Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1884-11-01
Gales and sketthes.
A CL0D OF THE VALLEY.
CONTINUED from yesterday. }


! Dr. Holt had his wayne usually did
and before noon Matilda Fosdick was quiet
1 " getting the mems dinner. and Ruth was
watching beside her husband, in their cool.
| shadowy chamber, where she had slept so
many short nights through beside him. to
waken tired and self pitiiul at the Growing
of the morning cock, and begin her daily
work again.
She never remembered now whether she
was tired or NOT. She bad only one thought
would Tom live, or would he go to that
wide-armed, infinite rest of which she
used to dream. and leave her to be that
loneliest of Gods poor creatures, child
! less widow
| Tom did not know her at all in those
| long watches. Sometimes he would call
her. and then he would say YEARLY. She
can come she's always busy. Poor Ruth.''
Perhaps he had been sorry. for through
! it all, Ruth thought, though she had never
been sorry for him. Surely he had not
meant to be unkind only it was the Gus
tom of the farmers wives to do their own
work, when they were young and we'll,
and to toll indoors even more steadily than
their husbands did in the pillow field or
hay field. Only, in Ruth's case. she had
been kind of mistake She should have
been born in another world. where people
made poems and pictures and mu'ic, and
she would have found some part for her
self to take there; for, surely. she had not
been suited-she with her slight figure,
and her haunting dark eyes, and her low
voice, like the uoises that speak to us in
dreams-for life of toll and MOL, be-
ginning at four O'Clock in the morning and
ending only at bed time-a life of cooking
and washing, and making butter, and
securing kitchen floors
And yet she loved Tom. She had forgot
ten that she loved him when he was busy
and strong, and she was busy and tired,
but she remembered it we'll enough now,
when he lay there burned up with fever,
and more likely than not never to speak
to her again.
Once she went away from his bedside at
midnight. and looked out of the window
at the hills she loved The moon was in
the west. and it hung low over the hill
tops, full and bright. and revealing-as
moonlight can be revealng-not with the
pitiless, hooking glare of day, that seems
to say. Look, and behold all things;
there is nothing hidden that | do not
make known" but with that subtler
revelation that leads the soul on into I'M
coniectured spaces and new worlds.
Ruth's heart beat fast, and a sudden
rush of tears filled her eyes. What would
the end be? Was he gong out bye and
bye, into this moon lit, unknown world,
and would she lose him thus forever, and
never find him again in the whole of long
eternity, because she had not loved him
enough? Just then his voice had reached
her ear, and it sounded like the voice that
had wooed her in the summer twilights of
long ago. Pretty little Ruth" it said,
Come Ruth"
Was he, then, sane at last, and did he
know her? She went to the bed, and the
light of the night shone upon her face.
Tom glanced at her eagerly, and then an
impatient look came into his eyes.
81 wanted Ruth" he said, my little
Ruth, but she's ALWAYS too busy 10 come,
always-''and then he began to murmur
vaguely, and she saw that his mind was
again whrling, whirlihg, in that whrl-
pool of delirium which had caught it and
held it, and seemed as if 1t would never
let 90.
And four weeks more went on and
brought no comfort. DR.. Hollis lace grew
graver with every visit. Ruth's very soul
seemed failing within her. She had no
father or mother or child-she had only
Tom. A shadow of great darkness grew
round her. She shrank from the desola-
ton to come, as one shrinks from cold,
seet laden wind. If Tom could only
come back from this City of Dreadful
Night where he was wandering, would
she think any task too hard?
Anain tho pnonn yuas full Tho
had gone by, and it was the harvest moon
that hung low in the western sky. Dr.
Holt was asleep up stairs. In his even
ing visit he had said that the fever would
turn before morning, and they should
know whether the end would be life or
DEATH He would stay so as to be within
instant reach OF any call. He was no
longer young, and he needed rest. so he
would go to sleep till he was wanted.
Ruth alone was wakeful as usual. Tom
was sleeping, as he had been tor many
hours. When he came out of that sleep
they would know what was to be his fate.
Again Ruth leaned from the window
splendor of the moonlight. And the
moon revealed farther and farther depths
of worlds beyond worlds. These hills it
blessed and shone on were no places of
graves tonight. They were, indeed. as
she had thought on Sunday mornings,
coignes of vantage, whence the soul might
sigh farewell. and take its far, glad flight.
But not yet-God grant not yet! And, as
she watched. Toms voice came to her.
weak and faint, but his own natural voice.
Ruth. little woman, you tea did me
good. Have you been watching here all
night, poor, tired. RuthP"
All night. Aye, what night-six
weeks of night! And now, was the morn.
ing Gomez She stole tremblingly to the
bed side and looked into Toms honest
eyes. quite free from the flame of fever
which had burned in them so long. Was
he safe after all