Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-08-01

done, and SO l did It. came across
her at the pasture bars a-drivin' home
the cows
I'm of to New York to make my
fortune says I, gay and easy, 80
wish me good luckr'
She stood still for mint there in
the shadder of the naples. holdin'
on to the post, and Iookin' up as if she
didn't understand
..Ain,t you glads" says /. wonderin'
why her eyes made me feel so sorter
uneasy
why, yes," she makes answer in a
hesitating way, '.but amt it dretful
sudden9"
Maybe it's to some. but faint to
me. I've been thinkin' of it these two
months. hev place In Jim Barker's
uncle's store-and I'm goin' to take
it,
She took out the top bar slow like
and patted Brindles head.
..What'll the old folks doa" she says
and then I knew partly why her eyes
made me uneasy. But wouldn't own
to her knew slip of a girl as had
never been to the city in her life and
didn't know how horse car looked!
spoke up loud and confident: ''Oh,
they'll do all right, and besides,
mans first duty is to himself He's
got ter make jest as much outer him
self as he ken-and I'm goin' to
Begin
had heard that sentiment at per-
litical meetin' and it had sounded first
70 I,,% - 4
with them gray eyes lookin' at me, it
didn't seem to have the same ring.
MAY be you're right, Isr'el, may be
you're right. l don't know much
about such things. But any way, I
wish you luck an'-an'-all happi-
ness!"
With that she turned and hurried
up to the house aleavin' the cows
starin' over the bars in perfect mud
die o 'mazement- Dunn fool that
didn't see any thing in that, but
didn't! l druv the cows home myself
and then cut across the fields into the
village.
The next day was in the city,
free and independent citizen, but
somehow it want half the satisfaction
l expected it to be. Jim Bankers
uncle's store was one O. them they sell
things at wholesale in. and my part O.
the work was to tumble round bags
and boxes and SIGH things. It want
exactly what I'd looked for from Jim's
account, and didn't relish it.
As the weeks went by came to rel
ish it even less. The men l worked
with was freer and Independence in
their words than any thing else. Be
tween dust and oaths 1 was pretty
nigh choked to death. And the noise
at night was worse'n a Methodist re-
vival in full swing. I couldn't deaden
it down under the bedclothes, cause
there want enough O. them, and I
couldn't groan out against it, cause
the man in the next room threw things
at the wall if l did. Boardin' house
biscuits want even second cousins to
homemade biscuit. and bOardin' house
girls-well. got over my notion that
all girls was KeziahS in pretty short
time.
I begun to think there want so
much room in cities as 1 had imagined.
| come to hev dreams o rock pastures
and NAPLES and hemlocks, and along
O. them come Keziah's face. sweet aud
still as it had looked that afternoon.
OWN to dust and not relishin' my
vittals, scratchy kind O cough fast
ened onto me and some fever with it O.
nights. / was lonesome 1 tell We, and
finally couldn't stand it no longer. I
says to myself, may be this is the
way Presidents begin, and may be if |
kept on and this cough didn't kill me,
I'd come to be one some day, but I'll
be hanged if I'll take the chances-I'm
goin' homer
It want much of ''see the con-
querin' hero come feelin' tibet I he'd
nigh so big as he'd planned to. when
I went away, but 1 kalkerlate the
President goin' to his Inauguration
want no gladden. I was to see them
old hills again. I was so glad
couldn't wait for no wagon to carry
me. but struck out across the fields on
foot. 1t was jest the pleasantest after
noon in September I ever see. The
trees had begun to turn gold and
crimson, and the bees was CROWN
| lazy. and the late flowers was smilin
contented, and the clouds nestled off
on the age O. the fields as if there
want no better place in the whole
| world.
1 didn't mind the scraggly bushes:
didn't care a mite for the holes they
tore in my trousers. 1 just took clean
satisfaction in stumblin' over them
and the hummucks. The hills, too.
was so easy 1 almost wished there was
more of 'em. It seemed as if the
smell o them hemlocks down in our
pasture was different from all other
kinds, and when got to 'em I slowed
to drink it in.
l hedn't thought o. Keziah-some-
how I wouldn't let myself. I had had
a strange sort O. setness against it.
But now l was comm near where she
lived and l couldn't hold back no more.
I begun to tremble and a dull sort o.
ache crept into my heart. went to
the naples we'd stood under that day,
and looked at the bars where I had
seen her last wOuderin. If I'd ever