Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1902-12-05

Nj everyone in Elkton called her
pottis Do. 5.,. ~ola a, Man" ,1,.s ls0sgn, I,,,
ton. lie came down as a hunter and
trapper in the old days when the terri
tory was as primeval as was his own
Canadian frontier. but when the wild
game was pretty wei hunted out and
the white emigrants and the soldiers
commenced to come he turned freight
er, and later, when the copper camp
started at Goose Creek, he blazed a
stage route thither and founded the
traffic that made him rich-f0r from
tiersman. When Mrs. Lebrun died
Dottie was a chubby. big-eyed elf of
four, and so the women, who were few.
and the men, who had never more
than one tender side in their make-ups
in those harsh days, petted the child
and made life very sweet and radiant
as she grew Now she was twenty,
with the eyes of a doe, so lustrous and
wondering; brown skin peeling a little
from her oval face from the whipping,
sand-spattered winds of the plains. the
form OF a stately woman and the heart
of a yearning child. She had been
Through school," had taught it for a
term and was esteemed as the most
learned inhabitant of Elkton next to
Parson Davies and Squire Beeno," and,
perhaps, Professor Swinton. who was,
however, a newcomer, and therefore
yet on probation.
Professor Swinton "stoppedr at Le-
bruins. He was New Yorker. frank,
boyish, unaffected, gentle and gener-
Gus. He laughed deprecatingly at the
professor" idea, for he was only
@'principal' of the three room school.
and he had that admirable desire to be
called by his given name that is strong
in all young, ingenious natures. His
coming had made quite difference"
with Eulalie and they had come along
so well in their acquaintance that she
now called him mister Maurice" and
he said miss Eulalie." He had told
her many wondrOus things about New
York and the world that lies beyond
apd apart from the sand-girt silences
of her home, OF the splendor and the
folly of the pageantry and the mock
cry. of the canon-like streets. the
glories, the squalor, the resonance and
the emptiness of the life he had left
to grow mp, as he said, with the free
West. Sometimes he told her love
stories, of which she forgot to ask him
How do you know?" and silent and
eager-eyed, like the child in the nursery
at night, she only listened and hoped
that his legends might never come to
an end.
If she had been a wise girl she might
Lave asked more questions. pertinent,
personal, intimate probes as to him
self, and then. being so frank, he might
have told her all and more than she
could have wished to know about
himself. But she was content to know
him as he now was in EIkton. and. so
knowing him, she said he was good to
know and TO see and to hear Some
times. when the sun was gone, they
rode their ponies away into the short
grass. endless plateaus, that dip and
rise above the mesh walls of the little
town, sometimes they galloped through
the narrow trails of the remoter hills,
but always she listened, smiling half
sadly, half raptly. and always he told
his quaint jokes, his true tales of real
fairies and his romances of the Baby
Ions she might never see.
One day he got a fat letter from the
East, and when he had read it. and
laughed over it and held up the check
which it brought, he ran into the hall
way and called for Miss Eulalie. She
had ridden into town, her father said,
s'to trade" Maurice went to the cor
raj and saddled his pony. 1t was Sat
urday, his holiday. He gallOped gaily
down the dusty road shifting the hot
wind and twirling his quirt like a man
with good news He met Eulalie in
the main street, just mounted upon
her old white pony, and waved his
letter at her.
"Aunt Won Werdon is dead. Miss
Eulalie." he said. stopping and look
ing at her merriiy.
ssThat one that gave the tea party
to the cats and kittens? But you're
sorry, amt you, Mr. Maurice?" she
asked. wondering at his levity.
'Yes-and no. You see, she had only
two reasons for hving-cats and me.
She preferred cats. and-then she was
old beyond computation-but / will say
that she did better by me than / had
a right to expect. See? She has left
me $500l / shall have money to burr" /"
And his eyes looked Wistfully up the
heat-scourged street, with its reeking
barrooms. its empty wooden sidewalks
and its. dreary sameness of frame
shanty stores. "Will you wait till I
cash this check, Miss EnlalieY he
added. I'D like to ride home with
you"
She rode into the shade of the town
well and let her pony drink while he
went to the bank. But when he came
back she said: Its train time. Mr..
Maurice" with a pouting little grim
ace); you know love to see the trains
go past The Overland side-tracks
here. and I'd like to look at the people.
Then you might see somebody you
know.
He laughed again at nes. esItldiike
curiosity. and they paced liown The
street toward the station The 0ver-
land whistled as they rode irto stta
space BY the depot and down BY the
side-track Where the red water tank