The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-17
A DAKOTA BLIZZARD.

Carrie Welton locked the school-house door
and walked down the dusty highway towards
the farmhouse she called home. She was very
tired, and the long mile before her seemed inter
minable. Just then there was the sound of
wheels, and a span of bay horses were refined up
close beside her.
"Would you like to ride home, Miss Weltonf
some one said.
Carrie looked up in the sun Drowned face of
Alexander Hall. There was no smile in his grave
eyes, and the shadow of a frown was visible on
his brow.
'I thank you-no. ! would prefer to walk"
Carrie responded.
Every we'll. Get up, ponies"
And the span and buggy whirled past her,
leaving a cloud of dust to settle upon her linen
dress and straw hat as she trudged along the
highway, looking very flushed and angry,
'"The idea of his thinking l would make up
with him in this wayl" she said, mentally. mo,
indeed! He win have to apologize before ride
! with him again. / could see that he was just as
set and stubborn as ever. No doubt he intended
to give me another lecture, and thought this
would be a splendid opportunity. He will learn
that | have some dignity, l can tell him"
Carrie was so tired she ate but little supper
that night, and retired early to her room to think
over matters in solitude, away from the CHATTER
ing tongue of good Mrs. Smith, who felt it her
solemn duty to entertain her boarder-said en-
tertainment consisting in Rotations OF the
neighborhood affairs, past and present,
When Carrie felt well and happy, and was not
worn out with her days work, She bore it very
heroioally.
But tonight she was too nervous to endure
the ordeal Mrs. Smith voice grated upon her
nerves like the filing of a saw, and she flew to
her room for protection, pleading a headache
| Tn k-,4h - xDaz a haoptonla which fPa01Ihlpd tho
girl,
During the last six month she and Alexander
Hall had been very good friends-sueh very good
friends that they were, in fact, lovers. and needed
only II few words to belong to each other for all
time; words which would have been spoken ere
this but for an unexpected event.
Smithtown boosted Of two stores which, Of
course, were visited at certain periods by drum
mers. One of them. a handsome, dashing fellow,
had recently made it in his way to pass Sunday
in Smithtown. Every one in the little town
knew why he had remained.
He had CHANGED to see Carrie Welton one
evening at the store making some purchases, and
he was not at all slow to express his admiration
for the teacher.
He begged the favor of an introduction. which,
owing to the somewhat informal manners of
Smithtown society, it was not difficult to obtain,
since everybody knew everybody there, and the
handsome agent seemed a very nice fellow IN
deed, one whom all the young ladies would be
glad to consider an acquaintance.
MI. L dlkef dILelutu CulfCH lLft lOllOWIuS CuD-
bath, and walked home with Carrie, much to the
Indignation of Alexander Hall.
He took it upon himself to say some very cut
ting things to Carrie when they next met, to re-
buke her for her readiness to receive attention
from a clothier's dummy" as he called Mr..
Parker, and they had parted in anger.
Their next meeting was that on the dusty
road.
Carrie congratulated herself upon her be-
havior, and then cried herself to sleep. But she
was sure he would come again in a day or two,
and then she would be a little more gracious, and
take him back into her favor, for really Smith
town was very dull without him.
But Alex. did not come to her the next day or
the next, and a whole week went by without her
seeing him.
Then strange report came to her ears.
Alex. Hall has an auction to-day one of her
pupils remarked.
IAN auction. What forl7 Carrie asked wonder
ingly.
'Why, he's going away-going to take up a
claim in Dakota. He's sold his farm to Mr..
Roberts, and to day he sells off his horses and
machinery"
docs his mother 60 with him. asked Carrie,
with a dull pain at her heart.
mo; she is going to Iowa. to her daughter. OF
course the farm belongs to her and the money
will be hers; and she says she does not want to
go into a new country. But Alex. is wild to go,
and pa says he will be a rich man in a few years
that the land out there will sell for a big
price"
1t was not a very orderly school the remainder
of that day. Carrie seemed to be in a sort of
nightmare.
Could it be true! And was he going away with
out coming to say good bye to her, and this
shadow between thelnl
But he did, all the same. Three horrible days
and nights went by, and then she saw him pass
the School-house on the afternoon train which
would bear him from Smithtown.
1t was the noon hour, and she and several of
the larger girls were sitting under a spreading
oak, watching the smaller children play ring
around the roses"
As he passed by he swung his hat to the chill
dren, with whom he was q favorite, and said:
Goodbye, girls! good bye, boys! l am off for
Dakotar And then he was gone.
How the dreadful weeks wore by Carrie could
never tell But they did go by, and the end of
the term came at last-in August.
1t was three months since Alex Hall had gone.
Mr.. Parker had visited Smithtown once during
that time, and had been astonished to have Miss
Welton turn her back upon him very deliber-
ately when she met him at the village store.
He was not accustomed to this kind of treat
ment from pretty girls in small villages; for Mr..
Parker was one of the young men who had "a
sweetheart in every port, y and he fully resolved
to make Miss Welton his Shutdown sweetheart;
and now all his plans were upset by the very
disdainful manner of that young lady herself.
He sought an explanation by post, but his
billet-doux was never noticed, and he was
obliged to look elsewhere for a sweetheart to
make his number good.
The very day that school closed Carrie re-
celved a letter from her uncle Tom.
Uncle Tom was her only near relative, % row
ing man of Bohemian tastes, asort of jack at-all-
trades, and good at none. But now lie seemed
to have found a new location where he would be
liable to remain some time.
II am in Dakota, he wrote, and I've taken
up the incest claim you ever saw-one hundred
and sixty acres. / have built me a little house,
and l keep old bachelors hall. / go where |
please in the day. I'm only five miles from the
railroad, and people are coming in and villages
going up fast. have plenty to do and see-odd
jobs ofcarpenter work, to keep me in living ex-
penses, and then | go back to my shanty and
sleep nights. You know l was a soldier two
years in the late war. Well; that counts just so
much time on my land, and when L once own it,
l can SELF or keep it for a homestead, as l
choose. Lots of women are taking up claims.
| Now. I've been thinking of you. Carrie. Where