The San Francisco call., 1904-08-14

~ GENERATION ago wagon COf-
cred with white canvas turned
TO the right on the California
road and took a northerly course
toward a prairie stream that nestled
just under a long, low bluff. When the
white pilgrim. 3olting over the rough.
unbroken ground through the tall blue
stem" grass, reached a broad bend in
the stream IL stopped. man and a
woman emerged from under the canvas
and stood for a moment facing the
Wild, green meadow and the distant
hills The man was young, 1.-the and
graceful, but despite his boyish figure
the woman felt his unconscious
strength as he put his arm about her
waist She was aglow with health; her
hne. strong. intelligent eyes burned
with hope, and her firm Jaw was good
to behold. They stood gazing at the
virgin neld a moment in silence. There
were tears in the woman's eyes as she
looked Up after the kiss and said:
And this is the end Of our wedding
journey; and-and-the honeymoon
the only one we can ever have in all
the worlds over"
The horses. moving uneasily in their
swesty harness, cut short the mans re-
q. ply. When he returned his wife was
getting the cooking utensils from un-
der the wagon. and life-stern. trou-
blous-had begun for them
It was thus that young Colonel Will
liam Hucks brought his wife 10 Kan
sas
They were young, strong. hearty peo-
pie. and they conquered the wilderness.
A home sDrang up in the elbow of the
stream. In the fall long rows Of corn
shocks trailed what had been the mead
ow. In the summer the field stood
horse-high with corn. From the bluff,
as the years few by, the spectator
might see the checkerboard Of the farm,
clean cut, well kept, smiling in the sun.
Little children frolicked in the king
row and hurried TO school down the
green lines Of the lanes where the
hedges grow.
There were years when the light in
the kitchen burnedsfar into the night,
when two heads bent over the table,
figuring 10 make ends meet. In these
years the girlish figure became bent
and the light faded in the woman's
eyes, while the 1.-THE figure Of the man
was gnarled by the rigors Of the strug-
gle. There were days-not years,
thank God-when lips forgot their
tenderness; and. as fate tugged fierce
ly at the curbed bit, there were times
when souls rebelled and cried out in
bitterness and despair at the rough
ness OF the path.
In this wise went Colonel William
Hucks and his wife through youth into
maturity and in this wise they faced
toward the sunset.
He was tall, with a stoop; grizzled,
brawny. perhaps uncouth in mien. She
was stout unshapely, rugged; yet her
face was kind and motherly. There
was a boyish twinkle left in her hus-
bands eyes and quaint quizzing, one
sided smile often stumbled across his
csre-furrowed countenance. AS the
years passed Mrs. Hucks noticed that
her husbands foot fell heavily when
he walked by her side and the pang
she felt when first she observed his
plodding step was too deep for tears.
1t was in these days that the minds
OF the Huckses unconsciously reverted
to old times. 1t became their wont, in
these latter days. 10 sit in the silent
house, whence the children had gone
out 10 try issue with the world, and,
Of evenings, TO talk Of the old faces
and OF the old places in the home of
their youth. Theirs had been a
pinched and busy life. They had never
returned to visit their old Ohio home.
The colonels father and mother were
gone. His wife's relatives were not
there. Yet each felt the longing to go
back
For years they had talked of the
charms OF the home of their child
hood. Their children had been brought
UP 10 believe that the place was lit
tie less than heaven. The Kansas
grass seemed short and barren of
beauty to them beside the picture of
the luxury Of Ohio's fields. For them
the Kansas streams did not ripple and
oimple so merrily in the sun as the
Ohio brooks that romped through
oewy pastures in their memories The
bleak Kansas plain. in winter and in
fsll, seemed to the colonel and his wife
10 be ugly and gaunt when they re-
membered the brow OF the hill under
which their first kiss was shaded from
the moon. while the world grew dim
under a sleigh that bounded over the
turnpike.
The old people did not give voice
TO their musings. But in the woman's
heart there gnawed a yearning for the
beauty Of the old scenes. 1t was al
most a Dlvsical hunger