The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1901-12-27

he went away without word. She
stood and listened to his unsteady steps
going down the path. to the clang of the
gate little after; then passed into the
house.
Margaret Ellen pierced the kitchen
with song. She was frying griddlc
cakes for supper. Her face oent over the
smoky hearth was like flower.
Her mother stood by the stove quak-
ing. She spread her hands to the blaze;
her lips were pinched and ash -colored.
Margaret !N!en hushed her singing to
eye her.
Now, yo'r gone an took cold. guess
I'll just have to make yo' some boneset
fo bedtime. Io'r always maxim some
thin o the sort TO me. an it's no more
II right | should take my turn at it."
Leave me alone. child. I'll soon be
heated through. I'm not gettin' any
cold"
The girl began her song again.
Stop singin., Marg'ret Ellen. I want
to talk to yo'.'
well. mother
didn't r."
Eyes, mm.'
HE come back here tonight"
Margaret Ellen glanced uneasily at the
door.
An I sent him away again.
The biblical aspect came back to AIDE
laide Norris. Once more she was the
woman she had been little while ago in
the dusk. He went away one moment
without sayin' word, an never come
back again. waited at the door with
out. I'm not goin'' to forgive him. I'm
not goin' to take him back. He
wouldn't do it TO- ME. No man would
forgive woman TO- leavin' him. I don't
see why I should make myself more
O. fool than man."
She had loved the easy Job with all the
force Of strict, reticent nature. His
laughter, his carelessness for the NOR
row, the set OF his cap on his head. had
all been lovely though unintelligible to
her. She had fought hard against the
stricter in the fighting. A vision of her
thwarted youth rose up before her. She
felt herself turning into stone.
The next day a neighbor hailed her at
the gate.
"Yo' heard the news, Mis- Norris:"
"What is it?'
Isabel Hunts come home. She come
day before yesterday. an her folks took
her in as if nothin' had happened. She's
amt it?'
Utllcfe ~ IL.
Its eighteen year since she went
away"
Yes, know it isl
Adelaide Norris walked steadily along
under her apple trees. the air was full
Of tongues; the cracking leaves under
foot were crying out upon her. She had
not married in her first youth. She had
pretty -colored like Margaret Ellen. She
hoH hard No errncpS n1ain woman e
overestimate of fair face had been
hers. She had always connected her
husbands disappearance with that of Is
abel Hunts. 4 wayward girl, with
beauty enough to make curse of it.
Isabel had furnished the dull village
departure from it. Now Job had come
back and so had she. Adelaidcs eyes
blazed under her sunbonnet.
That afternoon she met Mrs. Fox out
OH the pike. The weaker woman spoke
first.
He's lyin'' OH the fiat o his back with
rheumatism
Isabel Hunts come home"
But; Ad'iaide, that's got ,nothin' to
for-nothin an all that; amt excusin'
him a'-tall, but it wasn't women"
Il can't get it out Of my mind"
well, yo'r wrong. ADELAIDE | feel
sure about Job that way as l do about
myself"
Il can't believe anything different -
said Adelaide.
She knew that the eyes of the villagers
vcca bulary in which they weighed her
conduct and found it wanting. She
was primitive and they conventional.
Over against the tragedy of her life they
had set her husband lying ill Of the
rheumatism. The evil was forgotten,
the mysterious made uppermost. Job
ing disease, put on the aspect Of the suf-
ferer, not that of the offender The
glamor Of those years in which he had
been out Of the thick Of events in Green
Meadows was upon him.
Adelaide held her head high. She
tramped to church with the same step
that had been hers for, years; Her
hind which sat job. a white and gaunt
invalid. She did her errands unfalter-
ingly.
Margaret Ellen dropped under it all.
The house behind the apple boughs no
longer renewed it's youth in her song.
Her father was a mere memory to her;
she had somewhat Of his wavering dispo-
sition. The resentful feeling that a
weak will often harbors against 4 domi-
rant one possessed her. She half shrank
from her mother in these autumn days.
Soon it was autumn no longer. The
wind beat down from the mountains;
the snow began to fall. 1t was the
week before Christmas.
One graw afternoon Margaret Ellen
came home, all the color out of her face.
I've got a message 70 20, from
Aunt Sara. mother"
''Well'
.sShe told me to tell yo' that fathers
very bad; she believes he's dyin', an If