Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 408 — page 3: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ae —_—- ee ne - —_ _ ———— — » ** Hold on, Cartwright. ing over Little Leather-Breeches. Miss Briggs looks as if she had something to say on that subject!” ‘*Sadie Cartwright, I think you are as mean as you can be!” ‘Oh! don’t make any mystery of it, my dear Belle. Everybody Laon that there is a fair prospect of your devoting the rest of your natural life keeping buttons on those famous buckskin unmentionables!” girls, interposed laughing Sadie ‘There is no use in your quarrel- Little Leather-Bre eches. } sister, but his little wife, and her name was The blushing : And the laugh went round at Belle Briggs’s | ‘group, was a young man whose virgin cheek expense, while Kate Ashmead’s eyes flashed scornfully at her. They rested on the most sensitive and lady- like face in the group; yet there were times when the girl asserted herself with a quiet dig- nity which mastered even headstrong Kate Ashmead. ‘* Still water runs deep!” the latter was fond of quoting. ‘‘One of these days you will hear from Miss Belle Briggs, mark my words! Ben Souder is nobody’s oe P Ben was the village cobbler—the man who knew everything. e had, or, to the simple folk about him, seemed to have, all history, an- cient and modern, at his tongue’s end; and he could quote Scripture to prove that every event, discovery and invention, past, present and to come, had been foreseen and described ‘ as plain as the nose on your face,” if you only had the eyes to see it as he did. What he had said about Belle Briggs was: ‘*Ef she onc’t gits waked up—” And he had finished his ominous prognostic with a mysterious shake of the head. So often had this been urged by Kate Ash- mead, preaipred by pe my rivalry, that every one had unconsciously come to half-expect some startling fulfillment. Kate was now casting about for some sarcasm when Sadie Cartwright interposed: * Hush! here he comes to speak for him- self!” All turned to see a youth of nineteen or twen- ty approach, dressed jauntily in a slouch hat, red woolen shirt and buckskin breeches with fringes down thé leg. A leather belt held a revolver at his back and a bowie-knife on his | lightf hip. For the rest, he had a frank, .cheerful face, and wore his blonde hair to his shoulders. “See! the conquering hero comes!” shouted gay Sadie Cartwright. ‘‘ After this the ba will have to take a back seat, and Abe ver will be just nowhere! Poor Abe! will go begging this winter!” | | ' | | Sheep’s eyes | Pp ‘When will saucy Sadie’s tongue enable her | to ride in her own turnout?” asked Little Leather- Breeches, entering into her spirit of banter, “Oh! anybody can answer that!” laughed the beauty, promptly. ‘‘If she keeps it a-waggin’ till she’s a little hoarse!” ‘* Meanwhile, I suppose you girls are off here by yourselves plotting mischief of some kind.” ‘**Not a bit of it! We have been engaged in target practice.” ‘With Cupid’s darts? You are all skillful enough at that alread¥.” ‘*La! hasn’t he a sweet tongue! But we have been using a far more deadly weapon. Ever since last night there seems to he a general de- sire to qualify as a warrior’s bride!” ‘You don’t say! And who has proved most proficient?” ‘“Halha!lha! Justseehim! Oh! you needn't look at the bashful Miss Briggs! She handles a hymn-book more cleverly than a hair trig- er.” ‘* Don’t believe her, Will!” cried Mary Denni- son. ‘' Belle beat us all.” ‘‘ Here comes the parson,” persisted Miss Cart- wright. ‘‘ We'll see if he hasn’t a word to say about that!” “Down a woodland aisle came a very fine gentleman of about five-and-twenty with white hands and long, slender fingers, dressed in cleri- cal black, and wearing mutton-chop whiskers and a white cravat. He was accompanied by a middle-aged lady, who seemed greatly flattered by his attentions. “Who is this young Fosdick, Mrs. Ashmead?” he had just asked. 