Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1906-10-24

4
as IL she was goin' to eat it and cud-
dies it in her neck and talks baby-talk
to IL, you play her fur bein' sound and
true. Pass up the others, son."
AS the train started he swung him.
self on with sad little BE good to
yourselfi"
! Thank the Lord we're under way
at last!" cried Percival, ferventiy.
when the group at the station had
been shut from view
Isn't II just heavenly" exclaimed
his sister. Think of having all of
New York you want-being at home
there-and not having to look forward
to this desolation OF a place"
Mrs. Bines was neither depressed nor
elated. She was maintaining that
calm level of submission to fate which
had been her lifelong habit. rhe Jour
ney and the new life were to be under
taken because they formed for her the
line OF least resistance along which all
energy must row. Had her children
elected to camp for the remainder of
their days in the center OF the desert
of Cobb, she would have faced that life
with as little sense of personal con-
Germ and with 40 more misgivings
Down out OF the maze of hills the
train wound: aud then by easy grades
after two days of travel down off the
great plateau TO where the plains of
Nebraska lay away to a far horizon in
brown pillows of withered grass.
Then came the crossing of the sullen,
sluggish Missouri, that highway OF an
earlier day to the great northwest; and
after that the better wooded and BET
ter settled lands of Iowa and Illinois.
Now we're getting where Christians
live,' said Perciyal, with warm appre-
citation.
Why, Percival." exclaimed his moth
er, reprovingfy. do you mean TO say
there aren't any Christians in Mon
tana City? How you talk. There are
lots OF good Christian people there"
And even Mrs. Bines was not with
out sense OF quiet and rest induced
by the gentler contours of the land
scape through which they now sped.
The country here does seem a lot
cozier," she admitted
The hills rolled away amiably and
reassuringly; the wooded slopes in
their gay coloring OF autumn invited
confidence. Here were no forbidding
stretches OF the gray alkali desert. no
grim bare mountains. no solitude of
uesolation. 1t was a kind land. fat
with riches. The shorn yellow fields.
the capacious red barns, the well-con-
ditioned homes. all told eloquently of
DearR and nlpntV ho
lages-those lively little clearing
houses for immense farming districts.
To The adventurer from New York they
seem always new and crude. To our
travellers from newer, cruder region
they were actually aesthetic in their
suggestions of an old and well-estab-
lished civilization
In due time they were rattlinp over
tangled maze of switches, lodging
interminable professions of freight
cars, barely missing crowded passen-
ger trains whose bells struck clear and
then fatted as the trains flew by: de-
ming by narrow waterways. crowded
with small shipping: winding through
streets lined with high. gloomy ware
houses, amid the clang and clatter. the
strangely sounding bells and whistles
OF a thousand industries, each sending
UP its Just contribution OF black smoke
TO the pail that lay always spread
above; and steaming at last into a
great rOomy shed where all was avs
tenn, and where the big engine trem.
bfed and painted as if in relief at hav-
ing run in safety a gantlet so hazard
GUS
anyway, I'd rather live in Montana
City than Chicago" ventured Mrs.
Bines.
Whatever pride you may feel in
your discernment is amply justified "
replied her son, performing before the
amazed lady bow that indicated the
lowest depths of slayish Difference.
Il am now" ne continued. going
out TO pace the floor of this locomotive
boudoir for a few exhilarating breaths
or smoke, and pretend to myself that
I've got to live in Chicago forever. A
little discipline like that Is salutary to
Keep one from forgetting the great
blessing which a merciful Providence
has conferred upon one"
IL Walk a bit with you" said ais
sister, DOMINIC her jacket and a cap.
Lest my remarks have seemed in
determinate. madam sternly contin-
ued Perciyal at the door of the car.
permit me TO add that If Chicago were
Heaven | should at once enter upon a
life OF crime. DO not ahect TO misun-
derstand me, beg Of you should
leave no avenue Of salvation open 10
my precious soul I should incur no
risk OF being numbered among the
saved. should be bad. aud I should
SIT up nights TO invent new ways OF
evil. II I had any leisure left from
being as wicked as I could be. I should
devote it to teaching those 1 loved how
to become abandoned. should doubt
less issue a pamphlet. How TO Merit