Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1914-10-31

The pupils had clean faces-a thing
never seen before.
| Tom had never been accounting. He
had heard about people falling in love,
but the feeling had never come to
him. There was gal up at Bear
Point that he had exchanged words
and smiles with. Some day he would
go up there and say to the father:
81 want Tilda.'
! "Are you'uns a good shot ?"would
be asked.
BEST at Beaver Cove"
"Good at findin' bee-trees?'
| Found two last fall"
ma! Ma! Tilda! Tilda!" the father
would call.
"Well, what you hollerin' about?'
"He'uns has come for our Tilda.
"And what does Tilda say?"
Tilda would look off into the lau-
| rel thickets and tie her apron in
knots and dig her bare toes into the
soil.
do yo' reckon to consider, Tilda?"
Tom would ask.
Reckon l do
Then, ma, bring the broomstck
and let 'em jump it," the father would
Say, anu len ullAuICo i1%Si SAAS oN~
would bear the bride away.
This would be the way of it when
Tom got ready, but he wasn't hurry
ing things In fact, things soon nap
pened to drive Tilda out OF his mind.
The schoolma' ANS lover came up 10
see her. Tom witnessged the meeting
between them, and almost In mo-
ment strange feeling swept over
him. 1t was feeling he had never
had before.
"This yere feelin' can't come from
moonshine whiskey, and l don't pc
lieve I'm in for chills. Mightyqueer-
mighty queer.
Tom puzzled for ten minutes be-
fore he jumped to his feet and slap
ped his leg and shouted:
Darn my hide, it's that I'm in love
with that skule teacher; and Ill plum
shoot the head off'n that young teller
from Bristol"
There is no feeling that renders
monntaineer more desperate than that
of jealousy. Tom Hammock planned
to kill his rival that night, put the
Young man had taken the train back.
For two days after no one saw Iom
Hammock. Miss Sloan was the first
one to catch sight of him She was
out gathering mountain blossoms al
ter supper.
"You are goin' with me, and If you
boiler it will be the wuss for you!
where do you want me to go with
you?" she asked.
give got a cave back yere.
"a cave? OH I never saw one. 10
morrow after school will you take us
ali therey Sit down, Tom I want to
talk with you bit. Do you think
well of the school?"
I'm thinkin' of you!"
"And what are you thinking"
"Tm thinkin' we'uns are goln' to
jine up together
Get married, you mean?'
eff you don't promise me rh-lh
you'll do something desperate
Tom, they all call you a sensible TEL
low. Look at things as they are. You
have no education. You haven't the
manners of the men in other villages.
You chew tobacco and swear and
drink whisky, and if were married Ia
have to ask you to sit out in the wood
shed when any one called
"Hain't you heapin' it on? he
asked.
"You have got to realize things as
they are. You and Uncle Peter are
wrong about education-very wrong.
Could the governor of the state be
governor unless he was educated?
Could your judges be judges and your
lawyers lawyers? Your sheriffs must
at least be able to read and write
"Then I'm no better than var
mint, eh?"
ooh, yes, you are. If you can get
away from this and go to school in
city and mingle with people you
can be thrice the man you are If you
can't get away-if you are satisfied
to stay here-then get married and
set up a home
But, dog-gone it, don't want to
marry you"
"Tom, is the world round or hat?"
smilingly replied the girl.
Dunno"
There isn't a schoolboy six years
old in the land but what can TELL and
yet you think you'd be the right sort
Of husband for mel"
"Mebbe I Wouldn't he said.
Tom bothered the teacher no more.
In fact he left Coonskin Cove for work
elsewhere. but on the last day of
school, when Miss Sloan's lover came
up to take her home, the mountaineer
put his head into the door and beck
oned her out.
what is it?" she asked after shak-
ing hands with him.
"You are goin' to be married?"
Eyes"
"That's Tilda aver thar on the log"
And who's Tilda?"
Gal I jumped the broomstick with
yesterday. And say, while I don't
know how many big oceans there is
in the world, she don't know how
many duckponds they be in Tennes-
see, and you kin bet it's boun' to be
happy jinin' up!'
|CASTORIA