Middletown transcript., 1898-06-04

| skirts into instantaneous gracefulnesi
and fitted the velvet cap on her strayine
hair. Then she said hurriedly, "Rur
quick, papa, dear, and as you go cal
him in and say am quite ready
| Thus adjured, the obedient pareut
disappeared in the darkness With hin
also disappeared Miss Amy's singular
alacrity. Sitting down carefully agaiI
on the edge of the bunk, she leaned
against the post with certain indefna
BILE languor that was as touching as il
was graceful. I need not tell any femi
nine readers that there was no dissimu.
lation in all this-no coquetry, no os.
tentation-and that the young girl was
perfectly sincere. But the masculine
reader might like to know that the sim
pie fact was that since she had regained
consciousness she had been filed wi th
remorse for her capricious and ungener.
GUS rejection of Tenbrook's proffered
! service. More than that, she felt she had
periled her life in that moment of folly,
and that this man-this hero-had
saved her. For hero he was, even if be
did not fulfill her ideal-it was only she
that was not heroine. Perhaps if he
had been more like what she wished
she would have felt this less keenly
Love makes little room for the exercise
of moral ethics. So Miss Amy Forester,
being a good girl at bottom. and not ex
actly loving this man, felt toward him
a frank and tender consideration which
a more romantic person would have
shrunk from showing. Consequently,
when Tenbrook entered moment later
he found Amy paler and more thought
full, but, as he fancied, much prettier
than before, looking up at him with
eyes of the sincerest solicitude.
Nevertheless, he remained standing
near the door, as if indicating posi-
BILE intrusion, his face wearing a look
Of lowering abstraction. 1t struck her
that this might be the effect of his long
hair and general uncouthness, and this
only spurred her to fuller recognition
of his other qualities.
ST am afraid" she began with a
charming embarrassment, "that instead
Of resting satisfied with your kindness
in carrying me up here ! will have to
burden you again with my dreadful
weakness and ask you to carry me down
also. But all this seems so little after
that you have just done, and for which
I can never, never hope to thank youP
She clasped her two little hands togeth-
er, holding her gloves between, and
brought them down upon her lap in a
gesture as prettily helpless as it was un-
affected
"I have done scarcely anything" he
said, glancing away toward the fire,
"and your father has thanked me. D.
"You have saved my life.
"No, no." he said quickly, mot
thatl You were in no danger except
from my rife had l missed %
"I see," she said eagerly, with lit
tie, posthumous thrill of having been
after all kind of heroine. and it
was wonderful shot, for you were so
careful not to touch me. -
"Please don't say any more, he said,
with slight movement of half awk-
wardness half impatience. "It was a
rough job, but it's over now.
He stopped and chafed his red hands
abstractedly together She could see
that he had evidently just washed them,
and the glaring ring was more in evil
dence than ever, but the thought gave
her an inspiration.
"You'T1 at least let me shake hands
with you,"' she said, extending both
her own with childish frankness.
"Hold on, Miss Forester" he said,
with sudden desperation. "It amt the
square thing. Look herel can't play
this thing on you. I can't let you play
it on me any longer. You wasn't in any
danger-you never were. That bear
was only half wild thing I helped to
r'ar myself It's taken sugar from my
hand night after night at the door Of
this cabin, as it might have taken it
from yours here if it was alive now. Tt
slept night after night in the brush, not
so yards away. The mornings never
came yet-till now," he said hastily to
cover an odd break in his voice, "when
it didn't brush along the whole side Of
this cabin to kinder wake me up and
say, $50 long, afore it browsed away in
to the canyon. There amt man along
the whole divide who didn't know it,
Thar amt a man along the whole divide
that would have drawn bead or pull
ed trigger on it till now. 1t never had
an enemy but the bees. 1t never even
knew why horses and cattle were fright
ened of it. 1t wasn't much of a pet,
you'd say, Miss Forester. It wasn't
much to meet lady's eye, but we OF
the woods must take our friends where
we find 'em and of our own kind. 1t
amt no fault Of yours what happened,
but when it comes to your thanking me
for it, why, it's-it's rather rough you
are-and gets me. ;" He stopped short
as desperately and as abruptly as he
had begun and stared blankly at the
fire.
A wave of pity and shame swept over
the young girl and left it's high tide on
her cheek. But even then itwas closely
followed by the feminine instinct of de-
fense and defiance The real hero-the
gentleman-sher reasoned bitterly, would
have spared her this knowledge.
"But why" she said, with knitted
brows-"w if you knew it was SO
precious and SO harmless-why did you
fire upon it?'
Because" he said, almost fiercely |
turning upon her, "because you
screamed, and then / knew it had
you" He stopped instantly |
as she momentarily recoiled from him,
but the very brusqueness of his action
had dislodged tear from his dark eyes
that fell warm on the back of her hand |
and seemed to blot out the indignity |
"Listen, miss, /" he went on huriedly as |
If to cover up his momentary unmanli- |
ness. "I knew the bear was missing to-
night, and when heard the horses
skreeying about / reckined what was
up. knew no harm would come to
you, for the horses were embarrassed I
and away from the wagon. / peIted
down that trail ahead of them all like
grim death, calkilating to get there be-
fore the bear They wouldn't have un-
mo I rvae too hi0h mn IN call