Mower County transcript., 1904-08-24

| at the side of the warehouse
was filled with mountain wag-
ons. Those which contained
chestnuts. ginseng, fruit chickens,
eggs, butter or smoke cured bacon had
white canvas covers over them, the 9th
ers We're cotton wagons, upon which
the great, bulging bales were heaped.
The years crop was abundant, and lit
tie of the product had been stained in
she boil, for the ripening period had
been dry and blessed with sunshine.
AS Hillyer was about to enter the
front door of the warehouse after
breakfast Rascom Truitt slouched to-
ward him from group around a little
campfire between two cotton wagons.
Jerking his long thumb over his shoul-
der. and hitching up his suspender-
less trousers at the waist, he drew the
merchant to one side.
Heard Hillhouse say you was out
lookin' fer George last night" he be-
gan awkwardly, "an' I lowed thar'd
be no harm in havin' word with you.
That's all right 'twixt me N George,
squire. He told me jest now he never
knowed what he was about an that
he's sorry. Shucks! he never hurt me,
Mr.. Hillyer. Besides, I'd let that chap
maui me in the face as much as he
likes after the friend he's been to JEFF.
Eff he's done my boy one favor he has
a hundred. My wife feels jest like
do about George, an eff she was to hear
I'd got i'm in trouble over little thing
like that last night she'd quit me-"
80 thar won't be no charge agin
i'm, then?' said Hillyer in relief
Not bit," said the mountaineer, un-
consciously stroking the jaw George
Buckley had bruised the night before.
1.-THE marshal come to me jest now an
axed me eff wanted to make a case,
an l told i'm he was crazy, that me n
George was jest playin', an some O.
them dern niggers lowed we was fus-
SIM
I'm glad you feel that way, Truitt,"
said Hjllyer, and he went into the Of
fee, sat down at his desk and began
to read his mail
warehouse their business headquarters,
using the desks without pay. Henry
Hanks, tall, lank, married man about
ifty-fve years Of age, had desk in
one corner of the Office. He wore q
long brown beard, was dyspeptic, yel-
Confederate veteran who had, after the
war, developed a surprising capacity
for. making money out of the unfortu-
nate section he had bravely fought for.
He was a we'll to do note shaver, and
sold farmers their yearly supplies at
an enormous profit. Anything from
cooking stove to a yoke of oxen was
considered good security when once de-
scribed in the 'iron clad" mortgage
note Of which he was the inventor. He
never wore a vest, and the pockets of
his thin coat were always bulging with
notes and accounts which he carried on
his person to have them ready at mo-
ment's notice when he ran across de-
linquent. The other citizen was Jim
Kenner, jovlal cotton buyer, a bach
elor about forty-flve years of age, who
was the very life Of the little circle.
When he had business to transact he
could be as long faced and serious as
any one else; but even then his humor
was apt to bubble up and burst at the
very moment no one was expecting it.
His chief amusement was in teasing
Hanks, whom he sarcastically called
"Old Liberality," or Lib for short.
He spoke with q whine that always
ended in rasping laugh that was very
infectious. Hanks had never been
known to smile, and yet close observ-
er would have seen that, in his own
way, he seemed to enjoy all his asso-
ciate's levity. 1t was a chilly day and
there was a good fire in the long wood
stove, and the two men bent over it.
George Buckley sat on his high stool
at his desk at work on his big ledger.
"Say, George" whined Kenner, as he
threw a cigar stump under the stove
and leaned back in his chair. "Did you
ever hear that tale Bill Cover is a-tell-
in on Lib, about his burn out when he
used to be in the junk business?"
George smiled indulgently and said,
without looking round, that he had
not
LIB made his start in the junk busi-
ness down at the fur end O. the street" :"
said Kenner. "Jest after the surrender
thar was lots O. scrap iron an the
like lyin' around. an he made money
buyin' it up an shippin': it to iron
foundries. Then he added wheat an
peas an corn as side line, an one
fall when he had a purity big stock Of
everything his shack tuck fire. A wind
was a-blowin' an things looked shaky.
A line O. bucket passers was formed to
the highest well, an we was doin' pur-
ty fair work when Lib come 'lopin'
down the street, maxim noise like a
hoss full o. water. When he seed what
wa was doin, he got awful ratified an
yelled for us to tote out the stuff.
wasn't nigh i'm, but Bill Cover says
when some o the crowd laid hold O.
the wheat sacks Lib yelled at 'em, Let
the wheat alone, it's insured; tote out
the scrap iron!'
George laughed at. this recital. but
Hanks simply swung his foot hanL on