The Wrong Woman

Rip. Yeoo-oo-oo, Squat.

a

bove words, the last is supposed to sound like a revolver-shot. It is as near as we can

en everything went on peacefully as before. The ox-driver caught the returning cracker deftly in two fingers of his right hand and settled down on his iron seat with his elbow on his knee while he took a chew of tobacco. The big tong

htly to run away, would be unnatural. It was merely to convey to certain ones that they were not out to enjoy

urning. His last job had been to put an addition on a farm for an Ohio man about six miles out of town; he had turned forty more acres of tough prairie sod black side upwards and left behind him a dry dusky sq

and remonstrating with the mule. As he drew near the head of the ox procession, the driver roared out a Wo-o-o-o in a tone which was intended to be understood as a general c

o, Un

nin', Mis

oing down home?

Ev'ything jes'

Colone

s done gone t

shippe

s,

p to Chicag

e an' John Dic

e Brown

. An' he ain' come back. Mos'

Alice got

se in Boston yet. An' it ain't leff

attle bri

I heah dey

nie Martin got h

Ah seed 'e

in town? Anyth

' 'bout de sa

abundant, scratched his head and stirred his mind up thorough

. An' dat high-tone bull took sick wif accl

gant, ain't it?" commented Jonas, tu

out his bullwhip in a flourish of aerial penmanship and drove home the afores

ge square of green with no roadside houses and no longer any confining fence. To any one who had come a long distance between the barb wires, this emergence upon the free, open common was very much as if he had been following a stream which, after long confinement to its course, opens out suddenly into a lake. This piece of land was not different from the prairie it had always been, except that the houses which faced it on all sides, as if it were a lake of the summer-resort v

ee at once that the owner, having a house to build, had gone straightway to work and erected a herder's shack on a residential scale and put some windows in it. Because of its porchlessness it seemed rather tall, as if it had grown after it was b

ng. But the shack house, with its twenty acres of elbow room, rather commanded them all, especially as its central position marked the common as its own grounds. Being tall and upright and spare, like a

ding as it did a short cut to town. Quite a little of the traffic that came down Williston Road turned out and followed the trail which led diagonally across it past the door of the house. And usually the traveler, whether horseman or driver, would speak in passing; or, more likely, stop to have a talk wit

raze or lie down as each pair might decide; then he went around the corner of the house and set to work making a fire in the stove. It was an outdoor stove of the locomotive variety, having two large iron wheels upon which it

ed on a bench beside the door; then he drew a bucket of water and proceeded to mix pancake batter. He had not accomplished much when he was interrupted. Just when the batter wa

you would like

How 's Susie gettin

ed Susan, holding

it from her. The pie had the outlines of a star in its c

or, Susie?" he asked, holding the pie up so that she co

Texas," answere

bench and sat down beside it

n the lean muscles of his jaw and showed

to-day, Susie?" He pointed to the white frame sc

Susan, by way of co

n excuse like that I would n't go to sch

kinda headache this mornin

at I was back? Were you watching for m

coming. We could hear you saying bad

ich seemed to have borrowed its style from the horns of a Texas steer. It might be said that, for the moment, he looked serious; but you could never tell

illed the pan almost to its edge, while the middle was piled high with oozing chunks of comb. He placed it on the bench beside him. The eyes of Susan opened wide as she saw this sight. He talked about

r starting h

e? Won't you stay a while

ake," said Susan, looking fur

n, he caused it to turn a somersault with a quick toss of the griddle; then he spread

f-lickum tamale. It's pancake de la verandah

own again. While Susan ate, she leaned across

e volunteered. "Your panca

e of an expression around the eyes;

ey are coming over some other recess when you are home, and you can

ine in great surprise. "No honey f

ed Susan. "Ain't h

th fringe on?" inquired Jonas,

k thought. Presently her attention rested upon the griddle. On it there was a dimi

e pancakes to

off and presen

u go home you can give

is wonderful idea was ten times as much of a present. Her bliss grew visibly deeper as she looked first at the pancake and then at the resourc

the bees come to g

replied

hy the bees went down your

ought it was an

r chimbly was an old hollow tree? Oh, I

e down your chimney. Th

n't they,

, still pretending to be

lease don't talk tha

that. If they came and stopped your chimney all up with honey

ta C

his clothes? And all over her clothes? And besides, he would get his whiskers all

y as in her hair. He made these remarks simply by way of sticking to the subject. Susan, conscious of her curls, gave her head a t

that you haven't go

y," he fell back promptly upon the hollow tree theory pure and simple; the which he took pains to establish by stories of trees filled with honey and of terrible big bears

e. After that a surprising number of things, of all imaginable sorts, demanded his attention on one side or the other, and every time the moustache acted in the same manner, much to the surprise of the innocent Mr. Hicks. As soon as that beard developed its full powers of tickling, it took effect wherever it touched, and Susan had to protect herself by grabbing the moustache and pushing Mr. Hicks's face, which face seemed able to

l that you don't fall down an

ely foolish. This one engaged her mind for a moment as if she hoped to make head and tail

, watching Susan to see whether she got home with the honey unspilt, was oblivious to the half of the world that was behind his back; but when he turned about and took up the dish

ning, Mrs

ks. Have you got all t

buttons. Ploughing is all do

the Chautauqua Circle have been studying geology,-the earth, you know,-and we needed so

e out of Steve Brown's rockery

particularly thinking. They are lying behind Colonel Chase's big gate. We got them u

here with the wagon I 'll put them on. I don't suppos

rhaps it would be just as well to get them back before he comes home. H

hether any one

eally know whether there is or not.

