Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1903-08-01
A Daughter of the West.

ana so on throughout the village.
Otherwise nothing had changed. The
same men, sun-browned and apathetic,
leaned in the same old attitudes against
the sea-wall, the pipes in their mouths
and their caps over their ewes. motion
less, it seemed, all day, save when one
of their number a-ose and crossed over
silently to the principal public house,
whence he emerged some ten minutes
later, wiping his mouth upon his sleeve,
TO resume his former position beside the
wall
As Kathleen walked up the street, fol-
lowed by the station boy with her lug
gage in a small donkey cart, these
phlegmatic ones were sufficiently inter
ested in her to turn themselves about,
facing the road instead of the sea, and
greeting her. for the most part with
grave and stolid faces. by the touching
of peaked cap with a grimy forefnger.
She had nod and smile for them
all, and for her fayorites word or two
as well.
Glad to see you again, Dan. How's
yourself?"
Still here, then, Thady! What luck
at the fishing?"
Back again, you see, Tommy etc,
otc.
Then she turned up the steep road
that led to the farm. the sea breeze lift
ing her hair and cooling her cheeks with
a refreshing touch; already she felt bet
| ter for breath of that Atlantic salt.
Her brother 'Nelius was at the gate to
receive her, Mike being busy in the fields,
and the old man tending his sick wife.
ere lOOLiDrr 1,ipoI,a1 ba "a
What ails YER
"Oh, nothing much,' she answered
him. Only l always feel a bit tired in
/ rights in no time"
Her mother was very i'll, she found;
so i'll, indeed, that there was but little
hope of her recovery.
Kathleen proved herself a most de-
voted and careful nurse, though Carl
Bunsens ailments were almost the only
experience of illness she had had.
The doctor, however, had little to find
fault with, and even suggested hospital
nursing to her as a vocation, but for
that she felt no inclination.
| Despite her care, however, the old lady
sank gradually, and died at last, about
month after her daughters home
coming.
After that, the girl felt obliged to
stay at home for while, to take care
OF her father and brothers.
In the following spring 'Nelius was
to be married. and his Ellen could then
take Kathleen's place.
So she resigned herself to long. duh
winter of baking and washing and but
termaking hard work to her now, after
some years of comparative idleness.
/ However, first of all came the sum-
mer, time of Paradise at Ballinahow
especially after several summers spent
in hot, dusty London; and with the
summer came Maude and her husband
and the baby, to stay at the great white
| house outside Cookstown
| The major was but little changed. only
a tritle older and feebler, and both he
and his son were slaves to the baby
from the first
He's more of an autocrat even than
the fiddlers." the major told his friends
with beaming pride.
I 1t was with a sharp stab of pain that
Kathleen awoke one summers morning
I to remember that this was the date on
! which, seven years ago, she and Denis
( had said good bye to one another-the
/ London meeting did not count. that had
been as strangers, the old Denis was
/ gone forever-and she thought of the
promise she had forced from him that he
would return on that day at the latest
if he needed help, and seek it from her.
But he does not need it, she said to
herself with a little sigh, "and so he
will not come. Besides, after | sent him
away"
But she did not regret that dismissal.
The farm folk always rose with the
lark, and the day was still very young
as Kathleen tripped lightly down the
stairs to the kitchen TO prepare the
mems breakfast of porridge and warm
break and buttermilk
A blue summer haze hung over the
landscape, hiding the sea and the hills.
and giving promise of long hot day.
In the yard outside, cows were being
MIXED and chickens fed; all the hustle
of farm was going on around her. and
yet Kathleen was in a dream, seeming
neither to hear nor see what was taking
place in her immediate vicinity.
When Mary Theresa. the girl who
came in every day to help her. had asked
her three times where had she put the
butter, however. she reused herself with
an effort to attend to her duties
But all day she was quiet and pre-
occupied, though she went about her
work as conscientiously as usual. and
Mary Theresa, romantic maiden Of is,
who had been in service in big house
in the neighborhood, began to suspect a
love affair
That was just the way the cook at
knockloe went on when she was being
'coorted" by the head groom.
The evening came at last, and Kath.
leen breathed a sigh of relief as. the
supper things cleared and Mary Theresa
dismissed for the night, she was free to
leave the men to their pipes and wander
awy by herself
There was no mist tonight. and as
she turned into the boreen she could see
the bay below her all silver in the moon
light, and sparkling as with myriads of
diamonds.
The scene was one of absolute peace
and almost unearthly beauty.
1t was almost too much for the girls
emotional Celtic soul, and the tears