Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1905-01-31
GRIPS, THE CARRIER
r. D. BLA MORE
Aathct Of LORNA D0oNE," "ALIcE LORRAINE" ETC., ETC


Christmas parcels, and your touch of
rheumaties so bad last week"
why, bless the cheeld, be as hearty
as everw
"Of course you are, Yak; of course you
are, and think nought of a sack of po-
tatoes. But if you declare to come with
me one step, backward is the only step
| take"
well, WELL" said the carrier, glad on
the whole to escape long walk and keep
conscience clear; ''when you say thing,
Etty, what good is it? Round these here
parts none would harm e. And none of
they furriners be about just now"
Good night, Yak, good night, near"
cried Esther to shorten departure, for
Grips was a man of a slow turn OF
mind, and might go ON for an hour or
two; Il shall sleep there tonight. of
course, and meet you at the Golden Cross
tomorrow. When had / best be there? %
well, you know better than l do. 1t
might be one o'clock, or it might be two.
or it might be half past three Almost. All
you have to do is this-to leave word at
the bar, with Sally Brown"
Il shall do aothing of the sort" she
answered; II don't like cars. and I don't
like Miss Brown. l shall look in the
yard for the cart, brother"
You'll do pretty much as you like.
That much a may be sure c." But be-
f-re he could finish his exposition of his
siste 5 character, she was out of sight;
and he dropped his gruInble, and doubt
ed his mind about letting her go.
AS Esther turned the corner from the
Ra0Elau loY inf Al 4
coach road 20 Oxford, she met a wind
that knew its mind coming over the crest
of Shotover, stern east wind that whis-
ted sadly over the brown and barren
fields, and bitterly piped in the roadway.
To the chill of this blast the sere oak
leaves shivered in The dusk, and ratified :
the gray ash saplings bent their naked
length to get away from it; and the surly
stubs of the hedge went to and fro to
one another. The slimy dips of the path
began to rib themselves, like the fronds
of fern, and to shrink into wrinkles and
sinewy knobs; while the broader puddles.
though skirred by the breeze, found the
network of ice yelling over them. This.
as it crusted, began to be capable of a
consistent quiyering, with a frail infini-
tude of spikelets, crossing, and yet car
rying into one another.
Esther Cripps took little heed of these
things, or of any other in the matter of
weather, except to say to herself now
and then how bitter cold the wind was,
and that she feared it would turn to
snow, and how she longed to be sitting
with a cup OF Aunt Exie's" caudle in
the snug room next to the bakehouse, or
how glad she would be to get only as far
as the first house of st. Clements, to see
the lamps and the lights in the shops, and
be quit of this dreary loneliness. For
now it must be three market days since
fearful rumors began to stir in several
neighboring villages, which made even
strong men discomfort with solitude to-
wards nightfall; and as for the women
just now poor Esther would rather not
think of what they declared 1t was all
very well to pretend to doubt it, while
hanging the clothes out, or turning the
mangle, but as for laughing, out here in
the dark, and a mile away from the near
est house! How that white owl fright
ened her!
Being q sensible and brave girl, she
forced her mind as well as she could into
another channel, and lifted the cover of
the basket in which she had some nice
things for "Aunt Exile" and then she set
off for a bold little run. until she was
out of breath, and trembling at the sound
of her own light feet. For though all
the Crippses were known to be of a firm
and resolute fiber, who could expect a
you;g maid like this to tramp on like a
Roman sentinel?
And lucky thing for her it was that
she tried nothing of the sort; but glided
along with her heart in her mouth, and
her short skirt tucked up round her.
Lucky also for her that the ground was
in that early stage of freezing or of dry
ing to forestall frost, in which it dead
ened sound as much as the later stage
enlivens it. Otherwise it is doubtful
whether she would have seen the Christ
mas-dressing of the shops in Oxford.
For a little further on, she came,
without so much as COW in the road or
a sheep in the field for company, to a
dark. narrow place, where the way hung
over the verge of a stony hollow, an
ancient pit which had once been worked
as part of the quarries of Headington.
This had long been of bad repute as a
haunted and ill-omened place; and even
the carrier himself, strong and resolute
as he was, felt no shame in whispering
when he passed by in the moonlight. And
the name of the place was the "Gipsy's
Grave" Therefore, as Esther Cripps
approached it, she was half inclined to
wait and hide herself in a bush or gap
until cart or wagon should come down
the hill behind her, or an honest dairy
man whistling softly to reassure his
shadow, or even a woman no drawer
than herstelf.
But neither any cert came near, nor
any other kind of company, only the vio-
lelce of the wind. SO that the girl made
up her mind to put the best foot fore
most, and run through her terrors at such
pace that none of them could lay hold
Of her.
Through yards of darkness she skim
med the ground without looking forward,
or over her shoulders, or anywhere. when
she could help it. And now she was
ready to laugh at herself and her stupid
fears, as she caught through the trees
glimpse of the lights of Oxford, down
in the low land, scarcely more than a
mile and half away from her. In the
Joy of relief she was ready TO Jump and
pant without fear of the echoes, when
suddenly something caught her ears.
This was not thing at first TO be at
all afraid of; but only just enough to
arouse little curiosity. 1t seemed to
be nothing more or less than the steady
stroke of a pickax. The sound came
from the further corner of the deserted
quarry, where crest of soft and shingly
rcck overhung a briary thicket. Any per-
son working there would be quite out of
sight from the road, by reason of the
bend of the hollow.
The blow of the tool came duh and
heavy on the dark and frosty wind; and
Esther almost made up her mind to run
on. and take no heed of it. And so she
would have done. no doubt, if she had
not been a Grips girl. But in this fam
lily FIRM and settled opinions had been
handed down. concerning the rights of
property, the rights that overcome all
wrongs, and outlive death. The brother
Leviticus of Stow Wood had sown a
piece of waste at the corner of the
- -s.l. hart