Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1885-06-18
UME VII CRAWLING THURSDAY, JUNE ls 1888

served garments, and all this day sh
had not once remembered that to-da
was the thirtieth anniversary of he
: conscious existence. BY and by sh
4 looked ont and exclaimed:
"Of all things in the worldl Their
! is Jane Beebee, sure enough, ant
carrying an amazin' big basket. Mus
! ! be fetchin' her carpet rags to sew."
Other women came with other bas
kets, and genuine birthday surpris,
! party, with small gifts and great din
ner, unfolded itself to the astonisheG
Todd. There was no one in KirkvilIt
who had less need OF their gifts and
, their dinners than the abundantly sup
piled Todd Ashton, and perhaps that
was the very reason why they were be.
slowed upon her; it is such very
human weakness to do as did that Mas
Ter VINO gave 10 MIN tnaL nad much and
took from him that had little.
Mary, having been previously ap-
prised OF the village intention, de-
termined to utilize the gathering for
the furtherance Of scheme of her own
her own and Mike Nelling's. Every
body knew that Mary and Mike hoped
to be married. To be sure, Mary had
not told everybody, but she had told
Jane Beebee, which amounted to much
the same. They were only waiting for
q turn in the wheel OF fortune. Mike
had team and wagon, but occasional
days came when there was neither
wheat to be hauled from the station to
the mill nor flour to be hauled from the
mill to the station, and yot the horses
went on eating and occupying rented
stalls just as IL their income of hay and
corn and shelter were supplied from
an inexhaustible storehouse. Poor Mike
fretted in o most absurd manner. and
even swore little sometimes because
his accumulation of riches grew so
Slasr Vas SO higgKr;; aMu the long evenings
when he sat with Mary were spent
in trying to plan o way out of the
present difficulty and solve the
problem of their future. Todd, of
course, expected to help them, but they
were not aware of her kindly intentions
concerning them. Mike had at last
fixed upon q scheme which seemed to
him full of hope. They must induce
Todd to spend year or two in travel.
They must be married just as she was
about leaving and must keep house for
her while she was gone. They would |
save the money that in different case
would go for rent and pay it toward a
house of their own, mortgaging the |
house for the remainder and paying
it as soon as they could possibly save |
enough money. This was their dream. |
But inducing Todd to ego journeyin'"
was no light undertaking. She seemed |
as strongly rooted to the spot she |
fHaGSSniffceif tree t which had III hf6lTf All fpfob.
ability stood still for century. They |
were not even sure that death would |
take her away, but felt vague appre-
tensions that her specter would always |
move quietly about in shadowy corners
of the dimly lighted house. They had |
fully persuaded themselves that Todd |
would be immensely benefited by travel;
it is so easy to believe that people had
best do the thing that self-interest
makes US wish them to do. Todd's |
health was not so fine as it had once
been; she needed change of climate,
new scenes and different faces to look |
at. She had plenty of money;
why not make tour - that |
was what they called ito England
or Indiany, or somewhere, where did
not greatly matter to the lovers so that |
they saved years rent. So Mary in
terested few friends in her project,
and got their tongues duly wagging on
the day of the birthday party. Todd,
pefpieSed Over TIE s Sudden MAI interest sasn IN
her welfare manifested by her friends.
She stole away from them and their
opportunities once during the evening, /
and was gone half hour, and the hap
py, cheerful, food-sated company did
not miss her.
Where was she?
Locked in her own room, first to
turn round before her mirror and OBJ
serve whether her figure was in the
least diminishing, then to gaze upon
the reflection of her face and note
whether its color was fading, then to
shake her dress and observe whether
she thoroughly filed it. "For," she
reasoned, IL must look bad or they
would never be so anxious about my
health. Life is so little, so empty to
me without Oliver; if it must be always
without him, 1 care not how soon it is
over and ended. No, ! do not care to
go in search of health; but mebbe I
could forget away from here, where
every post an stone an fence corner
reminds me Of the time we passed there,
we so happy together; where every pew
in the church makes me remem-
Der how / watched for his
comm and thought of him instid of the
sermon, an how 1 gazed back at him
when / was on my knees and should
been praying. There's not string on
my guitar that he has not touched, nor
a book on my shelves that he has not
handled. l can never forget him here.
Do l want to forget? do not know,
but l will go away for q while. IfIl
might hear from him first could 90
more contentedlyy il could hear that
he was dead would be glad; better
that than living and unfaithful." And
then Todd wiped away the mist that
was gathering before her eyes, and
took from o bureau drawer an old
rays Third Part Arithmetic" note
scrawled in crude, school-boyish
hand, and a worn necktie. Each of
these articles had it's history. She
loved to look at them while her mind
reverted sadly and lovingly to the mi
nutest details of that history. The
necktie she had fashioned with her own
hands and presented to Oliver one
beautiful, snow-wrapped Christmas
He had said many sweet ,
words to her when he received il, and
when he had lost it before her door she
had kept IL as n memento and re- ,
mindar-aa ~ Iowa naoda1 m ro,,..o1o.I :