The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1931-05-22
CHAPTER Continued

The reedy voice of the sick man had
the ghostly carrying quality Of an
echo. You heard it2above the woman's
shrill clamor. mo, she isn't, Felice.
She's more like you this minute than
you are yourself. She favors those
pioneer women Yancey was telling
about in the old days. Look at her."
The venable eye. from one end of
the table to the other, turned like a
single orb in its socket toward the
young woman facing them with def
ance In her bearing. Not defiance,
perhaps, so much as resolve Seeing
her, head up, standing there beside
her husband, one arm about the child,
you saw that what her father said
was indeed true. She was her mother,
the Felice Venable Of two decades
ago; she was the woman in sunbonnet
and calico to whom Yancey had given
his cup of water; she was the woman
jolting endless miles in covered
wagons, spinning in log cabins, cook
ing over crude fires; she was all wom-
en- who have Travelled American prairie
and desert and mountain and plain.
The pioneer type, as Yancey had said.
Potentially more formidable woman
than her mother.
Seeing something of this, Felice Ven
able said again, more loudly, as though
to convince herself, "She's not to CO."
Looking more than ever like her
mother, Sabra met this stubbornly.
"But want to go, mamma"
II forbid it. You don't know what
you want. You don't know what you're
talking about. I say you'll stay here
with your mother and father in decent
civilization. I've heard enough. I
hope this will serve lesson to you,
Yancey."
Sim going back to the Nation" said
Yancey, quite pleasantly.
Sabra stiffened. I'm going with
him." The combined venables, nerves
on edge, leaped in their chairs and
: then looked at each other with some
hostility.
"And say you're not"
''But / want to CO."
you don't"
Perhaps Sabra had not realized until
now how terribly she had counted on
her husbands return as marking the
time when she would be free to leave
the Venable board, to break away from
the Venable clan; no more to be han
died, talked over, peered at by the
Venable eye-and most Of all by the
maternal Venable eye. Twenty-one,
and the yoke Of her mothers dom
nance was beginning to gall her. Now,
at her own inner rage and sickening
disappointment, all the iron in her
fused and hardened. 1t had gone less
often to the fire than the older wom-
ans had. For the first time this quail
ity in her met that of her mother, and
the metal Of the older woman bent.
II will CO." said Sabra Cravat.
If anyone had been looking at Lewis
ever thought of doing)) he could have
seen ghostly smile momentarily ir-
radiating the transparent ivory face.
But now it was Yancey Cravat who
held their fascinated eye With a
cowboy zip he swung the defiant Sabra
and the boy CHM high in the air in his
great arms-tossed them up, so that
Sabra screamed, and CHM squealed in
mingled terror and delight.
week from tomorrow" announced
Yancey, in something like a shout, so
exulting it seemed. well start on a
Monday, fresh and fair. Two wagons.
One with the printing outfit-youll
drive that, Sabra-and one with the
household goods and bedding and
camp stuff and the rest. We ought to
make 1t in nine days. Wichita !"
His glance went round the room, and
in that glance you saw not only
Wichita! but Venables! 1--WE had
enough of it, Sabra, my girl, Wen
leave all the middle-class respectable
fty of Wichita, Kan. behind us. We're
going out. by Cd, to brand new,
two-fsted, rip-snorting country, full of
Injuns and rattlesnakes and two-gun
toters and gyp water and desper-ah-
dos! Whoop-ee!"