Nebraska Newspapers

    TOMTTLI-C®
A'OIAMIS NLYILLI BUCK
k AUTHOR °f "Tfie CALL oftheCUMBERLANDS”!
illustrations c.d. modes
COPYRIGHT GY
fiFViLLG «,«
BITCH I
CHAPTER XX—Continued.
—10—
The little town itself lay dismal and
helpless, with its shacks scattered
oyer its broken and uneven levels.
Dawn, perhaps, found it hardest;
for in this one day Dawn had grown
up. and tomorrow would bring the boy :
whom she now confessed to loving. i
though she confessed it with self-con
tempt, leading a force to meet that of
her own people, fighting to avenge her ,
father. Juanita, whose eyes could not ;
escape ironical reminders when she
glanced down at the Christmas pack- j
ages, seemed to hear over and over 1
the voice of Anse Havey saying: 'Tin
doin' it because ye asks it."
She had sought to avert an assassi
nation. and it seemed that the effort
would precipitate a holocaust
Anse was very busy, but he found
time to come to her that afternoon.
In the hare little hotel lobby the fire
light glinted on many rifles as their
owners lounged about the hearth.
And in Anse she sawr once more the
stern side. His face was unsmiling,
and in his eyes was that expression
which made her realize how inflex- j
ibly he would set about the accom- i
plishment of the thing he had under- 1
taken. Then, as he spoke to her. a
sudden softness came into his eyes. I
“God knows I-’m sorry,” he said,
“that this thing broke just now. I
didn't aim that ye should be no eye
witness.”
Juanita smiled rather wanly. Old
Milt, he told her, would soon be re
leased. "We ain’t even goin’ to keep j
him in the jailhouse no longer than 1
mornin'. We couldn't convict him. an
It would only bring on more trouble '
"Why was he arrested?” she asked
blankly.
"Just to keep him out of mischief
overnight,” he smiled. “Even the law
can be used for strategy.”
"What will happen when the Mc
Briars come back?” she demanded in
a shaken voice.
He shook his head. "I can’t hardly
say,” he replied.
But the next morning Anse Havey
came again and cautioned the two
women not to leave their ‘rooms and
not to keep their shutters open. All
that day the town lay like a turtle,
tight drawn into its shell. Streets
were empty. Doors were locked and
shutters barred. But toward evening,
to the girl's bewilderment, she saw
Haveys riding out of town instead of
into it. Soon there were no more
horses at the racks. By night the
place which was to be assaulted to
morrow seemed to have been aban
doned by its defenders.
Old Milt McBriar had ridden out in
the morning, freed but wrathful, to
meet the men who were hurrying in.
The figure of Bad Anse Havey she caw
often from her window, but for the
most part the force of Haveys had
evaporated.
Then followed another wretched
night, and with forenoon the snow
wrapped town settled down to the
empty silence of a cemetery, but with
early afternoon the new procession
began to come in. A long and con
tinuous stream of McBriar horsemen,
each armed to the teeth, rode past the
hotel and went straight to the court
house. Then she heard again the
sound she had neard on her first
night in the mountains, only now it
came from a hundred throats.
It was the McBriar yell, and after
It came a scattering of rifle and pistol
shots. The clan was going away again
and shooting up the town as they
went, but what had happened down
there at the courthouse?
CHAPTER XXI.
Later she heart the story. The Mc
Eriars had con.e expecting battle
They had found every road open and
the town deserted. For a time they
h%d gone about looking for trouble,
but found no one to oppose them,
'then Old Milt and his son had rid
<i*sn to the courthouse to demand the
Keys of the jail. They found Judge
Sidering sitting in the little office, and
1»ith him, quite unarmed qnd without
*«cort, sat Bad Anse Havey. When
the two McBriars, backed by a score
d armed men. broke fiercely into the
room, others massed at their backs,
crowding doorway and hall.
Judge Sidering greeted his visitors
as though no intimation had ever
reached him that they were coming
vfith a grievance.
"Come in. Milt, and have a chair,”
he invited.
"Cheer, hell!” shouted Milt McBriar.
"Give me the keys ter thet jailhouse,
ail’ give ’em ter the quick!”
