The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1908-01-17

uAP11AunAH siS, s iOt 5Dy. any means. She
had dWelt long and earnestly. and no
doubt TO large extent truly. on the
uncivilized condition of their neigh
bors up the line; the roughness Of
accommodations, the holiness and
license of the cowboys, the daring
and 1nsolence of cattle thieves, and
cunning and dishonesty of the Indians
and the uncouthness and viciousness
of the half-breeds. She had ended nv
declaring eloquently that Louise would
die of lonesomeness if, by Gods good
providence, she escaped a worse fate
at the hands of one or all of the n,anv
evils she had enumerated. Yes. it,
was very evident Aunt Helen had not
wanted her to 80. But Aunt Helen's
real reason had been that she held
it SO dlzzlly unconventional for her
niece to go to that wild and unholy
land alone. She did not actually fear
for her niece's personal safety. and
Louise more than half suspected the
truth.
She had heard all the arguments
before. They had little or no terrors
for her now. They were the arcu-
ments used by the people back in her
eastern home, those dear, dear peo-
pie, her people-how far awav she
Was!-When they had schemed and
plotted so pathetically to keep her
with them, the second one to- break
away from the slow, safe, and calm
traditions Of her kin in the place
where generation after generation Of
her people had lived and died, and
now lay waiting the great judgment
in the peaceful country burying-
ground
She had listened to them dutifully.
half believing, swallowed hard and
followed her uncle, her fathers
youngest brother, to the Land of the
Dakotahs.''
Now, that same dear uncle was
man OF power and position in the new
land. Only last November he had
been reelected to his third term on
the bench of his circuit with a. big.
heart~stirring majority. In the day
of his prosperity he had not forgot
ten the little, tangle-haired girl who
had cried so inconsolably when he
went away and the unaccountable hor-
ror in whose eyes he had tried to
laugh away on that observation-disclosures
ten day when he had wrenched his
heartstrings from their safe abiding
place and gone forth in quest of the
pot of gold at the rainbow's end
the first of many generations. Tradi-
ton knew no other since his ances-
tors had felled forests and built homes
of hewn logs. Now he had sent for
Louise. His court reporter had re-
Gently left him for other fields of
labor.
There was commotion among her
people on receipt of the astounding
proposition. She lived over again
the dark days of the first fitting. It
might we'll be her uncle had exag-
gerated the dangers of life in the new
land. 1t was great fun to shock his
credulous relatives. He had surely
written them some enormous tales
during those Is years and more. He
used to chuckle heartily to himself
at reading some Of the sympathizing
replies. But these tales were held in
evidence against him now that he
dared to want Louise. Every letter
was brought out by Louise's dear old
grandmother and read to her over
again. Louise did not half believe
them, but they were gospel truth to
her grandmother and almost so to
her father and mother as we'll. She re-
membered the old spirit of fun ram
pant in her favorite uncle, and while
his vivid pictures took all the color
from her sensitive face, deep down in
her heart she recognized them for
what they were worth The letters
were strange medley of grasshoppers,
billiards. and Indians. But ten-dol-
lar per diem was a great temptation
over five-dollar per diem, and times
were pretty hard on the old farm.
More than all, the inexplicable some
thing that had led her uncle to throw
tradition to the four winds of heaven
was calling her persistently and would
not be Denied
The dear hero of her childhood
was much changed to be sure; his
big joints had taken on more flesh
and he had gained in dignity of de-
pertinent what he had lost in ease of
movement. His once merry eve had
grown keen with the years of just
judging. The lips that had laughed
so much in the old days were set in
lines of sternness. Judge Hammond
Dale was a man who would live up to
the tenets of his high calling without
fear or favor, through good and evil
report. Yet through all his gravity
of demeanor and the pride of his in.
tegrity, Louise instinctively felt bis
kindness and loved him for it. The
loneliness fell away from her and
measure of content had come in it's
place, until the letter had come from
the states attorney up in Kemah
county:
My Dear Miss Dale: The eighteenth of
August is the date set for the prelimin-
If