Polk County news. [volume] (Benton, Tenn.) 191?-1983, 1921-09-01

come accustomed 10 wearing useless
shoes and stockings In warm weather
When she had ea'hed the loot OF
the mountain. she didn't take the by
path her people had been wont to use
in order that they might avoid con-
tact with the MOrelands. There was
no need of avoiding contact with the
Morelands now, thank goodnessi
Then a voice hailed her from the
laurels out at her right, the voice she
loved better than any other
Hello, Miss LlttlefOrd"
Babe stopped and faced him, and
she blushed furiously when she saw
him. He was coming rapidly toward
her with his hat in his hand, and his
brown hair was rumpled and damp
with Precipitation. She saw that he
was in boots and corduroys, the cloth
ing of a timber-jack, and he looked
bigger in them; about his waist there
was a cartridge-belt. from which hung
big and dependable looking revolver
in q leathern holster.
Hello. Mister Dale" she mimcked.
He shook her hand, then he dropped
to a moss-cOvered log that lay beside
| the narrow trail.
"Sit down here beside me-" he said |;
and he added: I've been going hard
all day, and I'm pretty tired"
She let fall her bundle and her
shoes and stockings, and obeyed
"Why did you come back, Babe?" he
asked as though he were displeased.
"'Cause," she answered-and she
corrected herself quickly, II mean be-
cause"
"NO reason whatever" smiled Dale.
"Well," and her clear brown eyes
looked at him squarely, Il come back
because yore mother she said | would
be burden to Mis- McLaurin, that's
why"
Mrs. McLaurin," said Dale; mot
Mis- McLaurin."
"A burden to Mrs. McLaurin, and
amt a-goin' to be burden to no
body" vehemently. In softer voice,
she went on, Mrs. McLaurin and her
husband and her folks has done made
up friendly, Bill Dale. Mrs. McLau-
rims pap-I mean her father-he
brung 'em a big lot O. silver
things.
"Bill Dale, / had asbig time Every
body liked me but fbre own maw-I
mean yore mothes My goodness
gracious-they dress SEful fine, don't
they? Why, silk aGft nothin'. But
'whar all O. their money comes from,
shore CANT see. Say, showed some
o. Pats friends how to dance our old
hill dances, and the. whole town was
crazy about 'em why i left. Jimmy
Fayne is awful good rakin' and rich,
amt he, Bill? He j "a me better'n
any of 'em, less itswas Pat herself.
You know Jimmy, don't We, Bill?"
Dale nodded, frowned, and turned
his sober gaze toward the toes of his
high laced boots. Yes, he knew Jimmy
Fayne, and he held him in contempt
The pampered son of wealthy cotton
speculator, weak, devoted to high
nights, remarkably handsome to ro-
mantle and unsophisticated girls but
not to men and women who had cut
their Observation-Disclosures was Jimmy
Fayne.
Babe Littleford was speaking again:
II 'cided to come back here, Bill
Dale, because l thought they might
need me here as well as because l was
afeard / would be burden to Pat-I
mean afraid l would be burden to
Pat. Seems like CANT talk proper
at all I've tried and tried. I've spent
half o. my time jest a-tryin' to talk
proper. Pat, she'd put down words
mustn't say on sheet O. paper, and
I'd study 'em. Afeard, shore, pap,
cause, amt, haint--and all o. them.
And she'd put down the right words
with 'em SOS I'd know.
"Yore mother was the last to come
to see me, Bill. so this she says to
Pat, is the barbarian princess" /
didn't know what that meant, but i
'spect it's somethin' bad. went into
the house, because | didn't want ito
say anything, and her yore own moth
er. But / listened, and l heard her |
say the rest. and this is 1t:
"'What will you do when the IN in
innovation wears off. Patricia?' she
says. She'll be burden to you,
Patricia; you'll have half-savage
person tagging after you, like lady
bearl
THAT'S what 1t was she said. Bill
Dale. I'm shore they do need
rue here, and ] ak We this, Bill Dale:
Are you sorry to see me come backf"
perhaps they do need you" Dale
slowly stripped the, tiny leaves from a
fern. "But that Is not sufficient rea-