The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-11-27

months before. Absence and abstinence
had awakened those old loves and
longings which over-indulgence had
turned to disgust. She began watching
eagerly for familiar objects. The sight
of the stations as she reared home
made her heart leap; patches of wood
Ian which had been growing ever
since she could remember rushed past
her like old friends. She felt like one
drowning, filled to ecstacy with visions
OF the past. 1t seemed to her that she
could not wait, that she must go faster,
faster, that she must leap from the
train. She longed so for her father
and mother and David and every little
detail of her home hat it was like an
agony of hunger and thirst.
When she got off at the familiar sta
ton she reeled. She thought at first
that she could not walk. They had set
her trunk on the platform, the station
master was at upp and there was
no team there. She thought with a sob
in her throat of her father's old white
horse and covered wagon, and then set
out almost at a run. Her way lay be-
tween woods. 1t was late afternoon,
with the western sky cold with violet
and gold. The branches of the trees
were rafting in a northwest wind. AS
she hurried on an awful feeling of
doubt and homelessness came upon her.
How angry were they? How deep a
gage had the love of her parents?
What might they not suspect? She
thought of Jack Bascom and rag shot
through her like a lance-rage and
shame. She felt a great contempt for
herself and her weakness. What would
David say? He might ave taken up
with some other girl. Well, let him, sc
long as she had father and mother and
her home.
The hunger and thirst for her home
and the old familiar things depend
until she was in an agony. She ran
faster.
She began TO reflect how it was the
day before Thanksgiving, how she had
written only two weeks before that she
could not be home for it. 1t surprised
her now that she could ever nave been
so heartlesS as TO hay felt that she did
not care to see her parents. She
thought of the days of preparation, Of
her mother busy with pies and pre-
serves and sWeetmeats. She thought of
the great turkey gobbler that was to
have been sacrificed for the occasion;
how her father had talked about him
for months.
Then she came in sight of the red
roofs of the old place, and from the
oDSil IN ledI w she liedlu d lnIodly
note of rage. Turning she discovered
the gobbler, and in another instant he
was charging toward her. Jessica wore
a red dreSs-a cheaply stylish suit she
bought at a bargain sale in the city
and it aroused the great birds ire. He
advanced upon her, ruffiing with fury.
At first she did not think of fear, she,
a country girl who had been used to
fa1tharoI 6rarnioI n II har 1jFp Int final
ly she became alarmed. She fed from
side to side, but her adversary had the
advantage of wings as well as feet, and
Jessica's feet trembled. She cried out
to him with no effect; that flutter Of
red before his eyes seemed to make q
maniac Of him. There was not a soul
in sight. She kept her hands up ready
to defend her face and eyes. Her heart
began to fail her. An feeling
came over her. 1t was as if this great
bird represented the spirit Of her dear
old home which she had despiSed n
forsaken. He was the sentinel to warn
her off from her paradise which she had
scorned and loved too late. The tur-
key gobbler came faster II faster,
with s;dewise rushes, and his wings
famed her. 1t was then that she
thought she heard the sound of wheels.
Somebody was coming. In her desper-
alton she called out just as David Lap
ham came into sight around the turn
of theroad with his OK team. He look
in the situation at a glance, for he
leaped down from his high perch on the
load of wood, whip in hand, and that
was the end of the comic tragedy Of
Jessica's homecoming.
When David Lapham, leaving his
oxen standing in the road, escorted JeS-
sica safely to her door, he was laugh
ing, although his face was white. The
big gobbler scared her." he said, in ex-
PLANTATION of her trembling.
Jessica's mother, who was rolling pies
at the kitchen table, was started at the
sight of her, and came forward with the
tears rolling down her cheeks. She
looked at her as if she could devour her,
but h did not embrace her. $50 you
thought you'd come after ALL" she said.
Yes" replied J%essica, still feeling un-
certain as to how she was to be re-
ceived.
Jessica's father came in from the
barn, and the girl hardly knew him
for the light in his face. He even
laughed when David repeated the tale
of the turkey gobbler. Thought we
wouldn't kill him as long as she wasn't
comm" he said. Didn't need such a
big one just for two people. But now.
And mebbe YOU. David
II won't have him killed." cried Jes-
sica. "He-he treated me as I deserved
for staying away sc long. I deserved
just such a welcome. I won't have
him killed."
Jessica broke down and began to cry.
h had cried very seldom in her whole
life.
Her father hesitated. He was not a
demonstrative man and did not quite
know how to meet tears from a woman.
Then he came close to her and pulled
off her cheap hat n smoothed her
hair. Don't you fret; he sha'nt be
killed." he said. There's another one
most as big, and every bit as ugly, con-
found his picture!!"
Jessica's mother said nothing, but she
went into the pantry to get some little
t~urnovers that Jessica used to be fond
OF, n wiped the tears away angrily
with her apron.
B you goin' back, Jessica?" asked
David Lapham. who was standing by
the kitchen stove, whip in hand, and
whose face now and then broke into a
smile, though it was still white and