The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-05-18

Tic CliluIeu duyuOW dS SOOu as you
die. It's just as well to let them have
it little while before hand"
"You'n chant in a different key by
the time you've reached my age" said
Mrs. Rutherford "But I don't blame
you overmuch for taking sides with
Eben. Women always did go against
themselves to please their husbands,
and I guess they always will"
81 should say that Edna Smith was a
marked exception, and it's little wonder
her husband left her, seeing the bring
ing up she's had ~ retorted the junior,
and Mrs. Rutherford answered her not a
word further.
"I might have known better than to
say anything to her as her mother-in-
law" she soliloquized, as she left the
kitchen and continued her packing.
The journey by steamer to Omaha,
and thence by stage to Idaho Flat, was
very different both in duration and
manner from the journey in an OK wa
gon that Edna had taken years before.
For few days her bones were bruised
and sore, and then she became accus-
toned to the jolting. After this she
journeyed comfortably, the wonders of
the prairie and desert opening up to her
constant theme for reflection and con-
lecture.
But more than all, she was shortening
the distance between herself and Edna
every hour. What cared she for dusty
roads and tedious rides? Had she not
endured a thousand times greater trials
that she might be near her children :?
And yet, what had it all availed her?
Had not her deepest mother love proved
her keenest anguish? ? Had it not al
ways failed her when she needed it
most?
Then she would muse and wonder
much about how Edna would appear
when she should meet her. She could
remember her vividly as a dimple-faced
baby darling, the light of her home and
the JOY of her heart. Again, she could
recall her as a blithe and joyous school
girl, graceful, bright, and beautiful.
She could follow her through the dreary
days and weeks and months of loneli-
ness spent by the young girl in a board
ing school-a period of probation that
ended at last in years of almost total es-
arrangement on the part of Edna from
the mother who would have died for
her.
The days and nights of travel contin-
ued, and now they were in Idaho, trav-
ersing the great plains and greater
mountains that intervened between her
self and the lone toiler in Idaho Flat.
Now they were getting very near the
wild, wierd home of her daughter in the
wilderness, and Mrs. Rutherford could
think of nothing else but the fearful
shock she had felt when the news OF
Edna's marriage had burst upon her
/ like thunderbolt. Alas, she had cared
nothing for life since then. Indeed, she
had only lived at all because she knew
that the time would come when Edna,
repentant and sorrowing, would yearu
for the mother love that in her blind,
ness she had cast from her for the bau.
BILE of a professed affection that haC
transformed her from a dutiful and af.
fectionate daughter TO the creature of 6
strangers will. She knew the time
would come when her daughter would
be glad to come back to the mother love
she had thus ruthlessly cast from her
and she had felt all along that she mus
live 10 comfort her then, else she woulC
have given up her last hold on life OF
Edna's wedding day.
And now the last mountain height be
tween herself and child was reached
and the great coach was already rum
: bling down its side, revealing Idah,
Flat, which, as the reader knows, wa
, not a fiat at all, but a succession O
rocky ridges and gulches, through whicl
a noisy, muddy, tortuous river ran
bearing in its busy current the stirre
, up ore from the adjacent and distan
= burrows that, with their Erebus-lik
t openings, gaped everywhere.
q Edna was expecting her. Out upon
$ knoll, hard by the spot where Aun
Judy and Mr.. Handel had once arrange
e place for holding meetings in the ope
air, and where now church stood, sh
}, had taken her position an hour before {
u watch.
The stage halted when near her, an
r Edna's heart beat painfully, while Mr.
o Rutherford was fairly stupehed wit
s overpowering sensations.
"Can you show me the residence
p Mrs. Edna Smith ?r asked the mothe
y addressing her without the faintest ide
that she had found her child.
d 'llother, don't you knolO me2"
e That was enough. Mrs. RutherfoI
), could never afterward remember no
o she had climbed from the high Sc.
5. above the stage-coach boot to the ri.
y where Edna stood. In an instant the
u were locked in mute embrace. Bot
n were overcome by yunutterable thought
G All, reader, there is a love that hat
no tinge of selfishness. A love thi
e never dieth; that clingeth when hope
dead and joy hath fled; love tn
o never faileth, but is always burnir