for that; though it occurred to him, for some rea-
son, that there was an incalculable factor in the
situation: Hallie 's stepbrother Ronald. For
Aunt Sylvia, Hallie's mother, had first married
a "widower"-whatever that meant.
  David swung his legs from the fence until
Cousin Noah, Uncle William's grown-up son, had
locked the corn-crib and harnessed Brown Bess
for tobacco-plowing. Then he decided he had
better discuss Hallie's probable likes and dislikes
with Aunt Mary again, for Aunt Mary had
strange ways of knowing things nobody else did,
as if they were being whispered to her, "like in
the Bible." But as he slid off the railing he saw
the dust of an approaching vehicle far up the
road, and joy quivered tumultuously down to
his heart, while he hurried in to spread the
news.
  "They 're coming, Aunt Mary," he called, ca-
pering up to the serene woman who was churning
in the "dog-trot" that divided dining-room and



6

 
YOUTH'S WIAY



kitchen from the rest of the house. "They 're
coming! "
  Aunt Mary looked up, out of what David had
heard Uncle William call he] "inner abiding-
place," and smiled. Her lips were always as
ready with sweetness and gentle humor as were
her spectacled eyes with sympathy and clear un-
derstanding.
  "Not yet, child," she replied. "It 's still too
early. That woodpecker there has n't found four
ripe cherries yet."
  "But they are, Aunt Mary, fast!" exclaimed
David. "The dust is just flying uppity! I
guess she wants to get here to us quick. Maybe
Jeb's drivin' his race-horse!"
  Aunt Mary was going to say "maybe," in the
soft way that made people look twice at her; but
suddenly she changed, stopped churning, and her
"inner abiding-place" seemed clouded.
  "Why, something is the matter," she said, and
untying her apron, which she hung on the churn,
she hurried through the living-room to the gate.
The vehicle which David had seen was a dust-
wrapped buggy reeling hurriedly toward them a
hundred yards away.



7

 
YOUTH'S WAY



  Almost before the lad could see that Hallie was
not in it, a lathered horse was jerked up, panting,
at the gate. The driver, now recognizable as
Farmer Ledbetter, leaned from it with red
streaming face and agonized lips.
  "I 'm askin' you to come again, Mrs. Anson,"
he gasped; "I 'm beggin' you. She 's had an-
other attack, an' only you an' yore faith kin
save her. I 'm beggin' you for Christ 's sake to
come. I
  David, gazing at the bloodshot desperate eyes
of the pleader, was not surprised at these words;
for the neighborhood around had long regarded
Aunt Mary as a "faith-healer." On certain
days in summer the boy had seen afflicted folk
come from far and near, with wens, goiters, rheu-
matism, and various other ailments, to be healed.
Along the roads, in the fields, or in the court-
house yard at Foxton, her cures were discussed
with reverent awe and admiration.
  "And you, Farmer Ledbetter, have caused the
attack" she demanded very quietly. "You have
been drinking again Do you want to kill her
struggling faith so that she can't be cured"
  The stammering reply was pitiful. "5' help



8

 
YOUTH'S WAY



me God, Mrs. Anson, I have, but I won't no more,
not if my bowels flame with thirst I won't, if
you '11 come."
  Aunt Mary turned toward David.
  "Tell them at dinner, child. wvhere I 've gone,"
she said, getting into the buggy without more
ado, and added, as the horse turned about, "Keep
the chickens out of the garden, and show Hallie
and Ronald where to put their things when they
come. "
  David promised obedience and watched them
drive away. He was fascinated as usual by Aunt
Mary's strange manner. It affected him as did
the invisible power of stars or of heat-lightning
at night.
  IHe turned away from his seat at the gate and
began to wander musingly about the yard-to
Aunt Mary's loom-house first, where the loom
seemed lonesomely quiet, then to the rain-barrel,
in whose opaque water, smelling of shingles and
soot, his startled fancy seemed for a moment to
see Hallie. . . . He wondered if Hallie too would
be a "healer" when she grew up.
Noon came, and a mirage of heat wavered over
everything; but Hallie and Ronald did not ap-



