The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1892-01-01

three lay between the New Years day
when John had turned his back on the
east and Mary and the one which, God
willing, was to find him once more un-
der the old roof where he had known all
that the world seemed to have for him,
until this unkindly parting had sudden
ly flung him into such a chaos of I'M
known things that at first he wandered
about among them as one bewildered and
blinded by a great shock.
In it all, however, and through it all,
the spirit of the girl he had left behind
him shone as a soft light in misty at
mosphere, and do what he would, her
face came ever between him and the
faces of all other women.
He firted with the pretty maidens of
the west, of course; he would scarcely
have been a man if he had not, but he
was proof against all their womanly
wiles and willingness, and they had him
listed as ''heartless," but he only smiled
at that and went on his way untouched
but not unfeeling.
:, Now, when he was So On tt1g tee point Of re re
saw bit of newer sunlight in his face,
n tepderer look from his eyes than any
of them had ever won from him, and
some said that it might be Mr.. Marston
was not such an emotional Gibraltar as
they had fancied him to be.
He got away at last, and in the rattle
of the train and the whirr Of the wheels
the west began to fall away backward
along the straight lines of steel stretch
ing across the prairie, and Marston
dreamed of the east.
| The east, where the sun rose-would
it ever rise again?
In the little New England town among
the hills, up to its knees in the snow,
there was the usual holiday hilarity, not
unmixed with that intangible sadness
which ever falls about and infolds the
days of the dying year. Christmas had
come and gone, and the children were as
happy as children only are at Christmas,
and the older grown were drawing their
dividends of enjoyment as well from
Santa Claus and the season.
New Years was following fast upon
the crispy heels of the departing Sants
Claus, and as a fitting tribute to the
time it was decided to have ''watcl
meeting"
Not an ordinary watch meeting, but
big one-a union meeting in which tn
congregations of the four churches o
the village were to unite and wait il
PRAYER for the going out of the old yea
and hail with praise the coming in o
the new.
John Marston, the villages leadin
representative abroad, was expected t
be there, and on New Years night h
was to have grand party at the Mars
ton home, where all might welcome hi1
), back again.
Il In the preliminary preparations Mar
a Palyey was unusually active,>if it WI
q unusual for the busy little woman to |
active on any occasion of this kind, an
e there was CHEEKY light in her fat
! which made her very presence warn
v albeit a hecking cloud fell athwart 1t
e intervals and left a shadow there.
|, For Mary's head and her heart hs
g not been harmonious during the thr'
It years gone, and more than one disagree
.r nlent had arisen between them over tt
y same Marston-P Palvey matter, and s.
/ was at this very moment trying to sett
s. their last contention.
4, Watch night came, and everybody W
7e there except John Marston.
Of s'Train delayed" they said at the IA
I'd way station, and you know how mu
further information is always obtain
in BILE under such circumstances from ra
ry way officials.
IS, AS the night wore on and the watche
er grew more silent, the solemnity of
d, hour seeming to descend upon the plf
rn as great weight. Mary could end,
,r. it no longer. Quietly and unobserv
of she slipped out into the open air. J.
os- It was relief to her, and she walh
IT'S away into the stiffness under the vol
q less stars, over the crisp and crys
IA. snow, until she came to the little cha
OF st the edge of the town where on 81
ne days she played the organ for the cho
,er Unconsciously she turned into
churchyard.
un She knew where the sexton kept
loo kew under corner Of the step, {
ate opening the door, she passed in and DO
nd the aisle to her accustomed place.
nat The chapel was not cold, for servl
tly had been held there earlier in the ey
the ing, but she drewher heavy cloak ab
her shoulders with a little shiver and
wo down on the organ stool.
his But not with music or song IN
vas heart.
ear She had waited for John and he
not come.
ept She had longed for him and there
I as no response.