The Prescott daily news., 1908-09-23
THE HOUSE BY THE WAY
By IMAGERY WILLIAMS
(Copyright.)

It seemed the only house on the road, which, for the last five miles since he left Birchvills, had stretched, flat and dusty and featureless, edged by barren pasture land overgrown with brambles and huckleberry bush es, with here and there stunted tree to break the monotony. He slowed his bicycle as he drew near, looking at the small square dwelling, with its whitewashed fence and green shutters, and tiny unpainted barn at the back, and little patch of culti yated ground in which, between rows of bean-poles and cabbages, he could see the moving flutter of a woman's skirt. She had her back toward him, stopping to gather something. She turned as he stopped at the gate and he could see her hands full of green leaves and earthly roots
 Can you tell me-" he began, dis mounting. and then paused as he saw her coming toward. him. When she moved something about her struck him instantly as incongruous-h
 
 young and should have been pretty but that her hair was strained back too tightly from her face, giving her look of plainness.
 I'm going to ask you." he began again pleasantly, as she came near Ito let me have drink at your pump and then put me on the right road for Allentown"
 Directly she spoke the incongruity resolved itself. She had the voice of his own native city. olear-cut, edu. .cated
 This Is the Allentown road" she said, and won't you como in, please? The pump is just around at the side" She held open the unlatched gate and he leaned his wheel against the fence and followed her in. There was tin dipper turned upside down on the pump top; he filled 1t and drank. The water tasted good after seven miles of dusty riding.
 While he was drinking he observed her again. There was . curious rest lessness in her face, a look at once eager and disappointed. It was the expression that comes to those who have watched empty roads for a long time. He glanced at her hands. They were earth-stained and squared at the finger-tips by outdoor work, and they, too, had the same nervous lines, the same tired wistfulness.
 'I suppose it's very hot riding" she said as he set the dipper down.
 "Scorching!"
 He glanced about him at the tidy garden patch with it's lines of beans and tomatoes, few summer annuals blooming here and there among the sober green and brown-phloX and marigolds and nasturtiums.
 You have a nice garden here" he said.
 Yes. It's very quiet"
 She hesitated a moment, then said: Allentown is eight miles from here. Won't you come into the house and have some tea before you so on? I was just going to make it.
 He looked at his dusty boots.
 q am alone just now" she said quickly And it is so quiet here-no one ever comes. One is so glad to see anybody"
 He murmured some vague thanks as she turned abruptly, averting her head, and followed her up the little trodden path to the open door It was two-room cottage, with little lean- to shed at the back, built for a sum- mer kitchen
 T know it's unmannerly asking you in like this, but you don't mind, do you? and we're quite strangers, so it doesn't matter. One so seldom sees guests here that one likes to make the most of them She laughed, and he could read the nervous restlessness in her voice, the hunger born of mo- notony. Wont you pull that chair up?-that's right Do you take sugar :? It's such an age since I poured out tea for anyone!"
 There was almost defiance in her friendliness, her frankness, her reck- less eagerness to make the most.of