Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1916-01-27

comb1ng or the na1r they sought TO
adorn. There were larger boys and
girls, too, and even a ha1f-doZen men
just now pitching horseshoes and
smoking pipes-and they also were
learning to read and write.
In the afternoons women rode in on
mules and horses or came on foot, and
Juanita taught them not only letters
and figures, but lessons looking to
cleaner and more healthfu1 cabins.
May came with smiles and songs in
the sky from sunrise to sunset, and in
the woods, where the moisture rose
and tender green's were sending out
their hopeful shoots, the wild flowers
unfolded themselves. Then Juanita
Holland and Anse Havey would go to-
gether up to the ridge and watch the
great awakening across the brown and
gray humps of the hills, and under
their feet was a carpet Of glowing
petals.
Anse Havey had never had such a
companiCnship, and hidden things be-
gan to waken in him.
So when she stood there, with the
spring breeze caressing the curling
tendrils at her temples, and blowing
her Bingham skirt about her slim
ankles, and pointed off, smiling, to his
house, he dropped his head in mock
shame.
Only the castle mCodily gloomed
to itself apart she quoted in accu-
.satio1, and the man laughed boyishly.
Il reckon ye haven't seen the castle
lately he said. eye wouldn't hardly
know it. It's gettin' all cleaned up an
made civilized. The cages nest is
turnin' into a sure-enough bird cage"
Who's changing now?" she ban
tered. Am 1 civiliZing you or"-her
eyes danced with badinage-''are you
preparing to get married?"
His face flushed and then became
almost surly.
Who'd marry me?" he savagely de-
manded.
I'm sure l don't know" she leased.
''Whom have you asked?'
He bent a little forward and sad
slowly:
Once We told me l was wasting my
youth. Ye lowed I ought to be captain
Of my soul. If l found woman that
wanted and she wouldn't have me
what ought l to do about it?"
There are two courses prescribed
in all the corr" 7po dence schools, and
both are perfectly simple" she an
nounced with mock gravity. "One is
simply to take the lady first and ask
her afterward. The other is even
easier; get another girl
"Oh," he said. He was hurt because
she had either not seen or had pre-
tended not to see his meaning. She
had not grasped the presumptuous
dream and effrontely of his heart.
His voice for a moment became
enigmatical as he added: Sometimes
I think we've played hell in these
mountains"
That spring silent forces were at
work in the hills; as silent and less
beneficent than the stirring sap and
the brewing Of showers.
Three men in the mountains were
now fully convinced that what the
world needs the world will have, and
they were trying to find solution to
the question which might make their
own people sharers in the gain, in
stead of victims. These three were
Anse and Milt and Jeb, and their first
step was the effort to hold landowners
in check, and make them slow to sell
and guarded in their bargaining
jim Fletcher, mountain man who
had for years drifted between Tribula-
ton and Winchester trading in cattle
and timber. made a journey through
the hills that spring, and was every
whore received as home folks" For
him there were no bars of distrust,
and he was able for that reason to buy
land right and left. Though he had
paid. for it price above the average
it was a price far below the value Of
the coal ana timoer IT contained
and Tim had picked his land
Arse 9avey ana lis associates knew
that Jim FLETCHER aad oeen sL0sidized;
that the money he spent so lavishly
was not his own money; and thai he
came as stalking-horse, but they did
not know that he had been to Louis
vile and had conferred there with Mr..
Trevor. Neither did they know at
once that he had visited the cabins of
every malcontent among both the for
mer factions, and that he was a mis-
chiefmaker adroitly laying here in the
hills the foundations for new feud.
Jim had bland tongue and a per.
suasiVe manner, and he talked to the
mountain men in their own speech,
but he was none the less the advance
agent Of the new enemy from down
below: the personal fulfillment of
Juanita's pror ,iecy to Roger Malcolm
Juanita did not realize how much
she was leaning on the strength of
Anse Havey, how she depended on
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