Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-24

ing eyes.
ooh, it is nothing! ! answered,
anxious to counteract any impression
| had made, 'only there is legend in
Cawe, that, whoever goes TO the
Sibyl's Cave at midnight alone. and
asks one question, will receive an an
swer. OF course, it is all nonsense;
but it makes pretty story
And do the Cawley people depend
upon the Sibyl as the Greeks did up
on the Delphic Oracle ? asked Kate,
smiling the fopr-o'clocks and trying
to speak carelessly.
The people of Cawley know moth
ing Of the ancient custom OF consult
inc oracles,' answered. Besides,
everybody knows everybody else's
business; there are no secrets IN
Cawley. There is story of Silver,
three or four generations ago, going
to the Cave one night and never COM
ing back. Bat he was wild fellow,
and everybody thought he took that
way of playing upon the superstition
of his family (the Silvers always had
a vein OF thaD, and running away to
parts unknown. Some of his clothes
were found torn to rags little way
inside the Cave; but there are no wild
beasts about here, and the Sibyl was
never known to eat anybody else
sShe does not dare to tackle a
crowd, at any rate said Royal, cor
she would have made meal of Us the
OF her day
perhaps she was not hungry said
Alice. Il should like to see if she
would really answer a question; but
alone, at midnight, I should never
dare to try it,
4 should think not / said, de-
cisively; besides the superstitious
terrors the place has, are the more
real terrors Of water adders and all
sorts of creeping things that live in
those damp dark places
felt that had represented the
horrors of midnight visit to the cave
quite wildly enough to frighten the
girls out of any ideas they might have
entertained in that direction and for
| IilG 4 huCW bilCik III aCCiSt%i
natures were enough safeguard.
Il WIGS perhaps half an hour later
that, having helped Martha about the
supper, was sitting by my window,
when | heard the voices of Kate and
Alice, and was surprised into an in
stant's eavesdropping. They bad
stopped under the window to gather
some flowers for their hair, and their
voices foated up to me as clearly as
if they had been in the same room.
Its very evident to me- | heard
Alice say, with the tone of one who
!abors TO convince. 4 didn't watch
my sister Maria trying to capture him
for nothing He never looked at her
in his life as | have sccn him look at
YOU twenty times this afternoon.
Nonsense, Alicer said Hates
voice, rather sharply, but with an I'M
dertone vibrating through it that was
not anger. lie simply detests me;
we never agree upon anything.
'And no wonder, Kitty said Alice,
half reproachfully; you won't let him
agree with you. If he does soften
little toward you, you inst extinguish
him. | have noticed ever so often.
| moved away from the window
then, feeling quite guilty at having
heard what I had; but, having heard
it, there was no use fretting about it,
and could only go over and over the
subject in my mind, hoping that my
| Laa,t,c 1o,roct ,,,;eboc p,io,ht bo nop1.
ing to a realization at last. Hates
tone told me that the idea was not
unwelcome to her 1t was quite pos
sible that she liked him better than
she would let him know, for Kate was
not one to let man know that she
loved him unasked. AS tor Royal,
could it be that Alice was right, and
Rates brusque ways toward him had
prevented him from showing her the
tender side of his nature / could
only hope.
Kate was looking lovlier than ever
when she came in to supper that
night, with her cheeks and eyes glow
ing, and clusters Of scarlet honey
suckle in her hair and breast. She
was unusually brilliant even for her
brilliant self that evening when we all
sat on the lawn in varions attitudes
of ease and abandon suited to the hot
still night. She was half sitting half
lying upon the grass, with her head
resting upon my arm, her round, firm
figure showing lovely, graceful curves
in the moonlight.
''Kate, ike the hazel twig,
Is straight and SLENDER,
| quoted Royal, who had been unusual
ly quiet since supper.
s'And as brown in eye
As hazel nuts, and sweeter than the kernas,'
finished l.
'Am brown?' laughed Kate; and
then, putting up her hand, and draw
ing my face down to hers, she whis-
pered, 'Tve favor to ask of you,
Aunt Mary. Let me come into your
room tonight after Alice is asleep,
may | ?
| said yes readily enough, jump
ing at once to the conclusion that
Kate was going to give me her conf
Uence, Tor Ielt almost sure now lHat
she loved Royal, and | sent up a
silent, iervent prayer that Royal
might love her back again, my dar-
ling's happiness was so very, very
dear to me.
1t was after eleven when Kate soft
ly opened my door and came into the
room, with light shawl across her
arm, and little white summer hood
tied over her hair. She put her finger
on her lips, and coming up to me,
whispered, Don't say word against
it, Aunt Mary, but put on your things
and come down to the Sibyl's Cave
with me, | want to ask the Sibyl a
a question
| might have knownl But what