Judith of the Cumberlands

								

old Jephthah but half appeased.
"I reckon a little touch of law now an' agin won't hurt yo' boys," put in
Nancy Card smoothly. "My chaps always tuck to law like a duck to water. I
reckon I ain't got the right sympathy fer them that has lawless young
'uns."
"Yo' Pony was arrested afore Andy and Jeff," Judith remarked suddenly,
without any apparent malice. "He was the first one I seen comin' down the
road, and Dan Haley behind him a-shootin' at him."
Jephthah Turrentine forebore to laugh. But he deliberately drew out his
old pipe again, filled it and stepped inside for a coal with which to
light it.
"Mebbe yo' sympathies will be more tenderer for me in my afflictions of
lawless sons after this, Nancy," he called derisively over his shoulder.
"Hit's bound to be a mistake 'bout Pony," declared the little old woman
in a bewildered tone. "Pone ain't but risin' sixteen, and he's the
peacefullest child----"
"Jest what I would have said about my twin lambs," interrupted old
Jephthah with twinkling eye, as he appeared in the doorway drawing
mightily upon the newly lighted pipe, tossing his great beard from side
to side of his mighty chest. "My chaps is all as peaceful as kittens; but
some old woman gits to talkin' and gives 'em a bad name, and it goes from
lip to lip that the Turrentine boys is lawless. Hit's a sad thing when a
woman's tongue is too long and limber, and hung in the middle so it works
at both ends; the reppytations hit can destroy is a sight."
"But a body's own child--they' son! They' bound to stan' up for him,
whether he's in the right or the wrong," maintained Nancy stoutly.
"Huh," grunted Jephthah, "offspring is cur'ous. Sometimes hit 'pears like
you air kin to them, and they ain't kin to you. That Pony boy of your'n
is son to a full mealsack; he's plumb filial and devoted thataway to a
dollar, if so be he thinks you've got one in yo' pocket. The facts in the
business air, Nancy, that you've done sp'iled him tell he's plumb rotten,
and a few of the jailings that you so kindly ricommend for my pair won't
do him no harm."
Nancy tossed up her head to reply; but at the moment a small boy,
followed by a smaller girl, coming around the corner of the house,
created a diversion. The girl, a little dancing imp with a frazzle of
flying red hair and red-brown eyes, catching sight of Judith ran to her
and flung herself head foremost in the visitor's lap, where Judith cooed
over her and cuddled her, rumpling the bright hair, rubbing her crimson
cheek against the child's peachy bloom.
"Little Buck and Beezy," said Nancy Card, addressing them both, "Yo' unc'
Pony's in jail. What you-all goin' to do about it?"
The small brown man of six stopped, his feet planted wide on the sward,
his freckled face grave and stern as became his sex.
"Ef the boys goes down for to git him out, I'm goin' along," Little Buck
announced seriously. "Is they goin', granny?"