The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1899-02-02

room the barred shelves and the: IN
wonted inflow Of sunshine acr, IS them
appealed dumbly to him, and Jonas
answered as dumbly. His scanned
okl faee turned doggedly away from
the. windows, and the pain on it was
oniysvisible to the faint, sweet face
Of f;Alw;lda looking. out of the daguer-
reotype on the WALL .Clarissa's keen
eyes did not see it.
Twenty years divided Jonas and
Clarissa Kemp, and Claaissa was not
young. She had tailored and stitched
away all her young wears in her small
village shop before she cane. It had
been aseyen days wonder to Clarissas S
friends and twice thrice that to
Clarissa herself, that she had: locked
her shop dor and gone to the minis
to s with Jonas Kemp.
After supper that night Jonas did
his chores and took down his pipe.
Clarissa permitted. no smoking ia
doors-pipes were even worse than a
mess o litteriug plants. You could
abide the smell OF flowers, but tobacco
--faugh! So Jonas had his evening
smoke under the stars, or, rainy
nights, sitting on the saw-horse in
the woodshea. Alwilda had "liked",.
the smell of his pipe. Heaven forgive
tk,s gentle little prevarication! ::
When Jonas went in again at early.
bedtime the heap of pots aud bruised:
plants was cleared neatly away, and
Jonas lad the rug, well shaken, under
his am. He spread it with precise
paiust taking in exactly its place on the
sitting room floor.
II found it out By the back door,
Clarissy,'' he said gently.
'Um-m-n," mumbled Clarissa, lit
tie taken aback. And that was all
that was ever said about the plants.
After that, if Clarissa had not been
occupied continually with keeping the
house ''unlitteye T. and most spotless-
j. priln, she would have taken notice
that Jonas stayed good deai-some-
where-out-os-doors. He spent rare
niuates oniyin his old place beside;
the sitting room window. And pass.
ers-by-if there had been-apv passers-.
by-on the grassy cross road that RAN
past the old, unpainted Kemp barn
would have looked cnriously at the
big barn windows. There were two
OF then, and both were a.b'oom with
rea geraniums anil gay with purple
and crimson fuchsias. Rough dea,
shelves stretched behind the. cob
webbed panes, and every, one was
brightly tenanted.
But passe"s-fy were few, and Clarissa,
never passed by. Her way, when she
went abroad, was by the wider maiu
road that ran .uphill. and down again
to town. Clarisaa never went to tho
barn. Jonas Kemp and the COWS, the
great barn cat and Dennis we're the
only ones that saw the ret. geranianis
blooming brave9y in the barn win
dows-unless, who can tell?-unless
AlwiIda saw them
another thing Cla~issa might have
noticed was how long the old pine lav
untouche:l on the kitchen maatel.
Jonas went out to his evening smoke
night after night-without it! If it
hal been his way to say things he
might have said that when oae's plants
have been destroyed ru:hlessly oae
must replace them somehow even if
one must buy the n with the tobacco
one misses filing the olG. pipe with.
And that would have explained the
times. of late that Jonas had driven
alone to the little city down the river
and come back; past Clarissa's win
dow and Clarissa's curious eyes, with
a queer, humpy loal Sin behind"
"Humph! Now I wonder what
Jonas S got all tucked up in behin:1,"
Clarissa would muse, eveing suspicious
ly the humps. "'Tisn't grain on
tisn't critters-live ones anyway. And
he couldn't We got 'em if they were
:alive, not:withont ny knowing where
the money had gone to-"
!. BaE Ciarlssa mad not put her ell
:rious fhoEghts into questions, and the
times Of ,beingcuricus and the kuobby.
COVERED heads ''::ir beh;na;' Jonas had
gone by together. She was very busy
ah the late simmer ana early fall sew
ing rags foS her gay new carpet that
was to transtigure the dull little cor.
ner parlor where nobody went and
nobody wanted to so.
One afternoon, rs she sewed, she
heard Jonas plodding feet tap slowly
mp the walk and Jonas heavy breath
keeping time to the taps. What in
land OF goodness was Jonas coming in
that time o day for? It was so IN
usnai that C!erissa let the strip OF red
and yellow cags slide out of her lap
and curl like a brilliant serpent at her
feet. Jonas ':came ir' SO seldom,
lately, except to ,is meals. She hard
II saw his. un5mi!i1g old face from
morning to nigAt,~for she had formed
the habit Of setting his dinner out on
the meal chest in he porch and let
3;n5 TI:,, cat ito1ooe Hay own f7in ! ar