Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1893-06-09

eddying in the
slow, undecided way that first snow
flakes have, through the gray air, and
the tall hemlocks swayng this way and
that in the raw wind, it looked especially
dreary.
Emily Ellston shuddered as she stood
looking out of one Of the panes of glass
clumsily inserted in the long frame.
work by way of window.
"No, NIiriam," she said, "you can't
&C."
"But I've got to gol" said Miriam.
Nudge, sympathctically COMPRISING her
lips as she frightened the straps OF the
parcel she was fastening one notch at n
time.
"And leave me here alohe2"
Nobody WON'T hurt you, 1 reckon, +"
said Miriam, a strong featured woman
of forty, with bristling upper lip like
q mans.
"If you go" said Emily, "I'll 90 tool"
"Not much" composcdly spoke
Miriam, "thar amt room in Pete Null
ler's blackboard for SO much as II sheet
O. paper arter me and hims in. Besides,
what'll your Uncle Absoiom say when he
comes back and finds nobody here. Ef
the fire goes out, everythng'll freeze
stiff, and Yes, Pete, I'm a-comin';
thar amt no need to stand there abel
lerin' like Texas steerl Goodbye,
Emily Oh, I forgot l"-coming back,
and mechanically lowering her voice,
although there was no ono but the gray
cat by the stove to ovcrhear the words.
"The ticket money and two rolls O. gold
eagles as the pnymaster's call for TO-
morrer in the noon train is in the red
chest under your unclc's bed. |
reckoned it 'ud be safer thar than in the
money-drawer. Don't forget 10 give it
to him fust thing he gets bacl1."
"Forget!" echoed Emily, wrineing
her hands in frantic desperation. "But
won't be left in charge of it'll I'll u.s.
sumo no such responsibility. 1 insist
upon your taking it with you'll"
The remonstrance, however, came too
late. Miriam bawled out some indis.
tinct reply and the next sound Miss Elk.
ton heard was the crealling of the buck.
board wagon as it turned the sharp curve
below the cleaning line of the railway
switches.
"she's gone" cried Emily, clasping
her hands like the tragic muse, "and left
me alone with all that money! And the
navy camp only three miles up the noun
tains, full of Italians and Chinese and the
miners Mt Lake Lodi and the whole
nelghborhood infested with desperadoes!
And Uncle Absalom not expected home
until two o'clock in the morning, and
the bolt broken oil the duor, and the
keys misfit, and nothing but hook
and staple between me and destruction |
oh, why didn't l stay in Rhode Island
What evil spirit possessed me to come
out here to Dakota, where one might as
well be buried alive and done with it?m
Emily Elkton sat down and cried
heartily, rocking herself forward and
back and sobbing out aloud, like child
whose slice of bread and trcacle had been
taken away from it. And not until the
candle tiared up, with an extra sized
hnwinding sheet" wrapped around its
wick and the cat rubbed itself persist
entity against her knee, did she arouse to
the quadruple fact that puss wanted her
supper, the fire was low, the candle
needed shutting and there was no sort Of
use in tears.
Emily had come out West, partly be.
cause there seemed nothing to do Mt
home and partly because Uncle Absalom
mad written that one of his nine nieces
would come very handy for n house.
Keeper at Swampy Corners, In the State
81 Dakota, if she could be spared.
n Inc latter, sentence was intended on
his part for sarcasm, but the Elkton
family had received it all in good faith
and held many deliberation before the1
conse nted to let one of the nine youpp
birds iutter out OF the home nest.
~, And more especially she had come be.
cause she had incidentally learned that
Andrew Markham was one of the en-
elgineers in charge of the new line of rail.
away on the other slope of the mountain.
which ndeltaking involved The navy
camp and the great derricks and steam
drill drills and theagangs OF slit eyed Chinese
and dark browed Italians.
mot that that signifies, Emily ha6
Il plhaSibly told herself. .But, of course
s,its Pleasant to be somewhere within
fpadted miles of an old acquaintance. :,
Andrew Markham had been to see her
twice, and both times she had made mr.
: ,hermind that the fer West was the ONLY
! place to live in.
- a'He expects Is settle here,n sh,
thought, with soft, pink color suirusine
sthefaface. "He says he has alread,
5sbQught sunny slope of land, where h,
'2imeahslto build house and bring wifi
whenihe can afford it. He thinks tina
life here means twice what it does in tn,
& eiIete civilization of the East"
nee but sto-night, with the darkness wrap
ping the kttle depot like blanket, and
y the wind howling down the mountain
gorge, Miss Elkton Would not at all hay,
Objected to somc CT that same "effet
civilization
IN Alone in the housed During the Who'll
OF her sojourn at Swampy Corners sue
. thing had never happened to her BIZ
fore.
uncla Absalon had occasionally bee