The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-02-29

jecting root, and the horse at once
stopped. Half an hour later Job came
down the lane to fetch water from the
there patiently with the empty wagon
behind him.
job saw at once that something
serious had happened. He ran per-
haps hundred yards along the road;
then, realizing that he would be likely
to need help, he sped back to the
house for Lydia. Fearing to alarm
Mrs. Cassidy, he asked the girl to
take step down the lane with him, II
being such an uncommon fine night"
She was on the point of an abrupt re-
fusal, when she caught the grave and
anxious meaning in his eyes.
"All right, Job said she, with a
sudden vague apprehension, I'll git
my hat an come right along"
She ran after the man, and overlook
him half way down the lane. What's
the matter?" she asked, breathlessly
Job pointed to the horse and empty
wagon. plainly visible few rods be-
low.
Where is he?" she gasped, clutch.
ing at Jobs arm.
Back along the road somewheres,
likely" said Job. Il thought as how
I might need help to lift him."
Lydia tried to question further, but
the voice died in her aching throat,
and she hurried on beside the man in
stunned silence. succession Of
dreadful forebodings flashed through
her mind. She kept repeating to her.
self that she had killed her grand.
father. Then they came to the wagon
Job turned the horse. She climbed to
the wagon-seat, and sat with her fin.
gers twisting and untwisting, az Job
drove rapidly back along the road to
the Corners.
The moon was higher and winter
now, and every object along the road.
side stood out sharply. They came to
the little bridge. They stopped, and
cried out as with one voice when they
saw John Cassidy's whip lying in the
road. Then they sprang out OF the
wagon, and Lydia was down the bank
in an instant, she knew not how.
kneeling in the edge of the stream,
which she noticed not at all, she
raised her grandfather's bleeding face
to her bosom.
"Oh. he's alive! He breathes!" she
cried in high, breaking voice to job
who was STOPPING over her
When the old man had been carried
home and laid in his own bed he was
still unconscious. Mrs. Cassidy, white
and stern and fearless, took every
thing out OF Lydia's hands, and aston.
ished the girl by her swift energy and
readiness. After what seemed weeks
of waiting the doctor came. Having
found broken shoulder he set 1t, and
then announced that unless there was
concussion of the brain the patient
would almost certainly recover, though
but slowly. Upon this Mrs. Cassidy
went into another room, where she
could not hear her husbands heavy
breathing, and threw her apron over
her face.
She had sat there for perhaps half
an hour, when Lydia stole in to try
and comfort her; but she turned on
the girl bitterly. She was no longer
the doting grandmother, but the grief.
stricken wife, fierce at the pain which
Lydia had caused her husband. BY
that deep intuition which may at
times, we know not how, illumine
womans heart, she saw that Lydia
had been in some way the cause of the
accident. And Lydia saw it, too,
though there appeared to be no reason.
able ground for such conclusion. A
few bitter words from the resentful
woman and Lydia also knew what had
been so tenderly hidden from her--the
story OF her mothers ruin. With
bowed head and bleeding heart she
crept back to her grandfather bed
and crouched down beside 1t with her
face buried in the quilt.
For days John Cassidy's life hung
upon thread. He was delirious most
of the time. and seeing Lydia's bright
head so continually hanging over his
pillow, his wanderings for the most
part concerned themselves with her.
From scattered phrases of ais delirium
and half-formed mutterings and ap.
peals which wrung her soul, Lydia
learned how little of accident there
had been in the stroke which had
overthrown her grandfather.
This knowledge, uncovering to her
as 1t did the deeps Of his devotion,
pierced her with pang that was not
all pain. The remorseful anguish Of
1t was lightened by the thought Of
such love enfolding her. This thought
was like balm to the shame which had
burned her spirit ever since that cruel
revelation OF her grandmother's
Under the scorching experiences of
those grievous days Lydia's nature
ripened.
On an afternoon of Indian summer,
one of those days when winter,
though close at hand, seems to have
fallen asleep and forgotten his pur-
pose, Lydia stood again by the bars
with her two pals of spring water.
She gazed across the wide country to
the mysterious notch in the hills. The
patch of sky, melting in an indescribs.