where the ridge road dropped down close to the pale river at a dip in the hills, steering overtook the tramp-boy, hallooed to him, and watched him, as he turned his pony about and sat waitingly. he was a youth of sixteen or seventeen, and from under the peak of his felt hat, slouched and old, peered out a slim young gypsy face, crowned by a thick mop of black hair that tumbled about wide temples. motionless there, the tremble of his song still on his lips and the gladness of youth and health on his face, the tramp-boy made steering think of the rosy young shepherd adonis, he was so glowing, so fine and fresh.
"i have been right after you all the way from the cross-roads," explained steering, by way of a beginning, riding up to the lad's side, "i have just parted from a friend of yours,--mr. bernique,--so you see we are almost friends ourselves."
"a'most." the boy smiled, showing white teeth. he seemed to like bruce's method of dealing with him. "wuz unc' bernique cross because i didn't go rat back like i said i'd do?" he queried slily.
"no, i think not. and for my part, i am glad you didn't, for i am hoping that if you are going toward poetical you won't mind my company. you see, it's pretty dog-on lonely." a very little of the ridge road sufficed to make bruce sick for comradeship, and his voice showed it. the boy turned an impressionable, sympathetic face.
"come rat along," he said. he looked at bruce a moment questioningly before adding, "reckin's haow you aint usen to the quiet yit. taint so lonely, the woods an' the hills whend you know um." he twisted his head like a bird and looked out across the extensive sweep of the land and the long slow curve of the river, a deep inspiration swelling his chest. "simlike they up an' talk to you, the woods an' the hills an' the quiet, whend you know um," he said.
all on the instant steering knew that, as in the case of old bernique, here again was character. "character" seemed distinctly the richest and the pleasantest thing in missouri. he rode in a little closer to his companion, drawn to him irresistibly, recognising in him the sweet, untutored poetry of a wildwood nature, whose young timidity was trembling and steadying into the placating, magnetic assurance of a boy, fresh-hearted as a berry. steering had encountered the same sort of poetry in other unspoiled boys, splendid child-men whom he had known in other walks of life, and he had a quick affection for it. it was always as though on its crystal clearness a man might see the white sails of his own youth set back toward him.
"yes," he answered, "i think you are right about that. they do talk, the hills and the woods and the quiet,--only a fellow grows dull, gets his ears full of electric gongs and push-bells, and forgets to listen."
the boy looked up with quick-witted question. "y'aint f'm this part of the kentry, air you?" he asked.
"no. i am from--well, from bessietown last. where are you from?"
the boy laughed and glanced gaily at his briar-torn clothes. "f'm the woods," he said.
"my name is bruce steering."
"mine's piney."
they fell then to talking of many things, as they rode toward poetical, but inevitably they spoke chiefly of the great state of missouri. on the subject of missouri the boy talked, as old bernique had talked, with expansive naivete. in his roamings he had ridden the state up and down, and had found much to love in it. "you'll like her, too, all righty," he told bruce confidently, "whend you git broke to her." on one of youth's candid impulses to speak up for the life on the inside, the cherished desire, the gallant ideal, the buoyant fancy, he made a supple, sudden divergence in the conversation. "d'you know," he said, "they aint no place whur i'd drur be than mizzourah ceppen only one."
"where's that?" asked bruce, and to his immense astonishment the boy answered quickly:
"italy."
"why, how does that happen, piney? ever been there?"
"nope. hearn unc' bernique tell abaout it, thass all. it 'ud suit me, though. i know that." his eyes grew dreamy and he seemed to be looking far beyond missouri. one could almost see the fine, illusory spell of the far latin land upon him, the spiritual bond, the pull of temperament that made the hill boy at one with italy, blest of poetry. "i d'n know huccome i want to go so bad," he went on with a deep breath, "wouldn' turn araoun' th'ee times on my heels to go anywhur else, but i shoo do want to go to italy."
"were your people italians, piney?"
"nope. kim f'm s'loois. but still, i got that feelin' abaout italy. simlike i'd be--oh, sorta at home tha'. had that same feelin' ev' since unc' bernique begand to tell me abaout italy. i'm a-goin' tha', tew, some day, all righty," he concluded at last, waking up from his little dream slowly. "goin' to be long over to poetical, mist' steerin'?" he diverged again, with his lively mental agility.
"no, son. from poetical i am going on to"--bruce stopped to gather strength to project the word with the large and cadenced inflection he had enjoyed in the hill farm people,--"going on to canaan!"
"gre't gosh!" said the boy, and something in the way he said it made bruce look at him quickly. piney's brows were lifted and his lips were pulled back. he seemed to try to be as much impressed as bruce expected him to be. to steering this sort of comradeship was growing golden.
"well, now," he said, playing with the little joy of being understood, "haven't they the court-house at canaan? and the railroad? and haven't they miss betsy,--or miss--miss----"
"sally."
"ah, yes, sally! know sally, son?"
"ev'body in the tigmores knows her."
"i am beginning to want to know sally myself." bruce let his eyes go drowsing toward the pale river up which the slow rain was beating, and talked foolishness idly: "red-cheeked sally! freckled sally! roly-poly sally! what's a missouri girl like anyway, piney?"
"wy, people think she's purty," protested the boy with a quick palpitant shyness, "an' most people l----," he stopped trying to talk, laughing brusquely and flushing with a very young man's self-consciousness.
"all of which goes to prove me an ass," cried bruce, "for talking about a lady whom i have never seen." looking repentantly at piney, he felt a sudden ache for him. he was not very familiar with conditions in canaan, but it occurred to him suddenly that even in canaan there might be social gradations, and that the tramp-boy, rare little chap though he seemed to be, was probably miles away from the daughter of the promoter, mr. crittenton madeira. "i retract, piney," he added gravely.
