The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1892-04-01

you could send a boy to show me2"
awe don't keep no boy" said Naomi.
"And we've no one to send"
Again Miss Stuart recoiled.
s'Good-evening! she said, gently.
"Good-evening!"
And Naomi banged the door shut.
As she sat eating her supper, aud help
ing granny to fresh supplies of home
made bread and butter,a sudden thought
darted into her mind.
In giving Miss Stuart the directions
for finding her way back to Skene's
Corners, she had forgotten the young
strangers total ignorance of the neigh
borhood characteristics.
1t was true that the regular road
branched off to the right of the ruined
pile which had once been an old stone
tavern; but there were was also a dis
used thoroughfare which led through a
dismal swamp, towerd a long abandoned
stone quarry, across rotten corduroy
road, which had nearly sunk iuto one Of
these frightful, quakiug bogs which
sometimes appear in dense and swampy
woods.
To one unaccustomed to the local
topography, it might be perilously easy
to stray of iuto the weed-grown aud de-
serted track, especially when everything
was whitened with fast falling snow.
Naomi sprang up and went to the
door. She looked out, with one hand
held above her her eyes.
cam losing my wits1" she thought.
"Of course cannot see half dozen
rols I1",, ho rN,l. Jtfo I,r,y ,>ifch
and showing into the bargain. Let her
go her own gait amt responsible"
A sudden light blazcd in her eyes, as
if Satan's self had dashed lurid bomb
she'll across hersou John Classon, her
own "steadJ company" had been dazzled
at least so spoke the tongue of popular
rumor-by the glitter of Eda Stuart's
sea-blue eyes. She, the late belle Of
Skene's Corners, was quite out of fashion
now
Eda had danced every dance at Squire
Marbury's -husking, and Naomi had
sat by among the wall. flowers, her heart
swelling with secret anger.
Though Naomi hated the beautiful
blonde, she rose up again aud reached
down the lantern that David had re-
placed on its hoel by the Kitchen Chin
ney.
"Granny," said she to the doing old
woman, "rm going out few miuute:."
.'Eh7 What?" shrilly questioned
granny. "Be you a.goin' to see the new
forte pianny9 b you bewitched arter
the new schoolma' am, too~
Naomi made no reply. She lighted the
lantern, bundled a shawl around her
head, and rushed out into the frozen
darkness.
1t was showing hard now; the wind
rustled the pine trees with a mournful
sound, and had nearly blown out the
faint beacon of Naomi's lantern until she
sheltered it with her shawl,
She gained some distance by climbing
nimbly over stone wall and traversing
a stubbly meadow, instead of following
the windings of the road, aud presently
arrived, painting for breath, at the ruined
stone tavern.
She held the lantern high aoove her
head and looked around. Nobody was
visible. She called aloud, "Miss Stuart!
Miss Stuartw No answer came.
For one second she hestated; then,
changing the lantern from one hand to
the other, she stasted on run down the
disused track until she came to the spot
where here aud there partially sub
merged log betokened the former traces
of the corduroy road.
Was that something white that moved
against the dazzling whiteness of the
storm2
Once moro Naomi called:
"Miss Stuart! Miss Stuart!"
ron, rs that your Do come here and
help me" terrified voice answered.
81 stepped on a broken log, and think
the ground must be swampy here; the
log seems to be sinking in. But I've
got tight hold of a young birch tree"
Naomi sprang to the rescue. Eda had
already set her feet upon the doomed
spot. In another moment the rescuer
would have been too late
With strength at which she herself
afterward marveled, Naomi seized Eda
around the waist and lifted her out of the
morass.
"Do you know" she gasped, "that
you have been standing face to face with
deathl Do you know that you have
wandered out of the road into the Shak-
ing BogsH'
Eda's face, in the glimmer of the lamp
light, was very white.
"And you have saved me !" she ex-
claimed. "Oh, how can I ever find
words to thank youl"
"Never mind that now," said Naomi,
in the old, brusque way. "Lct us make
haste back to Skenss Corners. It's
showing faster every moment, and your
feet are wet in that awful morass. Look.
Here's where you missed the right road.
Of course you couldn't be expec cted to
know that this old track was closed up
long ago, and didn't remember to tell
you. There are the lights of skene's
Corners now. Can you see them glsten.
ing through the snow hurries2"
but you are coming with me2"
"No. must hurry back to granny.
But'-shc hesitated and flushed deeply
-"you will kiss me just once to-show
that are frien ls2'
BY way of answer, Eda flung both her
arms around Naomi Poles neck and