The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1907-09-06
Latlonship with himself. He felt that

and feel her golden weight upon his
arm-would be to startle her, and then
all at once he would awaken from a
dream to find her gone. He thought
he would feel very badly then, for
probably he would never be able to
get back into the same dream again.
SO he was cautious, resolving 20 make
the thing last until it came true of
itself.
Once when they followed the stream
down, in the late afternoon, he had
unused himself so full o. the wonder
of her that he almost forgot his eau
ton in an amiable impulse to let her
share in his feelings.
You know" he. began, you're like
as if | had been trying to think of a
word | wanted to Say-some fine, big
word, fancy One-but | couldn't
think of it. You know how you can't
think Of the one you want sometimes,
only nothing else will do in place Of
it, and then all at once, when you quit
trying to think, it flashes over you.
You're like that. | never could think
of you, but | just had to because /
couldn't get along without it, and then
when | didn't expect it you just hap
pened along-the word came along
and said itself"
Without speaking she had run
ahead to pick the white and blue col
umbines and pink roses. And he,
alarmed at his holiness, fearing she
would now be afraid of him, went
forward with the deep purpose of
! showing her a light, careless mood,
to convince her that he had meant
nothing much.
The little bent man at the house
would look at them with a sort of
helplessness when they came in, some
/ times even forgetting the smile he
was wont to hide his hurts. lie was
impressed anew each time be saw
them with the furnishing power of
such vengeance as was left to the
Lord. He could see more than either
Of the pair before him The little
white-haired boy who had fought him
with tooth and nail 50 long ago, to
be not taken from Prudence, had now
come back with the might of a man,
even the might Of lover, to take her
from him when she had become all
OF his life. He could think of no
sharper revenge upon himself or his
people. For this cowboy was the
spirit incarnate of the oncoming east,
thorned on by the Lord to avenge
his churchs crime.
Then in the night would come the
terrOrS of the dark, the curses and
groans of that always-dying thing be.
hind him. And always now he would
see the hand with the silver bracelet
at the wrist, Haunting in his face
the shivering strands of gold with
the crimson patch at the end. Yet
even this, because he could see il.
was less fearful than the thing he
could not see, the thing that crawled
or lurched relentlessly behind him,
with the snoring sound in its throat.
the smell of warm blood and the
horrible dripping of it, whose breath
he could feel on his neck and whose
nerveless hands sometimes fumbled |
weakly at his shoulder. as it stroye
to come in front of him.
He sat sleepless in his chair with
candles burning for three nights when
Follett, late in August, went off to |
meet a messenger from one of his !
fathers wagon trains which, he said,
was on its way north. Fearful he was |
the meaning of his presence, he was
ineXpressibly glad when the Gentle
returned to save him from the terrors
of the night.
And there was now a new goad Of
remorse. The evening before Fol.
let's return he had found Prudence
in tears after a visit to the village,
With a sudden great onrush of pity
he had taken her in his arms to
comfort her, feeling the selfshness
strangely washed from his love, as the
sobs convulsed her.
Come, come, child-tell your ia
Their what it is" he had urged her,
and when she became a little ouiet
she had told him.
On, Daddy, dear--Ive just heard
such an awful thing, what they tall,
Of me in AMAZON, and of you and nv
mother-shameful!"
He knew then what was coming.
he had wondered, indeed, that this
talk should be so long in reaching
ler; but he waited silently, soothing
her.
They say, whoever my mother was
you couldn't have married her-that
is your first wife, and the
emple records show it. And, oh.
Daddy, they say it means that | am
enid OF sin-and shame-and il
made me want to kill myself
Another passion of tears and sobs
lad overwhelmed her, and all but
broken down the little little man !
let he controlled himself and soothed