The Ekalaka eagle. [volume] (Ekalaka, Mont.) 1909-1920, 1914-05-29
The Life Of a Willful Boy
Who Set Upon Himself the
Responsibility Of AveDging
His Fathers Murder :: {: ::

what kind err men sensible women
sometimes marricS."
well, hits jest cs we'll they do
Hcdrick rcioincd philosophically. Fer
eff too,s Jest married fools. think what
or all fired lot err little fools we'd llcv
ter put up with"
We'll. I'm powerful Uneasy fer
Dave. but scttin' here won't help him
none" said Snyder; an I've got or
wife myself ut homo. an reckon hit IL
be jest cS well fer me not ter keep
her waitin' fer supper beyond er GER
tain pint"
Left alone on his deserted porch.
with the evening closing in around
him and mysterious lights gathering
on the crest of Drupe mountain. the
little storekeeper still sat on, whistling
a faint tune which was almost lost in
the nearby throaty voice Of Il tree
toad. Presently his hound came stif1y
up on to the porch and stood looking
w~istfully into his face.
Reckon you think hit was time you
an me was thinkin' crbout our supper,
toO.' Hedrick said, answering the
dogs appealing eyes. well. we amt
got no wife ter keep waitin, SOS we
kin jest suit o,rselves.'
He put out II hand and pulled the
dogs long. t1oppy ears gently.
I'D hate ter see Dave Cree git his
self into trouble. Toby he said
thoughtfulIy, taking the dog into his
confidence. But dunno's there's any
thing l kin do ter help hit. seem es
he's er crowd man now an not err
little pitiful boy no mo-. Hit don't
seem ter me. Toby he went on, that
eff Their Lord d ever saw fit ter give
me erchild that Id ever err hated any
other Teller enough ter lay sech err
promise on my Sol But l Dunno" he
paused-"I REILLY dunno, when yer shot
in Their back hit would certainly make
er difference. l amt never had err son
en- | amt never been shot in Their
back, SOS l amt got what you might
call experience, an without experience
no ones got err right ter Judge ernother
Teller"
lit DldIllluS U / COIll OH IL DIlSlC QuF
with plenty of companions to help,
and to shout gay remarks to and with
the prospect of a good supper just at
shutdown to meet the whetted appetite,
is Il gay and an altogether delightful
task. Such a day of happy corn plant
ing was Robert Reddin's. but Ellen
DAVIS was Il different matter. There
one lonesome girl plodded over the
ground by herself. toilsomely planting
one YEARLY long furrow after another.
and then returning to her old horse
who waited patiently by the furrow
last ~covered-she grasped the pillow
handles and again started on her diff
cult trip across the field. %arduously
covering what she had dropped.
Ellen DAVIS corntielu was not a large
me-; in fact, it was scarcely half the
size of Robert Reddin's, but it seemed
a large, Il painfully, ~impoSsibly, large
place for II girl to go over all alone.
She paused every 10Y and again in
the center of it to look about her and
measure the implanted g-ound ahead,
and each time she did so she felt as
though she and the old hotse-the only
other living thing to be seen-had
grown smaller and less able to accom-
plish anything, and the field bigger and
rougher and more %forbidding, and each
time. too, the enormous blue arch of
the Sky seemed more than ever over
towering and ominously vast.
1t was the first year that So much OF
the burden Of the spring planting had
fallen upon her. Silas Daw had never
before been so disabled by rheumatism
that he could not do ut least some of
the blowing, but this year he could
only get about Il little with the aid of
two sticks: therefore Ellen faced the
heavy problem Of seed time alone.
This was the second day of her
planting, and she had been at it since
early morning. with only Il little space
out at noon. when Ler dinner had been
mcagcr and unsatisfactory, and when
most of her time had been taken up
attending to the old horses feeding.
1t was drawing now toward 8 o'clock
the hottest part of the ~day-whcn the
field gay up dazzling waves of heat
and when the heart of the world SEEM
ed to have stopped beating in very OK
haustion, and still an opprcssively wide
stretch lay implanted before her.
Ellen felt as though she had been
turned into Il bit of dumb machinery
to 90 cndIcSSly UP and down those long
burrows. Occasionally she took off
her s%unbonnet and, pausin-. famed
herself with it. and when she did so
the hot earth before her daZcd eyes
seemed jumping up at her, and after
ward the going ON again WAS worse
than before. for each little stop seemed
to put the achin. mechanism of her
body more and more out of order.
At length, stumbling back across the
field to start her plow again. she felt
herself growing suddenly gildy and
strangely faint. She paused by one
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