Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1879-01-22

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sure that his blood must be stirred. She
looked for mis- name in the bulletins, in
the promoted, in the dead and missing,
III the discharged, in the forlorn hopes;
she longed TO do something for him,
now that it was impossible--to encour-
age him, to help him, if she could only
once find his name. She never did.
And when ut last, peace was declared,
there came through the obscure chan
nels in which all such news runs, not
TO be verified, and yet too authentic for
disbelief, the report that he had been a
conscript of the confederates, had fallen
III the first battle and died in the hos
pital.
And her act had killed him! Betty
Wilmarth sat down that day III utter
despair. For what had she been born,
when out of her insigniticance, she had
wrought such evil as this9 4 murder
ess-that was what she was The muir
deress, too. of the best friend woman
ever had. BY Il whim, n mere whlm,
she had brought disaster and ruin on
her famiiy-she had brought strong
man down to his grave. BY II whim?
No, oh, no! BY the blackness of her
heart! And it was in sackcloth and
ashes that she sat while Summer and
autumn crept by. She loathed herself.
She felt that even God must loathe her :,
every one must loathe her, as viii
Maunder's murderess. The earth was
dark; for her the sun had ceased TO
shine; the faces Of all she saw were
blanks, they seemed to belong To people
of another race, there was nobody Of
her race-a woman with the blood of
her best friend on her hands. Day
after day, gloom seemed to gather:
thicker and darker over the world. it
was n place of graves; all those that
went by we're born only to suffer and
die, and after death the Judgment
And then, her thoughts getting too
much for her, Betty would start up and
walk for miles, to walk off the horror
that made life seem not worth the liv-
ing; that made life seem impossible to
live, and yet did not let her dare to die.
Nothing was any pleasure TO her now
Her fathers affairs had frightened they
had retaken the old house ;her mothers
health was restored the girls had come
from school, content and happy, and
ready TO take Betty's sceptre where she
dropped it. She was pleased for their
sakes-for herself it made no difference
The color had forsaken her sweet face
at length; her eyes were dim with her
long crying She sat for hours together,
staring straight before her, conscious of
nothing whatever but that she had been
the death of Will Maunder
All the gay Christmas morning that
he used to like so much she sat in dark
ness. She forgot her father and all the
need Of household cheer, and it was
when she saw the plying faces down
stairs that she resolved TO forget her
self, her sin and her grief, and helI
them all to gather what sweetness the,
could in this life she had found so bitter
and she made her New Years gifts
ready, and helped her young sisters
decorate the rooms and the simple table
they could spread, and lent them the
dainty ornaments that she used to value
so, and that now, at twenty
five, she was done with.
1t was great white snow-storm that
wrapped earth and s Ky when that day
dawned, beginning the eventful year.
They would be friends indeed who ven
tured through it. The girls and their
chosen companions, nevertheless, were
just as busy in the parlors as they could
| have been in the sunniest OF weather,
imagining arrivals, and, when nobody
arrived, received eacn other III turn, AS
| if there were a procession OF callers at
the door. They were none Of them SO
sweet, so wilful, SO charming, ~ poor
little Betty had been: not one Of them
had the dark, rich beauty that belonged
to her yet; they never would have the
train of gallants at the door that used &c
cross the threshold for Betty's sake
She wondered what they found to laugh
at. In all the wide, sad world there
was nothing at which she could smile.
The very blowing of the gale, the whirl-
ing Of the snow and sleet through the
white, cold heavens, seemed only TO an
swer her own misery. She sat in the
side-parlor off the others, staring
through the windows with u wild,
wretched gaze, though for appearances
a book lay open in her lap. Her
thoughts mad gone upon their long
flight, and after the first crate and jar
of it upon her, she heard nothing Of
the laughing and twittering, of the sus-
pended music or the opening and shut
ting of the doors. The joyousness OF
the day, like sunshine breaking through
storm, was nothing to her She noticed
none of the fragrance Of the flowers
none Of the gay cries Of the echoine
voices her thoughts were under that
snow-heaped sod with viii. 1t seemed
to her that if she could only once see
him, and see him alive, the very relief
would kill her; but oh, how hard ii