Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-30
THE OVERT0N CLAIM.
By MARTHA MCULLoOH WILLIAM
tCopyrieht. 1904, by American Pros Associa-
toni
Continued from yesterday
CHAPTER XVIII

day but one after Jubilee s warning she
he'd found line, likewise ambushed in
field flowers, upon her dressing table,
which said:
keep stout heart. There is no dan
ger yet that the old tree will be cut
down"
There was neither date nor lignature,
but none was needed to tell her whence
it came. Intuitivcly she knew that her
message had gone straight to Allen
Fauntleroy, and this was his answer.
Trusting in him, her heart was at rest
She could let herself be amused with
what went on about her; could laugh
in girlish mirth over Holtham's droll
stories; listen unwearicdly to all her
aunt could tell her Of dead and gone
Dares, who once had rufficd it with the
best; freeze Hawkins utterly upon the
rare occasions when he ventured to adj
dress her-.above everything, sun her
vanity in the light Of Royal CIeve's
eyes.
Though all untaught, she was wise
enough, woman enough, to know that
she attracted him rs perhaps no other
had ever done. No day shone but brought
him TO Exeter Often indeed midnight
struck ere he took himself away. In
spite Of all, though, his wooing made
scant Roadway Often upon the, home
ward way Mr. Clevc swOro roundly Mt
himself as both fool and coward thus to
faltcr and stand abashed before this girl,
who had no arts Of fence save those of
natures providing.
1t was ridiculous, worse, he told him
self, that he, who had made love half the
world over, who had been courted and
caressed by dark women aud fair, for
whom more than one beauty had dim
med her sweet eyes, should find himself
thus taken abacl1 by this slip of a girl
whose guard Of delicate haughtineSs he
could neither pass over nor break down
A hundred times he had begun to tell
his love outright; as many times his
speech had been deftly turned aside or
passed over as q jest
THIS must not be, could not, should
not endure Aside from his ownlhead
long passion, there was Hawkins in the
background, inexornbly urging him to
"make hay while the sun shone" and
limiting more than darkly the dangers of
delay. He must speak out, speak at once,
and under such conditions as to make
refusal out of the question.
Hawkins easily supplied them. Upon
his motion, Mrs Townley agreed that
all her household should go for u days
excursion into the heart of the disputed
iron tract, where work had so long
ceased that for the most part everything
WIS picturesquely ruinous. 1t was n re-
gion % steep thicllly wooded hills, seam
ed through and through with hollows so
dark and narrow that in them midday
WIS as twilight. A labyrinth of paths
and cartways ran hither and yon, many
overgrown to the mercst trace, others
showing still scant signs of use by the
hill folk, squatters whose cabins chung
here and there to hillside or sent blue
thready smoke up from some darlIling
hollow.
Once all the region had been alive
with noise of axes cutting timber for the
charcoal pit, ring and rattle of chain,
hoof, wheel, shouts from hill to hill,
singing and laughter of oremen working
Mt the breasts in full daylight. The old
folk remembered it well. They had told
the younger ones over and over of the
good old times when work and money
were plenty. when iron, king of metals,
went out and came back silver and gold.
What wonder if the remnant who chung
still to the tract, getting bare subsist-
ence as best they might, sighed for the
good times gone, the friends who went
with them, or that their sons, trained
in penury's hard school, were easily
stirred to anger against the man who,
they were told. stood needlessly betwixt
them and the return of that golden age?
No such thought, such knowledge,
came to Dare as she rode through the
sylvan maze with the tail handsome
stranger close at her bride rein. All the
party We're on horseback, and as soon rs
they were we'll within the hills Haw-
kins and Glove had fallen to disputing
as to which was the better, moro pictur-
Csquc route to the old forge, the days
appointed rendezvous. Both had recent
~ spent days there in exploration, and
each contended stoutly for the way of
his choice. Dare herself had settled the
matter by saying, with q delicious smile:
There is nothing for it but to divide
md conquer both routes, Aunt Mel, we
will go with Mr.. Cleve. Mr., Hawkins
can take Mr. Holtham and Patsey and
the dinner, and we viii see who gets
there first and easiest
Just what / was about to propose, !"
Cleve said. with quick flash of the
eye. Mrs. Townley demurred.
I'm afraid to risk it, she said,
shaking her head. This is fearful
place to get lost in You might wander
for days on one hill of these coalings
ind never find your way out. ! am sure
Mr.. Cleve thinks he knows the " ay per-
fectly, but had rather trust Mr.. Haw-
kins"
well, had not, )" Dare said willful-
". Come, Patsey. We will follow him.
Aunt Mel, if we hear you crying in the
wilderness, we will come and find you. !"
THAT we WILL" Cleve said trium-
phantly, touching his hat to the others
and turning the horses heads into q
49,, IL ,-,,up,,,,y almnSt ot ri uht angles to