9

 
YOUTH'S WAY



pear. Mammy Caroline, who had been the boy's
nurse and who had come to the farm to cook
when he was brought there, told him to ring the
big bell high in an oak-prong outside the dining-
room to let Marse William and Marse Noah know
dinner was ready.
  Uncle William came first. He was tall and
lean. He was also amazingly silent, except in
camp-meetings, at Shiloh, on Sundays. And yet
his silence was not oppressive or terrifying. It
was rather like that of a tree; and David thought
his high cheek-bones and gnarled knuckles were
like tree-knots, too-knots that grew round with
sap swelling under the bark.
  Cousin Noah, who also was lean and wiry, was
far from silent. He had jerky blue eyes that al-
ways seemed to be thinking of queer little things
inside his head. He was constantly breaking into
snatches of song, like "Rats in the sugar-bowl,
skip-to-my-Lou!" or "I won't have none of your
weevily wheat!" and he would do funny little
dance steps to them, if Uncle William was n't
looking. Sometimes, however, he was speechless
and gloomy. That was when he wanted to go



10

 
YOUTH'S WAY'



away to be a cowboy in Texas; which Uncle Wil-
Ham opposed.
  Both Uncle William and Cousin Noah dipped
water into the tin wash-basin with a gourd that
hung on the log wall and were soon ready for the
fried chicken which had been odorously teasing
David 's appetite for ten minutes. The dinner
table that awaited them was large and round,
with an elevated revolving center on which jellies,
bread, preserves, and vegetables were placed, so
that every one could turn it and help himself.
When they sat down Uncle William said grace,
which, David always thought, should come after
the meal.
  As country hunger is not loquacious and as
Aunt Mary's message had been delivered, David's
tongue was wholly free to make other speed.
But when he was about ready for preserves a
startling thought suddenly struck his mind and
ended appetite. What if the train which was to
bring Hallie and Ronald to Foxton, whence they
were to drive to Anson farm, had run off the
track Or what if Jesse James, whose deeds
Cousin Noah had often related to him, had held



11

 
YOUTH'S WAY



the cars up and run away with Hallie, to make
her his wife The possibility caused him to
spring up, wiping his hands on his shirt, and to
scatter knife and napkin on the floor.
  "Why, boy," said Uncle William, looking up in
mild surprise, with fork poised in space, "what 's
ailing you"
  "We-we must stop him, Uncle William !"
cried David, quite possessed by his imagining.
"I-I mean Jesse James. If he 's held up the
train, we could go across the bottoms with your
gun before-before-! " I
  "Now, bless my bones," Uncle William stared
astonished, "are you getting the Texas fever
too"
  "He '11 run away with her, Uncle William, and
make her marry him," David explained. "And
Hallie doesn't want to. I know she doesn't."
  Uncle William looked at Cousin Noah and said,
"Ahem. "  Cousin Noah chuckled, a bit sheep-
ishly, then avowed solemnly that, as he had been
told Jesse James already had a wife, he really
guessed there was n 't much danger, and that any-
how he heard the sound of wheels!
David, who had been all fears, was now all



12

 
YOUTH'S WAY



ears, and a moment later all legs. When he
reached the gate with Shep, Cousin Noah's collie,
at his heels, he found that wheels were indeed
near. A surrey was coming up, and on the front
seat with Jeb Jayson, who kept the livery-stable
at Foxton, was Hallie.
  Then a strange thing happened. At sight of
Hallie heaven and earth instantly became a wild
throbbing blur to David, and before he knew it
he was flying panic-stricken, though without
knowing why, from the scene. Uncle William,
against whom he stumbled, was amazed and ex-
claimed, "What addles the boy"
  On the orchard grass where he flung himself
down, David was soon asking the same question.
He tried to tell himself that his soiled shirt had
been the cause of his ignominious flight. But that
it was not was evidenced by his gallant return, a
few minutes later, to meet Hallie's round dubious
eyes and Ronald 's hang-lipped cynicism. That
he had merely run away, instinctively, from the
first enthralling tentacles of ferininity, was an
explanation he could no more have compre-
hended at the time than a larva can comprehend
that it will one day become a butterfly.



13

 
CHAPTER II



A    T supper Cousin Noah was full of mocking
      winks and squints at David. Hallie did
not see these, but was rapturous over the revolv-
ing table, though Ronald said he thought it was
better to have servants wait on you. When all
had finished they went to the front porch to see if
Aunt Mary might not be coming.
  As she was n't, Uncle William strolled out to
the garden to look over his peas; Cousin Noah
said he reckoned he had better go see to the other
calves-and separate them from their mammies;
the three children were left to themselves.
  Drawn by the afterglow that lit the girdling
woods and hills beyond field and meadow, they
went to the front fence and sat on its railing.
Quails, which Hallie had never heard before,
were tossing "bob-whites" to each other; katy-
dids were making their accusations; and bull-
frogs by the crib were saying, "R-ube, R-ube,"
"Just as mother does to father sometimes,"
                      14

