The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-07-14

Jim tends to it1"
 Jim was the farm hand, and now he was sitting at the table whiting.
 "I don't know what I'm goin' to do with Jim. He used to be one of the smartes' hans aroun' this country, but he's gittin' awfiy no count; drinkin' am fightin'."
 "Drinkin'? Isn't it against your laws to sell liquors in the Indian country2"
 "Oh, yes; but Jim gets it some where.
 After little further talk the inn keeping farmer strolled down to his stable to turn the horses out for the night, and the writer joined Jim on the platform.
 "Jim."
 "Yes."
 "You were not raised in this section. You have seen considerable of the world"
 "About as much as most fellows of thirty-fve."
 "How long have you been here?"
 "With the ole man?"
 "Yes."
 "Bout twelve year."
 "Jim, we've known each other only few days and it isn't my business, perhaps, but you're getting tired of your life here. The folks say you are well-not as steady as you used to be. What is the trouble? To-mor- row am going back to the states maybe never will see you again, and 1t kinda occurred to me that you'd like to talk about yourself. I believe everybody feels that way at times"
 Jim waited long time, so long that the fear presented itself that he was going to rebuke the questioner by his silence, and then
 "Them meader larks-hear lem? They make me bluer'n death-them an that girl there by the cows"
 The plaintive whistle of the meadow lark was all about and the figure of the maiden dusky, duskily outlined against the evening sky, suggested the soft treatment of the etching of the Angelus. No wonder, Jim, you feel blue.
 "When I furst came here I was twenty-th three. My home was in Mis- sury, but I'd been all over the United States. I'd been canvasman with a circus. Bella there was only six, a little half breed IDjun girl, but purity as she could be. l taught her letters to her, an taught her to spell, an then to read little, an when she was nine she could pick out words in the newspaper"
 Jim looked up at this for some ap- preciation of his work. His lips were shut and his nostrils dilated in swell ing pride at the recollections, and then as memory carried him on from that time to something that touched him deeper the lines of the lace came down and the shadow of the evening crept into the manly eyes.
 "Then her father thought she knowed enough, but I knowed she didn't. knowed she oughter be sent to school. The nation was just startin' seminary at Tallequah am 1 got the old man to let me take her there. I'd rather not say this, but the way got him to do it was by payin' her expenses myself. I'd never had no sisters or brothers, an never ex- pected to have no family, so thought I'd do what l could for that little girl. It is twenty miles to Tallequah, and used to drive her ovef there in the wagon an go after her Christmas times an vacations. When the school term was long once or twice I went up in the states an rustled an made a little extra, but l always came back in time to get her. wished I could tell you how she growed. How she got prettier every day am how her face seemed to get brighter than the faces round about here as she learned and learned. She used to ask me questions about everything, about the states an the people an the towns. That was when she'd come home, and then sometimes at school she'd write me letters with questions in 'em, an' I sit up O nights to answer 'em. Do you know, I kind a-got to longin' for them letters am @ watchin' for 'em2 Yes, sir"
 Jim was thinking again. Once he got down from the platform to the track that ran by and kicked mechan- ically at the cylinders that formed the ballast. Then he picked up a loose washer that was there, and, like e boy, sailed it of into the field. Bc. he couldn't shake off the heaviness of his mood.
 "I don't know how it happened, but when she was about twelve or thirteen she quit asking me questions about Boston am New Orleans am people, an commenced to tell me things-history an old stories. remember one about 6 girl named Charlotte Corduroy, that killed . Frenchman in . bath-tub. KnAA A NY |