FullReads

Besides, the old farmer had been telling about his “river eighty,” which was without a tenant; the man who had taken it, having lost his wife, had grown disheartened and had given it up.

“It’s an almighty good chance for a man with a small family. Good house an’ barn, good land. A likely young feller with a team an’ a woman could do tip-top on that eighty. If he wanted more, I’d let him have an eighty j’inun'”—-

“I’d like t’ try that m’self,” said Lime, as a feeler. The old fellow said nothing in reply for a moment.

“Ef you had a team an’ tools an’ a woman, I’d jest as lief you’d have it as anybody.”

“Sell me your blacks, and I’ll pay half down–the balance in the fall. I can pick up some tools, and as for a woman, Merry Etty an’ me have talked that over to-day. She’s ready to–ready to marry me whenever you say go.”

There was an ominous silence under the seeder, as if the father could not believe his ears.

“What’s–what’s that?” he stuttered. “Who’d you say? What about Merry Etty?”

“She’s agreed to marry me.”

“The hell you say!” roared Bacon, as the truth burst upon him. “So that’s what you do when I go off to town and leave you to chop wood. So you’re goun’ to git married, hey?”

He was now where Lime could see him, glaring up into his smiling blue eyes. Lime stood his ground.

“Yes, sir. That’s the calculation.”

“Well, I guess I’ll have somethin’ t’ say about that,” nodding his head violently.

“I rather expected y’ would. Blaze away. Your privilege–my bad luck. Sail in, ol’ man. What’s y’r objection to me fer a son-in-law?”

“Don’t you worry, young feller. I’ll come at it soon enough,” went on Bacon, as he turned up another burr in a very awkward corner. In his nervous excitement the wrench slipped, banging his knuckle.

“Ouch! Thunder–m-m-m!” howled and snarled the wounded man.

“What’s the matter? Bark y’r knuckle?” queried Lime, feeling a mighty impulse to laugh. But when he saw the old savage straighten up and glare at him he sobered. Bacon was now in a frightful temper. The veins in his great, bare, weather-beaten neck swelled dangerously.

“Jest let me say right here that I’ve had enough o’ you. You can’t live on the same acre with my girl another day.”

“What makes ye think I can’t?” It was now the young man’s turn to draw himself up, and as he faced the old man, his arms folded and each vast hand grasping an elbow, he looked like a statue of red granite, and the hands resembled the paws of a crouching lion: but his eyes smiled.

“I don’t think, I know ye won’t.”

“What’s the objection to me?”

“Objection? Hell! What’s the inducement? My hired man, an’ not three shirts to yer back!”

“That’s another; I’ve got four. Say, old man, did you ever work out for a living?”

“That’s none o’ your business,” growled Bacon, a little taken down. “I’ve worked, an’ scraped, an’ got t’gether a little prop’ty here, an’ they ain’t no sucker like you goun’ to come ‘long here, an’ live off me, an’ spend my prop’ty after I’m dead. You can jest bet high on that.”

“Who’s goin’ t’ live on ye?”

“You’re aimun’ to.”

“I ain’t, neither.”

“Yes, y’are. You’ve loafed on me ever since I hired ye.”

“That’s a”—- Lime checked himself for Marietta’s sake, and the enraged father went on:

“I hired ye t’ cut wood, an’ you’ve gone an’ fooled my daughter away from me. Now you jest figger up what I owe ye, and git out o’ here. Ye can’t go too soon t’ suit me.”

Bacon was renowned as the hardest man in Cedar County to handle, and though he was getting old, he was still a terror to his neighbors when roused. He was honest, temperate, and a good neighbor until something carried him off his balance; then he became as cruel as a panther and as savage as a grizzly. All this Lime knew, but it did not keep his anger down so much as did the thought of Marietta. His silence infuriated Bacon, who yelled hoarsely: