, Pa., July 19, 1912.
FRECKLES
By
Gene Stratton-
Porter
COPYRIGHT, 1904, BY DOUBLEDAY,
& CO.
PACE
[Continued from last week. |
SYNOPSIS.
Freckles, a homeless boy, is hired by
Boss McLean to guard the expensive tim-
ber in the Limberlost from timber thieves.
Freckles does his work faithfully, makes
friends with the birds and yearns to know
more about nature. He lives with Mr.
and Mrs, Duncan.
He resolves to get books and educate
himself. He becomes interested in a huge
pair of vultures and calls his bird friends
his “chickens.”
Some of the trees he is guarding are
worth $1,000 each. Freckles’ books arrive.
He receives a call from Wessner.
CHAPTER V.
FRECKLES FACES TROUBLE.
OMING from a long day on the
trail, Freckles saw Duncan's
children awaiting him much
closer the swale than they
usually ventured. and from their wild
gestures he knew that something had
happened. He broke into a run, but
the cry that reached him was, “The
books have come!”
They found books on birds, trees,
flowers, moths and butterflies. There
was also one containing Freckles’
bulifrog. true to life. And besides
these were a butterfly net, a natural-
ist's tin specimen box, a bottle of
gasoline, a box of cotton, a paper of
long steel specimen pins and a letter
telling what all these things were and |
how to use them.
At the discovery of each new treas-
ure Freckles shouted. “Will you be |
looking at this now!”
Mrs. Duncan cried,
drawed on!"
When Freckles started for the trail
next morning the shining new speci-
men box flashed on his back. The
black “chicken,” a mere speck in the
blue, caught the gleam of it and won.
dered what it was. The folded net
hung by the boy's hatchet, and the
bird book was in the box. He walked
thé line and tested each section scrupu-
lously. watching every foot of the trail,
for he was determined not to slight his
work. But if ever a boy “made haste
slowly” in a hurry it was Freckles that
morning. When at last he reached the
space he had cleared out and fitted up
around his case his heart swelled with
the pride of possessing even so much
that he could call his own.
He had made a large room with the
door of the case set even with one side
of it. On throa sides fine big bushes
of wild rose citmbed to the lower
branches of the trees. Part of his
walls were mallow, part alder, thorn.
willoyy and dogwood. Below there
filled in a solid mass of pale pink sheep
laurel and yellow St. John's wort,
“Weel.
while the amber threads of the dodder |
interlaced everywhere. At one side
the swamp came close and cattails
grew in profusion. In front of them
he had planted n row of water hya-
cinths without disturbing In the least
the state of their azure bloom, and
Where the ground rose higher for lis |
floor a row of foxfire that would soon
be open.
To the left be had discovered a queer
natural arrangement of the trees that
grew to giant size and were set in a
gradually warrowing space so that a
long, open vista stretched away until
lost in the dim recesses of the swamp.
A little trimming back of underbush
rolling out of dead logs, leveling of !
floor and carpeting of moss, made it |
easy to understand why Freckles had
named this the “cathedral,” yet he had
never been taught that “the groves
were God's first temples.”
On either side of the trees that con-
stituted the first arch of this dim vista |
of the swamp he planted ferns that
grew waist high this early in the sea-
son. and so skillfully had the work
been done that not a frond drooped
because of the change. Opposite he
cleared a space and made a flowerbed.
Every day saw the addition of new
specimens,
On the line side he left the bushes
the case he planted wild
bittersweet and wild grape-
and trained them over it until
i
—— '
cm————
1 be|
: what be says goes.”
! **Black vulture of the south.’”
“Here we are arrived at once.”
Freckles’
**Common in the south. Sometimes
‘called Jim Crow. Nearest equivalent
to C-a-t-b-a-r-t-es A-t-r-a-ta.’"”
“*— the Pharaoh's chickens of Euro-
pean species. Sometimes stray north
' as far as Virginia and Kentucky’ "—
| “And sometimes farther,” interpo-
lated Freckles, “cos 1 got them right
| bere in Indiana so like these pictures 1
can just see me big chicken bobbing
up to get bis ears boxed. Hey?”
* ‘Light blue eggs’ "—
“Golly, | got to be seeing them!
