A girl in Shiloh part two

The closest neighbors to the Arnolds were a family named Bragg, who lived in a lodge somewhere in the range of three miles far off, close to the street prompting Corinth. The Braggs' lodge was not an agreeable, helpful home, for example, the Arnolds had influenced their own mountain to lodge. The entryways of the Braggs' lodge listed from awkward calfskin pivots; the floor of the unpleasant yard was broken all over, so anybody going into the house must be watchful where he ventured. Mr. Bragg reported every day that he was "gwine ter make a decent attempt to discover time to settle that po'ch, a' patch up the rooftop." But days, weeks, and months passed by and no repairs were made, despite the fact that Mr. Bragg spent extend periods of time on the patio, tilted back against the house in an old seat, smoking, and, as he would expeditiously disclose to any guest, "tryin' to rest up."

Inside Mrs. Bragg cleared and scoured, repaired the poor articles of clothing of her family, and22 attempted her best to make the harsh place wonderful for her kids. Mollie Bragg, the most youthful of the family, was a young lady about the period of Berenice Arnold, yet not as tall or unequivocally worked as Berry. Mollie's eyes were a light blue, her hair, which hung straight about her thin little face, was a light yellow, and her arms and legs were thin to the point that Berry once in a while pondered that they didn't separate as Mollie ran the harsh mountain ways, or valiantly took after Berry in climbing a tall tree to look into the home of a robin or yellowhammer. Mollie's senior sister had left home, the year the Arnolds came to Tennessee, to live with a close relative in Nashville, and the main child, a chap of sixteen, had fled to join the armed force of the Confederacy, so that in January, 1862, Mollie was the single youngster at home.

In spite of the fact that the Arnold and Bragg lodges were three miles separated, barely a day passed that Mollie and Berry did not see each other. Mollie would regularly set out at a young hour early in the day and show up at the Arnolds' entryway before they had completed breakfast, to be enthusiastically invited by Berry, and encouraged to a seat at the round breakfast table close to the huge window that ignored the23 gorge by Mrs. Arnold, and served to the very much cooked porridge, trailed by fresh bacon and toast, and frequently a dish of stewed organic product, all of which the little guest clearly appreciated.

To Mollie the Arnolds' lodge appeared the finest place on the planet. In spite of the fact that it had just five rooms, and the family had their suppers in the kitchen, it was surely a lovely and alluring home, with its muslin-curtained windows, its floors painted a sparkling yellow, with cloth carpets all over, the start shooting in the living room that blasted so merrily on winter days, the all around filled bookshelves in one corner and the strong wooden seats and settles with their huge plume filled pads. Mr. Arnold had spent a decent piece of his opportunity in enhancing the lodge from the unpleasant state in which they had discovered it, and had made the greater part of the straightforward furniture. A vine-secured fence encased the yard, where Berry had her own garden. Each spring she started by planting lettuce and radishes, and afterward peas and carrots and string beans; before these had room schedule-wise to grow she had circumscribed her vegetable beds with spring blooms. Mollie took in numerous things from her new companions, and, in her turn, demonstrated Berry where the wild trillium and Jack-in-the-pulpit24 could be found, and where to search for the homes of cardinal and deriding winged creature, fowls that the little Yankee young lady had never observed coming to Tennessee. In this way when Mr. Arnold announced that it was the ideal opportunity for Berry to have consistent lessons, "to start school," as he named it, it was very normal for Berry to state that Mollie Bragg would likewise need to think about.

There was no school building inside miles of these mountain lodges where the young ladies could "start school," and Berry comprehended that her dad would be her instructor. Also, on the day after their outing to Shiloh church Mr. Arnold revealed to Berry that she could go to the Braggs' lodge and request that Mollie be her classmate.

"Reveal to her school starts at ten o'clock every morning and shuts down at twelve," he said as Berry put on her top and headed toward the entryway.

"Furthermore, say to Mrs. Bragg that we should anticipate that Mollie will remain for supper," included Mrs. Arnold, who understood that the Bragg family only from time to time had the sort of sustenance that would feed a sensitive youngster like Mollie, and respected the chance to give her little neighbor one great supper every day.

"Okay," Berry got back to, as she ran25 down the way, swinging to wave her hand before the thick developing woodland trees concealed her from locate.

