By i i COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY DOUBLEDAY, PACE | & CO. CHAPTER L THE LIMBERLOST GUARD, RECKLES came down the cor- duroy that crosses the lower end of the Limberlost. At a glance he might have been mistaken for a tramp, but he was in- tensely eager to belong somewhere and to be attached to almost any sort of enterprise that would furnish him food and cloching. Long before he came in sight of the camp of the Grand Rapids Lumber company he could hear the cheery voices of the men and the neighing of the horses, and could scent the tempt- ing odors of cooking food. A feeling of homeless friendlessness swept over | him. He turned into the newly made | road and followew it to The camp. The wen were joviall)® calliag back | and forth as they unbarnessed tired horses that fell into attitudes of rest and crunched, in deep content, the | grain given them. As he wiped the | flanks of his big bays with handfuls of | papaw leaves, Duncan, the brawny | Scotch head teamster. softly whistled, “Oh wha will be my dearie, Oh!" and a cricket under the leaves at his feet accompanied him. Wreathing tongues of flame wrapped about the black ket- tles, and, when the cook lifted the lids gusts of ravory odors escaped. Freckles approached him. “lI want to speak to the boss,” he said. | The cook glanced him over and an swered carelessly, “He can't use you.” The color flooded Freckles’ face, but he said simply, “If you will be having the goodness to point him out we will give him a chance to do his own talk- ing.” With a shrug of astonishment, the cook led the way to a broad, square shouldered man. “Mr. McLean, here's | another man wanting to be taken on the gang. | suppose,” he szid. “All right,” came the cheery answer “l never nceded a good man more than | do just now.” “No use of your bothering with thi: fellow.” volunteered the cook. has but one band.” : The flush on Freckles’ face hurned deeper. His lips thinned to a mere | Mine. He lifted his shoulders, took n | step forward, and thrust out his right arm. from which the sleeve dangled empty at the wrist. “That will do. Sears,” came the voice | of the boss sharply. “I will interview my man when [| have finished this re- Freckles stood one instant as he had braced himself to meet the eves of thy manager. then his arm dropped and n | wave of whiteness swept over him | The boss hud not even turned his tend | to see the deformity pointed out to! him. He had used rhe possessive | When he sald “my man” the hungry | heart of Freckles went reaching out after him. The boy drew a quivering breath. Then he whipped off his old bat and beat the dust from it care- fully. With his left hand he caught the right sleeve, wiped his sweaty face, and tried to straighten his hair with his fingers. He broke a spray of ironwort beside him and used the pur- ple blossoms to beat the dust from his shoulders and limbs. McLean was a Scotchman. The men | of his camps had never known him to | be in a hurry or to lose his temper Discipline was inflexible, but the boss always was kind. He shared camp life with his gangs. The only visible signs of his great wealth consisted of a big, shimmering diamond stone of ice and fire that glittered and burned on one of his fingers and the dainty, beautiful, thoroughbred mare he rode. No man of McLean's gangs could honestly say that be had ever been overdriven or underpaid. They all knew that up in the great timber city several millions stood to his credit. He was the only son of that Mc- Lean who bad sent out the finest ships ever built in Scotland. That his son should carry on this business after his death had been the father’s ambition. He sent the boy through Edinburgh university and Oxford and allowed him several years’ travel. Then he was ordered through south ern Canada and Michigan to purchas: 4 consignment of tall, straight timber for masts and down into Indiana for oak beams. The young mar entered these mighty forests, parts of which still lay untouched since the dawn of the morning of time. The intense si- lence, like that of a great empty cathe- dral, fascinated him. He gradually learned that to the shy wood crea- tures that darted across hig path or peeped inquiringly from leafy ambush he was brother. He found himselr approaching, with a feeling of rever- ence, those majestic trees that had stood through ages of sun, wind and snow. Soon it became a difficult | gray eyes, straightly meeting his | feeling he fell into inherited sink of | of these trees are of great value. thing to fell them. When