The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-06
A DESERTER'S RETURN.
By A. G. GARRIGUs.

! of harness came no longer to her ears she
sat down upon the doorstep with a troubled
sigh. The shanty, almost the one brown
spot in>the tumbling wilderness of grass,
was small and dingy and redolent of the
tar paper that covered it's sides. From its
one tile chimney there faltered a thin coll
umn of smoke that struggled weakly for
a moment and then sank to the ground,
bringing in its midst shower of SCOT that
touched here and there with grimy fingers.
Over the white-curtained window ran a
vine, twining about the decaying sash in
a Iuxuriant profusion of foliage heavy
with budded promise. One sprig, holder
than the rest, stretched it's length of tender
green across to the door, and hung far
down, swinging in the wind and holding
out its curling tendrils, like tiny fingers, in
wistful greeting to the woman below. A
row Of lusty sunflowers ran from the house
TO the straw-thatched barn, holding up
their rotund faces for a kiss from the sun
and forgetting entirely the timid devotion
of the morning glories that wound about
their sturdy limbs and climbed high up to
offer to their unbending masters taste of
morning dew from their horns of scarlet
and gold. A hen, fussy with the RESPONSE
bilities of an over-large family, basked in
the warm earth and clucked unheeded
warnings to her downy brood
All along the eastern horizon stretched
line Of broken sandhills, that in the mists
of early morning, took on strange forms.
became the walls and spires of a city,
opened into long streets that ran down to
the sea, grew into tall buildings and towers
glistening in the sun, and then, when the
day grew warm, drew away and vanished
and We're at last only barren peaks and
wind-swept hollows of sand.
The woman took off her hat and laid X
beside her. The breeze, fresh with the
smell of ripening wheat, blew onto her
cheek and fingered to coax a stray ringlet
into her eyes. A gray squirrel that had run
from his burrow to snatch few crumbs
paused to note her disconsolate attitude and
perked his head in inquistive wonder. A
little way from the house the railroad
crossed the farm in a long stretch of yellow
clay. Sometimes Annette had sat on the
ties and looked longingly into the glimmer-
ing distance from whence she had come and
wished that she could go back, and then
grew afraid of herself that she could make
such wish. She remembered now, how,
| from the flying train she had looked out
upon cluster of buildings huddled close
| together for warmth, it seemed, and casual
| ly wondered how a person could live in such
| a place, and afterwards, when she found
| it was to be her home and Jacks, she felt
with sudden sinking of the heart how
| dreary her life must become Even then,
strong with the fervor of love, she had
somehow realized the hopelessness of the
undertaking, and now that the roseate flush
of the honeymoon had faded she sat up
with dull pain in her head and a wave or
inconsistencies rolled over her.
| in, ol,;I oF oix
ton. She loved the noise and hustle of the
city, the rattle of trucks, the rumble of
cabs, the changing of cable-car gongs the
purr of the trolley; she loved the cries of
the street, the hurry of footsteps, the
! Shrieking Of locomotives, the sounding of
whistles; and this morning she thirsted
| with heart-Sck eagernesS for the sight of
| home, the crowded thoroughfares, the
! brightly-green patches of lawn, the smooth
| stretches of boulevard, the notified shadow
| of the sun shining through the leaves, the
| glare of night illumination on shiny wet
| pavements. She longed for the shop win
| dows the tall buildings and the smoke
| canopied sky of her native city; for a sight
| of the familiar office, the clicking type
writer's, the patter of the ticker as it
| thrust forth it's long tongue OF dotted pa
per; her cushioned seat by the window,
from which she could look out on sanded
roofs and black hroated chimneys, and
where voices of the pigmy street multitudes
came up to her in a murmuring babel of
| tongues. All this she had left for the love of
| him-and she did love her husband
But her world, how empty it was, how
| lonesome and still, how utterly forsaken
| she had grown to feel in spite Of him.
When she had first come the novelty had
| MI, Alt ;r
and the grass in it's first greenness above
the sod. Patches of snow still fingered on
the shadow side of the swales; in the sunny
| places the crocuses sprang up and bloomed.
But now the grass was tall and the wind
swept through it in grewsome whispers that
made her think of country graveyard.
And every tall bearded stalk had answered
with nod of it's head and seemed to look
askance at her with knowing smile; the
| grasshoppers perched in the shade and tzig-
! tzigged in mOnotonous cadence, the gophers
| chartered impudently and the plovers whis-
| tied from above, and with one accord they
| seemed derisively to say, "Homesick, home
| sick-a bride and homesick." And so she
was-miserably, unbearably so, and every
| one appeared to know it save Jack.
Poor, busy Jack! 1t was all work with
| him and no sympathy. In the morning he
hurried to the fields, he hurried from the
| table, at night he hurried to bed that he
might be the early riser that the next
| days labors demanded. Thus it was, per-
haps, that he did not notice the shadows
| that deepened in her eyes. AT first, with
| a little encoura cement, she would have told
| him all and cried it out on his shoulder,
and, perhaps together they might have
| learned the lesson of endurance. But now
| her heart had crusted over and hid beneath
| it's surface her sorrow. Suffering, doubt,
| grew in noxious luxuriance in her soul
| love. For this she blamed him. She said,
| over and over to herself, that he did not
| care, and then out of loyalty to him, de-
| MED it, but at last, against her will she
| had admitted the truth of the accusation
Finally she had told it to the dog and
listened gravely and with infinite patience,
| and licked her hand in fond sympathy. But
| of late it seemed to her that he had desert
| ed her cause, and, as if to reprove her dis
| content and set an example of fidelity, left
| her side to follow his master all the day
| long. And it had come to this She would
| answer the pleadings of her soul she would
| leave him. She would go home back to
| noise and hustle and life; back to friends
and voiceful companionship Strengthened
| with sudden resolution, she sprang to her
feet and looked at the clock. There was