Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1884-02-14

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sea and sky unrolled like a scroll from
AeI very feet, west and south and north
| a little path meandered at an u unwari r.l
angle, around southerly curve n "aha aha
broad hillside. Along this path came @ .
young man with dog at his heels and a
gun under his arm. 1t was John Vandor
eluughg nome from a contraband sally
Z aller unlawful wing-shots. Agnes did not
'need his approach, and he leaned against
me renee scarcely a rod away, with the
| oos at ms feet and cigar in his mouth.
=, II is IDLE to try and attain the impossi-
| pie.to put into accurate thinking and
tangible words the loveliness of that even
ing scene. Looking due south, over the
| apparently perfect level of Oakland and
alameda, the southern arm of the bay.
which CLEANS under the morning sun like
narrow silver ribbon that boy might
Jump across, was q river Of indigo, with
scarcely visible ripple on all its surface,
a wall OF smoke arose above the houses
| o. tne city; Its base is gloom, its coping
II like it, Agnes, do your"
1 Agnes turned at the sound of his voice.
| and there was trace of dissatisfied sur
prise IN her tones of welcome.
| Ihe young man would have been dull
4 indeed if he had not noticed, and spirit
less indeed If he had not been piGued.
You surely don't wish to keep the pic.
fture quite to yourself, do you?n
No, it was the immediate foreground
| only that cared to monopolize."
Jared is past tense, Agnes" ~
Care, then"
Care then isn't grammar"
She looked at him disdainfully for an
instant, and then looked another way.
s. You will be sorry for this some time"
gravely. "If have offended you, let me
know how; I'm always ready enough to
apologize, am | not?"
TOO ready"
Too ready?"
Yes. lam as tired of this intermina-
bic scene-making as you can possibly be
this kiss and make up condition of
affairs. We are engaged; we have ex-
tr;af changed VOWS and rings and sophis-
s"Sophistries?"
Yes; have we not declared over and
over again that we love each other above
al else! 1t is a--an error. Each of us
| loves his own way better than sweetheart
or lover. is it not so?" rs
For you, possibly; not for me-"
If she had looked more closely at him as
she spoke she would have noticed that
his face wore an expression she had
never before seen. John Vandor's fore
head carried frown as black as the
shadows Of the forest hillsides above San
Pablo, and there was the precise sort of
glitter in his brown eyes that the usual
fictionist describes as ''baleful." But she
did not notice; and when he said, slowly
and painfully, asif every word cost him
q moment Of physical pain, ''Do you want
your freedom back again, Agnes" she an
swered him, with defiant ring of as.
sured proprietorship in her lark-like
voice:
Why, yes, for a while, if you please"
.sIt shall be until you please to tire of
it," was all he said.
He strode'down by the hillside slope
| without single goodbye, and she con-
tinued to stand with scornful smile,
while the after-glow faded out of the sky.
But the smile faded with the waning
flush in the western skies, and with the
darkness came a sudden dread, IA dread
she had not known or dreamed of. "Will
he ever come back?" she thought 'Will
he?" she said aloud. An obtrusive hoot-
owl screeched shrill reply, and the
proud girl found it anything but reassur-
ing. @ -
She had been so sure of John yandor's
love, had taken it so for granted, that no
daring seemed too great She had thought
it did not greatly matter how courtship
Jared, since marriage would be the mas
| ter on the morrow. She was prepared 60
be, to her husband all that a wife ought
to be; but to abate one jot of her freedom
in compliance to her betrothed-that
was another matter.
The morrow came, and the to-morrow's
morrow; but John Vandor did not come
with them. One day Agnes went to her
fathers study. In her eyes were un-
wonted tears. She told him everything.
he said-and, though the words were
those of Richard the bear, the tones of
| the voice had in them all the tenderness
of the father-"It will serve you right if
you two never meet again; but you will"
The whistle Of the midnight locomo-
| tive startled the echoes asleep in the
| Madeira freight house; in the freight
house, because there was nothing else in
in Madeira big enough to harbor an echo.
First class passengers sleep aboard trains
on the first stage of the Yosemite trip.
Richard Earle had been asleep in his
section three hours. What to him was
the yellow moonlight that shone on an
ocean of yellow grain? But for Richard
| Earle's travelling companion there was no
| sleep while that moon lasted. 1t was to
| Agnes new glamor; and of gamor she
had had but little in the two years then
past. She was proud girl, and Drawer
than most; but the prolonged and unex-
planned absence of her lover had been no
passing grief. If the world did not sus-
pect-if even her father did not fully
know--the brown eyes of John Vandor
would have WINGED for his unforgive-
ness could he have looked into hers for
glances span. Ill she was not, sad she
was not. But in her eyes was a weary
look that the world never noticed, and
beneath her vigorous health was nerv-
Gus, craving unrest that even her father
never saw. a
When the train drew upto the station,
Agnes still sat in her open section, peer
ing with longing eyes into wonderland.
Half an hour after the train had settled
itself for,the night tall girl in brown
linen and Cruikshank sunshade~ was
walking along down the track toward
Merced, with her feet in the fairy light
land the cinder dust of the uneven road
bed y following the waning moon. I
81 wonder if it would be imprudent as
wellas improper to go to sleep in the
wheat, Ruth-like and romantic?"
She spoke aloud, but nothing in the
profound stiffness answered her. The
moon had touched the fair horizon, sill
vering the crest of the west side hills.
Despite herself, the girl was trit1e tired
and very sleepy.
care these poppies in the wheat?" she
asked herself, smiling. "What if 1 go to
sleep for just five minutes, who shall say
me mayor care?'
1t was a long FIVE minutes. The first
meadow lark staid his shrill mathis lest
he should waken her; and fair young
man on pie-bald mare checked his gal
/ lop with startled abruptness to see a
woman's figure in linen dress, asleep
/ -, n e,,,no,x,icor', u