Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/134

 sound of her horse's hoofs had brought from the cabin. She was a newspaper reporter from New York, she said, making a trip among the Virginia and Tennessee mountains in search of "special stories" for the Sunday Edition of "The Searchlight." She had travelled far that day and was tired. Would they take her in for the night? She asked the question with the smile which had won many concessions in her journalistic career. It did not fail her now. The woman stepped aside with a slight reflection of it on her own worn face.

"Ef you 'uns 'low yuh kin git along 'th whut we 've got," she said, with an accent of lowly mistrust, motioning toward the smoke-filled interior where there was now some stir among the men.

Miss Herrick followed her cheerfully into the uninviting atmosphere. There was but one room visible, though a ladder, leaning against the wall, suggested another retreat above. In the immense fireplace on one side of the cabin great logs were blazing, and within the circle of light and warmth from these, the mountain family had gathered.