Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-10-07
thought followed her mother out of

thought, followed her mother out of the room.
 l Listening, heard the sound of their feet in the narrow box-stairway that led to the two rooms occupied habit ually by mother and daughter, and at l night by tho whole Leatherwood fam | ily-that is, when Buck did not sleep with mo at my fathers, and when I did not sleep with him in one of the rooms | over tho kitchen, which taken alto- gether was nearly all the nights in tho year.
 Afterwards I remembered to havc passed an indefinite time in staring at 1 Buck as he deliberately cut up in rath- CT largo bits the chunk of boiled ham that he seemed to be making his dessert of, whilst in fact only saw him gen. erally and confusedly in succession of panoramic figures representing Mrs. Leatherwood and her daughter. and what people said of them.
 That they lived a very retired life so far as social intercourse in the way of | talking over the back-fences with tho | neighbor women was true. That they went ''visiting' nowhere-barring tho little flying trips that Polly made to my sister Elizabeth, or Liz, as most of us called her-was also true That Bogus Leatherwood was very jealous of his wife had many apparent facts to back it, and was true or not true ac- cording to the attitude of the individual then considering the matter toward Bogus. If he was jealous of his wifc he was also very jealous of his daugh- ter. For considering their different relations to society, Miss Polly had ab- solutely less liberty than Mrs. Leath- erwood herself.
 Some people had told of having heard Bogus in towering rage and making the very earth tremble under his leviathan tramplings up and down the thick poplar blanks of 'the up- stairs. They said that neither mother nor daughter would be seen for days after one of these earthquakes, and Bogus himself carried their food to them at such times and until his sem tence of solitary confinement had been executed or commuted, as the casc might be. In the boyish freedom of my intercourse with Buck LeatherI wood had asked him bluntly if these stories were true, and he had an- swered me very evasively that "people allus made thengs out a blame sight worse un they was." Which, in the language of the itinerant bar of tho Sandtown circuit, was a plea in tho nature of confession and avoidance. and, so far as I was concerned, ended the investigation. :,
 But must say in my own behalf that in my daily and nightly goings and comings about the Leatherwood house, under the guidance of Buck, had never seen nor heard any thing harsher from Bogus Lcathcrwood toward his wife or daughter than was contained in the episode just recounted. Nevertheless in all fairness to tho reader must tell what I had seen and heard, aye! and felt, too, as having 9 bearing upon this subject.
 It was ono day some three years be- fore the era of which l am now writ ing that Buck Leatherwood, in a burst of uncomfortable enthusiasm, took mo up the box stairway and for the first and last time-but one-into his sis ter's room to show me marvellous pistol that his "pap" had given to his sister only q day or two before. It was queer. long, blue weapon with bead sight. Q concealed hammer and an ivory handle absolutely glttering with jewels, red, blue, yellow and white, and it rcposed in an old rose- wood case lined with satin and stained with some dark blotches.
 1t was whilst WIG were uttering the smothered "uh-m-m-s and s'uh-h-h's'' of boyish astonishment and admira- tion-not having regained that stage of self-possession at which we would have begun to ascertain whether it were loaded, and if so, how far wc could hit a tree out of the east-window that old Bogus Lcatherwood, con- ing from the Lord knows where and how, bounced upon us with simulta- ,neous growl and scowl that I have since mentally likencd to nothing less than the conjunction of the roar of a |lion with flash of sheet-lig ghtnine. What he did to us neither knew. It twas quite certain that we were pitched down the box stairway, bursting open ;the thin batten door in our simultane- lous descent, and sprawling upon the ;dining-room floor, from whence we arose and ran precipitately out through the kitchen, across the lot into a con- :venient jungle of luxuriant jimson- weed, and so on down to the river, where we at once pulled off our man. keen pants and hickory shirts and went in swimming, in order to ex- change views, cooly, upon the situa- .tion.
 On this night I changed my views about Bogus Leatherwood's treatment of the female members of his family. What l had formerly considered hoo ct1v fvronnr I now v,;ou-od oo n