Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1903-02-17
CHAPTER Nv.
AT THE MERToNs,.

CHAPTER w.
AT THE MERToNs'.
| 1t was long and wearisome ride.
There had been protracted season
OF drought, and beyond the city the
| fields lay scorched and sere, while a
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 a blazing sun. AS
they plodded forward, the horses be-
| ing unable to move faster than a
walk, owing to the heavy load, clouds
of dust rose about them. The very
atmosphere was permeated with
floating particles, and the distance
was 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 yollel shouting from
a farm-yard by the highway Once
or twice pugnacious sheperd dog
rushed out and parked at them, but
no one gave heed to the implied chal-
lenge.
1t 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 Il 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 prize contest before
an audience made up chiefly of beam
ing and fiuttering 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! It 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 townsfol1, 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 it 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 cN-
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
cheerfully 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 it, appealed to his mother
to know 'if she had not said that
their journeys end was but short
| distance beyond Hintonville.
swell, it amt an awful sight furth-
err" she answered, "but it's mostly
hill"
Mrs. Becraft had been welding a
large, loosely jointed fan energeti-
cally for most of the nine miles
they had traversed, and was well
nigh In state of collapse. A little
rill of perspiration was making its
way down her rounded face just in
front of each ear. There was ring
of heat about both of her eyes, and
yet she did not complain"
"Yon look about done up, Ma
said her elder son, transferring his
attention from Rossiter.
She smiled at him resignedly.
II don't knows I'd care to go On
many more miles like this" she said
II guess We'll all be glad to get
there
Some of the young men were an.
Aious to pause for drink of beer
but the driver informed them that
if they did SO they would have tic
follow on foot, as he should not wait
consequently no one quilted the wa.
gon. AS they left IIintonyille behind
the ground began to rise in long
slope, for instead of pursuing theil
way along the valley in which the
town nestled they bore to the lief,
towards lofty range of hills. The
sun was slowly westering, and be
You'd the brooding vale where the
winding Oskenonto flowed, on toe
crown of the first abrupt rise RIOS
sitter saw the 'slanting rays lindle te
golden fire the spire and vane of the
old college chapel. At the sight OF
the shifting wind-indicator one of his
student pranks flashed into his mind
q thing that had dropped from hi:
memory for years-how in the lazy
spring afternoons he used to place ;
chair in the deep window of his bed
room and, having lowered the upper