Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-01-22

the guard, Gabe Hardesty suddenly
guessed that his betrayer was none other
than Milt Spurloc5, his rival in the af-
fections Of the pretty girl he was so soon
to have welded
From this moment the tortures OF
jealousy we're added to his already I'M
happy lot.
He had so nearly gained the coveted
prize, that, until this moment, he had
never once doubted her constancy or
love; but now a thousand horrible fears
dashed him with their relentless scourg-
ing.
He grew hollow-eyed and thin, while
his customary lethargy gave place to
fierce restlessness, like some captive
animal pining for its native jungles.
His very dreams were filed with I'M
happiness and unrest
Again and again the fair vision Of the
pretty mountain girl disturbed his
slumbers, yet now it was ever marred
by the dark shadow of Milt Spurloek,
which seemed to hover always near
Once he dreamed that his marriage
was taking place in the cabin on the
hillside, yet after the ceremony was
over he saw, all at once, that the groom
was not himself, but that Milt Spurlock
had usurped his place, and he awolxe in
a great tremor
Oh! how slowly the days and nights
wore away, They seemed TO grow long
er and longer Poor Gabel
And what Of the pretty bride-eleet
during all these unhappy days?
For many weeks Mollie refused to be
while her friends and neighbors, and
even her discarded lover, Milt Spurlock.
did all that they could to cheer her and
make her less fearful.
At last there came grave rumors
of Gabe's trial and imprisonment and
one day Milt Spurlock confirmed them.
after he came back from a trip to the
valley country, whence he had gone to
sell various products Of these hills,
such as medicinal banks and herbs.
While on this Journey he had met
with some one who knew of Gabe's
trial and Imprisonment, which was for
a term OF ten long years, he said-only
think of 1.-THE very best part of ones
life to be spent within prison walls, for
when one came forth from ten long
years of confinement, there was little Of
youth or hope left in ones bosom.
All this Milt SpurloclS managed to
impress most deeply upon his eager
listener, and after this fresher grief
had worn away, he began to renew the
pledges of his own love and fidelity,
and though, at first, she turned a deaf
ear to his pleadings, there came time
when she was less unwilling to listen
to his wooing, while gossips began to
wag their tongues and say that the once
Tilted lover would yet win the pretty
bride he had come SO near losing year
before
So ran their tongues, and finally the
neighbors were once more hidden To
gather under Sam Taylor's roof to wit
ness the marriage of his daughter.
Again there was mirth and revelry
while the squeaky tones of old Luke's
fiddle and the sound of many voices and
time-keeping feet went out into the
silence of the night.
One might well have imagined that IL
was the self-same period at which the
story opened-so similar was the scene,
and so nearly alike the company as on
the former occasion, and when, finally
the bride and groom came forth from
an inner room and stood before the
home-spun-clad preacher, it was difficult
to realize that the groom of year ago
was languishing behind relentless
prison walls, far from these wintry
hills and the fair tickle one who was
soon to be the bride of another A
silence, fell upon The company, the sim
pie marriage service began, and the
couple clasped hands, yet ere the two
were made man and wife the outer door
suddenly swung open and a cold blast
blew into the room.
As the bleak night wind greeted them,
both looked up almost at the same mo-
ment, when suddenly the bride uttered
loud cry, while the groom staggered
back, pale, with a great CONSERVATION.
Then all eyes turned toward the
open door, and there, against the dark
background of night, pale and thin and
wan, they saw the ghost-like figure OF
the man whose place Milt Spurlock now
occupied
He looked unearthly and unreal in
the Pickering light, which the fire and
the dim blaze of the tallow candles cast
on his pale face, while his eyes glowed
with a fierce, wild glare, which the
witnesses Of the scene never forgot and
oftimes spoke of afterward in awed
and impressive tones.
Before any one could stretch out a
hand or divine the purpose of this
strange apparition it had glided to
where Milt Spurlock covered in abject
terror.
Its arm raised swiftly and something
bright glittere1 for a moment, and
then was sheathed in the bridegroom's
bosom.
As he staggered back and fell, almost
without groan, the CHASTITY figure
turned and silently vanished into the
darkness, and no one present that night
ever saw this strange counterpart Of
Gabe Hardesty again.
There we're strange rumors afterward
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