Hot Springs weekly star. (Hot Springs, S.D.) 1892-1917, 1897-10-29

make one call on htx, to listen 70 a ser.
mon once a week s. that he could sit
for a whole hour under the same roof
with her.
Nobody knew then how this devotion
of her once shiftless, no-account lover
affected Kitty Sylvester, but we
learned afterward that the sound Of
his AK from morning to night echoing
across the valley became as music in
her ears, and that the light of his can
die shining through the trees in the
mornings and the evenings was de-
light to her eyes. AT last the long
winter, with it's cold, it's storms, and
its darkness were away, the spring
passed, and the summer with its heat
came on.
Now Rufe'll weaken said the loaf
ers about the store. Its all right to
work hard when it's cold and the air
is bracing, but hell let up in the hot
weather, sure.'
But they were wrong. All through
the heated term Rufe's AK gave noisy
notice that he was still working, and
when fall began it was still biting out
chips and splitting up lengths. At last.
the year was nearly up, and old Sylves-'
ter had begun to ask himself whether
he had not made an exceedingly bad
bargain after all. For Kitty was
plainly much Interested in the patient
lover who had toiled so long and so
steadily for the privilege of calling on,
her Just once" AID it might be-, the
old man reasoned, that she would all
low him to call the second time, and.
perhaps a third, and perhaps-but the
thought was too awful to entertain.
and the old man strove to dismiss 1t.
Failing in that he questioned the girl,
who refused to answer satisfactorily
and the two had a quarrel in which
Mrs. Sylvester Joined, taking Kitty's'
part most vigorously.
On the last day Of the stipulated
twelve months Shiftless Rufe went to
his work early and began with quick,
eager strokes to cut a big hickory. He
had become an expert AMMAN by this
time and the sun was not yet high in
the Sky when the big tree came down,
with Il crash. 1t so happened that I;
was over in the big woods that day
with a neighbor looking at the timber.l
We heard the tree fall and Mt the same.
time a scream as If n strong man were
in mortal agony. In n hurry l ran in
the direction Of the sound, guided by
low means that followed the shrek.
There, pinned under a branch of the
fallen tree, lay Shiftless RUFF, badly,
crushed and barely conscious. For the.
first time in the entire year he had mis-
calculated in telling his tree. AS quick.
ly as we could my neighbor and 1 cut
away the branch and released the
young man. Then we got together q.
s%tretcher of boughs OH which we pro-
posed to carry him home. AS we lifted
him he opened his eyes,.
II wish you'd take me over to Syl-,
westerns first" he said, family. 81
want to call on his daughter. She said
1 might come to-night-and so did her
father-and-maybe-if you take me
home before 1 go there l won't be able,
to see her tonight Mt ALL"
SO we carried him across to the big
house on the Barley estate. Part of;
the way he was quite unconscious and!
part of the way lie was pathetically.
delirious. but when we reached the
house he was quite rational. though.
very weak. And so it was that 1 was
present when Rufe Dunning made love
to Kitty Sylvester. His love-making
didn't take long. for his strength was
about gone. but he had time es say
what lie wanted to say and to hear
what he wanted to hear. And when,
after a long look into Kitty's eyes, poor
Rufe peacefully closed his own, his big
hand, no longer soft and PUPPY, but
sinewy and strong, claspcd her little
IL in the clasp of an accepted lover.
Nebraska State journal.