Lewiston teller. [volume] (Lewiston, North Idaho) 1878-1900, 1897-10-29

make one call on her, to listen to a ser.
mon once week so that he could sit
for 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 its cold, its 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 he'll let up in the hot
weather. sure
But they were wrong. All through
the heated term Rufes 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
| iph hn hn
old man reasoned. that she would al
low him to call the second time. and
perhaps third, and perhaps-but the
! thought was too awful to entertain
and the old man strove to dismiss It.
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 axman by this
time and the sun was not yet high in
the sky when the big tree came down
/
was over in the big woods that day
with neighbor looking at the timber.
We heard the tree fall and at the same
time scream as If a strong man were
in mortal agony. In hurry l ran in
the direction Of the sound, guided by
low means that followed the shrek.
There, pinned under n branch of the
| Fol <Von 0ov ],pfn 11n< Il To-
crushed and barely conscious. For the
first time in the entire year he had mis-
calculated In telling his tree. As quick
~ as we could my neighbor and cut
away the branch and released the
young man. Then we got together q
stretcher Of bOughs on 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. II
want to call on his daughter. She said
I might come to-night-and SO did her
father-and-maybe- you take me
home before l 60 there l won't be able
to see her tonight Mt ALL
So We carried him across to the big
house on the Barkley estate. Part OF
the way he was quite unconscious and
part of the way he was pathetically
. deliriOus, but when we reached the
house he was quite rational. though
very weak. And so 1t was that wal
present when Rufe Dunning made Low.
to Kitty Sylvester. His love-makinl
, didn't take long, for his strength wal
about gone, but he had time to sa!
what he wanted to say and to heal
, what he wanted to hear. And when
. after long look into Kitty's eyes. poo
, Rufe peacefully closed his own, his bill
hand, no longer soft and pulpy, bu
sinewy and strong. clasped her littl'
, one in the clasp Of an accepted lover
Nebraska State Journal.