The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-12-29

"There, You take that path to the right,
and in a little ways you'll come OFT by a
purity good house. | haint seen any Johnnes
around in this neighborhood since I've bin
travelin' this route, but you'd better keep
| your eye peeled, all the same. II you see
any skip back to the road here, and wait
awhile Somebody'll be passin' before long. -
| Thanking him, the Deacon set ont Tor the
house, hoping to be able TO reach it. yet some
| fowls, and be back to Chattanooga before
morning. II he got the chickens, he felt
sanguine that he could save Sis life.
lie soon came in sieht of the house. the
only one, apparently. for miles, and scanned
Ii carefully. There were no men TO he seen.
| though the house appeared inhabited. He
took another look at the heavy revolver
which be had borrowed from the Surgeon
and carried ready for use in the pocket OF
Sis ogercoIt, and began a strategic advance,
keeping well out OF sight under the cover of
the sumachs lining the fences
| Still he saw no one and finally he became
so bold as to leave his covert and walk
straight to the front door. dozen dogs
charged at him with a wild hullabaioo, hut
he had anticipated this, and picked up a
stout hickory switch in the road, which he
welded with his left hand with so much
|
house. He kept his right hand firmly grasp
ing his revolver
An old man and his wife appeared at the
door, both of them showed back their spec
tacles until they rested on the tops of their
heads, and scanned him sea chin.Iy. The
old woman had a law-book iu her hand. and
the old man quill pen. She had evidently
been reading to him, and he Copying.
The old man callt d out to him imperiously
| Heah, stranger, who air 20? An what
dye want?"
The tone was so harsh and repellant that
the Deacon thought that he would disarm
hostility by announcing himself plain
citizen. like themselves. So he replied
I'm a farmer, and a citizen from Inii-
amy, and | want to buy some chickens for
my son, who S sick In the hospital at Chatta-
noogy."
| Injianny :" sneered the old man.
"Meanest people in the world live in lnji-
amy. Settled by scalawags that we'uns run
| outen Tennessee bekase they'uns wuz too
ornery to live heah "
Citizen !" echoed the woman "They-
| 'unss heap sight wuss'n the soldiers
Ieamsters, gamblers, camp-followers thieves
that Ii steal the coppers often a dead man s
| eyes. had sister that married a man that
".
leavin' her with six chilen to support All
the mean men so to lnjianny. CLAIR out,
We don't want nobody round heah,
and specially no Injiannians. They uns is a
| pizun lot"
Yes, cla'r out immejitly," commanded
the old man. Pm a Jest,ce of the Peace.
and eli you don't go TO wunst I'll find a way
to make yO'. We've a law agin able-bodied
vagrants Cla out, now"
Come, have little sense" said the Dea-
con, not little rolled at the abuse of his
State I'm just as respectable a man as
you dare be- ! never stole anything I've
bin all my life regler member o. the Baptist
| Church-strict. close-communion, total-im-
mersion Baptists. All want o. you is to
buy some % them chickens there. and I'll
give you fair price for 'em. No use O.
your faring up over little matter o. biz
Miss"
. don't believe word of hit, !" said the
woman, who yet showed that she was touched
by the allusion to the. Baptist church, as the
Deacon bad calculated. for most OF the people
OF that section pro.essed to be of that de-
nomination. "What'll 20 gi' me for them
chckens?"
The bargaining instinct arose in the Dea-
cons mine, but he repressed it. He had no
time to waste He would make an offer that
at home would be considered wildly ex-
tragagant, close the business at once and get
back to Chattanooga. He SAID:
I'll give you dollar apiece for five"
=" Humph," said the woman contemptu-
ously. Il don't sell them for no dollar
apiece. They 'uns's all we got to live on now.
II sell 'em | must git snmethin' that'll 20
jest as fur. You kin have em at So apiece"
Betsy" demonstrated the old man, . I'm
afeared this wrong and as Magistrate
shouldn't allow hit. Hits traffickin' with
the inemy."
No, hit haint," she asserted 'He's not
a soJer. He s citizen. and don't belong to-
the army. Besides, he's Babtist, and hit
haint so bad as eli he wuz Presbyterian, or
a shoutin' Methodist Most of all, Pm
nearly dead for some Coffee and | know
whar l kin git pound O. rayle coffee for
So"
The Deacon had been bordering. To his
thrifty mind it seemed like wicked waste
to give crisp, new So bill for such an insig-
nihcant thing as a chicken. Like Indiana
farmers of his period, he regarded snch
things as chickens, eggs, butter, etc, as too
trifling Tor full-grown men to bother about.
They were wholly wOmen-folks's truck"
He fingered the bills in his bosom, and
thought how many bushels Of wheat and
pounds OF pork they represented. Then he
thought of 81 in the hospital, and how a
little chicken broth would bnild him up
Out came five new So bills