Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-08-30
A FAMILY AFFAIR.
A Gap in tho Fence. and Why It
Was Allowed to Remain.

A flock of geese were slowly thread
ing the narrow path which ran uneven
~, like the part in an old head, through
the reach of meadow skirting Claysville
on the south. Their high set beads of
eyes gazed calmly from their slim heads
on the September brightness of nature,
and the cackles which at times parted
their wide orange-hued bills denoted a
satisfied state of body, if not of mind.
Presently, however, the head gander
uttered an indignant hiss, spread his
wings, and swung himself angrily out
of the path. His followers made after
him slavishly, and the whole company
ranged themselves in wrathful line to
voice their opinion of the intruders
who had put them about.
Two women were coming toward
each other in the path. One of them
was built on a lavish plan, and had a
rocky kind of face, set in gray hair
that was riveted round her ears in iron
gray twists. As she sighted the other
woman she jerked in her chin and stiff
ened her throat; her eyes were lifted
clean over the others head as they
came close, and she thrust her skirts
aside, but stuck to the path as if dis
daining to turn out hair s-breadth.
The slighter woman gave way readily,
swerving to one side, and quickening
her gait as if anxious to have the en-
Wit
might be. She never raised her face
as she slipped by, a small shadowy
creature in limp black calico gown,
the hem of which turned with her heels
at every step.
faint 'cuz l dassent look at Liza
Ann tibet hold my head down when
we run agin each other like we
done Jest now," she said to herself, as
if replying to some mental voice which
had accused her of cowardice. Il ain
skeered of her no ways, but it pears
like l hevn't got the heart to look at
her when she churns that cold glare
onter mean VEINS both sisters,
though don't hold to the kinship no.
L
blood runs in me ez runs in Liza Ann
Clinkenbeardr'
She whipped up her head, but the
straight lashes of her dull dark eyes
were clinging together in wet, ragged
points. BY this time her pace had in
creased to almost run, which shortly
brought her TO her own gate, the latch
of which she undid with trembling
fingers. No house had been built in
Claysville for eighteen years; the two
which Hiram Wade had given his
daughters upon their marriage were
the newest structures in the village,
still standing the last cottages in the
street. As they had long ago, when it
was thought that . business nd grad
ally take to creepin' out to ds Higgins
Woods" The houses had never been
painted, and their gray boards were
fringing off in feathery threads like
fraying hair. Between the gardens ran
a slight picket-fence. which had some
time had a coat of paint like skinned
milk; near the street four pickets were
of. dark spaces showing where they
had lain against the top rail. each be-
reft brown square with forlorn rusty
nail-hole yawning in it.
Ellen Loves stopped for a second as
her eyes lighted on this rent in the
fence. and the tears stayed themselves
as if dried by the heat of suddenly
reused anger. She had thin face
J with flesh of a waxen yellow, which
suggested flow in her veins OF some
thick, colorless fluid instead of blood;
her eyes looked brown. and the color
seemed to show through the stretched
lids, tinting them pale russell.
q wouldn't shurn my hand to hev
one O. them thar pickets put on. not eff
/ wuz a-drawin' my las breaf," she
thought, bitterly. Then she pushed on
to the house.
Name o sense, Ellen. what are yeh
thinkin' of, to slam the door like tibet?
l reckon it's no use to say any thing;
ef wuz dyin' it would "A ben Jest the
same-no respeck fer my feelin's."
Adkins Loves fetched long sigh as
he spoke, and leaned back in his wood
en- rocker with look of suffering sub
mission. He was man well on pas: