The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-02-11
HOMESPUN HEROISM
By c. B. LEWIS

think Lucinda Jackson would make you .
good wife. Don't blame me, Zeb, and don't
get desperate and jump of the barn. know
you want to talk for an hour or two yet,
but it wouldn't do any good Good night,
Zeb. The sooner, you shine up to Lucinda
the quicker you can ask her to marry you"
Zeb Johnson went home stricken man. In
dim way he knew what Jennie sighed for.
She was looking for an armored knight to
come along on a prancing coal black steed
and kill three or four villains and bear her
off on his saddle Zeb had no arInor, no coal
black steed, no desire to kill. He was simply
out Of it.
He sat on the stump and thought hard,
but no consolation came to him. The best
thing he could get out Of It was grave
under willow tree, grave over which
Jennie might come and weep when tired Of
waiting for her knight
Yes, 1t shall be DEATH" said Zeb, as he
rose from the stump. .'Im Iop-shouldered,
knee-spruns and humpbacked, and couldn't
be a hero II was paid 500 a month. There's
nothing left but to hang myself
He went to the barn. procured rope and
started for the woods He had selected the
tree and the limb. In little glade stood
white beech tree. and there. amid the songs
Of birds and the rustling leaves OF the wild
grape. the rope should choke the life out of
him and his body should be left to swing in
the summer breeze.
While Zeb was after the rope things were
happening in that little glade. Three tramps
who had broken Jail six miles away the pre-
vious evening were in hiding, and Miss Jennie
had wandered into the woods to study botany
and wonder when that armored knight would
make his appearance. She was thinking OF
guerdons and Iances and squires and steeds
when she confronted the three tough speci-
mems Of humanity.
Their very frat vrnrda rrnved fhat thew were
not chevaliers. There was nothing suave and
gentle and courteous about the way they or
dered her to sit down and keep her month
shut. She had blundered upon them, and
they didn't propose to let her 80 and give the
alarm before they were ready to move on.
What with their oaths. their vile jokes and
their threats she had bad quarter OF an
hour Of it, and her knight came not.
Zeb johnson did. however. He came with
slow step and downcast head. as is proper
when a man Is going to hang himself He
was thinking of Jennie and wondering II 1t
in one eye and a glcam of determination in
the. other when he suddenly appeared before
! the ragged, dirty trio and their prisoner.
! The tramps might have bolted If they had
had minutes warning, but it was they
had to fight. Zeb saw the situation at a
glance, and the light of battle famed up in
his face. It is good thing to go out to hang
matters.
| 1t was fight that uprooted bushes and
small trees and plowed burrows up and down
the glade, but at the end of ten minutes Zeb
was victor and had the three on the earth
under his feet. He was still breathing hard
and wiping the blood off his nose when gen.
tie voice walled out:
"Oh. Zeb, Zeb, suppose you hadn't come"
''But did come replied zeb, land guess
I've given 'em a hcking to last q year.
Whers was that hero Of yours"
IL don't know
I "Ought to have been around. hadn't he?'
| "Y-yes-that is. no. No: I don't want
him."
Anything happened?"
eyes I've got all the hero I want, Zeb.
I'm sorry, and II you want to get married,
and it.
| well, let me kick EN- few times, and
| then I'll 70 home with YOU and ask the old
! folks what they think about it. It was lucky
| 1 thought Of playing the fool and hanging
myself