Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1891-05-04
NTHE MIDDLEWEST.
A Story of Life in the Great
Mississippi Valley.

Of Openstone the tempest fetched only
an occasional sob. When the sun
came up again it seemed very far TO
the east of Openstone, so still and
lucent was the air and so broad-backed
and definite seemed the world in its
/ glistening coat of snow. At about
eleven o'clock the morning passenger
train came creaking into Openstone,
proceeded by a big snow-plow, which,
like some enormous, white-wlnged ami
NAL, came cleaving through the drifts
and whirling the cleaning mass from
/ its mighty shares fifty feet to>right and
left. Then additional gangs of men
were added to the section force to
shovel the snow from the buried rails,
and John Earling was on the train
that rolled out of Openstone that after
noon, going in search of Ivyl Snaer.
In the morning he had gone to bid the
old lawyer goodbye, and found him
proppcd up in a big chair before a
roaring fire in the crate under the elk's
head. "Snum!' exclaimed the old
man, grasping John Earrings hand
with his trembling crumpled fists, 1.-The
right thing happened in hurry this
timer
John Earring shook his head dep
recatingly.
Hard, but right; wonder what
Joel thinks nowP" said the old lawyer.
John EARRING shnt his lips tight and
shook his head again. He did not
wish to touch the subject; the whole
bitter, terrible theme was like a night
mare to him. 81 am going away for
awhile" he said, land came to say
Goodbye
The old man put out his trembling
hand at once and whispered: Good
bye!" and closed his eyes, holding fast
to John Earnings hand. After mo-
you; you have worked hard all your
life, and you ought to go away from
here awhile and rest. / know you'll
go right, and do right used to jeer
some at your honesty, but 1 know
you'll win. If 1 don't wait for you to
come back you'll find I didn't forget
you. Snum! snum! I'll not forget
your and the old lawyer rolled his
head from side to side with tears slip
; ping from under his closed eyelids.
/ John Earnings heart melted for the
: lonely, helpless old man, and he put
his arms about his neck and kissed his
great forehead. and said, huskily: You
have been very good to me, sir; / shall
, be grateful as long as 1 live. Keep a
cheerful heart, you will be better in
|, the spring, and 1 hope we shall see
each other then again"
The old man pressed his hand silent
ly, and he went away to prepare for
his Journey. In the afternoon Judge
: Bower walked with him to the depot,
talking of business then under way
and of future partnership. John
', Earnings first effort had given him
> local fame, and Judge Bower wished
i to employ his fresh young head in
T connection with his practice, but the
n young man wished to be free awhile
that he might go back to the place where
n his life began and look into the mist
that covered it, and he said he
would consider the judges kind pro-
= posal when he returned. On his way
4 to the train he stopped at one of the
/, banks and drew out five hundred dol
lars of his money, and farther down
the street he met Yeslit Popp and Harry
driving in a cutter. Yeslit held her
nose very high and did not recognize
him. Harry nodded, coldly. They and
others, who had made a fiowery cage
for the jail-bird, felt very hardly used
in the treatment melted out to their pet.
They had not much censure for the
elder council employed in the case, to
be sure, but for this very young man
who in the courtroom had brought
l
mercy they affected for long time d
most whitening contempt. Happily,
however. he was entirely unconscious
of it.
At the depot letter was handed hin
by the old lawyers attendant with thu
= request that he would not open il unit
\ he had left Openstone. After the frs
= station had been passed he took it from
j his pocket 1t contained a check TO
five hundred dollars. The young
mans face colored. and he looked at
half tearfully for a time, then he laid j
reverently away in his note book, say
ing to himself that he would return
to the giver when he came back.
The train rolled onward through
white. undulating country, and at eigh
I, o'clock came into Chicago. An omni
} bus carried him and other passenger
across that young Babylon, who's
streets, though the winds were glancin,
Jelly from the chill bosom of LAX
Michigan, were ablaze with light an,
flowing with theater- going people. o.
S. the lake front he presently took trail
for the East, hearing the slosh, slosh
of the infowing ridges of cold water a
I the train rolled away into the darkness
Sitting there with arms folded an,
chin against his chest, the midnigh
hour found his thoughts, lulled by tn
Is rumble and beat of the wheels, turning
dreamily among the receding days ant
deeds and forms and faces that had file
his life. There softly across the smoot
sward, among myriad Pickering, Leaf
,s sifted lights. went the velvet-foote
Maun. She did not look back, bu
glanced and wavered and glimmered o
and on and on through thousan
- slender, sun-flaked tree-trunks, an
faded out at last against a long, 10,
slit of blue sea-water. Then someho,
g he felt himself yearning, not so niue
for her lost form, as for the beauteou
motion that faded with it. Suddenl
it seemed so silent that he though
rs he could hear the blood runnin
through all his veins and the incon
municable sound of thoughts formin