The Greeley tribune., 1906-01-04

house like q flaming disk. Sometimes
she sank beneath the burden OF II, then
she would wiring her hands and call on
God to help them. They were beyond
human power.
Aida and Jim were alone all the
morning. They did not again refer to
what they knew would happen. He
read his old paper and she put her
house in order She did it with espe-
cial care. 1t was meet to have things
seemly In the house of the dead. And
every time she glanced ut Jim she re-
pressed the desire to fling herself on
his breast and cry out the anguish that
consumed her.
home to dinner. and afterward Jim
taught them to throw the lasso and
played buffalo with them. Aida did
not trust herself to watch them. She
stayed in the kitchen and saw the sun
beam grow pale with the waning of
the day, the day whose minutes drag
ged like lead, yet had rushed from her.
leaving her the night to face. At sun
down she cooked supper. but she no
longer knew what she did. A Grassy
agility had taken possession Of her,
and she spun about the kitchen, doing
the same errand many times, finding
herself doing always something diff
ferent from that she had set about do
Ing The molten day was burning
itself out like Il fever. Hot gusts of
air beat up from the earth, but the wo-
man who waited felt chilled to the
marrow and took cloak down from a
peg and wrapped 1t about her while she
waited for the biscuit to bake.
AT supper they sat down together,
the man and his wife and their three
children. The children were in fine
spirits from the fun they had had that
afternoon. Never had daddy been so
nice to them. He had taught Topeka
to throw the lassO SO well that she had
caught the cat once and little Jim
twice. and daddy had played he was
a buffalo and had charged them all
with his head down till they screamed
in terror. But daddy seemed more
quiet through the meal, and once moth
er started up and cried:
whats thatf"
She ran to the door with her hand
pressed to her side, but daddy called
after her:
Don't you know the towards bet
ter than that? They'll wait for night
fall"
But these things had not worried tho
children, with their heads full Of play
ing buffalo and throwing the lariat.
"Jim," said his father before they
went to bed, remember you are tho
man of the family" But young Jim
was already nodding with sleep. To-
peka and Judith We're sleepy too. They
kissed their father and were glad to go
to bed.
The night began menacingly to close
over the wilderness. All day the dry,
burning heat had quivered over the
desert, like hot air waves dlckertng
over a bed Of live Goals, and now the
very earth seemed to palpitate with
the intensity of its fever. Each sound
of the desert night Aida translated in
to the trampling of horses feet; then
as the sound would die away or prove
to be but some night noise of the will
derness the pallor would lose Its pinch
on her features and she would stare
into her husbands face with eyes that
did not see. Jim smoked his pipe and
refilled it, smoked and filled again, but
gave no sign of the object of his wait
ing
"Jim," she said when the clock had
struck 10, then IL, Il am going to fas
ten up the house."
do you hear them?" he asked, with
out emotion, but as one who deferred
to the finer senses OF women.
She shook her head, not trusting her
self to speak.
He looked at the door that was
shrunken and warped from the heat
till it barely held together, and there
was no measure to the tenderness he
put into his words:
"Oh, you poor little fool! Do you
think you could keep them out by fas-
tening that?'
Jim, 1 must" And her voice broke.
"Ihey may think you are not here, that
it's only me and the children, and
that's why the house Is fastened"
She got up and began to move about
as though her thought scourged her to
action, even If futile. He shook the
ashes from his pipe.
"Do anything you blame please" he
said more by way Of humoring her
than from faith in her stratagem. He
felt strong enough to face his destiny,
to meet it in q way worthy of his
mothers people.