he had fll ed his order and returned home he | the timber to the mills. Marshal managed the milling process and pass- ed the lumber on to the factory. From the lumber Barthol made beautifni and useful furniture, which Uptegrove scattered all over the world from a big wholesale house. Mclean faced a young man, still un- der twenty, tall, spare, heavily framed. thickly freckled and red haired. with a howely Irish face, but in the steady searching ones of blue, there were un- swerving candor and a look of long- ing not to be ignored. “You are looking for work?" ques- tioned McLean. “Yis,” answered Freckles. “lI am very sorry,” said the boss, “but there is only one man I want at present—a good, big feliow with a stout heart and a strong body. I hoped that you would do, but 1 am afraid you are too young and hardly strong enough.” “And what was it you thought | might be doing?’ asked Freckles. The boss could scarcely repress a start. Somewhere back of accident and poverty had been an ancestor who used cultivated English, even with an accent. The boy spoke in a mellow Irish voice, sweet and pure. It wax scarcely deiinite enough to be called brogue, yet there was a trick in the turning of the sentence, the wrong sound of a letter here and there, that was almost irresistible to McLean He was of foreign birth, and. despite years of alienation, in times of strong accent and construction. “It's no child's job,” answered Mc- Lean. “I am the field manager of a lumber company. We have just leased 2,000 acres of the Limberlost. Many We can't leave our camp, six miles south. for almost a year yet, so we have blazed a trail and strung barbed wires securely about the extent of this lease. Before we return to our work | mus: put this Limberlost lease in the hands of a reliable, brave, strong man who will guard it every hour of the day and sleep with one eye open at night. I should require the entire length of the trail to be walked at least twice every day, to make sure that our lines were up and no one had been tres- passing.” “But why wouldn't that be the finest Job in the world for me? pleaded Freckles. “I am never sick. | could walk the trail twice, three times every day, and I'd be watching sharp all the while” tan rf, “It's because you are little more than a boy, and this will be a trying job for a work hardened man,” answereG McLean. “You would be afraid. In stretching our lines we killed six rat- “He tiesnakes almost as long as your body | on the home books, with not the | and as thick as your arm. You would | always be alone, and the Limberlost is alive with sounds and voices. I | don't pretend to say what all of them come from, but from a few slinking | forms I've seen and hair raising yells | I've heard I'd rather not confront | their owners myself, and I am neither | weak nor fearful. “Worst of all, any man who will! enter the swamp to mark and steal | timber is a desperate fellow. One of my employees at the south camp, John | Carter, compelled me to discharge him | for a number of serious reasons. He entered the swamp alone and marked a number of valuable trees that he was endeavoring to sell to our rival company when we secured the lease. He bas sworn to have these trees if he has to die or to kill others to get them.” “But if he came to steal trees wouldn't he bring teams and men enough, that all any man could do would be to watch and be after you?” queried the boy. “Yes,” replied McLean. “Then why couldn't 1 be watching | Just as closely and coming as fast as | an older, stronger man?” | “Why, by George, you could!” ex- claimed McLean. “I don't know that the size of a man would be half so | important as bis grit and faithfulness. | What is your name?’ : Freckles grew a shade whiter, but | his eyes never faltered. { “Freckles,” he said. “Good enough for every day,” laugh- | ed McLean, “but I can scarcely put | Freckles on the company’s books.” J “lI baven't any name,” replied the | boy. ! “1 don’t understand,” said McLean. “I was thinking from the voice and the face of you that you wouldn't,” said Freckles slowly. “Does it seem to you that any one would take a newborn baby and row over it until it was bruised black, cut off its hand and leave it out in a bit- ter night on the steps of a charity home to the care of strangers? That's what somebody did to me. “The home people took me in, and I was there the full legal age and several! years over. They could always find homes for the rest of the children, but nobody would ever be wanting me on account of me arm.” “Were they kind to