Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 February 1919 — The Extra Feature [ARTICLE]

The Extra Feature

By S. B. HACKLEY

<Copyright, 1919, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) For a quarter, hour only the crickets had broken the silence in the Comporchard, where old Tobias and Jemima and Minerva, their granddaughter, assorted some mighty mounds of fallen wfoesaps. Then Minerva, spoke. “Zack wants me to run off and marry him, grandpappy, after fodder strippin’s over,’’ “Lord, Nervy", don’t ye!” old Tobias’ faded eyes were piteously beseeching. “Stay by us. honey. Nobody feels for us old ones like you do. Nervy!” Minerva smiled faintly. “I told Zack, grandpappy, I couldn’t marry him if ma wasn’t willin’. She’d drive me off and surely mistreat you ami grandmammy if 1 married against her wiiizzz ~ “Was Zachariah fretted?” the grandihother asked anxiously. Minerva crimsoned. They must not know how much Zack was “fretted !” “He—he said he’d stay away until I sent for him. I—there’s ma !” In southern Appalachia it is customary for the aged father and mother to live with the youngest son in the old home. But old TobiJts’ log dwelling was an “unusually large one—a most desirable home, and Eliza, the wife of the eldest son, by skillful machinations contrived to get Charley, the youngest son, and his wife, Phoebe, away and to get her own family installed. Lazy herself, she depended almost entirely on her young daughter, her- - onlv child, to do the work of the house, ahu to keep her sendees she had determined Minerva should not marry any but some young man she could take into her house and rule, as she did Joshua, the girl’s henpecked father. By her orders, Zachariah Burden, who was not the “humble sort” she desired for a son-in-law, stayed away from the Compton house, but Zack Was resourceful and managed often

to see the gentle little creature who was like a guardian angel to the old ones. smoking on their bedroom hearth that evening, asked uneasily. Jemima, wiped her eyes. “I got to studyin’ about Minervy a waitin’ on her happiness on account of us and it "worried me some, Bias!” she confessed. After Jemima slept, Bias still sat on the hearth. Minerva was delicate, like their little Hettie who had died sixteen years before, three months after the soldier sweetheart they had not been willing for her to marry had been laid under Cuban palms. “Little Hettle! Little Hettie !” he murmured. “Lord, if I’d let her had her way about Jess Duty, she might not have pined away! Jess, he wasn't a bad boy—l wish I hadn’t stood in her way—l do wish it, Lord P’ His pipe clattered on the hearth. , His heavy groans awakened Jemima. “The pain Doc Higgins said—was from my heart, it’s pinchin’ a little!” he labored out, his hand clutching his chair rungs, his rugged pld face chalky. Jemima trembled as she measured outrthe drops the youjDg...dQCtor -had.

-)cft”fTOr‘ him. The doctorhad warned her all worry must be kept from To* blns, and he had worried because he had caught her crying about Minerva I “You reckon you worked too hard at the apples, Bias?” she asked him when at last she got him between the bed covers. “No. I got to thinjdn’ about oitr little Hettie. I was wishing I could go back them sixteen years and tell the little, lovin’ thing her and Jess might marry before he went to the fightin’. Then the pain struck me." •She patted his hands in gentlte soothing. “Hettie and Jess wasn’t long separated. Bias, honey! The Lord saw to that! Now.,try to go.to sleep.” But-it was long before he closed his eyes. “They could come and live with us and things would be all right,” Jemima

heard him murmuring over and over Jn his fitful sleep, "if Eliza was willin' !” Then once he cried out: “She’s a-goin' like Hettie. Jemtmy—like Hettie! Can’t you see it?” When he was quiet again, Jemima arose and dressed herself. If he worried himself much more he might bring on another attack, and Joel Higgins had said two attacks dose together might kitlhim. “I can way to Aaron Burden's,” she said to herself, way, dark as it is. I’m bound to see Zack!” Two hours later she stood breathless in the Burdens’ yard Jim the top of the mountain. The dog slept, but fear of him set hej knees shaking. With a trembling hand she tapped on the window of Zack’s bedroom. Near the dawn, when* Zack helped her off the gentle mule he had led down the mountainside, her old face was shining like the eastern' star. A few days later when Eliza came horpe from Miranda Mulliken’s “quilting,” she was consumed with wrath. Naomi Rouse, whom she hated of all women, had bragged to Ran that* har daughter. Magnolia, had taken- Zack Burden “away” from Eliza Compton’s Minerva! Long before the “foddefe pulling" was done, officious neighbors

began to predict Zack’s early timrl iage to Magnolia. Minerva drooped visibly. Her grandfather fretted. too much? Lejnme give her a hint; i/t’s just play-actin’!” . Jemima shook her head smiling. “Dpn’t worry aboui Nervy. She!) -come-THtt all eight. -Zaek doir’t —want □ter fold until the show day, aiid that ain’t long off. Bias!" The circus coming to Caneyville had advertised a prize of $lO in gold to be given to the young woman noj afraid and willing to be married on an elephant's back in their ring, which advertisement doubled and tripled the size of the ‘attending crowd on the “show day.” . = Early tluTF~inorhthg Zack~Burden’B two mules passed the Compton wagon, en route to CaneyviHe. Zack rode one muse, Magnolia .House the other. Eliza could not restrain a look of displeasure. “Them two are the pair that’s to be married on the elephant’s back!’’ old Bias volunteered cheerfully. “Zack’s done arranged with the show folks.” This news was the last straw. Eliza turned to her daughter, her face white with wrath. “Nervy Compton, before I’d let everybody in the county see that lowdown Rouse girl take my feller right before my eyes, I’d jump in Caney river!” Minerva smiled. “Their weddin’ won’t discredit ipe, ma. Zack’s not my feller now. and all the folks know he wanted to marry me and you wouldn’t let him!”

At Ihe close of the circus perlormance, the largest and gentlest elephant, witli a hbwdah on his back, was brought into the ring. “Will the gentleman who wishes to be married please present himself?” the ringmaster called out. Zack arose and took Magnolia’s arm, but she pulled back, screeching foolishly. “I’m afraid of the elephant! I’m afraid to get close to the thing!” “Will the gentleman try to persuade another lady then? We’re bound to have a wedding!” The biggest clown rolled over in a gale of merriment, but it was tragedy to Eliza. Zack looked about him. “I see one lady I know is not afraid of the elephant that would maybe marry- me, but she’s afraid of her ma!” Eliza sprang to her feet. ■ “If you mean Minerva, Zack Burden,” she shouted, “she needn’t be afraid of me objectin’ !" I’ve concluded I’m perfectly agreeable to her marryingyoung man as industrious and well-behaved as you are!” Tears of triumph were in Eliza's eyes when, twenty minutes later, she saw Zack- lift his br*+Je to the grourfd. “Where’s your gold piece, Nervy?” happy old Bias whispered that even i n g. - ' “Magnolia’s got that one.” she whispered back, “but I’ve got another one just like It the show folks gave Zack for what they called the ‘extry feature !’ ”