Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1898-06-29
A DESERTER'S
RETURN.


" HE stood in the doorway OF the
shack and watched him trailing
~ down the road after the horses In
a cloud of dust When he had passed
over the rise and the jingle Of harness
came no longer to her ears she sat down
upon the doorstep with 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 It's one tile chimney there faltcred
thin column 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
hite-curialned window ran a vine,
twlning about the decaying sash in
luxuriant profuslon of foliage, heavy
with budded promise. One spr!g, bold
er than the rest, stretched Its length OF
tender green across TO the door, and
hung far down, swinging in the wind
and holding out its curling tendrlls,
! like tiny fingers, in wlstfui greeting to
the woman below. A row of lusty sun
flowers ran from the house to the
straw-thatched barn, holding up their
rotund faces for kiss from the sun
and forgetting entirely the tlmid devo-
| ton of the morning glories that wound
| about their sturdy limbs and climbed
| high up to offer to their unbending mas
ters n taste of morning dew from their
horns of scarlet and gold A hen, fussy
with the responsibilities of an over
| lGrge family, basked in the warm earth
and clucked unheeded warnings to her
downy brood.
The woman took off her hat and laid
| II beside her. The breeze, fresh with
the smell of ripenlng wheat, blew onto
her cheek and fingered to coax n stray
rlnglet into her eyes. A gray squirrel
| that had run from his burrow to snatch
few crumbs paused to note her dis
| consulate attitude and perked his head
| ia inqulsitive wonder. A little way
! Fro mthe house the railroad crossed the
farm in long stretch of yellow clay.
| Sometimes Annette had sat on the ties
ana 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 a wish. She remem-
bered now, how from the flying train
she had looked out upon a cluster of
buildings huddled close together for
warmth, 1t seemed, and casually Won
aered how a person could live in such
a place, and afterwards, when she
| found 1t 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 feryor of
love, she had somehow realized the
hopelessness of the undertaking, and
now that the roseate flush of the hon
eymoon had faded she sat up with n
duh pain in her head and wave of
inconsistencies rolled over her.
Annette was. In truth, child of civ
illzation. She loved the noise and bus
] tie of the city, the rattle of trucks, the
rumble of cabs, the Changing of cable
ear gongs the purr of the trolley; she
loved the cries of the street, the hurry
| of footsteps, the shrieking OF locomo-
tiyes, the sounding of whistles: and this
morning she thirsted with heart-slck
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
70. the shop windows, the tall buildings
and the smoke-canopied sky OF her ma
tive city; for sight of the familiar
office, the clicking typewrlters, the pat
ter of the ticker as 1t thrust forth its
long tongue of dotted paper; her cush-
loned seat by the window, from which
she could look out on sanded roofs and
black-throated chlmneys, and where
voices of the plgmy street multitudes
came up to her IN murmuring babel
of tongues. All this she had left for
the love of hln-and she did love her
husband.
But her world, how empty It was.
how lonesome and still. how utterly for
saken she had grown to feel In spite Of
him. When she had first come the nov
city had charmed her. The air was de-
liciously soft and the grass In its first
greeuness 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