Freckles

re Taken and the Limb

ht have been mistaken for a tramp, but he was truly seeking work. He was intensely eager to belo

he horses, and could scent the tempting odors of cooking food. A feeling of homeless friendlessness swept over him in a sickening wave. Wi

t and crunched, in deep content, the grain given them. Duncan, the brawny Scotch head-teamster, lovingly wiped the flanks of his big bays with handfuls of pawpaw leaves, as he softly whistled, "O wha will be my dearie, O!" and a cricket beneath th

approac

eak with the

m and answered careles

: "If you will be having the goodness to point him o

y to a rough board table where a broad, square-sh

man wanting to be taken on t

answer. "I never needed a goo

a page and carefull

this fellow," volunteered the

re line. He lifted his shoulders, took a step forward, and thrust o

of the Boss sharply. "I will intervi

meet the eyes of the manager; then his arm dropped and a wave of whiteness swept him. The Boss had not even turned

his sweaty face, and tried to straighten his hair with his fingers. He broke a spray of ironwort beside him and used the purple bloom to beat the dust from

flexible, but the Boss was always kind. His habits were simple. He shared camp life with his gangs. The only visible signs of wealth consisted of a big, shimmering diamond

any deference from his men, yet so intense was his personality that no man of them ever had attempted a familiarity.

y on this business after the father's death had been his ambition. He had sent the boy through the universities of Ox

atmosphere was intoxicating. The intense silence, like that of a great empty cathedral, fascinated him. He gradually learned that, to the shy wood creatures that darted across his path or peeped inquiringly from leafy ambush, he was brother. He found himself approaching, with a feeling

ll managed the milling process and passed the lumber to the factory. From the lumber, Barthol made beautiful and useful furniture, which Uptegrove scattered all over the world from a big wholesale house. Of the thousands who saw their faces reflected on the polished surfaces of that furn

-haired, with a homely Irish face, but in the steady gray eyes, straightly meeting his searching ones of blue, there was unswerving candor

g for work?" qu

nswered

only one man I want at present-a hardy, big fellow with a stout heart and a strong body.

hat in hand, w

u thought I might b

carcely definite 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, and presaged a misuse of infinitives

south, for almost a year yet; so we have blazed a trail and strung barbed wires securely around this lease. Before we return to our work, I must put this property in the hands of a reliable, brave, strong man who will guar

ith such intense eagerness that he was beguiling the

he pleaded. "I am never sick. I could walk the trail twice, t

irst place, you would be afraid. In stretching our lines, we killed six rattlesnakes almost as long as your body and as thick as your arm.

ld want strict watch kept every day. You would always be alone, and I don't guarantee what is in the Limberlost. It is lying here as it has lain since the beginning of time, and it is alive with forms and voic

number of serious reasons. He came here, entered the swamp alone, and succeeded in locating and marking a number of valuable trees that he was endeavoring to sell to a rival

teams and men enough: that all anyone could do wou

replied

as closely, and coming as fast, as a

a man would be half so important as his grit and faithfulness, come to thi

folding his arms, stood straight as the trees around h

les!"

an, "but I scarcely can put 'Freckles' o

ny name," re

derstand,"

ng else in all me life, and I don't understand. Does it seem to you that anyone would take a newborn baby and row over it, until it was bruised bl

eply ready, and presently in a lo

. For the most part we were a lot of little Irishmen together. They could always find

cLean regretted the questi

qualify it by adding: "You see, it's like this, sir. Kindnesses that people are paid to lay off in job lot

cLean, nodding

aining they gave to the little children, they sent me to the closest ward school as long as the law would let them; but I was never like any of the other children, and they all knew

sed a home and love, on account of me hand and ugly face; but it was all

l that man that I was a hand short, and he knocked me down the minute he found I was the boy who had been sent him. Between noon and that evening, he and his son close my age had me in pretty much the same shape in which I was found in the beginning, so

he smile on his lips, but he liked the

t went almost as sore as the beatings, for where I was we were always kept tidy and sweet-smelling, anyway. I hustled clear into this State before I learned that man couldn't have kept me if he'd w

that a man no older than you and similar in every way could do this work very we

came forw

sleep," he said, "if I can have a Boss to work for like other men, and a plac

his heart he knew that to employ a stranger would be wret

pparatus, and a revolver. The first thing in the morning, I will take you the length of the trail myself and explain fully what I want done. All I ask of you is to come to me at once

and the Boss saw the swift spasm of pain

t. I've seen how they enter those poor little abandoned devils often enough to know. What they called me is no more my name than it is yours. I don't know what mine is, and

was probably what any other gentleman would have thought in the circumstances

n any other I have ever known. He went out five years ago, but that he would have been proud to leave you h

ears splashed on the soiled calico shirt. McLean was not surprised at

I will write it on the

ckles. "That makes me feel alm

ery right comes to claim you, you are mine. Now, co

hts and sounds of the camp, his h