The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1878-08-01

Ogrdm ike lIldl upon llic tuftlopt. dlu
read as follows:
DEAR GRANTLEY-You ou went away
angry with me on Sunday evening, and
said that if would not take back what
/ had said you would never come to see
me again. And was too proud and
too angry to say word to keep you.
But, Grantley dear, I'm sorry for it
now. You were in the right, and was
to blame, and l take it all back-every
word. l never meant it. You are so
downright you think one must mean all
one says, but indeed Inever meant it..
And so forgive me and come again next
Sunday night. l fnG that life would
be very sad thing for me If we really
quarreled. Yours forever,
ANN.
"So!" muttered Mrs. Webb, between
her teeth. 1T has gone so far, then;
and she has been showing her temper
and angering Grantley. Well, if he has
| spirit enough to stay away one week,
he'll have spirit enough to stay alto
gether, perhaps"
Then she gave an angry stamp.
why do | comfort myself with
thatf" she said. 81 know this letter
will call him back to her, and he'll be
more in love with her than ever. Oh,
If she had not written! l know my boy
well enough to know that he would
not go back to her without that. Well,
he hasn't seen it yet; and if l choose he
never need. 1t is for his good, know.
Ann Burdock is not the girl for him.
I'll keep him from her.
She dropped Ann Burdock's letter
| upon the fire. There it lay, black
and shrivelled fold Of tinder, as her
sons step sounded in the hall, and she
covered it from sight with the kettle.
In cam9 Grantley, his face bright
with the outer cold.
Setting yourself on fire, mother?"
he asked. Il smell something scorch-
ing.'
Its not my dress" she answered,
and busted herself with the teapot. and
rang the bell for the tea-things.
In came the girl with the tray, and
again Mrs. Webb had little fright.
ANY letter for me?n asked her son,
with an eager look in his face.
NO" she answered family. "Did
you expect one?"
mot l, !" said he, his brows contract
ing. But I met the postman on the
! hill, and he called out to he to hurry
home and get my love letter. His joke,
suppose"
1t was impudent Of him." said Mrs
Webb, not daring to meet her sons
ave ssrhnt'r - 'A4~-- - :.n,,
She tossed him the tradesman's Cir
cuIar. He glanced at it and put it
down.
How sad he looked. What gray tints
there were about his eyes and temples!
How much thinner he seemed than he
did week or so ago!
Was it all that quarrel with the Bur-
docks girl? Would it have been better
that he should have had that mono
grammed note?
The mother put the thought from her.
She spread the little store of dainties
before her son and tried to make him
eat: and though she had been SO fright
ened by his questions, she could not
help approaching the dangerous subject
herself.
Are you going out tonight" she
asked.
NO" he answered; Il think not"
The neighbors We're telling me you
went over the hill to the Burdock's
rather often" she went on.
well, if l have, MOTHER" he an
swered, THAT is no sign | shall 20
again"
We'll, there are better places than
the Brdock's, said Mrs. Webb, land /
thought you'd never think of girl
whose father quarreied with yours, and
may have the evil temper OF her moth
er She's a tlirt, too, they say"
Then she bounced out of the room.
| When she came back Grantley had gone
| up stairs.
She heard the boards of his bedroom
| Goor creak as he walked up and down
that night.
"Well, we'll" she said to herself,
''hell get over it."
But, whatever the feeling was, love,
anger, or grief, it did not agree with
| Grantley Webb. He grew thinner and
| thinner. He took less interest in that
which went on around him. lie avoided
s.n the other young people of the place,
ana seemed to have neither youth nor
spirit left.
Could it be all about that girl Ann,
old Mrs, Webb asked herself, trying to
cheat herself into the idea that the boy
was only i'll.
But in vain she made hiH warm pos
sets and bowls of herb tea. Even if he
had drank them, which be did not, for
they all went to water the grass of the
orchard-even if lie had drunk them,
they would have done him no good.
Only one thing could help him-the
only thing that seemed to him imposSi-
bic dis he sat at his window, staring
through the stanlit midnight at the
rocf of the Burdock dwelling never
guessing that under its caves Ann Bur-
dock sat, at once angry and sorry,
thinking of him and none other.
He had D1t answered her note; he
was urnorglving; but she had vexed
! him. She was partly TO blame.
The old lady in the rutfied night-cap
who often started from her sleep in
the big front bedroom of the Webb
home with a dream of letters that curled
up into timber over the red coal-had
more on her conscience than she knew.
For though Ann grieved she did not