 
YOUTH'S WAY



Hallie avowed, "when she mocks at him for not
holding his fork right at table."
  This brought forth a question from David, be-
tween whom and Hallie, Ronald had assertively
placed himself. It was to begin a conversation
characteristic of them all.
  "What's a widower"' he asked, too exclusively
aware of Hallie to be conscious of the silent
antagonism that had been growing up in Ronald.
"Uncle William says Aunt Sylvia married a wid-
ower first."
  " She did," answered the dark, thin-visaged
Ronald. " She did marry a widower. An ' he
was my father. An' that 's why 11allie 's not my
sister, an' why I can marry her when we grow
up, as I mean to."
  David was as startled by this unexpected as-
severation as if he had heard a wolf-call from
the bottoms. It was as if a twilight-ripened star,
which fell at the moment, had been knocked down
by the blow of the words.
  Hallie, however, sensitive as ever to an un-
happy situation, rushed into the breach.
  "I am your sister, Ronald," she cried; "you
know I am. And if your papa hadn't died I 'd



15

 
YOUTH'S WAY



call him papa too, though I don't suppose I could
have two papas."
  "An' you can't have two husbands either,"
sulked Ronald. "An' David wants to marry
you already, you know he does; because he keeps
on lookin ' at your curls. But he can't; for I
asked you first; you know I did."
  David, who by all rights should have put in
here, could not utter a word. Straight before
him the horizon moon, tarnished as all things are
by earth's touch, was rising full and golden. As
it swelled and broke free of the trees, he felt the
beautiful yet terrifying mystery of life in and
around him-felt it without knowing its depths.
  At length he managed to stammer out apolo-
getically and wistfully: "I guess I would marry
Hallie if I could, but I guess she won't marry
anybody but a king, or something, like Esther in
the Bible. An' I don't guess I could be a king."
  "An' I couldn't either," said Ronald. "But
I 've got twenty-five thousand dollars when I 'm
grown up, that my father left me when he died.
I could buy Hallie a house for us to live in, an'
a pony for us to drive; an' you could n't. Be-
sides I 'm thirteen, an' you 're not-yet."



16

 
YOUTH'S WAY



  A chuckling laugh behind them pricked the
tension of this matrimonial symposium, and
Cousin Noah's comic voice sang out teasingly:

"As sure as the grass grows green around the stump
  You are my dar-ling su-gar lump!"

They turned blushing, whereupon the ironic wag
continued more delightedly: "Matrimony, is it
I suppose, then, I 'd better get Brother Bone of
Shiloh to come and see it 's done right. But, if
I might advise, my opinion would be, a night's
sleep on the question would n 't do a sight of
harm. "
  He twinkled. Then, winking and scratching
his ear, he gave a funny little chuckle that caused
Hallie, always ready in those days to laugh at
herself, and sometimes at others, to break out
into a gay twitter.
  She slipped down from the fence and ran into
the house. David and Ronald followed, receiv-
ing on the way more chuckling advice from
Cousin Noah, who said that if he could be of
any service in getting the license, which would
cost two dollars, he would ride over to Foxton
to-morrow and see the clerk about it.



17

 
YOUTH'S WAY



  In doors, where night had fallen, sat Uncle
William, between the spinning-wheel and large
fireplace, on which a clean-chimneyed lamp
glowed. With open Bible and in dark homespun
coat, he was preparing for evening prayers.
The tall house-clock was ticking in the corner as
solitarily and solemnly as an owl blinks, and as if
the dispensing of time belonged altogether to it-
self.
  Hallie sat shyly on the linen-chest at Uncle
William's left. Cousin Noah by the door still
squinted at David and Ronald on the sofa, while
Uncle William began to read, to the pagan ac-
companiment of strident nature voices without.
  Now if Destiny does not indeed deal in minutiae,
if she is quite above occupying herself with
infinitesimals, there was evidence to the contrary
in the passage chosen by Uncle William for that
night's reading. For David, who at first sat
watching an unfortunate moth beat insatiably to-
ward the lamp flame, was to hear words of a kind
never forgotten by the heart into which they once
fall. He did not know whose words they were,
nor to whom they were being spoken; but quietly



