Show THE DRUMMER SPRAWLED INTO THE DITCH LIZ AND JIM ED by CHARLES G D ROBERTS copyright by joseph B collea Cow lea the oxen lean and rough haired or ot them carroty red the other b t ie and white were slouching luf y along the narrow backwoods roa from habit they sagged beav lly the yoke and groaned huge although the vehicle they were hauling held no load this structure the mere skeleton of a cart consisted of two pairs or broad tired wheels united by a long tongue of ash whose tip waa tied with a rope to the of tha forward axle the road looked innocent of even the least ot the country road master s well meaning attempts at repair a circumstance indeed which should perhaps be set to its credit ft was made up of four deep parallel ruts the two outermost eroded by years of journeying cart wheels the inner ones worn the companioning companio ning hoofs of many a oke of oxen down the center ran high and grassy ridge intolerable to he country parson and the country octor compelled to traverse this highway in their one horse wagons from ruts and ridges alike protruded the imperishable granite boulder bowlder bow lder which wheels and feet might polish out never efface on either side of the roadway was traced an erratic furrow professing to do duty tor a drain and at intervals emptying a playful current across the track to wander down the ruts along beside the slouching team slouched a tall lank stoop dered youth the white down lust beginning to stiffen into bristles on his long upper lip his pale eyes and pale hair looked yet paler by con with his thin red wind roughened face in his band he carried a long handled ox whip with a short goad in the butt of it gee buck he drawled prod ding the near ox lightly in the ribs and the team lurched to the right to avoid a markedly obtrusive boulder bowlder bow lder haw bright he ejaculated a minute later flicking with bis whip the off shoulder of the farthest ox and with sprawling legs and swaying of hand quarterma the team swerved obediently to the left shunning a mire hole that would have taken in the wheel to the hub presently corn ing to a swampy spot that stretched all the way across the road the youth seated himself on the narrow tongue connecting the fore and bind axles and drove his team do shod it was a slow and crea klug ress but there seemed to be no hurry and the youth dreamed gloom lly on his jolting perch hla eyes took no note of the dark scrubby hillocks the rough clearings blackened with fire the confused contused cont used and ragged woods as they crept past in somber procession kut suddenly as the cart rounded a turn in the road there camo into view the figure of a girl traveling in the same direction the young man from bis perch and prodded up the oxen to a brisk walk As the noise of the team approached her the girl looked around she waa good to see with her straight vigorous young figure in its blue gray homespun gown jica hair in color not far from that of the red ox was rich and abundant and lay in that not even a coll BO gracious tae tawdry millinery of her cheap storo hat could make her head commonplace her baca faca look quite was freckled but wholesome and comely A shade 0 passed over it as she saw who was behind her and she hastened her steps perceptibly but presently she ro that she had a good five miles to go ere aba would reach her destination and she realized that she could not hope to escape by flight with a pout of vexation ehe leagued herself to the in vatable and stopped back into her cormer 1 S pace immediately tha ox team overtook her As the oxen slowed up she stepped to the right to let them pass and then walked on thus placing the cart between herself and her unde alred companion the youth looked disconcerted by these tactics and tor a few moments could find nothing to say then dropping his long white lashes sheepishly he murmured good day liz well jim ed replied the girl coolly wont ye set on an let me give ye a lift home he asked with en treaty in his voice no she said with finality id ruther walk not knowing how to answer this rebuff he tried to cover his embarrass ment by exclaiming authoritatively haw bright whereupon the team slewed to the left and crowded him into the ditch soon he began again ye might set on liz he pleaded yes I 1 might said she with what she considered rather withering smart ness but I 1 aint a coln to ye 11 be tired acore ye git home he persisted encouraged by finding that she would talk back at him james ed akl son she declared with emphasis it ye think I 1 m a coln to be beholden to you for a lift home ye re mistaken that s all after this there was silence tor some time broken only by the rat and bumping of the cart and once by the whirr of a woodcock that volleyed across the road young she gently bound the wound atkinson chewed the cud of gloomy bewilderment at length he roused to another effort liz said he plaintively y aint been like ye used to sence ye come back from tho states aint I 1 she remarked indifferently no ye aint be repeated with a sort of pathetic emphasis as if eager to persuade himself that she had condescended con to rebut hla acau Y aln t been like ye used to at all appears like aa it ye thought us folks in the settlement gasn wasn t good enough ye now at this the girl tossed her hl I 1 crossly I 1 it appears like