The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1895-11-19
DOUBLE POVERTY.

I had gone down to my village to
work, to get that local color which is
supposed to be SO necessary to sound fic-
ton. At the end of a fortnight l had
not written, at the most generous COM
putation, more than a dozen pages, and
l had grown very brown and a trihe
melancholy. The cottage in which /
lived lay broadside to the village street,
and this, under the clear sunlight, had
such a lazy and pleasant aspect that I
was content to sit and watch it while
the ink dried on my pen. When this
simple occupation failed me, l sat on a
fence overlooking a sloping meadow.
Beyond the meadow was a climbing,
scattered wood, which ended in an
open, sunbaked heath.
AS I sat on this fence one day I saw,
far up o. the edge of the heath, a hat
and ribbons that l recognized. They
belonged to a girl whom l had met at a
dinner party a couple of months before.
Indeed | had taken her in to dinner,
and we rapidly hit upon SO many points
Of divergence and agreement that we
soon assumed the candor of old friends.
I had not discovered then that she knew
my village. Indeed we were both I'M
disguisedly surprised when we one day
anne face to face by the postoffice
steps. l then learned that she had come
down with her mother, a younger broth
er and a maiden aunt.
After that we were continually meet
ing, quite unexpectedly, and l began
to feel reconciled to my meager produc-
ton.
l watched the hat and ribbons for a
time placidly, in profound enjoyment of
my morning pipe. When it vas finished,
I knocked out the ashes, dropped on the
meadow side of the fence and began
leisurely to wade through the grass. 1t
was evident, from the extraordinary
stiffness of the ribbons, that Miss Bur
sar was either reading or asleep.
I could not keep my point of destina-
ton in full sight the whole time, be-
cause the ground was perplexingly IN
even, and the trees were sometimes as
impervious as a wall, but l made as
straight a line as l could and rather be-
gan to fancy myself in the character of
q slow but inevitable fate. This idea
had commenced to spin itself into a web
of sentimental verse, when I became
aware of Miss Bursar herself within six
yards of me. She had an open book on
her lap, but her eyes were turned on me.
How very straight you camel" she
said. My feigned surprise at seeing her
collapsed instantly.
How do you know" l said, sitting
down beside her, that I came s~traight:"
She pointed toward the village. Nv
fence was in full view, and my track
through the tall grass ~palpable, leading
in a bee line toward where she sat.
$50 you watched me?' l said.
Il saw yOu,' she answered, "quite
by chance and wondered what You were
going to do
She was very young, SO young and so
pretty, that snatches Of verse began to
weave themselves in my brain again. l
sternly repressed this dangerous tend
ency and thereby abandoned my only
hope of safety.
How long are you staying here?' l
ooh, l don't know. Perhaps for three
weeks. And YOU
| looked at her. THAT depends on
my work, l said. She laughed lightly
and closed her book.
ut seems to me-, " she said, that
you don't do much work. You spend
half the day on that fence"
And you" | said, pass me at least
six times "a day
How hot it isl" she said. "Do you
mind opening my parasol:' l unfurled
1t for her with great tenderness. 1t was
tiny, dainty, silk affair, that matched
her ribbons as eye matches eye. 1t had
the delicious effect Of isolating us still.
more completely. 1t threw q pretty
golden shadow ON her face that made
me dream infinitely pleasant things anG
grow as bold and reckless as the sun,
shine that drew the scent from the
heather round US.
Miss Bursar''- began.
'4es:' she said, tapping her shoe.
together till they made a sound like
busy woodpecker.
81 was going to say l went on.
what: did not interrupt you. 70,
stopped yourself"
Il know l did. was going to say
! paused again.
"Do you think you will ever succee
in saying it," she laughed, nodding q
me.
Certainly, il you will give me time
was going to say what an inferno
nuisance 1t Is to be poorv"
II don't agree with you." she sal