Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1899-07-13

and she was obliged to shade her eyes
! to see across the weedgrown door
yard. The niasma rising from the
surrounding swampy bottoms" had
leftits indelible mark upon Mrs. Dyer's
face and form. She shivered now in
the doorway, as though from an in
cipent chill.
The old house, the outbuildings,
indeed, all the poor woman's sur
roundings, seemed as well as herself
to have chronic ague. The line fence
bordering the struggling road and
running between the untidy yard and
land of the next-door neighbor were
forlorn enough. The shed and corn.
crib were ramshackle; the wellhouse
was dilapidated; the implanted
shingles upon the side of the old
house were warped and moss-grown.
The little plot of ground which was in.
cluded in the Dyer premises was buI
poorly cultivated and the vegetation,
like the house and its occupants, had
''gone TO seed.
Beyond the line-fence where the
mound of yellow soil lay, everything
was different. Near the mound stood
neatly painted mod2rn cottage. A
neat gravel walk led down to the gate
in the picket fence. There was bit
of lawn in front, in the middle of
which was set post with a model of
the cottage for a birdhouse on the
top, Thrift and good fortune were as
indelibly impressed upon the cottage
and its surroundings rs misfortunate
and stiffness were upon the Dyer
premises.
otis somebody's business to tell
him, repeated Mrs. Dyer, querulous-
ly, still shading her eyes from the red
glare Of the sun.
"Well, faint mine" growled her
husband, who sat beside the stove in
the kitchen behind her. He was a
guant, unshaven man, whose bowed
shoulders and knotted hands were
evidence of years of toll He was fit
ting an axe-helve to the iron now, but
he worked in dull, purposeless way
His manner-even his attitude-be-
spoke hopelessness and the utter lack
of ambition. He spoke with short
drawl, too : :..c.,.- 60
81 Dunno" said Mrs. Dyer, with
continued peevishness. "He'll never
dig cistern where that OF we'll
useter be. in this Twin age! Seems
like you'd oughter warn him, ST."
''Seems like [ won't thenl" rejoined
the man at the stove, with emphasis.
81 amt no call to advise Job Briggs
bout nothin'--not as I know of.
"But that hole he's diggin' will
cave insure"
"Then he'll find it out" snapped
Silas, rising with the axe.
"But s'pose it caves in on him?"
"'Twill sarve him right them" was
her husbands reply, as he went out
to the woodpile. "'Tain't my bust
ness"
"Well, it's somebody's business, :"
repeated Mrs. Dyer, but she went in
doors with a sigh and sat down by the
big basket of mending under the
north window. There was little she
could do besides the family repairing,
and there was enough of that, to be
sure. A man and four Starving
boys, besides the two girls and the
baby, kept the family mending basket
full to repletion.
Classy, the Oldest girl, was clearing
the breakfast table, and her sister,
Minnie, scarcely twelve, was prepar-
ing to wash the dishes The Dyers
began the day early, as had been
their wont when the Dyer farm was
one of the largest in the town. Even
the baby" IA sturdy boy of ten was
Johnny, but he was the last of the
brood and still labored under the dis
advantage of that cognomen) was long
since up and was playing with the old
house dog by the kitchen door.
Johnny had heard the conversation
between his mother and father. He
knew "Toady" Briggs, who lived in
the smartly-painted cottage beyond
the line fence. Sometimes they
played together when their mothers
weren't watching. 1t was Toady's
father who was digging the new els
tern. Johnny had been over to see
it, and Toady's father, as a great ia
vor, had allowed him to jump farther
into the hole and scramble oat again
like prairie dog in round jacket and
| knickerbock ers.
1t can scarcely Ibe claimed that
Johnny was entirely loyal to the fam
lily tenets. He did not see the neces-
sity for his keeping away from the
Briggss front gate, nor any good
reason for his not making O playmate
of Toady Briggs, although Classy had
warned him of his disloyalty at least a
dozen times day. To tell the truth,
Johnny did not take kindly to the
family feud. He didn't see much
use in it, anyway. Toady was the
only boy of his size in the neighbor-
hood and he thought it hard indeed
that be could not make a playmate
of him.