Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1906-12-15
Blind as a Bat.
By Martha McCuIloch> Williams

.: or TlElIt, lJbp, b\ ltUb| Douglas
Il
EaStbrooli opened its eyes very wide
and caught its breath over the Taun-
ton girl when she swept through it
riding cross saddle. To be sure, the
town had been reading this long time
about the divided skirt, but then the
town WAS also not exactly sure in its
mind that riding its streets even upon
Il proper sidesnddle was not rather
bold
frIrnt The very best young women
rode there. Moreover, it had come to
Ic il sort of provcrb among the plan
tatiOn folk that the hardest and most
reckless riders were town girl visitors
Very few of them had any mercy upon
the beasts luckIeSS enough TO carry
them this not because they were hard
hearted, but from sheer ignorance and
the pure animal delight of finding
themselves untettcred for Il time They
trctted not a little, these town bred
riders, when the country folk checked
speed ut hills or insisted that Il horse
should have Il chance to blow a bit
after Il hard galIop.
Possibly envy. the least touch, gave
edge TO their diSapproval of Edith
Taunton. Edith had Il fortune and
three fine saddle horses. As if that
were not enough, Billy Drayton fell
into a way of sharing her early gallops.
Until she came back to the old
homestead Billy had not seen sun
rise once Il year. 1t was provOkingly
significant, this change in him. He
had been the despair of the town
matchmakerS. He was Il governors
grandson, rich, good looking, good hu
mored. Further, he was a squire Of
DANES so nobly impartial nobody ever
yet had been able to establish Il
claim to him. The people he regarded
most and was readicSt to serve were
meek old ladies who had known his
mother and very little girls.
Edith was, he insisted, only a big lit
tie girl. very lone and lorn in her big
empty house, What he did not say was
that he thought her coming back to it
something so fine ana brave he was
bent ON helping her fight down the
loneliness and make her own social
place.
This in the beginning until the town
gOSsipS took To crauinG the neck, Shall-
ing the head and drawing aside the
least bit when the g,rl came among
them. Billy saw the head shaking. the
drawing back, a long time before she
did. She was open and mSuSpiciouS as
daylight and had no thought of tread
ing on the corns of town propriety in
anything she did. But. being also full
of quick intuitionS, after awhile she
understood.
And then? Then only she really did
set out to horrify the good gentlewom-
en-, She drove tandem through the
middle of the square, sitting mp very
straight, looking neither to right nor
LEFT but pulling up ut the corner by
the bank to pick UP Billy and take him
away with her. Next week it was Il
card party wholly masculine in com
position except for Edlth herself and
'Il' c"l"rleSS cousin VINO served as her
companion. lhere were WINE ana cl-
garS and Il supper afterward-a very
N'lr supper.
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