Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-06-09

wooden ladies', ITO save the lubber
from burning up of his next tumble
into the fire." as she laughed to Tom, 1t
was too much for me.
Suddenly swept by a great wave OF
resentment, jolted free of its grip on
the trough the hand that balanced Bes-
sic above the icy sap, when plump into
it she fell, soused thoroughly from
head to foot.
And scarcely out of it had she start
ed to scramble before Tom, Of a third
greater weight than mine, had caught
me a smash in the ear that drove me
flying clean across the top of the
trough, where for an instant l lay halt
stunned. But by the time he got to
me, great fist swinging for another
blow, I was on my feet with stick of
fire wood in my hand.
Luckily for me, my stick landed a
fraction of second ahead Of Toms
fist, landed high up across the bridge
of his nose, and Tom dropped imply
into the snow, just like I have seen
many man sink in shuddering hud-
die of brain shot.
And, God! the tide of remorse that
then swept me! For it seemed to me
I had taken a. human life. Bessie,
shivering of her drench in the sap.
dropped beside Tom, taking his head
in her lap, and began wiping his bloody
face with her sopping sleeve. Then,
?, like fash, all remorse vanished. ""
Meantime Tom lay still, scarcely
breathing, so still I got scared and
slipped out of the little clearing into
the big forest, through which hurdled
at my top speed until l reached home.
Breathlessly told my old dad the
story-and then received at his hands
a harder pummeling than l have ever
received since, for my rashness.
Slight as at best were the ties that
held me to home, it really needed less
than this incident to break them.
Thus, haunted with fear that Tom
might not recover, and smarting of
what I then regarded, and still regard,
as an unjust punishment, as soon az
my dad strolled out into the COW lot,
I hastily slipped into my best clothes,
tucked safely away the one ten-dollar
bill that represented the gross accu.
mutations Of eight years of hard labor,
and stole out into the forest, headed
west.
A fugitive? Yes; no less than that
was l. But mind you we'll, knew
Tom-knew that with his greater
weight and strength and brutal habit,
he was certain to kill or cripple me.
Otherwise I should not have resorted
to a weapon, the first then had ever
used.
Nor pleasant part did I find that Of
fugitive, then, although later it became
natural to me as the most everyday
routine of life.
But never till the last taps are beat
en- for Clark Stocking will he forget
the horrors of that long, weary tramp
south around the lower end Of Lake
Michigan, north to and through Chi
cago; west, ever west, across the
states Of Illinois and Missouri to far
away st. Joe; the haunting dread Of
pursuit that made him shift to cover at
every sound of beating hoofs; the
CHASTITY specter of that still, bleeding
face ever pesring into his from ambush
within sorle swaying shadow OF his
campfire, and then the hateful
thought, worst torture of ali. that tho
brute might I've to win and wed Miss
Bessie!
Indeed, never until the Missouri's
yellow flood rolled between me and
what / had left lying beside the sap
trough did begin to know any peace
Of mind.
1t was many year before I heard
aught Of the consequences of my hap
tism into battle in the sugar BUSH But
soon things so new, strange and stir
ring were happening to me or about
me, that gradually, slowly, just like a
few months later saw Laramie Peak
fade to it's mighty rest among the shad-
ows that chased away the afterglow,
50 faded from my memory the Incl
dents of my Michigan forest life.
All save that of the roguish face Of
Bessie McVicker
St. Joe was then the principal port
of departure from the Missouri river Of
the overland California traffic, TEEN
ing, hustling, hard-cursing and harder
drinking little city, struggling along
the river bluffs.
A city that seemed never to sleep, its
muddy streets thronged thickly OF
nights as by day with bronzed and
buckskinned trappers and traders from
the farther tributaries of the great
river above Fort Benton; red sashed
and silver-bespangled Mexicans from
Santa Fee and Chihuahua; grimy, say.
age bull.whacks and mule SINNERS out
of the overland freight teams; dandy
gamblers redolent of scentE but ever
keen for dollars, habited in sombeI