Books: Fiction: Oct. 17, 1927

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Woodcutter's House

The Story * Metabel Adams walked over the hills from Early. It was the spring her father died. "Trembling and meek he stepped into Jordan's dark icy water, the cold tide froze him, and he came out again in Zion with a look of peace; he seemed to be saying humbly to the angels, 'I don't amount to much, but I feel friendly.' "

Metabel felt lonely; and, save for her dog, Musket, she was all alone as she stepped through the woods that lay along Hemlock mountain. Finally she came to a little low cottage where she went in and stayed. In the cottage lived Uncle Henry, a severe and matter-of-fact person, with his nephew Joseph. There was also Isaiah, an old grey horse and a wasp who lived in the attic and was the largest apple-owning wasp in the county. Down the valley, in Wayne, there lived Prissy Deakan who had, the summer before, put up no less than twelve dozen jars of jelly. She, Metabel felt, had an eye for Joseph; she would have liked to change him over and make a somebody out of him.

Joseph was a lazy boy who could do nothing better than cut down trees neatly. But, what Uncle Henry, who raised the biggest lettuce heads ever seen in those parts, could never understand, was why Joseph refused to cut down the ash trees. Metabel came to know the reason when she met one day a little green god sitting in the woods and talking to some mice. He preferred ash trees to live under and Joseph knew it. Joseph would never have cut down an ash if St. John Deakan had not come to dinner one night and brought his daughter. She made Joseph pick up his ax and begin to chop through the thick dark trunk of an ash tree she wanted for lumber.

After the tree fell the small and peaceful deity made Metabel crawl into the bruised tangle of branches so that when Joseph found her there he would think the top part of the tree had fallen on her. There was a thunder storm that night, and Musket, who was an old dog and had just had a somewhat exhausting love affair, was annoyed at having to sniff about the damp slippery woods all night. In the morning Joseph found Metabel and promised that he would not cut down any more ash trees. He even kissed her.

But, before they were married, Metabel noticed that Joseph was beginning to look as if there was more business in life that making a tree fall neatly. He was cutting down ash again, to get money for a store dress for Metabel to be married in. The little god of good humor advised her to go back to Early; he showed her the road. "All summer long the valleys around Early are as green as the sea. But in the autumn they are like yellow pools; over them the clouds swim slowly in the sun, trailing their cold blue shadows across the hills. . . ."

Metabel went back to Early, and before she had been there a day, the little god was waiting to see her.