The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-14

the WnOle enaurln DAY, KIM o keepln 1
company. Hits the truth
And yistiddy evenin'. tell you. like to
"a broke my neck. off o. my back porch.
You know for the last month the tarrifyin'
winds been a comm from the south, and
whenever I stepped Off o. that porch 1
kind o. hraced myself-me bein' so heavy
and hard to keep balanced-and duked my
head. and laid my ears back. so to speak.
TO meet the blast. Course 1 sensed when
the wind quit. but just from habit / went
ahead and braced myself same ever.
and as they weren't nothin' to meet me
] plunged down into that kindlin' pile like
q landslide.
We'll, sir. for plumb five minutes set
there wonderin' what new thing natur'
had sprung on US. Soon as I realized that
H. weren't no unusual visitation, l was so
tickled 1 list jned right in, when Jim
come out to holler and laugh at me. Hits
the truth 1 jist holIered and laughed
loudcr'n him. was so plumb tickled.
"JIm says I'm hard TO please; all last
week fursed and fursed at havin' TO stay
in the cave so much, while the wind was
BLOWN up tornadoes all around US; three
nights we slep' there-jst went to bed
regular on the foldin' cots
Course it's damp and cold, and they's so
many spiders a-weavin' around in the cor
ners I always suspicion tralanchulars; be-
sides which. they amt no endurin' reason
why rattlesnake shouldn't dart down
through the air fiue. rattlesnake's got
as good right to hike from cyclone as
other folks. reckon. I'd sure buck at him,
though. unless he showed a reasonable dis
position. and could gimme some kind o.
assurance that his causes for forsakin' the
face o. natur' was purely first instincts,
like mine. But i can stand anything bet
tern wind. and these here last nights we've
stayed in the house I've just walked the
floor, from winder to winder. I couldn't
even bear to have light in the room, for
fear it'd keep me from SEEM which way
the cloud come.
Thursday evenin' Jim was at the store
till O'Clock. He drove home in the
buggy, and, seein the house dark. reck-
oned we'd all gone to the cave. for he knew
we'd never so to bed with the wind
a-blowin' the way IL was; so he run in the
kitchen to see If the fire was all right, and
/ was a-standin' there watehin' the sky.
rni kind O. large. you know. and 1 shet off
what little light they was. When L moved
away from the winder Jim says it looked
like the side o. the house openin' up, and
he grabbed the door and hollered:
GOOD God. she's goin'!'
"'Jim.' 1 screeehed. which way is It?
Run fur the childernr
Then he see 1t was me.
1--WE always thought I knew the limits
of Jim's blasphemiousness, but i realized
then that they was deeps there which I'd
never dove to.
when he did git back to mentionable
language he said:
"'wbat you standin' around in this here
dim religious light fur?'
Jim, says /. did you go after Bro
Phin'usT
"D-n Bro Phin'us! says Jim. What
you standin'-'
Jim says /, pore crippled Bro Phin'-
usi-and him so skeerdl-and no wife to see
TO him,-and no cave to git to,-and him not
able to git to ii If they was And him
only a square away.-and you to forgit him.
JIM Jim Mitts, 1 promised him you'd
drive up for him.
Jim broke out o. the kitchen and in
spite o. the wind could hear that he'd re-
lapsed into them deeps again. BY the time
he got back with pore rheumatic Bro
Phin'us. it didn't seem to be BLOWN so
ndAU aHd VIC Nooit 40 ShOSAO 80 We Aieiu
been.
'I told Bro Phin'us to lay the lounge,
but to not, pull of his clothes, for fear II
might come up a cyclone later on. And to
show you jist what towards fear will make
OF us pore human mortals. I'll tell you
what happened next.
"You remember how 1t acted that night
You know the wind died plumb down; but
IL %
trust It, so we laid down without pullin'
of our clothes. 1 reckon we all must "a
got to sleep, for the first knew they was
clap o. thunder that sounded like the
Final Breakin' Up. 1t lifted me right of
the bed and see Jim a-hyin' through the
kitchen with a child in each arm. Sist'
Idly had already gone. and that left me to
help pore Bro Phin'us. He was fumblin'
fur his crutches. but l says:
Fer Lords sake Bro Phinus, don't
wait for nothin'-weT never git there as
1t is and / yanked him up. most carryin'
him through the kitchen and out onto the
porch. AS we got to the steps the rain and
the wind and somethin' else few at US,
and / thought the Eighteenth had struck me
blind. 1 screeched. droppin pore Bro
Phinus like a hot roastin year. and took
.
.Iim! Git me! I'm hitr
IT stumbled at the door and fell clean to
the bottom o. them steps. Jim says:
where's Bro Phin'us?'
az dunno, sobbed. 4 reckon he's
struck, too!
''Just then pore Bro Phinus got there,
crawIin' through the mud on his hands and
knees and whimperin' Jesus Redeemer.
Jesus Redeemer!'
How do you think felt. after hikin' of
TO save my ole fool self and leavin' that
pore crippled creetur without even his
crutches? Well sir, jist cried and SMILED
and begged him 10 furgive me, and called
myself all kinds o. hard names. but he said
1t was all right. as longs as he's got down
in time-but he'd ruined his pants in the
mud. So 1 promised him a new pair next
day. If they wasn't all blowed off o. the
Territory by morning.
81 felt mighty bad and stiff myself. and
no wonder: on examinin' around. / found
they was welk on my shin bone that
would shame Easter egg; but I knew ]
deserved il and more. for desertin' pore
Bro Phin'us that a way. First instincts
sure makes US mighty unprincipled. hits
the truth
After about two hours II got SOS we
could go up and go TO bed. and do you
reckon what was the thing that most