43 Well. nobody rightly knows,” was the reply, ‘* You see, fourteen years ago the Indians made a clean sweep of the country north of here; and the day after the massacre a little chap rode in- to the Glen on a very big horse, and introduced himself as Willy Fosdick, but said that he was enerally called Little Leather-Breeches. <A ittle girl, scarcely more than a baby, was mount- ed behind him, and the two were tied fast to the horse. She could give no account of herself; and when asked he said that she was not his | man, as she bent over his hand. | ee a Belle. Mrs. Briggs had just lost her twins by scarlatina; so she adopted them both. ‘* Quite a romance!” said the Rev. Mr. Vance, who had introduced himself asa divinity student seeking health in the West. And now, before Sadie Cartwright could as- sail him with her merry banter, there came an interruption from another direction. ‘‘T say, girls! here’s fun! Old Mumbo Jumbo’s comin’ this way. Now’s the chance to git yer fortins told.” The speaker, who was hurrying toward the had never never been violated by a razor. It was covered by a fine blonde down. He was what is known as *‘ shock-headed.” He was a prime favorite with all the middle- aged women of the village; but with the young girls— Well, Abe Seaver was a good fellow when you wanted anything done, he was s0 obliging. ‘What d’ye say, Belle?” he asked, at once going up to Miss Briggs with open homage. Catching a.twinkle in Sadie Cartwright’s eye, Belle flushed and replied inaudibly. ‘* Here they are!” cried a cheery voice, and a lot of young fellows, rough in dress, yet honest looking, made their appearance with a long rope. With a rush they swept down upon the group of girls, circling around them so as to wind them in the rope; and for a few minutes all was confusion, the whisking of draperies, and screams and laughter. This jak was broken in upon by the harsh voice of Mumbo Jumbo, crying: ‘“‘A gay world! a merry world! as if death and sorrow wasn’t always peeping over one’s shoulder! Ho! ho! we laugh to-day, but to- morrow brings tears! The brighter the sunshine on one side, the blacker the shadow on the other; and ye can look out of heaven into hell! That's gospel! Can ye deny that, parson?” e laughter ceased, and the girls drew near- er to the gallants with whom they had got niore or less ee paired off without any apparent design, while they gazed at the old hag with di- lated eyes and little shivers of dread made de- by the sense of security. he stout young feliows who were not afraid of the devil in the person of an old woman pro- ceeded to coax her into good-humor, while they urged forward the girls, who were certainly not entirely free from superstitious fears. With the varying fortunes of the young peo- le who are not intimately concerned in our story, we will not trouble the reader. Suffice it to say that they got amusement, embarrassment, bewilderment, joy and fear out of them. In his turn Abe Seaver stood forth with a red spot in either cheek and his breath hurried, ** Dark! dark! dark!” muttered the old wo- nan, ‘Your line of life is crossed before it reaches midway. The heavens did not smile on your cradle, my poor boy! There’s mourning here, and pain—bitter po and Saerpoininens, worse than death. ‘hat’s life. Ah! the curse of it!” Her voice choked with passion and her old frame shook. The color all gone out of his face, Abe slunk away. ‘It’s all right,” he said to himself. worthy of her, an’ that’s a fact!” The minister came next. On his face was a smile of kindly patronage. Instead of taking the silver he extended, old Mumbo Jumbo.looked into his face, and raising her hand with the palm toward him, waved him off, while she retreated without a word. nly a slight tightening of the lips, a quiver- ing of the nostrils, and a hardening of the eye, showed the minister’s chagrin. e recovered himself instantly. ‘‘My good woman,” he said, ‘‘I have only sympathy and pity for you!” She made no reply, but looked at him steadily as he turned away. Some of the fellows, who liked a joke better than a sermon, snickered. ‘* The parson’s one too many for her.” But already Little Leather-PBreeches had taken his turn, ‘“Here’s a brave lad and true!” cried the »riestess of fortune. ‘ But it's metal that’s to rung on the anvil. Here’s a dark wood filled with terrors; but if you have strength and cour- age, you'll find a fair country on the other side. tere’s gray hairs and honor, and a.woman’s tears and kisses—tears of pride and kisses of