Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-01-28
sDidn,t Know MARY"

We were winding down one OF the
mountain roads OF Tennesseein acart
drawn 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 bare
living or were content to stay. BY
and-by we came to a turn in the road
where there was a trough to water
horses and mules and acabin OF a set
tier The cabin was thepoorest ofail,
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 a tableau. 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 filled with
clothing sat on the ground beside her.
Five feet away stood her husband, q
burly, tough-faced mountaineer, and
lie held a switch in his hand. Neither
minded us as we drove up, and 1T was
a full minute before the husband said:
"Mary, I'll wollop We"
"Jim, We dasn'tp she replied.
"Mary, you can't leave me, nohowv'
"Jim, Pm gwin ter do It'll I've
starved an suffered till I'm clean gone.
I'm going home"
"Mary if you don't take up that
satchel and march in Ill wallop we
good and stout"
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:
liant rulable for strangers to mix
in, Mary; and Jim's got n knife and
would kill somebody. Better go IN"
"Neyer!" she Kissed.
"If you don't, said the husband,
as he came step nearer, "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 q
minute and looked HMM the eye, and
: then walked into the hovel. \.
s'Rayther peart, but the CAD VIII
: cure herp' grinned her husband, as he
drew the switch through his finger.
His triumph was short-liyed. In
,, sixty seconds Mary reappeared. She
! had the mountaineer's heavy rifle IN
her hand, and as she came out she
7 raised it on line with the mans heart.
"Jim, want you to cat"
: "No-oi"
"Sartin.h
. "Shool Cant do it!'
? Click! Click
9 "Mary, what yer going ter dor
: Kill We like wolf in yer tracks j
c We don't walk away"
G "Whar tor"
e "Nobody keers. Go somewhar-
! keep goin'-don't never come back
t Hurry up, fur I'm going down on th'
. stage!"
q He looked into her eyes and saw tn,
d change. Poverty and brutality hat
a come TO an end. Love had turned tx
: disgust, and in place OF fear was sucl
e bravery as he would not have looked
;, Tor in a man on the road. He saw
:, "shoot" in her eyes, but he still hest
Q tated.
I MARY, drop that rifle" he whisper
q ed
d "Jim, git. If you are here when Iv
le finished counting twenty, I'll kali yol
2. as sure as there is a God in Heaven.'
d He began backing away. When J.
llfA4A gone ~ AttA lAt va AAI'A AtAANA
s. ed. When he bad gone 100 he halted
le wheeled about, and after long tim
IN muttered: oval, by gosh! Mary
ie let's makeup"
r keep a-gittin, jim" she replied
j, as she still covered him with tn
"a rife.
le In FIVE minutes he was out of sigh
<: up the road The woman placed tn
Of gun and satchel in the cart, walked int
IS the hoyel to be gone two minutes, an
IN when she came back to the cart an
s. took a seat with us, flames were creel
I'd ing through hundred erevices betwee
d the old dry logs. Without a word 81
climbed in and only once during Il
at five-mileride did she utter aword. a
" 4 bend in the road she looked back at
'ir pyramid Of smoke and flame wrougf
'ir IN her own hands, and said, as II
e' herself:
y: Jim didn't know Mary; Jim didn't,
1