The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1898-08-18


turned toleap aside, but too late. Her
feet slipped, and as she fell the stone
rolled on her and pinned her down.
For moment, stunned and breathless
from the fall, she made no cutlery. As
far as she could tell no bones were
broken, and the upper part of her body
was free. She twisted herself about
and pushed against the stone with
every ounce of strength left in her. T.
did not bulge. She was helplessly, i'm
movably fast. Then she began to cry
aloud, hoarsely, weakly at first; but
as her terror gathered, with a gather
ing strength, until her cries rang
piercingly about the mountain sides.
No answer came, the camping party
had broken camp and gone two days
/ before. >
She lay on the nose of the mountain,
with unobstructedv view in front and on
each side. The Shenandoah valley was
unrolled before her in it's entire width,
from the Blue Ridge to the Allegha-
MES. She saw but two things in it;
one was the roofs of Strasburg, so near,
apparently, in that clear air, that she
tried to shout down to them; the other
was her own home, there just under
her eyes, it seemed almost under her
hand. She did not know how long she
had lain there-she was not always
conscious-when she saw far down be-
low horseman come creeping out OF
town. Halfway to the river the road
forked. Would he turn off or would
he cross the river? If he crossed, he
must pass by her home-pass within
a few rods of Ben.
! He took the river road. Slowly, how
slowly! he seemed to creep along! As
he came. nearer, something, she did
not know what-the gait, the color of
the horse, the carriage of the man
flashed the truth upon her. It was DR..
Jackson himself. He rode into the
river and stopped to let his horse drink.
He crossed. She watched him silently.
| He seemed so near that she caught the
flash of the water dashed up from his
horses feet. She had cried cut to the
distant town. To him she said not
word. Not word TO him; but all her
|
ofsilent prayer, not for herself, but for
Ben. If God would but send this help
to Ben, he might do what he would
with her.
| DR.. Jackson got the message, as
man is likely to do when the call is
sent by way of Heaven. The good doc
tor, indeed, did not know it. He
stopped at the Sisco place, as he
thought, merely to tell some body that
the cattle were in the corn down there
in the bottom. But after vainly hal
looing at the gate, he got down and
went into the house, where he stayed
pretty much the rest of the day.
And Adela watched him with eyes
! that filled with tears for the first time
since she had kissed Ben good-by.
They were tears of thankfulness; and
soon, spent utterly as she was with the
long strain. she put her head down on
her arms and for awhile forgot her own
pains and terrors in the blessedness of
sleep.
Day declined, and the people began
to come home from the picnic. In the
west long clouds of dust, like floating
sandbars, marked out the valley pike
and it's endless procession of vehicles.
Excursion trains crawled up and down,
and finally crawled away in the dis
lance, and every country lane had here
and there its groups of moving specks.
They passed; and soon the smoke went
up from scattered chimneys. Lights
twinkled through the dusk; and at last
the night, which had already filed the
valley, came creeping up the mountain
sides.
The company at Locust Hill, the hos
pitable old country seat just outside
of Strasburg, had all gone to the re-
union that day, except Lucy Beacham
Lucy also intended to go; but, delicate
and somewhat timid as she was, she
had waited to drive out with her ia
Their, Senator Beacham, when he came
up from Washington that afternoon
Much to her disappointment he did
not come, and at sunset Lucy went out
| to the brow of the hill on which the
house stood to watch the people COM
ing home.
BY and by she grew tired of that and
let her eyes rest on the noble land
scape before her. The river, in a loop,
swept outward from Massanutten al
most to her feet, and then went curv-
ing down shining: path between two
rows of willows to round the mountain
| which lowered against the eastern
sky like great green wall. The rat
tie of wheels lessened and finally grew
still. The shadows deepened along the
river bottoms, and soon behind the end
! of Massanutten rising glow foretold
the moon. 1t grew and frightened IN
til the rim of the golden disk, that
night at the full, had just come into
view. Then, with sudden thought,
Lucy got up and went into the hall.
There hung the battered but powerful
spy-glass that had seen service on this
same mountain in the days when
Stonewall Jackson and Fremont and
Banks and Shields were at their grim
debate. The glass was too heavy to
manage without support. Lucy
rested it across the front gate, adj
justed it, and put her eye to the eye
piece.
The moon was coming up behind a
spot on the end of the mountain which
seemed to be bare of trees, and every
rock, every irregularity of the surface