The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-01-08
SATAN'S
BY MARY KYLE DALLAS.

WV S~~ SA> A~A~S 49,
mountain farmhouse, to which her hus-
band had brought her when they were
married.
The butter had just come, and in a few
strokes more she had finished her churn-
ing, and throwing her sun-bonnet upon
her head, went out to the barn where her
husband was at work, and sitting down
upon an empty frkin that stood bottom
upwards against the door, looking at him
critically.
"You seem to get handsomer every
day, Steve" said she; Gas for me, what
good looks / did have are about gone IN
these ten years that we have been mar
ried."
II don't see any change" said Steve.
"Don't you ?" asked Kathrine. "Do
you like me as well as you did,"
"Guess I like you better" said Steve.
"a feller's wife is worth more to him
than his sweetheart"
"You are better looking. You were
always handsome. But you are a picture
now" She said, "why is it that you
change for the better, and 1 for the
worse?"
eff it is So" said Steve, looking at his
wife-"and now | notice you are a little
run uOWIl-lGl Is UCCduSC L uChC1 law %
sick day, and you are so often poorly"
"That is true" Kathrine answered.
But l never shall be well, Steve, while
want to dress and have fine dOIngs. I'm
so made that I cannot help it. [ feel as
if I'd rather die if we are never to be rich
folks"
81 can't see how we are going to get
IL - zz:I C4z-o HTl,- - - ororrI
we can't more than scratch along, and l
don't know who is to leave property to
either of u.s."
Nobody, Steve" said his wife, ono
body. But I've got a plan to make US
rich for all that"
Lottery tickets ?" asked Steve, laugh
ing
want you to think over what I say. You
know the consumptive girl that boards
here every summer, Isabella Ives, the
heiress ?"
"The one that came over yesterday ?"
asked Steve.
eyes" said Kathrine. "Ill tell you
something that you don't know. That
girl is in love with you-madly in love
with you, Steve"
"Sho! Go 'way!" said Steve. "Don't
you get jealous now, Cathrine. | don't
notice womenkind much, and [ couldn't
tell you the color of that Miss Isabella
Ives, eyes,"
"They are black and very beautiful"
said Kathrine. al watch her looking at
you, and | kn0U what her looks mean.
Oh, | do. She doesn't come here for
mountain air, she comes here for yOur
sake. If you were single she'd marry
you. She's an orphan and an heiress-
she has half a million of money. Now,
Steve, I'm going to die and let you marry
her."
~ don't think that's a very pretty joke,
Kathrine," said her husband.
cts no joke, Steve" said the wife. II
don't mean to die really, but to let folks
think I am dead. I'll 60 away on a visit
I've planned it all out-and get Maria
Pratt to keep house for me. Then I'll
get word sent home I'm drowned. And
you marry Miss Ives as soon as she'll heV
you-the doctor says she cannot live two
years-and when she goes, why, of
course, she'll leave you everything, and
you and I can go somewhere or other
where nobody knows US and be rich folks.
Oh, Steve, rich folksl Think of it"
"Of course that's all talk, Kathrine,"
said Stephen; talk you had ought to be
ashamed of, too"
He went on with his saving and Kath-
rine returned to the house. But her
handsome husband was a man; and after
the hint his wife had given him he looked
oftener at the consumptive boarder.
Isabella Ives had a beautiful face and a
fine color, though she was thin. Her
smile was lovely, and her eyes splendid.
She did look at him a great deal, and
shortly he became convinced that his wife
was right; she was in love with him.
That night Kathrine talked to him in
whispers until far into the morning hours.
She always had great influence over him
"a certain inesmeric power, it almost
seemed. She could make him believe
anything in time, and before long she
brought him to look upon her plan with
lenient eyes,. If she did not mind, why
should be? she said a thousand times, so
that at last he said it also; and finally he
gave his consent.
IT is you who want to be rich, re-
member said he. 81 don't feel discon-
tented; I do it for you. And after all,
we can't manage life and death, and per-
haps she won't leave me her money"
"She has no one else to leave it to, and
I know women better than you do" said
Kathrine.
And so it came to pass that one day
Maria Pratt came to the house, to care for
it while Kathr1ne went to visit a cousin
at the seaside, and that shortly the cousin
came to the house with the melancholy
news that Kathrine had been out bathing
after dark, and that when they went to