Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1907-06-21
Ely A BARRETT

always here, always the same tin you
came" she said.
Days, and weeks, and months slipped
away without seeming tedious, even to
me TO Psyche they were all too short.
We rarely worked for less than ten hours
n day. and every fresh inch of progress
in the borrow added to my hope of a
happy end. In the intervals between
work and sleep we amused ourselves some
times in playing bowls with the rounded
pieces of chalk that we found in our
excavation sometimes in carving a run
ming scroll that l designed on the wall
of the smaller cave. The latter amuse-
ment pleased Psyche greatly. She had a
strong initiative faculty, and became very
deft in the use of a knife in carving, but
the great charm of this occupation was
that it beautiied our dwelling place. No
lady could be more fastidious about the
arrangement of her drawing room than
she was about the wrctchcd appointments
OF these miserable caves; she seized Gag
erly any suggestion for making them more
ha5itable. Cav was no longer allowed to
perch on the loaf, nor was he permitted
to hop across the table at neal time.
She became scrupulously careful about
her personal appearance. When we came
luz DuTToW All DeudDolPu ana grim
ed with salt water and sand, she retired
into her ~alcove, which l had screened
with a blanket, and thence she came forth
in due time dressed in her best, and with
shoes and stockings on. She was pro-
digiously proud of the addition of shoes
to her costume as being ike mine, and
never let me see that they panied her
every time she movcd-for she had worn
them some weeks before I discovered, by
accident, that they were far too small for
her poor feet. Taking me as her model,
she would have cut her hair short like
mine, but 1 forbade that, and taught her
to plait it into two long tails-which
was the only arrangement ! could think
of in the absence of hair pips-to her
immense delight.
Without doubt a great and good change,
physical as we'll as moral, was produced
in her by the altered circumstances of her
life. She made flesh her cheek lost its
holiowness, and a little color came into
1t; her shoulders expanded, her arms grew
plump, and her figure developed graceful
curves. She was more human. At first
her laughter brought tears into my eyes,
but now there was a joyous ring in it
that made me glad. She had a healthy
love OF gaiety and fun, and a most human
craving for praise and admiration. Only
when she grew tired something of the old
elfish, pensive sadness came hack to her
face, and at these times she would for
sake her amusements and coax me to talk
about the world she was going to, and the
people in it, sitting wistfu!iy silent by
my side.
1t was on the 3oth of Augustus four
months and three days from the day I
was made prisoner-that a stroke OF
Psyche's Ratchet brought down a cone of
wet sand, and "a shed of light streamed
into our TUNE through a crack at the
edge of the chalk over our hands. eat
las" l cried, driving my Latched into
the crack and so widening the gap that a
great food Of light burst upon US.
With a moan of pain Psyche dropped
her AK and covered her eyes with her
hands. Frantic joy made me brutally
Indifferent to her suffering. I thought
only of my recovered liberty, and drop
ping the Ratchet tore away the sand and
shingle with my hands until 1 had made
a hole through which 1 wriggled my body.
Then l stood up, and stretched out my
arms toward the opening sky over my
head, thanking God aloud with a choking
voice for His mercy.