The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-10-24
as < AFTER THE STORM HAS
 PASSED.
DIV n u TALMADGE.

BY D. H. TALMADGE. ,s lCopyright, 1901, by Daily Story Pup. Co. | E $ < $ < < . e s hollow to talk it over?. We're lucky no
 to be dead. We must be a quarter or
 mile from the show ground, ana " Lat least I didn't. It looks like fate."
 The girl smiled. "How do you know I'm lo1esome?" she asked.
 Because your homes in Ohio, ht
 answered promptly, and you're iort elephants Everybody is lonesome wheI
 he's swny from horne. Home wouldn amount to shucks as ar institution If ht wasLt."
 T am lonesome" admitted the. girl
 ''Td give anything if I was back ir Ross County this very minute. She glanced significantly at the elephant and wiped the corners of her eyes didn't lave to leave. But my uncle wrote to me asking if I didn't want position in his restaurant out here, ano l was foolish enough to take 1t. thought it would De better .ater than was Jas ashamed to go back till I'd stayed | year, cause I said l was going to stay | yea. Father wrote me long ago, say ters that I was homesick, He said I'd better come back. I wrote and told him that nothing but s-a-
 Tornado" suggested Beivynd.
 1GS, that H'lIltHS DuL tOl
 that's what 1t amou1ted to-would make me come back till my year was up. and he said I was just like mother-set In my way. After that I got q letter sorry I was so stubborn. but she knew I couldn't help it, cause I was father right over again. My fathers name g William Travis. Perhaps you've heard
 No" said Belwynd. honestly. .I never did. Your home must be south of Chillicothe. isn't it?".
 Yes. Yours is north?''
 But it's all Ross County" ,a ,.,n, admiration; Its all old Ross ( county
 And And were far, far away Y, from it,
 The Hi girl drew long breath.
 'Wouldnt you like to go back?' she
 Well" confessed the elephant man slowly, sometimes I do feel a hanker- ing of that sort, and l can't account for it. 1 never got mich else than kicks and pushes when l was mere: to think twas more because none or my folks understood me. Old Ross County turned me down unreasonably hard. yet the hankering comes in spite knew once who was with the show. Hlm and his wife done a turn on the trapeze that was good for letters a foot high on the DlllS. u WAS d StuililiiiS oS e' But the little woman took sick. Over work, I guess. They called 1t consump- tion. Twas hearbreaking to hear her cough. Rut she never lost hope FOLKS She stuck by the show till the last min ute. The day she died she rode old T'il- ate here in the street parade. or The brown "oyes contempiateo the prostrate beast with a new express sion Then they dashed sympathetically | into the gray ones of the elephant man. Her hustand was good deal cut up when the end came. He knew she | was better off and all that. but some how he couldn't seem to get reconciled: He hadn't married her because he loved her particularly-'twas more because she was clever performer on the swinging bar It was a matter of business. Such things are not uncommon In the show line. Maybe they're not uncommon in other lines. I don't know: He was like most other mcn--he had his notions | loveliness. and this woman, his wife wasn't according to 'em But after she left he quit the trareZe and took Ip 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?
 NO, they weren't married" Belwynd hand, breaking it. For moment his face took on the look of one who mOurns. "They Weren | marrleu. lney never will be- It 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 her to marry him. He knew she was beau tiful, but. 'confound it" he said to himself, she doesn't cough and her face isn't thin like the faithful and true lit tie woman's who's, dead And he went on his way-alone."
 Tt is a pretty story" said the girl softly. after an interval. Why have you told it to me, stranger?
 You aren't a stranger" replied Bel wynd. You came from old Ross Coun- ty. and-and you-yon are the other woman. Come. Pilate, old chap. We must go and help pick up the muss. Goodbye, miss
 The girl started forward impulsively. Then she stopped and turned away her face. "Goodbye-Tom,' she said.