Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1890-01-04

vim III ANoNSfo i<NtP III PlGoSCo ~
fierce kiss upon her lips.
A wild Shrek bursts from Laura.
'Oh. Ben, have mercy"
'Good-by, my lass" he says hoarse-
ly. Wen die togetherl"
And, pressing her face against his
breast, he springs over the clin down
down to the stream below.
Godfrey Dnston hears that fearful
CRY, and, looking up, sees the dark
figures as they plunge downward.
With two strokes of the paddle his
canoe is near to where they went
down.
He knows now that he loves this girl
who has been so innocently happy with
him-loves her with the truest sweetest
love of his life.
At last Laura's dusky head appears
above the waves.
Her great, startled eyes meet the
white face of her lover as he bends
toward her, and directly he lifts her
into the canoe beside him.
She is trembling in every limb; but
he keeps his arm about herand watches
for Herder.
he uOeS not come up.
When they find his body later on
down the stream, they see a ragged cut
across the temple. where he must have
struck on the rocks at the foot of the
cliff, else that savage clasp about
Laura's form would never have been
loosened, and she must have persisted
also.
Duston takes her home to her father,
and receives his husky thanks in silence,
then goes away to his tent.
He wishes TO be alone for a little
10 think.
But he comes back to the little,
brown cabin in the afternoon and goes
straight to old Abel Cheney.
do you think that YOU could spare
Laura to me, Mr.. Cheney?" he asks.
The old man looks at him sharply
from under his shaggy brows.
"What d'y mean, young manP'
THAT love her, and want her for
my wife"
Abel Cheney looks a thorough aristo-
crat.
Laura don't know nothing about
your fine world Mr.. Duston. She's
just a little wild fawn-pretty enough
in the woods, but not fit to be shut up
in a grand house.
May / ask her?' insists the young
a
wal, I low | can't prevent it," an
swers old Abel, dryly.
So Duston strides away to the woods,
and finds Laura walking idly to and
fro.
She looks at him with shy, startled
eyes, very like the wild fawn which the
old man has called her.
Duston takes her hands in his.
Laura dear. / used TO think N.Y.
self a pretty good sort of a fellow IN
til / knew you; but now, knowing how
pure, and sweet, and innocent your
life has been, / feel that l am not half
good enough for you.
Yet l love you. and want you for
my wife. / loved another woman
once, Laura, but she deceived me, and
| grew to believe all women like her
until | came here, and now, dear, /
love you better than | ever loved her.
Will you have me, Laura.
He is smiling now, lit his face is
very pale as he holds out two strong
white hands to her.
Laura thinks she must be in a dream;
she can frame no words for her an
swer.
Timidly she places her hands in his,
wishing that they did not look quite so
brown.
She is seized with a sudden, wild
longing to be perfect for the sake of her
princely lover.
When Godfrey DGston brings his
brown-faeed wife home with him there
is a fine excitement.
But she is so pretty, so original, and,
withal, takes SO readily to her hus-
bands mode of living that she is soon
very popular.
Old Abel Cheney never visits his
daughters elegant home.
He says he would miss the trees and
water, and tb. he Is too old to learn
new ways.
But Laura often visits him.
He has a housekeeper, and the little
brown cabin has many luxuries which
it never knew before.-Fdniiy Story
Paper.