The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-03-14

WANDERED over tue rugged ana muscular
figure of his next neighbor. Well, It's
a foine arrum yez ave, am the divel man
iv nell be wishin' more power to yer ell
bow. Now why can't yez live civil an
dacent, Miss Pithigraw, am ave the
harrut iv christian, hereto though yez
be, toward thin as niver wronged yez,
dunno3 Sure poor little Teddy's cryin'
ivir since the shakin' yez give i'm, wild
the pain ia il neck. It's Gods mercy yez
didn't break it fur i'm, an ave a murthur
on yer sowl this blissid mint. He's
wakely bye, is Teddy, Miss Pithigraw,
an it's the strong aTrum yez hev, an
well ! know it." And Mr.. Delaney
paused to draw half a square yard of
green checked gingham from his pocket,
which he applied gingerly to the cut in
his head.
Poor Watch lay all in heap as he tell
when the iron-shod heel of Mr.. Delaney's
boot struck his head {; indeed his skull
was crushed, and he would never again
respond to the sick'em" of his mis-
tress, who stood in a rigor of rage her
brunette skin was a twany yellow, her
eyebrows met in tight scowl, and her
pale lips were drawn in their violet gray
lines which disclosed her cleaning white
teeth, and the only movements of her
muscles were evinced by the tumultuous
heaving of her ample chest, and the slow
clenching and unclenching of her hands
which hung straight down at her sides.
For the first time in her life Mehetabel
was in blind rage; she had lifted her
hand against her enemy, his blood was
flowing before her eyes, and her only
conscious emotion was a desire to rend
Mr.. Terrence Delaney limb from limb.
That gentleman was no novice in the
signals of murderous passion, and he
eyed Mehetabel warily, as if expecting
her to fly at his throat as he edged eau
tiously away from her, saying: "Yez I'D
loike to brake me in six pieces jist now,
wouldn't yez, Miss Pithigraw? think
Oil be goin'. Yez'll be more for SEEM
company some ither avenin', beloike"-
and so went his way down through the
orchard, often glancing backward over
his shoulder to the spot where Meheta-
bel stood motionless statue Of implaca-
BILE anger and hatred.
All of these bellicose events had passed
in so short a space of time that, a thin,
blue wreath of highly odorous smoke was
still curling upward in the sultry evening
air, from the pipe bowl lying on the turf,
when Miss Benson, who had been sitting
on the front stoop" taking observations
of Kiverton life in & .neral through the
wide spaces between the Tuscan columns
which ornamented and dwarfed the Pet
tigrew mansion, came Imply wandering
through to the rear of the establishment
and observed Miss Mehetabel rooted to
the earth, and gazing fixedly toward the
retreating figure of Mr.. Delaney.
"Why, what's the matter, Miss Mehet-
abel z" said Miss Benson, in thin and
querulous treble" what's been a goin'
on, an what's the matter with Watch
An what smells so like an old pipe?"
Mehetabel's senses came back in part
as this numerous inquiry fell upon her
ear, and she passed her hand over her
face in dazed sort of way, as she
glanced at Watch lying in sprawl as he
fell. She went up to the dog and touched
the mouonless carcass with her foot.
"Why, Watch, hain't dead, is he Z" said
Eunice say, what made we kill Watch,
I'd like to know. Been tryin' to bite
ye, hey~
Mehetabel turned away from her slain
warrior, and walked with leaden feet to
the back porch. Her rage left her almost
lifeless; she could hardly drag one foot
after the other, but she still had spirit
enough to say as she passed Miss Benson,
who stood with open mouth and goggling
red trimmed eyes, wild with curiosity un-
satiated, "What a fool you can be,
Eunice Benson r and leaving her luck
less dependent to make such a solution
of the various mysteries as best suited her
feeble wits, Mehetabel Pettigrew sought
her own room, and sat down in certain
splint bottomed rocking chair with
grimly vertical back, which suited we'll
Mehetabels usual bolt uprightness of
carriage
But on this particular August evening
Miss Pettigrew did not square her mus
cular shoulders against the time CLOSED
splints of the chair back; she put her
elbows on the slender round arms of the
chair, worn oval by friction of the sleeves
of many generations of feminine Petit
Crews, and clasped her large shapely
hands and bowed her head in an attitude
of deep thought.
For the first time in her life she had
experienced an intense passion. She
had loved her father in certain undem-
onstrative way, but his death had not
caused her piercing grief; she believed,
| Win Iaitn unoimmeu oy shadow OF
questioning, in the future reunion of all
who died in Christ; the mansions of the
blest were as fixed (and almost as prosaic
and earthly certainty in her mind as
were the streets and houses of Riverton
she viewed the death of her father as
brief parting only, and was not crushed
beneath hopeless burden of woe; and
save for this one death her life had held
no event of importance, and she had
never felt an emotion of greater violence
than the ordinary ill-temper of women
who have lived beyond the prime.
| So the sudden impulse to murder which |
made the trickling blood of Terrence De-
laney joy, madly thrilling every throb-
bling vein. of her body with delirious
passion for destruction, was a new ex-
perience, in quality and degree as well as
Il