The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-09-10
The 7Frai1Jolress.
a Story of Che Last BO@r War;
Copyright, 1899, by +. Y. Black.)
BY p. Y. BLACK.

ported to his general
My private letter." she cried ingeh-
uously. but he would not listen.
"Traitressr' he cried, and his eyes
cleaned dangerously and he took her
by the shoulders and pushed her from
the house of her fathers, while her
mothers voice rose up to the old time
darkened roof in long scream of agony
and pity.
Martha staggered forward, and the
door closed with a crash behind her.
The girls cheeks were white now as
milk, but there was in her eyes no
anger nor fear-merely sense of dazed
wonder, as if the world itself had been
left behind. She was utterly alone. The
women stood at their doors, silent.
Children peeped from behind their moth
ers' skirts, frightened yet curious, as at
sight of boyle For moment Martha
glanced up the street and down The
village was very still. In the orchards,
sloping upwards behind the houses on
either side the narrow street, there was
no sign of life-no pickers, no primers.
In the broad park below the clear brook
bubbled through the trees and the oxen
fed as usual, but the merry herders
were not there. Only the thinly piping
voices of two very small urchins rose
up from the meadows. The church was
deserted, the store was closed. No
where were there any but two very
old men at their stoeps; even the boys
of fair size were away. Even to her
bewildered brain, the absence of the
menfolk and the consequent lack OF
noise, of sound of work, struck strange
ly. Then she remembered; they were
Communicated, her fathers and her
brothers brethren, the Beers. Every
one of them was now away. with his
faithful gun, to the army, and by the
morrow probably many would be dead
many of her own people, many of her
lovers people, perhaps her father or
brother perhaps her betrothed. Her
lip trembed. but she looked up bravely
and met the eyes of the silent women.
She pitied them. She knew what they
were. as she herself might have been If
these happy years of school life In Cape
Town had never come to her-stolid,
ignorant of all things save their Bibles,
unable to judge their enemy, only TO
hate him. Yet they were grand in their
faith and simplicity, trusting in the Lord
for victory on the next day. She, too,
although she knew what the red sol
diers could do, feared, yes feared that
her countrymen would win, for, if they
did. foretelling a crushing blow, she
guessed the fate of her darling lover, so
conscious of his own mems fighting
powers, so contemptuous of those Of the
farmer soldiers.
So she looked bravely into the eyes of
the Boer women. They might call her
''traitress" and groan as they did now
but she had done the best she knew, the
only thing she could do, to warn Vena-
bic that he was fighting against no foe
to laugh at. Let God judge" she muir
INJURED, IF she was a traltress. Could
it be treachery to try to save the life of
the beloved?" Very simple she was,
very innocent Oft grander motives of
heroines, for all her studies little Let-
ter than a child, acting by hearts iml-
pulse and loves prompting, and these
alone This she had done, but now her
father called her mattress, and that
was bitter, and her home was closed
forever against her, and THE women
whom she had played and worked among
hooted her. A small boy threw stone,