The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-02-02

n %rHsss 's=S@z D
"Cain't you sodtt long enough ter hear
the nelCSf"
not to mention wandering and furtive
chances about the assembly. But even
they were wholly unready for that
which came to pass. Teddy Barton told
it to a group Of lounging customers
upon the store porch just as Jack Talbot
came there in hot haste. The store kept
everything from tarlatan and candy to
pillow points and pitchforks, with espe-
cial strength in plantation hardware.
Jack wanted keg of nails; hence had
come in his buggy and had Timothy
and Glover, his span Of blood sorrels, in
a white lather as he refined them in and
shouted at Teddy:
Hurry! That's good fellow I'm
paying five darkies to do nothing until
l can get back and set them hammering
again"
"Oh, hol CANT you wait till you
hurry's overriding ernough ter hear
the news?" Teddy demanded, winking
at the rest Jack laughed easily and
shook his head, saying:
Impossible, Teddy! l read all my
romances; take them Sunday afternoons
or rainy ones. l hate not to help exer-
else that imagination of yours, but to-
day really I'm too busy. Do give me my
nails. "
''Mayby you don't know ole Tops got
er new buggy?" Teddy said, with an
other wink at his other auditors Again
Jack laughed.
eyes, do" he said. 81 met him
driving home in it and saw that he had
on span new clothes as we'll. So, you
see, your news is not news after all.
Give me what l want or / shall drive
on to the crossroads. ~
"Im sorry, ra-ale sorry, Jack, but
you'll have ter-we amt got er kag in
the house-the right size, l mean,"
Teddy said; then as Jack set his horses
heads again toward the road "Hold
on, though. I'm jest bound ter tell you
what all them new things meant. Ole
Top, he's dead in love with Miss Rob
McGregor; went up thar ter see her yis-
tiddy evenin. but she was out some
whars bout the place, so he's goin err
gin, an soon."
Teddy did not intend that his speech
should reach the ears of a strange Gus
tomer-a tall, rawboned old woman,
who was just then getting down from
her horse at the steps. But she heard
and said, with her foot still in the STIR
rup:
"Youug man, I've heared tell az Won
lie mighty easy, but eff Ben Topmark
has got any sech notion as that you tell
him he better come an find ont what
old Sister Annis has got ter say ter it"
"Yessum. Cert'nly, I'll tell him."
Teddy said, rushing to tie her horse, the
while looking significantly at the rest
with the eye away from the old woman.
Clearly she was crazy, as crazy as ole
Phemy, who lived on the fears of the
other niggers, who, poor fools, took her
for conjure woman. This was in
Teddy's mind. His speech was SO civil
that without in the least intending it
Mrs. Annis had spent $3 with him before
she rode away.
Jack Talbot drove home at slapping
pace. He would have been amazed but
that he was 30 furiously angry. There
must be something in Teddy tale. And
why should that old virago prick mp her
eyes and scowl at the mention Of Robp
The Annises he recalled ~ distinctly
disreputable folk. He knew his father
and Mr. MoGregor had said Good rid.
danceW when they went west 10 years
before. He recalled, too, that he had
heard Of them anew within the last
month. Somebody at the courthouse had
said the old man was dead, and his wife
and son had struggled back and rented
the Nolan place, poor, lean farm in
the edge Of the hill country ten miles
away. Why should the old beldame ride
all that distance to do her trading?
Th,re were at least three stores nearer
than Topmark's, and In either Of them
she might look for better bargains. |
Clearly her concern was with Topmark.
It could not be with Rob-his Rob,
whom he would go and see at once.
His Rob, his own true Lowell Now he |
faced the knowledge with which for
three years at least he had fenced and |
played. Before that he had told him.
self she was his little sister. He had
even tried to keep up that pleasing fig.
ment after be came to find his heart
beating like trip hammer at sudden
sight Of her. OF course he had known
in the depths Of consciousness what il
meant, bat love, marriage, were not for
him until he had Strengthened all the
tangle OF home affairs. lie had sort of
chivalrous idolatry for his parents, and.
though he rejoiced to know that his IA
Their understood Rob and loved her as
she deserved, he knew, too, what his
mother felt. II only she had been harsh
in Judgment, he might have thought of
defiance. 1t was the gentleness of her
disapproval that gave it so much weight
with her son.
There was the question of money too.
MeaRer az was the return it brought.