The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-04-29
Nathaniel Hollis Idol.
Il am so tired y

L
The fute-like voice that uttered this
pettish exclamation broke through the
fragrant stiffness of the Autumnal even
ing like a Earring chord in some ex-
ouisite melody, and Nathaniel Holt
looked up from his paper with
slight frown on his bronzed, handsome
face.
He was tired, very tired, after day
Of hard labor on his mountain land,
and had thrown himself into great
sasv-chair of his mothers, on the south
porch, for moments rest; and he could
not understand how the speaker, a tall,
supple, girl, with hands as white as milk,
who passed her time in comparative idle
ness, could be tired.
For Elsie Marian was not one given
to unusual exertion, and generally man
aged to secure the good things of this
world with as much ease as was possible
or consistent with her position as de-
pendent niece in the home of her
mothers sister, Nathaniel Hollis aged
mother, who simply adored the bright
young girl who had brought sunshine
into her old house, and whose help
less orphanage covered many serious
faults.
At this moment Elsie was seated on a
garden stool, halt hidden by the droop-
ing boughs of a willow, laboriously at
tempting to twist tiny punches of dog
wood berries and Autumn leaves into a
wreath, her dead-gold hair falling about
face as fair as any lily that lifted las
spotless brow to the opal sky, and no
violet that ever blossomed in the cool
tufts of meadow grass beyond the will
low copse was as blue as the modest
eyes she lifted to Nathaniel Hollis
troubled face.
He stood over her, his hands folded
on his back, and his broad, bronzed
brow flushed with some sudden inward
emotion.
elsie, he began, the brown eyes that
she dare not meet the searching glance
that dropped beneath his gaze" what
has tired your
Nothing"
"You were once happy, contented
girl, Elsie what has changed your
"Nothing."
She spoke listlessly, yet faint, sea
shell pink crept into the round, soft
cheeks and up to the roots of the golden
hair.
"Yes, Elsie, something has changed
you you are the same, and vet not the
same. You have lost your blitheness :;
YOU do not come to me with kind words,
as you once did, and charm all my cares
away. Tell me whyl'
Nathaniel Holt sat down on the grass
at his cousins feet, and watched the
color come and go in the face above
him. He was terribly in earnest, this
sober, self-contained man of thirty, and
this young girl had been his idol for
years.
81 am not changed" Elsie tried to
steady her voice. u am the same to-
day that have been every day for years
You know | am twenty, and | must try
and he womanly."
HAS Lewis Walton anything to do
with tbe change, Elsiel"
I-lSlt ltCt blGoLltt CilUlSOu. vet Slt
laughed merrily.
no, You surely are not Jealous
Nathaniel p
1t was Nathaniel's turn to blush now,
which he did to perfection. For answer
he drew the dog wood berries out of the
little hands, and held the slender fingers
in his own.
Il am not jealous, Elsie. You do not
seem contented Of late you are always
tired you never run up the mountain
path to meet me, or take long rambles
in the woodland, so as to be near me, as
you once did. You see, l have grown
so used to- your tender, watchful love,
Elsie, it would be hard to give it up.
And have thought that you had grown
tired of me, and had given your love tie
Lewis Walton, who seems a more fitting
mate
"a divorced man, Nathaniel I" Elsie
cried, lifting her eyebrows slightly, al
though her cheeks were dyed with burn
ing bushes, and her lips trembled ner-
vously.
"a divorced man" repeated Nathan
lei, looking ter full in the face Eyes,