Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-11-27
Didn't Know Mary

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We were winding down one Of the
mountain roads of Tennessee in a cart
arawn by a mule, says the Detroit
Free Press. The land was barren, the
cabins no better than novels, and it
was a query how people made a bare
living or were content to stay. By
and.by we came to a turn in the road
where there was q trough to water
horses and mules and q cabin of q set
tier. The cabin was the poorest ofall,
and nothing around it indicated that
the owner made any attempt to culti-
vate the soil. We reached the place
Just in time to witness q tableau. A
woman, poorly dl essed and her face
bearing the look of one who had seen
much worry and suffering, stood near
the trough, and a satchel filled with
clothing sat on the ground beside her.
Five feet away stood her husband, q
burly, tough-faced mountaineer, and
he held q switch in his hand. Neither
minded us as we drove up, and it was
full minute before the husband said:
"Mary, I'll wollop ye!' .~ +
"Jim, We dasn't!' she replied.
"Mary, you can't leave me, nohow!'
"Jim, Pm gwin ter do it! I've
starved an suffered till I'm clean gone!
Pm going home"
"Mary if you don't take up that
satchel and march in I'll wallop ye
good and stout!''' -. a. y-5,t i
There were two of US. beside 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: ''.-
"'Tan't rulable for strangers to mix
in, Mary; and .Jim's got q knife and
would Kill somebody. Better go in"
'Never" she Missed.
eff you DON'T" said the husband,
as he came q step nearer, 'I'll make
the fur fly. Take that!''
With swish he brought the switch
down across her shoulders and raised
/, it again. She stood stock still for O.
minute and looked him in the eye, and
then walked into the hovel.
"Rayther peart, but the CAD will
cure her!" grinned her husband, as he
drew the switch through his finger.
His triumph was short-liIed. In
sixty seconds Mary reappeared. She
had the mountaineer's heavy rifle in
her hand, and as she came out she
raised it on line with the mans heart.
"Jim, want you to git!'
"No-o!"
"Sartin.'
"Shoo Cant do it,"
Click! Click!
"Mary, what yer going ter do?"
Kill We like a wolf in yer tracks If
We don't walk away"
"Whar to-"
Nobody keers. Go somewhat
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
tor in a man on the road. He saw
"shoot" in her eyes, but he still hest.
tated
"Mary, drop that riAe!" he whisper.
ed.
"Jim, git! II you arehere when I've
finished counting twenty, IN kill you
as sure as there is God in Heaven
He began backing away. When he
had gone 20 feet he turned and walk
ed. When he had gone 100 he halted,
wheeled about, and after a long time
muttered: oval, by gosh! Mary,
let's makeup!'
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 seat with us, flames were creep
ingthrough a hundred crevices between
the old dry logs. Without q word she
climbed in and only once during the
mileride did she utter aword. At
bend in the road she looked back at q
pyramid of smoke and flame wrought
by her own hands, and said, as if to
herself:
Jim didn't know Mary; Jim didn't"