Opening the drawer of his desk as
If he had been asked for a match,
Judge Sidering twos out the big iron
key to the outer door and the smaller
brass key to the little row of cells. He
tossed the two across to Milt in a
matter-of-fact fashion.
Five minutes later the McBriar
chief was back trembling with rage.
He had found the jail empty.
"If you're lookin' for Luke Thixton,
Milt,” said the judge calmly, “the high
sheriff took him to Louisville yester
day for safe-keepin’.”
The answer was a bellow of rage.
Old Milt McBriar threw forward his
rifle.
Anse looked up and spoke slowly:
“I reckon it wouldn’t profit ye much
to harm us. Milt. We ain’t armed, an'
it would bring on a heap of trouble."
Outside rose an angry chorus of
voices. The news that the jail was
empty had gone through the crowd.
For a time the McBriar stood there
debating his next step. The town
seemed at his mercy. Seemed! That
word gave him pause. The way home
lay through Havey territory, which
might mean twenty miles of solid
ambush. Anse Havey sat too quietly
for Milt's ease of mind. Was he bait
ing some fresh tiap?
The old intriguer felt baffled and at
sea. He had grown accustomed to
weighing and calculating with guileful
deliberation. He balked at swift and
impulsive action. Moreover, if he de
bated long, he might not be able to
control his men. He looked up—to
sec little Milt, who was fighting back
the crowd at the door and locking
them out. Beyond the panels could
be heard loud swearing and the impa
tient shuffling of many feet.
“What shall we do, son?” inquired
the older man of the younger. His
voice bad a note of appeal and break
ing power.
When Young Milt had ridden out
of Peril no feudist in the hills had
borne a heart fuller of hatred and
hunger for vengeance, but that was
because of his father. Now his father
was free. For Luke Thixton he had
j a profound contempt. He saw in the
situation only a game of wits in which
[ Anse Havey was winner.
“Well,” he replied with a grin he
could not repress, "hit looks right
smart ter me like thar hain't nothin’
to do but ride on back home an' try
again next time.”
That counsel in the end prevailed.
Outside there had been a short, sharp
struggle with a mutinous spirit. These
men had come for action and they did
net want to ride back foiled, but the
word of Old Milt had stood unchal
lenged too long to fail now. Yet he
led back a grumbling following and
bore a discounted power. They could
net forget that a Havey had worsted
i him.
So the spirit of the men who had
j come to fight vented itself in the yell
! and the random shots to which there
; was no reply, and again a train of
■ horsemen were on their way into the
j hills.
‘ When it was all over and Juanita
j sat there in her empty school she was
! realizing that, after all, the desperate
; moment had only been deferred and
i must come with absolute certainty.
I Olristmas was only two days off and
I her gun-rack was empty. When she
had come home there had not been
a single weapon there.
There would be no Christmas tree
now! The beribVioned packages lay in
a useless pile. Had school been in ses
sion, she knew fhat the desks would
have been as enlpty as the gun-rack.
The whole turtleJike life had drawn in
its head and the countryside lay as
though besieged.
On Anse Havey’s book-shelves were
new volumes, for Juanita was feeding
his scant supply, and a softer type of
poetry was being added to his frugal
and stern repertoire. A number of
men left the mountains and went into
exile elsewhere. These were the wit
nesses who must testify against Luke
Thixton and whose lives would not
have been worth a nickel had they
stayed at home.
Then came Christmas (lay itself,
bleak and soggy with the thaw that
had set in and the moody dreariness
of the sky. The sun seemed to have
despaired and made its course spirit
lessly from dawn to twilight, crawling
dimly across its daily arc.
Brother Anse Talbott came over to
the school and found both women sit
ting apathetically by an untrlmmed flr
tree amid a litter of forgotten pack
ages. The children of Tribulation
were having the sort of Christmas
they had always had—a day of terror
and empty cheerlessness.
"Hit seems like a right smart pity
fer them children ter be plumb, tee
totally disapp'inted,” mused the old
preacher. “S'pose now ye put names
on them gewgaws an’ let me jest
sorter ride round an’ scatter ’em.’’
I "You dear old saint!” cried Juanita,
suddenly roused out of her apathy.
