Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-11-11
IN TIE MIDDLEVEST
a Story of Life in the Great
Mississippi Valley.
BY ALVA MILTON KERR.
tCoPYRIGHT, 1ss8, BY THE AN Kr,oc,
NEWSPAPER COMPANY
CHAPTER xu

ehce Oh the ring. SO that some one
smarter than Ashman can't go through
the judgeship to Congress, for Joel is
oarkly working for that himself. teeth
and toa-nail. L guess you can see
about how the land lays, and about
the size of the sea of suds you've GOT
to navigate before your ideal will have
fair sailing"
John Earring said nothing, but con-
tlnued TO walk UP and down with his
brows knit and his nostrils set. The
Old lawyer put on his hat and went
cut. and, as he descended the stairs, he
ciaWed the air viciousiy, and said, with
sort OF nasal yawl: Yah, there'n
be hair after all, bristles as big as cat
tails!''
John Earring walked on into the
night with the future before him. He
was sending his heart ahead of him
with his hopes, desires and inclina-
TONS feeling about in that great, dim
region. much as clear sea-water might
enter and feel about in some long,
shadowy, grim and rock-strewn cave.
Ever and anon he dropped his thoughts
INTO his bosom, and he felt, whatever
might come, whatever he might suffer
OF pIght, or poverty, or bitterness at
the hands of fortune, he never could
be craven trichster to win her smiles.
All the tides of his nature set the other
way how could he bear to be kind
OF pensioner on the injury of others? A
sort of almoner at the doorway of mean
ness! No; it his conception of manhood
must be reversed. his ideals of purity
and honor be broken, he would aban-
don the line of life he had chosen He
and the ground could al least be honest
with each other; and he thought again
OF the pillow. Labor might be brutal
1zlng. as some fine souls had held. but
he doubted if 1t could be as vitiatinw as
to work in a cloud of strife and evil. He
would go forward at any rate, and he
swOre IN his heart, there in the dark
ness, that if events should at last force
him the width of hair from the line
of honest conduct he had lain down,
he would abandon his profession for
some-simpler field of action. He would
be honest, he would be just and up
right, he would be man, in spite
OF the vipers, yapors, snares, pitfalls
and avarice of the time; and he went
out into the starlight with his fists
clinched and walked away beyond the
limits of the town, feeling his heated
heart beat steadily in presence OF the
majesty and beauty of the clear cool
night
Over him the heavens were open to
a vast height and sown with God-quar-
ried silver, about him the smell of
flowers, and below him the river, di-
viding the meadows ike a road of
phosphor. How paltry thing life had
seemed an hour ago! How evil a thing
almost, when he had been close upon
the harrying game man had made of
it, Now. how divine! How above 9TH
er earth-iife the life of man seemed.
when he stood alone in presence of the
smoothly moving universe with his ear
against the wonder wombing heart of
silence!
Musing so, he heard at length the
courthouse clock boom family the
hour of midnight, and he turned back
and went homeward across the fields
with his hair blown back from his brow
by the sweet winds, and his feet among
the diamonds made by the marriage of
the moon and dew. As he came to the
edge of the town he looked up quickly,
as if some influence had suddenly
touched him, and saw that he was be-
fore the old attorneys house.
He stopped moment and
looked up at the chamber windows
and wondered behind what lattice
Maun was sleeping; like some dark
poppy floating on the deep of dreams
Then he went OIL thinking how her
beautiful movement was a portion of
the lovely and eternal motion of the
worlds, much as sea-dropis a portion
of the undulating ocean, when sudden
" he came face to face with the still
book-keeper. who gave frightened,
fearful exclamation as their faces
glanced in the moonlight and passed
into shadow.
John Earring went onward turning
over in his mind the silent and curious
life of this black-eyed man. What
was the mystery that chung about him?
What indefinable disease was it that
led upon him? Some secret, cancer
Gus grief, perhaps, or some gall-hke
disappointment that was lasting his
whole life through. He knew that
Joers book keeper was respected, and
left alone What else of praise, or
blame. or wonderment was whispered
about he had heard but little of.
since. from work and study, his
ears had not been much open to
the gossip of the town. In truth,
neither of these men, the one just in
the doorway of manhood, the other
well rearw ard in that many-aisled edi-
flee. had seen much of each other or
the society of Openstone. The younger
had kept .uder roof and close to his
books: the elder at his work. or gliding
about in perpetual quiet, and both de-
Ginning all social overtures, until they
had become well ignored by the
starched and ribboned fiutterers of the
town. The gay moths, however, that
glanced about and displayed their
wings in the social iluminations OF
Openstone were not over-many, tor
the mass of Openstone folk, like the
denizens of most thriving Western
towns, were digging industriously after
3 certain unholy root. that SAINT ana
sinner, be it recorded with oIusn'
quite equally in these modern days.
seem to feel gnawing need OF. fet
doubtless more than one strange and
instructive history was in progress In
Openstone under its ordinary and I'M
alluring surface, as, indeed, there IS
wherever the many-colored bubble OF
life is blown.
On the next evening but one John
Earling, feeling the hand OF the hot
August day laid heavily upon h1m,
went to walk when the sun was set
ting. and found that his feet went very
willingly toward the old attorney
house. Often during that day the
form of Maun had come softly into ms
L a. t,fo a =,