The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1899-10-20
When the Cyclone Came
It Reunited a Pair of Lovers In an
!, Unromantic Henhouse.

4 Unromantic Henhouse. Il
vlasta looked wistfully out Of her
small paned window, deep set in the
heavy sod wall, and sighed.
The piles Of unwashed dinner dishes
i've which she was at work hardly &C.
counted for that sigh, and the view
without was pleasant rather than 9th
erwise.
1t was a Sunday afternoon in late
June, hot and unusually still for that
windy country. but the rolling stretch
es OF prairie grass and the great fields
Of young wheat and corn still held the
freshness of early spring.
But the cloud, mo larger than a
mans hand" is always present in some
form or other.
One was at that moment rising laZily
on the western horizon, over the low,
green hills, just a faint summer cloud,
unseen by the girl. whose eyes were
fixed on a nearer and, to her, much
more attractive object. This, as is apt
to be the case when maidens sigh, was
q young man, who. on the other side of
harbed wire fence, some little dis
. away, was busily engaged in
ng his buggy, which was rolled
ont Of his own little low sod house.
e was Of middle size, dark haired
and featured, like herself, and clad in
the careless costume Of Overalls and
Jacket Of blue denim, faded and dingy
from exposure to sun and weather, and
the battered sOmbrerO Of light felt,
which were usual in his everyday occu-
patton of farming.
AS any one familiar with that part
of the country could tell at a glance,
they were young Bohemians, members
of that great army of hardy settlers
who have made homes for themselves
in the previously untitled west.
But hearts will DC hearts in every
place, and Juliet may pine for her Ro-
meo in ancient castle no more than in
humble sod house, as did this common
place little heroine, with her plain but
kindly face.
Now, by custom immemorial Sunday
is the rural holiday everywhere, and it
Is especially SO among our foreign born
citizens, who on that day sally forth,
clad in their best, ready for visiting
and m%errymaking and seeing no incon-
gruity between church and mass in the
morning and q dance in the afternoon
or evening.
So, considering this, it seemed that
the young settler, Albrecht Hollub,
should be on pleasure bent, and the
signs indicated to Vlasta that SO he
was, or soon would be. Herein lay the
sting which changed for her the sun
shine Of that glorious June day to
gloom. .
For Albrecht--as ''going riding" in
his new buggy-going without her and
no doubt with some other girl, when 1t
was really her place on that seat be-
side him.
And had she not proudly occupied it
until that unlucky night not vet two
weeks ago, but seeming half a life
time, as q girls short lifetime goes!
Such a little thing, too, as is general
~ the case, to have caused all this
trouble. She vas not sure how AL
brecht felt. Perhaps he was glad to
get rid Of her. Here two great tears
dropped into the dishpan at the
thought. Just a dance at a young
friends wedding, it being their custom
for a bridal party to go to a Justice or
country judge to have the ceremony
performed and then to return to the
brides home for a grand celebration,
which usually lasted all night. Then
a foolish quarrel, when Albrecht, heat
ed by excitement and beer, had insist
ed that she danced too often with the
BRIDES elder brother. She had refused
to listen to him, of course, with the re-
suit that he had walked out into the
darkness and had never been near her
since.
Perhaps she had sought covertly and
no doubt awkwardly to find an oppor-
tunity Of making amends, but he had
ignored or avoided her, though they
lived on adjacent claims; hence, for
her, at least, bitter days and nights.
She felt vaguely, in her simple fash
bn, the hardness of the woman's code,
which bids her "wait and weep" in ST.
'lence, a rule that has broken many be-
sides country hearts like hers. And
all this time the cloud in the west was
rising. 1t looked much like a puff of
black smoke, and there were others
not SO dark climbing up beside it.
The dishes were finished and put
away in the kitchen "safe," or cup
board, and the girl sat down by her
window-she was very fond Of that
window in those days-and gazed abb
sently out. The landscape was left
desolate to her, for Albrecht had disap-i
peared, probably to attire himself for
his outing.
Her father nodded in the shady door,
way over his long. curved pipe. In the
inner room her mother discoursed volu-
bly, to her second daughter In her ma
tive tongue, which Is not forgotten by