The Greeley tribune., 1905-11-09
Judith Of the
Plains
BY MARIE MANNING.
Author of Lord Ailinsham. Bankrupt
Copuish,, 1903. by H.per & Brother,
tcoNTISUED.l
CHAPTER III.

From time to time the stage
i driver invoked his team In
cabalistic words, and each time the
horses toiled forward with fresh en-
rgy, but progress became mockery
in that ocean of space. Their driving
seemed as futile as the sport Of children
who crack whip and play at stage
coach with a couple of chairs. The
mountains still Knocked in the distance.
A fiat, unbroken sweep Of country.
q tangle of struggling sasebrush.
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 whirled into spirals till lost in
space. From horizon to horizon the
sky was one cloudless span of blue
that paled as 1t dipped earthward.
Mary Carmichael doZed and wakened,
but the prospect was always the same
the red stage crawling over the viii
derness, making no evident progress.
and always the sun, the sagebrush and
the silence.
It was all 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 haughttly
aloof for the poverty that gnawed at
their vitals This wilderness was SO
gnunt, SO parched; she closed her eyes
and thought Of bit Of landscape at
home-a young forest Of silver beeches
growing straight and fine as the
threads on a loom, and through the
gray perspective Of their satin smooth
trunks you caught the white gleam of
a fairy cascade us 1t tumbled over the
moss grown stones to the brook be-
low. 1t was like a bit from a jap
anese garden in its delicate artificial
ity.
And harder to leave than these cher
fshed bits Of landscape had been the
old house Runnymede, that always
seemed doing in the peaceful coma
fose Of senility. 1t was beyond the
worry Of debt; the succession Of mort
gnges that sapped Its vitality and
wrote anxious lines on the faces Of
Aunt Adelaide and Aunt Martha was
nothing to the old house. Had it not
sheltered Carmichaels for over cen
tury9 1t had faith in the name. But
Mary could never remember when the
need of money to pay the mortgage
had not Invaded the gentle routine Of
their home life
But hardest Of all to leave had been
Archie, best and most promising of
young brothersArchie, who had come
out ahead Of his class in the high
school, all ready to go to the univer-
sity-the University of Virginia Is al
ways 1.-The university"-but who, 1t
had seemed at a certain dark season,
must give up this long cherished hope
for lack of the wherewithal. Mary,
being four years older than her brother
and quite twenty, had long felt ma
fernal obligation to administer his af-
fairs. If he did not go to the univer-
aity, like his father and grandfather
before him, it would be because she
had failed In her duty. At this par
ficular phase of the domestic problem
there had appeared in a certain church
h periodical carefully worded ad-
vertisement for a governess, and, tho
subsequent business Of references, sal
Afy and information to be impaired
and received proving eminently salts
factory, Mary had finally received a
fearful permission from her aunts to
depart for some place in Wyoming the
name Of which was not even to be
found on the map. She was to consid
1 herself quite one Of the family, and
10 1,n N
month. Archie would now be able to
% to the university.
As the day wore on the sagebrush be
came scarcer and grayer, there were
fewer Towering cacti, and the grea
white patches of alkali grew more ant
more frequent. In the distance there
was riot of rainbow tints-violet
pink and pale orange. 1t seemed In
conceivable that such barrenness coult
could have been more beautiful, not
even the changing colors on q pigeons
neck, than the coppery iridescence
shading to cobalt and blue on some oi
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 itl
rude completeness hint Of the pres
t3digitators art-a world of desola
fion, 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 lacking cheeseclotf
neatly over the loss. a device at onct
simple and strategic, as in the lamp
light the effect was that Of plaster
Miss Carmichael, suddenly released
from the actual rumbling 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
fhe Tin, fr1sd steak, black coffee and
soda biscuit in company with TIE fa,