"He can't forget it," said the Angel; and in answer to Freckles'
startled eyes she added, "because he never had any reason to
remember it. He couldn't have done a whit better himself. My father
says so. You're all right, Freckles!"
She reached him her hand, and as two children, they broke into a
run when they came closer the gang. They left the swamp by the west
road and followed the trail until they found the men. To the Angel
it seemed complete charm. In the shadiest spot on the west side of
the line, at the edge of the swamp and very close Freckles' room,
they were cutting bushes and
clearing space for a big tent for the
men's sleeping-quarters, another for a dining-hall, and a board
shack for the cook. The teamsters were unloading, the horses were
cropping leaves from the bushes, while each man was doing his part
toward the
construction of the new Limberlost quarters.
Freckles helped the Angel climb on a wagonload of
canvas in the shade.
She removed her
leggings, wiped her heated face, and glowed with
happiness and interest.
The gang had been sifted carefully. McLean now felt that there was
not a man in it who was not trustworthy.
They all had heard of the Angel's plucky ride for Freckles' relief;
several of them had been in the
rescue party. Others, new since
that time, had heard the tale rehearsed in its every
aspect around
the smudge-fires at night. Almost all of them knew the Angel by
sight from her trips with the Bird Woman to their leases. They all
knew her father, her position, and the luxuries of her home.
Whatever course she had chosen with them they scarcely would have
resented it, but the Angel never had been known to choose a course.
Her spirit of
friendliness was inborn and inbred. She loved
everyone, so she sympathized with
everyone. Her
generosity was only
limited by what was in her power to give.
She came down the trail, hand in hand with the red-haired, freckled
timber guard whom she had worn herself past the limit of endurance
to save only a few weeks before, racing in her
eagerness to reach
them, and laughing her "Good morning, gentlemen," right and left.
When she was ensconced on the wagonload of tenting, she sat on a
roll of
canvas as a queen on her
throne. There was not a man of the
gang who did not respect her. She was a living exponent of
universal
brotherhood. There was no man among them who needed her
exquisite face or
dainty clothing to teach him that the deference
due a
gentlewoman should be paid her. That the spirit of good
fellowship she radiated levied an
especialtribute of its own, and
it became their delight to honor and please her.
As they raced toward the wagon--"Let me tell about the tree,
please?" she begged Freckles.
"Why, sure!" said Freckles.
He probably would have said the same to anything she suggested.
When McLean came, he found the Angel flushed and glowing, sitting
on the wagon, her hands already filled. One of the men, who was
cutting a scrub-oak, had carried to her a
handful of
crimson leaves.
Another had gathered a bunch of
delicate marsh-grass heads for her.
Someone else, in
taking out a bush, had found a daintily built and
lined little nest, fresh as when made.
She held up her treasures and greeted McLean, "Good morning, Mr.
Boss of the Limberlost!"
The gang shouted, while he bowed
profoundly before her.
"Everyone listen!" cried the Angel, climbing a roll of
canvas.
"I have something to say! Freckles has been guarding here over a year
now, and he presents the Limberlost to you, with every tree in it
saved; for good
measure he has this morning located the rarest one
of them all: the one in from the east line, that Wessner spoke of
the first day--nearest the one you took out. All together!
Everyone! Hurrah for Freckles!"
With flushing cheeks and gleaming eyes, gaily waving the grass above
her head, she led in three cheers and a tiger. Freckles slipped
into the swamp and hid himself, for fear he could not
conceal his
pride and his great surging, throbbing love for her.
The Angel subsided on the
canvas and explained to McLean about
the maple. The Boss was mightily pleased. He took Freckles and
set out to re-locate and examine the tree. The Angel was interested
in the making of the camp, so she preferred to remain with the men.
With her sharp eyes she was watching every detail of
construction;
but when it came to the stretching of the dining-hall
canvas she
proceeded to take command. The men were driving the rope-pins, when
the Angel arose on the wagon and, leaning forward, spoke to Duncan,
who was directing the work.
"I believe if you will swing that around a few feet farther, you
will find it better, Mr. Duncan," she said. "That way will let the
hot sun in at noon, while the sides will cut off the best
breeze."
"That's a fact," said Duncan, studying the conditions.
So, by shifting the pins a little, they obtained comfort for which
they
blessed the Angel every day. When they came to the
sleeping-tent, they consulted her about that. She explained the
general direction of the night
breeze and indicated the best
position for the tent. Before anyone knew how it happened, the
Angel was
standing on the wagon, directing the
location and
construction of the cooking-shack, the
erection of the crane
for the big boiling-pots, and the building of the store-room.
She superintended the laying of the floor of the sleeping-tent
lengthwise, So that it would be easier to sweep, and suggested a
new
arrangement of the cots that would afford all the men an equal
share of night
breeze. She left the wagon, and climbing on the
newly erected dining-table, advised with the cook in placing his
stove, table, and kitchen utensils.
When Freckles returned from the tree to join in the work around the
camp, he caught glimpses of her en
throned on a soapbox, cleaning beans.
She called to him that they were invited for dinner, and that they
had accepted the invitation.
When the beans were steaming in the pot, the Angel advised the cook
to soak them
overnight the next time, so that they would cook more
quickly and not burst. She was sure their cook at home did that
way, and the CHEF of the gang thought it would be a good idea.
