The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1934-07-20

NJ, 1eAoell, only a mOnCn ago
Flease have her drink a quart Of
MIX every day. Get it from Sam
barrett. He has his cows tested.
MY love,
JESSIE"
ror a long minute more CaSs Odom
knelt there. Not a word, not a ques-
ZION concerning the sun machine! Jes-
sic never had believed in it because It
not strong enough to pump water
K a windmill, or run a circular saw
Tor cutting firewood.
NOW came fierce longing, heart-ache
!or tne woman he had never ceased to
!ove. Shame, too. Anguished, irrepres-
slple nope for success, for a favorable
report from the damn-Yankee engin-
eer VINO had promised to examine the
machine.
II he could only patent it and sell it!
MACE on a grand scale, he figured that
IL could furnish power at little cost,
q Door to all regions devoid of natural
waterpower.
Cass Odom had no dream Of wealth,
no longing for it-except as it might
redeem him in the eyes of his wife.
Eleven days till the promised visit
70 Stratton, the damn-Yank engineer.
ihrough that length Of time Nancy
would have to make the best of things,
1or Jessie's sake. And, good Lord, Jes-
sic herself in a smelly ward Of some
cnarity hospital! Evidently Jessie had
not been able to go to a private in
Urinary Since the war the pay of
railroad stenographers had dropped and
dropped. Even Jessie, an expert at her
JOB, probably had not been making
more than fourteen or fifteen dollars a
week
Bllndly Cass Odom prayed that he
might be able to realize something up
on the sun machine, an amount which
at the very least would suffice to keep
Jessie in comfort through convalesc-
ence
Nancy eyed the implanted shack with
wondering disfavor The tiny room up
at Montgomery used by her mother and
herself had been in a big brick building
with many windows This looked like
a decrepit barn.
cts not fixed up-sorry," said Cass
gruffly
Nancy entered The bare, disheveled
interior slmote her as an actual shock.
She fell back a step toward the open
door. Her lip quivered.
20, daddy!" she cried, appalled,. do
you-did Mcms-come from-ever live
here?"
eyes, both Of us-honey." Strange,
how difficult it was to utter a term of
endearment! "Just you sit down now
and rest. The bed in there is the one
you'll have. It'll rig up a cot or some
thing out here"
Mechanically the little girl obeyed,
hanging her sailor hat on the only
chair and taking a faltering step to-
ward the bedroom. Then her blue eyes
filled. Homesickness and loneliness
for Mons swept yer her.
Cass Odom scowled, though not at
the child. He failed to notice Nancy's
surrender to tears. Remembering an
adjuration of Jessie's letter, he snatch
ed up a tin pail, rinsed it from another
bucket, and strobe out of the door.
In the bare, CRASHES yard he moved
aimlessly, an odd furtiveness coming
into his manner. Milk for Nancy! In
the pocket of his overalls lay exactly
eight cents, his entire capital. Pos
sibly this might provide one days ra-
ton; but then would come another day,
and another :.
He knew, however, that Sam Bar
rett had a fresh COW over in the south
pasture. One quart a day never would
be missed. Sinking like a convicted
felon, Cass Odom made for the brushy
shelter of the branch and the pasture
beyond.
Day followed day, and each was
ceaseless striving. One evening the
solemn, gaunt man came with pen and
ink and a ruled tablet of paper, ask
ing that Nancy write to her mother.
The child, wan and quiet, sat down
before the smoky lamp. It was queer,
perhaps, but loyalty and an aching
heart-hungriness for love caused her to
paint the drab vista Of life in the ram
shackle shanty in roseate colors. She
put words of endearment and optimism
into the trap mouth Of the father who
never seemed to have time to talk. She
said not a word of the hardships which
she had faced from the first.
Cass Odom took the finished letter.
He added a constrained postscript, as
Suring Jessie that he would ARE for the
little girl as well as he was able, and
Offering an awkward prayer for his wife
in her lone battle through the shadows,
Then he went out to the road and in