Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1904-03-17
CHAPTER ~.
The Prayer of Enoch Flame.


While poor Grace Yarwood lay fight
ing that grim battle with King Death.
her father dreamed his dreams ami
was glad. perhaps. that the opium
fumes in his muddled brain enabled
him to forget. There was such a lot
to forget-so many years he would
nave been s.aa tn wipe of the slate
of life altogether.
The girl who lay dying had never
known any other companion but her
father. Her mothers marriage had
been a runaway one-the mad fasci.
nation of an hour, to be repented and
wept over for a year or two. In those
some man-with the road stretching
out firm and straight before him now
he was at the far end Of il, and al! the
past lay in shadows behind him.
The Grace Yarwood who was dead
the mother of the Grace Yarwood who
was dying-had given up the struggle
when her child avs a year old. Her
marriage had cut her off from her own
family, and she had only her husband
to depend upon. and he was a broken
reed at best. After her mothers
death the child had wandered about
| from one country to another with her
father, living in some precaurious
fashion and seeing much of a shady.
down-at-heels kind OF life. Wherever
men flocked in the hope to get money
with little or no exertion, Mr.. David
Yareood was to be found-whether in
gambling rooms or in a new rush for
gold. He had led forlorn hopes over
and over again, sinking lower Win
each new venture.
Grace was a woman grown by the
time they came to that mushroom-like
town in Nevada. She was the one
woman in the place, but she vas used
to that, and thought there was moth.
ing strange in it. She had long ago
heard. with a curious sort of sorrow
full pride. OF the great place in England
from which her mother had fed; she
thought Of 1t ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
about it. in the squalid surroundings OF
the place in which she lived. 1t was
only to be a precious dream, after all
yet 1t was something she could hug
to herself on lonely. ~sleepless nights
and in the midst of coarse scenes by
day. She loved her father and pitiet
his weaknesses; yet he was good u
think that her mother had been some
thing greater. and had stopped to thiI
man for loves sake. So far as he
father was concerned, she could a.
ways excuse that awful habit Of hi
because he had dared SO much, an
failed so spiendidly as she thought
he had not been like other men VIII
dwelt in cities and In safety. II no.
he tried to purchase forg~etfulness q
q bitter price, she was not the one I
blame him. Like her mother befor
her, all that he did was right in he
eyes.
:. She had even seen the paper tn;
told of what she was and what he
mother had been; had looked wit
pride at old photographs and old min
atures, and had dreamed new dream
about the story that could never co
Germ her. Then there came one nigl
when her father had shown her an ol
newspaper that some man had give
him down In the little ruined tow
the night when he would have bee
content. to take the ESQ reward, IL h
could have got it, and asked nothin
more. Following that had come a lie
ter from faroff England, a letter tn
asked for her and put fortune with
her grasp. And heaven knows SON
fortune was needed then. for the
! were in desperate straits. The
seemed to be no prospect OF gettir
away from the place that held theI
mo- chance to make q fresh start an
whore. The poor old creature, wi
i had nev changed In her constal
3 eyes. babbled only of what he mig
8 do to get his dreams II he had . lit
q money; the girl thought Of that Il
d tune In far-away England and beat b
d breast fierceiy against the bars Of d
cage that held her.
" That was the beginning Of the few
10 --that, q van OF good 1000 O.
% some hope In life; for hope IL . We
Id necessary food when one IL young. F
" the frat time she gave up: for the fl
! time 4. al s:>sc =
made since her childhood she look
AZ round on the Wilderness into Will
81 she had been brought and gave "
id to despair.
There was no one to trouble W
lis much in that place; others we're dyii
be too--principally because there v
Oh nothing sery much to live for. T
i'd doctor-a vastrel. like every one q
I'd ~there-looked upon her case a. Qu
he Of the ordinary type, and Wa sol
on enoueh to say pretty accurately VII
~ would de: that VA All. Z
1pgo III hair and bewalIed
~. and then dew for con