The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-09-23
P II.

ILL theS ~ " tSSetA
her, and ready to reproach him for
leaving her alone at ALL tied up in
that ridiculous manner.
But where had he gone? She
looked out over the line, but at first
he was nowhere to be seen. Then
suddenly she spied him coming up
out Of a hollow, out of earshot al
ready, and walking on steadily, but
walking, alas-oh! most ineXplicable
fact-walking away from her! LES
lie! Leslie!" she called again, though
she knew he could not hear her.
A swarm Of flies buzzed up into the
air from the warm leaves about her,
startled by the shrill and sudden cry.
Leslie! Leslie!" she reiterated,
struggling franctically to disengage
herself, though she knew that the one
effort was as futile as the other.
Then the impulse to struggle and cry
was over, and she drew herself up
against the post, a changed woman in
these few minutes, in a changed
world!
The child had just caught another
butterfly. 1t was under his hat on
the grass, and he was sitting beside
the hat, holding it down with both
dimpled hands in a determined way,
calculated to give a spectator a vast
idea of the strength of the creature
beneath.
Every now and then he tilted the
hat up a little bit, and craned down
his neck, SO as to peep under, till at
last, catching a glimpse of his prize in
a moment of oblivious excitement, he
lifted the hat entirely, when the
pretty prisoner Immediately spread
its painted wings and luttered off.
The child watched it for a moment
with a ludicrous expression of dismay
on his countenance, and then scram-
bled up and toddled on in pursuit,
losing his balance often on the un-
equal ground, and performing as
much of the distance on his hands
and knees as on his feet; while his
mother in turn watched him, if
watching it can be called when the
eyes involuntarily convey a record of
what is passing to the brain, and
write it there for the use Of recollec-
ton by and by, the mind being absent
at the moment, and all unconscious
of the process.
The child had crept and toddled by
this time to the nearest line Of rails,
on the polished surface Of n of
which he now sat. He had forgotten
the butterfly in the exertion of fol-
lowing it, and was looking about for
some new object of interest when his
mother called him. She did it by
force of habit and mechanically:
"Boykins, come to mammal"
The boy turned to her with the
beauty and innocence of an angel,
and the merry mischief of a healthy
little mortal on his face, and laughed.
"Boykins no go to mummy" he
lisped. Mummy naughty. Mummy
put in a corner"
"Yes, Boykins, come to mummy.
Poor mummy a prisoner"
But the boy only laughed again,
IuloWll5 llllSCll DoSh vi SnS Ao%ib
and kicking his plump legs about. 1t
was too good a joke this! Mamma a
prisoner, papa gone, and Mr.. Baby a
gentleman at large! He couldn't en-
joy it half enough.
His mother had called him mechan-
tcally, as we have said. Her mind was
for the moment paraylzed by the
shock of the situation in which she
found herself. She felt that m
thing had gone wrong; she knew she
was in trouble; but what was wrong,
and wherefore the trouble, she had
not yet been able to think.
Another shock was requisite to adj
Just the balance of her disordered
thoughts. And presently it came.
CHANGING away from the child for a
moment, her eye was caught by a
dark body that was rising up into the
empty sky from the heath far away,
low down, close to the verge of the
horizon on the left.
She saw it at first, as W. constantly
see things which bear no reference
to ourselves, and offer at a glance n
feature of special interest to fix our
attention. She looked at it, and she
looked away; but the heavy opacity
of the thing had impressed itself on
her retina, and glance in what direc-
ton she would it was that she saw
darkening all other objects.
Something unusual in this phenom-
enon made her look back to ascertain
the cause Of it, and the slight effort
of the will this act necessitated was
sufficient to r%earouse her dormant
mental energy.
What was the thing? A pillar? A
cloud? Why, both, of course! A pill
lar OF smoke! A cloud Of smoke!
But how did so dense a cloud Of
smoke happen to be there? Coal
smoke, too, far from any human hab-
i~tation, and rising apparently from
the bare brown heath. Another n
helped her to answer the question for
herself-the sense of hearing, upon
which there now smote a rumbling
sound as dull and heavy to the ear
as the massive pillar of smoke had
been to the eye, a sound which she
had been accustomed to all her life, a
familiar rush and roar the cause of
which she had not even to ask her.
self; but it's very familiarity made it
strange to her now, because Of a GER
tain new significance, and also the
time and place.
Ii was as if she had acOuirod an