The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1899-11-24
j: How SHE 81
! GAME [H]oM|E.
BY Kennedy BinE.
: A Vivid Sketch of q Girl Who
( Had Erred Returning
!. to Her Parents.
BY Kennedy BinE.

>. III III x ~ X ~ III
If was cleaning when Janet Goudie
crept to the white gate leading to her
fathers farm. On the ridge between
her and the west she saw the two long
shafts of a tilted roller standing up
dark, gaunt. The sight made her sud-
denly afraid She thought OF her ia
ther. Was it he who had been work
ing with the roller-whO had left II
there an hour since? She paused with
a beating heart.
After a little she opened the gate
and slipped quietly through, holding It
carefully in her hand as she turned to
fasten it. She remembered how 1t al
WAYS swung to the post with clap,
and, though she was far from the
house. she shrank from making
noise. Then she turned up the hilly
road.
When she came out upon the bare
uplands, they were flooded with un-
canny light. 1t dazzled Janet so that
she could scarcely see the house lying
straight before her. Her whole body
felt how visible to the farm folk it
must be, coming on illumined in the
yellow glare She covered so closely
to the stunted hedge that the strag-
Cling brambles tugged at her. A burst
of terrible splendor came athwart the
world, an awful dying gloom. Far and
wide famed the red and silent moors
like affairs lighted for the end of time.
Janet crept on, feeling mean and little
in the great desolatiOn.
At last she stood within the long
shadow that was cast toward her by
the house. So dark and silent were
the buildings that her heart stopped
beating with a sudden dread. But
presently a familiar sound fell on her
ear, and she breathed with relief on
looking round. Over in the little croft
the ducks were waddling home, late
as usual, and gathering away to them
selves When the drake stood up and
tapped his wings, the white round OF
his breast shone vividly.
The farm road led to the square close
at the back of the dwelling house. The
front was to the sunset. Janet stole
to the corner of the barn and peered
down through the shadows to the
kitchen door. She was shaking with
fear. Her father had threatened that
if ever she came back he would hound
the dog at her. She hoped it would
not be a new dog. Baldy, she knew,
would not bite her. The tall white
wooned pump glimmered like ghost
in the gloom. She remembered every
feature of the place as if it were yes
terday she went away. Yet she felt
she was looking at it athwart an eter-
nifty. The double feeling Of familiari-
ty and strangeness made her conscious
of her physical abasement. Every
thing at home was the same. 1t was
she who was different, different.
A stall tied cow lowed loudly in the
empty byre, and the mournful sound
was echoed by the gaunt buildings.
Janet shivered and drew her poor
shawl about her shoulders. At last
she ventured out, creeping down the
close on her tiptoes tremblingly.
When she reached the step Of the back
door, she stood and listened for a
sound within. The house was silent
as death.
Twice she raised her hand to knock,
and twice she let it fall in cowardice.
Then self pity came over her with q
burst in the throat, and her lips whis-
pered in dull repetition: "Oh, it's pity
o. me! It's pity O me! My God. aye!
It's a geven pity o mev' She knocked
family. There was no response. AS
she craned to listen she heard the old
fashioned kitchen clock tick with a
dreary loudness.
She knocked again. The scrunt of a
chair being pushed backward on the
stone floor made the blood prick her
veins suddenly. A silence followed
and then the shuttle of slippered feet
coming slowly. Would it be her ia.
ther? And would he curse her? Her
tongue was dry in her mouth.
A bolt clanked to the wall, the door
creaked on it's hinges. and somebody
peered out at her. hand over eyebrows
"Its your said her mother at last.
The woman stared at her daughter
for awhile and then turned away with
out word, leaving the door open be
hind her. Janet followed to the kitch
en- with a timOrous foot that was ready
to start backward. But her father was
not in the kitchen.
There was a strange stiffness. Tht
rich light came s;Iraming through thu