Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1888-08-10

last, leisurely, though I'll allow tits
some endorsement to man who's got a
wife to hum. faint thet-it's why
you're in sech a 'mazin' hurry all of q
suddint. No, stranger, 1 don't b'leeve 1
kin stand the racket. The hoss's only got
one shoe on, an l promised Missus ter
| be hum fer dinner"
Do you see that speck back there on
the road" asked the man, quietly.
''Well, that speck is a buggy containing
two constables. They are after me for
never mind what. Now, my man, if
you get me to King slow docks in time
to catch boat waiting there for me, be-
! fore those men catch US, I'll give you
| fifty dollars. If not"
The alternative was expressed by
drawn revolver, pointed thIeateningly at
| Sans blanching face.
He turned the mares head into Kings
| low road. The minutes and the miles
sped by in silence, the stranger watch
full, with his fingers closed on the revol-
yer, Sam silenly considering his chances
| for escape from the fate he saw only too
plainly hanging over him; that of arrest
and perhaps imprisonment for helping a
felon escape the outstretched arm of JUS
tice.
"And what would NIissus say" Sam
grOaned.
They were close upon Kingslow when
he spoke:
"Look'ee hyar, mister" he said,
''Iou've gone about fur 'nuff with this
'ere boss an wagin" And he began to
draw in the nearly spent horse. There
was a short struggle, then a pistol Ie-
port, and Sam fell backward into the
body of the wagon and lay motionless.
Slowly and gradually the conscious
ness of earthly things began to return to
Sans darkened mind. He made an eff
fort to turn over and look around him.
"Wha-whar be l." he queried
weakly.
YOU'RE two weeks out at sea, my
hearty, and bound for a six months
cruise to China, on the trimmest craft
that sails the blue" said CHEEKY voice
beside him
GA friend O. yourn shipped you,"
continued the voice, afterward proving
to belong to the kind hearted second
mate, lust after you'd hurt yourself
foolin' with your revolver. He SAID
he'd promised you to, cause you had
sick relation or something in China, an
seeing your name was on the books, an
he furnishin' plenty O. money for your
we'd agreed. Now go to sleep, an you'll
be we'll before you know it,"
Sam had plenty of time to think out
many knotty problems during the weary
weeks that followed.
"Mebbe war a tribe shiftin' an on
easy-like for sech woman as Missus,"
he said suddenly aloud one day. F
ever | git back, Pm blamed # l don't
start new count thet'll please her. But
won't the boys open their eyes when they
hear about this!'
When the clock struck one on the day
Missus watched Sam disappear down the
dusty road, she took up her dinner and
sat grimly down to her solitary meal.
That finished, true to her word, she
cleared away the things and went on
with her work.
Evening came, but brought no signs of
the absent sam. When bed time ar
rived she rose, shut up the house and
went wrath ully to bed.
She unlocked the door in the morning,
smiling to herself as she wondered where
Sam had spent the night after finding
the house securely fastened against him.
"Heu be along in plenty time for
breakfast, with another Grant ter do in
town-shiftless creetur!" she thought
About noon a neighbor drove into the
yard behind the old white mare. They
had caught her, he said, straying alone
over Kingslow downs, but Sam was no
where to be found. The few drops of
blood in the bottom of the wagon, how
ever, limited at grave explanation of his
mysterious disappearance, and when, a
week later, the unacceptable body of
man was discovered a short distance
from where the horse was found, no room
for doubt was left in any mind, even in
the most reluctant one of Missus herself.
From the day that the fact of Sans
death became evident to her, she with
drew wholly from the society and sym.
pathy Of her neighbors, and shut herself
up alone with her tiresome and persis-
tent reflections. That one half wish kept
ringing in her aching ears: EFF he never
cum back; eff he never cum back!'
And it was wonderful how great the
number of things she found herself
obliged to do during the day that Sam,
she remembered now, had unassertingly
done and left ready to her hand
Day after day dragged themselves
slowly across the burning blue and dis
appeared in weeks and months. The
afternoon sun lay aslant the kitchen
floor, where Missus sat knitting sad re-
grets into her winters work
1t was easy to see that these months
had mellowed and softened her severe
nature Sba rac tbiplyipCr h. hoI