CHAPTER II
"AUNT TWADDLES"
"As I paused in the middle of the road near the gate," began the vagabond, "this manly little fellow who so kindly brought me a drink from the well, wanted to know where I came from. In answer to his question let me say: I am, as you see, a friendless vagabond, wandering hither and thither over the face of the earth. But think not that I never had a home; for although I may not look it, I once had a dear mother, just as each one of you has, who, when I was a baby kissed me and rocked me to sleep every night with a sweet lullaby. But that was a long time ago, and it is little wonder that, as you now gaze upon me, you are anxious to know who I am and whence I came.
"Now I might be an earthly prince in disguise for aught that you know, though I'm not. Yet right here let me say, I am the son of a King, for we are all the children of God and our earthly end is alike in this dust that some of you children at first so pretended to scorn as you saw it all over my clothes. So from this on, remember, we are only of the dust; and the babies of satins and silks, all humbled at last, shall lie down and sleep side by side with the children of tatters and rags.
"Be that as it may; I was born in the village of Harpers Ferry on the banks of the fair Shenandoah River, where lofty mountains rise and overhang with rugged cliffs that seem about to fall into the deep valley below; and where, in order to get into the town at all, the trains pass through a dark tunnel in the mountains, and leaping with shrill whistle across the long span of a great steel bridge, slow down and stop at a quaint, stone station, so closely surrounded by tall mountains on all sides that a traveller might think himself at the very end of the world.
"It is here that the wild Shenandoah empties its foaming waters into the Potomac River, (for be it remembered that the two streams were joined in Holy wedlock by the Indians long, long ago), and mingling their currents in loving embrace, they leap onward through a pass in the mountains and together journey joyfully eastward toward the sea.
"As the stranger stands upon the platform at the little stone station, and gazes far across the Shenandoah River, he cannot help noticing a dark path, or roadway, leading straight up the face of a steep cliff; and long will he wonder how it could ever be possible to climb that path, for it stands almost straight up and down.
"Right here let me say there are but three persons on earth who can truthfully boast of having once included that path as a part of their journey; while strangest of all is the fact that one of these was an old woman, so awkward and fat that she looked to be almost helpless, while the other two, at the time of ascent, were mere children.
"For many years prior to the time of my story, (how long, nobody ever could tell), there dwelt an old woman somewhere up in these mountains, and unless something has happened to her recently she is living there still.
"She was a strange-looking creature and from her jolly, good nature and laughing, happy way, had grown in weight until she must have tipped the scales at fully five hundred pounds.
"She did not look in the least like a mountain climber, nor in fact hardly able to mount a short flight of stairs; yet she was a quite frequent wanderer up and down the opposite bank of the river, where most of her time was spent in gathering wild herbs on the rough side of the mountain, or along the fertile bed of the Shenandoah.