The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1882-05-31

seemed not to VIII; he walked the house
while ROYAL snored in the rocker, end re-
called 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 be had
enough. to conjecture dreadful things about
his wife's fate. All alone there in the farm
house what might not have hsppened2 Or,
more probably, had she not fed from him
forever, afraid of his temper and his tongue7
He blessed the shower Of snow that had
fallen ia his absence and mus tell the story
of her fight; and he made q few but very
earnest resolctions as TO his future conduct
towards her-if, indeed, 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 footprint
cept those Of Wills old horse and the two
men.
Sally's light feet had not traversed that
yielding surface; nobody had been there.
Then VIII broke down; without food or
sleep, oppressed by the awful mystery of
his loss, as we'll as by the loss itself, he grew
half-crazy. sobbed, raved and tramped the
house, till Royal Phelps at last went over to
fetch his wife, with the sage remark
"He's past my handlin guess women
foils'd know better how 70 fetch him to
now"
So Mrs. Phelps came over, made some not
coffee and persuaded him to drink it, set
things to rights "A little, aud prepared to get
dinner; but VIII still lay on his face in the
bedroom, as wretched and hopeless as 3
man could be.
Suddenly horses hoofs beat on the
crusted snow up tothe back door.
Will jumped up and rushed out, and
man handed him a telegram; he did not
hear, while he was opening it, the bearers
| explanation.
1T came to Taunton depot for We, and
tho operator said twas real important, an
you'd Civ me dollar to fetch it."
VIII did not answer; his brain reeled rs
he read
civilian Gray, Taunton. Your wife is at
Seyms Station very i'll"
"Can l go back 10 Taunton with your"
he said to the man handing the telegram to
Mrs. Phelps, with light in his eye that
told the relief he was scarcely conscious OF
as yet.
Reckon you kin, for another dollar, A." and
with a nod to the sstonished Mrs. Phelps,
Will was of, and in an hour was seated in
the train for Seyms Station.
Tho story is strange but true; when Sally
slammed the barn-door behind her, she
pulled her apron over her head, and ran
across the road, safe in the knowledge that
the morning express had passed. The light
fall of snow dulled the sound of special
freight-train slowly rounding the corner
Just at that moment, ano Sally was struck
by the cow-catcher as she stepped on the
track, and was thrown violently TO one
side.
Stunned by the blow, she lay on the
ground unconscious. She did not know that
the train had stopped, or that she was sur
rounded by group Of strange men.
The engineer and one OF the brakemen
entered the house and found it deserted. No
other dwelling was in sight.
To leave woman lying insensible in an
empty house was out of the question, and so
at last, after calling in vain for assistance,
they laid her in the conductors car to carry
her 10 the nearest station, soma miles furth-
Or on.
When she regained her consciousness, it
was her turn to feel all those pangs of re-
gret and repentance that VIII suffered, and
to make resolves OF her own, if ever she re-
turned to live up to them.
She could not move or speak when the
train stopped, and the men took her from
the car supposing she was perhaps fatally
injured.
She did revive, however, but only long
enough TO whisper Wills name and town
in reply to persistent questioning, before
delirium set in, and when her husband
reached the hospital where they had taken
her, she did not know him, and it was weeks
instead of days before she could go home.
In the meantime, Will sold his fam TO
Royal Phelps brother, and bought another
close by Mystic, and two miles from any
railway. He knew that neither he nor Sal
ly would ever again feel safe st the cid
place.
So far, their first quarrel has been their
last; the resolutions have been well kept
Sally can make pot-pie and rye-bread, as
we'll as many other things, quite as skillfully
as Cousin 'Phrony, and She is so happy with
her husband and her baby that she some
times thinks Will lost all his bad temper
when he found his wife at Seyms.