Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1903-10-14

go Dack 10 tue rouge OA 1uy IASAu,
Mr.. Payson. Can you tell me If there
is a shorter path than the stream it.
self?"
The girl nodded brightly. eyes,"
she said, you can take the trail
through the tamaracks. It begins just
here" Then the girl turned her at
tention once more to the brown thrash
er, who gave symptoms Of being will
ing to start his solo once more.
Schuyler thanked the girl courteous
~ and after Keeling 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 poemsW
Jim Payson laughed. ''You must
have run across old Cheney's daughter.
He has 400 or 500 rocky acres with
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 manT'
Schuyler colored q little and said:
"Well, not exactly hit, Jim. I 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
type, and while he admitted it was
hard wringing crops from the stony
Catskill slope, yet he said he wouldn't
give up his mountainside with it's 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 it's 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 1t short,
George Schuyler stayed a week and
then fingered for two more. 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 a round turn. He
thought Of bis duty to Helen CAME
WORT.
He knew IN his heart that BE 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. It 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 bit of parental
foolishness, but nevertheless there Is
the question Of my duty. shall leave
for New York the day after tomorrow.
will see Helen, and upon what she
says, and does depends all. I may
have done wrong Mary, in lingering
here, but loved you, and let that
fact plead for me-" He left her stand
of the day were hushed and the whip
poorwill took up his nightly chant
Two days later George Schuyler
stood in Fifth avenue ORA wing-room
waiting for the coming Of Helen
Ganzevoort. The lights were bright.
On the wall hung picture of Helen
as he had last known her nine years
before as a child. The eyes seemed
to look at him reproachfully.
There was light step behind him.
He tuned quickly. For moment
he fit frozen, then the blood went
through him like torrent. IN front
OF him Il evening dress stood the girl
whom but 48 hours before he had left
on the mountainside. MARY" he said.
Something like smile came into the
girls face. "Not Mary, George" she
said, "but Helen" George Schuyler's
mind was befogged. II don't under
stand" he stammered.
cts easily understood, George" she
laughed. "You didn't suppose for a
moment, did you, that I wished to
marry a man I never had seen and
who l knew was to marry me from
sheer force Of duty? Your mother
told ne you were going to stop at the
Beaverkill to fish, and Mr.. Payson,
who Is en- old family friend, and Giles,
who is an old family servant, and who,
by the way, made a good farmer, did