News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-08-20
THE WORM WILL TURN.
Jim Thought He Knew Mary, but She Con
WINGED Him that He Didn't.
[From the Detroit Free Press.l

From the Detroit Free Press.]
We were winding down one Of the
mountain roads of Tennessee in q cart
drawn by mule. The land was barren,
the cabins no better than novels, and 1t
was query how people made a bare
living or were content to stay. BY and
by we came to turn in the road where
there was trough to water horses, and
the cabin of settler This cabin was
the poorest of all, and nothing around 1t
indicated that the owner made any at
tempt to cultivate the soil. We reached
the place Just in time to witness tab
leau. A woman, poorly dressed, and
| her face bearing the look of one who
had seen much worry and suffering,
stood near the trough, and a satchel
! filed with clothing sat on the ground
beside her. Five feet away stood her
husband, a burly, tough-faced noun
taineef, and he held switch in his hand.
Neither minded us as we drove up, and
it was a full minute before the husband
said:
"Mary, I'll wallop yep
"Jim, We dasn't" she replied.
'Mary, ye can't leave me, nohow."
'Jim, I'm gwine ter do i'll I've starved
an suffered till I'm clean gonel I'm
going home"
MARY, if ye don't take up that satchel
and march in, I'll wollop you good and
stoutl"
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"t rulable for strangers to mix
in, Mary, and Jim's got knife and
would kill somebody. Better go in"
''Neverl" she hissed.
'1f you DON'T" said the husband as
he came step near, 'I'll make the fur
fly. Take that"
With a swish he brought the switch
down across her shoulders and raised il
again. She stood stock still for a min
ute and looked him in the eye, and then
walked into the hovel.
'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 mans heart:
"Jim, l want ye to git"
"N-op
"Sartin ~
"Shool Can't do it !"
Click! clickl
"Mary, what ye gwine ter dor
''Kill We like wolf in yer tracks If ye
don't walk away"
"Whar to2'
"Nobody keersl Go sumwhar'-keep
goin'-don't never come backl Hurry
up, fur I'm goin' 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 a
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 I'll kill you as
sure as there is God in heavenw
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
long look muttered:
well, 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 into the
hovel to be gone two minutes, and when
she came back to the cart and took a
seat with us, flames were seen creeping
through hundred crevices between the
dry logs. Without word she climbed
in, and only once during the fve-mile
ride did she utter word. At bend in
the road she looked back at the pyramid
of smoke and fame wrought by her
hands, and said, as if to herself:
"Jim didn't know Mary, Jim didn't"