CHAPTER X
A CABIN IN THE CLEARING
AS the scout-master found himself drawing near the spot where he had hadhis former interesting meeting with little Conrad, he listened witheagerness to catch the first faint notes from the quavering strings ofthe wonderful violin that had once been in the possession of OvidAnderson.
"I'm no judge of such instruments myself," Elmer had told his chums whenspeaking of the matter, "but I expect that violin must be a valuablepiece of polished wood. It certainly had an extra sweet singing tone tome, and seemed to just _talk_ as the boy drew his bow over the strings.I wouldn't be surprised now if it turned out to be a Stradivarius or aCremona, which I understand represent the finest makes of violins knownto the profession."
When George seemed inclined to scoff at the idea, since such aninstrument was likely to be worth thousands of dollars, and would havebeen sold long ago to get common necessities, Elmer had also told himthat perhaps the daughter of the famous player would have parted withher soul before allowing that remembrance of her father leave her house.
Then Elmer caught the first faint sound of music. It thrilled him as hecontinued to hurry forward, and the sounds became stronger. Yes, andsure enough, there was lacking now some of that sadness he had detectedin the playing of Conrad on the preceding day. Doubtless hope filled theaspiring heart of the lad. His talk with his mother may have given himnew zeal, and the rainbow of promise was arching his heaven even then ashe played, and waited for his new friend to appear.
"That sounds more like it," Elmer told himself, "and shows what acreature of circumstances a genius must always be. Even this child makesthe music he finds in his own soul. But it's sweeter by far than what heplayed yesterday, for there is the breath of hope and promise in everynote."
He soon came in sight of the familiar stump, and found the lad curled upthere as before, with his violin tucked under his chin; just as thoughhe might be to the manner born, while his deft right hand wielded thebow so tenderly that the daintiest sort of sound came forth at hiscommand.
But he was watching at the same time, and no sooner did Elmer appearthan the playing abruptly ceased, while the boy came running to meethim. Elmer then felt sorry that he had not remained in concealment awhile longer, so that he might have enjoyed more of that crude butappealing music.
"Oh! I'm glad to see you again, Elmer!" exclaimed the boy, as he heldout his hand, which the other did not attempt to squeeze too roughly,for he remembered that those little digits had to retain theirsensitiveness to a remarkable degree in order to coax persuasive notesto come forth.
"But before we do any talking," said Elmer, "you must let me hear youplay again. I notice that you are in a more joyous mood today, for itshows in your music. Please sit on your stump again, Conrad, and humorme for a while. Afterwards we can have a nice long chat; and I'm meaningto ask a great favor of you later."
The boy's eyes flashed with genuine pleasure. It was evidently a treatfor him to have an audience besides the squirrels and rabbits, withperhaps a curious old red fox that, prowling around in search of adinner, may have stopped to investigate the origin of those queersqueaks and twirls, and those sobbing notes, so like a hen partridgeclucking to her brood.
For possibly ten minutes or so he played with scarcely any intermission.Elmer thought he could never tire of drinking in the sweet combinationsof sounds which that deft little hand tempted from the five strings ofthe violin. It seemed as though the spirit of the old virtuoso musthaunt the sacred instrument, and give forth some of his choicest chordsthrough the medium of his descendant, heir to his undoubted genius.
And it also seemed as though the lad's power to delineate the soundsthat appealed to him from the woods and waters was unlimited, for heseldom repeated as he went on, making up astonishing strain afterstrain.
Elmer was more than satisfied now his first impression had not beenwrong. He felt doubly convinced that all this lad needed to develop intoone of the greatest players the world had ever known was the directinghand of a master, who could guide him past the rocks on which his youngtalent might be wrecked if not taken in time.
"Now, that is enough for today," said Conrad, suddenly allowing his handholding the bow to drop; "I never try to play when something insidetells me to stop. And I'm eager to tell you something good. My motherwants to meet you, Elmer."
This intelligence caused the scout-master to smile with pleasure.
