The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1909-06-17
D|ANTHE OF
THE WOODS,
It Wasn't a Witch He Caught,
but His Ideal of a Girl.
BY M. WOODRUFF NEWELL.

ton when he net his fate.
\ severe attack of typhoid had put
him considerably on the bias, so that
he welcomed a quiet recuperating old
farmhouse twenty miles from a lem
on as a desired haven and went there
for a summers sojourn the LIST Of
July.
The old couple with whom he board
ed were one Lemuel Merriwether and
his wife, and they worried constantly
for fear he should have a relapse.
I'm very apt to-" Andrew assured
them often, being so weak, you know.
The delirium especially Is likely to
return"
Being a lone young bachelor, he en-
toyed their anxiety in his behalf and
worked shamelessly on their sympa-
thies.
my heaven!" exclaimed Mrs. Merri-
wether the morning that he told her
that, throwing away a raisin that she
was seeding and putting the seeds into
the cake in her excitement.
"Oh, it's q very sad diseased" con-
tinued Andrew pensively, reaching for
his fifth cooky.
Then he took his camera and went
out for a mornings prowl through the
woods.
The country was in its summer
glory, and just before he started back
to the house he took the picture that
| started the trouble.
He had been walking along by the
river, and, struck by a clump OF birch
trees that fringed a dim woodland
path, he trained his camera on it and
sought the finder. He smiled happily
as he saw the picture it made-the
slim young trees with the long path
winding up behind them.
That's fine" he told himself and,
holding the camera steady, snapped it.
He could scarcely wait to get home to
develop it.
Mrs. Merriwether saw him coming
and exclaimed anXiously, Gracious
me, boy, where's the fire?"
Got a prize package" he answered
solemnly.
Mrs. Merriwether, honest soul. stared
after him.
"You don't suppose, now, the heats
affected his head, do you?" she wills
pered to Lemuel as he came up from
the barn a little later.
Hes been on the go all day in the
hot sun, and after such a fever as ht
had he's liable to have spells OF
looney, you know he said so. l jus
asked him what he vas hurrying 81
for, and he said he had a prize pack
age, and l declare to goodness I didn''
see nothing but that old camera"
"Shoo. shoe, mother, the boys al
right. It's probably just some Of his
funny business"
If they had seen "the boy" at tina
precise moment they would probably
have been more anxious than they
were about him.
He was looking at the developed
film with startled eyes. His hands
shook as he held it up dripping be
tween him and the small ruby lamp or
the table.
by George" he said and put i
through the bath again.
A second time he held it up and scru
tinized it in the dim red glow.
"By gum he said, 'it's a witch OF
I'm going looney"
There was the path stretching out al
luringly into the woods beyond. There
were the birch trees, tall and slender
and beautiful, and there, just beyond
them, peering out between two mass
i've oak tree trunks that bordered the
path. was a girl or a witch or q dry
ad, with laughing lips, flying hair ant
an extraordinary eighteenth century
gown.
GLOW the dickens puzzled Andrew
ITS something on the film. There
couldn't have been a real girl there
alone. Lord. there amt Il within
twenty miles. She surely wouldn'
walk that far, and there was no team
in sight, and, anyway, what would {
girl of Revolutionary days be doinl
hereE'
He washed the film carefully ant
put it through the hypo bath. Then h'
washed it again and, hanging 1t up q
dry, went down to supper.
There he talked at random, his mint
being full Of the mysterious picture
His remarks were so rambling ina
they confirmed every suspicion tina
Mother Merriwethcr had formed tina
afternoon.
Hes off, she whispered sharply Il
Iemue, outside the kitchen door. Its
the heat. He's way off. Just see how
funny he talks. If be amt better IL
the mornins well have Or. Snow com
over. Well have to watch him with
out his knowing it. We must b'
mighty careful not to excite him. Oh
goodness, amt it awful, that poor boy
Ny. but typhoid's a fearful disease"
Lemuel, vastly alarmed, was IN
stantly ION to his job" For a watch
dog he proved Al. Andrew had difh
Guilty in shaking him off long enough
10 90 TO the dark room at bedtime.
The film was almost dry, II N
could scarcely wait until the next da!
TO make a print OF 1t.
I-nr In