The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1894-02-20
A WIFE.
Dan Meachem Betrayed Reub, so She
Shot Him.

At midnight there came a sudden
knocking at the door of the noun
taineer's cabin.
who's tharG"
"Open the door, BushI I have five
men with me, and it's no use for you
to resist. If we have to fire into the
windows some of your family will DO
killed"
IN come out. What ails yo' all,
anywayp
Its for moonshining, Bush"
Huh! I'm not skeart of that. Yo'all
would a showed more sense to come by
daylight. Reub Bush hain't been a.
hidin' from nobody"
A deputy United States marshal and
posse on the one side and the owner of
a twenty-acre farm on the other.
There's a still hidden away in some
gorge of the mountain, but the mar
shals men have spent days aud days
10 a vain search. Some one has given
information that ReUb Bush is a moon
sinner, however. and he is to be carried
off to Jail in hope that a case may be
worked up against him, In ten min
utes the mountaineer is ready to go
with the posse. He betrays neither
Indignation nor surprise. His wife has
few questions to ask and no tears to
shed. His three children have been
aroused from sleep, but they rub their
eyes and stare blankly at the officers
and utter no word.
"Who all did it, Reub7" queries the
wife in a whisper.
Dan Meachem, Ireckon, "he replies.
Him went to town to day On his mewl.
Him's jest that onery."
They handcuf him and hurry him
away. The children drop back on their
pillows and fall asleep again and the
woman blows out the candle and seeks
her bed. Dan Meachem is the con-
stable at the crossroads hamlet, three
miles away. The woman could recall
two or three other cases in which he
was believed to be guilty of giving in
formation, and as her heart hardened,
she said aloud:
IF they all let Reub go it will be all
right, but if they put him in prison
Dan Meachem shall die"
There was no more thinking, or won
dering, or planning. She had said she
would do thus and so. Her resolution
was Interchangeable, says the Chicago
Tribune. She hoped her husband
would return that day, but he did not.
Days passed, and at the end of a week
a neighbor told her that the govern
ment had a case against Raub and
would hold him for trial. She did not
fling herself down and weep Her eyes
were not even moist as she turned to
her children and said:
"Children, yO'r pops gwine ter be
shet up in Jail fur a right smart while,
and it's no use to look fur him"
What's jail7' asked one in a dreamy
way.
''Place fur pore folks who try to
| make a livin'. Scatter off to bed now,
cause yo'r mann wants to think"
They all ar gwine to hang to Reub,"
che said, and tomorrow III ambush
Dan Meachem,"
That settled it. She was abpd and
asleep twenty minutes later. In the
morning she would shoot the man who
BETRAYED her husband to the officers.
Why not7 an eye for an eve had al
ways been her maxim. OF course she
would shoot him. He no dOu t ex-
pected her to do so. She never slept
more soundly than on this night. After
breakfast next morning she said TO the
children:
MANS gwine to the cross roads.
Yo'all kin keep the cabin while Ina
, gone"
Dan Meachem was hoeing corn in a
field half a mile from his house. At
| 10 o'clock, as he reached the vest end
of a row and leaned on his hoe to rest
for a moment, a tongue of FAM darted
| out of the bushes, a rifle cracked and
| the man fell back dead, shot through
the heart.
L said I would, and I hev," whis
pered Rpub Bush g wife as she stood up
| and looked over the hazel bushes at the
man lying on his back three rods away.
Dan was onery. Him give R ub up.
Him deserved It,"
At noon she was home with her chill
dren. They were not observing chill
dren, or they would have noticed her
pale face and compressed lips. She
had work to do, but she laid it aside
and sat down on the doorstep with her
pipe She had shot a man. She was
waiting for men to come and arrest her
for the crime. She had beer seen on
the highway with the rife on her
shoulder. and no doubt she would he
at once suspected. Very well, let them
come. An hour before sunset an officer
drove up.
'Howdy, Mrs. Bush2"
"Howdy, Tom7"
Got to 20 with me fur shootin' Dan
Meachem."
G,V.oO -