FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  
er dark eyes, beneath darker brows, intensified a curious pallor--that sickly hue which is seen upon the faces of those who have suffered grievously in mind or body. Ajax opened the door, and offered her a chair, but not his hand. She did not seem to notice the discourtesy. We asked if her mother had suffered from the effects of her wetting. "Mother has been very sick," she replied, in a lifeless voice. "She's been at death's door. For five days I've prayed to Almighty God, and I swore that if He'd see fit to spare mother, I'd come down here, and on my bended knees"--she sank on the floor--"ask for your forgiveness as well as His. Don't come near me," she entreated; "let me say what must be said in my own way. When I married Laban Swiggart I was an honest woman, though full o' pride and conceit. And he was an honest man. To- day we're thieves and liars." "Mrs. Swiggart," said Ajax, springing forward and raising her to her feet. "You must not kneel to us. There--sit down and say no more. We know all about it, and it's blotted out so far as we're concerned." Her sobs--the vehement, heart-breaking sobs of a man rather than of a woman--gradually ceased. She continued in a softer voice: "It began 'way back, when I was a little girl. Mother set me on a pedestal; p'r'aps I'd ought to say I set myself there. It's like me to be blaming mother. Anyways, I just thought myself a little mite cleverer and handsomer and better than the rest o' the family. I aimed to beat Sarah and Samanthy at whatever they undertook, and Satan let me do it. Well, I did one good thing. I married a poor man because I loved him. I said to myself, 'He has brains, and so have I. The dollars will come.' But they didn't come. The children came. "Then Sarah and Samanthy married. They married men o' means, and the gall and wormwood entered into my soul, and ate it away. Laban was awful good. He laughed and worked, but we couldn't make it. Times was too hard. I'd see Samanthy trailin' silks and satins in the dust, and --and my underskirts was made o' flour sacks. Yes--flour sacks! And me a Skenk!" She paused. Neither Ajax nor I spoke. Comedy lies lightly upon all things, like foam upon the dark waters. Beneath are tragedy and the tears of time. "Then you gentlemen came and bought land. They said you was lords, with money to burn. I told Laban to help you in the buyin' o' horses, and cattle, and barb-wire, and groceries. He got big commissions, but
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89  
90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
married
 

mother

 

Samanthy

 
Swiggart
 
honest
 
Mother
 

suffered

 

undertook

 

brains

 

groceries


lightly
 
things
 

commissions

 

blaming

 

tragedy

 

Beneath

 

Anyways

 

family

 

bought

 

handsomer


cleverer
 

thought

 

waters

 
gentlemen
 

worked

 
pedestal
 
couldn
 

laughed

 

satins

 

underskirts


trailin

 

entered

 
Neither
 
cattle
 

Comedy

 
horses
 

children

 

wormwood

 

paused

 

dollars


replied

 

lifeless

 
wetting
 

effects

 
discourtesy
 
notice
 

bended

 

prayed

 
Almighty
 

pallor