The Shepherd of the Hills
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The Shepherd of the Hills is a book written in 1907 by author Harold Bell Wright. It depicts a mostly fictional story of mountain folklore, and has been translated into seven languages since his release. It is also depicted in a popular outdoor play numerous times each week in eleven of twelve months each year, in Branson, Missouri, which uses more than 80 actors, 40 horses, and has an actual nightly burning of the cabin. It also was adapted into a film starring John Wayne. [1] [2] [3]
Author Harold Bell Wright had began visiting the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas in 1898, at the bidding of his physician, who indicated he should visit a place with a more suitable climate a couple of times per year, for health reasons. In doing so, he became acquainted with John and Anna Moss, known locally as 'Old Matt' and 'Aunt Pollie'. The people he encountered during his eight summers spent camping on the Ross's land were the inspirations for his characters in the book. [4] [5]
[edit] Plot summary
The story depicts the lives of a mountain people, living in the Ozarks, and the mystery surrounding an old man called 'The Shepherd of the Hills', who's called 'Dad Howitt'. The backdrop storyline surrounds the pretty Samantha Lane, called 'Sammy', and her love of 'Young Matt', Grant Matthews. The story is narrated by a boy, named Pete Howard. 'The shepherd', an elderly, mysterious, learned man, escapes the buzzing restlessness of the city to live in the backwoods neighborhood of Mutton Hollow in the Ozark hills.
The story slowly builds up to an inevitable confrontation between 'Young Matt', and the story's bad guy, 'Wash Gibbs'. Gibbs leads a marauding gang of outlaws, called 'The Baldknobbers', who terrorize the countryside wearing frightening masks with horns at their top, and who rob banks and settlers as they see fit. It centers around the backdrop of 'young Matt' and 'Sammy' becoming lovers, but with 'Wash Gibbs' being jealous, and wanting 'Sammy' for his own, and with another city feller named Ollie, who also wishes to marry 'Sammy'.
The main story, however, is the history shared by Grant Matthews Sr., called 'Old Matt', and 'the Shepherd', involving the daughter that 'Old Matt' lost, and her orphaned son, young 'Pete'. Throughout the story, there is a ghostly person, masked, and always hiding in the shadows, who befriends young 'Pete Howard'. 'Dad Howitt' spends his time alone, and acts as a mediator and friend to the mountain people, trying to make up for his terrible past, when he was a preacher, and his greed and pride had cost him his only son.
The Shepherd has become friends with the Matthews family, who is the strongest most respected family in the hills. He is trusted by them. Their daughter had given birth to a child, little Pete. The childs father, unknown to the Matthews family, was 'the Shepherds' son.
Years earlier, 'the Shepherd' had fought with his son, who wished to marry a beautiful young woman he'd met in the Ozarks while he worked as an artist, against his fathers wishes, his father believing he should follow him into a life of religion. The son had returned home after spending time in the mountains, and one of his paintings became famous, as did the son. That painting was of a young girl, pretty, standing beside a creek, and was the Matthews girl, daughter to 'Old Matt'. The son had fallen in love with the Matthews girl, and he swore to the family he would return to her after traveling to the city. Unknown to him, she was left pregnant. The son argued with his father that he must return to the girl, but his father forbid him from doing so. He tried to appease his father, but his love for the Matthews girl was slowly driving him insane.
Some years passed, and the son became increasingly depressed, and eventually leaves behind his city life with a note to his father, to rejoin his love of a lifetime, and hope that she could forgive him. However, the son was horrified to discover that the Matthews girl had died years earlier, some said from a broken heart. After this, devastated, the son disappeared, and is believed dead.
'The Shepherd' moves to the hills to connect with what his son loved most, and to make amends for his wrongs, trying to make sense of it all, and try in some way to make them right. He learns of the Mathews girl's death, and that young 'Pete' is his grandson, but he keeps this and his true identity from everyone, knowing that 'Old Matt' has swore he will kill the son who left his daughter, and her father if ever he sees them again.
It is later discovered, though too late and as he is dying after being shot, that the ghostly character who lurks in the shadows throughout the story, is the son, who befriended his biological son 'Pete', and only allows himself to be seen by him. His father, 'the Shepherd', discovers this only shortly before his son is shot while risking his life to save others, learning that his son had lived for those many years in the mountains, finding it to be the only way to be close to his son, young 'Pete'.
'The Shepherd' then confesses to 'Old Matt' that it was he that caused his son to desert their deceased daughter, and it was he that had ultimately caused her death from a broken heart. After 'the Shepherd's' confession, 'Old Matt', angry, finds it within himself to forgive the son, and 'the Shepherd', and he and 'the Shepherd' go to the bedside of the 'Shepherd's' dying son.
The son looks on at the painting of the Matthews girl, seemingly unaware that her family and his father was present. He speaks to her, then he speaks of their life together, saying "I loved her, I--LOVED--HER. She was my natural mate. My other self. I belonged to her, she to me".
For a time he lays exhausted, then he rises on his arms, and says, "Do you hear her? She is calling. She is calling again! Yes sweetheart, yes dear, I am coming!" With that, the son dies.
The story then skips ahead many years, to an artist wandering through the mountains, looking for inspiration. He meets an older man, and they address one another in the usual manner. The two men converse casually for a time. For a few days they see one another regularly, conversing, and one day the old man invites the artist to his home. Inside, the artist takes special note of how nicely decorated the home is, and is especially interested in one room, where paintings of good quality are hanging. He notices that the largest painting is veiled, hiding its content. The old man refuses to show the young artist that painting, and the young artist does not push the point, but remains curious. The artist leaves the mountains, but returns the following summer.
He is greeted by the mountain folk, those closest to the old man, and discovers that the old man had died. It was then that as per requested by the old man, the veiled painting is revealed to the young artist, who then becomes excited, knowing it immediately as the famous lost painting painted by 'Mad Howard', as the 'Shepherds' son had been dubbed. The young artist asks excitedly "Where did you find it!" At which time they enter into another room, as they begin telling the story of the Matthews girl, the artist, and the guilt-ridden old man. [6]