"aw!--not as i keer whut you say abaout her,--or whut anybody says." piney slashed at some brilliant sumach by the wayside and his mobile lips jerked and quivered.
"i should have supposed that she was older--well, than you," said bruce, trying to set himself right.
"may be in what she knows,--aint in what she feels,--not as i keer----" the boy was so deliciously new to his own emotions that they flashed away beyond his control, minute by minute. his eyes looked misty, with a little spark of high light cutting bravely through. he would not finish his sentence. "did unc' bernique say whend he's comin' back to canaan?" he asked moodily.
"no, he didn't, though i urged him to. that's a fine old man, piney."
piney's eyes softened beautifully. "takes mighty good keer of me," he said.
"is he kin to you?"
"i d'n know abaout that. he's took my side always. y'see, i aint got no people an' i just ride araoun'. y'see,"--piney quivered with boyish fire,--"i just got to ride araoun'. i cayn't stay on no farm an' in no haouse. kills me. i got to git to the woods an' the hills. an' unc' bernique he stands by me, an' keeps me in his shack whend they's any trouble abaout it. y'see, some people think i oughter--oughter work!" piney laughed from the gay, melodious depths of his vagabond heart and bruce laughed with him. "an' unc' bernique has he'ped me abaout that," explained the tramp-boy. he let his dancing eyes dart off to the west where the hills were shouldering into a thickening drift of grey. "hi, look yonder!" he cried. "we got to cut and run to git to poetical before that rain."
so they cut and ran, the boy setting the pace and singing lustily, with that high melody of voice, as of temperament, of his, as they dashed down the road in the first cool scattering pelt of the rain. "want to go to the hotel, don't you?" he called over his shoulder, and bruce called yes. it was grey, rainy twilight now, and through the gloom five or six houses sprawled out across the little plateau toward which the road twisted. some geese flew up under the feet of the horses, squawking wildly, some "razor-back" hogs grunted from the dust-wallows, some cow-bells tinkled, some small yellow spheres of light shone through windows.
"how far from poetical, piney?" shouted steering.
"'baout a foot," answered piney. he made his lightning-like pony go more slowly so that bruce's horse might come alongside, and he shook his head, his ready sympathy again on his face. "say, it's goin' to be kinder tough on you to stay here to-night, aint it? this is ev' spittin' bit there is tew poetical. here's the hotel."
they drew rein before a rickety two-story frame building and bruce lifted his shoulders shudderingly. a man came out on the hotel porch, said "howdy," and waited.
"say,"--piney in a lower tone, voiced a notion that evidently drifted in to him on the high tide of his sympathy,--"why don't you ride over to mist' crit madeira's? taint so far. i'll show you the way. they cand take care of you over tha'. they'd be glad to have you. you cand caount on that. it's that-a-way in mizzourah." the boy's conscientious earnestness was sweet. he was in good spirits again and he whisked one roughly-booted foot out of its stirrup and laid it across his saddle-horn, while he regarded bruce. "you cand git ter see miss sally ef you do that," he added, pursing up his lips, a subtle sense of humour on his face. "you cand see what mizzourah girls are like."
"now come, piney, you know i've been thinking everything beautiful about miss sally since i found out--something----"
"aw! tisn't no such thing. she jes likes to hear me sing. you're crazy!" the tramp-boy's young voice had its fashion of breaking and shrilling into a high soprano, like a girl's, for emphasis; he was as red as a beet, and he put his foot back in the stirrup, thrust out his under jaw and looked at the stirrup as though he had to determine how much wood had gone into its making. again bruce was conscious of a little ache for the boy. "but you go on over tha'," insisted piney.
"no! thank you for trying to look out for me, son, but i shouldn't like to do that. oh, i can stand this all right," cried bruce, with a flare of big bravery and, turning to face the hotel, was seized by his loneliness so violently that he shuddered again. "here piney!" he cried on a sudden inspiration, "why won't you come in and stay with me? huh? how would that suit you? we can talk and smoke."
"naw," piney extended his hand and shook his head, as though to push the hotel out of the range of possibilities for him, "i couldn't. much oblige'. but i cayn't sleep in haouses. got to git back to the shack in the woods. wisht you'd go on over to madeira's."
"no. i'll buck it out here alone," lamented bruce. he hated to lose piney and take up the gloomy, rainy evening alone on this little, high, remote place in the missouri hills.
"see you again some day, then," piney promised in final farewell. "i'm up an' daown the ridge rat frequent, i'll run 'crosst you."
"well now, i should hope so," cried bruce cordially. "don't you ever come to canaan?"
"nope. hate a taown! but me an' unc' bernique will strike you sometime, somewheres along the trail. s'long!"
"so long, piney, so long!"
the boy turned his pony to the hills. the man on the porch came on out to take charge of bruce and bruce's horse. black night settled down. through the darkness cut the sound of the squawking geese, the tinkling cow-bells, the grunting hogs. lonely, lonely missouri! bruce went inside, to sit in a little room upstairs, with his chin in his hand, his eyes staring through the window, his thoughts roaming after carington, the office on nassau street, a girl who was a dainty fluff of lace and silk. in his ears rang the sound of carington's voice: "why don't you try missouri,--miss gossamer sails,--why don't you try missouri,--miss gossamer sails--" a faint, recedent measure, and intermingling with it the sound of a boy's voice singing gaily on the misty hills:
"a tater's good 'ith 'lasses."
steering leaned far out of the window, eager for the lad's music. it was so sweet.
