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About The Hesperian / (Lincoln, Neb.) 1885-1899 | View Entire Issue (April 15, 1893)
THE HESPERIAN the wheat fields; tho mowers swinging their cradles and the binders following close be hind. Along tho fences companies of bare footed children were picking berries. On the bridge a lank youth sat patiently fishing in the stream where no fish had been caught for years. Allen watched them all until a passing cloud made the valley dark, then his eyes wandered to where tho Bluo Ridge lay against tho sky, faint and hazy as the mountains of Beulah laud. Allen still whistled lazily as he lay there, lie was noted for his whistling. He was naturally musical, but on Limber Ridge the mouth organ and jewsharp arc considered the only thoroughly respectable instruments, and he preferred whistling to either, ne could whistle anything from "Champagne Charley" to the opera airs he heard tho city folks playing in the summer at the Springs. There was a marvelous sweet and mellow quality about that chirp of his, like the soft ened fire of tho famous apple brandy he made from his little still in tho mountains. The mountain folk always said they could tell Allen Poole's whiskey or his whistle wherever they found them. Beyond his music and his brandy and his good heart there was not much to Allen. He was never known to do any work except to pour apples into his still and drink freely of the honied lire which came out of the worm. As he said himself, between his still and the women and the revenue officers ho had scarcely time to eat. Tho officers of the law hated him because they knew him to be an incorrigible 'moonshiner," yet never could prove any thing against him. The women all loved him because he was so big and blue-eyed and so thoroughly a man, no was happy enough and good natured enough; still it was no wonder that old Sargent did not want his daughter to marry the young man, for making whiskey on one's own hook and one's own authority is not a particularly safe or honorable business. But the girl was willing and Allen was very much so, and they had taken matters into their own hands and meant to elope that night. Allen was not thinking very seriously about it. Ho never took anything very seriously. Ho was just thinking that the dim bluenoss of tho mountains over there was like her eyes when they had tears in thorn, and wondering why it was that when ho was near her ho always felt such an irresistablo impulse to pick her up and carry her. When ho began to get hungry ho arose and yawned and began to stroll lazily down the mountain side, his heavy boot heels cutting through the green moss and craunching the soft slate rock un derneath, whistling "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" as he went. II. It was about nine o'clock that evening when Allen crossed the old foot bridge and started down the creek lane toward the mountain, ne kept carefully in tho shadow of the trees, for he had good cause to fear that night. There was a little frown on his face, for when he got home at noon he found his shanty in confusion; the revenue officer had been there and had knocked tho still to pieces and chopped through the cop per worm with an ax. Even the winning of his sweatheart could not quite make up for the loss of his still. The creek lane, hedged on either side by tall maples, ran by a little grave yard. It was one of those little family burying grounds so common in the south, with its white headstones, tall, dark cedars, and masses of rosemary, myrtle and rue. Allen, like all the rest of the Mountain men, was supersti tious, and ordinarily he would have hurried past, not anxious to be near a grave yard after night. But now ho went up and leaned on the stone fence, and looked over at tho headstones which marked the sunken graves. Somehow he felt more pity for them than fear of them that night. That night of ail nights ho was so rich in hope and love, lord of so much life, that he wished ho could give a little of it to those poor, cold, stiff fellows shut up down there in their narrow boxes with prosy scripture text on their coffin plates, give a little of tho warm n
