Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1889-11-30

ding day she told him that she could not
do it, and offered him his liberty if he
did not feel inclined to wait for her.
MY first duty" she had said, "lies at
home. I must take care of mother and
the rest until she is strong"
He had left in anger. She did not
know that there was no getting strong for
the poor mother. The family, as is often
the case, we're the last to see the danger.
If the mother died, Roy knew that Bes-
sic would still be bound by the chains of
duty, for there were five children young
er than herself
In fit of pique and anger the foolish
youth had proposed to Bessie's one enc
my among her associates-Nor Stains
and been accepted. They were married
almost Immediately, though at the last
it was rumored that young Bryon tried to
back out.
Poor Bessie! The day after the we'd
ding she received a note from the BRIDE
groom read ng:
Don't hate me, Bess. I was mad at
first, because thought you did not care
for me, and were trying to throw me over.
l did not find ont my mistake till too
late. She won't let me off, Deuce take
her. Roy"
Of course the foolish child cried over
the disloyal bit of paper, blaming herself
as the cause of what would probably
prove Roy's ruin.
Instinctively she felt that he was shall
low and cowardly, not at all the man she
had imagined him to be, but then, she
was young and deeply infatuated-an
then it was Roy.
She was a true woman, despite her
weakness, however, and though she cried
over and kissed the note in secret, she
never deigned one word of answer; and
when by chance-or intent on his part
they met, she bowed coldly and passed
him by.
Soon after Roy and Nora went West,
passing entirely out of Bessie's busy,
painful life.
Less than year after their departure,
and while Bessie's heart was still woe
fully sore, the suffering mother passed
away. In another twelvemonth her
brother, next younger than herself, sick
ened and died, and before the mother had
been dead five years the brother and sis
ter next had been summoned from earth,
Then the mortgage on the farm, given
during Mrs. Browns illness, came due,
and everything had to be disposed of that
could be spared to save the home, and
uIteen years OF the Closest economy ana
severest toll and privations passed before
the last cent of that bounding debt was
paid.
Meanwhile the noble girl had been
everything to the ofttimes Responding
father and two little brothers.
She lived it all over that night, after the
minister had asked her to help him bear
his burdens. remembering all the pain,
but with it there was the consciousness of
having done what she could.
My life can not have been wholly in
vain, she thought, for Harry and Tom
are good men, and surely I have been
some help to them.
Twenty years is a long time for q woman
to cherish the memory of an unworthy
man, but it seemed to Elisabeth this night
that her love for Roy Bryon had increased
with the years.
NO, will become no mans wife while
the love Of my youth thus fills my soul,
she was saying to herself, when the dog
began barking furiously.
What can be around that Race barks
so?' she said, half aloud, after waiting .
few minutes.
The disturbance still continued, and as
the hired man was off for vacation there
was no one to investigate unless she did
it herself, as Mr.. Brown Was rheumatic
and never went out in the night air unless
horse vas dying or something terrible
occurring.