tenderness. But you'll find a scorpion under rose leaves. Beware! Its sting is swift and deadly !” *“*T ain't — ———$_— —— - ee nnn nmsiimanmannnnenee teen EE ———————————— ae LD Little Leather-Breeches smiled with easy in- credulity. ‘* T should like to know what can be made out of that!” Belle went forward with a strange stillness upon her. Mumbo Jumbo looked into her face with a smile as she took her hand, and then dropped her eyes to the fair palm with its delicate tracery of creases, Then a startling, a terrible change came over her. ‘* Ha-a-ah!” she fairly shrieked, flinging the hand away from her. ‘‘It’s red with blood! Take it away! take it away! take it away!” And spitting upon the coin she had received. she threw it on the ground, and hobbled off as fast as her tottering limbs could carry her, still waving the startled girl off with her opposed palm, and muttering hoarsely: ‘Away! away! away!” Belle turned round and gazed at heg friends in piteous helplessness. All the color had fled from her cheeks, and a white circle formed about her mouth, Little Leather-Breeches sprung forward and threw his arm about her. ‘‘ What does she mean, Will?” she asked him, her voice seeming to die away with a sigh. ‘*T’]]l yery soon show her what J mean?” cried the youth, hotly. ‘‘ Here, stay with Abe until I break every bone in her wretched old body, the dev—” But the girl’s slight frame swayed and her head sunk on his shoulder. She had fainted. She was immediately surrounded by friends, with ejaculations of sympathy, and everything was done to restore her to consciousness, Only Kate Ashmead stood aloof; and when Belle was herself again, save for white cheeks and lips, and a frightened, piteous appeal in her eyes, Kate whispered to a little circle who drank in the poison of suspicion open-mouthed: ** ve said it before, and T sag it again:—Ben Souder is nobody’s fool!” CHAPTER III. MURDER! THE great kitchen at farmer Ashmead’s was filed with a golden glow from the wide fire- — with its pile of crackling, flame-wrapped ogs. it was not that the night was cold enough for so roaring a fire. Indeed, to temper its heat the doors and windows had to be thrown open. But farmer Ashmead had been ‘“‘ raised” in Maine, and he thought that a merry-making would be no merry-making at all unless the “boys and girls ” could dance in the firelight. Ben Souder was posted beside the door lead- ing from the kitchen to the ‘* best room,” so that the ‘‘old folks,” sitting there in straight- backed Yankee sedateness, might have the bene- fit of the music—so called—which he worried out of a rather squeaky fiddle. But whatever it lacked in sweetness it made up in quickness of time, a little jerky because Ben despised the cider with which the dancers contented themselves. and would “ steady his hand” with nothing short of New England rum. The young fellows ‘‘hoed down” the rapid measure in their heavy boots as nimbly, if not as gracefully, as any French dancing-master, and now and then found their way to a sly cor- ner for love-making. But the girls, whenever there were two or three together, must have their gossip. ‘And the way she has been carrying on with the parson! I wonder that Will Fosdick stands it ” “Ob! Little Leather-Breeches ain’t afraid of the Pretty Man from the States! Lily-white fingers do to turn hymn-books; but Will knows Belle is too spirited to live on donation parties.” ‘**Look! look! There comes Abe now! Just see how pale he is. And he is watching Belle and the parson like a hawk! I tell you! there’s going to be mischief there before they get through with it!” The villagers were for the most part that sort of good folk who must have ideas driven into their heads with a beetle and wedge; but once in, they stuck. And the witch’s terrible prog- nostic had made a deep impression. From this vague suspicion of Belle, they go‘ to thinking that Abe had been hard used, though heretofore they had laughed at his lovemaking Then rose rumors of quarrels, which soon took definite form in stories of abusive lenguege and threats hurled at Abe, to which he submit- ted with the dumb humility of a dor. Who would have believed that all this fabric of misrepresentation was based upon some ilk co