Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1889-10-11

| zSA$Hj4 ,kA the garden the
| %ffTillit bRi'(5 small house behind
| 1slgA. n lsty.S ~ her could boast.
! &. Pretty Nav Grierson
LIN sh was called: hut
| as she stood looking
| = out into the road
and picking to pieces a sprig of apple
| blossoms, there was that in her beauty
TO make the heart ache.
| She was hungry; she was almost de-
| prrate. The large, brown ewes. whose
natural expression was all gentlenes5
| and timidity. were bright and eager. the
face was thin ana white. the Inns oarebnG
with fever.
..Just n mile TO the river" !" she was
| thinliInp--"one little miIe-and once nm.
| der the waves. rest. peace and oblivion.
Out upon the soft summer air there
| came from the window behind her q bp.-
| low cough. AS she heard it, her raca
| softened, and a rush of tears filed lnl
| eyes.
| ~ could not die and leave HIM Abl
the wav is hard. the cum is bitter but
| will walk the one and drain tho otLe,
| for his sake-onIv for his sake. IL vii,
he ONLY for n little while. and then the,r
| /. still the river"
| She was NOT YET nineteen. and the WAY
| before her vas to load to the church.
the cup 10 be drained her marriage. and
for her wedding portion She was mcli,at-
lng suicide.
Does itsenm exaggerated? I will tell
vou her sto,,y. and Won NAV iudre H..
father, Paul Griersou. had been a suc-
| ce,sful artistsand Nav was his idol. af;.y
his wife died. wears agonc. Nav had
been carefully educated. and upop a
Il
ather had reared n fairy palace OF ma.
sc. poetry and painting. Without beius
rich, they had plenty, and they had trav
rlcd far and wide with companion Ma
had loved from baby, her fathers
pupil and namcsIEe, Paul Grierson Hall.
u distant cousin
When May was II, and Paul five years
older, tho young artist Joined an eXplor-
ing expedition to make sketches, and the
trio separated. That was the first heart
wrench. They were all in Paris when the
parting came, but few months later
Mr. Grierson's health began to fail, and
joe. became homesick.
The tiny cottage in Hamilton-smallest
yillages-was his inheritance from
u.s mother and he came back to it to
lie for consumption grasped him in its
iron folds, and when he struggled with
sickness, the bank in which were all his
savings failed, and save for the cottage
and its furniture, he was destitute.
Then began that fierce discipline of life
that had robbed pretty May Grierson's
check of its bloom, and driven her step
by step over the rugged road of poverty
and suffering to the boundaries of des-
peration.
She sewed for the villagers, at starva-
tion prices; she carried her fathers pic
tures to the great city, nine miles away,
walking one way ALWAYS, but rarely finu-
ing n sale. She saved and starved to
give food and wine to the invalid, and at
ne last. in sheer despair, she resolved to
marry Cuthbert Holmes, from whom her
soul shrank in positive horror
1t was useless TO write to Paul, wan
dering in Central America, and whose
letters to Paris were forwarded; before
he could come they would be dead from
hunger and starvation.
Cuuhbert Holmes was rich, and had
fallen in love with May In the church
choir. He had deep bass voice and had
supported her clear soprano week after
week, till she woke in him desire to
keep her ever beside him, his wife and
mistress OF his large, handsome house
He was coarse, illiterate man; and
there we're rumors that his.dead wife dleu
of an obsolete disease called decline by
the profession, broken heart by the SEN
tilnental.
But he had sort of clumsy tact, and
he wooed the girl through her father;
ulking of what he would do il he had the
invalid in his care, sending flowers
and fruit to the cottage, and all tho while
.iating Paul Grlerson as a coarse mind
hates refined one, smarting under
sense of lnferiorlty, though he called the