Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1902-01-25
In the Painted
Woods
CCopyrisht. 1901. By Authors syndicAte.)

" DUNG MASON, who lay on the
couch in the portico, ground his
teeth, it was about the only thing
that he could do, and cursed the road,
the horse, the accident that held him
n prisoner in this dense wilderness-a
prisoner bandaged and shorn of his
strength.
AS the days passed his evil star
rose slowly to the zenith. The per-
fume of the vanished summer was in
the fern-bed that grew knee-deep be-
yond the porch; the maple branches
glowed red as rubies; the beech trees
illumined the woods, and from behind
fallen log near by Bob White sent
his clear, exuitant call. He clinched
his hands and groaned. To be free
once morel To walk through the
sweet-scented fern, gun cooked, eyes
alert-since the time of the Pharaohs,
st seemed, he had been chained to the
cot.
SIis evil star, that had reached the
Ah. dropped suddenly below the
horizon and the atmosphere was food
ed with light of a celestial, rosy hue.
She was his sisters friend, she told
him, as she stood on the porch, tall,
distinguished girl; she bad heard of
his accident, they were camped only
a half-mile away; she had come hop
ing she might, If ever so slightly, re-
Geve the tedium of his days.
He had heard of her social triumphs
her beauty; he had heard that men
raved over her, although they said she
had no soul, and in this sweet, friend
~ way she had come TO him in his
hour of need.
After that afternoon there was al
ways look of expectancy in young
Mason's eyes turned toward the bril-
liant forest. He blessed the accident
that held him a willing prisoner.
The cushions on which he was
propped were hers, the books were
hers. She came each afternoon. She
laughed with him, talked TO him, read
TO him, sang sweet old-fashioned
songs while the sun, blood red, dropped
behind the mountain side, and his boy
heart sweLled.
From the camp below half a dozen
men came ostensibly to inquire of his
health, but in reality to accompany
her home, and it pleased him to see
her naughty and Indifferent to them
to him she was all tenderness, all
friendliness and womanly gentleness.
Whimsically, as is the privilege of a
sick man, 1t pleased him to think her
a princess who came through the sun
lit, painted woods, to him, an exile in
pain. There were other fancies too
beautiful fancies.
One af 10
his brows knotted with a puzzled
frown. He held an unopened letter
addressed to her; servant had found
it in lot of old rubbish.
He remembered that she had been
one of the gay party that camped in
the old farmhouse two summers be.
fore-it was there she had known his
sister, and Boyd had been of the party
Boyd was some ten years the senior
of young Mason, and he was gratifieo
and honored by the older mans friend.
ship.
There was letter in his pocket that
tool him Boyd was coming to share the
tedium of his convalescence-wou
be there that very night, in fact, anG
the bold, firm handwriting was the
same as that on the girls letter.
When the princess came up the steps
young Mason put the letter under hi.
pillow, and sudden sense of pending
calamity possessed him. For a little
while he would listen to her voice, have
her smile on him, and watch the ges
lures of her hands with their odd, for
eign-looking rings. The night would
bring Boyd. And afterwards? His
mind didn't go any further.
They touched on many subjects an6
he brought the CONVERSATION around
to the mountain-party that had me
under the shadow of the great hill.
two summers before.
Have you seen Boyd since his re
turn from the west?" he asked, alb
ruptly.
NO." said the princess. "He ha,
found other interests since he wen,
west and has dropped the old friends
\ hut can scarcely claim SO much.
y There was an odd little chill in he
voice.
Oh" with breath of relief, I"
ught--I thought"
Me princess threw back her hea,