THE QUARREL OVER THE DEER

 

 

            When Lem knocked Penny against the barn wall, saying, "That'll learn you to lie to me and sneak off that-a-way! Wa'n't goin' after the buck, huh?" and Buck and Mill-wheel came hurrying, suppose Penny instead said, " Cain't be the same buck! They was nowheres near each other! Gittin' this buck was pure happen-so!"

            Lem said, "You're lyin'!"

            In rising panic, Penny said, "I ain't lyin'! I...got no way to prove it to you, but I ain't!" Increasingly frantically, he looked from Buck to the left of Lem to Mill-wheel to the right; they looked stern...and torn. Penny muttered fervently, "Oh lord, not agin!" Then, he pleaded with all three, "Please not agin! I ain't fightin'! I'll not fight back! Don't!!" He begged Buck and Mill-wheel with his eyes, searching back and forth between them, trying to see them as his former life-savers...rather than as his former tormentors in that calamitous fight. The trouble was, they were both, and both memories and inclinations were clearly in their eyes now. He raised open hands self-defensively in front of his face. "No no no no no no no no no!" The hands trembled, and Lem grinned at the sight.

            "So, not so bold with us this time, eh?"

            "No! Not no more! Never agin!" He caught worrisome motion out of the corner of his eye, and yelled in alarm, "Jody! Stay clear!"

            Lem whirled to see the boy nearly within reach, but the child was backpedaling fast.

            "Don't hit Jody! Please! Don't risk it!"

            "What you mean, risk it?" demanded Lem.

            Penny's voice dropped to a whisper, "Don't risk his life. We a'most lost him th'other time. He was out cold for so long, so many hours."

            Buck and Mill-wheel looked disconcerted at that. Lem looked smug.

            Meanwhile, Ory had fetched Penny's gun, and was now aiming it, tremblingly, at Lem.

            Mill-wheel caught the motion of her act in his peripheral vision, spun amazingly fast for such a big man, and knocked the rifle flying out of her hands. She cringed as he advanced on her, sticking his finger aggressively in her face. He roared at her, "Me and Buck're Penny's friends, but we're Lem's brothers! Iffen you was to shoot and kill our brother, me and Buck'd put aside that you're a woman, and we'd beat you same's iffen you was a man! You understand me?!"

            Utterly cowed, Ory nodded wordlessly, backed away, and made no attempt to retrieve the gun from the ground where it lay. She gripped the doorframe of the cabin to try to steady herself, and her face was deathly pale.

            Buck's no-nonsense expression echoed Mill-wheel's words.

            "Lord, Ory!" Penny exclaimed. "You'll git us in worse trouble yit!" To the Forresters, he pleaded, "She ain't really meant no harm, fellers; she really cain't shoot straight anyways. She jest panicked. Please forgive her!"

            Buck stated firmly, "Nothin' like that better ever happen agin!"

            "It'll not!" Then Penny lowered his voice and admitted ashamedly, "I'm scared, too. It hurts too much. Please don't."

            Now, Buck's and Mill-wheel's expressions changed to pure concern for their friend.

            "Please! Don't beat me no more! I shouldn'ta got into it that day! I don't never wanta do that agin! I...don't b'long in your fights! Neither do Jody! I figger you-all knowed that then. And we had to learn it the hard way. Please! We surrender! We both surrender!" Anxiety reigned in Penny's pale, frightened face. As if drained of volume by his intense fright, his words dropped to a whisper, "Let me go! Please, let me go!"

            Now, compassion ruled both bearded men's faces. Lem looked pleased and smug, ...but relaxed his stance, satisfied.