Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-11-02
CHAPTER I.

window, his fat legs on the Sill. AS
be talked, his hearers in the big bare
room drowsed,' nodded or stared at
him with 1ack-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-
dened with a family that contributed
naught to his desires. He had never.
In exact words, voiced their shortcom-
tngs, 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
impediment to activity and encourager
of sloth, they had come honestly by
combination of their fathers tow-col-
ored and their mothers red hair, which
little suited their fiorid compilations.
They had, also, freckles as big as peck
marks, which a diligent application of
s'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
coi6 this afternoon 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
liked i'm so much that they'd work
TWICE as hard for i'm as they would for
anybody else"
Fanshaw.
"No, I reckon not" admitted Dave,
~sbut 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 I ever tell you-uns what happened
at campmeetin'? I was settin' I'M
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
a 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 seq
Re; you shorely amt acquainted bout
heer. Old Fanshaw is the daddy of the
sorriest layout on the face OF crea-
ton. I 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. He's my brother. an
when meetin' is over men you'll &C
into the sideshow fur a minute; the
tents stretched right out thar in the
bushes an the latest addition to it is
a Buffalo Bill dead shot,
He wilted an got as white as the
inside of cucumber, an then the
preacher aXed everybody to kneel dowr
and pray. l was akin the Lord tC
bless my purpose when them two riz
an poled it out over the straw. hall
way got up, but the preacher broke
off in his prayer an begun to talk
about the law agin disturbin' public
worship, an sunk down on my knees
an seed them two mount an gallop of
like the woods was afire.''
.sYou ort to a-mashed is teeth dowr
his throat said Mrs. Fanshaw
.<sFolks has poked too much fun at u:
to suit me- In war times you wouldn'-
-a-StOOQ 1T, JdOc. OuC SdAAcu ACA II uS
band Jade, not because he was tired
or was horse, but because it was thu
only abbreviation of the name sh'
knew.
An expression of hot fury lay OF
Fanshaw's wrinkled face as he looked
out into the yard where half hundred
ducks, turkeys, guinea-hens and pea
cocks were feasting ON the remains o.
the watermelon the family had JUS
eaten. "My Lord" he grunted. "ef
took folks to taw ever time they jokei