The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1908-05-19
When Nellie
Got a Man
By WILLIAM Mcleod RAINE
(Copyright.)

WHY UUn L yOu-dIl Sit Il Ll0u, NASi
lie?'
Mrs. Chunn waited impatiently for
an answer, her potato knife poised in
air. She was a sallow lath of a wom-
an, dry and hard, with piercing little
black eyes that bored like gimlets.
Efficiency of management was the
dominant note of the widow. She
ruled like an autocrat, a kindly one
if people submitted gracefully, but a
firm n in n event. Three de-
ceased husbands had endured her
sway not unhappily.
Just now the gimlet eyes were
turned ON the slim, fair girl who sat
Smelling peas on the porch steps at
her feet. Nellie stirred uneasily, as
under %compulsion, but offered no an
swer in words. From her childhood
she had been much given to silence,
an unconscious refuge from the COM
monplace world of Cache Bayou that
misunderstood her of necessity.
Her stepmother repeated the ques-
ton with exactly the same infection
a before.
Don't yo', please" implored the
girl, the color sweeping into her face.
Then. as If feeling the futility Of pro-
test, she added. Il cayn't NAV. Yo'
know l amt hathaway"
Il reckon yo' kin if yo' try. You-all
air turned 10 now. Do yo' low nevah
to marry? Trouble IL. you-all air SO
meachin' an touch-me-not. Hit don't
do to be dumb's a wild hawg the whole
enjurin' time when men folks Is
round. Yo' got to brisk up an be
psart."
The widows experience entitled her
to speak with authority. "Gittin' q
man" had become almost q habit with
her. 1t spoke volumes for her ehi-
cheney that men naturally gravitated
her way. despite her lack Of feminine
graces.
The eyes OF the slim, young thing
looked wistfully across the slash to
the bayou beyond. A poignant shame
Hooded her. the ems Of sacred
things profaned. Oh. II only her
mother had lived. the girl mother who
had died at her birth! Surely she
would have understood! Or even the
quiet slow-speeched father who had
pettsd and 'muched" her In secret.
Since his death. ten years before. she
had been terribly alone. She had only
Jed-Jed Wilson. her stepmother's
boy. the magnificent big brother Of her
youth. who could do everything well
and yet condescendsd to like her and
be her comrade. But Jed was In far
away Texas somewhere and had been
for four years.
$50 I jos natchelly makes up my
mind to help yo'. low to do by you
all like yo' own NAV would. Air yo'
near through with them peas? I want
en- done right spank at IL. Nose
Hughey's a-comin' to dinner"
Nellie turned a startled face on her
stepmother. Her lips parted for
speech, but the protest died unvoiced.
What she had feared had come at last.
A kind Of terror surged through her.
She was being prepared for the inev-
liable. II Mrs. Chunn had 8 e her
iron will on her marrying Hughey
there would be no escape for her. Yet
she knew she would rather die.
Hughsy's narrow little shifting eyes
gloated on the girls dainty youth
while he ate voraciously of the food
before him. A wolf were as fit to be
mated with a lamb as the long.jawed,
yellow-toothed usurer's cunning with
her fine maiden reserve. Even to
Mellie's stepmother his outstanding
merit was the 40 acres of rich cotton
land he owned.
Nellie waited on him with a pad
locked tongue. When he had gorged
himself she slipped away and fed to
the hickory lead at the edge Of the
bayou. What could she do? How
could she escape the net which en-
messed her? To whom could she
turn for help? Her throat ached with
the intensity Of the passion of despair
that swept her.
Jed would have known what to do.
Jed would have saved her. But he
was a thousand miles away on some
unknown ranch. His mothers dom
ineering temper had driven him away
from home in anger. They had heard
Of him just once in the four years.
That was when the editor of their
country paper. stopping at Mrs.
Chunn's over night, had mentioned
that her son was still one Of the sub
scribers to the Beebee Bee.
Her boy was the one weak spot in
Mrs. Chunn's inflexible armor of au-
tocracy. To have him home again
she would willingly have made him
an exception to her own rule, though
she never admitted 1t even to herself.
It was to Jed's strength that the
girls weakness went fiuttering out in
her hour of need. He would have un-
derstood, as nobody else could. The
indolent, masterful force of him would
have won her battle for her. But
without him-fear rose in her throat
and choked her.
Texas was a big country and far
away. The paper man from Beebee
had said that. But he had said. too,
that he zen his paper to Jed. II SO.