Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1903-11-06

DuJ Sllppeu Ou IOuuu slOuc anu
splashed the water, which was calm
and still just there. The thrasher went
into the thicket like fash and the
girl turned her head just as quickly.
George Schuyler saw a face under
the shadow Of the huge country bon
net that was much more than pretty
and which had in 1t that which men
rightly call character. Georges fish
erman's cap was off in an instant.
Good mornings" are allowable in the
wilderness without the forraality of
an introduction.
Il am just about to stop fishing and
go back to the lodge Of my friend,
Mr.. Payson. Can you tell me if there
is shorter path than the stream it.
self?"
The girl nodded brightly. "Yes,"
she said, "you can take the trail
through the tamaracks. 1t begins just
here" Then the girl turned her at
tention once more to the brown thrash
er, who gave symptoms of being will
iiS W olull SOlO OllCe llOEe.
Schuyler thanked the girl courteous
ly and after reeling in his line started
along the trail indicated. When he
reached his friend James Payson's
lodge the first thing he said was: "Jim,
in the name Of all that's lovely, who
is your sunbonneted neighbor with a
voice like a bubbling spring and eyes
like those of the girls in old Her
rick's poems"
Jim Payson laughed. "You must
have run across old Cheney's daughter.
He has 400 or 500 rocky acres with a
little house on them. Mary is his only
daughter, and he put her through Vas
sar and made quite lady Of her. She
Is beauty and no mistake. Hit you
first time, eh, old man?"
Schuyler colored little and said:
"Well, not exactly hit, Jim. 1 must
not be hit, you know, but the girl is
attractive and no mistake"
That evening Jim Payson asked his
guest If he wouldn't like to go over
and call on old Cheney There was no
hesitancy in falling in with the pro-
posal. They found old Cheney on the
porch smoking his pipe. He was
white-haired old fellow Of the farmer
type, and while he admitted it was
hard wringing crops from the stony
Catskin slope, yet he said he wouldn't
give up his mountainside with its air
and scenery for the best valley land on
the continent. Then George Schuyler
met Mary Cheney. James Payson did
the introducing. Schuyler found his
mountain flower all that he had ex-
pected from the glimpse that he had
caught of its beauty in the morning.
The girl was refinement itself, and as
Schuyler looked at the old fellow
sitting in the porch corner putting
contentedly at his corncob pipe he
wondered how this slip could have
come from such a parent stem.
Well, it's better to make it short.
George Schuyler stayed 4 week and
| then fingered for two moro. He wrote
to New York that he was enjoying the
fishing. So he was for about an hour
every morning. One day he brought
himself up with round turn. He
thought Of his duty to Helen Came
WORT.
He knew in his heart that he loved
this girl of the mountainside who had
voice like one Of the veeries that
sing every day at sunset.
That night he went to Mary Cheney
and told her all. He knew somehow
that the girl had grown to love him
as he had grown to love her. They
stood on the porch looking down onto
the far-off valley. 1t was twilight and
the veeries and the vesper sparrows
were singing everywhere. He told
ner OF his childhood engagement to
Helen Ganzevoort. II have not seen
her since she was II years DID," he
said. "She cares nothing for me: she
cannot. She doesn't even know me.
The whole thing was a bit of parental
foolishness, but nevertheless there is
the question Of my duty. I shall leave
for New York the day after tomorrow.
| will see Helen, and upon what she
says and does depends all. 1 may
have done wrong, Mary, in lingering
here, but l loved you, and let that
fact plead for me-" He left her stand
ing there, just as the last bird voices
of the day were hushed and the whip
poorwill took up his nightly chant.
Two days later George SCHUYLER
stood in Fifth avenue drawing-room
waiting for the coming OF Helen
Ganzevoort. The lights were bright.
On the wall hung a picture Of Helen