The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1878-01-09
A Life for a Life.

Bertrode Dodge was blue. 1t was
August weather-there was no Air stir
ring from ono arid noon until the next.
aud the insects hissed maliciously all day
long in the part;hed grasses. Perhaps
that was the rason that Bertrode was
blue.
Perhaps it was that as she walked
Growers Tract, day by day, aud saw the
summers limited completion in the red
apples Burning among the gray greer
boughs, the Lay-lelds at aftermath, the
purple tasseled corn, and yellow wheat.
that she felt her life to be aimless. She
had let the summer come and wane
ac loss her passive existence. The pre-
vious winter she had said, :" / feel ice
bound now. When summer comes,
will shake off this iuegtion aud redeem
tc- lay" -~-s
Yet the summer was rapidly passing
and she was still a-dream. The hour
never seemed to come which called her
to exertion. Well, 80 Loves young
dream comes but once it was all we'll,
perhaps.
Growers Tract and her farmhouse life
was not dull as she had expected it
would be when she returned from her
mountain tour year before only at
times the outdoor sounds and the
leisurely growing works of nature op-
pressed her. In the winter she had
been gay, locking at the sunset across
the snow, watching the chick -a-dees, and
searching the woods for purple merer-
ion. In the spring the long walks to the
post Office had been full of joyful fancies
and golden realities she loved the
sweet country sights and scents more
than ever before in her life.
Butsin August something seemed to
oppress her. The sky burned too blue,
the woods were to calmly content in
their greenness, the days closed too
beautifully in their ripe splendor, as she
walked the Tract at sunset, coming
from the post-office-coming always
empty-handed. Yes, something was
wrong and when she realized it fully,
she said:
am idle-I am stepped in idleness.
have been doing nothing for year.
Nov l will have some work, and Dick
may so to the post-otfice. l care too
much for those letters.
Whatever those letters might be, there
came no more of them. A certain gay
tourist drifting about the world, forgot
to write them at last; perhaps Bertrode
was pretty, but one travelling everywhere
meets many pretty faces.
Bertrode's cheek grew thin and white.
Her mother saw that she struggled to re-
press a growing irritableness. But she
worked on increasingly at her new em.
ployment of teaching the district school
of Growers Tract. She devoted herself
to the children. Their parents said they
had never before learned so fast. Ber-
trode smiled only family at their praise.
One day, coming home from school
through the woods, she flung herself
down among the ferns and dry grasses.
g 1t is dust and ashes l' she cried.
\ The sky cleaned blue through green
boughs overhead, and bird sang cheer
lily in a neighboring bush. She lay
there until she felt the dew falling. AS
she rose up, something rustled at her
side. She looked down great rattle
snake was slipping through the grass,
going from her, apparently unaware of
her presence. Fascinated, immovable,
yet full of horror, she stood and watched
the creature. For a moment it glided
steadily on, its course so direct, its APP
pearance so subtle and deadly, that she
felt spellbound as she regarded it.
Suddenly, with a thrill of horror, she
saw the reptiles aim it was making
directly for shady spot, where 3 man
lay asleep beneath the trees. One
moment more would be too late 10 pre-
wear the threatened attack. Starting