The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-05-15

around. The girl had mounted my
mustang. She was off toward the
creek section. Before / had moved
ten PAGES she had reached the very
piece / had marked in my mind for
my own. She leaped from the horse,
ripped off her skirt, tied it to her
riding whip that she still held tight In
her hand, dug the whip butt into the
soil Of the prairie-planted her flag
and the land was hers by right Of
claim"
Yancey Cravat stopped talking
There was moment Of stricken
silence. Sabra Gravel staring, staring
at her husband with great round eyes,
Lewis Venable, limp, yellow, tremulous.
Felice Venable, upright and quivering
It was she who spoke first. And when
she did she vase every inch the thrifty
descendant of French forbears; moth
ing of the southern belle about her.
"Yancey Cravat, do you mean that
you let her have your quarter section
on the creek that you had gone to
the Indian territory for That you
had been gone month for! That
you had left your wife and child for
That"
snow, mammaI' You saw that all
the venable in Sabra was summoned
to keep the tears from her eyes, and
that thus denied they had crowded
themselves into her trembling voice.
"Now, mammal"
"Don't you now mamma me! What
of the land that you were to have
hadl 1t was bad enough to think of
your going to that wilderness, but
to-" She paused. Her voice took on
new and more sinister note. II
don't believe word of it." She
whirled on Yancey, her black eyes
blazing. "Why did you let that troll
lop in the black tights have that
landY'
Yancey regarded this question with
considerable judicial calm, but Felice,
knowing him, might have been warned
by the way his great head was low
cred like that Of a charging bull
buffalo.
IF it had been a man I could have
shot him. A good many had to, to
keep the land they'd run fairly for.
But you can't shoot woman"
"Why not" demanded the erstwhile
southern belle, sharply.
The Venables, as one man, gave a
little jump. A nervous sound, that
was half gasp and half shocked litter,
went round the Venable board. A
startled "Felice!" was wrung from
Lewis venable. "Why, mammal said
Sabra.
Yancey Cravat, enormously vital,
felt rising within him the tide of ir-
rftability which this vitiated family al
ways stirred in him. Something now
about their shocked and staring faces,
their lolling and graceful forms,
reused in him an unreasoning rebel
lion. He suddenly hated them. He
wanted to be free Of them. He wanted
to be free of them-of Wichita-of
conventional smooth custom-of-
no, not of her. He now smiled his
brilliant sweet smile which alone
should have warned Felice Ven
able. But that intrepid matriarch was
not one to let a tale go unpointed.
"Tm mighty pleased. for one, that it
turned out as it did. Do you suppose
I'd have allowed daughter of mine
"a venable-to go traipsing down
into, the wilderness to live among
drunken one-legged plainsmen, and
toothless scrags in calico, and trollops
in tights! Never! It's over now, and
a mighty good thing, too. Perhaps
now, Yancey, you'll stop this ramping
ups and down and be content to run
that newspaper Of yours and conduct
your law practice-such as 1t is
with no more talk of this Indian ter
ritory. A daughter of mine in boots
and calico and sunbonnet, if you
please, a-pioneering among savages
Reared as she was! No, indeed"