Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-05-11

| Tor q hundred dollars. says Matt, Jest as
easy but so accusin. And it was you that
done the shootin' the night o the raid;
and the knot on yore head, Lige,' he goes
on, as soft as a panther kitten a purrin ,
"was a accident that YOU put to good use.
| None o the four didn't say a word.
And now I've got to arrest you and take
you to town." Matt tells EN-, as sad as
death itself, land break yore pore old
mothers heart. Either that, or I've got to
break my oath as a officer, and let myself
down in the eyes of God and man.
The Carter boys fingers commenced to
trenble, and they all looked at the ground
Boys Matt says, seem that they
wasn't a goin to do no talkin' right then
If it was you, which would you do? Would
you break the heart, or the oath?'
Not word from the Carriers. But their
heads was hangin', and their faces was
shore as long as a mules.
"The blessed old woman that made me
all o them thar fine pies, and who loved me
like | was her own boy, and called me
Honey jest as if | was her own son,-one
o the sons that she IS SO proud of that she
tried all her life to raise up by the commands
o the Good Book; the sons that has forgot
and each put his hand to the stab that will
give her mortal wound, and maybe even
fever her soul beyont recovery! The wound
will never, never heal: she will die with it
still ableedin' and as red as the fire of torment
Il believe it will kill her to know that all
her faith and hope and prayers has been for
less than nothin'. 1t is terrible, Men, to
take to yore bosons the same pizen enemy
that caused yore fathers death. He was
good man. He died with his head in yore
mothers lap, with the blood soakin'
through her dress to her knees
At this R,1ck Carter a man IN hell
crumpled same as if Matt had shot him,
kneelin' on the ground, his big brown hands
grippin' and twistin'. "Hush, Matt, for
Gods sake!' he says, mighty nigh chokin'.
But Matt Brading didn't hush at all. He
seemed to be talkin' to hisself, because his
eyes was lookin' away and past the Carter
boys, it seemed thousand miles. Maybe he
was lookin' back to Boston, and maybe to
some little cottage all covered up with vines
and roses, and maybe to spot in some
churchyard on some lonesome hill. 1 Il swear,
| jest CANT hardly keep from breakin' all to
pieces when | think about that! l could
jest cry about it, durn my old hide of me!
"The old woman says Matt, "who made
me all o them thar fine pies and called me
by the same pet name she called her own
flesh and blood-Ive got to break her
heart or my OATH
Then he throwed his rifle down and busted
it at the breech on rock, and raised both
his hands high-so almighty high that they
reached to Heaven, with his eyes a twink
lin like wet stars and his everlastin' smile as
gray as day in the wintertime.
Il WON'T he says. "Imay be damned for
it, but I'll never strike the hand that fed and
loved me! Boys remember this, and be men,
He shook his fine head and dragged one
hand acrost his eyes, and started out o the
thicket, stumblin' like blind man.
PUCK CARTER grabbed a ak with cry
like somebody dyin' in awful misery,
and in one minute that thar still looked
like it had been around the world a thousand
times in cyclone. Then the Carter boys
caught Matt, and az inst his WILL took him
to their cabin.
1--WE know Our own mother" they told
him.
Well, Sir, they got down on their knees
afore that old woman, and told her the truth,
all OF it, and made promises that hain't never
been broke. And the old woman, bless yore
soul, Rugged every burned one OF EN- and
loved email five of 'en-more'n ever
So the hand of the law has got the four
Carriers for fingers and Matt Brading for a
thumb. And it S the strongest hand the law
ever stuck into the mountains, by gyar. You