The next Freckles saw of her she was paring potatoes. A little later
she arranged the table.
She swept it with a broom, instead of laying a cloth; took the
hatchet and hammered the deepest dents from the tin plates, and
nearly skinned her fingers scouring the tinware with rushes.
She set the plates an even distance apart, and laid the forks and
spoons beside them. When the cook threw away half a dozen
fruit-cans, she gathered them up and melted off the tops, although
she almost blistered her face and quite blistered her fingers doing it.
Then she neatly covered these improvised vases with the Manila paper
from the groceries, tying it with wisps of marshgrass. These she
filled with fringed gentians, blazing-star, asters, goldenrod,
and ferns, placing them the length of the dining-table. In one of
the end cans she arranged her red leaves, and in the other the
fancy grass. Two men, watching her, went away proud of themselves
and said that she was "a born lady." She laughingly caught up a
paper bag and fitted it jauntily to her head in
imitation of a
cook's cap. Then she ground the coffee, and beat a couple of eggs
to put in, "because there is company," she
gravely explained to
the cook. She asked that
delighted individual if he did not like it
best that way, and he said he did not know, because he never had a
chance to taste it. The Angel said that was her case exactly--she
never had, either; she was not allowed anything stronger than milk.
Then they laughed together.
She told the cook about camping with her father, and explained that
he made his coffee that way. When the steam began to rise from the
big
boiler, she stuffed the spout
tightly with clean marshgrass, to
keep the aroma in, placed the
boiler where it would only simmer,
and explained why. The influence of the Angel's visit lingered with
the cook through the
remainder of his life, while the men prayed
for her
frequent return.
She was having a happy time, when McLean came back jubilant, from
his trip to the tree. How jubilant he told only the Angel, for he
had been obliged to lose faith in some trusted men of late, and had
learned
discretion by what he suffered. He planned to begin
clearing out a road to the tree that same afternoon, and to set two
guards every night, for it promised to be a rare treasure, so he
was eager to see it on the way to the mills.
"I am coming to see it felled," cried the Angel. "I feel a sort of
motherly interest in that tree."
McLean was highly amused. He would have staked his life on the
honesty of either the Angel or Freckles; yet their
versions of the
finding of the tree differed widely.
"Tell me, Angel," the Boss said jestingly. "I think I have a right
to know. Who really did locate that tree?"
"Freckles," she answered
promptly and emphatically.
"But he says quite as
positively that it was you. I don't understand."
The Angel's legal look flashed into her face. Her eyes grew tense
with
earnestness. She glanced around, and
seeing no towel or basin,
held out her hand for Sears to pour water over them. Then, using
the skirt of her dress to dry them, she climbed on the wagon.
"I'll tell you, word for word, how it happened," she said, "and
then you shall decide, and Freckles and I will agree with you."
When she had finished her
version, "Tell us, `oh, most learned
judge!'" she laughingly quoted, "which of us located that tree?"
"Blest if I know who located it!" exclaimed McLean. "But I have a
fairly
accurate idea as to who put the blue
ribbon on it."
The Boss smiled significantly at Freckles, who just had come, for
they had planned that they would
instruct the company to reserve
enough of the veneer from that very tree to make the most beautiful
dressing table they could design for the Angel's share of the discovery.
"What will you have for yours?" McLean had asked of Freckles.
"If it's all the same to you, I'll be
taking mine out in music lessons--
begging your pardon--voice
culture," said Freckles with a grimace.
McLean laughed, for Freckles needed to see or hear only once to
absorb
learning as the thirsty earth sucks up water.
The Angel placed McLean at the head of the table. She took the
foot, with Freckles on her right, while the
lumber gang, washed,
brushed, and straightened until they felt
unfamiliar with
themselves and each other, filled the sides. That imposed a slight
constraint. Then, too, the men were afraid of the flowers, the
polished tableware, and above all, of the
dainty grace of the Angel.
Nowhere do men so display lack of good
breeding and
culture as
in dining. To
sprawl on the table, scoop with their
knives, chew
loudly, gulp coffee, and duck their heads as snapping-turtles for
every bite, had not been noticed by them until the Angel, sitting
straightly, suddenly made them remember that they, too, were
possessed of spines. Instinctively every man at the table straightened.
CHAPTER XVII
Wherein Freckles Offers His Life for His Love and Gets a Broken Body
To reach the tree was a more difficult task than McLean had supposed.
The gang could approach nearest on the outside toward the east,
but after they reached the end of the east entrance there was
yet a mile of most impenetrable
thicket, trees big and little, and
bushes of every
variety and stage of growth. In many places the
muck had to be filled to give the horses and wagons a solid
foundation over which to haul heavy loads. It was several days
before they completed a road to the noble, big tree and were ready
to fell it.
When the sawing began, Freckles was watching down the road where it
met the trail leading from Little Chicken's tree. He had gone to the
tree ahead of the gang to remove the blue
ribbon. Carefully folded,
it now lay over his heart. He was
promising himself much
comfort with that
ribbon, when he would leave for the city next
month to begin his studies and dream the summer over again.
It would help to make things tangible. When he was dressed as other
men, and at his work, he knew where he meant to home that precious
bit of blue. It should be his good-luck token, and he would wear it
always to keep bright in memory the day on which the Angel had
called him her
knight.