Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1916-02-18

haint nuver dared ter cross hin
afore."
NO." she cried bitterly, 'he ' IN vel
come the chance to humiliate aud 10
refuse my plea. He has been Waiting
for this; to see me come to him a sup
plant on Bonded knee. and ii n TO
laugh at me and turn me away She
paused and added brokenly: Ar { yet
I've got to go to him in surrendt to
be refused-but I'll 60"
Listen" said the preacher, an his
words carried that soft quality of paci-
fcation which she had once or twice
heard before. "Thar's q heap worse
fellers than Bad Anse Havey. Ef 70
could Jest hev seed yore way ter treat
him a leetle dif'rent-"
How could ~ demanded Juanita
holly. How could l be friends with q
murderer and keep my self-respect?"
The brown-faced man looked up at
her and spoke simply.
"Ive done kept mine" he said.
The girl rose.
"Will you go with met" she asked a
little weakly. a" don't feel quite
strong enough to go ove there alone.
While they are humbling me l would
like to have a friend at hand. l think
1t would help a little"
I'm ready now" and so, with the
man who had guided her on other mis-
sions, she set out to make what terms
she could with the enemy she had so
s%tubbornly def1ed.
It seemed an interminable journey,
though they took the short cut Of the
foot-trail over the hills.
The house that had come down to
Anse Havey had been built almost q
century before. It was originally
placed in a section so large that else
where 1t would have been a domain-a
tract held under the original Virginia
grant. Since those days much Of II
had been parceled out as marriage por'
tions to younger generations.
Cabins that had once housed slaves,
barns, a smoke-house. al icehouse. and
a small hamlet Of dependent shacks
clustered about a clearing which had
been put there rather to avoid surprise
than to give space for gardening. The
Havey of two generations ago had
been something Of a hermit scholar
and in his son had lurked a diminish
ing craze for books and an increasing
passion for leadership.
The feud had blazed to its fiercest
heat in his day, and the father Of Bad
Anse Havey had been the first Bad
Anse. His son had succeeded to the
title as a right of heritage, and had
been trained to YEA 1t like a fighting
man. Though he might be a whelp Of
the wolf breed, the boy was a strong
whelp and one in whom slept latent
possibilities and anomalous qualities
for in him broke out afresh the love Of
books.
1t might have surprised his newspa
per biographers to know how deepi.
he had conned the few volumes ON thu
rotting shelves Of the brick house. b
how deeply he had thought along sotn'
lines. 1t might have amazed them hal
they heard the fire and romance witt
which he quoted the wise counsel 0
the foolish Polonius. Beware Of en-
tering a quarrel, but being In, so bea
thee that the opposer may bewar'
of thee"
AS to entering a quarrel, it sufice'
his logic that he had been born into 1t
that he had "heired" his hatreds.
And because in these parts his ia
Their had held almost dictatorial pow
ers, it had pleased him to send his sor
just come to his majority, down to tn
state capital as a member Of the legis
lature, and the son had gone to sit TO
a while among lawmakers.