Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-06-15

ago." he explained.
THAT SO! Well. you might say Miss
Lucy kept it on. She'd just left the
seminary when come here, and Lord.
how that girl did work! Jest took holt
an managed everythin' herself. put
her brains into it an made it pay I
guess the Harhers is well fixed to.
day"
us the old lady alive?"
mo, she died five years ago."
''And Miss Harker, you say, man.
aged the farm as girl?''
81 don't know bout managed She
run it. She and the old man did the
plowin' and every mortal thing at
was done, an saved an scrimped, an
paid off the morgidge bout six years
ago; an after that it was a leetle mite
easier fer Lucy till the old man was
took down. And to-day they're bury
in him." he added, with sense of the
fitness of the climax
I'm going to look about a bit I
shall be back to supper and stay here
tonight. Have my horse put up, will
your" said the stranger.
The guests were gone and Lucy was
left in her solitude. The roses which
grew in profuSion around the sides of
the low gray stone house exhaled a de-
lightful fragrance. The air had been
sultry all day, but now soft breeze
had sprung up, stirring che foliage OF
the trees with gentle rustic The
cows were being MIXED in the yard.
Old John, the hired man, was slow, and
Lucy waited to strain the milk. At
last it was all done. The shallow pans
OF foamy sweetness were deposited on
the white-scoured table in the dairy
house and Lucy took up her broad hat,
You'll be on the porch, John, sup
pose; I'm going to carry these spoons
up to Mrs. Smiths
"Ay, I'll bide here and SMOKE" said
the old man.
How delightful it was to be walking
on the velvety border of the road, free
to breathe, as she had not been for
months, the pure air of the evening.
The frogs were croaking in the brook,
the crickets chipping in the grass, and
the air was filed with the sound of in
sect life, and with sweet odors from the
far-lying fields
She walked slowly on. Her path to-
night was an unusual one to her, for it
lay past Sewall's gap, and she had not
passed it before, till this afternoon, for
several years.
Eighteen years of silence, of savage
~ hard work, of constant seIf-repres-
sion, had changed Lucy Harker; she
was not slim, sweet girl of eighteen.
quivering at word Of praise or blame
"a graceful, pretty girl, with a wild
rose face and small white hands; she
was a quiet, self-reliant woman of
thirty-six, with hands made bony and
gaunt by the hardest of labor, and a
form prematurely bent and aged.
Her sparse gray hair was strained back
from face that was sweet in express
sion and outline. though sallow and
attenuated. She had dived deep into
the crucible of sorrow, so deep-for
hers was steadfast nature-that she
had neither hopes nor fears, she never
could-come what might-suffer as she
had suffered; it seemed as though she
had died, and, though in the world, was
yet not of it. And yet the thought of
that other self SO far removed-for she
felt as though she was an old, old WON
an-had moved her to tears. All, here
was the well again.
AS she came up, the stranger ap-
peared at the other side of the gap"
coming leisurely toward her. A fine
looking man Of forty athletic, we'll
groomed, well-clad, well-bred. Some
city man, she.thought-but what caused
her heart to beat as he quickened his
pace? The next minute he had reached
her, and was holding out his hand, and
she knew why.
"Lucy!'
"Willr'
That was all. For moment Lucy
lived in the past, then she shivered
slightly and drew herself up-this man
with his well-cut clothes and sclf-pos-
sessed air was not the fiery dominat-
ing youth in jeans that she remem-
bered.
And VIII, who felt his own differ
ence less felt her difference more.
Good Godr' he said to himself, she's
an old womani Would she have grown
old like that working for me? It's
partly my fault, suppose" he shrugged
his shoulders impatiently. as he had a
way of doing when bothered. This
calm, dignified woman, with silvery
hair, daunted him. Il always had an
idea" he thought to himself sthat
Lucy would develop into one of those
soft. round, laughing little women.
Great heavenl though, what has she
had to laugh at and grow fat oyer?''
Il saw your fathers funeral this
afternoon" he said, though did not
know at the time whose it was"
you did?" said Lucy.
''Yes, was at the well when II
passed" he looked intently at Lucy,
and she colored and her beautiful ewes
filed with tears.
Lucy" he went on, something led
me here to-day. something told me
that 1 should still find you Can YOU
forgive me? Can you wipe out the
past-make it as though it had not
heen?''
80 WILL" she said, TREMENDOUSLY, at
seems SO long ago. am so changed
SO old do not feel the same Things
can never be the same again"
Not quite the same, ! know" said
he, you have done your duty, and
have not: but still we can take up the
rayeled threads, if you say So and the
path down the hill may seem less bar
rem. Lucy. hardly dare ask you to
believe me. but have never loved
any woman but you How shall it be?''
He thought more of what she had
been, and of what she might have been,
than of what she was but when
she put her toilworn hands into his
and he saw the Light OF new dawn in
her face, as she said: 1T shall be as
you wish, VIII, he felt that the future
beld for them both supreme POSSIBLE