[Gutenberg 5306] • Down the Ravine

CHAPTER I. THE new inoon, a gleaming scimitar, cleft the gauzy mists above a rugged spur of the Cumberland Mountains. The sky, still crim son and amber, stretched vast and lonely above the vast and lonely landscape. A fox was barking in the laurel. This was an imprudent proceeding on the part of the fox, considering the value of his head-gear. A young mountaineer down the ravine was reminded, by the sharp, abrupt sound, of a premium offered by the State of Tennessee for the scalp and ears of the pestif erous red fox. All unconscious of the legislation of exter mination, the animal sped nimbly along the ledge of a cliff, becoming visible from the ravine below, a tawny streak against the gray rock. Swift though he was, a jet of red light flashing out in the dusk was yet swifter. The echoing crags clamored with the report of a rifle. The tawny streak was suddenly still. Three boys appeared in the depths of the ra vine and looked up. quot Thar now Ye can t git him off n that thar ledge, Birt, quot said Tim Griggs. quotThe contrairy beastis could n t hev fund a more ill- convenient spot ter die ef he hed sarched the mounting.quot quot I ain t goin ter leave him thar, though, quot stoutly declared the boy who still held the quot rifle. That thar fox s scalp an his two ears air wuth one whole dollar.quot Tim remonstrated. quot Look-a-hyar, Birt ef ye try ter climb up this hyar bluff, ye 11 git yer neck bruk, sure.quot Birt Dicey looked up critically. It was a rugged ascent of forty feet or more to the nar row ledge where the red fox lay. Although the face of the cliff was jagged, the rock greatly splintered and fissured, with many ledges, and here and there a tuft of weeds or a stunted bushgrowing in a niche, it was very steep, and would afford precarious foothold. The sunset was fading. The uncertain light would multiply the dangers of the attempt. But to leave a dollar lying there on the fox s head, that the wolf and the buzzard might dine expensively to-morrow quot quotAn me so tried for money he exclaimed, thinking aloud. Nate Griggs, who had not before spoken, gave a sudden laugh, a dry, jeering laugh. quotEf all the foxes on the mounting war ter hold a pertracted meet n, jes ter pleasure you- uns, thar would n t be enough scalps an ears mongst em ter make up the money ye hanker fur ter buy a horse.quot To buy a horse was the height of Birt s am bition. His mother was a widow and as an instance of the fact that misfortunes seldom come singly, the horse on which the family de pended to till their scanty acres died shortly after his owner. And so, whenever the spring opened and the ploughs all over the country-