The Ely miner., 1901-10-11

as she was leaving school, and her
books were still in the newspaper
in which she had wrapped them. The
heavy old English lettering of the
title Of the Morley Herald ran con-
spicuously across the package, which
was tied with a bit of brown hair
ribbon. She carried it carefully as
she climbed down to ledge near the
base of the cliff. There she curled
herself up comfortably, with her back
against convenient projection. The
lofty, l;chen-studded surface of the
main rock rising high above her shut
out half the world.
1t was Livy's favorite spot. Be-
hind her, with the farmhouse perched
halfway up the steep ascent, rose
Ianham Hill, around which, on three
sides, swept the arid waste of the
Pennyroyal Plains, as they were
called, waterless, treeless and barren,
the bad lands of Morley. On its
fourth side, from the sharply sloping
brow Of the hill the Whispering
Rock descended to the ledge where
she lay; and below this, quite at the
foot of the crag, was the curious
valley known as Lisbon Hollow.
Here, more than a hundred years
before, that memorable and terrific
earthquake, the lessening pulsations
of which, sweeping beneath the broad
Atlantic, overthrow in their dying
tremors chimneys on Boston houses,
dried wells, opened springs and tossed
white sand through narrow assures
of unknown depth which suddenly
scanned the surface of green New
England fields-here had the Lisbon
earthquake caught the best meadow
of the Lanham farm and shaken the
life out of it. For Lanham's brook
and Lanham's pond had .graced the
hollow then, and watered old Ebene
ger Lanham's crops and made his
modest wealth; and these, when the
earthquake passed, had disappeared
utterly from sight, and left the land
dry and valueless, and heaped hap
hazard in hills and ridges and hill
ocks. The only trace remaining OF
the vanished stream was the faint
ripping and murmuring sound that
could simetimes be heard far under
ground, when on very still days one
leaned an ear against the Whispering
Rock.
Many declared that even this was
but a fancy, and that people only
imagined they heard the sound, or
mistook some other sound-the rust
ling of the dry grass, perhaps for
that of water. But Livy Lanham
was firm believer in the hidden
brook; and lying on the sunny ledge
in the mild air of spring, with her
head close against the rock, she
thought she heard it now, and wished
with all her heart it were above the
ground once again.
Rousing herself from her despon-
dent mood, she took up her books
and was about to unite the parcel
when a headline of the Morley Her
aid caught her eye. "Trouble For
the New Water Company" she read,
and underneath, in smaller type,
"Jones' Spring Not Sufficient-Objec-
ton of Our Citizens to the Use of
River Water-Possible Typhoid-At
Deadlock-The Scheme May Be Given
Up, After ALL"
Livy hastily tore off the brown
hair ribbon, tumbled her books out
on the ledge and read the article.
How loud the Whispering Rock
rippled and muttered as she read
unless it was the beating of her own
heart that sounded so plainly in her
ears!
An hour later she returned to the
house and told 'Liphe that she was
going into town. He was surprised,
and wondered why she, who was us
ually so careful and economical, had
put on her best dress on weekday.
He could not know that she was 60
ing to call on the president of the
company that had lately been or
ganized to introduce city water into
Morley, and that she wished to make
the best impression possible. She
had knotted up her long braids to
give herself a greater air of dignity,
and she was wondering as she walked
along what would be the proper way
to introduce herself. Should she say
she was Miss Lanham, or Miss Olivia
Lanham, or just Livy Lanham from
the Lanham farm? She had not set
tied this important question by the
time she reached the presidents
house, and afterward she tried in
vain to remember which she had said.
She could not even remember very
distinctly what the president, Mr..
Finch, had said to her.. At first he
had been polite, but she, had felt he
thought her foolish and was impa-
tient to have her go. Gradually he
had become interested in what she
had to say, and at last really eager;
and when she left he had promised
to bring a man who knew all about
springs to examine the Hollow.
Meanwhile, she was not to talk about
the matter to any one, except, of
course, to 'Liphe and her father.
She saw 'Liphe working in the gar
den as she neared the house, and
unable to keep her hopes to herself
long enough to walk. decorously
around to the gate, she jumped
nimbly over the stone wall and ran
mn L.,~, III o+,o: I,.e l., n,