The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-25

greatcoat on to give her his final kiss,
he had but one parting injunction to
urge, and that was that she should lock
the front door after him and then for
get the whole matter till she heard his
double knock at midnight.
She smiled and held up her ingenious
face.
BE careful Of yourself" she muir
INJURED. 81 hate this dark ride for you,
and on such night too And she ran
with him to the door to look out.
cit is certainly very dark, he re-
sponded, "but I'm to have one Of
Brown safest horses. Do not worry
about me. 1 shall do well enough, and
so will you, too, or you are not the
plucky little woman I have always
thought you"
She laughed, but there was choking
sound in her voice that made him look
at her again. But at sight of his anx-
iety she recovered herself, and pointing
to the clouds said earnestly:
cit is going to snow. Be careful as
you ride by the gorge, Ned; it is very
deceptive there in a snowstorm. -
But he vowed that it would not snow
before morning, and giving her one final
embrace he dashed down the path to-
ward Browns livery stable. "Oh, why
do feel so'' she murmured to herself
as his steps died out in the distance. 81
did not know was such a coward. -
And she paused for moment, looking
up and down the road, as if in despite
of her husbands command she had the
desperate idea of running away to some
neighbor.
But she was too loyal for that, and
smothering a sigh she retreated into the
house. As she did so the first fakes fell
of the storm that was not to have come
till morning.
1t took her an hour to get her kitch-
en- in order, and 9 o'clock struck before
she was ready to sit down. She had
been SO busy she had not noticed how
the wind had increased or how rapidly
the snow was falling. But when she
went to the front door for another
glance up and down the road she start
ed back, appalled, at the fierceness of
the gale and at the great pile of snow
that had already accumulated on the
doorstep.
Too delicate to breast such wind,
she saw herself robbed of her last hope
of any companionship, and signing
heavily she locked and bolted the door
for the night and went back into her
little sitting room, where a great fire
was burning. Here she sat down, and
determined, now that she must pass the
evening alone, to do it as cheerfully as
possible, and SO began to sew. ''Oh,
what a Christmas eve!'' she thought,
and a picture of other homes rose be-
fore her eyes, homes in which husbands
sat by wives and brothers by sisters,
and great wave of regret poured over
her and a longing for something, she
hardly dared say what, lest her unhap-
piness should acquire sting that would
leave traces beyond the passing mo-
ment.
The room in which she sat was the
only one on the ground floor beside the
dining room and kitchen. It therefore
was used both as parlor and sitting room,
and held not only her piano, but her
husbands desk.
Communicating with it was the tiny
dining room. Between the two, how
ever, was an entry leading to side en-
trance. A lamp was in this entry, and
she had left it burning, as we'll as the
one in the kitchen, that the house might
look cheerful and as if all the family
were at home.
She was looking toward this entry
and wondering whether it was the mist
made by her tears that made it look so
dismally dark to her when there came
sound from the door at it's end so faint
that she could not determine its nature
and yet SO certainly not due to the wind
that she felt her heart stand still and
her feet grow paralyzed.
Knowing that her husband had taken
peculiar pains with the fastenings Of
this door, as it was the one toward the
woods, and therefore most accessible to
wayfarers, she sat where she was, with
all her faculties strained to listen But
no further sound came from that direc-
ton, and after few minutes of silent
terror she was allowing herself to he.