as if yo wanted 0 be back tn the states agin be con in a voice of interrogation my lands exclaimed ine girl but yere green to the young man this seemed auch an irrelevant remark that be was silent for some time striving to fathom ita significance As bla bead sank lower and lower and be seemed to loce complete ir doylew the girl shot occasional glanceau at him out of the comers of her eyes she had spent the preceding winter la a factory in a crude but stirring little new england town and had come back to iova content with the monotony of life la the backwoods seclusion of ayera set clement tl ement before she went away she had been to use the vernacular of the settlement keehln keep ln company with jim ed ahlson and now to her the young man seemed to unite and concentrate in his person all that she bad been wont to persuade herself she had outgrown to be sure she not seldom caught herself back comfortably into the old conditions but these symptoms stirred in her heart an uneasy resentment akin to that she felt whenever as would happen at times she could not help recognizing zing that jim ed and his affairs were not without a passing interest in her eyes now she began to grow barly angry at him because as she thought he badat nothing to say ter himself sadly to bis disadvantage she compared his simplicity and honest diffidence with te bold self assertion and abay of the young fellows with whom she had come in contact during the winter their had offended her grievously at the time but womanlike she permitted her self to forget that now in order to accentuate the deficiencies ot the man whom she was unwilling to think well of my lands she reiterated to her self with accumulated scorn but aln t he green he why he wouldn t know a car from a water ln cart an soft too taken all my sa s phout me no lip back no more n if I 1 was his mother but the young man presently broke in upon these unflattering reflections with a sigh he said slowly as if half to himself lands but I 1 used to net a powerful store by ye liz he paused and at that used to tha girl opened her eyes with angry apprehension but he went on an I 1 set still more store by ye now liz seem like I 1 jest coulden couldn t alvo without ye I 1 always did feel as how ye was too good a sight too good ter me an you so smart an now I 1 feel it more n ever abeln s yeve seen so much of the world like but liz I 1 don t allow as ha right an proper ter even you to look down the way ye do on the place ye was born in an the folks 50 was beung up with my thought the girl to herself he s got some spunk after all to git off such a speech as that an to rake me over the coals toot but aloud she retorted chos alook ln down on anybody jim ed akl son an you aint the whole of settlement bo ye the justice of this retort seemed to strike the young man with great force so he acknowledged gloomily course I 1 aint an I 1 spose I 1 aughter oughter said what I 1 did then he relapsed into silence for half a mile he slouched on without a sellable save an occasional word of command addressed to the team coming to another boggy bit of road he seated himself dejectedly on the cart and apparently would not presume to aaen press unwelcome as sl stance apic his fellow wayfarer quite uncertain whether to interpret this action as excess of humility or as a severe the girl picked her way as best she could flushed with a sense of injury when tho mud was passed the young man absent kept his seat beginning to boll with alon the girl speedily lost her conn dent superiority and felt humiliated she did not know what to do she could not continue to walk beside the cart the situation was profoundly altered by the fact that the young man was riding she tried to drop behind but the team had an in finite capacity for loitering at last with head high in the air she darted ahead of the team and walked as fast as eho could although she heard no orders given by their driver she knew at once that the oxen bad quickened their pace and that she was not leaving them behind presently ale found herself overtaken whereupon with swelling heart and face averted she dropped again to the rear she was drawing peril bously near the verge of that feminine cataclysm tears when fate stepped in to save her from such a alon fate goes about in many merry als guises at this juncture she presented herself under the aspect of two halt tipsy commercial tri velera driving a single horse in a light open trap they were driving in from the settlement in baste to reach the hotel at bolton corners before night fall the auth cawed hawed bis team vigorously till the nigh wheels were on the other aide of the ditch loav ing a liberal share of the road for them to pass in but the drummers were not satis fled with this after a glance at the bashful face and dejected attitude of the young man on the ox cart they decided that they wanted the whole road when their horses head almost touched the horns of the off ox they stopped get out of the way there cried the man who held the reins insolently at any other almo jim ed would have resented the town mans tone and words just now be was thinking about the way liz had changed I 1 ve gl n ye the beat half 0 the road mister he said n I 1 cant do no better fer ye than that yes you can too shouted the driver of the trap you can give us