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

CHAPTER XIV.
Thereafter the old lawyers eyes were
wont to light upon John Earling curl
ousIy where the youth sat with his fine
head bent over his work, and often at
the end of one of these misty stares he
would nod his great grizzly Uranium
as if in Affirmative response to some in
ternal query. But whatever the color
of his cogitating, the decisions which
he seemed to arrive at were evidently
slow in hardening into action, for the
snow sparkled off and the year bios
somed again with the nebulous some
thing still uncrystalized.
With the advent of the leaves John
Earring began to make pilgrimages to
the veranda of Absalom Heater again,
and twice while there he had seen the
willowv Maun cantering her milk-white
pony down one of the many shady
roads that slashed the great woodland,
with its streams, meadows, fields and
farmsteads. Once, too, on Sabbath,
when rambling along an old lane,
where a half-rotten rail fence zigzaged
forward under load of squirming
vines and poisoning briers, he stopped
and was listening to thrush's song,
when he saw Maun riding down the
main road and waving her whip to
some one that he could not see. Pres
emily, as he walked onward after that,
he came upon a little isle of grass in a
swarm of hazels, and looking about
him saw the silent book-keeper sitting
upon fallen tree-trunk with his head
bent down almost between his knees,
and fin ger pressed on the arteries on
either side of his neck as if to stay the
blood from passing up into his brain.
John Earring turned aside ard went
onward toward the town; for him the
sweetness of the wood, and the open
clearness of the sky, We're blurred and
lost in the still picture of this human
beings hidden and unknown struggle.
On one of these midsummer days the
current of John Earnings life, which
was flowing evenly onward to his pre-
sentation at the bar in the autumn. set
suddenly forward with a new feeling.
1t came about by the thing taking
shape which through all the winter
and spring had lain uneasily in the old
lawyers mind, now starting into sub
stance and now again dissolving, as il
he could not bear to view it in any
form more tangible than purpose. In
the evening of the day in question he
sat for long time looking at the
bowed head of the young man who
was reading, and when the room was
filling with shadows and he presently
got up to go home, he stopped by John
Earring. who was bending closely over
his book, and stood looking silently
down upon him. Disturbed by this
unusual movement the young man
looked up quickly and a little thrill ran
through him from the strange look If
the old mans eyes.
Come home with me; 1 want Maun
to know you," said the old attorney,
and his voice seemed husky and from
far down in his throat. John Earling
stood up and looked him in the face in
a questioning, surprised way. The old
man put out his hand with an appeal
ing gesture. Lad" he said, Ibid you
ever love anybody better than you
loved your own soul? No-no-of
course you can't understand how hard
this is" and he turned away toward
the door.
John Earring put on his hat, and
without having uttered word, went
with him. 1t was enough for him that
this gnarled old lawyer had been his
best friend, and had hidden him to his
home. A knowledge of what the APP
parent trouble was that lay upon the
old mans heart he would not even ask
in the trueness of his fealty. They
walked silently out street running
northward through the town. AS they
passed Joers big house, which was
coming to completion on the knoll, the
old lawyer glanced up at it and NUT
tered: ''Gingerbread!n This was all
that was said until they came to Wood
man house, which stood at the north
most extreme of the town, where the
prairie began to undulate away in that
gigantic green wedge; then the old man
said: That Manu. and John Earling,
looking up. saw her sitting on the porch
of pleasant brick house before which
they were passing.
When they entered the gate she
came forward to meet them, and John
EARRING saw that she was taller than
most girls, with so soft and 1.-THE
movement that it seemed much as If
an infinitely little wind breathed down.
ward over her draperies at every step.
Her motion touched the young man
like soundless music. She had low
forehead retreating slightly; a nose.
Greek at the base. but from that avery
delicate brow; mouth. rather large,
but curved and seeming to suck itself
into sensuous fower-like pout, with
eyes cut long and of a dusky amber
hue. A touch perhaps of Indian blood
was there, refined and strained through
many white mems hearts, and joined
with fluid from old Spanish arteries.
For a moment her ewes went down
timidly before John Earnings, and the
faint color in her dark face deepened
as she extended her hand and MUIR
INJURED welcome. But suddenly she
was easy. and leading them into the
parlor, which was entered from the
right hand of the hall, she proffered
the young man an easy chair. and
stepping across the hall brought in a
chair with wooden bottom and stiff
back for her father. explaining, with
smile, that he would never under any
circumstance allow himself to sit upon
any thing more luxurious Then she
seated herself in low rocking chair
by the window, and with one OF her
slim hands lying upon the other in her
lap. began talking in smooth mellow
tone, lifting her eyes slowly now and
then to the young mans face. The
old lawyer seemed i'll at ease, and ex.
cused himself bluntly in moment
TO BE CONTINUED.