Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1900-04-10
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..Copyrght 1895. by J. B. Lipplncott Company
peia. Seven days in a week, gossip was
better for her than tonics.
1t was almost inevitable, in the cir
cumstances, that should be honored
often with Dorothy Gray's company.
Long drives together over the winding
country roads, walks to the show spots
of the vicinity, and rambles when the
moon was doing her best to make man
kind believe that nothing in the world
vas worth considering but sentiment,
such pleasing diversions filled many
an hour. Sometimes paused to con-
slider how completely the girl was dom
mating my thoughts. Even when
glimpse of Hiram Jones going stolidly
about his business reminded me of the
uncertainty of my position, 1 found
myself specializing more about what
she might think, if the worst came. to
pass, than about the extent of the mis-
fortune over Lamar's head, and posi-
bly, over mine as we'll. On shipboard
we had been very good friends, she and
I. We were very good friends now,
but with q difference. What dull
ride had if she declined to accom-
pany me! how the evening dragged if
she kept out of sight! what wretched
substitute for her presence was even
the best pipe in my growing collec-
ton! How was it that when we were
together, even if our talk languished,
the time never passed heavily? How
had it come about that no longer de-
bated the question of her beauty, no
longer compared her with this girl or
that? Such questions asked myself
now and then. puzzling my brain with
endcavors to answer them in any other
way than the one in which they could
be answered. The simple truth of the
matter was, of course, that had fallen
in love; but for difficulty of compre-
hension commend me, above all things,
to so-called simple truth. Anybody,
if he will take the trouble, can follow
out long and logical deduction, but to
very few men is 1t given to perceive at
once the meaning of the thing which,
once understood, we call self-evident
From the vantage-point Of later years
I have figured out, to my own satisfac-
ton at least, that passed from the
comparatively placid state of friend
ship about two weeks after Dorothy
Gray's arrival in Rodneytown. The
realization of the change came nearly
u fortnight later, not through any tri-
umph of reason, but through an acci-
dent in which my part was that of 8
mere spectator, and which required less
time in action than it does in telling.
Returning one morning from the house
on the knoll, 1 sought the young lady,
as I usually sought her at that hour.
DIR. Banks had asked me to look out
for two or three of his more distant
! patients-he had sprained his right
arm badly and was keeping as quiet as
possible-and that day had planned a
long drive, which it was probable she
would enjoy. She was not in the house,
Mrs. Clark said, and was gazing about
rather disconsolately, when caught
| sight of u parasol showing above the
| walls of lane leading to an orchard,
| in the shade of which Miss Gray some
times passed a morning. Setting out
| in pursuit, gained upon her so rapidly
that when / turned into the lane She
was not more than hundred yards
in the lead. To my surprise, she halted
then turned with cry, and, picking VI
her skirts, began to scud toward me
in full fight, as I saw an instant later
from mn old and evil-tenpered boar
usually safely penned behind Mrs
| Clnrk's barn, but EVIDENT, very much
at liberty at that particular moment
The brute was close to her. His tusks
! looked as long and sharp rs knives; as
he galloped on, they came nearer and
nearer to his prey. gave u shout and
sprang forward, buthad she been forced
to depend upon my aid her danger
would have been great indeed for long
before 1 could have reached her the
boar would have oyertalsen her. lie
was right at her heels, when. armed