18

 
YOUTH'S WAY



the large gentle lips of Uncle William seemed
to be breathing the most sadly beautiful sentences
in the world.
  "Entreat me not to leave thee," rolled softly
forth, "or to return from following after thee:
for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou
lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God."
  That tears should, and did, gather in David's
eyes at the beautiful words, was not strange; for
he had been brought up on the poetic pastoral
simplicity of the Great Book. Nor was it strange
if he was unaware that Hallie, whose sweetness
had so quickly rushed into the lonely places of
his small being, saw him, and that her lips
trembled too; or that Ronald's mouth thereupon
had dropped sharply open with suspicious won-
der. He was only feeling such a. smother of di-
vine yearning as his keenly sensitive young heart
had never before known.
  After the "Amen" of Uncle William's prayer,
he scrambled up from his knees and slipped
quickly out to the dark porch to be alone. But
Ronald followed.



19

 
YOUTH'S WAY



  "What you cryin' for" demanded the older
boy aggressively. "Because you can't have
Hallie "
  "I 'm cryin' because it hurts," said David,
turning away.
  "What hurts!" persisted Ronald.
  "I don't know. What Uncle William    was
readin', an' all that."
  "About Naomi an' Mara an' those things
Pooh! You was n't. Only grown-ups cry over
the Bible."
  David was silent. He felt there was reason
for his tears, but not one he could give to the
evidently hard-minded Ronald. He did not know
that these words had wakened a mingled sense
of tenderness and loving sublimity in innumer-
able breasts, for it was his first experience of
such emotions. He only looked away and let
the new-found phrases, "Whither thou goest, I
will go," and "Thy God shall be my God," play
through his heart.
  "You was n't cryin' about the Bible," re-
peated Ronald, "but about Hallie. An' we 've
got to settle this, an' fair too. I 've got a dollar
an' a half-an' here 's my new knife, with four



20

 
YOUTH'S WAY



blades. Take 'em-you just take 'em. But
Hallie 's got to be mine!"
  Why this proffer, which was at least frank
enough, made David so angry, he could not have
told. Angry he was, however, and his small body
began to writhe, as at an insult. Instantly he
cried: "She 's not yours, and she 's not mine!
She 's not anybody's! An' you ought to be
ashamed of yourself, Ronald Wickham!"
  A rumble of approaching wheels-those of
Farmer Ledbetter's buggy bringing Aunt Mary
home-may have been all that prevented a medie-
val end to this altercation between the two
young apprentices of love. As they ceased, and
as the gate was unlatched, Uncle William ap-
peared in the doorway, saying, "Well, Mary, is
it you"
  "Yes, William," she answered resignedly,
coming up the walk. Then before greeting the
children on the outskirts of the door-light, she
added, "And this time it was too late. Healing
was in vain. Mrs. Ledbetter is dead."
  "Oh, Aunt Mary!" cried Hallie, stricken by
this note of tragedy, and running to her.
  The healer, seeing the small uplifted face with



21

 
YOUTH'S WAY



its moist eyes, laid her hands on the halo of hair
and said: "Dear child, we are glad to have you
here, and Ronald too. And David, I know, is
gladder. You must teach him much, and maybe
learn a little from him. Men make the cities,
but God, you know, made the country. That
much," she ended, pushing back David's shock
of ruddy hair, "your Uncle William and I have
taught our boy. "
  David seized her hand and held it; he wanted
to speak. But Uncle William told him words
were one fruit that would keep, and that 't was
bedtime. So candles were lighted and good nights
said. Then Hallie, with the glow on her face,
was led away by Aunt Mary, while he and Ronald,
who were to sleep together, followed.
  Without speaking, the two boys washed their
feet, slipped out of waists and trousers, snuffed
the candles, and climbed into bed. But for
Ronald the conflict was not closed. As they lay
in the moonlight, he said, "No girl would have a
boy who cried about the Bible; not when she 's
grown up, anyhow."
David did not answer. With open eyes he was



22

 
             YOUTH'S WAY                23

saying over to himself those words, more beauti-
ful than ever with the moon on them: "Where
thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my
people, and thy God my God."

