Emmy of Stork's Nest

Summary

A granite-girded Allegheny hollow swallows the last will of a city dandy: Benton Cabot inherits only a derelict cabin and a name he never earned. Into this cathedral of spruce and shadow strides Emmy Garrett—barefoot, bee-stung, half-feral, her hair a banner of molten copper against the viridian dusk. She laughs at his pressed collar the way wind laughs at window-panes. The cabin is a chimney-less ruin; so Benton, pawn of fate, hires on with the Stork clan—Bije, a wolf in homespun; Si, his laconic axe-man; Crishy, a woman whose spine has memorized the curl of a broom handle. Counterfeit bills flutter like moth-wings through the settlement, each note a blood-bruise on the retina of the hills. Misdelivered letters, swollen rivers, a half-wit postilion named Jim Whitlicks—each thread tangles into noose and net. Emmy, stung by city silk glimpsed on passing autoists, consents to yoke herself to Bije’s brutish covenant; yet midnight cloudbursts wash away her resolve, and she drags Benton’s half-drowned body from a ford gone rabid. Love, counterfeit itself, is re-coined in the crucible of that flood. When the sheriff’s posse descends, the Storks bolt like spooked elk; their wagon—laden with phantom money and flesh alike—somersaults into chasmal dark, a comet of screaming timber. At dawn, only two heartbeats echo above the gorge: a girl who has learned the grammar of longing, and a man who has unlearned the geometry of debt.

Synopsis

Through the death of his father, Benton Cabot is left with nothing but a small mountain cabin which he has never seen. He goes to take up his property and in the mountains meets Emmy Garrett, an untutored but attractive girl, just budding into womanhood. Emmy is a child of the woods and Benton's city dress and ways amuse, her greatly. His cabin is uninhabitable so Benton goes to work for Bije Stork and lives with Bije, his brother, Si Stork, and Si's wife, Crishy, a poor creature, crushed by years of servitude. Benton takes an instinctive dislike to Bije and senses that there is something wrong with the Stork establishment. He and Emmy feel attracted to each other, despite the lack of respect Emmy feels for Benton. Emmy sends Benton a note by Jim Whitlicks, a half-witted boy, but Bije intercepts. Instead of telling Benton he goes to see Emmy and tells her that Benton is too busy to see her. Emmy sneaks away and sees Benton chatting with a party of autoists from the city. She goes back and, at her grandfather's solicitation, promises to marry Bije. Jim Whitlicks tells Benton of the intercepted note and he goes to see Emmy. She will have nothing to do with him and drives him out of the house into a furious storm. Benton finds the ford swollen by the storm and is nearly drowned. But he is saved by Emmy, whose change of heart led her to follow him. Then she realizes she loves Benton but thinks he does not care for her. Emmy wants to get all dressed up. So she and Crishy Stork send Jim to town for cloth. The money Jim tenders Hicky Price, the storekeeper, is found to be counterfeit. Hicky calls in the sheriff and they decide to hunt Bije Stork down. They find he is a counterfeiter and conceals the counterfeit money in Benton's abandoned shack. The Storks realize that the jig is up. Si gets Emmy in his team and goes for the counterfeit money. At the shack he meets Benton, who rescues Emmy after a hand-to-hand fight. Benton rides off with Emmy, pursued by the Storks in their wagon, when they meet the sheriff's posse. The Storks turn and flee. Pursued hotly they perish when the wagon goes over a cliff. Thus freed Emmy makes clear her love for Benton and the young folks are left happy.