EBOOK TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE ***
Produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE
BY
JOHN FOX, JR.
ILLUSTRATED BY F. C. YOHN
To F. S.
THE TRAIL OF THE LONESOME PINE
I
She sat at the base of the big tree--her little sunbonnet pushed
back, her arms locked about her knees, her bare feet gathered
under her crimson gown and her deep eyes fixed on the smoke in the
valley below. Her breath was still coming fast between her parted
lips. There were tiny drops along the roots of her shining hair,
for the climb had been steep, and now the shadow of disappointment
darkened her eyes. The mountains ran in limitless blue waves
towards the mounting sun--but at birth her eyes had opened on them
as on the white mists trailing up the steeps below her. Beyond
them was a gap in the next mountain chain and down in the little
valley, just visible through it, were trailing blue mists as well,
and she knew that they were smoke. Where was the great glare of
yellow light that the "circuit rider" had told about--and the
leaping tongues of fire? Where was the shrieking monster that ran
without horses like the wind and tossed back rolling black plumes
all streaked with fire? For many days now she had heard stories of
the "furriners" who had come into those hills and were doing
strange things down there, and so at last she had climbed up
through the dewy morning from the cove on the other side to see
the wonders for herself.
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