Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-10-17
weeks Annie was Abe acknowledged

few weeks Annie was Abe acknowledged
protector and friend of one her senior
by q year at least. As lone who nurses
some poor transplal1ted flower sees it
Ut last upon a sunny morning raise its
dropping head and turn its leaves to the
light, and knows that it will root and
bloom, SO Alice's self-appointed guar
dian reioiced when she lifted her blue
eyes to look around, and counted her
work at the days end, and gayly
SMILED to find the count so creditable.
II shall really be able to pay nv
way she cried, and, as an after
thought, ''many thanks to YOU" while
Annie told her how she might do better
on the morrow, not dreaming that
there are plants which Irvine and hug,
and with their parasitic breath and
cllnglng arms kill the brave sapling
that nourishes them; and so, as in the
nurses tale, they gaed, and they gaed,
lll sprlng-time came again, and with
the awakening buds and blossoms bit
ter wisdom came to one at least.
When Tom bad looked, through the
long winter hours, where duty and in
cllnatlon babe him, to the ace of his
sweetheart, he saw the strangers shy
sweet .glances, and slowly became
aware that he looked twice as often as
before; and if he did, he asked himself:
Who was to blame for it? He had not
walked into temptation nor courted it:
1t met him suddenly with his feet set in
honor's path, and assaulted him there
unarmed and %unprepared. He could
not look at Annie and not see Alice: he
could not but compare this delicate
porcelain, with the coarser ware which
fate had assigned to his lot. He was
ambitious of the best in all things, in
his work and in his ways, and so, in
love. his virtue had a fatal leaning to-
ward vice. He saw a woman of finer
mould than the woman who was watt
ing his word, and saw, too, that she re-
cognized and approved of his ambition,
could help him, being a step above him,
as Annie never could, and be q credit
to him. If she held him bound-well,
he had made a fatal mistake for him
self; but If she held him to it, he would
not swerve from the fulfillment of a
plain duty; he had no more intention
of defrauding little Annie than he had
of turning soldier or sailor, Or other
wise changing his trade. Until the
day when Annie herself saw the
thoughts OF his inmost soul laid bare by
an accident that he had no power to
avert, he kept his secret, or thought he
kept it, as we'll as is in the power OF
man to keep such a secret, which at
best is not very we'll.
Was it by coincidence merely, or was
it by design, that one day, when they
were all free at dinner hour to draw
new breath Or stretch their cramped
limbs, q merry singer gayly sung her
Courage Song" low at first, and then
louder, with her bright eyes fixed on
Annie?
And it heaven, bending over,
Should turn black instead OF blue,
II my own, my Olcn trile-lover
Should prove false instead OF true.
Do you think for the untrue one l would cry!
No; i q laugh and get II new one-that would
81 hate that song" cried Annie; SIT
has a broken heart in it,
''What would you do, then?" asked
the singer, while her companions
glanced compassionately at Annie.
''You can't die Just because you want
to, you KNOW"
s'Ihen / would live to weary Heaven
for Justice :" she said, with sudden fire,
and rose to resume work, wondering
somewhat at the earnest eyes thatlook-
ed into hers, but NOR at Alice's averted
face, crimson to the forehead. Days
after, when the very air seemed to bring
her i'll omens, she thought of it. In a
path where the roses of love and pleas
ure grow thick on every side, a way
ward hand reaching over might pluck
a bud or two and the loss remain un-
noticed, but in a life that is barren and
desolate except for the greenness of a
single cherished plant, the Jealous eye
detects every change, and after some
months of painful doubling, Annie
found that the blossoms were strangely
bllghted; not in a single night, but
slowly, surely, as if the secret dews
that nourished them were gradually
withheld; their perfume and their color
went, and all that ancient sweetness,
and as they dropped their dry leaves
one bv one through her trembling fin.
gers. she knew that they were
dead. Then the sun vanished,
duu Guc uCdVCIS 1lOWucu 1lhc DEdLcL
walls, from which she hid hel
face in terror, mourning like the
Arabian emir of old: Wherefore is
light given unto him that is in misery,
and life unto the bitter of soul; which
long for death, but it cometh not. and
dig for it more than for hid treasures
which rejoice exceedingly and are glad
when they can find the grave?" Wan.
dcring bewildered in q darkened land,
like one in an evil dream, she could moi
but know who had stolen her lover
from her, and it was in those days thai
she took to discussing theological qucs.
lions in her own mind with unwonteC
vehemence as she stitched, not that they
were q diversion or recreation, but only
because she could not help it. She was
shocked to find that she was fast grow
ING wicked in the hard certainty tina
God would punish all falsehood and de
ceit, and that it was any comfort tt
think so. The poor little violet whose
leaves had reached up toward the sky
drawn thither by loves soft sunlight
had still its dark root in the black earth
and if Annie again turned Heavenward
it was, a. she said, to weary the saint
for Justice. Did God mean to punisl
her by so sore a trial? Like rishteou
" I'll H., l,,l ,of ,,or;toI In