Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1895-01-17

pretty" she said as they We're driv-
ing through chestnut-bordered lane.
Talking was an effort bnt ii seemed
less exhaustive one than sitting there
mute nhdtr her husbands reflections.
"Its pretty he siid absently, land
almost as little known as Central
Africa; look at the indifferent calm
estate of those cows, they might live
in the desert for anything they know
of the noise of life"
"Yes, aud here we are in the thick
of genteel barbarism," said Gwen, as
they turned into Ihe high road 1T
is well for the cows that they live by
sight, not by imagination: it's a horrid
anomaly, the cows and the country.
and not hundred yards away AIRY
rampant
II believe | like the combinations.
still life, and life In the struggle, and
/ AIRY everywhere, from cradle to
grave, his cemetery not a stone-thrpw
away"
"Your federation As rather overpow-
ering," remarked Gwen sardonically,
"you speak in the same kindly good
humored way of AIRY and of God,
adapting the same heavy fatherly
style 10 both"
II really beg their pardons, but as
master of fact, look on them both
as much-mahgned beings and as re-
quiring the conscientious championship
of all honest citizens. We Judge the
two, the Potter and His clay, by
measuring them by our own standards.
| think, for my own part it's amazing
impudence to sit at ones ease and
damn AIRY as is the vogue now;
nearly as much the vogue as sitting
at ease and criticizlng the Almighty.
/ must. however. leave God and man
and proceed to think chiefly of horses
for the present. Look at those brutes
of donkey carts!" They We're just go
ing up the hill which was abnormally
crowded The donkey carts were ubi-
quitous.
II never saw them so thick before"
said Strange, "why, / forgot, of course,
it's a holiday! / wonder if it will be
so crowded down the hill? Those
tram-lines are the deuce for hoofs."
They drove on silently between the
rows of quaint old houses till they
got TO the crest of the hill turning
down toward Holloway.
THE horses seem steady enough
now said Gwen.
"Yes, they're all right--just as well
too. Did you ever see such a crowd!
-Phewr
There was a rustic and a flying glim-
mer of white from a eostermonger's
cart coming slowly up the hill behind
a jaded ass.
1t was the Echo of the day before,
caught by sudden pickering breeze,
and carried Enthusiastically TO and fro
right under the horses noses; they
I'll 'ew up their heads and shifted an
grily, but Strange had them well in
hand and so0thed their terror gently.
and being no fools the brutes were
just realizing the causelessness of
their fright, when Il demon got into
the breeze caught the paper in its
clutches and with a. rushing swirl of
leaves. dashed It into Hengist's two
eyes right between the blinkers.
Just as they got very nearly down
the hill, there was II sudden Earring
click Gwen saw her husbands leg
drop sharply. He turned one look on
her.
Brakes gomez he shouted, saving
the mouths of the frantic horses till
the veins stood cut like cords on his
wrists
| He would have felt the whole thing
less hideous and awful if even then
he could have seen one sign Of fail
ing courage in his wife, if she had
once clutchcd him: once cried out,
once showed an atom of weak woman
hood hut In all the mad tumultuous
race with death her calm, inscrutable
half-scOrpful face doomed on him,
watching each movement of his, and
/ not one shade paler
/ She was more beautiful and less of
woman than she had ever been in
all her life
/ They were just ut the twist of the
bill, the traffic was denscr thiun ever,
the carriage swayed wildly, and the
shrill screaming Of women was giving
/ the last touch to the horses madness.
+ The final crash was upon them.
zone last experiment" thought
| Strange, laughing aloud in a grim
spasra of humor. "GMenl" he shouted,
twill you kiss me once, as women kiss
menu
/ She might have done 1t without that
i clause, she changed color for the first
time, her mouth twitched, she loosed
her hands from their Ealfmechanlcal
grasp on the seat, and looked in her
husbands face laughing above her.
! No tears ever held the pathos of that
laugh.
"Why can't l kiss him and be done
with it?' she thought wildly. Truth
or lie, what matters il nowF'
She moved forward slightly with
.tl1syp1 lnS then SHE looked again