Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1889-07-20
CHAPTER II.

was remarkably pleasant one. Anxi-
ETY. for the future and dread Of the past
vanished, and they were conscious only
of this delightful al fresco meal in the
great pine forest.
The morning air was still cool, though
already wavy lines, betokening heat,
were rising like a mist over the clearing
in which stood the settlement of Dead
mans Flat, about three miles distant.
Soon, even in tho depths of the great
forest, tho heat would be intolerable.
On every side Of them stretched the
slender boles Of larch and pine, tho fra
grant needles covering tho ground. The
joyous chorus of birds and insects greet
ing tho new. day was sweet music TO
these two young people, and every tuft
of feathery fern, every bush of furze
and thorn, contained some sight of busy
life to amuse them. There were all sorts
of wonders in tho thick underground
to dream of, and to impart that air Of
mystery to the place which always lin
gers over tho unseen.
They sat long time over that meal,
although she did not eat much-indeed,
he was distressed at her want of appe-
tite. He began to see too that the ex-
citoment produced by tho novelty of tho
situation was wearing off, and that her
face was growing very pale. The thought
that Mr.. Tom Cairnes was tho cause of
her evident suffering made the young
fellow grind his teeth with rage.
But even such meal as this, with
only handsome young man and
beautiful girl to sit at it, with the
mystery and loneliness and beauty of
the great primeval forest shutting them
i'm together from all tho discord and
weary noises of tho world beyond, could
not last forever.
With woman's natural instinct she
had for some time been conscious of and
depressed by the fact that her hair was
untidy, her face unwashed and her white
dress limp with night dews and stained
and soiled with travel. Tho young mans
continually increasing and very evident
admiration had aroused in her an ardent
desire to make better appearance be-
fore him. His admiration, however, was
shown only in the most chivalrous and
courteous manner, though his eyes, be-
ing naturally handsome and expressive,
were beyond his control.
The sound of the ripping stream from
which he had brought water for their
meal, and which ran through q thicket
some yards from where they sat, attract
cd her attention, it promising to aid her
in at least a limited toilet.
The opportunity came when a few
moments later the young man, prompted
by feeling of delicacy, rose suddenly.
He was afraid that he had been forcing
his society upon her, and was fully con-
scious of her helpless position. II was
long time since Mr.. John Smith had felt
bashful; but he did now, as, shouldering
his rifle, with the explanation that he
was going to reconnoiter, in case any un-
pleasant acquaintance from Deadman's
Flat should be hanging about ,he marched
off between the trees. He felt like some
awkward schoolboy, and was painfully
conscious of what seemed to him fool
ish, stumbling gait.
She, gazing after him as he walked off
between the pines, looking neither to tho
rightnor to the left, thought what a splen-
did figure he had and what a free and
graceful air. He was very shabbily
dressed, his clothes being Of tho poorest
quality, and everything about him bore
the mark of privation and poverty. His
language, though shorn of expressions
not suitable to his present company, was
that of the ordinary miners she had met,
though there were moments when he
seemed TO slip unconsciously into grace
of expression curiously at variance with
his coarse dress and rough hands. There
was something indefinable about him
which brought back vividly to her mind
the life she had once known. 1t seemed
to her at that moment as though she had
been wandering about the face of the
earth for ages with ruined, gambling,
drunken father, who had speculated and
lost comfort, home, honor, everything
except the affection of daughter, who,
to save him if possible from himself, had
given up ease and turned her back upon
the homes willingly offered her by friends
and relations. Surely, if anything could
have saved him from himself this beau,
tiful daughters love should have done so.
But unfortunately James Snaresbrook
was beyond even the help of guardian
angel, and at tho moment when his
daughter, travel stained and weary, lost
by him in the pine woods, was dependent
on strange young man for protection
and hospitality, he was quite comfort,
ably drunk at the back Of a roughly
.l To hn -
which he had i'll his last lucid moment
conveyed himself, in order ~ be conven.
iently near its handle when he should
awake.
Probably the young woman had some
suspicion of the fact, for her face grew
very hard and haggard as she sat by the
fire for few minutes after the young
mans departure, forgetting even her
untidy hair and sOiled gown, and her
beautiful eyes were bright with bitter
pain and contempt. Suppose this young
man should meet him, what would he
think of her father Would he not de.
spise her! \ mans degradation drags
down his children, and she must bear
some Of her fathers shame.
With a heavy shuddering sigh, forced
from heart which felt that its burden
was beyond its strength, she rose at last
and went towards the stream.
Mr.. John Smith, feeling painfully con.
scious of his ungraceful department, was
obliged 10 turn aside at last TO get out OF
the sight of those bright pursuing eyes,
for he had a strong conviction that they
could be mockingly mirthful on occa.
sion, and, with a sense Of humility which
was quite new 10 him, he felt that every.
thing about him was wrong and askew.
This abruDt deviation Of his course