Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1908-03-18

BY Lulu Loretta Baker

anu lOUhlHS dIleT SOInt HluSH al
ternately. Corn mush and a French
classic are somewhat divergent, but
Felicia was a riddle, anyway.
And she did not heave a sigh as she
left the scenes of the book, and sat
down to her solitary supper.
I'm as hungry as a bear" she said,
half aloud.
SO am l. Don't be frightened" said
a voice at the open window. And, be-
ing a riddle, she didn't scream, though
no door about the house was closed,
and it was dusk
I'm alone Her voice was steady,
though her blood was pounding her
veins. There isn't even dog here;
so if you wish to come in you will
have no trouble" She was even sar-
castle.
She filled tumbler with milk from
pitcher at her right, while he came
around to the door.
You're brave" he said She did
not look up.
I'm very hospitable as well. Don't
hesitate q moment.
He sat opposite her, cycling with
real hunger the steaming mush pushed
over to him.
He bent his head, as if ashamed,
and ate eagerly.
She looked at him steadily for the
first time.
An awful fear, greater, but different
from any fear of molestation, clutched
at her, Unconsciously she moved for
ward, her gaze so piercing that invol-
unfairly the mans intellectual eyes
fastened upon her as if hypnotized.
They stared at each other silently
for several seconds, the self-possessed
slender girl and the wide-eyed man.
do you think such method as this
of obtaining data is entirely laudable?
Some people are easily frightened"
Her eyes still on his, and coldly.
He jumped from his chair, over
throwing his glass, searching her face.
who are YOU"
Felicia Thrawley."
"You are not!" rudely. "Felicia's
hair was brown; yours is almost white,
and it is only six years. You can't
be-"
Indeed" was her only rejoinder.
The mans fingers trembled. He
tried to say something, but could not,
and shame overwhelmed him at
thought of the great work he had neg
lected, becoming in the last two years
next to vagrant in reality, instead of
posing as one to study the conditions
of his country. And Felicia! Felicia,
the clever, the girl whom he used to
imagine loved him at times; then as
he sought her out, eluded him, seemed
to hate him.
How did you come here?" he
managed to say finally.
Il live here. I'm living the simple
life," she laughed little, hunting
eggs, wading in the creek, cooking
when l like, and Incidentally filling a
small post as critic" She named
well-known publication.
He interrupted her with a cry of
gladness for her strong, ambitious
womanhood And seized by impulse
fessed his neglect of the university's
expectations of him, him whose chair
there was as yet filled only temporarily
while he the master at economics and
sociology was tramping the world for
actual knowledge Of it's conditions.
And he had come to love the life so
that he had deceived the trustees, his
friends and newspaperdom, reveling
in the gypsys love of woods and hills
and fower-tangled paths, though they
thought him still diligent in the work
he set out to do.
Wasn't it, isn't it glorious?"
Felicia was radiant, the ever-charming
Felicia
WHAT" he said, duly, as child
who expects to be scolded.
why, to be half pagan, forget
ting universities, dusty books and
problems"
"You don't hate me for stopping"
ITO live awhile?" she finished
Scornfully. NO, I've done as near the
same as l could, being woman.
Chloe and Sambo are here with me,
delayed in the fields tonight. Father
is dead, you know" she added with
her face paling. "And couldn't bear
to stay in the town any longer
"You are alone
Except Reindeer; he is in the
stable" She smiled, though her eyes
were doNncast, her mouth sad
MAY l stay then? Felicia, love,
you know | would never have stayed
away so long if your caprice had not
been so puzzling. was afraid of you,
Felicia!" He had come around to her
chair and was bending his luxuriant-
Uncovered head against the silvered
satin of her hair which fell like a
halo around her young face.
She trembled; she who was sarcas-
tic, self-possessed, radiant, and said
in quick succession
"This is a grand old place; all the
hills and trees and tangled woods such
gypsies as you and shall need. And