Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1898-01-06

head IL TO mel! he cried. but I
Enow what it means-Polly's went.
She's nowheres around, and she's left
this letter. Read it to me! Read il to
mel"
Marshall took the paper It told her
grandfather that she had gone to Mem
ohis to nurse. In the midst of the storm
IT explosives raised by the note Mar
;hall escaped.
Did he understand the girl? Had she
boarded up the words the miller had
spoken when he came back in June?
Had she put off her marriage until Au-
gust knowing that the fever would be
worse then and that she should 90 to
Memphis and to death? Had she taken
the money from the wallet for her ticket
to the doomed city? Was she weak?
Was she strong? He only knew that she
did not love the man she had promised
to marry. When he went back to the
house, the miller was there
This is what comes O. takin sarpints
into your bosom!' cried the netmaker.
Somebody orter go after her. Wisht
had my eyes-wouldn't she come in a
hurry! Yes, somebody must fetch her
home''
But the fever!" said the miller de-
jectedly. "She'll mebbe die, and so
will them that goes after her.
"Would fear of your own life deter
you from trying to save hers?"
1t was Marshall who spoke.
II got my life to think of, . the mill
er blurted out, IT got her gran father
to think Of, a pore, blind, ole man.
S'posin I went for her, and me and her
both died. What II become O. him then?
No, daddy" to the netmaker, who was
rapidly becoming maudlin when he
heard himself pitied, "s'long as I got
crust it's half yourn. Besides, Mist
Marshall, you don't know what Yallow
jacks like, or you wouldn't speak SO
bold
"Then you will not go after her
will not make an effort to save her
even at this early stage?'
enlist Marshall''-
"You do not love her!' cried Mar
shall.
''Does she love me?'' demanded the
miller. "Ain't I got no feelins of a
man? Would she go way if she keered
for me? Don't she go way to get rid O.
me and the weddin? Amt there been
force work 'nough? But love her! love
her as I never loved no other woman,
nor never shall. There!''
The netmakgr was in tears.
"She's dis'bedient girl" he said,
Sar1 cho3c yix -
with her wills and her won is. I'll new
er hear her name mentioned. I cast her
of-she's went ag'in an honest man
that'd make her good husband and
she's deserted her ole, blind gran father
that's KEEP home over her head the
best he could, workin day in and day
out to do it. Henceforrard amt got
no granddaughter. El," Strengthening
himself, cliff me down the family BIZ
BILE. Find me the place O. the births. y
The miller took the book from the fair,
white cloth Polly had ever kept it in to
protect it. CHOW, her name,'' the net
maker said, and the miller guided his
gnarled finger to certain line "Here
cast her off, Dampening his finger,
he ran it across a name, leaving long
black smear upon the white surface ct
amt got nobody in all the wide world
that's got my blood in 'em. Z" And he fell
back in the miller's arms, crying aloud
for Polly, his dead daughters child, the
girl he had worked for all her life.
Marshall left the two men. He wan
dered about the place for an hour or
more, a ringing in his ears. When he
returned to the house, the netmaker
informed him that as there was no one
to keep the house it would be forthwith
closed, the miller having offered to pro-
vide for the forsaken old man for the
rest of his life or until something
might be heard regarding Polly.
Marshall packed his bag. On the 9th
Of August he was in his native city
once more, a hot, sweltering city. A
pile of letters awaited him, for he had
not left any address behind him when
he went away in search of nature, and
the epistles had accumulated There
was but one from Jane Cristowell Jane
told him that the viscount she had met
on the Adriatic had gone beyond all
precedent and begged her to admire him
sufficiently to accept him, the title of
viscountess and house in the Faubourg
ST. German. She had sent the viscount
adrift, and she laughed at him when
ever she thought Of him. Then, after
all, did Jane care little for the man
she would marry? He softly laid the
letter aside. He staid indoors all day.
Toward evening he opened his bag and
emptied it of its contents Out fell a
handkerchief with a piece of paper in
it's folds.
II took your money to pay for my
ticket to Memphis wrote Polly. 81
think you understand me better than
the rest. and maybe if I'd been in your
sphere we'd been more friendly. Idon t
love Ell and I can't marry him be-
cause
"Aha!" cried Marshall, shifting his
forehead. "What an idiot I have been
not to see the truth. She writes, 4
don't love Ell and can't marry him be-
cause love somebody else Poor Polly,
you love somebody else and can t marry
the miller, and Jane couldn't accept
the title of viscountess because She If
To,,o 4 s,l,> e