The Red Cloud chief., 1881-06-16
AFTER MANY YEARS.

Inc WORTH Suddcniy grew very dark
b. Janet Northway, when n cloud of
dust hid from her sight a tall, slim
figure. She wondered YEARLY if clouds
had come overthc sun and a storm was
approaching, for where had the sun
light of IN hour ago gone? What had
happened 10 all the familiar scene that
made il look hateful and strange TO
her? She had known these woods,
the stream winding through them. ev-
cry berry bush on the hill from her
childhood. The old farmhouse was
almost hidden from the road by an
orchard to Eight and left, and a long
row of naples in front-as she had
stood on the broad, flat stone by the
gate many times before, she had looked
through the trees TO it and, remember
ing that il had always been her home,
thought il a pleasant place-now, Us
she Caughta glimpse of lis gray. wealth
cr-hcaIcn front, il was distaslcful 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 i'll a couplct upon
the bark of many an old tree, and,
like Nirgir's idyllic lovers, rs the trees
grew their loves grew. AT last both
families began 10 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
i'm The hottest excitement OF those DAYS
which Bret lIartc has celebrated in his
Tales of the ArgonautS. That mad cru
SADIE of Fortune was recruited from the
city. the shop and the farm. There
WAS 10 remote corner of the country
that did not furnish a representative;
and the true stories stranger than ic-
ton. of the vast u 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 heart 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 rs he told
her of his project could not entirely
dampcn his spirits and he fondly tried
to laugh her tears away. But her smile
vas Il sad one, and, with 4 woman's te-
naciouS love, mingled with foreboding,
she thought, when he spoke so conf
IDENTITY of what the contamination 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 careg' But at the last moment
only a smiling face and eyes not tear
full met his, and so he thoughthe should
always remember her.
Ealf a year later n home-sick gold
seeker returning to the East brought
Janet's first letter from her lover.
After another six months a 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
ANhiS name was at the end of a long
list of killed or missing in a mine dis
aster. Now only the one hope re-
manned for her hat he might be miss
ing. not dead, and never a summer day
passed but she looked up the road, Won
dering if he might not, even then, be
coming-never n winters day but the
|sound of bells brought her to the win
dow with a heart beating fast-shc 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 ana mother were both dead, and
Janet was alone. The old farm was sold
and she left if with an almost supcrsti-
tious feeling that in leaving she aban-
doned her last hope of his return. 1t
Secmed 10 her that if she ever saw him
again he must enter by that garden
gate.
She went 10 an aunt in a distant city,
and three years later the small world ut
Brighton was exercised for a short time
npver the news of her marriage. In the
minds Of the younger people she fell
froSn that heroic pedestal whereon i'm
aglhation had placed her as the faithful
and unwearying devotee to the memory
of a lost love; but the older people,
drawing upon the wisdom of more ma
turc AUD worldly experience, agreed
that lit was the best thing Janet could
DO. poor girl" In speaking of her
they invariably used this phrase. Grad
ually She dropped out of their mem
Dries, and there were few to question
whethef it was well OF i'll with her.
Perhaps she lived no more in their
minds than did he whom they 5slieved
was buried in the debris Of . Western
Uine.
III.
1t was at the close of a summer day
In 1865 that a stranger walked rapidly
down the country road of Rriohton--a