Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1900-10-29


She set the box away in her own hot
little bedroom off the kitchen, and two
or three times during the afternoon
she went in and looked at it and in
the evening after the work was done
she sat beside the kitchen table and
stared hard at it till her eyes seemed
to turn their understanding inward.
Now Lena came of an old, old family
of peasants, who had been famed time
in and time out for knowing things in
a mysterious way Lena had never had
the least bit of confidence in these ira
ditions, and to tease her mother-ah!
would that her dear mother were now
alive to tease-she had been used to
talk about her granddames, the
witches. But now curious thing hap
pened. In the silence of the sultry
nigt Lena's tired body seemed to be-
come as nothing, and her lonely little
mind appeared to be travelling up a
sandy beach all in red, red sunset
to farm, where before a cottage
young man sat staring wistfully off
upon the water. And the loneliness in
his heart seemed like piece of the
loneliness within hers. Then suddenly
the young man and the cottage and
the red, red sunset were no more.
There was nothing but the hot kitchen
and her tired limbs and aching head.
She went to bed and dreamed a
dream, and it seemed to her that she
ran and laughed upon shore where
the waves rolled in, and that a young
man ran and leaped beside her, and
that when the stars came out they
went together to some quiet fields,
planted with goodly things, and to a
cottage which was their home. In the
early dawn she awoke to know it for
a dream, and she wept homesick tears
for the home that was not.
That is how it came about that that
evening Lena wrote an impossible lit
tie letter and directed it to Daunt
Jewlson, of the Becker road, near
South Fork.
Daunt always went to the postoff1ce
at least once "a week, because he took
the county PAPER. And then, some
times, at the proper saeson, he had
communications from commission men
on South Water street But he had
never had letter of any other sort
since his mother died, till he got Lee
mas Little note, and took it home to
read it at his leisure
Il, Lena Nelson, got the berry box"
it read, "and I say will let you court
up to me if you are a good man.
am sad, for | have no one of my own
any more. Are you sad, too?"
1t was quite correctly spelled, and
was altogether a better epistle than
Daunt, born to the tongue though he
was, could have contrived. But, then
Lena had taken the greatest pains in
learning her English, and Daunt had
always held the matter in more or less
contempt. It was an exciting night
for him. He was enchanted with the
letter. He walked about his little
house, holding the note in his hand,
and wondering what sort of a girl had
written it, ard what woman would
think of his home, and how it would
seem to be married Daunt was much
in earnest. He was not man who ex-
pressed an idle wish. He had meant
what he wrote on the strawberry box.
But through the somewhat dim
chambers of his brain there ran the
suggestion that marriage with an un-
known person might be q dangerous
thing. Yet the little missive did not
seem dangerous. 1t seeemd sweet. He
had a sense that Lena was dear girl
Folks who live alone sometimes get a
sort of instinct, like the animals. They
know things, not knowing why they
know them.
Well, Daunt wrote, and Lena wrote
and Daunt wrote, and then one day he
took the morning boat over to the
city, and, it being Thursday after
noon and Lena's free day, she met him
at the pier They knew each other the
first thing, for Daunt wore, as had
been arranged, a rose in the band of
his hat, and she had blue ribbons and
a white dress. She knew where she
wanted to go, and led him to the es-
planade, and they walked there to-
gether looking at the lake and the
people on wheels, and the grand car
riages and all the throng of the city.
"But I like the lake best over on
'tother side," said Daunt 'I like to
run in the sand"
II know it," remarked Lena
DO you? How do you know it,
20, I have ways of knowing. I
dream sometimes
Daunt gasped. Then ne made con-
fession.
$50 do l." he said, 'I guess you
amt much different from what I