Show THE YEE BRANDING IRON It an SYNOPSIS joan randl s eighteen years old wife of pierre Is the daughter of john carver who murdered her m other mother for adultery her lonely life with her father in a wyoming cabin cabin unbearable joan leaves leave him to work in a hotel tot in a nearby town joan meets pierre and the two mutually attracted are married CHAPTER IV 3 the sin buster binter in the tall fall when the whole country had turned to a great cup of gold purple rimmed under the sky alry went out into the hills after ills his winter meat joan was left alone she spent ebent her time cleaning and arranging the two room cabin and tidying up outdoors and in grubbing sagebrush a gigantic task for the one hundred and fifty acres of pierres Pl erros homestead were covered for the most part by the sturdy spicy growth and every bush had to be dug out and burrit burnt to clear the way tor for plowing and planting joan worked will the deliberateness and intentness of a man she enjoyed the wholesome drudgery she was proud every sundown ot of the little clearing site she had made and stood tired and content to watch the piled brush bum sending up aromatic smoke and curious dull flames very high into the still air she was so standing hands folded on her rake when on the other side of her conflagration she perceived a L man ile he was steadily regard regarding ln her and when her eyes fell upon him he smiled and stepped forward a tall proad broad very fair young roan man in a shooting coat khaki riding breeches and puttees put tees he had bad fl a wide brow clear blue eyes and an eager se sensitive native clean shaven mouth and chin lie ile held out a big white hand band mrs landis lie he said in a crisp va voice fee of an accent and finish strange to the girl 1 I wonder if you and your husband can put me up for the night im frank hollawell Holl HoIl lwell livell rm im on a round of parish visits and as my parish Is about sixty nilles miles square my poor old pony has gone lame I 1 know you are arc not my parishioners though no doubt you should be but pin im going to lay claim to your hospitality for all that it if I 1 arsay joan had moved her rake into the grasp of her left hand and had bad taken the proffered palm into her other all warm and fragrantly stained youre the new oln gln buster aint ri bres for the registration area durif ind ahe corresponding years and light thrown on the possible factors by co cog of the age periods of 11 where these changes biere ere most p pr go bounced noun ced I 1 ry greatest at childbearing child chila bearing ago age it Is shon that among white ply p ly sons 1 ons tile excess of female mortal list ts 1 entirely limited to the ages id twenty to thirty four in 1921 and ler fifteen to thirty four in 1020 1920 amor the negroes it occurred between lie alpy ages of nt len en and thirty tour four in ae ten and four in 1919 and out ou and thirty four in 1020 after age a ivirty five the male mortality has coel co by katharine newlin burt copyright by katharine N burt that has got to bo be like they are joan was talking a groat great deal and having trouble with tier her few simple words but I 1 like folks in stories to look like I 1 want lern em to look not the way the writer describes them yes sir gut but you can make up a N whole hole lot on what the writer describes it II he says ears her eyes Is blue you can see em ein dark blue or light blue or jest blue an you can see em cm shaped round or what not tile the way you think about folks that youve heard ot of are an have never met eno it was extraordinary how this effort at self expression excited joan slie site was waa rarely self relf conscious but she was usually passive or stolid now there was a brilliant flush in her face and her large ebes es es deepened and glowed glo weil 1 I heerd tell of you mr hollawell Holl lwell fetters fellers come come up tip here to see pierre in a while an one or two of ern em spoke your name an I 1 kinder fig figured u red out nut you yon was wag ft a weedy feller awful solomn solemn like tin an ot of course yon on aint but its real hard for me to notion that there nent two str mr you an the weedy sin buster ive ben like as not ill get to of you icke two fetters fellers joan sighed seems ake tike when I 1 get a notion in nay my head it jest sticks there some way then the more wise wire notions you get the better ill ride up here in a couple of weeks time with some books you may keep them as long as you will all winter it you like when I 1 can get up here we can talk them over you and landis andi and I 1 ill I 1 I 1 try to choose some without pictures there will be stories and some poetry too 1 I aint never read but one pome said joan and that was she sat down on the floor by the hearth her liend thrown back to lean against the cobbles ot of the chimney piece herkness her knees locked in her hands bands that magnificent long throat of hers ran up to the blac biaca k colls coils of hair wh which tell had slipped heavily down over her ears the light edged her round chin and her strongly modeled regular features the full firm mouth so savagely pure and sensuous and relf pelf the eyes were mysterious under thel their Z uva beza P 1 I fetch you up here her to read parsons Par tona books an waste wast oil thick lashes and dark long brows this throat and face and these strong hands bands were picked out in their full value of line and texture from the dark cotton dress she was wearing rearing its a pome on a card what fattier father had stuck agan the wall she began to recite her eyes fixed upon him with childlike gravity ile he mabeth me to lie down in green pastures lie ile merdeth me beside the still waters yea though I 1 walk through tile the valley of shadows thou art wl with th me thy rod and thy staff they comfort me hollawell Holl lwell had taken the pipe from bet between iteen his teeth had straightened up her deep voice the slight swinging of tier her body to the rhythm ism she hal tin lin consciously