She knew lots more "song-ballets," she said
shyly, and the old man had her sing some songs that were rather
rude, but were as innocent as hymns from her lips.
Everywhere he found unlimited hospitality.
"Take out, stranger," said one old fellow, when there was nothing
on the table but some bread and a few potatoes, "have a tater.
Take two of 'em--take damn nigh ALL of 'em."
Moreover, their pride was morbid, and they were very religious.
Indeed, they used religion to cloak their deviltry, as honestly as
it was ever used in history. He had heard old Judd say once, when
he was speaking of the feud:
"Well, I've al'ays laid out my enemies. The Lord's been on my side
an' I gits a better Christian every year."
Always Hale took some children's book for June when he went to
Lonesome Cove, and she rarely failed to know it almost by heart
when he went again. She was so intelligent that he began to wonder
if, in her case, at least, another of the Hon. Sam's theories
might not be true--that the mountaineers were of the same class as
the other westward-sweeping emigrants of more than a century
before, that they had simply lain dormant in the hills and--a
century counting for nothing in the matter of inheritance--that
their possibilities were little changed, and that the children of
that day would, if given the chance, wipe out the handicap of a
century in one generation and take their place abreast with
children of the outside world.
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