The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-02-02

bed and had not risen again from it;
never would, the doctor said
/ She was very patient, poor thing!
( When you went in to ask her how she
was, she said always Better" or
Nearly well'' and lay still in the dark
ened room and never troubled any one.
| The Mozambiquer took care of her,
and she would not allow any one else
I to touch her; would not so much as al
low any one else to see her foot uncov-
cred. She was strange in many ways,
but she paid well, poor thing! And
now the Mozambiquer was going, and
she would have to take up with some
one else.
! Before dinner he had ridden out of
the town to where on a rise a number
OF transport wagons We're "OutSpan-
ned" The Dutchman driver of one
wondered at the strangers eagerness
to free himself of his horses. Stolen
perhaps, but it was worth his while to
buy them at so low price, so the
horses changed masters, and Gregory
walked off with his saddlebags slung
across his arm. Once out Of sight of
the wagons, he struck out of the road
and walked across the weld" the dry,
Towering grasses waving everywhere
about him. Half way across the plain
he came to deep gully which the rain
torrents had washed out, but which
VS. now dry. Gregory sprang down
into it's red bed. 1t was a safe place
and quiet. When he had looked about
him, he sat down under the shade Of
an oyerhanging bank and famed him
self with his hat, for the afternoon
was hot. and he had walked fast. At
his feet the dusty ants ran about, and
the high red bank before him was COW
cred by network of roots and fibers
washed bare by the rains. Above his
head rose the clear blue African sky
AT his side were the saddlebags full Of
womens clothing. Gregory looked up
half plaintively into the blue sky.
"Am l, am l Gregory Nazianzen
Rose?" he said.
1t was all so strange, he sitting there
in that "sloot" in that up country
plain-strange as the fantastic, chang
ing shapes in a summer cloud. At last,
tired out, he fell asleep, with his head
against the bank. When he woke, the
shadow had stretched across the
"sloot," and the sun was on the edge
of the plain. Now he must be up and
doing. He drew from his breast pock-
ct little sixpenny looking glass and
hung it on one Of the roots that stuck
out from the bank. Then he dressed
himself in one of the old fashioned
gowns and great pinked out collar.
Then he took out q razor. Tuft by tuft
the soft brown beard fell down into
the sand, and the little ants took it to
line their nests with. Then the glass
showed face surrounded by frilled
cap, white as woman's, with little
mouth, very short upper lip and a
receding chin.
Presently rather tall woman's fig
ure was making it's way across the
weld" AS it passed followed out
ant heap it knelt down and stuffed in
the saddlebags with the mans cloth
ing, closing up the ant hill with bits of
ground to look as natural as possible.
Like sinner hiding his deed of sin, the
hider started once and looked round,
but yet there was no one near save q
"meerkat," who had lifted herself out
Of her hole and sat on her hind legs
watching. He did not like that even
she should see, and when he rose she
dived away into her hole. Then he
walked on leisurely, that the dusk
might have reached the village streets
before he walked there. The first
house was the smiths, and before the
open door two idle urchins lolled. AS
he hurried up the street in the gather
ing gloom he heard them laugh long
and loudly behind him. He glanced
round fearingly and would almost have
fed but that the strange skirts chung
about hts legs And, after all, it was
only spark that had alighted on the
head of one and not the strange figure
they laughed at.
The door of the hotel stood wide
open, and the light fell out into the
came. She peered out to look for the
cart that had brought the traveller, but
,, Gregory's heart was brave now he was
SO near the quiet room. He told hel
he had come with the transport wag-
ons that stood outside the town.
He had walked in and wanted lodg
ings for the night.
1t was a deliberate lie, glibly told
He would have told so, though the re
cording angel had stood in the next
room with his pen dipped in the ink
What was it to him? He remembered
that she lay there, saying always. 81
: am better
The landlady put his supper in the
little parlor where he had sat in the
morning. When it was on the table
she sat down in the rocking chair, as
her fashion was, to knit and talk, that
she might gather news for her custom
: ers in the taproom. In the white face
under the queer, deep fringed cap she
saw nothing of the mornings traveller
The newcomer was communicative
She was nurse by profession, she
said; had come to the Transvaal, hear
ing that good nurses were needed