The Jasper news., 1907-01-24

on~the porch after supper, and drew
a chair close to where the superin.
tendent of the Apple Dumping mine
was incoming.
Did them strikers raise ANY rum.
pls today?" she inquired.
Grafton shook his head. STAN
wood was with the committee aR af-.
| tefnoon," he said they've compro-
missed their differences, and the men
come back to work tomorrow. OF
course few sore-heads are hanging
on, but we can get along without
them. Our fve-day strike 10 done
with"
''You don't look none too cheerful"
Mrs. Cree limited.
Grafton shrugged his shoulders.
'The mines not worrying me-" he
said shortly. THE owners presence
Strengthened out the muddle.'
And don't you think his daughter
kind of helped things along?" Mrs.
Cree innocently inquired.
Grafton shot suspicious glance at
her. She mapped out her fathers
speeches, suppose" he grunted.
The landlady chuckled as she set
tied herself more comfortably in her
chair; and though 1t was a chuckle
Of amusement there seemed to run
an under chord of sympathy through.
| It.
She's up there in her bedroom
now" Mrs. Cree said "a-sewing by
her window, and a-looking out over.
the hills. Seems kind of down in the
mouth and dispirited, poor thing, like
as IL the hills wasn't as pretty this
year as last. Why, last summer when
1 she was here, she was just like a
kitten, playing all over everything,
and not giving gracious what she
did or how she did 1t. You and her
was always trotting up the cricks and
over the rocks-don't you remember?
And this summer she don't even say
how-de-do hardly, especially to you"
Mrs. Cree paused a moment. you
was down at her home in Denver last
winter, wasn't you?" she broadly
limited.
She is a girl Of moods Grafton
said shortly.
But sech moods amt natural. Jim
mie.,' -.
4 'The strike worried her. Grafton
| stood up.
Now, you set down again." Mrs.
Cree said with sharp decisiveness.
The young superintendent meekly
l obeyed.
>"You've been boarding with me
going on six years." Mrs. Cree re-
sumed, ''and I've got sort of hearty
feeling for you, Jimmie. And Madge
Stanwood's been stopping with me a
few weeks every summer, going on
4 six years, too. I've seen her growing
| up, just as you have, and I've seen all
along just what you was calculating
for later on. That later on came this
winter, down in the city. didn't it?
4 With unpleasant results?"
Grafton made a wry face. "oh,
! what's the use?" he said. irritably.
Talking about 1t won't mend mat
ters. She turned me down, hard.
But what's the use of threshing out
chaff? She dislikes me, and that's
the cold fact.
"If she thought It was ended" Mrs.
Cree said sagely, shed be down here
on the veranda right now. and ia a.
seen her dimples all day, stead OF
them white cheeks. II Amt ended,
Jimmie"
Grafton grunted again.
"Oh, you men are aggravatin.," ]"
Mrs. Cree cried In evaporation. you
can't tell body anything. Well,
don't! It amt any OF my affairs.,'
But"
There. trot along down town and
see II you cant absorb a little life. II
1 You come back in an hour, I'll try to
have her out here, settin' In the, twi-
: light and pretending she ain't wait.
Ing for you.''
4 Grafton obediently started down the
steps. but he hesita.ed. an-instant and
returned
ut was when / visited them last
winter" he said quickly. There was
another fellow. lost my head.
II guess. didn't manage Sightiy He
cut me out, somehow. and i got the
sore-head. She's nothing but .
s firt."
He turned and savagely strobe to
ward the gate, but Mrs. Cree's benev
olent chuckle followed him with
something like mockery.
He was agitated and distraught
and his unpleasant reverie closed IL