The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-11-19

lhOh hh WHY lS Sbulhh OOlhS hlooC ~
It was all too true, even then this hap
less groom was being hurried further
and further away from his waiting bride
and the merry company who had gath
cred to witness his marriage, as the Off
GERS, with their unlucky prisoner, rode
nlong the winding mountain way toward |
the valley lands and the Federal court, IN
which he was to be tried for illicit still
ing.
While his fate under ordinary circum
stances would have been matter of COM
parative indifference, Il was now thing
of the utmost moment to him. and the
young mountaineer was beset with har-
assing fears.
This anxiety of mind lasted him
throughout the slow, tedious Journey
down to the valley lands, and through
the imprisonment which followed, until
the slow process of the law had fixed his
punishment at two years in the State
prison.
Two years of captivity to him who had
been as free as the bird and beast of his
native hills, yet even he failed at first to
realize how many weary days could be
crowded into two long years of waiting
II he could have hidden his sweetheart
goodbye, and whispered into her ear how
lasting was his love, ,and entreated her to be
of good cheer until he came back, fate
would have not seemed so cruel, but to
be thus dragged away on his very bridal
night, that was, indeed, trying ordeal.
Nor was this lessened, when one day
there came to his knowledge, through a
guard, who had been among the raiders
when he was captured, the fact that he
had been betrayed into their hands and
the secret location of his still revealed by
one of the mountaineers of that region.
On closer questioning, and after a
more minute description of the man by
the guard, Gabe Hardesty suddenly
guessed that his betrayer was none other
than Milt Spurlock, his rival in the af-
fections of the pretty girl he was so soon
to have welded.
From this moment the tortures of jeal-
ousy were added to his already unhappy
lot
He had so nearly gained the coveted
prize, that, until this moment, he had
never once doubted her constancy or
love; but now a thousand horrible fears
lashed him with their relentless scourg-
ing.
He grew hollow eyed and thin, while
his customary lethargy gave place to
fierce restlessness, like some captive ami
NAL pining for its native jungles.
His very dreams were filled with un-
happiness and unrest.
Again and again the fair vision of the
pretty mountain girl disturbed his slum-
bers, yet now it was ever marred by the
dark shadow of Milt Spurlock, which
seemed to hover always near.
Once he dreamed that his marriage
was taking place in the cabin by the hill
side, yet after the ceremony was over he
saw, all at once, that the groom was not
himself, but that MIlt Spurlock had
usurped his place, and he awoke in a
great tremor.
Oil how slowly the days and nights
wore away. They seemed to grow longer
and longer. Poor Gabel
And what of the pretty bride-elect
during all these unhappy days2
For many weeks Mollie refused to be
comforted and was most miserable, while
her friends and neighbors, aud even her
discarded lover, Milt Spurlock, did all
that they could to cheer her and make
her less fearful.
At last there came vague ru-
mors of Gabe's trial and impris-
onment, and one day Milt Spurlock
confirmed them, after he came back
from trip to the valley country, whence
he had gone to sell various products of
these hills, such as medicinal barks and
herbs.
While on this journey he had met
with one who knew of Gabe's trial and
imprisonment, which was for a term of
ten long years, he said-only think of it
the .ery best part of ones life to be
spent within prison walls, for when
one came forth from ten long years of
confinement, there was little of youth or
hope left in ones bosom.
All this Millt Spurlock managed to
impress most deeply upon his eager list
ener, aud after this fresher grief had
worn away, he began to renew the
pledges of his own love and fidelity,
and though, at first, she turned a deaf
ear to his pleadings, there came time
when she was less unwilling to listen to
his wooing, while gossips began to wag
their tongues and say that the once Tilted
lover would yet win the pretty bride he
had come so near losing a year before.
So ran their tongues, and finally the
neighbors were once more hidden under
Sam Taylors roof to witness the mar
riage of his daughter.
Again there was mirth and revelry,
while the squeaky tones of old Luke's
fiddle, and the sound of many voices and
time keeping feet went out into the silence
of the night.
One might well have imagined that ii
was the self-same period at which the
story opened-so similar was the scene,
and so nearly alike the company as on
the former occasion, and when, finally,
the bride and groom came forth from an
I inner room and stood before the home
spun-clad preacher, it was difficult to re-
alize that the groom of year ago was
languishing behind relentless prison
walls, far from those wintry hills, and
the fair tickle one who was soon to be
the bride of another. A silence fell upon
the company, the simple marriage service