The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1882-06-07

and now he was sorry. He got thero
at last, just before sundown, and driv-
ing into the barn was received with
chorus from the COW and pig
"Jerus'lem u he exclaimed. II
never fed them critters this morning
I did lose my head. that's fact Well,
I've got to tend 'em now. Wonder
Sally didn't. Mebbe, though, she did
not come over, or, il she did, she
fetched the eggs and didn't look at
nothing else"
Very speedily he fed the hungry
beasts and put ont his horse, resolving
to go in to supper and finish his barn
work afterward, for he was hungry.
There was no light in the house,
which looked rather cheerless, but then
Sally was frugal and sat far into the
twilight without lamp, 30 he went on
and opened the kitchen-door.
A cold chill struck him the place
was empty, still, fireless; q rat ran
across the floor rs he stepped in.
Nobody was there.
The low light of the setting sun struk
across the snow-felds with wan glitter
into the bare room the fire was out
the stove cold. Behind the door into
the shed hung Sally's hood and shawl,
and her mittens were on the shelf.
Sally must be in the bedroom, sick no
doubt.
With an anxious heart Will opened
the door into it. Nobody was there I;
the room was in its usual cheerless
order the bed white and smooth as
the outer drifts the white-curtained
windows shutting out even that wintry
sunshine.
Probably Sally had put on her Sunday
cloak and bonnet, the same dark-red
velvet turban and jaunty, jet-trimmed
sack she had looked 30 well in when
they were married. Almost as if he
were afraid of seeing ghost, Will
opened the closet door to see; there the
things hung against the wall, straight
and smooth, sack and shawl too, and
the toque was on the shelf above.
Then he opened the tiny parlor, with
awful misgivings. The andirons shone
in the open fireplace; the wax fruit was
undsr its glass shade, between the glass
candlesticks on the shelf; and the big
Bible, the photograph album, the copy of
Tupper's Proverbial Philosophy all
wedding presents occupied the small
round table in the middle of the room,
and took ghastly tint from the green
paper shades and the wan light of dying
day.
Everything was as prim, as dull and
as musty as ever. Sally was not there.
There was but one room upstairs.
and either side of it dark attic; he lit
his lantern and searched there, but
found nothing.
Then he took bee-line for the near
est neighbor's house, but though the
family were full of pity and astonish-
ment and suggestion, he did not find
his wife.
"Hev We s'arched the barn ?" queried
old Grandsir Phelps from the chimney
corner.
Will had not thought of that; so
Royal Phelps went back with him and
peered into every corner of the bin,
NOW, harness-shed and cellar.
They found the eggs she had left in
the hay, but they did not find Sally.
Then the two men went over the house
again, peered shudderingly down into
the well, and weighing the bucket with
heavy stones and lenghtening the rope,
let it down till they heard the wood
strike hard against the rocky bottom
from whence bubbled up that living
spring. Nobody was there.
"You haint tramped around the lots
any, hev YEP" inquired Royal Phelps.
"Nowhere only tow'rds your house, I"
answered Will.
"Well, then, when mornin' comes
we kin track her; for it showed about
an hour arter breakfast, and there haint
ben no passin' onto the road sence, for
I've ben a-choppin' long side ont the
hull time to-day and took bite
along SOS not to stop; was boun' to
finish up to-day"
But would that morning ever come
It seemed not to Will; he walked the
house while Royal snored in the rocker,
and recalled with despair and distress
how he and Sally had parted in the
morning in anger parted now, it
seemed, for the last time.
He had not much imagination, but
he had enough to coniure dreadful
} things about his wife's fate. All alone
there in the farmhouse what might
not have happened? Or, more proba-
bly,, had she not fed from him forever,
afraid of his temper and his tongue
He blessed the shower of snow that
had fallen in his absence and must tell
the story of her flight and he made a
few but very earnest resolutions as to
his future conduct toward her-if, in
deed, any future found them once more
: together.
} But morning came, and on no field
or road, not even on the railway track
in either direction, was there foot
print except those of Wills old, horse
} and the two men.
Sally's light feet had not traversed
that yielding service; nobody had been
there.
Then Will broke down without food
or sleep, oppressed by the awful mys-
terry OF his loss, as we'll as by the loss
itself, he grew half-crazy, sobbed, raved
and tramp ed the house till Royal Phelp