Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1891-04-23

skipping the hard words and the He
brew names and dwelling intently on
the warlike passages and the tender
promises of the Psalms. The book had
indeed become the great center about
which Cordia's life thought revolved.
Whether this was from innate religious
impulse or because she owned no other
book must remain unknown. But at
any rate it was the theme of constant
thought and the subject of much ques-
tioning and meditation. A peculiarly
warm bond existed between Coriia and
Zeb. They saw so much of each other
and so little of anyone else that perhaps
that was the reason their lives We're SO
intimately interviewer. To Zeb Cordia
was the personifcation of grace and the
ideal of all that was beautiful and pure,
while to Cordia Zeb united the virtues
of strength and gentleness and good
Tess. Sometimes when at home they
would lie under the trees on the sum-
mer afternoons, and mayhap Cordia
would say wistfully:
''Zeb, ded yo ever hev a dream like
that a. one O. jacob?
How'd l know but did? What d
he uns dream BOUT"
'Why, he went to sleep out in the
clearin' onct an dreamed he saw a lad
der clear up to the sky, with angels go
in up an down ont"
Nope; l never he'd no dream like
thet."
One day after Cordia had been slowly
reading out a chapter from the New
Testament she turned to Zeb and said:
Il banker to know why we don't hev
40 miracles now:"
Zeb smoked his pipe in silence for a
long time and then he slowly replied:
Il reckon them miracles ez gOin' on
list the same now, only we kant see 'em.
Don't it seem middlin' strange to yo',
Cordia, tibet this here old sand raises
corn an taters an May pops? Isn't it
ouare tibet some seeds grows up into cot
tonwood trees an some jist into grass?
An if We go way back Their over the
levee theirs cotton growed up side of
corn. 'Taint no difference when they's
in the groun', 'cept little black seed
and little yaller seed, and they git the
same wet an the same dry an the same
hoein', but the corn never Gums up cot
ton an the cotton never Gums up corn.
An when the cotton blossoms sum ov
the blossoms be white and sum red an
sum blue, but nobody paints EN- that a
way, an We kant tell by lookin' ct tn
seeds which'u be blue an which'll be
red"
"But they don't hev nothin' like the
swine tibet ruined down an was drowned
In the sea kase they he'd the devil in 'em.
''Sho', Cordia, the devil gifts inter men
now an don't hev no time to fool with
hogs. But them hogs wuzen't no smarter
than the wild geeze ez cum down the
river for winter sots in an go back
when it gifts warm. Hain't We hearn
how the OF IN at night goes 'honk, honk,
to see eff they's all Their, an the ones on
to5her ends say 'honk, honk,' to show
that none hez struggled off in the dark
But, Zeb, does you spose God eel take
eny count of we uns here in the woods,
sa1nes he did so long ergo with they
uns?"
II dun no, but pears to me he must
be jest as peart now ez he wuz long o
them times, an | reckon he cud find us
jess ez easy on the river here ez he cud
in Providence or Vicksburg or Memphis,
where there's so many to keep track ov."
'Zeb, does you s'pose they's got any
chi1s in heaven"
Not ez | reckon on, Cordia, cause eff
they uns he'd chills an shook an shook.
like they'd shake all tn pieces, does yo'
s'pose they cud sing an Joy theyselves
Ek' tn book sez:'
One day after Zeb had paid visit to
Providence he brought the news that the
government was going to "riprap" the
upper side of Point Lookout, and that
already hundreds of men were at work
on il, facing the clay bank that the river
was rapidly eating into with mattresses
made of willow bound together with wire
and covered with rock. And in the DAYS
and weeks which followed they found
how undesirable were these new neigh
bors-roughs from the great cities,
tram ps who had resorted to work when
all other avenues for gaining livelihood
failel, many thieves and desperadoes
mineling with the few honest, earnest
worlingmen. Saloons had been opened
on the point, and a shanty town had
grown up which, while it lasted, rivaled
the frontier dens of early Cheyenne or
Jewelsburg. Stragglers had even pene-
trate1 to Zeb's shanty and forced an I'M
pleasant acquaintanceship with the mod
est fisherman. But Zeb bore it all until
one day he came home and found that
Cordia was not there. The mother said
she Ind gone out to get wood hours be-
fore and had not returned.
SHE'S gittin' too shuckless fer eny
thing +" the mother said querulously. You
larned her IN be un'careless, an she don't
TEX hor of wulz ez she mote
1t was growing dark and Zeb took a
sudden alarm. He had an intuition that
some harm had befallen Cordia. He re-
menbered that of late men from the
camp had been lettering about more than
was their wont, and he remembered, too,
how they had sought to talk to the shy
girl. Zeb went down to the waters edge