The suburban citizen., 1902-10-18
THE OVERLAND
EASTBOUND
Err name was Eulalie, but
everyone in Elkton called her
Dottie. "Old Man" Lebrun,

ton. He came down as 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 well 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 thlther and founded the
traffic that made him rich-for a from
tiersman. When Mrs. Lebrun died
Dottie was n 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 Iustrous 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 n
term and was esteemed as the most
learned inhabltant 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 stopped at Le-
bruins. He was a 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 a difference
with Bulalie, and they had come along
50 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
and 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 up, as he said, with the free
West. Sometimes he told her love
stories, of which she forgot to ask hin
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 tC
an end.
If she had been wise girl she NIGH
have asked more questions, pertinent
personal, intimate probes as to him
self, and then, being so frank, he nigh
have told her all and more than she
could have wished to know about
himself. But We was content TO know
him as he now was in Elkton, and, Sc
knowing him, she said he was good t.
know and TO see and to hear. Some
times, when the sun was gone, they
rode their ponies away into the shor
grass, endless plateaus, that dip anC
rise above the mesa walls of the littl,
town, sometimes they galloped through
the narrow trails of the Temoter hills
but always she listened, smiling hal
sadly, half raptly, and always he tolC
his quaint jokes, his true tales of rea
fairies and his romances Of the Baby
Ions she might never see.
One day he got a fat letter from thu
East, and when he had read it, an(
laughed over it and held up the checl
which 1t brought, he ran into the hall
way and called for Miss Eulalie. Sht
had ridden into town, her father said
''to trade" Maurice went to the cor
raj and saddled his pony. 1t was Sat
urday, his holiday. He galloped gail!
down the dusty road, shifting the no
wind and twlrllng his qurt like maj
with good news. He met Eulalie II
the main street, just mounted upol
her old white pony and waved hi
letter at her
AUNT Won Werdon is dead. Mis-
Eulalie," he said, stopping and look
ing at her merrily.
'That one that gave the tea part!
to the cats and kittens? But yOu'r
sorry, amt you, Mr.. MauriceT' sh
asked, wondering at his leyity.
"Yes-and no. You see, she had onl,
two reasons for liying-cats and me
She preferred cats, and-then she wa
old beyond computation-but / will sa.
that she did better by me than ha,
right to expect. See? She has lef
me $500! / shall have money to burn
And his eyes looked wistfully up tn
heat-scourged street, with its reekin
barrooms, its empty wooden sidewalk
and Its dreary sameness of fran
shanty stores. "Wnl you wait till
cash this check, Miss EulallcT h
added, 'I'd like to ride home wit
you"
She rode into the shade Of the tow
well and let her pony drink while h
went TO the bank. But when he cam