Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1907-03-20

BETWEEN ME AND HER WAS TWO BARS"
m%oonshine as any other critter fur ten
miles around, and l was fool huff to
feel proud Of the fact.
"When l was married, fifteen years
ago, my wife thought she could reform
me. Mebbe l went a leetle light fur a
year or so, but the reformin' didn't re-
form. I'd promise and promise, but
as 500 as l got out with a crowd I'd
fill up. The only good thing about my
gettin' drunk was the fact that 1
never raised a row at home. ! sim
ply wanted to git home and to bed,
and IL left alone I'd sleep it off BY
next day. l had been sober fufA tnree
months when town meetin' day come
along. When l got ready to leave
home the old woman said:
".Zeb, you've been livin' like a de-
cent human bein' fur some time past.
Are you comm home drunk or sober
tonightY
"'Sober as a stump l replied, not
fearin' myself at all.
"'Why not let town meetin' slider
az couldn't. I've promised to be
thar to vote
"'Thar'll be heaps and heaps of
whisky thar, won't theyY she asked.
"'Fur shore. But don't you be afeared
fur me. l give you my word that l
won't drink nuthin' %stronger'n lemon.
ade.'
'"That was a lively town meetin', with
whisky fowin' like water, and, though
| held out agin it fur an hour or SO, l
had to take a drink at last. Then fol
Tered a second and a third, and by
night | was roarin' drunk and fightin'
everybody. They started to take me
home in a cart, but when a mile from
my cabin l got out and wouldn't go
any further and was left there. 1t
was a bright and beautiful moonlight
night. | could jest remember that.
How l got home after leavin' the cart
l never could recall. l didn't know
when | reached here and fell down in
front Of the house. The fust thing l
knowed was that somebody was pullin'
me around In a mighty rough. way. /
opened my eyes and sot up, and thar
was the old woman on the doahstep,
and between me and her was two
bars. They would look at her and then
at me, and it was their haulin' me
around that had reused me up. /
wasn't sober yit, you understand, but
could reason things out after a fashion.
"'Why don't you git the gun and
shoot the b'arsT I called to the old wo-
man, but she never 'peared to notice
me. The bars did, however. They
turned from her to me and begun a
sort o. hossplay. One of them fetched
me a sort of cuff on the ear that
stretched me out and made my head
ring fur a week arter, and then they
begun playin' ball with my body. /
knowed them fur bars, and l knowed
that it would be all play until l tried
to git away from them or fit back.
"Well, sub, / can't begin to tell you
what them thar bars put me through
that night. They rolled me over and
over; they dragged M about feet first
and head first; they pulled me down to
the pigpen and then pulled me back;
they used their teeth and claws only
In play, but they left marks behind
that didn't go away fur two months.
Every time they rested I called out to
the old woman, but she wouldn't an
swer. Sometimes she looked at me In
a pityin' way, and sometimes she was
laughin' at the way / was tossed
about. The rife was on its hooks in
the house and loaded, and in that
moonlight she could have shot one of
the varmints through the heart, but
she wouldn't move to do 1t.
II reckon them bars sported with