The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1881-10-22

mt anu ludIIleu quiet SmeQe girl, the daugn-
ter OF one OF his hardy comrades, and from
their strange union had sprung the gentle
Martha and the large-featured, fair-haired
Geralda, whose Northern phlegm and endur-
ance were united with the quick wit and in
tense passion OF her Iris ancestors.
Geralda Scott chung to the memory of her
father with an almost sublime devotion, His
varied knowledge, cert in bluff polish of
manner which his wild and rowing life had
never entirely oblit rated, and his feats of
strength and bravery, which were many and
remarkable, she loved to dwell upon. From
the upper windows Of the rude, hgh-fronted
: shanty'' in which she and her sister lived,
they could see plainly, some fifty feet down
the red rock which bound the river, and a iull
two hundred above the swrling rapids, the
legend, in bolt white letters
LEROY TALBOT SCOTT, I..
RIVER PILOT.
iI- 1913.
The girl never saw this without secret
thrill, for her father, wears before she was
born, had climbed unaided up the beetling
crag, and had hung by one hand between
heaven and earth while he had written it.
8 Humph, Mart Scott!" she had said, sharp
ly, to her quiet and unimpassioned ster,
what are you made of that YOU can hear
these things, and vet sit there like a block p,
But Martha, with her pale Northern face and
stolid Swede manner, cared more for the stout
young pilot who was going to marry her than
for all the stories of her reckless fathers ex-
ploits
Raldy Scott was as good as her word and
when the little funeral procession which fol
lowed Sim PEBBLES mother to the grave moved
away from the desolate hut, which Raldy's
strong neat hands had cleansed and purified,
Raldy, herself, with her brave, straightfor-
ward face held up defantly to her gaping
neighbors, had led one of the sobbing babies,
while their shambing father, looking strange.
" kempt and tidy, walked beside the other.
Then they had come home again to the little
hut, and every day through the dreary Novem-
Der weather Raldy Scott had tended the or
phaned children and kept the cabin o. DAYS.
fastening home, when the little ones were
safely in bed, to Mart and her own trim
though only less humble home ft
hat you gon' to git for your palms, Raj
dy!' said kindly old lumberman to her one
day; He had befriended her father, and Raldy
could not answer him curtly. Il fq ID .,-r.s
Talk behind my back-and experience, y
said Raldy, half smiling. But Mart was to be
married at Christmas-time so that Raldy felt
she could afford to earn less for awhile: and,
indeed, though she would not have allowed it
to herself Raldy was becoming almost fond of
the life which she was leading in Sim PEBBLES
cabin. fI7iTl ''71r ,,-',T :.
YOU'RE powerful hand to work, Raldy,''
said Sim to her one day, as he sat watching her
swift and energetic movements about his
cherries little kitchen. ~, -
Raldy stopped and squared her elbows, look
ing straight at him from under her great fore.
head. t....,..... -t.f. 49, -.
"l'm setting you an example, Sim PEBBLES, y
she said, slowly. YOU'RE clever.and YOU'RE
kind; you did me great service once, and
III never forget it; but if YOU had half the
work in you that have, you needn't be so
all-possessed poor that you can't pay an hon
est woman for tending your wee bits and
cooking your venison." i.7r H.i
Raldy's tone forbade reply or argument. and
Sim Peebles'slunk guilty away.
A day or two later he came in with a new
brightness in his face.
Say Raldy," he began, half sheepishly-for
Sim PEBBLES had been ''raisedn in semi-luxury
In some Eastern State, had loafed ever since
he could remember, and hardly knew whether
the announcement which he was about to
make would be really creditable to him or not
could you ct along-I mean, would YOU STAY
and look after things here till come back if
coup in the pines till spring.'
Raldy laugheda rather incredulous laugh
What are you going to do up in the pines!"
she asked, at length.
$ Chop" said Sim PEBBLES, succinctlv.
Humph they've all gone long ago. ...
mo; there's party going up to Stevens
Point next week, and strike off from there''
ously
Yes, can, too" .
Well, then, 60" Raldy spoke crustily.
She would not give the peeping neichbors any
chance to acuse her of spending soft words on
Sim PEBBLES. Yet, truth to say, she no longer
held him in the low res ect which she had ex-
pressed in the screed delivered to her gossping
neighbors, and which her language to him
would seem to indicate. In these long, quiet
weeks since she h I'd come to live in his hu M
BILE cabin, she ad detected in the Ion ely sad
dened man qualities which had soft ened her
heart toward him. He loved his children, and
thou III he knew little enough how to care for
them, he vet " mindedn them devotedly in his
own rough way Then : i'm PEBBLES almost
womanish face was yet handsome and attract
ive-when it was clean and shayen; and one
day Raldy had come uneXp ctedly upon him
with his eyes wet with tears, gazing upon a.
picture, which her quick vision noted, before
he could put it away, as likeness OF his old
mother.
Humph!" said Raldy to herself, quite an
CRY at a little secret tenderness which the
sight had evoked in her. g Sim PEBBLES puts
on considerable about his mother, but notice
he didn't get her new dress while she was
here, and if she had enough to eat it was be-
cause she hoed the clearing and dug the po-
tatoes.'
Still, it was fact, and Raldy in dim. I'M
wi ling way, knew it, that she was daily grow
ing to set anigher value upon sim teebles
than he deserved, and she felt this more defin-
itely Than before when he to her that he was
strange, an unreasoning aversion to having
him go, glad as she was to see him de veloping
something OF the courage of a man.
She had repealed SO fiercely the Young men
who, won to admiration by her spirit and good
looks, had dared to make her any overtures,
that haldy had never yet had regular love
affair, and as is usually the case with strong
and self-reliant woman, weakness had won
where force had failed. She could not help
acting little more tender and approachable
than her wont as the day drew near for sim
PEBBLES to go, and Sim-poor Sim. who had
come to worship the very ground that Raldy
trod->im felt it but he did not dare to speak
He was to start on Monday, and Raldy
had patched and darned his clothes till he was
fit to go. Sunday morning she went
as usual to the little Lutheran chapel, the
only place of worship which Dearborn City af-
forded, and where her mother had been one OF
the most devout attendants, and having
come home again, she got the dinner and
fed the children. Then she turned them
out to play in the clearing, and leaving
the door ajar-for it was one of the mildest
and pleasantest days of early winter-she went
singing about her work. Sim PEBBLES watched
her as she moved here and there, and Raldy,
independent and imperious as she was, stole
now and then furtiye glance at him ITO
He's handsome" she thought, dreamily,
as she gave casual glance at Sims waving
hair and large brown eyes; 81 butt coming to
herself a little, show shiftless he is !. But he's
Kind, wandering off rain, "and he's done
some brave deeds--but no pride, no ambit on
But he's honest, p" thought RaldY again no.
body ever said Sim PEBBLES wasn't houast.