The Coolidge examiner., 1931-08-28
CHAPTER III-Continued

CHAPTER III-Continued
8
"Oh, barrels" she now repeated,
trying to appear intensely prac-
teal. We'll, let-me-see. There's
cooking, of course, and all the
cleaning around the house, and
drinking, and bathing. always
give Gin his bath in the evening If
| can. You wouldn't believe how
dirty that child gets by the end of
the day Well. | should think ten
barrels day would be enough"
Ten barrels" said Doc Nisbett,
in fiat voice utterly devoid of
expression. "a day."
II should think that would be
ample" Sabra repeated, judi
ciOuSly.
Doc Nisbett now regarded Sabra
with a look of active dislike. Then
he did a strange thing. He walked
across the little porch, shut the
front door, locked it, put the key
in his pocket, seated himself in
the chair and tilted 1t up against
the wall at exactly the angle at
which they bad come upon him.
Sabra stood there. Seeing her,
ii would have been almost impOs-
sible 10 believe that anyone so
bravely decked out in silk and
plumeS and pink roses could pre-
sent a figure so bewildered, so dis
cOnsolate. so defeated. Literally.
she did NOT know what to do. She
had met and surmounted many
strange experiences in these last
ten days. But she had been born
of generations of women to whom
men had paid homage. Perhaps in
all her life she had never encOun-
tered the slightest discOurtesy in
man. much less this abysmal boor-
ishneSS.
She looked at him, her face
white. shocked. She looked up, in
embarrassment, at the glaring steel
sky; she looked down at the blind
ing red dust. she looked helpIessly
in the direction that Yancey had
so blithely taken. She glanced
again at Doc Nisbett, prOpped so
wOodenly against the wall of his
hateful house. She should. of
course. have gone straight up to
him and said: do you mean that
ten barrels are too much? | didn't
know. | am new at all this. What
ever you say"
But she was young, and ineXpe-
rienced. and full of pride. and ter
ribly offended. So without anoth-
er word she turned and marched
down the dusty street. Her head
in its pumed hat was high On
either cheek burned scarlet patch.
Her eyes, in her effort to keep back
the hot tears, were blazing, liquid.
enormous She saw nothing.
From Doc Nisbett. Yancey re-
ceived laconic information to the
effect that the house had been rent
ed by a family whose aquatic de
mands were more modest than
Sabra's. Sabra was incOnsOlable,
but Yancey did not once reproach
her for her mistake. Ii was char
acteriStic of him that he was most
charming and considerate in crises
which might have been expected
to infuriate him. "Never mind,
sugar. Don't take on like that.
Well find house. And. anyway,
we're here. That's the main thing"
He stretched his mighty arms.
shook himself like a great shaggy
lion. In all this welter of red clay
and Indians and shirt sleeves and
tobacco juice and drought he
seemed to find a beauty and an ex-
hlaratiOn that eluded Sabra quite.
But then Sabra. after those first
two days. had ceased to search for
a reason for anything. She met
and accepted the most grOtesque,
the most fantastic happenings.
When she looked back on the
things she had done and the things
she had said in the first few hours
of her Oklahoma experience it was
as though she were tolerantly re-
garding the naivetes of a child
Ten barrels of water a dayl She
knew now that water, in this burn
ing land. was precious thing.
Life here was an anachrOniSm,
great crude joke 1t was hard to
realize that while the rest of the
United States. in this year of 1889.
was living cOnventiOnally civil
lied and primly Victorian existence,
in which plumbing, gaslight, trees,
gardens. books. laws. millinery.
Sunday churchgOing, were taken
for granted. here in this Okla
homa country life had been set
back according to the frontier
standards of half century earlier.
Literally she was pioneering in
wilderness surrounded but un-
touched by civilization.
Yancey had reverted. Always
even in his staidest Wichita in
carnation-a somewhat incredibly
romantic figure, he now was re-
mGrkable even in this town of fan
tastic humans gathered from every
corner of the brilliantly picturesque
Southwest. His towering form, his
curling locks. his massive head. his
vibrant voice, his dashing dress. his
tiorid speech. his magnetic person
ality drew attention wherever he
went. On the day following their
arrival Yancey had taken from his