The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1880-06-19

some Pio'ty thing to tenant Macher's
children; The teacher stood outside.
roVin nS.s sne prairie with her eye. With
IN, MRS. Macher was giving the two
rooms Inelr special Saturday scrubbing;
her cooklng-stove, split-bottomed chairs,
peusS, and even the kneading-
ooaIu Upon her four-barrel, had al
rea9y ueen cleaned and polished ac-
corulng 70 their needs, and her rosy
German lace shone with exercise. Still,
u was q squalid place for Girl like
Allle osnnlnggs, though she was looking
1orw na Pmlosophically to the prospect
OF boarding in the small hive. She
had an intense but very quiet face, and
refined. ro '
"And how do you like the prairieP"
inquirer inc farmers sister when they
had negun their acquaintance.
IL presses me down and chokes
me; :, But maybe 1 shall get used
"Why, how can you feel SOP When
l nTst saw 1t wanted to fly, it was so
"buG have been brought up among
trees?"
eve have quite large naples around
our mouse, and such pretty catalpa-
grove at one side! Brother planted To-
Gusts, out he cut most of them down;
nuisance!n
g 1t be better for her to board dare, -
said Mrs; Macher, smiling in the door,
out OF which she had just sent cascade
OF scrubbing water; s'we got so many
chlltern and only two r-rooms.n
In the end she did board there, and
brought a pleasant, town-girlish atmos-
phere into the house. If she disliked her
business, she performed it thoroughly,
and the hands of the country children
crowned her affectionately with roses
and f1ag-lilies and the wild scarlet lark
spur.
Father is dead," she told the farm
er's sister, "and there is large family
OF u.s. and mother has little besides the
home-property. 1 have to teach, and
L wanted to come away from town."
Why she wanted to come away ap-
peared in the sequel.
She had been there some weeks-and
had had many good ride and mild ad-
venture with the farmers sister; many
skurry home from thunder-storms
which suddenly bruised one side of a
sunny sky to black-purple; many de-
licious evening sitting on the eastern
doorstone telling and hearing weird
stories-when there came a Sunday
which left her and the farmers sister
alone in the house. The farmer and
his wife had ridden fifteen miles away
to church and to spend the day; the
hired girl, tenants daughter, had gone
home, accompanied by her sweetheart,
the hired man. Allie was not well; she
lay on sofa with her eyes shut, and
the farmers dainty sister was in the gar
den gathering carnation-pinks and roses
for her.
This being very grateful employment,
the young lady fingered, carrying her
muslin train on her arm and looking off
with half-shut eyes across the quivering
Landscape, thinking what very lovely
Sunday it was. The bleat of the sheep
sounded close up to the sky.
A one-horse carriage stopped before
the house, and a man alighted At this
the farmers sister fastened softly in, but
paused to leave off her sun-bonnet be-
fore going to open the door. Mean
while, Allie had opened it and stood
facing fne-leoking and iAportunate
man.
At her silent distance the farmers
sister heard and saw all that passed in
one swift minute.
"What do you want here?" inquired
Allie in tones the prairie seemed effect
ually choking.
81 want to see you, replied the stran-
ger eloquently. "Oh, Allie, let me ex-
plain to you"
"You can't explain things away; they
are as they are"
"But 1 could make you think better of
me-"
She pushed the door as if to close it:
$50 away; don't say another word to
me-"
"But, Allie"
She shut the door and lockedit. Then
turning back, she dropped unconscious,
and the farmers sister put her on the
sofa.
In the interval which it took to re-
vive her the stranger was forgotten.
Whether he drove away Immediately or
fingered about the house is not known.
But he never saw Allie Jennings again.
She went home to her mother in few
days, broken down by some influence
weightier than the pressure of the prai-
RE, leaving her plainly-told story to be
put among the prairie legends. This
man had been her accepted lover, when
she discovered he had a wife living else
where. He had many excuses for his
conduct, and he undoubtedly loved her
with devotion, perhaps with generation
when she punished him-and herself
without finching to the last. She died
of fever soon after returning to her
mother, and whispered as she CROPPED
out of the world, "Oh, give my love to
eueYq Jody eUer 61aea0."
Very different silhouettes from this
girls stood out against the prairie hori-
ION. There was Jack Weed, the bachelor
hermet, leading his sheep to be salted-a
sort of bareheaded Caliban with sun
burnt hair and with his shirt-sleeves
rolled above his elbows. He was big
Tipped and low-browed, looking magni-
fed by the prairie air, not unlike giant
walking abroad to catch q fat boy or