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Updated: June 10, 2025
"If I tells Pa Satisfied that ye said that, Myry," muttered the boy, "he wouldn't wait for the law to handle Ben Letts he'd shoot his dum head offen him quicker than a cat can blink." "I knows a hull lot about you, Ezy," warned Myra, "and if ye tells on Ben, I tells on yer, too. I loves Ben Letts, I does!" "Bid him keep from Tess, then," answered Ezra sulkily, filling his arms with wood.
It had been several days since she had seen Myra's little son. The troubles of Daddy Skinner had taken up every moment of her time. "Mebbe," grunted Myra unemotionally; "he howls like a sick pup from mornin' till night." "I air a goin' home with ye, Myry," assured Tessibel; "he won't yap when I sings to him." The lake had risen over the strip of beach, its waters freezing against the rocks.
"Yep, she liked it, 'Satisfied'," she murmured, "an' I told 'er all about the singin' in Heaven. She hadn't thought Ben Letts might be there with Myry an' the brat.... Most folks ain't knowin' how awful long the forgivin' arm of Jesus air." And kissing the old squatter once more, Tessibel started homeward.
"Ben air too sick to get up," she explained awkwardly, presenting each girl a chair, "I said as how ye couldn't come, Tessibel, but Ben said Myry were to bring ye." From the back room came the sound of belabored breathing and a hoarse voice called for Tessibel. The squatter girl rose to her feet, her color changing from red to white.
Trying the latch, it lifted in her fingers, and she crept stealthily through the narrow aperture, encircling the child with her left arm. "Ben!" she whispered. "Ben!" The squatter turned, muttering sleepily. "Mammy! What be the matter, Mammy?" The fresh night air startled him. "Who air it?" he demanded hoarsely. "Myry," breathed the woman again.
She drew back, seeing Myra's seamed face, white and drawn. "Ye be sick, Myry?" "Nope!" "Air it the brat, then?" "Nope, it air Ben Letts. He were hurt by the Brindle Bull at Kennedy's Farm. Ezy and 'Satisfied' found him near dead on the tracks and took him home." Tess stood waiting, wide-eyed, without a word.
It were the worst storm of the year. No wonder him, Myry an' their brat all was drowned." Longman, coming out of the shack, overheard the last remark. The other two fell silent. After he'd sat down again, he dissipated their embarrassment by saying, "But Tess says Myry air happy now 'cause she air got Ben. Fer myself, I dunno, though. But, if Myry air satisfied, me an' ma air satisfied, too."
Tessibel's clear hearing could detect an unmistakable smack from the babe. "What did ye come for, Ezy?" she asked. "Air Myry all right, and yer ma?" "Yep. I come to see ye to-day. Ben Letts says as how ye air a-goin' to marry him some time. Did ye tell him that?" "Did he tell yer that?" asked Tess, instead of answering the boy's question. "Nope.
He knows he ain't never give her no bringin's up, that's why." "Some folks has give their kids bringin's up," interposed Ben Letts with a glance at the third man, who was industriously cleaning fish and had not yet spoken. "And they hain't turned out no better than Tessibel will." At this the industrious one turned. "I spose ye be a hittin' at my poor Myry, Ben," he muttered.
Once the boat lurched mightily, and Myra gave a frightened cry, wedging the child between her knees. Higher and higher rolled the waves. "We hev got to bail the water out," yelled Ben. "Bail, Myry, while I rows." The mother grasped the sleeping child tighter between her knees, and began to throw the water into the lake. Suddenly a great wave half filled the boat.
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