"Does anybody round here play the banjo?''
"None o'my boys,''said the old woman,"but Tom Green's son down the creek --he follers pickin'the banjo a leetle.''
"Follows pickin'''--the Blight did not miss that phrase.
"What do you foller fer a livin'?''the old man asked me suddenly.
"I write for a living.''He thought a while.
"Well,it must be purty fine to have a good handwrite.''This nearly dissolved the Blight and the little sister,but they held on heroically.
"Is there much fighting around here?''
I asked presently.
"Not much 'cept when one young feller up the river gets to tearin'up things.Iheerd as how he was over to the Gap last week--raisin'hell.He comes by here on his way home.''The Blight's eyes opened wide--apparently we were on his trail.
It is not wise for a member of the police guard at the Gap to show too much curiosity about the lawless ones of the hills,and I asked no questions.
"They calls him the Wild Dog over here,''he added,and then he yawned cavernously.
I looked around with divining eye for the sleeping arrangements soon to come,which sometimes are embarrassing to "furriners''who are unable to grasp at once the primitive unconsciousness of the mountaineers and,in consequence,accept a point of view natural to them because enforced by architectural limitations and a hospitality that turns no one seeking shelter from any door.They were,however,better prepared than I had hoped for.
They had a spare room on the porch and just outside the door,and when the old woman led the two girls to it,I followed with their saddle-bags.The room was about seven feet by six and was windowless.
"You'd better leave your door open a little,''I said,"or you'll smother in there.''
"Well,''said the old woman,"hit's all right to leave the door open.Nothin's goin'ter bother ye,but one o'my sons is out a coon-huntin'and he mought come in,not knowin'you're thar.But you jes'holler an'he'll move on.''She meant precisely what she said and saw no humor at all in such a possibility--but when the door closed,I could hear those girls stifling shrieks of laughter.
Literally,that night,I was a member of the family.I had a bed to myself (the following night I was not so fortunate)--in one corner;behind the head of mine the old woman,the daughter-in-law and the baby had another in the other corner,and the old man with the two boys spread a pallet on the floor.That is the invariable rule of courtesy with the mountaineer,to give his bed to the stranger and take to the floor himself,and,in passing,let me say that never,in a long experience,have I seen the slightest consciousness--much less immodesty--in a mountain cabin in my life.The same attitude on the part of the visitors is taken for granted--any other indeed holds mortal possibilities of offence--so that if the visitor has common sense,all embarrassment passes at once.
The door was closed,the fire blazed on uncovered,the smothered talk and laughter of the two girls ceased,the coon-hunter came not and the night passed in peace.
It must have been near daybreak that I was aroused by the old man leaving the cabin and I heard voices and the sound of horses'feet outside.When he came back he was grinning.
"Hit's your mules.''
"Who found them?''
"The Wild Dog had 'em,''he said.
