The Coolidge examiner., 1931-08-07

1t was hot and still and drowsy.
Noon came with surprising swift
ness. They had brought along
precious keg of water and a food
supply sufficient, they thought, TO
last through most of the trip-salt
pork, mince and apple pies, bread,
doughnuts - but their appetites
were enormous. AT midday they
stopped and ate in the shade. Sabra
prepared the meal while Yancey
tended the horses. Cim. wide awake
now and refreshed, ate largely with
them of the fried salt pork and po-
| tatoes, the hard-boiled eggs. the
mince pie. 1t was all very gay
and comfortable and relaxed. Short
as the morning had been, the after
noon stretched out, somehow, end
less. Sabra began to be horribly
tired. cramped. The boy whim-
pered. 1t was mid-afternoon and
hot; it was late afternoon; then
the brilliant western sunset began
to paint the sky. Yancey, in the
wagon ahead, drew up, gazed about,
got out, tied his team to one of a
clump of cottOnwoods.
We'll camp here" he called to
Sabra and came toward her wagon.
boy. She was stiff, utterly weary.
She stared down at him, duly, then
around the landscape.
"Camp?"
"Yes. For the night. Come.
Cim." He lifted the boy down with
great swoOp.
you mean for the night? Sleep
here?"
He was quite matter-of-fact.
yes, It's a fine place. Water and
trees. I'll have a fire before you
can say Jack Robinson. Where'd
you think you were going to sleep?
Back homer"
Somehow she had not thought.
She had not believed it. To sleep
out of doors like this, in the open,
with only wagon top as roof! All
her neat conventional life she had
slept in a four-pOster bed with a
dotted Swiss canopy and net cur
tains and linen sheets that smelled
! sweetly of the sun and the air.
Yancey began to make camp. AL
ready the duties of this new man.
ner of living had become familiar.
There was wood to gather, fire to
start, water to be boiled. Cim, very
wide awake now. trotted after his
father, after his mother. Meat be-
gan to sizzle appetizingly in the
pan. The exquisite scent of cOf-
fee revived them with its promise
of stimulation.
''That roll of carpet" called
Sabra, busy at the fire, to Yancey
at the wagon. "Under the seat. |
want Gin TO sit on it ground
may be damp.
A sudden shout from Yancey. A
squeal of terror from the bundle of
carpeting in his arms-a bundle
that suddenly was alive and wrig-
CLING. Yancey dropped it with an
oath. The bundle lay on the
ground a moment, heaving, then
it began to unroll itself while the
three regarded it with starting
eyes. A black paw, a wOolly head,
face all open mouth and white
, of eyes. Black Isaiah. He had
found a way to come with them
to the Indian territory.
By noon next day they were won
dering how they had got on at all
without him. He gathered wood.
He started fires. He tended Gin
like nurse, playing with him. sang
to him, helped put him to bed,
slept anywhere. like a little dog.
Yancey pointed out the definite
ness with which the land changed
when they left Kansas and came
into the Oklahoma country. okla
homa," he explained to Gin.
That's Choctaw. Okla-people.
Humma-red. Red people. That's
what they called it when the In
dians came here to live"
Suddenly the land. too, had
become red: red clay as far as
the eye could see. When the trail
led through a cleft in a hill the
blood red of the clay on either
side was like gaping wound.
Sabra shrank from it. Its glare
scared the eyeballs.
1t was a hard trip for the child
He was by turns unruly and list
less. He could not run about, ex-
cept when they stopped to make
camp. Sabra. curiOusly enough,
had not the gift of amusing him
as Yancey had, or even Isaiah.
Isaiah told him tales that were
negro folklore, handed down by
word of mouth through the years.
Often the days were gay enough.
They fell into the routine, adjust
ed themselves to the discomfort.
Sabra got ont the sunbOnnet which
one of the less formidable Ven
abes had jOkingly given her at
parting, and this she wore to shield
her eyes from the pitiless glare of
sky and plain. The sight of her
in that prairie wilderness engaged
in the domestic task of beating up
a bowl of biscuit dough struck no
one as being incOngruOuS. The
bread supply was early exhausted
She baked in a little portable tin
oven that Yancey had fitted out for
her.
AS for Yancey himself, Sabra had
never known him so happy. He
was tireless, charming. varied She
was fascinated by his tales Of hid
den mines, of Spanish dOubloons,
| oF ir0p oboctc pIOUp6 nm hV some