Woman's enterprise., 1922-10-01

Gay now.
The girl looked around in sudde
. fear at the horseman. "Servin' sun
, mons % she asked, nervously.
"Yaas, an would'en be much too
down if he didn't have one fur yol
fur heard 'em say down on the Ben
that you'd be the main witness gins
Buck, an if you knowed ennythin
it would all come out then, when yo
took ther OATH She crouched clos
to him as if warding off blow, an
he added, "but it's a good long wa
! fur him to travel with the summon:
an he er passin' the witness on the
road will sorter hamper him. !
seemed as if he wanted Amanda t
know she had brief respite.
She drew her breath with chok
ing sort of sound and began to spea
hurriedly and in an imploring way:
yer see ther night of the ball OF
the Bend I promised to marry Buck
an | amt never took my word back
Uncle John. l call to mind ther tun,
yer was er playin' on yer fiddle, i
was the old Hen Cacklin',' when
give him my word to marry him.
wus thinkin' I'd marry him now, e7
he's in trouble, an'-an'-' she broke
out passionately, "I'd ruther die thar
marry him now, sence the killin', but
I'd ruther marry him than witness
'g'inst him." she burst into wild sobs
that were relief to the tense nerves
and excited brain.
"Don't give way, Amanda, my
child, ther' amt no use takin' on
so,' the old man said, consolingly.
He understood why she was averse to
testifying against Buck; he had felt
all along that she knew more than
she would acknowledge, and he re-
solved to help her carry out her plan,
though his simple mind could not
grasp the magnitude of the step she
contemplated. 1t seemed the right
thing for her to do, to save her lover,
but from another point of view it
looked hard for girl to marry a
man accused of the murder of her
brother, and he believed now that
knew positively that Buck
had been her brothers slayer. Still
1e reasoned it out to himself as he
rode along, and Amanda sobbed by
his side.
"1ke would'er been killed by some-
'ody else, for he wus powerful can
an picked fuss 'thout
much warnin', so it would er come
ooner or later" he soliloquized, "but
wus pity that Buck wus Amanda's
'eau."
The square in front of the shabby
ourt house was grown up in bitter
veeds, and the same aromatic growth
ringed the narrow street that ran
through the centre of the dull little
own Of c., whose principal claims
o notice was that it was the parish
eat and court convened there. The
treet lay between two hills on which
he unpainted stores, delapidated
wellings seemed to hang despairing-
Y. Cottonwood trees grew along the
ugged sidewalk, and their silver
White foliage but intensified the glare
# the summer sun upon the white
andy street and yards, instead of
erving their legitimate purpose of |
hade trees. The most pretentious |
uilding in the place was a new Jail, |
uilt Of brick, and the inhabitants of |
- were filed with justiiable pride |
n this evidence of municipal gran
eur.
Amanda shuddered and covered
er eyes with her hands when she
rst saw the iron barred windows, as
wishing to shut out the vision of
Ter lovers face behind those bars.
'hough incarcerated in the parish Jail
Suck was not behind the bars, as
amanda had so sadly pictured. En-
Dying the lax rules usual in country
risons, he was in the Jail yard in
with the jailer, and the
ostmaster, whose office was next
oor, had dropped in with one or two
theirs in a sociable way. They were
iscussing animatedly horse-tradine
onvention, an institution peculiar to
ONE sections of North Louisiana, and
nown locally as a "horse swapping
onvention.' The jailer was relating
18th gusto his personal experience at I
ne swappin'.' How he started int.
ding claybank pony, and had five ,
ollars and twenty cents in his pock- ,
!, and he traded horses fifteen times.
"ning everything on the ground at q
'me time during the day, and at SUM-
own he traded his last possession, g
! eleven year-old snrrel horro ,lo,r