you?’ asked Mec- Lean. “I don't know,” answered Freckles. The reply sounded so hopeless even t his own ears that he hastened to qual- ity it by adding: “You see, it's like this, sir. Kindnesses that people are paid to lay off in job lots and that belong equally to several hundred oth- ers ain't going to be soaking into any one fellow much.” “Go on,” said McLean. “There's nothing worth the taking of time to tell,” replied Freckles. home was in Chicago, and I wax all me life up to three months When I was too old for the train- gave to the little children they sent me out to the nearest ward school as long as the law would let them, but I was never like any of the other chil- dren, and they all knew it. I'd to go and come like ¢ prisoner and be working about the home early and late for me board and clothes. | always wanted to learn mighty bad, but I was glad when that was over. “Then a pew superintendent sent me down in the state to a man he said he knew thar needed a boy. He wasn't for remembering to tell that man that I was a hand short, and he knocked me down. Between noon and that evening he and his son, es ut my age, had me in pretty much the same shape in which I vas found in the beginning, so I lay awake that night and ran away. I'd like to have squared me ac- count with that boy before [ left, but I didn’t dare for fear of waking ‘the old man, and I knew [ couldn't handle the two of them, but I'm hoping to meet him alone some day before I die.” McLean liked the boy all the better for this confession. “I didn't even have to sten! clothes to get rid of xtarting in me home ones,” Freckles went on, “for they had already taken all me clenn, neat things for the boy aud put me into his rags, and that went almost ax sore as the beatings, for where | wax we were ai- ways kept tidy and sweet smelling anyway. 1 hustied clear into this state before 1 learned that man couldn't have kept me if he'd wanted to. 1 commenced hunting work, but it is with everybody else just ax it is with you, sir. Big, strong, whoie men are the only ones for being wanted.” “I have been studying over this mat- ter,” answered McLean. *! am not so sure but that a man no older than you and like you in every way could do this work very well if be were not a cowurd.” “If you will give me a job where I can earn me food, clothes and a place to sleep,” said Freckles. "if | can have a boss to work for like other men, and a place I feel I've a right to | will do what you tell me or die trying.” He said it so quietly and convine- ingly that McLean found himself an- swering: “I will enter you on my pay- rolls. We'll have supper. and then 1 will provide you with clean clothing, wading boots, wire mending apparatus and a revolver. The first thing in the morning I will take you over the trail myself. All I ask of von is to come to me at once at the south camp and tell me like a man if you tind this job too hard for you. It ix work that few men would perform faithfuly. Whaat name shall ' put down? Freckles’ eyes never left McLean's face, and the bose saw: the ewifs of pain that swept his lonely, se ve face. “1 haven't any name,” he said stub- bornly. “mo more then one somebody clapped on to me when they put me thought or care they'd named a house cat. What they called me is no more | my name than it is yours. I don't But | am going to be your man and : do your work, and I'll be glad to an- | swer to any name you choose to call | me. Won't you please be giving me | a name, Mr. McLean?" The boss wheeled abruptly and be- gan stacking his books. In a voice | harsh with huskiness he spoke. “1 will teli you what we will do, mr lad," he said. “My father was my any other I have ever known. He went out five years ago. If I give to the man I loved best—will that do?” Freckles” rigid attitude relaxed. His down on the soiled calico shirt. “All right.” said McLean. “I will Lean.” “Thank you mightily,” sald Frec- if 1 belonged already.” Freckles’ heart and soul were sing- CHAPTER II. FRECKLES PROVES HIS METAL. Freckles around the timbe: line and engaged him board cun, whom he had brought from Scot land and who lived in a small clear swamp and the corduroy. When the gang pulled cut for the south cam. in the Limberiost. That he was unde: guard himself those first weeks be pev Every hour was torture to the boy The restricted life of a great city or world from the Limberlost. He was afraid for his life every minute. Lie knot on the end us big as his fist, and it never lofi his band. What ne could not clearly recall afterward. His heart