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Dixie Hart By: Will N. (Will Nathaniel) Harben (1858-1919) |
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By WILL N. HARBEN Author of "The Redemption of Kenneth Galt," "Gilbert Neal,"
"Abner Daniel," "Pole Baker," etc. [Illustration] WITH FRONTISPIECE
A. L. BURT COMPANY
PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
Published by arrangement with Harper & Brothers
Copyright, 1910, by HARPER & BROTHERS TO THE MEMORY OF THE LATE
RICHARD WATSON GILDER, WHOSE
KINDLY APPRECIATION OF THE
CHARACTER OF "DIXIE HART" WAS MY
INSPIRATION IN WRITING THIS BOOK
DIXIE HART
CHAPTER I
In a blaze of splendor the morning sun broke over the mountain, throwing
its scraggy brown bowlders, spruce pines, thorn bushes, and tangled
vines into impenetrable shadow. Massed at the base and along the rocky
sides were mists as dense as clouds, through the filmy upper edges of
which the yellow light shone as through a mighty prism, dancing on the
dew coated corn blades, cotton plants, and already drinking from the
fresh ploughed, mellow soil of the farm lands which fell away in gentle
undulations to the confines of the village hard by. "A fellow couldn't ask for a prettier day than this, no matter how
greedy he was," Alfred Henley mused as he stood in the doorway of his
barn and heard the gnawing of the horses he had just fed in the stalls
behind him. A hundred yards distant, on the main travelled road which
ran into the village of Chester, only half a mile away, stood his house,
the eight rooms of which were divided into two equal parts by an open
veranda, in which there was a shelf for water pails, tin wash basins,
and a towel on a clumsy roller. A slender woman, with harsh, sharp
features, older looking than her thirty years would have justified, and
a stiff figure disguised by few attempts at adornment, was sweeping the
veranda floor, and in chairs propped back against the weather boarding
sat an old man and an old woman in the plainest of mountain attire. For a moment Henley's eyes rested on the group, and he sighed deeply.
"Yes, she's my wife," he said. "I owe her every duty, and, before God,
I'll stick to my vows and do what's right by her, come what may! She was
the only woman I thought I wanted, or ever could want. They say every
cloud has a silvery lining, but my cloud was made out of lead and not
rubbed bright at that. I reckon, if the truth must be told, that the
whole mistake was of my own making. Whatever the Creator does for good
or ill, He don't seem to bother about hitching folks together; He leaves
that job to the fools that are roped in. Well, I'm going to stick to the
helm and guide my boat the best I can. I made my bed, and I'm as good a
sleeper as the average." Here the attention of the man, who was tall, strong, good looking, and
about thirty five years of age, was attracted by the dull blows of an
axe falling on wood, and, looking over the rail fence into the yard of
an adjoining farm house, a diminutive affair of only four rooms and a
box like porch, he saw an attractive figure. It was that of a graceful
young woman about twenty two years of age. Her hair, which was a rich
golden brown, and had a tendency to curl, was unbound, and as she raised
and lowered her bare arms it swung to and fro on her shapely shoulders. "Poor thing!" the observer exclaimed. "Here I am complaining, and just
look at her! A stout, able bodied man that will grumble over a mistake
or two with a sight like that before his eyes ain't worth the powder and
lead that it would take to kill him. Look what she's took on her young
shoulders, and goes about with a constant smile and song on her red
lips. Yes, Dixie Hart shall be the medicine I'll take for my disease.
Whenever I feel like kicking over the traces I'll look in her direction... Continue reading book >>
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Literature |
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