Dixie Hart

use, his stepfather-in-law, with considerabl

okin', which maybe I ain't, I'd chin 'er over the fence mornin', noon, and night-married or unmarried. Man laws was made to keep us straight, I reckon; but when the Lord Himself lived on earth they wasn't quite as bindin'

enley answered, "but I told her this one was

she'll own it, lock, stock, and barrel. As you may 'a' noticed, I sometimes poke jabs of fun at women, but I never do at her. Somehow I jest can't. I was a-settin' right back of Carrie Wade an' some more frisky gals at meetin' last Sunday when Dixie come in an' tuck a seat on the bench ahead of 'em. I don't let women bother me, one way or another, but I got rippin' mad at that gang. They was makin' sport of her. One of 'em re'ched over an' felt of the ribbon on the pore gal's hat, and then they stuffed the'

in recognition of remarks he did not wish to prolong, as he

ike a camp-meetin'. You couldn't think of a single article that she didn't have ready, in some shape or other. But after 'while hot things quit comin' and cold uns appeared that had a familiar look, and now me and you and all of us set down to the same old seven and six. Well, my jaw teeth ain't as good as they used

osite Wrinkle, came from the adjoining kitchen carrying a steaming pot of coffee, which she put by her plate at the head of the table, and sat down stiffly. The smooth floor of the room was bare save for a few rugs made of varicolored rags. The walls had a few cheap pictures on them-brilliant old-fashi

on of one who was well aware of the fact that vast and vague duties to the dead as well as to the living rested on her and which should be performed at any cost. She was not usually talkative, and she had few observations to make this morning. As she nibbled the hot biscuit, upon which she had daintily spread a bit of butter, she allowed her glanc

ee how this batch would sample out. I reckon when the market takes a jump storekeepers has to take a lower grade to keep customers satisfied with

tively. "They was water-stained by a wet crop-yea

s nation, and when them dratted Yankees tricked 'im out of the Presidency they put the ball an' chain o' slavery on every citizen of this fair land. Bryant told 'em that sixteen to one would do the work, and what did they say? Huh, they said he was a fool and didn't know how to figure. I tell you if he was a fool, Solomon was a idiot. Who was the'r brag man up in Yankeedom?-why, Abe Lincoln-an' what did he ever do but set back in the White House and tell smutty

u oughtn't to use words out of the common

ed in his cup. "I read more'n they do, I reckon, a

steps. Ascending to the door, Henley unlocked it and proceeded from the rather dark interior to unscrew the faded green window-shutters. These thrown back on the outside, the light filled the long room, displaying two rows of counters and shelving. The right-hand side was devoted to dry goods and notions, the left to groceries, hardware, and crockery. Henley went on to the rear, where, by lifting a massive wooden bar from iron sockets, he opened a door in one side of the house. Next he took up a water-pail from an inverted soap-box, and, emptying the contents, he went to the well in the adjoining yard, a fenced enclosure which contained a conglomerate mass of o

ed to drive Mrs. Hayward's cow in for her. The blamed huzzy took a notion to prance about over the school

sprinkling-pot and, filling it from the pail, began to dampen and sweep

r some medicine for his wife, and I told him I'd sweep out for him. Them dern niggers had rather take medicine than eat ice-cream at a festival. I don't know that it's anybody else's bus

neral impression is that a trading-man can make more amongst ignorant folks than amongst keen traffickers, but it is a mistake. Folks that ain't born with the flea of speculation wigglin' in their brain-pans won't never let loose of nothing. It is the feller that is eternally on the lookout for opportunities that will sell the shirt off his back to raise money when he thinks he sees an openin

uyin' a dress pattern off of a shelf-worn bolt of linsey, or a pair of shoes too tight for her, but this way you have of buying a feller's wagon that breaks down i

d a stock of old ones and I kept the jaws of 'em rubbed up bright. My daddy used to whip me for it. He was one of the best men, Jim, that ever wore shoe-leather, and he never could stand

hews sat down and eye

he gypsy's lash and spur as a frisky young colt. The gypsy said he had paid two hundred for him, but, as he was anxious to get to his sick wife in Atlanta, he would make it a hundred and fifty and be thankful that he'd made one man happy. The old man was his meat. He told him he only had a hundred and twenty-five, and-well, the gypsy was a smooth article. He wanted to get his eye on the cash. He said a whole lot

eply interested; "it was stolen prop

call 'big shoulders.' I was a mile or two off when the calamity fell, but somebody told me Pa'd bought a hoss, and I come home as fast as I could. I found Ma an

ng your brags about knowing hoss-flesh; wh

p, and my heart sunk 'way down in my boots. 'Pa,' I

o ask the blessing. The more he feared I was right the worse he got, till Ma had to call him to order by putting the family Bible in his lap and making him read and pray. I couldn't help laughing, as serious as it was; for while we was on our knees the thought struck me that he ought to ask th

t," Cahews remarked, "and

ajoling," Henley laughed. "He come in to the breakfast-table one morn

going to do, Pa

-heaven, he'd make a better appearance like he is now than at any other time. I've had my fill. The sight of that hoss peeping out betwixt the bars ev

while he's lively and maybe I can git rid of him. I might get a few dollars f

ould take at times. You see, I'd heard that Tobe Wilks, a big hardware man at Carlton, who had a plantation in the country, was looking for a hoss, and I thought I'd see what he'd say to mine. I was jest a boy, but I'd hung around hoss-swappers enough to know that it never was a good idea to be the first to propose a trade,

ant to sell that stac

'fer the hoss is mine

id Wilks; 'well, do

more attention to Wilks, pretending to be looking at some pl

sell him, wouldn

ng exactly what we'd been talking about, 'I had sorter thought th

and he looked kinder anxious. 'I want a hoss to send out

y man's money to buy him,' I says. 'Frie

him round the square in the purtiest rack you ever saw shuffle under a saddle. I

and forty strike you

know what I've got in that hoss' (and you bet I did), 'and y

der age, and I don't often trade with minors. I don't know how your daddy may look at it

rouble with Pa,' says I

lit out for home. But the nearer I got to the house the more I got afraid Pa wouldn't endorse what I'd done, and

u do with the hoss?

I. 'I let him go to

vil,' says Pa

he wind. 'A hundred and fifty,' I said. 'If I'd as

s the same way. But he wouldn't touch the money. 'It's plain open-and-shut stealing,' he said, when h

al, and Ma she agreed with him. So you bet I felt like a whipped school-boy as me and him set side by side and drove into town. He was bewailing all the

store, and I saw that he was mad. At first I thought he'd found out ab

to back down in a fair trade like that. I made it before witnesses, and your boy said he had your consent. I've sent the hoss out home, and I don't do busines

ly frothing at the mouth, 'and I'll put your boy in the pen fo

was engaged in a scrap that'ud make two wildcats go off and take lessons. The town marshal run up and parted them by the aid of bystanders, and some of 'em persuaded me to drive Pa home. He was a good, holy man, but he cussed all the way, and ended by saying that Wilks never should

of the hoss?" t

ed me to cast a vote for his son, and I promised to do it, and we got kinder friendly. As he was leaving me he turned back and laid

I, and he went one

tering the door, and with a la