Berry's route driven through the backwoods, over a wide creek that went moving down finished its rough bed toward the waterway, and afterward the way transformed into the expressway close which was the unpleasant clearing encompassing the Braggs' lodge. A small dark flying creature called "Chick-a-dee-dee-dee," as though to welcome the red-topped little assume that ran so quickly along the harsh way. Facilitate on she heard the chipper shriek of the cardinal, and ceased for a minute to gaze upward into the wide-spreading branches of the huge trees that transcend over her, seeking after a look at the red-covered singer, yet he was not to be seen.

The intersection of the wide rivulet implied venturing painstakingly from stone to stone until the point when the center of the stream was achieved, where an expansive level shake gave a firm a dependable balance, and from which Berry was acclimated with hop to the contrary bank. She made the section skilfully, springing over the surging water and arriving on firm ground with the gentility and beyond any doubt balance of a dynamic kid; before she had made a further stride, be that as it may, a laughing voice close within reach called: "Well done, youth! It takes a Tennessee fellow to jump,"26 and Berry wound up confronting a tall man whose face was about secured by a dark colored facial hair, and whose darker eyes twinkled with entertainment at her astonishment. He wore a round, tight top of coonskin, a cowhide coat, with hefty pants of corduroy and high boots. A seeker's belt held a gun and chasing blade, and a backpack was lashed over his shoulders. It was only occasionally that Berry experienced anybody in her woodland tramps, yet she had been instructed to have confidence in the neighborliness of the mountain individuals, and grinned and gestured because of the man's welcome.

"I can bounce more remote than that," she gloated. "I can bounce more remote than most young men of my age."

The man gestured favorably. "All things considered, you ain't so stocky as a few," he said astutely. "Figure your mama sort of likes to dress you up, don't she, sonny?" he proceeded, with an interested look at Berry's red silk tie and red fleece top.

Berry gestured. In the event that this outsider confused her for a kid she didn't intend to undeceive him.

"All around," proceeded with the man, "you can't help that, my chap. What's your name?"

"Berry," reacted the young lady.
"Berry what?" he proceeded.

"Berenice," said Berry, believing that now the outsider had found her mystery, and that he would without a moment's delay disclose to her that the place for young ladies was at home, helping their mom, as Mr. Bragg so regularly reported.

In any case, the man clearly had not comprehended her. "'Nees,' eh! Berry Nees. Indeed, you mountain people have eccentric names. Yet, I'm happy to make your colleague. I figure you can run impressive and also hop?"

"Indeed," Berry answered rapidly, all around satisfied that she require not hear that "Young ladies ought not run wild in young men's garments," as had some of the time been said to her. "I can run quicker than Len Bragg, who is sixteen years of age."

"Where does Len Bragg live?" scrutinized the man.

"Gracious! He's in the war! He's with General Johnston's armed force," answered Berry expeditiously.

"Truth is stranger than fiction!" pronounced the man favorably. "There's not a better man in the Confederate armed force than Albert Sidney Johnston."

Berry had heard her own dad commend General Johnston's character, so she was not astonished, and answered affably, "Truly, sir."

28

"I'm destined for Corinth myself," proceeded with the man. "I've traveled crosswise over nation from Fort Donelson, and I figure I shan't stop long at Corinth; like as not I may return along these lines, long in the spring," and the man grinned to himself as though all around satisfied with such a prospect. "On the off chance that I do, Berry, perhaps I'll need you to give me a chance to check whether you can keep running as quick as you say. Perhaps I'll need you to take a message to Pittsburg Landing in a rush for me." And the man's eyes rested strongly upon Berry.

Before Berry could answer the man talked once more, and in a more honed tone than he had yet utilized.

"What's more, see here, my fellow! Don't you let on to a living soul about having met me. Comprehend?" and his hand touched the sheath of his chasing blade in a debilitating way. However, Berry did not hold up to reply; she was off like a blaze, not keeping to the way, but rather dashing behind huge trees, hovering around underbrush and finally holing up behind a tall stump. She heard the man smashing along behind her, however Berry's brag of being a quick sprinter was all around demonstrated; the woodsman couldn't surpass her. Berry grinned to herself as she heard him fumbling about through the bushes. She was not in the slightest degree afraid29 of being gotten, for she knew all the backwoods ways, and numerous a concealing spot. She kept calm, in any case, and did not wander out from behind the stump until the point that a floating rush of nuthatches, who had been chastening energetically at being irritated, settled down in a close by shrubbery.

