Waterbury evening Democrat., 1891-04-29
IN THE MIDDLE WEST.
A Story of Life In the Great
Mississippi Valley.

the willowy figure die away in the
purple half-light as he walked on, and
q moment after Judge Bower crossed
him going toward his home.
.'uh. by tho by" he said in his pleas
| ant fashion, MRS. Bower told me to
bring you mp If / saw you. She wants
to give you q quarter interest in
quartette, the other partners being her
self, Celeste and i; ] expect Fought to
apologize for had forgotten all about
you until now"
John Earring thanked him and hes
itated q moment; he could not court
eously decline, he thought, besides there
was the singing Of Celeste and her great
blue eyes, and he went homeward with
the judge. =,
Mrs. Bower and Celeste were sitting
in the porch, the girl, in a soft muslin
dress, looking exquisite in her clear
ness and purity, John Earling thought.
Mrs. Bower greeted him in her moth
erly way, and Celeste gave him her
hand with touch of shyness, and soon
they all went in and tried a song to-
gether. Then John Earling begged
that Celeste would sing alone for them,
for, though he did not voice it, he
thought it pity to jar and smother so
infinitely fine voice as hers with theirs
of coarser timbre. So Celeste sang a
simple song with touching sweetness,
and the young man felt his heart move
as it had long before in the same room
| with melody of the same voice; but
when standing there with her hands
| hanging down and caught together be-
| fore her and her eyes lifted, she broke
into soft bird-like Italian carol, and
following its melodious ripping up
many a crystal fight until at last it
broke and poured along and ended in
an ecstacy of passionate joyous feeling,
though no could not understand word
of it. for a moment he could have
kn6lt before her, she seemed so fair
| and her music moved him so.
After that Judge Bower went to his
| library and the three others talked on
for long time; John Earling in his
exaltation leading into the fine fields
of Immortality, thought and music, but
everywhere finding Celeste with him
or before him. He felt that her in
stincts were very subtitle and sweet,
and that her mind was like spring,
clear, deep and bottomless to him, but
| full of light and sparkles. All! here
was a soul that matched his own, a
spirit that could feed him and be fed,
but he could only half perceive it. AS
he walked away through the starlight
he thought of her life and how it had
\ been shut away from him, and tried to
| picture to himself how it had been
chastened and well-nigh broken; of
how she had lost her mother two years
before, and what had been the manner
| of her life since, for he had learned that
she supported herself teaching in q
school of music in an Eastern city; of
1 IA in 10 nI kA,,
what temptations, what sorrows, what
strengthening identifying forces, that
she, though young, should have come
so far upon the lovely road of woman
hood. lie saw, or rather felt, through
her songs and conversation into her
heart, and knew, without shaping it
into a distinctly conscious thought,
that her maiden soul was deep and
lucent, and capable of feeling far into
the spiritual, far as indeed no other
thing in this world save woman S
spirit may. Thus turning over in his
mind half consciously the things that
touched her, he came into the heart of
the town when suddenly in his rumin-
ating his blood gave bound, for some
one on horse pulled up in the road
and said; "Earling, have you seen any
thing of Maun WoodmanP"
In an instant his thoughts of Celeste
were swept away, and the young man
was by his interrogation, and saw that
it was one of the old lawyers neigh
bors. whats the matter, Mr.. Sher-
manP" he said.
"White Tom han come home with
blood on him, AMI I'VE can't find
Maunr' said the man, painting as if he
had been riding hard.
With a thrill of indescribable fear
and horror John Earring looked
at him. "Fn be at her fathers in
a moment" no said. and turning
about went quickly into livery stable.
"Give me horse as soon as you can. "
he said to sleepy young man, who,
tipped back in chair in the dingy har-
ness-room, was reading n dirty Police
Gazette by a dirty, but not equally dirty,
lamp. The young man yawned, took
up a half-consumed cigar from the
rough desk, and looked up at the impa-
ticnt speaker: swat you want 'erfurP'
he drawled.
John EARRING gave him a blazing
glance: 81 want the horse to try and
find lost child with, ''he said. ''Please
hurry, sir!"
"Whose young 'uns lost?" drawled
the loutish youth, leaning forward with
elbows ON MS Knees.
For answer John Earling in his i'm
patient ire caught down a saddle and
, bride from one of the hooks in the wall
: and flashed back among the stalls and
: threw the saddle on the first horse he
came to. He brought the horse out
l quickly, pulling the halter from its
, head and forcing the bit into its mouth
he buckled the throat-latch as the
sleepy youth came up lantern in hand
"Here, you," exclaimed that worthy
putting out his hand toward the rein
''you don't want ter take that boss
mister"
Without word John Earring in hi.
anger whirled about and flung the fel
: low headlong against the wall, anC
leaping on the frightened horse strucl
his heels into it and went flying out o.
\ the barn and up the street.
ssEupnv nnudi what kind of a wild