Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1898-03-25
Assisted In Courtship.

There was a report circulated among
che gossips of the settlement that Heze-
kiHh Burnet was counting Maria Tilly.
III fact, the report had grown to be al
most a legend, since many of the gos-
sips had passed to the further side and
Others had turned gray in the twenty
years that had elapsed since Hezekiah
and Maria had first begun keeping
company and the news of it started to
circulate around the neighborhood.
In those days Hezekiah had been a
lean, lank, loose-jointed, bare-legged,
freckle-faced lad driving his fathers
log wagon, and Maria had been a slim
slip of a girl milking her mothers
cows and helping her brother with the
cotton dropping in the spring. chop
ping" in the summer and picking" in
the fall.
Yes, no doubt Hezekiah's liking" for
Maria had begun at that period of his
callow youth, and in the soft spring
days of early dropping" time. Perhaps
the fact that the way from the deep
pine woods to his fathers rickety lum-
Der mill lay past the little Tilly farm
had something to do with this crude
awakening of the tender passion in
Hezekiah's tender heart in just that
particular direction. AT all events. it
transpired that during that season
Hezekiah managed to make more trips
in a day than ever before and that
somehow or other the heavy ruts of his
big wagon wheels ran suspiciously close
to the struggling, tumble-down lilly
fence.
1t was one early morning, as Heze-
kiah was making his first trip for the
day, that he had seen Maria with blue
sun bonnet on her head and a narrow,
short-skirted blue and white checked
frock, treading slowly up and down the
crumbly, brown rows, dropping cotton
seed. So, sliding down from his pre-
carious seat ON the long wagon pole,
Hezel1iah had cracked his long whip
at the lazy oxen to urge them up the
lane alone, leaned his lank elbows, in
their bluestriped sleeves, on the top OF
the rickety rail fence for a moment, and
said as the girl came up close to him:
Better femme drap row fur you,
Ria
Don't keer eff / do, 'Kiah," she had
answered, Tipping one gray, linty seed
from her handful up into his grinning,
freckled face.
freckled hands on the top rail of the
fence and swung himself clear of the
tangle of vines and weeds in the corner
down beside the girl as she stood ankle
| deep in the mellow earth, and side by
side they had marched to the end OF
the rows in silence.
Look like them oxen's goin' power
full fas', amt they, 'Ria?" he had said
when they reached the other side OF
the field at last.
Don't know but what they is, 'Kiah, y
the girl had answered, peering through
the fence cracks at the receding wagon
as the oxen swung slowly on up the
hill.
She was still peering when 'Kiah
overlook the team by and by, but wher
he cracked his whip and turned back
to look down the lane Ria ducked hel
head among the weeds and waited till
the wagon was out of sight.
By the time the cotton was up and
had begun to show its little thick
round, fieshy leaves in green, straggly
| lines along the crest of the brown rows
! Ria had grown to look for 'Kiah's
wagon as it crept slowly up, the lane
in the early morning and to count upor
his lift" with her chopping and hoe
ing time brought him still with in.
creasing regularity.
But after while, when the long sum
mer days stretched and hardened the
tender green plant into the hardy stool
and the cotton was "laid by" to await
the blossom time and the swelling anC
the bursting of the bolls, 'Kiah looked
in vain for 'Ria's blue sun-bonneteC
head among the tangle of dewy morn
ing glories in the field. The first weel
dragged away heavily, and his father
scolding at the mill over the scant pile
of logs that told his task made it seen
all the heavier. But Sunday Afternoon
came at length and found 'Kiah, attiret
in a freshly-washed shirt much to,
large and blue cottonade trousers mucl
too short, sitting on the steps of tn,
Tillys' rickety back gallery eating
peaches with the boys, 'Ria's brothers
Ikey and Nose and Pete. As for 'Riai
self, she sat beside her mother on |;
little narrow, sagging bench under tn,
water shelf feeling shy without her SUI
bonnet and her hoe. Between frequen
clippings and frequent spittings tina
cut the summer air with keen reson
ance in her effort to steer clear of tn,
little chicken trough that sprawled il
a soggy pool in the yard below, Mrs
lilly kept conversation going, askinI
'Kiah how his ma was, if she had pu
off nTazy chickens and did the mink
and hawks poster much up his way
Once during the afternoon 'Kiah ven
tured to peel a peach that seemed big
ger and better than the rest and hand
ed it. dripping and juicy, on the broat
blade of his knife, to Ria.
Don't you want this here one
'Ria?" he asked, blushing all over hi
broad, freckled face.