The Dolores star., 1918-01-25

VI JIG OhABuS 1ooo noPo SAey "ea0 OAAAs
upon. 49,
CHAPTER 10.
Marthy Ouriss Her Dead and orssSs
Her Nephew.
Ease did not move or give his Gus
tomary, querulous grunt when Mar
thy nudged him At daylight, one
morning In mid April. Marthy gave an
other poke with her elbow and lay still,
numbed By . sudden dread. She moved
cautiously out Of the bed and half
across the cramped room before she
stood stin and looked and looked, her
hard fAce growing each moment more
pinched and stony and gray.
Jase had died while the coyotes were
yapping their dawn song up on the rim
Of the cove. He lay rigid under the
coarse, gray blanket, the desh Of his
face drawn close to the bones, his
skimpy, gray beard tilted upward.
Marthy's jaw ret into q harsher out
line than ever. She dressed with slow,
heavy movements and went out and fed
the stock. In stolid calm she did the
milking and turned out the cows into
the pasture. She gathered an apron
full Of chips and started . fire, Just N
she had done every morning for twenty
nine years, and abe put the coffeepot
on the greasy stove and boiled the brew
Of yesterday. which was also her habit.
She sat for some time with her head
1oo n}n~ v,p<v. h~~ ~~lvuv h~uA ~rH -. -
unseeingly out upon Q peach tres In
full bloom and at Q pair Of busy robins
who had chosen Q convenient crotch for
their nest Finally she rose SHINY, a.
II she had grown older within the last
hour, and went outside TO the placs
where she had been mending the irri-
eating ditch the day before. She knock
ed the wet sand OF the shovel she had
left sticking in the soft bank and went
out Of the yard and mp the slope toward
the rock wall
On, Q tiny, level place above the main
ditch and just under the wall Marthy
began to dig. setting her broad, nat foot
uncompromisingiy upon the shoulder Of
the shovel and sendiaS 1t deep into the
yellow soil. She worked slowly and
methodically and steadily, just a. shs
did everything else. When she had dug
down ~ deep a. she could and still
manage to climb out and had the hole
vide enough and long enough, abe got
awkwardly to the grassy surface and
sat for long while upon . rock, star
ing dumbly at ths s1unt brown hills
across the river.
She returned to the cabin at Last, and,
with the manner Of one who breads do
ing what must b done she went in
where Jase lay stin and cold under tns
blanketA
EARLY that afternoon Narthy went
staggering mp the slope. wheeling Jase'D
body before her On the creaky, home
made wheelbarrow. In the same harsh,
primitive manner In which they both
had lived Marthy buried her dead. And
though In LILO she had given him few
words save In command or upbraiding,
with never Q, hint Of love to sweeten the
days for either, yet she went whimper-
ing away from that grave. She broke
Oh three branches Of precious peach
blossoms and carried them mp the slope.
She stuck them upright in tia lumpy
soil over Jase's head and stood there
. long while with tear streaked face,
staring down at the grave and at tho
nodding pink blosDomA
.
Billy Louise rode singing down the
rocky tran through the deep, narrow
gorge to where the hawthorn and choke
cherries hid the opening to the cove.
From there to the pink drift Of peach
bloom against the dull brown Of the
blur Blue galloped angrily, leaving
deep, black prints in. the soft green Of
the meadow. 80 they came headlong
upon Aarthy, just ~ she was knocking
the yellow clay OF the grave from her
irrigating shovel against the pole fence
Of her pigpen.
sWhy, Marthyr' Once before In her
life Billy Louise had seen Narthy's chin
quiyering like that and big. slow tears
aiding down the network Of lines on
Marthy's leathery cheeks. with q
painful slump her spirits went heavy
with her sympathy. "Narthy!"
She knew without q word Of expla-
nation inst what had happened. From
Narthy's bent shoulders abe knew and
from hsr tear stained face and from
the yellow soil clinging still to the
shovel In hee. hand. Ths wide eyes Of
Billy Louise sent seeking giances up
the slope where the son was yellow;
went t. the long. y ridge under the
wall with TIE pen. blossoms standing
pitifully aNry uQon the western end.