The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1919-06-06
The Extra
Feature
BY q. b. HACKLEY


For a quarter hour only the crickets
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 mar
ry him, grandpappy. after fodder
strippin's over"
Lord, Nervy. don't vel" old To-
bias faded eyes were piteOusly be-
seeching. "Stay by us, honey. No
body feels for us old ones like you do,
Nervy!"
Minerva smiled family. Il told
lack, grandpappy, l couldn't marry
him If ma wasn't willin'. She'd drive
me off and surely mistreat you and
grandmammy If married against her
WILL"
"Was Zachariah fretted?" the grand
mother asked anxiously. Minerva
crimsoned. They must not know how
much lack was "fretted"
"He-he said he'd stay away until
7 sent for him. there's ma"
In southern Appalachia 1t is custom
airy for the aged father and mother to
live with the youngest son In the old
home. But old Tobias log dwelling
was an unusually large one-a most
desirable home, and Eliza, the wife of
the eldest son, by skillful machina-
lions contrived to get Charley, the
youngest son, and his wife, Phoebe,
away and to get her own family in
stalled.
Lazy herself, she depended almost
entirely on her young daughter, her
only child, to do the work Of the house,
and to keep her services she had de-
termined Minerva should not marry
any but some young man she could
take into her house and rule, as she
did Joshua, the girls henpecked ia
Their.
BY her orders, Zachariah Burden,
who was not the humble sort" she de-
sired 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 a guardian angel to the old
ones.
"Cryin', Jemimy?" old Tobias, sitting
smoking on their bedroom hearth that
evening, asked uneasily. Jemima
wiped her eyes
81 got to studyin' about Minervy a
waitin' on her happiness on account
of us and it worried me some, Bias !"
she confessed.
After Jemima slept, Bias still sat on
the hearth. Minerva was delicate, like
their little Hettie who had died six
teen years before, three months after
the soldier sweetheart they had not
been willing for her to marry had been
laid under Cuban palms.
Little Hettie! Little Hettie!" he
murmured. Lord, if I'd let her had
her way about Jess Duty, she might
not have pinned away! Jess, he wasn't
a bad boy-I wish 1 hadn't stood in
her way-I do wish 1t, Lord y
His pipe clattered on the ,uarth.
His heavy groans awakened Jemima.
"The pain Doc Higgins said was
from my heart, it's pinchin' little !"
he labored out his hand clutching his
chair rungs, his rugged old face
chalky.
Jemima trembled as she measured
out 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
dad caught her crying about Minerva
"You reckon you worked too hard
at the apples, BiasT she asked him
when at last she got him between the
bed covers.
mo. l got to thinkin' about our
little Hettie. l was wishin' l could
go back them sixteen years and tell
the little, lovin' thing her and Jess
might marry before he'went to the
fghtln'. Then the pain struck me-"
She patted his hands in gentle
soothing. 'Hettie and Jess wasn't
long separated, Bias, honey! The
Lord saw to that! Now try to go to
Sleep"
But 1t was long before he closed
his eyes.
"They could come and live with us
and things would be all right" Jemima
heard him murmuring over and over
in his fitful sleep, "if Eliza was will.
IMP Then once he cried out:
"She's a-goin like Hettie, Jemimy-
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 bring
on another attack, and Joel Higgins
had said two attacks close together
might kill him.
Il can find my way to Aaron Bur-
denis" she said TO herself, "some way,
dark as 1t is. I'm bound to see lack !"
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 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 nOuntainside, her old face
was shining like the eastern star.
A few days later when Eliza came