given to her lines the strange glow in her ey eyes hot U lawell ell wondered why these things this brief singsong sing song ong recitation had bad given rs a light thrill to 0 o the surface of ills his skin had sent a tingling to his fanger alps lie was the first person to t wonder at that effect of joans cadenced music the valley of the shadow she had bad missed a familiar phrase and added value to a n tor too often repented repeated line jonn jonn ald the sin bubber an exclamation drawn from him on a deep breath what an extraordinary girl you rl arel what a marvelous marve loos woman you are going to be joan booked at him in a silence of pure astonishment and that was the end of their real talk CHAPTER V pierre Be se connet corres alarmed about his hl property the next time came he brought the books and finding pierre at home he sat with his host best after supper and talked mens talk of the country of game of a little gossip stories of travel bu humorous humo rou x f perl perlener per lences enem find and joan sat in her plaes the books in her lap looking and listening john carver had used n phrase ase when you see her eyes lookin an lookin nt at another man and this phrase had stuck in pierres sensitive and jealous memory what joan felt for noll lwell was a sort of ignorant and respectful tenderness the excitement of nn an intelligent child first moved to a krim knowledge ledge of its own intelligence the gratitude of savage loneliness toward tho the beautiful feet of exploration A consciousness of her clean mind a consciousness of her young untamed spirit had come slowly to life in her since ild he talk with hollawell Holl lwell joan was peculiarly a woman that Is the passive and receptive being pierre had bad laid his hand on her hea heart and she had followed him now this young parson had bad put a curious finger on nn tier her brain it followed him iier her husband saw the admiration the gratitude the tender excitement in tier her frank eyes and the poison seed sown by john carvers hand shot out roots trind tiny deadly branches but joan and HoIl lwell were unaware pierre smoked rapidly rollin rolling cigarette after cigarette lie ile lis teneil with a courteous nari lie he told stories in his soft slows slow voice once he went out to bring brine in a fresh log and coming back on noiseless feet saw joan and her instructor bent over one of the books and joans face was almost that of a stranger so eager so bushed lu shed with sparkles in the usually still gray eyes it was not till a week or two after this second visit from the clergyman that pierres rie smoldering jealousy broke into flame after clearing away the supper things with an n absent air of eager expectation joan would dry tier her hands on her apron and taking down one of lief lie books from their place ina shelf corner cornar she would draw her chair close clogs to the lamp and begin to read forgetful of pierre these had been the happiest hours for him he would tell joau about his days day work about his plans about his post past life wonderful it was to him after his loneliness that she should be sitting there drinking in every word and loving him with her dumb wild eyes now there was no talk and no listening joans absorbed face was turned from him and bent over tier her book her lips moved she would stop and stare before her after a long while he would get up anti and got to bed but she would stay with her books till a restless movement from him would make her aware of the lamplight shining wakefulness wakeful nesa upon him through the chinks in the partition wall then she would get up reluctantly sighing and come to bed for ten evenings this went on pierres Pl errea heart slowly heating beating itself until all at once the flame leaped joan had untied her apron and reached up for her book pierre had been waiting hoping that of her tree free will she might prefer his comp company any to the parson fellers for in his ignorance those books were jealousy personified soni fied but without a glance in his direction she had bad turned as usual to the shelf you coln to reada rend asked pierre hoarsely it was a painful effort to she turned with a childish look of astonishment yes tes Il pierre erre ile he stood up with one of his lithe swift movements all in one rippling piece by G d d youre riot not though 1 said he strode over to her snatched the volume from her threw it lack back in into to its place and pointed her to her chair you set down an give heed to me fer a change joan carr carer r he said his smoke colored eyes smoldering 1 I fetch you up here to read parsons books an waste oil I 1 fetched yo you u up here to ile he stopped choked with a sudden enormous hurt tell tenderness berness and sat down and fell to ro smoking and staring hot bot eyed into the fire and joan sat sliest in her place puzzled wistful wounded her idle hands folded looking at him for a while then hen absently before her and lie he knew that her mind was busy again with the preacher fetters fellers books if ile he had known better how to explain ills his heart if she had bad known how low to show him bilm the impersonal eagerness of her awakening mind I 1 but savage and silent they sat gat there loving ea each ch other hurt hut but locked each into his own oun impenetrable life after that joan changed the hours of her study and neglected housework und and sagebrush grubbing but nonetheless were viere pierres evenings spoiled when he be talked lie he could not escape the consciousness of having constrained ills his audience she could not escape her knowledge of his I 1 jealousy the remembrance of his mysterious outbreak the irrepressible tug of the story abe afas reading so it went on till snow came and they were shut in man and wife with only each other to watch a tremendous test of good fellowship this searching came at a bad time just after hoell wells third visit when lie had brought a fresh supply of books TO BE 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