' Tain't no wonder ' t all, God rested when he made these
here hills; he jes naturally had t quit, fer he done his beat
enest an ' war plumb gin out."
Of all the country Bill had seen , " from Ant Creek Head
ľ the mouth of James an' plumb to Pilot Knob ," he
" ' lowed the Mutton Hollow neighborhood was the
prettiest."
From the Matthews place on the ridge that shuts in the
valley on the north and east, there is an Old Trail leading
down the mountain . Two hundred yards below the log
barn , the narrow path finds a bench on the steep slope of the hillside, and, at that level, follows around the rim of the
Hollow . Dipping a little at the head of the ravine east of the spring, then lifting itself over a low , heavily timbered spur of one of the higher hills, it comes out again into the open. Following a rocky ledge, the way , farther on , leads
through a clump of sumac bushes, and past the deer lick in the big low gaps, then around the base of Boulder Bald,
along another ledge, and out on the bare shoulder of Dewey Bald, which partly shuts in the little valley on the south.
From the big rock that Sammy Lane calls her Lookout,
the Old Trail leaves the rim of Mutton Hollow and slips
easily down into the lower valleys; down past the little cabin on the southern slope of the mountain where Sammy lived with her father; down to the banks of Fall Creek and
to the distant river bottom . Here the threadlike path finds a
wider way, leading, somehow , out of the wilderness to the
great world that lies miles and miles beyond the farthest
blue line of hills; the world that Sammy said " seemed mighty find to them that knowed nothin ' about it ."
No one seems to know how long that narrow path has
lain along the mountain ; but it must be very long for it is deeply worn at places.
Often , in the years of our story , swift leaping deer, would
cross the ridge at the low gap and follow along the benches
to the spring. And sometimes a lithe-bodied panther, in the belt of timber, watched hungrily for their coming, or a
YOU ARE READING
Sheperd Of The Hills
Adventure*This is not originally by me AT ALL. This book is written by Harold Bell Wright, Also check out the outdoor theater of Sheperd Of The Hills in Branson!* *NOT FINISHED AND NEVER WILL* Sit back and relax and read about a heartwarming story of love...