manner of it, struc

r or two?" h

in town that there was somebody out there. The regular

ical position. She did not know whether his question had been accidental or not; it sounded as if he knew; possibly he had put it as a feeler to discover

e references to Tuck Reedy's report, suddenly made a bald evasion of the subject; she went back without ce

soon. It was really an improper thing for us to do-though we did not particularly thi

eculiar, some ways

In wha

hidden subject. She had hope of receiving mor

ever hear about the time I ha

d, of course.

n, like Pastor Gates does when he says to omit the second stanza. For a minute I did n't know what to think. I was doing a plain job of ox-driving and I told him so. 'That's all right; I understand that,' he says. 'But you don't expect to go cussing into that cemetery, do you?' 'Well-no,' I says. 'Not since you mention it.' For a minute he had me where I could n't go ahead nor back up. A man has got to use language to oxen, and what is he going to say? I am so used to it that I don't even hear myself, unless I

in doing as he wished

't had any time to practice. It made me wonder, though, what

t you mean by hi

I mean is that he 's got all sorts of notions of what's right and wrong; a

think it wrong for us to

ld n't be likely to say anything. I only mentioned that tombstone business because hi

e over Mrs. Norton's countenan

and thank him for the use of the stones. But possibly it

all," repeated Jo

ow we put them back he would no

y heart. He had those blue-

thoughtless of us,

I 'm really part owner anyway; I discovered a lot of those stones and put them there. He 'll understand how it was. And if he sa

e?" she asked, looking

e and let them run on grass a while. While I 'm out there, I guess I 'l

O

nch, she saw all sorts of possibilities; she said nothing, however, which would keep this interesting three-cornered meeting from taking place. She turned the conversation at once into other

atter in hand. This time the pancakes went ahead without interruption. When he had stacked up the requisite number, and eaten them with honey and bacon, he hooked the wheelers to the wagon, and then added the rest of the cattle, yoke after

nder the circumstances, and especially as oxen cannot be hurried, it might be well to pass the time by talking about Jonas Hicks's past; it will be better than to take up the scenery agai

questioned personage; his word is law and they call him pet names. However, from the day he got down out of the saddle, in an emergency, and consented to act in the capacity of "Ma,"-which was a joke,-he was in continual demand as cook, with increasing popularity. Though he still claimed the ability to ride and rope and hog-tie with the best of them, he was thenceforth a cook with all the cook's perquisites and autocratic say-so. There is nowhere, we might observe, so deep an indication of the true power of Woman as this respect that is paid to her position, even when it is being occupied by a red-faced being who wears whiskers and who has n

ned, he had to get about a two-mile start on their appetites, with pancakes; and so, while the stove was yet far off from its destination, he would fire up and get things going. Then he would trot along behind and cook. While "she" (the stove) lurched into buffalo wallows and rode the swells and unrolled the smoke other stack far out across the billowy prairie, Jonas would hurry along behind and keep house. Entirely occupied with his

ver wrist. As the foreman said, he was "a first-class culinary engineer." In doing this, his longtime experience on bucking bronchos stood him in good stead; then, too, his practice was confined almost entirely to pancakes and coffee, for they were but few and simple dishes that he knew by heart. But even with this special expertness it took a quick man and a philosopher, especially when

r repeated visits, he had made himself known to all the neighbors and discovered what nice people they were,-it was a new sensation for Jonas to have neighbors,-he got it more and more into his head that they were his neighbors, and that he belonged there. He decided to settle down in those parts. Things in general seemed to be shifting into a new mode of life and impelling him to go along. In the

lies of the sort that move often by wagon and work cotton on shares; meantime his fancy was playing about the place and taking root. Coming back in the fall the

eel of Progress and put his hand to the throttle; and now every time he got back from one of his occasional absences a new farm had been opened up forever and ever. But it must not be thought that he had himself become an agriculturist

himself at times, it was no marvel to see Jonas Hicks doing the same; though, to be sure, he was doing it a little nearer town than is customary, and this proximity made his single-blessedness shine out a little plainer. But if there was any humor in that, or in fact anything else, it was Jonas's prerogative to see it first and to stretch the joke as fa

nd there among the first; it was the others who were the innovators and the newcomers; and as to his way of hous

, as if all these beautiful women and interesting little children had gathered round to ornament his position in life; and there is a great deal in looks. He felt also, having owned some of the land upo

a man with such large Texas views and lifelong experience of "free grass," such carefulness of a mere twenty acres would seem rather small, especially small as directed against such neighbors. He was pleased to be numbered among them, and he acted accordingly. If the minister's wife needed temporary pasturage for her real shorthorn cow, just arrived from the North,

th a small piece off the corner, only asking that they refrain from putting a fence around it. As this restriction was no drawback to the community, they readily acceded to it; consequently the children played ball or did whateve

lways the Man. His very geographical situation was sufficient to turn the mind towards him, but the particular reason for that heliotropism on the part of his feminine neighbors was that he was an easy man for a woman to ask. Being asked, he always served her in a spirit of masculine banter and then went away as if he had enjoyed the joke. Thus she could be grateful for his neighborly turn without feeling herself under any painful state of obligation. Naturally his custom grew. One moment he would be mending a yoke or plaiting a lash, the next moment he would be clapping himself on

were a policeman or a priest or a fire department. In time of trouble it was only necessary for a woman to ask. Indeed, his trade with woman grew to such proportions that he

grows wild in Texas. When it is domesticated with the ox, and pursu

if we have brought the oxen a mile on the

h to reach the next c