The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1881-09-15
AFTER MANY YEARS.


dust hid from her sight a tall, slim
figure. She wondered wearily if clouds
had come over the sun and storm WIS
approaching, for where had the sun
light of an hour ago gone? What had
happened to ali the familiar scene that
made it look hateful and strange to
herp She had known these woods,
the stream winding through them. ev-
cry berry bush on the hill from her
childhood. The old farm house was
almost hidden from the road bv an
orchard to right and lett, and long
row OF naples in front-as she had
stood on the broad, fiat stone by the
gaze MANY times before, she had looked
through the trees to it and, remember
ing that it had always been her home,
thought it a pleasant place-now, as
she caught a glimpse of its gray, wealth
er-beaten front, it was distasteful and
almost unfamiliar to her.
Since their childhood Janet North
way and James Forest had been friends
and comrades. When children they
had played together in the orchard that
separated the two farms, and he had
carved their names in couplet upon
the bark of many an old tree, and,
like Virgirs idyllic lovers, as the trees
grew their loves grew. At last both
families began to look forward to the
time when the two farms would be unit
ed by their son and their daughter.
The time of which we write was dur
ing the hottest excitement of those days
which Bret Harte has celebrated in his
Tales of the Argonauts. That mad cru
SADIE of Fortune was recruited from the
CITY, the shop and tine farm. There
| was no remote corner of the country
| that did not furnish a representative;
and the true stories stranger than fic-
| ton, of the vast resources of Eldorado
| had not been without effect on the en-
| terprising spirit of James Forest. 1t
| was not the prospect of wealth alone,
| but a native love of adventure that
| moved him; and, almost before he was
aware, he had joined the expedition.
His helrt was light now; he would see
the world, and, when he came back in
two years, his fortune would be made,
and Janet and he would be rich. Even
her white, frightened face as he told
| her of his project could not entirely
dampen his spirits and he fondly tried
| to laugh her tears away. But her smile
was sad one, and, with woman's te-
nacious love, mingled with foreboding,
she thought, when he spoke so conf
| IDENTIFY of what the consummation of his
two years absence would be: "What if
| you should never come back. or-or,
we should both be old, and you would
| not carer" But at the last moment
only smiling face and eyes not tear
full met his, and so he thought he should
| always remember her.
Ealf year later a home-sick gold
seeker returning to the East brought
Janet's first letter from her lover
| After another six months second came.
| and these were all she ever received,
and in the second year of his absence a
daily paper that strayed to the country
brought her the next tidings from him
his name was at the end of a long
list of killed or missing in mine dis
aster. Now only the one hope re-
mained for her that he might be miss
ing, not dead, and never summer day
passed but she looked up the road, Won
dering if he might not, even then, be
coming-never winters day but the
sound of bells brought her to the win
dow with heart beating fast-she al
ways turned sadly away, waiting for
| the guest who never came.'
When another year had passed, and
he was to have been with her now, her
father and mother were both dead, and
Janet was alone. The old farm was sold
and she left it with an almost supersti-
tious feeling that in leaving she aban-
doned her last hope of his return. 1t
seemed to her that if she ever saw him
again he must enter by that garden
gate.
She went to an aunt in distant city,
and three years later the small world at
Brighton was exercised for a short time
over the news of her marriage. In the
minds of the younger people she fell
from that heroic pedestal whereon i'm
agination had placed her as the faithful
and unwearying devotee to the memory
of lost love; but the older people,
drawing upon the wisdom of more ma
ture and worldly experience, agreed
that lit was the best thing Janet could
do, poor grip In speaking of her
they invariably used this phrase. Grad
ually she dropped out of their MEM
ories, and there were few to quest on
whether it was well or i'll with her.
Perhaps she lived no more in their
minds than did he whom they believed
was buried in the debris of a Western
mine.