The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-06-25


Fred perched upon huge baggage-wagOr
laden with household goods, slowly wend
ing their way along the high-road that
girt with narrow prairies and charming
Oak-openings, stretches from the shores o.
Lake Michigan further west.
Winter had passed, and the wild spring
winds had swept across the prairies tide
after tide of fantastic bloom. In the
town the gardens were at their brightest
Along the white-fenced streets the villa
like cottages were embowered in flower
ing vines. The air was fragrant with the
delicious breath of roses and honeysuck
les, and more than ever fragrant at that
hour in the morning, when the owners
were for the most part fast asleep, and
the flowers themselves were heavy with
dew.
At that hour laboring man, whose
clanking boots had sounded harshly along
the pavement in long approach, paused
at the door of lodging house built apart
from the gardened cottages, and asked
a slipshod girl who was cleaning its door
step, Does Miss Arnold, the school
ma'am, live in hereW
"She lives here" answered the maid,
"but we can't see her afore breakfast, at
this hathen hour"
"But l must see her." the man said,
planting himself doggedly upon the step ;
"it's bizness."
can Pm after tellin' we, bizness or no
bizness- But sure here's the teacher her
silf."
"Is it for me ?" asked a sweet voice !;
and into the doorway and from room
adjoining the passage came a young crea-
ture in white morning robe and golden
curls-Elsie Arnold. "Have you mes
sage for me?" she asked.
81 cum to see, miss, if ye've heerd any
thing direc' from the squeer."
mo news" said the wife, sadly.
"No. hoped, indeed, you had some
word for me. l am expecting tidings
every hour. The last were from The
Pinery,' five weeks ago, when the RATS
were ready to 60 down the river. They
should have been long afore this at St.
Louis.
"Wa'al," said the man, "Pve cum for
my papers. I heerd accidental as heow
Squeer Arnold, up in them pine woods
had took the measles worst sort, an lay
at the pint of death. Ye see, if he
should drap off, my bizness might fall
Through"
The nasal drawl i'm which this SEN
tence was uttered at the last prolonged
syllable into something like a whistle of
dismay, for Elsie had fallen senseless to
the floor.
"Ye've killed her intirely," cried the
maid. And "What ave you done to
Mrs. Arnold ?" demanded the landlady,
who in one instant required to transfer
volition from the key-hole to the latch
appeared upon the scene.
She dropped like stone, an don't
know what fur" explained the man /;
and he considerably added, as the wo-
men lifted the slight burden and bore it
away, "Pll leave them papers, an SEN
Billy fur 'em.
1t was long before Elsie recovered from
her death-like swOOn, and then only to
lie silently with closed eyes, while people
of the house watched in turn by her bed.
Two days had passed thus, when
late i'm the afternoon the doctors wife
entered, and something in the tone of
her voice aroused Elsie. She looked up
with q faint smile.
"Are you strong enough" were the
words that greeted her, ito bear good
news?"
'.If there can be good news" MUIR
INJURED Elsie, who during the long hours
of day and night that had seemed to
her an eternity of suffering, had looked
at life as into an open grave.
The doctors wife was cautious in be-
slowing what she had brought. She
proceeded to deliver messages from the
schoolgirls, and to strew the counter
pane Of Elsie's bed with boquets her
little scholars had sent. By-and-by,
however, a package of letters was pro-
duced, and at last a missive of more
recent date. Fred Arnold was on
his way home. He had already reached
village only twenty miles distant; |;
he might be in F. tonight.
aCOming tonight" These were the
words that lifted the PROSTATE Elsie, as if
some potentmagic had made them staff
of life. "COming tonight" she re-
peated to herself, and refusing all help,
She glided to and fro in loving prepa-
ration, arranged everything in order,
decorated the room with flowers and put
on the blue dress that was Fred's favor
ite. All his letters she had read many
of them twice.
"Coming tonight" she had said to
herself for the hundredth time, and
hardly could believe its full truth yet,
when she became aware Of an unusual
cOmmOtiOn in the passage leading past
her room to the front steps. There,
after tea, to enjoy the spring twilight
that fingers so long across the prairie
plains, loiterers were grouped. She heard
the commotion of an arrival, voices OF
welcome, his voice. Tha door opened,
and she was clasped to her husbands
breast.
Minutes of perfect happiness long as
they are brief Fred had whispered to
his wife, awe must never be parted
again." and Elsie had said i'm her trem-
ulous delight. Life has came back. :"
And then she lifted her head from her
husbands shoulder to take one look at
his loved face. Then
There was never to be recalled,
never to be forgotten-a start of horror,
a cry of pain.
Elsie crept back into her husbands s
arms, cold as an icicle, shivering like a
IrOSt-DlJten ledi.
I w Speak to me, dear Fred, that / may
know it is you; speak to me. Let me
hear your roice."
A sealed letter lay upon Elsie's toilet
table the third day after her husbands s
return. She found il when, drearily
languid from the reaction of an intense
excitement, she had risen too late to be
punctual at school, too Indifferent to
care fer the fault. It was as follows |:
"EIsrE,--I shall have left F. for st.
Louis before you awake 10 read these lines.
I shall walk 10 R., and, taking the cars
there, journey rapidly, SO that by Monday l
may be in my place at the law efice Of -:
dThat I had planned differently ! need
not tell you. And now one word in iustifi-
cation for all the pain ] have occasioned.
did not reaiise how much Thad changed My
preoccupied thoughts kept me from know:
ing that my eyes we're still reddened beyond