The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-10
EVENING STORY
The Extra Feature.
BY S. B. HACKLEY.


had broken the silence in the Comp
ton orchard. where old Tobias and Je-
NINA and Minerva. their granddaugh-
ter, assorted some mighty mounds of
fallen winesaps- Then Minerva spoke.
''Zack wants me to run off and
| marry him. grandpappy, after fodder
strippin's over"
Lord, Merry, don't ye!" old To-
Fbias,s faded eyes were piteously be-
seecfing. 'Stay by us, honey No
body feels for US old ones like you
do, 'Nervy!''
Minerva smiled family. 81 told lack.
grandpappy, couldn't marry him if
ma wasn't willin' Shed drive me off
nanny if I married against her will"
WAS Zachariah fretted?'' the
grandmother asked anxiously. Minerva
crimsoned. They must not know how
much lack was "frettedv'
''He-he said he'd stay away until
sent for him. there's mar
In southern Appalachia it is GUS
ton1ary for the aged father and moth
er to live with the youngest son in
their old home. But old Tobias's log
dwelling was an unusually large one
f---a nroSt4aq esirable home, and Eliza,
the wife Of the eldest son, by skillful
Vaccinations contrived to get Charley,
the youngest son, and his wife, Phoe-
| be, away and to get her own family
installed
Lazy herself, she depended almost
Ientirely on her young daughter, her
only child to do the work of the
| house. and to keep her services she
had determined Minerva should not
marry any but some young man she
could take into sher house and rule,
as she did Joshua, the girls hem
! pecked father.
1 By her orders, Zachariah Burden,
who was not the humble sort" she
desired for a son-in-law. stayed away
from the Compton house, but lack
was resourceful and managed often
to see the gentle little creature who
was like guardian angel to the old
ones.
/ "Cryin', Jemimy?'' old Bias, sitting
| smoking on their bedroom hearth
1 that evening, asked uneasify, Jemima
1 wiped her eyes,.
II got to studyin' about Minervy
i a waitin' on her happiness on account
lof US and it worried me some, Bias."
she confessed.
After Jemirna slept, Bias still sat
on, the hearth. Minerva was delicate.
| like their little Hettie who had died
| sixteenayears before, three months at
ter the soldier sweetheart they had
not been willing for her to marry
had been laid under Cuban palms.
'Iittle Hettie! Little Hettie" he
murmnred. Lord, if I'd let her had
herr way about Jess Duty, she might
not have pinned away, Jess he wasn't
a bad boy Il wish L hadn't stood in
her way-I do wish it, Lord.'
| His pipe clattered on the hearth.
His heavy groans awakened Jemima.
| 1.-The pain Doc Higgins said was
| from my heart, it's pinchin' a little!''
/ he labored out, his hands clutching
his chair rungs, his rugged old face
tchalky.
. NJemima tremb1ed as she measured
Tout the drops the young doctor had
left for him. The doctor had warned
her all worry must be kept from To-
bias, and he had worried because he
/ had caught her crying about Minerva!
"You reckon you worked to hard at
1.-THE apples, Bias?" she asked him
II when at last she got him between the
kbed and covers.
mo. T got to thinkin' about our
little Hettie- I was wishin' 1 could go
back them sixteen years and tell the
| little, lovin' thing her and Jess might
marry before he went to the fightin'.
Then the pain struck me-"
soothing. "Hettfe and Jess wasn't
long separately, Bias. honey! The
Lord saw to that!- Now try to go to
! Sleep"
/ But it was long before he closed his
eyes.
and things would be all right Je-
NINA heard him murmuring over and
over in his fitful sleep. IF Eliza was
willin'!" Then once he cried out:
like Hettie! Can't you see it?
When he was quiet again. Jemima
arose and dressed herself. If he wor-
ried himself much more he might
4 bring on another attack. and Joel Hig-
gins had said two attacks close to-
gether might kill him.
II can find my way to Aaron Bur-
den's," she said to herself. some
way. dark as it is. I'm bound to see
4 Zacki''
Two hours later she stood breath
less in the Burdens yard on the top
of the mountain. The dog slept, but
fear of him set her knees shaking.
With a trembling hand she tapped on
the. window of lacks bedroom.
Near the dawn, when lack helped
her off the gentle mule he had led
down the mountainside, her old face
was shining like the eastern sky.
A few days later when Eliza came
home from Miranda Mulliken's quilt
ing" she was consumed with wrath.
Naomi Rouse, whom she hated of all
women, had Dragged to Ran that her
daughter, Magnolia, had taken TACK
Burden away from Eliza Compton,
Minerva! Long before the fodder
pulling was done, officious neigh
bors began to predict lacks early
marriage to Magnolia.
Minerva dropped visibly. Her
grandfather fretted.
i "Jemimy. amt she takin' it to heart
too much? Lemme give her a hint
it's just play-actin'!"
Jemima shook her head smiling.
Don't worry about Merry. She'll
come out all right. lack don't want
I her told until the shaw day and that
amt long off Biast"
The circus coming to Caneyville
had advertised a prize, of $40 in gold
to be given to the young woman not
afraid and willing to be married on
an elephants back in their ring,
which advertisement doubled and
tripIed the size of the attending crowd
on the show day"
Early that morning lack Burden s
two minutes passed the Compton wag-
en-, en- route to Caneyville. lack rode
one mule. Magnolia Rouse the other.
Eliza could not restrain look of dis
pleasure