The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-07-18
"'N' | Eats a Piping Hot Supper"

"N' | Eats a Piping Hot Supper"
look mad at me. She was hot, but I
kept a%-winkin', and l says to her kind
of huskylike: Got any letters for
C~alabasas %tOnight?' Say, she looked
at me as if she'd bore holes into me,
but l stood right up and glared back
at the little girl. Come from there
this m%ornin',' says l, going back to-
night. Someone waiting there for
news
by jung. Just as I got the words
out o my mouth, who comes a-stalk-
ing in but Gale Morgan. The minute
he seen me. he lit on me to beat the
band-called me everything he could
lay his tongue to. / let on l was
drunk. but that didn't help. He OF
tered me on the premises. N the
worst of it was. Nan chimed right in
and began to scold Bunny for iettin'
me inland leaves the room, quick
she and Gale had it. an b. jiEg, Gale
put me Out-said he'd pepper me-. But
wait till | tell " how she fooled him.
It was rainin' like HI, n it looked
as if | was booked for a ride through
it and hadn't half drunk my second
cup of coffee at that. / starts for the
barn, when someone in the dark IN
the porch grabs my arm, spins me
around like a top. throws a flasher up
into my face, and there was Nan.
Bull she says, I'm sorry. l don't
want TO see you ride out in this with
nothing to eat come this way quick
"She o me down cellar from the
outside, under the kitchen. When
Gale goes out again she filings up the
trapdOor, speaks to Mex, pulls all the
kitchen shades down. locks the doors,
and | sets down on the trapdoOr steps
n eats a pipin' hot supper; say!
Well, | reckon | drank a couple o.
quarts of coffee. Bull she says, 4
never done you no harm, did IT
Never says l, and l never done you
none, neither, did 1? And what's
more. | never will do you none Then
up and told her. Tell him. says
she, L can't get hold of a horse, nor
a pen, nor a piece Of paper-I can't
leave the house but what | am
watched every minute. They keep
track of me day and night. Tell him
she says, 4 can protect myself they
think they'll break me-make me do
what they want me to-marry-but
they can't break me, and I'll never do
it-tell him that
"'But,' says 1, that amt the whole
case, Miss Nan. What he'll ask me,
when he's borin' through he with his
eyes like the way you're Dorin' me
through with yours, is: When will you
see him-when will he see you?'
she looked worrit for a mint.
Then she looks around, grabs up the
cover Of an empty 'baccO box and a
fork and begins a-writing inside" Bull
with as much of a smile as he could
call into life from his broken nerves,
opened up his blanket, drew carefully
from an inside coat pocket an Oilskin
package, unwrapped from it the flat.
square top of a tin tobacco box, on
which Nan had scratched a message.
and handed it triumphantly to De
Spain. x..,
He read her words eagerly:
wait; don't have trouble. can
stand anything better than bloodshed.
Henry. Be patient"
While De Spain, standing close m
the lantern, deciphered the brief note
Bull, wrapping his blanket about him
with the air Of one whose r%esponsibi,.
lty is well ended, held out his hands
toward the blazing stove. De Spain
went over the words one by one. and
the letters again and again. II was
after all their months of ardent meet.
ings, the first written message he had
ever had from Nan. He famed an.
griiy at the news that she was pris-
oner IN her w home. But there was
much to weigh in her etched words.
much to think about concerning her
ieeilngs-not alone concerning his
own.
he dropped into his chair, and. Oh
hVious for a moment of his compan.
IONS presence. stared into the fire.
"hen he started from his revery Rull
was asleep. De Spain picked him up.
carried him in his blanket over 70 q
COT, cut the wet rags of him. and.
roillng MIN In a second blanket.
walked out into the barn and ordered
up a team and light wagon for Sleenv
Cat. The rain fell all night.
(To be continued)