Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-10-28

~seE SEAFES COMPANY
CHAPTER XIV.-CoNrrNugp.
Presently the sun began to 90 down.
hhklng IN great fire at the far-off end
u the valley through which the river
went INTO the west, and flooding the
long many-colored hollow with a mel
low lovely light While he was look
ing at this, girl riding a milk-white
pony came around one of the valleys
he2ures following the gray road to-
ward the town with the rosy light about
hef much as If she had ridden out of
the sunset. When she came nearer he
saw that it was Maun Woodman. As
sue passed IN an easy canter, uncon-
scious OF the silent watcher above her,
ne saw how she sat her horse in a kind
oi "lilowy ease with a long and taper
ing waist and a dark face rich with
color.
he turned to follow her with his eve
When she had passed. and saw almost
with surprise the silent book-keeper
coming quietly along the road toward
the sunset. He was looking at the
ground as he walked, and when he
looked up and saw the girl he gave
start, but took off his hat and bowed
politely as she passed him with
smile and salute from her riding
whip. When he came by below John
Earring he seemed flushed and was
muttering something to himself
Then he stopped and watched the girl
until she had gone out of sight, and
turned and walked muttering on into
the gathering shadows
John Earrings retrospective and in
Prospective mood being thus broken
into, his practically returned as he
went toward the town, and the check
as a factor in his fortunes began to
orb about in his mind. He was not
wont to be long in making a decision
on any head, his aim seeming SO abso-
lutte and clear, but this question strik-
ing his mind Immediately divided into
two feasible and about equally allur-
ing halves. Should he spend it in 90
ing away to school? or hoard it until,
being admitted to practice in the
courts, he should need it to fit up an
Office and get himself a library? He
picked on the latter course, and wisely
perhaps, much as he desired the other,
for only those who have gone over the
cruel road know how thorny the pro-
3cSslOHdl way IS W uG1 tfilcCcu WITHOUT
penny. His mind, too, was not bad
ly equipped. since, with keen dispo-
sition to master the expanse, he had
read himself with a retentive hold in
every direction over the sea of litera-
ture, and had filled all the interstices
and little crannies of his time with OBJ
seryation and study. Indeed, he had
come to be better educated in the
primary sense perhaps, through the
happy union of inclination and neces-
sity, than thousands dawdling away a
quarter of a century of school.
When he came to the office of Bower
& Woodman the law partners had
gone home, and he lit the gas without
thinking of his supper and went to
work. When the big clock over in
the courthouse dome dronet out the
hour of eleven he went through the
delicate star light to his hum BILE Iodg-
ings in the outskirt of the town with
his hat in his hand. cooling his forehead
against the soft night wind. On the
morrow he had himself sleepin groom
fitted up at the top of the brick block
in which the office of Bower & Wood
man lay, and through the next two
years was well nigh as little seen in
public places as the still book-keeper
He got forward in the law at some
thing like an amazing pace, so old
Woodman often said in substance to
the judge. following the statement,
when his partner was not looking, with
one of his ''hair' pantomimes.
Occasionally, at the Judge invitation,
John Earring would go home with him
to tea, and give himself an hour
or two of recreation by talking with
Mrs. Bower or sitting in the swing
under the cool trees. But the elder
lawyer of the firm, for all his grim
and curious admiration of the youth,
was chary OF his courtesies. He never
invited him to his house. nor indeed
any young people, but had an alert
and brusque sort of kindness for him
and unfailing. Under the guise of ex-
planning some point, he would talk to the
Young man by the hour when Judge
Bower was out. giving him history of
cases in his own experience, and eluci-
dating intricate passages and situations
in law. John Earling, with his head
bent down a little, would fasten his
clear eyes upon the amber-colored orbs
that looked out from under the old
LAWYERS shaggy brows. and follow his
thought until their minds seemed some
times one. Often the old lawyer would
stop and say: Nov you have the sit
nation, following this line of action,
how would you come out?" And when
his Young auditor sometimes OWNED
the outcome. which often could hardly
be found with any thing short of inspi-
ration, the old attorney would slap his
leg with infinite relish and exclaim:
s.By snumi you struck it,
When the winter had gone, following
upon the autumn in which he received
the check from Joel, John EARRING
gathered from the old lawyer remarks
20 his partner that he had sent the
willful Maun away to sisters acad-
emy in an Eastern town, to which in
formation Judge Bower had shook his
head and closed his lips very tight.
openinc them with the remark: That
he didn't believe it would work.
Thereafter the old attorney seemed
less alert and less talkatiye through the
summer, and in the fall John Earring
gathered again from their habit OF con-
Tersinp while he worked, that Maun
had come home, without consulting
the pleasure of any one beyond her
SELF. and refused to return. The old
LAWYER had laughed with the recital,
and his partner had said, with ia
miIiar drawl: ..Well, it seems to me,
Woodman, that you will either have to
give her no rein at all or put the
lines entirely into her hands. You re
too soft on one side and too hard on
AZ ether. Won non her up to be sure,