The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1895-05-02
GOING THROUGH FIRE.

"But, Esther, you know well enough
that you said you'd set the day after
harvest was over, and here it's in Oc'
:obeg:''
And the tall, sunhurned young man
caught the girls hand and looked
earnestly in her face.
Esther Hilton shook off his hand,
turned her brown eyes away to the
sweep of foothills that bounded the hor-
izon, and pretended to be intently
studying the shifting cloud shadows on
crown and in cleft, but did not answer.
ssEsther!'' And his voice grew more
pleading. "Tell me what ails you!
I've loved you for so long, and worked
hard 10 get out of debt, so that l could
ask you to marry ME, and now, just
because you've been contrasting me
with that young Springer and his black
mustache and tailor-made clothes, you
want to throw me over"
The girl started aud turned indig-
nantly, to protest or defend, but the
blue eyes of the young man were turn
ing darker, and anger was on his face
and in his voice as he continued:
ii haven't any mustache; and If l
wanted to raise one it would't be black,
and l buy my clothes at the ready-made
counter, but my mouth is never touched
with either tobacco or profanity, and
my clothes are always paid for-yes,
and with money honestly earned, too!'
Esther, now thoroughly reused, and
on the defense for the absent and as
sailed, blazed cut.
"Hal Morrison, if ycu think I'm
small enough to be brought over to
YOU by such mean talk about Mr..
Syringe, you're mistaken in the girl.
He's a gentleman with withering
and unnecessary accent on the word,
:.and that's more than some people
that know. Just because he is better
bred than you, and knows how to
trea. lady, and doesn't have to work,
sou are jealous, and try to turn his
friends against him, but l."
Hal stopped her with gentle earn
es.ness, so quiet in his regained self
control that he arrested her indigna-
ton.
esther, didn't come to hurt your
feelings or insult your friend, but to
tell you about my little house that Pm
building up the river. I began it after
you told me that-that you'd some
time come to live with me, and except
your fathers and Nose Hunters it's
the only one for five miles that's got a
shingle roof and is plastered. Yes, and
l intend to put picket fence around
the yard, so the chickens can't get at
the flower beds; and," his voice sinking
lower as he enumerated, "up in the
barn, in the evenings, I'm making a
set of book shelves for those poems
that you are so fond of, and for my
Political Economy"
Esther's voice sounded harsh and
sarcastic in reply.
"Mighty nice that blue plush copy OF
Tennyson that Mr.. Springer gave me
would look on your pine book shelves,
vouldn't it? You can just 60 back to
your shingle roof, Mr.. Morrison, for I
haze no intention of spending my days
here on a Kansas farm. guess you
don't know that Mr.. Springer's sent
out by Chicago syndicate to buy up
land, and that he says fathers farm up
IL the bluffs has enough coal On it to
make us rich
And while Hal sat by the door of his
nalf-built house, with his head in his
hands, until far in the night, Esther
swung in her hammock in the grove Of
cottonwood trees near her door, watch
ing the shifting pattern of the moon.
light falling SO softly through the
branches upon the ground beneath,
and listening to the poetic, softly
spoken phrases of Mr.. Springer.
The next day, as Hal rode Jim, his
favorite gray, to farm up in the slopes
of the hills, where the "gang" OF
threshers had gathered to finish up
their autumn's work, he noticed the
purple haze on the horizon, and as the
wind swept down on the valley farms
from off the brown hills, he viewed
uueasily the curls CT smoke, far in the
south, mingling with and darking the
caze.
"First-rate day for g prairie fire, he
soliloquized, with feeling OF conf
dence IL his own well-plowed fire
guards.
All day Hal worked like one poss-
essed-worked in the dust and roar of
the threshing machine. Late in the
afternoon one of the men shouted to
oim above the din:
Hal, got yer guards plowed? Look
tharn'
And the grimy finger pointed away
to the southwest, where cloud Of
blue and black gathered, roared, adj
vanced, upheld by line of red flame.
Pillars of fire Iiftejthemselves aIoft and
fell in advance of the line: licking
aungrily at the rich brown grass.
Hal stood moment with feeling Of
responsibility common to all of us
when we know that we and ours ere
safe. The other man was speaking.
sHope Hilton's s1fe. It's bearin'
right down his way
Speed and action suddenly came to
Hal, He knew that Hilton's guards