The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1879-12-19
" There, TEN me alI about it."


"Oh, let me-" she cried. "No one
has cared 10 listen here-I am only O
burden-but II could tell you should
feel 30 much better. 1t can all be put
into 30 few wordsp
She sat up, O fush on her cheeks and
her hands clasped neryously together,
You know Miss Salmi was to teach me
to sing. Well, che did, and everything
went on well. She said my voice was
thin but could do wonders with 1t by
skill and practice, and was happy. We
had music from morning till night. Carl
lnman came in to sing; he was tenor.
She had known him all her life, but
when had known him q week we loved
each other.
"Only q month ago he asked me to
marry him, and when told her she
stormed. She said ] was an ungrateful
creature TO give up my art in that way
but what did care for music beside
himf-and that he wasonly flirting with
me. 1t was his nature; he would never
marry. was half crazy, went away
from the house next morning and came
here, and she cannot know where have
disappeared to-"
"And he, the man, >" said Ezra quietly.
"Did you leave no word for him."
"No, was blind, be-ide myself. ]
thought then perhaps she was right and
he was only amusing himself, and now /
have done it can never 90 back. 1t Is
all over" She sank back wholly apa.
thetic. She was too crushed, too much
in need of comfort for Ezra to think of
his own misery.
He left her tho she begged him to
stay, and promising TO come again went
to Mrs. Hayward, and began abruptly:
"WilI you let Barbara board here till
she is better or something else turns up
for herT
Why, yes" she said, hesitating, /" if
was sure l would get my pay, but ]
can't afford to do it for nothing and she
hasn't any money"
"See here, can you keep secret from
everybody to your dying dayf Well
then, / win pay you for her and she
must never know it. Make her think
her company is q great thing for you"
It was bargain. Ezra knew his secret
was safe, but the Woman's occurrences
never let him guess she saw his love, and
with q feminine love of romance wished
she could see the end: It came soon.
With the June weather faint roses came
into Barbara's cheeks. She chung to.
Ezra more than any one, and he felt her
growing dearer to him every day. Rea-
son as he might q spark of hope would
fame up in his heart, and he almost
trembled to think life might be kind to
him after all.
One morning he started to the raising
of the great SIMPSON barn and crossed
lots to call at Mrs. Hayward's on the way.
As he came up from the orchard Barbara
sat by the window, and his heart was so
light that morning that he stole up, like
boy, to surprise her. When he
was within q foot of her and
had q view of the whole room
he paused involuntarily as q mans
step came over the piazza, and hand
some young stranger walked in. Barbara
looked up, shrank back, then gave one
cry CARL" and was in his arms.
Ezra turned sick and faint and walked
and what her happiness implied for him,
but too stunned tothink or feel, he went
mechanically to his days work.
Men said that when the great barn
was raised noone showed greater strength
or fearlessness than Ezra Hardy. They
remembered afterwards that he could
not have been we'll that day, for he spoke
to no one, though John Simpson over
heard him exclaim once as to some one
at his side, "Christ, save me frem my
selfW He walked across timbers light
footed as q cat, but at the last when only
few more blows remained to be struck,
they saw him wsver in mid-air, and then
fall with q crash to the earth.
When they took him up he was quite
dead, but with a look of such peace on
his face that they wondered, believing
his last moments must have been one of
terror. No one understood more of his
death than they had his life, though
bOme few were saddened by it, and Bar
bara Warren wept at his funeral the day
before her marriage with Carl Inman.-I
Good Company.