The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-12
The Step ,nother
BY KATE cLEARY.

pealing.
The young fellow standing in the
doorway shifted his position impa-
tiently. He was 30 tall and brawny.
ears of labor on the farm had de-
veloped his limbs and toughened his
muscles. Later in life he would be
stopped and shambling, as are those
who follow the pillow and guide the
harrow after the days of youthful
manhood have passed. Now he was
straight and stately, and the colossal
symmetry Of his frame was good to
look upon. His cotton shirt, falling.
loose at the neck, revealed triangle
of sunburnt skin. His low-browed
strong featured face was coppered
also. The jaw was heavy-the chin
square. The blue eyes he turned on
the woman had the sullenness of one
VINO expects opposition.
Yes, I'm a-gOin'.
I'm the new buggy"
He nodded. There was q silence
which she waited wistfully for him to
break. AS he said nothing, she picked
up the sewing which lay in her lap.
Il was hoping 1 could get to GO
she said, speaking in the plaintive
monotone produced by colorless years
of self-represSion and Self-denial. I've
been every time whea l could take
or leave the children. It's year since
I've been to town. Her needle was
suspended. She looked afar over the
boundless expanse of prairie with
weary eyes. My father and brother
are buried in the hill there. Little
Iiuby-shes there, too. She died when
she wasn't but eight. She was the
greatest child for flowers! The weeds
even were flowers to her. L guess
she'd know if there were some put on
her grave"
Again there was silence, she sending
l.,
ing out where an ocean of oats tossed
turbulently in the giaring sunshine.
There's SO many folks in town. It's
sociable like. There hasn't been
soul to this house since Christmas.
Then it was only some campers whose
wagon broke down. But it seemed
good to see them. even."
Look here, mother he broke out.
81 Know you amt got much pleasure.
I'd ike you could fix to go. But as
for me drvin' you in-Well, l promls-
ed to take Chastina Marks"
She said nothing, but the look that
quivered out on her face made him
set his teeth hard for an instant. Then,
with q scarlet blotch burning on eth
er thin cheek, she took up her sewing
again, and went on stitching-stitch-
ing.
The home of the Carneys was a
forlorn place. There was no timber in
that region. The small. shabby house
perchedsupon the bluff was exposed
To the BITTER winds of winter and to
the almost more malignant furnace
blasts of summer. 1t was nineteen
wears since Oliver Carney had mar
ried for the second time. Then he and
his two sturdy boys had sadly needed
the ministrations of woman. The
girl he married was young and ro-
mantle She pitied him. She mistook
,icit tbytf
passion itself. When he traded his
business in the East for rocky Me-
braska farm and went to live where
his lack of experience and the capri
cious climatic conditions together con-
spired against him, the outcome was
dependency and futile regret. He
not only failed to do one thing we'll;
he succeeded in doing many things
i'll. He credited Fate with peculiar
perversity toward himself--wfth an
almost personal antagonism. Dyspep-
sia,, that grim demon evoked by farm
house viands, became constant tor
ment Insomnia duly followed. Pes
simism, the prompt handmade of these
waited upon them. So he became
gloomy and unreasonable, except when
his depression was temporarily merged
i'm the rnaudlin amiability of liquor.
1t was upon the woman, however
that the burdens of failure pressed
most heavily. She had been brave
and gallant young creature, but the
cowardice and Sinking selfishness OF
the man she married ate into the core
of her being like an acid.
None knew better than she that
work from long before light on win
ter morns and from the first streak
of pearl in summer skies, was hard
She knew that poverty was a rabid
a relentless thing. She knew that il
made petty those who would be great
and generous; that it fettered hands
which would fain be extended in royal
generosity; that none might scale its
ramparts which barred out possible
ambitions-pleasure But These
she accepted--the poverty and the
toll. At the melancholy of inertia sur
rounding her she rebelled. She dread
ed it's conta gion. She refused to have
her heritage of hope Wrested from her.
She would not live in an atmosphere
of Gayless foreboding. She denied the
right of one man to condemn her to
profound and enduring discomfort.
She was not one of those who sue
Cumb to adversely willingly. So she
made a hard fight. Occasionally she
Conquered-less frequently as the
years went by. The struggle told on
her. She lost expectancy of expression
and elasticity of step. Child bearing
and collaborating were part of her
handicapped existence.
Now a fresh fear had arisen. What
if Dan were to marry-Dan, upon
whom they all depended, rather than
upon the moping, misanthropic faith
er!
DAN" Her voice sounded strange
to herself, and she waited until she
could speak as usual. Dan, what
would we all do without your"
She had been a school teacher in
her youth, and she spoke with a cor
rectness and a precision which, al
though marred by occasional idioms,
still distinguished her speech from the
lngual slovenlness of the Western
farm woman.
''Oh, 1 guess you'd git along!" A
dull slow color had crept into his
face. Its goin' to be a good year.
Dick could take my place"
Dick-take-his place! He was
thinking, then-he was going to-
We've can't depend on Dick"
she murmured. A vision of Dick rose
before her-gay, pleasure-loving, in
considerate Dick! She smiled sad
smile. II didn't think Chastina was