St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1921-12-17

OF the NINE property. AS on most |
evenings. Jeanne sat at her corner Of /
the hearth, Knitting and I was filling
a bedtime pipe.
"Jeanie," I broke out, II wish you'd /
so good to me. How do youknow that
I'm not the crazy criminal that other
people believe me to be? I did steal
the car and get it smashed, you know"
you are not criminal and / am
sure you didn't mean 20 get the car
smashed. Besides, you had taken
shelter under our roof" -
"You are true Bedouins," I laughed.
us that the code in the West?-your
code?-to defend anybody who has eat
en- salt with you?''
II should think it would be any
body's code"
'You and your father were expecting
this man Beasley to come here look
ing for me?'
Daddy thought he might just hap
pen along. We are only four miles
from Atropia, you know"
"And was that the reason you put
the old transit at the windows
you might watch for him?"
"Of course"
BY Jove! Another woman, any 9th
er woman in the world, I thought,
would have let some little shred of
sentiment show; she couldn't have
helped it. But this one didn't.
boy couldn't have looked me in the
eyes any more frankly and squarely
than she did when she said "Of
course Since had eaten their bread,
I was, for SO long as l chose to stay,
a member of the clan.
It was near the end Of the fortnight,
and Daddy Hiram and / had secured
and rubbed and scraped and reas-
semb}ed the engine and pumps, and
were finishing the cleaning Of the boil
ers. These were pretty badly rusted
and scaled. and to do the job properly,
we had taken the manhole heads out
Of the holes left to give access to the
j interior Of the shells, and had had a
/ gocd-natured squabble as to which of
ing Daddy insisting upon doing it, be-
! cause as he pointed out, he was the
smaller man. and / arguing that |
should because l was the younger and
] stronger.
To settle it finally we tipped coin
one of those inch-wide copper pen
MES that Daddy carried for pocket
piece-and I won the toss. The job
wasn't exactly picnic, but l got along
all right until we came to the last OF
the battery. l found that the repair
ers had at some past time inserted q
couple of extra stay-rods, so that there
was little enough room left in the ole
steel shell for a professional boiler
monkey to wriggle about in, to say
nothing Of husky young chap who
tipped the beam at around hundred
and seventy pounds, stripped.
Just the same, l made shift to KNOCK
the worst of the scale off and rattle
it down so that 1t could BE washed
out from below, and was backing ou
to make my escape, when | found tina
one of the extra stay=rods was loose
At my asking, Daddy screwed up thu
nut on the outside Of the boiler heat
to tighten the rod, and then passed TIL
wrench in to me so that | could screv
up the nut on the inside. To thi
good day I don't know just what Oil
happen, but I guess the big S-Wrencl
must have slipped off the nut Will
was pulling on it. Anyhow, some
thing hit me stunning crack owe
the eye and I promptly faded out
blink, like a penny candle in gus
of wind.
+ When I came to myself again it wa
night. and I was lying undressed an
, In a real bed in room that was tota
! " unfamiliar. In the lool1ing-glas
which hung on the opposite wall | &C
a glimpse of myself with regula
Turks turban Of white stuff woun
around my head and skew-angled t
cover one eye When I stirred, JEAN
: nopped in from somewhere to ask wha
she could do for me.
"What was it?" I asked; ian eartl
quaker"
.Daddy says you hit yourself wit
a wrench. Does it hurt much now?
mot more than having a sound toot
pulled; no. But I was inside the Dol
J er, wasn't I? How did you manas
: to get me out?'
She turned her face away and eve
+ with one eye I could see that she WI
y trying to hide smile.
at was funny" she confesse
"though we were both scared stiff
the time. Daddy called me and | T;
Q over. You were all doubled up 1nsl
n of the boiler, and there wasn't roc
Daddy to crawl in and straight
e Won out. And unless you could
r. straightened out we couldn't pull y
cut"
IL II see. What did you do?-send
Al a boiler-monkey?
,e ..What is a boiler-monkeyf
is at isn't what it's man; usu
10 " the littlest man in the shop
" 81 was the monkey she said
p I tried to sit up, but the bllndl
headac he | had somehow acquired $;
De No.
you crawled into that rusty
coff1n?'
u, She nodded.
st Daddy lent me his overalis
Mt Jumper. It wasn't hard, hut Whe'
:. =. :-ana satr huw badly YOU "