Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-17


Henri, - interrupted Ally, "only Sis
chucked heap of pepper in his eyes.
! Wish ia been there to hear him
| hollor!''
Sally waved the interruption aside.
"And then, if you please, Mr.. Dawsey
! got the constable and swOTe lies, and
! papa and mama were away at Rowan
! Mountain, and he got that poor woman S
| two cows and the gun that her husband
| carried in the war and set the whole
! world by. And one OF the poor cows
! died!'
but when papa got home he fixed
| him, - said Ally, with his grin.
| Eyes, lie did. He got a writ of re-
/ pletion snd the COWS back, except one
was dead; and it was her pet COW, tool
| Sally cried, her eyes growing bigger and
! bigger in her indignant sympathy, "but
| he did have to give up the gun and pay
! $40. So that was how he began to hate
papa. -"
"Oh, they we had heap of lawsuits
since, - said Amy. ''Cobbs says he's
lost nearly bout $1,000 fighting pa.
HES powerful mean, too" said
Sally, solemnly. ''TheTe was an old
colored woman wintered a hen with him
and when she came for the hen he said
the Dill WAS % C6LIs luOu3n u6 lDIOlIlisSu
! to keep her for the eggs, and when she
offered him the hen for the bill ('cause
she is so poor she always has to buy shoes
too large for her, cause they don't wear
out so soon) why, then he won t take it.
He made her give him 10 cents to
boot! -
Cecil tried to restrain his laughter, but
seeing the colOnel's shaking shoulders
was too much; he laughed aloud aud
merrlly.
"That's right, boy said the colonel,
then more gravely, 1.-the worst thing the
fellow does is loaning out money TO poor
farmers and merchants on mortgage,
wheedling them into believing that he
Will wait several years longer than spe-
Gifted in the note and then jumping down
on the instant there is days delay of
interest or the time runs out, when, like
as not, relying on his promise to renew,
they haven t the money
a number of tales followed, bearing on
this trait of Dawsey. Cruel enough,
too, some of them were, with piteous
hints of blasted hearthstones and years
of denial and struggle which must end
only in ruin.
Yet there were darker shades to the
picture of the Mean Man of the commu-
A bubble in the scum of rapine aid muir
der which war whirls in its caldron, he
had been swept into Arkansas with the
Tetreating Missouri army.
Beginning q sort of sutleT or camp
kite, he remained in the valley a guerilla
or kite at large.
He belonged to the infamous Dick
Barnabas band. Black river people had
a saying that he never could meet old
Col. Rutherford, the exterminatOr of the
guerillas, without his neck growing
red under the twist of an imaginary
rope.
$50, you see, - said Col. Seyton,
smiling, " DawseY ism 'ttoo squeamish to
undertake such job. He knows how
timid the darkeys are, too, and that
am drawn on the grand jury and have
to be off to the Rock Tomorrow. It's
scheme, sure enough. Still, he may
be as innocent as l am. Here's his
place. -
He pointed to the right where wide
cotton field shouldered its brown rows
out of the swamp.
The ragged stalks were spattered with
white from the ''last picking of cot
ton. A narrow road had been cut clum-
silly through the field, disappearing be-
hind row of mulberry trees. The black,
gambrel-roofed house, large, apparent
ly, yet either windowless or having
barred shutters, therefore the more
lonely and forbidding of aspect, gloomed
behind the trees. II owned a gallery,
but about this gallery was
none of the hospitable disorder of
the country. no meal sacks, no saddles,
no guns. 1t might have been a deserted
house for any show of life it gave. A
broken chimney leaned perilously away
from the house
Yet there were signs OF habltation;
half dozen gaunt cows in the road,
cackle of poultry in the barnyard, some
sharp backed black swine grunted
through the tousle of dead plantaln
weeds, which, perhaps, had been gar
den, and between the mulberry trees
and the road a fire of brush over which
was suspended the huge iron kettle of the
South.
While they looked, for Alan had
checked the horses, brown horse with
white face rose up behind the fence.
''Look at him, all covered with mud and
his hair roughed, - SAID Ally; CLOCKS
like he was out last night.
The horse hung q detected head over
the fence and turned an injurious, weary
eye upon them.
81 reckon, - said the colonel.
Cecil noticed that little human figure
had orept into sight from behind the iron
pot. 1t was boys figure, barefooted,
bareheaded-the hair was white and
tossed by the wind-clothed, hardly COW
cred by a tattered suit of brown Jean.
The child IS face, one could see, was thin
and pale, but he had eager blue eyes.
He stared at the wagon.
"Howdy, Larry, - shouted Ally.
"Howdy, Larry, said Sally, nod
ding.
''Howdy, boy this was from the
colonel ''Come on over. -
The boy darted a timid look at the
house. But be came. He slid his foot