"Why," he exclaimed eagerly, "do you know, that was the favor I meantwhen I said I wanted to ask you something. I have been wishing I couldmeet the mother of my new little friend; for I am sure she must be aremarkable woman."
"So she is," stoutly asserted Conrad, faithful little soul; "and thebest mother there ever could be. All I know she has taught me, for, yousee, she used to be a school teacher once, after grandfather died, andthe money was lost."
"You told her about me, then?" asked Elmer.
"Why, of course; I tell her everything that happens to me!" Conraddeclared, simply. "I couldn't have a secret from my mother, could I? Andyou ought to have seen how her eyes sparkled when she heard what yousaid about seeing I had a chance to learn the many things I ought toknow about using a violin properly. Why, Elmer, I guess it must havebeen the wish of her heart, that some one would come along and say that;because she took me in her arms and hugged me, yes, and she cried some,too, I know she did, for I felt hot tears on my cheek; but then it musthave been because she was so happy, for she laughed ever so hard rightafterwards."
Elmer himself was deeply affected. He could picture that loving mother,possessed of the knowledge that the fires of genius burned in the soulof her child, and each night praying that in due time the opportunitymight come for that to be developed into a glorious flame; and howovercome she might be on realizing that the one great wish of her wholelife seemed about to be realized.
They talked on for quite a long while. Conrad with a child's naturalcuriosity asked many questions about the outside world, of which he hadseen so little of recent years, since his father seemed to want to getaway from all mankind. Elmer told him many things that excited hisinterest. Then finally he mentioned the fact that time was passing, andbefore a great while he would have to think of returning to his chums atthe camp.
"I'd like very much to meet your good mother before I go back, Conrad,"he suggested, at which the lad seized his hand and began to lead himoff.
"So you shall," he remarked, briskly, "and I know she's waiting for meto fetch you over, because she told me to be sure and do so. You'll likemy mother, Elmer, I know you will."
Elmer could understand why a mother should be anxious to meet one whohad made such a vast promise to her boy, and which might mean so much inshaping his destiny.
"She wants to size me up," he told himself, with a satisfied smile, ashe walked along at the side of the chattering boy; "she wants to see ifI look like a vain boaster, or one she could trust. Well, I hope I don'tdisappoint her, that's all."
Any one who knew Elmer Chenowith well could have assured that anxiousmother she could place the most implicit trust in a boy built after histype; his word was as good as his bond any day in his home town; andthat is where they know a boy best of all.
Pretty soon they sighted a cabin through the trees. Smoke was comingfrom the chimney, made of slabs, and hard mud that had gained theconsistency of cement by the drying process. Elmer smiled when he sawthat it was of the same blue consistency as the thin column that hadcaught his attention on the preceding morning, and caused him to strollthat way later on. Yes, and he could catch the incense of burninghickory, than which there cannot be anything more delicious in thenostrils of a real fire-worshipper such as Elmer.
Their coming must have been noticed, for quickly a form appeared in theopen doorway. It was that of a small woman, evidently Conrad's mother,for the boy quickly waved his violin toward her, and called outjoyously:
"Here he is, mother; I've brought Elmer home with me to meet you, justas I promised I would!"
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She greeted the scout warmly, and asked him inside where it was cool,out of the sun. Elmer felt rather than saw her eyes fixed eagerly on hisface. Apparently Conrad's mother must have been more than satisfied withwhat she saw there, for she looked very contented, and even happy.
They were soon chatting as though the best of friends. Elmer told herabout his home, and how he felt positive there were several well-to-dopeople in the town, lovers of good music, who would, if only they couldhear Conrad play, be delighted to make up a generous purse and see thatthe grandson of so famous a man as Ovid Anderson was placed under theproper teacher in New York.
He also told about the father of one of his comrades having sent a girlabroad to have her voice cultivated, and how after she came to sing inopera, and turned out to be a great star, she had insisted on returningevery cent he had expended on her, so that he might pass it along tosome other poor girl or boy who had the gift of music, without theopportunity to accomplish results through lack of means.
Elmer was too wise to mention that name of Snodgrass when telling this;he feared that it might be too much like flaunting a red flag before abull; for if Mrs. Shock shared Jem's antipathy for the Snodgrass clan,she would likely decline to let Conrad profit by such generosity.
It was plain to be seen that what he said interested her greatly. Shetold him more or less of her hopes and fears concerning the prodigy overwhose future such clouds of uncertainty hung. Elmer sympathized withher, too, and quite won her heart by his manner; but then that was notan unusual thing with the scout leader, who by Nature had been giftedwith a winning way that gained him hosts of loyal friends.
A little to the boy's surprise, too, she even ventured to speak ofherself. Naturally she must have guessed that his curiosity would bearoused on finding the daughter of a famous man mated with one whompeople deigned to look down on, and even shun, though, for that matter,Jem Shock wanted none of their society.
"They do not know him as Conrad and I do," she went on, hastily, afterintroducing the subject of her own accord. "I first met him away up inthe mountains. After my father died, and the property was taken from methrough an error in his will, I taught school for some years to gain aliving. Then, one fall when I was in the Adirondacks, it chanced that adreadful forest fire swept down from every side. I was caught in themidst of it, and I had given up all hope of surviving; when _he_ cameand took me up in his arms. Somehow I seemed to feel that all would bewell. Oh! how strong he was, and how he braved every sort of peril inorder to carry me safely through. It was then and there that my heartwent out to him. And afterwards we were married. He has always been thesame to me, tender and kind; though latterly his life has been souredthrough the treachery of one whom he trusted."
She stopped there, sighed, and looked sad. Elmer would have liked verymuch to know how they came to be there near Raccoon Bluff, which, by astrange twist of Fate, had recently come into the possession of the veryman against whom Jem Shock believed he had such a grievance. It was toodelicate a subject, however, for him to attempt to handle; she must tellhim, if at all, through her own volition, Elmer concluded.
But somehow it did him good to hear such fine things said of the roughJem; for it coincided with his belief that one cannot always tell fromthe exterior what may be within the shell. If only now Rufus coulddiscover that it had all been a grievous mistake, and that his fatherwould give anything to make amends for the unfortunate past, howdelightful things would be.
So Elmer, as he continued to talk with the little lady--for she was thatin every sense, although her dress may have been of the cheapestmaterial, and there was a painful lack of many comforts in her modestcabin home--came to know her as well as if he had met her long before.Glimpses of her life, her hopes and fears were constantly passing beforehis mental observation; and he was more than glad now that he had takenthat notion to walk in the direction of the blue smoke wreaths eddyingupward in the lazy morning air several miles distant.
Conrad had put his beloved violin carefully away. It could be seen thathis whole heart was tied up in that precious instrument. Elmer,remembering the dispute he had had with unbelieving George, asked aboutthe violin, and whether it was really the former possession of the lad'sfamous grandfather.
"Yes, that is true," she told him, sighing again. "He used it all of hislast years of playing. It shared some of his most wonderful triumphs,and he loved it as the apple of his eye. It is a genuine Stradivariusinstrument. I could have sold it for thousands of dollars, since it hadonce been his means of fascinating untold myriads of music lovers; butthat would have killed me. It is all I have left to remember him by; andbesides, something told me when Conrad came that he was destined toinherit the talent."
Just then Elmer saw the boy spring down from his seat close beside hismother. At the same time he heard the sound of a heavy footfall, andguessed what that meant. Jem Shock was coming home. How would he greetone of the boys from the camp where that son of the man he had suchcause for hating held forth? Elmer stood up. If he felt the least tremorin the region of his heart, he certainly gave no sign of this, for hisface was wreathed in one of his most genial smiles as he waited for thepoacher to appear.
Then a form darkened the open doorway, and with a shout Conrad rushedforward, to be gathered up in the arms of Jem Shock, and held tight tohis breast. And seeing this Elmer somehow could not doubt but that itwas all bound to come out right in the end, no matter what clouds mightdrift across the sky meanwhile.