The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-07-08
ONE NIGHT IN KANSAS.


in ten thousand that there viii be soul
near you. If thought there was, Molly,
I wouldn't leave you. You understand
that ?"
'Yes, Tom"
"If any one does come, it will be a
neighbor or neighbor's boy. The band
its and desperadoes have all joined trav-
cling shows. If you don't go soaring
yourself to death, you viii be all right.
"Yes, Tom"
"But there's a lot of moral support in
a shooting-iron, and maybe you'll feel a
little safer with these"
He stopped to kiss her, feeling her lips
tremble a little as he touched them. But
she smiled as she raised her head, and
her goodbye was quite steady.
"Plucky little thing" he said to HIM
self, as he rode down the trail at long,
swinging lope.
At IA Mary Allison's mother died.
Then her father, with broken health and
spirits, gathered up the wreck of his
fortunes and went away to the green
wilderness of a Kansas ranch, leaving
the girl in an eastern school. Toms col
lege course being at an end he went with
---D AobAACA1 tA4d hAA44oCh
| making profitable business of sheep to
the remembered rhythm of Greek and
Latin classics. When, four years later,
Miss Allison had been properly gradu-
ated with much ceremony and white
muslin, her father, too, had Joined the
majority," and she found Tom living in
a precarious fashion at the hands of a
native housekeeper, and enthusiastically
glad to welcome even this very inexper-
fenced head to his small household.
That was in July, and on that radiant
September afternoon Tom found himself
imperatively called to the nearest town,
twenty miles away. The woman who
ruled the kitchen had taken herself over
the creek to visit her kinfolks," and the
herders were all at the ends of the earth
with their focks when Tom sank out of
sight behind the low prairie swells. Miss
Allison had the whole green world to
herself as far as she could see.
The simpIy-built house had the New
England requisite of space within, and
the southwestern necessity of deep
porches without. Somehow the empty
rooms had all kinds of echoes inhabiting
them, now that the exercising, manly
was IC11IONC0 MISS AG4oOn
made her afternoon toilet, and took her
sewing and work basket out to
a shady corner.
1t was easier to dream than to sew.
Truth to tell, Miss Allison had no special
vocation for employment for the sake of
work. She sat now with slender brown
hands clasped behind her head, and
drifted on tide of aimless fancies.
Over her arched wide sky of tender,
cloudless blue. Out to the bounding
ring of the horizon swept the world of
green. From sky-edge to sky-edge full
tide of summer sunshine seemed to rise
and fall in great fire-heated pillows as
the south wind surged across the space.
There were no shadows, but the soft
glare did not blind nor scorch. And
before she knew it she was fast asleep.
She awoke with sudden start, broad
awake after most unaccustomed fash
ion. All her senses came back to her
instantly. The whole wide heaven was
aglow with sunset, an unbroken, un-
fiecl1ed arch of color fading down
through every tender tint to the cool
gray of the short twilight. She took it
all in at single glance, and against the
glory a mans figure standing black and
motionless.
She was on her feet at once. Not a
neighbor nor a neighbor's boy; some
body coatless, bareheaded, with white
drawn face, and a helpless arm swung
in blood-stained bandage.
She stood speechless, motionless, an
awful, helpless terror clutching her heart.
The moral support of Toms armory was
quite out of reach in the house. That
the man was already wounded-that he
looked as if the merest push of her un-
armed hand would be too much for him,
did not matter. Such an appearance in
the heart of that calm loneliness was not
to be accounted for in any ordinary
fashion. He might be the climax of any
dreadful sequence of events. If Miss
Allison had reasoned, she would have
found herself afraid of what had hap
pened, rather than Of what might come.
what do you want?" She came for
ward step to say it, and tried not to
let her heart choke her voice.
The figure put up one weak, appealing
hand, uttered an inarticulate sound, and
dropped forward face down on the
grass.
MISS AluSOu iOOkGO dDOuJ llCI a
minute. All the little hashy pools in the
prairie caught the reflection from above,
and shone red in the gathering gloom
about them. A slender new moon and
a single great white star hung calm in
the fading glow. She saw it all, and
saw herself alone with that prostrate
figure lying black before her.
She went towards him over the grass.
He neither spoke nor stirred. She gath
cred back her dress and touched him
with her foot. 1t was an involuntary,
half-unconscious gesture; but the woman
in her reacted spontaneously? In an
instant she was on her knees beside him
touching the cold hand end forehead.
"He has faintedl" she said aloud
quite cody. There was that redeeming
quality in Miss Allison. Her wits were
at hand in an emergency.
In two minutes camphor and ammo
MIA had done their appointed work. The
stranger lay gasping feebly, but with
restored consciousness.
"What is the matter with your" she
asked crisply.
He looked up at her, standing straight
and tall in her white dress.
"rve eaten nothing for forty-eight
hours, he said quietly.
Speech and voice were clear and soft.
Miss Allison found herself conscious of a
glimmer of friendly interest.
Can you get into the house?" with
matter-of-fact GOODNESS; Il will find you
something to eat"
He raised himself weakly as she
turned away. Miss Allison looking up
presently from her struggles with the
cooking-stove fire, found him standing
in the doorway regarding her out of hol-
low sunken eyes. She had lighted a
lamp, and Toms revolver lay within
reach.
A faint smile crossed the mans pale
lips. Miss Allison saw it, and a little
flash of temper sent color and light into
her cheeks and eyes.
Il need accounting for?" answering
the flash.
You do, certainly" sharply. There's
bread and glass of wine beside you.
Dr;DI- II and lie 1ov-D fi1 fbic cnffpa