Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1900-05-10
CHAPTER I.


he talked, his hearers in the big bare
room drowsed, nodded or stared at
him with lack-luster eyes. He usually
held forth on Sundays when the law
and the Lord prohibited work and there
was nowhere to go.
On this sultry afternoon his theme
was his own misfortune in being bur-
dcned with family that contributed
Eaught to his desires. He had never,
in exact words, voiced their shortcom-
ings, but in his secret soul he would
have had them perhaps less like him
self, certainly less like his wife, who
weighed 200 if she weighed a pound.
The two girls, Mary Lou, aged IS,
and Ann Josephine, 20, threatened, as
their bedslats continued to break, to
surpass their mother in the flesh they
were heir to, and in addition to this
impeachment to activity and cncourager
of sloth, they had come honestly by a
combination of their fathers tow-col-
ored and their mothers red hair, which
little suited their ford compilations.
They had, also, freckles as big as pock-
marks, which a diligent application of
''stump water, had failed to dim.
Fanshaw had two sons. Ronald, the
eldest child, was not in the room.
David, lusty fellow built on his ia
theirs plan, but with more cheerful
face, was lying on the high-posted bed
in the corner of the room. He always
hurled into his fathers TRADES against
his family comments in favor of his
brother, whom he admired intensely.
''You cayn't complain Of Rom" he
said this afternoon, as he famed the
flies from his face with his big straw
hat lined with blue calico. ''He looks
after his own business. Mr.. Hague
said Saturday before last that he'd
ruther have Ron rent land from i'm
than any man in the country. He
lowed Ron paid every dollar he con
tracted to pay an that the niggers
liked i'm so much that they'd work
twice as hard for i'm as they would for
anybody else"
''That don't do me no good" snarled
Fanshaw.
''No, I reckon not" admitted Dave,
"but you won't ever be ashamed Of
i'm, if you are of the rest of us. He's
been readin' and studyin' every spare
minute sence he was knee high to a
grasshopper. For the last six months
Mr.. Redding, the best lawyer in Dan
ube, has been providin' i'm with books,
an my idea is that he is goin'' to make
a lawyer out'n hisse'f. You cayn't
hold i'm down; he'll rise like a cork;
an as fur good looks, geewhilikins!
Did ever tell you-uns what happened
at campmeetin'? l was settin' un-
der the bush arbor about four benches
from the front last Sunday was a
week when Ron come in dyked out
in his best Sunday clothes. You ort
to a-seed how the folks turned their
heads. A young dude behind me axed
man next to i'm who in the thunder
that was, an the fellow said he wasn't
certain, but he lowed it was some
chap visitin' at Col. Hasbrooke's from
Boston or New York. Then it was my
put in. I bent over an informed 'em
that it was Ronald Fanshaw, the old
est son of Jason Fanshaw. An you
ort to a-heerd 'em giggle. Then the
man that had aXed the question come
back at me fairly slobberin' in the
mouth to keep frum laughin' out loud.
"'You're away off, my friend.' SEE
Re; you shorely amt acquainted bout
heer. Old Fanshaw is the daddy of the
sorriest layout on the face Of crea-
ton. 1 hain't never been to his side
show myself, but know heap'o' folks
that has paid Their way an never axed
fur the money back, nuther.'
"Then I jest punched my face over
to his yeer an said, did: I ort to
know 'im,' I says, tetchin' the butt
O. my pistol. Hes my brother. an
when meetin' is over men you'll go
into the sideshow fur a minute; the
tents stretched right out thar in the
bushes an the latest addition to it is
Buffalo Bill dead shot
"He wilted an got as white as the
inside of a cucumber, an then the
preacher axed everybody to kneel down
and pray. l was akin the Lord to
bless my purpose when them two riz
an poled it out over the straw. l half
way got up, but the preacher broke
off in his prayer an begun to talk
about the law agin disturbin' public
worship, an I sunk down on my knees
an seed them two mount an galloP OH
like the woods was afre."
s.You ort to a-mashed is teeth down
his throat" said Mrs. Fanshaw.
"Folks has poked too much fun at us
TO suit me. In war times you wouldn't
a-stocd it, Jade" She called her hus-
band Jade, not because he was tired
or was horse, but because it was the
ONLY abbreviation of the name she
knew.
An expression of hot fury lay on
Fanshaw's wrinkled face as he looked
cut into the yard where half hundred
ducks, turkeys, guinea-hens and pea
cocks were feasting on the remains OF
the watermelon the family had just
eaten. ''My Lord.' he grunted, "ef /
took FOLKS to taw ever time they Joked
about you-uns. I'd have my hands full
''Well, they'd better not let me heer
'em THROWN off on US" declared Dave,
and he stood up and stretched himself.
'sButwhe you come to think of it, Ron
is so different from the rest of us thai
it's no wonder folks take i'm for one
o. that highfalutin' crowd. tell you,
he's no slouch!"
Dave went out into the back porch.
where a stream of water shot from
the end of a hollow log into trough;