The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1905-12-28


OF her slumbers, and sloping gently
away from them rolled the plain, like
some smooth, dark sea flowing deep
and silently. Judith, a solitary figure
adrift in that still ocean Of space, sat
up and watched the stars fade and saw
the young day peer timorously at the
world that lay before it. Her mind, re-
freshed by long hours of dreamless
sleep, turned to the problem Of impend-
ing things serenely contemplative. The
way OF the Indian was ever her way
When circumstance raised no barriers:
the four walls of a house were prison
TO her after the days heightened and
the summer nights grew warm. To
the infinite disapproval of that GUS
todian of propriety, Mrs. OAK, she
would make her bed beneath the stars
night after night and battle in the cold,
clear waters of the stream that purled
from the white capped crest Of the
mountains.
judith, going to her favorite pool to
battle, saw that it had shrunk till it
seemed but fairy we'll hid among the
willows. \ quarter of a mile above
was another pool, hidden like Jewel
in its case Of green, broidered with
scarlet roseberries and white clematis.
end toward this she bent her steps. as
time was a-plenty that morning. It
lay half hid beneath shelving rock,
fount for the tiny white fall that
crooned and sang as it fell. And here
she bathed as the east famed where
the mountains blackened against it.
She had kept postoffice the day be-
fore, and it would not be till day after
tomorrow that the squires of the lariat
would come again to offer their hearts,
their worldly goods, their complete
reformation, it she would only change
her mind. 1t was all such an old story
that she had grown to regard them
with a tenderness almost maternal.
But today was all her own, and the
spirit OF adventure swelled high in her
bosom rs she thought of what she had
planned. 1t was warm and close and
Still in the OAK house as Judith made
her way softly to her own room and
began her preparations for the long
journey she was to take afoot. 10
walk in the denominations devised nv
the white man for the purpose of
cramping his feet would have been a
serious handicap to Judith. The TWEEN
ty miles that she would walk before
nightfall was no very great undertake
ing to her: but it was part of her prim-
tive directness to accomplish it with
rs little expenditure of fatigue and
comfort as POSSIBLE.
She might have inspired Kitty Cole
brooke TO a sonnet as she stepped out
into the glad morning light, in short
skirt and jacket, green clad as the pines
that girdled the mountains, with a
knapsack with rations of bread and
meat and the wherewithal to build a
fire should she wander belated She
softly closed the door, not to awaken
Leander and his slumbering lady, and
broke into the running gait that the
Indians use on their all day journeys,
the elk hide mOccasins falling soft as
SnoWhakes on the trail. Dolly she
missed chiefly for her companionship.
for Judith had not the white mans
utter helplessness without q horse in
this country Of high attitudes. When
she walked she breatheu, carried her
self, covered ground like her mothers
people, and loved tho inspiration of it..
The eerie shadows of the desert
drew back and hid themselves in the
mountains. The day began with splen,
did prolnise-the day Of the wolf hunt,
OF Which no word had been spoken to
her by Peter. She, too. Was going
hunting, but silently and unbidden she
would steal through the forest and see
THIS mysterious woman who Dlaved
fast and loose With Peter, who loved
her apparently all the better for the
game she played. What manner Of
woman could do these things? What
manner of woman could be Indifferent
to Peter? Judith was consumingly Gu
riOUS to see.
And. apart from this naked and I'M
ashamed curiosity, there was the DOS
sibility that at sight Of Miss Cole
brooke there might come a relaxation
Of Peters tyrannous hold upon her
thoughts, her life, her very hearts
blood. Would her loyalty bear the test
ofsseeing Peter made a fool of by a
woman she could dismiss with shrue
softly speaking shrew perhaps, who
played waiting game With her finger
on the pulse of Peters prospects? For
there was talk Of a partnership with
the Wetmores. Or a fool, perhaps, for
all her sonneting, for there are men
who relish weak headpiece as the
chiefest ornament of women, especial
~ when its indeterminate vagaries
boast an escape valve remotely con-
nected with the fine arts: or a devil
woman, perhaps-an upright wanton
who could think no wrong from very
poverty Of temperament. yet kept him
dangling. The possibility of Kitty's
honesty Judith in her jealousy would
not admit. Had she gone to the devil
for him, stood and faced the drift of
opinion for his sake-that Judith could
have understood. But what was the
,i1,rr Of fo