The Somerset reporter., 1896-07-16
A REDEEMING ACT.

Dave was a coward. and he had al
ways borne the reputation of arrant
coWardice ever since he had crawled
over the side of his dugout cradle TO
wallow along with the undcrfoot world
on the white sand before his parents
cabin door Though country born and
bred passing thunderstorm struck
him with terror and the sight of the
black waters of the "erick" caused A
remarkable agitation of his knees. He
was coward pure and simple. The
brstllng of Il coon routed him uncOndi-
tionally, and determined possum could
rob the heuroOst before his very face
Indeed, Dave was coward, and his
cousin, Sue Spivey, laughed uproarious-
~ when the poor fellow perpetrated his
initial and only act Of boasting. He
had said to her one day very solemnly
and no doubt sincerely:
Toe purtec yo' honah an happiness
| 'ud tn 'ow away my wuthless life.
Ordinarily Dawes speech was uupol-
ished and provincial, but on this occa-
sion it rose to the dignity of what he
felt the occasion demanded.
Sue knew full we'll his timorous dis
position and would have thought it safe
to count ON his poltroonery i'll any
event. But day was sadly near which
proved to her the full worth of the poor
fellows grandiloquent assertion.
Long before the late unpleasantness
and until this ny Honeypath was only
a siding, where occasional trains took
water and passed each other. Two or
three log shanties, without special pre-
tensions to any architectural dissimi-
larity, marked the site of the town, dis
tinguishing it from the vast area of i'm
penetrable swamp that backed it and
the arid waste of sandy bottom through
which the glistening, polished rails of
the grand trunk line writhed and sinu-
ated. Along that glowing metal high.
way troops of both armies passed and
repassed, gazed at curiously by the few
old women and senile males left in the
village, but exciting no other emotion
than "a blank curiosity that died out
even before the white mist of the fine
sand stirred by the soldiers feet had
settled behind the retreating bands.
Dave was native of Honeypath and
lived with an aged father III one of the
shanties. Sue dwelt with her mother in
another near by. Dawes father was
hot blooded southerner, whose patriot
ism answered to the first call to arms,
but Dave was tlmld, fearful of the smell
OF powder and retrained from action,
preferring to suffer the opprobrious cpl
thets which We're literally bestowed up
on him and the contempt of the county
generally tc facing he knew not what
horror upon the battlefield. He was not
"A philosopher and could not plead IN ex-
tenaation of his neutrality that the
martial slaughter OF his brother man
was crime and that the Wholesale sac
ritce If human life was immoral
Dave was simply coward and accept
ed meekly tn" "hloquy which the con
dltl@ imposed, not eyen the taunts and
cutting sarcasm OF pretty sue SplYey
beng able to rouse the instincts of bat
tie III his craven soul.
Before the strife ended Sue $ mother
was gathered TO her final rest being
put out Of %ght III the little sandy
graveyard, with only the comment OF
the two remaining nelghbols. And then
Dave ana sue tolled early and late III
order to wiring from the starving acres
an UNMARRIED livelihood of vans corn
bread and bacon, moro often the corn
bread without the embellishments Of po-
tatoes and bacon, particularly during
the weeks after hungry toraglng party
had passed that way
One day Dave was working among
the young potato vines IN an open ARID
field behind the CABIN, when sue ran
out to him IN troubled haste
ION, Dave. I'm pow ful skeered.'
she painted.
'Skeered o WHAT he asked with
out lntermlsNlon OF the bent labor.
SOMEONE soldiers just went down
The road, an they spoke to me-sassy
like. She hcSltated' and Dave looked
up to see her pretty face scarlet and her
browS bent together III angry lines.
Well what did they all say he
demanded III his accustomed slow drawl
"i,e 'd. "ai'i,'3 III VAN lol hei !" Pioeeeu'
An'y Io"'" 'ie5 az was "-ooiiiih
o"eh, ..,
iio "''' CIV! ,.i'iil Nv" Nv ''sn'''
uhe"silS, ms i"' o,'ii' i''"B III an i'i'
PAIN .i,,, " NV ma, =, - 19i'
lntN was AItSDN men, L lowed,