The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1896-07-03
VII
CASE OF NECESSITY.

Mr.. Thomas Ludlow said what he be-
lieved to he the truth when he told HIS
wife that the efforts of the company's
attorneys to purchase the Bynum farm
had come to naught, but in making the
statement he had seriously moderated
| the astuteness OF the gentlemen in ques-
ton. Instead of abandoning the at
tempt, they had merely withdrawn
from the field for the purpose of APP
preaching it at different angle, and
Ludlow's assertion only proved how
well the secrets of their plan had been
guarded. Indeed, at the very time
when he had spoken so confidently of
the failure of the New York attorneys,
these worthy gentlemen had already
begun an attack from another quarter:
and the emissary of a Cincinnati
broker, who was supposed to represent
new mining company organized in
that city, had made more than one
stealthy visit to the farmhouse in the
cove, driving thereto from Dunbar, the
railway station next above Tregarthen,
for the purpose of keeping himself dis
creetly in the background. This dip
lomatic ambassador had his final inter-
view with the Bynums on the day fol-
lowing Ringbrand's excursion with the
colonel; and when, late in the after
noon, he drove back to the hotel in
Dunbar, the deed to the Bynum acres
vas safely buttoned up in the inside
pocket of his coat.
If the shrewd agent congratulated
himself little on the success of his
mission. it was certainly pardonable,
for there had been difficulties. julie
Bynum was obstinately opposed to the
sale from the first. because it involved
the uprooting of the family from the
soil of Tennessee and migration to
the unfamiliar regions of the Texas
frontier; and her reluctance was shared
in n less degree by her brother Jed. On
the other side. however, jeff, in whom
the seed of restlessness had been i'm
planted ON his former journey, was
anxious to be gone again; and his sto-
ries of the unrestrained life on the
border had gained him a partisan in
the person of his other brother. With
this equal division in numbers, the
plans Ringing upon the sale of the farm
hung in the balance until Jules opposi-
ton was finally overcome by the arrival
of letter from her Uncle Jed, who
described, in such glowing terms as his
limited vocabulary could furnish, the
prosperity which awaited them in the
west. This letter had OPPORTUNITY
reached the cove on the day preceding
the emissary's final visit, and its urg-
ing, together with substantial in
crease in price offered by the ambas-
sador, had procured the reluctant con-
sent of the two obstructionists.
Having thus arrived at the threshold
of the proposed migration, the details
of its accomplishment were arranged
in the evening of the same day, when
the family was gathered in the kitchen
of the farmhouse. jeff and julie did
most of the talking; Jed set back in
the chimney-corner. saying little; and
Bud had taken the stock from his rife
and was swabbing the barrel in a pan
of water before the wide fireplace.
0 ID ye low ye can get ready for to
light OUT by to-morrer night, Jule?'
asked jeff. .
: "Oh, I reckon so,' replied his sister,
with dissatisfied air; "y'all amt
gwine to rest now tell ives done ton
up an gone. But how d. We reckon
we-all can go in the night? They amt
no cyars a-runnin' then"
! JEFF rose from his seat on the bed
and broke off a leaf from the bunch
OF tobacco hanging over the fireplace.
"We-au didn't low to take the cyars
ut the settlement" he explained. Il
been sort o. fgurin' on gettin' squar'
with that derp crowd up on the
mounting fore VEAL doae 1ef Tennes-
g