Waterbury evening Democrat., 1890-03-25
lCspvt0ht Sccsvsd Aa Rtohts Ressrcsd.l Driven From Sea to Sea:
 Or, JUST A CAMPIN.
BY c. c. POST.

it is no wonder he laughed. or that the laugh was just 8 trifle hysterical.
 What & terrible mistake there had been. What a wretch he was for not having spoken up when Annelsey first came courting Lucy, and so have saved all this suffering.
 How tender his heart grew, thinking of her who had suffered so-who n u t have suffered so terribly all this time.
 Such were the thoughts that passed through the young mans mind as he walked rapidly towards his boarding place.
 But what if Uncle John was mis- taken?
 He was halfway to the house when this thought came to him, and he stopped and stood perfectly still for some seconds, but not stiller than his heart seemed to have become.
 ''At any rate I'll know the truth, !" he said aloud, and then mentally: II played tho coward once, I'll not do it agan. Uncle John certainly meant me to understand that Lucy loved me well enough to be my wife. and would be a craven not to ask herself now"
 Going directly to the shed where the roan horse stood, he groomed him carefully, then went to the house and to the low room upstairs where he slept
 Here he bathed and changed into his best suit. being careful to see that the few dollars in money which he pos sessed were in his pocket-book and in his pocket
 Meantime Mr. Johnson had left tho ditch and gone to the little patch of ground a quarter of mile away, which his wife cultivated as a garden, where he knew her to be at work When told that Erastus was going on visit to his old home and would start at once, Mrs, Johnson hurried to the house and began preparing Q meal be- fore he should go.
 Neither of them asked the young man any questions a. to the cause of his sud- den going, but both que sSed that it was in some way connected with love affair and were anxiou to assist him in every way possible. Mir. John on offered to loan him all the money he had, which was less than two dollars. and Mrs. Johnson huttered around, trying to get something little extra for him to eat, helping him with his nec tie, and offer ing to do dozen other things as if he had suddenly become 8 child, or what appeared more ikely-was going to see his sweetheart if not, indeed, to get married. And all the time she was try ing not to say anything that would show how very anxious she was to have him confide in her, yet hoping greatly that he would do o.
 Erastus, in the first flush of his new found joy. was only restrained from showing MT. Parsons letter and making clean brea of the whole affair by a lingering fear that Uncle John might be mi, taken.
 It was really very hard for him to keep from telling. MT. and Mrs. John- son were the best friends he had here at the Slough, and he knew they thought good deal of him, and he wanted to tell them what lovely girl Lucy was, but could not quite bring himself to do so even when Mrs. John son remarked, as she fixed his necktie, that she supposed he would soon have some one else to do it for him now" and so he left them wholly in doubt, and mounting the roan, rode away in the direction of the foothills of the Sierras.
 He curbed his own impatienoe and the desire of the spirited roan at the start, well knowing that time would be lost and not gained by fast riding for the first hour or two.
 The sun had long since set, when, having put thirty-five miles between himself and his starting place, he dis mounted, tcthered his animal in a spot of wild oats alittle off the road, rubbed him down with dry leaves and grass, and rolling himself in 3 blanket lay down upon the ground.
 II his body was weary he was not aware of it. for hls heart was filled with the sweetest hopes; and what sus- tains the physical powers like hope? As he lay looking up at the stars, and watching the full moon coming slowly up from behind the distant Ills and clmb ng sky that had not known a cloud for weeks and weeks, he recalled every incident of his life from the time W 'en MT. and Mrs. Parsons had taken him, poor. outcast boy, to their home and their hearts.
 He thought upon every act of Lucy's which appeared in any degree to indi- cate her feelings toward himself, and tried to place one against another, the unfavorable against the favorable, in such a way as to enable him to strike a balance and determine just what his chances were. But in this he was con- sclous o1 1ailing, TOT thera were many little instanoes-acts or worlts-the meaning of which he was utterly un- able to determine, which he yet felt cer- tain had meaning if only he knew upon which side of his love account to place them. Besides, it was so very pleasant to fancy that tho favorable ones out9umbercd the others. if indeed there were any others, that he could not avoid going off into blissful waking dreams of the future, when he should have got his place at the Slough irri- gated, and set ip fruits, and have g cot. i tage built
 He would have cottage just like the one in the foothills. where they had all spent so many pleasant days, he thought; the cottage now abandoned and going to decay. Lucy would be by bis side always, and Uncle John and Aunt Martha should hring Johnny and
 ve with them, their honored and be-