Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1905-11-28

they were brown, OF that they Wtft toil5:l- evpr the sand and leS )ia, Fl. uy t.at her nAur Tas Mary Carn C. ', 93.H.dtet,l et anything izeHr ylstFS=f=l tlG train aud what seemed like fpuf centuries in the stlGg elm mated III. certainly as to ,0Tt'au-s Sae could o..Iy ~H nud(Ilrd iu Il heap and Wait f5r thI35a4 ta become adilStei hF time
 eAu&4 Was behaving Ill most eX- ~UI5laly manner He drove r'41d]N IS a,i tutomaton, aud apparently be looked uJ Ian2er ull the lightning Wsarnn it was bottled Once or twice ho Aad applied his eye to the pane that ~epa'at..tl hiaI from his passenger and asked 4tI"StiauS relative to her com fort. but Marry was too utterly doject ed to reply itI more than lpouoSyilables. Ns theV crept along the sun dried tim berS ot the stage creakeI and gfoaned iu seeming protest at wearing its life away i'll endless i0urneyiugs over this desert waste. then settled down into one of those maddcningly mouatonoue reitprationS to which certain inanindte things are given in seasons of nervous tension. This time if was All tae worlds q Stage-creak- k-Screech=-ai aii-- the worlds d stage-creak- Screech, over and over till Mary found herself fast kIccumbing to the hypnotic effect of the constant repetition.
 At sunset the inter1ninable monOtony of the wilderness was broken by q house of curious architecture, the like of which the tired young traveler had never seen before, and whose singular candor of design made her doubt the evidence of her own thoroughly ex- hausted faculties The house seemed to consist of d series of rooms thrown or rather blown together by some force of nature rather than by formal design of builder or carpenter. The original log cabin of this composite dwelling looked better built, more fin ished, heater of aspect than those they had previously stopped at in crossing the desert. Springing from the main building, like claws from crustacean was a series of rooms minus either side walls or flooring Indeed, they might easily have passed for porches of more than usually commodious size had it not been for the beds, bureaus. chairs, stove with attendant pots, ket ties, and supper in course of prepara- ton. Seen from any vantage point in the surrounding country, the effect was that of an interior on the stage the background of some homely drama where pioneer life was being realistic ! ally depicted. The dramatis persona who occupied the center of the stage when Mary Carmichael drove up was an elderly woman in a rocking chair. She was dressed in a faded pink cali co gown, limp and bedra ggled, whose color brought out the parchment-like hue and texture of her skin in mer- cless contrast. Perhaps because she still harbored illusions about the per ishable quality of her complexion. which gave every evidence of having borne the brunt of mercileSS desert suns, SHOWS, blizzards and the ubiqu- tolls alkali dust of all seasons, she wore pink sunbonnet, though the hour was one past sundown. and though she sat beneath her own roof tree. even if lacking the protection of four walls. From the corner of her mouth protruded snuff brush, so constantly in this accustomed place that it had come to be regarded by members of her family as part and parcel of her attire-the first thing assumed in the morning, the last thing laid aside at night Mary Carmichael had little difficulty in recognizing Ju- dith Rodney's stepmother nee Tumlin she who had been the heroine of the. romance lately recorded.
 Mrs. Rodney's interest in the girl alighting from the stage was evinced in the palsied motion of the chair as it quivered slightly back and forth in place of the swinging seesaw with which she was wont to wear the hours away. The snuff brush was brought into more fiercely active commission. but she said nothing till Mary Carmi- chael was within few inches of her; then, shifting the snuff brush to a posi- tion more favorable to enuncia tion, she said: "Howdy: Ye be Mig Yellett's gov'ment, ain't yep There was some thing threatening in her aspect, as if the office of governess to the Yelletts carried some challenging quality
 "Government?' repeated Mary vague ly, her head still rumbling with the noise and motion of the stage. I'm afraid hardly understand
 'Ain't you uns goin' to teach the Yel- lett outfit ther spellin', writin and about George Washington, an how the Yankees kcm along arter he was in his grave an fit us and broke up the ken try so we had ter leave our home in Tennessee an kem to this were outda- cious place. where nobody knows the diffunce between aig bread an corn dodger: 1 war Miss Tumln, from Tennessee"
 The rocking chair now began to re cover it's accustomed momentum This much herllded educational expert was far from terrifying. Indeed. to Mrs. ROdnev'S haWklike gaze that deyoure1