Phil Bradley's Mountain Boys Part 14

She looked up. The wistful glow in her eyes gave the boy a strange feeling.

"Oh! no. Muzzer gone far away. She never come to her little girl now,"

he heard her say; and somehow the thought that she meant her mother was dead kept Phil from questioning her any further.

The little thing had evidently already recovered from her recent grief.

She trusted in Phil, and believed that it would only be a matter of a short time before he would bring "daddy."

In her eyes Phil was a magician. Nothing could be beyond his power to accomplish. That is what the faith of a child means.

She prattled all the way along, and yet it was pretty much about the woods, the flowers she liked to pick, the noisy scolding squirrels, and how daddy had always watched over her so carefully since they came up here, ever and ever so long ago.

Not once did she refer to any former life. It seemed to be in the nature of a closed book with the child.

Phil was waiting to see how she acted when they came in sight of the cabin, for he felt sure she must recognize it. She pointed to several things, even telling him that the tree with the dead top was where "bushy-tail" lived and had a family, so daddy said, and daddy knew everything.

All at once the child gave a cry. She had discovered the cabin.

"Oh! I live here!" she burst out, and disengaging her hand from that of her champion she flew to the open door and burst in, shrilly crying:

"Daddy! Daddy!"

Imagine the astonishment of Lub. He happened to be sitting tailor fas.h.i.+on on the floor sewing a b.u.t.ton on that he had burst off, Ethan told him when he gorged so much the evening before.

Hearing a flutter, and then that cry in a childish voice, Lub turned to see what he thought at first must be a specter.

The little girl was abashed to find only a stranger there. Her sudden hopes being so suddenly dissolved brought the tears again into her eyes.

But Phil quickly managed to brighten her up. And Lub was ready to do almost anything to please the little miss, even to trying to stand on his head had she demanded it.

Then along came the other fellows. Of course both of them were as much astonished as Lub had been, but at the same time showed that they were not sorry to have such a little sunbeam around.

Among themselves, of course, they talked it all over, and knew that Mazie must be the child who had been the sole companion of the lonely occupant of the cabin.

"Too bad if it turns out he's a scoundrel, and a law breaker, with such a bully little girl belonging to him."

X-Ray Tyson said this, looking as he spoke at the suspiciously new coin he had picked out of a crack in the floor, and which he fully believed had been molded right there in that isolated cabin.

"Don't count too much on that," remarked Phil; "you can tell that she loves daddy above everything on earth. He can't be so _very_ wicked, I guess."

As the day wore on all of them took turns in amusing the little girl.

She proudly showed them a number of things that she had been in the habit of playing with when she "lived here."

Not once did she speak of a former life. Everything seemed to be a.s.sociated with "daddy." And as the other boys had been told by Phil what he thought in connection with her mother being dead, of course they were careful not to mention the word, for fear it might cause her sudden grief.

During the afternoon her merry laugh was heard frequently. Childish troubles soon fade away. And surely a little girl could not wish for a better lot of "big brothers" than these four boys seemed to be. They antic.i.p.ated her every wish, and after a while Mazie even seemed to look upon them in the light of old and tried friends.

Phil had arranged it that while their little guest honored them with her company she was to have his bunk. He could make himself fairly comfortable on the floor, somehow. A bunch of hemlock browse would do for a mattress, and if the fire was kept up a blanket was hardly necessary.

Phil felt a little fearful that at night she might miss a familiar figure, and cry herself to sleep wanting "daddy." He was agreeably disappointed, however. Mazie ate supper with her protectors, and cuddled down in the arms of Lub, to whom she had taken a great fancy. Perhaps it was because he had so much to do with the getting of meals, although it was hardly a fair thing to say that, because Lub was kindness itself.

There she was finally discovered fast asleep. Lub insisted on them leaving her with her head on his shoulder for a long time.

Finally, Ethan and Phil having come back, after setting the flashlight arrangement in a new place, they managed to carry the sleeping child to the bunk provided, without arousing her.

The night pa.s.sed quietly.

Phil would not have been surprised had a heavy summons on the door brought them all to their feet, and upon opening up to find an almost distracted man anxiously inquiring as to whether they had seen anything of a lost child.

Nothing of the kind occurred.

Wherever "daddy" could be searching for the missing one as yet he failed to turn his attention to the cabin where until recently he had lived in retirement, a hermit, as X-Ray Tyson called him.

Another dawn came.

Breakfast was prepared in almost abject silence. The little girl was still sleeping. All of the boys had tiptoed up and taken a peep at her lying there, as though hardly able to believe it could be so.

Phil had washed her face and hands the first thing, and with her rosy cheeks and lips, with the ma.s.ses of golden, natural curls she certainly looked, as Lub expressed it, "pretty enough to eat."

So breakfast was prepared almost in silence. When any of them found occasion to speak it was laughable to see how they got their heads together and whispered.

Just before Lub had breakfast ready to serve, Mazie called out to Phil, and was soon ready to sit down at the table with two of her newfound friends, there not being room for all.

X-Ray, thinking to pick up some information, called the child's attention to the scorched places on the heavy board, apparently done with molten metal.

"See what daddy did!" he went on to say; and immediately the others, guessing his game, waited to see the result.

The little girl looked from X-Ray down to the scarred surface of the table. She shook her head vigorously in the negative, and looked indignant.

"Daddy didn't!" she exclaimed, with a vigor that settled that question.

"These marks were here when you came, were they, Mazie?" asked Phil.

This time she nodded her little curly head in the affirmative.

No more was said. X-Ray took out his new fifty cent piece and looked hard at it--but if he half intended asking the child whether she had ever seen any like it he changed his mind. Perhaps he did not fancy looking into those clear blue eyes, and coaxing the child to unconsciously betray her "daddy."

After breakfast the boys started to do various things. Ethan and X-Ray Tyson were more than ever bent upon fis.h.i.+ng. They counted exactly even now, and the excitement was running high.

"But after this," said Ethan, who had the soul of a true sportsman, "we mean to put back all the ordinary trout that are uninjured. We're no fish hogs, you must know. We'll carry the little scales, and the foot rule along, so as to measure what we take."

"That's a sensible arrangement," Phil told them; "but then it's only what I would have expected of you, Ethan."

They were still gathering bait close by the cabin when there broke out a terrible din.

"It must be Lub!" exclaimed Ethan.

"Yes, I saw him wandering off in that direction a bit ago," added X-Ray.

"What can have happened to him?" exclaimed Phil, his mind running to panthers, ferocious bobcats, hungry bears, and even an excited father, wild with searching for his lost child.