Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1904-03-12
81 81 OMEWARD through the murk
Inl and gloom of November even

Jn 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 as a 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 a suspi-
cion of moisture in the big gray eyes
when work was more than usually
irksome or employers more than usual
ly irate and unreasonable.
Sometimes for a moment her mind
would stray from the dark, close office
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
I'm her poor little room in the shabby
house in a third-rate street just be-
yond ''the Elephant" the memory of
the plenty in the old days brought a
shadow for a 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 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 a letter from Dick lay care
fully folded in her little workboX, let
ters 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 against
his own countrymen. Since then
since she had lived at her present adj
dress-no news had come to enlight-
en- her sorrow, to relieve her anxiety.
.
On her doorstep she met her lard
lady, Mrs. Bird, who had been shop
ping around the corner. Mrs. Bird
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" nervously
responded Mary; 81 was a little be-
hilu Ut thC OliSCt anu Il VIC Walnut
walked, a night like this Then
you'd no business. S'pose you caught
cold and got laid up?"
'The buses were full and Il
couldn't afford cab, you know
Mary answered, smiling gently.
mo, in course, though you might
do that a night like this if you didn't
go saddlin' yourself with that foreign
fiddler man upstairs"
Mrs. Bird closed the door with az
angry little bang as she followed Mary
into the passage.
"Oh, hush, please, Mrs. Bird; thinl
how ill the poor fellow has BEEN
"Ill-course he has, and you, witt
all you can do to keep yourself, mus
GO and look after him. Nonsense, that,
what 1 call It'll What do we pay rate.
for. and keep up that there place roun,
the corner for. if 1t amt for such {
MANI"
"But, you don't understand, Mrs
Bird: he is not a common man; b.
Is an artist and a gentleman. 1t would