The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1901-10-04

new summer house that had been put
up among the pines and gradually di-
| verted her hostess conversation into
gossip of the town. If it was somewhat
lugubrious and hesitating, it was, how
ever, a relief to Cissy and, bearing
chiefly upon the vicissitudes of others,
gave the young girl the comforting
glow of comparison.
Touching the complexion of the Sc
camp girls, Mrs. Windibrook attributed
1t to their great privations in the allSali
desert. Zone day." continued Mrs. Win
dibrook, "when their father was i'll
with fever and ague, they drove the
cattle 20 miles to water through that
dreadful poisonous dust, and when they
got there their lips were cracked and
bleeding and their eyelids like burning
knives, and Mamie Secamp's hair,
which used to be beautiful brown like
your own, my dear, was bleached into
rusty yellow"
And they will wear colorS that don't
suit them,' said Cissy impatiently.
Never mind, DEAR" said Mrs. Windi-
brook ambiguously. II suppose they
will have their reward" Nor was the
young engineer discussed in lighter
vein. 1T pains me dreadfully to see
that young man working with the com
mon laborers and giving himself no
rest just because he says he wants to
know exactly how the thing is done
and why the old works failed" she re-
marked sadly. "When Mr.. Windibrook
knew he was the son of Judge Master
ton and had rich relations, he wished.
or course, to be civil, but somehow
young Masterton and he didn't hit off,
Indeed Mr.. Windibrook was told that
he had declared that the prosperity of
Canada City was only mushroom
growth, and it seems too shocking to
repeat, dear, but they say he said that
the new church, our church, was SIM
ply using the Almighty as big bluff to
the other towns. OF course Mr. Windi-
brook couldn't see him after that. Why,
he even said your father ought to send
you to school somewhere and not let
you grow up in this half civilized
place."
Strangely enough, Cissy did not hail
this corroboration of her dislike to
young Masterton with the liveliness
one might have expected. Perhaps it
was because Piney Tibbs was no Ion
ger present, having left Cissy at the
parsonage and returned home. Still she
enjoyed her visit after fashion, romp-
ed with the younger Windibrooks and
climbed q tree in the security of her
sylvan seclusion and the promptings of
her still healthy, girlish blood and only
came back to cake and tea and her new
hat, which she had prudently hung up
in the summer house as the afternoon
was waning. When they returned to
the house, they found that Mr.. Winii.
brook had gone out with his visitor,
and Cissy was spared the advertise
ment of bOsterous escort home which
he generally insisted upon. She gayly
took leave of the infant Windibrook
and his mother, sailed out through the
parsonage gate into the empty road
and once more became conscious of her
new hat.
The shadows were already lengthen-
ing, and a cool breeze stirred the deep
aisles of the pines on either side of the
highway. One or two people passed
her hurriedly, talking and gesticulat-
ing, evidently so preoccupied that they
did not notice her. Again a rapid horse:
man rode by without glancing round,
overlook the previous pedestrians, ex-
changed hurried word with them and
spurred swiftly away as one of them
shouted after him:
'"rhere's another dispatch confirming
it,"