Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1916-05-26
May, 1916


4 n loved faces which his
yearned and riding the road where after
ward his father and sweetheart rushed madly All
that day he had been saying his unspoken good-byes
the little hooks where he had played when child
to the old where his young body had clambered
to rocky hillsides where his feet had climbed. He
had fonded each hound and patted each pony; had
watched his father and mother and little brothers and
sisters, with wistul eyes, but had been careful to
word which might their suspicion. Several
times n his wanderings from early morning to mid
afternoon his had strayed unconsciously the
direction of Minnie Folsoms and the messy spring.
but he had wrenched himself in other paths because
he knew that to Minnie would be futile and would
make everything harder He had not had one glimpse
of her that evenfu night when his jealous
had told him that she crying in the of John
Cohee OF her later presence in the old oak, he had not
guessed Neither had he John Cohee, and he had
put the out of his mind John Cohee was probably
far away and safe from the gun of the executoner.
Having lived always in the and been nursed under
the shelter of the wooded places his mind free from
all pettiness and the thing which he about to do did
not great to him. He merely doing a good
turn for he loved, and his religion embraced in
stinctively much of the mythology of his forefathers
the thought of death not fearful to him. For to
the Indians of long death but beautiful trans
formation and they did not dread it either for their
bodies souls Lewis James knew that after the
had done their work with him that he would but be
started his journey land airer far than his dear
Choctaw country; that the Christian God, whom he
prayed, would place for him there all the wood
land things which he so loved and keep him free and
happy there forever
Ands when o'clock he found himself riding
calmly his little pony toward the place where his
young heart would beat He ambled through
the taking last look at their beauties and
breathing the flowers and the spicy odors
of the grass if he drinking rich wine The
continual funeral dirge for him, but it
happy joyous and wildly melodious that it
took the of triumphal march. Without know
ing it. the thing which he to do that day him
the feeling of young god going forward to sacrifice,
and the agony of human being facing humiliation
He tasted of the of giving that death
sweet.
When he within mile of the council house he
slipped green alcove off the roadside dis
Throwing the bride his pony's neck he
her loose in the woods knowing that before the
night spent would of his fathers
Then he struck off through the woods,
the and wait for the hour of his
secluded place nearby. His eyes searched for
the largest greenest of the leaves finding
against his gray shirt just the heart that it
be plainly a hundred yards away. Wearing
this emblem he walked leisurely toward the place
had selected in his fancy wait for the
little knoll, with its top free from any
growth except that of grass and flowers, and its base
encircled by trees which seemd to be playing Ring
Around the Rosy perfect circle did they make
were to stand their guns but the foliage hid it
from sight. From the top of the knoll where he had
stretched himself to wait he could the smoke from