River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1885-11-05
THE WORM WILL TURN
Jim Thought he Knew Mary, but she Con-
WINGED Him that he Didn't.

Jim 4 nOuSnt ne anew mary, out Hhe con-
WINGED Him that he Didn't.
We were winding down one of
the mountain roads of Ten
nessee in a cart drawn by mule.
The land was barren the cabins no bet
ter than novels, and it were query
how people made bare living or were
content to stay. BY and by we came
to a turn in the road where there was
a trough to water horses aud the cabin
of settler This cabin was the poorest
of all, and nothing around it indicated
that the owner made any attempt to
cultivate the soil. We reached the
place just in time to witness a tableau.
A woman poorly dressed, and her face
bearing the look of one who had seen
much worry and suffering stood near
the trough, and q satchel filled with
clothing sat on the ground beside her.
Five feet away stood her husband, a
hurley tough-faced mountaineer, and
he held a switch in his hand. Neither
minded us as we drove up, and it was
a full minute before the husband said;
MARY, III wallop YETI
Jim, We dash t. she replied.
MARY We can't leave me, nohow.
Jim M gwine ter do it! I've
starved and suffered til IN clean gone!
I'm going home.
MARY, ifye don't take up that satch-
ell and march in III wallop We good and
Stout
There were two of us besides the
driver. The woman looked up and
scanned our faces as if to judge how
far she might count on our help, and
the driver said
:" Tain rulable for strangers to mix
in, Mary, and Jim's got a knife and
would kill somebody, Better &C in
Never she Kissed.
Elf you don't said the husband as
he came a step nearer, | II make the fur
fly. Take that
With a swish he brought the switch
down across her sholdcrs an draised it
again. She stood stock still for MN
ute and looked him in the eve, and
then walked into the howell.
''Rayther peart, but the CAD will cure
her!' grinned the husband as he drew
the switch through his fingers.
His triumph was short lived. In sixty
seconds Mary reappeared. She had
the mountaineer's heavy rifle in her
hands. and as she came out she raised
it on line with the man S heart:
Jim, want We to git!''
MOI
''Sartin!'
"Shoo! Can't do it!''
Click! click
'Mary, what We gwine ter do?''
XIII We like wolf in yer tracks if
We don t walk away"
.'Whar to?"
Nobody keers! Go sumwhar'-
keep goin'-don't never come back!
Hurry up, fur I'm going down on the
stage!''
He looked into her eyes and saw the
change. Poverty and brutality had
come to an end. Love had turned to
disgust, and in place of fear was such
bravery as he would not have looked
for in man on the road. He saw
''shoot' in her eyes, but he still
hesitated.
MARY drop that rifle, " he whispered.
Jim, git! If you are here when I've
finished counting twenty III kill you
as sure as there is God in heaveni"
He began backing away. When he
had gone twenty feet he turned and
walked. When he had gone hundred
he halted, wheeled about and after a
long look muttered
Wall, by gosh! Mary let's make
up!''
Keep a-gittin', jim" she replied,
as she still covered him with the rifle.
In five minutes he was out of sight
up the road. The woman placed the
gun and satchel in the cart, walked in
to the howell to be gone two minutes,
and when she came back to the cart
and took seat with us, flames were
seen creeping through a hundred
crevices between the dry logs. With
out word she climbed in, and only
once dnring the five-mile ride did she
utter a word. At bend in the road
she looked back at the pyramid OF
smoke and flame wrought by her hands,
and said, as if to herself:
Jim didn't know Mary, Jim didn t. y