Middletown transcript., 1906-03-10
THE WOMAN BEHIND THE GUN.
BY WILLARD FRENCH


warningly toward where their
mother stood.
Yet that suggestion of derision
had stiffened Aunt Prindy's rage
As Ozelma came tagging up the
path her mother stood in the
doorway with arms akimbo. Now,
miss, you take yourself to the
loom-room, and weave on that
there jeans for your daddy's coat.
That's what J on do! she ordered
Nanny, eff Mark comes you
won't be hard on him, will you?
You'll be-you Ii be easy with
him wont yuuf You ain t never
said that you did't want me and
Mark to wed: What you so
'rageous about now?
Easy with him? Easy with
him ? Be easy with him !? MIN
licked the mother furiously, tear
ing at and chewing the offending
words, for all the world as a pup
tears and chews an old shoe. I
say, be easy with him! l reckon
I said ! wanted you to set your
own times fur marrying and CIV
ing in marriage, without no con-
sidering of me. She turned to
an imaginary audience Jest walk
up and take your choice, gentle
men /; have your ruthers /; Prindy
Teeters hain't got a word to say
in her own house! That's it,.
is it?
The girl shook her head and
swallowed sob. Aunt Prindy
saw the pitiful effort at compos,
ure she was in danger of relent
ing, and thus more furious at the
author of all this trouble Mark
Bushares. Ros was sent to warn
away the guests-her bridges
we're burned behind her. She
must carry all through with a
high hand.
You gimme that there hat from
of'n that there peg, she ordered
tragically. Reach me down your
daddy's squirrel gun. I'm a-goin
out and set on the big rock, and
when Mark Bushares comes
a-norratin' up the big road,
a-thinkin' he owns the Teeters
house and all that thar'in is
why, him and me will have talk.
The little woman could not
reach the rife where it hung
upon the wall. Her taller daugh-
ter handed it down to her-the
weapon wherewith the girls
bridegroom was to be held at
bay. The little mother tucked
it into the hollow of her arm with
a wonted motion, jerked the old
slouch hat down oyer her flying
gray curls, and set out for
boulder which overhung the
Garyville road.
At the gate she turned. Ozel-
ma had pulled her sunbonnet
about her face as though to shed
tears. You git into that there
loom room, and let me hear that
there loom goin' stiddy-so that
I'll know that you're there-don't
let me hear that loom stop nary
minute ordered the woman with
the gun. Time I hear that thar
beam stop a-chunkin' down you'll
see me in that loom room.
Then peace, or rather ominous
stiffness, settled down upon the
Teeters homestead. Except for
the remittent "Chug!-thud!" of
the loom, there was no sound
from the little brown cabin nest
ling on the side of Big Turkey
Track Mountain.
The summer afternoon wore
on bees doomed in the lilac bios
SONS; once or twice the old
hound raised a knowing head and
raped a few times upon the
porch floor with his tail, then
back to his slumbers. The little
figure sat on the boulder. rigid
as fate, gun in hand, at first
tensely expectant. Then, as the
sunny white road wound away,
dust and silent, to lose itself in
the laurel thickets, as not even
Ross on the old nag returned
along its powdery surface to mar
vel at her, she relaxed a bit.
After fifteen minutes of this
sort of thing, sheroused herself
from what might have eventu-
ated in a doze. Looks curious,
she muttered; not so much as a
blind mule come up this road
sence l been here.
The steady "Chug!-thud!"
from the loom-room gave her a