 
CHAPTER III



IF David awoke at dawn dreaming that Hallie
    was telling him that girls did n't like boys
who cried because they got their shirts greasy
reading the Bible, the week that followed, not-
withstanding the fact that it ended with a heroic
little tragedy, was a happy one. For Anson farm
quickly became a thrilling, enchanted place to
its visitors, and therefore to David himself.
  To get up in the morning and hurry shoe-less
and stocking-less out of doors; to drink in the
dawn freshness of bird-song and dew-sparkle; to
hear the calves ask for their turn at the milk-
ing, and the pigs for theirs at the trough; to see
gobbler and rooster with lordly crests lead their
hens to spots richest in earthworms; to have Shep
come bounding in, dew-wet, from an early rabbit
chase in the pasture, and almost knock you down
with joyful, affectionate barkings; to be called
by Aunt Mary to a breakfast of berries and cream,
of bacon, biscuits, and eggs-these were enough
                      24

 
YOUTH'S WAY



to make even the precociously conjugal Ronald
himself forget moods and jealousies learned at a
too early age from his elders. Also the children 's
delight in them caused Cousin Noah to cease to
tease as he had about having his wedding suit
made of puppy-skin, and to lap se into silent
brooding over what, doubtless, was his desire to
go to Texas.
  After breakfast the joy continued, at the corn-
crib, around which, when the horses had been fed,
were many cobs with pulpy centers you could
stick on the end of a willow switch and throw
swirling out into the apple orchard. Rivalry in
this popular art was always tempered by Hallie,
who not only acted as conscientious judge of the
distances thrown, but as enthusiastic admirer.
  Then there was hunting for eggs in the hay-
loft, an occupation not appreciated by its tenant,
the owl, who did n't see why folks could n't do
their hunting at night; for what could you see in
daytime anyhow' Or there was filling your
pockets with apples, and taking the road to the
creek, where Hallie always found it fearful sport
to brave hissing geese; though David assured her,
as he strode boldly ahead, that geese could only



25

 
YOUTH'S WAY



waddle and quack, and would n't hurt anybody.
  At the creek, again, there were innumerable
joys. You could fish from the bridge; which
was n't so much fun either, for Hallie thought it
cruel and always ran off to gather flowers and
berries while David and Ronald tried their luck.
You could wade in the clear, minnow-silvered
water behind the weir; though here the sun-flecked
face and round straight legs of the little girl
would sometimes compel the sensitive David to
throw himself on the bank and close his eyes
with a yearning quite obscure to his small under-
standing. You could swing in loops of wild grape-
vine out over the water, and drop into it while
Hallie laughed with bliss. Or, again, the creek
banks would lead you far into the bottoms, where
wild turkeys would suddenly start up noisily, and
tell their young ones to vanish, "before you could
say Jack Robinson."
  But even better than all these was walking to
Boone Harding's cabin on the edge of the woods,
where Boone's gun and coonskin cap were to be
seen, and where he would tell of conversations
that occurred among the wild things he hunted
and trapped. For Boone lived alone in the



26

 
YOUTH'S WAY



woods, his wife having run away and left him;
and he knew what all the wild things, talked about.
  "Do possums really carry their young on their
backs" asked Hallie on a day that was to bring
a most consequential adventure near Boone's.
"And do crows really talk" she appealed, with
flushed cheeks and eyes that would have kindled
imagination in a less fanciful breast than the
hunter's.
  " Talk" replied Boone, looking at her with
slow absorbing eyes, and gesturing with his open
jack-knife. "Talk Well, now, I 'm obliged to
say they do. Why, I come by a camp-meetin' of
crows one day last fall in the three big pines just
beyond yore Uncle William's corn-field. They 'd
been followin' the harvest, them crows had, and
was settin' thar solemn in the pine tops. An'
if one big presidin' elder of a crow was n't ser-
monizin' on the subject of how little was left by
gleanin' Pharisees, like us, for poor crows to pick
up, then a rabbit 's a whale! Yes 'm, he just
told his congregation that he did ni 't believe no
such farmer could enter the kingdom of heaven;
an' I have n't much doubt but what that reverend
crow could explain Revelation itself."1



27

 
YOUTH'S WAY



  "Oh, David, did he Do you think he really
did " cried the wide-eyed ecstatic Hallie. And
David, who could see at once crows were like
certain black-coated Shiloh brethren, said he
thought they could talk, but he couldn't under-
stand them like Boone did. Upon which Ronald
said he didn't believe crows could say anything
but "Caw," and that didn't mean anything.
  Boone said no more. But that his primitive-
mindedness had induced magic in Hallie was evi-
dent in what followed. They started home, and
Ronald insisted on going a new way. David,
who let him have his head in this as in most other
things, assented-a forbearance for which the
peace-loving Hallie rewarded him with a sudden
caress.
  As they passed through the cool-hearted woods,
Hallie, gathering flowers ahead, came suddenly
upon a hornets' nest pendant from a low tree-
limb. It hung there humming with the yellow-
jacketed inmates, who had doubtless just returned
from a day's foray and were not in the best of
humors. To Hallie, who cried out and gave it a
delightful swing, it was merely another new en-
chantment.



