The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1893-06-02

form outside Above them . wooden
ledge or cornice, projecting several
inches, ran the whole length OF the
building. It was on this that Miss Sally
had evidently found foothold while
she was mailing up trellis work OF laths
between it and the windows of the sec
ond floor. CORTLAND found the ladder,
mounted to the ledge, followed by the
young girl, who smilingly waved his
proffered hand to help her up,and the two
gravely set to work. But in the inter
walls of hammering and tying up the
vines, Miss Sally's tongue was not idle.
Her talk was as fresh, as quaint, as
original as herself, and yet so practical
and to the purpose of Courtland's visit,
as to excuse his delight in it and her
own fascinating propinqui:y. Whether
she stopped to take a nail from between
her pretty lips when she spoke to him
or whether holding on perilously with
one hand to the trellis while she ges-
ticulated with the hammer, pointing out
the divisions of the plantation from her
coicn of vantage, she was as clear and
convincing to his intellect as she was
distracting to his senses
She told him how the war had broken
M their old home in Pineville, sending
her father to serve in the confederate
councils of Richmond, leaving her aunt
and herself to manage the property
alone; how the estate had been devas-
tated, the house destroyed, and how
they had barely time to remove few
valuables; how although she had always
been opposed to secession, and the war,
she had not gone north. preferring to
stav with her people and take with them
the punishment of the folly she had
foreseen. Now after the war and her
fathers death she and her aunt had de-
termined to reconstruct thensetres'
after their own fashion on this bit of
property which had survived their for
tunes because it had always been con-
sidered valueless and Improbable for
negro labor. How at first they had I'M
dergone serious difficulty through the
incompetence and ignorance OF the
freed laborer and the equal apathy and
prejudice of their neighbors. How they
had gradually succeeded with the adop-
ton of new methods and ideas that she
herself had conceived, which she now
briefly and clearly stated. CORTLAND
listened with new, breathless and al
most superstitious interest; they were
his orn theories and demon
| strated!
s.But you must have had capital for
this?'
All yes! that was where they were
| fortunate. There were some French
cousins with whom she had once stayed
| in Paris, who advanced enough to start
the estate There were some English
friends of her father's-old blockade
runners-who had taken shares, pro
vided them with more capital and i'm
ported some skilled laborers and kino
of steward or agent to represent them
But they were getting on, and perhap:
it was better for their reputation witt
their neighbors that they had not beer
beholden to the moth. Seeing CLOUD
pass over Courtland's face, the younf
lady added with an affected sigh ant
the first touch of feminine coquetry
which had invaded their wholesome
camaraderie:
.Yo' ought to have found US out be
fore, connie"
For an impulsive moment Courtlant
felt like telling her then and there tn
story of his romantic quest; but the re
Election that they were standing on
narrow ledge with no room for the emo
tions and that Miss Sally had just put
nail in her mouth and start might b
dangerous, checked him. To this ma.
be added a new jealousy of her previou
experiences which he had not felt be
fore. Nevertheless he managed to sa
with some effusiOn:
'sBut hope we are not too late nosl
think my principals are quite read
and able to buy up any English
French investor now or to come"
"Yo' might try yo' hand on that one,
said Miss Sally, pointing to a young fe
, low who had just emerged from the OF
fee and was crossing the courtyard
. s'He's the English agent"
!, He was square shouldered and rount
headed. fresh and clean looking in hi
white flannels, but with an air of beiu
utterly distinct and alien to everythin
around him and mentally and moral
|,
j "a l
"a s.
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