The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1884-05-30
morning seemed amending, the after
noon intolerab1e, and tea in the house

morning seemed amending, the after.
noon intolerab1e, and tea in the house.
keepers room oppressively weary.
As luck would have il, Patty's young
mistress went to bed early that night
The lights in the lower suit of state
rooms were put out at a little past ten,
and IL o'clock found Patty creeping on
tip-toe down the staircase into the
hall, through whose latticed windows
the streamed in on to many . tro.
ply Of middle age armor-on sword
and lance, Puritan leather ierkin, pike
and matchlock-and trophies of flood
and feld-from the last red deer head
that graced the chase nigh three hun.
dred years ago, to the mask of the last
gallant fox that had died before the
hounds in February.
Nervously she unlocked the door and
stepped out into the intense black shad-
ow of the Great House. Beyond the
terrace the home grass park was q
blaze of moonlight up to the Great Oak
beyond which the broken edges OF
bracken and bramble, thorn and noun
tain ash were Swallowed in with mighty
blue-black pines.
But there is no time to stay, and keep
ing in the shadow. Patty fits along the
terrace, through the arched gallery door
under which the grand court ladies OF
former days had slipped their chocolate
with Lady Couch, and gossiped while
the men were playing troco on the bowl
ing green outside. Across this to the
little arbor Patty steals like . hunted
hare, conscious that there is the only
dangerous spot. A moment more she
has passed the arbor, clambered over
the little stone parapet, and, without
waiting to think of its depth, hasjumped
into the moat surrounding the terrace.
Here she pauses to listen; but no
sound, nor sign, save the bleat of the
sheep and Whitney of the colts in the
grass park, and the quick p%alpitations
of her own heart.
Little did she suspect that within If
teen feet of her in the arbor, crushing
down his wonder and excitement, sat
the young squire, who, to avoid parent
al objection, was enjoying his evening
Havana under the moonlight; and who
had half recognized in the black-c1oaked
figure fitting past the arbor Patty Hol-
den, the girl of oil others he most
wished to have a word with.
Where could she be going? To see
whom? were the questions that puzzled
him. To see some relation or sick
friend, she would have openly asked for
leave or for an escort. No. This
pointed to some clandestine meeting,
the which he would take steps to see,
and by taxing her with it turn it to his
own profit.
As Patty's football died away on the
soft turf, the young Squire slipped out
of the arbor, and, vaulting over the
railing, dropped into the shadow to fol-
low her footsteps sc soon as she should
be fairly hidden in the Lime avenue.
The Lime avenuel How sombre it
seemed to poor Patty, needless Of the
scent of the last few blossoms dying up
on the nlght-of the great moths that
swooped and luttered in and out. She
saw only a roof of foliage arching in a
great shadow, the gray and grisly stems,
and the glare of the moonlight outside,
into which she 1onged but dared not to
step. Any one from the house, or some
Of the men coming home, might see her
there; while in the gloom she was safe
from all v the dread. Of nameless
something" stepping out and confront
ing her from behind every tree-trunk.
The end of the Lime avenue is reached,
and the Winchfeld road crossing her
path at right angles CLEANS white in
the moonlight-the crossing sentinelled
by four giant silver pines, from whose
lordly tops q single iackdaw begins to
chatter as he sees her, and as the whole
roost take up the cry, she shrinks back
in terror against the stem of the last
linden.
But it is too late to go back now.
Wills 1ife-her own-depends on the
success of her venture. The long grass
moonlit ride, fringed with heather and
marked with scattering frs, would soon
give place to the darker forest, in which
there would be more safety; and after a
moments hurried prayer, she sped
wildly up the ride amid a chattering
volley from the jackdaws. The great
silver fr-scarred and scored from crest
to boil by lightning, the wonder of her
childhood-is passed, and many another
noble landmark of the chase, till she
stops at last on the edge of the thicker
forest under the shade of the we'll
known Deformed Scotch Fir, which,
unable through some youthful injury
to rear a head as proudly as his brothers
on either side, had perversely grown
outward and downward till it has
formed a bower fit for the Fir Maiden
herself.
AS soon as the excitement of movement
had passed, a deadly fear of impending
evil came over Patty; but the brave lit.
tie spirit would not quail; and out again
only to shrink back with a cry, as
through the pines overhead, with every
undulating motion, there swept a bro.
ken sheet of white twenty feet square,
and then silently faded into the distance
Poor child! little did she deem, as she
covered under the fir branches, thai
the anne sheet which had scared
many a one before, and should many q
one afterward, was only a herd of swan.
vending their nightly way from DE-
gamesfeld to Bramshill, from BRAINS
hill great pond to the Lodden at Swal
lowield. But to Patty, as to others, i
was a yeritable moving apparition Of TIL.
| ghost and body Of her childhood; ane
long it was ere she could muster cour
age for another start. She could bu'
die; and what if she did die for Will.
sake? Better hat than have him killet
and leave her desolate. Then, fancy
if she was successful if she reached thu
fern seed, gathered itand gaveit to him
so that he would henceforth walk invis
ible among the poachers! For tina
meant absolute safety.
Yes! up and on! till the pine needles
crisped under her tread.
With an occasional start as q night,
jar swoops into her path in pursuit Of
moth, a rabbit scuttles into the fern, q
a flock of snipe walls across from thu
moor down To the cleaning raachas ~