The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1902-03-04
CHAPTER X
DREAMS AND A

He was on the train at last hOmeward
bound. Gazing out of the window of the
car he was trying. to find where he stood.
He must be in love. He faced the remark
able fact that he had spent a whole
week in Independence at an expensive
hotel. and squandered every cent Of the
small fee he had received for his address
il what would be otherwise a perfectly
SenSeleSs manne
Yet he felt rich. He was sure he had
never spent money so wisely and econom-
ically in his llf~e-desperately and hope
lessly committed to this one girl for life!
He said it in his heart with a shout of
triumph. Life was not a sterile desert of
brute work True-love the magician OF
the ages, lived in this world of lost faiths
and dead religions!
Now that he was leaving he felt a ting
ling impulse to leap off the train, cut
across the fields and run back to her
5nd he laughed aloud just as the train
came to a sudden stop, and everybody
looked at him and smiled.
A drummer looked up from a novel he
was reading and said:
It's a fine day, partner, isn't it?'
Never saw a finer" answered CASTOR
with another laugh.
ne uWt1l IOHS Ii 81 CtdIAy I'LL thC Noh-
| seriousness of this new vitalizing secret
he felt for the first time throbbing in
his soul. He bathed his heart in it's
warmth until ne could feel the red blood
| rush to the ends of his fingers with its
| new fever. He breathed it's perfume until
every nerve quivered.
God in Heaven" he said slowly and
reverently. Il have never lived before
No matter now if | die, | have lived!"
He had never spoken a word of shallow
love-making to a woman in his life. To
him love was too holy a mystery. 1t
would have been the blasphemy of the
Holy Ghost-a sin that would not be for
given in this world or the world to come.
His college mates had called him a crank
en- this subject. But he shut his lips in
a way that always closed the argument,
and they let him alone with his idol.
Il an afraid yet to put it to the test.'
he said at last. Il must have time to re-
veal my best self to her. | must see her
again. live close to her day by day, and
bring to bear on her every power or BODY
and scul I possess
And he resolved to bend every energy
to the winning of this beautiful woman
Mrs. Durham met him with dancing
eyes. 'Oh, I've heard from you, sir"
hlSS me, oNhNAS civ
the last stages Of delirium!"
He took her hands both in his and
looked at her long. How good you've
been to me, auntie, in the past. You
never looked so beautiful as today. |
want to thank you for every word you've
said to Miss SaIlie for me. It may have
helped just a little, anyway
We'll, you are in the last stages.' she
exclaimed gleefully.
"And you are glad of it,"
"Of course l am, it will make a man OF
you"
But suppose / lose?'
She was silent a moment and then
slipped her arm gently about him, drew
down his ear and whispered:
'You shall not lose-Ive set my heart
on it."
He pressed her hands and said, How
like my sweet mothers voice was that
He hurried to his office and read his
mail. There were two letters retaining
his services FOR jury work in important
cases. His heart leaped at the sign of
coming success. What a new meaning
love gave to every event in life.
He turned to his books and began I'm
mediately a searching study of every
question involved in these cases. He
would carry the court by storm. He
would lead the jury spellbound by his
elouuence to a certain verdict How
clear his brain, He felt he was alive to
his fnger-tips, and argue-eyed.
He worked hour after hour without the
slightest fatigue or knowledge of the
flight of time. He looked up at last with
surprise to find it was night, and was