The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-10-26
CHAPTER VIII.
The HaIf opened Rud.


 ~& away at the mountain with
 the precipicet" Lahoma con
 tinued afters she had told about the wonderful window. ''But 1t was too far off. When he got to know me it tired him walking t!sis far twice a day, morning and night. so at last Brick and Bill decided to cut some cedars from thA. mountain and make me a cabin. They took the dugout to sleep in. There are two rooms in the cabin-one, the kitchen, where we. eat, and the other, my parloB where l sleep. Some time you shall visit me in the cabin if Brick and Bill are wiIl= ing. They made it for me, so couldn't ask anybody in unless they said SO.
 we aren't far enough along" ob- served BiI1, ito be shut up together under a roof.'
 "Pd like to have you visit my par lor,'' Lahoma said somewhat WistfulIy t.Id like to show you all my books They were Bills when we first met him, but since then he's given me ey- erything he's got, haven't you, old Bil?" Lahoma leaned over and patted the unyielding shoulder.
 She resumed, her face glowing with sudden rapture: There are six books half a dozen! Maybe you've heard of some of them Bills read ,em over lots of times. He begins with the first on the shelf, and when he's through the row he just takes 'em up all over again. I like to read parts of them the interesting parts. This is the way they stand on the shelf: The Children of the Abbey'-.that's Bills favorite; "The Scottish Chiefs David Copper field, The Talisman,' The Prairie. 'The Last of the Mohicans.'"
 ..And so your cabin was built,'' Will fred prompted her, "and the men took the dugout.'
 stYes, and then-oh! The most won derful thing happened. A family set tied in the arm of the mountain at the west end-a family that had a woman and q baby in it. For three years I had the mother and her baby to show me how to be a woman. Then came the soldiers. Brick thinks a big cattle king stood in with congress, and he got the soldiers sent here to drive out all the settlers because they were, begin ming to farm the land instead of letting 1t grow wild for the cattle. Anyway all the settlers were driven out of the country, and it's been four years since I lost my only friends in the world
  me and Brick and Bill mad is that the soldiers didn't have any right to drive out the settlers, because Texas claims this country, and so does the United States, but it's never been settled"
 But they didn't drive you out
 sVou see,' Brick explained simply, Eve didn't want to go''
 ssIt nearly broke Mrs. F'eatherby,s heart to have to leave La hona added, flor they'd got good stand of wheat, and think she liked me most as well as liked her. But MT. Featherby came from Ohio, and he had respect to the government, so when the soldiers said go he lied up stakes'' stWe ain't got no respect to nothing, Brick explained, that stands in the way of doing what we're a mind to- The soldiers come to force us out, but changed their minds. We will stay here at anchor till Lahonna steams out into the big world with sails spread Nothing ain't more sheltering than knowing you have moral right and dependable gum
 .sSo that's about al1,'' Lahonna went on. "These past Tour years we've just been to ourselves, with a long journey once a year to the settlements. And I've tried to do like Mrs. Featherby used to do and be like she was She'd been to Europe, too, and she'd taught school in New England. She was like you-right out of the big world She came out here because the family was awful poor. Is that why you left the big world 2'
 Wilfred shook his head tI'm poor enough" he said, tbut it wasn't that It was . girl