Show I Fiction Telegram H Hostile OS tel 1 A e V Valley Y a fl II ey 17 Ames Ame b 0 Ben BEGIN HERE BERE TODAY Jenny Pierce had been bee in love with Will Ferrin ever since the first time she saw him four years ears ago He had hadnot hadnot hadnot not returned this love however and nd had imd d left Hostile valley yaney to work in Augusta Me When he returned he brought a wife with him the beautiful beau wanton Huldy Shortly after this Seth Humphreys Humphrey who had known Huldy in Augusta came to Hostile valle valley and set up upa a steam mill mUt It was rumored that his only reason for coming was to tobe tobe tobe be handy to Huldy And more men came to fish the creek in Hostile valley these rl days Ys although they went down the brook each da day they returned returned returned re re- re- re turned without any fish Such was wu the fame of Huldy Ferrin One day Will returning home Unexpectedly unexpectedly un Un- expectedly had found Seth and his wife together and Tn In the ensuing fight Seth was killed and Will was wasso wasso wasso so badly wounded v. by a revolver shot that it was necessary to amputate one of his legs Huldy left Hostile valley with another man map saying that she could never be satisfied with half haU halfa a man This happened in the fall fall and that winter Will after he had learned the use of ot a peg leg dwelt alone on his farm Jenny however spent pent much time with Will Ferrin these days day of his legs Jenny went to tell Huldy of Wills Will's injury but found Bart Carey already there NOW GO ON WITH T TIlE THE E STORY CHAPTER VIn Jenny explained Will and Seth the they lit fit m. m the mill mm Seth had hada a gun agun gun I That was Barts Bart's gun Huldy in In- Seth borrowed It it claimed he wanted to shoot a wild bull She laughed softly As if Will was wild or a bull either matter mat mat- ter of that But Seth always would lie Ife Seth shot Will Jenny persisted her tones shaken The bullet hit Wills Will's leg and broke the bones all to pieces It went sin smashing hing down into his foot toot and they fetched him t to the hou house e and the doctor doctor- doctor cut cut ut his hu leg ol off Seth ought to been ashamed said Huldy chidingly Id give him a apiece apiece apiece piece of my mind shooting hooting my Will WID that way if Will wm hadn't already tended to him plenty And sh she asked wilh with wide Innocent eyes eyes Did you see them cut his leg oil off I helped the doctor octor Jenny an Huldy was all surface sympathy That w was hard on you you with with you loving my my Will so o Her last word bit and stung And Jenny breathed deeply and w was stron strong I do love him she assented as as- gravely But youre you're not likely to know what that means She added insistently Cant you come to to him now Refuses to Go to Wilt Will Huldy smiled And shook her head I aint coming she said calmly You can have him Tell him I said saidI I never could be satisfied with h half halfa lU lUa a man The world shattered into fragments frag ments ments as a mirror shatters under the Impact of a thrown thron ball Jenny rocked to and fro as 85 though she had been struck and her Ups lips w were re dry The lamp was smoking a thin thread thred of smoke like a black line rose from th the chimney top to billow into a faint plume in inthe the rising ruing air current above the flame Th The girt girl leaned forward to turn the lamp down a little Wick needs trimming she mut take care of all in such things for him Huldy predicted cd Yore such a housekeeper But But tending tending a 3 cripple would weary me Im I'm goIng goIng going go- go Ing away not go when hes he's hurt and n needs ds you Jenn Jenny whispered almost pleadingly Id rather be te wanted than needed Huldy retorted But th that's t ta a a riddle to you Yore bound to go Jenny asked still stin incredulous I am going In a little now Where An old friend of mine said Huldy lightly Hes been fishing down at Barts Soon's he gets his clothes changed hes he's coming to fetch me Jenny suddenly was almost happy It will hurt Will awful at first she decided speak speaking ng her thoughts aloud But hell he'll come to thank you ou With you gone maybe mabe he can be happy again Huldy's brows knotted and her lips Ups moved as though to speak but she se smiled then suddenly and she roseWell roseWell rose Well anyway Im I'm going Now get out she he said Eaid her hu tones rasping Go Goon Goon Goon on on back to that one-legged one man yore hot for Long as ilS Im I'm here this Is ray my kitchen and Ill I'll not have you in it Jt Go along with you Jenny turned without a word to the door Her very passivity seemed to drive the other woman into fury Huldy came to call can some lome black word at the girl departing but Jenny did not even turn her head In the barn she paused hearing behind hind her on the road down from the ridge