Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1905-11-22
CHAPTER III.


4 driver invoked his team il
cabalistic words, and each time the
horses toiled forward with fresh en-
ergy, but progress became Il mockery
in that ocean of space. Their drivn .
seemed as futile as the sport of children
who crack whip and play at stage
coach with couple of chairs. The
mountains still Knocked in the distance
A fiat, unbroken sweep of country.
a tangle of struggling sagebrush. a
glimpse of foothills in the distance was
the outlook mile after mile. The day
grew pitilessly hot. Clouds of aka
line dust swept aimlessly over the des-
ert or whrled into spirals till lost in
space. From horizon to horizon the
sky was one cloudless span of blue
that paled as it dipped earthward
Mary Carmichael doZed and wakened,
Nbut the prospect was always the same
the red stage crawling over the will
derness. making no evident progress.
and always the sun, the sagebrush and
the silence.
1t was ali so overwhelmingly differ
. ent from the peaceful atmosphere of
things at home-the mellow Virginia
/ country, with its winding. red roads.
wealth of woodland and its grave old
/ houses that We're the more haughtily
! aloof for the poverty that gnawed at
q their vitals. This wilderness was so
gaunt, so parched; she closed her eyes
Il and thought of a bit of landscape at
IL home-a young forest of silver beeches
a growing straight and fine as the
as threads on u loom. and through the
~ gray perspective of their satin smooth
Il trunks you caught the white gleam Of
Ia fairy cascade as it tumbed over the
sAmoss grown stones to the brook be-
low. It was like a bit from Jap
1anese garden in its delicate artificial
ity.
55N And harder to leave than these cher
s1shed bits of landscape had been the
3#old house Runnymede. that always
Isseelaed dozing in the peaceful COMA
i fose Of senilty. 1t was beyond the
worry of debt; the succession of mort
cages that sapped its vitality and
wrote anxious lines on the faces of
3 Aunt Adelaide and Aunt Martha was
#nothing to the old house. Had it not
sheltered Carmichaels for over cen
tury? 1t had faith In the name But
MARY could never remember when the
need of money to pay the mortgage
had not inv: led the gentle routine of
their home lifc
But hardest Of all to leave had been
archie. best and most promising Of
young brothers-.\rchie. who had come
out ahead of his class in the high
Il school, all ready to 90 to the univrl.
ssHy-the University of Virginia is al
ways "the university'-but Who II
i had seemed ut Il certain dark season.
must give up this long cherished hope
Iss1or lack of the wherewithal. Mary.
y Deing iaur years older than her brother
SaAnd quite twenty. had long felt u ma
II terial obligation to administer his af
SSS3alrs. II lie did not g to the univer-
IM1ity, like his father and grandfather
Il S0efore him. it would he because she
n mad failed in her duty At this par
!Gticrlar phase of the domestic problem
mere had appeared in a certain church
I'M periodical carefully worded ad-
for a governeSS. and, the
kS1pbsequent business of references. sal.
sH6ry and information to be impaired
and received proving eminently salts
|S4actory. Mary had finally received
FEARFUL permission from her aunts to
22Mepart for some place in Wyoming the
name of which was not even to be
ax&ound on the map. She was to consid.
&er herself quite one of the family, and
SsSkbe compensation was to be $50 q
lsSsmonth. Archie would now be able to
go to the university.
Ms AS the day wore on the sagebrush be-
ssscame scarcer and grayer. there were
%IeWer Towering cacti, and the great
white patches of alkali grew more and
more frequent. In the distance there
was riot of rainbow tints-violet
pink and pale orange 1t seemed in
conceivable that such barrenness could
Eproduce such wealth OF color. Nothing
|scould have been more beautiful, not
EeVen the changing colors on pigeons
neck, than the coppery iridescence
shading to cobalt and blue Oh some of
/ the buttes.
Night had fallen before they made
the first break in their journey. The
low, beetle browed cabin that faced
them in the wilderness carried in it's
rude completeness hint of the pres
tidigitator's art-a world of desola
tion, and behold log cabin with smoke
issuing from the chimney and curtains
at the windows. The interior was un-
plastered, but this shOrtcoming was
surmounted by tacking cheesecloth
neatly over the logs, device at once
simple and strategic, as in the lamp
light the effect was that of plaster
Miss Carmichael. suddenly released
from the actual rumblng of the stage.
felt its confused motion the more
strongly in imagination, and hardly
knew whether she was eating canned
tomatoes served uncooked directly from
the tin, fried steak. black coffee and
soda biscuit. in company with the fat
lady, the stage driver and the woman
who kept the road ranch, or if it was