White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1931-07-02
CHAPTER Continued

The reedy voice Of the sick man had
the ghostly carrying quality Of an
echo. You heard it above the woman's
shrill clamor. "No, she isn't, Felice.
She's more like you this minute than
you are yourself. She favors those
pioneer women Yancey was telling
about in the old days. Look at her."
The venable eye, from one end Of
the table to the other, turned like a
single orb in its socket toward the
young woman facing them with def
ance in her bearing Not defiance,
perhaps, SO much as resolve Seeing
her, head up, standing there beside
her husband, one arm about the child,
you saw that what her father said
was indeed true. She was her mother,
the Felice Venable Of two decades
ago; she was the woman in sunbonnet
and calico to whom Yancey had given
his cup Of water; she was the woman
jolting endless miles in covered
wagons, spinning in log cabins, cook
ing over crude fires; she was all wom-
en- who have Travelled American prairie
and desert and mountain and plain.
The pioneer type, as Yancey had said.
Potentially more formidable woman
than her mother.
Seeing something Of this, Felice Ven
able said again, more loudly, as though
to convince herself, "She's not to CO."
Looking more than ever like her
ef,1 hhnr II,
"But want to go, mamma"
II forbid 1t. You don't know what
you want. You don't know what you're
talking about. say you'll stay here
with your mother and father in decent
civilization. I've heard enough.
hope this will serve a lesson to you,
Yancey."
"I'm going back to the Nation" said
Yancey, quite pleasantly.
Sabra stiffened. I'm going with
him" The combined venables, nerves
on edge, leaped in their chairs and
then looked at each other with some
hostility.
"And I say you're not"
"But want to CO."
''You don't"
Perhaps Sabra had not realized until
now how terribly she had counted on
her husbands return as marking the
time when she would be free to leave
the Venable board, to break away from
the venable clan; no more to be han
died, talked over, peered at by the
venable eye-and most Of all by the
maternal venable eye. Twenty-one,
and the yoke Of her mothers dom
nance was beginning to gall her. Now,
at her own inner rage and sickening
disappointment, all the iron In her
fused and hardened. It had gone less
often to the fire than the older WON
ans had. For the first time this quail
ity in her met that of her mother, and
the metal of the older woman bent.
81 will CO." said Sabra Cravat.
II anyone had been looking at Lewis
venable at that moment (Which no one
ever thought Of doing)) he could have
seen a ghostly smile momentarily ir
radiating the transparent ivory face
But now it was Yancey Cravat who
held their fascinated eye. With {
cowboy zip he swung the defiant Sabre
and the boy Gin high in the air in hi!
great arms-tossed them up, so tina
Sabra screamed, and Gin squealed IL
mingled terror and delight.
week from tomorrow" announced
Yancey, in something like shout, 81
exulting it seemed. well start on {
Monday, fresh and fair. Two wagons
One with the printing outft-you'l
drive that, sabra-and one with thu
household goods and bedding ant
camp stuff and the rest. We ought t.
make 1t In nine days. Wichita !!
His glance went round the room. ant
in that glance you saw not onl.
Wichita! but venables! 1--WE hat
enough OF it, Sabra, my girl, wei
leave all the middle-class respectable
ity of Wichita, Kan, behind us. Weir
going out, by Cd, to brand new
two-hsted, rip-snorting country, full o
Iniuns and rattlesnakes and two-gul
toters and gyp water and desper-ah
dosl Whoop-ee"
HAApTER III