“+ — big as a common turkey’s, but
shaped like a hen's, heavily splotched
with chocolate’ "—
“Caramels, | suppose. And"—
** — in hollow logs or stumps.”
“0h, hagginy! Wasn't 1 barking up
the wrong tree though? Ought to been
looking near the ground all this time.
Now it's all to do over, and | suspect
the sooner | start the sooner I'll be |
likely to tind them.”
Freckles ate and drank his last drop
' of water. He sat resting a little and
| watching the sky to see if his big
| chicken was banging up there. But
| be came to. the earth abruptly, for
| there were steps coming down the
| trail that were neither McLean's nor |
| Duncan's, ahd there never had been
; others. Freckles’ heart leaped hotly.
| He ran a quick hand over his belt to
| feel if his revolver and hatchet were
‘ there, caught up his cudgel! and laid
it across his knees, then sat quietly
| waiting. Was it Black Jack, or some
| one even worse? Forced to do some-
| thing to brace his nerves, he puckered
his stiffening lips and began whistling
a tune he bad led in his clear tenor
every year of his life at the home
Christmas exercises.
His quick Irish wit roused to the
ridiculousness of it and he burst into
'a laugh that steadied him amazingly.
Through the bushes he caught a
glimpse of the oncoming figure. His
| neart flooded with joy, for it was a
| man from the gang. Wessner had
been bis bunk mate the night he came
down the corduroy. This was no tim-
ber thief. Freckles sprang up and
called cbeerily, a warm welcome on his
face. .
“Well, it's good telling If you're glad
| to see me,” sald Wessner. “We been
bearing down at the camp you were
80 mighty touchy you didn't allow a
! man within a rod of the line.”
“No more do I,” answered Freckles.
“if he's a stranger, but you're from
McLean, ain't you?"
“Oh, curse McLean!" said Wessner,
Freckles gripped the cudgel.
“And are you railly saying so?" he
inguired with elaborate politeness.
“Yes. | am,” said Wessner. “So
would every other man of the gang if
anything unless maybe that other siob-
bale Scotchman Duncan. Grog. |
t the lives ofit of us! Working ux
like dogs and paying us starvation
| wages. while be rolls up his millions
and lives like a prince!”
Green lights began to play through
| the gray of Freckles’ eyes.
| “Wessner,” he said impressively,
| “you'd make a tine pattern for the fa
| ther of liars! Every man on thar
gang is strong and bilthy, paid all be
‘earns and treated with the courtesy of
| a gentleman. As for the boss living
lke a prince, be shares fare with you
| every day of your lives.” ’
| Wessner was pot a born diplomat,
but be saw .e was on the wrong tack,
and he tried another.
“Freckles, old fellow,” he sald, “if
| you let me «ive you a pointer 1 can
| put you on to making a cool five hun:
dred without stepping out of your
Freckles drew back.
“You needn't be afraid of speaking
up,” he said. “There isn't a soul in
the Limberlost save the birds and the
beusts unless some of your sort’s come
along and's crowding the privileges ot
the legal tinints.”
“None of my friends along,” said
Wessner. “Nobody knew 1 came but
Black J—1 mean a friend of mine. If
you want to hear sense and act with
reason he can see you later, but it ain't
necessary. We can make all the plans
needed. The trick's so dead small and
“Must be if you have the engineering
of it,” said Freckles. But he heard
with a sigh of relief that they were
| alone.
Wessner was impervious. “You just
bet it is! Why, only think, Freckles,
slavin’ away at a measly little $30 a
month, and here is a chance to clear
$500 in a day! You surely won't be
the fool to miss it!”
“And how was you proposing for
me to stale it?” inquired Freckles.
“Or am I just to find it laying in me
path about the line?”
“That's it, Freckles,” blustered the
Dutchman, “you're just to find it.
You needn't know a thing. You name
“Depinds entirely on the man,”
Freckles. The Mit of a lark hanging
above the swale beside them was not
sweeter than the sweetness of his
voice. “To some it would seem to
come aisy as breathing, and to some
wringin’ the last drop of their hearts’
blood couldn't force thim! I'm not
the man that goes into a scheme like
that with the blindfold over me eyes,
for, you see, it manes to break trust
with the boss, and I've served him
faithful as I knew. You'll have to be
making the thing very clear to me
understanding.’