"But you’ll freeze to death an’ get
drowned in some ford."
"Thet’s all right.” the preacher an
swered briefly. “I reckon I kin go
ther route.”
It took Good Anse Talbott three
days of battle 'vith quicksand and
mire to finish that mission. At each
house he told them that Juanita Hol
land had sent him, and the girl was
canonized afresh in hearts old and
young, back in roadless coves and on
bleak hillsides.
• *•••••
Every evening found Anse Havey
seated before Jur-nita'^ hearth, study
ing the flicker of the firelight on her
face. Every detail of her expression
became to him as something he had
always known and worshiped.
Some day Malcolm would come back
FROM ALL PARTS
Bachelors over twenty-live years of
age were taxed id England in the sev
enteenth century—£12 10s for a duke,
and for a common person, one shilling.
There are 15 German Rhodes schol
arships at Oxford, each of $1,250. ten
able for three years, the holders to
be nominated by the German emperor.
in Australia there has been started
a popular movement for the preserva
tion of the giant' strlngybark" trees ot
that country, the tallest in the world.
Those who wait 2,500,000 years will
witness a repetition of the phenome
non of February, 1866, when there was
no full moon. Forty-nine years has
passed already.
The hammer used at the sale of Ger
man prize ships In London was the
same as that used in 1855, when the
enemy's ships seized were sold. At
the close of the sale the auctioneer
presented this hammer to the mm-ahni
of the admiralty. H. W. Lovell. A
gold-lettered inscription on the ham
mer recalled the Crimean war.
—and marry her—and then—at that
point Bad Anse Havey refused to fol
low his trend of thought further. He
only ground his teeth.
“Ye damn fool.” he told himself.
"That ain't no reason why ye shouldn't
make the most of today. She's right
here now, an’ she’s sun an' moon an
star shine and music an’ sweetness.'
She did not know, and he gave her
no hint, that in these times, with plots
and counterplots hatching on both
sides of the ridge, he never made that
journey in the night without inviting
death. He was walking miles through
black woodland trails each evening to
relievo for an hour or two her loneli
ness and to worship with sealed lips
and a rebellious heart.
On the night before he was to go to
Peril to attend the trial of Luke Thix
ton he came with a very full and
heavy heart. He knew that it might
be a farewell. Tomorrow he must put
to the test all his hold on his people
and all his audacity of resolution. He
stood at the verge of an Austerlitz or
a Waterloo, and he had undertaken
the thing for no reason except that it
had pleased her to command it.
He knew that tmong his own fol
lowers there were smiles for the
power which a "furrin” woman had
come to wield over him, and if one
failure marred his plans those smiles
would become derisive. It was weak
ness to go on as he was going, gazing
dumbly at her with boundless adora
tion he dared not voice. Tonight he
would bluntly tell her that he was do
ing these things because he loved her;
that, while he was glad to do them,
he could not let her go on misunder
standing his motives.
But when he reached the school she
rose to receive him, and he could see
only the slimness of her graceful fig
ure and the smile of welcome on her
lips, and the man who had never been
recreant before to the mandate of
resolution, became tongue-tied.
She vheld out a hand, which he took
with more in his grip than the hand
clasp of friendship, but that she did
not notice.
"Anse,” she laughed, "I've had a let
ter from home today urging me to
give up and come back. They don’t
realize how splendidly I am going to
succeed, thanks to your help. I want
you to go with me soon and mark some
more trees for felling. It won’t be
long now before they can begin build
ing again.”
"1 wonder," he said, looking at her
with brows that were deeply drawn
and eyes full of suffering, “if ye'll ever
have time to stop talkin’ about the
school for a little spell an’ remember
that I’m a human bein’.”
“Remember that you’re a human
being?” she questioned in perplexity.
She stood there with one hand on
the back of her chair, her face puzzled.
He decided at once that this expres
sion was the most beautiful she had
ever worn, and he sturdily held that
conviction until her eyes changed to
laughter, when he forswore his alle
giance to the first fascination for the
second.
“Are you sure you are a human be
ing?” she teased. “When you wear
that sulky face you are only half hu
man. I ought to make you stand in
the corner until you can be cheerful.”
“I reckon,” he said a little bitterly,
“if ye ordered me to stand in the cor
Christmas Was Only Two Days Off
and Her Gun Rack Was Empty.
ner I’d just about do it I reckon that’s
about how much manhood I’ve got
left."
But he laughed, too, in the next mo
ment.
The morning of the trial dawned on
a town prepared to face a bloody day
Long before train-time crowds had
drifted down to the station.
As though by common consent, the
tycBriars stood on one side of the
track and the Haveys on the other.
For an hour they massed there, low
ering of face, yet quietly w'aiting.
Then the whistle shrieked across the
river and each crowd moved a little
forward, hands tightened on rifles,
awaiting the supreme moment. The
deputy sheriffs came out of the depot
and stood waiting between the two
groups with a strained assumption of
unconcern. But when the train ar
rived it carried an extra coach, and at
sight of it the McBriars groaned and
knew once more they were defeated.
They had come to wrest a prisoner
from a sheriff’s posse and encountered
trained soldiery. Behind the opened
sashes of the coach they saw a solid
mass of blue overcoats and brown
service-hats. Every window bristled
with rifle-barrels and fixed bayonets.
Then, while the train was held beyond
its usual brief stop, acd while Jiose
rifle-barrels were trained impartiallv
on Haveys and McRriars, a line ol
soldiers begun pouring out into the
roadbed and forming cordons along
each side of the track. Beth lines
moved slowly but unwaveringly for
ward, pressing back the crowds before
their urgent bayonets.
Two wicked-looking gatling guns
were unloaded from the baggage car.
and tending them as men might
handle beloved pejs, came squads
whose capes were faced with artillery
red.
Shortly a compact little procession
in column of fours, with the gatling
guns at its front and a hollow square
at its center, was marching briskly to
the courthouse. In the hollow square
went the defendant, handcuffed to the"
sheriff. Without delay or confusion
the gatling guns were put in place,
one commanding the courthouse
square and one casting its many-eyed
glance up the hillside at the back.
Then, with the bayonets of sentries
crossed at the doors, the bell in the
cupola rang while Judge Sidering
walked calmly Into the building and
instructed the sheriff to open court.
His honor had directed that every
man save officials who sought admis
sion should be disarmed at the door.
Luke Thixton bent forward in his
chair and growled into the ear of Old
Milt McBriar, who sat at his left.
“I’ve got as much chanst hyar as a
fish on a hilltop. Hain't ye goin' ter
do nothin’ fer me?”—and Milt looked
about helplessly and swore under his
breath.
One onlooker there had not been
searched. Young Jeb bore the creden
tials of a special deputy sheriff, and
under his coat was a holster with its
flap unbuttoned. While the panel wa3
being selected; while lawyers wran
gled and witnesses testified; while the
court gazed off with half-closed eye3,
rousing only to overrule or sustain a
motion, young Jeb sat with his arms
on the table, and never did his eyes
leave the face of the accused.
It was a very expeditious trial.
Judge Sidering glanced at the faces
of Old Milt and young Jeb, and had no
desire to prolong the agony of those
hours. The defense half-heartedly re
lied upon the old device of a false
alibi, which the state promptly punc
tured. Even the lawyers seemed in
haste to be through, and set a limit or.
their arguments.
At the end his honor read brief in
structions. and the panel was locked
in its room.
Then the McBriars drew a little
closer around the chair where Old
Milt waited, and the militia captain
strengthened his guard outside and
began unostentatiously sprinkling uni
formed men through the dingy court
room until the liodden-gray throng
was flecked with blue.
At length there came a rap on the
door of the juryroom, and instantly
the low drone of voices fell to a hush.
His honor poured a glass of water
from the chipped pitcher at his elbow,
while Luke Thixton and Milt McBriar,
for all their immobility of feature,
braced themselves. Like some rest
less animal of many legs, the rough
throng along the courtroom benches
scraped its feet on the floor.
Young Jeb shifted his chair a little
so that the figure of the defendant
might be in an uninterrupted line of
vision. His right hand quietly slipped
under his coat, and his lingers
loosened a weapon in its holster and
nursed the trigger.
Then, with a dragging of shoe-leath
er, the twelve "good men and true"
shambled to a semicircle before the
bench, gazing stolidly and blankly at
the rows of battered law books which
served his honor as a background.
There they stood awkwardly in the
gaze of all. Judge Sidering glanced
into the beetling countenance of their
foreman and inquired in that bored
voice which seems a Judicial affecta
tion even in questions of life and
death: "Gentlemen, have you agreed
upon a verdict?”
The foreman nodded. The sheet of
paper, which he passed to the clerk,
had been signed by more than one
juror with a cross because he could
not write.
“We, the jury,” read the clerk in a
clear voice, “find the defendant, Luke
Thixton, guilty as charged in the in
dictment—” There, although he had
not yet reached the end, he indulged
in a dramatic pause, then read on the
more important clause in the terms of
the Kentucky law which leaves the
placing of the penalty in the hands of
the jurors—"and fix his punishment
at death.”
As though relieved from a great
pressure, young Jeb McNash withdrew
his hand from his holster and settled
back in his chair with fixed muscles.
Judge Sidering's formal question
broke in on the dead quiet, "So say
you all, gentlemen?” and twelve
shaggy heads nodded wordless affirma
tion.
Soldiers filed in from the rear. In
less than thirty seconds the prisoner
had disappeared. Outside the gatling
guns remained in place, and the troops
patrolled the streets.
For two days the McBriars stayed
in town, but the troops lingered long
er, and in that time Luke had again
been taken back to Louisville.
Once more Old Milt led back a dis
gruntled faction with no more spirited
a program than to go home and bide
its time again. When they brought
Luke back to bang him, his friends
would have one final chance.
A seeming of quiet, under which hot
wrath smoldered, settled over hill and
cove, but a new note began to run
through the cabins of the McBriar de
pendents. It was a note of waning
faith and loyalty for their chief.
Old Milt read the signs and felt that
his dominion was now a thing upon
which decay bad set its seal, and un
SNAP SHOTS
Tank Beverly says his notion ot a
"tightwad” is the pitch player who
believes he can save an unprotected
jack.
Buck Kirby says his ambition is to
see a race for office between a poli
tician named “BiU” and another called
"Honest John.” Buck says there is
nothing he enjoys so much as the
spectacle ot the intelligent voter in
a hole where he has to think for him
self.
A recent official estimate gave Vene
zuela a population of 2,812,668.
No actor can compete witb a baby
when it comes to entertaining the
women.
A jury is like the injured husband
in the respect that it is always the
last to find It out
Here is another inviolable rule: No
barber shop should sell ice cream in
connection with its regular business.
We have noticed that the men who
die for women nearly always do so
at the hands of an injured husband.
de» iiit- gfw.e "'ace he masked a break
ng heart His star was setting and
since he was no longer young and ut
toriy incapable of bending, he sick
ened slowly through the wet winter,
and men spoke of him as an invalid
With Milt “ailin'," there was no one
to take up the reins of clan govern
ment. and those elements that bad
been held together only by his iron
dominance began drifting asunder.
One mill day when a group of Mo
Briars met with their sacks of grist at
a water-mill, someone put the ques
tion: “Who’s a-g«n’ ter go down thar
an' take Luke Thixtca away from ther
Haveys now thet Old Milt's down an
out ?"
There was a long silence, and at last
a voice drawled: "Hit hain't a goin
ter be me. What’s Luke Thixton ter
me, anyhow? He didn't nuver lend
me no money."
“I reckon thar’s a heap o’ sense in
thet,” answered another. “ 'Pears
like, when I come ter recollect, mos’
of ther fightin’ an’ fursin’ I’ve done
in my time hain’t been in my own
quarrels nohow." And slowly that
spirit spread.
When Anso Havey went over to the
school one day Juanita took him again
to the rifle-rack, now once more well
filled. “Have a look, my lord bar
His Honor Had Directed That Every
Man—Save Officials—Should Be Dis
armed at the Door.
barian.” she laughed. "Mars is pay
ing me tribute. So shall it ever be
with tyranny.”
Slowly, and one by one, Anse Havey
took up the pieces and examined them.
"It ain’t only Mars that's paying ye
tribute,” he thought, but he only said:
"That's all right. I seem to see more
McBriar guns there than Havey guns
It would suit me all right if ye got
the last one of ’em."
“Hadn’t you as well hang yours
there, too?” she teased. “I’m still
willing to give you the honors of war.”
But he only smiled, ’i’ll hang mine
up last of all, I reckon. Luke Thix
ton ain't hung yet, and there’s other
clouds a brewin’ besides that.”
“What clouds?” she asked.
“There was a bunch of surveyors
through here lately,” he replied slow
ly. "They just sort of looked ’round
and went away. Some day they'll come
back.”
"And then?”
Anse Havey shrugged his shoulders
"1 may need my gun.” he said.
Not until It became certain that he
must die did Old Milt send for his son.
or even permit hipi to be told of his
illness. But just as the winter’s siege
was ending Young Milt came home,
and two days later the mountains
heard that the old feudist was dead.
Brother Anse Talbott and Juanita
and a doctor who had come from
Lexington were witnesses to that
leave-taking. They saw the old man
beckon feebly to the boy. Young Milt
came and sat on the edge of the bed,
schooling his features as he waited
the final injunctions which, by his
code, would be mandatory for life.
They all waited to hear the old lion
break out in a final burst of vindictive
ness, to see him lay upon his boy's
young shoulders the unfinished or
deals of his hatreds. But it was the
eye of the father, not the feudist, that
gazed up from the pillow. His wasted
fingers lay affectionately on his son’s
knee and his voice was gentle.
"Son," said the old man, "I'd love
ter hev ye live at peace ef ye kin. I’ve
done tried ther other way an’ hit’s kilt
me. I’d ruther ye'd let my fights be
buried along with my body. Anse
Havey’s goin’ ter run things in these
mountings. He's a smarter man than
me. I couldn’t never make no peace
with Anse Havey, but the things that’s
always stood betwixt us lays a long
way back. Mebby you an’ him mought
pull together an' end ther feud. I
leaves thet with you; but hit took
death ter make me see hit—”
Here he broke off exhaustedly, and
for a time seemed fighting for breath.
At last he added; ‘T’ve knowed all
along thet Luke killed Fletch McXash.
I thought I’d ought ter tell ye.”
A week after the death of the old
leader Young Milt rode over to the
house of Anse Havey, and there he
found Job McNash. The two young
men looked at each other without ex
pression. Just after the death of his
father Jeb would not willingly have
renewed their quarrel, and as for
Young Milt, he no longer felt resent
ment.
’’Anse,” said the heir to McBriar
leadership, "I rid over here ter offer
ye my hand. I've done found out that
Luke is es guilty es hell. I didn’t be
lieve hit afore. So fur es I’m con
cerned.’ he kin hang, an’ I’m goin' ter
tell every McBriar man that will
harken ter me ther same thing. So
fur as I’m concerned,” went on the
lad "I’m against the shootin' of anv
man from the la'rel."
Just as the earliest flowers began to
peep out with shy laces in the woods
and the first softness came to the air
men began rearing a scaffold in the
courthouse yard at Peril.
One day a train brought Luke Thix
ton back to the hills, but this time
only a few soldiers came with him.
and they wer« not needed Juanita
tried to forget ifto r»rnili-ance of that
Friday, but she could mX, *ji al! the
larger boys were absent from school,
and all day Thursday the road had
been sprinkled with horses and wag
ons. She knew with a shudder that
they were going to town to see the
hanging. A gruesome fascination ot
interest attached to so unheard of an
event as a McBriar clansman dying on
a Havey scaffold with his people stand
ing by idie.
But Luke Thixtou. going to his
death there among enemies, went
without flinching, and his snarling lips
even twisted a bit derisively when he
mounted the scaffold, as they had
twisted when he declined Good Anse
Talbott's ministrations in the jail.
Since he must die among enemies
he would give them no weakness over
which to gloat in memory.
He raised his head, and his snarl
turned slowly and unpleasantly into a
grin of contempt, and his last words
were a picturesque curse called down
alike on the heads of the foes who put
him to death and on the false friends
who had failed him.
Afterward Young Milt and Bad Anse
shook hands, and the younger man
said to the older:
“Now that I've proved to ye that I
meant what I said, 1 reckon we can
make a peace that'll endure a spell,
can’t we?”
And Anse answered: “Milt. I've
been hopin' we could ever since the
day we watched for the feller that
aimed to burn down the school."
CHAPTER XXM.
That spring new buildings went up
at the school and brave rows of flow
ers appeared in the garden.
At first her college had been a Kin
dergarten in effect, but now as Juani
ta stood on the porch at recess she
wondered if any other schoolmistress
had ever drawn about her such a
strange assortment of pupils. There
were little tots in bright calico, glory
ing in big bows of cotton hair-ribbon
—but submitting grudgingly to tht
combing of the hair they sought to
adorn. There were larger boys and
girls, too, and even a half-dozen men
just now pitching horseshoes and
smoking pipes—and they also were
learning to read and write.
In the afternoons women rode in on
mules and horses or came on foot, and
Juanita taught them not only letter*!
and figures, but lessons looking to
cleaner and more healthful cabins.
May came with smiles and songs in
the sky from sunrise to sunset, and in
the woods, where the moisture rose
and tender greens were sending out
their hopeful shoots, the wild flowers
unfolded themselves. Then Juanita
Holland and Anse Havey would go to
gether up to the ridge and watch the
great awakening across the brown and
gray humps of the hills, and under
their feet was a carpet of glow'ng
petals.
, Anse Havey had never had such a
companionship, and hidden things be
gan to waken in him.
So when she stood there, with the
spring breeze caressing the curling
tendrils ai her temples, and blowing
her gingham skirt about her slim
ankles, and pointed off. smiling, to his
house, he dropped his head in mock
shame.
“ ‘Only the castle moodily gloomed
to itself apart,’" she quoted in accu
sation, and the man laughed boyishly,
"I reckon ye haven't seen the castle
lately,” he said. “Ye v.-ouldn’t hardly
know it. It’s gettin’ all cleaned up an’
made civilized. The eagle's nest is
turnin’ into a sure-enough bird cage ”
"Who’s changing now?” she ban
tered. "Am 1 civilizing von or”—her
eyes danced with badinage—"are you
preparing to get married?"
His face flushed and then became
almost surly.
"Who'd marry me?" he savagely de
manded.
“I’m sure 1 don’t know,” she teased.
“Whom have you asked?"
He bent a little forward and said
slowly:
“Once ye told me I was wasting my
youth. Ye ’lowed I ought to be captain
of my soul. If I found a woman that
I wanted and she wouldn’t have me—
what ought I to do about it?"
' There are two courses prescribed
in all the correspondence schools, and
both are perfectly simple," she an
nounced with mock gravity. “One Is
simply to take the lady first and ask
her afterward. The other is even
easier; get another girl.”
“Oh," he said. He was hurt because
she had either not seen or had pre
tended not to see his meaning She
had not grasped the presumptuous
dream and effrontery of his heart.
His voice for a moment became
enigmatical as he added: “Sometimes
1 think ye’ve played hell in thesc
mountains.”
That spring silent forces were at
work in the hills; as silent and less
beneficent than the stirring sap and
the brewing of showers.
Three men in the mountains were
now fully convinced that what the
world needs the world will have, and
they were trying to find a solution to
the question which might make their
own people sharers in the gain, in
stead of victims. These three were
Anse and Milt and Jeb, and their first
step was the effort to hold landowners
in check, and make them slow to sell
and guarded in their bargaining.
(TO BE CONTINUED.)
POSTSCRIPTS
Dipping in a soiution of alum will
tireproof paper candle or lamp shades.
The development of a practical gas
turbine engine is claimed in Switzer
land.
A new electric fan can be screwed
into a light socket and will operate at
any angle.
If a box six feet deep were filled
with sea water which was allowed to
evaporate there would be two Inches
of salt on the bottom of the box.
Cotton growing is being developed
extensively in Turkey.
A machine that takes up but little
apace has been invented to wash and
scrub golf balls.^
A process for attaching glass let
ters to tombstones has been patented
by an Indiana inventor.
An English scientist has brought out
a new electrical process for coating
iron or steel with lead.
Boiled water has been found an ex
cellent disinfectant for bullet wounds
by a French surgeon
THE EUROPEAN WAR A
YEAR AGO THIS WEEK
Dec. 20, 1914.
Von Hindenburg advanced fu
ther toward Warsaw.
Russians crossed the Bzura.
burning the bridges.
Serbians and Montenegrins
again invaded Bosnia.
Turks made gains near Lake
Urumiah.
Allied fleets bombarded interior
forts of the Dardanelles.
Russians drove Turn toward
Van.
Belgian provinces agreed to pay
tax to Germany.
Dec. 21, 1914.
Allies extended offensive oper
ations in west, gaining in center.
Russians won over Turks in
Armenia, capturing equipment.
Allied aviators dropped bombs
in Brussels and made night attack
near Ostend.
Chile protested against viola
tions of her neutrality by German
navy.
Germans driven across border
of North Poland.
Dec. 22, 1914.
Germans claimed to have
stopped allies in west.
Germans accused of shelling
hospital in Ypres.
Russian army threatened rail
way to Thorn and Germans re
formed to protect it.
Von Hindenburg’s left thrert
ened by new invasion of German;-.
Germans crossed branches
Bzura and Rawka rivers.
Austrians defeated in the Car
pathians.
Arabs menaced Christians in
Hodeida and French consul was
seized.
Allied fleets bombarded German
positions on Belgian coast.
French destroyer shelled Turks.
Allied fleets shelled Kilid 3ahr
Many Austrian soldiers killed in
troop train accident.
Dec. 23, 1914.
Allies made slight gains in west
Austrians defeated in southern
Galicia.
Portuguese retreated before the
Germans in Angola, Africa.
Turkish army left Damascus
and marched on Suez canal.
Russian destroyers in Black sea
bombarded Turkish villages.
King of Belgians sent message
of thanks to Americans.
Dec. 24, 1914.
British using new howitzers in
west: French artillery demolishes
German trenches.
French cruiser damaged by Aus
trian torpedo.
French submarine sunk by Aus
trian shore batteries.
German aviator dropped bomb
in Dover.
Germany denied French charge
of hiring neutral ships to lay
mines in Mediterranean.
Dec. 25, 1914.
Unofficial Christmas along much
of the western front, the allies and
Germans in some instances ex
changing gifts and visits.
French shelled the outer forts of
Metz.
Civilians of East Prussia began
movement toward interior of prov
ince.
Russo-Turkish operations were
stopped by intense cold.
Two German aviators fiew up
the Thames.
Dec. 26, 1914.
British made naval and air at
tack on German fleet without im
portant results.
Zeppelin dropped bombs In
Nancy, German aeroplanes made
raid in Russian Poland and French
aviators attacked Metz.
Fighting in Flanders was halted
by dense fog.
Russians made gains In the
south.
French attacked Austrian naval
base at Pola in the Adriatic.
Germany notified neutral nations
their consuls in Belgium would
not be recognized further.
Unqualifiedly False.
“Skinner boasts that he never lets
anybody get ahead of him—that he
takes nobody’s dust.” "Skinners a
falsifier; he takes everybody's dust he
can lay his hands on.”—Boston Tran
script.
Driven to Desperation.
“I am so tired of being conventional
and customary and correct,” stated H.
H. Harsh, “that one of these days 1
shall stop right in front of a church
and in a firm voice ejaculate ‘Drat!’ ”
—Kansas City Star.
His Opinion of Brown.
Smart Young Man—“What do you
think of Brown?” Indignant Old Gen
tleman—"Brown, sir! He is one ot
those people that pat you on the back
before your face, and hit you in the
eye behind your back!”—Tit-Bits.
True Happiness.
To watch the corn grow and the
blossom set, to draw hard breath over
plowshare and spade, to read, to
think, to love, to hope, to pray—these
are the things to make man happy.—
R us kin.
Chinese View of Americans.
An American teacher in Peking re
peats the interesting summary ol
Americans made by one of her pu
pils, as follows: “The Americans are
quite clean, like the Japanese, and
eat clean food, so they have little time
to catch ill. Americans take theii
wives whenever they travel. Most ol
the Europeans have beards, but the
Americans shave evary day.”
Optimistic Thought.
The harmony of men is a strong.*
defense than walla of stone.