28

 
YOUTH'S WAY



  David, responding to her call of delight, came
up and instantly saw the danger; for a country-
bred boy learns early that hornets are neighbors
who brook no familiarity. Yet before he could
warn Hallie not to touch it again one large hor-
net, sensing indignity to his habitation, hummed
out of the door, ahead of his matles, and, after
circling a moment, stung the astonished and terri-
fied Hallie on the arm.
  As a hundred then swarmed angrily forth,
David, in whose heart Hallie's cry of pain had
awakened every masculine instinct of protection,
shouted, "Run, Hallie, they 're hornets! Run,
an' II 'II keep 'm from followin' you, by fightin'
'em. "
  Not hesitating, Hallie fled, stumbling, terrified,
and precipitate, with Ronald at her heels. In
doing so they lost the path, though fortunately
not the right direction, homeward.
  David meanwhile broke off a sassafras branch
to protect himself with and began to retreat
slowly-and at first successfully-:Crom the zone
of danger. Some unusual agitation must, how-
ever, have stirred the hornet throng. They began
to swarm out in greater numbers and strike with



29

 
YOUTH'S WAY



fierce, though wild, aim at him. But at length
one, more accurate, getting through his guard,
pierced him between the eyes.
  Blinded by the pain of the blow, David dropped
the defensive branch to put his hands protectingly
over his eyes. Then the tragedy began in earnest.
One after another of the little yellow-jacketed
free-lances attacked him, piercing ears, scalp, neck,
and hands with their small poison rapiers. So
fierce was the charge that he was beaten to the
ground, where, remembering Ronald's taunt and
refusing to cry, he fainted with pain.
  Some minutes later halloos, shouted through
the woods by Cousin Noah and Uncle William,
brought him back to consciousness, and he knew
what had occurred. He tried therefore to shout
in response, but could not, and so another long
five minutes passed before he heard Hallie cry
out near him. She had rediscovered a spot near
which he was lying and, hurrying up, threw her-
self down strickenly beside him.
  "Well, now, who 'd a-thought it!" exclaimed
Cousin Noah, also arriving on the scene. "Who 'd
a-thought," he repeated, picking David up ten-
derly, "that yellow-jackets were regular blood-



30

 
YOUTH'S WAY



thirsty bandits-cousins and brothers to Jesse
James himself!"
  "But David fought 'em, David did," Hallie
avowed, trudging homeward beside Cousin Noah,
and realizing instinctively that admiration was a
balm which would mollify the pain. "David
didn't want 'em to sting me, because I 'm a girl
an' cry when I 'm hurt; so he fought 'em, an'
did n't cry either."
  Against this, David was not proof. His heart
softened, and tears began to roll down his cheeks
-tears which Ronald, who now came up with
Uncle William, watched with wide, welcome eyes.
  "I guess," said he, a little later, when he and
Hallie stood by David's bed, while Aunt Mary
prepared some lotion in the kitchen, 'I guess you
cry pretty easy, don't youe"
  Hallie, seeing the sting, sprang instantly to
the defense.
  "I guess, Mr. Ronald, that you 're a mean boy,
an' I won't marry anybody but David, ever!" she
cried, and in tears herself ran precipitately from
the room.
  This of itself would have gone far toward heal-
ing David's hurt, but other soothing was to follow.



31

 
32            YOUTH'S WAY

He woke in the night and beheld Aunt Mary's
white figure standing by him. Her lips were
moving in the grave cool moonlight, and he knew
she was saying the sweet words used in her faith-
healing.
  He watched her in the shadowy room, and his
faith yielded readily to the invisible strength
which seemed to be pouring into him. When she
turned and vanished through the door, softly as
a spirit, he sighed, closed his eyes, and slept long
and soundly. In imagination-or in actuality-
he had touched the healing hand of the Infinite.

 
CHAPTER IV



"     TELL, now, I thought this was earth,
  Vi' but it appears to me you think it 's
  heaven, young rooster," said Cousin Noah to Da-
vid one morning three days later.
  David assented. He had been exalted in Hal-
lie 's eyes for two days; and chance was to let
him be so exalted for three more. His heart was
therefore a nest of happy thoughts that hummed
as busily as that in the woods. Yet from it, all
unknown to him, there was to issue a sting that
should shock his elders as