The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1903-12-23
cushion Of air under them.

The girls manifested increasing in
terest in what they called the Pigeon
Roost settlement affair. Nine Ursule
had no doubt told them what I said.
They pitied my cloud mother and me
with the condcscending pity Of the
very young. and unguardcdly talked
where they could be heard.
"Oh, she'll come to her senses some
time, and he'll marry her, Of course"
was the conclusion they invariably
reached; for the thing must turn out
we'll to meet their approval. How
could they foresee what was to hap
pen to people whose lives held such
contrasts?
Father Pierre says he's nearly
twenty eight; call him an old bache-
lor," declared Katarina; "and she was
married woman. They are really
very Old to be in love"
You don't know what you'll do
when you arc DID, said Marie.
"Ah, l dread It," groancd IZatarina.
$50 do l."
"But there is grandmother. She
doesn't mind it. And beaus never
trouble her now"
"No," sighed the other. "Beaus
never trouble her now"
Those spring days I was wild with
restlessness. Life revived to dare
things. We heard afterward that about
that time the meteor rushed once more
across France. Napoleon landed at a
Mediterranean port, gathering force as
he marched, swept Louis XVIII. away
like a cobweb in his path and moved
on to Waterloo. The greatest French
man that ever lived fell ultimately as
low rs st. Helena, and the Bourbons
sat again upon the throne. But the
changes Of which I knew nothing af-
fected me in the Illinois territory
Sometimes walked at night and sat
up in bed, hot with indignation at the
injustice done me, which could never
prove, which I did not care to combat,
yet which unreasonably walked the
fighting spirit in me. Our natures toss
and change, expand or contract, In
fuenced by invisible powers we know
not why.
One April night sat up in the yelled
light made by q clouded moon. Rain
points multiplied themselves on the
window glass; heard their sting. The
impulse to 60 out and ride the wind,
or pick the river up and empty 1t all
at once into the bay, or tear Eagle out
Of the cloud, or 80 to Franco and pro-
claim myself, with myself for follower,
and other feats Of like nature being
particularly strong In me, / struck the
pillow beside me with my fist. Some
thing bounced from it on the floor with
q clack like wood. I stretched down.
ward from one Of Nine. Crsulc's thick
feather beds and picked up what
brought me to my feet Without let
ting 20 Of it I lighted my candle. 1t
was the padiocked book which Skene-
donk said he had burned.
And there the scoundrel lay Mt the
other side Of the room wrapped in his
blanket from head to foot, mummied
By sleep. wanted to take him by the
scalp lock and drag him around on the
floor.
He had carried 1t With him or Sc
creted it somewhere month after
month. I could imagine how the state
Of the writer worked on his Indian
mind re renantcd md was not able
to face me, but felt obliged to restore
what he had withheld. So, waiting un-
I'll slept, he brought forth the pad
locked book and laid 1t on the pillow
beside my head, thus beseeching par
don and intimating that the subject
was closed between US.
I got my key, and then fit Of shiv-
ering seized me- put the candle stand
beside the pillow and lay wrapped in
bedding, clinching the small, chilly
paddock and sharp cornered boards.
Remembering the change which mad
come upon the life recorded in it, !
hesitated. Remembering how 1t had
eluded ME before, opened 1t.
The few entries were made without
date. The first pages were torn out,
crumpled and smoothed and pasted to
nIace again. Rose petals and violets
and some bright poppy leaves, crushed
inside its lids, sid down upon the bed
cover.
[To BE CONTINUED.