Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1906-12-20

rustic and whisper, The patter Of the
mountain stream over the powders and
its swish over the sandbar are very
audible IN the midnight silence, From
the inner room come, soft and regular,
the deep breathings 81 the tired house
mother and the trundle bed contingent
The lamp flame tliokers and moves
the mans shadow on the wall, but he
sits as still as If he were dead.
Well, when hope is dead-hope and
energy and days and gold all poured
into an eyer-gaping black mine mouth
that is as hungry aud empty and black
as ever when the last dollar, the last
hope are swallowed mp In it-how much
better il would be, would IL not, If the
man, too, were dead?
Toll, priyation, danger, they had been
nothing In themselves, They would be
nothing now, II he had been able 10
come home with the golden guerdon he
had striyen for, But the homecoming
had been hardest of ALL
Cuddled on cot in the corner, a
girlish figure stirred restlessly. His
eyes sought the glow of the golden hair
flowing over the pillow.
Poor Golden Hair--the mine had been
named for her. Was this golden-haired
Miles life 10 be as black failure as
the mine had proven? Was that name
Of hope and pride to he stunned now
as a word that hurt, that was a mock
cry?
lie turned again drearily TO the pa
| per before him-his life Insurance; the
last plank between the beloved little
band and the hungry sea Of absolute
poverty. Everything else, together
with the best years of his life, the
mine had swallowed. II he lived this
would probably have to go. II he died
just died, you know
Perhaps il was the tense stiffness
that woke the sleeper; perhaps II was
the Pickering light. Perhaps IL was
the mystic time for her to awake from
| girlhood to womanhood. She had been
wandering in childish dreams. Sud,
| denly she was broad awake and her
! soul had seized the look on her fathers
face and she lay trembling with the
knowledge Of mans despair. She
had heard, with the light-hearted half.
consciousness of youth, his few sad
words, as he had announced at home
coming that the mine had "played out
She had known that mother 'felt BAD
over it,
Now there was revelation in the face
in the very figure of the man alone past
midnight, facing despair, with failure
back of him.
The girl watched him through the
meshes of her shining hair. What she
read she could not have voiced but
the woman heart woke in her that
knows without knowledge. She could
see the top of the life insurance policy
as it turned backward; she knew what
it was. She felt his thought.
After little she stretched out he1
slim, young arms, yawned, then tossed
back her hair and sat up, blinking a
the light.
/ why, dad, up yet? What time o
night is it?"
Then, with her usual girlish hound
she was out and at his side, with hel
arms around his neck, alternatel,
scolding and petting.
"lf this is the way you have beer
doing, no wonder you have been grow
ing thin and pale. The mine NAV pla,
out, 20 mines may play out, your ole
insurance company may play out,
tossing the paper aside playfully, "but
we don't want you to play out. If yo,
sit up like this you will get sick ant
die, and then what would we do with
out your"
So she went on, talking against tn,
fear that had clntched her heart, We
without betraying it, soothing an,
staying the man with the sense of thei,
loving need of him and dim, formin.
hope, till she had lifted his burden 70
the night at least; and soon he, too
was snatching the blest respite o
sleep.
But the girl lay awake, thinking
thinking, thinking-a girls thought
against great, demanding, threaten
ing new world, world that could crusI
men. The stress of it was on her still
next morning, and after helping tn
busy mother set the days Household
+ machinery in motion. and inducing tn
, beaten man to lie down and drear
again, she ran down to the stream an
laved her head in its cooling waters.
Spread out in the sun to dry, tn
yellow tresses shone like the heart O
, a mine. So thought young ma
!. springing up the steep path and at he
!. side before she could gather the golde
masses into neat restraint.
!. why didn't you whistle? I didn'
hear you coming" she said blushing.
81 opened my mouth to, but kept
q open at sight of so much wealth." h
= answered. what a lot of hair yo
! have and how long it is-and beaut
full" he added admiringly, as it e.
capped her in her nervous haste an
: beloved about her shoulders and b,
low her waist.
DO you think SOP" she asked shyl,
81 never saw lovelier hair" he a
firmed emphatically. Most girls woul
give fortune for IL. know one VIII
| would" and he lauphed oSba ;s a.