the whole road it won t hurt your old cart to go out in the stumps but we aln t going to drive in the ditch not by a get over I 1 tell you and be quick about it to this the youth made no immediate reply but he began to forget about the girl and to feel growing hot As for the girl she had stepped to the front resolved to show ott and to make very manifest to the city men her scorn for her companion her and eyo were flaming and the drummers were not slow to respond to the challenge which she flashed at them from under her drooped lids ah there my beauty said the driver his attention for a moment dl averted from the question of right ot way his companion a smallish man in striped trousers and fawn colored overcoat sprang lightly out ot the trap with the double purpose of clearing the road and amusing himself with liz the saucy smile with which she met him turned into a frown however as he began brutally kicking the knees of the oxen to make them stand over the patient brutes crowded into the ditch whoa there gee buck gee bright ordered the youth and the team lurched back into the road at the same time he stepped over the cart beam and came forward on the off side of the team better quit that mister be exclaimed with a threatening note in hla voice give the lout a slap in the mouth and make him get out of the way cried the man la the trap but the man in the fawn colored coat was busy liz was much to bis taste jump in and take a ride with us my pretty said he but liz shrank away regretting her provocative glances now that she saw the kind of men she had to do with come come coaxed the man dont be shy my blooming daisy well arlye you right in to the corners and set up a good time tor you and grasping her hand he slipped an arm about her waist and tried to kiss her lips As she tore herself fiercely away she heard the man in the james ed ahlson AK lson if yc think im agoan tp be beholden to you yere mistaken trap laugh loud approval she struck at her insulter with clenched band but she did not touch him or just then something happened to him the long arm of the youth went out like a can non ball and the drummer sprawled in the ditch he nimbly picked himself up and darted upon his assailant while the man in the trap shouted to him encouragingly give it to him pretty mike but the young countryman caught him by the neck with long viselike vise like fingers inexorable and holding him thus helpless at arms length struck him again heavily in the ribs and hurled him over the ditch into a blueberry thicket where he remained in dazed discretion though of a iamb like gentleness on ordinary occasions the young countryman was renowned throughout the settlement for the astonishing strength that lurked in his lean framo at this moment he was well aroused and liz found herself watching him with a consuming admiration he no longer slouched and his pale eyes like polished deteel shot a menacing gleam he stepped forward and took the horse by the bridle now said bo to the driver I 1 ve gl n ye halt the roid an if ye can t drive by in that im to lead ye by phout no more nonsense let go that bridle yelled tho driver standing up and lashing at him with the whip one stroke caught the young man down the side of the face and stung it was a rash stroke hold the horses head liz he cried and leaping forward he reach ed into the trap for his adversary heeding not at all the butt end of the whip which was brought down furl bously upon his head be wrenched the driver from his seat spun him around shook him aa if he had been a rig baby and hurled him violently against a rotten stump on the other side of the ditch the sum gave way and the drummer splashed into a bog hole nothing cows a man more quickly than a shading combined with a duck ing without a word the drummer hauled himself out of the slop and walked sullenly forward his compan ion joined him and liz leadens the horse and trap carefully past tho cart delivered them up to their owners with a smile on her lips then she resumed br place bealco the cart the oung man flicked the oxen gently and ade team mon got slowly under way As the discomfited drummer climbed into their trap the girl in th ardor of her suddenly adopted hero worship could not retrain from turn ing around again to triumph avci them when the men were fairly fedt ed and the reins gathered up for prompt departure the smaller man turned suddenly and threw a large stone with vindictive energy and dead ly aim look out shrieked the girl and the young countryman turned aside just in time to escape the full force of tho missile it grazed the side 0 bis head however with such as to bring him to hla knees and the blood spread throbbing out of the long cut like a scarlet veil the drummers whipped their borse to a gallop and disappeared the girl first stopped the team a country side instinct d ciha was at the young mans side sobbing with anxious fear just as be staggered blindly to his feet seating him on the cart she proceeded to stanch the bleeding with the edge of her gown observing this he protested and declared that the cut was nothing but she would not be gainsaid gain said and be yielded apparently well content under her hands then tearing a strip from her colored cotton petticoat she gently bound up the wound not artistically perhaps but in every way to hla |