“It's so dead easy,” repeated Wess-
ner, “it makes me tired of the sim-
| Pleness of it. You see, there's a few
trees in the swamp that's real gold
they wasn't too big cowards to say |
Pl
back in. but one's square on the
Why. your pottering old Scotch
of a boss pailed the wire to it
with his own hands! He never no-
ticed where the bark had been peeled
| mor saw what it was. If you will stay
| on this side of the trail just one day
| we can have it cut, loaded and ready
| to drive out at night. Next morning
you can find it. report and be the
busiest man in the search for us. We
| know where to fix it all safe and easy.
| Then McLean has a pet up with a
couple of the gang that there can’t be
| & raw stump found in the Limberlost.
| There's plenty of witnesses to swear
There's three especial. Two
punched him in the pit of the stomach,
80 that he doubled up with a groan.
Before Wessner could straighten him-
self Freckles was on him. fighting like
the wildest fury. The Dutchman dealt
thundering blows that sometimes
landed and sent Freckles reeling and
sometimes missed. while he went
plunging into the swale with the im-
| betus of them. Freckles could not
strike with half Wessner's force, but
he could land three blows to Wessner's
(one. It was here that Freckles’ days
| of alert warching on the line, the per-
| petual swinging of the heavy cudgel
and the endurance of all weather stood
him In good stead, for he was as tough
i
i
| to it, and | know three that will. |
| There's a cool thousand, and this tree
lis worth all of that raw. Say, it's a
| gold mine, 1 tell you, and just $500 ot |
{it is yours. There's no danger on
{ earth to you, for you've got McLean
| that bamboozled you could sell out the
! whole swamp and he'd never mistrust
| you. What do you say?"
| Freckles’ soul. was satisfied. “Is
| that ail? be asked.
“No, it ain't.” said Wessner, “If
you want to brace up and be a man
and go into the thing for keeps you
| can muke five times that in a week.
| My friend knows a dozen others we
could get cut in a few days, and aii
you'd have to do would be to keep out
of sight.
life like a gentleman somewhere else.
What do you think about it?"
Freckles purred like a kitten.
*“'Twould be a rare joke on the boss.”
he said, “to be staalin’ from him the
very thing he's trusted me to guard
and be getting me wages all winter
throwed in free. And you're making |
the pay awful high. Me to be getting
five hundred for such a simple little
thing as that.
royal indade! It's away beyond all
I'd be expecting. Sivinteen cints would |
It must |
| be a big price for that job.
| be looked into thorough. Just you wait
| here until 1 do a minute's turn in the |
| swamp, and then I'll be eschorting yon
| out to the clearing and giving you the
| answer.”
Freckles lifted the overhanging
| bushes and hurried back to the case.
| He unslung the specimen box and laid
it inside with his hatchet and revolver.
He slipped the key in his pocket and
went back to Wessner.
{ “Now for the answer,
| “Stand up?”
| There was Iron In his voice. and he
| was commanding ike an outraged gen
| eral. “Anything you want to be tak-
| ing off "* he questioned.
Wessner looked the astonishment he
| felt. “Why, no, Freckles,” he said.
| “Have the goodness to be calling me
| Mr. McLean.” snapped Freckles. “I'm
| after resarvin' me pet name for the
| use of me friends! You may stand
| with your back to the light or be tak-
: ing any advantage you want.”
i “Why. what do you mean?’ splutter
ed Wessner.
“I'm manin’."” said Freckles tersely,
| “to lick n quarter section of h— out
| of you, and may the Holy Vargin stay
' me before | leave you here carrion, tor
| your carcass would turn the stummicks
| of me chickens!"
