The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1915-11-13

4
quainted hyarabouts as further up
Tribulation. What manner o. lookin'
man air hep
He don't look like nothin' much"
replied his wife morosely- Hes jest
an ornery-lookin' old man"
WHITTIER did he sot out ter go when
he left hyar?"
The woman shook her head. then
a grim flash of latent wrath broke in
her eyes.
I'll jest let We hev the truth.
stranger. Some trifin' fellers done
sa inferred past hyar with jug OF
Ticker, an tibet fool FIetch hes jest
done folIered 'em off. Thet's all thar
is to hit, an he hain't got no license
ter ack thetaway nuther. reckon
by now he's a-layin' drunk some
whars.'
For a moment there was silence,
through which drifted the distant
| tinkIe of cowbells down the creek.
Beyond the crests fingered only
lemon afterglow as relict of the dead
day The brown, colo=less man astride
his mule sat stupidity looking down at
the brown, colorless woman across the
preacher inquiring which way the
master of the house had gone and
surnising that "mebby he'd better set
out in search of him." the words
seemed to come from a great dis
lance, and her head swan giddily.
Then, overcome with disgust and
WEAKNESS, Juanita Holland saw the
afterglow turn slowly to pale gray
and then to black, shot through with
orange spots Then she grew sud
denly Indifferent to the situation.
swayed in her saddle, and slipped
Imply to the ground
The young woman who had come to
] conquer the mountains and carry
torch of enlightenment to their illit-
eracy had tainted from discourage
ment and WEAKNESS at the end Of the
: first days march.
The WEAKNESS which caused the
fainting spell must have heightened
its duration, for when Juanita's lashes
fickered upward again and her brain
came gropingly back to consciousness
she was no longer by the stile-
She was lying in the smothering
softness of feather bed. On her pal
ate and tongue fingered an unfamiliar,
sweetish taste, while through her
veins she felt the coursing of a warm
glow.
Over her stood the woman who had
been across the stile when she tainted,
her attitude anxiously watchful. In
one hand she held stone jug, and in
the other a gourd dipper. So that
accounted for the taste and the glow,
| in no oil
stance she heard the high, nasal voice,
pitched none the less in a tone OF
kindly reinsurance.
"Ye1l be spy as squirrel in leetle
spell, honey. Don't fret yoreself none
Ye war jest plumb tuckered out an
We swooned. I've been a rubin your
hands an a-pourin' a little white
Ticker down yore throat. Don't worrii
yoresef none. We're pore folks an
we haint got much, but reckon We
kin make out ter enjoy ye somehow
The four walls of the cabin might
have been the rocky confines Of z
mountain cavern, so formlessly die
q they merge into the impalpable and
sooty murk that hung between them
+ obIiterating all remoter outline. Only
, things in a narrow circle grew visible
and at the center of this lighted ares
v was the slender figure of girl hold
y ing up lard taper, its radius of igh
II yellow and Pickering.
AS the mountain girl felt the eyes
q Of the strange and, to her, wonderful
o woman from the great, unknown
. world on her, her own dark lashe'
> fell timidly and the hand that helC
the taper trembled, while into he
cheeks crept a carmine self-conscious
- ness. Juanita, for her part, sensed II
= her veins new and subtler glow thai
that which the moonshine whisky hat
= uuickened. The men and women o
the hills had made her heartsick witt
= their stolid and animaIlike coarseness
= Now she saw slender figure in which
- the lines were yet transitory between
the straightness of the child and tn
budding curves of Womanhood
- It was to such children of the hill
= as this that Juanita Holland was t
bring the new teachings. But even a
- she smiled the child-for she seeme
- to be only fifteen or sixteen-surrer
: dered to her shyness and, thrustin
=. the taper into her mothers hand
shrank out of sight in some shaC
- owed corner of the place.
ar Then Juanita's eyes occupied then
N selves with what fragmentary detail
"a the faint light revealed. The barre
bt of a rife caught the weak fare an
gIittered. The uncarpeted floor {
n. rude puncheon slabs lay a thing {
gaping cracks, and overhead there wa
40 a vague feeling OF low rafters. frol
~ which hung strings OF ancient an
ne shriveled peppers and a few cTinkle
hands Of natural leaf"
ar Dawn" commanded the womal
in take yore foot in your hand an Egl
w out ter ther barn an see ef ye h
find some aigs."
As Juanita watched the door ST
i'm caught a glimpse Of a slight fgul
that vanished with the same Quic
vi phuric acid-a cycle Of operation
I" whose beginning and end was the vi
i