stood still every time he sinuous waving against the play of the wind, as McLean had told him it first boom of the bittern, and his hat lifted with every yelp of the sheitpoke. following him and blazed away with his revolver. Then he was frightened been Duncan's collie. The first afternvon that he found to plunge knee deep into the black swamp muck to restring them, he ideal man, and I loved him better than you the name of my nearest kin and head dropped, and tears splashed write it on the roll-James Ross Mc- kles. “That makes me feel almost as ing for joy. A EXT morning the boss showed IN with his bead teamster, Dun: ing he was working out between the Freckles was left to guard a fortune er knew. phanage was the other extreme of the cut a stout hickory cudgel, with = thought in those first days be bimseir saw the beautiful marsh grass begin u would. He boited a half mile with his Ouce be saw a lean, shadowy form worse than ever for fear it might have his wires down, and be was compelled could scarcely control his shaking hand to do the work. With every step he feit that he would. miss secure footing and be swallowed up in that clinging fea of blackness. In dumb agony he plunged along, clinging to the posts nid trees. He had consumed much time. Night closed in. The Limber- lost stirred gently, then shook herself. growled and awoke about him. There seemed to be a great ow! hoot- ing from every hollow tree and a little one screeching from every knothole. Nighthawks swept past him with their shivering cry. and bats struck his face A prowling wildeat missed its eateh and screamed with rage. A lost fox bayed incessantly for its mate. The hair on the back of Freckies' neck rose like bristles, and his knees wavered under him. He could not see if the dreaded snakes were on the trail nor in the pandemonium hear the rattle for which McLean had cautioned him to listen. Something big. black and heavy ame crashing through the swamp, and with a yell Freckles broke and ran- iow far he did not know. But at las: he goined some sort of mastery over liimself and retraced his steps. When he again came toward the corduro; the endgel fell to test the wire at ev: rT Sten, Sonnds that curdled his hlood seem od to close in about him and shapes of terror to draw nearer and penrer "inst when he felt thar he should fal dead before he ever reached the clear lng eame Dunean’s rolling call, “Free les, Freckies!" A great shudderinz sob burst in the boy's «dry throat. Bu’ ie only told Duncan thar tinding the wire down had made him Inte. The next morning he started out on time. Day after dar with his near vonuding like a triphaminer ne docked. dodged. ran when he could and fought like a wildcat when he was brought to bay. If he ever had an idea of giving up no one knew it. All these things in so far as he guessed them Duncan, who had been set to watch the first weeks of Freckles’ work, carried to the boss at the south camp, but the inner most, exquisite torture of the thing the big Scotchman never guessed, and Mc- Lean with Lis |luner perceptions came only a little nearer. After a few weeks, when Freckles found that he was still living, that he had a home and the very first money be had ever possessed was safe in his pockets, he began to grow proud. He was gradually developing the feariess- ness that men ever acquire of dangers to which thev are hourly accustomed. His heart seemed to be in his mouth when his first rattler disputed the trail with bum, but he mustered cour- age and let drive at it with his club. After its bead had been crushed he cut off its rattles to show Duncan. With the mastery of his first snake his greatest fear of them was gone. Ther be began to realize that with -the abundance. .of food In the swamp flesh hunters would not come out on the trail and attack bim, and he bad his revoiver for defense if they did. He soon learned to laugh at the floppy birds that wade horrible noises. Une day watching from behind a tree be saw a crane solemnly performing a few measures of a belated nuptial song and dance with his mate. Re- alizing that it was intended in tender- ness, no matter how it appeared, the lonely, starved heart of the boy went | out to them in sympathy. When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter loneliness was the companionship of the birds and beasts of the swamp Freckles turned | to them for friendship. He began by instinctively protecting the weak ana helpless. He was astonished at the quickness with which they became ac- customed to him once they learned that