Down at the camp that morning
| Wessner's conduct had been so pal
‘ pable au excuse to force a discharge
; that Duncan moved near McLean and
| whispered. “Think of the boy, sir!”
| McLean was so troubled that au
| hour later be mounted Nellie and fol
| lowed Wessner to bis home in Wildcat
Hollow, only to find that he had left
| there a little before, heading for the
| Limberlost. McLean rode at top
| speed. When Mrs. Duncan told him
that a man answering Wessper's de-
| scription bad gone down the west side
he said.
mare in ber charge and followed on
foot. When he heard voices he enter
ed the swamp and silently crept near
just in time to hear Wessner whine:
“But 1 can't fight you, Freckles, 1
; hain’t done nothing to you. I'm away
bigger than you, and you've only one
hand.”
CHAPTER VIL
WESSNER GETS A THRASHING,
r—
bushes like a tiger ready to
spring, but as Freckles’ voice
reached him he held himself
with the effort of his life to see what
mettle was in the boy.
“Don’t you be wasting of me good
time in the numbering of me hands,”
howled Freckles. ‘“T'he stringth of me
cause will make up for the weakness
of me mimbers, and the size of a cow-
ardly thief don’t count. You'll think
i all the wildcats of the Limberlost is
| turned loose on you whin I come
. aginst you, and, as for me cause, |
| slept with y
come down the corduroy like a dirty,
friendiess tramp, and the boss was for
taking me up, washing, clothing and
feeding me and giving me a home full
of love and tinderness, and a master
to look to, and good, well earned mon-
ey in the bank. He's trusting me his
spotted toad of the big road, and in-
sults me, as is an honest Irish gintle-
min, by hinting that you concaive I'd
be willing to shut me eyes and hold
fast while you rob him of the thing
I was set and paid to guard and then
act the sneak and liar to him and ruin
and etarnally blacken the soul of me.
ing before 1 forget the laws of a gin.
-tlemin's game and split your dirty
. head with me stick!"
Wessner backed away, mumbling.
“But I don't want to hurt you, Free
kles.” :
“Oh, don't you!" raged the boy.
“Well, you ain't resembling me none,
for I'm itchin' like death to git me
fingers in the face of you.”
He danced up and. as Wessner
Innged out in self defense, ducked un-
der his arm lke a bantam and
Then you could take your
money and skip some night and begin
You're trating me most
of the swamp near noon he left the |
HE boss crouched among the |
. Wessner, the night 1 |
heartful, and here comes you, you '
You rascal,” raved Freckles, “be fight. |
Oo |
\
ae
=
“2X
QR oo Yad
o~
> Rosen.
=<
| PANG WENT HIS FIST INTO WERSSNER'S
FACE.
| as a pine knot and as agile as a panther.
| He danced. ducked and dodged. For
| the first five minutes he endured fear-
ful punishment. Then Wessner's
breath commenced to whistle between
his teeth, when Freckles had only just
begun fighting. He sprang back with
shrill laughter.
“Begolly. and will your honor be
whistling the horanpipe for me to be
dancing of?” he cried.
Spang went his fist into Wessner's
face, and he was past him into the
swale.
“And would you be pleased to tune
up a little liveer?' he gasped and
clipped his ear as he sprang back.
Wessner lunged at him in blind fury.
Freckles, seeing an opening. forgot the
laws of a gentleman's game and drove
the toe of his beavy wading boot into
Wessner's middle until he doubled up
| and fell heavily. In a flash Freckles
| was on him. [or a time McLean could
| not see what was happening. “Go!
| Go to him now!* he commanded bim-
self, but so intense was his desire to
see the hoy win alone that he could
not stir,
At last Freckles sprang vp and back:
ed away. “Time! te yelied like
| fury. “Be getting up, Mr. Wessner,
and don't be afraid of hurting me. I'll
| let you throw in an extra band and
| lick yon to me complate satisfaction,
‘all the same. Did you hear me call
| the limit? Will you get up and be
. facing me?”
As Wessner struggled to his feet he
| resembled a battlefield, for his cloth-
| ng was in ribbons and nis face and
| hands streaming blood.
I *I=1 guess | got enough,” he mum-
| bled.
“Oh, do you?” roared [reckles.
“Well, this ain't your say. Yon come
| to me ground lying about me boss
I'd stale from his very
i
Now,
other day. The men removed their
|
|
|
|
| “The West”
|
1
©d by the gale.
