The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-01-11

''The children gave it to u.s. and she
faced him.
Yes, yes, but we want them to have
1t from the start. like good folks.''
They looked into each others ewes.
The memory of dead and gone mad
ness twinkled there moment, then
each remembered:
'You must hurry, jim You haven't
moment to lose. I dreamed it was
to be tonight-they'll come tonightv'
'The games all up, old girl. If 1 had
a month I couldn't get away. Morri-
sons been looking for me over to the
Owl Creek range He's back. Stevens
told me yesterday. He'll be heading
here soon. The price on my head is a
strain on friendship
"Have the sheepmen gone back on
your
Eyes, curse them! A thousand dol
lars is big money, and they've had
hard luck
'They deserve it. 1 hope every herd
in the state dies Of scab."
'"There wasn't scabby sheep in our
bunch. What sight they were, load
ed with tailow! There wasn't one of
them that couldn't have weathered a
blizzard. They could have lived on
their own tallow for q month";
She tried to divert his attention from
his lost flock. When he began to talk
about them the despair of his loss
drove him to drink. She was ground
between the millstones of his going or
staying. If he stayed they would come
for him, if he went they would appre-
bend him before he was ten miles from
the house.
"Jim, we got to think. If there's a
chance in a thousand that you can get
away you got to take it. If there amt
the children mustn't know. We got TO
think it OUT
'"There amt a chance in q thousand.
old girl. There amt one in a million.
They're circling round in the hills out
here now, waitin' for me, like b11z-
yards waitin' for the eyes of dyin'
horse"
She rocked herself, and the clutching
fingers left white marks on her face.
but the eyes that met his glittered
fearless:
''Then there amt nothing left but to
face it like a man?''
"That's all there be- He might have
been giving an opinion on matter in
which he had no interest.
''Then there amt no use in our hay
mo to1 o1>o
"'Tain't just what you'd call an
| agreeable subject he answered, with
sinister humor of the frontiersman
who has learned to make crony Of
death.
She was tempted to kiss him-they
were not given to demonstrations, this
pair-then decided it were kinder to
him, less suggestive of what they an
ticipated, not to deviate from their un-
! demonstrative marital routine.
DO you want your breakfast now?''
II guess you might bring it along"
And for the same reason that she re-
Trained from kissing him she repressed
a desire to wiring the neck of a young
broiler and cook it for his breakfast,
remembering that she had heard they
gave folks pretty much what they
wanted when they wouldn't want it
long. So Jim got his usual breakfast
Of bacon, uncooked canned tomatoes,
soda biscuit and coffee She sat with
him While he ate, but they spoke no
more of them or of how soon "they'
might be expected. She told him that
young Jim had pretended that morn
ing that he had a cactus thorn in his
foot so that he might have piece Of
dried apple And old Jim in an excess
Of parental fondness and pride said,
THE little liar, he'll get to congress
yet!''
But the children were a dangerous
topic for overstrained nerves at this
particular time, so Aida told Jim that
she had put the black hen to set, and
she thought they'd have some chickens
at last. Jim smoked while Aida wash
ed the dishes, and when Jim's back
was turned she examined the lock on
the door. A good push would open it.
Then she looked at the brown bureau,
| and the recklessness of despair came
into her eyes. In the room beyond Jim
was reading a two weeks old news
paper and smoking. He looked like a
lazy ranchman taking his ease.
| AS she went about her household
tasks that morning Aida noticed things
as she had never noticed them before.
A sunbeam came through the shutter
less window of the house and writhed
and quivered Oh the wall as if it were
a live thing. She read warning in
this, and in the color of the sun, that
was red, like blood, and in the whir
Of the grasshoppers, that was sinister
and threatening The creeks had dried,
and their Shiny beds crept along the
willows like sluggish snakes. Gaunt
range cattle beloved in their thirst,
and the parched earth cracked be-
meath the sun that hung above the
house like flaming disk. Sometimes