be was not a hunter and that the club he carried was used more fre- quently for their benefit than his own. He could scarcely believe what he saw, When black frosts began stripping the Limberlost he watched the depart- ing troops of his friends with dismay. He made spacial efforts toward friend- liness with the hope that he could in- duce some of them to stay. It was then that he conceived the idea of carrying foed to the birds, for he saw that they were leaving for lack of it. But he could not stop them. Day after day flocks gathered and depart- ed. By the time the first snow whit- ened his trail about the Limberlost there were left only the little black and white juncos, the sapsuckers, yel- lowhammers, a few patriarchs among the flaming cardinals, the bluejays. the crows and the quail. Then Freckles began his wizard work. He cleared a space of swale and twice a day he spread a birds banquet. By the middle of December the strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed from the grass and bushes. The snow fell, covering the swamp, and food was very scarce and hard to find. The birds scarcely wait: ed until Freckles’ back was turned to attack his provisions. In a few weeks they flew toward the clearing to meet him. By the bitter weather of Jan- uary they came halfway to the cabin every morning and fluttered about him like doves all the way to the feeding ground. By February they would ELECTRIC FANS, perch on his head and shoulders, and the saucy jays would try to pry into his pockets. Then Freckles added to wheat and crumbs every scrap of refuse food he could find about the cabin. One morn- ing. coming to his feeding ground un- usualiy ear!y. he found a cardinal and a rabbit sociably nibbling a cabbage leaf side by side, and that instantly gave to him the idea of cracking nuts from the store he had gathered for Duncan's children. for the squirrels, in the effort to add them to bis family. Soon he had them com- ing—red, gray and black—and he be- came filled with a vast impatience that he did not know their names nor habits. So the winter passed. Every week McLean rode over to the Limberlost, never on the same day nor at the same hour. The boy's earnings constituted his first money. and when the boss ex- plained to him that he could leave them safe at a bank and carry away a scrap of paper that represented the amount he made a deposit on every pay day, keeping out barely what wax necessary for his hoard and clothing Whar Le wanted to do with his money Lie did not know. but it gave to him a sense of freedom and power to feel that Ir was there-it was his and he | could Lave it when he chose. That winter held the first hours of real happiness in Freckles’ life. He was free. He was doing a man’s work faithfully through every rigor of rain. snow and blizzard. He was gathering a wonderful strength of body, paying his way and saving money. Mrs, Duncan had a hot drink ready for him when he came in from a freez- fng day on the trail. knitted a heavy mitten for his left hand, devised a way to sew up and pad the right sleeve which protected the maimed arm in bitter wether, patched his clothing and saved kitchen scraps for his birds. net because she either knew or cared a rap about them, but because she her- self was near enough the swamp to be touched by .ts utter loneliness. When Duncan laughed at her for this she re- torted: “My God. mannie, if Freckles hadna the birds and the beasts he would be always alone. It was never meant for n human being to be sa soli- rary.” The next morning Duncan gave an ear of corn he was shelling to Free: kles and told him to carry it to his wild ~hickens in the Limberlost. Freckles lanzhed delichtedly. “Me chickens!” ne said. “Why didn't I ever think of that before? Of course they are! They are just little brightly ' colored cocks and hens. But what would you say to me ‘wild chickens’ be- | ing a good deal tamer than yours here in your yard?" “Hoot, lad!" cried Duncan. “Make yours light on your head and eat out of your hands and pockets,” challenged Freckles. “Go tell your fairy to the wee people! They're juist b on be lievin' things,” said Duncan. “l dare you to come see!” retorted Freckles. “Take ye!" sald Duncan. “If ye | make juist ane bird licht on your heid | or eat frue your hand ye are free to ! help yoursel' to my corncrib and wheat bin the rest of the winter.” After that Freckles always spoke of the birds as his chickens. The next Sabbath Duncan, with his wife and children, followed Freckles to the swamp. Freckles’ chickens were