The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1884-05-31
HANNAH.

One day great colony of water
fowl sailed over the hamlet. They
flew in straight line in orderly time
honored fashion, well marshaled by
their captain. They were glad to
breathe again the resinous-scented air
of their northern pine woods. For
they had travelled hundreds of miles
from Floridian groves of wild orange
trees, and low-lying reedy marshes by
che warm blue sea. They were so near
their summer home as thev flew over
Mishawamee that they began to con-
graduate themselves upon their safe ar
rival.
Hannah put down, for moment,
the heavy pail of water she was carry
ing to the house and looked up to
watch their graceful fight and listen
to their shrill voices. Then she said,
with little sigh: eyes, the wild
geese are back again. Spring will
soon be here now, and l am glad
enough, it has been such long, hard
winter"
From the scattered houses blue
smoke rose in the clear, still air. The
forest, vast, dark and mysterious,
stretched its huge arms around the set
Element, and the cold sky OF the north,
with its oppressive melancholy like a
haunting, monotonous song, whose
minor tones suggested loss and desola-
ton, brooded over all.
Soon the big logs would come float
ing down the brown, swift current of
Wolf River, and the wild songs of the
adventurous raftsmen would waken the
echoes in those sleeping forest aisles.
A daredevil set were these lumbermen
of the north. A reckless, red-shirted,
picturesque band of crusaders, whose
arms were turned against sturdy trees.
With much Of the lawlessness and
ignorance, though very little of the
piety, of those mail-clad hordes of the
middle ages, who went out to fight the
Moslem, these men fought against I'M
relenting enemies, too-against the
bitter cold of the long winters, when
feet and hands were frozen bv ex-
posure to the cruel air, against the
inconsistencies and dependency, natur-
al to lot so isolated, so full of hard.
ship in various forms. What wonder
that they drank sometimes until look
or word provoked the fierce quarrel
which ended, perhaps, in bloodshed
possibly crime?"
Yet the majority of the jewellers il
Mishawamee were cOntented enough
1t was rs cheerful and refined as any
life they had ever known. Not so was
it with Hannah Barry. The two year.
she had spent there seemed an eternity
She was of finer mold than the heavy
Norwegian or Swedish wives who large
1y composed the female portion of til,
settlement. She could not speak t.
them of sorrows or aspirations that tt
them were wholly incomprehensible
So her heart was tull of great hunge
for some slight measure of sympathy
of confidence from one of her own sex
Day by day her great, patient blacl
eyes carried the pathetic shadow of he
longing in their depths and her well
cut, rather refined features, grew NOR
sharp and her cheek thinner.
She was a slender, nervous. ambition
little American woman, who had drifteC
away from comfortable home in
State farther south. And the privation
she had borne, the struggles agains
poverty and dependency had neve
even been limited at by her to any G
her former friends. For she had mar
ried Dick sorely against her father
will, and was far too proud and indie
pendent to admit to those who blame
or pited her for her choice that her lif
with him so far had been n constan
struggle to keep up his courage as we
rs her own. For poor Dick, though a
ways kind and brave, did indeed seer
to be logged by some malicious spir
of ill-luck. Hannah had not undergon