The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1877-04-14

road, and then walked slowly back TO the
house.
As the front door closed, the lilac bush
by the gate quivered, and two dark fig
ures crawled from under it.
When Mrs. Cuthbert laid the baby in
his cradle, after singing him back to the
invisible mountains, the clock struck two,
and Mrs. Cuthbert looked hoplessness in
| the face.
George was never coming home, she
decided. 1t was mouse watching he was
never coming home any more. Then,
as the next gust of wind sent twig rat
thing along ON the gravel, she was at the
window, straining her eyes as she had
been doing all evening.
How strange every familiar object in
the house seemed the light burned so
Whitley, and the sitting room looked so
uncanny, with the tea-table spread, and
the hands of the clock marking the
small hours. An unreasonable moth went
banging about the ceiling with what
sounded a tremendous noise in that dead
silence, and the fire refused point blank
to be cheerful, despite the armfuls OF
wood piled on it.
How the hours dragged She seemed
to have lived years since she heard those
footsteps on the porch. Why had she
been such fool ?
1t was five o'clock now, and the
ROSTERS far and near began to herald the
approach of dawn. The sky turned
from black to gray, and whitish
smudge in the east announced the rising
of the glorious sun.
Mrs. Cuthbert put out the lights, and
went to the front door. A drilling
rain had set in, and the damp, raw air
made her shudder. She went back to
the sittingroom, and, in a drsary,
mechanical kind of way, lit the fire
there and in the little kitchen then
brought baby down stairs, washed and
dressed him as usual, then put him CO
the floor play while she prepared his
bread and milk.
But baby was not destined to get his
breakfast just yet for at that moment
light step was heard in the entry, and
tall young man walked into the room.
The bread and milk were dropped any
where, and Mrs. Cuthbert flung herself
into his arms, sobbing, crying and beg
ging his pardon all in a breath.
"Pll never do it again. Won't you
forgive me, George ?"
Forgive what2 | haven't anything
to forgive" said the astonished George.
Oh, yes, you have. | know it was
dreadfully wicked of me; but III never
do it again."
What on earth is the matter %
Won't you forgive me ?' was all Mrs.
Cuthbert's answer.
Eleanor, what is the matter?' de-
manded the distracted young man, all
kinds of awful visions flying through
his brain "What have you done?''
"Why, didn't let you in when you
come home last night. | only meant to
keep you waiting little WHILE"
"When | came home last night
Why, / haven't been within fifteen
miles of the house since seven o'clock
yesterday morning. I've just come
down on the 4:30 train"
Didn't you come heme last nightf'
gasped Mrs. Cuthbert.
"Come home No, of course didn't;
Pye been working at the Office half the
night. Didn't you receive my telegram
saying that l should be detained in the
city all night p
"No; l haven't received any. What
does it all meanW
And then she told him all about it
in rather an incoherent style, to be sure;
but-she made him understand, and he
was greatly puzzled as to who it could
have been.
Mrs. Cuthbert, now that her mind
was relieved, began to remember that
she had eaten nothing since dinner the
day before, and was soon flying about
broiling ham and poached eggs, stop
ping to have hearty laugh over the
charred remains of her husbands sup
per, which she took from the oven.
Then they sat down to the tea table,
baby and all, and ate their breakfast.
That afternoon the village youth who
did their chores was unusually late in
coming, but when he did arrive it was
with such budget of news that his tar
diness was forgiven.
He had been an eyewitness to the
capture of two burglars at Squire
Jones's; they had been discovered in the
very act of carrying off the silver.
Laws, how they fit p said the boy.
"They smashed Bill Williams's head in
with the plate basket, and came most
near hittin' me, and when we had 'em
caught tight, how they did talk They
cussed and swore, and one on 'em-a
felier with powerful ugly face-said
as how they wouldn't hev been nabbed
if they hadn't been foolin' round an
other house all the evenin'; and he SEES:
There's one of the pluckiest women
there ses he; why, when 1 followed
into the winder at her, she didn't mind
it no more than nothin',' ses he and
hanged if she didn't foller me out to the
barn, and go pokin round after me in
tho dorHpv