"He's gone," she whispered, and ventured circumspectly out; "he didn't come along these lines or the nuthatches would not have quit flying."

Berry looked strongly about, in any case, as she advanced silently from tree to tree, ceasing frequently to tune in for any solid that may mean she was being taken after, at the same time, aside from the distant call of forest winged creatures, the woods was calm. Berry was certain the man had surrendered attempting to discover her, and rushed down the edge to the Braggs' lodge. She didn't state anything of her experience to the Braggs, yet recounted her dad's arrangement for morning lessons. "Mollie may come each day, may she not?" she argued; "and Mother needs her to remain for meals."

Mrs. Bragg's restless face had lit up as Berry discussed lessons, and she addressed rapidly, "I figure petitions are replied, fer I've been a hopin' and a prayin' there'd be some shot for Mollie to get book-larnin', yet no30 route appeared to open, and now your people go along a' need to show her. Obviously she can come, a' strong grateful fer the chanst," and Mrs. Bragg wiped her blurred eyes with the side of her ragged cook's garment, and figured out how to grin at Mollie, who was hopping all over as though excessively glad, making it impossible to keep still. Mr. Bragg had begun off to care for the traps he set along the stream banks for muskrats, whose skins he sold to a broker in Corinth, so there was no contention about the "stupidity of book-larnin'," for Mr. Bragg regularly gladly declared that he "never had no schoolin', a' never was any the wus' fer it," with no thought that his neediness and apathy had been caused by his numbness.

"School starts to-morrow," Berry included, "at ten o'clock."

"What will we figure out how to-morrow?" Mollie asked anxiously, her light blue eyes sparkling with charm.

Berry shook her head. "I don't have the foggiest idea. I expect it will be an amazement. I don't trust it will resemble a genuine school," she answered.

Mollie's grin vanished. To go to a "genuine school" appeared the finest thing on the planet to the little mountain young lady, who had not even known31 the letters of the letters in order until the point when Berry had shown them to her, and who could now, at ten years old, just read expressions of one syllable, and was simply starting to take in the importance of figures.

Berry rushed to see the adjustment in Mollie's demeanor, and included, "I mean we won't sit behind little work areas, and keep as calm as mice, the way young ladies do in schools."

"P'raps we will," Mollie rejoined ideally; "p'raps I'll learn writin'."

"Obviously you will," Berry pronounced, and Mollie's grin speedily returned.

"May I turn at the beginning of today?" Berry asked, going toward the huge turning wheel that remained in one corner of the kitchen, on which Mrs. Bragg spun the yarn for the leggings worn by the family, and regularly allowed Berry to turn the delicate warm moves of fleece into yarn. Berry constantly considered this consent an incredible benefit, and her dad had guaranteed to influence a turning to wheel for her.

Typically Mrs. Bragg was very prepared to give Berry a chance to attempt her hand in the driver's seat, however at the beginning of today she shook her head dolefully.

"The wheel's give out," she announced. "Steve32 guaranteed to investigate it, however arrive knows when he'll get 'round to it."

Berry moved toward the huge haggle at it restlessly. "What's the issue with it?" she inquired.

"'Twon't move!" and to demonstrate this Mrs. Bragg touched the edge of the wheel, that more often than not reacted to the lightest touch, however now kept firm and consistent.

Berry had watched her dad in his work with devices, had seen him oil pivots that would not move, or release nuts that held some wheel or bar too firmly, and she had been instructed to do numerous things that most young ladies never learn; so now she analyzed the wheel with so genuine a face that Mrs. Bragg took a gander at her in wonder.

"On the off chance that I had a screw-driver and an oil-would i be able to trust I could settle it," she announced.

"Fer the land's purpose!" murmured Mrs. Bragg. "We never observed a screw-driver, yet there's a broken blade that'll contort a screw strong fine."

"Maybe that would do," Berry reacted gravely, and Mollie kept running off to locate the broken blade, while Berry looked under the wheel-bench33 to ensure that she comprehended the straightforward development of the wheel.

Mrs. Bragg watched Berry as the young lady precisely slackened and balanced the hub on which the wheel turned, until the point when it would move, however it didn't move easily.

"It needs a drop of oil!" Berry declared.

Be that as it may, the Bragg lodge could outfit nothing superior to a touch of softened fat, and Mrs. Bragg announced that far better than oil, and hurried to get ready it, and finally, to the surprise and joy of Mrs. Bragg and Mollie, and to Berry's awesome fulfillment, the huge wheel rotated as quickly as ever.

