The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1891-12-31

;iiAiffbF3t4EfiH E%%{Ex# lsaf Iui IGdTS III every
Alf Es k4Yzs word, and SO have
slMHsaa ,,l SSs. AMs hearts moaned,
u 1BESG MSk when quivering
4 - zks| lips could not
put into meter
and rhyme the thoughts which lay
heavy upon them. 1t has been true al
ways, and the poet wrote Of no new dis
covery; he merely put words to the old,
old chords in q minor key, which have
beaten upon the sounding boards OF
mems and women's hearts since men and
women were.
J If one who had been interested in
them had asked John Marston and Mary
Palvey why they were no longer friends,
as they had been since childhood, neither
she in her quiet home in New England,
nor he in the active, thriving western
town could have given definite answer.
They would have made the attempt, OF
course, each according to the light pos
sessed, for who has ever known lovers
who quarreled to be unable to give q
most explicit and satisfactory explana-
tonic themselves-of the course OF
their arrangement, carefully emitting
none of the factors making the integer
of their alienation
Marston was quite positive in his own
mind that Mary had been entirely too
whimsical for any sane man to tolerate
for a moment, much less a lifetime, and
Mary was quite as sure in her mind that
John Marston was the most perfectly
outrageous man she had ever met in the
whole course of her existence.
Observe, gentle reader, that these two
people were sure Sin their minds" of this
thing. What degree of certainty was
registered in their hearts will appear
later.
Be it as it may, the years had crept
along slowly enough, until as many as
three lay between the New Years day
when John had turned his back on the
east and Mary and the one which, God
willing, was to find him once more un-
der the old roof where he had known all
that the world seemed to have for him,
until this unkindly parting had sudden
ly flung him into such chaos of un-
known things that at first he wandered
about among them as one bewildered and
blinded by great shock.
In it all, however, and through it all,
the spirit of the girl he had left behind
him shone as a soft light in a misty at
mosphere, and do what he would, her
face came ever between him and the
faces of all other women.
He firted with the pretty maidens of
the west, of course: he would scarcely
have been man if he had not, but he
was proof against all their womanly
wiles and willingness, and they had him
listed as ''heartless," but he only smiled
at that and went on his way untouched,
but not unfeeling.
Now, when he was on the point of re-
turning to the place of beginning, they
saw bit of newer sunlight in his face,
a tenderer look from his eyes than any
of them had ever won from him, and
some said that it might be Mr.. Marston
was not such an emotional Gibraltar az
they had fancied him to be.
He got away at last, and in the rattle
of the train and the whirr of the wheels
the west began to fall away backward
along the straight lines of steel stretch
ing across the prairie, and Marston
dreamed of the east.
The east, where the sun rose-would
it ever rise again?
In the little New England town among
the hills, up to its knees in the snow,
there was the usual holiday hilarity. not
unmixed with that intangible sadness
which ever falls about and infolds the
days of the dying year. Christmas had
come and gone. and the children were as
happy as children only are at Christmas,
and the older grown were drawing their
dividends of enjoyment as well from
Santa Claus and the season. -
New Years was following fast upon
the csispy heels Of the departing Santa
Claus, and as fitting tribute to the
time it was decided to have a watch
meeting"
Not an ordinary watch meeting, but
big one-a union meeting in which the
congregations of the four churches of
the village were to unite and wait In
prayer for the going out Of the old year
and hail with praise the coming in of
the new. E4
John Marston, the villages leading
representative abroad, was expected to
be there, and on New Years night he
was to have grand party at the Mars
ton home, where all might welcome him
back again.
In the preliminary preparations Mary
Palvey was unusually active, II it was
unusual for the busy little woman to be
active on any occasion Of this kind, and
there was a CHEEKY light in her face
which made her very presence warm,
albeit fiecking cloud fell athwart it at
intervals and left shadow there.
For Mary's head and her heart had
not been harmonious during the three
years gone, and more than one disagree
nent had arisen between them over this
same Marston-P alyey matter, and she
was at this very moment trying to settle
their last contention.
Watch night came, and everybody was
there except John Marston.
"Train delayed" they said at the rail.
way station, and you know how much
further information is always obtaina
BILE under such circumstances from rail
way officials
AS the night wore on and the watchers
grew more silent, the soleinnity of the
hour seeming to descend upon the place
as a great weight. Mary could endure
it no longer. Quietly and unobserved
she slipped out into the open air.
1t was relief to her, and she walked
away into the stiffness under the voice
less stars, over the crisp and crystal
snow, until she came to the little chapel
at the edge of the town where on Sun
days she played the organ for the choir.
Unconsciously she turned into the
churchyard.
She knew where the sexton kept the
key under a corner of the step, and
opening the door, she passed in and down
the aisle to her accustomed place.
The chapel was not cold, for services
had been held there earlier In the even
;noy Iuf sha Drew har heavy cloak ahouf