Crestfallen Nelse returned to the officer.
“Wall sah, deys er kinder hitch in de perceedins.”
“What’s the matter?”
“She ’low I got ter come cotin’ her fust. En I spec I is.”
The officer laughed and returned to his home. She made Nelse sleep in the barn for three weeks, court her an hour every day, and bring her five cents worth of red stick candy and a bouquet of flowers as a peace offering at every visit. Finally she made him write her a note and ask her to take a ride with him. Nelse got Charlie to write it for him, and made his own boy carry it to his mother. After three weeks of humility and attention to her wishes, she gave her consent, and they were duly married again.
CHAPTER IX—A MASTER OF MEN
THE first Monday in October was court day at Hambright, and from every nook and corner of Campbell county, the people flocked to town.
The court house had not yet been transformed into the farce-tragedy hall where jail birds and drunken loafers were soon to sit on judge’s bench and in attorney’s chair instead of standing in the prisoner’s dock. The merciful stay laws enacted by the Legislature had silenced the cry of the auctioneer until the people might have a moment to gird themselves for a new life struggle.