The Hope pioneer. [volume] (Hope, N.D.) 1882-1964, 1903-03-26

seemed to be in his shack, for neither
wife, mother o child appeared
around his home. Daily he had toiled
in the fields all summer, returning
to his rude home at night to prepare
his own supper, and smoke quietly
and solidarity near the door of his
shack until the moon was darkened
by the blood-red horizon. Dorothy
had watched these orderly proceed
ings from her quiet retreat, often
wondering at the mans lonely life,
and in her tender heart half plying
him.
He was young and not hard-looll-
ing, as she remembered him on that
eventful day when she had interposed
to save both from a possible tragedy.
But after all it had been a feeting
glimpse of the flushed face and eyes
burning with anger and determine
ton. Those were exciting days when
man forgot his thin veneer of civili-
cation and displayed his savage ORR
gin. The wild rush across the prom
Used line, the fights and struggles to
gain possession of the best quarter
sections, the fear and lamentations
of those who had failed, and the aw-
full intensity of the calm which pre-
vailed days and weeks before the fl
nal word was given to throw open the
land to the eager public-all these
pictures were burned on Dorothy's
brain so that they seemed like some
horrible nightmare. How different it
all had been from the quiet New En-
gland village where she had been
reared!
"Why could she not have lived there
forever? What right had her father
to tear her from her home, root and
branch, and plunge her into this wild,
lawless caldron of unrest and bitter
striving?"
Dorothy brushed back a rebellious
tear and turned away from the front
of the shack. She had never given
expression to such parental rebellion
before, and she half shuddered at it.
By way of apology, she added in an
undertone: poor father! He suffers,
too. He has been disappointed and it
is making him old. Why did that man
want to come here?"
She looked bitterly across the "dead
line" Henry Egerton had just
emerged from his shack, and stood,
with hands shading his eyes, watching
her. Nearby she could see his gun
leaning against the side of-the shack.
HE must be bad, OF he would offer
to compromise" Dorothy continued.
"He is young and able, and father is
old and feeble. He might move on
and"
She suddenly dropped her voice to
an indistinct murmur, for an appari-
ton appeared in the doorway of the
shack which made her excited. She
shaded her eyes and looked more
keenly. 1t was a small, toddling child,
scarcely two summers old, holding
uncertainty to the side of the door,
way, and cooling at the big ball of fire
slowly disappearing below the hori-
zon The man raised his hands and the
child ran to him and jumped into his
arms.
"He is married, then, and has a
family" Dorothy breathed. "Maybe
I have misjudged him. Has the child
a mother, or -"
Again her sentence died out in an
indistinct murmur, but the sun had
set and the twilight was rapidly
spreading over the landscape. Doro'
thy saw another form, bent of figure
and white of hair, walking across the
field, and after waving a hand of wei
come to him she turned to her work
inside.
There was seldom any mention OF
their neighbours affairs between
father and daughter, and tonight
Dorothy merely told of the presence
of the baby on the opposite side OF
the dead line" and then subsidized
Jared Wellington raised his shaggy
eyebrows and grunted:
"Then he's married? He'll bring his
wife next, I suppose. Maybe he has
heard that the courts"
A horrible suspicion entered the
minds Of both. Had the courts decid.
ed respecting their claims, and hao
Henry Egerton heard that he was the
sole and legal possessor of the quar-.
ter section? Otherwise, why had he
brought his family out to this lonely
home when he had lived without
them for three months?
Jared Wellington felt the heavy op.
preston Of disappointment, and his
white head dropped lower and lower
as the evening advanced. Dorothy
tried to cheer him, but in vain. Final
ly, she decided to present the matter
clearly to her aged parent and show
him that all would not be lost ever
if the courts decided against them.
"What of it, father?" she said
cheerfully. "We can go back east
and live. I will enjoy life more thar
out here. I can't stand this much
longer. I must have companions ano
neighbors."
"No, no, Dorothy, it can never be-
he murmured.. 81 shall see the
east again. If it is true that-that-
he owns it" pointing dramatically
toward his enemy's shack-'it will
kill me. I cannot survive it,"
The tears blinded the blue eyes Of
the woman, and she turned away tx
hide them. cit may not be, father
she murmured, in a thick voice.
But whether true or not, Jared
WELLINGTON took to his he'd and or