' They thought his
running into the mine just a crazy notion like a horse that runs into
a burning stable. He was the best man in town. He was braver than any
of them. He went in there and died when he had almost enough money
saved to buy a farm over here." He pointed down the valley.
Beaut began to tell her of the visits to the hillside with his father
and described the effect of the scene on himself when he was a child.
"I thought it was paradise," he said.
She put her hand on his arm and seemed to be soothing him like a
careful groom quieting an excitable horse. "Don't mind them," she
said, "you will go away after a time and make a place for yourself out
in the world."
He wondered how she knew. A profound respect for her came over him.
"She is keen to guess that," he thought.
He began to talk of himself, boasting and throwing out his chest. "I'd
like to have the chance to show what I can do," he declared. A thought
that had been in his mind on the winter day when Uncle Charlie Wheeler
put the name of Beaut upon him came back and he walked up and down
before the woman making grotesque motions with his hands as Cracked
McGregor had walked up and down before him.
"I'll tell you what," he began and his voice was harsh. He had
forgotten the presence of the woman and half forgotten what had been
in his mind.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36