ELECTRIC FANS,
———
SISTER
Hood's Sarsaparilia.
like a drum major, stuck it upright In | = : A
the muck and marched on tiptoe over
to Wessner mechanically, as a puppet
worked by a string. Bending over. | Roots, Barks, Her
Freckles reached an arm about Wess- | tan ee
ner’'s waist and helped him to his feet. | 1 ave great medicinal power, are
{ sed to their hi rs
“Careful, now,” he cautioned; “be | fying and sariching the blood. ss they are
careful, Freddy. There's danger of you | fombived in Hood's Sarsaparilla, which is
8 Be iil hief from a back a. testimonials pescived by pen
a ere a © 0 years—a record unparal -
Fishing \ edintheh { §
en ere smear? Tibet Wear | Fog le fod ghar
ner’s eyes and nose. La anit about. | took Hood's Sarsapari
“Come. Fredd 7. me child.” he ad. si my whole system F Cactoon. Bor Wo.
monis essner; s time little - uN. :
boys were getting home. I've me work There is no real substitute for
to do and can't be entertaining you
any more today. Come back tomor
row if you ain't through yet and we'll
HOODS SARSAPARILLA
Get it to-day in usual liquid form or
repate the perfarmance.”
[Continued next week.]
chocolated tablets called Sarsatabs. —57-26
Quarreled in Life's Sunset.
A curious divorce case is before the
court at Auxerre, northern France,
in which the wife, aged eighty-seven,
sues her husband, aged ninety-three.
The aged couple bad lived a happy
married life for over thirty-seven
years until last summer, when al-
tercations were caused by the jeal-
ousy of madame. At first laughing
at his wife's reproaches, the husband
later became exasperated, and turned
her out of doors. “Disregarding the
loving care [ have always shown him.”
the old lady said indignantly in court.
“he insults me and treats me like a
person of ne account. Fancy at my
age, too.” “It was you,” he retorted,
“who brought accusations against me
and made out [ was a ne'er-do-well.”
Waverl 3 Oils.
Four Days Without Food or Shelter. |
After being marooned on Vendova |
island which is uninhabited, for four |
days, without food, two Bellingham,
Wash., business mon, zucceeded in
reaching safety at Eliza Island the
clothing and used it as a sail for their
small launch, which had heen wreck-
They drifted about
the greater part of one night, battling
water out of their hoat constantly to | ™ na
IIS.
prevent it from sinking. Medical.
The West and New York. It's A Cure That's
What is “The West?” How many -FOR-
various and surprising individualities SS =
are included In these words? New RHEUMATISM, GOUT.
Yor can see through a millstone if SCIATICA. AND
t has a hole in it, but she is less LUMB
apt to jump at conclusions than some Wehave chrad BAGO. with
other communities; she wants to “be
shown” quite as earpestly as Mis- BREAK-UP
souri; perhaps she can “understand
the West” quite as intelligently as
ean understand New
York.—New York Evening Sun.
AND,IT WILL CURE You
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by Sidney Krumrine, Druggist’
m. Bellefonte, Pa.
Tor sule
o7-
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Our sanitary methods of ster-
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of pasteurizing the beer after it
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guarantees the lasting purity of
our product, We bottle our beer
at the brewery in AMBRE bot-
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Elk County Brewing Company
ST. MARYS, PENNSYLVANIA
57-27-14¢
EE ——————
The Pennsylvania State College.
The : Pennsylvania : State : College
EDWIN ERLE SPARKS, Ph.D., L.L. D., PRESIDENT.
Established and maintained by the joint action of the United States Government and the
FIVE GREAT SCHOOLS—Agriculture, Engineering, Liberal Arts,
Mining, and Natural Science, offering th -8ix courses of four years
each—Also courses in Home Yi co Art and Physical
Education—TUITION FREE to both sexes: incidental charges mod-
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First semester middle of September; second semester the first
on for Teachers about the third Monday of June
TY YY YY YY YY
of February; Summer
of each year. For catalogue, bulletins, announcements, etc., address
57-26 THE REGISTRAR, State College, Pennsylvania.
TTY Yr "YY TT" rT WY WW TY vr YY YY YY TY YY
dv wv we
ELECTRIC FANS.
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ee —————— 4 —— A ———
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