Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1909-07-02
THE TRANSFER NATION
OF HYMENlA BASS
BY Edna Foster.

DNAN''N-'f 1,
leaning against the door OF the fish
house and supporting himself with one
tattooed arm.
There was no response from the
half-dozen men mending a big net
which was spread out upon their
knees; they did not cast the fly to
catch the floating gossip OF the town,
but allowed il to drift toward them
by the great law of chance Capt
Tracy was not dismayed by the 81.
lence; he knew his listeners, and he
stepped into the room and made ready
to divide his spoils.
"Hymeny Bass has always been
terrible meek Sort she has had a
large, wide idea of the cap'n and his
| judgment; she's believed he was so
| great that when he went east the west
would tip up, and that his opinions
were inside information from the very
| keyhole of the universe. Now | think
his ideas on subject are likely to
! hit about as near as the Farmers
| Almanac comes to getting the weather
| right There is always pretty wide
range to allow room to turn. Hy
meny hasn't bought a yard of calico
or baked cake that he hasn't super.
| vised for 40 years. She would no
more dare to set a bureau angling
than she would dare TO set fire to
| public buildings. The whole house is
full of ruts in the floors where she has
| stepped in her own tracks.
But she's out of bondage now" con.
tinued the narrator. She's gone up
into the conning-tower. and Cap'n
Bass is only firing when he gets the
signal. And Mary says she is wig
wagging an everlasting message of
freedom to them that cant under.
stand,
It's all along of present they got
from the old Bass property. When
| the estate was divided there was
bed and two chairs for Elmiry, a pung
and a ox-goad for Jonathan; but Hy.
meny wasn't named in the regular
will. and she got only longish kind
of looking-glass.
"The capn is tall. and he has al.
ways hung the mirrors so high that
Hymeny hasn't seen herself since she
was married. and when the cap'n came
home and brought the glass he set
it on the floor, tipped back against the
wall, till he could get a chance to buy
a cord. Hymeny, it seems-aCcording
to Mary-saw herself for the first time
in years. They do say she gave a
kind of a yelp and stood like one
stunned; she had to get acquainted
with herself all over.
She saw how downtrodden she
looked and meechng and she saw the
fires quenched out of her eyes, but
what she most wilted Aft so be
there was left any room to wilt-was
the way her hair had wisped all down
| to nothing She dwelt on that, and
dwelt on it until she almost lost her
sense of fear of the cap'n. So one day
| she up and away over the fields like a
girl going to the fair, and she en-
gagged Betsy Spooner to make her a
false front.
"Hymeny is changed being. Boys,
when that front came home, Hymeny
! perked it up on her head as fine as
you please, and Mary was there, and
said she seemed to undergo a kind of
a Transforming, blooming process. She
sat up straighter, and the first words
! she spoke was to contradict the cap'n,
! and three times she upset him in ag
| germint and then Mary very wisely
| got up and came home.
Now, did any of you ever hear any
kind of a superstition as to false hair?
| Mary and | kind of remember some
thing to the effect that if cOmbings
are taken from a persons hair un-
| beknownst to the person, that the per
son getting that hair. as a switch, will
develop all the traits of the person
that 1t belonged to heretofore"
Il guess you will have to say them
words over again, and say EN- slow
err" said Capt. Jed, nudging his neigh.
| Dor.
well, to put it palmer the hair in
that front piece belonged to Mis- Mir.
am Gay, and Hymeny has seemed kind
| VI pOoo6Socu Vi HSI ways ever HlllCts
! She has got the capn completely
| cured of buster. Why, she set out
| yesterday that he must take her to
that menagerie that travels through
here every year. Mary was there, and
! stood near them when they were look
| ing at the bear. Hymeny took her
sunshade and sort of poked into the
cage to wake the bear up, and the
| capn told her not to. Mary said she
sort of tipped up her head and said
pretty firm 'Cap'n Bass, have wanted
to poke the animals for some years.
This year | shall poke!' and she did
"a spell after some one heard him
say to her: There, you set there till
| come back and she said No,
won't set!' and away she went off
toward the kangaroo. Time was when
she would have set until the menag
erie moved along and come again
another year, If he hadn't told her 10
get up"
The net was mended and the men
rose to go to the shore. Capt. Tracy