At the Foot of the Rainbow

Jimmy go?"

chickens and carry in the milk, but

down fast. When it gets into its regular channel, spawning will be over and the fish

the two of you could make it convanient to spade an onio

garden was made, and the crops at least wouldna suffer. We'll make the bed

t the seeds mes

d," replied Dannie. "All we

"It will be good for me to be in the sunshine, and I do enjo

t place, I should think I could spade ane b

old tin can. He tested the earth in several places, and then called to her: "All right, Mary!

g down the path to the river. She went to the door. At the head of the lane stood Jimmy, waving

egun onion bed, should have made her angry, it would be hard to explain. He had no tackle or bait, and reason easily could have tol

egan turning great pieces of earth. She had never done rough farm work, such as women all about her did; she had little

t scale. And I'm going to take the shotgun, and go over to the embankment, and poke it into the tunnel, and blow the old Kingfish

t! What you doin

"Wha' do ye mean? Ye knew I'd be back in a minute! Jimmy juist calle

om her hand, and Mary fl

emanded Jimmy of th

ed," explained Dannie. "Of course, she

ow women! She just got to the place where it's her time to spill brine, and raise a rumpus about something,

oke it open, and Jimmy squatted by the c

nnie, as he waited. "And where we fish close home whe

no 'jeminy fit' every time a woman acts the fool a little, and if you'd lived with one fiftane years you wouldn't either. Of course we'll make the garden. Wish to goodn

f earth and studied the premises

n the fence?"

said

yard is t

ep

oer beds

ep

, the bushes and vines trimmed, and the gooseberries, currants, and raspberries thinned. The strawberry bed

n whitewashed! Return to grazing, Nebuchadnezzar," said Ji

Dannie trimmed the gooseberries. Then he wheeled a barrel of swamp loam for a flower bed by the cabin wall, and listened

d. "Dinna ye have to

n?" inquired

Ye gae in fra a drink, and tell Mary I want to know where

rake against a

he's quit crying, ask her what

sently he passed Da

" whisper

and pig pen, and slunk around behind the barn, where he lean

t she guesses SHE wanted to go

l open, and then c

r!" he said. "Ye dinna

goin' to carry her out to it, and she was to sit there and sew, and umpire the fishin', and whichiver bait she told the Bass to take, that one of us would be gettin' it. And she was pleased as an

f it will tire he

low me," Jimmy said. "I know wher

ham from the smoke house for that season struck the sizzling skillet, and Mary very meekly called from the back door to know if one of them wanted to dig a little horse radish, the garden was almost ready for planting. Then they went into the cabin and ate fragrant, thick slic

life so much as I sometimes think I do. What do you suppose

here to city markets. The folks that sell them would starve before they'd eat a bit o' them, yet someb

rnip," added Mary. "Bate up the cream a little before you put it in your coff

eam, and said: "I wish I could bring that Thrid Man home with me to one meal of t

e comes," she said. "Of course, if I am cleaning

el is a drame, Mary. Nobody iver makes turtle soup half so rich as yours, and your green peas in cream, and asparagus on toast is a rivilation-don't you rimimber 'twas Father Michael that said it? I ought to be able to find mush

' cherry cobbler

ackber

s cooked

hicke

d in cornmeal and

cream, with hard-boi

ster Katie to New York with him, his boss sent them to a five-dollar-a-day house, and they thought they was some up. By the third day poor Katie was cryin' for a square male. She couldn't touch the butter, the eggs made her sick, and the cold-storage meat and chicken never got nearer her

im," said Jimmy. "Provided his taste ain't so depraved with saltpeter and chalk he don't

lk pail?" qu

"The next time I go to town

Instead of two, get me a new dishpan. Mi

dishpan the nixt time I go to town. And, by gee! If that dandy big coon hide I got last fall looks good, I'm going to comb it up, and work the skin fine, and sen

n in town can tel

in the hotel,"

That's the stuff! And I can find

worked on the garden, and the

re too. There won't any fish bite to-day, but you can have the pleasure of

Job!" cried Jimmy. "What nixt?

