Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-12-12
CHAPTER XXI.

VY ENDER the cottonwoodS that
Swallowed, the landing place
1.;stTzs the clematis trailed its tufts
ksa2z.J of fluffy gray; cluster of
windfowers nodded, winking their
SNOWY blue eyes; birds whisked about
TO fetch straws and scraps for their
building, and the grass bright green,
but STUDY. wore Il changing spatter-
work of sun and leaf.
Marylyn let drop her bonnet and the
COW horn that hung by u thong to her
wrist Then, with folded hands, she
looked up and around her, shifting the
warm air in delight. The Texas home
had never offered such lovely retreat.
There the arid mesa had grown tborny
mesquite, scraggled cypress or stunted
live oak for u shade. Sand had whirled
ceaselessly before Il high, hot wind.
No flowers had bloomed but the pale
toadfiax and the prickly pear, and be-
side the salt lakes of that almost wa
terless waste had nestled only the vul-
ture.
But this! 1t was like the blossom
strewn plain that burst upon them as,
desert wearied, they travelled into cen
trail Texas: like the glimpses of April
woodland In the Upper and Lower
Cross Timbers. 1t made generous re
turn for the long, merciless winter.
More-in one glance, in one breath, it
swept away Il whole winter of hateful
memories.
She caught up bonnet and horn and
chose a seat close to the river. Before
her was Il gap in The knotted grape
vine heaps that chung along the brink
of the bank. Through it, yelled only
by some tendrils that swung wishfully
across, lay wedgelike vista of mud
dy water, bottom land, bluff and sky.
The midmorninG sun glinted upon the
treacherOus current. upon the wet grass
of the bottom land, upon the green
brown bluff and the eating at its top.
upon the far, curving azure of the sky.
Against the dazzle, her blue eyes
winked harder than the breeze tossed
anemopes. Stretching out upon her
back, she rested them in the shifting
canopy of foliage.
A startled kingbird flashed past her,
roming from 4 tree by The cut. She
got up and saw Il man in uniform
standing near He was a young man,
with a flushed face and wildly rum
pied hair. In one hand he held a tas-
seled hat and in the other rife.
He leaned forward from behind a
burberry bush, ana his look wta
guilty eager and adlniring.
AS startled rs the kingbird, she
grasped the COW horn and lifted it tt
her lips.
But she did not blow q warning. The
uniform retreated in cowardly haste
the tasseled hat lowered. and the eyes
beseeched.
moment Then the man smiled
ana shook his hat at her roguishly
"A-ahw he said-in the tone of one
who had made discovery-"I didn'
know before that a fairy lives in this
grover'
Marylyn glanced over shoulder
Does there?" she questioned, hal
whispering.
He took Il forward step. "Ther
does" he answered solemnly. ut
Goldenhair as well as l can make out
But where on earth are the bears?'
Instantly she had her bonnet. MY
N.Y. she said. Bears! Indians is ba'
enough" she peered into the lon
heaps of tangled grapevine.
.. "Oh, now" he exclaimed self accus
ingly. He whipped knee with tn
hat. "Now, I've gone and scared you
Say, honest! There isn't bear in
hundred miles. To stake my stupi
head on it,
but Golden she began.
"Goldenhair?" He smiled again. b
way of entreaty. "Why, Goldenhair
you"
She clapped on her bonnet in littl
furry pulling it down to hide the las
yellow wsp.
misunderstanding the action, he b.
gan to plead. oh don't go; pleas
don't go! I've wanted to meet you f
months and months. I've heard s
much about you. Lounsbury told me-.
She gave him quick look from III
der the bonnet's rim. MI. Loun
sbury," she repeated and stiffened h'
lips.
Eyes"
h ''He don't know much about me,
reckon. lie amt been to see us II
months and -manths.'" She began
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