Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-07-23

loved or suffered, no one had any way
of guessing. 1t was the kindest thing
| to read nothing more than appeared on
the surface. But at the end of that
time Payne Morse was tried and SEN
fenced to confinement for life for par
ticipation in a daring train robbery.
She simply sent the papers in which the
matter was recorded
Mr.. Tryon followed his telegram with
all the speed possible. And so Helen
Morse came home again. a statuesque
shadow of herself, she and her baby. Of
whom the whole family made an object
of worship.
One more blow remained to fall. A
year later the baby died. The copy of
the newspaper that told it's death told,
too, the death of its father, shot dead
while trying 10 escape from the prison
in which he was confined.
Helen wore black after that-per-
haps for her babys death; perhaps for
the memory of the man who had treated
her with a cruelty she never told nor
limited at; perhaps for herself, because
she had outlived every thing. At any
rate she went in somber garments,
and no one questioned or remarked
And so up to this night-the night of
her twenty-fifth birthday, when they
were all sitting about the tea table and
talking of Harry's prospects. Harry
had bought share in Texas ranch,
and he and his partner were going to
rough it alone in their cabin among the
grass and sheep Harry was enthusiast
tic, forestalling a little and onscious-
ly the character he was to assume by
and by.
Now, Mr.. Micawber!' Grace said,
mockingly. Mother. you ought to give
him tin plate and cup; and keep silver
forks out of his sight. And Harry,
You'll have to cut the acquaintance of
boiled shirts, unless you boil them your
self, and then you'll have spasms over
the starch"
Helen looked up, and said, in her
slow, impressive way: why couldn't I
60 and keep house for you, Harry?"
Silence fell about the table The
idea had never presented itself to one
of them, but now all at once it did not
seem SO inpracticable. No fancy of
Helen's ever did for Helen.
Il hsve seen something of the life,"
she said. There is nothing in it that 1
can not face. I do not mind the soli-
tude, and a house is more comfortable
with woman in it."
And SO it was settled. She went
about her preparations with a straight
forward, unhurrying readiness that ad-
mitted of little assistance. In ten days
the brother and sister started, and the
family felt somehow as if there had
been death, as well as departure.
In those days the railroad lines were
everywhere incomplete. Helen, alight-
ing from the low train at its further
most point of advance, found herself
with five hundred miles of stage-riding
before her. With her usual silence, she
did not even comment on the discom-
forts of the journey. She was the only
woman in the great swinging coach.
The other passengers were men,
bronzed and bearded. in flannels and
sombreros, and with more or less of the
furniture of an armory about them.
They paid her good deal of deferential
attention, and We're assiduous in sap
plying every want, real or imagined.
And Helen took it as she did every
thing else, with gentle kind of half
unobservant gravity, that seemed to be
very puzzing to their minds
On the second day well among the
mountains, swinging down Z long i'll
cline among the dark shadows of the
pines, there was a sudden, abrupt re-
port Of firearms, a plunging, lurching
motion of the coach, sudden uproar of
voices without; and Helen, crushed
down into the lower corner of the We
hicle, with snothered impression Of
several tons of kicking humanity over
and above her, heard road agents" ut
tered somewhere in the mass, and knew
what had befalleu them.