Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-01-15
CHAPTER VI--Continued.

the doctor, Phoebe, and don't let NOM
mic know whatever you do. This isn't
her lumbago at all. l don't know what
it is. I wonder if a hot turpentine
cloth wouldn't be better than this? I've
a good mind to try it; her eyes are
CLASSY with fever and her skin is cold
as fish. You tell John to hurry up.
He Can ride Boxer. Tell him l want
him to get doctor here by tomorrow
noon if he has to kill his horse do
ing it,
That night took its toll Of Billy
Louise and left a scared place in her
memory. 1t was a night of swapping
fire in the cook stove that hot water
might be always ready; of tireleSs
struggle with the pain that came and
tortured, retired sullenly from Billy
Louise's stubborn fighting with pOul-
tices and turpentine cloths and every
homely remedy she had ever heard of,
and came again just when she thought
she had won the fight.
There was no time to give thought to
the trouble that had ridden home with
her, though its presence was like
black shadow behind her while she
worked and went to and fro between
bedroom and kitchen and fought that
tearing pain.
She met the dawn hollow eyed and
80 tired she could not worry very much
about anything. Her mother slept I'M
easily to prove that the battle had not
gone altogether against the girl who
had fought the night through. She had
her reward in full measure when the
doctor came, in the heat of noon, and
a~er terrible minutes of suspense for
Billy Louise while he counted pulse
and took temperature and studied
symptoms, told her that she had done
well and that she and her homely poul-
tices had held back tragedy from that
house.
Billy Louise lay down upon the couch
out on the back porch and slept heav-
lily for three hours, while Phoebe and
the doctor watched over her mother.
She woke with a start. She had been
dreaming, and the dream had taken
from her cheeks what little color her
night vigil had left. She had dreamed
that Ward was in danger, that men
were hunting him. for what he had done
at that corral. The corral seemed the
center of fight between Ward and the
men. She dreamed that he came to
her and that she must hide him away
and save him. But though she took
him to cave, which was secret enough
for her purpose, yet she could not feel
that he was safe even there. There
was something-Some menace.
Billy Louise went softly into the
house, tiptOed to the door of her moth
er's room and saw that she lay quiet,
with her eyes closed. Beside the win
dow the doctor sat with his spectacles
far down toward the end of his nose,
reading a pale green pamphlet that he
must have brought in his pocket. Phoe-
be was down by the creek washing
clothes in the shade of willow clump.
She went into her own room, still
walking on her toes. In her trunk was
a blue plush box of the kind that is
given to one at Christmas. 1t was fad
ed and the clasp was showing brassy
at the edges. Sitting upon her bed with
the box in her lap Billy Louise paved
hastily in the tumble Of keepsakes it
held; an eagles claw which she meant
some time to have mounted for q
brooch: three or four arrowheads of
the shiny, black stuff which the Indians
were said to have brought from Vel
lOwstone park; a knot of green ribbon
which she had worn to a st. Patrick's
day dance in Boise; rattleSnake rattles
of all sizes; several folded clippings
verses that had caught her fancy and
had been put away and forgotten; an
amber bead she had found once. She |
turned the box upside down in her lap
and shook it. 1t must be there-the |
thing she sought, the thing that had |
troubled her most in her dream: the |
thing that was a menace while it ex-
listed. 1t was at the very bottom of |
the box caught in a corner. She took j
II out with fingers that trembled, crum- |
pied it into little ball so that she |
could not read what ii said, straight |
ened it Immediately and read it re- |
luctantly from the beginning to the end |
where the last word was clipped short |
with haSty scissors. A paragraph cut |
from newspaper it was: yellow and |
frayed from contact with other objects, |
telling of things
Billy Louise bit her lips until they |
hurt, but she could not keep back the !
tears that came hot and singing while /
she read. She slid the little heap of /
odds and ends to the middle of the bed, !
crushed the clipping into her palm and !
went oct stealthily into the immaculate 4
kitchen. As If she were being spied |
upon she went cautiously to the stove,
lifted lid and dropped the clipping in
where the wood blazed the brightest.
She watched it flare and become moth
ing-not even a pinch Of ash IS; the
clipping was not very large. When it
was gone she put the lid back and
went tiptoeing to the door. Then she
ran.
Phoebe was down by the creek, so
Billy Louise went to the stable.
through that and on beyond. still run
Mug. Farther down was a grassy
uook-on beyond the road. She went 4
there aud hid behind the willows,
where she could cry and no one be the
wiser. But she could not cry the ache
out Of her heart nor the rebellion
against the hurt that life had given
her. II she could only have burned
memory when she burned that clip
ping! She could still believe and be
happy if only she could forget the
things it said
Phoebe called her after long while
had passed. Billy Louise bathed hes
face in the cold water of the Wolverine.