The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-12-22

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| put on yo' shoes an stockin's."
Seems LAX fo' days won't nuver go,
fretted Beck, tan ole Badly air sho tt
lame hisse'f, or sump'n'. Its alluz tina
away whence body are plumb sot OF
dom thing"
But the four days did go, and NheI
the eventful Sunday afternoon came
old Badly, unusually sound anc
spirited, was with Jimmy, the gaun
gray mule, harnessed to the wagon
the patched and dingy cover was drawn
over the bows, bundle or two of fod
! der and few ears of corn were thrown
into the hinder part, and Mr.. Pinso1
drove gayly alongside of the rail fence
. in front of the cabin. The rickety
house door was drawn to with rock
behind it to keep it shut. A couple OF
chairs were handed up for Mrs. Pinson
and Becky, and they clambered in
with the baby. The yellow cot
ton poke, we'll stuffed with
corn bread and bacon, and
the battered coffee pot and fry
ing-pan slowed under the chairs.
Polly Marian and the boys set on a
spread over the sweet-smelling fodder
Rove, Ring and Spot, the lean-legged,
brown hounds, yelped and uhined
around the wheels.
They jolted away, serious. as became
PROFESSIONALLY on Sunday, but full
of inward excitement. At night they
camped on the pecsn-fringed banks of
James-Ned. Ali we're off betimes in the
morning, but not too soon to find the
roads lively with friends and acquaint-
ances from all of the settlements
around bound on the same joyous er-
rand as themselves. They passed Joe
Holder, with his wife and sister-in-law
and the thirteen children of the two
families, creaking along in a huge
freighter's wagon drawn by five yoke
of gaunt, wide horned oxen; they we're
overtaken and outstripped by a
noisy squad of girls and young
men on horseback from the
Fork Valley neighborhood; they kept
within hailing distance for a dozen
miles or more of old Daddy Garden
brier and his wife, riding double on
their blind yellow mare. The Mount
Zion folks, they heard, were ahead of
them by some hours, and an impatient
youngster who trotted by on paint
pony threw over his shoulder the in
formation that the Big Puddle layout
was coming on behind.
Lord, Nancel" Mr.. Pinson exclaimed
more than once that morning, 81
wouldn't of took So to of staid at
home"
"Nuther would l, Newt" Mrs. Pinson
as often returned, with kind of SOL
emn delight on her thin, sallow face.
The long reaches of post oak trough"
were heavy with sand; the shin-oak
prairies between we're tangle of roots
that zigzagged across the road, and
made progress slow and painful; the
abrupt banks of the frequent "dry
creeks" we're steep; the Ocrober sun
was hot; and by noon old Badly had
become utterly dispirited. He HAD,
moreover, fallen little lame, and he
moved dejectedly along by jimmy. who
long ago had topped her big ears
downward as sign of WEAKNESS and
discomfort.
The Prisons under the dingy wagon
cover were we'll nigh speeches. with
Impotence.
Suddenly Dan stood up, knocking
his head against the low wagon bows.
"Jes over yam" he declared, spas one
little bit O. shinn-oek prery, an crost a
dry creek, an up hill, is town." Dan
had been to town once with Sam Leg
gett to lay out his long-hoarded egg
money in a four-bladed knife an / a
pair of store suspenders.
Polly Maria, slim and thin legged,
standing up beside him, pitched back
ward into the fodder as the wagon
came to sudden halt behind group
of dismounted horsemen, who, with
their brides over their arms, were
squatting down, apparently searching
for something in half-dried mud
puddle to the right of the road.
"Hullo, jack" called Mr.. Pinson;
"what We lost?" One of the men
looked over his shoulder. "Hy're,
Newt? Howdy, Mis- Pinson?" he cried,
springing to his feet and coming back
to the side of the wagon, where he
shook hands all around. "We 'aint
lost nothing" he went on, putting q
a foot upon the hub of the front wheel
and resting his arms on the hot tire;
1--WE done found sump'n,' though, you
bet! A genooine el'phunt track in
the sof' mud yander, plain ez daylight,
an no mistake"
Polly Maria and the boys scrambled
in hot haste over the tail-bosrd. Mr..
Pinson threw down the reins, and held
the baby while Becky and her mother
jumped out.
swish / may die eff it amt a el'phunt
track SHOT, he exclaimed, when be had
joined the wondering circle gathered
about the huge footprint
1T looks to me lax ez eff it were hind
side afore somehow" said Mrs. Pinson,
timidly.
II have just been explaining to Mr..
Jack Cyarter here and these other gen.
tlemen, madam" said Mr.. Tolliver, the
old Virginian who taught the school at
Ebenezer church, "that it is fact in
natural history that the track of the
elephant always presents that appear
ance." He removed his hat as he spoke,
and made an old-fashioned courtly
bow.
"Yer don't say!" murmured Mrs. Pin
son, overawed.
Jack Carter and his friends mounted
their horses and dashed away, followed
at more sober pace by Mr.. Tolliver
on his slab-eided plough mule.
The Pinsone elm Oed to their places
and logged across the bit O. prery and
over the dry creek-where they came
near getting stalled-and up the hill.
On its crest Newt Pinson involuntarily
drew up. "By jung this beats mel" he
calculated, with widening eyes. The
square at the foot of the slope was in
an uproar. Horses stood nose to nose
around the court house fence,and were
hitched to the scraggy mesquite trees
that shaded the town we'll. The dusty
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