the I beat of the feet I of running horses That would be Bart riding back to the farm in haste He must have left the wagon where it was was And as she emerged into the orchard she Ehe saw the h headlights of a car laborIng laborIng laboring labor- labor Ing up the hill and guessed this was the car which would bear Huldy away The stars tars were clear dear t the deep wood dark and comforting Jenny came home in peace She thought the valley vaney would be brighter with Huldy gone thought there was a rainbow promise in the starlit sky She had no least prevision that though Huldy might for a white while depar depart depart de de- par part yet she would presently return It was in October that Will was hurt and Seth Humphreys came to his end and Huldy went away Will stayed at Marm Mann Pierces Pierce's farm 4 till WI his leg was healed h and Jenny w was happy in attending him She gave cave him Huldy's message and h he received it uncomplainingly Natural for her to feel so so he de do elded No one-legged one man is good goodenough goodenough goodenough enough for her There was no bitterness in his tone but he saw w Jennys Jenny's loyal anger and be he said one that takes take a lot lotof of stock in the wa way folks look Jenny She was like a a cat always cleaning herself Took as itS much pleasure in herself as an old skinflint does docs in his money And she lived to have everyone around her the same Farm folk like us us were we're apt to kind of for get If It I r come into the house with b barn rn on my boots it always both ered erect her And he added I can see how bow shed she'd shed take this Anybody with two legs is 18 kind of at bound to feel that a man with only one leg is no DO good Its It's just like you'll youn shoot a horse that breaks its leg or get rid of 01 a crippled cat or dog Jenny faced aced by his stubborn loyalty loy lay alty to this woman who despite the fact that she had wrong wronged d and 2nd flouted him was wu still his wife felt nit felta nita a reluctant pride in him If It he had cursed Huldy he would not have been Will Forrin not the man she he had long loved So she said no word of blame for Huldy and the matter thereafter did not rise rile between them But Bart Carey Carel w was tactful till Will wm silenced him Jenny in the I kitchen heard them talking together heard Wills Will's slow tones at last Bart Bar he said strictly I dont don't want that kind of ol talk about Huldy She was used to ga gay times in Augusta and when I fetched her here it was bound to be hard on or her I dont don't blame her none Bart protested hotly You was mad enough yourself when you went after Seth So I was Will confessed He was a man and responsible But I dunno as I can blame Huldy Anyway Anyway Any Any- way not for leaving for leaving me now She was scared Bart insisted Scared for fe fear r you'd oud treat her the same as u you did him She knew it W was her due That's why she skinned out She had no cause to be scared of me said Will gently I wouldn't harm her And Bart you keep your tongue off oll her if it yore good friend to me And Jenny listening loved him bim more and more In the matter of Seth's death Will was held blameless s. s None had seen the beginning of the encounter between between be bew tween them but the mill men had seen and could testify that Seth shotWill shot shotWill Will and tried to shoot him again and Bart Ban could t testify that Seth had borrowed the gun gun as though the thing hing were premeditated So So though Will wm had to answer to the law he was presently free ree again and when he had learned the use we of a peg leg he went back to th the farm on the hill bill He dwelt dwell there alone that winter and Bart daily tramped up the steep road from his farm to take the heavier chores off the cripples cripple's hands but by February Will had become almost as nimble on his pegas peg pegas as he had used to be on his sound lound foot Only the work indoors he slighted as a a man aman man will and Jenny sometimes went to catch up loose o e ends end She had snowshoes and beat beata a a. trail through the woods Mann Marm Pierce may h have ve felt misgivings but she kept them to herself There w was in the the- girl a force not easy to oppose a driving force which sent her to Wills Will's side ide whenever he had need of other her And between them during these winter months a bond began to form form and no longer on Jennys Jenny's side alone Will never spoke his mind or heart to her nor she to him yet et to them both the thing was clear To him it was a trouble and deep concern From Huldy he had had no word yet to her he still was bound and would remain so if she chose He told Jenny this one day They approached the subject guardedly by long indirection naming Huldy not at all aU until at last hut Will said soberly Jen Jon no use our dodging around