THE COURIER.
'
CHUG.
KATUABINE MELICK.
(For The Courier.)
stood ever since Jonas Marvin died, leav
ing his new house unfinished. It had
been a long time since a Marvin had
shown signs of discontent.
i uon i seem naterel for him to
He aint got nothin'
go
to
The farmer's wife gathered her apron
corners together as she stepped wearily ff that 'a way
over the low, broad fence into the wood
pile. "1 wonder if Oavid'll ever get
that gale cut through," she thought,
looking under her sun-bonnet rim oft"
toward the whaat-field. The big red
thresher stood motionlees, with dust
clouds settling around it. The men
were leading the homes toward the lung, u',n bim, when he's made up his mind
reached the top of the slope. la the in the straw. Then he climbed back
stretch of low-land at the foot of the through the window, unhitched the
hill, a man was riding a barrow over the horses, and led them to the watering-
trough. He loosened the rope from the
windlass, and let the bucket whizz down
the well.
"Just hear that, Jane," said David
Woods to his wife. ' lie's busted two
corn-stalk. The barrow bad a kitchen
chair nailed to the frame. A man sat
in the chair, holdincr the lines straight
complain of. It jest seems as though out before him, with gloved hands,
we icaint suit him." Chug sent the ears faster and faster in-
David Woods shifted his boote uneasi- to the wagon. As it turned, at the end
ly. "I reckon he'll go back, after I've of the row, he saw the low, black houeo
had a talk with him." with its rasped walla. A tall sir! with
Mrs. Marvin shook her head heluless- bare feet and arms waa carrvinir two to have some nn about him 'nhn nrmornr
I'. Ao. Taint no kind o' USD to nrirv wooden nails toward thn trnuirh tint fur ad nnmnarhnt nhnrnlv. and hnr huahaml
0rf 1 .. D v- .. -. v v...p .. MW. MWUWMMl.
from the door. He could Bee the little watched her clamber over tho fence, in
wall-buckets a' ready, an' this un leaks."
"Jane" went on tilling her apron with
sticks of wood. "Taint bo bad for a man
energetically into the stove, and the fire
blazed up with a Hare that sent little
puffs of smoke starting from the cracks
around the stove lids.
Her eyes ached, as she stirred the
great kettlo of steamy potatoes, and
low Stable. r Jep 'd go EOm'er's else" the ivnnla white nice runnimr from thn barn a fiilance. ITn nrnllrnri alnorlv in tSn tahtA
She clambered quickly over the fence died into unmeaning syllables. It waa a queer barn with boarded windows and a stopping once to wonder whethor "Jau-
again, hurried to the kitchen, and let waJ' of speaking, peculiar to the MarvinB roof sunken like a "sway-backed" horse, ey" might have wanted him to carry
the sticks fall with a thud into the big hesitating, uncertain lapse, that oft- It had been the first home of the Mar- the wood for her. Then he looked in at
wood-box, keeping a hand-full in the ea stopped a sentence before it was well vine. Chug pulled up his blackened the barn-window, and forgot the wood,
corner of her apron TheBe she poked begun. felt brim, and his mouth twitched as he "Chug!" he shouted.
"Well. Why doesn't Jefferson go turned his back to the girl and the pigs, Chug slouched from the cow-"shed.
somewhere else?" and labored up the slope. When the with bis hands in his pockets.
Mrs. Marvin Iooked'in a hurt way at end of the long row was reached, be "What's the matter with the colt?"
her green shawl fringe. "He alius said Btopped the team and tied tbem to a "Got 'is bead through that ere hole"
no one Telt fer him but me a poor post. He swung over the fence, through
motherlads boy with that malary never the corner of pasture, to the low, red
ladled out smoking gravy and steaming out n his blood. It's come a year nex barn with its mow running over with
joints. The men, fresh from the bread, Aprile sence the Texas herd went new hay. He whistled as he looked in
dusty sunshine, hurried quickly through through, an' he aint never ben free from through the square window, and saw a
the stifling kitchen, almost catching 'D sence the day he come to the kitchen little black colt lying on the fresh straw.
their breath as they went. Filing past, door an asked me fer a bit o' Bomethin' Ab he moved away again, a long, black
strengthemn . noeo was thrust from the window, and
David pulled a leaf from the morning- the mare's head dropping between two come in, bis head waa through the par
glory vine which swung against his hat- small ears laid back, shook viciously at tition."
brim as he stood before the door. the big felt bat. Chug laughed. David Woods put his hand on the
"Ue's a well meanin critter. Gits When he came again to the top of the dead colt's side. "I'd ought to looked
along the best kind with the girls. But BloDe. the harrow wbb Btandintr still in af ter myself," he said, with the short.
with their forkB heap great piles of meat nuK. ne seems to nave a pick at him. the field below. The girl Btood beside naren w"18 r a BIW nant seldom angry,
and potato on their knife-blades. I caint see" the words fell off it, and the man in the chair was holding '"A Marvin couldn't be expected to look
"I wonder if that Marvin boy ever uga'Q- a jug to his lips. The girl's black hair ater notbin'. Supper's ready."
eat a square meal before?" she thought Tne farmer took down the milk-pails hung in lank locks that blew in tho Chug's mouth twitched violently, and
wearily. "He don't look over-fed. Them which stood on a table under the vines, wind. Chue's Hdb ierked smsmodicallv be did not move, for a minute. Then a
.. i. .: :-.I, rnun.n .li . His visitnr rnsf nnd ua oho nfrwnrl nn hn. i n. i i n i tirod unino nallnd "Snnnari"
aietjvoB w a tugui, audio gucs mai rug j ,...... up, uu aa uu BiuiKeu uruuuu lurtio long rows, .-.--...-, .-t.t...
into his tomatoes." sn5 turneu to cut JUUO uu" Ul IUIU- U,UUK aair ieu in a and went aeain to the window of the i""cu.
a fresh plate of bread. stringy twist down over her green shawl, red barn.
At night when she sat rocking the ba- ybe did not notice it. She walked Blow- The little colt was trying to stand on
by to sleep, on the little porch, her hus- iy ana sumy away, Baying nair to her- its ungainly legs. It fell, and bruised
band tramped heavily up the walk, and self, "It don't seem naterel." its knees on a long, splintered board
-uavia: came trom tne Kitchen door, that the black horse had kicked loose
ine rarmer stopped, witn one band on from the stall. Chue slid back the barn
rolling down their shirt-sleeves as they
came in one by one from the basin by
the door, they tilled the room with a
breath of machine-oil and perspiration,
that made the woman feel faint. ' She
stood in the door, and watched them
Chug stopped with a queer numbness in
his arms, where the neck and the eoft
white hoofs had Iain.
"I thought I told you to look in evory
hour or so"
"I did' the face under the felt hat
reddened. "He was all right about half-
paat-nve, a tryin to stand up When I
here
had
sat down on the stone steps.
"That straw was awful duBty," be re
marked, taking off his wide straw hat.
His wife rocked back and forth.
''The Marvin boy wants to stav
'n Bleep in the hay-mow tonight."
"What fur?"
"Ab near's I kin make out, he's
some fallin' out at home."
"Well, is there any use keeping up the
fuss?" There was a rising inflection in
the voice, that made itself felt,
the creek of the rocking-chair.
"I don't know, Janey," the farmer al
ways said "Janey" when he recognized
that tone, "but Chug be looked so down
in the mouth."
"I never see one of them Marvins that
didn't look down in the mouth."
There was silence for a moment. The
farmer uprooted with his boot a small
bind-weed growing by the scraper. "He
said the bay looked so clean in the hay
mow." The baby stirred, and began to su'jk
its fists violently. The farmer's wife
looked across she clover pasture at the
field where two huge straw-stacks and
one smaller pile stood, gigantic cones in
the shadows.
"I spose you told him he could stay?''
"Yes.'
But tho rext morninn the farmer
stood on the porch, and. surveyed his
dusty boots in new perplexity
from the
He ate (his supper) in silence,dropping
his head over his plate, as on the first
evening he bad come from home. He
buttered his corn-bread twice, and
gulped down his coffee without cream or
sugar, l ben he got up, stumbling over
him?"
"I'm blessed if I know what she come
after."
A child's cry within, made the door
close suddenly. Mrs. Woods wont about
the barn.
All the way out to the "bone-patch."
he did not look at the thing dragging by
the end of hia halter rope. He could
hear from the red barn Joe and Mary
Woods, playing "Ante-over." At the
the fence, the other holding the two tin- doors, reached through the slit that the the baby's tin horse, and shuflled out to
Pa"8- broken piece had left in the partition,
uia mat Doys motner come after and pulled out the board. It seemed
somehow drearily natural to him when
the black horse let her heels fly at him
as he stepped back.
When he came to the top of the hill.
the man still eat in his chair, and the end ot tbe Pasture he Btopped and star-
ber hot kitchen, with a frown coming girl stood beside him, balancing on one ed a ,onK time down at th8 black, ragged
above and 'DK between her two tired eyes. bare foot on the top of one of the blue bouse, where two girls, with long, brown
"fiow can I help it," she said to the bars of the harrow-frame. It had been armB were carrying slop to the pigs.
muffins, wnen she pulled them out of Jefferson's notion to paint the old har
the oven, "if he's been brought up like a row blue. Chug had not thought the
dog?" paint much of an improvement. It had
She watched him across the table, as never looked quite bo ugly to him be
he bent his head over his plate, his din- fore. He looked at the sun. Eeven
gy, brown hair drooping over his fore- twelve of the long rows before dark. Six boiled dry. set them aside, took the cry
head, and took every thing that was times to come to the foot of the slope, ing child in one arm, and started for the
handed to him without raiting his eyes. "Git up Whoa," he growled. well. She must have Borne water; if the
He had a queer, nervous twitching But at thn next row the harrow bad men were to have any dinner. Sbo
around bis mouth. His ragged sleeves disappeared. The girl had the horses pumped the bucket full with unsteady
seemed a reproach to her, when she at the well, and another girl with black jerks, and started up the path' to the
hair was drawing a pail of water. house. The sun shone hot on her
"Work's a wearin' 'im out," said Chug shoulders, thin shoulders, bent and nar-
to the side-board. F'ed stayed 'th them
cow-punchers there wouldn't ben a
grease spot of 'im by now."
He did not look at the black colt
again until the sun went down. The
The baby was crying. Mary was at
school. The farmer's wife petted, and
coaxed, and rocked the little, wailing
mite, and at last, when her potatoes had
looked at Joe's trim wrist-bands.
After breakfast, she saw him slouch
away to the clover pasture, with a ham
mer and a can of staples. "He looks as
if he'd do well to use some of 'em on his
clothes," she said to herself.
Next morning, the new hand woke to
find his soiled shirt neatly patched, pointed ears and the white star in the
hanging on the chair by his window. He fotehead, the promise in the long legs
Baid nothing when he came into the and the tiny soft hoofs, were dimmed by
row. The bonnet fell over her face 60
that she could not see. She threw back
her head, and the bonnet fell down,
hanging by the strings. The sun shone
on her head and seemed to scorch her
hair. She stopped, and put down the
pail.
Someone picked it up. "I was jest
kitchen at breakfast time, but he stood a haze cf blue harrow, and twisted with comin' to the house," said Chug, apolo-
You kin take your boy, Mrs. Marvin," long nt the glass trying to make a part long horns of Texas cattle. As he drove getically, swinging the bucket up from
ha said, looking at his morning caller, ,D D,s uu,r- past tne barn, ne looued in at tne win-
who eat on the door-stops. "I aint dow. The colt seemed half standing,
wanting a hand." The wagon creaked slowly over the half lying against the side of the stall.
"Taint that," eaid Mrs. Marvin, in a stalkB of corn that bent and broke un- He stopped, and Bprang down over the
e'ow, dragging voice, looking helplessly der the neck-yoke. "Whoa!" said Chug, front wheel into the Btall. The colt had
at her hands, which were twisted and flingingaredearof.com over the high put its head through the hole in the
bent with rheumatism, "taint that. Ef "eide-bjard." He tore open the dry broken board. It was hanging limp
he didn't come here, he'd go soai'er's hueka with quick jerks, snapped them
else. He'e that discontented." off, and sent the ears flying into the em-
The farmer looked over the road, pty wagon-box. "Git up there! Whoa!"
actoBs bis second-bottom pasture, to the He scowled at a email nubbin he had
Marvin house. It stood, in its warped just extracted from a huge, stiff husk,
siding, with thick, black paper tacked and tried not to look under bis flapping
on and hanging in shreds, as it had hat-brim into the field below. He ha i
aod btill, with its fuzzy mane stiff along
i.s stretched neck, and .its knees bent
under. The black horse started, but
did not strike or kick. She stood still,
whinnying. Chug lifted the colt, slid
its neck along to the large end of the
opening, and laid tho little heap down
her stiff fingers, with a splash that - wet
her apron. The farmer's wife changed
the baby to the other arm and walked
on, too tired to say more than "Thank
you." She knew that thn boy had prob
ably never done as much for his moth
er or sisters. She watched him, with a
kind ot wonder, eit down on the steps,
and make queer noises to the baby
noises like afrog croaking, which at first
made it cry harder, and afterward made
it open its round eyes in astonishment.
Chug was in a queor state of elation.
She would have wordered more, if shj
1
1
i
ili
:
1
gJ
