The Monmouth inquirer., 1925-08-06


tell me what you go over yonder for
every night?'
TITS none of your business"
"Never said it was You go into the
dark-you come back lookin' plagued.
"Shut up"
~ won't"
''Well, then, ! was cryin'. cryin' be-
cause was blamed tired, cryin like
kid because I'd been fifteen hours on
my legs"
The speaker glowered into the FIRE.
The nature of his confession accorded
i'll with his appearance. A creature
dark with the sun and tormented by
the winds, his powerful muscles knot
ted and strained by agonies Of labor,
his black hair hanging over his SOM
Der eyes, his suit of khaki as weather
stained as his COMPASSIONATE seemed
the incarnation of mans struggle with
a bowling, hostile wilderness, a dry,
burning, cactus-covered, tarantula-in-
tested eternity of desert.
His fellow engineer, handsome boy
from the East, still unexhausted by
the country, refused to accept the ex-
PLANTATION of fatigue from the embodied
dynamo opposite to him. Letter had
brought something to the camp, Shell
don conjectured, that jumped out of
the dark and clutched his throat in
those leisure moments toward mid
night when the two fellow workers,
having dined on canned salmon and
stale bread, sat shivering together by
their fire, too tired to sleep, to quarrel,
to argue, to read to do anything but
wonder what inadvertence of deity had
created that country. Each was
plagued by it to the limit of his en-
durance, but young Sheldon had no in
terror inferno to deal with into the
bargain. Letter, he suspected, had
"Crying that does you good bel
low night after night when I've turned
in. below for my mummie-for
broiled steak-one night even bel
lowed for the subway, was so lone
some. My idea of heaven that night
was just to be packed in subway
train in the five-thirty crush and smell
that subway air But you-you're
cryin' for something different"
Letter drew in his breath with a
shuddering sigh.
And then Sheldon risked being shot.
TEL me about her"
He expected to hear the click of
Letters rife. but the dark image by
the fire sat motionless. Then he spoke
as If every word tore him.
God. l will I've got to. I've been
alone with it for year now"
TELL it, Letter, just tell it, Sheldon
urged.
.Was you ever married?" Letter
asked in a queer. humble voice, utter
ly unlike that in which he Numbered
at his men.
"Neverl I've wanted to be" Shell
don answered hopefully, that the note
of sympathy might not be lost.
There's a girl in Brooklyn"
Letter went on as if he had not
heard.
II was Twin in the East for spell
when met hera quiet little woman
and one of those steady men they
breed there was courtin' her She
ought to have married him; he hadn't
any wild blood, nor rovin' blood. He
couldn't have rove beyond the corner
grocery, but he probably would have
made her a good husband. Anyways,
he was after her when / come along.
sailed in an took her. She was the
first woman I'd ever wanted to marry,
and l kind o. frightened her into it,
bullied her, held her upl That's where
] made my mistake. You can't lasso
your wife. like she was cattle.
"She was always sort o. timid with
me- She didn't say much and used
to think she took it out in cookin'. She
was an awful good cook. But some
how. she didn't seem happy, and then
that other man used to drop in, just
to show her, guess. what she'd
missed.
II gave her all the rope she wanted,
though ! was burnin' up with jealousy
some days, and restless, too, wantin'
to go back West. Seemed like l hadn't
elbow room in that little town.
I'm gettin' to the point came
home one night late. There was a sup
per keepin' hot for me in the kitchen,
the table set for one. the lamp lighted
on it, and under the lamp note 1t
said:
~I'm not the wife for you. Jim.
Don't look for me-
II don't know what did for while.
Next thing knew l was stridin' down
the road to the depot. talking to my
self talked to myself all the way
West. ! guess, for nearly got locked
up. What they did to the house,
don't know to this day. Ileft it just
as it was, with the supper in the oven
and the lamp lighted. tore up her
te-that was alto keep their
tongues from Vaughn"
sheldon gazed into the fire. He pic
tfred the little wife, young and slim
and fresh-cheeked. shrinking from her
t1,.,,o 40 ~ :, husband altar ,xya-