The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-01-08
THE EVENING STORY
syblna Long. Knighs EIrrant.
~ IA Wrieht Hanson.l

Z did have such an experience TINS
morning! I started out to md a girl
I used to know. and who heard was
living here. 1 got tangled up in a
minstrel show going over. and coming
back I got mixed into a funeral
didn't know exactly where she lived,
and I had all Boston Ravine out look
ing for her. I'm sure the folks down
there haven't been SO stirred up for
years.
The voice beyond the boulder broke
most pleasantly into Fenton's moody
thoughts He sat up promptly but
That's the first decent voice I've
heard in this accursed place he OBJ
served silently.
It didn't seem to be an accursed
place. Fragrant with pine needles,
vocal with the humming Of bees in
late manzanita blooms, and the
laughter of a watercress laden stream;
beautiful with brick red soil, varied
greens IN foliage, and glimpses of
heavens own blue-it seemed like
charming spot-the only discord, the
pale-faced, hollow-eyed man himself
Il didn't find the girl after all, the
musical tones went on, "but I found
the house she used to live in
Fenton listened impatientiy while
the other voice said things, queruIous
things burdened with the aches and
pains of the speaker. "a typical
sanatorium voice" thought Fenton
peevishIy then he frightened as the
first speaker remarked:
you think you viii 30 back, do
you2 Oh, no; the walk hasn't hurt
you. Exercise and fresh air do Won
ders for a body often. No. am going
to stay and read till luncheon
In silence Fenton wondered If she
would read aloud; but instead she be-
gan to sing. He fairly held his breath.
Notes soft as a. wood doves; q voice e1-
quisite by nature. and unspolied by
training. She was singing a little lyric
OF love, and Fenton thought OF q swing
ing gate. scurryfng clouds, and his first
sWeethearts first kiss, years and years
forgotten. Then without any precepti-
bic hesitency, the melody changed to
lullaby, tender as a mothers prayer;
and the weary look left the mans eyes,
the hard lines around his mouth re-
Taxed, and he drew a long, almost sob
bling breath. The melody ceased, and
Fenton felt as if he had never had a
desire in his life but to hear her sing.
He rose, and went to the other side of
the boulder.
Pardon a sick man. he began, but
his tongue seemed paralyZed. His only
conscious thought was that he was glad
the girl in her nurses uniform was so
fair. Her eyes gazing curiously up at
him had never a hint of fear in their
amber depths. He gathered his senses
| together.
4 haven't slept naturally for a week"
he said bluntly. viii you sing for
me?"
When Fenton awoke, the sun was
shining no longer. He sat up quickly,
and found that a great shawl was keep
! ing the evenings chilliuess from him;
then his eyes discovered the nurse lean
| ing against a tree, regarding him grave
! ~.
you have stayed here all day-you
have had no lunch!" he exclaimed.
She smiled. "Oh. no; when I was sure
you would stay asleep, I went back to
the Sanatoriun, and then 1 came
again."
They rose; Fenton folded the shawl
and laid it over his arm
/ How am everg ding to thank your
he began.
Don't try" she answered simply,
preceding him down the narrow path.
! Il worked too hard, and collapsed,
| he explained. "Sha'nt be so foolish
when I get well again. I am going to
get we'll now that I can sleep Maybe
you have heard of John Fenton, Carpet
/ Manufacturer. I am the idiot.
"Ohi" exclaimed the girl, then
/ added hastily, "a pebble rolled under
my foot. I am Sybilla Long, nurse. -
He wondered at the deep flush
/ which overspread her face-they
we're at the foot of the hill, and walk
/ ing side by side.
"Can't I syndicate your services ~
| he inquired gravely- DO you sup
pose the doctors are averse to a
graft?''
He thought her low laughter was
pleasanter even than her song or her
/ speech. That night he slept as he had
not for a year.
A new life was beginning for John
Fenton. The sanatorium s grim walls
no longer spelled TO him hopelessness.
/ The doctors were complacent over so
/ satisfactory convalescent, but Fen
ton laughed In his sleep at them. 1t
/ was not their pills and potions which
! had made a man of him again, but
! the tonic of sweet voice and a gra-
/ cious presence.
She seemed, this fair Sypilla, to be
over young for u nurse; perhaps for
that reason the grave doctors INDUCED
her beyond the others. At any rate,
she always had time for Fenton, and
| daily she fascinated him more. lie
| had not been q man of many loves.
The first little sweetheart, dead years
/ before, and the woman his mother
wanted him to marry. but whom he
had DerverSely refused even to meet
the first had set his heart strings
| a-quiver, the last (his moth er
af7rmcd) stood ready to do so. So all
the loves which Fenton might have
nurtured and had not, came flying
Sybilla.
So she sang to him, and he quoted
| to himself, And thou beside me
singing in the Wilderness; she read
to him, and he fitted other words to
the melody of her voice-words he
hoped sometime to hear from her
lips; she talked b1ithely or thought
fully, as her mood might be, and he
answered in like spirit watching with
a lovers eyes each changing express
sion.
The doctors had pronounced him well.
| but he loathed to go into the world
again. He had feeling that In its
/ clang and clamor, Sybilla Long would
prove to be what she had been before
he knew her-a dream too beauteous to
come true.
There came a day when the breath OF
summer was hot over the red soil and
| whitening manzanita blooms. The water
cress laden stream was too langufd for