awaiting him at the edge of the clearing. They cut the frosty air about his head into curves and circles of crimson, blue and black. They chased each other from Freckles and swept so closely them- selves that they brushed him with their outspread wings. At their feeding ground Freckles set down his old pail of scraps and swept the snow from a small level space with a broom improvised from twigs. As soon as his back was turned the birds clustered over the food, snatching scraps to carry to the nearest bushes. Several of the boldest, a big crow and a couple of jays, settled on the rim and feasted at leisure, while a cardi- nal that hesitated to venture fumed and scolded fro.a a twig overhead. Then Freckles scattered his store. At once the ground resembled the spread mantle of Montezuma, except that this mass of gayly colored feathers was on the backs of living birds. While they feasted Duncan gripped his wife's arm and stared in astonishment, for from the bushes and dry grass with gentle cheeping and queer, throaty chatter, as if to encourage each other, came flocks of quail. Before any one saw it arrive a big gray rabbit sat in the midst of the feast, contentedly gnawing a cabbage leaf. “Weel, 1 be drawed on!” came Mrs. Duncan's tense whisper. “Shu-shu!" cautioned Duncan. Lastly Freckles took off his cap. He began filling it with handfuls of wheat from his pockets. In a swarm the grain eaters rose about him like a flock of tame pigeons. They perched on his arms and the cap, and, in the stress of hunger forgetting all caution, a bril- liant cock cardinal and an equally, gaudy jay fought for a perching place | rushes his scrap pail he found a steaming boiled wheat on the top of it. He wheeled to Mrs. Duncan with a me chicken< or yours?" he asked. “It's for yours. Freckles,” she said. Freckles faced Mrs. Duncan with a “Oh. how | wish you were my moth- er!” he cried. “Lord love the lad!" exclaimed Mrs. Duncan. “Why, Freckles, are ye no bricht enough to learn without being taught by a woman that I am your mither? If a great man like yoursel’ dinna ken that, learn it now and ne'er forget it. Ance a woman is the wife of any man she becomes wife to all men for having had the wifely ex- perience she kens! Ance a man child has beaten his way to life under the heart of a woman she is mother to al! men, for the hearts of mithers are everywhere the same, Bless ye, lad- die, I am your mither!" She tucked the coarse scarf she had knit for him closer over bis chest and pulled his cap lower about his ears, but Freckles, whipping it off and hold- ing it under his arm, caught her rough. reddened hand and pressed it to his lips in a long kiss. Then he hurried away to hide the happy. embarrassing tears that were coming straight from his swelling heart. Mrs. Duncan threw herself into Dun- can's arms. “Oh, the puir lad!" she wailed. “Ob, the puir mither hungry lad! He breaks my heart!” Duncan's arms closed convulsively about his wife. With a big brown hand he lovingly stroked her rough sorrel hair. “Sarah, you're a guid woman!” he sald. “You're a michty guid woman! Ye hae a way o’ speakin’ out at times [hats like the inspired prophets of the All through the winter Freckles’ en- tire energy was given to keeping up his lines and his “chickens” from freezing or starving. When the first breath of spring touched the Limber- lost and the snow receded before it: when the catkins began to bloom: when there came a hint of green to the trees, bushes and swale; when the lifted their heads and the pulse of the newly resurrected season beat strong in the heart of nature, something new stirred in the breast of the boy. Nature atways levies her tribute. Now she laid a powerful hand on the soul of Freckles, to which the boy's whole being responded, though he had not the least idea what was troubling him. Duncan accepted his wife's theory that it was a touch of spring fever, but Freckles knew better. He had never been so well. [Continued next week.] Perfectly Proper. Smith — Jones seems to have 00 thought for anything execépc Mls clothes. Brown-—Yes; be Is perfectly wrapped up io them. Good faith is a seldom guest. When you have him hold him fast.—German Medical. a —— Endorsed 1 at Home. SUCH PROUF AS THIS SHOULD CONVINCE ANY BELLEFONTE CITIZEN. ELECTRIC FANS, ii... Do you remember the heat of July 4th last year? Don't wait until the hot weather gets you. meet it with one of our Be prepared to ...ELECTRIC FANS..... BELLEFONTE ELECTRIC CO. Eithe: Phone. 57-21-4t.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers