Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-10-05

about, no matter how careful the house
wife.
Ranse breathed hard, while his teeth
set closely together; and now and then
there was a half groan, or growl, like
the warning protestations OF an angry
tiger.
As he stepped into the last room in
his search, and saw that that was also
unoccupied, a human ooh !" burst
from his lips. A small looking glass
hung lust opposite to him. It's CLEAN
caught his eye. He snatched it from
the wall, and dashed it into thousand
pieces on the floor. The shivered
| like frightened human eyes, were pleas
ing to him.
Some footballs in another room, echo
ing as footballs will in an unoccupied
house, attracted and startled him. IL
might have been called a ray of hope
that came into his eyes. But, as he
turned, he met in the doorway woman,
leading by The hand two little children.
The expression fled from Ranse's face.
cob! she left them !" he muttered
to himself.
The two little children, running to
him, grasped the corners of his leather
apron, and called out "Pop!"
He didn't pay much attention to
them, only, gently for him, laying a
| hand on either small head-hands SO
large that the heads disappeared under
them.
Voluable with sympathetic eagerness,
the woman, bareheaded, with the sleeves
of her calico dress rolled up to her ell
bows, and her scant, bony form scarcely
seeming able to contain so much breath,
talked to him; she was their next door
neigbbor.
CT came over just after 1 lit my fire
this mornin', to see eff l could borrow
from your Milicent leetle raisin' for
my bread, bein' as how we was out.
Your front door stood wide open. [
knocked, and then walked straight in.
Everything was just as you see 1t now.
But no Milicent. [ heerd the children
cryin' in the bedroom, and [ went in
there. They sed they were hungry, and
where was their mum. ] took 'em, and
dressed 'em and he'd 'em over to my
house for somethin' to eat. 1t has come
at last, what the hull village has bin
eXpectin' onto for more'n three months
back.
Ranse had apparently paid no atten-
ton to what the woman had been saying
until the last few words. He raised his
eyes as she spoke them, and he looked
sharply at her.
=" can give you piece of my mind,
Ranse Loop, right here, she continued,
It's no more than you deserve. If [
he'd such man"
She made no pretense of concluding
the sentence IN words, but pressed her
thin lips tighter together, and took her
self off towards her own home
Ranse tossed his head, and curled his
| lip a little. With his children clinging
tightly to his apron, he walked to the
front door to close it. A group of quick
stepping men, beaming with suddenly
| aroused virtuous indignation, were com
| ing up the path toward the house.
"We'n follow after them with you, !"
said the foremost one. ''They- cart be
far IL the start of us. The postmaster
said as how Sly drove away in his cutter
about nine o'clock last night"
1.-THE black-coated villain - cried
another, with an oath.
."They say he has troops of wimmen
after him IN every town where he stops,
and wife III every place. said third.
By this time they had all gathered
around the doorstep, near where Ranse
was standing
"She's no better than any of them, :"
was the observation Of still another
speaker.
1t seemed as though Rsnse's closed
hand was merely reached out to him in
a friendly way, except for the quickness
of the movement, but he dropped on the
snow as though . mountain had fallen
upon him.
"This business is n1ine,' said Ranse.
Go about yours, and he shut the
door in their faces.
The jealous neighbors drifted away
from the premises, with feelings not pre-
clsely what they had been when their
active sympathies led them to Ranse's
door, some of them going so far as to
agree with the bony female neighbor,
that the blacksmith had been served
about right, and that such a tame-spir-
tied chap didn't deserve the countenance
of his fellow villagers.
6 1t amt like what you'd av thought
on him, one observed. "Ef there's a
man IN these parts as would av enjied
| ufO"hlh preacher, L WOuld aV picked
out Ranse Loop. Don't you mind, a
week ago las Sunday, when Sly held
baptism service down by the creek 2"
"When they had to cut hole in the
ice to get into the water ?" interrupted
another.
They all laughed.
Eyes, replied the first, "and when
Ranse come tearin' Through the crowd
jest as the preacher he'd taken his wife
around the waist to put her under. I
thought, then, wouldn't av given two
cents for Sly's chance to escape broken
head"
''They say that Ranse made his wife
walk all the way home in her wet clothes,
and when she got there she wasn't much
more'n an icicle p
Wonder she's alive to-day p
Better be dead than have him lay