Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-03-15
Continued from First Page. J

Will looked so cOmpieteiy uaZeu anu
stunned that you would have almost have
thought he was the one least concerned.
Violet rs she sat on a couch of shawls was
the calmest of the party. Resignation to
death depends on the nervous tone and
hers WAS just now, owing to the discour-
agment about Will, reduced almost to
the point of Indifference TO anything.
Afler the first shock it began almost i'm
mediately to seem all right and fitting that
she should die here on this mountain top,
this great hill-altar, with her lover by her
side. God had shown her this way out of
her sore perplexity.
''Ah, see the sun" she said. as the first
beam of the rising orb fell full upon her
forehead. "Set me around with my back
to it. can yet overtake the night in the
valleys"
She was little Eighty from the mental
strain.
HAS anybody got any whiskey? ' said
Fred Harris, the young man who had
spoken before.
No attention was paid to question so
apparently irrelevant If not worse, till
SADIE Allen exclaimed eagerly,
''Oh yes. Don't you remember that
story we were reading' Whiskey'll cure
rattlesnake poison. Oh, if we only had
some ~
Will was kneelng beside Violet, sup
porting her and talking in wild broken
words. Fred took him by the shoulder to
arouse him and said,
IF you've got your whiskey flask we
can save her."
VIII looked up vacantly moment, and
then rs the light Of comprehension flashed
into his eyes he whipped flask out of his
pocket. and unscrewing it in frenzied
haste thrust the mouth to Violet's lips,
crying,
Quick Drink! 1t will save you. Don't
you remember that story we read ~
Seeing what it was, she averted her head
with gesture of loathing.
Hold on Ronalds,' said Fred. "She
can't drink the raw liquor. Let me have
it,
Taking the flask and getting the water
jug from the lunch-basket he mixed some
whiskey and water in tin cup, saying as
he did so,
Now, Miss Hazen. you must drink this
stuff till you are overcome by it, and then
the poison will be neutralzed.'
Violet had watched the preparations
with more agitation than she had before
shown.
you mean that must get drunk like
the girl in that storyp" she said.
That's what it amounts to-" replied
Fred.
The tone in which she had spoken was
so peculiar that Mary added quickly.
ave girls will take care of you, dar-
ling. and send the men away. It's Just
like taking medicine, you know, morphine
for instance"
Will took the cup and held it to her lips
saying.
.Quick Drink it all at once, and never
mind the taste"
She looked earnestly in his eyes as he
bent toward her. and replied in a low res
olute voice,
II will not touch it,
A thunderbolt dropping in their midst
from the near clouds wouldn't have stunned
the group around her more than these five
words, uttered SO low that only the near
est were sure that they had heard Alright
By turns and altogether they coaxed.
begged and commanded. crowded about
her with their panic-stricken faces, and
jostling one another in their eagerness to
try to influence her against so suicidal 4
resolution. Both the other girls were the
signers of as many total abstinence pledges |
IS was Violet, but neither would have
that it was any sacrifice of their principles
10 use the liquor in such an emergency
The difference was that Violet's feelings |
on the subject had been wrought up to a
pitch of morbid intensity. by her long anx-
iety and present despair over VIII intem-
perate habits, while the same cause had
for some time made life itself seem dreary
TO her. After few moments she said to !
those around her,
won't you please 60 away or else be
quiet"
Then she whispered to Mary, and at a
suggestion from her all except Will re-
tired little distance.
Don't think hard of me, darling" she
said to him, with smile at once tender
and solicitous.
But he only answered her with look of
dumb desperation.
Don't think don't love you because |
am so obstinate" she said gently at is
because love you that will not live by
what is killing you. Surely you under
stand that
do YOU think it kind to make me feel
that have killed you ?" he cried.
oh it isn't you, dear. You mustn't
think that" she said anxiously caressing
his cheek with her hand. at is because
choose, just because am little notional
on the subject of temperance. Only, dear
] can't help thinking that perhaps my dy
ing so may do more to make YOU a good
boy in that way than could do if | were
alive. You see was getting rather dis
couraged about that" and she smiled sad
ly.
'1f you'll only take this I'll never drink
again in my life" he said, in piteous en-
treaty.
'Oh, WILL" she exclaimed, a sudden
change coming over her face and into her
tones. do you really mean it ?"
''Mean it?" he'cried, his voice rising
with indignant amazement, and seizing as
be spoke the cup Of whiskey and pressing
it to her lips.
Quick! Drink OF course mean it.
Can i be that was what YOU were waiting
for ?"
II wasn't waiting for that. because YOU
said 30 often that you never would prom
ise." she answered, holding away the cup
with her hand, that supposed you never
would No Will do,.t 10 T., ..,oL . L..