The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1905-11-09

mountains looked like jagged rocks,
heaved against the sky and in danger
Of topping, the whole dread scene
brought before her one Of Vedder's
pictures that hung in the shabby old
library at home
They breakfasted somewhere and
Chugg put fresh horses to the stage.
She knew this from their difference Of
color; the horses that they had left the
second OAK ranch with had been white,
and these that now toiled over the
sand and desolation were apparently
brown. She could not be certain that
they sere brown, or that they were
toilinS over the sand and desolation,
or that her tame was Mary Carmichael,
or indeed Of anything. -Four days in
the train and what seemed like four
centuries in the stage eliminated any
certainty as to anything. She could
only sit huddled in a heap and wait
for things to become adjusted by time
Chugg was behaving in q most ex-
emplary manner. He drove rigidly as
an adtomaton,' and apparently he
looked no longer on the sslightning"
when it was bottled. Once or twice
he had applied his eye to the pane that
separated him from his passenger and
asked questions relative to her COM
fort, but Mary was too utterly defect
ed to reply in more than monosyllables.
AS they crept along, the sun dried tim
bers of the stage creaked and groaned
In seeming protest at wearing it's life
away IN endless journeyings over this
desert waste, then settled down into
one of those maddeningly monotonous
relterations to which certain inanimate
things are given in seasons of nervous
tension. This time it was, "All the
worlds stage-creak- screech-all-
the worlds a stagc-creak- screechw
over and over till Mary found herself
fast succumbing to the hypnotic effect
OF the constant repetition.
At sunset the interminable monotony
OF the wilderness was broken by a
house Of curious architecture, the like
Of which the tired young traveller had
never seen before, and whose singular
candor Of design made her doubt the
evidence of her own thoroughly ex-
hausted faculties. The house seemed
to consist of series of rooms thrown
or rather blown together by some
force Of nature rather than by formal
design of builder OF carpenter. The
original log cabin of this composite
dwelling looked better built, more fin
1shed, neater Of aspect than those they
had previously stopped at in crossing
the desert. Springing from the main
building, like claws from a crustacean,
was series of rooms minus either
side walls or flooring. Indeed, they
might easily have passed for porches
OF more than usually commodious size
had 1t not been for the beds, bureaus,
chairs, stove with attendant pots, ket-
ties, and supper in course Of prepara-
ton. Seen from any vantage point
In the surrounding country, the effect
was that Of an interior on the stage
the background of some homely drama
where pioneer life was being realistic
ally depicted. The dramatis persona
who occupied the center of the stage
when Mary Carmichael drove up was
an elderly woman in q rocking chair.
She was dressed in faded pink cali
co gown, limp and bedraggled, whose
color brought out the parchment-like
hue and texture of her skin in mer-
CHESS contrast. Perhaps because she
still harbored illusions about the per-
ishable quality Of her complexion,
which gave every evidence Of having
1JJ0f of
suns, SHOWS, billiards. and the ubiuui-
tous alkali dust Of all seasons, she
wore a pink 'sunbonnet, though the
hour was one past shutdown, and
though she sat beneath her own roof
tree, even if lacking the protection of
four walls. From the corner Of her
mouth protruded snuff brush, so
constantly in this accustomed place
that it had come to be regarded by
members OF her family as part and
parcel Of her attire-the first thing
assumed in the morning, the last thing
laid aside at night. Mary Carmichael
had little difficulty in recognizing Ju-
dith Rodneys stepmother, nee Tumlin,
she who had been the heroine of the
romance lately recorded.
Mrs. Rodneys interest in the Girl
alighting from the stage was eyinced
IN the palsled motion Of the chair az
1t qu1vered slightly back and forth in
place Of the swinging seesaw with
which she was wont to wear the hours
away. The snuff brush was brought
into more fiercely active commission.
but she said nothing till Mary Carmi-
chael was within a few inches of her:
then, shifting the snuff brush to posi-
ton more favorable to enunciation. she
said: "Howdy? Ye be Miz Yellett's
gov'ment, amt yep There was some
thing threatening in her aspect, as if
the office of governess to the Yelletts
carried some challenging quality.
Government" repeated Mary vague
~, her head still rumbling with the
noise and motion Of the stage. "I'm
AFRAID hardly understand"
Amt you uns goin' to teach tho Vol.