"I figure you know ter do sich things, Berry, because of being a Yankee young lady," Mrs. Bragg proclaimed reverently. "Steve says people up North prides theirselves on workin', an' on inventin' ways ter make work. I declar' to it, I'll have ter rest a spell," and Mrs. Bragg sank down on a wooden seat close to the entryway.

"Throat, disclose to Berry that story you tole me 'session the narrow minded mouse," said Mollie. "Throat family tell gran' stories, Berry," the young lady proceeded with energetically. "W'en we wus off up in the mountains she utilized ter tell another one mos' consistently." Berry's face lit up at the possibility of a story, and Mrs. Bragg said she would let it know as about as she could recollect it.

"It's 'session a mouse that jes' was determined to gettin' everything he could fer hisself," she clarified. "This mouse lived with his mom a' four siblings in a fine lodge whar thar was a major cabinet. Thar was cakes a' cheddar a' pleasant white bread, an' icy meat; a', like as not, thar was raisins a' nuts in that thar pantry. In any case, the entryway was allers kep' close tight, a' thar was a major white feline that, apparently, was allers lurkin' roun' that wash room entryway. So Mother Mouse cautioned her kids to be happy with the morsels they could get 'roun' the kitchen. In any case, one the very beginning of the little mice found that the entryway was open and he slipped in, a' 'twa'n't a moment up to that little mouse found a major round cheddar a' started to snack it; a' he was so occupied thus cheerful that he didn't hear the pantry entryway close, or notice that 'twas dull.

"Wal, Mother Mouse didn't miss him fer a significant spell, bein' occupied collectin' grain quip outside the lodge. Be that as it may, when it started ter get dull she calls fer the youthful ones so's to settle down fer the night, a' she discovers one of them wear' come. The main thing Mother Mouse thought of35 was the white feline, yet the feline wasn't anywhar ter be seen; so Mother Mouse goes about the kitchen calling the missing mouse, a' when she crawled by the cabinet she heard a tad of a squeak, and after that she ceased compelling snappy. She knew the little mouse was in that organizer, a' she prob'ly realized that thar war traps set in it. So she calls her fam'ly an' at that point says she, 'Your sibling is in thar, a' we mus' get him out. Presently the people have all gone to bed, a' we'll start work.' So she started to snack at the edge of the entryway, and the little mice did their best to help her, and jes' 'fore light there was a gap sufficiently huge for the little mouse to come through. Be that as it may, he wouldn't come. Says he, 'I just squeaked so you'd realize that I'm very much settled fer life,' says he. 'I ain' no need ever to accumulate kitchen scraps again,' he says, 'a' so you would all be able to go your ways a' ferget me.' A' he kept running back to his cheddar. Wal, at that exact moment the lady of the house came into the kitchen to illuminate the fire, a' she sees the mice. 'My property!' she gets out; an' off went Mother Mouse and all her family into a protected concealing spot. Yet, the lady opened the organizer entryway, and afterward she called, 'Puss, puss!' a' the enormous feline came running, an'36 into the storeroom she sprung a' the little mouse, who had felt so stupendous and had hated his own particular people who were tryin' ter help him, was so imbecilic and awkward on the grounds that he had eaten so much that he couldn't run, and in a moment the feline had gotten him and brought him out to the kitchen a' gobbled him up. Thar," Mrs. Bragg finished up, "I figure I'll hev to blend up a corn pone fer supper," and she got up from the seat.

"What was the fate of the Mother Mouse and the other little mice?" Berry requested.

In any case, Mrs. Bragg shook her head, "I figure they jes' moved away," she said.

It was presently almost twelve, and Berry understood that she should return home as quickly as time permits; so reminding Mollie that "school" would start the following morning, she bade them farewell.

When she had left the Bragg lodge Berry's contemplations flew back to the man she had experienced that morning. In spite of the fact that she had not discussed him to Mrs. Bragg, for reasons unknown that she couldn't without much of a stretch record for, she was presently anxious to achieve home and disclose to her dad and mom of the more bizarre who had taken her for a kid, and who had undermined her.

"I'll go home another way," she chose. "I37 never need to see that man again," and she advanced up the peak of the edge, hovering about thick developments of trees and underbrush, and coming into the trail that prompted the lodge a mile over where she had experienced the outsider.