Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1883-05-25

WIZ AAAa - ohOhA0l nave lllC NOdA-
age" .ors
81 never suspected you of any want
of courage" said Mr.. Ericsson.
81 am a dreadful coward. / don't
think / fully realized il when I began.
Ii l had been, sent anywhere but TO
Scragg Eud, don't know what / should
have done. Here they are humble
minded people, without strong preju-
dices, and do seem to have found the
way to their hearts. But am afraid
should never dare to enter another pull
pit-certainly not yours at Ponkapaw-
ket." ="
You would soon conquer there as
you have conquered here" said Mr..
Ericsson.
Il couldn't endure their unfriendly
gaze. / should display all my woman
ishness. 1 should blush. / should
tremble, l might faint. l should be a
stumbling-block to the women who are
following in the same pathway. j
don't mean to be that. Ny work in
Scragg End sufiices me, and am so
thankful for it."
4 a am sorry you feel so about Ponk-
/ apawket, because ! have a PROPOSE
ton in my mind much more audacious
than the one that / made" said Mr..
| Ericsson.
Miss Barton raised her eyes inquiring-
", and dropped them again instantly
under the minister's gaze.
II thought we might unite the
churches Mr.. Ericson's voice trem-
bled a little, as if he were afraid.
81 don I see how'it could be done,r
said Miss Barton, frigidly.
"Of course, there is but one way"
said Mr.. Ericsson, quietly. Il dared not
ask YOU to be my wife without suggest
ing to you the fact that your work need
not be given up" -
The girl rose to her feet. Lysander's
stocking fell from her hand and was
blown away by the wind UNDECIDED. AZ
| don't know what have done to deserve
this-this INSULT | thought that at
least you respected me, and thought
my calling made me sacred from such
such attacks altogether"
81 am soffy that you should think it
an insult. | can hardly see how man
could give you better proof of his re-
spect than to ask you to become his
wife. And as for your calling making
/ you sacred, we don't believe in the
celibacy Of the clergy, you know" In
spite of his evident modification and
distress, there was sly twinkle in Mr.
EricsOn's eye as he said that.
but IL am woman" said Miss
Barton sitting down again, and cover.
| ing her face with her hands. -,
''The more reason why YOU should ,be
married. said Mr.. Ericsson, calmly.
You need a protector"
81 am perfectly sufficient for my
self. And shall never care for any.
body-anything-but my work"
Mr.. Ericsson arose. Il am sorry to
have troubled you,' he said. gently -
love you, and have never known what
1t was to love woman before; that is
my excuse" '..~
Miss Barton watched him as he went
down the road, with the yellow leaves
falling upon him. She observed, as she
had never done before, how finely his
head was set upon his broad shoulders.
what n manly grace there was about his
strong. well-knit figure.
"But he has no business to love me-"
she said, drawing her brows into a tighi
frown. ..-. ...
Then suddenly she remembered Ly
sanders stocking, and went down in the
grass to look for it. 1t had blown over
the fence into the field. She stretchec
her arm between the Stats and drew il
back. AS she did so she caught sight o.
Lysander. He was gathering squashes
and pumpkins on the little south hill
she saw his figure in silhouette against
the sky. He started to come toward the
house, and she waited for him-waiteG
until sudden thought sent fame OF
color over her face.
lit can't be" she said, half aloud.
! inquiringly. 81 ICMl keep that Out
of my life. won't be a failurei
won't be-" And she rushed up to her
room and locked herself in.
She came down as calm and grave as
ever when the tea-bell rang, and after
tea she and Lysander read their daily
quantity of Greek, for Lysander was
pursuing his studies with renewed avid.
ity since he had companion to heir
him, and had not yet given up his long
cherished hope of studying for the min.
istry. though there seemed no prospect
of his being able to leave the farm.
After that Miss Barton devoted her.
self more zealously than ever to he1
work. She darned no more stockings.
When she was not writing her sermons
she was visiting the sick and the poor.
and making, or suggesting and inducing
others TO make, improvements, sanitary
and moral rs well as religious.
She was as practical and efficient rs
if she was not q woman many people
said; and old Jeremy Grimes, who ha6
wished to tell her when she came that
they didn't want woman preacher.
said: "They couldn't have had such
women in ST. Paurs time. or he never
would have written what he did,"
But Mrs. Hewitt had a grievance.
Miss Barton didn't seem TO make her.
self one of the family as she used to.
She was shut up in her own room al.
most all the time now, and she and Ly.
sander didn't seem to get along togeth.
er as they used TO, She never came
into the kitchen and wanted to heir
make cake now, or sat with them
around the fire in the evening while
Lysander read aloud. She .'didn't
seem to have anything against them.
bnt she wasn't free and sociable any
more" .-s -st. ..Y.. tl
Lysander was teaching school this
winter, and attending to the farm work
in his leisure time. His habit of study.
ing with Miss Barton had gradually dice
out. To his mothers persistent ques.
tionings Lysander replied that neither
of them had any time for it now.
Mrs. Hewitt could not make 1T out.
PA, " who prided himself upon being
long-headed, limited that he could, but
he would not say outright what he
thought, and his wife regarded his hints
with lofty scorn.
One afternoon, after school-hours.
Lysander went down to the woods back
OF the house to superintend the opera
tons OF some men who were cutting
timber. Just at dusk Miss Barton, com.
ing home from visit to sick parish.
ioner, encountered four men carving
on an improvised stretcher Lysander's
apparently lifeless body. He was living
white and rigid. and then there were
SCARLET spots upon the snow all the way
n hah nH