Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1904-07-30


goods, and her first mans goods. and
| 6hickshacl<' cabin. She is well on.
There is that Onslow house at the
west end OF the road can buy 1t
myself for some trade. We will keep
| house"
Peggy and your"
l YES" replied Antywine, with inno-
cent enthusiasm. Il will take care OF
/ her. Me, can make moccasins; |
can kill plenty deer and cure venison.
| When am away with you to carry
| the chain, she can bar the door and
keep Sally out, and | sleep easy.
not sleep easy, Sieur Abe, TO go away
and leave her alone with that Sally,
who may cast an evil eye or stick OF
wood at her the minute my back Is
turn'i"
"You better put off the housekeeping
until we come home" suggested
Lincoln, smiling, and let Peggy
board at the tavern while we are away.
/ She has plenty of money"
Antywine's blue eyes flashed joy at
the unfolding of this brilliant plan.
He had never thought of Peggy 5
money as currency which might be
!, put to use. 1t was simply valuable
possession, boarded for her.
Peggy was directly received into the
Rutledge family, where she had an
abundance Of good food and AIMS
teaching and companionship for a
stipulated sum in shillings and fps
amounting to less than two dollars a
week. To her II was season of joy
and rapid development. yiane Rut-
ledge, herself budding into girlhood,
watched the Spaniard with surprise and
reluctant approval. Peggy's angles
disappeared. She shot up taller. Her
lissome limbs were round, and her
hating step without crutch had an
appealing charm. Her little face
gathered q sweetness which provoked
kisses; it had the clean polish of
flower petal. She was so good and SO
happy, so busy learning how to man
age the affairs of daily living, and SO
glad to draw her breath, that every
body said, She is growing pretty:
Whoever imagined that little weakened
SpanIafd would turn out like this?"
Antywfne and Lincoln were away I'M
til early in June. They came driving an
OK wagon from the west into New Salem
one evening at sunset, and drew up at
the vacant cabin which Antywine In
tended to make hts own. 1t stood
waiting for him in primitive security.
The ox-wagon carried squat, low
chest of drawers. evidently bought
at secondhand, but bright and rosy
through its old mahogany surface. and
Autywines first housekeeping invest
ment. Lincoln helped him unload IT,,
and they set it on the sward before
the cabin door
81 lift him into the house myself,
said Antywine. so Lincoln drove the
borrowed cattle on. knowing he was
welcome to put them into anybody's
pasture until he aud his chain bearer
returned them.
Antywine opened the door of the
playhouse he was intending to make
for Peggy. Though the sensitive part
Of him, which Peggy said was like
woman, quivered with delight, he had
a free, bold spirit, ready to dare any
thing On long tramps and rides and
through days of mechanical labor with
a master mind he had been coming
to his own as a man.
There's a mighty difference" Lin
coin once said to him, between study
ing with the outside of your eyeballs
'-t,r l,,sr, with ai0or
to the, bottom of your BRAIN"
Antywine saw that new oiled paper
would have to be put into the weather
beaten windows. over which Peggy
would hang short white curtains, per-
haps like those that could be showed
apart ON strings at the tavern He
selected the corner for his chest OF
drawers, and was silently calculating
how long It would take TO turn out
chairs and tables at the coopers shop.
when the smell of a cob pipe made
him shut the door to keep Sally from
looking into his house. Sally had come
I'D behind him and was examining the
chest of drawers. In earlier days, be-
fore beard grew upon her face, or
avarice and vindictiveness hewed 1t,
her piercing black eyes may have been
admired She fixed them ON Antywine.
He touched his cap with the courtesy
his father had taught him to show all
women, and said, Good day, Sally"
He heard Lincoln's gee-hawing to the
oxen turn to "W'oa, Bucki" and saw
that Sticky Green and young Yates
had come down the road. TO meet the
surveyor
Have you heard about Peggy's
death?" inquired Sally.
Her DEATH" Antywine repeated.
yes. She was buried. week ago"
CHAPTER vi.