Belding banner. (Belding, Mich.) 1889-1918, 1901-11-14

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II looks like fate"
The girl sIniled. "iow do you know
I'm lonesome?" she asked.
Because your homes In Ohlo," he
answered promptly, land you're a long
ways from 1t, and--and-your re
afraid of elephants. Everybody Is
lonesome when he's away from home
Home wouldn't smount to shucks as
an institution n he wasn't"
81 am lonesome" admitted the girl
I'D give anything If | was back In
Ross county this very minute. She
glanced significantly at the elephant
and wiped the corners OF her eyes. u
didn't have to leave. But my uncle
wrote to me asking il l didn't want a
position in his restaurant out here,
and | was foolish enough TO take 1t.
thought it would be better than the
farm. And after I'd taken it | was
ashamed to go back till I'd stayed a
year, cause / said was going to stay
a year. Father wrote me long ago,
letters that | was homesick. He said
I'd better come back. / wrote and told
him that nothing but a--a-'
Tornado" suggested Belwynd.
Eyes, that nothing but tornado
that's what il amounted to-would
make me come back till my year was
up, and he sai; was just like mother
set in my way. After that / got a
letter from mother, and she said she
was sorry l was so stubborn. but she
knew | couldn't help 1t, cause | was
father right over again. My fathers
name Is William Travis. Perhaps
you've heard of him."
NO" said Belwynd. honestly. 81
never did Your home must be south
of Chillicothe. isn't to-
Eyes. Yours is north?"
Eyes"
"But it's all old Ross county"
YES" looking at the girl in frank
admiration; tits all old Ross county"
And we're far away from it,"
Far away from it,
The girl drew long breath
wouldn't you like to go back?" she
asked.
We'll" confessed the elephant man
slowly, sometimes | do feel banker
ing OF that sort, and / can't account
for it. l never got much else than
kicks and pushes when / was there.
Maybe twas my own fault. but | like
to think twas more because none OF
my folks understood me. Old Ross
county turned me down unreasonably
hard, yet the hankering comes in spite
of il. I'm a good deal like man |
knew once who was with the show.
Him and his wife done turn On the
trapeze that was good for letters a
foot high on the bills. II was a stun
ming act. But the little woman took
sick. Overwork, l guess. They called
it consumption. Twas heartbreaking
to hear her cough. But she never lost
hope. Folks sick with that thing
don't, they say. She stuck by the
show till the last minute. The day
she died she rode old PLATE here in the
street parade"
"O!" The brown eyes contemplated
the PROSTATE beast with new ex-
preston. Then they flashed sympa-
thetically into the gray ones of the
elephant man.
"Her husband was good deal cut
I'D when the end came. He knew she
was better off and all that, but some
how he couldn't seem to get recon
ciled. He hadn't married her because
he loved her particularly,-twas more
because she was a clever performer on
the swinging bar. 1t was a matter OF
business. Such things are not uncom-
mon in the show line. Maybe they're
not uncommon in other lines. | don't
know. He was like most other men,
he had his notions about what went
to make up female loneliness, and this
woman, his wife, wasn't according to
em. But after she left he quit the
trapeze and took up another branch.
He didn't know why he done it. He
Just felt that way. And three years
later he found the woman that he'd
dreamed of in his youth
"And they were married."
mo. they weren't married" Belwynd
inadvertently bent the stick in his
hand, breaking 1t. For a moment his
face took on the look OF one who
mourns. They weren't married. They
never will be. 1t was a most peculiar
thing. Twas sort of ridiculous, in fact
The man looked at the woman, and he
knew she was beautiful but something
on his inside kept him from asking heI
to marry him. He knew she was beau
tiful, but, 'confound it, he said &c
himself she doesn't cough and hel
face isn't thin like the faithful and
true little womans who's dead. And
/ he went on his way-alone."
1T is a pretty story" said the cir
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