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

IL S'A Sc 20 s tongues
"a n were for running at
90 70 once They ratified
I fusillade of question
w and comment on their
4 father, who between
his answers contrived
10 help Cecil TO a new
notion of Arkansas. He was astounded
10 discover how peaceful, honest, free
from violence, was the supposed home of
carnage and the Bowie knife.
''Why, - declared the colonel, 81
haven I known man killed in five years.
Twenty years ago, maybe-Ob, well, m
not talking about twenty years ago, or
during the 'grsyback times, it's now
the living present, as the poets call it.
And honest? 1 assure you, Cecil, Aunt
Valley is the only person in the bottom
who feels bound TO lock up at night, and
she'' - the colonel chuckled - she
hash I got a key on eaTth-calls il lock-
ing up when she turns the button. That
is what puzzles me about this racket.
We haven't any tough characters in the
neighborhood. The race question doesn I
amount TO a row of pins here, where the
whites outnumber the negroes. 1t must
be either wild hoax or some personal
enmity TO me. -
"Why to you, Col. Seyton?'
because they are all my tenants.
We had large crop this year and dirty
weather i'll October. The cotton pickers
who come down every year from MiSsou-
ri got discouraged and lit out, as we say
Now il viii take all hands to pick the
rest of the cotton before Christmas. If
they can scare off my tenants | am likely
10 loose a heap of my cotton before l can
get it TO the gin. Besides there are the
farms standing empty. A bad lookout
all around, you understand.
Gwen, know who did it, - spoke up
Sally, whose cheeks were flushed like
wild rose with her excitement.
"No. you don't know, sis, - said
Ally, "you can t know Ally had
CLEANS of the ''canny Scotchman.
''Wen, I'm sure as sure. It's that
hateful old man Dawsey. He's always
trying to do us a meanness. %
"Cobbs did say he put ground glass in
SPIDERS OATS Ally remarked. mus
ingly.
owen, we won t say he did until we
know said Col. SeYton, getting his
one arm over on the back seat, the bet
ter TO pat Sally 5 shoulder; ''that is out
SIDE. This is confidential. -
"Sure, - said Allv.
Certainly, Col. Sexton, - said Cecil.
Sally only squeezed her fathers hand
and rubbed the bare wrist against her
rose-leaf cheek.
"They are like dad and me, - Cecil
thought, with a little contraction of the
heart, a homesick craving for a sight of
the dear figure which every minute was
bearing swiftly further and further away
from him.
Yet think it was from that instant
that he began to like Sally.
Who is Mr.. Dawson, please?' said
he, diverting his thoughts with the near
est pTetext, why need he be such a baby
as TO want TO cry every time he thought
of dad?''
Dawsey!'' said the colonel. "Daw-
sey. Well, he is the man who enjoys
the undisputed title of the meanest man
in the country. He lives little way
further on. When he bought the farm
there was fine orchard. He cut down
every tres aud turned it into a cotton
field because the boys took his peaches.
''He owned that cid wood pile in the
woods. 1t ism I what you would call
Commodious dwelling, is il? And man
died OF hYdrOphobia there to the
bargain. He died in such an awful way
nobody would live in the house. But
old Aunt Valleys cabin burned down,
y y
woman herself -
81 beg pardon - from Cecil.
MAYBE you all would call her a witch.
She protests that she is only a bone-setter
and 'yarb doctor, but being cross
grained old woman with trained mules,
you can t expect people to let her OF so
easily. No, sir; the niggers hereabouts
are persuaded that she threw lizards into
old Aunt Creoy Miller. At any rate, not
being social like most darkies, she didn Z
mind living alone; and she says, further
more, that Dorsey promised her the
house and land rent free, only agreeing
TO plant corn for his stock. He claims
she promised TO pay Sl5 yesr and one
third Of her crop; and he showed con-
tract TO that effect. She stayed there
two years, then he came down for the
rent of his house and six acres, declaring
that he had not been paid q cent. She
says she only cultivated three acres and
helped put the other three in corn for his
stock. aud when she signed the contract
she thought it was TO release her from
any other liability. She can write her
name. but can Z read writing without her
spectacles.
1.-The court, however, was bound by
the evidence and the contract held good.
SO he got a judgment for two years
rent and distrained her mule. t4
Eyes, aud he took poor Mrs. White
head IS cows, cried Sally. His dogs
were forever chasing her cows and
making them wild. and one day she
took down her gun when she saw the dog
after her cows-theY were just naturally
coming into the yard-aud she shot the
dog. He was the meanest dog-aWful
bic and fierce. He nearly killed of poor
Henri. our dog-the cutest dog you ever
saw