Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1890-11-28

seen her scrub and scour and dust and
wipe, and have everything in apple pie
order, and he comes in and takes her to do
for the black tracks of prairie mud he'd
left on the floor with his own boots"
Maria" said Miss Hannah. solemnly,
edo You think it would have made any dit
ference with him if he'd married different
sort of womanf''
Not bit. Twas the nature Of the
beast. l guess she found it out. I've
seen such look in her eyes-as she stared
out over that boundless prairie, all yellow
with sunfowers high as your head and
thick as your hair, and the boundless sky
above burning blue. with the buzzards
floating in it so far as to seem more like
spirits than the dirty things they are-such
look as you don't see in peoples eyes un
less they know the things hopeless.
was with her when the last baby was born.
There was ten of them out in the little
graveyard there, and one of the little
graves she'd had to dig herself
'HMy Lordr'
Yes. Mari, ssys..she, Il don't see why
it would be wicked for me to take this little
one and go away to my own house. And
| up and says. You can take it and come
to my house and welcome says /; and I'll
defy Silas Wheeler to get it or you either,
says |, 4 mean my narrow house. says
she. All she wanted, tell you, was death.
And one day she got it. He came home
and found her lying half on the floor and
half on the settee, and suppose he though
she was shamming At any rate. he gave
her a good kick; and then he saw how it
was, and he caught her up, and he called,
and he cried, and he walked up and down
the floor with her in his arms, and he took
on like a raving madman. For q while
folks though he was going to drink himself
to death then. But all at once he held up,
had delirium tremens, got well, spruced
up, sold some land, and expected he'd be
coming UP here to bring home Asenath
Ann
"Asenath Ami" cried Miss Hannah quite
faint, and with her eyes starting out of her
head
"Yes. His eldest girl. When the twins
died she just ran away. l expect ner
mother had told her about the place. And
they says she's up here somewhere in SER
vice.
"Humph!" said Miss Hannah, recovering
her vitality with an idea to fight. "She is
in service. In mine. She's in my house,
and I'd like to see Silas Wheeler or any
other man take her away
"Asenath Ann! Well, never. If things
don't come round. Where is shef I'd like
to see her. Pd"-
You shall see her. But you just hold
your peace about where you saw her. She's
getting to be the same thing to me as an
own daughter. / shan't tell her just vet;
but if she holds out as she's begun-and
she hates the sight of man now-I mean
to leave her every cent / have, on condi-
tion of her never marrying any man
alive"
"Well. mans all she could marry any
way, and she couldn't marry him if he
wasn't alive; but reckon there's no dan
ger. She's seen enough of it. However,if
Silas meant to go for her he gave it up; for
he saw Sally Lavacca that time the circus
tent blew down in San Antoine; and now
he courting her. And she's no little Ann
Burns, let me tell you; and if she doesn't
turn the tables"
"Asenath Annw cried Miss Hannah,
stalking to the kitchen door, and scatter
ing the cat on her way. 'You may get
the dressing ready for that turkey to-mor-
row; and when that's done and you've set
back the clock sixteen minutes you come
in here for something very particular. It's
high treason to disobey proclamation of
the governors, and we'll have q Thanks
giving dinner after all. I've found some
thing worth offering up the sacrifice and
making a Thanksgiving for. I'm thankful
to the Lord above, and 1 don't care who
knows it, that 1 didn't marry Silas
Whpelprin