Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1915-12-08

L
they'd ruther have ignorance than
charity. Ye think that you an Al
mighty God have gone in partners fer
the regeneration of these mountains,
where no woman has ever been in-
suited an no man has to bar his door
against thievery; where all we ask is
to be left alone. / reckon every day
ye're wonderin' is my halo on
straight It's nat'ral enough that ye
should be right scornful of man that
some newspaper reporter has called
murderer"
His voice fell away, and Juanita
heard again the beating of the ham,
mers out in the barn.
rs that all?" she asked, but the
man shook his head and stood there
looking down on her until under the
spell of his unusual eyes she felt like
screaming out: Talk if you want to.
but for heavens sake don't look at
me. can't stand it,"
"Mebby eff ye'd stopped to think
about things" he resumed, "ye'd have
seen that didn't have no quarrel with
your plans. Mebby l mought even
have been able to help We. coulL
have told We for one thing that
whether the ways here be right or
wrong, they've done stood fer two
hundred years. Ye've got to go slow
changin' 'em. Ye can't hardly pull up
a poplar saplin' with one jerk. Thar's
tap-root underneath 1t tibet runs
down halfway to hell.
''If people hyarabouts is distrustful
Of furrin teachers an ways, it's be-
cause of the samples they've had. A
Teller came here once from the settle
ments to teach school He was q
smart. upstandin' Teller an well
liked. A man by the name of Trevor.
when folks found out that he was
locatin' coal an buyin' their land fer
next to nothin-robbin' them of their
birthright-it looked right smart like
somebody might kill him. | warned
him away to save his life. Ye've got
to make folks forget about Trevor
afore ye makes 'em trust you"
Thank YOU" said Juanita coldly.
"I'll try to show them that I'm not an
other Trevor. Are you warning me
away to save my life?"
I'm tolable ignorant" went on the
man, "but I've read few books, an
one of EN- told the story of the Trojan
boss. 1 wanted ter see what kind Of
a critter you was ridin' into these
hills. 1 come to this cabin the night
we got here to find out"
81 thought so" she quietly answered.
81 was to be inspected like an immi-
grant, and the lord of the land was to
decide whether or not should be sent
back"
Put it that way If we've mind to-
he answered. eye was comm to be a
schoolteacher here. Well, I'd done
been schoolteacher here. see your
smile-ye're wonderin' what l could
teach. Maybe, after all, it's a right
good idea to teach A B C's before ye
starts in with algebra an rhetoric. Ye
wouldn't have me as friend, an
reckon that won't break my heart"
Then" said the girl, looking up
and meeting his eyes with flash OF
challenge, II shall endeavor to get
along without your favor. We could
hardly have met on common ground
at best l shall teach the ten COM
mandments, including Thou shalt not
kill 1 shall teach that to lie hidden
behind bush and shoot an unsuspect-
ing enemy is cowardly and despicable.
l would not be willing to tell them
that they must live and die vassals to
feudal tyranny"
NO." he agreed, ''ye couldn't hard
ly outrage your holy conscience by
tryin' to teach EN- things in a way
they could understand, could We? II
Jeb had come to we, like he came to
me, askin' the name of the man he
sought to kill, We would have said ter
him, 1T was so-and-so, but ye mustn't
harm him, because somebody writ in
a book two thousand years ago that
KILN is a sim An the hell of it is
ye'd low such talk would satisfy him.
eye couldn't do no such wicked
thing as to stop an reflect that he's a
mountain boy, an that for two hun
dred years the blood in his veins he's
been a comm down to him full OF