The Coolidge examiner., 1931-07-31
CHAPTER I-Continued.

Yancey Cravat caught the word
between his teeth and spat it back
'HusSies, heb! The one behind me
in the line was a woman of forty
or looked tin a calico dress and
n sunbonnet. She had driven across
the prairie all the way from the
north of Arkansas in a springless
wagon. She was like the women
who crossed the continent to Cali
fornia in 40. A gaunt woman. with
a weather-heaten face. Rough hair.
and unlovely hands. and boots with
the mud caked on them. It's wom-
en- like her whO've made this cOun-
try what il is. You can't read
the history of the United States,
my friends. without learning the
great story of those thousands of
unnamed women-wOmen like this
one I've deScribed-women in mud
caked boots and calico dresses and
sunbOnnets. crossing the prairie and
the desert and the mountains en-
during hardship and privation.
Good women, with a terrible and
rigid goodness that comes of work
and self-denial. Nothing pictur-
esgue or romantic about them, !
suppOse-thOugh occasionally one
of them flashes-Belle Starr the
Outlaw-ROse of the Cimarron-
Jeanette Daisy who jumped from a
moving Santa Fe train to strike her
claim-but the others-no, their
Story's never really been told. But
it's there, just the same. And If
its ever told straight you'll know
Its the sunbOnnet and not the SON.
brero that has settled this coun-
try"
Talking nonsense" drawled
Felice Venable.
Yancey whirled on his high heels
10 face her, his fine eyes blazing
You're one of them You came
up from the South with your hus-
band TO make a new home in this
kansas"
Il am not !" retorted Felice Ven
able, with enormous dignity. "And
I'll thank you not to say any such
thing. Sunbonnet, indeed! I've
never worn sunbonnet in my life"
ION. mamma, Yancey didn't mean
he meant courage to leave your
home in the South and come up
hs wasn't thinking Of Yancey.
40 get on With your story Of the
Run. You got a drink of water
for dOllar-dear me land shared
II with the woman in the calico
and the Sunbonnet-"
He looked little sheepish. "Well,
matter of fact, it turned out she
didn't have dollar TO spare, or
anywhere near it, but even if she
had it wouldn't have done her any
good. The fellow selling it was a
rat-faced hOmbre with one eye and
Mexican pants. The trigger finger
of his right hand had been shot
away in some fracas or other. so
ne ladled out water with that hand
and toted his gun in his left.
Bunged up, he was, plenty. By the
time | got to him there was one
cup of water left in the bucket. He
tipped ii while | held the dipper,
and il trickled out. just an even
dlpperful. The last cup of water
on the border The crowd wait
ing in line behind me gave a kind
of sound between a grOan and q
moan. The sound you hear a herd
of COW animals give, out on the
prairie, when their tongues are
hanging out for water in the dry
spell. | tipped up the dipper and
had dOwned big mouthful-filthy
tasting stuff it was, too. Gyp wa
ter. You could feel the alkali cake
on your tongue. Well, my head
went back as | drank. and | got
one look at that woman's face Her
eyes were on me-on my throat,
where the Adams apple had Just
given that one big gulp after the
hrSt swallow. All bloodShot the
whites of her eyes. and a look in
them like a dying man looks at a
light. Her mouth was open and her
lips were all split with the heat
and the dus and the sun, and dry
and fiaky aS ashes. And then she
shut her lips little and tried to
swallow nothing. and couldn't.
Ihere wasn't any spit in her mouth
couldn't down another mouthful
parched as | was. I'd have seen
her terrible face to the last day of
my life. So | righted it. and held il
cut TO her and said. Here. sister
take the rest of it. I'm through"
Cousin JOuett Goforth essayed
his little joke. Are you right sure
she was forty. Yancey, and weather
beaten? And that about her hair
and boots and hands?"
Cravat, standing behind his wife's
chair. looked down at her: at the
fine white line that marked the
parting of her thick black hair.
With one forefinger he touched her
cheek, gently. Dead sure. Jouett.
| left out one thing, though"
Cousin Jouett made sound signify
ing, ah, l thought so. Her teeth"
Iancey Cravat went on thought
fully. Broken and discolored like