The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1907-02-08

was a young mani l would have gone
to oollege-had profession! 1t is
too late!"
A chill struck her heart. 1t was the
first time she had ever suspected
that she did not fill all her husbands
vision. She stood away from him as
she said, "You have spoken words
that part US Howard"
But, Lizzie-!'
1T is not too late,' urged his wife.
go. Be! A man can do anything in
FIVE years. Take five years-ten!
You are young man yet. Consider
you have no wife or baby! l will
take care of your mother. Unless
you are in distress, don't let me hear
from you in FIVE years"
1t was struggle for Howard. 1t
came so swiftly, this sundering of
| ties, this parting the yoke! To find
himself pushed out of home by an
| imperious woman, whom he had
known up to this time only as his
second will, But when the step was
| taken, every emancipated nerve i'll
his body was tingling with the joy
of fulfllment
In feverish rush, he travelled over
the country, then with his main pur-
pose ever in view, entered a technical
school, where he studied with desper-
alton. Step by step he was master of
the knowledge he sought, and became
| in good time a successful inventor
| This, then, was the meaning, the
| fruition, of all those wheels and
springs and joints and cogs out in the
barn, where he had seemed to be
wasting his time as he let the farm
| go to ruin. He had been trying to in
vent ways to make farm work easy.
During this furlough while he had
been accomplishing great things, he
had seen many fair face and grown
accustomed to the society of the cul-
| tured and refined There were times
when he thought with rebuked pang
of his early marriage, that bound him
to the crude country girl of his first
choice.
At last the furlough was over. He
was speeding home
When he STEPPED off the car no one
recognized him. He passed through
! the crowd without a nod. There
| stood Judge Wheeler's old rockaway.
! There was the old broken sugar ket
/! tie in the same old spot. Sameness
was stamped all along the way. 1t
did not look as if a boy had kicked
a stone out of the road in five years
Mrs. Null II fsnce had three pickets
| off-the same three pioketS.
Dan Jones' gate stood half open. Had
it ever been shut? The same green
shutter was off at the Payne place,
the farm next to his. But where was
his old broken down-fence? Where
1.-THE sagging gate? Where the weeds?
What meant that house painted fresh
~ white with new green shutters all
on?-that stone walk leading through
the rows of pecan trees he had plant
ed and never tended:
What had become Of his fami.J :?
F! What might not have happened in
! five years?
Throbbing with fear, ne fastened
up the unfamiliar path
In a hammock on the side porch
was beautiful child in white. At
her side, dressing doll was fine
old lad in grey with her hair ar
ranged loftiiy. They were strangers.
There was bell now A tidy maid
showed him into the parlor, where
stood an open piano. Potted plants,
books and etchings and well chosen
engravings were to be seen-every-
where signs of taste and refinement
r sat down sick at heart-over-
whelmed with grief.
At the sound of footsteps he raised
his head. There stood in the door
way a woman almost too finely groom
ed in dress and manner for him in
his widest Imagination TO dare to
claim.
Howard" she said, holding her.
self in restraint.
Elizabeth. Elizabeth what does
this mean? Have you-married
again?"
why, Howard" she cried, hurt to
the quick SIS marriage so sugary
that it can't stand the rain and dews
of five years.
Il did not know.-Eyerything. is 50
changed-but you might have called
in some one of more account than
your trifiing husband.'
I'm not the sort that count hus-
bands on their fingers. Perhaps-you
have.
I've seen nobody half SC charming
as my own wife!-half SO dearly be-
loved! Lizzie, you are beautiful!
You-are-are-"
so are you-everything! Did you
think was going to let you out-grow
me and be ashamed of me? / am 4
born farmer. l have made a success
of it. See the new tools, the improv-
ed breed of cattle-poultry, garden,
fruit. But l have worked with books
beside me. 1 have filled every min
ute with study