The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-24
BY JULIA TRuITT BISHOP.
IN THE FOREST.

Phil Paquette, woodsman, never loved any girl until he saw Annette, the brown-eyed daughter of the boss of the
 aichlgan lumber camp sn ln , Wn,sh in,n ne ana i He came upon her in a clearing one day where she was spreading a feast Of grain before a flock of birds. With her was Hammond, the only man in the world that Paquette had time enough to hate.
 Hammond was tall and fair and per- fectly familiar with the English Ian
 CTS and clear eyes, and to the strong mans contempt of the weak he added the hate of man who thinks he should So. he stood with folded arms and watched the girls snugly fitting jacket brush close to Hammonds arm and saw lher laugh into Hammonds face, and he vowed that he would save the girl from HS Smmond. PaQuette had let into his wild brain the idea that the girl was as
 far above the assistant boss of the camp as the stars are above the Saginaw riv- Ter. by whose banks he and the rest ia-
 bored. So he watched Hammond.
 He saw that the girl talked to him of lsten and carelessly he listened once or twice. The talk was about books of which he had heard but dimly, and of
 plays of which until then he had never ] heard at all. One day he said to An
 nettes father:
 | He wanted to tell him his errand, but
 refraiRed.
 In his pocket he had the savings of | the winter. and he meant to spend it in | books that he, too. might read and be worthy of talking to the boss daughter. | But he had never bought books before
 and he had ofter bought whiskey, So | to get courage enough 10 go into a shop and ask for a book ne spent some of his money for dIi ink. Then he postponed buying the books for an hour or two
 He went into gambling place that he
 knew. He wanted to see, he told him.
 self, if uny of his friends were there.
 but he knew that the truth was that he
 wanted to play long enough to increase his savings till he was able to buy the girl fine gown he had seen in a win dow down the street. He did not intend to give 1t to her himself He meant to slip 1t into the house and ask one of the women to put 1t in her room and she
 would come in and find 1t and not know who sent it. Then he could look at her when she wore 1t and say to himself that she was wearing something that he had given her and then he knew that in his mind he would feel much supe-
 rior to Hammond. who had never given He found no friends in the gambling place, but he stayed and put his money i on the roulette wheel and In exactly twenty minutes he had only enough left
 to buy very little book When he walk-
 ed out into the frosty air and saw the sleighs cut through the snow his mind
 cleared itself of the fumes. of the drink and his conscience reproached him. If she knew what an unworthy man 7 am." he said to himself bitterly, ''she would not care If l never bought a | book"
 He purchased copy in English of lMontaigne, that poet of whom he re-
 msmte red that his father in France had often spoken. and all the way to the camI, he tried to read by the unsteady
 kerosene lamp in the smoking car. | He looked about for Annette as soon | as he reached the camp, but she had l. rno.aar.,r ntnr,. .nN THE FOREST I