The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1890-12-26


BROTHER cHEYEs WALKED wIrH STEADY
STEP.
thing in his erring soul all these two
years. He who had preached the Word
and exhorted men and women and
children TO follow it. he had been the
greatest sinner of all. He had been
driven out into the mountains TO
wrestle with himself in PRAYER night
after night. but the demon in him
would not be conquered; the timi,iitv
ofshypocrisy. the worldly fear of the
man wishing TO stand before the hand
full of rough honest creatures who
constituted society for him. unblem-
ished. with proudly lifted head. kent
him from the path of righteous retri-
button. of lowly, abased repentent
confession. He had sought to stihe
the glamor of the inner vices by going
hIther and yon. by lingering at the
house of jimmy. by careSsing the
thought that, had things been different,
here was a young girl who might have
loved him honestly and with whom he
could have lived in peace and plenty
all his days. And. under such thoughts.
the moral fibre in him had been more
and more relaxed and he had grown.
though outwardly unchanged. an ever
inferior man.
But the powers of good had prevail
ed at last. He had come to Big Stag
Valley this year when the people from
all the country round, to whom ne had
for six years now been unintermitent-
ly preaching. would be assembled at
the house of the Widow Davis. the
richest woman in the settlement be-
cause they had so prevailed And
when be had caught Jinny's Innocent
ly provocative glances just now and
read for the first time their full mean
ing, he had realized how great in this
direction also had been his fault since
he had by an unioving and unlawful
dalliance permitted false hopes to
arise 10 this young girls heart.
God be merciful To me- Il sinner"
murmured the passions of the man at
length subdued. He raised his deep
eyes, around whose orbits were the
signs of moral struggle. such as few
issue ysctors from, paused at the door
of the cabin from which jimmy had
turned away her eyes an hour before.
Within few hickory sticks famed on
the brick hearth. There was but one
wooden chair in the cabin. and this
was drawn close to the hearth. A
young woman. with ewes great and
brown and soft as a does. sat on the
chair, her long slender hands claSped |
about her knees. At one side of the !
cabin small square unglazed aperture
admitted such light to the interior as |
might struggle in when the door was |
closed. Beyond this window the pre- |
cipitious mountain side closed in the |
horizon. The evergreen rhododen- |
dron bushes clung to its flank. The |
dark pine stood sharply in relief |
against patches of snow At the foot |
OF the mountain the creeks tortuous /
course lay stagnant and silent. The pink |
lights that come with the winter sun |
sets of the mountains mingled with /
the blue shadows cast by tile holIows |
where the snow Law.
Every now and then Cyrillv lifted /
the brown eyes that were like those of |
a doe that dies of some mortal hurt, /
and looked out at the still, cold picL-
lre framed by the little square window /
IF the cabin
Down by the frozen creek. where the
Wild azaleas bloomed in yellow aud
white and purple glory with the days
Of June, was q tiny grave.
At the door there was step. and
land was on the latch.
Joel Cheyne came in. and covering
closed the door behind him For an
instant their averted eyes met, and
Jyrilly's clasped hands closed con-
Tulsively.
"CyriIly. 1 have come back-to
atone-as much as possible"
The dancing was at its height. The
iddlers on the raised platform con-
from several agglomeratpd
wooden tables were warming to their
work. The room was crowded, and
Widow Davis kept Rick busy bringing
N more chairs and benches from the
1eighboring schooi-house.
Kick, good. loutish youth. with not
visage of his own and
pair OF stalwart mountaineer's shoul-
iers, would have far liefer kept at jim
lys side when the latter was not
iancing, which, to be sure. was only
or short interval at a time. But
Jimmy was powerful square tonight
vas the honest Kicks thought. Her
pretty face wore an absent look and
he dancing appeared to inspire her
With but a moderate pleasure. She
lad seemed pert enough when she
lrst rode up that afternoon. but the
life had gone out of her eyes. To him,
Kick she was in iurn short and indif-
erent. and if he couldn't please her,
aid the young man to himself, with
lot wholly uDgronnded consciousness
# eligibility who could? He wore
teTe-clothes on Sundays and holidays; I
Ie rarely touched corn-whisky, and he
vas the only child of his mother, who, /
$ has been said, was the richest wo.
nan in the settlement.
"Look-a-here. Jinny,n he began, b6tls