Louisa Arrives at the Lee Buck Cal's: Chapter Three of Mountain Path

Abstract

Louisa Arrives at the Lee Buck Cal's Chapter Three of Mountain Path by HARRIETTE S. ARNOW The two earlier chapters relate Louisa Sheridan's experiences in reaching the remote hill country where she is to teach school for seven months. She arrives at the home of Lee Buck CaI, the school trustee, where she is to Uve after a long, strenuous , trek by mule back. She has already learned that the man who meets the bus and guides her into the back country is Chris Bledsoe, wanted for killing a sheriff in Tennessee and hiding out in the Cave Creek district, and also that "If as much as two hogs git into a fight, don't take no sides." Critics could likely find some minor awkwardnesses in this first novel, and, too, such motifs as the outsider, feuding, and moonshining are pretty much stock materials in the fiction of the Southern Mountains. However, Mrs. Arnow used these motifs in her own way so that they become vehicles for insight rather than for stock reactions. There is no condescension, but best of all, the characters seem real and Louisa, the outsider, is the naive one. Two log houses, one large and old, the other small and new, a tall barefooted boy, and a red cow with a too-prominent backbone were the only signs of civilization encountered on the way. The mules' shadows stretched ever farther before them, and Louisa, giving up all hope of dinner, consoled her outraged stomach with thoughts of supper, when it reminded her with a thrust of gnawing that she had not eaten since morning. It now seemed that countless ridges with their pines and twisting roads of red and yellow sand lay behind her, shutting the world as she had known it away. The man Chris rode with her as other men might ride alone, deep in his own thoughts and forgetful of her company, yet polite enough if she chanced a question. It irked her not a little that he should be so unconcerned by her presence, while she rode conscious of his every movement, her mind taken up with surmises as to what manner of man he might be. She wondered if he had killed a man as the trustee said, and wondered at herself still more because she thought it might be true and had no fear of him, only a great pity and a hope that it might not be so. They came to a ridge longer and higher than any of the others. The pines were larger here with less undergrowth between, affording glimpses into blue stretches of 45 outlying ridges and hills. A few, but only a few, showed tiny bald patches that might be hill pastures or fields of corn, but nowhere was there smoke or sight or sound of people. The ridge curved upon itself forming a narrow horseshoe, then stopped abruptly as if afraid to go farther. She could see no road beyond the ridge end, only the tops of pine trees glistening in the sunlight. "This is th' jumpin' off place," the man said, hastening his mule a little as if anxious to be off the ridge. Louisa felt the same urge for haste down into the deep valley. She did not know what might be there below the pines, but whatever it was, safety for the man must be a part of it. Without knowing why or caring she wanted that. The road was steeper than she had dared think it could be. The saddle, together with herself and the bucket of school supplies , seemed always ready to land on the mule's ears, but by some miracle continued to halt itself just back of the dizzily pitching shoulders. Moll skidded a bit, and sat for a time on her hind quarters, but soon righted herself and went on carefully enough. The incline became less severe, but still it was down, always down. Pines became less frequent with a goodly showing of beech and maple and poplar and a scattering of hickory. Sandstone no longer grated under the mules' shoes, but limestone rocks interspersed with pebbles and blue mud. Then red clay and...