Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-06

Charley-never. 1t Is beaut1tul-beautiful
We shall be happy here, very happy, dear
est"
And she meant it. Every word came
straight from her heart. How could she
understand then? How could she know,
il, this hour of homecoming, that there
would be day when those majestic peaks
would be to her circle Of implacahle
jailers? Or that she would close her WIN
dCws to the monotonous rush of the river
cutting it's way through the mountains to
the life for which she hungered? Or that
the eternal sunshine, cleaning even
through evanescent showers, would mock
her misery and make her long for the
shadows of night? Or that the Tilt of the
meadow lark would drive her half mad
with envy? He could at least fly across
the mountains, while She
The first year was not so hard. Then
her husband bought the stock, and with
the cattle came the cowboys. Her I'M
trained shoulders bent beneath this new
burden. In their rough, chivalric fashion
the men adored her,-but they also-ate.
At first she rose shudderingly each morn
ing to the unvarying task. Then she be-
came numb to it.
Mechanically and at regular intervals she
cleaned the front room, but she never Ven
tured to sit there From Grandmother Ste
vens brass candesticks to the last photo
graph of her graduating class everything
reminded her of that other lfe-and she
was afraid to think.
More and more she withdrew into her
self There was nothing else. Vaguely
and not rebelliously, she realized that the
volatile temperament Of her husband was
Welding TO the more dcbaSing influence of
the wild, free life. She seemed powerless
to hold him in check. What could she do
when the ranch work pressed upon her
until it seemed to touch her very soul? To
be sure, lie praised her cooking and vowed
that no woman in all Saguache county
could beat her in making baking powder
biscuits. He always kissed her. too. when,
stalwart and noisy, and with clankins
spurs, he came in from the range But
there were dreary nights when he never
came farther than Saguache. the county
seat. and on These nights she lay breath
lessly listening for the hoof beats, and
heard only TYP eerie lamentation of the
coyote.
But, above It all, efhe mean surroundings,
the interminable drudgery, the selfish neg
lect of the man who wooed her from a life
of comparative ease and refineInent, rose
that passionate longing for music. This
woman who knew the score of every opera,
who had heard every noted singer of her
day, would have cried with joy at the
sight Of street piano, or negro banjoist
Once when he had made fortunate spec
ulation in stock she suggested piano, but
he quoted freight rates across the range
And that night he rode into Saguache and
was gone three days. When he returned
the cowboys winked at each other and
turned his jaded horse into the corral-au
but one man. He sighed. Perhaps he
nights had been listening for the hoof-
beats that did not come.
The next mail brought from an eastern
friend a musical journal, but the woman
never cut the leaves Again, she was
afraid, and she laid the paper, with a ges-
ture of despair, on the glowing Goals. Gay
snatches of light opera and piquant college
songs no longer fell from her lips. Her
guitar leaned in an out-of-the-way corner,
its strings broken.
Perhaps this was the reason that when
the child came, his eyes Were filled with
strange wistfulness At the age when
other children placidly suck their fingers,
gurgling and cooling, he lay with tiny fists
tightly cenched star ing yearningly at the
loving face bent over him whenever the
mother could steal from her work.
She was bending over him thus one after
noon when from shed near the corral
came a sound that to the woman. was a
message from paradise. In fiute-like tones
some one was whistling the prison song
from I'll Trovatore" The woman straight
ened up, her eyes wide open in happy Won
der. She covered the baby, then stole from
the door, With nOiSeleSS tread she crept
round the house, nearer and nearer to the
rough shed.
A young fellow with a careless, happy
face was polishing his gaudy riding equip
ment. His hat, pulled over his eyes, pre-
vented his seeing the approaching figure.
On her face was look, half rapture half
agony. What if one of the notes should
ring false and the beautiful cadence be
married? She recalled having had the same
feeling one night at the opera when she
| thought of the possibility of the tenors
faltering. But. no, the clear notes swept
on to the triumphant end and she breathed
a deep sigh of relief.
The bride fell gathering from the mans
grasp to the floor. Before him stood his
employers wife, with both hands out
stretched.
Thank you, oh. thank you"
He was a newcomer and knew nothing Of
| his employer or of the latters family. A
COLL xxyif fair OIL,
tation and a much wider reputation among
! women, he was just at present stopping
| without the pale of civilization until his
! father should be in the mood to sacrifice
eager face uplifted to his, he realized that
! this woman had come from his own world.
| So he clasped the outstretched hands and
| thanked fate for hoiulng the rest or the
| men in the distant corral
| Life seemed trifle easier after he came.
| For, while the other men smoked and swap
| ped yarns in the twilight hour, he swung
| in the hammock near the Kitchen door and
| whisted the music she loved, and the work
| moved the faster for the inspiration. But he
did not understand her. He did not know
that this woman was i1dealizing his music
not himself And one day she bent over the
| baby and whispered, while an unnatural
| light shone in her eyes:
| "Baby, dear, there's almost 500 now in
| the old shell box. Just few more dollars
and we can cross the mountains. you and
| I. Baby, do you understand? There are
organs beyond those mountains, organs
that sound like the Great Amen And We
will stay till we hear them all-the organs,
the singers the vioiins and the 'cellos.
| You've never heard cello, dearest: but
it's such wonderful music and seems to go
| to the very roots of your soul. 1t will be
| ever so much better than the boys whis-
| Ting that you like to hear"
And the child, as IL it understood, nestled
| closer and closer to her breast
Her husband had gone to Saguache again
for supplies. The two days necessary for
the trip had rolled into four and then into
six. When at last he drove, with roilick-
ing song and whoop, into the corral, the
man who whistled said unprintable things
under his breath. Then with arms folded
on the rough rail, he watched the unsteady
figure lurch toward the house, and a smile
that was not good to see passed over his
face. That night as she washed the sup
per dishes her husband sprang up from,
the sofa near the great fireplace and cried
Tell that fellow to stop his internal
| whistling, or I'll break his
But something in his wife's face made
him stop. He settled duly back to his doz-
| ing.
Two weeks later he rode in from the
| 10 Ind he rho had