The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-02-20
CHAPTER w.
AT THE MERTONS'.

1t was a long and wearisome ride.
| There had been a protracted season
of drought, and beyond the city the
| fields lay scorched and sere, while O
white coating of dust covered every
| thing by the roadside. Even the
leaves of the trees, motionless in the
sultry air, seemed burnt and lifeless.
Overhead hung blazing sun. AS
| they plodded forward, the horses be-
ing unable to move faster than
walk, owing to the heavy load, clouds
of dust rose about them. The very
atmosphere was permeated with
floating particles, and the distance
WIS blurred and vague.
For nine miles the road assembled
gradually, part of the time following
the course Of the abandoned Susque-
mango canal, part of the time in close
proximity to the track of the Sus-
wego and Eastern railway. There
was little conversation. Occasionally
one of the young men near the driv-
er's seat was heard to berate the
heat in subdued, hopeless fashion,
and there was rare interchange
of chaff between these same young
men and lone yokel shouting from
farm-yard by the highway. Once
or twice a pugnacious sheperd dog
rushed out and barked at them, but
no one gave heed to the implied chal-
lenge.
It was nearing five o'clock when
they reached the shady park at Hin
tonville. Very familiar this spot
looked to Rossiter, for it was at the
institution situated upon the lofty
hill a mile and half from the pretty
little town that he had spent the
four years of his college life, There
was the church In which he had once
taken part In a prize contest before
an audience made up chiefly of beam
ing and fluttering maidens and their
escorts. How very far away it all
seemed! Quite like another existence.
And he was coming back to the
scene in hop-wagon! 1t was not
much as he had pictured his return
when he had fingered one night in
the moonlight by yonder fountain a
few weeks before his graduation.
He glanced about as they passed
up the residence side Of the park,
thinking he might recognize some of
the townsfolk, for he had known
quite number of the citizens when
he was in college, but there were
few to be seen, and among them
he distinguished no one whose figure
he remembered. Beyond the trees
and the strip of greensward, bag
gage-man was driving at an ambling
gait in the direction of the station,
but 1t was not the eccentric little
Irishman, Barney" who had been
wont to deliver his trunk in the old
days at the top of three flights of
stairs with so many remarkable ex-
pletives. A feeling of disappointment
and loneliness seized upon Rossiter,
a sense of being apart and aloof
from the rest of the world. This
was the one place of all places
where he had felt that there was
sure to be some one to greet him
chesrfully should he ever return, yet
he beheld no one who stood out clear
in his memory. Doubtless there
were those whom he would know and
who might recall him, but they
were not in evidence, and he had ex.
pected that they would be.
Joe Becraft noticed the detection in
his face, and, misunderstanding the
cause of 1t, appealed to his mother
to know if she had not said that
their journeys end was but short
distance beyond Hintonville.
"Well, it amt an awful sight furth.
err" she answered, "but it's mostly
hill"
Mrs. Becraft had been welding g
large, loosely jointed fan energeti
cally for most of the nine miles
they had traversed, and was we'll
nigh in state of collapse. A little
rill of perspiration was making its
way down her rounded face just il
front of each ear. There was ring
of heat about both of her eyes, anc
yet she did not complain"
you look about done up, Ma,
said her elder son, transferring hi.
attention from Rossiter.
She smiled at him resignedly.
II don't knows I'd care to go OF
many more miles like this" she said
Il guess We'll all be glad to ge
there"
Some of the young men were an
xious to pause for drink of beer
but the driver informed them tha
if they did so they would have t.
follow on foot, as he should not wait
! consequently no one Quilted the wa