Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1885-05-24

and cOmely, Aloell mhEAeu WIN . naAi hiSns
ened, haltvaeAnt sorrow. Amen, said
Brother Gideon grayely.
He mounted his horse and turned to go.
Brother Silss had elasped his powerful arms
around both women, and was holding them
in ponderous embrace.
"Go forth. young man, into the wilder
meas"
The young man bowed his head, and
urged his his horse forward in the bleak and
barren plain. In half an hour every vestige
of the camp and Its unwholesome surround
ing was lost in the distance. II was IS if
the strong, desiccsting wind, which seemed
to spring up at his horses feet had cleanly
erased the himsy structures from the face
Of the plain. swept away the lighter breath
of praise and plaint and dried mp the easy
flowing tears. The air was harsh but pure;
the grim economy Of form aud shade and
color in the level plain was coarse, but not
vulgar; the sky above him was cold and dis
tant, but not repellant; the moisture that
had been denied his eyes at prayer Meeting
oyerEowed them here; the words that had
ehoked HID uttersnee an hour ago now rose
to his lips. He threw himself from his horse,
and kneeling in the withered grass mere
atom in the boundless plain-lifted his pale
face against the irresponsiye blue and prayed.
He prayed that the unselGsh dream Of his
bitter boyhood, his disappointed youth,
might come to pass. he prayed that the
DEFICIENCIES Of his scant education, his self
taught learning, his helpless isolation, and
his inexperience might De overlooked or re-
inforeed by grace. He prayed that the In
6nate Compassion might enlighten his
ignorance and solitude With manifestation
Of the spirit; in his very weakness he prayed
for some special revelation, some sign or
token, some visitation or gracious uuoending
from that coldly lifting sky, The low sun
burned the black edge of the distant titles
with dull eating fires as he prayed, lit the
dwarfed hills with with brief but Intellectual
radiance, and then died out. The lingering
trade winds fred few volleys over Its grave,
and then lapsed into chilly silence. The
Young man staggered to his feet; it was
quite dark now, but the coming night had
advanced few starry yedettes so near the
plain they looked like human watch tres.
For an instant be could not remember
where he was. Then light trembled far
down at the entrance of the valley. Brother
Gideon recognized It. It was in the lonely
farmhouse OF the widow OF the last circuit
preacher.
IL.
The abode Of the late Reverend Marvin
Hiler remained in the disorganiZed con-
dition he had left it when removed from his
sphere of earthly uselessness and continuous
accident. The struggling fence that only
halt inclosed the house and barn had stop.
ped at that point where the two descons who
had each volunteered to do days work on
it had complicated their allotted time. The
building of the barn had been arrested when
the halt-loai OF timber contributed by Sugar
Mill brethren was exhausted, aud three
windows given by christian seekers at
Maritime painfully accented the boarded
spaces for the other three that unknown
friends" in Tassajsra had promised but no;
vet supplied. On the clearing some trees
that had been felled but not taken away
added to the general iucompleteness.
Something of this unfinished character
chung to the widow Hiler and asserted Itself
in her three children one OF whom was con
sistently post-humous. Prematurely old
and prematurely disappointed, she had all
the inexperience OF girlhood with the cares
Of maternity, and kept in her family circle
the freshness of an old maids misogynlstic
antipathies with a certain guilty and re-
morseful consciousness of widowhood. She
support ID the meager household to which
her husband had contributed only the extra
mouths to feed with reproachtul astonish-
ment AMI weary incspacity. She had long
since grown tired OF trying to make both
ends meet, OF which she declared the Lord
had taken one. During her two years
widowhood she had waited on Providence,
who by q pleasing local fiction had been
made responsible for the disused and cast
oil furniture and clothing which accom-
panied with Scriptursl texts found their
way mysteriouSly into her few hsbitaole
rooms. The proSidential mama was not
always fresh; the ravens who fed her aud
her lttl4 ones with flour from the Sugar
Mills did not always select the best quality.
Small wonder that, sitting By her
lonely hearthstone--a borrowed stove that
supplemented the unfinished fireplace--sur-
rounded by her mismstched furniture, aud
clad in mis6tring garments, she had con.
trscted habit of shifting during her dreary
watches. In her weaker moments she at.
tributed it to grief; in her stronger intervals
she knew that it sprsng from damp and
draught.
In her apathy the sound of horses boots
at her unprotected door even at that hour
neither surprised nor alarmed her. She
lifted her head as the door opened and the
pale face of Gideon Desne looked into the
room. She moved aside the cradle she was
rocking, and taking a saucepan and tea-cup
from chair beside her, sbseutly busted it
with her apron, and pointing to the vacant
seat said, Take chair, as quietly az Il
be had stepped from the next room Instead
cf the outer darkness.
I'll put up my horse first, said Gideon
gently.
so Dc" responded the widow briefly.
Gideon led his horse across the enclosure,
stumbling over tbs heaps Of rubbish, dried
chips. aud weather beaten shavings with
which it was strewn, until he reached the u a.
finished barn. where he temporarily bestowed
his beast Then taking a rusty axe, by the
faint light of the stars he attacked one OF
the fallen trees with such energy that at the
end of ten minutes he rsappered at the door
with an armful of cut boughs and chips,
which he quietly deposited behind the stove.
Observing that he was still stand
ing as if looking for something, the
widow lifted her eyes aud said, Eft it's the
bucket, reckon yen find it at the spring,
where one of them foolish Elgee boys leftit.
I've been that tuckered out sens shutdown, l
amt had the ambition to go and tote it
back. Without word Gideon repaired to
the spring, filed the missing bucked, re.
placed the hoop an the loosened slaves OF
another he found lying useless beside it, and
again returnend to the house. The widow
once more pointed to the chair, and Gideon