Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1941-02-14

0ote-oook, saw that his hands trem'
bled. His lips drew back little
showing his yellow teeth.
Your mill will be for sale, Viz.
gle Morgan! II it amt for sale to
day-it viii be. II will be! I don't
Agure TO be baked in what set
out to do. Not by anybody. You
better do 4 little thinking. Virgie.
You'll sell to me-reasonable-or I'll
get capital and put you out of bust
ness. Now I'll thank you for my
hat"
She had not. Virgie thought thank
fully. afterward, put him out of the
house. She had kept her temper
and she had kept her head. But
when he had gone rafting away in
his old car, she strobe the length of
the room and punched the fire saw
aEely.
THE old pea-hen! The old ant
eater! Put me out Of business, will
he, My mills falling in, is it,"
From a corner came Marian's
worried voice. He might do it,
Mother"
He might do it," virgie was
grateful for an outlet for her sizzling
wrath. He might run for Congress
he might try to blow up Whiteside
Mountain, too. But where would he
get? Nowhere! He's trying to bluff
me out - the penny-pinching old
hound dog! He's sore because he
couldn't marry my mill and get it
without putting out cent. l know
Wallace Withers. I've known him
most of his life-as well as though l
had stirred up the mud to make
him!"
But the mill is shabby, Mother.
All the metal roofing is rusty and
the mortar falling out of the bricks
and Tom has propped up the fence
in a dozen places"
Red burned in Virgie's cheeks.
Her eyes shot blue sparks.
II should spend money to fancy
up the mill on the outside when the
men aren't back on full pay yet!
When can't even discount my bills!
Your father never asked for more
than thirty days in his life-and I'm
thankful if can get anything paid
OF in ninety"
I'VE only took sixty for the new
parts for the Jordan machine, Mrs.
Morgan"
Much obliged, Lucy. Stick with
me, will you? seem to need
couple of friends"
Father" Marian persisted, "had
old-fashioned ideas-you know that,
Mother. He was too conservative
for these times"
Virgie looked up at David's pic
ture-at the straight, strong, judi
cial line of his lips, at his thoughtful,
cautious eyes. The look heartened
her, stopped the odd quivering in
her knees, the shaken cold anger
that tore at her. David was with
her. He had died but he had not
taken his spirit away from the mill.
1t walked there, stood over the blow
pits and the great digesters and
deckers, where the raw pulp was
steamed and thinned and ground
and dried-fine fiber that would one
day be milled into missais for nuns
or paper on which letters would be
written to old mothers.
She gave David a look that
reached a hand to him through this
strange gloom, this shadow which
was as fearsome and intangible as
the swoop of a hawk through the
wind.
Your fathers way was an old
fashioned way" she said, but so
are a lot of things old-fashioned.
Things like good credit and a good
name, things like fairness and hon.
or and decent dealing. They've in
vented some smart methods but
they've never invented anything that
takes the place of those old-fash-
ioned things!'
I'VE could paint the roller MILL"
suggested Lucy family. I'VE could
let the boys work on it slack days"
"And have Wallace Withers walk
BY and see that he's got us scared?
Let him build his pulp mill. I'm
not going to be stampeded into
changing my ways. Morgan pulp is
known wherever men make paper.
Nobody gives a darn il it's milled in
. pole shack with a brush roof.
It's good pulp. Lucy, you put all
this in the form Of a report. I
might want to prove some time that
Old Withers threatened me. I'm
going to call that lawyer tonight and
% over to see Tom the first thing
IN the morning and enjoin those
CROOKS from cutting that timber"
Marian stood up, slim and grave
and gallant IAN right, Mother-h
you're going to fight, wen fight with
yua."
VirGie's grimness melted and her
eyes misted briefly.
Il vs. just standing here wishing
- ths Lord that I had . son. Life
80 DEsesy thick 1ur . woman, some