The Coolidge examiner., 1931-09-25
CHAPTER VI

was Ieuueu, uuTIUS HeT dCCUuCUe-
ment, by the best doctor in the
county and certainly the most pic
tureSque man of medicine in the
whole Southwest. DR.. Don Valiant.
Like thousands of others living in
this new country, his past was his
own secret. 1t was known that he
often vanished for days, leaving
the sick TO get on as best they
could. He would reappear as in
explicably as he had vanished and
his horse was jaded. Ii was no
secret that he was often called to
attend the bandits when one of
their number, wounded in some
outlaw raid. had taken to their
hiding place in the hills. He was
tender and deft with Sabra, though
between them he and Yancey con-
sumed an Incredible quantity of
whisky during the racking hours of
her confinement. AT the end he
held up a caterwauling morsel of
flesh torn from Sabra's fiesh-a
thing perfect of its kind, with an
astonishing mop of black hair
This is a Spanish beauty you
have for a daughter, Yancey.
present to you Senorita Donna
Cravat."
And Donna Cravat she remained
The town, somewhat ScandaliZed.
thought she had been named after
Doctor Don himself. Besides. they
did not consider Donna a name al
ALL
that bed something in her had
crystalliZed. Perhaps it was that,
for the first time In a year, she
had had hours in which to rest her
tired limbs; perhaps the ordeal it
self worked psychic as well as a
physical change in her; it might
have been that she realized she
must cut new pattern in this Ok
lahoma life of theirs. The boy
Gin might surmount it; the girl
Donna never. During the hours
through which she had lain in her
bed in the sitting wooden shack,
mists seemed to have rolled away
from before her eyes. She saw
clearly. She felt light and terribly
capable-so much so that she made
the mistake of getting up, diZzily
donning slipper and wrapper, and
tottering into the newspaper office
where Yancey was writing an edi.
torial and shouting choice passages
of it into the inattentive ear of
Jesse Hickey, who was setting type
in the printing shop.
the most stupendous farce
ever conceived by the mind of man
in a civilized country. :"
He looked up to see in the door.
way wrath, all eyes and long
black braids. "Why. Sugarl What's
this? You can't get up!"
She smiled rather feebly. I'm
up. felt so light, So"
Il should think you would. All
that physic."
81 feel so strong. I'm going to
do so many things. You'll see. Pm
going TO paper the whole house.
RoSebuds in the bedroom. I'm GO
ing to plant two trees in the front.
I'm going to start another club
not like the Philomathean-I think
that's silly now-but one TO make
this town no saloons e.
women like that Dixie Lee E.
going to have a real hired girl as
soon as the newspaper begins to
feel so queer . Yam
AS she began to topple. Yancey
caught the Usage Joan of Arc in
his arms.
Incredibly enough. she actually
did paper the entire house, aided
by Isaiah and Jesse Hickey. Isa-
iah's ebony cOuntenance splashed
with the white paste mixture made
a bizarre effect, a trife startling
to anyone coming upon the scene
unawareS. Also Jesse Rickey's in
ebriate eye, which so often result
ed in many groteSque pied print
lines appearing in unexpected and
incopvenient places in the Okla
homa Wigwam columns. was none
too dependable in the matching of
rosebud patterns. The result. in
spots. was Burkankian. with roses
grated on leaves and tendrils
emerging from petals. Still, the eff
feet was gay. even luxurious. The
Philomathean Grub. as one woman,
fell upon wall paper and paste pot.
as they had upon the covered jars
in Sabras earlier effort at decOra-
ton. Within a month Louie Hef-
ner was compelled to install a full
line of wall paper to satisfy the
local demand.
Slowly, slowly, the life of the
community, in the beginning so
wild, so unrelated in its parts. be-
gan to weave in and out, warp and
woof, to make pattern. 1t was at
first faint, almost undiscernible.
But presently the eye could trace
here motif, there a figure, here a
motif, there a figure. The shuttle
swept back, forward. back. for.
ward.
Its almost time for the jew"
Sabra would say, looking up from
her sewing. Il need some number
forty sewing needless"
And then perhaps next day, or
the day after, Gin, playing in the
ward, would see a familiar figure.
bent almost double, gnomelike and
| grotesque, against the western sky.
1t was Sol Levy. the peddler. the
Alsatian Jew.