ing a thin layer of earth over the bait in the

wered. "I'll be tired when I am, and I th

y. "We can't tell where it's going to be grassy an

r not try to make one out of the Kingfisher stump. If you t

ad you've got! We'll have to fi

r foot, and warmer" said Mary. "You boys g

the river. "What did I tell you? Won't go i

said Dannie gravely. "But whateve

my. "Now, how will we get at thi

a best places about the Black Bass pool, and ye take ane fra yours and I'

most, and be gettin' bites all the time, and me none; or I might strike it and you be left out. An

to my place, and juist be feedin' him my bait, and here you'd come along and prove

y. "I'll be hanged if I'd leave a pl

w and shallow, juist above Kingfisher shoals, and then we'll toss up fra sides. Then each will keep to his side. With a decent pole either of us can throw

want to fish for anything but the Bass. I'm goin' back and get our rubber

ht," sai

while Jimmy went back after their boots. Then both of them entered the water and began clearing away d

her?" he asked. "Winna

fool," said Jimmy; "an

e, breaking off a spice limb and nibbling the fragrant buds. "Let's on

Jimmy. "I ain't goin

Then we can tell her we fi

and watin', and you couldn't drag her here with a team of oxen. Till her you are GOING to fi

the Bass and the Kingfisher, rolled two logs, and fished a board that had been carried by a freshet f

ide, came heads. So Jimmy was to use the bridge. Then they went home, and began the night work. The first thing Jimmy espied was the barrel containing the milk pail. He fished out the pail, and while Dannie fed the stock

nts on a mudboat, which Dannie drove, while Jimmy rode one of his team, and led the other, and opened the gates. They began on Dannie's field

, the wood thrushes sang out their souls in the thickets across the river, and the King Cardinal of Rainbow Bottom whistled to split his throat from the gia

e fall of every luckless worm that missed its hold on a blossom-whitened thorn tree, came the splash of the great Black Bass. Every morning the Bass took a trip around Horseshoe Bend food hunting, and the small fry raced for life before his big, shear-like jaws. During the heat of noon he lay in the deep pool below the stump, and rested; but when eveni

m, cherry, and apple bloom, like late falling snow. Then great black clouds came sweeping across the sky, and massed above Rainbow Bottom. The lightning flashed as if the heavens were being cracked open, and the rolling th

When the clouds scattered, the thunder grew fainter; and the sun shone again between light sprinkles of rain. Then a great, glittering ra

they pulled weeds, and hoed in the garden. Dannie discoursed on the wholesome freshness of the earth, and Jimmy ever waited a chance to twist his wor

ss rose to a white moth, skittered over the surface by Dannie late in the evening, and twice Jimmy had strikes which he averred had taken the arm almost off

as Jimmy said, "It seemed as if the domn plum tree just rained caterpillars." So they bided their time, and the signs prohibiting trespas

bodies. Jimmy was growing restless. Never in all his life had he worked so faithfully as that spring, and never had his visits to Casey's so told on him. No matter where they started, or how hard they worked, Dannie was across the middle of the

he supper bell aroused him. He opened his eyes, and as he rose, found that Dannie had been to the barn, and brought a horse blanket to cover him. Well as he knew anything, Jimmy knew that he had no business sleeping in fence corners so early in the season. With candor he would have admitted to himself that a part of his brittle temper ca

his horses a

d. "We mustn't keep Mary waiting. She wants us

creaked. The pain angered him. He

you ain't thinkin' about my wife?" he

y. "Na a minute," he answered, "exc

y!" exploded the

here. I tried to go, and ye wouldna let me. So for fifteen years, ye have lain with the woman I love, and I have lain alone in a few rods of ye. If that ain't Man-Hell, try some other on me, and see if it will touch me! I sent ye to tell her that I loved her; have I ever sent ye to tell her that I've quit? I should think you'd know, by this time, that I'm na quitter. Love her! Why, I love h

Jimmy's sullen eyes cleared

bow Bottom! Thin, by God, I go too! I won't stay here without you, not a day. If I had to take my choice between you,

my!" cautio

said Jimmy. "I think more of you

ye SAY that thing to me? I have na betrayed your trust in me

ngry face. "Oh, I'm just so domn sore!" he said. "Some days I ge

ye na tell me? Canna I help ye? Hav

But you can't help here. I'm up agin it alone, but put this in your pipe,

" said Dannie. "After this, I'll try to be carefu'. I've had

clanged sharpl

Wabash," said Jimmy. "Wish I h

it been, Jimmy

replied Ji

er. When trapping was over, and before any crops were ready, he was usually out of f

new life into me," he cried. "Forg

went to town. Then Dannie saw his mistake. He ha