The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-23

&lAuels. in her amazement forgetting
 that the Ladies' Aid meeting, especial
 when held in the Iarlor of the par
 sonAge. wns hardly the proper place
 Tor such expressions.
 But as all her fellow " orkers were
 Banging brcathlessly on the recital of
 Azrs Gleason, wifaNaf the local drug
 elst her remark passed unnoticed.
 gYes. he said just that. elf you can
 set one that costs five dollars more. all #khe better. There's nothing too good
 Flor Mrs. Hiram Grey"
 t.With the accent on the Hiram I
 sunpose.n suggested Miss Kent, the
 kown milIiner. The druggists wife
 eauRht her breath and resumed.
 rAnd then he bought every Christmas
 &rne ornament in our store and RFad- lNWs stationery store. too, even to the
 unx angel which my husband was quite
 assre he would lose on, nothing 90 cx- nnnAive eyer having been sold in Santa
 Anua before. And then two hours later Iarry Grey. he came In. and what he *eaEd when he found all the Christmas #1ree trimmings was gone my husband #aid would curl your hair. And he handed Mir. Gleason a ten-dollar hill. and told him to telegraph an order for A duplicate lot. and some more. dt- taetly.''
 .'1fy. those trees will be worth see lng. It's a shame the Grey families Izve twenty miles from nowheres.''
 -And to think of Lucy Gray having Mafd-mounted toilet set. with French ; suen painted on the back of the mir rnr and the brush, and only ten years ngo the two families of them coming nere in prairie schoonerE- We'll, some Folks do have luckH' sighed Ahe little #mtliiner.
 The minister's wife looked up from 2nef sewing. - Yes, but I think Lucy Gray would Ea1her have back her sisters compau- Aonsh3p and love than all the gold
 nuunted toilet sets in Christendom. Jt { ss very sad indeel"
 The soft. regFstfuI tones duIeted tha eEatter of gossiping tongues. The lrmggisfs wife couahed not exactly In
 nrlogetic manner, but as if she had
 bald. perhaps. a trifle too much. The ssi4t1e milliner rose and fastened her 'searg around her throat. She had work |ko finish at the shop. Some one re- .gnarked that the doctor had told the wife that her eldest child |Was threatened with appendicitis, ana 'eerhaps a committee ought to be ap-
 pointed to tender the sympathy and as- Islstance of the Ladies' Aid.
 And so the conversation drifted fin #P4A@i twas by no means forgotten. Tn fact, .Kor nearly a year the breach between sGhe two brothers had been the one, ale Absorbing, never-failing topic of gossip Etn Santa Anna, and, In a way, Santa .Anna had profited by the quarrel. For Swhen Hiram Grey bought his wife q lnew dress length at the Fawcett store. Barry Grey bought his wife better nne at the Hanson store. When Larry 4crey paid $20O on the mortgage hang ! lng over the church. Hiram promptly sent his oftering of 9250. Not that the sGreys of either family ever came Co |tnwn to church. They had done so be- Fore the quarrel Even their women |folk had sometimes driven in for the |meetings of the Ladies' Aid. Now they 44ayed away. Not that they were afraid ef meeting, but because the presence of ahs two factions might embarrass other chnrchgoers and Impede the efforts of the Ladies' Aid. At least that was
 hat Mrs Hiram Grey had said to the minister when he had ridden the lonely fsfteen miles out the Saguache road to nnd out why he had lost two good par sshioners Mrs. Larry Grey had simply worked her fingers in and out of the lace which edged her apron and wspt auietly.
 Away back in other years and in old Missouri, Hiram and Larry Grey had married sisters. Ellen and Lucy Barton. Toeether the four had made small farm profitable. Then, reducing all beiongings to cash, they had taken lprairie schooners and entered this 1nountain-locked valley of southern Colorado. with its marvellous undews- Hoped resources. it's great sheep ranges. and It's land to be had fFnm the Gov ernment for a song or less. With their nest egg they had ma 10 fair start. and by Intelligent, purposeful efforts were becoming prosperous, when the aerpent in the form of a corporation lawyer entered their Eden.
 Hiram Grey was in Pueblo at The time. on his way to Kansas City with a great shipment of sheep and lambs. Larry wrote to him. setting forth the lawyers plan. but the letter Hniscarried. and SO, in the subsequent silence 0f Hiram, the foundation of the domestic tragedy was laid. The lawyer had no time to waste. If the deal was to he closed at all. 1t must he done at oncS. Other men who controlled watersheds would be glad to talk business
 Avarice, the glitter of gold on the distant horizon, dazZled Larry. He clos ed the bargain. The lawyer went back t0 Denver and drew up corporation pa- pers, by which a company was formed which controlled the water supply of fhousands upon thousands of acres Of ranch land, and Larry Grey was vice. nresident of the company. All the
 aachmen to the south of the Larry Grey land would have to pay so much d year for water to run through their irrigation ditches. water which hereto fore had been free. and Hiram Grey was among those southern neiRhb0rs. la fact, his ranch lay next to Larry's and their comfortable homes were just inc width of a quarter section apart.
 Larry had really meant to protect f4iram's water rights in the final deal lie had power to do so, but H!ram's hot words when he returned from the trip whose profits the brothers were to share reused a very devil in his soul
 and he had shut off the water sup plv within twenty-four hours.
 Then Hiram had built, at tremendous expense. an artesian well. and the quarrel to all appearances was deeper man this well, and as inexhaustible. Connection between the two comfort able homes on opposite sides of the quarter section ceased. Barring sem satIonal efforts to outdo each other in the eyes of acquaintances and trades men in Santa Anna, fifteen miles away, inc community knew nothing. Only the sad faces of the two siters On their accasional trips to town, and the fact that two gOvernesses instead of one taught the two flocks of small Greys, bore eloquent testimony to the fact that all intercourse between the two families had been broken off.
 And SO Christmas was coming. the |