Evening star., 1941-10-26
II Short Story Complete IN This Issue

tive glance at what sat beside him in the
wagon but mainly he glued his eyes to the
front, pretending the team was needing all
his attention.
Chancellor's store had sunk into the mes
quite behind them before he could muster
the courage to utter word.
'Howdy, Mrs. Buckman" He tried to say
it offhand, but his voice sort of exploded in
his face. His ears felt big and red.
Her eyes, beneath her bonnet, turned
toward him, then swiftly away. 1T sounds
real nice, doesn't it," Sarah's slender fingers
lay still in her lap. The plain gold ring stood
out prominently against the demure gray of
her hoop dress.
She was, Cebe realized, as scared and fut-
terry as himself. That emboldened him. He
now inspected her with more discernment.
He had been too muddled-up back there at
the settlement to take note of details. He
hadn't known whether he was afoot or flying,
from the time she got off the stage until they
were standing before the parson
Her hair, where it showed beneath the
bonnet, was glossy chestnut. Her mouth
was not small, and her lips were pressed to-
gether to Offset the tendency to tremble.
Her cheeks were mite thin, but in any
event girl with eyes like hers could never
be called plain. They were amber, and bigger
than they appeared in the tintype she had
sent him. Cebe's eyes were we'll above the
level of her bonnet top Cebe shaded six feet
two in his socks.
She wasn't farm girl, according to her
letters, and her hands showed it, She had
been bookkeeper in woolen mill back
where she came from. Cebe had found her
name and address on slip OF paper pinned
inside shirt he had bought at Chancellor's
last winter.
One letter had led to another, and now here
she was, in October, sitting beside him back
of the buckskin team, with the wheels grind
ing over Texas trail Cebe Buckman wasn't
the first man who'd got his brides name out
of purchase at the mercantile.
NEBE saw that she was appraising him, in
turn. though not openly. He wondered if he
measured up to expectations. He ran finger
around the stiff collar that clamped his neck.
He didn't dare take full breath. The store
suit he had bought at Chancellors was a
trfe snug at the seams.
Like it," he asked with sweep OF his
arm. Different from up north, l reckon"
Before them the mesquite swells rolled
away to far horizon. The trail the wagon
followed was dim wheeltrack. The country
was pale gray green monotone. To the west
a thin, purple line broke the horizon. This
might be clouds, or might be hills To the
south thread of deeper green showed the
promise of watercourse.
ITS different, she agreed.
Il figured you'd open your eyes when you
saw it, Cebe chuCkled.
She heard the lift in his voice, and saw that
his lank, blunt-chinned face had lost its taci-
turn cast. He was looking at the country too.
but not the way she was. She sensed that he
was meeting beloved and whimsical oppo-
nent whose vagaries were a source of satisfac
ton and amusement.
Texas" Cebe added complacently, lis
the biggest state in the Union. You could tuck
Ioway in one corner of Texas an you'd need
a ketch dog to find it,
Her lips tightened Iowa." she said, lis
somewhere out west. came from Ohio"
I'm always gettin' them crossways in my
mind" Cebe apologized. "All them states up
there run to the same formation anyway"
Then he pulled the team hard up. half
rising from the seat. For moment Sarah
couldn't make out what he was staring at