Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-02-09


tdtake me, with fhe Frazer farm thrown
in, you cannot altogether have cast me
out Of .yOur own synagogue"
NV upa begin Is tremb1e. I could moi
comma then long enOugh tOap1ak the
words which came in torrent.
The garish daylight, my calico gown,
and Stevens Tick bo0ts-all these com.
mon things u1ppe6 any romance there
might be about the subject Of our talk,
and woye spell Of silence about me. II
he had 20 much as offered TO touch my
hand, or even my dress, could, perhaps,
have probed his seeming carelessness, and,
by some lucky circumlOcution, OWNED
whether he was chooseing me for house
keeper, as the Frazars chose their wives.
or a. that other part Of himself, without
which his life would ever after be lame
and incomplete. n
The clock licked great many times as
Isn't motionless under his eye, inwardly
torn with warnings for that one word OF
love which never came.
( You have nothing to say to me just
now ?" he asked, at last.
/ shook my head. He made one step
forward, and it seemed TO me that he half
put out his arms, then turned suddenly on
his heel and went away.
YOU'D better stop here TO tea on your
way home" called my mother, from the
pantry window, but she got no answer
that was audible. to me.
What did / care for the Frazar farm, OF
doing better than my sisters? What l
hungered and thirsted for was love in such
measure as should bring Steven TO my
side and make him blind to the existence
of all other women. though l were the
veriest incapable that ever man bound like
q milestone about his neck. l would have
taken him Just - cheerfnlly, and worked
fol. him all my days, If he had been help
less cripple He knew that loved him |;
he must have often read the dreadful fact
in every line Of my face, when he had
given me one Of his unexpected up-loOks.
Steven and had fallen into dangerous
habit of watching each other very early in
life. He, was my balance by which to
weigh other men. When he went away
to school and college, / gave him up for
lost. Then his father died, and he came
home to spend his life on the old farm.
Many people called it q sacrifice, but he
prOfessed never to have had any other in
tention. "A little learning" did not prove
"a dangerous thing" when applied to
crops. gg3a Hsf a A fs.
Ii was rather pleasant thought, after
ALL when came to digest 1t, that 81 have
every quality which he desired in wife"
but il had lacked one or two Of the use
full ones, would he have enough in his
heart to supply their place. There was
the rub
Mother looked in and found me sitting
as Steven had left me. started up with
q blush worthy of Uncle Shubael,
"Therc are the early apples to sort" she
said, suggestivcly.
ITO be sure" said I, "and I'm the wo-
man to sort them SO thoroughly that there
won't be one left for seed
1t was Just like her to send me and my
to have 1t out together in
some shady corner of the yard.
did my duty vigorously by the apples,
but kept up terrible thinking withal-
how Steven Frazar had walked home with
me from singing school, about a month be-
fore this time, in the most delicious moon
light, without so much as offering his arm,
or pausing a moment under the apple-tree
to 1engthen his goodbye. If he had such
q thing as a wedding on his mind, then
was the time of all others to mention it,
And week later, when there was no
moon, but one could see the Pleiades
{" Glitter like swarm Of nrcnies tangled in sill
yer braid, /"
he had taken me in his beach wagon to q
party at distant farm house, going In the
afternoon and returning In the most per-
feet Of mellow evenings. u,
He had seemed so much more conscious
Of my existence than usual on that after
noon, that hope dawned in my heart that
he would speak that night If ever he meant
to do so. {it8fgH.f @
We were driving through belt Of 0dor-
Gus pine woods, talking with flashes of
silence" when we overlook O woman driv-
ing q lsggard horse, and working her pas
sage with whip. She spoke to Steven,
and proved to be one of his neighbors go.
ing to watch with q sick sister.
"I'll take you there in half the time, If
you'll get In with us, and send your boy
back with your team" said Steven, almost
eagerly. gs4
The woman (could it be that she was re-
ally a woman, 80 to dash my cup Of happi-
ness from my lipsD accepted the offer
readily.
Her sister might have been as sick as
"Simon Peters wife's mother !" but II she
had ever known STA E# n
"a dearer one
Still, and nearer one
Yet than all other,"
she would have chung to her own wagon,
and let us 60 on our way alone.
l realized, however, before ] had poured
out all my walls of wrath upon her, that 1t
was Steven who had made the offer and be-
trayed his total indifference to the sweet
loneliness which had been gathering round
us among the pines.
7 am glad had the grace to make talk
with the troublesome old woman, and TO
listen with interest to the whole course OF
her. sisters illness, from the very. first
symptom.
had my reward when Steven lifted me
down at our gate, and she said;
you're your mothers own gal You
hain't never let me feel that two's q COM
pany and three's crowdi"
Steven had walked up the long path
with me to carry my shawl, and might
have said just word them woman can
live long on only word. II 1t be loving
enough-but he almost threw the shawl
across my arm, and ran down the path a.
If he were glad to be we'll rid of me.
As "piled Ossa on Pelion," In my
thoughts against the possibility of bis