Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1880-02-05
NATHANIEL Hollis IDOL
Il am so tired L


this pettish exclamation broke the
fragrant stiffness of the autumnal
evening like the Earring chord in
some exquisite melody and Nathan
iel Holt looked up from his paper
with slight frown on his bronzed,
handsome face.
He was tired, very tired, after a
day of hard labor on bis mountain
lands, and had thrown himself into
a great easy chair of his mothers,
on the south porch, for moments
rest, and he could not see how the
speaker, q tall, supple girl, with
hands as white as milk, who passed
her time in comparative idleness,
could be tired.
For Elsie Marian was not given
to unusual exerlion, and generally
managed to secure the good things
of the world with as much ease as
was possible or consis ent with her
position as dependent niece in the
home of her mothers sister-Na
thaniel Holt's aged mother, who
simply adored the bright young girl
who had brought sunshine into her
old house, and whose helpless or
phanage covered many faults
AT this moment Elsie WAS seated
on the garden stool, half hidden by
the dropping boughs Of q willow,
laboriously attempting to twist tiny
lunches of dog wood berries and
autumn leaves into wreath, her
dead gold hair falling about her
face as fair as any lilly that lifted
it's spotlsss brow to the opal sky;
and no violet that ever blossomed
in the cool tufts of meadow grass
beyond the willow copse was as
blue as the modest eyes that she
lifted to Nathaniel Hollis troubled
face.
He stood over her, his hands fold.
ed on his back and bis broad,
bronzed brow flushed little with
some sudden inward emotion.
Elsie, he began, the brown eyes
that she dared not meet searching
the face that had dropped beneath
his gaze, what has tired your
Nothing
you were once contented, hap.
py, girl, Elsie. What has changed
you?'
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, yet not the
same. You have lost your bIithe-
ness you did not come to me with
kind words as you did once, Elsie,
and charm all my cares away. Tell
me why
Nathaniel Holt sat down on The
grass at his cousins feet, and
watched the color come and go 10
the face above him. He was terri
bly, in earnest, this sober, self con-
tanned man of thirty, for this young
girl had been bis idol for many
years.
Il am not changed Elsie tried
to steady her voice. Il am the
same to-day that l have been every
day for years. You know I'm
twenty and | must still try TO be
womanly.'
Has Lewis Walton anything to
do with the changer
Elsie's face blushed crimson yet
she laughed merrily.
NO. You surely are not jealous
NathaDiel?'
1t was Nathanisl's turn to blush
now, which be did to perfection
For answer be drew the lockwood
berries out Of her little hand and
he'd the slender fingers in bis own
i am not jealous, Elsie you dc
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 go as
to be near me as you once did. You
see have grown so used to your
tender, watchful love, Elsie, that il
would be hard to give it up. And
l have thought that you had grown
tired of me AID given your love to
Lewis Walton who seems a more
fitting mate
"a divorced mGn, Nathaniel Ell
sic CRIED, lifting her eyebrows slight.
ly, although her checks were dyed
with burning bushes, aud her lip:
trembled nervously.
"a divorced man. repeated Ma.
thsniel, looking her full in the face
Yes, Elsie, there is danger Of you
forgetting me through bin. for be i:
q more polished, more fascinating
mar yet, Elsie, dear, as unstsb BILE a.
the wind, and not calculated tc
make any woman happy.
YOU must think ms very impress
siole,' broke out Elsie, whose con.
science was not easy as it nigh
have been, when l gave my prom
Use to be your wife / meant to kaeE
it,
Nathaniel Holt drew the colder
head down 10 bis breast and breathec
a silent nrayer over IL. For Flsi.