The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-08-15


revery, the girl shot occasional glances
st him out of the corners OF her eyes.
She had spent the preceding winter
J In a factory in a crude but stirring
| little New England town, and had
come back to Nova Scotia i'll content
with the monotony of life In the
backwoods seclusion OF Wyers Set.
tlement. Before she went away she
had been, TO use the vernacular of
the settlement. "keepin' company
with Jim.Ed A'kl'son" and now, to
her. the young man seemed to unite
and concentrate In his person all that
she had been wont TO persuade her
self she had outgrown To be sure,
she not seldom caught herself back
comfortably into the old conditions.
But these symptoms stirred in her
heart an uneasy resentment, akin to
that she felt whenever-as would hap.
pen at times-she could not help rec
ognizing that Jim-Ed and his affairs
were not without a passing interest in
her eyes
Now she began to grow particu.
larly angry at him because, as she
thought, "he hadn't nothing to say
fer himself" Sadly to his disadvan.
tage, she compared his simplicity
| and honest diffidenCe with the bold
self-assertion and easy familiarity of
the young fellows with whom she
had come in contact during the
winter. Their impertinences had
offended her grievously at the time,
but, womanlike, she permitted her.
self to forget that now, in order to
accentuate the deficiencies OF the
man whom she was unwilling to think
| well Of.
my landsl" she reiterated TO her.
self. with accumulated scorn, but
amt he green? He--why, he wouldn't
know 'lectrlc car from a waterin'-
cart. An soft. too, takin' all my sass
thout givin' me no lip back, no more'n
IL | was his mother!"
But the young man presently broke
in upon these unflattering reflections.
With a sigh he said slowly, as IL half
to himself:
Lands, but | used to set power.
full store by ye, Liz"
| llp Ddubtus dI ludI uStu W
the girl opened her eyes with angry
apprehension. But he went on:
AN l set still more store by ye
now, Liz, someways. Seem like jest
couldn't live without ye. | always did
feel as how ye was too good, a sight
too good, fer me, an you so smart;
an now I feel it more'n ever, bein' s
we've seen so much OF the world like.
But, Liz | don't allow as it's right an
proper fer even you to look down the
way ye do on the place ye was born
in an the folks ye was brung up
with,
My" thought the girl to herself,
'hes got some spunk, after all, to git
of such a speech as that an to rake
me over the Goals, tool"
But aloud she retorted: who's
a-looldn' down on anybody, 'Jim-Ed
A'kl-son? An anyways, you amt the
whole OF Wyer's Settlement, be YEP"
The justice OF this retort seemed
to strike the young man with great
force.
That's So" he acknowledged,
gloomily "Course amt. An
s'pose | hadn't oughter said what
did"
Then he relapsed into silence. For
half mile he slouched on without a
syllable, save an occasional word of
command addressed to the team.
Coming to another boggy bit OF road
he seated himself dejectedly on the
cart, and apparently would not pre-
sumo to again press unwelcome as
slstance upon"his fellow way-farer
Quite uncertain whether to interpret
this action as excess of humility or as
severe rebuke, the girl picked her
way as best she could, flushed with
sense Of injury.
When the mud was passed, the
young man absent-mindedly kept his
seat. Beginning to boil with indigna.
tion, the girl speedily lost her conf
dent superiority, and felt hu$iliated.
She did not know what to do. She
could not continue to walk humbly be-
side the cart. The situation was pro-
foundly altered by the fact that the
young man was riding. She tried to
drop behind; but the team had an In
finite capacity for lettering, At last,
with head high in the air, she darted
ahead of the team and walked as fast
as she could Although she heard no
orders given by their driver, she knew
at once that the oxen had quickened
their pace, and that she was not leav-
ing them behind.
Presently she found herself over
taken; whereupon. with swelling heart
and face averted, she dropped again
to the rear She was drawing peril
ousy near the verge OF that feminine
cataclysm, tears. when Fate stepped
in to save her from such a mortifica-
tion.
Fate goes about in many merry dis
guises. Al this juncture she pre-
sented herself under the aspect OF
two half.tipsy commercial travellers
driving single horse in a light open
trap. They were driving in from
the settlement, In haste to reach the
hotel at Bolton Corners before night
fall The youth hawed his team
| I,r;c fUh ,rybn