The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-12-04

Self rebuke always followed closely OF
the heels of her silent condemnation Of
the shortcomings of those who loved hel
so well
1T does not matter. 1t must not mat
ter Ii shall not matter. They are my
people. | am theirs. If they made a
mistake in sending me away, it was the
blunder of loving ignorant ambition,
and it shall not be visited on them. But
it gals O my dear Lord, it gals Give
me strength TO bear it and to hide il
from every eye but thinen
This, her prayer, she had poured out
afresh that morning kneeling among
the fallen leaves that carpeted the earth
about Gabrielle tomb. "You loved me.
sweet, when we were two ignorant lit
tie girls knowing nothing of the social
bars that herd all humanity into differ
ent pens for different service If only
you could have Staid and gone Bella
minel''
Having thus quieted herself like a
weaned child, " her sketching had pro-
ceeded very satisfactorily until the lilac
OF Sarah James woes had pierced her
ears and broken up her working mood.
not to be recovered that day.
Seth would be coming for her present
ly and together. perched high on the
wagon, with its cargo of seed cotton ris.
ing in a dazzling pile behind their
backs, they would ride home under the
faraway blue of the October sky, crush
ing the plumes Of the goldenrod that
lined the narrow rutted road beneath
the ruthless iron tires of their clumsy
wagon wheels, and while the mellow
song of the care free cotton pickers
Heated TO her ears, punctuated by the
short stertOrous breathing of the steam
engine at the gin, Seth would entertain
her with the weights" picked by each
hand, and tell her how the race between
the champion pickers progressed She
must be very much interested in it. She
owed it to Seth.
From where she sat on the moldering
brick steps she could see the willow
fringed pond near by the ginhouse.
They were ginning that day. Woolly
white clouds Of steam escaped in swift
jerks from the short black pipe that
pierced the ginhouse roof and lost them
selves in the upper blue. The whir of
the machinery. the whizzing of the
great rubber bands, the tearing teeth of
the saws. were all mercifully deadened
TO her ears. She was glad they had put
the family burying ground as remote az
possible from all that rattle and clatter.
1t seemed an especial intrusion into
the holy calm of that October day.
Another long, quiet hour passed.
The lace patterns of the elder bushes
were losing their nice exactness of out
line and growing blurred What pile
OF cotton Seth. must pc veighingi She
settled her turban more securely on her
head and retraced her steps to where
she had left her drawing materials all
scattered about on the low fiat stone
that covered the remains Of some long
forgotten Strong. She gathered her
crayons and sketchbook into her satch.
ell with reluctant fingers.
Here, and here only. the peace that
passeth all understanding abides with
me.
phN NioSptu uNi SlHdll ndHuS anu
stood looking out over the gentle land
scape with yearning eyes. Graveyard
point as the promontory she was
standing on was called, lifted its green
head full 200 feet above the water level.
Across the many tinted vines that
wrapped the tall forest trees in royal
mantles Of scarlet and gold she looked
down upon the fiat bottom lands that
lay green and moist at the foot of the
cliffs. 1t was down there that Strons
was making hermit of himself. Why
no one knew.
She was thinking Of him. Sorrow
fully, pitifully, tenderly. Perhaps no
one could come as near comprehending
his dark mood as she could. He had
found it impossible to take up the old
life just where he had dropped it before
going to Singleton. But why should
he have tried TO do it? He was man.
The world was all before him. He could
have gone out to grapple with it. She
was woman. That meant SO much in
the way of restriction and limitation.