Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-05-21
00 oMEwARD through the murk

00 OMEWARD through the murk
J6l and gloom of a November even
~ ing, through the dank night air
and gathering fog, along greasy pave
ments and over slippery crossings,
across the great bridge, with the yawn-
ing darkness on either side and down |
the mean streets Of Southern London,
YEARLY but steadily Mary MacAllis-
ter bent her way.
Three years of hard work Is typist |
In a city office, three years of lonely
struggle with fortune, had robbed
Mary's cheek of the bloom it boosted
when she was nineteen, but still she
strobe on her way, morning and even
ing, backward and forward, to and
from the city, where her work lay,
a brave, earnest-minded, steady-eyed
woman, a typical figure of London's
women workers.
Sometimes there would be suspi-
cion of moisture in the big gray eyes
when work was more than usually
trksome or employers more than usual
iy irate and unreasonable.
Sometimes for moment her mind
stray lIOIu llc udi NiOSC OhAN~
to the glorious fields and hedgerows
which from babyhood she had looked
upon as hers in time to come. Now
and again as she ate her solitary meal
in her poor little room in the shabby
house in a third-rate street just be-
yond 1.-The Elephant" the memory OF
the plenty In the old days brought
shadow for q moment, and then the
memory of Dick-her Dick-would
chase the little cloud away. If Dick
could be brave and go away to Africa
to win q fortune for her she would be
brave. too. Dick had faced the crash
which four years ago had ruined alike
his father and hers, quietly and I'M
complainingly. She had refused his
offer to release her from her engage
ment to him, and with mutual pro-
testations of love and fidelity they had
parted-he to seek wealth across the
seas, she to earn her living as best
she could in the great world OF Lon
don.
MANY q letter from Dick lay care
fully folded in her little workbox, let
tiers which she had read again and
again when the struggle was hard and
her heart grew faint They told OF
progress, slow but sure, until eighteen
months before, when the black cloud
of war lowered, and ruin had for the
second time in his young life stopped
at Dick Herrick's door.
With the first clash Of arms his EN-
ployment ceased, the land he had In
vested his savings in was seized by
the Beers, while he himself was com
Wandered and imprisoned as the re
suit of his refusing to fight agalns
his own countrymen. Since then
since she had lived at her present al
dress-no news had come to enlight
on her sorrow, to relieve her anxiety.
On her doorstep she met her land
lady. Mrs. Bird, who had been shop
ping around the corner Mrs. Bir'
was well meaning, but rather massive
and sometimes more than aggressive
"You are late this evening"" Mrs
Bird asserted tartly.
"Yes-I-I-am. rather" nervousl,
responded Mary; 81 was a little be
hind at the OIuce, dHu L 'O ""'~N
"Walked, a night like thisl Thel
you'd no business. S'pose you caugh
cold and got laid up?"
1.-The buses were full and /
couldn't afford a cab, you know,
Mary answered, smiling gently.
mo, in course, though you Nigh
do that a night like this if you didn
go saddlin' yourself with that foreig
fiddler man upstairs"
Mrs. Bird closed the door with a
angry little bang as she followed Mar
into the passage.
"Oh, hush, please, Mrs. Bird; thin
how i'll the poor fellow has been
"Ill-course he has, and you, wit
all you can do to keep yourself, mu
go and look after him. Nonsense, that
what 1 call It'll What do we pay rat,
for, and keep up that there place roun
the corner for, If it amt for such
MANI"
"But, you don't understand, Mr.
Bird; he is not a common man;
is an artist and a gentleman. 1t wou