the thing Heres Here's my loo look at It it A Aman Aman Aman man might want to say Eay a woman want wInt his wife if it shed she'd acted wrong But I dont don't see lee it so The way WilY I see it it Im I'm bound bound any any mans man's bound- bound long aS as hes he's give his word And he said It looks to me the worse a woman is is the more she ahe is like to come to the time when she needs a husband to stand by her and look out for tor her A man if his wife ever come to him no matter what shed she'd done and said hed he'd gott gotto got gotto t to help her hr why it looks to me hed he'd have to Jenny assented without r reservations reserva lions but when she told M Mann irm m Pierce days later th this l word of t Wills Will's the old i woman said Irascibly That just like a man Once you vou get an Idee into the critters critters' h heads ads theres there's theres no knocking it out again A Aman's Amans Amans Aman's mans man's Worse than a a. a broody hen Only 1 sure way to break her is cut her head of oft off I. I Jenny urged proudly Will couldn't do different Granny You find end your Will WilU Marm Pierce ejaculated Yore as bad as him some wa ways s A woman like Huldy all she deserves is a knock on the head Stead of ot that you ou and him will go goon goon on eating your hearts beans out and shell she'll gad around with this one and that one Id I'd like Uke to lay y a hand on her once Id I'd trim her comb Yet the gi girl l was content and when wint winter r broke and the feeble pulse of spring began to flutter Jenny had come to toa a certain happiness She W was U happy In serving Will going almost daily to clean up the kitchen end cook a n batch of doughnuts or make biscuits or concoct a pie To see him to be bl alone with him was for the time bliss enough for her But when the frost was out of ot the gr ground und and plowing to be done the handicap under which Will must labor la Ia- bor bar began more fully to appear He was able to do the barn chores but field work presented problems hard to solve Bart and others helped him when they could but Wills Will's restless zeal sought an outlet in great works about the farm and the thc neighbor folk had their own tasks to do For this problem which Will faced laced chance brought what seemed a n fortunate fortunate for for- solution Toward the foot of the valley there was a farm long owned by old Fred Dace whose father fath lathe er and nd grandfather had dwelt there i before him and who lived there with i his son Nate But Nate had died a year or two before and this spring the old man likewise sickened and came to his quick end He had no kin about but there was a a ason son who four tour or or five years years before had ad gone west and this son now came home Zake Dace was a lean wiry man manin manin manin in his middle twenties who wore a wide brimmed hat of a western pattern pattern pat pat- tern and rode plow horses with a Q astock astock stock saddle and rolled with one hand and had a laughing ready tongue He had come home he said to stay The cow business was busted jabs on the range were h hard rd to find r But the Dace farm promised no great return from even e a vigorous cultivation and Will Ferrin lenin sent for Zeke and hired him as a hand Zeke and Will a Congenial Pair Jenny enny approved the arrangement She liked the newcomer and he and Will were from the first a congenial pair Zeke had acquired an alien color yet underneath bore borc still sUll the traces of ot his New England ancestry That battered old hat of his amused the folk olk h hereabout but it iL amused him himas as much as it did them He wore it with an played a game of cribbage crib crib- bage beige as keen as Wills Will's and the two young men they men they were nearly ne-arly of 01 an anage age age were were comfortable enough ugh in the the thc house howe there above the brook together to to- gether There were others who liked Zeke too Amy Barts Bart's sister r was one of them She was older than Jenny but not yet old enough to b begin gln to fade in that quick relentless fashion which hard farm work may impose upon a woman Since Huldy's Huldy departure whether by accident or not Bart had fewer boarders and Seth Humphreys' Humphreys Hum Humphreys steam teem mill was shut down abandoned and deserted now So Bart and Amy were m much ch alone and Bart Dart went often for tor a word with Will and Zeke Zek as u often otten came down the hill hUt to stand in the door doo of Amys Amy's kitchen and talk Wk with her a while He had a teasing laughing laughl g tongue that could whip color to her cheeks cheek but she liked it It and she he sometimes nursed happy dreams So this early summer in the valley vaney p passed serenely and Jenny was wa a part of this serenity She had hid no least w warning of what was wu to c come me To Be Bs Continued Monday Monda t |