Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-02-13
No WORD UNTIh.
A Story of Before and After Kansas Wedding.
BY ocTHvE rHHHHT.
ICopyright, 1891, by the Authors Alliance. AZ
 Rights Reserved.l
CHAPTER |

There was always the prairie. Tc every point of the compass the prairie.
 No trees, unless you count the scanty two-year-old growth of poplars in front of the Rogers house, or the three wee peach trees by the well, not one of them more than a shrub! For the rest, everywhere and always, the prairie; beautiful in early summer, when it is a tender green sea, ripping and simmer ing in the sun; terrible in the autumns, sometimes, because it may become only a believing, cruel ocean of fire, ,desolate and dust-swept in the dry winters, mo- notonous and unutterably lonely all the year. No hill, no water, nothing to break the horizontal lines that grew to vex tlhe eye with their sameness, except the jagged ripple made by the roofs of the distant village and, nearer, the low buildings of Hon. Seth Rogers farm.
 The farmhouses and barns, the fences and plowed fields had an agree able trimness of outline. There were no breaks in the fences or sagging rails, the buildings were of wood and the house had been painted. True, the color was a bluish drab with no relief of trimmings, blinds and all being drab; but this lack of variety need not be imputed to the taste of the owner, but was far more likely to represent simply the meagerness of the stock of paints in the village store. There were a few sharp-backed cattle nibbling at the first spring grass in the back yard, and some pigs sleeping in the sun. Three geraniums in round tin cans made a splash of color in one window. There was a box of plants in the other window, downstairs, on that side of the house.
 Crawling across the prairie, headed towards the farm, came a dusty farm wagon drawn by two dusty horses and holding two dusty women. Any ob- server could have told that the younger of these was gentlewoman; as plainly, she was New England woman. She was thin and very straight and wore eyeglasses. Her gray travelling gown, in spite of the dust, gave her the air of person accustomed to be both immediately and appropriately garbed. Her gloves were fresh. One small foot from which the old shawl used as a duster had slipped, showed gaiter ex- actly matching her gown, and flat, low heel.
 There was about her a certain prim- ness and decision that distracted ones attention at first from her striking dis Ginction and a charm of looks that was almost beauty. She sat, unconscious ly, as far as the seat would permit her from good Mrs, Armil, who drove.
 But, all the same, she had a sub stantial regard for the countrywoman, whom she had, for two years, supplied with good moral and entertaining literature, as the secretary of "Post Office Mission" In fact, she was en- during dust and a hot Kansas sun in this particular part of the state, rather than some other, because of her inter est in Mrs. Armil. Having been within an hours ride by rail of the little town that was Mrs. Armil's post office, she had come, the evening before, to the village inn and having visited Mrs. Armil for an hour or two discovering in that time all that the most curious post office mission could care to learn of her history and condition) she was now conscientiously looking up the destitu- ton of Kansas for the congregations benevolence.
 Mrs. Arml thought her mighty cur'us lady," but Mrs. Armil was from the south and took things easily with out diving uncomfortably for the reason of moral puzzles.
 As she sat on the seat by Rev. Eli nor Brainerd, she felt peacefully at ease in her best frock that "the dust wouldn't stick to, noways!' Her broad back was inclined at an oblique angle from the minister's erect spine. She rested her elbows on her knees, while the reins flabbed gently with every jog