The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-02-23

! cealod the money In her breast, "and
you uns'll have to watch him." she went
| on. I'm TO the Union. am, and
that's why he hates me like pizen."
by Jove, Min. | exclaimed, as
sprang over and seized her hand. ''you
are a brick, and like you"
"And like you uns, she replied. SIZE
reached her face up to mine, and IL il
was not an invitation to be kissed, | am
sure she was not displeased at the salu-
tation gave her.
Whether it was the money or the kiss
that thawed her reticence and loosened
her tongue ! cannot pretend to say, but
perhaps it was both. know, however,
/ that she started in to talk as il we had
been together since childhood, stopping
now and then to go to the door, where
she peered out and listened, with her
hand to her ear.
of course cannot recall the exact
words of any of the narratives recorded
in my sketches of the mountaineers, but
what the girl said while she was cover
4 ing the pones with ashes and live Goals
and watching the baking did not vary
in thought or phraseology materially
from this:
'Yaas, hits mos powahful lonely out
har in these hills. and sometimes when
dad and Hens away 70 a long time, and
don't see no one, gets out and hollers,
jest to heah the echo a-comin back. And
ez no one heahs me, no one knows what
hollers-but hits Lin Moore's name
Oh, you uns needn't to look s'prised
Don't know whar he was yesterday?
Fo' shuah does. Yes, mebbe he'll come
back when the wah's ovah, of so be he
hain't dead. He's man, is Lin Moore,
and he don't lie to man, woman nor
chile, and he don't skeer TO cent; eff
you uns think he does-try him, that's
all. But dad, wal, mebbe hit don't
seem nat'ral TO me to talk of him, but
hain't blind, and when | hain't blind
how can help a-seein jest what he is
and what's into him? Eff so be it hadn't
"a been FL dads drinking an fightin, an
a-kyarin on, Jasper way, afoah Hen was
bawn, Hen'd "a been like we uns, in
stead o bein a nat'ral. Then dad amt
squah. He's got hit into his head that
everythin he ken tote off without beip
seed is his'n. Then he's got a lot noah
of the ole stay-at-homes into the same
way of thinkin, and them uns is even
a-teachin pore Hen, ez wouldn't commit
q sin eff so be he was to do q murdah.
to steal"
thought of my glasses as she said
this, and was about to tell her of them,
when, without any knock, lank man
clad in butternut and with his trousers
inside pair of wrinkled, rusty boots,
came in, with the inevitable squirrel
rife in his lean, cinnamon colored hands.
The mans thin beard and long hair
were rusty black, and there was GER
tain sneaking expression in the face that
was not at all prepossessing. Giving
me nod, the man said:
"Evenin, Min. Howdee?"
"Howdee, Peet?" she responded.
Hugh homer
mo"
"Back soon?"
"Reckon So"
"You uns peah TO- to have comp'ny."
"Yaas, Poet; strangers a-restin and
pasterin their critters"
"Sojers?" This was addressed to me
by the man Peet.
Eyes, my friend, trying to be-" re-
piled with affected heartiness.
"Hit's doggone hard life"
80 it is, sir, and hope it will soon be
over"
"Thar's some ez thinks hit won't nevah
stop, but eff all had a-keerd as little TO
6ghtin ez me, hit wouldn't "a nevah be-
gun" Then with change of manner
and addressing me. Come from up
Chattanooga way?"
"Yes."
Bound fo' Bridgeport, reckonf"
"No; Stevenson"
Not caring to talk with this man, for
could see he was trying to act, went
down to the creek where the horses
were grazing and the men were sitting
in group with their carbines in their
laps. had just explained to them that
after we had had something to eat we
should push on and try to get some
sleep in the hills after midnight, when
Hugh Mcneil came to say that he had
procured bacon and corn from neigh.
Dor, and that Min was cooking the for
mer.
The corn he brought down at once,
enough to give the horses good feed
and to leave few quarts apiece over,
which | proposed to carry away. We
went up to the house one-half at time,
! going with the second lot, and ate
heartily of bacon and corn bread, which
we might have washed down with un-
limited new whisky if we bad felt SO
disposed.
noticed while eating that in addition
to Peet two more mountain men, who
looked very much like him, came and
looked in from the door, but refused
Hugh McNeils invitation to eat.
Mcneil prevailed on me, and led him
to believe that l would remain till the
next morning, but l had made up my
mind to start as soon as the moon was
up and not to say goodby to him. The
men were quietly saddling up few
hours after supper, when Min found me
out, and drawing me into the shadows,
whispered:
Dads got the gang heah, and they're
dead set TO you unsP'
CHAPTER III.